#this took 6 hours with only a couple breaks

[goron-king-darunia]

Richter and Emil "10. “Please don’t make me socialize.”" for the meme :3

Gonna be real, this prompt also caught my eye. Let me give it a spin. How to Develop Social Skills (Modern-ish AU, Teen Audience, M/M, Canon-compliant character death [Aster is still dead in this universe.] Also I'm writing a holiday-themed story in March! I play fast and loose with the fantasy elements so in this universe Ratatosk and Emil split well before Richter busted the otherworldly gate and Richter and Ratatosk beat the shit out of each other until everything was all better without dooming the world. Because of Verius plot bullshit powers and because I say so. No betas, my audience are my betas and we die like Aster on Tumblr.com.)

Richter grimaced over the rim of his glass, sipping on punch he could tell was spiked by the smell alone. He was going to need all the liquid courage he could get. Emil, for some godforsaken reason, had decided that the best way to repay him for ‘all the kind things’ he’d apparently done was to drag him along to one of the Zelos’ many parties.

“You don’t really have a lot of friends, and the only reason I do is because you taught me that special motto.” The boy was obnoxiously cheery. Especially for someone who, despite his own best efforts, was also averse to social situations. He’d bonded with most of these people trying to put the world back together, and now that their quest was over, he had to learn to relate to them on a more social level as well. Despite his obvious hesitation to mingle with anyone but Richter so far, Emil at the very least seemed genuinely excited to have a chance to rub elbows.

Richter couldn’t share in that sentiment. Not one bit. He’d known most of these people as adversaries, and while Emil was nauseatingly easy for him to get along with, he dreaded having to make nice with people who, if they’d even give him the time of day, he was sure he had so little in common with. The Chosen had both lived exceptionally different lives compared to the average, at least from what he’d heard. Then for the remainder that actually shared his half of the planet growing up, there was a ninja and summoner from a secret village, the president of one of the broadest-reaching companies in all of Tethe'alla, and a girl – woman? – with an eerie wisdom and strength that didn’t suit her delicate form in the slightest. The only person he thought he could carry a conversation with would be Seles, the quarter-elven half-sister of the chosen Zelos. But from what he knew, the conversation wouldn’t quite be a happy one and Seles herself seemed much more intent on spending time with her beloved brother than with most of the other party guests. The other chunk of guests from the Sylvaranti side of the world included The Chosen of Regeneration’s best friend – boyfriend? – Lloyd Irving, a young man Richter only knew from the other end of a blade. He supposed they had a commonality in fighting style, but that wasn’t exactly a topic of conversation suited to a party. Then there were the Sage siblings. While it would be nice to get to know them a little more, interrogating them about the half-elf experience on their side of the planet wasn’t exactly a happy topic either. Then of course, there was Marta, and though his animosity toward her was mostly incidental, her being the bearer of Ratatosk’s core and all, even if he had anything else in common with her, she rubbed him the wrong way. Bubbly, assertive, and at least a hair spoiled, even after all her work to save the world.

The only person he had any inclination toward talking to besides Emil was Rilena. And that was doomed to be painful. Sobbing over a death wasn’t exactly a warm and fuzzy holiday pastime.

“Do I really have to be here?” Richter asked, watching as Zelos’ butler, Sebastian, walked by with a platter of festive canapés.

Emil frowned. “You haven’t even tried talking to anyone yet! The party’s only just started!”

Richter groaned. “And I’m already uncomfortable.”

“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” Emil offered. “But… the only way I made friends was because–” “–Courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality.” Richter nodded, frustrated but knowing. “Not sure that applies here.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. I’m not afraid of them. I just… don’t know how to relate to any of these people in a way that won’t ruin the party.”

“Sounds like fear to me.”

“It’s really not.”

Emil shrugged. “Well, whatever it is, I’ve felt that way too. I was afraid of being hated just for being me, like what happened in Luin. Afraid of saying the wrong things and upsetting people.”

“Fair enough. And I looked down on you for that. But to be fair, as much as I disliked the timid you, you at least had reasons to be uncomfortable. You actively got attacked for the crime of being Emil Castagnier in public, just because Decus’ involvement had you 'slandering’ Lloyd’s name.” But the more Richter thought on it, the more he couldn’t deny the parallels Emil was drawing without meaning to. He himself had also been abused just for being a half-elf. But it just felt different. And as much as his brains shouted at him that the circumstances weren’t at all the same, that his reasons for discomfort made this a situation where he ought to pull away but Emil’s situation required courage, he just kept sitting with the nagging sense that it wasn’t true, not at all. He sighed, slugging down another drink. “Please. Don’t make me socialize.” He knew Emil was right. He knew he was being, at this moment, the exact bitter, angry, shy, small, loathsome little kid he’d been all those years ago, before Aster. But the child inside him was so scared and so loud that he couldn’t drown it out. Not even with Aster’s motto. The grating cognitive dissonance was preferable to trying to make friends with this particular group of people.

Emil clapped a comforting hand on Richter’s forearm. “I won’t make you, but… when I couldn’t be brave for myself, you were brave for me. You helped me. So it’s my turn to help you, okay?” Richter’s gloves squeaked against the crystal of his wine glass as his grip tightened ever so slightly. “Just… go easy on me, kid.”

*~*~*~*~*

Emil stayed close for the early evening. Richter avoided most conversational responsibilities by just nodding along with whatever the blond was saying and keeping his mouth occupied with food and drink. He was particularly fond of the poinsettia canapés which seemed to be some sort of smoked fish slices laid across a puff pastry filled with a creamy, pale cheese with a blend of herb seasoning and capers dusted on top. If he was honest with himself, even if the entire rest of the evening was a bust, the food was pretty great.

But as the catching up and appetizers began to slow, the scheduled activities began. And Emil, evil, terrible Emil, volunteered him to partner up with people. He glared absolute daggers when, out of nowhere, while pairing up for building gingerbread houses, Emil’s hand shot up and “Richter would like to be paired with Genis!” While there were worse partners, as Richter would quickly learn, he wasn’t keen on participating at all, let alone with a practical stranger. But everyone else seemed more than happy to play along with Emil clearly speaking for him. And once everyone was paired up, Richter had no choice but to communicate as the timer began. “Erm. Right. So I’ve never done this before.”

Genis nodded. It made sense. “Luckily for you, I have all the tricks up my sleeve. If we’d gotten to bake our own gingerbread, we could beat everyone else here with taste alone.”

Richter wasn’t so sure about that. “If I had to bake my own ginger bread for this, the Chosen wouldn’t have a kitchen anymore.” Genis burst out laughing. “You can’t be worse than my sister.”

“I assure you that I very much can be.”

“Well, don’t worry too much. I’d compensate for you, and besides, they started us off with everything, so it should be fine. I’m going to need your hands here for the structure.” Genis had already added extra sugar to the icing to make it extra thick and was massaging the piping bag as he got to work laying the foundation of icing to stick the walls to the cake board. “If you can hold your sides steady for a minute, I can put the ribbon on and clean up the edges.”

“The ribbon?” Richter had never done this before but he was pretty sure most gingerbread didn’t have ribbon on it. “Shh, not so loud. You’ll give away our strategy.” Genis unspooled some decorative ribbon from the centerpiece on the table and used it to brace the walls together before laying some down across the walls and frosting around it to set the roof in place, tying the slanted pieces together so they had just enough support to stay in place while the icing set. “We’re already coming out way ahead of the pack like this.” Genis carefully cleaned up the edges so they had pristine walls to work with. “So what are you thinking for design? Classic peppermint? Icing icicles?”

Richter shrugged. “I’ve never done this before.”

“Doesn’t mean you can’t have an opinion.”

Richter nodded and tried to contribute. “Well… what are we being rated on?” “Best design overall, best in creativity or originality, best environmental storytelling – though that usually goes to Colette and her salvaging disaster results.” Richter nodded again, vocalizing his understanding with a soft hum and fiddling with some of the extra gingerbread pieces in the box. He slid two flat cutouts together to assemble a fir tree base. “And we have a time-limit and only the pieces in our boxes, correct?”

“We can trade with other people, but for the most part, yeah. Everybody starts off with roughly the same stuff. But if you’re after color-work for a theme or something, trading with other people is absolutely encouraged.”

“Right.” Richter laid out a sheet of scrap paper. “I’m not much of an artist, but since you know how to handle the construction part, I’ll try to handle design.” He scrawled for a bit, sifting through the box of candies for inspiration. “Taste, uh, isn’t a factor, right?”

“No, not for winning, but I would prefer to keep things edible as much as possible so please don’t put any mistletoe on this, I’m begging.”

“Noted.” That certainly hadn’t occurred to Richter, but the oddly specific request seemed to indicate that this had been a problem before. He was mostly referring to whether or not he ought to use the licorice provided. Though based on past experience, Richter was sure even with the best of ingredients that he could somehow manage to make even a prefabricated gingerbread house toxic somehow.

He went with a classic red and green, though most of the candies were in that category already. Gumdrop fencing and bushes, sprinkles as a stand in for string lights, candy coated chocolates for roof shingles, candy cane pillars, marshmallow snowmen, icing with food coloring for little scenes drawn on the windows. The real stroke of genius was the sour candy ribbons for bunting and the crushed peppermint cobbled paths.

Genis cooperated, more than happy to just have a competent partner in the game. “Should we add a frosted pattern to these bare edges or use the negative space to contrast something else?” and “Should we decorate the gingerbread men or break them up for other details?” were his main contributions to the discussion. Most of what he had to add was a wordless exchange.

By the end of things, Richter was surprised at how much he’d actually handled. Granted, collaboration required communication. But even in such a context, he hadn’t expected the words to come easily. “I think that went well.”

“You’re saying that like its a surprise.”

“Well I’ve never–”

“You’ve never done that before. I know. But if you start a new task worried about the results, you’re just going to psych yourself out. These things are supposed to be fun, you know? Just let go of expectations and give yourself a chance.”

It was good advice. “I’ll… try.”

They voted anonymously with little tokens slipped into paper boxes, but results wouldn’t be until the end of the evening.

In the interim, there were other diversions.

Richter appreciated having a break with some of the more competitive games that didn’t require too much communication. There was a version of beer pong but it was sinking marshmallows into solo cups, a similar but sillier game that involved a bendy straw and paper muffin liners where the objective was to float the paper liner into a cup, and a mechanically different game with a similar goal: rolling coins toward overturned forks with the intent of getting the coins to catch upright between the tines of the forks. Richter wasn’t much good at the games, but it didn’t matter. He wasn’t particularly interested in the goodie bags anyway. There was plenty to eat freely available without having to fret about a little extra candy.

But, much to his chagrin, Emil also made it a mission to volunteer Richter for other cooperative games.

“I think Richter would love to do the candy cane game with Presea!”

Richter knew to expect it this time. From the very moment another cooperative game was announced he knew Emil would sign him up to partner with another stranger. And for the first few attempts at the game, Richter was almost glad Emil had gone with one of the quieter guests. That is, until it became clear that this game, despite relative simplicity, required much more talking than building a gingerbread house.

The objective was straightforward: With each team member holding the opposite side, use the ribbon provided to hook candy canes strewn across the table and maneuver them into the mason jars. There were a limited number of candy canes and if they fell off the table they were out of play. Any team that filled their three mason jars could claim a prize, and the prizes were first come, first served. Sheena and Raine absolutely decimated everyone else while Zelos and Colette were kneecapping everyone including themselves with the highest candy cane casualties so far.

Richter was able to get the basic hooking part down pretty easily, slipping the flat bit of the ribbon taught against the table and easing it under each one was easy and wordless. It was getting them into the jars that was the problem. Presea didn’t telegraph her thought process at all, and whenever Richter thought they finally had a handle on it and she seemed to be leaving the minor adjustments to him, she would over correct for minor movements, dropping the candy canes back onto the table with a very dull “sorry” between attempts.

Alas. He had to use his words. “This won’t work without talking, huh?” He squatted down again, shimmying the ribbon under another candy cane.

Presea hummed in a way that seemed like she understood.

“I’m taller so I think we should try for the jar closer to me first, after that it’s going to be easier to slide the others toward you.

Presea nodded.

"Put your hand over your head. Please.”

Presea raised the ribbon. “Hold still.” Richter guided the candy cane down the ribbon until it was over his jar. “Let me level out. Good. Okay, now let’s get a little lower so the tip is in the jar. Okay, now bounce.”

K-ting! The candy cane dropped into the jar.

“Now for yours.” With the same finesse, the second candy cane dropped into the jar.

The middle jar took more back and forth. But with Richter giving direction, they finally managed one of the last 3 candy canes.

Emil was more excited for their victory than either Richter or Presea.

“You did well.” Presea mumbles, fishing through her goodie bag for a chocolate covered wafer cookie in the shape of a gingerbread man.

“Oh. You can actually talk.”

“Yes.”

Clearly she was a woman of fewer words than even Richter himself. “I… almost thought you couldn’t.”

“Talking is… difficult. Finding the right words can be hard. It’s easier… when someone else takes the first step. But if no one does, you can’t move forward.”

“I… suppose so.”

“Having friends that you can be quiet with… is almost as nice as having friends you can say anything to. Thanks for… being patient.”

Richter blinks. “I… you’re welcome.”

The next game involved a sort of jenga-like physics puzzle where the basic objective of the game was to slip pieces of cardstock out from under each cup in a stack, so that the cups, one by one, settled and stacked onto the cup below. Each team member had to pull at least one card from the stack for each attempt.

Emil decided, this time, to have Richter pair up with Zelos. Richter was done being upset by the blond match-making. Unlike the previous game, the cards and cups were allowed to be reset if toppled, but the entire tower had to be put back and your team had to start over. Colette and Sheena flew out of the gate with an excellent performance, and several jokes were tossed around about Colette’s fortuitous klutziness and Sheena’s inexplicable talent for falling into holes. It seemed like some sort of in-joke Richter didn’t have context for. Zelos ran his mouth a mile a minute, trying to teach Richter the “proper” technique for getting the card stock to pull away cleanly but Richter just couldn’t get a handle on it.

“You’re rushing too much, my guy. Fast but not that fast. Watch again. It’s not like that tablecloth trick you see magicians do, it’s a much more lateral motion.”

“I don’t think it’s your instructions that are the problem. I just… don’t have the experience to make my body move like that.” “Don’t overthink. I promise it’s not as hard as it looks.”

Richter growled. “Again. That’s not the problem.” He made another unsuccessful attempt at his pull.

Zelos set the cups up again. “Do you need me to hold your hands?”

Richter made a sour face. “Please do not.” He tried again and bungled it.

“C'mon, man. You can get one, I believe in you.”

“This is stupid.” Richter tossed the cardstock. “I’m never going to get it. Might as well forfeit. Half the teams are already done.”

“We don’t give up in this house.” Zelos set up the cups again. “Again. We’ve got all night. I don’t mind losing, but I don’t accept quitters.”

Richter huffed. “It would be easier if you could shut up a minute and let me breathe.”

Zelos held his hands up in a pearl clutching gesture. “You wound me. I want you to try, but it’s not that serious.”

Richter thumped his fist down on the table. “I didn’t ask to be bad at it, okay? I am trying, you know?!”

“… Dude. Chill.”

Richter rubbed his temples. “I’m sorry. I’m just… frustrated and tired and the alcohol is already starting to hit me pretty bad and I’m just… not going to perform well.”

“I didn’t ask you to. I just asked you to try.”

Richter let out a long and weary sigh. “It’s embarrassing.”

“You have to suck at stuff to get good at stuff. Nobody’s laughing at you. Just try. You can definitely do it.”

Richter stared the problem down for a long while, trying different ways and speeds of pulling. None of them worked. There was just too much friction at play and he didn’t have the experience to manage it. But Zelos had mentioned street magic, the way the tablecloth tricked worked and how that was a different sort of strategy but for the same effect. He was sure he had seen something similar at a bar, once. About earning a free drink by upending a mug of beer that was already upside down on the bar. And that got him thinking of that prank with the money pinned flat against the table under an empty bottle and having to remove it without touching or tipping the bottle. Could that work? He decided to give it a shot.

He pounded his fist, gently, quickly, against the table. Little taps that just barely rustled the cups. And with a quick swipe, the card was out, and the cup toppled gracefully onto the one below, slipping into place.

“Holy shit. You did it! Nice going!” A congratulatory high five and Zelos set to work getting the rest of the cups to fall into place.

They finished last, but Richter would be lying if he said there wasn’t a small sense of pride at completing his objective.

“I told you you could do it, man.” Zelos clapped a hand on Richter’s shoulder.

Richter tried to accept the affirmation gracefully. “Thanks. For believing in me. Even though it was a completely wasted effort.”

“No such thing. It’s just a party game but even if it wasn’t, there’s no shame in having to learn and fumble your way through things. Fucking up sometimes is part of the process.”

“I guess so. I just… don’t really like doing things I know I’m not good at. Especially with people counting on me.”

“Pretty sure you tried a half dozen new things today at least. Doing things you’re not sure you’re good at is the only first step there is toward doing things you are actually good at. Sometimes biting the bullet is all you can do.”

“Maybe so.”

The final cooperative game for the evening was sorting candies for your team’s color out of a bowl using a straw. Each team had two participants and an even number of candies to collect and an equal number of candies to sort through with two cups and two straws to use in the process.

This time, Emil let Richter choose his partner. And while he was sorely tempted to go the easy route and pick Emil or Rilena, he decided on Seles.

“I should warn you. I don’t have the best constitution, so I may need breaks.”

“I didn’t exactly crush the last game, so it’s fine by me.”

Accommodating Seles did make for slow progress. She was careful and deliberate but it was clear that even the relatively small amount of suction needed to keep the candy attached to the straw was taking a toll.

“Are you alright? If you’re getting winded that easily, maybe you should take a break.” Seles shook her head. “Stuff like this is good for my lungs. Doctors say so. I was a lot better before when I had my Exsphere, so with practice I’m sure I can improve.”

It made sense, but Richter didn’t want Seles struggling just for a game. “If you say so. But in that case, maybe we should split the labor. At some point we’re going to be rooting around here for our color, and we have two cups, so… why don’t I sort everything that isn’t our color into one of these cups and leave fishing our color out to you? That way you can take breaks when you need it and you don’t have to waste breath fishing up the wrong pieces.”

“I think that should work.”

They completed the task second out of all teams. Once Seles got the hang of targeting the broader face of the candies head on and dead center, things got a lot easier. “Thanks for helping. You’re actually really good at the game!”

“I’m not that special. It’s just physics.”

“Yes. But you still did the lion’s share of the work there. You picked up a lot of my slack. I couldn’t have finished that quickly on my own” “It was only natural. You needed the extra help. So I helped you.”

“And if I can learn to accept help when I need it, you can learn to take a compliment. Being a team is all about accommodating and enhancing each other’s strengths and compensating for each other’s weaknesses. Acknowledging your partner’s achievements is important for proper teamwork.”

It made sense. “As you say. Then… thank you. You did very well, too.”

“Thanks!”

The end of the evening brought more casual conversation. Richter found it a bit easier this time as he rejoined Emil. He was able to contribute more to conversations and even made an effort to thank Zelos for hosting and thank his teammates for their great efforts.

