#towards the camera- but when that happens on Phone Guy's route the screen looks like it cracks temporarily

[mrdrhenwardhykle]

Phone Guy version of yesterday's post!

Ref to Clocktower

[spine-buster]

game seven

drabbles for alone, together / the storm before the calm / the president wears prada

Bee was waiting anxiously.  She had been since Morgan left that afternoon, a quiet confidence free of arrogance about him after she gave him one last kiss and one last “I love you” before seeing him off.  She couldn’t concentrate on work for the rest of the day – she hadn’t been able to concentrate on work since game five, really – and had pre-emptively taken tomorrow off.  Just in case.  Just because.  

She watched the game.  She watched the post-game interviews, where Morgan was ushered out first, as he always was, volunteer or not, to speak about what had just transpired.  She knew everybody could hear the pain in his voice, but they couldn’t hear the pain like she heard the pain.  They didn’t hear the same type of pain she did, that she knew he was withholding in himself, trying not to let show.  There was a dignity about him too – a dignity characteristic of him and him alone, and though people commented on it, it was much of the same thing.  They didn’t know the true dignity.  They didn’t know what it took for him to sit in front of those cameras and talk after another heartbreak.

She heard the door open.  She immediately got up from her spot on the couch and ran over, meeting him in the doorway.  His suit had been put on haphazardly.  His tie was barely done.  If she was being honest, it looked like he got hit by a truck.  He probably felt like it.

“C’mere,” Bee cooed, already bringing her hands up to cradle his face.

“Bumblebee…” he let out, exasperated, a long and heavy breath escaping him as she attached herself even more to him.  “Bumblebee, I can’t…why…” he had no words.

“C’mere, c’mon,” she led them towards their bedroom.  He sat down on the edge of their bed, leaning over and putting his head in his hands as Bee still wrapped her arms around him one way or another, leaning her head against his shoulder.  “You played amazing all series.  You showed up.”

Morgan shook his head.  He knew that.  He knew he was playing well.  It all didn’t make sense to him.  “It was 3-1,” he mumbled against his hands.

“Hmm?”

“It was 3-fucking-1,” he mumbled again, and Bee’s heart dropped.  “I don’t know what happened.  I don’t know what I could have done be—”

“Shhhhh, don’t beat yourself up over this like you always do,” she said, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.  “This isn’t just on you.  I love you, Morgan.  Please don’t think it’s all your fault.  You know how unhealthy that is.”

Morgan knew Bee was right, but it didn’t feel like anything would shake this feeling.  He didn’t know what went wrong and couldn’t think of a solution.  He was desolate.  Another first round exit.  Another loss.  Another collapse.  It was the unthinkable.  He shook his head, unable to find words.  “I love you.  I’m so sorry.”

“There is nothing to apologize for.  I love you too and I’m so proud of you.”

“Are you?” he asked.

“Every single day,” she affirmed, giving him a quick kiss on the lips.  “I love you more and more every day, and I’m proud of you more and more every day, too.”

She could feel his tears later that night as she held him, running her fingers through his hair, telling him over and over how much she loved him.

***

Aberdeen’s daybed came in handy for one thing: cuddling.  William wasn’t joking when he said it was his favourite because it gave them the best cuddle sessions, but now, Aberdeen understood why.  At first, she thought it was a joke, like it was coded language that she should get at least a double bed.  But no – it wasn’t a joke.  William did really love her daybed for cuddling.  And it became abundantly clear after the events that transpired after game seven against the Montreal Canadiens.  

Aberdeen wished she could have been there.  A small part of her wished she was still working for Brendan so she could be there for the guys after the tough loss, after the collapse.  But that part of her life was over.  Despite having William and always being attached to the Leafs, there was nothing in her power that she could do to make this situation better for the team.  Instead, she knew she could only try to make this situation better for William.

So they cuddled.  William held her so often, but now, it was her turn to hold him.  She felt his tears as he buried his head into the crook of her neck; she felt his tense body despite her touch, and did everything in her power to get him to relax.  But William was on edge.  He always was after stuff like this.  He blamed himself, and she knew that, even though it was a team effort.  She didn’t even mention the very late goal he scored in the third period.  He didn’t even celebrate it.  She hated that.  William, her William, trying until the very end.

“You haven’t been online, have you?” he asked, mumbling into her skin in the middle of the night, even though neither was sleeping.

“No.  Why?”

“I don’t want you to see what they’re saying.”

“You had five goals in seven games, William.”

“You’d be surprised, minskatt.”

Aberdeen let out a breath, clutching William tighter.  “That doesn’t matter,” she said.  “What matters is that I love you and I’m proud of you.”

William raised his head when she said that.  “You’re proud?”

“Always have been.  Always will be, Willy.”

He leaned down and kissed her, eventually snuggling back into her and letting out small sighs when he felt her beginning to run her fingers through his hair.  Eventually, she felt his breathing steady, and she knew he was asleep.  

She took the opportunity to reach over and grab her phone, unlocking the screen and finding the number she needed to find.  She hadn’t texted it for months, and the last time she did, there was no response.  But she texted anyway, because she was Aberdeen, and she would not yield.  

To:  Jason Spezza

I love you and I’m so, so sorry about tonight.

***

When Fred walked through the door of his and Aleida’s townhouse, all he could hear was Helena crying.  He immediately took off his suit jacket and laid it over the couch as he walked upstairs to Helena’s bedroom, seeing Aleida trying to rock her back and forth to get her to stop crying.  Helena was wailing.  

“Fred,” Aleida’s voice was desperate as she saw him in the doorway.  “She won’t stop crying.  I’ve already fed her and—”

“Give her to me,” he said softly, outstretching his arms so Helena could be put in his arms.  “C’mon, Helena, you can stop crying.”

Aleida’s hair was in a messy, ratty bun.  Her pyjamas hadn’t been washed.  She looked like she’d been crying along with Helena.  But she still looked beautiful, like Fred knew she would.  It was a comfort of sorts, coming home after yet another disappointing first round exit, and finding your wife and newborn daughter in her bedroom.  It brought him back down to earth, in a way.  That there were things more important than hockey.

It only took about a minute or so for Helena to stop crying once Fred cradled her against his chest, overpriced collared shirt be damned.  Once she was quieter, Aleida finally looked at him.  “She’s so good when she’s with you.  She doesn’t do that for me.”

“It’s okay, Aleida.  She would have calmed down eventually.”

He could tell Aleida wanted to say something, but she didn’t.  Instead, she took another route.  “I’m so sorry.”

“About the game?”

“About the game and about not being able to calm her down—”

“Shhh…don’t apologize for that,” he interrupted.

“But I can’t do it like you can.”

“Shhh…it’s okay.  She’s a newborn.  It’ll get better.  She’ll get better.”

Some things were bigger than hockey right now.

[ask-rp-devra]

The night was short, the pair were able to sleep a good 8 hours before getting ready the next morning to set off towards the train station. The pair decided to come back through to pick up the Pokemon to bring back to the island before heading home, but for now they could stay behind with Devra’s mom, just for a little while longer. The only team members that went with them were coal, the little hybrid houndoomxarcanine pup, and Aliza, who had taken a shine to the ponyta gifted to Peach, they seemed to play well together, even Dreepy liked her. With bags gathered, goodbyes said, and tickets bought, the pair stepped onto the train, waving off Olivia who came to see her daughter go, and off they went, towards the new Galarian island, the Crown Tundra.

Devra settled into her seat, waving goodbye to her mom as Coal jumped up in the seat next to her. He was small enough to be on the train, but Aliza had to stay in her pokeball for the time being. She looked over at her friend and smiled. “I hope you slept alright. I always thought the guest room bed was too hard.”

“‘you saw me right? I was asleep in an aeroplane chair sitting up right, the bed was just fine. Much better than most of the places I sleep while away from the lab.” She recalled a few occasions being able to just about catch an hours rest while being trapped in a tree by aggressive Pokemon. “it was a warm, dry bed, with actual sheets and a roof over me haha. It was great.” She mindlessly petted Val, ordering a good coffee off the trolley that passed by, a sweet little wigglytuff in the train companies uniform asking for payment. She got her wallet out...or so she thought? Her hand reached into her bag, and hit something very cold and very smooth, reeling from the weird texture. Val sniggered to herself, shifting to the empty seat the bag sat on, to peer inside.

“I think we have a stow away.” Peach murmured, carefully opening the bag much wider than needed to get a good look. “‘Dreepy?” Inside was the little ghost type, she swore while waving to Devra’s mother at the station when they left, she had also spotted this Pokemon amongst others that had come to see the trainers off. He was wrapped up in one of Peach’s shirts, and seemed a little nervous about being caught in her stuff.

Devra looked over at Peach from her camera, having been looking th right some pictures. “Dreepy? He’s here? But I saw him with my mom. Here, I took a picture of the group when we left.” She held the camera so they could both look. “Oh....well. I thought he was in the picture.” She looked at the little Pokémon and sighed. “I guess he really wanted to come with you.”

“well, it’s fine with me, if he wants to come then I guess we’ve got a new team member.” She smiled a little at the Pokemon and let him and Val go and pick some snacks off the trolley before paying. She gave eyes at her steadfast fire type while Dreepy’s back was turned, asking without words for her to tone her usual disinterest down by like 20%, and she began chattering to the ghost Pokemon as she selected a strawberry filled dumpling thing in a wrapper. With the stern silence broken between the two, peach could relax a little, perhaps they two would be fine together for the trip.

“You’re right though, I swear I saw him on the platform too.” She glanced at the screen on the camera, seeing no signs of him. “‘how strange. You’re faster than you look hey bud?” Dreepy seemed quite proud of the compliment, and finally chose a chocolate-orange flavoured pastry twist before returning to the open bag to snack. “I’m buying, you and your team want anything?”

Devra nodded to Coal, who bounced over and happily started sniffing around until he found a pumpkin muffin. She then grabbed an apple cake and raspberry pastry for her other two team members before sitting back down. “I don’t need anything. Mom made sure I left full.” She laughed and opened Coal’s treat for him. “Tell Peach thank you young man.” The little pup barked happily as me bounced over to her for pets.

“she’s a good mom that one, I bet she’d enjoy a little holiday in johto, lots to see, I can hook you both up with some fun things to do for sure.” There was plenty of art galleries, heritage sites, and excellent restaurants throughout the region, not to mention live music, public gardens of great beauty, and a butt load of areas to sightsee in. Peach paid up and petted Coal, she was very glad to see him in capable hands, he took to Devra like a Ducklett to water, and she was confident he’d grow fast now he was out exploring with her. The Dreepy seemed to peep its eyes out at the hybrid Pokemon, still nibbling away on its snack.

Coal bounced back up next to Devra and started to munch on his treat. “I’m sure she’ll love the trip.” She looked out the window, watching the countryside roll by. “What’s the first thing you want to do once we get to the tundra?”

The professor sipped her hot drink, also enjoying the windows view. “hm, that’s a good question. I suppose I’d really like to find a place to stay, I’d normally not mind camping but I see the name ‘Crown TUNDRA’ and feel like I wouldn’t want to stay over night outside as much. What about you? You’ll be knees deep in herd Pokemon in no time I bet, anything else you’d want to check out?” The little Dreepy had snuck closer to the window to look out, still nibbling.

“Well, there is this big ruin building with a massive old dead tree that’s I’d love to see. But it’s at the top of one of the mountains here. So it might be tricky getting to.” She mindlessly pet Coal as she slowly started seeing snow. “And I think there’s a small town that we could ask about lodging at. Day trips to the tundra and back by dark?”

“‘oh I do love a tree, that sounds interesting, you could always try to find a Pokemon who could get you up that mountain a bit easier?” Peach had planned to do just that, the cold sneaking in, she could feel her bad knee aching ever so slightly already, and almost exactly after that thought crossed her mind, Val crept over to radiate heat, sitting in her lap, easing the dull pain.

“perhaps we can camp out some of the time, it’d be nice to see what happens at night, what Pokemon come out, just perhaps not in any heavy weather if it can be avoided. I did take a look online, the village there is usually pretty open to travellers, think I noticed a B&B or two with vacancies posted, I’m sure we’ll find somewhere to stay.” By this point, the views had turned pure white, in the fields you could see grazing Pokemon, a herd of wooloo who almost blending in with the surroundings.

Devra spotter the wooloo right away, fawning over one of her favorite Pokémon. Coal picked up on his trainer’s excitement, his tail wagging happily as she told him what snow was like. “Oh I can’t wait to see Aliza’s face when she sees her first snow!”

“thats right, she’s not even seen a December yet, or a snowy route. Good thing you got your camera then isn’t it, I’m sure mom and pop would like to see her first experience with it, you know Cole hasn’t seen snow either before. Bet he’s real excited about now.” The pup must have felt something, seeing all this white for the first time. “‘what about you Dreepy, you seen snow before?” The little ghost type looked back, didn’t turn its body at all, but bent it’s neck fully back to look at the Professor upside down, giving no clear answer, which to her seemed like a big fat no, but perhaps he was a little shy about answering right away. “no matter, we’ll soon be in the thick of it.”

She giggled at the sight of the little dreepy. “He’s seen some light snow before. I caught him in the wild area. The weather there is always so weird. But he hasn’t seen this much before. This is going to be a big busy day.” She snapped a quiet picture of dreepy being cute, then one of Coal barking at the snow through the window.

The train began to turn a final corner, the tannoy alerting passengers to the upcoming station, the only stop on the journey coming up very soon.

“looks like we’re nearly there, ready to get going?” The trip had been only short, but outside it looked like a completely different region, so much snow and ice everywhere, nothing but pine trees. The woman grabbed her bags, not before waiting for the little Dreepy to return to the inside where it wrapped up in the spare clothes to keep warm. Val took to her shoulder as she usually did.

Devra nodded, standing up to gather her things. She then picked up Coal, holding his stout body in her arms to keep him from running of into the snow. “We’re ready. I’m so excited to see this area. I’ve read about it but they took forever to get it safe enough for more visitors.”

Safe enough wasn’t always entirely foolproof, and Peach was quietly happy she packed a first aid kit. She had heard some murmurs it was a little risky here, a lot of tough Pokemon roamed about.

“I hope you’re right, I’m sure the locals wouldn’t put people at risk.” The pair stepped off the train once the doors pinged open, the brisk cold air swept past, pulling them all out onto the platform. People came and went, and before long they became aware of the exits and where to head to next.

Devra took a slight lead of the two, following signs towards the little town. “Well, they did give all of us coming here a safety talk too. I just hope trainers actually listen. You gotta be smart about this place.” She then set Coal down and let the little guy run circles around the two humans. “I think I’ll wait to let Aliza our until we’re settled.”

With the pup thoroughly enjoying the snow, the trainers paused to check their phones, a map was needed for a moment, before they began to hear some loud ruckus just outside to the right of the station, sounded like a man and a young woman, peach didn’t even register it much, turning her back to the noise almost instinctually, trying to figure out which way to go. Val however was being nosey and sat on her shoulder judging the people making all the noise pretty hard from the look on her face.

“I think you’re right, we should find somewhere to stay before we really go out on a wild adventure.”

She nodded, looking at her own map on her Rotom phone, thanking the Pokémon inside for his help. “It looks like we head on that way.” She pointed to the road as it took a slight left turn. “Shouldn’t be more than a 20 minute walk.”

“‘sounds good to me, wonder what Pokemon we might see on the way?” Pocketing the phone and hoisting her bag up a bit, Peach began to take a few steps, noticing the pair who were making such noise earlier, avoiding them entirely, they seemed to be having a dad-daughter tiff that was no ones business. Onward, to the first route of the Crown Tundra!

Devra took a glance at the arguing people and sighed, hoping the wouldn’t bother her or the Professor. Coal bounded ahead as they walked, but kept in his trainer’s sight. “It’s really pretty here. Just look at all the ice on these pine needles!” She crunched her way to a tree and found an angle to catch light in the ice.

[jaefluenza]

A Roadtrip with a Stranger | J.jh

one important rule: do not fall in love 🍑

🔅 4,831k words

🔅 fluff, overseas student!characters and more fluff!!!

🔅 youtuber!jung jaehyun x reader

🔅 warning: i didn’t proofread this :(

Hey! It’s been so long since I write on this platform. I hope you guys still like my work cause I’ve been working hard to get the desire to write again. Things has been rough for me mentally that makes me kinda lost the feeling of writing. But I decide to write again, yay! Oh and this work was inspired by an admirable travel vlog by Valspire Family where he went on a roadtrip with a stranger. I’ll put the link to the video at the very end of this work. Hope you like it, and I’m sorry that it’s not gender-neutral but you can use your own imagine from this one i guess :) love y’all.

Jaehyun swam through his e-mails. Okay, no more AdSense pouring in... He wondered. It seems like he needs to create a new content. So, Jung Jaehyun right here is a travel youtuber, where he often travels from place to place, all by himself. He loves traveling. He did it even before he discovered a whole new thing called YouTube. Yeah, that time, he travels by the help of his parents. As an abroad student, he relied a lot on his parents back in their hometown. So he saved some money to travel from close places to places before he eventually wanted to travel overseas as well. Jaehyun learned that he can’t keep using his pocket money to travel forever, he needs to look for a better way.

So when his friends told him to start a YouTube channel, he didn’t even hesitate. As luck sides with him, he started to look through his old memory card where he put all of his videos and photos of his traveling journey. He was so glad that he kept all of them, even though he would reminisce on how he almost drop his camera on a cliff while doing a cheap vlog. Jaehyun uploaded the videos that he edited at 2 am, after doing the assignment he got from college. Such a model student, indeed... And guess what? People love him! His first video got 10,000 views and 167 comments about how he captured the moment beautifully. He even gained 450 new subscribers on his first day of being YouTuber.

Now, after two months of uploading his old local travel videos, he gained more than 23,000 subscribers and thousands and thousands of views, he finally gained independent money from all the ad-sense he received from his videos. So, he’s ready for a new level of adventure, of course, on his own. “Where would I go....?”

He dives through the mailbox again as he only looks randomly at the screen, and suddenly a notification pops up to his surprise. “Y/n (surname)?” He clicked the new e-mail right away, unbothered to look at the subject line first.

“Hey, do you want to go on a roadtrip with me, I guess? this my number, 0xxxxxxxxx text me 🤙”

“Holy shi-” Jaehyun almost cursed before he closes his mouth, shocked by the new thing he discovered on the Macbook screen. A stranger, asking him to go on a roadtrip? Wait, is this real? Well, it has been one of his goals to travel with a stranger, but when he actually goes through it, his head feels like falling into the floor.

He typed the number on the dial pad and add the new contact on his phone. He clicked the message app but before he’s even able to type what he’d want to say, his hand shakes in nervousness. I mean, this isn’t the first time he’s talking to a stranger. He has several moments where he needs to ask some other students he doesn’t know because he has to finish the group project given, but this one feels so different. The thought of going with someone you don’t know if it’s a he or she, spending time with them in the coldness of the night, holding hands with them when you reach the top of an abandoned tower, or holding on an urge to kiss them when it gets too warm in the car... Well, Jaehyun is now thinking so hard when he doesn’t need to. “Okay, okay, let’s get this done. Ask her what’s up and you’re done,” He reassured himself.

“Hey, it’s me Jaehyun. I saw your mail. What’s up?” Sent.

“Okay, okay. That’s good, you did it. Now let’s just eat some chips before they actually reply-” A familiar notification pops up and he can’t push his head away from his phone anymore.

“Omg hi! That was such a fast response! Thank you so much for texting me, I’m such a fan! Uh anyway, i’m (y/n). I want to know if you’re interested to go to the national flower festival with me which is happening in 10 days and if we’re heading there by a van it will be a 4 days travel and we still have 5 days to prepare and tour around the city.”

“Fantastic. Sure. So when do we meet tho?”

“Tomorrow, I guess?”

“Sure. See ya!”

“So, what makes you so excited today, Mr. Jung? I’ve never seen you this cheerful around college since the first day of your youtuber life.” Johnny chirped at the young man. “I’ll be meeting someone new today,” he replied. Johnny rubbed his ears together to listen more carefully simply because he doesn’t believe that his friend’s gonna meet, possibly a new girl?

“I don’t know, john. They could be a he or a she. They only sent me a mail.”

Later that evening, Jaehyun finds himself waiting in the restaurant where she told him to meet up. He glanced at his watch as he waits patiently and he naturally feels like he’s going on a blind date. He holds himself not to order anything until the person’s arrived.

“Oh my god, it has been only 15 minutes but why do I start to feel like I’ve been scammed?” Almost a minute after he said that, a cheerful young lady walked towards his table and asked, “Jaehyun Jung, am I right?” Damn. This is real. “Uh yeah. Hi! Nice to finally meet you, (Y/n.)” He nervously reach out his hand for a shake and she gladly shakes his hand in return. 

“So, guess we now have to set some plan, do we?” Jaehyun said. Afterall, suggesting a plan making seems to be a meaningless idea because when the girl explained the route plan to the festival, he only got mesmerized, lost in her excited eyes. “Hey, are you listening?” Her gentle accent got him right back into his senses and he only laugh while scratching his nape awkwardly. “Woah, I can’t believe a famous travel youtuber like you aren’t that prepared for a kinda long roadtrip like this. Are you even experienced?” She teased him a smile.

“Hey, that’s mean,” he pouted. “I’m ready, more than ever, if you would know. But, well, this traveling with stranger thingy is kind of new to me so... bare with me, please?”

She smirked, “Hell yeah. It’s my first time, too.”

The two then decided to go buy the things they would need in the van. (Y/n) was the one to rent the van and it was decided when the two agreed that they can only afford an old small camper van fit for two people to sleep in the back seats. So they got almost everything such as blankets, sleeping bags, some little decorations to set the mood, and of course, some snacks and beverages. “I’m surprised that you hate redbulls.” Jaehyun teased the younger lady. 

“Dude, me being overly happy doesn’t mean that I drink redbulls... I only drink eight shots of coffee.”

“Damn, that makes sense, too,” he replied with a cheeky smile.

On the first day of a long drive through so many lonely highways, things weren’t going awkward, thank goodness. She comfortably talks to him like he’s an old friend, and he only replies with grins and smiles. It’s all good, until things got deeper as the sun emerges down the ground.

“Alright, let me set my other camera before we grab dinner.” Jaehyun shot up from his camping chair to the van after he set the campfire to warm them both. “Sure, indie boy.”

“Stop calling me that.”

“But you are.. an indie boy.”

“Okay, you won’t stop calling me that, huh?”

(Y/n) put her hand under her chin, looking blankly at the fire, reflecting so hard about how she actually starts to enjoy this trip, when she only meet him yesterday. “Hey, what makes you look so serious like that?” The man sat back on his chair after he successfully brought her back into her senses real quick. 

“Nuh-uh, do you really want me to think out loud?” “Oh, no thanks. Now I regret for worrying.” She chuckled lightly. 

“You know what, when I told you that I’m a fan of your channel, I really meant it. I’ve been a subscriber since you only have, uhm, from what I remember, 242 subscribers, I guess? And fun fact, I’m actually in the same major as you but you won’t notice me, anyway. I’m too quiet.” Jaehyun nearly drop his foldable cup when he heard that. “What? Seriously? You’re in the same college- no, same major as me? How could I- Oh don’t worry, I also am way too quiet for my own being. I don’t really make a lot of friends at college. No one really knows who I am if it’s not for my public channel.”

“I can see that you have such a nice personality. I always love how you expressed your hidden feelings through your vlogs. They’re beautiful.”

“Is that a way to say that I’m pretty?” He winked. “Oh come on, (Y/n). Just diss me like you’ve been doing for the past two days of us knowing each other better.” Again, she laughs.

“Do you know what’s the coolest thing ever in this trip?” She asked. “What is it?”

“It is how I made one significant rule in this trip, that is... to not fall in love with each other.” And somehow, Jaehyun lost his smile for awhile. “Oh, really? Well, it’s not quite hard,” he faked a smirk. “You’re mean.”

“Huh, actually, what makes you think that?” He asked sheepishly. He doesn’t want her to catch what’s happening, like how he actually doesn’t really agree with the ‘significant’ rule. “I don’t know. It’s just, my actual purpose of this trip was just to... you know, gain a friend. And that friend turns out to be you! And falling in love means you’re going to lose someone at the end and I hate to lose a friend I just gained from this trip.”

“Ah... that makes sense. But love doesn’t always goes into an end, Y/n.”

“It does,” she smiled with a visible hint of pain, and Jaehyun hates that. “I had the experience. I’m not trying to act like a sad bitch or something, but falling in love sucks. It means you’re ready for a freaking goodbye and farewell.”

He was going to say something but she cuts him up by getting off her chair, possibly ready to cook instant ramen for dinner. “Alright, my stomach’s grumbling. I’m boiling the water, and you, mister, help me open up the packs, please?” And when he looked at her pair of watery eyes, he decided not to say something and replied with a smile. “Yes, maam.”

The night gets colder and now both the youngsters are heading to bed– the back uncovered seats in the van. “So, this is where we’re going to sleep. As you can see, (Y/n) over here is alread inside her sleeping bag. This is going to be such a great sleepover, I guess?” He snickered. “Don’t lie, Jung. I’m gonna put a bug inside your bag tonight when you’re asleep.”

He turned the camera off and lay down beside her sleeping bag, dropping more blankets around him to cover his body better. “This is our first sleep, you know?”

“That’s true. We might wake up like dead.” She said something gibberish after that along with a yawn. “It’s getting hot in here.” She added. (Y/n) wriggled out of her sleeping bag to get more cool air but Jaehyun only looked at her with a weird look. “I’m curling my body into a ball like a caterpillar and you said it’s getting hotter? You’re unbelievable.”

“You clearly haven’t found yourself getting stuck in a snowstorm in Everest, have you?” “I am not that experienced yet. Have you either?” “Nah, I would die.” “Gosh.”

