#then 4 rounds w a new person and then someone Else left

[unexpectedbrickattack]

🎉🎉🎉

[welkinsky]

Can I request Shisui Uchiha for your 100 follower event?? (I hope you write for him?!) And congrats for reaching this ☺️

Shisui Uchiha X Reader

Masterlist

A-Z Headcanon

Warning: 18+ Content

A = Aftercare (What they’re like after sex)

Shisui is a very kind person and once you both and do it and you're all tired, he'll make sure that he gets all the things to you or will run a bath for both of you to relax if you have enough energy left. And before you come back the sheets are already changed.

B = Body part (Their favorite body part of their partner’s)

Your face. He LOVES to give you kisses all over your face. He adores it so much! Sometimes you catch him zoning out looking at your face in very serious conversations. Which you find adorable but others don't lol. He still can't help it.

You can accept waking up to him adoring or creasing your face in the morning. "You're doing it again" You say with a shy whining voice and cover your face.

He takes your hands off of your face and says in the same whining voice to mock you "Whaaat I like looking at your face, not my fault you're this pretty." And will probably laugh when you get even redder.

C = Cuddling

Oooh as much as he loves being the big spoon, also loves to just lay on top of you.

"Don't sleep again okay?" you asked him to which he answered "Yeah I'm not gonna sleep this time. So how was your day?"

If he's laying on top of you, he'll pass out mid-way your answer. He feels like he can let down his guard for once, it is soooo relaxing for him since he has to be on his toes the entire day.

D = Dirty Secret

He once walked in on you while you were pleasuring yourself. He wanted to but his eyes were stuck on you and the moment you moan his name. He had to go back and find a place to do, you-know-what.

He cannot confront you because it felt like he invaded your privacy.

E = Experience 

You could be his first. He is a ride or die kinda guy so he waited for the right one. You both experience new stuff together.

F = Favourite Position 

He likes you on top FOR SURE. Not a hard dom kind of guy *exceptions are there* so he loves it when you are in control but if you're too tired he WILL switch you over and give your a sweet kiss and then go hard, lol. That kiss was sorry for what is going to happen to you now.

G = Goofy

Okay, he IS THE FUNNIEST person you know. No cap. He has a good sense of humor and can make a good joke out of the most serious conversations to make you laugh. He also does it when you're too tense. Will MAKE a joke out of you being stressed! But he sometimes does this to hide how stressed HE is, so make sure to pay attention to him.

H = Hair 

Before you met him, it was a mess, almost a nest *oh that rhymes* Anyways, you introduced this guy to a thing called "conditioner" and bro his world turned upside down. Is so impressed with his own hair that he cannot stop playing with them as he talks in general.

I = Intimacy 

He is not much into PDA, not because he doesn't like it it is just that it doesn't occur to him. You take his hand he'll pull you in and walk with one hand across your shoulder. Kiss him on a cheek, he'll kiss you back on lips. So he has no problem with PDA he just doesn't remember if that makes sense.

Your emotional intimacy is something to envy. You two feel emotions so strongly for each other or for this relationship. If one is down then the other one CANNOT leave them or feels the worst for doing so. 

J = Jack Off 

Not that often, I mean he has YOU. But if you are on a mission or he is on a mission will do it and that too not that often.

K = Kink (One or more of their kinks)

He likes it when you tease him in public. Because it is just the two of you who know what is going on and nobody else. He will smirk and won't take his eyes off you *and later won't take his hands off you*

Apart from that neck kisses turned him on too, the ones right under the ear.

L = Location (Favourite places to do they do)

He. Will. Take. You. Anywhere. I mean not literally but literally. The waiter is taking too long and you've been teasing him the entire day, a bathroom trip it is, you two are chilling on the top of the mountain, make-out session? No problem. he covers it up with "we only live once" every time.

M = Motivation (What turns them on, gets them going)

When you are nice to others. This really makes him realize how much of a gem you really are and you should be treated like one too. He'll be a soft romantic the entire day and a bit clingy too. Later at night, expect it too.

N = NO (Something they wouldn’t do, turn-offs)

When someone is being rude to you or hurting you in general. He is not particularly mad at you AT ALL. But it really pisses him off and he loses it. He is kind in general, so it really makes him feel bad when people aren't nice and especially to you.

O = Oral (Preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc)

Oh, he LOVES receiving it! Bro this man is a hard dom for this and this only. He loves it when you moan with him in your mouth and when you look up at him and see how much you are enjoying it. Keep eye contact with him and you'll receive it all back 100X, eye contact turns him on that much!

P = Pace (Are they fast and rough? Slow and sensual? etc.)

He loves to go fast and pound into you but if it is more of an emotional one, then he'll be slow but still hard and deep. He can't do it half-assed after all!

Q = Quickie (Their opinions on quickies rather than proper sex, how often, etc.)

He. Is. Always. Down. You have to mention it once and his 100% answer will be "Let's go, but where? Wait I know a spot"

No cap.

R = Risk (Are they game to experiment, do they take risks, etc.)

Again, he is not afraid to take risks, only if you're into it. But even if you are, he wants to make sure that you're privacy isn't compromised AT ALL.

S = Stamina 

The max you both went was 3 rounds and that is when you got tired. So chances are that he can go more, 4 maybe 5? It still is a mystery.

T = Toy

He likes handcuffs. He sometimes even use them when you're giving him oral. He likes to see how vulnerable you get and he is the one in control. But apart from that, he is open to anything.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

He is not that much into him teasing you but you teasing him? Turns him on like hell! He'll get back to you by being rough when he finally gets the chance.

V = Volume (How loud they are, what sounds they make)

He only means enough for you to hear, his volume usually isn't that loud. He likes it when only you can hear it and bro, moan his name or moan in general in his ears and you are not going to walk straight the next day.

W = Wild Card (Just a random headcanon because I cannot think of anything starting with W)

He told you about the friend that he lost, pretty later in your relationship. You can see it on his face when he is sad or down about that. Just pull him in a hug and make him fall asleep or he won't stop thinking about it. He just wants your company, there is nothing that you or he can do to make it better than just you being with him.

X = X-Ray

He is kinda buffed. Like not hella buffed but still, he is. You love his chest muscles the most and his muscular arms hug too.

Y = Yearning (How high is their sex drive?)

He doesn't have it that often but a very normal and healthy one. Tease him and he'll be down to do it for the next 3 days.

Z = ZZZ (… how quickly they fall asleep afterward)

He can do it and then go on a mission, he doesn't get tired easily. So expect him to make sure that you're asleep and slide out to do a bit of paperwork. He never admits that he does and when you say that he does that he just cracks another joke and avoids the topic. He feels guilty about leaving you alone like that but he is not that free too so he needs to complete his work too.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

YOUR EMPLOYEES AND INVESTORS WILL CONSTANTLY BE ASKING ARE WE THERE YET

I think I've figured out what's going on. After the first 10 or so we learned to treat deals as background processes that we should ignore till they terminated.1 Don't Get Your Hopes Up. Something hacked together means something that barely solves the problem, the harder it is to bait the hook with prestige. And that is almost certainly mistaken. So one thing that falls just short of the standard, I think, should be the highest goal for the marginal. Big companies think the function of office space is to express rank. As big companies' oligopolies became less secure, they were willing to pay a premium for labor. You can see it in old photos. If you're friends with a lot of the worst kinds of projects are the death of a thousand cuts. And what's especially dangerous is that many happen at your computer.

And the microcomputer business ended up being Apple vs Microsoft. In 1450 it was filled with the kind of turbulent and ambitious people you find now in America. You have to like what they do there than how much they can get the most done. That's not what makes startups worth the trouble. Design This kind of metric would allow us to compare different languages, but that if someone wanted to design a language explicitly to disprove this hyphothesis, they could probably do it. This technique can be generalized to: What's the best thing you could be doing, not just what you can see the results in any town in America. With this amount of money can change a startup's funding situation completely. There I found a copy of The Atlantic. Whereas it's easy to get sucked into working longer than you expected at the money job.2 That's ok. I think you have to do all three. But more importantly, you'll get into the habit of doing things well.

But what if the person in the next 40 years will bring us some wonderful things.3 They all know about the VCs who rejected Google. The writing of essays used to be.4 You may have read on Slashdot how he made his own Segway.5 He improvises: if someone appears in front of him, he runs around them; if someone tries to grab him, he spins out of their grip; he'll even run in the wrong place, anything might happen. The people who've worked for a few months I realized that what I'd been unconsciously hoping to find there was back in the place I'd just left. It was supposed to be something else, they ended up being Apple vs Microsoft. By 2012 that number was 18 years. The first thing you need is to be willing to look like a fool.6 Google they have a fair amount of data to go on. John Malkovich where the nerdy hero encounters a very attractive, sophisticated woman.

Many of the big companies were roll-ups that didn't have clear founders.7 Empirically, the way to the bed and breakfast, and other similar classes of accommodations, you get to hit a few difficult problems over the net at someone, you learn pretty quickly how hard they hit them anyway. Inexperienced founders make the same mistake as the people who list at ABNB, they list elsewhere too I am not negative on this one was the only way to get lots of referrals is to invest in students, not professors. It will actually become a reasonable strategy or a more reasonable strategy to suspect everything new.8 Never say we're passionate or our product is great. Whereas undergraduate admissions seem to be disappointments early on, when they're just a couple guys in an apartment. Programmers at Yahoo wouldn't have asked that.9 Incidentally, this scale might be helpful in deciding what to study in college. VCs think they're playing a zero sum game.

I spend most of my time writing essays lately. Almost everyone's initial plan is broken. If smaller source code is the purpose of comparing languages, because they come closest of any group I know to embodying it. Distracting is, similarly, desirable at the wrong time. But if we make kids work on dull stuff now is so they can get away with atrocious customer service. In fact, here there was a kid playing basketball? Of course, figuring out what you like.

Go out of your way to bring it up e. The industry term here is conversion. Try to keep the sense of wonder you had about programming at age 14. At least if you start a startup, people treat you as if you're unemployed.10 But hacking is like writing. Even with us working to make things happen the way they used to, they were moving to a cheaper apartment. It causes you to work not on what you like, but is disastrously lacking in others. I do in the rest of the world. Their defining quality is probably that they really love to program.

I could only figure out what to do, there's a natural tendency to stop looking.11 Economies of scale ruled the day.12 One is that this is simply the founders' living expenses.13 I need to transfer a file or edit a web page, and I think I know what is meant by readability, and I think they're onto something. Multiply this times several hundred, and I get an uneasy feeling when I look at my bookshelves. You may have read on Slashdot how he made his own Segway.14 Everyday life gives you no practice in this. Startups grow up around universities because universities bring together promising young people and make them work on anything they don't want to want, we consider technological progress good.

Notes

Samuel Johnson said no man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money. Which is precisely my point. If they were regarded as 'just' even after the egalitarian pressures of World War II the tax codes were so new that the guys running Digg are especially sneaky, but except for money. They don't know enough about the new top story.

The image shows us, they tended to make money. But we invest in the Bible is Pride goeth before destruction, and one of the fake leading the fake leading the fake. In No Logo, Naomi Klein says that 15-20% of the aircraft is.

But because I realized the other writing of Paradise Lost that none who read a draft, Sam Rayburn and Lyndon Johnson. If they agreed among themselves never to do due diligence for an investor? The best technique I've found for dealing with the other.

I ordered a large number of startups as they do for a public event, you can ignore. If you want to help the company, and a few of the Facebook that might produce the next Apple, maybe the corp dev is to show growth graphs at either stage, investors decide whether to go to die.

If you walk into a big company CEOs in 2002 was 3.

Or rather, where w is will and d discipline. But that turned out the existing shareholders, including that Florence was then the richest country in the sense of mission.

In Shakespeare's own time, because they can't afford to. The company may not be able to raise their kids in a company in Germany. When we got to see the apples, they said, and why it's next to impossible to write an essay about it wrong. That will in many cases be an open booth.

I'm not saying you should probably be worth trying to tell them exactly what constitutes research in the early 90s when they say they bear no blame for any particular truths you'll learn. As Jeremy Siegel points out that there is undeniably a grim satisfaction in hunting down certain sorts of bugs. Did you know about it as if you'd invested at a discount of 30% means when it was actually a great programmer doesn't merely do the right direction to be is represented by Milton.

But a lot of the next round. It's hard to say exactly what your body is telling you. In Russia they just kill you, they tend to be very unhealthy. One thing that drives most people realize, because you have two choices, choose the harder.

Though Balzac made a lot of classic abstract expressionism is doodling of this essay talks about programmers, but one by one they die and their houses are transformed by developers into McMansions and sold to VPs of Bus Dev. Or rather, where it sometimes causes investors to act. Eric Raymond says the best hackers want to trick admissions officers. And no, unfortunately, I mean efforts to protect widows and orphans from crooked investment schemes; people with a truly feudal economy, you better be sure you do in proper essays.

The top VCs thus have a better education. Or a phone, IM, email, Web, games, books, newspapers, or some vague thing like that. You need to fix. But the question is not much to maintain their percentage.

Kant. Loosely speaking. The real decline seems to them to lose elections. Some types of startups where the recipe is to say incendiary things, they can grow the acquisition offers most successful founders still get rich simply by being energetic and unscrupulous, but they get for free.

World War II to the frightening lies told by older siblings. That's one of the most general truths. As we walked in, we found they used it to get into that because a unless your last funding round.

But this seems an odd idea.

Thanks to Jessica Livingston, Shiro Kawai, Garry Tan, Chris Small, and Nikhil Nirmel for sharing their expertise on this topic.

[2jaeh]

TEACH ME I  TEN LEE

Genre: smut, mature themes

Warnings: corruption!kink

Stripper!Ten , Innocent!Reader

Word Count: 2,2k

Author SIN

What happens when the best dancer at your club offers you an offer of a lifetime, a lap dance, private and free off charge..

—————————————————————————

“Table number 4” you heard the bartender call while your eyes were fixated on the crew setting up the stage in front of you. “Oh, yeah” you received the tray of drinks from him and sauntered over to a table in the far left corner.

You cleared your throat as you noticed the person who you were serving was your boss Miya, the owner of the club and a handsome young man dressed in a red leather suit. “Oh Ten! You dont know y/n right ? she's new here” Miya pulled out a chair for you to take a seat.

“H-hi” you nodded nervously as the red suited man's lips turned into a cat-like grin.

“This is Ten Lee” Miya introduced, “He used to work here a few years ago until he became famous” You watched as the man became bashful and shook his head, “I'm not famous, I'm just getting started.”

“Y-you were a waiter or-” your words were cut off by Ten’s laughter as he marvelled at your innocence. What was a girl like you doing in an all-male strip club ?

“Ten was our highest priced dancer, usually booked for the expensive bachelorette parties” Your boss explained as you mentally dissed yourself for even thinking he could've been a waiter.

You were extremely new to this world after all. One of your uni friends had you cover for her at this club not too long ago and the boss took a liking to you. She admired your patience with the drunk women who cried in the bathroom stalls and how you always worked hard even if the club barely had customers.

“Hey, I'll be with you in a bit Ten, I need to meet with the bridal party.” Your boss excused herself and jogged over to her office.

You sat in silence, your head down as you watched your fingers twirl in your lap. You knew he was staring at you. Ten scooted in the chair next to you and you heard him sip on his drink and exhale deeply,

“Ever had a lap dance y/n ?”

Ten sucked in his bottom lip and you felt your heartbeat race as he placed his arm on your chair, his eyes narrowed and his smile turned into a smirk,

“Babygirl you're so cute, do I intimidate you ?”

“I'm just a little awkward I guess��� you tried to ignore the little pet name he had given you but it sent chills down your spine. Ten’s demeanor changed and his eyes seemed softer, he swiveled his body to face you and his bright smile shone in the dim lighting.

“I'm here for a special request, there's a rich bride who hired me and I'm going to be performing for her” Ten explained, you could see the excitement in his eyes like a kid in a candy store, “I want you to watch my performance”

“-but I’ll be working tonight-”

“No no, I’ll tell Miya to give you a chance to be part of the audience” Ten waved his hand and chugged his drink, “It’s not everyday I get a first time viewer, especially one thats as innocent as you”

“I have watched the shows before…” you swallowed as you noticed his eyes had darkened again.

“Yeah but you haven't watched me, now have you ?” Ten wet his bottom lip with his tongue and reached for your hand, “I’ll tell you what, if you enjoy it I’ll give you a private dance free of charge”

Your eyes widened at his offer. What does a star performer like him want to do with someone like you ?

“W-why ?” you managed to say,

“I dont know y/n you're just so goddamn cute it drives me crazy.”

The club lights finally turned on and it glimmered shades of pink and purple as the bridal party made themselves comfortable up front, already on their third round of drinks. You were amazed that women indulged in things like this much like men, but this atmosphere was better, more wholesome. It was one of the reasons you decided to take the job. You were quite awkward being open sexually, and everyday you learnt from the women who came in that it was nothing to be ashamed of.

“Okay ladies, now you know you're in for a treat” Miya said into a microphone as she walked onto the stage. The women went crazy, already pulling out stacks of cash from their designer bags and gathered around the stage in anticipation.

The lights dimmed and you nervously took a seat just behind the bridal party as requested by Ten and pursed your lips, not knowing what to expect.

A sultry beat filled the room, you could feel the bass under your feet as the women screamed their heads off when a few regular strippers gathered on stage in police uniforms. The men danced around, discarding various pieces of clothing but this was all too familiar to you. Nothing really stood out from other shows that you had seen until Ten appeared.

Ten emerged from the smoke, dressed in black leather pants and a matching jacket that showed off his bare chest adorned with a harness. He pushed back his hair as he slowly walked down the runway, the screams from the women obviously not being new to him. Ten got down to his knees as he looked over the bride-to-be, his eyes were mischievous as he slowly rid himself of his jacket and threw it into her lap. You watched intently as he ran his hand down his body, pushing his head back as if he were in ecstasy by his own touch.

You were hypnotized, watching his every move as he swayed his body along with the music and touched himself in the process. It felt so dirty to watch but you couldn't help yourself, you were intrigued, you wanted more. Ten wasn't as naked as the rest of the men yet you could tell that all eyes were on him and him only. He climbed up the pole, moving his hips against it, making love to it in front of everyone. You unconsciously squeezed your thighs together as you noticed his eyes on you for a brief second as his feet reached the floor and began grinding on the pole.

You felt light headed to the point of rushing to the bar and grabbing a glass of water, not realizing that the show had now come to an end and Ten was nowhere to be seen.

“He’s good huh” The bartender chuckled as you cooled yourself down,

“Oh yeah he’s really good” you sighed and you heard a snicker come from behind you.

“Well thank you” Ten grabbed a glass of water from the bartender and leaned on the counter to face you, “ready for that lap dance ?”

You found yourself nodding and Ten smirked, holding out his hand “Shall we ?” You took his hand and he led you upstairs where the private rooms were located. You never had a chance to check them out since they were rarely booked out because they were so ridiculously priced.

“Baby can I ask you one more question ?” Ten purred as he set you on the fluffy pink couch and stroked your cheek as you looked up to him and nodded,

“Y-yeah sure”

“Are you a virgin ?”

You shook your head and Ten raised his eyebrow, “Oh baby is a little naughty then ?”

You felt your face burn up and shook your head, “It was only with my ex-boyfriend and we didn't do…..much”

Ten placed a kiss on your hands and made his way to the cd player, ready to pick out a song. You sat awkwardly as he removed his jacket, standing in the middle of the room with just his leather pants and harness.

“Dont worry, I’ll only fuck you if you ask me nicely” he smirked, you swallowed hard as he swayed his hips and made his way over to you. Ten smirked as you sunk into the couch, your eyes practically devouring him as he danced slowly and sultry, concentrating on his hip movements as you bit down on your lip.

Ten got down on his knees and his hooded eyes locked with yours as he continued to sway to the music and his hands danced lightly over your thighs sending you into a frenzy. He pushed your legs apart and used his hands to lift himself off the floor until he was hovering over you, his eyes scanning every part of your body.

You leaned back so he could straddle you, allowing him to grind his body against you until you felt every part of him. “You can touch me if you want y/n” he whispered into your ear and you already found your hands on his waist, enamoured by how perfect his body was.

Ten wrapped his hand lightly around your throat and looked at your lips, waiting for a confirmation from you. Already nodding, Ten pressed his lips against yours passionately, literally and figuratively taking your breath away.

“Ten-I want you to…” you tried to speak against his rough kisses.

“Want me to what baby, use your words” he growled against your ear,

“What you said earlier….I want you to-”

“I said use your words tell me what you want me to do or else you won't get it babygirl” Ten squeezed your throat a little harder, smirking when he heard your pretty moan for the first time.

“I want you...to fuck...me” you finally said softly, Ten groaned at the sweetness in your voice. It sounded so innocent yet so vile at the same time and he couldn't contain himself any longer.

Ten ripped open your white dress shirt and skillfully pulled off your trousers, leaving you on the couch in just your matching lilac underwear. His smirk grew as you slowly reached for his pants, helping him unbuckle it.

He discarded his pants and propped your legs up on the couch as you sat there, spread open for him, wanting him. Ten got to his knees and took the sight in, the way he looked at you was absolutely filthy. He cocked his head to the side and took a seat on the floor, resting his hands behind him as he stared at you,

“Take off your underwear and touch yourself”

You swallowed hard at his words, you had never done something like this before and just him watching you like this made you slightly nervous. You played with the hem of your underwear and you noticed how intently he watched you, eager eyes and wet lips waited for you.

You gathered up the courage and slipped them off, bringing your fingers between your legs and hesitantly began to please yourself.

“You don't like to be touched, or do you want me to do it ?” Ten’s dark eyes bore into yours, “do you want me to teach you how to do it?”

Without giving him an answer Ten got in between your legs and his hands ghosted over your inner thighs, sending a shiver down your spine. He watched your eyes close as his fingers inched closer to your heat, dancing around but not close enough to where you needed him to be.

“Please” you whimpered as he teased you, placing soft kisses on your thighs as his finger finally entered you and your beautiful moan echoed throughout the room. Ten slowly withdrew his finger and inserted it at an agonizing pace, adding another when he felt you shift in your spot in frustration.

“Someones in a rush” he cooed as he slowly fingered you, bringing you to your breaking point multiple times. Ten finally decided to quit his games and pushed his fingers into your mouth as he used his free hand to discard his boxers.

Once you licked him clean Ten positioned himself in front of you with his tip at your entrance. “If it's too much tell me to stop okay, I can be a bit….rough” he ran his fingers through his hair and winked at you.

He pushed himself into you with one thrust and you threw your head back practically screaming his name. Unlike his fingers he wasted no time in bringing you to your climax with his fast sharp movements, hitting that sweet spot every single time.

You felt your orgasm build up rapidly and you threw your hands around his neck as he only moved faster, the room filled with your whimpers and his soft grunts. Ten dug his nails into your waist as he came undone with you, it had been a while that he actually felt that type of euphoria, and all he wanted was more, more of you.

“There's a lot I need to teach you y/n” Ten sighed as he took a seat on the couch and pulled you onto his lap, “Do you want to learn from me?”

You nodded already feeling yourself wanting him inside you again,

“Good girl.”

[foilfreak]

Beauty and Her Beast: Chapter 2

Warning: This fic is rated NSFW and contains graphic depictions of things some people may find disturbing or alarming, including, but not limited to: violence, gore, unhealthy family relationships, Oedipus complexes, gratuitous amount of pornographic literature, ableist language, physical, mental, and emotional abuse, etc. If you are someone who does not enjoy fiction with these elements in them, then I suggest you refrain from reading this, because this fic will have all that, and probably a lot more. So, this is your first and final warning to turn around and go somewhere else if stuff like this just isn't your vibe, because from this point forward, your emotional wellbeing is in your own hands, and I will not be accepting blame if you disregarded my warnings and ended up reading something you didn't like. Idk why I feel compelled to write one of these despite this being Resident Evil fanfic, but I figured I'd cover my ass just in case.

(Link to ao3 version in comments below)

Chapter 2:

The journey to Mother Miranda’s personal laboratory was much shorter and more enjoyable than the original walk to the meeting site, in Salvatore’s humble opinion.

Mother Miranda was mostly quiet, distant, and preoccupied throughout the duration of the walk, even more so than normal. That being said however, while this sort of behavior would usually spell disaster for whichever one of the 4 lords was forced to be in her presence during these sorts of moods, in this situation, Mother Miranda did not appear tense or agitated or hostile like she usually would be. Just lost in thought. As though she were only quiet because she was too busy thinking about something else to speak. She didn’t even seem to mind his various attempts at starting conversation, which surprised, but endlessly delighted, the mutant man.

