#this is the first time I draw fire in years
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whoevenisjavier · 2 days ago
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strike the match
pairing: no outbreak!joel miller x college student f! reader
you fuck joel miller, austin’s fire chief, in your old room while your parents sleep down the hall.
tags/content warning: +18, mdni. f! reader. age gap. joel is 52, reader is 25. battalion chief joel miller. brief scene of attempted forced kissing (not by joel). reader wants that old man so bad. unprotected piv. creampie. wear protection please. dry humping. thigh riding. mouth covering during sex. oral f!receiving.
w/c: 9k
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Hold the wide end of the cue stick with your dominant hand, palm facing up. Find the point where the stick balances, then shift your hand two or three centimeters back.
Form a circle with the thumb and index finger of your other hand.
You raise an eyebrow as you sip the espresso martini through a straw. Who knew pool could be this interesting?
Slide the cue stick through the circle and rest it over your middle finger. Set the outer edge of your hand on the pool table and—
Someone calls your name and you glance away from your phone, which is still open on a page titled “Pool for Dummies: First Steps,” just in time to catch the wide smile of one of your friends.
“Another round?” she asks, tilting her head toward your espresso martini. “Some guy just bought us drinks.”
Your glass is still half full, but you nod and agree, adding that the next one better come with a straw too. Free drinks are a no-brainer.
Once the waiter walks off with the order, your eyes drift again to the corner of the bar, to the pool tables surrounded by loud men downing tall mugs of frothy beer.
But you’re only watching one of them.
Your lips close around the straw again, and though your vision is slightly blurred at the edges, you stay locked in on the silver-haired man in his fifties, full beard and all, leaning against the wall with a cue stick in hand as he waits for his turn. He laughs at something his buddy says, and somehow, the drink tastes sweeter while you’re watching those broad shoulders under a plain black T-shirt and those strong thighs in faded dark jeans.
His turn.
He leans over the table, lines up the shot. His biceps flex, looking even bigger as he makes that typical forward-and-back motion before striking. His eyes are fixed on the red ball, until…
Suddenly, they’re on you.
Your stomach drops like you swallowed an ice cube. Still looking your way, brows slightly furrowed, he makes the shot. You don’t even have to follow the ball to know it sank clean.
His friend says something, and just like that, he looks away.
“Oh my God, stop flirting with the geriatrics,” your friend says, placing another espresso martini in front of you. “Adam wants to take you home. You know, the skinny blond guy…”
“The twenty-seven-year-old,” you say. “He’s a baby. And I bet he’s circumcised.”
“You’re twenty-five. What’s your beef with circumcised guys?”
You skip that question because there’s no polite way to explain your preference when it comes to pool cues.
“I like my men the way I like my cheese.”
“Old and stinky?”
“Aged!” you correct. “Y’all can keep your cheddar. I want my Gruyère.”
Your table erupts in laughter.
It’s your oldest friend’s birthday tonight, and you all decided to celebrate her twenty-ninth at Miller’s Bar, run by Tommy, an old friend of your dad’s, and his wife, Maria. Luckily, your summer break from grad school lined up with her birthday, and coming back to Austin is always worth it for nights like this.
And it’s not hard to imagine the kind of attention a group of girls in short skirts, high boots, and crop tops draws inside a traditional Texas bar.
You’re halfway through your espresso martini on your next sip, and for some reason, that reminds your bladder it needs attention. You excuse yourself and get up, though no one really hears you, and head straight for the bathrooms in the back of the bar, tucked at the end of a dim, nicotine-reeking hallway, where the air clings to your skin and the walls are hung with fading paintings of bulls, cows and longhorns.
Your bathroom mission is quick, mostly because it’s way too dirty to linger. Pee, quick reflection while perched on the toilet seat (layered in toilet paper), a bit of lipstick, a quick hair touch-up.
The music from outside, a Dolly Parton classic, fills the bathroom as you open the door, and it only takes one step into the dark hallway for you to slam into a wall of concrete.
“Shit,” says the wall.
Strong hands catch your shoulders and push you back, and suddenly your face is being tilted up by firm fingers.
“You alright?”
Black T-shirt. Gray beard. You blink, looking up, and your stomach flips again. He’s even bigger up close.
“Oww,” you whisper dramatically, touching your temple. Showtime. Anything to keep his hands on you a little longer. “I think I’ve got a concussion.”
“Doubt it. Looks to me like you’ve had a few too many.”
“You sure? Here,” you grab his hand and place it on your forehead. “Do I have a fever? What if you gave me a concussion?”
“Your fault for not lookin’ where you were going.”
You squint up at him again. He pulls his hand away and only now do you realize just how big it is and how thick his fingers are.
He’s raising an eyebrow, but there’s a hint of amusement on his lips that pushes you to blurt your name, offer a handshake, and say:
“How about I buy you a drink as an apology?”
The smile dies. He ignores your hand, pats the top of your head twice, like you would a puppy, and sidesteps you, saying:
“Go find someone your age, kiddo. Plenty of boys in there’ll want you.”
“I don’t want someone my age!” you call out after his retreating back.
“Too damn bad.”
He steps into the men’s room, and you feel your shoulders slump with disappointment. Would a lower-cut top have helped?
“When you think like that, feminism goes back twenty years,” your friend says when you repeat that exact thought to her. “He’s supposed to like you for your personality.”
“I don’t want him to eat out my personality.”
He walks past your booth and heads back to the pool area, and your eyes eat him up again, but then Adam, the allegedly circumcised boy, and his crew show up, cramming into your booth and blocking your view.
It’s hard, but you resist the urge to roll your eyes and order another espresso martini instead.
At some point in the night, you get fed up with the boys and their dumb incel-tier jokes, so you decide to leave. Your friends ask if you want company walking home, but you decline, even though your legs feel a little wobbly as you stand. You pay your part of the bill, say your goodbyes and make your way to the bar’s exit.
There’s a chilly breeze outside that raises goosebumps on your arms, and you shift your weight from foot to foot, leaning slightly against the wall as you dial your dad’s number.
It rings ten times and goes to voicemail.
You try again.
Voicemail.
“I don’t sleep until you’re home,” you mutter mockingly, repeating what they always say. “Bet they’re deep in REM by now.”
You’re typing your home address into the Uber app when the bar door opens again. Your eyes meet his.
“Changed your mind?” you ask, trying to sound alluring.
He closes the door behind him and looks both ways down the empty sidewalk before turning back to you with indignation.
“What the hell are you doing out here alone? Where’re your friends?”
“They stayed.”
“And they just let you stand out here by yourself?”
You ignore him, already over this conversation, and hit enter on the app. The fare loads. Shit. Twenty bucks to get home? That’s ridiculous. And the nearest driver’s twenty minutes away.
“Where do you live?” he asks.
“I’m not telling you where I live, stalker,” you mutter, eyes still on your phone.
“Five minutes ago, you were trying to buy me a drink.”
“So? Telling you where I live is crossing a line.”
“I ain’t leaving you out here alone.”
“Hey,” you spin to face him and point a slightly shaky finger in his direction. “You’re not responsible for me. I can take care of myself.”
He stares at your red-polished finger, then at your face, then raises his hands in surrender and walks past you toward the bar’s parking lot in silence.
Fine. Gotta love a hot guy who thinks he owns the damn world. Most exhausting type.
Alone again, you refresh the app a few times, and on the third, the price jumps from twenty to twenty-five dollars.
“Noooo,” you groan, leaning your head back against the wall to stare at the stars. Could you walk home? No… way too dangerous. And your high-heeled boots were not made for that.
The bar door opens again. You don’t look up to see who it is, and you don’t need to, because ten seconds later, there’s a hand on your waist. You jerk away, startled, trying to shake off the touch, but the grip is strong.
“Hey there, baby girl,” Adam says, way too close. You can feel his booze-soaked breath. “I got your message.”
His blown pupils freak you out, but it’s the fact that you can’t break his grip that makes your heart spike. You’re trying, but your espresso martini-filled body is sluggish. His hands feel like steel clamps against your dull reflexes.
“What message?”
“You wanted me to follow you out.”
“No, I didn’t. I just wanna go home. Let go.”
You try again. He holds tighter. Now he’s pressing his hips against yours. You push him, but every one of those espresso martinis slows you down.
“No need to make this so hard, baby girl. I saw the way you were lookin’ at me.”
“Let me go!”
Bile creeps up your throat and you swallow it down just to gather enough air to scream—
“Hey, kid,” a deep voice growls to your left, and your body nearly buckles with relief when he, Mr. Difficult, steps into view. He looks pissed.
“You back off her or you’re heading back to college five teeth short.”
Adam stumbles backward immediately, fear plain on his face. Mr. Difficult gives you a short nod, and you rush to him in quick steps, heart racing, tucking yourself beneath his broad frame like it’s shelter from the storm.
“These cameras,” he says, pointing to the ones mounted on the bar’s exterior, “I’ll have those tomorrow. Sexual harassment? I hope you don’t have a scholarship.”
Adam starts to say something, probably begging not to be exposed, but you don’t hear it. You’re gripping the man’s forearm, and he’s guiding you toward a black pickup parked between the shiny little cars of the boys still inside the bar.
In silence, he opens the passenger door and waits for you to climb in: slow, one foot on the step, the other in, legs together, finally settled. Then he shuts it and walks around to the driver’s side. For a moment, you feel like Bella Swan hopping onto the back of that weird guy’s bike in New Moon.
He gets in, shuts the door, and takes a deep breath before saying so firmly you don’t even think to argue:
“Give me your address. I’m taking you home.”
Defeated, you tell him. Only then does he start the truck and pull out of the bar’s lot.
“You know that guy?”
“I know his name’s Adam, but I don’t know him. Don’t even know his last name. He’s a friend of a friend.”
“Goddamn criminal little punks,” he mutters, rolling up the windows and turning on the heat when he notices you’re trembling, even though the cold has little to do with it. “You alright?”
“I’m… yeah. I think so. Thanks for stepping in.”
He keeps driving, and you use the quiet moment to steady your breath and your hands. The streets of Austin are empty, ghostly, barely any cars out, and your mind wanders for a second. Maybe it’s time to finally sign up for that self-defense class your dad kept telling you to take back in Houston.
You wedge your hands between your thighs to warm them and settle into the seat. You pretend not to hear when Mr. Difficult’s phone rings and he answers:
“Miller,” he says flatly. Someone talks on the other end. “What the hell happened to Jesse? Tonight’s his shift, not mine.” More silence. Then Miller, his newly revealed last name, curses under his breath and snaps, “I’m on my way.”
He hangs up and makes a sudden, hard right, jostling your body and making your eyes go wide.
