#they be putting crack in sweaty dirty men or something I think

[housewifebuck]

[courtingchaos]

Crosstalk

Undesired signal leakage from one sound channel or track to another.

Playlist (if you wanna play along at home.)

Eddie Munson x Fem Reader

Prompt: Eddie - I really like the idea of making him a naughty tape full of audio recordings of you playing with yourself for when he's out of town and you can't be together for a few days. But it's a surprise so you pass it off as a regular old mixtape and he doesn't suspect a thing until the first two songs end and then the real stuff starts.

Word count: 2k

Warnings: Masturbation, reader tattoo mention

A/N: I have a list in my notes of prompts and I don’t remember what ask this one came from originally so apologies for that.

18+ NSFW No Minors

Eddie digs through the bag he hastily packed that morning while the phone sits tucked between his cheek and his shoulder. “What kind of surprise is it? When did you even get it in here? Is it dirty?” He gasps into the receiver. He can feel you swatting his arm even from four hours away.

“It’s nothing wild, it’s just-“

His fingers close around something almost buried to the bottom and he fishes it out, slick plastic cassette case gleaming in the low motel light. “Did you make me a mixtape?”

“I told you it wasn’t anything wild.”

He knows you’re twirling your finger through the phone cord, your chin probably tucked into your collar in mild embarrassment.

“I love it.”

“Don’t uh, don’t go playing it for the guys though.”

“Oh so it is dirty.”

“No, I just don’t want them making fun of me for putting Linda Ronstadt on there three times.”

“Three? What are you, breaking up with me via music?” Eddie teases you while he reads the insert you lovingly wrote on, little hearts in the corners beside the 10 track listing.

“No! She’s just got a way with the language of love!” You whine into the phone and Eddie laughs.

“Okay, okay. I’ll keep it all to myself. Gives me something to listen to while I fall asleep.” Behind him the shower cuts off and he knows Gareth will be out to finish his tangent on getting bullied out of his terrible pizza toppings. “You gonna be okay if I let you go?”

“I won’t cry myself to sleep if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Oh shut up, I know you walk that widows peak night and day awaiting my return from…Detroit.”

“I don’t waste my time like that. I know you’re up to your armpits in groupies.”

Eddie looks around the old motel room and scoffs. “If you think four nerds are pulling groupies in the kind of room we have, I have a river to sell you.”

After saying goodnight five times and you finally hanging up on him being sappy he flings himself into the bathroom after Gareth and before Jeff and Frank get back with food. Four straight hours in a car with three other men makes him want to crawl out of skin so he watches the steam roll out from the behind the shower curtain with anticipation. Almost scalding water leaves red marks over his shoulders and down his chest, enough to make him feel clean again while he rinses his hair. He can hear muffled voices from the other side of the thin bathroom door and knows he’s been relegated to the small couch in their room.

“You know, it’d be nice to get the bed once in a while.” He says when he exits the bathroom and snatches two slices from the open box on the single king bed.

“If you didn’t try to spoon all of us we would.”

“Oh what, you bothered by a little cuddling?”

Gareth glares at Eddie hard and Jeff cracks up at the deep breath he takes in. “If it was just cuddling I wouldn’t think anything of it, but you turn into the world’s only land octopus! I’ve never been so sweaty in my life! I don’t know how your girl puts up with it, you’re a fucking radiator!”

“This is why I always take the cot.” Frank singsongs from said cot while watching the local news.

The bickering continues as Eddie makes his temporary bed on the too hard, too small couch and finally ends when Jeff just shuts off the lights. “I need everyone to shut the fuck up for the next five hours okay?”

Eddie only hums and fishes around for his headphones, cassette player tucked up under the blanket with him. With the tv flashing across the walls Eddie starts to drift off to the slow beat of “Blue Bayou”, a soft chuckle for your choice of intro, and by the end of it he’s almost out when he hears your voice.

“Okay, so uhm, this is actually your final warning to stop playing this for everyone because you never listen to me so I’m trying to save us both some face you ratfink.”

His eyes snap open in the dark and he pulls the player out from under the covers like it’ll tell him what’s going on.

“I’m pretty sure you’ll listen to me this time though if I put a warning on your mixtape.”

He slaps around beside him on the floor for the case and squints at it in the flashing tv lights to see if you wrote something he missed.

“Anyways though, I do miss you and I hope your show goes well. I’m sorry I couldn’t be there but there’s never much room in those motels, huh?”

He can tell you moved around while recording, the bumping of the tape deck clacking in his ears. He’s glad it’s dark so none of the guys give him shit for the blush he knows is dusting his cheeks.

“Hell, one day soon you’ll get your own room and then I can come out and I don’t have to do sappy shit like this.”

The recording cuts and jumps to Carly Simon’s “You Belong to Me” and Eddie can’t help but laugh and feel hollow at the same time. As small as this couch is it would be nice to feel your weight on top of him, your head smushed in next to his sharing headphones that might snap from overextension. The song cuts off a few notes early to shuffling sounds and then your strained voice.

“This is really hard to do one handed, I won’t lie, but I wasn’t just gonna whisper sweet nothings to you.”

One handed? He can barely make out your breathing but he can hear the gasp alongside your light laughter.

“I don’t know if you know this, and if you don’t I’m sure I’m just inflating your ego but-“

The long sigh that follows finally jogs his tired brain and keys him into what’s happening. He whips his head to the side to see the sleeping forms of the other three before he sits up and pays closer attention.

“You have amazing hands Eddie, and it isn’t just-ohhh-it isn’t just the guitar playing you know? You know just where that spot is. I think your fingers are longer, I don’t know.”

Suddenly Bonnie Raitt is in his ear and he’s fumbling for the buttons on the side of the player to fast forward because while he appreciates your mixtape skills, now is not the fucking time. You would make him wait through three more songs before he accidentally runs into the middle of your recording, a thin moan of his name that makes him stand and head for the bathroom.

“-and I just miss you a lot and you’ve only been gone f-for what, a day by the time you get this?”

His lighter clicks in the dark while juggles the tape player and his pack of cigarettes.

“You actually just left my place. We had dinner and I told you I wouldn’t fuck you because it’s like good luck or some shit. I heard boxers do it like that.”

You have a remarkable way of running your mouth while otherwise occupied, thoughts that zip between moans and even he has a hard time keeping up. In the bathroom he cracks the small window so he doesn’t set the smoke detector off and then locks the door behind him before turning the shower on full blast. When he finally sits on the edge of the tub he expects a little more from you before Bill Withers starts singing about missing sunshine and he has to fast forward again.

“You’d think I’d be a little embarrassed to do this but actually it’s-fuck-it’s kind of easier to rec-“

Eddie sucks on his cigarette until the cherry burns bright red and his lungs start screaming, the cut off voice in his ears lending to quiet sounds of your hand working fast to make your breath jump in your chest. He thinks about you probably laying on the floor of your tiny studio, right at the foot of your bed with that big boombox next to your head set to record. That pillow that’s too big for your tiny couch, the one that got relegated to a ‘floor pillow’, stuffed behind your head while your toes catch on the edge of your green rug as you try to brace yourself.

Eddie sits on the edge of the tub and breathes in his own exhaled smoke and chews on his lip till it goes almost numb. Sits there and listens to your gasps and whimpers, the far off wet slick of your fingers moving faster.

“You’d think…I was making you…a tape to send you off to war.” Your laugh is light, forced air before it chokes off on his name and he slides down to the cold tile floor. Cigarette tossed into the tub behind his head, he’ll fish the butt out of the drain when he’s done listening to your voice.

“Barely a long weekend and-and-ah shit!”

You’ve tranced him, hardly notices the dig of the tile against his bare skin, doesn’t give a shit that this floor is dirtier than he can imagine probably. He lets his vision fuzz with the steam filling the small bathroom so he can focus on your voice and try to picture you laid out in front of him. It’s just another lazy afternoon, weed haze ringing your apartment while he watches you from across the room.

“I miss you when you’re gone. It’s only four days but I miss you Eddie.”

Sitting on that tiny couch and mesmerized by the dance of your fingers over your own skin. Nails press lightly into lines of ink to trail up your thigh and over your hip, to press into the softness of your belly. You’d hold his gaze the whole time like a dare while your other hand kneaded at your chest. When those adventuring fingers finally dip between your thighs and you sigh so light, Eddie follows suit.

Through the headphones he can hear you closer now like your lips were pressed to his ear. Heavy pants and no more words, just breathing that stutters and climbs in pitch. He wastes no romance on himself, not here in this cramped bathroom, not when he can almost feel your breath hot and damp against his neck. With every hitch of your voice he speeds his hand up, didn’t even bother pulling his shorts down all the way. In his imagination you give him a chastising smile for it before your reddened eyes roll back into your skull on a moan and he uses both hands now, just like you would.

The next song started and ended maybe but his hair clings to him in the steam and his sweat. There’s a chord change he thinks that proceeds his stomach clenching and his thighs aching before it all cuts off with your loud moan. You must have slapped at the player too late, not catching all of your agonies for him. Not everything, sure, but the important part is there. Your voice chanting low as your pleasure ebbs, his name over and over until you giggle and gasp.

Soft hands, phantom and damp with arousal and sweat cup his face when he cums, the heel of his palm shoved into his mouth to stifle the high noises trying to escape his throat. The track clicks again back to music and it isn’t until Eddie hears Peter Frampton that he starts to crash back into reality.

“If I know you like I think I do, I’m sure you’re rolling your eyes at me.” You giggle again at the end of the cassette, satiated and melancholy. “I just wanted you to have a little something, though I am sorry I buried it all in some of the best love songs ever written.”

You leave him with an I love you and another I miss you and a little bit of a mess to clean up. In twenty minutes though, when he’s back on the couch having evaded being caught and sucking down another smoke, he falls asleep and dreams about that hazy afternoon he intends to give you when he gets home.

[lowkeychenle]

And Then It Was [ZCL] (M)

Description: After your marriage with Chenle was arranged by your parents for a company merger, things with him aren't quite like you expect. In your life full of obligations, he's determined to finally give you the ability to make your own choices. Genre: Smut/Fluff/Angst (arranged marriage!au, rich families using their children as business mergers yk) Content Warnings: Rich, generational family trauma, family secrets, reader in her men suck era, explicit, protected sex, mentions of pregnancy (no actual pregnancy in the fic), reader feels obligated to have children, explicit, unprotected sex, use of the pet names 'baby' and 'darling', dirty talk, oral (f receiving) Word Count: 28.2k Pairing: Zhong Chenle x fem!Reader (features Jeno, Jisung, Jaemin, and Mark, but mostly Jeno and Jisung! (sorry idk where Renjun and Haechan are in this fic?????)) A/N: Y'all tumblr really f'in hates me because it was so difficult to format this fic? like it did not want to let me put the whole thing on here. So if the last section is oddly formatted, that's why and I'msosorry :'( (p.s. thank you so much for 700 followers!!!)

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Chenle’s hand grips yours loosely, resting between the two of you right on the crack between the couch cushions. All of this is a formality, down to the smile plastered on your face. It started out simple, like something out of a movie, honestly, but even movies have to roll the end credits at some point.

“So, tell us the story of how you met,” the interviewer begins, crossing her legs as she looks at you in complete interest.

“We’ve known each other for ages,” Chenle says.

Lie. You’ve known of each other for ages. You’re only here with an oversized ring on your finger to complete your family’s merger with Chenle’s. What big news that was, two heirs of two of the biggest companies around the world falling in love. If only that were true in the slightest.

“Wow, way to make it sound romantic.” You laugh, reaching across to push his arm—gently, of course. “He makes it so lackluster. But to be completely transparent, it wasn’t…anything crazy. We did meet years ago, and we’ve been friends since then. Gosh, probably since we were sixteen?”

“Fifteen,” Chenle corrects you and sends an award winning smile your way. You’d be inclined to believe him if everything wasn’t scripted.

“He always has been a little more detail-oriented than me.”

The interview drags. You and Chenle were officially married just over a month ago, and while you know it’s your owed duty to your family, you wish optics weren’t so important. After all, legally binding yourself to secure a company was one thing, but physically binding yourself to a man you barely know? You wouldn’t dream of it. Even holding his hand feels odd, not to mention his palms are sweaty.

Your honeymoon had ended shortly before the interview. You’d been gone for four weeks, and it was the last bit of privacy you’d have when it comes to your ‘relationship’ with Chenle. You got to know him enough to where you’d be comfortable sharing an oversized house with him, but there were still a lot of mysteries between you two—mysteries you were sure would never get solved. There are a lot of good things about Chenle. He’s smarter than most people you’ve met, he knows how to make jokes and take them, he’s nice to look at, to hold a conversation with, but you don’t love him. You’d been of the mind that you wanted to marry for love since you were young, but some things are overshadowed by your duties. By money.

“There aren’t many people in this world that don’t just…immediately bow down to powerful men. It was…interesting to say the least, because throughout my entire life I’d always just been given respect. From the moment I met (Y/N), I knew I’d have to work for it. For her respect, I mean. She’s just as confident and much more intelligent than any other man I’ve ever worked with.” Chenle squeezes your hand.

That wasn’t in the script. It’s almost enough to have you break character and forget your next line. “Is that so?” You quirk an eyebrow at him, and he chuckles.

“Tried and true,” he replies with ease. “You really are extraordinary, you know.”

Can’t script a blush rising to your cheeks. It’s something about the way he makes direct eye contact with you that has your face burning.

Grinning, he turns back to the interviewer. “I have a lot of things to be grateful for in life. Truly, I do. I’m very fortunate for all of the good my family has done for me and for having things set up for me from the start. One thing I never could’ve imagined was that it could get better. Meeting her changed my life, and if I had to, I’d give everything else to keep her next to me.”

That time, your smile does fall, but you quickly catch yourself. Your heart picks up its pace in your chest, but you know it’s all part of the script. It has to be. He’d never give up his money, his family, his lifestyle for something as simple as you. You desperately want to pull your hand away, but you’ll wait until the cameras stop rolling.

As soon as you and Chenle are behind the tinted windows of his car, you drop his hand and scoot all the way over to have some semblance of peace. None of this truly makes sense to you. You’re much too young to be worried about your marriage to another person equally as young as you, yet you can’t help but mull over each word that left his mouth today.

“Are you alright?” he asks.

“Of course.” You pull your phone out of your purse and scroll through your social media with a sigh.

The driver pulls away from the spot, and after a few minutes, you look over to find Chenle watching you.

“What?”

“Is that it?” He clasps his hands together in his lap.

You scoff. “Oh, I’m sorry. Are we to keep acting while we’re alone, too? It’s exhausting.”

“You don’t even want to…try to keep getting to know each other? You’re just done?” He pauses, tongue wetting his lips. “We’re here for the long haul, (Y/N). We signed a legally binding contract. Divorce isn’t an option ever. We may as well try and—”

“All due respect, Chenle, I’d rather not know you. What happens if I do, and then I hate everything about you? Ignorance is bliss. Why risk hating you when I can just tolerate you instead?”

“Is it the hate you don’t want to risk?” His question catches you off guard, the confidence laced in his tone sending sparks of irritation through you.

“Are you insinuating that you think I could fall in love with you?”

“There’s no insinuation. I’ll tell you with full certainty that you would.” Chenle’s dark eyes narrow, and he shifts in his seat. “You fear failure. But a marriage failure would be easier if you’re not in love, right? No feelings to cloud your logical judgment.”

“For such a smart man, that was an incredibly stupid statement.” You scoff, setting your phone in your lap. “This is a job, not a marriage.”

“Not according to our sealed certificate.”

“Burn it for all I care. I’m not here for you. I’m here for my family, so I could’ve been married off to anyone. Don’t think that means I’ll allow you to control me. What’s mine is still mine. If I choose to see someone outside the marriage, that’s my own choice.”

“Ah.” He inhales slowly. “You’re already in love.”

“Wrong again.”

“Then why is that the first thing you say?”

“Because I have a duty to you. An obligation. But that does not mean you’re obligated to my heart.” You look straight forward, refusing to acknowledge the heat of his stare boring into your side.

“At least make sure you’re using protection.” He clicks his tongue.

“That was also in the contract. Didn’t you read it?” You tap your foot. “‘Extramarital relations require usage of effective birth control methods, and I may not bear another man’s child.’”

“I’m sorry, what?” He gapes at you. “Are you serious right now?”

When you laugh, his eyebrows furrow deeply.

“What’s funny?”

“No, no, I just forgot. You’re the man. You’re expected to stray from the marriage because you obviously don’t have everything life can offer. It’s okay for you to get someone else pregnant because you don’t have to physically have the child. Ridiculous.”

“And you think that’s my intention? Seriously?”

“It’s an expectation in every arranged marriage, I assume.” You cross your arms over your chest. “I don’t care what you do, Chenle. Just act like you respect me at least.”

“Okay, now hold on.” He scratches his forehead, his thought process basically written out across his face. “You were the one that mentioned extramarital relationships. I was never going to suggest it because I’d never do something like that. I don’t care what our…relationship is like, it’s still a marriage. You’re my wife, whether we like it or not, and I’m not going to do anything that would undermine you or the legacy you’ve already created. Regardless of what you believe, I do respect you. Honestly.”

“I…” you trail off, swallowing roughly. “I’d prefer silence for the rest of the drive.”

Chenle runs his tongue over his teeth, but he nods.

“Do we have to share a room?” you ask as you take your earrings out. Placing them on the vanity in front of you, you stare at Chenle through the mirror, watching as he removes his suit jacket and tie.

“We don’t have to do anything.” Chenle shakes his head and untucks his shirt from his pants. “If that’s what you want, I’ll stay in another room.”

“What?” You frown. “This is your house. You should keep the master bedroom.”

“Stop thinking like that,” he says, working on his buttons. “It’s yours now, too.”

He stops halfway down, grabbing his shirt and sweatpants to change into.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” His voice seems different, almost cold. Distant.

“Chenle,” you call out, turning in your chair to face him directly.

He sighs, stops, and looks back at you. “Yeah?”

“Before you go, can we…get something out of the way?”

“More things.” He presses his lips together in a thin line, but eventually nods and takes a few steps closer. “By all means.”

This time, it’s your palms that are sweating. You grip the armrest and flounder for the words you want to say. It’s rare for you to get flustered or shy with anyone, so acting this way in front of him has heat rising to your cheeks.

“We’re expected to have children,” you finally spit out. “Heirs. We carry two legacies on our backs.”

He shifts on his feet, taking his bottom lip between his teeth as he glances away from you. “This is what you want to get out of the way?”

“I…I just think it’s a good idea for us to put our…expectations out there early.”

“About sex or babies?”

“The only reason we’d ever…is to have babies.” You try to maintain your strong facade, but the conversation makes you more nervous than you’d care to admit.

“Right, because thinking that you’re sleeping with me out of obligation is incredibly sexy.” He runs his fingers through his hair. “We don’t even have to have sex to get you pregnant, you know. There are other options. Do you even actually want children? Or is that purely out of obligation as well?”

“Everything I do is out of obligation.”

“Not anymore.” He walks closer, resting his hand on the edge of the vanity. “You’re my wife now. You do what you want, and you do it for you. No one else. Understood?”

You stand up, obliterating the minuscule distance between the two of you. Your chest almost brushes his, and you’re nearly distracted by his half-unbuttoned shirt. Tilting your head, you scan over his face.

“You’re saying there’s not anything you want from me?”

“Wanting and demanding are two very different things.” He doesn’t back down, his impenetrable gaze locked on yours.

“And what is it that you want?”

“For someone who doesn’t care, you sure are inquisitive,” Chenle remarks.

“Don’t let my level of interest stop you.”

His eyes narrow. “How long have we known each other?”

“I can tell you our first real conversation was just over six months ago. We were informed of this…situation.” You sigh. “Why?”

“I was relieved to find out it was you.” He gulps. “To know that you are someone I’m…attracted to. That we could maybe one day have something real in the wake of this…joke of an arrangement.”

“Relieved?”

“Yes.” He nods without hesitation. “And that is what I want. A real life, real love, real family. And while everything else may not be ideal, I’d never force you to give me any of those things. As I’ve said, you’re free to make your own choices. Whether they include me or not.”

His voice is soft, barely carrying over to you from his spot mere inches away. Your heart pounds in your chest from his proximity, his words, him. You don’t want to risk anything, and the consequences far outweigh the rewards of a relationship like this.

“Good.” You nod. “I’ll remember that.”

“I expect nothing less.” He takes a step back, unintentionally shattering the tension between the two of you. “Have a good night, (Y/N).”

But for some reason, once he closes the door behind him and leaves you alone in this giant, extravagant bedroom, you truly wonder what the hell you’ve gotten yourself into.

“I mean, is that a bad thing?” Jisung’s voice carries through the phone, shuffling around with documents in the background.

Your cousin always did have trouble seeing things from your side. You sigh. “It is a bad thing. Why can’t he just be a normal man? I’m not going to beg anyone to impregnate me, if that’s what he’s waiting for—”

“(Y/N),” he says, tone laced with disbelief. “After that whole conversation, that’s what you got out of that? That he wants you to beg him?”

“What else am I supposed to get?” Crossing your arms over your chest, you study yourself in the mirror. Despite the stress as of late, you still seem miraculously put together.

“That he actually cares about you. And wants something real.”

“Then his family picked his wife incorrectly,” you insist. “I’m here because I was told to be. And why risk a lifetime of unhappiness and hate when we could just…tolerate each other?”

“Not everything has to be—”

“You were supposed to be on my side for this.” Your chest deflates, and you put him on speaker to apply your lipstick and put your earrings in.

“I’m always on your side, even if you think I’m not. I’ve met Chenle, too. You could’ve been much worse off for a company merger.”

“Right, so I should be grateful?” You snort. “Grateful that my husband doesn’t want to have—”

“Insufferable,” your cousin cuts you off. “You’re insufferable. The whole world is not out to get you. In the position you’re in, you need every single ally you can get. Chenle especially. He’s one of the most powerful men in the country. Imagine what that could do for you.”

“Yes, because powerful men are so enticing for me.” You roll your eyes.

“You don’t have to love him. Nobody expects that of you, but you can at least be friends with him.” Jisung clicks his tongue. “Give him a shot, okay? He’s not an asshole, and from what you’ve told me, he seems to be trying with you.”

You tap your fingers on the vanity. “I have a business meeting with him and his board. Guess I’ll see you in a few.”

“That you will. Talk to you soon.”

As the line cuts, you head out of Chenle’s—your—room, and head down the hall and out the door. Today is a new day, and the first way to present your dominance to your husband is to talk business. You’ve always been good at keeping your composure. While the buildings for your family’s company and Chenle’s were on opposite sides of town, the merger gave you unlimited access to both. Chenle was his own respective CEO, while your father still held the technical title at yours.

COO had been sitting in your pocket for years, and your father told you the only way he’d relinquish his CEO title onto you is if you married. And produced an heir without any public miscommunication. Essentially, your heir would, under no uncertain circumstances, be conceived and birthed in a conventional way.

You’re the last one to arrive in the conference room. The walls are mostly windows, overlooking the bustling city below you. You inhale deeply at the sight, and Chenle looks up at you, standing as soon as he finds you in the room. The rest of the board follows suit, and you almost scowl at the realization that the only open seat is right next to your husband. You don’t recognize any of them since this is solely for Chenle, but he insisted you were to be included on all business discussions from the moment you were married.

You stand next to Chenle, staring down at the five men around you. “Sit. Standing on my behalf is a waste of time.”

All of them listen to you, Chenle included, leaving you the lone pillar in a room full of money.

“Thank you for waiting for me.”

You don’t ever apologize for being late. Some things are out of your control. Sitting, you move your chair closer to the table. Chenle leans in, close enough for his lips to brush your ear. “I told you to just drive with me.”

You turn to him, unintentionally scanning over his face while he’s so close, and give him a small, fake smile. “And I told you I travel alone.”

It’s the first time you see annoyance pull at his brows. The only thing it does for you is make you give yourself a mental tally mark. Winning is your strong suit.

“Late on the first day isn’t a good look,” the man in the back on the right says. “It’s almost as if it’s not important to you.”

“First day?” You raise your eyebrows at him. “Bold of you to assume I haven’t been involved from the moment I signed a wedding certificate.”

“That’s hardly an excuse—”

“Jaemin,” Chenle interrupts him. “It won’t happen again. Leave it alone.”

Anger bubbles in your stomach as you watch the man at the end—Jaemin—immediately back down. Your words weren’t enough, but the second Chenle opens his mouth, the argument’s over? With the group of men, you talk financials from last quarter. You follow along easily thanks to the binder of data Chenle provided you with. Stopping on the fourth page, you frown.

Leaning over to Chenle, you nudge his shoulder. When you point at the page, his eyes follow. You turn your head to whisper in his ear, “This charge isn’t itemized. Little amounts may be fine, but a $143,000 charge with no itemization from one of your departments can’t be normal.”

“You’ve got sharp eyes,” he mutters, almost appreciatively.

“Obligations make you that way,” you return, brushing your hair back as you lean against your chair. Chenle’s button-up sleeves are rolled to his elbows, the tip of his pen tapping on the table as he listens to Jisung talk.

Chenle’s smart not to bring anything up just yet, as he’s likely to do more research before asking his team what is going on with something like that. You cross your legs and listen intently, but most of it is beyond your scope in his company, anyway.

“You’ll also have to decide on new positions as well.” Another man speaks up from beside your cousin.

“And what positions are those, Mark?” Chenle asks.

“COO and CFO nominations for the board to vote.”

“There isn’t any need for nominations for COO.” Chenle frowns.

“Why’s that?” One of the men, Jeno, follows up.

“Isn’t it obvious? The only person qualified for such a role is my wife.” Chenle crosses his arms over his chest, but this time, you can’t stop your outward reaction. Your jaw drops as all eyes fall on you, and you give him an incredulous look.

“Are you serious?”

“Why is this a surprise?” he inquires, gaze meeting yours.

It’s a surprise because nowhere in your signed contract did it say you were entitled to a position of power at his company.

“(Y/N) is an excellent candidate. She’s done great things at my uncle’s company,” Jisung butts in, nodding at you. “If it were up to a vote, she’d have mine.”

“We’ll reconvene for the vote. I have several candidates for CFO listed in the binders you received today, so you may vote on those as well.” Chenle pauses. 

You don’t realize your leg bouncing up and down until his palm presses against your knee. The movement is undetectable to everyone else, but it makes every ounce of air dissipate from your lungs. You calm down in an instant, no matter how much you hate to say it, and you clench your fists together in your lap.

“For now, my wife and I are going home,” he continues. “Have a good and productive day today.”

Everyone stands as he does, and you stare at him briefly when he extends his arm out to you. In that split second, you make eye contact with Jisung, who nods in encouragement. You let out a nearly invisible sigh, but you wrap your fingers around the crook of his elbow and allow him to lead you from the room. Once you’re far enough away from everyone, he still doesn’t let you go, a somewhat proud half-smile on his face. “After you pointed out that discrepancy, I almost switched gears and made you CFO instead.”

“You’ll learn quite fast that numbers aren’t really my strong suit.” You don’t even attempt to remove your grip on him. “My attention to detail makes up for the…lack of numerical intelligence.”

“I hope I didn’t take you too off-guard.” He opens the door to the building, disconnecting your arms to place his hand on the small of your back to guide you.

“Please.” You chuckle and shake your head. “You? Take me off-guard?”

“Competitive, too, huh?” He raises an eyebrow at you as he glances around at the different people with cameras surrounding you. Whether to keep you away from them or to keep up appearances, his hand slides from your back to your hip, gently pulling you closer to his side.

“Let’s just say I stopped being invited to family game night,” you admit.

Once the two of you make it to the car, you barely realize you’re disobeying your own rule of traveling alone. He grasps your hand to help you into the backseat, ignoring the flashing lights behind him as he watches you slide over.

He gets in after you, closing the door with a huff. “That’ll be a headline tomorrow.”

“You helping me into the car?”

“You smiled at me.”

“We’re married.”

“Nobody believes it.” He sighs and runs his fingers through his hair.

After a moment of your silence, he reaches over to grab your hand. You surprise even yourself when you allow him.

“I’m sorry. It’s not your problem. And it doesn’t matter what everyone else thinks.”

“Don’t apologize.” You shake your head. “It doesn’t matter, Chenle. We’ll get our…obligations out of the way, and then you can find the love you claim you want.”

His jaw tightens as he looks forward, his grip on you loosening. “Right.”

“Why?” you ask. “Why is that what you want? With me, or with anyone.”

“Love is good for you.” He shrugs. “To have someone who actually cares for you more than themselves just because they want to. Ever since I was young, I wanted to marry for love, but I’d always understood it wasn’t in the cards for me. But I figured I’d at least be able to try. With whoever it was, at least I’d be able to try to be a proper husband.”

There’s much more complexity behind Chenle than what you initially gave him credit for. You figured he’d be the typical CEO, a man high on power who will do everything and anything to not only keep it, but to grow his influence. The version of him you see now doesn’t support that original thought, but you have a hard time believing it.

“Life is already dull and loveless as it is. Rich families don’t exactly enjoy time with their relatives. I figured you, of all people, would understand where I’m coming from in that aspect.” He fidgets with his wedding band. “I don’t want to bring children into a world where they won’t be loved.”

“You think I wouldn’t love my own children?” you ask.

“That’s not what I said.” He glances at you. “Children deserve a complete family. One with parents who not only love them, but each other. I didn’t have that growing up, and I refuse to put anyone else through it.”

“I see.” You understand his point all too well, but you don’t see the big deal. Even if you two were in love and had children, wouldn’t you still have nannies and cooks and all of the things that you had as a child?

“Again, I’m not forcing you into anything. So, you don’t have to try with me if you don’t want to. But I’m not searching for it somewhere else. Since we…are obligated to have children, I wouldn’t put them through a situation where they view their father as a cheater. When I signed that contract and the marriage certificate, I signed my life away to you. Sure, it wasn’t in a traditional way or necessarily…by choice, but we’re here.”

“Wow, you sure know how to woo a woman.”

“You’ve made your stance clear. All I ask is that whoever you…” he trails off and scoffs. “Whoever you decide to be with, you keep them away from any future children. And we’ll never force them into a marriage like this.”

“You want our children to marry for love?”

“Of course, I do.” He nods.

“Chenle, I…”

This time, you reach over to him to stop his excessive movement. The second your fingers wrap around his wrist, he stops.

“I think the same way you do. Hopefully, we respect each other enough not to be caught. Publicly or by children.”

“So, you really…There’s no chance? Of anything real between us?”

Your heart comes to a dead-stop in your chest, and the word ‘no’ hangs on the tip of your tongue, but for some reason, you can’t bring yourself to actually say it. It’s one simple syllable, but it’s so heavy in your mouth, you fear opening it will wreak havoc.

“I…I don’t know,” you reply, gulping.

He turns his hand so your palms are touching, and then he squeezes you gently. “All I ask is that you keep an open mind. It’s okay to let yourself have things you want, too. Not everything has to be an obligation.”

Before you can speak, the driver is opening the door for you and Chenle to get out. The two of you make your way into the house, but you’re honestly not sure where to go from here. You head upstairs toward the master bedroom to take off your dress.

“(Y/N),” Chenle calls, stopping you in your tracks. He continues, “I have to get clothes to change into. They’re still all in the master, but I’ll have the staff move them by the end of the week.”

You wet your lips. Standing on the third stair makes you taller than him, and he looks up at you with only kindness behind his brown eyes. You want to hate him. Or to only tolerate him. But through the moments of kindness, you know he’s the type of man you could be friends with. You could—

You stop that thought before it completes. “It’s your house. Do whatever you need to.”

He joins you on the third step and leans closer to you. “Wrong.”

“Wrong?” You tilt your head.

“Remember that everything I have is yours, too. This house belongs to you just as much as it belongs to me. As much as you hate to think so, I know you, (Y/N). The ball is in your court. You make the decisions around here, whether it’s what color the walls are or twenty kids running around the hallways. Whatever you want, I’ll make it happen.”

You gape at him, face red as he leans away from you and continues up the stairs without looking back at you. Once he’s far enough away, you clear your throat and pat your cheeks. Regaining your composure, you follow him up and find him working on the buttons of his shirt, his tie discarded on the bed.

“Does this bother you?” he asks. “I can go.”

“What makes you think it bothers me?”

“You’re staring.”

You head over to the closet instead of responding to him, more than ready to put pants on instead of the dress that’s much too tight for comfort. Once you’ve picked out your new clothes, you stay where you’re at and reach behind you for the zipper. After a few moments of struggling with it, you finally give up and decide to use your resources.

“Chenle?” you call out.

When he appears in the doorway, his shirt is absent, and you were pretty sure he’d been wearing a belt before. His arms are crossed over his chest as he leans against the frame, awaiting you to tell him what you need. You don’t have to actually speak. Instead, you turn your back to him and pull your hair over your shoulder. He hums behind you, keeping a respectable amount of distance before he grips the zipper.

“What did you do before me?” he asks, hesitant to pull it down.

“Staff.” You shrug. “But I mostly wore things I knew I’d be able to—”

The familiar sound and the rush of cool air against your heated skin as he reveals more of you has your breath catching in your throat. You cut yourself off, immediately reaching up to hold the dress to your chest.

“I’m a very accommodating man, (Y/N).” His voice sinks into every inch of you. “If you need something, tell me. I’m your husband. It’s quite literally my job to ensure you’re happy, darling.”

The heat radiating from his bare skin so close to yours has every thought in your brain flying away. Logically, there’d be nothing wrong with giving in to your temptation. It’d been a long time since anyone had touched you, and the man behind you is your husband. Physical attraction had nothing to do with emotions or feelings, so it was okay. One thing you’d never be able to deny is how he’s one of the most beautiful men you’d ever met. Your parents could’ve chosen much, much worse for you.

His voice centimeters from your ear startles you out of your trance. He says, “I wonder what you’re thinking about. You seem a bit distracted.”

“Wouldn’t you love to know.”

“Truly.”

“I need to change.”

“Do you?” He trails a finger up your spine. “You’re so soft. What an odd comparison to that steel wall you’re forcing yourself to keep up.”

“I think you’re forgetting your own boundaries.” You clench your fist into the fabric of your dress. “This wouldn’t be real.”

“What even is this?” His breath fans across your neck, and you’re sure you feel the sublest brush of his lips on your skin. “Tell me where you think this is going. After all, I’m helping you with your dress like a good husband.”

“My dress was dealt with minutes ago.”

“Darling.” He tsks. “If your dress was dealt with already, it would be long, long gone.”

Even like this, you refuse to let him win. If this were to be the extent of your relationship with Chenle, you’d be fine with that. You crave satisfaction, and you also know this is a means to an end. This may be the key to giving your family those fucking heirs they want so badly. In a bold move, you release your grip on the fabric and allow it to crumple at your feet.

“What?” You tilt your head, grinning when his breathing halts. “Are you the only one who can deliver?”

He places his hand on your hip. “Can I touch you here?”

“Mhm,” you inhale sharply when he squeezes, trying your best not to roll back against him.

“Here?” he whispers, splaying his fingers out along your stomach.

“What’s your goal?” you ask, looking back at him over your shoulder. “You seem like you want something from me.”

His face is much too close to yours, but for some reason, it does little to bother you. When his lips part, you don’t mean to squirm in his touch. His eyes sweep over your expression, his touch edging just a little further downward until he can play with the lace hem of your panties.

“I’ve told you what I want already.” His gaze locks on your mouth. “Everything. I want it all.”

You gulp, unable to speak for fear of making a fool of yourself.

“What about me makes this hard for you?” he asks.

Despite the softness of his voice, your proximity to him means you see the hint of hurt swimming around in his dark irises. The heat of his bare skin on yours has everything inside you awakening, but you can’t give him what he wants.

“The choice is yours.” He takes a deep breath. “Going forward, the choice is always yours to make. I’m yours in any way you want me.”

The atmosphere around you is so warm, charged, you can’t help the way you struggle to breathe. You lean closer to him, and when your lips brush his, his grip around you tightens. Before he’s able to initiate a real kiss, a knock sounds on the bedroom door.

“Mr. Zhong, you have a visitor.”

“God damn it,” he curses under his breath, annoyance replacing whatever vulnerability you’d just seen. Stepping away from you, he grabs a shirt for you and hands it to you.

You accept it quickly, embarrassment flooding through your system as reality sets in and you realize what you’d done. He stops in the doorway, stealing one more glance at you before he runs his fingers through his hair and walks out.

“What the fuck?” you mutter to yourself, patting your cheeks.

Your skin where he touched you suddenly feels much too cold, and you give yourself a few moments to calm down as you search for a pair of pants to put on. You pick your dress up off the floor and put it with your dirty laundry. You tie your hair up to get yourself to cool down, and then you follow Chenle out to see who saved you from making a decision you wouldn’t be able to come back from.

“You came all the way here to deliver a report?” Chenle’s voice cuts through the air before you’re able to see him, and you hear the agitation flooding through it.

You round the corner and stop at the top of the stairs, finding Chenle in the foyer with one of the men from the meeting earlier standing right inside the doorway with a binder. He’d slipped his shirt back on, retucked it, and even rolled his sleeves up. His hands are deep in his pockets.

“It couldn’t wait,” the man says.

“There are plenty of things that can’t wait in this world, and they wait anyway, Jeno.” Chenle shifts on his feet. “But you’re here, so give it to me.”

Jeno hands Chenle the binder, and he opens it. At the realization of what it is, the latter’s eyes close.

“You’re telling me that this has been going on for years?”

“Before you were even CEO, yes.” Jeno nods.

“My father knows about this?”

“I’m not sure.”

“What is your father supposed to know about?” you ask, finally making your presence known as you make your way down the stairs.

Chenle turns to you, his jaw clenching as his gaze travels on its own accord. “The amount you pointed out earlier. It’s not just one payment. There’s…an entire binder full of payments to someone that aren’t accounted for. That’s $143,000 a quarter, for longer than I’ve even been able to—”

“Should she really be involved in this?” Jeno grabs Chenle’s arm.

“She’s the COO of the company.” Chenle frowns at the other man. “And she’s my wife. If this is going on, it affects her, too.”

The other man releases him, and you join Chenle at his side. At this point, even pressing your arm against his is far too much contact for you, yet you crave it all the same.

