#were your lunches weird? or do white people have an obsession with uniformity that needs to be called out as it is.

[euthanizememommy]

I think my favorite yt people stereotype is that they absolutely go ballistic over lunches that are little different enough to create a whole subgenre of arts over racial trauma. Like they see noodles or smell an Indian dish and compulsively not shut the fuck up about it

[thebeautyoffanfics]

Hey! I always loved your writing and you actually inspired me to write some myself so I want to request if it’s alright…

Can I have Hanako x f!reader who doesn’t believe in love (this having to due with her parents never getting along). She says that it’s just a little word people say to make them feel better about themselves and it’s a waste of time.

But she can’t help but fall in love with Hanako and gets on flustered when he’s around but tries to tell herself it’s not love. Oneshot please!

Thank you and feel free to ignore if you want!

hanako x f!reader

a/n: hello hello!! thank you so much for the compliment- that’s really sweet, and it genuinely means the world to me;; but, sure thing! (ahh, the fact that i wrote a rengoku fic about the reader feeling that way not long ago- this is a topic I’m familiar with, so I hope that it makes it turn out even better? haha) thank you so much for requesting, and I hope this turns out alright!!! <333 also, if you ever want to share your writings, do feel free to tag me/let me know somehow! I’m sure they’re amazing, and I’d love to read them, should you be comfortable with it!! :DD

bro i guess this request resonated with me bc i genuinely like,,, went off. So it’s,,, pretty long- i hope that’s alright haanofnaoinf-

warnings: implied parental issues?

word count: 2,363

Love was ridiculous. It was a stupid idea. An overused word, thrown onto any situation in which you felt something other than anger, fear, sadness, or disgust. If something made you even a little happy, you’d claim to love it. If someone showed you basic human decency, you’d claim to love them.

You hated it. It made you feel sick.

It’s not like you could control what everyone else did, you supposed. So, you’d continue on normally. If you didn’t fall in love, then there was no worry about falling out of it- that’s what you figured. That’s what you told yourself. Love wasn’t real in the first place- how could such an overused word hold any true meaning? It was like a 1st grade pinky promise. It was easily broken, as if it held any truth to it when the kids exchanged a deal. No matter how much either part of it trusted the promise, it made it no more real or true.

Yep… love was best put as a 1st grade pinky promise.

Maybe not-

Still, such a strong opinion on love, an unmoving opinion, with your own “proof” to back it up… made it hard when you thought that it may be put to question. You walked near the bathroom, the girls’ bathroom, and heard a girl from your class shout something. You couldn’t tell what, but you did notice her slightly annoyed expression as she left the bathroom.

Ah, the girl who seemed to be constantly head-over-heels for boys- particularly Minamoto-senpai, you had noted. It wasn’t like he’d return the feelings, you figured. It’s not like her “love” was anything more than an obsession.

Still, you figured there must have been some other girl in the bathroom. Yashiro probably had friends- she talked to Aoi a lot. Maybe the school’s princess was teasing her friend. You pushed open the door, noticing that all the stalls were empty. The only other entity in the bathroom was… a floating, slightly-transparent boy. He was laughing, and you went ahead and assumed it was at Yashiro’s annoyance.

You sighed, running a hand through your hair. Honestly, you just needed to pee, but it shouldn’t have surprised you. Little mokke running around the school constantly, weird things happening, a boy in the girls’ bathroom wasn’t life-changing. Or so you figured.

You grumbled, making some comment you weren’t even sure you got, as you stepped into a stall. Not acknowledging him would surely be best. You were fairly new to the school, and it wasn’t like you were insanely fond of public restrooms anyway. You’d never have to see him again. Plus, if he was anything like the other supernaturals, you were sure he’d be a handful. That was your thought process, as you washed your hands, glimpsing up at the mirror hung above the sink- you caught another glimpse at him.

An old uniform. Brown, almost shaggy, hair. His eyes were amber, and rather large- the way he held his hands, you silently compared him to a puppy. Innocent face, playful eyes- almost too alive for a ghost. He turned his head, nearly making eye contact, but you continued to study his appearance. A white… bandage? Sticker? Something- stuck to his face, the kanji for “seal” written in red.

Weird.

“My, you look as if you’ve seen a ghost,” He spoke, bringing a hand to his mouth, as a mischievous smirk came to his face.

A pain in the neck.

Your eyebrows furrowed, as you looked back down, turning off the sink and drying your hands.

“Oh? Gonna pretend you didn’t see me? How cruel,”

Still, you ignored him. He couldn’t be serious. How was he so sure you didn’t simply think you caught something out of the corner of your eye? Was he messing with you, or trying to lighten the mood?

“I don’t think I want to associate with a pervy ghost,” You said, shutting the door behind you. As if right on time, the bell rang, signaling that lunch was over. With that, you made your way to class, hoping to not have to deal with any more paranormal things.

…

Unfortunately, things don’t always go as planned. As the rest of the day took it’s sweet time to pass, you sat, spacing out as you thought about that boy. He was one of the first humanoid supernaturals you had seen at the school- honestly, you half-hoped that all of them were cute little bunnies. Not… strangely eye-catching boys… how weird.

You sighed, clicking your pen, letting the quiet sound drown the teacher’s ramblings out a bit. Ca-click, click-click, ca-click, click-click.

“Y’know, people find that little sound annoying sometimes. It never bothered me, but teachers seem to be so sensitive about it.”

Jumping, you turned your head a bit, only to be practically nose-to-nose with the boy from the bathroom. Your heartbeat increased from the surprise, but you placed your hand on your chin, pretending to not have seen anything. Not only did you not want to give him much of your time or energy, but you definitely didn’t want to attract negative attention from the normal kids around you. Your eyes scanned the room, and you noticed Yashiro looking in your direction, most likely at the boy. Yes, she definitely saw him too.

“Waaah, Yashirooooo, the new girl’s totally ignoring me!” He sighed, floating over to her. She looked away as well, focusing intensely on whatever the teacher had to say. You weren’t even sure by this point, watching the two out of the corner of your eye. You stopped clicking your pen, watching as he stood behind Yashiro, leaning against her as he peered at her notes.

He glanced at you again, and you looked away. The boy, who you were now curious as to what his name could be, floated back over to your desk, glancing at your notes.

“You really aren’t paying attention, huh! Yashiro’s not much better- her page is mainly doodles. How on earth do you plan to pass like this, haha?”

You glared at him slightly, before lifting your pen, and clicking it open. Annoyed, you flipped to another page, and scribbled something down. He leaned forward a bit, looking at whatever it is you wrote.

“Leave me alone, toilet boy.”

He laughed, patting your back. “Toilet boy? What’s with all the insults, I barely know youuuuuu- plus, I have a name. I’m Hanako. School Mystery Number 7, Hanako-san of the toilet! Not ‘toilet boy’, nor a pervy ghost.”

You raised your eyebrows, writing once more.

“Wonderful. Now leave me alone, ‘Hanako-san of the toilet’.”

Days passed, and he certainly didn’t leave you alone. In fact, you grew to find yourself spending more time than you expected to with him. You assisted with supernaturals from time to time, even meeting his two other friends properly- Kou Minamoto and Yashiro Nene. You all slowly, but surely, became friends.

“I’m done wiping the mirrors,” You said, tossing the dirty rag into the bucket.

“I’m done mopping!” Yashiro exclaimed, sighing as she leaned against the mop.

“I’ve finished dusting too,” Kou added.

Hanako nodded, clapping cheerfully. “Great job, everyone! Can’t wait to see the same enthusiasm tomorrow!!”

The three of you collectively groaned, rolling your eyes. “Yes, yes, just like that,” Hanako laughed, moving his legs to sit in the air in a criss-cross fashion. Light conversation picked up, Kou talking to Yashiro, and Hanako throwing in a comment every so often. You stood, leaning against the sink, watching your friends look so happy. Hanako glanced at you, closing his eyes as he grinned.

Your heart rate picked up, and you felt your face grow warm. Your eyebrows furrowed just slightly, as you glanced away. It wasn’t the first time a little action like that made your heart go haywire. Not just your heart- your stomach, your legs, your arms. The moment Hanako grinned at you, hugged you, or emptily flirted, you felt as though you lost the ability to function. It couldn’t be love… no, you didn’t want to fall in love.

“Right, but it's getting late, guys. I should really head home,” Yashiro spoke, putting the mop up as she did so. Kou nodded, glancing over at the clock. “I’ve got to get home and work on dinner,” He said, putting the duster away, and grabbing his things.

Hanako glanced at you.

“I don’t really have any plans. I finished homework in class, so I think I’ll linger around for a bit more.”

“Alright! Be safe when you head home, (Y/N)! I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” Yashiro spoke, waving as she left the room. “Bye guys! Be safe!” Kou added, leaving not long after she did. Silence filled the room for a moment, the only thing breaking it being the sound of your shoes as you made your way to the window seal. Taking a seat, you looked at Hanako expectantly.

“Well? Any more stories of the things I missed out on?”

...

“The Confession Tree?” You questioned, the other two humans long gone by now, leaving Hanako to recount to you previous adventures they had gone on.

“Yep! Yashiro and I took care of that one- it was honestly easier than most of them were. He’s still around, just nothing bigger than one of those pre-cut broccolis. The rumor was, you’d confess under him, and he’d make the feelings mutual~, buuut, it obviously got way out of control.”

“That’s so stupid.”

Hanako raised his eyebrows, not expecting such a distasteful tone of voice. “What is?”

“A supernatural forcing some kids to ‘fall in love’,” You made air quotes, before continuing, “it’s pretty gross. Love’s nothing more than some overused word. It’s tagged onto everything, and it’s basically used to make you feel better. It’s all a waste.”

For once, he was silent. Several questions began to circulate in his mind, but a part of him was… somewhat hurt.

“But what if I love you?” He questioned, tilting his head. His face felt warm, but he tried to steady his heartbeat. It wasn’t a direct confession. No, just a question. A ‘what if.’

You blinked, your face feeling warm. You understood- of course, it was nothing more than a ‘what if.’ “It wouldn’t be love. You’d be interested in me, only for the interest to go away eventually- even if it took a week. Even if it took years. Just… trust me, Hanako. I’m not the smartest person in the world, but- once you see it happen to the two people who are supposed to be there for you forever, you get the memo. It isn’t love. Never was, never will be.”

Those words you spoke… you didn’t like the fact that you questioned their sincerity. Especially when you were blushing, the boy who made you question those words looking at you with his big, rather beautiful eyes. “Or… that’s… what I think,” You added, the heat rising to your face only making you feel worse, as he blinked. His undivided attention on you- on what you said- made your heart beat much faster than you wished it would.

And suddenly, he was closer. Too close. Way too close. His eyes began to shut, as his face drew closer to yours. Your heart began to beat quicker than it had before- your face grew hotter than it already was- your eyes widened, as you silently questioned what on earth he was going.

One of his hands grabbed your wrist, and you looked over at your arm he was holding, then back up at him. His face was still close, so close you were sure you’d smell him if he still had a scent. So close he could probably feel the heat radiating off of your face, if he could still distinguish hot from cold.

“Then why is your heart beating so fast?” He finally questioned, thumb pressed against your radial artery, as if the warmth of your face wasn’t enough of a sign.

“Because- you’re… way too close.”

“But you aren’t pushing me away? I’ll scoot back if you want. I’m not a mind reader though, so just use your words.”

Your mouth felt dry. Why weren’t you saying anything? You could speak. Open your mouth and tell him to move. Take your free hand and shove him.

But… a part of you didn’t want him to move.

Hanako smiled once more, his eyebrows drawn together slightly, as if he were saddened by something. “I’m sorry that you were dealt a hand like that in life. It’s easy to look around and find all the negatives in life. But,” He leaned forward a bit more, nose nearly touching yours, “you aren’t your parents. You don’t need to follow in their footsteps. Don’t let their problems influence you so heavily to where you miss out on potentially great things. It’s okay to be sad about it. It’s okay to be scared. But it’s still your life, not theirs. If everyone’s overuse of it bothers you, then only say it when you mean it. Still, if you feel love, embrace it.”

Your eyes felt slightly prickly, as they watered up a bit. His sincerity… your racing heart. Maybe, just maybe… you were in love.

“I… think I love you, Hanako,” You muttered. You were scared. You were scared that he’d tell you he was joking- or that maybe this wasn’t love. Scared of so many things, stemming from one little word. Yet, you tried to embrace it.

“I love you, (Y/N). And nothing will change that,” He said, his smile widening. Quickly, he closed his eyes, closing the distance between the two of you. His lips were… cold. His touch was the only thing that reminded you that he wasn’t alive. Still, the warmth of his words made up for it, as you closed your eyes into the kiss.

His encouragement wouldn’t drown out the fear completely. He couldn’t take the memories away. But he tried… he told you that he loved you, so… you’d believe him. After all, you hadn’t heard him overusing the word. It only made that moment feel that much more genuine.

[bitchapalooza]

More hetalia highschool AU, 🌟magic team🌟 edition :)

Under the cut bc it is long ❤️

Vladimir is that one kid obsessed with Twilight but only for the vampires; it was his first ever exposure to vampires thanks to his dad thinking Twilight was an appropriate book for a 11 year old. Team Edward going strong for five years, he'd proudly declare like it actually mattered. He tries his best to dress goth at school even though his uniform gets in the way. Fake ear piercings(his parents won't let him pierce them yet), over the top makeup, he's dyed the top half of his shoes black because his parents were concerned about his obsession with black and wouldn't buy him the black tennies he wanted— "mom look, these are marked down for back to school! Can I pleeeease get them???" "....may I know why the black ones specifically?" "They match the ever nothingness of my soul." "Yep! The white ones it is then!" "Mooooooooooom!"— Vladimir has been dubbed the cringy vampire kid of course.

Lukas is into pretty much anything concerning cryptids and magical creatures because they can't be proven to be fake or real, which intrigues him. He carries a book about mushrooms at all times and info dumps on pretty much anyone about identifying poisonous mushrooms and which mushrooms are safe to eat. His backpack is covered in buttons and pins to show off his interests. He keeps an amethyst in the front pocket of his backpack, reason unknown other than to just randomly pull it out and let Mikkel look at it. He's that kid that always wears his hoodie no matter the season, he never takes it off. Under his hoodie is always a crude worded t-shirt that the school would not approve of, much less his parents. He's relatively quiet and because he's quiet he's considered a weird kid.

Arthur can't decide if punk is his style or if goth is. Either way, his way of self expression at school in addition to the uniform is horrible. Checkered black/red shoes his grandma got him with his older brother's hand me down worn out greying socks—"can I PLEASE just have my own clothes???" "we have perfectly good clothes for you in the garage! I can fix them up to fit you better and everything!" "but I want cool NEW clothes!" "those are cool clothes and as far as the other kids know, they're also new. Now get your transformer backpack and get to the car. I put a new patch on it last night so that should hold it for the rest of the year."— Old Pierce the veil shirt, with holes chewed into the collar from his older brother Dillan, peeking out from under his white polo. A black and red choker to match his black and red slowly tearing apart too big flannel on top of a black pull over. A deep blue beanie, the hoodie of his pull over almost constantly on top when outside the school. He dyes a part of his hair a different color every month. He spikes his hair using too much gel and is convinced he looks good. He talks too much about bands and always gets Vlad and Lukas going on and on about fictional creatures he does not FULLY believe in himself. He does, however, believe in magic and loves Harry Potter, more specifically the Weaselys, to bits.

Natalya is a sophomore, a year behind the boys, and she just kinda pushed her way into the friend group until they eventually accepted her into it. They were the only three she knew who liked occult related topics. She's on the baseball team because she wanted an excuse to hit things with another thing and NOT get detention because of it. She wears the khaki uniform skirt and takes full advantage over being able to wear any kind of tights underneath; skull pattern, plain black, blood splatter pattern, fire pattern. Anything that makes her feel like a badass. She's always talking about antiques and forging weapons, more specifically knives. She has a whole collection of fidget toys but her favorite is this pea pod keychain her father gave her. She's always talking about how she'd like to be a medical examiner and to just prove that she's serious, she'll bring up a picture of a human model and point out the difference between a self inflicted fatal wound and a homicide. She puts up a charade of being able to see and talk to ghosts to freak out Alfred, her extended friend first met through Tolys.

They collectively believe they're cool and that other people know this. They're genuinely blind to the obvious snickers sent their way, being called losers and nerds. They're really knowm for like really pathetic things like; Natalya is Ivan's, tallest and most intimidating member of the wrestling team, weird younger sister by a year. Lukas is just the weird quiet kid that reads by the courtyard garden during lunch. Vladimir is not only the vampire goth kid but the kid who's parents believe the teachers are giving his son low grades on purpose and will yell at them for it. And Arthur is just. He's another Kirkland, immediately assumed to be a massive trouble maker because of his now graduated brother Alistair and one grade above him brother Dillan. Everyone loved his eldest brother Darick and sometimes compare him to Darick.

Compared to what others THINK they do, such as witch craft for some odd reason, the four of them do pretty typical teen activities. Like hang out at the mall. Do their honework together. Play video games and D&D when they have the chance. The boys do have sleepovers still as they have since meeting each other in middle school, Nat not really being a fan of sleeping where she doesn't live but comfortable enough to go to their houses and just chill for the day. They have become friends because of their related interests but thats not what they're ALL ABOUT.

Fun facts/stories about these losers I thought about while bored as fuck:

• Lukas, in his freshman year, went on a nature hike field trip with his lit class after reading Into The Wild. And he brought his mushroom book of course. They walked around, looking at the sights, talked about the book. Lukas just stops at one point, falling behind the class. He picks up a mushroom, goes to the teacher and is like "You see this? Its not poisonous." And straight up fucking eats it without warning. The teacher called an ambulance even though Lukas kept telling him he was fine and that that mushroom was 100% okay to eat raw, but for sure better off cooked. Lukas calmly shows the paramedics his book and they're like "yeah that actually was safe to eat, we don't need the book to confirm that, but um. Please don't ever pick something off the ground and eat it again. Just. Please don't do that, son." .....he did it again before leaving to go back to school but this time he didn't tell anyone.

• In elementary school, Natalya brought in a model of the human brain she asked her dad to borrow. He had to say yes because she was his only child genuinely interested, not bored of, his medical profession and he found it very cute and honoring. So she's at show and tell, its her turn right, and she silently goes up to the front of the class and pulls out the model brain. Teacher tries to step in because, hey, these are 6 year olds—AND WHY DOES THIS 6 YEAR OLD HAVE A PLASTIC BRAIN??? But Nat just shooshes her. In surprised shock, the teacher is just quiet as Nat begins to explain parts of the brain and their function— which was all wrong actually. She knew the words and everything but she didn't get the locations right. She sounded confident and smart and she was telling this to a bunch of 6 year olds so they believed her of course. End of the school day, her dad is having a hilarious conference with his youngest's teacher about the brain incident.

• Vladimir loves reading. He's loved it since he began to learn how, even if his dyslexia gives him grief along the way. So since he loves to read he'll always get excited and read ahead in class or in the public library reading club. One summer, the reading club was reading The Giver and it was getting really good. Vlad was loving the story, so much so that Vlad began to read ahead in his own time when he really wasn't supposed to be, the club was reading it together out loud and discussing it. Now he's read enough and worked hard enough to figure out how to help himself focus better and understand each word and sentence without having to reread it all multiple times over or get stuck. But sometimes the meaning and context to what he's reading doesn't ALWAYS process with the words as he's too focused on reading the words right and it passes right over his head. So Vlad is reading ahead and he's getting to the part where The Giver has given Jonas the memory of the sled again. And Vlad just sits there after reading that paragraph. He rereads it. And rereads it again. And then he leaves his book on his bed, goes to the the hall closet and takes out the ironing board. He grabs a plastic container to use as an ill attempt of a helmet and he just. Rockets down the staircase and hits the wall. He screams and cries and his parents rush in from the livingroom. When asked what happened he just says "I wanted to understand the sled scene better! Now I do and I feel really bad for Jonas!" He just couldn't quite grasp WHY the sled accident hurt, never had a broken bone nor sled afterall, and needed to find out. And that's how Vlad got his first broken arm at the age of 12.

• When Alfred and Matthew moved in with Arthur's family, Arthur didn't like it. He was a moody young teen but he was also just tired of the full house. His cousins were loud and nosey. He had to share a room with his four older brothers already and now with Matthew while Kathleen and Alfred got a room to themselves. Arthur thought this was so unfair. So his solution was to run away. He was 13, he needed a place to have some peace and quiet for once. So he texts Francis and Lukas, the only two of his friends living in his neighnorhood. Francis is not on board with helping him run away at first but then Lukas brings literally all his camping gear for Arthur's use and then Francis is on board because he had the feeling Arthur was going to get himself killed somehow. So as the elder one of the group he accompanied Arthur and Lukas out to the short stretch of woods behind the last street of their neighborhood, intending to go to the big clearing before hitting the roads leading to the airport and whatever else buildings. They're out there setting everything up together and they're done by like 4 pm. They sit down and talk, munch on oreos and other snacks Arthur deemed as essential survival foods. Then Francis looks at his cell and remarks "wow its already 6! Ah, Lukas, we should get home. Afterall, neither of us ran away so we still have supper to eat. Come on Lukas, let's go before our parents come looking for us." They exchange goodbyes, Francis trying his best to hide his cocky smirk. So Lukas and Francis start walking off, Arthur crawls into the tent and eats half a cookie before frowning and feeling too alone. He didn't expect to feel alone because all he wanted was to BE ALONE. Before he knows it, he's running out of the tent yelling after his friends to stop and wait up. "Oh whats wrong, Arthur? I thought you wanted to run away." "I— I forgot I hadn't fed my rabbit is all! I'll run away tomorrow! I'm not... Feeling lonely if.. If that's what you think...." Arthur did not run away the next day. Buuuuuut the three plus Vlad made a tree house together in the Kirkland backyard that they still use today!

[let-it-show]

Bless This Happiness We Found

I wanted to write a little something for Anna’s birthday! Simple questions bring about her thoughts and well, just something nice. I didn’t really edit it because I’m very tired, and didn’t want to be much later with it. Title is from the lyrics out the outtake song “Home”! Can easily be read as Snow Sisters or Elsanna :) --- "What do you want for your birthday?" Anna opened her mouth to answer, but as soon  as she did so, she found she had no answer. "I-I don't know." "What? There must be something!" Olaf gave her a concerned look from his place on their red and white checkered picnic blanket. They'd decided to have lunch together on a beautiful summer day while Elsa took a meeting with a couple of farmers in town. Anna would have attended, and she even tried, but with her birthday the following day Elsa had told her she was to take the week off. Anna protested of course, and they almost fought about it. All she wanted to do was spend time with Elsa! Spending time with her sister was her favorite thing in the world! At the same time, it was easy for Elsa to convince her - she hugged Anna and kissed her freckled cheek, telling her just to trust her.

At first Anna had wondered if Elsa was planning some grand event, and she didn't know how she felt about that. She loved Elsa making a big deal of her birthday, she really did, but what would require a week off? If Elsa was planning a huge party, she didn't know that she was ready for whatever was coming.

However as the days went along, she found herself relaxing. She'd been so invested in being the second queen of Arendelle, so invested in leading, that she'd found...well, she lost parts of herself that came back as she relaxed. She felt them as she leaned back on the blanket, clad in the beautiful dress that Elsa had given her years prior during the first birthday in forever. Her hair hung free, resting on her back. "Nothing comes to mind Olaf," she finally answered. "I know I'll get some things, Elsa has given me a different dress every year and-and you know her, she spoils me! I know you and Kristoff have been whispering..." She smiled at him and he chuckled. "...Mattias carved me that duckling last year, and I saw him working at something the other day."

"Oh." Olaf leaned back as well and looked up at the blue sky above them. "I guess if you know you're getting so many gifts, it's greedy to ask for them! Elsa must feel that way since she gives away gifts on her birthday each year."

Anna stared up at the sky as well. When had she last spent lots of time outside the castle with Olaf, just staring at the sky? There were no clouds for them to find shapes in, but she didn't mind that. "Elsa just loves to make everyone around her so happy...so do I! But her birthday is during that time of year, so it makes a little more sense." Elsa had begun to let Anna join with her in planning the gift-giving each winter, and Anna loved it. She loved her sister so much.

"Elsa doesn't have to give gifts to make anyone happy. Neither of you do," Olaf commented. "I'm happy right now! We haven't done this in a while."