When the results were tallied for the gingerbread house judging, there was very little surprise with the results. Colette and Regal took the prize for best environmental storytelling as predicted, with a spin on the Wizard of Oz and the house that fell on the Witch of the East. As usual most of their walls didn’t hold up, despite Regal’s best efforts to thicken the icing properly, and Colette had had a happy little accident with her gingerbread men that just worked out seamlessly.

Richter was genuinely pleased when Emil and Raine took the prize for most creative execution. Raine had bartered with Colette and Regal for some of their broken bits and they cobbled together a very effective annex to their main gingerbread house, though the final product was licorice and red hot heavy and the icing set brick hard making the final product borderline inedible.

The only real surprise was placing himself. “Genis and Richter, for best overall design! Congrats you two!”

Emil insisted on a picture and Genis was happy to oblige. “For a first-timer, you really knew what you were doing.”

“I– thanks. You were a great help. You executed the stuff in my head better than I could have alone.”

“Don’t mention it! It’s easy to execute a lot of stuff with a solid foundation and you really helped out. You had great ideas and it was fun to bring those designs to life.”

“Couldn’t have done it without your structure. You saved us so much time.”

“Yeah, but now I’ve got competition for next year.”

“Only if I remember all your little tricks.”

“I’d say you got a pretty good handle on a lot of things today.” Genis gives a knowing smile. “I think it’ll all be even easier next year.”

“You think so?”

“I know so.”

*~*~*~*~*

Guests trickled out as the event came to its conclusion. Emil and Richter stayed back a while longer with Colette and Lloyd to help Zelos clean up.

“So… did you end up having fun?”

Richter snorted. “In a way. Definitely not a relaxing evening. But I suppose my idea of a relaxing evening would have been a boring way to spend a party. So even if it was absolute hell on my nerves, I am glad you talked me into coming.”

Emil beamed. “Good. I’m really glad you had a fun time.”

“It’s still a little embarrassing having to piggyback off of your already established friendships.”

“You have to start somewhere. Making things a little easier on you by having you socialize with friends I know and trust is way nicer than just turning you loose in a room full of strangers to fend for yourself though, right?” “If you ever do that to me, I will actually go through with killing you.”

“You would never.” Emil smirked.

“You’re still a piece of Ratatosk. I could be easily convinced.”

“I could be twice as evil as him but you’d still never.”

Emil could read him like a picture book sometimes. “You shush.”

“You know it’s true.”

Once the majority of the trash was bagged up and the decorations were removed and the last of the food was packed up in doggy bags, Emil and Richter made their way out with a few quick goodbyes.

In spite of everything, Richter thought that he could get used to this new, uncomfortable normal. Bit by bit, the sharp edges of social situations were being sanded down. “Hey, uh, Emil?”

“Y-yes, Richter?”

“Thank you… for dragging me along tonight. And… thanks for talking the others into going easy on me.”

Emil blushed. “You could tell, huh?”

“By the end it became kind of obvious. Pairing me up with people to progressively challenge me to come out of my shell and actually… confront my discomfort.”

“Did it work?”

Richter shrugged. “I think it’s too soon to tell for sure. But even if it doesn’t stick, it at least made tonight… fun.”

“I’m glad. Like I said, things only worked out so well for me because of everything you did for me! So if I can help pay that back, even a little, then it makes me very happy.” Emil started heading off, but Richter caught hold of his hand.

“Emil?”

“Huh? What is it Richter?” “You’re. Um… You don’t… have to pay me back. Even though we finished things as enemies and had to… start off all over again… even as a part of Ratatosk… Everything I did for you it’s… I’d do it again. A thousand times. I would do it all again.” Emil blushed more before a thought crossed his mind and his brow furrowed. “Because… because I remind you of him?” The idea took Richter aback. “I– no. It’s… more that you remind me of… me. Who I was a long time ago. Who I retreat back to being when I’m out of my element. I’m… I’m actually really proud of you. You make it look easy.”

Emil squirmed. “It’s nothing, really. You… make things feel easy.” Emil lingered for a moment.

Richter repeated that mantra, psyching himself up as his fingers curled around something in his pocket. “I, um… Emil?”

“Yes?”

The words stuck like peanut butter. But the gesture was clear. He fished out a sprig of mistletoe he snagged from the party decor and held it aloft.

Emil went holly red. “O-oh.” He twisted his hands through his scarf.

Richter was just as nervous but… “It’s… only if you want to. I understand if not. I know you still… think I only like you for the wrong reasons. But–” Emil closed the gap. “No. I’m sorry for thinking that. Even if things started that way, you’ve… you’ve always treated me as me. Even Marta took a while to do that. It only started feeling that way once I knew… who I looked like. And even if you were only ever nice to me, b-because of him… that would have been alright.”

“Emil–”

“I know it isn’t. It’s just… going to take a while for my heart to catch up with my head on that.” He looked up at Richter.

“Is it… still alright if I–?” He didn’t need any other words. Emil leaned in, up, pressing his lips to Richter’s. They were chapped just the slightest bit from the cold, dry winter air. But they softened, just as Richter melted into him, around him, embracing him. Maybe there were worse things than awkward parties…

“Awww!” A sickly sweet cooing erupted from the doorway. Colette crooned the loudest.

Richter yanked himself away, trying to compose himself. “Sorry, that was delightful but I am never going to a party again, okaybye,fuckin'leavin'now.” His words blended together as he scurried off as far as he could get from the absolutely embarrassing situation he’d just made for himself.

And all Emil could think was “Damn. I need some fuzzy handcuffs for Christmas.”

[szatears]

comfort zone, modernau!smoke.

summary: just smoke spoiling his girl.

pairing: modernau!smoke x fem!black reader

warnings: some descriptions of reader, cunnilingus, also munch!smoke because we all deserve it.

notes: this sinners brainrot will not leave me alone and i love it !!! also we hit 100 followers after just a couple days... i love you all so bad 🫶🏾

It was around 6 in the evening when Smoke came home to you. He'd been away in Atlanta for two days, a business trip as usual. You knew what he did, the type of people he worked with and what that came with. You didn't really care because at the end of the day, the most important thing to you was your relationship with him.

Everyone knew him as Smoke, but to you he was just Elijah. As soon as he walked through the huge doors to your shared home, he stopped being Smoke and Elijah came out instead.

Whenever he was away, you'd usually occupy yourself with something just fine. Going out with your girls, catching up on your own work, visiting family and so on. Anything to help take missing him off of your mind.

Today, as you waited for Smoke to come back, you decided to get a manicure. A little touch up on your nails could never hurt. It didn't take too long either, a half hour drive there and back in just under two hours. God, did you love your nail tech.

You had them done blue, Smoke's favourite colour on you.

You lounged around the house waiting for him, your only other companion being the small rottweiler puppy that Smoke had gifted to you. He whined as you patted him, rolling over next to you.

"I know, baby, daddy's coming home soon." You frowned, scratching behind his floppy ears.

The sound of keys turning in the door had those floppy ears turning straight real quick. Before you could even turn your head to the door, your puppy was already there, scratching at the back of it whilst Smoke attempted to get through.

"Man, move───" he muttered, trying to get through with a bunch of shopping bags and a puppy nipping at his legs.

You smiled, a part of you exhaling a sigh of relief that he'd come back to you in one piece.

It was never easy to see Smoke leave, the thought of him never coming back to you was always looming over your head. But just like he always reassured you he would, he came back seemingly fine.

You walked towards them, Smoke's facial features gradually relaxing at the sight of you. "Hi," you spoke smoothly, your arms around his neck as you pulled his face towards yours, kissing his lips.

You took a moment to run your hands over his body, the black compression shirt that he wire doing wonders for him. It always drove you crazy.

"Hey, baby," he kissed you back, dropping the bags gently on the floor giving his hands space to grab at your ass. "You been good?"

"Mhm," you answered, letting your nails scratch gently at the back of his neck. That always did the trick. You looked down at the puppy by your feet, breaking away to pick him up. He was getting heavier as each day went by.

You held him up to Smoke's face. "Say hi to your son, Elijah."

"That ugly ass thing ain't my son," he kissed his teeth, waving you off as he started moving the bags into the living room.

Laughing, you carried your puppy to its playpen, giving you snd Smoke some peace of mind for now.

You came back to find him emptying his pocket contents on the coffee table: gun, wallet, keys, and stacks of money. Instead of putting the money on the table with the rest of his stuff, he walked over to you.

He pulled the strap of the tank top that you wore, using it to tuck the money into your bra.

"What's this for?" you smiled, looking up at him. He was always giving you money randomly, various amounts for various reasons.

"For looking pretty," he kissed your cheek. "That's for you too," he nodded his head towards all the shopping bags that he brought in.

Your eyes followed to the bags, feeling so much appreciation overwhelm you. Smoke's love languages were most definitely gift giving and acts of service; he would use any and every opportunity to spoil you, but the minute you bought anything for him, he'd be telling you off for spending your money on him.

"You didn't have to," you pouted, sitting on his lap as you kissed all over his face. "You spoil me too much, I don't even have space for it all."

"I don't spoil you enough," He mumbled, kissing you back. "Come on, do your lil' try on thing you always do for me." He tapped the back of your thigh.

You giggled, "You mean a haul?"

"Yeah, that."

And that you did. Smoke had gotten you bags, clothes, lingerie, new makeup products... things you already had but according to him, could never have enough of.

You tried on each item, except for the lingerie. You said you wanted to surprise him with it another day, and he wasn't complaining.

At the end of your haul, Smoke helped you put everything away, making a comment to himself about having to expand your walk in wardrobe.

Now you two lay on the bed, cuddled up as a random show was on the TV. You loved moments like these, when he was yours. Not the rough Smoke that everyone else knew him as, but as your soft and loving boyfriend.

"You good?" Smoke stopped rubbing his hand gently on your body when he noticed you let out a sigh.

"I'm more than good," you smiled dreamily, like you were drunk just off of his affection.

He took your word for it, lifting your body onto his. His hands wrapped around your lower back whilst your chin rested on his chest, looking right at him.

"You know I love you, right?" He said.

"Yeah. I love you too."

Smoke smiled, his large hands squeezing at your ass. "And I love this ass too."

"You can never stay serious, can you?" You laughed, reaching back to move his hands. Instead, he flipped the two of you so he was now on too, your hands pinned on either side of your head.

"You know damn well how serious I can be."

And that you did. There was only a handful of times when Smoke had gotten serious with you, times when he was more Smoke than Elijah with you. One of the things he loved most about you was that you brought out the side of him that didn't immediately resort to violence, the one that still had hope that he could be loved like he once thought.

He leaned down, kissing you gently, softly. You kissed him back, your hand pulling his head even closer, nails grazing over his low cut. He caught a flash of blue as he pulled back from the kiss, removing a hand from your side to look at your hand properly.

"Look at you repping me," he teased you, running his fingers over your nails.

"Had to let 'em know," you shrugged.

"Damn straight," he mumbled against your lips. He could never get enough of you, you were like a drug to him.

He kissed from your lips down your neck, to your collarbone, nipping and sucking as he went. He loved marking you, you don't know when it started but you knew sure as hell it wasn't gonna stop.

Smoke let his runs run all over you, until you tugged at his shirt, frowning. "Why you poutin', baby?" He tilted his head, knowing the answer but wanting to drag it out of you.

"Take it off," you said.

"Yes ma'am."

As he pulled his shirt off, you watched on, smiling at your man's toned body. You let your hands rake over his abs as he leaned back down to you. "Your turn," he tapped your side.

You sat up a bit, pulling down the straps of your tank top before taking it off, no bra underneath. Smoke wasted no time, latching onto your breasts before you could even lay back down.

You let out a loud moan, like you haven't felt his touch in ages. Whilst he worked on your breasts, sucking and biting, he let his hand slide inside the shorts you wore, grazing over your clothed pussy. He could feel how wet you were just from a few touches.

"Fat ma missed me, huh?" he joked. You kissed your teeth, groaning as he rubbed gently.

"Elijah... do something," you moaned.

"Aight, baby, lift up for me." he took your shorts off when you lifted your hips, along with your panties. He settled in between your legs, lying down so he was face to face with your seeping pussy. He looked at you, knowing he was absolutely about to devour you.

The first lick had you throwing your head back, your thighs immediately closing around Smoke's head. If he could've died right then, he would've died a very happy man.

As he licked up and down, sucking your clit, you writhed underneath him, struggling to stay still with how he was doing you.

He gripped your hips, forcing you to stay in one spot. "If you keep moving, I'ma stop." he mumbled with his lips still on you, sending vibrations through your body.

You nodded, knowing he was dead serious about that. One thing about sex with Smoke? The overstimulation was real.

He continued to lick bold stripes up and down your fold, kissing at deeply as he went. You could feel that coil deep in you about to snap, your whimpers and moans getting louder as Smoke used his fingers to rub your clit.

"Fuck, baby, I'm almost─── Oh, fuck, I'm gonna cum!" you moaned as you came, but Smoke still didn't let up, lapping up all your juices as you rode out your high.

You panted, trying to push his head away, already feeling like you could tap out. But when he looked at you, his moustache and goatee coated in your cum, you knew this was only the start.

"You boutta tap out on me? Hm?" he asked.

You shook your head, guiding him back to your folds. You felt his smirk on you, his lips going back to doing what they did best.

You always did love when he came home to you.

[milla-frenchy]

6 PM

4k6 | Joel Miller x fem reader | ao3 | masterlist Summary: Joel comes home earlier than expected, and catches you during a time alone Warnings: 18+ mdni. Established relationship, sex toy, mention of oral (f/m) and consensual somnophilia, dirty talk, praise kink, size kink, mutual masturbation, fingering, dom!Joel, soft!Joel, intimate sex, feelings, piv, creampie, rimming, light spanking and biting, spit as lube, anal play, anal No age specified

a/n: same couple: 5 days collection, but fics can be read alone These two are becoming my favorites, chapter after chapter. It's kinda funny, when I think that I wanted to throw the first fic in the garbage after writing it, but Kate convinced me not to (I owe you 💕💕). 

Anyway, I'm adding some depths to what was mostly pwp, originally. Well, this part is still full smut, but some details add to their backstory. I still intend to write a chapter about how they met and became that couple, but emotionally it's not that easy (I'm in love with them). Enough talking, I hope you'll enjoy ❤️

Thank you @aurorawritestoescape for beta-ing and for stopping me from throwing my fics in the trash 😌💕💕 and @saradika-graphics for the dividers 🙏

The slight “buzz” is the only sound coming out of the bedroom. 

That and the moans that sometimes escape your lips, as your second hand tightens around your breast. You play with the vibrator and your sensations, brushing it against your clit, then moving it away a little.

You think about Joel. 

His hands, his lips. The way they have tasted every inch of your skin, so many times. The way he knows your body and how it responds to him. Not a single spot hasn’t been touched, kissed, licked by him. 

You press the sex toy a little more against you, trying to feel the sensations you get when you're with Joel, even though you know it's impossible.

You think about his cock, when your saliva drools from his shaft to his balls, while you focus on the moans he can't hold back anymore.

“Shit, baby, yeah, just like that, keep goin’ a bit. Then I’ll fuck you, ok? Just wanna feel your lips on me a little more.”

The way you nod, not letting go of his cock, giving him what he wants and trying your best to drive him crazy. Sometimes he can't hold back and comes in your mouth with a groan. And when he opens his eyes and sees your little proud smirk of having him break, he growls "c’mere." Then grips your hips to make you straddle his face, and eats you as the sweetest revenge until you come on his tongue too.

You think about how your two bodies are made for each other, like two jigsaw puzzle pieces, whether it’s day or night, whether you’re awake or not.

He should be home in a few hours, but the heat in your crotch hasn’t left you all day, since this morning. When barely awake, he settled between your thighs, your pussy still dripping from the night, burying himself gently in your snoozy body, murmuring “good morning, baby” in your ear with his sleepy voice. His hair disheveled, his eyes barely open. He fucked you slowly, until you clenched on his shaft. He growled in your neck before adding more cum to your core, your fingers tightened on his biceps to keep him against you, while his hands were cupping your cheeks.

You think about all that, while using the vibrator against you. How you took a shower when you got home, put on some comfortable clothes, then went to the bedroom. You’ve been planning to read your book but the sheets still smelt of this morning and one of Joel’s shirts was lying on his pillow. You undressed, keeping only your panties on, and put on his t-shirt. You didn't even open the book. Your hand slid between your thighs and played with your pussy through the garment. 

But it wasn’t enough. Your panties joined the pile of clothes at the foot of the bed, then your finger slipped easily between your dripping folds and over your clit. You came quickly, mechanically, but you needed more.

So you grabbed the vibrator from your nightstand drawer and placed it lightly against you after turning it on, not to overstimulate your swollen bud. 

And now you’re moaning, whispering “Joel,” squeezing a breast over his shirt, before sliding your hand under the fabric and grabbing it roughly. Trying to replicate Joel’s gesture, even though his hand is way bigger than yours, stronger than yours. “Joel,” you whisper again, as you bring the toy closer to your most sensitive place.

“ ‘m here, sweetheart.”

You get startled and snap your eyes open that land directly on Joel, who’s leaning against the doorframe, his lustful gaze roaming your body. You turn off the sex toy and it gets quiet in the room.

“Keep going baby, don’t stop.”

“I… I can’t. I can’t if you’re watching me.”

“‘Course you can. Lemme see how beautiful you are when you make yourself come, right in front of me.” His voice is soft but firm. His gaze is intense, as always. His broad body, leaning against the bedroom door, is the perfect representation of a quiet strength and self confidence. He has all of it in him naturally, it exudes from him. You don’t need more to feel your limbs weaken and your pussy drooling onto the sheets.

Your hand relaxes a little on the vibrator and you release some pressure in your taut legs while you tell yourself that yeah, you can do it. That you’re safe with Joel, that he just wants you to feel good.

“Close your eyes, baby. And turn it on,” he adds, nodding at you, knowing that you need it to relax totally.

So you do as he says, without pressing it against you at first.

“Show me, baby. Spread your legs for me, and show me how you do it.”

Encouraged by his praise, you spread wider, feeling his heavy gaze on you and you press the vibrator against your clit. You moan, even though you are desperate for more, hungry to feel more. To feel him, his lips around your clit sucking on it, or his tongue pointing perfectly at it.

“Yeah, just like that, that’s my good girl. Making me so fuckin’ hard.”

“Fuck, Joel,” you pant. You feel warmth rising in your core, stronger, hotter than when you were alone in the bedroom. 

You hear rustling of clothes, as he takes out his hard cock. You hear him spit, then his wrist slowly fucks his shaft. You hear him growl, while he strokes himself. And it’s one of the hottest things you’ve ever experienced. Touching yourself in front of a man, and it turns him on so much that he needs to touch himself too, and it makes him growl.

You come again, harder, as you listen to him, and you barely finish shaking when the bed lowers under his weight, and he takes the vibrator from your hand. He turns it off and throws it on the mattress.

“You’re such a bad baby girl. Couldn’t wait for me, huh?” he says above you, leaning down to smell your hair, then running his nose over your cheek and neck. He spreads your thighs with his hand, firmly, claiming his territory like a hungry beast in front of its prey. Eager to devour it. Prey who lets him reach what he wants, how he wants, to finally being touched by the body she has been thinking about all day.