“It’s new for them,” you remind your husband. “They’re not used to me yet. They’ll learn in due time.”

“Right.”

You hold your hand out for the reports, and he gives it to you. You flip through, noting the dates corresponding with the payments.

“I wouldn’t bring it up to your father,” you mention.

“What?” Chenle recoils. “Why not?”

“These charges have been happening for years,” you point out. “There’s a chance he might know about them. That he could be the one—”

“That’s impossible,” Chenle interrupts you, his posture immediately straightening out as he stands rigid.

“It’s not.” You keep your voice soft in an attempt to neutralize the situation, and you reach for his wrist. “All I’m saying is that you shouldn’t rule anyone out. We need to keep this within a circle while we do research. No one else can know that this has even been caught.”

As soon as your fingers wrap around him, the tension in his body melts away. He lets out a sigh, wets his lips, and nods. “You’re right. We’ll look into it.” He turns to Jeno. “No one can know about this. This stays between the three of us.”

“Of course,” Jeno confirms. “I’ll leave you with that information now. Have a good night, you two.”

“Thanks,” Chenle says.

Jeno leaves, the echo of the door closing behind him leaving you and Chenle draped in an awkward silence. You place the binder on the table on the glass table, turning to face your husband.

“Are you alright?” Chenle asks.

“Me?” You raise your eyebrows. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

He gives you a pointed look, one that tells you he’s in no way wanting to beat around the bush. “Don’t do that.”

“I’m…okay, yes. Maybe a little flustered, but I didn’t…hate what happened, if that’s what you’re asking.” You avoid his gaze, rolling your eyes as you stare off past him to the ornate details of the front door.

“We’re married,” he points out.

“Yes, I’m acutely aware of that fact, thank you.” Your fingers find the band of your wedding ring.

He pauses, but his gaze leaves goosebumps all over your body as he trails over you. “It’s clear we’re…attracted to each other. And you’re still sure you’d rather not attempt a real relationship.”

“We’ve talked about this.” You glance around, like the staff overhearing is the most embarrassing thing you’ll deal with.

“Not enough.”

“What else could we possibly add to that?”

“I don’t want us to tolerate each other, (Y/N). At the very least, we should try to be friends.” He takes a step closer to you.

You’ve been confronted by a lot of men in your life. There have been even more men who doubted your abilities, but none of them had ever intimidated you. Chenle, standing in front of you with a determined look on his face, intimidates you. A part of you—no matter how small it may be—knows he’s everything he says he is and more. He could give you the life you’ve always wanted, but you’re sure you don’t deserve it. Not until you’ve fulfilled your portion of the contract and take your place as CEO. Only then can you allow yourself to let go.

“Do you want me?” he asks. “In any way?”

“I don’t want to,” you tell him honestly. “But I do.”

“When we were on our honeymoon, or the semblance of whatever that was, I couldn’t stop thinking about you. About how we were forced into this arrangement, yet none of it…None of it feels wrong. You may not have paid me much attention beforehand, but for years before we were ever to be married, I’ve admired you. Your willpower and the way you hold your own. The independence you have. Your autonomy. I envy you.”

“Why? Why envy me?”

“Look at yourself.” Chenle puts his hands on your shoulders and turns you to look into the floor-length mirrors against the wall. “I’m not talking about how beautiful you are, even though that’s definitely an added bonus. I mean the utter tenacity you have flowing through your veins. The way you can command attention the second you walk into a room. How you’re unafraid to put men with decades of more experience in their places. You are…unapologetically yourself. This life, one of business, is significantly easier for me as a man, yet you’ve absolutely bulldozed everyone in your way.”

“Chenle—”

“I’m not done.” He taps his fingers against you.

Seeing him standing behind you in these mirrors is making your heart race, your brain jolting with electricity, and inexplicable thoughts running around your mind. He looks good like this. He watches you fondly, the admiration in his gaze evident.

“But you’re honest, too. With your intentions and with the way you want to live your life. I wish you’d give me the chance to prove how things could be, but like I said before, these choices are yours alone. Don’t get that confused with me not wanting to try. Because I’ll keep trying as long as you want me in…whatever way.”

You turn to him, craning your neck to look at him with your hands flat on his chest. “I’m beginning to think you’re crazy.”

“If trying to give my wife the life she deserves is crazy, then I’ll gladly claim that title.” A smile tugs at the corner of his lips. “Something tells me you might come around someday.”

“I wish you saw things the way I do,” you mutter.

“I think the same way. But as much as I understand your fears, they shouldn’t hinder you in your life. You’re allowed to explore all aspects. Business. Joy. Intimacy. Love.”

“And you’re an expert on intimacy?” You raise your eyebrows.

“Expert might be a strong word, but I won’t ever lie to you. I’ve been in love in the past and gotten hurt because of it. But every heartbreak is worth it if it leads you to the person you were made for.” His hands slide to your hips, fingertips barely applying any pressure. “If we find we’re not good for each other, I’d let you go. You’re bound to me in a legal sense only. Paper. It means nothing unless we make it mean something.”

“You…scare me,” you breathe out. “This scares me.”

“We’re doing something right, then.” He lets out a short chuckle. “But I like this. Being close to you. Knowing that we’d be so much better as a team than as roommates.”

“I’ve always worked alone.”

“Does that mean you’ve never been in love?”

You shake your head. “Never. I don’t give myself the time to feel things like that.”

“So, feel.” His finger brushes below your chin, angling you so your eyes meet his. “Tell me what you’re feeling right now.”

“I—”

“Don’t think. Feel.”

“I…I’m nervous. You can’t be real. I’ve only been burned in the past, but it feels like you’d…just keep me warm. I don’t know if I want that.” You gulp past the unexplainable lump in your throat. “It’s…overwhelming.”

“What can I do to help you?” Chenle asks. “Whatever you need. Tell me, and I’ll make it happen.”

“You.” Your voice almost refuses to work. “I want you, but I…I need time to see if that’s really it or if I’m tricking myself in order to fulfill these stupid obligations set for me.”

“Which obligations?”

“Heirs.” You avert your gaze, but he gently pulls you right back.

“Take whatever time you need. I mean it. I’m not going anywhere, and I’m not going to push you into any situations like that.” He reaches up and plays with a strand of your hair. “But there are…plenty of ways to explore that side of our relationship without pregnancy being a risk. Or a reward, if that’s what you view it as.”

Your face burns. Never before has a man made you blush.

“With that in the open, does removing the pregnancy factor make you want me any less?”

You contemplate. While you’d love to say that portion of your contract was the last thing on your mind, you thought of it frequently. But thoughts of what he’s mentioning has your insides twisting and turning in every way, with or without heirs being involved. When he touched you earlier, his hands on your bare skin, that genuinely wasn’t a thought. You want him for personal gain, but not in the way you originally assumed.

“Never less,” you murmur. The warmth around you becomes unbearable, yet you still find yourself shivering. “I think we need to come back to this at a different time.”

“Of course.” He takes a step back, allowing cool air to rush over you. Grabbing the binder from the table, he gestures for you to follow him into his office. “Shall we move on to some numbers, then?”

Finally, you laugh shortly. “Yeah. Yes, that sounds good.”

After two hours of studying the documents, spreadsheets, and all the other information Jeno brought for Chenle, the two of you have gotten as far as discovering the payments were sent to the same bank account. Stress is written across his face, and eventually, you slide the binder away from him.

“You’re going to run yourself into the ground,” you scold him. “It’s time for a break.”

“What time is it?” he asks, massaging his forehead.

“Almost 8pm.” You lean back in your chair and cross your legs.

His lips part in shock, and he checks his watch. “Fuck. I’m sorry, I didn’t even…you haven’t eaten yet.”

“Neither have you,” you point out.

“We’ve already established that you’re more important.” He lets out a sigh, partially filled with frustration. “You know what? Why don’t you get changed and we’ll go out?”

“Together?” Your eyes widen.

“We’re married. It’d be weird if we went by ourselves.”

“Right, of course. Um, anything in particular I should wear?”

“The choice is yours.” He grins, and like it’s the easiest thing in the world, robs all of the oxygen from your lungs. You realize then that you don’t see him smile much, but the pang in your heart can only mean you want to see it over and over again.

“Okay.” You nod and stand. “Give me ten minutes.”

“Take your time. I’ll be waiting for you.”

“You sure you don’t want to pick?” you offer one last time.

“While that would honestly be an honor, darling, I’m trying to prove a point here.” He lifts himself to his feet and reaches across the desk to close the binder. “I could use a drink.”

You give him a small smile before you exit his office. Once he’s out of sight, you practically bound up the stairs. You’d been on dates before, sure, but this feels different. You know better than to let yourself look too far ahead, so once you’re in your closet, you want to make sure you wear something nice. You pick a dress you’re sure you can get yourself out of. Unlike your outfit from earlier, this one isn’t as tight to your figure, and the soft color matches you well. For business meetings, you only wear black. Wearing bright colors hasn’t ever brought you success, but you figure you can wear the purple for a date with your husband.

A date. Is it a date?

That part of it doesn’t matter. This dress makes you feel good about yourself, truly. Disgust immediately sends a shiver down your spine when you realize you’re beginning to ponder how Chenle will perceive you. He’s a man. You could wear a trash bag and he’d think you did something revolutionary. Brushing the skirt of your dress off, you grab a pair of heels, slide them on, and head back down the stairs. He waits by the door, his suit jacket back on and buttoned in the middle. He turns at the sound of your shoes on the floor, and he freezes in his spot.

“What?” you inquire.

“I just…I’ve never seen you in that color before.” He clears his throat, but his cheeks tinge with a light, barely noticeable pink. “You…it suits you well.”

“Thank you.” Before you attempt to leave the door, he grabs your jacket from the rack and drapes it over your shoulders.

“It’s cold, darling,” he mutters, making sure the fabric is secure on your shoulders.

“You don’t think it ruins the outfit?”

“Not a chance. Jacket or not, it’s my favorite of yours.”

“Relax with the compliments. You’re making me blush.” You brush your fingertips against his shoulder and exit the house.

“My hard work is paying off. Good to know.” He closes the door behind him and guides you to the car with his hand on the small of your back. “I’ll stop with the compliments if you ever stop deserving them. Which I doubt will happen, by the way.”

The drive is thirty minutes, and the city is still bustling by the time Chenle is helping you out of the car. His palm against yours makes your stomach flip, and you’re beginning to hate this effect he has on you. It seems like it hit you out of nowhere, and you’d prefer if it were to sink back into the depths of hell where it came from in the first place. But before you know it, you’re a glass and a half deep of wine, you’ve eaten enough pasta to get you through the night, and Chenle’s in the exact same boat you’re in. Between the two of you, you’ve finished a bottle, and it seems as if your husband is debating ordering another one.

You hide a laugh with another sip from your glass and shake your head. “I cannot believe we’re this out of order.”

“The order doesn’t matter as long as the end result is desirable. Isn’t that true?” He quirks an eyebrow at you.

“Mm, I’ve always been an order of operations girl. Everything has to happen in the exact right way.” You set your drink down and rest your head on your palm.

“I just realized I know…nothing about your past. Please, tell me what the younger version of you was like. What kind of trouble did you get into?”

“Wow, what makes you assume I got into trouble?” you tease him, unable to fight your smile.

He sucks in a deep breath and pats his legs. “God, I’m not sure. It couldn’t be the way you never take no for an answer or how you absolutely run over everyone in your way.”

“I’ll have you know that I am a very composed human.” You run your tongue over your teeth.

“I’d expect nothing less, to be honest.” He gives you a soft smile. “And for the record, I enjoy those qualities. There aren’t many people in this world that would be unafraid of calling me out if I’m doing something wrong.”

“You mean earlier.”

“I mean in general, but that does apply, yes.”

“I only want to be a balance for you.” You look down at the red liquid in your cup. “We’re meant to complement each other now, yeah?”

“I think we were the most strategic pair…ever.” Chenle nods.

“Can I be honest with you?” You take another sip.

“Absolutely.”

“You asked me earlier what about you makes this situation hard. Or what about you makes it hard for me to…let go of certain views.” You clear your throat, dreading the conversation more than you’d care to admit. “I feel like it’s…because a part of me knows the greatness we’d be capable of together. But I’ve worked hard to build my own greatness, and I can almost guarantee the second this becomes real, my greatness becomes ours.”

“Ah.” He purses his lips. “I won’t lie to you. There will be people that see it that way. But by being married to me, those people already exist.”

“I’m not talking about other people. I don’t care about them or their opinions.” You finish off your glass.

“You…you mean me?” His eyes widen in shock.

“That is a fear I have.”

He flounders for a second, and he scrambles for words for the first time all day. “I’m sorry, I just…I’m not sure if there’s anything I can say to make this better. I…(Y/N), I know my promises probably don’t mean much to you at this point, but I’d never discount you like that. Or take credit for anything you’ve done. How can I make that clearer?”

“It’s not your issue to correct.” You chew the inside of your cheek. “It’s mine. And I don’t say it to make you feel responsible, but as a forewarning, I guess. Being a woman and working my way to the top just to have…this thrust upon me is a little redundant.”

“You never wanted to marry in the first place.” It’s not a question.

“That’s correct.”

He blows out a long breath and looks down at his hands, twisting the wedding band on his finger. “You never saw this in the cards for you.”

“I knew I’d eventually have to marry for company purposes. My father would never let himself die before he knows I’ve carried on his line.” You snort and shake your head. “But I figured all of these types of marriages were the same. People signed their paperwork and barely acknowledged each other unless it was to reproduce.”

Chenle lets out a laugh. “Your word choice is interesting.”

“Shut up, you know what I mean.” You cover your mouth as you join him in laughter. “I just never thought you’d be…you.”

“I live to prove to you that you can have everything. We can be happy, have a real family, and still be at the top of our field. Both independently and together.”

Fortunately for the both of you, Chenle doesn’t order the second bottle of wine. Instead, he pays the bill and leads you from the restaurant with his arm wrapped around your waist. He opens the car door for you, and as you place your hand in his to enter, he squeezes your hand gently. Once you get home, the two of you separate at the top of the stairs, him heading off to a spare room down the hall while you step into the room that technically belongs to him. You change without interrupt, your silk nightgown soft on your skin as you climb into bed.

You stare up at the ceiling, tracing along it with your eyes as if you were drawing a map. Where the destinations were you had yet to figure out, but you imagined a whole new world up there, one where you didn’t have to have this wall up. One where you didn’t have to fight tooth and nail for a shred of respect you more than deserve. One where you didn’t have to be scared of what Chenle was trying to offer you.

You sigh, clutching the blanket to your chest. The wine has since settled in your system, yet your blood still runs warm. The map on the ceiling becomes mountains, oceans, continents. It forms real shapes, real geography in your mind, but you find the destination right in the middle is where you truly want to be. When you look at your phone, the time is already past 2 a.m., and you’re not anywhere near tired. You’re startled by the knock. You shuffle out of bed, crossing your arms over your chest as you crack the door open slightly.

Chenle stands there, hands buried deep in his sweatpants. His eyes sweep over you as you open the door wider.

“You’re up,” he comments.

“I couldn’t sleep.” You shrug. “You’re up. And here.”

“I was hoping I could talk to you.” He pauses. “I can’t stop thinking, and I just really don’t want to be alone right now.”

Your heart skips a beat. As much as you hate it, warmth spreads through your entire being at the thought of his first idea being you.

“This is your room, Chenle. I’m not going to tell you you can’t come in your own bedroom.” You step back to give him space to walk in, but he stays put outside, staring at you as if he’s seeing straight into your soul. You give him a pointed look, but give in. “Yes, it’s okay for you to come in here. I’d prefer company as well.”

He shuffles past you, tiredness clearly weighing down as the bottoms of his feet slide across the hardwood floor. You watch him closely, admiring him. Quickly, you realize that he fits into any room he walks in. He belongs anywhere and everywhere, and within moments, he makes you feel something you’ve only ever been able to provide for yourself until this moment—safe.

“Sorry,” he whispers with a sigh. “I need to stop thinking.”

“Trust me, I get it. Me too.” You stand with your arms still crossed over your chest and you rock back and forth on the balls of your feet. “Do you want to tell me what’s bothering you?”

“I shouldn’t bore you.” He waves you off and sits on the edge of his bed. “How are you adjusting?”

“I’m okay. I’m not complaining about my accommodations.” You move and sit next to him, putting your hand on his knee. “You won’t bore me. If something’s bothering you, I want to try and help.”

His eyes sparkle even in the dark. The landscapes of the map you drew reflect in his gaze, and you swear you see every mountain, every body of water, entire worlds forming in his irises. How have you never seen this before? Why are you seeing it now?

“The payments,” he murmurs. “The idea that my father might know about them. Might be facilitating them. It’s driving me up a fucking wall.”

“When I said that, I didn’t mean to upset you.” You reach over and grab his hand. “We just need to take precaution when it comes to situations like this. If it is him and he knows we’re onto him, it might be…a bigger issue than it needs to be.”

“I know that. I guess it’s the idea that he’d be capable of something like that.” Chenle stares down at the way your thumb traces against his skin.

“You look up to him.”

“I did. I do. A lot, actually, so this seems so…backwards. That’s a lot of money per quarter, you know? I could only imagine what it’s going towards.” He turns his hand around so your palms are touching, and he gently intertwines your fingers. “Sorry, I should’ve asked if this was okay.”

“It’s more than okay. Don’t worry about me. Keep talking.”

“My parents never really loved each other. They grew to love their life together, but not each other. And despite that, I had a decent time growing up. They were good parents to me, and that’s what truly matters at the end of the day, but it makes me wonder if they’re…not these great people I’ve made them out to be in my head.” He lets out a short chuckle. “This sounds pathetic.”

“Hey.” Before you realize what you’re doing, you reach up to cup his cheek and bring his gaze back to yours. “Don’t talk like that. You’re not pathetic. These are valid concerns, and if you’ve been lied to for this long, you have every right to be upset.”

You’re so distracted by him, you barely even recognize the softness of his face. Your thumb runs gently along his cheekbone, and you watch as the frown fades from his features. Something you can’t recognize forms behind his irises, yet it still feels familiar. How do you explain how the normal beat of your heart hurts? How do you tell him that seeing him upset like this feels like needles running along your skin?

“My father would tell me I was foolish for hoping for love,” Chenle whispers. “He said it was a waste of time, since any man as busy as we are just isn't suited for it. For families.”

“If you’d asked me a few weeks ago, I would’ve agreed with him.” You squeeze his hand and give him a small smile.

“Something changed?” he asked.

“I don’t think that way anymore,” you admit. “Now, I’ve realized it’s about the amount of effort someone is willing to put in. It has nothing to do with time. We make time for those we care about.”

He leans into your touch as his eyes flutter shut. You admire the angelic glow the stars leave on his skin, and despite how tired he is, he’s still so fucking beautiful. Your throat dries at the sight, and you hate how it feels like your insides are at war.

“I like this,” he tells you. “Being with you like this.”

“Me, too.” You smile, even though he can’t see you. “You should try and sleep though. You’ll be exhausted tomorrow.”

His chest visibly deflates, and he places his hand on top of yours to pull it away from his face. “Of course. I…I’ll get going.”

You recoil, but you don’t let go of his other hand. “Oh. Is that what you want?” Nerves crawl around in your stomach. You figured he’d stay with you tonight, in his own bed. That maybe the two of you would learn to be better comforted by each other’s presence.

“You’re tired, and I’m keeping you up. I was inconsiderate.” He clears his throat.

“No, no,” you quickly interject. “That’s not what I meant at all. I’m only worried about you, so I was hoping you’d stay with me.”

“In here?” he asks.

You nod. “Yes. If it were my choice, you’d stay.”

“Damn, you got me there.” He delivers a tired grin and ultimately agrees. “I’d love that, (Y/N). Truly.”

You let him settle in beneath the comforter first, and he lifts it to allow you room to slide in next to him. Neither of you say anything else, but things seem to fall together naturally. He opens his arms, you push yourself against his chest, and then he wraps you up tightly in his warm embrace. He smells faintly of cologne, a soft, woody scent that engulfs you pleasantly. Despite the way you failed to fall asleep earlier, you struggle to remember a time you’d ever fallen into your dream world faster.

When you wake without Chenle in the morning, you’re sure you dreamed the last portion of the night. That is, until you see that it’s almost 10 am. You gasp and launch yourself out of bed. You never sleep in this late, so you quickly dress yourself and get ready for the day. Chenle’s side of the bed is mussed, so you determine it was, indeed, not a dream, and you make sure you look as presentable as your normal standard before you go downstairs to find where your husband disappeared to. The smell of breakfast emanates from the kitchen, so you naturally gravitate that way. When you step into the room, you’re taken aback by the company present. Not just your own parents, but Chenle’s as well. Your husband stands at the end of the table, clearly stressed with all of the people in your kitchen. He notices you first and breathes a sigh of relief at the sight of you.

“Wow,” you say as you approach Chenle and stand next to him. “Were we expecting everyone today?”

“Nope.” He chuckles and, much to apparently both of your surprises, he leans down and presses a kiss to your cheek. “Everyone showed up an hour or so ago.”

Through the burning of your cheeks, your gaze shoots up to his and you lower your voice. “Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“You looked really comfortable.” He shrugs.

“(Y/N), Chenle was just telling us that you’re accepting the COO position at his company,” your mother butts in. Of course, business talk immediately.

“Yes, we—”

“Isn’t that a little early? And don’t you have enough responsibilities as COO of my company?” your father grumbles, and you already start to shrink into yourself in his presence.

“She’s more than capable,” Chenle defends you. “If I didn’t think she could handle it, I wouldn’t have done it.”

“Don’t interrupt their family discussions, Chenle, that’s rude,” his mother scolds him.

“This marriage was a merger, was it not?” Chenle raises an eyebrow. “Doesn’t that technically make our families interconnected now?”

“We’ll consider them officially connected when she’s had her first child.” Your father points his finger at you. “Speaking of which, what’s taking so long?”

Your jaw drops, and you shift uncomfortably. It’s one thing to talk about your husband getting you pregnant with your own father, but him being so comfortable spitting things out like that in front of Chenle’s parents as well has you feeling queasy.

“We’ve been married for two months.”

“Your mother was pregnant after three weeks.”

“I don’t really want to hear about you impregnating my mother—”

“You’re making excuses, (Y/N), you know what’s on the line here.” Your father tsks at you, sipping from his water glass.

“Sir, all due respect, but it’s not like we knew each other very well. We’re both still getting comfortable with each other. And we’re young. We have plenty of time to have children.” As soon as the words leave Chenle’s mouth, you reach over and grasp his hand. It’s not visible below the table, but he squeezes you in reassurance.

“And what happens if she were to die tomorrow? My bloodline dies with her?” Your father narrows his eyes at Chenle. Your heart sinks in your chest, and you scratch your forehead.

“Even if she were to be pregnant, if she died tomorrow there wouldn’t be an heir either way,” your husband replies.

“Is there a reason we’re having such a lovely family reunion?” you butt in, hoping to curve their conversation.

“Do we need a reason to visit our daughter?” your mother asks.

“Typically, yes.” You shrug. “You never show up unannounced.”

“Oh, I take it they haven’t seen the tabloids,” Chenle’s father mentions.

You stand from your spot and pull your phone out of your pocket to check. You hear Chenle whisper something to the group before he pushes his chair back to join you. Despite the anxiety crawling up your spine, the warmth of him right behind you calms you.

“They came here because there’s a couple articles of people being shocked that we like each other?” you hiss, tossing your phone on the counter.

“Breathe,” Chenle tells you, putting his hands on your shoulders. “They’ll eventually leave us alone, but we’ve got to placate them for now.”

“Placate them?” You turn to him and raise your eyebrow. “You exchanged words with my father.”

“He said stupid things.” Chenle shrugs.

You chuckle. “You’re ridiculous.”

“Ah, but you said the people are surprised we like each other, so I’m assuming you enjoy how ridiculous I am.” He bites back a grin when he sees you blush.

“God, you’ve got to stop doing that.” You push gently at his chest and walk back to your parents and your in-laws.

“I’m not sure this is really something that should have blame assigned,” Chenle’s mother says. “I’ve seen married couples go years without children.”

You curse under your breath. Of course, this is still the topic of conversation.

“That’s not how it works in this family. Heirs come first immediately after marriage.” Your mother sips from a champagne flute.

“Well, that’s hardly Chenle’s fault—”

“He’s a man. How hard is it to impregnate a woman?” Your mother scoffs. “Please, she’s not ugly by any means.”

“Mother, dear God,” you snap. “Why in the world are we still talking about this?”

“I’m sorry, are you questioning my son’s…viability?” Chenle’s father narrows his eyes.

You want to combust into flames right then and there. The immediate assumption that the reason behind you not being with child yet is that Chenle simply can’t get it up. How fucking great.

“I’m just saying, there were other men contending for a contract that were more than willing—”

“That’s enough,” you shout.

You have four shocked faces staring at you, and you feel Chenle go rigid behind you.

“I am beyond tired of this conversation already. We’ve only been married for two months, and that’s just not enough time. I barely even knew him when I married him, and we’re trying to do this the normal way. As normally as we can.” You pause. “I’m the one that wants to wait. And it is a want, not a necessity, so neither of us are…sexually dysfunctional.”

Chenle holds back a laugh behind you, but four sets of eyes are still on you. And while it’s technically not the truth—as you’ve stated multiple times you’d be okay with having an heir quickly—you’d rather this portion of it fall on you than on him. Your parents would lose their minds.

“And let’s not forget that (Y/N) is a human with a career that’s just as important as mine,” your husband adds. “Having a child at this time could put her back immensely after all the hard work she’s put in. If she wants to wait, nobody should have a say in that other than her.”

With every word coming out of Chenle’s mouth, he gets more and more attractive to you. You wish today had been a simple morning, truly. One where you’d wake up with him next to you and he’d hold you for however long the two of you could stand to stay still for.

“You should be happy we’re trying to do this properly.” You cross your arms over your chest.

“Love is a waste of time in a business arrangement.” Your father sets his empty water glass on the table.

“I agree. It’s better to get the obligations out of the way first, and then worry about trying to create something real,” Chenle’s father agrees.

“Right, because that worked out so well for you,” Chenle says.

Today was going to be a long, long day.

Your parents and in-laws stayed for another hour, and then they (thankfully) willingly left on their own accord. As soon as Chenle closes the door behind his parents, you sigh in relief and slump your back against the counter. He approaches you without a word, and almost like it’s instinct, you wrap your arms around him. Running his fingers through your hair, he holds you as close as he can.

“I’m sorry my parents implied you’re impotent,” you mutter, and you and Chenle burst into laughter at the same time.

“Wow. Clearly the only two options for an explanation as to why you’re not pregnant within two months are impotency or your husband not finding you attractive. Which, for the record, neither of those are an issue.”

“Gross. But thanks, I think?” You lean back slightly to look at him and find him smiling at you.

“Just being honest. If I was impotent, I would’ve told you before we married for business purposes. And if you don’t know how attractive you are at this point, that would be one of the world’s biggest mysteries.” He pulls you to him until your chest presses against his. “But, since I was so rudely torn away from my beautiful wife this morning by our nosy, no fucking good parents dropping in like we’re fifteen years old, I wanted to thank you for last night. Since I couldn’t earlier.”

“Thank me?” You frown and tilt your head.

“I needed that. I didn’t even know it, but I needed it,” Chenle tells you.

“Of course,” you murmur. “You never have to be alone for those moments.”

“Just for those moments?” He fakes a pout. “Does that mean I have to go back to my own room?”

You give him a pointed look, and then pretend to be lost in thought momentarily. “Pretty sure that’s only when you make me mad. I guess married couples argue and then the wives send the husbands to the couch. But in this case, there’s an extra bedroom. Or twenty.”

“Can I…can I try something?” he asks, the tips of his ears turning red.

“Yeah.” You nod.

“Close your eyes,” he mutters.

If he was anyone else, you’d be asking a million questions. But this is Chenle, and you’ve grown to realize he’s exactly who he said he is. You trust him inexplicably.

“Wow,” he says. “Not even a sarcastic comment. I think I’m winning you over.”

You open one eye, push at his shoulder, and then close it again. You’re more than tempted to open them again when his hands cup your cheeks. His thumbs caress your skin, and your breath gets caught in your throat. Your heart races in anticipation as you await his next move, craving whatever it is he wants to give you. You gasp quietly when you feel his lips brush yours, and your body tenses.

“Relax,” he whispers. “It’s me.”

You don’t give him the opportunity to finish closing the distance between you two. You do it for him. Pushing yourself forward, you seal the kiss with him quickly, wrapping your arms around his shoulders to keep him close to you. He curses against you, and you follow suit when he wraps his arm around your waist and lifts you onto the counter. For a brief moment, he pulls away from you, chest heaving as he pants.

“Chenle.” You hate that it comes out as a whimper, but you love the way he reacts to it.

He kisses you again, harder this time while one of his hands tangles in your hair and the other sits on your thigh where the hem of your dress is. Instinctively, to make your dress ride up your legs more, you lift one and hike it up around his waist. The fabric slips past his fingertips, now resting much higher than it was before. You pull him closer until he’s right up against the lace of your panties.

“Fuck,” he curses lowly, digging his nails into your skin. “You’d better think this through, darling.”

A shiver runs down your spine, but heat floods your core. You need him.

“Please,” you whisper to him, watching as his eyes darken right in front of you. When you let your hand travel down his body, you smirk at how his length hardens further beneath your touch.

“Shit.” His hips unintentionally thrust into your hand. “Fuck, we should stop.”

You drop your head against his shoulder, retracting your hand away from him. “Well, impotency definitely won’t be a problem.”

He kisses up your neck. “Sorry. I don’t want to get carried away. Or even more carried away, I guess.”

“Look at me.” You wait for him to listen to you. “You don’t have to hold back if you don’t want to. Your desires are just as important as mine.”

“Before we…do anything, I need to make sure I have condoms.” He clears his throat and removes your leg from around his waist.

“Wait, what?” You frown and lean away from him. “What do we need those for?”

“Are you serious?” He takes a step back.

“Well, yeah. We’re married. We need to have children, why would we use condoms?” You run your fingers through your hair.

He sighs and runs his hands down his face. “We talked about this. I was under the impression that we were figuring this out first and then worrying about how and when we’d have children.”

“We can’t do both at the same time?”

“Did you ever think that maybe I don’t want kids yet?” He tilts his head at you and narrows his eyes. “Yes, I understand that’s part of the deal and why we’re even married in the first place, but I don’t want to even risk having kids if I don’t know it’s really me you want.”

Embarrassment floods through you, and you slide off the counter and send him back a few more paces. You pull your dress down and grimace at the thought of being in a position like that.

“After everything we’ve talked about and the time we’ve spent together, you really think that’s not true? You think I don’t want you?”

“Honestly? I don’t know. All of this is confusing. And then our parents are here pressuring you into having a kid, and you’re—”

“Oh, my God.” Your jaw drops, and you brush off your skirt. “You’re literally the one who kissed me. And then you put me on—God forbid I ask a simple question, right? That must mean I’m trying to jump your bones to get my way.”

“(Y/N), that’s not what I said—”

“Maybe not, but that’s sure as hell what you meant. And here I am, like a fucking idiot, letting you touch me when you think that fucking low of me.” You clench your fists at your side, and you’re unaccustomed to the way your heart twists so hard in your chest. “God, fuck you.”

You turn away from him and stomp off, painfully aware of your over-exaggeration. The logical side of you begs you to calm down, since both of your concerns are valid, but the side of you you’re experiencing for the first time is stronger than what you’re accustomed to. When you make it upstairs and to your room, you sit on the edge of the bed and force yourself to breathe. Chenle’s assumption hurt you. It’s as simple as that. You’ve let yourself like him, and now he has this power over you. With a simple miscommunication, it feels like everything is falling apart before it even begins.

You blink rapidly to stop the tears from welling in your eyes, and eventually, you’re more annoyed by your reaction than by the actual situation. The door creaks open, and Chenle walking in makes relief flood through your veins. He moves over to you and sits down next to you, reaching over to grab your hand.

“Are you okay?” he asks.

You nod and lean into his chest, craving his comfort. He sighs, wraps his arms around you tightly, and strokes your hair. With your ear pressed against him, you hear how his heart beats just as hard as yours.

“I think we both got a little carried away there,” he murmurs.

“Yeah,” you agree. “I’m sorry. I don’t even know why I got so upset.”

“I’m sorry, too.” He kisses the top of your head. “It’s never my intention to hurt you. Or to make you regret anything we do.”

You sit there in silence, appreciating the comfort he gives you simply by being next to you.

“I was…I don’t know. Embarrassed, I think.” You chuckle at yourself, but you don’t find it funny at all. “That you would think I’d just…do that without being truthful to you. I’ve had a lot of men assume things about me throughout my entire life. Because of my success, it’s either from my father handing it to me or because I slept my way to the top. So, I’m sure you can see why I had trouble comprehending that as anything else.”

“And I hope you know that’s not what I was thinking at all. I know how much of an influence your parents have had on you. All I ever want to do is make sure you’re making your choices for you. I never communicated that I would want to use condoms if we started sleeping together because I didn’t really assume we’d get there.” He squeezes you closer to him and takes a deep breath.

“I’m also sorry for yelling at you.” You scrunch your nose up and look at him. “That was…really weird.”

“Weird?” A small smile pulls at his lips.

“I’ve never felt anything like that before. And it’s scary that you have that kind of power over me, even if I know you wouldn’t use it against me intentionally.”

“Learning how to manage those feelings will come with the territory. Have some faith in me, alright? I’m not saying things just to bring you down.” He tilts your head up, his gaze scanning over your face. “I want you to be happy. Obviously, bonus points if I’m a part of that happiness.”

“You are.”

“Good. You deserve only good things in life, and I need to make sure you get them.”

He leans down and presses his lips to yours, gently working your mouths together. You sigh into him and tangle your fingers in his hair. Everything about this feels good. It has warmth spreading in your chest from knowing someone in this world cares for you beyond what you can give them. You know he wants you, but you also know he’s going to have your best interest in mind.

He breaks the kiss and rests his forehead against yours. “We’ll learn each other, darling. Everything will work out the way it’s meant to.”

Whether intentionally or not, you and Chenle keep your distance from each other for a couple days. Today, however, you’ve no choice but to be around each other later for the board meeting, where they’ll vote on the CFO position. And your COO position, but Chenle made it very clear that the vote was simply a formality. You choose a black dress, zip it up, put your earrings in, and head downstairs, where your husband waits for you by the door. He looks at you as you stop on the bottom step, a loud clack coming from your heel.

“Yes?” You tilt your head at him.

“Are those earrings new?” He buttons his suit jacket.

“Not new.” You shake your head. “I just haven’t worn them since we married.”

“Right.” He walks over to you and offers you his arm. “Do you like receiving new things?”

You loop yours through his and allow him to guide you toward the door. “I guess that would depend on the context of receiving.”

“If I buy things for you, will they be well received?” he asks.

“You think you know me well enough to buy me things I’d enjoy?” You bite back a smile as he leads you outside and to the car.

With his hand on the small of your back, he helps you into the backseat before following. “I think I’d figure it out fairly quickly. I’m a smart man.”

“They…would be received. Maybe not well, but received nonetheless.”

He chuckles and shakes his head, relaxing against the seat. “You’re something else, you know that?”

“I can’t make it too easy for you.” You purse your lips, and without much thought, you scoot closer to him and place your hand on his.

“I don’t think easy is the right word for most things when it comes to you.” He laughs, turning his smile toward you.

“Most things?”

“Being with you is easy. Or around you, I should say. You’re pleasant company. Easy to have an intellectual conversation with, easy to relax around. Those are the easy things.”

“Wow.” You bite back your grin. “You sure know how to woo a woman.”

“Not just any woman,” he interjects. “My wife.”

“Your wife.” It’s the first time you’ve called yourself that out loud, and it has a weird, unrecognizable feeling sprouting in your stomach.

“I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but it seems like you’re coming around a little bit.” He nudges you gently. “I’m not sure how it’s possible, but I’ve missed you the past few days. After the other day, I wanted to give you space in case you didn’t want to see me, but I should’ve thought to ask you.”

He stares down at where your hands are connected, his thumb rubbing against your skin.

You fight the urge to touch his face again. “I…I’ve missed you, too, I think.”

“You think?” Humor laces in his tone.

“I don’t know. I’ve never wanted to be around someone like this before.” You shrug, heat gathering in your cheeks. “Forgive me while I navigate whatever’s going on inside my brain.”

“I want to know everything you’re thinking,” he murmurs, brushing your hair behind your ear. “Every joke, unimportant sentence, emotion, process. I want to know you.”

You lean forward and press your lips to his without a single thought in your head, but he reciprocates with ease. Almost as if he’s not taken off-guard in the slightest.

“I could get used to that,” he says against your lips. “No more silence, okay? I don’t want to be away from you.”

“No more silence,” you agree.

When the two of you pull away from each other, your eyes widen at the sight of your lipstick on his lips. You grab his arm to stop him from getting out of the car and use your thumb to wipe the excess away.

“Made a mess, did you?” He grabs your wrist to stop you. “You don’t want anyone to see that you like me that much?”

A grin follows his words, and he grabs his handkerchief out of his pocket.

“No one can know I actually have a heart,” you interject, watching as he wipes his mouth.

“Alright.” He puts his hand on your knee and squeezes. “Are you ready?”

If there’s one thing you know for sure, it’s the overwhelming attraction you have for Chenle. You take him in for a moment, the dark sweep of his hair parted to reveal his forehead, the way he grips you, the way he watches you as if you’re the only person in the world to exist.

“Before we go,” you start, chuckling quietly at yourself for the question you’re about to ask him. “Did…did you ever get condoms?”

His lips part in shock, and he blinks and flounders for words for a solid few seconds before he clears his throat. “I…I mean, I did, but not because I thought we would—it was just a precaution, you know?”

“Do I make you, Zhong Chenle, so nervous that you’re stuttering right now?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” He pats your thigh. “Absolutely, you do.”

You silently thank whoever made this car for the partition between the driver and you and Chenle. “I could do so many other things to you that are so much better.” You gently touch his tie, wrapping your fingers around the fabric and pulling on it to bring him closer to you.

