#went to add my friend who I sort of maybe have a stupid small crush on on Facebook

[insanechayne]

~ ~ ~

[xgryffinwhore]

Hey! Can I request a jaeden martell x reader where basically their charters are dating on a tv show and they are really really good best friends in real life and they they both go on the Jimmy fallon show and he keeps on asking if they’re dating because everyone thinks they are and when they say no he obvi doesn’t let it go lol and it ends up slipping up that jaeden did/ does have a crush on reader and they maybe end up sharing a kiss in front is Jimmy & audience & stuff😶just an idea i had 😂:)

i love this idea wow, thinking i’m going to put my own little twist on it but i think you’ll still be pleased ;)

just friends

warnings!: suggestive topics, fluff

word count: 2.1k

five

your face was being touched up with powder, the cotton pad dabbing at your nose as the white powder absorbed into any oil your face may have had.

four

you look over at jimmy, this wasn’t your first talk show, but it had been the biggest one with the most following. it was intimidating, you bounced your foot up and down and played with your hands.

three

behavior jaeden had grown to recognize. he knew you better then you knew yourself, your anxiety was worse then you put it out to be. “you ok?” he questioned, “fine, i’m fine” you painted a small smile on your face. but he wasn’t easily fooled.

two

he grabbed one of your hands and rubbed circles into your palm, this sent vibrations of relaxation down your spine.

one

his eyes locked with yours, you swore they were a different color each time you saw them. sometimes more blue, sometimes more green, sometimes dark with mystery, sometimes light and playful.

‘aaand where on air’

you wiped the hand that was interlocked with his off on your dress, it was clammy. the curtain came up fast, and your vision was soon flooded with bright lights and silhouettes of bodies.

making out the faces in the sea of people was impossible, but you knew your friends were out there. they had flown out to see you, a) they could go see new york and b) you were on national television, and they wouldn’t miss it for the world.

jimmy was talking, you knew that much, but your nerves took over and honestly you weren’t registering a damn thing he was saying. the crowd cheered, you snapped out of your daze.

“and here tonight, we have jaeden martell and y/n l/n from the new HBO tv series: turning tables”

he turned to both of us, and gave everyone time to clap. he tired to speak over the loud hands, moving on with his show, but the crowd made that difficult. eventually the clapping died out and he could continue.

“now, i’ve watched all of the episodes but, for the people who haven’t seen: can you explain what the show is about?” he looked a jaeden, you let go of a breathe you had held in.

“s-sure” jaeden turned to face the audience more, he was soft spoken and shy, so it was important he projected as much as he could.

“turning tables is a teen drama. it’s about families of poverty in the seattle washington area and how they struggle to go to school and work. my character, jennings cooper, is the main protagonist. the show is mainly from his point of view, and how he struggle to support his family.”

jimmy nods and smiles, he looks pleased with his explanation. i’m truth the show wasn’t that simple, he knew that. but, it would take so long to explain.

“and y/n, who do you play?” he knew the answer to this obviously, but you were becoming a crowd favorite. everyone loved your personality, and you were an up-and-coming a list celebrity.

“i play parker marlow, jennings girlfriend” you blushed at this statement, the crowd giggled and ‘ouuu’ed. jimmy rubbed his hands together, getting excited at the upcoming topic of discussion.

“so, your romance on season one was steamy” you thought back to the scenes you did together. all of the kissing, which felt normal at this point. he wasn’t a bad kisser, in fact- you didn’t mind it at all. your romance through the season built up to a sex scene, your mind flashed through the memories of filming it.

filming those scenes isnt half as steamy as you think it is. it’s awkward, you laugh a lot. you had never felt that exposed in your life! however watching it was different, it looked so real, so perfect.

you blurred out your thoughts, mr. fallon still speaking on the subject. “can we expect more -“ jimmy searched for your ship name, it was on the tip of his tongue. the combination of your first names on the show didn’t make an attractive combo. it was either jarker or pennings. your last names matched a little better.

“-carlow” jaeden finished for him. jimmy nodded and smiled “yes- carlow- can we expect more carlow next season?” you both looked at each other and smiled. the writers for the show already had the next four seasons laid out. you knew that carlow was a continuing relationship on the show.

“yes, you should expect more of that sort of content from us” you stated. the people in the crowd had a positive responce to this, the applause lapping until it died out once again.

“right, your characters have so much chemistry in the show. two struggling teens just trying to break even.” jaeden agreed “yes, our characters balance each other out, and being from the same background helps them associate. jennings is kind of a bad boy-as the ladies say- he’s a felon, he steels cars and sells them to counterfeit manufacturers and dealers for money. parker, y/n’s character, has a job at a diner. she shows him the light at the end of the tunnel if he chooses to go down a good path.”

“yes, parker gets jennings a job at the diner with her, and he falls for her sweet disposition even after everything she’s been through” you add.

jimmy licks his lips and pops another question: “so id imagine the chemistry in the show heightens the real life thing?” he cocked an eye brow, the group gasping at the intrusiveness.

“jaeden and i are just friends” you blurt out, your nerves working up again. it was hard, you liked jaeden ever since you had your first kiss with him.

“y-yeah” he stutters, he obviously wasn’t expecting this either “friends” jimmy shakes his head and puts his finger on his lip “recently, you both have been showing a lot of pictures of you two together on social media.”

the audience ‘awwwed’ at the photos that displayed behind you. on the screen, there were pictures of you and him that were on both of your instagrams. you two at gardens, getting food, even watching movies at each other’s houses.

“for just friends, these photos looks intimate , wouldn’t you say” a bunch of ‘yes’’s and ‘mhm’’s came from the crowd as both of your faces became red.

“we’re just best friends, honestly” jaeden laughed nervously, he fixed his hair with his hand has he always does.

“right right- can you tell me when this photo is from?” jimmy asked, the last picture flashing on the screen. it was of you both, you had just filmed your first scene together.

the first scene you filmed together was episode two, he saved you after you fell into ice cold water. it was how the characters met, and it was filmed at a cove on a windy august day.

the picture was a little blurry, but it added character. he had his arm around you, both of your hair soaked, and you share a huge towel. you remember how cold you were, your teeth chattered so rapidly. his hair was stuck to his forehead and more small pieces went up. and your lips were almost purple, half from the makeup, half because you swore that was the coldest water you had ever went in.

“that’s from when we first started filming, it was the first time we met in the show” you recited, re living the memory in your head. you remember jaeden pulling your head into his chest when the wind began blowing. you remember his thumb trying to create friction on your back to make you just a little warm.

“yes yes- you two look so adorable!” jimmy squealed, he was the most teenage-girl-grown-man you had ever met. his hand opened one of the drawers in the faux desk he sat behind, pulling out a small blue camcorder.

the camcorder.

you know how on tv shows, there is special footage? sometimes it’s just behind the scene specials but sometimes- sometimes - it’s footage the actors document when they were just having fun? yeah it was one of those camcorders.

the camcorder was brought in by the two other co hosts wyatt oleff and finn wolfhard (i know this cast is sooo original not really) they played jaedens two best friends on the show. while they weren’t filming, they’d dick around and talk about stupid stuff. you’d never seen what they filmed, but you had been featured quite a few times; their by them pranking you, or invading your personal space.

you looked over at jaeden, you watched his adam’s apple bob and a thin layer of sweat flush over his face. he bounced his leg slightly, a habit he had picked up from you.

“let’s just review our material here” jimmy teased, his tongue darting out between his teeth. the video began to play, the sound was loud; assumingely for jaeden quiet voice in the tape.

the video started with wyatts unsteady hand, him and finn were running around set, they stopped at jaeden, he was playing on his phone in his trailer.

“jaeden wesley we have come for you” finn yelled. you could see jaeden shoot up from his chair. “hey guys” he waved. they talked for around a minute, jokes and all. then finn started to giggle, wyatt zoomed in on jaedens face.

“so jaeden, how’s y/n?” he chuckled, jaeden blushed “she’s ok i guess dunno.” wyatt stopped zooming in when the only thing in frame was jaedens head. “the kiss was good hm?” wyatt asked. jaeden continued to play on his phone, he nodded. “yeah, she’s pretty cute too.”

the video cut to another segment, this was filmed after the sex scene. you knew because jaeden laid on the bed you, in the same underwear that he wore during the scene. the boys were jumping on the bed, and jaeden took the camera and talked to it.

“this is for memory and memory ONLY! h-hey y/nnn” he was talking to the camera like it was you “you’re amazing and cool” you could hear finn explode into laughter as he stole the camera back and started running “yeah! and he wants your babies and loves you so much-“ “SHUT UP FINN!!!” and jaeden chased him around.

the video was taken off the screen. your face had become close to ghostly white. it was weird, it was almost like he was dumb enough to think finn wouldn’t give jimmy this blackmail goldmine. you looked at jaeden, he hit his bottom lip until it was red, he itches his neck and laughed it off.

“yeah ok-ok jimmy, maybe i liked her back in the day” jaeden tried so hard to be casual, but jimmy hit him with a heart stopper: “but mr martell, the last clip was filmed less then a month ago!”

your mind flickered with memories and ideas of him.

your first time meeting, how good his hand felt in yours. when you wiped icecream off his chin, and him dotting icecream on to the top of your nose. the way his hair always fell perfectly above his eye brow. and SHIT how he always smelt so fucking good. how he let you fall asleep in his arms and how he never complained when you put on some stupid romcom and-

“y/n?” jimmy questioned. “huh?” you spaced, come on y/n you gotta stop doing that. “i asked how you felt about all of this.” “well, there isn’t a right word i can use.”

jaeden took this has a bad reaction, he did a small wave to the crowd and stood up to get off the stage.

you stood up, grabbed his hand, and laid one right on him. kissing him felt normal, but now that there was emotion behind it, it just felt so right.

you both stopped for air, the crowd went wild. jimmy was clapping too, you could barley hear them, your heart was pumping throughout your whole body. you swore jaeden could hear it.

after the show, you sat in your dressing room for a bit, contemplating the events of tonight, and how they were all broadcasted for your embarrassment. but it was only the beginning. only the beginning of what was to come for mr. and mrs. jaeden martell.

[grapesodatozier]

so close to the real thing (closer than you think)

rating: explicit

word count: 6.8k

summary: Eddie's been pining over Richie for as long as he can remember. He loves everything about Richie; especially how much Richie loves touching him. It's a little inconvenient, though. Eddie copes with his pent up sexual tension by constantly checking a porn blog he's obsessed with on tumblr. This guy has the same type of body as Richie, he talks like Richie, his name is even Richie! It makes it all too easy for Eddie to pretend it really is Richie while getting himself off to all of the blog's content.

You'll never guess what he finds out when he starts sexting this stranger named Richie from his anonymous porn blog.

tags: friends to lovers, porn with feelings, love confessions, dom/sub dynamics, bi dom top richie, gay sub bottom eddie, the most oblivious pining idiots in the world lol we love them

notes: this is one of my more ridiculous ideas but I had so much fun with it lol. also as a note you probably should not approach people on the internet the way they do in this fic, but they're just v enthusiastic and everything here is v consensual!! still tho definitely don't take this indulgent fic as a guide on how to approach real people online lmao. okay have fun!!

read on ao3 or below!!

notsfw under the cut

Eddie Kaspbrak’s friends were his entire world; time spent with them meant everything to him. But he also really valued his alone time. He’d always been the sort who needed time to just sit on a grassy hill and watch the trains go by, to catch up on comics in his room, to get lost in Netflix shows or even just his thoughts as he moseyed around his apartment—one he live in by himself, for when these moods hit. He needed time to himself to unwind. And sometimes he unwound by scrolling through some porn blogs on tumblr with his hand in his pants.

There was one blog that he was particularly fond of. There were other blogs more catered to his personal interests, namely blogs that didn’t feature women like this one did. But there was a good balance of genders represented, so Eddie figured he could just scroll past those posts. This guy was worth it. His pictures were ridiculously hot, and his dirty talk was even hotter.

Also, his name was Richie. Which Eddie refused to acknowledge as part of the draw.

It was harder to ignore tonight. He’d been out with the losers, and Richie had just been so touchy. And there was something about the way he'd been talking; his voice was lower than normal, slower in a way that made Eddie’s stomach flip. And his touches had lingered, his hand squeezing Eddie’s hip slow, then lazily brushing against his ass as he dropped it. Eddie could hardly take it. He brushed it off as Richie just being tired from work, but god, Eddie wanted it to mean more. The hardest part was hiding how much he wanted Richie to keep doing it.

There were so many things Eddie wanted Richie to do to him. He wanted Richie to touch him harder, to grab him by his hips with both hands. Richie’s hands were so big; Eddie just knew Richie could manhandle him so easily, so roughly. He wanted to know what it would feel like to have Richie’s hands all over him, grabbing at his ass and his thighs, holding his wrists down, making him feel so small. While Eddie would never admit it, huffing at every short joke Richie made, but he loved being shorter than Richie. He loved how safe he felt when Richie held him. And he was dying to know how small he would feel with Richie looming above him, or sitting in Richie’s lap, bouncing on his cock. He wanted to hear Richie talking to him in that low, slow voice, with that condescension Eddie did his best to pretend not to be affected by. He wanted Richie to whisper in his ear and call him all those pretty names he always dropped so casually, all those sweet ones and also ones that were a lot meaner. He wanted Richie to want him.

But it was easier to think about it than to ask for it. He knew Richie had way more experience than him. Well, okay, maybe not way more necessarily, but they were starting their third year of college, and he hadn’t wasted any time. Eddie, on the other hand, hadn’t done anything more than hand stuff with someone else. The guys he’d hooked up with were nice enough, and hot enough, but they just… weren’t Richie.

He supposed this guy on tumblr wasn’t Richie either, but at least he was everything else Eddie wanted. None of his hookups had been so, well, dominant, and that was this guy’s whole thing. He was dominant and a top and into guys that looked like Eddie. He even kind of talked like Richie, and he was apparently pining over his best friend, just like Eddie was. It had him completely smitten. Plus, internet-Richie’s crush had brown eyes like Eddie, and he ran track, just like Eddie did. Internet-Richie had posted once about his dick getting hard watching his friend at his track meet, and Eddie had come so hard that night, his track shorts around his ankles, imagining his Richie thinking those things about him.

Eddie was in bed now, in nothing but his boxers and one of Richie’s old shirts that had been Eddie’s for a while now. Still reeling from the way Richie had been acting that night, he logged into his porn account on his phone and scrolled through his dash for a grand total of thirty seconds before going immediately to internet-Richie’s blog. A thrill went through Eddie’s body when he saw that he had just posted. He’d written, “god my friends gonna fuckn kill me with that ass, i wanna plow him so bad” then reblogged it and added, “reminder that my asks and dms are always open if any pretty needy little subs need help getting off. please come be sluts in my messages.” Eddie’s breath caught in his throat when he saw that there was a picture, too, one of him gripping his hard cock, his boxers pulled down just enough for Eddie to see the dark hair around the base of his cock. Eddie moaned at the sight. His cock was so nice, so long and thick and pink. And fuck, his fingers. They were so long and slim, almost as nice as his-Richie’s.

Eddie scrolled a little farther down, his heart racing. There were a lot of reblogs, but some original posts here and there, things like, “what i wouldn’t do to have a pretty guy drooling all over my cock rn,” and, “in the mood to get someone dick drunk. wanna fuck a someone so hard they forget their own name.” One that made Eddie nearly choke said, “want someone i can pump my come into whenever i want, over and over again. want a sub i can keep full of my come all the fuckn time.” That post had Eddie getting out his lube.

It also had him thinking about internet-Richie’s most recent post, his post about his DMs being open.

Eddie bit his lip and thought about it. He’d sent internet-Richie some asks before from his porn blog (his blog didn’t have his name on it, just the teddy bear emoji, since he privately thought the teddy/Eddie rhyme was fun and clever, and also it was cute), and he’d seemed plenty happy enough to respond then. Still, it felt like a much bigger step to DM him, to talk to him just one on one. But the more he read his posts, the more he thought about his-Richie and how he’d touched Eddie that night, the easier it was to convince himself to shoot his shot with this stranger.

Eddie just messaged him a simple, “hi,” with a heart emoji. It was innocent enough, but his heart was still racing.

Internet-Richie responded a lot faster than Eddie was expecting. Honestly he hadn’t been expecting a response at all. But he said:

hiya cutie (; ive been hoping youd message me

Eddie flushed. He couldn’t help but hear cutie in his-Richie’s voice—especially given how often Richie used the nickname. really? he typed back.

fuck yes, ur cute little messages make me so hard. i can tell ur a pretty little thing just from the way you type

Eddie was blushing deep. Pretty little thing. That was hotter than it should’ve been. He wanted his Richie to talk to him like that, in that deep, sleepy voice.

there’s no way you can tell that from some messages :P, Eddie sent.

His heart stopped at the next messages internet-Richie sent.

oh, u dont think so?

why dont u send me some pics to prove me wrong (;

Oh my god, Eddie thought, his breath coming short. His head swam at the thought of sending this guy nudes, of showing himself off to someone who clearly wanted to see him, who would know how to take care of him and fuck him the way he liked, a guy with his crush’s fucking name and body type and hands. It had Eddie’s cock hard and leaking, and he slowly slid a finger inside of himself.

But just because the thought turned him on didn’t mean he was gonna send this stranger what he wanted so easily, even if he desperately wanted to.

you’d like that, wouldn’t you?

He fingered himself open as he waited for a response, working his way up to two fingers. It was nearly impossible to ignore his cock, but he didn’t want to come before the conversation even had a chance to start.

fuck ya i would, internet-Richie responded. Then, in a second message, whats wrong baby? you shy? ill show u mine ;)

Eddie's breath caught. God, this guy even made stupid shit sound hot, just like Eddie’s Richie. This was unreal.

i’ve seen yours, Eddie pointed out.

ya and you musta liked it if ur messaging me rn

Eddie bit his lip. ...maybe

aw thats cute sweetheart. u know i can see all the needy little tags you add when u reblog my stuff right?

Eddie blushed. He’d kind of always hoped he’d read them, but he never thought he actually did. i didn’t know you read those

oh ya, read them, jerk off to them. bit of a size queen, aren’t you? ;) it’s cute. makes me so fuckn hard when u talk abt how u want me to fill you up

Eddie whimpered out loud, sliding a third finger into himself. Fuck, he wanted that cock inside of him so bad. But right now one of his toys would have to do, once he was stretched out enough. He sped up his fingers, getting impatient. Gathering up all of his horny courage, he sent, show me.

what, no please? only good boys who use their manners get dick pics babydoll

Eddie pouted and whined to himself, making quick work of sliding his hot pink vibrator inside of himself—well, as quickly as he could without hurting himself. He moaned as it filled him up, making pleasure spread deep through his body. Slowly pumping it in and out, he reached for his phone. please, he typed, please let me see? wanna know what to picture while i fuck myself with my vibrator. He even added the wide eyed pouting emoji to really milk the whole begging thing. He knew he’d been playing a little coy, but now with the way internet-Richie was talking to him he was getting desperate.

well fuck baby since ur begging ;)

Eddie held his breath as he waited for the picture, slowly rocking his toy in and out, savoring the feeling. He wished it was Richie doing it, wished it was his cock. The lines between which Richie blurred; he wanted to get fucked by either of them, both of them.

What Eddie received when his phone lit up was not a picture, but a video. It was short, just a few seconds of Richie’s hand dragging wetly, smoothly over his cock, but it had Eddie drooling. The room was dark, so he’d used a flash, and it made the mix of what Eddie assumed was precome and spit glisten as the swollen head of Richie’s cock disappeared and reappeared from behind his fingers. Eddie must’ve played it at least five times, fucking himself a little faster, before remembering to say something back. And to take a video of his own. fuck, I want you so bad, want you to fucking ruin me, he wrote back. A part of him couldn’t believe how openly desperate he was being, but he found that he liked it; he liked the way it made him blush, he liked the way it felt to beg, to ask for what he wanted.

Richie’s response came fast: show me kitten. show me how you want me to fuck your pretty little ass.

Eddie moaned at the pet name; casual little nicknames were such a weakness for him. He was already so far gone, just picturing Richie’s cock inside of him, picturing him stroking his cock to thoughts of Eddie. The attention had his cock hard and leaking as he thrust his vibrator even deeper inside of himself, pumping it in and out a few more times before rolling over and getting on his hands and knees. It was hard to take a video from this angle, but he wanted to show off his ass and hide his face. Plus, there was something so hot about having his ass in the air and his face shoved in his pillow, looking like the perfect image of someone desperate to be fucked. He loved the way it made him feel, loved the thought of being so open for someone. For Richie.

He ended up shooting a short video as well, about ten seconds of him sliding his vibrator slowly in and out of himself, letting out soft little moans. He was pretty pleased with the way it turned out, his hole pink and smooth and wet as it stretched around his toy. The angle was a little weird, showing a lot of his room once or twice when his hand slipped a little, but overall he thought his ass looked amazing, if he did say so himself. He sent it and said, feels so good. do you want me to go faster?

As he sent it, he got settled on his back, forcing himself to go slow as he fucked himself while he waited for internet-Richie’s response. It was taking longer than before, and Eddie was getting antsy; it was so hard to drag it out, to not get ahead of himself. But whatever Richie was doing, Eddie knew it would be worth the wait. Still, he pouted as his cock ached, begging for attention.

He almost jumped out of his skin when he heard a knock at the door.

He groaned to himself and stayed put, fucking himself even slower as he waited for whoever it was to leave. But then the knocking continued, loud and incessant and obnoxious, and Eddie knew exactly who it was. He also knew he wasn’t going to go away any time soon, which honestly made him smile and blush. Richie had terrible timing, but Eddie would never be upset to see him.

Reluctantly, he slowly slid the toy out and pulled on his shorts, leaving his shirt off. He still had a pretty obvious boner, but his horny brain did not mind the idea of Richie seeing it. So he strode lazily down the hall, shouting a performatively annoyed, “I’m coming!” Finally, he opened the door, cocking his hip to the side and giving Richie an expectant look. “Can I help you?” he asked, a small smile dancing around the corner of his lips. He had to fight off a smirk at the wide eyed look Richie gave him as he ran his eyes over Eddie’s body.

“Fuck,” he muttered lowly, his eyes trained on Eddie’s cock, which was getting even harder the more Richie stared. Eddie bit his lip and grinned a little, making doe eyes at Richie. But Richie didn’t meet his gaze—instead he brushed past Eddie, his mouth still hanging open as he made his way urgently toward Eddie’s bedroom.

“Richie?” Eddie asked, a little let down that Richie’s hands weren’t all over him right now. But hey, if he was heading to Eddie’s bedroom he figured that was at least the right direction. He closed his front door and followed Richie into his room, where he found him staring at the bright pink vibrator on the bed. As confident and horny as Eddie was feeling, that still made him blush. He was only human. Crossing his arms, he said, bashful now, “I was kind of in the middle of something.”

Richie looked over at him, his cheeks bright red under his freckles. Then he got a glimmer of that trademark shit-eating grin on his face. “Eds, you fucking slut,” he said, sounding both delighted and breathless. “You are so fucking hot.”

Eddie flushed and tried not to squirm, but he couldn’t help but press his legs together, his eyes brightening. Fuck, was this actually happening? Shit, he needed to think of something witty to say. “You gonna do anything about it?” Okay, that kinda sounded like a corny porn, but he had to give himself credit for even being able to form words just after his lifelong crush and personal wet dream had just admitted his attraction to him.

“I think I already have been,” Richie said, still grinning.

Eddie cocked an eyebrow at him. He couldn’t help but smile back. “Oh yeah? How do you figure that?”

Eddie was expecting a confession. He was expecting something along the lines of you think I don’t notice how you look at me? or did you really think those were casual touches earlier? What he was not expecting was for Richie to unlock his phone and hold it up, showing Eddie the video he had just taken, the video he’d sent to internet-Richie.

Oh. Oh. Oh fuck.

“Oh my god, that’s you?” Eddie cried in disbelief.

“You’re telling me you didn’t recognize this dick?” Richie asked, swaggering over to Eddie, clearly enjoying himself.

“How did you recognize it was me?”

Richie nodded toward the Thundercats poster on Eddie’s wall, then to the model train that sat on his dresser. “What other guy has decor like that and the ass to match?”

Eddie grinned and shook his head. “That doesn’t even make sense.”

“Well pardon me for not being especially eloquent when I’ve just learned that the guy I’ve been masturbating to since I learned how to and been in love with for even longer has been masturbating to me too.”

Eddie’s eyes went wide, all thoughts of getting fucked leaving for a moment. “You’re in love with me?” he asked, his voice as soft as his smile.

Richie was not a bashful person, but the little laugh he let out just then was close to it. “Have been my whole life, but thanks for finally noticing.”

Eddie shook his head and stepped closer, until he had to crane his head up to meet Richie’s gaze. “I love you too.”

Richie’s eyes widened behind his thick frames. Eddie had only seen that look in Richie’s eyes a few times before, but he never wanted to lose sight of it again. He always wanted Richie to look at him like that. But then Richie was closing his eyes and leaning down. It only took Eddie a second to get with the program, drinking in the moment just a little longer before letting his own eyes fall shut as he pressed his lips against Richie’s.

It started gentle enough, if deep and passionate and intentional. But then Richie’s hands were on Eddie’s bare waist, skin against skin, and Eddie was gasping into Richie’s mouth, his hands coming up and resting against Richie’s chest. He curled his fingers into Richie’s shirt as Richie ran his tongue over Eddie’s lips, just before pulling away. He laughed at Eddie’s indignant little whine.

“Oh, you mean you don’t want me to take off my shirt right now?” he smirked as Eddie tried to pull him closer by the offending fabric. Huffing, Eddie conceded and let go long enough to let Richie pull the shirt off over his head.

“Oh,” he said softly, his voice a little, awed moan as he drank in Richie’s chest. It wasn’t like Richie had never been shirtless in front of Eddie before, but Eddie had never felt like he was allowed to really look at Richie all those times. But now he could; now he could touch. And he did, running his fingers over Richie’s smooth, warm skin, over his acne scars and blackheads and freckles. “Fuck, Richie,” he sighed before pressing his lips to Richie’s collarbones, trailing them all over Richie’s beautiful chest.

Richie gave a breathless, almost shy laugh as he stroked Eddie’s hair. “Damn, Eds, never pegged you as a tits guy.”

“Oh, fuck off,” Eddie giggled, bringing his lips back to Richie’s. They both smiled into it, getting lost for a moment as Richie’s hands slid slowly down Eddie’s sides. His hands lingered on Eddie’s hips for a moment before he slid them further down and grabbed at Eddie’s ass, making him gasp.

“Is that any way to talk to the guy who’s about to rail you ‘til you can’t walk?”

“What’re you gonna do about it?” Eddie asked with a mischievous glint in his eyes. “Spank me?”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Richie smirked. He gave Eddie’s ass a playful smack, making Eddie gasp again and fall into him, needing more. Richie’s voice was dripping with adoration as he purred, “Little brat,” and pulled Eddie against him, kissing him again. Eddie went with it easily and happily parted his lips to let Richie lick into his mouth. Richie had one hand gripping Eddie’s jaw and the other on his ass, touching him in a way that exuded a command Eddie was desperate to follow. God, Eddie knew Richie had big hands, but they felt huge on him like this. It was dizzyingly hot. And the way Richie’s tongue was teasing his had Eddie’s knees going weak. His dick was throbbing in his shorts, aching to finish what he’d started, what had been interrupted. When he thought about it all—about playing with himself for Richie, about the video Richie had sent him, about all those things Richie had said about filling Eddie up—he felt himself clench down on nothing, desperate to get fucked. Desperate to feel Richie’s cock so deep inside of him.

“Richie,” he whined into the kiss, pulling on Richie’s belt loops, “please.” He pressed himself urgently against Richie and rutted shamelessly against his thigh.

“Fuck, you’re a needy little thing, aren’t you?” His voice was cocky and teasing, but there was an apparent undercurrent of wonder there as well.

Eddie shoved his face into Richie’s neck and whined, grabbing onto Richie’s wrists without even knowing what his goal was. “Richie,” he whimpered, sounding pitiful and ruined already.

“What do you want, baby?” Richie’s voice made it clear that he was enjoying seeing Eddie this wrecked, and that just made Eddie even harder. “Come on, tell me, use your words.”

Eddie squirmed as Richie held him close, but still not touching him in any relieving way. “I need you inside,” Eddie said, his voice high and soft as he squirmed in Richie’s grip. “God, please, Richie, need you to fuck me. Fuck me so hard I can’t even think. Fuck me like I’m your little toy.”

Eddie could hardly believe the words coming out of his mouth, and judging by the gasp he heard Richie let out, he’d caught Richie off guard too. But if the hard bulge in his jeans that brushed up against Eddie was any indication, he was apparently just as turned on as Eddie was. Besides, Eddie knew from his blog that Richie was really into that sort of thing too—and, apparently, really into the idea of doing those things with Eddie. The realization that Richie had been saying all those filthy things about him had him grinding against him with even more fervor, kissing his neck with a heated confidence. Richie moaned, and Eddie could feel the warmth of it spreading through him. “Yeah, sweetheart? You want to feel me inside you? You think you’re ready for me?”