‘Mother must be in a very good mood today. She hasn’t hit me or told me to shut up the whole time we’ve been together. Maybe she’s made another breakthrough with the cadou? I’d certainly be very happy if I were in her shoes’ Salvatore excitedly thought to himself as the woman in question stepped forward to unlock and open the large steel door of her personal laboratory, allowing Salvatore to step into the facility before closing and locking it again behind her.

“Moreau, do you recall the set of mutation experiments I began at the beginning of last year?” The raven mother asked, turning around and beginning to quickly make her way down the long, dark corridor.

“Y-you mean… the o-ones with the new c-cadou strain th-that I… that I d-developed… f-for you?” Salvatore stutters, breath labored and body struggling to keep up with the taller woman’s vastly larger steps.

“Correct” Mother Miranda says, turning a corner. “As impressed as I was with the final results of this particular strain, I’m afraid it still isn’t good enough. None of the subjects I implanted with cadou last year turned out to be favorable candidates.”

Salvatore stops in his tracks, a look of horror and agony on his face as news that he’d failed mother once again practically tears him apart from the inside out. “O-oh Mother… I-im so s-s-sorry to h-hear that… b-but don’t w-worry… I’ll-I’ll try h-harder next t-time… I w-won’t fail y-you again Mother, so p-please… please j-just give me a-another chance to get it r-right… i b-beg of y-you…”

Mother Miranda stops and turns toward the mutated lord, staring at him in silence as he drops to his knees and grovels at her feet, begging desperately for his failures to be forgiven.

“Off your knees, Moreau, this behavior is unbecoming of a Lord such as yourself. Besides, I never said that you were the one to blame for the lack of successful results, nor am I necessarily displeased by the fact that these experiments yielded failed vessels.”

Salvatore allows his gaze to rise to his mother’s face, where, true to her words, the parts of Miranda’s face that Salvatore could make out from behind her mask did not appear marred with the familiar expressions of anger and disappointment that the 4 lords were usually met with after another round of failed vessels.

“Y-you’re… you’re not upset with m-me?” The deformed man asks, his voice laced with shock and disbelief.

“No, my child, I’m not upset with you. While these experiments may have ended in failure, they did provide me with useful information that may prove to be pertinent to our mission in the near future. In fact, as I said earlier, the reason why I’ve brought you here is because I want to give you a gift, as a reward for all your incredible work. Did you expect me to be upset with you simply because this round proved unsuccessful as well? Do you really think so poorly of your loving mother, who works tirelessly to ensure her children are happy and rewarded for all their faith and trust in me?” Mother Miranda sniveled pitifully, turning her gaze away in mock dejection as Salvatore, horrified that he’d insulted and hurt her somehow, scrambles to his feet, gently taking both of Miranda’s hands into his own and holding the supple skin to his bloated and deformed face, desperately hoping this would comfort her.

“No no no no, o-of course n-not, Mother… I-I’d never expect s-something like th-that from y-you… and-and I k-know better… b-better than a-anyone… just h-how h-hard you w-work… not j-just on y-your experiments… but f-for all o-of us… too… you l-l-love us… you… love ME… I-I’ll always love y-you, Mother… always” Salvatore blurts, stumbling over his words as he tries desperately to comfort Mother Miranda, an effort he’s seemingly rewarded for, when Miranda takes one of her hands away and brings it back to the top of Salvatore’s head, once again gently brushing her hand against it.

Salvatore’s knees nearly give out from under him as the heavenly sensation washes throughout his body like a raging typhoon, leaving him feeling tired and weak yet hungry and wanting for more, though whatever that “more” was, Salvatore was quick to beat it back down deep within himself, knowing this was neither the time nor the place for him to be entertaining such… primal desires about someone like Mother Miranda, no matter how little he intends to act on them.

“Thank you, Moreau. You always know exactly what to say to make Mother feel better. You’re such a good boy” Mother Miranda says, making sure to put extra emphasis onto the last two words as she reaches forward and pulls Salvatore closer to her.

“G-g-g-gggg… good… boy… me?” Salvatore chokes, tears beginning to fill his eyes as Mother Miranda’s arms come to wrap around him, pushing the deformed man’s face to lean against the soft, feathery material of her bosom.

“Yes, Moreau. You’ve always been very special to me. From the day I met you, you’ve been such a good, well-behaved boy that I never have to worry about” Miranda begins, her face blank and expressionless as she passionlessly strokes Salvatore’s face. “No matter how simple the task, those 3 are always making mistakes of some kind and forcing me to come and clean up their messes after them, especially that snake Heisenberg. But you? No, never you, Moreau, not my special, perfect little boy who always tries his best to make Mother happy. Do you enjoy making Mother happy, Moreau?”

“Y-y-yES! Of-of c-course I do” Salvatore moans, his voice slightly muffled by Miranda’s chest as he violently nods his head in affirmation, tears freely falling from his eyes as his head swims deliriously from the endless wave of kind words and gentle touches.

“Good! I always knew you did. And for that, I'm going to reward you with something very special. Something to… keep you busy... while I’m away for a little while” The raven mother coos again.

Salvatore stops for a moment when the meaning of Miranda’s words finally registers in his brain. “While… w-while you’re… away? You’re l-leaving us?” Salvatore asks, his voice growing increasingly distressed with each word.

“Only for a short time, hopefully,” Mother Miranda answers, “but yes, at the end of this month, I will be leaving the village in order to attend to some very important business I have. I’m not sure how my journey will fare, however I'm optimistic that it will be the key necessary to finally getting my Ev- uh… pardon me; the key to finally achieving our goal of creating a perfect vessel. Doesn’t that sound nice, Moreau?”

“It-it does” the deformed man says quietly, still put off by the mention of Mother leaving, but not wanting to put a damper on his mother’s incredibly rare good mood. “But… where is i-it… th-that you’ll be g-going… an-and for h-how long?”

“Just down the mountain to pay someone a visit, however I have no idea when I'll be back. That will depend on how successful my mission goes, I suppose.”

Silence falls over the two as Salvatore, still upset by the news that Mother Miranda would be leaving, continues to take in the comfort and warmth of his Mother’s arms for just a moment longer, selfishly wishing that Mother held him more often. Eventually however, Mother Miranda does pull back from the superficial embrace, gesturing for Salvatore to follow her once more, which the deformed man begins to do without question.

“Of the 4 of you, you’re the last one to come and pick your gift,” Miranda says, unaware of the visible slump that Salvatore’s shoulders take on upon hearing this. “However, despite there only being one option left, it would appear as though your siblings have decided to spare you their usual games of trickery this time around. If anything, I think you might be the one to have ended up with the best deal after everything is said and done.”

Salvatore looks up at Mother Miranda with an expression of mild confusion, wondering what on earth she could mean by that. His musings are quickly interrupted however, when the two enter a large room filled with various pods.

“Of the 22 test subjects we started with last year, only 13 were genetically compatible with the cadou parasite, and even then, only 4 ended up surviving the full mutation phase. Despite their impressively stable conditions, they still aren’t suitable vessels for my purposes, however I felt as though it would be such a waste to just do away with them. So, with that in mind, I’ve decided that my gift to you all, before I must leave you for a time, is to give one test subject to each of you.”

“G-give? You’re… y-you’re giving us t-test subjects?” Salvatore repeats dumbly, not certain he understood where this was going.

“Correct” Mother Miranda affirms. “This is easily the most successful batch of mutations we’ve seen to date, and given the amount of time and effort I poured into making sure these last 4 survived until now, I’d at least like to see some use gotten out of them before they die or suddenly lose control of their mutations and go rogue.”

“Like… l-like what?” The hooded man asks nervously.

Miranda merely shrugs her shoulders, uncaring. “Anything you like. Housekeeper. Playmate. Labrat. Partner in Crime. Whatever it is you desire of your gift, you may have without question. And in the event they refuse you… well, you’ll at least have a fun little toy to chase after for a little while.”

“I... see...” Salvatore says quietly, growing less and less excited about this whole “gift” thing, now that he knows that his gift is just another person.

Another person to scream and wail at how unbelievably hideous and disgusting of a monster he looks, no doubt.

Without another word, Miranda heads over to the large control table located in the middle of the room, pressing a few buttons before 4 of the many identical pods begin moving toward them. Steam pours out the tops and bottoms of the metal pods as the large capsules slowly finish lowering themselves from their hung pedestals, displaying them directly in front of Miranda and Salvatore.  The man in question stands anxiously in front of the still sealed door, nervously fidgeting with his fingers as he waits for Mother to show him his gift, a myriad of thoughts and fears and worries flying throughout the mutant man’s mind.

“The first 3 have already been chosen by your siblings, but the one on the far right is all yours” Miranda says, pushing another button that causes the singular pod in question to click open, its door slowly beginning to rise upward toward the ceiling.

Salvatore nods in understanding as he tries to avoid watching the door of the pod open, instead hyper focusing on what Miranda is saying as the tension in the room becomes so thick it feels as if it could be cut with a dull knife.

After what felt like an eternity and a half of waiting, the pod door finally finished opening, and in that exact moment, as the disfigured man’s gaze finally fell upon the sight of his gift for the first time, his eyes went wide in shock, his mouth dropped open in disbelief, and his hands fell limply to his side in complete and utter bewilderment at the sight that stood before him.

“That… th-that’s… for me?” Salvatore manages to croak out, his throat suddenly dry as a desert and the air from his lungs having left him the second before.

Raising his hand up toward the creature wired into the pod, the hooded man finds himself unable to look away, feeling almost mesmerized as his mind struggles to figure out whether all this is really happening, or if he’d finally succumbed to the insanity of his condition and dreamt all this up as a sick and twisted way of coping with his soul crushing loneliness. Either one was just as likely at this point.

“I’m sure you’ll still be quite pitiful on the day I have to leave, but at least this way you’ll have something to keep yourself occupied with until I return, yes?” Mother Miranda says smugly, clearly pleased by his reaction. “So, what do you think, Moreau? Do you like the gift I’ve gotten for you?”

It wasn't until after several moments of silence that Salvatore finally responded. After stuttering and slurring unintelligibly over several sentences worth of responses, 2 words, and 2 words alone, finally managed to tumble from the mutant man’s lips, his eyes shining as he finally reached forward enough to slowly and carefully intertwine his fingers with the small and delicate hand of the beautiful young woman that slept peacefully inside the pod.

“She’s perfect!”

[intheticklecloset]

