#want to get the house cleaner; want to be doing the cooking; cause I see how work makes that stuff harder

[medicinemane]

Sometimes with people on youtube it's "upload what I fucking followed you for, not this junk"

And I'm not talking about when they go off on a side project or something, I'm not talking like if you followed someone here for some fandom and now they only talk about The Art of War

Literal example, followed on guy for global economics videos, I don't fucking need positivity videos from you, I definitely don't need videos on how to get rich (mate... I already ain't buying coffee, fancy cars, or whatever the other two things you said were, I literally own my house, I'm only not investing and I still ain't rich... out of touch aussie), and I sure as hell don't need a video about some mr beast challenge

You kinda get what I mean with this of "post the shit I followed you for"?

[opiopal]

•All I wanted was bread•

2

(This is the second part of my TSL fic, I apologize if this part seems a little rushed? I was attempting to get to the brothers as soon as possible.

The characters in this part are Mc(you), the crows, a very mean Lucifer, and mammon(who appears for a split second). Simeon, luke, are mentions but do not appear.)

(I apologize again if this sucks, I haven’t actually written in a long time)((pt 3 will be out as soon as I can write it))

•

Being alone was hard.

You were used to having someone to talk to, make jokes with, someone to teach, someone to help you cook, someone that was always waiting for you after you got off work.

But now it was just you, in the same house, with the same dirty windows, the same crummy writing desk now with no one to sit in it, the same worn down floors, and the same familiar beds but with no familiar boys sleeping in them.

But, you were yourself, you were human, you adjusted quickly.

Soon you fell into your own rhythm after about two months had gone by.

•

You wake up nearly the moment the sun shines through the window, throwing off the covers and quickly putting on your day clothes, you don’t waste a second hanging around in the bedroom, knowing that if you dwell for to long you’ll only find yourself getting sad at the lack of company. So you quickly push through the bedroom door, letting it shut behind you as you grab a small basket of seed and the pitcher of water.

The moment you step outside you are greeted by the caw of multiple crows sitting on your roof and hopping around on the ground,

“Good morning to you all,”

You quickly scatter seed across the ground, letting them flock to the area as you begin to water your garden. It had actually begun flourishing now that the crows leave it alone(for the most part), and now its something to be decently proud of.

Once you’re finished up, you head inside quickly, you need to get going soon for work so something quick will have to do for breakfast.

But, once you open the cupboard you remember you had finished off the bread yesterday. You rummage through the kitchen for a good while and find only oats are left. Taxes were due yesterday so you were low on money as well…

No matter! You tell yourself, you can always just buy some more food after work today! Since you get paid daily and not weekly.

So you ignore the growing pit in your stomach and head off for work after securing your shoes to your feet.

•

Sweeping and dusting felt like a much bigger task when hungry, but you’ve worked plenty of times while hungry before, so it’s nothing new to you. But it was still annoying to have to occasionally hear that grumble from your stomach, interrupting your thoughts. As the hours slowly ticked by you could feel yourself growing more grumpy and irritated, but you kept yourself polite when you talked with the other cleaners occasionally and quietly.

At some point during the afternoon, you were going back over the downstair floors, sweeping dirt from visitors walking in right back out the door. Then you heard the voice of your employer, for a moment you didn’t think anything of it until you processed that it sounded like she was scolding someone.

Your never ending curiosity got the better of you and you make your way over to a study, peaking inside you see her practically shouting at an elderly cleaner to clean the windows faster.

“We will be having guests in this room and they don’t need to see a hag such as yourself! It isn’t that hard to reach the top of the window- stop being lazy!”

You watch her kick the stool in which the cleaner was standing on, causing her to stumble and struggle to keep her balance. You feel anger bubbling up in your chest and you feel your face getting warm. This combined with your hunger just made you even angrier.

Before you could even process what you are doing, your feet are moving on their own and your arms swing the door open hard enough for it to bounce off the wall loudly.

“DONT KICK HER YOU WENCH!”

Silence fills the room as both women look at you baffled, just as you process what you had done, you watch as the lady of the house’s face turn a bright red as she shrieks.

“EXCUSE YOU!?”

•

•

It had hardly even been high noon and you were already heading back home. Because of course you had been fired immediately after your outburst.

But it’s not like you could help it- you were hungry and awfully close to that old woman, and seeing her get kicked around by someone young enough to be be her granddaughter was just- infuriating! And even now you could still feel your rage bubbling up inside your chest, though a lot of it was now replaced by shame and anxiety. Why did you have to open your mouth? Why couldn’t you have just walked away? Why did you have to be some sort of hero? But what would have happened if you did walk off? Would the have woman fallen and broken something? Would the lady of the house left her there on the ground?! WHAT IF-

Your thoughts are interrupted by someone stepping Infront of you and loudly clearing their throat.

“Ahem.”

You look up and are met with one of the messengers from the palace,

“Oh- I’m sorry I didn’t noti-“

“Of course you didn’t.”

They say roughly before shoving an envelope into your hands.

“I- thank yo-… ok, yeah, walking away is fine to. I guess.”

You watch them as they walk off, brushing off their hands onto their pant leg. You look down at the envelope and realize it’s from Simeon! Excitement bubbles up inside you, but only for a moment as you remember your situation once again.

•

Once you made it back home, the crows surrounding the small building caw in confusion as to why you’re home so early in the day. You plop down on the ground, resting your forehead in the palm of your free hand. You hear the little bodies of your friends land on the ground as they hop around you. One even worms his way into your lap to look up at your face.

Though you tried for a moment, you can’t help but let out a small laugh as you fix your posture, gently petting the crow in your lap as you do so.

“I got fired today. And of course I didn’t get paid for the hours I already worked.”

You sigh.

“I suppose it’s my own fault. I let my emotions get the best of me and I didn’t control myself.”

You hear a collection of loud caw’s from the small murder around you.

“What? It’s not like I didn’t know how to control myself, I was being impulsive-“

Another collective caw.

You sigh, realizing for a moment that you are indeed talking to birds and responding as if they can understand you. When in reality your brain is telling you that they’re just hungry. After a moment longer of sitting outside you turn your attention back to the unopened envelope in your hand.

You inhale slowly before ripping it open, tossing the envelope to the side as you read through the letter.

“Dear Mc,

I am writing in favor of an extremely excited Luke, who has been excelling in his lessons at an extraordinary rate, and has recently begun learning about the extended history of the kingdom. Which he says is a bit complicated, but he’s having fun anyways.”

You feel a smile creep up onto your face, it always made you feel better to know that Luke was living the best possible life the world could provide.

“Now I myself am doing well, the palace is still just as gorgeous and we are both well fed and warm every single night.”

Your stomach lets out an envious grumble.

“But what I wish to know is how you are doing. You are always on my mind and I can’t help but worry for your wellbeing. Though I trust you are managing just fine without me.”

You feel your face scrunch up slightly as you cringe.

By the time you finish reading you feel many emotions in your gut. You’re proud of Luke and very happy, though Simeon only talked of himself once you know he’s also doing just fine, which relieves you. But how are you supposed to tell him what’s happened?

You sigh as you set the letter down, rubbing your eyes and sitting motionless for what feels like ages.

Then a clink is heard.

You turn your head and notice one of the crows nudging a single coin towards you. Carefully you take it and smile.

“Ah, now what’s this? A gift? My my, how generous of you my friend.”

The crow puffs its little chest out pridefully. Though it wasn’t a lot you still appreciated the thought.

You turn your attention back to the letter for a moment before sighing, and heading back inside to try and figure out what in the world to say to Simeon.

•

•

•

Two weeks have passed at this point.

For some reason, it was suddenly impossible to find a job, no one wanted to pay you to do anything at all. So you haven’t had any form of income.

The pit in your stomach was a constant reminder of your situation, you could have a whole conversation with the growls that came from your gut daily. Sure your garden kept you alive these past weeks, but you needed something more, some actual protein, anything at all.

Occasionally you had the intrusive thought of just.. taking one of the crows inside with you.. and-

Of course you couldn’t even finish the thought without feeling overwhelming guilt. Because how in the world could you bring yourself to do that to something that trusts you so much!?

However. You didn’t ignore all of your intrusive thoughts.

One day you were walking through the market, hoping and praying that anyone at all you exchange food for the small amount of money you managed to hold onto. Then you spot a stall set up right outside the bakery.

Not only was it littered with sweets, but also different types of bread. Your eyes land specifically on an awfully large loaf of sourdough. You approach the stall, looking at the selection.

No ones paying attention, the baker isn’t even tending to the stall… it would be quite the shame if someone had taken a loaf. Especially since it was just so enticing. No. No. You couldn’t imagine anyone doing such a thing.

But no one was around, no one was even looking in your general direction, it was just one loaf, just one, there’s plenty..

just take it.

your mind screamed at you.

It’s- it’s fine, you’re hungry. Just take the bread Mc. Take it. Your window is closing. Take the opportunity. Take the bread. Take it. TAKE IT. JUST TAKE IT THE DAMN BREAD.

Before you knew it you quickly snatched the loaf and began walking away.

Your mind immediately started racing. Theres no way no one saw that, right? How was is that easy? Well, maybe you just got luck-

“HALT! THIEF!”

Well shit.

Without thinking twice you immediately break into a sprint. Shoving past bystanders and even a few shocked folks who knew you.

No no no no crap- dammit. Well you’re already running you can’t stop now!

You duck and doge past anything that had gotten in your way, barrels, carts, horses, cattle, it didn’t matter, your adrenaline was control your body as you hugged the loaf of bread to your chest as if it was the only thing that mattered in the world, because at this moment, it did.

Though you were only one person, and guards quickly blocked you off and seized you.

Now you might have been let go, maybe they would have even let you explain yourself and pitied you. But the moment you saw the smallest amount of exposed skin on one of the men grabbing ahold of you… with your adrenaline still coursing through your veins, your jaw flies open as you bite down on his arm. Causing a loud yelp to be heard from the guard.

..which also caused you to not be let go. And caused you to not have a second to explain yourself. And instead you found yourself being dragged by the arms by two guards.

Your knees scrapped against the ground below due to the fact that the guards didn’t stop for a moment to even let you stand. The cloth of your clothing thankfully acted as a sort of shield, but yet not enough of one as you could still feel the familiar sting of skin being broken and torn.

You could hardly process where in the world you were being taken, all you could focus on is the burning by in your knees and the occasional distant caw. Why were you wearing caws? You then saw a crow fly past, surely that didn’t mean anything at all. Right?

Then, you saw the palace growing closer.

No.. there’s no way they’re taking you to the LORDS because some bread?! Sure you bit a guard but there’s no way this warrants being taken to the LORDS!! OVER BREAD!

Despite your disbelief and silent reasoning, you’re dragged past the gates and into a grand court yard filled with hedges being tended to and trimmed by servants. And of course a stone pavement in which your knees could scrape further against.

You could hardly even take in the towering sight of the palace before being brought inside the magnificent piece of architecture, and into a throne room.

The throne room was massive, of course the first thing you noticed after being forcefully knelt down on the marble floor, was the seven thrones, elevated to loom over everyone and anyone placed infront of them. And unfortunately, that was you at the moment. The walls were covered with beautiful tapestries and suits of armor-which you couldn’t tell if they were occupied or not- lined the pillars in the room.

As the guard to your left begins to yammer on about how you were a “violent” and “masterful” thief, you scan the thrones. Each of the lords sat in their own respective spots. Of course the oldest being in the center throne. Though the spot to the right of the oldest was empty.. one of the lords werent present at the moment. But of course that was not your biggest concern.

You’re pulled out of your thoughts as you watch the Lord of Corruption rise out of his throne, walking forwards and down the steps to be on ground level. Your eyes quickly scan him up and down, taking in the detail of his black armored clothes with blue detailing, the shape of his jaw and nose, and his black greying hair which framed his face like some sort of painting.

His eyebrows were raised in amusement as he stared down at your knelt form. You feel the grip on your arms tighten as if to keep him safe from you, as if that would make the guards story seem more believable.

“And this… peasant.. is a dangerous and violent thief that I’ve never heard a single word about?”

He sounded entertained, as if he thought this whole ordeal was just as ridiculous as you did. He stops right in front of you. Staring down before a low chuckle leaves his throat.

“Ah yes. What a terrifying creature.”

You hear a small collection of giggles and chuckles throughout the room, laughing with him and at you.

You attempt to glance around the room again, maybe to gain a better sense of your surroundings or to even calm yourself, but then the lord slowly knelt down in front of you, grabbing your chin to force your head forwards as he stares. Entirely to close to your face.

“Hm, so you two bring me a little human thief and claim it’s dangerous. How ridiculous.-“

Without a second thought you pull your head back and spit at him.

Maybe that’s an understatement.

On him.

No no. In.

In his face.

You spit in the face of the Lord of Corruption. Causing gasps of shock to be heard throughout the throne room as he immediately stands and backs away in disgust, embarrassment, and anger. Your face turns to horrified as you realize what you have just done. A maid rushes up and quickly goes to clean his face, only for him to snatch the small rag from them and to wipe his cheek clean.

“Why you insignificant little..”

He approaches again, this time more aggressively as he tosses the rag onto the floor. His hand shoots out and roughly grabs a fist full of your hair, forcing you to stand as your own hands shoot up to grip his wrist, a whine escapes your throat as you try to gain balance to keep the sudden pain at bay.

“I’ll have your head for that you-“

His words are cut short as the sound of wings and caws fill the room. Above on the rafters sat multiple crows, cawing angrily and loudly. Their voices echo throughout the room as if in a noisy protest of the scene unfolding below them. The both of you stare upwards, his grip your hair faltering just for a moment before tightening again. He turns his head to look back at you with an accusatory expression on his face, nearly immediately piecing together that all the ruckus from the birds above just has to be your fault.

But then the caws suddenly die down as doors are swung open, ricocheting off the wall with a loud boom as an out of breath voice full of panic shouts into the room.

“WAIT.”



[snootlestheangel]

SoapGaz

*cracks knuckles* They're definitely idiots to lovers but as in they're idiots and they become lovers, not as in "oblivious to the other's extreme attraction until a climatic moment"

Who was the one to propose? I want it to be Soap so badly but also think it'd be very on brand for them/their relationship if Gaz also proposed. I'm talking like the Spiderman meme where they point at each other when they realize and then they laugh and neither can even say yes, they try to kiss but they're both still laughing too hard. It's just such a beautiful mental image that I have right now :')

Who stressed more over wedding planning? Gaz. Gaz a thousand times over. Soap is experienced with weddings and wedding planning (he has so many in-law siblings and almost all of his cousins his age/older are married.) but Gaz doesn't have any experience with even being at a wedding, much less planning his own.

Who decorated the house? Gaz. He's got style and taste, but he a hundred percent uses a lot of Soap's artwork :)

Who does the cooking? Soap. He was taught and raised well by such a large family that food was just a staple of his upbringing.

Who is more organized? Hot take? Soap is the more organized one. He's a demo expert, yes, but those things are fucking dangerous! He may not be cleaner necessarily, but he knows certain things CANNOT mix, and he got so into the habit of putting things into separate categories that it just carried over into civilian living.

Who suggested kids first? Soap, jokingly. But in terms of who was serious when suggesting it? Gaz. Soap had made a comment about "what if we had one?" while at a MacTavish family event and pointing at a little niece/nephew of his as a joke. Gaz had to play along with it but internally he was flipping out. He brings up the conversation of kids as a serious topic a few weeks later.

Who's the cuddler? Both are very physically affectionate. But in terms of 'must be touching you at all times?' it's Gaz. Soap runs hot I feel like, so especially at night he doesn't really want cuddles but Gaz is like "too bad you're stuck with me >:) "

Who's big spoon/little spoon? Gaz is big spoon at night, but during the day when cuddling on the couch or something it's Soap

What's their favorite non-sexual activity? Museum dates. Gaz is such a little nerd and Soap loves art. Museum dates are perfect for them, cause it's something calm and beautiful, there's an opportunity for Gaz to get a new book or something, and for a desert afterwards.

Who comes home drunk at 3am? I wanna say Soap. He's just such a golden retriever that if a bunch of their friends are hanging out at bars, he's right there with them. Gaz is there, too, but he doesn't usually drink to drunkenness like Soap does.

Who kills the spiders? Gaz. It's not that Soap is afraid of them but he argues that it's best if he and the spider remain on opposite sides of the room. Gaz doesn't give a flying fuck

Who falls asleep first? Depends. If it's during a late-night movie in their flat, it's Soap. Gaz gets too invested in every movie they watch so he can never fall asleep first. But if it's right when they go to bed, it's usually Gaz cause Soap needs to do something like doodle/journal for a bit to calm his mind before he can.

A headcanon: Trying to decide if I want to keep this SFW or just go the nasty route... I'll keep it safe for now. They do pretty much everything together, especially on base. They just love each other's company so much and both thrive off social interaction so it's like a win-win. They'll workout together, they eat together, they go grocery shopping together. They're such an iconic duo it's hard to ignore the fact they're together. ALSO, I fully believe Soap is just whipped for Gaz's smile/laugh (aren't we all?) that he does everything in his power to see it/hear him laugh. Even if Gaz's 'laugh' is just a bunch of wheezing punctuated by laughing sounds, Soap still finds it so beautiful. Anything he can do to make Gaz smile/laugh was worth doing

Do they have any rituals? Gaz is the one with the most rituals, so to speak. He's got a whole skin care routine (that he dragged Soap into), he's got some pretty good oral hygiene. Soap has a whole morning ritual that is far too complicated for Gaz's understanding. It's about how he makes his coffee and it's one of the most bizarre things Gaz has ever witnessed.

Who has the most patience? Probably Gaz. Even though, in the field, they're both patient (they're both snipers and Soap is a demo man, both roles require a lot of physical patience), Soap is pretty short-tempered when it comes to most other things. Like, physically, he's patiently waiting for something, but when you listen to him talking to Gaz, it's just complaining about how bored/impatient he is. It takes a lot to get Gaz genuinely angry at something, which is not to say he's going from 0-100 in these instances. He's definitely showing he's annoyed at everything, but whether he actually acts on it or not is the determining factor of his patience.

A gif that describes their relationship: I actually really like this one. It's just *sighs* I don't know but it's SoapGaz in my heart

[twst-drabbles]

What would life be like with Malleus in the years later au? You have decided to stay with him, and the two of you watches as your friends grows older. I would like to know your thoughts about his feelings, maybe it's comforting to him that at least you would stay with him for a very long time.

Hmm considering the way I made the reader, I would imagine they become a wanderer, just marking down places they want to go to since they couldn't before on the account of needing to finish their education. Put together a scrapbook filled with photos of places they've been, little notes, stories and doodles relating to said places. Just, taking in the sights and visiting as many of their old friends as possible.

Also hoooo, I ramble here.

I can't imagine them being someone who stays in the palace. They need their own space. And, well, Malleus being Malleus, they'd get that house and quite a bit of land. A nice place, quaint and peaceful. And, of course, it's a place he'd visit quite a bit.

The first death happens and it doesn't really hit. It doesn't feel real, you know? You hear the news and all you can do is slowly feel the passage of time rushing past you. The seconds tick by and it doesn't really hit that so much time had escaped them.

They attend the funeral, of course they have to, and it still doesn't feel real. Age has been crawling over their friends for a while now, but even then it was something one can easily ignore. Aging happens to everyone. And death was going to happen sooner or later. And, rather than confront that thought, they'd thought it be easier to just live in the moment. That's really all they can do to avoid thinking what's eventually going to become their present.

You can assured that they've lived a full life. Their friends have went off and reached the heights they all wanted to reach, have reached them in the time the Prefect was gone. And yet, it feels unfair all the same.

And so, this ex-Prefect goes back to the person that's just as ageless as them, Malleus.

Okay, so I do imagine because Malleus ends up even more embroiled in his kingly duties, that arrogant side of him becomes a little more pronounce. Not in the sense that he actively looks down on you, but in the sense that when he makes a demand, it will be fulfilled quickly due to his rather busy schedule. Free time has become very precious to him and he will want to spend it however he likes. No need to worry though, a gentle reminder will be enough to curb it, this older self is a little more agreeable.

I like to think he does have servants, but they weren't people he hired. Malleus can pretty much take care of everything himself, since he still hasn't hit the magical limit of his potential, but he doesn't say no to those that willingly come in. Oh, keep in mind that Malleus did open the doors of his castle for people to come in and out from. If they want to see, they can, provided they stay away from certain places such as his room and other private quarters. I would imagine he likes to try these kinds of nontraditional things every so often.

And, eventually, these little nontraditional things attracted some odd fae and humans to his castle, who wanted to serve as general cleaners, cooks and other such things as a way of thanking Malleus. And who is Malleus to turn away folks who fought against their fears to face him?

So yeah, the number of servants in his castle have definitely rose. He pays them of course. And you can certainly bet that he leaves his castle every so often to check up on people he hasn't seen in a bit, wanderer that he is. At first he doesn't see much of a point in putting on a disguise, but now he intentionally goes out without one because it always causes people to lose their cool. He really like messing with the public like that every so often.

