#they know its not my favorite thing to take off unless i can untie it and keep it

[dreamyblanket]

Imagine how your f/o wraps gifts, be it for the holidays or just your birthday.

Are they really good? Is it a clean wrap first try or do they need to scrap the whole thing couple time to get it correct?

Are they really bad? Do they try their hardest but you can still see bits poking out?

Do they use ribbon? Stick on bows?

Plain or patterned paper?

Or maybe they'll use bags!

Do they tape it shut or fill it with paper then?

There are so many things to choose...!

[obsessive-ego]

Love me, love me, say that you love me

Musical beetlejuice x fem reader

Beej hits you with a love potion to get you to confess you love him, it goes wrong

Dubious consent, nsft, nothing serious happens, you know me

"Satisfaction guaranteed..." the ghoul mumble to himself as he read the label of the bottle he was holding.

Beetlejuice, you're undead demonic, freeloader of a roommate, had just come back from a quick trip to the netherworld, and unlike his other trips, it wasnt for business, but pleasure, a quick shopping trip while you were out of the house.

"For the chunk of change you cost, it better" the ghoul smiled, pink streaks creeping into his hair.

In his hands was a pink bottle shaped like a human heart, a perfume type atomizer spray bottle.

Beetlejuice KNEW you liked him, but he also knew you were a coward about it, yes your shyness was cute, and the way you danced around this fact did have its charms, but the time has come for you to spit it out, you had to make the first move, not him.

Yes the demon could charm you, but you wouldnt take him seriously, he knew that, beetlejuice knew his flirting towards you and his advances towards you were seen as a joke, and why wouldnt it, he knew he couldnt be taken seriously, he took every chance he had to make a crude joke, why would anyone take him seriously, so he played it up to get you to smile, or even to get you embarrassed was also nice.

But today was different, today beetlejuice was gonna get you to say "I love you" albeit with force, but that was something he could live/die with.

The ghoul, now buzzing electric pink and green ready's himself at the door, waiting for his sweet breather to come in him trap.

You were on your way back from the post office to pick up a package that you or beej werent home to sign for, it was just some clothes, nothing too exciting, but a nice excuse to get out of the house for a nice walk, as much as you loved spending time with your undead friend, who you may or may not have a crush on, it was nice to have some alone time.

You walk into you apartment complex and slowly make it back to your flat, you fumble with your keys as you unlock the door, the soft jingle and muffled cursing was a great single to beetlejuice that you were home, the ghoul takes a deep breath, not that he needed too, and gets into position, readying the bottle's nozzle to the level of your face.

"I'm home-" was all you got out before receiving a face full of god knows what, you prayed it was water, wiping your face and rubbing your eyes, you didnt need to see who the culprit was for this shitty joke, pulling your hands from your face, you saw the demon standing infront of you, arms stretched out in a pre hug position, eyes closed, lips puckered, slightly leaning towards you.

Your anger quickly faded, but was replaced with confusion, you say nothing but only stare at the ghoul.

Seconds pass, beetlejuice opens on eye to see what the hold up was, was there a delay with the potion? Does it take a minute to kick in? Or was it a peice of junk?

Beetlejuice drops his awkward position, and smooths back his hair, trying to hide to spots the purple trying to emerge.

"So y/n, welcome home" he starts off shaky "you feel okay? Maybe a little warmer? Heart beating a little faster? Maybe even a little eager to jump someone or tell them something deep?" Subtle

"What are you talking about? Beetlejuice what the hell was that about?!" You huff

The ghoul is taken back by your tone, he was expecting you to be more soft, after a spray of that crap, he scowls glancing down to the bottle in his hands, waste of money, unless, he drops his scowl and focuses back to you, a sly smile plastered across his face.

"Just some netherworld perfume, very popular stuff, thought I'd surprise my favorite breather with it"

"Suprise is right" you grumble walking passed him, heading to the living room you place your things on the table, beetlejuice was quick to follow.

"How bout another try babes? I promise I wont get ya in the face, though I prefer to squirt ya in the face~"

"I dont know bee, I'm not that really into perfume" you shurg

Beetlejuice frowns and huffs out his nose, for what he paid for this peice of shit he wasnt gonna give up after one shot.

"Come on babes, do it for your good pal~" he pleads

You frown in response

"Okay sugar, you know regardless of what you say I'm gonna get what I want, so just play ball"

"Fine" you grumble, you can always take a shower later, hell you were going to anyway, your face felt gross after being hit by that stuff earlier.

The demon's face lights up at your answer, you held out your wrist as an indicator that you wanted to be sprayed their and were ready for it, though that wish was completely ignored, as the ghoul quickly leans forward and sprays you in the face again.

The ghoul stares at you praying to whatever and whoever for this to work, you turn away from the demon, curse under your breath and rub at your face.

As you rub your face beetlejuice goes back into position, arms stretched out, lips puckered, ready to receive your love, and hoping you wont banish him if this didnt work.

Moving your hands from your face you let out sigh, you jolt feeling a familiar twinge in your lower reigns, a desperate pulse for attention, you could feel your heart racing, your head was swimming, turning to face the ghoul, the second you laid your eyes on him the pulsing inbetween your legs intensifies, give let out a soft "bee" before leaping into his arms, slamming your lips into his, and wrapping your legs around his waist. The demon's eyes shoot open at this, his hands were quick to grab onto your rear, a mix of holding you up and feeling you up, his hair bloomed from green to pink in a flash, hell he was so excited his stripes went from black to pink.

"Oh Lawrence" you breathed between kisses, beetlejuice only hummed in response, too lost in this bliss to think.

"Couch?" You whine as you wiggle your hips against his semi.

"Holy crap" he groans, this was really happening, he quickly brought you to the couch, flopping down on his back, having you sit pretty on top of him.

You continue to kiss him, shoving your tongue in his mouth, the ghoul loved you taking charge, he dreamed of it often, he didnt put up a fight and gave you the dominance to explore his mouth, pulling away to breath, a nice line of spit connected the two of you. You move your attention on to the demon's neck, peppering it with kisses and giving the occasional nip at his cold flesh.

Beetlejuice was over the moon with this change in demeanor, who knew his y/n would have it in them, the ghoul purs feeling your hands roam his body, his hands plant firmly on your rear, giving it a small pinch every once and again, everytime you would respond with a whine.

He was in heaven, or as close as an undead demon was gonna get.

You give his tie a tug, as if to ask for permission to continue, beetlejuice moans encouraging you to keep going.

You give the demon a quick kiss on the lips, moving to his jawline, to his neck, as you untie his tie, you toss the garment aside as you start to work on his shirt's buttons, kissing every inch of skin that is slowly revealed.

You move down his body, the demons chest and stomach fully exposed, and kissed, beetlejuice was in a complete daze from your love, but quickly snaps out of it when he feels you palm the tent in his pants.

"Whoa babes-"

"Is this for me?~" you coo "it looks so big~" you sigh giving the tent a light squeeze "it's really hard"

Beetlejuice quickly sits up, stifling a moan.

"Babes, y/n, just hold it-"

"Oh, would you rather be on top?" You ask softly crawling towards him "or would you rather I not use my hands? I can give it a kiss if you want" You crawl back into the demon's arms leaning in for another kiss, you stumble forward as beetlejuice quickly vanished, reappearing a few feet away from you, the demon pulling his shirt together, as if trying to hide himself.

"Let's just take a second here, likes put a pin in this, and ah, just relax" god slash satan this wasnt fair, and maybe 100 percent his fault, here you were drugged out of your mind begging him to have sex with you, jesus all he needed from you was a simple "I love you" not this, but he'll sure be thinking about this later.

"Why dont ya cool down babes, and we can talk about this"

"How can I cool down, when I'm so hot for you" you moan as you  unbutton your shirt, fully exposing your lacy black bra, the demon swallows hard, you slowly stand up letting your shirt fall, your hands traveling behind your back as you unhooked your bra, letting it fall to the floor.

"Oh fuck"  beetlejuice whines in a higher pitch,

You slowly make your way over to him, gently grabbing one of his hands and bringing it to your exposed chest "your hands are so nice and cold, maybe you could help me cool down?"

God slash satan did he wanted to give your boob a nice squeeze, but you're not you right now, he pulls his hand away, then places both of his hands on your shoulders, your skin was hot to the touch. Averting your gaze he clears his throat

"Maybe a cold shower would be help ya out"

"Maybe if you join me" you sigh leaning into the demon's chest, your hands resting on his hips.

"Y/n-"

"Are you sure you dont want help with your 'little friend'?"

Any other time he'd be delighted to have you help, but now was not that time.

"Let's just take a second here babes, we'll fool around later okay, I mean do you have condoms? I dont have any on me, we need protection"  beetlejuice knew he couldnt get you sick or pregnant since he was a dead demon, but you didnt know that. "And besides, no means no, you know that y/n" BJ didnt exactly blame you, you werent in your right mind, you were horny as hell thanks to that stupid potion, of course you couldnt think straight.

You pull away from him, mortified at your pushy behavior "I'm sorry" you breath out "I just, I couldn't help myself Lawrence, you're just, I mean, i just love you so much, my body needed you" you began to cry "you're always saying how much you want me, and how you're "ready to go" all the time, I just thought-" you babbled, tears rolling down your cheeks

I love you

Those 3 little words he ached to hear, not how he wanted to hear them, but this whole thing was a mess.

"Babes, it's okay, I was enjoying it, believe me, it's just that I'm not ready to go all the way with you, let's just give it some time" which wasnt true, if you were willing so was he, willing as in not drugged. "And yeah, I talk a big game, but believe me doll, i want our first time to be special, so Hows bought you go put a top on, and we can put this little mess behind us?" It was an odd day when this harbinger of chaos had to be a voice of reason.

You nodded as you slip away to collect your bra and shirt that were tossed aside, beetlejuice frowns at this situation and wanders off to the item that started it, retrieving the bottle he squints at the label to read the rest of the instructions he didnt bother reading, and their it was, in the fine print 'warning, do not use on the living, results may vary and are not limited to  nausea, drowsiness, intense sexual desires-' he groans then curses.

"Beetlejuice?"

The ghoul turns his attention to you, fully dressed.

"No hard feelings, aside from your, you know"

The demon gives you a soft laugh "no hard feelings babes"

"Could I have a hug? I promise to behave" it's not that the pulsing in your loins stopped, in fact the intensity was stronger now, you just wanted to be close the ghoul before dealing with these feelings alone, there was no harm in that

Beetlejuice pauses for a second, before smiling "alright sugar, bring it in" there was no harm in a hug, sure his dick was still kinda hard, but that's fine.

You walk into the ghoul's arms, slowly circling your own around him, beetlejuice gently pats your back. You nuzzle into his neck, and whisper "I love you Lawrence" before planting a soft kiss on his cheek.

Pulling away from the ghoul, his scent, and touch fresh in your mind you make your way to the bathroom to shower, amongst other things.

If you were to turn back you would have seen a glowing pink Beej who's legs are about to give out

"ARRGHHH! That's worse... They're killing me again!" 

The should of the shower rings through the ghoul's ears, he grumbles as he puts his suit back together, grabbing the bottle that started it all he snaps his fingers and vanishes, off to give the schmuck who sold this to him a peice if his mind.

...

A few hours later beetlejuice reappears into your living room, grumbling to himself as he tucks the bottle into his jacket, no sense tossing it, maybe when the two of you are knocking boots, he could use it as an aphrodisiac, with your consent of course.

"Bee? Is that you?" Your voice rings through your flat, it was late, beetlejuice was hoping youd be asleep when he came back.

The ghoul makes his way to your room.

"Yeah, I had to take care of something"

"I was just about to go to bed" you were sitting on your bed wearing an over sized shirt that just covered your bum, the ghoul's eyes glance about, stopping at your vibrator that was now laying on the floor, he could smell the sex in the air, another time this would have been delightful.

"Do you want to join me? Sleeping? Like you normally do?" You sounded a tad too eager "I mean if you feel comfortable"

Beetlejuice gives you smile "sure" he snaps away his suit, leaving a pair of boxers, seeing your eyes light up was something he had to burn in his brain forever.

You scramble under the covers waiting for the demon to join you, which he promptly did.

"Is it okay if I snuggle with you?" You ask softly

"Anything you want babes" he purred, you quickly snuggle up to him, using his soft chest as a pillow, your hand petting the hair on his stomach.

"If you change your mind, I'm not wearing any panties" you whisper in the demons ear.

This was gonna be a long night

...

Bonus

The next morning beetlejuice woke up to an empty bed, confused he made his way to the living room, and there you were, sitting on the couch with your face in your hands.

"Morning?" He greets you

No response

"Babes?"

Nothing, beetlejuice makes his way to you, sitting down next to you, he places a hand on your shoulder, you flinch.

"Wake up and smell the coffee babycakes-"

"I am so sorry for yesterday, I- i don't know what came over me, i- beetlejuice, I so sorry for putting you into that type of situation, I-" you sobbed

The ghoul's hair quickly bloomed purple, you're blaming yourself for what he did to you "dont worry your pretty little head sweetheart, it was that perfume, how was I supposed to know it messed with breathers, believe me I gave that guy who sold it to me a peice of my mind, my poor little y/n warped and twisted into someone hornier then me" it wasnt all true, but beetlejuice couldnt have you beating yourself up over this, nor did he want to tell you the full truth.

"Really?" You sniffle

"Really"

You lean into the demon and he pulls you into a soft embrace, patting your back.

"How's bout we order some take out and I put a smile on that sweet face of yours?"

You pull away from beetlejuice and rub away your tears "I'd like that"

[oneirataxiahiraeth]

Can I have a sub!kai fic where he annoyed the reader Thx

Uhmmmm yeth👹

Rules

pairing : vamp!reader x sub!kaiparker

Warning : language, smut, penetrative sex, oral (masc & fem), face riding, orgasm denial (m.), bondage, Kai stubble, dirty talk, 69ing,

Requested ;)

Word Count : a little over 3k

A/N :

I had wayyyy too much fun with this one. I’m not really used to writing sub!kai so I had this one was good enough for you<3 (also I’m sorry it literally took FOREVER) also, there’s is little to no plot, srry

He groaned as the ropes rubbed harshly against his skin. His wrist red and irritated as he pulled to feel the tiniest bit of relief that he wasn’t getting.

“It’s only going to hurt more with every pull, Malachi.” You hummed, a sadistic smirk finding its way to your lips as you watched him struggle.

That’s what you were.

A sadist.

You enjoyed watched him like this. Helpless, vulnerable, borderline pathetic. A shiny layer of sweat coating his forehead, and disgustingly dirty thoughts of you on top of him filling his mind. You were truly one evil bitch. How could you do this to him? Strip him of his dominance, just to prove a point. It was oh so fucking hot, but torture not being the one on the other side of these ropes.

“You do realize that once I’m out of these ropes the rest of the night is going to be absolute hell for you... right?” He cleared his throat. He was just itching to inflict some type of fear in you, but in his current state he was making much progress.

You knew exactly what you were doing to him. You’ve never done all this before, but you had a plan for exactly how you wanted it to go. Kai was a dick. He has been one all fucking week. Lately he’s been treating you like precious cargo. Not letting you do anything on your own, not even a shower without him sneaking in. At first it was somewhat sweet sentiments, like ordering your favorites at the grill, then driving you around town to handle errands. Slowly that sweetness faded into him making every decision for you. Not letting you speak for yourself, and finding ways to punish you for speaking out against him. Putting silencing spells on you if he didn’t feel like hearing you rebuttals, and just yesterday he put you into a deep sleep for a few hours so he could ‘have a few moments of peace’.

He was dictating your life.

“What makes you think you’re getting out of these ropes tonight?” You hum.

You watched as he swallowed down the air bubble caught in his throat.

You were set on proving a point. He wasn’t the boss of you in any way shape or form. Not in public, not in private, and he definitely did not have you wrapped around his finger like he was your pimp or some shit. In fact, the whole point of tonight was to make him see that it was quite the opposite.

“Because we both know I can satisfy you way more if I’m untied. Just untie me and I can make you feel good, y/n/n.” He smiled, thinking that you would give into his offer. Instead of actually untying him you just let out the most seductively cynical laugh ever, causing his body to tense under yours.

“We’ll see...” you smirked, lifting your hips from his crotch as you leaned down to place a soft kiss on his collar bone. “Now should we go over the rules or do you have more empty threats to make?”

"Rules?" He nearly laughed in your face.

“Tonight is all on my terms... you will do whatever I want you to do.” You relied, ignoring his failed attempts at taking you seriously. “First rule, not touching. But that shouldn’t be much of a problem, huh?” You smirked, watching his eyes roll. “Second rule, you will ask for everything...” suddenly his smile dropped, and he was so amused by the situation anymore. “You want me to touch you? You ask. You want a kiss? You ask. And if you want to cum... you better beg as if your life fucking depended on it.” You nearly giggled feeling the way he giggled under you.

“Y/n-”

“You will not cum unless I say that you can.” He took in a sharp breath. “Not too bad right? You can be a good boy for me, just for the night, right?” You pouted mockingly, looking deeply into his eyes dark with lust.

“Are the uhm... ropes necessary?” He asked, voice an octave higher than usual.

“No.” You sighed. “But you look so fucking hot all tied up like a doll.” You hummed, finger tracing the vein bulging from from his neck. “So pretty. So perfect.”

“T-that’s usually my line.”

“Did I give you permission to speak?” Your hips grinding down into his, earning a low groan from his throat.

He remained silent, putting a soft smirk on your lips. Your hands traced down his chest, oh so lightly, scooting down his body until you’re hands ghosted lightly over the bulge in his boxers. He felt the heat of your fingers over him. He decided to take advantage of the fact that his legs weren’t bound by anything to push his hips up into the air for some relief. Unfortunately for him, you could read him like a book. Your hand moved away from him before he could even move, resulting in a disappointing action that caused a tiny whine to leave his lips.

“Y/N!” He groaned, head falling back as he tugged at the ropes keeping his bound. You smiled at his frustration, he was in for a long night.

“You didn’t ask.” You shrugged as if you did nothing wrong. Hand placed on his lower stomach, fingers tracing through the outline of his abs.

“Touch me. Please.” He grumbled, not too happy with his position. He was usually the one having you bed for any sort of touch from him. This was all different kinds of unnatural.

   "I am touching you, you're going to have to be more specific than that, Princess." You smiled, voice sweet, but the words coming from you mouth made him want to murder you.

“Aw, but I am touching you. You’re going to have to be more specific than that, Princess.” You teased, voice sweet and condescending. He lifted his head just to glare at you for the nickname. You lifted an eyebrow, challenging him to speak out of turn but he decided to play nicely.

  "I want you to-" he wanted a lot of things.

“I want... I want you to-” he wanted a lot of things right now actually. He didn’t want to give into you no matter how badly he wanted you. His mind fighting against your sudden rebellion while his body ached to be under your control. There was a way to get what he wanted. He just had to show you that he still had control over you, even in restraints. “I want to taste you.” He blurted, a sharp breathing entering your lungs for a moment. You automatically knew what he was doing, and how he must’ve thought that this was so smart of him. “I-I want you to sit on my face...” he spoke, ideas running through his mind at 100 miles per hours. “And I want you to suck my dick too.” Your whole body tingled with excitement at the request.

“What’s the magic word?” You asked, eyebrow raising at the devilish smile beneath you.

“Please, oh please.” He played along. He knew it wouldn’t be too long before you were untying him, and begging for him to fuck you until it was difficult to function properly. He stuck out his bottom lip to ass to the effect.

You scanned the mischief on his face before do anything. Slowly you moved off of him until you were standing on your bedroom floor, his eyes following you closely. In the position he was now he just seemed so vulnerable, and perfect. Just like you had mentioned before. You could see how rock hard he was through his boxers, and how his abs tightened even when you weren’t on him just proved how badly he wanted to be touched by you. You didn’t think he realized but his hips were slightly bucking into the air, trying to find something, anything, but it wasn’t working out too well for him.

You slid your panties down your legs, letting them rest on the bedroom floor. You stepped out of the fabric, walked back over to the bed. Kai watching intently as your fingers traced down his chest, your beautiful being so close yet far at the same time.

“Can you kiss me? Please?” He spoke, a genuine request. Your eyes slowly trailed up to his, not detecting any hidden intentions besides just wanting you lips on his. You were fine giving him what he wanted, but that wouldn’t be fun if you gave into ever request. He’s be a total dick to you all week, so you denying him just one simple pleasure was totally fine with you.

You brought you’re face to hover over his, hand moving up to the soft skin of his cheek. The soft yet prickly hairs of the beard he was growing out tickling your aura. You’re lips barely grazing against his, allowing him to relish in the closeness for a moment before pulling away.

“There are much more productive things you could be doing with that pretty little mouth of yours right now.” You grinned, watching his jaw fall in amazement as you climb back onto the bed. You maneuvered yourself carefully, making sure both of your legs were positioned on either side of his head.

His view of your face was gone, nothing but you glistening pussy waiting for him to give into you. You could feel the warmth of his breath hitting on your already heated core. You lowered you’re body down slowly, just until you felt his warmth barely touching you. You leaned over, hands tracing slowly down his abdomen, slowly reaching under his boxer band, listening to his breathing change as your fingers wrapped around him.

He pulled against the ropes, hoping to gain even just a little bit of leeway. His eyes rolled at the light laugh you gave under your breath, realizing you really weren’t going to let him free. He just had his plan to hope will work. He didn’t have to move too much before his tongue was flattening against your folds, licking a single bold stripe against you. A soft moan escaping your lips as his mouth began to move against you, you’re hand slowly pumping him as he took over you mind for a brief moment in time. For some reason, though he hadn’t to admit it, being bound right now felt surprisingly good. The idea of being at your mercy as his tongue worked against you... just did something to him that he couldn’t explain. His eyes closed as he focused on solely pleasuring you before he became a bit distracted. You soft lips wrapped around the tip of his cock, collecting his precum on your tongue. His jaw fell open at the relief, letting out a soft moan.

His tongue worked into you, lapping up and sucking down all of your sweet juices. His facial hairs tickling the insides of your thighs as he ate you out. You made sure to make the most of this moment. You wanted to drive him crazy, by giving him everything and nothing at the same time. Your tongue flattening against his shaft as you took him in your mouth. In his mind he was debating on just siphoning some of your magic to get out of the ropes so he could handle you... properly. Though he quite enjoyed the way your hips were rocking against his mouth as you tried your best to contain yourself.

“Faster,” he groaned, tearing his mouth away from you. “Please- god, I need faster.” He begged, in a voice that sounded way too needy for his own liking. Which basically meant he sounded perfect for you. You hummed, sending vibrations through him before taking your mouth from around him with a pop. You pumped him in your hand a few times before sitting up above him. His lips connecting to you once again earning a gasp and moan that you weren’t prepared to release. Kai always knew how to work wonders one you. He was most proud of how submissive you would be for him in the late hours of the night. He knew how to work you up, and push all the right buttons and he always made sure that no matter what happens he made you cum.

Just another joy you got to swipe away.

You lifted you hips too far for him to reach, listening to him whine form the loss of your taste. You maneuvered yourself around his body again until you were straddling his lap. His stubble covered chin glistening with you juices, watching his chest rise and fall with heavy breathing. You bent down, placing a soft kiss on his lips, being sure to make sure he knew you just were getting a taste of yourself.

“You should grow out the beard, it would be so fucking hot.” You smiled, his throat let out a needy whimper as he tugged again at the ropes keeping him bound.

“y/n- please, m’gonna explode.” He groaned, causing your wicked smile to widen.

“sorry, what? I didn’t hear that.” You hummed, turning your head so he would speak right into your ear.

“y/n.” He whined loudly, hips bucking into yours harshly. You hands moved down to his hips, holding them down before he could try again. He was right where you wanted him. Needy, pathetic, and easy to break. “I need you, so so bad, please.” He groaned, tugging at the ropes again, pure frustration and sexual tension taking over him.

“You need me?” You asked, trying to sound confused, hands moving further down his body until your fingers were tracing the base of his cock. “Like... right here?” You cocked your head to the side, watching as his jaw clenched. His eyes locked on your face, watching you find him amusing enough to smile. He would never in his life admit this out loud, but he definitely enjoyed this. He was aching right your your hand, just like how you wanted him.

“I w-wanna feel you.” He breathed.

“You want me to fuck myself on your dick?” You dipped your head down, placing you lips right below his jawline, pressing a series of light pecks along his neck.

“Please- fuck, please baby.” He whined again.

Your hand wrapped around his shaft once again, pumping him slowly in your hand. His mouth fell open at the friction again. Your hand sped up in its action as you watched his eyes close for a brief moment in pleasure. If this is what having total control felt like... being able to see the person you love most revel in the feeling of just you and only you... you could understand why it was so addicting to him.

Doesn’t mean you weren’t still annoyed with him.

In his mind flashed pornographic pictures of you echoes of your moans on repeat in his mind, along with the sensations of your fingers coursing along his skin. You always held the power to make him fall apart at your finger tips, he just never let you see that.

“Aw, you like this don’t you?” You hummed, poking out lips at the soft moans you were earning as you jerked him off.

“Please let me feel you.” He asked again, aching to feel your heated walls wrapped around him.

“You think you deserve to feel me?” You sigh, handing tightening around him as your pace quickened earning an audible reaction. “You make such pretty noises, you know.” You hummed, leaning over him a bit. His tip barely brushing against you stomach as you watching him glide closely to the edge. “Are you close baby?”

“Y-yes, god, I’m so close.” He groaned out, hands turning to grip the comforter to relieve some pressure.

You watched his eyes squeeze tighter together, and his muscles everywhere tense. A light layer of sweat forming over his chest as he body produce a heat that was lethal. Throaty moans escaped him, and your body heat so close to him was only bringing him closer to his euphoric release.

Or what would’ve been if you hadn’t stopped.

“Y/N-” he whined, tugging at the ropes a little extra hard with frustration.

“I didn’t say you could cum, did I?” You responded to his childish whine.

Your lips curved up into a devilish smile that has him weak in the knees. You hand squeezing the base of his cock once again before you lifted yourself on your knees above him. His tip gliding along your folds slick with his saliva and your own arousal. His mouth feel open, eyebrows furrowing at the sight of your dragging him along your heat.

“Wanna be in you, babe.” He groaned, “please, lemme feel you.”

You hum, moving you hand away from him breaking the intimate contact between the two of you. Both of your hands reached the his, grabbing the ropes keeping him bound before breaking each one. His hands immediately try to go to you, but you catch them before they can manage to.

“No touching rule is still in effect, Malachi.” You grin.

“Then why untie me?” He pouted.

“I love to see you squirm.” You commented with a light shrugged, leaning over as you placed his hands over his head. Your nose barely brushing past each other. “If you touch me and without permission we’ll stop, got it?”

“You’re so evil.” He whined, head lifting up to bring your lips closer together.

“Wonder who I get it from.” You smiled, finally pressing your lips together bringing sinking down on his cock that’s been waiting for you all night. He let out a breathy moan into the kiss, your hips lifting back up before falling again. Air slowly leaving your lungs as you let out a breathy moan into his lips. Kai’s hands gripping onto the comforter once again for dear life.

You kept up a steady place, bouncing on top of him, the sound of skin against skin filling the room. Your lips tore away from each other’s as you tried picking up pace, watching Kai’s face twist as he watched you use him for you’re own satisfaction. You noticed the tired euphoric look on his face on how he was already beginning to twitch inside of you. Your walls clenching around him, making him go ballistic as you fuck your self on him.

“I-I’m go-nna-” he moaned, trying to make coherent sentences through the ecstasy. “Can I please-”

“No, not yet.” You spoke clearly, pace not altering. “Look at me.” You demanded notices how his eyes fluttered shut every few seconds. He tried to keep his eyes open for you, staring you dead in your pretty face wondering how in love he had to be to end up in this position. “So good for me.” You smiled, nearly making him break one of your rules... possibly all of them.

“P-please let me t-touch you” he pouted.

“So needy.”

“Please.”

You nodded allowing him to move his hands. They went straight towards your hips, gripping your skin tightly, causing you to realize how close you were to the edge. Your walls clenching around him with every move, making it harder to keep himself contained. You’re eyes locked on each other, watching each other as you both fell completely apart. You noticed how heavy his breathing was and how he was trying his best not lose his shit. It was mesmerizing, noises flowing from the both of you so disgusting erotic that you wished everyone in this house was listening to the best sex they were never going to get to have. That’s when you realized you were beginning you’re ethereal trip on ecstasy.

“Y/N-”

“Cum for me, baby.” You moaned as your legs began to shake around him, body jolting with pleasure as you tried milking out your orgasms by slowly rocking you hips on his but the sensations became too much.

You leaned over placing your head on his chest as he wrapped his arms around you. You felt his hot seed spilt into you coating your walls, as you listened to the rapid pace of his heart beating.

“Can we uhm... can we do that again?” He breathed, voice vibrated through your sensitive body.

“Fuck yea.”

[ashintheairlikesnow]

*busts in the door* ANTONI SUFFERING PROMPTS? may I offer any combo of 8: pour salt in my muse’s wound(s), 5: drug my muse, and/or 23: trip my muse for my favorite ashtray 😍

One Two Three Four Five

CW: Burns, salt in wound, cigarette smoking, internal and external dehumanization, pet whump, emeto mention

"Sssshhhh." His whimpers have gotten too loud again, and there's a hand in his hair, rough petting that feels more like another kind of violence, opening new wounds. It's Quiet One crouched in front of him, head tilted, eyes sparkling in the graying darkness as dawn comes closer and closer. "Hold still. There we go. Good boy."

A shiver of pleasure runs down his spine, the simple pure sense of doing what he is trained to do, made to do. Made for, what he wanted, to make up for whatever sins are buried deep inside his ruined memory.

"How do you know all this shit, anyway? Not just the movie. They didn't get into half this shit in the movie." Deep-Voice is back in the wrecked kitchen, going through cabinets with doors that hang off broken hinges.

The ashtray is in what was the living room, his hands tied behind him with his own t-shirt, ripped to long strips. He's sweating, even in the chilly empty room, sitting up but slumped over. They've tied one bit of his shirt around his neck with a little bow.

A droplet of sweat runs down his collarbone, dips over his chest, finds a new burn and the ashtray hisses, biting on his lower lip to kill the sound until he feels blood burst free of him again. How many times has he bitten his lip tonight?

Lookout sits over by the front door, miraculously still intact right down to its frosted glass panels. He keeps looking outside and then back, chain-smoking, one cigarette after another even after his face seems green around the edges. There are five from him, five new circles of pain for the ashtray to focus on.

Three with his eyes sparkling, two with a growing uncertainty. Then Lookout went and threw up outside in the bushes someone had once carefully landscaped along the front of the house. He had to be convinced to stop panicking over DNA, Quiet One had to lecture him on not listening to the fucking true crime podcasts any longer.

They're not gonna test your goddamn puke, asshole. Besides, does that look like somebody who's gonna call a fucking detective? Get back in here.

Now Lookout sits by the door, and the butts of the cigarettes he has already finished lay scattered around his shoes.

"My uncle," Quiet One says, using the ashtray's hair to lift his head again, looking over the glazed, empty obedience written alongside the suffering, worn openly on his face. "Works for WRU. They're not supposed to talk about it, sign like the world's most ironclad NDA, but he tells me stories sometimes."

"Ron?" That's Lookout, voice shaking. He looks like he wants to throw up again. The ashtray blinks at him, dazedly. How can he look sick when the ashtray is the one whose skin is burning for his crimes? "Ron works for-"

"Hey! What the fuck did I say about names?" Quiet One rolls his eyes. Deep Voice comes back in, shoes crunching on glass and rocks and bits of crumpled paper and everything else that's been dragged in here over time. He crouches next to Quiet One, holding out a thick cylindrical... something.

The ashtray's eyes can't focus enough to understand.

"Look what I found," Deep Voice says, softly.

Quiet One grins. "Oh, yeah. Do it, man."

Deep Voice flips open a little metal thing along the cylinder's lid, and the ashtray's eyebrows furrow, confused. His thoughts move slowly, fighting through deep water.

He realizes what it is just as Deep Voice tips the canister of salt and pours it over the new constellation they've made on his stomach, reaching out with his other hand to rub circles, pressing the grit deeply into the burns.

The ashtray's back arches, every muscle locked, choked sounds coming from a throat that won't open enough for a scream. Quiet One keeps a hand in his hair to hold him still, watching with bright avid eyes, glittering with fascination as he looks at the veins in the ashtray's neck standing out, the blood smeared along his chin from his lower lip.

"Jesus Christ," Quiet One says, softly. "You're fucking gorgeous, buddy, you know that?"

"What if he gets, like, infected from this?" Lookout asks, hands shaking so hard he drops the lighter when he tries to light up again. "And like. Dies?"

"What if he does?" Quiet One shrugs one shoulder. "Sucks to be him, then, I guess." His eyes move over the ashtray's face, watching with intensity as Deep Voice pours salt on another set of burns, listening to the ashtray's hitched sobs, watching the tears track through dirt down his cheeks. "Fuck, man. Those cheekbones. I can see why some old fucking perv wanted you."

It wasn't for his cheekbones. The ashtray would tell them if he could remember how to speak. It was for his crimes, it was because he had done something so terrible he would give anything to escape it. It was because he had to pay for what he'd done. It was because-

Abruptly, Quiet One lets go of his hair, letting his head fall back down, chin nearly to his chest. "Hey. Get over here with the lighter, man."

"Why?"

"I want to do one more. I'm tired, I want to go to bed. Come on."

The ashtray catches Lookout's soft oh thank god as he gets to his feet and shuffles over, dropping the pack of cigarettes and the lighter into Quiet One's waiting hands.

"What the fuck, dude?"

"What?"

"You smoked like the whole damn pack! This shit costs money, you fucking baby."

"Fuck off, I'll buy you more. Just. Finish it up, I want to go home, too." Lookout looks away, out the broken windows towards the street. "People're gonna be fucking waking up soon. Let's get out of here."

"Yeah, yeah. Asshole."

Quiet One turns back to him, using one finger to tip his chin up, almost gently. The ashtray looks back at him, blank but for the pain. It fills his body, the throb of each individual new mark joining the itching aches of the old. The oldest scars are so faint they hardly mar his skin, the newest are bright red burns, skin buckling and bubbling under heat it isn't made to withstand.

