#today i offer you this. tomorrow. probably some drawings. if no car hits me

[wszczebrzyszynie]

fuck this stupid baka life. my anime girl edit collection

[happyselves]

Disaster qualification ( A Portimao story ) { Daniel Ricciardo x reader }

You were searching for your best friend Daniel in the paddock and garage of Mclaren, but he was nowhere to be found, you even asked a mechanic and some journalist. It wasn't his kind to leave like that and he wasn't answering his phone, but after that terrible qualification where he didn't pass through Q1, you weren't surprised. He needed a break, he was feeling pressure and anxious and you never saw him like that before, of course he knew that he needed time to adapt his driving style adn himself to his new car to make it one ,but he was starting to feel depressed as it wasn't going as fast as he thought. That's a thing you like in Daniel, he will always have that competitive side in him even after 10 years doing the job. His determination was always there, but he needed things to go as he planned otherwise he was starting to doubt himself and everything was starting to go downhill. You knew that he needed just a little push, a little sign that he was doing something good and he was evolving or going in the right way, it was a matter of time but he was so stubborn and impatient.

After more than an hour of searching for him you find his engineer who told you that he was quiet the whole debrief and just mumbled a quick " I'm going back to the hotel ". So that's where he was, back in the hotel, probably at the gym hitting the frustration away on some punching ball perhaps. His engineer asked you if you wanted to take the ride to go back to the hotel with them since he left you all alone in the paddock. You couldn't believe he let you there, even Michael. You needed to have a talk with him too after you find Daniel and scold him as well.

Arriving in the hotel lobby you ask at the front desk where the gym was and they show you the direction, but when you enter it, no trace of Daniel or MIchael, well there must be only one place he could be and you were heading to eat now. You knock on his bedroom door, once, twice and one last time before remembering that he actually gave you one spare key if you needed anything, you didn't really know why he did but right now you were glad he did as you opened the door. It was dark, all the countain were close and only an ambiance light was on, and then you find him, sitting on the floor, only wearing a long shirt and his boxers, the rest of his clothes messy on the floor. He didn't even look up when he heard someone coming in, perfectly knowing it was you, plus he was to focus on his big tub of ice cream that was already halfway through eaten. You silently sit next to him, your head laying on the edge of the bed, watching the ceiling. You didn't have to wait long for him to offer you his spoon for you to take some of his vanilla ice cream. Vanilla ... so cliche yet you knew that when he was feeling down it was always the one it would choose because it was a safe choice. You took the spoon and dug it in the melted ice cream before bringing it to your lips, where he finally looked at you.

" Are you here to scold me or to witness my misery ? " he asks you, almost lost in his mind as his eyes focus on your lips where some vanilla fell down the spoon, he licked his own lips as he was waiting for you to answer.

" I don't know, I was going to kick your ass for forgetting me at the track then ice cream came into the party so I guess you already know what I think of what you did, right ? " You were now going to sit straight in front of him.

" I fucked up ... " he was defeated, like he lost hope and belief in him and it never happened to him before, maybe once or twice in his career but not recently, not when everyone including him knows how great of a driver he is. It's like your heart broke at the sight of him like this.

" You know that didn't mean anything, you will be better tomorrow, I know you know it too." You tried to reassure him, putting your hands on his knees, searching for his gaze, but you felt it didn't really work this time.

" No, look at the reality, I still can't do anything in this car, I don't know why, that's not them it's me and I'm scared I won't be able to deliver what I promised them" Yes you definitely never saw him like that, the team wasn't really putting pressure on him, they knew he needed time and everyone one else, if there were someone to blame here, that would be the media here, you were sure of it, Daniel isn't someone to give up, even when it hurts, he take the punch and fight back silently if he needs to, showing everyone the flame he had in him the next day. The flame wasn't here right now, you were searching for it as he finally locked eyes with you, but it was nowhere to be found. How will you be able to bring it back ?

" Daniel ... look at me " you took the ice cream tub away from his hands to put it as far on the floor as possible. Your hands find his face directly after that, taking his cheeks in your palm to force him to face you.

" You are Daniel Ricciardo, you are not done at all and you will get up and do better tomorrow, this qualification didn't mean anything even your team isn't mad about it, Daniel don't start to listen to the media again, you know they are just trying to write on blank paper because they don't have better story to feed themselves with. You are better than this and you need to believe in yourself the same way I believe in you, otherwise you might just quit then and we both know you are not a quitter. " This long motivational sentence felt more like a declaration to your friend and by the way his eyes showed a bit of sparkle, you knew you had reached him there. His eyes were focused on yours and you felt they were piercing your soul making you suddenly feel very shy, your own cheeks blushing. You didn't let go of Daniel's face, blown away by how handsome he was in this moment, so vulnerable under your touch. The new emotion you were discovering of him was drawing new lines on his beautiful face, making him even more mesmerizing. Your fingers were caressing his skin like he was the most precious thing in the world. These tired lines make him slightly older than he was but you find it charming. His eyes shut at the touch and he let a long breath he has been holding for long leave his chest. Your index finds his eyelid, touching and examining every little detail of your best friend. You never did that before with him, with anyone else for that matter and it felt so intimate yet you couldn't stop and the most important thing was that you didn't want to anyway.

His hands find yours, placing them on top of it and taking them in as he opens back his eyes, his lips brushing your fingers to kiss them as what you find to be a thankful gesture.

" You always know what to say to me, no matter what you are always here for me even when I am trying to push you away far to not hurt you " His sincerity knocked you, was he thinking that he was hurting you ?

" You didn't hurt me Daniel, what hurt me is seeing you like this and not being able to do much to make you feel better, I want to do so much for you, that might sound selfish, but just to be able to see that beautiful smile of you, I would do anything " You were entering a dangerous category here and you didn't know if it was something a friend would say in normal term. The last phrase piqued his curiosity and you saw it had his eyes change radically.

" Anything ? " Your hands were still locked in his, he was caressing your skin with his thumb until the pressure felt more firm and he brought you closer to him, making you lose balance and almost fell on his chest. It was dangerous and you like it, you never thought of him this way but the possibility of something more with him just smash open a door in your brain. You didn't know if you should let everything go as it comes or stop it right now before it's too late. Your brain couldn't think at all, not like your pounding heart in your chest.

" anything ... yes " He didn't have the time to act before you close the gap between you two and catch his lips. It was just a peck but that was enough for him to freeze, not moving an inch before he realised what was happening.

That's where his lips react on their own and kiss you back, deepening the kiss, releasing all the passion he didn't know he had for you. The texture of your lips throwing him off the edge, the vanilla taste of the ice cream still on your lips. He let go of your hands to catch your thighs, making you uncross them to straddle him and being even more close to his body. Your hands find their perfect place on the back of his neck and head, playing with the dark curls of his hair. You feel like time has stopped and all the anxiety was leaving Daniel's body, you were like a medicine to him. Healing him from all his worries, nothing matters in this instant, not the race tomorrow or the qualification that he had today or even the consequences of it, just you ... only you. It took you all the courage in you to break the kiss and make him look at you, because he didn't know why you stopped it since it was feeling so good and so right.

" Daniel ... " The words were stuck in your throat, you didn't even remember what you wanted to say as his eyes laid on you, if you didn't know him better you would have said that he was very adorable, but no he was doing his puppy face with his swallowed lips from the kiss. .You know exactly what he was trying to do and it's not the change of dynamics in your relationship that will erase his behavior when he wants something. He wanted you to write on his face, he could even try to hide it and he didn't want to, that's why his hands were now finding their way sneakily under your shirt, like you wouldn't notice.

" You need to rest, we have all the time to continue << this >> another time, but it's late and you need to rest " You were poking his chest, making him giggle. If he was asking you if you wanted to continue this, you weren't sure that you would be capable of saying no, but he gladly asked something else.

" Then, stay with me, sleep in my bed tonight, just tonight ... I don't want to be alone " Puppy eyes ... again and your heart melts ... again. How were you able to resist him before ? Since your lips touch his it was impossible now, your brain wasn't thinking and your body couldn't be in total control around him.

" Okay I will stay ... if you promise me to behave '' He lifts his hands up in the air looking like an innocent baby, mimicking with his fingers an invisible zip on his lips.

You both got in bed, you borrowed one of his shirts and decided to only wear it with your panty. You fell asleep easily in each other's arms,but it's later in the night when you turn that you felt Daniel spooning behind you, grabbing one of your breasts with one hand, the other one grabbing you by the waist to get closer. His breath in your neck, sensing your scent before leaving some butterflies to kiss. He was definitely awake and was now lifting your shirt to feel your skin. You were in a state where you weren't awake but aware of what was happening. You tried your best to hide the smile that was forming on your face but it was impossible when your new lover was making it very clear he wanted you. Slightly opening your eyes, it was still dark outside which could only mean it was too early to wake up and that you should both sleep again, especially him since he had to race tomorrow and he couldn't lose sleep even if you both wanted to explore each other's bodies for the remainder of the night. You hummed a quick moan before turning to face him, you could barely see his figure in the dark but you could imagine how he was hungrily watching you. Touching his lips with your fingers you feel his teeth biting his down lips. He was definitely leaning toward your touch like he never had someone come in physical contact with him tenderly.

" Daniel ..." was the only thing your tired voice could say before the breath you were holding released itself. " You have the race tomorrow ", you poke his chest with your finger, trying to distance yourself from his warm embrace.

" I don't care, what matters to me now is you ", he caresses your cheeks from the palm of his head before letting it hang on the side of your neck. One movement toward him and your lips would meet again.

" You don't think about the race because you are tired, and that's exactly why I've made you promise to behave", you whispered that last part, thankful the dark was hiding your cheeks burning at the idea of him and you. After what felt like an eternity, but just a couple of seconds in real silence you heard him lick his lips and he moved away from you, putting a physical distance between your two bodies like an act of resistance from him.

" You're right ... ", it wasn't sadness or disappointment in his voice, more like his inner voice of reason making an apparition in his blurry thought,blind by lust until now.

" Trust me I want you just as much, I've just find you, we are finally on the same page, and I promise you that I am fighting just as much as you right now not to touch you and have you only for me ", you rambled and he shush you just as quick as your word coming out of your mouth.

A sigh came out of his mouth and you felt him sniffing his body on the back, his eyes looking at the nonexistent ceiling in the dark. He searches your hand to tranglying your fingers together and keeps the contact between you. You soon after did the same and you were now two idiots looking at nothing, your eyes not finding anything to focus on and they shut themselves to rest.

You fell asleep like this, side by side, holding hands, frustrated to not have given to the pulsion you both had.

The brightness of the room was what woke you, it was hard to open your eyes and when you did, the light and the tiredness of your eyes blinded your vision, a tear forming on the corner of one eye was soon to be wrapped away by a finger. His finger, he was awake, sitting on the side of the bed, already ready to leave for the paddock.

" Hello beautiful ", he said and his voice could be compared to that of an angel. " I've got to run for debrief but you can stay in a bit longer if you want, I ordered breakfast for you it shouldn't be long to arrive ", he was so careful, you hadn't really clarified the relation between the two of you, but was the word couple needed when he was already being so perfect ? You knew it wasn't an act for your new dynamics because he was already like that before. He kissed you on the cheek and stood up, you were already missing him and he wasn't even gone yet.

" mmh, give me an hour and I will join you ", your sleepy voice made him smile so bright that it was competing with the sun to know which one will warm your heart the most.

" See you there ", was the last thing he said before he disappeared in the hallway, closing the door behind him.

That day he end up p9 which was a huge work from him and the team after the knock out in q1 from yesterday. You felt proud of him even if he wasn't feeling the car like his own yet. You Saw him briefly after the race, when he offered you a hug and a small kiss on the lips, a kiss that felt like a thank you for always being there for him and putting his needs before yours. Thank you for being the best friend he needed, the ears who listen to his complain and the voice of reason in his head. The person that will make him feel better no matter how down he feel. You both didn't needed words to express how last night change everything in your relationship but not so much in your friendship. You were evolving together and it was only the beginning of something beautiful that didn't need an end. A book you start reading but never end because there is no end. The only end you knew so far was the promising end of the day. He took time to whisper in your ears before leaving for his post-race interview.

Yes it was definitely an end you were looking forward to indeed.

MASTERLIST

[yurtletheturtlehenderson]

COSMIC - S1:E1; Chapter One, The Vanishing of Will Byers - [Pt. 2]

A Will Byers x Male!Reader Series

𝘖𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥'𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦, 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘨 𝘞𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘏𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘶𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘣𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦, 𝘢 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘰𝘧 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥.

|| 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐏𝐎𝐕 ||

The boys and I finally make it to school; my legs are always exhausted by the time we reach the student drop off.

I hear the bell ring when we park our bikes.

"That's weird. I don't see him." Mike finally says what we've all been thinking. 'Where the hell is Will?' Personally, I'm starting to get really worried.

As if catching onto my growing worries, Lucas chimes in.

"I'm telling you. His mom's right. He probably just went to class early again."

I always admired how Lucas can always be so optimistic with stuff like this; always thinking logically. He's really good at keeping the party level-headed. I tend to worry a lot so it's nice to have a friend like Lucas to keep my feet on the ground.

"Yeah, he's always paranoid Gursky's gonna give him another pop quiz."

"Well, I don't blame him. Gursky gives me pop quizzes all the time, and it's exhausting. Never knowing when you will be put on the spot" I say.

"Step right up, ladies and gentlemen."

'Oh just perfect. Troy and his goon'

"Step right up and get your tickets for the freak show," Troy says smugly.

I click my tongue and shake my head in a mocking tone.

"Oh, sorry guys but we actually can't make it today. By any chance, can we catch your act tomorrow?" I bat my eyelashes at them in innocence, the comment earning a few chuckles from Lucas, Mike, and Dustin.

Troy's face scrunched up in anger, clearly offended by my comeback.

"Hey, no one asked you, shithead!"

I roll my eyes at his cheap insult. However, the boys were having none of it, especially Dustin, as usual. They get into a threatening stance, while Dustin tries to lunge for them, but I put my arm out to stop them before they can even do anything.

"Guys, just ignore them. It doesn't matter to me. They're not even worth it."

Troy and his puppet James only seem amused.

"So who do you think would make more money in a freak show anyway?" Troy continues.

"Midnight," he punches Lucas. I clench my fists, my chest already burning with anger.

"Frogface," he punches Mike, and my jaw tightens so tight it threatens to lock.

"Orphan" he punched me. I took a deep breath trying to control my anger.

"Or toothless?" He shoves Dustin.

It's taking everything in me not to tackle him right now. I've always been like this. Whenever someone insults me, I'm able to brush it off, but as soon as someone goes after the people I care about, I lose it. Big time.

His goon sighs and holds his hand to his chin as he pretends to think about it while he looks at all of us. He then stops at Dustin and singles him out, in a voice that's clearly supposed to be Dustin's.

"I'd go with Toothless." My nails are probably drawing blood from my palms at this point.

"I told you a million times, my teeth are coming in. It's called cleidocranial dysplasia." Dustin says.

"I th'old you a million th'imes" he continues.

"Screw you," I shout, lunging for him. But before I could ever actually reach him, Dustin pulls me back, stopping me as I had him.

"Y/n, you were right. They aren't worth it."

They just laugh smugly in response. I grit my teeth and cross my arms.

"Do the arm thing."

"Do it, freak!"

"OH, I swear to GOD," I go to charge at him but Mike pulls me back and pats my back trying to calm me down. I glare daggers at the boys in front of me. I swear I'm seeing red and it feels as if my blood is literally boiling in veins.

"Y/n it's fine. Look, here," he sighs tiredly, putting down his backpack and taking off his jacket. He then extends his arms out and you can hear his bones crack. He then looks to the bullies pointedly and says, "There, I did it. Will you leave us alone now?"

The bullies groan in disgust and Troy says, "UGH. It gets me every time!" They laugh, shoving us aside roughly and walk away.

"Assholes," Lucas beat me to it.

"I think it's kinda cool," Mike offers, looking at Dustin. "It's like you have superpowers or something. Like Mr. Fantastic."

"Yeah, except I can't fight evil with it."

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

{Trigger Warning for Anxiety Attacks}

Troy and his friend had just left us alone, so the four of us began making our way to class. As we walk through the hallways, the three of them end up side by side by side next to each other while caught up in their conversation which at this point, had drifted to planning our next campaign. Normally I'd be all over it but I found myself drifting back and keeping to myself, my thoughts wandering to Will.

'I really hope he's okay. Ya know what? No, Lucas is right, as usual, he's got to be at class by now. He has to be.'

I try to push all the negative thoughts to the back of my mind as I try and focus on getting to the classroom as soon as possible just to prove to myself he's okay and I'm just overreacting. The four of us approach Mr. Clarke's room and I run ahead, no longer able to wait another second. I pop my head in the door and to my great dismay, he is nowhere to be seen. I take a deep breath, and stumble back, that familiar viscous feeling of a pit in my stomach. My anxiety is kicking in.

The boys look to each other in silence, all thinking the same thing.

'This is bad. Will would never skip. And he's not at home, so something must be very wrong.'

Before the boys get the chance to say anything, I slip away and walk quickly down the hall to the bathroom, my arms tucked into my sides defensively while my head is down. I always run to the bathroom to be alone when I have an anxiety attack. I can't be around people when it's this bad so I usually end up sitting in the stall, trying to calm down. The guys know I have anxiety attacks like this sometimes and I know they want to help, but they don't know how and that's fine.

When I reach the familiar stall, I slam it shut and sit on the edge of the seat and put my face in my hands as my elbows are propped up on my knees. My breathing is ragged and my eyes become soaked in tears as panic takes over my body. That familiar feeling of nausea returning. The endless 'what ifs' begin flooding my mind.

'What if he got hit by a car on his way home?'

'What if he got kidnapped?'

'What if... he's dead?'

Just the thought of never seeing my best friend ever again makes me wail. I'm rocking back and forth hugging my torso when I remember I have to take deep breaths or I might pass out. I try to remember to tell myself that I don't have all the information and that there has got to be some sort of explanation for all of this.

That it's just my anxiety talking. It's just brain noise. I just need to learn how to manage it.

I spend the next few minutes focusing on taking deep breathes, and after what feels like hours, I am finally breathing normally again.

I grab my bag which had been thrown to the ground during my attack and exit the stall. I stand in front of the mirror washing my hands and I look at my eyes which are now totally swollen from crying.

I reach down and splash some water on my face, and rub my eyes. Getting the remainder of the water off with a paper towel. As I look at my slightly improved reflection I take another deep breath and head to class. Pretending everything's normal and I hadn't just had a meltdown in the bathroom, as usual.

I pick up my pace as I shrug my shoulders to secure my backpack so it doesn't fall. I was lucky I was able to come down from my attack as quickly as I did because it seems I wasn't late like last time. It looks like I made it with just a minute to spare. I walk over to where the party and I usually sit. I think twice before sitting down next to Dustin.

I know at this point the boys are aware of the state I'm in judging by the looks of sympathy they are giving me. The state of my eyes and the fact I didn't take my normal seat next to Will's probably gave me away. I decided to take the seat in front of my usual so I don't have stare at Will's empty seat and be worrying all class. So as they say, out of sight out of mind. While waiting for class to start I try and think of different things to keep my mind off of Will, and my mind wanders the new Heathkit ham shack that was supposed to have come today.

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

❥ Let me know if you would like to be added to or removed from the taglist! ❥

[kuiinncedes]

just the keys to paradise

jatp au - prologue - part 1/15? - 1834 words

relationships: blaine & sam & tina & artie

okkkk we're doing it 🤪 idk how regularly i will update this (omg ongoing fic??? who is she) but i do have like technically a ~few~ chapters i guess done,,, and i am working on the next so . we're gonna try this lol

anyway if it wasn't clear this is an au based on the most amazing tv show ever with only 9 episodes pls watch or rewatch it on netflix the emmy-award winning julie and the phantoms !!! 🤪

that being said if you haven't watched it what are you doing jk i think you can still read this and hopefully it makes sense 😂 feel free to ask me if there's anything that doesn't make sense lol :)

also fyi in case it influences your decision to read: this will be more focused on platonic relationships for a while but will almost certainly have main endgames klaine, quinntina, and samcedes 😋

prologue title and lyrics in this part from "now or never" from the jatp soundtrack

plot and some dialogue from julie and the phantoms so like credit to all those creators and writers 🤪

warnings for this part: car accident, major character deaths (both of these are not actually in writing/"on screen" just implied at the end (especially within the context of this being a jatp au) and nothing really described -- if you want/need more details feel free to ask me)

read on ao3 or under the cut :D

--

1995

“Dudes, we fucking killed that !” Sam cheers when the smoke has cleared, going around and giving each of them something that could be called a high-five, just not to their hands. Tina laughs and cheers too as Sam excitedly taps her feet after she gets out from behind her kit, still elevated on the drum stage. Some of the workers applaud them from the audience space.

“Too bad we wasted that on the soundcheck,” Artie jokes, putting his guitar down and grabbing his water bottle. “That was the tightest we’ve ever played, yo!”

Tina grins and hops down from the drum platform. Sam slings an arm around her shoulders and she grabs his wrist. They’re both sweaty and too warm but she doesn’t mind having Sam’s heat pressed against her right side.

God, she thinks… that really was something else, even though it was just the soundcheck. She looks around at her bandmates’ faces -- shiny with sweat, red with exhilaration and exertion, bright with elation, eyes wide with excitement and --

Wow. They’re playing the Orpheum.

Blaine pats Artie on the back, jostling him enough to spill the water he’s trying to drink down the front of his shirt, but Artie just laughs -- he’s soaked with sweat anyway. They have spare clothes backstage just for this reason.

“Just wait until tonight, guys, when this place is packed with record execs,” Blaine says, looking out wonderingly into the empty (for now) audience. His grin widens almost imperceptibly, which is impressive considering how huge it already is.

“We’re gonna be legends!” the other three of them chorus, before Blaine can, and they laugh when he turns to them, affronted. “That’s my line!”

“It’s what you get for saying it ten times a day for the last month!” Tina teases. Blaine pushes her shoulder playfully, putting his hand within reach for Sam to grab. It’s a strange position considering Sam’s arm is still around Tina’s shoulders, but Tina adds her hand to their hold as Sam beckons Artie over from his side of the stage, barking out his name with joking anger.

Artie puts his water down and walks over to complete the group, placing his hand on top of Tina’s. “Tina, you were smokin’,” he says.

She rolls her eyes a little and grins back. “Pretty sure you’re just talking about the pyro. You guys were the ones on fire,” she says, pointing her drumsticks around at them.

“T, can you just own your awesomeness for once?” Blaine exclaims.

“Queen T!” Sam calls, pulling her closer into his side. She stumbles into him, laughing as the guys all start cheering it after Sam.

“Okay, okay! Thanks, guys, I got it!” she squeals, trying to get them to quiet down although -- they are in the Orpheum, where they’re playing later, it’s not like they have to be quiet -- while Sam leans his weight on her, causing them to stagger into the drum riser. Tina catches herself on it and Sam finally detaches from her and they’re still being loud and raucous and probably somewhat annoying to the staff, but she’s just laughing too hard to care.

“We’ve got an hour ‘til the show; I say we go celebrate before we become legends!” Blaine proclaims, jumping off the stage. The other three follow.

Tina starts, “Celebrate our last night of being -- ”

“Losers?” Artie interjects.

They’ve caught the attention of one of the Orpheum workers -- a woman with brown hair who’s wiping down the tables, smiling at them as Tina catches her eye. “There’s some nice restaurants around here,” she says with a wink. “You guys really killed it, by the way. But it seems like you know that.”

Blaine laughs, a little sheepishly. “Thanks. Uh, I’m Blaine,” he says. “This is -- ”

“Sam, hi!”

“Tina, how’s it going -- ”

“Artie, hey.”

Tina raises her eyebrows and stifles a laugh at Artie as he leans his sweaty arms onto the table that the woman just cleaned.

“We’re Sunset Curve!” Blaine says to complete their introduction.

“Tell your friends!” Sam calls, raising his voice and drawing the other workers’ attention to them. Tina elbows him lightly in the side.

“Nice to meet you,” the stranger says. “I’m Elle. So… what were you guys thinking for this -- what was it -- ‘celebration of your last night as losers’?”

“Well, we really can’t afford any nice places -- ” Sam starts.

“Oh, you know what? We should just go to Tip Top!” Blaine says, clapping his hands together. The others are quick to agree -- it’s the small, cheap diner where they spent the evening after their first “real” gig, and they’ve spent countless hours there since, annoying the staff and depleting their supply of plastic silverware. The employees there have learned to let them take what they legally can (and sometimes what they couldn’t), and the band is friendly with most of them. They haven’t been there in too long, having been working hard to get the Orpheum gig, and then writing and rehearsing like crazy once they got it.

Elle smiles as they excitedly and loudly recount stories of Tip Top to each other -- sentimental memories and the ridiculousness they got up to -- talking over each other and having multiple conversations at once.

“I guess you don’t need my recommendations?” she says lightly.

“Oh! Yeah, sorry, we’re good, thanks so much for offering,” Blaine answers, polite as ever.

“Have fun! Looking forward to seeing you guys perform again tonight.”

“Thank you!” the four of them exclaim as they make their way back to the exit. Tina yanks on the back of Artie’s shirt as he lingers at the table, a dumb look on his face that tells her he’s trying to flirt, or at least, his version of it.

“Tina!” Artie yelps and she laughs at the annoyed look on his face.

“You are not exempt from this last night of loser-dom celebration. You’re telling me you’d rather flirt with a girl than this?”

“Yes,” Artie grumbles. There’s no heat behind it, and Tina playfully pushes him sideways.

“Plus, we need you to drive.”

“You can drive!”

“Technically we all can drive!” Tina laughs at Artie’s horrified expression, probably at the prospect -- and memory -- of the one time Blaine drove them to a gig. “Just not your car!” she calls, jogging to catch up with Blaine and Sam, Artie running after her. “Your car is the fucking worst.”

“Don’t talk about her like that!”

“Blaine and Sam agree!”

That gets their attention and the two guys turn, Blaine asking, “What are we agreeing with?”