A grin broke out over Anna's face, her gaze still on the sky. "I'm happy too."

"Hoo hoo! Queen Anna, you look so happy!"

Anna paused on her walk through town, having spent time with Olaf until he dozed off. Actually, she stayed for a little while, until her foot fell asleep. She kissed the top of the little snowman's head before deciding to go on a very leisurely stroll, something she hadn't done in a while.

She was usually with Elsa, so she missed her, but it was still lovely - especially when a friendly face greeted her. "Oaken! Hi! How are you?" she asked, making her way over to his kiosk. She could never quite pin down how his business worked. Sometimes she wouldn't see him in town for a while and he'd be in his store where she'd met him years ago. Other times, he'd be peddling remedies for stress relief and offering massages to various Arendellians.

"Very well thank you! Tomorrow's your big day!" he said with a smile and a wave from his place behind his counter. On display he had flowers, sunhats, and bottles of...of mysteries. She wasn't sure.

Anna bounced closer though. She hadn't chatted with him in a while, not having proper time. "Yes, it  is," she said with a laugh. "You always remember!"

"How could I forget your birthday?" he asked, and reached for what was a surprisingly huge pile of sunflower bouquets, pulling one wrapped in an orange ribbon. "Let me give you some flowers to start your day with!"

"Oh, thank you!" Anna squealed. She was never able to turn down sunflowers! She took them with a smile as she bounced on her heels, and then buried her face in them. Her love for sunflowers was almost an obsession, and she never put together quite why, other than being bright and sunny. They just made her so happy!

"You're so welcome! But I'm sure you have grander birthday wishes, ya? What have you asked for this year?" He placed his palms together and tapped his fingers against each other, an excited look on his face.

"I haven't asked for anything, I don't really know what I'd want!" Anna replied, her eyes closing as she remained in her flowers for another few seconds.

"Oh no? Nothing at all?"

"Nope!" she answered brightly.

"Oh!"

When Oaken failed to follow up with anything else, Anna opened her eyes. "Is...is that weird?" she asked, somewhat confused.

Oaken chuckled. "No, no. Well...yes. Usually people want something for their birthday! Even if it's not a material gift, they want something! Are you sure there's nothing you're looking for, Anna?"

Anna sighed. She really couldn't think of anything. She had a wonderful life in the castle, and was surrounded by everyone she loved. Most of all, she had Elsa! She couldn't wait to see her again that evening when she knew the meeting would be over. What was she supposed to ask for? "Not really...I know I'll get gifts tomorrow and I'll love whatever I receive, but I don't want anything in particular. As long as nothing bad happens, I'll be happy." That was the truth. She half wanted to say that she hoped for a day where no one wanted to follow mysterious voices and the earth stayed calm, but those would be strange things to say just for the sake of conversation.

Life had been fairly normal. There'd been no disruptions, just days of being a ruler of a kingdom, which could be tiring. Elsa handled it impressively.

Oaken watched her for a second, and then a light chuckle escaped him. "Well, then I'm very happy for you Queen Anna," he said simply, and Anna knew he meant it.

The time to see her sister was drawing closer and the sun was beginning to leave its place high in the blue sky. Anna had made some small talk as she walked, and eventually she found herself in front of the statue she'd had dedicated to their parents. She shifted her sunflowers in her arms as she looked up at them, chewing her lip. She couldn't really remember a truly happy birthday with them, which was somewhat sad. Sure, they celebrated it with her and gave her presents and dinner and there was a very minor celebration in the castle.

And every year, Elsa's door stayed closed without Anna understanding why.

"Good afternoon, Your Majesty! Or perhaps it's good evening by now."

Anna was taken from her thoughts by a familiar, smooth, calming voice. It was a voice she was always happy to hear, and she turned slowly to face Mattias as he approached. "Evening, I suppose. Hello Mattias!" she replied, not bothering to correct him - he knew it was more than okay for him to just call her by her name. He preferred to use her title though, and she respected that.

"How are you doing? Enjoying your week off?" he asked her, continuing forward and stopping beside her to look at the statue.

"Oh, yes, very much. It's been wonderful. It's strange not doing all my meetings and not being in the study but...well, it's also so good to...um..." She felt a little strange telling the hard-working man that it was nice to have less on her shoulders. Even if it was the truth, it seemed a bit awkward to say that to Mattias, dressed in his guard uniform, patrolling like he always did. Anna could tell it brought him a sort of peace.

He glanced at her, a hint of amusement in his face. "It's fine to say you're enjoying not working. From all I've learned about you, it seems being a Queen of Arendelle was never exactly in your plans."

"Oh!" she placed her hand lightly on her chest, laughing nervously. "Well no, it wasn't - I don't, I don't hate it! I don't even dislike it. I just miss some of my life before."

"Understandable," Mattias said with a little nod.

Anna took that as encouragement to continue. "I had responsibilities before! I helped around town and when Elsa would stop being so stubborn I would do what I could with her work. Then we had time to be with each other. That's kind of how it is now, except, I have to be a little more involved because of my title...we still have fun though! And I see her every day since she returned from the forest!"

Mattias glanced at her again, before turning to face her completely. "So despite the change, you're happy? Really happy?"

"I...yes, I am," Anna answered in a small voice. "Why do you ask?"

"Your birthday is tomorrow, correct?"

"...Yes?"

Mattias smiled, letting out the air of almost quiet laughter as he regarded her. "I know birthdays can be a time of reflection, of thinking about what we've accomplished in life. At least, I did that every year in the forest. Anyway, finding you out here looking at the statue of your parents drove me to ask."

Anna felt her shoulders relax - she hadn't even known she'd been tense. Mattias had such a way with his words, so able to calm her when she needed and providing a sense of comfort she hadn't felt from an older male figure in her life in years. Someday she'd have to show him just how much she appreciated him. "I see. Yes, I was thinking a little, mostly about my birthday and how happy I am to have everyone here. My birthdays used to be very lonely, but now..."

"Now?"

Anna shrugged a little. "Well now, things are better than I could have ever thought. I have Elsa, I have my family - that includes you - and I get to do good for my kingdom. I don't have to do it alone. It's a lot of work sometimes but...but then I have days like these, where I can walk around the town and everyone says hi to me. Everyone knows me and no doors are closed. I do what I can to help them, and they support me." She was very, very happy.

Mattias didn't answer right away. He kept smiling, and looked back to the statue. "So...what do you want for your birthday, Your Majesty?"

"Oh..." Anna laughed, she should have expected it. "I can't think of anything. I've tried several times today and just couldn't. There's nothing I could ask for."

"Nothing at all?" he asked, but he didn't sound disbelieving.

"Nothing at all," she responded quietly, looking up at the statue. She didn't follow it up with anything else, just regarding her honored past, though in a way it felt like she was looking at two strangers. In that moment it didn't bother her. She wasn't feeling alone.

When she finally approached the castle a little while later, Elsa was crossing the bridge to meet her. She was in her green dress that she'd made years ago - she had been wearing it all week. Magic dresses rarely had to be laundered, it appeared.

"Anna!" Elsa threw out her arms as she greeted Anna with a huge smile. It was like they hadn't seen each other in months when it had been just hours. Elsa hugged her with such intensity too and she always did that.

It was a hug that let Anna know she'd never be pushed away again, and she melted into it as her bouquet dropped the short distance to the ground. She returned the embrace eagerly. "Oh Elsa! I missed you!"

"I missed you too. The meeting lasted forever...have you had a nice day?" Elsa asked, still squeezing.

"It's been a lovely day. But you know, I wish you'd been at my side," Anna told her quietly.

Elsa finally released her, only to run her palms down Anna's arms to take her hands, holding them down between them. "I would have liked that too. Tomorrow I will be, my schedule is cleared just for you. We can do anything you want. What would you like to do for your birthday?"

It was that question again, though framed differently. Her answer was still the same. "I don't know. Nothing in particular."

"Nothing...? Surely there's something that would make you happy?" Elsa asked, tilting her head a little, the tiny snow diamonds in her hair sparkling despite the setting of the sun.

Anna almost laughed because of how-how dear Elsa looked in the moment, so ready for an answer, so ready to please. How could she ask for more than that? Standing on the bridge, hands joined, while Elsa's gaze met her own - after a day of seeing friends and knowing she was somewhere that so thoroughly loved her.

She squeezed Elsa's hands and leaned forward until their foreheads touched, her sister face so close to her own. "I am happy, Elsa." She watched the beautiful smile that spread across Elsa's features, something she always loved to see. Yes, she was sure of what she was saying. "I am very, very happy."

[kimvvantae]

puzzle; 6 (m)

➜  you and jungkook are best friends of a lifetime, even though your personalities are like unmatching pieces of a puzzle. the line between friendship and something more has never been crossed between you two - but that changes after a break up and a drunken night, when you not-so-accidentally cross this line to something much more. what happens when after this accident your non-matching puzzle pieces seem to match in a way you’ve never imagined?

pairing: jungkook x (f) reader

genre: smut, angst, comedy; friends with benefits au; college au

warnings: lots of swearing, unprotected sex (use condoms y’all kids)

rating: 18+

word count: 13k wooohoooooo

A/N: i listened to the same 4 songs over and over again while writing and i think it kind of sets the mood for this chapter so hm if you guys like listening to music while reading here goes a small playlist:

Jungkook - If you (read the lyrics pls)

Whitesnake - Is This Love

BTS - Jamais Vu

Sam Smith - Lay Me Down

enjoy!

➜  Chapters: check up masterlist in bio!

« playlist »

“You’re acting weird.”

You finally look up when you hear this, just to see Hoseok frowning at you.

“I’m not.” You’re quick to say, shrugging.

“You’re really acting weird. Is everything okay?” Hoseok insists, crossing his arms.

Hoseok is not what bothers you the most, though, but another pair of eyes watching you like a hawk.

Jimin knows why you’re acting weird. Since that day at Joy’s house, he has been staring at you like this constantly - half judging, half worried. 

It’s very annoying, to be honest.

“I’m just… a little bit stressed.” You admit, shrugging again. Fortunately, Hoseok isn’t as observant as Jimin, so he seems convinced.

“So, what did you guys want?” You ask, changing the topic. They came after you in the cafeteria while you have lunch after all.

“Ah! I almost forgot,” Hoseok starts. “You quit your job at the coffee shop, right?”

“Yes. It was way too stressful and my boss was a bitch.” You huff. 

“So you’ll be free this weekend?” He asks. You nod, but if he’s about to invite you to a party or something, you’re ready to say no. “The thing is, you know that me and Jimin have this job as waiters, right? There’s a wedding this weekend and they’re needing staff. So, if you’re interested, you can come with us on Saturday night. The payment is decent and it’s just easy stuff to do.”

Your mood lightens up at this. “Yeah, sure! I’ll go. I really need money right now.”

Hoseok smiles and claps his hands together. “Alright! I’ll send you all the information later. They’ll give you a uniform, so don’t worry about clothes. I have to go now. Bye!”

He leaves.

Jimin stays.

You just keep eating quietly, Jimin’s heavy gaze on you, until you finally get annoyed.

“Jimin, what do you want?” You cross your arms and glare back.

Jimin slowly quirks one eyebrow. “Won’t you ask me if Jungkook’s going?”

“Why would I ask if he’s going or not?”

“Because you guys aren’t talking anymore.”

“Thank you so much for reminding me of this, Jimin." 

He realised that he went a little too far just by seeing your clenched jaw and the anger in your eyes. Jimin sighs and shrugs. "Anyways, yes, Jungkook is going. But not to work as a waiter, he’ll take pictures instead.”

“So what?" 

Jimin swipes his hand over his face and shakes his head as if he can’t believe what he’s seeing. "I think you’re so stupid. Both of you. My fucking God.”

“You know what, Jimin? That’s none of your business.” You finally get up and take the tray rather roughly, walking away without looking back.

Maybe you were a little too rude with Jimin, but he’s being unbearable these days. 

It’s been one month since that day at Joy’s house - one month since you and Jungkook have been avoiding each other like the plague.

And maybe you were a little too rude with him because deep down, you know he’s right.

As usual.

tae: wyd?? 👀👀

you: working

tae: ??? didn’t u quit ur job

you: yea

you: it’s one night thing

you: i need the 💸💸

tae: oh

tae: ok

tae: i’ll ask later then

you: wAIT

you: ask what??????

tae: later

tae: u should work first~

you: but im curious

you: i can’t work if im curious >:(

tae: 🙊

you: tae????

you: taeeeeeeee

you: TAEHYUNG

He doesn’t reply anymore.

You groan, shoving your phone on your back pocket again, and leave the restroom. The guests hadn’t arrived yet since the wedding ceremony is still ongoing, but the kitchen is already a mess: people yelling orders, the delicious scent of good food in the air, cooks cooking (duh) and waiters getting ready. The boss has already given you the last instructions, but it’s not as if working in an event like this is a difficult task: serve the guests, smile, be polite, walk around the hall, try not to break the crystal glasses that cost more than what you can pay.

The hotel is pretty fancy, actually. You were expecting a smaller wedding. Not that this is a problem, of course. The only problem here are the heels that all women are forced to use; it’s not too high, but walking around endlessly the whole night in these will be painful for sure. The rest of the uniform is that standard - black pants, white button shirt, black vest and bow tie, hair tied in a perfect high bun, simple makeup. 

You walk to the hall to make the last adjustments in the decoration. Pretty much everything is in place, so there isn’t much to do. The tables are organized, the floor is pristinely clean, the white flower bouquets are in place. A DJ will be in charge of music tonight.

You stand at the back of the hall, almost hidden, just to check your phone once more; no new texts. Now, you can’t stop thinking about what Taehyung wants to ask. He knows you’d get all curious. You and Taehyung have grown closer these days: late phone calls, endless texts, random memes at random times. You hadn’t gone on a proper date yet, though - and you don’t think you want to.

Taehyung is a nice guy and a good friend, but you don’t want to take things to the next level - even though this seems to be Taehyung’s intention since the beginning. He has been insisting in you for quite a long time now meanwhile all you do is keep a certain distance. You didn’t really give him any real hopes yet and you’re afraid that Taehyung might be reading your actions in the wrong way. Truth be told, it’ll be so shitty of you to keep his hopes high when you won’t go anywhere with this.

Your feelings are all messed up. 

Because you shouldn’t even be feeling anything in the first place.

Ironically, you’ve never been friends with benefits with anyone before. You did have some fuck buddies in the past, though - but you were never friends with any of them. You never got involved with any of your actual friends. Sure, there was that night when drunk-you and drunk-Jimin made out at a party (you don’t talk about it), but at that time, you had just joined college and neither you nor Jungkook were close to Jimin yet, so it doesn’t really count. Also, you and Jimin never had sex - you just kissed, nothing more.

But of course dumb you had to be friends with benefits with your best fucking friend. Of course you had to destroy your friendship like that. Everyone knows that sex is a friendship destroyer. Everyone!

One month without Jungkook felt like being in the desert without rain. You have good friends, but none of them are that special person that’s somehow able to read you mind and understand you even if you don’t say anything. None of them know the type of meme you’d laugh at, none of them sent you random snaps at random times of the day. Worst of all - you didn’t watch Endgame together, when you’ve been watching every Marvel film together ever since you both started obsessing over heroes years ago. Every. Single. Marvel. Film.

You didn’t get to see Jungkook crying during the last scenes of Endgame. Jimin didn’t say if he cried or not, but you know he cried.

That’s devastating.

Truth be told, you don’t even miss sex. Sure, you and Jungkook are the perfect match in bed, and you caught yourself masturbating at night wishing it were Jungkook’s fingers inside of you instead (touching yourself has never been so depressing), but what you actually miss to the point it hurts your chest are the small, familiar things. The comfortable silence. The funny banter. Going to Burger King together late at night after a party or when none of you want to cook. Showing each other funny videos or discussing about the latest chapter of the manga you’re both reading. Jungkook ignoring your texts for hours because he’s too focused on playing Overwatch. You even miss the way he never lets you eat the last slice of pizza, goddammit.

You simply miss him.

What leads you to another thought - something that has been growing stronger in your mind.

After days of self denial, you finally admitted that you were jealous of Jungkook and Joy.

There’s no other explanation for the way you acted that day at her house. You were mad that she was touching him and getting too close. That’s weird. You’ve never really been the jealous type. You never minded when people tried to flirt with Jungkook.

You’re not jealous of friends.

Even so, you had a jealousy attack and didn’t rest until Jungkook’s attention was yours again.

Being totally honest with yourself, you’ve been jealous of Joy ever since you found out she was interested in him.

…what the fuck?

Something inside of you have changed, and only now you’re brave enough to admit. Somewhere along the road, you stopped seeing Jungkook as just a friend. He’s currently in that blurry and confusing level - not only a friend, but at the same time, not more than a friend. You don’t know what the fuck he is anymore.

More importantly… do you want to be more than friends?

If you and Jungkook make up, will you be able to go back to what it was - just friends?

Or are you just being possessive? Did you start seeing him in a different way just because you realized you’re about to lose him?

You don’t know the answer to none of those questions. What you know at the moment is that being away from him fucking hurts. You have the same friends, go to the same places, study at the same university, but barely see each other anymore. What’s that thing people say? You just start valuing things after you lose them.

Jimin asked you not to play with Jungkook’s feelings. What he doesn’t know, though, is that you’re so confused about yours that you don’t have time to play with his feelings.

When you realize the guests are about to come, you force your brain to focus on your current task. You stand back with the rest of the waiters as, slowly, the elegant guests get into the hall, sitting at their respective tables, and soon the place is filled with conversation, laughter and music. 

After everyone took their places, the main couple finally come.

The lights change. The DJ plays a special song. Guests stand up and applaud when they enter the hall, smiling, and walk to the center to have their first dance as a married couple.

You could have noticed how the bride’s dress was beautiful. You could have noticed how her front teeth was dirty with lipstick and how the groom tried to discreetly tell her about this. You could have even noticed how one of the kids was starting to have a tantrum and his mother half-screamed, half-whispered, if you don’t be quiet you’ll be grounded for one month!

But you don’t notice any of that, because the photographer enters the hall right after the couple does.

Your heart flutters in a funny way.

Jungkook is wearing a suit (you don’t even remember the last time you saw him in a suit); black and simple, but it fits him so well. He isn’t much different from all the other man, except for his long hair - his black hair is so long he can probably tie it now - and his ear piercings. He holds his camera to eye level, capturing every moment he can from the couple’s first dance, a backpack with other tools hanging from his shoulder. 

Everyone else is focusing on the couple - but you can’t look at anything else but him.

He looks so handsome and focused and hot and-

Hey, you’re here to work!, you remind yourself angrily, shaking your head and walking back to the kitchen.

Drink after drink, tray after tray - you and the other waiters and waitresses walk around the hall to serve the guests. It’s not a difficult work, but still tiring nevertheless. It’s also hard to balance yourself and the trays with these high heels. Soon, you’re immersed in the work and momentarily forget about everything else, although (unconsciously) you try to avoid being seen by a specific someone.

Time passes by and the party goes on. Parents make heartfelt speeches, everyone cries. The DJ plays popular songs and soon the dancefloor is full. Alcohol already starts to get into their heads. Men are either speaking and laughing too loud or crying, hugging the groom. Women already forgot their high heels and their elegance, twerking shamelessly and screaming. Kids do the usual - run, yell, fall and cry - and they almost throw you on the ground twice. Someone spills champagne on the floor; you rush to clean it before someone ends up slipping. There’s the eventual noise of glass breaking. A certain dude has asked for your help far too much and you start to avoid him, noticing that he’s staring at your ass. Another guest pukes and is taken to the infirmary. As usual, you hear old women complaining about the food, how the decoration is ugly, how one waiter was rude, how the DJ doesn’t play the songs they want-

“The photographer is so hot! What’s his name?!” You hear someone giggling.

You gulp.

Jungkook is just doing his job, but that boy can’t go unnoticed, not even when he tries. You don’t know if he saw you yet, and honestly, you hope he didn’t.

Just do your job. Just do your job.

The night goes on. Your left foot hurts and you need to pee, but gladly most of the guests have already left - the groom and bride left first and the party went on without them -, the hall is almost empty, which means it’s almost ending. Now, you busy yourself with cleaning the hall.

“Man, I’m dead,” Hoseok groans, stretching his back. You nod, putting some empty glasses on a tray to take them back to the kitchen.

“Now imagine bearing it all in heels,” you say, not being able to keep your nice posture anymore. Not that there are many guests anyway - most are too drunk or sleeping on the tables. The DJ is still diligently playing, though. 

“The night was productive after all,” Jimin chirps happily, approaching you two with a smug  grin on his lips. You see he’s holding a small paper between his fingers… someone’s phone number.

“Son of a bitch,” you say under your breath. Jimin just shrugs and smirks. Much obviously, you apologized for your rudeness before you came. The fact that he forgave you so easily made everything worse, honestly. Jimin is a nice guy with his friends (way too nice for his own good sometimes) and it just shows how he doesn’t deserve to be treated in a rude way.

“I’m just taking the chances life gives me!” He chirps again, making you roll your eyes.

“Anyways, what’s wrong with Jungkook?” Hoseok wonders, crossing his arms and frowning. “He didn’t come over the entire night. Is he avoiding us?”

You gulp.

Instantly, your eyes travel to where he stands in the nearly-empty dance floor. He smiles politely to some women that stand around him. Everyone’s obviously too drunk and they’re probably talking nonsense.

He’s avoiding me, you realize sadly. 

“He’s working, Hoseok. His job won’t end if the guests keep asking for pictures.” Jimin is quick to say, what indeed makes sense, but Jimin also knows very well why he has been keeping his distance. Hoseok is the only one that doesn’t notice the strange tension in the air.

When you notice you’ve been staring for an embarrassing long time, you immediately shift your gaze to the dirty plates in front of you, organizing them in a pile to take them to the kitchen. You came here to work. That’s it. Focus-

An excited scream tears the air.

“I loooove this song!” One of the girls on the dance floor scream, the one that has been clinging on Jungkook ever since the crowd started to dissipate. Much obviously tipsy, her eyes were glued on him the entire night (not that you’ve been noticing the people checking him out. Of course not). “Jungkookie, dance with me!”

You almost gasp.

Jungkookie?!

That’s when you finally notice the face Jungkook is making - and you try your best not to laugh.

He has that look that means oh my fucking God someone please take me out of this situation.

The two boys by your side don’t try to hide the laughter as well as you, watching the desperate Jungkook try to turn her offer down - an awkward smile, eyes shifting from her, a muttered apology (I still have some work to do…) but the thirsty girl is surprisingly insistent (you can stop for a little bit, come on!).

“I feel sorry for him,” Hoseok almost chokes as he tries to stop his giggles. You kind of feel sorry, too. He can’t be rude to a customer, otherwise he’d be punched by her relatives - not that Jungkook would be rude anyway. He steps back, scratches the back of his neck. The girl is almost climbing him. He looks around desperately, trying to find a way to escape-

“Why don’t you help him, Y/N?” Jimin says sweetly.

You side eye the sugar-coated snake you call friend. “Jimin.” Is all you say in a warning manner.

Someone that doesn’t understand the situation wouldn’t think anything weird, because you’re actually used to save Jungkook from crazy girls. The thing is, sometimes he’s too nice to turn girls down - and yes, girls do chase him. When he’s not interested in them, you’d usually understand the situation and run on his rescue, most times pretending to be his girlfriend so the girls would stop bothering him. It’s something funny and you’d always laugh your asses off right after.

Not now.

You definitely don’t want to laugh now.

Jimin is being far from innocent. He just wants to push you two into each other. He may have good intentions, but he’s not considering the fact that you don’t feel ready to face Jungkook - not when your feelings are so messed up. This ain’t happening.

“Yeah, Y/N. Jungkook looks pretty desperate,” Hoseok remarks, again, oblivious to the tension lingering in the air.

“Jungkook can handle himself very well. He doesn’t need my help.” Even though Jimin feels your menacing glare and sees your jaw clench, this boy is very brave and insists:

“Come on, Y/N! It won’t hurt.” He says innocently.

Yes, it will hurt. It already hurts, dumbass.

“Did you guys forget that we’re here to work? I don’t want to be reprimanded.”

“The hall is near empty. There’s literally nothing to do anymore.” Hoseok doesn’t understand why you’re glaring at him now.

You’re trying to control your nerves, but it’s getting hard not to feel your stomach jump in a weird way and your fingertips tremble. Just the idea of approaching him makes you weak, and not in a good way. Why these people can’t just leave you alone?!