“Are you kidnapping me?!”
His frustrated sigh fills the cab.
“You’re way too damn annoying to be kept in captivity,” he grumbles, accelerating. “They need me at work and I can’t drop you off first. It’s urgent. You’ll wait for me.”
“I can call another Uber.”
“You ain’t calling an Uber drunk like that.”
“Why do you care?”
“Because,” Miller says through gritted teeth, eyes on the road, “it’s literally my job to protect dumbass civilians who walk themselves into danger. I swore an oath. Now zip it.”
Civilians? Swore an oath?
Five minutes later, you get your answer as the wide property of the Austin Fire Department fills your vision, the U.S. and Texas flags flapping hard in the night wind. Miller drives through the open gate and parks beside the building.
“Come with me.”
You follow, still dazed, clacking behind him in your high-heeled boots. He doesn’t check if you’re keeping up, just walks with long, fast strides, and when he reaches the covered part of the station, three mustached men in full gear look at him like he’s the second coming.
The rest of the crew is further back, checking one of the trucks. They’re all huge.
“Chief,” one of them says. Chief?
“We need you. We got a call on—”
“Where the hell is Jesse?!” Miller practically growls. The three of them look at each other, shrinking a bit despite all standing well over six feet. “He think he’s back in school? What if I’d been drinking tonight? You’d go on a call short-handed? Hell of a teammate, that one.”
You’re only noticed when Miller turns his head toward you and calls out again:
“Come on.”
You do, still quiet. The firefighters tear their eyes off him and look at you, and yep… there it is. Raised brows, head-to-toe glance, lingering a bit too long on your skirt, and an open flirt-ready expression.
Miller shuts that down real fast:
“Eyes off, punks. I’ll be down in two.”
You give them a sheepish smile, but what you really want to say is: Yeah! That’s right, punks! Eyes off!
With a little bounce in your step, like a kid who just got praised by the teacher for their stick-figure drawing, you follow Miller up the stairs, metal steps creaking beneath you both.
Upstairs, you find the firefighters’ break room: a big dining table, a flat-screen TV, leather couches, and a kitchen tucked in an attached nook. You glance away from the wall of photos just in time to catch Miller stepping into his bunker pants, still over his jeans, and pulling the suspenders over his shoulders.
Shameless, you watch the whole thing while having a revelation. Yeah, now you get why firefighters are in every cliché fantasy ever. If Miller climbed into your window wearing that gear, you’d one hundred percent say something ridiculous like, “Here to put out my fire, officer?”
Next comes the heavy coat, and you can already see the sweat forming along his hairline as he zips and buttons everything up.
“Wait here for me. There’s coffee, water…” he gestures vaguely around the room, clearly in a rush. “Bathroom, running water, all that. Won’t be long.”
Before you can say anything else, he grabs his helmet and gloves and jogs down the stairs, pulling the Nomex hood over his head as he goes.
Moments later, the siren roars through the station, and as it fades into the night, it becomes nothing more than a ghostly hum at the back of your mind.
You sit on the couch, staring at the white wall with your hands tucked between your thighs. A firefighter. The chief.
Have you accidentally wandered into one of those steamy books you secretly read before bed? Or are you still sitting on the toilet in that grimy bar bathroom, hallucinating on espresso martinis?
The TV’s on. The news is covering a convenience store fire, result of an electrical short. Flames rage against the dark Austin sky, the interior swallowed by orange heat, yellow police tape keeping the crowd away. Thankfully, the store was empty when it caught fire.
Firefighters are en route, the reporter says, visibly relieved, and you curl onto your side on the couch, hands folded beneath your cheek, watching the broadcast.
You blink a little slower this time, and then everything goes dark.
“Were you trying to flash your panties to everyone in here? Damn short skirt.”
That’s the first thing you hear when you come to, groggy, as something is gently draped over your legs. You crack one eye open to find Miller carefully placing a leather jacket that smells like men’s cologne across your thighs. Only then do you realize just how comfortable you’d been lying there, considering the length of your skirt.
He keeps adjusting the jacket until everything’s covered. There’s no judgment in it. No irritation that you passed out like that. Just care, obvious in the way he pulls and tugs at the edges without ever letting his fingers brush your skin. And that, somehow, disorients you more than if he’d called you a name or scolded you outright.
“You’re back,” you mumble.
He shoots you a sidelong glance. His cheeks are smudged with soot and ash, his hair sweaty and tousled. The jacket’s gone, his suspenders hanging loose by his hips.
“Yeah. Didn’t die.”
“Thank God,” you murmur, eyes falling shut again. “What a waste that would’ve been.”
He clicks his tongue, exasperated.
You hear footsteps moving away, and peek through one eye to see him heading toward one of the adjoining rooms, tugging off his soaked black T-shirt in the process. The sight of his broad back makes your mouth go dry, especially with the reminder of what that body does for a living. All that strength. All that control.
Before the thought can spiral, other firefighters filter into the room, looking just as worn out as Miller.
“You the chief’s new girl?” one of them asks in a low voice, clearly trying not to be heard by said chief. He looks suspiciously like Bradley Bradshaw from Top Gun.
“No. He doesn’t want me.”
That earns you a burst of chaos. Whistles and chuckles like a group of teenage boys, not grown men who just came back from a fire call. Someone at the back yells, “I do!” and you ignore it, because you don’t kiss babies. Not when there’s a fire chief with a back like that about to drive you home.
You sit up on the couch, keeping Miller’s jacket across your lap, and glance at the coffee carafe they’re passing around.
“Can I have some?” you ask, motioning toward it.
They scramble like it’s a competition: who’ll pour, who’ll carry it over, who’ll get that sweet little “thank you” you sing out.
“Alright, that’s enough,” Miller says as he reappears, now in a fresh T-shirt bearing the Austin Fire Department logo on the chest and a clean face to go with it. His silver hair is damp, slicked back. He points at you. “Up. Let’s go.”
You rush to finish your coffee, burning your tongue in the process, and set the cup down to join him, still holding his jacket.
“I don’t know who’s been in contact with Jesse, but tell him he’s off the rest of the week. Maybe a seven-day suspension will help him get his shit together.”
One of them steps forward. “Chief—”
“That’s not a request, Lieutenant, that’s a decision. You boys need to learn the weight of the oath we swore.”
Silence.
Miller’s voice sharpens. “Are we clear?”
“Yes, sir.”
Miller places a hand on your shoulder and guides you forward. You walk ahead of him, down the stairs and out to his truck in silence.
“Tell me your address again,” he says once you’re both seated, looking worn out.
“You’re the fire chief.”
“Battalion chief,” he corrects, starting the engine. “Address.”
You tell him. He starts to drive. You watch him for a few seconds, then say:
“That was hot. The way you chewed them out? Extremely hot.”
“What’s with your thing for older men?”
“I thought you’d never ask!” you exclaim, and Miller rolls his eyes. Still grinning, you explain, “It’s not a thing. I just prefer older guys because they actually know what they’re doing. It’s not a crime.”
“How old are you?”
“You gonna judge me?”
“Seriously?” Miller stops at a red light even though the streets are deserted. It’s well past three a.m. “You’ve said all kinds of crap tonight, and this is what you’re worried about being judged for?”
“Because then you won’t wanna kiss me.”
“I’m not gonna kiss you either way.”
“See? That’s discrimination.”
“You still drunk?”
You think about it. Your vision’s clear now, no blurs at the edges. That weird rush in your ears is gone. The coffee and the nap did wonders.
“I’m not,” you say, turning in your seat to face him. He glances at you from the corner of his eye, like he’s afraid to admit you’re even in the truck with him. Finally, you say, “Twenty-five.”
“I’m twenty-seven years older than you.”
The light turns green. He drives.
“That just sounds like motivation to me,” you say, watching the way his thumb tightens around the leather steering wheel for half a second, his only reaction. “Are you married? Dating? Secret vow of celibacy?”
He shakes his head. No to all.
“My women need to be at least forty. That’s my cutoff.”
“Totally fair. Women in their forties are delicious,” you say, giving him a thumbs-up. “But there’s always an exception, right?”
“No. Not with you.”
“Am I ugly?”
“You know damn well you’re not. Those boys at the station were practically undressing you with their eyes.”
A Cheshire cat smile spreads across your lips.
“You noticed? Look at you, paying attention,” you tease, but he doesn’t respond, and you know your limit. You stop pushing. “Okay. You don’t want me. Got it. I’ll stop.”
Silence. His forearms have so many veins. You bounce your leg, restless, and because you can’t shut up, you say:
“Thanks for taking care of our city, Chief.”
More silence. Then suddenly, unexpectedly, a deep laugh fills the space between you, and the sound makes you melt right into the seat.
“You’re really somethin’ else, sweetheart.”
“Oh God,” you groan. “You’re gonna make this harder if you call me sweetheart.”
“What’s the difference with older men, anyway?”
“Fishing for an ego boost?”
“Forget I asked.”
“No, no, wait, sorry,” you say quickly, folding one leg under you and straightening like you’re about to give a TED Talk. You’re not wasting this moment. “Okay, listen, I lost my virginity in college—”
Miller rubs a hand over his face. “Too much information.”
“—and it was awful!” you go on, like he didn’t interrupt. “I didn’t finish. I told him that, and he said it was normal. So I slept with another guy, and that sucked too. I tried to settle because I thought that’s just what straight-girl life was.”
Somewhere in the universal rules of womanhood, there’s probably a clause that says never trauma-dump on a man. No man is different. But now that your mouth is open, it won’t stop.
“So I went out with this guy.”
“A guy,” he repeats, leaning slightly to check the passenger-side mirror.
“I think he was forty-two at the time. Miller… was addictive.”
“I can already imagine why.”
“Mhm.”
“But that’s not a rule. Not every older guy knows how to do that.”
You resist the urge to ask if he’s talking about himself.
“Haven’t had any bad experiences yet.”
The car goes quiet for five more minutes. You recognize the avenue you’re on, which means you’re probably only ten minutes from home.
“Have you always been a battalion chief?”
“I transferred here four years ago. Before that, I was a commander in Seattle.”
“So that’s why I didn’t know you. When you came, I was still in college,” you say mostly to yourself. “Got it. You like it here?”
“I’m from here. Tommy’s my brother. I left for Seattle twenty years ago.”
“Tommy from the bar?!”
“Tommy from the bar,” he confirms.
Mouth falling open, you lean back in your seat. Makes sense. His last name is Miller.
“Wow. Tommy’s friends with my parents,” you process the information bit by bit. “You’re Joel.”
“Mhm.”
“Joel Miller.”
“Yes.”