“Yes,” Eddie sighed, looking up at Richie with wide, desperate eyes. He shivered at the new look in Richie’s eyes, the blue nearly entirely eclipsed by how wide his pupils were. He looked hungry for Eddie; Eddie wanted to feel it. “‘M ready, Richie, please, so open for you.” He looked to the toy on his bed pointedly, but Richie only gave a deep laugh.

“Oh honey, that’s cute that you think that little thing is gonna have you ready for my cock.” Eddie’s breath caught; that toy wasn’t small. Before he could gather his scattered brain enough to react, Richie was scooping him up and tossing him on the bed, the toy falling forgotten to the floor. Richie moved Eddie onto his back, and Eddie went happily, pliantly. Richie’s fingers were cool against Eddie’s burning skin as he hooked his fingers into the waistband of Eddie’s shorts, slowly dragging them over his hips and down his legs, tossing them to the floor. Eddie’s cock was dripping with precome, his chest flushed a bright red as he squirmed under Richie’s gaze. Eddie been dreaming of Richie manhandling him like this for he didn’t even know how long; he couldn’t help the way he reacted. And he especially couldn’t help the pleased little sound he made when Richie murmured, “God, you’re gorgeous, Eds.” Then Richie was grabbing him by the ankles, gently but firmly spreading Eddie’s legs, and Eddie let out the most pathetic, genuine moan he’d ever heard. “Fuck, baby, you sound pretty. You like when I spread you open?” Richie asked. He was smirking down at Eddie, but Eddie could see how flushed he was, could see the thrilled awe in his dark, hungry eyes as Eddie nodded.

“Richie, please,” Eddie whimpered. “I need you so bad.” He sat up, reaching for Richie’s belt, but Richie easily pressed him back against the mattress with a large hand on the center of his chest. The confidence in Richie’s dominance took Eddie’s breath away, and he stayed right where he was, nice and obedient, as he watched Richie get off the bed and slowly undo his belt, then his button and zipper. He took his time dragging his jeans and boxers off, enough time to let Eddie’s eyes linger on the reveal of the dark hair under Richie’s waistband. Then Richie’s cock was bouncing up against his stomach, hard and flushed and fucking long. Eddie moaned at the sight and fisted the sheets underneath him. He wanted so badly to get his mouth on Richie, to breathe him in and be nice and good for Richie on his knees. But he was also desperate to get fucked; his hole clenched down on nothing at the thought, and then it was all he could think about again. “Richie,” he repeated, whining now as he reached for him. “Stop being such a tease.”

Richie laughed as he moved easily out of Eddie’s grip and climbed on top of him. Eddie gasped softly at the sight of Richie above him, his dark curls surrounding his face, his full, pink lips pulled into the most beautiful smile Eddie had ever seen in his life. He ran his hands over Richie’s chest and sides, marveling at the fact that this was really happening. Then, his eyes flickering down, he tentatively brought his hand to Richie’s cock.

“Oh, fuck,” they said, both at the same time, making them giggle together.

“Fuck, Eds, your pretty little hand looks so cute wrapped around my cock,” Richie teased in a low, rough voice. Eddie shivered; he couldn’t tell if Richie was praising him or degrading him, but either way it made his head fuzzy.

“‘M not that little,” Eddie grumbled out of habit. But he was clearly breathless. He’d never been good at pretending not to like Richie’s compliments, however teasing.

“Aw, but you are, baby,” Richie cooed, nuzzling his nose against Eddie’s and pressing a lingering kiss to his lips. “You’re so cute and tiny for me. I don’t even know if we’ll be able to fit my cock inside you.”

“I can,” Eddie whined, both indignant and impatient. He bucked his hips up, but Richie held him down. He gasped when he felt the warm, soft skin of Richie’s cock press against his stomach. Looking down, he saw that Richie had his cock lying on Eddie’s stomach, showing just how deep he would be once he was inside Eddie.

“You sure about that, babydoll?” While the teasing note was still there, Richie’s voice got noticeably softer as he said, “I don’t wanna hurt you.”

Eddie’s chest swelled at that. Cupping Richie’s face in his hands, he insisted, “I can take it.” Then he reached down and took Richie in his hand, glowing with pride when Richie let out a low moan. “Richie, please, I want you so bad.”

“Okay, baby,” Richie agreed, turning his head to kiss Eddie’s palm. “Fuck, I want you, too.” But he stalled. “Have you ever… like, been fucked before?”

Eddie flushed. “Well, not by someone else, but I have some toys. I’m not gonna break, Richie.” He huffed, but the way Richie was looking at him soothed any ruffled feathers.

“I’m your first?” His smile was soft, and while his eyes glittered, there was nothing teasing about his tone.

“I didn’t wanna do it with anyone else,” Eddie mumbled. He tried to look away, but Richie pulled him into a kiss.

“Fuck, I never thought you’d want me,” he chuckled. “Sorry, that was depressing, I just mean I can’t believe we didn’t do this sooner, you know?”

Eddie beamed, a small, giddy giggle dancing on his lips. “Well it’ll happen sooner if you stop talking so much.” But his smile, and all of the little kisses he planted on Richie’s freckled shoulders told Richie that Eddie never wanted him to stop talking.

“Alright, alright, sheesh, I know I’m hot but you don’t gotta rush me.” Eddie was still giggling when Richie kissed him, and he could feel that Richie was smiling too. “Where’s your lube?”

Eddie stretched his hand out and patted the bed for a moment, searching. After what was probably only four seconds but felt like an eternity, he finally found the bottle and handed it eagerly to Richie. “Oh, right,” Richie smirked, “you’re already wet for me, aren’t you?” Eddie moaned as Richie swiped his fingers over Eddie’s slick hole, pressing in just a bit. His fingers went in easily, and he pumped them slowly, drawing little, breathy moans out of Eddie. Richie’s fingers were a lot longer and thicker than his own, and they felt amazing, but they weren’t what he wanted in that moment.

“Richie, fuck me,” he whined.

“Aw, no please? Again?” Richie tsked and shook his head, curling his fingers against Eddie’s prostate, making him cry out. “I told you, sweetheart, only good boys who use their manners get fucked.”

“Please,” Eddie cried. He rocked his hips and grabbed at Richie’s shoulders, at his arms, not even sure what his goal was there other than to get Richie closer, to get his attention, to show him how desperate he was. “Please fuck me, please.” He sounded pathetic begging like this, but that just made him harder. And it made Richie’s pupils even wider as he slid his fingers out of Eddie and pressed a kiss to his lips.

“Good boy,” he purred. Eddie moaned and arched into Richie’s touch, but he only gave Eddie one more kiss on his cheek before pulling back and covering his cock in lube. Eddie watched, entranced, as Richie’s hand moved smoothly over his cock, glistening and slick. Then Richie was gently spreading Eddie’s legs even further and pressing the head of his cock against Eddie’s hole.

“Yes,” Eddie whimpered brokenly, grasping at the sheets beneath him. “Richie, please.” Meeting his gaze, he said softly, “I need you.”

“I’ve got you,” Richie assured him in a voice that made Eddie feel like he was glowing. Richie took Eddie’s hand in his and entwined their fingers, using his other hand to guide his cock inside of Eddie, who gasped at the feeling. God, he couldn’t believe this was happening. He couldn’t believe his first time was going to be with his favorite person. He couldn’t believe he was finally getting exactly what he wanted. Love flooded through him, warm and perfect, somehow both soothing and electrifying as he watched Richie’s face. Eddie’s mouth dropped as Richie pressed into him, deeper and deeper and still fucking deeper, until finally Richie let out a low moan and Eddie felt absolutely breathless. The stretch was intense, and he held onto Richie tightly as he caught his breath. “Are you alright?” Richie asked. His voice was strained, but the care and concern in it was clear. “You don’t have to take all of it if it’s too much.”

Eddie wanted to laugh at the remark or roll his eyes, but with how breathless and dizzied by pleasure he already was, he had to admit Richie had a point. “Just need a minute,” he gasped. Richie ran a soothing hand over Eddie’s skin, helping him even out his breathing and relax. The feeling of Richie’s cock twitching in anticipation inside of him had him letting out little moans as he adjusted, getting more and more used to the feeling until he felt comfortable enough to tell Richie he could move. Richie kissed him before he did, his lips soft against Eddie’s, a reassuring weight. Eddie breathed in sharply as Richie pulled back, grabbing at Richie’s shoulders.

Richie immediately stopped. “You okay, baby?” he asked, caressing Eddie’s face.

Eddie wanted to melt. Richie was always touching him, always jokingly flirting with him, but this unabashed concern and, well, love had previously been reserved for dire situations, like panic attacks or injuries. Eddie couldn’t help the dopey smile that bloomed on his face as he tilted his chin up and kissed Richie. “I’m okay,” he said breathlessly. “It’s just a little different from my vibrator.” They both gave a shaky laugh as Richie nuzzled his nose against Eddie’s.

“Better, I hope?” he grinned.

“Can’t tell yet,” Eddie retorted. Another snarky comment was on the tip of his tongue when Richie pulled his hips further back, effectively sucking all the air—and attitude—from Eddie’s chest. And then Richie was pushing back in, and Eddie let out a moan he couldn’t have faked if he tried, relaxing back into the mattress as his eyes fell shut. It was the best thing he’d ever felt, pleasure and relief flooding through his body. They’d been building up this tension for years; Eddie had figured it would feel good to break it, but it really felt magical, like something had just clicked into place. Feeling Richie inside of him, rocking his hips carefully, feeling Richie twitch as he tried not to lose control had Eddie’s head reeling. Eddie’s eyes fluttered open, focusing on Richie above him, on how flushed his face was. When Richie met his eye, pressing in deep, Eddie let out a small, “Fuck.”

“Yeah? Does that feel good, sweetheart?”

Richie was smirking as he said it, but there was something else sparkling in his eyes. Something giddy and awed. Something that made Eddie sigh dreamily, “I love you.”

Richie’s eyes widened for a moment before he pressed his lips firmly against Eddie’s, his hands roaming over Eddie’s body like he couldn’t choose where to put them, where to touch him. “I love you so much,” he beamed, pressing a few more kisses to Eddie’s cheeks. Eddie giggled at the feeling, but then Richie’s hips moved just a little faster, pressing him in just a little deeper, and he was back to melting under Richie’s touch, clinging to him as he rocked his hips with Richie’s. “Fuck, you’re so amazing, baby, so fucking beautiful. You look so good like this, holy shit.”

Eddie smiled almost drunkenly at Richie’s ability to ramble even when blowing Eddie’s mind. “Feels so good,” he moaned, his voice breathy and just a little bit higher than normal. He wrapped his legs around Richie’s waist. “Please, Richie, please.”

“Fuck, baby, wanna make you feel like this all the fucking time,” Richie groaned as he picked up the pace. Eddie whined in pleasure at the change, and that just spurred Richie to go faster, harder, until he was well and truly fucking Eddie, both of them moaning with every thrust.

“Oh my god,” Eddie cried, “ohmygodohmygodhmygod, oh fuck, Richie, please.” It felt so amazing, Richie fucking into him like this, but he needed that little bit more. His cock was throbbing desperately, achingly hard; he needed to feel Richie’s hand on him. “Richie, please,” he whimpered, “please, please touch me. I need you, I need you so bad, please, Richie.” Eddie was pouting now, grabbing aimlessly at Richie, his legs still wrapped tight around him.

“Fuck, you’re so hard for me,” Richie marveled, his voice sweet and condescending as he wrapped his hand around Eddie’s cock. Eddie nearly screamed at the contact, his back arching off the bed. Richie laughed a little, which just made Eddie even harder. The way Richie spread his precome over his cock, twisting his wrist just so as he stroked him had that familiar tension coiling in his lower stomach. “Aw, does that feel good? You gonna come on my cock, kitten?”

“Fuck, yes!” Eddie screamed. He gripped at the sheets as Richie stroked him, his voice washing over Eddie, mixing with the pleasure of Richie’s touch, of his thrusts. “Yes, yes, yes, please let me come, please, please, please.”

“That’s a good boy,” Richie purred, and Eddie could feel himself tipping over the edge at the words, at how low and affected Richie’s voice was. He groaned out, “Come on my cock like a good boy, princess,” and pure pleasure crashed over Eddie like a wave. He arched his back and cried out as he came, his moans filling the room as he squirmed under Richie, grabbed at him, at the sheets. It was fucking ethereal. He felt somehow so in tune with his body and yet so detached, like he was floating. He was barely cognizant of what Richie was saying, but when he put the sounds together and realized Richie had just said, panting, “Fuck, baby, gonna come,” Eddie felt like a live wire again.

“In me,” he said urgently. His mind was still a little too scattered for full sentences, but he knew what he wanted. God, he felt like he needed it. Like he needed to feel that connected to Richie. “Richie, come inside me, please.”

Richie apparently didn’t need to be told twice; he let out a moaned, “Oh, fuck,” before burying his face in Eddie’s neck, his breathy moans like music in Eddie’s ear. And then, as Eddie was coming down from his own high, he felt the holiest thing in the world: Richie’s cock, twitching inside of him, then his warm come filling Eddie up. It was unreal, being this close to him. Richie clutching at him as he came. It was even better than the little fantasies Eddie occasionally allowed himself. Richie was here, in his arms, pressing kisses to his neck as he caught his breath. Eddie was stroking his hair and rubbing his back as Richie nuzzled into him. Richie’s skin pressed against his skin, his legs wrapped around Richie’s waist, then falling to his sides, but still pressed to him. Still keeping him close. There wasn’t a single thought in his head that wasn’t about Richie.

Richie pulled him from his dreamy haze with light kisses pressed up his jaw, then over his cheeks. Eddie giggled at the onslaught of affection, still reeling from how fucking hot and euphoric what they had just done together had been. But he happily accepted Richie’s kisses, his heart bursting, then racing as Richie pulled back to look in his eyes. “Holy, fuck,” Richie beamed, his face flushed and blue eyes hooded from the weight of his orgasm, even as they sparkled.

“I know,” Eddie said, returning Richie’s grin as he basked in the surreality of having Richie on top of him, his dorky yet charming smile framed by lips that were red and swollen because of Eddie. His glasses were knocked askew, and Eddie instinctively reached up to fix them. With a sense of wonder, he realized that his touch was allowed to linger this time. He ran his fingers down Richie’s cheekbones, over his jaw, cupped his cheeks. “I love you,” he said. The words spilled out over his lips like he couldn’t stand not to say them. And while it made his heart race a little to say it out loud now that the adrenaline and tension was all worked through, it felt even better this time when Richie’s face softened and he nuzzled his nose against Eddie’s.

“I love you so fucking much.” Richie’s voice rarely got that soft, that sincere; it felt like a blanket wrapping around Eddie. It felt safe, secure. It felt like a promise. And if there was anyone in the world Eddie knew he could trust, it was Richie. That feeling of everything coming together came back to Eddie as he lay there under Richie, their lips moving together, feeling light as a feather now that everything was finally out in the open.

[bakugohoex]

“when he put the what, in the where...”

pairing: katsuki bakugo x female reader

cw: swearing becuase its bakugo, kissing, implications

word count: 1300+

a/n: this was originally a headcanon with todoroki and shinso but i could only think of an idea for bakugo and the bakugo part was getting too long, if you guys want a todoroki and shinso version then just comment or send a request

summary: in which you’re in a secret relationship with bakugo until one fateful night in the dorms

↞ back to my hero academia masterlist

Your relationship with Bakugo would be classed as unconventional, you were dating, and every moment spent together was like paradise. Even with him not wanting to tell the class about your relationship he kept his promise to always make you feel needed and not ignored. To him you weren’t just some stupid extra.

You were his girlfriend which meant you were permanently his, you didn’t really care for people to know. As long as both Bakugo and you were happy you didn’t need other people’s feelings to interfere. And he just didn’t want stupid Deku to know to put it in his own words.

You had thought that when your relationships had gotten out that it would be on your terms, not at a Friday movie night after you and Bakugo had spent your afternoon making out.

“Katsu we have to go down soon, they’ll wonder where we’ve gone.” You were breathless with your exposed collar being bitten by Bakugo, his hands placed on your waist as you could feel the glands of sweat on his hands get hotter and hotter.

You didn’t mind the marks that his quirk left it was almost a hidden secret to the both of you, he murmured a small no as his lips travelled to another area that hadn’t been covered by his teeth, your hand had rested in his hair, as his hand moved further down.

He went past your shorts reaching your uncovered thighs as his quirk left more bruises and marks, a clear hand print evident on your waist and inner thigh. You loved seeing him on you and proving that he was yours and you were his.

Even with the lack of physical contact at school and in front of people, when in the comforts of each other’s rooms you were free to be together and be at peace.

You heard the ding of your phone knowing it was Mina asking where you were, “we really have to go down.”

“Whose fucking idea was it to have a movie night? I could’ve been sleeping or even better fucking you, but instead I’m spending my Friday evening with some dumb extras.” He huffed as he let go off your skin, he stood up towering on top as his legs were between your own legs.

“Those dumb extras are friends’ baby.” You encased his face in your hand caressing it as he put his face further into your palm.

“They’re still dumb extras.” He mutters standing up, he helped sorting the both of you out, as you still wore the shorts and a hoodie.

You both had been staring at the mirror in your room, as he got his phone checking to see the consistent messages of Kirishima asking where he was. You’d taken your phone going onto your camera as you wanted to saviour the moment of having alone time with Bakugo.

You took a couple mirror pictures, ones with Bakugo not paying attention before the last one had him grabbing your throat as he kissed your cheek, it was cute something that you wished you could post without anybody finding it

You both walked towards the elevator, holding hands until you both let go, acting as if you’d both met in the elevator, both thinking of excuses that were viable, Mina had asked for you to grab some food for everybody.

Following, you watched Bakugo sit on the couch next to Kirishima being his angry self as he called everybody extra’s. You saw pervy Mineta trying to look up the girls shirts before Momo kicked him in the chest and he fell to the ground being made to sit next to Denki and none of the girls.

“So, I heard our resident loud boy has a crush.” Mina says as she grabs some popcorn putting it in the microwave.

“Who? Bakugo?” You question knowing that must be who she was talking about.

She smirks leaning against the counter top, “Of course I mean Bakugo, Kirishima said he heard him talking on the phone last Saturday.”

You remembered the conversation; you had gone back home to visit your parents and Bakugo had been acting clingy without you there. He was alone without you and as much as he’d hate to admit it, you were the only good thing among the extras around him. He’d left consistent voice notes to you and when you finally called him after a long day out with your parents you spoke for nearly four hours.

“Can you two fucking hurry up?” You hear Bakugo shout as Koda puts the film on, you deciding to bring the food that Sato had made, mainly brownies and cookies as Mina bringing the popcorn.

“Yeah coming lover boy.” Mina shouts as the final bag of popcorn was done.

“What?” Everybody questions staring at Bakugo.

Izuku is the first one to speak cheerily, “does Kacchan have a girlfriend?”

Bakugo glared at the class, “I fucking don’t.”

To clear the silence, you walked with the brownies and cookies towards the group “Sato, the brownies smell amazing.” He thanks you as you go over to Bakugo.

“Move up then.” You sign as he rolls his eyes before letting you sit down; you had half your body on him but in the dark nobody could see.

You went up to his ear whispering, “Kiri heard you talking to someone, maybe you should be quieter lover boy.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t moan so loud then.” You could almost feel his smirk through the dark.

The movie being a boring one as everybody talked and ate, even Bakugo was engaging in the conversation mainly talking to Kirishima.

“It’s so cold.” Mina shivers in her seat.

“Here you can wear mine. I’m warm.” You offered as you stood up, Jiro putting the lights on for you to see where you would pass it too.

Standing up you pulled the hoodie off your body, wearing a tank top underneath, as you raised your arms up, your thighs were exposed, and your waist was visible.

No sound is heard, the shuffling and shouting of Mineta as if someone was covering him, as you finally take your head out of the hoodie, you pass it to Mina who just stares at you with the rest of the class.

“What’s up?” You asked as you noticed Mineta had been covered by Ojiro.

“Are those?” What you also hadn’t realised was the marks that Bakugo had left on your neck were visible to everybody. The question coming from Denki as you instinctively covered your neck with your hands.

“Nothing.” You whisper, “let’s watch the film.” Is all you say.

“Wait a minute.” Mina grabs Bakugo’s hands as she lifts the shirt up, you give a look as she puts his hand to the hand print on your waist. “That’s Bakugo’s hand print”.

“No shit Sherlock.” He says smirking as he sees his work, almost admiring it, oh how you wanted to rip that smirk off his face.

“Katsuki.” You shouted out.

“You should’ve kept your clothes on.” Is all he says

“Was that why I heard that weird noise coming from the couch a month ago?” Denki questions. 

“That was when I had to put my belt in your mouth.” Bakugo spoke reminiscing.

“When he put the what, in the where...” The classes eyes widen. 

“I fucking hate you.” You finally speak as you go to sit down next to him but instead he grabs your arm pushing you onto his body, his arm wrapping around your waist as he missed the contact you both had had hours ago.

“No you don’t.” He whispers kissing the top of your head.

Nobody asked questions they continued to watch the film as both you and Bakugo laid in each other’s arms he fell asleep holding you as if you were a bear, you smiled at his sleeping figure kissing his cheek as you snuggled up closer to him.

If you guys want to be a part of a tag list, just reply to any post and I’ll add you xx

@samusimp @alaina-rose13

[justreadingfics]

It’s a Deal -Ch. 13

Chapter Summary: Old memories come back to you. 

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Words: 3k

Warnings: angsty internal thoughts, no Bucky this chapter.  

A/N: Here it is. I’m sorry I ended up not reblogging all the comments on last chapter before I post this one, but I’ve read and cherish them all, please don’t doubt that. Thank you, incredible Suz, @bucky-the-thigh-slayer you’re a Queen around here. The link to my masterlist, where you can find the other chapters, is on my description. Feedback is highly appreciated.

Tag list for this story is closed.  

You bet that if you told anyone about the scene playing out in your apartment right now, people would scoff their asses off at your face: Saturday afternoon, your living room, the Leader of the Avengers Tech Team, the Director of SHIELD – probably the most powerful organization in the world- and one of the scariest, if not the scariest spy to ever walk on earth. All three of you sitting on your carpet, barefeet, wearing tops and tiny shorts due the heat brought by the bright sun slipping through your windows. A big bowl of popcorn in the center and innumerous chocolate bars everywhere. 

Those afternoons with the three of you are a rare event. First, you had your relationship with Eddie to blame, but now it’s mainly due to your work schedules that almost never are in sync, but whenever there’s an opportunity, there you are.

Your phone's message alerts ringing together bursts into the conversation and the three of you grab your devices simultaneously. You were dreading to see what it was, sure it was something from work, but a huge smile widens in your lips at what you see on your screen.

“Jesus…” Nat says, while, laughing, you three turn the screens to one another, confirming you have received the same message. “Bucky’s a lost cause with that cat. That’s the millionth picture I received of her this week. And she’s always doing something extremely exciting like… sleeping.” She rolls her eyes.

“But we have to admit that little asshole is kinda cute,” Sharon comments looking back at her screen and the picture of the, indeed, sleeping cat.

“She is, right?” You agree, with a huge smile on your face. You and Alpine may have had a somewhat rough start, but you can’t help but admit she’s an adorable little jerk who’s just very protective of her human.

“By the way,” Natasha smirks at you, putting her phone back on her pocket, “I had no idea that was what he meant when he said he would romance the shit out of you.”

“It suits perfectly, though,” Sharon comments, shaking her head and laughing with her.

“It does. Shame on me, I should’ve known better.” Nat agrees.  

“He said that?” You ask with peaked interest you try to disguise in the quietness of your tone while you bite the corner of your lips.

The curiosity in the information doesn’t go unnoticed by them, who just snicker at each other. You decide to ignore that.

“The dude is smitten, Y/N, wake the fuck up.” Natasha not so gently throws a popcorn right on your face.

“Hey,” you whine.

“And so is she, giving that little dreamy look on her face. Wake the fuck up indeed.” Sharon sides with Nat with a huff.

“I’ve created two monsters…” Nat comments like you weren’t even in the room, referring to the fact she is the one who brought you two together.

“It’s not like that…” You barge in their little interaction, catching their attention, before folding your legs up and holding your knees, “I mean… yeah, of course… I can’t help having feelings for Bucky, I mean… he’s…” you pause, searching for the right words to describe him, “He’s Bucky.” You shrug… a small smile curling your lips, “He’s Bucky…” you repeat with a sigh while your gaze wanders away…

It’s just you don’t really need anything else to justify why it’s so inevitable to grow feelings for him and your friends catch on to what you mean, because when you look back at them, they both have stupid and dreamily little looks at you… ones that don’t fit to a couple of spies. 

You clear your throat, letting your initial line of thoughts come back to you, “But it’s not that simple… There’s…’ you falter.

“There’s what?” Nat insists, in a kind way.

But “Who” was the more proper pronoun.

“Eddie…” You whisper.

“Argh…” Sharon groans, tilting her face to her side before, looking back at you, “What about Eddie?”

It was just yesterday that you had your little “encounter” with Bucky. You know it was no coincidence he was there, the little shit must’ve tracked you down… but you couldn’t make yourself care about that when it was so amazing… incredible… Not only the fact that he went down on you in such a shameless way and gave you a mind-blowing orgasm, like he always does. It was also the way he spoke to you…his attitude… not really imposing himself… encouraging you to have fun with your friends… no sign of jealousy. It made you feel special and free and… loved. Really loved for who you are and not for who you make yourself to be to please and that is a tremendously powerful feeling.

Still… you have mixed feelings about it all and Eddie is the reason. Being there with him felt familiar and comfortable, but, in some way different… better than before. It makes you think that he really is engaged into finding not just a way back to you, but also a way to make your relationship work and it certainly weighs over your heart.

You tell your friends all of that.

“Did Eddie notice anything?” Nat asks, reaching over for some popcorn.

“I don’t know,” you answer, “He wasn’t at the table when I returned, but he came back shortly, my friends were still talking about it, but we changed to subject once we saw him. The girls didn’t comment anything again, and he acted normal… I guess he didn’t.” You shrug, starting to bite on your nails.

There’s an annoying little feeling rising in you since the night before and, thinking over it, you recognize it as guilt. Guilt for doing that with Bucky while Eddie was there in Club, guilt for not being bothered by Bucky’s presence, while, at least initially, you were bothered by Eddie’s, guilty for enjoying that Bucky was the one who actively made a move when Eddie didn’t, for missing him more than you missed Eddie, for feeling more positively about his change of mind than Eddie’s, for wanting Bucky more…

Guilt because you know you’re falling for him. For Bucky. And there’s little you can do to stop it.

“What is it?” Sharon asks, tightening her lips and nodding at where you’re chewing your nails.

You promptly stop, bringing your hands to around your knees again, “I guess I wasn’t expecting either of them there.” You decide not to share your most recent thoughts with them.

“You know why both of them were there. It was definitely not a coincidence.” Nat reminds you.

“I know… but it's ok, they were polite...” You brush it off but add, quickly, fighting back a smile at the memories that flashes in your mind, “In their own way.”

“Polite? Even when Bucky had his face up your pussy?” Sharon teases, not letting that one go, and making you give in and let out a laugh while you hide your face with your hands for a moment.

“I was pretty excited to find out he was there, actually,” you admit and their faces light up, which you assume is prompted by your own expression. “It was a thrilling sensation… I can’t quite explain.”

“He really is in love with you…Bucky…” Nat tightens her lips and tilts her head.

You sigh, looking back at her, “I know…” You admit.

They both keep waiting for you to say something else but you don’t know what you could say. No… as a matter of fact, you do. You’re just not ready to put your thoughts out in the world. At first, you had your doubts if what Bucky was feeling was really that deep… but now… something has changed. You believe him. You really do. And you know you’re falling for him, too, but…

Eddie was the one you wanted for so long… you’ve made so many plans with him… Long term plans. You used to see yourself growing old with him and that’s an image that still somehow haunts your feelings. And now… the fact that guilt surrounds the feelings arising for Bucky inside you makes you feel like a cheater. You didn’t feel that when it was just sex, but now you do. And you’re damn scared.

What if you surrender to your feelings now and go to Bucky and then comes a day you’ll realize that you were wrong and Eddie will still be the one you really want? You wanted him for so long… can that really have changed? How can one let go of that feeling, that certainty of being right for each other, without being afraid of doing the wrong thing? And if that happens, if you do the wrong thing now, you will eventually hurt Bucky and that’s definitely the last thing you want.

That’s fucked up and you know it. But it’s what you’re feeling.