“Do you think that avoiding him forever will work?” Jimin hisses on your ear, low enough so only you can listen, finally showing how pissed he really is.

What he says gets you.

Avoiding each other isn’t working, you know this very well. You remember the way you used to deal with things in the past - talking. Sure, you won’t be able to really talk right now, but at least you’ll have a chance to approach him.

You don’t want to. You really don’t. But at the same time, you want to. You miss Jungkook. 

Besides, he can’t run away from you in this situation.

You take a deep breath and gulp, trying to ease the tension. Come on. I know Jungkook. He’s the same bastard I’ve known my whole life. Stop being a pussy. I’m not a pussy!

“Just to make clear,” you whisper back to Jimin. “I fucking hate you.”

“You love me.” You wish you could rip that triumphant smirk off his face.

You walk over to the dance floor.

The few couples dance slowly and intimately. Because of course it had to be a slow dance. Of course it had to be a romantic song. Haha. Of course. The Universe must be playing some trick on you. 

Jungkook managed to run away from the girl, trying to hide in the corner of the hall, and she’s searching for him like a hawk. You wonder if she’s this drunk or if she’s just stupid. A guy literally running away from you isn’t already a message enough?

You walk quickly to where he stands, and the moment Jungkook turns around and lays his eyes on you, shock covers his features.

“Y/N-?”

“Quick, dance with me,” you say hurriedly, placing his hands on your waist. “She’s coming.”

Instead of questioning, Jungkook immediately starts to play along as you place your own hands on his shoulders. You discreetly watch when the girl finally finds you.

She stops on her tracks.

“She saw us?” He asks without looking back.

“Yes.”

“And?”

You see fire in her eyes.

“If she had a gun, she’d probably shoot me.” The girl looks outraged that you stole her chance to grind on him. “Oh, she’s turning away.”

Jungkook sighs in relief. “Thanks God. She’s been bothering me all night!” You can’t help but giggle.

For a millisecond, it feels like nothing has changed.

But then you look at each other for the first time.

It might be dramatic, but you almost feel that the temperature drops around you.

Oh shit.

You avoid each other’s gazes at the same time. It feels so tremendously awkward to be in front of him again - especially when you’re slow dancing in the dim light of the hall, almost hidden. It feels uncomfortably intimate. Especially because you’re both keeping a distance that normal couples wouldn’t. You probably look like a weird couple at a prom party that were forced to dance together.

It feels foreign.

The way you touch each other doesn’t feel right. You have touched each other in the most intimate and obscene ways, yet the simple touch of his hands on your waist doesn’t feel right. Despite this, you feel your blood boiling with a strange type of excitement; you missed him so damn much. Even in this uncomfortable situation, you can’t help but feel a little bit happy. You didn’t know you’ve been craving for his touch so much up until now.

What’s weird is that you don’t even feel like this in a sexual way. You’re not aroused. Considering how your relationship became strictly sexual these past months, your lack of arousal to be around him is weird.

The butterflies in your stomach and the way your hands are shaking a little bit is also weird.

For some moments, you just sway from side to side in an overwhelming silence. You have no choice but to listen intently to the song being played. As if you already don’t feel fucked up enough, you’re forced to listen to a love song - an 80s love song on top of that. Of course it has to be Is This Love by Whitesnake. Of course. Haha.

“Uhm… thanks.” Jungkook finally breaks the silence. His voice lacks confidence. He probably never talked to you like this.

“Just helping out a friend,” you say and instant regret smashes you. You don’t know if he’s still your friend. 

Jungkook looks scarily annoyed for a second. “A friend. Sure.”

Is it inappropriate to notice how he looks handsome when he clenches his jaw?

Honestly, has Jungkook always been this handsome?

Sure, he has always been like this. Maybe not seeing him in a long time made you feel this way. His hair has grown a lot. He looks extra fine in this suit. Every man looks better in a suit, but Jungkook looks like a deity. 

The butterflies in your stomach are going crazy.

You did miss him a lot. 

The silence makes you pay attention to the song again.

Wasted days and sleepless nights

But I can’t wait to see you again…

Hah, I know how it feels, you think - what makes you widen your eyes, shocked with your own thoughts. No. You won’t suddenly relate to a cliche 80s love song. 

Right?

“H-How’s school going?” You stutter. Are you trying to do small talk? For real?

“It’s doing fine,” he simply says. Oh fuck. Not good. He sounds so uninterested in your weak attempt at engaging a conversation it hurts. You came here to try and talk about what really matters, but you don’t feel ready to do it yet. Can’t he understand it?!

It looks like your presence bothers him, honestly.

That’s new.

Wow. Your heart suddenly feels clenched.

Awkward.

Why am I feeling this way?

A heavy silence weighs on you again. This isn’t going as planned - not that you planned anything in the first place. You’re going through a lot of weird sensations now.

Why is that?

You look at Jungkook timidly (timid and Jungkook are two words that used to not make any sense together in the past), but he doesn’t look back. You avoid his gaze again.

Being hit by a truck would hurt less.

What’s happening?

Why are you so damn confused?

When the song hits its chorus, you start to think the Universe is definitely playing with you. The deep voice of the singer floats in the air:

Is this love 

That I’m feeling?

Is this the love

That I’ve been searching for?

Fuck you, Whitesnake. 

For real. 

Fuck. You.

“Did Taehyung ask you?”

This brings you back to reality in an instant.

“What?” You look at him, confused. Why is he talking about Taehyung of all people out of nowhere?

You’ve always been very good at reading Jungkook, but right now, he’s unreadable.

“So he didn’t.” He says blatantly, devoid of any emotion. “I thought he would have already.”

“What are you talking about?”

“He talked to me about a double date.” Jungkook replies, looking back at you for the first time - again, a blank face. “You and him, me and Joy.”

Your blood honestly feels like frost.

It’s like you lost the ability to move or talk for a moment. You blink and gulp, trying to keep composed.

“What? Why?”

“Because he said it’d be fun. And less awkward, since I’m not very close to Joy yet and you’re not very close to him.”

Again, you don’t say anything for long seconds.

“But we’d just be cockblocking each other during the whole date,” you say.

“I know. I think the idea of a double date sounds weird, too. It’s not as if we don’t know them.”

You remember what Taehyung texted you earlier today; he said he’d ask something later. Is he going to ask you out?

He thinks that, since you and Jungkook are best friends, you could ease the tension and even help each other out.

This is so fucked up.

The immediate answer that comes to your mind is no. You don’t want to go on a date with Taehyung when you’re not interested in him. It’d be cruel; you don’t want to keep his hopes high. 

But as you’re about to say it, you stop.

What if Jungkook wants to go?

All this time, you’ve only been considering your feelings. Your confusion, your wishes - it’s always about you. You don’t know if you want to be just Jungkook’s friend, but you don’t know if he wants to be more than a friend - or if he wants to be your friend at all. The fuck buddies thing started because you asked. Not even once did you think about him.

Is this what Jimin meant when he asked you to not play with Jungkook’s feelings?

How selfish you’ve been acting all this time?

What if he’s been developing feelings for Joy and now decided to try something? He’s probably feeling hurt because you’ve not been acting like a good friend. You’re always putting yourself first.

That’s why you hear yourself asking:

“Do you want to go?”

It’s scary how every tiny little piece of you wishes he’ll say no.

But Jungkook tilts his head and says:

“Yes. I know it sounds weird, but we can part ways as soon as we get there.”

And this is the moment you feel as cold as you’ve never felt in your life.

It’s as if your ears got obstructed for a moment, because you can’t hear anything but your heartbeat. You can’t even see properly for a second. Yet, you ignore all that, gulp and nod.

It’s time to be a good friend for once.

It’s time to put Jungkook’s wishes first - even though it crushes your heart.

“Okay.” You say quietly.

You’re coming to the conclusion that you’re a walking disaster.

You’ve never been so nervous before a date in your life - but this is not the usual type of nervousness, when people are excited to meet their crush and impress them etc etc. You’re nervous because you don’t want to go. You thought of coming up with a thousand excuses (from the classical “I’m sick :(” to “Seulgi’s sick I gotta take care of her :(” to “my cat’s sick :(” but then you remembered you don’t have a cat to “I’m being chased by the police and I gotta leave the country :(”), but in the end, you couldn’t bring yourself to lie.

Not when Taehyung sounded so painfully happy when you said you’d go.

That’s why you should have said no: Taehyung doesn’t deserve this. He’s a good person and he will certainly get hurt when you tell him you’re not interested. Who cares about Jungkook? That fucker can go on a date by himself, he’s not a kid anymore.

But…

There’s something very tiny and mean inside of you called jealousy that didn’t let you simply text an honest apology to Taehyung.

And now it’s too late, because he’s standing at your door.

Handsome as always, Taehyung wears casual clothes: it’s almost as if he didn’t put much thought on it, but he still looks drop dead gorgeous on his black baggy pants, white shirt and black beret (no other man in this planet can manage to not look stupid in a beret other than Taehyung). As usual, your brain malfunctions as it tries to process his beauty.

He has a small, beautiful smile on his lips.

Shit.

“You look beautiful,” he says, and he sounds like he means it. You did put some effort on your clothes, makeup and hair after all. Being complimented by him feels nice.

Shit.

“Thanks. You too, but that’s just your usual self,” you say thoughtlessly and instant regret slaps your face again. Yes, bitch. Flirt with him. Make things more difficult.

Taehyung looks shy for a moment. The sight is endearing.

S. H. I. T.

“You’re just being nice to me.” He tilts his head. “So, let’s go?" 

It’s too late to go back now, so you have no choice but to take his arm and show your most plastic smile. "Yeah.”

You’re definitely a walking disaster.

You two arrive in the park first and, instead of just showing your tickets and getting in, you’re forced to wait for the bastard and his hot date.

An amusement park of all places.

Not that you hate amusement parks, it’s pretty much the opposite. It’s just that everything feels so wrong. Especially how Taehyung is making a lot of effort to keep the conversation alive while you wait. It’s not hard to talk to him, though, because he’s an interesting person, but seeing his efforts hurts.

What hurts more is the sight of Jungkook and Joy arriving with locked arms.

You hope Taehyung didn’t notice you holding your breath.

Joy looks hot as always, but you don’t even look at her (yes, it’s not nice to be mad at someone that didn’t do anything wrong), eyes glued on Jungkook instead. Just like Taehyung, it seems that he didn’t put much thought on his clothes, only their styles are completely different: Jungkook wears an oversized grey t-shirt, black pants and sneakers. It might seem simple, but he can manage to look good in anything. Joy surely didn’t mind his choice of clothes.

You lock gazes for one second and proceed to avoid it.

The four of you greet. It’s hard to act natural, but you try to; you don’t want the two others to notice the weird tension between you and the black-haired bastard. Joy looks happy, too.

…

Shit.

Soon, you get into the amusement park. As expected, it’s crowded with kids, families and couples. The weather feels nice this afternoon.

“It’s been a long time since I don’t come to an amusement park,” you confess. 

“Really? Then this was a good choice. I was worried if it’d be too cheesy…” he also confesses sheepishly.

“It’s not!” You reassure him. Joy agrees with you. Jungkook keeps silent. “I just have some traumatizing memories about amusement parks.”

Taehyung quirks one eyebrow. “What?”

You sigh.

You and Jungkook end up saying in unison:

“5th grade.”

You look at each other and avoid your gazes again.

“What? What happened on 5th grade?” Joy asks excitedly.

“Our school came to an amusement park that year,” Jungkook explains.

“Why was it traumatizing?” Taehyung still seems confused.

“Because… well…” you hesitate to say.

“Because she was so short back then that they didn’t let her go on the rollercoasters. And she cried the whole trip,” Jungkook suddenly says.

You glare at him.

He has a playful smirk on his lips.

“Oh, so what about you?” You can’t help but smile, too.

“What happened to him?” Joy asks.

“He laughed at me because I couldn’t ride, but he puked his lunch after he went on the coaster and spent half of the trip in the infirmary,” you reveal. 

“You’re still bitter that you stayed with me in the infirmary?” He inquires.

“Of course I am! Also, you puked on my shoes!”

“I already apologized. Besides, I paid you banana milk for two entire weeks. Isn’t it enough?”

“It isn’t!”

“Are you saying that banana milk isn’t enough?!” He gasps. “You psycho.”

You both giggle.

Again, for one moment, it feels that everything is back to normal. You feel comfortable having these old memories, as if you never stopped being best friends, as if you have the intimacy to play like this again.

But it’s only for one moment.

You avoid gazes. It feels so out of place. 

At least the sadness in Jungkook’s eyes shows that he feels the same about this all.

Before the tension between you two can become too strong, you change the topic and engage both Taehyung and Joy in the conversation - during that moment, you two forgot about them. As wrong as it is, Taehyung is your date for the night. He’s the one you should pay attention to.

So you try to completely ignore Jungkook’s existence for a while.

You only look at Taehyung and don’t even touch your phone. You answer his questions and ask things about him. It doesn’t feel like a punishment, though, because he is an interesting person and you genuinely enjoy his company.

But you can’t help but look at Jungkook from time to time.

You can’t help but notice his smiley-eyes as he looks at her.  You can’t help but see their closure.

You can’t help but feel your heart clenching.

And then, you see yourself locking your arm with Taehyung’s.

“What’s that?” You say excitedly. “I wanna see it!”

You drag Taehyung away from the other couple until they disappear in the crowd. Only then you remember how to breathe again.

Considering all the odds, this going better than you expected.

You tried your best to completely erase Jungkook’s and Joy’s existence from your mind, and at some point it finally worked. Taehyung is a funny guy to be around. There’s something very particular and endearing about his personality that captivates you; he’s obviously trying to impress you, but he’s still being very honest. He has some type of innocence that makes you realize that this guy is seriously one of a kind. You can’t think of a single sign that he might be a bad person.

You’re genuinely enjoy this.

But not in the way Taehyung expects you to be enjoying it. 

As wrong as it is, you unconsciously end up comparing him to Jungkook. 

If Jungkook was your date, the first thing you’d both want to do is try all the rollercoasters and the wildest rides in this park. But Taehyung is scared of heights. You didn’t want to make the boy vomit his own stomach, so you ended up avoiding it - even though you really wanted to go on that orange coaster that looks high as fuck.

Taehyung didn’t really get your jokes. The fact that he still laughed politely is cute, but still - Jungkook and you have the same sense of humor. You two like the same stupid type of meme. It felt strange when you had to explain more than once a certain joke so Taehyung could understand. 

Taehyung didn’t know your favorite ice cream flavor or your favorite soda. He doesn’t know the kind of movie you like, nor your favorite series, nor your favorite singers. You know you’re being stupid - the whole point of going on a date is to get to know each other, but every now and then you end up remembering how Jungkook knows every dumb detail about you…

What makes you realize that, as much as Taehyung is an amazing guy, you are too different from each other. 

What also makes you realize that, maybe… you don’t really want to get to know anyone else.

And suddenly, an image starts to build in your mind - an image you try very hard to erase, but it’s already too strong to be forgotten.

Instead of Taehyung, you arm is locked with Jungkook’s. You’re both laughing and having fun, just like things used to be. Only now you’re not just friends. 

It’s the first time in all these years that you see yourself dating Jungkook clearly. Painfully clearly.

The cotton candy you’re eating suddenly tastes like iron on your tongue. You feel your throat tightening. All of this became painful. The fact that you’re trying so hard to forget Jungkook for a few minutes, yet he’s everything you can think of. The fact that he’s in the same park as you having a date with another girl - said girl that is a friend, by the way, someone you encouraged to be with Jungkook, and now you’re hating her existence even though she did nothing wrong, all because of jealousy. There’s also the fact that Jungkook is much obviously avoiding you.

And the most painful fact of all-

“Are you okay, YN?” Taehyung asks, the smile vanishing from his lips the moment he sees your expression. 

The fact that this incredible person likes you much more than you expected. It’s obvious now that you look at his eyes. He really likes you - a funny, smart and special guy, someone that didn’t check his phone not even once ever since this date started, someone that has been trying his hardest to make sure you’re having fun, a guy that is usually very confident, but at the moment looks very uneasy around you.

He’s the perfect guy. He wasn’t disrespectful, wasn’t trying to get into your pants, treated you very well. You went on dates that were far worse than this. There was nothing wrong with him. You’re also sure he’d be a loving and caring boyfriend.

But all you can think of is Jungkook. 

And even though you knew this date wouldn’t work, you still accepted to come anyway. You kept Taehyung’s hopes high. Just because you were jealous.

You’re definitely the worst person on this planet.

But this has to end before Taehyung gets more hurt.

“I’m not feeling very well,” you hear yourself saying. Worry covers Taehyung’s features. “What’s the problem? Was it something you ate? Do you want to go to the infirmary?”

Damn. It hurts to see him like this.

“No. Can you… can you just take me home, please?” You ask sheepishly. 

If Taehyung feels disappointed, he doesn’t let you see; he just nods instead. “Okay. Let’s go.”

And this is how you managed to destroy a perfectly fine night.

You still try not to think of Jungkook and Joy on your way back home; you don’t want to know if they’re still in the park or if they went somewhere else. The idea of what they must be doing makes your stomach twirl in a bad way. It feels like a weight installed itself on your shoulders. Everything seems too oppressive and suffocating. You can’t wait to be alone and peaceful to process all of these feelings. Fortunately, Seulgi isn’t home - she went to sleep at a friend’s house to finish a project. 

For the first time, being with Taehyung feels awkward as you walk to the front door of your apartment. You can see he isn’t exactly glad. It makes everything worse.

You stop in front of the door and you turn around to face him. Everything you have to say must be said now.

“I’m so sorry, Taehyung.” You say in an embarrassed tone, scratching the back of your neck. “I ruined everything.”

“What? No!” He’s quick to reassure. God, his eyes are beautiful… “It’s not your fault. People feel ill, that’s normal.”

You gulp. Oh Gosh. He believed what you said. This is getting worse and worse… “I had a lot of fun today. Really.” You sigh and tilt your head tiredly. “Honestly, it was the most fun I had in a long time…”

“I had a lot of fun, too.” His smile is able to melt any frozen heart. “I noticed that you had a lot in mind, so I’m glad I was able to distract you at least a little.”

It gets you off guard. 

He’s way more observant than you expected.

“You noticed…?” You gulp, even more embarrassed. He nods. “I’m so sorry…”

“It’s fine. Everyone has a bad day every now and then. I just have to admit that I’m kind of worried about you.”

You stare at each other in silence for a while.

“Are you?” Why suddenly all you can do is make stupid questions?

Taehyung tilts his head. “Yes. You’re always such a bright person. Seeing you being quiet these days makes me sad.” First of all: did people start to realize that there’s something wrong with you? Are you acting this weird?

Second of all: that was adorable. He’s so honest about his feelings.

“To be honest, Taehyung… I’m not really a bright person,” you end up confessing in a quiet, weak voice. You don’t know why you’re saying this. You were supposed to push him away, not pull him closer. “I think I’m just used to pretend I am.”

“You don’t have to,” your eyes widen when you feel his fingertips brushing on your cheek as he gently tucks a strand of hair behind your ear. “You don’t have to pretend you’re fine when you’re not. To suppress this type of feeling… it hurts. Believe me, I know.” For a moment, you feel your breath hitch. The skin where  his fingers touched feels warm. He’s mesmerizing. His voice sounds like a sweet melody on your ears: deep, silky. “So, if you ever feel like opening up… I’m here, okay?” He widens his eyes for a second. “I-I mean- you can open up to Seulgi or Jungkook or Jimin, sure… anyone.”

This moment of shyness coming from him makes you giggle. “I don’t feel like opening up to anyone right now,” especially not to you, you think. “but thank you, Tae. It… it makes me really happy. I’m glad I went on this date with you.”

You shouldn’t have said that.

You shouldn’t have called him Tae.

Even though you’re saying the truth and there’s no second intentions hidden, Taehyung hears something else. 

His hand is still resting on your cheek.

And he says nothing.

He just… stares right into your eyes.

You can’t move.

You clearly see when his face starts coming closer and closer to yours, slowly but surely. You see his heavy-lidded eyes, his clouded gaze, his parted lips. You feel the thick tension in the air around you - the electricity. 

That’s when you should have pushed him away.

But you can’t.

Instead, you unconsciously close your eyes. You feel his lips ghosting over yours for a second - until his lips finally touch yours.

The kiss is suave - gentle and delicate. He doesn’t move his lips at first, merely pressing his against yours. Your body warms up in a way you haven’t felt in a long time; not because of arousal. It’s the pure excitement of being kissed.

Maybe that’s why you let him kiss you. You had forgotten how it feels like to be touched without any sexual intention. Kisses are too intimate, so you and Jungkook didn’t really kiss that often - and when you did kiss, it was always heated and obscene, tongues entangling wildly until both of you could barely breathe. It’s been a long time since someone kissed and held you like this: with gentleness and care. Taehyung isn’t treating you like a sex toy.

You melt.

Your lips part as he deepens the kiss; he is undemanding, careful and delicate. His lips taste like lip balm. No one is fighting for control, no one is desperate. It’s slow and synchronized. It’s sweet and innocent. Most importantly - it’s way different than you ever expected it to be. You never thought he’d kiss like this.

When Taehyung pulls away, the purest smile adorns his features.

“I’m sorry.” He says quietly, but he doesn’t sound sorry at all. “I should have asked permission.”

“It’s okay.” And it really is. You shouldn’t, but you liked it. 

“I'll… I’ll get going.” He says, the smile never disappearing. His eyes are also smiling. He stands there awkwardly in an adorable manner. “Can I text you later?”

“Sure.” You nod. “Good night. And thank you again.”

Taehyung grins. “Good night.”

Before leaving, he presses his lips on yours quickly one last time. 

You watch until he disappears inside the elevator, entering the apartment and standing there alone in the dark for a few seconds.

Then you unceremoniously slam your forehead against the wooden door.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” You hiss between gritted teeth. “What have you done?!”

You were supposed to push him away. You should have told him the truth - that you don’t have feelings for him, that you’re confused and almost certainly in love with another guy. Instead, you just stood there and let him kiss you. You not only kept his hopes high, you increased them.

How will you get yourself out of this situation now?!

You throw yourself on the couch, grab a cushion and scream into it. I’m the worst of the worst. I’m a walking catastrophe. 

For a long time, you just lay there and torture yourself with bad thoughts. Taehyung is the nicest guy you’ve met in a really long time. If you gave him the opportunity months ago, you’re sure you’d be dating right now - and the idea isn’t even unpleasant. He’s hot and smart and funny and sweet. It’s even hard to believe that someone like him is interested in you.

But…

No. Don’t think about him.

You want to punch yourself and scream and eat tons of ice cream and cry - all at once. You’re the queen of taking bad decisions. You’re the heart crusher and friendship destroyer-

There’s someone knocking on the front door.

You sit up in a jump and frown. Is it Seulgi? Did she forget her keys?

You walk slowly around the living room, defeated as if you’ve just came home from war, your hair a mess and shoulders shrinking. You turn the doorknob and open it-

And gasp.

Because standing at your front door is the person you least expected to see.

Jungkook is casually leaning on the door frame as if his presence didn’t make you burst a lung. He looks down, eyes avoiding yours; although the hallway is considerably dark, you can see his expression well. You know him too well. You see sadness and guilt and fear in his eyes.

Your heart beats so fast that you’re afraid it’ll stop suddenly. Nervousness crawls over your skin and makes your stomach feel cold.

“J-Jungkook? What are you doing here?” You’re brave enough to stutter. You completely forgot that Jungkook used to come over so often that you gave him full permission to enter and leave the building whenever he wanted.

He doesn’t say anything.

Instead, he lifts his left hand and shows you what he’s carrying: a plastic bag full with a pack of…

Banana milk.

“I think we really need to talk.” He says quietly, his eyes meeting yours for the first time.

You inhale sharply.

He’s right. You need to talk.

The cold night breeze makes you tighten your coat around your body. Yours and Jungkook’s hairs sway softly with the wind. You can hear the sounds of the city from up here, in the empty terrace - cars, sirens, voices. A glowing map of endless streets and buildings extends itself in front of your eyes.

You’re both leaning on the railing side by side. You’re hyper aware of the distance between you - both physical and… spiritual. You’ve been standing here in silence for quite some time now, quietly drinking the banana milk he brought, and none of you were able to engage a conversation. The tension is heavy. It overwhelms your whole being. Nervousness makes your nerves tense. You can’t even look at him.