He lays down between your thighs, and his hand cups your mound in a possessive way, as if he was taking back what was his, making you whine with desire. He doesn’t wait more, and two of his fingers dive into your core. You hold your breath, eyes fixed on him, as his dark gaze is on your lips, while his digits find their favorite place in the world. Your hands are lost in his curls, his neck, you already don’t really know where you’re touching him, just being needy to feel him.

“So fuckin’ wet. Just for me,” he groans, and you love that he doesn’t ask if it’s for him. He knows it is.

He pulls up the shirt to your neck to grab a breast. “Fucking yourself in my shirt? It's fucking hot, baby,” he breathes needily, sucking one of your nipples.

“Fuck me, Joel,” you whimper. “Please. I’ve been thinking about it all day.”

“Yeah? All day you wanted me to fuck you? This poor little pussy needed my cock?” he asks, as he nestles his fat, throbbing tip at your entrance, to answer your need. He waits for a few seconds though, time for your walls to get used to his thickness, a sensation that nothing else will ever be able to match. Your mind realizes that the room is no longer filled with the sound of his thick fingers pushing into your wet pussy, as if it mattered.

“I’ve been thinking about it all day, too,” he says, as he thrusts in slowly, making you moan against his ear, bodies rushing to finally get their fix. “Thought about ruining you, again and again,” he adds, nibbling your earlobe. 

“Thought about your cunt wrapped around my cock,” his voice is needy, showing his eagerness to take more of you, his pants scraping the inside of your thighs indecently open for him.

“Thought about how perfect she’s always for me. So tight.” The growl comes from the depths of his chest, his shaft sliding into you. 

“How you're mine.” He slips his arms under your shoulders, holding you against him. “You’re always so perfect for me, sweetheart.” He stops for two seconds, buried inside you. Just to hear your breathing stop, too. 

You let out a moan. Unable to do anything else, to formulate words that would be totally incoherent anyway. You let him use your body as he pleases, because he acts exactly how you need him to.

“See what you’re doin’ to me, baby? I left the meeting. We were supposed to go to a restaurant with a client but I let Tommy take care of it.”

“Y… yeah?”

“Yeah. Said to Tommy I needed to go home.

He told me to have a good night, but he knew what I was about to do to you.”

“What… what were you about to do to me?”

“Wreck you. Make you clench on my cock.” He thrusts faster now, but still just as deep. His breathing is panting.

“Oh god… fuck, that’s good, Joel. Don’t stop,” you add, even if you know he won’t.

“Make you milk it, to the last drop. Fuck… You’re squeezin’ me so goddamn hard. You’re gonna milk my cock, baby? Gonna be a good girl for me?”

“Yes… yes, I’m your good girl, Joel.”

“Yes you are. I want you to come, baby. Come on my fuckin’ dick. Can you do that for me?”

“Yeah… Keep fucking me, Joel. Just like that. Want you to fill me up, as soon as I come.”

“Fuckin’ dirty girl. So perfect. Come on, sweetheart, soak me.”

“Shit, oh shit, Joel. I’m…” you whine, just before your climax overwhelms you. It’s like your soul is leaving your body. You think that no man has ever managed to make you come like this, just with his shaft in you. His cock tirelessly brushing the right spot, in the right way. His tip stopping just where it has to, creating a mixture of pleasure and light pain, animal.

“Yeah baby. Just like that, fuck…” His grunts turn into moans. You love hearing him become so vulnerable, just for you. Your feet are crossed over his back as your pelvis keeps jerking him off, feeling him twitch inside you, over and over, until his body relaxes, balls empty and your cunt full. 

He kisses you, and his mouth travels a path from your lips to one of your nipples which he takes in his mouth, sucking on it like a man who can't get enough. You squeeze his cock again at the sensation. He smiles, lightly nibbling your nipple.

“I’m not done with you for tonight,” he says.

“I hope so. I need...”

“What do you need, sweetheart?” he asks, sucking on your nipple.

“Need more. I need to feel you everywhere,” you answer, feeling the heat reaching your cheeks.

He straightens up towards you, still buried in your warmth. You vaguely feel him twitch in your core.

“Greedy, filthy girl. Always damn perfect.” He pulls out and you feel his cum dripping from your pussy. He removes his shirt from you and manhandles you so that you’re kneeling, and he presses the back of your neck to let your cheek rest on the pillow. He made it all so quickly that you barely realized you were now naked, ass in the air. 

And now he’s taking his time, savoring this vision of you. His hand runs down your back, and makes you shiver, until his fingers brush your ass.

“Everywhere, huh?”

“Yes,” you almost beg. He stands up from the bed and removes his clothes then comes back behind you. He spreads your ass cheeks and looks down, from your glistening pussy to your tight ring, totally offered to him. He spits on your ass and brushes your ring with his thumb, making you whine again.

“Gonna make me fuckin’ hard again, with that ass, Jesus... Tell me what you want, baby. I need to hear it.”

“Want you to lick it,” you stammer. “Please.”

“Mmm... And then?”

“Want you to fuck it.”

“Christ… Yeah, I’m gonna give you what you want. But I’m gonna fuck you with my cum, first. Want it where it belongs,” he says, pushing his load back in your core, then pumping your pussy with two fingers. He keeps fucking you with his digits as his tongue comes to lap at your ring. You're already moaning, not only because of his tongue and fingers, but thinking that some of his cum has leaked all the way out here, and that he's tasting himself as much as he's tasting you.

“That ass needs to be fucked, is that right?” he asks, nibbling the tender flesh of it, before adding “that tiny, little asshole wants to be spread by my fat cock?” and biting a little harder.

“Shit…. fuck Joel!”

His hand falls on your ass cheek, right where his teeth sink in lightly, making you whimper.

“Answer me, sweetheart.”

“Fuck! yes, yes! Need it.”

“Dirty girl,” he says as he leans down again. Licking your ring, pressing his tongue against your entrance in an attempt to open it. Over and over. Until it softens.

“I don't know if I prefer to eat your pussy or your ass. Both are so fuckin’ good,” he says, before diving in again, pressing his nose against the crack of your ass.

“Oh fuck, your damn mouth,” you whine, ass in the air, pushing it as far as possible towards his mouth.

“You love it,” he chuckles, making you hum in the pillow. You do love it. His dirty talk made you see stars as soon as he started to use it on you. Still sometimes makes you choke on his cock.

“You’re gonna take it? You’re gonna take my cock like a good girl?”

“Yes,” you whine pathetically.

He grabs his cock tightly in his hand, jerks it a couple of times. It twitches under his fingers, and points towards your entrance, as if it has a will of its own.

“Fuck baby… I'm so hard.”

He spreads your ass cheeks again, unable to resist the sight of your two holes. He feels, hears himself moan. Afraid to cum already, just with this view he has of you.

“Please, Joel…”

“Yeah, just… gimme a minute baby, please? I’m gonna fucking shoot my load in the sheets if you keep begging me like that.”

He smiles when he hears you groan. “My needy, precious girl,” he replies almost automatically, while his mind goes blank. He doesn’t think, lets his instincts guide him, and pushes his cock into your dripping pussy, his thumb breaking through the barrier of your ring.

“Oh fuck,” you whine. 

“Yeah? You love that?” he asks, as his hips thrust into you. His other hand is hooked around your hip, using it as leverage. His eyes are glued to your ass and his thumb buried up to the knuckle.

“I still wonder how your ass manages to take my cock,” he asks, trying to regain his wits and his breathing, even though he’s not sure if talking about your ass is the right way to do it. He slows his pace and removes his thumb just long enough to spit there and watch his saliva flow down it.

“Fuck,” he growls, as he licks two of his fingers and then pushes one into your ass, the other just pressing against your entrance. He keeps fucking your pussy and works your ring. Your fist is clenched in the pillow, knowing that in a few minutes he will be thrusting into your other hole. You wait for it and it obsesses you. How you can take him is a mystery to you too. Since the first time he fucked you like this, when you asked him to, you didn’t understand what was happening. This need to feel him everywhere, the way your body wanted to be his. You assumed that was why it was possible, almost so easily. The pain not so strong, and the desire so heady in your mind that you were able to welcome him physically.

His two fingers slide in now, and he spits steadily at your opening, while he slowly keeps fucking your cunt. So slowly. Focused on your ass. Marveling at the sight of you tightening around his fingers, as your pelvis strains as hard as it can towards his digits. His mind is definitely lost now- in his desire, and in your croons.

“Joel…” his name falls from your lips, half moaned, half whispered. He doesn’t answer, keeps the same pace. You manage to smile, thinking he’s already on ground 0 looking at your ass, then repeat a little louder, “Joel.”

“Yeah?” he answers finally, slowing down and removing his fingers, caressing the curve of your buttock. He grabs your hips with his hands, fully buried in your cunt.

“I want you to fuck me, baby. I need you there. Please.”

“Shit. Ok, ok. I don’t wanna hurt you, need to prepare you properly,” he says, as he leans forward, his chest surrounding your back, and kisses the back of your neck.

“You won’t hurt me, Joel,” you breathe. “I’m ready.” He never hurts you, and will never. You know it, as he should. 

He kisses your back, says “ok” against your skin. Licks you one last time, from your pussy to your ring, pressing his tongue against it again, making you shiver at the sensation. 

He hesitates when he grabs your hips, he doesn’t really know why. You’ve taken him here dozens of times. But right now, he feels invaded by an emotion that grips him, even though you know each other perfectly. 

He remembers when you met. Heart broken, your trust in men destroyed. How you rebuilt it, both of you, patiently. And he’s moved by your total surrender, by the way you trust him. He thinks that you’re the best thing that ever happened to him. He tries to focus while his cock flows with precum, but he’s lost in his thoughts.

“Joel? Are you ok?” you finally say, feeling him static. He’s so different from usual, not… feral. He clears his throat before answering “yeah… huh… Yeah, sorry, baby. You’re just… you’re so beautiful and I love you so much. I’m sorry.”

He takes his cock in his hand and is about to position himself at your back door when you straighten on your hands and turn your head to look at him over your shoulder. Offering him the most beautiful of your smiles, which makes him melt even more.

“I love you too.”

You look at him, and god, he’s so beautiful. A few beads of sweat are dripping from his curls and his cheeks are slightly red. He seems so vulnerable at this moment. Your gaze falls down on his shoulders and chest. His biceps are tense, as he grips your hips and presses himself against you, his hard cock molding perfectly into the crack of your ass.

“You won’t hurt me,” you repeat. Nodding at him as he did about the vibrator.

“Fuck… you’re making me lose my damn mind. Come here, sweetheart”, he says, making you lay on your back. He settles between your thighs and caresses your cheek, as his lips land on yours. Then he presses his cock softly against your ring.

“I wanna look at your pretty face while I fuck your ass, baby,” he says, spreading your thighs with his knee, then grabing one of them with his hand to put it on his back. You do the same with the other, open, offered, and he pushes in slowly. Eyes fixed on you. You close yours as you feel him slide into you and he brushes your cheek with his thumb.

“Look at me, sweetheart. Lemme see you. Lemme see what you feel.”

He’s so sweet you could burst into tears. So perfect. So you nod, ready to give him what he needs. And he sinks in, slowly, and like always you feel like you’re almost suffocating, for two seconds. Your brows furrow, as his do. He caresses your cheek, and the sensation disappears, replaced by the pleasure of feeling him there, that it seems so natural, that he’s made for you. You think about all of this, your eyes fixed on his, and he’s lost in yours. 

Until he comes to his senses, a little, and leans down to kiss you. His lips press against yours, and you feel him moan into your mouth. You nibble his lip before licking it with the tip of your tongue and he chuckles. He kisses you again, and it gets messier. His tongue slides between your lips and searches for yours, swirling against it. Your salivas mix together, while he rocks his cock fully inside you. He straightens up slightly and looks at you, before pressing his forehead against yours. “Damn, baby…” he breathes.

You hold him close. Tighten your legs around his waist, your arms around his shoulders. You freeze for a moment, as if you want to mark this moment in your mind forever.

“Fuck,” he says.

“I know, baby,” you reply. “But, can you move for me? It feels like you’re gonna tear me apart soon.”

He chuckles again, then slowly pulls out, leaving just his tip inside you. Pushes back in, letting out another “fuck.”

He takes a slow, steady pace, as you stroke his cheek and then tuck a strand of hair back into place.

“What are you doin’ to me sweetheart, mmm? Wanted to fuck you all night. To wreck you, just like you love it. But you're the one wreckin’ me.”

“Don’t I do it every time,” you tell him mischievously.

He laughs then whines playfully “You’re so right. I’m the victim here.” 

It's one of your favorite things about Joel. Laughing when you fuck. Laughing even when he fucks your there.

He slides in and out, tirelessly, and his crotch rubs against your clit.  

“And you can still fuck me all night, by the way.”

“Is that right?” He smiles, but you see him twitch. As if his emotions were taking over him again. “You’re mine, he pants. “All…fuck…fuckin’ mine.”

“I'm yours,” you reply, eyes fixed on him. “You're the best thing that happened to me, Joel.”

He kisses you again, as he keeps sinking in. You cup his cheeks in your hands to look at him, and he kisses your wrist.

“It's good, Joel. To feel you like that. So softly.” You feel yourself melting and put your hand on his heart. To see if he feels the same, even though his eyes don't lie, never.

“You're gonna make me come,” you whisper. “You feel it?”

“Yeah,” he smiles softly. He's so beautiful. So protective, so careful. Even when he's rough, he is. But right now, you feel like he's made of glass, ready to explode into a thousand pieces. A fragile material, hidden under a hard, reliable, calloused layer. Shaped over the years. Whose core he's let you see, step by step. 

And his thick layer is chipped, ripped open, just for you. Thanks to your senses, your sensations, your feelings, to both of you. And even if he is inside you, in your most intimate place, you feel that his fragility is exposed, and that he willingly offers it to you. Because he is safe with you. You think that there is nothing more erotic than a man who shows all his rough edges, all his cracks.

He's still thrusting in, slowly. You know he's trying not to come, not right away. Not before you do.

“Sweetheart, damn…you know how much I love to fuck you rough,” he murmurs, his hips and shoulders thrusting towards you. “But this. This is… so special. To feel you like this, and facing you. Being in you there, so slowly, and looking at you.”

“I know. I never felt something like this before.”

His lower belly still rubs against you, every time his shaft pushes in and out. He’s so big inside you. So… in his place. Your moans get louder as you feel your orgasm building. From afar. Like a ball of heat that keeps growing inside you. Your pelvis moves slightly more too, perfectly accompanying his movements. You squeeze your ankles together behind his back.

“You’re gonna fill me, baby?” you ask, keeping him against you, your hand on the back of his neck, his nose buried in yours.

“Shit… don’t say that. I’m already about to combust.” His voice is muffled, breathless, against your skin.

“I wanna feel you spurt in me. Right there. Want you to fill my ass.” You keep talking, because it turns you on. You want to come at the same time as him. You want the intimacy to continue and reach its peak until you both come. You want to lose your senses in his arms, at the same time as he loses them in yours.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck… you… brat.” He groans, moans, a mixture of all of that, and your eyes roll into the back of your skull.

“Please I need you to come sweetheart… oh fuck I’m gonna… I’m gonna…. fuck, baby…” he explodes in you, sending shots of cum deep inside you, and his jerks against you are the last push you need. You pulse, clench on him, your pussy empty and your ass full. “Oh fuck”, he growls again, feeling how hard you’re squeezing his shaft. He nibbles at your shoulder as your limbs go limp. His body leans against yours, and he’s out of breath as you slowly stop shaking.

He doesn’t move, until he manages to regain his senses, his breathing, and everything that brings him back to earth, to the present moment. Then he straightens his torso, relieving you of his weight even if it feels like a weighted blanket, reassuring.

“Are you ok?” he asks, hands on your cheeks as he pulls out, making you feel desperately empty. His cum leaks out and you miss him already.

“Sweetheart?” His thumb brushes your cheek.

“Yeah… Yes,” you breathe. “Let me just… remember my name. And yours,” you smile, eyes still closed.

“You, little minx,” he laughs, grabs your waist and kisses your neck, and you wrap your arms around him again. You laugh too. You feel good.

“Damn, what was that? It was so intense, sweetheart.” He shifts and lies down facing you, pulling you towards him so that you’re facing each other.

“It was perfect,” you reply, nestling in his arms, in the middle of his chest, where nothing can reach you.

“Are you trying to bewitch me? Cause it’s… kinda working.”

You lift your head to look at him, and say, “You’re such a softie,” giggling.

He looks fakely outraged, before answering “oh yeah? You won’t be allowed to whine when this softie will make you use your safe word, next time he fucks you.”

“Mmm… remember me, when did I use it?”

He rolls his eyes exaggeratedly without answering.

“That’s right. Never,” you answer before kissing his collar bone.

He takes you in his arms and laughs, rolling you over so that you’re lying on him and kisses you.

“Come take a shower with me. Wanna take care of you.”

“Softie,” you taunt him, giving him your most mischievous smile.

Same couple: 5 days collection

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[toomanystoriessolittletime]

Twenty Years

Summary: Twenty years went by since the last time you saw Joel Miller. You never thought you would see him again, but on the day you finally broke free of David' clutches and saved a girl at the same time, he's just there, standing in front of you. When your daughter and her husband find you, urging you to leave, you offer to take Joel and Ellie with you, knowing you have to talk to him. About the two of you. And about your daughter.

Pairing: Joel Miller x fem. reader

Rating: M

Wordcount: 6k

Warnings: pre + post outbreak, angst, implied smut, implied and mentions of sexual assault (I kept it pretty vague but it is happening, readers discretion is advised), David (needs his own waring, he talks about child brides and what he wants to do to them), religious bullshit, threats, lies about medical conditions, violence, blood, death, Joel not knowing he has another daughter, pregnancy, more angst, infected wounds, medication, some fluff, talking about feelings, talking about dreams, some kisses, cockblock Tommy Miller, happy end

A/N: Dunno what happened but I wrote all of this in the last 6 hours. Please read the warnings, If I forgot something in the warnings please let me know

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Full Masterlist // Joel Miller Masterlist

At one o’clock on the dot the door opened, a stream of dusty sweaty man walking into the diner you were working in. It wasn’t your dream job, but it kept the bills paid while you were in night school to get your business degree.

And… it had its perks. 

Like being located across the street of a huge construction side. The building that had been there before had been demolished almost a year before, making place for a new building. A mall. Or… whatever. It’s not like you cared. 

With the construction side came a lot of workers taking their break in the diner. 

With them came a frequent flow of tips into your pocket. 

With them came Joel Miller. 

You did not even notice him in the beginning which was the biggest fucking mystery to you. Because he was…. He was attractive, broad shoulders, dark hair and eyes. Always wearing a shirt that hugged his chest like a second skin. And then there were the days he was wearing flannel….

The whole construction worker look was really working for you.

Yet it took him calling out one of his co-workers (employees you would learn later, because he was the boss) from flirting on the verge of making you uncomfortable with you, to make you notice him. 

You had insisted on getting him his lunch on the house and he wasn’t having it. At all. You caught his eyes outside when you saw the bills tucked under his mug when you were cleaning the table, making you grin as you shook your head. 

He had winked at you with a boyish smile around his lips and that was all it took to start your crush on Joel Miller. 