You keep it to yourself, though.  

~~~

It’s a few hours after the girls left your place, you take a refreshing and long bath and are about to put on a movie to relax a bit more for the rest of the evening. Maybe that way you can put your thoughts and feelings in order.

That duality of emotions is crushing your mind. You wanted some time alone and you had that… now, you can’t help the feeling that you need to come to a decision, a conclusion of some sort, you just can’t keep pushing it further. For better or for worse. Or you will lose your mind soon.

A comfort movie is in order for all the thinking you need to do, so you set “The Prisoner of Azkaban” on your TV before you head to the kitchen. You’re still pretty full of all the junk food the three of you made a feast of the whole afternoon, so you decide to prepare just an old recipe of peach iced tea your mom has taught you. Perfect for the hot weather, too.

You’ve just added the ice in the jar when your intercom rings. You frown wondering who could that be and check your phone for any missed calls or messages, finding none before answering the intercom.

“Yeah? Oh… no, yeah, sure, come up.” You press the button to let him in. Your heart beats just slightly faster, wondering what could he possibly be doing there.

“Hi,” he greets, once you open the door after he pressed the ringer.

“Hi,” you answer, and without even thinking, just keep staring at him, blocking his way into your apartment while he stands at your door, holding a big box in his hands.

“Can I come in?” He asks, when you say nothing else.  

“Oh, yeah, of course, sorry.” You step aside, allowing Eddie to walk into your living room with a tight smile on his lips.  

“Please,” you gesture towards your sofa and he nods, walking with you over there, “I was about to pour me some iced tea, would you like some?” You offer, tentativeness still present in your tone, while the big box secured in his hands grasps your attention for a second.   

“Your mom’s recipe?” He asks, his whole face lightening up as he takes his seat.

You chuckle and nod.

“Oh, hell yeah, then.”

You take just a little longer than you actually need to fix the tea for the two of you in the kitchen. For some reason, his presence, after the night before, what you did with Bucky and after you coming to terms that you are, indeed, growing feelings for the other guy… it just unsettles you.

After taking a deep breath or two, you come back to the living room. Some small conversation ensues while you take a seat by his side and you two drink from the tea you’ve just prepared.

“Ahm…What’s that?” At some point you give in to the curiosity and nod towards the box now on your center table.

He smiles, before placing his cup on your table and taking the box in his hands. He shifts on the sofa, making room for placing it on one of the cushions between the two of you. “I was taking a look at it at home earlier, it just… I couldn’t help myself… and decided to come by to show you.”

When he opens the lid, placing it aside, you take in the contents, which makes your heart beat a bit funny at the surprise. You recognize pictures of the two of you, letters, a few souvenirs… All of them represent a memory of your relationship.   

“Oh…” you say. You know all that stuff had been stashed in some place, but you never knew he had taken them with him once he moved out.

“Yeah…” Eddie brushes the back of his neck, peering at you from beneath his lashes, “I guess I really wasn’t that confident about my decision when I left…” he shrugs, looking down at the box again, “I just couldn’t leave it behind.”

You give him a tightened and brief smile, before placing your teacup on the table and starting to fumble through the items inside the box. You let out a breathy laugh when you find a picture of the day you two have met… he had founded a study group on advanced software creating techniques and you were the only one to show up.

“Oh my God…” you laugh.

“Yeah… what a couple of nerds,” Eddie chuckles, looking at the picture.

He helps you through the shuffling when you go through some more pictures from college, his family, your family… the day you two closed the deal to buy the apartment… the letter you received when you were both accepted in the Avengers tech team…

You feel the tears gathering in your eyes before they start silently rolling down your cheeks… It’s a weird sensation, it’s like meeting with an old part of yourself, an old friend. One that has never really left, but you almost don’t recognize anymore… leading to a nostalgic and longing feeling.

They’re all good memories stashed on that box… of course… you guess no one is really keen to proposedly keep a souvenir from the bad ones… but that’s not on what your focus lays right now.  Your attention is caught by a particular thing from the box. A small gasp escapes your lungs at the sight.

You look up at Eddie, whose eyes have been intensely trained on you, before you grab the object in your hands.

It’s a scrapbook you two have made through college years. While you silently and carefully go through the pages your life passes in front of your eyes. Movie and concert tickets… more pictures… a few drawings… software ideas you had together… little notes you’ve written to each other… and then, on the very last couple of pages, there they are.

You remember them. The day you two decided to write a letter to each other, telling how you wanted your future to be.

You roam your fingers through the frayed papers… you don’t have to read them again to know what’s there. You remember. Without knowing, in the end you two had written the exact same thing in both letters… among other small stuff, you two wrote you wanted a kick ass job, live in the city in an apartment of your own… and stay together forever.

Your watery gaze follows when Eddie slides down to the floor and kneels before you, taking your hands in his, “I meant every word then and I still do,” he says, softly, staring deeply into your eyes, “I can’t see my future without you… I just can’t.” He shakes his head, before it drops.

You see how his lips twist before he looks up at you again, with a saddened look on his face, “I know how that guy makes you feel…”

Your body freezes just as your heart does and you feel the precise moment when it splits in two. That heavy sensation comes back to your chest when the image of Bucky pops into your mind and suddenly there are two lives running before your eyes. One there, with Eddie, with everything you've ever dreamed of… the other running straight into Bucky's arms and leaving all of that behind.

And you know there's only one right for you.

You're brought back to reality by the sound of Eddie's voice.

 “I- I know about what happened last night, I, ahm, I’ve heard the girls…” he stammers but holds his hold on your hands when you shift on your seat and he senses your discomfort. “No… it’s ok. “I know it’s new… it’s exciting…” he continues, nodding and hastily licking his lips, “And you deserve to explore that. You do… it’s ok.” He puts on a small smile, “But I want you to know that I’m here. I’m waiting for you. I’m waiting for us… for our future. No matter how long it takes. How much fun you need to have with that guy before you realize what I already know.” He smiles wider, “Because I know you and I are it. We’ve always been it.”

You’re frowning while looking down at him. His words making their way into your senses.  

You free one hand of his secured hold to reach over and cup his smiling face.

He leans into your touch.

You make a decision. 

[httpbread]

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pairing: mikaela hyakuya x reader

words: 3921

i havent written anything coherent in. some time. also this wasn’t a request but mika is my all time favorite character. my HEART requested this.

-

"Do you and (Y/n) have some weird staring contest that no one knows about except you?"

The question is so sudden, so out of the blue, that he looks away from the aforementioned soldier only to find himself squinting up.

His target takes a step to the side, blocking the sun from his view, but he still blinks a few times before he can clearly make out the boy.

"What on earth are you talking about?" despite no longer staring at the sun, this sight also makes his eyes narrow unhappily.

Much like the sun, Yuichiro smiles down at him brightly. Much more toothily. Though, thankfully, Yuu also didn’t make him burst into flames, which was also a plus in his book.

However, maybe not so much right now.

"You and (Y/n)," he says, his voice uncharacteristically low, further adding to Mikaela’s growing suspicion about this conversation, "What else?"

He says it so casually as if they were discussing no more than the weather. But Mikaela knew damned well this went deeper. A sense of deja vu padding in the from the corner of his mind.

So, albeit reluctantly, he leans over to the boy, but he doesn’t say anything at first. Instead, his ruby gaze leaves Yuu to return home where they had been and often were.

Thankfully, they’re none the wiser about what’s happening, still sitting a couple of yards away from them, their hands animatedly gesturing before them like their life depended on it as they explained something to the Hiragi settled across from them.

He says, very quietly to Yuu, "Did Shinoa put you up to this?"

To which, Yuu responds, just as hushed, "If I say yes will you still tell me?"

He fights back against the small upwards tug of his lips at his friends’ reliable antics as he sits up straight again. Always so honest.

"Mika?" Yuu quickly worries, his voice growing a little higher in pitch as he begins to clumsily backtrack, "I meant- no. Shinoa didn’t say anything. It’s me. I’m asking. Why would Shinoa ask?"

"So, Shinoa did say something?" He muses, mostly just to mess with the ravenet.

As if to further stir the pot, the lavender haired leader’s eyes briefly flicker over to them, coming dangerously close to meeting his own gaze, before focusing back on the soldier before her.

(Y/n) doesn’t notice this occurrence either, now making an odd motion that made Mikaela’s brows draw. Their face is a little intense now as they try to clearly convey their point. One hand was splayed out flat and the other made a swirling motion above it. Mikaela briefly wonders what they were rambling about this time.

"Fine, fine," Yuu huffs, drawing his attention again but not enough to make him look away, only continuing to watch the pantomime of the (h/c) haired individual, "Shinoa maybe- uhm, sort of, shined a light on your problem."

At least, he continues watching her until those last words reach his ears, making Mikaela abruptly turn, "My problem?"

Yet, Yuu only grins at him, happy as ever, meeting Mikaela’s gaze with those big emerald puppy dog eyes without a care in the world, "Yup."

Mikaela only offers him a displeased look rather than an actual answer.

The only problem he had was that Shinoa was poking her nosy little nose where it didn’t belong, directly in Mikaela’s personal business.

(Y/n), on the other hand, was never a problem.

As long as they were smiling- and they often were- he was sure everything was right in the world. Over the months they had spent together, getting stuck in confined spaces, shoving back to back during combat, and even bickering with each other on the rare occasion, Mikaela could probably even write an entire guidebook on how to properly handle and care for the individual.

He was still considering the silly handbook idea when he found himself looking at a familiar shade of (e/c).

(Y/n) was looking at him, he realized, and judging by the teasing nudge Shinoa gave their shoulder this wasn’t something they had originally thought of.

Despite this, their strawberry lips curve upward at the corners to give him a toothy smile. Their (e/c) eyes twinkling as they hold his under the warm sun shining high above them.

They lift a smaller hand and wiggle it at him.

Mikaela does the same, subconsciously smiling back at them, but only a smidgen.

Mikaela had many problems, but not (Y/n) and that was certain.

However, an elbow suddenly burrowing between his ribs does add to this list of dilemmas, "Oooh! Did you see that? They’re looking at you!"

The sudden rise in Yuu’s voice makes him return the favor, except he’s significantly more gentle, "I would have never noticed."

Even though Mikaela is sure they couldn’t have heard his grumble, he watches the way their eyes light up, the hand they were waving at him with quickly darting up to muffle their laughter.

It makes his heart soften the same way it always did, ready to slip through the cracks of his rib cage like slow dripping honey.

However, Yuu nearly knocking his head into Mikaela’s forces him to divert his attention to the believed idiot next to him as he all but theatrically whispered to him- hand cupped around his mouth and everything- "Shinoa thinks they have a crush on you."

Well...

Mikaela sure hoped so.

He doesn’t cup his mouth like a dumbass, but whispers back, "Really? What makes her think that?"

This seems to stump Yuu, because he leans back, causing Mikaela to look over at him and watch as he scratches his head.

The ravenet quickly glances over at Shinoa, giving her a puzzled look.

Mikaela’s eyes draw to the lavender haired girl who catches Yuu’s gaze and makes a face back, her brows furrowing.

Then, he looks back at Yuu who shrugs at her in response.

Before then again at Shinoa who flashes him a scowl. He could practically hear her exact thoughts. Definitely something along the lines of ‘Do I really have to do everything myself?’.

Mikaela snorts quietly. She should’ve known and picked someone else to interrogate him. Almost anyone other than Yuu might have made her some inkling of progress.

"Okay, well, I don’t know about that," Yuu says, as if it weren’t obvious he had no idea what he was talking about, "But I know about you."

Mikaela raises a brow at this, "Me? What about me?"

Those ivy eyes find him, glinting with a sense of determination, "Do you like (Y/n)?"

Mikaela almost smiles.

"Of course," he responds dutifully, "They’re part of your squad. I have to."

A little bit of a white lie but it’s more than worth it to watch Yuichiro’s face twist in distaste, obviously expecting a different answer.

"No!" He huffs, lifting his arms with a flurry to cross them over his chest, "I mean- do you like like them?"

Mikaela tilts his head, looking at his age-old friend under his lashes with an all but teasing smirk, "You sound like some kind of schoolgirl, Yuu-chan."

This only serves to frustrate the boy more, "Mika."

"Yuu," he chirps back mockingly.

His eyes have drifted back to (Y/n) though, who is oddly looking at Shinoa with a disturbed expression, making Mikaela pause. That is- until Shinoa leans forward with a grin stretching across her delicate face from ear to ear. He can probably guess what’s happening there.

Mikaela decides he’s thankful Shinoa chose Yuichiro to interrogate him about this matter rather than taking a go at him herself.

He also takes a second to silently apologizes to (Y/n) who clearly does not have this luxury.

"You’re not going to get rid of me that easily, you know," the boy next to him declares uselessly, "I need answers, Mika."

Unfortunately for Yuu, Mikaela had watched him do a multitude of stupid things for many years now. He had even been dragged into most of these stupid acts as an accomplice and impulse control.

Meaning...

Mikaela could play dumb all day.

"Answers about what?"

-

(Y/n)’s eyes narrow.

They take a step to one side.

The mirror across from them does the same.

(Y/n) takes a step to the other side.

Again, the latter follows in suit, toe for toe.

(Y/n) takes a step back.

They take a step forward.

"Would you stop that?" They finally huff, squinting at their opponent unabashedly.

Shinoa was damn near shameless, asking without missing a beat, "Have you guys kissed yet?"

"No!" They squawk, still unused to her bold questions, despite having been her subordinate for at least a year now.

"Oh, oh! What about this?" Shinoa’s lips curl upward in such a grin that puts the Cheshire Cat to shame, "Has he... Y’know?"

She taps her neck with a delicate finger.

(Y/n) voiced her inquiry flatly, "Has he sucked my blood?"

Her coffee-colored eyes light up in response, so they quickly shoot this second wind down.

"No, of course not," they wave away the idea with their hand, "Do I look like a chew toy to you, Shinoa?"

(Y/n) suddenly wasn’t so sure they wanted to know what Shinoa thought they looked like, so they quickly turn on their heels, "Actually, never mind, don’t answer that."

"Oh come on! You’re telling me he hasn’t put the moves on you at all?!" She asked, as if it were an outrage, "Not even one singular move, (Y/n)?"

They don’t even warrant her with a response, continuing to walk along the cracked and battered street.

After a short meeting after breakfast this morning, they had come to the notion they should probably go scavenging in the nearby area for supplies. They would divide and conquer and be back at the rendezvous point in an hour.

Unfortunately for (Y/n), Shinoa had practically thrown her arms around them and strangled them as she declared them as their partner for the day.

Even more unfortunate, most of the area they had agreed to scavenge had turned out to be inaccessible due to debris and overgrowth, so only forty minutes later they found themselves at the place they agreed to meet at.

Alone.

With Shinoa.

This, of course, was after they thought they had escaped this morning’s weird Shinoa-involved-shenanigan.

Everything had been fine. They had just been talking about (favorite hobby) and (Y/n) had maybe gotten a little distracted explaining the details, when suddenly things took a turn for the worse.

Shinoa had nudged them and brought to their attention Mika was looking at them, and like an idiot, (Y/n) had turned to stupidly smile at him and wave.

...

Okay, so, (Y/n) didn’t regret greeting Mika but they definitely regretted the unprecedented consequences of that action.

Ever since then, Shinoa had been pestering them about some silly crush they had on the blond vampire. Asking them ridiculous questions and poking and prodding and doing the most to mess with them.

(Y/n) could only hope their apparent Prince Charming would swoop in and save them from the she-demon’s grilling.

"At least tell me you’ve held hands."

(Y/n) lifts both their hands to their face.

And buries a very quiet, very repressed yell into them.

Shinoa is, of course, unfazed by this and only giggles at their misery.

"You know... all this would go away if you just told me the truth~"

(Y/n) did know one thing- and that one thing was Shinoa. If hypothetically, they did slip up and say something, anything, they knew damned well that would only result in a million and one more questions.

If Shinoa got even so much as a centimeter on them, she would assuredly take a mile.

So, they find their composure and bluntly reply, "I already told you."

(Y/n) turns to face Shinoa, crossing their arms over their chest and flashing the girl a sour look, "There is nothing going on between me and Mika. I don’t know what else you want me to say."

Shinoa gazes back unwaveringly, holding their gaze like a lifeline, staring into the depths of their very soul as she tried to pick them apart like a broken clock.

(Y/n) is reminded to glance down at their watch. They note there is still a good ten minutes left until the rest of their team needed to be back.

But Shinoa’s sudden rise in voice makes them immediately look back up.

"Well, if it isn’t thing one and thing two," she cheerfully sneers at guests behind themself, making them glance over their shoulder curiously, mostly just relieved to have the girl’s attention off them for now.

They’re not surprised at all to find Yuichiro marching along, fists swinging at his sides with a bounce in his smiling step as he makes his way over.

Mikaela trails behind him, looking nowhere near as amused with the world, seeming a little more withdrawn into his white cloak than usual, like a little hermit crab.

The sight instantly makes their lips quirk upward.

"Took you guys long enough," they greet, more than happy to turn away from Shinoa and all her prying questions to see them, "Find anything good?"

Yuichiro nearly cuts them off before they’re finished asking, "I found a chocolate bar!"

It’s more than enough to make a big smile break out across their own lips, but it’s nothing compared to the proud way Yuu is beaming about his discovery.

"That’s... great... what about actual food? Clean water? Toilet paper?" Shinoa deadpans next to them as the two boys slow to a stop.

(Y/n) hums at this. She was only joking, but she did have a point. Maybe this area was too war-torn to effectively scavenge. It wasn’t like it was uncommon. Sometimes the only good thing to come from a place like this was a really good sneeze from all the dust or a cool looking rock.

But this idea is dispelled from their mind at a sudden rustle, before their eyes focus again on Mika who pushes a gloved hand past his cloak, revealing a plastic bag of what appeared to be some kind of supplies.

(Y/n) claps their hands together, smile returning to their features, "Oh! Nice job, Mika!"

Only for Shinoa to ‘accidentally’ shoulder check them as she reaches forward to take the bag, not so subtly mocking, "Yeah! Nice job, Mika."

However, before they can look away and rebuttal, Mikaela looks up at them, his brows knitting together and flashing them an odd look as if to ask them what the hell Shinoa was on about this time.

And just like that (Y/n)’s annoyances fizzle out instantly, a match dropped into a puddle, replaced by a laugh stirring from their chest as they muster a subtle shrug in response.

They swear for a split second they can see the corners of his lips tug upward before he forces them back down, shaking his head back at them.

Though he doesn’t say anything, they nod in agreement, silently sharing his exasperation.

"Hey, quick question-"

Their attention shifts from the blond vampire to find Yuu squinting at them, brows furrowed as he leans forward to peer at them.

It makes (Y/n)’s brows knit too, mirroring his expression but with worry instead of curiosity as they leaned back in response.

"Why are you covered in dirt?"

(Y/n) groans, quickly reaching up to shake their fingers through their usually silky locks, hoping to get most of the dust out.

Damned end of the world debris.

-

The next time Mikaela got to talk to (Y/n) was hours and hours later, much to his dismay.

It was nightfall now and the Shinoa squad had hauled up in a small easily defendable inn that Yoichi and Kimizuki had stumbled across during their own scavenging earlier in the day. The last few hours had been spent securing it as a temporary base of operations.

(Y/n) had volunteered for the first watch, but claimed the room at the end on the bottom floor.

Mikaela had decided on the room next to theirs and had waited there for an hour and a half until he was sure all the others were fast asleep in their beds. He was sure none of them were skipping out on this luxury, since they usually slept cramped up in the car or on the cracked and uneven concrete.

The wait was worth it because when he silently stepped out of his temporary room, he found the (h/c) haired individual standing outside like they had agreed, poking at a small fire they had started with a stick.

The firelight casts a golden crown on their silky (h/c) locks much like a halo and paints their familiar face an expensive flickering shade as they gaze down at the flame in boredom.

"Long day?" He speaks up, but that’s an overstatement. His voice is almost as quiet as the fire crackling and the distant chirping of crickets filling the warm summer night air around them.

Still, those (e/c) eyes flicker up and brighten instantly at the sight of him.

"You could say that," they respond evenly, a welcome hint of amusement tinging their softened voice as they all but throw their stick elsewhere, revealing to Mikaela their barrel withheld excitement. It warms his heart to know they’re so happy to see him, but he saves them the embarrassment of voicing it.

As Mikaela draws closer to them, the gravel crunches under his feet and also with their own movements when they take a seat next to the fire, quickly motioning for him to sit down too.

He does so, unbothered by the heat that greets him, but knowing their affinity for not freezing to death, being alive and all. Proof in the pudding, they were already shuffling closer to steal his warmth, wrapping their arms around their figure.

"I feel like I haven’t gotten to see you all day," they comment suddenly, making Mikaela look over at them with a slight alarm.

But he forces himself to relax when they nudge his shoulder with their own, listening to their gentle words, "Thanks for coming out."

Mikaela can’t help the small smile that finds him as he nudges them back ever so lightly, replying just as softly, "I wouldn’t miss you for the world."

"Oh, so you don’t miss me?" They snort, turning their face to look up at him blankly under their dark lashes, keeping their face carefully clear.

He scrunches his nose up at their silly antics, feeling the urge to shove them playfully but repressing it in fear of them actually moving away, "You know what I meant."

(Y/n)’s lips upturn with a small grin, "Maybe, maybe not..."

They lean closer daringly, nearly bumping noses with him as they tease, meeting his icy gaze with their (e/c) one, "Maybe I just wanted to hear you say it."

Mikaela indulges them, trying to convince himself that he could resist their charms if he really wanted to.

"I missed you too, (Y/n)," he breathes quietly into the air, lightly leaning forward to further decrease the space between them, resting his forehead lightly against theirs.

They gently push back against his head with their own, playful as ever, "I know."

"Do you?" He mocks, lashes sinking against his cheeks as he recalls, "Because I distinctly remember you telling Shinoa earlier that I meant nothing to you."

This time, they pull back a little to head butt him, adding a smidgen more force with faux annoyance, "That is not what I said and you know it."

"You told her I was gum on your shoe," he retorts, cracking his eyes open a smidgen to peer at them smugly, "You said you’d never seen me in your life."

"I did not, shut up," they whine, reaching a hand up in the minuscule space between them to rest his chin in the area between their pointed finger and thumb which came up to squish his cheeks.

It’s a funny feeling smiling as someone messes with your face.

"Besides, what was I supposed to tell her? The truth?" They utter, looking up at him under their lashes and arching a brow, "Because I’m sure she’d be over the moon if I waltzed in and woke her up right now to tell her that I like like you.”

Mikaela watches them steadily as their hand travels up his face to cup his cheek affectionately, "You like like me?”

(Y/n) smiles at him lazily and he admires the way the fire next to them flickers and reflects in the shine of their lively (e/c) eyes, “Shinoa’s words, not mine.”

He hums, eyes sinking closed again as he melts into their warm touch, “You know, she tried to rope Yuu into it too. Maybe she thought she could cover more ground that way or something."

The idea almost makes him snort, but he holds back, melting further into the quiet moment shared between them.

"Did you tell him?" They inquire, brushing their thumb lightly along his cheekbone. Mikaela didn’t need sleep but was certain if he ever did fall asleep again this would be how.

"Not yet," he mumbles, but saying it out loud lets a small prickle of guilt finds him, "I’d rather tell him when he wasn’t being peer pressured to ask me."

"It’s not like he’s going to notice by himself, Mika," (Y/n) retorts, but he can hear their lovely smile in the way their voice draws.

"I know," he responds lightly.

He turns his head in their hand and lovingly presses a kiss to the soft of their palm.

"Let’s not worry about them right now though. Tonight is ours."

Instead of swooning at his YA romance worthy one-liner, (Y/n) instead snorts, as if dumbfounded, "Wh- You cannot be jealous. They’re not even out here."

Mikaela’s eyes flutter open a crack only so he can flash them a sour look.

To which (Y/n) only pulls their hand away to fondly smile at him in response.

While he cherishes this look dearly, mentally taking a photograph of it to join the many others of their beautiful smile, he tells them point-blank, "Look, if you’re not going to cuddle, I’m going back to my room."

"See, that’s just cruel, you don’t even need sleep!" They argue, even as they wiggle closer to him, but they make sure to ‘accidentally’ nudge him a little roughly.

Mikaela hides his smile by resting his head on top of theirs as he welcomes them to his side wholeheartedly, lifting his arm and his cape before wrapping both snug around their figure and pulling them nearer, eliminating all space between them.

"But you do," he reminds them, patting their side fondly, "Now be quiet and close your eyes. I’ll keep watch instead."

"Quit being mean to me or I’ll go to my room," they mutter, and then add pointedly, maybe even a little quieter, "and I will sleep."

It’s not long before Mikaela realizes the reason why is because they were already halfway to snoozing, even as they mumbled that poor argument to him.

He can barely keep the smile off his lips long enough to press a feathery kiss to the top of their head.

"Goodnight, (Y/n)."

[inseobts]

Tsukishima - Secret

Tsukishima x Suga’s sister! Reader

Request:

Words count: 2k

A/N: sorry this take so long and sorry for any mistakes I made.

You’re Koushi Sugawara’s little sister and a first year at Karasuno, same class as your boyfriend Tsukishima.

You started being closer to Yamaguchi at first and this implied to be close to Tsukishima too, but unlike how he acted with others he wasn’t that harsh to you. In fact you started being his friend since first day you met. Yeah, he used to tease you a lot and still doing so now but nothing too far.

This brought you to spend more time with him and since Yamaguchi started to go training alone, you and Tsukki started to spend even more time alone.

After some time he asked you out in a very casual way and from then you started dating.

You decided to not tell a word to your brother and friends about it, but it’s not like you’re hiding your relationship, it’s juts that you want to give it a little more time before making it official to everyone.

—

It’s a normal day at school and you’re about to leave so you decide to go say bye to your boyfriend while he was training with the team.

You’re walking towards the gym and on your way there you meet a hurried Yamaguchi who slow down to walk next to you.

“I am a bit late” he says smiling at you, “what are you doing here?”

“Oh, Tsukki forgot something at my house and wanted to give it back before I go” you say trying to hide your blush.

“Tsukki was at yours yesterday?” he asks curiously.

“Yeah, uhm...he’s helping me with...schoolwork”

“But your grades are really good though” he says confused.

“Yes, exactly. I don’t want to have bad grades now”

You two arrive in front of the gym and stop before it facing each other.

“Well....it does make sense. I’ll tell Tsukki you’re looking for him” he saying before entering the gym to run towards his friend.

You see Yamaguchi pointing at you and Tsukishima turning confused before walking to you. You smile and wave at him from the door trying to not be noticed from the other boys, but little you know they all noticed you especially your brother who watches the tall blonde boy walking towards his smiling blushing little sister.

You two walk towards a more private spot outside the gym.

“What did I forget?” he asks confused.

“This” you said hugging him and resting your head on his chest.

He hugs you back, “mh I think you forgot something too”.

You look fast at him confused to what you could ever forget.

“This” he says leaning towards you and leave a peck on your lips.

You smile and hug him tighter and then let go, “I wanted to say bye before going home”

“If you wait we can go eat something together later” he says tempting you.

“I can’t, I promised Koushi I’d go eat with him, Daichi and Asahi. I wanna take a nap before going with them, that’s why I’m leaving earlier”

“I see, we can go another day then” he says giving you another little kiss, “dream about me”

“Of course” you laugh at him watching him entering the gym.

After you left Suga stopped the ball and walked towards Tsukishima.

“What did my sister need from you”

“I forgot my notes when I went to help her with them” Tsukishima answers.

“Then where are your notes?” Suga asks with an accusing look.

“I told her to keep them since she still needs them”, luckily for you your boyfriend is a fast thinker.

Suga nods insecure about it but let it go after Daichi said to start the training match.

—

“So y/n, do you have a boyfriend?” Daichi suddenly asks you during your dinner, making you, your brother and Asahi wider your eyes shocked. You swallow the food you had in your mouth and shake your head, “mh no, why are you asking?”

“Oh because your brother was worried you and Tsukishima were a couple or something” he says gaining a death stare from Suga.

“Why worried tho?” You ask to your brother turning to face him.

“I don’t know, you two spend so much time together and you even blush when he’s around. Also he’s not the sweetest person alive so I was just worried” he says making your heart break in two.

Daichi notice that, “we all know Tsukishima isn’t as bad as he thinks he is, he’s just all talks. Also if y/n and Tsukki are friends I’m pretty sure it’s because he treats her right. Am I wrong y/n?”

“No, he never said anything bad to me or about me. Also he makes me laugh”

“Do you like him?” Asahi asks you smiling.

You waited a bit before answering, “no, so don’t worry about it guys”. You fake a smile and keep eating, “this food is delicious, good thing my big lovely brother is paying tonight”

“Wait a second I’ve never said a word about this” he panicks making everyone laugh.

—

After you come back home you write a text to Tsukishima.

I think my brother and the other two found out about us

You think and think and think about sending it but decided to delete it and send a simple goodnight ♡︎

—

After a few days.

“Hellooooooooo” you enter the gym making everyone turn.

“Y/N!!!!” you hear Tanaka and Nishinoya scream and running to you but fortunately Daichi stops them, “you two just say hi and keep practicing”.

“Hi y/n, you’re everyday more beautiful” Nishinoya says making you giggle.

“Where is Koushi?” you ask no one in particular.

“He’s still in the changing room with Asahi, they had to talk with some teacher and now are late”, Daichi says while bringing the balls to the other boys.

“Oh okay, anyway, can Tsukishima come outside for a minute? I need to give him his...book. It won’t take much” you ask to the Coaches, who give you a nod.

“You know, for having that big brain you forget a lot of things lately” you hear Hinata and turn to see him mocking your boyfriend.

“It’s better to ignore the small brains though” he answers walking towards you.

“You can give the book to him here” you hear your brother behind you making you jump.

“I-I left it in class” you say after the mini heart attack.

“mh sure, then you two go and be fast” he says. You nod and grab Tsukki’s arm to make him follow you fast “let’s hurry”

You two run and stop in front of your class, “y/n calm down, what’s wrong. Does your brother scares you that much?”

You want to tell him what Suga said about him at that dinner and that the fact of him finding out scare you because of that, but you don’t want to hurt him.

You hug him and rest your head on his chest as you always do, because this make you feel better in a few seconds every time.

“I KNEW IT” you jump at your bother scream.

You part from your hug and turn to face Suga and Daichi who is there just to calm your brother.

“I-I was just...opening the door and give him the book I swear” you say as fast as you could and run in your class. You grab the first book you find and shove it to Tsukishima who’s really confused from your acting. Your brother takes the book and read the first page, “there’s your name in it y/n, this book is yours”

“Oh then I probably just got confused, oh god, what a stupid I am” you say with a panicked laugh, shoving the book in your bag, “well, there’s nothing to see here, sorry I’ve made everyone come here for nothing ahah just go back to the gym and forget about everything”.

You leave everyone confused and speechless and you run past your brother and his friend standing there until you feel someone grappling your shoulder, stopping you.

“Y/N stop now” you turn to see your boyfriend and pout at him.

You see him as he turns to Suga and Daichi direction, “listen, I don’t know what’s the problem but I really like y/n”.

Everyone is silently waiting for him to continue a shocking declaration, “I don’t know what you think about me, maybe that I bully her or something and maybe force her to be with me but I swear I would never do something like this, specially if it’s about y/n. I care about her more than you can imagine and I would never hurt her”.

You keep your eyes on him, still speechless, while your brother composes himself and walk towards Tsukishima, putting his hands on his shoulders, “I don’t need the ‘if you hurt her I’ll hurt you’ speech”.

“I know you don’t” Suga smiles at him “I’m sure y/n isn’t that stupid to fall for some bad boy. I just wanted to welcome you to the family”.

“I knew you had a crush on him and I was ready to make fun of you for the rest of your days but I would never imagine you two were actually a couple” he adds laughing in front of your face making you hit him.

He then smiles at you, “you didn’t need to hide it from me. I’m sorry about the bad things I said, I take them all back. Also now you don’t need to think about excuses every time you ask for him at the gym, it made it seems like he had some sort of memory loss, you know?”

“Well I think we should go now Daichi, let’s leave them talk for a bit”

“Tsukishima don’t be too late at practice” Daichi says before Suga yells at him, “LET HIM BE”

“I’m sorry if I talked too much, but watching you act like that made me feel like I had to say something” Tsukki says making you turn to him and take his hands in yours, “thank you Kei, for everything”.

You two share a kiss and decide to leave for the gym. As soon as you turn the corner you see Suga and Daichi who were there overhearing your conversation.

“How dare you? Are you stupid? And you should be the big brother acting like a kid like this?” You yell at him making him run away from you and you run after him.

Both of you enter the gym running and everyone turns to watch you trying to catch your brother. Daichi and Tsukishima following behind. “Y/N now stop” Daichi says but you ignore him, “Tsukishima tell y/n to stop please”

“She’s not my dog” he answers the captain meeting with a death glare from him.

He snorts and walks towards you, “y/n, I think that’s enough”.

You suddenly stop and look at your boyfriend, “I’ll stop only if you take me out to eat some cake later”

“Of course” he says making you smile and hug him, “thank you, I’ll go take a shower and change. See you later”, you wave and walk towards the door.

“Y/N, I think you forgot something, do you remember what it was?” Tsukki asks you making you stop and turn around. You run towards him and kiss him, “this”

You wave a goodbye at your brother and leave the gym to head home.

Everyone who was watching suddenly turn towards Tsukishima, shocked as what just happened in front of their own eyes.

“Ts-Tsukishima has a girlfriend?” Hinata points at him breaking the shock with a laugh.

“No need to be jealous” Tsukki says turning to Daichi who makes everyone stop the argument and start playing.

[theyearsiturnedintoaghost]

“But I Wanna Know One Thing When Did I Become a Ghost?”

Sometimes I try to pinpoint the exact day I became a ghost. I go over days and nights and try to decipher if it happened pre or post certain parts of my life. Was it before I finished college? Maybe earlier, maybe the day my parents finally split? Maybe it was the day I realized a boy I loved in my twenties was never going to love me back, and I just needed to focus on myself while life kept unfolding? Was it somewhere in the move across the country to finish college, and try to do something for myself that might better me, that my actual self flew out the window somewhere in Texas, or some other dusty road, and the entire years following were just my ghost years? Or maybe it wasn’t until after I let myself fall so far away from what I remembered myself to be, or what I stood for, or dreams I had, that I shrunk into myself so small and became a walking shell of who I used to be. Maybe it was the day I stood next to someone else at a bar, a different one than the bar I’d left that earlier unrequited love behind at, and thought for the first time in so long ‘is this person perfect?’ while I was introduced to him, and instead of being cool or sweet, or like someone a person would want to talk to - I blabbered on about some snowboarders who had a TV show that this person had never heard of, and I realized in the walking away from that person as a blush rose to my cheeks and my hands shook just enough to let me know that deep down I wanted to cry from my anxiety, that I was just too fucking weird for people, and not just that person, but maybe all people. These same type of ‘outer body’ or anxiety induced conversations and moments just kept happening over and over so I started focus in and realize I was the common denominator and that I must be the cause to my inability to relate to people or not be so fucking weird that I could practically feel their eyes rolling at me while I spoke to them. Clearly, I didn’t become a ghost because of any of these specific moments, but probably due to all of these moments all swirled together with so many others, and also due to my brain makeup and what I imagine is some missed diagnosis from childhood that today would for sure have me on the spectrum. Which, for the record, I’m completely okay with being on. Actually sometimes I think it would give me some kind of ease that maybe I’m not as ‘crazy’ or ‘out there’ as I’ve compared myself to be when I look at other peoples lives of my age. There’s no shame in thinking differently and having to work out how you do think so other people who don’t think the same can sort of understand. So please don’t take that as a cruel joke, or something to be angry at. It’s just me recognizing that people can be different, and sometimes they don’t know the reason for it because they were never seen properly. 

So, I’m not exactly sure of the day I became a ghost - fuck, maybe it wasn’t one of those moments or days specifically, but a lot of days, weeks, or months; full of falling further from who I’d been at seventeen, even twenty-one, or twenty-three, or who I even thought I would be by thirty, that made me disappear from myself one day and just become this person who just existed in the world day to day, but wasn’t actually living. I ate sometimes when I wasn’t trying to disappear fully so clothes would fit me better or boys might think I was beautiful, I laughed when I was supposed to, went on dates like I was trying, got up and went to work like I was supposed to, read a book here and there, binged watched TV shows to have conversations and social interactions with people like normal people do, and tried to convince myself that this was what living was, I guess. Between all of these day to day things and smoking myself to sleep, crushing up pills in private places and snorting them through straws, or dabbling - to put it lightly and politically correct - into cocaine, just to pass the time and make myself feel anything most of the time, I guess vanishing became easy.

Becoming a ghost was easier.

It’s just not exactly clear to me to be able to figure out the exact date and time I fully realized I’d become a ghost. It’s not as easy as like providing an alibi for myself for one specific night, and not because my brain was so hazy and filled with anger, sadness, and drug fueled smoke and pills for most, but not all - and not all at the same time - of the years between twenty to nearly thirty, that I cannot fully recall the moment I fully realized I wasn’t who I remembered myself wanting to be, but really because I think it happened slowly at first, somewhere in between being lonely, living in a place that I kind of had a hard time fitting into, not in terms of the weather or nature, but in making a friend or two or feeling like I wasn’t so... annoying-to-people-based-on-reality-shows New Jersey in a non-New Jersey place, and even if maybe it didn’t fully seem that way to other people, trying to finish school and not feel so old being basically a junior at like twenty-three when every other person I knew had already graduated and was moving to the next levels of their lives - whatever those were - while I was working as many hours as I could to just pay the rent, trying to make a friend in any place - which is really hard for me if I’m being honest. To cut it down to brass tax, I think I’m socially awkward and full of so much anxiety that I either shy away and appear unapproachable, or I let people in too quickly and my heart gets broken by them when I realize I probably care too much for them than they do for me. 