“I agree with Tina,” Sam says immediately. Tina nods gratefully at him.

“You don’t even know what we’re talking about!” Artie complains.

They’re at his beat-up car now and they pile in, Tina in the passenger seat laughing as Sam all but tackles Blaine into the backseat when he starts for the driver’s side, jostling her and Artie in the front. They continue shuffling around while Artie attempts to start the car, to many concerning -- but normal for his car -- noises.

“This thing is gonna go down and take us with it, Artie,” Tina mumbles teasingly, absentmindedly twirling a drumstick in her right hand. (She realizes too late that she probably should’ve left them at the Orpheum, but it’s not a big deal -- they’re not her favorite pair which are safe in their studio and she has extras backstage in case something happens to this pair while they’re out.)

The car finally starts with a rumble and Artie lets out a cheer. “We’re fine, T. Let’s go, y’all!”

“Floor it, Artie!” Sam calls from the back. The car accelerates comically slowly even as Artie presumably “floors it,” but they’re going somewhere.

After a few minutes, Tina finds herself unconsciously humming her solo in the bridge of “Now or Never,” only noticing when Sam interjects suddenly with his “Tomorrow!” leaning between the front seats and slightly startling her. She laughs and continues with the words, “‘Cause we got all we need today! ”

“Today!” Artie echoes, miming his guitar playing with one hand on the steering wheel.

“Living on a feeling that’s been running through our veins!” Blaine sings loudly, joining Sam in crowding into the front of the car.

“We’re the revolution that’s been singing in the rain!” It’s Sam’s line, but they all belt it at the top of their lungs together.

“That’s my line!” Sam exclaims at the same time that Blaine cheers, “My favorite line!” Tina continues to clap the beat for the next part of the song, Artie hitting the steering wheel in rhythm with her. Her face hurts from smiling.

“Artie, dude, where’d you go?” Blaine asks suddenly. Tina looks around at their slowly darkening surroundings that are completely unfamiliar. Slight panic rises in her stomach but she swallows it down; she’s with her boys, they’re safe, just a little lost.

Sam bursts out in uproarious laughter as Artie complains, “You guys distracted me!”

“Told you I should’ve driven!” Blaine says. He leans forward again and Sam follows. Tina stays quiet, pressing herself against the door a little to make room; her boys aren’t that much better but she’s always been completely hopeless with navigation and directions.

“You would’ve gotten even more distracted from singing and veered us right into a fucking building,” Artie grumbles, but he obeys as Blaine directs him to turn left and chooses to ignore his comment.

“Safe driving, am I right, dudes?” Sam cackles as he returns to the backseat, and Tina can’t help but laugh with him. “We’re gonna miss our gig, that’s how we’ll be legends!”

“‘Sunset Curve Skips Orpheum Showcase For No Reason’?” Tina suggests, turning around in her seat to face Sam.

He points at her. “Exactly. Or, 'Sunset Curve Skips Orpheum Showcase Because They Don't Know How To Drive.' The end of a promising career,” he jokes somberly. “No one would ever book them again.”

They fall silent and only the mutters of Blaine and Artie fill the car, along with the loud engine.

“Still haven’t figured it out yet?” Sam groans loudly, laying on his back across the backseats as Blaine is leaning awkwardly out of his seat to help Artie navigate.

“Not like you’re helping!” Artie says.

“That’s the street!” Blaine exclaims, pointing ahead. “The next intersection.”

“Give it up for Mr. Blaine Anderson, everyone,” Artie drawls, speeding up the car a little bit. “Perhaps not able to drive, but navigator extraordinaire.”

“You chose the wrong career path, dude,” Sam says, propping himself up on one elbow to clap Blaine’s shoulder. “Like, songwriting?”

Blaine looks down at him, raising an eyebrow. “Songwriting?” He gestures for Sam to continue.

Sam shrugs, sitting up finally. “Just, you know, songwriting, bro…" His gaze suddenly shifts and fixes at a point beyond Tina. "What th-- that car Artie!”

Tina snaps her gaze away from Sam just in time to see him yank Blaine down into his seat and the set of blinding headlights through the car windows in her periphery.

---

as a final note, i'm not sure if it can be seen this way but i'm not trying to erase artie's disability or anything and i believe i'm not doing that; as you might be able to guess, the car accident at the end of this is what paralyzes him, like in glee canon but just several years later (in his life not in actual time). please let me know if any aspect of this is disrespectful or anything <3

[whatifxwereyou]

Ashes Chapter 2: Buried Deep

Mortal Kombat 2021: Liu Kang x Reader

Some more angst with this delightful broken version of Liu Kang I've created here Lol. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I enjoy writing it. They're a fuckin' mess. Obviously, still spoilers from the movie <3 thanks for reading. love u. This one is going to update Wednes/Sun cause I'm goin out of town on wednesday~~

First Chapter Next Chapter >> Chapter Index

The ride to the reservation was about as bad as you expected it to be. Silent and awkward. You wouldn’t even look at each other. You had no idea which reason it was that had brought you to that level of awkwardness. Kung Lao’s death? Your grief? The straight up pornography you’d lived while you were drunk last night? Hell, it could have just been your upset stomachs. Or all of the above. When you got out of the car, you had never been more thankful to breathe fresh air. Even the driver had felt your tension.

The walk around the reservation together hadn’t been great either. Liu Kang had almost nothing to say and when he did, it was in a grumpy low tone that you had barely understood and you didn’t dare ask him to repeat himself in a mood like that. You had started with the shops and had purchased a blanket and incense. Then you’d asked around about Nightwolf and the legend he was known for.

When the shop had yielded no results, you had argued about where to go and how to approach your search. You couldn’t agree on anything. Liu seemed to be interested in taking shortcuts which seemed very unlike him. You tried not to worry about him and now considered that Raiden sent you together because Liu was not himself. You wanted him to find peace. You wanted that for all of them.

At least he didn’t bring up the night before so maybe he was ready to forget it as much as you were. Maybe you’d blacked out and that had been it. Not likely but your brain kept making excuses so you could try to cope with your bad behavior. There was still a chance that he’d forgotten what had happened. That he’d blacked out and woken up sore, naked, and with scratches down his back and couldn’t remember how.

You forced away the mental image of how you’d likely given him those marks in the heat of the moment. Oof. That was not helping your ability to look at Liu Kang. You decided to split up which had helped the tension considerably.

But even alone you’d had little luck. No one would acknowledge what you were talking about. You’d gotten a half-assed response here and there out of a handful of people who had been bad at lying and hadn’t expected you to bring it up. You still refused to talk about Nightwolf or where you might find anyone with a dragon marking. You had even showed the one on you back as an example but got nothing in response.

You met back up in front of the big store where you’d gotten the blanket. “Now what?” Liu Kang approached you as you sipped on a tea that you’d bought. Another pathetic attempt to kill the hangover headache. He leaned against the wall next to him and you offered him a second tea that you’d bought. He turned it down. “Feels like we hit a dead end.”

“They know something. They just won’t tell us. I can’t blame them. We’re strangers.”

“We should…” He began, bite in his voice that you knew would end up in you snapping at each other for the twentieth time that day. Why had you slept with him again? Other than that he was incredibly attractive? You hadn’t had anything nice to say to each other since Kung Lao died. A young woman approached you and so he silenced. The woman took your hand and slipped a folded piece of paper just within.

“You seem very nice but you two should be on your way.” The woman scolded them but looked to your hand with significance before heading into the shop.

“Interesting.” You walked away from the shop and toward the road where you’d been dropped off. Liu took the piece of paper from your hands as you began to unfold it. You resisted the urge to snap at him for doing so and instead waited for him to unfold the secret message. With the way that day had gone you’d half-expected it to be a nasty note.

It wasn’t.

“A map.” He showed it to you, and it was, indeed, a map. Your current location was circled in blue and a path led up a crudely drawn mountain and was marked out for you with the words ‘be careful’ scribbled at the bottom. That was more than you’d gotten from anyone else so it was the best lead you had. Daylight was quickly fading. You walked back to the shop and asked to use the phone which got you looks since everyone there was holding a smartphone. You called a car to come and take you back to the motel.

Liu had pocketed the map and was waiting for you by the side of the road. The sky was overcast, and you stood next to him to wait. “The car should be here in a few minutes. We should find somewhere that I can pick up a phone. Everyone here has them and I’m getting looks for asking to use theirs.”

“That’s fine. We need a map and some supplies for hiking anyway.”

Silence followed and it was more than awkward. It was painful.

You missed Kung Lao. He never would have let the silence be this awkward. Even when you’d fought, he’d filled the silence with noise until either you laughed, or you fought again. You’d take the fighting over silence, gladly. Then again, you were afraid of the kind of fight you’d have with Liu Kang.

The car arrived and you muttered ‘thank god’ under your breath. It took you back to the motel which was within walking distance of a nearby strip mall on the same road. You picked up a prepaid smartphone to make your lives a little bit more convenient while you were in America. The man behind the counter taught you how to use it. You were adaptable enough but had appreciated the head start.

Liu had purchased a map and hiking supplies while you’d been getting the phone. Then you’d gone together to grab takeout from a Mediterranean place in the same strip mall before you returned to the motel. Liu laid the map on the little table by the couch and you setup the food. This was less awkward and more nostalgic. You’d spent most of your time with Liu after coming to Raiden’s Temple. There’d been an attack in your hometown and while protecting your home, you’d killed a man with the dragon mark. Liu Kang had eventually convinced you to come and stay and fight for earthrealm. He’d been a comfort to you back then and you had become fast friends. You’d shared and instant connection and attraction that you hadn’t even bothered trying to resist.

You’d had fun back then.

This was not fun even if it was nostalgic.

Liu used the drawing you’d been given to pinpoint a trail on the map which hadn’t been easy since the drawing wasn’t accurate to the map that you’d bought. You poked around at your food offering insight that he’d rejected time and again. Your stomach was too upset to eat much of what you’d bought.

“That’s quite the hike.” You tried to sound friendly even if he kept arguing with you about the path.

“If we have to hike then we have to hike.”

“I wasn’t trying to argue.” You fought the urge to roll your eyes at him. It didn’t make sense for you to set out tonight. The sun had already set. “In the morning then?”

“Yeah. Rest will be good.” He sounded as tired as you did and avoided your eyes as he folded up the map and tucked it in his bag for tomorrow. You sat silently, poking at your food. Then he sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “How are you holding up?” You were taken aback. You hadn’t had a civil discussion about even the weather and now he was asking about your feelings? Now to play the game of whether it was about the night before or about Kung Lao. It was most likely about Kung Lao. That was the first thing everyone asked you about these days.

“I’m… okay.” You shrugged, poking at your food again. “Some days are better than others.” That was vague but true. It was what you said to almost everyone who asked. Today had not been your best day. Then you spoke without thinking. “I miss him. All the time.”

“Me too.” He leaned back on the couch, arms folded over his chest. This food had been a complete waste of money. Your stomachs were just too sick from your foray into liquor the night before. You remembered him reluctantly joining you to have a drink now after the other monks had encouraged it.

“Sometimes it doesn’t feel real still.” You stole a glance at him, and he seemed surprised that you kept talking to him. This was the most you had talked, after all. You were surprised too. “I wasn’t there. I didn’t see it happen.”

“I’m glad that you weren’t there. I’m glad you didn’t see it. I still have nightmares about.” Liu adjusted himself onto the edge of the couch and then cleared his throat, as though he were about to begin a difficult conversation. You panicked. He couldn’t possibly be wildly shifting from your grief over Kung Lao and your broken heart to what you’d done the night before. “Y/N, we should probably talk about…”

“What we should do is get some rest.” You shut that down and stood abruptly. “Long day tomorrow.” Your voice was too loud and you were awkward. But you grabbed your bag and rushed into the bathroom without so much as a second glance back at him. He may have been ready to talk about it but you couldn’t handle the hurt. Not on top of all the other hurt. You couldn’t handle more rejection or failure. Not now. The panic was overwhelming, and you were in the bathroom with the door locked just in time.

You sank against the door to the ground and held the bag in your lap and pulled your knees to your chest, breathing shakily and trying to resist the urge to sob. It didn’t occur to you until your heart had stopped pounding in your ears that maybe he hadn’t meant to talk about the night before but now you would never know. You were sure he was mad that you’d interrupted him and ran off but your fight or flight sense had kicked into high gear.

You could have smacked Raiden for sending Liu Kang with you. What was this? Some kind of horrible test? You had been waiting for a break! A distraction! But now all the things that you’d been avoiding were sharing a room with you. Liu Kang was at the center of them all. You whispered apologies to Kung Lao with your face buried against your bag.

When you had collected yourself, you’d then washed up for the night, changed, and finally left the bathroom. Liu Kang was lying on the couch with his back to you, resting. You were grateful not to have to fight over who would sleep where. You had the feeling that he was pretending to be asleep to avoid you and you were okay with that. You’d earned it.

You kicked off your shoes and then curled up in bed. You stared at the wall and hoped that sleep would eventually come for you. The bag was cradled tightly in your arms, fingers brushing over the cool, jade circlet, soothing you.

Your first trip with Kung Lao had led them all across Indonesia in search of ancient texts that Raiden had sought out in reference to a prophecy. You’d had a blast together and had gotten in more scrapes than you had ever been in before that. You’d bonded over martial arts movies and bad jokes. It’d taken nearly a month and he’d become one of your best friends by the end of it.

When you’d returned to the temple, he’d asked you out on a date. A real date, not the kind where you would just go sit in the temple or get laid. You’d been flattered. Kung Lao had been trouble, but he was also sweet and confident in a way that was just plain sexy. You’d been flustered when he’d asked. Not because you weren’t attracted to him but because you’d had a complicated little physical thing going on with Liu Kang over the months prior.

You’d joke around or practice and one thing inevitably led to another and you’d wind up in his bed or he’d be crawling into yours. Your attraction to each other had been sparks from the get go. But you’d also never talked about it directly. Instead, you’d just kept sleeping together which had been dangerous and stupid as you remembered it. Yet, you remembered it fondly and had even missed it over the years.

You’d decided that you’d have to talk to Liu before you could even consider Kung Lao’s proposal. If Liu had wanted to pursue what you’d had then you would have seriously considered it. Your attraction was too intense for you not to give it a shot. It was beyond your control. You were attracted to Kung Lao too, but it had been different. No less important, just different.

You’d met up later that night with Liu Kang to talk about it. He’d had other ideas and you couldn’t blame him considering your track record and that you hadn’t seen him for a month. You’d been very direct- had even rehearsed it in your head a dozen times before saying it.

“What is this… that we’re doing?” You had been nervous and sounded it which had made it immediately awkward.

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean, Liu.”

“Why?” His sigh had been so heavy that you’d instantly been on edge.

“Kung Lao asked me out. I wanted to know what you thought about that and… all of this.” You gestured between you. Liu was immediately distant and different than you had ever known him to be.

“Kung Lao is a good man. Trouble but so are you. He’d be good for you.”

That was not what you had expected him to say. He avoided your eyes, face full of indifference. You hadn’t expected him to encourage you to date Kung Lao, not when you’d spent so many hot and sweaty nights in his arms. You must have looked surprised because he kept talking.

“You two have a lot in common. Both stubborn. Similar interests.”

“But what about… this?” You couldn’t seem to bring yourself to say the actual words.

“You don’t owe me anything, Y/N.” He had said this in a way that made it feel like you sleeping together had been a transaction. A means to an end. Had you misinterpreted everything? You felt, for lack of a better word, dirty.

“Well, if I’m going to date Kung Lao then we have to stop this.” You’d said that with far more venom than you’d meant to, but he had earned it.

“That’s fine. It wasn’t like it meant anything.”

You’d sat silently in awe and trying to hide the slow shattering of your heart. It had crushed you. One short conversation had completely destroyed your relationship. “Well, that made this decision an easy one.”

“Good.”

“Good.” You’d marched off without another word.

Just like you had tonight. Then you’d never talked about it again. It had taken time for your friendship to recover after that. You were still hurt thinking about it. Days later, when you’d thought about it, you’d agreed to go on a date with Kung Lao and it had been the best decision you’d made in a long time. You’d clicked quickly and naturally. He’d been a wonderful boyfriend and you’d gone from cute and flirty to serious and romantic very quickly. You had always struggled with commitment, and you’d had your fair share of fights but for the most part you’d been happy. Liu Kang had eventually come around and you’d been friends again, as if nothing had ever happened.

You hadn’t been one on one with him for more than a few minutes since back then. Not until now. Kung Lao had always made sure that didn’t happen, even if he had never said why. You’d never told him that you’d slept together. Why cause Liu more grief than you needed to? Besides, if he had asked you if you were still attracted to Liu, you would have had to lie. Your fingers brushed along the jade circlet and your eyes blurred with tears.

This was too much. You were emotionally drained.

You fell asleep cradling your bag to your chest.

Next Chapter >>

[kindahoping4forever]

Take Me Home For Christmas // Ashton Irwin

Thank you to everyone for the incredible feedback about yesterday’s fic! I can’t believe we’re nearing the end of Hoe For The Hoe-lidays - Cass and I hope you’ve enjoyed our holiday stories and that you’ll continue to enjoy them even once the holiday season is over. 

Be on the lookout for today’s Cal blurb to be posted to @cal-puddies​​ and absolutely, 1000% like set a reminder on your phone if you have to, do not forget to come back here to my blog tomorrow for the closing ceremony of The Hoe-lidays: the latest galaxybrain co-write from me and Cass. No spoilers but it might be my fav collab of ours to date.

Warnings: Banter, bonding and boning with stranger in a bar!Ash (the fic is much sweeter than that but I couldn’t resist the alliteration), casual protected sex, female masturbation, use of a vibrator  

Word Count: 3000

Hoe For The Hoe-lidays Masterlist

Masterlist // Taglist and Ko-Fi linked above

Let  me  know  what  you  think!

“Two years! Love of my life, best thing that ever happened!” Ashton raises his glass in an exaggerated toast and the inquiring stranger smiles kindly, taking their own drink and walking away.

You don’t know how you managed to wait until the coast was clear before you burst out laughing. He glances behind him to make sure the curious patron is gone before he turns to you, grinning. “Should I have said three or four years, was that too much for two? My relationships typically don’t last even that long,” he admits, shaking his head.

“Listen, if I were well-adjusted enough to know what it’s like for someone to call me ‘the best thing that ever happened’ to them, I probably wouldn’t be spending Christmas Eve alone in a bar,” you point out with a laugh.

“But you’re not alone,” he leans in, nudging you a bit. “You’re out with your boyfriend of two years, celebrating his return home from an extensive and wildly successful world tour with his band.”

You cackle, “OK, that part was definitely a flourish too far, I don’t think anybody bought that.”

He smiles slyly. “You’re probably right,” he lilts, taking a sip, giving you a look over his glass that makes you grateful your holiday had turned out the way it did.

You’d made the tough call not to fly home for Christmas this year; you couldn't afford it and you didn't feel right taking your parents up on their offer to pay. Unfortunately, literally everyone you knew did get out of town for the holidays, leaving you with nowhere to go and no one to see.

On Christmas Eve, you ended up at the corner bar, which was nowhere near as lively as you'd hoped: save for what appears to be an older ladies' night out and a few stragglers, it was deserted. After exhausting your conversation options with the bartender, you ended up chatting with the man a couple stools over from you. He was handsome, charming and seemed to have an opinion or anecdote about any topic you raised. Looking for companionship, or at least some entertainment, you asked him to join you.

His name was Ash and he was in a similar predicament as you this Christmas. You didn't get a chance to get more in depth personally; maybe it's the ease you have with each other, maybe it's the way your outfits happen to complement each other but one by one, the women from the back of the bar approach you to kindly tell you what a nice couple you make and make small talk about your relationship. Rather than embarrass them - and again, for some entertainment - you both silently agree to humor them and answer as if you are together and before long, you've established an elaborate narrative for your romance.

“So where’d you take me for our anniversary this year, babe?” You grin, enjoying this game.

“Surprised you with Disney World,” he says confidently, gesturing towards the Stitch keychain decorating your car keys sitting on the bar. “Hid the plane tickets in your work bag, you found them at the office and called me to scream about it but I was already in the lobby to surprise you for lunch.”

You giggle, “Wow, not to brag about your boyfriend-ing skills or anything.”

Ashton shrugs and clinks your glass. “Nothing but the best for my girl.” You feel yourself flush and know it had to have been from his words, you both switched from booze to water quite some time ago.

“What about my birthday?” He asks, eyes playfully challenging you. “It’s in July, if that makes a difference.”

Out of the corner of your eye, you see one of the ladies you talked to earlier and you lean in, resting your hand on his, continuing to sell your story. “Intimate backyard barbeque with friends, bonfire at night. I saved up and bought that acoustic guitar you’d been eyeing online but I waited to give it to you until everyone left because I wanted it to be a special moment between us,” you say quietly, pleased with your answer.

He smiles brightly and you feel yourself actively suppressing the urge to kiss over the dimples that form on his face. “A guitar, huh? I’m actually a drummer,” he teases.

“When you tipped the bartender, there was a guitar pick mixed in with your cash,” you point out smugly.

“Oh,” he giggles, clearly a little flustered. “Didn’t realize you were payin’ such close attention to me,” he flirts.

“Gotta make sure my man gets what he wants,” you cheekily reply.

He moves in closer and you’re pretty sure he’s about to kiss you when another inquisitive customer interrupts to tipsily assert that Ash is a fool if he doesn’t “put a ring on it” this holiday season. You both take the comment in stride and laugh together when the encounter is over. The heat from your near-kiss is still there but the moment has decidedly passed.

After a few more entries into your pretend love story and a few more close encounters, the bar starts clearing out. You can’t believe you spent the whole evening talking with Ashton but you also don’t want it to end; you haven’t felt chemistry like this with someone in a long time. You walk to the door with him and you’re not surprised when you hear yourself say, “My place or yours, babe?”

He turns to you with a wide smile, amusement and what you’re hoping is lust in his eyes. “I was hoping you might say that,” he admits.

“Can’t let my travel-weary boyfriend wake up alone on Christmas morning,” you chirp, stepping out into the cool night air.

“That part of the story was actually true,” he chuckles. “I did just get home from touring with my band.”

You raise your eyebrows, interested. “Well, the part about me living just down the street was also true, so let’s start walking,” you wink, starting to lead the way. 

He laughs loudly and reaches out for your arm, smoothly pulling you into his arms for a charged kiss, the tension that’s been building all evening finally boiling over. His lips are softer than you imagined but his technique is as fevered and demanding as you’d hoped; your tongue makes its way into his mouth and you murmur when his strokes it in turn.

It’s hard to say if it’s the chilly weather or your desire but you make it back to your apartment in record time. It’s not often you bring home guys you just met but as you lead him to your bedroom, you realize how he doesn’t feel like that at all, almost as if your fictitious history together has bled into reality.

Ash shuts your bedroom door behind him and you waste no time pressing yourself into him, making out and undressing each other until you’re both down to your underwear. He lifts you up by your thighs, wrapping them around his waist; he tries to get fancy and kiss you while he carries you over to the bed, hitting his leg on the edge of the frame and almost sending you both flying.

The two of you break into laughter as he safely drops you on the bed. “Did some rearranging since last time I was over, huh, baby?” He jokes, sitting up against the headboard to rub the knot on his shin.

“Vibes were off without you here, had to get some feng shui happening,” you reply, trying to catch your breath after your giggle fit. You let your eyes roam over his near naked body. He’s fit, almost ridiculously muscular and judging by his biceps, you decide he must’ve been telling the truth about being a drummer. You didn’t expect all the tattoos you’re seeing but you definitely approve and the amused look on his face tells you he’s noticed.

“Like the new ink, babe? Wanted to surprise you,” he grins, drawing your attention to a large, dark coin decorating the left side of his ribcage. 

You crawl over to him and let your fingertips dance over the tattoo. “Very nice,” you murmur before mouthing over it. He groans when your tongue pokes out at it and you shudder at the sound, continuing to move around his chest, hoping to hear it again.

He lets you play and then flips you over so he can show you some appreciation as well. He nips and nibbles around your neck and chest, doubling back when you breathe a particularly enthusiastic sigh of approval. 

“Love this underwear, by the way,” he comments as he removes your bra. “Just like you wore on our first date. Took you home from a bar that night too”

You giggle at his addition to your story. “Oh did you? I thought earlier we said our first date was at an Italian restaurant.” You gasp as his mouth encases your nipple.

“Well… dinner then drinks, obviously,” he retorts, snickering against you. He pulls back to discard your panties and you swear you can almost feel his eyes devouring you. “Holy shit, you’re gorgeous.”

You beam and beckon him closer; before you can kiss him like you planned, his mouth is back on your neck, trying to relocate that spot under your jaw that caused you to moan so boldly, he felt his cock twitch. His hand is busy between your legs, tracing lightly around your lips before dipping into your folds to see what makes you tick.

You feel him hard against your thigh as he plays with you so you reach down to return the favor; you do your best to maintain a poker face when you feel the size of him through his boxers but Ashton’s fingers inside you undoubtedly feel the surge of wetness your realization brings. 

You eagerly slip your hand inside his underwear and you both groan when you wrap your hand around him. His cock couldn’t be more ready for you, head dripping with precum; you spread it liberally as you touch him, thoughts racing as your hand seems to keep going and going down his length before you reach the base. You give him a squeeze, biting your lip at the feel of his weight and girth in your hand.

He quietly curses as your strokes become more confident; together you get rid of his boxers and as his cock springs free, he teases you with a smile. “Think you can take it, baby?”

“It has been a while,” you admit, slyly adding, “I mean… with you on tour and everything.” He chuckles and gives you a swat as you sit up to dig through your nightstand.

You shoot him a glance over your shoulder and he breaks character for a second, rushing out, “I… did that without even thinking, I’m sorry. Was that OK?”

You toss the condoms and lube on the bed and give his cock a few more tugs as you shrug, “Do it harder next time.”

Ash smirks as he gets situated, rolling on a condom and lubing up his length before tossing you the bottle; when you’re ready, you get up on all fours, flashing him a dazzling smile over your shoulder. “Just like our first date, right?”