Joel Miller who after that always seemed to linger a little longer in the diner to talk to you. To tell you about his daughter. To ask you about you and your life with that southern drawl that made you want to kiss the spot on his cheek that seemed too stubborn to grow any hair.

If you had known back then that only three months later the world as you knew it would end, you maybe wouldn’t have wasted so much time in confessing your feelings to him. 

Or… at all. 

Maybe you would have asked him to stay when in a very drunken mistake you both ended up in your bed, fucking until you couldn’t remember your name just the night before the world fell apart. 

Maybe things would be different for you now.

You blinked a couple of times, getting rid of the mental picture of Joel Miller smirking at you as the door opened. 

“Come on, he’s waiting,” a gruff voice said and you nodded. 

You were at a point where you were asking yourself if doing this just to survive in this hell of a world was worth it. If running, even if you would die trying was the better choice.

Yet you knew you weren’t doing this for your own life. 

You were doing this to protect her. 

And you would keep surviving and protecting her until you took your very last breath.

The day you walked into a group of men in the woods almost ten years after the outbreak you were too desperate for help to question their offer of shelter and food. 

You and your ten year old daughter Hannah had been on the run for months after your settlement had been overrun by infected, only making it out alive barely. With winter being in full swing for the last two weeks you were getting desperate to find a place to stay for you and your daughter. 

Maybe if you wouldn’t have been severely dehydrated and starved you would have seen the way David’s gaze had lingered on Hannah too long to be just out of concern. 

Maybe you could somehow have gotten far away from Silver Lake until it was too late. 

Maybe you wouldn’t have spend the last years feeling like a cheap whore whenever David summoned you to his room to give you absolution for your sins while he rutted into you from behind before throwing you out like trash. 

David, you learned quickly, was a psychotic maniac pedophile who masked his sick intentions with the word of god.

It was a week after you arrived, that he let the facade slip and told you about his true intentions for taking you in.

He wanted Hannah, as his bride. 

You were too stunned to speak as he kept going on that she was the one he had been waiting for and you were so lucky to have birthed the perfect girl that would bring whatever the fuck he needed to make this settlement more powerful and his followers happier. 

When you offered to take her place he only laughed, marking you as impure since you had her out of wedlock and her father was most likely dead. You weren't pure enough to have children with. He wasn’t asking, he would be taking Hannah and if you would trouble him, he would kill you. 

When it became clear that he was serious about this, you made up the lie that Hannah would never be able to give him any children due to a birth defect that left her without ovaries. 

You didn’t think he’d believe you at first, his cold eyes calculating before he hummed, telling you that he did find it odd that a girl in her age did not have her period yet. 

You by then knew that one, he had no idea about the female body and two, he had actually spoken to Hannah about it. 

He had left you in your room for a whole week after that. Alone. Without the opportunity to see your own child. 

And when he came to see you it was only to inform you that Hannah’s condition had been confirmed to be much worse, leaving her unable to perform her wifely duties by his most trusted doctor in town and that he now had to find another use for the two of you. 

Still occupied with the horror of what these people had done to your daughter you were to stunned to speak when he slapped you across the face, before he turned you around and pulled at your pants, his lips against your ear as he towered behind you, informing you that if he couldn’t have the useless cunt of your child, he would have yours as a substitute.

Because that was all a woman was.

A warm cunt.

Something was different today. 

You hadn’t been able to see Hannah, even though every Tuesday you were allowed to visit her and her new husband at their home. 

If Silver Lake had brought anything good since you gotten here, it was Hannah having been put in the house of the town doctor. The doctor, Carl, had been in his early forties when you met first.

You hadn’t been allowed to leave your room at first but David, showing you (or more like his followers) his good grace, had allowed for Hannah to visit you twice a week for an hour under the supervision of the town doctor Carl who she was living with. 

As helpless as you felt in your situation you were so happy that you had Hannah back, crying in your arms. From the day she was born the both of you hadn’t been separated, so of course she was scared and missed you and your heart broke for the mess you put the both of you in. 

You only noticed the man who had brought her here after minutes, your eyes hardening, putting Hannah behind your back to lash out at him for touching your daughter when he told you in quiet harsh whispered words to listen to him. 

That he was the one who confirmed your lies about Hannah’s condition, and that he made them sound so bad that she became uninteresting for David. That he offered to take her and even you in. While he was allowed to take Hannah, you would remain in David’s place for his… needs. Something Carl would work on changing but needing time for it. 

His own daughter had been taken by David when she turned twelve before she just disappeared and he wanted nothing more than to take him down, but it was difficult due to the hierarchy in town and how delusional the towns people were to everything that David told them. 

He was no fighter, he had been here in this resort on vacation with his family when the outbreak happened. He had no immediate way of helping you, but he could help keep Hannah safe. 

And he did. 

Hannah grew into a beautiful young woman, soaking everything up Carl thought to her and his son Jamie. She was doing better stitches than Carl himself when she was only fourteen years old, not that anyone knew about it. 

Women weren’t allowed to learn and work in this town.

But Carl trained his son Jamie to become a doctor, and if Hannah was in the same room? He could not stop her form listening and learning, could he?

The longer you were in Silver Lake, the more freedom you carved for yourself. It took almost two years after you arrived for you to not lash out and be punished for whatever the fuck David and his goons thought you did wrong. 

By now, you were playing the perfect little mistress, shamed by big parts of town when you walked down the street, silently thanked by the woman who had young daughters and now did not have to fear them getting taken once they hit a certain age. 

It was the only way you could endure David’s hands on you. 

Knowing that whenever he was occupied with whatever sick fantasy he had in his head with you, he had less time to lure on little girls. 

You were doing so good you were even allowed to attend the wedding of Hannah and Jamie only last month, the two of them having fallen in love in the last year. 

But today something was different. 

Or maybe you were paranoid because you finally had a way of leaving this place. 

You had to leave this place before David found out about not only your lie, but Carls because Hannah was pregnant.

Some of David’s men had been missing for some days now and David was preoccupied with figuring out what happened, and how to get his very hungry town fed.

Carl had told you early on to not eat any of the meat that was served, telling you that there was a reason people went missing during the winter with a long hard look. Something you and Hannah took to heart, having not eaten a single bit of meat since getting here.

With David being out, there was more time you could spend out of his house, leaving you to finally form a plan to leave this town. Through his connections Carl and two other men who wanted to leave had been able to trade some medical supplies for a car with a settlement a two day walk away. 

You would leave in three days time and you hopped that nothing would happen until then. 

You didn’t count in the very angry girl who ran into you on your way back to your room, blood splattered all over her face, eyes frantic. 

„Let me goooo,“ she yelled at you when you put your hands on her shoulders. 

She couldn’t be older than fourteen. You heard yelling behind her, pulling her with you inside your room. 

„Slow down and shut up, they are gonna hear you,“ you whispered as you slowly closed the door behind you. 

„Who the fuck are you?“ She whispered angrily. 

„Doesn’t matter. Who are you?“

„Doesn’t matter,“ she snapped back. You took her appearance in, your eyes stopping at the cleaver she was gripping in her small hand, blood dripping from it’s blade. 

„Was it David?“ You asked, nodding towards the cleaver.

„No. That sick fuck is somewhere out there. Are you with them?“ She asked, gripping the cleaver tighter. 

„Not out of my own choice,“ you said as you walked past her. You got on your knees next to your bed, carefully getting under one of the floorboards, getting your knife out. 

You heard her footsteps behind you as you reached inside again, getting the couple of baby pictures you had of Hannah out. 

„Is someone with you?“ You asked her as you got back up and walked towards you dresser. 

„My…. Friend. He’s… I don’t know of he’s… no he is… he’s out there,“ she said. 

„Okay,“ you said before you got out of the shitty dress you had to wear and picked some pants and a sweatshirt.

„Sheesh lady,“ she whispered and you looked over your shoulder as she turned her back towards you embarrassed as you changed. You were pulling your boots on when she turned back around.

It was then that you noticed the smoke coming through the slit under the door. 

Fire. 

„Fuck. Okay. We gotta get out of there. You stay behind me, okay? If we run into someone, I will take care of them,“ you said, grabbing your backpack, putting it on. 

„I can take care of myself,“ she said, face determined. 

„And I don’t question that. But I have been stuck here for ten years. If anyone kills these people, it is me,“ you said. 

She looked at you for a long moment, before she nodded. You turned around and searched for one of your lighter jackets you had not planned to take with you, but she was only wearing a shirt and it was still snowing outside. You approached her, holding the jacket out for her to take.

„Give me the cleaver,“ you said as she struggled to get it on. 

She glared at you, before you held up a knife to trade. She sighed before she gave you the cleaver and you watched her put the jacket on before she snapped the knife from your hand. 

You took a deep breath. 

„Okay. Stay behind me. I am gonna get us out of here. Then we’re gonna get my daughter and get our of here,“ you said and her eyebrows went up. 

„You have a daughter?“ She asked surprised, you nodded. 

„Yeah. I have,“ you said before you opened the door. 

When you heard his voice you gestured for the girl to hide behind the bar. 

You had made it to the old tavern, smoke thick inside the room as the fire spread.

„You’re easy to track, Ellie,“ David said and you took one last look at the girl, Ellie, before you got up and stood to your full height, seeing the surprise on David’s face. 

„What are you doing here after everything I did for you?“ He said with narrowed eyes and you laughed. Once. 

„What you did for me? Enlighten me what you did for me apart form raping me whenever you felt like it and threaten to kill my daughter,“ you snarled and he rolled his eyes, before surprise lifted his eyebrows as he noticed the cleaver in your hand. 

„She’s with you,“ he said before he turned away from you, walking towards the door. He reached into his pants pocked and used his keys to look the door before he put them back.

„If you want to get out of here, you gotta come here and get the keys. Either of you,“ he said a little louder and a small smile came to your lips. 

„You think I haven’t waited for my chance to kill you?“ You asked as you approached him. 

„Always knew I should have killed you. But I have a sweet spot for our dear little Hannah. She’s just so…. Innocent. Almost as innocent as Ellie. But she’s far stronger than your little broken girl. Ellie could have been what this town is missing. But she just had to kill all of my best men huh?“ David was still looking for Ellie, only half of his attention on you. 

The fire was making it difficult to breathe. You had to get yourself and the girl out of here. 

„Ah fuck,“ David groaned and you saw Ellie slip past him, her knife stabbing him in his neck before she hid in one of the front booths. 

At this point David's focus was completely on finding Ellie, which you used to you advantage. 

He was about to grab Ellie ankle, the girl screaming when you grabbed a chair and used it to hit him over the back of his head. He grunted, letting go of Ellie who crawled away. He fell and before David could blink you were on top of him punching his face. 

And the fucker just laughed. 

„Go on, kill me. I know you can’t,“ he mocked and you saw red.

The cleaver made contact with his shoulder first, making him groan in pain, eyes wide with surprise. 

„You think I can’t kill you?“ You screamed.

„You think I haven’t dreamed about this since you took me hostage you fucking maniac?“ You felt his blood splash against your face as you brought the clover down again and again and again. 

He was barely breathing by the time you stopped, his eyes wide in what you were sure was fear as he looked at you. 

„I am gonna kill you. And then I am going to take my pregnant daughter away from here,“ you spit down at him, before you brought the cleaver down one last time, killing him for good. 

With shaky fingers you reached inside his pants, searching for the keys.

„Ellie!“ You yelled and the girl came out of hiding, eyes wide with fear as he followed you to the door. You unlocked the door, coughing as fresh air filled your lungs, Ellie running past you. 

Closing your eyes, allowing yourself a second to fill your lungs with fresh air you startled when you heard the girl scream. 

„NO! Don’t fucking touch me!“ She yelled and you snapped your head around, seeing a man with his arms around her, pulling her against his chest. 

You saw red, running towards them.

„Shhhh…. Ellie stop. Stop. It’s me,“ the man said grabbing her face. You slowed down, the cleaver still in your hand.

„He tried to… He tried to….“ Ellie stammered and you closed your eyes, releasing a shaky breath. 

„Oh babygirl. It’s okay. It’s okay now,“ the man said and Ellie sobbed against him as he pulled her even closer. 

It was then that he noticed you standing there, eyes narrowing as he put Ellie behind him. 

When you could see his full face for the first time it was like you forgot how to breathe.

„Joel?“ You whispered in disbelief. He narrowed his eyes, about to approach you when there was a crash in the burning building behind you, making you jump.

„Mom!“ You heard Hannah yell and you turned your head to the side to watching your daughter run towards you, her husband Jamie close behind. 

Her eyes widened as she looked at you, and you had forgotten that you probably looked like straight out of a nightmare with blood all over you.

„Oh my god mom,“ she cried when she reached you, her hands brushing all over your face. 

„Not my blood,“ you mumbled, giving her a small smile before you looked at the man who was standing behind her, still looking at you, as if trying to figure out who you were. 

„We gotta get out of here. They are gonna come after us,“ Jamie said as he reached you, his hand taking Hannah’s. 

It was in that moment that Joel said your name. And everyone turned their heads towards him, Ellie now next to him, one of his arms keeping her to his side. 

His eyes were on you, before he looked at Hannah who had turned around, pistol raised at him. He looked between you and Hannah for what felt like minutes.

You knew what he saw. And you could see the moment he realised who was standing in front of him. 

Hannah was the spitting image of him. She had his eyes and his dark curly hair.

„Joel….“ You said, taking a step towards him but Jamie stopped you while Hannah looked at you with wide eyes. 

„Joel?“ She asked and you looked at her and nodded. She knew who her father was. You had talked about him a lot when she was little. 

„We don’t have time for that. We gotta get out of here,“ Jamie repeated and you looked at him. 

„Where is Carl?“ You asked and Jamie only shook his head lips tight, instant tears filling your eyes. You blinked them away, before you took a deep breath. 

„Okay. Okay. We gotta leave. You can come with us,“ you said towards Ellie and Joel. The latter shaking his head, while Jamie protested. 

„She saved me, Joel,“ Ellie said quietly and he closed his eyes, releasing a long breath. You only looked at Jamie who was about to argue with you when he saw the pleading look Hannah gave him. 

„Okay fine. But we gotta leave. Now.“

Joel hadn’t said more than two sentences towards you, Hannah and Jamie since you made it to the spot Carl had set up two days later. There was supposed to be a car stashed there, but it was gone and Jamie was trying to figure out what to do next. 

Night time was approaching and you were tired.

„We should settle down close to the lake and decide what to do in the morning. No point walking through the night, when we do not have any clue where to go,“ you said. 

„We have to get further away. I can’t risk them coming after us,“ Jamie insisted. 

„Jamie, we lit the whole fucking town on fire two days ago. If anyone survives, do you think they don’t have something better to so than to come after us?“ You snapped, patience wearing thin. 

„Do whatever the fuck you want, but I need to wash off David’s blood. I never want to ever be thinking about him again,“ you said, suddenly irritated as you made your way down to the shore of the small lake you had found. 

„She’s mine isn’t she?“ You were startled by Joel’s voice as you sat at the shore, dressed in fresh clothes you had brought, clean from all the blood and dirt. 

You didn’t turn around to look at him. 

„Yeah,“ you said and you heard him breath in deeply. 

„Fuck,“ he whispered and you couldn’t help but chuckle. You felt him sit down next to you and you risked a glance at him. 

He was older, you were too. 

The last twenty years hadn’t been kind to either of you, but you were pretty sure Joel was even more attractive than back when you met for the first time. 

And he still had that stubborn spot that grew no hair on his cheek. 

But he looked tired. 

You just sat beside each other, watching the sun set behind the lake, the sky turning pink. 

„Never thought I’d see you again,“ he said and you smiled sadly.

„Was’t even sure you’d remember me,“ you said and he scoffed. 

„Really hard to not remember you, darlin’“ he said and you turned your head to look at him fully, giving him a small smile. 

„Likewise, Cowboy,“ you said and he chuckled, before he flinched. 

„You okay?“ You said concerned. 

„Yeah. Got stabbed some days ago by one of these lunatics in town,“ he said, pointing towards his belly. 

„Can I… Can I see?“ You asked. 

He shrugged, before he laid down. As soon as you laid eyes on his wound you knew something was wrong. It was red and irritated. 

„I don’t think that look too good, Joel,“ you said with concern. 

„Survived worse,“ he said as he pulled his shirt down.

„I’m sure you have but….“

„I’m okay. Promise,“ he said. 

You let it go for the moment and looked away from him as he sat himself up with a groan. 

„Was planning to ask you out officially the next day, you know,“ he said after a while and you sighed. 

„I would have said yes,“ you whispered into the darkness as you let your head all against his shoulder.

As it turned out Joel was indeed not okay. 

All of you decided the next day that you would make your way to Jackson, the town Joel had told you about. It would be at least a week by foot and you were not looking forward to being on the road that long with the snow coming down like that. 

He used the time on the road to tell Ellie everything (Hannah is your daughter? No way, she’s way too cool to be your kid) and got to know Hannah. He talked to Jamie and let them tell him their story. He also talked to you, but every time he asked about how you ended up in Silver Lake and what happened after you closed up and walked away from him. 

You weren’t ready to talk about that. You weren’t sure you were ever ready to talk about that. 

It was on day five that Joel had issues waking up. 

You had taken watch over for him when you couldn’t wake him up. You thought he was tired, him having taken watch every night since you left. Now it was morning and you could see that he was sweating. Carefully reaching up you touched his forehead, feeling him burning up. 

„Mom?“ You heard Hannah. 

„He’s burning up,“ you said quietly, not wanting to disturb Ellie who was still sleeping. Hannah came to kneel down beside him, feeling it herself. 

„He got stabbed by the men David sent out to the university last week. He said he was fine…“ you said and she nodded. 

„I have to see the wound,“ she said. You nodded as he got up to her feet, walking over towards Jamie, waking him up. They both came and knelt beside Joel, Jamie already reaching for his fathers backpack he had managed to take, full of medical supplies. 

„Oh shit,“ Hannah said as you had Joel’s belly exposed, her hands also reaching into the backpack to get some supplies. 

It looked worse. Much worse. 

„It’s infected. We gotta open up the stitches. Here, grab this,“ Jamie said towards Hannah. You let the two of them work while you held Joel’s hand. 

Not fifteen minutes later Jamie injected some antibiotics into Joel’s arm while Hannah wrapped his wound. 

„There’s nothing more we can do. He needs rest and medication,“ Jamie said and you nodded. It was then that Ellie woke up, immediately concerned as she saw you all kneeling next to Joel. 

„Is he dead?“ She asked and you shook your head. 

„No. But he needs rest. The stab wound got infected,“ you explained and she sucked her bottom lip in, nervously. 

„Ellie, do you think you can find the way to Jackson to get help?“ You asked.

„No,“ Hannah said, shaking her head. 

„I think I can. We just gotta find the huge lake. It should be close by now. It was three or four days until Jackson once we found the lake,“ Ellie said, ignoring her. 

You nodded. 

„I want you, Hannah and Jamie to get to Jackson as quickly as possible and get help. We need something to help get Joel back to Jackson. I will wait here. Jamie can show me how to tend to the wound and how to get him the antibiotics,“ you said. 

Hannah shook her head. 

„You don’t have any supplies. We can’t just leave you here,“ she said. 

„And you can’t just stay here and wait until he gets better,“ the if he gets better was implied with the way you looked at her. She had tears in her eyes and you gave her a small smile. 