I think I’m just afraid of disappointing people.  So instead I just disappoint myself. 

I let people leave me because it’s easier. Why make them stay when they don’t want to? Why hope they’ll call first when they won’t? Why hope they’ll love me back the way I would have loved them?

It’s easier to let them go on and be happy and just... disappear. 

It’s why I think I let myself slowly start to slip away from who I had been my whole life. Some girl who was hoping for the ‘happy ending’ the ‘good things to come,’ as embarrassing as those things can sound for a person to imagine, the successful life that I sadly felt I would achieve with the promises of getting an education and working hard, but instead was just always left outside of the winners circle.  Not that anyone wins in any of this, but you know what I mean. The truth is, in life - from what I’ve come to understand - there are just people who lose less often than other people. I just got tired of losing, and feeling like I was losing all the time.  I got tired of making it to my twenties and feeling like I was never going to be the girl who would ever become anything or the one that anyone ever actually wanted back.  Sure, I had ‘romantic entanglements,’ if you could call them that, crushes, and drunken kisses, but nothing that it felt like everyone else was so easily able to get.  Boyfriends, flowers on a date night, fucking date nights in general, a birthday party thrown for them; not one they had to put together themselves and hope at least five people would come. The things one may think matters, but don’t - not in the grand scheme of anything that actually does really matter to the world - but these things still add up as years go by, and as I kept getting older and older and it felt like everyone I knew had this laundry list of relationships and ex’s and I was just kind of aware of how... no one has ever asked me out properly on a date or reached over to hold my hand in a crowded room. Or knew the thing I wanted to laugh about in public without me even have to say it.  Those stupid wishful, movie, dream life, fantasy land bullshit things that everyone tells you aren’t real outside of movies, but I just didn’t fully believe because I’d seen my own friends make eye contact with someone they loved across a room and I’d seen that feeling occur in real time. Maybe it wasn’t in a movie script ending kind of way, but it still happened. Small and simple, but it still did happen, and it was probably more beautiful than Hollywood could even fathom or conjure up.

And once I started to kind of realize that this kept occurring to people around me all of the time I just started to think that I was invisible. And soon after I came to realize I was. 

And it isn’t just the relationships that make you feel invisible, it’s the other things everyone around me seemed to be doing or achieving that makes me feel sort of ‘less than.’ People getting - what seems like to a twenty-something - a big fancy office job out of college, or buying a house, travelling with a group of friends multiple times a year.  Fuck, even just having a group of friends, that was actually amazing to me after like twenty-one. I could honestly walk through a store, or down a street and I’m not sure one person may have even noticed if I was there - or if I wasn’t. Even if I did daily routine items like where I bought my coffee or the days I shopped at a grocery store, or when I went for walks or not, I’m not sure if people would notice when I didn’t, or if I ever even did. Even when I was working in the office I got fired from, and commuting day to day, I’m not sure any one on that bus would be able to pick me out a line up even if I took the same 6:50 everyday.  Hell, I’m not sure people who I worked with and spoke to would even notice if I wasn’t there. And when I would wash my hands in the bathroom and the automated sensor wouldn’t even recognize me, I really started to wonder if I wasn’t actually a ghost after all. 

And day in and day out, month in and month out, year in and year out, all of it just started to add up. All the good things that were happening for everyone else - which was something I truly was happy for, despite how fake that sounds typing, like I’m trying to make myself sound like a decent human in hopes someone won’t just think I’m being whiny or jealous, I really was happy for them because I think a person - even some of the worst ones - does really want the people they know and care about to be happy; even if that happiness is seemingly impossible to hold for themselves. Regardless, deep in my heart I know that I was happy for them getting all of their desires, I was just sad I wasn’t getting my own ‘good things,’ or desires. And I felt like I had nothing to talk with people about. Like when I came to their table I was just... the person they knew who wasn’t progressing on any kind of timeline; even my own.

I started to feel ashamed about it. Embarrassed and stuttery about any kind of topic any one might speak to me about. So I sort of just stopped going to people’s tables. I didn’t want to see them look at me out of the corner of their eyes with pity as the thirty-something year old who had no direction, no love life, no career type job, and had not created or accomplished anything; at all.

And in the meantime, in trying not to fail, or having something to speak about that I felt I’d done a good job on or created, It felt like any kind of outlet that I tried to create to promote my own dreams or wishes just kept never hitting the mark. Trying to make a clothing line? Fail. Like even having one of these Tumblr’s years ago for my writing, anything I actually did write was pointless; or at least felt that way. Any story I’d completed, I wished were different or more original. I just kept feeling like other people had done the ‘path’ correct and they were all getting their foot in the door at the right times, and I was just... behind. My lack of being able to commit to a major at school, or even get an office job or internship doing something basic and day to day just didn’t appeal to me.  Not in a way that made me excited for the next thirty years of my life, especially because that’s what I always thought being an adult was. Finding a place to work that allowed you to build a career, and just getting through that until you were able to retire.

I guess I didn’t really think much about the joy in any of it, or what adulthood really held for me that didn’t seem so mundane and boring. Like just something you had to do and there was nothing super exciting about it. By the time I made it to like twenty I kind of realized dreams I’d had since I was younger were already out of question.  I was clearly never going to be that Olympic Gymnastic’s Champion I thought I would at eight - which even as I type this I want to laugh at how farfetched that dream even feels to remember - and the odds of me becoming Georgia O’Keefe, who I dressed up as for a 4th grade biography day - felt impossible, especially since my desire to possibly go to art school after college were kind of laughed off by my family because what are the odds people make any money out of art school? Plus, she mastered flowers, it’s hard to compete with the beauty of that.  And I was clearly never going to be some teen idol movie star or popstar princess. Which was also very far off dreams that I guess I recall having around 14. But I was like twenty-something now, and I’d heard myself sing, it is not good, even just speaking I have a voice most people wish they could unhear, and the most acting I’ve ever done is pretending I was just fine for most of my entire life. Even though I could feel the sadness deep in my chest and gut that felt so heavy and dark I was afraid of even admitting it was there in fear of what other people might think about me, hell, what I might think of myself.  

That’s the thing I’ve learned the most about trying to pinpoint when I became a ghost, I think I always was in some way, I was just never honest with myself about feeling that way. Not until I got much older and everything got out of control, that is.  It’s why I’ve always felt more comfortable in my own space and house. Where I have confidence in myself and my own little secret hiding spots for where I keep the sadness or fears of inadequacy. It’s easier to be me behind closed doors and in the stillness of my bedroom or solitude of my basement. I can be me in places where everyone isn’t watching, or it doesn’t feel like they are. Where I can’t hear them laugh about me as they pass around a group chat or some other joke I’m not privy to. Where they aren’t looking at my messy bun and unfashionable clothing and the smattering of pimples on my chin, or sad eyes and splatting of goofy childish freckles. I don’t feel so odd when I’m alone. It’s when I’m actually around people - especially people who I don’t know, or who have job titles much more important sounding than my name, or people who have travelled all over, or created something beautiful that they are proud of - that I notice how inadequate I feel in their shadows. That any small useless fact that I might know, or place I’ve travelled, and job I’ve held, feels unimportant or less.

I am also aware that a lot of these feelings are just that, feelings, and not actual facts. That these people are probably not actually feeling these things about me, but that’s the way my anxiety and depression feels. It keeps me in the basement of my own heart and mind because it feels safer. Like assuming all of these people already think those things about me will hurt less when I find out they actually do.

And that’s the part that also hurts - a lot - is when you do find out that those people feel and think those things about you. Sometimes you only find out because someone tells you, and sometimes you have to hear them making fun of you behind your back to realize it.  But it hurts all the same. 

And it hurt the most when I was actually actively trying to reorganize my life and try to pull myself up out of my own depression and self induced spiral, and was honestly trying; going to therapy weekly, removing myself from bad places, narrowing down my circle of people, and mostly cocooning myself from the rest of the world outside of throwing myself into a desk job and reading books on my commute to and from said job. I stopped using social media, stopped talking to a lot of people, stopped doing a lot of anything. 

And still I was a joke to people.  Turns out, the people I worked with were just... making fun of me without me knowing. I was trying my best to find a footing and ‘build a career at a company’ or whatever the fuck that really means, and they were just laughing at how uncool I was, or terribly dressed, or the annoying voice I posses. I mean, I understand why they didn’t like me - most of the time prior I barely liked me - but it just sucked to know that even when you were trying to be an okay human, one that wasn’t fucked up all of the time and actively working on yourself two mornings a week where I cried so often about how much everyone hated me and how much of a fuck up I was, hurt so much worse than all the times when I was a teenager and felt like I didn’t fit in. When the mean girl in our neighborhood would invite all the other kids out to play manhunt, but wouldn’t include me. Or the girls in middle school wouldn’t include me because I wasn’t an A-Team soccer player or whatever other bullshit made me weird to them.

Because now I was an adult, who knew she was a ghost for so long, and when I was finally started allowing myself to be seen in any formation - people laughed. It made me wish I’d stayed hidden in my night shift jobs, basement hideouts, and in the comfort of the naps I took that were basically second nights of sleep, just with daylight shining on outside. It felt worse to realize not staying a ghost allowed people to see me, and even then they didn’t like me. 

So I became a ghost, again. I cut off more people, stopped responding to others, asked some of them to stop reaching out to me, and just existed alone. I cried - a lot. In fields with my dog, who then was still a live, in parked cars outside of a job I hated, in the bathroom of that same job when I was constantly messing up and being allowed to have no responsibility, privacy, or final word on anything I did, I also cried in my bed, silently, almost every night as I stared at the ceiling fan spinning above my head and tried to transport myself to another place and time where it hurt less, I felt more secure, and maybe someone, or something, loved me back.  But most of the time when I cried it was for the life I thought I was going to have, the one I realized I was mourning even though I never lived it, and crying for the other part of the person I let myself become which was a person that people at these companies, and ‘friends’ I knew in some parts of my life was a good reason for them to laugh at.  

I cried a lot because I was never able to be someone, but what I think I was really crying for - and still do sometimes - is that I forget when I stopped wanting to be me.

Even the me that people in offices don’t like, or girls in middle school don’t understand. Sometimes I cried because I wished I could like that person more because at least than I’d feel like me. It’s hard to come to terms with that, hard to realize that I’m okay with not being liked by people, but it gets lonely realizing that having people in your life means all they want is for you to change. For you to fit the mold that they are okay with you being or who they would be comfortable bringing around their other friends. Someone who doesn’t laugh at the most inappropriate stuff, or snores in their sleep, or cries at commercials, whose car isn’t a mess, doesn’t hate folding laundry, knows when to call it a night at a bar one drink earlier than I do, or has a clear direction in their life and a slew of opportunities waiting for them at every corner with so many points of contact to makes those opportunities reality. Things for them to talk about at dinner parties or weddings as someone's date. 

Things that people who aren’t ghosts know how to do naturally and effortlessly. 

So I guess the real answer is, no, I don’t know when I actually became a ghost, if it was my whole life, or one morning when I woke up and just thought, ‘none of this is fun anymore,’ none of the getting high, or buzzed, or pretending I’m okay, or doing jobs that don’t make me happy, or never feeling the love of another human in the full ways that I wished I could, but instead tried to ignore and pretend I didn’t desire or want in my life. I’m not really sure when it all happened, I just know that I remember it all happening; slowly in random bouts of progression and over so many minutes of a life I kind of feel I’ve wasted to some extent, and hell, I’m unsure if I’ve ever really stopped fully wanting to be one. Sometimes it just feels easier to move through places and moments alone because it hurts less, somehow. Like it’s easier for everyone else if I just never get too attached to anything in fear that I’ll hurt them, or worse, they’ll break me, again. And I’m really tired of being broken by things that I may have thought were for me, but ended up not being. 

And then there are the random moments where I peak out into the world around me, fully noticed by someone - in a normal everyday running of an errand kind of way - and walk away from a conversation or an event and feel a slight bit of content in my heart that I think maybe it really doesn’t hurt worse than never actually feeling anything fully. It’s an odd catch 22. Wanting to be seen, and being fearful of being seen in fear, on both ends, that you’ll end up broken somehow. 

I’m unsure what any of it fully means, I guess for anyone. Do other people feel that way? Is it just a whole group of us who exist out there and feel - lost? Or scared? Or afraid to be who they actually are in fear that the life they lead now will no longer suit them or make them actually happy? And I know that this must be something people struggle with in terms of sexual orientation, but in a way, even as someone who does not struggle with that and knows I am into a certain sex, I still understand it in the sense that faking who I am feels wrong.  It feels like selling out. Like I’m only living to appease other people, and I wish more times that other people were willing to live to accept other people for who they were; faults and all. Even in this cancel culture world, not everyone is good, and not everyone is bad; people can be so many things, it’s the idealization to put a label on everything that makes things harder I think. We aren’t ingredients in a candy bar for consumption, we’re people - ghosts and all - but we are all allowed to be phases of ourselves sometimes. Sometimes, you have to become what you’re not all of the time to maybe even fully realize who you are, or want to be, most of the time. 

Unsure if any of that makes sense, but I think I’ll have to break it down even further. Maybe next time. In another post, where I don’t ramble on forever and come to no conclusion. This thesis would fail if I had to hand it in for a grade. 

Unless of course it was a scientific experiment hypothesis; and maybe that’s all life really is - one giant cosmic experiment where the rules will forever change and the points don’t really matter. Some giant game of Whose Line is it Anyway?

From one ghost behind a computer to another reading, goodnight.

xoxo

[depressedacadamia]

How do you passive aggresively say fuck you in flower? Part II

Summary: It seems that Nico and Will just cant stop running into each other

A/N: FIRST WEEK OF EXAMS OVER, ONLY ONE WEEK TO GO!! Unfortunately, I am not able to write a lot due to tedious revision but I wrote this part 2 a while ago and thought that today would be the perfect time to release it! Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy and comment! <3 from me!

Read on AO3           Read Part I on tumblr

They were not expecting to see each other the next day at Uni. In fact, Will was so shocked, he had to pause and squint at the raven haired boy to check that he was the same as the customer 2 days ago. What was this dude doing here? This was the medical college!

Oh shit, what if he’s a new med student or a transfer student?

However, while it seemed that Will had noticed Nico, it seemed that Nico had not noticed Will; he couldn’t have been more appalled as he was ignored and he simply watched in despair as the italian jogged past him without a moment's pause. Not even a Hey, you’re the guy I made out with yesterday, right?

Will was used to having all his past hookups follow him like a sheep and sure, he hadn’t really hooked up with Nico but he was for some reason expecting some sort of reaction from him. Was he that forgettable?

He felt someone dig their elbow into his ribs and was about to shout What the fuck before he realised that Calypso was elbowing him.

“Calypso what!” He winced as he rubbed at his side, still in pain from Calypso’s pointy elbows.

“Do you think I should invite Leo to the dorm party?”

Will’s head perked up. “ Leo? Leo valdez?”

“Yes Leo Valdez, who else?” Calypso sighed.

“I thought you saw him making out with some guy at another party and then proceeded to pretend you never liked him in the first place-”

“- Which is true! I never liked Leo in the first place, he was just a friend!” Calypso desperately defended.

“Everytime someone says they’re just a friend and not they’re just my friend, you know that they’ve crushed on them.”

“Shut up.” Calypso whacked her bag over Will’s head, ignoring his shouts of protests.

Will’s hands instinctively went over his head, tucking his chin in to prevent himself from gaining any brain damage from Calypso. “ Hey, Hey! I work for you, little shit!”

“Exactly, I can fire you any second I want to!” Calypso boasted before remembering something. “ Wasn’t there a request that came in on Saturday? Something like fuck you?”

Will could feel the blood rushing to his cheeks. “ Uh, yeah, maybe. I don’t really remember.”

Calypso recognised that tone. That tone was the same tone used during the walk of shame, that tone meant things that she did not want in her shop. Turning her head only halfway, she gave Will a grimace, praying that it hadn’t happened again.

“William Andrew Solace, Please please tell me that you didn’t have sex with another client in my shop!”

“For once,” Will smirked. “ For once, I can actually say that I didn’t.”

Calypso sighed in relief, all the tension in her body simply oozing out all at once. Her shoulders dropped and the tense expression on her face was replaced by her regular small smile that she constantly wore, causing her to seem quite shy, which technically she was.

“You know, you seriously have some nerve Callie, hitting your employees like that. That could be harassment. What happened to the shy girl who could tell me the latin name for any plant out there?”

“Just because I don’t hook up with every good looking breathing thing, does not mean I’m shy.” She put her hands on her hips and took several confident steps while swaying her hips before hitting a hard chest with a thud and feeling the hard floor on her butt. Frustrated, she huffed and without even looking at the perpetrator, began to shout,

“Are you blind or stupid? Look where you’re going for fuck sake.” She ignored the offered hand and got up herself, brushing her scraped hands on her pants.

It was only when Will nudged her, not very discreetly may I add, that she noticed that it was Leo Valdez who was offering the outstretched hand and another very scary looking dude standing by Leo. However, something about him seemed familiar- from the shape of his body to his hair and in particular his jawline. She remembered seeing it somewhere.

Fuck, that was the guy Leo was making out with at that party. She realised.

Simultaneously, Will was thinking- Fuck, that was Nico di Angelo.

“Sorry Leo, Calypso,” Will turned to her, completely avoiding Nico. “ Do you have anything you’d like to say to Leo?”

Claypso gave a bitter look to Will before remebering that Leo fucking Valdez was standing infront of her and she had essentialy told him to fuck off. She had to fight the blush rising to the tip of her ears and could only manage to muster a small pipsqueak of ‘sorry’ while looking down at the floor and having her face curtained by her chestnut hair.

Unexpectedly, she felt a hand move the hair out of her face and slip and finger underneath her chin and tilt it up slightly.

“The least you could do while apologising is look at him,” Nico snarled, standing off to the side, watching as Leo brushed her hair out of the way. Leo turned his head to raise an eyebrow that meant Not cool dude before looking back at Calypso, his eyes warm and his smile generous.

“Sorry about him, he’s running low on social interaction juice. Are you okay there?”

Calypso thought she could feel herself gaping- the worst part was that her little shit of a friend Will pointed it out.

“Close your mouth Callie, you’ll get flies. It’s impolite to stare as well,” Will drawled, his eyes still glued away from Nico. Leo glanced at Calypso’s injured hands, the small scrapes and the little cuts across her palms. His frown was cute, with his eyebrows scrunching up and his eyes pooled with concern as he took her hands in his.

“Oh, Dios mio. I’m so sorry- will you forgive me if I clean these up for you?” Leo held her hands gently, as to not hurt her.

Will butted in before Calypso could respond. “Uh, no, that’s not necessary. I can help her from here!”

Nico snorted. “ Yeah, the med- student definitely knows how to clean up his cuts.”

Will growled in response, unappreciative of Nico’s sarcasm. Leo’s frown in concern only grew, the small displays of guilt visible across his face. “ Are you sure? It’s the least I could do after causing you to fall.”

“No it's fine-”

“-Will, calm down. Yes, I’ll go, but you also owe me,” Calypso confirmed. You know your worth, you know your worth, She chanted in her head.

“Well well, a person who knows what they want, of course, I am in your debt. After you.” Leo pointed to the pavement ahead as he left Will and Nico alone. Nico looked Will up and down before letting out a little snort and walking off, not before giving him a little shove with his shoulder as he walked past.

Will was officially outraged. Who the fuck did this guy think he was? First of all, he was barging into the medical college when he didn’t even attend it, then he was barging him to the floor without even apologising and then laughing about it!

Will turned around while still on the floor and yelled. “Who the fuck do you think you’re pushing dipshit?”

Will really thought he had the upper hand. He was taller, felt he was relatively stronger and his reflexes were okay. But when he saw Percy Jackson, Jason Grace, Piper Mclean, Hazel Levesque, Frank Zhang and Annabeth Chase all crowd round Nico, he felt he was the most screwed person in the world. Luckily for him, no one except a girl with brown skin and confused expression turned around.

Will recognised her as Piper Mclean- she had been voted most beautiful girl in the entire Uni. It was rumoured for a while that she and Jason were dating but ever since Will spotted Piper blushing near a new girl, he highly doubted it. Piper raised an eyebrow and Will gave a sheepish smile as he tried to get up.

Piper scurried over, giving her friends a quick wave before running over to help Will. He accepted her hand, mainly because he was terrified that she may kill him if he didn’t.

“Did Nico knock you down here?” Piper asked as Will heaved himself up. Her voice was sweet, soft and had some element that convinced Will that he could trust her; however, at the same time, he didn’t want to snitch on Nico. He gave a blatant shrug and hoped for the best.

“Don’t worry, Nico always teases people he likes. Little idiot isn’t good at showing any emotion other than being horny or being an arsehole.”

“Are you sure those are emotions?”

“I take psychology so I sure as hell hope they are,” Piper confessed, laughing a bit. Will finally realised why everybody considered Piper so beautiful- she wasn’t just a pretty person, she was a nice person. She went out of her way to help others.

“I take medicine so I’m going to hope for the best that Nico doesn’t kill me. He avoids like I’m the plague then acts like he’s planning on murdering me in my sleep.”

“Wait.” Piper paused before turning to Will with a manic grin on her face. “Are you the guy from the flower shop who made the fuck you bouquet and slept with Nico?”

“We didn’t sleep together!”

But Piper wasn’t listening, she was calling Hazel over. Will watched as a girl with gorgeous dark skin that glowed in the sunlight and a tattoo over her left hand turned her head ever so slightly. Will realised why they called her Death’s sister.

She was undoubtedly beautiful but her silent aura was terrifying, like it was driving you to death itself. Large brown eyes that invited you into the darkness and hands that looked sculpted for leading one to their doom.

“Hey Hazelnut! This is the guy who stole Nico from Leo! And he made the Fuck you bouquet that Annabeth gave Percy!”

Will could feel his heart pounding as Hazel left the group and walked slowly to Piper and Will, her expression never changing. Suddenly, when she was close enough to throw a punch, she broke out into a childish grin and started squealing.

“So you’re the one who made Percy that bouquet!” Hazel grabbed Will’s hands and started shaking them excitedly. She giggled before giving them back to him.

“What does making Percy this bouquet have to do with any of this? I only knew Nico because we made out like once and then the fucker blanked me.”

“That’s my little brother you're talking about,” Hazel warned. Will instantly felt his eyes widened in horror before apologizing profusely; he remembered what Nico had told him about his sister and how the two of them had grown up. Hazel laughed before telling him that she was only joking and that he should let loose a bit.

“Was Nico with Leo when he ignored you? Leo Valdez? About yee tall, messy brown hair and ink on his overalls?”

“Yes…” Will nodded.

“Ahhh, that explains it. Those two have a complicated history. He was probably ignoring you because he and Leo might have gotten back together. Or maybe he just didn’t want Leo to know that he made out with you. Or…” Piper let out a grin that Will had no desire to learn the true meaning of.

“Maybe he was just using Leo to make you jealous,” Piper explained, very much used to the drama herself between Nico and Leo. If it wasn’t Percy and Annabeth, Nico and Leo were almost always in an argument.

“So…” Will was deadly silent for a second while his rage began to simmer. “ Are you telling me he cheated on that Leo kid with me?”

“ I really hope not,” Hazel grimaced, looking back at her brother.

“The little fucker,” Will muttered under his breath as he pushed past the two ladies and made his way towards the remaining group. He didn’t care that he was going to run into Percy Jackson, whom he’d had an underlying grudge with for as long as he’d been going to school, he was furious.

How dare he cheat with him. What was Will, some slut who ruined relationships? Hell no. Sure, he slept around but he didn’t go around getting into relationships and creating drama. One night stands were his protocol.

“You!” Will pointed at Nico viciously, his finger almost touching Nico’s nose. The rest of the group simply watched with amusement as Piper held back Jason, whispering who exactly Will was.

“You little cheating seething whore! What the fuck dude! You just make out with whoever you buy shit from?”

“I don't remember you having much of a problem with it.” Nico shrugged, only infuriating Will that much more. He was so tempted to just punch him then and there, in front of everybody including 6 of the most intimidating people he’d ever seen.

“I don't remember you mentioning you had a boyfriend before you jumped me,” Will spat. Nico seemed a little shocked at that comment, his lips shaping into a small ‘o’ before he let a sultry smirk spread across his face in a manner that showed he was relatively proud of himself, only pissing Will off so much more.

Why was the damned bastard smirking?

“Huh, what boyfriend?” Nico turned to Annabeth. “ Hey, Annie, do I have a boyfriend?”

Annabeth looked down at her watch for dramatic effect. “As of 4 months, you have been boyfriend free,” She started and only continued when she saw the smug look on Nico’s face. “That said, that does not mean you have been booty call free for said months.”

“What do you mean!” Nico cried.

“Oh shut it Nico, everyone knows that you and Leo have been playing each other’s booty call for ages now. Just end it and go out with the florist dude,” Frank scoffed.

“Or don’t! The florist dude sounds like a real ass!” Percy cut in, desperate to not let Nico go out with his lifelong nemesis, William Andrew Solace.

“Oh look, it’s Perseus,” Will taunted. Percy felt himself going red and the entire group went quiet. Will looked around, wondering why everyone was silent.

“Oh, you guys don’t know?” Will smirked, looking directly at Percy, the knowledge on the tip of his tongue. “ That’s what everybody called Percy in middle school, after we learnt the myth of P-”

The rest of the sentence was muffled as Will felt a hand wrap itself around his mouth. He looked up and saw the sea green eyes that read Shut the fuck up . Will, feeling nostalgia from this certain situation, smirked and stuck his tongue out, licking Percy’s hands, eliciting a yelp of disgust from Percy.

“Dude! Why do you always do that! Every fucking time I’m trying to shut you up, you pull shit like this!”

“You’re telling me that wasn’t the first time you tried to ‘shut him up’?” Nico and Annabeth both asked, hostility floating in their voices. Will gave a jolly smile at Percy who groaned and wiped his hands on Will’s shirt, muttering ‘gross’ under his breath. Will shoved Percy who proceeded to make a face back.

“How do you two know each other?” Frank asked, completely confused before Hazel went up on her tiptoes and began whispering in Frank's ear while he nodded along.

Nico, sick of Will’s attention not being focused on him butted in. “ Did you come all this way to flirt with Percy or what?”

Percy and Will both gagged and shivered, the idea of liking each other being just gross.

“I’m here because you son of a bitch, used me!” Will cried, flinging his arms out.

Nico raised an eyebrow. “I did?”

“Your boyfriend, booty call, whatever you wanna call them- was right there and I was just some pawn for you-”

“-If I wasn’t talking or paying any attention to you whatsoever, how on earth would I make them jealous?”

Will didn’t respond, his mind racking for answers, excuses, insults he could fling at the raven haired boy. He noticed he wasn’t wearing his lip ring that day.

“I think you should focus on the fact that Leo and I just so happened to be at the Medical College despite our majors being nothing related and we just so, by chance, crashed into you and your friend,” Nico hinted. He was a bit tired from how oblivious this blond guy was- hadn’t he made it obvious?

Will took a while to connect a few dots, but the problem was that he only connected the exact dots that Nico did not want him to connect.

“Wait, so Leo does like Callie? Is that why you guys are here?”

Nico wanted to fucking facepalm.

Saturday

The shop bell rang. Calypso was sitting at the counter with her apprentice, Meg. They were both chatting, something to do with the variation of a certain dandelion- Will wasn’t very sure.

He was sporting a daisy chain around his wrist that Meg had forced him to wear and a pink rose had been braided into his hair after much argument with Calypso that the thorns would hurt, in which she retorted that she’d obviously clip the bloody thorns.

When the bell rang, none of the three workers really snapped their heads up. But when the bell rang, and then rang and then rang again, they slowly lifted their heads from their conversation. Will, who had been leaning his elbows on the counter to talk to the two ladies, turned his head to see 8, very unwelcome people, walk into his shop.

Nico was standing there with all 7 of hids friends- Percy, Annabeth, Frank, Hazel, Piper, Jason and Leo. All of whom were very much not welcome in any way whatsoever in this shop.

“What are you doing here?”

The friends all glanced at one another before a few sputters of laughter were spread out. Nico, who was wearing his lip ring again, walked forward and picked up a red rose, twirling the thorny flower in his two fingers, ignoring the small prick it made.

He noticed the blood trickling down his thumb and lifted the injury to his lips.

“Didn’t I tell you last time...” Nico asked, his voice teasing but also malicious, a small corner of his lips stained red. “That you’ll be seeing a lot more of us?”

[agatharionicky]

To See You Is Not To Meet You Chapter Four

The Time Bureau 2017

Chapter: Four of Four

Words: 1086

Summary: Ava officially meets Sara and Nyssa for the first time, and despite their rough start, she ends up falling in love with them.

Fandom: DC’s Legends of Tomorrow

Relationship: Nyssa al Ghul/Sara Lance/Ava Sharpe. 

Characters: Sara Lance, Nyssa al Ghul, Ava Sharpe, Ray Palmer, Nate Hayward, and Rip Hunter.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences.

Additional Tags: The Time Bureau, Canon compliant, the Legends are a little annoying, but Ava still loves them.

Read at AO3

Read at FFN

AN: Guess who's back!! Not sure how much more I’ll write for Legends, but I’m trying my best!!

……………………………………………………………………

The next time and the first time that Ava officially met Ra's al Ghul and The Canary, The captain of the Waverider and her co-captain, was when the two of them waltz into the Time Bureau with two other legends. By now, Ava knew exactly who they were. She knew every little detail about their past and she knew what their future should be. Although with time travelers, the future was never set in stone. She once admired these two women and even had a crush on them, although she would never admit it. They had long since fallen from her graces. The Legends were nothing but trouble and disaster followed behind them like a trail of trash down the highway. It doesn't help that they were the most frustrating people she had ever met. She didn't know what Rip ever saw in them or what he sees in them now. 

“Hello, everyone, welcome,” Ava said as she coolly and collectively walked into the lobby in her prim and precise suit as she eyed the Legends. Despite her warm welcome, she was not going to fool herself into thinking that they should be treated as anything less than the enemy. She knew that if she gave them an inch, they would go a mile. “On the floor, hands behind your heads.”

Unlike their friends, both Sara and Nyssa complied with a roll of their eyes, but they exchanged a dangerous look.

“Uh, sorry, there must be some kind of mistake,” Dr. Ray Palmer said as she forced him to turn around, grabbing his hand and pushing him to the floor. “We're the Legends!”

“Oh, we know exactly who you losers are,” Ava said as she pressed her knee into his back.

“Wow, this floor is, like, super clean,” Ray commented, and she knew that it was a distraction, and she tried not to let it get to her. “Lady, why are you so mean?” 

“Maybe it's that poly-blend pantsuit that's got her so grumpy,” Sara Lance said her first words to her, and of course, it was a snarky remark.

“It is important to keep one's work suit comfortable and durable, lest a prickling seem or tag distract you from your mission,” Nyssa said, her accent was soft and warm, but her words are full of sarcasm, as she and her beloved shared a smile at Ava’s expense.

“I didn't know Men's Wearhouse gave group discounts,” Dr. Nate Hayward said, although not an original Legend, his stupidity fit in perfectly with the Legends.

“What's wrong with you people?” Ava said, pulling out her gun and pointing it at them. She didn't understand how they could make jokes at a time like this. “Do you want to get shot?”

“Totally rather get shot than look like a Sears model,” Dr. Nate Hayward said as the rest of the Legends nodded in agreement.

It was then that Rip arrived, and much to her dismay, he let the Legends go, and they got the upper hand on her. Sara stole her gun, pointing at her, and Nyssa pulled out a dagger, ready to throw it. The small dagger didn't look too threatening, but in the hands of Ra's al Ghul, Ava knew that it was a severe threat. 

Upon hearing that their friend went back to her home time by her own accord, the Legend seemed to drop their malicious intent.

“All right, this is just awkward,” Sara said as she put down the gun and Ava held her hand out for it, easier to have it back. 

As Sara gave it to her, their fingers brushed and a twist of electricity flowed around them. Ava was surprised, but she quickly turned away. She didn't like Sara Lance. She reminded herself besides, she was taken.

She looked over to Nyssa, who watched the two of them in with intrigue before her eyes fell on her. Ava could tell by the way that she looked at her that she remembered the two times that they had met. There was something else in her eyes, too, flirtation and something else that Ava couldn't quite put her finger on. She held Nyssa’s gaze until Rip pulled her out of her thoughts.

The Legends explained why they were there and that somehow, one of their friends, while drunk, Ava might add, supposedly spotted Julius Caesar. Rip asked her if they had seen anything of the sort and of course, she hadn't. Ava was Rip’s right-hand woman and she wouldn't have missed such an anachronism.

“Well, I guess you must have missed one then,” Sara said in that frustrating and annoying voice as she raised her eyebrows and looked over at her. 

“I find that very hard to believe, and you know what..” 

Rip cut her off before she could say anything else as she took a step towards Sara and Nyssa, the two of them eyeing her up like they were ready for another fight. 

Ava stomped away as she went to check on the timeline. She had no idea how Rip ever allowed the Legends to continue ruining the timeline after their mission after Vandal Savage was defeated. God, the two of them were so frustrating, just waltzing into the Time Bureau, making snarky remarks at her and looking at her with deep dark eyes and sparkling blue eyes. She refused to think about them any longer. This would all be cleared up in the Legends would be gone for good. Then she would never have to see Sara Lance and Nyssa al Ghul again, but oh how wrong she was. 

Because she would see them again, and despite every instinct telling her not to, she would fall in love with them. Because they were both sweet and kind, and they loved her like no one else had before. They awoke these feelings inside of her and opened her up to a world of love and affection and playfulness. 

Ava laid in bed with her girlfriends on either side of her. Sara snuggled up against her, snoring in her ear and drooling on her shoulder, and Nyssa laid beside her, carefully pressed up against her, with a kind of softness across her face that she only had when she was asleep. Ava loved being in between them and being loved by them. She could never have imagined the life they would have together when they first met, but she was so glad she met Sara and Nyssa, the loves of her life.

[calpalirwin]

Australian Love Affair

Request: Based on that tiktok video @itjustkindahappenedreally​ sent me where the guys find out you’re dating Luke.

Word Count: ~2k

And away, and away we go!

__

When you had first met the boys, the inevitable question of if you had a partner was asked almost as soon as pleasantries were exchanged.

“So? You seeing anyone?” Calum asked. “Boyfriend? Girlfriend? That sort of thing?”

You laughed politely at the brown-eyed boy while his friends muttered the disapproval cry of “Dude…” under their breath. “Nope. Single,” you answered. “Happily so,” you added as an afterthought. You had just met these men, and while you assumed they were good enough sorts given that two of them were dating two of your friends, you weren’t interested in dating people you barely knew.

“Oh, thank God!” Calum laughed in relief. “Someone on my side, finally.”

“Hey!” the other three said in protest, the tallest of the lot specifically affronted. “I’m single, too,” Luke pouted, crossing his arms over his broad chest.

“Yeah, and you’re bloody miserable about it,” Calum snorted with an eye roll. “I need someone who’s happy being single.”

“Well your search is over,” you joked, bowing dramatically. “Y/N, pleased to make your acquaintance.”

That earned a round of laughs, and a few murmured, “Glad to meet ya,”s before the group disbanded, Ashton and Michael in search of their girlfriends, and Calum in search of a drink.

“You don’t have to hang around the new kid if you don’t want,” you told Luke with a soft smile. “Like it’s a big party. If you got… I dunno… other people to say hi to, or something, that’s cool.”

One of his hands tugged at a blonde curl along the nape of his neck. “Kinda wanted to ask you something first, if that’s alright?”

You twisted your wrist in a motion of encouraging him to continue. “Go ahead.”

“Are you happily single in that you’re not looking to date? Or happily single, but you’d go on a date if you got asked?”

You brought a finger to your lips in thought. “Hmm… I guess it depends on who was asking.”

“Me?”

“Oh, Luke…”

“It’s fine!” he rushed. “I mean… no harm, no foul, right?”

“Right. And sorry. I just… don’t date people I don’t really know.”

“Yep. Totally cool. Friends?”

“Friends,” you nodded, shaking his offered hand.

A year later found you and Luke hanging out. “So, what are you in the mood to do today?” he asked from where he was lying across your couch.

“I dunno,” you called out from the kitchen as you grabbed drinks. “Something stupid?”

“I’m stupid, do me.”

You choked on your sip, stalling in the archway that separated your kitchen from your living room. “I- What?”

The blue eyes went wide, and his cheeks flushed, as Luke shot straight up into a sitting position. “I-I-” he stammered, “didn’t mean to say that out loud. Was a joke…”

“Mmm,” you said, recovering in the brief moment it took you to set his drink down in front of him. “Pity. So, you don’t fancy me anymore?”

“I mean… I’ve always fancied you. But you said you don’t date people you don’t know.”

“Well… I know you now.”

“Well… would you maybe wanna go on a date sometime?”

“I’m free today,” you pointed out.

“What a coincidence, so am I,” Luke giggled. “C’mon, let’s go then.”

“Wait,” you said, putting a hand on his arm.

“Let me guess, you also don’t tell anyone you’re seeing someone until it’s serious, and since this is just a date, you’d rather I didn’t shout this from the rooftops.”

You felt your cheeks heat up. “You wanna shout this from the rooftops?”

“Not if you don’t want me to, I don’t. Look, I’m not gonna make you feel bad for having hesitations, or wanting to take things slow. I’m fine with that. We can tell as few, or as many people we like about us when there’s something worth telling. Not that this isn’t worth telling! But, I-”

“Luke,” you interrupted. “You’re doing that thing where you ramble when you’re nervous.”

“Shit, sorry. Just-”

“I know. And thanks. C’mon, let’s go have that date.”