Hmm, I know people will be disappointed to hear this, but Malleus would highly likely have a fiancee by this point. And I know his finacee isn't going to be the kind of person that will judge or be jealous of the human friend that Malleus keeps close. They very much have a cordial relationship, and they will very much get along with one another since they both have a mutual love and respect for humans, while also cherishing their fae heritage.

Simply put, the fiancee Malleus has will be someone who hold the same believes and aims as him. Someone he can rely on to continue the work he's putting into Briar Valley in the case something were to ever happen to him. They're not in love with one another, but they'd rather not marry anyone else, if that makes sense. You get me? They're not going to divorce. They will have a child eventually, though, that's inevitable.

I just think it would interesting to explore the difference in dynamics These characters have with the ex-Prefect. But also because there are definitely going to be people who have a big problem with this. Viewing this as an "unfaithful" dynamic and what have you. That'll be fun too.

Life with Malleus as time passes by and everyone ages faster than the ex-Prefect is... comforting, as well as lonely, since the Prefect was never made nor raised to know that everyone else will age faster than them. This was something that was suddenly sprang onto them, they were not prepared in the least. It is nice to have someone there who's went through the same thing all the same.

[dead-by-mending]

Legion members relationships with other killers

Just trying to get good with headcannons, feedback would be appreciated

Trapper : Strict dad and mischievious kids vibes. They always mess with his traps, get caught, get scolded, apologize, hug, and repeat. No one will ever know, but Evan cried over a drawing Susie made for him

Wraith : They like to hang out with him. If they want some scrap to make stuff, Philip will gladly let them take some (unless they try to take hooks). Joey tried to teach him rap, but he didn't really understand...

Hillbilly : He likes having them around, even if they cause a mess in his house. Max never had real friends before, so he's happy to have some in those meddling kids. He likes to show off his longest chainsaw sprints to them

Nurse : They don't really hang out with her too much, because of her insane nature. But whenever they get hurt outside of trials, Sally is always here to help. And she loves to have some tea with the girls

Myers/Shape : Although they're big fans of his movies, especially Frank and Julie, they usually stay away from him. Michael wouldn't let them approach without stabbing them anyway

Hag : They were surprised when they found out Lisa was actually around their age. She shows them some tricks she can do with her traps, and some tips to take care of totems

Doctor : Since Herman was labeled as the Killers' therapist, they're kinda forced to talk to him regularly. Otherwise, they stay away from him as much as possible

Huntress : Anna likes to take care of them. She teaches them some hunting techniques, and tries to cook them some stuff to eat. She always giggles to herself whenever she remembers that one time Susie accidentaly called her "mama"

Leatherface/Cannibal : From watching his movies, they know about how Bubba's family used to treat him, so they try to be nice to him. Frank even agreed to taste his chili. Obviously the human flesh bits weren't really good for him...

Nightmare/Freddy : At first they thought it was Robert Englund's Freddy Kruger, so they were excited to meet him. Then they realized how wrong they were. Susie was the one feeling the most uncomfortable around him...

Pig/Amanda : Since Saw came out after they were taken by the Entity, they had no idea who she was. But they liked hanging out with her anyway, especially Julie. They eventually got their hands on the first Saw trilogy and learned more about her

Clown : At first, they found him creepy and avoided him. But when it was clear that Kenneth didn't mean no harm (at least to them), they started hanging around his carnival. He especially liked to see Susie play with Maurice

Spirit : Rin quickly became good friends with the Legion, even if Kazan kinda disagrees. She hangs out a lot with Julie and Susie. Frank even thought about dating her, before he fell for Kate

Plague : They don't really get near Adiris, because of her Plague, but Julie and Susie always enjoy talking with her (6ft apart, of course)

Ghostface : Danny is that one funny uncle for the Legion. Even though when they first met him, they were kinda disappointed he wasn't one of the killers from Scream. He turned to be one hell of a cool guy anyway

Demogorgon : Puppy. Yes, that's it. Well not actually... When the Entity abandoned the realm of Hawkins (because let's be honest, Vecna kinda wanted it for himself), they were allowed to keep Demo

Oni : If you read what I said earlier with Spirit, then you know that Kazan doesn't like those indecent, immature and gross teenagers (yes, that's what he said). So they just avoid him

Deathslinger : They really like the old cowboy that Caleb is, even though he won't let them touch his gun. He often tells them stories about his bounties and other adventures with his gang

Executioner/Pyramid Head : They're afraid of him, even though he actually doesn't care about them. If they ever felt guilty about the store cleaner, then they probably stopped, because he never went after them

Blight : They never forgave Talbot for what he did to them with his serum. They hate him with a burning passion and never forget to remind him anytime they come across him... Problem is that he couldn't care less, he got what he wanted and moved on

Twins : They don't really hang out that much, but when they do, they always kinda enjoy it. Charlotte always likes to see Susie play with Victor. She was even surprised when she found out they knew a bit of words in French

Trickster : While the rest of the group kinda likes him, Frank can't stand Ji-Woon. They always get on eachother's nerves

Nemesis : They don't really stay near him, but Nemmy doesn't really cause them any trouble. None of them are S.T.A.R.S. members, after all

Cenobite : Same as Myers : they're fans of the Hellraiser movies (especially Frank and Julie), and that's why they stay away from Pinhead, they know what he's capable of

Artist : Probably their fellow killer that they feel bad for the most. Susie likes to draw stuff with Carmina, hoping to cheer her up with that. They also started getting nicer to crows (not that they were mean to them before, they just didn't care)

Onryo : Thankfully they watched the original Ringu movie, otherwise they wouldn't have any idea about who Sadako is. She formed, with Susie, Lisa and Rin, their own group of killer girls.

Dredge : The only time they approached it was to attack it, when they learned it consumed Maurice. Apart from that, they always stayed away from it, and they never forgave either...

Mastermind : Frank and Joey only remember Wesker from the original Resident Evil 1 (yes, it possibly released before they were taken, I checked), so they were kinda surprised with the Uroboros stuff. They quickly started to make fun of him, and he hated that

Knight : At first they were kinda jealous that Tarhos could bring his buddies in trials while they couldn't stay together. But they quickly forgot about that because they find him really cool, even though he finds them as, I quote, "insufferable brainless youth"

Skull Merchant : They wish they could like Adriana (especially Joey and Julie), but let's be honest, her power sucks and even they know it. Hopefully her new idea for it (her rework) will possibly change that

Singularity : Since they were told Hux would just attack any human on sight, they stayed away from him. But they still watched him from afar and thought he's really cool. Susie even puked when she first saw his mori

Xenomorph : Same as Demo, except that they see Xeno as kitty. They love to cause mess by having their 2 pets play together

Good guy/Chucky : They were really excited to see Chucky arrive in the realm, and even more when they learned he was going to live with them

[milf-n-dilf-dippin-dots]

IM GOING TO KILL IM GOING TO KILL IM GOING TO KILL

Last night my roommate and I got some drinks- i shared some soju w him and hit the hay after packing away some stuff n tidying/rinsing etc

I leave at 9am this morning, 3 bottles of soju on the table, 2 cans of sprite and some snacks on the table "oh its fine, he knows im out im sure he'll tidy and throw out some of the counter rubbish for me :>"

Come home at 4pm

The only thing thats been done is the 8 dishes that were in the sink (lil cups, 2 bowls from dinner and cooking utensil) not including the pan on the stove

Nothing thrown away!! Im going crazy!!!!!!!!!

Be so fr gang, am i like. Blowing it out of proportion? Or is the fact that im the primary cleaner of the house insane.

Important note is that i have no choice but to be the person who does mostah the cleaning- because he sleeps 12 hours a day, waking up around 2 or 3 pm and not going to bed until 5 or 6 am.

I went away for 2 nights n i come home and hes like "oh i could finally get stuff done because im only productive at 4am"

Which hey man sure dude you do you i dont care what you do in yer free time-

But my ass isnt gonna go 'yes! Sure! You can vacuum and wash dishes late at night/early am! Even though it keeps me awake because i cant close my door!'

But i also dont want to end up being this dudes damn mother the fucking manchild doesnt even know how to mop properly- or vacuum properly! And he doesnt vac the carpet! Or wipe down the oven/benches after using em! Like cmon man!!

"Oh but maybe he didnt get taught!"

Dawg i am his roommate, at what point is it my responsibility to teach a whole entire dude how to take care of his surroundings. I saw his room when he moved out- it was bad. This dude borders of raw negligence of his surroundings, and if it wouldnt cause me the harm i would stop cleaning up after him just so hed suffer. And he leaves the tap running to wash dishes.

I dont know what i expected tbh- his parents built 2 houses for their kids next to their 2 storey spiral staircase chandelier having house.

Im fighting for my fuckin life over here- 300 rent a week, 125 a fortnight for a couch, 50 a month for wifi, etc while this dudes like "yeah i paid all my rent a month in advance, and i get my money from dividense" it makes me want to break his trachea.

Like lets be fr i am blatantly not a pleasant person, moreso in high doses, and moreso when i have to deal w someone who fucks their own life even when theyve gotten dealt the perfect hand of cards to do well.

Like, yeah man im sorry you cheated on your girlfriend of multiple years for 5 whole months then got sad about it and became an insomniac but im not gonna suffer your shit schedule and not sleep well because you wont see a therapist or take meds. Like is that my problem? To be clear im not a cunt to his face, but i am a cunt. And i am annoyed at him. Maybe i should commune like a normal person, but that involves me sitting this dude down to tell him he needs to pay attention to things like 'responsibility' and 'reasonable expectations'.

He had guests over a while ago and i ended up cooking for them all!! And cleaning up after them!! And making breakfast the next morning!! He apparently makes 1800 a fortnight and he spends almost all of that. He owes me money!! Sometimes i pay for groceries n he just has to pay me back! Like dude???

[hypersomniaaboutsleeping]

HashiMada 31-day challenge!!

Topic: Terrifying zucchini

Hashirama has always believed that Madara is not afraid of anything and no one. Even the Shinobi army.

But one of the peaceful days..

- Hashi, there's nothing to eat there. Have you switched to a diet for monks?

Uchiha examined the entire kitchen in his friend's house, and found nothing to eat, in his opinion. Stale bread? Well, no, it wasn't even dragged off the window by a bird. Milk? Yes, it has already turned into white excrement in the jug.. Such were the consequences of many missions and the absence of a home.

Dara, of course, lived as well. But he had practically few things, and ate exclusively in the dining room nearby, observing the soldier's diet.. And the houses are frankly cleaner.

- I just came from the land of tea, I'm sorry, there's nothing to feed on..

- So order them to cook, they'll do everything for you.

- I'm not a daimyo to be arrogant, and in general.. I was going to the market! You can't be left here alone.

The man frowned even more at this phrase, and began to resemble a fluffy and purebred cat about to tear up the owner's face.

- That's why you need to get married soon. And there is food, and the house is in order. - Brown-haired sneezed.

Hashirama only snorted in response, rolling his eyes. He and get married? Tobirama will give you flowers from Izuna faster! And everything is difficult for them, Tobirama turned out to be stubborn..

- See? Already sneezing for the umpteenth time today. Let's go.

Madara does not listen to him, and does not say where they are going. However, after a couple of turns, they turn around, and Senju understands: Tobirama trains there.

The brown-haired man is dissatisfied, and again looks around the sprawling village. The brunette understands that the stubborn man is lost.

- So where are we going? - Hokage puts his hand on his shoulder.

His friend hisses with displeasure, again looking like a cat.

- Fucking. Market. Why is it that whenever I look for him, he turns out to be in a completely different direction?! - He almost knocks down someone else's wall, but when he notices the child, he sighs..

- Boo.

Children don't like Madara. He's got them now, too. They get scared forever.. The child ran away, quickly remembering where his mother was, not noticing the Hokage behind someone else's back.

Senju strokes her, waiting for him to calm down. There will be smoke from Uchiha soon..

- We're still at the bazaar, aren't we?..

- Yes.

Hashirama sighs, turning the satellite completely around. Probably, Dara will never remember: the training ground to the southern part of the settlement, where Shinobi live in general; the northern one is commercial and civil. He's used to tent cities..

This time Uchiha is not outraged, as it used to be. Silently accepts help.

More and more often he began to get confused and stray, but he could not even name a clear reason, because as soon as the all-working Hashi was not around, it stopped. Like a snap of the fingers.

He just had to rely on Senju.

There were more and more people, as well as noise, and the houses were brighter and richer. Here is the sign "Konoha Bazaar: everything for housewives".

Madara grins, and Hashirama looks at him questioningly.

- And you are our hostess now.

Hashirama threatens that he will no longer invite him, "because it is indecent to bring men into the house." The argument is weighty.. He even apologizes for carelessness, which causes laughter.

Here's a place with groceries. They are sold here for half the price of the Hokage by an elderly woman living on the allowance of a Shinobi son.

- Do you like it as usual, Senju-sama?

- Today I take everything! I arrived, and a rat hung himself in my cellar..

Uchiha stands away for a couple of minutes, so as not to confuse the woman with the appearance. But when someone else's conversation drags on, he already wants to help himself..

..And jumps away from the counter with a loud curse.

Granny doesn't understand anything. Hokage too..

And then the second one bursts into bright laughter, which makes the head of the Uchih even more angry.

- Have you lost your fear?!

The first object that came to hand was a fallen thing..

..Hashirama has not been beaten with a squash until this day.

Madara sighs and asks:

- Does it hurt?

He awkwardly sits down next to him, and Senju is now just pouting like a child.

  And he doesn't answer... ("Asshole," the black-haired one thinks.)

...The first ten minutes.

- There will be a bump. And what should I tell Tobirama?

Uchiha looks at the bruised place for a couple of minutes. Not the only one..

How was Mom doing there? Kissed a bruise and an abrasion. And the father was indignant - "they should grow up as men!"

He touches his lips to someone else's head, removing the hair from his temple.

The next month, Hashirama ran after him and literally got a second kiss on the sore spot.

It is not worth knowing to the accompanying Shinobi why the head of Senju very stupidly gave himself to be beaten even on the lips just for the sake of Konoha's co-founder.

And it all started with a zucchini.

[mugloversonly]

This is great. But I’m also a happy ending truther and this one got me so I have to make them make up. Sorry @atimeofyourlife

After Eddie left, Steve began cleaning up the kitchen. He threw the sauce down the sink and muttered angrily while he scrubbed the pot.

“Stupid…idiot…trying to make things ‘fun’ when all I wanted was a nice time.” He grabbed the rest of the dishes and tossed it all in the dishwasher.

Steve had already been having a shit day. Work was brutal, Keith kept leaving huge boxes of tapes for Steve to stock. Even though it was the closer’s job.

Too angry to cook something else, he grabbed a TV dinner out of the freezer and ate it standing in the kitchen.

He was still agitated, so he decided to clean the rest of the house.

After an hour of intense work, he finally felt calm enough to think about the evening.

Why would he insist on cooking together if he was just going to mess everything up?

Steve thought back to what Eddie said when he snapped.

“I just wanted to make you smile.” He thought fucking around in the kitchen and putting him in danger was fun?

He thinks to his childhood. Trying to help is mother around the house.

“What is wrong with you?!” He remembers his mother screaming when he used the wrong cleaner on the carpet.

“I just wanted to make you smile.” A teary eyed, 9 year old Steve replied.

“Well you didn’t. Get out of my site.”

Steve sighed. He over reacted. He should have calmly told Eddie that what he was doing wasn’t fun, not scream at him. Then he remembered the shattered look on Eddie’s face when he threatened to dump him.

Did he really threaten to break up with Eddie over some stupid spices in his sauce. What the hell?!

Steve felt so ashamed. Eddie was usually so sweet. Always trying to make everyone smile. He didn’t always know when he was pushing too hard. Steve knew this, but snapped at him anyway. Why? Some ruined sauce?

“I just wanted to make you smile.” Steve sighed and shook his head at himself. Eddie probably picked up on his shitty mood and was trying to make it better.

Suggesting cooking together meant they could hold hands, and kiss during dinner instead of acting like friends when they were in public.

He’s filled with the urge to find Eddie and apologize for his reaction.

Before he goes, he dials the new government “sorry you got blamed for murder” house that Wayne and Eddie share.

“Munson residence you’ve got Wayne.” Came down the line.

“Hi Wayne. It’s Steve. Is Eddie there?” Steve asked, hoping beyond hope.

“No?” Wayne said like a question. “Isn’t he supposed to be with you?”

“Yeah,” Steve whispered, irrational fear gripping his heart. “We got into a fight.”

“Hmm.” Grumbled Wayne. “You know where to find him?”

Steve thought for a moment. Skull Rock. “Yes, thanks Wayne.”

“No problem, son.” He said before hanging up.

Steve grabbed his car keys, ran to his car, and drove to skull rock. On the way there, he began formulating what he would say.

Soon, he parked next to Eddie’s van and walked into the woods.

He heard Eddie before he saw him. He was sobbing. Steve moved quietly so as not to spook him.

“Way to go Munson. You did it again” Steve hears him say. “Ruin the one good thing in your life, for what? Stupid” he hiccups as he tries to contain his tears.

Steve finally sets his eyes on his boyfriend and his heart crumbles. Eddie is sitting under the rock curled into a tiny ball. Strewn all around him are leaves and sticks, like they were thrown haphazardly. His hands are thrust into his hair, pulling harshly and his face is tucked into his knees.

Steve feels horrible. He suddenly remembers Nancy calling him bullshit. Breaking his heart just because he wanted her to feel better but pushed too hard. Like I did to Eddie. He thinks bitterly. He squats down in front of Eddie who doesn’t seem to have noticed him. He reaches out and gently places a hand on his knee, causing him to jump. Wild and wet, his doe eyes glance up and make contact with Steve’s. He can see the sadness, the fear, the panic. Like Eddie is expecting Steve to say more horrible things. Can he be blamed?

“Stevie,” Eddie whispered “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you or ruin dinner. I just… you were in a shitty mood from work, so I thought I could get you out of it by joking around. But I took it too far and I could have hurt you and even though I would understand, please,” Steve can see Eddie trying and failing to hold back more sobs. “Please don’t leave me” he begs. “Please,” that one comes out watery as the tears fall. Eddie pulls on his hair roughly and manages to pull some out.

Steve gently takes Eddie’s hands. “I forgive you baby. I’m not going anywhere.” Steve sits down across from him. “I never should have said that. I over reacted and for that, I’m sorry.” He holds up his hand when Eddie begins to protest. “I won’t apologize for getting mad because what you were doing was dangerous. But I shouldn’t have blown up like that.” Steve concedes.

“I just wanted to make you smile” Eddie repeats in a voice so small Steve can’t believe it came from his boyfriend.

“I know,” he replies, “but next time, don’t do it in the kitchen?” He says gently wiping the tears off Eddie’s cheeks. He nods with a small smile. It doesn’t reach his eyes. Steve feels hollow for a moment. He’s missing something. “Is something else bothering you?” Steve asks. You know besides your boyfriend of a year threatening to dump you over sauce.

Eddie shook his head, but one look from Steve and he was sighing out a small yes.

“I had a gift for you, but I don’t know if you’d want it now that I ruined our relationship.” Eddie sniffles. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small box. It’s not a ring Steve knows. Not that type of box. “Do you still want to break up with me?” Eddie asks like he thinks Steve will say yes.

“Of course not, sweetheart. I wouldn’t have come here if I did. I’d also be an asshole if I broke up with my sweet, albeit childish, amazing boyfriend over some sauce. I’m not going anywhere, I promise.” He gave a small smile. The corner of Eddie’s mouth twitched. He opened the box and held out a small pendent on a thin chain. Steve gasped and grabbed it. The pendent was a silver heart locket and the necklace looked well loved. “Eddie? What is this?” He asked.

“It was my mother’s. The last thing she gave me before she…” he trailed off. “Said I should give it to the love of my life.” He looked into Steve’s eyes unwavering.

And Steve knows. He knows Eddie loves him, and he knows he loves Eddie. But they never actually said the words out loud. “What?” Steve whispers his breath catching.

“I was going to tell you. After dinner. I love you Stevie.” He sounds so sad as he says it though. As if it breaks his heart to say it.

Steve cups Eddie’s jaw in his palm, rubbing his thumb along the hard plane. “I love you too.” Steve whispers pressing a soft, chaste kiss to Eddie’s lips. For the first time since Steve found Eddie here, Eddie’s smile reaches his eyes. “Can we have a do over tomorrow?” Steve asks.

“A do over?” Eddie’s voice filled with hope.

Steve nods. “Yeah, a do over. We can cook dinner together, on the condition that you let me cook, and you just keep me company, and promise not to touch anything.” Eddie laughs, still a bit watery, but agrees.

“Whatever you say love.” Steve stands and hauls Eddie to his feet. He hands back the necklace. Before Eddie’s face can fall too much, Steve rushes out, “give it to me tomorrow. After dinner, during our do-over.” He sighs in relief and tucks the necklace back into its box before slipping it into his pocket. “Now, come back to my place? You can make up messing up dinner by taking a bath with me and cuddling me all night.” Eddie beams, showing all his teeth just the way Steve loves.