“I truly have no doubt that’s true.” He wets his lips. “If we don’t get out of this car in the next ten seconds, I’m having the driver fucking turn us around. We can’t miss the vote.”

“I guess receiving the title of COO is a little more important than banging my husband.”

“Fuck, I need to get out right now.” He glances up at the ceiling and throws the door open without any more hesitation. Like usual, he turns and offers you his hand.

You take it gratefully, and you loop your arm through his once your feet are safely on the ground. While you follow his lead, you realize something that has the gears in your brain turning. Chenle is the only man you’ve ever accepted guidance from. As miniscule as it seems to allow him to walk you inside, you can’t deny how you’d willingly follow him wherever he may go.

The vote does go off without a hitch, and not even half an hour after you receive your title, you’re in an office plugging away at whatever work needs to be done. Unfortunately, you’re awfully distracted by the thought of Chenle by himself down the hall. A knock on the glass door jolts you out of your thoughts. You see Jeno standing there with a file in his hands. You beckon for him to come in, and he gestures at the seat as if to ask you if he can sit.

“Please.” You nod, folding your hands together. “Did you need something?”

The man hands you the file. “We were able to trace the owner of the bank account, and an address associated with it. I…I figured it’d be best to leave this information with you, given that this could be sensitive information.”

You open it, glancing through the charges. “It started with a different bank account and name.”

“It did. Payments were originally made to a Liu Shuye, and just over two years ago, the bank account switched to a Liu Sujia.” Jeno pauses and takes a deep breath. “I think it’d be better for you to do this portion of it on your own.”

“They have different surnames.” You tap your pen on your desk. “And you’ve never heard of this person before today?”

“Not once.”

“Very well.” You sigh and close the folder, gaze meeting Jeno’s. “Thank you. I’ll look into this further and determine at what point Chenle needs to be involved. For now, Jeno, keep this between us.”

“Of course.” Jeno nods and stands. With a quick bow of his head, he moves to the door. “He’s a good man, (Y/N). Chenle, I mean. But he feels too easily, so tread carefully with whatever you find.”

“I will.”

Once Jeno departs, you cross your arms over your chest and stare down at the information delivered. These payments were made for years, so you’re unsure of how this could relate to Chenle in specific, but you feel an overwhelming resolve to make sure whatever this is doesn’t hurt him.

Chenle came to get you from your office at almost 7pm. He refused to let you work any longer and insisted he had to take you home. Your mind has been turning since Jeno brought you the documents, but you leave them buried in your desk and lay your head on Chenle’s shoulder for the duration of the car ride home. Once you're inside the house, Chenle takes your jacket off your shoulders and hangs it. You turn to him and grab his hand.

“Come to bed with me?” you ask.

“Of course.” He gives you the softest smile, and as you walk up the stairs, he follows closely behind you.

The two of you step inside his room. Chenle closes the door and then wraps his arms around your waist and tugs your back to his chest. He buries his head in your neck, a hum escaping past his lips.

“Are you tired?” you ask him, reaching up to play with his hair.

“No,” he mumbles. “I just want to be close to you. It’s been a long day, and you make me feel better.”

“Is that so?” You face him and tilt your head.

“I was scared to fall for you, too,” he whispers. “For anyone, but especially you. I know the reasons we’re here are vastly different from a conventional marriage, but I already wanted you before all of this.”

Your heart thuds in your chest as you realize his use of past tense. He was scared. Does that mean he already has fallen for you?

“C’mere,” you mutter. “We can be closer.”

“Are you sure?” He cups your cheeks, thumbing your skin. “I know we’ve gone back and forth a couple times, but I need you to know you don’t have to do anything for me. Ever.”

“Kiss me, Chenle.”

All events of the day are forgotten as soon as his lips are on yours. His hands explore along your back, fingers clenching onto the fabric of your dress as he inhales shakily. When he pulls away, it’s only for a second, as if he can’t stop himself from going back for more.

“Please tell me this means something to you.” He gulps, his words punctuated by kisses as he turns you around and walks you backward. “That I’m not crazy for wanting you the way I do.”

As the back of your knees make contact with the bed, you grip onto his shoulders, breathless from the passion behind his kiss. “You’re not crazy. It’s terrifying how fast you’ve become all I think about. Your smile and your laugh and the passion you carry. This means everything to me.”

His eyes sparkle in the lamp-lit room, a warmth dancing around in them you’ve never seen from anyone before. He finds the zipper of your dress, slowly pulling it down.

“I hope you truly know how fucking exquisite you are,” Chenle murmurs, removing the fabric from your body and returning his touch to your back to explore your bare skin. “I don’t want to fight these feelings anymore.”

“Do something about it, then.”

The heat radiating from him keeps the chill of the air in the room off of your skin, and after he guides your back down on the mattress, he haphazardly tosses his suit jacket away. You scoot back to give him more space, and he climbs on top of you. You part your legs further, nearly gasping when he takes his spot between them, pressing against you as if he were made to fill that space. As he takes your lips with his own, you work on the buttons of his shirt. Your hands shake, making it difficult, but he doesn’t mention it. He keeps kissing you like he’ll die of thirst the second he pulls away.

You finally get the last one, and he sits up briefly to rid himself of the extra material. Before it’s even completely removed, you reach down for his belt. He stares at your hands as you unbuckle it, but you don’t have time to slide it off him. When his mouth crashes into yours again, you lift your hips up.

A quiet, needy sigh passes through his lips. “God, I fucking need you so bad.”

“I’m yours,” you tell him. “Show me how much you need me.”

He grinds down against you, and his hard length slides against the wet spot in your lace panties. That time, you do gasp. It’s been much too long since you allowed yourself pleasure by another’s hand, and you crave that closeness with Chenle.

“Can I touch you?” he asks, voice rough.

“Please.” You nod. “Touch me wherever you want.”

He curses under his breath, but he presses his lips to yours once more, then along your jawline, down your neck, and paying attention to the valley between your breasts. He squeezes the right one, rubbing his thumb against your nipple through the somewhat thick material.

“You’re so fucking pretty.” He nips at your skin, and you already know he’ll leave marks on you. Pausing, he takes a deep breath. “You��you’ve done this before, right?”

“Done what?”

“Sex.”

“I have. Why?”

“No, I just…you said you’d never been in love before and I didn’t want to just assume that you—”

“Just keep going.” You blush, but he listens to your command without hesitation.

When his mouth continues downward, leaving a trail of his saliva on your stomach until he reaches the hem of your panties. He tongues along the band, his eyes flicking up to yours.

“Good God,” you whisper, the urge between your legs becoming far too much for comfort. “What are you doing?”

“Getting my fill.” He leaves open-mouthed kisses along your inner thighs.

When his thumb brushes your clit through your panties, your hips jolt. You curse, grasping onto the sheets as you prepare yourself for whatever he has planned. He smirks at your reaction, and as he pulls at your underwear, you lift up to urge him to move faster. He wraps his arms around your legs, his hands pressing your hips down into the mattress. Even though he opens his mouth to speak to you, his eyes don’t leave your glistening core.

“You can stop me if you change your mind. Just tell me.” He gulps, wetting his lips like he’s struggling to hold back.

“I won’t change my mind,” you reassure him.

“But you need to know it’s always an option.” He squeezes you gently, and without awaiting your response, he slides his tongue from your entrance to your clit.

No matter how embarrassing it is, you can’t stop the whimper escaping you. His tongue flicks your clit one, two, three times as he digs his nails into your skin. Pleasure isn’t entirely foreign to you, but you’re sure it’s the way your soul has begun craving Chenle’s that makes this so much better than anything else you’ve experienced. His grip on you keeps you from squirming too much, but you try regardless. As he steadily moves over your clit, your back arches off the mattress. Whines leave your mouth as you run your fingers through Chenle’s hair in encouragement.

He takes your sensitive bud into his mouth, sucking to add pressure, only to release it and start all over again. You lift yourself on your elbows to watch him, all while practically pushing his head further between your legs. His eyes are closed, and seeing his lips work on your core has to be one of the most erotic things you’ve ever witnessed.

“You taste so fucking good,” he groans, the vibrations against your entrance sending shivers up and down your spine.

You feel yourself approaching the edge. Your body tenses, but your high won’t take you. Cursing quietly, you lift your hips in an attempt to figure out why the hell you can’t get out of your head. Chenle pulls away from your core, pressing kisses to your inner thigh. “Relax, darling. It doesn’t matter how long it takes.”

“Please just…” You drop your head back on the mattress and let out a defeated breath. “I want all of you.”

He leans over to the bedside table and grabs a condom, trailing his lips up your body once more until he reaches your neck. His teeth graze your skin. “You can trust me, (Y/N). I’ll take care of you.”

“I do,” you mutter, running your fingers through his hair. “I swear I do.”

“It’s not me you have to convince.” He nips your collarbone. “We don’t have to keep going if you’re not ready.”

You shake your head. “I’m ready. I want you.”

“Okay.” He nods, pulling back to meet your gaze. His features are soft, nothing short of adoration in his eyes. “Try not to think about it too much. Just feel.”

“I’ve never been good at that.” You chuckle and grin at him.

“I’ll show you how, baby. I’ve got you.”

You crane upwards to kiss him, and he meets you in the middle. Tasting yourself on his tongue has you sighing into him, and you push at his pants in hopes that he’ll take the hint. He pauses to rid himself of the rest of his clothing, and then slides his hands beneath you to unclasp your bra. You arch your back to give him more space, and soon enough, nothing separates you from your husband anymore.

“You’re sure?” he asks you again, grabbing the wrapper once more.

“I want you,” you confirm.

Despite the confidence you usually feel, something here feels more…vulnerable than you’ve ever been. Your heart flutters in your chest as he opens the condom and slides it on, and you spread your legs further as he climbs over you again. No man has ever made you nervous before, even in similar situations, but something with him is different. You care about him. You want him to feel good, too, and you crave his promises of taking care of you.

“Need you to relax,” he whispers, peppering kisses on your jawline as he lines himself up with your soaked entrance. “Close your eyes, darling, just let yourself feel.”

You tilt your head back to give him better access to your neck, and you listen to him. Through the darkness, you see the world you drew on his ceiling, the one with beautiful landscapes, overarching mountains, fresh, clean streams, and you sigh in content. The middle of the map, the location you craved to be in, is right here. With him. His breath catches in his throat as he slides inside you, his length stretching you. He gulps and rests his head on your shoulder as he attempts to steady himself. You tangle your fingers in his hair, combing through the midnight strands. After both of you calm down from the initial overwhelming movement, you wrap your legs around his waist and lock your ankles together, tugging him up to kiss you. His lips work softly on yours, and he slowly grinds against you. He pulls out until only the tip is inside, and as he pushes back in, he moans into your mouth. Your body shudders at the sound.

“Tell me how it feels,” he says, chest pressed to yours. “How do I make you feel?”

“Chenle, I—” You blush despite the situation.

“You don’t have to be shy with me, baby. Let me help you.” He repeats his previous movement, and you watch as his eyes flutter from the pleasure. “I can tell you how it feels for me.”

You nod. “Please.”

The pace he sets is slow but has electricity coursing through your veins anyway. He continues to pull out almost all the way, just to allow you to experience the entirety of his length rubbing against your inner walls.

He gulps, pressing his lips to your ear. “You’re divine, darling. You’re squeezing me so tight, I could stay here forever. It’s like you were fucking made for me, soaked and so fucking warm, baby, you take me so well.”

Everything he does is like a lightning strike, every fiber in your muscles breaking down as you yearn for this completion. You know you’ll never be able to stay away from him. Even if you don’t finish, this journey is just as good as the destination.

“Feels like I’m on fire,” you whisper. Thankfully, your eyes are closed, or he’d see them roll back. “You’re everywhere and it’s still not enough.”

He picks up his pace a bit, and a moan tumbles from your lips. He holds himself up on one of his elbows, his other hand gripping your thigh.

“That’s it.” He kisses you, gently biting at your bottom lip as he pulls away. “I could never have enough of you. Need you always. Forever.”

Your heart thuds against your ribcage, and despite the pleasure clouding your brain, you allow those words to sink in through your skin and bones, deeper still until they reach your soul. There, they repeat over and over again until they’re permanently tattooed upon every recognizable piece of yourself. The hand on your thigh skirts downwards, his palm pressing on your abdomen as his thumb brushes your clit. You jolt and whine, digging your nails into his shoulders. He curses, but doesn’t let up. As the knot forms in your stomach, you open your eyes to watch Chenle, his face scrunched in pleasure as your walls flutter around him as your high approaches. He doesn’t look away from you, and as you lift your hips to match his thrusts, his fist clenches the sheets next to your head.

“So fucking wet,” he groans, his thumb never faltering in pace as he rocks his hips against yours. “You’re so perfect, darling. Gonna let me feel you cum?”

Between the slide of his length inside you and the pressure on your sensitive bud, you’re dazed at best. You nod, gripping onto him.

“I’m so close,” you whimper. “God, I want it so bad.”

Chenle adjusts his hips, and the next time he thrusts in, he hits a spot that has you seeing stars. You’ve never unraveled like this before, but your body shakes as overwhelming pleasure takes over, your vision spotting as you cry out and grip onto your husband. Your toes curl as he quickens his pace, and it doesn’t take much longer for him to press himself as deep as he can to finish in the condom. His body slumps on top of yours, his chest heaving as he presses his lips across your hot skin.

“(Y/N)...” he says between pants. “Oh, my God.”

You let out a breathless giggle. “I didn’t do any of the work.”

“Promise you, just you being here is more than enough for me.” He kisses your cheek and gently removes your legs from his waist. “I’ll be right back.”

You stop yourself from whining at the loss of him inside you, but as he goes to dispose of the condom, you get yourself clothes to put on. You slide a new pair of panties on before setting your silk pajama set on the bed.

Chenle’s arm wraps around your waist, and he presses his back to your chest. “What are you doing?”

“Getting dressed.” You chuckle. “What should I be doing?”

“Absolutely nothing.” He presses a kiss to the base of your neck. “Supposed to be naked in bed and waiting for me.”

“Ah, is that so?” You pretend to be in thought, tapping your fingers on his wrist.

“Mhm. Don’t you know bare skin-to-skin contact promotes good bonding?” He pulls you away from the foot of the bed and guides you back to where he left you. “Bet you’ll sleep better, too.”

The two of you climb into bed together, and despite the way your internal temperature is much too high, you still thrive in the extra warmth of his embrace. You rest your head on his chest, his nails gently scratching up and down your back. He falls asleep first, his steady breathing nearly lulling you as well. You adjust your head on the pillow so you can see the softness of his features, and you allow yourself to reach up and trace along his cheekbone. If anyone had asked you at the beginning if you’d ever thought a moment as intimate as this were possible, you’d quickly tell them no. There was no way you’d ever let yourself be so vulnerable with anyone. Especially not someone who has no obligations to you other than legally marrying you.

But this is more. It’s so much more than a business arrangement, and maybe a part of you has always known that. It wasn’t hating him you were scared of, but loving him.

But here you are. And you’re long past falling.

Your morning is unfortunately hectic in the wake of the events of last night. Of course, you should’ve expected moments of relaxation in your marriage to be nearly non-existent, but neither you nor Chenle wanted to get out of bed. Despite that, today you planned on going to the address listed on the bank account. You roped Jisung in, even though he didn’t know all the details. He’s your cousin, after all, and he wasn’t going to let you do anything potentially dangerous on your own. Although, you’re not sure he could do anything in a ‘dangerous’ situation anyway. He may be physically giant, but he truly acted like a teddy bear.

You and Jisung sit in the backseat while the driver takes you to the house, and you’re flipping through a binder of papers while Jisung is on his phone.

“You know.” He pauses, waiting for your attention. “I stopped by your house last night.”

You turn to him and frown. “You did? How come I didn’t see you?”

“When I arrived, the staff said it would be best not to interrupt you at the time. They didn’t really say why, but I can only imagine. Either you and Chenle were in the process of murdering each other, or you guys are really going all in on the heir making.”

Your face heats up and you scratch your head. “I—I took your advice, is all. We’re kind of trying to figure things out, I think.”

“Uh huh. So the turtleneck isn’t a strategic move?”

“Park Jisung!” You push his shoulder. “You can’t just say stuff like that.”

“No, of course not.” He bites back his teasing grin. “I’m just saying, it’s good that you’re opening up to him. You guys are pretty much stuck together, so you should at least try to make the best of things.”

“But yes, we are certainly…making the best of things.” You grin to yourself and focus back on your binder.

“So, I can stop hearing your dad complain about no heir news soon?” He rolls his eyes. “That man is truly insufferable.”

You shake your head. “Can’t say the possibility is zero, but we used protection, so probably not. And yes, my father is insufferable. When he came over last time, he implied Chenle was impotent in front of both of his parents.”

“I’m shocked by both—why not try for pregnancy if you’re already sleeping together? And why would you not being pregnant after two months mean Chenle’s impotent?”

“You just live for drama, don’t you?” You quirk an eyebrow at him. “My husband would prefer to only have a family if it’s a real one. Meaning we would love each other. And I don’t question my father’s logic. I’m not sure how he got as far as he has in business when he lacks so much common sense. Like I’m a breeding mule or something.”

“Huh.” Jisung pauses and slumps back against his seat. “Aren’t you lucky?”

“Luck has nothing to do with it, Andy. None of this is short of hard work.”

Your driver opens the door, and before Jisung can respond, you’re stepping onto the sidewalk. The house in front of you is in a suburb, an exact replica of everything else around it. It’s not remarkable by any means. For someone making over half a million dollars every year, they sure do still live modestly.

“Don’t say a word,” you warn Jisung. “I’ll handle this.”

“Considering I have no idea what’s going on, I will happily let that happen.”

You stop at the front door, knocking three times. Standing completely rigid, you wait for anyone to answer. Once it opens, you’re confronted by a surprised woman. Her hair is long and black, reaching the center of her back. Brown eyes widen in shock.

“You can’t be here.” She moves to shut the door, but Jisung stops it over your shoulder.

“I’m—”

“You’re Chenle’s wife. I know who you are.” Her jaw tightens. “You need to go.”

“Unfortunately, that’s not an option. I’m here on company business, because apparently someone decided sending $143,000 a quarter to your bank account was acceptable. You can let me in, or we can make a spectacle out here. It’s your choice.”

The woman, who can’t be too far from your age, blinks through her frustration and opens the door wider for you to step inside. You do, and she gestures to the couch.

“Have a seat. I’ll grab us all some water.” She exits the room, and you and Jisung sit down on the couch.

Despite you being resilient in hiding your nerves from people, Jisung is able to read you like a book. “Don’t jump to conclusions,” Jisung warns you quietly. “You have no idea what’s going on.”

“Right. Only her being familiar enough with my husband to only use his first name. Not a big deal at all.” You clench your fists together.

“You said he had no idea about the payments.”

“Doesn’t mean he doesn’t know her.” You shake your head. “He has no idea I’m here.”

Movement catches your attention, and you see eyes peeking around the corner. Your jaw drops before you can stop yourself, and then the small child steps into the open. You grasp onto Jisung’s sleeve, and those conclusions he told you not to jump to? Yeah, you dive into them.

“Who are you?” he asks. He can’t be more than four, and he looks achingly familiar.

“Jisung,” you whisper.

Jisung leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “I’m Jisung. Who are you?”

“My name is Yichen.” He walks over and sits on the coffee table in front of you and your cousin. “I’m almost five.”

“Wow,” Jisung feigns surprise. “You’re getting so old.”

“That’s what my mommy says, too.” He scrunches up his face.

You’re struggling to breathe at this point, and that’s when Sujia decides to come back. She curses under her breath the second she recognizes her child in the room, and she quickly sets the glasses of water down before shooing him back up the stairs. You’re suddenly, painfully aware of Chenle telling you he’s been in love before. Of knowing there are women out there he’s wanted in the same way he’s sure he wants you.

“I think I’m going to puke,” you whisper to Jisung, careful not to let Sujia hear. “You don’t think…?”

Before Jisung can confirm or deny whether your suspicions are valid, Sujia sits across from you on the couch. The first thing you do is look for a ring on her finger, and when you don’t find one, you feel an unmistakable lump form in your throat.

“Why are you here?” she asks. “I’ve done everything I was supposed to. I haven’t told anyone anything, and my son and I are peacefully living far away from everything.”

“That’s the issue. I haven’t the faintest clue who you struck some sort of deal with for this money, nor do I know why. And if you want the payments to continue, you’ll tell me everything.”

“Is there something in specific you’d like to ask?” She frowns.

“What makes you say that?”

“You suddenly look like you’re ready to rip my throat out,” Sujia retorts.

“The child. Is he Chenle’s?” you blurt out before you can stop yourself.

Sujia visibly recoils, eyes widening as she glances between you and Jisung. “You…Are you joking? Of course not. Chenle—dear God, Chenle’s my brother.”

You swear your life flashed before your eyes, and as you drop your head into your hands, you let out a shaky sigh of relief. Your heart still races, but it starts to slow at the news that your husband doesn’t have a secret child.

“I’m sorry, your brother?” Jisung asks. “I wasn’t aware Chenle had any siblings.”

“No one is. That’s why we’re receiving the payments.” She pauses, wetting her lips. “Chenle’s father—our father—met my mother many years ago. I see him quite often, and he’s aware he has a grandchild. I figured he never told Chenle, and this confirms my suspicions. Considering his parents never divorced, I can only assume it’s because she is also unaware.”

“He recently became aware of the payments.” Because of you. “And quite honestly, I don’t think this news will sit well with him.”

“Don’t.” Sujia shakes her head frantically. “Don’t tell him. We…We need that money, okay? And he has full power to take it away from us.”

“Do you know anything about him?” you ask her.

“Just what our father told me.”

“Chenle is exponentially kind. He’d never simply cut ties and leave you to struggle. It’s not like you lied to him by choice.” You take a deep breath and brush your skirt off. “He’s the best man I know. And for that reason, I could never intentionally keep this from him. I’m sorry.”

“I understand.” Sujia runs her tongue along her teeth.

“And on the off chance he doesn’t continue payments, I will personally make sure you’re okay.”

“You actually care about him.” She tilts her head at you.

“It’s hard not to care for someone like him.” You stand up. “I’m sorry for taking up so much of your time. And for thinking your child was my husband’s. Thank you for talking to me. Can we exchange numbers? I can keep you updated on how things go.”

You make haste of retrieving her number, and then you and Jisung leave the house. Once you're back in the car, you let out a long, pent up breath. You tug your fingers through your hair and curse quietly.

“Are you okay?” Jisung asks.

“Honestly? I’m okay now that I know this isn’t Chenle’s fuck up.” You nod. “I think I need to pay his father a visit.”

“You’re going to confront…his father?”

“I’m going to confirm the story, obviously. And if it’s true, I’m going to tell him what an incredible fuck up he is.” You turn off the emotions switch, your face going stone cold. “Chenle looks up to that prick.”

When you arrive at his parents’ house, you’re greeted by staff and Chenle’s mother. Jisung opts to stay in the car, and his mother rushes to bring you further into the house.

“Ah, (Y/N), what a pleasant surprise.”

Not if she doesn’t know about the secret child.

“What brings you here?” she asks.

“Chenle requested I bring these files for his father. Is he here?” You smile at her.

“Of course. He’s in his office. It’s down the hall, all the way to the back on the right.” She pats your shoulder.

You bow your head to her in thanks, and then you make your way down the hall. Knocking once, you await his confirmation to walk in. He sits behind the giant desk, glasses hanging on the edge of his nose. You note a lot of Chenle’s features come from him, but you can’t believe how vastly different they truly are.

“(Y/N).” He leans back on his chair. “Was I expecting you?”

“No.” You approach him and drop the paper with her bank account information on it. “Liu Sujia.”

His eyes widen, barely noticeably, and he looks at you. “Where did you hear that name?”

“Did you think no one would notice payments that high to a random bank account? From the company?”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about. A bank account means nothing. You can’t even be sure I was the one facilitating such payments. Chenle has been CEO for years now, so it’s been under his nose, too—”

“I don’t need your excuses. Or your explanations. You’re not my father, and quite frankly, I don’t care about the state of your family.” You glare at the man in front of you. “But I also spoke with Ms. Liu. She has a child. Your grandson, and Chenle’s nephew. You think he doesn’t deserve to know?”

“If you don’t care about the state of my family, why are you doing this now?”

“Because I care about my family. And the second Chenle married me, he became part of it. And while you may not love your son, I do. I won’t let you lie to him.” The words fall right out without a second thought, and you fight the embarrassment of admitting your feelings to his father before Chenle.

“So, why come here? Why not go right to Chenle?”

“I’m sure he will have his own things to say to you later. I wanted the chance to let you know, objectively, what a selfish asshole you are. Your son idolizes you for the life you built for him. For showing him that a man can be loyal to a wife he may not love, if not for his child’s sake. But you weren’t. Everything he respects you for is a lie, and you’re despicable for being okay with that.”

“How dare you come into my home and talk to me this way?” His eyebrows furrow in anger, and he leans forward, but you don’t even flinch.

“I don’t fear you,” you hiss at him. “You are human, just like everyone else. If you deserve to be scolded like a child, I have no problem being the only one with enough balls to do it. If you lose Chenle because of this, I hope you lie in your fucking grave. I’ll pay people to dance on it.”

You turn your back on him, throwing the door open and stomping down the hallway before you give him the opportunity to say anything else. Sending a smile towards Chenle’s mother, you nod once at her before walking back outside to your car.

Gaining the courage to tell Chenle takes much longer than you’d like. You get back to your office, finding Chenle waiting for you. He smiles at you, one of his genuine, happy ones, and presses a quick kiss to your lips as you approach him.

“I never thought I’d find a time where the CEO’s not busy,” you tease him. “What are you doing here?”

“I figured we could take a break and go get some lunch.” He tugs you closer. “It’s been a long day, and all I want is to be with my wife. Is that so wrong?”

You purse your lips and tilt your head. “Wrong? No. Crazy? Maybe a smidge.”

“Wow, you just called me crazy. That hurt.” He chuckles.

“How about we just order something and eat it here?” you ask. “I have a bunch of stuff to do, but I would love for you to be with me.”

“Of course. What did you want to eat? I’ll tell the secretary to order it.”

“Whatever you’re thinking is good,” you tell him, leaning back on your desk. “I’m not too picky.”

“I’ll be right back.” He kisses your cheek, and when he closes the door behind him, you let out a sigh. It feels like you’re lying to him now, but you couldn’t drop something huge like that on him now.

Not when he was looking at you with such affection. What if you telling him this makes him hate you, too?

When he comes back, he sits across from you and rests his head on his palm. “Are you okay?”

“Huh?” You frown at him. “What do you mean?”

“You’re just acting…different, I don’t know. Is this about last night? Did I do something wrong?” His forehead creases with worry, and your heart sinks in your chest.

“No, no, last night was good. I really liked last night.” You try to fight off the embarrassment at your words, but it doesn’t work very well. The tips of your ears burn.

“Okay.” He reaches across the desk and grabs your hand. “You don’t have to tell me what’s going on. As long as I’m not the one making you feel that way, I can wait until you want to talk about it.”

“Chenle,” you whisper, squeezing him. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For being you.” You glance down. “For not being what I expected.”

“I want to take care of you. Not because I think you can’t, but because I want to. I can be a safe space for you, and I’d never do anything to harm that image.”

You stand up and walk over to him, grabbing both of his hands. “I think I might be able to let you do that.”

“I don’t know if I’ve ever told you this.” He pulls you closer until you’re straddling his lap. “You amaze me every day.”

“We’re at work,” you scold him.

“I don’t see you trying to move,” he teases, palms exploring your back. “I was kinda sad we had to rush this morning. I would’ve loved to just lay there with you for as long as possible.”

You relax on top of him, fighting a smile as you study him closely. “I need to stop wearing lipstick.”

“Why?” he asks. “Do you wanna kiss me again?”

“I want to kiss you a lot.” You nod.

“I can wipe lipstick off.”

“What if mine gets smudged?”

“Tell people to mind their business. We’re newlyweds.” He watches your expression as his hands dip down to grip your ass through your dress. “I think the newlywed era started yesterday. Because all I want to do is be with you. All over you. Inside you.”

“Jesus Christ, Chenle.” You smack his chest. “Composure.”

He grins. “C’mon. You were thinking it, too.”

“We certainly can’t do it here,” you tell him.

“It’s my building.”

You give him a pointed look. “I’m trying to get your employees to respect me. They won’t if they think I’m here simply because I let you screw me on the desk.”

“I gave you the position before I ever even slept with you.”

“They don’t know that.” You roll your eyes and clamber off his lap. “There actually is something I wanted to talk to you about later at home. Are you leaving at a decent time?”

“I figured we’d leave together whenever you were done. If that’s okay.” Chenle clasps his hands together in his lap.

“Perfect.”

Before you do anything else with him, you need to tell him about his father. You just hope you don’t lose your husband in the process.

You bring the binder home with you. On the car ride home, you loop your arm through Chenle’s and rest your head on his shoulder. He can sense your nervous energy and tries to soothe you with a kiss to your head. You and Chenle go upstairs, and you sit on the edge of the bed. He follows suit despite your nerves transferring into him the longer you stay silent.

“I wanted to talk to you about that charge we found.” You put your hand on his knee. “And it’s a lot, okay? So I just want you to listen to me.”

He frowns but nods in response.

“Jeno and Jisung helped me with it. Jeno found out the account belonged to a woman, and there was an address associated with it. Jisung went with me to the house, and when we got there, I met with the woman.” You pause and scratch the top of your head. “She has a little boy. He’s almost five. And to be honest, it was a possibility in my head that you might’ve…I don’t know, accidentally fathered a child, but thankfully, it wasn’t that.”

“(Y/N), who is she?”

“She’s your sister. Your half-sister, I guess.” You gulp, refusing to make eye contact with him. “And the little boy is your nephew.”

“Oh.” His voice shakes uncharacteristically, and he inhales.

“Your dad has been paying her and her mother off for years so you and your mother didn’t find out.” You close your eyes. “And she begged me not to tell you because she’s scared she’ll stop receiving her money. Which I get, honestly, but I couldn’t keep this from you. Not when I know how—”

“(Y/N), please. I need a second.” He drops his head in his palms. His jaw tightens, and he angles his gaze to the ceiling.

“Come here,” you murmur, opening your arms for him. Immediately, he melts into your grasp, resting on your chest as you stroke the top of his head. “I’m so sorry.”

He grasps the fabric of your dress in his fist as he uses you to ground himself. “The whole time I admired him for being better, he just fucking sucked?”

You can’t tell if it’s anger or sadness that makes his voice shake.

“You’re sure?”

You nod. “I’m sorry.”

“Stop saying that,” he tells you. “You didn’t do this.”

“No, I didn’t, but I love you, Chenle. I hate seeing you like this.” You and Chenle both tense up. He lifts his head to look at you, and your heart nearly shatters at the welled up tears in his eyes. You keep looking at him, more than nervous for his response.

“What?” His voice is hoarse, almost like it’s caught in his throat. “What did you say?”

“It’s not important right now, okay? I wasn’t thinking.” Your own tears form, and you try your best to blink them away. “No thinking, just feeling didn’t really work in this situation, huh?”

“You love me?” He cups your cheek and turns you to him. “Do you mean that?”

“Are you kidding me?” You scoff. “Of course, I do.”

You shouldn’t have done that now, given how overwhelmed he is, but it truly slipped out. He stares at you in shock, and when he parts his lips, a tear slips down his cheek. You shake your head, reaching forward and wiping it away with your thumb.

“Don’t cry,” you say. “This is all so much, I shouldn’t have dropped that on you like this, I’m so sorry—”

“Stop apologizing. Please.”

“I don’t ever want to hurt you.”

“Darling, at this point, you’re the only one who hasn’t.” He rests his forehead on yours. “And you…you loving me makes all of this worth it. Nobody has that power over me when I have you by my side.”

“I do. I love you.” You sniffle and hold him tighter.

“I’ve loved you since the first time I saw you walk into the room. I love you when you’re a thousand steps ahead of me, and I love you when you’re walking my pace. All the time, without fail and without reprieve.”

Every bit of oxygen is stolen right from your lungs, and all you want to do is scream and cry and punch his father in the face. Such a pathetic man doesn’t deserve a son like Chenle.

“Zhong Chenle, you’ve broken me in all the best ways. That terrible wall, the shell around my heart…I don’t want to face the world alone anymore. I need you with me.” You rub your thumbs along his cheeks, swiping up the next couple tears that fall.

“I will be better than my father. Than yours. We’ll do this the right way, okay?” He inhales sharply.

“I don’t doubt that one bit.” You lean forward and kiss his forehead. “What are you thinking? What do you want to do about all of this?”

“I’d like to meet her. My sister. And my nephew.” He chews the inside of his cheek. “She won’t have to worry about money. We’ll have to stop paying her through the company, but it’ll come out of our personal account. If that’s alright with you.”

“Somehow, I had a feeling you’d say that. Of course, that’s okay with me.”

“Can you set that up please?” he asks softly. “I honestly don’t know how, and she already knows you so…”

“You don’t have to explain. I’ll do it.” You run your fingers through his hair. “You’re the bravest person I know. Not everyone would handle it the way you are.”

“We’ll figure this out, yeah?”

“Between the two of us, there’s not a problem in this world we couldn’t solve.” You kiss the tip of his nose and stand from the bed, holding your hand out to him.

“What?”

“I was thinking we could take a bath. Help each other relax.”

He gives you a tired smile and nods. “That sounds amazing.”

You start the water and put a more-than-appropriate amount of the bubble bath liquid in it. Tying your hair up to prevent it from getting wet, you smile to yourself when you feel Chenle’s hands on your waist.

“Need some help getting this off?” He tugs on your dress.

“I might need help with everything,” you hum, letting your eyes flutter shut as he unzips your dress.

Once it's thrown across the room, you unbutton Chenle’s shirt, pushing it from his shoulders. Soon enough, both of you are beneath water and bubbles, and his arms are locked firmly around your waist. You rest against his chest, allowing the lavender scent to soothe your stress.

“Y’know what we’re missing?” you mumble. “Champagne.”

“I can have someone bring it to us. Just say the word.” He kisses your temple.

You shake your head. “We’re naked.”

“They’re professionals.” He laughs and squeezes you. “And I can have them leave it in the bedroom.”

“Right, and make sure there’s a heart made out of flower petals on the bed.” You roll your eyes.

“You can have anything you desire, (Y/N). You’re my wife. The sky’s truly the limit.” He explores your skin out of curiosity, mapping his way around your body.

You sit up and look over your shoulder at him. “You know what I want?”

He raises his eyebrows in response.

“I want it all.” You grab his hand. “I want you. The good days and the bad ones. Whatever trial comes our way, I want us to figure it out together.”

“Do you…Do you actually want children? Or is that something you feel like you have to do?” he asks.

“Honestly, I don’t know. There was a brief moment when I met Sujia and Yichen that I thought…I thought that he could’ve been yours. I mean, he looks like you a little bit, but he’s your nephew so that’s not weird. When that became a possibility in my head, it hurt. Stung, is more like it. I guess I figured that any children you’d have would be mine as well, and to think there were others you might have—”

“Darling,” he coos, tightening his grip on you. “I promise you, I do not have any secret children. Nor will I ever. You will be very, very aware of any child I have. I don’t want them if it’s not with you.” He presses a kiss to your shoulder.

“That’s good.” You nod and lean back against him once more. “We have time to think about it, right?”

“Take as much time as you need.” He takes a deep breath. “I’m not going anywhere.”

You hesitated to have Chenle meet Sujia so quickly. A week passes before you consider reaching out to her, and you know Chenle is waiting for it. She has to be too, at this point, probably worried about whether or not her money supply was going to be cut off. He has yet to confront his father, but you assume that will come with time. For now, you’re curled up next to him in bed, his heartbeat steady beneath your ear. Finally, it’s a rest day for you both, and you get to spend the whole day with him uninterrupted.

His fingers run through your hair, a deep breath passing by his lips. “Darling.”

“Hm?” You move closer to him, burying your head in his neck.

“Kiss me?”

You don’t hesitate to do as he asks, humming against his lips as the two of you connect. He shifts to his side to get closer to you, his hand trailing from your hip, down your leg, until he finds the back of your knee. Pulling your leg over his waist, he shuffles closer to you, pressing his body to yours.

“What are you doing?” you ask him, smiling.

“Loving you,” he replies easily, sliding his hand back up to your ass. The thin fabric of your shorts does little to hide the sensation of him squeezing you. You don’t mean to gasp, but you attempt to distract him by tangling your fingers in his hair.

“Tell me what you want.” You pull back to get a good look at him.

“I haven’t stopped thinking about you,” he admits. “How fucking good you made me feel.”

“More.”

“You’ve been telling me you love me for a week now and I haven’t been able to hear it when I’m inside you. God, I never thought I’d be like this. It’s only been a week.” He squeezes you harder, pushing his hard length against you.

As he grinds himself slowly into your core, you curse and wrap your arms around him. “Why did you wait this long?” you ask him breathlessly.

“Didn’t wanna push you.” He kisses along your neck, nipping wherever he can reach. “Don’t want you to think this is all I want. Fucking been hard all day, darling. Every time you walked into the fucking room all week, instantly ready to bend you over.”

Your body shudders as you process his words. “Why don’t you lay back? Let me take care of you.”

“I need you so bad,” he groans. “I could cum just hearing you talk like that.”

You push him onto his back and quickly straddle him. Rolling your hips, you curse under your breath as you feel his hard length against your clit.

“Chenle,” you mutter, trailing your hands beneath his shirt. “Do you prefer ass or tits?”

“That’s an odd question.”

“You won’t regret answering.”

“Ass.”

“Perfect. Do you have a condom?” You raise your eyebrows at him.

“They’re in the bedside table—darling, I didn’t prep you yet—”

“You’re not the only one who’s needy,” you interrupt him, quickly moving to grab one of the wrappers. Before you climb on top of him again, you kiss his cheek. “You’re allowed to do whatever you want, my love. You don’t have to ask.”

You shove your shorts and panties down, and as you pull at his sweats and boxers, his fists clench at his sides. His length smacks against his stomach, and he wraps his fingers around himself to relieve some of the ache. You didn’t get to see it much the first time, but you take a second to appreciate just how fucking pretty he is. He’s so hard, it’s probably starting to hurt.