“I remember he used to talk about you all the time when he came over,” you say, because it’s true. Everything was Joel. Apparently, Joel had been his savior when they were kids. “He must be happy you’re back… and as battalion chief, no less.”
It’s subtle, but the line between Joel’s brows eases just a little when you say that last part. Other than that, he doesn’t react much.
“Family’s family,” he replies simply.
You reach your parents’ street and direct him to the house. Joel parks in front of it, and you notice all the lights are off, the windows dark. The porch light is on, and you know the key’s tucked inside the lilac flower pot.
You unbuckle your seatbelt as you say,
“Thank you so much for the ride. I’m sorry if I pushed too much and made you uncomfortable.”
You open the door to get out. Joel says,
“Close that door.”
Your hand freezes on the latch. Joel’s pinching the bridge of his nose, eyes down. After a beat, you shut the door and sit back in your seat.
The console light dims.
You give him a moment because he looks like he’s wrestling half a dozen battles inside his own head.
“You didn’t make me uncomfortable,” he says quietly, rubbing his hands against his jeans. “I just don’t think I’m what you really want.”
“I think I’ve made it pretty damn clear you’re exactly my type.”
“Sweetheart, no offense, but this feels more like some drunk little adventure you’ll laugh about with your girlfriends tomorrow.”
If there was even a drop of alcohol left in your system, that sentence burns it out.
“Just because you’re older?” you ask, trying to keep your voice level. “Come on, Joel. That’s crap. Yeah, we’ve got a big age gap. But I told you what I like and why I like it.”
“Because you wanna be the wild friend?”
Your eyes go wide in disbelief. Your cheeks flare with anger, and you decide you’ve had enough. You reach for the door again, and the next second, a large hand covers yours and pulls it closed.
“Okay,” you murmur, still staring at his hand on top of yours, frozen. “Now I actually think you’re gonna kidnap me.”
“Shit,” he mutters, and he’s way too close. “Sorry. If you wanna get out, you can. I just�� I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to offend you.”
“So what’s this whole speech for, then?” you turn your face toward him, and now you’re only inches apart, since he leaned over to shut the door. “You don’t want me. I get it. I’m a big girl. I don’t need a speech.”
Joel looks from you to your house, scanning the darkened façade, probably noting the lights all off. When his eyes return to yours, there’s a new kind of resolve etched into his face.
“It’s gotta stay secret,” he says. No wiggle room.
Your breath starts coming just a little heavier.
“I won’t tell a soul,” you promise immediately.
“Not even your friends.”
“What’s the big fear?” you ask, half-teasing, though there’s a flicker of real curiosity beneath it. “You married?”
“Hell no. I’m just the brother of the guy who’s friends with your dad, and I guarantee he wouldn’t want some fifty-year-old sniffing around his little girl.”
“I’m twenty-five,” you repeat, but your voice wavers a bit as Joel leans closer. “It’s not up to my dad who I get involved with.”
“Good for you,” he says, like he couldn’t care less, his hand coming up to cradle the side of your neck. “Still damn young.”
“And yet, I’m gonna be your exception.”
He squints, confused, until it clicks.
“Oh. Right. The first twenty in my rulebook.”
You lean in, ready to kiss him, but Joel holds you still with his hand at your neck, like he’s waiting for something.
You say what he needs to hear:
“Won’t breathe a word about what you do with a younger girl in front of her house.”
“Good. That stays between me and God.”
He pulls you in, and the second your lips meet, you’re gone, falling into that familiar place you’ve always adored with older men.
Your brain short-circuits and Joel takes the lead in everything. His hand moves from your neck to the base of your skull, tugging you deeper, and he’s the one to part his lips, the one to tilt just right so your mouths fit like it’s a damn movie scene.
Your fingers slide into his hair, thick strands slipping between them, as you sink further into the seat. He follows, body hovering over yours. The moan that escapes your throat when his tongue brushes the seam of your lips is honest. The one that comes when he finally kisses you with tongue, though just as real, is so drawn out it makes your cheeks burn with the fear he might think you’re faking.
God. That kiss.
“It’s a crime to keep that kind of kiss from me,” you whisper breathless, chest rising and falling in quick bursts. Joel kisses your bottom lip, your jaw, drags his mouth down your neck. The ceiling of the truck blurs as he finds your collarbones, and you arch into him to give him more room. “Joel—”
His tongue meets the skin of your chest and you thank every higher power that your neckline’s just deep enough for him to reach the dip between your breasts. The ache between your thighs tightens, that telltale pulse of being soaked hitting you all at once.
“More,” you whisper, tugging his hair, just enough to let him know you want another kiss.
He gives it to you. One hand on your waist, the other on your neck, he kisses you again, and this one’s filthy from the first second, now that you both know exactly how to move together. You press harder into his hands.
“You can’t be this polite,” you murmur. “Aren’t you gonna slip your hand under my skirt?”
“Boundaries,” he whispers, eyes fluttering shut when you trail kisses along his jaw, rough with beard stubble. There’s still a faint trace of sweat and smoke from the earlier call, and you should probably care about that, but you don’t.
“No way you’ve got boundaries still holding steady in that brain,” you say. You watch his face up close as you take his hand and guide it down from your waist to your thigh. He opens his eyes at the heat of your skin and keeps them on you as you lead his hand higher, higher… right to the hem of your skirt. You pause. Ask: “Can I?”
He swallows hard.
He’s the one who moves now, sliding his hand beneath your skirt, grabbing a handful of your ass and squeezing like he means it, hard enough to make you giggle. His fingers find the lace of your panties where it sits snug between your cheeks.
“No one’s out here,” you murmur. Your hand finds the thick bulge in his jeans, and you raise your brows at him. “Can I make you come?” you ask, giving just the faintest stroke, enough pressure to make the denim feel good, not rough. “Please. Want me to take my panties off while I touch you?”
Joel clenches his jaw. Moves his hand from your ass to the front of your panties, cupping your pussy fully, probably feeling the heat radiating for him. You spread your legs as much as the car seat allows, giving him space to explore, all while trying to slip your hand inside his jeans to—
“No,” he breathes, shaking his head like the effort to say it physically hurts. You pull your hand away instantly at his no, but raise an eyebrow, waiting for more. “No. Not here. I’m not about to come in my jeans like a goddamn teenager.”
He pulls his hand back from between your legs, taking a steadying breath.
“Not here,” says again.
God. You could cry.
“Okay,” you say instead because you’re an adult and you respect a no. “Alright. Okay.”
“Go on. Get inside.”
But before you do, you raise a finger.
“Can I suggest something?”
You’re not quite sure how you manage to convince him, though that alone would be something worth bragging about, but somehow, you do. You talk Joel into parking a little farther down the street, just to be safe, and into sneaking in with you through the back door, because the front one’s too damn noisy.
Your fingers wrap around his wrist as you guide him through your dark house. A stop in the kitchen for a glass of water. A pause in the living room to make sure no one’s there. Then the stairs. One step at a time, silent. His brown eyes find yours every time you glance back.
And then Joel Miller is in your bedroom and you’re locking the door.
With his hands on his hips, he looks around: at the old band posters from when you were eighteen and just starting college, at the lilac bedsheets covering your mattress. The curtains are cracked open, letting in the pale glow of the moon and the streetlights outside, casting his silhouette in silver while you kick off your boots and socks and toss them aside.
“Prove to me you’re not drunk,” he says low.
“You want me to do a four?”
He keeps staring. You roll your eyes but do it anyway, lifting your right leg and crossing it over your left thigh, making the shape of a four with your legs.
“You’re so old,” you mutter, reaching ten in the count. “I already told you I’m not drunk. You know that perfect little buzz? That’s all I’ve got.”
“Enough to not regret this in the morning?”
“Regret you? Only if I were out of my mind.”
The plush carpet cushions your sore feet as you walk toward the bed. He just watches you. Watches as you climb onto the mattress, toss the pillows to the floor, and lie back on your elbows, looking straight at him.
One raised brow. A wordless well?
Joel looks up at the ceiling, like he’s saying a silent prayer, then bends down to remove his boots.
“You think you can stay quiet?” he asks, stepping closer. He mutters, “Refuse to come in my jeans like a damn teenager, but here I am sneaking into your house like one.”
Joel stands at the foot of your bed. You smile at him, about to unbutton your skirt, but he’s faster. His hands slip under the fabric, tugging your panties down your legs and tossing them aside.
You realize what he’s about to do when he plants one knee on the bed and starts lowering his head between your legs, but you stop him with your foot against his chest.
“You don’t have to,” you say quickly. You’ve been out all night with your friends. Sure, you showered before leaving, but still… it’s been hours. “It’s okay, I don’t need—”
“I do. I want to,” he murmurs, and the way he brushes your foot aside like it weighs nothing sends a wave of heat down your spine. Now both hands are on your thighs, spreading them gently. “Unless you don’t want me to.”
He waits for a sign to stop. You don’t give it.
A smile curls his lips.
“Yeah. Stay quiet and let me enjoy it.”
The hands that were holding your thighs now push your skirt up, the leather bunching around your hips. Then Joel’s large frame lowers, and his mouth finds you.
Your head falls back as his warm tongue slips between your folds with torturous precision, the sound of his spit mixing with your slick making your stomach tighten, and you have to practically bite down on your bottom lip not to moan. He grabs your hips, pulls you toward his mouth, and my God… he really wanted this.
Joel seems to be patiently gathering every drop of your arousal with his tongue, like he’s not in any rush, not until he’s good and ready to start licking your clit, his lips closing around it and sucking, slow and steady.
A moan nearly slips out, but you manage to turn it into a shaky exhale.
Your leg gives a little and you can’t hold yourself up on your elbows anymore, so you lie all the way back, legs splayed around his broad shoulders.
You glance to the side, clutching the sheets beneath you as you start, slowly, to ride his face. The mirror on your vanity catches everything, still cluttered with makeup you’d used while getting ready, and now it reflects the way Joel’s body covers yours, one foot still on the floor, your skirt bunched up, the outline of him pressing hard inside his jeans. You lower your right leg and catch a glimpse of his jaw working as he eats you out, desperate, beard slick with your arousal.
“Good?” you ask sweetly, fingers threading through his silver-streaked hair as your eyes meet. He can’t answer with words, but his eyes speak volumes, and he definitely grips you harder when you teasingly say: “You fifty-somethings really know how to eat pussy.”
Joel’s no exception.
You only pull him up because you want to kiss him again and because you obviously want him out of that fire department t-shirt. He peels it off, revealing a broad chest covered in dark hair that radiates strength.
Joel helps you slide your skirt off, and your mouths meet as you wrap your legs around his hips.