~~~

You chuckled quietly to yourself, catching Luke’s eye from across the room. He winked and you rolled your eyes, sparing your phone one last glance before locking the screen. “Oooo!” Crystal’s voice sounded next to you. “Got a secret admirer you wanna tell us about?”

You scoffed. “Pfft. Secret admirer. Yeah, right.”

“Mmm, so you just giggle at your phone all the time?” she teased. “C’mon, Y/N. I know how you look when you’re crushing on someone.”

“It’s nothing,” you mumbled, your entire face growing warm.

“‘Nothing’ aka Y/N for ‘I’m totally smitten, but we haven’t labeled anything, so I’m playing indifferent,’” Kaykay chimed in.

“You know what? Just for that comment, I’m leaving now.”

“Have fun with lover boy!” they taunted making kissy faces at you.

“Lover boy?” Luke asked when he got to your place ten minutes after you did. “Do the girls know?”

“No. Well, they think I’m seeing someone. But they don’t have any proof, much less any idea that it’s you.”

“Cool…”

You frowned. “That’s not a very convincing response.”

He gave a small shake of his head, like he was pushing back whatever he’d been thinking. “It’s nothing. C’mon. Let’s go to bed.”

You interlinked your fingers with his, but when he took a step forward, you didn’t follow. “No. What is it? What’s on that pretty mind of yours?”

“I- We’ve been doing this for like two months now. And I get that we’re still figuring shit out. And that you don’t like telling people that you’re seeing someone until you slap that label on it because of your past experiences. But, I’ve been used in the past. Kept a secret. And that’s not something I’d like to repeat. So, yeah. That’s where I’m at.”

“At the point where you want to label this? Or at the point where you want to tell people you’re seeing someone?”

“Mostly the second one. But, maybe the first one, too? So, we don’t have to time our exits from our friends.”

You rubbed your thumbs over the backs of his hands in soothing circles. “Yeah. Yeah, we could do that.”

He brightened. “Cool! But, um… not right this second. Need to do something light-hearted first. Too much seriousness all at once-”

“Stresses you out. I know,” you smiled up at him.

“You’re fuckin’ great, you know that?”

“Yeah. But I’m always open to hearing it again.”