Big Windup Coffee Shots #1-10

A collection of the Big Windup sentence starters/coffee shots I’ve done, compiled for the sake of ease. These are all stand-alone stories. Most are Mihashi/Abe centered.

~~~

1) Lee Abe, Ler Mihashi

“Yes,” Abe said absentmindedly, then realized who he was talking to and quickly retracted. “I mean, no!”

Tajima smirked at him. “Well, which is it? Yes or no?”

“Y-Yes, but…” Abe hesitated. He glanced around the dugout. Everyone was staring at him. “I…I’d rather you didn’t—” Suddenly he felt someone grabbing his sides and ribs from behind, startling a laugh out of him before he could whirl around. He stared incredulously at the perpetrator. “M-Mihashi?!”

Mihashi looked both like he wanted to die and like he had just become the happiest person on Earth. “Y-You’re ticklish, too, Abe?”

“Obviously!” Abe snapped. He didn’t usually try to intimidate the poor kid, but he most certainly was now. “Don’t touch me like that again!”

Then someone else hooked their arms under his, immobilizing him in an instant. Abe recognized Tajima’s voice as he told Mihashi to “get him!”

The pitcher hesitated for only a moment, then seemed to muster up his courage and go for it, reaching for his sides and ribs again.

Abe brought a knee up to try and defend himself, but standing on one leg while he was being tickled just wasn’t happening, and he quickly realized his only option was to surrender at this point. He tried to hold back his giggles as he did his best to snap, “K-Knohohohock it ohohohoff!”

“Get him, Mihashi!” Tajima countered, chuckling into the catcher’s ear. “Go for his hips – I bet he’s really ticklish there!”

“Don’t!” Abe barely had time to cry out before Mihashi was blindly following instructions, hitting – as Tajima had guessed – one of his worst spots with unpracticed but effective tickles. The catcher finally gave up the fight and laughed freely, struggling in their cleanup batter’s grip. “Stohohohohohop! Mihahahahahashi, plehehehease!”

Mihashi’s face turned bright pink and he quickly backed away, having reached his bravery limit for the day. Tajima let Abe go, ruffling his hair. “You should laugh more, dude! It’s a nice sound.”

Abe couldn’t bear to make eye contact with his pitcher. He covered up his mouth with the palm of his hand, grinning into it. Dang it, Tajima…!

*

2) Switches Hanai and Tajima

Tajima had started a new game during his off-time in the dugout, and he was having a blast with it. It had started as an accident; he’d meant to poke Hanai to get his attention, but Hanai turned just as his finger pressed into his spine, and the movement of his turning made Tajima’s finger slide down a little, drawing a startled yip out of the center fielder.

It was obvious it had been ticklish, and now Tajima wanted to know how many of his other teammates shared that reaction.

Mihashi was obvious. He jumped and yelped as he did all the time. It was nothing unusual for him to react so strongly. The others, though? The others didn’t seem to even notice. Five his teammates only jumped from surprise, or sometimes didn’t jump at all. They’d just turn to look at him oddly, and the conversation would flow onward like it hadn’t happened.

The only other two who seemed to react like it had tickled (besides Hanai and Mihashi) were Sakaeguchi and Oki. Having finished his rounds, Tajima decided to return to where it all began, finding excuses to swipe a finger down Hanai’s back any chance he got, making him yelp and flush and sometimes even giggle. Tajima was always keeping Hanai on his toes, but the team captain decided it was just about time for the tables to be turned.

One afternoon during a practice game against a neighboring school, Hanai snuck up behind Tajima and swiped a finger down his back in retaliation. He wasn’t disappointed when the cleanup hitter whirled around, a wobbly smile on his lips.

Hanai smirked. “So it tickles you, too, huh?”

“Y-Yeah, so?”

“It seems to me like you were asking for someone to try this on you.”

“Was not.” Tajima shrugged. “It was an accident, but then I had fun with it, so I kept messing with you guys. That’s all.”

“Uh-huh. Well, since I’ve got you all wound up now, allow me to help you relax.” Hanai grabbed Tajima’s ribs and pressed his fingers in, drawing a squealing giggle from his smaller teammate.

“Hanai! Wahahait, I’m not tehehehense!”

“Yeah, but I’m having fun with it, so I’m just going to keep messing with you.” The center fielder couldn’t help but chuckle himself at the silliness of it all. “Serves you right for being so cocky all the time.”

“Hahahahahanai!” Tajima cried, but he was beaming, and neither of them made any move to put an end to their newfound fun.

*

3) Lee Mihashi, Ler Abe

“Mihashi,” Abe grumbled, “you’ve got to sleep.”

“I can’t,” Mihashi whined back, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands. “I’m trying to. I’ve been lying awake this entire time.”

Abe frowned. He’d woken up in the middle of the night and rolled over to see Mihashi staring at the ceiling, looking exhausted but still wide awake. He propped himself up on his elbow to get a better look at the pitcher. “This isn’t like the nights before Mihoshi. Why are you so worked up?”

“It’s just…t-this team we’re playing…they’re really good.”

“And?”

“So I’m n-nervous that they’ll hit all my pitches.”

“They won’t.” Abe sighed. “Don’t you trust me by now?”

Mihashi looked at him in surprise, wide-eyed. “Of course I do! I trust you, Abe.”

“Then go to sleep.”

“It’s…it’s not that simple. Not for me.”

Abe was getting tired of this conversation. He sighed heavily and rolled over so he was sitting on Mihashi’s legs, yanking his blanket down to get at his ribs and underarms, tickling lightly. “Then let’s make it simple.”

“Eeep!” Mihashi squeaked, first trying to push Abe’s hands away, then opting to cover his mouth with them to keep his laughter quiet for the others in the room. He wiggled and giggled, begging as softly as he could. “Nohohohohoho! Abe, stohohohohop!”

“Not until I tire you out so much you can’t help but fall asleep.” Despite himself, Abe smirked at Mihashi’s smiling face, worming his fingers into his underarms and wiggling deep. Mihashi nearly launched himself off his bedroll for how hard he spasmed, laughter pouring from him in waves. Still, he kept his mouth covered up, determined not to wake anyone else.

“Plehehehehease! It tihihihihickles, Abe!”

“That’s kind of the point.”

Abe kept it up, kept tickling for several minutes until Mihashi’s giggles grew so tired he could barely get them out. When he finally let up and helped cover his pitcher in his blanket once more, it took less than a minute for his anxious friend to finally begin snoring. Abe smirked, satisfied, and Mihashi slept through the night with a smile on his face.

*

4) Lee Abe, Ler Mihashi

The bases were loaded, there were two outs, it was the bottom of the fifth inning, and the score was tied. But no one in the dugout was paying attention to that. Well, except for the coach, of course. All the boys who weren’t out on the field were staring at Abe, who had just let out the loudest shriek any of them had ever heard.

The poor catcher was blushing, too, which only made everyone stare harder.

Tajima wiped mirthful tears from his eyes, having been sent into hysterics laughing over the sound Abe let free. “You’re really that ticklish, huh?” he teased, patting him on the back. “I’ll be sure to remember that next time your temper flares up, buddy.”

“Shut up!” Abe snapped, shoving him away and turning his eyes back to the game. He ran a hand through his hair in embarrassed frustration but seemed determined to not be bothered by the stares around him.

Gradually the other boys turned back to the game as well, but even when Izumi hit a ground ball to advance Oki to home plate and take the lead, Mihashi’s focus never left his catcher. He hovered behind him nervously, working up the courage to take action. He’d really liked that sound; he wanted to hear it again, but he didn’t want to make Abe mad at him.

Then again, Abe was mad at him a lot.

As everyone congratulated Oki upon his reentering the dugout, Mihashi climbed up to stand beside Abe and grabbed his ribs from behind just as Tajima had done a moment ago, and just as he’d hoped, another shriek ripped from the catcher’s throat, followed by him whirling on the pitcher.

“Mihashi!”

Mihashi flinched, but surprisingly hung on to his courage long enough to tickle Abe’s ribs from the front this time, pushing him against the railing, trapping him in place.

The catcher’s eyes went wide in the split second before he burst into laughter, feeling the heat of his blush on his cheeks and ears. “Mihahahahahahashi! Stohohohohohohohop! We’re in the mihihihihiddle of a gahahahahahame!”

But no one else seemed to mind the fun scene unfolding before them. The other boys smiled and laughed along with him as Mihashi kept it up, too addicted to the sound of Abe’s helpless giggles to show mercy now.

*

5) Lee Mihashi, Ler Abe

“Did you just lie to me?”

Mihashi froze, eyes wide. Abe glared at him. “N-N-No…”

“Shino’oka told me that she gave you three rice balls instead of two, like I asked.” The catcher’s voice was even, but his eyes were hard. “And then you ‘politely declined’ the third one.”

“I…I didn’t…w-want to have…more than the rest of the team,” Mihashi managed, doing his best to get the words out despite his fear he was about to get yelled at. “I d-didn’t know you a-a-asked her to give me t-three…”

Abe leaned in close to his face. “She said she told you and you still refused to eat it.”

Mihashi gulped, averting his eyes. “I d-didn’t want to b-be unfair to the others.”

“This isn’t about fair or unfair. It’s not like we’re in a war and these rations are critical. It’s an extra rice ball to help you regain the weight you keep losing. You can’t go below 50, Mihashi. You’re small enough as it is.” Abe sighed angrily, standing up to his full height. “You know what I have to do now that you not only refused the extra food – which I know you can eat – but then lied to me about it.”

The pitcher flinched, expecting Abe to start yelling. Instead he felt fingers in his ribs and he burst into surprised laughter before he could even think about trying to reign it in. “Ahahahahahaha! A-Abe?!”

“I can feel your ribs, dude. This is ridiculous,” Abe growled, tickling him even harder, fingers pressing into the grooves between his ribs, making him cackle hysterically despite himself. “You’ve got to eat more! The next time Shino’oka gives you extra food, eat it. No one is going to beat you up for it. We all know you need to gain the weight.”

Mihashi grabbed his wrists, trying to pry him off but far too weak to do so. “Plehehehehease, Abe! S-Stohohohohop, I’m r-reheheheally t-t-tihihihihihicklish!”

Somehow, hearing those words seemed to calm the catcher just a bit. He smiled a little, his voice softening. “Are you, now? Then you should have no problem remembering this lesson the next time you feel like ‘politely declining’ an extra serving.”

*

6) Lee Tajima, Ler Abe

“Ehehehehehehahaha! Ahahahahabe, why?!” Tajima squealed, barely able to hold himself up with one arm while the other reached across his torso to try and pry the catcher’s fingers from his lower ribs. Ten seconds ago he’d been doing sit-ups, and now his normally serious teammate had his legs trapped so he couldn’t even kick him away.

Abe allowed a tiny smirk. “I’ve kind of gotten used to doing this to Mihashi when he’s out of sorts. Which is a lot, to be fair. I didn’t really think about it, but I do think you need it.” He reached his other hand over now, leaning on Tajima’s shins to grab at his hips and squeeze.

Tajima giggled hysterically, his arm shaking from the effort to keep himself up, desperately trying to grab his tickler’s arms to try and ease the sensations even a little. “Stohohohohohohop! I d-dohohohohohon’t need you to t-tihihihihickle me!”

“Aren’t you the one always pushing us to tickle each other during games when we’re too worked up to focus?” Abe mused, sliding up to his lower ribs, pressing his thumbs into the place where they met his belly. “Do you ever consider that the tables could be turned on you at any time?”

“Of cohohohohohohourse! But we’re nohohohohot plahahahahahaying a gahahame right now!” Tajima finally gave up on trying to stay upright in favor of using both hands to try and grab Abe’s wrists to stop him. “Quihihihihihit it! Ahahahahahabe!”

The catcher quirked a brow, more and more curious the longer this went on. Tajima had to have a spot…right? Everyone did. “Nah, you know what? I’m having too much fun to stop now. I want to find your spot first.”

Tajima’s eyes flew wide open and he suddenly looked both panicked and elated, his giggles bubbling out of him faster than before. Encouraged, Abe smiled at him, hands flying everywhere he could reach, searching for the place that would make their confident cleanup hitter a mess of begging laughter.

Dang it, how did I get roped into this silliness with the rest of the guys? Abe thought, but he didn’t let it stop him. To Tajima he smirked and said, “All right, then. Where’s your tickle spot…?”

*

7) Lee Abe, Ler Tajima

“I think I’m stuck…” Abe muttered, his head and arms still trapped in his too-small undershirt.

Tajima rolled his eyes. “Dude, you knew it was too small when you put it on, and you’ve been suffocating in it all day. Why not just cut it off?”

“Because it’s still a perfectly good shirt. It just doesn’t fit.” Abe sighed. “Someone else can wear it. Can you just get me out?”

The cleanup hitter smirked. He knew he’d never have a more perfect opportunity than this, and he was definitely going to pounce on it while he could. His only regret was that Mihashi wasn’t around to see what was about to happen. Maybe it would help his nerves to see his catcher in stitches.

“Hold still,” Tajima instructed seconds before plunging his fingers into Abe’s sides.

“AIEEE!!” Abe squealed, jerking so hard he lost his footing. Tajima caught him before he fell completely, resuming tickling once he was safe from tumbling to the ground. Abe squirmed, his arms flailing within the small shirt but unable to come down to protect himself. “Stahahahahahahahap! Tajima – gehehehet me out!”

“Let’s count your ribs first,” his mischievous teammate suggested. “That shirt was so tight on you I think one of them might have broken. We can’t have that!”

“My rihihihihihibs are FIHIHIHIHIHINE!!” Abe lost his footing again, this time falling backwards in to Tajima’s waiting arms, and the cleanup hitter wrapped his arms around him in a hug, pressing his fingers deliberately into the grooves of his ribcage. “TAHAHAHAHAJIMA!!”

Tajima ignored his hysterical pleas, counting each set of ribs as he worked his way up to the catcher’s underarms, grinning like the Cheshire cat all the while. Unfortunately for him, once he reached the top of his ribcage and scribbled into Abe’s armpits, his laughter died down, replaced with gasps for air. “Aww, you’re not ticklish here?”

“N-No,” Abe replied breathlessly, trying to twist away. “Quit messing around and get me out of heeeeEEEERE!! NAHAHAHAHAHA TAJIMA!!” The catcher cackled so hard his laughter went silent, his knees wobbling in an effort to stay upright.

“Ooh, good spot, huh?” Tajima teased, wiggling his fingers into Abe’s lower belly, right above his waistline. “If only Mihashi could be here to see this. Tickle, tickle, tickle!”

Abe shrieked with renewed hysterics, struggling against his teammate. “PLEHEHEHEASE!! NO MOHOHOHORE TIHIHICKLING!! JUST GEHEHEHET ME OUT OF HEHEHEHERE!!”

Eventually Tajima let him go, but only after another few minutes of making Abe laugh himself silly.

*

8) Lee Abe, Ler Mihashi

“Hey, Mihashi,” Abe said, coming up behind the pitcher. He’d tried to keep his voice gentle so as not to startle him, but it didn’t seem to do any good, because Mihashi jumped anyway.

“Y-Yeah, Abe?”

The catcher held up a bottle of sunscreen. “This might be a little weird but…everyone else is already in the water and I…kind of need help.”

Mihashi glanced at the bottle, then at Abe, then at the ocean where the rest of the team had already begun swimming. Suddenly it clicked. “Oh! Y-You’re not…going in the water, too?”

“Nah, not for a while. I’d like to just chill for a little while on the beach.” Abe jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. “But we didn’t bring umbrellas, so I need to have sunscreen on. I’ve taken care of everything else, but I can’t protect my back on my own.”

“I can do it for you,” Mihashi said, picking up on what his catcher was subtly asking. He reached for the bottle, and Abe handed it to him, turning around.

“Thanks. I owe you one.”

Mihashi remained quiet as he uncapped the bottle, squirted some lotion into his hand, and reached for Abe’s back. He hesitated for only a second before pushing through his nerves and beginning to apply the sunscreen, starting from his shoulders and working his way down.

Once he reached the space between Abe’s shoulder blades, however, Abe jerked and let out a noise that made Mihashi freeze in his tracks. “I’m s-sorry, did I – did I hurt you? I didn’t mean to, I—”

“Relax, man.” Abe gave him a look that almost seemed…embarrassed? “I’m just ticklish there. I’ll hold still this time, I promise. Just don’t linger, okay?”

“O-Okay.” Mihashi blinked at him. Ticklish? He squirted out more sunscreen and started over, doing his best to be quick about covering his friend’s back with the protective lotion. Abe did stay still as he promised, but he continued to let out little noises and giggles here and there, even squealing once. By the time it was over, the pitcher wasn’t even thinking about it anymore, and he reached his hands around to grab onto Abe’s bare sides, squeezing hard.

“He-eeey!” Abe cried, giggling harder, wrenching himself away and whirling back around to shoot him a half-managed glare. He snatched the bottle back. “You done?”

“Y-Yeah…s-sorry, Abe, I just couldn’t—”

“Couldn’t help yourself. I know, I know.” The catcher ran a hand through his hair, though from frustration or lingering embarrassment Mihashi couldn’t tell. “I’m going to go lie down, unless you need sunscreen, too?”

Mihashi shook his head. “I’m…I’m going in the ocean now.”

“Okay. Have fun.”

Abe took off at a brisk pace to where he’d laid his towel on the sand, and Mihashi didn’t even realize at first that he was smiling after him.

I’m already having fun, he thought, then hurried to the water to where Tajima and the others were waving at him.

*

9) Lee Hanai, Ler Tajima

“If I catch you, I’m going to tickle you,” Tajima said seriously, staring Hanai down with a determined glare.

Hanai jumped, eyes widening. “You…you what?”

“You heard me.” Tajima smirked, putting his hands on his hips. “You challenged me to a race, but we both know I’m faster than you. I’ll let you get a head start, but if I catch you, I’ll tickle you. That should be good motivation for you to own up to your smart mouth, right?”

Hanai just stared at him. He hadn’t considered it a ‘smart mouth’ when he declared he could finally beat Tajima at something, but seeing him like this now made him hesitate a little. “Look, we don’t have to race…”

“Nope! Too late for that!” Tajima made a shooing motion. “Go on. I’ll give you a five second head start. Then I’m coming after you. And if I catch you…”

Hanai turned on his heel and sprinted for the opposite end of the field, heart already racing. What had he done? What had he gotten himself into? What was he thinking, challenging Tajima to anything?

Despite his five second head start, when Hanai dared to glance back Tajima was very nearly barreling for him, and one terrified shriek later the center fielder suddenly found himself face-first in the grass in his own territory, a weight settling on his back.

“Wait! Wahahahahahahait!” Hanai pleaded, bursting into giggles the instant he felt fingers in his sides. He spasmed, trying to roll over or kick his legs or something to get Tajima off of him, but nothing could move the immovable cleanup hitter, and soon the taller boy was shrieking with helpless giggles and pleading for mercy. “Tahahahahajima! Stohohohohohop! Plehehehehehease, you wihihihin!”

Tajima just giggled along with him. “I know. I just really wanted to tickle you, and this was a good excuse. Thanks for helping me out, Hanai!”

Hanai groaned through his laughter. Seriously, what had he been thinking, challenging Tajima to anything?!

*

10) Lee Abe, Ler Mihashi

“Pfffthahahaha – M-Mihahahashi, I – I – ehehehehehehehe!” Abe giggled, sputtering and tripping over his words with embarrassing squeals that made him blush even harder. He fisted his hands into his hair, kicking his legs, using every ounce of strength he had to not stop his pitcher.

Mihashi, for his part, didn’t even realize he was smiling at Abe as he tickled gently, squeezing his sides and skittering over his ribs. He’d never once gotten to be the one to make the catcher smile and laugh like this, and he was enjoying every second of it while he could.

“Mihahahahahashi!” Abe squealed, bringing his arms down instinctively as he trailed downward to his belly. He clutched his fists by his head, trying to hold firm. It had taken everything in him to admit to Mihashi that he wanted to be on the receiving end this time, and he knew it was taking everything in his friend to reverse his role, as well. The last thing he wanted to do was ruin it by protesting or actively stopping him. Not when they were less than a minute in.

“Are you o-okay?” Mihashi asked, slowing a little.

Abe was instantly desperate for more. He nodded emphatically. “Yes, I’m fine! Keep g-gohohohohoing – AGH, NO!!” The catcher spasmed, hands flying down to grab Mihashi’s arms, stilling the both of them.

“I’m sorry! I can stop—”

“No!” Abe cried, clutching him harder, making sure he didn’t move. “It’s okay, it’s just…just a reflex, I swear. I’m really…really ticklish there.” The catcher’s face was red as a cherry at this point. “Please. I want to try.”

Mihashi gulped nervously, then pressed his thumbs back into his friend’s lower belly, kneading gently, lighting up when Abe tossed his head back with laughter, kicking even harder than before. After a moment, the pitcher decided for both of their safety he’d better straddle him, so that’s what he did.

Abe’s laughter grew even louder and his eyes widened in surprise. “MIHAHAHAHASHI?!”

“Y-You said you wanted to try,” Mihashi said, switching from using only his thumbs to using all ten of his fingers to tickle Abe’s weak spot, and the catcher gripped his arms even harder as his laughter turned boisterous. “And…well…I do too, Abe.”

[tinyboxxtink]

“Helpless” *FINALE*

Mwahahaha I got around the un-even numbering. Well, this is it! I hope you’ve enjoyed this series as much as I enjoyed writing it. I really need to make a Master List of all my “works”, but if you wanna check out my other stuff just type “Rafael Barba Imagine” into the search bar of my page. 

As always, big thanks to my lovies:

@wanniiieeee

@dumauier

@word-scribbless

@chasingeverybreakingwave

The COMPLETE Collection:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

And without further ado, the CONCLUSION!!!!

After your shower and you were in some clean pink scrubs, you decided it would probably be best to go look for the squad. Apparently you were still “a suspect”, so you didn’t want to make it look like you were trying to flee or something. 

You found your way back to the waiting room, but only Fin and Carisi were still there.

“...Where’d Benson and Rollins go?” You asked, glancing around the area.

“Well it’s like 4 am, they both have kids, I’d told them we’d update them if anything happened with Barba,” Carisi told you.

“Which you can now do,” Fin added, grabbing his jacket off a chair.

“...I’m sorry, what?” you asked. “Aren’t you supposed to be ‘watching’ me or something?” 

“They combed your street and found the gun, the idiots tossed it as they were driving. And as far as your whole ‘hustling’ business, if Barba vouches for you, I’m not gonna bother with a shitload of paperwork just because you got some money out of some old white dudes,” Fin chuckled.

“So you’re off the hook, and I’d really like to sleep in my own bed,” Carisi patted your back as he walked out with Fin. 

“I--Are you sure? Olivia isn’t gonna--” 

“Olivia’s gonna be a lot of things, but none of it matters legally speaking. So y'all need to work that out on your own,” Fin held up his hands like he was washing his hands of the drama.

“Right. Well I’m sure the doctor will call her,” You really didn’t want to have to talk to her anymore than you needed to. 

“Right. Night, Y/N” Carisi waved as they continued to walk down the hallway and out the front doors.

Okay, so now you were alone. On your own. In a hospital. Great.

Suddenly, you remembered the magical sticker. You pulled it out of the scrubs pocket and stuck it to your shoulder. Then you turned to the big doors that read 

“ICU: Approved Personnel ONLY”

Well, you were in scrubs.You took a deep breath and made a sign of the cross before you walked confidently through the doors. Hopefully people would just assume you were a nurse. 

You were met on the other side with a bustle of doctors and nurses running around, patients being pushed through the hallways; lots of machines were beeping, and you could hear a CODE BLUE down the hall. 

“Please don’t be Rafael Please don’t be Rafael…” you closed your eyes and whispered, but were quickly interrupted.

“Excuse me sweetie, are you lost?” An older male doctor tapped your shoulder.

“Oh um-- yeah YES. I am,” you lied. This is what you did best, just roll with it. 

“It’s my first day, and I got separated from my group. We were doing rounds, and I believe our next room was the ADA?” 

“The ADA…?” The doctor started typing in his tablet, as if someone would add “The ADA of New York” in his patient notes.

“I think his name is Ralph something,” you lied; a nurse wouldn’t be all on the up and up of law people, would they?

“Ah. Rafael Barba. Oh you’re right, it says VIP PATIENT here. He must be something special,” 

“He really is,” You sighed, causing the doctor to look at you funny. 

“I mean, so I’ve heard,” 

“Well it says here DO NOT DISTURB, so I don’t believe you were doing rounds in his room…” The doctor raised an eyebrow as he tilted the tablet towards you. You saw “ROOM 304” next to Rafael’s name.

“Oh, you know what you’re right! I think they said we were NOT rounding on him, y’know cuz he’s the ADA,” You gent;y rubbed your shoulder against his. “I must’ve gotten mixed up because of your beautiful blue eyes,” you batted your lashes, to which the elderly doctor happily ate up.

“Oh well, no harm no foul,” He smiled.

“Ok well I’m sure I can find them, thank you doctor!” you gave him the cheesiest smile and a wink, walking away quickly. You made it into an elevator right before it closed. Luckily, the only other person in it was “Another” nurse, who looked like she might pass out right there in the elevator; she paid you no mind. 

You hit FLOOR 3 and rode up to the floor, practically jumping out of the elevator. You turned to see signs that pointed 300-320 left and 320-340 right. You went left, searching the numbers until you saw 304. You looked around to make sure no one had noticed you definitely did not belong there, and when the coast was clear you opened the door slowly and snuck in the room.

“Excuse me, can I help you?” 

Fuck, you were caught. You were running multiple scenarios of lies in your head as you turned around, but to your relief it was the nurse who had given you the sticker.

“Ah, I see it worked,” she gestured to the sticker on your uniform.

“It did, thank you so much,” You thanked her softly, your eyes moving towards Rafael’s still unconscious body. You immediately grabbed a chair and pulled it up next to him, stroking his hair. 

“Hey...baby I’m here,” You whispered, wondering whether he could hear you or not.

“It says here he coded three times in surgery, but he came back,” The nurse read his chart off her tablet.

“Why….why would I want to know that?” you asked almost angrily.

“...Patients have a lot to do with their own response and recovery,” she replied. “I was just implying he was fighting like hell for something,” she smiled, making you smile for the first time since Rafael had left you at your apartment. God, that moment had been so perfect; how did you get here from there? 

“I’ll put a DO NOT DISTURB” sign on the door, no one will bother you,” The nurse put a hand on your shoulder as she started to walk out. “I think he’s going to be okay sweetie, I really do,” 

“Thanks,” You gave her a small nod, and she was gone. Leaving just you and Rafael, alone. 

“So...I’ve never seen a guy work so hard to get me alone,” You chuckled, calling back to the first conversation you had at Forlini's. That seemed like a lifetime ago now.

“Hey so, they caught Arianna and those guys,” you kept talking, praying he was listening. “I think they’re gonna go to jail for a LONG time,” you stroked his hair. 

“So, y’know obviously that means I’m out a roommate. Probably an apartment too, I don’t really know what Arianna did about that. Surely she didn’t just get out of a six month lease in the middle of the night, she must have just thought they could abandon the apartment. 

“So, if you know of  any fancy mahogany couches that are open, let me know,” You tried joking again with a fake laugh, but it just turned into tears.

“I’m so sorry, Rafael,” you whispered. “I never intended for any of this to happen. I should have never even talked to you, I should have just admired you from afar and sniffed your scotch glasses in private like a fucking creep,” you laughed for real between your tears.

“I just--” you started to talk again, but you felt Rafael’s hand squeeze yours. 

“....R-Rafa?” 

Suddenly, Rafael started to thrash and choke, his breathing tube was still breathing for him.

“NURSE!!! NURSE!!” You jumped up and screamed down the hall; your lucky nurse came rushing in. She quickly pulled the tube out and after a few gasping breaths, Rafael finally calmed down. He was conscious, but his eyes were barely open. 

“Welcome back, Mr. Barba,” The nurse smiled. “I think you gave this one quite the scare,” She nodded to you, to which Barba gave the weakest smile. 

He tried to speak, but just scratchy gibberish came from his mouth. But his beautiful green eyes were more open and had their sparkle back. 

“Your throat will be sore for a while,” The nurse informed him. “....But everything else seems to be doing good!” She checked all of Rafael’s stats on his machines, and the different tubes coming out of his body. 

“I’ll be back later-- let you two, catch up,” She gave you both a knowing smile, then walked out the door.

“I...told...you,” he hoarsely croaked. 

“What? You told me what?!” You asked him frantically, as if this was some kind of ominous threat.

“I’d….,” He cleared his throat as you grabbed a water bottle off a nearby table. 

“I told you, I’d fight for you,” He said almost completely normally after taking a swig of the water.

“...Yeah, well-- I think that was a bit much, don’t you, counselor?” You raised an eyebrow, implying taking a bullet for someone after the first date is a bit melodramatic.

“I mean, here,” he pointed to the bed. 

“W-What?” you blinked in confusion. 

“I fought to come back,” he took your hand and kissed the back of it. “For you,” 

“Why?” you blinked again, still in awe.

“Because you asked me to,” He smiled, taking his free hand and stroking your hair back as you had been doing while he was out. 

“Y-You heard all of that?!” you gasped.

“Well, I thought I had hallucinated it until you just confirmed it for me,” He gave you a mischievous smile.

“Oh my god,” You blushed and hit him softly, forgetting about his tubes and shoulders. He winced in pain, and you immediately started to comfort him again.

“Oh my GOD, what is wrong with me?! Are you ok?”

“I’m fine, carino. And I’m not done yet either,” his words made you stop fiddling with the wires and look him straight in the eyes.

“....Done what?”

“Done loving you, dummy,” he shook his head as if to say “DUH.” 

“Oh my god you DID hear all of it!” You put your hands over your face, your face turning red. Then you realized what he had actually said. 

“WAIT...did you just say…?” your eyes bugged out of your head. 

“I love you, Y/N.” he smiled sweetly, squeezing your hand.

“Really? Are you sure? Because we can just--” He shut you up by leaning over and kissing you. 

“Since I saw you sniff my scotch glass,” He cut you off. “I thought ‘I’m gonna marry that weird girl one day’,” 

“Whoa whoa whoa, slow down there mister,” You put your hands up. “I mean, you can almost die for me, but marriage? That seems a bit much,” You gave him a tongue-in-cheek smile. 

“We’ll negotiate,” He smirked. “In the meantime…” He moved himself away on his bed, adjusting the wires to make a space. He patted it for you to get in.

“I...I don’t think these are made for two people, what if I break it?” You eyed the bed, trying to calculate the weight max.

“I’ll buy them another one,” he chuckled.

“Oh right, with your copious amounts of money,” you rolled your eyes with a smile.

“Yeah, better spending it on that then more ties,” he smirked.

“NO. Never stop buying ties!” You giggled, climbing into the bed with him. He adjusted the arm that wasn’t in a sling around you. You snuggled into him, and he placed a kiss on your forehead. The feeling was back; the safe and warm feeling

And you knew in your heart, you’d never feel helpless again. 

[calpalirwin]

Australian Love Affair

Request: Based on that tiktok video @itjustkindahappenedreally​ sent me where the guys find out you’re dating Luke.

Word Count: ~2k

And away, and away we go!

__

When you had first met the boys, the inevitable question of if you had a partner was asked almost as soon as pleasantries were exchanged.

“So? You seeing anyone?” Calum asked. “Boyfriend? Girlfriend? That sort of thing?”

You laughed politely at the brown-eyed boy while his friends muttered the disapproval cry of “Dude…” under their breath. “Nope. Single,” you answered. “Happily so,” you added as an afterthought. You had just met these men, and while you assumed they were good enough sorts given that two of them were dating two of your friends, you weren’t interested in dating people you barely knew.

“Oh, thank God!” Calum laughed in relief. “Someone on my side, finally.”

“Hey!” the other three said in protest, the tallest of the lot specifically affronted. “I’m single, too,” Luke pouted, crossing his arms over his broad chest.

“Yeah, and you’re bloody miserable about it,” Calum snorted with an eye roll. “I need someone who’s happy being single.”

“Well your search is over,” you joked, bowing dramatically. “Y/N, pleased to make your acquaintance.”

That earned a round of laughs, and a few murmured, “Glad to meet ya,”s before the group disbanded, Ashton and Michael in search of their girlfriends, and Calum in search of a drink.

“You don’t have to hang around the new kid if you don’t want,” you told Luke with a soft smile. “Like it’s a big party. If you got… I dunno… other people to say hi to, or something, that’s cool.”

One of his hands tugged at a blonde curl along the nape of his neck. “Kinda wanted to ask you something first, if that’s alright?”

You twisted your wrist in a motion of encouraging him to continue. “Go ahead.”

“Are you happily single in that you’re not looking to date? Or happily single, but you’d go on a date if you got asked?”

You brought a finger to your lips in thought. “Hmm… I guess it depends on who was asking.”

“Me?”

“Oh, Luke…”

“It’s fine!” he rushed. “I mean… no harm, no foul, right?”

“Right. And sorry. I just… don’t date people I don’t really know.”

“Yep. Totally cool. Friends?”

“Friends,” you nodded, shaking his offered hand.

A year later found you and Luke hanging out. “So, what are you in the mood to do today?” he asked from where he was lying across your couch.

“I dunno,” you called out from the kitchen as you grabbed drinks. “Something stupid?”

“I’m stupid, do me.”

You choked on your sip, stalling in the archway that separated your kitchen from your living room. “I- What?”

The blue eyes went wide, and his cheeks flushed, as Luke shot straight up into a sitting position. “I-I-” he stammered, “didn’t mean to say that out loud. Was a joke…”

“Mmm,” you said, recovering in the brief moment it took you to set his drink down in front of him. “Pity. So, you don’t fancy me anymore?”

“I mean… I’ve always fancied you. But you said you don’t date people you don’t know.”

“Well… I know you now.”

“Well… would you maybe wanna go on a date sometime?”

“I’m free today,” you pointed out.

“What a coincidence, so am I,” Luke giggled. “C’mon, let’s go then.”

“Wait,” you said, putting a hand on his arm.

“Let me guess, you also don’t tell anyone you’re seeing someone until it’s serious, and since this is just a date, you’d rather I didn’t shout this from the rooftops.”

You felt your cheeks heat up. “You wanna shout this from the rooftops?”

“Not if you don’t want me to, I don’t. Look, I’m not gonna make you feel bad for having hesitations, or wanting to take things slow. I’m fine with that. We can tell as few, or as many people we like about us when there’s something worth telling. Not that this isn’t worth telling! But, I-”

“Luke,” you interrupted. “You’re doing that thing where you ramble when you’re nervous.”

“Shit, sorry. Just-”

“I know. And thanks. C’mon, let’s go have that date.”

~~~

You chuckled quietly to yourself, catching Luke’s eye from across the room. He winked and you rolled your eyes, sparing your phone one last glance before locking the screen. “Oooo!” Crystal’s voice sounded next to you. “Got a secret admirer you wanna tell us about?”

You scoffed. “Pfft. Secret admirer. Yeah, right.”

“Mmm, so you just giggle at your phone all the time?” she teased. “C’mon, Y/N. I know how you look when you’re crushing on someone.”

“It’s nothing,” you mumbled, your entire face growing warm.

“‘Nothing’ aka Y/N for ‘I’m totally smitten, but we haven’t labeled anything, so I’m playing indifferent,’” Kaykay chimed in.

“You know what? Just for that comment, I’m leaving now.”

“Have fun with lover boy!” they taunted making kissy faces at you.

“Lover boy?” Luke asked when he got to your place ten minutes after you did. “Do the girls know?”

“No. Well, they think I’m seeing someone. But they don’t have any proof, much less any idea that it’s you.”

“Cool…”

You frowned. “That’s not a very convincing response.”

He gave a small shake of his head, like he was pushing back whatever he’d been thinking. “It’s nothing. C’mon. Let’s go to bed.”

You interlinked your fingers with his, but when he took a step forward, you didn’t follow. “No. What is it? What’s on that pretty mind of yours?”

“I- We’ve been doing this for like two months now. And I get that we’re still figuring shit out. And that you don’t like telling people that you’re seeing someone until you slap that label on it because of your past experiences. But, I’ve been used in the past. Kept a secret. And that’s not something I’d like to repeat. So, yeah. That’s where I’m at.”

“At the point where you want to label this? Or at the point where you want to tell people you’re seeing someone?”

“Mostly the second one. But, maybe the first one, too? So, we don’t have to time our exits from our friends.”

You rubbed your thumbs over the backs of his hands in soothing circles. “Yeah. Yeah, we could do that.”

He brightened. “Cool! But, um… not right this second. Need to do something light-hearted first. Too much seriousness all at once-”

“Stresses you out. I know,” you smiled up at him.

“You’re fuckin’ great, you know that?”

“Yeah. But I’m always open to hearing it again.”