“I probably smell like smoke,” he murmurs.
“Just a little. More like sweat. And it’s delicious.”
Another smile. He’s on a roll.
“You’re insane,” he mutters, lowering his hips. The friction of his cock, denim-rough, grinding against your clit makes you whimper. He catches it. “Feel good?”
You nod. Joel watches you, then dips his hips again, and the seam of his jeans hits just right. You nearly come undone.
“Again,” you whisper.
He listens. Joel makes sure not to hurt you with the zipper, but grinds down hard enough, at just the right angle, to knock the air from your lungs. Your clit throbs under the pressure, the rough rub of the denim, and the solid heat of his cock beneath it only makes it more intense.
He licks two fingers and drags them between your legs just to give you a little extra slick, enough to keep it from turning raw, and keeps rocking into you. You hadn’t planned to come, but you also can’t stop it, not when that feeling keeps rising, rising, until—
It bursts, a sweet sharp rush that spreads from between your legs through every inch of you, and Joel keeps it going, those slow, steady grinds that don’t overwhelm but won’t let the afterglow slip away either.
You place a hand on the waistband of his jeans, gently stopping him.
“You need to fuck me. Now.”
“Urgent?”
“Mhm. So I can come again.”
“You’re so damn direct,” he mutters, clearly amused. Then he leans over and says, “Arms up.”
You obey. He takes off your top, and it’s you who unhooks your bra, now completely naked. Joel watches as he strips off his jeans and boxers, and when he’s bare, you prop yourself up on your elbows to look.
Thank you, God. Uncut.
You look up at him.
“Come here.”
Joel climbs onto your bed, his knees sinking into the soft lilac sheets, and settles between your thighs. Together, you shift higher up the bed until your head rests on the lone pillow left on the mattress.
“Might come too fast,” he warns, and you believe him by the way his cock is rock hard as he guides it to your entrance.
“I don’t mind.”
“Sure you don’t. You’re an expert in old men.”
The head of his cock pushes in with a wet sound that shuts your mouth. You bring your fingers down between your legs, starting to touch yourself again in slow, careful circles as Joel eases into you. He’s gentle, taking his time, eating you up with his eyes, and once he’s fully inside, his body covers yours.
You feel the soft press of his belly against yours, the hair brushing your skin, the weight of him, and it’s enough to stir you back up. Joel draws his hips back and fucks you, and the sound that escapes your mouth is nearly inhuman. Your eyes fly open, meeting Joel’s startled ones, and before either of you can react, his big hand covers your mouth.
“Quiet,” he says, then thrusts again.
You grip his wrist with both hands and wrap your legs around his hips, taking the rough, perfect rhythm of his thrusts — thankfully quiet, the bed doesn’t creak — as his thick cock drives deep into you, raw and goddamn delicious. Joel presses his hand firmer against your mouth to muffle you and clenches his jaw. The trimmed hair at his groin drags over your clit with every thrust, his balls slapping against your ass, and your eyes squeeze shut. You don’t even have the strength to keep touching yourself.
Joel goes again, once, twice, three times.
“Fuck,” Joel breathes, voice rough and shocked, sweat trickling down his neck. You feel a pulse inside you and then a warm rush spreading. “Fuck, fuck… I was supposed to pull out and—”
“It’s fine. Really,” because it is. You’ve never understood the drama around guys coming too fast. To you, it’s a compliment, as long as you’re properly taken care of. You repeat it, not wanting the afterglow to turn tense for him. “It’s okay.”
You pull him close and press a soft kiss to his lips, your fingers running through the softer strands at the nape of his neck.
“I had a vasectomy,” he confesses suddenly, lips still against yours, like the thought just occurred to him and he needed to reassure you.
“Great. I’ve got an IUD. Though we probably should’ve talked about this before, huh?” your hands slide down his sweaty shoulders. “Think you can get hard again?”
“Give me a minute.”
“Okay. Pull out.”
Joel shifts back, kneeling between your legs and wrapping his hand around the base of his cock as he slips out of you. You watch his softening length, slick with both of you, and wonder for a second why the hell you like that image so much. And even more… why the feeling of him dripping out of you turns you on.
“Sit there,” you tell him, nodding toward the headboard.
Silently, like a good student, he does exactly what you asked, leaning back against the headboard, his cock now fully soft resting on his thigh.
You crawl over on your knees, slipping between his legs to straddle his right thigh that feels solid under you, the thick hair tickling the insides of your thighs.
“How sensitive are you right now?” you ask, dragging a finger slowly along his cock, the head still tucked away. Joel jerks his hips back, pulling away from the touch. You lift your hand and arch a brow. “Okay. Got it. Very. I could try sucking you hard again.”
“Suck a soft dick?”
“Why not? I wouldn’t mind.”
“Alright. But I wouldn’t feel right about it.”
You rest your arms on his shoulders and lean in. “Okay. I respect that.”
Joel gives you that look, the one older people always get when they’re a little impatient with your ideas or mouth, but you know it’s not about you. He seems like the kind of man who grumbles about everything. Besides, the impatience doesn’t match the way his hands move across your back, soft and slow, up and down.
You say, “I was gonna learn pool just so I could play with you tonight.”
“Yeah? You learn anything?”
You pull back just enough to lift your hands. With your left, you pretend to grip a cue, and with your right, your thumb and index finger make a ring.
“Now I know how to hold a pool stick.”
Joel’s lips tug into a half-smile.
“You’re left-handed,” he notes, and you lower your hands again, nodding. His grip returns to your hips. “Well done. You should’ve come, by the way. I might’ve let you win.”
“You’d never let me win.”
“I’m softer than I look. And,” he cuts himself off when he notices your smirk, “if you make a joke about my soft dick, I swear I’ll have your name on a wanted poster by tomorrow.”
“I don’t get why it bugs you so much. Come on.”
You say that just before leaning in to press your lips to the pulse at his neck. Joel tilts his head slightly, giving you space, and you pepper kisses there, then across his shoulder. You press your chest to his, and his hands grip you tighter.
“Bet the single women in this town chase you down,” you murmur, arms around his neck. “And… the married ones too?”
“No comment.”
“Austin’s most wanted bachelor.”
“The divorcé,” he corrects.
Oh? You pull your mouth away from his neck.
“How long?”
“Five years.”
“Good. Tomb’s been sealed.”
He laughs against your mouth when you kiss him, but soon cups your face to kiss you properly, exactly the way you’re asking, even if you’re not saying a word. His kisses are so addictive, it’s strange to you. There’s something about Joel that turns a kiss into full-body contact. He kisses and touches you, strokes your cheek, your back, pays attention to what you need.
And he reads you well, because his hand slips between your legs.
“Lift up a little,” he says, and you rise onto your knees, no longer sitting on his thigh. His fingers slide between your folds, gathering the slick there. Joel lets out a low grunt, and you watch the way his cock gives a tiny twitch. “Let me eat you out again.”
Ah. Yes. But actually…
“Can I try something else?” you ask.
That’s how Joel, with lips slightly parted, ends up watching as you settle back down on his thigh, right over the thickest part, your legs spread wide.
You almost feel shy the first time you grind up against his thigh with his eyes on you. Your whole body shivers, breath catching in your throat, and you steady yourself with your hands on him. You’re so wet, from yourself and from him, that the movement is easy. Heavenly. The hair on his thigh adds just the right amount of friction on your clit, and it nearly sends you reeling.
“You like that?” he asks, genuinely curious, and you, dry-mouthed, nod your head. You grind again. Whimper.
“Been neglecting this pussy, huh?”
You shake your head. Joel touches your body, running his hands along your sides, gripping your waist. The next time you grind down, he helps, his biceps flexing, guiding your rhythm. Forward. Back. The muscle of his thigh tensing under you, his skin slick with your wetness.
He watches you, sees how close you are and how hard you’re biting your lip to keep quiet. Immediately, his thumb presses to your bottom lip, freeing it from your teeth, and he slips it into your mouth. You meet his gaze as you suck it in, hands clutching his arm, hips faltering in the next few rolls.
When you come, Joel lays you back on the bed, spreads your legs, and slides back inside. He’s not fully hard, but it doesn’t matter because he fits, thick and slow, and the way he stretches you prolongs your orgasm so sweetly it nearly breaks you apart.
You feel him stiffening more with each thrust, and as he grows harder, he goes deeper.
“Fucking perfect,” he breathes into your ear, biting your neck. “You’re driving me outta my mind.”
Your smile wavers when, after a few more thrusts, he slips out and lies beside you, then shifts you onto your side and pulls you back against his chest. He drapes an arm over your chest, grips your thigh with the other, lifts it over his hip, and slides into you again. His movements pin you, keeping you from doing anything but taking it when his fingers find your clit again, even oversensitive as it is.
Your whole body shakes.
“Joel—”
“Come on, baby. I know you’ve got one more in you.”
You try to jerk your hips away from his fingers as he rubs harder, faster, but there’s nowhere to go, and Joel doesn’t relent. He holds your thigh, keeps you open for him, slowing his thrusts just enough to drag it out. You grab the arm draped over your chest, twist your hips, and it’s almost too much.
Almost.
Because right before it crosses the line, you come. And then you go limp.
“Can I keep going?” he asks. “Want me to pull out?”
“No. Just… stay off my clit.”
The kiss he presses to your damp temple sounds like an “okay.”
You reach back, fingers slipping into the sweat-damp strands of his hair, and feel his ragged breaths against your neck as he keeps moving inside you. His next orgasm takes longer, but somehow it still only lasts a few seconds, and leaves you leaking all over again.
When it’s over, your ears are ringing, his body is hot behind you, and your heart won’t stop pounding.
Goddamn.
Thanks for your service, Chief.
You can’t stop staring at the top-left corner of the peach pie.
It’s not broken, exactly. The crust in that corner just sank a little lower than the rest, and it’s driving you nuts. You rotate the pie dish so the pristine edge faces front, hiding the flaw.
“Pie?” you offer with a smile as sweet as the amarena syrup your mom made, holding out a slice to the father and two sons approaching your stand.
Today is the neighborhood charity fair where your parents live. It happens every six months in the town square and has been around for maybe a decade. The goal is to raise funds for local nonprofits. Neighbors donate pies, sandwiches, roasted meats, inflatable toys for the kids. The whole thing.
When you were fifteen and a painfully annoying teenager, you thought wearing an apron and handing out pie was humiliating. Ugh, mom. Charity is soooo lame.
Ten years later, here you are: uneasy, borderline neurotic because the crust of the pie you helped bake has a deformed corner.
The father and sons leave with their slices in little styrofoam containers and colorful forks. You glance around.