He grins, kneeling behind you, large hands covering your ass, squeezing and giving it a couple firm spanks as requested. You gasp as his cock taps against your clit before pushing into you, paying close attention to your breathing to see if you need him to slow down. You hear his breath heavy as well and you know you must feel tight around him, no one has ever filled you like this before; it’s overwhelming but you’re aching with anticipation so you rock back against him, letting out a breathy “Please” for good measure.

The soft way he runs his hands over your back is a fascinating contrast to the rough snap of his hips against your ass as he drives his cock into you. You fuck with a familiarity you didn’t expect, listening to each other’s sounds to tell you what the other needs.

You stretch on the bed more, popping your ass out further, inviting him to really let you have it; the sound of a loud smack on your ass fills the room and his thrusts increase in both speed and impact. You want to think of something clever to say, to let him know how good he’s making you feel and to continue the intimacy of your fictional romance but all you can think about is how full his cock makes you feel.

You hear his breath speed up but feel his hips slowing and you deduce he’s trying to stave off his orgasm; you’re nowhere near close so you decide to improve the situation for you both. “Babe, can we try something else?” You look over your shoulder winningly. “Feels good but I need more.”

Ashton pulls out, taking a few deep breaths while you turn onto your back; he sits upright on his knees in front of you and after some brief negotiations with your flexibility, you swing your legs up on his shoulder before he slips himself back in.

This new position is quickly much more intense than either of you anticipated. He’s hitting deeper than before and you’re in heaven with his hands roving over your stomach and chest; having your legs close together like this makes you seem even tighter and you hear him breathing even faster than before.

He fucks you hard and the combination of hearing your desperate sounds, seeing your tits bounce and feeling your pussy grip his cock so tightly is too much. “Fuck… ‘s too fuckin’ good, baby… fuck,” he groans and within seconds he’s filling the condom with cum.

You moan watching as he loses himself in the feeling, slowing his hips gradually until he’s spent. He carefully slides your legs off his shoulder, offering you a peck and a quiet apology as he gets up to throw away the condom.

Maybe it’s out of habit, maybe you are just that comfortable with this stranger for some reason,  but without hesitation you reach back into your nightstand and retrieve your favorite vibrator. 

You feel Ash get back into bed and you turn to see him propped up on his side, watching you intently as you slick the vibe through your wetness. “No offense...” you start.

“None taken,” he smiles, studying your toy. “I was gonna offer you my mouth, but…”

“This’ll be a lot quicker,” you insist, teasing the tip of the toy at your entrance. “You relax, enjoy the afterglow. I’ll join you in literally like three minutes.” You push it in and click the button to start it vibrating inside you.

He scoots closer, pressing a kiss to your shoulder. “Two years in and the romance is already dead,” he jokingly laments.

You cackle loudly, clenching around your vibe and your laughs turn into a moan. “Goddammit, Ash, you wanna crack jokes or help your ol’ girl out?”

He smiles and pulls you into a sleepy kiss while his other hand grips and massages your breast. His tongue lazily dances with yours and his hands travel over your skin, caressing, teasing, igniting all while you work the vibe between your thighs.

You pull away from his mouth to pant, “Check this shit out.” You click a second button on the toy and the clitoral vibrator whirs to life. Ashton can almost immediately detect the difference in your breathing.

He rolls your nipple between his fingers, watching as your back arches and your hips swirl. “Just like that, baby, come on. Let me see you cum,” he murmurs.

You’re surprised to hear yourself call out his name when you begin clenching around your toy and you especially don’t expect to tug on his hair, silently pleading for him to kiss you while the waves of pleasure overtake your body.

You whimper and pant against his lips until you have to pull away to frantically turn the vibrator off, nearing overstimulation. You close your eyes and catch your breath, waiting for the aftershocks to stop, your legs to stop shaking. 

You finally open your eyes to see him offering you a handful of tissues he thoughtfully snagged off the bedside table; you graciously accept, wrapping them around your toy so you can set it on the nightstand. You look over at him again, gazing at each other for a beat before bursting into euphoric giggles. 

You return to the bedroom after cleaning up to find Ash laying in his boxers, messing with his phone. You don’t know if you should say it out loud but you really hope he’s not ordering a car to take him home.

“Well, I can only speak for myself but I’d call that a decidedly Merry Christmas,” you sigh exhaustedly, flopping onto the bed.

He sets his phone aside and looks you over as you stretch out beside him. “This is cute,” he smiles, pinching at the Christmas cookie themed nightshirt you threw on in the bathroom. “Would you say that was more or less fun than our first Christmas together?”

You grin at him as you try to remember what tale you’d spun back at the bar. “Oh god… car broke down on the way to my parents’ house… seasonally appropriate ‘no room at the inn’ joke… fashioned a Christmas dinner out of motel vending machine snacks?”

“That’s the one,” he cackles. A mischievous look crosses his features and he leans in to you. “You know, we haven’t reminisced about what else went on in that motel room...” He trails off, suggestively wiggling his eyebrows.

You bite your lip, pulling him closer by the chain around his neck. “Hmm... I’m actually having trouble remembering that part,” you flirt, nibbling at his bottom lip. “Maybe you could remind me, babe? And please, take your time.”

————-

Taglist issues again so my apologies if you get notif’d more than once (or not at all)

@mymindwide​​ @suchalonelysunflower​​​ @pxrxmoore​​ @loveroflrh​​ @ghostofmashton​​ @sexgodashton​​ @feliznavidaddycal​​  

@castaway-cashton​​ @ashtonlftv​​ @cashtonasfuck​​ @megz1985​​ @ashdork-irwin​​ @angelicfluffs​​ @findingliam-o​​ @youngbloodchild​​  @irwinsbetch​​ @everyscarisahealingplace​​

@wiildflower-xxx​​ @metalandboybands​​​  @realisticnotes​​​  @makeamovehemmings​​​ @golden166​​​ @burstintocolor​​​

@mfartzzz​​​ @babyoria​​​ @petunias-pet​ @youngblood199456​​​ @notinthesameguey​​​ @seanna313​​​  @zhangyixingxing1​​​ @stardust-galaxies​​​  @zackoid​​​

@lovelybonesetc​​​ @xsongxbirdx​​​ @justhereforcalum​​​   @ashtonangst​​

@laura66sos​​​ @calumrose​​​ @karajaynetoday​​​  @pilunb​​​ @jazzyangel242​​​ @babylon-corgis​​​  @heyheyhaleyd​​​ @calmsweetcreature​​​

@spicycal​​​ @talkfastromance4​​​  @holystxne​​​

@meetmedowntown​​​ @myloverboyash​​​

@irwindoll​​​ @cheekysos​​​ @carrielfisher​​​ @lukedorkyhemmings​​​ @creampiecashton​​​ @lovelywordsblog​​​

@trix-arent-for-kids​ @uh-huhh-honey​ @tobefalling​ @aladyofalbion​ @likehuhdude​

@curlycalums  @cxddlyash  @reddesert-healourblues

@fedorable-killjoys  @iamcalumswhore   @i-like-5sos   @Too-et-moi215

@photochic18  @kouska901 @Indermeow  @dantord

[captaincravatthecapricious]

Concussion- Prompt Fill

Jon falls out of a Kayak

CW nausea, concussion, hospital mention

Thanks for reading! I am still accepting bingo prompts (Bing card by the wonderful @celosiaa​)! Tell me a character and which prompt, and let me know if you want art or writing! The starred prompts are ones I already have received, and probably have outlined! (I am much faster at art just fyi).  Sorry this one took so long, I wrote it a week ago and hated it! 

Jon doesn’t like the outdoors.  In his experience it’s loud or wet or sandy or bright or crowded or filled with bugs or hot or spider ridden or just generally uncomfortable.  

But that doesn't matter, because he needs to prove that things are alright with Tim.  He has finally earned enough trust or goodwill or something to be invited on a kayaking trip.  

Even back when things were good, Jon rarely got invited along to these things.  Tim knows Jon isn't the outdoorsy sort, but occasionally invites him so he doesn't feel excluded.  

A traitorous part of Jon thinks that he was only invited as a joke.  But more of Jon doesn't care if that is true.  He earned that invitation, and it doesn't matter that he is baking in the heat or that driving to the lake made him carsick or that he already has 30 mosquito bites and counting.  He.  Does.  Not.  Care.  

It doesn't matter because he is here with Tim.  And Tim is having a good time.  

They paddle around the secluded lake for a couple hours.  Jon almost has fun.  He isn't having a bad time.  Tim has been cracking jokes, and Jon is having something adjacent to fun.  Not to mention... it just feels damn good to be included.  Usually it's Tim and Sasha, or on occasion Tim and Martin.  Not that this is the first time since... everything that Tim and Jon have been alone together... it's just.... Kayaking is important to Tim.  And Jon rarely merits such a heartfelt invitation.  And even if it isn't really his scene.  It's worth the itchiness, and sore muscles, and carsickness and oppressive heat.  It is all worth it.  

Jon doesn't really know how he ends up in the water.  One minute he is breathing hard, his back and shoulders burning after all that paddling, trying to convince himself that he probably doesn't need his inhaler (that he left in the car in any case), the next... he is in the water.  Life vest dragging him towards the surface... or where the surface would be if the kayak wasn't in the way.  

He cracks his head on textured, blue plastic, and it doesn't even have time to hurt before Tim is hauling him out of the lake.  

He can't say it really hurts.  Just the surprise, and  the moment of timelessness and involuntary tears when something smacks a person from nowhere.  The brief moment of everything being a little too sharp and a little too blurry all at once.  

He coughs as he breaks the surface and Tim's strong arms lift him back into the kayak as if he weighs nothing (which... Martin would say is the case).  It's probably the firefighter training.  

Water is streaming off him, and there is some sort of weed tangled in his hair.  

"Boss, you alright, there?" Tim clapping him on the shoulder, almost knocking him out of the kayak again.  (Jon isn't sure if the fact that it is a two seater is better or worse).  "Whoa there!"

Tim is steading him again.  He's honestly feeling a little dizzy and a little distant.  But that's probably just the surprise, right?  Probably.  

"Not your boss," he grumbles, trying his best to scowl despite how Bright everything is, and how he really is very very damp and how maybe jeans weren't his smartest move today.  He lets that hang for a beat.  "...Thanks Tim."  

He offers a tiny smile, trying not to shrink in on himself, like he did... back then.  

"Fine, you alright, buddy?  What even happened?"

Jon shrugs.  "I'm in one piece, I think."  

Tim fishes in the water for Jon's dropped paddle.  "Maybe it's time we head back, wouldn't want that to happen again.  I need you in top form if you wanna come out again with me!"  

His head is starting to hurt.  

Jon flushes slightly.  "I'd... really like that, Tim."

Tim hands him back the paddle and they head back towards shore, and the car, and their respective domesticities.  

The headache isn't exactly gone by the evening, but it isn't bad.  Not worth telling Martin about, although he couldn't escape Tim telling Martin how he fell out of the kayak, and having Tim show Martin the pictures of one very damp and disgruntled Jonathan Sims dripping in the kayak, and Jon in Tim's spare workout clothes in the car.  And Jon looking faintly ill with ginger ale clutched tightly with eyes closed on the way back.  And of course the selfie with Tim giving him a sloppy cheek smooch while Jon wears a truly terrible hat that he has no idea why Tim owns.  

Tim stays for dinner.  

By the time that Jon wakes up, Martin has already left for work.  

His head hurts.  Not migraine bad, but he makes a mental note to tuck some excedrin into his bag just in case.  Best to be prepared for these things.  

He drags himself upright with a groan, trying to ignore the way that the room tilts for a few moments as he gets up.  

School.  

Right.  

He's got work today.  And as long as Martin isn't there to be disappointed in his decision making, a headache is not going to stop him.  

It's too bright outside, and Jon isn’t hungry for breakfast.  Tea counts as breakfast, right?  That's good enough.  There's milk and sugar in there... that has to have enough calories to count for something, right?  It's fine.  

Halfway through class, Jon has to sit down.  Abruptly.  His lecture trailing off into a dizzy silence.  

The headache has become too distracting, the tilting of the room around him making it hard to stay tethered to the Earth's gravity.  He presses the heels of his hands against his eyelids, trying to stop the listing of the room.  

He hears a student calling his name, but he can't make himself parse out who.  And the Eye doesn't seem inclined to tell him.  

Which is probably for the best, because he is beginning to wonder if he can take much more headache.  

He doesn't know how long he's been down, but Martin is there now.  

Fluttering hands, checking him for a temperature, coaxing him to look up, shielding him from the fluorescent lighting.  

Jon leans into the cool of his hand.  

Martin's hands in his hair, smoothing away the bedhead, Jon forgot about before leaving the house.  Jon making an embarrassing sound as he relaxes into the touch.  

Until Martin reaches the crown of his head, and Jon hisses in pain.  

Martin has been talking to him the whole time, but the ringing in his ears has been too distracting to make out words until now.  "Jon?  Love, did you hit your head?  Can you look at me?  Tim said you fell yesterday, did you hit your head?"

Jon struggles against the painful light to meet Martin's gaze.  

Martin is shining a pen light in his eyes.  

Jon tries not to feel betrayed.  But the light Hurts.  And he just wants to go back to bed, and be held, or maybe have Martin bring him an ice pack, and he's starting to feel sick as well as dizzy.  

"Jon-love, we should get you to a hospital.  I need to get you actually looked at."  

Jon whines in complaint, but doesn't have the energy to argue as Martin guides him up, folding against Martin's chest, when his legs try to give with the pins and needles of inactivity.  

He doesn't want to go to the hospital.  It's bright and he is very tired.  And he feels so guilty that someone... probably one of his students called Martin in when Martin had likely just gotten off his shift and should be at home and sleeping and not scraping Jon's ass off the floor again.  

It hadn't been this bad earlier!  He's fine!  Really!  

"Jon-love, why didn't you say something?"

And Jon tries not to cry.  "I was fine... didn't hurt then."  

Martin tuts over him and holds him close.  

The hospital is just as bad as he fears, and he's pretty sure he guilty cried on Martin at least once, and possibly also took a nap in the waiting room, but when it's over, Martin shoos Jon into a waiting cab, and trundles them both home.  

Jon is dozing on the couch, because Martin is making dinner and he can't bear the thought of being farther away than one room over, and Jon has never been comfortable about the idea of eating in bed.  Breakfast in bed (Or dinner in this case) sounds good in theory, it just sounds messy and awkward in practice.  His phone has been confiscated after he sent a brief email to his students.  Martin wasn't happy that he already was ignoring the don't look at screens and don't think too much instructions.  

That will be an argument for tomorrow, and the next day until they eventually reach a compromise.  One Jon knows Martin won't be happy about, and one Jon will feel the bite of guilt over, but his students need him, and it really isn't a bad concussion.  He might let Martin fuss over him a little more than normal, but only until the extra work catches up with Martin.  Then it will be Jon's turn to look after him.  

“Jon, Tim just texted.  He says he’s sorry he didn’t know you were hurt, and that you don’t have to go with him again.”

Jon wants to cry again.  He breathes as deeply as he can, trying to draw courage into his lungs.  “Could you… tell him I Want to go?  I promise this won’t happen again?  I… had fun… and I want to go kayaking with him.”  

Martin enters the room with his phone in one hand, and a spatula in the other.  He kisses Jon’s forehead softly, and starts to type one-handed.   

“And please tell him to not feel badly?  I didn’t really notice until …well until you got called.  It was just a headache until then.  Not even a bad one.”

“Of course love, just tell me if it gets worse, alright?”

Jon hmms in agreement.  

[unsettlingconclusions]

Burnt Bridges

Summary: Once a bridge has been burnt down, can it be rebuilt? Set after party / exposure of Lewis (Ch 15) Pairing: Ayna Seth x F!MC (Kennedy) Rating: M (NSFW) Word Count: 6k+ Notes: That turned out to be a lot longer than I expected. Also, I'm not very into writing smut, so I apologize if that's unfulfilling. This is my (very messy) take on how the reconciliation should've played. I wrote this mainly to sort out the very conflicting feelings this plot brought me. Enjoy. Dance away your troubles, that's how the saying goes, right? As far as Kennedy is concerned, that's how her evening was going, and she was enjoying every minute of it. She was almost happy, what with such a huge weight lifted off her shoulders. It felt good to be carefree again, if only for tonight.

The man behind the paranoia that her life had turned to was thankfully incapable of harming her any longer. At least that's what she was intent on believing for the moment. Maybe things would turn out not to be so simple but, for now, she was satisfied.

This rollercoaster of a day had started out like just any other day until she came knocking on her door, claiming to have an idea of how to help the Rutherlandian catch the person who’s been setting her up.

Ayna Seth.

Kennedy never felt so confused by anyone else in her life.

She had met Ayna at Vancross and they had hit it off from the beginning. She felt at ease in Ayna's presence, the elder woman had a power to make her feel like she could just be. It calmed and soothed Kennedy at the same rate it thrilled and excited her. Even when the press was breathing down her neck and her mother wouldn't get off her case, Ayna never wavered, and Kennedy felt blissful to have found someone she could count on. That is, until she found out that Ayna was the one helping set her up. That day Kennedy found out what it meant to feel gut punched. Heartbroken. Devastated.

Ayna sold her out, pure and simple. But she was also the woman who kind of sold herself out to help Kennedy get her life back. Ayna risked her reputation, her job, her relationship with her father and her own safety by posing as bait to draw Lewis Wright out. Kennedy couldn't ignore that, could she? Ugh- that was messy.

I need a little break, she decides, unable to get Ayna out of her head now that the woman has intruded herself. Finding a secluded spot at the bar where she could lay low for a while, she motions to let Dionne know she's going for a drink. And that’s exactly when her eyes catches Ayna's. Would the woman think she was being invited there? Kennedy couldn't tell and she simultaneously wished for and against it.

She approaches the bar and orders another one of those flaming drinks Dionne got her earlier. The bartender sets to fill her order and by the time Kennedy is putting out the fire with her hands, she senses a frame approaching her from the side.

"What an intense day," it was Ayna's voice. Kennedy took in the older woman's stance. She appeared relaxed and loose. Maybe the dance had eased her troubles away as well? Whatever it was, it seemed to do her good.

"Yeah, I seriously hope that's not what my life is gonna look like from now on," Kennedy answers truthfully.

"It's just the election cycle. I'm sure everything will settle down once your mom wins again."

"You think?"

"Well, I hope so. At least you won't be so much in the spotlight anymore."

"I'll drink to that!"

Kennedy offers Ayna a smile and turns back to the counter. She takes a sip of her drink and absentmindedly strokes her wrist when she settles it down. Out of the corner of her eye, she catches Ayna glancing at her.

"Hey, can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

Ayna pauses, opens her mouth and then closes it again, apparently changing her mind. "Uhmm, nevermind." She glances away, rubbing the back of her neck and Kennedy can feel a shift in the energy surrounding them. The relaxation seemed gone, replaced by awkwardness, was that it? It is then that she realizes she had been stroking her wrist. She abruptly stops, clenching her fists on top of the counter. Ayna's face fell. Shit! So much for just being, huh?

"I should go. You enjoy the rest of the night with your friends." Ayna offers dejectedly, shifting her weight as if preparing to depart. "I'm sure at this point Dionne won't mind me gone.”

Kennedy was taken aback by how faster her heart was suddenly beating. She wanted to say it had to do with how much she’s had to drink and not with the unexpected panic she felt at the prospect of Ayna leaving, but she knew that would be at least half a lie. She wanted to chastise herself, realizing now that the truth was she desperately missed this feeling of them being comfortable in each other’s presence. She wasn't ready to let that go.

“Can’t you stay a while longer?”

“I shouldn’t. I have to be at Vancross early tomorrow morning. Work and all.” Ayna says with a sheepish smile that resembled more a grimace and wraps her arms around herself.

That was a telltale sign that the TA was putting up a front if Kennedy ever saw one. She wracked her brain looking for something to say that could take the edge off Ayna, but in reality, how would that be even possible? They were in the middle of a speakeasy surrounded by loud and obnoxious people (which may or may not include her own friends), and sitting between them was this huge unaddressed elephant. She couldn’t possibly expect to dissolve all the tension between them when they had to shout every sentence just to be heard. But she just wanted to talk to Ayna. Really talk it all out. She knew this sudden desire to bare her soul was probably the liquid courage speaking for her, but she would be damned if she didn’t make the most of it.

"Do you live far from here?"

"A little. Why?"

Kennedy drowns the rest of her drink in a single motion, throwing more fuel at the bravery that seemed to be guiding her actions as of now, preparing herself to do what she really wanted to do. If there was anything this whole ordeal taught her was that she should live her life fully. She was going to be judged and quite literally haunted for every little action she made it seems, so she was going to make sure from now on that she’d live on her own terms. No regrets.

"Can I come with you?" She blurts out. "I'd rather be somewhere quieter.” And anywhere else if it meant being with you, she added in her head, not being brave enough to say that out loud, though. Not yet, anyway. “Today’s been exciting enough.”

She feels Ayna’s eyes trained on her face.

"I'm not sure your bodyguard would agree to that."

"I can handle Tatum."

“You’re not drunk, are you?”

“No.” Maybe just a little?

“Are you sure about this?”

“Yes.”

A few seconds ticked by before Ayna answers, their gazes never breaking. Kennedy could only imagine Ayna might be pondering a few thoughts of her own.

“Ok.”

The conversation with Tatum wasn’t exactly a breeze. He first chastised Kennedy for convincing him to go drinking and letting his guard down only to later on pull this stunt. Then he proceeded to (in a very concerned and caring tone, Kennedy had to admit) tell her he didn’t think it was a good idea. For reasons of safety and otherwise.

“I don’t mean to be insensitive here but you thought she was sincere before and you know how it turned out”, he said.

“I understand where you’re coming from, Tatum, but I’m doing this with or without your help.”

So he helped, of course, even though he was off duty (and displeased). Half an hour later Kennedy found herself enjoying the most awkward car ride in the history of awkward car rides. Agent Demarco was driving, Tatum by his side riding shotgun, and a very, very uncomfortable Ayna sat opposite her in the back seat, nearly glued to the door. The TA spent the entire drive looking out the window, only breaking out of her shell as far as it was necessary to direct Demarco through the city streets. Well, this is going great.

Kennedy let out a breath of relief when they arrived at the apartment complex. It was short lived, though, as Agent Demarco's voice cut the silence. He didn't exactly look very thrilled by the whole situation either.

"Which apartment is yours?"

"208-A."

"Could you give me your key? I'll check it out and be back in a few minutes."

"Hmm, sure." Ayna fished for her apartment keys, giving them to Agent Demarco. Tatum didn't follow, choosing instead to take a few steps back, but not too many, his posture stiff, back on the job.

Kennedy hated all of this. It seemed they were intent on making Ayna feel like a criminal and remind Kennedy herself the reality of their situation. She knew it was well-intentioned, but she didn't care for it one bit.

Fifteen long minutes later, Agent Demarco returns exclaiming "Coast is clear". Tatum chips right in, "Alright, Kennedy, you can go in, but Agent Demarco and I will stay by the door. If you need anything at all, you just have to call for us, ok? Leave the door unlocked." Yes, definitely intent.

As soon as both women cross the threshold and close the door behind them, Ayna's shoulders slump slightly.

"I'm sorry about that."

"Don't be. They are just doing their jobs."

"Still..."

“Well, would you like something to drink?” Ayna says, deviating the subject for now. She leaves her shoes by the front door and starts for the kitchen.

“Do you have coffee?”

The adrenaline provided by the loud music and boisterous environment of the club seemed to wear off during the ride and Kennedy felt the need to sober up however possible. It seemed this wasn't going to be a very pleasant conversation afterall. The whole fiasco with Demarco and Tatum served to remind her of that.

“Sure. You’d be surprised to know sometimes coffee is all I have. I’ll start a pot.”

Ayna busied herself in the kitchen and Kennedy took the opportunity to explore a little bit. She took off her own shoes and went for the living room, admiring the various pictures scattered around. Some were of Ayna and her friends, Kennedy assumed. On the wall, Kennedy spotted a collage picture frame adorned with pictures of Ayna and her dad in various scenarios: when she was a baby, graduating middle school, at what seemed like a soccer game? She should file that information for later.

“You and your dad look sweet together.”

"Thanks. It's easy when he's a very sweet man himself." Ayna emerges from the kitchen carrying two steaming coffee cups, offering one cup to Kennedy. "Black coffee ok?"

"It's fine."

They both take a seat and quietly enjoy their coffee for a moment. Kennedy chooses the armchair, leaving the entire couch for Ayna. She didn't want the TA to feel cornered like it happened in the car.

"How is he doing?" It was Kennedy who broke the silence.

Ayna sighs. "He's fine. As well as can be expected. I'm thankful the treatment has been working so far." She lowers her eyeglasses a little and rubs her eyes, looking dejected. Kennedy would slap herself in the face if she could for bringing this up. But then again, that is the main reason they are deep in this conundrum, isn't it? There's no good in avoiding it.

For the brief moment she catches Ayna’s glasses off her eyes, Kennedy notices the deep circles resting beneath them. She had noticed before that Ayna looked a little worse for the wear, but this is when she got to see just how much.

“You look tired.”

“Sleep has been evading me lately.” Ayna quickly slides her eyeglasses up again. "I suppose these help hide it a little, don’t they?"

"You don't have to hide with me, Ayna." What the hell, Kennedy?

"That's... sweet of you to say."

That brief slip of misplaced affection threw them right back to silence. How to go talking about something like this? Kennedy thought there really wasn't an instruction manual on how to go back to talking to your girlfriend after she betrays you. Were they ever really girlfriends? This train of thought is not helping me much either.

"Do you have a plan for what to do now? For his treatment, I mean." Kennedy decided to steer the conversation back to Arjun. She was genuinely curious and interested.

"I have some savings. I'm going to see if I can at least pay for his surgery and figure out the rest as it comes."

"Would you accept my help?"

"Kennedy, I couldn't possibly. I already took so much from you."

"What if I loan it to you?"