Luke pressed a swift kiss to the top of your head. “The fuckin’ greatest.”

~~~

Your phone ringing shrilly had you both sitting bolt upright in bed. “Who is it?” Luke asked, his voice thick with sleep.

“Cal.”

“Well go ahead and answer it.”

“It’s a FaceTime…”

“Shit!” Luke laid flat back down in bed, pulling the blankets up over his head. “Okay,” his muffled voice called out. “Go ahead.”

You giggled, and hit accept, your phone screen splitting into 4 screens as Calum’s face appeared on it, along with Ashton’s and Michael’s.

“See? I told ya Y/N was still asleep,” Michael grumbled.

“It’s almost fuckin’ noon!” Ashton protested.

“Oh, shut up, and add Luke to the call.”

“No!” you blurted. “I- I mean… what’s up guys?”

“We had a question for ya,” Calum said. “Cuz they’re nosy little shits.”

While Ashton and Michael both pulled faces of being offended, you laughed. “What’s the question?”

“Crystal and Kaykay mentioned you were on your phone before you left last night,” Michael started.

“So we were just curious…” Ashton added.

“You bailing on being the only other single person?” Calum finished.

“You’re not the only other single person,” you pointed out.

Calum scoffed. “Oh, you mean Luke? Nah. That boy’s been bit by the lovebug. Which is great for him. Single life isn’t his style. But damn… I thought what we had was special, Y/N.”

“You were the chosen one!” Michael cackled.

“It was said you would mock the lovebirds, not join them!” Ashton jumped in on the joke.

“Oh, my God,” you giggled while you felt the blankets shake beside you with Luke’s stifled laughter. “But yeah. To answer your question. Yeah, I’m seeing someone. Sorry, Cal.”

Calum’s eyes narrowed briefly. “I’ll forgive you, on one condition.”

“And what condition’s that?”

“Tell us who it is.”

“Wow, way to make a real case for yourself. I think I’ll take being unforgiven.”

“Wow…” they all deadpanned. “Gonna do me like that?” Calum muttered in fake disbelief. “Just keep breaking my heart like that?”

“That would require you to have a heart first.”

“Ouch!” Calum gasped, while Michael mimicked in his best videogame voice “Finish him!” which sent Ashton giggling.

Ashton giggling made you giggle. “Wait, wait, back up a second. You said Luke was seeing somebody? And he didn’t tell us? Fuckin’ rude.”

“Yeah! Sounds like somebody else we know. How bout this? We get Luke on here to tell us who he’s seeing, and you can tell us who you’re seeing, too. Then it’s all out in the open about how you both ditched me for the dark side,” Calum tried to negotiate again.

“Aw, c’mon. Is it really necessary to drag Luke into this? I mean, he’ll tell us when he’s ready to tell us, ri-” you scrambled to diffuse, but got cut off when Luke’s phone started ringing on your nightstand.

“Shh, it’s ringing,” Ashton shushed, waving his hand.

“Wait… I can hear it…” Michael said, bringing his phone closer to his face to listen better.

“Yeah, me too,” Calum nodded, before his eyes went wide with realization. “Y/N… is Luke there?”

“What? Why would he be at Y- OH! OH shit!” Michael yelled as the pieces clicked in his head.

“Luke! Answer your bloody phone!” Ashton scolded.

“I don’t think Ash has figured it out yet,” Calum muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Me neither,” Michael said with a pity shake of his head.

“Oh, I did. Lukey! Come out and plaaaaaay!” Ashton taunted.

Beside you, the blankets flipped back and Luke’s head popped into view. “Hey, guys,” he greeted sheepishly.

“When were you gonna tell us, mate?” Michael asked, his question directed at Luke.

“When there was something worth telling.”

“Two months of you being the happiest we’ve ever seen you isn’t ‘worth telling’?”

“You’ve been at your happiest with me?” you asked in a small voice.

Luke chuckled, wrapping an arm around you. “Course I have,” he smiled, pressing a kiss to your temple.

“Aw! You’re gonna make me sick!” Calum cooed sweetly.

“What Cal means to say,” Ashton interjected, “is that we’re really happy for you guys.”

“Yeah. And if we did something that made you think you couldn’t tell us, we’re sorry,” Michael apologized.

“It wasn’t anything you guys, or Luke did,” you stepped back in. “It was me. It takes a lot for me to develop the trust where I’m comfortable saying I’m in a relationship.”

“Hey, you don’t gotta explain yourself to anyone, Y/N,” Calum told you. “We were just messing with you. And we’re glad you feel comfortable enough to tell us. Even though we did kinda force it out of you… in our defense, we didn’t know Luke was with you.”

You laughed. “It’s fine, guys. We were gonna tell you in a few days anyhow.”

“Alright,” Michael cut in. “Serious question. You two make each other happy?”

You and Luke nodded. “Very much so, yeah.”

“Then that’s all that matters. We’ll uh… leave now and let you get back to your morning.”

“It’s past noon!” Ashton screeched.

“Oh, shut up, and go make another pot of coffee,” Calum told him.

“I will! Anybody want some?”

“I’m down,” Luke grinned at Ashton.

“You know how to get in. Cal? Mike?”

“Only if food is involved. You know I don’t drink coffee,” Michael listed his conditions.

“Deal. Cal?”

“Ah, fuck it. Yeah, I’m in.”

“Whoohoo! Brunch at Ash’s!” you cheered.

“Y/N, you only get brunch if you bring that new guy you’ve been seeing,” Ashton joked playfully.

“I think I can arrange that,” you giggled, snuggling into Luke.

__

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[unmaskedagain]

White Horse (This Ain’t a Fairytale)

          Quick one-shot. Needed to do something sort of different.

 Marinette had dreamed of the moment. The moment she would finally be brave enough to look Adrien Agreste in the eyes and tell him how she left; that she loved him. She had pictured, hoped, how would be a thousand times. It would be like fairy tale. Adrien the handsome prince. Her, the princess. He’d sweep her off her feet. And they’d go get ice cream together, ready to start her happily ever after. Like in the movies.

“I’m sorry, Marinette,” Adrien frowned, scratching his head, like he didn’t know what to say. “I just don’t think of you that way.”

           In retrospect, Marinette should’ve known better.

“Oh,” Was all Marinette could say. She felt numb, despite knowing her heart had shattered in her chest.

           Because of course he wouldn’t feel the same. Marinette so stupid to think he would. She should’ve known… She should’ve known!

           Adrien shrugged, “It’s not you,” He offered. “I like someone else.”

           Because of course he did.

“Yeah,” Marinette nodded, looking anywhere but at him. “Cool. I get it.”

“I might’ve considered once,” Adrien rushed to add. “But you sort of changed.”

           Marinette took a step back, “Changed?” She didn’t change at all.

“You’ve been distant from the class and all our friends,” Adrien explained. “And the whole Lila thing?”

“Lila?” Marinette said numbly. “She’s a liar, and people deserve to know the truth. And I haven’t been distant from the class. They’ve been ignoring me.”

“Because you keep calling Lila out,” Adrien put in. “It’s causing problems. She’s not hurting anyone.”

           Marinette looked at him, really looked at him. “You don’t think that she’s hurting anyone. Not even Nino who she promised would meet a big time director so he’s not finishing his piece for film festival. Or Nathanial who broke off a great partnership with Marc because Lila promised he was better off and that she introduce him to DC comic book writers? You don’t think that’s hurting him?”

“It’s not that big of a deal,” Adrien shrugged. “They’ll be other opportunities. Marc will take Nathanial back if he apologizes.”

           Again, Marinette just stared. Because no! No Marc wouldn’t because Marc was already poached to work on Claude’s graphic novel about a kid who finds out he’s the descendent of Van Helsing.

           Could Adrien be serious? Was he that naïve? Was Marinette? Had she gotten so lost in his eyes that she never even stood a chance of seeing what he was really like? How could she claim if she had ever loved him if that was the case?

“And when the class finds out Lila’s lying,” Marinette raised her hand to stop Adrien from interrupting. “And I have no further intention of outing her,” To her disgust he looked pleased. “When they find out she’s lying, and the fact that they stopped being my friends, bullied me, harassed me in some cases, and basically given me the cold shoulders for almost a year. Do you think I will forgive them? That we’d go back to being friends?”

“Of course you will,” Adrien said brightly. “Why wouldn’t you?”

           Marinette just blinked, amazed. “Because they hurt me.” She just shrugged. “We’ll cross that bridge when get there.” And Marinette would take sweet pleasure in burning it down. “I’m going to go now…” She started to walk away.

“I’m sorry again!” Adrien called.

           Oh that Marinette knew for certain. And so was Marinette for that matter.

Over the next few weeks, Marinette was in a state of confusion. Her heart had been crushed. But it seemed to fade rather quickly. Mostly because every time she thought about him, she’d hear his words and feel sick. All those dreams she had about her and Adrien made her want to bang her head against the wall. Because what if that’s she came across; with all her fairytale wishes. Life wasn’t a fairy. She wasn’t a princess. No one was going to come sweep her off her feet. And unlike Adrien, she had always known that life wasn’t anything like the movies.

The issue was that maybe she was more like Adrien then she thought. Didn’t she think that once her friends knew the truth everything would be okay? Didn’t some part of her think Alya and her would go back to being besties? That’ll it would all be bygones? But what about all the hurt feelings? The broken trust? The cruel words? Those all didn’t just vanish. That wasn’t how life worked. There was no possible way for them to go back to the way it was.

And the more she thought about it, the more Marinette wasn’t sure that she wanted it to.

Marinette had been really tired of being taken for granted; all those school trips, dances, birthday parties, fundraisers, and she never even got a thank you. A lot of her classmates just frowned in disapproval once Lila mentioned how she could’ve done it better, made it better if Marinette had let her help. So Marinette gracefully quit being class president; let someone else take the lead. She was tired of doing free commissions; it cost a lot of money and time and no one seemed to even care. Then Lila mentioned how she had a tailor and personal designer who was so much faster than Marinette, who might be doing it on purpose as no one could be that slow. In the face the suspicious glares, Marinette had casually mentioned how great it was for Lila to offer to help their classmates as Marinette would no longer be able to do free commissions. Then Marinette decided that the next thing to go was demands, not asks, of her time. This had come after Alya had dropped off her little sisters’ at Marinette suddenly and cited how busy she was. Only for Marinette to see posts about a class party.

           Then Marinette made sure she was always busy. And she asked her parents not to just let anyone up to her room. Marinette had to go get then now.

No, Marinette was quite sure, she rather nothing went back to the way it was. Too much had been said and done. It was too late for fairy tales or movie magic. Too late for anyone on a white horse to come around to carry her off to a happy ending.

Time passed, and Marinette watched with a twisted feeling of glee in her chest, when the entire class seemed to slowly fall apart. First it was the winter school trip. Originally, Marinette had planned an amazing tour of presidential office and then a quick trip to the beach. However, when it became clear that nothing had been done yet for the trip despite months of warnings, Marinette backed out of going. She laughed for days, when she saw the pictures of the class on a local farm.

Then it was the school dance. Lila’s personal designer apparently suffered a horrible fire in her studio and all the dresses were destroyed; leaving most of the girls in the class in tears. They’d gone in old dresses. Marinette, however, had worn her most fabulous design yet. A beautiful, lacy, scarlet dress that made her look WOW, as her new friends had put it. Luka had been her date; only as a friend of course. The two had realized that while they had a lot in common, the attraction wasn’t sexual.

Fundraisers were next. And the targets were never hit. Trips to festivals, museums that required more than a few hours ride, and the like were cancelled. The annual spring trip, something the class had looked forward to for two years, had been all but cancelled. Usually, it was trip to another country for two weeks. Marinette had planned on New York. But Marinette was no longer class president by the first week of October.

Marinette’s only problem came when Rose and Juleka broke up. The one other pairing, Alya had once sworn, the class was more invested in than Adrien and Marinette getting together. The two had been so in love. Then Lila happened.

She got into Rose’s head about deserving a prince, about how shy Juleka couldn’t really be serious about her if she never expressed it like others did, and what about Prince Ali? How would he feel if he found out Rose was dating someone else.

And Rose, poor sweet Rose had always had a head full of fairy tales. She never stood a chance.

It wasn’t surprising when Luka and Marinette found Juleka crying on the deck of the boat. Marinette had taken mercy on the girl. She made not have been Juleka’s friend anymore but she was still Luka’s sister. And anyone could see she needed time away,

So After a quick intervention, Juleka now knew Lila to be the biggest Liar on the planet. Marinette invited her on her trip to Metropolis for spring break. The trip had been under the guise of World explorers club, which had been just Marinette and her new friends (Claude, Marc, Ondine, Aurore, Luka, Bridgette, and Felix) who saved enough money to spend two weeks in the States away from their and any and all drama.

To make it look education, and to stop Mendeleiev from giving them suspicious glares, they even book a tour of LexCorp. Again, mostly to appease Mendeleiev.

However, Lexcorp was the highlight of the trip if you asked Marinette. She’d run into Connor Luther-Kent, a small town boy, with biceps as big her head, and the biggest blue eyes she’d ever seen and promptly knew exactly how she’d be spend the rest of her vacation.

Connor had led the tour.

…Okay so Connor was supposed to lead the tour. But he and Marinette had kept sneaking glances at each other with blushes on their faces so much that his Aunt Lena, who swore she wasn’t spying, took over the tour. Eventually Connor and Marinette felt the far back of the tour, trading jokes and accidently touching hands. They didn’t even notice when tour ended.

“And the concludes the tour,” Lena announced. “Oh pretty French girl making eyes at my nephew, Connor’s free tomorrow around 6. He’d love to meet you at the fair in town. Maybe win you a stuffed animal.”

           Connor turned bright red.

“Oh Marinette would love to go, handsome farm boy,” Mendeleiev answered with a smirk. “She just wants to say her curfew is eleven. She’ll brings friends, so brings some of yours. And she respectable girl who doesn’t kiss on first dates.”

           Marinette squeaked.

“Understood,” Lena beamed at the embarrassment of the blushing teens. “Connor’s a gentleman. And such a boy scout, if pretty French girl doesn’t make the first move, nothing will happen. He’s a shy one.”

           Mendeleiev crossed, “That might be a problem. Marinette’s just as shy as handsome farm boy. I guess we’ll see what happens.”

“Guess we will,” Lena smiled.

           The two women and the rest of Marinette friends just stared at the two teenagers who looked ready to die.

           The fair was great. Marinette’s friends and Connor’s got along great. Though Luka skipped out with a handsome kid named Tim. Aurore found redhead named Wally intriguing. Ondine ditched everyone to go hang out with a black boy with blond hair name Kaldur. Marc and Claude left together. And finally Juleka and a girl named Artemis went to ride the Ferris wheel together. Turned out, Juleka had a thing for blondes.

           Marinette and Connor spent the entire time, holding hands, and eating weird fair food, and getting more than a little lost in each other’s eyes.

           The rest of the trip was pretty much the same. The two friend group would meet up and usually break off into couples not long after.

           Marinette did find herself covering for a curfew breaking Luka at one time, another for Ondine. And most surprising for Juleka, who assured everyone she was fine through texts, but didn’t make it back to the hotel till the next day. Luka high-fived his sister on her way in.

           The only times, it was a couple-free zone when was when they had to do something educational. The daily planet had been fun. Lois Lane had been insightful and gave great advice to Aurore. She had been interviewing an Olympian swimmer who had no problems shelling out advice to Ondine. And then to the local history museum and the art museum.

           It took everything they had to convince the teacher that a movie premiere was education. If the movie was some action superhero blockbuster, it might’ve been easier. But still the glasses wearing teacher caved, though with way she eyed Chris Evans, Marinette thinks they might tried too hard.

           And once when Marinette got backstage passes to see Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale perform on their Pop and Rock tour. Neither star hesitated to bring Marinette and her friends on stage. They had announced her as their fashion designer, who did the amazing dress Clara was wearing and rocking look Jagger sported. Luka got to play guitar for Jagged. Clara and Jagged did a cover of an old *NSYNC song that her mom had revealed was her favorite song growing up.

(God Must Have Spent) A Little More Time On You.

           The bluenette had shed a few tears on stage, in front of everyone.

           Marinette would find out later that the concert was live streamed.

           Her most heart stopping moment came when Marinette met Connor’s parents; it had been an accident. They had been going to outside concert when Connor remembered he needed to drop something off at his dad’s place, and it was just going to be for five minutes. They had gotten to the penthouse. Connor left her in the living room. Marinette had been looking at the pictures on the mantle when she heard a clearing of the throat.

           She turned around and came face to face with Times’ man of the year, Lex Luthor. Never again, will she considered Gabriel Agreste scary. He was tickle-me Elmo compared to Lex Luthor, maybe a rouge furby doll. Those things were always creepy.

           Lena stood next to him with a pretty blond woman Marinette knew to be Kara, who Marinette knew from picture to be Connor’s aunt, who worked out of National city.

“You must be… Marinette?” Lex drawled.

           Marinette fought not to smooth out her fifties-style chic sliver dress. “Yes, Sir. Connor just stepped away.”

           They made light conversation after that. Marinette telling about her interests and achievements and wondering where Connor was because five minutes her ass. When Connor’s other dad arrived.

           A ruffled looking man looking man, that looked remarkable like Connor, that wore the most hideous plaid shirt she’d ever seen. “Hi’ya, I’m Clark. Connor’s dad.” He introduced. Clark held out his hand. “You must be Marinette, Connor hasn’t stopped talking about you since you two met.”

           Marinette shook his hand with a smile. And she didn’t mean the say, doesn’t how it slipped out. “Who let you out of the house dressed like that?”

           The two men froze. So did the women.

“What?” Clark asked a stunned look on his face.

“Seriously!” Marinette said, unable to stop herself. “That shirt shouldn’t just be thrown away. It should be burned to ashes and fed to the designer.”

           Clark blushed, and pushed his glasses up. “I like it. It looks like my other ones.”

“There are more of those sins of nature!” Marinette exclaimed. “How? Why? Who hurt you?”

           Lex smirked.

           That was when Connor came into the room, with a smile on his face. He wrapped an arm around Marinette’s waist and looked at his parents, “What’s going on?”

“An intervention,” Marinette snipped.

           Lex Luther pointed at Connor, “Marry that girl.”

           Lena and Kara fell down laughing.

           Connor’s face turned red.

           Clark looked like a confused puppy.

           Marinette came with apology cookies the next day.

           Connor and Marinette were officially boyfriend and girlfriend by the time the trip ended.

           While they were gone, however, things in Paris weren’t going great for the class. The three days of break had been great. Spring trip was just to an amusement park which had disappointed quite a few, but they’d perked up when Alya pointed out that at least Marinette wasn’t there to ruin it all for them. As far as they were concerned life was good without the bluenette.

           Then the fourth day happened. And Juleka posted her first picture. Marinette, her new friends, Juleka; the World Travel’s club, in Metropolis. The mood quickly soured after that. The pictures of their fabulous hotel rooms. The pictures of them at LexCorp with Lena Luther herself; Max was left reeling. Then came the pictures the fairs and dates the group had gone on. Alya had nearly cried when she saw the pictures of the tour of the Daily Planet. Rose had cried when she saw Juleka with some beautiful girl named Artemis.

           The worst of it happened when the entire class got together to watch Pop and Rock on tour as Alya’s house. The concert had been stream. And They had all been so excited. Until Marinette was called on stage, and along with all her friends. The popstar and Rock star dedicated a song to Marinette.

           It had been a trip worthy dreaming about.

           That was when the class remembered just how amazing Marinette had been at planning school trips. Why they ever wanted her to resign, they couldn’t remember.

           Adrien saw a picture Marinette and some dark haired boy holdings hands and for some reason felt his heart break a little.

           When they got back to Paris and the break ended, Marinette and Juleka walked to class with their heads held high and love in their hearts. When the girls got to their seats, Alya was the first to try and ruin their good mood.

“Have fun over break?” She snapped.

“Loads,” Marinette raised an eyebrow. “As many times as you like Juleka’s pics of the daily planet I’d assumed you know that.”

           Alya’s temper grew as jealous soared through her, “You could’ve at least invited your friends.”

“I did,” Marinette stated. “Or don’t you remember when you yelled at me the lunchroom that you weren’t my friend anymore. And rest of you agreed.”

           Some looked ashamed. Others still looked petulant.

“Our trip sucked,” Kim groaned. There were nods in agreement.

“Talk to your class president,” Marinette shrugged. “Last I check, that wasn’t me.” She motioned to Lila. “I’m surprised Lila couldn’t do something better with all the connections she has. I’m sure she could out due a bunch of kids who just saved a few bucks over the course of the year.”

           Lila smiled pleasant but the look in her eyes could’ve killed Marinette, “I was so busy. With all my charity work. There was no time.”

           Marinette hummed in response.

“You all looked so amazing at the movie premier!” Rose beamed. It was clear to those who really looked that the blond was sad, maybe even heartbroken.

           Juleka nodded, finding that the sight of her ex-girlfriend wasn’t as devastating as it would’ve been before the trip, “Marinette designed all of our clothes.”

           It took six months after that for Lila’s kingdom to crumble and for the entire class to apologize to the bluenette. Unfortunately, Marinette didn’t react like they’d hoped. Sure, she accepted their apologies, even forgave them, but she made it clear they weren’t friends. They’d never be friends again.

           Adrien had given her a disappointed look afterwards and had tried to convince her that everything could go back to the way it was. She shrugged, and didn’t dignify him with a response.

           It was three months after for Hawkmoth to finally be defeated thanks to Connor who turned out to be Superboy and the rest of Young Justice who may or may be dating the rest of the new team Miraculus.

           It was a week later that Chat Noir and Ladybug revealed themselves to each other. It didn’t go as either of them had hoped.

           Marinette didn’t know who was more surprised. Her or Adrien. She frowned when she saw the hope in the blond boy’s eyes.

           Adrien had been stunned and then a happy smile appeared on his face. Ladybug and his princess was one in the same. She had liked him. Had asked him out. Adrien may have been stupid to turn her down but that it didn’t matter anymore. It would all work out, “Princess,” He said. “I knew we were meant to be.” That was what he thought until Superboy flew down to stand next to Marinette.

           Marinette gave Adrien a pitying smile, “I’m not a princess, Adrien. This isn’t a fairy tale. This isn’t the movies. We already had our chance.  I’m leaving Paris. I’m joining the justice league. It’s too late to catch me now.”

[scriptaed]

bygones of the sun. 02 (m)

genre: angst/fluff/(future)smut || dance captain!hoseok, bad boy!au, uni!au

pairing: reader x hoseok;

length: 5.0k;

synopsis: Jung Hoseok was once the sweetheart of the school, the dance captain whom every girl, including you, can’t help but fall head over heels for. But like the force of the ever-glowing sun, everything that rises must also set. A year of inactivity later and he’s now the school’s resident bad boy. You’re a firm believer of allowing the past be the past, and yet you can’t help but wonder where the risen sun has gone into hiding—because perhaps its shadows have out-shined its own radiance.

a/n: a repost of my old fic!

“Drop him, girl, drop him! You’re too good for him!”

The glaring television screen blares throughout the small confinement of your living room, filling the already rowdy space with the drama you and your friends would specifically gather in your house to watch every Wednesday night. With soft cotton blankets draping over the three pairs of bare legs and two buckets of popcorn laying in your laps, Hani and Junghwa would constantly shrill on the top of their lungs along with you, screaming and squirming from over excitement or flutters incited by a man on the other side of the screen whom they claim to have established an emotional connection with. And while you have always appreciated their crucial role in your daily life, tonight—along with the past several days since then—is just one of those nights where you want to be left alone.

Junghwa’s squealing comes to a gradual silence when Hani nudges her elbow with darting, wide eyes, hinting at her friend to quiet down before you did anything more than shoot her a death glare. Just half an hour into the episode and you can already tell that the main character’s position ever so conveniently coincided with your own as Junghwa continues to scream out words of encouragement to the woman on the other side of the screen, completely unaware of how her insults can also easily align with your situation. And even though you would usually be screaming along with your dear friends, heart clenching and fists forming at the growing anger elicited by the bad boy of the story, now that you are finally experiencing it for yourself—maybe not so much as dating a bad boy, but rather personally knowing one from your very own eyes—you can certainly go without any reminders of the revelating night which still burns every second in the back of your consciousness.

“O-oh,” Junghwa gaped, mouth hanging wide open as she stares at you with a blank expression that shows she only just understood why Hani was urging her to stop. Hani only presses her lips into a disappointing frown and places her hands to the forehead of her shaking head. The rare silence between you and Junghwa becomes overbearing to her as she bats her eyes in panic over how the unamusement in your stare grows within each second. The corner of her lips suddenly shoot up when she releases a nervous laugh and pats your arm in reassurement, “y-you too, Y/N… you should forget about Ho—” her eyes pop out when she notices the quirk of your brow “—I mean... him. You’re too good for someone as immature as him. Who even plays truth or dare in college? Haha, I mean, even if someone dared me to play around with a guy, I wouldn’t—”

“Alright,” Hani interrupts with a forced smile, tilting her head to peer at you from across the now silenced Junghwa, “let’s just switch the channel. We can always catch up on the episodes later.”

“No, it’s fine,” you let out a soft laugh, shaking your head and lightly flicking your friend’s arm. Junghwa winces at your gesture before pouting and leaning into the couch on her left, grabbing Hani’s arm and glaring at you in vengeance. “It’s not a big deal anyways. It’s not like I was even dating him. I’m fine, I promise… it’s just that someone seems to want to rub some salt in my wounds.”

Hani cackles, stroking Junghwa’s head with her left hand and patting her arm with her right, “alright, if you say so. You sure you don’t want to change the channel? The show isn’t that exciting anyways. We can probably predict half the things she’s going to do. The bad boy is going to fall in love with her because she’s weak and fragile and apparently guys like that, then she’s going to fall for him because he treats her differently than the rest. And then, bam! They’re together and happy for the rest of eternity, right?”

You scrunch your brows at her quick yet accurate synopsis, “I mean I guess—”

“Good! So that means we can switch the channel then,” she picks up the remote and flips to the next available channel only to have it stolen from you when you lean across a screaming Junghwa and snatch the remote from Hani.

“Hani, I know you’re just trying to do what you think is the best for me, but I’m fine! I promise,” you laugh, giving her a strained, lopsided smile. “See? Smiling like always. Who cares about boys? They’re all liars anyways.”

Your two friends only lean away from you and against the couch’s armrest, blankly blinking eyes and pressing lips in the shape of a questioning frown as they raise their brows quizzically at the validity of your ‘fine’ state; because to them, every single word you managed to muster out that night were only filled with disdain, spite, and regret over the boy whom you constantly cursed at and nicknamed an asshole after that night over the phone.

But as much as you attempt to cross your arms over your chest and keep a poker face over the countless dumb decisions the main character makes in the following few minutes, you can’t help but constantly flip your phone over to check if any new messages had been left magically without its usual buzz. Turning the phone over, you would click the home button only to find the screen empty of any new notifications. You would then sigh, attempting to ignore the sinking of your chest when you internally remind yourself: of course he wouldn’t message you first. He hasn’t messaged you in days since that night you stormed out of his car and into your house without further explanation, the cold tension remaining as the last conversation held between you and him.

Unfortunately for you, your friends suspicions of your true condition are confirmed by the constant spiels which tumbles from your lips every ten seconds.

“That’s the dumbest thing you could do! He’s a changed man, and you know that! Why are you going after him?! Dump him, you dumbass!” you scream, huffing out in anger and grabbing your pillow as though you are about to toss it at the girl on the screen.

Hani and Junghwa stare at you with wide eyes, horrified by your outburst which never seems to end along with your limitless energy.

“He’s a liar,” you groan, kicking your legs onto the coffee table before you and sighing out your baited breath. “He’s probably only staying with you now because his friends told him to.”

“You make the first move,” you hear Junghwa hiss to Hani, who only repeats her words back at her, but you’re too mentally and emotionally occupied by the thoughts roaming your own mind to even care.

God, Hoseok is such an asshole. The more you think about it, the more your blood fuels with anger. You were the victim—the target—of a stupid dare? And to make it worse, you actually believed for a second that Hoseok—Jung Hoseok, one of the most sought after boys of your school—actually liked you enough to ask you out on a date? But what frustrates you to the ends of your bones isn’t your stupidity or your proneness to fall victim to such child’s play, but instead, it’s the fact that Hoseok, the sweetheart you once knew and loved, actually took the dare seriously enough to attempt to fulfill it; he went out that night on a mission to fool you, to play with your heart, and to trample all over it if you hadn’t found out through Junghwa. He was out to manipulate you like the fool you are, to wrap you around the tips of his fingers, and to play you like another one of the countless girls whom must have become one of his many puppets.

And even though it pained you with the constrictions of your chest, the dryness of your knotted throat, and the emptiness of your churning stomach the couple of days following that night, now you’re just a pile of turmoil and raging anger waiting to throw your hands at the person who had taken over the dreamlike dance captain you currently regret to your very guts for not taking a leap of faith into the sun and approaching him on the day he had invited you over. You want explanations to his whereabouts, and maybe you’re not qualified enough to receive explanations to such personal matters which held no form of relation to the person who purposely avoided him in the past year, but at the very least, you deserve an apology for that night.

“Y/N… are you sure you don’t want to talk about it?” Hani gently suggests as Junghwa places a hand on your knee and bobs her head agreeingly, worriedly watching the clenching of your jaw and the burning flames in your darkened eyes. “Sometimes it helps us to talk about things we don’t want to talk about. It’ll help us move on.”

“Not saying that you haven’t moved on, of course,” Junghwa quickly adds.

After raising a brow at Junghwa’s nervous laugh, you take a deep breath and sigh. “Fine. I just… I don’t know what there is to say. I guess I’m hurt after being used like that, like I’m some sort of game you can just win over, but I’m more so appalled that Hoseok would do such a thing…? I’ve never known him, sure, but I know he’s not like that. The boy I met wouldn’t have ever dared to play around with a girl’s feelings. Dance was his sole purpose. He was so passionate about it. And now… he pretends he doesn’t even remember his own past.”

“Ah… you miss seeing your old crush, huh?” Junghwa purses her lips and nods her head in acknowledgement. “I guess he was a lot more likeable back then, not saying that he isn’t smoking hot right now because he is, but now that he’s doing all of this because of a simple game of dignity, I don’t think I would see him the same way either.”

“Do you really think he did it because of a dare though? He might be a player, but even that seems a bit… much?” Hani frowns, furrowing her brows in thought.

You shrug, “we heard that he was doing it in order to gain the attention of the last dance captain.”

“He wanted to use you to make her jealous?” Hani’s eyes popped in shock.

“I guess,” you mutter and sigh once again. “I’m not sure which one’s worse.”

“Have you confronted him about it? Are you sure it’s true?”

“I mean, I wouldn’t blame him if he really does like Keiko. Have you seen her? She’s gorgeous and she’s so down to earth,” Junghwa says in awe before snapping back to reality when Hani shoots her a death glare. She quickly turns to look at you, patting your shoulder with a smile, “you’re gorgeous too, Y/N. But maybe he’s into the dance type.”

“Alright, you two are just roasting me tonight. I just want to get some sleep and sort things out myself,” you huff, about to get up from the couch when Junghwa leaps herself at you and hugs you tight.

“I’m sorry, Y/N! You know I really didn’t mean it that way!”

Hani only laughs at the sight before her as you groan and pick up your phone, a habit which has become instinctive to you, checking for any new messages.

