#then you can convince yourself that it's punk to call people the n-word and hate trans people or something

[sirenium]

'TERFs are punk, we go against the grain' you are dickriding bioessentialism and using it to justify your transphobia, that is NOT going against the grain nor is it punk to be a bigot

[witchwrestler]

'THE PUNK SINGER' (PART I)

wc: 1k

warnings: drinking, eddie gets mean, but just for the plot, cops, swear words

summary: You're in a punk band. He's a metalhead. Famously, the two clash. Yet, he was still infatuated. After a messy breakup and two years of no contact, a reconnection begins when you find yourself in a difficult position.

a/n: the product of a different idea I had...that spiraled into this! very excited to continue the story. Reblogs are greatly appreciated, hope you enjoy! (sorry for the cliffhanger btw it had to be done)

● ● ●

You hadn't forgotten about him, it was hard to with all the magazine and news paper articles. But boy did you try. You were the lead singer in a grimy and small punk band, jumping from hole in the wall bar to hole in the wall bar. He was the frontman of americas second largest metal group, and he never stopped thinking about you. It never crossed his mind he shouldn't.

Out one night with your band, a guy offers to buy you a drink, you decline. He calls you a bitch, tries to grab you, then you bust his car window. Now, just your luck, you get the police called on you and end up in jail for the night. However, with you trying to fight your way out of the police officers grasp, giving him a bloody nose in the process--there was a huge possibility that one night would turn into a year. They posted bail, but you had no one to call. Your family lived states away and weren't exactly fond of your current lifestyle. You hated asking people for help. To be specific, you hated asking people for money. It felt greedy, and you could get by on your own.

You bit your lip and picked up the plastic phone the officer had set on the desk in front of you. Even though it'd been two years, his number still stuck in your brain ever-so clearly. You knew he was still on tour, and you weren't religious but you hoped to god he would pick up.

● ● ●

"get out of my green room" were eddies last words to you, if you remembered correctly .

It was late, after a show. He got an opportunity he couldn't pass up, and you were stubborn and hurt. Eddie had run off stage excitedly, saying Corroded coffin had the chance at a record deal, bringing this record executive backstage, a woman in a pantsuit and heels. Her name was Allison or something. You did not like the way she acted toward him, she was touchy, too touchy. She was sitting on the couch with him, the rest of the band surrounding them, everyone was drinking, including you. But she seemed to be very insistent that eddie specifically drink. She posed the idea when she was brought backstage with a "shall we have a drink and talk out the details?" the guys all nodded in agreement, telling the assistant to go get a round. They talked and she giggled for a little bit and She had looked at you in the middle of a clearly false fit of laughter "is she a groupie or something?" she whispered, thinking you couldn't hear, to a completely wasted eddie next to her.

You laughed at the assumption, looking up from the song you had been tweaking in your notebook. "fuck no." She looked confused, and the guys just kept nursing their beers. "so then what are you?" She asked, like that was the only reason you'd be backstage with them. "I'm a musician..." You never defined yourself as eddies girlfriend, you loved him but you were many more things than eddies girl. "oh." an awakward pause until she started again, "So, eddie, if you guys can finish an album in the next month, my boss wants to do a Corroded Coffin world tour" She seemed to ambitious you thought, too many bands fell apart because of tour and writing conflicts. "We can make Corroded Coffin the biggest name in metal if you take this deal" she added, quickly, one last resort to convince them. Eddie looked at her, and then the band, and said, "hell yeah. let's do this"

The band broke out into a symphony of cheering, beer bottles clinking against eachother as they hugged and laughed.

You smiled as a courtesy, but pulled eddie to the side. "Eddie you can't do this" His brows furrowed, "What, why? It's the biggest opportunity we've had in months?"

"Eddie you know what's gonna happen. With that kind of pressure over all of you, you're gonna be at eachothers throats in no time" You said, crossing your arms. You knew it was a good opportunity, but you weren't going to watch them get torn apart. "Look, I know it sounds like alot but we can do it" He said, trying to be rational but an annoyance was clear in his voice, he just wanted you to be happy for him. "Eddie, they're gonna ruin you! You're gonna choose quantity over quality just for a fucking paycheck, since when have you ever wanted that for your band?" You said, desperate to make it clear what a terrible decision he just made. "Can't you just be fucking happy for me and the guys? once? she wants the best for the band, she knows what she's doing!" He's getting angrier at this point, which only made you want to argue back. "She doesn't know what the fuck she's doing. She got you guys DRUNK to get you to agree! and clearly thought I shouldn't be backstage if I'm not blowing one of you"

"oh, like you know anything about a record opportunity? it's not exactly like your band is drowning in deal offers is it?" He winced at his own words and ran a hand through his sweat soaked hair. You just stood there. You never cried, but the muscles that usually fought off your tear ducts seemed to have given up right now. "fuck. you." He just stared at you, his eyes big, and then looked at the door. "get out of my green room." You stormed out, wiping the tears from your face, smearing eyeliner in the process.

Eddie called you eight times that night. You ignored every one.

● ● ●

Standing still in the cold police station, you listened to the phone line ring. once. twice. Your heart was beating so fast you almost just hung up. But it rang a third time. Then you heard a click, and a familiar deep voice that sent a faint chill down your spine,

"hello?"

.....to be continued

[spiderceo]

“your music is shit.”

➪ paring: hobie brown & gn!reader (platonic or romantic. up to your interpretation)

➪ warnings: y’all hating each other, swearing, crying, mentions of death

➪ tags: ‘enemies’ to lovers(?), sfw, english person written by a scot ✨

master post!

miguel loves making your life hell so putting you in with a bunch of teens the complete opposite of you was horrible.

you never wanted to be a spider-person in the first place. you had no strong sense of justice that could drive you towards doing things just for “the greater good”. some would call you selfish but you thought of it as just looking out for yourself.

being surrounded by people who had much stronger opinions than you made your head hurt. especially when you found out one of your new teammates was a punk…

you and hobie clashed immediately when you stated that the world wouldn’t just change overnight because some rich guy gets taken out of power.

every time you were in a room together there would always be an argument.

didn’t matter what the topic was, you’d both be at each other’s throats.

“i never fucking asked to be here okay?”

“then pack up and leave! i certainly ain’t gonna miss you.”

it’s gotten to the point where people just start leaving the room when the two of you walk in.

they’d rather do anything else than sit and listen to you both bicker like a married couple.

speaking of that, pavitr is convinced you both got off on the wrong foot and you really do like each other.

miles and gwen called him delusional…rightfully so.

there was one rare occasion however when the two of you were absolutely silent. everyone could tell there had been an obvious shift in hobie’s attitude towards you.

not seeing you try to murder each other was somehow more worrying than it happening.

little do the others know that hobie had accidentally walked in on something personal.

it was purely coincidence that he managed to catch a conversation between you and miguel.

“so i’m going to die?”

“yes. there’s nothing we can do to stop it. you will fight him when the time comes.”

hobie had never heard you so scared before for your own life. you were always so reckless on missions to the point he and the others had to save your ass quite a few times.

he hadn’t realised he’d spaced out until you ran into him while leaving.

your face was stained red from tears and the silence was so loud.

you didn’t say a word to him, just stared with hollow eyes. it was obvious you were trying to process the news miguel had unfortunately given you.

hobie didn’t say anything as the two of you walked side by side in silence all the way back to the group’s usual hang out spot.

he ended up taking you back through your portal home (albeit reluctantly after finding out your fate) and standing awkwardly in your apartment.

“you good, yeah?”

probably not the best thing to say to someone who just learned they were going to die sooner or later-

you only nodded and shuffled to your room, leaving him to head back through the portal to his dimension.

hobie didn’t have much of a liking towards you but he’ll be damned if he has to watch the others grieve you…

a/n: gonna make this in a few parts me thinks. makes it a bit more fun :)

[cjsinkythoughts]

Right From Left

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Avenger!Reader

Word Count: 3085

Warnings: !FATWS SPOILERS!, Cursing, Zemo being a punk, Bucky getting a little scary, some feelings, Sam being his fantastic, amazing, caring for everyone self

A/N: Here it is! At long last! I’ve been waiting for this episode and it was…holy fuck. I barely have words. And I can’t start or else I’ll be ranting for pages. Anyways, I know this Part is a little on the shorter side - not by much, but it still is - and it doesn’t even cover half the episode, but I’ve had a long day and I’m tired, so I’m going to sleep. I wanted to stop before Walker entered the picture too, because then I’m just gonna get more riled up and I’m working later. I’ll probably have another part out today, and then I’ll finish it tomorrow. Unless I can finish it today. I’ll try, but no promises.

Feel free to rant to me about the episode or the show, too, guys! My friends and I have been going back and forth about it for the past few hours. I’d love to hear your thoughts! I think that’s all for now.

As always, this isn’t beta’d so please excuse any mistakes! Thank you for reading, be kind to yourself and others, enjoy this part and stay tuned!

FATWS Masterlist

cjsinkythoughts Masterlist

!SPOILERS BELOW CUT!

You were avoiding him.

When you first got to Latvia, he had pulled you aside, eyes wide and pleading. “Doll, listen-”

“I really don’t think right now is the time to have the discussion we’re about to have.” Shaking your head, you avoided his gaze, your stomach twisting into knots. It was too much for you to handle; you couldn’t focus on the mission at hand and try to unravel the emotions that were making your gut flip like a gymnast. There were too many thoughts in your head, and you needed a clear mind.

“But-”

“Once this is all done, and our lives aren’t in danger. Once we’re back home, then we can talk, okay? Just…please. Not here. Not now.”

And he dropped it. 

It wasn’t that you didn’t want to talk about it. You just couldn’t. You had always been a ‘leave your baggage at the door’ type of person. Don’t mix work with personal. Not like you had much “personal” anyways when you first decided that was how it should be. And then your coworkers became family and your motto got a lot harder to follow. But you still followed it. And you would continue to follow it.

But that made you start avoiding him. Whether you meant to or not, everyone noticed, but no one said anything. Sam shot you a look when you didn’t offer to go with Bucky when he had to check something out. Zemo raised an eyebrow when he came back and, instead of immediately questioning him, you sat still on the couch, eyes glancing up briefly, before going back to playing with the strings of your hoodie.

You were paying attention to their conversation, especially when Karli Morgenthau was brought up, you just didn’t join in. Not even when Zemo mentioned the Avengers, eyeing you to see your reaction.

Honestly, you were tired, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Your shoulder hurt, your brain couldn’t process what the guys were talking about, and your heart couldn’t take any more hits.

It was something you’d been thinking about…you just thought it’d come after this mission.

“She will not stop. She will escalate until you kill her…or she kills you.”

“Maybe you’re wrong Zemo. The Serum never corrupted Steve.”

For the first time since he first walked in, your eyes met Bucky’s. “Touche.” Zemo pointed at Bucky with a pastry around his finger. “But there has never been another Steve Rogers, has there?”

But you couldn’t wait until after this mission. Not when he was so connected to it. “I think I’m gonna go home.” You blurted out before Zemo and Bucky could argue further, Bucky slumping down onto the opposite side of the couch.

The moment the words left your lips, Sam and Bucky shot up, staring at you in disbelief.

“Wait, hold up. What? Now? We’re so close-”

“Why? Is it your arm? Is it hurting? You should’ve told us-”

“I’m just tired.” You cut in, shaking your head. “That’s all. I didn’t expect this to be drawn out this long when you called, Sammy.”

Bucky’s hand twitched as he hesitatingly scooted closer to you. “Doll, if this is because what happened on the jet-”

“It’s not, Buck.” You tried to give him a convincing smile, but you knew by the look in his eyes that he didn’t buy it for one second. You reached over to squeeze his hand, and when you pulled back, he held on tighter, a sigh escaping his lips as he stared down at your linked hands.

“Okay…if you wanna go home, we can get you home. Just…” His head turned back to you, a pleading pout on his features. “Just…stay. Another day. Please. You can keep avoiding me, I won’t even say another word to you if you don’t want. But stay. Just for one more day.”

Chewing on your cheek, you finally nodded slightly. “Okay. One more day.”

His eyes lit up, before his face fell again when you took your hand back and curled into the corner of the couch. “Let’s talk shop, boys.”

“Okay. So, from my understanding, Donya is like a pillar of the community, right?” Sam easily changed the topic back to the situation at hand, giving you a reassuring wink when you smiled at him gratefully. “So when I was a kid, my Tee Tee passed away.”

Bucky screwed his face up in confusion, straightening his head from where he had it leaned back. “Your - your Tee Tee?”

Sam gave him a look. “Yeah. My-my Tee Tee, yeah.”

Bucky looked at him weirdly. “Who is your Tee Tee?”

The exchange made you giggle a little bit, shaking your head. “Bucky’s a city boy from the 40’s, remember, Sammy?”

“Fine.” Sam rolled his eyes. “When I was a kid my aunt passed away.”

Bucky gave a slight huff, making you chuckle again. You stopped when he smiled over at you, but your grin didn’t leave your face. Even when they were the ones to give you a headache, your fellas were damn entertaining, that’s for sure.

With a sort-of plan in place - the gathering for Donya being no more than a theory, but the only idea you really had - you stretched out from your spot on the couch, twisting to crack your back. “Zemo.” The man stopped his rummaging through the cabinets and looked over his shoulder at you, an eyebrow raised. “Go put some clothes on. We’ve got work to do.”

He gave you an unimpressed look, opening his mouth, but Sam beat him to the punch. “Do as the lady says, man. You’re already walking on a tightrope after you shot Nagel!” Zemo waved dismissively at Sam’s exclamation, heading into a separate room to change out of his robe. “That guy is gonna drive me up the wall.”

“Don’t let him get to that pretty head of yours, Sammy.” You hummed, standing up, wincing slightly as you stretched your sore shoulder over your head.

You could tell Bucky wanted to say something, the way he snapped forwards, hands moving down his thigh like he was leaning over to reach for you, his eyes locked on your injured joint, but, just as he said earlier, he didn’t say a word. But the part that made you upset was…you didn’t stop him. You didn’t tell him it was okay for him to talk to you. You didn’t reassure him that you weren’t purposely trying to avoid him. You simply moved over to the kitchen to get something to drink.

It hurt worse than your shoulder, but you couldn’t handle it. Not then. Not with such an important part of the mission coming up. So you didn’t say anything. You just sipped your water, switching into tactic mode as your mind ran through the scenarios of what could possibly go down in the next 24 hours before you went home.

*************************

Walking under the arch, you couldn’t help but feel saddened as Zemo told you about what the courtyard used to look like. Thanos messed the world up so much more than you realized and, as much as you hated to admit it, the Avengers did have a part in it. Not that they - you - were in the wrong, necessarily. You truly believed you did what anyone in that situation, with the skills and abilities and knowledge the team had, would do what you did. Or tried to do.

“I’m gonna take a look around upstairs.” Sam stated, looking up at the upper stories of the building, before glancing at Bucky. “See what you can find out here. And keep an eye on him.”

“I’ll come with you.” You said, turning on your heel to follow Sam. The back of Bucky’s gloved hand brushed against yours, and instinctually you turned your palm to link your fingers and squeezing. You let go quickly once you realized what you were doing, nearly tripping up the stairs to get to Sam, not daring to wait for Bucky’s reaction.

“You’re an idiot.” He stated simply as soon as you met him at the top of the stairs.

“Can we focus on finding Donya right now, please?” You grumbled, moving forwards cautiously, peeking around the corner. You frowned when you saw two guys at the end of the hallway, looking back at you and Sam warily.

“You need to hear what he has to say, cher.”

You sighed, rubbing your forehead. “I know I do. I know. But I can’t. Not right now. I’m just trying to get this over with first. I don’t want too many things on my plate. I might choke.” It already felt like you were drowning most nights.

He paused at your words, giving you a once over, before nodding. “Okay. I can respect that.”

“Thank you.” You told him earnestly. “Now let’s try to get something from these people.”

He nodded in agreement and you two continued forwards with your search. Room after room, people walked out before you could get anything from them, locking doors behind them. The Flag Smashers logo was everywhere, but you expected nothing less from a refugee camp that practically worshipped what they were doing.

Even when you did get a guy to talk to you, he immediately shut you down, leaving you and Sam dejected. The fact that the world had gotten so bad that these people couldn’t trust you and Sam - Avengers; people who used to be heroes and bring hope to others - it made your heart sink.

“C’mon, Y/N.”

“Are we wrong?”

He froze at your question, his lips pressing together. “About what, exactly?”

You shrugged. “I don’t know. I just…I guess I can’t tell right from left anymore. I always assumed that the Avengers were the good guys. That the actions we’ve taken in the past were us making the world a better place, but…Sokovia and Ultron. Germany and the whole civil war thing we had going on. The entire world and Thanos. We don’t truly ever win. Do we?”

“I can’t answer that for you.” Sam shook his head. “I can’t tell you what to believe or who to believe in. But I can tell you that we’ve made a difference. Steve, Nat, Tony…they made a difference.”

“But was it a good difference? Was it a change? There’s a difference between changing the world and just making it different, Sam.”

He blinked at you, nodding slowly. “Yeah. I guess you’re right. And I don’t have that answer for you either. But they tried. They did what they thought was right. No matter if it was or not. And isn’t that all we can do? Try?”

His words made you think back to the conversation you had with Bucky once he learned about John Walker, which seemed so long ago. When you told him it wasn’t Sam’s fault. That he was just trying. That he did what he thought was right. 

And maybe he was wrong. But he made a decision. It was his decision. To do the right thing. And right then, not for the first time, you could see exactly what Steve saw in the man in front of you.

“You’re a good man, Sam.”

Sam grinned, slinging an arm around your shoulders and squeezing. “And you’re an incredible person, Y/N. Let’s go see if Bucky and the Baron got anything.”

You snickered at his mocking tone towards Zemo and nodded. “Yeah. Okay.”

*****************************

You didn’t like it. You didn’t like it one bit. So far, Zemo kept proving you wrong. Even when it seemed like he was about to jump ship, he came back. No matter how many opportunities he had to escape, he never did. And it was making you even more suspicious.

You stayed out of Bucky and Sam’s conversation, although you had to agree with Sam’s point, especially with the conversation you just had.

Your thoughts were running a thousand miles a minute, only to be interrupted by Zemo information about the funeral this afternoon. Guess a snake will always be a snake.

“And you, uh, didn’t think this was important information?” You questioned, eyes narrowed and brow pinched.

He shrugged. “You have it now, don’t you, princess?”

Bucky growled at the nickname, leaning back on the couch, threatening Zemo with the Dora Milaje.

You can’t remember a time you’ve ever been scared of Bucky. Maybe a little threatened and intimidated by the Winter Soldier, but never scared of Bucky. And when he stood up after Zemo mentioned leverage, you didn’t expect anything from it; maybe another choke hold or something. So the glass hitting the wall, the clench in his jaw as he spoke gruffly to the Baron, for a mere second, he kind of frightened you. Maybe it was all the emotions you’d been through the past few weeks or maybe it was the adrenaline that seemed to be pulsing through your veins 24/7 nowadays. Whatever it was, it made you flinch, bolting up as Sam did.

You left the room quickly, hearing Sam say something about making a call, hoping to calm your racing heart.

“Doll?” You sat up from the bed you were laying on, legs hanging off the edge. Bucky stood in the doorway, nervously shifting his feet. “I know I said I’d leave you alone, but…”

You gave the bed a pat next to you and he gladly accepted the invitation, padding over to sit besides you. “I don’t want you to leave me alone, Buck. You’re my best friend. I-I just need to take it one thing at a time right now.”

He nodded. “I get it. I wasn’t…I wasn’t coming in to talk to you about that. You said we’ll talk about it later, so we’ll talk about it later.”

“I appreciate that, Bucky.” You smiled at him, before frowning. “What did you wanna talk about then? Are you okay?”

“Did I…did I scare you?”

You blinked at his question, tilting your head. “What?”

Jerking his head to the doorway he explained, “just then. With Zemo. Your heart spiked.”

“No.” You answered immediately. You would never ever admit that he kind of did scare you. It was just for a second and you knew how his brain worked; he’d beat himself up over it, go over his actions for hours instead of getting the rest he so desperately needs and deserves. He didn’t need that on his conscience right now. “I wasn’t - I just…you startled me. I wasn’t expecting that reaction-”

“I didn’t like the way he talked to you.” He spat out, glaring at his hands in his lap. “And then the smug bastard thought he was gonna get away with holding back information like that and I just…I dunno.”

His hand came off his thigh, but he hesitated. Before he could put it down again, you slipped your hand under his, linking your fingers, running your thumb in circles against his palm. “Don’t let him get to you, Buck. Don’t give him the satisfaction.”

A sigh left his lips and he nodded. “I know, I know. It’s just…hard. After everything he put me through - put us through - I…I just hate that he’s really our only option.”

You frowned, shifting on the bed to face him, one leg bending beneath you while the other still hung over. “Why are you so obsessed with catching these guys?”

“I wanna do something right.” He murmured, playing with your fingers. “I’ve done so much wrong…I just wanna do something right. And I feel...responsible for it, I guess. In a way. It’s Super Soldier Serum. I thought I was the only one after Steve…” He froze at the blonde’s mention, giving you a side-eyed glance. You nudged him, silently telling him to continue, that it was okay to talk about him. “And Sam’s right, you know. She’s just a kid. So…I dunno. I wanna help. I wanna do something right. And catching them would help. It’s right. Right?”

You nodded firmly. “I understand where they’re coming from. Karli’s just trying to help the world. But she’s doing it wrong. And that I know for absolute certainty. Which is good, I guess. I was talking to Sam early and I mentioned not knowing my right from my left recently. It’s good I know something, huh? And for you it should be easy telling your right from your left.” You joked, tracing the gold lines on his metal arm. “I guess you’re just gonna have to stay besides me to help me remember.”

Looking up, you found Bucky staring at you with something you recognized in his eyes, but didn’t want to name. “Three hours, forty two minutes and thirty one seconds.”

“What?”

“That’s how long I didn’t talk to you. It was too long.”

You sighed, ducking your head. “Bucky, I’m sorry-”

“I’m sorry. For anything and everything I’ve ever done wrong. I won’t mention the plane or anything we’ve talked about until you bring it up first. I promise. Just…just don’t ignore me anymore? I'm not sure I can handle it for much longer.”

You nodded, watching your fingertips dance along his scruffy jaw. “I won’t.” He caught your wrist, opening his mouth, before shaking his head and closing it. “What?”

He shook his head again. “Not until you bring it up.”

“We will talk, James. I promise.”

“You don’t have to explain. I get it. I really do. It’s okay. As long as we’re okay for right now, I can hold it in a bit longer.”

You nearly asked him what he was holding in, but you quickly shoved the question out of your mind, knowing it would take you down a conversation you couldn’t possibly have right then. “How long do you think we have?”

He shrugged. “I dunno. Zemo just said that it’s this afternoon. Why?”

“I started reading The Great Gatsby on the plane. I’ve got it on my phone. It kinda reminds me of you. Do you-do you think we have time to read some? Only if you want, I mean. Like we used to do in Wakanda?”

He grinned and nodded, scooting up on the bed and flopping down into the pillows. You smiled back, following his lead. Once you were comfortable, your phone out with the chapter you were on, Bucky scooted closer, laying his head on your stomach, hugging your waist. 

“Is this okay?”

Your fingers found home in his hair and you nodded when he looked up at you for an answer. “Yeah. It’s perfect, Buckaroo.”

[notchesandbullets]

Vintage Books and Midnight Promises (Tattooed!Bakugou x Bookworm!Reader) Modern!AU

Warnings: none, just fluff. features Child!Eijirou, Child!Izuku and brief Dadzawa at the end

Synopsis: Your days are brightened by the appearance of Eijirou and Izuku but you don’t recognize the tattooed man who accompanied the two children into your bookshop one day. But he finds his way into your heart and before you can stop it, you’re already in too deep for the man with tattoos that rippled like the purest form of water and smelled like blueberries hand-picked on the warmest day.

Inspired by: @all1e23 ‘s series “Astrophile” (this is one of my favorite comfort fanfics, i highly recommend it)

Words: 9.8k

It was a beautiful, sunny day.

Steam coming from a hot cup of coffee curled in the air and you sighed as you set down the porcelain teacup that had been a gift from your grandmother on the front desk, sinking deeper into the velvety cushion of your seat as you basked in the tranquility of the empty store before the bell on the door would inevitably ring again.

The musty yet homey scent of secondhand books clung to the worn pages in all the stories of mystery, fantasy and nonfiction that filled the old and rickety oak shelving you had bought at an auction five years ago.

The cornershop sat at the end of a particularly quaint neighborhood in the small town you lived in and you couldn’t imagine anything else more relaxing other than grabbing a cup of coffee from the loft upstairs and curling up with a good book until store hours were over.

You got a steady stream of regulars and occasionally a few new faces here and there that ended up coming back quite frequently. You hoped that had something to do with the notion that they liked to read, since that’s all you could really hold a conversation about.

The latest thriller that was published or that underrated author that never seemed to get enough attention in your opinion, even though their work was such a delight for you to read, whatever it was, you could talk about books for hours.

Maybe that’s why it was so hard to act normal around those vastly more social than you.

Ever since you could remember, you had your nose buried in a book, bumping into street lamps and crashing into people as you failed to look up for even a second to see where you were going.

People never seemed to quite understand you, why you preferred the company of books over people, but you didn’t need them to understand. Books were all you had and you liked to keep it that way.

Books were consistent and there would always be more literature to read.

Luckily, it was a weekday so business was pretty slow and in just another hour, you would be free to finish up repainting the storefront.

But first, you needed to conclude this book. You were so close to the ending and the author had been stringing you along on a thread of hope that the protagonist was going to make it out and save the day, you were on the edge of your seat!!

Your eyes flitted across the pages at a speed too fast for human eyes to comprehend and you were so engrossed in the book that you didn’t notice the shadow that passed by outside.

You jumped as the door to your little bookshop flew open with a bang, losing your balance from where you had been perched on your favorite stool and crashed to the floor.

Sitting up with a groan of pain, you rubbed your now sore bottom and winced. “Ow…”

You hadn’t anticipated someone coming and wreaking havoc on your little shop. It was a good thing you had a good memory and had marked the page you left off of in your head or else that customer that had so rudely barged in would be getting more than just some curt words from you.

“Sorry.” A curt and gruff apology came from over the counter and your mouth pressed in a hard line as you got to your feet.

“Is everything alright?” You asked slowly, brushing the dust off of your clothes and making eye contact with the stranger for the first time.

In front of you was some punk who had incredibly intricate tattoos visible on his arms.

You eyed him up and down. He was pretty tall. Okay, correct that, he towered a good head over you, but what was the most intimidating was that scowl on his face that looked like it was permanently glued there for some reason.

His shoulders were broad and even under that sleeveless tank he was wearing, his muscles rippled and you rolled your eyes.

So he was one of those.

But you stopped a bit of ink twining up his neck and cocked an eyebrow at the prospect of him having more underneath his clothes.