He runs his thumb over the tip and gasps. “Baby, please.”

You waste no more time in getting the condom on him, and then you straddle his lap again, but backwards this time. As you quickly sink down on his length, taking him all the way inside, he moans loudly.

“God, you’re so fucking hot.” He drags his nails down your back until he reaches your ass, and then he grips you tightly with both hands. “You needed me, too, huh? Dripping all over me when I haven’t even touched you yet.”

You brace yourself on the mattress between his legs, and set a fast, steady pace. He moans every time you sink all the way down, and your fingers curl into the sheets. You easily ignore the ache beginning in your thighs when you listen to him and how good you’re making him feel. He spurs you on, his moans slowly turning to higher pitched whines.

“Can we—fuck, can we try something?” Chenle asks, gripping your hips to hold you still.

“Whatever you need.” You shakily lift yourself off of him, and he quickly moves from below you. He removes his shirt before aiding you in doing the same.

He guides you to arch your back, your face pressed into the mattress as your walls clench around nothing. His tip catches on your clit, and your body jolts, but you grip onto the sheets instead.

“Gonna fuck you good, darling. Wanna hear you the whole time, got it?” His voice sends needles of pleasure pricking into your spine, and you know you can ignore everything else once he’s buried inside you.

“Yes.” You nod. Your fingers curl into the sheets as he slides in. The angle has you seeing stars, and your mouth falls open at the sensation.

His hands squeeze your ass as he starts slowly, the rub of him against your walls making your legs tremble already. You worry briefly about being too distracted, but as reaches around you to put his hand between your legs, all thoughts besides the way he feels completely obliterate. He rubs your clit in pace with his thrusts, his breathing uneven as he works your body as if he’s touched you for years. You barely recognize yourself when your moans slip past your lips. You’ve never let go like this before, and through your daze, you push yourself back against him. He tentatively smacks your ass, light enough to make you crave the contact. You can’t breathe as you curse.

“Again,” you whine, your entire being on the brink of collapse. “More.”

“Earn it, baby,” he commands. “You know what I want to hear.”

You let out a shuddering breath as his tip nudges that spot inside you. “Fuck, I love you. I need more.”

He smacks you harder this time, and the loud, needy moan that pours from your lips gets distorted by the way he starts to slam his hips against you. His fingers speed up on your clit, and you’re already teetering on the edge. Sounds of your arousal emanate around the room, mixing with both of your moans. His skin clapping against yours has every muscle in your body craving the release you know is so, so close.

As your high smashes into you like a tidal wave, the pleasure is so overwhelming, you cry out and clench onto the sheets. Chenle curses as his thrusts begin to falter, but you barely hear him. You’re much too sensitive, and you whimper as his fingers still work your bud. Without warning, he pulls out of you. You whine at the loss, attempting to push back, but he grips your hips and flips you onto your back. Gasping at the sudden movement, you grab for him as he climbs over you.

“What are you doing?” you ask breathlessly.

“I need to see you, darling.” He inhales sharply as he pushes back inside you. “And kiss you.”

His lips connect with yours as he keeps his steady pace. His chest rubs yours, the heat almost unbearable as your tongues fight for dominance. A groan slipping out of his mouth interrupts your kiss, and next thing you know, he’s as deep as he can get, panting against your collarbone.

“Fuck,” he whispers. “I love you.”

“Me too,” you reply, breathless as you run your fingers through his hair. “I love you, too.”

“That wasn’t too much, was it?” He peppers kisses anywhere he can reach—your neck, your chest, your shoulders.

You shake your head. “No, I’m just a little surprised. You can tell me when you want me, you know. You don’t have to wait for me to initiate.”

“It’s been…an interesting week, you know?” He pulls out of you, kissing you softly one last time before he goes into the bathroom to get rid of the condom. When he comes back, he lays down on top of you again. “I came twice.”

You recoil, angling your head to look at him. “Just now?”

“Yep. Came when you were on top of me, too,” he hums in content. “And I’ll have you know that’s never happened to me before.”

“Had someone on top of you or finished twice?”

“The second one.” He pauses. “But I—”

“You don’t have to explain.” You snort. “I have a past, too.”

“That’s good. Don’t wanna move,” he mumbles, pushing his head further into your neck.

You laugh. “Don’t, then.”

Chenle falls asleep fairly quickly, and you kiss his forehead before wiggling out from under him. You grab a new pair of panties and slide them on before grabbing one of his button-downs. It’s much too late for any of the staff to be out and about, so you grab your phone and head to the kitchen. When you look at the screen, the worry settles back in the pit of your stomach. Sujia had texted you forty-five minutes ago, asking you for an update on the situation. After a week, you think Chenle has probably had at least a little bit of time to come to terms with everything. You text her back to let her know Chenle wants to meet her, and then you get your water. You don’t want Chenle to ever feel hurt like that again, but it’s not going to just disappear. You know better than that. But it doesn’t change how seeing him so upset broke you to pieces, too. If you could, you’d ruin anything that even tried.

He was right all along.

Being in love doesn’t have to be a bad thing. It makes you stronger. Gives you a purpose other than what is required of you when you’re from certain bloodlines. From the beginning, you were sure Chenle would never—could never—mean anything to you, and even though he told you otherwise, you had to find out for yourself. You’d start wars for him. You’d do anything to make sure he was okay, because at the end of the day, he truly is the only person to love you without conditions involved. He cares for you not because he has to, not because he’s forced to, but because he wants to. Because he chooses to. You refill the glass for Chenle and head back upstairs. When you open the door, he stirs, blinking the sleep out of his eyes as he turns and sits up.

“Where’d you go?” he asks, running his fingers through his hair.

“Water.” You hold the glass up and set it next to him on the bedside table. Standing at the edge of the bed, you look at him, unable to fight the small smile forming.

“What?” He raises an eyebrow at you.

“You’re just…” You chuckle and shake your head. “Shut up. You’re just really cute like this.”

He holds his arm out to you. “Pinch me. I’m pretty sure I’m still dreaming.”

“Oh, you’re hilarious.” You smack at his wrist.

He tugs gently on the bottom hem of the shirt you’re wearing. “I like this on you.”

“It was the first thing I found.” Embarrassment climbs through you. “Sorry, I should’ve asked.”

“What part of that sounded like I wanted you to ask?” He snorts. “You’re always welcome to anything here. You should know that by now. But you’ve been away from me for way too long. C’mere.”

He opens his arms for you, and you chuckle and climb into bed next to him. When he lays on his side, he tugs you to follow suit. You listen to him, staring into his eyes while his thumb rubs on your hip through the white fabric.

“Thank you,” he whispers.

“For what?”

“For trying with me. Not running away. Letting me love you. The list is honestly endless.” He kisses your forehead. “Not to mention I really would’ve fucking lost my mind with all of that stuff last week if you hadn’t been there.”

“Speaking of.” You shuffle closer to him. “She wants to meet you. And I really think you should do it, because at the end of the day, she’s your sister, you know?”

Chenle hesitates, thousands of emotions crossing through his gaze like a storm. “You’re right. You can set it up for whenever, and I’ll be there.”

“I’m sorry this happened, Chenle.” You intertwine your fingers with his. “And I want you to know that, no matter how you’re feeling, you can tell me. I want to help you process.”

“I’ll be okay, darling. Truly. It’ll just take some time getting used to it. I do think it’ll be nice to have a sibling, although she’ll probably hate me for…I don’t know. Being legitimate?”

You laugh, burying your head in his neck. “You’re not taking her money away, so I doubt she’ll hate you.”

He hums quietly, sleep still heavy in his voice as he pulls you flush against him. “I shouldn’t be able to love you this much yet. Slow down, would you?”

“You, of all people, should know that those words do not exist in my vocabulary.” You close your eyes and breathe him in. “I love you, too.”

Sujia sets the day for the upcoming Saturday, and so while the days pass, you witness Chenle slowly lose his mind. He’s not upset at Sujia at all, but he obviously is with his father. It’s an incredibly large secret to keep from your family, so he has every right to those feelings. The entire car ride to her house, he’s squeezing your hand so hard, you fear he’ll cut the circulation off. His leg bounces restlessly, and the frown hasn’t left his face once today. The driver opens the door, and you get out first to at least attempt to lessen your husband’s nerves. You’re unfortunately aware of the straggle of photographers waiting for the two of you. While you’re not sure how they found out about this, you’re not worried about them in the slightest.

Once Chenle’s on his feet, you loop your arm in his. “Be calm. There are cameras, so at least wait until we get inside to freak out.” “Yes, ma’am.” He sends you a sly grin. The two of you approach the door, and you knock. Sujia opens the door quickly, ushering the two of you inside to prevent herself from being seen. Chenle removes his sunglasses, and you take them from him to put in your purse.

“(Y/N), it’s nice to see you again,” Sujia greets you. You nod at her. “Likewise.” “Chenle, you’re a little more intimidating in person.” She clasps her hands together. “Are you guys thirsty? I’ll get some water.” “Actually,” you say, patting Chenle’s arm. “Why don’t you two get your sibling introductions out of the way, and I’ll just play with Yichen. He’s my nephew, too, after all. And I’m pretty sure I scared him last time.” The two of them both flounder for words, neither of them wanting to be without you in a moment like this.

“It’ll be okay. Seriously. Neither of you bite, and Sujia, he’s actually really sweet. He just looks like he hates everything.” “As you can see, my wife is my biggest fan.” He presses his lips into a thin line as he fakes a glare. “Anyway.” You smile at Sujia. “I assume the child is upstairs?” “Yes, but if you want him to not be scared of you, you may want to refer to him by his name or something other than ‘the child.’” She scratches the top of her head.

“God, there is so much I could learn from you.” You separate from Chenle’s side and head for the stairs. Much to your pleasant surprise, your nephew…in-law? is already stomping down the stairs. “Oh.” The kid purses his lips. “You’re back.” “I am.” You nod and scrunch your nose up. “I figured while your mommy talks to my husband, we could…I don’t know. Play a game or something? Do kids do that?” “You’re weird.” Yichen grimaces. “But you’re nicer this time than you were last time. So yeah, we can play with the Switch.” You don’t end up actually playing, but you do watch Yichen’s game with interest. Leaning forward with your elbows on your knees, you analyze the process he uses when he plays every round.

“You’re smart,” you comment. “My mommy tells me that, too.” He nods, seemingly unaffected by your compliment. You pause for a moment. “Does your mom…compliment you a lot?” “Uh, I don’t know.” Yichen doesn’t start the next round, but turns to look at you. “Does your mommy compliment you a lot?” You laugh. “Yeah, no. Definitely not." “Are you—”

“Yichen,” Sujia calls out. “Can you turn the game off please? There’s someone I want you to meet.”

Without a second thought, he turns the Switch off and yells to his mom to tell her he’s ready. He sits next to you on the couch, folding his hands together in his lap. You’ve met a lot of children in your day, but you never imagined one could be so well-behaved. You see the panicked look on Chenle’s face as he walks in. A laugh almost erupts from you, but you hold it back. The man is meeting his nephew for the first time and can’t seem to shake the nerves away. You can only imagine what it’ll be like when he meets his own child. You tense the second that thought crosses your mind.

When?

A legitimate chill runs down your spine, and then you realize how close Chenle has gotten. He squats down in front of Yichen, and Sujia leans against the archway into the kitchen.

“Hey,” Chenle starts. “I’m your uncle. And you’re my nephew.” “Oh, wow.” You really didn’t think it could get any worse than you. “Do you know her?” Yichen nods his head towards you. Chenle smiles. “Yeah. That’s my wife. So that makes her your aunt.” “She said her mommy doesn’t compliment her.” His eyes widen. “Is she a bad person?” Your husband lets out an exaggerated gasp. “No way. She’s the best person I know.” “How?” “Well, she told me about you and your mommy when nobody else did. She’s really, really smart and, c’mon, she’s gorgeous. What else could I want in a wife?” Chenle grins, sending a quick glance your way. “I guess you’re right.” Yichen shrugs. “Do you wanna play a game with me?” “Absolutely.” He nods in response. You stand to give Chenle room, touching his shoulder lightly as you go to stand by Sujia. Leaning on the wall next to her, you quickly realize attempting to take your eyes off of your husband is futile. “He likes kids, huh?” Sujia asks. “He really likes family,” you reply.

“Do you want children?” “Oh.” You chuckle to yourself and fold your arms over your chest. “I’m not sure. But we…don’t really have a choice. We signed a contract and heirs are part of the deal.” “I’m sorry, but I really don’t envy you,” she tells you. “At the end of the day, it’s not that bad, though.” “So, you and Chenle actually love each other.” She hums, tapping her foot. “I feel like that’s rare for people in your positions.” “It is,” you agree. “And honestly, had it been up to me at the beginning, we wouldn’t even be…friendly. We’d be tolerating each other.” "Wow, he fought for you.” Humor laces in Sujia’s voice. “Well, I told him that I’d rather tolerate him than learn one day that I might hate him instead. He was entirely right when he said it wasn’t the hate I was scared of. It was love. Of relying on someone else.” “At least you can rest assured that he would be a good father.”

You don’t respond for a moment, watching Chenle interact with his nephew. They must win something in the game, because they dramatically high five each other. The smile on Chenle’s face is wide, and your heart flutters as a result.

“Yeah.” You fight your own grin. “Yeah, he really will.”

You and Chenle are at Sujia’s for hours. It’s clear the two of them are similar, and thankfully, your husband seems to enjoy having a family member other than the ones who have disappointed him. Yichen warms up to you both, and by the time you’re leaving, he’s hugging you both goodbye and asking when you’ll be back. Chenle is still smiling as he leads you back to the car.

“That went a lot better than you thought, huh?” You ask as he helps you into the backseat.

“I don’t know what I thought.” He shakes his head. “But it’s cool not to be an only child. Even if it’s unconventional, you know? And that little kid is freakin’ cool.”

You lean on his shoulder. “I’m glad you’re making the best out of this situation.”

“Actually, do you mind if we make one more stop?”

“Of course not. Where to?”

“I think it’s time I had a conversation with my father.” He pats your leg. “And I could really use your support.”

“Chenle.” You tilt your head at him. “If you don’t know by now that I would follow you anywhere, you’re not as smart as I originally thought. We may have to reconsider this whole thing.”

He sucks in a deep breath through his teeth, holding back his laugh. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that contract is pretty air tight.”

“Damn.” You roll your eyes and kiss his cheek. “You’re so lucky I love you.”

“The luckiest.” He lifts your hand up to his lips and kisses your knuckles. “Can’t even joke about that one.”

Chenle isn’t even nervous as the two of you approach his father’s office. He grips your hand tightly, but his resolve has never been stronger. Despite him doing this on his own, you feel an odd swell of pride deep in your chest. You’re so proud of the man he’s always been, and how he only ever wants to be better. His father already knows what’s going on the second he sees you both. At that point, Chenle releases your hand and drops his folder on the desk.

“What’s this?” his father inquires.

“A lawsuit,” Chenle replies nonchalantly.

You almost gasp in shock. And while you shouldn’t be enjoying the awkward tinge in the atmosphere, you feel like you need a bag of popcorn right now.

“I’m sorry?” He recoils in shock.

“You seem to forget that when I became CEO, you no longer had any claim to the company’s profits. And if I did my math correctly, which I did, $143,000 a quarter is roughly $572,000 a year, which is a grand total of $2,288,000 from the four years I’ve been seated in the CEO position.”

“Chenle, you have no right—”

“You don’t tell me what I have the right to do, actually.” Chenle buttons up his suit jacket. “So, you’ll be paying me back the money you owe me. That you stole from me to protect your little secret from getting out. But that must really suck, because you actually delivered a handwritten apology letter to Sujia and to your wife and your mistress and me and the employees at the company that’ll be announced in about ten minutes. To the whole world.”

“Your mother cannot know about this. Whatever you’ve done, you reverse it immediately.” The angry expression on his face does nothing but make Chenle grin.

“Your secret’s out, Dad. Crazy how you had two children and never learned how to be an actual father.” Chenle brushes himself out and points at the folder on the desk. “I’d read that. You might wanna think twice before fighting it.”

“You’ll understand one day,” his father replies. “There’s more to life than marriage, and it’s only a matter of time before you—”

“I will never be like you.” The smile immediately falls from his face. “I love my wife, and I’m not a fucking coward. I don’t need a second family because the first one wasn’t good enough for me. This is the last time you’ll hear from me. And you won’t be receiving any money from my company again. I hope you’re happy with yourself.” 

Your heart pounds in your chest, your lips parted in shock as you realize what’s happening. Your husband turns his back on his father, gently holds out his hand to you, and shoots one last ice cold glare over his shoulder as he leads you out of the room.

As soon as the door shuts behind you, you laugh in disbelief. “Chenle, holy shit.”

“Dude, my adrenaline is fucking crazy right now.” He chuckles and blows out a deep breath. “That was one of the scariest things I’ve ever done in my life.”

“This might be terrible to say, but I am…so attracted to you right now.” You blush as you squeeze his arm.

“So, nothing but good things today.” He helps you into the car.

Once he shuts the door behind him, you climb onto his lap and kiss him. He groans in surprise, his hands immediately finding their place on your ass.

“What? You like when I put people in their places?” he teases you, leaning forward to barely brush his lips on yours.

“There were a lot of things I liked from today.” You unbutton the first button on his shirt. “It was…very hot of you to absolutely destroy a man like that. You held your ground and…I don’t know. The tone of your voice was sexy.”

“My God, am I learning things about you today.”

“If it helps you, I’m also learning things about myself, so.”

“Mm, please tell me what else you’ve got hidden up your sleeve.” He squeezes your ass gently, pushing you closer so you feel him hardening in his pants.

“I think…we should throw every single condom away. Permanently. We’ll have an endless amount of babies for you to play games with. Of course, you’ll also have to tell them I’m gorgeous, but—”

“You’re serious.” His jaw drops, hope sparking behind his eyes. “Darling, you better not be joking about something like that.”

You shake your head. “I’m not joking. You were on to something when you said you wanted everything. A real life, a real love, a real family. Why don’t we have it all?”

“Right now? You want kids now?”

“If we’re gonna have twenty, we really have to start now, otherwise I’m gonna be too old—”

He cuts you off with an earth-shattering kiss as he pulls you flush against him. His fingers tangle in your hair, and you giggle into his mouth. The only thing that separates the two of you is the door opening.You gasp and climb off his lap, clearing your throat and fanning your cheeks from the embarrassment of getting caught. Your husband grips your hand and pulls you towards the house, and you can’t stop the profuse laughter escaping you as he apparently decides you’re walking too slowly and hoists you over his shoulder.

“Oh my God, Chenle, put me down.” You can barely speak through your laughs.

He only listens to you once the two of you are inside and he’s able to set you on the kitchen island.

“If you’re doubting it even a little bit, darling, you’d better tell me now.” He kisses down your neck. “Because I don’t care how fucking long it takes, we’re not stopping tonight until I get you pregnant.”

“You’re crazy.” You push his shoulder. “You have no way of knowing if you’ll—”

“Baby, don’t ruin my fun. Tell me if you really want this.”

“I do, Chenle.” You cup his cheeks, smiling at him. “I want it with you. They all need to look like you. I want at least one boy and one girl, and they’ll be best friends because—”

He kisses you again, groaning as he slides his hand beneath the skirt of your dress. “Keep talking.”

“Um, I just really think you’d be a good dad,” you say, lifting your hips so he can pull your panties down. “And, uh, you’ve proven how much family means to you, so it makes me feel safe. I—shit.”

He presses two fingers to your clit, and your body jolts. Chuckling, he traces along your pulse with his lips. “How are you so wet already?”

“Well.” You let out another breathless laugh as you grind your hips to match his pace. “It so helps that my husband is the hottest fucking man in this universe.”

“You think so highly of me,” he hums, teeth grazing your ear lobe.

“You’re cruel for this, you know.” You rock upward, and your head lolls forward. “Teasing after you clearly feel how badly I want you is just…so rude.”

“I’m sorry, baby. Please forgive me.” He moves down to your entrance and thrusts two of his fingers inside you.

You cry out, holding onto his shoulders. With a frustrated groan, you push his jacket off of him. He curls his fingers and pumps faster, thumb returning to your clit.

“Fuck, Chenle, wait.” You smack at his wrist. Even though you don’t want him to stop, you want more. He stops immediately, pulling back to look at you.

“What? Are you okay?”

“No, I’m not okay.” You kiss him hard. “I need you inside me right fucking now.”

“First of all, you just scared me.” He tsks as he unbuttons his pants. “You need my cock so bad you can’t fucking take what I give you?”

Oh, he knows exactly what he’s doing. You shudder at his tone, shuffling closer to the edge of the counter. He pushes his pants and boxers down to the middle of his thighs, and your mouth waters at the sight of him. He’s hard, tip leaking precum as he spreads your legs further. The fabric of your skirt prevents him from having enough room, and the dark look in his eyes sends another burst of wetness to your core.

“Love how these skirts look on you but fucking hate how I can’t fuck you in it.” He taps your hip, and you lift yourself up so he can unzip it and tug it down quickly.

You barely even pay attention to what his doing when he pulls your ankles up to the edge of the counter and spreads your thighs apart until they begin to ache.

“Now, isn’t that a fucking view.” He wets his lips as he wraps his fingers around his cock. Thrusting into his fist a couple times, he uses his other hand to tease your clit.

“Chenle, please.” You gasp, tugging him closer.

“You’re so fucking wet, baby, I can see it.” He drags his tip along your entrance, pushing in just enough to watch the head of his cock stretch you open. He’s entranced by the way you take him so easily, his eyes focused on where the two of you connect.

Your pleasure intensifies simply by watching him so drunk on you, just appreciating the way you take him. You feel every vein in your body buzzing, and you can’t help it but to push your hand between your legs and rub your throbbing bud while he’s entranced.

“You have no fucking patience,” he hisses, grabbing your wrist and pushing it away. You whine at the loss, but his glare stops you. “I’m trying to enjoy my wife’s pussy, but she’s just so fucking needy, isn’t she?”

“Oh, God.” You grip onto the edge of the counter.

“Watch how easily you take me.” He flicks your clit. “Look.”

You let your gaze travel downward until you see his cock positioned outside your hole. Instantly, the room gets much hotter. You struggle to breathe, anticipating the stretch he gives you. His tip is covered in your arousal, but the rest of his cock has yet to feel you.

“Fuck me, Chenle,” you mutter almost incoherently. “I wanna watch.”

He finally obliges, nudging the tip between your folds again before sinking inside. He moves so slowly, you want to cry. You need more, and the stretch wreaks havoc on you when you’re watching. Every time he’d fill you up another inch, he’d pull out until his tip is barely caught inside you, and then sink in just one more inch. You’re losing your fucking mind, but you can’t take your eyes away from where he pleasures you. Finally, he bottoms out, the position of your thighs allowing him to press all the way against you, his pelvis hitting your overly sensitive clit.

“Are you ready?” he asks. “I need to fuck you.”

“You know I’m ready,” you reply, dazed from the pleasure of him seated so deeply in you.

He starts a steady pace, both of you still staring at the way you stretch to accommodate him.

“You feel so fucking good like this, darling.” He thrusts harder. “Nothing between us this time.”

You cry out when his tip hits your cervix. Your legs start to shake from how far they’re spread, but all you’re focusing on is the way your arousal shines on his cock when he’s pulling out of you. You feel every inch of him, and the way he rubs against your walls is so different without the condom. You’re fucking delirious, and every time he presses all the way inside you, the pressure on your clit has you getting closer and closer.

“You’re squeezing me so tight, baby,” he groans, moving his hand down between the two of you quickly. His thumb glides over your most sensitive area, and you can no longer hold back your sounds.

“Fuck,” you cry out, legs shaking as your orgasm lingers so, so close.

“Cum for me.” He slams into you. “Not gonna fill you up ‘til you cum, darling.”

You tip and tilt over the edge, convulsing as your high hits you hard. Chenle keeps rubbing you, thrusts picking up speed as he fucks you through your euphoria. He crashes his lips to yours as he spurts inside you, covering your inner walls with white as he pants. Your whole body shakes as you hold onto him tightly. Both of you are covered in sweat, but it does little to bother either of you.

“How does it keep getting better?” you ask. “You have that effect on me.” He shrugs, chuckling as he guides your legs around his waist. “And I wasn’t kidding. We’re not done yet.” “My insides are gonna be mush.” “What if I’m gentle next time?” He kisses along your neck. “If I fuck you with your legs up, apparently it’s more likely to happen that way.” “Insatiable.” You pull back to kiss his lips. “You’re lucky I am, too. Take me upstairs.”

You don’t make it all the way upstairs. Not at first. He decides he has to take you on the couch, up against the wall next to the staircase, the desk in his office, and then your bed. By the end of the night, you’re absolutely exhausted, but you’ve never felt so fucking good in your life. And for someone who thought you could never have it all, you realize just how damn close you are to having a perfect life when you have Chenle by your side.

[heyidkyay]

I guess I’ll take this pain, instead of your name |

Part Twenty-Three

A/n: 😅 Been a while, but I have reasons! I am sorry for the long wait though on this next chapter, especially with that last cliffhanger... Still, this is just a cute little pause before we get into the heavy shit so I hope you like it, and hope it's up to standard too, feels weird to be writing again tbh. Let me know what you think though!:) X

Summary: In life, things changed. The boys you'd once grown up with were men now, and famous ones at that. The type that toured the world and had millions of adoring fans.

The five of you shared a shit ton of history. But you also shared a lot of mixed emotions for one of them in particular, a certain drummer.

Warnings: Mentions of sickness/vomiting.. but nothing too extreme, just be wary:)

Masterlist

--

I’d woken up with the most violent headache- the kind that made brain-freeze feel like a trip around the fairground- and the second I opened my eyes I knew that this one was a lot different compared to the ones I’d had previously. This headache made me want to curl up and die, just shrivel up into a ball then and there. But I couldn’t, because before I could even think to act on the action I was up and tumbling out of bed, headed straight for the bathroom and chucking up what ever strange concoction remained in my stomach.

I don’t know how long I’d been there, gagging into the dirtied bowl of the toilet, before I felt the door to the bathroom open ajar. The creak of its hinges had me wincing, as did the faint trail of light that followed.

I couldn’t bring myself to look up from where I’d since sprawled myself out on the floor, the tiles cold against my sweaty skin- the only thing giving me an ounce of reprieve- but did squint my eyes open a smidge to find a pair of socked feet planted before me. 

I groaned just as someone squatted down to check on me, a hand pressed to my cheek then to my forehead.

“What’s up, muggins?”

Ross. That was Ross’s voice. Which made sense seeing as the bathroom was sat opposite both our rooms. I must’ve woken him.

He carded a gentle hand through my hair and spoke again, “Figured it should be me here instead of you, what with the amount I put away last night.”

I cracked the tiniest of smiles for him, but my throat hurt and my mouth was so dry. I couldn’t offer him a proper reply and he frowned in turn.

“Fucking hell, Y/n.” Ross mumbled, having just caught sight of the makeover I’d given our shared toilet. He took a deep breath and I focused on what he was saying next when my head begun to pound again. “Let’s get you back to bed, hey?”

It was with a careful grip that Ross manoeuvred me about with, swiping my tired body up off the floor with a practiced ease. I attempted to refuse his manhandling, claiming I could walk, but he only shushed me with a roll of his eyes and trudged his way back into my room. I didn’t fight him much more than that, having just gone more than three rounds with the toilet and lost, I was too drained to even bother.

Ross laid me back on my bed, tossing the duvet back over me, and I listened faintly to him walk about my room. He opened the dresser drawer that was nearby first and then something else I couldn’t quite make out, he was quiet when he approached again.

“Here, try and change out of those before I get back.” He told me and I opened my bleary eyes again to see that he’d tossed me a pair of linen shorts and a large t-shirt to replace the ones I'd ruined. “Gonna grab your medicine, alright? It still downstairs on the counter?”

I hummed non-committedly, too focused now on the thought of having to move again. He left and pulled the door behind him.

I changed, albeit slowly and not without wincing at every strain, but I did eventually do it. And soon enough, just as promised, Ross reentered, carrying with him a large bowl, a glass of water, my meds, as well as a small fan. He dropped the bowl beside me and stationed the fan on the bedside-table before he handed me the water and my tablets. I heard him head back out again, though he returned only a minute later with a cold, wet flannel in hand. I smiled sincerely at his kindness.

“Thank you.” I rasped out as he placed the damp cloth on my forehead, soothing the heat that drenched the entirety of my body.

Ross merely waved me off and took a seat beside me on the mattress. “If that don’t work, I’ll grab you some ice. Numb the pain a bit.”

My forehead wrinkled beneath the flannel. 

“How’d you know?” I couldn’t help but ask him, wondering how he’d already known that my head was the thing causing me the most pain.

He chuckled softly, mouth quirked to one side. “Well, besides from the way you were trying to dig your nails into your forehead when I found you, I also read up on that thing the doctor fella said you had a bit ago.”

I pinched my brow at him and he seemed to take it for the silent question it was.

“Yes really, twatface.” Ross drew out exaggeratedly, then scratched at his cheek as he glanced me over. I must've looked pretty fucking pitiful for what he had to say next, “That car really fucked you up, didn’t it?”

I glared back at him in retaliation, but he simply laughed.

“What? It did! Doesn’t mean you didn’t win though.” He retorted in good jest, grinning down at me with that sly smile of his. The kind I couldn't hate. “You, you fucking walked away from that car like it was nothing. Most don’t get the chance to get back up afterwards, you know? Like they break both their legs, or just… I don’t know, die I ‘spose.” He shrugged after saying that last bit and I couldn’t help the amused snort I gave at his nonchalance.

I immediately regretted it though, grimacing at the harsh pain and sharp nausea that rolled its way through me all at once.

Ross smiled sympathetically down at me and squeezed my ankle, “Get some rest, yeah? I’ll tell the lads to keep it down once they all wake up- the lazy cunts.” He muttered the latter under his breath as he rolled his eyes and I had to fight not to laugh again. 

I moved my hand out from beneath the covers, my eyes falling shut now as I did, and squeezed his hand in return. My way of telling him thank you, once again, for everything he’d done for me. Because he hadn’t had to, he just did. Without anyone even needing to ask. 

It was a very Ross thing to do.

He got up from the bed after and promptly pressed a chaste kiss to my temple before he quietly padded his way out of the room, leaving me to burrow myself further under the covers, praying that the medication would soon give me some relief. Because honestly? Fuck my life.

…

I must have fallen asleep at some point because I wrinkled my nose as I woke once more, grimacing at the light pulsing I still felt in my head. I groaned groggily and rolled over in attempt to bury all the pain inside my pillow. 

But obviously that didn’t work and so I huffed and flipped myself back over, which had ultimately been the wrong move to make because my stomach rolled without warning and I was yucking up into a bowl I hadn’t even reached for. 

Although the sudden appearance of it confused me, I was too busy throwing up what little my stomach had to give to care.

It was only as the sickness ebbed that I could finally breathe a little better and I felt my head start to hang in exhaustion.

“Hey, hey.” I heard someone say faintly from above me, but my bad ear was ringing again. Both of them now actually. And so I couldn’t pay much attention to the tissue that was being cautiously wiped across my mouth and chin, nor the kind hand that had taken to holding my hair up out of my face.

I wasn’t sure how much time passed before I finally managed to pull myself back together. Broken piece by broken piece. But the ringing had dulled and the throbbing I felt grew less and less prominent. I breathed slowly. In and out. Out then in. 

“Hell of a holiday.” I croaked defeatedly to myself, but was surprised by the soft titter that followed, it pierced the air. 

I lifted my chin and was a little startled to find George perched on the edge of the bed, he was staring down at me, the smallest of smiles on his face and trying to hide the worry that was etched into his eyes.

“When’dyouget’ere?” I slurred, squinting up at him, hating that he, of all the people cooped up in this stupid villa, had to see me like this. I didn’t want to think too much about it. 

George shrugged a single shoulder at me, looking a tad abashed. “Came to check in on you when I woke up a couple hours ago, didn't I? Ross let me know you were feeling shit when I headed down and found him.”

I nodded slowly. A couple hours…

George seemed to sense my sudden odd shift in mood then because he hurried to continue on, “Matty came in a bit ago, he’d just woken up though. Gave me a weird look and said to come get him if anything happened. Reckon he went back to bed though to be honest. Hann had Ross bring you up some more water too- it’s up there on the side- they went to grab some food not long ago. Matt’s hanging, as is Hann, so they all wanted a proper fry up.”

“And you?”

His brow furrowed at my question, not quite getting it. “And me, what?”

I grimaced at the intense throb my head made then and took it as a sign to never think again. But that wouldn’t be happening anytime soon, so I proceeded to solider on. 

“And you stayed here.” I stated, it wasn’t a question of why. 

“Um, yeah. That alright?” George asked me, looking a little uncomfortable, like he’d overstepped without meaning to. “Figured it’d be best, someone keeping an eye on you.”

He didn’t have to explain himself, but I sort of liked having the upper hand here. I smiled at him as I relaxed further into my mountain of pillows. It was nice of him to have stayed. 

“It’s fine. And thanks.” I replied hoarsely, he just shook his head.

“None of that. Just wanted to make sure you didn’t choke on your own sick or summat.”

“Oh, cheers.” I rolled my eyes, a sudden fondness creeping into my words.

“You know what I mean.” George huffed with a chuckle, though a silence settled shortly after and, even now that I had my eyes closed, I could tell that he was watching me. “Do you, uh, do you need anything else? Or, I can leave if you want.”

Behind my fluttering lids, I rolled my eyes again whilst biting back a smirk, then shuffled over slightly to make room on the mattress. I patted the sheet next to me twice.

A full minute must’ve passed before George finally moved to follow my invitation but I didn’t comment on it, not sure if I’d regret this later on when I felt a little more like myself. His weight caused the bed frame creak beneath us and I felt my shoulders loosen somewhat when he settled in beside me, barely five inches away.

“You okay?” I questioned quietly when he said nothing after a while, a tad bit anxious when I couldn’t even hear him breathing.

He exhaled heavily then though, like he'd been holding his breath- the drama queen. 

“Yes, yeah. Yeah, I'm okay.” He attempted to rush out, but I could feel how rigid he was beside me. Like he was too fearful to even move a muscle, to push his luck.

“Good.” I replied, not thinking about the line we were crossing.

The nausea had subdued somewhat now and I was simply left with a dull throb on the left side of my head. I kept on taking deep measured breaths though, not wanting to strain myself like I had before and chance the fate of me spewing again.

I still felt tired, which was funny seeing as though I’d just woken up, just so drained of all my usual energy. Even the thought had me yawning and I lifted an arm up to cover my mouth as I did so but, by complete accident (I swear!), I ended up wacking George in the face with my elbow. He hissed loudly and instantly I turned to see him, having felt the connection even through my cast. 

“I’m so sorry!” I blurted out, now using my hand to cover up my blatant shock as I stared down at him with wide apologetic eyes.

George rubbed at his wounded eye, wincing at the unexpected blow. “No, you’re fine, you’re alright. Just the shock that got me is all.”

“I’m so sorry.” I repeated again, unable to say much else really, watching as George shifted on the bed to squint up at me, he gave a crooked smile. It was one that made me huff a small chuckle.

“Don’t fuckin’ laugh!” George retorted, but his words didn’t hold much worth when he’d begun giggling away too. “I mean it! You’re proper nasty, you know. Tryna knock me out, or what? Like being hit by a club with that arm of yours.”

“I didn’t mean to!” I laughed in reply, glad that he was up for making jokes, showing me he wasn't too hurt, and shuffled closer to him to get a better look at the side of his face. I reached out towards him, “Here, lemme look at it.”

“Sod off!” He responded with a chuckle of his own as he swiped my approaching hand away, “You might assault me again.”

“I won’t! I promise!” I grinned at him, hair falling out from behind my ears and brushing against the collar of his t-shirt. “Just let me check that I ain't given you a matching concussion, will you?”

George relented with a tiny lopsided smile, removing his hands from his face to nod at me. I breathed out a sweet chuckle and moved closer to examine the eye I’d hit, careful as I prodded the now reddened skin. He winced and I breathed out a faint sorry once more, before tilting his head up towards me. His gaze found mine in that next moment but I tried hard to concentrate on the task at hand.

“Did I catch you right there- on the corner?” I asked him quietly and he hummed in reply. It looked okay from what I could see, just a little red and the skin a tad bit raised from where I'd caught him with my cast. “Might puff up in a bit or bruise a little later, but you should survive.”

I glanced down at him, realising then just how close we were, and my brain immediately started calculating every part of us that touched. My knees were pulled up by his side, practically tucked under his waist. His arm was laid out to the side after having made room for my intrusion, I felt his light hairs tickle the smooth skin of my calf. My eyes zeroed in on the way my dept fingers danced across the bone of his freckled cheek, brushing by his temple in an attempt to soothe the injury I'd given him.

My lips parted when his brown eyes met mine though, they were warm, fond, familiar. But sad too almost.

I went to speak, to say something which would break the tense silence we were swimming in. But he beat me to it.

“I’ve missed this.” He told me, but I didn’t offer him a reply. I think George already knew that I wouldn’t because he just ventured on, not missing a beat as his soft voice filled the quiet space of my room. “Missed you, really.” He admitted, and his arm grazed my lower leg just as he reached up to tuck a stray strand of hair back behind my ear. I tried not to shiver at the all too intimate motion.

His gaze jumped up to my own as he did so, skirting back and forth between my eyes. I struggled to breathe. Air trapped in the very back of my throat.

“Spending time with you. Just having you there.” He murmured, almost whispering now as he admitted these simple things to me. “There’s pieces of me only you know. Parts of me that only you will ever see.” He added next on an exhale and then he swallowed, I watched the lump in throat bob up then down before my eyes darted back up to meet his. “I really messed up, but I’m gonna fix it. Yeah?”

Those brown irises of his were drowning beneath a shallow pool now and he wet his bottom lip just as he dropped his hand from my hair, thumb gently skimming the side of my jaw before it trailed up my arm to where my touch still cradled his own face. His palm stretched out over the back of my hand, my fingers tucked safely under his. The gesture was so familiar it hurt.