"Pozhaluysta," He whispers, lips barely moving. "Pozhaluysta, Mr. Davies, ostanovites'."

"Mmmn. That's Russian, isn't it? Sexy. One more, pet. Think you can handle one more burn for me? Take it quiet and we'll leave. Can you do that for me?"

The ashtray nods, frantically, in desperate need for it to end. He can go back to his room, with the bars on the windows, and sing himself to sleep. He can go back to his room.

"Good boy."

The ashtray stares at the little red circle of light as the cigarette is lit, the flickering flame. The click of the lighter as it shuts again, the smoke blown into his face. Familiar and wrong, this smoke is bitter and acrid and Mr. Davies always smelled sweet and almost herbal when he smoked, the deep clove smell in the ashtray's clothes, his hair, lingering on his skin.

They untie his hands from behind his back and the bow from his neck, Quiet One rubbing at the deep red marks left behind, thumb moving back and forth over the ashtray's Adam's apple, breathing softly. "Shit. God, I wish I had one of these for mine."

"Well, unless you discover a shitload of money, you'd just be stealing. Or... like, committing a bunch of fucking felonies."

"Yeah, yeah. If I clean up a bit I bet my uncle could get me in at WRU. I heard they have a handler there who fucking killed like four people before he got the job."

"Jesus Christ, dude, seriously?"

"Yeah. Peters or something. My uncle doesn't fuck with him. Nobody does. Said he's fucking gross but he gets Employee of the Month like all the time. I could be gross for money."

"Man, who wouldn't be gross for money."

"Ha, right? All right, let's finish this shit up." Quiet One sighs, looking back at the ashtray. "You were a good fucking time, man. Enjoyed the hell out of this. Here we go. Stay quiet for me now."

Quiet One presses the cigarette into the inside of the ashtray's wrist, right in the center of his barcode, the one place that Mr. Davies never touched.

The ashtray bites his lip until it bleeds, whining deep in his throat as new tears fall, but he doesn't scream. He's quiet.

He's good.

He can be good.

"There we go." A ruffle to his hair and Quiet One stands, Deep Voice following almost immediately. Quiet One relights his cigarette and walks to the door, where Lookout moves outside before them.

Quiet One is the last to leave, looking over his shoulder at the ashtray still sitting on the ground, slumped over, in the ruined house. He lifts up his cell phone, turns on flash, and takes a photo.

The ashtray flinches at a sudden blinding light he barely registers as what it is, and Quiet One and Deep Voice laugh.

Lookout is already out by the street, bouncing on his toes, looking back and forth like he expects sirens any second.

"Maybe we'll see you again sometime," Quiet One says, and then they leave, their voices and laughter fading along with the crunch of gravel under their shoes, until the only sound left is the ashtray's ragged, uneven breathing.

He doesn't know when he gets to his feet, or how. He pulls the sweatshirt back on and leaves the shreds of his t-shirt behind. The front door is open, and when he stumbles outside, the sky is pink along the edges of the horizon.

The ashtray moves down the sidewalk, and he doesn't know where he's going, or what he'll do when he gets there.

He ends up standing, swaying a little, next to a stop sign in a place that looks familiar but he doesn't know at all. The pre-dawn light has everything slightly eerie and unsettled in his mind, shapes crashing into each other, puzzle pieces that don't quite fit.

A hand touches his back and he spins around with a gasp, staring down in terror at a short elderly woman with dark brown skin and thick hair a blend of silvery white and black pulled no-nonsense at the nape of her neck.

She looks up at him, her own eyebrows knitted. "I said good morning. Did you hear-" She goes quiet, and her eyes move over his face with too much understanding.

She knows.

Everyone knows what he is. Everyone has always known. It was a mistake to believe he could be safe anywhere outside the four walls of Nat's home. It was a mistake to think he could build a life that might involve leaving here, living on his own.

Everyone will always know.

Antoni swallows, and shudders as it makes the fresh burn on his throat ache and throb in reminder. He struggles to move his mouth to speak. "M-... Miss Ruth. D-Dobroye utro."

He realizes only then that his sweatshirt is still unzipped, and she can see the line of scars, the new burns and old, and heat rushes to his cheeks underneath the dirt already caking them.

"Oh, honey. What happened to you?" Ruth's voice is low, and she looks to one side, and then the other. Then she sighs and steps back, gesturing. "Come on inside my house, sweetheart. Just me this week, no one else to bother us. Let me patch you up, your people are still sleeping no doubt."

His people.

He is safe with his people, inside the house. But he has never been safe when he leaves. It is too easy to read what he is in every inch of his skin.

"Spasibo," He whispers as he follows her up the steps.

[cinnaminsvga]

Sweeter than Strawberries | Jungkook

→ summary: at euphoria bakery, seasonal changes also bring seasonal menu items. when you find out that your favorite strawberry shortcake milkshake was phased out after the end of summer, it takes only one puppy eyed look from you for jeon jungkook to make it for you anyway—just don’t tell his boss about it, alright?

→ genre: bakery!au, s2l, fluff → warnings: none unless you count the fact that i’m writing shy!jungkook again :^D, we love mutual pining in this house ex dee → words: 4.5K → a/n: this was commissioned by @ihatemathanal​!! i was super stoked to write this bc it’s really cute and sometimes it’s nice to just write happy fluffy things every once in a while (aka zee is turning into a fluff writer jfc) it got a lil longer than it was supposed to, but that’s bc i got carried away lol anyway i hope you guys enjoy!! (ps: this also works for the bgw bingo so... tyg for s2l fics!! let’s get it!!)

For the most part, the beginning of autumn is usually your favorite time of the year. When the tree leaves begin to yellow and the air gains a significantly colder bite, this signifies the end of pit stains and sweaty thighs and the start of sweater paws and chapped lips. Above all, you are most excited, of course, for an excuse to gorge yourself on steaming mugs of hot chocolate, paired with delicious mountains of warm gooey brownies.

For the most part, these are all things that often get you excited for the coming chill. What you do not think to remember, however, is that while these seasonal changes bring more good than bad, there still remains a little snag: a small oversight, if you will. As businesses all over the world begin the annual transition to the colder months, so does your favorite bakery across the street from your university. After all, summer ingredients grow scarcer as the year nears its end, so it’s understandable for bakeries to switch up their menu to keep up with both the supply and demand.

What does any of this have to do with anything? Well, long story short—

Your favorite strawberry shortcake milkshake is about to get phased out. No, scratch that—it’s already been phased out, right from under your very nose, no less!

You shouldn’t have been surprised, really. You have always known it was a specialty drink; your best friend had even been the one to introduce it to you just near the end of your summer classes:

“This is Euphoria Bakery,” Namjoon had said with a smile, waving cheerily at the two boys manning the till. You heard him chuckle in amusement when your eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, staring longingly at the sweet treats and baked goods lining the display case.

Namjoon had stolen your attention away, however, when he pointed to the chalkboard menu on the wall. As it turned out, the bakery also doubled as a cafe, serving the usual coffees and teas while also making the occasional specialty drink for different seasons or holidays. The chalkboard was decorated beautifully, the menu items written out in neat cursive with tiny little doodles littering its margins. On one of the boards, there was a new drink item being advertised in bold pink letters—a great summer treat!—or so it said.

“Jungkook-ssi, can you get me and Y/N a strawberry shortcake milkshake? Extra whipped cream for me, please!” Namjoon called out to one of the boys, startling the younger of the two. The boy, Jungkook, must have been busy fiddling with the cash register that he hadn’t noticed your arrival.

“N-Namjoon-hyung? Sorry, I was just busy counting the money—” Jungkook stopped short in his speech, his tongue getting caught in his mouth when his eyes landed directly on you. He had made a strangled sound, like he had swallowed his spit too quickly and was struggling to regain his composure. “H-Hello?”

You realized belatedly that he must have been greeting you, as you had been distracted by his fidgetiness. His nervousness was cute, if a little bit contagious; you couldn’t help feeling anxious too, like your heart was missing every other beat, even though you had no reason to be. “Hello! My name is Y/N. It’s my first time coming here, but Namjoon says your new summer menu item is really good? I wanted to try it out for myself.”

Jungkook nodded, still staring wide-eyed at you as if in a trance. You expected him to start... well. You weren’t an expert on how bakeries or cafes are run, but you were pretty sure he should’ve started doing something after you had spoken, perhaps ring up your order on the register, or start working on your drinks. Instead, he’s still frozen in place, like he’d somehow short-circuited within the last two minutes.

It seemed you weren’t the only one who noticed his odd behavior because the man working with him suddenly pushed Jungkook to the side, a brief smirk flashing across his face before it was quickly replaced by a more subdued, professional smile.

“Sorry about him. He’s usually my best baker, but sometimes he can get a little... distracted when he’s confronted with sweet things,” the man said nonchalantly, but it seemed that his innocent-sounding comment had embarrassed Jungkook greatly.

“Jimin-hyung!” Jungkook whined, stomping his foot not unlike a bunny. If you squinted a little bit, you could definitely see the resemblance.

Namjoon, who had been quietly watching everything unfold, chose that moment to pipe up. “Oh, I see. I didn’t know you had a type, but after thinking about it—” Namjoon shot a surreptitious glance at you, before turning back to Jungkook with a teasing grin, “—I can definitely see why.”

At the time, you had no idea what was going on, mostly confused as to why Jungkook had suddenly become so red-faced while Namjoon and Jimin giggled like a couple of high school girls. It seemed like you were somehow the main reason for his embarrassment, so you were quick to poke Namjoon in the stomach, effectively silencing him.

“Hey! Stop teasing the poor boy. He’s just being nice,” you said, pointing a soft smile back at Jungkook. “Sorry about him. I’m sure you’re an excellent baker, judging from how wonderful and cute all these cakes on the display look.” Somehow, your praise had only made Jungkook’s cheeks brighten even further. He cleared his throat as if to say something in response, before changing his mind and scuttling away to the back room instead.

“I’m going to start making your milkshake! D-don’t mind me!” He called out from behind the door, causing Jimin to finally break down into raucous giggles, nearly doubling over from his own mirth.

“Aish, that kid. He never learns, huh…” Jimin sighed, but the smile on his face is kind—the sort of fond look an older brother might have for his kid brother. He turned back to you and Namjoon with that lingering softness as he rang the two of you up, before chatting idly with you as you waited for Jungkook to finish making your drinks.

“I’ve never seen you around, Y/N-ssi. Jungkook—sorry, I meant I definitely would’ve noticed you if I did. You go to the same university as Namjoon-ssi, right?” Jimin asked, flipping a pen between his fingers with incredible dexterity. You were slightly distracted by that, faintly jealous of how his short fingers could somehow manage such a feat.

“I—yeah, I do. I’m assuming you’re also a student?”

“Yep. I actually met Namjoon-ssi when we took that one music theory class together. I was handing out flyers for this bakery after class and he happened to be one of the first people to actually come,” he said, winking at Namjoon. You watched with much interest when your friend turned a faint shade of pink, his hand coming up behind his neck—a signature tick of his whenever he was feeling shy or nervous.

“I-It was nothing… I mean, your seasonal drinks are always so good! I remember your old snowman-shaped donuts with the raspberry filling? I still dream of it sometimes,” Namjoon sighed, eyes going glassy for a moment.

Jimin laughed, his eyes crinkling into cute little crescents. “Oh, stop it! I remember how you’d come here even after we stopped serving that donut and you’d beg us to make them again.”

“And yet you never did, even though I know you have the ingredients to make them,” Namjoon pouted, but there’s endearment dancing in his expression.

You chuckled, shaking your head in disbelief. “I never pegged Namjoon as a sweet-tooth guy, so this is honestly all a very big surprise to me. I should be pumped for this milkshake then, huh? Hopefully, you aren’t just hyping it up and I’ll end up disappointed.”

Before either Namjoon or Jimin could retort, Jungkook had reappeared from the back room with two large cups in hand, almost tripping over his untied apron string but managing to get to the counter in one piece.

“Here you go. I hope you won’t be disappointed when you try it,” he said, gaze averted downwards when he hands you your cup. Your fingers grazed each other for a second, nearly causing both of you to drop the drink like it was on fire.

“S-sorry,” you laughed it off, feeling your ears get a little red from your blunder. You pointedly ignored Namjoon’s arched brow, no doubt enjoying your sudden shyness. Without waiting for him to get his own cup, you casually tear off the straw wrapper and take your first sip of the drink.

“So?” Jungkook asked after a while, watching with bated breath as you take a good gulp of the milkshake. “How is it? Is it worth the hype?” You don’t speak for a moment, further aggravating the two bakers as you carefully chewed on the bits of strawberry in the drink.

“This—” you said, speaking slowly for increased dramatic effect. You could hear Namjoon groan beside you, used to your need for unnecessary anticipation. Even as you paused for a moment longer, you could already feel the smile creeping up your face, unable to completely hide your giddiness. “—is fantastic. Show-stopping. Best thing since sliced bread! I could live on this shit alone.”

Jungkook released a breath he didn’t know he had been holding, chuckling in relief as you began to completely devour the treat in mere minutes. “I’m… really glad you like it,” he said with a wide, toothy grin. You were so immersed in your drink that you missed the way he sighed softly, hand gently cradling his chest where his heart would be.

Namjoon had taken his own sip as well, sighing dreamily as the creamy and sweet flavor overtook his palate. “Truly the best drink in existence. If I was a Twitch streamer or some shit, I’d promote this regularly for free.”

His comment made Jimin giggle softly, but his gaze is trained on something else entirely. “I’m flattered, but maybe don’t promote Y/N’s cup, over here. We don’t typically have strawberries and hearts doodled all over our cups,” he said, smirking slyly.

Lo and behold, your cup did have small doodles littering its sides whereas Namjoon’s was just a plain white paper cup. “Oh,” you said, blushing furiously when you finally noticed. Your flush was nothing compared to the one on Jungkook’s cheeks, however. The two of you refused to make eye contact after that, both of you trying (and failing) to silence the amused snickers of your respective friends.

Despite that slightly embarrassing (and heartwarming) experience, that had marked the start of your love for the tiny bakery and their special strawberry shortcake milkshake. You returned to Euphoria Bakery as often as you could throughout the summer, even going to visit it without Namjoon most of the time. You would even occasionally go out of your way to visit the bakery, even after your summer classes had ended and there was really no reason for you to be around the area.

It also didn’t hurt that the boy behind the counter was especially cute, with his big doe eyes and melodic laughter that always got your heart beating erratically in your chest. It hadn’t taken long for you to admit to yourself that you had a not-so-tiny crush and every visit to the bakery only made you fall deeper for him.

Namjoon has assured you that Jungkook clearly has a crush on you too, but you’re quick to shut him down. It is one thing to be shy and awkward around a girl and another to have a crush on the aforementioned girl. As you visited the bakery more and more, you do notice that Jungkook is more reserved when it comes to other female clientele, although, dare you hope? He does seem a little bit more… nervous, when he talks to you, but that could be your lovesick eyes playing tricks on you.

Never mind the fact that he only ever seems to leave cute doodles on your cups alone, but that could just be a coincidence, right? After all, he can hardly hold a conversation with you when you try to speak with him, always eager to rush to the backroom to make your drink.

Your visits usually consist of making idle chit chat with Jimin after greeting both him and Jungkook. The younger boy often dips the moment he sees you through the glass door, automatically going to prepare your favorite summer treat without even having to ask for your order. He never stays to stick around long enough to make conversation, as he eventually excuses himself to do some chore or another. During one of your trips, you tentatively asked Jimin if Jungkook was avoiding you, to which the blonde boy just laughed heartily at your query.

“Don’t worry about it, Y/N. He’ll come around eventually; he’s just nervous. Don’t tell him I told you this, but…” he trails off, peeking over his shoulder to make sure Jungkook wouldn’t accidentally overhear him. When he turns back to you, the smirk on his face is equal parts amused and mischievous. He looks a little impish, though you aren’t sure if he’d take that too kindly. “Jungkook always stares out the door, waiting for you to arrive. I’ve caught him red-handed far too many times for it to be a coincidence.”

Your cheeks flush warmly at his words but don’t say anything after that. You suppose all you can do is wait for him to start warming up to you eventually, and you hope the day comes sooner as the summer days grow shorter and shorter.

Of course, that day does come eventually, but probably not on the day you wished it would happen.

Like all good things, summer comes to its close and so does the summer menu options offered at Euphoria Bakery. Jimin had already told you a week beforehand that your favorite strawberry shortcake milkshake would get phased out as soon as July hit, but you refused to listen. You had hoped that as his regular customer and friend, perhaps Jimin would make an exception and prolong the milkshake’s lifetime for your sake, but it seems that Jimin has made it clear that friendship and business are two separate entities that he will not allow to coincide.

“Please Jimin? Just one more time? I’ll even settle for a small size,” you beg, your entire body draped over the cashier counter like the pathetic plebeian that you are. Thankfully, since you have made it a habit to pass by the bakery when it’s close to closing time, there aren’t any other patrons left to judge your pitiful display. Unthankfully, that also means Jimin is free to flick you on the forehead with no holds barred, leaving a large red welt where his finger hits.

“I already told you that I won’t budge, not even if you licked my Balenciagas. Besides, we’re out of strawberries anyway.” Jimin huffs, rolling his eyes at your pained whines as you grasp your head in agony. “Oh stop it, will you? I didn’t even hit you that hard.”

“I beg to differ, hyung.” Jungkook pipes up, startling both you and Jimin. Jungkook is usually content to wiping down the glass displays or tables while he passively listens to the two of you bicker, humming occasionally to indicate that he’s still listening, so it comes as a small surprise whenever he does decide to speak up. He must have noticed this too, as his ears quickly begin to redden as he scrambles to finish his sentence. “I-I mean, hyung might have small hands, but his finger flicks are no joke. You could break someone’s skull with that thing.”

“Who are you calling small, huh?” Jimin growls, but the playful smirk on his face tells you that he’s just teasing. He pulls Jungkook in a headlock, who surprisingly doesn’t seem all that bothered by the fact that Jimin is actively trying to block his windpipe with his strong forearms. “Take it back!”

“Never,” Jungkook wheezes, effortlessly removing himself from Jimin’s grip. He dusts himself off, not even breathless. “Also, why’d you lie to Y/N like that? We still have strawberries in the back. How else would we make our strawberry jam tarts?”

Jimin squawks indignantly, folding his arms. “How dare you sell out our company secrets! I could fire you for that!”

Jungkook scoffs, bumping Jimin with his hip. Jungkook must also not know his own strength, because he accidentally causes Jimin to stumble a few steps back, nearly toppling over one of their bread racks. “You’re joking. If you fired me, no one would be able to make the bagels in the morning because you never know how to proof them correctly.”

“Slander!” Jimin hisses, pinching Jungkook’s side in retaliation. You and Jungkook laugh at his childish pouts, but the older boy can’t hide his own mirth for too long. “Fine. You can stay. But you,” he points at you this time, eyes narrowing with suspicion. “You better not seduce my boy over here to make your strawberry shortcake milkshake. I have eyes and ears everywhere.” He drags his finger to the corner of the walls, where there is—

“There’s nothing there?” You follow where he’s pointing, but all you can see is a stray cobweb that Jungkook must have missed while dusting this morning. “Am I supposed to be looking at something?”

“Jimin is thinking of installing surveillance cameras soon. He’s convinced that someone is trying to steal his banana cream pie recipe.” Jungkook shrugs. He slings an arm around Jimin’s shoulder, glaringly delighted when their height difference becomes even more apparent while he stands close to him. “Anyway, I promise I won’t get ‘seduced’ by her, or whatever you want to call it. Why don’t you head home early for tonight? I’ll close up and I’ll try to convince Y/N to try our other pastries as a replacement.”

You open your mouth to try and protest, but Jungkook sends you a cheeky wink, making sure that his boss doesn’t catch him in the act. Bemused but interested to see what he’s up to, you decide to keep quiet and wait for him to continue.

“Don’t try and think you’re being slick here, buddy,” Jimin says, closing in on Jungkook’s personal space by pressing his chest against his. “If I see that you break the bakery code and serve her that drink… There will be consequences.”

Jungkook rolls his eyes, sighing dramatically as he gently pries the smaller man away from him. “Yeah, yeah. I got you. No funny business, I promise. Now get out of here, hyung. Leave the rest to me.”

Jimin gives him one last firm look before squinting warily at you, lips pursed tightly. “No seducing,” he repeats, wagging his finger at you. He unties the apron around his neck, throwing it haphazardly at the coat hanger on the back door where his jacket was hanging. He folds it over his arm and points at the corner of the ceiling with his free hand once more before exiting through the front entrance, the soft bells hanging above the doorway tinkling in his wake.

When he’s gone, you release a breath that you hadn’t realized you had been holding. “Well, that was easier than expected. I didn’t think you’d be able to get him to leave. He must trust you a lot, huh?”

Jungkook shrugs. “Nah. He’s just lazy. He hates closing the bakery and will jump at any opportunity to go home early.”

You nod. “Seems like him.” There’s a beat of silence. “So… How much seducing am I gonna have to do to get my milkshake, huh?”

Like you guessed, Jungkook immediately turns red at your words, spluttering and stammering over his spit for a few seconds before managing to come up with a reply. “O-oh, there’s no need for that. I was gonna make the drink for you anyway.”

“But what about the quote-unquote consequences?” you ask, still worried that you might be getting Jungkook in trouble. You’d rather have your arm cut off than have him get punished, no matter how small it might be.

“No need to worry about that. Jimin might pretend to be a prickly old man sometimes, but he’s mostly just full of hot air,” Jungkook snorts, shaking his head in amusement. “He’ll just make me treat him to some skewers or something. He’s just teasing.”

“If… If you say so? I just really don’t want him to get angry with you…” you say, voice turning small as you tried to reign your embarrassment in. “I know I made a fool of myself just moments ago and begged like a baby for the milkshake, but I was just exaggerating…”

“Something tells me that you aren’t, but let’s pretend for your sake that you are,” Jungkook says. You huff indignantly at his teasing, but you’re more overjoyed by the sight of his cute bunny smile. You had only seen it in passing a few times in the past, but seeing it directed at you is an entirely different experience. Because of you, your mind helpfully supplies.

He heads over to the backroom to begin preparing your drink, but he keeps the door open this time so you can see him even from behind the counter. You can mostly only see the large industrial ovens and bread racks filled to the brim with all sorts of pastries proofing for the night, but you do catch a glimpse of the sole blender near the back. Jungkook grabs the glass jar first and then walks over to the fridge just out of your sight, most likely to grab the ingredients needed for your milkshake.

The bakery is mostly silent, save for the sound of Jungkook moving and assembling everything. You rack your brain for some sort of conversation starter, as the atmosphere between the two of you has begun to return to its usual awkward state as you skirt around each other, unsure of where either of you stands. You might have known him for a while now, but today is the most you’ve ever spoken to him and the tension is palpable.

“So.” You clear your throat, heart beating a mile a minute in your chest. “I… guess this is going to be the last time I have this drink, huh?”

The sound of Jungkook chopping on the cutting board pauses for a second. You can only see his left shoulder from where you’re standing, but you can see it tense even then. “I… I mean, will you stop coming over to the bakery if it is the last time?”

There are so many things you want to say all at once, but the words somehow get caught in your throat. You want to say that you love coming to the bakery to see them (though it’s mostly Jungkook if you’re being honest) and that the strawberry shortcake milkshake had just been an excuse to visit for a while now. You want to keep visiting for as long as they’ll have you—but you don’t know how to say it without hot humiliation running down your spine. You don’t want to weird him out by confessing to him all of a sudden. And so, you clam up, not knowing how to respond.

When Jungkook throws in all the ingredients in the blender, he doesn’t turn it on immediately. He tilts his head to the side, not fully looking at you but giving you a view of his beautiful side profile. You see his Adam’s apple bob for a moment, his tongue poking out to wet his lips before he speaks. “Because… If that’s how it’s going to be, then maybe… buying a couple of skewers for Jimin won’t be so bad.”

You freeze. “What? Are you saying that...”

“I’ll keep making the drink for you, even if it’s not on the menu anymore?” Jungkook finishes, turning fully to face you. There’s a shy grin on his face, coupled with the ever-present pink flush high on his cheekbones. “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. We’ll have to be sneaky about it, though. You’ll have to come to the bakery only when I’m closing so that he doesn’t catch us but otherwise…” He scratches the tip of his nose, looking embarrassed. “If… If you’re fine doing that, I mean.”

It feels like an eternity before you can remember how to function like a regular human being again. Your insides feel like molten lava and you’re certain that your internal organs have begun to self-destruct right after that super-effective hit from Jeon Jungkook, super baker boy extraordinaire. It’s mind-blowing how effortlessly cute he can be, making you realize belatedly that his quiet demeanor over the past few weeks had been a blessing and not a curse. If he had been this sweet with you from the get-go, you’d surely be melted butter on a sidewalk by now.

“I would love you—I mean, I would love it if you did that for me, actually.” You stammer, resisting the urge to punch yourself in the tit. You’re thankful for the lack of mirrors at the bakery, for you are positive that you must look like the devil’s blazing red testicles at this point.

“Great,” Jungkook smiles softly. He turns the blender off, pouring your drink into a paper cup. “Oh, before I forget…” He grabs a marker from the small tin can near the cash register, and you watch as he quickly scribbles a few hearts around the circumference of the cup. “There we go. Now it’s done.”

As Jungkook hands your drink to you, you’re hit with a moment of déjà vu when your fingers brush just like the first time you had met. You sense the same familiar shock of electricity when you touch, but instead of pulling away like before, Jungkook surprises you for the third time that day.

When he’s sure that you have a secure grip on your cup, he grabs your free hand with his, unfurling your fingers until he can get a hold of your pinky. He curls his pinky into yours, linking them together with a bashful smile on his lips. “There. Now we pinky promised to each other.”

“Y-yes. Of course,” you mumble, giggling lightly when he still refuses to let go. “I pinky promise.”

.

.

.

Five minutes away from Euphoria Bakery, Jimin sits quietly in his parked car, his figure hunched over the small screen of his phone as he chuckles loudly to himself. There is a tiny video of two people, a boy and a girl, with their hands held together. Despite the quality being grainy and warped, Jimin needs no confirmation as to who those people are; he’s always known, after all.

“All according to keikaku.” He whistles happily, already salivating at the thought of all the skewers Jungkook will have to buy for him.

[maybeimamuppet]

guess who?

hello friends, happy Wednesday!! this work is a birthday present to myself, so before we get into it: spoiler for the title, its a baby.

trigger warnings for:

pregnancy/childbirth (literally as non-graphic as I could possibly make it)

mentioned infertility

mentioned miscarriage

pregnancy complcations

otherwise, please enjoy!

-

Janis sighs heavily as she toes off her shoes. It’s her birthday, but she still had to go to work and had an exceptionally long day teaching angsty middle schoolers. All she really wants is a lot of food and a good cuddle session with her wife, Cady.

Their pets come up to greet her as she takes off her jacket, demanding their daily scratches. Janis obliges, rubbing Elvira’s head and scritching behind Daffodil’s ears. Daffy shakes her head once Janis stands back to flip the light on. Her collar shifts, and Janis suddenly notices the note tied to it.

“Aww, Daffy, a message for me?” Janis coos, bending down again to untie it and petting them both one more time. She’s not sure if her wife is home, since all the lights are off except the one in the kitchen. Maybe this will explain things. She unrolls it and reads,

Happy birthday, my love. First present for you in the bedroom ;) Love, C

“Hmm. Caddy?” Janis calls as she heads that way. She quiets when she opens the door. It turns out Cady is home, she’s just asleep. She’s on top of the covers and wearing one of Janis’ jackets, which is their usual formula for a special night. The jacket is buttoned, which is a bit odd. Cady usually leaves them undone to show off whatever cute lingerie she’s picked. But she’s covered their bed in rose petals, that’s a nice touch.

Janis doesn’t want to wake her up yet, so she changes out of her work clothes in the dark. She hears a sleepy groan come from behind her as she tugs a comfy shirt over her head, turning around to find Cady mid-stretch.

“Hi, lovey,” Cady yawns as she reaches for her. “Happy birthday.”

“Hi, baby,” Janis chuckles affectionately, coming to cuddle her and flipping a light on. “Thanks. How was your day?”

“Good! I got a lot done, and Daffy and I had a nice walk,” Cady replies. “How about you, how was your day?”

“It was fine,” Janis says with a small yawn. “Long.”

“Aww. Would your present make you feel better?” Cady asks, stroking through her hair. Janis perks up a little at the reminder.

“Oh, yeah, what do I get?” She asks excitedly.

“You’ll just have to unwrap it and find out,” Cady purrs, gesturing to herself.

“You just woke up, are you sure-whoa, okay,” Janis replies as Cady starts kissing her hungrily. Janis kisses back for a long moment before she starts working her way down, kissing and nipping at her neck.

She undoes the buttons one by one as she works her way down Cady’s chest, until eventually she feels something other than her soft skin against her lips and pulls back in confusion. It’s another message, painted across Cady’s tummy. The top of whatever it says is just barely peeking out.

Frowning confusedly, Janis undoes the rest of the buttons in one go and pulls the flaps of the jacket apart, revealing the words,

Guess who?

Janis gasps and claps her hands over her mouth, letting out a happy sob. “Are you for real?! We-we’re gonna be mamas?”

Cady gives a watery chuckle, already crying too. “Yeah, Jay, we are. I’m for real. Are you excited?”

“Oh my god!” Janis sobs, pulling her wife upright to hug her tightly. “Of course I’m excited, there’s a baby in you! When did you find out?”

“I’ve known for about two weeks, kind of, but I found out for sure yesterday,” Cady says. “I took a bunch of tests after you went to bed, and they’re all positive.”

“Is that why you were crying? You never told me what was wrong,” Janis says, wiping tears from her eyes.

“Because nothing was wrong,” Cady giggles. “But yeah. I didn’t want to tell you yet, or it would’ve ruined my whole plan.”

“And when you said you got food poisoning last week, that was...” Janis suddenly puts several pieces together.

“Morning sickness,” Cady grins. She leans over to her bedside table and opens the drawer, pulling out a little stick. Janis takes it with shaky hands, staring intently at the Pregnant+ on the small screen. “I’m already showing a little, look.”

Cady turns to the side and pulls the jacket away. She’s right, the slight swell of her belly at the bottom is already a tiny bit bigger.

“Isn’t it early for you to be showing?” Janis asks, looking back and forth between the test and her wife.

“A little, but I’m small,” Cady replies with a shrug. “I’m about five weeks, that’s pretty normal for someone my size, I think.”

Janis reaches tentatively to feel her tummy, but pulls back just before she touches. Cady takes her hand gently and rests it on her lower abdomen.

“There’s a baby there,” Janis mumbles.

“Yeah, there is,” Cady chuckles, drying the leftover tears from Janis’ cheeks. “Our baby. Breathe, sweetheart, you look like you’re gonna pass out.”

“I’m not!” Janis insists. “I’m just... happy. And scared. We... we’re having a kid.”

“Don’t be scared yet, we have time to prepare. Everything’s fine,” Cady comforts. “You’re gonna be such a good mom.”

“So are you,” Janis replies. “When do we get to see them?”

“A couple weeks. There’s not really much to see right now, they probably don’t even have a heartbeat yet,” Cady says. “But soon. Unless... unless something goes wrong again, then we’ll need to go in sooner. But I feel good about this one.”

“I do too. They say third time’s the charm,” Janis replies, rubbing her thumb gently over her belly. She feels as if the weight of the world is resting beneath her hand.

This was their third time trying for a child. The first time, none of their embryos had implanted successfully. The second, Cady miscarried in the third week. They’d spent months mourning their losses each time before they were even willing to try again.

“I love you so much.”

“I love you too,” Cady replies, leaning in for a kiss.

“Do you still wanna...” Janis asks, gesturing to the emerald green lingerie Cady still has on.

“Oh yeah,” Cady purrs, pulling Janis back on top of her.

“Cool,” Janis breathes.

————-

Halloween rolls around exactly two weeks later. It’s Janis’ favorite holiday, and this one is made extra special by the fact that she gets to see her child for the first time. She’s distracted through her whole day at work, wanting to be done so she can go home and then to the doctor with her wife.

“Christ, lovey,” Cady jumps as Janis throws the door open. “Hi.”

“Hi, sorry, are you okay?” Janis apologizes frantically, coming to hug her and protectively resting a hand on her tummy.

“Yeah, everything’s fine,” Cady giggles. “I take it you’re excited?”

“Of course I’m excited, Peanut,” Janis says happily. “We get to see our little peanut, I wanna go!”

“Okay, okay,” Cady laughs. “Our appointment isn’t for two hours, Jellybean, we have time.”

“And the place is forty-five minutes away, it’s late and a holiday so there’s gonna be traffic,” Janis says rapidly. She pauses with a sigh to calm herself.  “I just want to make sure they’re okay.”

“I’m sure they’re fine, Jay. I feel fine,” Cady says soothingly. “I feel good, actually.”

“Good,” Janis breathes. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, I’m glad you’re excited,” Cady chuckles. “Let’s go.”

-

Two hours later, Cady is checked in at the doctor and they’re sitting eagerly in the waiting room. Cady is fiddling with Janis’ fingers to distract herself.

“Sarkisian-Heron?” A nurse suddenly calls from the doorway nearby. Janis leaps up happily and holds out a hand for Cady. They follow her back and get Cady prepped, lying her on the uncomfortable table as Janis stands behind her.

The doctor comes in a few minutes after the nurse leaves, knocking on the doorframe as she enters. “Hello, ladies, congratulations!”

“Thank you,” Cady chuckles anxiously. Janis squeezes her hand gently.

“Let’s get right into it, shall we? How have you been feeling, anything you’re concerned about?” The doctor asks, making conversation to distract Cady as she begins the scan. Janis winces slightly at the process.

“I don’t think so,” Cady hums. “I’m exhausted and I’ve been… really sick, but I’m not worried about anything.”

“Sounds typical so far,” the doctor says pensively. “When did you have them implanted?”

“Sometime in September, I’d have to check to know when exactly,” Cady replies. The doctor’s eyebrows suddenly lift high on her forehead, then furrow. “Is something wrong?”