„You have not only yourself to think about anymore, Hannah. You need to get to safety too,“ you reached towards her belly and she released a shuddering breath. 

„Oh shit,“ Ellie said with wide eyes as she realised what you meant and Jamie chuckled. 

„I don’t like this,“ Hannah mumbled. 

„Me neither. But I’ll survive a week out here. We’re close to water, you saw the stream yesterday, I can hunt, and we saw this abandoned cabin not far away from here. We could get back to it, clear it, and I’ll wait for you there until you can get back. It’s gonna be okay,“ you promised. 

You looked at Jamie who nodded at you, and reached for Hannah. 

„We’ll get your Dad some help so you can get to know him,“ he whispered and you smiled at them both. 

„Well let’s fucking go to the lake of death then!“ Ellie said and you all frowned. 

„It’s… It’s a joke. I swear,“ she said.

Joel was in and out of consciousness for four days before he woke up for longer period of times during the day. He told you it was stupid to stay back with I’m and not leave with the kids and you only told him that you weren’t ready to leave him again. 

You feel asleep in his arms that night, allowing yourself to let your guard down, passing out almost immediately when he told you that he got you. That he’d stay awake. 

The following days went buy slowly. You continued taking care of Joel, his wound looking much better. You went hunting, coming back with some rabbits. Joel was on his feet by day six, taking slow walks with you towards the stream where he washed up. 

And you talked. 

You talked about everything that happened since the day you parted. 

You learned about Sarah’s death, holding him as he shed some tears. You learned how he changed, how he did things he was not proud of to keep bis brother safe. You learned about how Ellie who he had been trusted to take to a group called the fireflies slowly brought back his old self.

You in return told him about finding out that you were pregnant while you were in the temporal Austin QZ. About how you gave birth to Hannah the day before the QZ fell, leaving you on the road with a new born until you found a settlement when Hannah was almost a year old close to Denver where you stayed until it was overrun by infected. 

You showed him the few pictures of her as a baby you had, drying his tears as he looked at them. 

You told him in as few words as possible what happened in the years you were at Silver Lake, seeing him angry on your behalf. 

You woke up on the seventh day with his arm around your back, both of your laying on your side, facing each other. He was already looking at you when you opened your eyes, giving you a soft smile. 

And before you could stop yourself you closed the distance between the two of you, pressing your lips against his in a soft kiss. Resting your forehead against his you closed your eyes, one of your hands brushing through his hair. 

„Sometimes I allowed myself to dream what would have become of us if the outbreak hadn’t happened,“ he whispered. 

„And what happened to us in those dreams?“ You asked, opening your eyes. He kissed you again, humming. 

„We would have dated for seven months before I popped the question,“ he said. 

„Why seven months?“ You asked. 

„It’s my lucky number,“ he mumbled and you chuckled. 

„Sarah would have loved you. We would have gotten married, her as the flower girl. We would have gotten a bigger house, cause I’d have you pregnant by the time we were married,“ he said with a small smile. 

„Would have had at least two kids more before you said you were done and I would have gotten the snip so I could still fuck you everywhere without getting you pregnant again,“ he said and kissed your nosed. 

„Lots of baby making in your dreams, Miller,“ you teased and he laughed. 

„I’m only a man, what can I say?“ He shrugged before he kissed you again, deepening the kiss. 

„You still have that piercing down there?“ He mumbled against your lips and a shudder ran down your body. 

„Why don’t you find out?“ You whispered, feeling him smile as one of his hand made their way down your body, his fingertips slipping over your stomach. He was about to push his fingers further down when a noise outside startled you, making you jump up and grab your knife. 

„Joel!“ You heard a voice yell outside and you relaxed. 

„In here, Tommy,“ Joel yelled back, giving you a sheepish expression before the door opened and a man stepped inside, you hadn’t seen in twenty years. 

Tommy lowered his gun as soon as he saw only you and Joel inside the cabin. 

„Well fuck me, I never though I’d ever see the girl my brother was pining over like a teenager twenty years ago ever again,“ he said with a wide smile and you raised your eyebrow, looking at Joel who rolled his eyes, yet his cheeks seemed a little flushed. 

Tommy hugged you tight before he let go and walked over to his brother. They were whispering with each other, when Jamie walked in. 

„You’re okay?“ He asked. 

You nodded, and he hugged you quickly. 

„Left Hannah home. Can you believe it? We get our own house. With running water. Warm Water!“ He said, excited. You laughed, squeezing his shoulder. 

You turned back to Joel, who was now standing next to Tommy. 

„We got a long ride in front of us. Best we get back as quickly as we can,“ Tommy said. 

"Gonna check his injury first, and then we can be on our way,“ Jamie said, already walking over to Joel.

„Can’t believe you’re here. Can’t believe I have another niece,“ Tommy said as you stepped outside with him after you gotten your coat and shoes on. He took your backpack from you, fastening it somewhere to one of the horses staying in front of you. 

„I can’t believe it either,“ you said. 

„Can’t believe Joel’s gonna be a granddad,“ Tommy chuckled and you did too.

„Fuck I’m gonna be a grandma,“ you groaned, feeling every year of your age.

„Also gonna be an aunt. Wife is due in the next two weeks. So we better get the fuck back before she skins me alive,“ he said and you nodded. 

You turned back when you heard Joel and Jaime talk, the latter helping Joel down the stairs. 

„You good to ride?“ Tommy asks his brother. He nodded. 

„Might need a little help getting up on the horse though,“ he said. Tommy nodded, walking over towards the third horse that you were standing in front of. 

„You riding with me?“ Joel asked. 

You nodded. 

„Sure,“ you said. It took some help, but you got on top of the horse, having never been on one before. You didn’t know what to do, already freaking out a little, when Tommy and Jamie helped Joel on the horse behind you, his arms immediately coming around you, pulling you closer. He grabbed the reins, clicking his tongue once and the horse turned around. 

You watched Jamie and Tommy get on their horses too before Tommy rode up on front. 

„Gonna take us at least three days. Let’s get the fuck out of here,“ he said and rode forwards. 

„Ready to go home?“ Joel whispered against your ear. 

You let yourself rest against his shoulder, your head turning up so you could look at him. 

„Haven’t had a home in twenty years,“ you said quietly. 

„You have now,“ he hummed, kissing your temple before he moved the horse, following Tommy. 

Home. 

[impala666]

Just Frank

Yeah, I know I've been away for like ever but I needed to put something for The Pitt on here! I love it even though it makes me feel like I'm at work sometimes. I started writing this before the newest episode came out (Ep. 10 for reference), and I refuse to believe that they did my man Dr. Langdon dirty like that. So I'm posting this fic in hoping that it turns out okay and he comes back! But this is just about you and your husband talking about your days at the hospital cuddled in bed after you get back home from your own very long shift. I love this man and hope he's being set up! Even though I'm probably wrong.

It was officially 10:00 p.m by the time you had finally walked through the door into your apartment. A long deep breath escaped you as you let go of the long day you’d had as you took off your crocs by the door and hung your jacket on the hooks. Frank was probably already in bed himself. His shift had ended a couple of hours before your own, giving him time to feed the kids, put them to bed, and take out the new puppy that he just had to get for the kids. The thought made you smile and shake your head, you really knew that Frank got the dog for himself because as soon as he saw that little golden doodle he just had to have it. 

Due to your husband working 12 hours a day, sometimes longer you started to just leave your set of pajamas in the bathroom off of the living room. That way after your own very long day you can change and be comfortable without waking him up. Now i your old T-shirt of Frank’s and a pair of sleep shirts and slippers you tossed your soiled pair of scrubs into the washing machine to be washed the next laundry day. When a whole cup of a patients urine spilled due to improper collection you were going to need a clean pair of scrubs for the next day. Just the thought of the mishap was bringing your stress back, so it was time for a glass of wine and little bit of tv before you officially go to bed for the night. After about an hour and a glass of wine later you were officially yawning and ready for bed. The day had drained you, what you really needed was to crawl under the warm blankets and cuddle with your husband who was probably dead asleep. But when you slowly cracked open the bedroom door you learned that that was not the case. 

“Y/N?” You heard Frank’s voice, heavy with sleep calling out to you. 

“Hey,” you whispered softly. “After the day you’ve had I thought you’d be asleep by now.” You smiled at him as crawled into bed beside him. 

“I was,” he sighed somewhat dramatically. “But then I heard you get home so I started to wonder when you were going to grace me with your presence.” You just smiled at him for your comeback. Once you were settled and warm, you moved over to Frank. Put your head on his chest and wrapped your arm around him to hold him tight. 

“Ugh, I missed you.” You spoke into his chest, hiding your face as you took in his sell. He smelled of soap and aftershave. But to you it smelled like home. 

“We talked 6 hours ago,” Frank chuckled as he pressed a kiss to your hair. 

“ That didn’t count. We were at work and I had to call to report a critical.” You had to point out. Sometimes it was nice to work near your husband. With him working 12 to sometimes 24 hours and you work 9 hours into the night in the lab. Even though the two of you didn’t get the opportunity to see each other as much as you liked you could always contact each other. Sometimes if it was ever slow he would call your desk, but if the two of you were really lucky you’d get to have your breaks together. But that one was far and few between. But when the 2 of you saw each other, it was at home with your children. So the only time you had with your husband was before going to bed and waking up in the morning next to him. That is if he hadn’t been called into the ER for an emergency. 

“Yeah you’re right.” Frank admits wrapping one arm around you then running his other hand up and down your arm. “How was your day, anyway?”

“ Oh you know, same as every day. Getting specimen where they need to go to be tested, calls from tons of nurses, calls to nurses. Urine spills, lab machines malfunctioning. It was long but not the worst.” You answered him. You always felt bad talking about how tiring your day was to your husband who was a doctor in the ED and was actively saving lives everyday. But he never once said anything to you or told you that what you did was nothing compared to his. Because he knew that working anywhere in healthcare was tolling. But truth was after the day you just had you were exhausted. Getting 2 kids under 4 ready for day care was not the easiest, especially when you only have 2 hands. But when you add working on your feet all day, it wears on you. “How about you? How was your day?” Your hand on his stomach started to wander and make imaginary patterns in Frank’s t-shirt. 

“I’m assuming you heard about the little girl that drowned?” Frank asked firstly. 

“I did. I saw it on the ED list. I’m so sorry baby.” You looked up at him with sorrow, reaching up to brush the dark hair out of his face when you noticed tears starting to fill his eyes. He looked down at you trying to give a small smile, but he didn’t need to be strong right now. You placed a soft kiss on his lips and you felt his own lift ever so slightly. 

“She was just so small. It made me think of the kids.”

“That would never happen. They have Dr. Daddy and Science Mommy keeping them safe.” You smiled trying to control your giggles. 

“They told you that?” Frank asked with a surprised face that made him look adorable. 

“Yeah, they do sometimes.” You played with the hem of his shirt as you told him. “We got pretty lucky, Dr. Langdon.”

“We really did, Mrs. Langdon.” The couple just looked into each others eyes with small smiles on their faces. Not quite believing how they had ended up where they currently were. Breaking the emotional tension, Frank pressed a kiss to his wife's forehead, then her lips. Which lingered. 

“Dr. Langdon,” you said against his lips. “Don’t you have to be up for the day in 6 hours?” Asking as his hands began to wander. 

“I’m a doctor. I’m used to being overtired, it’s part of the job description.” He joked as he rolled his wife onto her back, sliding on top of her and sliding a leg between hers. “Oh, and by the way. When we’re at home, it’s Frank to you.” 

[f1girliefics]

Love in the Fast Lane

Lewis Hamilton x Reader

Summary: A road trip turns into a heartfelt journey of love.

The hum of the engine was a soothing backdrop as Lewis drove, his sunglasses reflecting the sunlit highway stretching out ahead.

You sat in the passenger seat, your hand resting lightly on the console between you, and you couldn’t help but notice the smile playing on his lips.

He had been unusually quiet about the details of this trip, only saying he wanted to take you somewhere special.

“Are you ever going to tell me where we’re going?” you asked, turning to look at him.

He glanced at you, his smile growing. “Where’s the fun in that? Just trust me.”

You laughed, shaking your head. “Trusting you got me into a car at 6 AM with no coffee. I think I deserve a hint.”

“Alright, alright,” he said as he reached to squeeze your hand before putting his back on the wheel. “It’s somewhere I used to go before everything got... hectic. A place that helps me think, you know?”

“That sounds perfect. Thank you for bringing me along.”

“Where else would you be, Love?” he asked with a smile before you reached to change the music.

The rest of the drive was filled with easy conversation.

He pointed out random sights along the way.

A quirky roadside diner.

A vintage car that zipped past, and you teased him about how he couldn’t resist critiquing other drivers.

After a couple of hours, the car slowed as he turned onto a narrow, tree-lined road. The lush greenery enveloped the path, and you felt a thrill of anticipation.

“This is it?” you asked, peering out at the scenery.

“Not quite,” he said, his voice teasing. “We’ve got just a little more to go.”

The road opened to a breathtaking view of rolling hills, the sun painting the landscape in gold.

Lewis parked the car at a small overlook and got out, rounding the vehicle to open your door.

“Ever the gentleman,” you teased, taking his hand as you stepped out.

“Always.”

He led you to a spot where a blanket and a small picnic basket had been set up. You blinked in surprise, turning to him. “When did you do this?”

“Magic, and a little planning.”

You sat on the blanket, Lewis handed you your favourite soda.

Conversation between you two was always something extremely calming and natural.

As the sun began to set, casting everything in a beautiful, golden light, Lewis grew quieter.

You watched him, noticing the way he seemed to be gathering his thoughts.

“Hey,” you said softly, touching his arm. “What’s on your mind?”

He looked at you, his expression uncharacteristically serious. “Just thinking about how lucky I am.”

You tilted your head, smiling. “Is that so?”

He nodded, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small, velvet box.

Your breath caught as he opened it to reveal a stunning ring, the diamonds catching the sunlight even though there was not much sunlight left.

“Lucky that I get to spend my life with you,” he said, his voice steady but full of meaning and depth. “I’ve been waiting for the right moment to ask you this, and I realized there’s no such thing as the perfect time. Every moment with you feels right.” Your heart was pounding as he took your hand. “Will you marry me?”

For a moment, all you could do was nod. “Yes,” you managed to finally say, your voice breaking. “Yes, of course.”

He slipped the ring onto your finger, his hands steady even as yours trembled.

Then he pulled you into his arms, holding you close.

“Guess I’ll have to drive carefully on the way back,” he murmured into your hair.

You laughed through your tears of happiness, pulling back to look at him. “Why’s that?”

“Because now I’ve got my future wife in the car,” he said, his grin breaking through.

The rest of the evening was you going through Pinterest having to look at different wedding aesthetics, trying to find the most perfect one.

"Since you are a knight... can we hold the wedding in a castle?" you asked and Lewis laughed.

"So you can be the Princess and me the Knight in shining armour?"

"Or a nice Armani suit. I'm not forcing you into anything metal." Lewis nodded.

"We will do everything you want, Princess."

And as you drove back, you couldn't look away from your beautiful ring. A proud smile on his lips and a very happy one on yours.

[roseyodditea]

Hiiiiiii, your works are all lovely! I really love how you potrayed all the characters you write! Send you lots of love!

May I request Harumasa x reader, which reader's job is like in the same division as Jane Doe and reader also have many identities. That somehow stumbled upon a fate meeting Harumasa times to times with their many identities, but with Harumasa's skill, he connect the dots with every meeting with reader no matter how many identities or conditions they met and then gathering her guts to get to know reader more👀

Sorry for bothering! Hope you always in a good conditions!

Failed Investigations - Harumasa x gn! Reader

Summary -> 1.9k Words. You are an undercover officer for Public Security who encounters an unlucky situation named "Asaba Harumasa" in your investigations Warnings -> None A/N -> Sorry it took a couple days! Life got in the way. I got a little whimsical on this one I won't lie. I wanted something fun since classes start soon.

Today was finally the day you could get out of this hellhole and get back to your comfy PubSec desk for a little bit. This undercover mission in this gang of hollow raiders seemed to go wrong at every single step of the way and you were just trying to hold on at this point. Jane owes you so many favors after you took this mission for her. Deep cover was more her style than yours. 

You leaned back against the uncomfortable concrete wall, watching a group full of idiots gamble what little money they had earned from the recent break-ins away on a card game. Standing up and stretching, you take note of the time and know your salvation will be here in less than an hour. Less than an hour and you’d be back on your team, shoulder to shoulder with officers and no longer doing undercover work. 

Down the halls you heard screaming, the sound of the door breaking down, and the sound of weapons clashing. Now PubSec was a mess and a lot of things could change and be different, but them being early was not a possibility in the slightest. You had a choice here. You could either hope and pray to whatever higher power was out there that it was just your coworkers, or book it and have to explain to Zhu Yuan that your investigation was ruined. 

“They’re in the rafters!” The shout from one of the hollow raiders made your decision for you. You were already on the move when you caught the glimpse of an arrow flying and embedding into a canister of ether, exploding to create a cover of ether dust that burned the lungs and eyes. You dash to an exit that wasn’t as well known, only to catch a flash of someone charging right towards you.

You caught the brunt of two blades propelled by the body weight of a man you had dreamed of meeting on your two hunting knives, deflecting them away. You didn’t have time to stagger before he was delivering practiced blows and you could barely keep up. If you were brought into the custody of the HSO, PubSec wouldn’t be alerted for far too long, and you had a bigger fish to catch than what Section 6 was currently flushing out of the abandoned warehouse. 

“Let me go, it’ll be worth it!” You tried to plead as you were on the defence, deflecting blow after blow, thankful H.A.N.D and PubSec training was close enough for you to defend against him. 

“Likely story.” Harumasa scoffs, starting to put more electricity into his attacks. Two more blows and you had a plan, remembering what happened to the canister filled with ether. 

Oh Zhu Yuan was going to kill you for the paperwork you were about to generate. 

“Sorry!” You warn before meeting his electrified blades with yours swirled with ether, the reaction causing a cloud of ether dust to explode and fill the air. Harumasa was caught off guard, erupting into a fit of coughs as he stumbled back away from the cloud of ether, giving you more than enough time to dash out the exit, the rest of Section 6 too distracted with the other hollow raiders to notice you slinking away. 

**********

“I’m sorry Officer (l/n),” your team lead lied to your face. “Your investigation was incomplete so you won’t get the bonus on your next paycheck. We’re also putting you on a different case since we believe you were made by the other hollow raiders.” “You have got to be kidding me.”

**********

Messing up one assignment wasn’t the end of the world. In your line of work it was honestly expected. Maybe having a case ruined by *the* Asaba Harumasa was more of a blessing than a curse. That was the closest you’ve ever gotten to having a conversation with him. 

You looked in the mirror, happy with your new haircut and dye job. You had gotten too good at this, hot swapping appearance between every case. You grabbed the SFX makeup kit and decided that this identity would at least have a cool looking scar on an eyebrow. Pleased with the unrecognizable state of your face you packed everything away and went to your next assignment. 

This was an easy one. You were to take part in some sort of drug ring to try to trace the source so PubSec could have one last public win for this quarter. This sort of cut and dry undercover sting was definitely more your style. You stepped out of your car to go stand by the statue near the Ballet Twins Hollow, waiting for the dealer as you watched the shifting hues of the hollow. Part of you felt like something was wrong. You looked over your shoulder and-

Oh for fucks sake. 