Your mom is helping out at one of the roast beef sandwich booths since someone called in sick last night. Your dad’s at his own stand, trying to sell fishing gear, though bamboo hooks don’t exactly draw crowds.
Farther down the square, you spot the fire truck. Your heart does a little skip, part nerves, part excitement. The fire department’s on site for safety, at least for the first couple hours. But you haven’t seen Joel yet.
“Any pie here sweeter than you?”
You turn toward the front of your booth and find the fireman who looks like a knockoff Bradley Bradshaw. He’s wearing an Austin Fire Department tee, aviator shades, and a grin that’s way too… youthful.
Still, you smile back.
“Definitely. I’m pretty sure the pie also knows the number for the AFD’s misconduct hotline.”
“Kidding.”
“And because of that joke,” you say, grabbing three styrofoam containers, “you’re buying three slices to support the cause.”
He doesn’t even protest. Quietly, he waits as you cut the slices and hands you the money. You thank him with a sugar-sweet smile and a blown kiss.
Once he walks away, your eyes sweep the square again. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
And there’s the fire, staring at you from across the plaza, arms crossed under the shade of a tree. Joel’s in the same black Austin Fire Department tee, and you see his eyes dip briefly to read the name stitched onto your pink apron.
The Sweetest Bite.
That barely-there smile curves his lips.
You grab a styrofoam plate, cut a generous slice of pie, and pull five bucks from the back pocket of your denim shorts, dropping the bill into the flower-covered tip jar your mom set up.
Then you toss the apron onto the counter and ask your dad to watch the stand for a few minutes.
Joel doesn’t even see you approaching. He’s surrounded by three women asking what it’s like “to be responsible for a city like Austin.”
“Such a hard-working man,” you say, slipping in between two of them to hold out the pie. “Fresh, warm cream pie. A little thank-you for protecting the city.”
Joel looks from the pie to you. Your smile grows even sweeter. When he takes it, the women scatter.
“You got an endless supply of short shorts like that?” he asks, not even pretending to start eating. His eyes stay on the pie. “Cream pie.”
“My favorite,” you reply. And, about the shorts: “It’s summer in Texas.”
“Right,” he says to both.
You glance around. No one’s near. One of the other firefighters is tossing rings at a carnival booth.
“You should come to the barbecue at my place after the fair. Tommy’s going and I can ask him to invite you.”
“I’m not going’ to your house.”
“Why not?”
“I’m not buddying up to your parents. You’re out of your mind?”
“I don’t want you to be friends with them. I want you to sneak up to my room when no one’s looking.”
“No,” he says flatly, like the conversation’s over.
A few hours later, that victorious little grin creeps across your lips as you see Tommy walk through the back gate of your house.
And right beside him, carrying a cooler of beer, is Joel Miller.
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wileycap · 1 day ago
Text
Selected Correspondence of Fire Lord Zuko
As preserved by the Royal Archives
1.
My good hotman Zuko,
It's Aang! Sokka let me borrow Hawky. Please feed him before sending him back.
I'm writing to ask if it's okay for me to drop by. Except I'll probably be there by the time you get this, because Appa flies faster than Hawky. Still, it's polite to ask!
Write back (or don't.)
Hot regards
Your friend Aang
-
Revered Avatar Aang
Hawky arrived two hours after you left. Never send me "hot regards" again. Like I keep telling you, language has changed in the past 100 years. It doesn't mean what you think. Future historians will think we were having an affair.
It's always okay to drop by. Hawky has been fed.
May your inner fire warm you (write that down somewhere)
Fire Lord Zuko
2.
Hi
need 3 fire benders (zappy) + few construction workers + a lot of copper
Delivr to harbor
sokka
-
Honorable tribesman Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe, son of Chief Hakoda, Hero of the 100 Year War
No.
May your inner fire warm you
Fire Lord Zuko
-
Dear Jerk Lord of the Jerk Nation, Master Jerkbender and All-Around Jerk
quit being stingy and send me what i need. seriously. the fate of your nation is at stake. LOOK:
[drawing of two pickles, a stick figure and waves]
Hot regards
Sokka
-
Sokka
Your drawing makes no sense. I'm writing a law which bans you from owning a messenger hawk.
I found you three volunteer firebenders who can lightningbend. They'll be there in a week with four carts of copper. If you need construction workers, beg Toph, don't bother me.
Feed Hawky better. He's malnourished, he keeps begging me for more food.
And don't do that.
Fire Lord Zuko
3.
Dear Honorless Usurper
My, how the time flies. It seems as if it was only yesterday that I was supposed to be crowned Fire Lord, and here we are, celebrating the first full year of your doomed reign. I salute you.
Know this: you won't know peace for long. I have entered into an alliance with Admiral Noboru. He is a true patriot and has kindly offered me three ships and 2000 men to retake the throne. He has also generously offered to serve as my consort, "despite my mental deficiency."
I am writing as a courtesy, as it is obvious that the throne will soon be mine. I might even let you live.
May Agni's light shine on you*
Azula
Fire Lord-in-exile
[* common benediction for the dead during Fire Lord Zuko's reign]
-
Dear Sister
Thank you for writing. I spoke with Noboru. I told him that I was allowing an Agni Kai and that you were on your way.
Noboru has fled the country. He gifted you his whole estate, see the enclosed list. He said to tell you he's sorry and not to come after him.
Please come visit any time. I hope your healing is going well.
May your inner fire warm you
Your brother Zuko
[enclosed: A list of assets including a home in the 5th Province, a vacation home on Ember Island, 20 acres of farmland, a substantial amount of gold and silver and assorted property]
4.
Zuko
this is the worst copper i've ever seen??? i want a refund. you're the worst copper merchant ever.
sokka
-
Sokka
You didn't even pay for the copper. I'm not giving you a refund. And I'm not a copper merchant. I didn't even buy it, somebody else did. What's wrong with it?
I can send you more if you need?
Fire Lord Zuko
-
Sokka
I sent you two more carts of copper. This is the best copper we have, so if it's not good enough, you can get your own and stop mooching off of me.
Fire Lord Zuko
5.
[on a thin sheet of metal]
Sparky! Earth Rumble 8 is two weeks from now. I'm coming to pick you up in the morning two days before.
Check it out: I can write now. Katara helped me with the characters but I've got it now. Hawky isn't strong enough to carry these, but Katara's dad is letting me borrow Seabreeze.
It's TOPH.
-
Dear Lady Beifong
You can't just come pick me up! I'm the Fire Lord. Two weeks isn't enough time for me to arrange days off.
I'd like to come watch you knock some heads, but I can't. Sorry.
Feed Seabreeze. Seriously. What's wrong with you people? Every bird you send me is starving.
May your inner fire warm you
Fire Lord Zuko
-
[on a thin sheet of metal]
Sparky. Thanks for sending me a sheet of paper but my privy is stocked. I can guess what it says though: "I can't go I'm so busy and I'm too much of a wimp to clear my schedule"
I'm coming to pick you up. Tell your guards they can either get out of my way or get CRUSHED. It's gonna be fun.
It's TOPH.
-
A painting of Fire Lord Zuko, Lady Beifong, Master Katara, Avatar Aang, Suki of Kyoshi Island and Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe. Lady Beifong is sitting on the Fire Lord's shoulders, holding up a decorative belt and smiling widely.
1K notes · View notes
kxsagi · 2 days ago
Text
“𝐢 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐚 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧”
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a/n: everyone say thank you, landon! he hurt me and now i wrote angst. i’ll never forgive his bitchass for cheating on liz (yes i’m still mad about it) and i pray that she heals fast and thoroughly 🙏
ft. itoshi rin, isagi yoichi, itoshi sae, kaiser michael, shidou ryusei, mikage reo, nagi seishiro, karasu tabito, bachira meguru, ness alexis
itoshi rin
he doesn’t say he misses you. instead, he shows it by keeping everything the same. your mug is still by the sink. your shampoo still in the shower. 
he trains harder than ever, but there’s a hesitation in his eyes, like he’s searching for something beyond the net, like scoring without your "good luck" feels hollow. 
he deletes your contact but memorizes your number. blocks you, but checks your socials with a burner. his pride won’t let him reach out, but gosh, he wants you to notice he’s suffering. 
sometimes he thinks about bumping into you “by accident.” at a café. bookstore. anywhere. but he never goes because he’s scared you’ll already be with someone else. 
he dreams of you. and in those dreams, you always leave again. 
isagi yoichi
he blames himself. rewatches every conversation in his mind like game tape. where did i go wrong? where could i have passed better? loved better? 
he still talks about you like you're part of his life. "she loves that song." "she would’ve liked this." even though the room goes quiet after. 
he keeps every gift you gave him. your first silly drawing, the bracelet you made at some street fair. it’s tucked in his drawer like sacred things. 
you told him once he overthinks everything, so now, ironically, he overthinks that, too. did you mean it as a joke? were you serious? were you already halfway out the door? 
he wishes you’d just tell him you hate him. because silence is worse. silence is hope’s cruel cousin. 
itoshi sae
he lets you go with a poker face. you’d think he didn’t care. but it’s the first time in years he misses a penalty kick. 
he deletes your pictures. not because he doesn’t care, but because he does. too much. and seeing your smile in that yellow-tinted light makes his chest cave in. 
he scrolls through your old texts when he's drunk. replies to them like you're still there. never sends them. 
he never begs. never asks you to stay. but every time someone mentions your name, there’s a flicker of something behind his eyes, like grief dressed in quiet clothes. 
he used to be bored of everything. now, he’s just tired. especially of pretending you didn’t matter. 
kaiser michael
you were the first person to tell him he didn’t have to perform all the time. that you liked him even when he wasn’t loud, golden, brilliant. 
he didn’t believe you. not really. until after you left. now the silence around him feels unbearable, like a stage with no audience. 
he flirts more now. louder, emptier. it’s all performance, a desperate echo of who he used to be when you were around to bring him down to earth. 
he keeps expecting you to walk in, roll your eyes, say "you’re so dramatic." but you never do. 
sometimes, he talks to you when he’s alone. not the real you, the memory version. and she’s always a little kinder than he deserves. 
shidou ryusei
he doesn’t cry. he doesn’t talk about it. but suddenly, the fire in him feels more like self-destruction than passion. 
on the field, he’s a menace. fouls more. gets carded more. you were the only one who calmed him down, reminded him of softness. now there’s no balance. 
people call him reckless. a lunatic. but they don’t know he’s trying to feel something. anything. 
he won’t admit it, but your absence tastes like metal in his mouth. bitter. sharp. 
sometimes, he punches the wall and pretends it’s not because he remembered your birthday and realized he has nowhere to send the gift. 