Dozens of questions float around your mind; what is he doing here? Why did he decide to come in the first place? What happened to his date? It’s still very early, he could have stayed with her much longer…

You also can’t help but feel helplessly excited that he is here. With you. Not with Joy. He took the initiative to meet you. 

You can’t lose this opportunity.

“It’s kinda cold.” Is the first thing you say. It doesn’t even sound like you.

“Yeah.” He agrees, and he also doesn’t sound like him.

The awkwardness is almost solid right now. Things used to be so different… you can’t remember one moment in the past when such an uncomfortable feeling lingered between you. 

“Hm…” you cough. “What, hm… what about you and Joy?”

Why the fuck are you asking this?, you yell at yourself.

Jungkook looks down and shakes his head. “Let’s not talk about Joy or Taehyung right now, okay?”

You shrug. “I’m just trying to start a conversation.”

“That’s not how you do it.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know how to do it anymore.”

Jungkook goes silent with this, the quick aggressiveness disappearing as soon as it came. He gulps and looks down at the banana milk between his fingers again. 

More silence.

“Can I… can I ask you something?” Jungkook says after a long while. His voice is quiet, hesitant, almost being carried away with the wind.

“What?” You feel your body heating up in anticipation. 

He finally looks up to you, and in the moment your eyes meet, you have this weird feeling that everything except him looks blurred.

“Why did you start dating Mike?” He asks. “I warned you about him. I mean, you used to listen to me in the past.”

Oh.

Certainly not the type of question you were expecting.

What a mood killer, Jungkook.

You avoid his gaze again, trying to hide your disappointment. “Why are you asking me this now?”

“I just really want to know.” He takes one more sip of the banana milk.

A sigh escapes through your lips and you stare at the shiny city ahead. You didn’t think you’d have to bring up memories of Mike. It’s been a long time, but it still hurts to remember him.

“I… I just…” you start, trying to organize your thoughts. “You know that Mike had like a… bad relationship with his parents, right?” Jungkook nods. “Mike opened up about this to me. I saw how much it hurt him. He was lonely, broken. And I…” this is being way harder than you expected. You shrug, shake your head. “I don’t know. I was just being my stupid self. I thought I could… I wanted to fix him. I realized that I have this heroine complex, you know?” You side eye him sheepishly. “But there are a lot of things I can’t fix… I’m better at breaking things, not fixing them.”

“Don’t say that. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to help people.” The confidence in which Jungkook says this makes, yet again, an odd sensation set in your stomach. 

It is probably the first time Jungkook managed to make you blush in your entire life.

A little more silence.

“Did you actually like him?” You can barely hear his voice.

You have no idea why he’s making this questions. Why is he bringing up Mike after so long?

“Well… yes.” You can’t lie right now. “I did.” You make sure to reinforce the did. It’s in the past.

Jungkook nods and says nothing. He takes another banana milk from the plastic bag and opens it.

You inhale, building up your courage to ask something you’ve been wanting to know for a long time. He touched this subject anyway.

“You asked me something, now it’s my turn to ask you something.” Jungkook nods. You have the feeling that he already knows what’s coming. “Why did you break up with Yeri?”

“She broke up with me.”

Oh.

“Why?” You repeat. You can see that Jungkook gets clearly uncomfortable, but you’re not letting him go without an answer - and he already knows how stubborn you can be, too. He shifts, tilts his head, exhales heavily.

“It just didn’t work out.”

“But you liked her. And she liked you, too.” It was pretty obvious to anyone that saw them together. 

Jungkook takes a long while to speak again. “I did like her. A lot.” The way his voice sounds fragile surprises you. Seeing him like this is very rare. Jungkook isn’t one to get all emotional too often. It seems that confessing this to you is important to him, somehow.

It also scares you a tiny bit. What if Jungkook still likes her, just like you suspected in the past?

“I didn’t want things to end the way they did.” He continues. His eyes are far away, watching old memories. His shoulders seem tense. He fiddles with the small banana milk bottle between his fingers. “But… some things aren’t meant to be, it doesn’t matter how much you want them to.”

This answer sounds… way too vague. Not what you want to hear. You know there’s more behind their break up, but just by looking at Jungkook you see that he isn’t telling you anything else. Well, this is the most he ever said about his past relationship in almost one year. It’s better than nothing.

And back to silence.

You want to push this awkwardness away. But how? You don’t feel as close to Jungkook as you always were. It’s not as if you could simply say anything in this moment… especially because, somehow, you feel that Jungkook expects you to do something, even though he came all the way to your apartment just to talk.

Say something, goddamnit!

“I’m sorry.” you blurt out.

Jungkook looks at you, but you’re not strong enough to look back at him. You hold the tiny bottle so tightly that it might get smashed at any moment; that’s just how nervous you are.

“Sorry for what?” he asks quietly. You hear the expectation in his voice… almost as if he’s holding his breath.

You can’t help but gulp. I’m not good with this type of thing. 

“For everything.” you hate the way your voice sounds so damn fragile. Being sincere like this is somehow… painful. But that’s what Jungkook expects of you: sincerity. So you keep talking, although you don’t know the right words to express yourself. “I… I don’t know why things got like this between us…” you almost gasp. “I mean, I know why. We know why. And I feel very responsible.”

“You have this habit of taking the blame to yourself, isn’t it?” He murmurs. Jungkook shakes his head softly and passes his hand on his hair.

“But I was the one to propose it in the first place.”

“And I agreed.”

“Okay, but…” you have to stop for a moment to recover your breath. “I don’t know, I just feel sorry. I didn’t think of anyone except me all along. I’ve been an awful person to you… and awful friend. Also…” you need to stop again. Why is it so hard to speak? It feels as if there’s something obstructing your throat; the words hardly come out. “What I did that day at Joy’s house… it was wrong. I’m sorry that I made you upset that day.”

Jungkook sighs heavily. You’re still scared to look at him. 

“I’m sorry about that day, too. I was rude to you.” Is he apologizing for calling you a slut while you had sex in the bathroom? Well, you definitely didn’t care about that. “I feel sorry too, Y/N. The way we drifted apart from each other…” he gesticulates with his finger between you and him. “The fault is on us both. I already told you, you shouldn’t take all the responsibility to yourself. We were both stupid.”

“Very stupid.” you both chuckle. You feel your heart lightening up for a moment; that strong tension still hovers around you, but now it feels like a different type of tension. Seeing that tiny smile in Jungkook’s lips makes your heart race. 

You finally look at each other.

The shadows of the night paint Jungkook’s face. His hair sways with the wind softly. His dark eyes shine as much as diamonds. You never really understood the expression “to get lost in someone’s eyes…” 

Well… now you do.

The small moment you two share feels fragile… featherlight. You’re scared that if you say or do something wrong, it’ll break and disappear. You’re scared to break him. To break yourself. This makes you remember that, ever since you were kids, Jungkook has always been the most fragile of you two. He has always been the most sensitive, the one to get hurt easily. Jimin was right all along. How could you do this to him? Why did you let this happen between you two? 

“I missed you.” your voice is barely a whisper. Admitting this makes you feel exposed and relieved at the same time. Your throat feels even tighter.

“I missed you, too.” he confesses. 

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry, too.”

You smile at each other.

That’s the moment you almost confess something more… your confused feelings for him. You feel the urge to say that you don’t see him as just a friend anymore; that you don’t want to be just a friend anymore.

But something holds you back.

This is maybe the moment when you’re finally being able to reconcile. You don’t know if Jungkook feels the same about you; you don’t want to push him away by throwing your feelings over him. This might destroy you friendship forever.

Then, you decide to keep it all to yourself. At least for now.

“So,” Jungkook says, sighing. “What about that group project?”

You quirk one eyebrow up. “I’m pretty sure you know about the group project.”

Jungkook giggles. “Jimin has been annoying you, too?” you nod. He shakes his head. “He’s a little shit, isn’t he?”

“Yes. He had good intentions, at least.” You shrug. 

“He could be a little more subtle, though.” You can’t help but agree. “Congratulations for getting the highest grade.”

“Thank you. Jimin also told me that you’ve been talking to some important people…”

Jungkook smiles beautifully with this. “Yes. It’s a director. He said that he likes my work and that I have talent. I think he’ll invite me to work with him as a trainee for a while.” Your eyes widen in a surprised expression.

“Really?! That’s great, Kook!” It feels so nice to call him Kook again after so long. Slowly, you feel that unbearable tension vanishing and all that’s left is you and him. Two people that know each other better than you know yourselves for most of your lives. In a matter of seconds, the distance that put you apart for months seems to disappear. 

Suddenly, you feel a cold drizzle start falling over your heads. Jungkook frowns. “I think we should get down there.”

“Yes.” Before you can think better, you blurt out: “You can sleep here if you want.” Perhaps you shouldn’t have said that, because Jungkook’s frown deepens as he stares at you with suspicion. A shiver of fear runs down your spine. “Hey, that’s not what I mean.” You’re quick to say, waving your hands. “Before this sex thing started there was just us, remember? I… I miss us.”

Jungkook thinks for some moments, his eyes never leaving yours. 

Then, a tiny smile makes its way to his lips - and you’re happy to see that the smile reaches his eyes, too. “Okay.”

“Wait- so Irene and Jennie made up?” Jungkook asks from the kitchen, surprised.

“That’s what it looks like. I mean, they did post some photos together on Instagram.” you say while adjusting the pillows and blankets on the mattress you placed in the living room. Yours’ and Seulgi’s friends come to sleep over a lot, so you’re used to do it - you even bought some spare sheets and blankets for this occasion. 

“But you can’t be sure that they are together just because of some photos.”

“Yeah, but you know Seulgi. She jumped to conclusions. Being honest, they don’t look like a couple in these photos… but I don’t think there’s anything I can say that will change her mind at this point. I tried everything.”

“I don’t really think that they’ll make up this time.” Jungkook admits. You walk over to the kitchen and lean on the counter, opposite to him.

“I feel bad for her. Seulgi still loves Irene and she can’t get over it. I think it’s the first time she spends the night out in a long while… and it isn’t even to have fun. I’m worried.”

He pouts and shrugs, eyes focused in building up his sandwich. “Maybe we should just let her figure things out by herself.”

“But she’s doing nothing.”

Jungkook stops adding ketchup just to stare at you and quirk his eyebrows. “Y/N. I think I already said that you should stop trying to be a cupid, like… a million times.”

“I didn’t say I’d do something!” You do your best to sound offended. 

“I know you, woman. I’ve seen this face many times. You look like an evil gremlin.” 

“I don’t!” you cross your arms. You forgot how annoying it is that Jungkook knows you so well, because you did think of doing something to help her. You’re so tired of seeing you friend being sad all the time. All she does these days is watch Netflix and complain. She already started to look like a zombie at this point. No one can blame you for being concerned. “Besides, gremlins are cute.”

“You’re the only person on this planet that thinks this.” He shakes his head slightly, his hair waving in the process.

“Why did you let your hair grow so much?” You ask, resting your chin over your palm. 

“Because I look good with long hair.” Jungkook shrugs, a smug smirk on his face. 

“You cocky little shit.”

“Am I wrong for telling the truth?” He looks up at you again, playful. You can’t even tell he’s wrong: that long hair really matches his looks and personality. 

“Hey, are you still helping Namjoon and Yoongi?” you ask when Jungkook starts to make a fourth sandwich. Yes, you guys do eat a lot.

“Yeah. I haven’t been to the studio in a few days, but they still call me whenever they need me.” Jungkook presses his lips together and shifts a little: nervousness. “I… I kind of helped them write a song.”

“Really? But you said you were just ‘lending’ them your voice to record demos.” 

“Yeah, but I felt kind of inspired. It was just for fun, though.” He shifts his eyes to you then back to the sandwich very rapidly. “Maybe I’ll let you listen to it any other day.”

“Aw, come on! I’ve been wanting to listen to your songs for so long!” you whine.

“I said maybe. When the right time comes.”

You don’t really get what he means with it.

For a while, you just sit there and watch Jungkook. He looks so carefree and relaxed; he moves around the kitchen as if it’s his own house. He knows where everything is in the cabinets. In a way, this really is his second house considering how often he comes… even when he used to come just to fuck during these past months. It feels so nice to see him not being all tensed up and uncomfortable around you anymore. He even starts to sing quietly, his voice as sweet and smooth as cotton candy filling up the entire house.  You’re one of the few people that Jungkook feels confident enough to sing around. It’s almost a privilege.

You have been staring at him unceremoniously for so long that Jungkook frowns and looks back at you, frowning. “What?”

“Nothing.” You shake your head. “It’s just that… Namjoon is right. You could’ve been famous with this voice.” Jungkook smiles shyly. “And this face.” He turns around to open the fridge. “And this ass.”

He frowns. “Seriously?”

“What? I’m being honest. And don’t act like you don’t stare at my ass all the time.”

Jungkook chuckles and shakes his head in that way that means I can’t stand you.

“Done.” He claps his hands together. Four giant sandwiches, coke, popcorn and m&ms (let’s say that you and Seulgi don’t have exactly the healthier type of food at home). 

“Okay. I’ll take these, get changed first if you want,” you say while taking the plates to the living room. Of course there would be some of his clothes at your place.

When Jungkook sees the clothes you chose, he stares at you with an outraged expression. “My grey hoodie!”

“…yes.”

“You said you didn’t know where it was!”

You stop and click your tongue. “…funny how I found it at the bottom of my drawer tonight, huh?”

He knows you’re lying. But you won’t tell him that slept wearing his hoodie some nights because it smelled like him. He doesn’t need to know this.

“Hoodie thief.” He says and taps your head jokingly, making his way to the bathroom. You’re wearing sleeping clothes as well - and you made sure to choose your ugliest and largest ones. You don’t want Jungkook to think you asked him to sleep here just to end up having sex. 

He comes back and throws himself on the mattress by your side. You’re very aware of the immense space between you; another person could fit in here. “What are we going to watch?”

“I think I’ve watched the entire Netflix catalogue at this point because of Seulgi.” you admit, shoving popcorn inside your mouth. Jungkook takes your phone and scrolls down the Netflix page. 

“There’s always something more to watch.”

You end up arguing about what movie to watch. Actually, you spend more time arguing and scrolling down through the Netflix endless catalogue than watching something. 

You don’t touch each other not even once. The physical distance almost feels like a living being.

You end up giving up on Netflix and watching Avengers Endgame for the hundredth time anyway.

And yes - Jungkook cries at the ending of the film.

You wake up with the sunlight touching your face.

It’s awful. You close your eyes tightly and yawn, a little bit confused at first. What am I doing in the living room? You search for your phone to check the hour: it’s seven in the morning. Shit. Whenever you can sleep until late hours, you end up waking up early…

You turn your head to the side and freeze.

It’s Jungkook.

Now you remember everything. The TV is still on, which means both of you fell asleep while watching it. The empty plates and glasses are placed over the coffee table. 

You never slept together before.

There was only one time when it happened - the first and only, when you two got wasted and the whole story started. Other than that, you never slept together. First, because you had more interesting things to do other than sleep. Second, because sleeping together feels way too intimate. It didn’t matter how tired you were after fucking, when you finished cleaning up, you’d both put your clothes back on and walk back to your respective homes. You vehemently avoided doing anything that might feel too intimate - kissing, sleeping together… after a while, you even avoided looking at each other right in the eye while having sex. 

You’re not touching; there is still a great space between your bodies. Yet… just the thought that you slept with Jungkook makes your heart race.

You don’t move a single centimeter. You just lay there and… look at him.

His long hair is a mess. His face is adorably puffy, lips slightly parted. He looks peaceful. The way his chest moves up and down as he breathes is hypnotizing. 

He’s seriously so beautiful.

But now, you don’t think of it in a sexual way. Back then, you’d always admire how hot Jungkook is, his godlike physique, how lucky you were to be having sex with a guy like him… not now. You just feel mesmerized by his features. The long eyelashes touching his cheeks. The tiny moles on his face and neck. Some old acne scars. 

It’s odd, but right now, you realize just how much you’ve been missing him. It doesn’t make sense - Jungkook is right here, barely an arm apart from you. You made up last night and it seems that everything is back to normal. Still, you desperately miss him. 

Your chest fills up with something strange and unknown. It’s sweet and painful. It makes your heart feel tight, your nerves feel like burning and your eyes well up with tears. 

This is the face of the person that has been with you during most of your life. 

He’s a part of you.

The most important part of you.

In this moment, your feelings for him are so great that it seems that they can’t even fit inside of you anymore.

You watch him sleep for a long time, too scared to move and wake him up. But eventually, he sighs heavily and moves his head, indicating he’s about to wake up.

His eyes finally open and he yawns.

“Good morning.” He says when his eyes focus on you, smiling softly. Jungkook’s voice sounds deep and raspy. He stretches his arms over his head. “I mean… if it’s still morning.”

“It is,” you say softly.

He stares at the ceiling with heavy-lidded eyes. “I dreamed that babies came from eggs. Like ostrich eggs.” He chuckles. “And women gave birth to the eggs like chickens.”

You don’t say anything and just keep watching him instead.

Jungkook finally turns his head at you and frowns, still smiling softly. “What?”

“Nothing.” You say so quietly that he can barely hear.

He gazes back at you.

Slowly, the smile on his lips disappears.

You feel the tension building up around you - but this time it feels different. It’s not a bad tension like what you experienced last night at the terrace, nor is it dense like when you two were aroused and desperate to find a place and please yourselves. This time, it feels delicate but heavy nevertheless. It makes your blood boil and your heart race.

Jungkook’s eyes are serious, heavy and intense over you. All the playfulness is gone. None of you say a word. You don’t even know if you have the power to move considering how heavy the tension is.

He extends his arm and his fingertips touch your cheek. Your skin feels burning hot. Delicately, he puts a strand of hair behind your ear. It’s strange how he’s doing the exact same thing Taehyung did, but with Jungkook, this simple touch made you feel like exploding right there. 

Jungkook is the one to come closer. Closer and closer and closer. Your breathing is heavy. He caresses your cheek his his thumb. Soon, his face is right in front of yours - noses touching, eyes locked and burning with something you can’t quite name.

You stare at each other like this for a moment until his gaze finally drops to your mouth.

You both lean in for the kiss at the same time.

You have already tasted these lips multiple times before - but now, it’s different. The kiss is slow; you move your lips unhurriedly and sweetly. Yet, this kiss feels much more intense than any other you have shared before. None of those times when you kissed him desperately with luxury being the only thing on your mind comes even close to the intensity of this kiss.

It almost feels that this is the actual first time you kiss Jungkook.

Your breathing gets even heavier as the kiss deepens. His hand rests on your waist, while yours hold his neck. The sloppy sounds of your lips and tongues moving together are the only audible thing in the apartment. Your whole being screams in excitement and anticipation when Jungkook moves his body to hover over yours, not even once breaking the kiss. Your right hand grabs his smooth hair while the other travels up and down his back; your body is getting burning hot. Jungkook moans very softly. You start to feel the familiar wetness on your panties.

Jungkook leans away for a moment; his lips are red and swollen, his hair is even messier now, his dark eyes are clouded with want and something you can’t name - something so strong that he’s able to make you shiver with that look alone. He leans down again and starts to kiss and suck your neck very slowly, making soft moans escape through your lips. His hand sneaks under your baggy shirt and he squeezes your breast. Soon, his lips are on yours again and the kiss becomes much deeper. You can already feel sweat forming on your forehead. Jungkook starts to grind on you; you can clearly feel his clothed erection rub against your own core, what makes more and more strangled moans come from both of you.

This is the hottest make out session of your life. The entire atmosphere is not what you’re used to; it’s not playful, none of you say a word. No teasing, no dirty talk. All you do is try to touch each other the best you can, never once breaking the kiss. It’s as if, with this kiss, you’re having a conversation… you’re telling each other everything you’re not brave enough to say out loud.

Soon, the desperation becomes too big. There’s no time to play, you just want to have him inside of you and feel his warm skin against yours. Unceremoniously, you start to undress yourselves, kissing every spot you can find in the process - neck, chest, stomach. Your clothes are thrown around the living room. You lay on your back again and Jungkook hovers above you once more, your legs entangling around his hips as he positions his hard member on your entrance.

You always avoided this position because it is too intimate; you’re forced to look at each other like this. This time, though, it doesn’t matter. You want to look at him - and the sight of his face contorting in pure pleasure, lips parted and eyes closed tightly as he eases himself inside of you, is almost as good as the feeling of being stretched after a long time.

Jungkook doesn’t move at first. He knows he’ll hurt you if he goes too hard right from the beginning. Instead, he waits until you call his name quietly in a strangled moan - the sign he needs to start thrusting. He rests his head on your shoulder and grabs the pillow under your head tightly as he picks up his pace, slow and steady, soft groans coming from the back of his throat that make you feel goosebumps. You hold his back with both hands. You can’t shut the moans anymore.

Sweat makes your skin slippery as he thrusts faster. Jungkook licks and bites your ear, moaning right into it, and it feels that this alone could make you cum. He then leans away for a moment, creating some space between your bodies to have a better angle to keep smashing himself into you - faster and faster, stronger and stronger. The usual sound of skin hitting skin, heavy breathing and moans is all you can hear. 

You said that you didn’t ask him to sleep here just to have sex - and you weren’t lying.

But this doesn’t feel like just sex.

This isn’t fucking.

The pleasure is getting unsustainable and you both feel it. You close your legs around him even tighter and pull his face with both hands, sealing your lips in another intense, desperate kiss. It’s sloppy and unsynchronized. It’s raw and rough and so full of emotions you can’t comprehend that you feel your eyes tearing up again.

What you’re experiencing right now isn’t just two people finding pleasure in each other. It isn’t simply carnal instinct. 

It is the deepest and most sincere way to connect with another being - without any words, through touches only.

You never felt anything like this in your life - not with Mike or any of your past boyfriends and hook ups. This is beyond lust. This is beyond sex.

Jungkook breaks the kiss apart for a second  to look at you. Your gazes lock. God, he’s beautiful. Not only his appearance, but everything about him is beautiful.

And it is right now - stating deep into his eyes - that you come to a conclusion.

Jungkook has always been a part of you. But, in this exact moment, it feels like more.

It feels that you two became one.

He leans down and kisses you again. Your lips are tightly sealed when you both come at the same time.

Your trembling fingers still hold the strands of his damp hair tightly. You caress his face softly, putting some hair away from his eyes. Jungkook kisses you again. And again, and again, and again, and again.

You’re glad when he rests his head on your shoulder again, because like this, he can’t see the tears trickling down your temples.

It’s still hard to understand what just happened. Honestly, you think you’ll never fully understand.

But one thing you do understand, one thing that became as clear as the morning sky, is that your feelings for Jungkook are deeper and stronger than you ever imagined. He’s so much more than a friend.

Yet, you don’t know if he sees you the same way.

You don’t know if he felt the same things you did or if this was just one more time having sex with you. You don’t know if he still has feelings for Yeri or if he’s developing any for Joy.

You know nothing - and this fact makes your heart hurt as if it is being stabbed…

Because Jungkook, the best and most important part of you, might never be truly yours.

[skullrock]

the partners | Steve x Reader

chapter one: please, please, please, let me get what I want 

series summary: you and Steve are police apprentices at Hawkins Police Station in the fall of 1986. you get along famously, but there’s something Steve is hiding, and there is an unknown evil lurking in Hawkins. [friends to lovers, angst, hurt/comfort, fluff]

chapter summary: Steve finally agrees to hang out outside of work. 

warnings: swearing, 80s music 

word count: 2.4k

a/n: this chapter is mainly a ton of exposition, but it’s gonna get better I PROMISE. huge thank ya to @wolfish-willow​ who gave me some beautiful ideas (milky coffee + danish loving Steve) that helped this fic come to fruition <3 enjoy!

--

You pull into Hawkin’s Police Department at 7:30, a half hour before your shift. There are two coffees in the cup holders of your car, and a paper bag filled with two pastries on the passenger seat. You pull in beside your partner’s car and he hops out, a smile plastered on his face. He crawls into your passenger side and grabs the bag.

“This one’s yours,” you say, pointing to the coffee cup marked milk w/ dash of coffee. He laughs, pulling out his blueberry danish and handing you your strawberry donut. He bites into his pastry and lets out a sinful moan, making you smack his arm.

“It’s too early for you to be gross,” you say, but he looks victorious.