“Really?!” He asks, his relief and hope shining in his eyes.

“Really.” Steve confirms, grabbing Eddie’s hand and dropping a kiss to his knuckles.

Life lesson: Never share a kitchen.

written for @steddieholidaydrabbles prompt: cooking together | rated: t | wc: 619 | tags: angst, ambiguous ending Steve and Eddie try cooking together, but Eddie decided to be an asshole the entire time.

A lot of people had talked about how romantic it was to cook together as a couple. But Steve couldn't understand why. There was too much getting under each other's feet, too much fighting for utensils, pans, cooking space, too much having to constantly try to keep unnecessary ingredients from being added while not looking. In all, he was trying not to murder Eddie.

Eddie was the one who suggested that they try cooking their anniversary dinner together. Ignoring the fact that he wasn't great in the kitchen, and his cooking style was more... experimental. Whereas Steve was much more methodical and by the book. And, crucially, he was the one who had any real ability in the kitchen.  Having spent so many years cooking for himself, he was confident in what he could do.

It was only a few minutes into cooking together that Steve realized that it was a mistake. Eddie seemed to always need the exact same utensil that Steve had just started using, and rather than waiting his turn, he would try to take it out of Steve's hand. It happened three times before Steve threatened to stab Eddie when he tried to grab at the knife that Steve was using. Then, more than once, he pushed Steve away so he could get to the counter or stove, ignoring Steve's protests about safety. And Eddie kept trying to add additional seasoning to the sauce Steve was making. Most of the time, Steve caught him in time, managing to prevent salt, pepper, cardamom, and garlic from being added. He turned to grab something from the fridge, and when he turned back, he caught Eddie holding a spice jar over the pot.

"Eddie, no." Steve warned, hurrying back over.

"Too late." Eddie replied.

Steve grabbed the jar from Eddie's hand, seeing that it was cayenne pepper. He hesitantly looked into the pot, and could tell that at least half the jar of cayenne was now in the sauce. And he lost it, spinning around to face Eddie.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" He yelled, unable to hold back his anger.

"I. I was just joking around." Eddie replied, biting his lip.

"Joking- that shit you've been doing isn't joking around. You've been deliberately sabotaging everything I've been trying to do. You've been making the kitchen dangerous, how you tried to take a knife out my hand, and you were pushing me by the stove. And now you've just wrecked the sauce. You were the one who wanted to cook together, so what the hell is wrong with you?" Steve couldn't believe Eddie was trying to make excuses about his behavior.

"I wanted to make it fun." Eddie tried his sad look, but Steve wouldn't buy it.

"It might have been fun for you, but it wasn't for me. I wanted us to go out for our anniversary. Eat out, then have a nice date. But instead you decided to spoil everything. I think you should leave now, because I don't want to see your face right now. I need time to deal with this, and decide whether or not there could be any more anniversaries for us." Steve couldn't even face Eddie, moving to start cleaning up the mess.

"Stevie, I'm sorry. I. You can't break up with me over this, I just wanted to make you smile." Eddie begged.

"Eddie, get out of my house. It isn't your decision how I feel about this. I need time, and if you don't leave, I will call the police and have you trespassed." Steve set his shoulders, trying to hide how much he'd been hurt by Eddie's actions.

"I'm sorry." Eddie whispered, before leaving Steve alone.

[thesolferino]

Favor

⤷ dream x f!reader.

⤷ genre: angst, fluff

⤷ word count: 8.4k

⤷ requested: yes, by this lovely anon!

— summary: dream asks you to pretend to be his girlfriend for a day. things only seem to go downhill from there.

It started as a favor.

On a quiet night in your apartment when you stared at your phone for way longer than your eyes could physically take and rolled around on the bed, talking to one of your best internet friends, Dream, he asked you for a favor. His voice was muffled through the mic on his phone, the one connected to his computer way cleaner, but neither of you could bother getting off FaceTime and call on Discord instead - yet you still heard him loud and clear, because you burst out laughing right after.

“What the hell did you just say?” you laughed, turning on your stomach and opening the call, now entirely focused on the timer that counted every second you spent talking to him instead of your Twitter timeline.

“It’s embarrassing, don’t make me repeat it!” And for that sole reason, you wanted him to repeat it, loud and clear.

“Is this why you were so insistent on me coming down to Florida? So I could pretend to be your girlfriend at your cousin’s wedding so your family doesn’t think you’re a loser?” you laughed, finding the situation entirely absurd as he sputtered, words mashing together, trying to defend himself.

“No! No, I wanted you to come here because we’re friends and I-I wanna meet you, this is just a… benefit, of sorts.” he replied, and you couldn’t help but laugh even harder at his poor attempt of trying to save face.

“Alright, I’ll bite.” you chuckle. “What’s in it for me?”

“Whatever you want.” he responded, much too quick. Your eyebrows raised.

“Whatever I want?” you parroted.

“Yes.” he confirmed. “I’ll buy you something, if you want; I’ll even pay you-”

“Pay me?! I’m not a whore, Dream!” 

“That is not AT ALL what I was saying!” he cut in, yelling as you burst into a new fit of laughter. “It’s just… I sort of already told them I have a girlfriend and I was just hoping you’d say yes ‘cause it’s gonna be very awkward if I show up without the girlfriend in question.” 

You put your head in your hands and he sort of dryly laughed at himself when he heard your palm hit your forehead. “What is wrong with you, man?” 

“Listen, it’s not gonna be so bad! Just stay by my side for a bit, look pretty, we’ll get some drinks, and then dip. That’s it, I promise.” he reasoned.

“And here I thought we were gonna make out in front of everyone. What’s a fake relationship if we don’t make a show out of it?” you sarcastically snickered, and could practically see his eyeroll from miles away.

“If that’s what you want, then we’ll do it, by all means.” he replied and you laughed, shaking your head in mild disbelief.

“Alright, well, if you already told them, I don’t have much of a choice, do I?” you huffed, pretending to be way more bummed out about it than you really were. “I’ll do it.” 

“Thank you so much, oh my God.” he replied and you chuckled at the sheer relief in his voice.

A few seconds of silence pass. “What’s the catch?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“How do you want me to publicly embarrass myself in exchange for this favor?”

“Personally, I think that forcing you to tweet that tweet about pissing yourself in bed again and also tweeting that everyone should subscribe to me isn’t “publicly embarrassing” at all.” 

“Maybe I should’ve picked a different fake girlfriend.”

“Sucks to suck, pissbaby.”

The weeks leading up to your meetup felt like years, with every treacherous minute of you two talking over muffled mics and shitty webcams feeling longer than it should, your empty apartment feeling emptier and emptier by the day. Was it even possible to miss a person you hadn’t even met yet? 

It turns out that it very much was, because as soon as the painfully long weeks were up and you were finally metres away from him, you jumped in his arms like a woman finally seeing her soldier husband after the war, standing on your tiptoes while he bent down the best he could to hug you back. His chest rumbled with a warm laugh when you turned your head ever so slightly towards his ear.

“Hello, boyfriend.” And just like that, the warm turned into a groan of faux annoyance while you burst into laughter and he pulled away, scanning your face with an equally annoyed look.

“I should’ve never asked you for that. You’re never letting it go, are you?” Yeah, you were kind of annoying with the amount of corny boyfriend jokes you threw his way - you had to give him that. But then again, he crafted his own fate and now he must accept the consequences.

“Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t realise your majesty wasn’t appreciating the work I’m doing! I just won’t show up at that wedding, how about that?” you bit back, voice dripping with sarcasm.

“You’re such an idiot.” he laughed. “Give me those bags.”

A blissful week had passed, and he hadn’t pissed you off in real life nearly as much as you thought he would. It took a bit of getting used to to his family calling him Clay instead of his beloved internet username, and you did get a couple of suggestive looks from his mother the first few times she visited - you had a couple of “eye conversations” in which she never exactly asked if you were his girlfriend, and you never exactly denied it, but you knew both of you felt the weight of the unspoken words yet you had to keep everything secret and ambiguous. Or at least you thought you did, before he revealed to you that he told his mom the two of you were dating already. Seems like the glances were knowing and not questioning. Maybe you weren’t as good at eye conversation as previously thought.

Living with him was fine, mostly because he had godly air conditioning and a house that was probably way too big for him, and also a very cute cat that followed you everywhere and made living with a man for a full two weeks way more bearable. Finding out that he can’t cook was one of the most bizarre revelations about him that you’d had in the years of your friendship, and you demanded he watched as you made chicken wraps. You complained about how he was 21 and couldn’t cook for himself, he complained about how it’s 2021 and he can just order from Chipotle or something, dude.

A week of goofing around and trying to hide the fact the two of you temporarily lived together from the internet had passed quicker than it should’ve, and for the first time in seven days, Netflix was turned off and the two of you were dressing up for the wedding, ready to set off with his parents and younger sister. He spent ages trying to convince you to match with him, which was quite literally impossible because he wore a black suit and you brought a red dress, which resulted in the two of you roaming around a local mall at 10 am, half asleep, looking for a reasonably formal black dress, because of course Dream always got his way.

An hour of arguing and your fashion tastes clashing later, you picked an off shoulder black dress with a high slit, along with a pair of pumps, both of which you forced him to pay for, and went back home, ready to glam both of you up as much as humanly possible because you were not ready to let him show up in some horrendous pair of shoes and claim to be your boyfriend. 

“Is this okay?” you questioned, turning from the mirror to face him and let him be the judge of your shimmery black and white eyelids, spending way too much time on a makeup look for a wedding of someone whose name you didn’t even know. He blinked at you as his judging gaze washed over you like a wave, scanning you up and down while you nervously cocked your head, leg tapping in faux impatient annoyance to cover up the fact that you felt like prey under his eyes. 

“It’s… yeah, it is. You look good.” Dream confirmed, nodding his head at you in a movement that was way too quick and snappy and you turn back to the mirror with a huff, watching him stare right back at you. 

“Too much, right? I should try something else.” You say, grabbing your makeup remover wipes, but he cuts in before you can even wipe a single smudge.

“No, no, it looks good, I promise. Really good. Don’t touch it.” Something way too sincere in his voice makes the air tense, more tense than usual, but you drop it, deciding to just take the compliment with a tight lipped smile.

“Okay. You ready?” you ask, and he nods, nervously straightening out his suit before looking back at you with an anxious grin.

“Yeah, I think so. Do I look fine?” 

He did. He looked more than fine. You’d never seen him actually dress up for something and put proper care into his looks - he was practically forced into doing it by you this time as well - so seeing him in an actual black suit, all formal and expensive looking, messy dirty blond hair properly combed for the first time in ages, made you gulp and look away. You sort of never understood the argument that women and men can’t be friends because you were never attracted to one of your male friends, ever. Dream was born to be an exception to every rule, it seemed. 

Realising that you abruptly looked away, you attempted to awkwardly clear your throat and smile at him.

“Yeah, you do. Let’s go.”

During the ride there, his mother seemed to finally explode and the words that have clearly wanted to pour out of her mouth for ages finally came out. You supposed it was better for the poor woman, and did your best to suppress a laugh when Dream dramatically sighed and leaned against the window when she nosily spoke up. 

“So… since when have you and Clay been together? He’s told us absolutely nothing!” She spoke up from the passenger seat, shifting to look at you, excited smile plastered on her face and you politely smiled back, mentally noting that you’d have to bully the shit out of him for acting like his mom is embarrassing him in front of his 8th grade crush.

“Ah, we’ve been friends for a long while, but we only started dating a month or so ago, because it’s hard doing long distance and all that.” you said, hoping it would sound believable enough because the two of you rehearsed this a few days ago, writing out a whole backstory from how you started dating to what exact words he used when he asked you out. There were a couple of arguments here and there, such as the fact you refused to say you confessed you’ve been in love with him for years and he refused to say he admitted he’s been your “bottom bitch” for 3 years but in the end, you somehow managed to agree on a cohesive timeline of events.

“Oh, does that mean you’re going to move here?” she questioned, and that one didn’t surprise you either, Dream having prepared a full list of answers to questions that people might ask in your notes app. He was a perfectionist to the point it got on your nerves, but that had its own perks.

“No, but I’ll definitely visit more often, and if it goes well, I might as well move here.” you smiled back at her and she nodded, going back to staring through the windshield. You and Dream exchange a relieved glance that you hope his younger sister doesn’t notice.

“Let me tell you, I was waiting for you two to get together! He always talked about you, I was getting tired of him, you know that?” she giggled and you widened your eyes at Dream who, snapping out of somewhat of a daze, immediately jumped to protest, light blush adorning his pale cheeks. 

“No, I didn’t! I did not, mom, don’t lie to her.” he argued while all she did was laugh.

“Oh come on, it’s not embarrassing now that you’re together!” she kept going, and his younger sister joined in, to make it even worse.

“Yeah, you do talk about her a lot, not gonna lie.” she spoke up and his cold glare directed her way told you everything you needed to know, hanging on by a thread not to burst out laughing. He refused to even look your way, turning back to the window as his cheeks started heating up. You couldn’t help but let out at least a bit of a giggle, placing your hand on his arm in fake comfort.

“It’s okay, you can admit it now.” your tone borderlined on mocking and he knew you’d make fun of him for days to come so he stayed silent while the rest of the car burst into laughter.

The wedding was truly beautifully set up, set in a hotel wedding venue, walls painted in pure innocent white with hints of gold here and there, and you nudged Dream as the two of you observed in awe, asking what sort of money the groom had to be able to afford this sort of expensive venue. Nudging him proved to be way easier now, because you linked arms - you originally made fun of him for suggesting to walk like that instead of holding hands like normal people, telling him you’d look like you were at your high school prom, but he persisted, and you didn’t end up looking as goofy as you thought. 

“He’s a doctor or something, pretty sure.” he replied, quick feet trudging down the long hallways, your own struggling to keep up with him, especially in your heels. He seemed to be in a rush to sit and get it over with as soon as possible so he could avoid any nosy family members, but bad luck followed him everywhere, it seems, because as soon as you two entered the place where the bride and groom would unite, at least three different pairs of eyes locked on you, and you immediately saw a fairly elderly woman get up with open arms, staring at Dream with a grin on her face. You saw him immediately tense up, and almost laughed right then and there.

“There’s my boy! Oh, you’ve grown so much, come here!” The woman looked to be in her fifties and Dream let go of your arm to nervously laugh and fall into her hug, the two rocking from side to side as she kept going on about how it seemed that he grew taller and taller every time she saw him. 

When the two pulled away, her eyes fixed on you, judgingly scanning from head to toe and you suddenly realised why Dream tensed up the way he did - old white women sure had a way to make you anxious. Thankfully, he stepped in. 

“Aunt Bessie, this is Y/N, my girlfriend. Y/N, this is aunt Bessie, my mom’s older sister.” he generously offered the explanation you were so obviously lacking and you grinned, as if that information helped you in any way, and stuck out your hand in an offer of a handshake. However, she seemed to have different plans, because as soon as she heard the words “my girlfriend” her face lit up as if she won the lottery and her lips stretched into a smile, opening her arms for you the same way she did for him. 

“Oh my God, you finally got a girlfriend? Come here!” she said, shaking her head at your outstretched hand and gesturing you to return the hug which you quite hesitantly did, politely laughing as she hugged you tighter than you’d deem appropriate. Dream came from a family of huggers - that much was apparent from him, you guess, but you weren’t exactly prepared for this.

Aunt Bessie seemed to be way louder and screechier than expected, because the word “girlfriend” boomed through the room and off the snowy walls, and at least five other family members of his turned around to check who the lucky fellow that finally got a girlfriend was. Another one of his aunts seemed to notice the commotion and suddenly, another older woman with shoulder length, dyed blonde hair, along with her two younger kids, was hurling at you as well. 

“I always complained to him that it was about time he got a girlfriend! He’s a fine young man, no wonder you picked him, honey.” Aunt Bessie shot you a knowing look and you closed your mouth in a tight lipped smile in a feverish attempt to keep down the laugh that threatened to escape you. 

“Oh yeah, he definitely is.” you giggled, looking up at Dream again who looked like he wanted the earth below his feet to open and swallow him whole. Before you could nudge him in the ribs and tease him for hours to come, the other aunt suddenly spoke up.

“Clay! Oh my gosh, is that you?” she exclaimed, shocked grin on her face, and you briefly wondered if Dream ever even visited his family. He nervously smiled, obviously not really sure who this woman even is, but he hugged her back anyway, clearly walking the line between ‘happy to see his family’ and ‘insanely uncomfortable’.

“I haven’t seen you in so long, your dad hasn’t visited since we moved to Toronto! Look at how tall you are, you’re taller than my husband now! You used to be so tiny, whatever happened to you?” Upon hearing the word Toronto he seemed to realise who he was talking to as his eyes softened, and you wondered if he really was so expressive or you could just read him that well.

“I grew up, I guess.” He awkwardly laughed and she laughed harder than she should’ve before turning to you.

“Oh, and who is this?” She said, gaze periodically switching between him and you, a knowing smile on her face which told you she definitely knew who you were.

“Ah, this is my girlfriend, Y/N. Y/N, this is… my dad’s cousin, Mabel.” He introduced, large hand landing on your back, and you felt like you were experiencing déjà vu at the way her face lit up at the mention of a girlfriend. 

“Wow, it’s so nice to meet you, Y/N!” She said, energetically shaking your hand, before turning back to Dream. “You never told us you got a girlfriend! You’re finally planning on settling down, huh?” 

Your head snapped in his direction at the speed of light when she mentioned settling down, and you could see him tense up as well as he nervously laughed.

“Yeah, we haven’t visited in a while, so nobody from the family really knew. And, uh… we haven’t really thought of that yet, we’re taking it slow and everything.” He said and you were almost in awe at how good he was at bullshitting. The woman did nothing but laugh.

“Ah, don’t lie to me, I see the way you two look at each other! It’s your wedding we’ll be attending next!” She winked, and just as Dream got ready to fake laugh once again, her family called her over and she excused herself, walking off.

The two of you hurried to your seats as well, sitting down next to his younger sister. 

“Your family is insane, man, holy shit.” You laughed in disbelief, staring at him as he shook his head, clearly as distressed as you were.

“Literally nobody in this family gives a single fuck if I’m single or not except the old aunties. And I seem to have a shit ton of those.” He muttered under his breath. “The way you look at each other - I literally didn’t even look at you properly that whole time!” 

You cackled at that one, hitting his arm. “She’s right, Clay. You’re one fine young man, eh?” You nudged him as he groaned in embarrassment, only turning your way to glare at you. 

You didn’t get to tease him for much longer, though, because the organ started playing and the bridesmaids and groomsmen lined up, the groom standing at his designated place. The bride walked in, arms locked with her father, thin white veil covering her face as she walked down the aisle, looking angelic in her puffy wedding gown. Silky brown hair fell down her shoulders, curled towards the ends, and you could see the hint of blood red lipstick beneath the veil. She looked beautiful - the groom seemed to think so as well, because you could see him tapping the corner of his eye lightly, wiping any stray tears.

She finally made it to the end and stepped to face her soon-to-be husband as her father moved away, sitting back in his chair. The wedding officiant stepped up, and held a speech much longer than it should be, which just led you to zone out. 

One day you’d be beneath that veil, wouldn’t you? One day, you’ll face your fiancé the same way she is, and you’ll let your hearts link with a string that nobody but the two of you could snap. Who would that be, though? Who could you even trust with your heart in their hands? And you’re not aware of how and why and when, but your eyes shot up at Dream, whose eyes also glinted in that way where you knew he wasn’t paying attention, and maybe he was thinking about the same thing as you. Maybe one day, you’ll be attending his wedding, forcing one of your friends to play a fake boyfriend as he wipes his tears, waiting for his bride to get to him. 

It was disheartening, the thought of being a bystander while he locks lips with somebody else. You supposed you just liked being the center of attention, so you let yourself pretend you were his bride in your daydreams. Separating daydreams from rational thoughts was mandatory, because you weren’t sure how you’d explain to yourself that you can’t stand seeing Dream marry someone else. 

Dream, the infamous hopeless romantic, still seemed out of it, maybe even a little emotional, despite not being that close with either of the two. He was probably thinking about his own wedding as well, thinking about his future, the face he’d see when he pulled back the veil.

Just then, his eyes darted to yours, and you realised you were caught staring, snapping your head back to the couple that started reading their vows by now. You started going red from the neck up, cheeks on fire as you could feel his gaze burning into you. He turned back after a few seconds, though, probably assuming you stared at him because you were bored, and neither of you spoke, even though you kind of wish you did. What even is there to say, though? 

By the time you snapped back, the “I do”s were already being said, and her veil was getting lifted, showing her beauty to everyone present, and as they kissed the whole room bursted into cheers and applause in support of the newlyweds. The two exit, teary eyed, their parents follow close behind, and that’s when Dream’s family rushes both of you to your feet, following the two into the reception hall where the actual party would take place. 