"And how would I pay it back? I'm not sure I'm even going to manage to keep my job." Ayna pauses, breathing deeply. "And my dad wouldn't accept it either. I'm sure now it's only a matter of time before he finds out how I... how I managed to pay for his treatment."

"Ayna, don't worry about this. I won't let it come out that you were involved with this."

"Kennedy, that's sweet. Much more than I deserve from you, but I don't think you can really do this."

"I'll do everything I can, then. You shouldn’t lose the love of your father because a dead-ass jerk took advantage of you in a moment of vulnerability.”

“Is that how you feel? About what I did?”

“About why you did what you did. I don’t think you’re a bad person, Ayna.”

“My dad thinks so highly of me. It’s going to crush him when he finds out.”

“Then let’s hope it doesn’t come to it. Your father seems like a nice man, he should have peace to recover. And he should have you.”

“You wanna know what's the worst part of it? I don't think I was completely honest with you at the hospital,” Ayna confesses, and she begins to get agitated, rubbing the palms of her hands in her thighs, the coffee long forgotten at the coffee table. “The truth is it scared me to learn how far I was willing to compromise my values. My dad always tried to teach me to do the right thing, and I always thought of myself as righteous, I always strived to live up to his standards. But when I was approached, I barely hesitated in taking the deal.”

Kennedy provides no reply to that, mainly for feeling Ayna wasn’t done letting it all out. The silence stretches for a few seconds before Ayna hangs her head, taking in a long breath. “I know this doesn't help my case, but I think you deserve my complete honesty. And I want you to know that when you were attacked, they crossed a line that I just couldn’t go along with, even if I haven’t...” She trails off averting Kennedy’s gaze, her own looking troubled, as if she was caught off guard by what she was saying. “I couldn’t do it.”

What is she saying?

"Ayna-" Kennedy starts speaking, but is quickly interrupted by Ayna, now sitting at the edge of the sofa, her body turned in Kennedy's direction. “I’m so sorry that happened to you. I’m so, so sorry you were ever put in a position to feel terrified.”

You should be! was Kennedy's first thought. This was a hard one to swallow and Kennedy felt her blood boil as she was, for a second, back in the moment she realized Ayna was the only one who knew she was at the lake. The moment she realized she was betrayed. “I’m not gonna lie, it was pretty scary. And to find out that you, of all people, were somehow responsible... it hurt, Ayna. It hurt so damn much.”

In a fluid, fast motion, Ayna crosses the living room, now kneeling by the armchair, resting her hands near Kennedy's but not really touching. “I’m so sorry, Kennedy. That’s all I can say. After getting to know you, all I ever wanted was to make you feel safe. All I ever wanted was to be there for you and support you in any way I could.”

“But that’s why it hurt so much, you see?" Kennedy exclaims a little on the exasperation side. "Because I felt all of that, Ayna. That's how I saw you, my safe space, someone I could really trust, that I could always to turn to. When I realized it, God I felt so stupid.”

It pained Kennedy to say these words as it pained Ayna to hear them. The TA all but deflates, shoulders slumped, head hanging low. After a few seconds, Kennedy is sure she heard a quiet sniffle and all her exasperation disappeared. Ayna was right there, kneeling by her side, and Kennedy's heart screamed at her to reach out, but her head wouldn’t let her do it. They weren't there yet.

“Look, Ayna, I’m not saying these things just to be mean to you. I guess I... I don’t know, I guess I just wanted to get it out of my chest", she says instead.

“I understand," Ayna replies releasing a sigh. She gets up and turns her back to Kennedy for a few seconds, discreetly wiping her eyes before turning back around. "I should be counting my lucky stars that you’re even here talking to me. I appreciate that. You really didn’t have to be here but you are, so thank you.”

But she really had to, Kennedy thought, or the doubts and resentment that were threatening to build up inside of her would eat her alive.

She could see that the turn the conversation took was really weighing down on the older woman. Ayna looked even more tired and dejected than when they first arrived in the apartment. The sight of it was upsetting Kennedy deeply. She was discovering she really couldn’t stand the idea of Ayna Seth being in pain, no matter where their relationship was standing.

“I know it can’t have been easy for you. To be caught between a rock and a hard place like that,” she offers, trying to make Ayna feel at least a little better.

“Kennedy, I don’t want to sound bad but... I have to ask. Why are you being nice to me?”

“Well, I learned that from you. To put myself in other people’s shoes. I... I didn’t like the way I saw everyone treating you earlier.”

Kennedy bit her lip, pondering if she should say what else she didn’t like, which was the way Zaira looked oddly comfortable pulling Ayna towards the dance floor. She decided against it; she felt confused as it was without adding yet another emotion into this pile of crap. Jealousy would have to wait. “I don’t think you’re a horrible comic villain who deserves to be lynched at every opportunity and I wish everyone would just stop treating you like that.”

To this Ayna offers a genuine smile. Kennedy can also see how some sparkle flashed briefly through Ayna’s eyes. “Thank you. This means a lot coming from you.”

Kennedy smiles timidly in return. She pauses for a moment, trying to process everything they have said so far. She really believed Ayna was caught in a bad place having to choose between two people she cared about. Kennedy knew Ayna loved her father fiercely but... what about me?

She takes in her surroundings for a minute: here she was, seated by an armchair in the living room of Ayna’s apartment, and the TA was standing right across from her. There was no better time or place to get the answers that she needed, and it was getting late, and to be dancing around the subject was exhausting her. She gets up from her position, approaching slowly but decidedly the other woman.

“Tell me Ayna. If we haven’t grown close, if you didn’t know I wasn’t just a rich spoiled privileged brat, would you have continued to feed Wright information about me?”

"After the attack on you, no, I don’t think I would’ve."

“Would you have reached out to me to let me know someone was out to get me? Would you still have helped me flush him out?”

“I like to think that I would’ve, yes.”

"What were you going to say when you said you haven't? Haven't what?"

That was it, what she really, really wanted to know. She wanted, scratch that, she needed to hear Ayna say it. And the TA kept fidgeting, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, looking everywhere but at the younger woman. So Kennedy presses on, searching for Ayna’s eyes, repeating the question once she found them.

"Haven't what, Ayna?"

"Fallen in love with you.”

That was Ayna’s answer, and said with an unwavering certainty so unlike her recent attitude, that Kennedy felt like the wind had been knocked out of her. She was certain she never felt so much in such a short span of time before. After that, there was no turning back anymore. She would take the plunge, and so help her God. Live life fully.

"Look, you risked everything to help me get my life back. The slate is wiped clean as far as I'm concerned,” she states, stepping closer to Ayna.

"Do you really mean that?” It was Ayna’s turn to tentatively take a step closer to Kennedy now, hope written all over her face.

"Yes. I don't want to hold a grudge and be angry with you. Not when you make me feel... so much more.” Kennedy goes forward again, reaching an arms-length distance from the other woman. “You mean the world to me, Ayna. I don’t want to pretend anymore that you don’t.”

Ayna reaches out, taking hold of Kennedy's hands in her own. Her movements are slow, almost calculated, and Kennedy wonders if that’s out of fear that any sudden movement might break the spell of the past few minutes. She intertwines their fingers together while glancing intently at Kennedy, her eyes searching for something.

“Do you think you can forgive me entirely? Wholeheartedly? If this all goes suddenly away in the morning, I’m not sure I can handle it.”

The proximity of Ayna is enough to make Kennedy feel her entire body go warm. Although she had a thousand objections at the back of her mind screaming back at her, right now all she wanted was to keep feeling whatever it was that Ayna’s touch made her feel. But she couldn't lie. She couldn't make any promises when she herself wasn't sure of anything but her desire to just try and move on. So she searched deep within herself the most honest answer she could find.

“All I can say is that I’m going to try my best. Is that good enough for you?”

Ayna takes a long breath and shuts her eyes. She lets go of Kennedy's hands and slides hers gently up the younger woman's arms until she reaches Kennedy's face. She cups Kennedy's cheeks and lets her thumb caress them. Kennedy responds by sliding her arms around Ayna's waist, bringing their bodies closer together, feeling her world narrowing down to Ayna and Ayna alone. And when Ayna opens her eyes, Kennedy feels like she‘s staring right into her soul.

“Yes."

That simple word was all it took for Kennedy's head to go spinning. She feels Ayna leaning in further, slowly, giving Kennedy one last opportunity to back away. Instead, Kennedy closes the distance between them. There was nothing else she could do at this point.

Their lips meet in a slow, tender kiss. The feeling of Ayna's soft lips, the smell of her perfume, the warmth of Ayna’s body pressing into hers... it was all so much, Kennedy felt overwhelmed. At the same time, it wasn’t nearly enough. She parts her lips to deepen the kiss, inviting Ayna in, and Ayna responds by sliding her tongue through Kennedy's bottom lip before slipping inside. Tongues dancing together, Ayna loses one of her hands in Kennedy's hair and Kennedy's hold on Ayna's waist tightens a they get lost on one another, savoring the feeling of being in each other's arms again.

“I missed you, Kennedy. So much.”

“I missed you too.”

The sweetness and tenderness is quickly replaced by passion. Days of lingering doubts and longing translate into hands roaming everywhere, both eager to show just how much they missed each other. Ayna's hands grab Kennedy's small back and pulls their hips together, fingers digging into skin before sliding down and scratching her thighs, while Kennedy buries herself in Ayna's neck, kissing and sucking her jawline, her earlobe, the nape of her neck, every inch of skin she could find. She lets out a sigh as she feels that the exposed skin is wanting, covered by many layers of clothing too much, and grabs a hold of Ayna's blouse, tugging it from Ayna's skirt. She motions to take the shirt off of Ayna only to have her movements halted.

“No, not so fast." Ayna holds Kennedy's hands and steps away from her embrace for a second. "I want tonight to last as long as possible.”

Kennedy understands the implied message. This was their first time together and who knew what tomorrow may bring? She looks at Ayna, whose eyes are burning with desire and filled with so much emotion that a shiver runs up Kennedy's spine. Tonight was theirs.

"Can we move this to the bedroom?" Kennedy asks panting, feeling her insides squeeze with the prospect of being so intimate with Ayna, both literally and metaphorically. The smile that crept upon Ayna's face at the request could light up the whole sky. "You don't have to ask me twice."

With as much enthusiasm as fondness, Ayna takes one of Kennedy's hands in her own, lacing their fingers together, and gently directs them towards the bedroom.

Once inside, Ayna wraps her arms around Kennedy's torso from behind, pressing her chest against Kennedy's back, holding her tightly in place. She buries her head in the nape of Kennedy's neck, breathing Kennedy's scent in. "Let me stay here for a minute, please," she mumbles quietly, and Kennedy lets her, closing her eyes and relishing in this quietude that Ayna's embrace always brought her. They sway from side to side, finding a rhythm together, until Ayna starts peppering Kennedy's neck with small kisses. Her hands slides languidly under the lapels of Kennedy's cardigan, pulling it out and tossing it to the side. She then directs her attention to Kennedy's shirt, sliding underneath it and shoving it upwards, her hands caressing the skin she found on the way. The heat emanating from Ayna's hands left a hot trail on Kennedy's skin, and Kennedy felt like she was melting right there.

She turns around in Ayna's embrace and captures Ayna's lips once again. With much more paced but no less yearning movements, Kennedy slides her hands down Ayna's chest, reaching for the hem of her shirt. This time she's met with no objection and she happily takes it off as well, settling her hands on Ayna's now bare shoulders. “There’s something I always wanted to do."

"What is it?"

Instead of answering with words, Kennedy entangles her fingers through Ayna’s hair and picks lightly on the hair pins keeping the bun in place. “Can I?”, she inquires softly.

Ayna nods her consent. She closes her eyes and leans into one of Kennedy’s hands as the young woman tread her fingers through her hair, letting it loose and guiding it over her shoulders. Once she’s finished, Kennedy brings both her hands back to cup Ayna’s face, lingering there. “You are so beautiful”, she says in a voice no louder than a whisper, prompting Ayna to open her eyes. Kennedy tried to cool down a little the look of adoration she knew she probably had imprinted on her own face, but the quick reddening of Ayna’s neck and ears told her she most likely failed.

She continues her exploration now going for Ayna’s glasses. When the older woman offers no resistance, she pulls it off. And that was a sight that Kennedy was sure would be engraved on her mind for a long time to come. Ayna looked completely different now, stripped bare from all formalities she had held on to keep her distance. She looked so vulnerable and very unlike the imposing figure she could occasionally be as a TA.

“You know, I can’t see very well without my glasses on.” Ayna says quietly.

“You look like a whole other person. It’s like I’m seeing you now for the first time.”

Ayna pauses for a moment before gently taking the glasses from Kennedy and placing them by the nightstand, “I guess I’ll have to keep you pretty close to me then.”

When she leans back towards Kennedy, her whole attitude‘s changed. She seemed filled by a renewed determination as she kissed Kennedy deeply but unhurriedly. Her arms engulfed the smaller woman tightly, one hand at the back of Kennedy’s head, keeping her in place, the other grasping firmly at her back.

Slowly, Ayna walks forward urging Kennedy with her, until the back of Kennedy's knees collide with the bed, prompting the younger woman to gasp.

Ayna looks pointedly at Kennedy, a hidden question dancing in her eyes. It endears Kennedy that Ayna's being so respectful at the same rate it saddens her that it might be out of fear.

"I want this, Ayna. I want you."

With the encouragement, Ayna sits Kennedy on the bed, kneeling in front of her. "Maybe all of this could go, then?" She picks on the waistband of Kennedy's pants. "I believe we are a little overdressed."

"Yeah, we should fix that," is Kennedy's reply, and she goes unfastening the button of her pants only to be halted.

“Let me. I've been wanting to do this for a while."

So Ayna unfastens and rids Kennedy's lower body from her jeans, and then she stands up and removers her own skirt before joining Kennedy on the bed. Their lips meet instantly, legs entangling together, and Kennedy moves on top of Ayna, settling her weight down on the TA's body. They both moan in unison when their hips touch, fitting perfectly.

"There's still a few layers of clothing remaining. Are you slacking off?" Kennedy teases.

Ayna's chuckle fill the air, "Oh, no, I wouldn't dream of it,” she says, as she moves to unclasp Kennedy's bra. They quickly complete the task of ridding each other of their underwear, standing now completely bare in front of one another.

"Come here," Ayna pulls Kennedy back on top of her, moaning softly when they settle into each other. “You feel so good.”

Kennedy responds by merging their lips together again as she lets her hands wander all over Ayna’s body, stopping longer at her breasts. She feels Ayna’s hands focused on the curves of her ass and inner thighs. She sighs deeply.

“I can't wait any longer. I want to touch you."

"Well, go ahead."

But it's like the answer fell on deaf ears. "I need to."

Guiding Kennedy’s hand lower on her body, Ayna says "Yes, please."

Kennedy did, and it was everything and more. She was intoxicated by everything Ayna: the warmth of her lips, the floral scent of her perfume, the sweet sounds that came out of her mouth in the form of whimpers and moans, the softness of her most sensitive places. It was all so beautiful. She moves so her mouth can join her hand, and soon Ayna's labored breaths increase in rate and intensity at Kennedy's ministrations, letting Kennedy feel she's coming closer and closer to the edge.

“Ayna, look at me." Kennedy all but demanded. "I want you to look at me while I bring you over the edge."

"Oh, fuck... yes!” Ayna struggles to mumble, panting heavily as she complied and locked eyes with Kennedy. The young woman focus on her fingers strokes against the TA’s center, and she can tell it’s taking all Ayna has not to close her eyes again as she arches her back, riding out her pleasure. Kennedy felt on cloud nine.

“That was... it was...” Ayna tries to say, struggling to catch her breath.

“Tell me.” Kennedy asks as she plants a chaste kiss in Ayna’s shoulder, easing the woman down from her high.

When Ayna finally catches her breath, she answers affectionately, “No one has ever made me feel like this.”

Kennedy feels every one of her heartstrings being pulled again. This seemed like a common occurrence this night. This is going to be the death of me. But before she could dwell longer on this, Ayna was moving on top of her.

“Well, may I touch you now?”

“Yes, please.” Kennedy answers with a smirk that is quickly wiped from her face as Ayna’s lips find her neck, sucking on her pulse point, eliciting a moan from her.

Ayna is so tender Kennedy feels like she understands now why it's called "making love". Oh shit, I am in love with her too, aren't I? Well, should I? And at the worst possible moment, her mind decides to play tricks on her. This is when it chose to wander back, again, to that horrifying experience, as well as the crushing pain that followed through at the realization of Ayna's betrayal. And now she feels Ayna going lower and lower, trailing her mouth down Kennedy’s stomach, then her navel, as she kept her downward path.Oh my god, no, this is too much. I can't handle it.

“A-Ayna.”

“Hmmm.”

“Ayna, wait.”

Ayna halts immediately. “What? What is it?”

“I’m not- I’m not ready for...” Kennedy is struggling to get her words out, and she prays Ayna understands what she's trying to say.

In a flash, Ayna's face is back up, staring right at Kennedy as she brings one hand to caress Kennedy's face, the other propping her up. “Hey, it’s ok. You can tell me anything you want or don’t want, ok? We don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with."

“I’m just not ready for you to... go down there,” Kennedy admits begrudgingly, avoiding Ayna’s gaze.

“Of course. We can snuggle all night instead if that’s what you prefer.”

Oh for crying out loud! Of course, Ayna had to be the gentlest and most respectful even when faced with rejection in the very throes of passion. The war raging inside Kennedy was exhausting her completely. She knew she said she wanted it, and she meant every word. Objectively, she knew the truth about her feelings, she just didn’t think she’d have to own up to them so soon. Love, was it? Ayna was looking at her every inch understanding, not one bit judgemental or mad, and Kennedy wondered how great their relationship would've turned out if she was just the average girl, not the First Daughter of Rutherland, and if she could've always been met with that sweet and understanding Ayna, not the lying and deceitful one. She wanted so much to trust Ayna again, wholeheartedly, she wanted to feel her touch, she wanted to be loved, she just really wanted to just let go.

“Or you could... use your fingers?” she finally finds her voice, unable to not want to feel Ayna all over her.

“Yes, I can do that,” Ayna says, and to comply, she slowly brings her hands over Kennedy's center, looking for any sign of objection but finding none. “Like this?”

“Yesss, just like that.”

“Can I kiss you?”

“Y-yes.”

Ayna kisses Kennedy pouring her everything into it, and Kennedy feels it for what it was. If transcribed into words, it would probably say ”Please, forgive me. Please, let’s start again”.

Kennedy knows Ayna is following her lead, but she needs more. She knows Ayna won’t do anything she doesn’t signal that she wants. So with one hand she holds Ayna’s hand in place, and with the other she guides Ayna’s head towards one of her breasts.

And that felt so good, it was like she was being thoroughly consumed. A powerful desire to simply belong to Ayna begins to rise from deep within Kennedy’s heart, overriding any sick trick her mind was attempting to throw at her. She needed to know what that felt like.

“I need to... to feel you... inside.”

It was impossible for that request not to be met with compliance, so Ayna slid one finger through Kennedy’s opening, and then another, and with each thrust, she is taken closer and closer to that point of infinite bliss.

The part of her who still had some lingering doubts was being thoroughly massacred, and as much as Kennedy feared it, she was also glad to see it go. Even if it tried to tell her to be smarter, to draw a line, to keep away from Ayna and all the potential heartache she represented, none of that was enough to make her stop feeling everything else this woman made her feel, and loving Ayna felt so, so much better.

So in between ragged breaths and with a strained voice, she can’t stop herself from saying “I love you.”

Ayna buries her head into Kennedy’s neck, her movements gaining a boost of energy as she picks up her pace. When she feels Kennedy slipping into oblivion, she curls her fingers to draw it out as much as possible.

“Let it go, Kennedy. Let go for me.”

“Yes... oh god, yes.” Yes, let’s please just start again.

Kennedy’s whole world goes spinning as a thousand stars explode right behind her eyes and she cries out in ecstasy, letting go of everything.

She gets back from her high and is met with the sight of a very smiling Ayna lying on her stomach. “How are you feeling?” Ayna asks grinning lopsidedly.

Honestly? “So fucking liberated.”

That prompts laughter out of Ayna and Kennedy loves the sound of it. “Well, I love the enthusiasm”.

They snuggle close together, Kennedy now resting her head in Ayna’s chest, while the TA drapes her arms around the younger woman’s shoulders, “And you. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

And there it is again, the infectious grin in Ayna’s face. God, this woman is beautiful.

They spend a few minutes enjoying the quiet together, occasionally offering small kisses, lacing hands together and exchanging soft caresses, until Ayna asks, “Can you stay tonight?”

Kennedy stiffens. "I don’t think that would be a very good idea.”

“Oh, ok. I understand.”

“I’m sorry, I-“

“Hey, it’s ok, Kennedy, really. Tonight’s been a crazy ride, your mother’s still campaigning and the Peace Summit is right around the corner. I really understand.” She then adds a little sheepishly, “Can you stay for a few more minutes?”

“Yeah, but just a few more minutes."

"I'll take it," Ayna answers with a small genuine grin, diffusing the situation, and they settle against one another again, each lost in their own thoughts as to what this night represented. As messy as her feelings had been, Kennedy was thankful this happened. It felt so good to be nested comfortably in Ayna's arms, she just had to hold on to this feeling and let her heart heal.

After many more minutes, Kennedy moves, mumbling quietly, "I should go."

Ayna places a kiss on Kennedy’s forehead and disentangles herself from the younger woman. “Ok.”

Kennedy jumps out of bed searching for her scattered clothes while Ayna puts on a robe. Once they’re both redressed and composed, the TA laces her fingers with Kennedy's as she leads them towards the apartment door.

“Tonight was pretty great,” Kennedy said once they reached the door, feeling like offering Ayna reassurance. She didn't want the TA to be fretting all night long as she had a feeling this is just what might happen.

“Yeah, it was.”

“I know we still have things to work through, but... I do want this, I promise." Kennedy holds both Ayna's hands in her own and waves their joined hands for extra effect, "This won’t be gone by the morning.”

Ayna's face light up in a huge smile. "For as long as you’re willing to not close the door on us, I’m going to do everything I can to show you can trust me again." She leans in to steal one last kiss. “I’m all in, Kennedy. I love you.”

“I love you too. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow.”

With that Kennedy leaves, heart full of hope. Who said burnt bridges can't be rebuilt? This time around, maybe it'll be much stronger, and no amount of fire would be able to burn it down.

[imaginedhaven]

Reluctantly Rooming: Part Two

Link to Masterpost

So I realized today I hit 50 followers! Wow. That’s amazing, and I love you all so much. Plus, it was so inspiring I got to work on some more prompts for this wonderful little AU. I combined two prompts in this part:

1. “Are those slippers?” / “Is that you being mean? AGAIN?” 

-and-

2. “You don’t know how to change a tire?” / “Give it a rest, would you?”

As I mentioned last time, I am still taking prompts for this universe! It’s been a great time playing in this particular AU, and of course I have the rest of the story vaguely sketched out but it’s been way too much fun incorporating these prompts. Hope y’all enjoy!

~*~*~

Aelin was still marveling at the turn in her morning as she got dressed for work in the afternoon. She and Rowan had spent an hour or so finally getting to know each other a little like they probably should’ve when he first moved in, only stopping when he had to leave to go on a run with one of his coworkers. They still had quite a ways to go, but Aelin already felt more at ease than she had previously.

She still felt a twinge of embarrassment at how it had happened, but she had gotten herself into more awkward situations before and Rowan had seemed content to not bring it up further.

Aelin hummed along with the music playing on her phone as she wriggled into the dark pants that served as the bottom of her work outfit and then sat to braid her hair back. In her month and a half working behind the bar at her current job, she had learned in a single shift that leaving her hair down was absolutely not worth it; the golden waves that she was so proud of had an annoying tendency of getting in the way while shaking drinks, and choosing to tie them back instead left her hair much neater at the end of a long shift. Lately she had taken to braiding the long strands into a crown around her head, the style elegant enough to please her but practical enough to survive the night.

Smiling with satisfaction, Aelin pinned the last few strands in place and stood to leave. She took a few extra moments to glance in the mirror and make certain that her shirt was presentable enough for work before grabbing her keys and heading down the stairs.

She made it all the way to the driveway before her good mood evaporated.

“Fuck,” she whined as she stared at her car. It had been fine when she had gotten in, or she thought it had been. But now in the daylight the left rear tire was obviously flat, almost cartoonishly so. There was no way she would be getting in to work on time, not with her car out of commission.

If he had been home she would have asked Aedion for a ride, but he was absent and his car was garaged wherever it was he put it while away so that he could save on his insurance payments. That left trying to get in touch with her coworkers to see if they could pick her up.

Taking a deep breath and preparing to grovel, Aelin scrolled in her phone to Lysandra’s contact information and was about to press the call button when she heard a surprisingly welcome voice from the edge of the driveway.

While Rowan’s voice was a relief, his words certainly were not. “Are those… slippers?” he asked.

Aelin crossed her arms, not ready to deal with this kind of interaction when she was still trying to figure out how she was going to get to work. “Is that you being mean again?” she retorted, shuffling her feet. The motion only served to draw attention to her choice of footwear, however, and when she looked back up at him she was met with an expression she could only call amused exasperation. She sighed and decided to end this probable fight before it could begin, if only to preserve the remnants of her sanity after an already-stressful day. “I always wear slippers when I drive to work,” she admitted. “My work shoes are great when I’m actually on my feet, but I hate driving in them.”

“All right,” he allowed. “I can’t say I relate, but I suppose that makes more sense than anything else I was coming up with. Doesn’t explain why you’re staring at your phone like it’s your only lifeline instead of actually driving to work, though.”

At the reminder of exactly why she was stuck here and not at work, Aelin sighed and wordlessly gestured to her tire. He glanced down at it and then back at her, clearly confused, and began to laugh.

“Oh, what is it now?” she demanded, immediately on edge again.

He crouched beside the tire and braced his hands on his knees, inspecting it as he continued to chuckle. “You don’t know how to change a tire?”