Jaehyun keeps his glances trained at the younger lady, wanting so much to feel the warmth of her body next to him, to warm him- or maybe each other. “Are you sure you’re not cold?” He asked. “Yeah, I’m getting comfortable- not really, actually. Urgh, what am I talking about...”

He chuckled. “Come here. There’s only both of us here, so practically, I am your heater. Besides, it kinda sucks that we cannot afford a van that has a cool heater inside. Uhm.. what I mean is.. do you want to cuddle?”

(Y/n) turned her body to face him. She actually shifted closer but Jaehyun caught the signs that she actually doesn’t want to show her consent. “Come here,” he said gently. “B-but, what about the rule?”

“Cutie, we cuddling doesn’t mean that we’re falling in love. We only need warmth.” Jaehyun put his arm around her without hesitance and she accepted his secure arms. She found herself getting sleepier than ever and now the screen in her sight went black. Jaehyun smiled at the peaceful sight, and he carressed her cheeks gently, not wanting to wake her up, as he says, “Now I’m actually glad that we get this non-heater van. I can become your warmth everytime.” That night, he slept with a smile plestered on his face.

The sun rises on sight better than yesterday as it prisms over the medium-sized windows of the van and light starts to fill in the narrow space, replacing the coldness. She wakes up first, feeling the ray hits her face warmly. Oh my, it’s already morning...

As cliche as it looks like, when she wants to get up she could feel a pair of strong arms securing themselves around her body. Well, she’s not that stupid to not realize who’s the owner, the only guy she has been with over the past few days. She wanted to wriggle out of his arms, but her brain failed to command her body when the heart does what it wants. And it gets what it wants.

(Y/n) feels something different when she’s about two centimeters away from his face, and it surely feels so different when it comes to only seeing him through her iPad screen. But she doesn’t get it. Why is he... so gorgeous? She was about to stare longer but then he opens his eyes beautifully. “Why are you staring at me?” She flinched, not because she was shocked when he woke up, well actually that’s one of the reason, but, actually, because of his raspy morning voice. They sound kind of.. angelic.

“Wake up, let’s see the sunrise.” She finally wriggles out of his arms and goes to open the door. The cool breeze started to hit her lightly, almost makes her flying aesthetically, as she wished that she could wake up breathing this kind of air every morning. “Well, I didn’t know the sun could look this pretty, and we paid for nothing at all.” Jaehyun stood behind her while doing some stretches because his arms were stuck cuddling her last night, not something he could complain about, though.

“Get your camera out, bud. This will definitely get you hundred thousands of view, I’m sure.”

They ended up playing under the warming sun around the van, the camera only watching them. It feels like they are owning the world and she feels so wonderful. She feels so blessed, and it amazes her that she could have this happening with a complete stranger, a young man that starts to fill in her empty insides. She was reassured that impossible things could happen.

“So where are we heading now?” Jaehyun put the camera on the dashboard while he stole a glance at the driver besides him. “We’re passing a small city near here and we’re gonna walk around to see if there’s anything fun to visit.” (Y/n) was so glad that she’s the one driving, otherwise she wouldn’t have any other reason for not looking back at his eyes.

“Or maybe we can just rely on Google.” Jaehyun added. “Nah, that’s just not fun. We still have 14 hours of free times before we have to catch up to the festival.”

“So, yeap. I think we’re being super rebellious right now, slowing down our trip, or maybe (Y/n) right here loves to stay longer with me- Ouch!”

They drove past the yellowish trees and even though it’s in the middle of the day when the sun’s supposed to be up right above the van, the yellowish sky around them doesn’t support the cool breeze Jaehyun feels whenever he put his hand out of the window.

“Okay, I’m trying to wake myself up! Ready?” Jaehyun chuckled before he wobbles his head lightly, preparing himself to press the play button. The girl nodded excitedly, trying a little bit hard to not get so excited because she’s driving. Jaehyun pressed the button and the rock and roll song starts to fill in the car. She laughed at how he vibes so hard to the song, and honestly, she never had anything like this. Chilling past the long highway with yellow trees and the hidden sun makes the whole day so calming. She truly feels so blessed.

“Hey, look!” Jaehyun pointed at a petite tea shop across the street when they both walked around the small city to take a break. The little shop looks very nice with a cute vintage look interior which is visible from the outside. “Do you want to have some tea, like the british?”

“Nah, we should just take some pictures there. I’m going to go get redbulls.” “Seriously?”

After nearly four hours of driving, the both of them finally comes to the hours of the sunset. They pulled over and set the camera to the angle where they can get better view of them chilling under the sunset, or maybe just playing around the van like they did in the morning.

“You know what, I think it’s gonna be pretty cool if we climbed on top of the car and pose to get some footages?” Jaehyun suggested. “Are you crazy? We can’t scratch the car, otherwise we will get charged,” she argued.

“Nah, who the hell cares? It’s not like they will bother themselves by checking all over the car. Come on, I’m gonna go first.” Jaehyun climbed through the back of the van and she only laughed as a response. Sometimes, he’s unbearable.

“Okay, you should climb up now.” Jaehyun reached out both of his hands to help her get to the top of the van, and when she did, she didn’t regret doing his suggestions at all cause, the view is so goddamn pretty. “Woah,” she murmured. They both sat down and try to enjoy the view despite the less time that they have right now.

“What made you want to go on a roadtrip with a stranger?” Jaehyun asked. “Um, I’ve taken a semester off this year, and I don’t really have any friends at the moment to spend time with, so... decided I could go out and gain some randomly.” She chuckled bitterly. “I wanted to do something fun. I wanted to go on a roadtrip, but that’s not very fun alone. So I was like, who is the most spontaneous person I can think of... and so I asked you.”

Jaehyun laughed with his whole heart. “It’s really crazy.” His dimples are showing through and she swears, they are driving her crazy. “And you followed through!”

“I can’t believe we’re doing this.” “I know!”

Jaehyun encouraged himself to look at her, this time with deeply moved eyes, and he now realizes that he really admires her young and free figure. “So, are we friends now?” She asked.

When she turned at him, there she goes, with those pair of eyes, looking through his eyes in return. Jaehyun flinched, shocked by how mesmerized he is by her every movement. Like how her hair moves along with the evening breeze, and how her eyelids stutter beautifully, also how her lips turned into a little smile when she opened her mouth. And he smiled back, “Yes, we are.”

Three days have passed and now they are gonna arrive at the city which is the final destination where the national flower festival will be held, how amazing is that. They visited random cities while taking a break, grabbing lunch at a motel in the middle of nowhere, and stopping by at midnight just to lay down on the empty big road to see the stars. 

As strangers, both of them have been going through a lot of things together, only in a few days. Though the ‘significant’ rule was not so forgotten throughout the trip, they can’t help but feel flattered by each other. The young man, who has been broken inside, admitted deeply inside that she had never experienced anything like what she has been doing with the complete stranger, and neither does the young man. 

Jaehyun knows that she is straight up serious about what she said. It was that one significant rule that keeps him held back, to not fall in love with each other. It kinds of frustrating him that he couldn’t touch her like his brain told him to. He respected her without a doubt, and breaking or hurting her would be the least thing he ever wanted during this trip.

The most ironic thing Jaehyun has ever think of is, how his main goal of this trip was to gain a friend. Now he doesn’t want to be just friends. He wishes for more than that. He fell in love with her.

“I can’t believe it! We’re almost there! I can’t wait to see all the beautiful flowers!” She holds the camera up to his face as he drives to the final destination in the city. “Do you really like flowers that much?” He asked.

“Yeah, they’re beautiful, calming, and entertaining. Whenever I pick one, I always got reminded that wherever you are and whatever you’re being, you can still look pretty and graceful. I mean, sometimes people step on some petite flowers on the street but that doesn’t mean they’ll look uglier and unworthy.”

“That’s true. I mean, look at you, still shining even though your surroundings are dark.” He instinctively moved his fingers to the side of her face, gently brushing her hair aside and she only stuttered nervously.

“Jaehyun,” she faintly murmured. “Okay okay, I know that you have made the one significant rule in this trip and I want you to know how much I respect you for that. I’m also very glad that I’m able to gain a friend like you but... during this trip,” he sighed. “I can’t help but think about you... more than I think I should do.”

She keeps her mouth close, not knowing how to respond to the sudden confession. It’s not like she didn’t expect this to happen, anyway. When it comes to the first time she saw him at the cafe, her insides turn upside down. However she kept it in her heart that she signed up for this not to look for a boyfriend or someone to sleep with, but a friend.

“What if I do the same too?” She replied with her consciousness. With that one sentence, Jaehyun steps on the brake so hard that their things in the back almost sprung themselves to the front and (Y/n) cursed. “What the heck, are you trying to get us dead?!”

“Shit, I’m sorry,” he said breathlessly before pulling over in the middle of the long road. “Gosh, what did you say earlier?”

“I said, are you trying to get us dead?”

“No, the other one before that,” he pleaded.

“Huh? W-what if I do the same too?” She tilts her head.

“So you’re saying... that you like me too? No, that’s too soon. Are you thinking of me too?”

She can’t help but chuckle when she saw his eyes grew big with excitement and... a little bit of expectation. “Yeah,” she replied. There’s a long silence after that and doubt starts to grow inside her heart but then... “So, can I?”

“What-”

He immediately attached his lips to hers, heart pounding so hard that it feels like he’s going to die because of the thrill. For the girl, his lips taste like... excitement? Happiness, and perhaps love?

A few people that she thought would give her sunshine and happiness actually have never been anything like this. She’s actually glad that his kiss made her close her eyes to the feel. No matter how much she keeps saying it, never in a way that it gets her bored to say no one has ever made her experience something like this. Kissing in the middle of nowhere, under the burning rays of sun, nothing other than the camera witnessing what’s happening between the two of them and it really, really feels like they are owning the world.

Nice. Now they’re in a motel near the festival as tomorrow is the exact time they would open the gate to all the flowers collected from all over the world. (Y/n) loves flower so much that she decided to check into a motel that has a flower pattern on its wall.

“You can’t just choose this one just because they have a flower pattern on the room’s wall! The review is just so-so!” Jaehyun complained.

“Hey, didn’t you say that wherever I go, you’ll go, and wherever I’ll be, you’ll be?”

“But I won’t be at the same place as you if it’s not guaranteed that they don’t have any bugs at all.”

Booking a room for two which has a twin bed, both of them entered the room, though Jaehyun had to insist to book a room with a queen bed, but failed miserably.

“I’m going to shower first.” (Y/n) goes to prepare her bathing kit and of course, her clothes. “Yeah, sure.”

While she showers, the man wondered if he should officially ask her out, since she said she’s gonna transfer schools soon which means that he might not seeing her again after the roadtrip so maybe an official relationship will make it easier for him to contact her often.

“Should I really do it, like, tonight? I don’t think I should,” he kept the promise ring he bought yesterday at a little jewelry shop when they stopped for a restroom break. 

Before they went to sleep, they spare some time to get a little cute footage for Jaehyun’s travel vlog. “So this is my bed, and that one’s (Y/n)’s bed. I chose this one because it’s quite far from the bathroom since I hate bugs. But you know, I don’t really trust her with keeping me from bugs and- Okay! Okay! I’m sorry don’t hit me with the pillow!”

“Pffftt! Pillow fight!!”

“No! Don’t- my camera!”

A goddamn eyecontact. Hands tangled against each other, eyes both stuttered in shock, as the girl with the pillow accidentaly fell on him. Jaehyun’s free hand instinctively hold her to prevent her from getting hurt, though his brain listens better to his heart, as he feels his heart pounding like crazy against her body.

“I’m... sorry.” “That’s okay.”

“Do you want to sleep with me tonight?” He asked, and later that night, the idea of booking a twin bed room seemed to be a meaningless idea, either.

“So everyone, here we are today aaat... not the exact final location we wanted to go to at the first place, let me tell you the story. When we checked out from the flower pattern motel we immediately leave to the national flower festival which was supposed to be held just 15 kilometers from where we stayed the other night, aaaand guess what?” he paused and you can hear her faint laugh in the background. “Yeah, there is no festival at all. HAHAHAHHAHAAA- Ouch stop hitting me! Are you that embarrassed?”

“That was what happened, everyone. It turned out that the festival was held at December 16, 2019 and before we started this roadtrip, she read only the date and the month, wow. How can you be so cute and stupid at the same time... I am sooo mad!”

“Well, they put the year 2019 sooo small and my minus eyes couldn’t see it- stop giving me that look!”

“Okay, so because miss (Y/n) over here was quite angry that-” “Really angry.” “Okay, she was really really angry for not being able to see the flowers so, I decided to take her to somewhere as an alternative destination. Am I being too good for you?”

“Yes, you are,” she replied with a smile. “Stop paying attention to the flowers! I’m also here, yo,” he pleaded, somehow nervously. “Why-”

“And this is why I kept insisting to take you to a place with lots of flowers... to pick one among all the pretty petals out here, the prettiest petal I’ve ever seen. So, be mine, please?”

the end of video.

a/n: thank you for reading. honestly, I didn’t know whether to post this one cause it’s really been a long time since I write and it really worried me about how much you guys will like it... also, i’m really really sorry for those who put a request into my ask box since I haven’t completed all of them, like trust me, it worries me every single day bcs I feel like I have a debt to pay lol but don’t worry, I promise you I will complete all the requests but please give me a lot of time! once again, big thanks from me.xoxo

Valspire Family - I Went on a Roadtrip with a Stranger

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[deiliamedlini]

WIP Wednesday

This is a piece of a long oneshot I was working on that I actually just went back to so I could change the era this took place in to use for something else! So this is is the modern meeting of small-town Link and big-city-moving-to-small-town-for-work Zelda. 