From then on, the wedding is the same as any other. The two have their first dance, they give a welcoming speech, and Dream lets you stuff your face with cake and repeatedly refills your wine glass as repayment for dragging you into this whole thing. At some point, he stretches his hand out to you and asks for a dance like a rom-com main character, and you’re not sure exactly why he did that because he’s mostly terrible at dancing, but you had fun letting him twirl you until you got dizzy anyway.

You also realised just how much he did actually need a fake girlfriend, because it seemed like every twenty minutes some sort of relative of his would walk up to the two of you and congratulate him on “finally getting a girlfriend”. You ended up bullying him for that as well, wondering just how long he’s been single for if they’re all this surprised that he’s got a girlfriend, to which he just downed the glass of water he’d been sipping for half an hour and asked you about the weather.

His family took a few pictures with the new couple - you even got to speak to the bride at some point, congratulating her and wishing the two of them well, but in the span of a few hours, the wedding was over and the newlyweds made a great exit, signifying the end of the party. The two of you were driven home by his parents, and you waved them goodbye as you stumbled to the front door, your heels insanely uncomfortable and the red wine in your stomach weighing down on you; you just wanted to get out of this dress and into a pair of pajamas and pass out on his couch in the living room. 

That’s sort of exactly what you did - you half-assed taking your makeup off, wiping down your face a couple of times, deciding that was enough before changing into some worn pajamas and plopping down on the couch next to Dream who already claimed his place and sunk into the cushion while a random movie played on the TV. The two of you basked in the comfortable silence that surrounded you, the exhausted, tired type. You both appreciated the quiet and fell asleep sitting next to each other, wedding already forgotten.

That night, he went from Dream to Clay.

The departure was bittersweet. You left two days after that, your hug at the airport tight, warm, filled with a sugary sweet feeling you couldn’t quite place and sour acid that ate away at you because you didn’t want to leave in the slightest. His arms were warm, inviting, whispering for you to stay but you left anyway, waving him goodbye, setting off to home. 

It seemed like all your problems came and went with him, because a week later, at 3 in the morning while you were up editing a video, you got an all caps message on your Discord from Sapnap.

“YOU’RE DATING DREAM?”

You blinked at your computer screen, white letters blinding you in the dark, brain trying to keep up with why he even thought that. Within 10 seconds, another message, this time from Dream.

“so i told george and sapnap that we’re dating”

“don’t kill me pls” 

Yeah, you weren’t going to kill him, per se, but he definitely made your life a lot harder than it should be. You opened Discord, Premiere Pro and the unedited video abandoned, typing back to Clay quickly.

“WHY”

He responded immediately, as one panicked man does.

“they’ve been making fun of me for being single for ages now :(“

“we already did this fake dating thing before and it went perfectly fine”

“just play along for a month or so”

“pls”

You audibly sighed. And as if he could hear you, he started typing again.

“i’ll promote you on my channel more”

“just pls do it”

“you love me, right” 

Another sigh fell from your lips before you could stop it. Of course you did, because if you didn’t, there’s no way you would be playing into this. You typed back.

“fine”

He messaged back immediately.

“THANK YOU”

“LOVE YOU <333”

With a shake of your head, you mumbled “idiot” with the ghost of a smile flashing on your face, switching back to your video, opting to ignore Sapnap for a little bit. He could wait. 

Fake dating seemed pretty damn easy during the first week - you thought you were killing it by sending corny tweets and staged selfies so he could screenshot them and send them to the groupchat, giggling on call about how oblivious they are and how you’re fooling them so good, both of you opting to ignore the parts where they claimed they knew the two of you were gonna get together eventually. It was fun, lighthearted, and an excuse to flirt with someone you had nothing official with.

As much as all your problems came and went with Clay, though, they came and went with his friends as well, especially that hopeless man Clay called his best friend. 

Because yeah, of course Sapnap was the one to accidentally spill to the public that the two of you were “dating”.

George was streaming at what was apparently a normal time in the UK, not so much for Florida, and Clay was sleeping while you were watching his stream while making some food for yourself. It was going fine, a bit of a chill stream, and you leaned against the fridge as your oven preheated, tired eyes following his Minecraft skin. 

“Sophie, thank you for the dono! ‘Hey George, I love your videos, just wanted to ask if you were speedrunning with Dream today?’” he read out, and you could faintly hear Sapnap join the stream through your headphones. 

“No I’m not, Dream’s… I don’t know what Dream’s doing right now, actually. He’s not responding to me, though. Probably talking to his girlfriend still.” he continued, exaggerating the last part mockingly, still playing into the whiny role of being upset that Clay was ditching the two of them for you. That majorly woke you up, though, as you stood straight on your feet immediately, because oh no, nobody was supposed to know.

You exited out of the Twitch app quickly, letting the stream play in the background as you tried to fish for Sapnap’s profile on Discord and text him as quick as possible, trying to warn him to not let anybody know, but before you could do it, you heard his laughter clear in the stream.

“Yeah, Y/N, his sweetie poo.” Sapnap said, causing George to laugh even louder, before moving onto the next topic, and your heartbeat picked up an insane amount, nails loud and probably damaging your phone screen as you typed as quickly as humanly possible to yell at him because this was not planned, at all.

You heard him go quiet after you shot him a couple of messages over Discord (“SAPNAP” “ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID” “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU” “NOBODY KNOWS YET” “IM GONNA FUCKING KILL YOU”), type something to George who then fell quiet as well for a few seconds, pure horror on his face, and then went back to streaming as if nothing happened while Sapnap profusely apologised to you on his and George’s behalf.

No apology could fix what had already been done, though, and you were left alone with the warzone that was Twitter who had already speculated the two of you were dating long before while Clay peacefully slept somewhere in his house at 4 am in Florida. You bombarded him with messages and waited until he woke up ‘cause what were you even supposed to do?! 

You chose to spend your time finishing the pizza you were originally supposed to make and almost burnt your whole apartment down because you forgot the oven was on for a whole hour while yelling at Clay’s idiotic best friends. You yelled at Sapnap, who kept apologising to you, you yelled at George, who yelled back that it’s not that big of a deal because people were bound to find out anyways, and you yelled at Clay, because he was the guilty one somehow for not being awake during your breakdown. 

He did eventually wake up though, to the shitshow that were his notifications with at least thirty messages from each of you, messages from his other YouTube friends who were fairly surprised, and his entire fanbase going ham on Twitter. He was surprisingly calm about it - calmer than you were, anyways, and sheepishly said over the phone that the fake dating thing may have to go on for a little longer since you couldn’t just date for a month and then break up, and you were sort of okay with that.

And of course, the business side of him awoke at that moment, and he giddily told you about the amount of views the two of you could pull if you did the same shit you do with George and Sapnap anyway, but on livestream. 

You rolled your eyes.

And then agreed anyway. 

And so, the charade began.

His Twitter statement was up shortly, telling the people that you’d been dating for a couple of weeks and weren’t planning to tell anybody yet until a certain someone spilled their guts live, and the fact Dream was dating someone, let alone another popular streamer, took the internet by storm. You expected hate, and you got quite a bit of that, but the people that had shipped the two of you before were certainly more than delighted and a lot of Clay’s fans were supportive. 

Now, both of you had excuses to do chill streams together and just hang out and you took the opportunity and ran with it. 

You’d sit and play Geoguessr or just try and speedrun Minecraft a bunch of times for hours on end, doing stupid bits and things you’d be doing offline anyways, with a little more flirting than usual, because that’s what made it interesting.

“Oh this is France, for sure.” you claimed one night, two or three weeks after the secret was officially out, chewing on the fries you bought for this specific occasion, streaming on his alt to a few thousand people. 

“You think so? It could be Belgium, too.” he responded, humming in thought as he looked around.

“I know so.” you responded.

“How?” 

“I just do. Gamer intuition, babe.” you said, and he wheezed at your response, repeating the words gamer intuition under his breath.

“No, seriously. It is France, I know it is, I’ve seen so many pictures of that place I know it like the back of my hand now. That’s Lyon, or something.” you continued, plopping another french fry into your mouth.

“You have? Why do you know so much about France, that’s so random.” he responded, opening the map and pointing to France, although he keeps looking around, unsure of his decision.

“I dunno, I like it there. I wish I could move there.” you replied.

“Why, though?” 

“It’s pretty and heavily romanticised! Just like me!” you joked and he laughed, before letting you continue. “I dunno, it’s the city of love. Be a little romantic.” 

“The… the city of love is whatever city the two of us are in.” he said, and it took a few seconds for you to process the joke before letting out a fake disappointed sigh.

“I can’t believe I’m dating someone as corny as you.” 

At that, he bursts into wheezes, and you follow along, enjoying the sound of his laughter coursing through your headphones more than you used to a few weeks back. It feels nice, feels right, acting like this. You like calling him your boyfriend more than you think you should. 

A few weeks go by, and it feels all too natural. It feels too natural, talking to him first thing in the morning when you’ve barely even had your coffee, calling him pet names, throwing sweet words at each other publicly like they mean nothing. It feels all too natural, and nice, and all too right, and you don’t even notice when the two of you cross the line between public and private, and you’re stuck making stupid jokes about making out when you first see each other when there’s nobody to witness them except the walls of your rooms, but you don’t like thinking about that, because you know it’ll bring nothing but confusion. The current this that the two of you have is perfect to you, perfectly lighthearted and funny and fun, and you intend on keeping it that way, refusing to think about it in any way past jokes.

That is, until you can’t anymore.

It’s late, again, and you’re staring at his contact name on your phone screen, lazily lying on the bed. It reminds you of a night from roughly 3 months ago, when your whole friendship seemed to change in the few seconds it took you to process what he’d asked of you, and it feels weird, but nice.

“My mom really likes you, you know?” Clay breaks the quiet that you’ve learned to appreciate in his presence, and you exhale through your nose, the noise just short of a chuckle.

“Yeah?” You laugh, and he does as well.

“Yeah.” He reaffirms. “She thinks you’re a great girlfriend. Apparently I seem brighter ever since we got together.”

You laugh again. “I am a great girlfriend, to be fair. She’s totally right.” 

“Well, I wouldn’t know that. If you’re as good of a girlfriend as you pretend to be, though, then you’re amazing.” He says, and words fly out of your mouth before you can stop them. 

“Yeah? You wanna find out?” The flirty nature is nothing strange to the two of you, but this time it feels kinda different, it feels like you’re stepping into dangerous territory that there’s no coming back from. You feel like you’ve ruined everything, for some reason.

He laughs, like normal, though. He laughs like nothing happened at all, and you’re so, so grateful for that.

“Sure, let’s do it. You’re about to unpack the full Clay boyfriend experience.” He snickers and you laugh as well. 

“That means I just unlock the dick as well as the personality.” you respond, quick as always, and the wheeze that escapes him is so loud that it makes you laugh too.

“...Unlock the dick…” he repeats through another wheeze and you nod, laughing.

“Yeah! I mean I’m literally experiencing the boyfriend experience without actually having a boyfriend, it’s fuckin’ great.” you say and he hums.

“You could have one, though.” 

The implications are crazy, his words are crazy, he’s crazy and everything that he could mean and couldn’t mean by that is driving you crazy too, brain faltering and heart seeming way too big for your chest to contain it. It’s silent.

“I could, I guess.” 

You choose to say, and he switches the topic naturally, like he never said anything.

Things are never the same again.

It’s not in a bad way. Sure, it is kind of a bad way for the feelings you’re trying to push down inside you, a bad way for hot nights when the unbearable heat forces you to stay up even when you don’t want to and you have no choice but to think about why you feel the way you feel as you melt into the burning sheets below you, a bad way for when he jokes about finding somebody else and you feel your stomach churning. A bad way for realising that this fake dating thing is really getting to you, but not a bad way in general.

Maybe it’s in a good way. Maybe the underlying implications whenever he makes jokes about making the relationship real are good, maybe the way he calls you in the middle of the night when he’s anxious and freaking out and defends himself by saying: “You’re my girlfriend, you’re always there for me, I just figured I could call you.” and you end up wondering if it’s possible to say jokes in such a vulnerable state or if he’s serious is good, maybe the way it’s been a few months and he won’t tell his own best friends that it was a joke the whole time is good, maybe the way you confronted him about it and he said he likes having you as his girlfriend is good. 

Maybe the way the two of you are always walking the line between joking and being serious, between being friends and something more, between lies and pranks and emotional investment and fear of committing, and the way you’re always trying to push the other off, is good. 

The fans love it. The fanart is incredible (serves especially well for those hot nights when you can’t fall asleep and you scroll, watching yourself fall in love with Clay in every universe, tales told by people who observe your story and find it worthy enough to retell in their own words, to take the love you pretend to have and turn it into something real), people love to gush over the compliments he sprinkles in at random times during conversation and the general flirty dynamic is loved by many, pulling in more views and attraction for you. 

And you suppose that’s good too, but at some point, the good warps into bad, bad warps into terrible, and you wonder if this is all even worth the sleepless nights, wondering if he feels the same way.

Those thoughts haunt you more and more often every day. When you wake up, and text him first thing in the morning, your brain acknowledges that the camera is off - nobody’s around, people aren’t listening, so why are you still playing the role of a girlfriend and starting up a conversation with him when you haven’t even brushed your teeth properly? When you’re editing in the middle of the day and he calls to keep you company, making more stupid boyfriend jokes, your stomach flips in a weird way that makes you hate him, hate the way he can joke about these things so freely, like it doesn’t hurt him. Like it doesn’t affect him like it affects you. 

But, as much as you wish you could hate him, you couldn’t bring yourself to, and that was the worst part. Because, in reality, whenever he laughed you’d smile without realising you did, whenever anything exciting happened to you he was the first one you went to, whenever you wanted to laugh or cry or sit in silence for hours or complain you always went to him, the one person who you know would listen. In reality, whenever he made a joke about giving up on the fake dating and making it real, you wished so bad that he was serious this time, that this was what it took and he’d crack and all of your suffering would end.

It eventually happens.

It’s a pretty chilly morning, birds chirp outside and the sun that slowly rises is covering the kitchen floor in a golden hue as you pour milk into your cereal with one hand and hold your phone in the other, letting Clay ramble about whatever it was this time, when he brought it up.

“So, when do you wanna come down to Florida again?” he asks casually, and you almost drop the gallon of milk in your hand. 

“What?” 

“I said, when are you coming down to Florida again? Last time you came was pretty fun.” he says, and an empty silence follows. There’s an unsaid “I miss you” that you don’t hear, and he’s too afraid of saying it. 

“Florida wasn’t exactly on my schedule this month, man.” you say, placing your phone on the counter for a second. Clay sure knew how to surprise a person.

“Well put it down, then.” he jokes, and you hum.

“What, you got another wedding coming up?” you giggle and he groans - you never really stopped making fun of him for that wedding.

“No, I don’t. Can’t a man just miss seeing his beloved girlfriend?” It’s unbelievable how quickly dread can wash over you as soon as he makes one of those jokes. You were convinced the mix of anxiety and butterflies that appears in your stomach was gonna kill you sometime soon.

“He can, he’s just being weirdly insistent.” you argue nonetheless. “But sure, I’ll consider it.”

You do more than consider it - in a few weeks, you’re back at the airport, and falling into his arms has never given you such an adrenaline rush in your whole life. Something about having him wrapped around you, close to you, the warmth of his body radiating into yours sent you spiraling, head clouded with nothing but love and the fact that you wish you could stay there forever. You wished you could press pause and cherish the moment, let yourself bask in that feeling of pure love, pure adoration that you helplessly drowned in. But you couldn’t, and you left his arms feeling oddly empty. 

Hiding the fact that you were unapologetically head over heels for him proved to be a hundred times more difficult when you were right there, next to him, talking to him, when you could just kiss him any second, feel his lips on yours and nobody would stop you - the opportunity was right there, looming over you, the devil on your shoulder taunting you, telling you to do it. 

You got to wake up in the same house as him, watch his hair stick out in different directions and his raspy morning voice as he complained about the smell of your coffee, watch his eyes glint whenever he talked about something he liked and observe as he carried around Patches like a little baby. You got to experience every bit of domestic without the consequences of committing, and you wondered just how far this would go. For how much longer would the two of you blatantly ignore the fact that you were a couple that slapped the title “fake” on it because you were cowards who refused to admit what this truly was. 

Not for long, apparently, because you grew tired, and decided to put an end to everything on one random Thursday night - and if he hated you forever for it, then so be it. 

You were sitting on his couch, watching a random movie together, drowning in one of his Dream hoodies while you chewed the popcorn he made. It was dark outside, just past midnight, and you could see the branches of a tree swaying calmly through one of the nearby windows - the silence while he scrolled through his phone lazily was comforting too, everything was lazy and serene and it would’ve been perfect if it wasn’t for the constant anxiety that gripped you by the throat whenever you were in his close proximity, the nervousness that killed you, the upset feeling of wanting to cuddle up with him but knowing you can’t because you guys are just friends, and nothing more.

The couple on the screen kiss while a violin plays in the background - how fitting. Maybe that’s what pushes you to the edge, or maybe you were just that sick and tired.

You were exhausted, beyond exhausted. Your eyes were tired, the anxiety was morphing into annoyance and anger and you were ready to give up on it all. If this ended the friendship, at least you two had a good run. Your heart couldn’t take it anymore.

“You know, you still owe me a favor in return for pretending to be your girlfriend.” you say, and you sound gone, zoned out, more than you wish you were. You hear his phone turn off with a click.

“Yeah? What do you want?” Clay asks, and you blankly stare at the TV for a few seconds before turning to face him, eyes burning. 

“Kiss me.” 

It’s silent. The characters on screen are arguing. You hear the wind through one of his open windows.

“What?” he asks, voice cracking, and his expression falls. You’ve fucked it. Oh well.

“I want you to kiss me. Kiss me like you mean it. Kiss me like someone’s watching and you wanna make it believable.” you say, eyes boring into his, your words having nowhere near as much of an effect on yourself as they do on him. Your eyes sting like they’re being lit on fire, and your throat is sort of closing up, but it’s fine. “Let me have this before I go, because once I leave, I don’t wanna do this anymore, Clay. I can’t pretend like I don’t want you to introduce me as your girlfriend and fully mean it. I can’t lie to your face anymore.” 

Silence. Deafening silence, once again.

“I love you.” he blurts out, and you don’t even register it at first. “I don’t want this shit to be fake either. God, I really don’t. It hasn’t been fake for a while now, at least not on my part. I’m sorry, it’s just- it was easier to keep this bit going than it was to actually admit that I’m… into you.”

And once again, the room falls into silence, much like it always does whenever the two of you share moments like these.

And then, you burst into laughter.

“So… so you mean to tell me, that both of us have liked each other this whooooole fucking time, and just refused to admit it and ‘pretended to date’ instead?” you burst into giggles, and he looks sort of hesitant to laugh, but he does anyway.

“I mean… yeah? I was waiting for you to call me out for doing all that when nobody was watching! Why did you never call me out?! Don’t blame me, I made it so damn obvious that I wanted you!” he protests, and you almost can’t believe what you’re hearing.

“Excuse me? You should’ve just fucking told me instead of making a million and one jokes about how I’m your girlfriend! We’re not in middle school, Clay!” you argue.

“Yeah, but I thought you’d catch on and talk to me about it at some point! You never called me out for anything!”

“So what, I’m supposed to just read your mind now? You’re fucking unbelievable.” you huff, crossing your arms over your chest and turning away in annoyance. As soon as a warm hand lands on your shoulder, though, the annoyance melts like wax under fire, leaving nothing behind.

“I still haven’t returned that favor, you know?” he whispers in your ear, breath fanning your neck, closer than he should be. The hairs on your neck stand up as you turn back to Clay, who wore a mischievous grin and a glint in his eyes that suggested no good. 

You suppose bad can be good, sometimes. 

As his lips press onto yours, that theory is proven true, because he sends a flicker of fire burning down your spine, spreading into your limbs, making your fingertips electric as you pulled him in closer, hand snaking up to grip at his hair - the everlasting grin against your own proves, once again, to be no good as his hands slip under your hoodie and grip your sides, but you think you enjoy this sort of bad. 

They sneak up further, and you hear him chuckle into the kiss as your insides melt at his touch. The two of you silently agree that maybe he should ask for favors more often.

[4dtk]

NCT127 falling in love with a s/o with a time-consuming job like a lawyer or a doctor

NCT 127 with an s/o who has a time-consuming job

this is so cute, thanks for requesting! i made this in a format in the ways that the boys might show their care when you’re so busy with your job :) long as hell LOL enjoy!!

brief spoilers for shang-chi if you haven’t watched! i just watched it this week lol it was really good

→ TAEIL would direct conversations to a more neutral stance. it’s not that he wants to talk about himself, but sometimes if you don’t want to talk about your case or patients, he easily slips into conversation about theories or his favourite tv show or your rundown of what groceries to take for the next time you head to the supermarket. just really normal small things that take your mind off the stress, especially at night when you’re laying in bed and just before you’re drifting off to sleep, the two of you would engage in a topic that you both know fairly well about and then you’re usually the first to succumb to sleep. taeil purposely picks out topic he knows will excite you (and bc he knows you’re passionate about it, he reads up on it which allows a well-balanced convo). if you’re rambling on about a topic, then he’ll occasionally play the guitar while laying down, just simple melodies that bring a lot of peace to the room.