You didn’t react despite where your mind just went, internally screaming at yourself to get a grip.

Guys like him didn’t randomly walk into a bookshop like yours. You had half a mind to call the police, thinking he was about to loot your store, but hesitated because he hadn’t done anything and it was wrong to judge someone you didn’t know under stereotypes that were groomed into you from a young age.

Not to mention, if he actually was going to rob you for whatever reason, he wouldn't have announced his presence like that.

Unless he was an idiot. Either one was equally possible at the moment while you waited for him to say something. Anything.

“Didn’t mean to scare you.” He said shortly after a pause, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly and your stance softened a bit when you noticed how uncomfortable he looked. You could understand that feeling.

Plastering a smile on your face, you leaned back and shrugged, accepting what you suspected to be his version of an apology. “It’s okay, it was an accident.”

“Miss Y/N!!! Miss Y/N!!! Down here!!!”

“We’re down here!!!”

The small, childish chorus had your eyes brightening up in an instant as you recognized the voices and you were racing out from behind the counter within a second.

“Eijirou, Izuku!!” You knelt down to hug both of the toddlers tightly. “I didn't know you two were coming today!!”

They normally came on the weekends with their dad, it was so rare to see them on a weekday, with a new face nonetheless.

Eijirou’s shiny red eyes blinked up at you and he beamed brightly while Izuku shuffled his feet self-consciously, sniffling as he clutched his All Might plushie tight to his chest.

You cooed, lifting his chin sweetly to wipe away the tears. “What's wrong, Izuku?”

He sniffled, hugging his comfort plushie tighter as he pointed up to the scowling man that had accompanied them. “He… He’s mean.”

The ash-blond’s forehead creased in annoyance as you sent him a questioning look. “Shut your mouth, you fucking brat!!”

You covered Eijirou and Izuku’s ears, glaring at him. He matched it in intensity and it wasn’t until you saw how he wasn’t going to back down that you sighed, breaking off eye contact and conceding as you caught the tears streaming down Izuku’s round cheeks.

“Yeah, he’s big and scary, let’s leave him here, okay?” You said to the little boy, pretending not to notice the punk’s glare following the two of you as you led the now cheered up Izuku over to the back of the store.

Every time they came, you made sure to have the children’s area brushed up for them. The floor to ceiling windows in that one corner in the back had deep purple curtains drawn open during the day, shining light directly on the soft leather sofa that belonged to your family.

The perfect place to read.

A tug on the man’s hand had him looking down.

“Bakugou!!” The red-haired toddler shouted excitedly, frantically pulling him to where you were at only to run out of breath from his efforts as the man didn’t budge. “I want to go too!!”

“You’re staying here where I can see you, Shitty Hair.” Bakugou grumbled, running an exasperated hand through his spiky hair as he waited for the other brat to come back so that they could leave.

“You can come with!!” Eijirou begged, still trying to convince the stubborn man who was their guardian for the time being while their dad was busy. He huffed and puffed but still he didn’t move an inch.

He snorted haughtily, his grip tightening on the brat’s when he switched tactics and tried to pry off the hand that was holding his. “Like hell I would.”

Eijirou’s lower lip wobbled dangerously as he stopped fighting. “But you promised!!”

Bakugou inwardly groaned and looked away from the toddler. Tears from the brats were his fucking weakness and he hated it. But he still wasn’t going to let him.

The only reason why he agreed to take them here in the first place was because they wouldn’t shut up, begging for him to take them to the bookstore that they visited every week with their dad over and over again, promising that they wouldn’t ask for anything else the whole rest of the day.

They just wanted to see you.

Bakugou only agreed because they crossed their hearts that they would be quiet if he took them and if they didn’t make good on their word, then he would blow them up.

But what he didn’t mention was that he was a little intrigued by the girl that they talked about excitedly all the way there.

Tch, shitty brats. Fucking annoying.

Eijirou never cared about his threats when he declared that he would blow them up, going so far as to smile brightly in his face, completely unaffected while that shitty nerd’s face went ashen and lost all its color as he cowered behind his brother to avoid the scary man that towered over them.

Izuku lacked the spine that Eijirou had.

Bakugou pushed off the counter that he was leaning against as you came back into view with a happy Izuku in tow.

Eijirou visibly deflated and tears welled up at the corners of his eyes. “You’re all done? B-But I wanted to pick some out too!!”

You hushed him softly as you saw how close he was to sobbing, crouching down to his level and ruffled his hair. “You can choose what you want too, Eiji.”

His whole face lit up. “Really?!”

“Of course!!” You reassured with a smile, the edges of your eyes crinkling as you stood up and offered him your other hand that wasn’t joined with Izuku’s. But after Izuku swung your hand, you took that as your cue to let go. “Come on!!”

This time, Bakugou wasn’t fast enough to intervene as Eijirou took your hand and zoomed off with you trailing behind him, practically dragging you behind him as he took on the personality of a race car. He gritted his teeth in annoyance, wanting nothing more than to leave this place that had absolutely no business with and he clenched his hands into fists, storming over to where the two of you ran off to with full intention of grabbing the shitty brat and exiting with nothing more than a word.

But he faltered at the sound of your laughter bouncing off the bookshelves and unconsciously retracted his hand as he turned the corner.

To be honest, he didn’t know what made him stop. But seeing you there, with Eijirou tuckered out in your lap as you read him a book, Izuku bounding past him just to cuddle up on your other side was making him soft.

Fuck emotions. He hated having a heart.

You were seated on a huge, tan leather sofa that looked worn with age and was packed with brightly-colored pillows that looked much softer than he wanted to admit as he found himself drifting towards the three of you.

Truth be told, he only took them here because they were begging for either this or the zoo and he could not fucking stand the zoo.

What the fuck was so interesting about animals locked in a pen?

“Get up brats, we’re leaving.” Bakugou barked, glaring pointedly at the fucking brats when they cracked their eyes open as you stopped reading.

A chorus of whines and protests followed by some very pouty begging made you crack a smile at his unchanging demeanor.

“You know~” You sang, holding back a giggle at the suspicious look the man shot you as you shut the children’s book you were reading in favor of glancing at the two kids out of the corner of your eye. “I do have a ton of pizza that needs to be finished today. I don't suppose there's anyone out there that can help me with such a big task.”

Izuku and Eijirou shrieked in delight, bouncing up and down on the sofa, alternating between screaming yes and pleading for him to let them stay.

Bakugou, on the other hand, was fucking irritated as hell.

You were trying to bribe him with pizza? How un-fucking-believable. You were worse than the two troublemakers shrieking so loud, it felt like his head was going to split. He didn’t believe what he just heard. But was it working?

Yup.

Because your sundress flared around your knees as you crossed your legs to accommodate both the boys. The tresses of your hair fell around your face so softly he vaguely wondered if it was even possible for someone to look so innocent while conducting a pizza scheme.

Izuku scratched his head cutely as he yawned widely, exhausted from all the hopping he just did as Eijirou began to jump up and down around you, his endless energy coming off of him in waves.

“We can help!!!” He cried, tugging Izuku upright and the little boy stumbled, landing on his rear on the couch with an ‘oof’.

But he didn't cry. Instead, he tilted his head curiously and blinked. “We can?”

“Yes!!” Eijirou insisted. He wanted pizza. He loved pizza. And Bakugou never treated them to it whenever he watched them, he said it would make them fat. “Please Bakugou!!!”

You raised an eyebrow as you heard the punk’s name for the first time. It sounded fitting for such a stoic and emotionless person that he was portraying at the moment as he crossed his arms over his chest and glared at the red-haired toddler.

Bakugou rolled his eyes. “What did I tell you about referring to your elders, Shitty Hair?”

“Ahh!!” You blurted out, sending him a sharp look that was meant to reprimand him. “Don't swear in front of them!!”

Bakugou glared at you uncaringly and you matched it, throwing in a pout for good measure.

You had no idea what was giving you all this confidence now. You had never been this comfortable interacting with a stranger. You blamed it on the children. They were far too familiar.

The moment of silence as you glared at each other was broken when both of the boys jumped down from the sofa at the same time.

Weird.

“Ahh, don’t go too far!!” You called out after them as you sprang up. “And don’t leave the store!!”

“M’kay!!!” Eijirou shouted back as he tugged Izuku, who was struggling to catch up, behind him. “Can I flip the sign, Miss Y/N?”

You giggled, hiding a grin from Bakugou as you nodded even though they couldn’t see. “Yes, just be careful and don’t go outside!!”

As he yelled that he knew back at you, you moved into a better light so that that one bookshelf wasn’t blocking your view of them so you could see them. Once you were in direct line of sight, your smile softened as you saw Eijirou lift Izuku up so that he could reach the sign and flip it around to show that you were closed for the day.

“They’re so sweet to each other.” You murmured to yourself.

The closeness of Bakugou’s scoff had you jumping back in surprise and you winced as your back crashed into the bookshelf behind you.

“Geez, I was going to say hell no.” Bakugou started as he chortled, smirking at you as you collected yourself. “But you’re even more of a klutz than that shitty nerd is.”

Brushing down your skirt, you coughed a couple times to cover up your blush of embarrassment. “I am not.”

“Uh, yeah you are.”

“Oh hush.” You snapped at him as the boys came bounding back, Izuku proudly holding up another book he wanted you to read for him that he found on the way back.

You giggled and ruffled his hair affectionately before asking if they’d like to continue reading here or up in the loft, to which they both sprinted to the stairs.

Well, that answered that question.

You sent a smile over your shoulder, inviting the grumpy man to follow you. “You coming or what?”

Bakugou hid a smirk as you turned back around and followed the hyperactive kids up the stairs.

You sure were interesting, he’d give you that.

And that night, the four of you fell asleep in the loft, with four boxes of cheese, pepperoni and half-eaten vegetarian pizzas surrounding you as Izuku curled up beside you and Eijirou snored on top of Bakugou’s head.

You were very happy to see that it wasn’t the last time you saw the forever annoyed man who had barged into your store.

It had been a month since that day. And since then, Bakugou had become a regular face and you dreaded how you subconsciously looked forward to when he would show up randomly.

One time, he had popped in your store just to grunt out a greeting and toss a bag at you, demanding that you eat it or else he would fucking kill you, before leaving.

Opening it up, you saw the freshly-baked blueberry muffin inside. And when you bit into it, it was delicious.

The only thing that confused you was that there was no good bakery around here, so you had absolutely no idea where he got it from.

Today, another weekday, they came again all bright smiles and sunshine and you bolted off your stool, abandoning your freshly-brewed coffee to greet them before they could even step into the bookstore.

There were still a few hours of daylight until closing time and you had some more things to finish up.

Bakugou leaned against the wall as you rearranged the display on the top shelf. The ever energetic Izuku and Eijirou had sped over to their corner the second they ran into the store, greeting you over their shoulder as the two boys tunneled past you.

You had pouted but let them go have their fun since tonight would be another night of pizza and soft drinks while you read them their favorite books.

Last time, Eijirou came to you with a stack of at least fifteen and you nearly had a laughing fit when one of them was a little too high for his age group.

He could read all those young adult novels with glorious battles featuring knights and dragons when his vocabulary increased a bit more.

A green-haired boy with freckles toddled up to you with his counterpart and buddy in crime nowhere to be seen.

Giggling, you approved the ones that Izuku held up to you with wide eyes blinking slowly.

“I’ll read it for you a little later, yeah?” You said, patting his head.

“Okay!!”

You flailed for a second as you lost your balance, the little boy disappearing from sight once again before he could realize you were off kilter due to the speed that he zipped at but a pair of strong hands settled on your waist to steady you.

Lips parting in surprise, you turned around to see Bakugou’s trademark sneer as he stared up at you.

“Dumbass.”

“Hey!!” You protested, all gratitude gone, and your lips pursed in a firm line as you disputed his claim.

But you were startled at the rough rumble that emitted from his chest and it took you a second to realize that he was laughing. At your expense, but still, it warmed your heart to hear.

“Well, look at that.” You teased. “He’s not so cold after all.”

“Tch.” Bakugou’s amusement faded as he glared at you for that but you just brushed it off.

You turned your attention back to the top shelf but misjudged the distance as you stretched out your hand. Yelping as one of the stool legs gave out, you careened to the side and squeezed your eyes shut, bracing yourself for the impact.

But your eyes shot open as you didn’t hit the ground like you expected. Instead, you landed on something softer than the hardwood floor.

When a pained groan sounded underneath you, you scrambled upright.

“Oh my gosh!! I’m so sorry!!!”

Bakugou had somehow cushioned your fall, making you land on him rather than crash to the ground.

Your cheeks flamed when you realized you were straddling his waist, hands splayed on his chest and you squeaked when he caught you staring.

“Oi, are you going to fucking stare at me all day?” Bakugou snarked and you huffed, clambering off of him clumsily.

It was a good thing you weren’t wearing a dress today. That would’ve been so embarrassing.

“I’m really sorry.” You apologized again, sheepishly tucking your hair behind your ear as you tried to appear less frazzled than you felt as he picked himself up from the floor.

Before he could say anything, though it was probably something not very nice, Izuku ran around the corner with Eijirou hot on his heels.

“Miss Y/N!!!” Izuku called out breathlessly, his chubby cheeks flushed pink from running so fast. “Miss Y/N!!! I have a secret to tell you!!”

“Izuku, I want to tell her!!!” Eijirou complained with a small pout.

“No, I want to!!!” He pushed back fiercely before he turned to you with bright forest green eyes and beamed. “Miss Y/N—”

“Bakugou has a crush on you!!!!” Eijirou interrupted, dancing in circles around you and out of Bakugou’s reach as the man swiped at him.

Bakugou snarled as the toddler screeched and dived in between his legs to escape him. “Get back here, you fucking brat!!!!”

Izuku tugged on your pant leg, tears brimming in his eyes as his lower lip trembled. “M-Miss Y/N…”

Your giggles died down as Bakugou continued to chase Eijirou and you smiled reassuringly, bending down to pick him up.

“Aww, it’s okay, Izuku.” You reassured with a chirpy smile. “If you want, we can just pretend you told me, yeah?”

He smiled and kicked his feet happily, giggling as he waved his All Might plushie back and forth.

“Do we get to stay tonight too?”

“Yup!!” You beamed, hoisting him higher as you collected the book that you needed to put away and balance it on your head so that you could hold the toddler with two hands. “I already checked it with your dad and he said it was okay!!”

Aizawa had sounded stressed when you called him but that was to be expected. His line of work was tough but he had quickly agreed to it. He had interacted with you enough to know that you looked out for them almost as much as he did.

Besides, in the small town, word got around fast. If there was dirt on you, he would’ve heard about it by now.

Izuku tugged on your braid innocently to catch your attention. “Can we leave him downstairs when you read to us?”

You giggled and booped his nose, watching it scrunch up cutely. You already knew he was talking about Bakugou. “Why do you want him to stay downstairs?”

Izuku pouted. “Because he snores too loud.”

“Hah?! Say it to my face, Deku!!!” Bakugou’s yell echoed from somewhere on the other side of the store and you slapped a hand over your mouth to stop yourself from bursting out laughing.

“C’mon,” You said softly, bouncing Izuku on your hip as you crept around the other side. “Let’s go see if we can help Eiji and then we’ll sneak upstairs before he finds us, yeah?”

“Yayyy!!!” Izuku cheered happily.

“FOUND YOU, SHITTY NERD!!!”

“Uh oh, Miss Y/N, run!!!!!”

An hour and a lot of duct tape later, Bakugou was sitting in the punishment chair for those that misbehaved while you read to the boys upstairs.

About ten minutes later, you flicked the lights off upstairs as you headed back down, being careful about which lamps to turn on since you didn’t want to wake the kids.

You fought back a grin as you saw the poorly wrapped duct tape tying his wrist to the chair. Apparently you could’ve been more clear to the boys that since the stuff was sticky, they didn’t have to necessarily tie it around his arm like string.

You were quite sure that Bakugou could've gotten up if he wanted to so you left him down there but when you finished the last book and he was nowhere to be seen, you came downstairs only to find him in the exact same position you left him in.

“What's wrong? Tied you up too tight?” You teased, knowing it had no merit.

“Ha ha, you’re so fucking funny.” Bakugou glowered at you, then his blank expression morphed into subtle curiosity. “The brats asleep?”

“Yeah,” You said, rubbing your arms as a breeze blew by and you frowned as you held out your hand and started to follow it all the way to its source and it only furrowed deeper when you deduced that it was coming from a crack in the front door. “Rats.”

“What the…” Bakugou trailed off as he came up behind you and at this point you didn’t even flinch.

For someone who was so tall and had such a fit physique, he sure moved like the wind. You were used to it by now.

You sighed, planting your hands on your hips after testing the lock to make sure it still worked properly. Thank goodness that was still fine. “It happens every winter. I think it has something to do with the wood and the weather when the temperature drops but I already fixed it this past season so I don’t know why…”

Burrowing your face in your hands, you groaned and tried to put it in back of your mind for now.

But Bakugou’s brow knitted at the safety concern and he jangled the knob to play around with it.

By the time you had stopped trying to think of ways to solve this problem temporarily until you had the means for a more permanent solution, Bakugou had fixed it.

Your jaw dropped as you saw he had stuffed some kind of weather strip you had laying in the corner with the rest of the maintenance tools collecting dust and bluntly claimed he’d fix it in the morning for you.

“You don’t have to do that!!” You cried out, feeling bad and not wanting to owe him anything.

Bakugou snorted. “That wasn’t a fucking question, dumbass.”

You opened your mouth to protest but the pitter-patter of tiny feet scaling down the stairs made you both raise your heads.

Your eyes filled with concern as you saw the little boy dragging a blankie behind him with his thumb stuck in his mouth.

“Izuku?” You rushed over and dropped down to the floor, not caring how you scraped your knees in the process. “What’s wrong?”

He sniffled and wiped his nose with the back of his hand.

“... had a nightmare…” He mumbled under his breath, close to tears and your gaze softened sympathetically.

Opening your arms to him, you caught yourself as he ran into you and you walked back to where Bakugou was observing.

Nightmare. You mouthed at him and his eyes grew dark for a second.

You didn’t understand why but you didn’t ask any questions as you focused on consoling the crying boy.

“Hey, Izuku,” You whispered softly when he had calmed down enough to be coherent and tell you a little what it was about. “You know what always makes me feel better?”

He blinked up at you. “Pizza?”

You giggled and tapped his nose gently. “Well yes, but I was thinking more along the lines of ice cream…”

You didn’t miss the way eyes lit up and he automatically turned to an indifferent Bakugou watching the both of you while leaning against the wall with a pleading expression, and immediately, the man was shaking his head violently.

“Hell no.” He refused flatly. Upon the fresh tears that welled up in Izuku’s eyes, he turned to you, as though he needed to prove to you that he had a good reason for saying no. “It’s late out.”

“There’s a 24/7 store that carries ice cream right down the street.” You supplied helpfully, smiling innocently when he glared at you.

Bakugou sighed heavily and ran his fingers through his hair, gripping it in frustration. “It’s dark, Y/N. It’s dangerous.”

“I can go.” You suggested, trying to pry off an Izuku who was clinging to you.

“The hell? Fuck no.” Bakugou hissed and you sighed, giving up on trying to make the green bundle that was pretending to be a leech unstick from you.

“I’ll be right back.” You negotiated. “It’s not even that far—”

“You’re not going.”

You balked at the unrelenting tone he took with you but shut your mouth when you saw the look in his eyes. The look that told you he had seen things that he probably would never tell you.

You saw it in the way his hands shook ever so slightly when he held either Eijirou or Izuku, like he was afraid they would disappear on him the second he let go. You knew that kind of fear and you didn’t argue against him.

But before you could smile sadly at Izuku for letting him down, Bakugou was stomping upstairs and waking up the other slumbering toddler.

There was a muffled shout and then a grunt from above.

“Wake up, Shitty Hair.”

“Eh?! Where are we going?!”

You winced as a crash sounded from the upper level. You didn’t want to know what he broke this time.

But you followed Bakugou’s thinking. Even if the door was sturdy for now, it wasn’t a good idea to leave a child alone for whatever reason, even if you weren’t going to be gone long. If Eijirou woke up all alone, there was a good possibility he would venture outside by himself and that wouldn’t be good.

Besides, Eijirou would be sad if he missed out on this adventure.

It had taken five minutes for Bakugou to wrangle Eijirou, who was way too energetic this late at night, and an additional ten just before the four of you left the store.

Bakugou locked it behind you as you carried Izuku out.

Initially, he had insisted that he could carry him to give you a break but you told him you didn’t mind.

And you really didn’t. The little boy was snoozing softly against your shoulder and you were happy that you could provide some small amount of comfort to him after such a scary bad dream.

The trip was pretty uneventful. Nothing happened, you guys got there safely, Bakugou paid for more ice cream than you guys could consume in one night, saying something about how it was so he didn’t have to do this whole thing again and you walked back.

There were some stragglers out and you got a couple of glances that normally would’ve made your skin crawl but for some reason, this time you felt reassured as Bakugou drifted to your side and kept you close as he made sure Eijirou didn’t let go of his hand.

Eijirou was good, for the most part.

He was unusually serious and didn’t goof off inside the grocery store like he did in your bookshop and you were grateful for that. You didn’t know if you had the energy to chase him down like Bakugou had done earlier if he decided he wanted to play hide-and-seek.

At one point, Bakugou’s free hand that wasn’t busy holding onto the tubs of ice cream or Eijirou, to make sure he didn’t wander off, crept around your shoulders and pulled you close when someone who was drunk out of their minds strayed too close to you.

“Back the fuck off.” He growled protectively as he tucked you and Izuku into his side, glaring at them until they got the message and went on their way.

You were thankful that there wasn’t enough light for him to see the blush present on your cheeks and as you stepped back inside the safety of your bookstore, the boys going after the comfort ice cream like puppies with ice, you didn’t know quite how to feel when his scorching touch left you.

And you wondered why your heart was beating so fast.

By the time the next weekend had rolled around, it was their twentieth time coming together and you were starting to get a bit alarmed at how familiar their appearance was. You actually had to stop in your tracks when you realized you not only were looking forward to seeing Izuku and Eijirou but also Bakugou.

Crap.

That punk had wormed his way into your heart even more but you’d be damned if you let him stay there.

Convincing yourself you’d get over this petty little crush before it became a problem, you picked out some gifts for the two boys the next time you would see them.

By the time you had walked down the street to your shop from the toy store, you actually realized that they beat you to it. You had to calm the two toddlers down as they ran up to greet you, Eijirou vastly quicker on his feet than Izuku, even though the little boy tried his hardest.

They squealed as you gave them presents, showing them off to Bakugou and sped off into their corner to go play. Just like clockwork.

“So…” You started, cringing at how awkward you sounded now that you were alone with Bakugou. “Where’s their dad today?”

Bakugou coughed, then cleared his throat. “You mean that scruffy old man?”

You cracked a smile. “That’s the one.”

He was always with them. He was the first one to bring the boys in on a slow day, which quickly livened up due to the endless amount of energy contained inside a little Eijirou and a tiny Izuku.

Midgets. You loved them so much.

Their cheeks were so squishy, too. Adorable.

It had been months since you had last seen Aizawa and you were a little bit worried about him. But you figured if anyone would know if he was okay would be the man entrusted to watch his sons.

Bakugou sighed, crossing his arms over his chest so that his muscles bulged out from that sleeveless tank he was wearing. The patches of ink rippled in the light and moved almost like it was real. “Aizawa-sensei’s not their dad but he acts like it too fucking much to pretend that it’s not true anymore.”

You giggled at his harsh words edged with a bit of something else you couldn’t quite put your finger on. Something that sounded like begrudging fondness.

Bakugou jerked his chin to where Izuku was chasing after Eijirou, begging him to help him get a book down from the shelf. Usually, you’d go help them but the adorable little toddler puffed out his chest and started clambering up the step ladder to get it.

Bakugou had bought that one himself to replace the rickety one you had accidentally broken and fallen off of so you knew it was sturdy. They would only fall off of it if they weren’t careful but you were within sight of them so you weren’t too worried.

“He’s enlisted in the military so he can’t always watch them even after they blacklisted him. His old unit just recently got reinstated.” Bakugou said with a scowl, not bothering to elaborate on that, but his eyes softened the tiniest bit as Izuku huffed and puffed to catch up with Eijirou, his little legs working overtime to compensate for his lack of height. “So he gave the brats to me to make sure they didn’t kill themselves or something.”

You grinned, clasping your hands behind your back and stuck your face close to his, skirt swirling around your ankles as you sent him a cheeky smile.

“You volunteered, didn’t you?”

“Shut the hell up, no I didn’t!!” He shouted but you bit back the smile threatening to overtake your entire face.

“You’re too easy to read~” You teased.

Bakugou grabbed for you but you dodged easily. Gritting his teeth in determination, he ran after you and you yelped at how quickly he was gaining on you.

Damn, it was a bad day to wear these shoes.

You ducked around the corner only for him to catch up to you in a split second. You squeaked as he slammed you into the bookshelf, caging you in between his arms as he smirked down at you.

“I won.” He declared triumphantly.

You rolled your eyes and stuck out your tongue. “Such a child.”

Bakugou scowled. You were one to talk, taunting him like you two were friends or something. “Oi, fucking take that back.”

Your eyes glinted mischievously. “Or you’ll do what? Try to punch me again? Maybe this time you’ll actually land one and not miss like a lose—”

You gasped as his chest bumped into yours, his red eyes glimmering dangerously. His breath was hot against your face and your heart stopped.

“I don’t fucking lose.” He growled.

You gulped. Perhaps you had crossed a line. Your gaze darted away from him for a second, not even bothering to push him away because you knew you couldn’t.

“Thank you.”

Bakugou raised an eyebrow in surprise but masked it quickly. “For what?”

“For the other day.” You clarified. “I think I would’ve been screwed if you hadn’t come with, so thank you.”

He snorted and looked away. “Don’t mention it, dumbass.”

You were going to leave it at that but at that moment, a soft giggle floated through the air along with some very loud and obvious shushing.

Bakugou immediately tore after the little brats without a second thought as both Eijirou and Izuku poked their heads around the corner to spy on you and you threw your head back and laughed.

They were so goofy but maybe that crush they had told you about that you had so easily dismissed at first wasn’t so ridiculous after all.

While you were busy helping other customers throughout the day, Bakugou occasionally came to check in on you and make sure you were taking your breaks and eating, all while reassuring you that the shitty brats were fucking fine and you didn’t need to be worried about shit.

He could handle it.

You smiled and waved a hand at him when he left, giggling when he flipped you the bird before turning to the next person who wanted to check out.

The sun set and night fell, all along with the comfortable routine you had grown accustomed to having with all three of the boys.

But you bolted upright as Eijirou nonchalantly revealed something you didn’t expect the instant you finished setting up the tent for movie night.

“IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY?!?!” You screeched in Bakugou’s ear.