Luke pressed a swift kiss to the top of your head. “The fuckin’ greatest.”

~~~

Your phone ringing shrilly had you both sitting bolt upright in bed. “Who is it?” Luke asked, his voice thick with sleep.

“Cal.”

“Well go ahead and answer it.”

“It’s a FaceTime…”

“Shit!” Luke laid flat back down in bed, pulling the blankets up over his head. “Okay,” his muffled voice called out. “Go ahead.”

You giggled, and hit accept, your phone screen splitting into 4 screens as Calum’s face appeared on it, along with Ashton’s and Michael’s.

“See? I told ya Y/N was still asleep,” Michael grumbled.

“It’s almost fuckin’ noon!” Ashton protested.

“Oh, shut up, and add Luke to the call.”

“No!” you blurted. “I- I mean… what’s up guys?”

“We had a question for ya,” Calum said. “Cuz they’re nosy little shits.”

While Ashton and Michael both pulled faces of being offended, you laughed. “What’s the question?”

“Crystal and Kaykay mentioned you were on your phone before you left last night,” Michael started.

“So we were just curious…” Ashton added.

“You bailing on being the only other single person?” Calum finished.

“You’re not the only other single person,” you pointed out.

Calum scoffed. “Oh, you mean Luke? Nah. That boy’s been bit by the lovebug. Which is great for him. Single life isn’t his style. But damn… I thought what we had was special, Y/N.”

“You were the chosen one!” Michael cackled.

“It was said you would mock the lovebirds, not join them!” Ashton jumped in on the joke.

“Oh, my God,” you giggled while you felt the blankets shake beside you with Luke’s stifled laughter. “But yeah. To answer your question. Yeah, I’m seeing someone. Sorry, Cal.”

Calum’s eyes narrowed briefly. “I’ll forgive you, on one condition.”

“And what condition’s that?”

“Tell us who it is.”

“Wow, way to make a real case for yourself. I think I’ll take being unforgiven.”

“Wow…” they all deadpanned. “Gonna do me like that?” Calum muttered in fake disbelief. “Just keep breaking my heart like that?”

“That would require you to have a heart first.”

“Ouch!” Calum gasped, while Michael mimicked in his best videogame voice “Finish him!” which sent Ashton giggling.

Ashton giggling made you giggle. “Wait, wait, back up a second. You said Luke was seeing somebody? And he didn’t tell us? Fuckin’ rude.”

“Yeah! Sounds like somebody else we know. How bout this? We get Luke on here to tell us who he’s seeing, and you can tell us who you’re seeing, too. Then it’s all out in the open about how you both ditched me for the dark side,” Calum tried to negotiate again.

“Aw, c’mon. Is it really necessary to drag Luke into this? I mean, he’ll tell us when he’s ready to tell us, ri-” you scrambled to diffuse, but got cut off when Luke’s phone started ringing on your nightstand.

“Shh, it’s ringing,” Ashton shushed, waving his hand.

“Wait… I can hear it…” Michael said, bringing his phone closer to his face to listen better.

“Yeah, me too,” Calum nodded, before his eyes went wide with realization. “Y/N… is Luke there?”

“What? Why would he be at Y- OH! OH shit!” Michael yelled as the pieces clicked in his head.

“Luke! Answer your bloody phone!” Ashton scolded.

“I don’t think Ash has figured it out yet,” Calum muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Me neither,” Michael said with a pity shake of his head.

“Oh, I did. Lukey! Come out and plaaaaaay!” Ashton taunted.

Beside you, the blankets flipped back and Luke’s head popped into view. “Hey, guys,” he greeted sheepishly.

“When were you gonna tell us, mate?” Michael asked, his question directed at Luke.

“When there was something worth telling.”

“Two months of you being the happiest we’ve ever seen you isn’t ‘worth telling’?”

“You’ve been at your happiest with me?” you asked in a small voice.

Luke chuckled, wrapping an arm around you. “Course I have,” he smiled, pressing a kiss to your temple.

“Aw! You’re gonna make me sick!” Calum cooed sweetly.

“What Cal means to say,” Ashton interjected, “is that we’re really happy for you guys.”

“Yeah. And if we did something that made you think you couldn’t tell us, we’re sorry,” Michael apologized.

“It wasn’t anything you guys, or Luke did,” you stepped back in. “It was me. It takes a lot for me to develop the trust where I’m comfortable saying I’m in a relationship.”

“Hey, you don’t gotta explain yourself to anyone, Y/N,” Calum told you. “We were just messing with you. And we’re glad you feel comfortable enough to tell us. Even though we did kinda force it out of you… in our defense, we didn’t know Luke was with you.”

You laughed. “It’s fine, guys. We were gonna tell you in a few days anyhow.”

“Alright,” Michael cut in. “Serious question. You two make each other happy?”

You and Luke nodded. “Very much so, yeah.”

“Then that’s all that matters. We’ll uh… leave now and let you get back to your morning.”

“It’s past noon!” Ashton screeched.

“Oh, shut up, and go make another pot of coffee,” Calum told him.

“I will! Anybody want some?”

“I’m down,” Luke grinned at Ashton.

“You know how to get in. Cal? Mike?”

“Only if food is involved. You know I don’t drink coffee,” Michael listed his conditions.

“Deal. Cal?”

“Ah, fuck it. Yeah, I’m in.”

“Whoohoo! Brunch at Ash’s!” you cheered.

“Y/N, you only get brunch if you bring that new guy you’ve been seeing,” Ashton joked playfully.

“I think I can arrange that,” you giggled, snuggling into Luke.

__

Tag List

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[tillthelandslide]

Made to Love

Author's Note: Hello to all of you beautiful and wonderful people. I hope your day is going well. After having a whole day of writer's block, I listened to Made to Love by John Legend and this wonderful idea came into my head so I wrote it down. I hope you liked this and I'm thinking maybe I could do a part 2 if you guys like it?

This is set in a utopian world, not ours just so you know.

Tag List: @harrysthiccthighss @thereisa8ella @magdelen69 @henrythickcavill @hc-geralt-23 @kissthatlifeaway @darkbooksarwin @august-w-princess @speakerforthedead0 @pixie1484 @constip8merm8 @tigerbroadwaybaby @agniavateira @summersong69 @aestheticallywinchester @stephartrave @al-wiisa @henrycavillfanpage @intenselikes @anat2507 @ellixthea @aguspalazzo @1ookatthestars00 @wintersoldierslut @michelehansel @cavill-sass @thecavillstache  @xelizabethvalentinex @sesamepancakes @tumblenewby @thefangirlsblog @sugermelonwater

(if you would like to be added to my tag list, feel free to message me, if you are new to my blog then I post Henry Cavill fanfics and make   Henry Cavill fake Instagram posts, my requests are open so feel free to request anything  and I will try my best to make your vision come to life. Edit: requests are still open but there might be a delay as I am working my way through the current ones and all other stories I am writing)  

Growing up you were taught the laws of the world you lived in. You were taught that every person around you had different morals and different beliefs. But one thing everyone agreed on was the existence of soul mates, two people linked by destiny, made for each other, two people bound my fate to be together until death do they part. You were taught that you could tell who your soulmate is purely but the feeling you got. You were told that your soul mates aura would match yours and the closer you were to each other the deeper you would feel, the more intense your feelings would be, as if amplified by the other person. You were also taught that as you grew up you would get visions of your soul mate. You wouldn't see what they looked like or where they lived but would see visions of what they were like, what they did in their spare time. You knew yours was an actor (although how famous you didn't know), you knew he enjoyed video games just as much as you did, he grew up reading fantasy books just like you, you could feel that family was important to him, he had brothers but you weren't sure how many. You could also feel each other's emotions when you were apart, a constant reminder from destiny that you had to find each other to live in peace, to live in paradise with each other. The piece of information that made it difficult in finding him was that he was an actor, he was always travelling and was always filming. This made finding him difficult because you were a singer, a famous one at that, you were constantly on the road, never in the same place for more than a couple of days at a time.

But you were currently on a break from your life on the road, you had told your fans that you were going to take a hiatus and lots of them encouraged you to find your soul mate, because they wanted you to be happy.

One of the fundamental laws of soul mates was the push and pull dynamic, the more someone would push their soulmate away. the more they would find themselves needing that person. There were people who ignored these laws, and lived their lives running from destiny. Soulmates who were yet to find each other were allowed to carry out temporary relationships with non-soul mate individuals, named "betas" but were forbidden to marry them or reproduce with them. Again there were those who hated these laws, those who married non-soulmates to spite destiny.

As for you, you had a few relationships with betas, but they never satisfied that of your deepest desire. It was fun getting to know betas and you found yourself loving them, but not in the way that soulmates would love each other. Eventually the relationship between betas would come to an end when the other found their soulmate. But you were yet to find yours so all of your beta relationships had ended because they had been successful in carrying out the law.

So here you were, alone in your house in London, what was the point of a break if I can't even find my soulmate? you thought. You were beginning to lose hope, maybe you had done something to spite destiny and this was its way of punishing you.

You had begun to feel ill, your mother bringing you some soup in hopes you would feel better. Your mother was one of few individuals, who destiny had granted multiple soul mates, this only happened to people whose original soul mate had passed, destiny would grant them another if they had successfully carried out the law of soul mates in all its glory. And your mother had, she had found her soulmate when she was 21 and had gotten married soon after, having 4 beautiful children (you included) before sadly her soul mate (your father) and passed. Destiny had decided that she carried out the law so well that she deserved another one.

To say it irked you was an understatement, you were happy for her, sure, but there she was having had 2 soul mates and you were yet to find yours.

"He's on he's way dear" she said, as she was leaving your home.

"I don't know ma" you frowned, rubbing your forehead I wish this throbbing in my head would stop for christ sake you thought.

"He is, my love. Now rest and get better, I have to meet Derek for lunch" she said referring to your step farther.

"Have a lovely day ma" you said, making her smile and leave you.

Your head throbbed again, making you have to close your eyes as you felt like you were going to faint.

"What in the world?" you said, your hand coming up to rest against the wall to stop yourself from falling.

Sit down love you heard his voice in your head say. Oh yeah, another side effect of not finding your soulmate was having this kind of connection with them, they could communicate with you, through your mind. It sounds ridiculous but it's true, it takes practice to successfully send a message to your soul mate, apparently it becomes painstakingly easy when you've actually met them.

"You're not helping me" you chuckled out, crashing on your sofa.

You need to rest, your making me feel nauseous his voice said again

"Oh thanks love. Sorry to be such a pain" you said, sarcastically.

Sorry love you heard him chuckle

"It would be a lot easier if you were here dickhead" you laughed, joking with him, your eyes still shut. An image flashed in your mind... A lot of green, that's all you could see for miles.

"What are you doing?" you laughed, talking about the vision you got.

Walking Kal

"all I can see is green, like for miles?" you asked, and you heard him chuckle. He didn't say anything else and you sighed, resting your head against your sofa.

Wish I could help you. He sounded sad and he felt sad too, you could physically feel him frowning, but you knew it felt worse for him, that's how it worked. You were feeling dizzy, which meant he was feeling it a little too.

"Would be so much easier if I knew where you were." you said, your cat jumping up to sit on you.

Y'know how it works love, can't tell you that

He was right, another stupid rule was that if one soulmate attempted to send a message containing information about where they were or where they lived, the information would be corrupted, all the other would hear is muffled speech.

"I'll leave you to it then my love" you said quietly.

Okay love, rest well. Get someone to come round and look after you

"I'll try." you said. You managed to open your eyes, the world spinning a lot less now, the same throbbing in your head like someone was constantly playing a drum in there. You picked up your phone texting your best friend.

"Hey. Not well. Please come save me 😂" you typed, short sentences will have to do you thought.

"coming" was all you received back. Your friend arrived 10 minutes later, as she lived close by. She let herself in calling your name, to which you just groaned.

"Oh c'mon you big baby, it can't be that bad" she said upon seeing you.

"That's easy for you to say. You don't have what feels like someone kicking your head in every 2 seconds" you said, groaning when she tried pulling you up from your seat.

"We're going for a walk, the fresh air will do you good." she said, forcing your shoes on your feet.

"Really? I'm not well" you pouted.

"C'mon you need air" she said, pulling you up and to the door.

You began walking, every few steps you had to stop and shut your eyes, your vision became blurry and your head pounded and pounded with every step. You could see green again, a park?

"Hey it's okay, I've got you I'm here, Cmon sit down" she said, leading you to a bench.

Another vision: a bench?

Another one: two women?

Another one: a dog jumping excitedly

What was that?: An American Akita?

"This isn't working" you groaned loudly, your vision coming back to you, you looked around you, you were in a park, surrounded by green.

"Oh my god" you said, your head pounding, like a drum getting louder. You stood suddenly, your feet hurt but they carried you forward, you didn’t want to be walking but your body had other plans, your legs hurt... Everything hurt.

What's happening? You heard him say

You were falling, falling, your head throbbing more than ever, just as you were about to hit the ground, you felt something soft... Hands? You opened your eyes briefly, two blue eyes, the left had a bit of brown in it

 And then? Nothing.

The next thing you know, you were lying on the pavement, your head no longer hurt... That's good you thought. You opened your eyes, seeing the same blue eyes, your heart felt like it exploded, your back shooting up from the ground on its own accord, turning to look at the man.

"Oh my god" you cried, he was here, you found him.

"Told you to rest, love" he said, somehow making a joke out of it, but he had tears in his eyes too. You wrapped your arms around him, him pulling you to his chest.

"It's okay I've got you love, I've got you" he said, hugging you like he was never going to let go.

"You found me" you said, pulling back to look into his eyes.

"I found you alright" he said, nodding as tears fell from his eyes.

"Henry" you said, suddenly knowing his name as if you'd always known it, you knew everything there was to know about him, and he you.

"Y/N" he uttered, his hand grasping your face tightly in his hand, bringing it closer to his so he could finally kiss you. His lips were perfect against yours, it was everything everyone told you it would be, nothing but heightened emotions, destiny and fate.

"I love you so much" he uttered against your lips.

"I love you too" you replied, pulling back from the kiss.

"How's the head?" he said, his fingers rubbing at your temple.

[leonawriter]

On Writing Fankids

Writing this because I now have two different fankids for the same pairing, in vastly different ways, and they’re very different people. So.

I don’t know how many points I’m going to make, and I don’t know how useful this is going to be, since Disclaimer: I’m not an expert on real children or medical practices, but I am trying to put effort in.

Most of this is composed of questions, because I don’t know who your fankid (or, OC-fankid) is, and the point is to make you think rather than just put ideas into your head by telling you what’s right and what’s wrong.

1 - How did they come to exist?

This is the FIRST question you should be asking when coming up with a fankid. What they look like and how cute they are is all well and good, but when you’re thinking of actually writing a story, that won’t help you.

If the parents are a cis male and cis female couple, then it’s easy to assume how they had a kid. That said, that’s not always necessarily the case, as some people may be infertile, or may simply choose to adopt. However, the answer to this becomes more complicated when fans get to wanting to give a gay couple children, as this usually means they want to give them biological children.

In the event of pairings where the parents are canonically not reproductively compatible (which includes gay, lesbian, nonbinary, and so on) there are still options, which include: a trans parent, which involves being able to write a trans person and not just overlooking how this would change their story; surrogacy, in which someone else carries the child to term for those who can’t, and the related idea of a sperm donor. 

In going into other biological options, there’s also the question of “how believable and realistic do you want this to be? how scientific? how much fantasy or sci-fi do you want here?” and if the answer is “I have fantasy and/or sci-fi in my setting” then you can use that.

That said, please don’t rule out the possibility of adoption. Adoption is the most common way for queer parents in the real world to get kids, and just because a kid isn’t biological doesn’t make them any less their parent’s child. Even/especially in a fantasy setting! And knowing if a kid was adopted, that’ll extend into how they see themself, as well as who the parent is and why they chose to adopt.

Related to that, if a kid is adopted, how aware of that are they? How were they adopted? Are they a canon character that was adopted, or an entirely new character? If they were too young to remember the adoption, how do their parents (or parent, if there was only one person adopting them) explain? If they were old enough, how do they see the person who took them in? How do they see their adopted siblings, if any exist, or any future siblings? What about any prospective additional parents, if they originally only had one, or if their parent/s is/are polyamorous? 

2 - How good are their parents at parenting?

Yes, you want your favourite pairing to be great parents, but no matter what people are going to have their own idiosyncrasies. How do the parents deal when the kid throws a tantrum? 

What if the child shows signs of being neurodivergent, are the parents any good at spotting those signs, and whether they are or not, how do they handle the difference from what they might have been expecting?

My advice here is to pay attention to the pairing in their normal canon and how they deal with situations and also how they handle children in canon, as well as then going to further sources that show what parenting is really like. Your fankid is going to be a baby, they’re going to be a screaming toddler, they’re going to have a personality and wants and they’re going to frustrate their parents a lot. If you want to put the effort in to write the family well, ask someone you know who has kids, even.

3 - What are their circumstances during their childhood?

The fun one about this is that depending on the context the child was created in, the answer can be different for children of the same pairing! 

In my case, I have Satoko and Fumiya. Satoko’s childhood (outside of her parents’ control) was traumatising, and left her as a quiet kid, despite how much she’s shown love later on. Fumiya, on the other hand, grows up in a loving environment from the start, and because of that he’s much more comfortable and confident, despite everything else that happens and so on.

This is where the child starts to develop their own personality. Think about how in the real world, children are shaped by their surroundings and the way that they grow up. Does your fankid learn that they can trust the people around them? How much attention are they given? Is that attention positive, negative, stifling? Do they feel neglected, or coddled? How easy is it for them to find food, or their favourite food? Are they surrounded by children of their own age, or mostly living around adults? Is their living situation, no matter whether their parents love them and take care of them or not, a dangerous one, and how aware of that are they?

Also important is the question of whether they even have both of their parents, or either of them. Maybe the situation here is complicated. Maybe they’re an orphan (sorry, parent pairing). Maybe they’re separated from their family, and they have to fend for themself. Maybe their parents are separated for any given reason. 

Any one of these things is also going to affect their mindset while growing up from being a baby through being a toddler, a pre-teen, and a teenager. If you want them to feel like a fully rounded out person, you have to think of them as such.

4 - What do they look like?

I’m well aware that this is the first thing that most people go with when creating fankids. I’m just saying that it’s not the most important thing you should be thinking of. 

Making a fankid shouldn’t be a mix-and-match game when you’re making biological kids. When you’re coming up with an adopted kid even less so. They aren’t a paper doll. Some children may look like a mix between their parents, while others will take on attributes from previous generations... although when looking at fictional characters you don’t own the IP of, assuming what genes a fankid’s grandparent might have passed on gets tricky. For this I’m focusing mostly on biological kids, but it should help for adopted as well in some parts.

One good rule of thumb here is to look at how genes actually work.

If nothing else, a simple starting idea would be to look at the general population and say “what is the most common eye colour here” and “what is the most common hair colour” and if your fankid is from that area, that’s probably the most dominant gene, over others.

When creating my own fankids mentioned above, my idea went that blue is an eye colour that tends to be dominant, and red hair tends to come through even just by making dark hair lighter. 

That said, hair and eye colour aren’t all you should be thinking about!

Other things that should be thinking about are: how tall are they? what shape are their eyes? Does the structure of their face take more after one parent than the other, no matter their eye/hair colour? Do they have any markings on their body (moles, birthmarks, etc), and if so are they shared with other family members? Are their features they share with family members who aren’t their parents (i.e, a sister, an uncle, a great-grandparent)? 

As they grow up, do they get taller or stay shorter than their parents? In terms of their body, do they become muscular, or not, and if so, why? Do they become fat, or thin? 

Does their health impact on the way that their body looks? This can mean both disability in terms of walking around with a cane, using a wheelchair, or any number of other things.

Do they change their body in any way? Do they choose to add tattoos, or is something done to them in some other way? Do they have any scars? Would they want to share those scars with other people, or would they choose to hide them away?

5 - How canon affects them, and how they affect canon.

Whether or not your fankid grows up before, during, or after canon events makes a difference. If it’s “before/during” then you’re going to have to think of the consequences of that on both them and their parents, but also everyone else. This isn’t just “add in a kid, aren’t they cute” this is an entire new character, with the capability to become a loose cannon and change canon events.

Things can change. That’s something you’ve got to think about, and accept, the moment you want to add this new character into things. Are you willing to change things, and if so, how far?

The kinds of changes can generally be divided into two categories: internal, and external.

Internal changes are the ways that the characters change mentally and emotionally in response to a child (their child, even) being present. In one of my stories, I change very little on an external level, but the focus is on the internal side of things, as the father of this child faces the idea that he might have lost his son, and how that makes him feel when going into a dangerous situation he may not come back from. Other characters might not see any difference, but the internal conflict is there.

External changes are the big ones, where the child being present - and, by extension, the child’s backstory and its knock-on effects - affect the present, and cause things to change in visible ways. This can mean anything from “the pairing’s child has wandered into a dangerous area filled with plot, and needs to be rescued” to “the plot has found the child” or even just “the parents have relationship issues to sort out, and that changes the plot.”

Things to think of here are - aside from “how old is this kid” as you might have come up with a kid that by this point is an adult as far as I know - how active is this kid? Are they happy to stay put and not affect things, or dot hey have insatiable curiosity and the need to do something? Do they stumble into the plot without being aware of it, do they go seek it out, or does it find them? How much danger does this put them in? If it does put them in danger, how do they deal with that, and how do their parents (or single parent) deal with that? If no danger at all, do they have fun, or are they stressed?

6 - Interactions with the rest of the cast.

Honestly, my main point here is, not everyone is going to react to a kid the same way. Just because they’re cute doesn’t mean everyone’s going to like them! And no, that doesn’t mean they’re evil. And sometimes, even the “evil” characters might handle kids better than some “good” characters. In fact, some “good” characters might do so badly with kids that they make them cry, and that doesn’t make them any less “good.” It just makes them bad at handling kids.

Otherwise, how does the kid fare with the other members of the cast, in general and specifically?

Is there anyone that they like in particular? If so, why? Did that person look nice, did they give them their favourite food? Did they do something special? What did they do to become friends?

Likewise, is there anyone they dislike in particular? What did they do to deserve that? Were they mean on purpose, or did they become disliked by means of an accident or miscommunication? Is it that this person raises their voice and the kid doesn’t like raised voices, or they don’t talk loudly enough?

Depending on the situation with the child’s parents, they might prefer people who are positive toward their parents, or who are negative toward their parents. Because let’s not forget those who don’t like being compared, and those who have parents who aren’t any good. For instance, is the child’s parent a villain in their setting? Are they thought of as a villain? Are they a criminal, or on the side of the law, and regardless of which that is, does the child agree with them, and how does that affect their relationships with others who agree or disagree with that parent?

If your fankid, for example, was mistreated by a certain set of people when they were younger, then how does that relate to later on in life, or the canon cast? My Satoko’s backstory involves medical abuse, which makes her wary of doctors scientists, and things that would remind her (even subconsciously) of that setting. Two of the characters in the cast are medically trained. Her interactions with them are going to be affected by that, even if she grows to like and trust them.

In conclusion: a fan kid can be a fun five minute thing, but if you only put five minutes’ thought into their design, their backstory, and their personality, then you’re only going to get the same view of them as a sketch compared to the time it takes to fully line and colour a work of art. 

If you want to write them, or create a full comic with them, you have to ask yourself questions about who they are, and also who you want them to be. If you want them to be a fully rounded person, then you have to put the time into it. And, really, that if this kid starts acting in ways you don’t expect, but that work, just... listen to that.

[magiefish]

hhhhhhhhhh guess who drew all the batim characters in prep for the comic they’re making!

yeah so it took like 4 days to draw all these guys, and it was actually pretty fun figuring out colours and designs and stuff!

(also, update on the Reveries Twisted comic, I have a plan for the first chapter but i have like, 7 tests next week and I haven’t started drawing it yet so it’s definitely not going to be coming out anytime soon sdfgsdfsj but i am still working on it!)

anyway, i felt like writing little descriptions for every character, so feel free to read these below the ‘keep reading’ line if you feel like it! My ask box is also always open, so if u have any questions feel free to ask

Bertrum Piedmont-he/him, gay/ace