Just as it had a few hours ago, Aelin felt heat flood her cheeks. “Give it a rest, would you? So what if I never learned, I didn’t exactly have anyone around to teach me.”

Aelin bit her lip to stop the words from coming out, though she had already revealed far too much. Even if it was true, and even though the theme of the day had been building some kind of camaraderie with her roommate, she firmly believed there was such a thing as oversharing and that had been it.

A small part of her brain noted that she felt more exposed now than she had been literally exposing her backside to him just that morning, but she carefully stifled that thought to be dealt with hopefully never. Instead, she blurted out, “And I’m not sure I have a spare anyway.”

Rowan gave her a skeptical glance. “Open your trunk.”

“What?” Aelin asked, stunned. “Why?”

“Just do it.”

Deciding to humor him, she did, and in less than five seconds he had opened a compartment and revealed exactly what he had been looking for, a spare tire as well as a few tools. “Oh.”

Rowan shook his head. “Most cars have the essentials in case this happens on the road. The replacement isn’t meant to be driven long-distance, it’ll only get you to the nearest repair shop. I’m assuming you don’t have time for that.”

Aelin nodded. “I’ve only got about an hour before I’m supposed to be at work.”

“All right. You have tomorrow off?”

Aelin checked the picture of the schedule she’d saved to her phone. “Yeah, tomorrow and Monday are my ‘weekend’,” she replied.

Rowan pulled the tools out of the compartment and straightened. “Okay. Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to put the replacement on now, because that tire’s flat enough that you’re risking damage to the rim if we let it sit and that gets expensive fast. I can drive you to work tonight, and tomorrow we can take it to someone to see if you can get away with patching the tire or if you need new ones.”

Aelin stared at him, surprised. “Wait, you’d drive me to work?”

“Would I say I’d do it if I wouldn’t?” he retorted.

Before today, she would’ve bristled at that comment and perhaps even snapped back at him. However, through their talks after his aunt had left she’d learned that he had an incredibly dry sense of humor bordering on outright sass. With that knowledge in mind, she bit back her immediate urge to fight back and instead simply said, “Thank you.”

Rowan’s head spun around to stare at her, and she shrugged, uncomfortable under the intense focus of his gaze. “What?” she asked. “You didn’t have to offer, but I appreciate that you did. Honestly, before you got here I was running down my list of coworkers, trying to decide who was most likely to pick up.”

“You may still want to see if one of them can bring you home,” he cautioned. “I’m not saying I won’t do it, but I’m not exactly used to staying up that late and I can’t promise I won’t fall asleep.”

Aelin laughed at the admission. “And here I thought you were the life of the party. Have you ever done something just because it was fun?”

“Says someone who is currently reaping the advantages of my lack of a social life,” he snorted. “I thought you were supposed to be grateful.”

“I can be grateful and still comment on your life choices.”

Rowan carefully set one of the tools next to the tire and got to work, pointedly ignoring her and leaving her with nothing to do but watch him.

Even before today she’d noticed in a distant kind of way that her roommate was unfairly attractive, for all that he didn’t seem to do himself any favors. That recognition was only affirmed as she watched the muscles of his shoulders and back while he worked to change her tire. He hadn’t even had the time to change out of his running clothes, and sweat lingered at the back of his neck, darkening the short strands of his hair.

She’d never bothered to ask if he’d naturally gone completely grey at a strangely young age or if he simply dyed his hair that color, but either way she could admit it suited him in a way she wasn’t sure would work on anyone else. Paired with piercing green eyes and angular features, what would have been a noteworthy feature on anyone else was a stunning combination on him.

It was really too bad that they barely tolerated each other. And now that they were roommates, she knew too much about him to be swayed by looks alone. All it took was one recollection of him reorganizing their living space and those thoughts retreated to the back of her mind where they belonged.

It was just in time, too, because she realized belatedly he was speaking to her. “—got lucky,” he was saying. “I’m no expert, but I think they should be able to just patch this and you won’t have to get new tires.”

“What makes you say that?” she asked, curious.

Wordlessly, he rotated her tire—which she noticed was now freed from her car—and pointed at a large nail driven right through the rubber.

“Oh.”

“Here, stuff this into your trunk while I get the spare on and then we’ll get you to work,” he said, rolling the tire in her direction. She rushed to comply, and by the time she had tucked it away as neatly as she could manage he had finished his part of the job as well. “All right, get what you need and we’ll go.”

“I already have what I need,” she replied.

He looked at her, gaze moving from her braided hair down to her slippered feet, and said, “Your work shoes?”

“At work,” she said.

“And you’re not bringing food when you’re working a full shift?”

“Rowan, I work in a bar. They have food there.”

Her statement granted her a withering look that promised a painful end to her admittedly-unhealthy usual diet. “Do you even have food in the house?”

“If you’re going to judge me, I’m not going to answer that,” she evaded.

“Fine. We don’t have time to fix that right now anyway,” he muttered. “Get in my car, and I’ll get you to work.”

They drove in silence the entire way to the bar, but it was somehow less uncomfortable than Aelin would’ve expected. Maybe there was something to be said for utterly humiliating yourself in front of your roommate, after all. She could only go up from here.

As they arrived, before she could slip out of his car she turned to face him. “Hey, thank you,” she said. “I mean it. You didn’t have to do any of this.”

He waved off her thanks with a single gesture. “I know you have my number. Just text me if you need me to pick you up as well.”

As it turned out, Lysandra was able to get her back home after her shift and she texted Rowan about a half an hour before her shift ended, receiving no reply. But as she crept into the house, she noticed a sight that made her freeze and then smile. Rowan was passed out on their couch fully clothed, phone prominently placed on the coffee table as though he’d fallen asleep waiting for her message.

Not willing to risk waking him, she quietly crept up the stairs to her room, but the image lingered for quite some time as she prepared for sleep herself.

~*~*~

Tagging:

@ireallyshouldsleeprn @queen-of-glass @fangirlprincess09 @sassys-world @morganofthewildfire @superspiritfestival @perseusannabeth @sis-it-dont-add-up @jlinez @julemmaes @emilyoftheshadows

[wulfies-kpop-fanfics]

One Photo → Mark Lee [2]

↳  Pairing: Mark Lee/Reader

↳  AU: Soulmate!AU - The first touch of two soulmates permanently scars their bodies.

↳  Word count: 2,610

↳  Chapters: Prelude | 1 | You Are Here! | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

⁙ Summary: For an end of the year photography project, you’re tasked with taking a photograph for your favourite group, NCT127, and coincidentally, discover your soulmate.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TUESDAY - 2

The next day you get up to your alarm, a little groggy and on autopilot. You mumble a greeting to Rhiannon who is already in the kitchen, eating a bowl of cereal. It's not uncommon for you to be undressed in front of her, so she barely reacts for a few moments when you reach into your clean clothes hamper in the living room and begin to change right there. 

However, in the midst of putting on your bra, Rhiannon squeals in excitement, nearly making you pee yourself.

“What the hell?!” You exclaim, now convinced that you're fully awake. 

“You-your front! Your entire torso! Look!” Rhiannon stands from the little dining table and approaches you, poking your stomach. You nearly let out a scream yourself when you see it.

Your entire torso, from collarbone to hip is completely covered with scar tissue, as well as the underside of your arms and the palms of your hands. “Rhiannon, I-” 

“Turn around.” She spoke quickly, and you obey her. She is silent for a little while, which is freaking you out even more than you already were. When she traces an outline over your right shoulder blade, your skin twitches in response. “(Y/N), this is the largest soulmate scar I've ever seen,” she says, her voice barely above a whisper. 

“I-” You're barely able to stutter out any words. You stand there, half-naked as your best friend examines you.

“Does it hurt?” Rhiannon pokes and prods on the newly formed scar tissue, primarily focusing on your shoulders.

“N-no, not at all.” You purse your lips. You feel like normal if not a bit overwhelmed. 

“This has got to be from a hug,” she concludes, nudging you to turn you back around. “There are perfect handprint scars on your back, too. You hugged Mark yesterday, right?” 

“He, uh, hugged me three times,” you confirm. “Johnny and Jaehyun hugged me twice.” 

“Then it's one of them!” Rhiannon is squealing with delight. “That is so exciting!” 

Your face fell a little, finishing putting on your bra and shirt you picked out for the day. “Yeah,” you say softly.

“What's wrong?” Rhiannon is beginning to look concerned, ghosting a hand over your shoulder.

“It's Mark,” you state, “I can feel it, but…”

“But what?” 

“If that's true, everything changes. When he leaves, am I going to be able to handle it?” you finish getting dressed and stop to look at your hands. “I… I already know I won't be able to handle the depression and separation anxiety, I won't be able to handle being constantly sick… I was never taught about any of this and I never even thought it would happen to me.” 

“(Y/N)...”

“I need to go. I have class.” 

~

You took in a deep breath as you gripped your tablet pen. You had been spending the last month's worth of photoshop labs on drawing a picture of Iron Man for your digital rendering final, and you had been doing well enough until today. Now that your hands had part of your scar, they gripped your pen differently and you were slowly growing more and more frustrated. 

It's not that you were angry that you had found your soulmate, and you were definitely happy it was Mark- but everything was happening so quickly. What were you going to say to him? Would his scar ruin his career? Were you ready for any of this? You looked up to your computer screen, seeing your reflection in the black screensaver. Seems like you had been overthinking long enough for the monitor to go to sleep.

You can see the buds of forming tears in your reflection. They were totally uncalled for and you knew it. Finding a soulmate was a happy time. In a world where all of this was completely normalized, you had no idea why you suddenly started feeling like a freak. On your way to class, you had already started to feel eyes on you. Most scars were small, dainty and cute, like a handshake or a poke to the shoulder- not a giant one that covered your entire chest, the inside of your arms and the palms of your hands. Scars larger than an apple were extremely rare, and ones like yours were the rarest of all.

What a wonderful scar, you heard your teacher say when you walked into class that morning. They say that if your scar is big, you're meant to be together for more than one lifetime. 

Maybe that was true, and it felt like a big responsibility you weren't ready for. You jumped in your seat when your phone vibrated in your pocket. 

Mark: Are you in class?

You: Yeah, but it's almost done

Mark: What is your classroom number? I'd like to pick you up if that's okay

You: Are you sure? 

Mark: Yeah! I wanted to spend more time with you today, I feel like it wasn't enough yesterday 

You: You're cheesy 

You: My classroom is 103A in M building 

Mark: You know it

Mark: See you soon 

You found yourself smiling at his texts. Talking to him eased some of your anxiety, but it still lingered in the back of your head. You put your phone down and shake your mouse so the screen comes back to life. Iron Man stares back at you, and you almost close the program. Your thoughts were irrational, and the only thing your scars were stopping you from doing was finishing the touch-ups of the last few pixels of this piece. 

Your hands will get used to it, you scold yourself, this is a good thing, (Y/N). You're not your parents.

You're snapped out of your thoughts again as your classmates begin to pack up, the quiet rustle of backpacks filling the room. You look back at your piece, over a month's work put into it and all you needed was maybe five minutes more of touch-ups and it would be perfect. 

The next time this classroom was going to be used was later tonight for the college's dungeons and dragons party, so you didn't think anyone would mind you staying to finish up.

The five minutes of touch-ups turned into 20 minutes of improving mistakes you've noticed, and 20 minutes of improving mistakes turned into an hour of being completely absorbed in your work. You had been so focused on everything that you barely even perk up when you hear one of the computer chairs rolling closer to you.

“I thought you went home, Moose,” you say casually, sticking your tongue out and swiping a line of light reflection onto a strip of red plating. 

“You have a friend named Moose?” The voice replies, and you nearly jump out of your seat, the pen swiping across the tablet and drawing a large white streak across Iron Man's face.

“Mark,” you sigh, placing a hand on your chest and trying to take in a deep breath. “You scared me.” 

Mark smiled sheepishly. “Sorry…” he looks at your computer screen. “I didn't mean to ruin your piece.” 

You smile gently, hitting ctrl z on your keyboard. The streak disappears, you save the piece and turn off the computer. “It's okay. I'm just lucky I don't have autosave turned on.” 

Mark sighed with relief. “You kinda scared me,” he starts, looking you in the eye. “You didn't come out of the classroom for so long that I thought you might have forgotten. I probably would have left if your teacher didn't recognize me and say it was okay for me to come inside.” 

Your frown at him and avoid his eye contact, deciding to focus on zipping up your backpack. “I'm sorry,” you say dejectedly. “I was dumb, but I would just be a downright moron if I stood you up on purpose.” 

Mark laughed softly, watching you pack up. “What did you want to do today?” he asked, voice softer. 

“I don't know,” you say, standing and slinging your backpack over your shoulders. “I would like to drop this off at my dorm, though. It's kinda heavy.” 

“Okay,” Mark nods. “We can start with that and go from there.”

While you travelled back to your dorm, nearly all of your anxiety about your scars disappeared. You talked about anything but the scar that was easily noticeable through your summery outfit. The more people looked at you, the more you wonder if Mark was keeping quiet out of courtesy for your aversion to his first question on the subject. 

Mark was sweet, complimenting your outfit and keeping up a strong conversation about marvel movies.

“Have you seen Endgame yet?” you asked him once you got back to the subject of Iron Man, and Mark laughed sadly.

“To my disappointment, no,” he answered, letting you board the subway first, pulling up his face mask. “Haven't had the time.” he stood close enough to you on the busy subway car that you could still hear him properly.

“Well, if you want we could see it,” you offer quickly, blushing and looking away as you saw his smile through his eyes.

“Are you asking me out, (Y/N)?” he asks, nudging you gently with his elbow. 

“N-no,” you respond, swearing up and down mentally that you were as red as a tomato. 

“I would graciously accept, but how about we wait until tomorrow? I want to catch up a little bit, I haven't watched any of the films in a while, I've been so busy preparing for the tour.” Mark smiled when you turned back to look at him again.

“Okay, well, I have all the films at my dorm,” you say, biting your lip.

“Would your roommate be okay if we stayed in?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh, she would be more than okay,” you tell him, which causes both of you to start laughing. “She will probably faint if she sees you again.”

“I think I've had my lifetime fair share of people fainting in front of me,” he says humorously. 

“I wouldn't worry. She is working on her finals today and probably won't be back until after you leave,” you say. “We will have the place to ourselves.” 

“Okay, that sounds good. I'm looking forward to catching up. Do you have popcorn?” he asks sheepishly. 

“Yeah, we-” the subway comes to an abrupt stop at your station, and you nearly lose your balance. Mark catches you before your face ploughs directly into his chest. He’s holding your arm gently as you exit the subway car, and it is then you truly notice that Mark's scars are clearly visible, from his palms to the edge of his t-shirt, just like you.

When you get back to your dorm room, you place your bag and your shoes in the hallway, leading Mark inside. He pulls down his mask and sighs happily, joining you in removing his shoes and placing them on the shoe rack.

“I remember when my dorm was about this size,” he says wistfully, looking around. You frown a little. 

“You mean everyone in NCT used to live in a place like this?” you ask, walking into the kitchen to prepare a pack of popcorn.

“Not exactly, the different subgroups all had their own dorms, but they were all tiny, for more than 3 guys to live in at once.” Mark wanders over to you in the kitchen, leaning back on the counter and crossing his ankles.

“I'm sorry,” you say. “I hope it's different for you now.” 

“Yeah,” he replies, watching you put the popcorn in the microwave and press the appropriate numbers. “We all live pretty comfortably now.”

You smile at him. “Good, I'm happy. You deserve to live in a place where you're comfortable.”

Mark is silent for a moment. The microwave finishes and he moves out of your way as you grab a large mixing bowl to put your snack in. He’s watching you diligently, and you feel that too familiar pinch in your chest. It's more intense than you've ever felt from just watching internet content of him on your laptop.

“What film did you want to start with?” you ask, leading him to the living room as you pull a tote bag out from under your coffee table that contains your Marvel movie collection. “We can just watch Infinity War if you want, or we can watch them in story order if you're feeling a little daring.” 

“You know the order to watch them chronologically?” he asks, sitting down with the popcorn bowl in his lap. 

“Yeah. Rhiannon and I watched them all in order up to the release of Endgame.” 

“Wow, I'm impressed,” Mark comments, popping a couple of pieces of the snack into his mouth. “What's the order of the last three films?” 

“Let me see… it's Thor Ragnarok, Ant-Man and the Wasp and Infinity War,” you answer. “Wanna watch those?” 

“Yeah. Let's do that.” 

A few hours later you both are now watching Infinity War, about halfway through the film. A blanket had made its way over your laps and the popcorn bowl has been long empty, sitting on the coffee table in front of you. 

You can tell Mark is nervous. You're sitting close, your legs nearly touching, and you wonder if you should say something. You hoped you didn't scare him away from saying anything when the topic was brought up the night before. You didn’t want your bitterness to ruin it all.

Once you spare one glance from the movie to look over at him, you notice Mark has already beat you to it. His gaze pierces right through you, and somehow you feel as if Mark is seeing your soul.

“I don't want to make you uncomfortable,” he says, half-smiling at you. “I don't want to repeat yesterday's mistake.”

“It's okay,” You say softly, “you didn't know.” 

“But I should have.” He sounds serious and definitely looks the part, too.

You lick your lips as you watch him. There's something that hits you, like a wave of anxiety that is different from your own. 

“Mark,” you have to pause to gather your words. “You've known me for two days. Mistakes are bound to happen, and I… I don't actually hate the premise.” 

“Would you be okay with, um, talking about it?” The movie is playing in the background, the flashing images reflecting different lights onto Mark's face.

“There is not much to talk about, is there?” you asked, holding up your scarred hand. “It's here, on both of us, and I'm happy. Scared, but happy.” 

“You're not upset about it?” he asked, and it was almost like he was bracing for rejection. 

You took his hand, lacing your fingers with his. “No. You said you wanted to know someone so well that you didn't have to think about it, right?”

“Yeah, I did.” Mark returned the grip, his eyes glancing between your eyes and your hand. “You're right, we don't have to think about it.” Mark smiles softly at you, freeing his hand from yours so he can wrap his arm around your shoulder, guiding you to lean into his side.

It's maybe two hours later when you're stirred ever so slightly by the jiggling of the lock to your front door. You don't open your eyes, trying to ignore the sound and continue to cuddle into the warm body squished against you on the couch. 

Soft voices are muffled through your ears, and in your half slumber you can't exactly make any words out. Fatigue eventually grips you once again, returning to the vivid dream you were engrossed in just moments ago. 

[yunho-es]

Member/s: Wooyoung (ATEEZ)

Genre: soft

Warnings: swear words

Words: 2043

Before reading, I want you to know that I don't use any names or Y/n's because I know many people don't really insert their names, they read it as Yin 😂 I also write in first person pov because I think it's easier to read and imagine yourself in that situation

Beads of sweat slowly rolled down my forehead as I pulled out a piece of paper from my sleeve. I knew that the exam would be hard, but I wasn't expecting it to be this detailed. Thank God my friend made me write it all on a small piece of paper. At least I will get a positive grade. Of course he made me do it, he passed the school with those. Thankfully, he didn't go to medicine school. If I ever ended up on his surgery table, I would die.

Three more minutes until the end and one more question unanswered. The teacher noticed me shifting in my seat, but she knew I always get good grades. She finally stopped looking at me and gave her attention to a group of boys trying to switch their papers. I glanced one more time at the piece of paper and put it back in my sleeve. Just as I finished the answer, the bell rang. Half of the class groaned, probably because they didn't manage to finish in time. I took my backpack and left the paper with my name on the main table.

"Good job! Honestly, your exams are always my favorite to grade. I'm really happy to have a student like you."

"Thank you, Mrs Johnson. See you on Monday."

Once I got outside I noticed the sky already getting dark. It was just 5 pm and winter was already doing it's job; the roads were wet and slippery from mixed rain and snow and it must've been under 0 Celsius. Usually I walk home because it's not far away, but my school uniform, rain and cold weather didn't go well together. I was just about to call my roommate when I felt car lights on me, followed by a familiar voice.

"I think quicker than you do." Wooyoung smiled as he opened the door. "Get in please I don't want to spend the next week taking care of an annoyingly picky roommate. I have plans to get drunk and do something stupid."

"You do stupid things anyway without drinking. So save the money and the time. And oh, save me from embarrassment." I get in the car sticking my tongue out at him. "Did you cook anything? I'm starving."

"No, of course. I slept the whole day." I look at him, hoping to see a smile on his face that would give me a sign that he's joking. "Don't look at me like that, I was tired from the night shift. I'll take you to McDonald's." he drove out of the school parking.

"I don't want trash, Wooyoung. I want food." I groaned. He told me that he would try cooking something, but it's been a week and he didn't do anything. "Please buy some pasta and tomato sauce I'll make something."

"Honestly, I really don't feel like waiting. And McDonald's is f**king awesome!" his hand reached out to turn on the radio. "How can you not love the little purple box full of 12 golden beauties?"

It did sound good, but we haven't eaten any "real" food for a month and my stomach started to ache. Living with Wooyoung has its bad and good sides, the bad sides mainly being his laziness and stubbornness. Speaking of stubbornness, of course he took the left turn towards McDonald's.

"What do you want?"

"What a polite way to ask me. You've loosened up I see." I frown at him. He rolls his eyes dramatically and turns towards me with his whole body.

"Your Highness, what do you wish to consume today?"

"That's just too much."

"What the h*ll do you want? I'm taking 3 burgers and fries and you aren't touching them." the brown haired boy points his finger towards my face. I squint my eyes at him, then bite his finger. "Crazy woman."

"Hello, may I take your order?"

"Hello, yes. I'd like a..."

***

"Is this place good enough for the Queen?" Wooyoung spoke with his mouth full of fries and ketchup. We sat on the roof of his car on a parking lot near a river. The place is good enough for the Queen.

"Eat before you speak, what's wrong with you?" I laugh at him, seeing that he spilled the ketchup on his t-shirt. "No girl will want you like this."

"To be honest I'm not interested right now." he replied immediately.

I'd lie if I said that my heart didn't sink a bit. Whoever said that boys and girls can't be friends was right. One side always catches feelings, big or small. In my case, I believe it's a small crush. He's the only boy I hang out with, so that must be why.

"Why?" I allow myself to ask.

"I had a little crush on a girl but I had to give it up." he kept stuffing his mouth with food, trying to avoid the conversation.

"And...?" I look at him expecting more. But he keeps his mouth shut and folds the paper of the burgers in his hands.

"Are you thirsty?" Wooyoung offers a can of soda, still looking at his fingers.

"Yes, thank you." he opens the can for me, first taking a sip himself, then giving the green beverage to me. I drink the whole can almost immediately.

"You could've said earlier that you were thirsty, I had water in the car." his tone visibly changed. He sounded more serious now, as if he just wanted to go home and lock himself in the room. "Want another one?" he reaches for another can.

"I think I have one more sip here." I throw my head back trying to drink every single drop of the refreshing juice. I slowly started to lean back, forgetting that I'm not in the chair but on the roof of the car. "Sh*t!" I curse as I almost fall on the rocky floor.

"Hey!" Wooyoung quickly reacts and grabs my hands, pulling me towards him. All the empty cans rolled down on the floor, making loud noises. "You good?" he asks, eyes on my face.

His hands felt so warm around mine. I really didn't want to let go. "I'm good." I pull away, trying to get down to collect the cans.

"Leave the d*mn cans there. You almost fell down. Do you see those rocks down there? What if you hit your head? What would I do?"

"I'd pay to get your car cleaned from my blood, Wooyoung." I laugh, but when I notice that his face didn't change, my smile drops. "What's wrong? Why isn't it funny when I say something like this?"

"Behind all these jokes you have to understand that you are very important to me and I have a soft spot for you. If anything happened to you my life would stop. I'm a serious man behind all my sarcastic jokes. Please watch yourself, because I can't do it all the time. It takes a second to turn a peaceful situation into a disaster."

I stare at him with my mouth a little open. I'm surprised at his words, I never heard him talk like this. I manage to say a sorry, turning my head away from him.

After a few seconds of silence, which seemed like hours, he got down and picked up all the cans, then offered me his hand. "Be careful." I put my hand in his, slowly getting down on the floor. "What dumbass even puts these rocks on the parking lot?" he picks up a few of them and pushes them away, leaving the bigger and heavier ones where they were.

"I think because they don't want someone else to have the spot." I watch as he tries to move a few more rocks. "Leave it, you're gonna hurt yourself. Let's just go back home, please?"

"Alright." he leaves the rocks and opens the door for me. Then he proceeds to enter the car himself. "But just for the record, I could've moved those rocks." his lips curved in a small smile. He can't help himself.

***

It suddenly became quiet in the house. Wooyoung layed on the sofa, watching the TV, and I sat on the floor behind the coffee table with my back leaning on the sofa.

"I'm a bit disappointed that we didn't take any photos." I pouted, scrolling down my Instagram feed. He didn't respond. I kept quiet for a few more minutes, then broke the silence again. "Do you think you could pick me up tomorrow from school again?" again, no answer.

I turn around towards him and see that his eyes are closed. He fell asleep while watching the TV. I took a blanket from my room and layed next to him under it. It's not my first time napping with him, but most of the time he refuses. He says that he is a kicker in his sleep and that he doesn't want to hurt me.

The sofa in our living room is quite small so I have to basically lay on Wooyoung. Just as I close my eyes, I feel his hand around my waist, bringing me even closer to him. Now my head was on his chest and I was surrounded by his scent and warmth. This must be what heaven feels like. Usually when we sleep like this together, it takes us a few hours to fall asleep. Mainly because he can't stop making jokes and I can't stop laughing. But this is different. It's calm. It's beautiful.

I couldn't tell if he was asleep or just pretending. He held me close and rubbed my back slowly. "Wooyoung?" I tried calling.

"Hm?" he responds sleepily.

"Are you okay?" I look up at him. His eye are still closed, but his fingers are still drawing tiny patterns on my waist and back.

"Mhm." again, I receive a short answer. When I try to move and give him some space so he can sleep peacefully, he opens his eyes to look at me. "Please don't move. I want to sleep like this." one of his hands moved my hair from both of our faces. "Please?" he asked, almost whispering.