Bakugou clapped a hand over your mouth, sending you a death glare, undoubtedly for your insanely loud volume, but you wrangled him off of you.

“Bu— You— Why didn’t you say something?!”

He looked at you as though you were crazy. You two barely knew each other and if he knew it was going to spur on this reaction, he definitely would’ve stopped Shitty Hair from saying that shit.

Too late now.

Bakugou slumped back against the makeshift fort you had set up for the boys in the loft. Said troublesome toddlers were currently going to town on your DVD collection so that they could choose a movie for tonight.

You only had cartoons from your childhood so it was a perfect selection for them. They were currently hunting through the bookshelf in your room that was connected to upper floor, just down the hall.

“What the hell is there to tell?” He grunted in your direction, a deep seated scowl on his features from the starry blankets and pillows that surrounded him.

You frowned. Growing up, birthdays had always been days that you looked forward to. The parties, the presents, family and friends to celebrate it with, you always loved it. Maybe there was a reason he didn’t want to celebrate it.

Glancing at him out of the corner of your eye, you idly rocked back and forth as you thought about how best to approach the reproachful man.

Bakugou sighed and glared at your crossly. You weren’t going to let this go until he gave you an answer.

“There ain’t no deep reason for it, none of that bullshit.” He ground out eventually and you perked your head up, listening attentively. “I don’t see what’s so special about the day I was born, it’s the same as every other fucking day.”

He was caught off guard as you rapidly shook your head, crying out at his words.

“It’s not!!” You implored earnestly, the roots to your ideals running deep as you leaned forward. “The day you were born is so special!! It celebrates your life, Katsuki!!”

Bakugou swallowed hard. Your proximity was making it very hard to breathe. That light in your eyes, the one that was able to find happiness in even the smallest of things, he didn’t understand it.

It was the same kind of light that Deku had. How fucking annoying.

“Damn idiot.” He muttered as he turned your face away from you so that he wouldn’t be tempted to kiss your lips. They looked so soft…

Fuck, he was screwed over. Quick, he had to think of something else.

Luckily, the distraction came in the form of two very energetic boys barreling into the tent. You collapsed in a fit of giggles as Eijirou returned from his adventure and tunneled into you, Izuku tripping on the way in only to be caught by the back of his collar by a reluctant Bakugou.

Eijirou quickly fumbled with the DVD, holding the cartoons he and Izuku had selected together up proudly for you to see.

You cooed, pinching his cheeks and praised them for making such a good choice. This one was one of your favorites when you were younger and you hadn’t seen it in a while so this was as much a treat for them as it was for you.

The little tent was a bit more cramped than you had anticipated, especially with the two hyperactive boys added into the mix, but it was doable for now. Your leg was pressed up against Bakugou’s warm thigh but you tried not to think about it as you popped the DVD into the small TV you had set up on a table outside of the cozy fort.

Eijirou snuggled up in your lap while Izuku hesitated to climb onto a very comfy looking hothead, who was actually quite tame at the moment.

Unfolding his arms, Bakugou's lip curled back in a scowl. "Tch, hurry up, nerd."

You couldn't even bring yourself to say anything about his language because while Eijirou seemed largely unaffected by it, Izuku’s forest green eyes actually sparked as he recognized the indirect permission granted.

It was actually quite adorable how the boys could read the disgruntled older man like a book.

Bakugou attempted to hide it from you but he couldn't stop you from seeing how gently he rested his large hand on top of Izuku’s little green curls. The tent didn't provide that much privacy.

Not wanting him to stop showing the rare display of affection towards the affection-starved child, you averted your eyes so that he could carry on. You knew he would retract his hand so fast if he thought you were looking at them.

You didn't want to ruin the moment.

Snuggling back into the plushy pillow, you held onto Eijirou as he curled onto your stomach, straining to see the small screen that lit up with moving pictures.

“Izuku, it’s starting!!” He exclaimed excitedly.

There was a crash and then a loud swear and as you looked over to make sure that Izuku and Bakugou were both alright, you had to clap a hand over your mouth to keep yourself from laughing at the scene that you were presented with.

At Eijirou’s well intended announcement, Izuku had hurried upright, knocking back into Bakugou at the same time as he scrambled forward to be able to see.

But in doing so, he had tripped over the cord connecting the TV to the outlet that was behind you and fell forward. Right as the box came crashing down, aimed directly for his head.

Luckily, no one was hurt.

Bakugou had caught Izuku by the collar of his shirt and hauled him back, out of harm’s way before anything could happen to him.

Any other time, you would’ve voiced how impressed you were but now you were just worried about the little boy, who was openly crying, apologizing over and over again for breaking it.

“It’s alright, Izuku.” You reassured gently, patting his head comfortingly. His emerald eyes shimmered with unshed tears as he blinked up at your, his freckled cheeks flushed an embarrassed shade of pink and your eyes softened. “You’re safe, so no harm done!! Don’t worry, okay?”

He sniffled and shakily nodded.

Bakugou had yet to say anything but his fingers were still curled protectively around Izuku’s stomach, ensuring that he didn’t move around carelessly. Next time, he might not be as lucky. Not that he was going to admit that he was scared or anything.

How fucking ridiculous.

While you switched out Eijirou with Izuku to calm him down, Bakugou took charge in cleaning up the shattered shards of cheap plastic that had broken upon impact.

Your TV wasn’t completely destroyed but the plastic screen had cracked at the corner. For something so old, it sure was robust, he’d give it credit for that.

Eijirou tugged on his hand, losing his balance and Bakugou’s arm shot out to prevent him from face-planting in the shards that he had just swept up.

“Watch what you’re doing, Shitty Hair.” He growled, concern masked under his sharp reprimanding and he glared at the now sheepish toddler.

“C’mere, Eiji.” You coaxed, waving your hand to have him come closer to you so that he was out of the way until Bakugou got rid of the small, clear pieces hiding on the floor. “I don’t want you to get hurt, so let’s stay out of his way, yeah?”

Eijirou nodded vigorously, finding the logic in your words with relative ease and agreeing with them instinctively.

Sighing to yourself, you unplugged the TV so that an electrical surge wouldn’t cause a fire. That was the last thing you needed.

You were sad that the boys were disappointed with the short-lived movie night. But Bakugou insists that he can fix it just like he fixed your front door so the three of you waited for him to work his magic while you curled up with a good book to read to them.

You had already asked if he wanted help but he glowered at you for suggesting such an insane thing and you backed off with a shit-eating grin.

After almost an hour of reading books and playing games to pass the time, he got it up and running again, laying the cable on top of the fort you built so that it was out of the way, making it impossible for anyone else to trip on it again.

This time, everything ran smoothly and all of you gorged yourselves on popcorn and soda as the cheesy cartoons played out on the screen, thoroughly entertaining the two little boys while you and Bakugou stole glances at each other the entire time.

By the time it finished, Izuku was already fast asleep and Eijirou was struggling to keep his eyes open.

You put them both to bed, Bakugou’s soft half-smile going over your head as you tucked them into the spare futon you had set up for them specifically, almost three months ago, when this all started.

“You’re too fucking soft.” Bakugou decided as you two went downstairs to let the boys sleep.

It was familiar, it was routine. After every night when they fell asleep, you two would stay up talking for hours about anything and everything.

He eventually opened up to you about the life he had been involved in before he met Aizawa, who saved his life. After that, he reformed, he got clean, the whole nine yards.

And you were proud of him.

You told him about your life, though it probably was nothing at all that interesting compared to his problems that he dealt with. But surprisingly, you found him nodding along understandingly as you voiced your hardships with being anti-social and having a bunch of insecurities and anxieties that often made talking to people a nerve-wracking experience and you were astonished to find the weight that uplifted as soon as he put in his two cents and said that he really did understand.

You skipped ahead of him, spinning around to tell him how much you’ve grown to look forward to your conversations when the guarded look on his face made the confession die on your lips.

“You okay?” You asked concernedly, approaching him cautiously to give him enough time to push you away if he wanted to be left alone.

He grunted in your direction. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

But he didn’t sound fine. His voice was strained and a bead of sweat ran down his forehead.

Biting your lip, you tilted your head contemplatively. Ice cream and books generally made you feel better when you had a bad day but you realized you had no idea what comforted him.

Gingerly, you took his hand and frowned when you saw the faded scars. He had been hurt.

“What do you need?” You asked softly and he sighed in defeat.

“What’s your favorite book?” He grumbled out and your mouth parted in surprise at the odd request.

Wordlessly, you led him over to the counter to grab the same book you had been reading that day he had first barged in and so rudely knocked you off your stool.

You held it up to him and still holding your hand, he led you in the back where you normally sat with the boys to read to them.

“Katsuki?” You questioned.

He gritted his teeth, mumbling something under his breath.

“Um…” You trailed off nervously. “C-Can you say it again? I didn’t really hear you…”

Bakugou whirled around and you squeaked at how close his face was to yours.

“Read it to me.” He demanded without pause and you would’ve laughed, thinking he was playing a prank on you if it had not been for his steely gaze.

“Okay…” You drew out slowly, wondering where this was suddenly coming about as you sat down on the tan leather sofa and patted the spot beside you, turning on the table lamp beside you so that you could see him. “Do you want me to start from the beginning? I’m not sure if you’ll even like this book, I have no idea what you like to read—”

Bakugou shook his head to cut off your anxious rambling, recognizing that it was stemming from your nervousness at him possibly judging you for what you liked to read and he leaned back, resting his arms behind his head.

“Doesn’t fucking matter.” He mumbled. “Just start.”

Even though you had numerous questions running through your head, you obliged and began reading, the words flowing off your lips with practiced ease.

Bakugou never told you but he was jealous of how you always read to the brats. Granted, he was a full-grown adult who shouldn’t pout in the corner when they got more attention than he did but it was so fucking stupid how soothing your voice was and how much of an effect it had on him. 

He could listen to you for hours and never get bored. Why do you think he always stuck around when you hopped up on the same tan leather sofa to read to those shitty kids?

It wasn’t just because he liked to look at your face, but it was because of the smile you had whenever you would read to them, that soft tilt of your head when the books evoked emotions from the children you were reading to and the giggle that bubbled past your lips when they laughed at something that the character did.

It never failed to do things to his heart.

Bakugou’s eyes eventually drifted closed after an hour of reading to him and you tensed when he careened into you by accident.

“Sorry.” He said shortly as he righted himself and you shyly reassured him that it was okay.

He didn’t say anything but you knew.

Ever since he got out of his old life, he had found a steady job but it was in construction and the risk was incredibly high. The hours were long and often the conditions were unforgiving. He had seen things happen on the daily and you were cautious to ever bring it up to him when he pressed closer to you than usual or who stayed longer by the front desk while you worked during operating hours.

You were about to stand up and leave so that he could sleep since he was obviously exhausted but his hand shot out and grabbed your wrist.

“Don’t go.”

It was quiet and it wavered but you didn’t hesitate.

Wrapping your arms around his shoulders, you eased him down and swallowed hard when his own encircled your waist, bringing you close to him.

“I’m not going anywhere.” You promised.

Head laying on his chest, your heartbeat eventually synced with the rise and fall of it and you drifted off, unaware that Bakugou sealed your promise with a soft kiss to the top of your head.

The fragments of his heart gently pieced itself back together as he held onto you as though you were his lifeline and he couldn’t help but whisper brokenly.

“Thank you.”

Bonus:

“Papa!!!”

“You’re back!!”

Aizawa held a finger up to his lips as his boys reached for him at the same time, chuckling softly as he caught them both as they launched into him. He didn’t change out of his military gear yet, he wanted to see them first.

“Shh… “ He hushed quietly, ruffling both of their heads at the same time. Damn, he missed them. “Y/N’s sleeping downstairs.”

Instantly, both the boys shut their mouths and shot out at the speed of light.

Aizawa followed them downstairs just in time to see the two of them screaming silently as they danced around in rings around their favorite couch that you and Bakugou were cozied up on.

Your face was tucked under Bakugou’s chin and you were sound asleep. Meanwhile, the man beside you had his arm draped over your waist, the other one supporting your head as a makeshift pillow. The blankets on top of you were rumpled, as though they had been kicked aside in favor of you both seeking out each other’s warmth.

It was cute. Aizawa admitted it was one of the most heartwarming things he’d ever seen.

“Don’t wake them up.” Aizawa instructed as Izuku reached out to touch Bakugou’s spiky hair since he wasn’t awake to tell him off. “Not yet.”

Eijirou was curious but a wide grin broke out on his face when his dad pulled out his phone and snapped a few pictures.

“Oooo, Papa, can I?! Please?!?!”

Gesturing for him to lower his voice, Aizawa nodded and handed it off, watching Izuku and Eijriou briefly squabble about who got to use it first when they sorted it out amongst themselves and Izuku took the first turn.

You awoke to the sound of a shutter clicking right by your ear and blinking slowly, your eyes shot open and you jerked as you realized where you were.

And who you were with.

“Katsuki, get up!!” You hissed as the boys laughed loudly. Hell, even Aizawa cracked a smile and you threw him an apologetic look, though you didn’t know what it was for. “Katsuki!!”

He groaned and turned his face the other way.

This time, Aizawa couldn’t help but tease him a little. “Katsuki, huh?”

Bakugou turned back around and glared at the offending person smirking at him. “Shut the hell up.”

Aizawa clicked his tongue. “Respect your elders.”

“Oh f—”

“OKAY!!!” You shouted, clapping your hands together before he could cuss him out. “Who wants breakfast?”

“Oh, oh, oh, me!!!” Izuku cried, jumping up and down excitedly.

“Yay, food!!!” Eijirou cheered.

Bakugou blearily rubbed his eyes and yawned. Thank goodness he didn’t have to go in today. “Oi, didn’t you just eat?”

“Yeah, but that was last night!!” The little boy protested. “My stomach is hungryyyyy.”

“Fucking Shitty Hair.”

A warning tone came from Aizawa. “Bakugou.”

“... Sorry.”

“Coffee?” You offered to Aizawa as you all traveled back upstairs, the little ones racing ahead of you.

He sighed gratefully, blinking his eyes tiredly. “That sounds perfect.”

He was exhausted and the trip back was even more brutal than the one that took him to his destination. But he didn’t want to get into all of that now.

Eijirou and Izuku shot to their designated seats at the kitchen island and you put on an apron before pulling open the fridge to see what you could make.

“I meant what I said.” Bakugou confessed quietly while you cracked the eggs and prepared the bacon.

You didn’t look at him, not wanting to give it away to the other three who were watching you both like some kind of TV show.

“I know.” You murmured, a soft smile playing on the corners of your lips. “I did, too.”

Your heart fluttered as he boldly pressed a kiss to your temple and you blushed violently when the boys whooped and hollered at the two of you, Eijirou making faces of disgust and pretending to gag when Bakugou made it look like he was going to kiss you on the lips in front of them.

Aizawa chuckled as he handled the coffee machine, able to easily figure it out as he brewed enough for the both of you. “Look at that? You have learned how to play well with others, Bakugou.”

And this time, Bakugou didn’t even spare him a glance as he gazed at you until you looked his way.

“What?” You asked nervously, wondering if you had something on your face.

Bakugou hid a smirk.

“How ‘bout blueberry muffins to go along with that coffee, sweetheart?”

[justreadingfics]

It’s a Deal (Chapter 6)

Chapter Summary: It’s time for the anticipated party.  

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Words: 3.1k

Warnings boytoy!Bucky, mention to casual sex, open relationship, someone catching feelings.

A/N: No smut in this one… Thank you to my sweet Les for having my back. The link to my masterlist, where you can find the other chapters, is on my description. Feedback is highly appreciated.

Tag list for this story is closed.  

Bucky takes a sip from the whiskey in his hand and, for a glimpse of a moment, he thinks of the time he would absolutely hate the scenario around him right now, crowded with people of all imaginable sorts, loud chattering and music, dance floors flashing with bright and colorful lights. A party, but not just a party, a Tony Stark Party, filled with all of that and also the best food in the country and even better drinks. He used to loath them, until he freed himself from his own mind restraints and remembered what a party really was: an opportunity to let yourself lose, follow no rules except to have fun and, of course, meet some nice people, especially women – lots of them- to spend time with… in his bed. 

What had never crossed his mind, though, is that would come a day when he would be interested in meeting just one. And he holds his gaze on her right now. She’s there, among the sea of bodies, sipping from her drink while laughing and talking with her friends, Nat and Sharon.

Bucky can’t help the smile forming on his lips at the sight of her having her fun. As she should be…that party is all for her, after all. She looks beautiful, as usual, in a shimmery short dress and heels high enough to make a desert of his mouth. But it’s that loose laugh of hers, when her head falls a bit backwards as her shoulders shake and she puts her hand over her stomach, that makes his heart flutter inside his chest… He doesn’t even notice when his smile turns into a shuddering sigh.

He clears his throat before taking a long taste of his whiskey, hoping the strong liquor down his throat would help to put himself together. This is getting ridiculous… He needs to figure out what this huddle of… strange feelings growing inside him every time he sees or even thinks of her means… He needs to figure that shit out soon. 

“Well, well, well.”

Steve’s voice grasps his attention as his eyes advert from her to meet his friend walking closer to him.

“What’s up, punk?” Bucky doesn’t even know why but he immediately hates that little teasing smile on Steve’s face, he decides to ignore it, though.

“That’s one vision I’m not really used to. Bucky Barnes drinking all alone at a party. Where’s the mini harem that it’s usually seen surrounding you at such events?” Steve asks, not trying to disguise the playful sarcasm in his words.

“Night is only beginning, pal,” Bucky answers, putting on a cocky smile and tapping on Steve’s shoulder, using a bit more strength than usual.

“Yeah, sure,” Steve chuckles, not thoroughly convincedby the excuse, “You know, ever since Nat and I came back from the mission, I’ve been hearing some interesting speculations from some members of the team who stayed here…”

“Do I wanna hear it?” Bucky cocks an eyebrow.

Steve hums, “The word is out you’re just not the same anymore,” he shrugs and sips from his drink, peeking Bucky from under his eyelashes.

“And what’s that supposed to mean?”

 “They don’t see the usual parade of women coming and going from your apartment. Sam says there’s been one mysterious lady, though… but none of them seem to guess who.” With no hint of subtleness in him and with a teasing smirk on his lips, Steve turns his gaze to her direction across the room.

“Jesus…” Bucky huffs, shaking his head before drinking from his whiskey, “Fucking all mighty Avengers… Don’t you all have a World or two to save instead of gossiping about my private life?”

“Which was never really that private, let us be honest.”  Steve laughs.

Bucky can’t help but to let out a small laugh, too, shrugging at the incontestability of the statement. He was never one to be much discreet about his shenanigans.

“What is that exactly?” Steve insists, nodding his head in her direction, where she still talks animatedly with her friends, “I didn’t know you were, ahm, close friends with Y/n from the tech department.”

“Didn’t you walk in on us the other day?” Bucky puts on a mocking frown at him, “Do you need me to reenact it for you, pal? You know I would have no problem with that, but we’re gonna have to ask her-“

“You’re such a jerk,” Steve cuts him off, his cheeks already showing a shade of pink at the memory, “And don’t you think I didn’t notice that little stunt on movie night, too,” he adds in a chastising way, but the scowl quick breaks into a smile when Bucky laughs, “You know what I’m talking about, you’re Bucky, you love ladies, as in plural, you have loved them ever since you were a kid in the 30’s, I have to admit you’ve always been respectful in your own way, but you were never been a guy to settle for just one for longer than a night or two…” Steve follows Bucky’s gaze, which has automatically navigated towards her. He lets out a knowing hum before speaking again, “But I guess your path just hadn’t crossed with hers, yet…”

Bucky looks back at Steve, whose eyes are gleaming with something like excitement. Bucky doesn’t know exactly how the words sink into him, but he feels like he can’t just disagree, not if he’s going to be completely honest. Never has he felt the need to be with only one woman for that amount of time until… until her.  

“I mean,” Steve continues after no answer from Bucky, “I think it’s great, it was about time for you to find someone-“

 “Don’t go imagining unrealistic scenarios on your romantic little head, Punk. My name is not Steve Rogers to get off on,” a grimace twists Bucky’s face as he speaks, “Love, attachment… or any tacky sort of shit you’re into.”

Steve opens his mouth as if he were to say something, but lets out a frustrated sigh instead, pressing his lips into a taut line.  

“No, seriously, pal,” Bucky continues, in a less snapping tone, “Our, ahm, friendship is based exclusively on what you’ve seen and heard so far,” he smirks, “Sex. She had just gotten out of a long relationship and needed to get off, Nat thought of me - of course -introduced my dick to her pussy, they’ve become best of friends and here we are now,” he holds back a laugh, knowing damn well how the vulgar choice of words would make Steve’s 40’s little brain short-circuit, being the precise reason why he chose to put it that way.  

“Alright, alright, you’re just messing with me now,” Steve seems in a hurry to make his friend stop talking.

Bucky lets out the laugh he was holding and punches his friend’s shoulder, gaining a dirty look in response before resuming, “I mean… It’s nothing like you’re insinuating, she’s great and we’ve been having fun, that’s all,” Bucky adds as his gaze falls upon her again. Yeah… she’s great. And beautiful, sexy, funny, smart, kind- clearing his throat to dismiss his own betraying line of thoughts, he turns back to his friend.

“If you say so.” A small smile curls Steve’s lips, showing he’s anything but convinced. 

Goddammit, he does have a lot to figure out.  

~~~

“I knew something was up, Bucky never stays for movie nights.” Tears fill Sharon’s eyes from how hard she’s been laughing.

“I felt like a horny teenager in my parents’ home,” you resume the story you’ve been entertaining Sharon and Nat with, “Not that my teen years were that exciting,” you add with a grimace, “Far from it exactly, I was a tech nerd since I was eight, not really something that rocks teen boys’ worlds.” Bucky seems to really dig it, though, is the immediate thought that pops into your mind, but you see no reason why you should say it out loud.

“Well, it did bring you far enough,” Nat winks at you, moving her glass around the party being held to celebrate you to emphasize her point.

“Damn right,” Sharon agrees, raising her glass, which you and Nat quickly follow in a cheerful toast.

You can’t shake the smile of your lips. You wouldn’t go as far as to connect the events, but after your breakup with Eddie, it seems like you’re living another life. A new and more exciting life, both personally and professionally… That’s why it shouldn’t bother you so much that you still haven’t seen him. He said he would be there after you called to tell the news and invite him to come. But it does bother you to casually look around the party and not spotting him…

“So, it’s been like a month since this deal of yours started, right?” Nat asks, catching your attention after gulping from her customary vodka.

“Yeah,” your eyebrows furrow as you nod, “Sounds about right… and what a month, holy shitballs…” You round your eyes, letting out a puff.

“Care to share more details?” Sharon asks, wiggling her eyebrows.  

“Well…” You quickly survey the area around you and sneakily lean closer to them as they mimic you, “I had no idea what my body could do, I mean, I’ve been in positions I’ve never thought were humanly possible to perform, there’s not a day I don’t feel sore on every little inch of me, it’s a constant state by now,” you add, and the grin on your face tells how little the soreness really bothers you.

“Super soldiers…” Sharon smirks and winks before clinking her glass of champagne with yours.  

As Nat chuckles, you let out a giggle, “Yeah, I mean, my poor pussy hasn’t seen that much action her entire life.”

Nat’s jaw drops as she scoffs and turns to Sharon, “Check this out… this woman wouldn’t even say the word “sex” without choking before,” she points at you and you shrug, keeping the smile on your face. 

“That’s the Barnes effect,” Sharon comments, before turning to you, ”But wait a minute, how often you two have been keeping this encounters up?”

You take a second to think about it before answering, “Almost daily, I guess. When I don’t call him, he ends up calling me and so we go.”

“Really?” Nat asks and when you give her the confirmation, her brows snap together as a wondering “huh” slips out of her lips.   

She seems surprised by the fact you’re seeing Bucky practically every day, but you think nothing of it, “I’m sending you a whole box of this vodka you like so much, by the way.” You point at her glass, “You deserve it. I was just waiting for you to come back from that long ass mission of yours.”

He expression shifts to an amused one, “Oh, well, cheers to that,” she says before gulping down the rest of the liquid in her glass.  

“But let me ask you something,” Sharon cuts in, “You’ve been seeing him almost daily, having amazing sex with the Adonis we all have to agree Bucky is…” she looks at Natasha for support, who just nonchalantly shrugs her agreement, before turning back to you, “Don’t you think it can become a bit complicated? In the feelings area, I mean, Bucky can be pretty charming, but when it comes to commitment, well-” She tilts her head as a hint of concern is present on her voice.

Nat too focuses on you, interested in what you have as an answer.

You snort and waves dismissively at their concern, “No way. Don’t worry, you two. Neither of us are looking for such a thing. It is what it is: just sex. Bucky is amazing, I don’t think I would be able to have that sort of relationship with anyone other than him. He’s so relaxed and laid back, no games… he’s pretty clear with his intentions, which is no romance at all and that’s exactly what I need right now. We both want the exact same thing, that’s pretty clear ever since we set this deal and it’s not going to change,” you say with tranquility and firmness in your words.

“Are you sure?” Nat insists, giving you that look you know it’s all about her making sure you’re ok. “This whole idea came from me but I know Bucky for a long time, I know he’s not one to do feelings, but I’ve been worried about how you would take it.”

“Absolutely…” you guarantee “And to be honest, I know I need to work on it, I do, but when I think about a relationship, I mean, a conventional relationship, I still think of Eddie… I feel like I’m still too caught up on him to think of anyone else that way,” You shrug, pressing your lips in a line, “Bucky’s being really important to help me get through it all, though, I have to admit it.”

“Well… I’m glad.” Nat gives you a sympathetic smile, brushing a hand on your arm.

“Alright… I guess you have a boytoy, then, huh?” Sharon teases.

You laugh, before conceding with a nod, “Yeah, I guess I do.”

“Speaking of the devil,” Nat says in a quiet mumble and nods to behind your shoulder.  

Before you have the chance to turn around you hear his voice. That deep and raspy voice that usually makes your skin burn and tonight is no different, “Well, well, if it isn’t the power trio… Am I the devil by any chance?” Bucky steps beside you, narrowing his eyes at Natasha, before shooting you that captivating smile of his, the one that prompts a smile of yours to swiftly twist your lips too, “Hi,” he says softly.

“Hi,” you answer, seizing the moment to take him over. He looks absolutely ravishing with his styled fluff hair, light scruff shadowing his jaw and beautiful eyes stuck on you, wearing an untied blue suit over a casual white t-shirt that not every man could make it work. Sharon was damn right, Bucky really is charming… too charming for his own good.

“So, talking about me, ladies?” He insists, tilting his head and focusing a piercing gaze on you, despite addressing  all three.  

There’s something about him… you just can’t stop smiling at his presence and, even worse, don’t seem to be able to tell a lie, not even an innocent one to save your ass, so you decide to take a sip of your champagne and leave it to your friends to answer the question. You guess boytoy can’t be worse than “human dildo”, like you called him before, but that has been just between you two...

“Yeah, yeah,” Sharon is the one to step in, holding back a laugh just like you, as Natasha, ever a pro, sustains a perfect poker face, “I haven’t seen Steve, yet and I was wondering if he would be with you.”

If you’ve seen a flicker of disappointment in his eyes it quickly vanishes as he turns to Sharon, “Oh, yeah, he was. Look, there he is by the bar,” Bucky points, “And you might wanna check the amount of Asgardian Liquor is being sneaked to him, the guy is already talking nonsense.”

“Oooo, Asgardian Liquor Steve is the best, I give twenty minutes before he starts summoning Mjölnir from wherever Thor is now,” Sharon’s face twinkles with excitement, “See you guys later,” she adds before rushing towards the bar and her boyfriend.

As a girl from the staff comes along and refills Nat’s glass with her special vodka, Bucky looks back at you. You smile at him but soon frowns a bit. There’s something different in the way he’s looking at you and you can’t just pinpoint what it is. There’s always sheer hunger in his gazes for you that makes your spine tremble, but tonight… there’s something a bit more… introspective in it, maybe?

“So, enjoying your night?” he asks.

You brush your thoughts away to answer, “Oh, shit, yeah… This is unbelievable. I was never one to party that much, but I could get used to this.” You sign with your glass around, still marveled by the over the top event being held in your name. “Tony is out of this world.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s true, though,” Natasha comments with an exaggerated eye roll.

You chuckle before a sight behind Bucky’s shoulders catches your eye.

“Hey, I-“ Bucky starts.

“He’s here,” cutting out whatever Bucky was gonna say to you, your voice comes out in a gasp as your hands run cold and your heart races.

“Who? Tony?” Bucky asks with a grin, turning his face towards the direction you’re staring at with startled eyes.  

“Eddie,” Nat is the one who answers, pointing at the man standing alone by the entrance, seeming a little lost as he glances around.

Not you nor Natasha sees when the smile on Bucky’s face falls. When he looks back around, though, he already has a lighthearted expression put on for you.

“I should go talk to him, right?” You check, shifting looks from him to Nat. As she just shrugs, curling the corner of her lips down - and by that, expressing exactly what she thinks -  you appeal to Bucky, focusing pleading eyes on him. Deep down, you know what you wanna do, but for some reason, just needs someone to back you up. 

“Yeah-“ he clears his throat, “I mean, you invited him, haven’t you?” He tightens his lips at an attempt of a smile.

“You’re right.” You nod, biting your lips nervously and looking straight ahead,  “See you guys later.” You wave, after taking one or two deep breaths.

Your shoulder brushes against Bucky as you walk past him and he turns his body around, following you with his gaze. He takes a long sip of his drink and places a hand inside his pocket, watching as you approach your ex-boyfriend.   

He tries hard to bury deep down inside him the tug on his chest.

“Oh, fuck…”

Natasha’s curse reminds him she’s still right there and he realizes she’s been watching him, with a dumbfounded expression he’s not used to seeing on her face.

He lets out a deep breath, “What?” 

Natasha scoffs and shakes her head, seeming in a state of disbelief, “This whole time I’d been worried about the wrong person.”