“That promise I made you, last night? I thought about it a lot, hardly slept just thinking about it. But in truth, I always knew my answer, Birdie.”

My heart was racing now, its pounding had replaced the painful rhythm which had earlier burdened my head, muffling any kind of logical thought I could’ve had. 

I couldn’t look away from him. I didn't want to.

“I want to tell you. I want to explain.” George told me, his thumb stroking the back of mine, “If you’ll still give me that chance. I want to fix things between us. ‘Cause I don’t think I can go much longer with you keeping me at arms length, Birdie. I can’t just pretend like you’re not everything I think about. Everything that makes me feel whole. Like you’re not meant to be mine. And me yours. Like we weren’t ever supposed to meet.”

My eyes were stinging, and I was barely even breathing as I stared back at him. Too afraid that if I did, or if I even blinked, that he’d be gone and this would all be some sort of feverish dream.

“I love you, and that ain’t going nowhere, B.” 

He tightened his hold on my hand.

His words played on a loop in my head.

I love you. I love you. I love you.

Everything I’d longed to hear for over a year now. I love you.

But did he? Did he really?

My mouth moved to ask, but the words wouldn’t escape. They wouldn’t just get up and jump out at him.

Instead, I was stuck looking into his eyes. At his face. Analysing every detail that had changed. Everything that hadn’t.

I love you.

“I fucked up. So bad I don’t even know if I can fix it, but I-“ He inhaled sharply, “I’d really like to try. If you’ll let me.”

And then it was up to me again. It was my time to decide.

Only I'd never felt so far from myself.

Part Twenty-four>

[boldlyvoid]

forever is the sweetest con | Chip Taylor x Reader

18+

Summary: Reader's dad is a carpenter; sometimes he takes on apprentices and sometimes, if they're lucky, they get his daughter's number at the end of their training. Chip Taylor, however, hits the jackpot when her father invites him over for one of her homecooked meals.

Warnings: reader's mom passed away, mentions of parental death, strangers to lovers, random acts of kindness, mutual pining, falling in love, steamy make-outs, oral sex (male and female receiving), fingering, penetrative sex, unprotected sex, creampie, dirty talk, sub!chip, food mentions, praise, love confessions.

word count: 6.2k

a/n: thank you @samuel-de-champagne-problems for requesting a chip fic!! i am in love with him and also yes this plot is something that happened to my parents, however, my mom is still alive and my dad does give my Instagram out to the men who subcontract for him lmao!

Her father was a carpenter, and he often took on apprentices. You see, he had to learn everything on his own to make his way in life and support his family, he was willing to help other men do the same thing. And so every night he would come home from work and talk about whatever idiot he was teaching this week.

“His name is Chip,” her father emphasized the p with confusion, “what is that even short for?”

“It’s short for Charles,” she couldn’t help but laugh, “is he at least more competent than that Mason kid?”

“Much!” He rolled his eyes, “although I did have to teach him how to put crown moulding in today, he’s a quick learner and you can tell he’s just following what they teach at the schools but I know the hacks.”

“I know, Dad,” she smiled. “Is he cute? Single?”

She’s been on dates with most of the guys he’s worked with, mainly because they went to her high school back in the day, but also because her father was trying to play matchmaker. Ever since her mother died, she’s been taking care of him and he just wanted her to have some fun outside of the house. She needed a life in his eyes.

She was content working at the diner and serving people food all day just to come home and take care of her father. He worked hard to make sure they stayed afloat after her mom, the least she could do is make him dinner and a sandwich for lunch the next day.

“He is actually,” he shrugged, “he’s a yes man, you’d probably really like him.”

“Why’s that?” She asked, waiting for whatever snide comment he was going to make to jokingly piss her off.

“Your aunt Lisa only married your uncle Jason because he was a yes man and she could wear the pants, and you’ve always been just like her,” he explained it nicer than she expected.

“Give him my number next time you work with him?” She asks nicely, taking his plate from the table and moving it to the sink.

“Good luck chip,” she hears him mumble under his breath.

It makes her laugh, she loves her relationship with her father and the friendly environment they were able to keep after everything that’s happened to their family. They always laughed together, he was always cracking jokes and even when they were shouting obscenities at each other it came from a place of love, “fuck-head” was a term of endearment in their home.

—

He brings Chip home with him without telling her, she’s been home all day cleaning the house; her hair is a mess and she’s all sweaty, and he really is cute. She made enough food for an army so it wasn’t a problem in her father’s eyes, saying “doesn’t she always look beautiful? It’s fine Y/N.”

“Yeah,” Chip agreed with a small smile and a blush that roared red down his neck. "You're very beautiful."

She cleans up a bit before dinner, brushing her hair and changing into a nice sundress. She adds some perfume and shakes the anxiety out of her body, he was just one of her dad’s friends from work. And he happened to be incredibly adorable.

Returning to find them talking about how he fixed their frozen pipes in the winter with a hairdryer. It was the most basic shit to her and yet Chip was fascinated like he’s never heard any of these things before. He’s holding a beer in his hands with a leg crossed as he leans on the sofa and he’s so cute…

He’s in his work jeans and his shirt is all sweaty, and his hair is curled on the ends from all the hard work. His hands are dirty and he smells like sawdust and home. She’s not listening to a single thing they’re talking about, she’s just staring at the way his face moves when he talks and how sweet his laugh is.

He loves dinner, he’s beyond thankful and even more so for dessert. She made homemade banana bread with the bananas they had, they were going to go bad if she didn’t. It wasn’t anything special but he acted like she made his whole day.

He helps bring all the dishes into the kitchen, standing beside her as she fills the sink with water, “do you have a towel? I could help dry.”

“I know where everything is, how about you wash and I dry?” She compromises with a smile, and he’s more than happy to oblige.

She learns a little about him, he’s kind and friendly and he seems to crave the feeling of family that being in her home provides. He doesn’t want to stop washing dishes because then he has to go home, and he doesn’t look like he really wants to do that either.

“Do you need a ride home, Chip?” She asks as he lets the sink water out, “I was thinking about going to get some ice cream if you want to join me?”

“I would love to,” he smiles again, “thank you, Y/N.”

—

She understands everything when she drops him off at his tiny, little, run-down apartment; he’s going to be all alone as soon as he leaves her car and she hates that for him. He was so nice it was hard to believe that he didn’t have a nice partner and a house and kids by now.

“I wouldn’t mind if you came over for dinner after all your shifts with my dad? Just text me before so I make enough dinner?” She offers with butterflies swarming in her stomach.

“You’re too kind to me,” he replies, unable to meet her eyes as she turns to him.

“I just want more time to look at you,” she teases, “you’re really handsome.”

He lights up, “you think so?”

She nods with a small laugh, pushing air through her nose as she leans in more, “and you’re nice and funny, and your voice is cute.”

He’s stunned as his eyes flick back and forth from hers to her lips, his lips are parted as he tries to breathe but fails, he looks like no one has ever told him that before.

“Are you working with my dad tomorrow?” She changes the topic so that he can focus once more.

“I should be,” he replies just soft enough for her to hear.

“Would you like a sandwich for lunch? My dad said often the guys don’t bring that much with them to eat, I wouldn’t mind making you a sandwich too?”

She’s not sure why she feels the need to take him in and care for him but she does. She wants to wrap him up in a hug and make his meals and tuck him in at night. He just has this aura that calls for love and she desperately wants to give it to him.

He leans forward and kisses her, she kisses back instinctively and reaches to hold his face. His cheeks are soft as she runs her thumb along the skin, she pulls back only to press a few more pecks to his lips.

“You're something else,” he whispers against her lips before stealing another kiss.

He’s sweet, he tastes like vanilla ice cream and she just wants more. She kisses him again and again, eventually licking at his bottom lip and desperately whining to make out with him. She hasn’t felt this needy since she was a high schooler, but something in Chip made her feel alive.

She is leaning so far into his space she might as well get into his seat too. She moves to kiss his jaw and down his neck and he’s nothing but hands as he feels all over her back.

“Do you want to come inside?” He whispers, scared but just as desperate as she is.

“I shouldn’t,” she says before continuing her trail of kisses down his neck.

She can’t leave any marks because her father will know, but she also doesn’t care. He’d probably just give him a high five and move on with his day. She wanted to be even closer to him, she wanted to sit in his lap and kiss him for hours just because she could.

“We don’t have to do anything,” he tries to persuade her, “it just might be more comfortable for this?”

“Alright.”

He holds her hand on the walk up to his apartment, she likes how much he already feels like hers. He shows her inside and before the door is even closed she’s connecting their lips once again. He moans into her mouth at the feeling of his back colliding with the door and her hands are immediately roaming his shirt.

He’s such a good kisser, he is gentle and soft, he isn’t overly eager and controlling. He lets her explore and slow it down as she presses in closer to him and his hands wander to her hips. She places one of her thighs between his and grinds herself even closer to him.

He’s hard against her hip and the prospect of sleeping with him is so enticing but she knows she can't, at least not yet. It would be too quick, she wants to just appreciate him like this. Her kisses trail from his lips to his ear and he’s still a whining mess, but he’s completely still as she sets the pace of her grinding. He’s not pushing her to do anything or move this along, he’s just letting her explore everywhere… he’s so different.

“I don’t want to have to do laundry tonight,” he whispers with a smirk, moving his hands down to block her from grinding on his erection anymore.

She just undoes his belt and pushes his jeans to the floor before resuming the same position as before, this time she pulls her dress up and rests the clothed tip of his cock in just the right spot under her.

He’s holding her closer again, his arms wrapping almost all the way around her as his big hands grab handfuls of her skin in a desperate attempt to be closer to her. She keeps kissing his neck, they’re more open-mouthed and breathy than she intends but he just feels so good under her.

No one has ever made her feel this desperate before, something about him made her want to devour him whole. His sounds were delicious, his skin even more so, she couldn’t help herself from nipping and sucking at his neck as he made more beautiful noises.

She was so close and she could tell he wasn’t far behind, “let go, Chip,” she whispers in his ear, “cum with me.”

She grinds down hard one final time and he’s a shaking, moaning mess. It’s the feeling of the wet patch in his underwear and the feeling of him shudder that sends her over the edge, panting into his neck as they hold each other close against the door.

He turns them around, taking her by the waist and manhandling her until she’s the one against the door. His lips are on her neck and it’s like his orgasm has only enticed him to go further, “you’re too good to me.”

“You deserve good things Chip,” she whispers as her hand comes up to grip his hair as he continues to kiss her neck.

“Let me say thank you,” he whispers as he drops to his knees and pushes her dress up as she reaches to pull it up for him.

She spreads her legs as he moves her panties to the side and dives in. Spreading her with two fingers he sucks her clit into his mouth first and she tugs on his hair so tight he moans against her. Sending another shockwave through her body as he built another orgasm up.

He’s so good with his mouth, her legs are quaking as she tries to stay standing against the door. She can feel him everywhere but it’s still not enough, she wants him deep inside of her but she knows it’s way too soon to even be doing this. She has never gone this fast with someone before but she couldn’t stop, he felt too amazing.

“Chip,” she chanted his name, tugging on his hair tighter to get him to moan against her and send her over the edge once again.

She ruts against his tongue, fucking his face as she rides it out and he is more than happy to keep going as long as she wants him to and it feels so good she might just stay there. But the twitches get too intense and the whine she makes lets him know she’s done as he kisses back up her body.

Supporting her against the door, he presses his body against her once more. Taller than her, he tilts her chin up so she can look him in the eyes, his chin and nose are glistening with her cum and somehow he’s still cute.

She kisses him on the lips quickly, “when I can feel my legs again, I need to head home.”

When she leaves, she just sits in her car for a few minutes as she settles even more. Then she heads to the grocery store on the way home to get nice things for his sandwich tomorrow, because any man who can make her cum twice in 10 minutes deserves the best sandwich.

—

Waking up at 6 in the morning to make sandwiches is normally a chore, she sometimes makes them the night before so she doesn’t have to worry and can sleep in, this morning she wants to put all the tender loving care into these lunches. Her dad has noticed, he’s eyeing her down from the living room as he has his morning cereal and she knows he wants to ask.

“I didn’t sleep with him if that’s what you’re wondering.” Her voice is just loud enough for him to shoot her a listening glance.

“Oh, but you’re making him a sandwich?”

“You should see his apartment complex,” her expression drops, “ and after the way he devoured dinner last night, I just knew he hasn’t been taken care of in forever. And he’s so nice?”

He smiles, “your mom did the same thing for me.”

“You’ve never told me the story,” she reminds him.

He gets up and walks over to the kitchen, leaning against the counter so they can look at each other. His expression is soft, he’s an overly kind man and it was the thing she loved most about him.

“Your grandfather and I worked at a company making refrigerators, I was new to the state and had nothing and so he brought me home for dinner,” he smiles at the memory.

“Her parents got divorced soon after and her mom was having trouble with the bills so I moved in and I helped, and every morning your mom woke up and she made me a sandwich as a thank you.”

“Oh,” she smiled at the recollection, they really were having the same little love story. “Well, I’m thinking about making fish for dinner, would you ask Chip if he likes it? I’ve invited him over for dinner after all his shifts with you.”

He laughs in a huff, he’s proud of her— and himself. He finally found a good one for her.

—

She outdoes herself for dinner. The food is amazing, the table is set, and she’s all dolled up for him. Her dad thinks it’s cute and he doesn’t mind being the third wheel, they all talk to each other like he’s been having dinner with them for years.

He helps clean up after dinner and her dad falls asleep watching Jeopardy in the living room like normal. She wraps her arms around his waist and rests her head on his back while he’s still doing the dishes, he’s still all sweat from work but she doesn’t care, she wants to give him a hug.

“What’s this for?” He whispers, placing a wet hand over hers on his stomach.

“Do I need a reason to hug you?” She counters.

“No,” he turns around in her grip so that he can give her a real hug. Wet hands on her back and everything.

She held him there, leaning against him as he leaned against the sink. His heartbeat was quick and he still smelled like sawdust and hard work, but he was warm and soft and it felt so right to just be there.

“Are you working with my dad tomorrow?”

“I will be for the rest of the month,” he confirms her hopes; he was going to be around often.

“Would it be alright if I asked you to stay the night?” She whispers incredibly soft for only him to hear.

He nods against her before taking her hand and leading her outside to the porch. They close the house door softly and then she’s back in his arms, “are you sure?”

She looks up at him and he’s even more beautiful today than he was yesterday, “I can take you back to your place to get some things? It would be nice to send you off to work in the morning.”

“You’ve decided that I’m yours now, haven’t you?” He teased her with a smile, perfectly fine with that.

She nods again, “you could move in tomorrow if you wanted, I’m not sure what’s possessed me to take you in like this, but I really don’t want to let you go.”

He delicately places his hands on her cheeks and pulls her into a kiss, it’s soft and short and he’s quick to look at her again.

“You can have me,” he whispers, “forever, if you want.”

It makes her laugh, “that's the sweetest con you know, you promise yourself to me forever and yet you have no idea if you can stay that long.”

He nods in agreement, “what if I promise my hardest to stay?”

“Okay,” she smiles again, leaning forward and kissing him again, finally.

—

The month is coming to an end and he’s slept beside her almost every single night, and even with that, they’re still taking it slow. They go on dates on the weekends, they make out in her car, he drives her to work, she kisses him at the door every morning he stays with them and they’ve done almost everything but have sex together.

They didn’t feel the need to yet, everything that was leading up to it was fun and interesting. She’s enjoyed sneaking around with him to get each other off back and forth, like an adult game of tag.

She’d blow him in the car on the way back to his apartment after dinner, or he’d come and pick her up after a shift at the diner only for them to end up making out in by the back door, and his hand always ended up in her panties. It was an interesting month of getting to know each other, but she wanted more now.

Her dad is going out of town on a fishing trip with his buddies this weekend, she’s booked time off and Chip has no idea what is in store for him. She plans a dinner, she gets all dressed up for him, there are candles and music and it’s perfect.

He’s amazed by the whole thing and she can really tell he’s been mostly alone for his whole life, he looks at a simple home-cooked meal like it was a million dollars and he was beyond grateful for everything. He almost cries he’s so thankful for the time and effort she puts into taking care of him.

He goes to pick up the plates and bring them to the kitchen as soon as their meal is over, “ah, ah, what do you think you’re doing?”

“Cleaning up for you?” Chip answers with a nervous tone that she hasn’t heard before.

“Don’t you want dessert?”

“I can bring it out for you, stay there,” he offers and then frowns when she stands anyway.

“You’re looking at it,” she whispers as she enters his space.

She takes the dishes from his hands and places them on the counter before wrapping her arms around him, “my dad isn’t going to be home until Sunday night.”

“Oh,” he whispers back before his hands reach for her ass and he’s picking her up.

Her legs wrap around his waist and she grips his shoulders for dear life as he hurries them up the stairs and towards her bedroom.

He’s incredibly strong for such a skinny guy, although he was filling out the longer he knew her. He makes it up the stairs and through her door as she gets a head start at kissing his neck until he has her pressed against the door.

“What’s with you and doors?” She teases as he rests her back on her feet, she draws him in closer to her so their chests are pressed together and she can look up into those sweet honey brown eyes.

“I’m just impatient.”

“Too bad, baby,” she teases, “I’m making you take your time with me tonight.”

“Yes ma’am,” he responded with a smirk, “I’m here to please you,” he whispered as he leaned in more.

Attaching his lips to her neck he kissed towards her ear, “to thank you,” he took a fistful of her hair and moved it out of the way before kissing down towards her shoulder. “To show you how much I appreciate everything you do for me.”

She pushed him back enough to get Chip to stop kissing her neck, instead, pressing her lips against his. Kissing him deeply before running her tongue across Chip’s bottom lip as a request to make out with him.

Making out with Chip was something she did often, yet it felt like not enough every time. His plump lips and velvety soft tongue, soft touches and rough stubble rubbing against her chin and cheeks.

He smelled like oak after a storm, it was warm and electric and delicious. She dipped her face into the curve of Chip’s neck and took a whiff before attacking him with open-mouthed kisses.

He giggled, his hands her hips now, the pads of his fingers going up and his nails trailing back down over the fabric of her dress, the perfect motion to make the hair on her body stand up.

She reaches for the hem of his shirt and pulls it up, separating from his neck so she had room to pull it off of him before reconnected their mouths. Kissing him deeply then pushing him onto the bed, watching Chip get comfortable before she crawled on top.

They wasted no time getting back into the groove of things, tongues clashing and hips grinding, soft moans in each other's mouths, hands roaming everywhere. She reached between them to undo his belt and the button of his jeans so his dick wasn’t rubbing against the zipper. Making out like that was some of the most fun she ever had, she could do it for hours on end.

She pulled back, kneeling above Chip, she grabbed his open belt and pulled it through all the loops and chucked it towards the floor. She massaged her hand over the bulge in his pants as she got closer to his crotch, watching as Chip threw his head back to moan.

She fiddled with the waistband, wanting to pull them down, Chip lifted his ass up ever so slightly for her to do so, she pulled his pants and boxers all the way off and threw them to the floor as well. Spreading Chip’s legs and taking him in her hand, finally. She dipped down ever so slightly and licked the tip and he let out a beautiful cry as his hips bucked. She loved his noises, she loved seeing what new ones she could make and he was more than willing to show her.

Chip gasped and reached out to grip her hair, she took that as an invitation to suck his dick, she wrapped her mouth around the tip, slipping her way down as far as she could go before bobbing back up. It was slow and sensual, she made sure to cover all of him; jerking what didn’t fit in her mouth, dipping down even further to kiss his balls and suck one into her mouth.

The people she’s been with before had never been reactive, they either gave her praise or roughly directed her deeper and deeper till she choked. Chip was different though, making soft noises that sounded like ‘yes’ and ‘god’, his little gasps and stutters of breath were the cutest things. It just encouraged her to do it more.

She pulled off, looking up at Chip who was just staring at her softly. If she knew anything about giving a blowjob she knew what her face probably looked like.. eyes blown out in passion and lips swollen bright red. It was a sight he loved to see, his hand slipped down to cup her cheek and then down to his chin where he used his thumb to brush her bottom lip.

“Beautiful,” he whispered.

She crawled back up and sat on his hips, taking the hem of her dress in her hands and pulling it over her head. She was wearing a nice matching underwear set for him, nothing too fancy because she knew it would just end up on the floor anyway.

She leaned back down, attaching their mouths once again, he wrapped his arms around her back and slowly rolled them over safely. Now on top of her, looking up into Chip’s eyes was a blessing. He blinked a few times, making sure it was real and he wasn’t dreaming that the most beautiful girl in the world was looking at him like that.

“What do you want me to do?” He asked gently with pleading eyes that let her know he was desperate to touch her however she pleased.

“Make me yours, Chip.”

“I think you always have been,” he replied.

His beautiful sweaty curls drooping over his eyes, she smiled as she brushed them back. Petting his face softly as she looked at him, he was so beautiful. The light was bouncing off the wall just enough to illuminate him.

“How do you want to do it?” She whispered.

“Let’s just go where the rhythm takes us,” Chip’s voice dropped low as he did, pressing their chests together, close enough to kiss as he rubbed their noses together softly.

She kissed him, wrapping her hands around his neck and pulling him in more. He squeezed his arms between her back and the mattress, wrapping himself around her. he decided to reach into her panties with his free hand.

He took a moment to admire her chest, she had caught him staring before. He constantly used them as a pillow, he wanted to touch them so badly, so she leaned forward and let him unhook her bra. Pulling it from her body and towards the floor.

She could sense his hesitation, taking both his hands off her sides and guiding them to her breasts. He whimpered as he felt them, she closed her eyes at the feeling. A small moan escaping her lips as he groped her. His big hands felt amazing, so strong and gentle, rough and yet soothing. Perfection against her skin.

She leaned back against the bed then, leaving him sitting up on her hips. Her boobs flattening out into a funny shape as she laid back, making her smirk in embarrassment. Only making Chip love them more, diving in and kissing the newly exposed skin.

He dragged his bottom lip over her skin between kisses. Leaving a trail of where he’s been already. She had a hand in his hair, holding it out of his face as she watched him.

Panting as she tried to grind up against him, the arousal in her core was overpowering. She needed to feel more, she wanted all of him. She was addicted to him already, hoping she’ll have forever with him.

She was too hot, feeling the sweat gather behind her knees as she tried to find more friction against him. She didn’t mind all the exploring he was doing, it was a wonderful appetizer, but she was nowhere close to being full.

He pulled back then to sit on his knees between her legs before Chip slowly slipped her underwear off. Raising her hips softly before resting her ass back in his lap and spreading her legs.

Fully on display for him, she played with her nipples slightly. Knowing how much he loved her boobs, watching her with a slack jaw as his hands ran up her legs.

He snapped back into the moment when she pushed her ass down against him, a whimper slipping past his lips as he placed his thumb on her clit, rubbing gentle circles into the bundle of nerves.

With his pointer finger, on the other hand, he traced around her entrance, not pushing in, just exploring the wetness as it dripped out. She tightened up on command, seeing his breath hitch as his finger almost slipped in.

“Please?” She begged, arching her back more so that he could finger her.

“Can we try something?”

“Yeah,” she nodded, resting on her forearms as she leaned forward.

“If I lay back would you, um,” he couldn’t say the words. They felt too filthy leaving his mouth, pointing at his face instead.

She sat up then, pushing him back against the pillows and settling herself over his chest and gripping the headboard for support, Chip wrapped his arms around her hips and guided her forward more.

Her legs were already trembling in anticipation as she hovered over his face, feeling his breath right on her core, Without warning, he sucked her clit into his mouth.

“Fuck,” she gasped as she smacked her forehead against the blocked window behind her bed, hoping to god no one could see through the blinds.

He pushed one finger in as his tongue played with her clit. She couldn’t help rocking her hips against his face, helping him get deeper inside of her. He curled his finger, lightly fucking her with it as he sucked, licked, kissed her pussy.

She was a mess, shaking over top of him as she tried to keep her orgasm in. Not wanting to cum yet, wanting to feel all of him inside of her before she did that. So he added a second finger, making her cry out in pleasure against the window without even trying.

Her orgasm ripped through her as she fucked his face, holding his hair with one hand as the other steadied her on the headboard. She couldn’t believe how intense it was, almost knocking the wind out of her as she road it out on his tongue.

He smiled against her, kissing her clit once more before pulling out and helping her back towards his lap. She wasted no time hovering over his cock as it strained on his stomach.

“Do you want to?” She asked, trying to control her breathing but still looking like a panting mess as she anticipated him.

“I’ll always want you,” he assures her with the sweetest smile.

She wraps her arms around him and rolls them over once more, he adjusts between her legs and drags himself along her overstimulated clit, she shudders at the feeling and then laughs at her own reaction.

“Ready?” He whispered.

She nodded, feeling Chip push in, she reached for his hands where they rested on her hips and interlocked their fingers. He bottomed out and dropped to hover over her, bringing their interlocked hands over her head.

She reached up to kiss him, Chip pushing into the kiss and making her settle into the pillow once again. It honestly felt like a movie scene, a first time between two star-crossed lovers. He pulled out ever so slightly before thrusting in again, she gasped against his mouth.

Chip trusted more while she pushed her hips into it as well, an offbeat rhythm developed in pure ecstasy. She let go of Chip’s hands to snake them around his waist, to run her fingers over the soft and slightly chilled skin of his back. Feeling the bump of his spine as Chip ducked into the crook of her neck, placing kisses along her collarbone.

Chip changed the position of his thrust as he wrapped his arms under her, arching her back ever so slightly to reach the bundle of nerves that left her a quivering mess. Y/N, in response to the added pleasure, ran her sharp nails down Chip’s back and he groaned at the feeling, “do that again.” he requested.

“Like that?” She asked, dragging his nails down him once more.

“Yeah,” Chip moaned, dark and deep.

The feeling of pure bliss overtook her body with each thrust, warm chills ran through him with each brush of his thumb on her clit. Every kiss to her neck and squeeze around her waist made her feel like she was on fire.

The hairs on her arms stood up, goosebumps formed along his forearms. Chip kissed from her neck to her nipple and took the hard nib into his mouth causing her to moan like she never had before.

“Chip,” she panted, pulling Chip’s face back up to his.

His eyes were absolutely blown out in pleasure, those golden wonders he used to stare into were now replaced solely by the pupils. She ran her thumb across Chip’s cheek before reaching to the nape of his neck to pull him into another kiss. Open mouths pressing together, hot air on each other's faces as they panted to the pleasure.

She was in heaven.

Her orgasm bubbled in her stomach, “are you close?” Chip whispered right beside her mouth, kissing her cheek lightly after.

She hummed, unable to speak with the mass amount of pleasure coursing through her body. Chip fucked into her a bit harder, a tiny bit faster, hitting her g-spot dead on each time to the point the nerves in her thighs were quaking uncontrollably.

She was so close, Chip used 3 fingers to quickly rub over her clit before she threw her head back with a shout. Cumming with her eyes pressed shut, pleasure coursed through her body stronger than she’s ever felt it before.

Nothing had ever made her cum that hard, ripping through her like her soul was leaving her body. She dug her nails deep into Chip’s skin holding him close to his body while he kept thrusting.

A high-pitched gasp left his lips, close to her ear as his hips sputtered into her’s one last time.

She still hadn’t opened her eyes, her breath rigid, she felt winded. Chip had stilled as he came inside of her and then collapsed into her, deadweight laying on her.

Chip mustered enough energy to prop himself upon his arm and look at her. Using his free hand he ran his thumb against her bottom lip once more to get her to open her eyes.

“Hi,” he whispered.

“Hi,” she replied with a smile.

“You okay?” he asked.

She nodded, smile growing, “that was amazing.”

“Better than you hoped?”

“I’ve thought of doing this for the last month, I knew it would be amazing but I never imagined it would be that good.” she complimented Chip, “I think I died when I came, no joke.”

He laughed, dropping himself back into the crook of her neck. He kissed her more, up to her ear and across her jaw to her lips. Soft small kissed followed by a long-drawn-out one. Chip pulled their lips apart with a smack.

“Let me clean us up,” he said.

At that moment she realized Chip was still in her, soft and all. He pulled out slowly it was always such a weird feeling to be empty again. He sat up and made his way off the bed, he went to her bathroom.

Coming back still naked, his dick bobbing between his legs, she loved the view. He had a thing of baby wipes with him, knowing exactly where she kept everything in her bathroom by now.

“I can do it,” she suggested, reaching for them.

Chip pulled them back away from her, “I want to.” he said softly.

Running the cold wipe over her soft skin, Chip looked mesmerized. “You’re so beautiful,” he whispered.

“Thank you,” she replied with a shy smile, “can you come back up here now?”

He tossed the wipes onto her night table and cuddled right back into her naked body, she held onto him tightly so he wouldn’t escape. She knew he wouldn’t, but she loved him so much she never wanted to let go.

“I love you, Y/N,” he whispered into her neck. “It’s okay if you don’t feel the same yet.”

“Are you kidding?” She laughed, pulling back so she could see his face as he looked up at her. “I think I’ve been in love with you since you walked in and said I was beautiful.”

He reaches for her cheeks and pulls her in for another kiss, “I’m going to love you forever.”

The words used to scare her, but now she looks at him and thinks they might be right for them.

“Forever it is, then.”

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ʙᴜᴄᴋʏ ʙᴀʀɴᴇs x ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ

ʀᴇǫᴜᴇsᴛᴇᴅ: (ANON) Hiya! Could you do smth where the reader is masturbating in her room thinking about Bucky. When then Bucky sneaks in your room hiding from Sam chasing him, he hears you moaning his name and gets flushed but instead of leaving he decides to help you out and show you that the real thing is better than imagining it ? :)) and maybe his POV too ? ☺️ thank you dear. I’d really crave some soft Bucky smut atm.

ᴡᴀʀɴɪɴɢs: Smut!! Minors dni plz, fluff, soft!dom bucky

ᴀᴜᴛʜᴏʀ’s ɴᴏᴛᴇs: thanks for the request; this was supposed to be a blurb but it’s like three thousand words omggg i can’t stopp nfviuapfgvaioufv

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“Where is he?” Sam grabbed the counter and shouted startling the people gathered in the kitchen. Steve spilled his coffee, Wanda threw her apples, and Tony choked on his cereal milk coming out of his nose.

“Who!” Steve said angrily. 

“Buck!” Sam growled. 

“We don’t fucking know!” Tony yelled as Pepper cleaned him up with a napkin. Sam bolted out of the kitchen down the hall scanning for the soldier.

“Where are you, you fucking metal-armed freak!” he screamed. 

Bucky on the other hand had slipped easily past your door; just barely cracking it to see an angry Sam Wilson stomping through the hall in search of Bucky. What for? Well, Sam has this fear roaches; he hates them, absolutely despises even the thought of a cockroach.

Bucky printed and cut out the silhouette of a huge cockroach and taped it to the inside of Sam’s bedside lamp so that when he sticks his hand under the shade, he’ll see the fake roach and hopefully scream in terror; well that was more than successful. Now Sam wanted to beat the shit of him for ruining his morning. 

Sam was soon out of sight and Bucky breathed out a breath of relief closing the door completely; locking it just in case Sam tries to come into your room looking for him. You and Bucky were very close, almost too close as Steve would say. He was found with you in your room a lot, whether it’d be playing video games, or eating lunch while watching TV, or listening to music that Bucky missed out on. 

He was in your room a lot so he knew you wouldn’t mind the unexpected visit. After you knew about his little prank; you would die of laughter if he told you about Sam’s reaction. Before Bucky turned around, he heard you.

“Buck,” you breathed out. 

Bucky’s brows furrowed and when he turned around…

“Holy shit.”

ʜᴏᴜʀs ᴇᴀʀʟɪᴇʀ

“He’s gonna kill you,” you grinned at Bucky. He sat next to you with a pair of scissors in hand cutting out the black silhouette of that god awful roach.

“So worth it,” he smirked. 

“You didn’t answer my question though, doll. Why are you up so early? Pretty girls like you need their beauty rest,” he nudged your arm with elbow, making you roll your eyes.

“I just couldn’t sleep. Was tossing and turning all night,” you told him. 

“You know my bed is always available for cuddles that'll put you right to sleep,” he winked at you.

“You wish,” you retorted.

“Every night,” he said, making you feel shy. 

Bucky smirked to himself knowing how his words affected you. It was no secret that was deeply infatuated with you; but you always declined his advances and he respected that always. But that didn’t mean he stopped his endless flirting; never failed to make you laugh.

“You’re so pretty,” he smiled at you.

“Shut up, Buck,” you shook your head, “I’m gonna head back to my room; try and get some shut eye for at least twenty minutes. Let me know how your little prank goes.”

“Will do.” 

You shut your bedroom door and crawled languidly into your bed. You close your eyes and in doing so you’re met with those gorgeous cerulean blue eyes that haunted you every night. You immediately pop back up.

Goddammit, Bucky. 

Fuck you and striking eyes. Fuck you and your perfect nose. Fuck you and kissable lips. And strong arms. And your hands, oh your hands… Stop!

Your body erupted into goosebumps and your stomach fluttered just at the thought of him. Fuck the things you’d let him do to you. Why haven't you, you ask? Well he asked you on a date and thinking it was some sort of bet with Sam, because men are assholes and it wouldn’t be the first that happened, you kindly declined. 

The next day, Sam and Steve both said they didn’t know he was gonna ask you and had nothing to do with it. So you bolted to Bucky’s room only to find another woman curled to his side in his bed. 

“Y/n,” Bucky’s eyes were wide with guilt. 

“Hey, uh- I uh, I just wanted to ask um- what you wanted… for breakfast. I’m buying,” you breathed out a nervous chuckle. 

“I’m ok-” As soon as you heard those words you bolted out of his room hearing him call your name. You weren’t particularly pissed off, or enraged but it kinda hurt. 

Since then however, you don’t think you have seen Bucky even talk to another woman; even at one of Tony’s galas. And he always flirted and joked with you, even more this time than before. You weren’t going to lie, you both loved it and hated it. It gave you confidence while also ruining your panties with just a smile. 

Speaking of ruined panties.

You tossed your sheets over and shimmied out of your pajama bottoms. You took your panties off too pulling one side back to shoot it into the laundry basket since those were going to be in desperate need of a wash. 

You licked your fingers before pressing them against your burning pussy. You bit your lip stifling your moans as you circled your clit. You imagined Bucky’s hand instead of yours and you imagined him whispering dirty things in your ear. 

Your other hand went under your shirt and kneaded your breast softly. You clenched your thighs together approaching your orgasm quickly when suddenly you were a loud scream echo in the building. 

You instantly retracted your hand for a second remembering that Bucky had his little prank; Sam clearly found out now. But you soon put that aside and continued thinking about Bucky. He was so perfect; how could anyone look at him and not fall in love? He was so handsome and charming. And his physique. Holy hell, you would give anything to run your hands all over his muscled torso. Kiss up and down his chest and tell him how beautiful he was. 

You wanted him pressed against you rutting his hips into you like there was no tomorrow. You wanted to feel his fingers touch you the way you're touching yourself right now thinking about him. You wanted to hear him groan and moan in your ear. You wanted all of him. 

“Buck,” you finally moaned out. 

“Y/n?”

“Oh god, Buck!” you shrieked grabbing your sheets to cover your modesty.

“Sorry, I uh- I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to barge in,” he stuttered covering his eyes. 

“Why are you in here?” you asked him.

“Sam is chasing me and I sought refuge here,” he said.

“You can open your eyes; I’m decent now,” you mumbled. 

Bucky slowly brought his hands down looking at you with a guilty expression. He walked up to your bed and sat hesitantly beside you. Your knees were tucked into you and your arms wrapped around them protectively. Heat crawled up your spine and you felt sweaty and embarrassed to be caught so vulnerably, especially by the man whose name you were moaning. 

“I’m so sorry,” you said, avoiding his gaze. 

“Don’t be, we all do it.”

“I know it’s- it’s still embarrassing,” you mumbled. 

“Because?” you stayed silent not really wanting to say it out loud.

“Because you were thinking about me?” Bucky crawled closer to you pulling the sheet from your bare legs gracefully. Your breathing quicken rapidly, your chest heaving up and down. 

“You know, I uh- I think about you too; all the time,” he whispered as he dragged his knuckles up your lower leg.

“You don’t have to imagine anymore. I’m right here. Just say the words and I’ll give everything,” he was so close; his fingertips ghosting the sides of your thighs. 

“Bucky,” you breathed against his lips, “No, stop.”

Bucky instantly backed away, retracting his hands. He looked at you with confusion and you avoided his gaze once again. 

“Buck, I know you just want to sleep with me-”

“Woah what! Did Sam tell you that? Fucking asshole, I’m gonna kill him,” Bucky got up but you pulled his hand back so he’d sit down again.

“No, you- ugh. When you asked me out, a long time ago, I thought you were doing a bet or something with Sam; so I said no to avoid any humiliation. I told Sam and he said he didn’t even know about it, that he had nothing to do with it. So I went to your room to tell you that I liked you back but you were… ‘busy’,” you explained. 

Bucky casted his eyes and head down remembering that day vividly. He knew exactly what happened. He asked you out and when you said no he was crushed. He asked Thor if he had any mead with him; it was the only thing that could get him drunk. And he got on a bike and booked it to the closest nightclub. 

Bucky finished Thor’s flask and he doesn’t even remember what happened that night. He woke up the next morning with someone in his bed and he freaked. He knew he fucked up and he regretted going out. Suddenly you barged through the door with a beautiful smile on your face but when you saw his unwanted guest, all the sparkle in your face died. 

He didn’t see you the rest of the day and it killed him. The woman was nice and actually was very understanding so at least he had that going for him. From that day on Bucky didn’t even look at any other women, let alone give them an ounce of attention. His eyes were simply set on you in hopes one day you’d give him a second chance. 

“I’m so sorry, Y/n. I didn’t mean for that to happen. I know I fucked up and if you want me to leave, I will.”

“I’m not mad, we’re not together and you have every right to do that. It just kinda hurt that you moved on so fast,” you chuckled a bit.

“I didn’t! I… I just fucked up. I still want you, not just your body; even though you’re so fucking sexy,” he reached out and squeezed your thigh making you grin, as hard as you tried not to. 