“I’m sorry you don’t like my happiness,” he quips, and you roll your eyes.

It was tradition that every Monday that you both worked, you’d get coffee and pastries from the local bakery and shoot the shit in your car until your shift started.

“So, I had a dream last night where I was dating Mia Sara,” he says.

“Wish that were me,” you reply, taking a sip of coffee. “Did it work out for you guys?”

“Nah, she left me for Harrison Ford.”

“Tragic.”

He pauses, listening to the music softly coming from your radio. He scoffs upon realizing what was playing.

“Stop listening to this sad shit,” he says, turning the dial, making you shout.

“It’s the Smiths!” You try to bat his hand away, but he manages to change the channel to a Queen song. Typical.

You and Steve had become good friends after securing your positions, despite your perception of him in high school. After the fire at Starcourt and the death of Jim Hopper, the federal government had given the Hawkins Police a grant to let aspiring cops train directly in the field. It would fast-track getting certified, eliminating the need for expensive schooling. It was like a paid internship. A paid internship where you basically get paid to bullshit with your best friend all day.

A third car pulls in. It’s Veronica, the secretary. She takes over on days that Flo wants off – she’s worked hard enough for it. Veronica was a bit obsessed with Steve, so he groaned when he saw her get out and wave.

“What do you think she’s going to say to you today?” you giggle, and Steve rolls his eyes.

“Probably, like… that she had a dream about us last night, or something.” He squeezes his eyes shut. “God, please don’t let her talk to me.”

Women were throwing themselves at Steve the minute he put the uniform on, but he claimed he wasn’t interested in dating. You weren’t really sure why, given his history, but he never answered any questions. He just said he wanted to focus on work and having fun, so you let him.

Steve was kind of a mystery to you. You were incredibly close at the station, but you’d been working with him for a few months and you never saw each other outside of work. There were talks of maybe going to a movie, but they never went anywhere. It was bizarre, considering how fond you both were of each other. But you didn’t want to push it, unsure if you were making him uncomfortable.

In reality, Steve was just nervous of letting people in. Not just because of his history with girls and friends, but because he also had Russians and demons to worry about. He felt that if he let anyone new into his life, he would be putting them in mortal danger. This viewpoint is also the reason why he applied for the apprenticeship in the first place.

When the position popped up, Steve had no second thoughts. He had looked up to Hopper greatly since the time Will was possessed. He knew without a doubt that he wanted to follow in Hop’s footsteps. But he also felt an obligation now that Hopper was dead. Joyce had left, taking Will and Eleven with her. The three people who had the best grip on the strange events that had occurred the past three years were gone, and the man who devised most of the plans (and executed them) was gone, too. Steve couldn’t sleep at night for months. He needed to constantly call the kids and Robin to make sure they were safe. Being part of the Hawkins Police seemed like a no-brainer; it was a way to ensure everyone was safe and be on the frontlines to protect them.

Not that he ever let this on; usually he would just say that he’s always wanted to be a cop, and he kept it at that.

You’d decided to do the apprenticeship after college didn’t work out. You went to one in Indianapolis after high school, but you weren’t really into it. Your parents decided to retire and travel for a few years, offering to let you have the house while they’re gone. You gratefully took them up on it, and you’d been living there since the spring. You’d enjoyed a few months off, but decided it was time to find something new to do. You’d always had a fantasy of being a hero. Maybe not a hero cop, but a hero. You wanted to save lives, make an impact. Being a police officer seemed like a good start. You knew it wouldn’t be like the movies, but the strange events that happened the last few years excited you. Maybe you’d get the chance to be someone you’ve always wanted to be.

“Why don’t you just give Veronica a chance?” you ask. “She’s pretty and she’s nice and she’s smart.”

“She literally told me she wanted a lock of my hair,” he says.

You choke on your coffee. “I forgot about that.”

“Yeah? I didn’t.”

Steve’s watch beeps, signaling that it’s 5 minutes until 8.

“Please keep talking to me when we go in,” he begs as you both climb out of the car.

“What’s in it for me?” you inquire.

“I will give you all of the lunches my mom brings me for two weeks.”

You pause. “Even the Fruit Roll-Ups?”

He sighs. “I’ll throw them in if you do a good job.”

You successfully make it past the reception desk without incident, waving hi to Callahan and Powell. You knock on the Chief’s door to signify your arrival, and you and Steve make your way back to the annex you worked in. Your desks faced each other, making it easier to talk through your 8-hour shifts. They were usually pretty boring. You and Steve were only cleared to respond to calls about petty things, like noise disturbances. But it’s not like much ever happened anymore in Hawkins, and the town had almost made it a full year without any weird occurrences.

A few hours go by, and boredom runs rampant. You hated Mondays: things hardly ever happened. Steve gets up around 10:30 and puts a mixtape into the boombox in the annex. Don’t You (Forget About Me) comes on, and Steve mutters, “aw, hell yeah,” under his breath. You know he’s going to start dancing, but it doesn’t stop the surprised smile on your face as he starts to swing and spin and sing. It’s magic, watching Steve dance. It makes no sense, it’s clumsy, it’s so white that it hurts; but it’s also hilarious and never fails to pick you up. Sometimes you’d join him. Other times, you’d call him an idiot. And sometimes you’d just watch as the magic unfolds.

This was one of those times.

--

The door to the annex opens around 1, approximately 5 hours into your shift. You and Steve are begging for something to do, because throwing M&Ms at each other isn’t fun by the second hour. You’d just thrown one at Steve when the door swings open, and you and Steve look at the intruder with wide eyes. It’s the Chief.

The new Chief was okay, you guessed. He was also brought in by the feds. He was a kind older man, with deep set blue eyes and wispy white hair. He could have come straight out of a storybook. You thought the Chief delegated nicely, and you’d shared a few good laughs. Something always felt off, though – but you and Steve chalked that up to the fact that you both were extremely biased against anyone who wasn’t Hop.

“Noise disturbance call,” Chief Edwards says. “Some kids out on Maple Street are causing mayhem.”

Steve groans and throws his head back. “Please tell me it’s not 30 Maple Street.”

The Chief blinks. “It is.”

“God dammit,” Steve says under his breath. It’s Mike’s house.

You and Steve get into a patrol car and set off.

“Do you know these kids?” you ask.

“Yeah, they’re kind of… my kids?”  He scrunches his nose. “I keep them out of trouble.”

You pause, confused. “So, you babysit them?”

“No, no,” Steve says. His face grows slightly red. “They’re my friends.”

Steve pulls into the driveway of the house, blaring the siren once to scare the kids that were on the lawn. Their faces quickly went from scared to excited as they saw it was Steve in the car.

You both get out of the car, and Steve takes the lead. He puts his hands on his hips and faces the kids. There were 4 boys and 2 girls, no older than 16, if you could guess. One of them with dark hair is holding a hose, and the others are wet.

“What are you shitheads doing?” Steve asks sternly. A couple of the kids giggle.

“What seems to be the problem, officer?” the red headed girl asks.

“I told you we were being too loud,” a kid you recognize as Will Byers says. He is smart, sitting on the porch and just watching, amused.

“Right,” says Steve, pointing at Will in recognition. “Way too loud. Mike, where’s your parents?”

There’s a beat, and then the girl standing next to the red head quietly says, “Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler aren’t home.”

Steve sighs. “Alright, well, you could always act like idiots inside the house, you know.” He looks at the dark-haired boy holding the hose. “Mike, what are you doing with that?”

The boy’s face breaks out into a devilish grin, and you can predict what’s about to happen. He points the hose at Steve and a curly haired boy turns the handle to let the water spray out, missing Steve by a hair. He jumps back.

“HEY!” he shouts. “Not cool dude, not in my uniform!”

“Wimp,” you laugh, and push him forward, allowing him to get splashed. The kids cheer, and then Steve’s hands are on your arms, and he swings you around to get hit, too. You gasp at the freezing feeling on the back of your legs, but burst into laughter, trying to wrestle Steve back into the flow. This goes on for entirely too long before you suddenly realize that it probably isn’t a good look to be out here responding to a call and then partaking in the offense.

“Steve,” you say, and that’s all it takes for him to snap back into reality.

“This is fun and all,” he says, letting you go. “But we came to bust you, not join in.”

The curly haired boy turns the water off and Mike sets the hose down. Steve has a way with kids. He’s able to level with them and call them out at the same time. It’s pretty great to watch and it’s certainly something you admired him for.

“Who’s this?” the curly haired kid asks, grinning widely.

“Oh,” Steve says. “This is my partner, Y/N.”

“Do you get to carry a gun?”

“Lucas!”

“Sorry!”

“You hang out with Steve? That must suck,” the dark-haired boy, Mike, says.

“Every single day,” you say solemnly. “It’s the worst.”

“Hey,” Steve says quietly.

“I’m kidding, bud.” You punch his arm lightly. “You’re the best.”

You look back at the kids and they’re all staring at you with wide eyes. It makes you uncomfortable, so you clear your throat and say, “Well, uh – shift is almost over. We should be going.”

After an awkward farewell and another “please be quiet or I’ll kick your ass” from Steve, you both get in the patrol car. Steve sees Dustin gesture to call him, and he rolls his eyes, pulling out of the driveway.

“Why did they look at me like that?” you ask. “Because I said you’re the best?” You pause. “Do they hate you?”

He’s quiet for a while. Finally, he says, “I think it’s because we are really buddy-buddy but… I don’t really… I haven’t ever really… talked about you.”

You turn in your seat to face him. “Do you hate me?”

“Of course I don’t hate you.” His cheeks are red – he’s flustered. “You’re one of my best friends –“

“Then why don’t you ever talk about me? Or hang out with me?”

“It’s complicated,” he sighs. “It’s really complicated. I just – I don’t like … I get nervous about having new friends.”

You nod slowly. “Tommy H. and Carol.”

“Yeah.” It’s not really why he’s nervous, but it’s a good excuse. “I don’t want to get dicked over again.”

“Man,” you say, turning back to face the road. “I buy you a blueberry danish every single Monday. And a coffee. And I let you sing Queen at the top of your lungs, and I let you dance, and sometimes I even let you do it at 5 in the morning. I think if I didn’t want to be your friend, you would know by now.”

He’s quiet, thinking. You look at him, trying to read him.

“I guess I owe you the pleasure of hanging out with me,” he says after a while, a smile forming. “So maybe we can hang out Friday night.”

You gasp and throw your arm out, hitting him on the shoulder, making the car swerve slightly.

“Jesus –”

“Do you mean it?” you shout, smiling widely. “We can hang out?”

“I said maybe,” he teases. “It’s board game night with the kids – maybe you can come?”

You start chanting his name – “Steve Steve Steve Steve Steve! Really? Are you for real?”

“Yes!” He laughs and rolls his eyes again. “I’ll pick you up. It starts at 7.”

You smile so hard that your cheeks hurt.

Steve silently hopes he doesn’t regret this.

----

taglist (message if you want to join!): @harrington-ofhawkins​ @wolfish-willow​ @gothackedalready​

[telli1206]

You’re So Fine, You Blow My Mind (Part 2)

Tourney player Jay is smitten with the new cheerleader, and Evie and Mal help get them together.

Click here for Part 1: Jay

Part 2: Mal

Evil, there’s so much about tourney that Mal just can’t stand.

First off, the uniforms? They make sense to wear during games, kind of, but could they look anymore pansy-ish? Shiny blue and gold jerseys and shorts in silky soft materials? Not her idea of threatening or intimidating. These Auradonians make everything look so overdressed and...fancy.

And the games? With people watching and chanting stupid rhymes about defense and winning, with their faces painted blue and gold? It’s embarassing that anyone would want to act like that, especially to cheer on a fight over a ball. It would actually be similar to watching fights break out on the isle, if people here weren’t so weird about dressing up and singing for it.

For those reasons, and a few more, it took A LOT of convincing from Jay to get Mal to try out for tourney. But he won her over, of course. Jay always knew how to get through to Mal. 

Not that she’d ever admit to that.

But at the end of the day, how could she turn down the opportunity to take her aggression out on a few Auradonian boys on the tourney field? 

Especially Chad. Damn, Jay really knew her weaknesses.

But she’s a good friend too, so she’s VERY familiar with Jay’s weaknesses. And right now, his biggest weakness is ruining her practice and annoying the hell out of her.

She’s referring, of course, to the brain in his pants.

And that brain has completely taken over Jay today. Just one look at the new cheerleader boy, and her new best friend and teammate has been reduced to a clumsy, awkward, stuttering mess. Drills were a disaster, every play they ran was a complete failure, and Mal’s limping off the field now that Jay managed to trip her and knock them both into the ground during laps. 

She hisses quietly as she brushes the dirt off the scrape on her knee, scowling at Jay, who simply shrugs at her and jogs towards the locker rooms, stumbling again on the way when he catches another glimpse of the freckled cheerleader in his peripheral vision.

Ok, fuck this shit. Mal’s fixing the problem, RIGHT NOW.

“Babe!” She calls to Evie as she waves, sprinting over to the pretty bluenette cheerleader.

Evie turns with a bright smile, already leaning forward to meet her girlfriend in a sweet kiss.

“You were fantastic out there today, Mals. The star of practice,” she raves, giving her a wink.

Mal loses her train of thought for a second, smiling and blushing furiously at the compliment.

“Thanks, Eves. I thought it went well today.” Her face turns serious as she remembers her problem. “For me at least. I don’t know if you saw, but someone had a really off day today.”

Evie purses her lips with a slight nod. “Jay? The poor guy, he couldn’t catch a break today. I guess everyone has a day that goes all wrong, right?”

“Sure, that can happen,” Mal surmises with a tilt of her head. “But in this case, it wasn’t just a bad day. Jay’s, problem, has a face. A pretty one.”

Evie giggles, shaking her head. “Of course. When doesn’t it? Who’s the goof all twitterpated for now?”

Mal spins on her heel, crossing her arms as she eyes the boy, now chatting with Jane, arms gesturing wildly in a passionate discussion. She hears words like ‘cosine’ and ‘tangent’ and has to chuckle. Her bestie’s fallen for a hot little nerd.

“Your new guy over there has my best friend tripping over his own feet. We need to do him a favor and introduce them. I don’t think he’ll manage this time without us. The guy’s a little hopeless right now.”

Evie’s eyes light up when she sees who Mal’s talking about. “You mean Carlos?!” She squeals and jumps happily, clapping her hands. “He’s ADORABLE, and the sweetest thing! Oh, he’s perfect for Jay!”

Mal smirks and drops her hands to her hips. Her girlfriend will forever love playing matchmaker.

“Good, but we’ll need to be there to help loverboy. I have a feeling this won’t go smoothly without us. But don’t worry, I have a plan,” Mal adds with a calculated grin.

-----

“So, why do you want to eat lunch in the courtyard today? I thought you liked the middle garden cause it’s less crowded.” Jay follows Mal, grabbing an apple on  their way out of the cafeteria with their trays.

“What, is it so wrong to want a change of scenery one day? I’m not a creature of habit, Jay. I can be spontaneous.”

“Ok,” He chuckles, shining the apple against his vest. “Except you can’t.”

Mal glares at him but keeps walking. 

“Evie’s already saved us a table,” she adds as they turn the corner. She smiles when she spots the girl at the table right in front of them. “And” She nods her head, gesturing for Jay to look. “She brought a friend to join us.”

Jay’s about to take a bite out of the apple, but freezes when he looks up ahead. Evie’s at the table with...his freckled cheerleader boy. He stands there, mouth agape, refusing to move.

Mal rolls her eyes and grabs at his arm, pulling him along. He finally stumbles into step with her up to the table.

Evie and the boy both look up, smiling. Mal smiles back and drops herself in the seat across from Evie, leaving Jay in front of his crush. He quirks a smile and slowly plops himself down, catching himself when he almost drops the apple in his hand. He swings back up quickly with an awkward chuckle.

“Mal! Jay!” Evie sings sweetly. She reaches for the boy’s hand on the table and squeezes it gently. “I’d like you to meet Carlos! He just transferred here last week. And he’s our newest cheerleader.” She comments with a wide smile, which Carlos returns.

“Hi! It’s nice to meet you. Both of you,” he says cheerfully, offering a tiny wave.

“Carlos! I saw you at practice yesterday, you’ve got some pretty sweet moves,” Mal comments.

Carlos’ smile widens at Mal’s praise, and a light pink flush spreads quickly across his cheeks, starkly brightening his face against the pale skin and freckles. 

He’s cute. Really cute. Mal can definitely see why Jay’s so smitten.

“Thanks, Mal. I really love dancing. It was super exciting to make the squad. Evie’s put together some great routines.” He leans into Evie as she smiles and throws an arm around his shoulders for a side hug.

“And you’ve had some great ideas already, Carlos! I can’t wait to see what we can do together.”

Jay clears his throat, grabbing everyone’s attention. Mal sees his hand under the table between them, clenched tightly and at his side.

“Y-Yeah, Carlos.” He says weakly, curling his lips into a half-smile. “I saw you too. You’re...really good.”

Carlos spins back to meet Jay’s eyes with a warm smile, cheeks still flushed and adorable.

“Thanks, Jay.”

Mal bites back a laugh, shaking her head at Jay. He’s so shaky and nervous, totally not the suave flirt she’s used to seeing. And he’s joining late to the conversation and being SO awkward.

He’s so fucked for this kid. It’s time to step in and help.

“So, Carlos. Are you just new to our school, or new to Auradon City too?”

“Both!” He answers brightly, turning to Mal. “We lived in Camelot Heights before, but Roger and Anita thought it would be better for me here. Auradon Prep is known for their Math and Science programs.”

Mal quirks a brow. That explains his excited math chatter with Jane earlier. She peeks at Jay, who’s still listening intently to Carlos, resting his head in his hands with a stupid grin on his face. Obviously the nerd vibe hasn’t phased him at all.

“That’s great! Math and Science aren’t really my thing, but they have a lot of options here to keep you happy if you’re into that stuff.”

She leans in a little, offering a tiny smille. “But have you had any time to explore the city? There’s a lot of great restaurants and shops and stuff.”

Carlos shakes his head, waving his hand around in a circle. “This place is so big, and between tryouts, getting my schedule and taking the tour, I’ve barely even had time to get settled in my room.”

“Well! That’s got to change.” Mal pops back upright. “Evie and I are obsessed with the Auradon City Grille. They have the best burgers around.” Evie’s eyes widen as she nods excitedly at Carlos.

“Yes! And then we always hit up Mrs.Pott’s after for coffee or tea and some of her cupcakes. They’re my favorite,” she gushes, clasping her hands gleefully.

“Ooooh. That sounds great!” Carlos’ eyes light up with excitement. “Do they have chocolate cupcakes? I’m a sucker for chocolate.”

“Yes!” Mal jumps in. “You have to try it.”

Carlos nods eagerly. “I’m in! That sounds like fun! When are we going?”

Before Evie can respond, Mal reaches out to clasp her hand. She smiles knowingly, and Evie closes her mouth, perking her eyebrows in silent agreement.

“Actually, Evie and I are going to be pretty busy this week. I’m bombing Chemistry at the moment, so she’s going to help me study.”

“Oh, ok.” Carlos’ face drops a little in disappointment.

“But!” Mal claps Jay on the shoulder. “Jay here should be free.”

Jay chokes on his water, sputtering as he swallows his mouthful. He looks at Carlos, who’s staring back, and looking, hopeful.

“Uh, yeah. Yeah, I’m free.” Jay swallows loudly. “D-do you wanna go t-t-tomorrow night?”

Carlos smiles full and wide, showing a mouth of gleaming white, perfect teeth.

“Yeah. It’s a date.”

[just-kessho]

Serenity

U.A. Beginnings: Little Miss Princess

It’s Princess [Name]! Of course, she isn’t a real princess, but with her gorgeous looks and kind personality, it wouldn’t be surprisingly if she is. Our protagonist, [Name], has applied for U.A., how will she fare in the Entrance Exam?

Information [1]

Arc 1: U.A. Beginnings [Here] [2] [3]

Word count: 5.9k

It was early in the morning, and for Sunset Middle School, this meant it was the perfect (and usual) time for most students to be walking to start their school day. Being right in the middle of winter, many of the students’ sandy-coloured (despite the school name involving “Sun”) uniforms were hidden under thick coats and/or colourful scarves.

All in all, the atmosphere was relaxing - exactly what one would expect for a middle school, even in a world where powers that once were found in comics and fiction could and would be a reality for most.

However, one shout was all that was needed for the once tranquil atmosphere to be swept away.

“Make way for the Princess!”

In an instant, as if a blank was fired at the start of the Olympics, all of the students pushed one another this way and that, trying to get in line as they paved a perfect pathway from the gates to the school entrance. There wasn’t a toe out of line, not even a single leaf was present on the ground, as the students - now silent, shuddering with anticipation of what was to come - stood proud, awaiting for the star.

“Presenting… the Princess!”

Of course, she isn’t a real princess in the flesh and blood (one would think royalty would attend private intuitions with weekly fees worth a month’s salary of the CEO of a national company), but with the way the student body held their breath, her posture as well as the fact that she had white gloves on, the title was truly fit for her and her alone.

Her hair, that reached her waist, was let down as usual, it didn’t fly in all directions, instead, with every step she took, the thing gave off such graceful movements that it seemed to be made out of silk. Her skin, her flawless skin without a blemish in sight was soft to the touch (not that anyone touched it), smooth as porcelain and with such a natural and pure colour that models would die for. And her smile, that small smile as the girl made her way towards the entrance…

… Everybody could feel their legs go weak.

Stopping just in front of the entrance, the girl turned around (her long hair shining in the process), her attention fully on the captivated audience and greeted, in a voice that would calm all and make everything fall perfectly in place without fail.

“Good morning everyone. I hope your day goes well.” fiddling with the ends of the ribbon which was at the end of her headband, [Name] ended her greeting with a closed eyed smile.

The impact was instant, as the school ground took a good minute to savour such a perfect image and greeting before erupting in cheers.

“Hear, hear!”

“I’ll follow you to the end of the world, Princess!”

“Oh, Princess [Surname], your presence lights up even the world…”

[Surname] [Name], or as she was called simply “Princess”, smiled softly at the hoard of compliments the student body threw at her.

She doesn’t have a Quirk that manipulates people’s perception of her at a glance… she doesn’t have a Quirk that makes people fall in love with her at first glance…

… No, sorry, that was a white lie.

Strictly speaking, she didn’t use her Quirk on a single person outside, yet it was a complete mystery why people still went out of their way to almost worship the ground she walks on. But since she didn’t see any harm on that, nor was it too annoying, she let them do whatever they wanted. She knew, even without telling her so, that her rather lax nature regarding her fan-club (which… might as well have involved the whole student body) shouldn’t be so lenient, after all, the line between “admiring” and “obsessiveness” is a fine one that blurs the more one approaches it.

Ah well, if worst comes to worst, she can use her Quirk in all sorts of ways to keep herself safe.

Speaking of Quirks…

“Being in the last months of middle school, you should all seriously think about your futures. While I wish you the best of luck on whatever path you decided on, it is best to keep at least one back-up plan in case it didn’t work out.” standing in front of the classroom, 3-B’s homeroom teacher announced, rustling the stack of forms he has collected in his hand. “But this old man knows… in this day and age… you all want to be Pro Heroes, right?”

In an instant, the whole class erupted in cheers, with several outbursts that voiced their agreements at their teacher’s statement such as “Of course Teach!”, “Who wouldn’t be in this time and age?” and the like.

“[Surname], meanwhile, has even applied to U.A. High.”

“Of course, it’s our Princess, after all!”

Getting rather overwhelmed with all the compliments and expectations of her, the girl they were currently discussing about giggled nervously, light pink dusting her cheeks (such an image sent an arrow of love right into everybody’s hearts) as she tried to quickly divert the attention away from her by asking about what sorts of schools her classmates applied for, twirling the blue ribbon of her headband all the while, but to no avail.

“By the way, Princess, why did you want to apply to U.A. in the first place? That place is infamous for having shockingly low acceptance rates-”

“Hey, you saying that Princess will fail the exam?!”

“N-no! I just-!”

Watching the scene unfold, [Name] couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief under her breath. While it wasn’t the attention she would have preferred, at the very least, the attention was away from her - it was getting a bit too uncomfortable with all the stares.

Though I do wonder why I’m all right with the attention I have with the students… perhaps because they are students…?

-----

As the chill in the air continued, showing no sign of stopping soon, the time ticking down to the day of the entrance exam never let up, and all too soon, it was time.