I might still go back to this one specifically, especially since most of this info can’t transfer to the earlier era I’m changing it to. I also haven’t edited it, since I’m just in the process of hijacking bits and pieces, so please excuse my dear Aunt Sally. No, wait... that’s not writing... 

~~~~

“I just can’t believe they sent me here,” Zelda said into her phone. It was tucked between her cheek and her shoulder as she drove down a dirt road. On one side, there was farmland: an extensive few acres of it, from what she could tell. On her other side, trees.

Zelda loved trees. She did! They were a big part of her job, and she had nothing against them. But goddess above, she’d never seen so many trees in her life. Glancing at the clock, she realized that she’d been surrounded by trees for nearly an hour now, overwhelmed by the sight.

A city girl through and through, her entire life had been spent in the bustle of Castle Town: the largest, busiest, most innovative and thriving city in all of Hyrule. She’d gone to the best schools there, and worked at an exclusive corporation.

But they needed her to go somewhere else.

For the sake of the research, she reminded herself as she tried to focus on the phone and not all the trees. Or the mountains that replaced skyscrapers and castles. Or the farms that replaced parks and streets.

On the other end of the receiver were two voices. One was Midna, Zelda’s best friend. The other was Tetra, her older sister. The three of them together were incredibly close, and Midna had even offered to uproot her own life to join Zelda on this rural adventure. But Zelda had told her to hold down the fort; this move wasn’t permanent, and she’d be joining Midna back in their three-bedroom apartment that they all had shared in the heart of Castle Town.

“Are you almost there?” Midna asked, loudly typing something into her computer.

“She’s got to be,” Tetra muttered.

“I think I am.” Zelda looked around, but there were only… more trees. Shocker. “If the moving truck could find this place, then so can I.”

“Does she start work tomorrow?” Tetra asked, clearly directed at Midna.

“No,” Zelda answered for her. “I start Monday. They’re going to send me all the information ‘once I get settled.’”

“At least you know how much they value you,” Midna tried, but it was clearly a forced compliment and a poor attempt to make Zelda feel any better about taking this position. But really, when her boss asked her to take on a special assignment, one that paid double her old salary, she couldn’t resist, no matter how uprooted her life became.

“I know, but it’s—”

Suddenly, there was more than just trees.

A goat stepped into the road, much faster than Zelda ever thought goat could move. She dropped the phone, let out a high-pitched noise of absolute panic, and swerved around the goat. But she swerved off the dirt path, heard a thud, felt the car shake, and immediately slammed the breaks, rearing forward into the steering wheel.

“Sweet Goddess Hylia and all things holy!” she hissed, breathing heavily. Her chest hurt where she’d bounced into the wheel, but it hadn’t nearly been hard enough to cause the airbags to deploy.

Quickly putting the car in park, she shakily unbuckled her seatbelt and stepped outside, shaking out her hands and letting out some nerves before reaching into the car to grab the fallen phone.

“I’m okay,” she said quickly, brushing her hair from her face. “I almost hit a goat.”

“Goddess!” they both breathed. “We thought you were dead! My heart, Zelda!”

“I know, I’m sorry! Look, I hit something. I don’t see any dead animals in the road, but I’m going to hang up so I can look. I’ll call you later.”

The three of them were notorious for never saying ‘goodbye’ on the phone. Really, they didn’t do it in real life either. Even when Zelda left, the last thing Tetra had said was ‘I’ll come up to visit  real soon’, and Midna had said, ‘find me a hottie, or some other excuse to move up there with you.’

So, Zelda hung up with just a promise to call them back, and she hurried down the road to where she’d heard the thud.

It didn’t take much investigating to figure out what had happened: there was a broken fence, splintered and thrown wildly around the area after her apparent impact with it, and a frayed rope on the ground. And a sign that said “fence broken”. Helpful.

Zelda glanced back at the goat, unmoved by anything that had just occurred. It was meandering through the road, boredly exploring an area that it didn’t seem interested in. Perhaps the trees felt familiar to it.

Zelda groaned and took a picture of the fence before trying to get the internet on her phone so she could look up the local police number to report that she’d damaged property.

No internet connection.

“Great,” she muttered, turning to take a picture of the goat before it could move. Then, she headed back to her car, just to make sure there was no innocent animal underneath. She flipped the flashlight on and ducked down.

Zelda groaned, but not because there was a dead animal. No, it wasn’t an animal that was dead; it was her tire. There was a giant piece of the broken fence impaled into the rubber, and thanks to her rolling a few feet away, it was in there good.

“Of course. Of course!” Zelda yelled into the abyss, not even earning a curious glance from the goat.

Grabbing her phone, she was blinded by the light she’d left on and turned it around so she could look up the tow company immediately but was met by the same message. No internet connection.

Rolling her eyes, she scrolled to Midna’s name and pressed call.

Silence. Not even ringing.

Zelda checked the corner of the screen, struck first by her red battery life, and second by the device bars desperately looking for a connection.

“I was just talking to them!” she yelled at the phone, as if it cared that she’d had service moments ago. It gave her the urge to throw the phone, but she wasn’t that angry yet.

Instead, she turned her camera on, took a picture of her impaled tire in case the insurance company would need it, and then took several pictures of the goat just for fun, praying that it didn’t charge at her or whatever goats did.

She continued observing the goat without anything else to do until a car headed down the road. She stood and began to wave her arms wildly, but the car drove right past her.

“Jerk,” she muttered, pushing her hair back and returning to sit. But it wasn’t long until a pickup truck slowed down before she could even get back out of the car. She breathed a sigh of relief when they stopped and rolled down the window.

“Everything alright, Miss?”

“Not really,” she sighed, looking at her car sympathetically. She gestured to her tire.

“Got a spare? I got a jack if you need it.”

His voice was accented with the local dialect, which made her feel a little at ease. At least this was someone who’s likely be familiar with the area and could tell her how far away she was.

She had to admit, she’d spoken to one of her coworkers on the phone and had also become enamored with her accent, though it wasn’t from around here either. Zelda had a feeling she was just a sucker for anything that wasn’t the harsh poshness of the Castle Town accent, where every letter pronounced, every syllable attempting to be heard. It was a hard accent, and a cold one. The ones around here was warm and inviting.

Of course, it would make her stick out anytime she opened her mouth, which she didn’t really want.

Castle Town was posh, for sure. A town for the rich and the well-off, or those in school or at work. So Zelda knew a thing or two about stranger danger, and the deeply rooted nerves she felt when she saw the man unbuckle his seatbelt from her peripheral vision bubbled up. She had an escape route planned: toward the broken fence. She wasn’t being kidnapped on her first day in town. But he didn’t get out. He just leaned across the seat to the open window.

Finally, she looked at him, and her breath caught. Well, he certainty matched his voice. Something tired and alert all at once. His blonde hair was long and tied back into a ponytail, falling out in the front so his bangs messily framed his face, bringing her attention to his piercing blue eyes.

Oh yeah, this was the kind of guy they warned you about in Castle Town. Too pretty for their own good. She’d have talked to him in a crowded bar for sure. But out here…?

She glanced back at her car, breaking her distracted trance, trying to remember what he’d asked. “Oh, uh, no. I took everything out of the car to fit my things. I figured I’d take my chances for not getting a flat, but surprise, surprise, a goat wants me dead.”

“Where you going? I can give you a lift if you want. You can get Daruk out here tomorrow morning to tow it wherever you need to go.”

“Oh,” she breathed. Don’t get into a car with someone you just met unless someone knows who they are or where you’re going. “Yeah, I was actually just going to ask if I could borrow your phone? Mine isn’t getting service. I can just call my tow company that I’m enrolled with.”

He nodded and reached across his passenger seat before handing her a phone out the window. She half expected it to be something old and rustic, like this whole place, but it was new and modern and almost exactly like hers. She’d just assumed the small town didn’t have the newest phones. What a stupid assumption.

“Mind if I just look up their number first?” she asked before randomly clicking around on a strange man’s phone.

“Go for it.”

She did and listened to all the automated options. The man was bobbing his head to some music she couldn’t hear. A car came down the road, stopping and honking, despite the fact that they could clearly go around him.

The man rolled his eyes and backed into the breakdown lane behind Zelda’s car, though she was thankful he still didn’t get out

It was only when Zelda’s eyes widened in either shock or horror at whatever she’d heard over the phone that he leaned his head back out the window curiously.

She walked up to him and handed the phone back. “Thanks.”

“So?”

“Three hours to get out here.” Zelda’s misery was palpable.

“Where are you going, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“Some little village called Ordon”

He smirked and leaned back in his seat. “I’m headed there as well. Want a ride? We can get Daruk out here sooner to just tow your car in if he knows he’ll just be headed back into town. It’s not far.”

“Oh, I don’t know… not that I don’t appreciate it, but I don’t know you.”

He reached his hand out the window. “Link. I live in Ordon. Work too. Nice to meet you”

“Zelda,” she said, taking his hand.

“Here,” he said, pulling out his wallet and handing her a business card. “So you don’t think I’m lying. But I do have to get to work at some point, so if you want that ride…”

“I just don’t want you to be a kidnapping murderer and kill me, you know?”

He grinned, suppressing a chuckle.

Zelda crossed her arms. “Don’t laugh at my potential murder.”

Gesturing to his phone still in her hand. “You can keep that with you the whole ride so you can call the cops on me if you think I’m kidnapping you.”

Toying with the phone, she took another look at her car. “Okay. Just let me grab my bag.”

[reality-exodus]

Episode 7 1/2 pt.2

"For Duskwood?" The driver asked through the speakers and I shot up looking around "Yes... wait a moment please." I spoke up as the loud sound of the speaker woke me up from the abstracted oblivion I had sank into during the route of the bus. The bus stopped, it didn't go to Duskwood it left me in the outskirts. I took a deep breath and disembarked the vehicle. It was high time I met my, for so long, pen friends. It had been a week since Richy's early passing, I haven't been able to talk to anyone but Jake, who was filling in the group for my progress via Lilly. I didn't talk again about this subject to anyone.

I got out of the bus and my gaze fell on the magnificent forest of Duskwood. It indeed looked scary... and dark. I hadn't realized that I was staring at it insistingly until I heard a horn and shot my head to that direction to notice two familiar faces with beard. I smiled at the vision of them expecting me on the road and started walking towards where the car was. Dan got out of the car and he raised his arms up as I was approaching with my suitcase.

"M/C" He sighed and pulled me in a hug, I let out a soft chuckle and hugged him back rubbing his back. He was taller than me, nothing compared to how he was as when we first talked to each other.

"Hello Dan" I let out a sigh of relief as we both tightened the hug for some moments. "How are you?" I asked him as we broke the hug and looked at each other. Things were sort of awkward, it was normal and it didn't bother me.

"We are doing the best we can... Hopefully you will upbeat Jessy a bit. But we will have time for that" Dan sighed and picked up my suitcase and I got in the backseat.

"Hello" I greeted Thomas as he turned and looked at me from the rearview mirror.

"Hey there..." I sighed and smiled awkwardly as Dan shut the door of the car, getting in.

"So how was your trip?" Dan asked me as I put on the utility belt. You never know what happens.

"Tiring... dull." I exhaled once again taking out my phone as I felt it vibrate and blushed a bit as I saw Jake's contact popping up on my screen. "It's Jake ..." I sighed and looked at them.

The boys looked at each other and sighed. "I really do want to talk to him..." Dan huffed looking at me with the corner of his eye. In the past he told me times galore to not trust the hacker... But well who knew I fell in love with him.

I took a deep breath and slid my finger upon the screen. "Hey..." I smiled blushed looking at the camera. "Hello M/C. Are you alright?" Jake was heard, he still had the voice altering application.

"Yeah... I am with Dan and Thomas actually. They just picked me up from the bus... They are here actually." I spoke to him and there was some silence.

"Hey Hacker!" Dan exclaimed loudly to be heard.

"Daniel, Thomas" Jake was heard.

"How are you doin?" Dan asked at the same tone.

"I am good. Still working on Hannah with M/C..." Jake spoke up.

"Good... Now if you'll excuse us we are busy." Dan said rudely.

"Dan!" I exclaimed annoyed frowning at him.

"Do not worry M/C. Text me when you are available..." Jake said and finished the call before I could even say goodbye.

"Good one Dan" Thomas huffed as his expressionless face was fixed on the road.

"Yea Dan, way to go" I deadpanned as I took out my headphones in order to listen to some music.

"Don't let his ass drag you down. Here connect your phone to the car." Thomas offered trying to repair the atmosphere Dan ruined.

"Oh Thanks... I appreciate" I smiled a bit to Thomas' intention and connected my phone to his car radio and put on my music. "You are probably the rap sort of guys or Metal or Rock. Billie Eillish and Bishop Briggs won't be your type of music..." I commented.

"Well You are not worse than Jessy... she listens to Justin Bieber." Dan laughed as 'Good girls go to hell' started being heard.

The way was long and Thomas said we were going on Phil's place where both me and Jessy would stay. I had fallen asleep on the backseat. I was extremely tired from my trip and the boys closed the music to keep me sleeping as Dan said I was even snoring.

"M/C" Thomas extended his hand and shook me as I ended up laying across the seat. "Wake up, we are here." He said smoothly and I blinked my eyes open sitting up. I fixed my dress and got out of the car as we moved in the block of flats with Thomas who was helping me with my bags. Dan did not do well with Phil so Thomas would show and help me upstairs.

I knocked the door as Thomas was leaving, he waved at me as Jessy opened the door. I took a deep breath at the footsteps I heard and the door opened soon and I faced a redhead girl, she was pale, and her hazel eyes were red and swollen from the grieve and the tears. I knew it was Jessy, I could recognize her despite the blues that worn upon her petite figure. She was shorter than me but with elegant curves. She was more beautiful in real.

"Excuse you my brother is not here." Jessy spoke with a huff, her shaking voice sounded angry.

"Thank god then..."I replied "I wouldn't be that fond of his arrogance right now." I added with a sigh.

"Oh my gosh M/C" she exclaimed and hugged and I responded rubbing her back. I expected the hug and I really liked it too."Its so good to finally meet you Jess" I sighed as I placed my chin on her shoulder as she is shorter than me.

"Me too." She sniffed. "You must be tired come on in" Jessy dragged in my suitcase and closed the door behind us.

"Indeed I am, I even fell asleep at the car on our way here..." I sighed. "I am going to make something for you to eat, you change and pick a movie and I'll get the pizza, no mushrooms extra tomato sauce." Jessy said and I smiled brightly at her as I moved to the bathroom and put on my pajamas and crushed back at the couch we were sitting before. "I am ready with a film." I spoke as I set up the TV with my laptop. "What movie?" Jess was heard. "V for Vendetta" I said with a smile as I texted good night to Jake. "You can't be serious?" Jessy let out a small laugh as she poked her head to look at me. "No really that's the movie we are watching." I nodded gazing at her innocently. "Is this some sort of type you have?" she asked as she sat next to me placing the pizza and the wine on the coffee table and covered both of us with the blanket. "Is this a Jake reference?" I asked and blushed as I took the glass of red wine. "You are really smart aren't you?" she giggled and I sighed in relief as she seemed to be forgetting reality, with Richy.

I've been thinking about all day long. What he said, he heard a scream calling his name specifically, and then he recognized Hannah's voice. And then the his wide eyes staring right at me as his last breath was abandoning him. I haven't told anyone, not even Jake. The only thing I want is to find Hannah in one piece. I don't have anyone to worry or miss me... Atleast not someone who knows me. And things with Jake are really blurry but he simply denies to say anything or give me a hope...

I fell asleep on Jessy's lap during the film and I felt her stroking my hair, cover me better with the blanket and then leaving. I didn't pay much attention I was too tired for it so I let sleep take the best of me.

-

I shot my eyes open at the sound of cricking that came from the main entrance. I didn't move an inch from my position in fear... The man without a face? The governmental pursuers of Jake? I sincerely do not know which is worse. I surveyed the dark living room at Phil's place, seeking for something, an object, that I could defend myself with. I caught a glimpse of the wine bottle me and Jessy drank earlier. I extended my hand and grasped it as I fell off the couch and crawled to the hall standing by as a figure with a long coat stepped in and looked around.

I lost no time and brought with force the bottle to his head as he let out a gasp and turned around. It was too dark for me to see any features upon his face I made a move to punch him in my effort to prevent him from doing what ever he was to do to me and Jess. He grabbed my wrist and turn me around stretching my hand to my back and pinning me to the wall as he leaned his face to my face and

"My sister usually has less violent friends M/C" I heard him whisper as he breathed down my neck and stroked my waist.

"Phil Hawkins" I breath out in relief and let loose.

"In flesh" He chuckled and let go of me still holding my hand. "And you are M/C..." He spoke in realization and switched the light on and looked at me.

"Are you alright?" I asked feeling embarrassed as I was trying to calm down.

"I am but you will have to pay me back for the hospitality and my destroyed hair." Phil had a smirk upon his lips as his eyes were upon me.

"Oh of course" I nodded recovering from the embarrassment from before. "What can I do for you?" I asked politely.

"Oh many things. But how about I take you out for a drink. You can see me on duty too." Phil smiled softly.

"Sure I could ask the rest to come too." I smiled politely making an effort to avoid him.

"I was hoping for something more private but whatever makes you feel better." Phil spoke and stroked my waist discreetly and I pulled myself to drink some water.

"Um I should go and sleep, Jessy will wake me up in a few hours for... for the funeral." I stuttered and sat down "Good night Phil." I spoke and covered myself with Jessy's pink blanket.

"I would be better with you cutie but Good night" Phil waved and winked at me vanishing in the corridor.

I laid back down and closing my eyes praying that sleep will come after this scare. But it didn't so I reach for my phone

'Jake? Are you awake?'

'M/C everything alright?'

'Yes, I mean, I was sleeping Phil walked in his house and I got scared and attacked him... I am still edgy'

'I assure you are safe. Are you alright now?'

'Yea I shooed Phil to sleep and laid back down. Can you imagine I slipped away only with a cocktail date at aurora's with everyone 😊'

'Well I knew you were smart. Did he tried anything cute?'

I choked on my water as I saw the screen, I liked that he didn't bother being elegant and discreet with the question 'No I put him back in his place.' I said as the smile wouldn't leave my lips any time soon.

'You should sleep, the funeral is in three hours' He texted

'You are right, Sweet dreams Jake' I texted and placed my phone to the coffee table and heard it buzz with his reply, I didn't see it now. I wanted to see it in the morning.

[l8rhader]

Post (well, sometime before the time jump to the airport before their wedding  which I would argue still hasn’t happened even though it WAS SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE 6 MONTHS AGO BUT LET'S JUST IGNORE THAT PART LOLOLOL so let’s call this October in the timeline of-) come out of the things unsaid  my Adult Reddie, quarantine, Tik Tok AU.

Addition based on this video!!

Eddie sat curled in the corner of the couch, a glass of wine curled between his fingers. He stared at the phone in his other hand as though it offended 6 lines of his lineage. Well, no, like it had offended 6 of his closest friends. He kept trying to type out witty responses, but after looking at the profile attached to the laundry list of degrading comments, it was clear that the user was... young. Very young. Like, younger than the T&C's young but, come to think of it, he wasn't sure they'd mentioned an age. But after an hour of comment after comment on his videos, the latest series being him teaching Richie how to play piano (despite how rusty his skill set had been) and Richie teaching him how to play guitar (even if most of those videos were cut short because Eddie couldn't keep his hands to himself). Most people thought it was cute.

Except 69LonnyTheLiger420.

By the time Richie came out of the bedroom, he was in the worst mood. "What it do, baby boo?" he said, dropping into the couch beside him and wrapping his arm around Eddie’s back. No response. Dejected, Richie leaned in closer and tried again. "What's the hap, cap?" He nudged Eddie’s cheek with his nose, finally startling him into reality with a high pitched hum. "I said, What's the tea, sweet pea?" Eddie crinkled his nose and shook his head, dismissing yet another nickname. "Do you not love me anymore?" he laughed, knowing that clearly wasn't the case, but something was definitely off. "Eds, what's up?" His eyes searched Eddie's for a moment before the notification noise for Tik Tok went off. Richie snatched the phone and opened it, frowning at Eddie’s notifications.

"Give it back. It's nothing. It's-"

Eyes wide, Richie fought down the decades old urge to flee. Instead, he hissed out, "Christ, babe. Does this happen a lot?"

Eddie shrugged. He supposed it happened fairly often. They were gay and happy and unapologetic and rubbing their new love in the face of millions of followers. It made sense, to an extent. This particular batch was just a lot.

Shaking his head, Richie tugged Eddie up by the hand. "No more phone,” he said, guiding him up the hallway toward their bedroom.  Eddie made an exaggerated reach for it and Richie, instead leaned over, sweeping him into a fireman’s carry.  “No more phone.”  He shoved the device down into his pocket before slapping Eddie’s ass and eliciting a yelp in response.

“Put me down, jackass.  I’m a grown man.  I can wa-”

“Grown is an exaggerated term, toots,” he joked, navigating the hall with ease, despite his fiance kicking his feet and pounding his fists, calling him all sorts of creative names that thirteen year old never could have come up with.  He tossed Eddie down on the bed and pounced on him.  “I don’t know if you remember, but we literally bullied a space oddity to death.  I think we are uniquely qualified for a response to this little shithead.”

With his hands on either side of Richie’s neck and his bony knees dug in just above his hips, he dumped Richie on to his side.  “I think that it’s a little kid and it’s not worth, I don’t know, screaming at him in the middle of a Chinese restaurant.”

Feigning offense, Richie whimpered “That was ONE time, and,” he pushed his glasses back up onto his nose, adding “AND that’s something I only reserve for fans when I’m under emotional duress.  This wretched little crotch goblin is clearly not a fan of either of ours so an emotional outburst is far above them.”

Eddie closed his eyes and shook his head, pulling Richie in for a kiss.  “I love you, but just let it go.  It’s not worth it.”

“You’re upset, babe,” he said, landing on the one nickname that Eddie never fought him on because he was too busy fighting off the butterflies swarming in his belly when he said it to actually argue.  “That means it’s worth it to me.”  The corner of his mouth twitched up into a smile seeing Eddie’s resolve falter.  “You’re worth it all.”

The next morning, the video Eddie posted didn’t feature him at all.  Instead, it was five of 69LonnyTheLiger420′s least creative jabs, mainly mentioning their ages and their sexuality, floating around Richie’s head as he sat at the keyboard in the room that belonged to Eddie months and months of quarantine prior.  “You’re prob’ly just a kid in middle school and I don’t wanna fight a kid in middle school,” he crooned, accompanying himself with easy chords.  “Instead of fighting kids in middle school,” he leaned into the camera like he had a secret, then smiled.  “I’m gonna fuck your mom!  I’m gonna fuck your mom.  I’m gonna fuck your mom.”  He bopped back and forth, looking slightly reminiscent of a character from Peanuts.  “Don’t be such a saddie ‘cuz you got a new Daddy,” he added with a cheeky wink, “I’ll help you find a suit to prom.”  He dragged his middle finger up the keys dramatically in a fairly effective glissando.  “But, fuck with me and I will fuck your mom.”  He raised his eyebrows and gave a little half-hearted salute. 

Eddie swung the door open, then leaned against the doorframe looking at his fiance.  “Please don’t go the Burnham route.  I’m already sick of the people who compare you to Mulaney.”

“Why?  They’re good guys.  I don’t min-”

With a pointed stare, Eddie folded his arms.  “But you’re Richie Tozier.  You’re funny on your own.  You don’t need anyone else’s schtick.”  

Richie batted his eyes and smiled through pursed lips.  “You think I’m funny?” he cooed.  He may have played it up for Eddie’s consumption, but it still made him flutter when he actually admitted it.

Sticking his hand out and grabbing his phone to edit the video, “Come on, they put the final season of Schitt’s Creek up early so I am down for a rewatch,” he called from the hallway.  “At least I didn’t make you propose to yourself.  I love Patrick and all, but-”

”I proposed to you!  Twice!” he said, still blushing as he stood from the tiny collapsible piano bench.  “And does that mean you think you’re Patrick in this equation?  Because, baby,” he said, finally bounding into the living room, “apart from my eyebrow game, the kinship to the drinking of all wines, your startlingly similar boring fashion and comparative petite-ness,” Richie wagged his finger then swiped the remote from under the TV, “you are judgy, neurotic and,” he added quickly, “simply the best.”  He plopped down next to Eddie and wrapped him in his arms, kissing his neck.  “You are 100% the David here.”

They settled in for their binge watching.  Eddie’s phone dinged a few times, notifying them that the Losers were on the case, now.  Bill and Mike responded with a video of their own using the Pas de Deux from Us sporting matching unimpressed looks as they both tossed rocks from their garden idly in time with the music with the caption “Sticks and stones...”  It was basically nonthreatening, if maybe a little ominous, unless anyone seeing the video knew the Losers and their history with bullies, which they surely doubted.  A duet from Bev and Ben, flatly responding Beep Beep came next.  Finally, Stan’s response was of himself and Patty on the couch.  She was looking at her phone confused, Richie’s song audible in the background, finishing the loop and restarting.  “I think at this point the Mom jokes should be retired, Rich.  Eddie’s going to start getting jealous if all these little assholes start calling you Daddy, too,” he said, smirking at the screen as Patty chastised him from off-camera.  

Richie smiled, watching the responses over Eddie’s shoulder between episodes.  Even though momentary clips of the Losers were nice- it was better than nothing- Eddie really fucking missed them.  At least he knew that they’d always have his back.

[bubmyg]

something new - jjk

pairing: jeongguk x reader

genre/warnings: youtuber!au, established relationship, fluff, minor mentions of insecurity and anxiety

word count: 1,821

summary: you’re gone for the evening and jeongguk has a video idea or the one where he’s ten levels of shy when your hands are on his cheeks (alternately, loosely based off that one jenna marbles video)

There was an ambient huff that succeeded the flicker of red snug next to the lens of Jeongguk’s camera, one that landed his hands on his hips, gathering the baggy material of his jacket around his lean waist. He sighed, still bent forward over the sink where the camera rested idle on the lip between the wall and the mirror, sweeping gaze studying a particularly concerning stain centered on the plastic covering layered inside the shower curtain. 

After a good ten seconds of silent filming, he reached for the dye kit curled next to the facet, lifting it up to the camera where he got impossibly close, wrinkling his nose and speaking to what would eventually be his audience. 

“Is this a bad idea?”

Jeongguk pulled back to inspect the cardboard in his hands, flashy advertisements and chemical formulas that essentially translated to bleach, something that would ombre out the shaggy ends of stark brown hair that messily brushed at his flushed cheeks. He half expected you to answer his question spoken into the empty apartment, your figure to materialize hours early from the party you were attending on some hunch that he was doing something ridiculous. 

But you didn’t appear, not even through a text on the phone in his pocket, and he was still alone with a box of hair dye in his grasp and his camera capturing the comedown of what had been a previously eureka moment for a video idea when you’d kissed him goodbye and evaded the third ass slap of the night. 

Another silent breath and he shrugged, pointedly dropping the hair dye box to the edge of the sink, the slam a little too directed and the cardboard fumbled into the sink basin. Jeongguk didn’t falter aside from wide eyes, shrugging as he sliced a fingernail under the seal and began to unpack the contents. 

One plastic glove was slid across inked knuckles, leaning toward his lens again, “Something new, right guys?—” He paused long enough to slice his gaze to the mysterious shower curtain stain before winking, lowering his voice a half octave, “Right, baby girl?”

“I…” Jeongguk trailed off, ruffled crooked fingertips into the locks partially damp and parted across the center of his head, “I think I like it?”

His nose wrinkled at his reflection first and then at the camera he pointed toward the mirror, “I mean it’s definitely different, and my hair doesn’t feel too disgusting….”

He went about cleaning up the evidence, lugging his camera along with his as he did so, capturing angles of his puffed cheek and the disgruntled noises he groaned in tandem with his aching joints. In sliding his hair brush back into its proper drawer, he dislodged a pair of old scissors, chipped blue handle and slightly rusted metal ends and all. 

The scissors snapped once over Jeongguk’s reflection in the mirror until he pulled the camera aside to stare at his reflection, speaking for the camera’s benefit, “I shouldn’t trim it...should I?” and then once for his own conscious to get the hint, “We are not cutting our own hair.”