mikage reo
he’s always had money, always had power. but losing you? it’s the first time he couldn’t buy his way out of pain. 
he tells himself you’ll come back. that it’s just a break. that if he levels up, scores more, shines harder, you’ll notice. 
goes to the places you loved together, always ordering your favorite drink and leaving it untouched. “just in case.” 
he practices apologies in the mirror, over and over. never sends them. because every version feels too small for what he broke. 
his smile is still perfect, still charming, but if you look too close, it doesn’t reach his eyes anymore. 
nagi seishiro
he doesn't understand why you're gone. he replays the breakup like a confusing side quest with no clear ending. 
sleeps way more than usual. not because he’s lazy, but because dreaming of you is easier than being awake without you. 
when he plays games now, he keeps losing. rage quits more often. "it's boring," he says. but it’s really because the person who used to sit beside him is missing. 
keeps your shirt. cuddles it like a plush. doesn’t say a word when reo comments on it. 
still texts you sometimes. “this meme reminded me of you.” “you’d laugh at this.” you never reply. he still sends them. 
karasu tabito
he jokes more than ever. laughs louder. flirts harder. but his humor has a sharpness to it now, like he’s constantly daring the world to notice he’s hurting. 
people say he's “the same as always,” but they don’t see him standing outside your apartment for 30 minutes just to walk away with a heavier heart. 
started journaling again. you told him once that writing helped with healing. he writes like you’ll read it one day. 
won’t admit it, but he plays dirtier now. more aggressive, less patient. “love made me soft,” he says. like it’s a curse. 
he misses your voice. not just your words. the sound of you saying his name like it meant something. 
bachira meguru
he paints you. over and over. sometimes with wings. sometimes with broken glass in your smile. always with love. 
still talks to his "monster" about you. "you think she hates me now?" "do you think i scared her off?" 
he’s still sunshine to everyone else, but when he's alone, the silence is suffocating. 
your absence changed his art. darker colors. messier strokes. people praise his “emotional evolution,” but he just misses being happy. 
he goes to the park where you first kissed and sits on the swing for hours. waiting. just in case you remember, too. 
ness alexis
he always said you made him feel seen, not just as a shadow to kaiser, but as his own person. now that you’re gone, he forgets how to exist without comparison. 
overcorrects. becomes louder, flashier, more dramatic. like if he’s impressive enough, you’ll regret leaving. 
still wears the cologne you bought him. even though it makes him nauseous with memories. 
he swears he’s over you. but the second someone mentions your name, his hands start to shake. 
keeps your photo as his lock screen. “aesthetic,” he says. “nostalgic,” he means. 
© 𝐤𝐱𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐢
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midnight-shadow-cafe · 1 day ago
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tf!141 x angel!reader finding an angel that fell, “teaching” her how to live on earth and corrupting her innocence 🫣
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Divine Intervention

Pairing: Poly!141 x reader
Au: Fallen Angel! Reader x Human! reader

Warnings: Sensual tension, implied corruption kink, religious themes (angel/fall imagery), mild dubcon-adjacent themes (consent present but reader is naïve), slow burn tension, swearing, possession/claiming, SMUT, reader falling from grace
Author's Note: You fell from the sky and into their hands. But heaven had no idea what hell you’d walk into.
Summary: You fell from the sky into their world. But instead of salvation, you found something darker—something tempting. Now, under their watchful eyes, your innocence starts to unravel.
Masterlist
MDNI18+MDNI18+MDNI18+MDNI18+MDNI18+
——
The first thing you remembered was heat.
The second was pain.
You’d fallen. You didn’t know how. One moment, you were high above—weightless, woven into the light—and then…
Ash. Fire. Earth.
It had taken them hours to find you.
You’d landed deep in the war-torn woods, crumpled at the base of a tree, shivering. Wings bent. Feet bare. No concept of where—or what��you were anymore. But when they approached, bristling with weapons and suspicion, you raised your glowing hand—
And healed one of them.
After that, they didn’t ask many questions. They just took you with them.
——
The humans called themselves a task force.
They were unlike any beings you’d ever encountered. Made of steel and blood and heat. They spoke in clipped orders and sharp wit, hands rough with years of war, yet their eyes softened every time they looked at you like you were something fragile.
Especially when you smiled.
“You’re not from here, are you?” Kyle asked one night, sitting with you on the couch in the base rec room. Your knees were drawn up to your chest, and you were watching the flickering lights of the TV like they might burst into flame.
“No,” you said softly.
He tilted his head. “Where then?”
You glanced up. Your voice came out as little more than a breath.
“Above.”
He stared at you for a long time after that.
——
They learned quickly how untouched you were by Earth’s ways.
You didn’t know what a microwave was. You didn’t know why people wore socks. You cried when you watched a video of a dog being rescued, and you asked Johnny if eating ice cream for breakfast was really acceptable.
(He told you yes. John had to correct him later.)
Simon rarely said much. But he watched you.
And when he saw how you flinched from loud sounds, how your fingers fluttered nervously when you didn’t understand something, how you leaned closer to the warmth of their bodies without realizing it—his jaw clenched a little tighter.
Because he could see what the others were starting to see too.
You were breakable.
But you were also changing.
——
The first crack came with a kiss.
Johnny teased you constantly. Called you “Angel,” winked when you were confused, poked fun at how you thought “bollocks” meant something polite.
“You ever been kissed, sweetheart?” he asked one evening, sprawled on the edge of your bed, boots off, grin wide.
You blinked at him, blinking like a fawn. “No.”
His smile faltered. “Not even once?”
You shook your head. “There was no need. We were made of light, not… flesh.”
Johnny exhaled sharply, leaning closer. “Want to know what it feels like?”
You hesitated. “Would that… help me understand Earth?”
He chuckled darkly. “Oh, Angel. More than you know.”
The kiss was featherlight—his lips brushing yours, lingering, drawing back. Your breath hitched. Your wings fluttered violently.
And behind you, a single feather fell.
When it hit the floor, it turned black.
——
That night, you cried in Price’s arms.
You were shaking. You felt different. The light inside you, the one that always hummed quietly, was dimming. You could feel yourself becoming… more. Heavier. Realer. Human.
“I think I’m falling,” you whispered into his shirt. “Truly falling.”
Price didn’t speak for a moment. He simply held you tighter.
“Then we’ll catch you,” he said. “We already have.”
——
They were patient at first.
They showed you how to exist. Johnny taught you to dance, twirling you in the rec room until you were breathless. Kyle explained what movies were and cried with you during Wall-E. Price taught you how to fire a gun (you didn’t like it) and how to drive a car (you loved it).
But it was Simon who taught you temptation.
Not through words—but in the way he looked at you.
That first time you wore one of Johnny’s shirts, just long enough to cover you but not long enough to be decent, Simon’s eyes burned.
“You shouldn’t wear that,” he murmured.
“Why?” you asked, genuinely confused.
He leaned close, his voice a low rasp. “Because you have no idea what you’re doing to us, do you?”
Your breath caught.
Because… no. You didn’t.
But you were starting to want to.
——
One night, it all came undone.
It started with Johnny. Of course it did.
You’d wandered into the kitchen in the middle of the night, unable to sleep. Something about the air felt strange. Heavy. When you stepped into the light, Johnny nearly dropped the glass in his hand.
You were barefoot. The hem of your borrowed sleep shirt brushed your thighs. Your hair was messy, your expression soft with confusion.
“You alright, love?” he asked gently.
You tilted your head. “I can’t sleep. I keep feeling… things.”
“What kind of things?”
You touched your chest. “Warm. Low. Hungry, but not for food.”
He froze. His pulse ticked in his throat.
“You want me to show you what that is?”
You nodded.
Johnny kissed you again—but it was different this time.
Not soft. Not teasing.
Starving.
He pulled you against him, hands bracketing your waist. You gasped into his mouth, fingers digging into his shoulders. Your wings flickered behind you—and one more feather fell.
And from the doorway, three pairs of eyes watched.
——
Kyle was the first to join.
He crossed the room in three long strides, gently taking your hand from Johnny’s shoulder. You turned to him, lips parted, pupils blown.
“You want to understand this, yeah?” he asked, voice husky.
You nodded.
He kissed your neck.
Then Simon’s hands were on your waist. His mask still on, eyes dark and unreadable.
“You’re not leaving this room the same, dove,” he said, voice like gravel.
And then his lips brushed your shoulder.
You whimpered.
Price stepped in last. Calm. Composed. But his hands trembled when they cupped your jaw.
“You’re ours now,” he murmured.
And you knew it was true.
Because your light had faded.
But it was replaced by something else.
Desire. Hunger. Devotion.
——
They didn’t rush you.
Not at first.
You stood in the middle of the kitchen, body flushed and trembling, with Johnny’s lips still wet from kissing you, and the others watching you like men on the edge of hunger—but still holding the line.
Price came to you first.
His hands were warm and steady as they cupped your face. He tilted your chin up with practiced ease, gazing at you like you were something precious. His voice was low, gravel brushed with something softer.
“We’ll stop if you want to. Say the word, Angel.”
You looked up at him, chest heaving, caught between worlds.
“I… I want to understand,” you whispered.
He hummed, approval deep in his chest. “Then let us show you.”
It began with touch.
Simon’s gloved hands slipped beneath the hem of your shirt. His fingers moved slowly, reverently, tracing along the bare skin of your thighs, your hips, your ribs. Every time he brushed over something new, you gasped softly, overwhelmed by the sheer weight of sensation.
Johnny leaned in close to your ear. “You feel everything so deeply, don’t you?”
You nodded wordlessly.
“Good,” he breathed, and his mouth pressed against your neck.
Kyle kissed your shoulder while Simon’s hands framed your waist. It was a dance—four bodies learning yours, syncing breath, pressure, movement. They were worshipful. Greedy. Careful. Demanding.
Your shirt slipped away first.
Then your breath caught as Price whispered, “Lie back, sweetheart.”
You did.
They undressed you like a ritual. Johnny knelt first, pressing hot kisses across your stomach, his palms gliding over your thighs with rough, calloused reverence. His eyes flicked up to you, darker than you’d ever seen them.
“You’re so bloody soft,” he said, voice husky. “Bet you’ve never been touched like this.”
Your lips parted. “No. Never.”
Kyle leaned over and kissed you again—this time slower. Deeper. His hands splayed across your chest, fingers teasing your curves, feeling your breath catch beneath them. He moaned softly against your mouth.
“You don’t know what you do to us,” he murmured.
“I want to,” you said, voice shaking.
Simon’s fingers traced down your bare sides, lingering at the curve of your hips. He leaned down, his breath hot against your throat. “Then let us show you. One inch at a time.”