“For what they are, it’s a damn shame they’re so pretty.” Harumasa said as he leaned against the railing. Seems even the ears of a trained PubSec officer were no match for the silent steps of a Scout. 

You stared hard at the hollow, trying not to let your nerves show. Surely you were unrecognizable enough for him to not clock you the second you opened your mouth. “Maybe the bright colors are like the patterns poisonous animals have. Warning about the danger, ya know?” Harumasa looked over and let out a little noise, looking at your face a little too long to be comfortable. “I suppose so. It’s not safe out here this late for civilians.” Your brain kicked into third gear, trying to come up with a believable excuse that wasn’t ‘yeah I’m here to meet a drug dealer and you’re really messing up my investigation right now’. You went to pat your pocket and… oh you didn’t even have your badge on you right now. “Just out here for the view. I like keeping track of how much the hollow is shrinking. You can see more and more of that tower every week.” You tried to sound like a hopeful civilian. “Makes me think that everything is gonna be okay… That all of this is worth it.” Harumasa glanced back at you, a flash of recognition when you said ‘worth it’. Crap. You said those exact words to him back in the hollow, didn’t you? There was no way your accent was that recognizable. 

“Yeah.. It’ll be worth it.” Harumasa said and looked around. “There’s the person I need to meet up with.” He said as an ungraceful exit and just left, walking up to the drug dealer you were supposed to be investigating.

Another investigation ruined by Asaba Harumasa.

**********

“Officer, you’ve really been off of your game recently. Do you need to be assigned fewer cases?” Your team lead looked at you like you were stupid.

“No. Just give me something that can’t possibly be linked to H.A.N.D.”

**********

You brushed the wig into place, settling into your next cover story. This was a simple case another undercover operative had set up for you. In and out, cut and dry, not a chance that you’d see that smug smile and golden eyes. You put down the brush and let out a laugh to yourself. You had met a man you admired and looked up to twice. There had been many events where PubSec and Section 6 were in the same spot and you tried to build up the courage to go introduce yourself to the team, but you never did. You never thought you’d end up having two investigations in a row ruined by the man who made you so nervous. 

You dressed yourself in the dark clothing, making sure your lockpicks were in the case as you slipped them into your pocket. PubSec was going after a corrupt rich guy who was mining in a hollow or something (you weren’t really paying attention to why you were doing this), and you needed to break into an apartment and steal a flash drive so the man could destroy it. There was enough anonymous contact that PubSec couldn’t move in until you handed the drive and could get him on a possession of stolen property charge. Whoever this man was, he was important enough for the commissioner to actually sign off on you robbing someone. 

It took a few hours for you to see your way in. You had changed to wear a maintenance uniform so no one would question you in the hallway. You were sure the apartment was empty, no one was looking… perfect timing. You easily picked the lock, slipping in and looking around at the rather messy apartment. You stepped into the bedroom and started to dig through piles of prescriptions and pill bottles that piled on the desk. You saw a flash of shiny metal before successfully picking up the flash drive. You started to shift the papers and bottles back to where you found them when a label caught your eye. 

Harumasa, Asaba

“...are you fucking kidding me…” You mutter and let out a breath, only to hear the lock on the front door start to click. You were going to kill your team lead. Someone should have told you who’s apartment this was! Who did this get past!?

You ducked through the living room right as the door was opening and slid out onto the balcony, holding your breath as you heard the footsteps. You pressed harder against the wall as you heard the balcony door slide open. 

“...three times is just unfortunate.” Harumasa looked at you smirking. “You’re telling me.” You tried to laugh.

“Should I arrest you?” “Probably not.” Harumasa laughed at that. “Why are you on my balcony?” “That’s classified.” You both looked at each other and down to the drive. Harumasa suddenly changed demeanor. “Who’s side are you on?” “PubSec. You’ve ruined three investigations of mine now, by the way.”

“I’ll make it up to you.” He promises, still with that smirk on his face. The silence between you two was palpable, the air heavy and thick with the same feeling you’d get whenever you tried to gather the courage to talk to him. You cleared your throat three times in the same nervous pattern you had built up by habit and Harumasa’s eyes lit up with the sudden recognition. “That’s why you look so familiar, it’s you!” His tone made you panic, but not in the way you were panicking just moments before. “What do you mean?” “You’re the PubSec officer who always awkwardly loiters around HSO booths during conferences!” In all of your years of being an undercover officer, you had never known shame and humiliation like this. “Oh my god I’m not here.” “It’s you! You’re the officer who once answered ‘newspaper’ to Yanagi asking if you felt alright!” “STOP!” You walk into his apartment to try to leave. 

“I watched you fall off a chair taking down a banner six months ago during the VR event!” “NO!” You shriek in humiliation and get out of that apartment as soon as possible, slamming the door as you hear laughter coming from inside. You got maybe three steps down the hallway when the door swung back open. 

“I saw a rookie officer miss so badly they tased you by accident!” He shouts to you as you practically sprint away from him. 

Additional A/N -> My writings seem to be getting longer and longer... lmk in the replies if you personally prefer longer or shorter oneshots.

[wings-of-ink]

Chapter 5 is finally here!

Tumblr crew, please let me know right away if you see any issues with running the game. I *think* I fixed the issue with fonts not changing but I did the upload a different way so I'm paranoid. It works for me though.

This was a big one – do not anticipate your saves working. Such is the nature of a work-in-progress. Some of the code for early chapters had to change. I do apologize, I know it's a lot of content to click through.

I hope you enjoy it, and please let me know if you find any serious problems/errors – especially ones that break the game. I have tested it myself a few times, but I can only do so much on my own. I will be watching Tumblr closely for a bit, so if there are any urgent issues you can pop them into my ask-inbox.

This chapter was written using a different method. Mostly, it worked out for me and helped me find more typos and grammar issues, but I found more programming errors than normal. My hope is that all the major ones have been resolved. A game-breaking issue was found just this morning and took a few hours to resolve (it was a mess so I redid the entire section - peeps, if you see issues in the moment with Zahn let me know because they were my troublemaker, go figure).

A couple of new trigger warnings were added as well, so be sure to peruse the list if you may have areas of sensitivity. In the future, a couple of areas of this chapter may receive options to bypass segments with certain difficult content, so be advised that these do not have a skip function enabled currently.

Coming in the future…

Lunan is taking a break through the end of the year! I will still be monitoring Tumblr, answering questions, and resolving any technical issues of course. But I will not be writing chapter content. Some short extras may be posted in the meantime to Tumblr.

Each chapter will get a passage-by-passage check for typos and grammar issues before the release of Chapter 6.

A chapter skip function will be arranged so you can bypass content you've already read. This will likely be implemented before or with Chapter 6.

The release time for Chapter 6 is currently unknown but estimated for late Spring of 2025 (March-May *ish).

The Patreon will likely start up in January 2025 and will focus on early releases of new content and extras/POVs (including the spicy kind).

Thank you so much for sticking with me. I hope you enjoy this chapter and have fun with it!

~Lunan ^_^

PS: Also let me know if you find weird stuff in there that might be from testing, lol. I think I deleted all that stuff, but I am more than a little bit frazzled today and there is a real possibility that I left some garbage behind...

Itch.io Link:

[thelonestarinthesky]

². ᵖˡᵃʸᵈᵃᵗᵉ

⁺₊✦₊　　

pairing: senku x f!reader

chapter 2 of 2/2-i.senku series

a/n: I'll be doing a poll soon regarding this series later in the day, I'll keep it up for a couple of days

⁺₊✦₊　　

Senku was well aware of how much in awe the [h/c] haired girl was, practically shining glitter. He was sweating bullets but tried not to let it show; after all, he needed to make sure this playdate went well so he could get his end of the deal.

"A leek." She says in awe, shaking in her seat.

His eye twitched at this.

Her butler was writing something down upon hearing this. The girl stood up and this made him flinch. "Is your hair always this pretty?" She says with a high-pitched voice excitedly, gushing about his strange but cute, leek-shaped hair.

'This girl can't be a year older than me.' The 6 year old thinks. 'Much less the heiress of a big company like her old fart.'

"Senku, can I design a robot based on your hair?!" The older girl says as he's just annoyed from hearing her voice.

Her butler didn't waste any time measuring his hair and gently plucking out a piece of his hair.

"My apologies, Master Senku." The bulter says, bowing before handing him a small envelope as compensation.

The older girl was happily doing something on her stretch book before handing it back to her butler. Senku, having enough of this, stood up, knocking down the cup of tea onto the tablecloth. "Can we do something else? I hate playing princesses with you." He says bluntly.

The girl blinks at this before nodding. "Oh, okay." She gives him a smile, standing up, she goes over to him and grabs his hand. "We can go look at the flowers outside." She beams, tugging him forward.

They only lasted an hour outside the gardens in the backyard before Senku got bored. Instead of letting her suggest what to do next, he made his mission to stroll inside the mansion like he owned it, the [H/C] haired following behind, holding onto his shirt, which he tried several times slapping away but no luck.

He knows that her family is still moving things in so the library they must have, like all rich people do, should be around here somewhere.

"What are you looking for?" She asks him, which he ignores. Looking around corners, he finally finds the library; it is filled with books from top to bottom. Without thinking, he runs in, making the girl flinch, she runs after him. "Wait for me!" She cries out.

Senku had found a load of new books on topics he'd read, but these were clearly much better since they actually went into deeper detail. With a pile of books he carried.....more like the [E/C] haired girl carried moved to a corner, Senku sat down and began to read happily.

"Are we just going to be reading books?" The girl asks, sitting down on her knees, tucking in her dress, very ladylike as she stares at him.

When she doesn't receive an answer, like a cat waiting for its owner, she sits there, staring at him until he finally finishes a section. 

Very patiently, she waits and listens as he passionately rants, like a kid on Christmas. Blinking, she stares into his eyes, which remind her of the brightest apple she's had in the morning which makes her hungry again.

When she finally lets out her opinion, it seems like she sparked more from him. "Woah, you know about this too?!" He exclaimed.

"I thought you were just like all the other kids my age."

For the rest of the day, the two spend the time in the library, her butler often bringing in snacks.

".... I made these blueprints." She says shyly, rolling the paper in between them. Senku finally took a break and stared down at the paper, reading all the notes and looking at the designs.

"I want to make robots like my Dad makes machines." She says, pointing. "But he says I can't use any grown-up machines because I'll get hurt." She pouts at this. "So my butler follows my blueprints and makes the equipment for me. And I put them together like a LEGO set." She beams at this.

"So this is like Science but with robots," Senku says, clearly impressed. "Pretty amazing."

"Yeah, I guess so."

It was clear the two were bonding from the revolution of this, and of course, Senku ruins it. "What's your name again?" He asked, which made the [H/C] haired blink at him before looking dejected.

"....it's [Name]." She mumbles with an emotionless voice.

"Right, [Name], can I keep coming over-" She perks up at this, she's never had a friend, could he maybe be the first- "so I can read more books." And she's back with that dejected expression.

"...."

"...and maybe I can see you work on that cool robot you're making." Senku finishes off, looking up at her with a grin before choking upon seeing her expression. "Oi, what's wrong?!"

࿐⸻༺ ෆ ༻⸻࿐

The playdate ended with [Name] finally coming out of her dejected state when Senku actually tried to cheer her up, and he was just being blunt like always. Kids tell the truth after all.

"Mister Byakuya!" She squeals happily, running into the man's arms as he picks her up, spinning her around.

"[Name]! It's nice to see you're doing great now!" Byakuya exclaims.

Senku watches this interaction with annoyance.

"Papa isn't home right now because he's at the office," the girl says as soon as she's let down.

"Can Senku and I have another playdate?" She begs his dad.

"Sure, sweetie." Byakuya petted her head gently. "I'll drop him off next weekend." She smiles at this before thanking him.

While walking to the car with Byakuya, Senku looks back to see [Name] waving at him frantically. "Bye Senku!" She says loudly as her butler bows at them.

࿐⸻༺ ෆ ༻⸻࿐

Sitting in his room, exhausted as hell. Remembering the envelope that Butler gave him, he opens it, expecting it to be a stupid thing, but he's in awe when the envelope is filled with money. A chunky, pile of cash.

masterlist taglist- @frootloopscos @itsnotsh1v4n1

[transthatmasc]

I’m writing a very self indulgent jayvik fic of them becoming new parents and then immediately bringing the brand new baby to their lab because neither of those fuckers can sit still long enough to be off work for longer than a couple weeks. Jayce is literally still recovering from having a baby and the only thing he waits the full 6 weeks of healing for is going to the forge. They are back in the lab full ish time within three weeks. Sky is appalled on a theoretical level but in practicality she’s loves that she can take breaks to play with the baby. Mel is in the same boat, but she nonetheless ends up in the lab at least an hour every day to walk around with the baby. There is a pack’n’play that fits nicely next to the lab couch and the bottle warmer sits right next to the coffee machine. They have a baby sling that Jayce wears as he does equations on the board and Viktor wears while he’s working on blue prints.

Heimerdinger, who took absolutely no objections when insisting that Jayce and Viktor have a full 6 months of paternity leave together as they welcome their baby, effectively stopping all hextech development for half a year, is HORRIFIED to find that not only are they back in the lab, but they are meeting deadlines almost exactly as intended and look basically no worse for wear. He resolves to pay more attention to his next protégés as he has CLEARLY not been able to protect these two from having worked themselves half to death unrestricted when having a newborn leaves them just as they were before.

[ladykailitha]

Heartbreak in Overdrive Part 8

Boom, baby! We are back!! This is my new schedule for fics here! Be sure to check it out so you don't miss your favorites!

I would reread part 7 here or start from the beginning here.

In this we have more of the photo shoot with Steve and Eddie just falls more in love with Steve and his girls then ever before.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7

~

The first outfit was a metallic grey, almost antique silver in color and the boots were killer. They had a two inch stiletto heel and went right above his knees. The pants were skin tight and the shirt was a t-shirt with the sleeves cut off and the sides hollowed out. The shirt was tucked artfully into the pants. He looked hot.

The makeup was very Ziggy Stardust and hair was most down with still a little bit up.

They were moving on to the settee today and Eddie was so ready for it. The chair had been comfortable but was limiting on the range of poses he could do.

Eddie walked out, perfectly balanced on the heels, hips swaying as he sashayed over to the black velvet lounge chair. He flopped on it gracefully and then turned to wink at Steve.

Steve fumbled the camera and only barely managed to catch before it hit the ground.

Eddie smirked. “Ready when you are, big boy!”

Steve took pictures for a couple of hours, Eddie getting touched up when needed, before a break was called.

They started making their way to craft services when Steve snapped his fingers.

“Oh I forgot to mention,” he said with that winning smile, “Kimmy said the company wants us to take as long as we need to get the launch of the product perfect.”

“That’s a relief,” Eddie murmured.

“Since we have the time,” Steve said brightly, “I was thinking of as many shots as you feel comfortable with each outfit so you can pick the best ones.”

That brought Eddie up short. “Wait, you’re not the one picking the shots?”

Steve, who had taken a few steps before realizing that he had stopped, turned and looked at him. “Well, yeah. It’s in your contract. You pick your shots. The only change I wanted was having my crew with me. I trust you to pick the best shots. I’ve seen your judgment in action and your instincts are spot on.”

Eddie trotted to catch up to speed. “How have you seen the raws to any of my photo shoots?”

“Oh,” Steve said with a blush, running his fingers through his hair nervously. “I went to high school with Jonathan Byers and Tommy Hagan. We were actually all in the same photography club. Argyle Rivera is Jonathan’s boyfriend.”

Eddie blinked at him for a moment. Then the realization hit him like an oncoming storm, wild and dangerous. “Holy shit. You’re the mysterious friend they keep talking about. You’re my white knight!”

Steve’s cheeks turned bright red and he wrapped one arm around his waist. “Well, I don’t know about being anyone’s knight or whatever. I just don’t know why they treat you differently from every other high class model.”

“Holy shit,” Eddie breathed. “I could kiss you!”

Steve ducked his head and scuffed his shoe on the carpet, suddenly shy. “Oh, um. I’m not really, um... it’s not that I wouldn’t like that, but just um... uh. Well.” He cursed under his breath. “I really shouldn’t cross the line between photographer and model. I just got into this and don’t want to do anything that would get me in trouble.”

Eddie blinked at him for a moment and took the time to really process what Steve had said throughout that absolutely adorable ramble.

“All right, pretty boy,” he teased. “I’ll lay off the teasing. But we should still exchange numbers. Because I have a feeling you’re going to be my go to photographer.” He winked at Steve and then sailed past him to continue on to craft services.

~

Each outfit got darker and skimpier until Eddie was wearing a charcoal grey mesh crop top and matching hotpants. He also wore nylons and sparkly open-toed heels. His makeup was a smokey eye and dark red lipstick and his hair could barely be considered in partially up with just a few strands pulled out of his face.

The poses had gotten more and more sexually charged, too. To the point where Eddie was thinking of things that were as disgusting as possible to keep himself from getting a stiffy, but it was hard.

*Wink, wink, nudge, nudge*

Okay so that was a bad pun even for himself. But with the clothes getting more revealing and the hair and makeup becoming simpler, they managed to all the remaining outfits that day with only the nude shots left to do by the time the day was done.

Steve patted him on the shoulder on the way out. “It’s been great working with you, Eddie. I can’t wait until tomorrow to really get to the meat of this shoot.”

Eddie blinked at him for a moment and realized that he really meant it. He was happy to have worked with him and couldn’t wait to do it again.

He stood there watching the four of them go, laughing and teasing each other. It really made Eddie ache for seeing his friends other than the occasional lunch or drinks. It made him ache for home and Wayne.

He pulled out his phone. “Hey, Chrissy. After this shoot, clear my schedule. I want to take some time off to see Wayne.” He hung up knowing she would take care of it and text him the details. He looked up at the sky a moment and let out a shuddering breath. Yeah it was time to go home.

~

It was time for the last part of the shoot, the part Eddie had been dreading all week. He knew that Steve had told him that it would just be the two of them unless hair or makeup needed to be touched up. But he had been told something was a closed set before to not really have it be so his hopes weren’t really that high.

But as soon as he stepped out in his black satin robe, none of the girls were to be seen. He looked around nervously.

“Um, I thought that I’d see Robin and Max around,” he admitted, pulling the robe tightly around his waist.

Steve smiled that beaming grin of his at him and Eddie fucking melted. “I’ll call them if they’re needed and of course cover you up so they don’t see if you prefer it like that.”

Eddie still wasn’t sure what to make of this man so he just nodded. He spent a couple of minutes trying to hype himself up.

“Would it help if I put on music?” Steve asked after a few minutes. “I consulted my assistant for the best metal music so I could get inspiration for the shoot.”

Eddie looked up at Steve in wide-eyed wonder. “You’d do that for me?”

“Sure,” Steve said pulling out his phone. “It’s not like we’re filming and need the sound for anything.” He turned on the music and turned it up. “They’re all songs I liked from what he had me listen to, so I hope it’s not too terrible.”

One by Metallica came on and Eddie bobbed his head in approval. “It’s an oldie for sure, but a goodie too.”