“wait- how d’you like this melody?” taeil softly says, changing it instantly when you commented on the previous, discordant one. your nod encourages him to carry on with the plucking of his fingers while you yourself continue with your rambles. “so i’m saying right, it seems totally unfair for him, and you’d think that, right? but all he ever does is whine and moan about his misfortunes, plus his character is so terribly written i kinda feel sorry for-“

the halted melody prompts a sharp turn of your turn to the guitar, which you almost collide with, “what?” taeil only shrugs. “nothin’. just like how passionate you get about the show, it’s cute.” your boyfriend smiles after, ignoring how his words affect you and how your cheeks heat up at it.

→ JOHNNY is one to take you out after your work. it’s not to a super intense, high-energy place like a club or anything, but small little dates that won’t take up much time. eating dinner at a restaurant, walk in the park, small cafe trip, strolling through supermarket to make fun of brand names. if you’re too tired that day, he always finds a way to make your time at home fun. from setting up a small karaoke session, to maybe making a pillow fort, to trying out new cuddling positions, he has everything on his mind. always showing you things to cheer you up if you happen, from memes to funny videos. is low-key down for you to review crime/doctor shows too, just to see how accurate they nail it. your time at home is consuming endless pieces of media until your tummies hurt or you’re sniffling at a movie together.

“hold on- lemme show you this video,” johnny’s hand is outstretched to you once he finds the video and your spoon full of food is left near your mouth. you proceed to watch the low quality video which your boyfriend claims to be the funniest video on earth.

W-HOR? WAH? the girl’s finger in the video traces over the word “who” as she struggles to pronounce it, with presumably her sister in the background prompting her. the repeated pronunciation of the word makes you snort, while the wheezing and the loud NO in the background causes you to fully erupt into laughter. johnny simply smiles at another successful attempt to make you smile.

→ YUTA always has a hand on you when you return home. he brings you into a hug, he guides you by your back, you have to eat with one hand bc he can’t keep his hand off of you. he hopes his little touches will ease your tiredness even by a bit and if you don’t want it, he’ll stop, but it’s yuta’s way of showing he cares without words. busy days with yuta usually involve just sitting in silence as you catch up on a show or a series, or even listening to a song in silence and enjoying each other’s company. he will talk if you want to, but if not that’s fine too, preferring more to stroke your hair in silence and think about how much he loves you. becomes very sappy when you’re in the quiet of your room and generally is very fond of the small pockets of time you get to spend before you two fall asleep. likes that you’re so resolute in your job but can be soft around him behind closed doors.

“you comfortable?” yuta calls out, barely above a whisper as he wraps an arm tighter around you. there’s comfortable ministrations that his does with his fingers, massaging the skin under your pajamas while you snuggle deeper into his chest. humming, you tighten your hold around his top.

“i am, yeah,” you can’t care much for the tv show on the screen now, with empty takeout boxes and tissues littering the coffee table. you feel the gentle kiss of yuta on your head before you’re drifting off to dreamland to a scratchy, 60s jazz song playing through the speakers.

→ TAEYONG would always welcome you back with a table set and food ready, always. he knows that food is the way to someone’s heart and you eating his food always makes him happy and offers to clean-up. lets you shower first if you come back together, puts you before himself very often that sometimes you have to tell him to tone it down because you don’t want him ending up more tired than he already is. following up on this, taeyong would show his love by cooking your lunches for you. when he has the time he makes the effort to put it in a nice bento or box for you to eat. he also does the general chores around the house (assuming the two of you live together) so the bed will be a little less messy when you come back, the floor’s cleaner, the countertops aren’t so cluttered with stuff. even if there’s nothing to clean up, he always these small little things before you come back, and even if you don’t notice it, he sees the way you’re able to navigate the space or when you’re more at ease and it makes him smile.

“do you want to shower first?” taeyong calls out softly, admiring the clean house he’s managed to do up before he went to meet you, “i’ll just hang around until you’re done.”

“you need to prioritise yourself too, yong,” you pout, rubbing a hand up and down his forehead as you toe off your shoes, “how ‘bout we shower together? you did clean the house up pretty nicely.” that earns a grin and a kiss from taeyong, who goes straight the prepare the bath. you chuckle, “he’s already forgotten what i’ve told him.”

→ DOYOUNG supports you silently and listens to your day when you return home and talk about your patient or a case you’re working on. he gives you his own input when he sees fit but other than that he wants you to explain the details. being a doctor and lawyer is crazy and hectic and just wants you to know that you’re appreciated in the workforce. the way he might show his love when caring for a busy s/o like you is when he brings you stuff that you might’ve forgotten like an umbrella or your lunch since you were rushing out of the house earlier. he doesn’t mind going the extra mile to you literally bc it’s a win-win! you get your food, he gets to see you, etc. if not he’ll send someone over to pass it to the receptionist, or he’ll make up for it by meeting you outside the office to apologise and then ask you what you wanna do so he can make it up to you.

“did you manage to get the bento i bought you?” doyoung asks worriedly through the phone, holding up a hand to the staff member who was beckoning him to his photoshoot. “you bought so much!” you exclaim, with a shoulder to your ear, phone perched in between, “thank you doyoung.”

“’m sorry i couldn’t come over to give you your lunch today, angel. i’ll see you after you’re done with work, okay?” you smile at that, shooting a quick reply before you delved into your food.

→ JAEHYUN would honestly serve you once you come back from a busy day tbh. where taeyong does the chores around the house, jaehyun helps by doing the chores on YOU and only you. giving you massages, bringing you dinner on a tray, other unsaid things… and maybe even carrying you from room to room lol he’s relentless and just goes you need to rest, lemme help. big gentleman even when you reject him, doing smaller things like constantly checking up on you, pulling the blanket higher onto your body, cuddling you closer to his body when it’s cold. on top of that jaehyun also one that would meet you at your workplace and take you out like johnny, but those dates are extremely chill. he lets you choose, and when you’re not sure, he takes you on a night picnic at the field or a rooftop, just dinner, but outside bc the view is really nice and he likes the way you look even after a long day of working.

“where should we park our mats?” your head moves from left to right, looking for a suitable spot while you tug on jaehyun’s hand. he hums at it, searching for a spot just like you are. the wind’s blowing gently when you settle near a tree, mat occasionally flying up which you counter with your heavy laptop bag.

“any idea where we can get desserts later?” you call out as a half-joke, not expecting jaehyun to pull up his phone to instantly search for a baskin robbins. “there’s one close-by, wait here for a minute and i’ll go get one for you-“ you laugh before pulling him back down, “don’t worry! we’ll go together, plus i don’t want to be left alone.” jaehyun softly smiles, nodding along as he takes out the food he packed.

→ JUNGWOO has similar intentions like johnny, except he would just wanna stay home. where johnny’s goal is to make you laugh, jungwoo just likes doing things together at home. playing board games, folding the clothes together, making dinner together. it’s not that he doesn’t want to do it, but when he’s given free time he sometimes just likes to laze at home and rest from schedules. he sometimes takes himself out of bed to help before you come back but he’s lazy lolol. loves it when you’re both equally tired and living off 5h of sleep. it’s not romanticising the lack of sleep but your schedules just don’t allow you to sleep equal amounts of hours of sleep. through that, you’re at least able to connect over sleepy talk and droopy smiles while you make the bed or assemble a lego piece or playing video games. if jungwoo’s energetic enough he doesn’t mind doing the crazier activities but he generally prefers those activities done in semi-silence while you exchange jokes and funny videos.

“noooo- no! you only need to move three times, you’re cheating-“ jungwoo pouts and moves back your playing avatar back three spaces on the board game. you purse your lips, not expecting him to see it since he was particularly invested in the movie playing on the screen. knowing it was a shitty film, you tried to talk him out of it, but he insisted. with eyes glued to the screen a few seconds earlier, you took your chance to move down one more space in order to get the benefit on the game board.

“you’ll get to buy a house soon, honey,” jungwoo grins cheekily, laughing even more when he’s able to move four steps, landing on the square that you wanted. now it was your turn to pout as he flips the card for property purchases, happily placing it next to his five other houses. “you’re so annoying!” you say as you fall back on the bean bag, but jungwoo doesn’t believe it when he sees a smile poking out from behind the hands shielding your face..

→ MARK sends you a looooot of texts. your convos with him are just him spamming questions or sending you memes. on every platform LMAO he has tweets sent, ig dm’s are blowing up from the weirdass nct memes that some of the fans make, he uses the official nct tiktok account to send you viral trending videos and he’s like we should try this!!!! and it’s a couple doing acrobatics or some shit. he’s crazy. anyway, he just likes to share things with you, from songs, to playlists, to youtube videos or interesting topics like crime psychology or movie theories etc. he knows that you’re hardly going to see it in your job but he sees the way you react across the room when he sends you stuff so he’s sure that you’ll like it after you get off work. sometimes likes to rickroll you, he knows it’s an old trend/troll thing but the thrill of seeing your frustrated replies always make him laugh out loud. when you’re back home, the both of you review whatever you send each other and then laugh together at them.

“hey, babe, check out this video,” mark says in a text, pasting a twitter link to a video. the video starts out interesting enough, mentioning something about a fun fact with stunning visuals has you wanting to learn more. when the guy in the video starts on his first word, the video immediately changes to rick astley with never gonna give you up. you mutter a small fuck under your breath, gaining a bit of attention from your colleagues during lunch break.

under the table, you flip him off in a picture, which he responds with a big smile of his that’s obviously teasing you for falling for it. you’re going to get it when i get back home!!!!! on a new high, you text the message and set your phone down, already excited for the evening where’d you be able to spend your time with him.

→ HAECHAN is a mix of everything kinda. he’d bring you out after work sometimes and other times likes to stay at home, mainly takes you out to eat after work, but that’s the extent of his after-work-escapades, he doesn’t want to tire you out too much. i think one prominent things he likes to do to is vlog to you, send you videos of what he’s doing on set or at home and just treats your convo like a bank for endless videos. y’know how there’s this video feature in telegram? he sends sooo many of those that you have the time of your life watching those on the ride back home. if you have time, you HAVE to facetime him during your lunch break and tell him how you’re doing and how’s your work coming along. do i have to kick someone’s ass for making you feel uncomfortable? is that patient being creepy again? and you have to explain that haechan, no, that patient is an elderly you cannot beat his ass. he’s like i don’t care, creepy dudes are not excused!!! and you can’t help but smile at that. always wants to be talking to you, close to you. if one day, you’re able to bring him to your job, this man follows you around like a lost puppy and just admires what you do, it’s endearing.

“ah, wait- you know how the sister, xia ling was sent to shut down the ten rings army? well… i just reviewed some of the articles and-“ the video cuts into the next one, haechan’s face zoomed in as he looks straight into the camera, “y’know, she might become a villain one day, i don’t know. maybe i should review some of the comics too?”

“anyway! come look at our set for the music video! it’s sexy, outfits are fire, sets are so good, the choreo this time isn’t too hard, either.” haechan asks the other members to wave as he passes them by, no doubt going his own make-up and hair after the others were already done, “okay, gotta go- love you bye!” you smile at that, texting a quick reply before you open up a video of your own, whispering through the speaker with a promise that you’d see him tonight.

[aimless-imagines-for-fun]

His

Paring :: mafia dark!Bucky Barnes x fem!Reader

Warnings :: 18+, Smut/NSFW, Dark Themes, Possessiveness, Oral(M Recieving), Deep Throating

Word Count :: 2,787

Summary :: Bucky’s had a long day and you’re the only one he can release his stress on

A/N ::....there may or may not be another part... idk yet.... I just really like Mafia Bucky

Some days were better than others, for both you and Bucky. 

So far, your day had gone swimmingly. You woke up, did an easy morning stretch to help you wake up, and proceeded to clean around your house in your favorite sundress. There wasn’t much to do, with the house usually clean due to Bucky hiring professional cleaners to come once a week. Still, the dishes weren’t going to do themselves. 

The highlight of your day was a package being delivered. A book that you had pre-ordered from one of your favorite authors. After you cooked your lunch, you spent the rest of your day reading the book, sitting on the dark grey couch in your large living room. That was all you could do besides watching tv or doing a small hobby to keep you occupied until Bucky came home.

Bucky’s day, on the other hand, was infuriatingly long. He was a businessman and a mob boss, meaning he’d usually have long days. If he was lucky, he’d just have to deal with some idiot trying to cheat him. Today was an unlucky day. He received a visit from Helmut Zemo, the head of a Sokovian Mafia trying to start up in Brooklyn. 

-

Bucky sat at his desk, leaning back in his leather chair as he stared at the man who just entered his office. 

“I already told you the deal Zemo. There’s no bargaining, if you don’t like it save your breath and get the hell out of here.”

The Sokovian ignored him, walking over to a large bookshelf that was against the wall. “You know, for the most powerful man in Brooklyn, you’d be surprised how quickly some of your ‘people’ are willing to betray you if you offer them enough cash.”

Bucky’s eyes narrowed, a scowl forming on his face. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Zemo glanced over for a moment. “The docks.”

A few nights prior, one of Bucky’s incoming shipments of illegal weapons had been robbed. A small number of men were killed, and the rest were injured. There was also a weird symbol that had been spray-painted around the docks, a sign that whoever had done this was publicly declaring war.

Bucky’s jaw clenched and he was now sitting up straight in his seat. “You did that?” “It was quite easy to.”

“So why the fuck are you here now? I could put a bullet through your head in a second.”

Zemo laughed, finally turning to face the other man. “You won’t because you know I’m not stupid enough to come here without just as many men you have.” He let out a small breath, taking a few steps forward. His gaze moved down to Bucky’s left hand, an eyebrow raising with curiosity. “You haven’t married her yet? She’s a lovely woman.”

In an instant Bucky stood up, his hands balled into fists. If a look could kill, Zemo would be dead and his body burning.

“I came to tell (Y/N) thank you. Not long ago, one of my guys got a bit lost and she helped him. Pietro said she was ‘the kindest girl he’d met’ and ‘extremely helpful and friendly.”

Bucky cursed in the back of his mind. It sounded exactly like something you’d do, you were kind and naive by nature, simply wanting to help people when they needed it. It was what drew him to you, and it seemed like it was attracting unwanted attention from others now.

“I’m gonna give you ten minutes to get the hell out of my territory.”

“Why so generous?”

“It’s a nice neighborhood,” Bucky replied sarcastically.

Zemo walked back towards the door, understanding he had pushed the man far enough. A coy smile crept on his face, looking at Bucky one last time. “I’d keep her better guarded and up to speed if I were you. She’s too innocent to be involved with you.”

Once Zemo and his men left Bucky nearly tore apart his office. It took Sam and Steve a good hour to calm the man down and make sure he didn’t do anything reckless. Once he cooled down, Sam revealed that Tony Stark had been the one to cross Bucky. Tony’s father was the previous big bad until Bucky came around.

-

“I don’t give a fuck what you do Steve, just make sure Tony doesn’t think he’s not get strung up on a tree after I shoot that Sokovian bastard in the head.” 

His voice was full of annoyance and his grip on the steering wheel of his car was so tight the whites of his knuckles were visible. It was one thing for Zemo to publicly humiliate his authority by robbing him, but he had indirectly threatened you by mentioning you to Bucky. You were his and his alone. He had invested far too much in securing you, ensuring that you’d never leave him. 

-

Bucky leaned on the doorframe of your apartment’s bedroom, arms crossed over his chest as he watched you step around the room. “What are you doing?”

“Going home,” You muttered, continuing to pack your suitcase.

“That’s on the other side of the country.”

“I know.”

“I can’t keep an eye on you if you’re in LA.”

You looked up from the clothes you were packing, glaring at him. “I know.”

Bucky let out a huff. “So you also know I can’t make sure you’re safe.”

You let out a dry laugh, eyes rolling. “I’ll probably be a lot safer once I’m far away from you.”

The man pushed himself off the door frame, now approaching you with long strides. “You’re not leaving (Y/N).”

You threw the shirt you hand in your hand down, turning to face him. “Yes, I am Bucky, because you lie to me!” Your voice was strained, eyes looking up at him full of pain.

“I didn’t lie to you-”

“Yes, you did! You lied to me about what you did and you hid the truth!”

When you and Bucky started dating, he told you he ran a large ‘supply and demand’ business in Brooklyn and that was it. Like the naive girl you were, who had just moved to the east coast, you believed him because you fell for him hard at first. He spoiled you and made you feel like a princess in public, and in private you helped him release all the pent-up stress he had built up from work. A few months later, you finally figured out why Bucky was always so protective of you and wanted to know where you were 24/7. 

Bucky could see the tears you were holding back, mentally cursing at himself for being the cause. He cupped your cheek with his normal hand. You had to resist the urge to lean into his hold.

“I know I hurt you, and I’m sorry, but…” His voice trailed off. In a swift motion, his metal hand wrapped around your waist lifting you up and over his shoulder. “You’re not leaving me (Y/N).”

“James Buchanan Barnes! Put me down this instant!” You slammed your fists into his back to no avail. “I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!”

“I love you too darling,” He mumbled, proceeding to walk you out of your apartment.

-

You were on the fourth chapter of your book when you heard a car door slam. You sprung up from your seat, moving as quickly as you could to greet Bucky at the front door. When you got there, you saw he had already let himself inside. His brows were knit together, looking down at the door’s locks.

“Why isn’t the door locked?” He questioned before he even saw you.

With the territorial instinct he had when it came to you and his meeting with Zemo earlier, it was clear he was not happy about such a small thing, no matter your excuse.

“Oh, I must’ve forgotten to lock it when I got the mail today,” You said quietly.

He had lectured you multiple times about how important it was you locked the door, even before you move in with him.

You wrapped your arms around his torso, properly greeting him with a smile like you did every day. You had done this so many times, you noticed how long it took for him to softly wrap a single arm around you before walking away. He was upset.

“Go to the bedroom and wait. Now,” He ordered.

Your heart started racing, wondering what was going to happen to you. If he had stress pent up, he would either wait until after dinner or start kissing you roughly the second he stepped in. He had only acted like this when you pushed him to his limit, like when you threatened to leave him or attempted to run away when he first forced you to live with him.

You sat at the edge of your shared bed, hands holding and fiddling with the hem of your dress. When Bucky was this angry, he was painfully rough to the point where you would begin crying. You quickly began thinking of everything you had done recently, wondering what could’ve pushed him to this point.

He walked in, jacket off and the sleeves to his white button-up rolled up to his elbows. Even though your mind was screaming with fear, your body started heating up with desire seeing him. Especially when your eyes glanced down to his pants and saw a hardness forming. ‘Fuck, he’s been thinking about this.’

Walking up to you, Bucky grabbed your chin with his thumb and index finger, forcing you to look up at him. As a sort of last-ditch effort to get some kindness from him, you gave him a doe-eyed look.

He leaned down, pressing a long kiss against your lips before pulling away. “Get on your knees.”

You took in a deep breath, accepting he wouldn’t be gentle. You pulled away from his cold metal hand, sinking down to stand before him on your knees. Keeping eye contact with him, you managed to under his brown leather belt and navy trousers. You looped your fingers at the hem of his pants, pulling them down along with his briefs just enough for his fully erect shaft to be freed. 

With both of your small hands wrapping around his shaft, you could feel yourself growing wet at the sound of his soft groan. At first, you started stroking his length slowly, leaning your face closer to lick the tip and swirl your tongue around the head.

Bucky didn’t allow you to continue this very long. Only a small dribble of precum was licked up before he grabbed a fist full of your hair from the back of your head and pushed himself further in. Another groan escaped him feeling the warmth of your mouth around his cock. He hit the back of your throat and you gagged, not yet ready for him to go deeper. He did it again two more times, warning you that he planned on having you take all of him in his mouth.

Your hands moved up to his thighs to hold yourself steady and you relaxed your throat the best you could in preparation. Once he started to push his dick further in, you could feel tears start to well up in your eyes as he went down your throat. You moaned each time he shoved his shaft down your throat, sending a soft vibration on his shaft.

Bucky eventually started thrusting his hips into your mouth, fully fucking your mouth as tears started to fall out of your eyes. Watching your glossy eyes stare up at him with his cock down your throat he nearly lost it, feeling his ballsack tighten. Not wanting to cum just yet, he pulled out, a string of your saliva falling off his dick and dribbling down your mouth. You gasped and began panting for air, wiping away your drool with the back of your hand.

He sat on the edge of the bed now, pulling your hips to stand in front of him once you stood up. “Off.”

You took off your dress, followed by your bra and wet panties. Already knowing what was going to happen, you moved to straddle his hips. You and Bucky had had sex numerous times before, but you always needed a moment to get used to his size. He wasn’t going to allow that.

With his large hands on your hips, he forced you down his entire dick, groaning at how tight your walls clenched around him.

“Bucky!” You cried out, body tingling as he filled you up, balls deep. 

He held your hips with such a strong grip you were sure there were going to be marks after. He bounced you up and down his cock, watching you with a dark gaze as you moaned and whimpered against him. Only he could make you feel like this, act like this for him.