~~~

To be continued.

[xmyshya]

Shoved it: chapter II - Ollie

summary: You don’t like skaters. They’re unruly, misbehaved and rude. But this one encounter just might change your view. genre: fluff warnings: tooth-rotting fluff (seriously, make a dentist appointment), slow burn, mutual pining betas: @vanille–kiss​ as always I’m eternally grateful to you, I love you lots a/n: Written for ANILYSIUM (former HQHQ) Server Collab with the prompt “Meet Ugly”. Check the event’s masterlist here! series navi: masterlist | previous | next wc: 1.5k

It’s a nightmare. Everything must be just a bad dream, and soon you’re going to wake up. No more invading your sleep. No more being watched and followed through the halls. No more running, no more hiding, no more irritation.

But here’s the thing - it’s reality. And the Prince Charming from your nightly illusions still has those half-lidded olive eyes; the same eyes that meet yours at school and observe your every move. He’s everywhere you go, behind every corner, on every floor. You wouldn’t be surprised if he was in your closet.

Obviously it’s an exaggeration. While it’s true that you notice him more often than not, he’s also much taller than other students. His little circle of friends consists of really handsome boys, causing a commotion and squealing of the girls surrounding them. But, much to your dismay, he notices you just as much.

@mikYou know people like him. You know boys like him. Misbehaved jerks, thinking the world revolves around them and rules are meant to be broken; convinced that one smile is enough to make any girl fall in love with them, only to break their heart. But you, you’re not a part of this world, you refuse to be, and you want nothing to do with him.

Unfortunately, the stalker (as you like to call him) not only dares to smile and wink at you, but tries to approach you. So far you’ve managed to avoid him, spotting his messy brown hair towering over swarming students. This time, however, you failed to notice until it was too late. Until he had you trapped between his arms, your back against the wall.

“What do you think you’re doing, punk?!” You spit in his face, earning a tsk from the boy.

“Do I look like a punk to you?”

You want to retort, you really do, but the intensity of his gaze makes you open and close your mouth, like a fish thrown out of the ocean.

“Suna.”

“What?”

“I figured you didn’t know my name. Suna Rintarou.”

“I didn’t ask.”

He doesn’t know why you seem to hate him so much and it drives him mad. At first, Suna only wanted to really apologise for the incident, his conscience still clawing at him. Somewhere along the way it shifted into something more mischievous; seeing you blush and making a run for it giving him a fair amount of entertainment.

Initially you manage to win this game of cat and mouse, your average height being your biggest ally in hiding in the crowd. It certainly doesn’t help that other students tend to concentrate around him, and you’re long gone before he even scrambles out of the group. But he never misses the heat blossoming on your cheeks when he sends a wink in your direction.

Today might be Rin’s lucky day though. Most of the other teenagers are already gone, the halls pleasantly quiet and empty. You’re walking in front of him alone, and he’s sure you aren’t aware of the boy behind you.

He’s never been so grateful for his silent footsteps, or maybe you’re just too spaced out, because he sneaks up on you and pins you to the wall. Once more you look up at him with those big shiny eyes that make his stomach feel tingly, and maybe this time you’ll let him get closer…

Again, all he’s offered is baseless hostility, even in exchange for his name. You’re slipping through his fingers, at one moment being trapped between his arms, between his body and the wall, and in the next walking away. Not bothering to introduce yourself. Not sparing him even a glance.

***

Suna has another problem and this one is more urgent - he’s failing a class. In a sense, it’s his own fault for being late or even completely missing it. In his defense, it was in the morning, it was boring and unnecessary in his life, and he had so much other stuff to do. He can’t let it hold him back, not when he’s so close to being free.

The teacher was kind enough to give him a piece of paper containing the name and available hours of his potential saviour. Such a drag, he thinks but still walks towards the classroom where his tutor should be. Two knocks on the doorframe, but the girl inside is still turned back.

“Excuse me, I’m here for tutoring?”

His heart is hammering in his chest when the person turns towards him and it’s… you.

The weather is nice, it’s not hot despite the sun shining brightly, the cloudless sky has the most beautiful shade of blue. Gentle breeze rustles the leaves, birds chirp a song only they know. You can only admire it all from the window, having agreed to rescuing those in educational need.

You don’t mind, not really, as long as they put in some effort. There are some who just come and demand, those who don’t listen and claim to not understand anything later. You hope your next case won’t be one of these.

A deep voice brings you back to reality, a voice so familiar that it gives you goosebumps. You turn to look at your new student and for a second you think that if a headache had a human form, it would be him.

***

“Why do you hate me so much?”

The boy in front of you still stares at the problem at hand, spinning a pen between his fingers. You sigh.

“This is not a subject of our meetings.”

Now his olive eyes are focused on you, awaiting an answer he isn’t going to receive. You have no intention of entertaining this attempt at whatever it is.

“I’m not as bad as you think.”

“Why do you even care what I think?”

Rin only shrugs.

“Okay, could you please help me with this? I’m stuck.”

***

Contrary to your idea, Suna isn’t a hopeless case. He understands things quickly, without the need of repeating the same explanations over and over again. What bothers you is the amount of material you have to go through, because of his absences. With test retakes approaching quickly, you meet for sessions twice a week.

There isn’t much off-topic chatter, the scribbling of pen on paper being the only sound filling the room in between his questions. It’s comfortable and effective, and soon you feel at ease in his company.

In the third week of project “Ace the test”, as you jokingly call it, Rintarou greets you with a range of differently flavoured jelly sticks.

“You can take all of them, or just the ones you like.” He explains seeing your confusion.

“Why?”

“Because you’re staying after hours for me, and I don’t know how to repay you.”

You blush as you mumble “simple thank you would have been enough”, but in the end reach for three that taste like your favourite fruits. Suna smiles and commits your choice to his memory.

After that the boy makes sure to bring something in one of those flavours to your meetings - yoghurts, juices, chocolate bars with fillings, everything he could find. It would be a lie if you said you didn’t appreciate the gesture; it was sweet of him to bring you something as a compensation for your time and efforts.

It’s even cuter when on one particularly rough day after seeing your stressed frown, he dumps a whole bag on the desk. Upon opening you discover that it’s filled with your best-loved snacks; he must have been observing you closely and the realisation turns your cheeks into little furnaces.

There’s no way you can keep ignoring him now, and starting with the next day, you greet him with a small smile and a blush when you pass each other in the halls.

Rin is surprised at how easily the solutions come to his head after your little lectures. You have a way with words, your directions are simple and engaging, and he’s sure he wouldn’t have missed a single class if you were the teacher. He wonders if this is your plan for the future.

One of the discoveries he makes, partially by accident, is that you like silence; at least with a task like this at hand. Suna isn’t talkative which makes it easier, and the more he focuses on modules, the less tense you seem to be. Bingo.

Social interactions are usually tiring and Rintarou doesn’t bother with exhausting things. He prefers observing from the sidelines, watching the gestures and reactions they cause. Food, the boy realises, brings the most smiles. But since he doesn’t know your preferences at all, he’s going to start with what he’s familiar with.

Success has many faces. In this case, success has your blushing face as you grab jelly sticks he brought for you. Suna makes sure to remember which one you chose, and to always have something in one of those flavours. If this is how he wins you over, he doesn’t mind spending his precious energy. Especially not when you warm up enough to stop running away.

taglist: @kageyamas-love @mikasbloodbag

[socialwriter]

For a Kook - Ptersparkers’ Writing Challenge

Gif credit to @popemaybank​

Pairing: Rafe Cameron x Female Reader

Requested by @obx-direction-sos​ :  so the scene with “tell kiara she looks pretty hot for a pogue.” what about being on and off with rafe and jj is all like “tell y/n she looks pretty hot for a kook”

Summary: A dance with JJ leads to a jealous Rafe and a confession of feelings

1.9k+ words

TW: Cursing, fighting, jealous Rafe, self doubt/insecurity on reader’s behalf

A/n: Ok so this is a part of @ptersparkers​ writing challenge, and I really wanted to challenge my self so I wrote my first full on Rafe fic. Hope y’all enjoy <3

“Hey Rafe, could you help me with the zipper on this thing?” You shout out into the hallway of his house, awkwardly struggling with the zipper at the back of your emerald dress. You were already running late because your mother had made you help her redecorate the grand foyer of your house, and this dress was certainly not helping you make up on lost time. “Yeah su- woah.”

You turn around to see Rafe standing in the doorway of the guest room which you had been getting ready in, mouth slightly ajar. “What, did I smudge my eyeliner, I had an itch and I knew I scratched too hard damn it Y/n.” Before you can check your makeup in the mirror, Rafe places his hand on your shoulder, effectively stopping your rambling. “No, it's not that it's just..you look gorgeous,” he says, causing your face to heat and a blush to form on your cheeks, a sight he always loved to see. “Just zip the dress up lover boy.”

He complies with your command, zipping up the dress before grabbing the floral crown laying on the vanity and placing it on your head. You grin and turn to face him, feeling giddy about finally being ready to go before your eyes land on his neck. “Seriously, how do you still not know how to tie a bowtie Rafe?” He rolls his eyes, pretending to be offended by your comment, when in reality he had purposefully tied the bowtie poorly so that you would do it for him. He thought it was adorable the way your nose scrunched up in concentration when you tied it, and he didn’t mind being so close to you as well. Of course, he would never tell you that. Your relationship was complex to say the least, an unspoken agreement of exclusivity between the two of you even though your relationship had never been made official. Due to his relationship with his father, Rafe struggled with emotional vulnerability. Even though you two were certainly more than friends, he had an innate fear of rejection that kept him from telling you how he felt about you and making you officially his. 

“Rafe! Y/n! Hurry up, we’re already late!” You hear Rose shout out downstairs, so you grab Rafe’s hand and drag him to where the rest of his family is waiting. “Took you long enough,” Wheezie adds through a grin, causing you to roll your eyes and ruffle her hair a little. “Yeah yeah little nugget, I know.” The six of you all pile into a car and head off to the country club, where the Cameron family is supposed to make their grand entrance. 

Rafe had, somehow, convinced you to walk in with them on his arm, which you were now seriously regretting, considering it felt like almost everyone in the place was looking at you. Judging your dress, your hair, your flower crown, your body. You shrink into Rafe’s side, trying to make yourself appear just a little bit smaller, which he notices. “Something wrong love?” You nod timidly, your usually confident nature seemingly gone. “I feel like everyone’s staring at me,” you whisper, causing Rafe to frown. He places a lingering kiss on the top of your head before gently taking your chin in his hand, forcing you to look at him. “Of course everyone’s staring love, they want to catch a glimpse of the prettiest girl in this place.” You roll your eyes at his remark, feeling too self conscious to come up with a witty comeback.

“Tell you what. How about, for the rest of the night, the two of us hang out together. Dance, sneak a little wine or champagne, and forget about all the asshole socialites stinking up the place. How does that sound, princess?” Rafe’s proposal puts a small smile on your face, and you nod a little. “Sounds alright. You promise that's all that's gonna happen tonight?”

“Promise.”

---

Long story short, Rafe had not upheld his promise. After about two songs of you two dancing your hearts out, Ward had pulled Rafe away on some business. He had claimed that he would be gone for five minutes max, but that was over thirty minutes ago. Now you were currently sitting at a table near the dance floor, mindlessly stirring the ice cubes in your soda with your staw, when a hand comes into your peripheral vision. “Care to dance?” The voice of JJ Maybank asks you.

You lazily glance over at him, quirking a brow. “And what is the one and only JJ Maybank doing at the kook event of the season? I would assume that you’d hate stuff like this.”

“Some of us need to work to eat doll,” he quips back, though something tells you that’s not the reason why he’s here. “So, that dance?” You glance around one more time, and since you don’t see Rafe, you take the blond’s hand, standing and following him to the dance floor.

“So what's a pretty girl like yourself doing sitting here by yourself?” JJ questions, twirling you around. “I would’ve thought you’d be spending the night with your boyfriend.”

“I don’t have a boyfriend.” You respond, taking a step towards him again once you’ve finished spinning.

“Then what do you call you and Rafe.”

The fiery red blush on your cheeks is impossible to hide. Sure, you’d always had feelings for Rafe, and your relationship was far from a normal friendship, but did people really see you two as lovers? “Just dip me Maybank.” You mumble, and luckily he complies. 

---

Unfortunately for you and JJ, Kelce had spotted you two as soon as JJ had asked you to dance. Knowing you and Rafe were unofficially official, as well as wanting something interesting to happen before the night was over, he figured telling Rafe would both follow the bro code and likely start a fight. He found Rafe talking to some wrinkly old executive, telling the old man a half assed excuse about ‘business matters’ before pulling Rafe off to the side. “Listen dude, I think Maybank is trying to hit on Y/n or something, I saw the two of them talking by the dance floor.”

Thoughts are spiraling through Rafe’s head, but the thought that's the loudest in his mind at the moment is how he’s going to beat JJ’s ass. Fuming, he makes his way to the dance floor just in time to see JJ say something that makes you blush furiously and then dip you. He angrily makes his way over to the two of you, Kelce following close behind, and places a hand on JJ’s shoulder, spinning him around. “Was wondering if you could get me a mai tai my friend?” Rafe asks, venom coating each word. 

Seeing the steam fuming from Rafe, you gulp nervously. This couldn’t end well. “Rafe, JJ was just keeping me company while you were gone, there’s need to be upset.” You place your hand on his arm in an attempt to calm him down, but he just shrugs you off. Before you know it, JJ’s run off inside, and Rafe, along with Kelce and three other kooks, have all followed him inside. You helplessly look around for a moment for someone, anyone, that could help you. You certainly couldn’t fend of all five boys, and neither could JJ. Your eyes catch one of the security guards, and you figure that's your best bet at stopping Rafe. While you were worried for JJ’s safety, you were even more worried about Rafe. God knows what Ward would do if Rafe did anything stupid on tonight of all nights.

You tell the guard that there was a problem going on inside, and the two of you search the country club until hearing a commotion in the men’s locker. When you enter, you see Kelce holding JJ in a chokehold, Rafe rearing up to make a hit, and the other three kooks spectating, not doing a damn thing. “What is going on here?” The guard questions, even though it's quite clear to everyone else in the room. However, JJ, ever the smart ass, starts going on about ‘trespassing’ and ‘being escorted’, so the guard takes the pogue by the arm and the two men approach the exit. However, when JJ meets your eyes, a smirk forms on his lips, and you can tell that he plans on getting one final jab in at Rafe before he leaves.

“Hey Y/n, I really liked dancing with you tonight. Ya know you’re really pretty...for a kook.” 

Rafe lunges towards JJ, but before he reaches him, you step between the two boys, holding your hands up. “Rafe, please, don’t. It's not worth it.” Rafe growls, scaring you slightly, but you hold your ground. “Get out of my way Y/n so I can teach this little punk a lesson.” Luckily, when you glance behind you, it looks as though JJ and the guard had left the locker room, so you didn’t have to hold Rafe back anymore. “Do you want to maybe go outside and get some air?” You question, gently grabbing his hand. He lets out a deep breath but nods, and the two of you make your way out to an area at the front of the country club, away from the hustle and bustle of the events of the night.

“You shouldn’t have held me back. The asshole made a comment about you and he deserved what was coming for him.” 

You huff and shake your head, looking out at the greenery in front of the country club. “You know he just said that to wind you up. Why’d you even start the fight in the first place? You promised me that this would be a nice night, just the two of us.”

Rafe falters slightly, guilt suddenly flooding him. “I saw you two dancing together,” he mumbles under his breath.

“What?”

“I saw the two of you together. He said something that made you blush and was being all suave with you and I..got jealous.”

Glancing over at Rafe, you see him biting his lip, clearly nervous, and looking anywhere but at you. “Ya know Rafe,I wanted to be there, dancing with you.”

“Don’t lie to me princess.”

“Rafe look at me.” You grab both his hands, causing him to reluctantly look you in the eye. “When have I ever lied to you?” When he doesn’t answer, a small smile forms on your lips. “I never have, and never will. You wanna know what JJ said that made me blush so hard? He called you my boyfriend. And it caught me off guard, because Rafe, I’ve been in love with you for the longest time and f-” you’re cut off by Rafe smashing his lips against yours, but you quickly recover and return the kiss. It feels like fireworks are going off, and if you had to describe the perfect kiss, this would be it. All the passion and emotion between you two is expressed without a single word being said, your mouths doing all the talking. 

Eventually, you pull away, slightly out of breath. “Y/n L/n, I have been in love with you for as long as I can remember. Can we make whatever this is between the two of us official? So that I am yours and yours alone, and that you are mine?” He brings a hand up to cup your cheek, stroking the delicate skin with the pad of his thumb. Instinctively, you take your own hand and place it on top of his, relishing in the contact. “I would love nothing more.”

Tagging moots that are also Rafe hoes 😌: @normatural​ @sortagaysortahigh​ @softstarkey​ @stargazingstarkey​ @anonymous0writer​ @drew-starkey​ @drewsephsmiles​ @girlsru1eboysdroo1​ @jayjaymaebank​ @downbytheouterbanks​ @butgilinsky​ @queenk00k​ @letsgofullkook​ @jjmbanks​

[prose-for-hire]

UC Sunnyhell: Part Two

Hell is a place on Earth

Previous Part // Next Part

Pairing: Spike x reader

Request: College AU where Spike is the campus bad boy who secretly is a softie that writes poems and reader is the new transfer who just moved into Spike's apartment since it was the only available room on campus (no one wants to willingly live with Spike). Spike constantly having one night stands over, reader always trying to study. Things appear to go from bad to worse.

Originally requested by: @sunflower-stan​ 

Other tag: @fictionalhoomanofnowhere

Warning: Sex references. Swearing.

The first semester had been and gone by this point. You were settling into life at UC Sunnydale, found your friendship group in Buffy and the others. But one thing you still weren’t accustomed to, was living with Spike. He was hard to get along with at the best of times but living with him was a whole different thing.

He appeared to stay up most of the night and sleep well into the afternoon. He played loud punk music almost every waking hour and he smoked like a chimney. He never appeared to listen to a word you said and he pretty much did the opposite from whatever you said or thought anyway.

It was becoming really hard to live with him. Especially when he seemed to do everything he could to make you want to move out. He found it easier to live alone. To hide in the depths of what he knew than

Because of your current living situation you had started to branch out and pursue some of your interests. It beat staying in all the time and you really wanted to find someone that you could relate to.

You were a fan of musicals and the theatre. Poetry and literature. You liked reading and the way a writer could weave such intricate feelings. Scenes and spoken word able to explain your own feelings better than you ever could.

Your new friends didn’t really share your enthusiasm – even Willow was more into science and computers. Although your friend group were kind enough to listen to the way you spoke about your interests. They certainly didn’t make you feel bad about expressing your passions. But they just didn’t share your love and so you began to try to search out people that you could connect with. On some kind of deeper level.

You had been frequenting different bars that held open mic nights. Watching plays and listening to monologues. Letting the intricate wordplay wash over you. It could make you feel so many emotions. So many feelings were conjured.

Your favourite were the open mic nights. You pretty much never got up yourself, you usually would just listen. You were working yourself up to performing something of your own. You wrote things too it was just a matter of working on your performing skills. You were thinking of joining the clubs, maybe to improve your confidence in your writing. In your performing.

You walked back home from a play you had watched (and cried at) to find Spike sat there scribbling something. It was the first time you had ever seen him actually writing or appearing to do any work.

You were about to make a snide comment about it and then he noticed your presence. He almost jumped five feet in the air in surprise. He then hid the notebook behind his back and immediately got up to leave now you had returned. He left muttering something about you being a nosy bitch.

Spike had taken the opportunity, while he finally had time where he felt comfortable since you had actually left the house for once to write. This was something he didn’t like people knowing about. He wiped his eye as he stormed away. Hoping to God you hadn’t seen that. He couldn’t bear you knowing him that way. Laughing.

It was Friday evening and you had some friends over. There was a sudden knock at the front door. Spike had taken a baseball bat from his room and held it up as if he was ready to swing it.

Willow and Buffy’s eyes bulged at the object in his hand as they peaked from your bedroom doorway. Buffy was pleased they had convinced you to come to self-defence class now.

He walked slowly to the door, meeting you in the hallway skipping happily past him. He grabbed you back looking at you as if you were mad. He was expecting debt collectors. Again.

“Spike, it’s the pizza guy” You moved your shoulder from him before carrying on back to the door with the dollars in your hand, “What is wrong with you?” you muttered.

He scowled, jaw tensing as Buffy and Willow giggled at the way he had been so tense and he stormed away smacking the edge of the bat against the wall in his frustration. Leaving a small hole there.

You brought the pizzas back into your room (so you didn’t have to face spike again) and shared them out with your friends.

After you finished your meal and managed to calm yourselves down from whatever had just happened, talk of course turned back to Spike.

“So how is it… y’know…” Willow asked before mouthing “with Spike”. You hadn’t realised how much built up rage you had inside until you launched into your conversation.

“Well, I can tell you that Hell really is a place on Earth”

“That bad?”

“I can’t believe I’m stuck with him – if I even breath in his direction he has a problem with it!”

“Yeah, he’s always been a complete pig. Some people are just born evil” Buffy shrugged.

“Buffy! He’s not evil! He’s just… mean spirited”

“In the most evil way” Buffy added. She had never liked Spike. He was cruel and treated her as if she was dumb just because she was in a sorority and enjoyed cheerleading.

What you and the two girls didn’t realise, was that Spike was eavesdropping. You had all been laughing really loud and he was about to take his chance to kick Buffy and her little loser friend out. Until he found he was interested to hear what you all had to say about him.

You groaned, thinking about the way things had been. You needed to vent. So, you took the chance while you were in the company of your now closest friends.

“He’s inconsiderate and rude and also I’m pretty sure he never washes his clothes... but he always smells good. Weird”

“Totally weird”

“Well, we did like, warn you”

“And oh my God! He walks around naked all the time! There’s always some stranger he’s brought home and they are always so loud! He never studies and the plates are always piled high in the kitchen! It’s disgusting – he’s disgusting!”

“He’s always been so arrogant and gross”

“Hey, don’t wig, next year we can find a place. The four of us – right Buffy?” Willow offered, including her girlfriend. She comforted you as you caught your breath from your outburst. Willow rested her hand on your shoulder to reassure you.

“Really?” You asked with a smile as Buffy nodded. She was going to move out from her sorority so she wasn’t distracted for her last year she had already decided.

“Don’t worry, y/n. We’ll keep you sane” Buffy insisted.

Spike scoffed. The way Buffy acted as if she was saving you from him. As if he was a fate worse than death. You angered him. The way you had determined his character over a few fleeting conversations. The gossip your silly little friends told you.

You became enemy number one. Even more so than you had been before. He hated gossip and the way people would laugh behind his back. You reminded him of this every time he looked at you now, not that you knew this.

The annoyance for the other just kept growing. Yours had originally been fuelled by your friends rumours, but his actions were now getting worse. Spike was seething at your dismissive tone against your character. He didn’t even want a roommate, he only agreed the landlord to put the room up so he didn’t put up the rent again.

So he decided to try and make you leave. Properly this time. He didn’t care anymore, you reminded him of everyone out there. Everyone that he hid himself away from. Distanced himself from.

The tension rose uncomfortably. He was more rude. More gross. And he made sure to do everything he knew that he could to annoy you. It was petty, he knew it, but he knew it would get a rise out of you.

One afternoon, you had been scraping off some congealed red liquid that you had been concerned was blood. He hung out with a weird crowd, you only hoped some poor thing hadn’t been exploded in there. Although, upon further inspection it appeared to be tomato soup. But you would probably embellish the story a little to your friends.

You washed your hands and scowled at him. He had moved to lean against the doorway and just watch you clean.

“God, Spike, you’re so lazy”

“’Scuse me?”

“You don’t clean, you don’t study – what exactly do you do with your life?”