“I still think about you all the time. You’re so funny, and beautiful, and sexy, did I mention how sexy you are?” he said, making you laugh. 

“Maybe once or twice,” you giggled.

“I don’t want you thinking that I’m using you. I like you a lot. And I know you like me,” he raised his eyebrow making you sheepish. 

“Sorry about that again,” you chuckled.

“Don’t be. I can show the real thing instead, all you have to do is say the word,” he brushed his nose against yours. It was so tempting. He was just so irresistible. So all hell went out the window and you caved.

“Please,” you whispered.

Bucky pressed his lips languidly against yours, as if he’d done so a thousand times before. His hand slipped up your inner thigh and you gasped softly into Bucky’s mouth. He pushed his tongue in, swirling it around your and your neck craned back as he kissed you deeper. 

His knuckles brushed your wet folds and you shuddered under his touch. His lips trailed down to your jaw and neck as his fingers stroked your folds circled your entrance. You laid back staring up at Bucky who quickly got rid of his shirt before bringing his finger back down to your pussy. 

He slowly inserted a finger past your slick folds carfeully watching your face and the pleasure that was overcasted. You bit your lip staring into his eyes and Bucky grew hard simply from that. He pumped his finger in and out of you feeling your thighs wanting to press together from bliss. 

“Bucky, please I need more,” you whined. 

“Of course, my baby,” he smiled before adding another finger into your entrance. You moaned through gritted teeth feeling already full with just his fingers, you couldn’t imagine his cock. Your shirt had slowly ridden up exposing your belly. Bucky leaned down and kissed your skin, his lips feeling cold in contrast to your hot skin. 

Bucky breathed heavy at the sight of you. You were so beautiful and Bucky felt his heart swell. He’s been pining after you for so long and now you were finally here writhing under him in ecstasy. 

“You look so perfect, baby,” he whispered.

“Fuck, Bucky, your fingers feel so good,” you brushed your hands through his hair. 

“Yeah, you wanna cum? You cum all over my fingers?”

“Yes! Please let me cum,” you arched your chest to the air. 

“Come on, my baby. Let go.” You gushed all over his hand, your body spasming as you orgasmed. 

“So fucking pretty,” Bucky removed his fingers and brought them up to his mouth, sucking his fingers clean. You moaned at the sight of him licking his fingers and you pulled him into a kiss. You could taste yourself on his tongue.

Bucky stood up and discarded his pants quickly grabbing his cock. He walked to you and you replaced his hand with your slowly moving up and down his shaft. You circled your thumb over his swollen tip and you could feel his body tremble in your hand.

“Fucking tease, aren’t ya,” he grabbed your jaw and you smiled cheekily. 

He pulled your shirt off your body and his hands instantly went to your breasts, squeezing and pinching making you moan. His erection stood tall against your thigh and you grew needy for him.

“Please, baby. Please, I need you,” you held his face. 

“I gotcha, don’t worry. I’m gonna take real good care of my baby. I’m here,” Bucky whispered in your ear. 

He slowly pushed into you, his cock stretching you out. You whimpered at the feelin, never having felt so full before. Bucky kissed the skin below your ear as he slowly bottomed out. He stayed that way for a moment and soon you started wiggling your hips desperately asking him to move but he wouldn’t.

“Stop moving, doll. I just wanna feel ya,” he kept his face buried in your neck. 

“Bucky,” you breathed out.

“I know baby, you’re fucking tight. Squeezing me already too,” he chuckled.

You continued letting out whines and whimpers and Bucky’s heart nearly exploded. He propped himself on his elbows looking lovingly down at you and moved his hips back before pushing back in. Your eyes fluttered shut at the feeling. Bucky kissed you senselessly, moaning deeply into your mouth. His hips thrusted wildly in and out of you, making your toes curled.

“Fuck, baby girl. You’re taking me so well; such a pretty baby,” he praised. 

You couldn’t form proper words; everything fell from your lips when you tried. Bucky is completely ruining you. Rutting into your hips, surely to leave bruises, he grazed your g spot perfectly pulling loud moans from you everytime.

“Ya feel that? Feel how deep I’m fucking this perfect little pussy?” Bucky grabbed your hand placing it on your lower stomach where you could feel his cock poking your hand with each thrust. 

“Fuck, baby. You’re fucking me so fucking good, I’m gonna cum,” yoou whimpered. 

“Say my name when you do baby. I want everyone in this goddamn building to know you’re mine,” his hips became sporadic. 

“Oh fuck; James!” you chanted his real name, surprising Bucky. He wanted you to say ‘Buck’ like you always do but hearing his first name fall from your lips, he only ever wanted to hear you say it reminding him of this very moment forever.

“Fucking hell, baby,” he grunted before spilling inside you. He coated your velvety walls with his hot cum and that was enough to make you fall off the edge too. Your eyes rolled back and your nails dragged harshly down his back. You protruded your chest up to his and Bucky could feel your perked nipples on his skin. 

He watched you with pure infatuation. Your face quickly relaxed to a tired and bliss expression. You breathed heavily out trying to settle your breathing. Bucky looked at your lips and captured them on his own one last time before running to your bathroom to clean you up. 

“You are so beautiful, my baby,” he whispered.

“Fuck, that was so good,” you said fervorly, pulling his flush against your body by his neck.

“And it’s-” he was interrupted by your phone ringing beside you.

“It’s Steve,” you told him before looking at the time at the top left of your screen. You were twenty minutes late to your morning session with Steve. You gasped covering your mouth with your hand in shock. 

“I’m late to my early sesh with Steve,” you laughed hysterically.

“Here, let me,” Bucky grabbed your phone sitting up to talk to Steve.

“Buck no,” you crawled behind him trying to grab your phone but not having the energy to chase his hand.

“Hey, Y/n’s busy.”

You heard a muffled voice, “Doing what, Buck?”

“Sucking my dick,” he said with absolute no hesitation.

“Buck!” you snatched the phone from his hand. 

“Sorry, Steve. I got a bit… distracted. I promised I’ll make it up,” you told him. 

“First of all, gross. Second of all, I’m happy for you two; you’re good together,” he said.

“Thanks, Stevie. I’ll see ya later.”

“Stevie?” Bucky asked, unamused. 

“Oh shut up, Buck. You just embarrassed me telling him I was sucking your dick,” you nudged him.

“You don’t want to suck my dick?”

“Ugh Buck!” you buried your face in your hands.

“Of course I do,” you said, making Bucky tackle you down pressing kisses all over your face.

“Well, this was quite an eventful morning,” he joked.

“It sure was. What do you think happened with Sam?”

---

“And he put a roach in my lampshade,” Sam cried, actual tears. Nat was trying her absolute hardest to not laugh as was Wanda; gripping onto each other’s arms in hysteria.

“It’s ok, Sam,” Steve soothed him rubbing his back. 

“God, where’s Y/n? We were supposed to start training twenty minutes ago,” Steve grumbled, staring at his watch.

“Call her,” Tony said.

Steve stepped aside and Sam continued to cry telling them how he chased him and he knew he ran into your room but it was locked. Nat and Wanda looked at each other grinning like idiots hoping what they think happened happened. Steve came back with a soft proud smile on face.

“What happened with Y/n?” Tony asked.

“She uh, she had to cancel, but it’s cool,” he looked at the girls who smiled knowingly. 

“She’s with Bucky isn’t she,” Sam grunted.

“Yeah, yeah she is,” Steve said, making Sam cry again because he’s not gonna be able to beat the shit of Bucky anymore.

====================

ᴛᴀɢʟɪsᴛ: (For all my work)

@mathletemadison​

@buckybarnes101​

@l-sofiamia-l

[jiminiesfavouritecolourisblue]

Petal pt 3 - Taehyung Mafia/Soulmate au Drabble

Part three of me beating my brain to write something. Side note: does anyone want to see Namjoon’s and Jin’s stories in this universe because I may or may not have ideas 😶

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Taehyung thinks of what he could’ve been should he have had a choice in his life, a man with a sliver of life in his eyes perhaps? That would have been enough. He doesn’t even dare to dream of the life he could’ve had with you, he would’ve settled for anything other than the cruel twisted joke the universe was playing on him as he watched his worst fear come to life.

You’re bought to your knees with a harsh crack against the marble floor in front of him. The grip on your shoulder unrelenting, but he doesn’t flinch. He doesn’t put a bullet through the head of one of his men for hurting you, he sits stoically, wondering how he thought he had a chance of delaying the inevitable.

The pain from your knees travelled up your spine until you felt it in your jaw. You could feel the bones in your shoulder breaking from heavy hands, but you’d let it hurt you there forever to stop what it did next. The hand grabs a fistful of your hair forcing you to look up at the man you hadn’t seen in years, his eyes void of the soul that held you on that cold night. You stop breathing when you see him, adrenaline forming a pit in your gut. It’s been so long, you forgot how his presence brought you back to life.

Taehyung’s men are whispering around him, he can see his cousin clench his jaw at the scene in front of him, he’s focusing on everything unfolding in the room other than the tears on your face even though his eyes are still bored on you.

“What’s the meaning of this?” His cousin, Namjoon seethes at the man whose nails are in your scalp.

“Our boss has been hiding a dirty little secret,” he sneers at Taehyung, expecting a reaction but nothing comes.

“Be very careful of what youre accusing Kangmin,”Namjoon warns. “Youre very lucky that there isn’t a bullet in your head right now.”

“What’s surprising is that there isn’t a bullet in this bitch’s head,” he pulls at the strand and you wince, gritting your teeth in pain. You can smell the smoke and alcohol on him as he places his head against the side of yours until your cheeks are pressed together, and the cold of his gun is pressed to the underside of your jaw.

There’s silence in the room, as all eyes travel between Kangmin and where his gaze is held, the head of the Kim empire.

“What are you saying?” Namjoon’s voice is quiet but he might as well be shouting. “Who is she?”

You don’t know who he’s asking but you’re sure not to say a word. You look to your soulmate on his throne, the one that’s kept him away from you, but you don’t wonder why he’s chosen it over you. Instead you note the details of his face and how it’s changed since that night. He looks bigger now, not taller just more broad and full. His jaw is sharper, his tan skin looks smooth in the harsh light, he kept his hair longer now, back to its natural black. You ignore his eyes, still set on you with nothing in them, you don’t want to lose yourself in their darkness, you don’t know what you’d do if you did. He looks well, and all the worry you had over whether he was dead or alive are brought to rest even with the question of your life dangling in front of both of your eyes.

“She’s the great Kim Taehyung’s soulmate,” he’s laughing beside you, you can feel like vibrations travel to your face. The room takes a sharp breath.

Namjoon’s eyes are wide as he looks to his cousin, but there’s no answer on his face.

Instead comes a laugh from the corner of the room.

“And what, you want a reward for finding her?” It’s Seokjin that speaks, the final Kim cousin approaching the mess of you both on the floor.

“He’s known about her for a long fucking time,” the grip on your hair and the sweaty face are gone as he points at the stone man with rage.

“Careful Kangmin, the boss is being damn fucking gracious right now not beating to you a pulp,” Seokjin says like he’s discussing the weather.

“How do you know that’s her, boss said he shot his soulmate the day they met, are you calling Taehyung a liar?” Namjoon responds with venom dripping in his voice.

“Boss has been acting weird since he’s taken over the mantle, he hasn’t taken a wife and had a son. The elders asked me to keep an eye on him,” Kangmin jeers.

Seokjin is laughing back.

“I’m sorry why would our fathers ask a low level rat like you to keep an eye on the head of our empire, why wouldn’t they ask their sons?”

“When the elders ask you to shoot, you shoot first and never ask questions later,” he responds.

“And if it looks like a rat, smells like a rat then it’s a rat,” Namjoon takes his gun from its belt and points it at Kangmin’s head.

“If she’s no one, then boss won’t have a problem putting a bullet through her skull now and burying doubt,” he reasons back.

There’s finally a sign of life from the man who’s withered string still hangs on to you. He sighs like he’s witnessed children fighting over a toy and finally stands to break the toy in half.

“Give me the gun,” his voice is still as deep as you remember and you breathe at the sound like you’ve been given life, even though he threatens to take it.

“What...” Kangmin didn’t expect this to be so easy so in his daze he hands over his gun.

It clicks as he pulls the slide back and aims it as had been promised inbetween your eyes.

There’s so much you want to say to him. You want to ask him how he’s been, if he still kept an eye on you after that night, if he got married or found someone else to fill the void only a soulmate could. You want to confess to him you tried, but it felt so wrong. You want to tell him you lost all hope of seeing him again, that when your friends around you met their fated other halves your empty shell felt a pang of jealousy. You wanted to scream at him, blame him for being the one you still thought about every day. Every time there was a gunshot in the night your heart caught in your throat at the thought he could be the one lying dead.

You don’t say a word to him. Despite knowing these were your last moments alive, you felt a peace spread across your limbs as you faced him. You felt safe with the cold barrel pressing against your skin, you welcolmed it, there was always a bullet between you both, fired when you both met, it just took its time to reach you.

Namjoon and Jin didn’t know what happened that night their cousin came back from the cold with his eyes void of a soul, they had seen the look before on the faces of their fathers and assumed what had been done. What might as well have been done, but Taehyung didn’t tell them he left all pieces of his soul with you that night, and walked away from it forever. He didn’t have the heart to tell you he couldn’t watch over you again, instead he told his right hand man to do it, not telling him who you were. He only trusted Jimin with your life, and although his friend didn’t ask a single question, it didn’t take an idiot for figure it out. He didn’t let Jimin tell him any details of your life, he didn’t deserve to know, he wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation of seeing you again if he heard of you. It was enough to know you were alive.

You don’t close your eyes, you don’t want to miss a second of him in your sight. In your final moments they say you can see your life flash before your eyes but you don’t, you see the life you could’ve had with the beautiful man in front of you, the one you imagined in his absence. Growing up together, childhood dates in the park, by the flower bed you still visited. How fulfilled you’d both be, living with laughter as you learned to love his soul, you wanted to see it before you die. You want to see Tae smile and laugh just once, you’ll know how beautiful it would be. You want to beg him to do it and then leave this life and live.

You want him to call you petal one last time.

The gunshot echoed loud, you feel the cold of barrel leave, waiting for the bullet to take your life.

There’s no gurgle of life from the body on the floor, only blood and dead eyes set on the man with the smoking gun. There’s a breath of acceptance from the men in the room, it was inevitable, they knew that.

No one pisses of the boss and lives. You sit in shock feeling the wet warmth of blood pool around you, but it isn’t your own. You finally breathe when you look to see Kangmin’s body turning cold beside you, starting to hyperventilate when you realise you’re alive and you’ve never seen a dead body so close.

A hand comes to your chin like it had so many night before, raising your head to look at the man who held your life in his hands, and you trusted it there.

Your wish comes true to see a smile grace his features, although it’s small its as beautiful as you knew it would be.

His eyes roam all over you, how graceful you’ve grown, he hasn’t set his eyes on you for so long he doesn’t ever want you out of his sight. Your white dress is staining with blood, soaking it up and ruining it but he knows it won’t taint your soul the way it had his.

You don’t believe you’re alive until he speaks the first words he’s ever said to you.

“Are you okay petal?”

That’s when you finally break down. He’s quick to bring his arms around you, the mess on the floor resembling the mess of your hearts. You clutch onto him hard, holding whatever part of him you could, covering his pristine shirt with blood. You touch his face, your hands travelling to his chest, to his arm. You cover him in blood but he doesn’t care, you both trying to take as much of each other in as you can.

There’s a cough for attention next to you both, but neither of you acknowledge it. He breathes you in again like a man starved for air, you’re crying like you had when you begged him not to leave, he can hear the same plea now though you’ve not said a word. He doesn’t want to let you go, he doesn’t think he can ever let you go.

“Taehyung the men have been told to wait in the foyer,” Namjoon mutters. “What happens now?”

“You’ll be killed if our fathers find out,” Seokjin felt sympathy for his cousin, for reasons he could never admit to should he want a similar fate, but tradition dictated in their family. Though Taehyung was head, there were still laws he could not break without grave consequences.

You feel a chill at his cousin’s words, finally breaking away from him. He doesn’t let you go until you push him back, eyes roaming over the red you’ve covered him in.

It looks like string, you think. Like the mess of red string that tangled you both together.

“It’s okay petal,” he reassures you softly as if another word would break you, holding onto your hand so he’s not completely separated from you again.

You barely know this man but the thought of him dead makes you wish he put the bullet in your head. It was purely selfish, the soulmate bond ran deep, the universe was sadistic in making sure that death was more welcoming than the alternative. You’d never forgive Taehyung if he let you feel the pain of his absence your whole life only to leave you with the irreversible damage of his death.

You’re physically shaking at the thought. You’ve seen what happens to soulmates who are left behind, there’s a new story every night on every news station on every tv. The suicides, the psychotic breaks, the murder sprees, the loss of humanity. It’s how you knew in your heart of hearts that his was still beating.

A soulmate makes you crave to be a better person, it’s how the world was built, and why it was the rule of the Kim Line to kill them on sight. Every single generation before them upheld that rule until now. It’s how they could work the way they did, it was the biggest taboo, the most inhumane sin you could commit to your soul.

Taehyung wouldn’t do it to you, or to himself. He’d live for you as he had done over the years, in every mission or deal, you motivated him to stay alive.

“Can you stand petal?” He’s never sounded so soft in all the words you’ve heard him say, and you can’t help but stare. This was your soulmate with his mask finally removed and you’d never seen something so ethereal. He doesn’t try to break you from your daze as he lifts you off the ground, arm under your knees and one supporting your back.

Your hand is light on his chest, feeling the muscles underneath his shirt, you don’t care where he’s taking you as long as you’re with him. You can’t take your eyes off his face, you want to trace your finger on his jaw, caress his cheek with the back of your fingers delicately, admire him now his soul is uncovered. You lean closer to him instead, drawn in to the skin you’re intrigued with until you place a kiss there.

He takes in a sharp breath, heart starting to speed like a train, you pull away too quick before he can decide whether he imagined the feeling of your lips. He looks down at your soft form, meeting your eyes that haunted his dreams since that night.

You don’t know what he’s thinking, where you both go from here. You don’t want to think about it, you know he’s going to send you away and you won’t let the sour tingle of fear ruin this moment even if it’s covered in the metallic stench of blood.

“Tae,” you sound so sweet to him, so small yet your voice holds his heart. There’s so much on your tongue to say but only his name feels right. His arms pull you against him tighter as he walks, tucking your face in his neck, letting you breathe him in. He wants to be the only one in all your senses, and you welcome it.

“Taehyung he knew I was watching her,” you heard a familiar voice pant. “He snuck her out, I’m so sorry.”

You peek out of your cocoon to see Park Jimin standing in front of you both before following in Taehyung’s steps. You look up at him for answers but he offers you none, so you look to the blonde haired friend you made since the night your soulmate left your life. He smiled sheepishly, a empty promise of answers when the time was right.

You’re not an idiot, and now you realise why you stopped feeling your soulmates presence in your life, he sent someone else to watch you. It shouldn’t break your heart, but you’d be lying if you said it didn’t.

Jimin runs ahead to open the door outside for you both. You expect the cold air but not the onslaught of the sound of bullets. Taehyung drops your legs as he’s shot in the arm, and you don’t realise what’s happening until he’s pulling you to the ground behind the Mercedes.

“You okay boss?” Jimin is quick beside you, head bobbing to see where the shots were firing from, gun in hand. “I count two shooters.”

“Petal are you hurt?” He groans, there’s blood drenching his sleeve but he doesn’t care. His eyes are all over you to make sure you’re okay. He takes out the gun in his holster, meeting Jimin’s gaze.

“11 and 1 o’clock,” is all Jimin has to say before they start shooting back.

“Get in the car!”

The bullets don’t cease as Jimin climbs into the drivers seat, Taehyung pushing you into the back with his hand on your head to keep it low.

“Get her somewhere safe,” he instructs to Jimin but you grab onto his uninjured arm to stop him from moving.

“No!” “Get in the car Tae!” Both you and Jimin yell at the same time.

“I’m not driving anywhere unless you get your butt in the car boss, and hurry theyre approaching fast.”

You pull at his arm in panic, he can’t leave you like this, without the car as a barrier he’d be dead in two seconds flat.

“Tae please,” you cry and he concedes. Jimin is quick to put his foot on the pedal to get you all out, the glass didnt shatter from the force of the bullets, but Tae still pulls your head down away from the firing line, he doesn’t care it’s bullet proof glass he’s not taking a chance.

It’s not until the sounds of bullets fade away he relents in his hold, feeling the adrenaline that was burning slow to a simmer and with it came the pain of his wounds. He groans as it catches up with him, and you notice he’s taken two more shots, one on his leg and one on his shoulder.

“Jimin he’s bleeding!” It’s obvious to everyone but you still say it as if Jimin could stop it for you. Your eyes are so pretty even in panic, Taehyung thinks as he rests his head on your bloodstained lap. He can feel himself fading but he fights it to keep you in his gaze, you’re stroking his hair wailing at Jimin but he smiles. You’re so beautiful.

“Jimin he’s losing a lot of blood, please I don’t know what to do!” Youre sobbing.

“You need to stop the bleeding Y/n, press down on the wounds,” Jimin’s panicking too but has to focus on getting you all somewhere safe, the car is swerving in and out of traffic and he doesn’t want to kill you all after escaping death.

How are you meant to stop the bleeding there are three gunshot wounds, all three of them mocking you. You’re hyperventilating, pressing down on one with your hand but he groans in pain against the pressure.

His fingers come to play with the strand of hair in front of your weeping eyes, and in his own all you see is peace. The silence fills between you both as the blares of cars and horns around to reduce to a hum.

There’s so much you want to say, there’s always so much you want to say, but your relationship was built on silence. His hand drops back to his side as he loses the fight to keep his eyes from closing, and both your worlds fade black.

[flightlessangelwings]

Marcus Moreno NSFW Alphabet

18+ ONLY

Word Count: 2.3k

afab!reader

~

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

Marcus is very attentive after sex, and he loves to cuddle. He’s content to hold you in his arms for as long as you want. Even after a mind blowing orgasm, nothing beats having you in his arms close and safe. And if you need anything, Marcus is right in it. Want water? He’s got you. Want a fuzzy blanket and cuddles? He’s your man.

B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

His favorite body part on himself is his arms. Marcus trained hard to keep his body in shape and that includes a lot of arm strength. But mostly he likes to wrap his arms around you and hold you close. He loves when you comment on how safe you feel in his arms.

And Marcus is a boob man for sure. He loves to worship every inch of your body, but he especially loves your boobs. He’ll spend plenty of time kissing his way up and down each mound and spend a lot of time on your nipples too. He loves to knead them softly while he thrusts into you and watch them swing when he picks up his pace. And when you’re finished having sex, he loves to hold you close with a hand on your breast and give it a soft extra little squeeze.

C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically)

Marcus really likes to pull out at the last second and cum on your belly. The sight of you hot and sweaty with his cum painting your skin is a sight unlike any other for Marcus. And of course he cleans you up real well after he’s done savoring the moment; he’ll never leave you a mess like that. And he loves to watch you cum too. The faces you make are super sexy to him and the sounds are music to his ears, especially if you cry out his name when you cum. He almost loves when you cum more than he cums.

D = Dirty secret (pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

Marcus really wants to tie you up. Not only does he think you would look so sexy naked, bound and helpless on his bed, but it would show an extreme amount of trust, and that turned him on more than anything else. He’s always afraid to hurt you or try anything too wild with you, so he hasn’t asked you yet.

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?)

Marcus could count his sexual partners on one hand. He’s not the type for one night stands and he only sleeps with those he cares about. That being said, he still knows what he’s doing. Marcus likes to spend time getting to know what his partners like and what really drives them wild.

F = Favorite position (this goes without saying)

Marcus does like missionary so he can watch you while you wrap your arms and legs around him. He also likes when you’re on top and riding him. There’s just something about watching you bounce on his cock and watching himself disappear inside you that gets him off like nothing else. Marcus is a switch so he’s happy to be on top or bottom.

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.)

Oh sweet himbo Marcus Morano. He can’t help but laugh at times, and he loves to laugh during sex. Sometimes he can’t help but tickle you while he’s kissing down your body and just grin as you giggle and squirm. Sometimes he can’t resist the urge to blow a raspberry in your belly, and it especially cracks him up when you do it to him too.

H = Hair (how well groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.)

He keeps himself well groomed and he loves to be fresh and clean for you. Marcus doesn’t shave, but he keeps everything neat and trimmed. You don’t care either way, hair is natural, but he likes to go the extra mile for you. And he doesn’t mind keeping the hair shorter.

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect)

If you look up hopeless romantic in the dictionary, you’d find a picture of Marcus Moreno. He is a king of romance, and he takes great pride in sweeping you off your feet when it comes to that. There’s nothing Marcus loves more than to spend the evening wining and dining you, and he spares no expense to get all your favorites. Then he’ll spend all night making sweet love to you. Because Marcus Moreno doesn’t just have sex, he makes love.

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon)

Marcus spent a long time as a single dad so of course he jerked off fairly often. Between leading the Heroics and being a single father he didn’t have much time to date until you came into his life. He doesn’t feel as much of a need to jerk off now since he has you, but sometimes he’ll put on a little private show just for you.

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks)

Praise kink, both ways. He will shower you with affection while he’s inside you and he’ll tell you how beautiful you are and how amazing you feel. And he loves it when you tell him how good he is and how well he takes care of you. Marcus does short circut when you tell him how sexy he is and how hot he looks when he is fucking you.

Nipple play. Marcus loves your breasts and loves to play with your nipples. He’ll nibble and suck marks on your skin and swirl his tongue along your nipple as he savors the way you moan and arch your back. He also loves having his own nipples played with, especially with how you do it so well.

L = Location (favorite places to do the do)

Marcus is traitional in that sense in that he likes to have sex in the bedroom. He likes the comfort and privacy. But, he’s also known to enjoy a good shower sex at times as well. And he also surprises you sometimes when he takes you to a storage closet or someplace in headquarters for a quickie.

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

Marcus loves when you say his name. Something about hearing it in your voice just really turns him on. And he loves when you initiate sex. And since he knows there’s a risk of his loved ones being targeted, he loves when you can defend yourself. If he’s teaching you a new technique and you’ve got him pinned, Marcus is more turned on than ever.

N = No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

Marcus will never ever do anything to hurt you. He’s too protective of you to even think about anything like that. Also he does not like the daddy kink at all. He’s a father and he doesn’t want any references to that in bed.

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

Your pleasure really is his pleasure, and Marcus loves to go down on you. He could happily spend hours between your legs if you’d let him, and he’ll take his time to learn everything you love. Marcus will draw it out as long as he can as he works your clit with his tongue while he hold onto your hips. He’s addicted to the taste of you, and he would forgo anything in return just to spend as long as he can in your folds.

That being said, like most men he would never turn down a blowjob, especially from you. From the moment he’s in your mouth, Marcus is at your mercy, and you both know it. You work him better than anyone ever had before, and he has to physically hold himself back from cumming too soon because of how good it feels. And of course he stares in awe every time you swallow his load.

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

Sensual for sure. Marcus likes to take his time with you. He’ll spend hours kissing you all over before he even thinks about fucking you. Your pleasure is his pleasure for sure, and he’ll spend all the time it takes to learn what you like and what spots drive you crazy. But when he finally does enter you, he likes to start slow. Maybe just warm his cock for a little bit and just enjoy the feeling of you around him. He’ll rock out once very slowly and gently, and just watch your face contort in pleasure. Encouraged by your moans (and maybe you asking him to go faster or harder), Marcus will pick up his pace.

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)

Quickies are part of the territory when it comes to being a hero. Sometimes there just isn’t the time Macus would like to make love to you, but he still wants you. Sometimes he’ll take you to a closet, bathroom or empty room in headquarters for a quickie when he gets back from a mission and is running on adrenaline.

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

Marcus is open to an extent. He isn’t into anything super kinky but if you want to try something he’ll give it a shot for you. He’s also not a super big risk taker since he wants sex to be safe for both of you. He’s got enough risk in his daily life that he doesn’t feel the need to admit to his sex life.

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)

Usually he just goes for one long round, but sometimes he has a second round in him. Marcus takes his time with you for sure and he drags it out as king as he can. He loves to take the time for you both to explore each other and really pleasure each other. At times when he’s been away or too busy, he’ll want that second round with you, seemingly can’t get enough of you.

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)

Marcus doesn’t own any toys himself, but he’s open to using some with his partner if they’re open to it. The first time you use one of your vibrators during sex, he’s almost too in awe to even move. He just buries himself in you and watches as the vibrations on your clit make you mewl and squirm. And he can feel the sensations too, and thinks to himself no wonder you like this so much.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

He is a tease for sure, but he doesn’t even realize it. When he’s wearing his glasses, you can’t help but stare because he looks so damn good in them. He’s so effortlessly handsome that he doesn’t even know the effect those glasses have on you. And whenever you watch him cook, you’re captivated by his arms. Again, he’s totally unaware. Sometimes, he’ll place his hands gently on your hips as he slips past you in the kitchen and the way he touches you immediately makes you heat up. You’re flustered while he goes about his business completely unaware. But you’ll make him aware later when you corner him in the bedroom...

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)

Marcus Moreno is a moaner. Boy definitely gets into the heat of the moment and sounds pour from his mouth. Where a lot of men are quiet during sex, Marcus is almost as loud as you are. He grunts while he thrusts into you, moans when you clench around him, and praises and your name spills from his lips.

W = Wild card (a random headcanon for the character)

He is a talker in bed, and sometimes the things that spill from Marcus’ mouth surprise you both. It’s never anything too derogatory but Marcus can get dirty when he wants to. “You feel so good baby” or “You take my cock so well” or “You like when I fuck you like this.” Marcus is definitely big into dirty talk and he loves to talk you through everything. And of course he always tells you how much he loves you while he’s fucking you.

X = X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes)

Marcus is well endowed, but he doesn’t even realize it. Honestly he doesn’t even think much about it. He’s never been the macho type so he never felt the need to brag about it or even care about what he’s packing. As long as you love what he does, he’s happy.

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

Since he spent so long without someone, Marcus does tend to have a high sex drive when it comes to you. He’s usually up for sex about four nights a week, as long as he’s not too tired from being a hero or a dad. But on those nights, he’s just as content to cuddle in bed and hold you close.

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

Between being a hero and a single dad, poor Marcus is always tired. So once he’s spent for the night, he tends to fall asleep fairly quickly. Sometimes he’ll have you wrapped in his arms with you on his chest and savors the warmth of your body. Other times, he’ll lay on your chest and enjoy the softness of your breasts and the sound of your heartbeat. Especially when you play with his hair and rub his scalp, it doesn’t take Marcus long to fall sound asleep.

[ratcatcher0325]

Nobody’s Fool (Chapter #8)

Here's Chapter #8! Penn's first concert... do you think he'll crowd surf?

Previous: Chapter #7

Next: Chapter #9

CW: Adult language, dehumanization, references to abuse.

Reblogs > Likes. Thank you!

________________________________________

NOBODY'S FOOL

Chapter #8: Maiden Voyage

[Penn's POV]

I put the glass down as quickly as I could to see what was going on. I was faced with some bar patron, middle aged, potbellied, a salt and pepper goatee surrounding his round, plump chin. He had an ice cold bottle of beer in his right hand and he gripped the back of the chair opposite my side of the table, leaning forward. His beer was sweating droplets a few feet from me. He had this big, dopey grin on his face that I knew all too well. Usually, this would be the last few seconds of stillness before I’d be snatched up in a hot, sweaty fist and tossed about like a rag doll.

“They’ve got a pet in here! It’s fucking drinking and everything! Hey, James, Donnie! C’mere, they got a little pet in here!!!” Every fiber of my tiny body screamed at me to cower in fear, find some place to duck down and hide, or get ready to run for my life. Instead, feeling the protective wall of Eveline’s fingers, which curled around my body up to my chest, stiffen, I knew I wouldn’t need to run away. I trusted her to protect me. Instead of shrinking away in fear, I made a conscious effort to keep my spine straight.

Suddenly two more flabby men peered at me over the first one’s shoulders. They all three stared at me with fascination and amusement. The first one leaned in his hand, pointing a finger right at me coming closer and closer. It was getting very difficult to maintain my composure, sweat collecting on my brow as my spine shivered.

This stubby, dirty finger-nailed appendage was headed straight for my face, “You think if I poke it, it’ll try to bite me??”

“Hey-“ a sharp female voice over my left side caught their attention, the hand stopped moving. “Leave him alone.” Her hand cupped around me more tightly. The potbellied men all sneered, beads of alcohol laced sweat pouring from their fat necks and balding heads.

“Oh?” I saw his eyes look her up and down. When I was the one being ogled at, I’d practically shook with fear, but now that Eveline was under the microscope of these disgusting pigs, I felt hot with rage. A feeling of protectiveness for her came bubbling to the surface. A sensation that I realized, while well meaning, was pretty ridiculous. There was almost nothing I could do to protect her from these men, even if I wanted to. I had never felt so small and powerless in my life.

“Will ya have to punish me if I don’t stop??” Fucking disgusting. I had to do something…. Even if it got me killed. I stood up, chest puffed out, fists at my sides, I was about to shout to get their attention when a larger, deeper, louder voice interrupted, directly above me.

“Ev, are these drunk fucks bothering you?” Thank god for Travis. He was standing directly above me, rolling up his sleeve and cracking his knuckles. The men’s eyes all got wide and they blubbered some sort of cowardly apology before shuffling off. “You guys okay?” I nodded, damn, I owed him. Turning over my shoulder, Eveline looked almost… annoyed?

“I could’ve handled them just fine by myself Trav, you don’t have to swoop in to the rescue all the time…” she smirked afterwards, unfolding her crossed arms.

“I know! But it saves time doesn’t it? Need another drink after that? Cuz I do!” As he spoke, I could feel human eyes on me, the crowd at the bar exchanging glances and pointing at me, this unexpected little interloper into their regularly scheduled programming. I tried to ignore them, but it was hard to keep my face from flushing hot. Eveline saw this.

“Fuck em, they don’t matter. We’re here for drinks and music just like them, they don’t need to stick their noses in other people’s business.” She rubbed my cheek with the pad of her thumb. I felt certain even in the dark lighting of this place, that she could feel my face burning hot. “You’re doing great, Penn. I know this isn’t easy, but I’m proud of you…” I knew it didn’t take much effort for her to say those words, and it could be just an attempt to shush me up, but hearing her say that still made my heart skip a beat, even if I didn’t fully believe it. I placed a hand on her thumb nail, patting it as a way of thanks.

Soon, Travis returned from the bar, fresh drinks in hand. He gave Eveline a new cocktail, swilled some hard liquor for himself and placed another shot glass on the table. “Take a taste of what I’m drinking. It’s scotch. Stronger stuff. Cowboys like you and I ought to drink real shit.” He lifted up his glass to me. I raised mine to his and we clinked, we drank. Wow. I loved it, even if hardly any in my system made me pretty quickly drunk, I adored the taste. Thank god for Travis. With a wink to me and to the woman on my right, he stepped up to the mic. His hair pulled back in a pony tail. He lifted his drink and the bar cheered back. I finished off the wine and settled in.

The roar of this crowd was something amazing to behold. I’d never heard that many people all at once shouting in unison. It was both scary and incredible. “Hello, Seattle!!! Hello people of West Hall!!!” I assumed the name of the bar we were in? Cheers from the crowd, “We are Sticks and Stones and we’re gonna play some music for you tonight… now, you might recognize us, we come through here at least twice a year whenever we’re crisscrossing the country on tour. Jack, you’re my man, you’re my brother... Jack is the owner of this lovely establishment ladies and gentlemen, and he’s the reason we’re out here tonight, let’s hear it for Jack Lev!” Applause, cheers. “Now raise your hand if you’ve seen us blow through here before...” I whipped around to see but I was too low down to be able to make out much past the first row of people standing and sitting. “Okay quite a lot of you. That’s great! Well you might notice we’re down and out one of our own…”

“Yeah, where the fuck is Spence??” The voice sounded drunk and pissed off. I swallowed, my heart leaping up to my throat. I would hate for this crowd to be hostile towards them just because of circumstances beyond their control. Although I wondered what had happened to their missing bandmate… Travis never said….

“Yeah, Spence our lovely lead singer and guitarist is uh… currently indisposed. But we’re still here, we’re still making it happen so… sadly you’ll have to listen to me sing instead for this song…” I was so excited to watch them, these people who seemed to like me, do what they were born to do. This time I’d get to hear them in their full electric glory. I was practically trembling with excitement.

Riley counted down on sticks before… A light strum of electric guitar kicked it off. It was an upbeat but not overwhelming song.

[LINK to Song]

Travis began to sing the lyrics and to my surprise, I pretty much remembered them from the jam session the night before. After the first few lines, the drums kicked in, then keys. Then we were off. People seemed to like it, showing their appreciation with occasional cheers and applause. I was enamored with every second of sound. Watching these humans whom I had the utmost respect for, kick and dance and sing and play…They were having so much fun! It made my heart sing! Before I knew it, I was bouncing along to the familiar chorus, singing my heart out along with them. I stopped for a moment, feeling self conscious. Was I behaving like a naive little kid, way overexcited about the simplest things??? I wouldn’t know any better. I’d never done this before. I stopped, turning to look up at Eveline. I didn’t even catch her eye as she rocked in her seat and sang along too. Good. I wasn’t a complete idiot, then. I went back to singing.

Then, way before I wanted it to, the song ended. The last note lingered in the air. There was a moment of stillness, then…. Applause!! Rowdy applause! This whole thing was like a drug. There was an electric tinge to the air. We’d all just experienced something fantastic together, as one… big and small. I was beaming, my heart pounding in my chest.

“Thank you ladies and gents!” Travis was a bit short of breath as he leaned into the mic, “Like I said, we are Sticks and Stones! My name is Travis Birch, this lovely lady on the keys is none other than Dani Sturges…” Dani played a little riff, making a face and tossing up a peace sign, “and on percussion we’ve got the incomparable Riley Simmons…” he beat the drums and crashed a cymbal before silencing it with his fingers. “Okay now, if you’re just joining us, I mentioned that we are a three legged dog tonight… we are down our bandmate, Spencer. And, look, we could limp along for you tonight and the music would be fine and you’ll all be too drunk to care in about 30 minutes…. But, we still wanna give you people a good show…” I looked behind me, and yes, this place was packed now. Humans were shoulder to shoulder, standing right at the edge of our table. I felt a twinge of fear, this wall of people surrounding me entirely.