“How many embryos did you have done?” The doctor asks, shifting again slightly and seeming to ignore the question.

“Just the one, this time, that’s all we could do,” Cady sounds more frightened with every word. “Are they okay?”

“They are absolutely fine. You’re having identical twins,” the doctor says.

“What?!” Janis and Cady yelp at the same time. Cady hears Janis fall to her knees behind her, but is in too much shock to even check if she’s okay.

“Twins?” She breathes anxiously.

“Identical?” Janis chokes in about the same tone.

“Mmhmm,” the doctor replies, turning the monitor to face them. There’s two black forms in a sea of grey static. “You’re actually rather lucky, usually the process for determining what type of twins are present is more involved. But since you only had one embryo done, identical twins are the only type feasible for you to have. Your first baby, baby A, is here. And this is baby B up here.”

“Twins,” Cady sobs happily. “Oh my god. And they’re both okay?”

“They’re perfectly fine. Their heartbeats both look strong and their development is on track. You have two healthy babies growing here, congratulations,” the doctor says.

“Janis, look,” Cady sobs again. “Are you okay?”

Janis perks up from the ground, having previously buried her face against Cady’s side where she’s attempting to process everything. She looks up at the monitor to see what Cady’s pointing to.

“We’re having twins,” Janis says as her own tears start pouring down her face. “I’m-I’m fine, Butterfly. Those... those are our babies. No wonder you’re already showing.”

“What does this mean? For us?” Cady asks the doctor, holding Janis’ hand so tightly.

“Well, for you specifically it means you’ll have to be a bit more careful. More frequent scans, take a few extra vitamins, eat more calories daily. Your babies seem to be sharing a placenta, so we’ll need to monitor them for twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, but I have no reason to believe that anything should happen.”

“Okay,” Cady breathes anxiously.

“And it does also mean your chances of delivering prematurely are higher, but again, that’s not anything to be concerned about at the moment. Your babies are healthy, and we’ll do everything we can to deliver them when the time is right for them.”

“Okay,” Cady says again, trying not to worry. Janis leans in to kiss her cheek and her fears fade for the time being.

“Can we hear them?” Janis asks shyly. “The heartbeats?”

“Of course,” the doctor says, flicking a switch to turn sound on. A rapid pulsing sound fills the room. “Here’s baby A.”

Cady turns to look at Janis happily, and Janis leans in for a kiss on the lips this time. “That’s our baby, Janis.”

“Baby A,” Janis murmurs back. The doctor shifts and suddenly a second pulsing sound overlaps the first. “And… and baby B.”

“They both sound perfectly healthy,” the doctor says as she presses some buttons to take photos. She prints out copies of a few and hands them to Cady, along with several informational pamphlets. “Congratulations again, ladies.”

She leaves then, leaving Cady and Janis alone to process everything and then leave.

-

Cady drives home when she sees how hard Janis is shaking. Janis doesn’t speak the whole ride home, she just clutches Cady’s hand and stares at the ultrasound photos.

Janis turns to her once they’re home again. “I know this is terrible timing and I don’t want to worry you, but can I please have some alone time?”

“Of course, my love,” Cady replies, popping up on her toes for a quick kiss. “I’m gonna walk Daffy and make sure we have everything for Karen’s party on Friday, I’ll check on you in an hour?”

Janis nods. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Jayjay.”

-

Exactly an hour later, Cady knocks on their bedroom door carrying two mugs of hot chocolate. With a touch of pumpkin spice, since it is Halloween. Janis pokes her head out from under the duvet. She’s spent the entire time staring at the photos.

“Do you want to talk about it now?” Cady asks gently, handing one mug to Janis.

Janis takes it with a sigh. “I’m-I’m terrified, Caddy. We’re having twins, two babies. What if something happens to you, or to them? Or... or what if I can’t take care of them? Or tell them apart? Two kids is gonna be way more work than one, and I don’t know... any of what I need to. I want to be what you need, what they need. I just... I don’t know how.”

Cady takes their mugs gently and pulls her into a hug. “Oh, mpendwa. I’m scared too, you know. I’m small, this pregnancy is risky. You’re right, there is always a chance something could happen. But I’m so, so excited too. Because I’m doing this with you, my love. I’m carrying your babies. We’re doing this together. I have you to help keep me safe and help me raise these babies into great humans.”

Janis doesn’t say anything, just cuddles in closer and rests a gentle hand on Cady’s belly.

“And yeah, two is gonna be more work than one. But we can do it. We’ll learn what we need to and deal with stuff as it happens. Take it one day at a time,” Cady says, nuzzling her nose into Janis’ hair. “For today, we have two healthy little peanuts inside me.”

Janis grins at that. “I love you so much. And them. I’m excited too, I don’t want it to seem like I don’t want them. I get two mini-yous to love on. I’m just… really scared.”

“I love you too, darling,” Cady chuckles. “But you realize they’re more likely to be mini-yous, right? You have more dominant features.”

“Man,” Janis grumbles jokingly. “Oh well. We’ll just have to wait and find out, I guess.”

Cady reaches to hand her back her drink, taking a sip of her own. “Speaking of finding out, do you want to find out the sexes?”

“If you do,” Janis replies. “It doesn’t really matter to me. And it’s not a guarantee of who we’ll be raising, anyway.”

“I want to wait, I want it to be a surprise,” Cady says. “And you’re right. It always felt kind of creepy to me that people make such a big deal over the genitals of an infant.”

Janis laughs. “It is a little weird. Surprise babies it is.” She takes another drink. “Can I do something?”

“Sure,” Cady says confusedly. Janis suddenly dashes away and comes back with some black washable paint and a brush. She gently tugs up Cady’s shirt and writes,

Guess who? (Times two!)

Cady laughs when she sees it, and goes to stand by a blank wall so Janis can take a picture.

“Smile,” Janis says, pulling a goofy face to make her laugh.

“You’re such a dork, I love you,” Cady giggles. Janis snaps a few photos.

“There,” she says happily, letting Cady come see them. “I love you too.”

Cady smiles contently when she sees the pictures, then clicks the phone off and sets it on the nightstand. “Now comes the fun part of all this, you know?”

“Mm?” Janis hums confusedly, finishing off her delicious beverage.

“Now we have to tell everyone,” Cady says casually, finishing hers too.

“Oh, shit.”

—————

They tell their families on Thanksgiving. Every year both of their families have Thanksgiving dinner in their apartment. Usually Damian and his mom join them, but his mother couldn’t make it this year so he went back to Illinois to be with her.

Cady is very clearly pregnant now, and has to wear one of Janis’ oversized sweaters to hide her belly before they want it to be noticed. Paired with some dark leggings, nobody would ever notice anything about the outfit.

Janis and Cady both make anxious small talk with everyone as they help prepare the meal, and grin excitedly at each other as they go to set the table. They made special name cards for everyone this year. In between Janis and Cady’s spots are two mini plates, with ‘Baby A’ on one place setting, and ‘Baby B’ on the other.

Their dining table isn’t big enough for everyone to sit and have all the food on it at the same time, so they leave everything in the kitchen and call everyone to come grab their plates to load up buffet style.

Their moms seem to notice something’s amiss first, and Janis’ mom gasps when she sees the little plates. She makes a beeline for that side of the table to see what the name tags say, and shrieks excitedly when she reads them. Everyone else rushes to see what she’s looking at.

“Oh my god!” Their moms both nearly-yell excitedly at the same time, running to hug them. Juliana follows quickly, shaking a concerning amount in her excitement.

“I’m gonna be an auntie!” She squeals. “And there’s two!”

Cady smiles widely as Julie hugs her gently and feels her tummy. “You’ll be the best auntie, Jules. I can’t wait to see you with them.”

“Do you know if they’re identical?” Janis’ mom asks. She’s an identical twin herself,  Janis’ aunt Alice is her sister. Janis and her cousin, Veronica, both take after them and look nearly identical themselves.

“They are, I’m hoping you can give me some tips,” Cady chuckles. “Daddy, what’s wrong?”

They both look up to see Cady’s dad visibly holding back tears, but they break through as Cady reaches for him.

“Nothing’s wrong, I’m just so happy for you,” he chokes, hugging his daughter tightly. “Twins, holy cow, binti.”

“I know,” Cady chuckles. “I love you. You’ll be a great grandad.”

Everyone crowds around both Cady and Janis in a group hug, sharing their love too.

“Okay, let’s eat. I’m eating for three now, I’m starving,” Cady jokes, taking her plate first and heading into the kitchen.

—————-

On Christmas Eve, Cady is finishing wrapping some final presents on their bed, cuddling Elvira on her lap as she works.

“Caddy?” Janis asks, entering from their living room. Cady checks to make sure anything that’s for Janis is hidden before she says she can come in.

“Yes, my love?” She asks, putting a last ribbon on a present and setting it aside.

“Can I paint on your tummy? I got this app on my phone that says what size the babies are,” Janis asks shyly. “Like, fruits and stuff. I thought it would be a cute way to track until they’re here.”

“Aww, Bluejay, of course,” Cady says as Janis rushes to grab her paints before coming back. “How big are they now?”

“It says they’re the size of peaches,” Janis responds, mixing some pink and a touch of orange together and brushing it over her wife’s belly.

“Aww, how cute,” Cady coos. “Precious little peaches.”

Janis just smiles happily at her, leaning down for a kiss before she adds some green leaves.

Cady just relaxes and enjoys the soothing texture of the paint. “This is nice. Oh, do you have any name ideas, by the way?”

“Not really, yet,” Janis replies. “But I have some rules.”

“Rules? Okay, shoot,” Cady says, looking up at her confusedly.

“The names can’t rhyme. That’s just gonna be annoying as they get older,” Janis says, adding some little details. “And they have to be spelled in a way that makes sense. I’m very tired of explaining that it’s Janis with an S, and I’m sure you’re tired of people calling you Caddy when they first read your name.”

“Yeah. You’re the only one I like calling me Caddy,” Cady grins fondly. “Okay, those are good rules. What if... are you okay with them starting with the same letter?”

“I can live with that,” Janis hums. “What letter?”

“I... no, never mind,” Cady says.

“No, what? I wanna know,” Janis pouts, adding two little happy faces on each peach.

“It’s stupid. But my favorite letter when I was little was L,” Cady mumbles. “I like the way it bends.”

“That’s not stupid, baby, it’s cute. L works for me,” Janis says.

“And I think we should each name one twin,” Cady says. “And then switch for middle names?”

“Sure. Do you have any names picked?” Janis asks, resting everything down on the palette and cuddling her wife while they wait for it to dry.

“Not first names,” Cady says. “But I want one of their middle names to be Rhys. Or Reese with the E’s, if they’re girls.”

“Of course, I love it,” Janis says, leaning down to kiss her.

“What about you, do you have anything?” Cady asks as she kisses her back sweetly.

“Um... since we’re doing L, could we name a boy Luca? After my dad?” Janis asks.

“That’s perfect,” Cady says, sounding choked up. “Luca Rhys. I love it.”

“Why are you crying?” Janis asks worriedly, cuddling her closer.

“I don’t know,” Cady sobs. “We just... we just named one of our babies, maybe. And-and you, I just love you so much!”

Ah. Hormones. “Oh, baby, I love you too. I love all three of you, come here,” Janis says, kissing her temple. “This probably isn’t a great time, but I have middle names picked already too.”

“What did you pick?” Cady sniffles, luckily calming down pretty quickly.

“Damian, if it’s a boy,” Janis says. “I have to. I couldn’t do it as a first name, I can’t handle two of them. But... I owe him so much.”

“I like it,” Cady grins through her tears. “What about for a girl?”

“Juliette. After my mom,” Janis says, wiping her tears away. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I’m sorry, I don’t know where that came from,” Cady sniffles again. “So, Luca Rhys and something Damian, or something Reese and something Juliette. I like it.”

“Good,” Janis chuckles. “The paint should be dry now, do you still want to take your picture?”

“Yeah, might as well,” Cady chuckles. “I want to remember this. Crying because we chose a name and I’m in love with my wife.”

Janis laughs. “Go stand over there, Sunshine.”

Cady does, finally looking down and seeing Janis’ work. “Oh, Jayjay, they’re so cute! The little faces!”

Janis takes a picture then, finding Cady’s candid moments somehow even cuter than her posing. “There, got it.”

“But I didn’t do anything,” Cady says confusedly.

“You didn’t have to,” Janis says lovingly. “Come see.”

Cady starts to, but freezes suddenly as her eyes go wide.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Janis asks frantically.

“Come here, come here,” Cady says excitedly. Janis does, and Cady grabs her hand and rests it against the side of her tummy. Janis is confused until she feels a little pop beneath her.

“Is-is that...” She asks, already starting to cry as well.

“One of them is kicking,” Cady laughs through her tears. “That’s one of our babies.”

“Does it hurt?” Janis asks in wonder, resting her other hand on the other side. At her touch, the other twin sets off and starts kicking too.

“It feels like a tiny little kick, yeah,” Cady chuckles. “Little jolt. But that’s so exciting, Jay. This one must really love you, they only kicked when you came over.”

Janis bends down and peppers kisses all over the top of her belly. “Hello babies. I love you both so, so much. But it’s not nice to kick your mother, she’s doing a lot to get you here. And don’t kick each other, either.”

“You’re such a dork, you’re so cute,” Cady chuckles, threading her fingers through Janis’ short hair.

“I love you so much,” Janis says, leaning up again to kiss Cady’s lips this time.

“I love you too. Merry Christmas, love,” Cady whispers against her.

“Merry Christmas, Peanut.”

—————

They tell all their friends on New Year’s Eve. Every year they have a party to celebrate, and do their holiday gift exchange then as well, since they’re all with their families for the actual holidays.

Cady and Janis stayed in New York this year, so their friends already sort of know something is up. It’s still safe for Cady to travel, but she was uncomfortable doing anything that might strain their babies. Their families did Christmas and Thanksgiving all in one, instead.

The party is at Damian and Aaron’s apartment this year. Damian opens the door to find them both holding large stacks of presents. They got everyone little things individually, and then the baby announcements from both of them.

“Hey, gu-whoa,” Damian greets as he opens the door. “That’s a lot of presents, here.”

He takes about half of each of their stacks and carries them into the living room. Janis takes what’s left of her wife’s and follows after him. There’s a lovely tree and menorah set up, and he helps her arrange everything among all the other presents.

“Oh no wait, keep those separate,” Janis says. He looks at her confusedly but does so, resting all of the most important gifts to the side. “It’s a group thing, they’re all the same, I don’t want them to get mixed up.”

“Ah, okay. How was your lonely Christmas here?” Damian asks, finally able to hug his friends now that all the gifts are in their proper places.

“It was kind of nice, actually, we just watched Christmas movies and cuddled the pets all day,” Janis responds. She hopes he won’t ask her why they had to stay behind. She can’t lie to save her life.

“Living the dream,” Damian says instead, making Janis breathe a sigh of relief. “Caddy, why are you all the way over there?”

Cady’s been watching them and trying to figure out how to hug people without revealing their secret too soon. “Oh, just admiring the view,” she teases, approaching from the side and leaning in very gently. Damian hasn’t noticed anything amiss, somehow. “Are we the first ones here?”

“No, you’re the last, actually,” Damian chuckles. “The Plastics all went to help Aaron in the kitchen.”

As if on cue, Gretchen and Karen follow Aaron out of the kitchen then. The girls both squeal when they see Cady and come to hug her before moving to Janis. Aaron follows suit too.

Regina didn’t come with them, so Cady heads into the kitchen alone to greet her while Janis helps with everything in the living room. Cady finds Regina alone and sipping a glass of champagne.

“Hey, Gina,” she says quietly, pouring herself a flute of the non-alcoholic variety. Regina whirls around with a quiet yelp.

“Oh, Cady. Hi, sorry, I didn’t hear you guys get here or I would’ve gone out with everyone,” she says once she sees it’s just her friend.

“It’s fine,” Cady chuckles as she takes a sip. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just wanted a minute to thank. Reflect on the year, you know?” Regina says quietly.

“I get that,” Cady says meaningfully. She can suddenly see the gears turning in Regina’s brain as she looks her up and down oddly. “What?”

“Nothing! It’s nothing, sorry,” Regina says hastily, taking another drink.

“It’s fine, but really, what is it?” Cady says.

“Are you pregnant?” Regina asks quietly.

Cady chokes on her drink and looks around to make sure nobody else can hear them. “Um, yeah. How could you tell?”

Regina squeals excitedly. “You’re wearing a loose dress and flats when heels would clearly go better with it, you’re not drinking real alcohol even though New Year’s is the only time you drink, you didn’t go home for Christmas, and you keep touching your stomach.”

“Do I?” Cady asks. Upon looking down she notices her hand is, in fact, resting gently on her tummy. “Oh. Oops.”

“Congratulations!” Regina squeals. “Can I do your maternity pictures?”

“God, yes please,” Cady says in relief.

“Yay! Come on, you have to tell everyone else, I need time to fight with Damian about who gets to throw your baby shower,” Regina insists happily, putting her drink back in her hand and pushing her gently towards the living room. Cady pauses to grab one more glass of actual champagne for her wife before she goes.

Janis looks at her as she comes back, checking that she’s okay. Cady nods and comes over to her. “Here, love. Regina knows, but she won’t tell anyone.”

“How did she find out?” Janis asks, furrowing her eyebrows.

“She’s a therapist? She read me like an open book in thirty seconds flat and asked me point blank, I couldn’t lie,” Cady chuckles. “Get D to do the presents now, I can’t wait anymore.”

“Okay,” Janis replies. “Damie!”

“What?” Damian groans from the couch, where he’s cuddling his boyfriend and finally eating his snacks.

“Can we do presents now pleeeeeeeeease?” Janis begs, trying her hardest to make it seem like she wants to receive her presents and not give them.

“Fine. Who wants to go first?” Damian asks, hauling himself back upright and heading to the pile of presents. Cady and Janis both keep quiet, deciding they should probably go last.

Karen eventually volunteers Gretchen, who looks at her aghast. It turns out she took up crocheting over the past year and made everyone blankets in their favorite colors. They all get different baked goods from Regina, who explains that Gretchen has been teaching her how to cook and bake. Karen gives everyone very expensive face masks that are somehow perfectly catered to their skin types.

Damian and Aaron go next. Damian gives everyone fun socks with different animals on them. Cady’s have lions, Janis’ have turtles, Gretchen’s have cats, Karen’s have mice, and Regina’s have bunnies. From anyone else it would be a lame gift, but Damian is a professional. Aaron handmade each household a wreath for their doors. It’s a little late to use them now, but they promise to next year.

There’s a noticeable energy shift when it comes to Cady and Janis’ gifts. They try their hardest to act natural as they give their individual presents. Cady made little dishes in a pottery class she had done as a special date with Janis, and Janis painted mini portraits of all of them based on photos she had.

Janis then corrals everyone to sit together on the couch, somehow without arousing suspicion. Regina is on one arm and Aaron is on the other, with Gretchen, Karen, and Damian all squished together in the middle.

“This is from both of us but don’t open them yet,” she says as she hands out the packages. Cady is sneakily filming behind her, and turns to grin at her as Janis comes to hug her from behind. “Okay, read the cards first.”

She and Cady had made the cards by hand, decorating them with different cute designs. They all say the same thing, however: ‘Happy Holidays from Janis, Cady, L. & L. Sarkisian-Heron’.

Damian makes it to the end of the message first, and his brows furrow in confusion as he tears into his package. They shoot back up his forehead when he pulls out a t-shirt that says ‘Best gay uncle ever’ and everyone else follows his lead, pulling out matching ones with their respective sexualities and auntie or uncle titles. They watch them all process everything until it finally clicks in their heads.

Janis tries to count how many times Damian shrieks “Oh my god!” in ten seconds, but she loses count after twenty.

“How is this happening?” He demands, wrapping both of them in a tight hug. “Are you adopting or is one of you pregnant?”

“I’m pregnant,” Cady laughs as he takes a step back, adjusting her dress so her bump is revealed. Damian squeals and hugs her again, and everyone else joins in to make it a big group hug.

Regina, as always, breaks away first and heads back after just a couple of minutes. Gretchen follows to make sure she’s okay, holding her girlfriend’s hand as Regina reads through the cards again. Suddenly, she clocks the second initial.

“Guys, wait,” she says, patting Gretchen’s shoulder excitedly a few times. “There’s two initials here. Are you having twins?”

“Yes,” Cady says. Everyone screams and rushes to hug her again. She peeks up at her wife around everyone and grins happily. “They’re identical, the embryo split.”

“Oh my god!” Damian sobs. “I’m gonna be an uncle! To twins! And you guys are gonna be moms! To twins!”

“Aww, Dame, don’t cry,” Cady chuckles. “Your nieces or nephews should be here in May.”

“Oh my god,” he says quietly again. “Shit, guys, happy fucking holidays.”

Everyone laughs at that and scatters slightly, finally letting Janis and Cady breathe. Damian excuses himself to the kitchen to recover. Janis follows as Cady lets everyone feel her bump and answers their questions.

“God, Jan, congratulations,” he sniffs, wiping his nose on a tissue.

“Thanks, Damdam,” Janis chuckles. “You seem more excited than us.”

“I am! I’m so excited, I’m gonna be an uncle,” he says happily.

“Oh, yeah, um. About that,” Janis says. “Caddy and I were hoping you’d be more than their uncle.”

“What do you mean?” He asks confusedly.

“We want you to be their godfather,” Janis says.

“Really?” Damian asks, his eyes brimming with tears again.

“Yeah, of course,” Janis says, handing him another tissue. “Stop crying, you’re gonna make me cry.”

“I’m sorry,” he sniffs. “Of course I’ll be the godfather. God, I can’t wait to meet them. These are gonna be the cutest little dorky babies ever.”

“Hey!” Janis says as she comes to hug him tightly.

“Jan, we called ourselves the art freaks for ten years and Caddy is the biggest math nerd to ever live, you’re gonna be raising dorks in some form or another,” Damian says.

Janis purses her lips, realizing he’s absolutely correct. “I guess you’re right. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m so excited,” he says happily.

“Good,” Janis says, leaning in to kiss his cheek. “I’m gonna go find the mother of my children, I love you.”

“I love you too! All four of you!” He calls after her.

-

The excitement wears off just a touch by the time the countdown begins. Cady and Janis share a sweet kiss as it reaches zero and the fireworks go off around the city.

“Happy New Year, my love,” Cady whispers when they break apart. “It’s the year of babies.”

“The year of babies indeed,” Janis murmurs back.

—————-

They go shopping for baby things the next week. Technically, they’re supposed to be shopping for things they’ll need in their new house, since they’ve decided to move out of their tiny apartment and into a house that has enough room for them to raise two small humans. But, Cady passes by the baby clothes section on the way out and just can’t resist.

Janis follows and is instantly reeling at the sizes of everything. She nearly plows down a mannequin because she’s too busy staring at a little tiny bathing suit.

“Aww, Jayjay, look,” Cady says, weaseling her way around the racks to something she’s spotted. Janis leaves their cart where it is and runs after her. Cady heads to a rack with onesies that say ‘Thing One’ and ‘Thing Two’, patterned like the characters in the book. They have numbers that go all the way up to eight. Janis is suddenly very appreciative of the fact they’re only having twins.

“They’re cute,” Janis says. Cady grabs them in the newborn size. “Will they actually be this little?”

“Probably smaller, actually, we should be looking at preemie stuff too,” Cady says thoughtfully. Smaller? Janis tries to imagine something smaller than the onesies in her hand. It doesn’t quite compute.

“I have more rules,” she says suddenly, leading them back to the cart.

“Okay,” Cady chuckles. “What?”

“If they’re girls, we’re not putting them in those stupid bows that are the size of their faces,” Janis says.

“Agreed,” Cady says. She’s always found those tacky. “But can we do little ones?” She asks as she brushes a hand over a pack of more reasonably sized headbands.

“If you want, Butterfly,” Janis says, grabbing it and plopping it into their cart. “Have you thought any more about names, by the way?”

“Actually, yeah,” Cady says, resting a hand on her belly. “I want to name mine Leo. Boy or girl, I think it works for both.”

Janis grins happily. “I love it, that’s so cute. Leo Damian or Leo Juliette, it’s perfect.”

Cady comes over for a cuddle. “What about you, have you picked a girl name?”

“No,” Janis whines. “I can’t pick one.”

“You will. You’ll pick something perfect,” Cady comforts. “Let’s go home, I’m sleepy.”

“Okay, Peanut. Let’s go nap,” Janis chuckles.

—————

By Cady’s birthday in February, they’re officially in their new house farther upstate. Damian and Aaron helped with most things, since Cady couldn’t really do much. She packed most of their things and moved the lightest stuff, but she spent most of the move napping.

Damian also helped Janis do their nursery. He had begged to help, and Janis was all too happy for the extra hands. He put together all the white wood furniture Cady had picked while Janis painted the walls.

Cady had only gotten to pick their furniture and textiles, the rest is a birthday surprise Janis has been putting together. She painted the walls Cady’s favorite color, a pale yellow, and designed an accent wall for the one opposite the door to the room. She’d spent weeks doing paintings of different safari animals, and found a company who sized them up into big stickers. By the time everything’s pasted up, it looks like a scene straight out of Kenya.

Damian helps her push the cribs against that wall, with a nightstand in between and a lamp on top. The two-in-one dresser and changing table goes against the opposite wall, and Janis puts the bookshelf and the massive rocking chair in the corner next to it. The other corner has all the baskets full of soft toys and teethers they’ve acquired over the last few months.

Damian hangs the grey curtains patterned with little clouds from the curtain rod, while Janis unrolls a big matching rug. Cady had fallen in love with the little cloud pattern, so all the fabric in the room has it. The rug, sheets, changing table, lampshades, everything.

Janis had also come up with a cute way to make homemade mobiles. She and Cady had stitched little clouds and stuffed them, then hung them with fishing line from dowels that Janis had hot glued together. It’s a perfect touch.

She nearly breaks her neck hanging them over the cribs while Damian adds the soft grey baby blankets to the crib railings, and then the room is complete. Janis looks around as she and Damian catch their breaths, and comes to hug him for comfort.

“Damian, my babies are gonna be in those,” she mumbles anxiously, pointing to the cribs. “I’m not ready to be a mom.”

“Well, you’re not, yet, so that’s good,” Damian teases. “You’re gonna be a great mom, Janjan. You half raised Julie, and you’ve got the right instincts. You’ve taken great care of everything and everyone so far; I would bet all the money I’ve ever seen that you’re gonna be the greatest mom in the world. Well, Caddy is first, but you’re, like, a super duper close second.”

Janis whacks him on the arm affectionately. “Thanks, D. How do you always know what to say?”

“I still watch a lot of Drag Race, Rupaul is very wise,” Damian jokes. “And I just know you. Go get your wife, she should see this.”

Janis squeezes him one more time before leaving to go Cady-hunting. She finds her in their bedroom packing their hospital bag.

“Hey, baby,” she says quietly as she comes in. “Why are you packing the bag now?”

“Because we have no way of knowing when our babies are going to be here and I’d rather not have you do it in a panic while I’m in labor or something,” Cady shrugs. “I just wanted to get it out of the way.”

“Ah. That’s a very good idea,” Janis says. “Can you take a break for a second, though? I have another present for you.”

Cady nods eagerly and reaches for Janis to help her up. “Lemme go pee first.”

Janis grins affectionately as she does her cute little waddle towards the bathroom. Her belly is rapidly approaching the size it would be if she was full term with one baby, and their little ones are constantly pressing on her bladder. Cady’s already tired of it.

She covers Cady’s eyes when she comes back and leads her down the hallway towards the nursery. Janis steers them carefully around Daffodil, who’s trotting along beside them to see what they’re up to.

“Okay, ready?” She asks once they’re in the best place to view the whole room. Cady nods happily, so Janis takes her hands away.

Cady immediately starts crying, spinning around to look at everything. “Oh, Janis, this is perfect!” She heads to the far wall to look at the animals. “Did you paint these?”

“Yeah,” Janis says, coming behind her and lifting her tummy to hold the weight for her for a second. Cady gives a relieved sigh and leans back against her. “But they’re stickers, so once they get too old to want animals on their wall we won’t have to paint over the zebras.”

Cady brushes a hand over an elephant tenderly. “They’re so cute, you did such a good job.” She notices Damian in the chair nearby and reaches for him too. “Thank you guys, I love it.”

“You’re welcome, Cads,” Damian says, hugging her gently. “Happy birthday.”

“Thanks,” Cady chuckles, wiping the tears from under her eyes.

“I did one more thing, go look in the closet,” Janis murmurs, kissing Cady’s neck and sending her on her way. Cady coos at what she finds and is suddenly crying again.

Several teeny tiny denim jackets, hand painted by Janis with different designs. Teddy bears, little moons and stars, all sorts of things. “God, Jay, these are so cute. They can match you!”

“That was the idea,” Janis chuckles, instinctively going to comfort her wife. Cady puts the jacket she’s holding back on its hanger and hooks it back into the closet. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Cady sniffles. She tries to hug Janis, but her belly blocks her most of the way. She manages anyway. “Oh, they’re awake now.”

“Can I feel?” Damian asks shyly. The babies haven’t kicked at all any time he’s been around.

“Of course, here,” Cady says, taking his hand and resting it where she’s feeling the most. “That’s your uncle, babies. We’re all so excited to meet you.”

“Oh my god that’s so weird,” he says in awe as the babies kick against his hand. “Cool, but... whoa.”

“It is a little weird,” Cady giggles. “Little aliens. Man, they’re excited.”

“What are they gonna call you guys? Is Janis mother dearest?” Damian asks jokingly, yelping again as another round of little kicks starts.

Cady and Janis look at each other. “I forgot about that, we can’t both be Mom.”

“I forgot too,” Janis says. “I think you should be Mama.”

“That makes you Mommy,” Cady smiles at her. Janis’ eyes well up when she realizes she’ll have two little beings calling her that soon. Mommy.

“I like it,” she sniffs.

“Aww, lovey,” Cady coos. Damian has returned to his very comfortable seat and is genuinely reading through Goodnight Moon for fun by this point. “God, can you two give it a rest for two seconds? I’m trying to hug your mommy.”

Janis laughs at that, brushing a hand over her tummy and kissing her wife. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Jay.”

—————-

They decide to do Cady’s maternity photos in late March. It’s getting to be Cady’s favorite time of year, it’s just starting to warm up and all the flowers are starting to bloom.

Janis comes home from work the day before to find Cady in tears on the couch. She rushes over, afraid something is wrong or she’s in pain. “Butterfly, what happened?”

“I’ve gained so much weight!” Cady wails, sitting up and crawling into Janis’ lap. Janis is confused, Cady has never been particularly insecure about her body, but the hormones have really been getting to her lately.

“Oh, baby,” Janis hushes. “That’s normal. Does your dress for tomorrow still fit?”

“Yeah,” Cady sobs. “But it’s so much, Janis.”

“Angel, it’s normal for you to have gained weight, I promise,” Janis says desperately. “A good eight of those pounds you’ve gained are just our babies, and they also need nutrients and fluids to grow and be healthy. And the rest of those pounds make up my beautiful, lovely, amazing, strong, adorable, kick-ass wife, who I love very much. I won’t hear any complaints about her body.”

Cady cuddles into her closer with a sniffle before she starts sobbing again. “I love you so much. You’re so good to me, I don’t deserve you!”

“Butterfly, shh, please, I hate when you cry,” Janis says, holding her wife as close as she possibly can. “I love you so, so much. I don’t deserve you. Come here.”

“I’m sorry, these hormones,” Cady sniffles. “Daffy lost her favorite ball under the couch yesterday and I cried for two hours.”

Janis chuckles and kisses her cheek. “I think that’s perfectly reasonable. Did she get it back?”

Daffodil comes trotting down the hallway with her favorite toy in her mouth, seeming to know she’s being discussed. Janis takes it from her and throws it back down the hallway, and she scrambles to run after it.

“Crazy dog,” Janis mumbles affectionately. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Cady sniffles. Elvira comes hopping up on them then, bonking her soft head against their intertwined hands for pets. “Hi, Ellie.”

Elvira purrs happily as they scratch behind her ears, her eyes shutting contently. Once they stop, she opens them again and meows indignantly. She looks to see where their hands have gone, and notices Cady’s resting on her belly.

Ellie inches closer, sniffing at her tummy curiously. She brings a gentle paw up and bats at it a few times, so Cady takes her hands away so she can sniff more. Elvira changes her angle and bats gently at it again.

“Can you smell your siblings in there?” Cady giggles. Elvira suddenly looks up at her with wide eyes and a questioning meow, seeming to realize what’s happening. “Yeah, there’s babies in there! I’m surprised you didn’t notice earlier.”

Janis laughs at their kitty’s reaction. “I wonder if Daffy knows.”

“She doesn’t seem to, I’m not sure,” Cady hums. “Daffodil! Come here, puppies!”

Daffy comes trotting back down the hallway, still occupied with her ball. She approaches them on the couch and drops it on Cady’s lap, wagging her tail hopefully.

“Oh, you still want to play?” Cady chuckles. “Come here first, what’s in here?”

She taps carefully on her belly, getting Daffy’s attention. Thinking there’s a treat, the dog sniffs at her belly curiously. She seems suspicious when she realizes there’s no treat, but keeps sniffing. Her tail starts wagging harder when she realizes, and she licks Cady’s tummy excitedly.

“Yeah, there we go, you guys finally put it together,” Cady laughs. “Okay, here you go, go play.”

“Silly things,” Janis tuts affectionately as Ellie heads off to join Daffodil on her adventures.

“I always wonder what they get up to,” Cady says. “Anyway. Have you picked your girl name yet?”

“No,” Janis whines. “Help me, what names were you thinking about before you picked Leo?”

“Lydia,” Cady says. Janis pulls a face.

“That’s pretty, but I hooked up with a Lydia at a party my sophomore year of high school,” she explains.

“Really?” Cady laughs. “Okay, not that then. Um... Leah, but if we’re doing Leo that would be too close. What about Lucy?”

“Lucy is cute, but...”

“It doesn’t feel right, I thought the same thing,” Cady says. “How about Luna?”

Janis thinks about it. “I like Luna a lot, but it still just… I don’t know.”

“I understand, love. Laura and Lily are the only other ones I came up with,” Cady says.