And to your surprise, there is one.

“Please stop checking your phone for his texts, Y/N! It hurts my heart to see you like this! He’s a player, he’s not going to text first! You deserve better people than him!” Junghwa cries out in plea for you to forgive her careless remarks.

She holds you even tighter as you stare at your screen in shock. You keep staring at the glaring screen, scanning the text message over and over again because you can’t believe it. He actually left a message, and to your dismay and surprise, your heart is actually pounding in excitement—in longing—for the boy who had broken your trust. And just like Junghwa says, you keep reminding yourself that you deserve more than him.

Hobi [9:34 pm] Are you home? We need to talk things over. I know something happened between us that night, and unlike you, I actually want to sort things out. I’ll be there in five.

Ah, so he’s either still upset over your sudden change in attitudes that night or your sudden mention of his past experience with dance—either way, the piercing sensation of your heated chest is undeniable when you read the passive aggressive tone of his message.

“What is it?” Hani carefully asks, and suddenly, Junghwa’s tight gripping and tugging releases from your hips.

“Don’t tell me he texted you,” she deadpans.

“We need to go,” you mumbled under your breath and they widen their eyes as a double take. Getting up from the couch, you quickly turn off the television and grab their hands to usher them out the front door. “He’s coming in five minutes. We need to go now.”

“Why is he coming?” Junghwa calls out in worry, looking at you over her shoulder.

“I don’t know. He wants to talk about how our date ended or something,” you blurt out and hastily grab a purse before swinging it over your gray sweatshirt and sweatpants. Opening the front door, you’re stuffing your feet into the shoes when Hani places her hand on you to halt your hasty actions.

“Don’t you want to talk things over with him?” she calmly questions. “You should get things clarified, or you’re never going to move on. Maybe he’s not as bad as you think.”

“I don’t want to get things clarified, Hani. I just want to forget about him as soon as possible. Seeing him will only make me angrier,” you shake your head.

“That doesn’t seem to align with you constantly checking your phone tonight,” Junghwa quips. “I agree with Hani. You should at least have closure. Or at least you can tell him off before you end things with him.”

You quirked a brow, “...are you sure?”

“Positive. And if you ever need us to jump in, just send us a quick text,” Hani smiles and Junghwa enthusiastically nods.

Taking a deep breath, you sigh in agreement before quickly pushing them out the door, “okay, then you two need to leave.”

“Wow, I’ve never been kicked out of a house faster than now,” Junghwa retorts as your two friends laugh along with you.

“Oh my God, is that his car? I thought he said five minutes!” Hani gapes. “Good luck, Y/N! C’mon, Junghwa, let’s run.”

What? He’s here already?

Slightly opening the door behind you, you peep through the small slit to find Hoseok’s familiar black vehicle coming to a gradual stop on your driveway. Your heart nearly jumps out of your chest when you spot sight of his familiar brown hair, the darkened eyes of his that meant business causing you to leap and shut the door behind you. Your heart is pounding so loudly and roughly against the small confinements of your chest that you swear it’s echoing in your now silent house. Your hands are shaking, your lips are quivering, and your knees become weak with each footstep of his which lightly skid against the concrete of your front porch, each one becoming more and more audible when they finally come to a halt just a few feet behind you.

God, you should’ve stayed in the college dorms—otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to so easily walk up to your house at whatever time he pleases like this.

A series of firm knocks echo in the front entrance of your house, the vibrations sending waves across your back and down your spine as you lay with your back pressed up against the door. Whirling around, you take a deep breath to calm your seemingly unstoppable rapid pace of breathing. After mustering up enough courage, you peek through the peephole only to be met with Hoseok’s fish eyed pupils, causing you to jump back and yelp in surprise.

“Y/N, I know you’re there. I saw you while parking in your driveway,” Hoseok lowly chuckles. “Might as well open up now.”

“W-what if I don’t want to?” you stutter, placing your fumbling hands over the cold doorknob.

“Well, I guess I’d just have to tell the whole school we’re dating,” he chimes as though it’s not a big deal to him at all. Of course it’s not a big deal to him, he’s been with plenty of girls before and the rest of the school doesn’t need a second reminder of that fact. “I’m counting down now. In 3… 2…”

You whip open the door and give him the dirtiest glare you can give, huffing and puffing when you managed to stop him from ruining your reputation along with his already ruined one.

Hoseok’s lips clam shut the second you open the border between the two of you. One corner of his lips lift as he leans against the wall and buries his hands into his pockets.

“I see you really don’t want to be associated with me, huh?” he quips.

“No, not after what you did to me that night,” you narrow your eyes at him and cross your arms over your chest.

He quirks a brow questioningly, “and what exactly did I do that night?”

The slick strands of hair hovering before his forehead tell you he came here right after a shower, the thought causing heat to rise to your cheeks and your stomach to shelter unwanted butterflies. His dark brown eyes and his soft, red lips match perfectly with his tan, smooth skin which ever so slightly glows in reflection of the dim light within your house. You’re just about to melt in his darkening, warm gaze when you snap yourself out of it and remind yourself that looks are quite deceiving; he may look like the boy you had fallen for before, but he surely doesn’t act like him.

“Oh, quit playing dumb,” you roll your eyes after a few seconds of silence.

“I might appear dumb to you, but I can tell you for sure, I can read most girls like the back of my hand. But with you? I don’t have a single idea of what’s going on in that head of yours,” he retorts, leaning off the wall and shifting his weight onto the other leg. “Maybe if you actually told me what I did wrong, or whatever the hell happened that night, then maybe I’d understand and be able to apologize or fix things.”

“And why do you care? Do you actually want to fix things? Do you actually like me enough to apologize?”

Hoseok frowns at the harsh edges of your tone, brows knitting and lips pressing shut as he stares at you for a few seconds and ponders—no, calculates—what he should do next.

He sighs, running a hand through his slightly damp hair, “I don’t get it. Of course I want to fix things—”

“You’re lying,” you snap. “You only took me out on a date because you were dared to.”

His eyes lift from the ground to stare at yours; judging by the way his eyes neither crease in confusion nor widen in shock, he must have figured this all along. Instead, he’s calm and collected as if he’s done this thousands of times before, and that very fact causes a drop in your stomach. Just how much more of an ass can he be?

You take in a shaky breath, about to make your next theory on the rumor between his crush on the previous dance captain, when words tumble from his lips that renders you silent.

“I’m sorry.”

“What?” you narrow your eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he repeats this time but a bit louder.

He’s gazing into your eyes, locked and firm, confident and alluring, and every bit of you is reminding you that he’s probably done this hundreds of times before and that it’s just a front he puts on to trick countless girls, and yet you can’t help but believe there’s nothing but sincerity in his eyes. What is it about those chocolate hues which entices you and spins you around like the fool you are? Is it the past crush you see in them, or is it the bad boy you see now?

“I know I hurt you, and I really wasn’t planning on contacting or bothering you any further after that night, but I was worried after that argument. It’s a bad decision made on my part. I’m sorry,” he calmly apologizes, voice deep and velvety that you can’t believe how casual he’s acting. “I should’ve at least not have been so obvious.”

You scoff at his last words, raising your brows in question, “or maybe you shouldn’t have done it in the first place?”

“Right,” he lets out a small laugh, the corner of his lips lifting into a smug smirk.

“Are you serious?” you exasperate. “This is the type of apology you’re going to give me? A simple ‘sorry’ and that’s it?”

“What else do you want me to do?” he furrows his brows, shooting you an intense stare that even causes you to nearly jump back. “I said sorry and I was just joking about being so obvious, so what else do you want?”

“That’s a dumb joke! At least try to look serious when you’re apologizing!”

“Alright, I’m sorry! I’m serious when I say I know it was the wrong thing to do. I’m just… not in my right mind at the moment. I wanted to prove to myself…” he mumbles his last words, voice trailing off into an inaudible volume until his eyes lift from the ground and his voice suddenly rises once again, “it’s not like you caught feelings from that one night anyways. Why’re you so worked up?”

You bite your bottom lip, holding back every urge in you to prove him wrong, because the tug of your heart and the aching of your chest which no words can adequately describe prove the pain he has caused you since that night… because truth be told, you have fallen for him—whether it be the old Hoseok or the current Hoseok, you don’t know and you don’t want to know.

“It’s because you treated me like a toy. You think I’m so gullible? You think I don’t know what you’re doing? I’m not like the other girls you’ve played with before, Hoseok. I’ve heard of the things you do to others.”

“I’m sure you have,” he retorts, a quirk of the brow tugging on your heartstrings. “In fact, it seems like you know more than you let on. And that’s the second reason why I’m here. How do you know that I used to dance?”

You nibble on your bottom lip and remain silent.

Are you supposed to tell him the truth? That you are that one girl who promised to join the club? That one girl whom seemed to have such a strong, instant connection to the charismatic dance captain? No, you don’t want to tell him, not the current Hoseok. That secret remains between the two of you—between you and the past boy, not him.

“What’s the matter? Cat’s got your tongue?” he scoffs.

“I just… heard. It’s impossible not to hear of you,” you mumble.

He quirks a brow at the implications of your statement, letting out a laugh and averting his eyes only to dart back at you. “Well, I don’t know if you’ve ‘heard’ yet, but that Hoseok is long gone. Don’t ever mention it again in front of me; it annoys me to death.”

You frown, because is he really speaking ill of the past him? The one that you so utterly miss and would much rather prefer to spend your time with than the person before you?

“There won’t be another chance for me to mention it anyways. I don’t plan on seeing you again,” you huff. “And how could you say that? The past Hoseok I knew—heard of is much more likable than you. How dare you?”

“How dare I? How dare I condemn my own past? That’s who I am, Y/N. That Hoseok is my own persona, and whether you like it or not, it’s me. And it’s gone for good,” he deadpans. “So quit searching for something that’s not there.”

You tighten your grip around the doorknob that you swear it’s become pale because your hands become numb and all blood circulation cuts off from your fingers. As much as he’s right, he gets to control who he chooses himself and his past self to be, you’re too much in denial, too much in longing over the past that you once failed to grasp and now you can’t seem to pull yourself out of it.

“Get out. Just leave. I don’t want to hear you or see you anymore,” you say through gritted teeth.

“Good,” he stares at you, all expression but irritation extracted from his face. “This whole thing was a mistake anyways. I don’t want to talk to someone who doesn’t even respect me.” He steps back, whirling around and strolling down your driveway to open the door to his car.

“Maybe I’m not deserving of your respect,” you yell out at him, “but at least respect your old self, because he’s much more deserving of it than you!”

Hoseok pauses before entering his car, scoffing at your remark, a bittersweet, lopsided smile plastering over his face. “That’s the funny thing, sweetheart, because he’s the last person who deserves my respect.”

And without another word, he drives off into the distance, leaving you angered and trampled over in a mess of both confusion and heartache. At least now you know that this person, this Jung Hoseok, is for sure a different boy than you so secretly wished he was.

-

The next day comes and you’re walking down the familiar halls you used to attempt to casually stroll through before peeking at the boy in the dance room when this time around, another person comes out reaching for your arm.

“Hey, you’re the girl dating Hobi, right?” someone hushes and you look to your right with wide eyes to find the second most renowned member of the dance club, Park Jimin.

“What’re you saying? No, no way!” you scrunch your nose in disgust, retracting his grip from your arm.

“Oh, maybe you got the wrong person Jimin,” the other boy beside him, Jeon Jungkook, mutters.

“No way, I’ve seen them walking around in the theater the other day. He was for sure flirting with her…”

You roll your eyes as they continue their discussion right before you. “You probably made a mistake. I know of Jung Hoseok, but I’m not close to him.”

“Well, whatever your relation with him is, can you please help us out?” Jimin begs, clapping his hands together and pleading you with a pout.

“I can’t help you. I don’t know what it is, and I don’t know who you are or why you’re asking me, but I can’t help!” you throw your hands up and attempt to walk away when they run after you.

“Can you please just convince him to come back,” Jungkook joins his friend on his mission. “Just tell him that we need him because Namjoon and Jin are dying without his help!”

You look over their backs to find a tall, tan boy and his other broad shouldered friend stumbling over their own footsteps. “I don’t know how I can do that. We’re on bad terms.”

“Just… just send the message! Please, you’re the only one who can! The rest of his friends just ignore us,” Jimin takes your hands in his and shakes it side to side. “Please!”

Having enough of their pleas, you press your lips into a forced smile and nod your head. “Okay, okay! Just let go of me, I don’t even know you well enough! I’ll help you out!”

“Really?!” the two of them nearly yell. “Thank you so much…”

“...Y/N.”

“Thank you so much, Y/N! We promise we’ll make it up to you!” they chime before cheering and running back to the dance room. “Promise you’ll relay our message, okay? Thanks again!”

And just like that, they disappear into their room and you’re left with yet another damn reason to find that asshole whose name still cuts you deep. Groaning at their request, you march your way down the hall only to find Junghwa and Hani huddled, occasionally throwing worried glances towards the end.

“Hey,” you grumble.

They spin around and stare at you wide eyed, stepping forward as though to cover whatever is behind them. “Oh, hey, Y/N! How was your day?”

“My day? It literally just started…” you frown, leaning to the side to take a quick peek at whatever they’re hiding. Unfortunately, and partially fortunately, for you, Hoseok is ever so conveniently chatting with his friends just a few feet down the hall. The way your heart nearly jumps out of your chest at a mere glance of his charming looks just incites an internal scream from you, your gut wrenching in both anger and pain from your last conversation with him when you give yourself one last reason to associate yourself with him. Just one more message and you’re done. Completely done. “Hey, Hoseok—”

—but just as you call out to him, his eyes dart over to you as he gives you a glare and quickly looks away back to his friends. Similar to your own friends, the boys surrounding him quirk their brows and nudge at him, “hey, I think she called for you. Did something happen between the two of you? Did she find out about the dare? Maybe you should apologize to her…”

You’re about to storm over to him and give him a piece of your mind, but his next words only causes your willpower to come up short.

“I don’t have anything to apologize for,” he scoffs before walking off into the hall.

[haroldtea]

i wrote something!!

soooo I’m a pathological “i have a fic idea and i’m never going to write it or I write a few pages and then fall off” writer buuuut I had this very cute idea and wrote 4k words of it! I wanted to post it here before ao3 because 1) not sure if I’m a fan of starting a multichapter WIP because I still may abandon it like my other stuff 2) i want feedback before i continue!!

here’s the gist: it’s princess prom except it’s a high school au and princess prom is actually homecoming. Adora is very happy and supportive of Glimmer and Bow running for king/queen. Glimmer is very, very passionate about winning. The problem is they’ve naturally got competition, in the form of Perfuma (who is equally as passionate about winning, for her own reasons) and her new girlfriend Scorpia. In a sitcom-style mishap, Adora sort of accidentally signs up to run as well...with Catra, Scorpia’s best friend who Adora doesn’t not have a crush on. The two decide to go through with it with the intention of getting eliminated from the race as soon as possible. Then, their friends come up with a different plan for them.

so, take a read below at 4k of stupidity and let me know what you think, and if you would be interested to read more :) (fyi there is a lot of swearing lol)

“I’M GONNA BE THE QUEEN!”

Adora shrieks, flailing her arms and almost knocking her lamp over in the process. She whirls around in her desk chair to face the intruder, arms raised in karate chop form (she does not know any martial arts), and finds Glimmer, who has flung her bedroom door open and has that crazed Glimmer look in her eyes that only means trouble.

“Fuck! Glimmer, you can’t just sneak up--wait, how did you get in my house?!”

“Didn’t you hear what I said?! Also, the door was unlocked,” Glimmer replies, kicking off her shoes and launching herself onto Adora’s bed, which she had just painstakingly made.

Adora presses her hand into her face, sighing. “I was kind of busy trying not to piss myself. Haven’t you heard of knocking? What if I was, you know...” she says, gesturing vaguely.

Glimmer rolls her eyes. “Please, Adora. It’s nothing I haven’t seen before. Anyway--the student council decided to bring back the homecoming pep rally!” she squeals, gleefully kicking her feet in the air.

Adora leans back in her chair, brows furrowed. “Bring back? Didn’t we have one last year?”

“Yes, but after the water balloon thing they weren’t gonna let us have it anymore, but it turns out that one senior who wasn’t gonna graduate did graduate so I guess they figured it would probably be fine, ‘cause like, who’s ever gonna try and top that?”

“Right,” Adora hums, thinking back to last year’s pep rally. Just before homecoming court was announced, a group of rogue seniors had risen from the bleachers, unleashing dozens of water balloons they had stashed in their backpacks. What ensued was a pandemonium Adora could only remember in flashes, resulting in almost the entire student body and the school’s hallways being completely soaked.

The catch was that the seniors had filled the balloons with blue paint. It had taken the janitorial staff weeks to get the gym bleachers, the lockers in the science wing, and the cafeteria ceiling (don’t ask) to look normal again. Classes were cancelled for almost an entire week because the paint had messed up something with the internal plumbing. It was single-handedly the coolest thing Adora had experienced in her living years.

It was all led by the legendary Mara Hart, notorious for sticking it to the man during her K-12 years. The prank had all but gotten her and her friends expelled, but given that she was otherwise an A+ student and no one could technically prove who was behind it (her friends were loyal to each other to the bitter end), she walked at Bright Moon High’s graduation to uproarious applause from her classmates.

Adora knew some of the more grisly details because Mara had been captain of the girls’ lacrosse team last year--effortlessly cool Mara, endlessly caring Mara, definitely part of Adora’s gay awakening Mara--but it had become something of an urban legend at BMHS over the past year.

“Wait, how do you know any of this?” Adora asks, because while she was personally connected to Mara in a small way, she hadn’t been aware that they were going to cancel the pep rally indefinitely.

Glimmer arches an eyebrow. “Um, hello? My mom’s the principal?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“And Mermista totally let it slip when I asked her about it after the student council meeting,” Glimmer adds, then pauses. “Okay, it was more like I didn’t even wanna be there and I wish no one had ever voted for me and I’ll tell you whatever, but still. I’m...” she props her face in her hands and bats her eyelashes, “in the know.”

Adora smirks and rolls her eyes fondly, turning back to her desk to shut her textbook and put her notes away. She can never get anything done when Glimmer’s around. “Okay, so, pep rally’s back--that’s cool,” she says.

“It’s not just cool, Adora,” Glimmer scoffs. “Being homecoming queen is literally all I’ve wanted since I was a kid. I thought my dream had died with Mara’s academic career, but now there’s hope again--it’s meant to be, Adora. It’s destiny.”

Adora had literally never heard Glimmer talk about this, but, “Um, okay.”

Glimmer huffs and dramatically rolls onto her back, flinging her arms out and further messing up Adora’s sheets. Lesson learned, it isn’t worth the effort for Adora to make the bed anymore. “My mom was the homecoming queen like a hundred years ago, and my aunt was the homecoming queen before that. It’s, like, my birthright!”

Adora lifts a shoulder, twisting around in her chair to look at Glimmer. “Okay, then we’ll just get you to be the homecoming queen too. Can’t your mom just...make it happen?”

“Ugh, no,” Glimmer sighs. “I already asked. It’s a student vote.”

“Oh!” Adora brightens. “That’s easy, then. Everyone loves you.”

Glimmer pouts. “I know, but it’s not just a popularity contest--it’s, like, a whole thing. Me and Bow are gonna have to do a talent show, and there’s a relay race, and other stuff that if we don’t do well in we won’t even get to be in the final vote.”

“Wait, what?” Adora doesn’t remember any of that from last year. “What do you mean, Bow? Is...he's running for homecoming queen too?”

“Ha! No,” Glimmer laughs, then her expression darkens, eyes narrowing. “I would crush him.”

“Right...” Adora says. Actually, Bow would make a pretty good homecoming queen. But Adora values her life, so she decidedly does tell Glimmer this.

“No, every queen nominee has to also have someone to run with them as their ‘king,’” Glimmer explains, making air quotes with her fingers. “There’s no boy/girl bullshit, but you do have to be in a pair.”

“I don’t remember any...talent shows, or whatever,” Adora points out. “I don’t think I’ve ever even heard of one of those happening in real life.”

“Well, obviously you never went. It would’ve all been during your lacrosse thingies and you would've been too busy making googly eyes at Mara Hart,” Glimmer replies, wiggling her fingers at Adora.

Adora crosses her arms and blushes a deep red. “I would not. I would’ve been playing lacrosse. And stuff.” Okay, maybe she did make googly eyes at Mara, but only sometimes, as a treat, and Glimmer doesn’t need to know that.

Glimmer flips back over on her stomach and levels Adora with a pout. “Adora, this means a lot to me. We’re gonna need your help to win this.”

Adora has no idea how she could possibly be of any help with this, but hey-- “Of course, Glimmer. Whatever you need. I’m there.”

Glimmer grins, eyes sparkling. “Yaaaaay. Also, my mom’s making meatloaf tonight, you in?”

Adora pumps her fist in the air. “Sweet. Hell, yes.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“This is a joke, right? Like, you’re joking?” Catra says into the receiver as she shoves another handful of popcorn into her mouth.

“I am usually a pretty funny gal, it’s true--but, ah, no. This time I’m serious,” Scorpia replies on the other end.

Catra hoists her phone higher up on her shoulder while she adjusts her grip on her Xbox controller. “Okay, please explain,” she says between chews.

Scorpa sighs, and Catra visualizes her sitting cross-legged on her bedspread, hugging one of her many stuffed animals to her chest. “I know it’s kind of silly, but Perfuma sounded really excited about it, ‘cause I guess if you win, you get to pick what charity the proceeds from the dance ticket sales go to, and...I just couldn’t say no?”

Catra smirks, mashing a series of buttons on her controller as her TV screen lights up in front of her. She’s been trying to get past this level for weeks, but she’ll probably die right before the end again whether she’d answered Scorpia’s call or not. “You are so whipped,” she says.

Scorpia sighs again, but this time Catra can hear a smile in it. “I guess so, kitty cat. Still, it sounds kinda...fun? I mean, it’s more time spent with her, if anything else. She’s talking about writing an original song together for the talent show and incorporating her Tibetan singing bowls into it.”

Catra takes that in and barely suppresses a laugh. Her New Year’s resolution was to make fun of her friends less. Some days are harder than others. “Um, wow,” she says instead. “That’s, uh...that’ll be interesting. Do I have to call you Queen Scorpia if you win?”

“Oh, Perfuma doesn’t believe in gendered royalty,” Scorpia replies. “She wants us to be known as Homecoming Monarchs.”

“Of course she does,” Catra mutters. Perfuma is endlessly kind and patient and makes Scorpia smile, so by default Catra likes her, but otherwise they...don’t exactly share identical values, let’s say. Catra brings her own point home by pressing a button on her controller and chainsawing an alien in half on screen.

“Do you...think it’s a stupid idea? The whole...running for homecoming thing, I mean.”

Catra hears the telltale signs of Scorpia-doubting-herself in her reply, so she pauses the game. “Nah. If it’s something you guys wanna do, you should go for it. Fuck what anyone else thinks.”

“Okay, thanks,” Scorpia says, sounding lighter. “I think it means a lot to Perfuma. It would be cool to win it for her.”

“Well, hey,” Catra continues, un-pausing her game. “If you need any help, let me kn--oh, fuck!”

“Catra?” Panic sets in Scorpia’s tone. “Kitty cat, speak to me--do I need to call 911?!”

“No, no, Scorpia, please don’t do that,” Catra groans, tossing her controller aside. “I just got blown up in my stupid game again, that’s all. I’m never gonna beat this final boss.”

Scorpia sighed in relief. “Aw, don’t give up, kitty cat. One of these days, you’re gonna really give it to--what’s the dude’s name again?”

“Prime something-or-whatever,” Catra grumbled, reaching for her popcorn.

“Yeah, that guy. He’ll never know what hit him.”

Catra snickers into the receiver. “Yeah, okay. Thanks, Scorpia.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The lunch period at BMHS is, naturally, chaotic. Being a regional high school, every inch of the place is usually crawling with students, and the cafeteria is no different. The student population is small enough and the cafeteria big enough to condense into one lunch period, although Adora has oftentimes heard Perfuma lament about the ethics and health concerns of overcrowding.

Adora likes chaos. She likes that the overlapping sounds of chairs scraping and garbled chattering combine to form a comforting din that allows her to drown out whatever weird TikTok plans Bow’s making (ok, to be real, she will be asking about them later) and quietly observe the antics happening at tables around them.

She takes another bite of her pudding and her eyes land on the table to their right where Kyle, Lonnie, and Rogelio from her math class always sit together. Lonnie is mechanically chewing her gum as she stares into a compact mirror, examining her eyebrows with fierce concentration. Across from her, Kyle is holding up something on his phone to Rogelio with one hand and gesticulating wildly with the other as he holds a corn dog. Rogelio is nodding along but is staring down fondly at Kyle rather than at the screen Kyle’s pointing to, one arm hanging loose around Kyle’s shoulders. Lonnie slaps her compact shut and shouts something at them, pointing emphatically to her eyebrows. They all pause for a moment before bursting into laughter. Then Kyle drops his corn dog.

Adora pointedly does not observe the table across from theirs. She’ll gladly watch the Star siblings silently and intensely do their homework for the next period, or listen to Mermista fight off Seahawk’s PDA attempts, but nothing could compel her to look at the table straight ahead.

That table was where Catra Weaver and her friends sat.

Including: Perfuma’s new girlfriend, Scorpia Garnet; Entrapta Dryl, who was dating one of the Hordak twins (Adora was ever completely sure which one); the Hordak twins in question, one of which who usually broods silently and one of which who usually stares around smiling at nothing and everything; the stylish and blonde ruler of the theatre kids who has been nicknamed Double Trouble for as long as Adora can remember; and finally: Catra Weaver. Effortlessly cool, effortlessly gorgeous, effortlessly effortless Catra Weaver, leaning back in her chair with her arms crossed, coolly regarding the rest of the cafeteria as she holds court at her table of wonderful misfit toys.

Today’s effortless ensemble: cool jean jacket, a cool crop top, cool black jeans, cool combat boots, she got a haircut recently so--

“Um, Earth to Adora?”

“Huh?” Adora says, jerking her head up.

This is why she avoids looking at Catra Weaver’s table. Or Catra Weaver in general.

“We were talking about homecoming,” Glimmer says from her seat across from Adora, raising an eyebrow. “You were totally spaced out.”

Adora clears her throat, willing herself not to blush. “Sorry,” she replies, digging back into her pudding.

“Glimmer’s trying to convince me not to run for court,” Perfuma continues, crossing her arms.

“What? Why?”

“Because it’s totally lame and stupid and a waste of time,” Mermista answers from beside Perfuma, inspecting her nail polish. She glances up when she senses everyone at the table staring at her. “What?”

“Mermista, you’re on the homecoming committee,” Bow says.

Mermista shrugs. “So? I said what I said.”

“Look, Perfuma,” Glimmer starts, sliding her hand across the table toward Perfuma. “I just don’t want you to be disappointed if you lose. Homecoming’s a really big deal to me, and I really want to win.” She smiles saccharinely, tilting her head at Perfuma, eyes gone wide. Bow and Adora exchange a look.

Perfuma smiles back. “Oh, don’t worry about me, Glimmer! I’m sure our classmates will select the most deserving and talented couple to win,” she says, then goes back to stabbing a fork into her salad.

Glimmer’s eye starts twitching. Bow slowly and gently takes Glimmer’s hand and slides it back to her side of the table. “Glimmer, we’ll do great. The most important thing is to have fun,” he says, patting her hand.

“The most important thing is the charity,” Perfuma mutters.

“That too.”

“Is anybody else we know running?” Adora asks. Glimmer and Perfuma both shake their heads in response, until Mermista sighs dejectedly.

“Unfortunately,” she groans, raising her hand.

“Wait, what?! You just said it was stupid and lame!” Bow squawks.

“It is,” Mermista rolls her eyes. “But the rest of the student council said it would look really bad if I was on the planning committee and didn’t run. I was forced against my will.”

“Isn’t that a conflict of interest?” Glimmer asks, gripping her lunch tray so tight Adora wondered if she was going to launch it at Mermista’s head.

“I don’t know? I guess not? I’m planning on getting cut as soon as humanly possible though, so whatever,” Mermista replies, flicking her hair behind her shoulder.

“We won’t win with that attitude, my love!” Seahawk roars, throwing his arm around Mermista’s shoulder and raising a fist triumphantly. “You and I are going to be the greatest King and Queen this school has ever seen!”

“Oh my god, please stop,” Mermista groans, hiding her face in her hands.

“Picture it: you, me, newly crowned, gliding down the science wing--the students stop and stare! Could it really be our King and Queen in the flesh? The teachers stare too! I am going to give them both straight A’s!”

“Please just sit and eat your sandwich,” Mermista begs.

“Never,” Seahawk says, then kisses her on the cheek and acquiesces, taking a big bite of his sandwich. Adora tries to hide her smirk when she sees Mermista blush a deep red. She elbows Glimmer and nods in their direction so she can see.

“Aw, how cute. I’m going to destroy them,” Glimmer whispers in Adora’s ear.

“I know,” Adora whispers back. “But try to at least be nice about it.”

“No promises.”

“Ok, I have to pee,” Adora announces to the table, grabbing her lunch tray as she stands, grinning at Bow’s groan of TMI, Adora!

She makes her way over to the trash cans by the cafeteria exit, waving to her friends on the lacrosse team as she dumps her leftovers in the trash and sets the tray in the dish bin beside it. She should probably go over and check in with them about practice tonight, but she really has to pee, which reminds her that she forgot her water bottle all the way back to the table and needs to refill it before her next class.

“Damn it,” she mutters to herself, still smiling at her lacrosse friends as she whips around to head back--

And crashes right into someone, their heads knocking smack together.

“Ow!” Adora yelps, losing her footing for a moment. She rubs at her stinging forehead, glancing up as she apologizes, “Shit, sorry, sorry, that was totally my fault, I--”

And stares right up at Catra Weaver.

“I...I...I...”

She blinks a few times, but yes, that is Catra Weaver, rubbing at her own forehead and fixing a few strands of hair that had come loose from behind her ears. Catra Weaver, up close and personal, who she hasn’t talked to since...

“Your forehead is fucking hard. And big,” Catra says, holding her tray in one hand as she narrows her eyes up at Adora.

“Oh, um, you too...I mean! Thanks? I grew it myself,” Adora replies spectacularly, and then promptly wants to crawl into a hole and never come out.

Catra raises one eyebrow at her. “How hard did I hit you?”

Adora scrambles to answer. “Oh, not at all! I mean, not hard. It was my fault. Are you, um, are you okay?” This is going amazingly.

“I’m fine, Greyskull,” Catra replies, sending a tingle up Adora’s spine. She goes to deposit her tray. “Just watch where you’re going.”

Adora grins dopily. “Yes. I mean--I will. Sorry. Again.”

Catra glances Adora up and down, eyebrow still raised, and goes to say something else, when they’re interrupted by a foreboding, familiar voice.

“Ah, Adora! I’m so pleased to see you taking an interest in student affairs.”

Adora turns to see Glimmer’s mom looming over them, hands neatly clasped together. Maybe looming isn’t the right word as she’s smiling brightly down on her and Catra, but she’s tall, ok? “Oh, hi Ang--,” Adora starts before remembering they’re at school, “um, Mrs. Moon. What’s up?”

Angella gestures between her and Catra. “I was just observing how wonderful it will be that Glimmer will have a friend to share the homecoming experience with.”

Adora tenses again, remembering that Catra is still standing very close to her. “Oh, haha, yeah, super great. Wait, what?” Sharing?

Then she notices that her and Catra are standing in front of the wall where the Homecoming Court Signup Sheet is hanging. A sparkly pen tied to the clipboard is dangling within Adora’s reach.

“Oh, um, actually, Perfuma’s already--”

“I think this activity will make a fine addition to your college applications, Adora. And you know how Glimmer gets,” Angella leans in conspiratorially, not bothering to lower her voice. “I think it will calm her nerves to have a friend by her side. A bit of friendly competition, even!” she claps her hands together, delighted. “I remember having so much fun with my friends back in my day.”