“Good morning dear, how was your daily run today?” Mrs [Surname], a woman with the arguably kindest face you will ever come across, asked the younger female as the latter - still in her tracksuits and cheeks red - approached the dinner table (really, it also served as the breakfast, lunch, and tea table).

“Uneventful as always - apart from that one weird scream I thought I heard from the seaside.” [Name] recounted, remembering to wash her hands first if she wanted to take even a tiny crumb from her toast. “It sounded like either someone broke his games console, or witnessed his favourite Hero fighting a Villain at pint blank range. But I couldn’t hear nor sense any kind of disturbance, so… maybe the former was more probable.”

“Interesting…” now scooping a finished sunny-side-up into the girl’s plate, the kind faced woman asked whether her daughter would like to share anything else.

“Oh, also! The beach was devoid of any trash today. So maybe the scream was a response to that miracle? Either way, I guess we can never find out.”

“Wow, such an uplifting start to your U.A. life.”

“But mother, I haven’t even attended the-” sensing some sort of pressure - as if it was an invisible finger - on her lips, [Name]’s words were abruptly cut short. Weird thing was, her mother was still on the other side of the table, pan in hand. Can’t believe she used her Quirk on her daughter.

“Ah, ah. Shush now, dear.” she winked, placing her pan down to pick up the cartoon of milk - for herself or their cat? That much wasn’t clear, but it also wasn’t important right now. “Don’t jinx yourself. Don’t want anything to happen!”

I... don’t think there’s any scientific explanation for jinxes… you thought there would be, in a world full of superhuman abilities.

Still, the rest of the breakfast (in [Name]’s case anyway) was passed in comfortable silence.

“Headband, check. Ribbon, all tied neatly. Gloves, on! Let’s go, then.”

 -----

 “I see… so this is the famous U.A.” staring up at the tall glass buildings as [Name] neared it, she couldn’t help but gulp down a bundle of nerves that threatened to come out of her throat. Nerves aside, [Name] mentally told herself to get used to the looming buildings (which… looked more like claws in her eyes… the talons of a bird of prey) - after all, such a sight could very be a regular occurrence in the next three years of her life.

The Princess of Sunset Middle School checked repeatedly on what she needed last night (she went through everything this morning - once before her run, and once just when she was about to leave - as well), and if the fact that she lost count at five at the amount of the times she went over the contents in her bag was of any indication, you know just how important today’s event was to a girl named [Name].

After all, it was the only one chance that will make or break her hero future.

She glanced around, quietly analysing what what everyone else was wearing and doing. Inwardly noted down that everybody was wearing their own uniforms, the girl wondered whether it was because they were students so they had to wear their uniforms, or the schools’ smug hint of “Heh, look at our school, we have a grand total of five students attending the exam!”. To be fair, a large percentage of the students here were wrapped warmly in several layers to combat the cold weather, so you couldn’t make out which school they attended anyway.

Her own winter sailor outfit (a light beige with orange highlights - [Name] often compared it to sand instead of what her school was named after) was covered by a warm jacket and scarf, defending [Name] from catching the cold.

“Relax [Name]!” she tried to reassure herself, a smile on her face, but whether it was an encouraging one or one full of concern… well, even [Name] did not know. “You’ll do fine! Yes, because everything else seems so tiny in comparison to-”

Ah- don’t tell me that boy is going to…

[Name] was about to use her powers - if the hand that rose up in response was of any indication - but she didn’t need to, for the kind-looking girl helped him stay upright (as in, not fall and make a fool out of himself within five minutes stepping inside the school grounds) without our protagonist needing to do anything. The two exchanged some words before the brown haired girl bid her farewells, leaving the boy with green hair staying rooted on the spot as if he was trying to process what had just happened.

Glad to see the world still have kind hearted people.

Spirits higher, [Name] too made her way into the looming buildings, praying that the boy (wait, are those seaweed for his hair…? No, can’t be- maybe they are part of his Quirk) won’t trip a second time.

He didn’t, thankfully.

The U.A. lecture hall was filled to the brim with participating students who all wanted to join the hero course that pushed most of Japan’s top Heroes out into the world – even when the seats and tables were spread as far as [Name]’s eyes could see, there were no vacant spaces as every where was filled with people. It suddenly dawned on her just how competitive the course really was, and that she will have to make a good lasting impression on the judges (or so she presumed, [Name] didn’t know what the entrance exam would be, after all).

“Welcome one and all to my live show!” the pro hero Present Mic announced, his cheery voice filling up the large lecture hall because of the speakers on his neck, though [Name] momentarily thought that his voice was already loud enough without the speakers. “Everybody say “Heeeeey”!”

Absolute. Silence.

“I’ve got my shivers down my spine, too, listeners! All right, examinees…” he went on, ignorant towards the lack of response he has got not one minute earlier. “I’m gonna give you the low-down on how this’ll go down! Are you ready!?”

And once again. A b s o l u t e   s i l e n c e.

Present Mic announced that they will be testing everybody here by letting them do whatever they wanted to in one of the five replicas of the city. However, looking at the card with a number on, [Name] deducted that they will not allow anyone to pair up with their friends.

I guess being the loner here is an advantage huh…?

The energetic blond also explained that the school will put three different types of ‘Villains’ in the exam as well (perhaps something more make-believe than, you know, real villains), and these so-called Villains will appear visually different in order to distinguish between them. Of course, the three will also worth points, and different types will worth different amounts. By using individual quirks, their goal was to dispatch/eliminate as many villains as possible, but using their quirks against others is against the rules.

So all in all, overlooking the blatant knock-off that U.A. used for explaining the exam to a certain Nintendo game involving a fat plumber in red, it was exactly a ‘first come first served’ business with the villain points. Of course, once a student achieved a certain amount of points ([Name] wasn’t surprised when Present Mic failed to announce the desired amount of points), then they would be accepted in the glorious U.A..

The introduction continued with only one single interruption, and that was from a simple looking guy (who asked - or more like demanded - why there were four instead of three Villains on the handout) who seemed like those class-president-5-ever types that follows rules as rigid as ever. It also didn’t help that his voice carried all over the large space, so that everybody could hear… and he also wore glasses, completing the look.

Although I’m sure I saw him somewhere before… or maybe his appearance is so common that he could be mistaken as the average joe?

The glasses guy then singled out a boy who - in his eyes - mumbling too loudly. But because their seats were too far for [Name] to make out whether the man was exaggerating or not, she stayed silent.

See, he’s even got the personality nailed down.

Present Mic answered that the last silhouette was actually worth zero points, and then he compared the “zero points” to those large concrete things which would try to flatten the player in Mario games ([Name] was starting to think somebody here was a Mario fan), so the examinees should just try and avoid them.

“Now then, let’s move on to the main event! “Plus Ultra”!” the Hero declared, and then added a very surprising statement that made all the students wonder if such a thing was even appropriate in their current setting, “and may you all suffer gladly the trials to come!”

What is he really? Um, is he a pure masochistic person? The [hair colour] haired girl thought privately, sweat dropping and mentally smacking herself at her own dirty thoughts as she buried that stupid thought in the deepest part of her brain to be destroyed - which she could do.

 -----

 “... Just… I mean… wow.” much like how she gasped at the view of the school itself, even [Name] had to quietly admit that U.A. meant serious business.

Just behind the large gate was one of the five extremely detailed replica of the town, and judging by its massive size alone (it was just one replica town too), [Name] wondered if the school was funded by the world’s number one billionaire or something… or maybe U.A. was just flaunting its status and influence… or maybe it was a tactic to intimidate the newbies… endless reasons were thought up by [Name], with each one more ridiculous than the last.

Everyone had already changed into comfortable clothing, able to freely move about and use their Quirk and natural abilities for as long as they like. The girl was wearing a full on tracksuit, one that mirrored the one she ran in this morning - this one was freshly laundered, of course.

The low sound of laughter made the girl with [eye colour] orbs look aside, immediately spotting the boy from earlier, being picked on because of his nervousness and because he could not stop muttering under his breath.

Honestly… teenagers these days… [Name] thought, and then backtracked, wait a minute… that includes me as well! Well, his action is understandable.

To [Name], she personally believed that while confidence is an excellent ingredient in making of a Hero, nervousness is also an important emotion as well. After all, it is when adrenaline kicks in, giving the human body a boost in their fight-or-flight (albeit more geared flight) ability.

Which was why she found herself patting the mumbling boy’s shoulder and smiling to him.

“Hey, you’ll do brilliantly. Be confident.”

And at that moment, dear readers, all poor Midoriya Izuku could do was stare at this Goddess that descended from Heaven (in a twist of cliché, the light was hitting her perfectly, giving the impression that she really had descended from the Heavens), doing nothing but croak out several incoherent words that made him look even more pathetic in the eyes of his competitors.

I wonder maybe I should have accepted the recommendations… no, that won’t do. I have my reasons for turning it down, and besides, what is done is done, there’s no point in regret.

All right, breathe in… and out… and in… and out…

“Aaaaand start!”

Well, let’s go.

Present Mic’s voice, enhanced by his unique Quirk, carried its way through the otherwise silent area. Fully utilising the split second of distraction and disbelieve at the fact that there wasn’t a countdown, [Name] launched herself forwards, using one of the many sub-abilities of her Quirk to enhance her muscles, increasing her speed.

“What's the matter?” the booming voice of Present Mic echoed slightly, “there’s no such thing as a countdown in a real battle! Consider the baton tossed! Run! Run! Run like [Surname] [Name]! RUUUUUN!”

How did he know my name?! Impossible, I’m sure I’ve- … no, he must had seen my profile or something… yes that must be it.

Let’s see… yes, the robots have begun to move. Judging by the speed compared to others, I’m guessing the one that’s approaching me is 1P.

No sooner had she thought of it, the walls right on her left side was burst open, and an ugly robot emerged, it’s body painted green. The thing, its appearance coming straight out of an evil scientist’s lair, locked on the girl immediately, and advanced towards her, giving no sign of stopping any time soon.

Guess I found out why the acceptance rate is terrifyingly low…

Sure, even in this world of Quirks where your body could fly or be ignited with fire or even create black holes, when faced with an enemy that knows nothing but kill… when faced with something that could crush your insignificant life to the ground without a hint of remorse, anyone would be scared stiff.

The feet that moved, the body hairs that experienced the wind blowing past her body, the eyes that witness that ugly monster advancing towards her told [Name] the bitter reality. No matter when somebody had come across countless monsters of robots in the form of video games or… some tragic past, there will always be a sliver of fear that sent the signals to flee (or paralyse you).

And the only way to overcome that fear is…

“Die. I’ve got no no time to be playing around with you.”

I’ll use my Quirk to overheat it.

She sped past the robot (despite the latter locking on to her) without doing anything at the eyes of a layman. But as soon as the girl ran past the green thing, it stopped its advance before crumbling to the ground where it stayed there, unmoving.

One down.

The first-come-first-served basis continued, with [Name] gaining another 30 points in the process.

“6 minutes, 2 seconds left~”

Wait… they didn’t tell us how many robots are there. [Name] realised, taking down a 2P robot that was sneaking towards a student with the spikiest hair she had seen. Besides, Heroes aren’t just about defeating Villains, there’s also support and rescue going on. This exam will not be fair to those with great supportive Quirks.

So… is there another hidden point system?!

What could it be? Minimising the destruction? No, some of us have flashy Quirks - like that boy who screamed “die” at the top of his lungs, think he’s got a sort of explosive Quirk, or maybe it’s more like fireworks? So would it be teamwork and problem solving? That is probable, giving us numbers so we could adapt to strangers better… but then, I haven’t seen a single person taking down a robot with another.

So… rescue points?

By the time she thought to that point, there was only five minutes left.

… I would have liked to gain more than 32 points… I’m not a fan of it, but let’s go all out. Mind Accelerate!

Mind Accelerate, another one of [Name]’s ability using her Quirk, allows her to manipulatable the combination of bio-electricity, bio-fluids, and even neurons (though all on a lesser scale - she didn’t want to accidentally cripple herself) in the brain in order to make her problem-solving and analytical components faster. Of course, through her eyes, the world around her slowed down accordingly - while it wasn’t as drastic as anything one would normally read in fantasy stories, to her, even if there’s one second difference half a minute, it would be enough.

… I’m not powerful enough to keep up with Mind Acceleration for prolonged periods of time… let’s just settle with ‘rescue points’ while keeping the damage to a minimum…

 -----

 “She really has grown, hasn’t she?”

“I agree. Such confidence… and I think she’s figured out the secret too.”

… I wonder what he would have said. But then, there’s no point thinking “what ifs” when it comes to Heroes. All we could do is test and push ourselves, striving for Plus Ultra.

“Now then, let’s really test their mettle… with this.”

 -----

 “Hey, that’s rather unfair… don’t you think so too?” staring up at the sudden emergence of the mother robot of robots, [Name] whispered in disbelief. “… Guess that’s what Present Mic hinted to run from.”

Still, why put a robot - a 0P at that - just for us to run from? What could be taken from that? Our bravery? Our teamwork? Our ability at how far could a bunch of middle schoolers could run away? Granted, I’m running away too but-

Something snapped in her mind.

It was as if someone had suddenly sent a voltage of electricity through her brain, shocking the thing and making [Name] falter in her steps.

Oh, this isn’t good. Guess my time is up. No more Mind Acceleration and muscle augmentation for me in the next twelve hours.

“Oww…”

[Name] was fully prepared to continue sprinting away, not using her Quirk but her own natural body instead, when a muffled grunt of pain caught her attention. There, buried underneath all the rubble that must had fallen because of the emergence of the 0P robot (where had that emerged from anyway?), was a brown haired girl.

Mind Acceleration!

I won’t help a single person be-!

“Hey, are you all right?” [Name] appeared next to the fallen girl in a flash. She didn’t want to concentrate on the looming shadow over their heads.

Touching the rubble that had crushed the girl, [Name] held her breath as she manipulated the gravity (though only for that rubble, but it was all that was needed to free the girl) and lifted the thing. With sudden recognition, [Name] realised it was the same girl who had helped the boy from tripping.

The colour of the shadow was a dark grey.

[Name] held her breath. It was an unconscious act.

The outside world was noisy - or it should be, but her mind was silent, blocking out the noise. Although her brain was silent, she still… [Name] still deemed the world - her world - too noisy.

She wanted to stop the irritating thumping of her heart (which she swore she could feel in her throat).

She didn’t know this girl’s Quirk, but judging from the way she stopped the boy from falling meant it probably had something to do with levitation or the manipulation of air (or maybe even telekinesis). But could she use it on the two of them? [Name]’s own body was nearing its limit. Sure, she could augment her muscles again, but she really didn’t want to forcefully collapse before they made it out alive.

Despite her running non stop for the last ten minutes or so, [Name] felt her face grow cold. And again, despite her face feeling cold, the blood still travelled to her head that fuelled her Quirk and her mind. Her mind came up with something.

She didn’t like their chances, but what choice did she have?

“Hey, we’re going to make it out. I promise.” she didn’t like- no, she despises making promises that one cannot keep, so she said it more to perhaps encourage herself than the girl.

In the next couple of seconds, the shadow would had blocked all all of the colours of the ground near them.

However, she never would have taken action, because the girl shouted “Look!” just as the shout of “SMASH!” was yelled before the shadow wobbled.

Craning her neck up, [Name] couldn’t quite believe her eyes. There, seemingly suspended in mid-air, was a boy with the whole of his right sleeve torn apart. But that wasn’t what made [Name]’s eyes widen. No, it was the huge dent in the 0P robot’s face.

“Um… thank you.” the girl started, and at the blank look on [Name]’s face, quickly added, “for saving me.”

“No problem…” a manly scream erupted, causing two girls to look up, and there he was, in all his glory, the saviour… falling down as his limbs flopped about worthlessly.

“We’ve got to do something!”

“I can use my Quirk to slow him down, but I can only do so for so long. I presume your Quirk is some kind of levitation, so could you…?”

“Oh! Of course. Leave it to me.”

I’m going to experience something utterly terrific next… let’s go.

Focusing her eyes on the boy, [Name] lifted the Mind Acceleration on herself and lifted lifted her hand, the palm (although it was covered by her lacy glove) facing him. A faint glow of pink started emitting from her, soon engulfing the falling boy - whose descent was reduced considerably so that it was at a speed that the boy could easily grab hold of something.

Despite her best efforts, the journey down, even aided by [Name]’s Quirk, was bumpy to say the least.

But it was enough for the girl with levitation to… smack him across one cheek…?

“I… wasn’t expecting that.”

She watches as the nameless girl touched her fingers together just as the boy neared the ground. With a noise, he hit the ground softly, though that couldn’t be said for the rest of the discarded robot parts (one of them was a make-believe anchor for the girl to use to float up) as they crashed the ground.

“... I also wasn’t expecting that.” [Name] mumbled, watching as the girl threw up everything she had in the last several hours. Then, her own knees gave away, as all of the energy she had has evaporated. The simple act of rolling to face the blue sky was a hard one, and she also felt something wet running down her nose, slowly but surely - she didn’t need to touch it know it was blood. “All right, I was expecting this.”

“... get… a single point…!”

…? Don’t tell me… he hasn’t got… a single one?!

But the announcement from Present Mic crushed all of his dreams.

“The test is over!”

Murmurs erupted from the examinees, whispering about the mysterious one’s Quirk. None of them noticed that…

He… jumped to… save that girl… to save us. Despite knowing that he won’t gain a single point out of this. But… if rescue points really are a thing, then… you still have a chance.

I’ve done all I could. Now I just hope that it’s enough for my acceptance. As long as I’m not in the spotlight or dead last, then I’ll take it.

“What have you done, dear?”

“Ah… Gr- Recovery Girl.” [Name] mumbled, then shot her a rather guilty smile. “Sorry, but I overused my Quirk, and so I’m exhausted, both physically and mentally.”

“I see…”

The old woman handed [Name] some candies, which [Name] quickly ate. She rounded to the unconscious saviour and extended her lips, giving him a kiss.

I’ll probably never get used to seeing that. She thought as she closed her eyes.

The breeze felt real nice.

It stirred up something nostalgic in her heart.

 -----

 “Dear, this is for you.”

[Name] didn’t know why her mother went out of her way to prepare a mouth watering meal for her as soon as she stepped through the door. But at the kanji that was written neatly at the bottom edge of the envelope that was presented to her as soon as she sat down for dinner, she knew why.

It was from U.A., after all.

Fiddling with the ribbon on the side of her blue headband, [Name] excused herself, quietly going into her room and opening the letter with a small knife. Call her action totally unnecessary and over-the-top, but that was how she mostly went about - neat, and with minimum destruction as possible.

Pulling out… a microphone? Were they going to announce whether she passed or failed through a pre-recorded device?

But as it turns out, it wasn’t a microphone, but a hologram instead.

“You…!” staring up at the tired eyes of the Pro Hero, [Name] let out a gasp. Then, realising she was literally staring at him like a goldfish, she composed herself. “Y-you’re… Eraserhead.”

“Yes. I guess kids these days have less and less respect.”

Oh wow.

“Anyway, what I’m here for is that you passed, [Surname] [Name].”

Silence.

“I’m sorry?”

A sigh. “You. Passed.” he then went into detail, though still speaking in that gruff voice of his as if he gave zero shit about a young hero’s future. But… there was a colourful background which mixed his voice and appearance as much as oil and water. “The exam result was split into two categories. Villain Points, and Rescue Points.

“Villain Points are gained through the deactivation of the robots. With yours being 32. Rescue points, meanwhile, were exactly what it said it does. With your being 38. Thus with 70 points in total, [Surname] [Name], you passed. Congratulations.”

… Those claps (which could be seen as sarcastic) and confetti's did not match in the slightest.

“I suppose I should say “welcome”, but this being U.A., and your course being the hero course, things will get harder from here, kid.”

… I know…

“Still, congrats on passing, kid.”

With that said, the Pro Hero’s image disappeared.

[Name] took several minutes for what he had said to sink in. And just like a switch being flipped, she laughed quietly to herself, hand covering her mouth.

I did it!

I really did it!

“Kuro, I did it!” listing up the black cat, [Name] nuzzled her face in his fur. “I thought it was impossible but… there has been no problems so far!”

But…

Going to the living room to tell her parent the news, the last thought on [Name]’s mind was:

…... Though I hope I don’t get Eraserhead as my homeroom teacher.

Previous chapter << (1) >> Next chapter

[psychobhyun]

T U G  O F  W A R  [1/3]

Foreword: It was football season and your school’s star player Chanyeol, who is also your childhood best friend, is going against your middle school friend, Baekhyun. The three of you have history and you’re forced to make a choice. 

Warnings: cunnilingus, dirty talk, orgasm denial, fingering, tit-fucking, creampie

<warnings are different for each part.>

Genre: smut

It was football season and your school is one of the most anticipated teams to get in the finals. Your school was known to give scholarships to students that would contribute a lot to the football team and your childhood best friend, Park Chanyeol, was one of those students.

Growing up, he was chubby, had an obsession with animals (and he found out he was allergic at elementary), wore glasses, and wouldn’t hurt a soul. But one day he told you that he wanted to be fit and he wanted girls to find him sexy so he worked out a lot during middle school and joined your middle school’s football team. He became a star there.

Chanyeol never told you why he had a change of heart suddenly. When you asked him, he told you that he wanted to be confident with himself. You thought it was weird because Chanyeol never minded the comments he would hear about him before. However, you understood that Chanyeol could do what he wanted to do with himself as long as he is happy.

Despite being popular, Chanyeol would still hang out with you the most. He will always tell you that you are his favorite person in the entire world and he would never stop being best friends with you. Every time Chanyeol reminds you how much you mean to him, you always think about the other girls that he also talks to.

He never talks about them with you, but sometimes your classmate would ask you about him even though they text a lot. You know that Chanyeol probably thinks of you as nothing more than a best friend or as the football team’s manager’s assistant. Chanyeol tried to find an excuse so you could be more involved in his hobby by recommending you to become the assistant when the manager was searching for one. Of course, you got accepted because the school knew how much of an asset Chanyeol is to the team.

That’s why you’re in one of the teams’ school you will be up against. It’s a school that’s also known to have a strong team. They even beat your school last year and broke your school’s record of winning 5 consecutive years. And you know the reason why.

Byun Baekhyun. He was the same age as you and Chanyeol were. In fact, you know him quite well. He was one of your classmates during middle school along with Chanyeol. But on the last day of school, Baekhyun had a fight with Chanyeol. You were hurt because they shared dream was to be a part of the same team and winning together.

You sat on the bleachers as you waited for Chanyeol and his teammates to finish wearing their gear. You were having a “test-game” with Baekhyun’s team and feeling nervous is an understatement. You were terrified because when your school lost last year Chanyeol and Baekhyun looked like they were about to kill each other in front of you.

You looked at Baekhyun and his teams stretching on the field. Baekhyun’s eyes met yours and he waves, giving you a playful smile from the other side of the field. You blushed. Even though you saw him last year during the competition, he never tried to interact with you. So you were surprised when he even looked at you back. You waved back at him shyly and he threw a wink at you.

“Hey, what are you looking at?” Chanyeol suddenly appeared beside you and looked at your line of sight, catching you looking at Baekhyun. “Him? That guy hates me, you know that right?” You shrugged. “He waved at me, Chanyeol. Wouldn’t it be rude if I didn’t wave back?” Chanyeol rolled his eyes and walked back down to join the rest of the team. He stretches and runs across the field and threw a few balls. Something tells you it’s to flex rather than stretching.

Baekhyun does something equally impressive when he threw his ball almost all the way to the other side of the field and landed near Chanyeol’s feet. Chanyeol shot daggers to Baekhyun with his eyes. You were hating the obvious tension between the boys. It made the atmosphere awkward and heavy. You’re also in such a huge field… it makes you anxious. Why did Chanyeol even fight with Baekhyun anyways?

Your school’s coach tells the team that the test game was about to start and maybe that’s what Baekhyun’s coach is telling his team as well because they’re huddling together. The game starts and already, Baekhyun’s team has the upper hand. You can see Chanyeol’s frustrated face. “The game just started, guys! Don’t give up!” Your encouragement gave your team a smile but you can see Baekhyun smirking. You don’t know the meaning of it but it makes you shiver.

The game finishes with Baekhyun’s team winning by a few points more. With a triumphant smile, Baekhyun approaches you for the first time since middle school. “I want to talk to you. Now.” Before you could ask why Baekhyun drags you by your arm and you look back to see Chanyeol clenching his fists. You mutter a “wait for me” to Chanyeol and he nods.