Janis buries her face in her shoulder. “I’ll think about it, I’m running out of time.”

“It’s only March, love, you still have plenty of time,” Cady says. “Don’t stress about it, whatever you pick will be perfect.”

“I’ll think of something before your baby shower,” Janis says confidently. That gives her a little less than a month. “I should get started on dinner, what are you craving today, babe?”

“Noodles,” Cady says instantly. “And cuddles.”

“Noodles it is,” Janis chuckles. “I’ll cuddle you while we eat.”

“Okay,” Cady says happily. “Oh, can you add grapes to mine, please?”

Janis looks at her in confusion. “What?”

“Grapes.”

“No, I heard you,” Janis says. “Why?”

“I dunno, ask them,” Cady shrugs, pointing to her belly.

“Little weirdos,” Janis chuckles lovingly, leaning down to kiss either side of Cady’s tummy.

“I love you,” Cady says quietly.

Janis comes back up to kiss her before she goes. “I love you too, baby.”

————-

Cady wakes up the next day feeling much better. She’s not quite back to herself, but nowhere near as upset as she was yesterday. She checks the clock and finds that it’s only about ten, so she has a few hours before she even has to start getting ready. They’re not even meeting Regina until four.

Janis is still deep asleep, and so are the pets who are resting at their feet. Daffodil is supposed to be part of the shoot, so Janis tried to give her a bath the night before. It just about worked, but they were both totally exhausted by the end of it. Elvira is just always asleep.

Cady heads to the bathroom and also grabs a book from her shelf to read while she waits for her little family to wake up. Janis makes a sort of snuffling sound in her sleep and scoots closer so she’s pressed against Cady’s leg. Cady just strokes through her hair and keeps reading.

About half an hour later, Janis finally wakes up. “G’morning, Butterfly.”

“Good morning, Bluejay,” Cady chuckles back. “How did you sleep?”

“Good,” Janis yawns. “Your leg is comfy.”

“Thanks,” Cady giggles. “What should we have for breakfast?”

“Whatever you want, we have pretty much everything,” Janis responds. “Eggs, pancakes, fruit.”

“Something with fruit sounds nice,” Cady says. “I’ve been craving a lot of sweet stuff.”

“Don’t people say that your cravings say what you’re meant to be having?” Janis asks.

“Yeah, but everything is kind of contradictory,” Cady says. “I’ve heard that if you crave meat and stuff it’s supposed to be a boy, and sweet stuff means it’s a girl. But I’ve also heard the opposite.”

“Huh,” Janis says. “Okay, come on, I’m hungry.”

-

Several hours later, after both breakfast and lunch, it’s time for them to get ready. They’d decided on periwinkle as the color scheme for their photos. Cady has a soft white dress with periwinkle flowers, and Janis has a coverall jumpsuit the same shade. Daffodil looks very dapper in her matching bandana.

“So what do you think they are?” Cady asks as she brushes out Janis’ hair to style it. Janis had done Cady’s hair and makeup, and now it’s her turn to be pampered. Cady’s hair is just in her natural curls down her back, and she has a flower crown to match her dress. Cady applies a few products to bring back Janis’ natural wave and pins small chunks from the front to the back of her head.

“Think what are what?” Janis asks confusedly.

“The babies. Do you think they’re boys or girls? Biologically, anyway.” Cady clarifies.

“Oh,” Janis says. “I don’t know. I think they might be girls.”

“Really? I’ve been feeling like they’re boys lately,” Cady says. “They kick so much.”

“You’re probably right, then, they are inside you,” Janis chuckles. “We don’t have too much longer until we’ll find out.”

“True,” Cady says. “One more full month.”

“Do you think we’re ready?” Janis asks quietly.

“Oh, absolutely not,” Cady answers. “I don’t think we could ever be ready. But I think we can do it anyway.”

Janis tips her head back once Cady finishes her hair, looking up at her face upside-down. “These babies are making you rather poetic.”

Cady laughs and bends down carefully for a kiss. “I’ve just been spending too much time around you. You read poetry for fun.”

“And you do calculus for fun,” Janis retorts. “God, Damian’s right, our kids are gonna be dorks.”

“And we’ll love them anyway,” Cady says. “Come on, we should go soon.”

————-

They meet Regina at the scheduled time in a massive field of tulips. For whatever reason, Gretchen has connections to a tulip farmer, who agreed to let them take their photos in his fields so long as they didn’t trample any.

Regina is taking practice shots of her dog, Nutmeg, when they arrive. Nutmeg is sitting very patiently and even smiling for the camera.

Daffodil gets very excited when she sees her best friend and auntie, and makes a beeline over to them. Nutmeg breaks away too, and they both head trotting back to Regina after a quick meeting.

“Hi, Daffy, how’s my favorite little retriever?” Regina asks, flopping the dog’s ears around.

“Hey, Gina,” Janis calls as they head up after her.

“Hi! Oh, look at you!” Regina says excitedly, coming to hug them and feel Cady’s tummy. “Okay, I was thinking we should get the shots with Daffodil first so she and Nutmeg can go play, if that works for you?”

“Yeah, we should probably get them while she’s still nearly clean,” Janis says. “Daffy, come here!”

Daffodil comes running over to them for her photos, but looks longingly at her friend the whole time. Luckily, she’s quickly released again to go play, having been on her best behavior the whole time and getting her part out of the way quickly. They got several adorable photos of her sniffing and licking Cady’s tummy.

Regina is an excellent photographer. She lets Cady and Janis just do what comes naturally to them and then moves herself to get a good shot, and makes small talk while she works. They almost forget they’re even having photos taken in the first place.

“Cute! Janis, can you go find the dogs? We should get some of Cady solo and then bring you back when golden hour hits,” Regina says, resting her heavy camera against her shoulder.

“Yep,” Janis says as she tugs her shoes back on. “Come find me if you need anything.”

She heads into the small forest nearby to hunt for their puppies, since they’d gone that way a while ago.

Cady is a little less natural at posing when she’s alone, so Regina guides her through some of the basic ones.

“Do this,” Regina says, demonstrating how Cady should hold her belly. “And then think about how cute your little muffins are going to be.”

Cady does what she’s told, the prompt getting a genuine smile out of her. Who will they look more like? What will their personalities be like? What will they sound like?

“Perfect!” Regina says, letting Cady come see a few snapshots. Cady grins happily when she sees the few she’s allowed to.

“These are great,” she says. “Have you three ever thought about kids?”

“We’ve talked about it,” Regina says quietly. “We all agreed that we’re not ready and probably never will be. We’re just excited to be aunties.”

“You guys can babysit these two anytime,” Cady chuckles. “But I understand. I’m not sure I’m ready either.”

“Cady Sarkisian-Heron, you were designed to be a mother,” Regina insists. “You’ve been taking care of all of us since we were in high school. You’re gonna pop out two cute-ass babies and raise them into great humans.”

“You can’t just say stuff like that, I’m so emotional lately,” Cady sniffles.

Janis makes a reappearance then, emerging from the woods followed by two wet dogs shaking themselves off.

“So, it turns out there’s a river in there,” she pants once she reaches them. “They decided to go fishing.”

“Nutmeg! What are your other moms gonna say?” Regina tuts. “I have towels in my car, hang on.”

She passes the camera to Janis and heads towards where they parked. It’s a very expensive, fancy camera, and Janis holds it like she’s been casually handed the Ark of the Covenant. She hasn’t done much in the way of photography since her classes in college, but she decides she can take a few little snaps of her wife. For practice.

“Hey,” she calls to her wife. Cady turns to look at her over her shoulder. Click. “Guess what?”

Cady turns to look at her fully, tilting her head in confusion. “What?”

“I love you,” Janis says. Cady’s face splits into a wide smile. Click.

“I love you too, Jay,” Cady giggles. “Look at you go, little miss photography.” She comes to lean on her wife’s shoulder.

Regina comes back then with the towels, bending down to dry off the dogs. Cady and Janis kiss sweetly above her. “No being cute while I don’t have my camera, stop it immediately.”

The two of them break apart sheepishly, giggling as Nutmeg shakes the rest of the water off her once she’s been toweled dry. Regina dries Daffy as well, and then stands up and takes her camera back.

“Okay, just a few more of you two now that the sun is starting to go down, and then Gretch and K and I want to take you to dinner?” She says, stretching her spine out.

“Ooh, yay,” Cady says happily. She needs to sit, so Janis leads them to a bench she found while she was hunting for their dogs. It has several hills behind it that are absolutely covered in natural wildflowers, which Cady loves.

They get several with Cady and Janis leaning their heads together, grinning happily at the camera. Then Cady rests her head in Janis’ lap, and Regina gets a few candid shots of the two of them talking while Janis plays with her hair.

“I think we’re done here,” Regina says, looking through a few of the shots she’s gotten. “I’ll edit them a bit and get them to you in a couple weeks or so.”

“Thanks Reggie,” Janis says as they both hug her. She tenses slightly at the affections and huffs indignantly at the name, but does return the hug. “Do not call me that. But you’re so welcome.”

————-

Cady and Janis both spend a majority of the month of April in tears. Cady cries because she’s in a great deal of pain. Her body is shifting in ways it wasn’t really designed to, and she can’t take any painkillers that actually work because they might hurt the twins. Janis cries because she can’t stand seeing her wife in so much pain.

“Butterfly, can I do anything to help you?” Janis asks desperately as her wife lies weeping in her lap, where she’s been for most of the day.

“The heating pad? And rub my back?” Cady sniffles. “I just want to be held, mostly.”

“Okay, I’ll be right back,” Janis says, tucking Cady in carefully with their favorite blankets and running off to the kitchen. Cady can hear the microwave whirring as she heats up the pad.

Janis comes back carrying their heating pad and a mug of Cady’s favorite tea, with the perfect amount of milk and sugar. She hands it to Cady as she sits up, then wraps the heating pad around her shoulders and pulls her close.

“I’m sorry you’re hurting so much, baby,” Janis says softly, rubbing her lower back gently.

“It’ll be worth it,” Cady sniffles. Janis thinks she might be feeling better, but her lower lip starts trembling and she bursts into sobs anew. “I’m sorry I yelled at you.”

“Oh, Peanut, it’s okay,” Janis comforts. Cady’s been nesting, stressed about making sure everything is clean and soft for their babies to come home to. Janis forgot to unload the dishwasher and Cady snapped a little. “I get it. There’s a lot happening to you right now, I know you didn’t mean it.”

“I’m still sorry. I didn’t mean it and I shouldn’t have done it,” Cady sniffles. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Kitkat. I love you so much,” Janis says. “Baby, be honest with me, can you handle having your baby shower tomorrow? I can call D and have them move it to another day.”

“I’ll be okay,” Cady sniffs again. “We don’t know how much longer we have until the babies come, and I miss everyone. I’m excited.”

“I’m excited too, Sunshine. We get a whole day just to celebrate you,” Janis says, working her way up to massage her shoulders.

“And you,” Cady insists. “You’ve done so much for us the entire time I’ve been pregnant. I couldn’t have done this without you. I can’t wait to see you be a mommy.”

“I can wait a little longer,” Janis jokes. “I’m still terrified. But I’m so excited to meet them.”

“I am too. I love you so much, Jay.”

“I love you too, Sunshine.”

-

They spend the rest of the evening cuddling, and Janis eventually falls asleep halfway through a movie. Cady cuddles her as close as she can around her very large tummy and plays with her hair.

She almost jumps out of her skin when Janis suddenly sits bolt upright. “Layla.” Is the first thing out of her mouth.

“What?” Cady chuckles affectionately.

“Layla,” Janis repeats. “I wanna call mine Layla if they’re girls.”

“That’s beautiful, my love. Layla Reese,” Cady says. “I told you you’d pick something perfect.”

“Luca and Leo or Layla and Leo,” Janis says. She leans down to kiss each side of Cady’s belly. “That’s you two. You have your names now. Mama and I can’t wait to meet you.”

Cady smiles contently down at her. They’d decided earlier that baby A would be either Luca or Layla, and baby B would be Leo. “Leo’s up here,” she says, guiding Janis’ hand to where they were in their last ultrasound. “And Luca or Layla is over here.” Janis kisses each spot several times.

“I love you so much, little ones,” Janis whispers. “I can’t wait to finally hold you.” Luca or Layla suddenly kicks against her cheek. “Hey, don’t kick me!”

“They know your voice,” Cady giggles. “They only kick when you talk to them, whenever I try they won’t do anything.”

“You’re their mama, you’re gonna be their favorite parent for, like, a minimum of five years,” Janis says. Leo kicks in agreement. “See?”

“I love you, loser,” Cady giggles.

“I love you too, dork,” Janis retaliates.

————-

Janis is awoken the next morning by Damian entering their house in a flurry, with far too much energy for ten in the morning. She pads down the stairs in her pajamas to shut him up.

“Damian, shush, Caddy’s still asleep,” Janis says.

“Oh, oops,” Damian whispers. “How is she?”

“She’s fine. She’s having a rough go of it lately, she’s in a lot of pain, but she’s managing really well,” Janis responds as she’s wrapped in a hug.

“Poor thing. Those babies need to come out soon and give her a break,” Damian says, adjusting his ‘best gay uncle ever’ shirt.

Janis chuckles. “We need them to stay in a little longer, it’s still way too early.”

“When is she due again?” Damian asks as he picks his box of decorations back up.

“June, technically, but it’s dangerous if they get too big, so she’ll be induced sometime in May if they don’t come on their own by then,” Janis says.

“Wow, only a month? Shit,” Damian says. “I’m so ready to cuddle these babies.”

“I am too,” Janis chuckles. “I’m terrified, but I just want to meet them. Where’s your boy toy, by the way?”

“He’s coming later, and Reggie said she’d be here in about ten minutes,” Damian says. “We wanted to make sure we have enough time to set up.”

“Nice,” Janis says. “Can I do anything?”

“Absolutely not, this is your day,” Damian says, batting her hands away from his precious box of treasures. “Go get your wife.”

Janis heads back to her bedroom obediently to wake up her wife. Cady looks so much more peaceful when she’s asleep, Janis really doesn’t want to disturb her. She lets her stay asleep for a while longer before she decides to kiss her awake.

“Wake up, Butterfly. It’s your day,” Janis purrs softly.

Cady yawns and rubs at her eyes like a cat. “Jayjay? Timessit?”

“About ten thirty,” Janis responds, looking at the clock. Apparently she’d let her wife sleep in a little longer than she’d thought. Even asleep, Cady is easy to lose track of time with.

“Ten thirty? Why didn’t you wake me up earlier, it’s so late!” Cady says with much more energy, trying to roll herself out of bed.

“Because there’s two humans growing inside you and you need to rest,” Janis responds, grabbing her hands to help her up. “Everything’s fine. Damian’s downstairs getting everything ready and Reggie will be here to help him in a few minutes. There’s nothing you need to worry about today.”

“Okay,” Cady breathes, calming herself down. “Do we have snuggle time?”

“I made sure of it,” Janis says. “But you should eat first. Babies need calories.”

“Okay,” Cady says, sounding much less frazzled. She follows her wife down to the kitchen, but stops to greet Damian in the living room. “Hi, Dame.”

Damian turns around from where he’s hanging a banner up. “Hey, Cads! How are you?”

“Exhausted,” Cady responds with a yawn. “But this looks great!”

“Thanks,” Damian says. “Go get your wife, I got this.”

Janis makes them some quick eggs and toast with fruit on the side. Cady gets a lot of extra fruit. Regina shows up in the middle of their breakfast, also having several boxes of activities and decorations.

“Hey, Gina,” Cady greets from her spot on the couch.

“Hey, Cady,” Regina responds, trying to catch her breath as she rests down a heavy box. “Christ.”

“You guys got a lot of stuff,” Janis comments around a mouthful of egg. “We didn’t invite that many people.”

“Damian went absolutely ape shit at Party City last week,” Regina says. “Wants to give you guys a rager before you have too many babies to party anymore.”

“Hell yeah,” Damian cheers as he comes down from his stepladder to check that his banner is even.

“Oh, Christ,” Janis groans. She’d let the two of them run wild, she just hopes they didn’t blow too much of her money.

“Sounds fun,” Cady cheers. “Let’s go get dressed.”

Janis kisses her cheek and takes their empty plates into the kitchen before following her wife back upstairs. The color scheme for the party overall is yellow and green, since Janis and Cady didn’t want to buy too much into the whole blue and pink thing. However, the invitations did say to wear pink or blue depending on what you think the babies are, which they both think is cute.

Cady wears the same dress she wore for her maternity photos, since it’s soft and light, and the flowers are close enough to blue. Janis still doesn’t have much in the way of pink clothing, but she borrowed a pink button down from Damian to go over her black ensemble.

Once their hair and teeth are brushed and some makeup is applied, they head downstairs. Regina and Damian made a lot of progress while they were getting ready. Streamers are hanging from the walls, the tables are decorated, and Regina is even stuffing a piñata.

“Reggie?” Janis asks. “Why the fresh hell did you buy a baby shaped piñata?”

“It was the only baby-related one they had!” Regina insists. “I know it’s bad.”

Cady laughs so hard at the idea of whacking a cardboard baby with sticks that she nearly falls over, Janis has to grab her.

“That’s great, I love it,” Cady giggles, wiping tears of laughter from under her eyes. “This all looks so good!”

Damian comes in from their backyard, where he’s been decorating and setting up the outdoor activities. “Why, thank you!”

They finish a few minutes later and take the two of them on a short tour before the guests come. Cady starts giggling at the games they’ve come up with. They’ve changed ‘pin the tail on the donkey’ to something along the lines of ‘get the spoon in the baby’s mouth’, with velcro spoons to attach to a large cartoon baby.

Janis gets a chuckle out of a water balloon toss, called ‘don’t break the water’. There’s also a few calmer things, like decorating play-doh babies or leaving a message on a poster with one of the maternity photos in the center.

“Also, if you’re okay with it, I thought it would be fun to try some old wives’ tales since you’re not doing a gender reveal,” Regina says once they’ve seen everything. “Just the normal ones like the ring test and stuff, not the ones with, like, your pee or anything.”

Cady laughs. “Yeah, that sounds fun. This is amazing, thank you guys.”

-

Janis and Cady greet all their guests, which is mostly just their old friends from high school and college who could make it to New York, and any family who could make the trip.

Cady is surprised when her cousin Emma comes in, Janis decided to surprise her. Emma brought her wife Alyssa, and their son James.

“Oh my god, hi!” Cady says happily, hugging both of them as tight as she can. They still live in Indiana and haven’t been able to visit for a few years. “Hi James!”

James is a little over a year old, and just waves as he cuddles shyly into Alyssa’s shoulder. Janis looks at him for a moment. Soon she’ll have her own babies to cuddle like that.

It turns out Cady had a similar surprise, since Janis’ cousin Veronica enters soon after, flanked by all three of her girlfriends. Janis remembers that one is technically her wife, but she can’t remember which Heather married who.

“Vera!” She calls happily, running to hug her cousin. “You didn’t tell me you were coming!”

“I told Cady,” Veronica says. “And obviously I’m coming, my favorite cousin is having a baby!”

“Two, actually,” Janis says.

“Shit, dude,” Veronica responds. “I forgot about that. Congratulations!”

“Thanks,” Janis chuckles. Veronica hugs her back for a second and then leads her girlfriends to check out the party. “This is bad.”

“What’s bad?” Cady asks worriedly.

“I can’t tell the Heathers apart,” Janis says anxiously, chewing a thumbnail. “I memorized the colors they wear, but now two are in pink and the other is in blue.”

“Oh,” Cady chuckles. “Well, you’re in luck, I memorized the hair in case of something like this. Chandler is the one Veronica married, she’s got red hair, and she’s the other one in blue. McNamara is blonde and she’s one of the ones in pink, and then Duke has dark hair and she’s the other pink one.”

“You’re a lifesaver, Butterfly,” Janis chuckles. “I think that’s everyone.”

Cady closes the door and pokes out a hand, which Janis takes with a squeeze and a kiss to her knuckles. They head into the party hand in hand.

—————

Several hours later, the party is over and Cady is sound asleep against her wife, surrounded by all sorts of adorable gifts. Janis wishes she had the strength to carry her up to bed, but carrying three people is too much even for her.

Regina and Damian are both spending the night in the guest rooms, so Cady and Janis don’t have to worry about taking down any of the decorations. Janis hugs both goodnight and then wakes her wife, leading her up the stairs to bed.

They had a good day.

—————-

The next day is very bad.

Cady wakes Janis up around nine in tears. “Baby, what’s the matter?” Janis asks in concern.

“Something’s not right, Jay,” Cady sobs. “I can tell. They haven’t kicked since last night. They-they always kick in the mornings, something’s wrong.”

“Hey, I’m sure everything’s fine,” Janis soothes, trying to hide her own panic. “I’ll call the doctor and see if we can get you in for a scan.”

“Okay,” Cady sniffles.

-

The doctor tells them to come in right away for an emergency ultrasound, which doesn’t make them feel any better. Cady is desperately holding back tears and clinging to Janis’ hand like a lifeline.

The doctor’s brow quickly furrows as the babies come into view, and Janis almost collapses in worry. Something isactually wrong.

“I’m afraid I have some bad news,” the doctor says in that tone of voice. “You’ve developed twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, from what I can see here it seems to be about a stage three.”

“How-how bad is that? What does that mean?” Janis asks shakily, trying to comfort her wife and herself at the same time.

“Before I explain, I don’t want you to panic too much. There are steps we can take, you have a good chance of having two healthy babies,” the doctor prefaces. That’s never good.

“But?” Janis chokes.

“But, stage three means that one or both of your babies’ hearts are affected,” the doctor says apologetically. She flips the monitor at an angle so they can all see. It’s obvious just looking that something isn’t right. “Here. TTTS just means that the twins aren’t sharing blood vessels evenly. Baby A has too much blood and fluids, things like that, going to them, and B isn’t getting enough.”

“But are they okay?” Cady cries desperately. “Are my babies alive?”

“Yes,” the doctor responds calmingly. Cady gives a sob of hope and clings somehow tighter to Janis. “But I am worried. Baby B’s heart is very weak. If we don’t take action soon you run the risk of losing them both. I’m going to send you for a corrective procedure right away.”

“Procedure? Like… surgery?” Janis asks, her face blanching. How did everything turn around like this?

“Nothing terribly invasive. Just a laser to sever some of the shared vessels, she won’t even have to be opened up,” the doctor says, taking a few pictures and ending the scan. “It’s not without its risks, but it really is your best bet here.”

“What are the risks?” Janis demands.

“Jay,” Cady says gently. Janis looks at her and takes a deep breath.

“Sorry.” Janis apologizes.

“It’s perfectly understandable. Giving news like this is the worst part of my job, I get all sorts of reactions,” the doctor says calmly. “To your wife, there is almost no risk. However, there is a chance that it will be too traumatic for the babies and you’ll lose them both.”

“No,” Cady sobs desperately. “They have to- I need them to be okay.”

“The chances of that are very low,” the doctor comforts. “With the surgery, your chances of both being born healthy is about seventy-five percent. If we do nothing, their chances of survival drop to about ten percent.”

Cady dissolves into broken sobs behind Janis, who is hollowly trying to process all the information she’s been bombarded with over the last few minutes.

“I don’t care about the risks to me, just save them,” Cady weeps. Janis pulls her up and cradles her so tightly, letting her own tears drip onto Cady’s hair as her wife cries into her shoulder. The doctor leaves with a quiet apology to send off the referral, leaving them alone to process. “Janis, I-I-I can’t lose them. They have to be okay, I can’t-I need them to be okay.”

“They will be,” Janis says with false confidence. “We-we’ll get you the surgery, everything’s gonna be fine.”

They both know there’s always a chance something will go wrong, but for now they need to believe that everything will be okay.

—————

The next day, Cady is prepped and readied for the surgery. Janis can only be there in the beginning, as she’s put under anesthesia. Cady is crying and clinging to her desperately. Janis knows she can’t do anything. She’s never felt more tortured.

“I love you so much, it’s gonna be okay,” she murmurs, kissing Cady’s forehead as she’s wheeled away.  She’s absolutely terrified herself. Janis spent the night before frantically researching TTTS and was horrified to discover they were only two stages away from their worst nightmare. The fifth and final stage is the death of one or both babies.

Janis heads back to the waiting room, past where all their friends and family are waiting for news, and out the door into the parking lot. Everyone looks at each other in concern, but Damian is the one to get up and follow her.

He doesn’t say anything, just follows after her while still maintaining a bit of distance. Eventually she reaches a sort of garden area and turns around to him with tears streaming down her face.

Damian reaches for her, but Janis just starts pacing, letting out choked sobs every time she pivots. Damian finds a bench and lets her get it out.

“It’s not supposed to be like this!” Janis screams eventually, startling some exhausted looking medical student walking by, along with a few birds. “Everything was supposed to be okay this time! Why-why is it not okay?”

She hunches over with the force of her cries, and Damian rushes to wrap her in a hug. Janis clings to him desperately and sobs into his shoulder.

“It’s not-it’s not fair,” she weeps quietly. “It’s not fair.”

“You’re right, it’s not fair,” Damian says gently. “You’ve both been through too much already, this isn’t fair. But it’s gonna be okay. One way or another. We’re all here for you.”

Janis doesn’t respond, she just bursts into another round of sobs. She continues weeping desperately until she tires herself out after a while, so Damian hands over some tissues.

“You ready to go back in?” He asks quietly as she blows her nose. She nods hollowly.

“I should. I need to be there for news,” she whispers.

“If you’re not ready that’s okay,” Damian says. “Someone would text us if they heard anything, and we have time before she wakes up. We can wait here if you need more time.”

“No, I-I need to be there for her,” Janis mumbles. “I’m fine.”

They both know damn well that nothing is fine here, but Damian nods and leads her back to the waiting room.

-

After what feels like an eternity, the surgeon comes out with an intern that Janis doesn’t recognize. The intern calls for the ‘father’ of the Sarkisian-Heron babies, and Janis dashes over.

“Is she okay? Did they make it? Where is she?” She asks desperately.

“Father only,” the intern snaps.

“She’s my wife! My wife just had surgery because our babies might be dying, I don’t have time to deal with your petty, homophobic bitch ass. Where the hell is my wife?” Janis calls.

The surgeon steps up with a weak grin then, gesturing for Janis to follow her. “Everything went exactly as planned, there were no complications. Your wife and children are completely fine.”

Janis gives a heavy, shaky sigh of relief, feeling like the drama of the last day or so is escaping her chest. She’s led back to where Cady is resting, going to sit by her wife’s sleeping form and taking her hand gently.

“She should wake shortly,” the surgeon says quietly. “And my apologies for Sarah’s behavior. I would also like to thank you, I’ve been waiting for someone to call her out so I can report her ass to HR.”

Janis gives a weak grin, the closest to a smile she’s come in more than twenty-four hours. She looks back down to her wife and kisses her knuckles gently. “Happily. Thank you, for-for saving them. And her.”

“Just doing my job,” the surgeon replies. “We’ll be back to check on everything in a few minutes.”

Janis nods and the doctor leaves. Cady stirs a few moments later, her eyelids fluttering before she finally opens them with a good bit of effort.

“Are they okay?” She whispers, squeezing Janis’ hand lightly.

Janis nods and brushes tears from her own face. “Yeah, baby, they’re okay. The doctor said everything went perfectly, there were no complications. Our babies are both fine.”

“Thank goodness,” Cady says with tears brimming in her eyes. “I couldn’t handle losing either of them now.”

“I couldn’t either, Peanut,” Janis says quietly. “But they’re okay, we don’t even have to think about that now.”

“I love you,” Cady whispers.

“I love you too, Sunshine.”

——————

Cady is officially cleared to go home six days later, and is to be on strict bed rest until the babies are born. She’s taken an emergency medical leave from work which will stretch into her maternity leave.

But, in typical Cady fashion, she didn’t want to leave her work, even temporarily, without a goodbye. She wrote notes during her very long stay in the hospital, to all of her students as well as the substitute professor who would be taking over for her in her absence. Janis and Damian delivered them and cleaned her office out for her while Cady relaxed at home.

Janis, on the other hand, still has to go to work until her ‘paternity’ leave kicks in.

“Jayjay, it’s gonna be okay,” Cady comforts a nearby panicking Janis. “Everything is good now, I’m gonna be fine. And Damian offered to come keep me company, I’m not going to be alone.”

“But what if you go into labor and I’m not there? Or something else happens?” Janis asks worriedly.

“Jellybean, I’m not even having braxton-hicks contractions yet, these babies aren’t coming for a while,” Cady chuckles. “But you won’t be far, I’ll call you right away if something happens.”

“Okay,” Janis mutters, taking a deep breath to calm herself. “I love you.”

“I love you too. Go teach those kids,” Cady replies, shooing her out the door from bed after a quick kiss.

Cady has a lovely day watching musicals with Damian and cuddling their pets. Janis texts periodically to make sure everything is okay.

And it is.

-

They keep this system all throughout May. Their families have long since left back to Illinois, but at least one of their friends spends the day at their house with Cady so she doesn’t get lonely, and to keep her safe if anything happens.

Until, in a beautiful fit of irony, Cady goes into labor on Mother’s day.

She and Janis had a lazy Sunday, celebrating their last Mother’s day with just the two of them with a long snuggle session and waffles for dinner.

Cady started feeling off at around six in the evening, but played it off as being uncomfortable due to the fact that she’s a small, heavily pregnant woman. Janis pampers her with lots of loving kisses and nice back rubs. Cady tries to focus on them instead of the bursts of pain popping up periodically.

She’s concerned when they don’t stop. Janis heads to bed around eleven, but Cady stays behind an extra few minutes to grab a snack. She’s Googled the difference between phantom and real contractions, and learned that phantom ones tend to go away after eating something.

So, Cady has some veggies and lets Daffodil out for a late-night frolic through the backyard. She’s finished her carrots by the time the puppy comes back to paw at the door. The contractions don’t seem to have stopped. Uh oh.

Daffodil leads her up the stairs to bed, so Cady follows and lies down next to her wife. Maybe sleep will help. Elvira is already there, and nuzzles in between both of them while Daffy takes her usual place on the ground beside them.

-

Cady is woken up no more than a half-hour later by a much more severe pain. On instinct, she reaches for Janis’ hand to squeeze.

“Ow,” Janis groans tiredly. “Whassamatter?”

“I’m in labor,” Cady says quietly, the realization finally hitting. Janis nearly clonks their heads together as she sits bolt upright.

“Are you serious?” She asks, rubbing her eyes.

“Yeah,” Cady says, trying to hold back anxious tears.

“Hey, what’s wrong? Does it hurt?” Janis asks in concern, stroking a hand over Cady’s cheek.

“No,” Cady whimpers. “Well, yeah. But… I’m scared, Jay.”

“Of what? Everything’s gonna be fine, we’ll take care of you,” Janis says gently.

“They’re not ready, Janis,” Cady sobs. “I’m only thirty-four weeks, it’s too early. They’re gonna be too small, they’re not… they’re not gonna be healthy.”

“Oh, Peanut,” Janis frowns. “They’re gonna be fine, I promise. They might be a little small, yeah, and they might need some stuff to help them out for a while. But it’ll be better for them to be out, they’ll be easier to monitor and help, and it’ll be easier to make sure all of you are healthy.”

“But what if they don’t look like you?” Cady wails suddenly.

“Then they’ll look like you, and they’ll be perfect,” Janis comforts. “Shh, angel, please. Everything’s gonna be fine.”

Cady sniffles and leans into her shoulder. She winces and scrambles for Janis’ hand again when another contraction hits.

“How long have you been having contractions, baby?” Janis asks, wincing but not complaining at the series of pops her knuckles give.

Cady looks at the clock, it’s just a few minutes past midnight. “Six hours,” she says sheepishly.

“You what? Butterfly,” Janis demands. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t know at first, they weren’t that bad,” Cady replies as Janis goes to put clothes on. It’s just leggings and a sweatshirt, but is slightly more presentable than her pajamas.

“Okay, tell me when your next one starts,” Janis says, holding her hand gently and bringing up a timer on her phone. Cady does, and they time the next few. They’re long and getting closer together. “I think it’s baby day, Cads, we should go to the hospital.”

“Okay,” Cady sniffs again. “God, I can’t wait to not be pregnant anymore.”

Janis laughs as she hands Cady some clothes to change into and grabs their bag. “I don’t blame you, Peanut. You’re almost in the clear.”

Cady changes clothes carefully and takes Janis’ hand to be pulled up. “Baby time.”

“I can’t wait,” Janis says, kissing her sweetly before they head to the car.

Cady texts their families on the way so they can plan out their travels, and then texts her friends to let them know as well.

spacecadet: Hey, turns out it’s labor day! We’ll keep you guys updated :D

damecupboard: AAAAAH NO WAY

ilikemouses: but it’s mother’s day???

georgewashington: She means the babies are coming, honey.

ilikemouses: oh

ilikemouses: oh!! yay! 📷📷📷📷📷📷

fetchen: yay!! we’ll go get daffy in the morning!!

a-aron: and dame and i will get ellie. good luck guys!!

“Okay, everyone knows. Our parents found a flight for tomorrow morning, somehow, and Julie’s already in town for work,” Cady says.

“Oh, is she? She didn’t tell me,” Janis says, turning into the hospital parking lot. “God, she’s gonna lose her shit when she meets them.”

“Just make sure she’s sitting before you let her hold them,” Cady chuckles affectionately.

“That’s a good plan,” Janis says. “Let’s go get you some drugs.”

“Yay,” Cady says weakly, following her to the doors.

-

Since they’re not an ambulance and it’s after hours, the doors are locked. Janis pushes a buzzer she finds, and jumps a little when a voice buzzes out from the speakers, asking what they need.

“Um… we’d like to come have our babies, please,” Janis says, not knowing how else to respond. Cady bursts out laughing behind her as the doors click and then swing open.

“You’re so cute, oh my god,” she giggles. “Oh, I shouldn’t laugh, ow.”

A small team lead them to where they need to be and help get Cady hooked up to all the monitors and finally pumped full of painkillers. She pulls a face when she has to don a hospital gown, and it only deepens when she finds out she can’t take it off until the babies are born to keep everything sanitary.

She and Janis are left alone once everything is sorted and instructed to try and get some sleep. Cady settles in and looks over to the monitors, watching her babies’ heartbeats pinging steadily.

Janis lies on her uncomfortable cot in the corner, and they both try to sleep.

-

By three in the morning, it’s clear sleep is not coming easily for either of them.

“Jayjay? Are you awake?” Cady pipes up.

“Yeah,” Janis yawns. “What’s the matter?”

“I can’t sleep,” Cady grumbles. “Will you stay with me?”

Janis rolls out of her spot and comes over to her. She knows she’s really not supposed to, but neither of them are used to trying to sleep apart. She shifts all the wires and tubes carefully and lies on her side, while Cady inches herself over to the other side of her bed.

“They’ll probably be here in the morning,” Cady whispers, resting a hand on her belly for what could very well be the last time.

Janis nods against her shoulder and links their fingers together on top of her wife’s stomach. “I can’t wait to meet them. And hold them.”

Cady leans her head against her wife’s. “And I can’t wait to see you hold them. I love you.”

“I love you so much,” Janis responds. “You’re doing such a good job. I can’t believe you’re my wife.”

“Thanks,” Cady chuckles. “I’m so lucky to have you. Goodnight, Jay.”

“Goodnight, Butterfly.”

————-

They manage to sleep until about nine the next morning, when Cady wakes up with a pained gasp.

“What is it?” Janis asks frantically. The monitor shows that the babies’ vitals are still fine, but the one that tracks Cady’s contractions has suddenly gotten a massive spike. “Oh. Breathe, baby, you can do it. I’m here, you got this.”

“Shuck,” Cady breathes when it comes to a blessed end. “They’re gonna be here soon. Like, really soon. Ow.”

Sure enough, the doctor comes in to check Cady out, having been alerted by the large spike. A nurse gives her another smaller round of pain medication in the meantime. “I’d say we have about an hour,” the doctor says.

“Only one?” Janis squeaks in fright. “I’m not ready.”

“Oh, you’re not ready?” Cady teases. “Come here.”

Janis comes to lean into her wife, ironically needing comfort herself now. “What if they don’t like me?”

Cady laughs. “Janis, you’re their mommy. They’re gonna love you. They already do, they know your voice. They’ll learn your touch and your smell and what you look like. They’re gonna love you.”

“I should be comforting you,” Janis whines.

“It’s okay, my love. I get it,” Cady says softly. “But yeah, I could use you right now.”

Janis takes a deep breath and calms herself. She’s had seven months to prepare. She gets to meet her kids today. Cady needs her.

“Okay,” she breathes, her voice still a couple octaves higher than normal. “I’m okay, we got this.”

“Yes, we do,” Cady chuckles. “Panic later, I need you.”

“Oh, I definitely will,” Janis whispers to herself, coming to give Cady hands to squeeze and lots of moral support.

Cady’s water breaks after another fifteen minutes, and it’s officially go time.

————-

At exactly ten in the morning on May 14, 2029, their first baby enters the world. The second twin follows three minutes later, and Cady collapses back against the bed with a final pained cry.

“Are they okay?” She asks weakly as two loud cries split the air. Janis brushes a hand over her cheek and leans down to kiss her forehead.

“They’re perfect, baby, you did it. Look,” she sobs happily. Cady tips her head up to see the doctors holding two tiny, squirming babies. “Those are our daughters.”

“Girls?” Cady whispers with a sob of her own. She reaches out for them and brushes a gentle hand over each small head.

“Mmhmm. Two beautiful baby girls,” Janis replies happily. She gets to cut the cords, and her hands are shaking so hard she can barely manage it. Cady reaches out again, wanting to hold her babies, but they’re whisked away before she can make contact.

“No,” she cries desperately, trying to sit up to get them back.

“Baby, hey, it’s okay,” Janis hushes gently, resting her back down. “They just need to be checked out and then you’ll get them back, I promise. They’re right over there.”

“Go get them,” Cady pleads as the doctors get to work patching her up. “Please, Jay, go make sure they’re okay. I’m fine.”

“Okay,” Janis says, kissing her forehead one last time before she heads to see her children. The older one, Layla, is being weighed and measured while Leo is cleaned up. Janis looks on in wonder as her babies cry. She can’t totally see their features, but they clearly got her dark hair, and a lot of it.

Leo’s lungs are slightly weak when they evaluate her, so she’s quickly fitted for breathing tubes. They both get hooked up to monitors to make sure they’re absolutely safe, then are put into their first diapers and tiny little hats, and are finally tucked back into Cady’s hospital gown for skin-to-skin contact.

“Oh, hi,” Cady breathes happily when she has her babies back. She kisses each of their foreheads gently. “I’m your mama. Welcome to the world, little ones.”

Janis smiles through her tears and leans down to kiss Cady’s temple. The twins quiet once they’re back with Cady and can hear her heartbeat again.

“God, Jay, they’re so tiny,” Cady whispers.

“They’re perfect, baby,” Janis replies. “You did such a good job.”

Cady doesn’t say anything, just leans her head against Janis’ and looks down at the babies resting on her chest. She can’t really tell whose features they have from this angle, but she smiles when she sees the tufts of dark hair peeking out from under the soft beanies.

Suddenly, she feels tears soak into her shoulder again and hears Janis sniffle quietly.

“What’s the matter?” Cady asks quietly, concerned for her wife.

“I love them so much,” Janis sobs quietly. “They’re here now, and I can… touch them, and hold them, and-and see them. They’re so beautiful.”

“Aww, Jay,” Cady coos. “You girls haven’t even been here for fifteen minutes and you’re already making Mommy cry.”

Janis gives a watery chuckle and reaches to brush a tender finger over each baby’s soft cheek. “Their skin is so soft.”

“They’re… fresh babies,” Cady surmises as an explanation. Janis laughs again. “Don’t laugh at me, I still have baby brain.”

“Sorry,” Janis chuckles. “I love you so much. I’m so proud of you.”

Cady turns her head for a kiss and smiles happily as Janis presses their foreheads together afterwards. “I love you, Jay. I’m so lucky I get to have these little squishies with you.”

Janis tries to hold back more tears and kisses her wife again. They continue sharing ‘I love you’s and cooing over their daughters as Janis tenderly cleans the sweat from Cady’s face and brushes out her hair, then re-ties her ponytail and helps get her out of her hellacious hospital gown and into the comfy pajamas she’d packed.

“Much better,” Cady sighs happily when she’s back in familiar fabric and not covered in sweat. “We should let everyone know they’re here, where’s your phone?”

Janis grabs it from its forgotten place on her bed and comes to take a picture of her wife and daughters. Cady smiles happily and holds the babies up slightly so they’re visible.

Janis makes sure nothing important can be seen and sends it along to their families, and then a different message to their friends.

gaylien: Sent a picture: y’all have some mcfucking NIECES

reginald: Janis, really? Your wife just gave birth and that’s how you let us know? Congratulations, though, guys. They’re adorable.

gaylien: nobody here has gotten any decent sleep in a solid 24 hours can you blame me

damecupboard: Oh my god they’re so precious!!! Good job Caddy!

fetchen: aaaaahhhhhh yay!!!!!!! congratulations!!!

ilikemouses: yay babies!!! congrats guys! 📷📷

a-aron: congratulations! they’re so cute!!

damecupboard: Jan what are their names

reginald: Oh, yeah, we want deets!

gaylien: layla is the bigger one on caddy’s left and leo is the little one with the breathing tubes

gaylien: i’ll give you guys more pics and info later, i’m gonna go back to my family

damecupboard: Wow Janis used a comma

Janis laughs and comes back to Cady’s side to show her the text thread. Cady smiles at everyone’s reactions and laughs when she reads the last message.

“You girls already have so many people who love you,” she says softly, carefully adjusting Leo’s nose tubes.

“So many,” Janis agrees quietly, still in awe at the beings they’ve brought into the world.

“Do you wanna hold them now? It’s been long enough,” Cady asks. Janis nods and goes to grab the soft baby blankets on a counter nearby to swaddle them with. Cady hands Layla over first, and Janis wraps her up expertly. She practiced on Elvira, so she’s a total pro by now. Cady takes her little burrito back and hands over Leo for her turn.

Janis hands her back once she’s been carefully swaddled, still a little anxious about holding them. Cady cradles both in her left arm and looks down at their faces. Janis leans in next to her and looks as well, trying to puzzle out their features.

“They look just like you,” Cady says happily. “Your hair, your face shape, your lips.”

“But your nose,” Janis replies as Cady runs a tender finger down the bridge of Leo’s. “And your ears.”

Cady is about to repeat the brushing motion on Layla’s tiny nose when the baby suddenly gives an adorable sneeze and both sets of eyes fly open in surprise.

“Oh my goodness, bless you,” Cady giggles. “Oh, Jay, look.”

Janis does, looking down to see two pairs of wide crystal blue eyes blinking up at them curiously. She grins excitedly and gives an involuntary squeal.

“Your eyes,” she says happily. Cady leans up for a kiss before gesturing for Janis to hold her arms out. Janis does, and Cady rests Layla carefully in her right and Leo in her left. Janis feels tears start pouring down her face again as she holds her babies for the first time. “Hi, sweethearts. I’m your mommy. God, look at you. I love you so much.”

Layla yawns suddenly, showing off her tiny pink tongue. Janis giggles and carefully brings her up for a forehead kiss.

“Am I that boring already?” She asks as the baby drifts off in her hold. “Looks like it.”

“That one’s still looking at you,” Cady chuckles, pointing to Leo. Sure enough, when Janis looks, her smaller daughter is still awake and looking around the room curiously. Janis brings her up for a kiss too.

“My little bumblebee,” Janis says happily.

“Bumblebee?” Cady chuckles affectionately.

“She was baby B. So now she’s baby bee. Baby bumblebee,” Janis explains. Cady grins widely and gives a coo when she hears it.

“You’re so cute,” she says. “What about Layla?”

Janis looks back to her other daughter to see what name suits her. “Ladybug.”

“Perfect,” Cady murmurs happily, watching her little family. Janis notices her stifle a yawn and watches her eyes start fluttering slowly.

“You should rest, Butterfly,” Janis says quietly. “You’ve already done a lot today.”

“I don’t wanna miss anything,” Cady says. “You’re so good with them already.”

“They’ll still be here when you wake up,” Janis replies. “We get plenty of time with them, now.”

Cady nods with a smile and shuts her eyes, drifting off quickly after her morning of hard work. Janis is left with the babies in her arms. Carefully, she stands up and hooks her fingers around all the monitors and devices the twins are hooked up to, and wheels everything over to the chair in the corner.

Layla wakes again at all the commotion, so by the time Janis is settled she has both twins awake and blinking heavily at her. She shifts Leo over so they’re both in the same arm again to see both at the same time.

“Hello, sweet girls,” she murmurs softly so she doesn’t wake Cady up. “I love you so much. You’re so incredible already. I’m so excited to see who you turn out to be.”

She takes the moment of them being awake and relatively calm to see if there’s any differences in their features. Janis can tell they’re almost perfectly identical, but there do seem to be a few key things.

For one, to Janis’ delight, they got Cady’s freckles. Just a few, speckled over their cheeks and noses. And, their freckles are in different places. Leo has one just on the tip of her nose, and Layla has one almost perfectly beneath her left pupil.

Leo also seems to have longer hair, and Janis grins when she spies the slightest hint of a curl to it. It’s too early to tell, yet, but she hopes they have curly hair like Cady’s.

And then there’s the eyes. Janis still smiles involuntarily whenever she sees them. They’re almost exactly the shade of Cady’s eyes, a perfect reflection of their mother’s. Layla’s are a tiny bit wider and closer together than Leo’s, but Janis can tell that’s not going to be particularly noticeable to anyone who isn’t staring intently at their faces the way she is.

Layla suddenly starts fussing slightly, trying to move in her swaddle and giving a quiet cry.

“What’s the matter, Ladybug? Oh, shh, you’re okay,” Janis says quietly, bouncing both babies slightly. Leo seems fine and content to be along for the ride. “I know, it’s different out here, huh? We all have a lot to get used to.”

Layla appears to realize that this is one of the voices she’s been hearing all this time and goes quiet after a few minutes.

“There we go,” Janis says contently when she stops fussing. “Maybe I can do this after all.”

She brushes down each of their noses gently the way Cady did, and watches their eyes gradually flutter shut as she continues. Eventually, she has two sleeping babies in her arms, and stares at them contently as they rest.

-

Without totally realizing it, Janis winds up cradling her daughters for four and a half hours straight. Every once in a while one baby wakes up and fusses at her, but she hushes and rocks and cuddles them until they drift off again.

Until they both kick off at once. Janis rocks and bounces them both, but they won’t go quiet again.

Trying not to wake Cady unless she absolutely has to, Janis stands and heads to the window, continuing her efforts.

“Shh, angels,” she hushes, bouncing both gently. “Mommy’s got you. Look out here, this is called rain. A lot of people don’t like it, but I do. It reminds me of your mama.” The babies quiet a little as she speaks, so she decides to keep going. “Your mama taught me how nice rain can be. She taught me how to dance in it, and showed me how peaceful it can be. You two and Mama are the only sunshine I need.”

Janis whirls around when she hears a sob come from behind her, finding Cady awake and crying gently.

“I love you so much,” Cady weeps, reaching for her family. Janis comes back to her side and hands over Leo, making it easier for her to bend down for a kiss.

“I love you too, Sunshine,” Janis murmurs against her lips. “So much. Did you have a nice rest?”

“I did, thank you,” Cady says with a sniffle. “Did you sleep at all?”

“No,” Janis says sheepishly. “I couldn’t stop looking at them, I just held them the whole time.”

Cady smiles at her contently. “That’s adorable. But you need to sleep too, we’re not going to get much for a long time.”

“I know,” Janis says. “But they’re so cute, I just… I don’t want to let them go.”

Cady reaches for her again, so Janis bends down for more kisses. Cady eventually scoots herself over again, inviting Janis to crawl in next to her.

“They already sound different,” Janis murmurs happily as she looks down at the babies resting in each of their arms.

“Do they?” Cady chuckles, leaning against her.

“Mmhmm. Leo’s cry is higher and more squeaky,” Janis says. “Layla’s is lower pitched.”

“How cute,” Cady hums. “Our little family.”

—————

They stay that way for a long while, through the first feeding, during which they learn that neither baby will eat properly. Janis and Cady just roll with the hits as they come. This is nothing compared to what they’ve already been through.

An hour or so after that, a voice rings out through a speaker on the wall. Janis perks up when she hears Damian’s name, and he enters with Aaron just a couple minutes after Cady lets them know they can come in.

Janis looks up from Leo’s tiny face when he enters and, for the first time, rests her down in her cot. Damian catches her when Janis flies into his embrace.

“Damian, I have babies. I have daughters,” she mumbles into his chest. “And they’re-they’re so perfect.”

“Congratulations, Jan,” he says back.

Janis steps back after clinging to him for a moment and heads to pick her baby back up. Cady reaches an arm for a hug from her friends, leaving the other resting over Layla, who’s sleeping on her chest.

“Gorgeous, how are you?” Damian asks, bending to hug her gently.

“Physically, woof,” Cady chuckles before she looks down at the baby resting on her. “But I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy.”

“Aww,” Damian coos. “And who’s this little angel?”

“This is Layla,” Cady says contently. “She’s the older one, and the bigger one. Layla Reese Sarkisian-Heron. And Janis has Leo. Leo Juliette Sarkisian-Heron.”

Damian coos over the little one excitedly. “She’s so cute.”

“Do you wanna hold her?” Cady asks.

“Can I?” Damian asks anxiously.

“Of course,” Cady laughs. “I need to do skin-to-skin with Leo anyway. Just wash your hands. Jayjay, can you swaddle her for them?”

Janis gives Leo to Cady and gently takes Layla, kissing her little cheek and wrapping her in her blanket again. Damian and Aaron both wash their hands thoroughly and sit on the bench under the window. Damian reaches out, so Janis rests Layla gently in his arms. His eyes suddenly go very wide.

“What’s wrong?” Janis asks with a slight chuckle. The monitors stay stable, so she knows the baby is fine.

“Nothing, sorry,” Damian breathes. “I just realized that this is, like, a person. That you made. You guys made this person.”

“That we did,” Janis laughs. Layla’s eyes flutter open slowly at all the new voices. “That’s your Uncle Damian holding you, Ladybug. What do you think of that?”

Layla pokes her little tongue out at him, making everyone laugh. “That’s about right. They look so much like you, Janjan.”

“They really do,” Aaron agrees. “I think it’s the hair.”

Janis heads back to her wife and other baby a few feet away, curling protectively around them. “They’re healthy and they got Caddy’s eyes, that’s all I care about.”

Leo wakes too, blinking at her against Cady’s chest. Janis rests her head next to her, so her nose is almost touching the baby’s. Cady giggles and brushes her hands over both of their heads.

“You are one of the most precious things in my life,” Janis informs the baby seriously. “You’re so small, but you run my whole life now.”

“Five pounds of raw power,” Cady chuckles. “And cute chubby cheeks.”

Janis kisses one of said chubby cheeks and then pulls back to rest against Cady’s shoulder, but Leo lets starts to cry when she does. Janis rests her face back down and she goes quiet again.

“I told you they’d like you,” Cady whispers. “She wants to see her mommy.”

Janis just grins slightly. “Maybe one will be a mommy’s girl.”

“I think so,” Cady says. “But they both love you. We all do.”

“I love you too,” Janis says, tipping her head up to see Cady.

Leo drifts off again after a few minutes, so Janis gives Cady a quick kiss and heads back to Damian and Aaron.

“Oh, are we the first ones to visit, by the way?” Aaron asks suddenly, sitting up from where he’s been leaning against Damian’s shoulder.

“Yep,” Cady confirms with a kiss to Leo’s forehead. “The Plastics had work and our families aren’t in town yet.”

“Yes!” Damian cheers quietly. Janis looks at him in confusion. “We’re the first to meet them. And we got them presents, so we get to give them their first ever presents. After they’ve been born, anyway.”

“You got them gifts?” Janis asks quietly. “Aww.”

Damian carefully hands Layla to Aaron and grabs a bag that Janis had somehow missed. He pulls out a stuffed giraffe and a stuffed elephant from himself, and pacifiers with matching miniature stuffed animals on the end from Aaron.

“Aww,” Cady coos from the bed. “How sweet. They’ll match their room, too. Their first stuffed animals.”

Janis takes the giraffe over to Leo and Cady, deciding that should be hers since she was technically a quarter-inch taller than Layla. Layla is more than a pound heavier, so she gets the elephants.

“So cute,” Cady says happily, resting the giraffe next to her on the bed. Another voice suddenly rings out through the speaker on the wall, letting them know the Plastics have arrived. Cady calls them in, and they come parading through the door with even more presents.

Regina pouts when she sees Damian and Aaron, realizing they beat them there. She hands Janis a gift card and ties a balloon to Cady’s bed rail, explaining that she didn’t know what to get in terms of an actual present, so they have a thousand dollars to spend on whatever they might need for the twins. Janis chases her around the room to try and give it back, making everyone else laugh, but Regina refuses to take it.

Gretchen gives them even more handmade blankets, this time teeny tiny and pastel rainbow patterned. Karen brought a whole cheesecake.

“Oh my god, thank you,” Cady laughs at both gifts. “Oh, these blankets are so soft! Look what Auntie Gretchen made you, Bumblebee!”

Janis takes Leo and wraps her loosely in the new, impossibly soft blanket. She smiles as the baby brings her hands up and squishes her own cheeks in her sleep. Cady takes the cheesecake and a fork and just goes to town. Nobody judges.

“Can I hold one?” Karen asks shyly. “They’re so cute! Baby emoji, confetti emoji.”

“Thank you,” Cady chuckles around a mouthful of her delicious dessert. “And of course you can hold them, just wash your hands.”

Karen does, and Gretchen and Regina follow rather more apprehensively. Karen sits by Damian on the bench, and he hands over Layla. Janis gives him Leo to meet instead, and Gretchen and Regina sit on either side of their girlfriend to peek at the babies.

Karen proves to be a natural with babies, cradling Layla perfectly and being careful of all her monitors. Gretchen and Regina are a bit less natural. Gretchen tenses quickly when Damian passes Leo over carefully, but relaxes once she has a solid grip on her and is positive the baby is okay.

After a while, she hands her to Regina, who also immediately tenses. But Regina doesn’t relax.

“Damn, Reg, you were less tense in the spinal halo,” Janis jokes from where she’s cuddling her wife. “She’s only five pounds, she can’t hurt you.”

“But I can hurt her,” Regina mumbles anxiously. “And I really don’t want to.”

Karen helps adjust Leo so she’s resting more comfortably, and rubs a spot on Regina’s back that always helps her calm down. Very gradually, Regina loosens up and holds the baby like a normal human would.

“What are you looking at, you little punk?” She coos when Leo wakes up and stares at her.

“She wants to see her Aunt Reggie,” Janis says. Regina snaps her head up.

“They are not calling me Aunt Reggie,” she insists. Janis pouts at Cady, who chuckles quietly and nods at her. Janis grins victoriously. “God, you look like Janis.”

“Everyone keeps saying that,” Janis says. “But it’s not all me, they got Cady’s eyes, and nose, and ears. And size.”

“Hey!” Cady says, flicking her gently. “I’m not that small. And the doctors said they’re a good size for preemies.”

“I was kidding, Butterfly,” Janis says, leaning in for a kiss. “All three of you are perfect.”

————-

Cady and Janis continue watching as their friends coo over their daughters. Janis takes a long moment to watch Regina and Aaron in particular. She never thought she would have kids, and certainly never would’ve thought that Regina George would be one of the first people to meet them. And, in another universe, she and Aaron might be in each other’s places. Janis is very glad she lives in this one.

Everyone stays as long as they can, but eventually do have to leave to get back to their own responsibilities. They’re left alone until their own families arrive. Janis stands by the door and waits, catching her sister as she comes barreling in, being trailed by their parents. “Hands washed and sit down, then you can have one.”

Juliana listens immediately, quickly but carefully cleaning her hands and running to sit on the bench. Janis gives her Layla, since Leo is a little more delicate. She trusts her sister, but still wants to be careful.

“So precious,” Julie says quietly, calming down quickly for her own standards. “I’m gonna buy you guys so much candy.”

“No,” Janis says immediately.

“Legos?” Julie compromises.

“Sure,” Janis agrees.

“And puppies, and then I’m just gonna leave them,” Julie chuckles. Their mom sits down by her and peeks at the baby’s face.

Janis hands Leo to Cady’s dad, who instinctively starts rocking her gently. He tears up quickly as he looks at his granddaughter.

“What are their names?” Cady’s mom asks quietly, running a tender hand over Leo’s head.

“Julie has Layla Reese,” Cady says, watching her parents both start crying quietly as they hear the middle name. “And you guys have Leo Juliette.”

Janis’ mom also tears up when she hears Leo’s middle name. Julie hands her Layla, and she takes her with a sniffle.

“Nice job, binti,” Cady’s dad says quietly. “Proud of you.”

“Thanks, Daddy,” Cady chuckles thickly, wiping her own tears away. She’s still quite hormonal, and watching everyone cry was too much for her.

“I can’t decide who they look more like,” Janis’ mom says. “So much of my Janny, but then those eyes. All Cady when they’re open.”

“Ha,” Janis says. “They’re not all me. My mom says so.”

“You’re such a child,” Cady laughs, kissing her tenderly. “I love you.”

“I love you so much,” Janis murmurs back against her lips. “Thank you.”

“For what?” Cady asks in confusion.

“For them,” Janis says thickly. “For doing this. Giving us a family. I love them so much it hurts.”

“We were a family before,” Cady says. “Now it’s just… bigger. More love.”

“More love indeed,” Janis agrees.

I didn’t think I could love you more.

-

LOL PRANKED ITS TWO BABIES

anyway. I hope you enjoyed! I know babies aren't everybody's thing, but if y'all would like to see more of Leo and Layla please let me know and I will absolutely do more.

request status is still paused, but I am hoping to reopen them in a couple weeks.

thanks for reading!

lots of love,

ezzy

[ask-anti-cosmo]

The return of Anti-Cosmo part 4

Part 1 Part 2 part 3

“Hey Anti-Cosmo-“ you started to say but he cut you off and ignored you at the same time.

“And you, my little doll, I’m making you young again and I don’t get so much as a thank you?” he asked the old lady who now looked terribly young. You thought she had actually had turned into a doll, but her face still moved like a human, despite the perfect glass looking skin.

She didn’t say anything, but sat, quivering with fear. “I was always afraid you’d come back for me…” She told him.

“Why would you say that, you were always one of my favorites.” He frowned and leaned forward to her with a finger outstretched. As soon as his finger touched her nose, her whole face suddenly broke, cracks formed starting from her nose and all across her face. Small pieces of what looked like porcelain fell from the cracks. She shrieked in pain, and that’s when you couldn’t take it and grabbed Anti-Cosmo’s shoulder and yanked him away from her. Her face reformed to perfection when his finger lifted from her nose.

Anti-Cosmo looked at you with annoyance. “I believe I was in the middle of something.” He scowled.

“Well now you’re talking to me, because obviously you aren’t going to leave me alone anytime soon, so I want to enter in a contract with you.” You told him

His eyebrows raised. “Really?” He faced you, arms folded. “and what exactly inspired this feeling?” he asked suspiciously.

With his arms folded, this was the perfect time to catch him off guard. You snatched his wand from his hands and held it tightly away from him.

His eyes went wide as soon as he realized the wand was missing. “Wait! Give that back!!” he said and swiped at it, trying to get it back from you. You kept it out of his short arm’s reach and pushed him away with your other hand.

“You will listen to me.” You glared. He flinched and finally looked away from his wand to look you in the eye. He realized he wasn’t going to get his wand back until you spoke, so he stood up straight and pouted.

“Fine. Say what you want.” He huffed.

“First of all, drink my blood.” You told him. He narrowed his eyes at you.

“You complained so extensively about it earlier, and now it’s a demand?” he asked skeptically.

“Because earlier you took it without consent, but now it’s my choice.”

“It wouldn’t happen to be your choice because you know if I do, you would be owed a wish?” he frowned.

“That being said, the more blood you drink, the bigger the magic used for the wish, right?” you asked.

He narrowed his eyes at you before sighing with an eye roll. “Yes…”

“What are you upset about? You’re the one who shared too much.” You said and tucked the wand up your shirt into the back of your bra. It wasn’t comfortable, but it wouldn’t make it easy for him to snatch it back. “So that being said, start drinking. I have two decent sized wished.”

He glared a minute before leaning closer to bite you. You quickly took both his hands and interlocked your fingers with his. He flinched from surprised and looked at your hands, then back at your face with curious annoyance.

“So you don’t get wandering hands.” You glared. “now drink.”

“You’re lucky you’re blood actually recharges my magic faster than human blood.” He huffed and leaned in again and bit your neck. While trying to distract you from the pain, you looked around for something else to focus on. You saw the two women who were just recently being tortured by the Anti-fairy. The young woman chained down struggled to get lose, while the porcelain lady tried to untie her, but her fingers started to chip like glass from scraping at the metal.

Anti-Cosmo started to pull away after one sip, but you wrapped your arms (and his) behind his back and pulled him against your body. He flinched, looking very startled. He struggled slightly, but you held him still. “More…” you glared with a warning tone.

“I don’t like my women so bossy.” He huffed.

“And yet every women in here, you wanted to have boss you around. DRINK.” You commanded again.

He hissed angrily but obeyed and drank more blood. You started to feel lightheaded, but kept your consciousness about you. “That should be enough.” You told him but he stepped closer and pushed you against the wall, still drinking more. “Hey! I said that’s enough!” you yelled and yanked him off, but still held his hands tightly. He you shoved back into the wall, making his wand poke you in the back. “Knock it off! You owe me now, remember?!”

“Like you, I won’t obey so perfectly.” He insisted. “Now you’ve made your payments, give me my wand back!” he glared.

You pushed him away at arms length then let go of his hands. He agreeably let go of yours and held one hand out expectantly.

You slowly reached back and grabbed the wand, pulling it out of your shirt. “The first spell you cast will be my wish, got it?” you glared.

“Oh? And how will you garentee that?” he frowned.

“Because you’re not a liar. You twist your words and others, but you don’t tell flat out lies. You dodge the question a lot too. Now I repeat, You will agree to the first magic you use when you get your wand back, will be my wish.”

He sighed in exasperation. “Fine, I agree!”

You finally handed it over. He took his wand from you and saw a little blood on one of the star point. He smirked and licked it off.

“Alright, so what is this big wish you have in mind?” he asked, looking cocky again.

“Get your wand ready to grant it as soon as I’m done saying it.” You said.

“You seem confident that it’ll stump and or upset me.” He said cockily. “You drastically underestimate me. And I’m sure you won’t wish me back into a safe in the ocean, you saw the effects of last time, you’re too nice~”

You took a deep breath. It was time. “I wish that you are unable to touch or hurt me, unless it’s life saving efforts or I give permission. I wish that after every wish, spell, use of magic, your wand automatically comes to me, and that this is the only wand you can use until I die.”

His eyes went wide with shock but smoke erupted around you two and his wand was missing when the smoke cleared. Something cold was wrapped around your neck. You felt it to find a thin chain with a single black star on it. In the back where the links were was what seemed to be the handle of the wand.

“My wand!” Anti-Cosmo said with desperation and reached for you but his hand was repelled. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?!” he said, seeming more shocked than angry.

“I’ve made myself the only possible master you could have forever.” You smiled.

“You’ve CURSED YOURSELF!” He emphasized. “WITH ME!”

“Effective.” You smirked. You reached back to the necklace’s wand handle. As soon as you closed your fist around it and pulled, the wand changed back into it’s original form. You held it out to him again. “Now I wish you’d restore those two back to their healthy normal forms.” You said, pointing to the porcelain woman and chained down woman.

He choked, seeming too stunned to do anything for a moment. Then, to your great shock, he smiled and snatched his wand away. “You cheeky little thing.” He smirked waved it for your wish. The two women were back to exactly how you found them, and the wand was back around your neck.

“As annoyed as I am that my revenge has been disturbed, I can’t help but feel a little…joyous.” He smirked at you. “Though taking my wand like that is making me a little more than annoyed.” He huffed slightly.

You were disappointed he wasn’t throwing a tantrum or anything. You were hoping for a better reaction. He seemed more satisfied than you were.

“What shall we do now little master?” he said in a mocking tone.

“You’re shockingly calm for someone who was just swindled out of their magic, and freedom.” You frowned.

“Only pure stupidity infuriates me. Being bested by someone clever…honestly brings me delight.” He smiled. “I can outlive you anyways.”

“Can you though?” you smirked back. “You can’t hurt or touch me. You’ll have to wait for someone else to off me. I can’t die of old age either.”

“Every woman around me dies. Every last one of them.” He whispered the last part, making you curious.

“For now, just take us home.” You said and removed the wand from your neck and handed it to him again.

“Ooooh~ our home?” he smirked. He took his wand from you and swung it around playfully. He waved it and you both wound up back at your penthouse. “I’m fine with the sound of that~”

“Wow, you go from ‘I can’t wait to get away and get revenge’ to ‘oh goodie we’re living together as master and slave’!” you growled and felt the wand, back around your neck.

“And you went from ‘oh you’re the worst!’ to…well, not too far off from that, but now you want to spend eternity with me~”

“You’re definitely still the worst. What I don’t get is why don’t you go find a woman of your own kind instead of constantly hunting terminal humans?” you asked.

He actually hesitated and looked away. “…I had a bride…”

You looked back at him in surprise. “w…an anti-fairy one? What happened? Divorced?”

“No no…that’s not really a…thing with us.”

“Then…what?” you asked expectantly.

He was quiet a minute before smiling again. “She died…probably the first Anti-fairy in centuries to accomplish that.”

“How?? Wooden stake?”

He actually laughed. “We’re not that alike! Besides…there’s a lot you don’t understand about the fae and Anti-Fae…”

“We’re going to be together for a long time. May as well.” You sat down.

He fluttered up and sat in midair. “Its not like you’d find my fairy counterpart anyways. Despite being an idiot he hides very well, as all fairies do, anti or not. First of all, you may or may not have noticed this, but I have a scar. I usually use magic to keep it hidden cause it’s a bit unsightly, but…” he lifted his shirt to see a bizarre star shaped scar on his stomach. “Despite being a fairy, the doctor was an imbecilic making such a massive unnecessary incision.”

“Whoa, I thought you healed fast! You didn’t have any scars from your deep sea adventure!” you said and looked at the scar closer.

“That because we are linked to our fairy counterpart’s. He didn’t have a deep sea adventure, so no scars. This scar was from an organ transplant. He took mine, I took his. While his organ was failing, mine was exceeding the use needed for an anti-fairy. It was mutually beneficial and I got out of fairy-worlds highest security prison as a bonus. But the only reason I got a scar, is because the same exact thing happened to him. Because we were inflicted the same injuries, permanent damage was done to us both.”

“So…your wife, did she die because her fairy half died too? And how?? Can’t imagine much that could cause real damage to you.”

“Care for a cautionary tale told between the Anti-fairy and fairy? It’s told as a reminder why the two Species don’t intermingle.” he smirked.

“A Fairy and an Anti, had one thing Akin

They both had same species folk, who’s lives were a sin.

So they combined their magic, mixed pure with perverse

But when the moment was done,

The trust was then none,

And they parted ways by hearse”

You blinked at him. “So…if the two species combine their magic, it can make a weapon that can kill them?”

“Basically, but there’s an anomaly…the story was they made bullets for their own enemies. They each took their share, but both shot each other at the same time. They say if one was honest, and the other shot at them, then they both would have survived. It’s only because they both planned to kill each other did they succeed. They made many bullets and only two were used. It’s said that after that, the fairies trapped us anti's to ensure their immortality. Only on Friday the 13th were some of us powerful enough to escape, but we were usually captured shortly after. Eventually we all escaped with the aid of a stupid child.”

He stepped towards your bed and laid on it, looking up at the ceiling. He held his hand out to you. “may I?”

You hesitated but gave him the wand. He waved his wand, and shadows began to form, some looking like him, another was identical women with curly hair, and the other was a tall crooked man. “ It was during on of my schemes to make the life of my species better. My wife, her fairy half, both were captured by some crackpot grade school teacher. Their capture only meant to hold them hostage, but he misaimed his bullet and hit both with the same bullet. It was pure …luck.” He said looking off into the distance as his shadows and wand vanished after acting out the scene he described. “They had no corpse’s. Unlike the rhyme, there was no hearse. No funeral. The Fairies…and the Anti-fairies. We all didn’t even know what to do…such a thing was only ever heard of in a story about not trusting one another.”

“That must have been painful. Have you mourned her properly?” you asked.

“I simply felt…no, nothing.” He looked away, rolling into his side. His wings cling to his back protectively, and his legs lifted closer to his body.

“Oh no. You’ve proven to not be the heartless monster you’ve tried to make yourself look like. You may have torture those women, but that was out of revenge. This was your wife, a being meant to live as long as you, probably the person closest to you. You’ve never really had to mourn before then, right?” you said, pulling him back to look at you. His face looked very sad and a little confused. “Why don’t we have an empty casket funeral? Maybe it’d help give you closure.”

He hesitated then his face cracked into a smiled. “I don’t need that, I need revenge. And now I know who to address my wrath to!”

“Did killing the human who killed your wife make you feel better?” you frowned, making his smile vanish. “Don’t tell me you didn’t seek revenge, not with how you’re acting now.”

“I did, but I have yet to find out how he found the bullets or even knew to look for them. Killing him was the most I could do for her. She often slowed me down anyways.”

“This is why you hunt women isn’t it?” you asked and he flinched. “You miss your wife but are constantly disappointed by the ones you come across. Let me guess, too breakable?”

“It doesn’t mater!”

“Oh yeah? What was your wife’s name?” you asked expectantly.

He hesitated a and looked away. “I-it doesn’t matter.” He said again.

“If it doesn’t matter, then just tell me. Or does it hurt too much to say her name?”

He got up from the bed and walked to the window. “I’m going for a flight.” He said as he opened the window.

“Avoiding me won’t help. I’ll still keep asking.” You said.

“Then maybe I won’t come back.” He glared.

“Without your precious wand?” you asked.

“I’ll get another one.”

“Part of my wish was this could be you one and only wand forever. So I doubt that.”

“Maybe I’ll learn to live without.”

“Good luck with your magical crashes.”

His fist clenched but he stepped into the window sill and vanished.

You decided not to worry about it for now and got busy. It was hard to find things to keep you busy since you’ve lived for so long, so lately you opted to videogames.

You sat on your couch and began to play a zombie killing game. You weren’t sure how long you played for, but eventually you heard the shutters open and bat wings flutter. You didn’t bother looking. You pretended to not notice and kept playing.

“Might I make a request?” he asked softly.

You paused the game and looked up expectantly.

“…another controller?” he asked and pointed to the one in your hand.

You rose your eyebrows but held the wand out to him. “I wish you had a matching controller.” You said as soon as he held it. In an instant, his wand was replaced with a gaming controller and he sat in the air with his legs crossed.

“So…how does this work?” he asked, trying to mimic how you held your controller.

You gave him quick short instructions and you both began to play till morning. The light hit his face first and his hissed before setting the controller down and rubbed his eyes.

“So…nice flight?” you asked as you set your own controller down.

“…Her name was Anti-Wanda.” He finally said. He reached into his coat and held a wallet out to you. You took it curiously but only found photos inside. There was pictures of him with a similarly colored woman with crooked teeth and curly blue hair. Her bright pink eyes stood out, just like Anti-Cosmo’s green eyes. She was using her feet to do odd things in some pictures, like holding a sandwich. All the pictures they were close and looked happy.

“You two look happy.” You commented with a smile.

“Id like to think so. I was always trying to make the conditions better for my kingdom and wife, but after she passed, well…I saw no reason to anymore, and just decided to hunt on my own.” He shrugged. “It was because of one of my schemes that she got caught anyways.”

“You didn’t expect anyone to be ready and waiting to catch her. Or be dumb enough to shoot his hostages. Stop blaming yourself. Besides, you have a designated food source now.” You told him. “We can go on our own adventures.”

“What about Anti-Binky?” he asked. “My revenge?”

“I don’t know about revenge, but maybe some justice is in order.” You said.

He cringed at the sound of the word “Justice”, but nodded. “That might be enough I suppose…”

“I’ve got a plan, don’t worry.” You assured.

“So do I. Might we Converse?” he asked.

“Sounds fair.” You agreed.

[madamebaggio]

Notes: Previously...

I also find very funny that I said Jon would take care of Sansa in the next chapter and everybody’s mind just went straight to the gutter. Honestly guys... This has a M rating... LOL

***

Chapter 3

Sansa woke up feeling confused and groggy. Her body felt heavy and she was convinced someone had given her poppy milk the day before. She remembered having a headache, so she’d probably had some before going to bed.

But… Why couldn’t she remember doing that?

Sansa sat up on her bed, and noticed she was alone. Jon must have left for his morning training, even though she couldn’t remember him coming to bed.

She looked out the window and saw it wasn’t as early as she’d thought it’d be.

How long had she slept?

That was when she remembered! She’d fainted the day before.

Oh Seven, how embarrassing.

She’d been dealing with that headache and then she argued with Jon and fainted! It’d been before the midday meal… Had she slept all this time?

The door opened and a maid entered. “Your Grace!” She smiled at Sansa. “I was coming to wake you up.”

“How long have I slept?” She wanted to know.

“Almost a whole day.” The maid told her simply.

“What?” Sansa sprung from the bed. “A whole day?”

“Almost.” The maid pointed out again. “It’s hardly an hour later than you’d normally awake, Your Grace.”

“Oh no! I have so many things to…”

The maid seemed uncomfortable now. “You see… Your Grace… The King…”

Sansa’s head snapped in the girl’s direction. “What has he done?” She asked.

“He asked us to prepare you a bath and breakfast.” The maid hurried to explain. “And that after that he’ll come see you.”

“But I have things to do.” Sansa insisted.

“The Maester and Lady Arya have divided your morning tasks between themselves, Your Grace. They’ll take care of it.”

“Sam and Arya?” What was going on? “Can you tell…” Sansa took a deep breath in. “Can you ask the King to come to see me as soon as possible?”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

The girl left and Sansa took a deep breath in. What were they all doing? Sam and Arya were now doing her work? What was Jon even thinking?

She needed to calm down. Besides, a bath did sound like a good idea; she still felt a bit groggy.

The water was deliciously hot when she entered the bath, and it smelled like lavender. The bath did wonders for her, especially when one of the maids came back to help her wash her hair.

When she was done, she went to her sollar to find a meal waiting for her, full of her favorite things.

Sansa wasn’t sure what this was all about, but she sat down and started eating. Jon arrived a bit after that.

“Sansa.” He sighed in relief, a small grin on his lips. “How are you?”

“I’m fine. What is going on?”

Jon cleared his throat and pulled a chair to sit down. “You fainted yesterday. Do you remember that?”

“Yes.”

“Sam said it was because you were exhausted.” Jon explained to her. “And it makes perfect sense. You’ve been acting as my hand and mistress of the Keep. You should’ve told me you were overloaded.”

“I’m not.” She protested. “I can do both.”

“You don’t have to.” Jon insisted. “I know you’re doing your best, but I don’t want you to do this at the expense of your health. I would like you to consider working solely as my Hand, and passing the running of the keep to someone else.”

That gave Sansa pause. “You want me to remain as your Hand?”

“Of course.” Jon’s tone was serious. “I need you by my side. I know you were raised to be the lady of the house, but I’d rather you work solely as my Hand.”

Sansa lowered her gaze. “I thought you’d prefer the other way around.”

“I can’t tell you what to do, Sansa.” Jon sighed. “If you want to stay as my Hand, I’d like that very much. However, if you’d rather take care of the keep…”

“No.” She was quick to say. “I do prefer being your Hand. It’s been… Difficult doing both.” She confessed.

Jon reached out and held her hand. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t want to worry you. You also have many things to do.” She explained, eyes on their hands.

“Even if I do… I’ll always worry about you, Sansa.” His thumb was making circles on her hand. “Especially when you faint and I have to grab you.”

She blushed. “Oh please. Is this what happened?”

Jon chuckled. “It was very heroic of me. You should’ve seen it.” He teased lightly.

She laughed. “I’m sure it was.”

They sat in silence for a while. Jon cleared his throat and got up. “Sam and Arya are taking care of your duties for today. Your only work for now is to think of someone that can take over the managing of the keep. Besides that, try and rest. Do whatever you want.” He paused. “Unless it’s more work.”

Sansa arched an eyebrow at him. “Is that an order, My King?”

Jon leaned over the table, plating his hands on its surface, as he looked into her eyes. “Aye. That is an order.”

After he left, Sansa sat there, completely shocked and more than a little bit excited.

***

It had been a long while since Sansa had been able to enjoy an idle day. Her first business was finding someone else to run the keep, but it turned out to be way too easy. Davos’ wife -Marya - had come to the North and she was really competent. Sansa would pass to her these duties.

After that was done… Sansa still had a lot of free time.

At first, she’d thought she’d have nothing to do and would spend the day bored.

It wasn’t the case.

She embroidered -something she loved doing and hadn’t been able to do for a while -and talked to the women around the keep.

It was nice talking and just being around other people.

In the end, the day passed fast.

It was as if she’d blinked and then she was supping with her family.

Jon had arranged an intimate dinner for them. While they normally supped in the main hall with others, tonight it was only the Starks, Sam and Gilly, Davos and Marya, and Tormund.

They were laughing and talking and things were great.

Sansa wondered if she’d been so tired lately that she hadn’t been able to enjoy simple things like this moment. After everything they’d been through, it’d be a waste to not appreciate these moments to the fullest.

She’d almost forgotten why they’d fought so hard to protect the North. They’d done it for their family, the people they loved.

Sansa didn’t know how long they were talking and drinking, but at some point she rested her cheek on Jon’s shoulder.

“Sansa?” His thumb caressed her cheek. “Are you tired?”

“I didn’t do anything the whole day.” She pointed out.

“I think Sansa’s drunk.” Arya commented, looking amused by the idea.

“I’ll take her to bed.” Jon said getting up and helping Sansa do the same. “Thank you all for the help today.”

“It was our pleasure.” Marya smiled at the King.

Jon guided Sansa through the hallways as she laughed for no reason.

“You look happy.” He commented, a fond smile on his lips.

“It was a great day. I didn’t know I needed this.”

“I’m glad you had the chance to rest.” They’d reached the door to their room. “I’ll get someone to help you out of your dress.”

“There’s no need.” She told him as she dropped her cloak on the bed. “If you can just untie the back for me, I can take care of the rest.”

Jon paused. “Are you sure? Because…”

“I don’t want to wait. Come on, Jon!” She gave him her back, pulling her hair over her shoulder. “Just do this.”

Jon could do this. It was a really simple task. Once he loosened the ties he’d wait somewhere else for her to finish getting undressed.

He took off his glove and started pulling at the laces of her dress.

“Jon?” Sansa called softly.

“Sansa?” He called back, a grin on his lips.

“Thank you for today.” She told him, her voice low and intimate. “I didn’t know how much I needed this.”

“I didn’t know anyone needed this.” Jon admitted. “We’ve been working non-stop for so long, Sansa… And you… You’ve done so much, sacrificed so much for us.” Jon had finished his task and it was time to leave, but… She was there and the night was so quiet… “I wish I could give you the world, Sansa, but -unfortunately- this is all I have to give.”

Sansa was quiet for so long, that Jon feared he’d said something amazingly stupid and she was wondering why she had to…

Sansa turned to him suddenly, arms going around his neck. Jon realized her intent a second before her lips were on his and she was pressing her body against his.

Jon couldn’t believe she was kissing her like this, with all the candles still burning and because she chose to.

And he knew all her kisses, the sweet ones, the careful ones and the hungry ones. When she kissed him like this -open mouthed and urgent - Jon knew they’d have a long night, because her desire fueled his and they would end up stuck on this never ending circle.

Jon really liked those nights.

However, she’d never kissed him in the light like then; Sansa never allowed him to even touch her before the candles were blown out. But she was kissing him, pulling at his clothes and biting his lower lip.

Her urgency made Jon lose his control and, before the thought had fully formed on his head, he was pulling at her clothes.

They’d never been this clumsy before. Clothes got stuck halfway and Jon almost fell down trying to take off his boots. They were both in an insane hurry, like they feared this would end if they didn’t get it done. As if it was a spell that would end by midnight and they’d never know what could have been.

Jon hadn’t even finished taking off his clothes when he picked Sansa up and dropped her on the bed -less charmingly than he’d have wished for. Sansa herself still had some clothes on, but he just had to do this, because he was terrible with words, but maybe like this she’d know how much he loved her.

She had to… Right?

He peeled her stockings and small clothes down her legs, before he kissed the inside of her thighs, brushed his beard against the sensitive skin.

He felt Sansa’s fingers grabbing at his curls as he drank from her, his name a prayer on her lips.

He’d have spent another hour -or three -doing just that, but Sansa pulled him up, bringing his lips to hers, uncaring that her taste was still on them.

Jon’s shirt was thrown away, his pants merely lowered enough to be out of the way, since Sansa wouldn’t let him get too far.

Jon pushed inside her, feeling her hot body receiving him.

“Jon…” She mewled sweetly.

Jon grabbed her waist and rolled them both, so he was on his back and Sansa was on top of her. “Jon!” She screeched, making him chuckle.

He sat up on the bed and cradled her face as he brought her in for a kiss. “Today you can have whatever you want.” He promised against her lips.

Sansa caressed his cheek. “Even you?” She asked.

“You always have me, Sansa.” He assured her.

There were tears in her eyes when she kissed him and Jon was mesmerized by them. Even after he helped her out of her shift, he couldn’t look away from her eyes.

That night, as Sansa took him, Jon had the mad hope -for the first time ever -that Sansa might love him as well.

***

Notes: Next one is the last one ;)

[resilientdolan]

Drown (G.D) - part 12

A/N: IM SO SOFT FOR THESE 2 WTF, also the smut is badly written, bear with me pls bc smut ain’t my thing.

Word-count: 2k+

Summary: Grayson gathered up his courage and asked his Bumblebee to go to the prom with him, and ended up spending some private time at the beach.

T/W: a dash of smut (RLLY JUST A DASH)

Tags: @bingexdolan @grantsairforce @prettyboydolan @kyaaawritings @3ooda97 @baby-grayson @ryxgrantdolan @foxglovedolan @evergreendolan @goldenndolan @nikesbailey @soledadgray @sosweetgrethan @twinfinitydolan @333dolans

———————————————————————

“Hahah, so that’s what happened?,” A light giggle comes out of Bianca’s lips as she listens to Grayson speaking through the phone.

“Yeah! Like Isla tried to talk to me once again, but Ethan was like— ‘leave my brother alone’,” the other person talking with her replies, as a light chuckle escapes him. In fact, her giggle is lowkey contagious, it makes him laugh.

“Well, you do deserve someone better,” Bianca lips form into a smile, though she knows that he can’t see her smiling. It’s been 3 months since the night Grayson saved her from the abusive monster named Declan Hayes, and ever since that night where he promised her that he’d never leave, their bond grew even stronger than before. They haven’t said anything about making things official, but they’re definitely more than bestfriends. Everyone knows that.

“Fuck yes,” he replies briefly. Bianca remains silent as her mind wonders.

What if the better one for Grayson is her?

“Bianca?,” Grayson calls for her name, breaking the silence between them.

“Yeah?”

“Nothing, just making sure you’re still up. Or are you falling asleep?,” he guesses. It’s not a secret for him that Bianca is a fast-sleeper. She falls asleep easily anywhere, anytime.

Bianca take a quick glance at the clock on her nightstand, with her hand rubbing her eye. It’s 2 minutes to 12 am, luckily tomorrow’s Saturday. “I’m still up, a little sleepy, though, but I’ll be fine,” she mumbles sleepily.

Grayson’s smiles grow a little wider as he listens to her sleepy voice. He knew it. His mind wanders, thinking about sleepy Bianca laying in her bed, struggling to keep her eyes open to talk to him. God, she’s the cutest.

Grayson glances over at Ethan, who’s laying on his bed with his phone in his hand, scrolling down through his messages to text Mabel, the girl that he has been talking to for the past 2 months. It’s obvious that Ethan’s so into her that he stays up late lately only to text her, or sometimes to talk to her through the phone. His other hand is grabbing 2 prom tickets, obviously for him and Mabel.

One crazy idea comes into his mind out of nowhere.

“B—Bianca?!,” Grayson pretends to stutter as he calls for the girl one more time. Bianca, who’s slowly falling asleep on the other line, quickly opens her eyes the moment Grayson calls her name.

“Gray? Are you okay?,” Bianca frowns.

It works. Grayson smiles to himself as he goes on with his own scenario.

“I—I need you to save me,” he tries to hold himself back from laughing. He can clearly picture her sitting on the edge of her bed, wondering about what’s happening with him.

“Grayson?”

“Bianca, s—save me...”

“Save you from what?”

“From...”

“From what?! Grayson, what’s happening?!,” Bianca nearly cries. He really got her good.

Feeling bad for scaring her, Grayson takes a deep breath, leaving her wondering in complete silence.

“Grayson are you there?!,” Bianca yells once again.

“I—I’m here, so... I—I need you to save me from...”

“Tell me,” she whispers, her voice is shaky.

“... Save me from going to the prom alone, Bumblebee, please? Will you?,” Grayson tries to speak in the calmest way as he can.

Another silence.

“... Fuck you, Gray. Fuck. You.” Grayson can hear her grunting on the other line. Hearing her grunts got him bursting into endless laughter.

“You scared me! The fuck, Grayson?,” a deep sigh comes out of Bianca’s lips as she throws herself back onto the mattress.

“Look, hey, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but I mean it,” Grayson coos. He feels bad for giving her panic attack. “Bianca, baby, will you?,” he asks once again.

“Grayson, say sike right now,” Bianca sinks her teeth into ther lower lip, though deep inside, she thinks she’s about to melt.

“Bianca Reine, my Bumblebee, will you save me from going to the prom alone?,” he repeats once again.

“Grayson?,” this time, Bianca calls for his name.

“Yeah?,” he replies, pretty anxious about her reaction.

“You know— I don’t want to be rude, but prom isn’t really my thing...,” Bianca sighs once again.

“Oh...,” The smile on his face slowly fades away as he listens to her answer. “So, you’re not—“

“... unless I’m going with you, Grapeson,” Bianca quickly cuts him off, followed with a light giggle.

Grayson’s smile quickly makes its way back to his face, and even grows wider than before. “Now sleep, Bumblebee, I know you’re tired, and it’s late for you,” he says.

“You know me way too well sometimes,” Bianca yawns. “I’ll talk to you once I’m up, yeah?,” she tucks herself in as she speaks.

“Goodnight, Bumblebee,” Grayson whispers. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Grapeson,” the sleepy girl replies.

Grayson waits for her to hung up in silence, but “night, Grapeson” isn’t the one that he gets. Instead of a goodnight, the only thing he gets in return is the sound of her soft snore. She fell asleep before she even got the chance to end the phone call.

“I love you, Bumblebee, I really do,” Grayson whispers once again, hoping his own sleeping beauty hears him in her sleep.

———————————————————————

“You look beautiful, Bumblebee. You really do,” for the millionth time, Grayson says it once again. His hand is rested on Bianca’s cheek as he keeps his gaze on hers, admiring the beauty sitting beside her.

There sits Bianca, wearing her light blue spaghetti strap mermaid dress, on the passenger seat of Grayson’s Porsche. Her dark locks that she usually ties into a messy bun, doesn’t make any appearance tonight. She got her hair waterfall-braided, which makes her looks completely different tonight.

Here they are sitting in Grayson’s Porsche, at the beach, once again. The place where they confessed their feelings for each other that night. They left the prom an hour ago, like— who cares about prom night as long as you got your favorite person with you?

Bianca’s cheeks turn pinkish as Grayson compliments her once again. Her hand makes its way up to the top of his head to toy with his short hair. “And Grapeson in a suit? You look so, um...,” Bianca pauses for a while, struggling to find the right word.

“Hot?,” Grayson teasingly whispers in her ear as a sly smirk comes across his lips.

Bianca spats his hand away from her cheek as she laughs. “Ew, Grapeson,” she shakes her head.

“What? You don’t want to admit it?,” he gives her a cute pout as he pretend to be sad.

“Okay, okay, maybe a bit,” Bianca squints her eyes as she replies, thinking about the possible reaction that he might give.

“A bit? You do know that your skill in lying is so damn bad, right?,” Grayson arches his brow just right before he starts to attack her face with soft kisses. Both of his arms are now wrapped around her waist to prevent her from escaping.

“Graaaaay, it tickes,” she tries to pull away, but Grayson notices her attempt that he tightens his arms around her. “Okay, okay, yeah, you’re hot, now let me go, please?,” she begs. So Grayson stops as soon as he gently pecks her lips as the final kiss.

“Can’t help myself, you look like an angel, Bumblebee,” he snickers, replied with a giggle from Bianca.

Grayson’s phone beeps, and he quickly pulls it out of his pocket to check for the notifications. It’s Ethan.

E: “bro, where ya at?”

G: “the beach”

E: “at what time did you leave? smh you didn’t tell me”

G: “an hour ago?? sorry, needa little time with my Bumblebee away from the crowd”

E: “‘my Bumblebee’? i see what you did there 👀”

G: “shut up”

“Gray?,” Bianca calls for his name.

“Yeah?,” Grayson quickly answers, but his fingers are still busy typing the message.

“Grayson?,” she calls once again. This time? Grayson puts his phone down to shift his attention back to her, but as soon as his gaze meets hers, his lips part into an o.

There sits Bianca, with her dress straps down, trying to reach her back to unzip her dress. “Can you help me with this?,” she looks up at him innocently.

“Bianca, w—what are you—“

“Um...,” she pauses, her cheeks are redder than before. “I heard that some people be— you know—,” she speaks nervously.

Grayson sinks his teeth into his lower lip to hold himself back from laughing as he tries his best to pay attention to her explanation.

“They have— y—you know—,” Bianca stutters once again.

“I thought you’re not ready for that? The last time that piece of shit asked you to do it with him, you cried, and you told me that you’re not even ready,” Grayson hums.

“No! No! It’s... different. Wait— you don’t want to?,” she frowns.

“I didn’t say that, I’m just making sure, Bumblebee. The last time we talked about this, you told me you ain’t ready,” he shakes his head. “Or maybe you want to save your virginity for marriage?,” he teases her once again.

“No, it’s just— I want this night to be remembered, Gray. I want it to be special, and—“

“Okay,” he quickly cuts her off as he takes his suit jacket off. Then his hands quickly move up to untie his tie, and throws it to the backseat.

Bianca bites her lower lip as she watches him doing so. In a quick motion, Grayson pulls her onto his lap, and rests both of his hands on each side of her waist.

God, he’s having an angel on his lap, and that angel is Bianca Reine; his Bumblebee.

Bianca awkwardly rests her palms on his cheeks, cupping them lovingly as she rests her forehead against his. Grayson emits a light chuckle as a reaction before he adds, “Bumblebee, it’s okay, it ain’t a fucking Biology exam, calm down, don’t be nervous.”

“J—just go slow, okay? Grayson, this is my fir—“

“Shh, hey,” Grayson coos as he takes her hand in his, gently drawing circular pattern on the back of her hand to calm her down. “I’d spend the rest of my night with you. Chill, we have a lot of time,” he whispers, just right before he attaches his lips onto the skin of her neck to nibble on it gently.

“G—Gray...,” a light moan escapes Bianca’s lips as she tilts her head aside for a bit to give him more access.

Grayson hums softly as his hands quickly makes their way to the back of her dress to unzip it. As soon as it’s completely unzipped, Bianca pushes it down until it reaches the level of her waist, leaving her upper body exposed to her bestfriend. Grayson continues to suck on the skin of her neck, but this time he moves his hands back to her fore part. He gently cups her breast as he continues to tease her.

“S—shit,” she whines. Grayson gently brushes the pad of his thumb across her perky nipple as he pulls away, to find her sitting on his lap with her upper body fully exposed.

“Jesus Christ, Bianca,” he mumbles. “You look so fucking perfect.”

“You think so?,” Bianca whispers, her hands making its way to his chest to unbutton his shirt.

“You have no idea how much I’ve thought about having you like this with me,” Grayson move his hands up to rest them on each side of her neck. “You have no idea, Bumblebee.”

“I trust you more than Declan, Gray. That’s why I’m yours tonight,” Bianca nods as she eagerly yanks his shirt off.

“You trust me?,” he smiles for a bit.

“I trust you, with everything that I have,” Bianca nods once again.

Grayson smiles and pulls her in to plant a passionate kiss onto her lips, and she eagerly returns the kiss. As soon as they break the kiss, Bianca glances down at him, with a thin smile on her lips.

“Make love to me, Grayson. I want this night to be remembered, forever.”

“Gladly, my Bumblebee.”

[elisela]

echo oscar mike buck x eddie, 1.9k, vermont verse @extasiswings​ wanted eddie to have a cat in vermont and I wasn’t gonna do it but then .... well, it’s chapel so.

Eddie learned, very shortly after moving to Vermont, that he likes routine. He thrives off it—blame his parents and their strict schedule when he was growing up, blame the military, or maybe just blame his personality—but he finds comfort in knowing what his day is going to look like when he wakes up in the morning.

And he has a good one, has had a good one since he met Buck and fell into an easy(ish) life with him, waking up in the morning to kick a seventy-five pound dog off his bed so he can have sex with his husband, said husband making him breakfast every morning, filling up his days with workouts, running the youth center a few days a week, taking classes at the community college just because he hates being bored, and being home by the time his kid and Buck are both back just to spend the rest of the day with them.

(Less Chris these days, now that he’s sixteen and more interested in girls, trying to convince Eddie to take him in for an exam so he can be cleared to drive, and spending every waking minute out of the house and with his friends. Eddie’s mom had said he was too permissive last time she called and Chris hadn’t been home, but Chris is happy, Buck is happy, and Eddie is certainly happy, so he tried not to let it get to him.)

So Eddie’s in the middle of his Tuesday routine—breakfast with Bobby, Combat to Classroom lecture at a community college in Burlington, and a run around the University of Vermont campus before he heads home to clean up before opening the youth center—when he passes the Delta Tau Delta house and stops.

He’s not sure why the cardboard box catches his eye, but it does, and laying inside is one tiny kitten, eyes closed against the soft rain that’s falling.

Eddie’s parents were not big on pets growing up. His dad was never home, and he can still hear his mother saying, “when you’re mature enough to take care of a pet on your own, then we’ll talk.” Christopher had been born before Eddie was ever deemed mature enough for a pet, so it wasn’t until he’d found Ox out on the trail that he had gotten any experience. But Ox was a monster, a beast of a dog who took up so much room that he and Buck had gotten new furniture just to accommodate him.

So this—this tiny tan and black kitten that might fit in Buck’s palm—he’s not sure what to do, so he does what he always does when he has a question, and he calls Hen.

“Eddie, being a surgeon is not the same as being a vet,” she sighs when he fills her in. “Is the cat warm?”

He bends down and strokes a finger over its fur and down to its paws. “Not really,” he says, “but her eyes opened so she’s still alive. Should I take her to the vet?”

“Sometimes I wonder about you,” Hen says, and Eddie grins even though she can’t see him. “Yes, take the cat to the vet. But you know you’re gonna have to keep it for awhile, don’t you? The shelters have been full for months, that always happens when it starts getting colder.”

“Well, what else am I supposed to do, leave her to die?” he says—

—which is the same thing he says that night to Buck, when Buck takes three steps inside the door, looks at Eddie bottle-feeding the cat, and says, “no.”

“No,” Buck says again, shaking his head as he toes off his untied boots and kicks them under the bench. “You already—” he leans down and kisses Eddie, a soft press of lips at the corner of his mouth, “—brought this beast into our—get off me Ox, let me get my jacket off first—into our house without asking.”

“She was in a wet cardboard box,” he says, looking down and tilting the bottle to get the last drops out. “What was I supposed to do, leave her to die?”

“Leave her at the vet,” Buck says, scratching Ox on the head and moving towards the kitchen, talking as he disappears through the doorway. “I put chicken in the fridge to thaw this morning but I think I want—Eddie!”

“I think he saw the litter box,” Eddie whispers to the little bundle in his hands, setting the bottle down and sliding her back into his hoodie pocket to keep warm. He stands up, sliding a hand into his pocket to make sure she’s secure, and goes to console his husband. Buck might be upset, but he’ll get over it. “The vet wouldn’t take her,” he says, leaning against the doorway and watching as Buck looks over the bags on the kitchen table.

Eddie’s never had a cat; he had no clue what to buy, so he just … bought one of everything.

There’s something—off, about it though; when he’d brought Ox home, Buck had sighed and complained about it, but he hadn’t looked—mad.

Like he does now.

“I named her Echo,” Eddie offers, expecting to be laughed at, for Buck to roll his eyes and finally crack a smile, but he just lets out a breath and allows the bag to fall from his hand. “Buck,” he tries again, “really, the vet wouldn’t take her and—”

“And did you try anywhere else?” Buck asks, looking at Eddie skeptically. “Because the seven bags from The Dog and Cat tell me that you didn’t.”

“Hen said the shelters were all full,” Eddie says. “Maybe I should have talk to you first, but you were busy—”

“Funny, you’ve never thought I was too busy working when you want me to come home in the middle of the day because you want me to fuck you—”

“—and you love cats,” Eddie says over him, because he can’t exactly argue with that. He’s definitely taken advantage of Buck working for himself now, not having a set schedule or time-frame unless it’s his own making, the couch out in the workshop getting so much use that Buck had joked about finally just bringing a bed in. “You volunteer at an animal shelter, I didn’t think it would be a big deal.”

“I walk the dogs,” Buck says, “and you didn’t think that, you thought if I came home and saw the cat that I’d just accept it like I did with Ox.”

Eddie opens his mouth to keep arguing, but Buck crosses his arms over his chest, and he closes it again. Buck doesn’t get closed off like this often, and although he still thinks he had a good reason—he’s not leaving any animal outside, exposed to the rain that’s now pouring down—but he’s also aware that Buck is … entirely right. Somehow, Eddie had fallen in love with Echo in between jogging back to his car with her wrapped in his hoodie and walking into the veterinarian’s office, and he really didn’t intend to look for a home for her anywhere else.

They haven’t fought in a long time, he thinks suddenly, because he has no clue what to do right now.

“I’m gonna go out to the workshop,” Buck says, “can you take care of dinner?” and leaves without waiting for the answer, motioning for Ox to follow him.

Ox goes, the traitor.

---

Eddie gives it an hour, calls the little italian restaurant that’s on the way to the ski resort—where Eddie had taken him on their first date—and orders Buck’s favorite dishes and a slice of peanut butter pie, because if he’s going to pull out all the stops he might as well get the dessert they’d shared that night. He checks in with Chris, who sends a picture of himself with three of his friends at Pizza Putt, grinning widely and holding up mini-golf clubs, and shuffles around the house cleaning up to kill time until the food is ready.

With just a few minutes left, he realizes suddenly that taking Echo with him is not a great idea, and he doesn’t want to leave her alone in the house, which means—

“Hey,” he says, stepping into the workshop. “I—are you okay?”

Buck’s laying on the couch, hand against his rib cage; he winces when he sits up. “I wasn’t watching where I was going in the house and I kinda ran into a dresser that May was bringing in,” he says quietly, and lifts his shirt. There’s a large bruise blooming under his skin, spreading across his side.

Eddie crouches down beside him, careful not to jostle Echo in his pocket, and rests his hand against the spot, pushing gently. “You want to go to the hospital? I don’t think it’s anything serious—”

“I’m fine, Eds,” Buck says, pulling his shirt down before Eddie withdraws his hand. “Dinner ready?”

“I gotta go pick it up,” he says, “but—I’m sorry. I should have called you, and I’ll call around tomorrow to see if there’s a shelter that can take her or someone who wants her. I’ll find a home for her.” Buck nods, but his gaze is on Eddie’s pocket, where Echo is poking her head out. “Would you watch her while I get the food?”

“Sure,” he says, and when Eddie sets her in his hand, Buck curls his arm to his stomach to hold her, and uses the other hand to pull Eddie down for a kiss.

---

There’s a fire going in the living room when he gets home, the first of the year; October is wetter than normal and Eddie makes a mental note to buy firewood over the weekend, because he has a feeling they’re going to need it more often this winter. Buck’s not on the couch, though, and there’s no trashy reality show playing on the television, so he goes through to the kitchen, pulling off his jacket and hanging it up on the coat stand.

Buck’s not there either, but all of the bags from the pet store have been cleared away, so he starts setting out dinner—transferring it onto plates instead of leaving it in the boxes like they normally do—and is wondering if they even own candles for a candlelight dinner when Buck comes around the corner, hair damp and wavy, clearly just out of the shower with his joggers and t-shirt on.

In the stretched out chest pocket of his blue shirt is Echo, curled into a half circle, eyes closed. One paw sticks out, and Eddie feels such a sudden pressure in his chest that he thinks he may be having a heart attack.

“Don’t say a word,” Buck says, fitting a hand around Eddie’s hip and kissing him. “Is this from Trattoria?”

“Buck.”

“No.”

“Buck,” he says, staring down at Echo’s fuzzy ears.

Buck kisses him again, his lips pressed sweetly against Eddie’s, and Eddie has to force himself not to press up against him, mindful of the tiny kitten residing in his husband’s shirt pocket. “Shut up, Eddie,” he says, but it’s soft, gentle.

“And he said we had to give you away,” Eddie says to Echo when he pulls back, stroking one of her ears with the side of his pinky. “Looks like you went and found yourself a home.”

[simply-trash5]

Running

Eeeeeep. Time for Chapter Three!

“You told me to text you sometime, well sometime is now. I hope you get some sleep Y/N...and that you decide to meet me this afternoon at 4:00 for a run. I’ll be in front of your building. Hope to see you then :)” 

You looked down at your phone giving a smirk. Texting him back seemed kind of strange so late at night so you decided to send him a message tomorrow. You had no idea if you wanted to run with him tomorrow. You hadn’t worked out in a very long time; at this point you didn’t know if you had athletic wear or running shoes. Putting all of the thoughts out of your mind you climbed into bed falling quickly off to sleep.

That night you dreamed about what happened earlier that day but the story played out differently. Lee still helped you up but somehow you found the confidence to tell him that he was cute. Of course, this being a dream, he told you that you were cute too and asked you to get coffee. You woke up just before you could answer.

“You have got to be kidding me…” your phone rang waking you from seeing if you decided to go on the date with a guy who you seemingly shared your whole life story with. You were surprised to see a text from him with a man running emoji. You giggled at your phone and just locked it. Part of you wanted him to be surprised when you showed up,but part of you knew he was just being nice and there was no way that fate had brought you two together. “Y/N chill the fuck out.” You took a deep breath in and rose from your bed. 

You checked the clock and saw that it was already 2:00 and that you had slept the entire morning away. You jumped out of bed, thanking God that it was saturday and began searching your wardrobe for a workout set. You finally settled on long black athletic leggings and a dark gray hoodie. You slicked your h/c hair into a high messy bun and filled your water bottle. 

In the time that you had before you walked downstairs you thought about how strange it was to go on a run with a stranger, especially someone as fit as Lee. Your thoughts drifted back when you saw his dark eyes large with worry when he knocked you over and the small blush that rose to his cheeks when he figured out that you were alright. You checked your phone again, “okay 3:55, let's walk downstairs.” You bounded down the stairs ready to surprise the tall, lanky gentleman. 

In front of the building bounced back and forth on the balls of his feet. He loved running. He loved the energy of it all. The wind in his hair, the sun on his face, the feeling right before he thought he would give up and he would power through to the end. Out of all physical activity he did,running was his favorite. It even brought a girl mysteriously into his life. He checked his phone hoping that you had gotten his last text. He had to resist texting you more because he had a tendency to be overbearing. He checked his sports watch, found his playlist on his phone, and began to warm up by stretching, moving his cold muscles in the weather. That was when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He stood up stick straight with huge smile on his face. “Y/N! I can’t believe you decided to come! We are going to have so much fun.”

You groaned and reached in your pocket to find your phone and earbuds. “Shit.” You muttered under your breath. “Uh so I forgot my phone. Should I go back and get it?”

Lee shook his head vigorously. “No worries! I uh...know you like playlists so I kinda made one that I was going to share with you later, but um if its not too weird you can wear one of my earbuds.

You grabbed the earbud from his outstretched hand and put it in your ears. You began to stretch your legs and jogging in place to get your body warm. You heard one of your favorite songs come on the mix and you looked at Lee with wide eyes. Lee returned the look with a grin.

“Y/N! You know this song don’t you? It is SO good.” He bobbed his head and continued stretching. He turned away from you and sighed to himself. He somehow felt like he passed a test. Maybe if he could get through this run without completely losing his nerve he would ask you out and not just ask you to workout. 

Somehow the idea of letting you into his element calmed him though. He knew that no one had to say or think anything when running unless they wanted to. Despite his happy demeanor, Lee had anxiety that he had struggled with since he was a little kid. All he ever wanted to do was love himself and make his loved ones proud, and he planned to keep proving that he was worth it to everyone in his life. Life seemed to make more sense when he realized that he could do what he loved and turn it into something to make his family proud. 

“Lee, you ready to start? If I don’t start running soon I'm pretty sure my fingers are going to freeze off.” Lee snapped back to the present and looked at you with a smirk on his face. 

“Alright, try not to beat me okay?”

You rolled your eyes and started off on the running course through campus. The music kept getting better and you were honestly super impressed. He had music that you hadn’t heard since you were a kid and some stuff that you would have never imagined he listened to. 

You were slightly behind him while running. His cheeks were red, his brows were furrowed and his hair bounced on his forehead with each step he took. You could feel the corners of your mouth turn up into a smile. You never intended actually liking Lee, but you could feel yourself growing warmer imagining spending more time with him. 

Your thoughts were going beautifully, until you stepped in a hole. You twisted your ankle and fell to the ground with a loud “SHIT.” Lee stopped and turned around looking at you in a heap on the ground clutching your ankle. Tears pricked at your eyes from the pain as you bit your lip willing them back in. 

“Oh my God, Y/N are you okay?” Lee jogged over to you and crouched down beside you on the ground. He reached out to touch your ankle and you winced as his fingers touched it. “Y/N…we need to get you somewhere to get it checked out.”

You cursed yourself and shook your head. “No Lee, I’m fine. Let’s just walk for a bit yeah?” Lee nodded in agreement and helped you from the ground. You stepped and began to fall over again. Lee grabbed your arm and held you up. He looked at you, his big eyes full of concern, lips pursed.

“Y/N, I think we better get you back to your room. You can get on my back and I’ll carry you!”

Your face grew incredibly red and you began to stutter, “L-lee I d-don’t think-k thats a g-good idea. I’m kind of heavy.” Your eyes drifted to the ground and you mentall kicked yourself for being a clutz. 

“I insist. Please let me help you Y/N.” He reached out and grabbed your hand. Despite the pain in your ankle your heart fluttered a little bit. You shook your head, giving into his request. You climbed onto Lee’s back and wrapped your arms around his neck. He held your legs carefully; trying not to touch your hurt ankle. 

You were as light as Lee had imagined. He loved the feeling of you holding onto him and needing him despite you still not knowing much about each other. He had a small smile on his face the entire way back to your building. He knew you lived on the third floor because of your conversation last night by the reflection pool and knew there was no way you could get up there on your own. “Y/N swipe your card, I’m going to carry you to your room and settle you in. It was me that got us in this mess in the first place.”

You reluctantly let the two of you in the building and he huffed up the stairs with hardly any trouble. Once he got into your room he sat you on your bed. He reached a cold hand down to trace your ankle, noticing how it was swelling. Goosebumps rose on your skin under his calloused touch. You both looked at each other and blushed looking away from each other. 

“Y/N, can I help you take off your shoe? I want to get you an ice pack for the swelling.” He reached his hand out again and after permission began to untie your shoe. At the moment he leaned in to pull it from your foot you also leaned into help. The two of you brushed noses and froze. 

In that moment you wanted to kiss him despite barely knowing him. He wanted to kiss you even though he was nervous he might do the wrong thing. You looked down to your lap and began to blush. The tension in the room was intense. Both of you wanted something more but were so scared to make a move. It was when Lee reached up to tuck a strand of hair behind your ear that you decided you had a full on crush and that running might be the best thing that had happened to you in a long time.

[naughty-noodles]

The omega and Alpha thing with Toby was fucking awesome- Could you do a part two when you have time? Like Toby kidnaps the omega and kinda forces themcto like him. You're writings really good ☺️

Y/n awoke groggily, head pounding like a motherfuck. The light from a nearby window shone directly on their face, making them move to pull the blanket up. Confusion knit their eyebrows tightly as they realized their arms were restrained beside them.

Y/n's head shot up to see the leather cuffs that kept them from moving too far. Their feet were free to their relief but that emotion quickly faded when the events from the night before came flooding back.

"HELLLLP!!! SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!!" They cried, thrashing their feet and pulling against the restraints. Y/n fell back onto the bed with a thud, realizing their efforts were fruitless. They were alone and likely well hidden.

After Y/n caught their breath, they began looking around. The walls were made of logs so it was probably a cabin located in who the fuck knows where. The light coming in from the window was bright and direct. Depending on their direction, it was either early morning or late evening.

The bed smelled like mothballs as if it hadn't been used since its last wash... whenever that was, and the only other furniture in the room was a small dresser and a nightstand.

Y/n laid there, listening to a ticking clock in the hallway until the exhaustion set back in and pulled them back into unconsciousness.

A door slamming shut caused y/n to jolt back from their sleep moments later. Scraping footsteps and a groan made their heart pound fast.

"Can't do anyth-thing right, can they?"

That voice struck fear into y/n's chest as they struggled against the restraints more.

"Oh, hey. You're up."

The masked man had peered his head in. Y/n laid there too fearful to say anything. The killer removed his goggles and pulled his hood off but kept his face guard on. With a huff, he knelt by the bedside.

"Look... I know you're a-afraid... but I'm not going to hurt you. What yo-you saw was strictly business." His eyes crinkled, showing a weak smile.

"Why..." y/n coughed, their voice strained from the yelling from earlier. "Why do you stutter like that..?"

A maniacal laugh erupted from the killer.

"Of all the things y-you could say to- to me first, you ask about my f-fucking t-tourettes?!" He fell to the floor, seemingly amused by the question. After his laughter subsided, he stared with a bemused look at the omega in front of him. "You're a weird one"

He got up and shut the door before pulling out a pocket knife. Y/n's eyes widened at the sight, breath hitching in fear.

"Relax, omega. I said I'm not going to hurt you." Toby reached for the restraints and began sawing at their bindings.

"The name's T-Toby. I had to restrain y-you while I was g-gone so don't take it personally. Also..." he turned and gave them a look. "Don't try to run when these are off. I'm stronger, faster, and f-from the turnout of l-last night... smarter. If y-you are to live, then you a-are to live here."

Y/n nodded quickly.

"I'm serious, d-despite these f-f-fucking tics" he struggled to get out. "Don't be stupid."

When the bounds were removed, Toby helped the omega sit up, warning them to move slow to avoid getting too dizzy. He seemed more gentle now, not wanting to terrify them.

Y/n rubbed their sore wrists with a wince.

"I'll get you some water. S-Stay here. You won't be f-fit to walk yet."

He left the room, leaving the door cracked. If y/n had said the thought of bolting hadn't crossed their mind, they'd be lying. With how weak they felt and how sure they were of being killed if they tried, it was best that they listened.

Toby had returned shortly with a glass of water. He had even put ice in it, which y/n was grateful for.

"Drink slow."

The cold water had soothed their dry and sore throat. Despite trying to hide it, a relieved hum left their lips. Toby chuckled and took the glass when they finished. He didnt want to risk them shattering it for a weapon, as little as the risk seemed.

Smart little omega, he thought to himself.

A moment passed before y/n dared to speak. "If you're so certain you could kill me if I escaped... then why dont you take your mask off? I mean, if I'm to stay here or risk my life... then can't I at least see my captors face?"

"Captor?" Toby snorted in amusement. "Well if we are b-being tech-technical then I guess that's true."

After a moment of thought, he reached behind his head and began untying it. "Just... prepare y-yourself. It's pretty gnarly."

The mask fell off with ease, revealing a large gash in his cheek. Y/n could see his teeth and gums with how wide it was. They scooted a bit further away with a grimace on their face.

"Told ya."

"How...how did that happen? I've never seen anything like that..."

"Along with tourettes, I also hav-have this thing called CIP. I can't feel pain. It doesnt h-hurt but as a kid, when I got n-n-nervous, I'd chew on my cheek. Only the p-pain wasnt there to stop me."

He removed the gloves on his hands and held them up. Each had was riddled with scars and teeth marks.

"Also developed a n-nasty habit of chew-chewing on my hands.."

Y/n frowned and shakily raised a hand to trace the scars while Toby sat with a blank look on his face.

"You think I'm s-some sort of mo-monster, don't you?"

The omega's eyes shot up to meet his brown ones with shock. "No...no... it actually makes you seem more human, really..." y/n gave a weak smile "I mean, killing everyone else in that bar and threatening to kill me then keeping me captive is scary but honestly, seeing your flaws kinda... puts me at ease."

Toby raised an eyebrow. "You... are taking this surprisingly well, omega."

They shrugged. "Trying to make the most of my current situation seeing as if I leave, I die. No offense but i still dont like you."

Toby frowned. "Understandable, I guess." After a moment he stood up. "You should get some more sleep. That pill had en-enough dosage to take down a m-man twice your size."

A week had passed and y/n was beginning to lose all hope of a normal life. Toby was rarely at the cabin and the isolation was beginning to make the omega crack. It got to the point where the omega was excited for the mornings he'd return from what he called his "job".

They rarely went outside, despite being allowed the privilege of staying within 20 feet of the cabin. Toby had trusted that y/n would stay but only for one reason. He had showed them a picture of what resided in these woods if y/n had ventured too far. A creature he called the rake.

The mere sight of it was enough to keep y/n indoors. If they did go outside, it was only to the cabin porch with the door open to allow easy access back inside. Some nights, the omega could swear they heard the creatures cry of agony at not being permitted near the cabin.

Toby had told them that the only thing keeping that creature back was due to the nature of his job and the man he worked for. It made the omega shudder, thinking that someone was that powerful enough to control the beast.

Toby had another residence where he stayed at more often to keep up appearances. When asked if they could go with one day, he gave a firm no. He had told them the place was full of other alphas, and some were so messed up and bloodthirsty that the thought of an omega in their midst would drive them more wild.

The more respected of the bunch each had their own cabin where they were permitted some privacy. No one was allowed over unless invited. The lack of trust was obvious but the mutual gain was enough to keep them from tearing at each other.

So y/n remained where they were, cleaning, cooking, pacing, and finding whatever ways to amuse themselves while the time passed.

Toby had attempted to win them over with gifts, their favorite foods, and a basic level of trust. Slowly but surely, he was winning.

Everything slowly became second nature... until y/n's omega nature kicked in and they began nesting. Every blanket and pillow in the cabin was taken. The closet was emptied and replaced with every comfy piece of cloth the omega could find. Not a thing was out of place, just how the omega liked it.

But once they snuggled down to rest, they became irritated. Something was missing. Something vital. And the omega in them would not rest until they found out what.

Y/n searched the entire house, sniffing every couch cushion and curtain but nothing was right. They began pacing and biting at their nails. By the time the door opened, the omega was nearly pulling out their own hair.

Toby stopped at the door and raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Um... what are you doing?"

"Its missing something." The omega grumbled right before their nose caught onto his scent. The whipped around to face him.

"Um??"

"Jacket. Now." The omega glared.

"Excuse me? T-The fuck?"

"Jacket." The omega walked forward and grabbed at it. "I need it."

Confused but slowly becoming more amused, the alpha complied. "Have at it, I g-guess?"

Y/n snatched it and ran toward the bedroom to their closet. Toby attempted to follow but only got so far as the bedroom door before the omega growled. It was then when it got through Toby's thick skull. They were nesting. He's only seen it happen twice. Once when his sister was beginning to present and again when Jeff's brother Liu chose a place to nest at the mansion.

He decided it was best to leave them alone.

The omega began placing the jacket in its correct spot before plopping down, purring happily. An hour or two passed before they began to get antsy again. Something more was missing and the omega begrudgingly knew what. With a small growl, they went back to the living room where Toby lay on the couch, eyes closed in rest.

His eyes opened when he sensed the omega's presence. Pouting, y/n grabbed his hand and began pulling.

"Can I help you?" He chucked, getting up.

"Come." The omega dragged him toward the closet and pointed to their nest. "You go here."

Confused, Toby obliged.

"Okay, 'mega. Now what?"

"Now we sleep." Y/n plopped beside him, now content again. Toby remained at a loss for what to do. The omega stared at him expectantly.

"Well...?"

Racking his brain and wondering that the fuck it was the omega could be wanting, he lay there confused. Until it hit him. Omega's often seek approval of their nests. Without another Omega here to approve, he had to fill that role.

"Its comfy. I like it."

With a happy hum, the omega snuggled up beside him and drifted off while Toby lay there dumbfounded at what he got himself into.

Until he realized. After nesting, comes heat.

.....fuck.

[hollandspiderling]

Pillow Talk

Summary: Pillow Talk | n. Sweet and inviting talk that really has no point. Doesn’t have to be sexual nor follow anything sexual; intimate talk between lovers while lying in bed. 

Pairing: Tom Holland x Reader (Uni!AU) 

Warning: None, just plain old fluff.

Word Count: ~3.5k 

Author’s Note: Here is another one-shot that I couldn’t help myself with writing. I found it in one of my old archives on a website I used to write on and wanted to revamp it. Also imagining just being all soft and cute with Tom makes my heart melt, hope you guys enjoy reading this! xoxo, Astrid. 

‘Another tiring day done…’

You smiled to yourself as you put away the last dish in the cupboard before stretching your arms. The faint sound of the shower could be heard as you leisurely made your way towards the master bedroom.  A contented sigh escaped your lips as you mentally gave yourself a pat on the back for accomplishing the goal that you’ve had for a while. Ever since you and Tom decided to move in together, you promised yourself that you’d become a better cook for him. When you guys first started dating during your first year of university, you weren’t that great of a cook but being the gentleman that he was, Tom always gave you high praises for your first attempts. Three years later and with his request of moving in, you took it upon yourself to sign up for cooking classes in your spare time as well as watching YouTube videos to follow. And once you saw the twinkle in his eye and the way he ate your food with much gusto that night, you knew that your hard work finally paid off.

As you entered your shared bedroom, you untied your hair that was in a bun and ran your fingers through the tangles. Music could be faintly heard in the bathroom as Tom continued taking a shower and you hummed along to the tune. You did your usual nightly facial routine before changing into a loose V-neck and a pair of Tom’s boxers. A giggle escaped your lips as you listened to your boyfriend sing along to Umbrella by Rihanna. You rolled your eyes as you made sure your things were ready for work the next day thinking to yourself, ‘As much as he says he hates Umbrella ever since he did the lip sync, that boy still loves to sing along to that song.’ Slipping underneath the white covers, you plugged in your phone into its charger as you heard the shower stop along with his music playing from his phone. The door opened and his familiar scent of Old Spice filled the bedroom as he rustled around for clothes.

Setting down your phone on the bedside table, you turned around and smiled at him. Tucking your hands underneath the pillow you were lying on; you admired your boyfriend’s toned body. His boxers hung low to the point where you could see the slight dent of the dimples on his back as well as how toned the muscles of his back were due to constantly working out. He dried the curls you loved to run your hands through with the towel that was hanging around his neck and you didn’t flinch when he turned around to find you staring at him. Tom smirked lightly as he playfully winked at you.

“Admiring what you see?”

You laughed and threw his pillow at him. “What can I say? You’ve been getting more toned every time I see you. I can’t help but admire the progress.”

“You have to thank Harrison for asking me to gym with him. The guy never knows when to let me breathe.” Tom chuckled as he slipped on a pair of sweats.

“Remind me the next time we all come together for dinner. I’ll definitely have to give him my thanks for making sure you are in tip-top shape.”

“What’s that supposed to mean, darling? I wasn’t at my best shape, before?” he joked, tossing his pillow that fell onto the floor back at you. He gave you a pout and you playfully shook your head.

“You know that’s not what I meant, Tommy. I’ll love you in any shape or form. But that V-line is getting more and more defined every time I see you.” You teased and playfully wriggled your eyebrows at him. You laughed as you hugged the pillow he threw at you. Tom quirked an eyebrow at you as he stopped drying his hair and said, “Y/F/N, keep looking at me like that and you will be getting tickled once I’m done here. Never ever give me such a cringey face again.”

Jokingly mimicking back what he said to you, you laughed and motioned for him to sit on the bed you shared before getting up from your position. You grabbed the towel and began to softly finish drying his hair for him. Tom closed his eyes and leaned into your warmth. A contented sigh left his lips as he turned his head and softly kissed the inside of your wrist before crossing his arms over his chest.

“You are such a dork, love; I sometimes catch myself asking why I’m with you.” He jokingly murmured.

You tugged on his hair lightly and smiled in victory as you saw him wince. “Well I guess you’re stuck with a dork who is the only one that is able to nerd out with you. You’re stuck with me babe.”

He smiled at your words and melted inside when you pecked his cheek and patted his shoulder. Tom would never get tired of your company and it’s these times that you guys had to yourselves that kept him going when things at work got tough. A moment of comfortable silence fell upon you two as you enjoyed each other’s presence. You peppered his face in kisses before moving away and lightly slapped his shoulder.

“Alright, now finish up because I’m getting lonely here.” You giggled.

Tom groaned as he lazily got off the bed and began to make his way back to the bathroom. He turned around and winked at you. “Don’t miss me too much, I’ll be back love.”

“Don’t worry, I’m more than comfy here on this bed. But if you do take too long, then I might just knock out before you.”

You shook your head in amusement as you heard him laugh and stuck his tongue out at you before disappearing into the bathroom. Falling onto your back, you stared at the ceiling as you waited for Tom to finish getting ready for bed. You still couldn’t believe that your relationship was still going strong despite all that you’ve been through. Your friends and the people around the both of you claimed that you guys wouldn’t make it due to your busy schedules because a lot of couples would often not make it through their first year of university. Your orbits never met unless it was with your friends on the weekends when everyone was free, but other than due to being in two different majors, it sometimes got hard to make time for each other. But in the end, you proved everyone wrong by going strong all throughout your college careers and finally moved in together after landing stable jobs.

Four years and it still feels like we just began dating…

Your eyes traveled to the picture that was sitting on your dresser. It was a photo that the two of you took when Tom surprised you with a trip to London on your third-year anniversary. You were in the midst of laughing as you held onto your cardigan and his arm was slung over your shoulder. You smiled to yourself as you remembered that you were walking along the bridge across the river when all of a sudden Tom surprised you from behind before kissing your temple and took the picture. On the back of it, Tom had written a heartfelt message to you once it was developed, promising that he’d never hurt you and one day make you his wife.

“Falling asleep on me, already?”

You looked over your shoulder to find Tom smiling down at you as he joined you under the covers. You shook your head and nodded towards the photo you were looking at.

“Nah, I was reminiscing our London trip.”

Tom’s arms automatically wrapped themselves around your frame, bringing you closer to him. Spooning her, he nuzzled into the crook of your neck and hummed in happiness as he remembered your trip as well. You closed your eyes as you relaxed in his embrace, both of you wrapped up in your own world.

“It was a great trip, wasn’t it? I feel like that was what solidified everything between us.”

You felt him nip your neck lightly and you slapped his arm playfully. “You’re such a div.”

He let out a husky laugh and said, “I wasn’t referring to our last night, but besides that wonderful event and constantly hearing my name from you, it was the most that we got to spend time with each other. It was a whole week, just the two of us, with no one to disrupt our time together.”

You hummed in agreement before turning over and snuggling deeper into his embrace. Your legs became entangled with each other as you laid your head in the crook of his neck. You traced the outline of his collarbone and he began to play with your hair. A comfortable silence fell onto you two as you enjoyed each other’s presence after a long day. It was true that your London trip was the most that you spent time together. Your schedules were demanding, and you were only to spend one to two days together when it was during the holidays. The only reason why you kept so strong with Tom was because of your constant communication with and faith in each other.

“My favorite part was seeing your flustered expression when I dragged you with me when I was bikini shopping.” You murmured as you smiled to yourself.

Your mind flashed back to when you realized that while you were packing in haste, you had forgotten to pack a swimsuit. After a little bit of convincing, you dragged Tom out with you because he also ended up needing to get some stuff on the way anyways. Once you reached the store, Tom’s expression will forever be kept in your mind. He looked like a deer caught in the headlights with his eyes wide and constantly moving around when he followed behind you. Tom had his hand covering the lower half of his face when they were in the store and the light tint of red that could be seen on his cheeks made him so adorable to you.

He pouted slightly as he remembered and poked your cheek. “The only person that I’ll admire is you and seeing all those kinds of revealing clothing with other women in the store, I didn’t know how to act.”

Tapping his nose, you chuckled and said, “Well you looked quite adorable, just like an innocent child.”

“I can’t help it if my mother raised me right.”

“She definitely raised a wonderful gentleman.”

Tom smiled as he warmly looked down at you. Pecking you on the lips lightly Tom tightened his grip around you. “God, what did I do in my previous life to deserve you?”

Moving onto his back, he pulled you on top of him. You rested your palms on his chest as you looked down at him. Tucking a couple strands behind your ear, he gave you a tender gaze.

“I’m serious Y/N, I hope you always remember you’re the best thing that has happened to me. I’m going to make sure I marry you.”

“You said those exact words when we were at London. You even wrote it on the back of the picture.”

“I did, didn’t I? When we do get married, what kind of wedding are you hoping for?”

“That is if I actually do end up marrying you, Thomas Stanley Holland.”

Tom faked a gasp and immediately flipped you both over. He huffed as he caged you with both of his arms on either side of your head. “Don’t be so mean, sweetheart. No matter what, you’re going to be stuck with me because you’ve stolen my heart since day one.”

“You’re such a cheeseball.” You murmured as you caressed his face.

Leaning into your touch, he hummed in agreement. “You’re the only one that can make me feel like this, darling. But I’m serious though, what is your dream wedding?”

You pursed your lips in thought as you wracked your brain for an answer. With how busy your life was, you never really thought about what you wanted for in a wedding. Now that you were twenty-four, it did make sense that it should be something you should start thinking about.  

“I guess maybe…a garden wedding? I don’t know, I’ve never really thought about this. But I do know that I don’t really want it to be that grand of a wedding. I just want family and close friends to be attending.”

“A garden wedding? I can see that considering how much you love roses.”

You chuckled as he pecked your lips and rolled onto his back. Turning onto your side to face him, you comfortably set your head onto his arm and smiled. “I’ve loved them ever since you gave one to me when you asked me out.”

“I was pretty smooth, wasn’t I?”

You scrunched up your nose in thought as he looked at you from the corner of his eye before staring at the ceiling. Running a hand through his hair, you gave him a look before saying, “Right, so hesitating in front of me for a good couple of minutes before saying everything in one quick go was smooth. I was so caught off guard when you suddenly pushed the flower into my hands. But…it was pretty sweet that our class’s heartthrob actually wanted me as his girlfriend.”

“Of course, I wanted you. Didn’t you know you were one of the most highly sought girls at that time?”

You shook your head and shrugged. “How could I pay attention to that when a certain someone was always trying to steal my attention? As much as I wanted to hide from all the attention you brought along, everything worked out, in the end, didn’t it?”

“Exactly. Now let’s fast forward a bit, if we were to start a family, how many kids would you want?”

“Two, but I really hope it’s a boy first and then a girl.”

Tom smiled in amusement and leaned in to peck your forehead. “You didn’t hesitate with that question, sweetheart.”

“Ironic isn’t it? I didn’t know what I wanted for a wedding, but I knew exactly how many kids I wanted.” You replied and looked up at him before you both laughed.

He shook his head and began to trace random patterns on your arm. “I think it’s cute of you. I’m assuming you want a boy first so we can raise him up to be a gentleman and a protector for our future little girl.”

You nodded and smiled warmly, “Growing up, it was only me and my older sister. But despite how much I love her and look up to her, there was always this part of me that wished to have an older brother to protect me and be close with.”

“Well, now you have your own protector who’s willing to stay by your side forever.”

You softly gazed at him and pecked his jawline. “Of course, and I’ll always be thankful to have you in my life.”

Tom wriggled his eyebrows playfully and asked, “What about their names?”

“I’m not sure, whenever I think about baby names, I always tend to change my mind. So, I was thinking of just naming them when they’re born, y’know?”

“Understandable. Just imagine Y/N, we’ll have our own house and two little kids constantly running around. It’d be paradise, don’t you think?”

You snuggled closer to him and hummed in agreement. “Everything will finally fall into place, Tommy. But I’m fine with the here and now as well. With you by my side, I feel like anything is possible.”

You felt Tom chuckle and tenderly kissed your forehead. “That’s supposed to be my line.”

Smiling slightly you savored the warm feeling of his kiss and said, “I guess when it’s two in the morning, your cheesiness begins to rub off me, babe.”

“Are you getting sleepy?”

You shook your head and said, “Now it’s my turn. You never told me or maybe I don’t remember. What got you to fall for me in the first place?”

“You probably won’t even remember what I’m going to tell you because our first moment together was really short.”

You gave him a questionable look and Tom smiled down at you. “It was actually before we officially met each other.”

He pulled the blanket over you guys and changed your position, so you were laying your head on his chest. As he remembered your first encounter, he lovingly ran his fingers along your back.

“It was the day where they welcomed all the freshmen to recognize their achievement of getting in and for choosing our university. You were with your friends and I was with mine, but I managed to bump into you when we were getting lunch in front of the rec center. At first, I thought you were going to go off on me for not watching where I was going, but you simply brushed it off and gave me a smile that I’d never forget. Before I had the chance to introduce myself, Harrison had popped up behind me and dragged me away.”

You tried remembering the memory and your eyes widened in realization. “That was you?!”

Tom laughed and nodded. “I guess I was lucky when Haz grew a crush on one of your friends or else our groups wouldn’t have intermixed and we wouldn’t have met.”

“I still can’t believe you have all that mush inside of you, Tommy. You’re the physical representation of a guy who fell in love at first sight.”

“I only show these sides of me to those who deserve it and you most definitely do, because you’re mine. You’re the only woman who managed to make me feel attracted to and fall for you Y/N Holland.”

“Y/N Holland?”

“What? I can’t get an early start of calling you, my wife?”

You laughed as he began to pepper your face with kisses, and you managed to hold his face in your grasp.

“It has a nice ring to it… I like it.” You softly replied and planted a kiss on his nose.

“It’s going to be your surname in the future, so you better get used to it.” He smiled.

Meeting his tender gaze, you couldn’t help but kiss him. You both smiled against each other’s lips as Tom brought you even closer to him. Letting go of your kiss, Tom rested his forehead against yours and caressed your cheek.

“Y/F/N, I love you.”

“I love you too, Thomas Stanley Holland.”

His gaze softened as he watched you sleepily rub your eyes. “We should get some sleep, baby girl.”

You whined as you clung to him and said, “But I want to keep talking…we haven’t gotten a moment like this in a while.”

“We’re living together, love. We’ll have many more moments like this, but it looks like you’re going to fall asleep any second now.”

“Ugh I hate it when you’re right.”

Tom laughed and kissed your pout before bringing the blanket up to your chin. “Well I love it when you get adorable like this.”

“Good night, Tommy…” she murmured.

He watched as you curled up against his side and smiled sleepily. Swiping a stray strand of hair away from your face, Tom leaned down and lovingly kissed your temple.

“Sweet dreams, darling.”

Smiling to himself, he watched his angel fall asleep. Once your breathing slowed down, he carefully moved onto his back and turned attention towards his bedside table. As best as he could without waking you up, Tom opened the top drawer and took out a small satin pouch. Setting it on top of his chest, he opened it up and took out the velvet container. He looked at you once more and bit his bottom lip. With his right hand, he opened up the small box and admired the silver diamond ring that sat inside.

At the moment, you each had a ring on your pointer finger. It was a promise ring that he had gotten for you both on your second-year anniversary and now that he felt like the moment was approaching soon, Tom had to be prepared. The following day was the day he was going to set his plan in action, and he wouldn’t keep you waiting for long. Every fiber in his body knew that you were the one. His boys were all ready to help and your friends were already growing in excitement when he told them the week before. Now with you in his arms, the time will come.

Soon, he’ll ask the love of his life to marry him. 

[thadelightfulone]

The Firm - Chapter 11

Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10

Summary: Erik has been hired to find an embezzler for an old friend. The whole gang is back at GBI, ready to fight an old enemy and save their friend. 

Pairing: Erik x Black!OC

Genre: Suspense

A/N: *steps up to the mic* Hello everyone! I want to thank everyone who has supported this story. Also, to let you know that this story is coming to a close. I will be dropping a chapter each week until its conclusion. 

LaNyah stares at the older women whose hair is much longer and darker than when she helped her out in the parking lot, however long ago that was. Then she looks over at Laura, who is rocking back and forth, whimpering about not wanting to die. Why would she even ask such a thing? What does Laura know about this woman that LaNyah doesn’t? How does she know her? Did Gina say before her friends arrive? Does she mean Alex, Ashley, Stacey, and Erik? LaNyah tries to hold back her smile and closes her eyes to focus on keeping calm while this lady begins her tale.

Gina sitting in the center of the couch, looks between the two stunned women. “As I was saying, this story took place almost 20 years ago. There was a decorated officer who had a loving wife and kids.” She swoons at the memory of her loving brother. “He was the leader of a special ops team until an unjust allegation was brought against him by a team member. Someone he trusted and chose to be on his squad,” Gina snarls out. “He was under investigation during his last mission, and it would have led to a court-martial.” She rushes out before waving her hands in the air like it didn’t matter, “Anyway, before that could happen, members of his team took matters into their own hands. He was brutally murdered, and someone made it to look like an enemy ambush.”

“How do you know that it wasn’t?” Laura asks from beside her.

Gina taps Laura’s upper leg, “Oh dear, it was too perfect. The killing was too clean, everyone’s story was just so– in sync. Nothing about a military death is like that unless it is a cover-up.”

“Maybe, they were trying to spare the family’s feelings, you know, like friendly fire in combat or something?” LaNyah interjected.

“SHUT UP!!!” Gina shouts, startling both Laura and LaNyah. She takes a few deep breathes and smooths out her skirt, “It was not that. My twin brother was callously killed while overseas by members of the team he built.” LaNyah and Laura share a look, and Laura starts crying all over again.

“What does that have to do with us?” LaNyah somberly asks while staring at the crying pregnant woman over Gina.

Sniffling, Laura nods at LaNyah, “Yeah, I don’t know anyone in the military.”

LaNyah looks away, putting her head down at what Laura said because she knows that is not true for her. She only knew of one person until a few weeks ago. Gina can’t mean any of them, right? She inhales sharply, unaware that Gina has been watching her intently since Laura made that last statement, a small smile forming at the corners of her mouth.

She looks over them, “This is my favorite part,” a full smile breaking through while Gina takes Laura’s hands in hers before continuing. “Which brings me to why you two are here. I am going after those responsible for my brother’s death.” Gina rubs the tops of her hands, “Laura, your fiancé works for one of them.”

Laura closes her eyes at this, tears still falling and mutters, “But LaNyah was supposed to be the fall guy, not Matthew.” Gina’s eyes widen at that.

“When did he tell you?”

“What? Wait, he set me up?”

LaNyah and Gina blurt out at the same time. Laura rolls her eyes at LaNyah, “I told you this was all your fault.” LaNyah opens and closes her mouth before looking over at a laughing Gina. She can’t believe it. Minding her own business and she became the ultimate pawn in someone’s game of revenge. What is her life?

---

“Babe, stay here with Stacey. Let us handle this.” Alex moves to keep Ashley from coming with them. Kill is on the other side of the room, tying his combat boots while talking on the phone. Stacey is at the conference room table, pulling up floorplans to the warehouse. Alex and Kill changed into dark military fatigues in preparation for the battle zone they are entering.

“Fuck that! I already told you what I would do when it came to LaNyah.” She gets in his face, “I need to be there when you find her! So, don’t you dare try to keep me from being there!” Ashley snatches up another pair of fatigues and pushes past him towards the bathroom, slamming the door. Alex stops short as the door nearly misses hitting him.

Kill finished with his last call, turns towards him. “Green, stop.” Alex walks back over to him, “Just accept the fact that she is coming with us. You can’t stop her, and even I wouldn’t try to stop her.” Kill walks by Matt, who has been untied and snatches him up. “Come on. You got some more talking to do.”  

Everyone packs into the fully loaded Chevy Suburban that one of Kill’s connects dropped off after Matt gave them the location for the warehouse where Gina is keeping the girls. Kill throws the keys to Green so he can drive. Bridges jumps into the front passenger seat. Kill drags Matt to the second row of the SUV; he is behind Green, and Matt is behind Bridges.

Once they hit the freeway headed south to San Diego, Kill turns in his seat to look at Matt. Clearing his throat; he waits until Matt’s attention is on him. Matt’s bloodshot eyes make direct contact with Kill. His petrified stare meets Kill’s murderous scowl. Bridges looks back, turning around in her seat to watch what happens between the two.

“I’m only gonna give you one chance to get this right. From the beginning, when you first met Gina and started working for her. GO!”

Matthew sputters to a start, clenching his hands into fists as they sit on his lap. “She didn’t give me all the details at first. All I know is that she was looking for someone to help her bring down Mr. Green. It was no secret that I had gone out for every single special project, and he never picked me. I know he knew who I was, and even my supervisor helped me become a lead analyst so that I would be on his radar. So, it was no love lost on my part to do something to Mr. Green for how he treated me.” Ashley sucks her teeth, “I swear I didn’t know she was after you when I first started.”

“What was her plan for GBI?” Kill asks him.

Directing his answer to Bridges, “She knew you were married to Mr. Green and figured the easiest way to get you was through him and the company. I was supposed to help her embezzle money from various accounts into her offshore accounts. Make sure all roads led back to him, showing that he was stealing from his own company leading to a prison sentence. My supervisor was her first inside man at GBI when she brought me on to begin the embezzlement, and she killed him.”

“So, Alan didn’t just quit as we all thought? Wow,” Green remarked as he listened to the conversation about Gina’s plan to take down him and GBI.  

“No, his job was to find someone who had put in some time with the company and disliked you enough to make her plan a reality, then vouch for me. When that was done, so was he.” He starts to hiccup, struggling to get the next part out. “She said he served his purpose and shot him right in front of me. Not even 10 minutes after I met her.” He shudders and breaks eye contact with the group.

“What about LaNyah?” Ashley jumps in to ask. “Why her?”

Running his hand through his hair, “Convenience, I guess.” Matt shrugs and looks up at Ashley who glares at him, “It was supposed to be Stacey. Gina didn’t care who was in that position; she just needed to know that I was checking their work and would be able to change the reports and move the money. I only had been working for her about 6 months when Mr. Green hired Stacey as his assistant, causing a delay in the plan to search for a new fall guy. Once he hired LaNyah, I passed over whatever information I had to Gina, and she told me when we would start.”

Matthew explains that he only had the background check that HR completed on her. So, it contained the information that Gina would have needed to complete a deep dive of LaNyah, similar to what Kill did when he found out he would be working with her. They all knew what that meant, even if he didn’t.

With LaNyah being new and a personal hire by Green, it made her the perfect scapegoat because everything links her position and working for the company to Green. The money starts disappearing after she began working there, and no one would know because he was altering the reports after she completed her weekly data entry reconciling all the accounts her team handled.

“We started skimming money from the Scholarship account about 3 months after LaNyah joined the company. It would be believable since she needed time to learn the system before manipulating it.”

“So, she’s after Bridges and Green? Anyone else?” Kill asks Matt, wondering if he is the one who gave her the information she needed to track him down finally.

Matt’s eyes lift as he thinks about the question. “You know what, I think she might have, but I have no way of knowing. She only tells me what she feels I need to know when it matters.” He briefly pauses, inhaling deeply, “All I know was she asked me to increase the amount of money we were moving about 3 weeks ago. I told her we needed to be careful because I figured out that Mr. Stevens was here auditing the accounting department.”

“How did you know that?” Green speaks up.

“I am supposed to watch LaNyah, too, and noticed she was meeting with you often before your big trip. Then after you were gone, she was always disappearing to the 35th floor to ‘work’ with Stacey on some project. It didn’t make sense to me because she never stays in the office past 6 like the rest of us. But I do recall walking by her office one Friday afternoon, and she was on the ground surrounded by old reports, muttering to herself.” He loosens his tie, “I never thought she would double-check her work, so that could only mean that she may have figured out what was happening. If that was true, then I knew she probably went and told you,” looking at Green, “and Mr. Green must have hired you to look into it.” Kill nodded his head. “When you warned me to back off of her, I wasn’t sure if you worked for Gina. But I would only see you at GBI, so I guessed you were Mr. Green’s man.”

“When did you tell Gina about Erik?” Ashley asks through gritted teeth. He was the only one she could not find from the entire team all these years, and as soon as she finds him, LaNyah goes missing. Matt hasn’t said anything about kidnapping to make her believe that was part of her original plan. She more than likely planned for her to go to prison along with Alex, leaving Ashley by herself.

“About 3 weeks ago, when Gina called me about doubling the funds, I told her about the audit, and I gave her your name since I couldn’t find much about you on my own.” Matt removes the tie from his neck, placing it in his lap. “She screamed about something –” He jumps in his seat, “OMG, it’s you! She’s after you, too! Said something about you being the missing link.”

“Calm down, Matt.” Green rolls his eyes while watching the man panic through the rearview mirror.

“Gina has always scared me, but that call made me even more paranoid than usual. I just wanted to make sure Laura was ok. I made her go and stay with her mother in Bakersfield, 2 months ago.” Twirling the tie in his lap, “I decided to visit her after the call and walked in to find Gina sitting right next to Laura talking shop like this woman wouldn’t have all of us killed with a snap of her fingers.” Tears blur his vision, and Matt’s voice cracks, “Laura knew I was doing some illegal shit behind Mr. Green’s back, so I came clean about what she didn’t know and told her who she just met. Gina called me back that night and told me exactly how much she wanted to move the next time. A week later, I had everything in place to move more than a million from the account.”

“And it takes two weeks before the money moves from the scholarship account. That was what I saw the night before we came back home.” Green states.

Kill closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, “You were right, Green, she was planning to make her move which is why we saw the major movement from the account. She wanted us to notice.” Clenching his fists by his sides, “We just didn’t know that by the time we saw it, she already had LaNyah.”

“Laura and my son,” Matt squeaks out. Everyone looks at him as he breaks down.

---

Gina moves away from Laura on the couch, focus bouncing between the two of them. This is going to be better than she thought. Laura pissed at LaNyah. LaNyah upset about what she just found out; that she is a doll in this game. And yet, she still doesn’t even know how big a part she plays. With loathing, Gina gazes at her.

Turning to the right, now fully facing LaNyah, Gina’s smile morphs. Gina’s voice laced with all the malice she could muster, “You, Miss LaNyah Cole, have a relationship with every single person on my list.” Laura gasps and shrinks back on the couch, glad she is not in her place. Now, she and the baby stand a better chance of making it out of this place alive.

Tearing up, LaNyah whispers out, “What?”

“My brother was accused of sexually assaulting the only female member on his team, Ashley Bridges.” She stands up and walks to the other side of the table, looking down at both of them. “You both would recognize her by her married name, Ashley Green.”

LaNyah squeaks out, “Ashley! What do you want with her?”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk, LaNyah, darling. I did not go through all this trouble for Ashley alone.”

“She wants Mr. Green, too, idiot.” Laura huffs out. LaNyah rolls her eyes at her, growing irritated by this whole situation. She didn’t ask to be put in the middle of this. But it seems everyone around her knew something that she didn’t, and that bothers her.

“You want the whole company to go down?” Gina starts slow clapping. LaNyah puts her head in her hands. Of course, she does. It is why she was the perfect patsy. Blame this on the girl who was like the daughter of the two people she held accountable for her brother’s death.

“You are a brilliant woman, Miss Cole.” She walks to her standalone chair and leans against it, “But you are missing the most important thing or person rather. The only person with the skills to kill my brother like that and clean it up so well. A man who, up until a few weeks ago, I only knew by his nickname, Killmonger.” No, no, no, please do not let it be him. LaNyah’s big, confused brown eyes meet steely grey ones, “Mr. Erik Stevens.”

The tears that she was holding back started rolling down her face. LaNyah clutched her chest with both hands while trying to stay seated in the chair. Her breathing was coming out in spurts between her loud sobs. Gina held her hand up to Laura, who was struggling to get up and go to her. She leans over and starts to rub circles into LaNyah’s back. LaNyah flinches at first but just closes her eyes to find something else to focus on to help her breathe.

“I know, sweetheart. It’s hard to find out that the man you like is a stone-cold killer.” LaNyah’s body tenses at her statement. She peeks over at Laura, who has a look of sympathy on her face as she watches LaNyah breaking down at what she learned. Gina closes her eyes as she continues to speak low, still soothing LaNyah with the circles on her back. “He hurt me, too dear. More than you could ever know.”

---

“Did she pay you well for this suicide mission?” Kill demands harshly, Bridges and Green grimly laugh as Matt turns green. “Matthew, you know if we handed you over to her, she would kill you herself. I mean, she did kill the guy you were supposed to replace when she hired you. The money had to be exceptional, right?”

“3 times my annual salary at GBI,” he meekly responds, “and she told me I didn’t have a choice.”

“Let me guess; she threatened to kill you on the spot? Over Alan’s dead body?” Green interjects. Matt just nods his head. They all shake their heads in understanding. It was gonna be him or someone else. But Gina was gonna execute her plan regardless of how many casualties lined the path.

The mood shifts in the SUV as everyone disappears into their thoughts. Ashley is sniffling upfront, swimming in guilt for putting LaNyah in harm’s way. There was no way she knew anyone was coming for her husband or her, but still, Nyah is like her daughter. And in her haste to find LaNyah something to be in control of and help her build a career, Ashley never considered how Nyah working under her husband could lead to such a moment.

Alex looks over at Ashley and grabs her hand, kissing it. “Stop beating yourself up. You could not have known this was gonna happen. We didn’t know McCoy had a twin who would seek vengeance for his death. There is nothing that could have prepared us for any of this. We deal with it now, together as a team. Just like we always have, ok?” Ashley squeezes his hand in response, not trusting her voice at this point.

Kill looks out at the passing fields, controlling his breathing. Gina knows about LaNyah’s connection to Green and Bridges. What else could she know? If Gina is thorough enough to uncover his identity and know that he was involved compared to the rest of the team, then she knows he was the one who killed her brother. She is gunning for him specifically, but she wants to take everyone down – Bridges, who was her brother’s victim; her husband and protector, Green; and their ‘daughter,’ LaNyah. She is using her as bait to bring all three of them to her. No one is supposed to make it out of there alive, except for Gina and her goons.

LaNyah. How is she handling all of this? If he didn’t push her so hard, he could have been watching her like he was supposed to be. Instead, he had hoped his updates from Stacey, as infrequent as those were, would provide him with enough information to know she was doing fine and safe from harm. But this is something else altogether; she was kidnapped in broad daylight by a maniac with no regard for human life. Kill laughs to himself, just like him back then – one goal, one focus, by any means necessary. He runs his hands through his dreads, grateful that he decided to braid them back today. There is no room for any mistakes here and too many lives at risk. It’s LaNyah or bust. He’ll deal with all the other bullshit later.

Snapping his fingers, Bridges and Matt look at him. “You know you’re done, right?” Matt nods, “Good. You’ll serve time in federal prison, but at least you will be alive to meet your son and maybe save your family.”

Matt sighs, “I just wanted to provide for my family. I understand, but I am grateful to be alive.” He glances up at Green catching his eyes in the rearview mirror, “I’m sorry for everything I did to you, sir. To your business and your family, including LaNyah.” Green acknowledges his apology.

Green turns off the road into an industrial complex, leading to Gina’s warehouse. Kill slaps the back of his seat, an old signal from when Green used to drive during other missions. The mission has started, and nothing else matters until they get back into the SUV. Releasing Ashley’s hand, she watches the two of them, Killmonger and Green. The two men who saved her all those years ago are back and ready to do it all over again. She smiles to herself, and they are going to save LaNyah, too.

“You know she’s probably expecting you?” Matt says that like wasn’t the most prominent thought in all of their heads as they approach lot near the warehouse. Everyone was smart enough to keep it to themselves.

“We know.” Green declares.

“And we are ready for her.” The sound of a gun rack sliding catches Matt’s attention, and he looks over to see Kill holding a Glock.

Chapter 12

Taglist: @killmongersaidheyauntie @muse-of-mbaku @panthergoddessbast @youreadthatright @princessstevens @nahimjustfeelingit-writes @stark-red19 @kreolemami @bidibidibombaclaat  @iamrheaspeaks @missumuch1918 @simplyyamberr @cheychey10142 @ajspencer1892 @chrismarcs @loosewindmill @sydneebleu @semianta @eyeknowmywrites @alexundefined @itsjustmezari @goddessofthundathighs @guccixcucci @kissmyafropuff @gimmeface @fd-writes @jozigrrl @soufcakmistress @scrumptiouslytenaciouscrusade @shaekingshitup @localtrapgod @post-woke @theesotericqueen

[10boys]

MLQC : Oral (receving)

♡ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡

Victor:

- Victor loves to get his wee wee sucked !

-But the glory in the action is more so getting to watch you sloppily lick and suck at his tip, face beated red and flushed from your view vice versa

-His #1 material for getting of is your visuals and how you react to him, so having a front row seat to the view of you, exposed and desperate for him makes his ego go insane

-I mean??? On your knees infront of the CEO as hes leasurly laid back in his chair throne,He lays shirtless for you to watch as his chest raises and falls , his fist gripped on your hair to keep your mouth in the spots that please him best. He’ll look down at you with knitted brows, his eyes fluttering with each new wave he recieves

-His long cock will stand straight up, shamelessly and proud. The slightly red tip will stand out aginst his black trousers, unbottoned and slid down just enough to free himself for you (yes i know we all wanna suck on them smooth thighs but he likes his Tough Boy™️ image when hes in his usual dominant mood) the sight of it alone causes a heat to form, clenching your thighs and jaw as to not drool over the image infront of you

-He keeps his jaw locked to contain his moans, but most of the time low breathy groans steadily escape his lips, especially when you keep eye contact , puppy dog eyes looking into his as he watches your body squirm below him for touch wowowie when this man does it he does it

-He is not of fan of starting off with himself though, his oral pleasure usually comes after tedious teasing sessions all focused on you, like said before, he loves knowing what he CAN and WILL do to you, and you probably suck 10x better after anyway. Seeing the desire in your face sends him over on its own and we wont even begin to talk about your whimpers around him

-Our Victor is definitely being treated aswell, before the buttons came undone you were sucking at his neck, hands running through his hair (his favorite), nipping at his ears. You whisper to him about how much you’ve thought of him and how he makes you feel , soon bringing his tent to life. Your tongue trials down over eatch nipple giving them both the appropriate amount of attention as your hands explore all he has to offer. Never in a billion years will he tell you how much he loves being adored and fawned over by you

-Victor is definitely a fucking kinda guy and prefers to finish himself inside of you (protected or not ya know whatever you’re into) , so when you go down he likes to just simply watch your tongue make its way around him. Kiss him up and down, suck at his balls, rub his head against your tongue, its all a show for him and it’s absolutely priceless. Play with his precum and tell him how good he taste and that is the end. Hes now trying to see how far he can fit in :)

-When he’s ready to cum tho his face will be a bit more expressive, his usual tightened face will soften as his mouth opens slightly. His low grunts will become faster and more throaty. His tight grip on your hair traves more so to the back and sides of your head, keeping it in place allowing him to utilizes his hips to softly thrust himself into your face. Although Victor loves to ruin you he’s still very gentle, he sees you as something precious to him, and like glass if he’s too rough he’ll break it. His cum tho? Anywhere really, depends on the mood. Mouth, face, chest,.. but you have noticed that his wave hits a little harder when you look into his eyes mouth wide open ready to taste whatever he has for you it may not taste good but who cares its victor

Lucien:

-Going down on lucien is not only delectable and delicious, its an experience very close to god

-Lucien, a lot like Victor, loves seeing you squirm for him. Out of all the boys Lucien is the most sensual when it comes to your guys’ more intament moments, and, as we all know, he LOVES to fucking tease

-First lets get his image ready, 2k19 birthday card Lucien, white robe loosly tide around his petite waste making his chest appear much larger, as though it’s about to burst. You leasurly lay beside him as he uses one hand to lightly play with your ear, his soft delicate fingertips leave mint-like shivers down your spine as his hand travels down your ear to your neck to pull you closer to him.

-His gaze compaires to the hot sun as heats your skin, a smile spread on his face as he watches you blush and twitch for him. His exposed body so close to your own has a million fantasys running wild, and he knows it. He loves it. The only thing breaking you from your thoughts is the new found wet warmth that quickly ran across your lips.

-And with that, a tongueing session has began. Your hands lovingly interlock as your tongues slowly run agaisnt each other. Lucien loves his view and his control, he’ll hold your chin still as he demands you to “ Be a good girl and stick it out for me”. As your mouth hangs open for him to use as he pleases, he looks down admiring the very spot that will soon have him shooting loadssss lmao srry

-His lavender eyes lock on yours as he exposes his own tongue, giving you a view as you watch it slowly decend onto yours. The tip touches your own as he dances and plays against you. You whimper immediately upon contact, much to his liking. This man loves the intimacy of your mouth, and he will use it as he pleases. He’ll suck, give long licks, exchange spit, put his thumb in your mouth wow why is he not in my mouth :(

-By the time he’s done having his fun,his buldge is shamelessly parading from under his robe (possibly even accompanied by sticky pre-cum if he was truly enjoying himself). Due to all the restless moving and groping his thighs have made themselves known, peeking from under his robe. The sight intices you, and who would our Professor be if he didn’t immediately notice what has your attention? He graps your hand to lay agaisnt his chest, the soft supple flesh glides under your fingertips with ease, encouraging you to wonder. As your hand traces down further and futher , our gentleman unties and exposes himself at your same pace, all with that same Lucien glare. The view of your man layed back, robe undone and ready just for you was enough to make your jaw drop. As you venture lower your fingers begin to feel soft fine hairs, signaling you that treasure is near.

-That was the end for him and you, as you were now bent over for a better position to please him with. Your face was presses to his V-line, licking along his natural curves and dips. Your ass hung loosely in the air competeing for his attention. His brows raise slightly upon first contact, his usual luke-warm temperature now consumed in nothing but a blaze of heat. His white robe still lays over his most intimate area, creating a most delectable view for you as it enhances your imagination of what’s underneath. And boy if he wasnt juicin then hes jucin now.

-the thin material of his white robe sticks with ease to his wetness, allowing undertones of his pink tip to show itself. Lucien lays there, face flushed. He shoots you his sexy smirk as reassurance to continue playing at your discretion. Lucien likes to swallow most of his noises (until he gets heated enough to cloud his head). He’ll shamelessly spit praise and questions at you though,it’s something that gets him incredibly off omg imagine phone sex, “You like that ?” “That feels good huh?” “Touch whatever you’d like angel, im yours” “your mouth..you use it so well”

-You allow your thumb to run across his tip earning a sharp inhale, the friction from the fabric mixed with your gentle hands creating a delectable wave for him. As you move your hand back you watch as he twiches under his robe, one ball falling into view. Your hand caresses his sack in view, and you swear you’ve never came untouched but today might be the day. Its warm and soft as it takes up your much smaller hand. Lucien seems to be enjoying it too, as his gaze that’s usually on you is now fixed on your ass to further get him off. His brows tightly knot and as he bites his lip concealing his low grunts and groans. His balls tighten in your hand causing you to lick your lips in anticipation. You slowly peel away the damp cloth, a small string of cum streching out as the robe is disgarded. And there he lay. In all his glory , he spreads his legs wider as he twiches again, silently desperate for your mouth. Lucien is a very patient partner, although he has his rough moments and definitely rougher desires he’ll maintain his composure for your likening.

-You position yourself over his leg, allowing you to grind and relieve even a little bit of what feels like the screaming heat in your core. You bend down to first lick and suck on his balls earning a breathy inhale from him. The long-lasting teasing definitely paid off as you watch his hips immediately begin to slightly buckle and thrust into your warm mouth. He extends one arm to begin caressing your face, but the gentle act quickly turns as it begins traveling down, first dipping your shirt, exposing your hung chest to him.He’ll fondle them in sedating awe before leaving them to wonder your ass. You might even feel fingertips brush against your most inner lips, his ego enlarging after feeling your byproduct of him.

-Once he’s finally in your mouth you both moan in unison, the satisfaction of his taste is hypnotizing as you subconsciously bob your head onto him. It didnt take long for his pre-cum and your spit to create the perfect sensation for the man who truly deserves it. The usual shit-talker lucien is silent, eyes squeezed shut as his mouth loosly hangs open you swear you seen drool. His heart eyes are hooded as he opens them to gaze down at you. Large cock absolutely covered in liquids, the spits traveled down leaving web-like strings across your chin and chest. Lucien is very large, so you use your hands to work what can’t fit (unless you’re a BIG BITCH who can just throat that shit, go for it luvs, it aint me tho)

-A thin layer lf sweat lightly coats his dark bangs draped over even darker eyes. His realease is approaching. His orgasms are usually very forceful, he likes to pent himself uo for his moments with you. As he comes nearer his chest rises and falls to drum of his quickened breathing, one hand gliding across his chest to stimulate his nipples. His head is leaned back exposing his pale neck sheen in his sweat. His long body spread about the bed becomes restless, hips bucking and thrusting as higher pitched moans begin to escape his mouth. You feel him twich in your mouth and ready yourself to take it. His hands grip your hair as his body caves into itself, he twiches and bucks until you taste a familiar taste in your mouth. His body stiffens until the spurts are no more. He immediately relaxes his muscles with heavy breathes.

-

Ahh this was a bit longer than I anticipated! Its also my first headcanon so pls take it easy on me as i find my fit, I wrote victors at night and luciens at work...i think the deference in detail is obvious lol but then again lucien is my second fav so i got carried away!! Theres alot of (uneeded) forplay in his even tho it was supposed to just be oral... i dont think anyone’s complaining tho haha. I want these to come out very steadily so i will be making Gavins and Kiros in another post VERY SOON ! Since im new my inbox is open to request! Ty - myk

See Gavin , Kiro

[pocfansmatter]

Butt Dials & Bathtubs

I know this took forever. I know I’m probably the only one who wanted this. I know okay. Listen hearing Will Poulter say “I just wanna give her a bath” messed me up. Like it haunts me. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t get that vape loving douchebag out of my head so here we are.

Mark x black female reader imagine.

Mark gives the reader a bath. Light smut. Slight dom/sub undertones if you squint

Words: 2662

It started with a phone call. A butt dial of all things. Mark was not one for commitment or so you thought. He was a random one night stand you met at a bar one weekend. You were still fresh from a breakup even though it had been 5 months.

He was funny and kind of obnoxious but cute so you figured, fuck it. That night led to random hook ups here and there whenever you were bored or lonely.

Now you were friends with benefits but more benefits than actual friends.

So late Saturday night when Mark’s contact pops up on your phone you figure it’s for another hookup.

“Hello?” There’s no response and pretty quickly you figure out it’s not a call that was meant to go through. “This idiot did not really butt dial me,” you sigh with an eye roll.

Before you hang up your hear your name. It’s distant and you can tell it’s not directed at you and its another male voice.

“So what’s up with you and Y/N?”

“Ugh! I don’t know man, I just want to give her a bath!” There’s a few guys chuckling softly.

“Wow, never thought I’d see the day Mark was sprung…”

“Shut up,” you hear Mark mumble and you hang up not wanting to invade his privacy anymore.

You go about the rest of your night. You eat you food and finish your movie but your mind keeps wandering back to Mark’s words. It seems so intimate and soft. A bath of all things. You get ready for bed and take a few deep breaths to calm yourself. You bite your lip and think about calling Mark to come over but remember he sounded like he was slurring a bit. He’s probably drunk and you can only deal with drunk people when you’ve been drinking yourself. You decide against it and go to sleep for the night.

_____

“R u busy today?” Mark squints against the brightness on his phone.

He really regrets those shots now.

He re reads the text then checks the time 11 am. Why was Y/N texting him so early?  Usually they never talk unless it’s dark out.

“No, what’s up?” It takes him a moment to answer because he’s still waking up. He gets up to find some water while waiting for her answer.

“Come over @ 2” is the only reply he gets.

He has a moment where he thinks he should question you but decides against it. So you want an early afternoon hook up instead of late at night, doesn’t bother him.

___

You get a knock on the door right at 2, he’s punctual you’ll give him that.

You open it to find Mark wearing a long sleeve blue shirt and jeans. He no doubt gives you a confused look at your own attire, a robe and nothing else.

“We’re getting straight to it then?” He asks when you let him in and you giggle softly to yourself.

“Not exactly,” he follows you into your bedroom and sees your bed littered with things.

You watch his expression as he scans the items. His face doesn’t lose the confused expression as he scans the various items you laid out: multiple candles (both unscented and scented), different colored bath bombs, wash cloths, bubble bath soap, and towels.

“Dealers choice. Today you’re gonna give me a bath.” You say coyly as you walk into the rest room and sit on the bathroom counter waiting for Mark.

Your heart races, the ball was in his court. All your other encounters were you in charge. You taking the reigns and Mark being happy to go along for the ride. This was an important moment, giving him control, letting him be in charge of what happens. This was extremely intimate and it’s very possible he could turn tail and run out of your apartment if he wants. You close your eyes as you wait for him to make his decision.

You only open them when you hear his footsteps coming close. Mark is at the entrance hands filled with two unscented candles and one lavender scented one (good choice), a wash cloth, a pink bath bomb, a small drink pitcher from your kitchen and the fluffiest towel you own. Its silent as he places the items on the counter beside you he starts to arrange the candles to his liking around your bathroom. Once he’s happy with them he plugs the tub and turns the water on and adjusts the temperature to his liking. 

“Can you test this and tell me if it’s okay?” His refers to the water in a gruff voice. You take a deep breath not wanting to give away how much it effects you before sliding down and walking to the tub. You touch the water and nod approvingly. He nods a little shaky and you place your hand between his shoulder blades.

“Breathe,” you remind softly and feel his lungs expand beneath your hands a few times. It seems to ground him as he goes to arrange his other items.

Finally the tub fills and he shuts it off looking to you.

“Before we do this, two rules,” you start and he nods expectantly “number 1, do not get my hair wet, I’m sure I don’t have to explain that black girls don’t like their hair wet,” you had done your hair into a french braid and wrapped it in a head scarf to make it harder to mess up. “And 2 you’re in charge here today, don’t make me regret it."  He takes another breath.

"Yeah, sounds reasonable…” you smile and untie your robe. His eyes scan your body once you take it off and hang it on a hook beside you before looking at Mark with one raised eyebrow. “Step into the water,” he says once he catches on. You do as told and watch him pull his shirt over his head so he doesn’t wet it. He tosses it into your bedroom before walking over.

Your eyes scan his torso, he was pretty fit even if it wasn’t that noticeable in his clothes. You seen him naked enough to know better. “Carefully sit down now,” his voice still had that gruff edge and you were lying if you said it wasn’t doing something to you.

He grabs the lighter you left on the counter and lights the candles as you get comfortable.

The water reaches your shoulders and you lean your head back waiting for him to come over. He gets on his knees beside the tub and drops in the bath bomb he picked out.

You groan as the hot water relaxes you further and watch the water change colors to a simmering pink.

Mark stands up and walks behind you. He starts massaging your shoulders and you groan at the firmness of his fingers. They were one of your favorite traits about the man. You let you head lull to the side as he works out a knot. His lips press a kiss on your neck and you shut your eyes at how soft it feels. Then he stops and his hands slowly slide over your chest as you groan softly. He takes a breast in each hand and squeezes while the pad of his thumb goes over a nipple each. You gasp softly and he goes back to kissing on your neck. His grip gets firmer as he starts to bite and suck your neck and you have a fleeting thought about having to get rid of the hickies before work. One hand wanders lowers and your breath comes out jagged when it reaches your lower stomach. Just below your belly button he creases the skin back and forth but doesn’t go lower like you had hoped. He removes his hands all together and you open your eyes again to see him walking to the other side of the tub. He picks up on of your legs and starts to rub your feet. You feel your upper body lower more into the water in relaxation. You watch him with hooded lids. He’s so focused at the task at hand but still scans your naked body in lust. It doesn’t take long for him to switch feet.

Mark must decide the massage part was over with because he grabs a wash cloth and wets it. He pours some of your coconut body wash on it and rubs it together to lather it up. He goes back to the head of the tub.

“Sit up.” He commands. You do as told and he rubs the soapy wash cloth over your back. He walks to the side on the tub & rubs the cloth down your right arm slowly ending at the tip of your fingers before moving to the other arm. He moves lower before picking up your right leg and draping it over the side on the bathtub so half of it falls off to the side. You gasp softly at how spread your legs are but don’t say anything. He slowly lathers your legs. You watch his large hands creep up your thigh slowly in soft circular motions. You breathe in deeply when his fingers get close to the one spot you really want them but he pulls away before he gets there. Mark was a full on tease at this point. He leans over and grabs your other leg and you try to lower the first leg back into the water. It doesn’t make it very far however before he’s grasping your ankle. “Did I tell you, you could put your leg back down?” His eyes bore into yours and you bite your lip at his assertiveness before shaking your head no. “Speak,” he orders while rubbing circles into your ankle. You’d be lying if you said this wasn’t doing things to you.

“No Mark”. His eyes sparkle at the roughness of your voice showing him just how much this was effecting you too. “Then keep it here,” he softly squeezes your ankle to show you not to move it from where he first placed it before going back to your other leg. He props that one against the wall and the other edge of the tub you blush at the fact that you’re spread eagle. He washes the other leg in the same fashion. He stands and comes back to the head of the bathtub. “Lean back baby,” he commands and you listen. He rubs the washcloth between his hands causing them both to be soapy before lathering up your chest. You arch your back when he pays extra attention to your nipples. He kisses your neck and your eyes shut.

“God baby, you should see yourself.” You moan at his voice right in your ear. “Spread out and arching so pretty for me, fucking perfect.” He ends the sentence with a soft bite on your ear lobe & you can’t stop the groan that escapes. 

“Mark,” you breathe softly. You’re asking for something but you don’t know what. This whole experience is nothing like your past encounters with the man behind you, hell this is nothing like anything you’ve done before to be honest.

“Shh, it’s okay sweetheart I got you, just relax,” he speaks calmly before sucking your neck and continuing to rub the front of your torso.

Mark was like a whole different person today, he was a good fuck but kind of timid. He came off cocky in the bar and around others but once you get him alone you can quickly see through his façade. He hides it well but its in the little things. The hesitations, the shaky hands, the nervous glances. This Mark though, he was steady and in control and you felt like you were boiling over with lust. He gives you another peck before pulling away. You open your eyes and see him coming back with the pitcher. He fills it with water from the bath and pours it over you right under your neck to wash the soap off. “You can put your legs down now,” he says and you do as told. He drops the pitcher on the floor and gets back on his knees in the middle of the bath beside the tub. You watch him waiting for what’s next. He leans close and kisses you softly. You let out a tiny moan. Your whole body feels sensitive for some reason. Like you’re an exposed wire and anything will cause a spark to ignite. He swipes his tongue on your bottom lip and you immediately let him in. Mark has always been an amazing kisser, his lips were so full you could kiss him for hours and not get bored. Not that you guys really did that. It seems too coupley for you two.

Your vaguely aware of movement in the water but his lips are too distracting to figure out what it was. Finally you feel his fingers and you gasp. His middle finger swipes your folds and your knees bend and spread automatically to give him more room to touch you. He deepens the kiss as him rubs your clit. Your hands make your way to his neck as you hold onto him. He inserts two fingers inside of you groan. Once he starts to pump your head falls back to rest on the tub. Your hear Mark chuckle faintly and feel him kiss your chin before attacking your neck again. He’s a little more aggressive than before because now he’s full on biting you but as long as those fingers keep moving you don’t care. He curls them just so and your hands involuntary tangle in his hair as you moan his name. God you loved his fingers, you could write fucking sonnets about them at this point. They were so long and so so good to you. He pulls them out and rubs your clit again & goes back to kissing you. His tongue massages yours as he slowly pulls his hands up out of the water. You whimper at the loss but Mark never ceases the kissing to hear you complain. He finally slows down into little pecks and you fully relax again.

He unplugs the tub and you lay there as the water washes down the drain. He stands and grabs the towel before facing towards you again. “Stand baby,” you do as he says and he gently dries your body. You’re in a comfortable daze when he’s done. Once he’s satisfied your dry you wait for him to tell you to step out, he never does, instead he picks you up bridal style and you gasp softly but wrap your arms around his neck and hold on. He carries you into the bedroom and sits you on the edge while he clears off anything you left on it. He then finally gets rid of his pants and pulls the comforter back. Before beckoning you to lay down. You slept naked before, especially when Mark’s over so it doesn’t bother you too much to do it again. When you’re under the covers Mark slides in beside you and pulls you in to cuddle. 

He lightly creases your arm with his fingertips and your eyelids get heavier and heavier at the action.

“Was it good for you?” Mark whispers almost afraid to break the calm air around the room.

“Perfect, how was it for you?” You hope he enjoyed himself. This was his idea after all.

“You have no idea how amazing today was,” he answers.

“I think I might,” you chuckle and he looks down at you with one raised brow. “Umm you accidentally butt dialed me last night and I heard you mention wanting to bathe me.” You confess and he groans in embarrassment.

You give a full laugh at his antics before leaning up and kissing him.

“Let’s just get some sleep okay?” You suggest and he nods.