I have never witnessed this side of Wooyoung. His voice was different, his movements were different, his eyes were different. This is the Wooyoung I wanted for myself, but couldn't have him. It took me a few longer seconds to realise that we are staring at each other, doing nothing but breathing quietly. Once his hot breath fell on my lips I couldn't help but close my eyes and sigh. Right now, I hoped for one thing to happen.

"Why can't I have you like this every day?" his soft voice whispered. I try to speak, but as soon as I move my lips, I feel something soft brushing against them. My breath stops and I force myself to open my eyes. He's looking down at my lips as if thinking if the next step is smart to do. I allow myself a moment of bravery and I put my hands on his chest, getting closer to him. "F**k it." he mutters, finally putting his hands on my cheeks and pressing his lips against mine.

His lips must've been the softest thing to exist on this planet. I tried to move, but my body was frozen. I couldn't do anything, just lay and enjoy the softness and the warmth of his lips. He pulled away for a second, trying to say something, but when he didn't succeed, he went back to the older position. Then, again, he pulls away.

"You are so sweet. You taste like I always imagined." the red cheeked boy whispers, brushing the tip of his nose against mine.

"More, please." I manage to say. My lips and throat are dry, my mind is going crazy, and my stomach is witnessing fireworks. Wooyoung smiles, still not letting go of my cheeks. "Please." I get impatient.

He leans in again, this time kissing me with more passion. It stopped being sweet and soft, now only one word existed in my mind: more. And he happily listened.

[heyhey-heyward]

NO I DON’T | part two

series masterlist

summary: In which you realize that maybe you have feelings.

word count: 2.7k

let me know what you think!

The next morning found Kiara at your house as you got ready, waiting for John B to pick you both up in his van for the day's adventures. She was laying on your bed, scrolling through her phone as you bounced around to get dressed.

“Oh my god, did I tell you what John B asked me last night?” You stepped out of your closet once you finished getting changed out of your pajamas and looked at Kiara, who shook her head. “He asked me if I had a thing for JJ.”

“Well?” She looked at you expectantly, and you furrowed your brows.

“Well, what?” You repeated, confusion evident in your tone. She scoffed, the grin she was wearing a bit too smug for your liking.

“Do you have a thing for him?” From her tone, it was clear that she thought her question was obvious. Suddenly, the looks she had been sending you over the past couple of days made sense.

“Not you too.” You groaned, dropping your head back in annoyance as you picked up your backpack that held everything you needed for the day. Kiara chuckled at your reaction, climbing off your bed to follow you as you moved to go wait for the boys downstairs. “I promise, there is nothing going on between JJ and I.”

“If you say so.” She shrugged, echoing John B’s statement from the night before. You could tell by her tone and grin that she clearly wasn’t convinced, though you chose not to respond, dropping the subject completely when you entered the kitchen and spotted your mom drinking coffee at the island table.

“Hello, girls.” Your mom greeted you both with a smile. “Have you gotten your Midsummers dresses yet?” Since your parents had grown up on The Cut, they were eager to take part in any events that solidified their Kook status. You, on the other hand, couldn’t care less.

“No, but I was thinking of going tomorrow.” Kiara explained with a smile. What she didn’t say was that she waited so long to get a dress because, just like you, she thought the whole event was ridiculous.

“I’ll go with her.” You told your mom, knowing that was going to be her next question. Shopping with Kiara would mean one less headache and you would be able to enjoy yourself.

“And have you thought about having someone escort you?” She wasn’t being controlling, you could tell from the smile she was wearing that she was simply genuinely curious. Just as you were grabbing a couple granola bars out of the pantry, a familiar honk sounded from the driveway and you knew it was your chance to escape.

“Bye mom!” You called, grabbing Kiara’s arm and racing out of the house. John B’s van was parked exactly where you knew it would be, with Pope in the passenger’s seat and JJ’s head sticking out the sliding door. You climbed in with Kiara in tow, the dark haired girl was grinning mischievously at you.

“Yeah, are you going to have someone escort you?” She teased, reaching out to pinch your cheeks as you slumped into the spot next to JJ. His arm found its way around your shoulders like it usually did, and he was looking between you and Kiara with a confused look.

“Shut up, Kie. I’d rather choke than go with some stuck up Kook.” You rolled your eyes, leaning further into JJ to get away from her. She grinned, settling into her spot across from you as John B pulled out of the driveway.

“Are you talking about Midsummers?” Pope asked over his shoulder. You nodded, rubbing your cheeks that stung a bit from where Kiara pinched them. “I’m supposed to work it with my dad.”

“When is it again?” John B asked. The boys looked to you and Kiara for answers, wondering when their group of five would be knocked down to two.

“It’s in three days, and we have to go dress shopping tomorrow.” Kiara explained as you picked at your nails, clearly bored with the conversation. You felt JJ shift from beside you, drawing your attention and when you met his gaze he was frowning.

“We were supposed to watch C.H.U.D. that night though.” He pouted, and even though he was the best liar of the group, you could see the mischief in his eyes. He wasn’t actually upset, but he would never be one to pass up the chance to tease. You shoved his shoulder playfully while still grinning at his antics.

“Sorry I’ve got to bail on you, we can hang out another time.” You assured him, turning to John B to ask him where he was taking everyone, but you didn’t get the chance to say anything before Kiara spoke up.

“Why don’t you just go to Midsummers with her?” Her question was innocent enough, but coupled with the conversation you had with her minutes earlier, you shot her an exasperated look. Though, the idea of having JJ with you at the event had you significantly more excited for the night. He would be able to make the stuffiest Kook party actually enjoyable.

“Yeah, J, I’ll even rent you a suit and everything. And Kie could bring JB. It’ll be a Pogue takeover.” You nudge him with your elbow, earning a grin from the blonde. The look he gave you, for some unknown reason, sent a shock through your system. You had always known he was attractive, but the sight of his dimple and the lightness in his eyes caught you off guard.

“Maybe I will.” JJ announced, pulling you tighter into his side as he switched his attention to the other three people in the car. John B echoed his sentiment, and as JJ leaned towards the front to make some joke about how Pope was going to have to serve him, Kiara shot you a self-satisfied look that made you roll your eyes.

“John B, where are we even going?” You called, your voice loud enough to carry over JJ and Pope’s back and forth bickering. You met the brunette’s gaze through the rearview mirror, noting the mischievous gaze that told you that he was up to something.

“We’re having a kegger tonight.”

A few hours and one free lunch from Kiara’s family restaurant The Wreck later, John B dropped you and JJ off at the store to pick up some last minute items for the party.

“I can’t believe I got put on cup duty.” JJ complained, grabbing the large package of red solo cups off of the shelf. You rolled your eyes, grabbing an extra pack to make sure there was enough.

“I’m on babysitting duty, so it could be worse.” You teased, ruffling his hair as you flashed him a grin and walked ahead of him.

“Oh, so we’re being mean now, are we?” He called, trailing after you. You could hear the smile in his voice, and when you glanced at him over your shoulder your suspicions were proven true. You nodded at his statement, only realizing your mistake seconds later when his arms came around your middle and he spun you around, fingers digging into your sides to tickle you.

You didn’t hear the cups hit the ground as you both dropped what you were carrying over the sound of your laughter. JJ’s arms were around you, keeping your back pressed to his chest as you tried to squirm out of his hold. Eventually he dropped you, and you immediately spun to face him, swatting his shoulder as he laughed loudly and you tried to catch your breath.

And then it hit you.

A stampede of butterflies fluttered in your stomach as you watched JJ giggle uncontrollably at his own actions. Your whole body felt warm, and everywhere JJ had just been touching you was tingling. It was as if everything you had ever known was coming into question and you weren’t sure you would be able to tell up from down. But worst of all—John B was right.

You had a thing for JJ.

You were dragged out of your thoughts by JJ waving his hand in front of your face, calling your name. You forced a smile, embarrassed that you had been caught zoning out as you thought about how you could have gone so long without realizing your feelings for one of your closest friends.

“You good?” JJ asked, picking up the cups from the ground. You nodded, clearing your throat as you made a bee-line for the cashier. The old man working the register shot you an annoyed look, clearly not the happiest with the fact that you had been so noisy just moments before.

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine.” You said, way too quickly for you to be actually fine. You could tell JJ wasn’t convinced, but he kept his mouth shut as you paid and he followed you out of the store with the cups in hand. Originally, the plan had been for JJ to come to your house and hang out for a while, but at the moment all you needed was to put some distance between yourself and the blonde haired boy who’s gaze was making it hard for you to breathe properly. “Actually, I just remembered that I promised my parents I’d help them with something today, so I’ve got to head back.”

“Do you want me to help too?” He asked, and you silently cursed him for being such a kind person. You probably wouldn’t be in this mess if he wasn’t such a secret softie towards his friends. Plastering on the biggest smile you could muster you chuckled, internally cringing at the sheer awkwardness of it all.

“Is JJ Maybank offering to work?” You teased, ignoring the confused look he gave you or the way your voice was a few octaves too high to be normal. You started to walk backwards in the direction of your house, shooting him one last wave. “I’ll see you at the party.”

If this was how you were going to act around him from now on—you were in trouble.

You arrived at The Boneyard that night after the party had already started and Pogues, Kooks, and Tourons alike were already drinking. After your little freakout at your house, you had calmed down significantly and convinced yourself that you’d be able to act normally around JJ, because it was just JJ, one of your best friends since the third grade when John B introduced the two of you.

You spotted your group of friends sitting around one of the many small bonfires that littered the small stretch of beach dedicated to parties. You head towards them instead of the keg, not wanting to deal with the group of Kooks that currently surrounded it. You swung an arm around Pope’s shoulders as you dropped into the spot on the log beside him, interrupting his story about something his dad had told him as a cheer of your name sounded from the group. You smiled at them, ignoring the way your heart skipped a beat as your gaze momentarily landed on JJ.

“Where have you been? I thought you weren’t going to show.” John B teased with a grin. You went to give him some comeback about how you weren’t sure you would have been able to stomach one more party with him, but JJ’s voice added onto the brunette’s comment.

“Yeah, after you freaked out and bailed on me this afternoon.” He remarked, punctuating his sentence with a drag of the blunt he had rolled for the party. You felt your smile morph into a grimace, and to avoid meeting anyone’s questioning looks, you stared into the fire.

“My mom has been freaking out about Midsummers, she wanted me to help her pick out a dress today.” You lied. It was clear that something was up, but nobody questioned you as John B rose from his seat, extending a hand to pull you to your feet.

“Come on, let’s get you a drink.” He explained, leading you through the crowd and towards the now-empty keg. “So are you going to tell me what’s really going on? Because I’ve already seen the dress your mom picked out for Midsummers, like, two weeks ago.”

You cringed, embarrassed to be caught in a lie. Your silence must have told John B all that he needed to know, because it was seconds later that his grin widened and he was laughing at you.

“Oh my god, you do have a thing for him!” John B called out, much too loudly for your liking. You shot forward, slapping a hand over his mouth to keep him quiet. He leaned back out of your touch, shooting you a grin as he finally moved to fill a cup for you. “I knew it. So, what happened? JJ didn’t say anything—”

“Nothing happened, John B! I just kinda, freaked out and left.” You sighed exasperatedly, tilting your head back in annoyance. You knew nothing would stop him from teasing you, you certainly wouldn’t hold back if you were in his position, but he also wouldn’t cross any lines.

Still, he wasn’t the best secret keeper once he had a few drinks in him.

Your solution to your John B problem had been to stick by his side the entire night. It wasn’t far from what you usually did at parties, but you also had been avoiding JJ as best you could—which, you couldn’t remember the last time you put so much distance between yourself and the blonde.

A few refills later and you were feeling loose, your mind able to wander other places instead of being stuck on the fear that JJ might find out how you felt. You had been messing around with John B, and somehow had ended up climbing onto his back.

“JB, I swear, if you drop me…” Your threat was empty as you trailed off, earning a loud laugh from John B.

“You’re the one that asked for a piggy back ride.” He teased, and you shut him up by holding your cup up to his lips to give him a sip. He went back to his conversation with Pope and Kiara after, and you zoned out as you felt a pair of eyes on you. Glancing up, you found JJ staring at you and John B with an annoyed expression, not giving the time of day to the Touron that was clearly trying to flirt with him.

You furrowed your brows in confusion, wondering what could have upset him. You entertained the idea that it was because you were ignoring him, and that made a heavy weight settle in your stomach.

“I’ll be right back.” You told John B, interrupting whatever story he was telling. You pressed a quick kiss to his cheek before he set you on your feet, and you made your way through the crowd to where JJ was standing. His expression only seemed to get more sour, and you briefly contemplated turning back. You steeled your nerves and ignored the fluttering in your chest as you stood before him. “Hey, are you all right?”

“‘M fine.” He grunted, even less convincing than you had been earlier. And while you had lied because you were overwhelmed with a slew of new feelings towards one of your closest friends, he was lying because something was making him mad.

“J, what’s wrong?” You continued. Usually, you were pretty good at reading what upset JJ, from Kooks to his father, you knew him well. This time, it was as if there was a wall between you and him and you weren’t sure why he had built it up.

“Why don’t you go back to John B?” JJ wasn’t even looking at you as he spoke, his gaze trained on the cup he was squeezing too tight to be normal. You were shocked at the accusation he was making, that there was something going on between you and your oldest friend. You huffed, annoyed that he was being so difficult. You would have corrected him, but you had a stubborn streak as well, and just wanted to enjoy the party. So instead, you dished out the attitude that he gave you, before turning back to where John B, Kiara, and Pope were waiting for you.

“Get over yourself, JJ.”

—

taglist:

@pixelated-pogues​ @obx-direction-sos​ @emptycanvasposts​ @rudethchalamet​ @drizzlethatfalls​ @obxlife​ @fangirlvoice​ @jayjaymaebank​ @k-k0129​ @starryblueeyesandstarryblueskies @perfektionsmakel​ @teamnick​ @sspidermanss​ @jjs-housekeeping​

(names with a strikethrough did not work)

[yurtletheturtlehenderson]

COSMIC - S1:E1; Chapter One, The Vanishing of Will Byers - [Pt. 2]

A Will Byers x Gender Neutral!Reader Series

𝘖𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥'𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦, 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘨 𝘞𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘏𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘨𝘳𝘰��𝘯 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘶𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘣𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦, 𝘢 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘰𝘧 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥.

||𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐑'𝐒 𝐏𝐎𝐕||

The boys and I finally make it to school; my legs are always exhausted by the time we reach the student drop off.

I hear the bell ring when we park our bikes.

"That's weird. I don't see him." Mike finally says what we've all been thinking. 'Where the hell is Will?' Personally, I'm starting to get really worried.

As if catching onto my growing worries, Lucas chimes in.

"I'm telling you. His mom's right. He probably just went to class early again."

I always admired how Lucas can always be so optimistic with stuff like this; always thinking logically. He's really good at keeping the party level-headed. I tend to worry a lot so it's nice to have a friend like Lucas to keep my feet on the ground.

"Yeah, he's always paranoid Gursky's gonna give him another pop quiz."

"Well, I don't blame him. Gursky gives me pop quizzes all the time, and it's exhausting. Never knowing when you will be put on the spot" I say.

"Step right up, ladies and gentlemen."

'Oh just perfect. Troy and his goon'

"Step right up and get your tickets for the freak show," Troy says smugly.

I click my tongue and shake my head in a mocking tone.

"Oh, sorry guys but we actually can't make it today. By any chance, can we catch your act tomorrow?" I bat my eyelashes at them in innocence, the comment earning a few chuckles from Lucas, Mike, and Dustin.

Troy's face scrunched up in anger, clearly offended by my comeback.

"Hey, no one asked you, shithead!"

I roll my eyes at his cheap insult. However, the boys were having none of it, especially Dustin, as usual. They get into a threatening stance, while Dustin tries to lunge for them, but I put my arm out to stop them before they can even do anything.

"Guys, just ignore them. It doesn't matter to me. They're not even worth it."

Troy and his puppet James only seem amused.

"So who do you think would make more money in a freak show anyway?" Troy continues.

"Midnight," he punches Lucas. I clench my fists, my chest already burning with anger and ready to strike.

"Frogface," he punches Mike, and my jaw tightens so tight it threatens to lock.

"Orphan" he punched me. I took a deep breath trying to control my anger.

"Or toothless?" He shoves Dustin.

It's taking everything in me not to tackle him right now. I've always been like this. Whenever someone insults me, I'm able to brush it off, but as soon as someone goes after the people I care about, I lose it. Big time.

His goon sighs and holds his hand to his chin as he pretends to think about it while he looks at all of us. He then stops at Dustin and singles him out, in a voice that's clearly supposed to be Dustin's.

"I'd go with Toothless." My nails are probably drawing blood from my palms at this point.

"I told you a million times, my teeth are coming in. It's called cleidocranial dysplasia." Dustin says.

"I th'old you a million th'imes" he continues.

"Screw you," I shout, lunging for him. But before I could ever actually reach him, Dustin pulls me back, stopping me as I had him.

"Y/n, you were right. They aren't worth it."

They just laugh smugly in response. I grit my teeth and cross my arms.

"Do the arm thing."

"Do it, freak!"

"Oh, I swear to god!" I go to charge at him but Mike pulls me back and pats my back trying to calm me down. I glare daggers at the boys in front of me. I swear I'm seeing red and it feels as if my blood is literally boiling in veins.

"Y/n it's fine. Look, here," he sighs tiredly, putting down his backpack and taking off his jacket. He then extends his arms out and you can hear his bones crack. He then looks to the bullies pointedly and says, "There, I did it. Will you leave us alone now?"

The bullies groan in disgust and Troy says, "UGH. It gets me every time!" They laugh, shoving us aside roughly and walk away.

"Assholes," Lucas beat me to it.

"I think it's kinda cool," Mike offers, looking at Dustin. "It's like you have superpowers or something. Like Mr. Fantastic."

"Yeah, except I can't fight evil with it."

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

{Trigger Warning for Anxiety Attacks}

Troy and his friend had just left us alone, so the four of us began making our way to class. As we walk through the hallways, the three of them end up side by side by side next to each other while caught up in their conversation which at this point, had drifted to planning our next campaign. Normally I'd be all over it but I found myself drifting back and keeping to myself, my thoughts wandering to Will.

'I really hope he's okay. Ya know what? No, Lucas is right, as usual, he's got to be at class by now. He has to be.'

I try to push all the negative thoughts to the back of my mind as I try and focus on getting to the classroom as soon as possible just to prove to myself he's okay and I'm just overreacting.

The four of us approach Mr. Clarke's room and I run ahead, no longer able to wait another second. I pop my head in the door and to my great dismay, he is nowhere to be seen. I take a deep breath, and stumble back, that familiar viscous feeling of a pit in my stomach. My anxiety is kicking in.

The boys look to each other in silence, all generally thinking the same thing.

'This is bad. Will would never skip. And he's not at home, so something must be very wrong.'

Before the boys get the chance to say anything, I slip away and walk quickly down the hall to the bathroom, my arms tucked into my sides defensively while my head is down. I can't be around people when it's this bad so I usually end up hiding in a stall in the bathroom, trying to calm down. The guys know I have anxiety attacks like this sometimes and I know they want to help, but they don't know how and that's fine.

When I reach the familiar stall, I slam it shut and sit on the edge of the seat and put my face in my hands as my elbows are propped up on my knees. My breathing is ragged and my eyes become soaked in tears as panic takes over my body. That familiar feeling of nausea returning. The endless 'what ifs' begin flooding my mind.

'What if he got hit by a car on his way home?'

'What if he got kidnapped?'

'What if... he's dead?'

Just the thought of never seeing my best friend ever again makes me wail. I'm rocking back and forth hugging my torso when I remember I have to take deep breaths or I might pass out. I try to remember to tell myself that I don't have all the information and that there has got to be some sort of explanation for all of this.

That it's just my anxiety talking. It's just brain noise. I just need to learn how to manage it.

It wasn't even lunch yet... The thought made all of this feel silly on some level and yet I still felt the rock sitting in my gut. Something still felt wrong.

I spend the next few minutes focusing on taking deep breathes, and after what feels like hours, I am finally breathing normally again.

I grab my bag which had been thrown to the ground during my attack and exit the stall. I stand in front of the mirror washing my hands and I look at my eyes which are now totally swollen from crying.

I reach down and splash some water on my face, and rub my eyes. Getting the remainder of the water off with a paper towel. As I look at my slightly improved reflection I take another deep breath and head to class. Pretending everything's normal and I hadn't just had a meltdown in the bathroom, as usual.

I pick up my pace as I shrug my shoulders to secure my backpack so it doesn't fall. I was lucky I was able to come down from my attack as quickly as I did because it seems I wasn't late like last time. It looks like I made it with just a minute to spare. I walk over to where the party and I usually sit. I think twice before sitting down next to Dustin.

I know at this point the boys are aware of the state I'm in judging by the looks of sympathy they are giving me. The state of my eyes and the fact I didn't take my normal seat next to Will's probably gave me away. I decided to take the seat in front of my usual so I don't have stare at Will's empty seat and be worrying all class. So as they say, out of sight out of mind. While waiting for class to start I try and think of different things to keep my mind off of Will, and my mind wanders the new Heathkit ham shack that was supposed to have come today.

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

❥ Let me know if you would like to be added to or removed from the taglist! ❥

[tloujm]

Part XVI: Camping

Author’s Notes: Just a romantic trip out in the woods. Thanks for reading! I hope you guys like it. I’ve been really busy lately and I’ve had this chapter half written for like a month. I wanted to get it right and I feel like this is pretty good, so again, I hope y’all like it. Hopefully I can start writing on a more consistent schedule again soon. And last but not least MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Genre: Peak Fluffiness IMO

Summary: You and Joel go on the aforementioned camping trip from the last chapter. You guys fish and hike and all that nature ooey gooey fluffy mess.

Ship: Joel x Reader

“You ready for this?” Joel looked back at you as he packed the backseat of a station wagon. Being a prominent figure in town, he was able to pull some strings and borrow the keys to a newly fixed up car.

“As I’ll ever be.” You gave him your bag.

The two of you drove down one of the patrol routes for about 45 minutes before Joel turned down an unpaved pathway. Feeling your weariness, he gently took your hand in his. You turned to him for a second before laying your head back on the rest and closing your eyes. The slow tunes flowed from the stereos and filled the car. Before the trip, you went down to the library and checked out a handful of cassette tapes to get you through the car ride. Just as you finally let yourself relax to the hum of the engine and Joel’s voice, the car shut off.

“Think here’s a good place to stop and set up camp.” He said, turning to you. You took in your surroundings, noticing that he had parked in a small clearing circled by tall pine trees. It was a serene view and for that, you offered a small smile.

“I think you’re right.”

The two of you unpacked the trunk. There wasn’t much: just a tent, sleeping bags, your backpacks, fishing poles and a cooler. As Joel carried out the last of the items, you decided to take initiative and start putting up the tent. You convinced yourself that it couldn’t possibly be as difficult as it looked; It was just fabric and poles. You could hear Joel snickering from behind as you struggled to hold everything together. Expletives left your mouth before he decided to step in and help. He took one of the poles out of your hand, turned it around and snapped it into place with ease. Rolling your eyes, you grabbed another set of poles and followed suit. You finished up the tent while he set up some simple booby traps around the perimeter of the clearing.

After getting settled, the two of you hiked hand in hand to a wide river. He sat the cooler down next to a boulder and took one of the rods that you were holding. Patting the boulder, he beckoned you to sit next to him. Shoulders touching, you watched as he pulled a can of worms from the cooler and baited it onto the hook.

“Now, mine is all set, so I’m gonna show you how to set up yours so we can fish together.” Joel said. “Grab your hook. You wanna tie it to the line. A simple little knot will do.” You tried to mimic his actions. “Well no, like this, darlin’. Thread the line through the hook, then bring it back, wrapping it around itself a few times. Feed the end back through the loop and pull tight.” He let out a little grunt that you found adorable. He handed the rod back over and reached for the can of worms.

“Do I have to use worms?”

“You’re not squeamish are you?” Joel smirked. He knew you weren’t, but teased anyway.

“I just feel bad for impaling a live worm.”

He shook his head. “Well then you’re not gonna like what we’re about to do with the fish.” You shot a look at him. “You do want to eat tonight, don’t you?” He continued to tease.

“Just pass me the can.” You stuck your fingers in the slimy conglomeration and pulled out a long one.

“That’s a good one. Now, bait it like how I did. Hook it through as many times as you can to secure it. If not, it can fall off into the water or a fish can grab it before getting hooked.” Joel peared over your shoulder to make sure you did it right. “Great! Now let’s get on to the fun part.” Leaving his rod on the ground, he walked you over to the edge of the river and stood behind you. He adjusted the line before ghosting his hand over yours. “You want to draw your arm back,” He pulled your arm up, guiding the rod as well. “And snap it forward.” In one sweeping motion, he pushed your arm back down and the line shot out from the rod and into the body of water. A large smile was plastered on your face.

“Now we wait?”

“Now we wait.” He confirmed.

Joel grabbed his own rod and repeated the motions. You remembered him saying that he was rusty, but in your eyes he looked like a pro. The two of you traded glances before hunkering down in your respective spots. You didn’t realize how much patience was needed to fish and after all that waiting, all you were going to get was one fish. Your mind began to think back to a documentary you saw long ago about commercial fishing and it made you wish for a large net to replace the rod. You glanced back at Joel only to find him in a completely relaxed state with his rod positioned between his knees and his arms crossed behind his head while leaning against a large rock. Your gaze lingered on his form until you felt a jerk from your rod. A yelp left your mouth. The line began to pull out of the rod at an accelerated speed. Anxious, you stood back up. Joel abandoned his rod and ran over to you. From behind, he guided your hand to spin the reel. He slowly lifted your rod as you continued to reel the line back in. Suddenly, a fish broke the surface of the river. You didn’t stop spinning the reel until it was eye level with you.

“Okay, hold it steady. I’ll unhook the fish.” Joel instructed. The fish was wiggling around violently. “Damn, I shoulda brought a net.” With two hands, he grabbed it. “Gah dammit!”