Jeongguk’s adventure lasted barely an hour into the at least three you promised to be gone, wallowing him deeper into the mountain of unmade sheets on your bed. He tried to preoccupy himself with phone games, only to distract when drying waves of half blonde would flit into long eyelashes. He tried to catch up on Jimin and Taehyung’s newest gaming series, only for his thumb to itch over one of his various camera applications to stare at his reflection, grappling with the faded hue of colors across his locks. He tried to edit a different video, only to catch his reflection in his laptop screen and wish you were home right now. 

He fell back into the cycle of phone games, something concentration consuming that managed to pull his conscious out of his muddled excitement and anxiety even for a span of ten minute intervals. The mundane, repeated actions of the character on the screen managed to lull out his concerns, positive or otherwise, in those time frames as well. 

So much so that when he registered the sound of your key in the front door, he nearly bashed his nose off the edge of your dresser in route to snatch one of his bucket hats off its hook to smash over freshly dyed tendrils. 

Jeongguk heard your call of greeting but missed the stride of your figure immediately to the bathroom, giving him some time to, conspicuously, situate himself on the couch in the living room. Except the lean of his stature to the corner of decorative pillows and folded throw blankets was anything but conspicuous, knees stiff underneath himself, shoulders square to a television that wasn’t on, phone forgotten somewhere in his rush to hide but also seek. He folded his fingers together, shoving them between his thighs and effectively making himself seem that much smaller as he squirmed upon hearing the bathroom door open. 

You didn’t notice anything odd about his behaviour at first, and if you did, you didn’t let it show. Softly, you pushed down on his knees, standard procedure to clamber across his lap as you looped tired arms around his shoulders and pressed your nose into his neck. He froze only long enough to untangle his fingers from each other and stutter warm palms across the small of your back. 

“Did you have fun?” Jeongguk nosed into your hair, conscious of the way the baggy front flap of his hat settled across the bridge of his nose. He was more conscious of that then the way his voice caught on certain syllables and ended in one hard swallow that elongated down the length of his throat.

“Mhm, just tired.” You lifted from the crook of his shoulder to slide your hands to his neck, staring at him with a cocked chin, “How was your night?”

For a half second, he thought somehow, somehow, you’d caught him. The very fear that iced through his veins contributed to the harsh stutter that laced further into his words, not smooth at all as he shrugged, “Fine, you know, nothing too exciting.”

The smile curled to each corner of your mouth was gentle, thumbing underneath Jeongguk’s jaw, “What’s wrong? And don’t tell me nothing.”

The cocky expression paired to the appearance of his teeth was wholly genuine, “Nothing.”

You pinched the skin directly underneath his ear, fond grin growing when he yelped and glowered out from the shadow of his bucket hat. You hummed, musing as your thumb soothed over the skin you irritated, “Right…”

Jeongguk whined when your lips touched his cheek, an involuntary reaction that paired with his hands flexing at your back. It happened again and again, a series of your kisses covering his face while he tried to mewl out protests in between, feathery light brushes of your pursed mouth until it tickled at the tip of his nose and the corners of his mouth to have him giggling, effectively scrunching and stretching the very skin you were trying to shower in adoration. 

It was a similar daze that mediated the zombie like throng of actions in his various mobile games, one that had him lazily beaming at you when you pulled away to look at him, so similar that he barely blinked until the shadow hanging in a neat circle around his head was gone, his bucket hat now forgotten on the adjacent couch cushion. 

You said his name with an exclamation point, aweing at the dyed strands with an excited glint in your irises. You fretted over him while his skin slowly crawled into a different dye of its own, one of a blotched red variety that gathered in the highest volumes around the various moles and freckles on his features. 

Crooked fingertips brushing through Jeongguk’s scalp became gentle palms on his warmed cheeks, tilting his gaze firmly to yours as you landed a soft peck to his bottom lip. 

“Is this what you were doing while I was gone?”

“Yeah, I wanted to do it anyway but thought it might be a good video too…” He shrugged when your lips bloomed into a lingering kiss on the right corner of his mouth, “You know, come dye my hair with me but also surprise my girlfriend who left me unattended for a few hours.”

You sensed the but in his voice so you kept quiet, kissing his eyebrow in route to brush your fingers through his hair again. 

Softly, Jeongguk inquired, “...do you like it?”

You responded by wrapping your arms around his neck, nuzzling into his skin. “Hmm...do you?”

“Yeah,” Jeongguk leaned his cheek against you, “Yeah, I think so.”

“Of course I like it, Guk,” You kissed the spot below his ear, “You look hot.” 

The assurance was the spur of confidence he needed, or at least enough to mask any remaining insecurity, quick in wrestling your squealing figure underneath his to busy his lips at the base of your throat. “Hot, huh?” He nipped underneath your jaw, gaze flicking up at you under dyed fringe that had flicked across his long eyelashes. 

“Where’s your camera?” You countered, managing to wrestle an arm out to press the heel of your palm into his forehead. 

“Don’t worry, I forgot it in the bathroom. Maybe instead of this video I’ll just post a picture out of the blue,” He nudged your hand down by your wrist to kiss the center of your palm before pinning your hand above your head. Teasingly, he pressed you further into the dislodged decorative pillows, dangling his fringe above your face, “If it’s as hot as you say...it’ll probably garner a good reaction.”

Your eye roll earned Jeongguk’s mouth back on your neck, teasing out more laughter in gentle nips underneath your jaw bone until you managed to wriggle from his gasp, curling soft hands around his cheeks again to hold him in place. 

“A big head doesn’t suit you, babe.”

He heated in your grasp, faltering in the way his thigh shifted between your parted legs and the dangle of his freshly dyed hair was on accident when his chin hinged shyly. “Okay but seriously…” Dark cocoa irises brewed in question, “Do you like it?”

“I love it because it’s you and I love you.” You let the words sink in by feeling his skin heat considerably against the soft grip of your palms while his gaze flicked to the corner of shyly crinkled eyelids. Eventually, you coaxed him closer to brush your lips against his, “But seriously? You look hot.”

“...how hot?”

You groaned, hooking an arm around his neck, “Come here, you big dork.”

He took your request literally, collapsing his arms to fit them behind your shoulder blades. 

“Jeon Jeongguk you’re crushing me—” 

“But you said to come here—” 

[galactic-melodies]

I have been in love with the idea of a poor MC with Jumin Han for a while, so I decided to write a full on fiction about it. I’ll do it in parts, and maybe for the other characters routes. But I reaaalllly wanted to do Jumin. So enjoy the introduction!

Money is something everyone in the world wants, it is a huge motivator and there never seems to be enough for those who actually need it. You were no different in this situation. You had grown up without a father, and a gambling addict, alcoholic for a mother. Between the two, any money earned was immediately thrown out. From a very young age, you had to figure out how to survive. Through sheer luck and willpower, you somehow managed to attend higher education and complete the degree. Being fresh out of university, you had more bills and debts to pay than you knew what to do with, and no place to live. Perhaps it was this desperation to not move back in with your mother that led you to do what you did.

UNKNOWN: Do you mind going to the address?

You weren't sure how to respond to this. As an educated young lady, surely you were smart enough not to go to a random strangers address. Obviously this was a scam and you would be murdered… or worse. Still, there was something about this stranger. Who knows, maybe by doing a good deed some luck would come out of it.

MC: Fine… I’m leaving right away if it feels sketchy.

And so, you went. You knocked on the door and no one answered. After little convincing on Unknown’s part, you entered the apartment. It was bigger than your entire house growing up. Slowly, you peaked around the hallway, praying someone wouldn’t come out and shoot you. The apartment appeared to be upkept, despite the lack of evidence of life. The plants were flourishing and there was barely any dust. You walked around, not being as careful about your steps, to explore the rest of the apartment. The bathroom had a shower and a bathtub in it and was fully stocked with make-up and soaps. The kitchen had all the utensils needed to cook, but thankfully no food to rot away. For the bedroom, a queen sized bed sat in the center of the room. There was a walk in closet, but not much else in the room. You sit on the bed, surprised at how comfortable it was.

“This feels so wrong to be here,” you muttered to yourself.

The apartment felt way fancier than anything she had ever experienced. It was also someone else's. Oh gosh, I’m in someone else's house. Flipping your phone, you went to text Unknown back. You blinked in wonder at your screen. A chat room seemed to appear with multiple people in it, none of whom you recognized. Possibly the most perplexing part was how a chatroom got on your flip phone. Were those things not smartphone specific? You read from when you entered in. Maybe it’s a game? Skimming quickly, you caught up, realizing they were addressing...you. Notagamenotagamenotagame.

MC: Hello…

You smacked yourself on the head mentally for such a stupid greeting. They were freaking out, you were breaking and entering into a private chatroom and someone else’s house. The phone buzzed quickly as responses filled in.

JUMIN: Who is it?

YOOSUNG: Find out what it is!

JAEHEE: How did you find out about this place? Where did you download the application?

This is it. You were going to jail. Most definitely. Goodbye dreams. So much for doing a good deed.

707: I traced the IP….it’s from Rika’s apartment.

Fuck.

707: Anyways, someone must have broken into her apt.

Fuckfuckfuckfuck-

YOOSUNG: Who are you?! How did you get into Rika’s apartment?!

JAEHEE: Username “MC”, I recommend that you confess.

JUMIN: MC...who are you?

You sighed, deciding to just explain what happened. You would probably be going to jail anyway, maybe they would take pity on you. You began typing your plea for ignorance and mercy.

JUMIN: Reveal yourself, stranger. If you do not reveal yourself, you will pay.

“What!” You exclaimed, mouth agape. With a hmph, you erased the half paragraph of begging.

MC: Reveal yourself first. I’m the most confused one here…

You smiled a tad, crossing your arms happily. Your phone rang again with more replies.

JUMIN: How fierce.

That’s more like it.

After a little bit of conversation and some mentions of 707… “hacking”, they started to introduce themselves one by one. Zen, age 24 came first. He had the most striking eyes on anyone you had ever seen and was just all out gorgeous. If love at first sight was a thing, perhaps this was it. He seemed super kind and thoughtful too. Although, you had never seen him before, despite his apparent fame. 707, age 22, went next, no picture, no real name. Despite him apparently hacking something involving you, he seemed kind as well. Yoosung, age 21, went next. He was probably the most adorable boy you had ever met. High school you would’ve had a major crush on him from appearance alone. He mentioned he was a college student and you suddenly wanted to ask him about his struggles.707 took the liberty to introduce Jumin, Jaehee, and Jumin’s cat to you. Jumin, 27, had seemed rather cold right off the bat. Jaehee, 26, also appeared to be as cold. However, there was something about seeing Jumin with a cat that made you feel less hostile towards him. Animal lovers are rarely bad people, right?

Following introductions, 707 asked you some questions that you answered honestly. Afterall, you weren’t much of a liar, and something told you honesty was the only answer in this situation. 

707: Lookedintoownerofdevice

707: she’scutelol

You looked around the room, squinting. Were their cameras around? How did he know what you looked like? You had no social media.

707: thohowdidyougetanapponaflipphone

MC: I was redirected from the text message...I honestly am just as puzzled as you lol.

Then, their “leader” named V appeared. He explained that the chat room was for them to discuss information for their charity organization, which explains why everyone panicked. The apartment you were in held top secret information on a lot of important people. A cold sweat broke out on the back of your neck, your breathing quickened. I’m so lucky that they aren’t just calling the police oml. The rest of the members explained who Rika was and that you were in her apartment. She had long passed, but apparently V payed the rent. Then he left, telling everyone to calm down and leaving Jumin to deal with the rest of things.

JUMIN: MC, will you join the RFA?

You could say no. Leave this all behind and go back to your normal life of struggle. You could go find a job and look for a home and wait until you either moved back in with your mother or her with you. And you almost did. It seemed to be more trouble than it was worth. All of these guys seemed rather passionate with their work. They threw fancy parties with really important people. That was a type of classy you could never hope to be. But. You could join. They would let you live her, maybe rent free. You could not worry about being destitute and focus on doing things to help a lot of people for a really good cause. You could even search for a job you genuinely liked in your degree. You could make some new friends. Perhaps you could even help people out of situations that you came from. What could it hurt?

MC: Alright. It looks fun. I’ll give it a go.

You smiled slightly, reading the responses from the others.

YOOSUNG: That’s a fast decision.

JUMIN: Ha. I like it.

JAEHEE: I wonder if you have thought this through.

ZEN: Welcome MC.

You put your phone down, laying on the bed with a genuine smile on your face. You hadn’t felt as confident in a decision in a while. You had a really good feeling about this group of people. Who knows where this had the potential to take you.

[spine-buster]

The President Wears Prada (William Nylander) | Chapter 24

February 29th, 2020

Aberdeen Bloom was laying in her bed looking at her phone.  

A special Blueprint had been uploaded to the Leafs’ official YouTube page and their official website titled “Family Birthdays”.  Filmed perfectly.  Cut perfectly.  Produced perfectly.  It was only two minutes long and featured all the guys.  But the main feature was her.  

The video began as Sheldon’s speech did, except the camera wasn’t on him – it was on Brendan and Aberdeen watching him intently.  When he called out Jason’s name and Jason walked in with the cake, Aberdeen watched her own face drop and change and contort.  The camera cut to some of the guys singing – Willy and Tyson and Auston, then Zach, then Travis – and then back to her once they began cheering.  Brendan started his speech.  The camera cut to some more players.  Then it showed her speech.  The last thirty seconds of the video featured snippets of afterwards – the music playing and the guys dancing, most of them with cake in their hands; Auston shoving a giant piece of it into his mouth; Tyson grabbing Aberdeen and dancing with her to the more upbeat song like they were in the 1950s and at a party.  The closing clip was one of Aberdeen smiling from ear to ear, then one of Brendan smiling from ear to ear too as he stared directly at her.  The Blueprint logo came up on the screen.  It was over.

Aberdeen had never appeared prominently in a video from the Leafs before.  She was in the background of some of the Blueprints, usually always with Brendan and once with Kyle and Peter, but she was mostly anonymous.  Now, with this video, she was known: she was named, shown, shown dancing, and it was clearly evident she’d been with the organization for a while and that the team loved her.  To anybody watching, she seemed ingrained within the institution that was the Toronto Maple Leafs.  The fans seemed to love it – the team had won the game, after all, and had a successful Florida road trip because they also won against Florida on Thursday 5-3.  The fans thought it was cute.  She thought it was cute, too, but wondered now if people, especially people throughout the NHL, would actually recognize her instead of just walking by and ignoring her unless she stood beside Brendan.

Regardless, she went about her morning routine – washing her face, brushing her teeth, doing her hair, putting her moisturizer on.  She fed Minerva and applied her makeup.  It was a Hockey Night in Canada tonight against the Vancouver Canucks, but Brendan was letting her leave after the first period for her birthday party.  A bunch of friends were coming over for pre-drink before they left for Toybox, the nightclub where she’d be having the party (everyone she knew and loved would be there except for Siena, who couldn’t come because of school).  There would be at least twenty of them.  They’d all pitched in to get a table and bottle service.  It would all be very fun, and considering Aberdeen’s clubbing days would probably come to an end soon (serious job, serious boyfriend, serious ambition to be a writer), she wanted it to be very fun. 

Lou was taking Brendan to a dentist appointment that morning, so Aberdeen was planning to just walk to work herself.  She could get in a little later than usual – around 9:45 or 10 – since Brendan wasn’t going to be in either.  So she took her time.  She made herself breakfast.  She turned on the news.  She cuddled with Minerva.  She admired the birthday gift that arrived from Willy last night when she got home from work – he had somehow managed to track down and buy a first edition copy (literally a la 1895) of The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, her favourite play.  He did good.  He did damn good.  Between the ring at Christmas and this, Aberdeen couldn’t believe he did that good.  

She took out her phone.

Hope you have a good practice this morning ❤️

thank u minskatt

Are you still in bed lol

love u and yes lol

love you too

don’t judge me

After a while, with time going faster than she liked, Aberdeen put on her coat, hat, scarf, and boots and made her way downstairs.  When she opened the doors of her building, she noticed a guy in a grey Canada Goose jacket and a tan messenger bag smoking almost right outside the door.  She’d never seen him before.  It was entirely plausible that he lived in the building, but he wouldn’t have come down to have a smoke.  She figured he was probably waiting for someone, and went on her merry way.

As she walked down the street, she texted on her phone and made sure to avoid any ice on the sidewalk.  The cold air gave way for a quiet morning – there weren’t a lot of people out walking.  It was also because it was later than usual morning “rush hour”.  From behind her, she heard someone cough extremely loudly – one of those loud smoker’s coughs that could be heard from a mile away.  She looked behind her.

It was the guy from outside her building.  

She felt a shiver run up her spine, and it wasn’t from the cold.  Okay.  Maybe she should give him the benefit of the doubt.  Maybe he had finished his cigarette and was walking the same way she was to his work.  Maybe they had the same route.

Maybe she should take a detour, just in case.  

She turned a corner.  It was technically the wrong way – well, not a wrong way, but it was less direct and a route that made her commute maybe five minutes longer than usual.  She waited about a minute before looking back again.  He turned the corner too.  She felt the shiver run up her spine again.

She turned another wrong corner onto Wellington Street.  Waited a few moments.  Looked back.  

There he was.  

She felt her heart beat increase rapidly.  She was being followed.  She was being followed.  She was freaking out.  She had no idea who this guy was, what he wanted from her, nothing.  She had no clue.  She increased her pace and looked for a storefront amidst all the bank buildings, and she thanked the Lord when she saw a Starbucks.  She climbed the steps and went inside.  It was pretty busy, but not busy enough that she’d be lost within the crowd.  She waited to see whether the man would just walk by or stop.

He stopped in front and lit another cigarette.  

She couldn’t believe this was happening to her.  She tried to steady her breathing as much as possible as she took out her phone and called the one number she thought to call.  

“Minskaaaaaatt, what are you—”

“—Willy?” Aberdeen asked frantically into the phone.

William noticed her tone immediately.  “What’s wrong?”

“Willy I think someone’s following me.”

“Following you?” his tone was dead serious.  

She arched her neck to look out the window and saw the guy was still there, pretending to type away on his phone.  “I—I left my apartment this morning, and I noticed this guy standing outside with a messenger bag smoking and—and I didn’t think much of it, but then I started walking down the street, and he started following me.  And so I started to walk down a different route to work just in case but he—he kept following, and now I’m in the Starbucks at York and Wellington and he’s standing outside pretending to be on the phone but he’s waiting for me and—”

“Stay right there.  I’m going to come get you.”

As if her heart wasn’t already beating rapidly out of fear, now the pace increased tenfold.  She’d called him because he was her boyfriend, because he was the first person she thought to call, but now she realized how much of a grave mistake that was.  “No – no – Willy, you can’t.  Brendan will know and—”

“Stay there and don’t leave.”

“Willy—no, Willy—” she tried, but he had already hung up the phone.  She couldn’t think straight.  She was freaking out, and not just because she was getting stalked by someone.  She should have called Brendan first.  Or Jason, or—

Well, she could text them.  She pulled up Brendan’s number first.  She hoped he’d see it before Willy could do anything.  I’m at York and Wellington Starbucks.  I am being followed by someone.  Can you please come and pick me up?  She pulled up Jason’s number, too.  I’m at York and Wellington Starbucks.  I am being followed from my apartment.  Please get someone to help me.

As she waited, nobody texted her back.  She started to become nervous.  She even sent a few more texts to Willy about getting someone to help him and calling Brendan to help deal with it but he wasn’t responding, and it just made her more nervous.  Jason – never one to leave her on read, even for the simplest of messages – hadn’t responded.  She wondered if he was already driving to practice.  Or with Jen.  Or with his girls.  Or at their school.  Or—

The man still wasn’t leaving.  

Aberdeen gulped.  She didn’t know what to do.  She couldn’t stay in this Starbucks forever even though it seemed this guy would wait that long.  If she left and continued her walk to work, should she acknowledge him?  Should she ignore him?  Should she call him out for following her?  And besides, how in the everlasting fuck did he know where she lived?!  She felt a pit forming in her stomach.  

But she went outside anyway.  Before she did, she started a video on her phone.  As she pushed open the doors from the Starbucks, she watched out of the corner of her eye as he saw her and locked his phone.  As she walked by him, he kept it in his hand.  She began to walk away, down the steps and onto the sidewalk, and she pretended to adjust her hair in her hat.  She saw he’d taken a step forward.  Her heart was racing, but she stopped walking.  She turned towards him boldly, cradling her phone against her chest so it wouldn’t seem like she was recording him.  

When he noticed that he’d been caught, a smile adorned his face.  It was probably nice in everyday life, but considering the circumstances, it was the creepiest thing Aberdeen had ever seen.  “Hey,” he greeted her with a friendly, pleasant voice.  “You know, I saw you in that Blueprint video where the Leafs bought you that birthday cake – you’re Aberdeen Bloom, aren’t you?  Brendan Shanahan’s personal assistant?” the man asked.

Aberdeen found it extremely weird that this man knew her last name.  “How do you know where I live?” she demanded.

“I just overheard the guys talking about it one night and made an educated guess,” he shrugged his shoulders, like it was the most natural thing in the world.  It made Aberdeen’s blood run cold.  “You must recognize me from the media scrums.  I was wondering if you’d like to answer a few questions for me.”

She didn’t recognize him from the media scrums, although she was sure he was there.  Having probably exhausted his good rapport with the players due to his actions (if they were anything like this), the next best thing for him was to terrorize her.  “No.  I don’t speak to the media.  You need to go through—”

Suddenly, a car pulled up to the curb, the tires shrieking against the pavement.  Another car followed just as quickly, shrieking against the pavement as it also grinded to a halt.  From the second car, William barely waited for it to stop before he got out of the passenger’s seat.  Jason followed him from the driver’s seat.  “Get in the car,” William said firmly, not even looking at her.

She noticed Brendan get out of the backseat of the first car, and came to the realization that it was the town car – Lou was driving, waving at her to get in.  “Aberdeen, get in the car,” he echoed William’s sentiments.  “I’ll deal with this.”

She ran towards the town car, opening the door quickly and stuffing herself into the backseat.  She stopped the video on her phone as she watched through the window as Brendan approached the man, who had his hands up and was shaking his head like he wasn’t doing anything wrong.  She felt the sting of tears in her eyes.  “Are you okay, Miss Bloom?” Lou asked from the front seat.  

“I’m okay,” she said.  “Just a bit spooked.”

“Mr. Shanahan freaked out when he got your text.  Almost had a heart attack, I think.”

Aberdeen nodded absent-mindedly, still watching through the window as Brendan looked like he was berating the man.  William looked exactly like he did the night she got hit by the glass – so angry but unable to formulate words – and she couldn’t tell if the redness on his cheeks was due to the cold or his anger.  Jason looked equally as angry, his head moving between Brendan and the man like he was watching Djokovic verses Federer.  When Brendan, William, and Jason dispersed back towards the cars, the man who had followed her was calling out towards Brendan in objection.  Brendan ignored him, and so did William and Jason.  He kept screaming, and Brendan kept ignoring.  

Aberdeen watched through the side mirrors as William and Jason got back in their car.  Brendan opened the backseat door and she turned her head to look at him as slipped in.  Lou began driving the second the door was closed.  “When did you notice him following you?” Brendan asked immediately.

“He was outside my building,” she revealed.

“Outside your building?!” he demanded.  He pulled out his phone.  “I—I’m calling Steve.  No media availability for practice.  None.”

“Brendan—”

“This motherfucker,” he seethed, ignoring Aberdeen’s voice.  “This motherfucker is never getting into our locker room again.”

“Brendan, I don’t care about the locker room,” Aberdeen chastised him.  “He knows where I live!”

“I already called the police.  They’re meeting us at practice,” he revealed.  “I already told them we’re drafting up a peace bond.  And if that fucker even thinks about contesting it, I’ll be out for blood.”

Aberdeen was trying to make sense of what he was saying, but it wasn’t registering in her head.  She’d heard Siena talk about peace bonds before in relation to something she was learning in law school, but Aberdeen couldn’t connect the dots right now.  “What—what’s a peace bond?” she asked.

“It’s essentially a restraining order,” he explained.  “Some of the players actually have them for some people or fans but we’re not going to get into that right now.  All you need to know is that he won’t be able to be anywhere near you, your apartment, work, nothing.  I’ll push for an entire kilometre away from you.  I don’t care if the fucker has to move.  He won’t get anywhere near you ever again.”

Aberdeen calmed down considerably as Brendan spoke, though she was still on edge.  “We…we can do that?”

“Yes.  It’s the—fuck!—it’s the same old story with some of these fucking clowns.  Can’t get what they want in the locker room so they go after office stuff and see which one breaks first.  It’s never enough – whatever we give them is never enough.  All for some inside scoop.”

Aberdeen saw how angry Brendan was about this.  It was like the Ethan situation all over again.  It was different in that, with Ethan, Brendan was calm but she could see the rage inside of him.  Now, she saw the rage both inside and outside.  “I just want to make sure I’ll never have to see him again,” Aberdeen said.

“You won’t,” Brendan seethed.  “I’ll make sure of it.”

***

Aberdeen didn’t exactly like talking to cops – she didn’t think anyone did – but there were two waiting at practice when she and Brendan got there.  They waited for William and Jason to get there, and once they arrived, they all went into a private room to give statements.  Aberdeen showed the cops the video she took.  It played at least seven different times, and each time, she watched William across the table getting redder and redder.  Except this time, he was more vocal.  “Is it possible we can do more than just a peace order?  I mean can’t we press charges?”  “This guy is an obvious threat to the team’s safety if he’s approaching office staff to try to get exclusives on us.”  It was all very…clinical.  She didn’t know the word to describe it.  But Brendan was adamant on the conditions of the peace order, and was adamant that they go even a step further than what some of the guys had because she was a young female.  What surprised her the most was when Brendan called up the guy – literally right from his phone – and the cops read out the peace bond.  This was still in front of William and Jason.  The guy fought back a little bit but Brendan was having none of it and threatened him with court.  The guy had no chance but to accept the conditions of the peace order.  He agreed to sign it.  He agreed to every condition.  The cops would take care of him signing it and filing the peace order with the RCMP.  

It was barely noon.  

When the police left, Aberdeen thanked them politely and watched as Willy and Jason did too.  She noticed William’s eyes on her as she heard Brendan thank them and offer to walk them out.  Then she saw Jason was looking at her too.  “Can I talk to you?  Alone?” he asked.

“Yeah.  Of course.”

She followed him to an empty hallway – one she had walked down hundreds of times while working the practices.  Jason made sure nobody else was around before he started speaking.  “Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she nodded her head.  “Just a bit spooked, as you can imagine.”

“Listen, I know you’ve got your parents’ place but my door is always open too if you or Kasha don’t feel safe in the apartment for the next little bit,” he offered.  God, she still needed to tell Kasha.  She still needed to call her fucking parents.  They were going to have a fit.  “You know Jen wouldn’t mind.”

“You’d add another girl to your house?” she tried to joke.

“Don’t joke about this,” he said, his voice so serious Aberdeen almost felt back for cracking the joke.  “Do you want to stay at my place?  Do you feel safe?”

“No.  And yes,” she said.  “No I do not want to stay at your place, but thank you for the offer.  And yes, I feel safe.  I mean, I feel safe right now, knowing that if he breaks that peace bond, he can go to jail.  That’s what’s making me feel safe right now.”

“It should.  It’s serious business.”