He was affronted by this. By the way you spoke to him. How he felt like you acted like you were better than him. In your frustration you didn’t care what he thought. He just didn’t care. You were trying to live your life.

He could hear Buffy or even Angel’s voice through your own. The way they had always berated him.

“And what? I should be like you? You’re not exactly making a proper go of it are you? Haven’t seen you do much of anything ‘cept follow them brainless bints around the shop. When you’re not doing that you sit in your room as life passes you by, livin’ through your little Musical shows rather than living in the real world - You’re boring. You’ll live your pathetic little life, stuck in your lame little ways until you die”

“Spike-”

“You’re all the same! You and your preppy little band of misfits looking down your noses at everyone and yet you can’t see the obvious, can you? You’re so bored with your pathetic, frigid little lives that you have to make it my bloody problem!”

You decided, seeing as that’s how he viewed you that you would treat him exactly like that. Like he treated you. Things got worse.

He started to invite people over all the time. You would call it a party but there was nothing celebratory about it. You were confined to your room most of the time as they all laughed and screamed along to their music. They were always drinking and playing music no matter what time of the day you saw them.

You usually avoided them, locking your door, but you had needed to slip out of your room for a moment.

“Who’s this?” One of the guests pointed you out as you tried to make it to the bathroom without anybody noticing you. Now everyone’s eyes were on you.

“Oh don’t mind them, they’re just for show hasn’t had an original thought their entire life” Spike shrugged.

“Aw, no, Spike. Another mindless automaton” One of his friends spoke up and he laughed. It was a cold laugh, there was no humour in it.

“Do you, like, want to-”

“Don’t, love. They’re nobody” Spike stopped the blonde girl from speaking to you more kindly than the rest. They all laughed at this and began to tease you.

You left, slamming the door and you heard them laughing, jeering at you for your reaction. It made tears sting the back of your eyes. You collected yourself, shrugging on your jacket. You walked to a place you knew you would be welcome.

You knew that you weren’t going to get on. But this was getting out of hand. You hated him. Hated the way he treated you. The way he judged you, despite him knowing exactly how that feels.

As you thought this, he appeared to be thinking the same thing. Which made Spike scoff and frown. Was he really better than any of the people he hated? He shook that thought away. Downing his beer and looking for another rather than reflect.

You had called Buffy on your way over and she had been quick to contact the entire group to tell them there had been a major incident. Everyone piled around to her dorm room so that they could support you. You had sounded upset on the phone.

You explained everything that had happened and they all comforted you the best that they could. Xander then showed you the stack of films he had brought to try to cheer you up. He had even found some Musicals just for you.

Buffy explained that she had called Angel but he says he’s sorry but he’s busy right now. Buffy appeared disappointed and when you asked her about it she explained. They used to date when they were seniors in college but they had broken up despite still both having feelings for each other.

She explained it had seemed the right thing to do at the time, but now she wished they were back together. You insisted that you would make it your mission to help them get back together which made Buffy grin at you. She really did value your friendship.

As the night wore on your friends began to discuss the idea of you taking your revenge on Spike. It had made you laugh as they suggested ridiculous pranks and ideas that wouldn’t bother him at all. But then they began to take it more seriously. Insisting that you should get even.

You said you weren’t sure. And left it at that. But they thought you had better do something or he wouldn’t stop.

You eventually went back to a trashed house after staying for the weekend with Buffy. You stared at the mess. Maybe you would have to do something.

It had been unusually quiet the few days prior and you should have known better than to hope he had stopped. You had heard a girl, one of Spike’s partners that came around more than most (Harmony but her sex noises were nothing close to harmonious). She explained that if they were to have a threesome it would have to be boy-boy-girl. Apparently, neither of them had been able to swing Charlize Theron.

You had overheard this conversation over breakfast one morning on. A rare occasion they were both awake (they hadn’t gone to sleep yet). You had immediately spat out your food in disgust of their blunt discussion.

It had been perhaps in slight exaggeration but you felt like you were allowed. You were fine with people having sex and having fun but you really didn’t want to have to hear about it over your breakfast. They could have at least let you rub the sleep from your eyes first.

He had scoffed at you at the time and now he had set this up seemingly just to rub you up the wrong way. As opposed to the right ways he was rubbing his partners.

He tried to push the thought down that this had been solely planned because of you. With you in mind. To get a reaction from you. Because that would start him questioning his intentions. His actions. How you made him so angry it was now near obsessive.

So, it appeared they had finally agreed on the logistics of it. And were now giving you a live audio performance. On some random Thursday afternoon just as you had settled down to study.

You swore they were doing it on purpose. Being as loud as possible just to get a rise out of you.

You pounded on the door. You could smell sex from where you were stood out on the landing. He opened the door and stale cigarette smoke appeared to pour out of the room with him. He had opened the door almost immediately. As if he had been waiting.

“Spike!”

“Problem, pet?”

“I don’t care that you’re having sex, the walls are just so thin – I have an exam coming up can you just be quiet? Or go to one of your, uh, friends’ houses…”

“Mm, someone’s jealous”

“I’m not-”

“Just ‘cause you’re not bloody gettin’ any” He prodded before he thought about it a moment, changing tac, “Oh no. I know what this is… You want me, you need me…” He teased, knowing it would make you flustered.

“I just- I just want to-”

“If you wanted a taste all you had to do was ask” He smirked, moving his hips slightly and moving his head smugly along with his words. Drawing your attention to his naked form. The people in his bed were calling him back and you were just staring at each other. All he was wearing was a single silver chain around his neck. He was attractive, you couldn’t deny this and he knew it too. 

You were both furious at each other. Silently trying to gain the upper hand.

“You’re a pig, Spike!” You suddenly screamed, stepping towards him angrily. Which made him smile and just close the door in your face. That was what he had wanted. To get such a big emotional response from you.

You were so angry you threw one of your precious book at his now slammed shut door. He winced at the name you had used, one often used against him by people like Buffy. She even managed to get to him in his own home. You angered him. You angered him.

But he turned back and the noises started up again and you knew for sure that they were doing it on purpose now. It was getting louder and louder. He couldn’t be that fucking good, you were sure of it.

You ran into your room and rummaged through the stack of CDs you had brought with you, selecting the perfect accompaniment. The soundtrack from your favourite musical. You turned the volume up fully and let the entire score play out.

You never wanted to see his stupid smug face again.

[patagucci34]

I hate you I love you ~ Matthew Tkachuk

A/N: threw this together pretty quickly 

Warnings: mentions of sex, swearing, drinking

Word count: 9k

You and Matthew had a complicated relationship. It’s the classic story of enemies to lovers. You wanted nothing more than to remain enemies...but you couldn’t. The little rat, weaseled his way into your heart.

Thankfully for you, you spent most of the year apart- him in Calgary for hockey, you in Boston for school. But you had grown up together in St. Louis. You lived down the street from him, your parents were good friends, and you shared the same friends in school. But that certainly didn’t make you like him. For as long as you could remember, you guys never got along. Constantly arguing and bickering about everything under the sun. Your parents, siblings, and friends all tried to play peacekeeper, but it never worked. His cocky attitude and your quiet demeanor never mixed well with each other.

It still doesn’t--at least that is what you tell yourself to try and stop the strong feelings from consuming you.

Things had started to change when Brady played for BU. You were a junior, had tried your best to stay away from the hockey team during your time there, and were pretty successful until Brady joined the team. He had convinced you to come out with them a few times, attend a few parties, and before you knew it, you were hooking up with one of his teammates. You knew what you were getting into, that’s why you had tried to avoid it for so long, but he was so hot and not a complete douche so you let it happen.

The guys had just won an important game and you were going out and celebrating with them. You walked into the bar with a few of your friends and were already pretty buzzed. Once you grabbed some drinks, you made your way over to everyone and your face fell when you saw the one person who would turn this night sour for you, Matthew Tkachuk. Of course, the Flames had been in town playing the Bruins but that had completely slipped your mind. You were hoping to avoid him the whole night, but as soon as Brady saw you he called your name and pulled you in for a hug. Once he let go, Matthew stepped up to you, put his arm around your neck and gave you a noogie. You rolled your eyes at his childish antics and pushed him off of you. “God, Matt. Will you ever grow up?” You sneered at him. “Not when it comes to you, grace.” You rolled your eyes at his nickname for you, he had coined that term for you after you fell down the stairs at school and broke your leg. That was back in 6th grade and he had been calling you that ever since. “Whatever.” You said waving him off and turning back to Brady. “Brady, have you seen Ry?” 

“He’s around here somewhere…” Brady told you looking around trying to locate him. 

“It’s alright, just wondering if you had seen him yet.” 

“Ryan?” Matthew asked with a quirked eyebrow. 

“What about him?” You asked incredulously. 

“Just surprised is all...I thought ‘you would never get involved with a hockey player because we’re all just big, dumb, assholes’.” 

You scoffed at his imitation of you, “yeah, well I was wrong to base my opinion of all hockey players on you. The biggest, dumbest, douchiest of them all.”

Before he could get a retort in, Brady cut you guys off. “Alright, you two. Can you please be civil for just one night?” 

“She started it.” 

“I did?! You gave me a noogie!” 

“Enough!” Brady yelled. The two of you backed off each other and you went off to try and find Ryan.

You spotted him coming out of the bathroom and started to make your way over to him but then you saw another girl approach him. You stopped short when she wrapped her hand around his bicep and stood on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear. He leaned into her words and a little smirk came across his face. Your heart sank at the action, you had no idea what she said but the moment looked very intimate. You quickly back tracked and went to find your friends. It's not like you and Ryan were dating or anything, he wasn't 'yours', but he had texted you making sure you were coming out with him tonight so you weren't impressed about this other girl.

You hadn't been with your friends for more than a few minutes before you felt familiar arms wrap around your shoulders. "Hey, babe!" Ryan greeted as he kissed the side of your head. You just smiled up at him in return, still being a little upset about what you saw earlier.

"Want another?" He asked, pointing to the empty glass in your hand.

"Oh, um, sure." He gave you an unsure look but that didn't stop him from heading off to the bar to grab some more drinks.

Your friends tried to boost your mood by dragging you onto the dance floor. It worked for a while, Ryan had brought you your drink and danced with you for a bit before meeting back up with the guys. And after a few more drinks, thoughts of that girl with Ryan had completely left your mind.

Until of course, you were in line for the bathroom. You were checking your phone, but looked up when you heard the door open and you were in shock. Ryan and that same girl were the people holding up the line. Ryan's eyes widened when he saw you standing there. He called your  name but you had bolted to get out of the club. You checked behind you and you didn't see him following you. You shook your head, of course he wouldn't follow you. Once you reached the cold, brisk air, you exhaled. You looked around and took a seat on the curb. You wrapped your arms around yourself in an attempt to keep yourself warm and you tried not to cry. You didn't want to. You shouldn't. You knew something like this was going to happen and you were cursing yourself for not being prepared for it.

After a few minutes, someone sat down next to you. You looked over and rolled your eyes. "Now is really not the time, Matt. Please just leave me alone."

He put his jacket around your shoulders and rolled his eyes right back. "Relax. I'm not here to give you a hard time. I saw what happened in there and I figured you'd be freezing out here."

"Oh, well, thank you." You said quietly and looked back at the ground.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked softly.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

He chuckled at your tone, "look, as much as we bicker and fight, I do still care about you." You raised your eyebrows at his admission and he rolled his eyes. 

"Remember in middle school when that little punk kept putting trash in your locker? I was the reason he stopped. I threatened to punch him and he got all scared and promised not to do it again."

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah, and that time in 10th grade when that guy was making fun of you for not having a date to homecoming? I was the one who told everyone that he had lice so that his date would ditch him."

"Oh my god, Matt, seriously?!" You asked with a smile creeping on your face. "And that time that you had a--"

You laughed and cut him off. "Okay, Matt. I get it. But how come I never knew you did those things?"

"Well, I couldn't have people thinking I actually liked you…" He teased with a smirk and you gave him a small push. "But seriously, you alright?"

You sighed and sat up a little straighter. "I guess. We weren't dating or anything…he's free to do whatever he wants. It was just shitty because I'm pretty sure I was going home with him tonight and I just can't believe he'd fuck a girl in the bathroom and then take me home like nothing happened."

"That would have been very shitty of him, y/n/n. I'm really sorry. No one should make you feel this way."

"Yeah, well, it's not the first time and I'm sure it won't be the last." Matt let out a soft sigh, "unfortunately, you're probably right."

You sat in silence for a few moments before you stood up. "I think I'm just gonna head home. Thank you for sitting with me, Matt."

"I'll take you home. It's late and you shouldn't be walking alone."

You thought about protesting but figured you wouldn't win that fight so you nodded and led the way.

You caught up on each other's lives on the walk home and as soon as you walked through the door you grabbed his hand and led him to your bedroom. You were making out on the bed and he stopped for a second.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yes, just kiss me, please."

With that, he pushed you back on the bed and crawled on top of you.

You woke up the next morning and saw Matt snoring softly next to you. Although you had had quite a bit to drink, the whole incident with Ryan had sobered you up and you remembered every part of it with Matt. You weren't feeling regret necessarily, but you did wonder what this was going to mean. He was leaving to go back to Calgary so you didn't have to worry about it happening again soon, and you were fine with just going back to how things were. This was just a one night stand.

He had agreed, you had a brief talk about it before he left and that was that.

~~~~~~

You hadn't seen or talked to each other until you both were back in St. Louis for the summer. You had reverted back to your bickering, but you were glad that hooking up hadn't made things weird.

It didn't take long for the two of you to hook up again though. You were at a party with some of your friends, and because you lived on the same street, you walked back home together and ended up hooking up in your pool house in the backyard.

After that you had started hooking up more frequently. It wasn't that you were trying to keep it a secret on purpose, but no one really knew and you both decided it was probably for the best. You still argued in front of everyone so no one expected that anything had changed between you two.

For the 4th of July, both of your families went to the Tkachuk’s place on the Cape. With it being just your families, it was going to be hard to try and sneak off to have sex. It was a big place, but with an extra family, neither of you had your own room for the week. You kind of felt like teenagers again, sneaking around, jumping on the opportunity when you had a few minutes alone. It was fun, and although there were still so many things you disliked about Matthew, you were slowly starting to find things you liked.

On the night of the 4th, after a long, fun, alcohol filled day, everyone retired to bed after watching the fireworks. You and Matt had snuck onto the roof and were sitting side by side watching the stars. You identified as many constellations as you could. That not actually being many as the two of you really knew nothing about space. You argued about the big dipper and the little dipper for a little but the argument ended when Matthew kissed you to shut you up. You made out for a few minutes before Matt's hands started to go down south.

"Matt, I'm not having sex with you on a roof."

"Why not?"

"What if we fall?!"

"You think I'd let you fall?"

"No, but I don't think you’d have complete control over it…"

"Okay, fair. Where are we going to do it then?"

You thought for a minute, then an idea popped into your head. "What if we go down to the beach…"

"It's midnight, y/n/n."

"Exactly, no one will be there…"

"I don't know…"

"Please?! I've never had sex on a beach before."

"It's gonna be sandy…"

"Fine, then I guess we won't have sex tonight…"

Matt groaned at your comment, "okay, fine." He stood up and reached a hand out for you to take.

"We'll bring a bunch of blankets, it will be fine." You said as you took his hand and followed him back inside.

You quietly gathered up some blankets while Matt grabbed some wine and cups and to bring.

"We're going to be drinking?" You whispered.

"You don't want to?"

"I just thought you wanted to have sex."

"We don't have to, I just thought it would be nice."

"No we can, it's just up on the roof you seemed pretty eager…" You teased.

"Well the moment has passed…come on, let's go."

You made the short walk down to the beach and set up all of the blankets before sitting down and pouring some wine. You had put on leggings and a sweatshirt, it was a little chilly despite it being July, but when Matt pulled you close to him it wasn't too bad.

You talked for a bit while you drank your wine. He was telling you stories about his teammates that had you laughing so hard you were afraid you were going to pee your pants. Once you had finished the bottle, the kissing resumed and the sex had begun.

You hadn't even realized you fell asleep until you were waking up to the sounds of waves crashing and seagulls gawking. You opened your eyes and looked around you, the sun was just coming up so it was still pretty early, but regardless, you shouldn't have fallen asleep out here.

"Matt…" you shook him gently. "Matt, wake up."

"Mmm, what?" He asked sleepily, not even opening his eyes.

"Matt we fell asleep on the beach. We need to get back to the house before everyone wakes up."

"What time is it?"

"6:00."

"No one will be up until like 8, we have plenty of time, go back to sleep."

"But what if someone does?"

"Y/N, go to sleep. It'll be fine."

You sighed, but complied. He wrapped his arms around you and pulled you into his chest and you were back asleep in a few minutes.

This time, it was Matt waking you up in a panic. "Don't be mad, but it's a little past 9…"

You shot right up and started gathering your things. "Are you kidding me, Matt? 'It'll be fine, y/n.' 'Go to back to sleep, y/n/n.'" You imitated in his voice.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think we’d sleep that long!"

"Well if we had just gone back up when I woke you up earlier we wouldn't have this problem. What are we going to say?!"

"I don't think it's as big of a deal as you're making it."

"Matt, we're walking in together with a bundle of blankets and an empty wine bottle looking like we just woke up."

"Well, we did just wake up…"

"Matthew!"

"We just say that we fell asleep on the beach!"

"Doing what?! Matt, everyone thinks we can't stand each other."

"We'll hide the bottle of wine outside, you go in and say you wanted to see the sunrise on the beach and I'll sneak in the back and go upstairs."

"Do you really think that will work?"

"I don't see why not, you'd do something weird like that."

You narrowed your eyes at him, "asshole."

He smirked and kissed you before leading the way back to the house.

When you walked through the door you were greeted by yours and Matt's parents along with your brother, Brady, and Taryn.

"There you are, sweetie! Where have you been?" Your mom asked you.

"Oh, I went down to the beach to see the sunrise."

Your brother, Brady, and Taryn all looked at each other but before you could go over and talk to them Keith spoke up.

"Well, we found one, now we need to find Matthew."

"I'm right here!" He said jogging into the kitchen from the stairs.

"Where have you been?" Chantal asked.

"I went for a run."

Your brother, Brady, and Taryn all looked at each other again and then looked at the both of you.

"We'll have breakfast ready in a few minutes. Why don't you kids set the table." Chantal said.

You went and put all of the blankets away and then helped everyone finish setting the table. Neither you or Matt said anything but you both could feel 3 sets of eyes staring at you.

"So, where were you actually, Matt?" Brady asked.

"What do you mean, I went for a run."

"Please, you never came to bed last night." Your brother replied.

"Neither did you, y/n…" Taryn added.

"You both were passed out when I went to bed last night, you just didn't hear me." Matt lied.

Brady scoffed but didn't say anything more.

"So then where were you, y/n/n?" Your brother asked.

"I, um, fell asleep in the hammock." You stammered out, never having been very good at lying.

"Why were you in the hammock?"

"I don't know, I just wasn't ready to go to bed yet."

"You both are so full of shit. We know you were together last night." Brady stated. Matt looked over at you but you kept your focus on putting the plates down.

"You both have been acting weird this week. Just say it." Your brother added.

"Say what?" Matt asked.

"Just say that you two are hooking up!" Taryn said. Everyone stopped and stared at Taryn, not really thinking she would ever say something like that. "What? I'm 15, not 5. I know what hooking up is."

"Well, we're not hooking up. Y/n slept in the hammock and I slept in my bed. You guys are crazy." Matt forced out, glaring at everyone in the room.

You were thankful he squashed the rumor but a part of you was a little upset that it was so easy for him to say that you weren't hooking up. But as soon as that feeling came over you, you forced it out because you didn't want to be catching any feelings.

Thankfully, your parents all came in the room with breakfast so the discussion was put to rest.

Just to be safe, you and Matt didn't do anything for the rest of the week. But he made sure to text you how much he wished you could. So much to the point where you had to remind him that it would be weird if anyone found out that you two were texting so much.

Once you were back in St. Louis things went back to normal. You were currently lying in bed with Matt in your pool house.

"I'm so glad to be back. It was torture not being able to touch you in the Cape."

"Jeez, Matt. That was 3 days. What are you going to do when you go back to Calgary?" As soon as you said it, you regretted it. You hadn't talked about the end of summer and you didn't really want to. If it really was just sex then there shouldn't need to be a conversation. But you just opened that door.

"I haven't really thought about it to be honest. Just trying to enjoy it while I can. So please, don't remind me."

You were surprised at his response. It was definitely Matt's weird way of saying he'll miss you without actually having to say it. But you were glad it didn't turn into a long conversation.

The rest of summer went quickly, you were getting ready to go back to Boston and Matt was getting ready to go back to Calgary. You spent the night before he left together, not really doing a lot of talking… ;). But neither of you wanted to talk. And you didn't. When you woke up the next day, you wished him luck in the season and he wished you a good semester and you said goodbye like it was another day.

~~~~~~~~

You had texted a little bit here and there throughout your time apart, but the first time you saw him was Christmas. He miraculously was able to go home for a few days and you saw him at your parents Christmas Eve party. He hadn't told you that he was going to be home, not that he had to or anything but you were surprised when you saw him walk in with the rest of his family.

He smirked at you when you made eye contact and sent you a quick wink. You blushed a bit before taking another sip of your drink and bringing your attention back to your friends.

It was a little bit before you found each other again. You had gone upstairs to use the bathroom and he had slipped behind you and was waiting outside the door.

"Jesus, Matt. You scared me."

"Sorry, babe." He said as he kissed you. "God, I've missed those lips."

"Matt, we need to be careful, someone could come up here."

"Should we move to your room then?"

You gave him a pointed look, "Matt, there are tons of people here…our families included."

"Didn't stop us before…"

"Yeah and we almost got caught."

"Fine, later?"

"Yeah, we can use the pool house after everyone has gone to bed."

"Good. I've missed you."

"You said that already."

"I said I've missed your lips…but I also miss you."

You smiled at him, "you're weird."

"I believe that would be you."

"Whatever, Matty," you said, patting his shoulder, "I'll see you later."

The rest of the night flew by and as soon as your parents had said goodnight you were texting Matt. You met him in the pool house 20 minutes later and you barely said hello before his lips crashed into yours and the fun began.

A few rounds later you were lying next to each other under the covers. You caught up on what you missed in each other's lives and you didn't realize how long you'd been talking until you looked at your phone and it was 4am.

"Holy shit, Matt. It's really late."

"Jesus," he murmured looking at his phone. "I have to be up in a few hours…" he groaned.

"You're not going to walk home now, are you?"

"No way, I want as much time with you as possible. But we should probably go to sleep."

He pulled you close and within a few minutes you both were out.

You learned from your past mistakes and you had set an alarm this time. Your phone started going off at 7:45 as Matt wanted to be back a little before 8. He groaned and mumbled for you to turn it off but you weren't going down that road again.

"Matt, you need to get going."

He sat up slowly and groaned. "I know…will I be seeing you later?"

"If you want…"

"I do. I'll text you later." You nodded as he headed out the door. "Wait…" he said, turning back around. "Merry Christmas." He gave you a kiss and walked out the door for real.

You smiled as you made your way back in the house. Thankfully, your family didn't have stuff to do too early today so everyone was still asleep. You creeped back into your room and went back to sleep for a bit.

Meanwhile, at Matthew's, he was met by his siblings at the door. He rolled his eyes at the sight of them standing there with their arms crossed and eyebrows raised.

"Oh, Jesus Christ," he mumbled, "move out of my way please."

"Not until you tell us where you were last night." Brady said.

"And don't even think about saying you were out for a run." Taryn added.

"It's none of your business, I'm 21 years old. Now get out of my way."

"Seems like someone didn't get much sleep last night…" Brady teased.

"Shut up, Brady." Matt said as he pushed past his siblings and went to his room.

You woke up surprised to see a few texts from Matt. You didn't expect to hear from him until much later.

Matt: Brady and Taryn are onto us again

Matt: I barely stepped into the house and they were on me about where I was

Matt: Maybe we shouldn't be so secretive?

Matt: Unless of course you're embarrassed of me ;)

You: Hmmm…I don't know if my reputation would uphold if people knew.

Matt: What about my reputation?

You: You're the one that suggested it…

Matt: We don't have to…

You: Calm down, I'm just messing with you. But everyone might go crazy when we tell them…are you ready for that?

Matt: Baby, I was born ready…are you?

You: I don't know…are we talking about our parents knowing???

Matt: Well, they don't need to know that we're fucking…but they'll know that we're hanging out more. I'm sure they'll figure it out.

You: Yeah I guess you're right. I just don't want people to have expectations once they know we can actually tolerate each other.

Matt: What kind of expectations?

You:  I don't know…do you think our parents will want us to fall in love?

Matt: Our moms have always wanted that…

You: Exactly. Are they going to be disappointed when that doesn’t happen?

Matt: Who says it's not going to?

You: Matt…

Matt: We'll talk tonight, babe.

You sighed and flopped back onto your bed. What the hell does he mean, 'who says it's not going to?'

You heard some movement downstairs so you pulled yourself out of bed and went down there. Hopefully your day will be busy enough to take your mind off of things. You were greeted with the smell of fresh cinnamon rolls. A Christmas tradition that you really don't know what you would do without. Your brother had the same idea as you and walked into the kitchen just moments after you. He reached for one but your mom swatted his hand away.

"Not yet, we're going to eat at the table." She scolded. He whined in response but walked away.

After a delicious breakfast, you opened presents and then headed over to your grandparents. Your family was huge. You had so many cousins, a lot of being young so you had lots to do to keep your mind off of things with Matt.

Once you had eaten dinner, everyone opened gifts and you were roped into playing one of the games your little cousins had received. Before you knew it, everyone was getting ready to leave and you had a text from Matt.

Matt: Hey, text me when you're home. We're all done for the day.

You: Leaving my grandparents now. Meet in the park in 30?

Matt: Sounds good

Once you got home, you quickly changed into something more comfy and told your parents you were going for a walk. As you approached the little park in your neighborhood you saw Matt sitting on the bench. He stood up to greet you and then you both sat down.

"I guess we have some stuff to talk about, huh…" He started.

"What did you mean by 'who says it's not going to happen?' do you want it to happen?"

"I don't know y/n/n. I didn't mean to make things weird, I guess I just meant to say would it really be that bad if it did?"

"I mean, no, I guess not. But Matt, we barely spoke for the past few months. Which is fine, we have fun having sex when we're together, but that's all it is. If there was something more here I feel like we would have kept more in touch while we were apart."

"But we don't have to not talk…"

"Did you want to? Because I'm pretty sure you could have reached out to me too."

"No, I know. I'm not saying anyone is to blame, I'm just saying that in the future, we don't have to go radio silent when we're not in the same place. I really did miss you…no matter how much you annoy me…"

You smirked at his teasing, "I missed you too, Matty. But we still haven't solved the problem."