“But, I’m already on the lacrosse team...” Adora mumbles, scratching the back of her neck. She glances down at the pen.

“Oh, but you know schools these days, always looking for that something that makes a student stand out,” Angella says, waving her hand dismissively. “And don’t worry, I’ll speak to Coach Huntara about any scheduling conflicts. You’ll get to have the best of both worlds!”

Wait, but lacrosse was Adora’s whole thing--does she not stand out enough? Will she seem boring to UEternia? “I...”

“Oh, Ms. Weaver!” Angella says, as if she’s just now noticing Catra. “I didn’t take you for the...school spirit type.”

“I’m not,” Catra replies, crossing her arms. She smiles saccharinely and adds, “ma’am,” for good measure. God, she’s cool.

“Ah,” Angella says, creating an awkward pause before brightening again. “Well, still, here you are. Are you Adora’s running mate?”

So, sometimes Adora panics.

Look, she’s in a high-stress situation. The girl she doesn’t not have an embarrassing crush on bumped into her, talked to her, and then her best friend’s mom swooped in basically saying that lacrosse is boring and dumb and running for homecoming court will get her into UEternia. At least, that’s what Adora got from all that. And then she insinuates that she’ll be doing that with Catra Weaver.

So, she panics. She panics, and she grabs the glittery pen, and she continues to panic.

“Yep! We’re running together!” she says, grinning.

“Say what?” Catra hisses.

“Oh, wonderful!” Angella squeals, clapping her hands together again. “I must say, I think this will turn out to be a very interesting competition. You’ll have to come dress shopping with us, Adora.”

“Haha, yeah...” Adora says, quickly scribbling Adora Greyskull & Catra Weaver on the signup sheet. Oh fuck, oh god.

“Hang on a fu--” Catra starts, then clamps her mouth shut, because the goddamn principal is still talking to them.

“Oh, I wonder what you’ll do for the talent show! I can’t wait...well, I’m off. It was great catching up, girls!” Angella says, and winks, and does weird-mom-finger-guns, and then she’s gliding away as quickly as she came.

Adora continues to grin and wave awkwardly until Angella is out of sight, then she deflates. That was so weird.

Then she turns and sees Catra reach for the pen that’s still in her hand. Adora has half a mind to snatch it away. Or half a brain cell, at least. “Hey!”

“Cross our names out. Right. Now,” Catra growls through gritted teeth, still trying to grab the pen. Adora tries to hold it up out of reach, but it’s still attached to the clipboard, so the best she can do is weave her hand in and out of Catra’s way.

“Um, no? I just told her we were running!”

“Well, we’re not. Give it to me!”

“No!” Adora grunts, yanking the pen away. “You heard her--she’s gonna talk to Coach Huntara. I can’t back out now.”

“Well, I can!” Catra says, grabbing at Adora’s arm, where she has the pen tucked under her armpit. “Find someone else to run with you!”

“I can’t! They’ll want to win!” Adora says, twisting her body away from Catra. She’s having a slight meltdown over Catra touching her so much, but she’s focusing on the pen for now. “No one’s gonna want to run with me anyway.”

Catra mutters something under her breath that Adora doesn’t catch, then she snakes her hand under Adora’s and takes hold of her wrist. Adora stifles a gasp. “Wait, you don’t want to win?” Catra asks, eyebrow quirked.

“Noooo,” Adora furiously shakes her head. “No, no, no. Glimmer would kill me. She wants to win. I just, um, panicked. I guess?” The heat from Catra’s hand is searing into her wrist.

Catra glances down at their hands and back up at Adora. “So, your friend will kill you if you run for homecoming. And you just signed up in front of her mom?”

“Um...” Adora thinks for a second. “Yes?”

Catra huffs out a laugh. “Wow, you’re even more of an idiot than I remember.”

Adora feels her face redden, shocked at Catra’s casual mention of the past, and glances away. “Look, let’s just get eliminated as quickly as possible and then we can forget it ever happened. Deal?”

“Ugh,” Catra lets out a groan, leaning her head back. She tugs at Adora’s wrist a few times, finding that she isn’t budging. “Fine! As quickly as possible.”

“As quickly as possible,” Adora nods, finding herself grinning as Catra loosens her grip and pulls away. “I’m gonna take this pen home, by the way,” she calls out as Catra begins to head back to her table.

“Fuck!”

After Adora finally pees and refills her water bottle, she gingerly sits back down beside Glimmer. Poor, sweet, deadly Glimmer, who’s chattering away excitedly with Seahawk about some new music video or something.

She says, in a very tiny voice, “So, um...I think I’m running for homecoming queen?”

Glimmer whips her head around, nose flaring. She stands up, slamming both hands down on the table with a smack.

“You WHAT?!”

And then the bell rings.

[goodlucktai]

the ship sways but the heart is steady

chapter two: how the light gets in 

the untamed pairing: jiang cheng & wei ying, lan zhan/wei ying word count: 3713 summary: Wei Ying’s friends are at rock-bottom, and Wei Ying puts his life on hold to help them put theirs back together. To absolutely no one’s surprise except Wei Ying’s, his family goes with him. read on ao3

x

“We’re here,” Wen Qing says, bringing Jiang Cheng out of an involuntary doze. He realizes that the car has stopped.

He can’t see much of the estate through the glare on the windshield, so he glances into the backseat. Wei Ying is still very much dead to the world, and still sprawled against Lan Zhan, who is playing what sounds like Candy Crush on Wei Ying’s phone. Wen Ning is fast asleep on Lan Zhan’s opposite shoulder with the rabbit crate nestled safely in the loose loop of his arms.

It can’t possibly be comfortable for any of them, except maybe the rabbits.

“I’ll extract you in a sec,” Wen Qing says.

“Take your time,” Lan Zhan replies peacefully.

Rolling his eyes, Jiang Cheng drags himself out of the car. The dry heat smacks into him like a solid wall. Stretching stiff muscles, he gazes across the overgrown yard. It’s—alright, it’s a lot.

The whole property is clearly old farmland gone to seed. There’s some rusted equipment all choked through with weeds sitting off to one side of a dirt road, which wings around to a distant structure that must have once been a barn. Goldenrod is growing all over the place, and with the late afternoon sun baking overheard, it really adds to the illusion that everything has been bathed yellow.  

The villa itself is both better and worse than Jiang Cheng was expecting. It has exterior walls, at least. And most of a roof. Maybe once, it might have been someone’s pride and joy.

Wen Qing leaves the engine running, circling around the front of the car to stand next to Jiang Cheng. Her eyes look ancient with fear.

“I don’t know if we can do this,” she says. She’ll only say it now, where her brother and her best friend can’t hear. She’ll be strong all the rest of the time.

Jiang Cheng can’t begrudge her this important, much-needed moment of weakness. He bumps their shoulders together. He lets her lean on him for a bit. Jiang Cheng isn’t either of his siblings—he doesn’t know how to be a voice of comfort. The best he can do is just be here.

“What’s that stupid thing you and your siblings always say before you do something that almost gets you killed?” Wen Qing asks suddenly.

Immediately defensive, because he’s the one who started it back when he was like seven and Yanli and Wei Ying thought it was adorable and wouldn’t let it die, Jiang Cheng snaps, “It’s not stupid. It’s fucking—motivational.”

“It can be both. You’re living proof.”

“Oh, fuck you.”

She sighs, that familiar laughing sound that defangs Jiang Cheng in one fell swoop.

“‘Attempt the impossible,’” he recites grudgingly.

The sun is steadily sinking lower through the sky. All the daytime color is deep and rich now with the promise of evening, everything on the brink of shadow. A breeze rolls through the yard, catching Jiang Cheng’s hair and tossing it into his eyes. It carries smells he can’t recognize, smokey and woodsy, a little floral, clean.

There’s no smog, no oppressive diesel or baked garbage smell, no heavy industry works bleeding its fumes all over the place. It smells the way summer smelled in the books A-Li used to read to him.

He’ll get used to the heat, Jiang Cheng thinks. Summer has always been his favorite season. He doesn’t know if he’ll get used to the smell.

“Did you ever manage it?” Wen Qing asks quietly. “The impossible?”

Jiang Cheng can’t help but smile, half a dozen memories crowding forward in the space of a heartbeat. Him, and his brother, and his sister, always together. Never apart. Keeping each other safe, and even more importantly, keeping each other happy.

“All the time,” he says.

It must be the right thing to say. Wen Qing stands a little taller. Her expression goes so firm with resolve that Jiang Cheng would never have believed that she’d wavered if he hadn’t seen it for himself.

This was right, he realizes. It finally quiets the uncertain voice still loitering around in the back of his mind. Coming here for her was right.

#

Wei Ying is much more enthusiastic about the decrepit property than Jiang Cheng and Wen Qing combined, and for the life of him, Jiang Cheng can’t decide how much of it is an act to make the Wens feel better about their circumstances. It seems largely genuine.

“Can you believe how huge this house is?” Wei Ying says gleefully, somewhere in the middle of his third lap around the property. “Babe, the dining room is as big as our entire apartment!”

Lan Zhan smiles at him, likely just because he called him ‘babe’. Jiang Cheng is going to throw up on both of them at least once.

The inside is not actually quite as depressing as they feared. There’s old furniture stacked up in most of the rooms, each individual piece moldy and cobwebbed and not likely to support anyone’s weight without breaking in half, and collections of miscellaneous things, like ten-thousand stacks of newspapers in the study, and just as many empty wine bottles out on the back porch.

But there’s something to it, Jiang Cheng can’t deny that. Some sort of presence to it. A history, maybe, that haunts all these empty spaces that used to be full and busy and lived-in. It makes him linger over an old console table at the end of the second floor hallway, with a dusty jewelry box sitting on top. There are someone’s ruined treasures inside. This was someone’s home.

Maybe it could be that again.

“We’ll have to drive into town for dinner,” Wen Qing says, surveying their progress in the living room. They’ve set up camp there, since they’re losing too much light to do much else. “And flashlights. The electric company promised they’d have an inspector out here in the morning.”

Wei Ying collapses onto a dusty sofa, which is probably actively infested with something, or at the very least was at some point, and pats at the cushion next to him until Lan Zhan unfolds himself from his seat on a wine crate and joins him there.

“This place really isn’t that bad, A-Qing,” Wei Ying says. “You made it sound like they’d gutted it down to the studs.”

“That’s how it was described to me,” she says. She seems a lot firmer on her feet, now that she’s walked the length of the place and knows firsthand that it probably isn’t going to collapse on top of their heads at a moment’s notice. “What was it our cousin called it, A-Ning?”

“A rathole,” Wen Ning says helpfully, feeding the rabbits bits of dried rosemary out of his hands. “He said he was glad it was our problem and not his.”

“He’s probably just angry it wasn’t left to him in nainai’s will,” Wen Qing says.

“Is this your cousin who got kicked out of school for driving his professor’s car off a bridge or the one who was arrested for breaking and entering?” Wei Ying asks.

“Same cousin,” Wen Ning says. “He’s not very nice.”

Jiang Cheng doesn’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to asshole relatives, so he stands up and says, “Let’s get a move on. We’re already gonna be coming back in the dark. A-Ning, put the rabbits away. Lan Zhan, stop mooning over my brother.”

“If it’s gonna be dark by the time we get back anyway, there’s time for mooning,” Wei Ying grumbles.

He squeaks and scrambles over the back of the sofa when Jiang Cheng advances on him, and Wen Qing berates them for trying to break what little furniture they have three minutes after they fucking got here, and for a few minutes the old house is packed to the rafters with shouting and laughter as they jostle each other out the door.

It already feels a little fuller than it did when they arrived, in a way that has nothing to do with the suitcases stacked in the hall.

#

Jiang Cheng gets up the morning feeling unfairly jet-lagged. Everyone else is awake already, sitting on the floor of the kitchen, eating dry cereal because the fridge isn’t running yet and things like milk are still only a distant dream. They greet him with a round of sleepy but sincere hellos and Wei Ying passes him a box of Lucky Charms. 

Lan Zhan, who bought a camping generator and a power strip when they went to town the night before, holds his hand out for Jiang Cheng’s phone. Jiang Cheng surrenders it so it can be charged and refuses to admit out loud that he’s glad that Lan Zhan is marrying into his family.

By the time the inspector arrives, they’re picking their way through the junk in the kitchen. “Start with one room,” Wei Ying says, likely repeating the helpful Youtuber whose DIY videos he paid an obscene amount of his fiance’s money on the in-flight WiFi to watch. “Make it ours.”

So they’re clearing out cabinets and removing ancient rodent carcasses and sorting dusty glassware into possibly-salvageable and definitely-garbage piles when a loud knock draws their attention down the hall to the foyer where a friendly-looking, if bemused, man in a hard hat is standing on the threshold of the open front door.

Wen Qing shoves a blender into Jiang Cheng’s hands that probably hasn’t blended a damn thing in thirty years and pats as much dust off of her person as she can.

“You’ve got this,” Wei Ying says with enough belief to power a small aircraft. “And if you need me to flirt with him for any reason, just say the word. Lan Zhan will understand.”

Lan Zhan won’t understand, if Jiang Cheng is as good at reading his mico-expressions as he thinks he is. The inspector, who could clearly hear Wei Ying’s voice from like ten feet away, is already grinning when Wen Qing introduces herself.

Ultimately, after a walk around the house, the inspector has good news and bad news. He starts with the bad news.

“It could be a lot worse,” he says frankly. “But this building is practically an antique, and it hasn’t been upgraded in two decades, at least. We might be able to get away with a partial wiring, but anything less than a full one would leave you at a real risk of an electrical fire.”

Wen Qing’s whole body goes stiff. Wen Ning steps up beside her, taking her hand in one of his bandaged ones.

“A full rewiring then,” he says, firm in the way he only is when someone else needs him to be. “We’ll figure it out.”

Apparently sympathetic, the man nods. He imparts the good news. “We’ll get started on the repairs right away. I can probably get some guys out as early as this afternoon, and it shouldn’t take longer than a week.” After a beat, he adds, “We can arrange a payment plan when all’s said and done. I’m not going to hound you about a lump sum up front. We’re a pretty close-knit community out here, pretty neighborly. Don’t be surprised if you’ve got people poking their heads in at you soon.”

Wen Qing, who grew up in LA, seems to need a minute to digest that. Wen Ning seems automatically delighted.

“Hey, thanks for everything,” Wei Ying says when the inspector starts to head back to his truck.

The inspector grins and taps his hard hat in reply, looking amused. Jiang Cheng doesn’t have to search farther than two inches past Wei Ying’s shoulder to find out why.

“Jesus Christ, Lan Zhan, they’re not going to elope,” Jiang Cheng says, shoving him back towards the kitchen. “Wei Ying has literally never looked at another human being since the first time he looked at you.”

“Aww,” Wen Ning says.

“Shut up, that wasn’t—it’s annoying! Not cute!”

“It can be both things,” Wen Qing says dryly. She’s smiling.

#

Through some grace of god, the plumbing is sound. Unlike the wiring, the pipes were replaced recently enough that they’re not made of lead or polybutylene or anything else that will make them violently sick from bathing or drinking out of the tap.

This leads Jiang Cheng and Wei Ying on an expedition to the basement in search of the hot water heater. Jiang Cheng could fucking cry when they find out it’s one of those huge gas-powered tanks. Wei Ying looks up how to turn the gas on without exploding the place into tiny pieces, because of course he has data out here even though no one else does, and it’s as simple as turning a valve they find in the middle of some big fuck-off spiderwebs.

“Hot showers tonight!” Wei Ying sings when they make it back upstairs, significantly more dusty than they were when they descended. Wen Ning gazes at them with such open admiration that Jiang Cheng doesn’t want to admit there was literally no skill involved in the process at all.

The electricity inspector is proven right about curious visitors exactly four hours after he said it, as a warbling little voice calls, “Hello?” from the front porch.

The kitchen is in the middle of a thorough scrubbing, and Wen Ning isn’t allowed to put his hands anywhere near chemicals or heat or anything, really, aside from the lazy rabbits, so he pops up to his feet and scurries to the front of the house in a desperate bid to do something productive.

“A-jie,” he calls a moment later, in a tone that gets Wen Qing’s attention faster than a fucking lightning bolt from the sky probably would have. Her urgency is distracting. The rest of them don’t want to keep cleaning cabinets while Something Is Happening, so Jiang Cheng, Wei Ying and Lan Zhan get up and follow after a minute of pretending to work.

There’s a little old woman, probably well into her seventies, holding one of each of the Wen siblings’ hands and talking warmly. A little boy is clinging to her leg, peering up at them with wide eyes.

Granny, as she insists they call her, has lived in this town her whole life, and was a close friend of Wen Qing and Wen Ning’s grandparents.

“I heard about the fire,” she says, clutching their hands, “and I want you to know that I’ll help you however I can. There’s not much heavy lifting I can do, really, but—cooking and cleaning, I am more than capable of!”

Jiang Cheng, who had respect for his elders literally beaten into him growing up, would sooner walk into traffic than he would let this kind old woman clean for him. The sentiment is clearly echoed on all of his friends’ faces, and his brother steps forward to look at her with big, liquid eyes.

“Granny, you’ll stay and keep us company even if we don’t have any interesting stuff for you to do, won’t you? Even if all you do is sit here in the shade and chat with us for a bit? It’ll break my heart if you don’t, it really will.”

This earns Wei Ying a fond pat on the cheek, as he’s adopted by Granny on the spot. She does stay for a few hours, and they make a meal out of some day-old donuts and chips and sunflower seeds. Jiang Cheng watches Granny visibly come to the conclusion that they’re all incapable of feeding themselves, and something needs to be done about it, even if she politely declines to say it out loud.

Her grandson, A-Yuan, has picked his way cautiously to the little makeshift enclosure they’ve constructed for the rabbits, and crouches next to it to look in at them with wide, wanting eyes.

“Do you want to pet them?” Wei Ying says. The answer is obviously yes, no matter that A-Yuan shyly ducks his head and doesn’t answer, so Wei Ying lifts the white rabbit out and places it carefully in the child’s lap. “This is Bao. She’s my favorite. Don’t tell Pidan.”

A-Yuan giggles, carefully petting Bao’s velvety ears with the tips of his fingers. Bao is content to just sit there and soak up the affection until the end of days, the most laid-back creature on the planet.

“Pidan?” A-Yuan asks, glancing inquisitively at the black rabbit, who is chewing noisily on a piece of cardboard.

“Her sister,” Wei Ying says, lifting the black rabbit out and putting it next to Bao. A-Yuan is laughing fully, now, gifted with too much rabbit for his tiny arms to contain. “She’s silly and annoying and a trouble-maker. For some reason, she’s Lan Zhan’s favorite. Don’t tell Bao.”

“For some reason,” Lan Zhan intones solemnly. He’s looking at Wei Ying the way he’s always looking at him.

“I can’t stand this,” Jiang Cheng says to Wen Qing. “There has to be something else for me to clean, far away from them.”

“Have you seen where you are? There’s a million things for you to clean.”

But she gets up when he does, and they wander through the mostly-clean kitchen and into the pantry, where the shelves are nearly fully-stocked with foods at least ten years past their expiration. Sighing, Wen Qing ties back her hair. The curve of her neck is disarmingly delicate.

Jiang Cheng glances away quickly and refuses to think about why.

#

There’s a spigot in the conservatory that refuses to work. There’s a wall dividing the dining room and the living room that just doesn’t make sense. There’s broken windows and holes in the roof. Wen Ning walks across the second floor balcony to release an angry squirrel that they found in a wardrobe and nearly falls over the edge when the wrought iron railing bends beneath his weight. The yard and the grounds are an outright disaster.

The plot on the west side of the house was once home to a small vineyard, which explains some of the tubing and big gallon buckets they found in the conservatory. The original owners must have made their own fruit wine. The land by the barn is fenced off in a way that suggests a vegetable garden, and the rest of the considerable acreage is eaten up by the edge of a big lake, the remains of a dock leaning out over the water.

It’s all neglected, overgrown, untamed.

But, Jiang Cheng thinks, almost a month after they arrived, it’s getting there.

The last time it rained, he and Wei Ying and Wen Ning ran through the house looking for leaks, and couldn’t find a single one. For some reason it was so fucking exciting to have a roof without holes that they called people about it.

Yanli was ecstatic. Lan Huan, who, Jiang Cheng thinks, still doesn’t fully understand why his brother and future brother-in-law disappeared to California to begin with, was bemused but very happy for them. Granny brought over a strawberry sponge cake in celebration.

She’s been spending more time at the villa, anyway. One of the guest rooms has become hers, for those nights that dinner runs late and Wei Ying employs his wide gray eyes and convinces her not to drive home in the dark. All of them are more than okay with it, because otherwise she would go home to an empty house with no one for company but a four-year-old, and that makes Jiang Cheng’s stomach feel sour.

Granny says that A-Yuan has gotten attached, but she doesn’t specify what he’s attached to. It could be the bunnies, it could be all the wide open space to run around in, and it could just as well could be Jiang Cheng’s idiot brother, who carries A-Yuan around on his shoulders or under his arm tirelessly and threatens to plant him with the radishes every time he misbehaves.

They returned the rental car because someone in town had an old truck they didn’t mind parting with. There’s no A/C, but it’s not exactly a hardship to crank the windows down and drive really fast instead. Jiang Cheng usually volunteers Wei Ying for trips into town with him, because, even though he would die before he’d admit it out loud, it’s nice to have his brother to himself for a change.

If Yanli were here, he thinks, trudging through the little grocery store and deflecting most of Wei Ying’s attempts to sneak stupid shit into their shopping cart, it would actually be perfect.

#

They’re piled on the new second-hand sofa and a couple salvaged leather armchairs in the living room, watching a Dreamworks movie with A-Yuan on the satellite TV that Lan Zhan’s fuck-off bank account secured for them, when Wei Ying’s phone rings.

Wei Ying is sharing one of the recliners with Lan Zhan, tucked into his fiance’s lap with his legs draped over the arm of the chair and his head tucked into Lan Zhan’s shoulder, and it looks as though it would take an act of god to move him.

“Here,” Wen Qing says, amused, and leans over to pass the phone to Jiang Cheng.

“What are you good for if you won’t even answer your own phone?” Jiang Cheng grumbles without heat.

“Eye-candy,” Wei Ying says shamelessly.

“Hello?” he says loudly into the phone so he won’t have to spend a second thinking about what his own brother just fucking said to him.

“A-Cheng,” Yanli says.

“Oh, A-Li,” Jiang Cheng says, smiling automatically. “You didn’t call this morning. I meant to call you after dinner, but my phone died, because someone hogged the charger to play Candy Crush all day.”

Lan Zhan gazes at him serenely.

“A-Cheng,” Yanli says again, very gently. “Are you with A-Ying?”

“Yeah, of course,” Jiang Cheng says. His smile is fading. After a life spent reading verbal cues from his siblings, something about Yanli’s tone has his stomach doing somersaults. “He’s right here. What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Wei Ying sitting up. A-Yuan’s bright little voice is asking what’s wrong, and Wen Ning is shushing him. Wen Qing’s hand covers Jiang Cheng’s free one, as light and insubstantial as a bird landing on a telephone wire, until the second he needs a firmer hold.

“Of course I am, I’m okay.”

“A-Li,” he says, feeling light-headed. “What’s wrong?”

With a deep, shuddering breath, she tells him.

[spidermandni]

𝑤𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑠𝑜𝑏𝑒𝑟 — 𝑡𝑠𝑢𝑘𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑚𝑎 𝑘𝑒𝑖

note — this is a fem!reader oneshot but if i do actually write more of these, they’ll just be gender neutral. this is also really messy because it’s the first time i’ve done something like this.. anyway, i hope you enjoy it! WAIT I FORGOT TO ADD THAT THIS IS BASED OFF OF WISH YOU WERE SOBER BY CONAN GRAY!! okay bye <3

pt two

word count — 1958 words

tsukishima kei has a crush on you, one of his best friends

it’s sort of obvious to everyone except for you, which is really cliché but hey !!!

he can’t ignore his feelings and you’re very oblivious to the point where it’s ridiculous

an example? tsukishima will literally stare at you for like 10 whole minutes during class and you’ll finally look up from your desk but when you catch him

all you do is give him the biggest grin before going back to work which makes him wanna slam his head into his desk repeatedly

he’ll even compliment you and buy little snacks for you during breaks at school

“[last name], here. i got you that dumb chocolate snack you like...”

and you would turn from yamaguchi and look at tsukki like he was the one who put all the stars in the sky

“you... you got my favorite snack for me?” here you go tearing up and him refusing to make eye contact while holding his hand out

you immediately stand up give him a giant hug and stuff your face into his chest, he grunts and rolls his eyes before shaking you off and dropping the snack on your lunch box

a tiny bit of blush is visible on his face and yamaguchi snickers on the side

“hey, [last name]. your, uh, your hair looks cute today.” he stares at his feet as the three of you are walking to school together

“woooow, so i don’t look cute every day, tsukki?” you turn to him with a slight smirk on his face. he shoves you and scoffs, “shut up before i take it back, dummy.”

you’re just purely oblivious to every attempt he made to get farther with you,

this was the farthest he was gonna be able to get anyway seeing as he was a very awkward person when it came to dating and things like that.

tsukishima isn’t that type of person to socialize with a lot of people but you were. you’re that type of friend that would see one of your friends in the hallway while walking with tsukki and strike up a random conversation while he’s standing there awkwardly

but you refused to let tsukki continue to be that person 😡

which is why you were now begging him to go with you to one of the pre-summer parties!!!

“c’mon, tsukki, pleeeeeease! pretty please with a cherry on top!” you tug at his shirt and give him a puppy dog eye expression while he was dragging the both of you to the cafeteria

“no.” your jaw drops and you scoff, “why noooooot? you never go to parties with yamaguchi and i.” you give him the look again as soon as he looks down at you which causes him to whip his head back up

a noticeable blush on his face while he grumbles under his breath. “what?” you quirk your eyebrow at him

“because i don’t know anybody you know!” he stops walking and stuffs his hands into his pockets

you gasp and pout once again (it’s your thing), “yes you do! it’s kuroo’s party!!” he rolls his eyes (and that’s his thing hehe) before walking off again with you falling behind

“please, please! i won’t ask for anything else ever again! i promise, i really do like i’m serious this time!” you were now pleading in the middle of the hallway which had several people staring at you like you were out of your mind

“you said that last time when you begged me last minute to help you study for our math exam.”

“well-” he cuts you off, “and when you wanted to go get milkshakes at 1am.” you wince and try to argue against him

“but-” you groan as he lists another example, “also that one time when you begged me to watch that new horror movie with you because you were scared to go alone.”

“okay! okay! that was not my fault! there were a lot of jumpscares so i needed you! but this is different, i really do promise. pleeease, i won’t ask for anything e-”

“fuck! fine, i’ll go. just stop talking about it.” you squeal and throw your arms around him. “thank you, thank you, thank you, tha-” he flicks you in the forehead and you jump back but the grin was still visible on your face

“hurry up, yamaguchi is waiting.” he stares at the ceiling while walking but you just kept rambling on about the party

a few days later when it was finally friday night, you face timed tsukishima and as soon as he answered you shrieked

“ooooooo, tsukki! who you lookin’ cute for?” you give him a smile paired with a wink.

“when are we supposed to be there?” he ignores your question and gives you an annoyed look.

“in like thirty minutes! yama is catchin' a ride with suga, daichi, hinata, and kags. they told me to just go with you, i guess they don’t enjoy my company.” you let out an artificial weep while clutching your invisible pearls.

he chuckles while staring at your expression, “well you saying that sounds like you don’t enjoy my company, so maybe i’ll just go alone-”

“nope, see you in a few, love you!���

tsukishima heard the familiar sounds that play after a facetime call ends and he sighs

after a few minutes of preparing to go get you and what to say, he finally heads out. when he finally arrives outside your home, tsukishima rests his head on the steering wheel.

what the fuck is he gonna do at this party?

he can’t just stay by your side the whole time... or can he? NO! he can’t, you probably wouldn’t allow it and force him to socialize.

tsukishima huffs and eventually decides to pull himself out of his car to retrieve you. as soon as he knocks, somebody screams “i’m coming!” and stomping is heard.

the door is swung open and you’re stood there in all your glory. the blonde boy can feel his heart stop and it feels as if he literally stopped breathing. you look really pretty, like really, really pretty.

you’re wearing baggy ripped jeans that sort of clings to your waist with a rainbow crop top and it’s paired with boots that are barely visible because of the jeans. an accidental “wow.” flows from the tall boy’s lips

“what? do i look cute?” a wide grin appears on your face as you spin to show off your look

he covers the bottom half of his face and it’s barely audible when he says “you look pretty.” you giggle and push at his shoulder, “better be careful, tsukki! you might fall in love with me!”

when you finish your sentence, you throw a kiss his way and he just walks back to his car before you catch him looking like a tomato. “wait! wait, wait!”

you quickly close and lock your front door to chase after him. he opens the passenger seat door and waits for you to get inside before closing it. “woooooah! tsukki is becoming a gentleman now!”

“shut up.” and the drive begins to kuroo’s house. it doesn’t take long because you both just begin talking about anything that comes to mind and when you finally get there, a bunch of greetings is said.

immediately, you’re both separated and talking to different people. there were moments when you crossed paths but you were on the other side of the room, downing drinks with your other friends

and whenever he tried to make his way towards you, yamaguchi would drag him to do some random activity like play beer pong or whatever

time had passed and though tsukishima didn’t know how much, he was already tired. he felt somebody’s hand latch onto his arm and begin pulling him towards a room

“tsukishima, c’mon! we’re playing spin the bottle!” your hand clutches harder as you turn to look at him and you have a soft flush on your face along with a small smile

there was a large group in the living room playing childish games in a circle as you pulled him down and he plops with you. “let’s go! tsukishima is finally livin' a little.” bokuto screams and throws his hands

“only because [last name] is forcing him.” hinata says and gets nudged by yachi with a light glare. the game begins and a bunch of random kisses are shared. kuroo and bokuto, shimizu and akaashi, and sawamura with a girl he didn’t know

finally someone had spun the bottle and it landed on tsukishima, but you squealed out of anger. “absolutely not!”

kuroo cackles, “why not, [last name]?” everyone starts giggling while some are waiting to see what you argue with

“tsukki can’t kiss anyone but me!” you cross your arms across your chest and turn to stare tsukishima down with intimidation which, clearly, wasn’t working as few started bursting into laughter

yachi is looking at you with wide eyes, sugawara has his head in his hands, and kageyama is wheezing at tsukishima’s flustered expression.

“hey! tsukishima, seems like [last name] has a big crush on you!” nishinoya snickers while tanaka is sitting beside him losing his mind.

tsukki scoffs and stands the both of you up, “i’m going to take her home before she embarrasses herself. good night, don’t do anything stupid.”

“we won’t!” “we’ll try!” and with that, he was off while dragging you to his car with him

“awe... tsukki, does that mean you don’t wanna kiss me?” he can actually hear the pout in your voice. “that’s not it, [last name]. j-just be quiet.”

he began playing music to keep you occupied during the car ride back to your home as he thought about what the literal fuck just happened.

when he finally pulled up at your house, he went to your side to let you out but you started making grabby hands at him which obviously meant: you weren’t getting out this car unless he carried you.

a few minutes later and after a bit of arguing, the tall boy was now holding an already asleep girl in his arms like you were a toddler. you had given him your house key before just incase so it was easy for him to get you inside.

he helped you change into your pajamas and prepared headache pills and water for you in the morning when you would wake up with a hard hitting headache along with a tiny note on the side. he gave a light kiss to your forehead before leaving.

as soon as he reached his home, tsukishima cleaned himself up before laying down to rest.

he sighs as he lays there because fuck. he’s really in love with the cutest idiot on earth.

now he regrets leaving that note, and he’s stressing over the fact that he had too much confidence in that moment.

tsukishima eventually, after 30 minutes of overthinking, falls asleep.

when you rise in the morning, you look an absolute mess. you groan with a grumble of annoyance and turn on your side to see what tsukishima left.

immediately, flashbacks of last night come to your brain. you stuff your face into your pillow as you let out an embarrassed scream.

you completely embarrassed yourself in front of your best friend.

after wallowing in self pity for a few minutes, you reach for the pills and the water and finish them off.

when you’re done and turn back over to see if he left anything else, you see the note and grab it with swiftness.

What you said was really sweet but I wish you were sober when you said it. - Tsukishima Kei