You were kissed. Touched. Claimed.
Johnny’s mouth worshipped you with hot, open kisses down your stomach. Kyle’s hands cupped your chest, fingertips teasing until your back arched. Price whispered filth and praise against your ear, his teeth grazing your earlobe. Simon stayed at your side, watching, stroking your skin like he was etching every shiver into memory.
When you cried out—soft and overwhelmed—Johnny’s lips never stopped moving.
“That’s it, Angel,” he rasped. “Let go. Let yourself fall.”
And fall you did.
Again and again, into their hands. Their mouths. Their arms.
They took turns.
Not with greed, but purpose. Johnny kissed your thighs like he was grateful for them. Kyle touched you like you were sacred. Simon growled into your skin when you trembled under his palm, and Price… Price held your face while you gasped his name like a prayer.
The night blurred.
Sweat. Warmth. Laughter. Whispers.
“Look how much you’re glowing,” Kyle murmured against your throat.
Simon kissed your ribs. “You’re learning.”
“You’re ours now,” Johnny said, pressing his lips just beneath your navel.
And Price, steady and sure, whispered, “You were always meant to fall. You just didn’t know what was waiting for you at the bottom.”
By the end, you were sated.
Stretched across soft sheets with four men tucked against your sides, your wings sprawled wide over their bodies. No longer white. No longer untouched.
But not broken.
Transformed.
And when you woke hours later—your limbs aching in the best ways, your chest fluttering with something warm and full—you felt… whole.
You turned your head and saw them. Johnny with his messy hair pressed against your stomach. Kyle curled at your back, an arm slung over your waist. Simon, mask on but lifted just enough for his mouth to press kisses to your shoulder. Price at your side, eyes open and watching you with something ancient and endless in his gaze.
“You alright?” he asked, voice raw from sleep.
You smiled.
“I think I’m finally alive.”
——
By morning, your wings were black.
Not rotten. Not ugly. Just… reborn. Feathers sleek like raven’s velvet. Still soft. Still yours.
But no longer pure.
And when you looked at yourself in the mirror, lips swollen, neck marked, body trembling—you didn’t cry.
You smiled.
Because this was your new heaven.
And they were your gods now.
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Hope you enjoyed! Please consider liking and reposting! -Midnight💜
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alltimecharlo · 3 days ago
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would love a teacher au with hockey player!mack and kindergarten teacher!will where mack goes to will's school for some charity thing and proceeds to fold the second he meets will
(also i'm the anon who sent in the sidgeno prompt - thank you SO much for it, it's everything i could have wanted and more!)
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awhh thank you so much, i’m glad you liked it!! this au is soooo cute and if i could scrounge a plot together i would absolutely write more 🩵 fic under the cut :)
Macklin Celebrini has faced hostile away crowds and playoff overtimes, but nothing prepares him for this: a classroom full of five-year-olds and one kindergarten teacher who looks like he stepped straight out of a goddamn dream.
He’s barely made it five steps into the classroom when one of the kids barrels into his leg yelling, “You’re a Shark!”
“Uh. Yeah. That’s me,” Mack says, blinking down at the kid and then looking up—
—and promptly forgetting how to breathe.
Will Smith—not that Will Smith, but still, the name caught him off guard when he heard it—is crouched at a low table, gently helping a tiny girl tie her shoe. He glances up when he hears the commotion. Their eyes meet.
Will smiles.
Mack folds.
“You must be Macklin,” Will says as he stands up, brushing his hands off on his soft blue slacks. His voice is warm and low, calming like ocean water lapping at the shore. His curls are a mess and his sweater has glitter stuck to the sleeve. Mack wants to drown in him.
“Just Mack is fine,” he manages. He takes Will’s hand when it’s offered and shakes it like he’s never touched another human before. Which is embarrassing because he does, all the time. On the ice. In post-game scrums. At team events.
Not like this, though.
“Thank you for coming. The kids are so excited,” Will says, and it’s that kind of genuine, effortless kindness that makes Mack’s chest tighten. “They’ve been drawing Sharks logos all week. You’re a bit of a celebrity.”
Mack glances around. There are crayon drawings taped all over the walls: slightly lopsided sharks, some with smiley faces, some with teeth as big as their tails. One of them has #71 Macklin scrawled across the top.
He clears his throat. “They’re better artists than I am.”
Will chuckles. It’s a light, sweet sound. Mack’s ears go warm.
Will gestures for him to follow. “We’re doing a little Q&A and then the kids can ask for autographs if that’s okay. We’ve also got some snacks after. Goldfish crackers and juice boxes.”
“Goldfish for a Shark,” Mack says.
Will grins. “Exactly.”
Mack doesn’t even remember the Q&A. He sits on one of those tiny plastic chairs, knees practically up to his chest, answering rapid-fire questions about hockey and skating and whether or not he’s friends with Sharkie. The whole time, he keeps sneaking glances at Will, who’s leaning against the bookshelf, arms crossed loosely, watching him with this amused little look on his face.
After, while the kids color and chatter excitedly, Will comes over and offers him a juice box.
“I like your crowd work,” Will teases.
Mack snorts, takes the juice. Their fingers brush.
“They’re a tougher audience than media scrums,” he says.
Will tilts his head. “But less likely to grill you about defensive zone turnovers.”
Mack groans. “Don’t remind me.”
Will laughs, softer this time. “You’re good with them.”
“With the turnovers?”
Will nudges him with his elbow. “With the kids. They liked you.”
Mack shrugs, feeling suddenly shy. “I like them too.”
Will’s smile goes soft, warm around the edges. “They’ll be glad to hear that.”
Mack wants to say something else—anything, really—but a kid tugs on Will’s sleeve and he turns away, crouching to their level. Mack watches him, heart thudding unevenly.
He doesn’t believe in love at first sight. Or he didn’t, until twenty minutes ago.
Before he leaves, Will walks him out.
“Thanks again for coming,” Will says, standing just outside the front doors now, sun glinting off his curls. “It meant a lot to them.”
“Yeah. Of course. Anytime.”
They linger. Neither of them seems to want to move.
“You’re not that scary,” Will says suddenly.
Mack blinks. “What?”
“When you’re on the ice,” Will explains. “You look so intense. But here you’re just… soft.”
Mack’s brain breaks a little. Soft?
“I can be soft,” he says, a little helplessly.
Will gives him a smile that could power a city. “Yeah. I can see that.”
There’s a beat.
“Would you—” Mack starts, then swallows. “Would you wanna maybe get coffee sometime?”
Will’s eyes light up. “I was wondering if you’d ask.”
Mack grins, dizzy with it. “Then yeah. Cool. Okay.”
“Cool,” Will echoes.
They exchange numbers.
As Mack walks away, he hears one of the teachers behind him say to Will, “He’s cute.”
Will just hums. “I know.”
Mack can’t stop smiling the whole way home.
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chdarling · 1 day ago
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And so we reach one of my favorite chapters of TLE2. I have a lot to say about this one. Click through at your peril lol.
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For the record, I love baby Lily. I’d die for baby Lily. I want to write a prequel to my prequel that is just baby Lily’s diary entries as she discovers magic and boys. (I’m not doing this. But…….I wanna. But I’m not. I’m NOT.)
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I’m realizing (likely not for the first time, but that brain fog be foggin’) how much of writing this fic has just been me working through how I feel about certain topics. In this case, forgiveness. It’s interesting (to me), because I still struggle greatly with this issue, and reading Mr. Evans’ advice to Lily (that I had forgotten) is sort of like getting advice from my past self. It’s weird. Nice, but weird.
Especially weird since I’m not that religious but ok past CH I guess we all ARE flawed creatures worthy of grace. If u say so.
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I have no idea if this is an unpopular opinion or not, but I love angry, angsty teen Lily. Like, I know it’s kind of a bummer that she’s lashing out at her dad especially since his clock is ticking, but I love that she GETS to. She’s a teenage girl! Her life is unbelievably hard! She deserves to be bitchy about Mrs. Colfield and her biscuits!!!!
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Fun fact, this is among the oldest scenes in TLE. I had some version of this written for aaaaaages. In one VERY early draft, this happened over the summer before sixth year, and James showed up to apologize for the lake incident (and they also went to a funfair, that’s how old this is, LOL). But I very quickly realized that I couldn’t put it over the summer, because I needed to stretch out the tension. And so it got moved to Christmas, and I’m so glad it did, because I love all the extra layers and emotion that are wrapped up in this chapter. Originally, I just wanted James to be impressed as he watched Lily climb down a trellis, but now it gets to be wrapped up in all sorts of juicy flavors like grief and shame and forgiveness. Yum yum what a meal for me.
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I don’t have a comment, I just love this image of them on the roundabout (merry go round?? Roundabout?? Which one is it? Britishisms confound me once again). It warms my heart. If I could draw, I would do a fanart of this moment because I can visualize it perfectly ugh.
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What do you MEAN they don’t get together until TLE3???? Ugh who is writing this anyway
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Justice for Mrs. Colfield.
Aaaaaand now we’ve reached the point in the book where I truly barely remember it because my life was on fire and I wrote the second half of TLE2 in a total fugue state/frenzy. This should be interesting….
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kjiscrawlingbackformore · 3 days ago
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Peace - Act I : Chapter five
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Lottie Matthews x fem!reader
Masterlist | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter
Summary: Reader comes back to her hometown and transfers to Wiskayok High School after getting expelled from her previous high school. Follows Junior year into Senior year, all the way up to the crash. (Eventual NSFW mdni)
Warnings: None
The score was 1–1, and the varsity team was catching their breath. Jackie shouted adjustments, Coach Martinez scribbled on a whiteboard, and players swigged Gatorade, mud on their socks, and fire in their eyes. But you weren’t in the huddle. You glanced at the time on your watch.
4:03 PM.
Your heart dropped.
Max.
Every Saturday, 4 PM sharp. Just you and your little brother. Your thing. A promise you never broke-no matter what. Because no one else remembered him like you did. And after the mixed media club, after school, after surviving the noise of your aunt’s house, it was the one moment that was just yours.
You slipped around the bleachers, your camera bumping against your hip, and bolted toward the old payphone tucked beside the gym doors. You dug through your jacket pocket for quarters with shaky fingers and fed them in one by one.
The phone rang once. Twice.
“Hello?” came a small, slightly breathless voice.
You closed your eyes in relief. “Max,” she breathed. “You just get out of baseball?”
“Yeah, we had extra innings,” he said, panting a little. “I hit a double. Coach said my swing’s getting better!”
A grin split across onto your face. “Dude, that’s awesome. You’re gonna be the next Ken Griffey.”