"I think the biggest thing is we're going to get shit for actually wanting to spend time together. And we don't have to say that we're fucking. I'm sure our friends and siblings will figure it out and maybe our parents too, but I'm sure they're just going to be happy we're getting along."

You sighed, "yeah, I guess you're right. I already get shit from my mom about how she wants us to get along because we 'would be sooo good together'."

"She says that, eh?"

"Listen to you, mister Canadian…"

"Oh shut up.…" He said with a smile and light nudge to your arm. "Do you think it's safe to take things back to the pool house???"

"I thought we were going to tell people we were friends now…"

"Oh, well yeah, is it going to be weird if we go into your room? Your parents aren't stupid…"

"Oh my god, Matt, well which is it?!"

Matt chuckled at your annoyance. "Relax, we can go and hang out for a bit then take things to the pool house."

"Okay, fine."

"Come on, let's go." He said standing up and grabbing your hands to pull you up.

You made the short walk back to your house and you were getting pretty nervous. Your parents obviously already knew Matt, and they liked Matt, and you were going to do your best to keep them from knowing of your actual relationship, but you were still nervous to show up with Matt.

You heard voices in the living room when you walked inside but there were definitely more than just your parents and brother. You and Matt both stopped when you saw his family in addition to yours.

"Well, two birds one stone I guess…" You shrugged as you walked into the living.

"Oh, Y/N, Matthew…what are you two doing?" Your mom asked.

"We, um, just got back from the park." You answered softly.

"The park? What were you doing there?" Chantal asked.

"We were just hanging out." Matt answered.

"Hanging out? Since when do you two 'hang out'?" Keith asked.

"We've called a truce. We're friends now." Matt defended.

"Oh, I'm so glad! We've been wondering when you two would quit bickering!" Your mom gushed.

"Well, come sit down! We're watching It's A Wonderful Life." Chantal said.

You and Matt sat down. There weren't two open seats next to each other so you sat next to your dad and he sat next to Brady. Your brother, Brady, and Taryn all had smug looks on their face, finally finding out that they were right all along.

After the movie was done, everyone sat in the living room drinking and talking. Matthew kept stealing glances your way but there was no way you two could sneak off. They would know exactly what you were doing. So you just avoided his gaze until his family decided to leave. After that of course, he snuck back out and met you at the pool house.

Thankfully, he didn't have to jet off super early in the morning, so this goodbye was a little more meaningful. You both promised each other you'd talk more, he wished you the best for your last semester of college and he was off.

~~~~~~~

You both had kept your promises, you talked once or twice a week. One of them being for some FaceTime sex…but it still counted.

It did feel so much better now that people knew that you two got along. It made your whole relationship feel less scandalous. Although you were still worried about the feelings part. After Christmas, you were having a much harder time stowing them away, even being over 2,000 miles away. You were finding yourself liking Matthew as a person more and more, but there was a part of you that still felt like you could never be with him.

Things really had started to change at your graduation. You hadn't seen your family before the ceremony, so when you spotted them in the crowd, you were surprised to see Matthew sitting with them. You started to panic a bit, having been caught off guard and not understanding why he was there. Sure, you had been talking more but you were still just friends with benefits. This certainly wasn't something Matthew Tkachuk would have done a few months ago, and now you were unsure about everything.

After the ceremony you found your family and gave them all hugs. And then you turned to Matthew.

"Matthew Tkachuk, what are you doing here?!" You asked, giving him a hug.

"I just thought I'd surprise you. I know how hard you worked this semester…"

"Thank you, Matty, it means a lot that you came." You whispered in his ear before letting go.

You went back to your apartment with your family and your roommate’s family to pop some champagne and celebrate before going out to dinner. You waited for a free moment to sneak Matt away to your room.

"Sooo, where are you staying this weekend?" You asked sneakily.

"Well, I'm rooming with your brother this weekend. We're gonna have so many babes over it's gonna be awesome." You pouted at him, knowing he was messing with you. "Do you want in? I've always wanted to be part of an orgy."

"Ew, Matt! Not with my brother you, pig!"

Matt laughed at your disgust and raised his arms in surrender. "I'm just kidding, relax. I will be here tonight."

"Okay, good. I'm excited for some celebratory head."

Matthew hummed at that comment, "oh you have no idea what you're in for tonight, princess."

"Ooo, princess?"

"Or should I say Y/N Y/L/N, RN, BSN…" You smiled at his use of your newly acquired title.

"That does sound pretty good…but not yet. I still have to pass my NCLEX."

"Oh please, you'll pass with no problem. Easy peasy."

You rolled your eyes, "yeah, we'll see. I really do appreciate you coming, Matthew. I really didn't expect it."

"Good, then my surprise was a success. I'm just glad to be here to celebrate with you."

You smiled and gave him a kiss, which he returned, but you pulled away after a few minutes needing to get back to everyone else.

You were starting to feel pretty buzzed from all of the champagne you were drinking so you forced yourself to stop knowing that you needed to make it to dinner. Which you did, and dinner was very nice. But your brother was feeding you drinks so by the end of dinner, you were pretty drunk. Your parents went back to the hotel, and your brother and Matt came back to your apartment to party some more.

Later on in the night, your brother was occupied talking to a few girls on the couch so you took that as your opportunity to go to bed with Matt. He kept his word from earlier and you had some of the best sex you'd ever had. That mixed with all of the alcohol you had drank had you falling asleep as soon as you guys laid down.

You woke up the next morning and immediately felt the effects of the alcohol you had consumed. You reluctantly moved to get up to grab some water and Advil but were met with some resistance.

"Please. This is the one morning we actually get to just lay here and cuddle. Don't leave me."

"Relax, I'll be right back. I need to pee and I need water and drugs."

"Ugh, fine." He said and let go of you so you could get up.

"Do you want anything?" You asked.

"I'll take some water, please."

You walked down the hallway and saw your brother passed out on the couch with some girl on top of him. You shook your head at the sight but kept going to the kitchen. By the time you walked back into your room, Matthew had fallen back asleep. You carefully climbed back in bed and as soon as you laid down his arms wrapped around you and tugged you to his side. You fell back asleep for a little bit but woke up to Matt getting up this time.

"Please. This is the one morning we get to cuddle…" You imitated him.

He made a face at you and chugged some water. "relax, I need to pee, I'll be right back." he imitated right back.

True to his word, he came right back but this time you didn't go back to sleep.

"How ya feeling this morning?" He asked you.

"Not great…"

Matt chuckled at the grimace on your face. "Well, I'm sure breakfast will cure that."

"Mmm, yeah I can't wait actually."

You sat in silence for a few moments before Matt spoke back up.

"So, don't kill me for asking you this question but, what are your plans now?"

"Well, I'm not really sure…I'm going back to St. Louis, studying for the NCLEX and then I guess I'll go from there…"

"So I get you for the summer…?"

"Yes, Matthew…"

"Good. I think this is going to be a fun summer."

"Why?"

"Well, we’re not in hiding anymore so we don't have to sneak around."

"That's true. I am really glad we don't have to do that anymore."

"Although the Cape might still be tricky…"

You laughed at the memory of last summer. "Yeah, but at least it won't be weird for everyone to see us hanging out."

"What time are we doing brunch again?"

"11 I think…what time is it now?"

Matt checked his phone, "it's 9:30."

You sighed, "okay, we have a little time. Jamie is passed out on the couch with some girl…did my parents know that he was staying here?"

Matt laughed at your brother's state, "I think he told them that we might crash here, so I'm sure they assumed we wouldn't be back."

"Yeah you're probably right. Do you guys need to go back to the hotel before brunch?"

"Yeah, all of our stuff is there. I'll get up in a few minutes and we can wake him up."

"Sounds good." You said and you cuddled up next to him.

By the end of the weekend you had all of your stuff packed up and you were headed back to St. Louis. There was no goodbye with Matthew this time because when you were packing up your apartment you figured out that there was no way you could fit it all, so your parents rented a car and you, your brother, and Matthew drove it back to Missouri.

Matthew was right when he said that this summer would be really fun. It was a blast. Although you were studying hard for your NCLEX, you and all of your friends were celebrating all of your graduations…all summer. You were going hard for your last summer before you all got "real jobs".

You still had to sneak around when you went to the Cape for the 4th of July, but it was a little easier now that your siblings knew so it was easier to sneak around at night. You were also much more relaxed, having just taken the NCLEX the week before, which Matthew was glad about because you had become pretty grumpy from all of the studying you were doing.

The month of July went by pretty fast, which you were glad for because you were getting anxious for your results. You had begun to look for some jobs, but you were still unsure about what you wanted to do. Part of you wanted to stay St. Louis, but another part of you wanted to move away to a new place. Your parents encouraged you to do whatever you wanted, though of course they would prefer for you to stick around. A few of your friends were moving to New York City and wanted to go with them. A few of your friends from BU were moving to Denver and wanted you to go with them. But what you didn't expect was for Matt to ask you to go to Calgary.

"What?!" You choked on the water you had been drinking.

"I mean, you don't have any plans so why not?"

"Why not? Wouldn't that be a little weird?"

"What do you mean? We've known each other forever, you could easily get a job there, I'll be there…"

"Yeah but, it's not like we're dating, won't people talk?"

"What does that matter? You can have your own room. You're thinking about moving with other friends of yours so how is it different?"

"Well, I'm not having sex with them for starters…"

"Another great bonus of moving in with me-sex all the time."

You gave him a pointed look, "I don't know, Matty…it's just a lot. What about all of your other girls? I'm not gonna sit around in my room on nights you want to be with other women."

"Why would I want to be with other women when I have you?"

"We're not dating, Matthew."

"I know, but I wouldn’t need to sleep with other girls while you're living with me."

"That sounds like it could get complicated."

"How?"

"We'd be friends with benefits but just with each other…"

"So?"

"Sooo, that never ends well!"

"How is it different from what we're doing now?"

"We're not living together!"

"We basically do during the summer. I haven't been sleeping with anyone else but you…"

"Well neither have I but--"

"Look, you don't have to come to Calgary if you don't want to. I just thought it would be fun. I'm sorry for bringing it up."

"It's not that I don't want to, I'm just nervous…"

"About what? Y/n/n, nothing needs to change about our relationship. It'll be like an endless summer."

"That's what they all say…before things go south."

"Why would they go south?"

"What if you meet someone you fall in love with? Or what if I do?"

"We'll deal with that when it happens. We're young, we can do whatever we want, so why not just try this out? If things aren't working you can move. We've hated each other most of our lives, so what's the worst that could happen?" He asked with a smirk.

You rolled your eyes playfully and sighed. "Alright…"

"Alright?"

"Alright, I'll come to Calgary."

Matt beamed at your decision and gave you a kiss. "It's gonna be good, y/n/n. I promise."

A few days later you were chilling on the couch watching TV when your brother came into the room and had his hands behind his back.

"Guess what caaaame?!"

"Oh my god, give me!!!" You demanded, knowing exactly what it was. You ripped it open and screamed when you saw that you passed. "Oh my god, oh my god, I passed!!!!"

Your brother gave you a hug and congratulated you before you started texting all of your friends.

You had sent Matt a text and a few minutes later you received a call from him.

"Hey!"

"Congrats, babe!! I knew you could do it!"

"Thanks, Matty!"

"What are you doing tonight?"

"I don't know, I don't have any plans."

"Let me take you to dinner, to celebrate."

"Dinner?"

Matt chuckled, "yes, dinner."

"Just the two of us?"

"I mean, we can invite other people if you want, but I thought it would be nice for it to be just the two of us…"

"No, yeah. That sounds like fun."

"Alright, I'll pick you up around 7."

"Okay, bye Matty."

You hung up and sank back on the couch. You hated that you were constantly overthinking everything with Matthew. Sure, you had been to dinner with your family and friends, but you had never been out with just Matt. First, he asks you to move to Calgary, now he wants to take you to dinner? You've been trying so hard to not catch feelings but he's making it very difficult. But maybe this is also a good thing. Things will definitely change when you get to Calgary whether he knows it or not, and you're bound to do more things just the two of you.

That didn't stop your nerves from settling in when you started getting ready. It's not like you barely knew each other and this was a first date, you didn't even know if he thought of this as a date or just two friends celebrating an accomplishment. That's how you were trying to see it as but you just couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking.

Thankfully, your worries washed away when you saw Matthew. He came to the door and for the first time, you found comfort in that cocky little smirk.

"You look good." He complimented.

"Thank you. You don't look so bad yourself."

"I aim to please…you ready?"

"Yeah, let's go."

You had just adjusted the radio and sat back and looked over at him.

"So, where are we going?"

"That is for me to know, and you to find out."

You rolled your eyes, "I really don't like surprises."

"Sucks for you, then, doesn't it?"

"You're an ass…"

"Relax, I think you'll like this place."

A few minutes later you pulled up to one of your favorite restaurants.

"How did you know?!"

"I have my ways…we do have the same friends you know…" he teased, squeezing your thigh.

"Ugh, I'm so excited, I haven't been here in forever!"

"Good, let's go in."

Dinner had been really nice. It felt normal. You weren't sure if it was date-like or just two friends having dinner but whatever it was you liked it. After dinner you went back to your house and talked with your parents for a bit. They had bought some champagne to celebrate. After that you and Matt finished the night in the pool house. You were going to miss nights in the pool house. At first, you hated it. It made you feel like you were in high school again, but it quickly became yours and Matt's "spot".

~~~~~~

The move to Calgary had gone very well. And despite your reservations, things had been going really well. As much as you hated to admit it, Matt had been right and it really did feel like an endless summer. You had been getting along really well, things weren't weird, it was actually kind of nice when he would leave for a road trip because it gave you some space. You had been worried about making friends, but you were friends with a few of the WAGs and once you started a job at the hospital you had made some friends through there.

The only thing was your feelings for Matt were becoming stronger and stronger. He was FaceTiming you almost every day he was gone. He would send flowers when he was on a longer road trip. He'd have dinner waiting for you when you had a particularly rough day at work. You knew that you were the only girl he was sleeping with in Calgary…at least you hoped that was the case. But you were unsure about what he was doing on road trips. Athletes are notorious for having girls in every city and you couldn't help but feel a little jealous. But you also didn't want to bring it up because you didn't want to cause any unnecessary tension.

You decided to put some feelers out, and you asked Brittany, Sean’s girlfriend when you were out to dinner one night.

"So, how crazy am I to think that Matt isn't sleeping with other girls when they're on the road?"

"Not that crazy, babe. Sean said he hasn't been hooking up with anyone since you moved here…"

"Wait, what?"

"Yeah, the whole team is convinced you guys are dating and just not telling anyone. No one believes you guys when you say you're just friends."

"Oh.…"

"I tried telling him you really are just friends, but no one buys it…have you slept with anyone else?"

"No, it just feels weird. Even though we're not together, I live with him, and I'm here because of him…"

"Well, I think he feels the same way. Do you want to be more than friends?"

"I don't know…I mean I like where we're at. I've been feeling more insecure about him going on the road lately, I don't really want him to sleep with other people but I don't know if I'm ready for a relationship with him."

"Why not?"

"This is going to sound really immature…but we hated each other for so long, I never saw myself liking Matt, let alone loving him…"

"Do you? Love him?"

"I don't know, maybe not yet, but I'm definitely falling…"

"I think you should just let it happen. You guys are really good for each other. I know I haven't known you for that long, but I've seen a big change in Matt since you moved here. Everyone has. He seems happier, more focused, more mature… Don't force things if you're not feeling it, but I think you are. And he is too."

You took Brittany's advice. You didn't just come out and talk to Matt about your feelings but you stopped suppressing them and you were just letting whatever happened happen.

Things really started to pick up after Christmas. You had gone home to St. Louis, but Matthew hadn't been able to so you were apart for the holidays. Although it really wasn't much different than him leaving for a road trip, you were only gone for a week, it had a different feeling to it. When you got back, Matt was extra clingy and kept commenting on how he didn't want you to leave again.

"Matt, you leave all the time…"

"I know, I'm sorry. It's not fair of me to say that, but I can't help it. It was just weird not having you around. You're used to me leaving, but I'm not used to you leaving. I missed you."

"Well, I'll do my best to stick around. Can't have you upset…" you teased.

"Good." He said with a small pout and he gave you a kiss.

A week later, Matt had come from practice and you were in the kitchen making dinner. He was acting a little funny, and you got nervous when he sat at the island across from you and asked if you could talk.

"Um, yeah, is everything okay?"

"Yeah, I just think we've needed to have this conversation for a while."

You gave him a sideways look, "you're making me kind of nervous, Matt…"

"It's nothing bad. We can talk after we eat."

"Seriously."

"What?"

"You drop that bomb on me and then make me wait?!"

"Well, I want your full attention." He said walking around to stand next to you.

"Matthew…."

"Don't stress, babe." He said as he kissed your forehead and walked down the hall.

You shook your head, he is going to be the death of me.

You hurried to finish dinner because you were really curious what Matt wanted to talk about. It certainly didn't sound bad, but you didn't understand why he was being so weird about it.

Finally, you had finished up dinner and you and Matt were sitting at the table. You were looking at him expectantly but he was more occupied with taking a bite of the lasagna you made. You cleared your throat and he chuckled.

"Matt, this isn't funny. Please, just tell me what you want to talk about."

"Okay, I think we should talk about what we're doing."

"Okay…" you said slowly, now unsure of where this was going.

"Relax, y/n/n. It's not a bad thing. I really like you. A lot. Our relationship has grown so much in the past few years and I've never been more thankful for anything in my life. I love that you're here for me after a bad game, I love being able to celebrate with you after a good game… I just love coming home to you. I want us to be together. Not just friends, or friends with benefits or whatever the hell we're doing. I want you to be mine and I want to be yours."

"I want that too, Matty. I've wanted it for a while, I just didn't know how you felt and I didn't want to mess things up."

"Well, that's exactly why we're talking about it, babe. I'm really glad you feel the same way. I was nervous you wouldn't be able to get over your hatred of me." he said with a smirk.

"I do hate you…"

"No, you love me."

"I hate that I love you."

"But you love me…"

"Unfortunately, yes." You teased.

"I'll take it. Now let me enjoy this wonderful creation of yours."

You laughed at his description of your dinner, "okay, well don't get your hopes up."

He took a bite and moaned, "it's perfect. Just like you," and squeezed your cheeks.

"You're so weird…"

"Please, just let me have my moment."

You threw hands up in defense, "alright, sorry. You do you."

"I will be doing you later."

You rolled your eyes and shook your head but cracked a smile at his antics.

You both cleaned up after dinner and then cuddled on the couch to watch a movie. Your head rested on his shoulder and he was tracing patterns on your side with his fingers. You looked up at him and in turn he looked back at you.

"What?"

"Nothing, I'm just really happy."

[ohwaitimthewriter]

Ner naak (My peace)

Pairing : Din Djarin x earthling!reader

Warning : none.

Summarize : Din Djarin meets you, an earthling, who has no idea of the existence of an outer space. 

Words : 2633

A/n : This is probably the longest story I had to translate but I hope it really worths it! You can find the previous chapters in the Ner naak Masterlist link just below. Enjoy your reading!! 

Masterlist. // Ner naak Masterlist.

Life, could manifest itself in some particularly strange ways. And there were many things you had not expected to experience, the first of which was to host two beings from the space under your roof. The second was probably having to justify the presence of a man in full armor sitting in the passenger seat of your car. 

You had managed to convince Mando to leave the child at home, under the watchful eye of your dog. In fact, you had even hoped that he too would remain out of sight, but trying to convince a Mandalorian was a long shot. 

Mando insisted on coming with you. You were going to look for the mechanical parts needed to get the ship back up and running, and he wanted to make sure you had the right materials. Even though you had explained to him that in any case, the parts you collected would be transformed to fit the ship, he didn't want to hear anything. 

Din was actually curious. He had heard so much about the Earth and its people. And to him, you were like an alien, it was a whole world to discover, and he didn't want to miss it for anything in the world. It might even have been the first time he could take the time to discover a planet without getting shot. 

But it didn't make it any easier for you. 

You looked at your neighbor, leaning against your car door, with the most natural smile you could offer. Your hands were clenched on your steering wheel and your neurons were already wriggling to find a logical explanation for Mando's armor.

"Anton! To what do I owe the pleasure?" 

"Oh, I saw you get in the car with... huh, your friend, I thought I'd say hi."  He said, staring at Mando indiscreetly. "Is there a carnival in town or something?" He asked for you.

Anton wouldn't take his eyes off Mando and it was getting embarrassing. You couldn't tell how Mando felt, but if you were in his shoes, you probably would have hated that look. You could see from the corner of your eye that Mando was holding his gaze. So you came up with the best excuse you could think of.

"Actually, it's a birthday party for a friend's daughter. She's turning six, and you know how little girls that age are, they dream of having their knight in shining armor." You say. "So, huh, my friend here has kindly offered to play along."

You clear your throat. You prayed silently for this lie to work, and when your neighbor suddenly appeared to understand a math class, you refrained from crying out for relief. 

"Ah! Like the knights of the Round Table! What an impressive armor, don't change a thing buddy!" Anton enthused over. 

Mando stared at him silently. Poor Mando, he probably didn't understand anything about this knight story, but at least it was a decent explanation for the moment.

You didn't want to linger there any longer, you thanked Anton and ended up on the road to your mechanic.

"A knight in shining armor?" Mando asked you. 

" Well, it's a long story. But to make it short, the novels are full of romantic stories involving medieval knights. I could lend you a book on the legends of King Arthur, if you like to read, of course." You said. 

"I don't know if I like reading." 

You took your eyes off the road to look at Mando. How could someone not know whether or not they liked to read? And you suddenly wondered what that man had done in his life to not be able to know. 

"I never had a chance to read." 

Din felt he had to justify himself. You had been so surprised by his answer that he wondered if reading was not an integral part of being an earthling. And then you nodded, giving him a warm smile. How could so much kindness slumber in a single being?

"Well, since you're going to be stuck here for a little while, maybe this is your chance to find out?" 

Mando didn't answer anything. Only a hesitant nod indicated that he agreed, and your smile only got bigger. 

Din watched you focus on the road again. He took the opportunity to take a look at the machine that was driving you both to your chosen destination. It was a strange passenger compartment. He had quickly figured out that it was thanks to the pedals that you were sending the necessary impulse to the machine to move forward, but he was still amazed by the lack of controls and instruments for piloting. He put his arm on the armrest of the car door, but because of his gauntlet, the button to open the window went off. 

The third thing that was particularly unexpected for you was to see a Mandalorian getting startled by a window opening itself. You had to admit it, Mando was a strange bird, but watching him discover the little earthly things was surprisingly entertaining. You closed the window on your side calmly as Mando settled back onto his seat, almost embarrassed to have been surprised. 

"At least I know I'm not the only one who's taken aback by new things." You said. "Wait, you're gonna love this!" You excitedly said as you pressed the button to turn on the radio. 

The music spread around the car and Mando suddenly stared at the radio. There were probably more controls to monitor this little box than there were to drive the vehicle. The music playing was rather rhythmic, Din noticed that you were tapping your steering wheel with your fingers in sync with the song and you seemed to particularly enjoy the song. It was weird by the way. It didn't sound like anything he'd ever heard before, but as strange as it sounded, it wasn't unpleasant at all. 

"You can change if you don't like it, just press this button. " you told him.

Din was curious, he pressed it and suddenly several voices rose up to narrate he didn't know what about he didn't know who. He pressed again and this time a much softer song was played. He liked it. He let it end and changed the radio station again until you recognized the first notes of a band that you had fully intended to introduce to the Mandalorian. 

"This one! That's them!" you  exclaimed. 

"Them?"

"Daft Punk, that's them!" 

You couldn't see it, but Din frowned as he listened to Get Lucky playing on the radio. He was focused on whether or not he liked those "Daft Punk" with whom you had compared him. His finger barely touched the button, ready to change the station and after a few seconds of listening, he didn't feel particularly flattered by the music. He changed it without any further ado. 

"You don't like it?"

"Not really." he replied. 

"It would have been funny, you guys look alike, you'd have made a great trio. " You teased. 

"Why?"

You didn't say anything. You checked to see if there were any police officers around before you took out your phone, looking on the internet for a picture of the Daft Punk. Then you handed your phone to Mando, who silently observed the picture of the two men in helmets. 

"It's not beskar, it won't even stop a blaster shot, these helmets are useless." He stated suddenly, putting the phone back where you took it. 

You couldn't help but giggle. You shook your head in disbelief, looking at him. 

"Beskar doesn't exist here and these helmets aren't made for..." And then you realized what he just said. "Wait, a shot of... of what?"

"Blaster. " he said. 

"What the... no. Actually, I'd rather not know." You changed your mind. "These helmets are like, let's say, a symbol. It's just, for appearance's sake." 

Din didn't really understand the point behind it, so he didn't answer. Maybe there was some logic in it, but in this case, it was beyond his knowledge. 

Then you park the car at a small parking lot. There was a building in corrugated iron across the street, and several dented cars were stored under a shed. 

" Here we are. This is where I hope to find most of the pieces for your ship. This auto shop belongs to my father's old friend. He shouldn't ask too many questions. " You said, more to reassure yourself than to reassure Mando. 

"If he does, I'm still a knight in shining armor. "He said, and you could hear the grin that Din had on his face. 

He didn't get out of the car until you stepped outside. You had made a list so that you wouldn't waste too much time here. 

" The only thing you're missing is your trusty steed. " you joked. 

As soon as you'd finished your sentence, your father's friend was already coming to meet the two of you.

"Y/n! It's good to see you!" 

"Hello Henry, it's been a long time. "You said. 

"I know you've been working a lot, but you should tell your students to leave you alone for an hour or two and come see me! "He called out. 

"You're right, they'll probably be happy about that actually. "You said. 

"And who are you bringing me?" 

Henry turned to Mando, offering his hand to shake it. Mando seemed to hesitate for a moment, but when you nodded gently, he shook Henry's hand. 

"Henry, this is Mando."

"Nice to meet you, Mando, so tell me, what can I do for you?" Henry just went on. 

You handed him your list, mentally thanking him for not dwelling on Mando's appearance. Henry stared at it, rubbing his beard. 

"Well, it's a big restoration you got there. "He noticed. 

"Ah, that's a hell of a slog, you could say. "You said. 

"What type?"

"Never been seen before. " You answered and you couldn't be more exact. " It belongs to Mando. It's a real gem. You wouldn't believe it."

You would've given yourself an Award for acting. Henry glanced enviously at Mando, probably imagining a real gem in the automobile world. 

"Any self-respecting man gives his marvel a name, so what's the name of this beauty?" 

You rolled your eyes. Only a man like Henry could have said such a thing. But, to your surprise, Mando replied. 

"The Razor Crest." 

"You'll have to show me that car!"

"Once we get it up and running. " Mando said. 

You were stunned to see Mando getting into your game, but you were happy about it. Henry nodded and sneaked into his workshop with your list. 

"The Razor Crest?" You repeated. "So you really give names to ships?" 

"It's more like..." Mando looked around before he showed you the license plate of a car in the parking lot. "something like that." 