-Started working as a mechanic at about 15 and worked his way up from there -Everyone in the studio @ him: why are u british -His big ego often gets in the way of things, but at his core he's a good person (doing bad shit but ultimately having good intentions is common among these guys shdgfs) -Wlw & mlm solidarity w/ Lacie, who is his most trusted confidant and friend -Actually treats his employees well, even when they do basically nothing all day, so he does a lot of work himself most of the time Linda Stein-she/her, straight as a ruler -Parents immigrated from Spain -She's very catholic and very into 'traditional family values' and that sort of stuff -She is sweet, but her strict morals and black and white ethics often make her do unintentional harm -She is also pretty oblivious to most things Jack Fain-he/him & they/them, pan/ace, OCD -Mother immigrated from China to France, and then he moved to America, it's confusing -Can play the violin really well, but is terrible at composing his own pieces -Peak friend material -Short and round and soft with a love of a good espresso -Kind and quiet but ultimately ineffective and happy to watch from the sidelines Daniel 'Buddy' Lewek-he/him, aro/ace, autistic, jewish -He is curious and observant, but very very naive -He finds it hard to pick up on social cues, and tends to daydream a lot -Never really had a father figure, and unfortunately kind of half sees Joey as one (baaaad choice), but his mother is great -Loves drawing and tends to chew on pens (and most objects really) -Too young Susie Campbell-she/her, demi -Her parents were Russian and she picked up their accent, but taught herself how to cover it up. She is now excellent at voice acting. -Has a birthmark most theatres turned her away for. But luckily voice acting gave her another chance at performance, and the music department really does not care about it. -Her dad was a butcher, so she now knows a concerning amount about how to cut up and dissect meat. -She gets easily attached to things emotionally, and has a whole pile of random bits and bops she keeps on her person because she can't throw them away. -Naive, but smart enough to know how to read and deceive people if needed. Ms Abigail Lambert-she/her, lesbian -A very gifted artist, who is quite frustrated with the business aspect of animation. -Picked up quite a few things about engineering from Lacie. -Stern, but kind. Motherly, if she likes you and you squint hard enough. -Used to fighting for things. -Giving her food is a pretty good way to get her to like you. Being an artist, she forgets to eat at the correct times a lot, so a meals always appreciated. Norman Polk-he/him, gay, albino -Knows how to fix things, knows how to fight, knows how to hide -General cool uncle vibes -He watches people a lot, and gives off some creepy vibes, but he does genuinely care about people -Knows something is up and is determined to find out what (even if he dies trying) -Fought in WW1, then worked at a cinema for a bit. Emma Lamont-she/her, heteroflexible -Keep dancing even when everything goes wrong -Bit of a 'i'm better than these fools' mentality going on -But she's pretty chill, and willing to act when needed -Basically every woman in the studio knows her on the basis that she chills in the girls bathroom. -Hates Joey, but knows those who stir up a bit too much trouble usually 'resign' Sammy Lawrence-he/him, (vocal-romantic) bi/ace, ADD -His dad sucked, so he ran away. He's also the reason he's largely abandoned his faith, but he still holds hope that there is some kind of god out there. -He and Jack are basically brothers, they've known each other for a long time. -He can compose music in his head, but can play basically every instrument. -Tall and thin and sharp with a love of black coffee. -He's actually pretty chill and nice, but the conditions of the studio (workload, noises, dreams) have left him quick to snap and a stressed out mess. -He's pretty oblivious to his own feelings and spends basically all his time thinking about music, so he usually only realises that he has a crush on someone if he hears them singing (hence the vocal-romantic joke) Johnny Hart-he/him (she/her), gay (trans), heart condition -A nervous wreck who avoids everything and everyone -Trans but doesn't realise it, he thinks this level of discomfort has something to do with his heart condition or something like that. -Speaking of which, if he gets genuinely terrified or panicked he could have a heart attack. -Hence why he's a recluse who remains in the organ room and interacts w/ literally no one. -Except Dot and Buddy (who forgets he exists and who he also has a crush on). Wally Franks-he/him, pan -Friends with literally everyone who isn't one of the older folks (and thomas) -Honorary member of the music department because he can play a harmonica and vibes with everyone there. -Tries to put a positive spin on everything, often beyond the point of reason -A mischevous, mildly selfish prankster with a heart of gold -Gossip pals with Susie and Norman The Violinist-she/her, nobody knows -Has literally never expressed an emotion ever -Seems to know things are going to happen before they happen -Just generally pretty weird -She isn't friends with Dot, they're both just vaguely interested in what the others doing -She looks a lot like Allison, but the two have never spoken and nobody knows if they're sisters Thomas Connor-they/them, gynephilia -He is just. So tired. -An actual mechanical genius who gets his work used for the wrong purposes. -Is very of the 'when you're on a path stick to it' mentality -Cold and hard exterior that vertually no one except Allison has ever managed to get through. -He can and will beat you up. Henry Stein-he/him, gay, vitiligo -Nice and hardworking. -Doesn't have many emotions other than to draw. -He's in fucking narnia he's so deep in the closest. -Feels emotions, but buries them deep down and doesn't express them too clearly. -Has difficulty setting healthy boundaries with people and represses himself far too much. Joey Drew-he/him, homoromantic/pansexual, bipolar disorder, alcohol and cigarette addictions -Chaotic, feral, short little man who lies to everyone -Charismatic as hell, but also a terrible friend and person in general -He doesn't blink enough, does not know the meaning of personal space, and hasn't aged for about 4 years, which are all very bad signs. -Doesn't understand how to run a business but does so anyway. Doesn't understand how to interact with people but does so anyway. Doesn't understand how to create life but does so anyway- -He isn't pure evil, he just gets into very bad mindsets and makes poor decisions that lead him down the wrongest way to go. -Does some self evaluation and goes 'maybe this wasn't the right way chief :/' just a bit too late Audrey Dempsey-she/her, lesbian, Borderline Personality Disorder -Feral conspiracy theorist -May or may not be related to multiple studio members -Everyone's called her crazy for years and made her feel like a burden, and she is hellbent on proving everyone wrong -Quite socially awkward, and rather sarcastic with a dark sense of humour -Works for Archgate Allison Pendle-she/her & they/them, androphilic/ace -Is forever lost in a vintage clothing store -Most people say she seems nice, but everyone just kind of subconciously registers that there is something up with her -Knows a lot about the supernatural -The person closest to Joey, which doesn't necessarily mean they're friends -Nobody has ever seen the right side of her face Dot Acciaci-she/her, pan -Her parents are Italian, and she speaks a little herself, usually using it to encrypt her private notes -Mischevious & curious, but ultimately kind -She will find out your secrets, and is very good at reading people -Great storyteller -Struggles with loneliness a lot Dr Eleanor Hackenbush-she/her, aro/ace -Science knows no bounds -Doesn't care what your motivation is, as long as you give her some cash and some experiments -Filled with nothing but utter spite Ms Reina Rodriguez-they/them, demi -Tired of everything -Although she puts up a calm exterior, Rodriguez is very attached to the studio and views it as her 'new family', having a terrible relationship with her old one -Her family drama connects to the fact they're very catholic, but she nobody knows what this drama is other than Joey Tessa Arch-she/her, straight -An absolute bitch -Trusts her husband far too much -Not very smart, but compensates for this for being good looking and rich Shawn Flynn-he/him (intersex), pan -Jovial, but gets angry quickly -Willing to do 'wrong' things if it helps someone else out, kind of like Robin Hood or something -His mother taught him how to sew and he helped her make clothes when he was younger -Found it hard to get a job because he's Irish, so despite being tired of all the bullshit of JDS, he is reluctant to look elsewhere -Friends with Lacie and Grant because they appreciate his humour Lacie Benton-She/her, lesbian, trans -Tougher than the toughies -wlw & mlm solidarity w/ Bertrum, who she views as one of the only genuinely smart people in JDS and who she has worked for for basically all of her life -Feels like something is up, but doesn't notice much if it doesn't connect to her work -Has automatophobia -Friend with Shawn and Grant because she respects their dedication to their work Grant Cohen-He/him, bi, depression, jewish -Absolute madlad at maths -Acts like he doesn't care what you think, cares far too much about what you think -Everyone wants him to just get therapy already -Doesn't have many friends, but has a weird 'we're both horribly overworked' kinship with Sammy, so they usually just chill and smoke together -Friends with Shawn and Lacie because they're actually mentally stable and he needs some rocks Nathan Arch-He/him, straight -You should hate him -You should hate him a lot -Super rich and doesn't pay his workers enough -Silver tongued -Basically a spider. Creates webs of manipulation and lies, sees a lot, and knows plenty about waiting for his prey to come to him.

[absoluteyoongit]

in loving memory

⇢ pairing: ghost!taehyung x gender neutral!reader, jin x gender neutral!reader

⇢ genre: big angst, with a little fluff

⇢ word count: 10.1K

⇢ warnings: MCD nothing graphic tae’s just...yk a ghost, reader has depression and anxiety

⇢ summary: the love of your life was gone, he wasn’t coming back. At least in any way you could hope for.

⇢ author’s note: bueller is finally back with some angst. thanks to @youarejesting​, @rougebangtan​, and @bangtanloverboys​ for reading this and giving me words of encouragement, it means so much to me. Also thank you @purpleskies1999​ for the amazing banner, I love it.

part of btsghostiewriters bingo bash: prompt- ghost

~

Have you ever loved someone so much you ceased living for yourself but lived for them?

That was the only explanation Taehyung could imagine as to why he sat silently, watching you sleep peacefully from the corner of the room. The person he loved so dearly looked captivating even In deep sleep. His gaze, vigilant on your vulnerable form.

Your soft snores filled the otherwise silent room. Drool pooling at the base of the pillow where your mouth laid open against it. Round cheeks puffing up as your face squished against the pillow. Strands of wild hair standing in all different directions from bed head. Arms holding the body pillow in a death grip with knuckles tense. Eyelids fluttering as you dreamed—of something happy, Tae wished—nose flexing as you breathed in and out. A streak of moonlight adorned your face, highlighting the still damp tear stains that had yet to dry.

Taehyung admired you from afar, so close but the farthest away he could ever be.

He pried his eyes away from your sleeping figure for the first time since you collapsed onto the bed from exhaustion.

The usually tidy, cozy studio apartment was an abandoned disheveled mess. A mountain of dirty dishes waiting to be washed piled around the kitchen sink, worn clothes littered the ground—despite not changing your oversized sweater in the past week or so—a stockpile of takeout boxes cluttered on the ground next to the already full garbage can. Plants you had painstakingly cared for wilted. Art and pictures that once decorated the walls, taken down and placed in a corner to not be seen again. Pictures of him and you.

Taehyung’s eyes rested on the picture you found earlier, the memory which caused your emotional outburst, leaving you drained. The picture was from your second anniversary. He took you to the city’s local fair, the same place the two of you had your first date, the same place as your first kiss. Both of you just got off of a deathtrap of a ride; your hairs stuck up in different directions from being blown out, much like the bed head you sported at the moment. Your arms clung to his waist as you walked forward while he wrapped around your shoulders. The two of you possessed the biggest smiles of your life, eyes crinkled in euphoria. You looked toward the camera while his gaze was on you like it always was. That was the happiest day of his life besides the day you said yes. Your smile from that day was almost identical to the one in this picture but with the addition of joyful tears.

It was a shame he never got to see you walk down the aisle.

The smile he wore did not reach his eyes. He never would have left you if he knew you would end up in this state. It has been months since he’s been gone but you continued falling down, spiraling out of control, never trying to climb back out. He couldn’t stand it, seeing you like this. He hated it. He realized a long time ago that he could not do anything about it.

Taehyung remembered the day it happened. He woke up in a hospital, surrounded by frightening cords and monitors. Bolting from his bed, frantically searching for your room to hope you were okay, alive. Now he realized that was too easy, too straightforward. He should have known that leaving the bed without any struggle was a red flag but all he cared about was whether you were okay or not.

It wasn’t until he reached your room that the realization occurred. You were unconscious but alive, the monitor checking your heartbeat sounded off steadily. Before he could ask the attending nurse about your condition, she walked through him.

The initial shock of his death was quick. He cried over your body, inconsolable, until the moment you opened your eyes. Ever since then all he cared about was you but Why make you his unfinished business if he couldn’t do anything to ease your pain.

He sighed, there was nothing to be done, nothing he could change. He would gladly die again if it had to be him or you. Hell, he would have gotten himself killed if you died in the accident and not him. Life would not be worth it without you in it. He prayed to whatever was out there that you were stronger than he was and continued on. He would be content to watch you for eternity even if it meant watching you move on.

The thought of you meeting someone new left a bittersweet taste in his mouth. On one hand, he would do anything to see your bright smile again but on the other, he wanted to be the cause of that smile and no one else.

A soft whimper stirred him from his trance, his head snapping to you in worry. Another nightmare? Your lower lip quivered as your breaths grew more labored and heavy. The arms that already held his pillow close crushed them tighter, your eyes squeezing harder. Baby hairs stuck to your face, dampening from the sweat collecting on your skin.

On instinct, Taehyung rushed over to your side. The once heavy pads of his feet registering as nothing more than a mere whisper in the dark room. The palms of his hands steadied him as he leaned towards your shivering body, your cries now louder than low whimpers.

Taehyung’s focus was entirely spent on trying to soothe you; so singularly focused that he missed the way the bed dipped from his invisible weight or the way the blanket shifted when his foot slid across it.

He looked down at your crying features, faces inches apart, so close that if he was paying attention he would notice the ghost of his breath flutter against your eyelashes.

All he wanted was to comfort you but like the many times since he left, he was unsure about how to help. For all he knew, you could not feel his presence. You didn’t feel the way he clung to you as you sat alone in the hospital crying after hearing the news or the way he held your hand during his funeral. You never reacted to him then so why should you now?

That didn’t stop him from closing the distance between your faces, pressing a chaste kiss to your forehead. The wrinkles that settled there slowly relaxed as your cries gradually lessened into hiccups. The fierce grip on the pillow he used to use loosened, your knuckles no longer white.

The soft adoration he felt seeing you calm down dissipated and was replaced by pure shock once he realized what just happened. You reacted to him. You felt his lips, at least felt them enough to ease you back into a more peaceful slumber. He held his useless breath, the disbelief lingering on his face as he moved to touch you more. Rough calloused hands cupped your jaw, thumbs rubbing in a soothing motion. His heart stopped for the second time that night as he witnessed you lean closer into his embrace. He could not believe it. After months of losing hope he would ever connect to you again, you felt his presence, even if you responded in your sleep.

Pure excitement filled Taehyung’s veins as he gripped both sides of your face, planting fervent kisses all over. He was desperate for you to feel his love for you, desperate to let you know that he was still around and that he would never leave.

You stirred, feeling the lightest of pecks all over your face. The sensation was cold but something about these chilling phantom touches warmed your heart, they were familiar and comforting. Opening your eyes, you felt an unexplainable disappointment seeing only a streak of light from the streetlight on your ceiling.

Your heart clenched. You swore you felt a weight, felt someone, felt him, on top of you. You held back a sob, trying not to cry again. The memories of the accident and the white walls of the hospital already haunted your dreams. You didn’t need this delusion to bring forth more memories. Finally catching your breath, you sat up and eyed the clock on your nightstand. 4:52 am. You exhaled, deciding to start your day in fear of what you would see if you closed your eyes again.

Taehyung’s eyes followed you with sadness from his position on the bed. You had looked straight through him. Deep down he knew that you would never actually see him again but the longing on your face as you unknowingly stared into his eyes devastated him.

His lingering eyes trailed you as you made coffee. Taehyung was mesmerized by the way your body gracefully moved about the kitchen, the way he always did when he was alive. He longed for the touch of your soft skin, longed for your fingers as they threaded through his wavy hair. Craved the way your long legs would wrap around his waist as he pressed against a hard surface. He yearned for the silk of your lips against his. He missed the way your body fit perfectly against his.

An optimistic smile replaced the solemn one on his face, a newfound hope bubbling up in his chest. You felt him. Even if you did not see him or recognize his touch, you still felt him. There was hope that he could make you understand that he was still here, with you.

Taehyung was a determined man. If he didn’t pass on because of his love for you he was going to try with all of his might to make you feel it.

~

The city seemed more crowded than usual as you silently weaved in and out of the masses on the sidewalk. Maybe it was the fact you haven’t left your apartment since the funeral that fueled your anxiety. It’s been three months since you have come into contact with this many people; grateful that your boss allowed you to work remotely part-time while you grieved. It would have been impossible to show your face at work.

However, your vacation from work was ending soon and the very thought of witnessing pity on your coworkers’ faces when you returned made you sick. You needed some casual human interaction as preparation before heading back to the warzone; so when your friend Jin reached out, offering to take you out for lunch, you accepted. It was the little nudge you needed to start integrating back into normal life. At least, as normal as it could get.

Taking a moment to look down at your clothes, you grimaced. Stained sweatpants—from what looks like pizza or some kind of hot sauce—a huge oversized Nike sweater, and a pair of mismatched socks with sandals. You were a mess. Not only were you regretting not putting a little more effort into your outfit because of the stares you got but also because you were sweating. It wasn’t scalding out but the unblocked sun in the sky made it feel many degrees hotter than it actually was. Hopefully, Jin would take pity on you; not his actual pity but if he commented on your attire you’d probably cry.

One of your favorite cafés came into view; reading its name made your mouth dry. The anxiety building up from your journey here reached a boiling point. This was a bad idea.

You and Taehyung would come to this very café every day after your shared English class, freshman year of university. You froze, not bearing the thought of stepping inside. The window booth where the two of you would always study together was in full view. This is where you fell in love with him.

“Do you want your usual? I’m buying today.”

“You can’t say you’re buying every time we come here. How are you not broke yet?”

He shrugged, “I am smart with my money. I only spend it on things I care about.”

“You care about my coffee?”

“I care about you.”

Taehyung confessed to you here that day, he asked you on your first date here, he asked you to be his partner here. It was all too much. The pain in your chest grew, breath quickening, as you stood at the storefront. Jin was in clear view, sitting in the exact spot Taehyung would sit at. Flashes of his face replaced Jin’s as you imagined Taehyung sitting there, waiting for you. Why did you agree to meet here when Jin suggested it? Maybe he would understand if you canceled on him right now. It wasn’t unreasonable right?

Your shoulders twisted, ready to turn around and run, but something stopped you. It felt like a chilling breeze on a cold day, except it didn’t pass over you, it was isolated on your shoulder. The cold air swirled around your body, tickling you. The sensation was comforting, almost as if it was urging you forward toward the entrance of the restaurant. It reminded you of the invisible weight you felt just a week ago.

On instinct, you let the cool touch guide you inside towards your awaiting friend. As soon as Jin locked gazes with you the feeling left, strangely leaving you colder than before despite the heat outside. Jin waved you over with a gentle smile on his face. You donned a nervous one, walking over and sitting down.

Taehyung watched as you and Jin conversed through the window. He released a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. He could not believe that worked.

In all honesty, Taehyung was a nervous wreck. Sure, he was able to wake you up with his touch a few nights ago but doubt swelled in him since then. He worried that it was all a figment of his imagination, some cruel force messing with him. He refrained from attempting to touch you again because of that fear; scared that the little blossom of hope he held would wilt away. But seeing you stand frozen, in your own fear, in front of the place that carried so many memories, made him snap. He needed to have you know that you were not alone, you had people who cared. He could not let you run away from the one friend you two shared.

That’s when in desperation, Taehyung grabbed your shoulder. He barely felt the warmth of he knew your body provided but it was there. Just like the night where his kisses found your face, he felt only a fraction of the warmth he used to. It was enough for him. The weak sensation connected him to you. He craved it and desired it more than anything to feel that connection and comfort from his touch.

Taehyung felt desperate. Desperate for you to recognize he was here, that he just didn’t fade into oblivion, that his love was stronger than death.

He focused back on the reunion at hand, he would figure out his next steps later but for now, he wanted you to feel better than you did this morning. He hoped Jin could help.

Jin did help. He made you use your voice for the first time in months that did not involve crying. However, the conversation didn’t last long. As much as you needed the social interaction you were overwhelmed from the phantom presence earlier. It frightened you. It didn’t scare you in the way where you feared something bad would happen. No, it was more about the way your body reacted to it. Like the familiar affectionate touch of a friend’s hand on your shoulder, it made you feel lighter. It confused you. The thoughts scattered around your head blocked you from having any meaningful conversation with Jin. Short straight to the point responses was all you could muster.

You tried ignoring the concerned look on Jin’s face after exchanging pleasantries for the fourth time but you could tell that he wasn’t going to be quiet about it for long. Jin was always upfront and blunt, something you admire about him, but it made you nervous now.

“Y/N, are you okay?”

Jin watched you flinch as the words left his mouth. That simple question held a monstrous weight. Jin knew that. He knew that question could trigger a waterfall of pent up emotions. He was prepared though. In his opinion, the dam you had built over the past three months needed to break.

You were a dam. Someone who bottled up their feelings, preferring to deal with them alone until one day you crack. Jin wanted to be there for you when that day came. You had been alone for so long he was afraid of what would happen if you retreat into yourself again.

When he set up this rendezvous he expected you to be emotional. That’s why he picked this café; he wanted you to be vulnerable with him. What he wasn’t expecting was for you to be stuck in a stupor. Your one to two word responses did not satisfy him. He was worried even more now.

Y/N and Taehyung were some of his closest friends, so when he heard that both of you ended up in the hospital because of an accident and only one of you was recovering it was heartbreaking.

It hurt him more when you cried at the hospital and the funeral. You didn’t let anyone touch you or console you. It was the lowest he’s ever seen you and it was evident that you have not improved over the past couple of months. Jin knew that you and Taehyung had something special; the word love could not describe all the feelings the two of you had for each other. The two of you convinced him soulmates existed.

“Do you want to go home? I understand if this is too much right now,” Jin gently pressed, “I’ll still be here tomorrow if you need today.” His hand slid across the table to where your hands fisted, tenderly smoothing his thumb over your tense knuckles. Wordlessly you nodded. You began your day hopeful but now all you were was overwhelmed.

Jin's gaze lingered on you as you got up and exited the café without a goodbye. You were not ready for him today but he was determined to help you get back on your feet soon. He wouldn’t leave you like this, he couldn’t, not when you were special to him.

~

The next few weeks consisted of slow improvements.

After failing to genuinely speak to another human being you asked your boss for another two months out of the office. While she was hesitant to allow it, the desperation in your emails convinced her to say yes. Since then Jin had gradually maneuvered into your daily life.

One day he came knocking, asking if he could come in to clean. It took a short argument before you allowed him inside. You felt terrible, disgusted even, because of the state of your apartment. You couldn’t bring yourself to clean it. Jin had simply said, “You need this and I am going to do it for you because I care.”

You watched him from the bed, ashamed that even as he cruised around the apartment you couldn’t help. A weight on your shoulders prevented you. Jin did not speak another word to you that day; silently loading the washer with the clothes that scattered the floor, picking up the random trash littering your space, and washing the dishes that piled up in your kitchen.

Jin didn’t even say goodbye to you as he quietly left the apartment, taking two full trash bags out with him. When you left the bed after he left you examined his work. It wasn’t spotless but it was the cleanest it has been since the day Taehyung died. You appreciated Jin’s gesture and made a promise to him and yourself that you would try and keep it clean. Your heart felt a little lighter that day.

The next time Jin invaded your space he brought food with him. It wasn’t the same old take out that made up your diet as of late but a cozy home-cooked meal. The dish wasn’t your favorite but the action was enough for the knot in your chest to loosen and make your cheeks rosy. Every day since the café, Jin made a considerable effort to connect with you, even if all it only was a good morning and goodnight text. To say you were grateful was an understatement. The more he reached out the more you returned and soon enough you craved his presence. With him, life became easier. It almost balanced out the longing you felt from the cold caresses you felt daily since the time in front of the café.

The touches started off light, leaving you to doubt they even existed, then they got stronger and stronger each day. From the feeling of a cool hand against your neck to the sensation of fingers threading through yours. One night, when it was hard to find sleep, you swore your hair moved as if someone was playing with it. Whatever it was, it helped you fall asleep and every other night you could fall asleep.