Steve beamed at him, turning his phone up as high as it could go and set it on a nearby table. “Just let me know if you want me to skip anything.”

Eddie nodded and then finally dropped the robe. He got settled on the red satin sheets, he long hair fanning out around his head like a halo.

Steve forced down the lump in his throat at how absolutely beautiful this man was. He put the camera up in front of his face to distance himself from the angel sprawled out on the bed. He line up his shot and took his first photo. He pulled it back to see it and nodded in approval.

He walked over to the bed. “You want to see?”

Eddie propped himself up on one elbow to peer over Steve’s arm to look at the display. “Wow.”

It was beyond wow, if he was honest, but that was the only word he had in that moment. He had never seen himself looking for vulnerable and open before. He was blown away.

“I’ll take that,” Steve said with hearty laugh. “Let’s knock this out of the ballpark, yeah?”

Eddie laughed. “Yeah, man. Let’s do that.” He settled back into place and let Steve get to work.

Every once in awhile Robin or Max would have to come out and redo his hair or makeup, but each time Steve would make sure Eddie was covered and then let them come out.

Then Steve shifted nervously from one foot to the other, chewing his lip. “I have an idea for some of the shots, but I don’t know if you’d want to do it?”

Eddie’s eyebrows shot up. “What’s ya got, Stevie?”

“I want to get close ups of the makeup,” he said, shyly ducking his head. “And for that I’d have to get on the bed with you.”

“Oh.”

Yeah, Eddie could see where Steve might not want to cross that line or even have Eddie let him cross that line. But he thought about it from an artistic point of view and it would be hot as hell.

“Do it,” he said firmly. “You need the shots, you know it’s the best way to the get the shots. Get your shot.”

“Yeah?” Steve asked, risking looking up to see Eddie’s expression. It wasn’t guarded or closed off, it was open and friendly. And maybe a little lascivious.

“Yeah,” Eddie said with a wink and a grin. “Come on, big boy. Show me what you’ve got.”

Steve took off his shoes and socks and padded over to the bed, camera in hand. He started taking pictures the closer he got. Then when he got to the foot of the bed, Eddie turned his charm up to eleven, and Steve was helpless to resist.

He started with one knee on the bed, then two. Then he began to pan up Eddie’s body, breathing out instructions and watching as Eddie followed each one. Then for the final shot Steve straddled Eddie’s torso just below his ribs.

The final shutter went off with the bright light of the flash. Steve had moved the camera to the side and stared down at Eddie in amazement. It was like they were as frozen as the still frame in his camera.

Eddie was just as caught as Steve was. It was like he had his soul taken with that last shot but instead of feeling bereft, he felt a sense of elation.

Suddenly there was a loud ringing over the sound of the music and the moment snapped back into focus. Steve looked over his shoulder at the sound then back at Eddie. He carefully got off of him and handed him the robe.

He walked over to his phone and picked it up to answer it. “Hello?”

Eddie pulled on the robe as he watched Steve on the phone. It was clear it was the rep lady, probably asking about how much longer they would need. He didn’t know how long Steve was going to be so he decided to head back to the dressing room.

As he passed, he gave Steve a little wave and Steve waved back. A dorky little finger wave and he was fucking charmed.

He was in the robe getting his makeup removed and hair washed to get all the chemicals she used make it do what Steve wanted, when Steve knocked on the door.

“Hey, guys!” Steve said cheerfully. “Well done everyone. I was just on the phone with Kimmy and so far the owners, Maggie Burton and Dottie Cox have loved all the shots so far.”

“Yeah?” Eddie said, hopeful, opening one eye carefully to look at Steve. “That’s great news.” He closed the eye again and settled so Robin could finish her work.

“Just wait until they see the nudes,” Steve replied, flopping on the chair he sat in on the first day. He watched Eddie get pampered by Max and Robin as Ellie worked to get all the clothes bagged up and put away.

“Yeah,” Eddie agreed. “I have a really good feeling about this shoot. Like award winning feelings.”

Suddenly Eddie was forced to sit upright at the strength of the thrust of Ellie shoving a bag into his arms. “Oof!”

“Those are the boots you really liked and the linen shirt,” she said with a grin. “The other clothes will be sent to your address at your convenience.”

Eddie grinned. “You’re best Lady Eliwen! Actually all of you are. Like I’ve never had a shoot run so smoothly before. I really hope this shoot puts your name on the map because you all deserve it!”

“Thanks!” Robin said. “I’m all done with you, so all that’s left is Max putting in the conditioner and you’re all done and dusted!”

Max gently worked the leave in conditioner into his hair and then she washed her hands. “All right, you’re free.”

Eddie gave them all hugs goodbye, even Steve and left wearing the shirt and boots Ellie had given him.

“Hit me up the next time you’re in LA,” Eddie told Steve tapping him on the shoulder and pointing at him. “We’ll have brunch. There is this great little Italian place I think you’d love.”

Steve threw back his head and laughed. “I’m going to hold you to that!”

Eddie got in the car and as it drove off he looked back at Steve and his ladies, feeling a pang of loneliness. His friends and family were all over the place now. Jeff was a theatre actor on Broadway, Brian was game composer, and Gareth was a studio musician for when they needed a pro to fill in on drums. Wayne was still out in old Hawkins, even if his prospects were better now. He still missed them. Maybe he’d get them all out to LA for a reunion or something.

After visiting Wayne of course.

~

Tag List: CLOSED

1- @itsall-taken @estrellami-1 @zerokrox-blog @sadisticaltarts @dolphincliffs

2- @gregre369 ​@a-little-unsteddie @irregular-child @cryptid-system @kultiras

3- @maya-custodios-dionach @goodolefashionedloverboi @val-from-lawrence @carlyv @wonderland-girl143-blog

4- @bookbinderbitch @bookworm0690 @forgottenkanji @dreamercec @blondie1006

5- @yikes-a-bee @awkwardgravity1 @genderless-spoon @fearieshadow @thesecondfate

6- @dragonmama76 @ellietheasexylibrarian @thedragonsaunt @useless-nb-bisexual @disrespectedgoatman

7- @counting-dollars-counting-stars @tinyplanet95 @ravenfrog @swimmingbirdrunningrock @lingeringmirth

8- @gutterflower77 @a-lovely-craziness @just-a-tiny-void @w1ll0wtr33 @beelze-the-bubkiss

9- @chaotic-waffle @steddieislife @oh-no-its-danger-gays @ollieolive @micheledawn1975

10- @little-birch-boy @alfhitchblonde @tartarusknight @chocolateracconlights @spookycollectorcandies

[hvkno]

ppl who complain about the gap in between st seasons make me SO MADD

(1) it takes ten months to film and ten months to do post production (and i'm sure pre-production happens from the end of a season to the beginning of filming)

(2) SEASON 3 DROPPED 2019. SEASON 4 2022. CAN YOU THINK OF A MAJOR EVENT THAT HAPPENED BETWEEN THESE TWO DATES????

(3) its insane they even managed to release season 4 in two years after they started filming (in feb 2020 nonetheless). they had to take a break until september 2020 when they resumed filming and with extreme precautions most likely past that, slowing filming down.

(4) THEN THE SAG-AFTRA STRIKE RIGHT AFTER S4 DROPS. that would have completely stopped production for months and months and at last season 5 STARTS filming in january 2024. it's the final season and there's a big cast so it took an extra couple months, but it finally wrapped in december.

(5) AND ABOUT FILMING! this is a PACKED cast that are BOOKED AND BUSY. if you think that this was finn's or winona's or millie's only project or THING happening, then you are WRONG. they are busy which makes filming harder.

(6) POST PRODUCTION is DIFFERENT FOR STRANGER THINGS. yeah, many of the shows from 2016 have wrapped by now. they did not break records in Netflix or include a science fiction plot that required lots of CGI, visual effects etc! plus do you THINK netflix is gonna let them slide with a half assed final product? ON THEIR FINAL SEASON TOO?

so yeah. expecting stranger things to pop out woth a new season every year is actually laughable. ESPECIALLY with the conditions the last few seasons have been under.

and this part is important: i think 2 hours is way too long for an episode. i wouldn't mind a season that's fifteen hours if it was split into reasonable episode times but movie length episodes is unreasonable. THAT BEING SAID, IM SICK OF PEOPLE THINKING THAT SHOWS ARE EASY TO PRODUCE.

[fizzyapplecandy]

The one with the vampire royals and their doll Part 6

Series masterlist

Ateez Seonghwa X Hongjoong X Reader

Genres and warnings: vampire Matz, strangers to lovers, human reader, fluff, mature language, angst, mild smut, poly relationships, woosang relationship

Word count: 3k

You finally meet Yeosang's boyfriend Wooyoung, but the night doesn't turn out how you expected.

There was once a time you were on summer break before the last year of high school. Yeosang was away on vacation with his parents, leaving you to your own devices. Ten days seemed like ten years when you only had one friend.

You genuinely felt alone. It might be pathetic to say, people deal with more serious things than you, but the feeling of loneliness was present. Your mom and dad never took the time to do something with you. Not even mundane things like making breakfast, sitting in the garden, going shopping... Morning til nightfall, you were on your own.

Your books were the only thing keeping you occupied, but honestly, the fiction was doing you more bad than good.

There was once a time when you wished to meet your prince Charming. Someone who would do the most mundane things with you, like laying in bed, talking for hours on end. Someone who would be there for you when times were tough, a person who would wrap their arms around you and tell you everything will be okay.

Never in your life had you imagined that you'd get two handsome men wrapped around your finger, without even realising it.

There wasn't a moment you felt lonely in the past couple of days. Hongjoong was there in the morning, a takeaway breakfast in hand for you, but never for him. His reason being he ate at home with his husband, as it was something they always did together. You got to know each other better, having small talk while you nibbled on your waffles, or muffins. He always opened your door for you, leaving a lingering touch on your cheek before making sure you were inside the shop before he went off.

Seonghwa was there in the evening, always taking a detour and showing you more of his favourite places in town. He had a homemade dinner in his hands, and he made sure you ate and enjoyed it by questioning you tomorrow when he came to take you home. He told you it was constructive criticism, because he had to know all of your preferences. Seonghwa usually left a chaste kiss on your open palm, watching you as you entered your building. Once he knew you were safe and sound, he went on his way.

Yeosang made sure to stop by during the day, but he had a needy boyfriend (his words, not yours) and he couldn't stay for long.

Somehow, someway, because of them, you didn't feel so alone anymore. It was an unfamiliar feeling, and you suppose it wouldn't be bad to get used to it.

The weekend was fast approaching, and the two men were eagerly waiting for your answer to their invitation on Sunday. Seonghwa was already gushing about the dinner he would make you, but Hongjoong wanted to treat you to a fancy meal because you deserved it. You guessed they hadn't come to an agreement, because their stories never matched.

It made you feel a bit special, and it was a funny feeling. Something you never felt before, and something you'd love to keep feeling. You somehow gained two... Friends, you guess. Friends who call your future outing a 'date' for some reason.

You decided you'd tell Seonghwa your answer when he came by tonight. He would pass the message onto Hongjoong, and you hoped he wouldn't be mad you hadn't told him first.

However, before you could think about the two of them, you had to survive Saturday night with Yeosang and his boyfriend. It was Friday now, so your nerves were starting to get the best of you. On top of it, out of all the things you could be doing, you were going bowling. You pleaded with Yeosang to do anything else, because you've never been bowling, and you weren't planning on embarrassing yourself. His boyfriend Wooyoung was persistent, so there were no changes made. What should you even wear to a bowling alley?

Before you could get even more lost in your thoughts, you heard the familiar sound of Hongjoong's car pulling up in front of the shop. Wait...

Hongjoong? Wasn't it Seonghwa's turn?

"Hey there doll. Try not to look so disappointed." He chuckled.

You quickly snapped out of your daze, noticing the slight nervousness about his posture. Was he really worried you weren't happy to see him?

"N-No, I'm not disappointed. Just confused, usually Seonghwa comes in the evening." You grabbed your keys and bag from the counter and followed Hongjoong out, locking up behind you.

"Seonghwa had to... Take care of something. He sends his best regards, and misses you already."

Hongjoong held the car door open for you, and you lifted your hands to give him access to the seatbelt. You already knew the routine, and you were tired of protesting. They knew you could do everything by yourself, but they reminded you it wasn't needed while they were around. So, you just gave in.

Once he was settled in, he grabbed a bag from the back seat.

"He also sends dinner. Forgive me, I can't remember the name of the dish, but it's something Italian. Or did he say French?" He furrowed his eyebrows, trying his hardest to remember what his husband said.

You smiled, taking the little bag from him.

"I'm sure it's delicious, and that's all that matters. Thank him for me, please. You two are too kind. I'd like to cook something for you, sometime. You know, if you want." You stuttered a bit, unsure if they'd like your simple, easy meals. Seonghwa always made something that was too hard to pronounce, but you figured a man like him knew his way around fine cuisine.

Hongjoong's gaze softened, and he placed his cold hand on yours.

"You don't have to trouble yourself, but that would be lovely. I'm sure we'd eat..." He stilled for a second, glancing at your neck, listening to your heartbeat speeding up.

"We'd eat anything you make." Somehow, he managed to control himself long enough to start the car and make his journey to your home.

"I'll hold you to that. Now, there is something I wanted to tell Seonghwa, but I'll tell you, you can pass it on to him."

"I'm all ears, princess." His hand lightly squeezed yours, and you suddenly felt nervous.

"You know how you've asked me about a date? Well, I'm free on Sunday, if the offer is still up."

If Hongjoong's heart were still beating, it would have skipped one right this moment. Were you finally ready to let them worship you? Was he reading too much into it? Maybe you just wanted to get it over with so they stop being persistent?

"Hongjoong? Are you okay? I think it isn't smart to stop the car in the middle of the street."

He snapped out of his thoughts, coming back to the present and seeing his car turned off. You were confused, and he could tell you were anxious.

"I'm... I'm so sorry. You kind of caught me off guard. Not in a bad way! It's just..."

He cleared his throat, surprised at how giddy he actually was.

"I'm really happy about your answer. Seonghwa will be too."

The ride home resumed without a hitch, and his hand never left yours. You talked about your day, feeling lighter as the conversation went on. Hongjoong had a way of making you relax, let go of your worries, and only focus on the moment you're in. It was like a superpower, and you even told him so yesterday. He laughed, obviously, but you didn't know how overjoyed he felt by that. You were becoming someone important to him, and your opinion mattered.

Your ride ended too soon for your liking, and as you were waving at him from the entrance, you phone rang in your pocket. Without much thought, you blew Hongjoong a kiss and made your way inside.

He almost tore off his steering wheel. Oh, Hwa's going to be so jealous when he tells him.

You, on the other hand, had no time to dwell on your actions because Yeosang began yapping away as soon as you picked up the call.

"Y/N, babe, he's been driving me crazy all day. He's changed his outfit for tomorrow fifteen times! Fifteen! I don't even have that many outfits in my closet right now. I'm telling you, I'm an outfit away from strangling him!"

"Okay, okay! Calm down! The guy wants to make a good first impression, I should be flattered."

You unlocked your door and hurriedly took of your jacket and shoes.

"I know, but... I can't deal with it anymore." There was a crash heard somewhere in the background of the call, and Yeosang almost screamed.

"Oh my God! Did you break the closet door? Again?"

You barely held in your laugh.

"Sangie, go save your apartment before your boyfriend trashes it. And tell him I also don't have a clue what to wear, so I get it. Bye bye!"

His protests were cut off as you hung up, and you breathed a sigh of relief. Judging by Yeosang's stories, Wooyoung was a special character. Bowling might not sound as such a bad idea after all.

.

.

Of course they were late.

You spent the whole day getting ready, finally choosing a comfortable, but cute outfit you could move in. However, as always, you didn't bring a good enough jacket. Seonghwa would be disappointed in you, definitely. He always chastised you about forgetting to bring warm enough clothes as the weather was getting colder by the day.

They texted you today, telling you to have a great time, and reminding you one thing - You were theirs tomorrow. They wouldn't tell you anything more about the date, only that you should dress in some fancy clothes. Nothing major, but just so you know the vibe.

Before you could get too into your head, you heard the voice of your best friend.

"Hey Y/N! Sorry we're late, the queen had a last minute outfit change."

"I don't like the tone of your voice baby."

Your jaw almost hit the floor. Where on Earth did Yeosang manage to find himself such a hottie?

The man was a bit taller than you, almost Hongjoong's height. His black hair was a bit long, running wild in the wind, and you didn't know if he accidentally forgot to button all of his shirt buttons.

What impressed you was the unique colour of his eyes. They were almost... Purple? Like a dark gray with a slight hue. Maybe he wore contacts, because you've never seen anything like that before.

The handsome man turned towards you and smirked.

"Well hello there, you must be the lovely Y/N. Yeosang's been telling me a lot about you." He extended his hand and you reached for it. You thought it would be a simple handshake, but he lifted your hand and pressed a kiss on your knuckles.

"O-Oh... Yes, that's me. You're Wooyoung? Nice to finally meet you."

Before Wooyoung could open his mouth, your best friend grabbed you both and directed you towards the door of the bowling alley.

"We can chitchat inside, I'm freezing. Y/N! Where is your jacket?"

"Sorry, Sangie. I forgot it again, you know how I am."

He just shook his head.

"You and Woo can join the same club. This guy never wears a jacket, always borrows mine."

Wooyoung took Yeosang by the hand.

"Can't you see I have a hidden agenda going on?"

The boys looked at each other, and you almost swooned. There was a certain spark between them, and you could tell Yeosang was genuinely happy to be with him.

The three of you changed your shoes and sat on one of the tables in the back. Wooyoung was in charge of drinks, and it gave you a minute alone with your friend.

"So, what do you think? He's a bit... Out there, but he's a good person."

You smiled. "I think he's perfect for you. I've never seen you get so red before, your face is on fire!" He lightly patted his cheeks, feeling embarrassed.

"Oh, Sangie... Love looks good on you." You took his hands in yours, and he glanced at them, looking confused.

"Where's your million dollar bracelet at? You haven't left the house without it since your admirers gave it to you."

You glanced at your bare wrist. "It's in my bag. I took it off as a precaution, you know how clumsy I get."

He nodded. "Good choice."

"I'm back, did you miss me? I brought drinks!"

Wooyoung slid into the seat beside his boyfriend and placed his arm across his shoulders.

"So, Y/N. Yeosang tells me you own a shop? You sell antiques?"

You nodded and the conversation began flowing easily. Wooyoung was laid back, and he shared many stories about his travels abroad. You didn't quite catch what he did for a living, but judging by his jewellery, it was well payed.

Bowling wasn't as difficult as it looked, and with a little help from the boys, you managed to score one strike. It may not be much for someone, but you were overjoyed. You couldn't wait to brag about it in front of Hongjoong and Seonghwa.

Speaking about them, you wondered how they'd get along with Wooyoung and Yeosang. You kind of thought about it for a second, and it was a nice picture.

"Where did you wander off to?" Wooyoung asked.

You shook your head to clear your thoughts and waved him off.

"Nowhere important. I do this sometimes, sorry."

He smiled and glanced at his expensive watch afterwards.

"Hey, it's getting a bit late. Want to go grab something to eat? We can drive Y/N home afterwards." Yeosang nodded, looking over at you.