“Do you understand how lucky I am that the cops took it seriously and got it done within hours?  Because I guarantee you if it was just me filing the complaint, they wouldn’t have taken it seriously,” she said.  “They only took it seriously because of Brendan and him going apoplectic, and you know it.”

“I do know it,” Jason nodded his head.  “I’ve known it every day since my old teammate’s girlfriend had to get the exact same thing down in Dallas against a group of crazy girls who wanted to sleep with her boyfriend and threatened to show up at their house and suffocate her in her sleep.”

Okay, so apparently this was pretty commonplace.  Well, at least in hers and Jason’s lives.  While it wasn’t a crazy fangirl, he at least still understood where she was coming from.  “I guess I’m lucky he only wanted an inside scoop, I guess.”

Jason shook his head.  “I almost had a fucking heart attack when I saw that message.  You don’t even understand.  I was walking and I stopped dead in my tracks and turned around and started running to my car.  That’s when I saw Will.”

Ah, yes.  William.  She wondered where he was right now.  She’d have to find him after this conversation.  “Yeah.  I was shaking so much that for some reason, his name was the first to pop up.”

Jason stayed silent, nodding his head.  She could tell he was biting his tongue, wanting to say something, deciding whether or not it was worth it.  “Listen…I know…I know I shouldn’t even be asking this, but there’s nothing going on between you and Willy, is there?”

Aberdeen held her breath.  She had to lie to Siena.  She had to lie to Kasha.  Now, she had to lie to Jason.  It would have been inevitable, but she wished she didn’t have to, mostly because she respected him so much and knew how much he cared about her.  “No.  I just…we’re close – kinda – and listen – his crush isn’t exactly a secret, but it’s not like I’m doing anything while I’m working here,” she said, stumbling over her words a bit.  “I would never jeopardize my job or my career like that.”

“Right.  I know.  Sorry,” Jason kept nodding, now a bit bashful that he even brought it up.  “I just…you let him know, you know—”

“Because we’re close,” she reiterated.  “We’re practically the same age.  And because he’s the only guy around my age on the team who has even just some of his shit together because of the way he grew up.  I mean, I didn’t call Auston or Kappy for a reason.”

“Yeah.  Yeah, of course,” he actually cracked a smile.  “I just—sorry, Aberdeen.  I didn’t mean to be—”

“It’s okay, Jason,” she wished he’d just dropped it, because the more he dragged it on, the more she had to lie to him, and the more it killed her.  

There was a moment of silence before Jason spoke again.  “Kappy would have probably taken you to an oyster bar,” he quipped.

Aberdeen snorted.  She began laughing one of those silent laughs as she shook her head.  “You’re probably right.”

***

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  Earlier today, a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs organization was followed from their residence to 50 Bay Street.  It is of the utmost importance that members of the Toronto Maple Leafs organization are allowed privacy in their personal lives and are not stalked, followed, and harassed on their way to employment.  Due to the unacceptable actions, we have terminated the media credentials and locker room access of the individual involved in the incident, and they will never be allowed back into our locker room.  We encourage those in the media to review the acceptable guidelines policy given at the beginning of each season.  Legal action has already been taken against the individual.  We will not be answering any further questions.

***

“She what?!” Zach Hyman was in disbelief at what William announced to the room.

“Who was it?” John asked.

“Are they pressing charges?” Tyson demanded.

“There’s already a peace bond – it’s like a restraining order,” Jason explained.  “He can’t get within, like, a kilometre of her or the arena without her pressing charges and him going to jail.”

The locker room was in disbelief at the news that Aberdeen had been stalked on her way to work that morning.  They knew the media could be crazy, they just didn’t know they could be that crazy.  To target a young female member of the office was unheard of.  Usually they were the ones being stalked, not the office staff.  “Is she okay?” Zach asked.  

“She’s doing fine.  She’s Aberdeen.  For what it’s worth I think she’s keeping it all in, just like last time, but that’s neither here nor there,” Jason said, alluding to the Ethan situation.  “It all happened so fast this morning.  That’s why nobody had to do media after practice today.  Brendan suspended it.”

William watched as Auston shook his head.  “That girl’s being put through the fucking ringer, dude.  First the Ethan thing, then that scar, now this?”

“I’m surprised she stays with us,” Tyson commented.

“I don’t.  She loves us,” Mitch spoke up.  “Just like we love her.  This is just…a series of unfortunate events.  Like that book series.”

“You read books?” Auston quipped.

Mitch punched him in the arm.  “So I get why she’d text Jason,” Mitch continued, looking at William.  “But why you?”

William shrugged.  “How would I know?  She was probably shaking and her hand slipped while typing.  Would you be calm in that situation?”

Jason had heard that before.

***

“You’re not scared?” William asked over the phone, sitting alone inside of his car, still in the parking lot after practice.  Everybody had left long ago, but not him.

“A little bit, but I’m not letting it take over my life.  I can’t let it take over my life,” Aberdeen replied, her voice calm.  She was probably talking to him from the employee washroom back on Bay Street.  “If I let the fear take over, I wouldn’t do anything.  I wouldn’t be able to do my job.”

“But this isn’t that type of fear.  This is someone stalked you on your way to work fear.  This is someone hit you with a glass because they hated your boyfriend fear.  This is—”

“—that was a freak accident—”

“—This is a different type of fear, minskatt.  I can’t stand seeing this happen to you.”

“Willy, I couldn’t stand to hear those guys in the bar chirping you, either,” she said.  “You have to trust me when I tell you that it freaked me out and scared me but there’s a peace order now and it’s been dealt with.  I’m not going to let it take over my life.  Remember what you told me?  I’m not what happened to me.”

William took a deep breath to stop himself from getting emotional.  His girlfriend was handling this much better than he was – that was very clear.  “I just love you so much,” he whispered.  Aberdeen could swear she heard his voice crack slightly.  “I don’t ever want to see anything bad happen to you.  It kills me because I can’t help you right then and there.  I can’t even touch you.  It’s hard.  We have to do this instead.  This is the hardest part of keeping this all a secret.”

“I know.  I know,” she agreed with him.  “But you have to trust me.  You trust me, right?”

“With my whole heart,” he responded.

“Then you need to trust that I’m okay.”

***

@reporterchris:  The member of the Leafs organization who was followed from their residence was a woman.  Shanahan, Dubas, & co. are taking this extremely seriously.  Rumours are the team is quite upset too.

@reporterchris: Organization is not naming names for obvious reasons.  But they do tell us the member is doing fine, was not hurt or injured, and continues to perform her full duties with the team.  Org is treating this as a one-off scary episode, but did not want to take chances.  

@reporterchris:  Team is a bit standoffish tonight, with good reason.  Though the culprit is not in the room, players coming out for media availability aren’t as forthcoming as usual.  

***

“Oh my god, there is literally no room to breathe in this thing,” Aberdeen said as she sucked in her stomach as Kasha zipped up her jumpsuit.  She looked at herself in the mirror and had to admit the jumpsuit looked phenomenal on her.  It was skin tight, hugging her body in all the right places and actually made it look like she had some semblance of cleavage, and showed off just the right amount of skin for a February night.  Her long hair cascaded down her back, her makeup was immaculate besides the patch near her scar where she couldn’t put any on, and her heels gave her that extra bit of confidence to pull off the look.  

“You’ll be able to get some alcohol in,” Kasha joked as she finished zipping.  “Or else bottle service was a bust.”

“Bottle service is never a bust,” Aberdeen said.  “I’m just gonna make sure the pre-drink is worth it too.”

Aberdeen had decided against telling Kasha tonight about the stalking earlier in the day.  It just wasn’t the right time, because she knew Kasha was incredibly excited for tonight, and because Aberdeen didn’t want to think about it either.  Much like the Ethan situation, she didn’t want it to creep up in her mind when she was supposed to be having a good time.  She’d tell Kasha tomorrow, when she was hungover.  She’d also tell her parents tomorrow, because if she told them tonight, they’d probably show up to the pre-drink and lock her in her room.

As their friends began arriving, the drinks started flowing.  People brought their own, and of course Kasha and Aberdeen had some booze in stock, and Kasha made sure to take pictures – “thirst trips, Aberdeen, thirst traps!!!!!” – before things started to get too hectic and too alcohol-fuelled.  Evan came, and Masani came, and Tom, and Christian and Gavin and Zach, and Delilah and Ariana and Sloane, and Jude surprised her by coming in from McMaster, and she was surrounded by so many friends and posing for so many group photos that her mind really didn’t think of what happened earlier, and she was happy, really happy, and wanted to have the best time.

They practically fell out of their Ubers and into the lineup outside Toybox, but Masani spoke with the bouncer and he let them all in and they made their way to their reserved table.  Kasha pulled her out onto the dance floor and Aberdeen began moving her body to the beat of the music.  She’d look over her shoulder every now and then, making sure nobody was him, but after the first few times, she came to the realization he wouldn’t be there, and she really let loose.  Kasha was telling everyone who would listen that it was Aberdeen’s birthday so they’d buy them drinks.  Aberdeen accepted them.  Most people asked about her scar.  She told them.  A few guys flirted with her.  She shot them down.  Many more stared at her in her jumpsuit, their eyes filling with lust.  

Then one pair caught her eye, because she could recognize those baby blues anywhere.  

He was across the dance floor, staying a safe distance away from her and her party, but he was still keeping a watchful eye.  Not possessive, not domineering, not jealous or envious or untrusting – just watching.  She wanted him around her; she wanted him behind her so she could grind on him; she wanted him in front of her so she could dance with him; she wanted him close to her so she could wrap her arms around him; but she couldn’t.  He was there and she was here, and that’s where they had to stay.  

Don’t even hav to drunkt text you tonigt when you’re alreadfy here she texted him, downing the last of her vodka soda.  She looked towards him to see him taking out his phone.  It was only then that she noticed Rasmus approaching him with a drink, Kappy too already sipping on his own.

just wanted to make sure everything was ok after what happened today

omg is that rasmus isn’t hew like 12 how didf the bouncer let him inm who did youi pay

u look so sexy

do you know this placve can we sneak away

don’t think that’s the best idea

why not

kasha kappy rasmus

Oh right.  Kasha.  They needed to keep this a secret from Kasha.  And Kappy.  And Rasmus.  Aberdeen’s drunk brain wasn’t thinking very straight right now.  Would Kasha notice if she snuck away for…however long?  Would Masani?  Would any one of her friends?  Were they already too drunk to notice, too drunk to care?

“Who are you texting?” Kasha asked.

“Nobody,” Aberdeen answered absent-mindedly.  She typed out her last text message before locking her phone.

i want your fingers inside of me

“Let’s go back to the booth,” Kasha whined as she grabbed Aberdeen’s hand.  “My feet huuuuurt.”

They made their way through the crowd and up the steps.  Aberdeen looked back to see William looking down at his phone, biting him bottom lip.  He locked his screen and put it in his pocket with an irritated look on his face.  She got him.

The rest of the night was fun.  William stayed away, which meant none of her friends interacted with him or Kappy or Rasmus – even Masani didn’t see him, which was good because if she did she most certainly would have bullied him into giving her Alex’s number since she’d been calling him “the best lay of my life thus far” since June.  She danced some more with her girlfriends, drank some more, got some more drinks bought for her, got asked about her scar some more, and took more pictures in the booth and on the dance floor.  The announcement for last call was the only reason they left, stumbling out of the club at 2am like good twenty-somethings having the time of their lives.  Aberdeen drunkenly hugged every one of her friends before they left in their taxis or Ubers, even placing a huge kiss on Jude’s cheek for coming in all the way from McMaster to join them.  She, Kasha, and Evan got into a taxi together, with Kasha even taking some last-minute pictures of her posing in the back of the taxi, even though Aberdeen thought she probably looked like a mess.  

When she got her phone back, she opened the front-facing camera and used her arms to push up her boobs, snapping a quick picture of her cleavage and herself biting her lip before quickly sending it off to Willy.  Kasha was too busy on her own phone to notice, and Evan was trying to make friends with the driver.  Almost immediately, she saw the three dots pop up.

the next time i see u alone, ur gonna pay for this

😇

 do you wankt sokme more

are u comfortable with that?

She posed again, doing much of the same, except this time she made it a video.  She pressed send.

fuuuuuuck ur so fucking sexy

im sry i do not have boobies

😂

u have beautiful boobs 

perfect for my mouth

Aberdeen smiled.  She held her breath.

i love yourf mouthj on my boobs i love your mouth onb my pussyt

i love my mouth on ur pussy too

where is rasmus is he in bed

FOCUS ABERDEEN

“ABERDEEEEEEEN!” Evan called out loudly, drunkenly.  It was only then that she realized that the taxi had stopped and that Evan and Kasha were already out of the taxi, waiting for her.  “Let’s goooo!”

Instead of just opened her door, she crawled across the backseat like a baby giraffe just finding its legs and got out that way.  She thanked the driver and told him it was her birthday before she closed the door.  Evan made sure they got into the elevator.

minskatt?

in elevator no shawarma this time when i gety backj into my room i willk send more pics

😍

do you like my butt

yes i do

i like my butt toop do you wankt pics of my butt

i want whatever u will give me

Evan also made sure they got into their apartment just fine.  Aberdeen immediately kicked off her heels and escaped to her room, closing the door.  The feel of her feet out of her strappy heels and on the laminate floor brought her so much joy.  She faced her full-length mirror and took one last picture, posing with her ass out before she sent the picture to William.

for you and only for you

fuck baby can’t believe how hot u look

let me take off my jumpsuit i have sexyt underwear onm

Aberdeen put her phone down and somehow, someway, got the zipper on her back down low enough that she could shimmy out of it.  The second the skin tight jumpsuit was off, she felt an even bigger sense of relief and comfort than she did when she took off her heels.  Every organ in her body felt like it was settling into their rightful place and not squeezed in by the jumpsuit.  It felt nice.  It felt so nice that she sat down on her bed.  And when she sat down on her bed, the comforter felt so soft against her skin.  Then she saw her pillows.  She fucking loved her pillows.  So she lay her head down on them.  Her eyes became heavy.  Her breath steadied.

that’s so hot baby do u wear them at work too Aberdeen? minskatt? hahahahahahaha goodnight minskatt

[crackedoutgiraffe]

To the Moon and Back

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15

A/N: Chapter 16

When you regained consciousness, you were greeted by Morgan who was standing over you. You could tell he was talking to you, but you couldn’t make out what he was saying. There was a ringing noise in your ear, it was nauseating. Morgan gestured for someone to come over to you. You looked around and saw panic. Everyone was running around. There were three SWAT agents that you could see, they too were laying on the ground. Hotch came over to help you too.The ringing was starting to go down, you could hear sirens and vaguely what Hotch was saying. 

“Where’s Emily?” you asked Hotch. 

He looked around for a second, “I think Morgan went to find her. Are you okay?”

“Yeah I’m fine,” you stood up. You looked around at the chaos and saw Rossi exiting the MCC. You hobbled over there, “What the hell happened?”

“They set off a bomb,” Rossi pointed out the obvious.

“But where did they go? They weren’t going to kill themselves,” you clarified.

“I’ll worry about that, you get your leg looked at,” he walked toward Hotch who was waiting for Morgan and Emily to come out. Your leg had been cut in the explosion, but you had so much adrenaline you couldn’t feel it.

You limped over to a paramedic who bandaged your leg. When he was done, you went to see if there was anything you could help with. Hotch and Strauss were briefing some cops on what they needed to do. Rossi was talking to reporters. You found Garcia, who was listening in on what Hotch and Strauss were saying. You went and stood next to her. After listening for a few minutes you went back to wandering around. A few moments later you saw an SUV pulling up to the scene, so you went over to see who it was. 

Spencer jumped out and rushed over to you, “Y/N, thank goodness you’re okay,” he pulled you into a hug. When he let go of you he noticed how dirty your vest was and the bandage around your leg. “How close were you to the blast?”

“Pretty close,” your leg still hurt, but it was enough to bother you. 

He looked around for a few seconds, “I have to go and talk to Hotch.”

“I’ll come with you,” you volunteered. He didn’t protest, but you knew he didn’t like you being in danger. You both walked to find your boss who was looking over maps on the hood of a police car. 

“Y/N, are you feeling better?” He pointed at the bandage on your leg.

“I am, thank you sir.”

“Alright, let’s get to work,” Hotch turned around and started rearranging the maps. “Morgan and JJ said that the blast created a hole between the underground vaults and these tunnels.”

“You know, most of these older banks are made of granite or limestone for longevity,” Reid pointed out.

“So she knew to use a combination of C-4 and semtex to open her escape route,” Hotch emphasized.

“The tunnels let out at multiple points running west. She could still be underground,” you added.

“I know. This is what she does. She probably waited till the last minute to exit. She wants to see all this chaos,” Hotch sighed.

“We need to find the tunnel exit closest to the bank,” Reid confirmed.

“Looks like it's two blocks here, just outside the perimeter,” Hotch pointed at the maps.

“Should we head over there?” you asked.

“No, JJ and Morgan are going to be there soon,” Hotch finished and walked back to the MCC. You and Reid followed him inside. Garcia and Kevin were working through the footage. Rossi and Strauss were talking in the corner, Hotch went over to join them. Prentiss came in right after the three of you. After a few minutes, Reid’s phone started to ring. He answered it and just said yes over and over again before hanging up. 

“That was JJ,” Reid out his phone back in his pocket. “she and Morgan said the unsubs were in an alley northwest of the perimeter. 

“Yeah, this footage confirms it. Ok, I can see two figures in the car. Please tell me one of them is Will,” Garcia pulled up footage of a black SUV. 

“See how she's turned. It's like she's keeping an eye on someone in the back,” Hotch pointed out.

“Does this mean Will's in the car?” Garcia asked.

“There's somebody back there,” Rossi sighed.

“What's the license plate?” Reid asked.

Garcia enhanced the image, “that's weird. They're government tags.” 

“Federal or district?” Reid probed.

“Federal,” Garcia added.

“Well, they're either stolen or forged,” Reid stood up straight. 

“Who the hell are these people?” Garcia sighed.

“They set up roadblocks in the district from 66 to Dulles,” Strauss added.

“Wait. So we're looking for a black SUV with its sirens on. That's gonna stand out,” Kevin joked.

“Will's with them. I found his wallet,” JJ said as she and Morgan entered the MCC.

“It benefits them to keep Will alive,” Hotch did his best to comfort her.

“They must have a safe house set up,” Morgan added.

“Whoever their outside man is, that's where they're heading now. But where?” you asked.

“What's their end game?” JJ added.

“There's no logical reason. They want to create panic,” Rossi reasoned.

“She's struck all over the world, which says she might not be American, but her ideology certainly speaks to Washington. Whatever point she and her partner are making, it's important that D. C.'s the setting,” Reid explained.

“The brothers were from Philadelphia. The other partner might be homegrown as well,” Prentiss noted.

“Homeland's sending over a list of possibilities,” Strauss tried to be helpful.

“They're not on anyone's list,” Hotch sighed.

“Then how do we find them?” Strauss snapped.

“We find the common denominators between all 14 robberies and we go from there,” Hotch explained 

“So she's our only answer,” you pointed at the woman on the screen.

“For now,” Hotch was getting angrier.

“I'll call Easter at Interpol again. Now that there's been an explosion, he might have some ideas,” Prentiss left the MCC.

“I have to call the director,” Strauss followed her out.

Morgan’s phone started to ring, “Yeah, ok, thank you.” He hung up. “That was the lab. Semtex and C-4 like we thought. Red, blue, yellow wires in each, and an old phone as a detonator.”

“How old is the phone?” you asked. 

“10 years,” Morgan sighed.

“That's specific and rare,” Reid added.

“Ridiculously,” Morgan laughed. 

“Well, has anyone seen it before?” Hotch asked.

“It was last seen in a number of bombings in Chad,” Morgan continued.

“For a signature that specific, they must have been there to learn it,” you added.

Prentiss reentered the MCC, “Did Easter have any insight?” Hotch asked. 

“A woman they called Lady X stole a sedan from Scotland Yard 8 years ago. The investigation concluded she was a trained assassin. She disappeared,” she explained.

“So Lady X and Queen of Diamonds is the same person?” Rossi questioned.

“It sounds like it,” Prentiss continued.

“Garcia, look at assassination attempts around the civil unrest in Chad,” Hotch ordered.

“If she was a hired gun, she was likely taking orders from someone,” Reid pointed out

“Maybe she's still working for the same guy now and he's still pulling the strings,” you continued.

“Or maybe she's found her equal,” Hotch proposed.

“Their obsession with killing and domination has culminated in what we've seen today,” Prentiss noted.

“Getting off on the disaster they've created. Classic symphorophiliacs,” Reid mentioned.

“Then this isn't over,” Hotch sighed.

“Far from it,” Rossi concurred.

“No. Now that they've gotten away with this, where are they gonna strike next?” Hotch asked.

A cop entered the MCC, “We have reports of an EMT being shot, cameras show your people.”

“Rossi, JJ, you two go check it out,” Hotch instructed. The pair left swiftly. “Prentiss, Morgan, and Reid, look back at what we know and see if you can figure out where the next attack is going to be,” they all nodded and got ready to leave. “Y/N stay here and help Garcia and Kevin.” Hotch made a quick exit after that.

“Kevin, what have you got?” you got off of the counter you were sitting on.

“Just going through…” Kevin replied, his eyes never leaving the screen.

“They did that on purpose, right? I mean, we saw everything until they had Will,” Garcia frantically went through the hours of footage.

“Well, they made a mistake,” you noted. “Leaving the cameras on gave us much more information than they realized. What time did the 911 text come in?”  

“9:23” Kevin said as he scrambled back to the beginning of the footage.

“The bank opened at 9:00. Let's go back to the beginning. I need you both on this,” you felt useless, all Hotch wanted you to do was sit here and watch Garcia and Kevin.

“Y/N, I think I’ve got something. The explosion was a distraction so they could escape. Watch. Allow me to fast-forward. All right, here's where Chris started shooting hostages. The fella next to him didn't even flinch. Doesn't even break a sweat,” Kevin pointed at the gruesome footage on his screen.

“We know he's ex-military, but still... His name is Matthew Downs. That's what he told Rossi and he wasn't lying. History shows dishonorable discharge from USMC in '04,” Garcia info-dumped his history.

“Ok, do me a favor. Keep going. To where Will walks in. Ok, now watch him. And then... Look at her. Her partner was in there the whole time, just not in the way that we thought. They shot this whole thing like a home movie,” you pointed out all of the little things in their body language.

“He could have been killed,” Garcia addressed.

“No, she wouldn't let that happen,” you corrected.

“What the hell are they doing?” Kevin asked.

“It's all part of their plan. They've created scenarios that are practically impossible to survive. When they make it, it's the ultimate high. Like an adrenaline junkie,” you explained. “Let me call Hotch,” you grabbed your phone and dialed your boss’s number. “Hey Hotch. We’re looking for one of the hostages, Matthew Downs.”

“Let me ask around really quick,” you could hear indistinct chatter on the other side. “Nobody can find Matthew Downs. ERT said that he helped them, then he disappeared.”

“That’s her partner,” you got excited that you could be helpful.

“Thank you, Y/N. Prentiss, Morgan, and Reid are walking the bank again, why don’t you help them out?” He hung up. You quickly left the MCC and made your way to the, now destroyed, bank entrance. 

You worked your way over the rumble and closer to Spencer. “So why didn't they take all the money?” Spencer asked.

“They were a man down and they had to get out in a hurry,” you answered.

“But for her, today was less about the money and more about the spectacle,” Prentiss corrected.

“Everything they've said and done was for a reason,” Morgan noted. “But what doesn't make any sense is she switched the negotiation demand. Chris wanted to go to Switzerland. She changed it to Chad.”

“They also requested a private plane, but no mention of a pilot,” you remembered. Reid held out his hand and helped you over a large pile of rubble.

“Guys, if you think about it, even the dates mean something. In 2004, while she was wreaking havoc abroad, he was dishonorably discharged. Then in 2008, they likely met in Chad. And now this in 2012,” Spence pointed out.

“Ok, so is it a coincidence that those are all election years and they attacked D. C.? Maybe this is a political statement,” Morgan asked.

“No. It's more personal than that. It's their story,” Prentiss looked like a light bulb went off in her head. 

“What?” Morgan was still confused

“All of the details are a part of their story,” Prentiss explained. “We need to talk to Garcia.” 

Everyone scrambled out of the building and to the MCC to find out what idea Pentiss had. When you got there, Strauss and Hotch were already looking over Kevin’s and Garcia’s shoulder. “Their timeline suggests they were both destructive before they met.”

“So we're talking about ex-military turning on their country,” Strauss clarified.

“It's rare, but soldiers become disenfranchised no matter what the nationality. And if he met someone like-minded at that time, there'd be no stopping them,” Emily deduced. 

“So you're thinking they met during the civil unrest in Chad in '08,” Hotch connected the dots.

“Yeah, and one or both of them are pilots,” Reid added.

“So if Garcia concentrates on that region, specifically weapons running in and out of Libya, there's a good chance we'll find their paths crossed,” Prentiss continued.

“Ok, multiple entries into Libya for a private pilot named Matthew Downs in '08, but I don't have her name,” Garcia deciphered the information popping up on the screen.

“Well, because she had aliases. It's the only way to stay a ghost. Here's the thing-- they are a couple. Regardless of what we believe of them, they will celebrate themselves and their connection. Is there anything that happened on this date in Chad?” Prentiss explained.

“Oh, you are good, Emily Prentiss. But this news is not. Yes, there were multiple explosions on this date in '08,” Garcia found. 

“Where were the most casualties?” Hotch asked.

“At a church-- no, no, a train,” Garcia quickly discovered.

“Semtex and C-4?” Morgan asked

“Yep,” Garcia finished.

“Are trains still arriving at Union Station?” Hotch asked Strauss.

“Yes, but only the authorities are allowed in,” Strauss explained.

“That's why they needed Will,” Hotch noted. “Prentiss, Morgan, you’re with me.” The three of them left the MCC, followed by Strauss.

“So what’s up with you two?” you asked Garcia and Kevin.

“What do you mean?” Kevin inquired.

“Yeah, what happened between you two?” Spence joined you in your interrogation.

Garcia turned around and rolled her eyes at the two of you, “Why do you want to know so bad?”

“Because you two were a cute couple,” you explained. 

“I was planning on proposing to her, but she said that she wasn’t ready to get married,” Kevin confessed.

“That’s it?” you scoffed. “You two broke up because you didn’t want to get married and he did?”

“What’s so hard to believe about that?” Garcia asked.

“It’s just so stupid,” you laughed. “Garcia, you may not want to get married now, but you will eventually. And Kevin, just wait. You are not losing anything by waiting,” they turned to look at each other. “It’s obvious that you two still love each other,” you shrugged your shoulders at how oblivious they were.

“Let’s talk later,” Garcia placed her hand on Kevin’s knee. “Now for our turn to interrogate.”

“Garcia, I’m not hiding anything,” you kept your body language so calm that even Reid didn’t know you were lying.

She scoffed and turned to face Spencer who was a lot more nervous than you, “Dr. Reid, is there anything you would like to say.”

“No,” He tried his best to lie to her.

“How long have you two been dating?” She bluntly asked.

Reid looked at you for your approval, you nodded, “four months,” he blurted out.

“FOUR MONTHS!” Garcia jumped out of her chair, “You kept this from me for four months?” All you could do was laugh at her surprise. Reid reached over and grabbed your hand.

“Did we hide it that well?” Reid asked.

“I mean,” she finally calmed down, “we all knew something was up, but we didn’t know that.”

“I’d say we did a pretty good job,” you gave Spence a high-five.

“Does anyone else know?” She asked.

“I don’t think so,” you giggled. Garcia made you talk about your relationship until Hotch and the team got back. “How did it go?” you asked Hotch when he walked in.

“Good. We got Downs, Prentiss defused a bomb, and JJ, Will, and Henry are all safe,” he was really sweaty. “Will has to go to the hospital so JJ and Rossi are going with him, but we’re good to head back to Quantico.” Everyone grabbed their stuff and piled into the SUVs. When you arrived at Quantico everyone got settled into their desks. 

“The convention's still happening tomorrow if you want to go,” Reid stopped Garcia as she walked past her desk.

“That whole city on the brink of destruction thing kind of took the wind out of my sails, you know?” She shrugged.

“That'll do it every time,” Prentiss quipped.

“We didn't finish the inspection,” Morgan pointed out.

“No need,” Prentiss sighed

“What happened?” Reid asked.

“Um, there is a horizontal crack in the foundation. It just weakens the entire base that the house is sitting on,” she explained.

“Yeah. That does not sound good,” you acknowledged.

“So, our unsub is Izzy Rogers,” Strauss came and handed Morgan a file. “She'll be charged with multiple counts domestically, and our international counterparts will have their turn with her. She will never see the light of day. I just thought you'd like to know that. Agent Morgan, a word?” She and Morgan walked far enough away that you couldn’t hear what she was saying, she seemed to be smiling though.