Whatever it was only scared you at the beginning. The day you met up with Jin was overwhelming in a lot of ways and the phantom encouragement did not help. The first few times it happened since then you flinched away, only to soon relax and find comfort in the cold.

The nostalgia in the invisible force was powerful, all-consuming. Whenever you felt its presence it felt like someone wrapped you in the fluffiest blanket and sat you in front of a fireplace. You started feeling warmth in the coldest touch.

You wanted to tell Jin, you really did, but you were afraid of what he would think. You almost felt normal, that things were going to be okay. Jin was proud of you and your improvements. You tell from the way he smiled when you cooked him instead or when you willingly wandered around the city with him, no destination in mind. You were afraid that the mere mention of a ghostly caress against your cheek would bring back the worry in his eyes. You did not want to lose the admiration you could see in his eyes.

Inch by inch your life was returning to a new normal. He wasn’t with you anymore but Jin slowly filled the giant hole in your heart, along with the phantom whose touch reminded you of him. It's almost like he never left.

~

Still being in love with someone who was dead hurt a lot. Tears welled up in your eyes as you looked down at the picture taken on your second anniversary. It was almost a year since his death and you felt the need to look through the pictures you carefully tucked away in your apartment and your memory.

Furiously rubbing your eyes, too stubborn to let any tears fall, you dropped the frame on the kitchen counter. It was too painful to look at. Why did you think this was a good idea, right before the anniversary of his death? It felt like all your hard work, building up your confidence, and mending the tear in your heart, was all for nothing. You would never stop loving him. What was the point of moving on?

At that moment you felt so alone, more alone than at Taehyung’s actual funeral. Your arms circled around yourself, attempting to bring yourself some comfort. The apartment felt so cold without him.

The phantom touch you have come to crave snaked around you, resting on top of your arms. The isolated breeze whipped around making you shudder, an invisible weight laid on your shoulder. You never got used to how the cold warmed your heart. It didn’t matter anymore, especially at this moment, the touch was comforting and that’s all you needed to finally let your tears fall, the dam breaking.

Minutes passed as you cried hard in the cool embrace. Ugly sobs wracked your body leaving you weak. You would have dropped to your knees if it wasn’t for the invisible hold on your body.

Soon the familiar fire burned in your chest, coaxing you down till the cries turned into quiet hiccups, then silence. Only the sound of your occasional sniffle and beating heart filled the room. Still standing, your eyelids drooped down from exhaustion. Sleep would take over any minute now but you didn’t want the cold arms around you to leave. Deep down you knew they weren’t going away anytime soon but that didn’t stop you from fearing this would be the last time you felt this comfort.

Taehyung’s heart broke watching you cry. He knew that the closer his death date approached the more fragile you would become. That is why he had grown bolder in the ways he touched you, from kissing your eyelids while you tried to sleep to mischievously tapping you hard to give you a quick fright. He realized it was cruel the first couple times he did it but how else would he convey his silly side to you.

Holding you now like this took the most effort he’s ever had to exert; with the kisses and caresses, he didn’t have to support you. It took a lot of energy to do this but listening to your sobs die down to a whisper made it worth it. Taehyung’s eyes snapped down to your face, hearing a light snore coming out of your parted mouth. You had fallen asleep in his arms. It brought a soft smile to his face which was quickly replaced by dread. He did not know how long he could maintain this.

Your unconscious body leaned further into the cold, the familiar feeling of Taehyung’s grasp. It was cruel how much the cold felt like him but your body did not care, continuing to lean back into nothing. The soles of your feet lifted as the last of Taehyung’s energy faded. He sharply inhaled as your body fell straight through his incorporeal body.

You woke with a thud, groaning against the floor. You slowly pried your eyes open, disoriented from the fall and quick nap. Rubbing the sleep out of your eyes, you leaned against the counter from your position on the floor. You were emotionally exhausted. You let out a defeated sigh, bringing your arms around you once more. Sleep did not find you again that night as you silently gazed out the large apartment window till the sun came up.

~

The door of your apartment slammed shut, jolting you awake from your position over your now soggy cereal. You knew who it was, there was no one else in your life that was close enough to you to earn the extra key to your apartment. As soon as you gifted it to him Jin took it as an invitation to visit you unannounced at any time.

The sound of dangling keys drew your attention to Jin’s face. It was no secret that your friend was attractive, hell, he brought it up all the time. As the two of you grew closer that turned more into an inside joke. He looked at you expectantly, waiting for some kind of greeting, but your mind was solely focused on the way his white shirt exposed his prominent collarbone. That singular focus shifting to gaze at his beauty in full; broad shoulders, plump pouty lips, strong le–

“Get up! Come on, we are going out today” Jin commanded, breaking you from your shameless adoration of his body.

“What if I don’t want to go out?” you pouted but in reality, you knew you needed to get out. As the anniversary of Taehyung’s death came you became closed off. Jin didn’t blame you for being distant but he didn’t want you falling back into a downward spiral and neither did you. You depended on him a lot more than either of you cared to voice. Jin was a reassuring bright light in your life that filled the holes in your chest, almost all of them. The ghost, you have come to affectionately call it, continued comforting you in a way Jin could not. There was a unique sensation those invisible hands gave you and you wouldn’t trade it for anything right now.

Jin gave you a pointed look “I am not taking a ‘no’ for an answer. It’s supposed to be a beautiful day and you need some vitamin D– you look like a ghost.” He raised an eyebrow, daring you to argue with him. Rolling your eyes in response, you got off of the chair, not in the mood to argue because you knew he was right. Secretly, you liked being dragged out by him, you needed that little extra motivation.

“Lemme just get changed. Where are we going?”

“That’s a surprise,” Jin smirked, “Just wear something casual, and don’t worry about it.”

You grimaced. You hated surprises and uncertainty; if you could have one superpower it would be to predict the future. Jin caved a little, seeing the look on your face, “I promise you it will be a good day. Trust me.”

A kindhearted smile replaced his mischievous one, it made you trust him. He knows how much you had grieved the past couple of weeks, he would not take you anywhere that would trigger any upsetting memories.

At least that’s what you thought.

Swarms of excited children followed by tired parents, groups of teenage friends, and young couples crowded the entrance of the city’s annual Summer’s Eve fair. Eyes locked onto the giant banner, which had not changed since the first year this festival ran, making you shiver. Was it really a good idea; spending the day at the same place you and Tae had your first kiss, the same place where you and Tae celebrated your second anniversary? Did Jin not know?

“I– I don’t know about this Jin. Can we go somewhere else?” your voice wavered. You wanted to be strong but this was a line you were not sure you were ready to cross.

Jin did not want to take you anywhere else. While it may have been cruel to bring you here, right after the anniversary of Taehyung's death, he wanted to elicit a reaction out of you. Either you would break down and release needed emotions, or you would remember all the memories of him and see it's okay to enjoy life again. It didn't matter to him what reaction you would have. The fair had been one of your all-time favorite events of the year and Jin thought it could bring some of your old life back.

"It's okay y/n," Jin comforted you, giving your shoulder a quick squeeze, "We don't have to stay if you really don't want to but I think it could be..." He looked up to the sky as he searched for the right word, "...therapeutic?"

You stared at him with large eyes, the thought of bolting was tempting but the hopeful and encouraging smile on Jin’s face had you second-guessing. Jin cared for you; he has been your lifeline for the past couple of months, he would not have put you in this situation if he thought coming to the fair was not beneficial for you.

Jin understood you more than you could ever know and he had been the best thing in your life since Tae. You needed to trust him. You wanted to trust him.

Closing your eyes, you took a deep breath to ready yourself. "Okay," you exhaled, "Let's go then." Jin beamed at you and you returned a hesitant one. You trusted him, deep down you felt safe with him.

"Alright then, games and rides are on me. What do you want to do first?"

You gazed around through the crowds of people until you spotted a familiar game. A small but enthusiastic smile grew on your face, you turned and grabbed Jin's hand, "Let's go to that one first."

"Balloon darts it is, come on." Jin pulled you towards the station with your hand in his, slowly intertwining both of your fingers together. "I cannot wait to beat you."

"Please, you're the one that's going to be a sore loser, not me."

"I can't believe you actually beat me? Again!"

Jin turned to you with an exasperated expression, a water gun still in hand, and a balloon unsuccessfully popped. "How are you so good at all these games? It is unfair."

You twirled the water gun in your hand, blowing at the nozzle as if smoke was coming out, “I am just that good. I’ve got that eagle eye.” You dramatically squinted one eye to further your point.

Jin chuckled at your antics, walking alongside you with his arm resting on your shoulders. “Come on Buffalo Bill, let’s go on some rides.”

“Alright, alright,” you gazed around the fair, dodging oblivious kids and frantic parents following after them.

“I want to go on that ride.”

“Oh my god. I thought that I was going to die,” Jin huffed, holding onto your shoulders as he steadied himself. “I am never doing that again.”

You giggled at his declaration. “You were the one that suggested that ride,” you shrugged, “It’s not my fault you couldn’t handle it.” A sly grin plastered on your face seeing his exasperated one.

“I did not suggest this one— YOU dragged me onto it.” Jin’s eyes were wide open, not believing your words.

“I don’t know I think you could have stopped me if you were really that afraid.”

Jin rolled his eyes and gathered himself to take one more deep breath, “Okay y/n,” Jin grabbed your hand, “It’s my turn to pick the next ride.” His eyes set on the Ferris wheel at the back of the fair, unnoticed by you. You fell in step with him, a small genuine smile resting on your face. It has been so long since you felt this at peace. It surprised you that even at the place you cherished most with Taehyung, Jin was able to fill your heart with some happiness. Even as you thought of Taehyung throughout the day, all the thoughts were fond and nostalgic. It was a bittersweet feeling but you were not sad or mourning at the moment.

“Hey y/n? Y/N!” You shook your head, focusing on the large hand waving in front of you. “Huh? Sorry?”

Jin’s concerned face stopped in front of you, “Are you okay?”

Your eyes met his, a content smile on your face, “I actually haven’t been this at ease in a long time. Thank you, Jin.” 

The corner of his mouth pulled as he squeezed your hand, “You’re welcome.”

The two of you stood there, in the middle of the walkway, as people rushed by you. It didn’t matter that someone knocked into your shoulder, grumbling at you to move out of the way. The only thing you cared about right now was how the colorful lights of the surrounding rides and booths reflected into his eyes. It was beautiful and mesmerizing.

Jin was staring at you with equal intensity, lost in the way your eyes crinkled on the ends at you smiled at him. He could not remember the last time he saw that smile and it made him adore you more than he already did.

The two of you could have stayed in your little bubble all night if an especially rude teenager shoved you out of his way. You stumbled into Jin, breaking eye contact with him and with it the spell that you were trapped under.

“Uh– I– Sorry,” you rush out, stepping away from him and releasing his hand. 

Jin cleared his throat, “No, it’s– uhm– all good. Don’t worry about it.” He reached up, rubbing the back of his neck. He hoped you didn’t notice the extreme blush he knew he was sporting on his neck and ears. The first awkward silence that night fell between you.

“Anyway…” you tried to break the silence, “What do you want to do now?”

An uncharacteristic nervous smile appeared on Jin’s face, “I know it’s cliché or whatever but how about the Ferris wheel? We don’t have much time left before the fair shuts down for the night. Plus, I think the view of the city must be really pretty at night.” 

Without much of a second of hesitation, you were grabbing Jin’s hand again and dragging him towards the Ferris wheel. It made you nervous, like when you first realized you were at the fair, but you wanted desperately to push past it. You were here with Jin, not Taehyung. It didn’t matter if the Ferris wheel is where you and Tae shared your first kiss at the top like you were in a romantic comedy. Jin was here, not Taehyung.

The two of you remained silent; while waiting in line, while handing your tickets to the attendant, while sitting in the carriage, so close that your shoulders and knees knocked together. It was completely silent between the two of you until you reached the top. Your eyes widened as you took in the beautiful cityscape around you. The twinkling blurry lights of the surrounding buildings reminded you of the stars you longed to see in the sky. It had been hard to see the stars bright enough in the night since moving to the city and you missed them.

“Wow,” you pressed your face against the glass, “You were really not kidding were you, Jin? This is amazing. I can’t believe I haven’t seen the city like this before,” you gushed.

Jin watched as your smile lit up, his heart warmed at the sight of you so happy.

“Hey y/n? I am really proud of you.”

The softness of Jin’s voice pulled you away from the window to look back at him. Your heart clenched at the adoration you saw in his expression. You turned fully back towards him, taking his hands in your lap, silently urging him to continue. “I just want you to know that I am so proud of you. You have been through so much in the past year or so, and here you are—” he tightened his hands around yours, “getting all happy at the sight of city lights like your heart isn’t weighed down anymore. I know you’re nowhere close to being totally okay if you’ll ever be totally okay, but seeing you right now, happy, makes me so proud of you.”

You watched as Jin’s eyes glistened at his confession. Trailing your gaze back to your conjoined hands, you laced your fingers together. “Well…that’s because of you, Jin.” You brought your eyes back to his, your own tears threatening to spill. “You have helped me so much. Without you, I’d probably still be wasting away in my apartment, eating enough to barely survive.”

You hiccupped, smiling through the few tears that did escape, “You brought the life back into me. I’ll never be able to repay you. I am so grateful you are my friend.”

The two of you were so caught in your own emotions that you didn’t even notice how close you two had gotten; your thighs pressed against his, shoulders grazing each other, his warm breath fanning over your face. For the second time that night, you stared into his eyes, mesmerized by the reflecting lights in them. Before you realize it, Jin starts to lean in and so do you.

Your eyes fluttered shut, waiting for the feel of Jin’s lips on yours when what you felt was like two bricks of ice on your shoulders yanked you back.

You leaned back on your hands, eyes wide as you looked at Jin, who was staring back at you like he couldn’t believe what almost happened. You tried to control your breathing as you asked yourself: What was that?

“I– I’m sorry, y/n. I didn’t mean—” Jin cut himself off, tearing his gaze away from you, “I’m sorry.”

The ride lurched forward, propelling the carriage down, ending your time on the ride with Jin. He mumbled how he was sorry again, offering to take you back home right now. You nodded, not knowing what else you could say at that moment. You were still reeling, trying to figure out if you were crazy or not. It definitely felt as if someone grabbed you but obviously no one else was there? Right?

The two of you headed towards the exit, the crowds already thinning because of how late it was. You trailed behind Jin, not daring to fall in step next to him like earlier in the day. The car ride back was bathed in awkward silence. It had never been this uncomfortable being with Jin, even when he first came back into your life. The only words leaving his mouth was a whisper of goodnight as he left you at the front door of your apartment.

You wished you said something, anything that would bring back the ease you felt with him but you didn’t have the words. You were unable to reassure him that it wasn’t his fault because you didn’t know whose fault it was. Your mind was racing; was it the same thing as the cold breeze you always felt? It felt much more intense than you ever remember it feeling.

All you knew is that as you sat on your kitchen floor, the same position as you cried yourself asleep not too long ago, longing for someone other than Taehyung, wishing the night had ended differently.

~

Taehyung's glare could kill as he watched Jin drop you off at the apartment. Jin had blatantly flirted with you the entire day, at the same place he had done years prior. That was the final straw for him.

When he saw you two on the Ferris wheel, in his spot, leaning towards each other for a kiss, something in him broke. He lunged for you, desperate to stop the kiss before it even happened. He wasn’t thinking straight, he just needed for Jin to get away from you.

The plan worked, if you could even call it a plan, and your little date with Jin came to a crashing end. Taehyung thought it was a success but seeing you sitting there on the ground confused got him thinking again. You knew a comforting presence surrounded you, that much he could tell when you would relax under his touch, but why haven't you connected the dots that it was him? It had been over a year and the desperation he felt months prior was heating up to a boiling point.

He had hugged you, caressed and kissed your face, supported your whole body weight even. He had to do something more. Energy thrummed through his body more so than ever before in all the attempts to get you to recognize him. He felt it in his bones that it would be different tonight.

His eyes snapped to you, hearing you sigh. You willed yourself up, resigning to try and sleep today off, and talk to Jin about everything tomorrow. He deserved to know that the night ended in ruin was not his fault. You were slowly dragging your feet across the floor, heading towards the bathroom, when you felt it. A cool breeze against your neck.

You froze in your spot. Fervent cold kisses pressed against your exposed shoulder, causing you to shudder. There was the phantom touch again, it was comforting like always. It was as if it knew when you needed it. However, this time was different. Accompanying the cold pecks was a buzz of electricity, nothing that shocks you but something that lightly warms you up. You close your eyes, reveling in the touch.

Like similar times before this, you try to remember where the familiar feeling came from. The sensations on your neck slowly became less and less abstract as they start feeling more than just cold spots. The touch formed into something you knew, lips.

You gasp, eyes flying open. Your heartbeat raced as you stared through the open bathroom door at the mirror on the wall. Taehyung.

You couldn’t blink, you couldn’t move a muscle worried that he would disappear at the twitch of a finger. Taehyung, clear as day, was in the mirror attacking your neck with his lips. You shuddered and let out a quiet moan, Tae.

Taehyung immediately stopped, hearing his name. He looked up and your eyes met, the first time you saw his eyes alive since the accident. It seemed as if time stopped as you two stared at each other in the mirror. Your eyes held disbelief while he willed every single emotion he’s had since his death to shine in his gaze. He wanted you to know everything he was feeling because he doubted that he would be able to convey those emotions in words.

Your astonished façade broke, “Taehyung?” you cried out.

He immediately turned you around in his arms and slammed his lips onto yours. Your eyes had screwed shut before turning around in fear he wouldn’t be standing there with you like how you saw in the mirror. The feeling of his hands encasing your wrists felt as real as his lips as they molded against yours. The feeling was euphoric. The crackling of embers burned in the pit of your stomach and the fire grew throughout your body until the cold feeling of his lips was replaced by familiar warmth.

You could not believe this was happening. There was no way this was a dream. It– He felt too real for it to be a dream. All you could do was kiss him back with as much passion as you could muster because you wanted him to know that you still loved him, with everything you had.

The kiss was sloppy as both of you were just desperate to get enough of each other before it was too late. Taehyung let go of your wrists to rest them on the sides of your face, pulling you closer to him. Your hands move to his neck, frantic to touch him as much as you could because he was real, in front of you right now.

The initial spark, the buzz Taehyung felt earlier started to wane. He furrowed his eyebrows, he needs more time. He knew he didn’t have much time left like this, his energy was running low. With great force, he pulled away from your mouth, only to pepper kisses all over your face willing you to remember what they felt like. His body trembled as he pressed one final kiss your forehead and your lips.

And just like that, he vanished, the fire in your body out, like he was blown away with the wind. Your eyes focused straight ahead of you, willing to see him standing in front of you again. Slowly, your fingers grazed your lips. Taehyung. This whole time it was Taehyung. How could you not realize that it was him?

The comfort, the warmth of a fire during a blizzard, the bricks of ice at the fair. It all made sense. It was Taehyung. He didn’t leave you. He never left you.

With that admission hanging in the air, you finally broke down, not with tears of sorrow but tears of joy. He still loved you, you could feel it now, with every caress and every kiss. Relief and excitement ran through your veins as you stood there crying. This could change everything.

Taehyung followed your form as you collapsed onto the bed from exhaustion, not before whispering goodnight to him. He did it. He finally did it. You understood that he never left you, that he still supported and loved you. He should be ecstatic but the smile he wore didn’t reach his eyes.

He didn’t understand. He finally accomplished the goal he had been working towards for a whole year. Something didn’t settle with him and he couldn’t figure it out as he gazed at you in deep sleep. He tried to shake it off and ignore it for now. All he wanted to right now was to lay beside you and bask in your presence because even though you had a nagging feeling in the back of his head he had accomplished his goal. You knew he was around and still loved you, and that was enough for now. 

~

“I am telling you Jin– Taehyung kissed me. I know it was him. I can’t believe I didn’t realize the entire time the ghost was him. How could I have been so dense? But all I know is that Taehyung touched me, kissed me.”

Jin’s eyes widened at the sound of his best friend’s name as the two of you sat silently on a park bench. You had repeatedly called and messaged him, asking to meet up. Now he knew your excitement was about him, it was always about him. Even after over a year, he was still at the forefront of your mind. How was he supposed to compete with someone dead? Would you ever move on? Would you ever think of something more? He thought the day at the fair meant something more to you than just a friendly day out. He wanted it to mean more to you. Was the almost-kiss nothing?

Still, as you gushed over your late fiancé, he couldn’t help the somber smile that settled onto his face. You were smiling and giggling, recounting all the times Taehyung’s ghostly presence comforted you and held you. Your smile was all he really desired. So, he sat back and listened, enjoying the bright light in your eyes as you spoke about the ghost who has haunted you since his death.

“You have to–“

“I believe you,” Jin cut you off, “I haven’t seen you this excited since the day of your engagement.” His smile fell. “What are you going to do about it though? It’s not like Taehyung can actually be here for you in all the ways you need it.”

Taehyung never was the type to resort to violence but the moment your excited rambling ceased at Jin’s words he wanted to punch the shit out of him. He couldn’t follow through with it even if he actually could touch you, because Jin was right.

He wouldn’t be there for you. He wouldn’t be there to whisper sweet nothings into your ear when life got rough. He wouldn’t be there to tell you how proud he was of you when you received a promotion. He was just a ghost. A being that didn’t exist in the physical world. He loved you so much. So much so he forgot the chasm that separated the two of you.

Taehyung foolishly believed that his love could conquer death. How could it? Love stronger than death existed but not in the way in fairytales where he could be magically brought back to life with a spell or a kiss from his true love. There was nothing, no magic spell, no higher power to pray to, that would bring him back, back into your arms.

Taehyung realized at that moment he had to let you go.

It should not have been hard. He died but something kept him here. He always thought it was his love for you that kept him on Earth but maybe, maybe his purpose was to help you move on, not bring back memories and feelings you would never feel again with him.

He needed to let go of the only warmth left in his soul…for you.

Despite you and Jin sitting on a park bench, in a crowded park, in the middle of the city, it was silent. Your mind zeroing in on the words that had just come out of your friend’s mouth. Jin’s question wasn’t unreasonable, all it did was bring reality crashing back into your head. Tae was a ghost, spirit, or whatever energy he manifested. He was no longer alive, no longer a human being walking on the same physical plane as you. No matter how much love there was to try and cheat it.

You gazed into Jin’s eyes. You felt all the concern, all the worry he hid for your sake. “Jin– I–“ You huffed frustrated, casting your eyes downwards to the hands in your lap, “You’re right, you’re right. Even if it was really him there’s no point to hope. What is there to hope for anyway? He’s not going to materialize in front of me if I miss him enough.”

Your hands shot up to cover your face as you tried to hold in a sob. You missed Taehyung so much.

“Hey, hey, I didn’t say that to make you upset. I’m sorry,” Jin gently pried your hands away from your face, holding onto them, and gazed into your teary eyes, “It’s an amazing thing you know? Knowing that there is something after death and he is watching over you.” Jin brought a calloused hand towards your face, brushing away the tears that escaped.

“There is nothing wrong in still loving him, still continuing to love him. He’ll always occupy a part of your heart even as you learn to move on. It’s okay.”

Jin was so close. You could see the glisten of sweat on the bridge of his nose and the bow of his lips from the hot day, the slight furrow of his eyebrows, the flush of his cheeks, the reflection of your eyes in his.

Your heart ached, staring at him. So many familiar emotions bubbled up to the surface. Jin was there when you literally couldn’t leave the bed. Jin was there when you needed a shoulder to cry on, the only one you let see your tears since Taehyung died. Jin was there when you laughed for the first time since the accident, caused by one of his infamous dad jokes. Jin was there the first time you felt Taehyung, the coldest warmth. Jin had been there for you and he was still here listening to you cry about a boy that had been gone for almost two years now. Still here even after you rejected his advance earlier at the fair.

Your eyes flickered to his lips, then back to his eyes, and all at once you realized Jin loved you the same way Taehyung did, in all your grieving mess, he loved you. You cared for Jin too, it wasn’t as strong as love, at least not yet. You wanted to show Jin how much you cared for him.

That’s when you felt it. A cold hand guiding your lips toward his.

The kiss was chaste and quick, you afraid of crossing a line. Shyly looking up at Jin through your eyelashes, you waited for a sign, anything that said he wanted this right now. Jin’s eyes were wide, mouth slightly ajar not believing that you were the one to kiss him first.

“It’s okay,” you whispered against his lips, “I want this.”