He thrusted his hips up, and you moaned loudly, back arching as he hit a sweet sensitive spot. “Please!”

“Please, what?” Bucky asked, knowing full well what you wanted. He wanted you to beg.

“Fuck me right there Bucky! Please!”

More than happy to comply, he proceeded to slam into that same spot, your breath growing faster and cunt tighter each time it was hit. His breath was becoming heavy, and his movements ragged.

He watched as you looked down at him fucking you and saw you shudder. “Ah!” Your walls tightened and your release hit you, juices pouring out. Feeling you release triggered his own orgasm, releasing inside of you. You could feel spurt after spurt of hot cum filling you up and your tight cunt gladly took it.

He finally stopped bouncing you, rolling his hips into you and allowing you a few seconds of rest. He pulled his limp dick out but watching your pussy drip with a mixture of both your cum, he found himself hard once again. 

You barely had any time for your mind to clear up after, your eyes widening as Bucky forced you on your hands and knees. Not sparing a single second he rammed back into you, his hand smacking your ass hard. 

You let out a cry, the stinging pain from the spank only lasting for a short while before you felt the pain and pleasure of him filling you up again. 

“Tell me how much you love it,” He breathed out, watching your ass bounce against his hips with each thrust.

“Bucky!” You moaned out, your walls tightening around him again.

You barely had any time to recover from your last high and still sensitive. You started moving your ass against him, feeling his ballsack slapping your clit each time he thrusted. 

“I love it so much!” You breathed out. “I love feeling your big dick fill me up and fuck me!” 

You bit your lip, feeling the juices drip down your thighs. Your arms were starting to grow weak, barely able to hold yourself when you screamed again. Your pussy tightened and released, begging him to cum and fill you up again.

His large hands buried into your hips, continuing to fuck you as you released around him again. His build-up was growing with the sight of you taking his cock, thrusts growing sloppy. 

Bucky wasn’t blind and could tell your arms were going to give out. So, he released his grip on you with his metal arm to lean over you. He wrapped his arm around your chest, holding you up while squeezing your breast. 

Hearing your soft whimpers as he still fucked you did it for him, his hips bucking to release another hot load inside of you. He stayed in you until he finished then pulled out, releasing you to collapse on the bed. 

Weakly, you turned yourself on your back to look at him, face flushed and tear-stained. He lowered himself above you, metal arm pressed down near the side of your head to keep him above you. Bucky’s eyes danced over your facial features. His gaze moved down, watching your chest rise with each pant before looking at the mess in between your legs.

With his other hand, he reached down and dragged two fingers up your wet folds, gathering the juices on them. When he raised them back up to your face, both of your hands grabbed him and began to suck and lick his fingers clean.

“Christ you’re fucking beautiful.”

He pulled his fingers away, smashing his lips against yours. You wrapped your hands around his neck, a hand moving up to play and tug on his hair as you kissed.

[embretheworld]

giyushino headcanon/backstory hcs

this is mostly just interpreting canon so enjoy my idea or partial take on the twos backstory like before they become demon slayers/hashira basically a kind of character study I guess? I dunno, it’s my backstory for the characters. (also if there’s any misspelling that’s cause I wrote this out a while back)

Also correlations/comparisons between the two on how they’re technically somehow complete opposite but similar at the samtimes(As in they’re so unalike they’re alike)

Giyuu stashing food almost on habit by accident because he always used to have to stash it as a child since they hardly had any money after his parents died and either had to steal, stash, or buy food with little money they had. It’s why he' has such a good poker face and is a good liar, because in order to  get stuff he and his sister had to sometimes lie and steal to get it. 

comapre that to shinobu's childhood to where they were saved by gyomei and had everything they needed while he didn't. Their different enough that they're technically the same(same sides of a coin? kinda something like that or maybe it was different sides of the same coin?)

But honestly, the lack of social skills, constant poker face, and really his lack of furniture in his house can be explaining a lot but the headcanon of him having to grow up poor because of his parents untimely death and not being able to go back to their house for anything because their parents are dead. 

He'd be frugal with his money since he still knows there's a chance he can loose it all like he did those years ago and save up as much as possible, and people not really wanting to associate with someone who's homeless since they wouldn't have the luxury of being able to look good or other things.

I actually an idea for an interaction between muichiro and giyuu where giyuu just mainly gets concerned due to his background on whether or not a child (example: tanjiro, zenitsu, insouke, etc, etc) is eating and with muichiro and his memory forgetting to do stuff, sometimes like eating, giyuu's just mainly concerned for him since he has a tendency to eat while he still can when stressed or concerned since it could easily be taken away. and just he's concerned about muichiro since he worries him in general though and has a tendency to remind him of things like that when he sees him as a just in case.

Which also ties into the idea of him not really minding how  anything taste since when you grow up not knowing if that’s the last meal your going to get you have to actually eat it so the better way to phrase how he eats his food would be ‘to inhale it like a vacum cleaner’ not really bothering with tastes, that’s not to say he’ll eat just anything, since well with the job he has he can better afford things he has no reason to be stingy, he knows how to cook especially with very little supplies, it just really doesn’t matter since there’s always that one thought in the back of your mind that ‘what if it happens again and i lose everything?’ that he reverts back to old habits, of course there are foods he savors like hsi favorite one.

He probably isn’t even aware that he does this most of the time, after all when your surronded by people who do tend to eat a lot you just don’t question it, he’s never been given a reason to question it why start? Also he doesn’t really eat in front of people cuz’ he doesn’t really hang out with anyone. however when he does enough times that people notice and it’s worrying really because unlike the others what he’s doing isn’t healthy because you can eat a lot of food and it still be healthy but almost swallowing it whole isn’t. 

Anyway to Shinobu

For her, I imagine her as a spitfire slightly bratty kid compared to Giyuu who’s blunt but also crafty when needed but other wise he’s grateful because he’s glad he has something Shinobu not so much.

At a very young age after her parents were killed she didn’t have to really worry on a long scale of all the things he worried about because she got saved by Gyomei very early, basically meaning she had everything she needed covered didn’t have to worry about whether or not food she’d have food on the table(at least not for long) didn’t have to worry about money or getting a job at a very young age or if you’d have a place to sleep at night. 

While yes she learns how to budget and all that but not at such a young age since she’s never had to worry about it. She’s never had to lie really get by(once again at a young age) never had to worry about being properly educated she was all sorted out really. (excuse if I get the timelien a little wrong its’ been a while since I brushed over her backstory) She’s approachable, she doesn’t have to worry about being judged on appearances or anything like that.

It’s why I like the dynamic so much cuz’ if you take the time to analyze it the two are so unalike that they’re alike somehow, two sides of teh same coin if i remmeber it correctly.

but that’s all for my rambling today feel free to ask me anything if you didn’t understand anything or just wanna know more of my thoughts!

[tenthgrove]

This one was sent to me by @pseudo-possum via messaging so I’ll paraphrase here. The concept is that Risotto visits his grandmother (My OC, Vittoria Nero) and she attempts to set him up with with her new maid. Both Risotto and the maid know what’s going on, but they’re fine with it and open to the idea of a relationship.

A Welcome Arrangement

Risotto x Reader (GN), Romantic, SFW

When you made the decision to seek work in the cleaning industry, your hopes were low. You were fully willing to tolerate some rude, entitled rich prick as your employer so long as they paid you decently for it.

Instead, you got Vittoria Nero.

Vittoria’s house is small, by the standards of those that usually warrant a personal cleaner. Furthermore, although elderly, Vittoria is in excellent health and would certainly be capable of cleaning the place herself if she wanted to. Instead, you suspect she just wanted a maid for the company.

Vittoria is a most generous employer. Even though you rarely have enough tasks to busy yourself for more than a couple hours each morning, she pays you for a full day of work each day. She lets you have the spare bedroom free of rent, and spoils you so frequently with her cooking you barely have to worry about that expense either. You feel less like a housemaid and more like a much-treasured niece.

Vittoria calls to you and you snap out of your thoughts, turning off the vacuum hoover to listen to her.

“Did you do the other room, dear?” she asks you.

“If you mean Risotto’s old room, then yes, I just got done with it. Lots of dust. Definitely needed doing,” you affirm.

“Certainly,” Vittoria nods. “That said I hope you didn’t move too much around. My grandson has always been very protective of his things and he wouldn’t like to be reminded of someone touching them,” she adds.

“No worries, I remembered. Everything is exactly where I found it,” you assure her. Vittoria smiles.

“Good, good. I knew you would. Come, sit with me,” she beckons you. The pair of you sit down on the comfortable sofa in the main room. She drums her lap restlessly. “I have news. Risotto’s stay has been extended to a month. It turns out the first assignment he had scheduled for after this holiday of his is in Palermo anyway, so it's more practical for him to carry on staying with us while he takes care of it,” Vittoria announces.

“Oh, good. I’m sure you’ll appreciate the extra time with him,” you remark. You can’t say for yourself if time with Risotto is time well spent- you’ve never met the man, but Vittoria speaks of her grandson with a deep fondness you can only see as earned. Nobody ever gains Vittoria Nero’s respect without earning it.

“Certainly. And I think he’ll enjoy being home. I can only guess how much Naples has been wearing him down,” Vittoria looks down across the room. Sadness fills her eyes for a moment, but she shakes it off. “Regardless, my advice remains from before. Remember that certain features of Risotto’s life, especially his business, may be off limits, but you should by no means shy away from him. You will both find this month much more enjoyable if you can appreciate each other’s presences.”

“Of course, Vittoria, I’ll keep it in mind.”

::::::::::::

The next day you drive over to the next town to do some shopping. As you pull back into the driveway of the Nero house you find an unfamiliar car in the usual spot. Vittoria doesn’t get visitors, ever. Clearly, it would seem, Risotto has arrived a few hours early.

You open the front door with trepidation. Will Risotto find it strange that you, a simple cleaner, treat the house so much like your own? Should you knock instead? No, you’d rather not bring any unneeded attention to yourself. You swallow your anxieties and step into the front room.

“Oh, (y/n), there you are,” Vittoria greets you. Your eyes fall straight to the tall, black-clad man standing beside her. Christ, you expected Risotto to be intimidating, but not like this. At first glance he’s the complete opposite of his grandmother in every way- morose, sombre and imposing. But the resemblance is unmistakable. “Cat got your tongue, dear?” Vittoria prompts you. You snap out of your stupor.

“Excuse me. Risotto, I presume?”

“Yes, you must be the maid Nonna mentioned. It’s good to meet you,” Risotto greets. Wow, that’s a compelling voice. So deep and sultry… you think you could get used to listening to it over the next month.

::::::::::::

Vittoria excuses you from your duties the next day. Unwilling to face the sweltering Sicilian sun with her in your garden, you retreat to your room and read. You don’t know what Risotto is doing.

There’s a crash and you start. It sounded like… falling glass, and it came from just across the hall from you. Quickly hurrying from your room you follow the sound into Risotto’s. He isn’t there (thankfully for your embarrassment) but the shattered remains of a drinking glass lie in pieces on the floor by the window. A breeze shakes the curtains. Did it somehow blow it off the edge?

Regardless of what caused it, you should probably clean it up before Risotto finds out. God forbid he steps in it on accident. You turn around and immediately headbutt a broad human chest. Well, speak of the devil.

“Are you alright? There was crashing and Nonna said to investigate,” Risotto explains.

“I’m fine, I think the breeze blew it off,” you say, gesturing to the broken glass.

“Strange, I don’t remember putting that there,” Risotto remarks. “Nonna must have left it. I’ll help you clean.”

“Wait, you don’t have to do that for me Risotto,” you call, but he’s already half way down the hall. He returns with a dustpan and broom, handing the latter to you before he helps you to clear the mess. As you clean, you notice Vittoria sitting in her deckchair, watching you with her drink and smiling. Did she just… what on earth is her game?

::::::::::::

“Vittoria, it really won’t be necessary. If Risotto doesn’t want to go I’ll be fine by myself,” you insist. Vittoria shakes her head.

“Nonsense. Driving that far out alone is dangerous. Risotto should go to protect you,” she maintains. Behind you, Risotto sighs.

“I thought you sent them shopping alone all the time, Nonna,” he reminds her. “Didn’t they go on the day I arrived, anyway?”

“Well, now I need them to go again, and I need them to go further. So you’re accompanying them.”

Risotto groans and turns to you.

“We aren’t winning this. Come on, let’s get in the car,” he surrenders.

You’re half an hour into the drive when Risotto suddenly curses.

“I’ve figured it out,” he says.

“What?”

“What she’s doing. All the little accidents, the conveniently needing us to spend time together. She’s trying to set us up.”

Looking up at his eyes, you expect to see anger, but then Risotto laughs.

“That woman,” he exclaims, chuckling again.

“Oh christ, you’re right,” you realise, recalling all the times Vittoria assured you of how well the two of you would get on together. “Why?”

“Nonna has always wanted me to settle down. She thinks domesticity would suit me.”

“Well fuck. She just had to make this awkward, didn’t she?” you comment, sniggering a little between your teeth. Risotto looks at you for a breath moment of apprehension before his normal calm veneer returns.

“She’s always been very prudent in her decisions, that’s all I’m saying,” he remarks.

Is… is this flirting?

“You don’t say.”

Risotto lifts his hand from the gearbox and overlaps it on yours. He caresses your hand gently. You smile at each other. Perhaps Vittoria will have to find another cleaner soon.

[nightshade-minho]

-Blue Book- (12)

Warnings: negative emotions like heartbreak, envy etc, alcohol, excessive consumption of alcohol, making out etc.

Wc: 6.1k

You shot awake, groaning as you clutched the bed sheets tightly. Fuck, that was a terrible nightmare. You pushed the sheets off you, your skin feeling clammy and your hands sweaty.

"Y/n? You okay?" 

You turned to see Minho looking at you, his face covered in concern as he tentatively placed his hand on your arm, tilting his head.

"I'm fine..." You sighed and shook your head, sitting up straighter. "Really...it was just a bad dream." You mumbled, sliding out of the bed and glancing back at Minho with a reassuring smile. 

"Oh. Okay...' He stood up as well, adjusting the sheets and tucking them back in. 

"What do you want for breakfast?" 

You sighed and looked at the clock on Minho’s wall, pressing your lips together. "It's almost lunchtime. We definitely slept in...I am hungry, though." 

"Fine, call it brunch. Either way, it's food." He chuckled, heading out of the door as you followed him with a giggle.

Minho opened his fridge, glancing over at you. "Your phone was ringing at midnight, by the way. i was going to answer it but whoever it was gave up before I could pick up. I didn't want to wake you.” He said as he took out ingredients for omelettes, placing them on the counter. 

"Oh...it was probably Felix. I didn't exactly tell him I was staying at your place." 

"Ah, that explains it. Go, call him. I'll be done with this soon." he said, pointing to the currently empty pan.

You nodded and went back to the bedroom to grab your phone, heading to Minho's balcony as you dialled Felix’s number.

***

Felix was cleaning the dishes when he heard his phone ring. He looked over at the contact ID quickly, heaving a sigh of relief mixed with anger. He glanced at Chan before answering your call, putting you on speakerphone.

"Y/n! I was fucking worried sick! Chan told me you walked out without any explanation and then you didn't come back home, and-" 

"Woah woah, chill. I'm at Minho's, I stayed the night." 

"Oh..." Felix paused. He didn't miss the way Chan's already dull expression morphed into something even more sour at the mention of Minho’s name.

"I’m glad you're safe but...that still doesn't excuse what you did. You could have called. Instead, you let me worry." 

You sighed, guiltily. "I know...that was a dick move. I’m sorry, Lixie."

Felix sighed reluctantly. "I accept your apology, Y/n...you know I can't stay mad at you when you call me that." He pinched his forehead, trying not to let affection overcome him.

You giggled. "I know. My sunshine boy~ You can never be angry for too long, huh?" 

Felix fought off his smile, shaking his head. 'Yeah, enough of the buttering. You need to get back here soon, and help me with the decorations to show me you’re really sorry."

"Decorations?" You asked, confused as you heard Minho call out for you. Turning back around, you went back into the kitchen, grinning as you saw the buttery golden omelettes he'd placed on the plates. 

"They look so fluffy..." you mouthed, as Felix replied. "Yeah, for the party." he explained. "It's Jisung's birthday today, I thought you knew? Don’t tell me you forgot! The party's at our place-" 

"Oh! Fuck, I did forget about that, Lix- "

"It’s okay, just come home quick. Bring Minho if you’d like, we could definitely use the extra help." 

You nodded. "Sure, I'll be there right after breakfast." 

You shut down your phone, sitting down at the table and grabbing a fork, digging into the eggs. Minho looked up, swallowing before he spoke.

"Jisung’s birthday, huh? I can't believe you almost forgot. He's going to be very mad." Minho teased, waving his fork in the air at you and smirking.

"Too bad he'll never find out." You said smugly. "Right?"

"Right." Minho chuckled. "How are the eggs?"

"Amazing. Why are you and Felix such naturals at cooking? And then there's me, nearly burning down the kitchen the last time I tried." 

"Hey, it’s not your fault. It was the oven’s. We needed to fix it anyway." He laughed, continuing to eat his food. 

"I guess so." 

There was a comfortable silence for a bit as Minho watched you eat what he’d cooked for you. He hummed, realizing how calm he felt around you. Your presence made him feel so safe and secure. 

You seemed to really be enjoying what was on your plate. Moaning softly in appreciation, you took another bite, his cheeks flushing at the sound.

“This is...wow. Perfect.” You grinned up at him, chewing enthusiastically.

Minho wished he could cook for you every morning, for the rest of his life.

***

"You're finally here!" Felix shook his head, flinging the door open wide as he beckoned the two of you in. 

As you entered, your eyes immediately spotted Chan standing on the couch, hanging up a ‘Happy Birthday’ banner onto the wall. You inhaled sharply, your heart already beginning to pound errantly at the sight.

"We already did a lot of it without you..." he sighed. You gasped as you looked around the room, which had been completely transformed. There were tiny star-shaped lanterns hung from the ceilings, and the couch had been moved to the side, to provide space to dance. The living room was much cleaner, a stark contrast from how it looked yesterday.

"I know, I'm so sorry. I just overslept. Last night was weird. At least my headache is gone." You admitted. You felt Chan glance at you at that, quickly looking away before you could return his look.

Chan swallowed. His heart had dropped when he saw you and Minho walk into the room, together. One could only presume you'd stayed the night at his place. He felt overcome with jealousy, his chest rising and falling as he breathed heavily, desperately trying to focus on the task at hand.

Envy. It was an emotion he had always been quite familiar with, unlike happiness. The person he was envious of had been and still was Minho. Minho, who he'd used to call his best friend. 

First Miyoung, now you. Everything somehow circled back to him.

However, the jealousy he was feeling was a lot more profound this time. With Miyoung, there had been no illusions. Chan had been trying his best to win her over, but with no luck. Deep down, he’d known she was a lost cause.

With you, though...there was a time when he’d been almost sure you were the one, that you belonged to him...a time when he’d thought you were in love with him too. 

It wasn't like Chan to dream. He wasn't one to believe in happily ever afters, really. They just weren’t realistic enough...

But, for a brief moment, you had made him want one. 

Maybe that was why the bitter reveal had been all the more cruel... Minho, taking away what he considered his once more.

The thing was- Chan knew you were a human being. Not an object for him to claim. He wanted you to be happy...but would you be happy with Minho? He’d despised you back then. Chan still remembered the pure hatred that spewed out of Minho every time he talked about you. Had that been a ruse? Had he ever hated you? Or were you two secretly seeing each other the whole time, working together to undermine him and ruin the rest of his life?

Okay, so maybe that was a little far-fetched and absurd. Still...he didn’t know what to believe anymore.

Chan sighed and looked back at his banner, deciding to ignore the both of you.  

You tore your eyes away from Chan. Looking back at Felix, you hummed and tucked your hands in your pockets, breathing in.

"So, what do you want us to do?"

"Hm, let's see...we've got decorations and catering left. Minho can help me cook and you-" 

Your eyes widened. No way- Felix wouldn’t suggest you help Chan with the decorations, right? He knew better than to leave the two of you alone again.

You saw Chan freeze for a moment as well, although his back was turned away from you. Good to know he felt the same way.

Felix sensed the tension rising, quickly trying to salvage the situatiom. "Hm actually, Y/n... I think I’ll need your help with the food. Especially with the drink choices, you're always the best at that!" He turned to Minho, clapping his hands decidedly. 

"You can help Chan with the decorations, Min." 

Minho nodded after a moment of reluctance, grimacing as he went over to inspect the banner Chan was putting up. Felix took you to the kitchen as you heaved a sigh of relief, placing your hand on your chest. “That was a close call.”

He took out the menus he wanted you to pick from, as he watched your expression. 

"Why'd you leave last night, anyway?" He muttered sadly, carefully inspecting your face. 

You thought back on it. Why did you? Last night was kind of fuzzy in your mind, to be honest. You couldn’t even recall the final straw that had made you storm out of the house. It wasn’t like you to be this spontaneous. 