Baekhyun dragged you the empty locker room of his school. It smelled like sweat but you could hardly think about it because Baekhyun was practically pressing on your body. “I’ve missed you,” Baekhyun admits as he looks into your eyes. “I’ve missed you too, Baekhyun. But you fought with Chanyeol and there was nothing I could possibly,-” Baekhyun cuts you off when he slams the locker behind him with his fist. “I said I’ve missed you, I wasn’t talking about that son of a bitch,” Baekhyun hisses through his teeth.

You crook an eyebrow because of his sudden crude language. “I’m sorry,” you reply, voice almost inaudible. Baekhyun exhales and looks down on you. Even though he was only 174cm, you were still way smaller. You’re only 155cm. Chanyeol has always teased you about it, but then he had an obsession with how big he is compared to you.

“You’re always sorry and it’s annoying.” Baekhyun looks at something else momentarily before continuing. “You’re sorry when you forgot to make me lunch when you lost a bet, you’re sorry when you came late when we were supposed to eat together, you’re sorry when your best friend punched me even though you didn’t know that I told him I wanted to confess about my feelings to you back at middle school.”

You found it a little bit hard to breathe when Baekhyun said the last few words. You never knew about his feelings because he was nice to everyone. Hell, he was nice to his girl seniors and juniors. You don’t stand a chance against those people. They were cuter and prettier than you were. You only had Chanyeol growing up and that was it.

“Are you gonna be sorry when I fuck you in this locker room?” Baekhyun rasps when his gaze lands on you again. You bite your lip. You can’t come up with an answer because…… you wanted it but you don’t want to betray Chanyeol. He almost killed the person you gave your virginity to. You don’t want it to happen again. Especially since it’s Baekhyun.

“Chanyeol is going to kill you,” you answer truthfully. It sounds pathetic, but it’s your honest answer. “Okay,” Baekhyun starts. You know he’s frustrated because you always manage to bring up Chanyeol’s name into every topic. “But do you want me? Cause I want you. I need you.” Baekhyun looks at you with his puppy eyes and you almost want to say yes. Is almost enough?

“Okay,” you gave him his answer and his face instantly beams with joy. But it turned serious immediately because he’s unbuttoning your school uniform hastily, hungry eyes staring at your body. He yanks your skirt down and mumbles a quiet fuck under his breath because of your white cotton panties. He squats, his eyes at the same level as your panties, staring intently at it.

You bite your nails, embarrassed at your helpless state. Baekhyun chuckles deeply when you tremble as he touches you through your panties. Even the slightest movement made you twitch in excitement. “Why are you so shy? You’ve got the body of a goddess, baby.” Baekhyun takes off your panties slowly and smiles when he notices that your pussy was shaven. “Makes you look so innocent. But I’m gonna treat you like a big girl, okay? Fuck you nice and hard in the boys’ locker room. Do you want that?”

You nodded enthusiastically and Baekhyun chuckles. His words turned you on so much. Maybe there is a side of you that likes to be spoiled rotten. “Say you want it, baby. Beg for Daddy to fuck you.” Daddy? That’s new. This could be your new kink. “I want you, d-daddy,” you whine out. You didn’t realize that your breathing has slowed down a bit. You were eager for more.

“Be specific to daddy, baby. What part of me do you want?” Baekhyun makes you sit on the bench, legs sprawled open. It’s humiliating to be so vulnerable like this. But Baekhyun’s eyes never left your body, which boosted your confidence. “You want my mouth?” Baekhyun licks his lips as he says it. “My fingers?” He traces your skin lightly, making goosebumps appear. “Or do you want this?” Baekhyun grabs his crotch and palms his hardening cock through his already tight fitting clothes.

“I want everything, please Daddy?” Your cheeks redden when you realized how needy you sounded. Baekhyun’s eyes dilate even more seeing you act adorable so naturally. Baekhyun kneels and holds your thighs open, face diving in between you to devour your sweet nectar. You grab his head as he licks your pussy lips before sucking on your clit expertly. He does it for quite a bit and you start to shake because it feels too fucking good. “Tastes like fucking candy, baby. You’re so perfect,” Baekhyun compliments once more before he goes into action again. You try your best to keep your thighs wide open but Baekhyun makes it hard for you to stop squirming.

You feel a knot forming in your stomach and Baekhyun must’ve known you were going to come because he stops all of a sudden. “Daddy, I was so close,” you tear up as you said it but Baekhyun grazes your clit with his finger which got you shaking once more. “Oh I know, baby. I’m gonna edge you before I grant you permission to come.”

You wanted to hit him because he’s starting to get cocky, but you know him being the dominant one in this scenario is what gets you off. You love being controlled like this. Baekhyun pinches your clit and your thighs twitch slightly. He laughs and pushes in three of his fingers at once, knowing that you were wet enough for him to do just that. “Shit, so warm and tight inside of you. Can’t wait to stuff my cock in this pussy, baby.” Baekhyun kisses you for the first time since the two of you started and you can taste yourself on his tongue. He’s kissing with you such passion and you were starting to feel a little lightheaded because Baekhyun is taking every single one of your breaths.

Baekhyun’s fingers touch a spot inside of you that got you moaning like crazy and he does his best to flick his fingers against it every time. Using his other hand, he pulls down your bra not bothering to take it off and latches his mouth on your nipple, sucking it like a baby. “I’ve wanted to fuck your tits since middle school I swear. No one has tits as big as yours anywhere, baby.” It’s true. You had abnormally large breasts since middle school. Boys often tease you about it but it stopped when Chanyeol beat the hell out of those people.

“Daddy wants to fuck your tits, baby. Can he?” You can’t respond because you’re intoxicated by the sheer pleasure he’s giving you right now. Baekhyun’s mouth and fingers are multitasking but his precision does not falter. You only look up at Baekhyun and he groans at your innocent eyes still twinkling under the dim light of the locker room. Your answer is slipping your bra off completely and pushing your boobs for his cock to slip in. Baekhyun chuckles and takes out his finger out of you making you whimper because three fingers is not small. His dainty and pretty fingers make it even more erotic because you can’t imagine such fingers making you feel this good.

Baekhyun spits on your tits and you bite your lip when he finally thrusts in between your boobs. You can see the tip of his cock poking out when he thrusts close to your mouth, so you try to bend a little bit so you can give it little licks to encourage Baekhyun’s orgasm. “Baby that makes Daddy feel so good,” Baekhyun moans and throws his head back, giving you a nice view of his veiny neck. You continue to give his head kitten licks and Baekhyun smiles to himself. He knew you were the kind of person that was eager to please, but never to the sexual extent. Baekhyun would have lots of fun with you.

“I want to suck your cock daddy please?” You beg. It’s literally a few centimeters away from your mouth and you want it so bad. Need it, even. “No baby, we can save it for later. I didn’t come for one whole week waiting for that game. Fucking you today was Daddy’s motivation to win, baby.” Baekhyun’s promise of another rendezvous made you anticipate what’s more to come.

“I know it’s awkward but go lay down on the bench baby. Open your legs wide like a good girl,” Baekhyun coos with a loving gaze as he commands you around. You were a willing victim to his wicked desires. “Are you daddy’s good girl?” You nod enthusiastically, hair bobbing along with your head. “You’re so good, baby. Makes Daddy want to ruin you even more.” You giggle because right now, that’s exactly what you want.

You didn’t even know that it was physically possible but your legs open wider as you watch Baekhyun fists his cock with his hands, aching to be inside you. He spits on your pussy and spreads it around your lips with his hands before pushing into you. You arch your bad but it hurts. The bench isn’t the most comfortable place to fuck and the both of you know it. “So hot and soft inside you, baby. Your pussy is sucking me in. You’re such a greedy little girl,” Baekhyun dirty talks. You don’t know where the fuck he learned to do it but his words are heaven to you.

You pull Baekhyun in to kiss you as he works his hips, thrusting in and out of you at a rapid pace. His sweat drips down his forehead and his broad chest envelopes you warmly. It’s intimate and awkward at the same time. You can’t really pinpoint which part is appealing in this scenario but you find yourself begging for more. “Harder daddy, make me feel your cock for the next week,” you moan into his open mouth. Baekhyun gives you a sweet peck and pistons his cock faster. Your eyes widen. “I’m going to make you feel my cock for the next month baby.”

Baekhyun continues to fuck you as he reaches for something on his bag where his clothes were. You notice it’s his phone and you have a feeling you know what he’s going to do. He opens his camera. “Can I take a picture of you, baby? I want to jerk off looking at daddy’s baby pleasing him so well.” You just smile and Baekhyun takes a couple of photos. You know because you can hear the clicks. You’re embarrassed because you know Baekhyun is going to use these pictures for his pleasure. It makes you swell with pride yet anxious.

Baekhyun places his phone back in his bag and puts his attention back to you. You don’t know what got into you but you lean and suck an angry red mark on his chest. “Because you’re baby’s only daddy,” you try to explain to him. Baekhyun laughs lightly, the ‘ehehe’ laugh and it brings a familiar memory to you.

Baekhyun places his thumb on your bottom lip, playing with the plush skin of it. You suck on his finger and Baekhyun’s eyebrow lifted slightly. He has pretty much confirmed that you were kinky and loved to be praised, but he wants to test it even more. ‘To what extent are you willing to be used?’ He thinks.

“I’m going to come soon, baby,” Baekhyun announces. He starts thrusting again and you can feel the knot forming in your stomach once more. “Are you going to make me wait again, Daddy?” You pout and Baekhyun shakes his head as a reply. “No baby, we can have that fun later. And you can suck my cock by then too.” You give your pinky to Baekhyun and he does a pinky promise to you.

“Where do you want me to come baby? On your face? On your tits? On your cute ass?” You giggle when Baekhyun slaps your ass and grabs on it. “Inside me, daddy. Please?” Baekhyun’s face changes almost immediately. It’s like you triggered something in him because he’s thrusting even more frantically now. You stifle a moan when he hits you so fucking deep you feel like you’re being stuffed full of his cock.

When he finally comes, it’s warm and ticklish inside you. You can feel it trickle down your pussy and on to the bench. You realized he had so much come to offer you because he said he didn’t masturbate for one whole week. All that time just to do this? Having some sort of control over Baekhyun made you happy. But then you realize it’s kind of disgusting because it’s the boy's locker room. God knows who else has done it here. You were about to ask Baekhyun for one more kiss when you hear someone else’s voice inside the room. 

“Baekhyun, where you at bro?” Baekhyun gives you your skirt and blouse but you can’t find your panties anywhere. “As a promise for another time, baby.” You laugh as you button up your blouse once more. Baekhyun didn’t take off most of his clothes so he finished faster than you did. When the guy sees Baekhyun, he smiles. But then he notices you beside him and his smile turned into a smirk. You hid behind Baekhyun’s back feeling a little bit shy. He fist bumps Baekhyun and you’re feeling a little bit confused. The guy leaves after that and you face Baekhyun again.

“Now go back to Chanyeol before he kills me here.” You stand on your tippy toes and give Baekhyun a cute peck on his lips. “Bye, Daddy.” You wave at him as you walk to the parking lot. You see Chanyeol leaning on his car, eyes wild and angry.

[goteamanalysis]

Hello! I would like your thoughts about Akane please ? owo

Canon Information for this Character

-She is a manager and a 2nd year

-She really loves anything science-fiction

-She is a good artist, she is the one who created the Inazuma Eleven Stickers i.e

-Game Description:–A slightly enigmatic sort of girl. One of [Shindou’s] biggest fans.“

-To Recruit her you need:–1st game—Item: Seishun no Onigiri—Manual: Eternal Blizzard—Item: Puromaido—Topic: Valentine–2 game—Item: Second Raimon’s Theme Song—Item: Sewayaki Towel—Record: Photographer–3rd game—Coin: 2 Blue—Item: Miniature Caravan—Item: Sewayaki Towel—Photo: Timework Refridgerator—Photo: Old Fashioned Broom

Name MeaningHer surname Yamana 山菜 can also be read as Sansai, a Japanese word translating literally as ‘mountain vegetables’. This term refers to vegetables that were foraged in the wild, as opposed to being grown and harvested from a field.

Her given name Akane 茜 translates as the color rose madder, a shade of red, and fits the manager’s theme of being named after colors.

OverviewShe’s friends with her fellow second year manager Seto Midori, and since Midori has a tenancy to act before she speaks, Akane sometimes helps stop her from getting carried away.

She’s a huge fan of Shindou Takuto. She refers to him as Shin-sama and during soccer practice she’ll utter things like ‘Shin-sama is wonderful,’ and ‘Shin-sama is so dashing,’ etc…

Photography seems to be her hobby and she constantly carries a pink camera around with her.

In the Sengoku era arc, she’s portrayed as being a little bit jealous of Okatsu, the girl Shindou became close to. However, in the game version she understood his feelings towards Okatsu, and in order to give the two time to have their final conversation, she contributed to postponing the departure of the Inazuma Caravan. This shows she’s a kind and considerate girl.

While she does admire Shindou a lot, she doesn’t purely focus her attention on him - she cares about the team as a whole, such as when she showed Shinsuke a photo she had taken when he made his special move.

According to the games, she originally bought her camera to primarily be used to take photos of Shindou, but she’s gradually come to take photos of everyone and now it’s full of pictures of the whole team.

In the drama CD she took photos of Shindou from underwater, surprising Hakuryuu and Tsurugi.

AppearanceShe has large violet eyes and wears her hair in thick plaits. The color is light purple (or a red so light it looks brown?). Her uniform ribbon is blue. Unlike many of the girls who wear white socks, she wears dark purple tights.

She is not very short for her age, even being considered average height. She is almost even with Shindou and Kirino in height.

PersonalityShe’s described as very gentle, a bit air-headed, and mysterious. She’s quiet and often speaks in fragments rather than full sentences.

She can be considered a Romantic or even a Hopeless Romantic, this is implied with the way she talks about Shindou and the fact that you need the Valentine topic to recruit her in the games.

In Chrono Stone it’s revealed she has an interested in science fiction. When the talk turns to SF she lights up with enthusiasm and shows great knowledge for her favored subject. This also marks the start of her displaying her interests outside of “admiring Shindou”, allowing her to develop as her own character.

One of the chapter of the Ciao Inazuma Eleven GO anthology is based around her. Her personality is altered to become more like a typical shoujo protagonist. She speaks a lot more and while she uses normal, casual Japanese with the others, her inner monologue is in keigo (polite Japanese).

She is commonly seen clasping her hands together/entwining her fingers in front of her.

“Clasping and squeezing hands together is a self-pacifying gesture. A person does this to show that they are either uncomfortable, nervous, or even fearful. That or they are trying to assure themself, “Everything’s going to be alright.” A variation of this is rubbing the wrist. Clasped hands with interwoven fingers indicate great anxiety or frustration.“

This contributes to her meek and gentle nature, showing weekness and uncertainty in how she holds herself. While she never seems to worry about much, she could still be displaying that she is a nervous or even anxious person.

Her eyes always look very dreamy as if she is always in her own little world.

This is probably a visual reminder of her “Air-headed Nature” as when she is focused on she usually says something strange that exasperates the people immediately surrounding her. She speaks very softly and doesn’t say very much when she does talk, this feature about her capitalizes on her meek nature the same way that her hand gestures do.

Note:[more Manga info will be added later on a separate post or ask if someone expresses interest in more depth]

Misc

In an interview with her voice actor Yurin, she wonders what club Akane would join in the parallel world in Chrono Stone. She brings up that she could have a laugh with Midori in the ping pong club, but ultimately decides that Akane will follow Shin-sama to whichever club he chooses to join.

There’s a joke among the voice actors that her camera is indestructible. She can take photos underwater and in the movie when she drops her camera it still doesn’t break.

Originally, the script of the drama CD called for Shindou to refer to her by Akane, her first name, but on the day of the recording the staff announced that he would instead call her by her surname, Yamana. Her voice actor comments that she must be disappointed because her dream of Shin-sama calling her Akane still hasn’t come true.

Her voice actor Yurin regrets that she didn’t take a photo of Shindou in his Japanese-style clothes when she had the chance. She comments that every time Akane has a chance to get closer to Shindou she never takes it. ((Perhaps out of shyness?)) When Okatsu makes a bento lunch for Shindou, Akane comments ‘I want to make a bento for Shin-sama too,’. Yurin comments that she should, and show her appeal by making something other than tofu.

Character Trope Associated with this CharacterCloudcuckoolander - A character with their head in the clouds. They are strangely oblivious to things that everyone else takes for granted. This character, by definition, isn’t stupid. They can be highly intelligent and very insightful or even geniuses, it’s just the things they sometimes say and do may come off as weird, awkward, over-the-top, illogical, eccentric, etc. And because imagination often runs wild, they tend to be Easily Impressed.

((Mod Thoughts:Yozakura: She’s pretty great. I think she is my favorite manager in GO.Araceli: Her crush on Shindou is cute afLina: I really love her, she is talented and she fantasize a lot/ is obsessed with something and we can relate to this))

[littleevilisa]

LIP March Madness: Introduction of Human Emotions in a Virtual System

Summary: There are some thing you should not mess with. Katniss should have known that before stepping inside the Dreamatorium. Now she has to run through its simulations to find her friend Beetee before he’s lost forever. Sort of. Based on Community season 3 episode 16 “Virtual Systems Analysis”.

Rated: T

A huge thank to @titaniasfics for betaing, and to the ladies at @loveinpanem for hosting this round.

I don’t own THG nor Community

The battle rages all around her. She sees the Men in White fall by the dozen, but the gray uniforms of the rebels lay on the ground, too, marred with blood and dirt.

The epic music swells in a crescendo of brass and percussion.

She uses her bow to block the shotgun-axe of a soldier, then punches him in the guts and stabs him in a soft spot of his neck with her combat knife.

The Crafter is at her side, wielding his powerful plasma spear with purpose. They need to open a path through the battlefield to get to the Reasoner and the Hunter, who have almost reached the President’s camp, leading the assault.

She arms her bow with incendiary arrows, the ones with the yellow tips. She lets them fly in one breath, one fluid motion.

feeew feeew feeew twack twack twack

The soldiers hit by the arrows fall to the ground in silence, dead. She hears the wilhelm screams of those around them, caught in the fire caused by her deadly weapon.

She jumps on top of a big rock to incite their men, raising her bow over her head as if she's holding the flag of their nation.

“People of Panem!” she screams. “We fight, we dare, we end our hunger for justice!”

“Dreamatorium, stop simulation Battle of the Tree Island.”

I huff, stepping off the pile of dirty laundry we’ve been using as the rock. “It’s the fifth time, Beetee. What did I do wrong now?”

Beetee props his broomstick against the green and orange wall of the Dreamatorium, the room that Gale and he use to play out their imaginary games. Or, as they like to call it, render imaginated dreamscapes. “You keep saying the line with the wrong tone, Katniss. Too fast. And you put stress on the wrong word. It should be on justice, not hunger.”

I roll my eyes. “It’s the same. We’re just playing, it’s not like we’re shooting a scene.”

He looks at me blankly for a full six seconds. That is his reprimanding face. “I think I’ve asked too much of you when I gave you the role of the Mockingjay.” he says in his mechanical tone. “You have the right physical appearance and temperament, but you’re not much of an actor.”

I’m regretting deciding that it would be a good idea to get into the Dreamatorium with Beetee - or D13, as he likes to call the room because it underwent a series of updates after its first inauguration. The adorable nerd all movie quotes and obsession of being inside a TV show is actually a giant bossy jerk. Figures this is what I get for deciding to play wingman for Gale.

This morning Dean Trinket, wearing one of her flamboyant outfits, half man and half woman, because she was bearing good news and bad news, announced that the exam the study group have been trying to cram for at the last minute was postponed. Everybody had immediately jumped at the occasion and took a three hour lunch break. Haymitch was going to see the first half of three different movies. Annie wanted to go with her husband Finnick to a fancy fast food across town. Peeta didn’t tell us what he was going to do, probably sleep in his Lexus. And Beetee was calculating that, without eating, Gale and he could make-believe a whole episode’s worth of The Mockingjay. But I had seen the looks Gale had been sending in Johanna’s direction lately, and decided last minute that I could play with Beetee in the Dreamatorium.

So I got stuck playing the protagonist of Beetee’s favorite TV show, about a young woman leading a rebellion against the cruel dictator that had been enslaving her country. While Gale and Johanna are enjoying lunch at Sae’s Diner, where Beetee would never eat because one of the waiter said he hated Die Hard.

“Beetee, can't we play something that I know about?” I ask. “Like, nature conservation?”

Once again Beetee looks at me with his blank face, but this time I recognize the undertone of judgment.

“You're mad at me for helping Gale out with Johanna?” I ask incredulously as I take off the elastic headband I've been using as the Mockingjay's head piece. “You think you're gonna lose Gale.” The two have been best friends since day one of the study group, and basically inseparable since they moved in together at the beginning of the year. Not even the fact that I moved in the same apartment a couple of months ago could change this dynamic.

“I'm not petty, Katniss.” he answers condescendingly. “I'm mad at you because you tampered with the fabric of the group. How do you know that Gale and Johanna pairing up won't destroy everything? I run every possible scenario while studying this stuff.”

I scoff. “So you can do that, but I can't? You shouldn't be such a control freak.”

He nods. “I kind of have to.” He glances around us. “You think this is just a room where Gale and I play dinosaurs versus riverboat gamblers together. Sure, it's how I got the construction approved, but, much like myself, the Dreamatorium has higher functions.” He walks towards a cardboard on the wall with buttons and levers drawn on it. “Would you like me to show you how your stunt with Gale and Johanna will play out?”

I gesture to him to do as he pleases.

He puts his finger on a big red button with push written on it and says, “Dreamatorium, execute simulation Gale/Johanna. Render environment Sae's Diner.” He pulls a fake lever and pushes a couple of random fake buttons. Then he moves to the center of the room and crouches as if he is sitting on a chair.

Beetee imitates Gale's voice and usual demeanor. “Those appetizer were dope and legit!” Then he switches position and pretends to be Johanna. “I don't usually support lunch because it's unfair to breakfast.” He gets back to be Gale. “I've never thought about meals fighting each other.” he says in wonderment.

As I watch him talk, the room around us morphs into a rendition of the diner's interior, while Beetee actually turns into Gale.

“I guess this is why you never see any two of them on the same table,” he says.

Beetee's orange outline runs from Gale to Johanna. “So I guess Katniss would really like us together.”

Back to Gale. “She probably doesn't understand people. I don't know why she thought I might be romantically interested in you.” He shrugs.

Back to Johanna. “Well, the sooner the food comes, the sooner this will be over.”

The waiter arrives to their table, and Beetee jumps inside him. “I'm afraid your food won't be ready for another half hour. I'm too busy misunderstanding the whole point of Die Hard.”

Back to Gale. He looks longingly in the distance. “I can't wait to get home to Beetee.”

I need to interrupt this stupid game. “So what? You can dart back and forth doing impressions of our friends. There's no science at work here.”

The simulation gradually disappears. Beetee stands up, back at being himself. “You're right.” he says. “The science is at work in here.” He walks to a little walk-in closet and opens it. Inside there are carton tubes attached to each other with duct tape. “This is the Dreamatorium's engine. My thoughts are collected in this box.” He points a green box with his name written on it. “What I know about my friends is stored here.” Another box saying other people. “Both are distilled by logic and then recombines into objective observation. I'm able to simulate any of the study group and even a half accurate Cray in over seven thousand unique situations.”

“Beetee, it's cardboard and a funnel.” I point out.

“You see it that way because it's calibrated to a specific level of brain function.”

I'm offended. “Oh, right. I'm stupid.”

“Not stupid.” Beetee says. “Just less able to see what I see.

This statement doesn't calm me. It actually has the opposite effect. “You've got it all figured out, huh?”

My phone beeping with an incoming call distracts me from the tirade I was about to spit out. I leave the room.

It's Gale. Checking on Beetee, making sure he's okay. Asking me to make sure his bestie is comfortable because he worries about him when he is not around.

I'm incredibly annoyed.”He's fine! He'll always be!” I almost shout. “He just implied that I work on a lower brain function, so business as usual. I don't understand why people bend over backwards to take care of him.”

“He's just extra sensitive in the Dreamatorium.” Gale defends him. “It takes a lot out of him to run that thing. I don't want you to break his brain.”