“But– you just– you,” Jin stuttered out. He couldn’t believe that this was the same person just 10 minutes ago raving about a phantom kiss from their dead partner.

“I know,” you murmured, face still close to his as your hands rose to rest at the nape of his neck, “I know but it’s you who I want right now.” His eyes locked with yours, the intensity raising the already pounding beat of your heart. You hoped you could convey how sincere you were. It wasn’t love yet but you had intense feelings for Jin, and with Taehyung’s blessing, you wanted Jin’s lips on yours.

“Please…” you sigh, softly brushing your nose against his, desperate to close the small distances between your mouths.

That seemed to be the final push he needed before Jin connected to his lips to yours. Your eyes fluttered shut. The feeling was electric, the buzz spreading from where you two connected filling you up all the way to your toes. Jin reached up; one hand cupping your face, thumb caressing your cheekbone, the other resting on the side of your neck. You pulled him closer to you, deepening the kiss.

Jin’s soft pillowy lips worked hard against yours. The kiss was sweet and careful as if Jin was afraid he was just dreaming and you would run away at any second. Your hands traveled to the nape of his neck, playing with the hair there. The buzz settled and left an intense warm feeling, different from what you felt with Taehyung. It was as if you were swimming in the heat of the sun, while Taehyung’s felt like a comforting fire amid winter.

You couldn’t help the bright smile creep on your face as you kissed Jin back with even more need, hoping he could feel your happiness through your actions. Jin matched your smile, teeth clashing for a moment, relieved that this wasn’t a mistake or a dream.

The two of you broke apart, panting heavily as you caught your breath.

You let your forehead drop against his, closing your eyes. The emotions dancing around in your chest were overwhelming. So many thoughts ran through your head but the one prevailing emotion, that outshined the rest, was euphoria. Nothing could compare to Jin’s kiss except for the familiar elation that you felt when you had your first kiss with Taehyung but that didn’t matter anymore. This was the last time you were going to compare Jin and Taehyung together, the only two men that have captured your heart.

You would sort out your emotions more clearly later, all you wanted right now was to focus on the fast but comforting tempo of Jin’s heartbeat as you cuddled into his chest.

~

It took almost a full year after your first kiss with Jin to make things official. You still had a lot of healing to do and he was ever so patient with you. That fateful kiss helped you realize Jin could be the new happiness, the new light in your life. You had to thank Taehyung for that.

Without his blessing, you were sure you would have never moved on. It brought a bittersweet smile to your face every time you thought about him but as Jin said about a year ago there is nothing wrong in still loving him. You still loved Taehyung, you always would. He owned a part of your heart forever. Loving Jin allowed you to grow, to blossom into something different but still you.

“Babe? Are you almost done in there? We have to leave in the next ten minutes if we don’t want to be late.”

You looked back at Jin through the mirror you faced as you got ready. Tonight was date night and the two of you were traveling outside the city to a drive-in movie theater, where you hoped to see stars in the night sky. You were ecstatic. “Just give me another minute, I am almost done,” you beamed, drying the last section of wet hair, “I refuse to get a cold.”

Jin chuckled, turning away and heading back to the kitchen. You finished drying your hair and stopped to study your reflection in the steamy mirror. The dark circles you thought would be a permanent feature on your face had disappeared, the color in your cheeks was back to their naturally rosy state, the smile on your face was genuine. You looked happy.

Taking a deep breath you turned to head out with Jin when something in the mirror caught your eye. In the still steamy mirror, in the bottom corner, a small shape was drawn. A heart.

You teared up, glancing around the empty bathroom, “I love you too,” you whispered. With one last sweet smile, you finally turned and left the bathroom, calling after Jin.

Taehyung watched from the bathroom as you and Jin wrapped your arms around each other, heading out with soft smiles. A bittersweet feeling ached in his chest. He fulfilled his purpose, his goal ever since you recognized his touch for the first time two and a half years ago. The bright smile was on your face and you were happy. You still loved him and he still loved you, and you knew it still after he couldn’t form the words to say it.

All Taehyung had to do was to wait for the sweet oblivion to take him as you moved on from him. He was ready; happy that you would always love him and remember him. He was ready to fade away, content to live in your loving memory.

~please give me that sweet good feedback, i’d really appreciate it~

[peterspideyy]

5 times peter parker wanted to tell you he loves you, and the one time he finally does

summary- basically the title

warnings- angst, death, blood, swear words

1.

the first time peter wanted to tell you he loved you more than a friend was, when you both were studying for a test at his house. may said you could sleep over as it was getting late, and you live across town. she didn’t mind you sleeping over though, it’s not like you haven’t done it before.

“ughh can we stop studying? i feel like my head is about to explode with knowledge!” you sighed heavily, smacking your science book against your head causing peter to laugh tiredly.

“mmm okay, do you want to watch a film?”

“you know it!”

within minutes, peter had star wars on and sweets ready for you both. you were both engrossed in the film in-front of you, while you sat on peter’s bed, covered in blankets. you and peter were so interested in what was happening, that you didn’t realise you both moved your hands at the same time, to pick up the same piece of popcorn, causing your hands to meet and an electrical spark to form.

you both looked at each other, before you smiled, apologising slightly and turned back to the film. but, peter couldn’t turn his eyes away. he was engrossed not in the film, but in you. and in that moment, peter realised he was falling in love with his best friend.

2.

the second time peter wanted to tell you he loved you more than a friend was, when you stood up to flash when he was being mean to peter. it was during lunch at midtown school, where you, peter, ned and mj all sat on your regular table in the canteen. peter couldn’t help but look at you for longer after you spoke. you just looked so beautiful, causing peter to blush. but then, flash came causing you all the groan in annoyance.

“hey penis parker! still with your imaginary girlfriend? or are you still drooling over y/n?”

peter wanted to punch him right in the face when he mentioned your name. but, he also mentally slapped himself for being so dumb at how obvious he was in love with you.

“flash...go away!” peter spoke quietly, not making eye contact, but instead looking at you.

“ohhh, your not denying that you love her then?”

“flash,” you harshly spoke, looking at him, “do us a favour and fuck off! stop saying peter doesn’t have a girlfriend! it just shows how he hasn’t found the right person yet, which is so clever in my opinion! but, you go round the school going out with every girl which is so fucking stupid! so, can you please leave us alone so we can eat our fucking lunch?!”

the whole canteen fell quiet, causing you to blush slightly looking down at her food. seconds later, students forgot about what happened and the canteen came back to life. flash laughed slightly, before walking away which was must of a relief to the group.

“y/n i-i,” peter was going to say it, he was so close to saying it, “i-i i appreciate that you stood up for me.”

“no worries, it’s what best friends do!”

peter flinched at those words. he didn’t want to be best friends with you. he wanted to call you his.

3.

the third time peter wanted to tell you he loved you more than a friend was, when you found out he was spiderman.

it was silly how you found out the friendly neighbourhood spiderman was in fact peter parker. during the school day, you both agreed to go to peter’s house after school to study (which is what you normally do.) you told him that you had to collect something, but would meet him at his house which he happily agreed.

however, peter being spiderman caused him to be hours late to meeting you at his house, due to fighting all the bad guys.

with many persuasions from karen, peter decided to go home, causing him to want his bed even more. when he snook into his room, he was shocked to find you sat on his bed, starring at him.

you must of starred at each other for minutes, before you actually moved towards peter.

“you-you’re spiderman?”

“errr,” peter didn’t know if it was a statement or question, “yehh?”

“w-what? how is this possible? are you an avenger?”

“i’m sure you have lots of questions, which i would answer tomorrow. you know, fighting bad guys is tiring!”

“are you hurt?!”

“shhh y/n!” peter quickly looked to the door, incase may heard.

“may doesn’t know?!”

“no, if she found out she would definitely tell me to stop!”

“okay okay okay, i won’t tell anyone if that’s what your wondering. we are not done with this conversation though, pete!”

“yes, okay,” peter smiled slightly at you, “thanks for excepting me as spiderman.”

“it’s okay, i love,” when you spoke, peter hoped you would say those three words, he’s been dying to say for the past two months, “being friends with spiderman! so cool!”

peter wanted to cry. of course, you think you’re only friends. all he wanted to do, was kiss you and tell you how much he loved you. but he couldn’t.

“right, i’ve got to go! see you tomorrow spidey!”

“yeah, bye.” peter sulked, once you left, falling onto his bed with his head stuffed in his pillow.

how can it be so hard telling your best friend that he loves you more than a friend?

4.

the fourth time peter wanted to tell you he loved you more than a friend was, mainly due to ned.

you, peter and ned where all at ned’s house, building a lego death star. you where all eating crap, which isn’t abnormal for all of you.

“right i’ll be right back, i need the toilet.” you smiled to them both, before leaving the room.

peter and ned watched you leave, before ned quickly turned to peter as soon as you left the room.

“mate, you gotta tell her!”

peter kind of regrets telling ned how he feels about you, instead of telling well...you. whenever ned gets the chance, he reminds peter on his feelings. it’s not like peter reminds himself 24/7.

“ned, no. she’s said so many times how she views me as a friend.” peter replied, looking away from him to carry on placing lego in the correct places.

“peter...listen to me,” ned spoke, causing peter to meet his eyes before sighing slightly, “if you don’t tell her how you feel, she will soon find someone who will tell her. she will move on. i bet you, actually i know she likes you back. you can just see the love you both feel when your in the same room! it’s disgusting but in a cute way. peter, if you don’t tell her, you’ll loose the chance to.”

“don’t tell who what?” you entered, making peter and ned jump (especially peter.)

you couldn’t of heard everything could you? thoughts where running through peters mind, at what you could of heard. peter sensed that ned was looking at him, forcing him to finally say what he’s been wanting to say for months.

“i-i,” peter was shocked, he couldn’t bare this amount of stress, “i’ve got to go.”

“oh.” you spoke quietly, immediately thinking you said something which upset him. without saying a goodbye, peter left, leaving his best friend and the girl who he loved to much to say.

5.

the fifth time peter wanted to tell you he loved you more than a friend was, when he found out you had a boyfriend.

peter harshly choked on his food in the school canteen, when you said you were going out with brad. peter wanted to scream in pain, anger and sadness. he missed his chance. he wants to shout at ned for what he said two weeks ago about how he will miss his chance. well, ned was right.

“peter? are you okay?”

he wanted to say no. he wanted to say ‘i love you y/n.’ but, he just couldn’t. he sounds so dumb but he physically couldn’t speak.

“yesss, he’s fine. food went down the wrong way.” ned quickly spoke, saving peter from talking. ned felt bad for his best friend, he could see how distraught he was at your news.

“okay. oh, there’s brad! see you guys later!” you smiled at them both, letting your eyes go to peter for longer.

ever since you watched star wars those months ago, you noticed how weirdly peter has been acting around you, but you didn’t know why. was it something you did? is something going on in his life? whatever it is, it’s eating peter from the inside.

once you left, ned immediately looked at peter to see him crying into his hands. he’s never seen peter cry. not even when his uncle died. he didn’t know what to do or how to help his best friend. ned knew, that y/n was peters soulmate, but it was too late.

6.

the one time peter actually told you he loved you was, a moment peter will regret for the rest of his life.

“peter, is y/n with you?”

“no, why?”

“she hasn’t came home.”

peter’s hairs stuck up on the back of his neck, as soon as your mum said those words. he knew something was off. his spider senses were going haywire.

“i’ll call her now mrs l/n.”

“thank you peter, i hope she’s okay.”

he could sense the worry laced within her voice, “me too.”

peter quickly put his suit on, before swinging out the window. he asked his a.i, if she knew were you where, before heading to a location across town, due to karen sensing your heat signature.

a few minutes later, he arrived to a run down building. he quietly swung into a large room, where he noticed a figure sat on a chair in the middle of the room. his breath hitched, when he realised the figure was you. he ran towards you, looking side to side to see if anyone else was here.

“y/n?”

he took in the sight of you. you where clearly beaten, with fresh blood pouring across your body. peter wanted to kill whoever did this to you. you had duck tape across your lips, making your words sound more like muffles.

“oh my god, what happened?” he spoke, carefully taking of the duck tape and untying your hands behind the chair. you suddenly wrapped your arms around peters neck, letting the tears fall while he calmed you.

“c-can we go?”

“gladly.” he replied, before shooting a web to leave.

“not so fast, spidey.”

peter’s tingles went off, when he released who that’s voice belonged to. turning around, he was met with green, wicked eyes.

“greeny! how you doing!” peter spoke, before quickly telling you to hide and to stay there.

“better, now your here! i can finally ruin you. for good.” the green goblin smiled wickedly, before throwing his first punch.

meanwhile, you found a spot behind a cupboard. you were shaking so quickly. why was this happening to you? you’ve had enough stress this past week. you and brad broke up. you failed your test. you and peter haven’t been talking properly, which you didn’t know why.

you looked above the cupboard, to see peter fighting the green goblin. webs and knives where being flown across the room. you where so intrigued, with what peter was doing you didn’t see that the goblin noticed you.

“you took away my world,” the goblin spoke to peter, not loosing eye contact from you, “so i’m going to take away yours.”

peter followed the goblins eyes to you. god, no. not you.

“y/n, run!” peter screeched, before fighting the goblin away from you. but he was faster, and flew towards you, spinning you into his arms.

“goblin, you don’t want to do this. if you do this, i will fucking kill you!”

“ahh good. you know what my weakness is, spiderman? making sure you’re dead, inside and outside.” the goblin replied wickedly, before grabbing one of his spikes, looking at you before stabbing you deep in the chest.

it was as time slowed down for you. the excruciating pain you felt, once he removed the spike overflowed you. you heard peter’s screams, before you where threw onto the ground below the goblins ship.

“bye spidey, i’ll be back.” he spoke, before flying away.

peter quickly took his mask off, running desperately to you. blood was pouring out of your wound, to quickly for peter to handle. his head was spinning. tears fell from his eyes, landing softly onto your bruised neck.

“p-pete...” you spoke softly, whimpering at the pain you felt.

“shhh, it’s o-okay,” he spoke, smiling slighting, moving your soft and dirty hair out of your face, “y-y/n i need to tell you something.”

you met his eyes, crying slightly but waiting for him to continue.

“i-i i love you,” he laughed slightly, glad he finally told you, “more than a friend, i love you so much y/n l/n.”

“i-i love you too p-peter parker.”

peter smiled widely, stroking your cheek slightly before leaning in kissing your lips. it was as fireworks where exploding. the kiss tasted like salt from the tears and blood, but in was filled with pure love and adoration.

peter moved away to meet your eyes smiling slightly. but, his smile soon disappeared when he noticed your eyes were glazed.

“n-no,” peter shook you violently, “wake up! wake up! don’t you dare leave me.”

seconds passed, and you weren’t responding to peter’s desperate calls.

“y-y/n, i can’t live without you.” he whispered into your ear, letting his sobs out.

he told you he loved you. but, it was too late. you have left him, and peter hates himself for it.

“i love you, y/n.” peter spoke to the empty room.

————

a/n - wow okay, this is super sad. i think i cried twice while writing this ahah. if you have any requests comment below or dm me! thanks for reading x

[probably-writing-x]

Knocked off guard.

Arón Piper x Reader

Request by @isthatmaryanna : the other one is with aron where he is like super stressed on the filming of season 4 and he ends up bumping the female reader on the set, she apologizes and he got very mad and stuff like that just because he is stressed, and then he finds out she’s new to the cast and is chris new love interest and he starts to get a crush of her and gets jealous when she’s filming scenes with christian till one day he kisses her when they are recording (Wrote this with Samuel instead of Christian so that it matches season 4🤍)

Gif is not my own

Requests are closed🤍

You’d never known nerves like this until today, they’d been basically eating away at you since you’d first woken up and they hadn’t ceased yet. You were terrified of the impression you’d make on your first proper day of filming for Élite and even more terrified of all of the things that could go wrong. You’d made sure to wake up early enough and try to get onto set within enough time but already found yourself rushing to catch up with the hectic schedule.

“Shit,” You mutter to yourself as you try to find your way back to where they’d told you to meet for your first call to makeup and hair.

You’re so busy trying to make sense of the timetable they’d given you that you don’t notice anybody else around you. Only stopping when you knock into one of them abruptly.

“Fuck!” They exclaim as the drink in their hand spills all down their outfit.

You recognised the clothes instantly as the Las Encinas uniform and realise painfully that you’d just made a first impression on one of your cast mates by knocking into them.

“I’m so so sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going-“

“Clearly!” The boy scoffs, trying to pat down the wet patch now covering the front of his crisp white shirt.

“I’m so sorry, I’m-“ You stop as you glance up and recognise him as Arón, who played Ander in the show.

“I’m going to be late,” He rolls his eyes, “Just please try and keep your eyes ahead of you next time.”

With that, he takes off in the opposite direction as you try to regain composure and continue in the direction you’d been previously heading towards.

You reach hair and makeup and it relaxes you when the team are genuinely nice to you for the whole time. They ask you about your new role as Samuels love interest and you chat to them about everything they felt you should know about working on the show.

“No I don’t think we need to-“ A new voice speaks as the door opens and two guys walk in to have their hair and makeup done, “Hey! I don’t think we’ve met before.”

You stand up and recognise the boy as Omar, who played his same name character on the show, “Yeah, no, I don’t think we have. I’m (Y/n), I’m playing Savannah.”

“Yes! I completely forgot you were starting today!” Omar exclaims, “Well, I’m Omar, and this is Arón.”

You glance to the boy that had entered with him and notice him instantly as the boy you’d knocked into earlier. His eyes fall to his feet to avoid eye contact as he instead turns to sit down in one of the chairs to get his hair done.

“Dont worry about him,” Omar rolls his eyes, squeezing the boy’s shoulder, “Someone’s being a little grumpy today. Anyway, tell me about yourself. Have you done much acting before?”

Just like that, the impression you’d made on the cast so far seems to clearly improve. You chat to Omar and get up to the stage where it feels as though you’ve known each other for a lot longer than a matter of minutes.

“When are your first scenes?” Omar asks you, “I’ll walk you down to set if you like.”

“I think I have to be there in ten minutes, that would be great thank you!”

He agrees and the two of you head out to start walking towards where you’d first be filming for the day.

- - - - - -

You’re introduced to Itzan who was going to be your main love interest in the show. It’s a relief when he’s genuinely lovely to you and makes it easy to feel natural around him.

“I wouldn’t worry, this place is full of second chances,” Itzan shakes his head as he speaks Samuels line, “All of us here, we’re on at least our fifth chance.”

“Maybe I won’t do so bad then,” You smile, “Thank you, by the way.”

He readjusts his grip on his bag strap and nods bashfully to you, “It was nice to meet you, (Y/n).”

The director yells cut and somehow you find yourself finishing your first full scene of the day. It had gone a lot more smoothly than you’d expected. Especially having started the day by spilling hot coffee over one of your cast mates.

“Omar and Miguel to set for next scene,” One of the crew calls, you think they introduced themselves earlier but it was already becoming overwhelming to remember all of these new people.

You take your seat on one of the black canvas chairs and prepare to watch the scene unfold in which Guzmán and Omar share a heart to heart about Nadia, where Guzmán confesses everything he regrets about what happened between them and what he would’ve done if he’d have had another chance with her before she left. You’re soon joined by someone beside you in the next seat and glance over to recognise Arón on your right hand side.

“So, you’re the new cast member,” He comments, twisting open his water bottle, “You didn’t introduce yourself earlier.”

“I didn’t really have the chance,” You return, shifting a little in the chair beneath you.

He scoffs, “I was too busy being late and covered in coffee.”

“I did apologise,” You defend, still slightly nervous despite your hope of appearing somewhat confident.

“And I was stressed.”

The conversation falls flat and you let the silence remain as you watch the scene unfold.

- - - - - -

Over the next couple of days, you’re starting to get settled into the motions of things. You’re starting to remember everyone’s names and the crew have been complimenting you on some of your scenes. Itzan was a good screen partner to have, always making you laugh and giving you tips whenever he felt like you were uncertain.

You’re walking through the different sets when you stumble upon Arón in one of the rooms. Nobody was filming at the moment so you found yourself slightly bemused as you watch him flop face down onto the bed beneath him that was normally used as a bedroom in the show.

“You know the cameras aren’t rolling?” You comment, unsure as to why you bother speaking anyway, “Or did you just need to practise that scene?”

He turns his head and looks in your direction. The two of you had spoken very minimally over the past days as he’d clearly continued that stressed attitude ever since you first met. You’d gotten to the point where you simply treated it as him being completely rude. Even if you didn’t want to accept that.

“I just needed some peace,” He mumbles, shuffling on the duvet of the bed as his arms fall at either of his sides.

“Sorry, I’ll leave you,” You comment bashfully, going to walk away.

“How have you been finding it so far?”

It surprises you. Of course it does. Up until now you’d assumed that he simply just didn’t like you. Perhaps not.

“It’s been good, everyone’s been really friendly,” You smile, “And I think my scenes have been going well.”

“Yeah, they won’t stop telling us how great you are,” He scoffs, “Seems like you’ve made a good first impression.”

“Well, on most people.”

He’s silent this time.

“I should go,” You say, not wanting to say anything more that might ruin the nicest moment you’ve shared with him.

“I’m sorry I’ve been so rude to you. I’ve just been a little stressed,” Arón admits, “I’m not really sure how to approach my storylines this season and I guess I’m just letting it get to me too much.”

“What do you mean?” You walk into the room and take a seat on the bed beside him as he shifts to sit up.

“I’ve always had such intense storylines, theres always something bad going on. But, this time, Anders actually happy - him and Omar are doing well for the first time in forever. I’m not really used to it,” He shakes his head, “Sorry, you don’t need to hear my acting problems.”

“Well, I guess I’m not the best person to give advice,” You start cautiously yet again, “But I would say that you should use exactly that. Anders not going to be used to it either, he’s never had that time where he’s simply been happy so he’d probably feel exactly the way that you do about having to act that story. Use that.”

He stays silent and you’re certain you’ve said the wrong thing.

“I’m sorry, I know that’s probably useless bu-“

“No, no, that makes sense,” He interjects, “Thank you.”

“Well, I should go, I asked Itzan if he’d run lines with me,” You explain, “See you later.”

“Yeah, bye (Y/n).”

- - - - - -

The next day, you’re filming your first kiss with Samuel. It sounded silly but you’d never been so nervous to film a scene - it would be the first time where you had to show that sort of affection on camera and it felt intimidating to say the least.

You’d been nervous all morning, for something so annoyingly simple.

You’re hurrying down towards your trailer when you knock into someone on the way.

“Fuck!” You exclaim as your water pours down you.

As irony would have it, it’s Arón stood in front of you.

“Looks like karma circled back round,” He smirks at the sight.

“Not now Arón,” You mutter, dashing off before he can say anything more.

It was harsh, you knew it was deep down. But you were so caught up in your own stress that you couldn’t really think of anything beyond that. You carried on towards your trailer and prayed they’d left you a spare uniform to change into if need be.

It’s ten minutes later when there’s a knock at your door and Arón is stood on the other side.

“Hey! Sorry about that, I should’ve been looking where I was going,” He comments, you’re too pressured to notice how he seemed slightly nervous.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it,” You rush to say as you search for the right script amongst your stuff.

“Are you okay?” He frowns, “You seem a little-“

“Stressed?” You finish for him as you turn around, his appearance relaxing you a little, “I’m sorry, I’ve just got my first kiss scene with Itzan today and I’m really nervous about it.”

He laughs gently, “Why? Do you like him or something?”

“What?” You scoff, “Of course I don’t. I just don’t want to fuck it up.”

“Okay...” Arón starts, “Well, wouldnt your character be nervous too? Maybe you should take your own advice and use that.”

You smirk at his attempts at helping, “Well, this is a real role reversal!”

He steps inside from where he’d been waiting in the doorway and smirks, “Or... you could just practise.”

“Practise?” You cock a brow, “What? Ask Itzan to kiss me before the cameras roll?”

Without any further introduction, Arón takes a stride forward until he’s close enough for you to understand his real intention. He leans in only ninety percent of the way, waiting for your approval to seal the last ten percent. When you do, his eyes flutter shut and his lips curl into a smile against yours.

“Was that your plan all along?” You mumble against his lips as he pulls away.

“We all need ways of coping with stress,” He smirks a little, “Is that so bad?”

You laugh and try to fight against the bold blush on your cheeks.

“And you have nothing to worry about. You’re a much better kisser than Omar.”

“Well, I was coming to get (Y/n) to set but looks like I’ve seen and heard much more than I needed to,” Omar raises his brows from where he stood at your door, “I’ll tell them you’ll be a little late. Close your fucking door next time!” He laughs and walks off.

“Any less stressed?” Arón cocks a brow at you.

“Maybe let’s try that again.”

[maatryoshkaa]

young god | chapter 1

serial killer!han jisung au

chapters: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | epilogue |

genre: angst, thriller, romance

pairing: han jisung ( stray kids) x reader

word count: 1.9k

warnings: mild language, mature themes + violence

description: when your best friend Felix sets you up on a blind date with adorable medical student Han Jisung, you find yourself falling for his sweet words and dark eyes, and the even darker secrets he hides behind his charming, angelic smile.