“Are you ok?” You exclaimed.

“Yeah, just a lil’ scratch.” Joel was referring to the gash on his forearm caused by the fish spines.

Carefully, you sat the rod down and he talked you through unhooking the fish. After it came out, you put the fish on some ice in the cooler. When you looked back at Joel, he was shirtless. He used his button down to put pressure on the wound. You told him to sit and wait while you went back to the car for the first aid kit, but insisted that he was fine and wanted to continue fishing. You could tell he was serious, so you agreed to stay so long as he let you look at it after another fish was caught. You picked up your rod and did exactly as he showed you. You were able to cast it longer than before. You hoped that meant you could catch something quicker this time.

“Son of a bitch!” Joel exclaimed. You turned to see his hand covering his neck.

“What happened? Let me see.” You ran to him and moved his hand out the way to reveal a hook caught in his skin. It was only a flesh wound and it didn’t dig deep enough to hit a main artery but it was still stuck in there. “How did this happen?”

“I whipped my arm back too far causing the line to cast out in the wrong direction. When I snapped forward, the hook flew right into my neck.”

“Does it hurt?”

“Only when I touch it.”

“I gotta get it out for you.” You took out your pocket knife and cut the wire off the hook. Joel winced as you tried to finagle it out carefully. “There!” You held it out in front of him. You noticed the tiny wound turn red as it began to slowly bleed. “Can we just go back to camp now? That fish is big enough for the both of us and I packed some snacks for us.”

“Alright, let’s go.” Joel said. He held a small cloth to his neck with his one hand and carried the cooler in the other.

Back at camp, you patched up Joel’s arm and neck. He let out a deep sigh “What’s wrong?” You asked.

He sat there in silence before responding. “I just feel like an idiot. Who gets a hook caught in their neck?”

“It was an accident.”

“Look at me, darlin’. Tommy’s gonna see me when I get back and think we ran into a horde or somethin’. I won’t hear the end of it when I tell him it was all from some fishin’. Between the fish cuttin’ me up and not catching anything, I’m just...just a little annoyed. I had a...uh...vision of how I wanted this trip to go and I feel like it’s not working out.”

“Joel, we just got here! We still have tomorrow to enjoy it. Besides, today’s not over. You said you were gonna show me how to fish and you did exactly that. I saw you relaxing while we were waiting for a bite. We were one with nature. Tell me that was not a part of your vision.”

He shrugged. “S’pose you’re right.”

“Ok, so how about you find yourself a non-bloody shirt to wear and I’ll start a fire. Deal?”

He chuckled. “Deal.”

The two of you sat by the campfire and ate the fish you caught. The sun had just finished setting by the time you were done. After several minutes of enjoying each other’s company in silence, Joel suggested playing a song. A soft grunt left his mouth as he got up and made his way to the car. From the trunk, he got his trusty 6 string and began to play a tune as he walked back to you. He sang a little bit here and there, but mostly he kept playing the same complex chord over and over again.

“Hey there.” He spoke up after nudging you. “You wouldn’t happen to be fallin’ asleep on me now would you.”

“Asleep? Of course not.” You began in a drowsy tone. “Just resting my eyes is all.”

He put his guitar down. “Probably about time we both rest our eyes.”

*****

“Hey, darlin’, it’s time to get up.” You woke up to Joel’s voice. It was still dark.

“Why? It’s not even morning yet.” You said in a whisper.

“Actually, it is. C’mon, (Y/N), I gotta show you somethin’.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothin’s wrong. Just gotta show you somethin’ is all.”

“Now, Joel?”

“Preferably yes.”

After your eyes adjusted to your surroundings, you noticed that Joel was already dressed and ready. You hurried up and did the same. As soon as you exited the tent, he held out his hand for you to take. He gave it a gentle squeeze before guiding you down a wooded path.

“Where are we going?” You asked.

“It’s a surprise.” Joel responded.

“You know, this isn’t the first time you’ve blindly led me through the woods under the guise of a surprise.”

“I know and if I recall correctly, it went well so if it ain’t broke....”

“Okay, well why did we have to get up this early?”

“Because it’s part of the surprise.” The two of you hiked up the side of a small mountain as the dark sky began to lighten. “We’re running late.” He gently tugged on your hand as the two of you broke into a jog. You almost ran into him when he abruptly stopped at the edge of the peak. “There.” He pointed to the east and your gaze followed.

From where you were, only a small section of the sky was illuminated with an orange glow. All of the trees below you were still shrouded in nightime’s darkness. Watching the sun rise was a slow progression that made you realize how much of a sweaty mess you were. It wasn’t until 15 minutes in did you decide to sit, swinging your legs over the ledge. After another 15 minutes, you finally saw the sun itself peek over your line of view, allowing the rest of the sky to turn blue. The view of the forest below took your breath away. You were so enamoured that you didn’t initially realize that Joel was not by your side anymore. Still sitting, you turned around to find him. Assuming that he was still standing, you looked up. It caught you off guard when you saw that he was eye level with you, bent on one knee. A nervous smile began to grow on his face as he held out a ring between his fingers.

Joel knew that this was how he wanted to propose, with the backdrop of the sun rising, but he never prepared exactly what to say. Everytime he tried, the words never seemed good enough and saying them out loud wracked his nerves. He figured that the words would come in the moment. The problem was that he also did not prepare for the view that was currently before him because if he was stuck before, seeing the golden rays of light radiate around you rendered him speechless. Your messy hair framed your face so perfectly and the way you looked at him in that moment was filled with pure innocence and love.

“Daggum, woman, you know how to make a man weak.” Joel said, almost in a whisper.

“That’s the goal.” You said with an ever growing smile.

“I don’t know how else to say this, so I just will. (Y/F/N) (Y/M/N) (Y/L/N), I want to be your husband and I want you to be my wife and my hope is that you want the same. I can’t guarantee you a perfect life or some fairytale, but I’ll try damn hard to give you happily ever after or some semblance of it in this world. Listen darlin’, I’ve struggled for a long time with survivin’; I’ve almost given up so many times before. Do...do you remember a while back when you told me about how you got bitten?” You nodded. “You were questioning why you didn’t die and I told you that, no matter what, you had to keep finding something to fight for. I knew you weren’t tryna hear that at the time, but those words were true because of you. You were, are and will always be my something to fight for until my last breath. You’re it for me, darlin’ and there’s no one else I want by my side more. Will you marry me?”. His eyebrows were raised in anticipation. You stood there speechless; you didn’t know what to say first. You were flooded with so many different feelings. Most of all, you were surprised by the proposal. You didn’t expect Joel to formally do so at all. The emotions fighting to break surface caused you to simultaneously laugh and cry out of nowhere.

“I’m sorry! I’m not laughing at you. Joel, yes, I’ll marry you!” You wiped your tears on your sleeve before getting up. Joel did the same to close the space between you.

He ran a thumb across your wet cheek as he smiled down at you. “You had me scared for a second there.” Once, your face was dry, he focused back on the ring in his other hand.

“How could I ever say no to you?” You asked lovingly.

“You’ve been known to do it from time to time.” He said in a deep yet jovial tone. Gently, he steadied your finger and slid the ring onto it. “How does it feel?”

“It fits perfectly.” You smiled up at him.

“I love you.” He whispered as he leant down for a kiss. The two of you stood there near the edge of the hill in each other’s arms. At this point, the sun had just about risen for the morning. “I don’t know how you wanna go about this. I know there’s no marriage license to register, but I can find someone to officiate or if it’s just you, me and our word, I can live with that too.”

“We have the rest of our lives to figure that out, love.” You impatiently pulled him back down into another long kiss.

[writingwithadinosaur]

“Under the Knife” - Part 2

“Under the Knife” - Part 2

My Masterlist - Here

Story Masterlist - Here

My Tag List - Here

Hannibal Lecter x Reader, Will Graham x Sister!Reader

Word Count: 2,500-ish

Key: Chunks of text in italics are (Y/N)’s thoughts. Y/N = Your Name, H/C = Your Hair Color, E/C = Your Eye Color

Warnings: Talks of murders, talk of crime scenes, cursing

Summary: You are Will Graham’s sister who works with him at the FBI. When you get offered a job promotion, life starts to change. Some changes for the better; Some for the worst.

Tag List:

@fruitloopzzz @theeactress @melconnor2007 @ashenfallsof @geeksareunique @all-by-myself98 @sj-thefan​ @fuck-your-bad-vibes-dude​ @ntlmundy

Author’s Note: This is my first Hannibal piece and I am proud of it. There aren’t too many stories for Hannibal, so I figured I would add to the collection.

This does take place in some happy medium where they are all alive and work together. Sort of a happier season 1 era.

This is beta-read by @theeactress​, but please let me know if there is something that we missed or that we should look at again! 

If you would like to be tagged in any of my future pieces, check out my tag list above and let me know! And as always, feedback is greatly appreciated!

<3

- DreaSaurusREX

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

After your meeting with Jack, you filled out some paperwork and made it official: You were going to be his profiler for any case that he wanted to call you in for. And apparently he already had one building. 

“We have a suspected serial killer hitting close to home. Three killings in Montclair, Lorton, and Fredericksburg.” As he said the Virginian cities, Jack plopped 3 case files in front of you and moved to the board full of evidence that he had.

“Oh! We’re starting right now? O-Okay.” He turned from the board to look at you with a sort of incredulous way. 

“Do you have a problem with that?” 

“I mean, we literally just signed the papers. I thought I would have a night to prepare instead of being thrown right in.” You said the truth without seeming ungrateful or annoyed, which was good. But you instantly started to nervously ramble as Jack nodded and walked back to his desk. “But if we need to start right now, I can. I just wasn’t ready for--”

“You’re right. We’ll start talking tomorrow. For now, take those files, do your homework, and report here at 9AM. We’ll go to the lab and introduce you to Beverly, Price, and Zeller.” Jack smiled and motioned toward the door. 

“Thank you. I will see you tomorrow morning!” You tried to be professional but also show that you were actually excited to work with him. 

“See you tomorrow.”

After putting the files securely in your bag, you headed to your apartment. You put the files on your dining room table before you hung up your coat and work bag. You checked your watch. You had dinner plans with Hannibal in an hour and a half. You stood between your room and the table that the files were seated on. You fidgeted with your ring for a few seconds as you debated on whether or not to start catching up on the case now or after dinner. 

“I can read over the first one and then get ready for dinner.” You told yourself as you pulled out the semi-comfy chair and opened the file. 

Case: #566-A

This case was from 6 weeks ago in Montclair. Ballsy to be close to the FBI and kill people. There were two victims: Dr. Everet and his wife Whinnie. They were found dead in their shared bedroom in their upper-class house. A nice upper-class place thanks to being a doctor. 

Whinnie looked like a murder that you would find in an armed robbery case: Quick throat slit, not much thought or motive into it, left on the floor to bleed out. Dr. Everet on the other hand was what you assumed grabbed Jack’s attention.

Dr. Everet was in the middle of their bed. The autopsy report claimed that the cause of death was exsanguination which made sense considering he was in pieces. Everet was cut at every major joint. His arms were separated from his shoulders, his legs from the pelvis, his thigh from his knee, his forearm from the elbow, and so on and so forth down to his fingers and toes. The report showed that there was a high level of paralytics in his system. So you make him sit there while you cut him apart. That’s why there are no defensive wounds. He had to lay there and endure all of that...

Why was Everet presented like this while his wife was a simple throat slit?

You made some notes in your book, making sure to write out questions to ask the team when you met up with them tomorrow. With every note you made, you found yourself going back to the case file and trying to connect dots. You soon realized that you couldn’t begin to connect those dots until you looked at the other files. 

Without much thinking, you opened all three files, quickly skimming over each of them and writing out the main points that stood out. You were supposed to be at Hannibal’s at 7 o’clock and it was only 5:45. It didn’t take that long to get to his place.

All of the murders happened 2 weeks after the other, starting 5 and a half weeks ago. Dr. Everet was about 6 weeks ago, Dr. Chaseten was about 4 weeks ago, and Dr. Loriet was about 2 weeks ago. Which means this killer is bound to strike again soon if this time frame is important to him.

They all have at least one victim that is treated like a paralyzed piece of artwork like Dr.Everet and at least one victim thrown to the side and killed quickly. The ‘pieces of art’ were all doctors, the others were their husbands or wives.

They all were in different cities in Virginia but close enough to make a solid assumption that this is the same killer.

You were scribbling out a note to ask about if there were any particulates found in any of the bodies when your phone buzzed on the table next to you. You didn’t even look at the screen, you just hit the answer button and put whoever was calling on speakerphone.

“(Y/N) speaking.” 

“Good evening, (Y/N).” The thickly accented voice rang through your speaker and stopped your writing mid-word as you looked from your phone to the files that were now spread out across your small tablespace.

“Dr. Lecter! Hi! Good evening! Sorry, I was um...  caught up in something and didn’t even register who was calling!”

“No need to apologize. I was just wondering if I should still expect you tonight?” You dropped your pen as you frantically looked at the time on your phone. It was 6:15PM. You quickly started to shut the files and stand up muttering a few curse words as you did. “I take it you got distracted?

“Yes! I’m sorry! But I am still coming over as long as the invitation is still good.” You picked up your phone and walked to your room to start to quickly figure out a nice outfit that didn’t look too much like a work outfit or too fancy. “I am getting ready now!”

“As I can hear.” You could almost hear the slight smirk he most likely had on his lips from hearing you fumble around your small space. 

“I should be there right around 7 and I’ll explain myself, I promise.” 