"Chan was annoying me, and making my headache worse. So I left." You shrugged. 

"...Right." Felix rolled his eyes. "Look, I didn't want to say anything at first, but you do realize we're all grown up now, right? It's time for us to put all that high school shit in the past. I know Chan did some pretty shitty things but is it really that hard to forgive him? Minho was terrible as well- maybe even worse, yet you forgave him." He pointed out. 

"Minho spent years grovelling and apologizing for his behavior. So what if he was mean, he's changed! It's clear to see. With Chan, I'm not so sure. I can feel the hate he has for me practically rolling off him.” You stared at the floor, trying not to let those memories overtake you. “Besides...I thought I told you. Chan’s betrayal hurt more cause I genuinely thought he cared about me.” You mumbled.

“Then again, I was stupid and naïve, so I don’t really have anyone else to blame but myself."

"Chan doesn't hate you..." 

"Really? I find that hard to believe." You raised an eyebrow. "If he’s a mature adult, I think he should come and try to talk to me about what he did. I'm not the one who did something wrong here, so I won't approach him. If he wants to apologize, he can."

You sighed as you pulled the menu over to yourself. "But, as long as he continues to be petty, you better believe I'll play his game." 

Felix sighed and nodded. "You know what...sure. Whatever." He made a mental note to himself, deciding to talk to Chan later. He couldn’t bear to stand on the sidelines any longer. He had to do something. 

"I'm staying at Minho’s until he leaves." You added, ripping Felix out of his thoughts. Humming, you examined the drinks menu he handed to you.

Felix shrugged, noting down the names of the drinks you circled. "Okay. Ooh, the old gang will all be here tonight!" He let himself smile, ignoring your icy demeanor. Looking up, he sighed as he noticed the scowl still present on your face. “Come on Y/n, lighten up! Let’s forget about Chan for a second, shall we? Forget about what he did to you. Forget about whether or not you want to forgive him. Just...treat him like you would any other normal person, okay?"

You groaned, standing up straight as you rubbed your forehead. Ugh, maybe you should listen to him. All these negative emotions were really exhausting, and you could definitely do without them. 

"Sure...fine. I can do that...I think." 

"Good girl.” He smiled proudly. “Now, let's do food..." 

***

Minho and Chan hadn't said a word to each other for the past hour. They communicated mainly through grunts and hand gestures, as they decorated the space in silence.

Between the mutual hate and jealousy, there wasn’t much room for a good relationship between them anymore. They were virtually strangers, and honestly would prefer to keep it that way. 

Chan kept glancing at Minho though, biting his lip. He inhaled, working up his courage to say something.

“So...how’s Y/n? Are you taking care of her?"

What kind of question was that? Minho frowned, nodding. "Uh...yeah?" 

Chan nodded, biting his lip as he looked at the decorations again. "Cool." He hated the way his heart was filled with dull hatred, anger and pain. A mass of negative emotions had settled in him over the years, and they definitely weren’t going to budge any time soon.

However...when he’d seen Minho again, some of the anger had melted away, kind of. The man was no longer the same person he’d been back then. More confident, yet also more vulnerable...he strangely reminded him of you, before you'd shattered your rosy view on life and opted for a more practical outlook.

There was an awkward silence as they continued their work. Minho felt guilt slam against his ribs as he caught a glimpse of Chan's face.

He looked void of hope. Calm, yet not in a good way. The kind of calm that came from losing everything.

There was a tiny part of him that wanted to make it all better for Chan. Tell the truth to you, and come clean. After all, Chan was once his closest friend. The two practically grew up together. Minho recalled how he’d go over to Chan’s every day after school, playing video games in his basement and generally horsing around. He smiled to himself as the memories came back to him. Memories of helping him steal his dad’s Playboy magazine...consuming an unhealthy amount of energy drinks and crisps as they hung out, content in each other’s company.

But then, he thought about you. No. He just couldn't lose you to Chan. Besides, he wasn’t even completely sure if the truth would make you forgive Chan. Maybe it would just turn you against Minho.

Chan was handsome...he was kind, muscular, loving. He would have no problem finding someone. 

Minho on the other hand...he'd never loved anyone the way he did you. The emotions were alien, and yet so exciting. It was confusing, really- he couldn’t tell if he liked these feelings or not. 

It wasn’t like he was stripping Chan of his soulmate or anything. It just wasn't a big deal. Right?

Then why was there so much fucking guilt, heavily weighing down his heart? Why was it impossible to breathe?

**

Despite having been thrown together last minute, the party was admittedly going well. The rest of the boys came soon after you and Minho, helping Felix finish off the preparations and transform the space.

Jisung of course, true to his nature, came ‘fashionably late’, after the rest of the guests had already arrived. His grand entrance lacked the raining confetti he’d initially wanted, but it was still cool. After all, he should have known putting Hyunjin in charge of it was a bad idea.

By now, the party was in full swing. Jisung loved being the centre of attention, and that little fact was made increasingly evident with the way he was dancing in the middle of the living room, a pink feather boa thrown around his shoulders. There were drinks being passed around everywhere, people dancing and having fun in every corner. it reminded you of the few college parties you'd gone to. 

College, safe to say, weren’t exactly the best years of your life. You didn't really have any friends, and Chan had been on your mind throughout it all. He was a barrier; blocking you from living your life as a normal person.

He sat in the back of your mind, a memory from high school that threatened to never leave you. To always stick with you, reminding you that you weren't worthy. You weren't deserving of his love...all you did was play the part of a tool, to help him get the girl he was really after. Was that really all you were good for?

It wasn’t Chan you were hung up on. The implications were what truly hurt. The thought that you wouldn’t ever be worth enough to anyone, the thought that love just didn’t exist for you.

You stood in the corner with Felix, sighing as you finished your third shot of the evening. Forget it. Focus on the party right now, the one you’re supposed to supervise. 

Nodding your head to the beat, you looked over the crowd. "Damn, Changbin's a really good DJ. We saved so much money on that one..." You eyed a drunken party goer almost knocking over the vase on the table, wincing. 

"This place is going to be a fucking mess by tonight, and I'm sure at least one thing will end up broken. It’s good we managed to save some money." You sighed, and Felix nodded. "Amen to that. It’ll be a nightmare to clean.'' Felix sighed, running his eyes over the floor which was already covered with a thin layer of trash. 

Minho suddenly slid next to the two of you, swallowing the remnants of the clear liquid in his glass as he grabbed your arm. His words were already slurred, and he’d definitely had a lot more drinks than you.

"Don't worry, we'll all help clean up! What are we here for?”

“Hm, does that mean you guys will be staying here overnight?”

Your eyes widened slightly. No. Minho noticed your expression, humming thoughtfully before shaking his head.

“Can’t. My cats. They don’t like being alone for too long." He took your hand in his. "Y/n and I will be here early tomorrow morning to clean up." 

You looked up at him thankfully, and then back at Felix. "Yeah." 

He eyed the two of you, gaze flitting from one to the other. "Okay...sure.”

The music was way too loud, the floor and walls thrumming to the beat. The three of you relaxed against the wall, collectively watching as the man Hyunjin was dancing with whispered something in his ear, a cheeky smile gracing his face. The bedroom eyes were clear to see, even from here.

You frowned, narrowing your eyes at the sight. "Oh god, please tell me he's not going to-" 

Hyunjin smirked, taking the man's hand and leading him off in the opposite direction, through the small crowd. 

Your eyes widened. "I swear to god, if it’s my room they’re going to be fucking in, I’ll-" 

Felix giggled as he patted your back sympathetically, Minho holding you back and chuckling. "Hey, hey- it's ok. I’m sure they won’t go all the way here, they’ll probably just make out in the bathroom and then go back to his place. Don’t worry." 

You groaned and slumped in Minho’s hold. "I guess Hyunjin does know better." 

Felix hummed in agreement, chortling. He looked over at the plates on the table that were gradually emptying, and sighed.

"Guys, wait here for a bit. Gotta refill those." 

You nodded as Felix left for the kitchen, turning back to Minho. Sighing, you leaned against the wall as you looked around the room properly. 

"You and Chan did a good job on the decorations." 

"It was mostly him." Minho exhaled. You pressed your lips together, shrugging. 

The room was dimly lit in a purple glow thanks to the lamp in the corner, as well as the plenty of stars that were hung from the ceilings. It was beautiful, and you were a little miffed that none of the guests were sober enough to truly appreciate it.

Jisung danced over to the two of you suddenly, shaking his neck and laughing loudly. "Hey you two!!” He wiggled his body to the music, grinning. “Come on guys, stop being wallflowers and come partaayyyy!" 

You chuckled and shook your head. "I don't know about-"

Jisung pouted at you, coming really close to you and placing his hands on your shoulders. "Pleeeaaase? For the birthday boy?" he asked, his eyes big and puppy like, his lips formed into a pout. 

You stared him down, but just couldn't resist as a smile broke out on your face. "Ugh, fine." 

"Good girl!" Jisung exclaimed drunkenly as Minho smirked, chuckling to himself as Jisung took his hand as well as yours, leading the two of you into the crowd. 

Jeongin was on the floor as well, surprisingly dancing up a storm as he grinned at you. Ah well. If Jeongin could, why not you? You might as well take advantage of the buzzing in your veins.

You immediately started dancing, moving your body to the beat and trying your best to look graceful and sexy. However, the alcohol was messing with your system, and it was difficult for you to coordinate your moments right. 

Minho laughed fondly at your failed attempts. It was adorable, how you danced like a baby giraffe learning how to walk. 

"Hey." He grabbed both of your arms, making you look at him. You looked into his eyes, a questioning look in them. 

Minho inhaled. He almost forgot what he was going to say. Fuck that, he almost even forgot his own name. Did he have to feel like this every single time you so much as glanced at him?

"I'll help...this is how you dance." He moved behind you, pressing your back to his chest lightly. Your breathing turned shaky as he started guiding your movements carefully.

"See...like that. Got it?" 

You nodded. "I think so..." You continued dancing, now looking a lot more sensual and less like a baby animal.

You got the hang of it soon enough. Minho was about to let go of you, but you held onto him before he could. 

“Dance with mee.” You giggled, pouting up at him. He smiled down at you, inhaling. 

“Okay~”

***

Chan watched from across the room as Minho and you danced, pressed to each other. He downed yet another shot, hoping the stinging alcohol would help him forget his worries and pain, at least just for a bit. 

Fuck envy. It was definitely the worst of them all. Despite the anger he had towards you, all he wanted to do was march onto that dance floor and pull you away from Minho. He wanted to be the one dancing with you instead.

He was so...so unsatisfied. The alcohol melted away his inhibitions, and now his emotions were all over the place, even more so than before.

Unsatisfied. That was it. He wasn't able to be productive, wasn't doing anything with his life merely because of his unfinished business with you. 

He knew he couldn’t blame you. You’d definitely come to know about the bet, probably why you’d left him. Although why Minho? God, the shock of seeing you two together that day was still fresh.

You were more than just a bet to him, and he wished you knew that. More than a blue book. 

You were...you. You were the prettiest, sweetest, most talented girl he’d ever met. 

You’d changed since the last time he saw you. More cynical. Rough, defensive. He didn't blame you. That...that was his fault. The reason why you were like that.

Despite that, he could still see traces of the old you. The you he’d fallen in love with. It had not gone anywhere, really. It was still inside you...somewhere.

Chan was starting to feel profound regret at the way he’d treated you. Was it stupid of him to think you’d still want him, after learning what he’d done to you? 

Chan sat up as he watched Minho's hand slide around your stomach, pulling you closer to him. 

Fuck, he almost wanted to throw up. He felt the anger course back into him, anger directed at you, at Minho, at his parents, everything.

That was it. He couldn't watch this, sitting in the corner drinking booze like some sort of pathetic idiot. 

No, you had to get a taste of your own medicine. 

Chan noticed the blonde in the crowd who had been eyeing him for ages. She was pretty enough, her features soft and smooth. On top of that, she was wearing possibly the shortest red dress he'd ever seen. Her fake tan was excessive, her cleavage abundant. 

In other words, she was perfect. Perfect for him to use as he put his drunken plan into action.

Chan stood up, finishing off his drink and setting the glass down. He made his way into the crowd, sidling up to the blonde. 

She smiled welcomingly, blinking up at him through her eyelashes. He grinned, glancing to the side as he moved closer to her. 

Hm, you hadn't noticed yet. He had to step it up. 

Placing his hands on her waist, he started moving her to the beat. Slowly he brought her closer to Minho and you, hoping that you would just look over for a second-

FInally! You noticed! A triumphant smirk formed on his face.

He wanted you to know that he didn’t need you. He wanted you to feel at least a little bit of the envy he was feeling. Again, it was the small victories that counted.

***

Your eyes wandered back to Minho, your throat feeling constricted as you tried your best to avoid the sight of Chan and the girl.

It was painful. So fucking painful. 

You still haven’t moved on from him, as much as you would have liked to. Watching him dance with her was leaving a bad taste in your mouth, your throat going dry.

They were all over each other. Her hands were around his shoulders and his were on her waist, their lips dangerously close as the racy music filled the room. 

You knew you were in a similar position with Minho at the moment, though. It was the alcohol blurring the lines, or you wouldn't be caught in such a compromising position with him, really. 

Still. This was different...right?

Fuck it, you just wanted an excuse to be angry at him. 

Chan somehow pulled the girl in closer, his hands slowly creeping down her waist and towards her ass. You swallowed and looked back at Minho before those hands could find their destination. Minho was looking at you with his eyebrow raised, his hands a little tighter on you.

"Everything okay, hm?" 

"Kinda..."

"Are you sure?" 

When you didn’t reply, Minho followed your gaze to Chan and the blonde, and then back to you. He put two and two together, sighing deeply.

"You deserve better, Y/n. You've got to move on." Minho swallowed. 

Yes, you did deserve better. Better than Chan, and better than him. You deserved someone who didn't keep any secrets from you, someone who would never even think of manipulating you. 

He despised himself for what he'd done. The way he behaved. As every second passed, the guilt grew. But how could he tell you? How could he even stand the chance of losing you? 

It was his fault. Everything was his fault. 

You noticed the sudden devastated expression on his face, frowning and cupping his cheeks to make him look at you. 

"Minho...are you okay?" 

"Mhm." Minho mumbled. "Uh...I need to go to the bathroom." His face was white as he let go of you swiftly, stumbling away as quickly as he could and disappearing in the crowd. 

You watched as he left, puzzled. Fuck, now you were alone. Just great.

You groaned under your breath, feeling Chan's gaze on you. Turning around slightly, you tried to avoid him, but unfortunately your eyes had already moved of their own accord.

His lips were on her neck, her back turned to you. However, he was looking right at you, an intoxicated smirk creeping on his face as he ran his eyes over you, all alone in the middle of a dancing crowd.

Biting your lip, you clenched your fists. You turned around, wading through the sweaty, grinding bodies, and made your way to the kitchen. You needed some peace and quiet. 

You filled up a glass of water, lifting it to your lips. The cool liquid ran down your throat, making you sigh in relief. It was so refreshing, a sharp contrast to the alcohol you’d been consuming all night.

You turned around, ready to go back into the room and find Minho when you slammed into a firm chest, blocking your exit.

Ugh. This couldn't be happening. 

"Move." 

"Shh.'' Chan shook his head, placing a finger under your chin and forcing you to look up at him. He caged you against the counter with his other arm, his eyes glazed over.

"Look. We both know- hic- that you and I have incomplete business-" 

You groaned, pushing him away slightly. "You're drunk, Chan." 

"I am not." He glared at you, placing his hand over his annoyingly broad chest, an offended look on his face. "Just a little tipsy, that's all..." 

You cringed, looking past him at the crowd. Ugh, where was Minho? Where was Felix? 

"Look at me..." 

You looked back at Chan, inhaling sharply. "What do you want?" 

Chan looked taken aback at your tone. He recovered slowly, stepping back and humming.

"I want…” He closed his eyes, sighing. “I want to know why you hate me." He said, his tone surprisingly even considering the amount of alcohol he’d knocked back.

"I- are you seriously asking me that question right now?" You asked incredulously. Seriously, how fucking dense could he be? 

"I am, Y/n. answer me." His slurred voice turned into a growl as he leaned in close. 

"I was nothing but nice to you, when no one else was...I loved you, I-"

You scoffed, interrupting him. "Oh wow, thank you so much.” You said sarcastically. “I think you and I both know all that was fake. You were fake, Chan- it didn't mean anything to you-" 

Chan slammed his hand on the counter next to you, making you flinch. 

"But it did! It fucking meant everything to me. It was the only thing that ever meant anything, and I'm sorry it had to happen the way it did, sorry I lost that damn boo-" 

"A simple sorry is not going to make me forgive you." You shook your head. "Get off me, Chan." 

"I don't want you to forgive me! For fuck's sakes, I just-" He breathed in, his voice turning soft as he ran a hand through his hair, his breathing shaky. 

"I just want to know why you chose him over me. He- he was worse-" 

"Huh?" His words were too slurred for you to recognize. "Look, Chan-" 

"Shut up." Chan shook his head, leaning in further. For a second, he scanned your eyes with his.

Fuck, he couldn’t believe he was about to do this. 

Inhaling softly, he smashed his lips against yours. 

It took you by complete surprise. Your heart felt like it was exploding- like a million, elephant sized butterflies were threatening to burst out. Shit, his lips were so fucking soft.

Was this actually happening?

It was. Insistent, yet gentle...his lips were all you could focus on. It felt overwhelmingly real, nothing like a dream. 

Warm. He’s so warm...

You resisted him for all of half a second, before melting into the kiss. Your hands snaked around his neck as he placed his under your thighs, lifting you up onto the counter. You were quickly getting yourself lost in him, the feeling of his lips on yours so familiar and yet so new. 

"Can't- can't get enough of you, don't think I ever will-" He mumbled incoherently against your mouth, his grip on you tight as he pressed against you.

Your mind was completely blank. There was no pride or anger in your head anymore, just Chan Chan Chan. His plump lips, moving against yours so passionately and swallowing all your breaths. It was partly due to the alcohol, yes- but also all the tension. Years of wondering if this moment would happen again.

And now it was.

“Chan-” You whispered into the kiss, tears pricking at your eyes.

This was a bad idea, it really was- you shouldn't be kissing him back like this. You were supposed to be mad at him- you were supposed to prove to him that you'd moved on. That you wouldn't let anyone use you like that ever again.

And yet here you were, right back at square 1. 

"Please, please..." he whispered, nipping at your already swollen lips with fervor as he dove right back in, caressing your back. 

His heart was pounding, unable to believe you were actually in his arms. Shit, he knew this was such a terrible idea. And yet he couldn’t bring himself to stop.

It was wrong, he knew it. Even if he believed he loved you more than Minho ever could, it was still wrong. You weren't his, and he had to learn to accept that. 

But...he needed one last kiss. One last kiss to let him know if you were a lost cause, or if you truly were meant to be his. He wanted to know. And so he deepened the kiss further, making you let out a small squeak that only made him want you more.

"Guys?" 

Chan pulled away, dropping you to the floor quickly as soon as he heard Seungmin's voice. 

Seungmin eyed the two of you, suspicion covering his face. You swallowed, subtly pulling down your skirt as you blinked, trying to adjust to the light that flooded your eyes. “Seung-”

Shit. Was that Minho, slumped against Seungmin’s body? 

He looked between the two of you, sighing as he saw your eyes on Minho. Minho’s eyes were closed, his forehead covered in sweat and his body limp. You moved forward, quickly rushing over to his side. “What happened?”

"Found him in the bathroom. He threw up, was crying on the floor. He didn’t tell me why...I’m assuming he’s just way too drunk." 

Minho looked up slowly, blinking and staring at you as he registered your face. "Y/n...." he stretched out an arm towards you, whining.

Seungmin groaned, Minho's weight clearly too much for him to support. "Y/n, please take him home. He needs rest. I'll explain to Jisung."

You couldn't look at Chan as you nodded. You carefully trained your stare on Minho as you went over to Seungmin, letting him transfer the man to you. 

"Min...you okay?"

He shook his head, gasping as he tried to take oxygen in. His eyes travelled past you, landing on a very remorseful Chan, his face covered in embarrassment.

You bit your lip, stroking his hair. “I’ll get him to the car. Tell Felix we’re going home, okay?” 

Seungmin nodded, heading back into the living room to find Felix after shooting a last glance at Chan.

You pressed down the urge to look back at him. Don’t do it, Y/n. You need to go home and re-evaluate your decision-making. Fuck, why didn’t you push him away?

You ignored the delightful tingling of your lips as you helped Minho out, most of the partiers completely oblivious as you dragged him out to the car, with a lot of difficulty.

You opened the passenger door with one hand, helping Minho in. He looked like he was on the verge of falling asleep, his mouth slightly open as he let out a soft snore. Chuckling to yourself, you patted his head before getting into the driver’s seat. You weren’t drunk enough to warrant calling a taxi, so you might as well save some money.

Tonight was...eventful, to say the least. 