“Hang on, let me check,” Hotch came out of his office, on the phone. “Oh, wait, she's here. Erin, don't go anywhere. Dave wants to know if everyone is free tomorrow night?”

“Well, it depends on if he's buying. Then I'm definitely in,” Morgan chuckled.

“Yeah, me, too,” you raised your hand.

“You hear that? We're in,” Hotch turned back to his office.

***

You spent the night at Reid’s, it was the first time you two had slept in the same bed. You went back to your apartment at around 5 to get ready for Rossi’s. He had told you to dress pretty fancy. You put on a red dress (Sherri Hill # 53097), curled your hair, and did your makeup. You went to pick Reid up at 7. The party was absolutely beautiful. When you got there, everyone was mingling and drinking. JJ and Will showed up with their son. She was none the wiser that she was actually at her wedding. Rossi had pulled out all the stops, he had caterers, lights, and a dance floor. You stood by and watched Reid show Henry a magic trick. He was so cute when he was playing with kids. You thought he was going to be a great father one day.

At around 8, Rossi asked for everyone to gather around the aisle. Will was standing at the altar with Henry by his side. JJ glided down the aisle with her mom. She looked beautiful. When she reached Will, Reid grabbed your hand and you put your head on his shoulder. After the ceremony, everyone sat at a table and Rossi gave a toast. You all ate dinner and were ready to party. The first song to play was ‘Try to Remember’ by the Brothers Four. Everyone slow-danced with their date, including you and Reid. While you were dancing, You put your head on his chest. He kissed the top of your head, “I love you,” he whispered. This was the first time he said that to you.

You lifted your head off of his chest,“I love you too,” he pulled you in for a kiss. You could feel eyes on you from every direction. When you were done, there were hoots and cheers from everyone there. 

“It’s about time, pretty boy,” Morgan came and pat Reid on the back.

“It’s been four months,” Redi exclaimed. Everyone looked at you with the same shock that Garcia had the day before.

“Great, now I owe Garcia $20,” Morgan scoffed. Rossi played some more upbeat music and you took turns dancing with all the guys and the three ladies on your team. Everyone had so much fun and it wasn’t hard to see why. Everyone shared plenty of laughs. Reid drove you home that night, as you had been drinking. You went to bed that night knowing that you and Reid loved each other. You were going to marry him, you had your heart set on it.

[ksuew]

The Rookie 2x11 Day of Death

Here is a crazy, sleep-deprived stream of conscious recap of the episode with a few predictions.

Opening scene, Lucy regains consciousness on a table, Caleb is giving her a DOD tatoo. I was so hoping this wouldn’t happen, but it does give the opportunity for a good healing story line and an awesome cover tatoo.

Next, Jackson goes to bring Lucy coffee and she isn’t home.

Lopez and Wesley are talking after she’s found him nearly dead because he’s mixed booze and pills.

There is a news brief from Rosalind

“5 years ago Detective nick armstrong looked into my eyes and Fulfilled his darkest fantasy and arrested me for Playing at slaughter” weird wording. I think Armstrong must have slept with Rosalind...

Nolan and Jackson are discussing the missing Lucy. Thankfully, Harper immediately sounds the alarm. When asked if Lucy just went home with the guy, Nolan says, “Lucy doesn’t do one night stands”. I could tell what Jackson said.

Next we see Lucy taped to a chair.

She’s trying to get into Caleb’s head, but it isn’t really getting her free yet.

Harper and Nolan visit his last victim but get no usable info other than timeline. It would be nice if she and Lucy meet up at some point. They could be a good support for one another.

They talk to Grace about How long it would take to suffocate in a barrel.

Surveillance footage

As soon as they say she’s been taken they cut to Tim. He immediately calls Lopez. She’s on her way. Love that friendship.

Harper knows Lucy is a fighter

Lucy proves that when she gets free, hits Caleb and runs for it. Wish She had beaten him until she saw brain matter, but I get the instinct to run.

I really hated watching Caleb kick her. That was hard to watch.

Armstrong’s pissed, I get it. I think it was right to send Nolan to talk to Rosalind (and he is the star of the show, so he has to play a big part).

Poor Tim, he talks with Lopez. He blames himself for pushing Lucy to go out . He was nearly in tears. “She hesitated and I pushed her right at him.”

Nolan visits Rosalind. I still don’t trust the prison guy, Hernandez, i think he’s in on things. May come up in later episodes. Nolan doesn’t get much, but tries the contraband angle.

Love that Wesley gets to help by finding the contraband smuggler.

Now it’s Lucy being marched to the burial site. He makes her climb into the barrel, has it wired to record. The ring!! Lucy you beautiful genius! She throws her ring onto the ground as she climbs into the barrel. I loved her parting quote, “you’re gonna be dead long before i am”. Gotta say, I’d have ripped those camera wires apart out of spite. No way I would have let him have the satisfaction of watching me die.

The next scene was one of my favorites. Tim and Jackson pull over the smuggler. Tim goes all the fuck out from second one. Jackson looks kinda scared. One of my favorite linesof the whole episode: “I am responsible for a life that is in jeopardy and I will do whatever I have to to save her, do you understand?” The guy doesn’t want to give the info, Tim’s reply, “Because if you don’t I will pull you inside out”. Swoon

Tim takes down the guy he thinks is Caleb and demands “Where’s Lucy?” But it’s not Caleb. Poor guy’s disabled and gets tackled because Caleb stole his identity. So back to Nolan and Rosalind. He really doesn’t get anywhere, honestly, other than finding out she’s after Armstrong

Armstrong is a dummy and lets Caleb take him. Caleb was never gonna help or let her go. Sweet that he would sacrifice his life for hers. Lots of guilt there.

Lopez and sergeant grey find the photo of Lucy and presumably her phone. BUT WE DON’T GET TO SEE HER TIM LOCK SCREEN which had me seriously pouting.

Lucy’s in the barrel. This is so hard to watch. Cut to Tim looking devastated because he thinks they’re out of options but It’s Jackson and Tim who realize credit card statements could lead to Caleb. Then Wesley for the win, figuring out that Caleb will probably take Lucy to a place connected to Rosalind.

So Caleb and Armstrong get to the farmhouse. Caleb is jealous of Armstrong, “there’s so much you don’t know about her. I know everything “. He also told Lucy earlier that he didn’t understand Rosalind’s obsession with Armstrong. Again, I’m Pretty sure they had an affair before he realized she was the killer.

Okay, finally Tim and Lopez use the data Wesley has gathered and find the address.

Now the scene of Lucy singing dream a little dream of me. All we hear is her as everyone rushes to find her. We see Nolan and Harper get re-routed toward the farmhouse and Tim, Jackson, Lopez, and Sergeant Grey getting in a helicopter, but all we hear is her singing until her voice trails off and she presumably passes out from lack of oxygen. I can no longer sit at this point.

Nolan and Harper get there first and Harper shoots Caleb. They try to keep him alive even calling Grace to help, but he was never going to tell them anything anyway. He dies.

Loads of people finally start to show up. Nolan shows Lopez the live stream of Lucy in the barrel. Tim doesn’t really look. Honestly he looks so upset and worried that he might throw up. They decide to just start searching and hope for the best.

Tim pulls it together and starts to search with Jackson, but tells Jackson to go left so they can cover more ground.

Everybody is searching. At this point I’m nearly screaming at the TV, “Come on Tim!!”. (And I’m pacing and getting really close to the tv) My dog gets so spooked she starts barking 😂. I NEED for Tim to be the one to find her. The scene keeps cutting to all the people looking for her...

And then, it all comes together..

He sees the ring catching the sun. Lucy has saved herself that badass queen. He starts digging with his bare hands and calling for help “I’ve got her!”. I am literally dying. PS. Lucy doesn’t wear that ring to work, so he’s noticed it from other occasions. I would so love if that ring comes into play in the future...

So, he’s digging, everyone joins in with hands and shovels.

Tim is the one to open the barrel.

Tim is the first one to touch her and asks for help getting her out (I think this is the first time we’ve ever seen him touch her)

Tim is the one to check if she’s breathing

Tim is the one to give her mouth to mouth and start compressions

Thankfully they don’t leave us in suspense for too long before she starts to breathe again. As soon as she realizes she is out of the barrel and alive, she starts to sob

Tim is the one to gather her in his arms and rock her and tell her it’s okay.

God, I was a mess! They could have let that scene go on for just a touch longer, but I won’t complain. It was so touching. I love how everyone deferred to Tim. No one tried to take over or move in. They all knew it needed to be him.

Cut to the hospital. Lucy is waking up and Tim is by her side reading a ridiculous teen magazine. Tim looks a little embarrassed/unsure (will she want me here? Is she mad at me?). Lucy starts with some playful banter and Tim makes her laugh right away. He looks a little unsure again. Lucy asks him if he’s been there all night. Embarrassed puppy denies it 3 times, which of course tells us he has, but doesn’t want her to know. Her little “um hm” tells me she knows he’s lying.

Grace comes in, says Lucy will be in the hospital for one more day. Mentions that Rachel just came by and will be back later 🙄🙄. Sorry, but can we be done with Rachel now?

Lucy looks to Tim and asks, “How did you find me?”. Just when I think he’ll get to mention the ring, Nolan comes in to claim credit and says it was his policing skills. (I’ll give it to you, Nathan, this show wouldn’t exist without you, so we gotta stroke your ego a bit 😂)

He gives her a big teddy bear, then Jackson comes in with flowers. It’s very cute and sweet. Lucy says the bear will stay in her bed because she’s never going on another date again. Grace tries to object but all 3 guys are fine with that scenario. As am I. The only dates she needs to go on are with Tim after she’s no longer a rookie for at least 6 months. Then he can evict the pink bear.

Tim totally sets up his own gift to her by asking Lucy if she’s hungry. She says yes, and as she’s about to say what she’d really like to eat, he’s pulling out a bag with her favorite veggie burger, extra pickles and French fries (as a romantic song plays in the background. I can’t find it yet, but the lyrics were “I’ll come and find you, come rain, come shine) Who won the gift name now, suckers? Better than a bear or flowers any day 😉.

She says, “you know me so well”, he smirks, goes full heart eyes, and says, “Too well”.

And that’s some endgame set-up awesomeness right there!

I would have been fine if the episode had ended there, but there was a bit more.

Wesley has gotten some perspective because of Lucy’s ordeal and is ready to go back to work. I think there are more setbacks to come for him, but it is a good first step.

Cut to Armstrong and Sergeant Grey. He invites Armstrong to his house to watch a game. He hopes Armstrong can cast out his demons and move on... foreshadowing!

Nolan goes back to speak with Rosalind to tell her she (and Caleb) failed and now all she has is her cell. She tries to barter a secret about Armstrong. I’m sure that will come back to haunt us. Like I said before, I’m pretty sure Armstrong slept with her at some point, but there is something else. Season finale kinda something else.

Overall, this was such an excellent episode of television. It literally had me out of my seat on several occasions. I feel like Tim knows he’s got serious feelings for Lucy but will try his hardest to suppress them because she is his rookie, and a fellow cop, and he feels like her abduction was his fault. I think that will become a bigger and bigger issue as the rest of this season progresses.

I think (and hope) that Lucy working with Harper will be a one-episode thing, but they will probably pull pretty far back on The Lucy and Tim relationship for a few episodes. The scenario was very similar to A Bones episode from season 2. Brennan was buried alive, Booth moved heaven and earth to find her, she did something brilliant that caught his eye when it seemed like finding her would be impossible. He dug her out and held her, but it was still a good 4 more seasons or more before they got together. I hope we won’t have to wait THAT long, but I don’t think they’ll be together by the end of this season. I do think that this episode is signaling that the show runners are definitely going to put Tim and Lucy together eventually, which makes me very happy.

For now, I just hope they’re back as partners in the same shop soon. I need to see them together because they’re the best part of the whole show. I want them to allow Lucy to process her trauma. I want a conversation between Lucy and Tim about it not being his fault. I would hope Tim would end things with Rachel. I want the ring to come back into play at some point. First because i want Lucy to know that what she did was a big part of what saved her, and I want a pining Tim to hang onto it like a talisman.

[reflectionsforalostsoul]

One

I don’t know what to say. What do you say when you feel like the world is ending? There are a million ways that life feels over. The pandemic. Climate change. Pollution. Lack of resources. Misinformation. Lack of values. Lack of morals. The list could stretch on. 

I am not a scientist. I am just someone who started their existential crisis a few years ago, who now suspects that many others are caught up in their own crisis as well. How did I get there? That isn’t something I am ready to talk about, but I can tell you that I think it started for me the way it would start for most people. I lost my faith in humanity. 

I had always been an optimist. Someone who always had hope for the future. I saw the good in people, but then again, don’t we all at some point? Yet life experience slowly erodes that youthful naivety that some of us are naturally imbibed with, and perhaps it was only a matter of time before that slipped away. It was like I had been stumbling around for years in some kind of haze that I can only liken to drug induced euphoria. And then they pulled out the rug and I was on my ass sober. 

My perception grew sharper, and I tried to tune things out the way I had before but found myself unable to. I was noticing the people around me in ways I never had before. 

Social media made me sick as I scrolled through my feed. Everyone carefully wording the things they shared to cast them in a positive light. The desperation for attention… Sharing countless memes to let the world know, Yeah, I’m funny. I’m a catch. You should know this. Everyone needs to make it known that they say what’s on their mind, consequences be damned. I mean, maybe they are blocking dear old Grandma from their stories, but everyone else is going to know exactly why you have a problem. 

Maybe I am explaining it wrong. Let me just tell you exactly what I think.

People complain about the pandemic’s effect on mental health. Everyone feels cut off. Disconnected. But I’ve been feeling that way all along. I think people have been unaware of the great disconnection we are all experiencing and are just now realizing when confronted with social distancing alone we are all feeling. 

Maybe it is just me. Maybe it is just my age. My Mother told me one day I would have a family and disappear into it. She said when you have kids that slowly life becomes more about them than anything else, and friendships fall by the wayside. This was told to me when I asked her why her friends didn’t visit anymore. I didn’t believe her. I was just a child and there was nothing more important to me than my friendships. The thought that my best friends wouldn’t always be a part of my life was ludicrous.  I vowed to prove her wrong. That would not be my life. 

My Mother had a funny way of doing that. I always knew she was an intelligent woman, but there were so many pearls like this that she shared with me throughout my childhood that would make me react in disbelief. So many times she was right, and now it’s too late to say it to her… But let me digress.

That’s not my life, you might say. My friends still come around. They still call. We have a great relationship! I am happy for you then. But I am not talking to you. I am talking to those people who are curating their online profiles with a fine tooth comb in an attempt to get recognition. Bad self esteem is easier to handle when you get positive reacts to a selfie. Anxieties about parenthood are easier to handle when you share an inspirational quote about how you need your children more than they need you. Your marriage isn’t so toxic when people are fawning over pictures of your special anniversary dinner together and saying things like, “You guys are so lucky,” or, “Look how happy they are!” Maybe things aren’t as bad as you think they are. Everyone else sees how happy you two are together. As a matter of fact, people constantly say how happy your entire family looks. Maybe you are focusing on the negative too much. You’ve gotta work on that. You have to be less negative. So, you share some more inspirational bullshit to your friends and family online. You take lots of selfies and caption them that you are loving your life or that you are #blessed. 

It makes you feel a bit better. The tightness in your chest lessens a bit when your friends and family hit that like button. They wish they had your life. You are lucky. You are grateful. 

I feel bad for the children though.

They will never experience what life was like before. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Every old person says this. Things were better in my day. It is almost a cliche. Unfortunately most people tend to view the past through a nostalgia filter. My Mom didn’t do that. She constantly told my siblings and I how lucky we were to be around for such a wonderful period of human history. She marveled at video games and happily played them with us. She was jealous of us getting to experience what she called the Golden Era of Disney. She made sure we appreciated the time we were alive in. I am aware of my children’s luckiness too. They have a world of information at their fingertips. Pictures and videos can happen at the touch of a phone screen ready to preserve all those precious memories. That’s nice. It really is. I would have died for a video camera in my childhood. Plus, they are living through meme culture. Such hilarity. So many funny vloggers. So many silly trends… What a time to be alive!

My kids do not ride the school bus though. They are considered car riders. The week they are with me I drop them off at school and the week they spend with their Dad his Mother drops them off. My kids get sad about this sometimes. The thought of riding the bus with their friends seemed like an adventure. They had heard funny stories from friends and even from their family. They wanted to experience it. So, I made it happen. 

Those young bright eyes were wide with excitement as they waited for the school bus. They had had to get up way earlier that morning since a bus route takes much longer than me driving them directly, but they didn’t mind. They were hopeful. Their morning held so many possibilities. Their joy at the novelty of it all made my chest swell with happiness. It lessened my nervousness about it. Yes, bus rides could be fun, but there is always potential for harassment or bullying. That morning I pushed my anxiety aside and focused on the moment, tried to live in it with them. We laughed as we said goodbye that morning. I could feel the excitement. For a moment I was transported back to my own childhood and that flood of adrenaline on the first day of school. I couldn’t wait for them to come home and tell me all about it. 

That afternoon I picked them up from school. There wasn’t enough time for them to ride in the afternoon, not with homework and dinner prep. So, I waited in the car rider line at the school drumming my fingers on the steering wheel in anticipation. I kind of expected happy little hops towards my car when they came out the door, but when I saw them it was a bit more reserved. They looked sleepy and ready to put their long day behind them. I was kind of surprised, but it happens like that sometimes. School can be exhausting. 

Immediately they relaxed when getting in the car, sinking down with exhaustion. I turned on the music and we drove. They said they were tired from getting up so early. I had forgotten about that. So, I asked the question I had been waiting all day to ask, “Well?”

They both gave me a shrug. I was confused. I expected to hear stories of them chatting with friends. Not the disinterested attitude they were displaying. It took the whole ride home to figure it out. Apparently they didn’t do much talking with their friends because everyone has a cell phone nowadays and there were sixty little faces glued to their phone screens the entire time. My children were feeling disappointment but also jealousy. They wanted phones too and didn’t understand why they weren’t allowed to have one yet. This wasn’t how I had expected the day to go. I sensed opportunity in that moment. Those pearls of wisdom my Mother gave me in my childhood? I was determined to do the same. Our car rides were where we had our most serious conversations because there are no distractions to the kids. It is one of the only times I have their undivided attention, so I spoke. 

“Babies? I am really sorry for how the bus ride turned out. It wasn’t what you were expecting, and I know that you’re feeling frustrated, but this just shows why you don’t need a phone yet. You’ve just seen it yourselves.” My son looked angry at my words. He has been asking for a phone for several years and I sometimes wonder if he feels embarrassment at not having one like all of his other friends. I continued before I could be interrupted and lose my train of thought. 

“My childhood has lots of happy memories. When I am sad sometimes I think back to other happy times in my life and it helps me to get through the day. I have so many memories with friends and family that I treasure-”

“But if I had a phone I could record those memories,” my daughter interrupted angrily from the back seat. 

“You are missing my point, let me finish,” I admonished her. “Lots of people are missing out on good times and fun because of their phones. You all don’t see it that way but it’s the truth. People get addicted to their phones, and not just children. Adults are addicted too. They miss out on everything happening around them. When I go to visit Grandma I always feel frustrated because she isn’t paying any attention to me, her face is buried in her phone. Apps that you would use are MADE to be addictive. There are studies about this. You get a rush of dopamine, your happiness chemical, when you get things like reacts from your friends. People are becoming so dependent on it that they are creating any true happiness in their lives. They are slaves to their phones. It isn’t just social media, phone games are made the same way. They pay people big bucks to manufacture games in a way that leaves you coming back for more, over and over. It is how they make money. People pay to speed up the reward systems in these games, and it is like being manipulated.”

“I wouldn’t get addicted,” my son muttered angrily beside me. 

“That’s what everyone thinks, but it happens slowly. You know how we do family dinner? Do you ever see me on my phone?”

“No,” they replied in unison. 

“Exactly. I think it is the pinnacle of rude behavior to sit down to dinner and ignore everyone around you because you are playing on your phone. That isn’t how you create good memories. When you have a bad time you think back on the good times, right?”

“Yeah,” replied my son.

“And those good times involve your friends and family, right?”

“Yeah.”

“When you are going through something hard you are going to look back on times where you felt joy, or when you shared laughs with your friends over something funny that happened. You will never think back to hours spent on a video game, especially a phone game.”

“But I have had fun playing online with my friends! You’re wrong,” my son quickly pointed out. 

“Yes, I can see some good memories happening in those instances, but for the most part you are playing alone. Those good times are few and far between. You might have had a laugh over something happening on the game, but how long will you hold that memory dear?”

What I should have said before we arrived home, and maybe it didn’t occur to me to say at the time, I love looking back on experiences with people where we had deep conversations. Where we were discussing important things. Where our young minds were filled with the wonder of infinite possibilities. Do I hear my children having conversations like that? I do not. There is hardly any depth. Before you say that this is me being old and being disconnected from the youth, let me say that I am not the only one who had deep conversations with their friends in childhood. You cannot say that you never pondered the meaning of life and what your role in it was. 

Are children not having as many of these conversations because we are not teaching them that skill? Or are they more guarded because there are so many more ways to experience bullying these days? Do they feel unsafe to open up? I know that I am making mistakes as a parent myself. My son told me that he wanted to be a famous youtuber one day, and I couldn’t stop myself from showing that I was unimpressed with his aspiration. I asked my son why he no longer wanted to be a writer and said matter of factly that it was a terrible idea. I shut a door between us before it had even fully opened. I didn’t mean to, and have apologized, but I know that I will never get it back. How can he open up to me when I disregarded something so important to him? I didn’t mean to do it, and I regret it. 

It wasn’t just the job itself though, it was my motherly instincts. 

My children have not had to deal with online abuse yet. They have never been bullied in that way. They simply cannot fathom how nasty people can be when cloaked in anonymity. How many online influencers have killed themselves in the past year? Several that I have read about. 

Eventually my son did ask why I had a problem with it, and I finally got to explain a little. I mentioned the nastiness of online comments, the suicides, and the depression that these people struggle with. My son assured me that he could just ignore nasty comments. I’m not so sure. 

My son is definitely funny. He talks to himself while playing video games frequently and I can hear him from the other room. I am constantly chuckling at his antics and sound effects. Do I think people could appreciate his videos? Definitely. I love his commentary. Do I think people will be jerks to him anyway? Yep. That’s what people do. It is their outlet for their hate and rage in life. People take it out on others online, because when you act like a jerk online there are rarely any lasting consequences. Maybe a temporary ban or mute, but then these online bullies very often have multiple accounts so that they can continue their bad behavior unimpeded. 

I try to reflect on my motives often. I find myself wondering about others motives all of the time, so I try to scrutinize myself in the same way. Because another big problem that I notice in life is that people are not searching for introspection and very often do not understand their own motivations. People lie to themselves constantly, and if there is one thing I am sure of it is this, if you cannot trust yourself, how can you trust anybody?

Am I being a terrible parent at this moment? I definitely feel I screwed up in my response to his aspiration that he shared with me. Is this me being overprotective and stopping him from pursuing his passions? How much damage have I done by my initial response? I want my child to feel he can talk to me, and I just made a common parent blunder. Every generation of children feels that parents just don’t understand. I want to do better. 

Fame is fleeting and leaves you under the microscope of public scrutiny. I would never want that for myself, and cannot imagine my son dealing with those pressures. Way too much importance is placed upon external validation. Yes, it’s nice to have but I think it is much better to validate yourself. Don’t get me wrong, my Mother validated me constantly. She made me feel so intelligent, so witty, and so wise. I think she was the greatest for this, but it is necessary to validate one’s self as well. When you are dependent entirely on other people’s praise and all of your self worth comes from the attention of others you are destroying your own resilience. Sure, people preach self love constantly these days, but I don’t see it working too well in most cases. People are bashed for being prideful, or maybe they were prideful about the wrong things. Why are you so focused on loving yourself at any weight? Don’t you know that skinny shaming is a thing? Don’t you know that your outside is irrelevant? What matters is on the inside! Insert eyeroll. These aren’t my thoughts, but just an example. Everyone has an opinion and the internet gives them a place to share it. There will always be someone who is critical of your view. Preach self love all you want, but it is still so hard to come by. 

Have I helped equip my children with resilience or self love? They seem to struggle with it. Have I praised them enough? Do I feel that they are mentally strong? Not as strong as I would like, but I fear the ways they could attain mental strength. I have experienced a lot of rough times in my life. I have overcome adversity. I have been at the bottom and drug myself back to the top. Is that the only way to build mental strength or resilience? Through pain? Everyone struggles in life. Will my children’s struggles help them to grow to be strong people or will it leave them a broken person constantly questioning their own validity? 

No one knows the future. How do we know that our methods are right? We can only proceed based on our own life experiences and knowledge. It is so terrifying not to know what the future holds. What seemingly inconsequential things did you say or do that will reverberate through your child’s life and affect them in ways you cannot begin to imagine? Hindsight is easy. Staring into the unknown future is much harder. It is incredibly difficult to face. Every single person is capable of causing untold amounts of ripples that expand into society and spread throughout the word. 

Do you ever think about your own ripples? 

Some people are aware of it and try to send out good ones. They try to pay it forward whenever conceivable. Maybe they pay for the person behind them’s meal in line at a drive through restaurant. Maybe they bring donuts for their coworkers. Maybe they stop and help people alongside the road who need help changing a tire. There is plenty of good still in this world. It isn’t all bad. But are we as a society focusing enough on the bad ripples? The bad energy we are sending out into the world?

So few seem to care these days. Humanity as a whole is selfish. It isn��t your fault, that is our nature. It is how we survive. But deep down how many times have you made an exception for yourself because you are special, you are you? The pandemic has really opened my eyes to people’s inherent selfishness. How dare you try to inconvenience me by requiring me to wear a face mask? I don’t care that it is mandated, and that you are simply doing your job, I am going to harass and abuse you! You may not be in support of wearing a mask on a personal level, but I don’t care about that. I am not going to live my life in fear like all of you sheeple. So, be prepared, I will hit you. I will spit on you. I will shoot you. Seems dramatic, right? But this has happened over and over again in this past year. 

I want to ask where is the humanity, but I am beginning to fear that this IS humanity. 