"Some food would be great. I'm exhausted, to be honest. Bowling is tough."

The three of you shared a laugh before going over to the front to change your shoes and pay for your drinks.

You glanced at your phone seeing messages from Seonghwa asking if you needed a ride home. He was clearly sad he didn't get to see you yesterday, so he wanted to make up for lost time. He'd just have to wait one more day. Typing out a quick response, you placed your phone in your bag. That's when you noticed your bracelet inside.

"Hey Sangie, help me out, you know I can't do a clasp on my own."

You took the bracelet out, and before Yeosang could even come close, Wooyoung was in front of you.

The air suddenly shifted.

"Y/N... Where did you get this?"

Wooyoung grabbed your hand to take a closer look, and you were surprised at how strong his grip was.

"Y/N! How do you have this?"

Yeosang was in shock, as were you. He stepped closer to Wooyoung, trying to talk to him.

"Baby, let Y/N go. She'll tell you, just take it easy. It's a stupid bracelet."

Wooyoung's eyes never left yours, and it seemed like he didn't even register Yeosang's words.

"I-It was a gift."

His purple eyes bore into yours, so intense it brought a sting of tears to your own. His grip had yet to loosen.

"Who gave it to you? I won't ask again."

What on Earth was going on? Yeosang tried pulling his boyfriend to the side, but he wouldn't budge.

"H-His name is S-Seonghwa. Please let me go."

As if he was struck by lightning, he jumped away from you, and his eyes almost bulging out of his head. He realised how he was behaving, and his heart shattered when he saw you clutching your wrist against your chest.

"Wooyoung, I love you, but you have to go now."

Both of you looked at Yeosang, face as cold as stone. Wooyoung's really fucked it now.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry Y/N. I can't... Yeosang, I..."

You shook your head, gripping Yeosang's arm to make him look at you.

"Sangie, it's okay. I'm fine. Come on, it must have been a misunderstanding. We were about to go eat, right?"

Yeosang glanced at you, seemingly crestfallen.

"I'm not hungry anymore. Wooyoung, it's best if you leave. We'll talk tomorrow, I have to take my friend home."

Wooyoung's expression matched the one of a kicked puppy. You didn't want this to ruin anything between them, so you shook your head again.

"No, don't worry about it, I can get a ride. You two go on home. Everything's fine. Wooyoung, I'm sure you have a good reason for this behaviour, but forgive me, I'd like to hear it another time."

You pushed Yeosang towards his boyfriend, and he was about to protest before he saw your face. You were pleading with him to go, to not ruin something special he found. Wooyoung looked like he was about to cry, and you were certain there was a good explanation for everything.

The boys looked at each other, and Yeosang reluctantly nodded.

"Please text me when you get home. I assume one of the lover boys will get you there safely."

You smiled slightly. "Your guess would be right. Now, go. I had a great time tonight. Wooyoung?"

He looked at you, seemingly ready to fall to his knees and beg for forgiveness.

"Everything is going to be okay. We'll talk, alright?"

Wooyoung couldn't believe you were real. If you somehow got this bracelet as a gift, from none other than Seonghwa, it must mean you were special to them.

Oh, he's going to be in some hot water once they hear he's back in town.

He nodded, lightly placing a hand on Yeosang's waist and guiding him to the car.

"Thank you, Y/N. You're truly... Thank you."

You nodded, and off they went. The tension was clear, and you hoped they wouldn't get into an arguement over this.

They drove off, and you took your phone again, dialing a number you now remember by heart. Not even two rings later, he picked up.

"Doll? Is everything okay?"

"Hi, Seognhwa. How about that ride?"

.

.

In the process of editing, so bare with me!

Lots of love, and happy reading X

[koiiiji]

finishing ur requests? uum no. another idea nobody asked about? yes pls💯💯

wooin x sis!reader (platonic)

author’s note : after last chapter i had this headcanon in my head. i suspect that wooin grew up in toxic household where his parents make him study, locking him up in his room, but boy probably was dreaming about just be free, and once left home. i also suspect his family probably has the same wealth as minu, but his parents way more toxic and controlling. but when he left home he left his part there, the part of his soul.

honesty 1000% in love how some ppl just ignored my closed inbox and keep sent requests🤣🤍🫵🏻 seriously guys, the best!! i will answer all requests, almost all is in process(i mean at least 20-40% already done) but now enjoying my time at home😌💌🔒

warnings : no(?) lil fluff, lil angst, nothing hardcore, prob grammar mistakes(not proofed as all my writings)

༘⋆ wooin is older sibling 100%

༘⋆ when his parents told him he will have a sister, when he was 3 or 4 he was jealous, and whole 9 months he waited for someone who will ruin his life

༘⋆ but instead, when your father brought you and your mum to home from hospital, wooin was confused

༘⋆ he only saw a small girl, no one who could harm him in any way

༘⋆ your first ever smile was for him, or because of him by the way!! and he blushed so so much when your small hand clung to his index finger

༘⋆ so he built a soft spot for you in his heart in two years, because first years you’ve been crying, screaming and sobbing mess, well like all toddlers, while wooin was saying that he was too old to babysit you (bro was like 5-6 years old and crying himself to sleep bc didn’t understand how 10*10 equals 100 and 11*11 didn’t equal 111)

༘⋆ btw you were always silent when he was babysitting you. he chuckled each time when you looked at him with wide open eyes

༘⋆ through his childhood your parents were extremely strict with him, so he partly grateful to you for the fact that you took some attention on yourself and gave him the opportunity to be free from his studies and lectures from your parents for a while

༘⋆ but each year atmosphere in your home becomes more toxic, and when you grow up a little you could remember how wooin was locked in his room to study better, because he didn’t have acceptable marks

༘⋆ but you would always sneak in his room late at night, with your saved from the morning sweets and share some with him

༘⋆ you both favorite was lollipops with lemon favors tho!!

༘⋆ when you were about 13 years old, wooin left the house, he was 17

༘⋆ no need to say that your parents were furious. especially your father. in korea it’s common that son is inherits family business or work, so it’s always been a big scandal over his marks, behavior and look

༘⋆ so when he left, for you it meant that all the attention and rigor of your parents were transferred to you

༘⋆ atter the first couple of months of your brother's absence, he found the strength to meet with you

༘⋆ wooin knew perfectly that parents rage will reflect on you, and honestly he were scared - that you will hate him

༘⋆ when he met you near your school, he froze for few seconds and then hugged you so tight that you thought he was about to break your ribs (you returned him that favor)

༘⋆ you two always were close, wooin was your freshness in a house full of stuffy, stagnant air, while you was his little sunshine of hope and happiness in his dark, locked room

༘⋆ you didn’t have a lot of time after your school, so you just hugged tightly and exchanged phone numbers, so you could stay in touch

༘⋆ few days after you find the way to sneak out of the house to meet with your brother you spend few hours on a bench talking and listening to each other

༘⋆ - how are the relatives? on a scale of one to fucked up, how angry were they?

- fucked up in a cube, you know our dad, he wasn't just furious, from the screams from their room, i think he literally lost his temper

༘⋆ wooin just chuckled sadly and rubbed his neck with the palm of his hand

༘⋆ as the years passed, your nightly meetings continued. sometimes he would catch you after school or another after-school club where your parents had put you

༘⋆ wooin offered you to run away to him several times. by your senior year in school, he was self-supporting, and he even had some white-haired giant working for him, constantly pining after him

༘⋆ somehow you refused, deciding to finish school first and then he promised to help you with either work or university, depends on what you will choose

༘⋆ yes, guys from sabbath know you

༘⋆ yes, heyok once caught you two hugging

*wooin pressed his lips on top of your head, tightly shutting his eyes, frowning a little, he didn’t know when he will see you again, because he knew, in exam session parents won’t let you have a free second*

༘⋆ in first place heyok though you two dating, but then joker explained him how things actually going(my headcanon that they gossip girls, frfr)

༘⋆ since you hanged out with wooin you caught your brother’s manners of jokes

༘⋆ “hey, big bro, does that new red haired guy in your team have a girlfri..”

“don’t you even dare to finish this sentence” he exclaimed indignantly. no way his precious little sis will deal with that motherfucker.

[chrisbesitos]

Chris helping when young reader is stressing over university, pretty please?????

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀this is me trying.

( warnings: fluff, cursing, stress (?).

( synopsis: y/n has being struggling with stress because of the university and chris helps her.

Books, papers, pencil and pens. All over Y/N's desk, a pretty mess of study material because of a very important exam. She has three weeks to study, but for some reason, her mind can't relax, not until she gets ready for the exam. This is consuming her mind, she can't eat, she can't sleep, she can't live. She can't even cry, because with tears in her eyes, she can't read her papers.

This is unhealthy, yes, but she can't stop. She doesn't know how, if she knows she's getting crazy, she just doesn't know how to take a break and breathe.

She's been in the room for the whole day, it's 6 pm and Chris doesn't even know if she ate something. He has been out for a meeting earlier, he warns Y/N, he told her to take a break and eat. But her breakfast was still untouched on the table, not even a crumble was gone.

Chris hates her exams weeks, because he feels like she's losing her mind and he's slowly losing his girlfriend. Chris gets out to record car videos and she's still in the same place, he gets ready to sleep and she's there, talking alone about numbers and math. Y/N is smart, the smartest girl Chris ever know, but her insecure mind fuck with her all the time. Lately, Chris just can sleep when he realizes she's passed out on the desk, so he puts her on the bed, but after a couple hours she's awake again.

He moves towards his room, Y/N is there with her nose on her books. He walks carefully, Chris touches her shoulders and she jumps.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, doll." He whispered, Y/N nodded, she gave to him a small grin and turned back to her study. Chris sighed, he frowned his eyebrows, he was really worried about her. "Doll, how long have you been here?"

"I'm studying, Chris." She said, impatient. Chris opened his mouth, but nothing came out, because he's not accustomed to this behavior from her. Y/N took a breath, Chris noticed how fail was her breathing. "I'm sorry, baby, I didn't mean to. But you're really disturbing me right now."

"What's the last time you ate something? Did you have at least water today?" Chris held Y/N's pen in her hand, he spined the computer chair, now Y/N is facing Chris.

Black bags underneath her tired eyes, any one could see how tired she was, not only Chris. He wishes she could see what she's doing with her. Chris caresses her cheek, giving her an upset look, Y/N makes a pout on her lips, she hates to see his boyfriend sad.

"I can't stop." She whispered, he could barely hear her crying voice.

"You have to. Doll, this is not healthy." Chris kneeled on the ground, he held her hands hard and put it on his chest. "You're not eating properly, not sleeping right, all you do is fucking math. You have to give a break to your little head, or else you're gonna break."

Her underlip trembled and tears began to get formed on her eyes, fat tears started to roll down her cheek and she started to sob uncontrollably. Her shoulders shake as she body too, she couldn't handle it anymore. Chris lifted and hugged her weak body, she shrank herself into his arms as she sobs loudly. He carried her on his arms until the bed, where he sits with Y/N on his lap, caressing her back and letting her put all her pain and tiredness out.

"Jus' let it out, I'm right here." Chris whispered in her ear, his voice in a low and calm tone. "I'm gonna hold you, doll. I'm not going anywhere."

Y/N took almost a hour to stop crying, she's still sobbing lightly when she's lifted her head and looked at Chris. Her face was wet by her tears and her nose was running, Chris' lips leaned upward in a small smile as he grabbed the tissue box on the nightstand from when Y/N was sick and Chris bought for her nose.

He helped her with her nose, after this, he pressed her lips on her forehead on a gentle kiss. Chris rocked her in his arms, caressing her back.

"I didn't know how to stop, I feel like if I stop, I'll fail my exam." Her voice cracked again, Chris massaged her scalp to calm her down. "I'm so tired, my head hurts and so do my stomach. I wanted help, but I don't know how to ask."

"I know how college can be stressful and your mind tricks you, makes you think you're gonna fail, but you're so smart. You work so hard, I can see your effort." Chris said, he offered a gentle smile. "You just need to learn how to study in a healthier way, no more be without eating and sleeping, you get it? We can work it together, I'm here to help you, I'm always here."

"I love you, baby." Y/N said, embracing her arms on his waist. Chris kissed her hair. "Thank you for being here for me."

"I'll always be here with you, I'm never gonna leave, 'kay?"

After this, Chris carried Y/N towards the kitchen, he prepared a quickly meal for her. While she eats, Chris cleans the mess from the desk, then he returns and carries her back to the room. He put on Y/N's favorite show, laying in the bed with her laying on his body, like she usually do. She didn't take too much to fast asleep, she was really tired. By the end of the night, Chris was happy that now she'll try to get a better study routine and Y/N was happy knowing her boyfriend will always be by her side.

please chris, help me with my college stress

tags ; @lizzymacdonald06 @deliciousluminaryanchor @lushjunkie @sweetreliever @watercolorskyy @ivysturnss @brianna-grace12 @blahbel668 @gabri3la-sturns @strnlxlqve @stvrnzcherries @unknvhx @pvssychicken @all4l0vee @i4longhairchris @sluttybitchformattsturniolo

taglist | masterlist

[redgoldsparks]

I went all out for Hourly Comics Day 2025! These took between 6-7 hours to draw across three days, and then another at least hour to scan and edit which I wasn't in the mood to do which is why they are a week late lol. Had a wonderful time at Lumacon though and I'm glad I was able to document it! Transcript below the cut :)

insta / patreon / portfolio / etsy / my books / print store / bluesky

Page 1

7:50am: Alarm goes off

Morning phone: check eSIMs, insta, discord, Spanish vocab 

El tiene pelo largo 

Jonathan Van Ness, is that you…?

Drops App 

8am: My friends gave me a delicious new black tea that’s very easy to over steep 

3 minutes seemed too long, but 2:30 was a bit weak… I’ll try 2:45… 

Honestly, I prefer a tea where I can leave the bag in the whole time I drink the cup… 

For the first time in many years I’m actually doing something cool on hourly comics day! Today is Lumacon! This is the show’s 11th year- I think I’ve only missed 1. For the first time, it’s raining on con day!

Page 2

I’m so glad we had another avocado!

This bagel was so chunky I cut it into perfect thirds. Perfection

It’s so rare that I’m awake before my parents… SIP

Should I write about Larrupin sauce? My friend Alina buys this for me up in Humboldt since it’s hard to find… 

Every object/moment suggests a story when I’m paying attention! 

8 to 9am

Page 3 

Pick up Martina! Very cute raincoat (@martinamonster-art )

Chatting and Ateez on the drive 9 to 9:30

OMG why am I drawing cars :( 

LUMACON! 10-11AM 

My newest zine is a recruitment zine for Authors Against Book Bans (AABB). 

I zero in on folks I know to be authors–

Maia: I want you– 

Author: Me? 

Maia: To join AABB! (info zine)

Author: Oh thanks! I will! 

Maia: This zine is so fun to hand out!

Page 4 

Teen: Thank you so much for writing Gender Queen. I gave it to my mom and she credits it for a lot of her understanding. I came out as gender queer a year ago and she said “I love you.” I don’t know if that would have been possible without the book! 

Maia: Thank you for saying that! 

Different teen: I want to buy a copy of your book but I need to make more sales first. 

Maia: Where’s your table? 

Teen: Behind you 

Look. 

I spot some of the cutest round crochet bois I’ve ever seen including a nonbinary bee

Maia: Can I please trade you a book for that bee?! 

Teen: OMG yes! 

You know it’s a good trade when both parties think they got the better deal! 

12pm 

Page 5

I check in with Anna (@thebeanbaguette) 1pm 

Maia: How’s the con so far? 

Anna: Really good! I love how many furries are here! 

Maia: Oh yeah it’s fun

Maia: I had never seen the skull fursuit head before this show… for the size event it’s impressive furry turn out 

Cute goth/pastel couple 

Anna: To be honest, I’d love to get a fursuit head one day… and the hands! 

Anna: But I don’t know what animal…

(Table is covered in cute rats)

Later, another friend comments 

Cynthia: So many furries here! 

Maia: Yes, the per capita is very high… sign of a healthy ecosystem! 

(we all wore masks all day I just forgot to draw them) 

Page 6 

My friend Nic comes to visit & cover my table during my lunch break- 2pm

Nic: Don’t worry I’ll do my best impersonation of you! I’ll even sign books with your name!

Maia: Okay, great, thanks!

Maia: (Has not had water, snack or bathroom break in 6 hours)

Later we chat with Gio, another friend about knowing when a story is done

Maia: I had a publisher reject a pitch basically saying “this isn’t fully baked yet” which… was true. 

Nic: Unfortunately I’m doing that to myself! I’m on the 4th draft of this short story that just needs to be done. 

Gio: But when it’s a personal project how do you know? 

Gio: When it’s my own work, no deadline, no editor, it’s tempting to just keep putting it back in the oven. But at what point are you like, I’m making crackers. I thought it was bread but it turned into crackers! 

Page 7

3-4pm last hour of the con

My parents came! My Taekwondo teacher came! A trans teen who came to my first Gender Queer event in 2019 came! I saw so many friends & my heart is full! Thank you Luma! 

4:30

Maia: I think I’m ready to go…

Table: EMPTY

Martina: Me too! 

Maia & Martina: LOOK 

Anna- nothing packed, stuff fully out

Anna: Haha, you go! I pack slowly! 

In the parking lot & rain 

Maia: I’m really glad you came! 

Martina: Thanks for talking me into it! 

Martina: You’ve been manifesting this since September! 

Maia: Haha yes, 

(I talked both Martina & Anna into applying for this show; Martina’s first zinefest table! 

Page 8

5pm I drive home 

after all the rain, the ditches & fields are flooded 

Maia (texting): I just got home

Anna (texting): I haven’t left the venue yet

Page 9

6pm I should be unpacking but I’m lying in bed looking at my phone! 

Maia: Wow so many hourlies! I haven’t even started! I’d rather read them on tumblr & patreon later. How is my finch doing? 

Nic incepted our entire friend group into the finch app back in January. I’m pretty hooked. In the finch app you make a little bird persona who travels the world & gains experiences. You give it energy & earn points by crossing items off your to do list & completing self care tasks like stretching or drinking water. 

Maia: To be honest, I don’t really need an app to help me do tasks. But look how cute my bird is!!! Also! You can get pets for your bird! I have five! Owl, seal, caribou, ball of fluff, cow

Later, I pet my real cat. 

Maia: Don’t worry you are my actual favorite pet. 

Page 10 

7pm: Dinner with my parents. Big salad, fried tofu. We talk about clay deposits in odd places. 

My dad: There’s that Bentonite clay at Shell Beach! That’s the kind you want for poison oak rashes. 

My mom: And the deposit at school by the office, some teachers have kids use that for crafts. 

8pm: Formatting my January book reviews

I really like the monthly wrap-ups that Storygraph generates. 

Books: 11 Pages: 2855 Average Rating: 3.91

LGBTQIA: 5 Fantasy: 4 Comic: 4 Contemporary: 3 Romance: 3

9pm: I fall into the trap of looking at the news which I’ve avoided all day. Escape to tumblr where I discover some amazing Ranma ½ fanart. Should I reread it? 

10-12am: I draw the first 4 pages of these comics then go to bed! 

In total, drawing these takes 6 or 7 hours across 3 days. -Maia Kobabe 2025