I roll my eyes. “Bye, Gale.” I say, and hang up.

I barge back in.

Beetee is intent on something in the engine/tube construction. “I've been thinking about our Mockingjay scenario. Perhaps it would be better if you played the Clone Maiden. She was in two scene and only had three lines.”

I look at him with squinted eyes. “I have a better idea.” I march to the thing. “Your scenarios would be a lot more realistic if you'd take all your thoughts and logic and add one step to the process.”

He watches me closely as I take the other people box. “What are you doing?” he asks me with a mix of confusion and alarm.

“From now on, before you do or say anything, you're gonna think about how it affects the people around you. We lower functioning brain call it empathy.” As I talk I switch the box in my hand with the Beetee one, that I put where the other was.

Beetee suddenly starts letting out a high pitched whimper.

I look at him, alarmed. “Beetee?”

The whimper turns into a scream as Beetee start hitting the side of his head. Then, as suddenly as he began, he stops and falls to the ground, completely still.

Fuck. Did I just break Beetee?

I run to his side, shaking him and calling his name. “Do you remember when you wanted me to tell you when you were scary weird instead of cute weird?” I tell him. “'Cause this is scary weird.”

He blinks twice, then looks at me in confusion. “Katniss?”

I sigh in relief and help him stand up.

“Hello, Katniss.” Okay, this tone doesn't sound at all like Beetee's. This is not good. “What was I doing on the floor? Were we... doing it?” He gives me a devilishly handsome smirk.

“Are you being Peeta, now?” I ask him.

As soon as the question is out, Beetee morphs into Peeta, broad shoulders, blond curls, and all. “Well, I'm not being a Kardashian,” he jokes.

I pinch the bridge of my nose. I didn't break him. I just caused one of his usual breakdown. “Where are we now?” I ask, annoyed.

“We're in the rangers' lounge of Greenmeadow National Park.” Beetee/Peeta says as his clothes change to a ranger uniform and the Dreamatorium becomes a wooden cabin. I'm back in my Mockingjay outfit instead of the black jumpsuit I used as her uniform.

“A national park?”

He nods. “It's a sexy emotional park where rangers save nature and make love, often simultaneously. Our stories, ripped from the headlines. Our passion, unbridled. Our coffee...” he says, looking at the coffee maker in a corner of the room, “eh.” He dramatically turns to me, getting so close to me that our bodies are only a few millimeters from each other. “Make love to me, Kat.” He cups my face in both his hands and I have to restrain myself not to melt into his sudden touch. “I know I'm just a ranger and you're a hotshot park manager. But damn the rules, damn the system, damn our completely incompatible body types. I want you.”

I shake myself out of the spell Peeta's closeness and words cast on me. I need to remember this is not Peeta, but Beetee playing him.

I push away his hands. “I get it, Beetee. We have different sensibilities.” I turn around and walk away. I don't want to spend another second with him.

I'm in the living room, halfway to my bedroom, when I stop dead in my tracks. Beetee is not following me, as he usually would do when someone leaves the Dreamatorium before the simulation's over. I don't even hear a sound coming from the room.

It's not a good sign.

I huff and walk back in the rangers' lounge.

Peeta is still here, still looking at me with his passionate gaze.

I sigh. This man child is really getting on my nerves. “Okay, ranger Peeta. Do you know where I can find Beetee? I owe him an apology.”

Peeta's brow furrows as he shakes his head. “Beetee? Never heard of him.”

I roll my eyes. Awesome. Let's see if playing along can help. I square my shoulders and raise my chin, commanding. “I asked you a question, officer.”

“I'm a ranger!” Peeta shouts.

“And I'm your manager!”

“I left my wife for you and she was pregnant!”

I squint my eyes at him. “Who you think paid the doctor who inseminated her?”

The 'horrible' realization makes Peeta take a step back, in shock.

“Now tell me what I want to know or God as my witness, I'll have your badge.” I say in a demanding tone.

“Fine.” he barks. “Dr. Mason might know. Dreamatorium, render environment bio lab.”

An orange electric blur crosses the room, and the wooden cabin turns into an high-tech lab.

“Look,” Peeta says, “there's Gale and Johanna, the biologists working for the park, fooling around with each other.”

Yes, Gale and Johanna are here, dressed in white lab coats, awkwardly touching each other's face.

So if Beetee says that he sees something, that thing appears? Well, I can do that to. I point to his left. “Look, there's Beetee having overcome his issues.”

Peeta looks at me with a deadpan expression. “Nice try.”

Beetee's outline leaves Peeta and darts to Johanna. “We've just discovered an antidote for the terrible fungus that is killing the vegetation in the park.”

The outline jumps to Gale. “Using an unapproved procedure. Now, we're going to kiss.” He turns to Johanna, bends down as well as he can from his towering height, and make a strange sound, opening his mouth in an o shape. He darts back and forth between the two of them, doing the same sound over and over.

I have to resist the urge to throw up. This doesn't even remotely look like two people sharing a kiss, but I definitely don't want to see, or think, about Gale and Johanna making out. There are some thing a friend should never see.

“This is what you think I want?” I ask Beetee.

Johanna turns towards me dramatically. “What do you want, manager?”

“I want to talk to Beetee.”

“There's no one here by that name.” Gale says.

I glare at him. “You're lying.”

He shrugs. “Maybe I am. So what? I was raised on the mean street of the Seam. I'm not scared of you.”

Think fast, Katniss. What would make Beetee work with you? How can you lure him out of his hiding place?

The idea flashes through my mind in a nanosecond, and immediately a syringe appears on the laboratory table next to me. I grab it and plunge it in Gale's arm, pushing the piston. “Sodium pentothal. Commonly know as truth serum.” I announce. “Now tell me everything.”

Gale's face scrunches up in a last effort to resist the substance running through his veins. It is useless, though. Soon, he is spilling words as a fountain spills water. “I saw Beetee's name in the park files. I love butt stuff. I hate spiders. I stole a pen from the bank. I cried during About a Boy... the soundtrack...” He bites his lips not to cry. He sniffs and keeps talking. “Once I didn't wash my hand after touching some disgusting thingie I found during an inspection in the park. I can see why women find Clive Owen attractive and I might just as well be attracted to him. I use comparison to Hitler to win arguments on the internet at the drop of a hat. I know nothing about wine. I'm more turned on by women in pajamas than lingerie, I like that they feel comfortable. I didn't get Inception. I didn't get Inception! So many layers!”

By this point he has started sobbing uncontrollably. But I don't have time to console him. We need to stay on the topic. “You said you saw his name in the files. We need to find them!”

I turn to Peeta and he nods. “Dreamatorium, render environment archive study room.”

The lab disappears and in its place is our study room, where the majority of the study group's adventures start. Annie and Haymitch are here.

“Look, there's the head ranger, Annie, talking to Haymitch Abernathy, the alcoholic, Pulitzer Prize nominee who got lost during an excursion in the park last week and was found only today.”

“Mr. Abernathy, what were you doing sitting in that cave?” she asks the older man.

He slurs, visibly intoxicated. “I thought 'twas a train.”

I walk to Annie, impatient. “Annie, get me the file on Beetee.”

She looks at me in confusion. “Beetee doesn't exist, my friend.”

I grit my teeth. “He exists if I say so. This is my park.”

Annie clicks her tongue. “Your park is a simulation being run through a filter of other people's needs. Beetee's been filtered out because nobody wants him around.”

This shocks me. Does he really think that about us? About himself? “I want him around.”

“Well, you're not simulated.” Annie retorts.

I square my shoulder again. Apparently, the only way to obtain something from Beetee is if I'm a demanding boss. “No,” I start, “but this is!” I slap the air.

Annie's head snaps to the side with a second delay, her hand clutching her red cheek.

“There's more where that didn't came from.” I state.

“This is a private compartment!” Haymitch shouts.

I ignore him, focusing on Peeta. “Get the files.” I order him.

He lifts his right eyebrow. “Why me?” he asks.

“Because you can see the cabinets.” If I make Beetee think that I believe everything he says while he's playing Peeta, perhaps it will be easier to get what I want. But Peeta keeps looking at me with his raised eyebrow, expectant. I scrub my face and huff. “And I'll make love to you.”

He pumps his fist in the air. Apparently I'm not the only one hot on getting two members of the group together.

Peeta walks to a random cabinet behind him and immediately fishes out a file. He browses the papers, his brow furrowing the more he goes on. “There is a Beetee in the park, but he's not a ranger.” He pauses, looking at me in astonishment. “He's a missing hiker.”

Suddenly Annie screams. “Notify security!”

“Conductor!” Haymitch blares after her.

I run to Peeta and hastily grab his hand. “Please, enough with this game.” I say. “Take me where I want to go.”

Peeta looks at me for a second, his eyes then falling on our joined hands. “Follow me.” He leads me out of the study room. “You should probably run in place and let the hall move around you.”

I do as I'm told, and the hall starts sliding quickly. We arrive at a glass door and barge through it.

And suddenly we are on a beach at sunset, wearing our white bathing suits. A pretty motif is playing in the background.

“What's this music?” I ask Peeta.

“It's your theme. It plays every time we have an interaction written to enrich our story arch.” he answers.

“Where are we?” I ask, confused.

“Exactly where you wanted to be.” Peeta says. “The last day of the study group's vacation, first year. The night we kissed.”

I remember that day. We had separated from the others, deciding to go for a walk on the beach. We were sitting on the foreshore, the waves lapping our toes, when Peeta addressed the fact that he was glad I hadn't gotten through with my decision to move to Capitol College. He said that without me the group would have probably died out. I told him that it wasn't true, that the group would have survived my departure. He retorted that that would have happened had he been the one to live. Because no one in the study group really needs him. I replied that I did. I need him. And then we kissed. The best damn kiss of my entire life.

But something else strikes me right now. “Beetee wasn't there, so whose memory is this?” I ask.

Peeta shrugs. “Maybe it's yours.” he says. “Maybe the Dreamatorium really works. Or maybe Finnick was watching from the treeline and told Beetee about it.”

I turn towards the trees planted next to the beach to offer some shelter to the bathers during the hottest hours of the day. Sure enough, Finnick is there, hiding behind a large trunk. He leans forward and says, “We don't have cable at home.”

I turn back to Peeta, suddenly pissed. Is it because I just found out that someone was spying on Peeta and me in such a private moment? Or perhaps because Beetee is using it against me, to make me give up my search for him? “Knock if off, Beetee.”

Peeta shakes his head slightly, still looking at me with the same eyes of that day on the beach. “I'm not Beetee. You're confused, as I was. But not anymore.” He cups my cheek in his left hand and leans towards me.

His closeness, like earlier, sends my senses in overdrive. A spark runs from the place where his hand is resting to all my extremities. “Peeta...” I whisper.

Wait. No. What the hell am I doing? This is not Peeta!

I shake his hand off and take a step back. “Beetee, stop! I don't wanna do this.” The music around us stops.

“Are you sure about that?” he smirks.

I don't understand how that face can make me go weak at the knees. “I mean...” I shake myself again. I can't be deterred right now. “That's not the point.” I say as firmly as I can. “I want to talk to Beetee. I'm taking the files.” I mimic grabbing the folder Peeta is holding and browse through it. “Aha! It says that Beetee was taken to the ranger lounge after he was found earlier this morning. Condition: never better.”

Peeta gives a breathy laugh. “You're not holding anything.” He shakes his head and holds up the file in front of me. He opens it up and starts reading. “Beetee Latier, missing hiker 1373. Control freak with no empathy. People bend over backwards to take care of him. Signed, park manager Katniss Everdeen.” He shows me the paper with my signature.

I should be concerned that Beetee knows how to forge my signature, but at the moment it's something else that causes me to worry. He overheard what I told Gale on the phone earlier. Of course he wouldn't want to talk to me. I'm the biggest jerk ever. “That's out of context.” I try to defend myself, knowing that I shouldn't.

Peeta shushes me and wraps an arm around me. The music starts all over again. “You thought about everything, Katniss. With Beetee gone and Gale and Johanna together there's nothing standing in our way.”

I'm confused. “What?”

“This is your dream, Katniss. This is why you played wingman for Gale. This is what's important to you.” He leans forward again, this time trying to kiss me.

I shove him off of me, enraged. “You are not Peeta!” I shout. “Because Peeta cares about Beetee. And I didn't push Gale and Johanna together so this would happen.” I move my hand between us. “I did it because I thought they were missing a chance to see if something could happen, and this would have been a bonus.”

Peeta lifts his eyebrow and smiles. Damn me and my big mouth.

I keep talking, aggravated. “We are not here. And I'm not staying here because I hate whoever you are!”

I walk away.

“You should probably storm off in place.” Beetee says.

But it's too late. I bang my head against the wall of the Dreamatorium, where the treeline starts, and fall on my ass.

The beach disappears. We are back in our apartment.

“Where do you wanna go next?” Beetee asks.

I massage my forehead. I'm so tired of his games right now. “I wanna be alone,” I mumble.

“Sounds good to me. Dreamatorium, execute simulation Katniss/Katniss.”

The Dreamatorium morphs once again. This time it's the study room.

“There,” I hear my voice say. “Now we're alone.”

I turn around to see a copy of me smiling. Gosh, how irritating can Beetee get? “Great, now you're me,” I say, standing up to face him.

“Why are you blowing our magic moment with Peeta?” she asks me, angry.

I roll my eyes. “It's not magic. It's not even real.”

My copy smiles. “But we love Peeta.”

“Not like this!” I spit out. “Not to the point that we play with our friends' lives to get what we want. We prefer to get lost in the memories that we share with Peeta, and we keep running the same scenario over and over hoping for a different result, dreaming that we had the guts back then to act on our feelings.”

She puts a hand on her chest. “Running scenarios? Careful now, you're starting to sound like Beetee.”

A sudden epiphany hits me. I sound like Beetee. What if I take it to the next level and start acting like him, just like he is acting like me?

“So... I shouldn't be saying things like...” I try to imitate Beetee's monotone voice as best as I can. “Star Wars. Mockingjay. Cougar Town. Cool, cool, cool.”

My copy looks at me with a mixture of fear and disbelief. “Stop it!”

But I'm on a mission now. Beetee is not the only one that can use the Dreamatorium to make things the way he wants them. “Pop culture, pop culture!” I say. “I'm on a TV show.”

“You're gonna get in trouble!”

Right in that moment, I turn into Beetee, colorful sweater and t-shirt and all. “Meta, meta.”

My copy steps back, terrified. “It's Beetee! I got a Beetee here!” she screams.

Cray, the campus head of security appears next to me. Beetee outline jumps on him. He grabs my arm forcefully. “That's it. I find you guilty of being Beetee. You're under arrest.”

He drags me into the hall, to a row of lockers. We stop in front of a locker covered in danger signs. Cray opens it and shoves me inside with a maniacal laugh.

The inside looks nothing like a locker. Mostly because it's as big as my bedroom. The place is completely empty except a figure slumped against the gray, metal wall, his wrist cuffed to a metal ring.

I recognize the outfit of the Crafter. “Beetee?”

He looks up at me, confused. “Beetee.”

I finally found him. The real Beetee, not the one being mean to our friends. I'm so relieved. “Yeah! I found you by turning into you. How cool is that?”

He looks away. He doesn't seem as thrilled as I am about this newfound ability of mine. “Cool. Cool, cool, cool.” His catchphrase doesn't have the usual wonder in it.

“Where are we?” I ask, casting a glance around us.

“We're inside a locker.” he deadpans. “It's where I spent a lot of time during high school.”

I turn back to be myself. Why would he think any of us, in this case me, would lock him in here? “You know how absurd it is to think that this is where we'd put you?”

“Well, I'm not stupid.” he says. “You can see I've increased the square footage. It's a metaphorical locker. It's a place where people like me are put when everyone has finally had enough of us.”

I roll my eyes. He's so dramatic sometimes.

Beetee keeps talking. “I've run the simulations, Katniss. I don't get married. I don't invent a billion dollar website to help people have sex. I don't make it into Sundance, Slamdance or Dance Pants. Gale invents Dance Pants in 2019, but don't tell him. He needs to stumble onto it.”

I need to stop his rambling. “All right, listen. The scenarios you run in here are great science fiction. They're impressive, detailed, insightful. But they're not accurate at all. Science fiction never has been. Look at 2001. Did we get a space odyssey? Nope. We just got snowboarding in the Olympics. Your simulations are just your anxieties. You're afraid you won't fit in and that you'll be alone. I got news for you. It's the same for all of us. So you'll never be alone and you'll always fit it.”

He looks at me with a sad, little face. But I can see the start of a new hope at the back of his eyes.

I keep talking. “I meddled with Gale and Johanna because I was trying to make life go according to a script. But I can't. You can't. We both need to get more used to winging it. It'll be less work.”

We share a little smile. Here it is, my weird friend.

“Let's get you out of here,” I tell him.

“I don't know how.” he says looking at his handcuffs. “These fake shackles don't have a fake key.”

I crouch down beside him. “Isn't that what a plasma spear is for?” I ask him holding up the weapon of the Crafter, materialized out of nowhere.

Beetee smiles a little. “Technically, no. But that's fine.”

I point the spear at the shackles. A ray of plasma energy sprouts out of the tip of the weapon, hitting the handcuffs and destroying them, freeing Beetee.

He massages his wrists.

“So, should we get back to lunch?” I ask him.

He cocks his head to the side. “I guess so. A bit more anticlimactic than I would have simulated it, but whatever.”

I scoff. “Anticlimactic? Dreamatorium, execute simulation Battle of the Tree Island.”

Standing up next to the Crafter, the Mockingjay juts her hand out to him. “The Reasoner and the Hunter have opened up a path for us.” she says. “What do you say, Crafter, should we go free our people?”

The Crafter looks up at her. He sees the determination in her eyes, the perspiration on her face, her black combat suit covered in dirt and blood. A new hope blossoms in the Crafter's heart. He'll stand with the Mockingjay till his last breath.

He grabs her hand and stands up.

They scream their battle cry, launching themselves against the Men in White. The Mockingjay grabs one of them by the neck and starts punching him in the guts.

“Katniss!” the man cry out in pain.

I immediately stop my assault and let go of Beetee. “Oh, my God! I'm so sorry!”

I help Beetee stand up. “No, no.” he says. “You're committing. This is good stuff.”

We share a big smile. I guess that I understand why Beetee and Gale think that this room is so special.

[artificialqueens]

It's all about Barbie - Chapter 3 (Trixya)- Djoodi

A/N: Hey guys! I’m back back back again :) And I’m sorry that it took some time for me to get this one done, but school is back so I don’t really have a lot of time to write! But I’m so happy to see that people left some really positive feedback! <3 

If you haven’t read chapters 1 and 2 they are here: chapter 1; chapter 2! And I created a sideblog (but I suck so bad at using tumblr so I’m already sorry for my mistakes lol)! 

Also, VicThirteen was the nicest person™ and helped me as a beta! Thank you so much <3 

Hope you guys enjoy it! :)

Katya had a hard time deciding what to wear on her date with Trixie. She knew that it was a simple date, since they would meet for lunch at the mall. However, she also knew that, whatever she chose to wear, it would end up looking, not really neutral, but… Different. Unless she wore one of her yoga outfits, which didn’t seem appropriate. After spending 30 minutes siting on her bed in nothing but her underwear, staring at her closet, she decided to wear a dress.

It was actually pretty simple, but she liked it. It was a long-sleeved black dress with blue and white stripes all over it, and she chose to wear black leggings with it. Katya went to the bathroom, still only in her underwear, just to put some makeup on and try to do something with her hair. After a couple of regrettable decisions, she ended up with Ariana Grande’s signature hairstyle and with the one and only Katya Zamolodchikova’s signature makeup. Raccoon eyes? Check. Red lips? Check. And, along with some concealer to hide her dark circles, that was basically it.

She looked at the wall clock: still 10 am. Ginger was already working and Melanie was already at school, which meant she was alone for 2 and a half hours until her date with Trixie. Katya went to the kitchen to eat something, but ended up on the couch, smoking a cigarette while watching “What Not to Wear” - still not wearing anything other than panties and a bra. 

“Why would someone give up on their entire wardrobe for… this?” she shook her head at the TV. And, instead of being productive, she just didn’t move at all for the next two hours.

Three shows and two cigarettes later, she had 30 minutes until Trixie’s lunch break. So she brushed her teeth and put her clothes on, including some platform jelly sandals to complement the outfit. She also chose to accessorize with her eye-balls necklace, which actually matched her clothes, but she called Ginger before doing it. 

“Do you think it is too much if I wear that eye-ball necklace that I really like for my first date with her?” Katya asked her friend.

“I can’t believe you called me to ask this” Ginger snorted.

“I’m not joking, bitch! At all!” the Russian screamed, walking in circles. “Please answer, or else I’m gonna die.”

“No, you’re not” the woman giggled. “But I don’t know, bitch, go for it. If she thinks you are weird for wearing it, then she’s not the right person for you.”

“You… You are actually right, thanks Danny DeVito!” Katya smiled to herself. “And always remember that I love your work.”

“Go fuck yourself” the older woman answered. “Goodbye, Kathy.”

“Bye, bitch” the blonde hung up.

So she grabbed the necklace and put it on herself. Trixie wouldn’t mind it, would she? Given the fact that Katya had already made a joke about being naked in front of her, and she still accepted the lunch invitation, the Russian thought that the necklace shouldn’t be a problem. And, also, Trixie was an interesting figure herself.

Of course Katya had only seen her in her uniform and a pink coat, but, after stalking her Facebook, the older blonde saw that Trixie’s style wasn’t the most common. Yeah, it was definitely way more ordinary than hers, but still. Her wardrobe was very ‘Barbie-like’, and she wore a lot of makeup, which made her really look like a doll. And Katya liked that very much.

Plus, Trixie was so beautiful. She had thick thighs, big breasts and an hour-glass silhouette, so she was basically a thick Barbie. And she was a hard-working woman who took care of her daughter by herself, or at least that’s what Katya understood from their conversation. She seemed perfect.

She grabbed her little sparkly purse and her phone and she was good to go.

***

While Trixie was finishing the makeup on one of the clients at the back side of the counter, Violet was reorganizing the lipsticks. The girls working at the Yves Saint Laurent counter, in front of the MAC one, kept giggling and looking at Violet’s direction, which was making the purple haired girl get pissed.

“Why are this bitches laughing so much?” she thought, and rolled her eyes.

It was only after she almost had a heart attack by someone poking her back that she realized what the girls were laughing about. A small blonde woman with jelly sandals and eye-themed jewelry was trying to get her attention off the two other girls.

“Sorry, uh, my name is Violet, do you need help with anything?” she asked, a smile on her face when she saw the other woman’s big bright teeth. “You have a beautiful smile, by the way.”

“Thank you! I’m Katya. I’m just here looking for a human-sized Barbie doll who happens to be named Trixie” she sighed. “She works here, right?" 

"Yeah, she’s just finishing a girl’s makeup before her lunch break. Literally on the other side of this mirror” Violet pointed at the place where Trixie was painting someone. “Anyways, you can take a look at our products if you want to. And if you need something you can ask me. I’ll just tell her that you’re here." 

The blonde woman nodded, still smiling. Violet was definitely intrigued by her, and even more intrigued by the fact that she was looking for Trixie. The girl was almost done with a client when Violet approached her.

"Bitch, there’s a girl with jelly sandals looking for you” the girl whispered on Trixie’s ear. “Her name is Kathy or something." 

"Oh, Katya” the blond woman giggled, while applying some liquid lipstick on the girl in front of her. “Tell her I’m almost done here, and that I’ll be there in a minute." 

"Who is this person, though?” Violet asked, spying at the woman who was smelling one of the lipsticks that were in the showcase.

“I’ll explain it to you later, okay?” Trixie licked her upper lip, concentrating on the makeup. “Just… Let me finish here.”

“Fine, boo” flicking her hair, Violet went back to the kooky lady who was still smelling the lipsticks. “Tracy is almost done. She’ll probably just take a picture of it and grab her jacket.” She watched the woman put the product down. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you here.”

“Oh, it’s my first time in this area of Macy’s. I don’t usually come here, but when I do is just at the kids area.” Violet frowned at the statement. “No, it’s not for me! Although I do like some of the clothes there.”

“That's… Something.” Who the hell is this woman?, Violet thought, and saw that Trixie was walking towards them with her pink jacket and a wallet. “Here comes the sunshine.”

“Hey, