#they sat still quietly listening to the music when not on break <33< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[star-ar512]

took @5-star-storch 's sweet STCR-716 and her adorable five STARs outside sierpinski s-23!! hanging out during a break from music practice <3

[whorefordazai]

hi hi its me!! im just feeling really bad and holding my tears rn. can i get anything with aku/chuu/dazai, whoever u deem more fit! they are my comfort bbys. running away from home, even if its just for a night,maybe going to some rooftop or a drive at night. my situation at home isnt the best and i feel rly caged and anxious bc i don't have friends to go out with when my situation gets overwhelming so i just break down in my room haha. anyways, i hope this is good enough? just some comfort or validating words!! sending hugs to u rai, ilysm. thank u for doing this its basically therapy for me ajsbdhd ❤️🌷

I hope things get better for you bestie, love you <33

“Till forever falls apart”

ft. dazai x gn! reader

genre: fluff, comfort

wc: 1.5k (I think🥲)

synopsis: running away from home with dazai yup yup !! simply a big fat cliche but it’s my guilty pleasure of fluff 🌝 includes a lot of kisses, hand holding, and comfort 🧍‍♂️

Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick the fucking tock.

The clock made no noise, but you imagined it did. After all, that was what usually happened when one planned to sneak out during ungodly hours of the night. Looking at the time, it read 3:54 am.

You couldn’t stay here for one more second.

Swiftly, yet quietly lifting off the covers from your body, you got up from bed, and made your way to the window. It wasn’t sunrise yet. The sky was still dark, the streets peacefully quiet. The street lamp flickered, the airy fog was light against the ground.

It was perfect.

It wasn’t perfectly planned—but knowing Dazai, it wouldn’t go completely wrong. Feeling suffocated and unable to stay home, you had spontaneously called him two hours prior, around 2 am. His disoriented sleepy voice had picked up the call.

“...Hm? Babe? What time is it...” Dazai’s delicate husky voice spoke through the phone.

You could almost imagine him letting out a yawn and stretching out in his futon, brown curls resting against his face, his eyes tearing up from the yawn. You mentally cursed yourself when a smile appeared on your lips from hearing the mere sound of his voice.

You cleared your throat. “Yeah, it’s 2 am. Listen I...” your words stopped before you could continue. You gulped. Would he even be up for this? Would he be up for running away?

Dazai seemed to notice your voice falter. He spoke more hushed this time. “Are you okay? Are you safe? Do you need me to get you?”

You stayed silent for a few seconds before exhaling.

“No...well, yes but no. And...no you don’t need to come get me. I just wanted to hear your voice, Osamu. Thanks—you can go back to sleep now.”

You bit your lip, your finger hovered over the hang up button.

“ADADADA WAIT!—“

You raised an eyebrow. Dazai’s voice now spoke louder, as if his tone was full of mischief. “Huh?”

“Darling, I wasn’t sleeping anyway. In what universe would Dazai Osamu be sleeping at 2 am? C’mon sweetheart—you know me better than that.” He chuckled.

Your breathe hitched for a second—and then you laughed. It was a quiet airy laugh. He’s right...what was I so worried about?

“Okay then,” you giggled, voice laced with a plan.

“What do say about running away with me at 4 am?”

“Why that is...MARVELOUS!! Running away is what I do best!”

You laughed again, still managing to keep a hushed voice. “Alright—then come pick me up at 4 am will you? 4 am sharp.”

“You got it, babe.” You could almost picture his devilish smirk and golden brown eyes glinting with mischief.

The clock now read 4:01 am. Dazai was definitely here.

You gulped as you opened the window in your room, careful not to make even the tiniest noise.

And there he was.

It was barely noticeable, but you could see Dazai’s figure between the dark shadows in the car. As you both made eye contact, a smile appeared on your lips.

Just to be cheesy, you blew him a kiss, and he dramatically caught—pressing his fingers to his lips.

Getting out of the window was the easy part—actually leaving without anyone noticing was going to be difficult. It would’ve been even more difficult if Dazai wasn’t here to help you.

“Hi.” You smiled, sitting down on the passenger seat next to him.

“Hi.” He smiled back. The two of you looked at each other for a few seconds, before Dazai moved closer and put a hand on your cheek, immediately locking lips with you.

Hands immediately wrapping around his neck, you smiled into the kiss. The butterflies in your stomach exploded when his hand wrapped around your waist, squeezing your hip. When his tongue brushed against your bottom lip, you breathlessly chuckled and pulled back.

“Hurry, let’s get out of here! We can continue this later~” You scratched the back of your neck, cheeks flushed pink.

“Off we go then!” He smirked, eyes looking forward and hands shifting the car gear.

And you were off.

Probably driving around seventy miles per hour, Dazai rolled down the windows and turned on the radio for some music. You grinned, hearing the sound of the breeze down the music.

“This is—why didn’t we do this sooner!?” You laughed, feeling the wind flush against your face. You looked over to Dazai, who had an equally huge smile on his face, his brown curls being swept back by the wind.

“Y/n—we’re about to drive through a tunnel. Peek your head out the car roof! I swear, it’ll feel amazing!” Dazai beamed, sliding open the car roof so that you would be ready.

“Huh?! Are you sure—”

“I’m very fucking sure!!” He laughed.

“OH—okay then!” A smirk appeared on your lips as you stood up and peaked out half your body through the roof.

It was fucking amazing.

The tunnel was brightly lit with yellow lights, the wind was blowing through your hair. In that moment...hell, you couldn’t even explain how you were feeling in this moment.

As the car stopped on a red light, you sat back down in your seat and closed the car roof. Dazai smirked. “That was cool, right?”

“Very fucking cool. Although, next time I’d like to do in your arms.” You smiled. He raised his eyebrows, and grabbed your hand, kissing your knuckles.

A sudden chill went through your body as the wind blew colder. You shivered, rubbing your arms up and down. You chuckled to yourself. I must’ve forgotten to grab a hoodie in all this rush…

“Here, put this on.” Dazai chuckled, leaning to the back seat and grabbing a black hoodie. You eyed him carefully, grabbing the hoodie he was handing to you.

Putting it on, you immediately felt a sense of warmth envelope your skin. Shivering once again, you hugged yourself. It smelled exactly like him.

“Thanks, Osamu…” you softly smiled. He glanced your way for a few seconds before nodding. “No problemo!”

“...No, seriously.” You lightly scoffed with a small smile on your face. You put your hand on his.

“Without you...I would’ve still been stuck there. You have no idea how much you’ve helped….”

Your words were stopped when you felt Dazai grab your hand and intertwine your fingers. He turned his head towards you, a smile on his lips. “I know...call me anytime, okay? I wanna see you all the time.”

You pressed a quick kiss on his lips, sitting back in your seat. Your eyes were practically lit up as you rubbed small circles on Dazai’s knuckles.

You felt simply...the only word to describe it was euphoric. The rush in your bones. It was so fucking cliche, running away with your boyfriend at 4 am.

It was so perfectly cliche that you couldn’t help but laugh to yourself.

“We’re here,” Dazai’s voice sang as he slowed down the car to a complete stop. You looked ahead—it was fairly dark, only a few street laps illuminating the building in front of you.

“An abandoned building…?” Your mouth opened, eyes a little wide.

“Yup! Now come on….” Dazai smiled, pulling your hood over your head and squeezing your face. He moved closer and pressed several kisses on your cheeks, nose, and forehead. Practically anywhere he could get access too.

“H-hey! that’s—a lot—of—kisses!!” You managed to say between breaths as he continued to kiss your lips every time you began to talk. Both his hands were squeezing your cheeks like a baby.

He suddenly laughed, the soft grip on your cheeks now turning into a caress. Dazai’s thumb rubbed soft circles against your cheek. He seemed to quiet down, but he was now staring into your eyes

“Uh...are we gonna go inside or…?” You raised an eyebrow, gently tucking a piece of his hair behind his ear. It was soft, just like how you remembered it to be.

“Yeah...let’s go.” He smirked, hands leaving your face and opening his own door to get out of the car. You got out a second after him, feet hitting the soft dirt.

Dazai suddenly clasped your hand in his, pulling you with him as he dashed to the entrance. Your eyes flew open. “W-wait! Dazai, you seem really excited—“

“No time to speak, darling—were on the move!!” He laughed, pulling the both of you up endless stairs. You felt an enabling rush as Dazai ran ahead of you, hands held together. The buzz in your body, the euphoric smile that never left your lips.

“We’re here,” Dazai gasped out, coming to a halt. The breeze gently blew across the huge clearing. You rested your hands on your knees for a second, just to catch your breath.

“We’re...on the roof…?” You bit your lip, suppressing the huge idiotic smile that was about to make its way onto your face. Dazai nodded, wrapping an arm around your waist.

“This is...beautiful.” The roof was dark, it was ghostly quiet. You could only see the city lights from across the railing. Dazai walked to the edge, hand still intertwined with yours.

He leaned against the metal bar, hands gripping the pole with a huge smile on his lips.

God, he looked so beautiful. His brown hair was gently flowing against the breeze, the bridge of his nose seemed to perfectly shape the rest of his face. Leaning your head against his shoulder, you smiled.

“You’re not gonna ask me to jump off the roof with you, hm?” You whispered as a joke. He glanced at you for half a second before wrapping his whole arm around your shoulders, pulling you into his chest.

“No...not today, darling.”

His eyes seemed glassy, but somehow the clearest you’d ever seen. You blinked a couple times, before finally settling your face back into his shoulder.

“You know,” he mumbled into your hair. “I look at you in a way I thought I could never look at someone.”

You stayed silent, both your hearts beating. He continued.

“I look at you, with love in my eyes. Love I didn’t know was in me...love I didn’t know I was capable of feeling.” He licked his lips with half lidded eyes. “I look at you with the love I thought I had lost.”

You buried your face deeper into his chest. “I love you so much, Dazai.” You whispered. He kissed the top of your head, humming in response.

“I wanna stay like this forever.” You mumbled, eyes suddenly becoming foggy, remembering you had no one back home.

“I know.” He softly whispered, kissing the top of your head.

“I wanna stay with you forever.”

“I know.”

“Just with you, Dazai. No one else.”

“I know.”

“But we can’t...it won’t last forever.”

“...I know.”

He suddenly wrapped his arms around your whole body, hugging you as if you were going to disappear. One of his arms circled your waist, while the other held the back of your head.

“Then we’ll stay like this—till forever falls apart.” You mumbled, inhaling his sweet scent.

He nodded, kissing the tip of your nose. “Till forever falls apart.”

a/n: a part of this was inspired by the movie perks of being a wallflower, I’m sure you can tell which part :)

tag list: @uwu-monster101 @14th-century-homosexual-spirit @dai-tsukki-desu @i4gumi @cross-crye @starglow-xx @ranposlover @bsdwhore @arimakii @malewifegirlboss @shadyteacup @smadhuman @knjksj0301 @neighborhoodfriendlysimp @rirk-ke @mushroomplantasia @luftdum @pickleisrandom @3-am-depression @its-chuuya-bitch @the-wholesome-ranpo

[huangbae]

˗ˏˋ getting rejected ´ˎ˗

ft. 2000 line + mark <33

a/n: this is prob my first angsty reaction! i didn’t have enough space to explain in the title but this is essentially where you get rejected by your crush, but he has a crush on you and its just kinda rlly sad >:( also if you see “c/n” in here it means “crushes name” !!

♡.﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀.♡

< MARK >

he didn’t know what to do

you were crying to him

because your crush rejected you when you asked them out at lunch

he knew you were going to confess

so he kinda hid in the library

and told you that he had to go to one of his classes to make up work

you could tell he was lying when he said that

but you didn’t know why

the truth was that he was madly in love with you

and everytime you brought them up

it just made him really sad

to the point where he contemplated just giving up on your friendship

but he just couldn’t walk away

he loved you so much

he wished he could be in your crushes position so badly

he hoped and dreamed about the day when you would come to your senses and love him as much as he loved you

but that day never came

and both of you were unhappy

maybe this was the time for him to walk away.

< RENJUN >

for a few months

hes had casual thoughts about going out with you

he just never acted on it

because he thought he had all the time in the world to figure out his feelings

but thats when you started talking about c/n

and he teased you about your casual crush

until it gradually turned into a serious crush

he knew you were about to fall in love with c/n

you occupied his mind all the time

when he sat down to paint or draw something

it was always you

when he listened to music

it was all songs that reminded him of you

thats when one day

you called him and told him that c/n got a new s/o

and you were about to break down

“don’t worry, y/n, i know how that feels.”

you heard him gulp

and hang up the phone.

< JENO >

he witnessed it with his own eyes

you skipped over to c/n

and asked them if they wanted to go on a date with you

he wanted to stop you

and confess to you

but he just couldn’t

he thought that would be selfish of him

he didn’t know you’d pursue c/n

and he certainly didn’t expect them to quietly reject you

you used him as your rock after that

venting to him when you were sad

and expressing how much you wished c/n loved you

but you still didn’t know that jeno was obsessed with you

he knew you two weren’t compatible

so he just let you love other people

even after c/n

he’d stick around while you fell for others

it hurt for him to admit

but

it seemed that you and him would just not get the happy ending he was hoping for.

< HAECHAN >

you and haechan had always had a close friendship

he was the person you’d come to when you were struggling

he knew you liked c/n

you talked about them for days on end

you knocked on his door one night

and told him about what happened to you

to make a long story short

you confessed to c/n at a party

and they humiliated you in front of the whole party

haechan let you in

and you cried into his shoulder the whole night

eventually falling asleep in his arms

and thats when it hit him

he liked you

after confiding in him for a few weeks after the incident

his like for you turned into love

he knew he was screwed

he often sat on his patio swing

looking at the setting sun

and thought about how much he hated c/n

they didn’t even deserve your love

but you were so infatuated with them

“screw you, c/n.”

< JAEMIN >

“i wish c/n loved me.”

“i wish you loved me.”

you and jaemin were laying on a field

facing each other just talking about random things

until he finally said it

he didn’t even realize he said it

until you closed your gaping mouth

sat up on the grass

and started getting up

“i—i’m sorry. i should go.”

he looked at you frantically walk back in the direction you came from

and put his head down again

sighing as he stared at the sun

he didn’t even care anymore

he didn’t care if you’d run back to c/n

wherever they were

c/n didn’t even care about you

at least

in the way jaemin did

a few minutes later

he reached for his phone

and called you

when the phone rang to voicemail

he said

“look, y/n. i know i fucked up, okay? maybe we could make it work one day. maybe in the next life. it’s okay. i’ll wait for you until then.”

♡.﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀.♡

i hope you enjoyed :D sorry if theres any formatting or spelling errors, i didn’t proofread:( feel free to send requests via asks or dms :]]

~ with love, huangbae :)

[alpaca-writes]

Mystics, Chapter 33

Synopsis: Arch becomes hired on at Mystics by the strange shopkeeper Lyrem Nomadus, and everything seems to be going well. In fact, their life nearly becomes perfection; no more bullies, better grades, and a lot less stress. Soon enough, however, Arch realizes that perhaps not everything is as perfect as it seems and that Lyrem has been hiding a very dark, and troubling secret…

taglist: @myst-in-the-mirror ​ & @livingforthewhump ​

CW: blood, organs exposed, bodily mutilation, torture, gore, not for the faint of heart..

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

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

         From outside the dining hall, Arch was pacing and shaking their hands out of nervousness with a fresh apron on. They were about to remove Lyrem’s heart. Lyrem’s.

         They liked Lyrem. They understood that he was dead. Paimon had to remind them of that fact, since he seemed so alive in Paimon’s realm. The removal of his heart would be a symbolic gesture. Nothing more. The so-called demon compared it to a rite-of-passage, citing the history that Lyrem had with the removal of his father’s heart when he was first working with Paimon. It was just the natural way to do business in Paimon’s mind. Lyrem always knew this day would come. That knowledge comforted Arch to a certain extent, and explained why Lyrem wanted Arch to run. He had gotten cold feet about giving up his position and didn’t want to give his whole self to his work after all.

         Arch tried the door. It was still locked. Paimon said he would retrieve them when everything was ready but Arch just couldn’t seem to wait for much longer. They just wanted to get it all over with.

         Their fingers fiddled with the buttons on the discman, starting the Peasants, Pigs, and Astronauts album from the beginning. Finally, they heard Paimon clicking his hooves from down the hall. He held up a black blindfold.

         “Here?” Arch scrunched their face. “Now? I thought I’d be able to talk to Lyrem before we started”-

         Paimon spun them around and placed the cloth over their face.

         “Lyrem betrayed me by trying to take you away,” he replied, tying the knot tightly in the back. “And for that, he has lost the privilege of using his tongue for the next five minutes. Don’t worry, he’ll still be capable of speech after you’re finished with him. Alright.”

         He spun them around again, and prevented Arch from playing with the blindfold with a quick removal of their hand from their face. Paimon flicked his eyes nervously towards the door, and then looked back.

         “Now, timing is everything, sweet thing, so do whatever you need to, to remove his heart. There might be distractions, or you may get nervous, but as long as you do this, then you will never need to return to Earth the way you left it. You can be free to recreate yourself once again with Lyrem’s blessing and under my guidance.”

         Arch blinked beneath the blindfold, hearing the rush to his voice.

         “Are you nervous?” They inquired after a pause.

         “No. Not at all.”

         Arch didn’t believe that for a second. Their ability to detect bullshit was heightened at the placement of the blindfold. It bothered them that they could not see anymore.

         “Now, we’ll start the music first. You can put your headphones on,” Paimon briefly instructed. “Take your time to get started. Once the first incision is made, I’ll time your progress. Understand?”

         Arch nodded, placing the headphones over their ears. The speakers even without music were dense enough to prevent any sound from interfering. They pressed play.

         A hand gripped theirs- Paimon’s, leading them forward, straight through the door. There was a momentary pause where Arch didn’t move, because their leader had suddenly left them alone without direction. The hand returned, pressing their upper back and then they found themself at the end of the dining table as they bumped into it. Paimon took both of their hands in his and then allowed Arch to feel the two objects on the table. When their hands brushed over them, they knew immediately what they were.

         One was worn-out and almost warm to the touch, while the other was cold, and metallic and never seemed to age at all.

         Arch took their time, feeling both blade handles over completely. Paimon wanted them to choose. They were well practiced with the bowie.  It would be the obvious choice.

         Paimon watched on curiously as Arch made their decision. They placed the bowie down with a sigh, and picked up Lyrem’s jeweled blade instead. Arch nodded, indicating that they had made their decision. Paimon led Arch by the hand until they stood beside Arthur. Quickly, he helped them find their tools sitting on the table nearby. A bone saw, and clamp waiting to be used as well as a handy cloth to wipe any excess blood from their hands they didn’t want.

        When Arch was comfortable, Paimon left them there and took the other side of the table. He pulled a grin over the man who seemed to be realizing all too suddenly that Arch, really was going to start pulling him apart only because Paimon had told them to.

         “I thought I’d let you know, that I’ve decided what I want.” Paimon declared, unbuttoning Arthur’s shirt.

         “What are you talking about?” Arthur growled, enraged and equally humbled by the almost tender action that Paimon was performing on him.

         “For when I win this little bet.”

         “You won’t win.”

         “I will win,” Paimon argued, pulling Arthur’s shirt open and baring his chest. “And when I do, I’ll make sure that Arch eats your heart, fresh from your body. Raw and make you watch.”

         “They won’t”-

         “Ah, ah, ah. Are you really sure you want to make another bet on that?” Paimon shot his eyes up from Arthur to Arch and then back down again. They would likely start at any moment. Arthur fell silent.

         Paimon left the stage. His brow furrowed at the sight of Lyrem and Apollo’s arrival. They were now sitting in audience chairs that he had not set up for them with a look on their faces like they didn’t think they belonged either. Quite simply, Paimon didn’t summon them. Thinking it odd they would choose to be present for this moment, he glared at the two and made his approach.

        Creating two more small yellow programmes for the newest arrivals, he handed them out, hoping his startled demeanor was not noticeable. He ignored the uncomfortable itch to ask how they removed themselves from the basement and sat between them both. Neither of them looked happy to have found themselves there.

         “Glad you both could make opening night.” He grinned, patting both of them on the shoulder.

         Arthur’s head turned towards Lyrem, waiting for some indication that there might still be rescue- a plan, at least. Lyrem shook his head and his eyes cast downward, then back up as Charlotte was addressed by her little brother.

         “Char, turn away. Don’t… Don’t watch this. Please,” Arthur pleaded.

         Paimon sniffed and muttered, “it’s beginning so tragically. I was hoping for an opening number of some kind. You know, to lighten the mood.”

         Arch adjusted their stance over the body. No such opening number would spare the crowd from the hellish scene. Arch reached out a hand, feeling first the bare skin over a set of ribs, and then trailed their fingers higher until they found the right area. The knife came in close to Arthur’s chest and immediately, a loud shout filled with expletives ripped out of his throat as the blade started to dig into his flesh.

         Arch grunted, removing the blade and pulled the discman from the belt loop of their pants. They altered the volume buttons until they were satisfied.

         “No! No, Arch! Listen to me! Hear me!” Arthur shouted at them and tried his mightiest to lean up.

         Arch paid him no mind. The natural reactions like screaming were simply another distraction. They would do better if they spent ten seconds to up the volume instead of pausing every time Lyrem had something new to say. They returned the system to their hip, and continued.

         “Oh, see. I suppose there are some funnier parts,” Paimon mentioned off-hand and let out a quick breathy chuckle.

         Lyrem turned to him with a new and profound look in his eyes.

         “How can you find any humor in such gore?” he postulated rhetorically. “I am not a fan of Arthur myself, but this”-?

         “Is a masterpiece,” Paimon interrupted and then he hushed Lyrem with a finger to his lips. “Just allow it to happen.”

         Lyrem scanned the room for a timer, and he found one off to the side. A sandglass sitting on a wooden stool by the wall.

         Arch had finished the first cut, and the blood from the incision began to pool in the center of his chest. Arthur’s jaw had been fully clenched to prevent himself from screaming as the pain ripped through him. He didn’t want Charlotte to hear him. His tears were hot against the sides of his face as they pooled into two puddles near his ears on the wooden planks. He opened his eyes during the reprieve while Arch planned the spot for their next cut. He caught sight of Charlotte who was watching every moment with steadfast terror. Her eyes were wide, and her face shined under thick black lashes.

         He let out another howl as Arch found the proper point of incision and cut across. Again, they found the third incision point and finished the I shape that would soon be widened by the clamp to hold open the area for the saw to separate his breastbone. It had been two minutes. They worked quickly to adjust the metal bar to their desired length and then pulled the portions of flesh aside. They picked up the saw, giving it two quick whirs before carefully finding the correct spot to break him open without accidentally taking one of their own fingers off in the process.

         Calmly and quietly, they sang to themself as the saw whirred jaggedly through the bone until it was only their voice they heard in their mind:

         “-Are you glad to see how far you've come?

         You're a wizard in a blizzard-

         A mystical machine gun

         Bwow, wowowow, benerner! Bwow”-

         They felt a little silly mouthing the words and tune, but it was only Paimon and Lyrem. Surely, they would understand Arch’s need to keep calm as the guilt racked through them. The buzzing stopped, and Arch inserted the clamp forcefully. They pried open the chest cavity with a sharp crack. They leaned over their subject without any tools. They just wanted to feel around and yep, they found the heart and the aorta first in all that squishy, squelchy, softness. Arch wondered for a moment whether there would be any practical use in keeping the blood from shooting out when they remembered that they needed their knife to sever the many arteries and ventricles.

         Now, where did they leave the knife? They felt around the table with a bloody hand, brushing the top of Arthur’s arm. Arch got in a bit close and the man’s hand strained just far enough to take one of Arch’s small hands into his own. Arch paused.

It was just another distraction.

They pulled their hand away, but not before something tiny, metal, and attached to a chain had been placed in the palm of their hand.

The audience watched Arch stop suddenly. They felt the small gold crucifix and held it tight. A gleam of a single teardrop rolled down one cheek.

Paimon shifted to the end of his seat, watching the sandglass pouring out of time. There was perhaps one minute left. Not much more.

“What the hell are they doing?”

“Nothing,” Lyrem answered. He too was at a loss for as to why Arch had stopped, but recognized that Arthur must have been able to tip them off somehow throughout the ordeal. “And you can’t do anything about it, remember?” He quickly reminded Paimon. The god looked like he might just launch out of his seat and shut the whole performance down.

It was all a distraction.

Arch dropped the crucifix. There was no going back now. Definitely no going back. It was a trick. Their mom wasn’t with them. She was stuck in another realm. Thinking the little gold man ended up somewhere on the man’s stomach, it had actually fallen directly into the cavity they created. They found the knife stashed near the shoulder and got back to work with maybe thirty seconds left on the clock. They searched around for the bloody tubes connected through the heart again.

         Twenty seconds.

         They started with the aorta first and severed it cleanly at the top. An arc of red was released through the air that nearly hit them in the face.

         Fifteen seconds.

         Next, the right pulmonary vein, pulmonary artery, and superior vena cava. All severed and done. Inferior vena cava and then left ventricle on the bottom: severed- though the chain from their mother’s crucifix distracted them once more as they found it sitting in the midst of all the blood and gore.

         Ten seconds.

         Pulmonary vein on the left and the descending aorta- severed. Moving up again, their fingers found the heart slippery and difficult to grip the last of the veins and arteries that needed disconnecting. Arch grunted, trying to find the last step. Their fingers brushed the top of the left ventricle. A short strand-no several short strands of hair, or maybe fur, caused Arch to furrow their brows in confusion.

Just a distraction. It had to be.

        They followed the top of the ventricle, searching for it to lead them to where the blood was supposed to flow in from the rest of the body. They cupped their fingers underneath and gasped, pulling their hand out with sudden shock.

         “Ow! Fuck! What the hell was that?!”

         Paimon watched the timer run until not a single grain of sand was left on the top tier.

         Arthur cried with a silent relief and then stared down at his open body. He would have hurled on sight if he had anything to heave up, because he could feel something…

Something was moving inside of him.

         Inside.

         Inside of him.

         Slowly moving, up and down, covered in red, and sticking up like spikes with some grey underneath, and then came an unmistakable purring noise. They all heard it- except for Arch who hadn’t pulled off their headphones yet. They stood against the wall, knowing they had failed miserably and cradled their scratched hand. It was a deep one.

         Paimon strutted towards the table with an enraged announcement on the tip of his tongue:

         “It’s over! I’m sending you all back to the Labyrinth!”

         Charlotte turned toward Persephone who looked back in just as much concern and reminded herself of the deal they made. Arthur and Arch had been damaged beyond repair in one way or another.

         Paimon clapped his hands, expecting the action to produce an instant portal into his realm, and none came. Apollo also stood up, and walked toward the human on the table. Paimon tried to push him back into his seat, but was unsuccessful as Apollo tried to get a look at the interruption that had saved them all.  He smiled, looking down into the gaping hole and reached inside.

         Arthur grunted in pain as Apollo’s hand dug into him. Soon the Sun god’s arms were filled with the weight of a familiar family member. 

        “Arty, it’s been ages,” Apollo muttered, as the cat looked up to her brother with eyes of steel blue. “What were you doing inside of this human, huh?”

        Arch had finally had enough and ripped their blindfold down. They saw Apollo, holding a bloody Maleficent in his hands, Lyrem, frowning from the corner in confusion, their mother Charlotte and two strangers standing in a line on the opposite side of the table, and Paimon glaring, not at them, but everyone else in the room.

         Then they looked down. Instantly, Arch paled with the realization of what happened; who they had been mutilating for the last five minutes without mercy. They could hardly speak.

         “U-uncle Arty…”

         Arthur met their eyes weakly and breathed raggedly.

“Hey, kiddo.”

[raendown]

Pairing: MadaraTobirama Word count: 4794 Chapter: 33/42 Summary: Not all wars are fought on the battlefield. Some are fought at the conference table, with whispers in the shadows, or even in the bedroom.

In a world where the Senju and Uchiha traditional lands were too far apart to have ever made them enemies, Butsuma and Tajima are the ones who come together and sign a treaty of peace. Madara isn’t happy to have his life signed away for him in a political marriage to strengthen the bond between their clans. He is even less happy to have Tobirama make assumptions of him from their very first night together. What follows from there is a journey of healing, of learning, and finding the places to belong in the places least expected.

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Chapter 33

Acting like a normal human being for the rest of the night without blurting out his recent mind-bending revelation was, strangely, not quite as hard as he might have expected it to be. Tobirama did most of the work for him by staying distracted with their temporary ward and deciding to sleep when they tucked her in for the night as well. Since they had already set up a frankly overzealous amount of traps and barriers when they made camp earlier all Madara had to do was nod along and stumble over to his bedroll. After the girl fell asleep Tobirama rolled over and threw an arm around Madara's waist to pull him close the same way they always slept and Madara prayed to every god he knew that Tobirama wouldn’t hear the heart pounding in his chest, squeezing his eyes shut to wait for his husband to drop off as well so he could continue to let his mind boggle.

He was in love. Finally the certainty in his own emotions that he had been waiting for – and he couldn’t say it because there was a little child there just waiting to ruin his heartfelt moment.

Finding sleep was difficult when his heart felt so full; he was almost surprised his Sharingan didn’t spontaneously activate every other minute while the night hours whiled away. He dropped off eventually but it felt as though he merely blinked and morning had arrived. Thankfully Tobirama didn’t take his tiredness to be anything more than the usual morning grumps and when they set off on the road again he had managed to keep his tongue in check mostly by keeping quiet. Since neither of them were large chatterboxes that worked for most of the day as well.

He found a better distraction in their ward as she grew more and more excited the closer they got to the capital, recognizing major landmarks that told her she was going home. She pointed each of them out as they passed, babbling on every time with some story about her parents, and Tobirama at least pretended to listen the whole time. Madara wasn’t sure if he was actually listening but just that amount of effort was still heartwarming.

Gaining entry to the city wasn’t nearly as difficult as the last time Madara accompanied his father to present themselves before the Daimyo. Security had apparently grown lax since he was young. No wonder other children were going missing nowadays. Their ward didn’t know her own address and couldn’t give them better directions than “go home” once they stepped inside the city so, after a brief stop to discuss their plan of action, they decided it was best to simply bring her along and hope that someone in the palace would recognize her. If luck was truly on their side then perhaps one of her relatives would be there to take her off their hands.

“Otherwise we really will end up adopting early,” Tobirama muttered quietly in jest. Madara clutched at his thundering heart and tried to play it off as brushing dust from his clothing.

“If you’re adopting anyway,” he grumbled back, “I should think it would be Kagami.”

“His mother probably wouldn’t agree to that.”

Madara conceded the point but shooed his husband along, eager to get to their destination. The sooner they got this kid off their hands and got through all the pomp of their arrival the sooner they could be alone for him to spill his guts. He was probably going to embarrass himself terribly but at least it would be over with.

The Daimyo was great and all, a very important man, but nothing was more important to Madara at the moment than finally getting to speak the precious words every Uchiha saved for only one partner in their life. After so much agonizing over the dour possibility of never having these feelings he was more than ready to celebrate the happiness of experiencing them with the man he had already agreed to spend his life with.

When they arrived at the palace they were met with a small army of servants wanting to take their bags, cool their brows, offer them water, and just generally pamper them in the many ways any noble might expect. They allowed their bags to be taken away with instructions that they be placed in the same room with only one bed – Madara glared down the one serving boy who looked surprised – and asked if their lord required them to present themselves right away. As soon as the words were out of their mouths they were whisked off to meet with the one who called them here.

Less than half a dozen steps in to the receiving room where the Daimyo sat in comfort on a heavily embroidered cushion they were stopped by a woman’s voice shouting from the far corner.

“Chihiro!” She rushed towards them on shaking legs, her eyes wide and quickly gathering tears. At first sight of her the little girl between them pulled away from Tobirama and threw herself in to the woman’s arms.

“Kaachan! Kaachan!”

The woman sank to the floor and burst in to tears while the girl babbled obliviously, clearly happy to have been reunited with her mother, already recounting the tale of how she and her retainers had gone on what she called an adventure with some bad men. Madara watched the heart-wrenching scene unfold with a leaden fist around his heart. Too few families were blessed to experience moments like this in their own world; he was grateful to have helped even just one family see a happy ending.

“How fortuitous that you arrive now!” the daimyo called, raising his arms in a wide gesture. “Little Chihiro’s parents were only just asking my assistance in locating her and here you come to save the day. Wonderful! Welcome, my friends, welcome!”

Instead of a pompous greeting the two of them were immediately swept under by a wave of heartfelt thanks from the girl’s mother, interspersed with liberal praise from their lord. Madara soaked it in triumphantly. He’d made the journey expecting to sit in for someone else, unwanted and out of place, but now he was a hero in the nobles’ eyes and they had reason to celebrate him on his own merits. It was just the perfect cherry on top of the other ball of happiness still waiting to burst out of his chest at a moment’s notice.

Unfortunately for his confessional plans their grand entrance made such a stir that they were held up in a meeting with the daimyo for more than an hour and then separated so they could be prepared for a formal dinner. Both of them were assigned personal attendants and Madara's made such a fuss over having him look perfect for the feast that he didn’t have a single moment alone with his husband before they were led in to the hall and presented to the court as guests of honor, placed in seats so close to the head of the table he delighted in picturing his father grinding his teeth with jealousy. Even if the next few days were a misery of boredom this was worth it just for the chance to go home and tell his father every excruciating detail about how important he was for this one night.

Throughout the night he kept hoping the festivities would end soon so they might be allowed to go back to their room but after the dinner they were asked to stay and enjoy the geisha who arrived to entertain them with dancing and music. Madara would be the first to admit his manners weren’t perfect but he wasn’t so uncouth as to walk away from such an honor. When they were finally able to slip away back to their rooms the hour was so late they had just enough energy to undress themselves before curling up together in the bed and falling asleep.

Much of the next few days ran in a similar pattern. Every time Madara thought they might have a decent moment alone to talk they were interrupted or summoned to some new activity the Daimyo had planned. On the one hand he could sort of understand that the man was grateful they stopped a coup from happening, keeping his butt in the proverbial throne, but it seemed excessive to plan an entire week of celebrations that kept them so busy he couldn’t even make one simple confession to his own husband.

Well, he could have. It didn’t take much time to say three little words. But this felt like something that should be given proper gravitas and a little time to sink in, he didn’t really want to squeeze it in between bites of lunch or something.

He wasn’t given a break until the fourth day when the garden party neither of them were enjoying was interrupted by a minor nobleman arriving with urgent news for their lord. The daimyo excused himself with several apologies and invited the guests to continue their frivolity without him for the time being. Madara waited exactly three minutes after the man was gone, checked to make sure no one was paying them any attention, then dragged his husband away down the closest garden path. They disappeared behind the hedges and didn’t look back.

Tobirama was smiling at the back of his head, he could tell without having to turn around and look, but Madara ignored it as he continue to scurry between the rows of flora in search of a nice quiet place they could stand and talk. If they were going to be run ragged every day to the point where they had little energy to do more than crawl in to bed and pass out then he was going to jump on this chance and make no apologies about it. Thankfully for his sanity they didn’t encounter so much as a gardener on their way. Madara wasn’t sure what he would have done if the paths were full of people. He stopped after several minutes of tugging his husband along, rounding a corner to find a quaint little koi pond with a carved stone bench to one side just the perfect size for two people to sit together.

Which is what he did, dropping down on to one half and unceremoniously pulling a bemused Tobirama down with him.

“Something on your mind, anata?”

“Don’t take that teasing tone with me! But, uh, yes.” Madara opened his mouth and then immediately snapped it shut as he realized that, for all the time he’d spent mourning the lack of opportunity to do this, he’d never actually taken a moment to figure out what he should say.

“Take your time,” Tobirama said.

Choking down his nerves, Madara nodded to himself and dragged his eyes up to meet the pretty red ones looking back at him patiently. Someone a little more cultured than him would probably have some fancy way of laying it all out. All he had in his head were three words. Pressed for time and a little out of his depth, Madara decided that honesty was probably the best policy and he should say something quickly before he started looking like a crazy person.

“I love you,” he blurted, rushing onwards as Tobirama’s eyes widened comically. “It just kind of hit me while you were taking care of Chihiro but we’ve been so busy ever since and there was never a second for me to say anything but it’s been killing me not to.”

“You…?” Tobirama’s voice had never been so soft. Just hearing the disbelief in his voice had Madara blushing and babbling onwards.

“And I’m really sorry it took me forever to figure out my own feelings. It’s just that I’ve never been in love before! Not even close to it! So I just wasn’t sure if that’s what I was feeling or if it was supposed to be different. But then you were smiling and being so good with that little girl and it just kind of crashed in to me like a doton; I’ve never had a religious experience before but I sort of imagine it would be like that, you know?”

“Peace, anata.”

His jaw snapped shut again with just as much nervous energy as before. Madara twitched and resisted the impulse to dig his toes in to the dirt shyly while his husband continue to stare at him with naked awe. Just when he thought they might sit there all day doing nothing but looking in to each other’s eyes Tobirama lifted both hands to cup the sides of his face.

“Will you say it again?” he asked very quietly.

“Oh. I- I love you.”

Tobirama said nothing in return. The look on his face was beyond words but he spoke with his actions instead, as he so often preferred to do, leaning over to press their lips together in a deep kiss that said everything he couldn’t just then. Madara sank in to it with a moan. Everything in him felt lighter for having finally said the words he’d been holding in for days.

From the tips of his toes to the very top of his head Madara felt almost as though he were being slowly charged with static electricity. As relief drained the tension from his body he could feel it gradually being replaced by a strange sort of triumphant energy, the urge to stand on a rooftop and crow his victory because this was everything he had ever wanted, everything an Uchiha could dream of. A husband that loved him whom he loved so deeply in return, a happy home together. Hands to hold through the longest nights. When he was old and gray Tobirama would be there at his side and knowing that was a warm feeling, a happy yearning, so different from the bitter cold dread that had filled him when they were first betrothed.

“You cannot know what those words mean to me,” Tobirama whispered against his mouth before taking it again in another desperate kiss.

“I think I might be able to guess,” he managed to say when they parted again.

“Do you know how many times I have wanted to say that to you?”

“You could say it now.”

So he did. Madara flushed and eventually had to look away as Tobirama murmured the words to him again and again, brushing kisses against his neck and whispering in his ear like a proper pair of lovers. For such a reserved man he certainly could pull out the romance when he wanted to. Who would have thought he could be as sappy as his brother?

Not that Madara could say he was any better at the moment. Some fierce warrior he must look like with his eyes shining and his heart fairly beating out of his chest.

In the end it was the distant sound of laughter that made them remember where they were. Caught up in each other’s lips yet again, fingers tangled in hair, they pulled apart to look over in the direction of what sounded like one of the daimyo’s daughters. If they could hear her that well she must have snuck up quite close while they weren’t paying attention to their surroundings. It also meant that the other party attendants were starting to branch out in to the garden while their host was distracted and this private little alcove was about to be a lot less private.

“Great,” Madara grumbled. “Back to the celebrations then. You know, if he wanted to give us proper thanks then maybe he should have asked whether we even enjoy public events like this. Because neither of us do. A week alone would have been much nicer than all this crap.”

“Do not think this is the end of this conversation. I don’t care how tired we are when the day ends, I’m not done with you just yet.” Tobirama lifted one eyebrow to punctuate how serious he was but the most interesting part of his expression was the curl of his lips and everything they promised with just one little smirk. Quite suddenly Madara found himself breathless all over again.

Unable to respond to that without embarrassing himself, too afraid of the colors he might turn if he asked what the man meant by that, all he could do was nod and spring to his feet without another word. They wandered arm in arm back the way they had come until they could feel underdeveloped civilian chakra only a few feet away then separated just before a few partygoers rounded a corner and greeted them with alcohol heavy on their breath. Someone must have opened another bottle of plum wine while they were gone.

If he’d thought all the days before were hard to get through while keeping his silence Madara realized now that he hadn’t known what true torture was. Feeling Tobirama’s gaze on him for the rest of the day, meeting eyes in silence and knowing even a fraction of what was running through that beautiful mind, he’d never been so close to driving himself insane. Every time they brushed up against each other in even the most innocent of ways had his entire body on fire. His mouth was dry and his fingers twitching, heart racing inside his chest as the memory of what happened in the garden played through his mind on repeat again and again and again. If his life depended on it he could not have recalled more than five minutes collectively of what happened for the rest of the many hours they were forced to stay out and be polite for the public eye.

Whether Tobirama was able to keep track of their surroundings Madara couldn’t say but for himself he knew only that they were led to another room inside the palace after the Daimyo finally returned and that several people attempted to draw him in to conversation, all of whom probably left with the impression that he had lost what little there had ever been of his mind. Not that he cared in the slightest what any of these people thought of him. It wasn’t like he was someone who typically attracted a lot of potential clientele to their village anyway.

Dinner, when it was finally late enough, was another kind of special anguish. With the windows dark and the room lit by candles the atmosphere was almost romantic, giving Madara terrible gushy urges to lean in to his husband’s side or make a fool of himself with the sort of nonsense mushy drivel usually reserved for terrible poetry. In retrospect he later decided it was a good thing he was prevented from such mortifying actions but in the moment it was only irritating not being able to follow through on the hot-eyed looks they traded each time they were unobserved. No boring small talk over dinner could ever hold his interest quite like the feeling of Tobirama tracing the edges of his palm out of sight under the table.

Just the same as all the other days since they arrived in the capital, they were finally released from socializing only long after the moon had risen and they were both dragging their feet as they trudged through the hallways to the room they shared. All that kept Madara's eyes from drooping was the electricity that had been buzzing in his veins since that afternoon as he waited impatiently until the moment they could be alone.

Slipping inside the room and closing the door felt almost like stepping in to a whole other world after holding so much tension for so long. The complete silence and lack of other bodies crowding the space left him mentally scrambling for a way to describe the opposite of claustrophobia – until he very quickly had other things on his mind. Madara gasped as Tobirama’s hands grasped his shoulders and spun him around, pushing until he stumbled back against the wall and continuing forward until they were crashing together in a frantic kiss.

Almost immediately his fingers were hopelessly tangled in fistfuls of silver hair, a lewd sound escaping that would have made him curl away with shame if he weren’t so entirely invested in pulling his husband closer. Tobirama seemed more than okay with this plan. If Madara had experienced any doubts about whether the man was as eager as himself they would have been tossed out the window the moment he heard his reticent partner make the single most frantic sound he had ever heard in his life, a whining moan that sounded as though it had been dragged up from the very base of his spine. The sound of it sent shivers racing down Madara's own spine and made him gasp in to their kiss.

“Say it again,” Tobirama demanded in a breathy whisper, syllables broken with each ragged pant for air.

“I love you.” Each time they passed his lips the words tasted sweeter and sweeter.

“Gods.”

The next thing he knew the room was spinning as Tobirama pulled them away from the wall and sent them tumbling down on to the bed, crawling over him like a predator.

“Okay not the reaction I was expecting but I can go with this,” Madara chuckled nervously.

“Mm and I do so appreciate your cooperation,” his partner leered.

As unexpected as it was to be almost literally tossed on to the bed he couldn’t say he was in any way against this turn of events. Having Tobirama’s body push him against a wall was an entirely different sensation than feeling all six feet of solid muscle pressing him down in to the mattress, their legs entwined and two strong arms bracketing either side of his head. Madara had spent the entirety of his almost twenty-two years of life thinking himself the prime example of an alpha male. It was a surprise now to discover just how much he enjoyed being pinned by his confident husband.

It was also a surprise to feel an unmistakable hardness against his thigh and know that Tobirama’s thoughts were running along quite similar paths to his own, although probably still very different. He was, after all, the only one between them with any experience in these matters. More than anything it was the fact that it was a foreign sensation which made him jerk away with a startled expression.

“What’s wrong?” Tobirama asked, freezing in place immediately until he understood the sudden shift.

“Nothing!” Madara bit nervously at his lip. “I just…you…I can feel…” Just blurting out that he could feel the man’s cock felt incredibly awkward and yet he had no idea how else to phrase it. His point must have gotten across somehow, though.

“Ah. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

Instead of leaning in to kiss him again the idiot pulled away and began to frown, which just would not do. Madara squirmed with a frown of his own which definitely was not a pout in any way. “You’re not making me uncomfortable,” he said.

“Are you certain of that? Because you can’t look me in the eye right now.”

“Well excuse me for being embarrassed! This is new to me! And I wanted- shut up!”

“No, you were going to say something there,” Tobirama insisted.

“It was nothing!”

Eyeing him doubtfully, his husband very carefully shifted so the hardness against his thigh was lifted entirely away. “There was definitely something.”

“Fine! I wanted…it to go well. I know the way you grew up this sort of thing didn’t have any great meaning but to my people giving yourself to someone is important, it’s showing them that you can truly be vulnerable in their presence without fear, and I’ve built it up in my head. A lot. And I might be a little worried about messing it up.”

Clearly that was nothing close to the answer Tobirama was expecting. Madara shifted and squirmed a bit more under the weight of the unreadable eyes staring down at him. Both of them having danced around this subject to avoid the possibility of pressure of making each other uncomfortable in any way, he’d never had a chance to admit some of the fears that had been on his mind whenever he thought about the fact that someday they would lie together as married couples do. Most of those fears revolved around the fact that he was the one who had no idea what he was doing and that made him the one likely to do something utterly stupid.

Like he was already doing, ironically, as he had apparently ruined the mood.

“Anata, it’s alright if you’re not ready.”

“What?”

Tobirama leaned down to rest their foreheads together. “Just because you said the words I don’t expect it to be like flipping a switch. If you’re not ready that’s fine. I didn’t mean to paw at you like an animal. Not being able to kiss you all day has been driving me wild; I may have gotten a little too enthusiastic.”

“I never said I wasn’t ready!” Madara insisted, his cheeks hot and his throat tight. “I just want to...to do it right!”

“You could hardly do anything wrong.”

“Easy for you to say. You know me, I’ll probably trip and fall out of the bed or something. This isn’t even our bed!” He was still very definitely not pouting.

His husband, on the other hand, was now smiling very gently. “Perhaps it would be best to put this subject on hold until we do return to our own bed then. When we’re home in a place where you feel more comfortable then we can talk about it, yes?”

“Talking is not what I have been imagining,” Madara grumbled. Then he regretted it when he was met with another leer.

“I will freely admit to being very interested in whatever you’ve been imagining. We’ll have to come back to that when we have a chance to talk about this again.”

Mortified, Madara wriggled both hands between their bodies so he could push the man away. If he were honest it was the last thing he wanted to be separated right then but Tobirama was right about one thing. He would be a lot more at ease in their bed. As comfortable as this one was and as cushy as it had been lavishing themselves in the opulence of the capital city he would always prefer the house in which the two of them had fought hard to make a proper home. This was not the place he wanted to have solidified in his memories whenever he remembered their first time.

Sitting up and scrubbing at the back of his neck, Madara reluctantly admitted they should be going to sleep anyway. Inevitably they would be woken earlier than desired tomorrow and invited to yet another breakfast with too many dishes to ever be properly appreciated in one sitting. His usual routine when getting ready for bed involved closing himself away in the bathroom to change his clothes but it felt almost ridiculous to do so when he had very nearly just taken them off for the man beside him. Yet the idea of just stripping himself naked after they had decided now was not the time seemed like it would be a tease more than anything else.

“Can you turn around?” he asked quietly. Tobirama did so with a look that made it clear to Madara how significant a moment that was for his husband, like a barrier being crossed, like trust held out between two palms and given freely without regrets.

After he had changed he rolled under the covers and buried his face in the pillow, trying not to blush as he heard the rustling sounds of Tobirama briefly getting naked only a handful of feet away from him. When the rustling stopped it was followed by footsteps and then more rustling as the mattress dipped and his husband slid in behind him to wrap an arm around his waist and pull him backwards. Embarrassingly, his first thought was to note that Tobirama was actually still a little hard. Not quite as noticeably but still enough that he had to have a very firm talk with himself very quickly about not bringing attention to things they had agreed not to talk about for now. Then, of course, Tobirama went and emptied his head of every other thought with only three words whispered in his ear.

“I love you,” he said, sending thrills all throughout Madara's body.

To say them back with absolute confidence was the greatest joy and honor.

[tingleparker]

Break up with your girlfriend, I’m bored

Tom Holland x Fem!Reader

Request: Yes, actually. {Thank you anon, love you <33}

•Warnings: Mentions of cheating, swears, Y/n is kind of a shit person and a pot full of cheekiness ;))

•Summary: One look at his face and you knew you just had to have him, though his little girlfriend stood in the way; but you're bored so he better hurry up. ;)

•Word count: 2.5k

A/n: This is fiction! I’m not trying to romanticize cheating of any kind but its the song :)) Also no hate to Zendaya, its for story purposes only.

Listen to ‘BUWYGFIB’ -> HERE ~ All credit to Ari and her team for this banging song <33

Took one fuckin' look at your face. You were intrigued, the tuff of curls illuminated by the multicoloured lights darting across the room. The second your eyes laid on him, you knew you wanted him. Call yourself crazy but you needed him and you never even met the guy. Now you wanna know how he tastes.

Your name up in billboards, songs on the radio, fans screaming your name but you were still missing something; nothing no one to fill up your time. Your routine is always the same and you were sick of it, so bored with everything; though you are so appreciative of all this, you couldn't help but feel lonely.  

Hence why you were sat in a dark booth at a club downtown, sipping slowly at your alcoholic drink. Eyes wandering around the dark room, bodies grinding on the dance floor; music blaring loudly.

That's when you saw him, figure illuminated and alluring your eyes. His body swaying to the loud bass of the random club song being blasted, you're glued to him like he was the other half of your magnet. Your lip caught in your teeth as you watch on from the sidelines, sinful thoughts running through your mind; seeing the smooth movements from this tempting individual. A tantalizing smirk appeared on his stupidly attractive face as the two of you locked eyes, your lips wrapped around your glass teasingly; eyebrow-raising in an enticing curiosity.

Your trance is broken as your eyes set on the pair of arms snaking around the man you’ve been practically eye-fucking for the past five minutes. You followed the arms that were wrapped around the captivating man, finding an attractive woman; the two of them grinding up against each other. Your tongue ran across your teeth, clicking judgmentally as your eyes never left the pair. Sure, you must've looked like a stalker but it was a dark club and , in particular, was inspecting you. The girl that was dancing up on the man you wanted so badly must've felt your stare, hair flipping over her shoulder to look at you. She was beautiful, you'd give her that but that didn't stop you from wanting what she had. Your eyes met, hers lit up; you assumed she recognized you thought you didn't really know who they were, you knew they had to be somewhat of a big deal to get into this place. A bright smile appeared on her features before she signaled you to join them. You feigned surprise, pointing at yourself to double check that she's inviting you over and not someone else. You get a confirmative nod from her before meeting eyes with the piece of eye candy on her side, prompting you to hastily but seductively make your way over to the two.

“I love your songs!” Was the first thing you heard as you got closer to the pair, the woman fangirling over you; latching onto the man's arm, did not go unnoticed by you.  

“Thank You!” You shouted over the music politely, a layer of awkwardness forming from you not knowing who they were; but oh did you want to know who he was.

“I’m Zendaya and this is Tom! We’re actors but we’re really big fans!” The woman, Zendaya yelled over; not getting over you being in her presence but all you had on your mind was her man.

Hmm, Tom, the name ran in your mind; making a mental note that it would have a nice ring to it if you were moaning it. Your eyes raked down Toms body, now taking it in at a closer perspective, and he did not disappoint. You knew you were getting too lost in him, so you quickly turned back to Zendaya before shouting.

“Let dance! Have fun all together while we’re here!”

Z let out a squeal of agreement before dragging the two of you further into the dancefloor. Bodies pressed up against each other, heat radiating off everyone around you; but you weren't going to complain. The couple danced with each other, you felt awkward standing off the side; so a plan had set in your mind. You squeezed your way in between the two, arms thrown around Z and backside pressed against Tom. The two women giggled for completely different reasons; Zendaya laughing as one of her idols was dancing up on her and you were content with how you got contact with Tom, though you can't see his face, you could still feel his body. You grinded back into him feeling a slight hardness pressed against you, causing you to smirk; all while you tried to make an effort to show Zendaya nothing was fishy. The three of you swayed like this before a faster song came on and you boldly turned around, arms wrapping around Tom now. Your eyes met once again in this dim lighting but you could see the cheekiness behind them. You continued to move your body to the beat whilst keeping eye contact with Tom; you felt Z behind you dancing as well but you didn't really mind her. You pressed against Tom, even more, your chest hitting his and faces centimeters away from each other. You tucked your lip in your teeth as you saw the lustful gaze upon you, in that moment you didn't feel like you were surrounded by a bunch of people; just you and Tom. The song passed and you were breathless, Z suggesting to go to the bar for some refreshments.

The three of you stood in front of the bar, you downing the alcohol served to you as you watched Zendaya throws her arms around the curly haired brunette and plant a small peck on his lips, but making sure you saw her do so. She knew what game you were playing but you didn't mind, two can play this game.

“You guys are so..cute. How long have you been together?” You asked with a tight-lipped smile,

“Not too long, ‘bout a month. Right love?” Tom answers but also asks for some confirmation and though you knew he asked her, his eyes never left yours.

Z only nodded in response, suddenly really tired as she clung onto Tom for stability.

“Why don't we head home darling?” Tom suggests after he realizes his droopy-eyed girlfriend.

Earning a nod from her, Tom turned to you smiling; your mind trying to think of a way to stall their departure.

“Well, I’ll probably head off as well. Gotta call an uber outside.” You say, trying to get Tom to realize your hint.

“Well, I have room in my car if you need a ride.” Tom offers, a smile tugging on your lips.

Just as you were about to accept his offer undoubtedly, you were cut off to no surprise by Z.

“I think she’ll be fine babe. I just want to go and have a nap.”

Your eyes flicker to Toms, a slight pout on your lips; the conflict Toms was in a predicament. You kept eye contact with his brown orbs, silently begging for him.

“Address?” His voice asked the simple question put a giant smile onto your face.

“[yours/random address]” You reply innocently, biting your lip; though you could feel the constant, burning glare from Z.

“Perfect, it's on the way. I can drop you off Z and then Y/n.” Tom says trying to calm out the tension, oblivious to how his girlfriend was radiating jealousy.

Your hands reached out to Toms' shoulder, smoothing out the material of his shirt before wrapping your arms around him; as a thank you.

“You're a lifesaver.” You say quietly to him, lips brushing against his skin.

You pulled away slowly, a sly smile on your face; Tom staring at you with an unreadable emotion. The two of you continue to watch each other, waiting for someone to make a move; completely forgetting about the fuming Zendaya on the sidelines.

“Babe! Can we go now?” Z breaks up the moment, snaking her own arms around the actor's torso and placing a light kiss on his jaw.

You smiled at the action, you knew what she was doing but she knew what you were doing; it was only Tom that was in between you two.

The three of you made your way to Toms car out in the back, trying to avoid the attention from paparazzi, fans or anyone else.  You knew you couldn't just take the front seat, so you immediately went to the back; the gears in your mind turning and thinking of a plan. You couldn't describe it, Tom is like the epitome of your perfect guy; there was a feeling tugging you towards him, you just needed him. A silent lull fell on the three of you, so many different emotions and feelings swirling around in the confinement of Tom’s car. Hatred and irritation coming off the gorgeous woman up in the passenger seat; Dazed and unaware vibed off the tempting and enticing driver. And you tried your hardest to put on a sultry and flirtatious vibe, you hoped it works but it was quite hard when the man you were going for had a girlfriend sitting up front with him.

It got even more awkward for you when a familiar voice came through the radio, that familiar voice being yours. A red hue rose on your cheeks, though your confident stature; you really did not like listening to your own voice with others, ironically. What surprised you through is when you hear a voice singing along. Although the out of tune and pitch vocals, you caught Tom's eye; looking back at you through the front mirror. He knew what he was doing and you were not complaining. The rest of the ride consisted of stealing glances and listening to him hum or sing softly to the tunes from the radio. Every time your songs would play, Toms voice would get louder; trying to get your attention as you giggled in the backseat.

You were waiting till we got to Zendaya's place, bored out of your mind as you anticipated on getting Tom alone. You took out your phone to snap a couple pictures; of yourself and the neighborhood passing by, posting a couple dark photos up on your Instagram story.

Finally, the car came to a halt; parking in front of a large house. The couple in front exchanged some words and goodbyes, before giving each other a peck on the lips and Zendaya stepping out of the vehicle but not without shooting you a look. Tom watched until his girlfriend entered the front door before diverting his attention onto the woman in the back. Without a word you move and climb over the middle console, cleavage showing as you leaned over.  You plopped yourself down into the passenger seat, sending him a cheeky smile before putting on the seatbelt.

“You don't waste any time do ya love?” Tom says, throwing you a little wink before the car started moving once again.

“If I want something and I'll get it.” You reply mischievously, hand slowly drifting towards the good looking driver.

Your fingers danced across his jean covered thigh, you watch his eyes flicker towards you before a smirk appears on his lips; those lips you could stare at all day. One of Toms' hands shot down, placing it on top of your own, not making you move your hand but also not letting you get any further. The rest of the ride was filled with the pair of you singing softly; Tom belting out lyrics of the songs he likes, hands together but not entirely intertwined and little sly and flirty comments and looks.

‘So how are you and your girlfriend doing?’

‘Wouldn't you like to know darling?’

~

As Tom pulls up at the front of your house, you disappointedly pout; wanting to spend more time with him.

“Tuck your lip back in, love” Tom suddenly says, eyes locked in on your pouting lips.

“Make me” You persuade, slowly leaning closer to Tom.

“Tempting but I can't.” He says being the loyal man he is but making your lip jutt out more and you let out a huff.

An idea popped up in your head, you hand reaching out for his before bringing his hand to your mouth; Tom's thumb grazing against your bottom lip. A pot full of feelings stirring in the pit of your stomach at this intimate action. Abruptly Toms phone went off, the screens bright light shining prominently; your eyes scanning over it to see a text message form the one and only girlfriend. Tom pulled away as he saw the notification, stumbling on his words;

“I- Uh- It's late. I gotta go.”

You leaned towards him once again, lips planting a kiss on the corner of his mouth; before giving a soft ‘see you soon’.

~

That night as you lay in bed thinking about the previous events with Tom, your heart racing with just the thought of him. You scroll through your phone finding the picture you took in his car, only mere hours ago. Your head was filled with ideas, lyrics and all because you found your muse. You pulled up Instagram to put out…

@Y/N

[Selfie you took in Toms car]

‘Sing me my own lyrics while I sit in your backseat’

TomHolland2013 and 429,753 other people liked this

40617 comments

User1: OMG, you look so gooood!

TomHolland2013: So I have potential in the singing industry? ;)

User2: HolY sHIt, She was with Tom!

User3: SHIP

~

-A couple weeks after-

In the back of the uber, the driver turned up the volume of the radio. The radio presenters voice booming out a familiar name.

‘And today we got new music from the young, superstar Y/n Y/l/n! Actually, fans suspected a little something between her and the Marvel actor Tom Holland. But enough of the drama here is Y/n’s debut of her song Break up with your girlfriend I’m bored.’

Your very own voice came from the speaker of the car, smiling to yourself as you hear the new song you've written only a couple weeks ago.

After that night, you and Tom had been texting each other almost non-stop. Flirty texts, cheeky snapchats and even some late night calls. You were in the studio all week as you worked hard with your team, lyrics coming from you easily as all you had to do is think of Tom. And hardly two weeks later your new song BUWYGFIM was almost done.

Little did you know on the other side of the country, Tom sat in his best mate Harrison's car.  Upon hearing your name, Toms' ears perk up; instantly turning the volume up.

~

Your phone pinged, startling you slightly but a smile adorned on your face as you saw the message from the one and only Tom Holland.

‘You're bored huh? ;)’

‘Depends if your girlfriend still around’

Read Part Two -> HERE <33

[dannybnnt]

Family Time

Summary: Ellie comes to visit Dan in the hospital.

@isleydrewwhittaker @misselizabeth-bennett

Ellie-Last Sunday at 10:30 PM

Ellie had spent a decent amount of time assuming that Drew had been fucking with her. Despite her thought she couldn't stop the feeling of dread that was settling in the pit of her stomach as she made her way to the hospital. She tapped away on her phone, sending her brother text after text, hoping that at one point he would reply and let her knew that Drew was in fact fucking with her. When she never got a reply she closed her eyes, assuming that this was the point where people would beg and plead with whatever higher power they believed in. Unfortunately for her she didn't have that. When the car stopped her climbed out, her heels clicking against the ground as she tossed her hair over her shoulder, starting to look around for Drew. When she didn't see him she sighed, pulling out her ID and showing it to the woman at the counter, "I'm Elizabeth Bennet, I'm here to see my brother Daniel." The woman typed a few things into her computer, several more than Ellie felt was actually necessary. Fixing the woman with a cold expression she crossed her arms over her chest, flatly thanking her when she got a room number. The closer she got to the room the more nervous she became, chewing on the inside of her lip as she twisted her hair around her finger. Quietly she knocked on the door before pushing it open, keeping a neutral expression as she looked at Daniel, then Isley, "Hey..."

Isley-Last Sunday at 10:33 PM

“Hey, Ellie. Did you get my voicemail?” Isley asked, standing to hug her tightly. She sat back down in her seat by him, immediately taking his hand again. She laid her head on his lap and grew quiet, allowing Ellie and Daniel to talk.

Daniel-Last Sunday at 10:34 PM

Daniel had been in and out of sleep for a while. When he felt Isley move, he woke up again to see his sister walking in. "Hey you." He greeted her. "I was beginning to think you forgot about me." He joked.

Ellie-Last Sunday at 10:37 PM

Ellie flinched away from Isley's hug, giving her an apologetic look afterwards. She needed to work on that. "Not really, I mean it's there I've just never listened to a voicemail before in my life. Drew texted me." She looked over her brother a frown coming over her face, "Yeah well, I'm always the last person to know anything, so I got here as soon as I could." Her response was half hearted as she continued to look him over, biting her bottom lip, "Can I sit with you or will it hurt you?"

Daniel-Last Sunday at 10:45 PM

Daniel shook his head "You can sit with me." He said, opening his arm a bit. He was glad to see Ellie, because he wasn't sure that she would want to be in a hospital at all, even given the circumstances.

Ellie-Last Sunday at 10:48 PM

Ellie slipped her heels off, not wanting to poke him, before she crawled into the bed. She carefully rested her head on his chest, trying not to put too much weight on him until she was convinced that it actually wouldn't hurt him. "What happened?" She asked quietly, pulling her sleeves over her hands as she looked around the room, focusing on putting aside her own nerves regarding doctors. "What did you do and why are you this stupid?"

Isley-Last Sunday at 10:52 PM

Isley's hands fluttered around Daniel, scared that Ellie would hurt his broken ribs or something. When he seemed to be doing okay, she sat back in her seat, still holding Daniel's hand close to her. "He doesn't remember." She answered. "He and Margot went flying, and I don't know exactly what happened, but they crashed."

Daniel-Last Sunday at 10:54 PM

He nodded his head to Isley's answer. "Guess Margot isn't a good pilot or something, I don't know." He joked lightly. "She was having a really bad day and told me she was going to fly to another country for a while. I tried to talk her down and told her I would go on a short ride with her if it would make her feel better. Getting into the plane is the last thing I remember."

Ellie-Last Sunday at 11:10 PM

"Why would you get into a plane like that?" Ellie asked, mindlessly rubbing her arms together as she sat up just enough to look at him, "That's stupid. You're supposed to be less stupid than that. Now look at you. What if your face never looks the same again?" Maybe that wasn't the kindest way for her to address her concern, but her mouth seemed to be working faster than her head.(edited)

Isley-Last Sunday at 11:12 PM

Isley couldn't help but laugh at Ellie's words. "His face will be fine. If he gets a scar, that's fine, too. Scars are sexy." She said, only half teasing. She brought his hand to her lips, kissing it again. It was the only part of him she knew wouldn't break if she kissed.

Daniel-Last Sunday at 11:14 PM

"Well she was a pilot in the air force so it didn't feel like that stupid of a decision at the time." He explained. "Guess I'll be ugly. Thank God, I locked Isley in." He joked. "Ellie, look, I'm okay. It's gonna be okay."

Ellie-Last Sunday at 11:17 PM

"Scars are only sexy in some cases, this will just look horrible." Ellie hid her face in his chest, trying to prevent herself from crying, "Danny what are you going to do if you look hideous and Isley leaves you and then you're alone forever because you look like the beast but worse, that dude with the mask from the opera musical. Oh my god you're going to become him, he's so creepy. This isn't okay."

Isley-Last Sunday at 11:27 PM

"Ellie, love..." Isley began, reaching over with her other arm to stroke Ellie's. "He's fine. He's gonna be just fine. The doctor said his swelling has already gone down. The worst of it is over, okay? Actually, I take that back. Imagine how bad he's gonna be when we get back home and have to take care of him all day and all night." She joked, trying to lighten the mood.

Daniel-Last Sunday at 11:29 PM

"Are you talking about the Phantom of the Opera? Jesus, how bad do I look right now?" He asked with a small laugh, that was cut short as his ribs hurt. "Just calm down."

Ellie-Last Sunday at 11:40 PM

Ellie didn't flinch this time as Isley touched her, shaking her head a little, "You don't know that though. Everything can always go wrong and it's horrible. This isn't okay. Stop saying it's okay." Tears started to build in her eyes, slowly start to drip onto him as she kept her head down, slightly muffled by him, "Isley this isn't the time for jokes, have you not seen him?" She gave a little shrug when he said the name of the musical, "I don't know, I hate musicals. I'm not Drew." She sat up quickly when he stopped laughing, concern clouding her features as she looked him over, "What's wrong, what did I do?"

Isley-Last Sunday at 11:49 PM

"El, we do know. The doctors said he's doing amazingly well. They're monitoring him closely. And yes, I have seen him. Believe me, there is no one here more worried than I am. But we have to trust that the doctors know what they're doing. He's alive and he's as happy as he can be, and that's something to be grateful for." When he stopped laughing abruptly, though, her calm facade snapped. "You didn't do anything, but get off him. He has broken ribs."April 30, 2018

Daniel-Yesterday at 12:03 AM

"Yeah, I'm going to live and I'll be able to go home in a few days. They just have to monitor the bruise thing on my brain." He shrugged. "Isley, babe, it's okay. She doesn't have to move."

Ellie-Yesterday at 12:06 AM

Despite Daniel saying that she didn't have to move Ellie half threw herself off the bed, scrambling away from him as she wrapped her arms around herself. A panicked expression covering her face as she watched him carefully, tears sliding down her face, "I didn't mean to hurt you. I didn't mean to hurt him." She turned to Isley, taking a step back while shaking her head, "I didn't mean to."

Isley-Yesterday at 12:09 AM

"No, Ellie, you didn't hurt him. You didn't do anything, okay? He laughed, that's what hurt him." Isley stood, moving to her and placing her hands on her arms. "It's okay, he's fine, love." She moved a hand to her head, stroking her hair.

Daniel-Yesterday at 12:10 AM

Daniel watched in shock, a little too drugged up still to be an adult voice in the conversation. "I'm fine, I promise. I broke a few ribs so I'm just sore, that's all."

Ellie-Yesterday at 12:13 AM

Ellie flinched away from the contact again, shaking her head a little as she kept her eyes on her brother. "Okay." She said quietly, nodding at both of their words, though not convinced that she believed them. "Is your phone okay or do you need a new one? I can go get you a new one."

Isley-Yesterday at 12:17 AM

"We can do that later. Just stay here with us, okay?" Isley didn't take offense as Ellie moved away, she knew that Ellie didn't really like to be touched-non-sexually, anyways. She left Ellie's side, moving back to sit on the edge of Dan's bed. "Come here." She commanded Ellie.(edited)

Daniel-Yesterday at 12:22 AM

Daniel honestly wasn't sure about his phone, he hadn't thought about. That would be two phones down in under a week though. "I'm sorry, guys." He apologized quietly.

Ellie-Yesterday at 12:24 AM

Ellie shook her head at Isley's command, though she shook it off when she noticed that Dan was apologizing. "What do you mean? Why are you apologizing?" She looked to Isley, stepping a little closer though she still kept a good distance, staying about a foot away from the bed as she moved closer towards Daniel's head, "Isley, why is he apologizing, what happened?"

Isley-Yesterday at 12:26 AM

Isley rolled her eyes at his apology. "He's apologizing because he knows he scared us and worried us. Dumb, right?"

Daniel-Yesterday at 12:27 AM

He frowned at Isley's words. "I'm just.. Causing so much trouble and anxiety for you guys and I'm sorry." He shrugged, looking down at the blanket that lay over him.

Ellie-Yesterday at 12:28 AM

"It's not dumb you should be sorry, look at me, I'm crying. I don't cry. There's eyeliner that's smudging, did you even notice how nice it looked?" She asked him, tipping her head to the side a little as she wiped at some of her tears, "And I had to talk to Drew and you're fine. Do you know how mad I am at him?"

Isley-Yesterday at 12:30 AM

Isley laughed, her own tears beginning again. "Honestly, Ellie's had the hardest time."

Daniel-Yesterday at 12:32 AM

Her complaining did make him feel worse, even if he knew (hoped) it wasn't coming from a serious place. "I'm sorry." He apologized again.

Ellie-Yesterday at 12:33 AM

"I have and I'm glad we're finally taking note of this." Ellie agreed half heartedly, wiping at her eyes a little, "Well I obviously forgive you because you're sitting in this stupid hospital but you're going to have to make it up to be somehow. I had to talk to Drew."

Isley-Yesterday at 12:34 AM

"Speaking of this hospital, when was the last time you got your pain meds, baby?" Isley asked, stroking his hair.

Daniel-Yesterday at 12:35 AM

"I don't care about your drama with Drew." He sighed. "You guys should be making up anyways. It was all stupid." He looked at Isley as she spoke. "I don't know.. I think I'm ready for some more though."

Ellie-Yesterday at 12:38 AM

Ellie's eyes slid to the floor as she shifted her weight between her feet, giving a little shrug and very much resembling a child getting in trouble, "It'll figure it out, it's fine." She mumbled, looking back up and watching Isley carefully. "When can you come home?"

Isley-Yesterday at 12:57 AM

She looked back and forth between the two. It was clear Ellie needed to be comforted, but Isley didn't think he could do that. So, as much as she hated it, she decided to leave for a few moments. "I have to pee." Isley said suddenly, standing up and leaving. It wasn't a lie, the babies were sitting right on her bladder, anyways.

Daniel-Yesterday at 12:59 AM

"I'm not really sure. I still have to have surgery on my arm and they said that these contusions can take weeks to heal. They have to keep an eye on mine for at least a few days." He shrugged. "Ellie, come here. I promise you won't hurt me. You can hug me."

Ellie-Yesterday at 1:07 AM

Ellie watched Isley leave, frowning a bit as she was now left alone with her assumingely very breakable brother. "How long is a few days though? Two days? Three days? Four?" When he said that she wasn't going to hurt him she slowly inched forward, sitting on the very edge of his bed, "Are you sure? Isley said to get off you."

Daniel-Yesterday at 1:09 AM

"I'm not sure. They told me that I would probably be here for a week." He hated to think that it could be longer. "Isley is a little over protective right now, that's all. She's just worried."

Ellie-Yesterday at 1:12 AM

Very hesitantly she lowered herself onto him again, resting her head on his chest while she moved her hair out of the way. "You're not supposed to get hurt. I know that's fair of me to want or think, but you're not. You're not even supposed to be able to get hurt a little. I don't know what I'd do if you weren't here."

Daniel-Yesterday at 1:14 AM

"I know, Ellie." he wrapped his arm around her. "I'm here and I'm okay. Things will be back to normal in no time."

Ellie-Yesterday at 1:19 AM

"It's not okay though. I'm really really glad that you're okay but it's not okay because you're not actually okay. You're just saying that so I don't start crying on you again. You're not supposed to get hurt because I need you and it's selfish but it's the truth okay? Also what about Rufus? What would he even do? He would hate living with Drew even more than I would hate living with Drew and lets be real Drew would probably let both of us be homeless before we lived with him anyways. I'd be so lonely... You're one of the only people I actually talk to. You have to be okay." She shook her head, sitting up a little so she should look at him, "It's not normal anymore though because what if something else bad happens? Like a car accident or another plane accident or someone tries to murder you?"

Daniel-Yesterday at 7:41 AM

"Accidents happen, it could have been anything. We just have to be prepared, okay? I wasn't this time but I'll make sure that you and Isley are always taken care of if I'm not here." he promised.

Ellie-Yesterday at 9:09 AM

“Accidents aren’t supposed to happen to you though.” Ellie pointed out quietly, closing her eyes as she shifted a bit to get more comfortable. “I love you so much. I’m sorry that I’m always awful to you and make you worry and stress and spend your money on stupid shit.”

Daniel-Yesterday at 9:13 AM

"I love you too. That's why I put up with all of that." He teased. "I want to be okay without me though, okay? We need to start working toward that."

Ellie-Yesterday at 9:16 AM

“I don’t want to be without you though.” Ellie replied softly, still keeping her eyes closed as she frowned at his words, “What do you mean? Why do we need to do that?”

Daniel-Yesterday at 9:17 AM

"Because you need to be able to take care of yourself, Ellie. We'll get you a savings account." He suggested.

Ellie-Yesterday at 9:23 AM

“I can take care of myself...” She attempted to argue it but it came out more like a child telling their parent that they can do something themselves that everyone knew they couldn’t. “What am I even supposed to do with that?”

Daniel-Yesterday at 9:24 AM

"Okay." He nodded his head, not wanting to argue with her then. "You put money into it from each paycheck so that if something ever comes up you have it. I'll put some in there to start you off and then you can start adding to it."

Ellie-Yesterday at 9:32 AM

“You don’t have to put your money in there. You need to start keeping it for the babies you know. They’re going to need things more than I do.” Ellie moved some of her hair away from her face, opening her eyes again as she blinked tiredly, “We’re going to need to get you a new phone so you can FaceTime with Rufus. He’s going to be really worried.”

Daniel-Yesterday at 9:34 AM

He wasn't going to argue that he probably should stop throwing money around like it was growing on trees. Not that he had ever run into issues with money, but he had been a lot more frivolous with his spending since being in Chicago. "Yeah, okay. You can go get me a phone if you want to. I don't know where my wallet is or anything, but I'm sure we can ask a nurse and she'll get it for you."

Ellie-Yesterday at 9:38 AM

“Well I can’t stay here forever because someone has to take care of Rufus and I don’t think Isley is ever going to leave and if you don’t have a phone I can’t check on you. I need to know that you’re okay and Isley might lie to me if you’re not okay. I know you’re fine now but one Grey’s Anatomy this doctor got into a plane crash and he was really really hurt and then he got better and then he died and I need to know you’re okay.”

Daniel-Yesterday at 9:39 AM

"Okay, we'll call a nurse in." He went to move his arm but the pain in his side started up again so he paused. "Will you press that button?" He asked, pointing to the red button on the side of the bed.

Ellie-Yesterday at 9:42 AM

Ellie sat up as he paused, looking him over carefully, “Are you okay? Did I hurt you?” She watched him for another second before leaning over, pressing the red button several times before she looked back at Daniel, reminding herself that she needed to be extra careful with him.

Daniel-Yesterday at 9:45 AM

"The pain killers are wearing off a little." He explained, wincing a little. When the  nurse finally spoke through the intercom, Daniel explained that he was in some pain and needed someone to come in. A nurse arrived shortly after to put more medication in his IV. "Is there any way someone can get my wallet for me?" He asked her and she nodded her head before disappearing and coming back with a small bag that contained his clothes and his wallet. She handed the wallet to him and he picked his card out to hand to Ellie.

Ellie-Yesterday at 9:53 AM

Ellie sat up, not removing herself from the bed, but carefully balancing so that she wasn’t putting any of her weight on him. She wrapped her arms around her legs, resting her chin on her knees. Her eyes followed the nurse, some mixture of distrust and curiously on her face while she watched the woman move. When she returned with his clothes Ellie took the card, still eyeing the woman before turning back to her brother, “doesn’t it bother you at all that she could literally kill you?” She asked, scooting a little closer to him and whispering so she wouldn’t be overheard

Daniel-Yesterday at 9:54 AM

"Well it didn't." He scoffed. "Nobody is going to kill me. Quit being so pessimistic. I have to stay positive."

Ellie-Yesterday at 9:58 AM

“I want you to stay positive I just don’t get it.” Ellie replied, moving a little so she could continue to stare at the nurse, “I feel like they always know something they’re not telling us.”

Daniel-Yesterday at 9:58 AM

"They're just trying to help, think of it that way." He shrugged.

Ellie-Yesterday at 10:02 AM

“Maybe...” she shook her head, sliding off his bed, “What kind of phone do you want? I’ll go get it and bring it back, then I’ll go home and Rufus can face time you. Is there anything else you want?”

Daniel-Yesterday at 10:03 AM

"Just whatever. I like iPhones. Maybe the newer one but I've gone through two this week so whatever they have in stock right now is fine. I can't think of anything else I want."

Isley-Yesterday at 1:19 PM

After she felt like she had given them a significant amount of time together, and after she couldn’t stand to be apart from Daniel any longer, Isley reentered the room. She immediately found her place by Daniel’s side, smiling at him. “Hey El, are you spending the night here with us? Or are you going home?”

Ellie-Yesterday at 4:33 PM

Ellie shook her head at the question, moving to grab her heels from their spot on the floor. “I need to feed Rufus. He’s going to be hungry and lonely. I’m gonna go get Danny a new phone though so I’ll be back in a bit.”

Daniel-Yesterday at 4:34 PM

"Thank you, Ellie. I love you so much." The pain killers were starting to hit again and he rest against his pillow again, grabbing Isley's hand.

Isley-Yesterday at 4:35 PM

Taking his hand, she turned to Ellie. "I need you to do me a huge favor. I need lots of stuff from home, and I need you to buy me something."

Ellie-Yesterday at 4:51 PM

“I love you too.” She smiled softly, before looking over at Isley, raising an eyebrow. “Um okay, I guess. What do you need?”

Isley-Yesterday at 4:55 PM

"Well..." Isley looked over at Dan with a smile. "I need you to get me a wedding dress."

Ellie-Yesterday at 4:56 PM

Ellie pulled out her phone, ready to make a list before pausing, switching out of her list to instead send a text to Drew. "What do you mean a wedding dress?"

Isley-Yesterday at 4:57 PM

"I mean a wedding dress. We're getting married. Tomorrow. Here."

Ellie-Yesterday at 4:58 PM

"Are you?" Ellie asked, looking up from her phone with a small frown.

Isley-Yesterday at 5:00 PM

"Yeah. Daniel proposed." Isley frowned back at Ellie.

Ellie-Yesterday at 5:01 PM

"Did he?" She looked at her brother, before looking back at Isley. "Okay."

Daniel-Yesterday at 5:03 PM

Daniel gave her a confused look "Is there a problem?"

Ellie-Yesterday at 5:04 PM

Ellie watched him for a minute before shaking her head, "No, everything's fine. You should get some sleep."

Isley-Yesterday at 5:04 PM

Isley looked back and forth between them. "I  have to pee again." She left the room abruptly.

Ellie-Yesterday at 5:11 PM

Ellie watched her leave before turning to Danny again, "Hey, I'm going to go get your phone okay? I'll be back in an hour or so."

Daniel-Yesterday at 5:14 PM

"Okay.. I'll see you later." His speech was beginning to slow from the medication.

Ellie-Yesterday at 5:34 PM

Ellie returned a few hours later, walking into the room and handing him the phone that she'd made the poor man at the apple store set up for her. "Here you are. There's no password right now and it's set up to your last backup so you shouldn't notice much of a difference between your last phone and this one. I also brought you some snacks."

Daniel-Yesterday at 5:37 PM

Daniel had dozed off, peacefully now that he wasn't feeling much of the pain happening. When Ellie returned, he had just been waken up by a nurse who was taking a blood sample from him. "Oh, thank you." He took the phone and looked it over. "And thank you for the snacks." He said with a small smile, though he had been being forced to eat that day because he just didn't feel up to it.

Ellie-Yesterday at 5:42 PM

She dug around in the bags she'd brought, pointing to various foods, "I brought you some fruit, fruit snacks minus one package because I was hungry, granola bars, cookies, cereal even though it's mostly just sugar, capri sun because they're delicious, cookies, and some other shit. I just didn't really know what you wanted to eat so I figured that I'd get you a variety. Also I'm not going to get Isley a dress because I don't think that you guys should be getting married right now and I'm going to go before she wakes up, but I'll call you in a bit so you can see Rufus  and I can make it obvious that I've fed him."

Daniel-Yesterday at 5:47 PM

"Hey wait!" He tried to sit up but was stopped as the pain hit him, causing him to groan as he fell back against the bed. He really had to stop doing that. "Why are you against us getting married?"

Ellie-Yesterday at 5:51 PM

Ellie's eyes widened as she watched him, putting her hands out though she wasn't entirely sure how to help. "Don't do that! Are you okay?" She shook her head, taking a deep breath, "I'm not against you getting married Danny, if that's what you want then that's what you should do. I'm against you getting married right now though. Last week you  didn't want to get married. Three days ago you didn't want to get married. I know that trauma and whatnot can make you change your mind about things but I want you to be a little better before you make this decision. I want it to be a decision you make with a clear mind, not right after you get a traumatic brain injury. I don't want you to do anything you regret."

Daniel-Yesterday at 5:53 PM

"I'm okay." He took in a deep breath to push through the pain. "Ellie... Isley couldn't get in to see me because they don't consider her family. If we were married and something happened, she would be able to be notified and she would be able to get right in to me. I want our babies to have the same last name as their mother. I almost died, things got put into perspective. I can think clearly right now. I'm talking to you, aren't I? Do I seem off?"

Ellie-Yesterday at 5:57 PM

"You can change your emergency contact without getting married to someone. I could literally make a stranger my emergency contact and they would be notified and let in the room if anything happened." Ellie pointed out, crossing her arms over her stomach as she frowned a little, "Danny I get what you're saying, which is why I'm not saying I'm against it as a whole. I'm not going to help or support this right now though. I love you, but I can't help this. I don't want to be any part of this because it doesn't matter that you're talking to me right now. You hurt yourself, really badly. I'll support the decision when the doctor gives you an all clear and you don't need pain meds just to exist."

Daniel-Yesterday at 6:00 PM

He frowned at her words and shook his head. "Well, that's your decision. I love her and I'm not going to regret anything. I know what I'm doing."

Ellie-Yesterday at 6:04 PM

Ellie nodded, offering him a smile, "Okay." She wasn't going to tell him not to do it, so there wasn't much else to say, "Let me know if you need anything else okay? I'm going to head home."

Daniel-Yesterday at 6:06 PM

"Okay.." He felt awful that his sister refused to be a part of things but what else could he say? "Have a good night."

Isley-Yesterday at 6:08 PM

Isley woke up a few moments later to find Daniel...on a phone? "Hey," She said sleepily. "Did Ellie come by?"

Daniel-Yesterday at 6:09 PM

He nodded slowly "Yeah.. She brought me my phone and some food." He gestured to the food she had left.

Isley-Yesterday at 6:09 PM

"Did she bring me a dress?" She sat up and looked around the room.(edited)

Daniel-Yesterday at 6:15 PM

"She doesn't want us to get married." He was blunt about it, mostly because he was too medicated to be diplomatic.

Isley-Yesterday at 6:16 PM

Isley didn't understand. "She what?"

Daniel-Yesterday at 6:20 PM

"She doesn't want us to get married." he repeated with a sigh. "She said that we shouldn't do it while I'm still in the hospital. She doesn't think I'm thinking clearly."

Isley-Yesterday at 6:28 PM

That thought had crossed Isley's mind already, but Daniel had assured her he was. "You are, though, right?"

Daniel-Yesterday at 6:29 PM

"I mean, I think so.."

Isley-Yesterday at 6:29 PM

"Well that's very reassuring."

Daniel-Yesterday at 6:30 PM

He put his phone down as he lay back, looking up at the ceiling. "I think I'm just going to go back to sleep."

Isley-Yesterday at 6:31 PM

"I-Okay." She said, not wanting to stress him out even more. "Night."

Daniel-Yesterday at 6:39 PM

"Goodnight." He said softly, closing his eyes and drifting off.

[hyun-jinss]

Young K - Hunt.

✾ Request: Hi! Can I please ask for a Songfic with the song Hunt and uh Brian/Young K? :) ✾ Genre: College!AU (fluff). ✾ Word count: 1.3k

The boy sitting behind you is the most perfect person you’ve ever known. He has excellent grades and his music club is famous even outside university. On top of that he’s friendly and attractive. Due to him being so popular, you never considered that you could be anything more than acquaintances.

It all started at the beginning of this term when he had missed the first class but attended the second one, taking a seat behind you. You didn’t pay much attention to him in the beginning but before the class started, you felt someone tapping on your shoulder. You turned around and you were faced by his smile. “Hey, can you tell me what you did last class? I couldn’t attend yesterday.”

“Oh, actually we didn’t do much since it was the first class. I could send you my notes if you would like to?” you offered. “That would be very helpful, thank you!” he said as he took out a sticky note and wrote his name and phone number. “Oh, my name is Brian by the way,” he introduced himself as he handed you the sticky note. “Nice to meet you, I’m Y/N!”

Since then, he would always smile at you and ask you about your day. And whenever you passed by him in the hallway, he made sure to say hi, no matter how crowded it was. He would often ask you if you could share your notes, which became regular thing that you guys would do. He would sometimes get you coffee as a thank you and you would share some of your favorite candies with him.

You also got to know his unexpectedly playful side. He started leaving cute messages between your notes to cheer you up while you were studying. He also noticed the simplest things, for example when you trimmed your hair; you got complimented on it even though you thought it didn’t make that much of a difference.

As usual, you were sitting in the library, sharing notes and studying. You were explaining something to him when you suddenly noticed that he was staring at you. You tried to ignore it but you found yourself blushing due to his intense staring. “Is there something on your mind? I feel like you’re zoning out,” you said as you tried to avoid his gaze.

“Are you free tonight?” he asked you. “Why so suddenly?” you asked back, “I was wondering if you want to come and join my band practice today? You know, we can have dinner as well,” he said as he rubbed his neck. “Yeah sure, why not,” you replied quickly not daring to stare at him for too long.

After studying for a bit more you decided to go to his band practice room. He led the way, insisting on carrying your bag (something that happened regularly) because it seemed so heavy. When you entered the room, you were confused because the room was empty. “Are the other members coming soon?” “It’s only me today, the others have plans,” he said as he gestured to the chair so you can have a seat. You sat down and looked around, you found an open notebook on the desk. You leaned in and took a peek at it and it looked like lyrics. You didn’t have a chance to read much when Brian suddenly took it away and closed it. You looked at him, feeling kind of guilty for peeking at his work without his permission. “I didn’t finish that yet,” he said as he put it away. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to,” you apologized quietly.

“What do you want to have for dinner?” he asked, changing the subject. “Hmm, I’m fine with anything,” you replied. After thinking for a bit you decided to order some pizza. While waiting for your food, he played a few songs asking about your opinion and telling you the reason behind the lyrics of each one.

After having dinner, you realized that he didn’t practice much, “are you not going to practice?” you asked curiously. “Not really, I just wanted to spend more time with you,” he admitted blatantly.

You felt your cheeks blushing so you looked away. “Oh right, I wanted to give these to you! It’s tickets to our next gig,” he said as he handed you two. “Thank you! I’ll come for sure,” You took them and put them in your bag.

You kept talking more about yourselves and lost the track of time, “oh my god, it’s so late I think I missed the last bus,” you panicked and stood up trying to pack your things, you thought you might still have time if you run to the bus stop. When you were about to zip your bag, you felt Brian’s grip on your wrist. Confused, you looked at him, “The bus must’ve already gone,” he said, sounding like he didn’t want to let you go. You were lured by the look he was giving you. You glanced at the clock again, “you’re right, it’s probably gone.” You held eye contact for a while and he pulled you closer, looking into your eyes then your lips and that was enough for you to know what was coming.

He leaned in and asked, “can I kiss you?” in a low voice. You nodded slowly and closed your eyes. You felt his lips on yours, you wrapped your arms around his neck and he held onto your waist pulling you even closer. The kiss was gentle at first, but he started kissing you harder and deeper. It made you shiver. You grabbed onto his shirt as if asking for more and walked backwards until your back was flat against the wall; you were losing yourself in his kiss. You were surprised at yourself; it was nothing like you’ve ever felt. You broke the kiss to catch your breath and he placed his forehead against yours. “You know, you can sleep over at my place,” he said suggestively, his chest still slightly heaving. Still intoxicated by his kiss, you replied by pulling him in again for another one. Your hands moved to his hair, tugging at it lightly.

The days following that eventful day were pretty normal, except for the fact that Brian was flirting even more than usual which made you miss the chance to ask him a very important question: what is your relationship now?

You were standing at the front row; thanks to the tickets Brian gave you. When he entered the venue along with the other members your eyes met his almost immediately, he smiled at you and winked. You couldn’t hear well, you weren’t sure if it’s because of the fan’s screams or because of the blood rushing to your ears.

They played a lot of songs and all of them were great. Your eyes were glued to Brian as you admired every aspect of him. When the show was nearing the end, Brian grabbed his microphone to indicate that he was going to say something. “The last song we’re going to perform is our new song called ‘Hunt’,” he announced and looked at you. “Please listen to it carefully,” he said, not breaking eye contact, as if he was asking you. The music started playing again and strangely the lyrics seemed so familiar even though you were sure you haven’t heard this song before. Then it hit you that these were the lyrics that Brian was working on the other day. But that wasn’t all, it seemed as if the lyrics were talking about you.

After the event ended, you headed backstage as promised. Feeling kind of nervous, you knocked the door and Brian greeted you after opening the door, “Y/N!! You’re here!” “Hey,” you replied back. “I enjoyed the show,” you said breaking the silence. “Oh I’m glad! What did you think of our new song?” he asked you, “it was great!” you answered awkwardly, looking around. “You know, it’s kind of late to say this now but,” Brian started off, taking your hand into his and you looked at him curiously, “do you want to be my girlfriend?”

-Alice&Maria<33

Ask box is open! Please check the guidelines first!

Masterlist.

[thatwriterchickrachel]

Mysteries at Midnight - 49.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug

Relationships: Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng; Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe; Chat Noir/Ladybug

Characters:

Chat Noir (Miraculous Ladybug)

Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug)

Alya Césaire

Adrien Agreste

Marinette Dupain-Cheng

Nino Lahiffe

Plagg (Miraculous Ladybug)

Tikki (Miraculous Ladybug)

Madame Bustier (Miraculous Ladybug)

Chloé Bourgeouis (Miraculous Ladybug)

Nathaniel Kurtzberg (Miraculous Ladybug)

Lila Rossi (Miraculous Ladybug)

Additional Tags:

dance au

Ballroom dance

College

Grown up AU

Royalty AU

Language:English

Read on Ao3

Chapters 1-30 Chapter 31               Chapter 32 Chapter 33               Chapter 34 Chapter 35               Chapter 36 Chapter 37               Chapter 38 Chapter 39               Chapter 40 Chapter 41               Chapter 42 Chapter 43               Chapter 44 Chapter 45               Chapter 46 Chapter 47               Chapter 48

Chapter 48 - At Ease

Summary: Marinette and Chat Noir finish their night

Marinette felt the car pull to a stop out the front of her house but she didn’t want to open her eyes just yet; if she was honest, she didn’t want the car trip to end. It was rather pleasant resting with Chat Noir like this.

It wasn’t until he ruffled her hair that she opened her eyes slowly.

“Come on sleepy head, time to head upstairs,” he laughed softly and she nodded, still reluctant to move but forced herself to undo her seatbelt. She climbed out of the car, vaguely aware of Chat Noir talking to the driver as she did.

The wave of drowsiness that had hit her in the warm cab dispersed as the crisp night air picked up, blowing across her face and making her shiver a little. She nearly jumped out of her skin when Chat shut the car door behind her and put his arm around her shoulders.

Figuring he was just going to walk her to the door, she began moving, her cheeks beginning to flush as she fully came to terms with how much she had cuddled up to him in the car.

What was going on with her? Was she really falling for Chat Noir now too?

She stopped at the lobby doors, digging in her purse for her keys. As she turned to say goodbye to the masked boy, she realized the taxi had gone.

“Chat-”

“It’s okay. I told him to go. I want to make sure you get up okay and don’t fall asleep in the stairwell,” he teased, ruffling her hair again. She narrowed her eyes and puffed her cheeks a little, about to complain when he gave a gentle chuckle and took the keys from her.

“Your face is going to freeze that way, Princess. Especially if you stay out here,” he said as he unlocked the door, his other hand gesturing to the cold patches on the ground where ice was forming. He held it open for her and she stepped into the stale air before holding her hand out for her keys.

The boy just kept going, making his way up the stairs, keys in hand.

“Chat Noir, what do you think you’re doing?” she crossed her arms in annoyance.

“I’m going to unlock your place, and if you’re still down here I’ll have to come back and carry you up,” he added nonchalantly.

“You wouldn’t dare,” she narrowed her eyes at his retreating figure.

“Well stay there and we’ll find out, won’t we?” he laughed, continuing his ascent.

Marinette refused to move for a moment, tempted to call his bluff, but when she didn’t hear him start heading back, she realized he was serious and began scrambling up the stairs, taking them two at a time when she could. She passed him near the top but kept going, even when she heard him call out her name, broken by a laugh.

She got to the top and turned to give him a triumphant smile, but as she did, she realized she had missed a step in the dark and fell forward, practically on her face. She felt him grab her arm, but they both went down, thankfully onto the landing and not back down the stairs.

“Oh my gosh, Chat, are you okay?” she began as she realized she had brought him down with her, but he was shaking with silent laughter.

“What’s so funny?” she pouted.

“It’s just such a Marinette thing to do. To trip when I can’t get to catch you and we both go down,” he said in between breaths.

“Oh gee, I’m glad that’s coming back,” she sulked, remembering that ‘doing a Marinette’ had become a popular phrase in high school when someone had tripped or just been clumsy in general.

“Oh don’t be so grouchy Princess,” Chat teased, sitting up gingerly. “It’s a compliment really. It means you’re predictable.”

She raised an eyebrow and he immediately started backtracking.

“I mean, um, not in a bad way. Like, it just means I know you really well and can always count on you to do stuff that’s very, er, like you. I didn’t mean predictable like that, what I mean, was, uh, reliable, yeah! You’re reliable, I can always count on you to-”

“Oh, take a breath, tomcat,” she said, leaning close to him and snatching the keys from his loose fist. “You need to be saving your breath for tomorrow.”

He couldn’t reply, his cheeks burning red and Marinette gave a small giggle, pulling herself up and offering her hand to help him. He took it and she tugged, helping him up, but nearly losing her balance on the edge of the step. The boy pulled her back towards him and she looked at him, her cheeks now scorching.

“See what I meant?” he asked sheepishly and Marinette nodded before turning away from him and making her way to her door in the darkness.

“What happened to your light, Princess?”

“Oh, I, er... it blew out. I need to change it,” she stammered as she reached for her phone, using the light from her lock screen to find the keyhole.

“I can help with that,” he added, sounding hopeful. There was a soft tinkling sound as Marinette opened the door and in the light from her kitchen she could see Chat pull out a handful of tiny glass shards.

“Marinette, what happened to your light?”

His voice was different now, low and kind of menacing; but it was clear he wanted the truth. Marinette sighed, maybe tonight really would be the night she confessed the truth to him.

“Come in, I’ll make some tea and explain,” she said, gesturing for him to enter.

“Marinette, please just tell me.” His eyes were on hers now, they were practically begging but Marinette wasn’t sure if she could just give him half of the-

“It was Nathaniel,” she blurted out. They both blinked at each other for a moment. “It was Nathaniel,” she repeated softer, looking at her feet. “He came to talk to me about the Ladybug situation and he… confessed he was Dessinatuer.”

“When did this happen?”

“Earlier in the week, Sunday or Monday, I think,” she added, hoping she was just vague enough that he wouldn’t put together her panicked phone call from the Sunday night with the story she was telling him.

“I… I’m so sorry we weren’t able to protect you from this,” he frowned, scrunching his hands into fists. Marinette grabbed his hand quickly, gently opening it and seeing that there were only a couple of scratches and not much blood.

“Come on, let’s clean you up. You’re being irrational now,” she explained, leading him inside to the kitchen, emptying the glass shards into the sink and asking him to stay right there while she went and got the first aid kit. She pulled off her coat as she went, throwing it in the direction of her room as she pulled the first aid kit from the bathroom.

As she returned to the kitchen she had a strange sense of déjà vu, remembering when Adrien had helped her only a few weeks before. She shook her head, trying not to let her thoughts of the other blonde boy mess with what she had to do.

He was silent as she gently pat his palm with a dry gauze and barely flinched when she used the alcohol wipe. She got the tweezers out and inspected his hand carefully, looking for any shards that were hiding.

“Carefully move your fingers,” she instructed, and he did as he was told. She watched the muscles move without issue and nothing moved or come out of his few cuts. “You’re a lucky one, minou,” she explained as she wrapped his palm with a bandage. “Just a few small cuts. You should be okay in the morning.”

He was staring past her; his mind clearly not present with her. She hoped he wasn’t conspiring to track down Nathaniel in the middle of the night.

“Chat,” she waved her hand in front of him but he still didn’t respond. She rolled her eyes, resorting to childish antics. “Did you want a lollipop for being such a good patient?” Still no response. She thought about slapping him, not hard, of course, but instead she opted to place a light kiss on his hand.

His head snapped to her immediately.

“Ah, you’re back. How was your trip?”

“Huh?”

“Space cadet,” she sighed. “Your hand will be fine in the morning.”

“Did you… kiss it better?” he asked, still sounding a little dazed.

“Well you didn’t seem too thrilled at the idea of a lollipop,” she said with a nervous laugh, turning and focusing on packing up the tools she had pulled out. She hoped he couldn’t see the blush on her cheeks.

“Hey Mari?” he asked quietly as she kept herself busy. She hit the button on the kettle as she shot him a look to show she was listening. “I really am sorry you got caught up in this.”

She turned to him, he was staring at his hand with a pained expression on his face. She softened a little at seeing how distraught he was; once again she found herself thinking about how genuine he was.

“Chat… I chose to be a part of this. I’m sure even if I hadn’t been involved from the beginning I would have been brought into it all anyway,” she said carefully. “I’m friends with Adrien, in case you forgot. I’m sure Volpina, whoever she is, would have found a way to get to me anyway and Nathaniel… I don’t know if things would have gone so far, but they weren’t going great regardless. I mean, we did break up for a reason, y’know?” She leant against the kitchen counter.

Chat just nodded, still staring at his hand.

“Now how about some tea?”

~~~~~

Adrien and Marinette sat on the couch together, the marshmallow couch sucking them both in at the centre, so they were practically in each other’s arms. They both nursed mugs of tea as they talked, soft music floating from Marinette’s stereo.

He asked her about her family, nodding appropriately when she told him things he already knew as Adrien. He asked questions about her high school years and she explained about her classes troubles with Chloe, and how things had seemed to change when she was nominated and chosen as class president midway when they were fifteen.

Marinette spoke animatedly about her high school experiences, like the zoo trip that caused Nino and Alya to realized their feelings for each other, and the Ultimate Mega Strike III tournament she won with Max. She had stories about most of her classmates that she recalled fondly, even the few rare moments Chloe had even showed kindness, if only to Sabrina or their teacher.

Adrien listened happily, admiring the way she spoke highly of everyone she knew, even admitting some of her faults to him without hesitation. He couldn’t help feeling a little wistful at hearing her stories, he had never had the high school experience; but sitting there, hearing the stories he felt like maybe they could have happened to him – if his father had ever allowed it.

Marinette also spoke a little about after their senior year, how everyone fell a little out of touch, but would still occasionally catch up. When Nino’s brother opened the club it became their local hang out spot and now, a year and a half later, they were all pairing off, or planning futures.

“What about you?” he asked; his arm now draped casually behind her as he had listened. She cupped her mug in both hands, staring at the near empty contents intently.

“What about me?”

“Well you seem to know what everyone else wants to do. What about you?”

“Well, I’ve got my designs,” she muttered, staring down the hall.

“And?”

“And?”

“Well are you going to intern for Gabriel Agreste and join his team?” Adrien asked, ignoring the feeling in his stomach as he thought about it.

“I don’t know. Like I said this morning, it would be a great opportunity for me, but Adrien…”

“Adrien…?” he tried to encourage her, wondering what about him could possibly be stopping her from moving forward with her dreams.

“It’s complicated,” she sighed. “And it’s not my place to say.”

“You said he had family issues, didn’t you?”

“I… I guess?” she stuttered. “Look, it’s really not my place, I shouldn’t be making assumptions or saying anything to anyone about it.”

“But what do you want to do, Marinette? You know Adrien will support you regardless, you’re my-I mean, you’re his friend…” he really hoped she hadn’t caught his slip. Thankfully she seemed to be deep in thought.

Yes, he had come to the sharp conclusion that he maybe liked Marinette more than a friend, loved her even, maybe. But he wasn’t sure how she’d react if he told her the truth. They had built a level of trust, as both sides of himself. He didn’t know what would happen if that were to suddenly dissolve and leave nothing but the vulnerable truth of himself.

“It doesn’t matter. If I’m honest, I might just go back home; join my parents in the bakery like I used to. Designing… isn’t an easy industry.”

“Nothing ever really is when you’re starting out,” Adrien said softly, using his hand behind her to rub her shoulder. “You know there are other avenues of design too. Heck you could design ballroom outfits, we know you’ve got the talent for it,” he teased.

“Maybe,” she said softly before stifling a yawn.

“You should get some rest. I’ve kept you up long enough,” he said with a small smile, feeling his own yawn threaten in his chest. He thought he had stifled it, but it escaped him a moment later causing her to give him a small laugh.

“Come on then, you’re lucky I have the spare bedroom made up.”

“Huh?”

“You did say you were going to stay, didn’t you?” Marinette asked, looking at him confused. A small blush crept up both their cheeks as they simultaneously remembered what he had said.

“Oh my gosh, you didn’t mean, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean...” she stammered as he spoke.

“Well, if you insist.”

They looked at each other for a moment, cheeks still pink as they processed what had been said.

“W-well then,” Marinette didn’t seem to know what to do.

“Well, I do believe you should show me to the spare room then, right Princess?” he winked playfully and it seemed to snap her back.

“Oh r-right.” She stood, putting her mug on the coffee table that was littered with scraps of fabric and paper as well as pin cushions and a small container of sparkling black beads that seemed to have been abandoned mid-use.

He followed her down to the spare room and saw the dress form sitting in the centre of the room, that Marinette was hurriedly draping red fabric over.

“It’s good that you got it finished before you went out tonight,” Adrien smiled at her as he leaned against the door frame.

“Y-yeah. I mean I also made some drastic changes in the last few days so I’m just glad it’s done, really. I hope everyone likes it.”

“I’m sure it’ll suit Ladybug perfectly,” he said soothingly. She looked at him for a moment. “What?”

“No pun, kitty cat?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “I guess you really are tired.”

“Hey, even I know that there’s a time and place for puns,” he replied in mock offense.

“Can you step in for a sec, I gotta get this form out,” she said, readying herself to pick up the bust carefully.

“Do you want some help- oh, okay,” he hurriedly stepped out of the room as Marinette lifted the form easily and carried it out the spare room and into hers, careful of the doorway and walls. Clearly, she had done this quite a lot.

“W-what?” she asked after she returned.

“Nothing, Marinette, you’re just… full of surprises,” he said softly and her cheeks went pink again.

“A-anyway, you should be okay. I don’t have many people stay in here, so I’m sorry about the clutter,” she said as she busied herself in the room, moving piles of fabric. Adrien saw the old quilt still on the bed, and the black cat head he had been so taken with before.

“Is that what I think it is, Princess?”

“Wh.. oh, I mean, I forgot it was in here,” she tried to sound relaxed as he walked over and picked it up. As he turned it over in his hands he saw it was a new version of the one she had given him, the fabric similar to the one used to make his suit for the ball.

“It’s new,” he smiled. “I recognize this fabric,” he added teasingly and she started to twist her hands in front of her.

“Look, it’s not what you think okay? When I first started sewing I made something like that; but a friend of mine, he really like the original, despite it’s not so great craftsmanship,” she explained, her cheeks slowly growing darker. “So, I just, gave it to him; but then, I don’t know, the bed looked empty without it, so I used some off-cuts and made a new one.”

Adrien stared at her, feeling a little guilty. She hadn’t seemed too attached to it when she had given it to him, she had actually talked it down; and yet she had gone so far as to remake it.

“Did you, I mean, why didn’t you just ask you friend for it back?”

“He seemed to appreciate it,” she said simply, shrugging her shoulders and not meeting his eyes. “It’s not that I used it or anything, it sat in the spare room buried under fabrics. But once it was gone, I just, couldn’t help but notice it wasn’t there. It doesn’t matter, really,” she smiled at him after shaking her head. “He’s happy.”

Adrien smiled back at her, unable to stop himself hugging the new one to his chest before she let out a small laugh.

“Alright, tomcat. I’m going to get changed while you sort yourself out. If you need anything call out, okay?” she asked and he nodded before she left.