“I will see you then, my dear.” Hannibal hung up while you were slinging your work shirt into your laundry bin. You couldn’t help the smile that spread as you thought about how he called you ‘my dear.’ You know it's probably nothing more than a common nickname for any woman in Hannibal’s life, but it still felt good to be called something other than your real name. 

~~~~~~~~

Somehow you had managed to avoid a lot of major traffic and pull up to Hannibal’s home right at 7 o’clock. He must have heard your engine or seen your headlights because as you got out of your car and made your way to his front door, it was already open with him waiting for you with a small smile on his lips. 

“Right on time.” 

“Did you doubt me?”

“Never.” Hannibal moved to the side to let you in. You were instantly hit with the scents of whatever he was whipping up in his kitchen. 

“One day you’ll have to teach me how to make something really fancy just so I can show off next time I have someone over.” You shrugged off your bag and went to hang it up in the closet, but Hannibal beat you to it.

“Someone like a partner?” He was so good at hiding any sort of inflection in his voice, but you could have sworn that you detected a bit of jealousy. You slightly laughed at the idea of having any sort of romantic partner right now.

“I was thinking more along the lines of my brother. You know I don’t have much of a social life outside work.

Hannibal motioned for you to walk towards the kitchen, you did so and he was right behind you. 

This was normal for the two of you. You tried to have a meal or at least coffee together once or twice a week to give both of you a break from whatever the world was dishing out to you that week. You had met as colleagues when you worked together on a project for the FBI. But now you both were in a comfortable friendship. There was a pang in your heart that wanted to explore the idea of being more than friends or coworkers with him, but you doubted Hannibal felt the same. If he did, he wouldn’t show it due to his connection with your brother and out of respect for you. So the two of you continued this dance of being extremely friendly but too scared to make a move or speak up.

You poured yourself a glass of water and leaned against the kitchen counter as Hannibal reached into the refrigerator for lemon juice and finished up cooking. 

“How was your day today?” You ask him, as you take a sip.

“It was alright. Met with patients, got further in a drawing, figured out what to cook for a beautiful lady as a congratulation of sorts.” Hannibal quickly looked up at you as he said the last half of that before turning to the stovetop. You felt a very small blush creep on your neck, but tried to play it cool. 

“Congratulations?”

“On your new position. I hope you don’t mind that Will shared that with me today.”

“Did he now?” You couldn’t help the slight negativity in your voice as you looked away and played with your ring. “He is definitely not as happy for me as you are. I’m sure you’re aware that he did not want me to accept Jack’s offer.”

“I cannot tell what he said, but I can tell you that he was rather upset when he came in today.”

“Sounds like my brother.” You took another drink of water, not even noticing that Hannibal had plated dinner until he spoke up.

“Now, if you’d please.” You quickly looked up and saw that he was gesturing to the dining room. You tried to help by grabbing a plate or his cup or something to bring to the table but he just gently ushered you into the next room. He never let you help out when you were over as a dinner guest, but you tried every time. 

The two of you sat and began eating. It was a good minute or two of silence before someone spoke up. 

“This is delicious, Hannibal! I don’t know what vegetable this is exactly,” you help up a swirly looking green piece on your fork, “but it is amazing with this sauce you’ve made.”

“That is romanesco broccoli. I thought you might like it. It looks intimidating but tastes like the typical broccoli that you normally eat. It's just a bit… Artistic.” He slightly smiled, happy that he could amuse you with new food. You took another bite as Hannibal reached for his wine. Before he took a sip, he asked something that had been on his mind.

“May I ask what grabbed your focus so much that you almost missed out on dinner tonight?”

“Oh, right! Jack apparently already has a killer he wants me to start profiling. He gave me copies of the reports to read up on before I have my first official day tomorrow. I told myself I was just going to read the first one, but then got carried away.”

“Is this the killer that has been targeting doctors?” You gave him a questioning look, unsure of how he knew about the case. “Jack asked for my opinion at the crime scene for Dr.Chaseten a few weeks ago. Considering they haven’t caught anyone, I’m assuming that is what he has you working on.”

“Then you would be correct. There are now three mutilated doctors that have no obvious correlation to each other other than the cause of death and the fact that they are doctors.” You sipped your drink and continued. “I know I’ve only been Jack’s official profiler for less than a day, but it's still biting at me that I don’t see anything yet.”

Hannibal reached over and put a hand on yours to try to rein you back in before you thought too much about the case.

“I’m sure you will have more answers tomorrow.” You smiled and patted his hand, ignoring the slight butterflies you got from the contact. You took a deep breath.

“I know. I shouldn’t get this deep yet. That insanity will hit me tomorrow when I have to brainstorm with Jack.” You smiled even though it didn’t fully reach your eyes. You knew Hannibal would pick up on it. 

“I think it was Oscar Levant that said that ‘there’s a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.’ Let’s just hope Jack Crawford won’t erase his line.” Hannibal gave your hand a small squeeze before removing his hand, causing you both to return your attention to your meal. 

“You know, we could have rescheduled this dinner if you felt the need to finish your work.” Hannibal was sincere. He understood your work was a major part of your life, but he did like to see you outside the halls of the FBI.

“No! I wanted to come by tonight! Honestly, I needed a mood lifter after today.”

“Oh? How come?” You finished chewing and then spoke your mind. You knew Hannibal was a therapist, but he wasn’t your therapist. So you tried to keep it friendly.

“I should be excited and happy to be starting this new position, but I’m more worried about Will. I don’t want this job to be what divides us, you know? We’re so close, and I am one of the few people that he can be comfortable around. I don’t want to take that from him.” You pause, unconsciously bouncing your leg and fidgeting with your ring slightly. You shook your head as if that would temporarily erase the thought. “I just hope that if I keep working cases, he will get more and more okay with it.” You cut off a piece of fish and ate, letting Hannibal know that you were done speaking.

“I’m sure he will be fine.” You look up to find him staring at you. More like watching you, hyper-aware of your movements that show your anxiety. “But enough about Will.” Hannibal held up his glass towards you. “Here’s to you and your new path in the FBI. May they see you as valuable and wonderful as I do.” 

You patted your lips with your napkin and smiled as you clinked your glass with his. Your heart swelled at his words. Why do you do this to me? 

The rest of the evening was spent finishing your meal and forcing Hannibal to let you help with the dishes. Afterward, he walked you to your car, as usual, opening the door for you like a true gentleman. 

Your drive home was peaceful and you found yourself smiling, thankful for your evening with Hannibal. It was nice to know that someone you cared about was happy for you.

[fantastic-bby]

Inked

Pairing: (F)Reader x Mark

Word count: 6.6k (my writing’s starting to get slightly longer owo)

Genre: Romance, soulmate au, Idol!Mark, Non-Idol!Reader

Summary: In a world where the tattoos would be shared among soulmates, Mark uses this to his advantage in an attempt in locating his soulmate. Unexpectedly, his soulmate ends up getting a tattoo that’s completely different than what he would usually get in an attempt to remind him that she exists. Unbeknownst to them, her tattoo is the one that brings them together...

Warnings: None

Playlist: Falling For You - Peachy! || Chocolate - The 1975 || Let Me - Got7 || Page - Got7

Soulmate series: Jaebeom - Strings || Jackson - Bubbles || Jinyoung - Masked || Youngjae - Drawings || BamBam - Footprints || Yugyeom - Pieces

The stinging on your calf was what woke you up. You moved to the full body mirror to see what it was and was shocked to see a large cross forming on your now irritated skin. You scrunch your face in annoyance; whatever tattoo your soulmate would get would appear on your own skin. 

You had already gone through three other tattoos and you felt every second of the needle as the designs were unwantedly inked into your skin. 

You had yet to find your soulmate and it seemed as though they just didn’t seem to bother that their soulmate would have the same tattoos and feel the same pain. It was a bit strange, but the only marks that you two would share were tattoos. Other soulmates would share bruises and feel pain whenever their soulmate would get injured, but not you. 

You only got their tattoos.

The first and second tattoos that appeared were a pair of dates written in roman numbers on your rib cage. You hated the fact that your soulmate chose their first tattoo on one of the most painful places to get a tattoo since you had to experience the grueling pain of it. 

The second tattoo that appeared was the word “Truth” on your inner bicep. You actually admired that tattoo. There was probably a more meaningful story behind it from your soulmate’s side, but you liked it because somehow, it resonated with you. 

This cross that was drawn on your calf was the third. Despite how beautiful the cross was turning out, you were annoyed that it woke you up at 2 a.m. You scolded your soulmate in your mind as you made your way back into bed - being careful not to bump your calf anywhere - and decided to try and sleep.

You woke up in the morning to the sound of your roommate moving around the apartment. 

“Haneul eonnie?” You questioned tiredly when you saw her limping towards the kitchen from her room. 

“Did I wake you?” She asked as she turned to you, “Leo got a tattoo on his fucking foot. It hurts like hell.” She grumbled when she showed the outline of a rose on her foot. 

“Damn,” You muttered out with a yawn, “I have a huge cross on my calf.” You turned around to show her the design. 

“Your soulmate really likes tattoos.” She pointed out as she pulled out a few eggs from the fridge. 

“It seems that way.” You sighed as you made your own way into the kitchen and pulled bacon out of the freezer. “I already have three other tattoos and whoever it is just keeps adding to it.” You mutter out. 

“They’re pretty, though.” Haneul points out as she turned the stove on, “I guess we’re both lucky our soulmates have nice tastes in tattoos.” She chuckles. 

“It might be a bit of a problem since the cross is in more of an obvious place,” You point out as you turn down to look at it, “But I think it’s really nice.” You smiled as you admire the rose design that filled the inside of the cross. 

“Why don't you get a tattoo?” She questioned. 

“I technically already have.” You looked at her in confusion as you gestured to the cross and the one on your inner bicep. 

“No, I mean why not you get one in person. Challenge your soulmate, (Y/n).” She clarified, “Get something simple but in a place they’ll have to look at all the time. Then they’ll remember that their tattoos are projected onto another person.” She explained.

“I’ll think about it.” You nodded. You did think about it. The thought sat in your head for the next few days. It was a good idea to get back at your soulmate for inking themselves constantly and causing you pain and discomfort. 

That led you to looking up small but cute tattoos while you sit in your room with your laptop in front of you. You were looking at an abundance of designs but only one seemed to stand out from the rest. You saved the design into your phone and left your room to see Haneul sitting on her couch with her soulmate - who also happened to be your best friend - Leo.

“I think I finally found a design that I like.” You announced to the two and showed them your phone. Haneul moved forward a bit to get a closer look at it, 

“Cute.” She smiled. 

“It’s simple.” Leo nodded. 

“Where are you getting it?” Haneul asked when she leaned back against the couch. 

“Probably on the collarbone. I don’t feel like troubling them too much with it. I just want to let them know, ‘hey, I’m here’.” You said as you looked at the design once again. 

“Why a paper plane?” Leo questioned as he slung his arm around Haneul’s shoulders. 

“I just think it’s cute.” You shrugged. “I don’t really have a meaning for it. It’s cute, it’s small and I think it’ll be a nice tattoo.” You look away from your phone to look at him nodding. 

“It is cute. But if you guys end up meeting because of this tattoo, let each other know if you’re getting another one.” Haneul grumbled when she glanced over at Leo. 

“I gave you a heads up.” He defended himself. 

“Yeah, while you were getting the tattoo.” She snapped at him. “I think it's a nice tattoo, (Y/n).” 

“When are you getting it? I can take you to the place I got mine.” Leo offered. 

“Really?” You questioned. When he nodded, you smiled, “Are you free tomorrow?”

“What about today?” She suggested. “You’ll be done in no time. It’s small.” She turned to her soulmate who shrugged.

“I’m free anytime this week.” 

“I don’t really want to disturb your together time so I’ll get it tomorrow.” You shake your head. 

“If you get it later, I’ll follow. I wanna see your reaction when you get the tattoo.” Haneul gave you a cheeky smile. 

At the tattoo parlor was where Haneul followed you and Leo. You gave in after a while and just decided ‘fuck it’. Leo drove the two of you into town where the parlor was and you couldn’t help but feel nervous as you looked at the design on your phone throughout the drive. 

“Are you coming in?” Haneul asked Leo when he parked the car outside the parlor. 

“I’m not missing (Y/n) getting her first tattoo.” He snorted as he unclipped the seatbelt. “I know the guy who owns this place so it’ll be nice to talk to him again.” He led you inside the small lot and greeted the man at the counter. The man had a complete tattoo sleeve covering his right arm and what looked like a half finished sleeve on his other. 

“Hyung!” The man’s face lit up when he saw him walk in, the name Han written on a nametag on his shirt. “Getting another tattoo?” He asked but when his eyes moved to the two of you following behind Leo he understood, “Ah, okay. I assume one of them is getting it.” 

“Yeah, Haneul isn’t exactly happy that I got the tattoo without telling her.” Leo chuckled and gestured his head over to Han when he looked at you. 

“This one?” He questioned. You nodded shyly and pulled your phone out of the pocket of your shorts to show him the design. Han looked at it and led you behind the black curtains that separate the rooms. 

“How long will it take?” You questioned as the nerves continued to build up when your brain realised what you were doing. 

“It’s a small tattoo. Probably an hour or two. Maybe less.” He shrugs as he pats on the leather chair. You sit in the chair and feel your palms start to sweat as Haneul and Leo watch you from the door. 

“We can’t join you over there because of a sanitary issue.” Leo informed when he remembered how his own friend had to wait for him when he was getting his tattoo. You watched Han move back and forth at the shelves. 

“No colours?” He glanced over at you when he sat at the sketching table. You bit your lip as you thought about it while looking at your phone. 

“A splash of watercolour behind it?” Your voice came out small when you felt as though the colouring would make it into too much of a cliche tattoo. 

“Alright.” He smiled kindly as he started to sketch out the tattoo. “Do you have any other tattoos?” He asked without taking his attention off of the paper. 

“I have another three but it’s because my soulmate keeps getting tattoos.” You extend your leg out to show him the cross on your calf. 

“Your soulmate seems to have an eye for tattoos or some kind of common sense not to get anything stupid tattooed on them. That’s a really lovely tattoo.” He hummed out as he stood up, “How’s this?” He showed you the stencil of the paper plane. He had added a trail of dotted lines and outlines of clouds. “I’ll colour in the clouds, don’t worry.” He smiled and moved over to the chair that was beside you when you nodded. You pulled down the strap of your tank top to expose your collarbone.

He placed the stencil onto your skin and pulled the paper away to reveal the blue outline of the design before rubbing your skin with numbing gel. 

The sound of the tattoo gun starting only heightened your nerves and your entire body was starting to sweat. Haneul and Leo continued to watch, both with pure amusement plastered all over their faces when the needle hit your skin. 

“Holy shit!” You yelped out. The constant sting of the needle got worse when it got closer to your collarbone and you could feel actual tears pricking your eyes from how painful it was.

“Yeah, the collarbone is pretty painful.” Han chuckled as he continued his work. You glared at Haneul when she started to giggle at you. 

“(Y/n) just has a low pain tolerance.” She snickered at you when you managed to give her the middle finger. 

“It’s not a problem.” Han glanced up at you for a moment. “It hurts more to get the tattoo yourself compared to when your soulmate gets one.” 

“Yeah, that’s exactly what I was thinking.” You mutter through a grimace. “This hurts way more than the rib cage one they got.” You glanced down to see him still outlining the plane. 

After another agonizing hour and a half, the tattoo was done. Han moved up from you and put away the tattoo gun on the metal table. 

“Finished.” He clapped his gloved hands together. “You guys can come closer now.” He ushered over the couple standing by the doorway. 

“You feeling okay?” Haneul asked as she moved over to your side. You nodded at her and adjusted yourself in your seat, your lower half feeling numb from sitting for too long.

“Yeah, it became bearable after a while.” You mutter out. 

“You can take a look at it in the mirror over there.” Han pointed out to the full body mirror sitting in the corner of the room as he prepared the plastic wrap. You moved over to the mirror and looked at the tattoo. 

“Oh, it’s so cute.” You cooed with a smile growing on your face when you saw the design sitting right under your collarbone.

“Now, you have something that contrasts the tattoos your soulmate keeps getting.” She smiled when she looked at the tattoo through the mirror as well. 

»»————-　　————-««

“Woah, that’s new.” Jackson pointed out when Mark sat up, tiredly rubbing his eyes. He squinted his eyes at his roommate through the pain of the throbbing headache; a painful souvenir from the night before.

“What?” He muttered out.

“You have a new tattoo.” Jackson pointed at the irritated skin of his collarbone. Mark looked down and his eyes widened when he saw the paper plane. “I guess your soulmate’s tired of you always getting tattoos.” He snickered. Mark groggily sat up from his bed and moved over to his closet, opening it to look in the mirror that hung off of the closet door. 

“I guess they are.” He muttered when he got a full look at the new tattoo. He wasn’t used to any colour being on his tattoos, but he liked it. It was simple. 

“It’s cute.” Jackson tilted his head to look at it properly. Mark nodded, 

“I like it.” He stated, gently running his fingers along the red skin and being careful not to apply any pressure to it. “I wonder what timezone they’re in since it happened while I was sleeping.” He hummed out as he ran a hair through his messy bed hair. 

“If you’re sleeping when this showed up, then that probably means you keep getting tattoos while they’re sleeping.” Jackson spoke as he threw on a shirt. Mark stared at himself in the mirror as he thought about it. A small sense of guilt washed over him when he realised that maybe they were sleeping whenever he was getting his tattoos. 

“Damn,” Mark sighed out as he looked down at his rib cage through the mirror. “That makes me feel bad.” 

“Maybe this is their way of reminding you they exist.” He joked. 

Mark spent the next few days completely obsessed with his new tattoo. He strangely felt more connected to his soulmate even though the tattoo was the only response he had ever gotten from them. His group always caught him silently admiring the tattoo in between schedules whenever he’d be shirtless or whenever he was wearing a low cut shirt. 

“Mark hyung, you’re really into it, huh?” Jinyoung asked when he walked into the changing room to see his older member staring at the vanity mirror while holding his shirt in his left hand. 

“I just think it’s really cute.” Mark muttered out without much attention towards Jinyoung. 

“Don’t spend too much time looking at it. We have to get ready for the show.”Jaebeom patted Mark on the back lightly as he walked past them. 

Right, the show. 

Mark was hoping that maybe he could find his soulmate wherever they were while they were on tour but so far he hadn’t felt much whenever they had fansigns or hi touches. 

The rest of his group had described their experience with their soulmates as a fire in their soul being ignited. Mark remembered asking Jackson about how he felt when he met his soulmate and distinctly remembers their conversation that night in their hotel room. 

“It felt like I suddenly saw everything in colour.” He explained. “I never knew how empty I actually felt until I met her.” 

“Is it like how other people describe it?” Mark asked. 

“Other people described it as an explosion in their soul. I think everyone feels it differently.” Jackson shrugged. “But I do remember feeling like everything in my body was just warm and I remember feeling so fucking happy.”

That was the feeling Mark was yearning for. The feeling of suddenly finding the person he was meant to spend forever with. The person he was connected with by soul. 

“Do you think maybe he’ll meet them soon?” Yugyeom whispered to Youngjae as they stood at the other end of the room. 

“Hopefully.” Youngjae shrugged. “He’s really into that tattoo. He doesn’t even appreciate his own tattoos this much.” He chuckled. 

“The tour might make it easier, but what if his soulmate’s in a location we’re not going to?” BamBam mentioned, making them all turn to him. 

“That is a possibility.” Youngjae nodded. 

“They could be in Korea for all we know.” Yugyeom pointed out with his bottom lip caught between his teeth. 

“He’s the only one who hasn’t found his soulmate yet. I feel bad for him.” BamBam sighed as they turned back to Mark to see him tracing his tattoo with his fingers. 

“Attention away from him or he might get snappy.” Jinyoung ushered as he approached them. “You know how he feels about the whole soulmate issue.” He spoke to them softly.

“You feeling hopeful?” Jackson asked Mark, tearing his attention away from the tattoo to finally put on the black tank top he was wearing for the concert. 

“About what?” Mark hummed out in question. 

“The tattoo.” He turned to Jackson and shrugged, 

“I don’t know when I’ll meet them or if I’ll ever meet them. I just like the tattoo and it makes me feel closer to them.” He smiled slightly at him but Jackson could see the sadness that was hiding behind his eyes. 

They were all aware that Mark could be slightly sensitive about the topic of soulmates, but he never really showed much sensitivity unless he was angry. Jackson could see how much despair Mark was in that he still hadn’t even come close to finding his soulmate. 

Every time Mark got a tattoo, he was secretly hoping he would find someone with the same exact tattoos. Thus, why he had gotten such a big tattoo in such an obvious place. He was hoping that he would bump into someone who had the same cross in the same place. He wanted to find his soulmate with the cross. 

“Mark hyung.” Yugyeom’s voice pulled Mark out of thought and made him turn to his younger member. “We need to go.” He gestured his head to the stage and Mark nodded, 

“Okay, let’s go.” 

»»————-　　————-««

You opened the front door with your eyes squinted at Leo. 

“Haneul eonnie isn’t here.” You grumble out as you rub your eyes from the evening nap that Leo had ever so rudely woken you from by ringing your doorbell. 

“Is it wrong for me to see my best friend? I needed to see you.” He said as he pushed past you and into the apartment. Your eyes only squinted even more at his words when you turn around to face him after you close the door. 

“Oppa, I know I said you practically live here too, but seriously?” You throw your arms up in the air in annoyance when his back was turned to you with his attention on his phone. You cross your arms over your chest when he turns around and holds his phone up in front of your face, 

“Look familiar?” He questions. You let your eyes adjust to the screen and your jaw goes slack when you see what he’s talking about. You yanked his phone out of his hands and zoom in on the picture or the large cross tattooed on the calf of non other than Mark Tuan from Got7. 

“Holy shit.” You mutter as you look back at him, “Does he have any of the other tattoos?”

Leo takes his phone back, “There’s really blurry pictures of others but look,” He showed you another picture of the tattoos on his bicep and rib cage, “Don’t you have these too?” He gestured to the tattoo on your inner bicep that was slightly showing from under the sleeve of your shirt. 

“No way.” You whisper in slight disbelief, “It could be a coincidence.” You shake your head. Leo raises an eyebrow at you before turning his phone back to himself. 

“It would be a coincidence if he didn’t have this one.” He turns the phone back to you and you could feel your entire being jump when you see a picture of Mark posing in his swimming trunks and a tattoo, no, your paper plane tattoo on his collarbone. 

“Where is this picture from?” You asked as you once again snatch his phone from his hands to get a better look. 

“One of their backup dancers is my brother. Sometimes they get drunk and swim in the pool and it just so happened that Mark got a new tattoo around the same time that you did.” He smirks as he crosses his arms over his chest, “I think we just found your soulmate.” 

“I still don’t believe it.” You bit your lip. 

“(Y/n), seriously?” He huffed out, “He has all your tattoos and that paper plane tattoo is exactly the same as yours.” He crossed his arms over his chest, “When Haneul gets back, I’m going to convince her to take you to their concert here in Seoul.” 

“I don’t know, Leo oppa. It doesn’t make sense. If they’re from Korea, then why do my tattoos always pop up while I’m sleeping?” You question, still stuck on the belief that Mark wasn’t your soulmate. 

“Think outside the box, (Y/n). Maybe he got them while he was on tour or while he was drunk or having an existential crisis in the middle of the night.” He squinted his eyes at you, “I’m getting you into the concert no matter what.” He gave you a cheeky smile and took his phone from your hands, dialing a number. 

“What are you doing?” You asked when he pressed his phone to his ear and began talking. 

“Hyung, when’s the next concert in Seoul?” His question made your eyes widen and you quickly jumped onto his back to try and grab his phone out of his hands. 

“Kang Leo!” You yell as you tried to pull the phone away from him. 

“I think I found Mark-ssi’s soulmate.” He spoke through the aggression you were putting him under, desperately trying to keep both of you standing and swatting your hands away. “Yeah, same tattoos and everything. Even the paper plane. They’re back next week?” You froze. He glanced over his shoulder and smirked when you did, “Alright, thanks. Three would work.” He hung up the phone and you were still hanging on his back frozen. You slid off of his back and glared at him, 

“What if he’s not my soulmate and I just end up embarrassing myself?” You poke at his chest. He raised his hand and flicked your forehead, causing you to yelp and move away from him. 

“That’s for speaking so disrespectfully to me.” He smiled at you, “And if he’s not, then we’ll find out. If he is and you don’t go, you’ll be throwing away an opportunity.” 

“Why do you know literally everyone?” You groaned as you crouched onto the floor with your hands covering your face. 

“I’m a social butterfly.” He shrugged. “You owe me now!” He cheered. You moved your hands from your face and glared at him just as the sound of beeping came from the keypad to the front door. 

Haneul walked into the apartment and froze in her spot when she saw you crouched on the ground and her soulmate standing across from you with a wide smile on his face. 

“Okay, what happened?” She questioned as she slipped off her heels.

“I think I found (Y/n)’s soulmate and he’s an idol!” Leo announced with his hands in the air. 

“Really?” She looked between you and him. You covered your face with your hands once again and nodded. “What did you do?” She moved over to him when she realised Leo must’ve done something about it.

“My brother is a backup dancer for Got7 and he got us three backstage passes for the concert next week in Seoul.” He unlocked his phone and showed her the picture of Mark’s tattoos. 

“Holy shit, (Y/n)’s gonna date an idol.” Haneul chuckled. You look up at her and pout,

“Eonnie, what if it’s not him?” You whine out at her. 

“Oh come on, it’s worth a try.” She waved her hand at you. “If we don’t go at all, we’ll never know.” She tugged on your arm so that you would stand up. “Now, you have a week to prepare. Put yourself together and let’s get two souls together!” She clapped excitedly. 

Haneul and Leo really spent the whole week just getting you ready. Leo even bought the fan lights because he felt like being at a concert without one would be boring. 

“I’m supporting my brother.” Leo shrugged when he insisted on buying the fan light. 

“The fan light is for the group, not your brother.” You pointed out. 

“Sssh,” He hushed you, “By supporting the group, I’m indirectly supporting my brother.” He said as he pulled the boxes off of the shelf. 

Haneul on the other hand was learning fanchants. 

“If we don’t learn them, it’ll be embarrassing. We’re listening to GOT7 almost everyday and we’ve never thought about learning any of the fanchants for fun.” She pointed out when you walked in on her playing one of their comebacks on the TV. You actually ended up joining her after half an hour of her playing Fly over and over again. 

You found yourself staring at the ceiling the night before the concert. You couldn’t bring yourself to sleep. Whether it was excitement from anticipating the concert or the possibility of meeting your soulmate, it wasn’t letting you sleep.

Mark instead was spending his time in the dorms, completely unaware of the person he was going to meet the next day. Leo’s brother had told everyone about it except for Mark, even their managers and the crew. 

“He’s sulking while playing Fortnite.” Jackson sighed as he closed the bedroom door to Jinyoung’s room. 

“If he knew what was going to happen tomorrow, I don’t think he’d sleep.” Jinyoung replied as he turned away from the keyboard sitting on his desk. Jackson sat himself on the edge of his bed, 

“He asked me a while ago about how I felt when I met my soulmate.” He muttered out, obviously concerned for Mark. 

“He asked me that, too. I don’t really blame him. We met our soulmates years ago. He’s the last of us and he hasn’t even come close to feeling like he’s going to meet his.” He pursed his lips as he turned back to the keyboard, starting to aimlessly play a melody. 

“Do you think she’s the one?” Jackson asked after a moment of listening to Jinyoung play. His question made his friend stop to think. 

“Anything could happen, Jackson. They said she has the tattoos. Let’s just hope it’s her.” He nodded slowly. 

“I hate seeing him sad. It makes me sad.” He pouted. 

“You sound like his boyfriend.” Jinyoung joked as he started playing once again. “Don’t worry too much about it. You might accidentally tell him.” He chuckled. 

“I promise I won’t tell him. I’m just worried, I guess.” Jackson shrugged. 

“It’s okay to be worried. He is our brother after all.” Jinyoung nodded at him, “Now, instead of being here, go give him your company. He might be feeling lonely.”

»»————-　　————-««

“You ready?” Haneul asked as she poked her head into your room. You were looking at the full body mirror and trying on outfits. “Are you having trouble?” She asked when you didn’t answer, your full attention of trying to find the right outfit. You turned to her with a sigh. She pursed her lips before rummaging through your closet, 

“I’ve tried everything. Nothing looks nice.” You groan as you plop yourself onto your bed. 

“You’re just nervous.” She pulled out a simple neon green crop top and white shorts, “Try this. Their whole colour is green anyway.” She handed you the outfit. You sat up and gave her a skeptical look but decided to put it on anyway. To your surprise, it was perfect. 

You left the apartment shortly after Leo arrived with all three of the fanlights in his hand, 

“My brother said he handed the passes to one of the guards.” Leo spoke as the three of you made your way down the apartment building, “We just have to show them our ID when we get there so they can confirm it’s us.” 

“You brought your purse, right?” Haneul questioned you. You nodded and pulled your purse out of your clear bag, making a double check to make sure you had everything you needed. 

“All’s here.” You nodded to the two of them. 

“Do you want to watch the show first or do you want to meet Mark first?” Leo asked as the three of you got into his car. 

“Let’s watch the show first. I don’t want him to feel disappointed while he’s performing.” You mutter out as you lean back in the leather seat. 

“Stop thinking that way, (Y/n).” Haneul turned around from the passenger seat to squint at you, “If we don’t go, we’ll never know. Even if he isn’t your soulmate, it’s still worth a shot.” She scolded you. You let out a sigh and nod, 

“Sorry, it just seems really unlikely to me.” You mumbled, looking out of the window to the buildings passing. 

“Why so?” Leo asked as he glanced at you through the rearview mirror. 

“He’s an idol. He’s like… famous. What if he turns me down even if we are soulmates because I’m just normal?” You let out another sigh, sinking further into the seat. 

“That’s impossible.” She shook her head, “You’re his soulmate. I’m pretty sure he’d do anything for you. Right, Leo?” Haneul lightly nudged Leo’s shoulder. 

“Yeah, totally.” He nodded, “My brother said that the other members’ soulmates aren’t idols. They’re with them even though they’re ‘normal’.” He raised one hand to air quote the word normal. “You’ll be fine, (Y/n).” He gave you a reassuring smile through the rearview mirror. 

You let your head rest against the window for the rest of the ride. Both your roommate and your best friend were still trying their best to reassure you, but your heart was still filled with doubt. Anything could happen. Mark was an idol and you were not. 

“Stop worrying about it and let’s have fun.” Haneul spoke as she guided your shoulders towards the venue. After you guys had arrived, you made the sudden decision to turn back but Haneul and Leo were having none of it. 

“You worry too much, (Y/n).” Leo chuckled as he led you straight to the entrance. You watched the way IGOT7’s were excitedly waiting outside the venue with their banners and their lightsticks. “Give me your IDs.” He spoke when he stopped in front of one of the guards. 

You could feel your stomach starting to fill with anxiety the longer you watched him talk to the guard. He turned around after a minute and handed you your pass, “Don’t lose it.” He chuckled. 

“I’m glad we didn’t come any earlier.” You muttered out as you slipped the lanyard of the pass around your neck, “I think it would’ve given me more opportunity to run away.” You joked. 

Haneul chuckled, “We didn’t need to come earlier because Leo’s brother got us VIP seats.” She glanced over at Leo who nodded. 

“We get to watch the whole show from above in one of the balcony area thingies.” He said as he led you into the venue and up the stairs. 

“Holy shit, we’ll see everything from here!” Haneul excitedly clapped her hands when she saw the view of the entire stage. You watched as the venue started to fill with people. The lights went off and you could feel the excitement of the concert buzz starting to replace your anxiety. You watched as the music started and the group came out onto the stage. 

Mark stepped out onto the stage with a smile on his face from the sound of the crowd chanting. 

“Ahgase, are you ready?” Jackson asked into the microphone, his voice coming out through the sound system and echoing throughout the venue. The crowd screamed louder. 

The moment you saw Mark, you were entranced. The sound of his voice made your heart flutter. The way his body moved made your worries completely disappear. His smile melted your heart. 

“Oh my god,” You whispered out in awe. 

Mark’s eyes were constantly scanning the crowd in an attempt to remember as many of their fans as he could. Halfway through Page, his eyes met yours. The whole world slowed down around him and everything else sounded muffled. His lips parted in awe at the sight of you and you could only do the same. It felt as though a fire was ignited in your soul. 

Mark did the only thing he felt was logical and lifted his arm up to show the tattoo on his inner bicep. You rolled up your sleeve and lifted your own arm. Despite the distance, he could still see the tattoo as clear as day. 

“(Y/n)?” Leo turned to you when you saw your arm up but you didn’t respond to him. He followed your gaze and saw Mark staring directly at you. “Haneul!” He called over to his soulmate who was sitting beside him. When she turned to face him, he pointed at you and she realised that you had already locked eyes with Mark. 

“(Y/n)!” Haneul reached over and waved her hand in front of your face, causing you to snap out of your trance. 

“What?” You asked as you turned to her. 

“Is he your soulmate?” She asked. You turn back to the stage and see Mark stealing glances in your direction as he moved over to the other side of the stage before nodding, 

“I think so.” 

»»————-　　————-««

“Take a deep breath, (Y/n).” Haneul rubbed your back gently, “If you really can’t do it, we can go.” She smiled softly at you. You turned to her and nodded, swallowing a lump in your throat. 

“Okay, we just need to follow this dude backstage.” Leo announced as he turned around from the crew member he was talking to. “You okay?” He questioned you, silently offering one last second to let yourself run away but you nodded. 

“I-I can do this.” You took a deep breath and smiled at him. 

“Okay, come on.” The crew member led you into the venue and through the back. You couldn’t help but rub your hands together anxiously the closer you got backstage. You looked around the venue to try and desperately find something that would calm you down when a hand wrapped around yours. 

You turned to your side to see Haneul holding your hand in hers with a comforting smile on her face. Leo slung his arm around your shoulders, 

“If anything happens, we’re here for you.” He smiled at you. You returned the smile, glad that at least you weren’t doing this alone because you were sure you would back out at the last minute. Which you were ready to do when you reached the curtain that hid the backstage. 

The grip on your hand tightened as you pushed through the curtain to see Leo’s brother waiting behind the curtain. His tired expression immediately lit up at the sight of his younger brother, 

“Leo!” He opened his arms and hugged him. 

“Hyung, you did really well!” Leo congratulated him as he pulled away, “This is Haneul and (Y/n).” He moved aside so that his brother could see you both. 

“I assume (Y/n)-ssi is the soulmate since you’ve mentioned Haneul-ssi a couple times before.” He smiled at you, “I’ll tell you now, Mark couldn’t stop talking about you right after the show finished.” He chuckled as he started walking, the three of you following him through the backstage area. “He kept talking about this girl who had his tattoos and how his entire world stopped moving the moment he saw her.” 

Haneul nudged your shoulder teasingly when she saw your cheeks starting to heat up. 

“(Y/n)’s nervous that he’ll turn her down because she’s not an idol.” She told Leo’s brother. You slapped her arm and she stuck her tongue out at you in response. 

“Really?” He turned around to glance at you. When you nodded shyly he let out a soft chuckle, “There’s no way that’ll happen. He’s sad a lot of the time because he’s the only one who hasn’t found his soulmate. All the other members found theirs years ago.” He stopped walking when he reached the changing room and turned around to face you completely, “No worries about this at all, (Y/n)-ssi. He will most definitely want to be with you.” He reassured you. 

He waited until you nodded and he knocked on the door. Your grip on Haneul’s hand turned into you practically hugging her arm as you felt yourself getting more and more nervous once again. She placed her other hand on top of yours to calm your nerves. 

“God, if you weren’t here, I probably would’ve melted into the ground.” You muttered out to her and she laughs, 

“I know you would, that’s why I’m here.” She teased, “Unfortunately, when the door opens and you have to see Mark, Leo and I are going to stay out here.” She muttered to you just as the door opened to reveal Youngjae. He looked between Leo’s brother and the three of you before nodding, 

“Is it her?” He gestured to you. Leo’s brother nodded. “Okay, good, because Mark hyung is getting sad again.” He chuckled as he moved aside to let you into the room. You glanced behind you to see Haneul, Leo and his brother looking at you with their thumbs up as the door closed. 

“Sad?” You questioned as you turned to Youngjae.

“He’s scared he’ll never see you again.” He let out another soft chuckle. The further you got into the room, the more members you saw. Yugyeom and BamBam were the next two who saw you, their eyes widening as they quickly left the room. “We’ll give you guys your privacy, but we’ll come back in like 20 minutes.” He said after Jinyoung and Jaebeom noticed your presence. 

Once they had left the room, you caught sight of Mark sitting in the corner with his knees to his chest. If the room hadn’t been empty, you wouldn’t have heard his soft sobs. You froze in place, unsure of whether you should comfort him or not. 

He glanced up at you and his bloodshot eyes widened when he saw you. “W-What are you doing here?” He asked as he scrambled to his feet and wiped away his tears with the back of his hand.

“My best friend saw a picture of your paper plane tattoo and his brother’s one of your backup dancers.” You explained softly as you took a step closer to him. 

“Are you…” He trailed off as he took a step closer as well, “My soulmate?” He asked as he hesitantly extended his hand towards you. 

“I think I am.” You whispered out as you took his hand. The electricity that ran through your hand was enough to let you know. Your entire body felt warm and felt as though the initial jolt was starting to ignite you from deep within. It was exactly the same feeling as when you had locked eyes with him for the first time. 

Mark’s grip on your hand tightened and more tears leaked out of his eyes as he smiled, 

“It’s you.” He let out a laugh through his tears, “You’re my soulmate.” He whispered as he leaned his face closer to yours. 

“I’ve been meaning to meet you.” You couldn’t help the smile that was creeping onto your face as he leaned closer and pressed his chapped lips to yours. You could feel the explosion everyone was talking about. Your heart felt like it could burst from pure love just by the feeling of his lips on yours. 

He wrapped an arm around your waist and pulled you against him, deepening the kiss. Your arms wrapped around his shoulders to tighten your grip around him. 

“That’s enough.” Jackson giggled from the doorway, forcing the two of you apart to turn to him only to see all of them - including Haneul, Leo, his brother and all their crew members - watching the two of you. “We don’t need any messes in the changing rooms.” He wiggled his eyebrows at the two of you. 

“Shut up.” Mark grumbled at him through the smile before turning back to you. “You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to meet you.” He hummed out as he pressed his forehead against yours.