So often I struggle with wondering, is humanity worth saving? If this is the end-times do we deserve another chance? What makes us redeemable? The only answer that I can come up with is love. We are redeemable because of love. Maybe you have a better answer than me. Love is the only thing that I can come up with at this moment, and even that is hard to hold on to. I feel myself spiral and losing faith in humanity on a daily basis almost, and I have to make a conscious effort to remember the good things. Those loving moments that we are capable of. 

The animals that we rescue. The children that we pray for. The couples who still love each other after many trials or years. The art inspired by it, or the music. Love is a universal feeling. It can unite us, though we face the ever present danger of hate dividing us. I am so past hating stuff. I can tell you that I intensely dislike our former president, but do I wish his death like I have seen others do? I do not. I think we have a world full of damaged people searching for meaning, and there is no manual. We are all trying our best and are making decisions based on our own life experiences. What is right to you is wrong to someone else. It doesn’t mean anyone is wrong. It is just perspective. There is no other way to view it that I am aware of. We all have different perspectives, our own personal narratives of events. That is just what humanity does. We are not a collective consciousness. So many people try to make things black and white, when really there are nothing but varying shades of grey. Had I lived your life and been through the things you have been through I might feel very differently. This is just my opinion on the matter, based upon my own life experiences. I don’t hate you for feeling differently than me. I just get sad sometimes that we struggle to find common ground. I want us to succeed. I want humanity to persevere. 

How do I explain everything that is on my mind lately without making you feel it is endless rambling? I know this started with a list of things that make it feel like the world is ending, and I could go on forever. Do I drone on and on, or should I find some semblance of structure? I do not mean to be a bore, but there is so much to address. Is this a diary? Is this to my children? I am unsure. Maybe it is just for me. Maybe I just need to find the words that can make a difference. I don’t know about you but for quite a while now I haven’t been able to shake the feeling that time is running out and there is something I must do. I hope that by trying to organize my thoughts I can figure out what it is. 

[borhapparker]

special victims unit  |  borhap x female!oc - chapter two

summary: The Special Victims Unit, a specially trained squad of detectives in the NYPD, investigate sexually related crimes. Lead by Lieutenant Astrid Morrison, they solve New York's most sensitive cases, as well as battle with their own demons from the past.

warnings: mentions of sexual assault, mentions of alcohol and drugs, lots of triggers mentioned above

word count: 3.9k

series masterlist  |   teaser (read before this)  |   chapter one

Astrid's phone rang in the dark room, curtains pulled shut to prevent light form coming in, as she reached over, grabbing it and answering.

"Morrison." she answered, the figure next to her on the bed shifting at the sound of her voice.

"Lieutenant, we have a victim. Meet us at the hospital, we're on our way." Lucy's voice rang from the other end as Astrid rubbed her face with her other hand.

"Yeah, I'll be there. Give me twenty minutes."

Ending the call and placing her phone on the nightstand she got up, before an arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her back into the covers.

"Five more minutes." the voice said as she smiled, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and pulling his body closer to hers.

"Just five more minutes." she said, closing her eyes.

"Who called?"

"Lucy. New case, she's on route to the hospital." she said, as he groaned.

"Why can't we stay here the whole day?"

"Well, you have work, and I do too." she paused, before letting go and getting out of his grasp. "Alright, let's go."

Groaning once more, he got out of bed and headed to her bathroom, as she checked her texts for updates on the victim.

Twenty minutes later, Astrid walked into the hospital with a coffee cup in hand, as Lucy approached her, frown on her face.

"What do we have?"

"Avery, transgender female, was injured in a fall from a bridge."

Astrid sighed, before nodding to the room. "I want to see her."

Lucy led her inside the room, where the victim was waiting, Detective Ben with her and the parents.

"Hi, I'm Lieutenant Astrid Morrison with the Special Victims Unit." she said, as the parents introduced themselves. "So, Avery, can you tell me what happened?"

"I was taking pictures on the bridge when they surrounded me."

Ben spoke up, notepad in hand as he took notes. "Avery, can you describe them?"

"Black, my age." she slowly breathed in, "They were giving me the look."

"What look is that?" Ben asked.

"The freak needs to learn a lesson look." the parents looked at Astrid, hurt spread across their features as one held her hand and the other placed a hand on her shoulder in a comforting manner. "I tried to go but they started saying stuff."

"What were they saying?"

"Tranny. He-She. My personal fave." she paused, "I told them to leave me alone. One grabbed my skirt, another my camera. I was pushed and I tripped on my heels."

Astrid took a step forward, "Avery, can you remember anything else about the boys, anything they said or that they did?"

Tears pooled in Avery's eyes, "It was all a blur of shoving, people laughing," a tear streamed down her cheek, "Taking video."

The father spoke up, "This isn't the first time, and the local precinct never follows up."

"We will." Astrid reassured the family, "We take this very seriously. I give you my word, Mr. Parker."

Returning back to the station, all the detectives got to work on trying to find anything they could to ID the boys that had pushed Avery. Lucy finally found something, pulling Astrid out of her office.

"What do you have?"

"Well, we were checking social media, lensing the area where the crime occurred, and these finally popped up." she led her back to the big round table in front of a large screen tv, where the rest of the detectives were.

"These three separate cell phone videos so far. They all begin after it started, but you get the idea." Joe said, pressing play as they watched.

"Let's see slut. What's under there?" "Beat his ass!"

Someone smacked Avery across the face in one of the videos, "Oh, he's slapping him around."

"Darius, we're going to get in trouble!"

"All these people watching. Nobody helps."

"How long do they go on?" Astrid asked.

"Till the fall." Rami says.

"You're not getting that camera back, uh-huh." "Aw, she likes you, Darius." "They dancing."

"Just give it back." "Get off me you freak!"

A boy pushes Avery, as she topples over the edge of the bridge, the crowd in the videos gasping.

"Do we have any idea who posted these?"

"Well, according to Facebook, it's two sophomore kids  and one junior from Shirley Chisholm."

Astrid looked between her three detectives, "That's it, guys, let's go, full court."

They all drove to the school, heading inside and looking for the administration in charge, who directed them to where a bunch of students were, three that had posted the videos.

"I didn't do nothing. I just took a video." a girl said, holding a pencil between her fingers as she wrote down notes for an essay.

"You watched a person get assaulted and thrown over a bridge." Lucy said.

"I didn't touch that freak show, and why is he wearing a skit, acting all -- whatever."

"Who were the guys messing with Avery?" Joe asked.

"I don't know." she said, pointing the pencil at both Lucy and Joe, "That's your job."

They walked off, as Ben and Astrid were with a teacher, showing him the video of the incident.

"This is deeply disturbing."

"Yes, it is, and three different students from your school posted those videos."

"Well," he handed back the tablet, "Let me be clear. This behavior is in no way indicative of our community. We strive for inclusion."

"We understand." she changed the video to three pictures, showing the three suspects. "Who are these kids?"

Having now got the names of all three students, Astrid and Ben headed to another full classroom, where students were throwing around pieces of paper and chatting.

"Alright, quiet." the same teacher that had spoken to them spoke to the class, as the class lessened their chatter. "Keon Williams and Markus Green, come with me."

"Why?" one spoke up.

"We didn't do nothing." another said.

"Now."

Both of them stood, walking to the teacher and out the door with Astrid and Ben following behind.

Meanwhile, Joe and Lucy were talking to another teacher.

"Why are you looking for Darius?" she asked, arms crossed in front of her door.

"It's a police matter. Where is he?"

"He was here before school began, very upset about something. I told him we could talk after lunch."

"He live nearby?" Lucy asked as the teacher shook her head negatively.

"He won't be there. He hates the projects. There is one place he likes to go." she paused, "Book Culture."

"Let's go." Joe said to Lucy as they thanked the teacher and headed off to the bookstore. Walking through the various shelfs full of books, before they spotted him sitting against a shelf with a notebook on his lap and a pencil in his hand. "Darius McCrae?"

"Hey, NYPD." Lucy parted her coat, showing him her badge. "Darius," she motioned with her hand and walked to him, "Get up."

"Come on, I-I didn't do anything." he said.

"Come on, Darius, stand up. Let's make this easy." Joe said, as Darius frowned and got up, placing his notebook in his bag.

"Yes, sir."

-

In an interrogation room, Ben rolled up his sleeves of his shirt, before supporting his weight on his hands, leaning into the suspect. "So, you're saying it wasn't your fault?"

"That tranny started it, all up in our face with, you know, being weird."

The mom next to him spoke up, "That boy goes around dressed like a girl? You should be talking to his parents, not my son."

"Well, they're in the hospital, and you're here, so think about that." he walked towards the door, opening it and closing it behind him.

"Markus, did you beat up on a girl?" the grandmother asked her nephew, who was sitting with Rami.

"He's not a girl, grandma. He's one of them he-she's." he said as she smacked his hat off.

"Wow." Rami said, Ben walking over to him.

"Acts like one, wears makeup."

The grandmother looked up at Rami, "Why would he do that?"

"That's not the issue." Rami said, "The issue is your grandson pushed a kid off a bridge."

The grandmother gasped, "You did what?"

"I didn't push him off the bridge, grandma! I swear!"

"Then you better tell them who did."

He looked down, shaking his head slightly. "I don't know."

Ben glared, "Markus, look at me." he looked up, "I know that your grandmother did not raise you to lie."

Markus was silent for a few seconds before he spoke up, "It was Darius. He's a grade above me."

Right as he said that, Darius walked through the door, Joe and Lucy escorting him into another interrogation room.

"Am I going to jail?" Darius asked as Lucy crossed her arms.

"When your mom gets here we need to talk, but the best thing to do is to tell the truth."

"You want a soda, sandwich or something?" Joe asked Darius as he groaned, his arms cuffed behind his back.

"My stomach's not feeling good."

"Darius?" a voice was heard through the entrance as everyone turned to the sound of the voice.

"This way, ma'am." Ben said, escorting her to where Darius was sitting with Astrid, Lucy and Joe.

"I'm Lieutenant Morrison."

"Ms. McCrae, I'm Detective Joe Mazzello. This is Detective Lucy Boynton."

"I'm sorry, mom." Darius spoke up. "I didn't mean to do anything bad."

"What do they think you did?" the mother asked.

"A teenager was assaulted in Fort Tryon Park and is now in the hospital."

"I didn't mean to hurt him."

The mother looked at Joe and Lucy, "Darius is a good kid. He takes care of his little sister. He goes to -- to church."

"Okay, well, ma'am, we still just need to talk to him, okay." Lucy reassured her.

"But he's only fifteen." she said.

"Which is why we waited for you." Astrid spoke up, "We needed you to be here when we read him his rights."

-

"We were just talking to him." Darius said, now in an interrogation room with his mom next to him, "I asked what was up with the dress.

"So Markus and Keon were telling the truth? It was your idea?"

"Yes, but we were all messing with him, tried to lift up the skirt."

The mom frowned, "Darius, why would you do that?"

"I didn't want my friends to think I was gay."

"So you were being tough around your boys. Is that why you pushed Avery?" Lucy asked.

"No, he fell on me and I just pushed him away. I didn't mean for him to fall over the bridge."

"Then why'd you run?"

"Because it was the worst thing I ever did. I thought I killed someone."

Through the glass, Ben and Astrid were watching the interrogation. "This kid seems genuinely upset. The other two, they just think it's funny."

Astrid spoke up, hands on her hips, "Yeah, well the other two didn't push Avery off a bridge. I mean, she could've died."

"Bright side, all three confessed. We got the video evidence, we're done." Ben said, following Astrid to her desk.

"Look, the video is shaky. The kids are underage. I just don't want anyone claiming that those confessions were coerced." she sighed, rubbing two fingers on her temples. "Let's see if Avery can come in and make an ID."

"You got it." Ben said, leaving and heading to his desk, where he called the family and asked for a lineup ID. They agreed, driving over in less than twenty minutes.

They prepared the lineup, as Avery and her family arrived. Placing them in front of a glass window, Avery got up, as the boys walked in. Looking through the lineup, she pointed one out.

"Number four."

"Number one."

"Three."

Astrid knocked the correct amount of times on the glass for each suspect, before turning back to Avery. "You did great, Avery."

"They look smaller in there." she sat down on her wheelchair, groaning slightly. "Scared."

"Well, they should be, Avery." Ben said, "They're in trouble."

"Did they say why they did this to me? I'm not stupid, I wasn't being cheeky."

"It wasn't anything you did," the mom reassured her. "We need to get back to the hospital."

Darius' mom spotted the daughter and the parents, getting up from her chair. "Excuse me."

The family stopped at seeing her.

"Are you the Parkers? I'm Darius' mother." she said as Astrid approached her.

"Ms. McCrae, now may not be the best time."

Avery spoke up, slightly shifting in her wheelchair. "Hold on. I want to hear her out."

"My son is really sorry for hurting you."

"Did he tell you why he did this to me?" Avery asked.

"Avery, let's go," the mom said as her dad slightly pushed the wheelchair.

"Just wait a minute." Avery said, reaching out a hand for Darius' mother, who sadly smiled and gripped his with sympathy, "Ask him, please."

The mother and father separated both, anger coursing through them as the other detectives watched. "Okay, we need to leave. Now."

"Come on, this way folks." Joe started leading them to the doors, as Astrid watched them walk away.

Joe turned, getting Ms. McCrae's attention and escorting her to sit in a chair next to his desk.

"Wait, my son has to spend the night here?"

Joe reassured her, sitting across, "No, he's gonna be able to go home. The desk sergeant's gonna give you an appearance ticket for tomorrow in family court."

She furrowed her eyebrows, "I have work tomorrow. I'm a home care attendant."

"Well, you're gonna have to call in sick. You gotta be there."

She exhaled in frustration, looking around before nodding, waiting patiently for the sergeant to come back.

-

Lucy served herself a cup of coffee in the break room as she heard footsteps, before Ben appeared in the doorway.

"Those poor parents, right?" he asked as Lucy only nodded.

"You want one?" she gestured to the coffee as he smiled in confirmation, leaning against one of the counters opposite from her.

"Hey, Lucy, let me ask you something." he paused, collecting his thoughts, "What makes a boy decide to be a girl? I mean, is it that he likes boys? He just doesn't want to be gay?"

She thoughtfully came up with her answer as she stirred his coffee, "There's a difference between gender identity and sexuality, Ben."

"Yeah." he thanked her for the coffee, taking a sip and smiling, "You know, my parents, they think this is all about getting attention."

Lucy chuckled, "You were a 14-year-old boy once. And would you or any other boy you knew put on a skirt, if it didn't come from a real place?"

He chuckled, shaking his head, "No, not a chance."

-

Joe, Lucy and Ben were at the Office of Corporation Counsel, waiting with Marcus, Darius and Keon. The counselor approached, as she turned and looked at the sitting audience.

"Good afternoon, which one of you is Marcus Green?" he raised his hand as she nodded, "Come with me please."

Joe spoke up, "Counselor, you want us inside?"

"If I need anything, I'll let you know."

She headed inside a room, as everyone waited patiently outside. Forty-five minutes later, Marcus walked out with a smug look, as she called on Keon next, Ms. McCrae confused as to why her son wasn't called before.

She waited, as Keon walked in, and walked out forty-five minutes later, a smug look adorning his mother's features, as she shook hands with Ms. Cox, the counselor.

"Thank you so much, Ms. Cox. I promise you, Keon has learned his lesson."

They walked away as she turned to Darius, who stood up and walked over, his mom behind him. Walking inside, she closed the door behind them and motioned for them to sit, explaining the deals the other boys received as punishment.

"The other boys got probation?"

After that, they kept talking, trying to figure out a suitable deal for Darius, one that hopefully wouldn't jeopardize his future. They finished and walked out, Lucy heading straight for Ms. Cox and Ms. McCrae for Joe.

"This is not fair. The other boys get probation but she wants my Darius to do three months in juvie?"

"That's what she wants. A judge still has to rule." Joe said, trying to reassure her that it wasn't over.

"She also told me that if it goes to trial, Darius could get a year. I said I wanted to talk to a lawyer but she said no one was available today."

Lucy walked over, crossing her arms over her chest. "Well, that's your right. They're gonna have to wait."

She listened, before turning to Joe, "Talk to that lady about Darius. He's no thug, and he's had a lot to deal with."

"I'll do what I can."

She turned to Darius, tugging on his shirt as he stood up and headed to Joe. "Detective Mazzello, can you make sure Avery gets this? Tell him to know I'm sorry."

He walked away as Lucy turned to Joe, who opened the drawings to inspect them. "What's that, drawings?"

"It's an apology."

"Well, and it's an admission of guilt. You know, if you were Avery, would you want to hear anything that Darius has to say right now?"

Joe sighed, "My brother got the crap kicked out of him when he was a boy for being friends with a gay classmate. No one ever apologized to him."

-

Back in the hospital, Ben was with Astrid, as Avery looked happier than she was. "Darius McCrae wrote something for me?"

Astrid smiled, "He did. He wanted to apologize."

Avery's dad looked at her, "You don't have to read it if you don't want to."

She looked up, "No, I do."

Astrid handed her the file with the drawings, as she opened them, a smile on her face.

'If I could get a do-over, I wouldn't do it.'

The smile dropped from her face as she examined the drawing, her parents sharing a look of concern.

'But I wish I could erase it. I hope one day you can forgive me.'

She looked up, "Did you tell him I was into graphic novels?"

"No, we didn't know." Ben answered, as Astrid smiled.

They walked out with Avery's parents, as questions began to spill from the dad's lips. "We heard the boys took a plea, does that mean Avery won't have to testify?"

"The third boy, Darius, is speaking with a lawyer, so we should know more tomorrow." Astrid answered as the parents nodded their heads in confirmation.

"What Avery's gone through, she's a tough kid. You must be proud."

The dad smiled, "We are."

Suddenly, the hospital lights flashed, "Code blue, code blue."

The doctors rushed in the direction of Avery's room as the parents turned to each other with a look of concern. "That's her room!"

They all ran over, as the doctors began to use a defibrillator, restoring a heart beat inside her body.

"Clear!"

"My baby!" the mother cried out, catching the nurse's attention.

"Please, you have to wait outside."

"No!"

Ben and Astrid began slowly motioning for them to head outside the room, the parents wanting to make sure their daughter was okay, as the doctors worked on her.

"Check the heart.." "No pulse." "Let's go again." "Nothing." "Come on, Avery honey, stay with me." "Clear!"

-

The doctor comes out, a frown on her face as the parents break, bursting into tears and sobbing over their daughter.

Ben's growing concern escalates, as he begins to interrogate the doctor in charge. "One minute Avery's fine and then she's gone just like that?"

"What happened?"

"A fatty embolism." the doctor answered.

"Oh no. From the fractured leg, right?" the doctor nodded, as Ben crossed his arms.

"When the femur fractured, fatty globules were released. They traveled to the lungs. Death is almost instantaneous."

"So this embolism was a direct result of Avery's fall?"

"No question," the doctor shook her head.

The doctor walked away as Astrid rubbed a hand over her forehead, Ben turning to her with a disappointed look on his face.

"What do we say to them, I'm sorry?"

"Never gets easier." Astrid answered as they both walked over to where the parents were grieving, as she sat next to them, "Mr. and Mrs. Parker, I'm so sorry."

They nodded, before the husband erupted into a sobbing mess, the wife cradling him in her arms as the detectives rubbed their backs in consolation, before excusing themselves and returning to the police station, where everyone else was.

"What happened?" Rami asked as Astrid frowned.

"Avery died."

-

A few days later, they were all waiting for the results from the M.E. as Ms. Cox walked in with a blue folder in hand, Astrid walking out of her office to meet her.

"The M.E. confirm cause of death?"

"Saddle embolism to the lungs, direct result of the broken femur from the fall. No intervening cause."

Astrid sighed, putting her hands on her hips.

"What does that mean for these boys?" Lucy spoke up as Ms. Cox turned around.

"Well, Markus and Keon didn't push her. They didn't cause the death."

Rami spoke up, crossing his arms, "But Darius McCrae did."

Another lawyer walked into the station, catching everyone's attention. "Lieutenant, we need to talk about the Avery Parker murder."

She turned, nodding, "Of coourse. Kenneth O'Dwyer, meet Pippa Cox."

"It's nice to see you again, Ms. Cox. You'll want to be in on this meeting too." he said, as Pippa nodded, following them to Astrid's office. "The D.A.'s office is taking over the prosecution."

Dumbfounded, Rami had joined them, as Astrid lightly tilted her head, "Now, you know Darius McCrae's only 15 years old?"

"Yes, and if he's tried in family court, he'll be charged with juvenile delinquency and be back out on the street again when he's 18."

"Wait, you're looking to charge him as an adult?" Astrid asked as O'Dwyer nodded.

"Second-degree manslaughter."

Pippa spoke up, "We can charge that in family court."

"We can, but we won't, and I want to attach a hate crime."

It was silent for a few minutes, as Astrid sighed, "Okay, wow."

O'Dwyer spoke up again, "There's an epidemic of attacks on trans persons. We have to take a stand."

Astrid interjected, "Yes, but I don't think that this is that case. Darius seems like a good kid."

"He went after Avery, he taunted her and he pushed her off a bridge."

"But you want to charge a 15-year-old as an adult?" Rami asked, furrowing his eyebrows, "He could get 20 years."

O'Dwyer sighed, "It's more like seven. And while I appreciate your sympathy for Darius McCrae, we can't wait for a more overtly evil perp. We have to draw a line."

Rami and Astrid exchanged a look, crossing their arms as they sighed in unison.

-

Lucy was visiting Ms. McCrae, informing her of the charges, as she paused her, concern etched on her features.

"Darius and I, we feel horrible that Avery died, but that was because of something that went wrong at the hospital."

"Well," Lucy began, wringing her hands together, "The autopsy showed that it was a complication resulting from the fall."

"So, what does -- what does that mean?"

"They're charging him with manslaughter," Rami spoke up, "He'll be tried as an adult."

The mom was dumbfounded, as she frowned, "My Darius? No no no.. He's -- he's just a kid."

"But the DA and the mayor want to send a message that hate crimes aren't acceptable in New York City."

"Hate crimes?" she breathed out, "The only person Darius hates right now is himself."

"I'm sorry," Rami apologized, "This is where we are."

Lucy got up from the chair, adjusting her blazer, "You said Darius was in his room?"

"You have to take him right now?"

"Yeah, he's got to be arraigned. Can you call him please?" Lucy asked, crossing her arms.

They escorted Darius out of his home and back to the police station, as they booked him in for the night, waiting to be arraigned in the morning.

-

tags:

@hollandroos  @me-a-hopeless-romantic @shuri-owns-my-heart @im-grac3ful-but-fi3rc3  @thebohemianpenguin  @misterf4hrenheit @sofarxitsalright @lolabean1998  @sailing-race @desperately-bisexual @desir-ae @cl0ve @theimpossiblehologramtree @peachllobotomy @rrrogah-tayluhh @allaroundaddict @orchideax @thesevenseasofnublar @owensgrxdy​

[spookyspaghettisundae]

Keening of the Glass King

The scanner at checkout beeped with slow and revolving repetition. The cashier listlessly pushed the groceries over the scanner, one by one, her eyes glazed over with boredom and her gaze trained on the digital oblivion displayed on the small screen attached to the system. The smell of disinfectant, plastic, and a blend of artificially sweet smells hung in the air.

Harper experienced a state of mind of complete emptiness. Just absorbing the sights, sounds, and smells of her environment without as much as a passing thought. Such an unfamiliar sensation to her. Lost in the moment.

And then the moment was gone. Harper’s feet hurt. It had been a long day. Hell, it had been a long week. As she—in her mind—went through all the things she still had to do once she got home, she started to get impatient while waiting in line. Only one more customer in front of her having her shopping cart’s contents processed.

When the guy checking out fumbled around to pay for his groceries, Harper spotted something odd. Rather than spitting out a number that the cashier read out loud with the enthusiasm of a broken woman whose soul had been crushed under the weight of corporate oppression, the small screen displayed text.

LOOK UP

Harper blinked, making sure that her mind was not just playing tricks on her. But it didn’t seem to be. The screen still did not display the total amount of money tallied up from the guy’s purchases. Instead, the words on screen flashed a few times, as if trying to grab Harper’s attention.

Instead of doing as told, she looked around to see if anybody else was seeing this.

The five people in line behind her did not. They were all lost in their own little worlds: one of them endlessly doom-scrolling down the display on their phone, another scratching his head while staring at the cold hard floor, another playing with her baby sat on the shopping cart, and so forth.

Harper’s sights returned to the display and it flashed one more time.

LOOK UP

So she did.

An advertising sign hung low over the checkout line.

DRINK BOOZE. SPIN TWELVE TIMES. SHOUT ROO-AGH PAIR-AGH TO THE HIGH HEAVENS.

It looked exactly like an advertising sign should, complete with the attractively garish color palette and carefully measured proportions. But the words did not fit at all.

Harper did a double take and the sign looked nothing like it did a mere second ago.

SAVE. EARN. SHOP. COLLECT POINTS AND WIN FREE GROCERIES.

She blinked again and it continued to look normal.

The beeping from the register stopped and the tired-looking cashier stared at her. She mustered a feeble smile and nodded at Harper, expecting her to scoot forward and get through checkout. Because she was holding up the line.

While waiting, accompanied by the rhythmic beeping of the machine, Harper looked around for other oddities. Anything that stood out. The man fixated on his phone, waiting behind her in line, looked up at her while she scanned the environment but then averted his gaze, seemingly startled and nervous—returning his undivided attention to the device in his hand. Everybody else remained oblivious to her and the strange signs she started spotting everywhere.

A magazine on the rack had a strange logo.

THE GLASS KING NEARS

Blinking cleared it up for her and revealed a fairly typical magazine brand logo and boring headline. As it should.

From the corners of her eyes, focused on a bouquet of flowers wilted on a stand nearby, Harper believed to see the little monitor flash with words that did not belong.

PAY ATTENTION

The storefront logo and its current slogan emblazoned on the wide front window did not read as it should. It instead said something bizarre.

DO AS YOUR KING COMMANDS

And in smaller lettering beneath that line: REAP THE REWARDS AND REJOICE IN YOUR SILENT HEAVEN

Harper shook her head. Every time she focused on one of these strange messages or blinked or shifted her weight and tilted her head, she saw what they should look like. The inconspicuous, bland-by-design normalcy of corporate consumerism.

Was she going insane?

She had been pushing eleven hours a day at work and six day work weeks for the past two months, and it must have been getting to her. Harper convinced herself of that. Or at least, she tried.

The cashier read the tally of her shopping cart’s contents off the screen and waited for her to pay. Harper did and left the store quickly.

Ferrying things across the parking lot with the wheels rattling over asphalt, loading her groceries into the back of her car, and slamming the trunk—it all passed by her in a blur. Felt like forever, flowed like molten butter, just ended with barely any time having gone by.

A man in a denim jacket over a beige hoodie approached her, pushing a cart along.

“Should I return that for ya?”

He pointed at the empty steel cage of her shopping cart. She looked him over and the empty cart he had been pushing along himself. Looked like he was just bringing his own cart back to the lineup where the others were gathered, and offering to take hers along for her.

It took her longer than it should to register the simple kindness he offered. Harper flashed him a smile and nodded and he mirrored the quiet expressions. While shoving their empty carts together, he side-eyed her and spoke in a monotone, “The Glass King’s soldiers can win the battle but not the war. Power through faith is what his subjects are for. Through servitude to him we flourish. His divine favor us does nourish. Roo-agh pair-agh.”

The carts rattled and clattered with agonizing volume as he began pushing them away from her, moving along.

Harper blinked and had to know. Had to know she wasn’t going crazy. “What did you just say?”

The stranger paused and craned his neck. Tilted his head. Arched a brow and stared at her with confusion written all over his face, slack-jawed.

“What?”

They stared at each other for another brief lapse in time.

“I asked if you want me to return your cart for ya?” he asked in response. Like he had never uttered the other strange things.

She flashed another smile at him, though in retrospect it never reached her eyes. And how could it have ever been an honest expression of gratitude? Yep, going bonkers alright, Harper thought to herself.

He pursed his lips, broke eye contact, and carried on; walking away from her with the two carts in front of him. They rattled and clattered and bounced when he shoved them over a pot hole.

She got in the car and left before he could return to where she had parked. Drove home. Everything just flew by, time flew by. She focused on the lines in the middle of the road, on the steel giants that were the other cars in traffic, and their hypnotic motions. On the street lights, and less the signs. It worked, because she was intimately familiar with this route. This life. She had done these things thousands of times before—the usual rote motions and actions that constituted her everyday life.