"License plate? Ships are identified in space?"

He nodded when Henry appeared again, making a sign to follow him. After joining him to the workshop, Henry pushed a wagon towards you and Mando. 

"I don't have everything, but take what you can. " he said. 

"Thank you, Henry. Let me know the bill. "You said. 

He nodded and left the two of you to gather the pieces.

You'd already stuck your nose in the high shelves, scrutinizing every piece of metal you encountered. 

"It's nice of you to offer, but unfortunately, whatever money you have is probably worthless here. That's one of the consequences of not knowing the true extent of the universe. " You said, grabbing an alternator in your hand. 

You looked at it from every angle and decided it would do the trick. You put several in the cart. You took a step back, trying to find out where Henry stored his spark plugs.

"So how can I thank you? " Mando asked. 

"Well... if you've got a way to get to the top of that shelf, I'm in."

You showed him the position of the spark plugs and sighed looking for a stepladder, but Mando had another idea in mind. 

"I've got one. " he simply said. 

You frowned, not understanding what he wanted to do when he pushed his cloak to one side, revealing a dorsal reactor. You would have been speechless if he hadn't suddenly left the ground and risen three feet in the air, grabbing a few spark plugs before reaching the ground again.

You lost your words as Mando handed you the pieces. You didn't want to stare at him, but it wasn't very common to see a human being flying with a jet pack either. 

"People don't do that around here?" Mando said.

It was more of a statement than a question, but you shook your head, telling him that they didn't. But you couldn't stop smiling either. 

"It's just, amazing. "You said as you picked up the spark plugs. " But, uh... " You moved closer to Mando to put his cloak back over the jet pack. "As much as I'd love to try that someday, you' d better hide this. »

You felt sad about having to tuck away Mando's appearance like that. Though, you smiled at him kindly as you kept selecting useful mechanical components for the ship. 

"Earthlings really don't like anything that doesn't look like them. " Mando said suddenly.

It couldn't be more true. You were watching Mando. His helmet, his armor, the equipment that girdled him, and now his jetpack. You weren't really concerned about the "normal" people, you were concerned about the authorities. You were worried about the government, the scientists, NASA, all those people who would make sure that no one would find out about a faraway place. You were worried about these people and their scientific experiments. You were gradually realizing that you were probably the only person on Earth who had living proof that the universe was much wider than people were willing to admit. And somehow that was frightening and it put you in a dangerous position. Because people don't like those who know too much. 

"I wish I could tell you that it's not true, that everyone can proudly show their culture and their differences, but in fact it is not the case. If you're not within the framework, you become a target. And there are so many crazy people in this world that some would be able to kill you for being different. I really wish I could proudly announce that you're living proof that we're not alone in the universe, but that would be like sentencing us to death... both of us. " You concluded. 

Din had paid attention to your words. Maybe he had been wrong. Maybe he wasn't as safe on this planet as he thought he was. He was becoming more and more aware that leaving the Earthlings behind in the universe had done more harm than good. And then, your last sentence caught his attention. Sentencing you both to death. Why would she be? He understood why he would, but y/n? He didn't realize he could endanger you just by knowing he existed.

Din stopped you suddenly, putting his hand on your shoulder for the first time. It may even have been the very first time he had ever initiated physical contact with an almost stranger. And it felt like a pact he was signing with you. 

"I can promise you this will never happen. " Mando said. 

"You don't know about the doggedness of our leaders. " You said.

"And they don't know about the Mandalorians."

His statement sounded like a promise, and the anxiety that Din had noticed in your eyes had evaporated. Yes, if necessary, he would protect you.

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

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[just-jordie-things]

Good Company - Richie Tozier

word count: 2843 warnings: swearing summary: (y/n) isn’t that big on parties, and when her only option is to hang out with the biggest flirt, she gets to know Richie Tozier a bit better. ___

Parties weren’t exactly (y/n’s) scene, but Beverly and Ben had really wanted to go to  Jason Alvarez’s house party tonight, so here she was anyways.

Well, beverly really wanted to go, and since she did, Ben tagged right along without question.  And the pair convinced (y/n) to come along.  They easily used the fact that she had no other plans tonight, and therefore had no choice.

Now she was wandering about a party full of the familiar faces of strangers from school, and dreading every minute spent here.  Bev and Ben had run off together not five minutes upon arriving, leaving her to… well, go fuck herself she supposed.

Not that she was surprised, they did this often.  Dragging her along to their dates, their romantic outings.  And even when they tried to dial down the boyfriend-girlfriend stuff, their attempts to include her always failed.

She had to give them credit for trying.  But she’d come to accept that she was the designated third wheel long before they’d started dating.

She found herself wandering outside, just to get away from the crowd of raving seventeen year olds.  And maybe a couple freshmen she thought she knew.

How’d they even get here? She thought, before deciding she really didn’t care.

She couldn’t just leave, because even though her friends had no problem ditching her, she didn’t want to abandon them.

Wow.  What a good fucking person you are.

When she finally pushed through the back door, there were still a few people outside.

A drunk girl on a rickety-looking rope swing, being pushed by her boyfriend, who thought it was hilarious to put as much force into his pushing as possible, in hopes that she’ll fly off.

Two guys terribly shotgunning a couple of beers.  Proof of previous attempts lying around their feet.

And another guy she recognized from her gym class junior year, high as shit, feeling up the tree that the swingset hung from.  He wasn’t kissing it, or being sexual or anything, just touching it, a lot.

And then there was the last stranger, who wasn’t really a stranger at all.

Richie Tozier sat in the grass, back to the side of the house while he watched with bemused eyes at the scene in front of him.  It was like a terrible comedy, and he was just waiting for something to go wrong.  There was a blunt between his fingers that he occasionally brought to his lips, and he hadn’t noticed the girl standing there staring at him yet.

She’d known Richie since grade school.  They weren’t exactly friends, but once in a while he’d approach her and start casually flirting with her, like he knew her.  It was cute the first couple of times, but he’d done it so often now that she’d grown annoyed by it quickly.  He only did it to get under her skin, his goal to make her blush or get her pissed off.  And she hated that game.

Even though he was a friend of Beverly and Ben’s, (y/n) did not run in the same crowd as him.  He was a trashmouth, a know-it-all, a punk.  And he had been since they were six.

But for some reason, a part of her was relieved to find him here.

So she made her way over to him and slid down the wall to sit next to him.

He turned to her, finally giving her the look she’d been waiting for.  Of course he’d seen her when she’d come outside, how could he have missed her? He was just waiting for her to suck it up and join him.

“Whatcha doin’ here, gorgeous?” He said with a low chuckle, before taking a drag of his cig.

She didn’t really want to spend the whole rest of her night talking to Richie Tozier of all people and getting hit on for laughs.  But she didn’t want to spend it alone, either.

“Waiting for my friends to stop frenching so I can go home,” She answered, and pulled her knees up to her chest.  “Why are you here by yourself?”

“Not by myself anymore” He answered, earning his first eyeroll of the night.

“You come to parties just to score a little pot and then sit by yourself?” She asked him.

“I come to parties hoping that my favorite pair of legs will come keep me company,” He retorted, giving her a wide smirk.

His eyes were a bit hooded, from the drowsiness the weed caused, but they were still the size of moons behind his coke-bottle lenses.

“And here you are, babes” He finished.

Cue eye roll number two.

“Don’t flatter yourself,” (y/n) mumbled, focusing on the shotgun guys, who were on their second round since she’d arrived in the yard.  “I’m only here to not be alone” She told him in a quieter voice.

“Well you’ve come to the right place,” Richie said with a bark of a laugh.

It was the loudest thing she’s ever heard, but no one else in the yard seemed to have noticed it at all.

“Wanna make bets with me on what’s gonna happen first?” He asked.  He took her glance towards him as a signal to explain himself.  “Either Jacob, the guy over there that’s tripping, is gonna get knocked down by Julie and Fred,” He pointed at the pair messing around on the swingset.  “Or, after Harry and Sean finish their dick-measuring excuse of a chugging contest are gonna barf all over each other”

There was a grin on his face, like the disgusting scene of teenagers in front of him actually entertained him.

“Jacob’s gonna get hit first,” She said.  “That guy is gonna push Julie too hard and she’s gonna fly off and knock him down,” She watched impatiently while the boy in question wrapped both arms around the trunk of the tree.  “What are we betting?”

“A date, of course” Richie answered without hesitation.

“Fuck off,” She muttered off handedly.  This routine was almost an instinct at this point.  “Ten bucks”

“Deal” Richie said, and extended his free hand to her.

She shook it, eyes still cast out towards the inevitable painful scene in front of them.

Richie’s hand was warm, in a comfortable sort of way.  She hadn’t realized that it was kind of chilly for a June night until he touched her.  Hastily she pulled her hand out of his before she could get used to the comfortable feeling.

Not five minutes later, Julie was launched off the swing, and toppled poor Jacob to the ground.

Richie pulled out his wallet, and handed (y/n) a ten dollar bill.

She chuckled as she stuffed it into her pocket.

“Pleasure doing business, trashmouth” She hummed.

“Humor me for a minute, (y/n/n)-”

“Don’t call me (y/n/n)-”

“Why don’t you just leave?” He talked over her, and she gave him a baffled look.  “If you’re so upset about being alone, anyways” He added.

(y/n) shrugged her shoulders, and then plucked the blunt from his fingers and took a drag.  He grinned at the action, like he was proud of her.

She inhaled as she pulled the cig away from her lips, and handed it back to him.

“I’m not upset about being alone,” She told him, and then exhaled the smoke.  “I’m just tired of it,”

The girl sighed, and relaxed a bit as she leaned back against the side of the house.

“Wouldn’t you hate it?” She murmured, rolling her head to the side to look at him.  “Always getting ditched because they like each other more than they like you”

When he turned to meet her eyes, he realized how close she’d sat next to him.  Their noses were a mere few inches apart.

“Yeah,” He agreed with a heavy breath.  “That’s why I don’t hang out with Ringwald and Benny Boy anymore,” He added in a fake chipper tone.  “Don’t wanna be somewhere where I’m not wanted”

“What are you talking about, you mess with me like, everyday” She snorted.

Richie’s brow furrowed, and he ended his hit early to blow out the smoke and shake his head.

“Mess with you?” He repeated.

“Yeah?” She sounded dumbfounded.  “The flirting?”

There were lines on his forehead as his brows crinkled further.

“Right,” He mumbled.  “But you’re the one that sat with me” He added with a small smirk.

She giggled, despite herself.

“Touche” She whispered back, and looked back out at the yard.

Jacob and Julie were making out now, which was an interesting development.  They were still on the ground, and were furiously sucking face.  It couldn’t have been enjoyable for either of them, but Julie was trashed, and Jacob would be tripping till next week.

“Poor Fred” (y/n) mumbled, watching Julie’s boyfriend yell a few angry words, before realizing it was no use.

The boy scoffed, stormed over to the pair, and tore his jacket off of Julie.  She was eager to take it off anyways, paying him no mind as she went back to making out with Jacob.  This only made (y/n’s) frown deepen.  He put the jacket on, zipping it up, and grabbing his beer and taking a long swig as he stomped his feet towards the house.

When he finished the can he haphazardly flung it outwards towards the house.  Paying no mind to his peers that were sat right in his line of fire.

(y/n) was quick to slide closer to Richie before it could hit her in the face.

“Jesus, asshole! Watch where you fucking litter!” Richie shouted.

(y/n) sat back in her previous spot before he could realize that she had clung to his side.

Fred whirled back around, storming over to the mouthy boy.

“What the fuck did you say, Tozier?”

It was clear that he was drunk.  He was swaying side to side, and he spit a little as he yelled at Richie.  He pointed an accusatory finger down at the boy, and even that was shaking.

(y/n) rolled her eyes.

“Fred, sober up and go home-”

Richie cut her off before she could deescalate the situation.

“I said watch where you fucking litter,” Richie repeated.  “I know it’s hard to hear over your girlfriend fucking Jacob Alexander over there, but maybe you could-”

“Okay okay okay,” (y/n) stood up as Fred lunged forward, as if to make a move.  Not that he was in any place to be starting a fight.  “Go,” She told him with a serious stare.  “You’re drunk off your ass, you’re just gonna get yourself hurt-”

“Yeah, you’re in no shape to be winning fights here, bud” Richie stood up, earning an even angrier glare from (y/n).

“Sit your ass down” She hissed at the curly haired trashmouth.

“Whatever,” Fred spit on the ground, rather close to (y/n’s) shoe.  “Stupid fucking party anyways.  I was just leaving”

He finally started to leave, and (y/n) sighed in relief that neither of the boys were dumb enough to throw a punch.

But Richie just had to run his mouth before the door could shut behind him.

“Pal if you fuck with my girl one more time I’m gonna have to bust your fucking teeth in”

(y/n) spun on her heel, giving him a very distressed look.  But Richie just flicked his blunt to the ground and glared threateningly at the significantly larger guy.

“That’s fucking it, Tozier!”

Fred roared as he slammed the door shut, and practically ran back to Richie, who was waiting with a provocative smirk.

“I’m going to fucking kill you!” The drunk boy growled, and with surprising speed, grabbed Richie by the collar of his jacket, and reeled back his fist.

Before he could land the punch, or even strike for that matter, a different fist struck against Fred’s jaw.  A surprisingly impactful fist.

Richie’s jaw dropped as Fred released him, groaning in pain.  He clutched his face in his hand to relieve the pain.

“I said,” (y/n) winced as she shook out her hand.  “Sober up and get the fuck out of here”

Richie was laughing as Fred limped out of the backyard, and actually went in this time.  Leaving Richie and (y/n) alone.

“You idiot,” She grumbled to him, grabbing her sore hand and trying to massage the pain out of her knuckles.  “Why the hell would you fight him? The guy’s like ten feet tall.  He’s on the basketball team you know, he really would’ve killed you”

“Not when he’s that fuckin’ trashed he wouldn’t,” Richie chuckled, and stepped closer to her with an outstretched hand.  “Now come on, what are we dealin’ with here”

She hesitantly let him take her hand to inspect the already-bruising knuckles.

He poked and prodded, gauging when she would wince.

“You’re lucky you didn’t break your hand” He mumbled.

“I didn’t think his face would be so hard” She replied sheepishly.

Richie’s eyes flickered up from her hand to meet hers, an amused smile tugging on his lips.

“I can’t believe you fucking hit him” He said.

“You were going to!” She shrieked.  “Besides, I knew he wouldn’t have hit me back”

“I don’t know, he was pretty drunk.  He might have tried…” Richie said unsurely.  “You’re lucky he didn’t”

He didn’t catch it, but a blush blossomed across her cheeks as she bit back a smile.  Something about the comment was just so genuinely sweet that she was surprised it came from him.

“Whatcha got for me, Doc?” She hummed.  “Will I survive?”

“Yeah,” Richie sighed, letting go of her hand and sitting back down in the grass.  “You’ll live.  It’ll heal up in a couple days.  But you’ll probably have a nasty bruise,”

(y/n) looked back at her hand before sitting next to him.

“Maybe don’t go picking fights with guys bigger than you, yeah?”

She narrowed her eyes at him, and he only chuckled at her adorable glare.

She huffed as she leaned her head back on the wall, and shut her eyes.

“Your girl, huh?” She mumbled, peeking an eye over towards him.

“Don’t know what you mean” He muttered back, picking up the unlit and unfinished blunt from the ground.

“That is what you called me,” She reminded him, knowing full well he was just avoiding the topic.  “Well?”

He lazily turned his head to look at her, quirking a brow in her direction.

“Well,” He mocked.  “Why don’t you just chalk that up to me messing with you, alright?”

She frowned for a moment.  What had he meant by that?

And it dawned on her, as his eyes locked on hers and he made no move to look away.  Maybe he hadn’t been fucking with her head for the fun of t.  Maybe he’d… meant it? Did Trashmouth Tozier flirt with her because he actually liked her? No, there was no way-

She’d been silent for so long that she felt it would be weird to say anything now.  Much less ask him if he had some sort of crush on her.

“(y/n)? Are you out here?”

Beverly’s shrill, drunken voice called out, and both (y/n) and Richie looked over to see the redhead stumbling out the door.

“Yeah, Bev,” (y/n) called, and gave an anxious wave as her eyes landed on the two together.  “Are you ready to-”

“Well well well! Look at you two slummin’ together!” She spoke louder than she needed to.  “How cute-!”

“Where’s Ben, Beverly?” (y/n) asked before she could get embarrassed.

“He’s waiting out front, for us,” She slurred her words a bit.  “So are you ready or are you gonna stay here and suck face with-”

“I’ll be right out,” (y/n) sighed.  “Go wait with Ben, I’ll be there in a minute”

“Alrighty” Beverly sing-songed, and made her way back inside.

With a sigh, (y/n) looked back to Richie.

“Night’s over upon the queen’s command” She joked.

“I know the drill, get on out of here before you go crazy and fight more people” Richie chuckled, and nodded for her to head off.

Her lips curled into half a smile, and her eyes wandered his features for a moment.

And then she leaned forward and connected their lips.  It was a small kiss, but nonetheless sweet.  He wanted to reach out and wrap his arms around her, to hold her and kiss her properly.  But he was so shocked by the kiss in the first place, and just a little high, that he didn’t move fast enough to do it.

She pulled away, a cute little smile on her face.

“You’re a good guy, Richie,” She told him in a whisper.  “Thanks for keeping me company tonight”

He smiled back at her, and then she stood to go after Beverly.

“Let’s do it again sometime, then!” He called before she was out of sight.

She didn’t even look back at him as she hollered, “It’s a date, Tozier!”

___

xoxo ~ jordie

[xxfanfiction-emo-trinityxx]

Lie or Dare - Frank Iero x Reader

Request: Hey! On your imagine book can you write a frank imagine? But the reader is drunk and accidently tells frank they like him?!?! Warnings: alcohol, angst, fluff Word count: 2 781

“Come to this party, Frank. It will be fun, Frank. I promise, Frank,” Frank mumbled to himself in annoyance as he stood in the corner of a living room whose owner he did not even know.

He always felt misplaced at these college parties, and he was only here because of your big, beautiful, pleading eyes. You had mentioned over the last few weeks how much you would like a party to take the edge of, with all the stress you had, so Frank knew you would jump at the first opportunity you would get, and he felt obliged to go with you.

He looked around the room, his eyes gliding over all the people, intelligent, educated, well-manned people. Not people like him, at least not in sight. No punks, no musicians, no one who spend their early twenties driving around the country in an old, beaten up van, getting stopped by the police regularly because they thought ‘my chemical romance’ was some code for drugs, instead of a band name. It was not like Frank was ashamed of his life, of what he was doing. He was in no way inferior to these people around here, who spend their days in libraries and lectures, learning math and geology and physics and literature and what not. But he had a feeling that they thought they were superior. And he knew that every single one of them would have a better shot at you than him, and that was what made him feel sick.

Finally he found you, sitting on the floor in a circle with several other people, some of which he thought to recognize.

“Frankie,” you exclaimed happily, your heart beating faster, and your focus immediately shifted away from the action in the room to the young man in with the fauxhawk in front of you, “do you wanna play along?”

Before Frank even had a chance to ask what you were playing, several hands, all belonging to people he had never seen before, reached for him and pulled him down to the floor so he sat next to you, so close in fact, that his shoulder was tightly pressed against yours. But you did not seem to mind. With a second look at you he also figured out why. You were drunk. Your eyes were glassy, your cheeks tinted pink, and your gaze almost absent, at least for a moment, before a sporty looking guy at the other end of the circle declared “Time for the new guy! Truth or Dare?”

Well, shit.

“Ahm… Truth.”

Frank usually loved to take a risk, but not in front of a dozen people who he did not know and did not trust, especially not when it came to your safety. You were not the kind of person to get this drunk, so he assumed this game had to have something to do with it.

“Boring,” the guy groaned, but thought for a question anyway. “What do you do? You don’t go to college, right?”

Frank hesitated for a moment. Should he tell the truth, or rather the old I-work-at-a-supermarket-story. But these people already thought they were better than him, so he decided to brag a little.

“No, I don’t,” he answered, shooting a quick glance over at you, “I’m playing guitar in this band called My Chemical Romance and-“

“He’s gonna be famous one day, I mean, he already is,” you jumped in, wrapping your arm around Frank’s shoulder proudly, and giggled.

A grin spread over Frank’s face at your words, so he simply shrugged and nodded, before he reached for the empty wine bottle in the middle of the circle, and spun it.

It did not take Frank long to find out the reason for your drunken state. Basically every single dare was to take a shot. The only exception was a muscular guy who looked like he was a footballer or something, who was dared to take off his shirt by a squealing girl who was quicker to shout that, than the rest of the group to request a shot.

You in the meantime felt dizzy. Your head was feather-light but also incredibly heavy, and you had to resist the temptation of resting it on Frank’s shoulder. He looked so good tonight, with his crazy hair, and his lip ring, and the nose piercing, and the skeleton gloves he was wearing.

“(Y/n), truth or dare,” someone shouted across the room.

You jumped out of your thoughts, and realized the bottle was pointing at you. You were about to answer ‘dare’, fearing to reveal some secret if they asked you something, but Frank leant over to you.

“You’ve had enough, you should take truth,” he whispered, and you nodded.

Not even thinking about what he had told you, and why you had originally decided against it, you answered “Truth”.

There was some mumbling for a moment within the group until someone had come up with a good question.

“Are you in love with Frank?”

Somewhere in the back of your brain your consciousness scrambled to its feet. You felt Frank tensing at your side, and a voice in your head screamed about how he would hate you until the end of time if you told the truth, that yes, in reality you did like him. Admittedly this game was called TRUTH or dare, not “Decide if you want to tell the truth, and if not, lie and dare”, but nobody would know if you lied, and it would safe your friendship with Frank.

“Nah,” you shook your head, chuckling slightly, hoping it would be convincing, “we’re just friends, right Frankie?”

Playfully you nudged Frank’s shoulder, but something about his reaction seemed off. You felt it in the way how his shoulder did not give way to the soft push, instead it felt more like running into a door frame. He was not looking at you, his eyes cast across the room, staring into the distance, his jaw tense. Something was wrong. Majorly wrong. You felt your heartrate pick up, quicker and harder than was comfortable, and it felt as if your heart was beating right in the back of your throat, every single heartbeat causing your face to feel like it was pulsating with blood, but instead of blushing you felt yourself growing pale.

The rest of the group seemed not to notice; they just sighed in disappointment, and spun the bottle again, immediately daring the next victim to do a shot.

“Frank,” you asked carefully, nudging his shoulder again, gentler this time, hoping to make him look at you, but instead he got up wordlessly.

Panic started rising in your chest as you watched him unfold his legs, and stand up from the floor, turning his back to the group, and starting to walk away. You jumped up, intending to run after him, but the sudden movement caused your equilibrium to finally get affected by the alcohol, and you almost fell, in the attempt to run after Frank.

Slower is quicker, you told yourself, trying to ignore the spinning room around you, and the panicked breathing. Slowly, placing one foot in front of the other consciously, you made your way through the room, trying to find Frank, but he was nowhere in sight. Where could he have gone? Following an instinct you walked towards the hallway, and outside, into the front yard. And sure enough, walking down the pavement, away from the house, you spotted a figure who matched Frank’s appearance.

“Frank!”

You did not care about the looks that were thrown your way, when you shouted for him, instead you felt panic rising as he sped up his steps. Feeling terribly dizzy, but determined to figure out what the problem was, you started jogging after him.

“Frank, wait! Where are you going?”

You had almost reached him, only six feet separating you from him, and you were ready to stretch out your arm to take hold of his shirt, when he spun around, making you stumble to an immediate stop. Never before had you seen an expression that scared you as much as the one on Frank’s face in that moment. It was not necessarily the anger that glimmered in his eyes, which made you flinch, but far more the pain, the disappointment, but also a hint of apology. His face was drained of all colour, except a fine line around his eyelids, that had turned red, as if he was about to cry. His lips were quivering, in held back anger, or suppressed tears, you weren’t sure. His teeth were clenched together, and his hands tensed into fists.

“What!”

You had heard Frank scream on stage, had heard him swear like a sailor in a volume that should be forbidden, but nothing had ever made you feel as small as that single word he shouted at you now.

“What’s wrong, why’d you go?”

He stared at you, fire of anger glimmering behind his eyes.

“Why should I stay, isn’t like I’m welcome there anyway,” he hissed.

“But-“

You did not know how to phrase the questions in your mind without risking to have him run away. Was this about the truth question you had been asked? You wanted him there; there was no use in going to a party if it wasn’t with him. So instead of finishing your question, you let it hang in the air between the two of you, watching how the anger in his eyes slowly died down, and instead got replaced with sadness.

“I hate this party, they all think I’m not worthy or their company because they go to college and I don’t,” he mumbled, his eyes slowly looking away from yours. “And I’m almost tempted to believe them sometimes, you know?”

“Frank-“

Your heart broke at his words. Of course he was not worth any less than the bunch of students in there. In your eyes he was worth more than all of them together. That thought triggered a realization in your mind.

“It’s fine, let’s just admit that maybe we’re destined to go different ways in life, you go to college, and I go on tour,” he sighed, blinking several times, making you suspect that he was trying to blink away tears.

“This isn’t about college or not, is it? It’s never bothered you before,” you remembered, finally daring to take a few steps towards Frank, now that his hands started relaxing, and his angry posture fell into a defeated one. “It’s about that truth or dare question.”

The lack of reaction from his side was proof enough that it really was about this. The way he was standing in front of you now, shoulders hanging down, eyes cast to the floor, arms dangling weakly at his sides, an eternal sadness on his beautiful face, was heartbreaking. He looked like he was waiting for the final blow, like the prisoner who has accepted that he was being executed, like he had given up the fight, and was waiting for you to finish him off with a dagger to the heart.

“It’s okay, I mean, I know you deserve so much better than a dirty punk who only spends his time hanging out with his friends in an old van, you deserve so much more than me,” he whispered, his words causing you pain and fury at the same time.

You wanted to punch him for thinking so lowly about himself, but for that would be enough time later.

“If it’s any consolation,” you whispered back, slowly stepping even closer to him, so close that you were able to spy into his eyes that were still cast on the floor by his feet, “I was lying.”

It took Frank a moment to process your words. When he did, his eyes flickered up, staring into yours, and he lifted his head slowly.

“What,” he asked weakly, and more than before he looked close to a breakdown.

“I lied, when I said I wasn’t in love with you, I lied,” you explained, watching how his eyes were searching for the ‘but’ in yours, only to come up empty.