“Grandpa says I’m the next Yogi Berra.”
You chuckled. “You don’t even know who that is.”
“Do too!” Max insisted. “He talks weird.”
You leaned against the brick wall, your smile softening. “I miss you.”
“I miss you more. Did you get my letter?”
“Yeah,” you whispered, picturing the letter in your head. “I hung it up. Right above my bed.”
“I added a drawing of me hitting the ball. So you won’t forget what I look like.”
Your breath hitched. “Max…”
He kept going, unaware of the lump forming in your throat. “I even drew the bat and everything. I tried to make it look like the one Grandpa gave me. And I put a little speech bubble that says ‘The Yankees suck!’”
Hearing the Yankees suck, made you roll your eyes. Your grandfather is the biggest Red Sox fan. So naturally, you were all raised to hate the Yankees. You could picture Max wearing a navy Red Sox shirt right now on the other end.
You laughed, shaky. “You’re gonna make me cry.”
“Nooo,” Max groaned. “Don’t cry. Crying is for babies.”
“I’m not crying,” you lied. “I’m just proud of you.”
He went quiet for a beat. “I’m proud of you, too.”
You felt tears sting in your eyes. There was really nothing to be proud of. You weren't anything special, or doing anything special. Yet Max was the only one who really cared about you. Really loved you. For no other reason but to love and care about you. Nothing more than just for being you. Even in his innocent words, they stuck onto you like clay.
“You okay?” Max asked.
You hesitated. “Yeah,” you said. “Just… tired. But I’m okay. You?”
“I’m good. Grandma made flan. I ate three.”
“You’re a monster.”
“It's just REALLY good.” Max insisted with a giggle.
You laughed, breath hitching. “It is pretty good, I guess.”
You hear commotion from the other end of the phone. Your heart sinks, already knowing what's coming. “Okay,” he said reluctantly. “I gotta go. Grandpa wants me to watch this old game he recorded. Call me next Saturday?”
“You know I will,” you said. “Love you.”
“Love you more,” Max chirped and hung up.
You stayed there a second, your fingers still curled around the receiver, your heart aching in that complicated, permanent way it always did after hearing his voice. Willing yourself to calm down. Trying not to let the tears fall. Your hands palmed your eyes, and you took a deep breath.
“Y/n?”
You turned sharply. Lottie. Her curls slightly frizzed from play, hands on her hips, cheeks flushed from the first half. Sweat darkening the edges of her jersey. She looked… softer than usual. Pretty.
“Coach Scott sent me,” she said. “He saw you storm off and thought you were throwing up.”
You forced a smile. “Nope. Just needed to make a call.”
Lottie nodded slowly. She didn’t press, but her eyes scanned your face, softer than they’d been all week.
“You good?” she asked, voice quieter now.
“Yeah,” you said automatically, then paused. “Actually… yeah. I think so.”
Lottie gave her a faint smile. “Then come on. We’ve got a second half to capture.”
You nodded, already jogging alongside her. The camera swung at your hip, the weight familiar. You didn’t say anything else. But Lottie stayed close, and you didn’t mind.
The energy on the field was electric. Cleats tore into the grass, shouts echoed under the lights, and the scoreboard blinked a tense 1–1. The rivalry with the Titans was personal, at least, both teams played like it.
You stood just past the sideline, fingers wrapped tight around your camera, eyes locked on the field. Your conversation with Max still echoed in your chest, but now you were focused. Watching. Framing. Capturing.
And right now, Lottie was everywhere.
She’d come alive in the second half, gliding through defenders with quiet fury, body low, eyes sharp. It was like watching magic. Jackie barked commands up front. Shauna and Tai locked down midfield. Laura Lee and Mari tightened the back. The whole team pulsed with movement.
Then it happened—Lottie intercepted a midfield pass and didn’t hesitate. She tore down the left, a blur of determination, juked one, slipped past another.
“Center! Center!” Jackie shouted.
But Lottie didn’t go to Jackie. She curled the ball around the last defender and sent a perfectly timed cross straight to Natalie on the right wing. Natalie didn’t even trap it, she volleyed it into the net on first touch.
GOAL.
The sideline erupted.
You got it all, Lottie’s wind-up, Natalie’s strike, the net snapping back, Van leaping from goal to scream in celebration. Shutter click. Shutter click. Holy fuck, it was all magic.
2–1, Yellowjackets.
But the game wasn’t over. Minutes later, Lottie, riding the adrenaline, went too hard on defense. A bad angle. A clumsy slide. She clipped the Titans forward from behind. The ref didn’t hesitate.
Whistle. Foul.
You, along with the crowd, groaned. Penalty kick. Lottie stood back, jaw clenched. Jackie swore under her breath. Shauna put her hands on her hips, trying to breathe. Van jogged in place, eyes narrowed at the girl lining up the shot. You could barely breathe. The Titans forward stepped up. Blew out a breath. Ran forward.
BOOM.
A rocket to the left. But Van was already there. A full-body dive. Fingertips. A slap of leather. DENIED. The rebound was cleared by Tai, and the clock ticked down.
Ten. Nine. Eight…
The crowd counted together.
Three. Two. One—Final Whistle.
Yellowjackets win.
Screams. Laughs. Someone tackled Van in joy. Jackie pulled Lottie into a rough hug. Shauna smacked Laure Lee on the back. Even Natalie cracked a grin.
You had the camera to your face the whole time, snapping the exact moment Van’s arms shot in the air, gloves high, triumph written all over her mud-streaked face.
A near-perfect shot.
Coach Martinez and Coach Scott stood near the register, somehow both overwhelmed and beaming. On the way back home, they pulled both Vans into an Ice Cream parlor off the road.
“Order whatever you want,” Coach Martinez said. “You earned it.”
The ice cream parlor was buzzing with post-game energy — laughter bouncing off tiled walls, jerseys sticking to backs, and sneakers squeaking against old tile floors. Coach Martinez had taken over two tables. Coach Scott was arguing with Van about which flavor was the best.
You stood off to the side, eyes scanning the blur of teal jerseys and sugar highs. You weren't sure if you were here as part of the team or just the one who happened to catch them at their best.
“Y/N!”
You turned and just in time to see Lottie approaching, beaming like she hadn’t just nearly gotten carded for nearly cleating someone into the next county. Lottie’s hair was still damp, cheeks flushed with the leftover adrenaline of the win, and in her hand was a double scoop of something pink and neon. “They had bubblegum,” she said, holding it up proudly. “Like the kind I would only get at this weird stand in the mall when I was, like, nine.”
You blinked. “I’ve never had that.”
Lottie paused, blinked, and then shoved the cone toward your face. “Then obviously, now is the time to try it’s goodness.”
You laughed, dodging the melting scoop. “You’re gonna drop it, psycho.”
“I’ll drop it into your hand if you don’t take a bite. Come on,” Lottie leaned in, whispering like it was a secret mission. “It’s basically a rite of passage. You’re one of us now.”
The words hung there, light but full. One of us.
You slowly let yourself smile. And then leaned forward, took a small bite, and winced. “Oh my god, that’s terrible.”
“I know, right?” Lottie was grinning widely now. “That’s why I get it every time. It's so bad that it's literally so good.”
You rolled your eyes, but something loosened in your chest. You weren’t sure if it was the sugar or the soft, persistent way Lottie always seemed to find you. But for the first time in a while, you didn’t feel like you were on the outside of something. You felt… in it.
Fuck maybe you loved soccer now.
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oboetemasuka · 22 hours ago
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Mage
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Hey, hi, hello, I'm obsessed with Fire Emblem Echoes. I must make a full drawing of Amane as Delthea before I continue about my day SLEEP
Delthea is best girl. One of the mainstays of my first playthrough despite her late join time. (Kliff is best boy, but that's for a different post about 15-year-olds with hubris.)
Would Amane and Delthea get along? Uh... um...
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soaptaculart · 1 year ago
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Um I like Dungeon Meshi. Btw
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equill · 10 months ago
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Reuniting with a distorted past.
Extra:(New personality tested gone wrong)
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wanted to play with rin living in the aftermath aus aswell and had these drawings laying around to share so yay
Panel 1: Was buried alive.
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Comic 1: Who are you supposed to be?
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new friends
Comic 2: Misguided protection.
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obito still sensing the warning signs of rin losing her temper. anyways they proceeded to be dragged into the ocean by rin like some sea monster
Comic 3: Finding out (Now what will you do?)
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obito is harshly brought back from his delusions because now its not just kushina but rin too who he needs to ripped out the tail beast from
#naruto#naruto fanart#kakashi hatake#rin nohara#obito uchiha#naruto sukea#fanart#art#my art#sketch#drawing#digital art#hope i can add something new and if not may i shall add fuel to the fire for rin!! :)#So Rin loses ALL of her memories forever (kinda)#the only thing that remains for sure is the feeling of missing something that she'll never reach it again#she's alone and is left to roam directionless until she meets an elderly civilian that is also alone#she stays with her for a year+ but she passes away. But Rin with her new identity decides to walk forward (with love comes pain#but to love at all was the greatest thing to her.) She cherishes her new memories and won't let it stop her from moving on#inbetween this time frame she meets isobu in her mind after he gains enough form within her (who is also without memories)#Now WAY LATER she meets Sukea who looks like he's about to panic and she tries to help (which uh doesnt work too well)#but then Sukea joins her on her travels (sending minato an letter through his summons of rin being alive and forgetting the mission)#they both wander around (he doesnt know how to bring up their past) but then obito appears (always at the wrong times)#At first glance he's pissed but then realizes that this isnt fake AND its both the worse thing yet best thing to ever happen#Now Rin thinks she made two new friends who give her feelings of warmth but they both also reminded her of something old she thinks#PS Minato and Kushina are freaking out back in the village but can't do anything about it (Obito hasn't acted on his plans yet so yes)
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mokadevs · 5 months ago
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here comes a very special girl!!
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chenqingssuibian · 2 months ago
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nonexistent-tales · 2 months ago
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need to draw the funni cookie game more. anyways thought this was funny, fire spirit are you alright.
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ruporas · 2 years ago
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high school au (ID in alt)
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the-dragon-girl-27 · 2 years ago
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New Nintendo Direct was announced, Equip your clown noses and expect nothing so we can't be let down.
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blaithnne · 11 months ago
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REVENGE for @autumnalfallingleaves over on art fight ! I think that AJ would think Madison is just SO cool. She has a dragon, she skateboards, she plays the drums, she's a witch AND she pisses off the local police force??? Sign her up. Annoying little sister who won't leave you and your best friend alone when you're hanging out. The definition of "Mum said I could come too!" except she's trying so hard to be chill and cool about it.
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