One human, a woman, who was hanging on the arm of a man, pointed at me, her eyebrows raised. I turned back around, face hot. “So… in that spirit, we wanna try something new for you tonight. And I mean, BRAND, new. Oh, and by the way, now is the time for you to grab a drink while I yak for a second, because I promise you’re gonna want to stay right where you are for this next part.” There was a cascade of shuffling and movement as people seized their opportunity for more alcohol.

I wondered just what Travis was talking about. Perhaps they had some new songs they wanted to test on this casual crowd? “So, we’ve got a, uh, a little trick up our sleeve for you tonight. And I just want to preface this by saying, we met this dude yesterday…”

Woah. What. No. This couldn’t be happening? Was this happening? I thought I was just here to watch tonight. No, I must be hearing things…. My heart pounded in my chest. I took another gulp of scotch, looking to Eveline for clarity. Blood pounded in my ears. Was he saying what I thought he was???

[confessionsofacougar]

James and Mum part 2

Later that afternoon, James was lying on the bed playing Xbox when his mum came in, sat on the bed, and began unfastening his shorts. "Mum?" he said. She smiled at him as she pulled his shorts down, exposing his cock. "Honey, after what happened this morning, I realized that you need more than our usual once-a-day 'treatment.'" She immediately bent down and took his entire soft cock into her mouth. He quickly hardened as she worked on him, and in no time at all she had him moaning and bucking on the bed and shooting his cum into her soft, warm mouth. She looked up at him and let her mouth open a little, and he could see that she was swirling a mouthful of his cum around with her tongue. She closed her eyes and swallowed, then licked her lips and looked at him and smiled. "Wow, Mum, thanks!" he said. "But..." "But what, Sweetie?" "It's just not as much fun when you're dressed. I really like looking at your body." "Oh. Well, I can fix that pretty fast." She stood up, took off her clothes, then laid back down next to him. James turned to spoon into her, and she pushed her butt back against him. "James, I want you to know that any time you want me to get you off, I'll be there for you. Hand job, blow job... whatever. As many times a day as you need." For the first time, he reached around her and put his hands over her beautiful tits. His cock started to harden again. "Mmmm, nice!" she said. She snuggled back even tighter against him, pressing his cock against her ass crack. He played with both of her tits, paying special attention to her hard nipples. One of his hands moved down and began gently stroking her pussy lips. She moaned and ground her ass against his hard cock. "Mum, it's okay for me to be touching you like this, right?" She sighed, then turned in bed to face him. "No, Sweetie. None of what we've been doing lately is right." "But I just meant..." "I know but let me explain. What we've been doing is called 'incest.' Do you know that word?" "Yeah," he said. "Our society believes that incest is wrong, mostly because people are afraid that if parents and their kids have sex, it'll mess up the kids' heads." "I know," he said. "We learned that in school. That won't happen to me, Mum." "I know, James. You're a lot like me." James waited. "Just hear me out. I first started having sex when I was 16. It wasn’t something I enjoyed until I was much older. Now, I’m afraid I’m a bit of a nympho, Sweetie. I have to have it all the time." Mum frowned. "I’ve hidden it from you because I didn’t want you exposed to that side of me. But seeing your beautiful naked body and your big fat hard cock fired up that part of me, James and brought it out in the open." James was a little shocked by all of this.

"I woke up a little at a time. First, you showed off that gorgeous body to me every morning, and I told myself that it was okay and healthy. Then you wanted to see me naked, and I convinced myself that that was okay, too. Then when I caught you masturbating, I really wanted to do it for you and you made that easy for me. Just a mother who loves her son and wants to give him some relief and pleasure – nothing wrong with that, right?"

"You bet, Mum!" "But I love sucking cock, so I just had to have yours in my mouth. It was easy to rationalize moving from jerking you off to sucking down your cum: same result, only we were both getting what we wanted, you see?" "Sure, Mum." Her dirty talk was really turning him on. She rolled over onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. "Today when you made me cum though, it became clear to me that what I really want is for you to fuck me. I need your hard young cock deep down inside of me, and I need it now. Can you do that, Sweetie? Can you fuck your mother without screwing up your brain?"

"Oh Mum..." he rolled onto her and kissed her deeply and passionately. "I've been desperate to fuck you for so long, but I've been afraid to even touch you!"

She kissed him and held him to her. "Don't be afraid, James. You can touch me anywhere and do anything you want to me. But right now, I need you inside me." She reached between them and grabbed his hard on and positioned the head of it against her very wet pussy lips. "Have you had sex before, Sweetie?" James was trembling as he felt her lubing his cock with her pussy juices. "Sure, Mum, a few times, but... I'm afraid I'm not very good at it." She chuckled. "Oh, trust me, you'll be fine. And we'll both get better with practice. And, we'll be practicing quite a lot, I think. I have to warn you, though: I’m into some pretty strange things. Ready?" As she said this, she pushed up a little bit, and the head of his dick pushed between the soft, wet folds of her pussy lips. They both grunted at the same time. "Oh, yeah!" James whispered as he felt his thick young cock stretching her. "Jeez, Mum, you're so tight... tighter than anyone else I’ve been with!" "That's nothing," she said. "Hang on..." She grabbed his ass with both hands and pulled him down onto her, and his full 8 inches plunged into her cunt. The feeling was indescribable. She was so tight that his entire dick felt encased in a hot, slick vise. She started a low moan that quickly rose in volume and pitch. He could feel her muscles rippling around him.

He started moving his hips, slowly working up to a good rhythm. She started bucking her hips up to meet his, twice as fast as he was moving.

James got the idea. He started moving faster, really slamming into her, pistoning his cock in and out, grinding his pubic bone against hers as he continually banged against her cervix. After a while he could feel her vagina contracting around his cock, and her juices spurting out, coating him. The vise-like feeling increased, and he didn't know how long he could hold out, but he kept slamming into her. Sweat began to drip from his forehead onto her face. "Yes, YES!!" she screamed. "GOD, OH GOD JAMES!! FUCK ME BABY, OH GOD, OHGODOHGOD, AAAAAAGH!!!" Her vocalization was constant now, a mixture of moaning, screaming, and filthy talk, and her fingernails dug into his back. James couldn't believe that this woman was his own, sweet mother! James sucked and nibbled both of her nipples as he continued pounding into her, and then finally felt the approach of his own orgasm. "Mum, I'm going to cum." James started to pull out of her, but she grabbed his ass and pulled him to her. "NO!! Don't you dare pull out, DON'T YOU DARE! I need to feel you cum inside of me, James, I need it!!" She wrapped her legs tightly around him and began to buck up against him even faster, milking his dick, willing him to cum. "OK, Mum, here it is... right now... Unngh. Ahhh! AHHH!! Oh God, Mum! OHHHH!! I'M CUMMING!!" James closed his eyes and rode the waves of his orgasm. It felt as though he were pumping gallons of cum into his Mum. The sensation was incredible; he almost passed out from the pleasure of it. "YES, BABY, YES!!" she screamed. "CUM FOR MUMMY!! CUM WITH ME, BABY!! OH, GOD, YES, I CAN FEEL YOU CUMMING INSIDE ME!!!" Finally they were both spent. She stopped bucking against him, and he collapsed on top of her. They were both breathing raggedly, and with his chest pressed up against her sweaty tits, he could feel both of their hearts beating a mile a minute. Mum slowly regained her composure, and her eyes focused up onto his. "Oh, James, Sweetie, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to let myself go crazy like that. Did I hurt you at all?" "No Mum." "I know I was screaming for a while. Did I say anything too shocking?" "It was... different. But I liked it. I liked making you do it, Mum. Umm... did I make you cum?" She burst into laughter. James thought she was laughing at the thought that he'd be good enough to bring her to orgasm. His face burned, and he started to pull out of her, but she grabbed him and forced him to stay deep inside of her. "Sweetie, I'm sorry, I'm not laughing at you. You were, in a word, magnificent! You're a wonderful lover. I'm laughing because I was so close to cumming the second you jammed your cock into me. And I haven’t cum like that in ages. Weird huh?" James kissed her. "Not weird, Mum. Great. It's excellent that you can cum like that. I loved feeling it, and hearing it, and knowing that I was the one who did that for you." "You don't mind the screaming, Sweetie?" "No, Mum, it's a serious turn-on. Just thinking about it makes me want to do it again." "Great, Baby!" Her hand moved between them and encircled the base of his cock, and she started moving her hips.

“Mum, you said you were into some pretty weird things. What does that mean exactly?”

“Promise me you won’t be weirded out?”

“I promise. Tell me”….

Mum took a deep breath, then opened her mouth as if to speak, but closed it again. She looked at James.

“It’s okay Mum. I promise. Just tell me.”

He looked at her and nodded.

“Okay sweetie. Some of this may surprise you, and even shock you. tell me to stop if it gets too much.”

“Okay”

“Well I guess the first thing you should know is that I’m into younger men. A lot younger. Which is why I have never bought anyone home. I didn’t want you to see.”

“How young?”

“Not illegal. I’m not into children. But most of the guys I see have been around your age. Maybe 18 – 25.”

“Wow. My mums a MILF. And you’re my MILF. That’s hot!”

“You really think so?”

“Hell yeah! All those young guys out there that want a MILF and I have my very own. I think that’s really hot”

Mum laughed. “I’m glad you think so. So there’s that. I’m also into porn and I don’t mean watching it. I make it.”

James looked a little shocked. “You mean, you are in porn movies?”

“Not exactly. I’ve filmed myself with men. And I’ve got a porn account. I upload my videos onto it and people watch them. I like knowing that people are watching me.”

“Oh my god. Wow. Can I see them? Can we make some? How many do you have?” James fired the questions at her one after the other. He couldn’t believe his mum made sex videos! The thought of it made his cock twitch. He wanted to see her with other men. He couldn’t believe how turned on he was by her admission.

Mum laughed nervously. “You aren’t angry? Or shocked? Or horrified? You do realise what I just said, don’t you?”

“Hell yeah. And no. I’m none of those things. Mum, its so hot. You are beautiful and sexy. Why shouldn’t you show yourself off? I would really really like to see your vids and I meant it about making some too. I would love to make a video with you.”

“I would like that too, James. And yeah, I’ll show you my vids later on if you still want to.”

“I’ll want to. Definitely.”

“Okay well this is going better than I thought it would. The next thing I’m into is pee play. I like to have guys pee on me – on my breasts, my ass, my face, my stomach. I also like to have them pee in my mouth and in my pussy. And I like to pee on them too. I’ve peed in guys mouths before and on their bodies.”

James’s mouth fell open. He looked shocked yet excited. His eyes were wide and as he closed his mouth, it formed a huge smile. “I’m into that, too mum. I asked my ex-girlfriend to try it but she wouldn’t. She said it’s disgusting. I want to do that with you too.”

Mum looked at him. She could see his cock had got rock hard again and it was bouncing in time with his heart beat. She had expected him to be much more hesitant about her kinks. Very few men in her life had been okay with them. But here was her son – her 18 year old son – and he was turned on by her kinks and he wanted to try them with her. She felt a familiar tingle deep in her groin. Just talking about this with him was making her horny. She wanted him. But first she had to tell him the rest of it.

“I’m also into public sex. Beach, movies, shopping centres, planes. Anywhere. Anytime. And anal. I love anal sex. I also love eating ass and having mine eaten. I also enjoy playing with a guys ass. I’m into group sex. I like to have sex while my partner is watching. “

Mum paused and looked at James. He was smiling at her. He had put his hand on her hip as she lay facing him, and now he moved it down over her ass. He pulled her close and he kissed her. He pressed his body against hers and she could feel his hard cock pressed against her stomach. It was like granite. It felt rock hard. His tongue found its way into her mouth and they kissed passionately. He rolled her onto her back and positioned himself above her. He put his hand between them and found her pussy. It was so wet. He slid a finger inside her as he continued to kiss her. Mum grabbed his ass with one hand and pulled him close. She lifted her hips against him. He withdrew his finger and pressed the head of his cock between her lips. She grabbed his ass and pulled him down. He slid inside her. They both moaned. He pushed himself deep inside until his whole 8 inches was encased in her tight wet pussy.

Mum wrapped her legs around him as he started to fuck her. He grabbed both of her hands and held them above her head. He thrust his cock in and out of her hard and fast. Her hips moved in rhythm with his. They continued to moan – the sound muffled in their kisses. Soon he could feel her pussy tightening around him. Fuck. It was so tight. Her body started to shake. He let go of her hands and she grabbed his back, raking her fingers along his skin as her back arched and she cried out. He felt her juices around his cock, and as he thrust, they dripped out, soaking his cock, his balls and the sheet beneath her. He continued fucking her. He leant up on his hands and looked down at her. She looked up at him and her mouth opened as she let out a sigh. Her eyes closed and she moaned. He was fucking her as hard and fast as he could.

“Oh James. Cum for me baby”

James had wanted to hold back as long as possible, but those words, coming from his mother, sent him over the edge. His cock was rock hard. He could feel it throb. That familiar tingle travelled through his groin.

“Do you want me to pull out?”

“Don’t you dare. Cum inside me. I want to feel your cum inside me baby” as she spoke, mum grabbed his ass and pulled him deep inside her. He groaned loudly.

“Oh mum. I’m cumming”

He slammed his cock deep inside her as wave after wave of cum filled her pussy. He had never cum so hard or so much as he had today. It took his breath away. He felt light headed. Breathless. As his orgasm subsided, he fell on top of his mum. She wrapped her arms around him and held him as he slowly recovered. She brushed his hair back from his sweaty forehead. She kissed him on the top of his head. Her own breathing was ragged. Their hearts beating fast and hard in their chests. Mum ran her hands over his back, and his ass.

They lay like that for a few minutes. Their breathing slowed and their hearts returned to normal. Mum patted James on the ass. “Move it. I gotta pee.”

James looked at her and smiled. “Can we try something mum?”

“Um, sure. What do you want to do?”

James stood up and held his hand out to his mum. “Come with me.”

Mum took his hand and followed him. He led her to her bathroom. “James, what are you doing? I’ve really got to go to the toilet.”

James gave her a cheeky look. “you will”

There was a large double shower in her bathroom, and James stepped in and lay on the ground. Mum looked at him quizzically. “What are you doing?”

“You said you needed to pee. Well, I need a drink.”

Mum looked down at him. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely” He held his hand out to her. She reached for it and stepped into the shower. She stood over him with one leg on either side. Without taking her eyes from his, she squatted down over his face.

He looked at her pussy. It was just inches from his face. Squatting down over him opened her right up and gave him a really good view of her pussy. Her lips were puffy and wide apart. Between them, he could see her clit, a little bud just sitting there invitingly. Below that, her tight little hole. She was so tight that even squatting like this, it was barely a slit. Looking at it made his cock twitch as he remembered how good it felt to be inside her.

“Ready, baby?” she asked

“Yes mum”

As he looked, he saw a dribble of pee begin from between her lips. He opened his mouth. He couldn’t believe his mum was about to pee into his mouth. It was so fucking hot. The first dribbles missed his mouth and landed on his chin. The dribble then turned into a stream and it flowed into his mouth and over his chin and chest. He gulped down as much of it as he could. It was warm. Not sweet, but not horrible. After gulping down a mouthful, he opened his mouth again. He could feel it trickle down his chin. It was so warm. He looked up at his mum and she was watching him. Their eyes locked and she smiled at him. The stream slowed to a trickle and then stopped. He swallowed the last of it. He licked his lips.

A few drops of pee lingered on her lips and he put his hands on her hips and pulled her down to him. He looked up into her eyes as he tentatively stuck out his tongue and licked the last few drops off her. It was the first time he had tasted her. Fuck she tasted good. He ran his tongue along the length of her lips. She was so smooth and soft. She moaned as his tongue brushed against her clit. It encouraged him to go further. He flicked his tongue quickly against her clit. Mum moaned loudly. She leaned forward and lowered herself down so that she was sitting on his face. He held her hips and she started to rock back and forth. He toyed with her clit. Nibbled it. Licked it. He could hear her moaning his name. He paused with his tongue over her tight hole. It was just a slit. He pushed his tongue inside her. Fuck. Even his tongue stretched her!! He could feel her pussy tight around his tongue. He continued sliding it between her lips up to her clit. It was now a hard little bud. Mum braced herself against the wall and rocked back and forth faster. Before long, he felt her body start to tremble.

“Oh James. Oh fuck. I’m going to cum”

He sucked on her pussy and he could feel it tightening. Mums legs pressed against the side of his head as she started to orgasm. As he sucked, her cum oozed into his mouth and he swallowed it. When she had finished, he ran his tongue along her lips, licking her clean. As his tongue brushed against her clit, mum trembled and moaned.

James looked up at his mum. “Was that okay mum?”

“Oh wow baby. That was awesome”

He smiled. “Nah you are awesome”

Mum stood up and held her hand out to him. He grasped it and she helped him stand up. She reached behind him and turned on the hot water tap. He still had droplets of her pee on his neck and in his chest hair. She then turned on the cold water tap and held her hand under the flow and adjusted the taps until the water was just right. She reached behind her for her soap. She rubbed it on her hands, producing a nice lather. She then replaced the soap and put her hands on James’s chest. She slowly rubbed her hands over his chest, up over his shoulders and ran one hand down each arm. James just stood there. Her hands felt so good. He was aware that his cock was starting to get hard again. He was starting to think he would always be hard from now on. Mum made him turn around and she rubbed the soap over his back and down over his buttocks. She slid a finger or two down between his crack, until her fingers brushed against his balls. He shivered. No one had touched him there before. It felt kinda good.

“Did you like that?” mum asked.

“Um yeah. I think so”

The water had washed the soap off him and mum rinsed her hands under the flow. She put her hands between his legs and pushed them slightly, forcing him to spread them. She knelt down behind him. James couldn’t see her, and he wasn’t sure what she was doing back there. then he felt her hands on each of his butt cheeks and she spread them apart. Oh god. She wasn’t. Was she?

He felt her finger sliding between his cheeks. It kinda tickled, but when she went over his asshole, he felt a twinge in his groin. Fuck that felt good. His cock was getting harder by the minute.

Mum pressed her finger against his asshole. She rubbed it all around it. Wait. Was that her finger? It was soft. Moist. He felt her breath between his cheeks and realised it was her tongue that was touching him. His mum was licking his ass!!! He leaned forward and braced himself against the wall. Her tongue was darting over his asshole. Fuck that felt so good. Then he felt a little pressure and realised she’d stuck her tongue inside him. He moaned. Loudly. She tongue fucked him for several minutes. The twinge in his groin continued to grow.

Mum paused.

“This may hurt a little at first. Tell me to stop if you need to”

“Um. Okay mum”

James wondered what she was going to do. He felt something pressed against his asshole. Then a little pressure and he could feel himself being stretched. A little more pressure.

“that’s my good boy”

“Oh mum that feels so good”

Mum pushed her finger completely inside him. James felt a moment of pain but that was quickly replaced with a different feeling. Holy shit. Mum had found his prostate. Her fingertip was rubbing it as she slowly finger fucked him. his cock was now rock hard and bouncing in time with his heart. That twinge in his groin was now a rapid. He’d never felt anything like this before. his legs were trembling so much they felt like they were going to collapse.

“Ohhhh fuck Mum”

Mum withdrew her finger.

“turn around baby”

James obeyed. He was surprised he was able to move. His whole body felt like it was about to explode. Again, mum spread his legs. She put one hand between them and slid her finger inside him again. James moaned loudly. “OH FUCK. YESSS. OH GOD MUM”

Then she took his cock with her other hand and put it in her mouth. James’s head fell back. Oh god. This was heaven. She slid her mouth along his shaft, taking him deeper and deeper each time as her finger continued to fuck his ass. James put one hand behind his mums head and grabbed her ponytail. He wrapped it around his hand. His other hand was braced against the wall for balance. He was sure his legs would give out soon. The combination of having his cock sucked and his ass fingered was like nothing he’d ever experienced. He’d never been this horny in his life! His whole body was reacting to what his mum was doing to him. He felt like he was going to explode. Pretty soon, he felt his orgasm starting. It was so strong. Mum felt it too. She continued to finger him but stopped sucking him.

“Mum, what….”

“Don’t worry baby. I want you to cum on my face”

She grabbed his cock and wanked him while still fingering him. James braced against the wall with both hands. Holy shit!!

“OOOOHHHHHHHH FUCKKKKKKK”

“OH GOD MUM”

“I’M CUMMING”

It felt as though it started in his feet. He could feel the orgasm throughout his entire body. As his mum wanked him, a stream of cum shot out of his cock. It must have gone two to three feet. Most of it actually went over his mums head. Only the last of it landed on her face. But he kept cumming. Stream after stream shooting onto his mums beautiful face. His legs were shaking. His hands were shaking. His heart was pounding. He felt light headed. He didn’t think he could put a conscious thought together if he tried.

Mum stopped fingering him but she continued to wank him, although slower now. The last of his cum was now dripping from him onto her tits. Her big beautiful tits. He looked down at her. Her face was covered in his cum. A few strands on top of her head where it had gone over her. Several streams starting at her forehead and falling down over her eyes and cheeks. Another strand over her mouth and running down her chin. As he looked at her, she stuck out her tongue and licked her lips, taking the cum into her mouth and swallowing it.

“Holy shit mum. That was amazing”

She smiled up at him.

He put his hands under her arms and helped her up. He held her by her ponytail and pulled her cum covered face to his. He kissed her. He could taste his cum on her lips and tongue. He held her close as they kissed. His cock still semi hard and resting between them. He reached down and grabbed her ass. Several minutes later, mum pulled back and looked at him.

“Ok. Lets get cleaned up” mum said, smiling at him.

For the next few weeks, James and his mother continued their sexual exploits at every possible opportunity. Neither of them had ever experienced anything like it before and they were enjoying exploring the new side to their relationship.

Mum continued to give James a blowjob every morning and every night they would have sex.

One night, James came home from work and flopped down on the couch. He put his head back against the couch and closed his eyes. Mum watched him from the kitchen and noticed how tired he looked.

“hard day, sweetheart?”

“Yeah. I’m absolutely knackered”

“Come with me”

Mum walked over to James and held out her hand. He reached up and took it and mum led him to her bedroom. Standing in front of him, she removed his shirt and threw it on the floor. Then she undid his pants and slid them off along with his underwear. They also ended up on the floor.

“Lay down sweetie”

James obeyed. He lay in the middle of the bed, his head resting on his hands. Mum looked down at her sons naked body. God he was sexy. His legs were long and muscular. Her eyes followed his legs up to his tight round ass. Above that, his body narrowed at the waist and then expanded at the chest again. His shoulders and chest were broad – the result of years of competitive swimming when younger. His whole body was covered in a blonde fuzz. As she looked and admired his body, mum felt the now familiar stirrings deep in her groin. She knew this was technically wrong, but there was no way she could stop now. She loved her son in ways she never thought possible and he never failed to satisfy her sexually.

Mum undressed and straddled her son, positioning herself over his ass. She started kneading his sore muscles, massaging the knots from them. James moaned softly as her hands moved slowly up his back. She continued to rub at his back and sides and then the top of his back. He lowered his arms slowly and mum massaged his shoulders and neck. He continued to moan softly.

“that feels so good mum”

“is that helping?”

“yes”

James rolled over onto his back. As he did, mum noticed his cock was hard. In her position, its hardness brushed against her as he turned over. He put his hands under his head and looked up at her.

“I feel much more energised now”

“I can see that”

Looking down into his blue eyes, mum again felt stirrings deep within. She moved her hips back and forth, rubbing her wet pussy along his hard cock. She could feel it twitch beneath her. James reached up and grabbed her hips. He flipped her over onto the bed and got on top of her. He leant down and kissed her as he slid his hard cock deep inside her. Both moaned at the same time. He started slowly thrusting deep inside her. He was so hard and he could feel himself stretching her.

They continued to kiss deeply as his thrusts got harder and faster.

Suddenly mum pulled away. “wanna try something different?”

“Yeah sure. What did you have in mind?”

Mum smiled at him. She playfully pushed him off her and she turned over. She grabbed her pillow and hugged it as she put her head down on it. She got up on her knees and put her ass in the air. James looked down at her.

“Mum…. Do you mean…?”

“yes baby”

“we’ve never done that before. Are you sure?”

“absolutely”

“Can I…. Can I…. lick you first?”

“Of course you can baby. Do whatever you want”

James knelt behind his mum. He looked at her large round ass, high up in the air. it was so inviting. He placed one hand on each cheek and gave a squeeze. He ran his finger down her ass crack until he brushed against her pussy. It was moist to the touch. Mum moaned. He pulled her ass cheeks apart and looked at the tight hole between them. He licked his lips. No one has ever let him do anal play before and he was very excited. He leaned forward and stuck out his tongue. He brushed it against her hole and licked. It tasted different than he expected.  It tasted damn good. Mum moaned loudly and it encouraged him to continue. He flicked his tongue over her hole vigorously. After a few minutes, he pushed his tongue inside her. He tongue-fucked her. He started to lick her again, pushed a finger inside her and she moaned loudly.

“Baby please fuck me”

James knelt up onto his knees. Holding her hip with one hand, he used the other hand to guide his cock. As he held it against her, he noticed how tiny her hole looked compared to his cock. It looked like he would tear her in half.

“Mum, are you sure?”

“Yes baby. Its fine. I promise” “I don’t want to hurt you”

“You wont. Trust me”

He pressed his cock against her and again he hesitated. Feeling his hesitation, mum pushed back against him and the head of his cock started to enter her. They moaned simultaneously.

Fuck that felt good. It was soooo tight. Still concerned about hurting her, he slowly pushed his cock inside her, stopping every few seconds to make sure she was ok.

It felt different to being inside her pussy. Her ass was so tight and so moist. It felt like velvet wrapped tightly around his cock. He pushed a little further and realised he was now balls deep inside her. He moaned loudly.

Holding on to her hips, he started fucking her slowly. Mum moaned.

Before long, they were moving in unison. he reached beneath her and slid two fingers into her pussy. Mum moaned again loudly. “Oh yes baby”

As he fucked her, he found her gspot and he started rubbing it vigorously.

Mums moans got louder and more frequent.

James looked down at his mums round ass and his thick, hard cock, sliding in and out of her. He could feel himself getting close. As his cock thickened, his mums ass felt tighter and tighter.

“mum I’m gonna cum”

He started fucking her harder and faster and his fingers moved rapidly inside her pussy. Just as he was about to cum, he noticed his mums body shaking. She was gripping the pillow tightly and moaning loudly. He could feel her pussy tightening around his fingers. As he felt his balls tighten and his cum start to flow, he also felt a gush of liquid flow from his mothers pussy. Fuck!! His mum was squirting!!! His flow of cum slowed and subsided. He felt his cock throb against his mothers tightness as he slowly pulled out. As he looked down, he saw her ass hole gape slightly and a trickle of cum escape. He was surprised to see his cock was clean as he pulled out. Mum turned around and lay on her back. She pulled him down to her and kissed him. he kissed her back and then lay next to her.

“I hope you feel a bit more relaxed now, baby”

James laughed. “Hell yeah. Much. Thanks mum”

[zaddyzemo]

<< you had to be dragged out of bed by your mother the next morning. she was late to attend to her duties as a chambermaid and so were you. while the baron had Johann Schmidt believe he'd been dancing with one of the late baronesses' closest confidants, you still had to wake up at the crack of dawn after the ball. But after your midnight meeting with the baron's son, you greeted the sun with a smile. the taste of his lips and the lingering feeling of his hands around your throat had given you the sweetest hangover.

you were practically floating above the floor you were cleaning. the other servants were hired for the evening and left for the city and would only return during the next ball. that would probably be the wedding party. you stopped scrubbing as soon as you remember that your own mother would be changing Heike von Stucker's sheets today. she'd been sleeping in a royal suite, away from Helmut's bed. however, one day they will have to share it.

'what do you think you're doing?' a voice echoed in the ballroom. it was baron Heinrich Zemo, already awake. yet again, doesn't sleep much anymore. since the baroness died, he's locked himself in his laboratory and you only ever see him when he wanders the halls at night as if chasing his Helga's ghost. but, when you saw him this morning, he only seemed to be chasing you. 'ladies-in-waiting don't get their hands dirty,' he stops towards you and steps all over your hard work. 'come, mädchen. i won't let von Strucker see you like this.'

you followed him to the room he'd once shared with Helga Zemo, all while being instructed about your new role in the castle: following around the ghost of your late baroness, but doing it while nicely dressed. Baron Von Strucker and Helmut were out hunting, the only bonding experience the young man ever had with his father. there was something about death that brings men together. you supposed that is they turned killing into an art form. the baron was a warrior and expected nothing less of his son. he was starting to have expectations of you too, ordering you to play the same part you did during the ball.

you were surprised to find your mother in his room, laying out expensive clothes on the bed for you to wear while her own were looking dirty and disheveled. yet again, your mother wasn't a baroness. having spent some time with the baroness during her last months of drawing breaths, you had picked up on spells women conjure with rouge and batting eyelashes. she'd let you play with her appearance like you would a doll, but you never thought you'd see your reflection in her boudoir and yourself in her literal shoes. 'Helga thought you well. you barely embarrassed us last night.' the baron appeared behind you in the mirror. 'Johann Schmidt has taken a liking to you, but he wouldn't be the first man to fall for a peasant girl's unrefined charms.' he looked you up and down and your mother looked away from the both of you. she only looked back when she was addressed directly. 'put everything away exactly as it was. I want everything off the bed when I get back,' he then led you to your new room with your boudoir. it was the former lady-in-waiting's dormitory. you were to make yourself comfortable until you were called for dinner.

what you feared most, you couldn't avoid. the baron had offered you a title and all you had to do in exchange for it was smile and not. and have dinner with Heike von Strucker. her father and Helmut had yet to return, and Herr Schmidt couldn't make it. still, the future baroness Zemo had asked about you, so there you were. 'we barely had time to talk, just us girls' she smiled as she grabbed you by both hands. linking your arms together, you led each to the dining room. 'all men do is talk war.' 'they wrote books about it, too,' you stretched your lips, but it was barely a smile. 'i've attempted to read a few of them on Hel-umm, the young lord's recommendation.' she giggled at that and, as you finally sat down, she leaned over and whispered: 'he's intimidatingly intelligent. must be all those books then, huh? if it weren't for the rather low cut of my ball dress, i fear I wouldn't have been able to hold his attention.' you swallowed, bitter at the attention she received for Helmut. your Helmut.

when the baron arrived, she straightened and turned into the lady you were only pretending to be. he announced to the two of you about his son's and her father's return and you knew that the hour that would follow would be a hell hotter than the ball. neither of the men changed from their hunting gear, so Heike, who got up to greet them, ran her hands through Helmut's slightly sweaty hair to slick it back. it burned, but it could've been worse. they barely touched and she would be sitting across the table from him, too. and if he was surprised to spot you there, he didn't act like it, choosing instead to greet you much as he did her and take his seat. since the men had returned, the discussion devolved back to war. Heike looked at you a few times with an amused smile, expecting you to smile back, so you did. and you tried not to look at Helmut, but he seemed to struggling as well.

after dinner, you shared a sofa and your latest favorite book with Heike. the men shared a drink and filled the air with cigar smoke. she expressed exasperation at that, but you were craving some smoke yourself. Helmut used to share them with you and you only seemed to want to smoke around him. when he playfully offered her one, you reached for it out of habit. she shook her head and asked you to join the men, so you did. Helmut wordlessly offered you a chair at their cards table and lit the cigar for you. this amused both the von Struckers, so the baron had no choice but to join them in teasing the both of you. 'she spent too much time around men since the lady left us. having little Heike around could do her some good.'

Heike agreed and begrudgingly invited you to sit with her again. 'you know how to get men's attention,' she whispered. 'and his attention.' you both look at Helmut who was looking back, taking in smoke along with the two of you. 'you have to teach me one day.' you urged her to watch you inhale smoke and blow kisses his way. it made him chickle and choke on his smoke. 'you make for a pretty train, but I'd rather you read me his favorite books so that he stops sounding so smart to me.'

you didn't get to finish the book before she started yawning. you started yawning because you had barely slept. it was also getting late, so you went in circles wishing each other sweet dreams before you retired to your new bed. On your way there, you had a terrible fright. someone had attacked you from behind, covering your face and dragging you into a dark corner. you recognized the voice and immediately went slack and leaned back against his strong chest. 'i'm not supposed to be here,' Helmut's hot breath hit your ear. 'keep your door unlocked tonight,' he kissed you behind your ear and it was a good thing that your mouth was covered because you moaned. he pressed a kiss to your ear: 'i missed you, too.'

[jcycold]

Gods au! Atsumu

someone requested war god atsumu x love goddess reader but I deleted the ask lmao I hate my self 🤡

n e way i’ve always been a huge fan of gods au! oand I love this idea of war god x love goddess

tw : grammar errors ( i’m sorry ) , implied nsfw at the end

Atsumu and y/n knew each others for years more like centuries

y/n was the goddes of beauty and love, she was so pure, the literal definition of innocence and kindness and Atsumu, was the exact opposite. he was rough, strong, he was the god of war, one of the strongest god

Atsumu was like y/n’s personal guard, he always protected her and making sure she would never be hurt. she was so frail, how could she protect herself if someone wanted to hurt her ?

he was amazed by her beauty and kindness. ever since they were young, she always took good care of him, healing his wounds whenever he got into a fight with his twin brother. her small hands on his bare chest, cleaning the blood, was something he deeply cherished

Atsumu was in love, he was so obvious Osamu was always teasing him about that. The only ones who didn’t notice were him and y/n

As the god of war, Atsumu often went to battles, y/n hated this. She was always afraid, maybe he would never come back, maybe his injuries would be so bad he would die in her arms and she wouldn’t be able to do anything to save him.

Y/n was sitting by a lake, her feet playing with the cold water, she tried to think about something else, tried thinking about something she loves to forget about Atsumu who was fighting for his life right now. He was probably injured, his armor was surely damaged, maybe he even lost an arm or an eye... And here she goes thinking about him again.

The young goddess was just worried for her friend, Atsumu was the only person she had. Men, humans or gods, they love her. She’s beautiful, pure and so kind, they’re all carving for her attention but none of them seems interesting enough to y/n. And women, goddesses, they’re all jealous. Why is she so perfect ? Why is she always so kind with everyone ? And why is Atsumu always with her ? He deserves someone better.

"Please come back... please, please, please..." The goddess was looking at the forest, hoping that Atsumu would come out of the wood with his usual smirk accross his lips and not a single scratch. She waited, she waited for so long, days maybe even months for him to come back. She promised she would wait for him here so she did but maybe he forgot about her ? Maybe he was already back and he was celebrating his victory with alcohol and a few ladies ? No Atsumu would never, he would never forget about his beautiful goddess

Y/n was sleeping on the grass when she heard wood cracking. She stood up and started moving away from the sound. Atsumu wasn’t here, if someone wanted to hurt her or even worse it was the perfect timing.

"Y/n ?? Are you here..?" The goddess sighed in relief, it was Atsumu, he was finally here. The moon was high in the sky, illuminating both of their faces. The god’s eyes were half lidded, he was sweaty, dirty, covered in dirt and blood his armor was almost completely missing, he was exhausted. Y/n ran to hug him, holding him in her arms as if she haven’t seen him for years. He was also holding her, using what little strength he had left to hug her oh so tightly.

Atsumu missed her, he missed her so much. The young god was always thinking about her on the battlefield. Is she alright ? What is she doing right now ? I hope she’s taking care of her, I hope no one tried to hurt her. "Please don’t leave me like that anymore... I was so scared..." He was about to reply but his legs were shaking, he tried to stand still but he couldn’t. Atsumu laid down on the grass. He was panting, it was so hard to breathe.

"Please... tell me this is not your blood..." Y/n lightly touched his injuries, as if it would ease his pain. "I think there’s a bit of everyone’s blood in here..." Atsumu tried to joke a bit, but he gritted his teeth because of the pain. "Atsumu stop with attitude... Let me take care of you" The young goddess started to take care of his wounds, carefully so she wouldn’t hurt him. The god was staring at her, he was completely at ease with her, he just forgot about his injuries, the pain was gone. She well deserved her title of goddess of love and beauty. Atsumu was crazy about her, her and her smile, her touches, her laugh, her smell, were the reasons why Atsumu was still alive.

Atsumu took one of her small soft hand in his large dirty and rough one, the way they are both so different is quite funny to him. He had the softest smile on his face while he was looking at both of their hands. The god was in love, he was madly in love. Y/n was so strong, she turned the tough and unbeatable god of war into a soft and sweet loverman.

"Atsumu stop I need to heal you..." Since he was so stubborn, he didn’t let go of her hand, rubbing the back of it with his thumb. "I love how sweet you are with me, I love how you take care of me." Y/n opened her mouth to speak but she was soon cut off by Atsumu "come here..." he whispered softly, wanting nothing more but to kiss her. The young goddess looked really confused about what he wanted to do. The god giggled, she was so innocent, it was just adorable "I wanna kiss you, please"

Y/n hesitantly put her lips on his mouth, even their lips were so different. Y/n’s ones were soft and sweet, they tasted like strawberries and her kisses were gentle and a bit shy. Atsumu’s ones were rough, a bit chapped, he had no choices but to follow her tender kiss, he loved it, it felt like he was finally complete. His hand came up to her neck and hers came up to his cheek, gently stroking it, in order to deepen the kiss. They both parted, they were panting a bit. Y/n kept her eyes closed as Atsumu was pressing his forehead to hers, he couldn’t stop smiling.

"I love you Y/n"

"I love you too Atsumu"

The young god pressed his lips against hers once more, but this time he placed her above him, both of his hands going down on her hips, he wanted more and so did she. The goddess stood up, sitting on his lap, she let the top of her dress fall down reveling her breasts to the young god. He looked at her body with a smile, she was so beautiful, he was amazed

"Wow..."