Minho cracked one eye open slowly, watching as you drove. His eyes were burning, his throat aching. He hated feeling like this, he really did. He wished he hadn’t gotten this drunk. The alcohol and his sudden overflow of emotions did not mix well, and had ultimately resulted in him bent over the toilet bowl.

There was only one way to get rid of this fucking guilt. Minho wasn’t quite sure yet if he could go through with it, though.

There was a lot of thinking to do.

***

Chan stood near the counter. He couldn’t bring himself to move, his eyes unfocused as he replayed the scenes over and over in his head.

He couldn’t believe he’d done that. The one thing he’d told himself not to do. Don’t fall for her again. You got your heart broken once, why are you so eager to let it happen once more? 

Regret. It was on all three minds, tonight. 

[delicatewerewolfsoul]

Cat's Fault - Yang Jeongin

–pairing: jeongin x fem!reader, best friend!jisung, roommate!minho

–genre: fluff, neighbors au!

–word count: 3,3k

–synopsis: after encountering your cute neighbor many times ... Who would you have to thank for the outcome?

-for bar (@yyxgin ) love you so much bestie 💓

It wasn’t that Jeongin didn’t really like cats, it was the fact that he didn't understand why they were so popular. That small animal, walking towards it’s prey for afar, the sneaky eyes already showing the reason they’re doing this, there was always a reason why they were put their body against their owners leg, rubbing their fur against it, as if the the contact would make the prey’s thought, change like magic and that’s why he chose to stare at them from afar, not getting into their business. His roommate, Minho, smiles from afar as he looks up from the small, fluffy gray feline next to his leg, to look at his roommate's face. All he spots is a face of disapproval, a disgusted face if you will, as he and Jeongin lock eye contact, Minho laughs at it, finding it extremely entertaining. 

“You know it won’t hurt you right?” Minho says as he rubs the back “Animals can sense that when a person doesn’t like them, or when they aren’t a good being, but I really bet they do like you, at least that’s what their behavior shows” he says as he stands up and gets his keys, walking towards the front door. “Anyways, I’ll be heading out to do some errands, I’ll be back in a few hours, be sure to feed them okay?” he says as he opens the door and Jeongin, whines but accepts at the end cause the devils shouldn’t starve as well. 

You step out of your room, quickly putting your hair on a messy bun, ready to make yourself some breakfast and start your day. You eat slowly and out your dishes in your sink to clean up later. It was a cleaning day since you didn’t really have to do anything. You had a break from work and no fresh errants to take care of, you decide it’ll be nice to take care of your house. You decide before doing anything, to water your plants on your balcony. You watch as the water disappears when hitting the soil that supports the plant and your neighbor comes to mind. A nice boy, with a bright smile that lights up the whole world, he was super attractive to you, but you couldn’t make a move, well, now you were thinking about it, you couldn’t even probably great him, too awkward, you bet the boy would be actually laughing at you after you two would talk. 

You step close to the last plant close to your neighbors balcony and you start pouring the leftover water in it. The door next to you opens, and he steps out, in some sweatpants and a white sleeveless shirt, with some wet clothes on his hands, from the laundry. “Good morning y/n, what a surprise seeing you here, you don't have to go to work today?” he says, stretching to hand the clothes high, his biceps flexing in the progress and you feel yourself getting a little lost, looking at them, until he hums in question that you understand what you did and take a deep breath and answer that you actually have a free day today, and that you decide to clean. You ask him about his day, trying to open a conversation hoping to make him open up to you and hopefully get closer. 

“Me? Oh, I actually have nothing to do today, my roommate had to head out so I have to stay here to clean a little, maybe cook… I hope, but generally nothing much” he says and the sound of a timer can be heard in the background, cutting your conversation short. He huffs disappointed, “I’m sorry, I have to go now, it was nice talking to you” waving at you and wave back at, pouting as his back disappears into his apartment, with a new failed attempt of getting closer to him. Jisung was so going to laugh at you later.

You step inside again and grab the vacuum cleaner and start cleaning the whole place, trying to get rid of the embarrassment of the whole incident. What you don’t notice is that you had a little visitor on your door, a small feline, exploring the new place out of curiosity, smelling the door and moving slowly inside. You turn off the vacuum and you hear plates clashing and you turn around to see a little animal on your table sniffing your plates that you were going to clean later. It then meows at you and you let out a little scream as it jumps down from the table, coming towards you and you jump at your couch naturally to avoid it, saying to yourself “Why is there a cat in my apartment?”, louder than you thought you did. 

Jeongin was panicking. He searched everywhere, in his room, in Minho’s room, in trash cans, even in the sinks but it was nowhere to be found, like it vanished into thin air. The cat was supposed to be fed but where did the cat go? He sits on the couch, the importance of the situation finally getting to him. He puts arms on his knees, and supports his head on his palms as he thinks what will happen when Minho returns and he finds their apartment minus one pet inside. Will he first lose his life first or his house?  That’s the question that was running in his mind right now and he felt his heart pumping quicker, what did the little feline actually go? At the moment he hears the scream and shoots up, shocked as well, wondering what exactly happened… Until he hears your question and he sighs in relief. 

He then goes to your door and knocks slowly “y/n, it’s Jeongin, can you open the door for me?” he says and you stop in your tracks as you hear him, turning your eyes at your door. Why did he need to be the one to come save you? This was so embarrassing you think, like an idiot screaming because of a small cat. Most people would laugh at your fear, saying it was stupid and unreasonable to fear a cat, but you had your reasons. He knocks again and you jump down the couch, running to the door. You open the door quickly and he smiles at you but before he can say anything,you step behind him, and grab his bicep and he freezes from the sudden contact. 

“Can you save me from that” you say, your voice kinda high pitched and shaky. The little cat comes closer to them happily, understanding the familiar scent of Jeongin, and he picks him up. “I’ll take him, I hope he wasn’t much of a problem” he says, noticing your balcony door wide and he facepalms. “He came through the balcony right? I’m really sorry, I think I let my balcony open as well” he says biting his lower lip. “No worries, if I didn’t let mine, he wouldn’t have came here, don’t worry about it” you say and you then just stay there, both looking around awkwardly, trying to find something, anything to continue the conversation until he can’t stand the tension anymore and announches, always with a big smile on, that the cats needs to be fed, but with the promise to talk more when they have time. That’s a progress right?

You lay back on your couch, your hands covering your face as you think how the whole morning went through, with the balcony door finally closed and the clean long forgotten. What a traumatic experience, how weird it must have been for him to see you getting worked up over a small animal, a fluff ball out of all animals, how embarrassing it is. A rather loud knock on your door startles you and you open it, to find Jisung there, shaking a bag with food in front of your face. You let him in and he puts the food on the table, cockily announcing that you don’t have to thank him, as if you would. He then notices the look on your face and he scrunches his eyebrows in question and you sigh, the moment you feared, finally here.

“You a cat was in my apartment moments before you came” you say and he gasps, having full knowledge of your fear and before he can ask what happened then, you continue, kinda sarcastically “don’t worry about it, my hot neighbor took care of it” you say and he laughs at the disappointed look you had on your face and he understands. “Hey, I there’s no way it was that bad, seriously” he says putting a hand on your shoulder. “Maybe he found it cute… You know, the whole ‘they want me to protect them’ thing” he proposes as he takes out the containers out of the plastic bag and you both sit down to have lunch. 

You explain all the incidents from the moment you went to your balcony, until minutes before his arrival. Jisung had a smile during the time, but you could see how he was holding his laughter as you went on and on. It made him happy that you had such big interest in that ‘hot’ neighbor of yours, that you had to make him listen as you explain to him what happened and why it happened for over 15 minutes. “So wait, you tell me that you both forgot your doors open after the conversation?” he says, putting his palms on the desk, coming closer. “Well yeah” you say furrowing your eyebrows. “He always does before, but he left kinda in a hurry today too” you say looking away. You wonder if he actually caught you staring and it makes you feel so embarrassed all over again. 

“Well, I think he maybe likes you too,” Jisung annouches and you glare at him, as a signal for him to stop joking. “I mean it’s true! I can see all the signs bro… And I’m intuition says so as well, you gotta trust me” he says passionately and you decide to tell him exactly what you think, not sugar coated, just raw truth “Jisung… We both know your intuition sucks” you say and he settles down on his chair, feeling defeated after your comment, actually agreeing himself that his “intuition put you two in trouble many times before. “What is there anyways to like about me? He only sees me half woken up, with sweatpants on and a messy bun while watering my plants, how can that be attractive?” you wonder feeling kinda hopeless, letting your body lose on your own chair and he laughs, finding the look on your face kinda cute, finding this moment, the perfect timing for teasing. “Who knows” he says standing up, “maybe he likes the unemployed tired mom style” he says and dodges the pillow that came with force from your direction. “Anyways, I got to leave now, Minho is waiting for me” he says, putting on his bag, and you smirk, teasing him too “oh? did your boyfriend call you?”. He rolls his eyes at the comment, knowing that the two of them spend too much time together. “He is not,how many times do I have to tell you? And so you know, I haven’t seen him since the day he moved to this building”.

“Minho lives here!?” you stand up shocked. His eyes went round “you.. you didn’t know? He moved here like a week ago? But I haven’t been to his place as well, he lives with a friend I think” he says and you huff. “That loser.. He’s been living here for a week and hasn’t even come to say hello”, “i'll make sure to say that… I still can’t believe you didn’t even bump on each other this whole time, anyways, I’ll call you” he says getting to the door. “Bye” you say waving at him as the door closes, your house empty once again.

“Long time no see idiot” Jisung says as he takes off his bag and sits on the chair opposite Minho, with a cheeky grin on, as he knows the nickname will annoy him much. Minho doesn’t show much reaction, instead he calmly says “nice seeing you too” as he lets his phone down and they start talking about their news and interests, catching up on each other's lives. They continue talking, and after a while you become the topic. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell y/n you moved in the same building with them” Jsiung says, laying back on his chair, crossing his hands in front of him. Minho raised an eyebrow at his friend confused at his statement “Didn’t tell them? What do you mean? I even greeted them once while I was stepping out of my house” he states, kind of frustrated and that also confuses Jisung. “But… They told me they didn’t know” Jisung says, rubbing the back of neck, his voice getting more silent, even though he wasn’t responsible for the misunderstanding. Minho runs a hand through his hair, shocked that you actually forgot the interaction “Bro, we actually live next to each other! They live left to us” he says and Jisung starts laughing, startling his friend, but also confusing him even more. 

Jisung collects himself after some minutes and finds the power to ask “Anyways, tell me again, who are you living with?” a smile on his face, because he knows the answer, but he couldn’t help himself, the whole situation seemed too comical to him. “Jeongin… What is going on?” answers Minho with probably zero patience left. Jisung between laughs explained to him that you actually had a crush on Jeongin with you knowing that he was friends with Minho and Jisung. “So.. To be clear, my cat went into y/n’s apartment cause these two idiots left the balcony doors open right? And Jeongin actually touched the cat? Please...That’s actually so funny” Minho says recalling the last time Jeongin properly touched his pet, and it was when the feline jumped on his bed,and he ‘accidentally’ cuddled the animal to sleep until he woke up to animal meowing and him pushing it away in result, so it wasn’t a fun experience. 

“We gotta do something… I feel like if we make them meet up without one knowing that the other will be there” Jisung concludes and Minho laughs, now having to help some idiots confess “the rest will happen naturally I guess, Joengin have been wanting to confess anyway, we’ll just push them… A little” he says and they spend the rest of their time, planning. Later that day you receive a message from Jisung to “be at my house tomorrow at 6pm, Minho will be here as well, don’t be late, or else I’ll come drag you here” leaving you with no choice but to accept your fate. You wonder what he actually has in mind again, his aggressive tone always meant trouble. But Minho being there would make it better… Right?

Jeongin hasn’t been so confused by Minho in his life before. He just told him they’re going to Jisung, and that’s obviously a very normal thing of course, they all hang out a lot, they’re friends after all, but something in Minho’s expression seems kinda weird. He was always so calm, and he really didn’t butt in people's business, even if he wanted to help in different situations, he kinda did in a way very subtle, that only people that know him would notice. So in the 3 years that they’ve been friends, he’s never seen such an intense look on his face, it was kind of scary tho, and it confused him a lot. 

“Care to explain why you sent that aggressive text yesterday? I would have come anyways, without being forced” you say as you enter Jisung’s apartment the next day “I know you’re planning something Jisung, just spit it out so we can be over “you say letting your body fall back on his couch, folding your arms in front of you. “We just wanted you to meet Minho’s roommate, chill. He’ll be here soon” he says, disappearing into the kitchen and after a few minutes you hear the bell, and then a very visibly frustrated Jeongin enters the room. “Jisung, what is wrong with him? He’s been having that weird throughout the whole walk here… Someone, tell me what’s going on” he almost yells towards the kitchen totally missing your presence in the room, until he hears “Jeongin you let out, shocked as well. They had some explaining to do.

Honestly, the meet up was going more smoothly than all of you thought it would. It was way easier to get a conversation with Jeongin, with a little help from your troublemaker friends of yours, and you learned loads about him. How he had school every morning, how you almost always left at the same time, his passion for games and music, along with how they all became friends. You both were so glad to actually be talking properly with each other, that you had such a big smile when answering, warm cheeks and you also stood too close to each other, that the other two boys felt like they were intruding. "What is so exciting and interesting that you two are talking about, so closely to each other, wanna share?" Minho says, putting his arm around Jeongin's shoulder, scaring both of you and him, now embarrassed, avoiding each other's eyes. "Anyways, it's getting late, I'll stay here today, so you head back home" he says and taps Jeongins shoulder, before standing up. 

After a few minutes, now with jackets around your frames, you're ready to go. Minho drags Jeongin to the side and then mentions "this is your chance, take it" shooting him a smile and Jeongin finally understands the meaning of this whole operation. You finally say goodbye and you start walking towards home. You both walk in silence, finally alone from your friends, feeling more shy and vulnerable that you were at that time. Your hands bump with each other, as you walk and he swears he sees you shyly smile at the coincidence and finds your reaction way too cute, not to smile back. He then takes your hand in his, and as he intertwines his fingers with yours, he hears you taking in a breath that makes him giggle, finally understanding your feelings as well. "You know… I actually don't like cats" he announces after a while of silence "I actually touched Minho's cat once, and yesterday it was the second time, only because you were afraid of it" he says giggling, rubbing the back of his neck after that little confession. "I've been wanting to come and maybe ask you to go for a coffee with me sometime but all the courage I had built up for that, left after minutes of talking to you. Would you actually want to hang out? Maybe alone this time" he says now, facing you and you can't help but nob, squishing a little his hand as you enter your building. 

Jeongin didn't like cats, but he came to like them, thanking these little rascals for helping him get the person he liked, treating them with a little more food, when Minho wasn't present to yell at him for overfeeding his kids.

Tagging: @fluffyskzclub

[poohnotpiku]

Chapter3 : Pooh & DeeDee

Where do I start? DeeDee…..Laurel to my Hardy…..Tom to my Jerry…..!!

DeeDee is my younger ‘baby’ sister by birth….but in reality?….She is my elder sister, my best friend, my mother-figure, my mother-in-law-figure (you will see why, lol), my biggest critic (huh!), my strongest supporter, my head-teacher, my governess and the list goes on..…

To be honest, I do pester her a lot in day-to-day life. Two topics which literally pisses her off are 1. ‘my excessive weight-gain’ and 2. ‘Unsatisfactory salary’ …(Actually I do rant about these two topics the most)….At times, she gets so frustrated (Inner Pooh : “Poor DeeDee.. ☹ ”), that she literally screams at me :P What are elder, single, insane and stupid sisters meant for!! I am just doing my job!!

It was she who gave me this idea to pour out all my thoughts on paper…she wanted me to start writing a diary but, me being me, took the unconventional way! By the way, she and Sonu are proof-reading my blogs….else, you know me….my brain has no filter and God knows what I might say here, that would cause hullabaloo somewhere else :D

I am sincerely hoping DeeDee does not try to edit out whatever I am going to say in this post…Do not worry friends…I will let you know in my next post, on how much percentage was struck off by her!

Coming back to DeeDee….I have no other way but to take you guys through various scenes of this movie of two mad sisters….

Scene#1

As soon as I join a get-together with relatives or cousins, everyone expects (Inner Pooh : “And how you do live up to their expectations!!”) me to start talking, asking stupid questions, making scandalous remarks (Inner Pooh : “Guys, you got to believe that she does put her foot in her mouth, most of the times!!!”) and every single time, within a few minutes….I feel....either daggers hitting my back (not literally, of course) or a sharp nudge (literally)…I look back and see DeeDee glaring at me….. LOL

Inner DeeDee : “Shut up Pooh!! Why cannot you sit quietly in the corner, sometimes?”

Inner Pooh : “Isshhh….Stupid Lady…I think you did something wrong again….”

I then control myself and ‘shutdown’ (wait…I do not shutdown…I rather hibernate…Techie Pooh!! huh) and within few minutes, I am rebooted again and DeeDee just gives up for the day …ROFL

Scene#2

I enter DeeDee’s house and am carefully taking off my sandals in the corner…..and I feel those daggers again!!!.....I look up and find DeeDee glaring at me (please don’t think she always glares at me….but it is not wrong that she glares at me most of the times :P) and gesturing me into her kitchen…

DeeDee (in her usual pissed-off tone) : “What are those sandals??”

Me (excitedly) : “You liked them?? I got them online…”

DeeDee : “They are disgusting…how could you even buy those? Please don’t buy things before showing them to me!! Those sandals are literally embarrassing me in front of all…”

Me : ……….

Inner Pooh : “Yeahhh…she is right…look at those hideous sandals….yuckkss….what were you thinking while adding them to the cart??”

Me : “Shut up Inner Pooh.!!!”

Anyways, those sandals have not been worn since that day……

Scene#3

DeeDee : “You don’t eat proper food and keep hogging off on your pastas and muri…. and then crib about your weight-gain!!! Why don’t you just cook and have simple healthy food??”

Me : “You know I hate cooking…I could use those useful minutes to achieve so much more!!!!”

Inner Pooh : “Don’t you know guys? She is the CEO of a multi-million dollar company!!!”

DeeDee : “Ohhh yessss…I know what fruitful work you do….Maya does most the work…and you have become so lazy that you cannot even make Maya work to clean the house….the house has become so dirty…before my marriage it was still cleaner…now whenever I enter, I need to close my eyes…”

Guys, Maya is my current full-time help…..she is more ‘Nanny for Daddy’…and yes, since she is here, I do not lift my bums from the bed unless absolutely necessary :P

Coming back to the above dialogues, DeeDee enjoys cooking to some extent….she likes making different dishes for Singh Jiju (along with her office and household work…I cannot imagine how she manages..!!!!)  and many a times she would cook dishes and Swiggy them for us too….In fact, when Sonu is in town, she tries to do this more frequently, as she feels I am not going to feed the poor boy, the exotic exquisite dishes!! I am more of a person who puts all the diced vegetables (diced by Maya of course) into the pan and let them cook, while I multi-task by either YouTube-ing or WhatsApp-ing !! If I have the urge to eat something different, I Zomatooooo….

And regarding house cleaning, guys you tell me, if the house is 30-plus years old (literally crumbling) what can I do about it? I am no Jeannie that I would swish my ponytail and automatically make 40-plus years old furniture, shiny brand-new!!! I do ‘Dream of BEING a Jeannie’ but unfortunately, I am not…I wish I could just twitch my nose like Samantha from Bewitched and clean-up all the mess… (sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh)

Scene#4

Me : “What’s the news on our Cousin X?”

DeeDee (pissed-off as always) : “How would I know? If you have so much interest, go and ask yourself…”

Inner Pooh : “Heheheheehhe…”

Me : …….

Few days later…DeeDee shares with me, some pics of the same cousin on Whatsapp (as I have stopped using FB and Insta from 2.5 years, we will discuss more on this later…<wink>) and

DeeDee : “What is she wearing???”

Inner Pooh : “Now DeeDee wants to gossip…!!!!”

Me : “She is looking so beautiful and she is being able to carry that off so well….you and me would look ridiculous, if we dare try such outfits…”

DeeDee : “Whatever!!…I would never select such a piece for myself…”

Me : “Hmmmm….”

Friends, here you need to know, I am not a fashionista…I do not have the so called ‘shopping-bug’ that females-of-the-world have….hence, if I see any female wearing something decent, I rate them 5-star by default :D

And another point to know is, DeeDee is the social SPOC for our family….she is the one who talks to all our aunts and cousins and stays in touch with everyone…Me and Sonu are kinda anti-social…and Dad…is Dad!! So, I am not wrong when I pester her for gossips. When she is in the mood, we have hour-long conversations….when she is pissed-off (which is very frequent), she snubs me off…LOL

I will continue more on such anecdotes from DeeDee & Pooh in my later blogs….I hope you enjoy reading this post….I am literally smiling while writing and imagining DeeDee’s reactions when she proof-reads this one…<<wink>>

Until next time, Ciao!!

P.S.: I hope, by now, you are well acquainted with my ‘penwomanship’….if not….pls go back to the Intro blog!!