Really, though, she tried to avoid looking at any street signs. Any billboards. Any license plates. Really, she tried to avert her eyes from locking onto any single damned thing that featured text, letters, numbers, or anything that even remotely resembled written language in any shape or form.

It was time to get things over with for the day, kick back, drink something, and sleep.

After unpacking at home and going about her chores to tidy up her lonesome apartment, she sat down in front of the television set. She sighed, feeling relief—she had banished today’s strangeness. No more signs anywhere. Food packaging looked like it should, so did the magazine covers, the local newspaper—even device labels.

Overworked and tired as she was, it kind of made sense for her to be hallucinating. She had heard and read of weirder things happening to people who struggled with a poor work-life balance and chronic exhaustion.

Harper had plenty of work-related crap to put behind her, anyway. Whenever thoughts of that work bubbled up from the pool in the back of her mind, she dispelled them by thinking mean things about her supervisor and then of the co-worker she hated who always contradicted her but agreed wholeheartedly when she heard a man say the exact same thing Harper had said.

“Fucking middle management, man,” she muttered at the TV.

IT IS TIME, read a string of letters on screen, superimposed over the advertisement of some lame small-time lawyer firm.

PERFORM YOUR SERVICE

The words on display made no sense in context of the rest of the things and people being shown.

Cryptic, ominous messages.

She blinked, expecting the strange signs and orders to vanish. But they refused to.

YOUR KING NEEDS YOU!

Harper switched channels to some edgy-looking TV series. Hectic cuts, dramatic music, low contrast and muted colors. The character actor turned to the camera and looked her straight in the eyes, piercing the veil of the screen as if he was gazing through the dimensions from his fictitious world into the real one.

“If you don’t do your part—if we don’t all do our part, perform our service to the Glass King—the world will end. We can’t let that happen,” the man in the show said in his cartoonishly gravelly voice.

Harper swallowed an empty lump stuck in her throat, a wad of nothing that felt like it had assumed the size of a fist. Her insides churned and she started feeling dizzy.

Whatever this guy on the TV show had just said, it might have fit into whatever silly narrative he served, but it also fit right in with her hallucinations.

Or were they not hallucinations at all?

And what had that sign said?

“Drink booze. Spin twelve times, then shout ‘roo-agh pair-agh’ towards the sky,” said the actor. The cheesy soundtrack died down, leaving his words to die in an awkward silence that felt out of character for this particular show. He continued to stare Harper in the eyes, as if expecting her to do something. Like the show had just ground to a halt, awaiting her cue.

Waiting for her to do what she had to. What was expected of her.

Harper got up and the room spun around her. She had already taken some meds to help remove some edge and fall asleep more easily.

Should she mix alcohol with those drugs?

Whatever, she figured. She was already dressed in pajamas. Ready for bed. Would it kill her to try?

Maybe if she gave in to this string of odd hallucinations, they would stop. Under normal circumstances, that train of thought would have made no sense to her, but she chalked it up to the bizarre dream logic she was experiencing.

Only thing being, none of this was a dream, nor would it be particularly fun to unpack in upcoming therapy sessions. She already considered never talking about it if this never happened again.

Harper grabbed a half-filled bottle of wine from the fridge and returned to her living room. The show on TV continued as it should, depicting the usual melodramatic schlock that she would normally expect it to be doing.

She uncorked the bottle with a loud plop, chugged some of the wine, put it down on the coffee table with a loud clank, and took a deep breath. She was already feeling dizzy, so spinning around might have posed a problem.

But she did it anyway.

Twelve revolutions. One by one. Starting slow, picking up on speed to more quickly get it over with. The world spun ever faster, teetered and swayed in ways that made it difficult to maintain her balance. Her heart raced as, for a moment, it seemed like she might crash through the glass of the coffee table and cut herself badly, or stumble somewhere and break a bone in a bad fall, or worse.

“Roo-agh! Pair-agh!” Harper yelled at the ceiling.

Once she finished those twelve revolutions, she fell onto the couch, twisting her left hand and gritting her teeth right after a sharp intake of air to mask the sudden sting of pain. She fell sideways, slumping into the soft fuzzy cushions, and the world continued to spin, leaving her with a sick feeling in her stomach, spreading out in every direction and into every last extremity.

Someone or something thumped. Thud, thud.

“Shut the fuck up down there,” said someone above, muffled through the floor. Angry neighbor. Typical for that asshole. Complained about the smallest things, but always blasting loud music every Saturday morning.

Harper closed her eyes, still feeling the world spinning around her. Her stomach felt like it had unhinged itself from her insides and decided to whirl around in the opposite direction. She swallowed many times, painfully and deliberately, fighting the urge to vomit.

When the spell of nausea ended, she opened her eyes. The show on TV had gone silent, though the screen still flashed with shifting images. It looked like a completely different series now. The colors were vibrant and bright, the lens through which things had been shot distorted the environments along the edges of the screen, and the set looked surreal in its dimensions.

On screen, a woman in a fancy dress walked through a strange, long hallway, steadily and slowly approaching a simply-clothed man who sat on a stool next to a large set of double doors. The angles relayed a sense of paranoia, and the lingering shots on the actors’ faces made Harper feel uncomfortable.

The bald man sitting on the stool, his hands folded on his lap—his expression eerily calm—spoke into the camera. Past the woman approaching the double doors. He spoke not to that woman, but to Harper.

“The Glass King thanks you for your service. Should you fall in this war, know that your sacrifice will not be in vain. This world will continue to exist. You will continue to live your life as you have,” said the man. His voice rolled out like silk; soft and soothing.

The corners of his lips twitched until they shaped into a timid smile.

The woman stepped past him and grabbed hold of the brass doorknob on one of those doors. The moment she gripped it and twisted, she did not open the door.

She screamed.

A blood-curdling, bone-chilling scream. So loud that the neighbor upstairs continued complaining. Thump. Thump, thump.

“—said, shut the fuck up!”

The scream never stopped. Harper held her hands over her ears and cringed, clamping her eyes shut. She did not dare to see what happened next, so horrifying was that scream. She could hear the shriek piercing her ear drums even though she covered them up as good as she could. It pierced her mind, sliced into her soul, cut deep into her consciousness, feeding fuel into the flames of future nightmares.

“You will have your answers,” whispered the bald man on the stool. But it was not from the television set. He was in Harper’s dream that followed. As if she had gone there. Into that strange hallway.

Her uneasy rest left her feeling more tired than before she had fallen asleep. She awoke on the couch and something tasted funny. She blinked and realized where she was, struggled to remember what exactly she had dreamt beyond seeing the man from the weird TV show in her dream say that one thing, and swallowed again. Tasting blood.

Something had crusted over on her lip and face and checking in the mirror revealed that to be a thin line of blood. It had trickled down from her left nostril and across her lip and cheek as she had slept on the couch, all crumpled up.

Harper almost panicked when she realized that she needed to hustle to make it to work on time. She went through the motions in a haze, rushing through every step. Coffee would have to wait, brushing teeth, make-up, slinging on some clothes and straightening them out on the way to her car, slamming the door shut, going just enough above the speed limit to win some time and not draw unwanted attention, and so forth.

After clocking in at work, she sipped her coffee and enjoyed a short breather.

It was going to be another long day. She chalked the previous evening’s strangeness up to a weird fever dream.

Or something.

She held the back of her hand against her forehead to see if she was running any fever and dismissed the thought. The less she thought about getting sick, and the more she believed she was not sick—that stopped her from actually getting sick, right?

Her co-worker—the one she hated—got a coffee from the machine and turned to her.

Nodded in greeting to meet the bare minimum of social conventions maintained between them. She sipped from her cup of coffee as well. Looked Harper in the eye.

Vacant stare. Something odd about it.

“You saw the signs, too, didn’t you?” she asked Harper. Hushed tone, then she murmured more into her mug, “The Glass King nears.”

“What?” Harper asked. Paralyzed.

With fear.

The blood drained from her face and her mind reeled with the possibility that everything she had dreamt was, in fact, real.

Nicole gulped her mouthful of coffee down and her gaze hardened into a striking stare.

“You heard me, bitch,” she snapped at her. “James experienced it too.”

The clock on the wall behind Harper ticked away, filling the air of silence growing between them.

“What—” Harper’s voice cracked. She cleared her throat and tried asking again. “What does any of it even mean?”

Nicole cradled the cup in her hand.

“No idea, but I think there are even more who saw the signs. Just nobody really talkin’ about it. Like they’re all afraid of something.”

Harper cleared her throat again. It felt like phlegm was building up in there, clogging everything up with a tedious stickiness.

“What about rewards? You get anything?” she asked Nicole.

Her co-worker smirked but the mien quickly vanished.

“Learned something about you. Something you probably would rather keep secret,” Nicole finally replied.

Harper licked her lips. Not only had the blood drained from her face, she now felt hot and cold at the same time. Like she was flush with sickness, like a sheen of sweat was on the verge of breaking out of her pores. Was she really sure she hadn’t gotten a fever or something?

“Don’t worry. I won’t tell anybody,” Nicole said. She winked at Harper.

Walked away, leaving Harper awash in her confusion and growing sense of dread.

By the time Harper took her seat at her desk, her body was trembling all over. She got to work, tried to distract herself, but her thoughts kept circling back to the odd events. It started cutting into her work.

So she started researching online.

Her body turned ice cold, the cushion of her chair beneath her becoming more uncomfortable than usual. With sweaty palms, she clicked her way through discussion threads, past posted transcripts of live chats, and wound up browsing through terrible-looking websites that looked like conspiracy theory wank assembled by unhinged lunatics. But everything reflected her experiences. Almost to the letter of some of the signs she had seen. And other people were digging through the web, just like her. Looking for an answer. Struggling to understand.

She continued to click, incapable of stopping. Filled with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, yearning to comprehend what was going on.

The world spun around her again. The dizziness had returned.

What filled her with dread was the final realization.

Many people were being mobilized. Some got more specific instructions, being sent somewhere in Nevada. Investigating strange weather patterns that appeared to orbit around Las Vegas.

What she had experienced was not unique. Not limited to her and two of her coworkers. They were not the only ones in the city. They were not the only city. They were not even the only country with people to experience this.

To see those signs. To follow the instructions.

To know, as it was repeated over and over again: the Glass King nears.

—Submitted by Wratts

[kpop-uni]

Confessions // Chapter 5

Choi YoungjaexReader Based on a serial killer and his documentary Words: 3.6K Warnings: Smut, language, blood and, eventually details surrounding the murders. In this chapter specifically, there are mentions of sexual abuse and triggering topics. A/N: Smut in here, not the good kind. BUT thank you guys for waiting patiently for this chapter! It’s the final one and it’s an open-end so let me know your thoughts! I hope you enjoy it and feel free to let me know your thoughts! Chapter 4 // End

Nothing made sense, Youngjae just kept his eyes on you. It wasn't until you noticed that his mom was crying hysterically, clinging to herself that you started paying attention. Parents of the victims were rejoicing, hugging each other and happy tears were streaming down their faces. Another look at Youngjae showed his head down, hiding his face as he cried, making you stand. An officer rushed over, holding your arm to make sure you didn't move toward Youngjae, keeping you back.

"Youngjae..." You watched as he was pulled up, cuffed again and pulled from the table. "Youngjae!" You screamed, trying to move closer to him only to get stopped by the officer. You kept screaming his name, crying as Bam moved toward you, holding you as you screamed for Youngjae to come back.

"He's innocent, Bam! You know he is!" You cried into Bam's chest, arms wrapped around him as he held you tight, trying to shush you as watched Youngjae disappear behind the doors. Bam gently draped his blazer over your head, covering your face as he and Jinyoung walked out with you. Reporters were asking for comments, cameras rolling as the families of the victims spoke with reports each of them looking at you. You felt their judging eyes from under the blazer, your feet moving faster to get away from everything. Once in Jinyoung's car, you dropped the blazer on your lap, Bam sliding in next to you.

You blocked the conversation Jinyoung had with Bam, your head swirling with everything that happened. Bam occasionally looking at you, trying to get you to talk but you simply stayed silent, only staring at the single spot on the car. You didn't notice the car park, or you getting out and sitting on your couch. You looked up at the TV in front of you, the black screen showing your lost reflection. Bam and Jinyoung weren’t around, only silence surrounded you before the closing of a cabinet made you turn to the hall toward the kitchen. Jinyoung’s whispers were heard and Bam’s response echoing back.

You reached for the TV remote, turning it on and sitting back on the couch, gulping down the lump on your throat.

“...we all know it must be comforting for the parents to know that this man won’t hurt any other girl.” One of the reporters spoke.

“I would hope so, they went through so much within this past year that this justice would help them even if it’s a little.”

You looked up when Bam turned the TV off, sighing heavily. “It’s not good for you to dwell on things like this,”

Bam stayed for the night, staying with you when you woke up screaming. He and Jinyoung ran to your room, Bam immediately comforting you as you clung to him, only wanting Youngjae back. You weren’t allowed to visit Youngjae, the prison saying that only family was allowed, even with his mother’s permission, you weren’t let in. Bam came out with a message from him, that he would come out and he promises to make it all up for you. You stayed home months following after, still not allowed to visit Youngjae, no matter how much you begged or tried to bribe the officers.

Jinyoung continued to come over to keep an eye on you, sometimes staying over and sleeping on the couch. Today, he had called that once he was done with work he was going to go over to help around, starting to help you get back on your feet and get yourself back in school. You scrolled through your phone, looking over old pictures of Youngjae and you. You sniffled, head resting on your blanket, thinking of all the memories you shared with him, the joy he brought you.

A text notification dropped down from the top part of the screen, your eyes glancing up to see Bam's name.

BamBam 3:57 PM: Can you call quick? I wanna run through something with you.

You clicked the drop-down message before it disappeared, letting it take you to Bam's contact info and calling him. You waiting as it rang twice before he answered. "Are you alone?"

"Yeah? What's going on?" You could hear his out of breath voice shake a bit, the sound of the city in the background.

"Yugyeom was after me to talk to him and we had a big argument about what happened with Youngjae and I was about to hang up before he told me something."

You furrowed your eyebrows, sitting up and listening to his voice as your breathing stopped, eyes widening in shock.

"Jinyoung contacted Yugyeom a week before he went on the stand and offered him 2 grand to lie. He told Yugyeom that Youngjae did do the crimes but that Jinyoung was scared for his safety if he confronted Youngjae about it.

"So, Jinyoung took a flight over to visit Yugyeom, gave him the money, buried the jacket covered in blood that who knows where he got it from and came back."

Your lips trembled, tears rising as you whimpered. "Bam... He wouldn't. Jinyoung is his best friend-"

"Jinyoung wasn't himself the past few months, have you noticed?"

You heard your front door open, the call of your name making you scramble back to the headboard of your bed. "He's here, I have to go,"

"Be careful,"

Just as you hung up, Jinyoung came in your room, smiling at you and showing you a bag in his hands, the other hiding behind his back. “Hey, I brought you takeout.”

You hid your phone under your thigh, only looking at the bag before Jinyoung's smile fell, shoulder's slumping. "Still down?" He asked, taking a few steps to you before showing his hiding hand. "Thought that maybe you needed a little pick me up."

Jinyoung offered you a bouquet, the whole thing colorful and fill your nose with the beautiful scent of them. You reached for the wrapped flowers, taking them in your arms. "Come on, let's get food in you."

You didn't take his hand when he offered it, getting off the bed on your own, hiding your phone under the blanket. You followed him to the kitchen, watching as he turned to smile at you, setting the paper bag down. Jinyoung let you sit, taking out everything he needed, beginning to serve the food. “You okay? You look like you have something to say.”

You looked up at Jinyoung who smiled at you, setting a plate of food in front of you, giving you his full attention. “We can talk about it if you want.”

Your eyes shifted down to your food before hesitantly looking up at Jinyoung as he took a bite of his food, chewing it before swallowing. You set the flowers on the table next to your plate, fingers grazing the fork. “Did you pay Yugyeom to lie?”

Jinyoung didn’t stop eating, only looking up at you as he took another forkful of food, chewing his food. You waited for his answer, not even able to eat your food, growing tense. Jinyoung took his time eating, taking a sip of his water before looking at you. "Who told you?"

"I asked you first-"

"Yes, I did,"

You took in a breath, Jinyoung watching you closely before scoffing, picking up his fork to grab some more food. "And now you're going to ask why, right?" Jinyoung guessed, pushing his plate away as he sat back against his chair. You couldn't find words to answer Jinyoung, only sitting and waiting for him to continue.

"I figured that we could go down the old-fashioned route and I could just tell you the truth and have to prove that I'm so much better than Youngjae but then I realized that... I could've just completely removed him from the picture." Jinyoung shrugged during the pause, eyes on his plate.

You blinked, hands trembling on your lap as Jinyoung pressed his tongue to his cheek, suddenly turning into someone you didn't know. He was angry, almost shaking as he collected his thoughts.

"At first I started fucking around, you know? Mostly with girls with the same hair color, same skin complexion as you." Jinyoung waved his hand, dismissing them with a disgusted look. "I thought maybe they could substitute the feeling of you. But it wasn't the same, it never was. They wanted something more but I told them I didn't and they were just so clingy!"

You flinched when he raised his voice, Jinyoung taking a breath before relaxing. "Last year, the first girl was just calling me all the time. She told me to forget you, that she was better anyway and I just snapped."

"I panicked at first, tossing the body in the school's pool and going into hiding." Jinyoung sighed, almost as if he told this story so many times, he was growing bored of it. "There was a rush though, it felt so good to have that much power."

You tensed when Jinyoung looked at you, lips lifting in a smile. "I killed them all, just for fun. Then I realized I could just pin everything on Youngjae and have you fall for me."

You couldn't form words, too shocked to say anything but you pushed yourself back when Jinyoung stood up. You grabbed onto your chair, keeping it in front of you as Jinyoung stalked toward you.

"I'm not going to hurt you, I love you, I could never hurt you,"

"Why-"

"Because he always gets what he wants!" Jinyoung snapped, eyes blazed with anger, trembling as he grit his teeth. "It's not fair! I saw you first! I had a class with you two years ago! And you fucking chose him over me?"

You kept backing away, terrified of the change in Jinyoung, one you never saw. He got mad, sure, you've seen how angry he gets with other people but never like this. He looked like he would kill you without a second thought.

"If it wasn't for me, he would've never met you! I wanted to go to the library to talk to you, but he finally saw you and went behind my back to get to you!" Jinyoung lashed forward, yanking the chair away from your hands, tossing it like nothing toward the table.

"You know how crazy I got knowing that he was the one making you shy? The one you blushed with, flirted with, especially the one you spread those legs for so easily?" By the end, Jinyoung trapped you against the wall, hands gripping your arms.

"Jinyoung-"

"I fucking loved you! I fell in love with you the moment I laid eyes on you and you chose him?" Jinyoung noticed the way you cowered against him, how you trembled and your eyes squeezed closed, almost hugging yourself for protection.

"Princess, I'm sorry," His voice dropped to a whisper, hands loosening on your arms as he bent to your level, carefully picking your face up to look at him. His fingertips pushed your hair behind your ear, a smile coming up on his face. You couldn't look at him, your eyes slowly opening and staying down, terrified of what he looked like.

"Remember our first night together?" He asked, hands moving down your arms and to your hips, pressing himself flush against you. "The way you held me, begged me for more... Fuck, your pussy was so wet for me and you took me in so deep and felt so good."

You shook your head, Jinyoung ignoring you as he kissed your cheek. "I couldn't get your sinful moans out of my head all day. I just wanted to come back and feel you wrapped around me again."

A choked sob left you as Jinyoung pressed kisses to your cheek, moving down to your neck and nibbling on it. You whimpered at the sudden bite, flinching as Jinyoung chuckled against your skin. "I know you like me too," He pressed a kiss under your ear, nibbling on your earlobe. "I can tell by the way you look at me when I come over, how you clung to me when Youngjae wasn’t here, that’s why I decided that you wanted me too.”

You squeezed your eyes closed, hands gripping his shirt tighter in your fist. “That sweet smile on your face when you kissed me goodbye, the way you whined when I had to leave-"

“Jinyoung, I wasn’t in my right mind-"

“Princess,” Jinyoung chuckled, pulling back to look at you as his hands went back to hold your face gently. “Youngjae isn’t here anymore, you don’t have to worry about him.” You tried looking away, tried pulling away but he held your face, pressing his lips to yours.

You cried, hands attempting to push him back before Jinyoung roughly slammed you into the wall, ignoring the way your head bounced with the hit. “Stop trying to get away from me!” Jinyoung yelled, gripping you tightly, holding you up as your legs got wobbly.

Your head spun, seeing double of  Jinyoung as he dragged you to him, making you take a couple of steps before collapsing. “Stop doing this shit! Do you want to get punished?” Jinyoung yelled, attempting to pull you up but you couldn’t, black spots appearing in your vision. You collapsed, legs finally giving out.

You opened your eyes to see the ceiling of your room, you sat up, head spinning and making you lay down again. You groaned a bit, hand covering your eyes to try to steady yourself and to try to get your head to stop spinning.

"Awake?"

Jinyoung's voice made you cower, turning away only for his hand to pull your face gently to face him, his weight falling on the bed next to you. "Baby, I'm sorry. I don't want to hurt you, but you're just so stubborn."

"I don't want you," You whispered, wanting to pull away from Jinyoung but you felt so weak. "I want Youngjae, how could you do this?"

You yelped at the slap to your cheek, curling into a ball as your hands covered your face for protection. You were pinned to the bed, wrist pressed into it as Jinyoung straddled you, grunting when you tried to get away from him. “Stop! Fucking stop!” Jinyoung yelled, making your cry harder.

“I hate you!” You screamed, gasping as his hand wrapped around your throat, your free hand clawing at his arm to let you go.

“You hate me? After everything, I did for you?” Jinyoung watched your face turn red, the way you wheezed for air before he let your neck go, grabbing a hand full of your hair and dragging you off the bed. You yelped as you fell, trying to protect yourself as Jinyoung kept the tight hold on your hair.

“You just feel bad because of him, but just give it time and you’ll come around,” Jinyoung turned soft again, pulling your hair harder to make you kneel.

“I’m sorry!” You screamed, Jinyoung’s hand freezing as he was ready to hit you again. “I’m sorry! It’s the guilt! It’s happening too fast!”

You stumbled when Jinyoung’s hand left your hair, sniffling as he knelt in front of you and cooed softly, kissing your cheek. “I know, but it’ll go away. I’m never leaving you and you’re going to see how I’m so much better for you, okay?”

You forced your head to nod, crying as his lips danced on your cheek, skimming down to your neck. You let him drag you closer, arms caging around you as he gripped your body, making sure you didn’t leave. You whimpered when he flipped you both over, hovering over your body on the ground, his face lighting up. “I love your cute sounds,”

You stared up at the ceiling as Jinyoung laid on you, head on your chest, marks blooming on your body from the bites, the gripping, and the slaps he gave you. Your hair was a tangled mess from the pulls and your face was red and stained with dried tears. You stayed still, Jinyoung getting comfortable and groaning softly, smiling at your wince feeling sore. He gave your chest butterfly kisses, hands skimming across your body as he sighed.

“I can stay inside you forever... can I?” He asked, not expecting an answer, not like you were going to give him one anyway. Jinyoung moved his face down, kissing your tummy before grinning. “How many little ones do you think we’ll have? I want three, all of them to look as cute as you.”

Jinyoung looked up at you, seeing you staring off into space, body laying almost lifeless. You couldn’t cry anymore, all your tears used up and Jinyoung smiled a bit, scooting up to be face level with you. “I love you, baby. I’m always going to protect you, okay? I’m not going to let that fucking animal get near you.”

Jinyoung pulled out, giving you one last kiss before pulling on his clothes, going to the closet. You curled into yourself, eyes closed and block out the rustling he made as he walked around the room. He packed a few of your clothes, stuffing them in a bag before searching your desk and drawers.

Jinyoung sighed, frowning before searching the bed, finally finding your phone. He set it down on your bedside table, putting the ready bag down and walking over to you. He sat you up, gently pulling your clothes back on before smiling at you, cupping your cheek. "You're my girl, okay?"

You let Jinyoung take you out to his car, packing your bag in his trunk as he buckled you up. He looked at you, your eyes not once looking at him. Jinyoung grit his teeth, hand curling around your neck and making you gasp in fear.

"You scream, make one attempt to run away from me and I'm going to fucking kill you, got it?" Jinyoung warned, making you whimper, a small yes escaping your lips. He kissed you, letting go of your neck and making his way to the driver's side of the car.

Youngjae rushed into the arms of Bam, hugging his cousin tightly. "I can't thank you enough,"

Bam laughed a bit, rubbing Youngjae's back. "Don't thank me, you know I would do anything for you."

It's been two weeks since Bam heard your voice, his worry intensifying as he was unsure of what could've happened to you after Jinyoung came home. Bam was close to visiting you when he got a call from an unknown number, answering and sighing in relief at your voice.

"Are you okay? What happened?"

"I'm okay," You answered, looking up at Jinyoung who towered over you. You gulped silently, hand gripping the phone. "I went out of town for a bit, sorry. I have to go but I'm okay,"

You didn't have a chance to properly apologize, to even hear Bam's attempt to keep you on the line a bit longer. Jinyoung yanked the phone back, hanging up and tossing the phone aside.

Now, Bam stood with what hopefully was going to be the best thing to pick you up, Youngjae eagerly rushing inside his home.

It was cold, Youngjae shivering as he looked around. The kitchen smelled, bugs on the table as food sat there growing mold. There was a chair tossed aside, what looked like dried blood on the ground that was slightly smeared. Youngjae walked to the room to find most of your stuff missing, the bed a mess and the whole place in shambles.

Youngjae looked over at your phone, picking it up to find it barely with any battery. He plugged it into the charger, waiting slightly for it to start working properly before scrolling through your records. The last call and text you sent were over a week ago, with no activity happening other than a few social media notifications along with calls and texts from Bam.

Youngjae dialed Jinyoung's number, waiting as the line rang a few times before it answered. Jinyoung sighed, pushing his hair back as he pressed the phone to his ear, smiling. "Hello?"

"Jinyoung? It's me, Bam bailed me out, where's y/n?"

Jinyoung grinned widely, looking down at you and giving you a wink as you stared up at him, hands tied above your head to the headboard. "Wanna talk to her?" Jinyoung asked, pulling the phone away and offering it to you. "Guess what? Bam bailed Youngjae out, he's free and wants to see you,"

Your eyes widened, hands struggling against the rope. Youngjae listened to your whimpers, eyebrows furrowing in concern. "Baby, it's me-"

"Sorry, she doesn't want to talk to you," Jinyoung pressed the phone back to his ear, watching as you cried, trying to turn away. Jinyoung grinned at how broken you were, now terrified of Youngjae after all the abuse you received from Jinyoung for even thinking about him. "Right, princess? You don't want him?"

"No! I don't want him! Please, Jinyoung, I don't want him!" You cried, shaking and terrified of what could happen to you. Jinyoung hummed, the loud kisses he pressed on your neck reaching Youngjae as he stood silent, tears streaming down his face.

"If you get near my girl, I'm going to murder her just like I did to the others. I'm going to make you watch as I tear her apart, making sure you get blamed again."

Youngjae listened to your cries, the way you begged for forgiveness to Jinyoung and the way he slightly moaned, chuckling. "Now, if you'll excuse us, we're busy getting a family started."

Jinyoung pulled away from you, putting the phone down on the desk he had across the room, smashing the phone until it broke.

Youngjae looked over at Bam who stood at the entrance of the bedroom, teeth-gritting in anger. "I'm going to kill him,"