Suddenly you felt dizzy again, your head was pounding in rhythm with your heartbeat, and your knees felt week as you realized that you just had done what you had tried to avoid earlier. Maybe you just had ruined your friendship, maybe you had just screwed up majorly, or maybe-

There was no time for you to finish the thought, because you got interrupted by Frank, who had leapt forwards, grabbing your face into his rough hands, and pulling you against him, crashing his lips into yours desperately. It took you a second to respond, to wrap your own arms around him, one around his back, and one around his neck, burying your fingers into his soft curls, while his hands were holding tightly onto your face. You could feel the tips of his fingers move over the delicate skin of your cheeks, never loosening the grip, instead carefully exploring what he could reach. Underneath the hand on his back you felt him shiver, and goose bumps rose on his neck, as you gently tucked on his short hair.

In no time he was breathing heavily, and had to pull away, to catch his breath. His cheeks had gained back their colour, and his lips were slightly parted as he sucked in breath after breath, his eyes never leaving your face which he was still holding.

You too were out of breath, your fingers tightly curled into the hair in his neck, holding him close, pleading him silently not to pull away too far.

Neither of you had re-caught your breath when Frank could not stand the tension anymore, and leant back in, his lips ever so slightly quivering against yours. While the first kiss had felt like he was trying to catch you, so you were not running away, the second kiss felt like he tried to convince you to stay. Not that he had much convincing to do, but anyway. He wrapped his arms around you, one hand landing on the small of your back, pulling you into him, the other mirroring your gesture, and wrapping into the hair in your neck, holding you in place while he kissed you with more desperation than you had believed one person was able to feel, but here he was, carefully, gently, testing, pleadingly moving his lips against yours, while his breath blew hot over your skin in irregular patterns.

Somewhere in between you had closed your eyes when Frank had leant in again, but when he was still kissing you, so sweetly, you could not help but flicker them open for a second. You had never pictured seeing somebody from so close up. His skin was impossibly smooth, and this dark lashes fluttered against his cheeks. Even though you had spent the last minutes trying to catch up with what was happening, that you were really kissing Frank, that he really was returning your feelings for him, sudden realization washed (once again) over you, causing your blood pressure to drop suddenly, making black spots appear in your vision, and your knees giving in.

Breaking the kiss by stumbling slightly, you quickly steadied yourself, Frank’s arms around you playing a big part in stopping your way to the ground.

He was holding you close to his chest, allowing you to feel the deep rumble that originated in his lungs and escaped his mouth as an amused chuckle.

“You’re wasted,” he giggled, helping you stand up straight again.

“Overwhelmed,” you corrected, but at a glance to his shit eating grin, and his raised eyebrows you added, “and tipsy.”

“If you say so,” he winked.

“I insist,” you nodded, making both of you laugh.

“Do you also insist on going back inside,” Frank asked, his eyes getting lost in yours.

“Not really,” you admitted, earning an agreeing nod from him, “I’d rather find some sort of sofa where I can fall asleep.”

Frank laughed quietly, letting go of you, and immediately wrapping an arm around your shoulder so you were both facing into the same direction.

“Only if I’m allowed to fall asleep next to you,” he spoke seriously, guiding you down the street slowly, into the direction towards your flat.

“In my mind I was actually cuddled into you, maybe I should mention that,” you added, glancing at Frank to see his lips pull into a wide, happy smile.

“Sounds perfect,” he agreed, turning his head to kiss you on your hair.

You shivered comfortably, and leant your head against his shoulder, allowing Frank to guide homewards.

[holylulusworld]

I don’t need a babysitter

Summary: On every mission Steve is ordered to protect you. You are not amused at all to get to know your father is behind all of this…

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Reader, Natasha Romanoff, Bucky Barnes, Sam Wilson

Warnings: angst, language, love-hate relationship, arguments, tension, mentions of attempted rape/human trafficking (kinda) – nothing graphic, threatening

“God, Rogers I’m a grown woman. Stop babysitting me during every mission!” You mutter.

“If you would act professional or rather like a soldier I could stop babysitting you.” Steve talks back.

“What the fuck!”

“No swear words or Cap gets mad.” Sam chuckles and you glare at him.

“I’m not a child, nor a civilian Captain. I can watch my ass on my own. I worked for the CIA and Shield before I joined this team of random people. An assassin, a former Hydra agent…a criminal…Hulk…even an Alien. You let everyone work on their own. You trust everyone but me. I never messed a mission up. Not a single time!”

“As I was always around to make sure you don’t mess up.” Steve retorts and it stings…it stings badly so you need to take a deep breath.

“Why do you not trust me?”

“It’s not about trust…if anything happens to you…we would have another Sokovia accords hitting us.” Steve yells.

“What? Why should I cause this kind of trouble?”

“Your daddy is very powerful. He has a lot of influence princess and if anything happens to you he would blame us. Your father would blame me.” Steve spats and this hits you harder than any bullet. His blue eyes pierce your soul and you slump back into your seat.

“I thought you are better than all other organizations. Everyone tends to lick my dad’s shoes. I thought the great Captain America, the man fighting the system would give me a fair chance…I was wrong. I’ll handle you my termination at the end of the day.” You say without looking at him.

“Y/N. Don’t do this.” Natasha says. She knows how hard you tried to get away from your father, his power and influence. That you cut all ties with him for good after your mother’s death.

“It’s fine. I cut all ties with my father, but he won…again. I’ll just do as he says then…marry one of his business partners and become one of these brainless and meaningless wives…” You whisper.

“Y/N…” Sam tries but you shake your head. “Cap didn’t mean it that way.”

“He did and he wins. I’m tired of being treated like a child. My dad always treated me like this and that’s the reason I ran away. He wanted to force me into marriage and only my mom stopped him. After her death, I was fair game to his business partners.”

“Y/N…Stevie is a punk sometimes but he’s not like your father.” Bucky says but you scoff.

“No. He’s even worse. Acting like the good guy but in the end, he pushed me back into my fathers’ arms. Maybe this was his goal after all. Did he pay you well, Captain? I hope so…” You whisper storming out of the conference room to pack your belongings.

“You better fix this Steve. You’ve got no clue what she’s been through to break out of her father’s grip. You don’t know what he wanted her to do…Steve…you’ve got no clue.” Natasha says opening your file to show him…everything. “Read her file and tell me she’s a princess…” With that Natasha storms out of the room.

Looking at your file, the pictures of the police record, your sad eyes on the pictures and the fear on your features Steve swallows hard. He let a politician rule his decisions once again.

“Dammit!” He curses slamming his fist into the wall to leave a huge hole.

“Punk you better not hurt yourself. Talk to her. Y/N deserves a chance, you know that. Stark has enough money and influence to keep her father at bay, if not we will strike and hit him where it hurts him the most.” Bucky says and Steve glances at your data once again.

“He almost let one of these vultures violate his daughter to become a senator, Buck. What kind of man does things like that?”

“Politicians and members of Hydra. I’ve got no clue which race is worse…”

—-

“Do you want to go back to your father?” Natasha asks and you shake your head.

“I will hide for a while. Maybe he forgets about me and leaves me alone for once in my life. Why can’t he leave me alone, Nat? Didn’t he ruin my life enough?” You sniffle.

“You won’t leave the team.” Steve orders but you ignore his words. Randomly tossing clothes into your suitcase you don’t give him any reaction. “Nat leave us alone for a moment. I need to talk to Agent Y/L/N.”

“Fine,” Natasha says. Turning to leave she whispers. “Don’t mess up Cap or I will rip you apart and bury you six feet under.”

“Y/N, can we talk?” Steve asks sitting down onto your bed.

“Just make yourself home, Steve. The room is free soon. Maybe you find someone more reliable, not someone who is daddy’s princess or rather daddy’s most prized possession.”

“Y/N…I’m sorry. Your father called months ago and made sure we will not let you get hurt. He wanted us to tell you that he made sure of it…”

“Great job, Cap. You didn’t even hear the threat in his words. This is his kind of game. Sending me a message through the man I should trust with my life. Instead, he collaborates with my father. I’m just so tired of running away from him.” You whisper sitting onto the bed. Your hands start shaking and the tears fall.

“I’m sorry, Y/N. I will not allow he gets close to you. I talked to Tony and everyone else. No one will back down or bow for your father. I thought he’s just a caring and worried dad but he’s a monster. What he did…what he allowed…” Steve whispers and you hide your face in the palms of your hands.

“No one wanted to believe me. The cops said I’m just a hysterical teenager trying to get her father into trouble. He sold me to one of his donators to use me and no one believed me.”

“Did he…touch you?” Steve asks moving his arm around your shoulder.

“I had a knife in my boots…I stabbed his thigh and ran away. I ran to the next Police Station and told them what happened…you know the rest.”

“Y/N…I’m so sorry. Let me help you. I’ll protect you from now on.”

“You mean babysit me…”

“No…protect you.”

“Why?”

“I never thought about what your father said. I protected you as I wanted to. I will have a serious talk with your father soon. He’ll never bug you again. Bucky and I will visit him and make sure he’ll understand my message.”

“Steve…he’s powerful. He could damage the reputation of the Avenger’s.” You whisper leaning into Steve’s touch.

“So be it. Who do you think people like more? A politician with empty promises or the Avengers saving the world.”

“You’re stubborn…I like it.”

“How about you sleep a bit, princess?” Steve whispers.

“Please don’t call me like that.”

“I’m sorry. I promise I will never call you like that again…”

—-

The next day…your fathers office…

“How did you get in here, Captain?” Your father grunts.

“We have our ways.” Bucky chuckles as Sam is waiting outside to make sure no one enters the room. Natasha is playing with her favorite knife, glancing at your father once in a while. Always smiling sweetly while her eyes burn holes into his skull.

“You see, Senator Y/L/N, Y/N is my girl. She doesn’t know so far but Y/N is the woman I’m going to marry in a not so far future. My friends and I are here to make sure you will understand she is off-limits to you and your friends. Any call, any letter or if you only think about her means we will come back and Nat over there will get her playtime with you.” Steve warns narrowing his eyes.

Your father gulps hard but he tries to remain calm. The Avengers would never harm a civilian…

“Can’t I get some playtime right now? I think he doesn’t look like he’s going to leave Y/N alone, Steve. I could convince him in no time.” Natasha says. Her voice is calm, her smile still sweet but the look in her eyes screams ‘torture’.

“I think you misunderstood my intentions. I love my daughter.” Your father stammers and Steve wraps his hand around your father’s throat.

“You love her that much you offered her to one of your business partners? She was sixteen years old, you worthless man. I will explain myself once again. Your daughter is mine. My responsibility and my future wife. She’s off-limits and you will never bug her again. Do you understand?” Steve snarls.

Your father nods eagerly and Natasha gives him a cold smile. “We want to hear it. Everything. You will confess what you did to her right now and we are gone.” Natasha says as Bucky starts recording.

—-

“You’re babysitter is back.” Steve chuckles as you look up at him in shock. Your father called you not half an hour ago to apologize and to tell you he will never influence your life again.

“What did you do?” You ask.

“Training with Sam and Buck. Natasha was with us too. We need to stay fit…”

Walking toward the tall Avenger you search his face. Blue eyes not giving away any information, just like his face.

“You are lying, Captain. I know you did something way different this afternoon.” You say poking your finger into his firm chest.

“I’ve got no clue what you are talking about…rookie.” Steve talks back, a grin on his handsome face.

“He called me to apologize and to tell me he will leave me alone. My father sounded…scared. As if someone made him shit his pants.” You say and Bucky chuckles behind Steve’s back.

“Not just shit his pants…he wet it too.”

“Buck!” Steve warns.

“What? You never said our ‘mission’ was top secret. Get the girl and stop moping around, punk.”

“Get the girl?”

“Oh, yeah. Stevie got the ‘okay’ of your daddy to marry you…”

“James Buchanan Barnes,” Steve says through gritted teeth.

“Oh…now I’m into trouble. He used my full name…I’ll better leave you two love-birds alone.” Bucky chuckles and Steve’s face is flushed in an instant.

“Marry me…shouldn’t we have a date at first? I don��t know about how people handled this in the 1940s but nowadays we have dates first.”

“A date…sounds good.”

“Then it’s a date…Captain.” You whisper. Standing on tiptoes you peck his cheek softly before you leave the room. “Oh, and don’t forget you are not babysitting me…means full-body contact is allowed.” You tease.

Watching you swaying your hips Steve gulps hard. “Full-body contact…”

“You better wrap it before you go at it. I will not play the babysitter for an Avengers baby.” Natasha teases handing Steve a condom.

“She’s right punk, here one more to be safe.” Bucky chuckles throwing another condom at Steve.

“Just in case,” Sam adds putting the third condom into Steve’s pocket.

“If I ever have a child with Y/N you three will babysit him or her. No excuses…this is my last word as your Captain.” Steve mutters before running after you, the condoms still in his hands.

“You think he gets lucky?” Bucky asks.

“God, I hope so, James. I can’t bear their longing looks any longer.” Natasha groans.

“Dude, he’s torturing punching bags without an end since she moved into the compound…poor punching bags.” Sam sighs.

—-

“Uh…hey…when do we want to have our date?” Steve asks running after you. Your eyes land on the condoms in his hands and you smirk up at him.

“How about right now? I think my babysitter is well-prepared …let’s see how good you are at ‘babysitting’, Cap…”

Marvel Tags

@stuckys-whore​​, @notyourtypicalrose​​, @voltage-my2dlove​​, @thedoctorscamanion , @officialmarvelwhore​, @randomgirlkensy​, @juniorhuntersam, @lumar014

All works Tags

@yolobloggers, @meganywinchester​, @shikshinkwon​, @idioticsky, @miraclesoflove ​

[akechicrimes]

Prompt N. 16?

16. “I’m sorry, but… I don’t remember you.”

AU under cut where sojiro recognizes akechi as wakaba’s cognitive psience guinea pig and vaguely remembers akechi’s mother from back when he worked with shido

By the first time that detective kid comes in without Niijima, Sojiro hasn’t quite yet made up his mind. But the cafe’s got a few other customers who might overhear something they shouldn’t, anyway, so it’s not like he could say something if he wanted to; and instead of doing anything, Sojiro sits and waits and reads his newspaper and sits and waits some more, but the kid finishes his coffee and takes his leave before the other customers do. So Sojiro sighs and folds up his newspaper and wonders if he’s missed his chance. 

He goes home. Makes Futaba dinner. Has a mild argument through her closed door when she refuses to even respond, which nearly gives him a heart attack wondering if she’s gone and done something stupid while he wasn’t looking. Well, she hadn’t: She pulls the bowl of curry through the crack in the door quick as a flash and shuts it hard, and by then Sojiro’s thoroughly lost his appetite for his own dinner. Maybe he missed his chance to help Futaba. Maybe Futaba died with Wakaba, and all that’s left is to wait for the death certificate.

The second time the detective kid comes in without Niijima, Sojiro has made up his mind. 

“Don’t I know you from someplace?” says Sojiro when he passes the kid his coffee. 

“Unfortunately, a few people nowadays know me from someplace,” says the kid pleasantly.

“You just got one of those faces, huh?”

The kid’s does not have one of those faces. Goro Akechi has a face the spitting image of his mother; it’s unmistakable, and also frigidly plastic, like he inherited not only his mother’s genes and his mother’s last name, but his mother’s rigor mortis, too. “It tends to be more the TV publicity, I’m afraid,” says Akechi.

“I don’t watch TV,” says Sojiro, over the sound of TV blaring in the corner of the cafe, and rubs his beard in a show of contemplation. “I swear I remember you from somewhere else.”

Akechi’s eyes flicker to the cafe door, which is what tells Sojiro that what comes out of his mouth next will be a lie. He’s got a hard edge in his voice now: “Is that so? I’m sorry, but I don’t remember you.”

Oh, he’s one of those who thinks that a good threat qualifies as safety. A trait shared by dangerous megalomaniacs, common thugs, and cornered animals. Cute. “Must’ve been a mistake,” says Sojiro. “Could’ve sworn I saw someone just like you with a good friend of mine–Isshiki, was her last name. Was years ago. Maybe you remember her?”

Akechi’s gone absolutely still. A trait also shared by dangerous megalomanics and cornered animals. But it rules out “common thug” as an option, at least. 

“If you don’t, that’s probably for the best. She ran with a dangerous crowd near the end of her career. Wouldn’t have been any good for a nice kid to get involved with something like that.”

Akechi stands up sharply. “Thank you for the coffee, but I have to be going now.”

“Are you sure? Didn’t expect someone like you to lose your nerve so fast.”

“I see no legal, logical, or interesting reason why I should sit here and suffer your thinly veiled interrogation–”

“Sit back down,” says Sojiro.

“–or take orders from a shopkeeper,” Akechi says. His words are a polite hiss through his teeth. 

“Sit back down,” says Sojiro again.

Akechi’s smile is careening towards bared teeth. “Are you going to make me? You, the man under investigation of child neglect?”

“Or I’ll let Niijima-san know you’re tampering with her case and ruining half the permissible testimony she could use in court, yeah.”

As it turns out, between the two of them, Sojiro is the common thug who goes around threatening children.

Akechi’s quite visibly doing mental calculations on whether or not that’s even legal or if Sojiro’s bluffing (it’s both), so Sojiro keeps going before his big teenaged brain can sort itself out. “Maybe you don’t remember me,” Sojiro says. “Maybe you really don’t, or you just refuse. But however it happens…” 

Sojiro takes his glasses off and rubs at the bridge of his nose. “Niijima’s got the same look Isshiki did. She’s running with a dangerous crowd, too.” And they’ll run her into the dirt and she’ll go willingly and headlong for love of her work, Sojiro doesn’t say. “Take it from me, kid. Whether or not you’re Wakaba’s favorite guinea pig from back in the day, you don’t want to hang around with the dangerous crowd.”

“I should run and cower from my enemies, is that it?”

“That’s usually what you do with enemies, yeah.”

“The coward’s way out?” says Akechi so sweetly it sounds just like a compliment. “I should stick my head in the sand and turn away from the ugly truths of this world?”

“It’s the survivor’s way out. You can’t fight every battle,” says Sojiro. “You can’t save the whole world. Sometimes you can only save one person.”

“One,” Akechi scoffs.

“One is better than none,” says Sojiro. “Pick every battle that comes your way, and you’ll be dead before you’re twenty.”

Akechi has the look of someone who’s completely tuned out everything Sojiro just said. Doesn’t believe him, or maybe just doesn’t care about dying young. Geez, kids nowadays–first that punk Akira, and now this one. “Oh, fine,” says Sojiro, and passes him a business card–one of the few he has left, ‘cause he hates getting the damn things reprinted. “That’s the Leblanc landline. You ever need an out–you ever find yourself over your head, and need a place to disappear…”

“I don’t need your pity.”

“I’m just an old man still cleaning up Isshiki’s mess,” says Sojiro.

Akechi, eventually, takes the card with disdain. Kinda makes Sojiro wanna sock him, and really makes him wonder where he got that from because his mother didn’t have a nasty bone in her body, but it’s better than that plastic sparkle-thing he had going on. “And this little establishment of old wood and barely-legal government pension is going to operate as witness protection services on whose power?”

“Just mine,” says Sojiro coolly. “Just me and my cafe and my coffee beans, kid. But it works well enough, doesn’t it?” Sojiro goes on before Akechi can say something else that makes Sojiro want to call him a little snot. “Can’t save the world, but I’ve got this little place in the corner of it.”

“What difference does that make when the rest of the world burns?” Akechi sneers.

“Makes a difference to the person who has the guts to call that landline and stop fucking around with that Niijima woman,” says Sojiro.

For one long moment, Akechi stares at him in mute, furious shock, like he’s going to shout Sojiro out of his own shop. For one long moment, Sojiro misses Wakaba so much he thinks he’ll die right there. Akechi does not yell. Sojiro does not die.

“Thank you for the coffee,” says Akechi curtly, and spins around on his heel and strides out the cafe door. 

“Come again,” says Sojiro.

***

That night, Sojiro knocks on Futaba’s door. “Hey. Hungry?”

There’s a pause, then: “Hi, hungry. I’m Futaba,” says Futaba’s tiny voice.

Sojiro chuckles. “Alright, you got me. You coming out for dinner?”

It’s been so long since Futaba’s cracked a joke, and in the long silence that follows, Sojiro convinces himself that today’s the day she’s going to come out, even if only for twenty minutes to pick at a bowl of rice. Today’s the day things might finally get better. Even if it doesn’t, he’ll at least get to see her face for the first time in forever. 

“You can just leave it by the door,” says Futaba’s voice.

Sojiro bites his tongue. 

“Alright,” he says. “I’ll be up for a bit reading the paper, if you change your mind.”

“Okay.”

So Sojiro goes to the living room and sits and waits and reads his newspaper and sits and waits some more. Futaba does not come out. But it’s worth betting that she might, Sojiro figures. He turns the page. He waits some more.

***

(i love procrastinating. send a prompt)

[kpopmalereader]

normal ; yoon jeonghan

• summary: you're biker / punk looking to everyone, but very soft and caring around jeonghan • pairing: yoon jeonghan x male!reader • word count: 1285 • to do

“You look nervous,” Jeonghan mentions, watching you closely.

You tap on the steering wheel and nod. “Mhm.”

He shakes his head. “Why? They’re going to love you.”

“I’m meeting them for the first time, that makes me nervous.”

“You do wear nervous well, it’s cute.”

You raise an eyebrow at him and shake your head, looking back forward. “This isn’t helping.”

Jeonghan snorts and pokes your cheek, leaning over the console. “You’re going to be okay; you’ll make a wonderful first impression.”

You wait until you’re in the parking lot to give your reply. “They’re going to hate me, and you can’t convince me otherwise.”

The car doors close and you pocket the key, wrapping your arm around his shoulder. He kisses your cheek gently and rests his hand on your waist.

“Are you ready?” He looks up at you before twisting the door handle.

“Not really, but I guess I’ll try.” You pocket your hands in your jacket pockets, putting on a neutral expression.

“You’re going to do great.”

He opens the door and your hand reaches out to hold it open as he walks in, closing it behind you. He stops in the entryway, looking around for any sight of his bandmates while you find your natural position on his left side, your right hand resting on his lower back.

He shrugs and starts walking further into the room. “They must be busy with something. Normally they would freak out about one of us bringing someone over. Not that I, in particular, bring people over often.”

You give him a slightly strained smile at his attempt to relieve the tension and quickly examine your surroundings. “I believe that.”

“Okay, before they bombard us. Again,” He turns toward you and lays a hand on your chest. “You’re going to do amazing; they’ll love you, but they’re going to ask you a bunch of questions. If you ever need a break or want to leave, tell me. I want this to be fun for you too.”

You kiss his forehead and nod. “Thank you,”

He takes your hand and holds it tightly, walking further into the dorm. A small group of the members were circled around the TV, in such a silent concentration none of them realize of your existence. After a few seconds, the group breaks out in cheers or groans depending on their standing and someone finally notices the difference in the room.

“Oh!” Seungcheol looks up and pauses whatever game they were playing. “You must be Y/N.”

You bow slightly and nod. “Nice to finally meet you.”

“You were right, Jeonghan,” Seungkwan nods and examines you. “He does look tough.”

Jeonghan looks over you and nods in agreement. “I don’t lie.”

You tilt your head, squinting slightly at the comment but not speaking.

“We were just playing a few games, I’m not sure where the rest are.” Joshua looks up at you from the couch. “A couple are in the kitchen cooking, we’re here, and the others are kind of scattered around.”

“Should we introduce ourselves?” Chan furrows his eyebrows, half-whispering to the people beside him.

“I already know most of your names, I might forget a couple, but if you don’t want to introduce yourself, that’s fine. I can figure it out.”

Hoshi looks at Dokyeom with wide eyes. “His voice is so deep.”

Jeonghan smiles brightly and looks around. “I’m going to give him a quick tour and then show him off a bit more.”

Seungcheol nods and sits back down on the couch. “Food should be done soon. I don’t know how hungry you are.”

“Thank you.”

Jeonghan starts walking away and you follow him, holding your hands in front of yourself when you get to a slightly hidden area.

“My hands are sweating.” You wipe them off and scrunch your nose. “Gross.”

“You’re so nervous, I can’t believe it.” He holds your hands gently. “They already like you, I can tell.”

“I’ve said four words to them.”

“And they already gave you compliments!” He smiles and nods quickly. “You look tough, your voice is really deep,”

“And that’s all they said. They can’t even really be called compliments, they’re just kind of facts.”

Jeonghan starts giving you a tour, showing you the different rooms and introducing you to the scattered members while he’s at it until you circle back to the kitchen. You breathe in deeply as you reach the area, smelling the already amazing food cooking.

Mingyu looks over from the stove and tilts his head. “Smell good?”

“He’s a sucker for food.” Jeonghan mentions. “He’s a really good cook too, makes food for me all the time.”

“I’m an alright cook and I cook for him like twice a week.” You correct and look over the different dishes. “Did you make all of this yourself?”

Mingyu shrugs. “I had some help. I’m kind of the designated cook and we went all out for tonight.”

“You didn’t need to, really, I don’t deserve all of this.”

“Too late now.” He laughs and gestures around the kitchen. “Plus, it gives us an excuse to make a ton more food than we normally do.”

Jeonghan continues to walk back to the living room where the original group was playing video games. You chew on your lip for a second, tilting your head.

“Should I feel bad for making him cook more food?”

“No,” He shakes his head. “He’s right, we’ll find any excuse for more food. A new person is the perfect chance.”

He sits on the couch, leaving a place on the end for you. As you sit down you wrap your arm around his shoulders, and he leans into your side. You both watch the TV for a bit and you partially relax, playing with the back of his hair.

Mingyu walks in the living room, calling that the food was done. You stand up first and gesture for Jeonghan to stay seated, walking to the kitchen to get him a serving.

“Is he getting your food?” Joshua asks, stopping beside him. “That’s cute.”

“He always does,” Jeonghan shrugs.

“Really?”

Jeonghan nods and looks towards the kitchen. “It’s kind of his nature, I guess. He likes taking care of people. He does almost everything I ask him.”

Jun pats Jeonghan’s shoulder as he passes, almost pouting. “Lucky.”

You come back with a mound of food and a drink, gently placing it in his lap.

“Jun said I’m lucky to have you,” Jeonghan mentions and laughs at your almost-wince and light pink ears.

“What? Why?”

“Because you were getting me food.”

“Isn’t that what I’m supposed to do? I’m your boyfriend?” You shake your head like you don’t understand the statement and sit next to him.

Jeonghan smiles and kisses your shoulder. “Maybe they weren’t expecting it, the way you act and the way you look are kind of different.”

“Do their significant others not do things like this?” You furrow your eyebrows. “I love you, why wouldn’t I take care of you?”

He starts eating and shrugs, giggling every now and then. “Some people aren’t used to that. You get me drinks and food, clean up after me, without even thinking about it or anybody asking.”

You shrug and take a bite of his food, handing him another napkin.

“Even now, when you’re nervous about meeting everybody and we’re literally talking about it, you’re doing things.”

“It’s a napkin.” You state, shaking your head. “This is normal stuff.”

Seungkwan watches you two for a while, your ease with Jeonghan and the way helping and taking care of Jeonghan becomes second nature and leans over to Hoshi. “I don’t think he’s as tough as I thought he was.”