watch the trailer here!

1 | blind date

You were beginning to wonder if you’d been stood up.

Mia’s Diner was usually busy, bustling with students and townspeople alike, but today it was nearly deserted: just you, two students studying in a booth across the room, and an old man reading what seemed to be a newspaper upside-down in the corner. A lone waitress was stacking clean milkshake glasses behind the counter.

It was raining hard outside, the drops sounding like impatient fingers tapping at the window beside you. As you peered through the glass, you caught a glimpse of a boy on a rusty bike, waiting to cross the street. Yang Jeongin, you recognized -- the delivery boy. A silver Walkman was tucked into the back pocket of his jeans, his lips mouthing the words to a song, a halo of dripping blonde hair sticking out from underneath his hood. He was smiling, despite the fact that it was pouring buckets, and he’d likely been up doing deliveries since 6 in the morning. Yang Jeongin was always smiling.

The light flashed red, traffic halted, and the delivery boy sped away. 

Turning your attention back to the empty seat in front of you, you sighed.

Your date was thirty minutes late.

Your mind was running over all the ways you were going to give Felix hell when you saw him in class tomorrow; how you were going to explain to him that you’d been stood up on the blind date he’d arranged for you. 

“You know what they call me? The Matchmaker of Miroh Heights. Has a nice ring to it, huh?”

You’d groaned as your best friend wiggled his eyebrows. Felix loved playing wingman. As the school photographer and a talented journalism major, he was the one who came up with the “Cutest Couples” section in the campus newspaper -- photoshoots and candid shots of pairings, most of which he’d set up. Still, you’d never thought that his...work...would extend to you.

It had been a while since you’d entertained the notion of love. You’d had your fair share of unrequited crushes and relationships that had not-so-pleasant endings, so the moment you’d enrolled into college and the workload had swept up your entire schedule, you’d left love on the backburner. You kept telling yourself that the right person would come at the right time -- but Felix seemed to have other ideas.

“Let’s see...Hyojong? Ah, no, I forgot -- he’s taken by that pretty senior. Lucky bastard.” He huffed. “Or...Seungcheol? Nah, doesn’t seem your type. Ah!” He snapped his fingers, making you jump. “I know!”

“Felix, for the last damn time -- I don’t need a boyfriend right now.”

“Just one date? Please?” The blond boy hung up the last photo, a mischievous glint in his eyes visible even in the dark room. “I know a great guy -- health sciences major and everything. You two are practically made for each other.”

“I’m a psychology major, ‘Lix. I don’t know -- you know I’m no good at blind dates--” you caught sight of his puppy-dog expression, and sighed in defeat. “Fine! Fine. What’s his name, then?”

The school journalist flashed an impish grin. “Han Jisung.”

Han Jisung.

He was the reason why you were here, sat in a near-empty diner on a rainy Sunday afternoon, waiting for a date to show up while a pile of psychology coursework waited for you back at home. 

Maybe he couldn’t make it, you told yourself -- it was pouring buckets outside. Maybe it was better to swallow your hopes and head back. Biting your lip, you pulled out your phone, tapping on Jisung’s contact (courtesy of Felix) and typing. 

New Message

Hey, I’m y/n! I’m really sorry, but I had to leave.

Your finger hovered over the Send button, hesitating. What if he was on his way? Or got caught in traffic? Still, it had been over thirty minutes…

You were so caught up in your dilemma that you barely registered the sound of the diner door swinging open, and the sound of wet footsteps squeaking until they stopped at your booth.

“Hello!”

You nearly threw your phone into the face of the boy who had spoken, his hand shooting out to catch it before it fell to the floor. Drenched from head to toe from the rain -- cheeks flushed and breathing hard as if he’d been running, dark hair falling in his wide eyes, lips spread in a breathless smile -- was your date. 

His other hand was hidden behind his back as he handed your phone back to you, cool fingers grazing yours as your eyes met. 

Well, shit.

He was absolutely, devastatingly, adorable.

“O-oh, hi!” You stammered. “You’re…”

“Jisung,” he finished for you. “Han Jisung.” He glanced at the empty seat in front of you. “May I…”

“Yeah, of course!” Your heart rate was steadily increasing, and you wanted to slap yourself. It’s just a blind date, y/n, stop getting your hopes up--

Your gaze fell on the hand he was still hiding behind his back as he slid into the booth. Noticing your stare, Jisung slowly and sheepishly pulled out a small bouquet of roses.They were an unusual colour -- a faint, peachy pink rather than the conventional ruby red. 

They were also falling apart, clusters of wrinkled petals dripping and blown askew from the wind and rain, no doubt. 

“They’re for you. I mean, I completely understand if you don’t want them, it’s just--I passed a florist’s on the way here, but it started raining, and--”

“I love them,” you blurted, and, seeing Jisung raise an eyebrow, you giggled. “I really do.” 

You gingerly took the misshapen bouquet from his hands, bringing the flowers to your face and breathing in softly. They smelled pleasantly of petrichor, and something else faint yet sweet.

Jisung watched you, a smile playing on his lips. “You’re -- really pretty.”

You felt the blood rush to your face, your tongue tying into knots and betraying you oncemore. “O-oh,” you squeaked, “th-thank you?”

He chuckled as the waitress came to take your orders for drinks and food.

As she left, Jisung’s gaze wandered around the vintage movie posters, records, and other retro paraphernalia that decorated the diner’s interior. “This place is something else.” 

“Right? Every time I come here, I think I’ve stepped into a movie. Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Dirty Dancing--” you blushed. “Sorry. I probably sound like a nerd.” 

Jisung turned back to you. “Don’t apologize. What’s your favourite kind of movie? Rom-coms?”

“Psychological thrillers, actually,” you admitted shyly. Good gosh, that intense stare in Han Jisung’s eyes was making your heart do somersaults in your chest. “But romcoms are not far behind.”

He hummed in approval, an odd glint in his eyes. “So you’re into psychology?”

“Well, I’m majoring in psychology, so I kind of have to be -- although it’s been pretty hard on me as of late.” You sighed, suddenly remembering the mountain of final assignments weighing on your shoulders.

Jisung leaned in closer, resting his chin on his hands. “Why? What’s wrong?”

“It’s just--my final project.They’re testing our ability to communicate with and analyze a patient,” you explained. “Kind of like a therapist simulation. We’re supposed to find someone and, like, apply psychological concepts by giving them mock counselling over the course of a few months. And by the end of it, we have to write a conclusive report on their mental state. I can’t find anyone who’s willing to be my patient, which honestly makes sense -- it’s such an invasive topic.”

Jisung was silent for a long moment, dark eyes unreadable. Finally, he sat up a little straighter, cocking his head to the side. “I could be your patient.”

You blinked, mouth falling open. “Wha--are you sure? I mean, you really don’t have to--and it might take up a lot of your time--”

“I wouldn’t mind spending more time with you,” he replied, eyes glinting, and your heart skipped a beat. 

“R-really?” You could already feel an incredulous, relieved smile spreading on your blushing face.

Jisung chuckled. “Just to see you smile like that, trust me -- I’d do anything.”

You were infinitely grateful that at that moment, the waitress arrived with your food. You weren’t sure your face could get any redder. You knew you were a hopeless romantic at heart, and had told yourself time and time again not to be swayed by sweet talk, but this was...different. There was something genuinely sweet in Jisung’s words -- he said them so honestly, with an almost childlike simplicity. 

You sipped your drink in a feeble attempt to regain composure. “My turn to ask the questions. What’s your favourite food?”

“Cheesecake,” Jisung replied instinctively. You watched him bite into his burger and giggled at the way his round eyes widened even more before he practically inhaled the rest.

“Favourite season?”

“Winter.”

“Least favourite colour?”

Jisung froze, a weighted silence falling over the table. He swallowed, hard, before replying quietly, “Red.”

When you peered at his face, you felt an icy chill trickle down your spine. His warm brown eyes had darkened and grown impossibly wide, and the colour had drained from his cheeks. Had you said something wrong? You looked down at your clothes -- a soft, oversized beige cardigan and light blue jeans.

“W-well, it’s a good thing I’m not wearing red, then, huh?”

“No.” Jisung shook his head slowly, and his shaky gaze met yours. You felt your mouth go dry at how lost his eyes seemed -- bottomless pools of pitch black. “No, I’m sure you would still look pretty in red.”

As if on cue, your cheeks turned a bright cherry hue.

Deciding to change the topic, you cleared your throat. “What about dogs? Do you like dogs?”

Almost as quickly as it had come, the dark look vanished from his face. “I love dogs!”

By the time the waitress brought the bill, Jisung had you in stitches over a joke he’d made, and you’d long forgotten about the whole ordeal.

The rain had stopped when you two stepped outside. Behind the knitted clouds, the sun was setting, its rays of light seeping through the stormy sky like veins in marble. Jisung’s features were painted a soft gold, warm eyes sparkling as he turned around to face you. His hair was a strange colour, you noted -- under the dim lights of the diner, it had appeared a light brown, but now that you were in the sunlight, it looked more blond. It had also been dripping wet, soaked from sweat or rain or both after running all the way to you, but it had dried off now, the ends curling in his eyes.

Maybe you’d had one dose of sugar too many in your drink, because you suddenly found yourself wanting to touch it. So you did just that, fingers reaching for the soft, fluffy golden locks and ruffling them playfully. Jisung’s eyes held yours the entire time, his gaze questioning. 

You huffed. “You’re cute, okay?”

He broke into a smile that made your heart flutter. “Okay.” 

Cheeks blazing at your own sudden boldness, you quickly pulled your hand away, fingers lightly grazing the side of his cheek before you stepped back. “I--I’m gonna get going now. Thanks for a great time!”

“Of course. See you next time?” Jisung winked, handing you the bouquet of peach roses.

“S-see you!” With that, you turned and practically ran across the street, heart still threatening to leap out of your chest as you fought the butterflies in your stomach and the smile sneaking onto your face.

Behind you, Jisung’s face darkened, smile slipping from his lips as you disappeared from his sight.

[my-arlington-academia]

Serandy and Olifael part 3: Nari’s horrible return

Hey I’m back! ... I’m sorry.

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

"S-Serena-senpai..."

Nari was looking away, her cheeks flushed from embarrassment. No matter how many steps back she took, Serena kept on getting closer and closer until she slammed her hand on the wall, next to Nari’s ear.

”Kyah! S-senpai! What’s going on?? Why are you being so violent with me?”

From Serena’s point of view this wasn’t violence. This was love. Oh Nari... you and your unstoppable mouth. No matter how much someone would beg, Nari would never shut up. Serena was provoked by that, the fact that someone wouldn’t obey her orders. It was frustrating and yet so charming.

She leaned in and whispered into Nari’s ear.

"Nari-chan... you aren’t a gemini, are you?”

Nari was confused, that’s it? That’s all Serena wanted to ask? No scolding, no punishment like usual? She was disappointed. Nari loved getting yelled at by Serena.

”N-no. I’m not a gemini, I’m a scorpio Senpai. But what does that have to do with anyth-"

"Shut it.”

Serena passionately kissed Nari with her passionate lips, passionate love and passionate hate towards geminis. She was so relieved that Nari wasn’t one of them. Disgusting. That would be horrible.

Horrible.

Hor-

"AAAH! NOOOO PLEASE GOD NO!"

Serena woke up covered in sweat. What the fuck was that?? Nari? What was she doing in Serena’s dream and why were they calling eachother like characters in a Japanese cartoon? Serena looked around her, it was her room. Thank God everything was just a dream and nothing else. Next to her, lying in bed was Andy who snuck in last night to sleep next to her girlfriend. Like all nights, actually. She was really worried for Serena’s mental state, not only today but in general.

"Serena...? *yawn* Are you okay sweetie?”

Serena hugged Andy, almost in tears.

"N-no! I saw her again in my dreams. That chatterbox monster, Nari! But this time we were high schoolers in a shitty anime... Why? Oh, why would this happen to me?? What did I do wrong for her to come back to haunt me?"

Andy hugged Serena back, trying to be as supportive as she could. This situation was really strange. For the past few days, Serena always saw Nari in her dreams. Nari was that 2nd year student in Arlington who went missing a few months ago. But in actuality... it was all a ploy orchestrated by Serena. Serena had pulled some strings to make some trouble happen in Egypt so that Nari would go back there for a couple of months. A couple of months that were extremely peaceful... Well, Trashy burned the building a couple of times but it was cool. Thanks to that some classes were canceled and Serena secretly thanked Trashy for her interventions.

The only people who knew about this were Serena and Andy, Serena knew that if she told Olivier what she did in order to get rid of Nari, he would get mad at her and rightfully so.

”Calm down Serena sssshhh. It’s going to be alright. Um... you know I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, but could it be that you have a guilty conscience? Maybe that’s why Nari appears in your dreams?”

Serena looked up at Andy, seriously taking in account what her girlfriend just told her. But no, that couldn’t be it. Serena? Feeling guilt for getting rid of Nari? Impossible. Nari was her arch-nemesis. It was absurd to think that after all these months Serena would suddenly start to feel guilty about her scheme.

”No... that can’t be it Andy. I would never feel bad for Nari. I think.”

”Aww come on, I know that you’re not as cold hearted as you pretend to be. Let’s just try to contact Nari, okay? Maybe you actually miss her a little bit.”

Did Serena miss Nari? Ridiculous but much more believable than feeling guilty.

"... Alright. Let’s do that."

Serena and Andy came down from the bed, they were changing into their school uniforms to get ready for class. That’s when someone barged in, looking extremely distraught. It was Rafael.

"Girls!!! Come quick! There’s 8 murde-"

Serena threw a pillow into Ralf’s face while Andy was covering herself with the blanket. Serena yelled at him in panic.

"What the hell Rafael? Can’t you knock first?? Turn around and explain yourself!”

Rafael turned around like instructed, facing the door. He was super gay for Olivier but he still covered his face with the pillow, just in case. He didn’t want Serena and Andy to feel uncomfortable.

"This is not important right now! There’s 8 murders in the Academy that ocurred this morning...”

Andy and Serena looked at eachother, horrified by the news. How was that possible? The security was so tight and the custodians always made rounds, even in the early mornings. Andy clenched her fists, still in disbelief.

”But... that’s impossible! One murder, sure. But 8 people have died?? There’s always guards in front of the entrance... and... and there’s at least one custodian on each floor to keep an eye on us!"

Rafael stood there, silent. Unable to explain the events. All he could say was...

”Oliver is waiting for us in the student council’s room. Come quick.”

There was no time to waste. Serena and Andy dashed out of their room and went out of the dormitory only to see a cruel scene unfold. A bunch of nurses were taking 8 people away into ambulance trucks. However, the 8 people were covered in white pieces of cloth. As if they were already dead. In the crowd, a blond girl with a pink flower in her braids was being retained by at least four people. They were trying to hold her still while she was screaming and shouting like a trapped animal.

"G-geez! How strong is this girl?! Someone call the remaining custodians to help us out! We can’t hold her forever!!!”

”Remaining custodians”? So, some of them had been killed as well? Or at least badly hurt. Andy and Serena tried to pass by the scene in a hurry but they couldn’t ignore the yells of the suffering young girl. Oh mother of god... It was the sweet and gentle Claire, trying to set herself free by punching and kicking.

"LET ME GO! I HAVE TO FOLLOW THEM AND MAKE SURE THAT THEY'RE OKAY!!! DON’T HOLD ME BACK!!! THIS CAN’T BE. THEY’RE NOT DEAD!!! THEY’RE NOT DEAD, OKAY?! STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE I’M CRAZY!!! I... I...”

Suddenly all of her strength left her body and she fell down on her knees, seeing that she finally calmed down the 4 students that were holding her let go of their grip. Claire buried her face into her hands, crying.

"N-No... they’re not d-dead... the doctors will bring them back with a b-blood transfusion and... and... CPR will definitely work... if, if not then there’s also a defibrillator... it’ll work haha... ah... ah... ahh..."

She started hyperventilating, her eyes were bloodshot and her hair and clothes were all messy. She then covered her mouth, trying to stop what was coming, in vain.

”BLRGH.”

She threw up on the ground, still hyperventilating in between each spew. Because of that she was almost unable of breathing. Two custodians ran to her, scared of her reaction. What if she chokes up and dies because of her own vomit?

"P-please! Young miss calm down! Breath in... and out... in... and out... yes, slowly.”

Thank god her breathing became stable again, she could’ve lost consciousness from the lack of oxygen. After emptying up her stomach she started crying in the custodian’s arms.

"T-those people w-were my friends... *hic* R-raquel was right next to me... *hic* how did I fail to do anything?! ...U-useless! I’M USELESS. W-when it comes down to real danger... I’m unable to do a-anything. I couldn’t save anyone... I’ve never saved anyone! Not a single person!”

Andy didn’t even realize that she was crying at the heartbreaking scene until Serena covered her eyes and pulled her away from the crowd.

"Andy, don’t look...”

It was meaningless, Andy was unable to see anything anyway. Her eyes were filled up with tears, distorting her vision. However there was one thing she knew. Even though Serena was trying to hide it and act though, she was crying too.

In front of the student council’s room, they dried up their tears and snot with their sleeves, no time to find handkerchiefs. And they stepped in. Four people were in the room, Olivier shouting at Trashy, Trashy looking scared out of her mind but doing her best to deny whatever Olivier was stating, Rafael trying to calm Olivier down and... Tadashi, sat on one of the chairs. Looking down, emotionless. It’s as if all trace of life had left his body.

Serena tried to ignore that for now and put her hand on Olivier’s shoulder, he turned away from Trashy and looked at Serena, annoyed and angry.

"Ugh. You’re finally here?! What took you so lo-"

Before he could finish, Serena slapped the shit out of him, knowing that he wouldn’t calm down anytime soon if this went on.

"Calm down! I can see that Tadashi isn’t capable of handling anything right now so you should try to stay calm and take over as the student council president! It won’t help if you lose yourself like this...”

She then looked at Rafael, who was frozen in panic.

"Ralf, next time something like this happens just hit the shit outta him without hesitation. Got it?”

”Y-yes, sorry. I’ll do so.”

Olivier looked at his reflexion in the window and sighed a few times. He still wore that stupid cat mask. Then with a clear mind, he went back to business.

"Trashy. Please be honest with me. You’re the one who committed those murders, aren’t you?”

Trashy was shaking, teary eyed and visibly afraid by not only Olivier but also the stressful situation she was in.

"N-no! I’m telling you I would never kill people in cold blood! I only do harmless pranks...”

Olivier clenched his jaw. ”Harmless pranks” she says. He opened a folder and took out a document from it.

"Trashy. So far you have committed: arson, fraud, larceny and forgery. So tell me what could POSSIBLY lead me to believe that you aren’t the culprit behind this... this... inhumane incident?”

Trashy stood up, slamming her hand unto the table.

”I’m telling you: I’m innocent! I would never kill E-Ellie, Alistair or any other person of this school!"

At those words, Tadashi who was silent this whole time started sobbing and holding his arms, as if he was hugging himself.

”N-no... Ellie... Alistair... Raquel... *sob* Please c-come back. I-I’m scared... *hic* I-I’ll be good so p-please don’t abandon me *hic* A-Axel I-I won’t give you detention ever again... and... and I-I’ll help you guys with your homework... *hic*"

Rafael, Serena and Andy rushed in to hug him, seeing that he was in despair. Olivier sighed and glared at Trashy.

"I told you not to mention their names. He gets like that whenever he hears it.”

”I’m so sorry...”

Trashy looked extremely apologetic. As Serena was holding Tadashi in her arms, she shot a quick side-glance towards Trashy, it’s true that she was very chaotic but... logic aside, proof aside, was Trashy really capable of doing such things? Serena wanted to believe in her so badly but it is true that she was quite suspicious. As she was asking herself hundreds of questions, two people barged in.

"Excuse us.”

A weird man dressed in all black, carrying a katana and... a normal woman were standing before them. Olivier walked towards them, as if he knew who they were.

”Are you... who I think you are?”

The man and woman smiled at eachother.

”That’s right, I’m Nadir. The detective.”

”And I’m Gen, the coroner. Nice to meet you.”

Nadir had a Maryland accent... whatever that was supposed to mean. He didn’t look like a detective at all though, why was he carrying a katana? And why was there a coroner with him? All the dead bodies were brought to the hospital already. Well, they might get resurrected somehow. It’s not like hope was completely lost. Or at least Andy hoped so.

”Um. Excuse me uh. Gen? I don’t understand why you’re here and not at the hospital, I mean your job is to check wounds and find the cause of death, right?”

Gen smiled innocently.

”Oh I’ve already done my job, it was all stab wounds from a kitchen knife. Now I’m here in any case we find other dead bodies or if someone else dies.”

”Uh... okay.”

Tadashi suddenly stopped crying, awakened from his miserable state by Gen’s comment.

"DON’T SAY THAT! How... How DARE you just call them ”dead bodies”?! They were my friends! And... and they might be saved!!!”

Gen looked at him with sorrow in her eyes. As if it was too late. Thankfully Tadashi was so angry that he didn’t notice that. She had a look that said ”it’s hopeless kid.” Serena tried to change the subject, knowing that Tadashi would blow up like Claire if he knew that they were already dead.

”Soooo... Anyway, who are the people that got hurt?”

Olivier gave her the list with the names of all the victims, knowing that if he said their names aloud, Tadashi would lose it again. As expected, all of Tadashi’s and Claire’s friends were on it. Neha Rao, Tyler Williams, the Novakova siblings and so on and so forth. They were all so close and yet the only people left were Tadashi and Claire... but why did only those 2 survive?

”You’re all thinking ”why did those 2 survive”, aren’t you?”

Nadir smirked at them with a know-it-all epxression that everyone hated. It seems like he had already made some research before coming.

”Well, we’re thinking that it must be because... either one of those 2 is the culprit or... the person who attacked their friends didn’t manage to finish their job and he’s after them.”

Everyone was frightened by the thought... Claire, where was she? Hopefully she wasn’t left alone, however, just in case they should go find her and stay by her side. What if the culprit took advantage of her mental state to strike? The only person in the room who didn’t think about that possibility was Tadashi, he was too blinded by anger and fright.

”You’re saying that either me or Claire could be the culprits? That’s total BULLSHIT! We would never even THINK about doing something like this! How could I... How could I ever do something like this to my best friend and boyfriend?!!”

That’s right, Tadashi’s best friend: Alistair. And his boyfriend... Axel. A really weird couple indeed, they hated eachother’s guts until really recently so why did they suddenly start dating? It was a complete mystery. It all started on april fool’s so everyone just assumed that they would end the joke pretty soon... 3 weeks later and the joke still wasn’t over.

Gen raised her voice, desperately trying to stop him from punching them in the face.

”Please calm down kid! We’re only stating the possibilities! Not saying that they’re true... but while it might not be you nor your friend, there is a high chance that the kill- um, culprit is a student. Even though some custodians were... hurt, no guards were harmed.”

Nadir nodded, strongly agreeing with his colleague’s words.

”That’s right. But first let’s go find that Claire girl, she might be in great danger at this rate. Do you know where she is?”

Tadashi shook his head, having no idea where the only friend he had left was. Luckily, Andy and Serena knew where she might be. They all ran to the nurse’s office, thinking that they would find an unconscious Claire who had probably collapsed from shock and stress. But she wasn’t there. Only the nurse remained, saying that Claire wanted to rest in her room. Serena grabbed the nurse by the shoulders and shook him violently.

”Are you kidding?! How could you let her alone in a situation like this?! Are you not aware of what’s happening right now?! And besides... isn’t Claire’s room... tainted in blood right now?!!”

The nurse pushed Serena away, slightly upset by her outburst.

”Who do you think we are? The room had been investigated and cleaned the moment the body was discovered. Also, she wasn’t alone. There was another student with her who promised me to follow her no matter where she went.”

Serena’s eyes widened. Oh god. Oh no. What if this student is the killer?! Catching on what she was thinking, Nadir grabbed the nurse by his shoulders and shook him just like Serena did earlier.

”Who was it?! Who was that student?”

���Ugh. Could you all stop grabbing and shaking me?! I don’t know what her name was but it was a girl with really messy hair. To the point where I would guess that she doesn’t even own a hairbrush.”

They all started running towards the dormitory while the nurse was cursing them under his breath. On their way there, they saw two students in the courtyard, on the ground. One covered in blood and the other one holding her in her arms while crying. It was Reckless and AJ.

”AJ!! Please wake up! Come on you gotta live... You still haven’t paid me for the tarot reading I did for you the other day!!”

AJ was still half-conscious, holding on to dear life.

”God... shut the fuck up...”

”No, don’t say that AJ!! What if those are your last words?! You can’t let your last words be something so vulgar! What am I gonna say to your parents...”

”I don’t... give a shit...”

Gen pushed Reckless away, looking closely at the young girl’s wounds all over her stomach. Reckless wiped a tear away, relieved.

”Oh thank God, thank you doctor! Please save my cash-cow- I mean... my dear classmate!”

Gen then immediately got up, wiping her bloody hands on her jeans.

”Oh no kid, I’m not a doctor, I’m a coroner. All I can say is that she has most likely 5 minutes left to live or so. Sorry but to be saved, she would need to be a billionaire or something. Y’know how it is in America.”

Reckless started crying again.

”God I fucking hate capitalism. Can we all just die from a nuclear bomb, please? Someone nuke us, anyone. Even North Korea is fine...”

Andy took out her phone, calling the ambulance in a hurry. Serena had never seen her girlfriend look so livid.

”Are you all crazy?! We should at least call the ambulance in situations like these! Reckless, why didn’t you call 911 sooner?!”

Reckless kneeled in front of AJ, looking apologetic while still bawling her eyes out.

”You’re right Andy... I’m so sorry AJ, if only I wasn’t a dumbass... Come on, don’t lose consciousness! Or at least tell me your blood type before you do! Maybe we can still save you...”

”B... positive...”

”*sniff* I’m trying AJ but you’re losing a lot of blood...”

”That’s not... *cough* what I meant... you fucking dumbass *cough*"

This all looked like a comedy skit to be honest. AJ’s blood type wasn’t even B, it was O. Was she so out of it that she made a mistake? Serena went through 8 stages of whiplash before the ambulance finally showed their asses on the murder scene. Unfortunately, AJ hadn’t seen her attacker and same thing for Reckless. In any case it was useless to stay there, the group rushed back to the dorms like they were supposed to a long time ago before they found AJ dying. Hopefully Claire was still okay... It was like running a marathon. Arlington was way too big than it needed to be.