[lluvguts]

Cool Blue ; Chapter Three

⤹⋆⸙͎۪۫｡˚۰˚☽˚⤹⋆⸙͎۪۫｡˚۰˚☽˚⤹⋆⸙͎۪۫｡˚

recurring visions of such sweet days

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☽ warnings: slight nsfw (wet dreams, unresolved tension)

☽ fic masterlist

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He stashed the photos--really he flung them like a frisbee--onto his unmade bed and slammed the door shut before Giulia could inquire about his back pressed to the door, hands on the knob, a cross of a nervous grin and a suspicious glaze over his wavering eyes. But, after careful consideration and with both his sister and father's backs turned, Alberto wiggled back into his room to retrieve the precious pictures and put them carefully on the nightstand. He felt dirty knowing he'd tossed them onto his rumpled sheets, sitting there like he didn't care about them.

But he did.

He didn't expect to register all that had truly happened until tomorrow. His eyes dropped to the glass of tepid water from that morning and the pile of photos next to it, the memories coming back.

Luca's expectant yellow eyes watching him as he traced his shapes and scales with a paintbrush on the canvas.

When Luca grinned like a little puppy and pointed at the painting Alberto had propped on his knees, of none other than the boy himself.

Luca's chin jutting out in defiance when Alberto offered to take Luca's picture home, since keeping it at his home would only result in ruining it.

And, equally defying, the sharp curve of Luca's jawbone as he stuck his tongue out at the sky, leaving Alberto still. He could see his soft features working under there. The faint pulse of his throat, a thrumming instrument but all the same slightly animal. When he had rolled his eyes and begrudgingly scooted his own painting over with a claw, splattering water on the edge, Alberto's eyes fixed on his scales ripple and shift on display when Luca moved.

Somewhere on the surface of the ocean, (the ocean skin as Luca called it fondly, but Alberto couldn't possibly think of that now) a boat's amber light hung in the darkness, the only thing to see from outside and, Alberto bit his lip, holding one meaning.

They were hunting for sea monsters on that boat. Ercole's parents, no doubt.

He walked by the bed to the window, almost in a trance, and slammed it shut. The smells of the sea were cut off, night sounds silenced. He wished he wasn't able to see it anymore, but Massimo's aged house hardly had the proper plumbing to operate let alone some goddamn curtains. It frustrated him that though the mental image of Ercole's father on the boat had lifted, that glowing yellow light remained to taunt him.

Luca said he had a family. A mother and father who cared for him and maybe loved him enough to keep him safe from the surface. But where was he now? These men, more monsters than people, with spears and blades sharper than Massimo's, scanning the calm sea with searchlights? Would the lights scare Luca?

He caught himself on the ledge of the windowsill, holding the wood frame tight. He felt it sigh under his weight it was so old.

What was happening?

"Fratello! Papa is not happy that you're letting his dinner get cold! Again!" Giulia, as Alberto could tell by her voice, was pressed to his closed door and resorted to gleeful knocking again and again.

Alberto slid the lock into place on the window, staring out into the night for a breath. Once, twice, then cleared his throat and called back.

"I'll be just a minute!" He tried to wipe the thought of Luca thrashing in the grip of a fisherman's net from his mind as he spoke, but his words came out wobbly and restrained.

Giulia's annoying pounding on the door stopped. "Okay, but I'm not doing your stupid chores for you anymore! Papa says so!" He saw her shadow hover by the bottom doorframe then whisk away to the light of the kitchen.

But through all of the sweaty panic Alberto cherished the quiet moments spent eating. Neither asked where he'd hurried off to so early in the morning while he wolfed down his dinner. (Truly Alberto wasn't sure of the answer himself, he only figured that if Luca was indeed a sea monster, maybe he was up with the rising of the sun like the fish Massimo and Alberto caught at dawn). But they, mostly Giulia, did however beg to know where that pasta was going if all Alberto did during his free time was sit and draw. They didn't know it took grueling work to paddle out to the island, and equally challenging talent to wrestle your way out of a sea monster's grip. He kept that to himself, of course, even if Machiavelli was snippier than usual at Alberto's presence when he thought about it, bringing a suspicion on what he did during the day that neither Giulia or Massimo seemed to care about.

Alberto nudged the pouchy white cat with his bare foot and Machi bit down on his heel. He pulled his legs back under the chair as far as they could go and as an apology for the fishy smell on him, and for trying to make him move, he dropped a few pieces of sausage down on the floor. He was sure that if no one else in the house was to know, Machiavelli was on Alberto's case, but the cat only growled and ate the peace offering.

He sighed. He was safe for the time being. That made him laugh around his bite of salad.

"Think of something funny, son?" Massimo looked up from his plate. Giulia had finished long ago and was only spinning her fork around in circles on the tablecloth.

Alberto nodded with a smile. "The cat."

"Speaking of cats! There's one that I keep seeing in the alley by the Gelataria, Papa, and I think that Machiavelli likes her!" Giulia perked up and was speaking with passion to Massimo now, Alberto's little quip forgotten.

"The black cat? Giulia, they're bad luck," Massimo put on his best apologetic face but it only spurred Giulia on. Alberto stared at his empty plate and debated whether now was the opportune time to slip away to his room with them distracted.

"But please, Papa! We could have kittens!" Giulia pleaded, hands splayed on the table for effect. From under Alberto's chair Machi was stewing. He stood from the table and took their plates, looking calm. Massimo was holding Giulia's small hand softly in his larger one, but it looked as though the girl was next to tears.

Alberto knew she was faking it, though. He listened smugly with his back to them while rinsing the plates and cutlery.

"Kittens are a lot of work."

"Alberto is a lot of work, but we still keep him around!"

"Giuletta. Manners."

"Sorry, Papa."

"Where would they sleep, Giulia? In your bed with you? You are allergic, my dear."

"Only mildly! And besides, if I start sneezing or something, they can stay in Alberto's room! Plain and simple."

"Excuse me?" Alberto whipped around. "Who said that I was okay with having roommates?"

Giulia giggled until her nose went pink. "You've been sharing that Pescaria smell with the two of us since yesterday, and last I checked, we didn't ask. So think of it as an upgrade."

"Like you smell any better!"

"Actually, Alberto." Massimo turned to him. "It...is an odd smell on you. It's not entirely fish."

"Yeah fratello. It's worse."

"Okay, that's it. I'm excusing myself now. Giulia you get to pick the record to play tonight."

"Go take a shower!" Giulia hollered at him, earning a grumble of disapproval on Massimo's part.

"Y-Yeah, sure thing!"

But the whole time his mind was reeling. Massimo had caught it. Giulia had caught it. Even the cat noticed it, too. Alberto pulled his tank up and over his head once the door was shut, bringing it to his nose. It smelled like sweat and salt, the usual things, but he was right. There was something else. It was mild with his nose so close, but still sharp and tangy, as if the sea-sprinkled wind had a personality that stuck to his clothes.

But that wasn't it. It was...oh no.

It was Luca.

Despite his efforts, it took him a solid ten minutes of scrubbing in the shower to get rid of Luca's smell. It wasn't that he hated it, he was used to smelling like fish from hours spent on Massimo's boat--but Machi had kept Alberto up almost all night yesterday, growling and scratching at Alberto's door because of the smell on him.

From in the kitchen, Giulia had chosen one of Massimo's more upbeat records to listen to while they finished cleaning up. He could hear her off-key singing, and Massimo's baritone jumping in with her, which made him smile.

The polaroids were still there, sticking out from underneath a sliver of the water glass. But of course they were, why wouldn't they be? Door locked, window overlooking the sea mostly covered, Alberto let his bath towel fall to his ankles. A line of shower water tickled his chin, or maybe it was sweat, he wasn't sure. He needed to get dressed. But he picked up the first of five photos.

A blurry little square of the pool that morning, just to test the camera, but around the edges sprigs of grass sprouted up through cracks in the island rock, making the picture much more beautiful than he thought.

The next three were of Luca. All taken as close to the top of the water as Alberto could get, too afraid to stick a hand under and gesture Luca to the surface, and also because it wasn't his camera. Body curled under the water, examining things along the walls of the pool too far to see, tail moving slow and practiced. His dorsal fins were the only things that translated best over film, a brilliant cool blue that Alberto had checked (and double-checked) he had the right color paint for.

He let out a tiny sigh at the final photo. Luca facing him from below, his expression a scowl, looking so human it was hard to believe that he wasn't.

But, as Alberto's fingers pinched the corners of the photos, of Luca, holding his breath as he knew it was definitely sweat he was now feeling on his neck, wasn't he human?

His chest ached, drumming a painful harmony from his frantic heart all the way down his abdomen, and if he moved the photos from his line of vision and looked down--

Oh no.

He relentlessly put everything he had into hurrying to throw on some clothes and turn off the lights. crawling into bed, so transfixed on the polaroids and—was it possible? Really? Had he just…?

No. He refused to encourage that line of thinking.

Luca was a sea monster, and probably asleep someplace far below the surface with his family, dreaming of seaweed or whatever else things that were not human thought about.

But, as Alberto lay there rigid and aching, staring at the ceiling waiting for that to go away, part of him wished he could be there with him. To make sure he was okay.

Pfft, sure. Make sure he's alright. That's all.

/ / /

Luca was not dreaming of seaweed.

But he was convinced he had died in his sleep, over a dream of soft touches. Phantom hands running down his scales, someone's calloused fingertips grazing the hollow of his throat so tenderly it made Luca squirm. Luca grabbed his imaginary person's forearm, begging to be touched. One hand remained tracing patterns on his chest while Luca felt another take hold of the side of his face, rubbing circles into his gills until he was sure he was going to pass out from the stimulation. He was so...sensitive there. Around his cheeks and his gills and especially his tail. But all he could do was tilt his face back in guilty bliss and allow whatever was happening to him to continue.

He'd never in all of his years had a dream quite like this.

"P-Please..." Luca whispered. Please stop, or please keep going? Even he didn't know.

He swore he heard a chuckle echo, a familiar chuckle, a confident one, but some sort of reaction all the same.

Luca blinked in his dream, almost crying out because the touch was gone, but then he realized it had only moved. The imaginary touches returned, this time a cool fingertip along his dorsal fin to his tail, while Luca shivered around it, biting his cheek. His legs twitched, and his tail curled around the forearm of this imaginary hand, feeling safe and comfortable enough to do so even if it was touching him in ways his mother had warned him about. The air around him (around them? no one was there) felt absurdly warm, but he realized it was only coming from his scales. The smell that hung in the air was overpowering, thick and heady in sweetness with just a trace of salt that Luca could almost taste in the air. A familiar smell...

He couldn't take much more of it. He had to wake up before...something happened. Something bad.

The cold water of his bedroom startled him into consciousness, the subdued blues and greys in much starker contrast to the tropical greens he'd dreamt of. That white-hot feeling came back, this time stronger and with a ripple of pain that burned in the pit of his stomach. When he opened his eyes the water around his bed felt warmer, like it had in the dream, and when Luca stretched out a hand his fingers were cool though his forearm was not, as if he was the one causing all of this heat.

Huh. Weird.

The last memories of the dream were still a thick haze on his thoughts, racing around and replaying the scenes over and over again until Luca buried his face into the sewn kelp of his bed to keep from whimpering.

He let his hand press to his belly, where it hurt the most, then slip down the waistband of his pants to rest between his legs. His fingers came back covered in something slick.

"Alberto..." Luca whined, rolling onto his stomach to alleviate some of the discomfort.

His eyes flung open. Alberto?

Oh.

Oh no.

[atmilliways]

Both going to grab the same thing and touching hands, then making eye contact.

[cliche tropes & prompts]

You got it! This prompt is from January, so here's PROOF that I really AM still working on old requests. 😂

You didn't specify a fandom or pairing, so I just went with some pre-klok Nathan and Skwisgaar. Some discussion of condoms and totally gay kissing included.

They Both, They Both They Both Reached For

“So, uh. How’s it going?” Nathan asked absently while he dug around in the bathroom drawer dor a condom. What a dumb idea to just dump them all in there loose like this, who’s dumbass idea had that been—but then, nothing else in their apartment was very organized, so why would this be.

“Eughhhhh, pretty goods.” Skwisgaar, looking impatiently over the other man’s shoulder. “I means, I ams here. Waitings for this pro-fah-crack-tits thing all yous Ameriscans womens ams obsessings with just to get into-sides of you knows whats. This whole times.”

“Alright, fucking . . . shut up a minute.”

With a jerk, Nathan pulled the drawer completely out of the cabinet and dumped the contents on the corroded countertop. He poked through the resulting mess with a finger, frowning. The condom wrappers were flashy and distinctive, so they should have been easy to spot. Except. . . . .

Nothing was catching his eye.

“Fuck, I think. . . . I think we’re out.”

“Noooooooooooooes,” Skwisgaar moaned in anguish, crowding close to see for himself. Unfortunately for Nathan, that meant scrawny guitarist chest pressed against one side of his back—and they’d both just been engaged in activities that had involved a certain amount of getting sweaty. Gross.

They both saw it at the same time: one last condom. The last condom, aka ticket to getting laid, aka all inclusive evening vacation to pound town. Both men thought, Mine!

Nathan was closer, but Skwisgaar had longer arms. First, their hands banged together. They each whipped their heads around to glare at each other, vivid green irritated frown meeting icy blue suspicious glare. Then they descended into an unruly mess of reaching for it and trying to stop the other from getting anywhere near it at the same time.

Before long, the scuffle went from just hands, to arms, to a full bodies event. Nathan banged an elbow on the sink, Skwisgaar nearly got knocked ass-first into the toilet, and even some hair pulling became involved. But it all happened more or less silently, lest their dates overheard and got too annoyed to still be in the mood.

“Gives it to’s me!” Skwisgaar hissed.

“I was here first!” Nathan whisper-rumbled. “Ow—you bit me!”

“Goods, I was tryings to! Ahhhhggh—Okays, okays! Truce?”

“. . . Fine.”

They pulled apart, eyeing each other warily. Nathan had won the strategic position of standing nearest to the bathroom door.

“How are we going to fucking decide that I should get the last condom?” he asked irritably.

Skwisgaar tossed his head in annoyance. “Pfft, whats makes you so sures you gets it? I gots a real greats ladies ins there, can’ts lets her be the ones what gets away.”

“You’ve had a date every night this week!”

Skwisgaar shrugged, blond hair cascading over his pale, scrawny shoulders. If he was trying to loom, he failed; he might have had the advantage in height, but Nathan was too solidly built to be intimidated by a handful of inches. It was like a string bean trying to overshadow a squash. “Can’t help beings popsular, Nathans, it ams my curse.”

Nathan snorted, but grudgingly changed tracks. “I’ll play you rock paper scissors for it.”

“Fucks nos! Last time we does thats you hits me unsconskous with yous dumb rock fist and I wokes up an hours later with a heads-ache.”

“Well . . . fine, but how the fuck are we going to settle this?”

A bit of mischief sparked in Skwisgaar’s eye and a smile began to bloom across his face. “I gots an is-dea, I thinks,” he said slowly.

“. . . What idea?” Nathan asked. They’d been roommates for a few months. They got along pretty well, for the most part. Occasionally one would throw out some suggestions for the others’ musical projects that actually turned out to be really on point and helpful. It was a good arrangement.

But Nathan still wasn’t sure he trusted the guy in matters of the dick. Skwisgaar seemed like the type willing to fight dirty.

“Ams simple,” Skwisgaar replied, smile widening and sharpening at the same time. “Whoever ams better, gets it.”

Nathan, feeling as though he was being zeroed in on in some way, was about to ask better at what—and perhaps that was the exact sort of thing people were talking about when they told him he was a little slow. Before he knew what was happening Skwisgaar was seeping into his personal space, hips angled unexpectedly close, hands sneaking up to hold his head in place, tipping his chin up a little, and kissing him.

Lips, tongue, warmth. And, fuck, Skwisgaar was good at kissing. Maybe it was a European thing.

Shock took over, or Nathan would have totally shoved him away. . . . But also, he had literally just come in here from making out and heavy petting, so it wasn’t like this was a huge jump in genre, even if it felt weird to tilt up for a change. That was his excuse for slowly yielding and then kissing back while his hands went instinctively to the Swede’s ass.

Once he’d fully jumped in, the kiss deepened and quickly became a fast-paced game of back and forth, push-me-pull-you, tug of war. That was the idea, right? See who was better? Well, in order to determine that and win the prize, he had to participate. And he was really, really motivated to win that prize.

He wasn’t sure when his eyes had closed, but it might have been around the time he’d started to use his teeth and Skwisgaar had retaliated by sucking on his entire lower lip.

He wasn’t sure when his focus on what the prize actually was had started to get kind of hazy. Ignored but not forgotten, the partial hardon in his underwear was definitely beginning to show signs of interest; he felt a similar twitch through the white silk boxers pressed against his stomach. Skwisgaar made a soft, inviting sort of sound into his mouth and pressed in closer.

He wasn’t sure, at first, what to do with himself when the other man broke the kiss with a triumphant laugh, holding up the brightly colored condom wrapper just close enough for Nathan to see but not take.

“Looks to mine two eye whats I win,” Skwisgaar crowed, kiss-reddened lips flashing into a smirk. “Ha! Better lucks next night, dildo!”

With that, he stepped around Nathan and slipped out of the bathroom—but not without bestowing a farewell hand on Nathan’s ass, a slap with just a hint of a grope.

Nathan stood there for a little longer trying to gather his thoughts—the most coherent of which were along the lines of, Huh, I guess I was right about that playing dirty thing.

His roommate had just kissed him, which was completely gay . . . but he hadn’t hated it. Actually, he’d kind of the opposite of hated it. And maybe wouldn’t mind doing it again, see what else those lips could do. It would probably be worth it; he happened to know that Skwisgaar had broken up at least half of the bands he’d played guitar in with his dick. Not that Nathan was thinking about his roommate’s dick!

. . . Maybe they should be in a band together. Nathan had been thinking about putting one together for a while—not just a band but the band, the one he’d saved all of his best shit for. They seemed to be on the same wavelength, Skwisgaar was an expert guitarist. He would make a good lead. . . .

Or something like that. He’d have to think about it more later.

In the meantime, Nathan was all wound up and with limited options for getting off. He shook his head to clear it and reminded himself that he still had a girl in his room, so at least the night wasn’t going to be a complete bust. . . . Even if it probably meant having to, ugh, reciprocate oral sex.

[spooky-luvur]

Could y'all write an Arthur fic with the reader being a fan and got sucked into the game and kinda mouthed off to colm and gets himself captured :O

This was really fun lol

———

“Well,”

You turn in circles, putting your hands on your hips. “At least I don’t have to worry about taxes.”

The people in town stare, obviously, and whisper, but they don’t point and they don’t yell or do something else mean someone from modern day Detroit would do. You’re not exactly blending in with your current clothes.

But really...what the fuck? Last thing you remember is turning the gaming console off, taking a shower, then you think you hit your head when you stumbled but it definitely wasn’t hard enough to send you through time???

You reach the edge of the dusty town and pause, looking over the vast land. Nice fields. No factories in sight. You try to remember every little detail...sat on the left side of the couch...used the controller to turn the console on...picked the game-

...

Oh shit.

Of course.

You were playing the second Red Dead Redemption.

Balls, how in the-!

It’s fine, it’s fine. This is cool, actually.

You don’t bother to hide your grin and unbelieving laugh, raking your hands through your hair. This is cool as shit! You were so interested in the 19-20th century anyway and to be *living* in it?! Damn. But we’re you just in the century, or was I in the game too?

You turn back to the small town and take a good look around, eyes falling onto a large white parlor house. It’s Rhodes! Incredible. Excited like a little kid on Christmas, you hurriedly make your way back into town, taking everything in and spinning in circles like some lunatic.

The general store, the gun shop with that guy locked in the basement- wait a minute.

When in the game was it? If you were magically set in Rhodes wouldn’t that mean the gang was at the camp by the lake? What’s it called, Clemens Point? Clement? But you didn’t really know how to get there from here, and even if you did somehow manage to find it, you’d likely be shot on sight. But you’re inside your favorite game. It only makes sense you’d want to meet and bond with the main characters.

With a stomach full of butterflies, you set off onto the road leading out of town, hoping to stumble upon something- or someone.

———

God, it was hot. Why was it so hot? Damn sun, making me all sweaty and gross. Don’t you have better things to do?

Pulling at your collar, you stop to rest for a few minutes, surrounded by the tall trees. Okay, there’s the water, the stones, old dilapidated church or whatever that is, the sound of a gun cocking, the nice breeze- wait.

“Put your hands up, boy.”

Great. Great. Great. You put your hands up by your head, mentally cursing yourself and everyone who’s ever existed. You didn’t know that voice and that voice didn’t know you.

“You got any cash? Jewelry? Guns?”

“No, I don’t. I got nothing.”

“Bullshit, turn around!”

Slowly turning, you’re met with the barrel of a gun and a very rowdy-looking man. Two other men with guns also pointed at you are a few feet behind him.

“I know you got somethin, your clothes are reeeeeal fancy mister.”

“You can check, but I ain’t got nothin, mister.” Yeah. That’s right. You tried to make yourself sound more cowboy-y, and by the looks of it, he bought it. He did look kinda dumb. No offense, cowboy. Or whatever you were.

The dirty man scoffs. “You ain’t-“

“Come on now boy, it wouldn’t be smart to hide things from us now would it?”

Another guy? Damn, was he hot at least- ohhhhhh. Ohhhhh shit. Oh shit oh shit.

Colm O’Driscoll stares you right in the face, a small, evil smirk on his own. Ugly fucker.

“We’ll ask you again, friend. Do you got anything?”

“I said no damnit! God do your looks match your brain?? Horrible?? Well that wasn’t a very good insult but damn you fugly!!”

The men glance at each other white you babble on.

“My grandpa looks finer than you and he’s dust! Ha! Musty motherfucker- you look like my foot!”

“Enough outta you!”

Colm O’Dick grabs you by the front of your collar and yanks you forward, pushing you onto the dirt.

“Tie him up and bring him back. Maybe we’ll cut out that dirty little tongue of his.”

Damn.

———

Ugh, shit.

The throbbing in your head blurs your vision for several moments. When you finally blink it away, you whine and hang your head from the numerous spots of pain blooming all over your body. Hanging from your bloodied worth’s in just your underwear, feet barley brushing the dirt-covered floor. You remember what happened last night. They beat you, burned you, poked and prodded, nearly poisoned you if Colm hadn’t stopped them, saying something like “it would kill him too quick.”

Damn, if this was how it was always gonna be, you wanted to go back home.

You didn’t know what time it was. Or if it was any more than just a day. You were in some kind of cracked stone walled, rat shit covered basement. A single candle is lit on the blood stained table with a variety of things that make you go ‘ouch.’

Using nearly all your strength to lift your head, you try to find a door or something else you could crawl through. There’s a moldy door in front of you. Seemingly unlocked.

“God, I can’t get down,” you mumble, nearly out of hope. This was supposed to be your story! Your special adventure! Filled with love and drama and literally anything but you getting tortured by men who stink like piss!

The door suddenly starts clicking, and you squeeze your eyes shut the best you can. Was it the dirty men? Or your hero? Heroine? A crazy hermit? The door swings aside, making you cautiously crack your heavy eyes open. Oh please be hot please be hot please be-

“Hey! They got someone!”

Hot.

Your jaw nearly embarrassingly falls open as a man in a pretty blue shirt puts his gun down and pulls out a knife. Hot murder man? Yes please-

“You a prisoner?”

“Sure,” is all you manage.

The man comes closer to cut the ropes suspending you and yes, like in the movies, you can’t really hold yourself up therefore fall forward again the chest of the wow you’re buff.

“You alright, boy?”

Call me that again please.

“Fine, fine.”

Hands gripping the sleeves of the pretty blue shirt, your lift your head to see your hunk of a hero, only to come face-to-face the Arthur fucking Morgan.

Of course, that’s when you pass out.

———

“Is he dead?”

“What? No Jack, he ain’t dead.”

“But he’s all bloody.”

“Damn O’Driscoll’s. He’s just a boy. Lenny’s age.”

You’re like, 23 thank you very much.

“What’re we supposed to do with him?”

“He’s nearly dead, we gotta keep him here for now. Now shoo! All you got chores! Get!”

Something warm and wet yet scratchy is dabbed onto your forehead and a few spots around your face, making you sigh lightly.

Your eyes felt like heavy weights, but you eventually got them open. You wanted to see what was going on really badly.

A Susan Grimshaw. In your face.

Your eyes widen only barely and a very unattractive noise sounding like a confused cat escaped your mouth. The old woman’s brow furrows.

“Hush, boy. I ain’t hurting you.”

Blinking, you look around without moving your head. You were in a tent, on a cot, in your underwear, a random shirt that went past your butt, I’m keeping this forever, and your body hurt very much.

“I’m alright, ma’am,” you look into Grimshaw’s pretty eyes.

She huffs. “Like hell. But fine, you can get up. Nothings broken.”

She leaves the tent, making you slowly swing your bare legs over the side and hoist yourself up, staggering out as well.

“Ugh,” shielding your eyes from the harsh sun, you take a deep breath that makes your chest ache. Welcome to the 19th century, (M/n).

“You’re awake, my boy. How are you feeling?”

It’s too early for this shi-

Never mind it’s never too early for Dutch Van der Linde.

You nod, blinking up at the raven-haired man.

“Just fine, sir. Thank you for saving me. I thought I was a goner.”

“No thanks needed, my boy. I got a sayin’: we shoot fellers as need shooting, save fellers as need saving, and feed ‘em as need feeding. I’m sure we all know, just what you need.”

You really just heard that.

“Oh, I have an idea.”

Dutch laughs, patting your shoulder. “Mr. Pearson! Get this fine boy some food! What’s your name, son?”

“(M/n). (M/n) (L/n).”

“Well Mr. (L/n), do you mind telling us what you were doing all bloody and bruised in Colm O’Driscoll’s basement?” He uses the hand on your shoulder to guide you further to the center of camp.

“I got captured once they realized I didn’t have any money. They beat me good.”

“Yes, well, let’s hope nothing of the sort ever happens again.”

Pearson comes over and places a hot bowl of stew in your shaky hands, nodding at you before heading off.

“Ladies! Would you please help (M/n) get some food in his belly, he’s not too good right now,”

Mary-Beth hurries over, cupping your hands around the bowl to keep it from falling. “Course, Dutch. Come along now...”

———

“Okay, you can do this, come on. You know everything about him! Everything...about...them...”

You shake your head to get rid of the negative thoughts, straightening your back. “Okay, let’s go.”

You keep your eyes locked on Arthur, your target, as you march over to where he’s sitting on his bed, nose buried in his journal. Wow this is really happening-

“Excuse me?”

Way to sound like a 14 year old girl (M/n). Your heart nearly stops once the burly man looks up, blue-green eyes meeting your own. He doesn’t say anything, only stares at you expectingly. You wrong to hands nervously.

“Um...I just wanted to say thank you. For helping me, you know.”

He nods. “You’re welcome.”

You panic, not wanting to lose his attention.

“Dutch said I could stay! With you...er, with the gang! Dutch said I could stay with the gang, they don’t really see me as a threat, so...” your voice trails off.

“Well, that’s great. They’re good people, don’t mess it up.”

“Of course! I’m very grateful, I just...was hoping I could see more of you...?”

No, you definitely weren’t asking him out. Yet.

Arthur looks at you weirdly, before quietly chuckling and turning back to his journal.

“Sure, kid.”

I’m in love.

———

That night, the gang is celebrating a new edition. You weren’t like Kieran. You weren’t nothing bad, neither. Most of them actually trust you already. Thankfully. Those who don’t, weren’t celebrating. Or it was all just an excuse to get blackout drunk

You believed it to be the latter when you left the log by the fire and no one noticed. Everyone kept singing and ‘celebrating.’ Pausing by one of the tents, you slightly duck back behind it. The radio in Dutch’s tent was quietly singing an opera song, and Dutch and Miss Molly O’Shea we’re gently dancing along, gazing into each other’s eyes with the look of the lovers. Good for them. They deserve it. It makes you smile sadly.

You retreat and continue looking around all the tents and everything. Where’s Arthur? He wasn’t at the fire. He’s not in his tent either. Or, wagon. Lean-to? Whatever, but you can’t find him. You circle around the edge of camp for a bit until you find him behind the big tree near the horses.

“Arthur?”

He looks away from the sky and at you.

“Hey, (M/n).”

“Hey Arthur,” you take a few steps closer. “Not a party person?”

He shrugs. “Not tonight, I guess.”

“That’s a shame. I was...hoping you’d might care to dance? With me?”

It takes him a few moments to realize just what you said but once he does, he open his mouth in surprise.

“What?”

You hold out a hand, giving him a mischievous grin.

He shakes his head, looking away for a moment before back at you, pushing himself off the tree.

“What the hell.”

When he takes your hand, it feels like it was meant to be. Where you were meant to be. When you were meant to be! Call you crazy, but with this? Dancing to nearly inaudible music with a fictional cowboy on the outskirts of the camp containing the people that saved you from other fictional outlaws? You never wanted anything more.

[brilliantt]

Mouse- part three

Summary: Maggie Shelby isn’t like her brothers or sister, being quiet and studious she often struggles to fit in. When money gets stolen and she is accused will she stick around and continue to be an outcast in her family?

A/N: Yay part three! It’s here a little later than I wanted but the weather has been really nice in England so my family and I enjoyed a barbecue before the rain returns tomorrow... This chapter focuses on Maggie’s relationship with her eldest brother Arthur. I wanted to show her relationship with her brothers before focusing on the storyline in the summary- which will start from the next part! Hope you enjoyyy <3 

-PREVIOUS-

On a normal day, the end of school saddened Maggie, today was no different. Except today she felt something more than sad, she felt dread. Tommy had kept his word and didn’t do anything to William, or at least anything physical that she could see- she had crossed paths with him in the school courtyard that morning and when he saw her decided to go in the complete opposite direction. Seeing as her brother kept his side of the bargain, she would have to keep hers. Today she would have to meet Arthur at the boxing gym. 

The gym wasn't far from the school, leading Maggie to drag her feet (not thinking about the scolding she would get from Aunt Polly at the scuffs) to take as much time as possible to get there, frowning the whole journey. She reached the door of the building and huffed before pushing it open. Inside was bustling. There were men on the floor wrestling, and others standing around them, taking a break, faces sweaty. Maggie was about to completely abort when Arthur spotted her.  “There’s my Maggiepie!” His voice bellowed across the room, pushing past everyone, beaming at the youngest Shelby. Maggie gave a wobbly smile in return, her cheeks flushed a violent red seeing the men becoming distracted by them. 

Arthur grabbed her school books and led her to one of the free mats. He dumped the books carelessly on a bench, making Maggie wince, and gripped her arms with his hands, leading her to the centre of the mat. “Right, Tommy told me to teach ya some self defense.” Arthur scratched at his moustache eyeing the delicate girl, wearing a simple brown dress with a buttoned cardigan to match. She was Ada’s opposite in terms of fashion, dressing modestly and rather dull. Arthur knew that the men he knew tended to avoid women like this. But, undoubtedly, Maggie was blessed with the Shelby good-looks. Her long wavy hair and pretty doe eyes were more than enough for the men to have a lustful look, despite Maggie never noticing. Arthur always noticed, however, and had jumped at Tommy’s idea to teach her some fighting moves. He couldn't always be around the girl that he helped raise these days, what with Linda and the baby, so knowing she could defend herself when he wasn’t there put his mind at ease.

“We’ll start off simple, to see what we’re working with.” Arthur raised his palms and held them out in front of him, “I want you to punch my hand as hard as you can, alright?”

Maggie’s arm remained loosely at her side. Her face still felt hot and she couldn’t stop her eyes wandering around the room, watching everyone. Most of the men were doing their own thing but one or two she noticed were watching her and her brother. She turned back to Arthur who was waiting still with his hands out.  Maggie looked to the ground and rubbed her hand up her arm. “I… I can’t do it with everyone here.” 

It took Arthur only a couple of seconds to process her words before he clapped his hands and cupped his mouth to shout, “Right, that’s it! Everyone out. Gym’s closed!” Although there were some whining, Arthur’s hard stare cleared the area. He turned back to Maggie and resumed his position. Maggie breathed deeply and shook her hands out. She formed a fist and pulled it back but Arthur grabbed her hand before she could even consider throwing a punch. “Your thumb needs to be on the outside, you’ll break it otherwise.” He redirected her fist and gestured for her to try again. Maggie delivered her first punch against Arthur’s hand.

Arthur rolled his eyes, “Mags, I told you to punch me as hard as you can. You don't have to worry, you're not gonna hurt me.”

Maggie stared at him, her face grimaced. “That… that was as hard as I can.” 

“Oh.” His moustache twitched as silence settled. “Right nevermind, you just need practice. You gotta use your whole body, get your weight behind the punch.” He showed Maggie the proper technique and they continued this exercise until Arthur decided she was successful enough to move on. He repositioned them to the centre of the mat and took Maggie’s elbow tapping it twice.

“Now, your elbow is gonna cause the most damage, so you need to use that whenever you can. You can't go wrong with a good kick either.” He rubbed his chin in thought, “More often than not, if someone grabs you, it’s from behind. I'm going to grab you, and you're going to escape, get it?” He wrapped his arms around his sister, locking her in his embrace. Maggie wriggled about, trying to break the grip. The challenge was taking what felt like a century to the struggling girl. Her face turning red and tears welled in her eyes, her breathing picking up as she couldn't escape. 

“Arthur!” She breathed out in a panicked tone, body tense. “Arthur, stop! I can’t do this. I don’t want to do this anymore!” His arms loosened but didn't let her go. “I’m too weak.”

“Nonsense.”He shook his head, trying not to let his frustration show at the girl’s defeatist attitude. “If someone grabs you for real, you can’t just give up.” He squeezed Maggie. “You’re a girl. There are a lot of awful men who would take advantage of a girl like you and i’ll be damned if something happens to you just because you think you're too weak to try, you’re not.” He gave Maggie a few moments to think it through, knowing she's smart enough to continue their training. He smirked when she huffed quietly, “Ok, fine.”

“Atta girl, now remember, use all your body. Don’t forget your elbows and feet.” He tightened his grip back on the girl. Only, she continued to stay still. “Mags, come on.” Arthur couldn't help but grumble at her lack of effort. Just as he was trying to think of a new way to motivate her, he felt a sharp pain in his stomach from Maggie’s elbow, an even sharper kick to his shin and suddenly he was pushed down to the mat, only managing to sound out an “Oof”.

He looked up, wide-eyed and eyebrows raised, to his angelic looking sister who hid her giggles behind her hand. Arthur’s laugh was loud enough for them both as he realised she had outsmarted and successfully distracted him. He struggled to his feet and ruffled Maggie’s hair. “You've got a good head on ya, don't have to lose that in a fight - you’ll end up being a hothead like me otherwise.” Maggie smiled up at him. “We’ll do some dodging next, I think.” The smile disappeared. 

The two continued until the evening came and it was dark outside. Although Maggie hadn’t wanted to do this today and was tired and achy, she loved spending the time with Arthur, almost forgetting what it was like. He checked his watch, “I think we can finish for the day. How about we stop at the Garrison.” Maggie’s nose scrunched up at the idea. Arthur tapped her forehead. ”I need that big brain of yours to look at my books. I’ll give you some pocket money for your hard labour, how’s that sound?” Maggie couldn’t help but agree, knowing there was a new novel she wanted to buy. She had helped Arthur with the books before and he had paid her handsomely. 

It had been just over an hour now and Maggie had finished looking through the books in the back room. She stretched in the chair, her back cracking in relief. Her stomach suddenly rumbled and she remembered she hadn't eaten anything since lunch and after all the exercise she just did, she felt even more hungry. She ventured out to find her eldest brother.

Arthur was sitting at the bar, chatting loudly with some of the local men of the pub, nursing a drink. Maggie crept up towards him, being offered kind smiles from the men which she returned politely. She tugged Arthur’s sleeve.  “Arthur can we go now? I’m really hungry.”

“Course we can love, just gotta talk to Harry.” He gestured towards the barman. “I’ll be with you in a minute.” Maggie nodded in understanding. She waited for a few moments before deciding it was too hot and stuffy to wait inside. She went outside and rested on the wall next to the front entrance, closing her eyes and breathing in the fresh air - well at least fresher than in the bar.

“Hey, pretty.” Her eyes shot open and followed the sound. A sweaty looking man stood opposite her, eyelids drooping. A bottle in one hand while the other held onto his loose trousers. Maggie stayed silent. “You know, I asked for an angel to visit me today. Looks like,” The man hiccuped, “looks like my wish came true.” He smiled, proudly showing off his stained teeth. Maggie decided it was actually best to wait for Arthur inside. She turned from the creepy man and was about to return through the door into the pub when she felt a tight grip on her upper arm. “Hey now, no need to be rude.” Her heart beat fast, trying to keep her breathing even to not appear scared. “I just wanna talk with my angel.” He staggered back a bit, pulling Maggie with him. 

She tugged back “Get off of me.” She wished Arthur would just hurry up. She was debating yelling for him when the man put his dirty hand, the one holding the bottle, to caress her cheek while tightening the grip of the other one. “I’ll-” He slurred- “I’ll show you a real good time.” and started to pull her away from the pub. “I said get off!” A tug of war match ensued and when Maggie realised he was too strong for her, despite being intoxicated, her instincts overcame her. A swift kick the man’s lower region sent him writhing on the floor. 

Maggie dusted her arms and dress off. She looked at the man wriggling about on the floor and huffed, “You brought that on yourself, you know.”

A pat on her back made her jump and she turned to see Arthur grinning down at her. “He’ll feel that kick for a whole week, Mags.” Of course he was angry at the drunken man taking advantage of his sister- he’d get one of the men to deal with him later- but Arthur couldn’t help the laugh which boomed out of him after watching his sweet, little sister kick a grown man in the balls. 

The two of them returned to the house, Maggie rushing in to help Polly with the potatoes. Tommy came over to Arthur and greeted him with a friendly hand on his shoulder, his usual cigarette on his lip. “How did it go today, Arthur?”

Arthur rested his proud eyes on his sister peeling the spuds, chatting to her Aunt. “She knows exactly what she’s doing.” And he was sure of it.

Tags:

@finallyforgotten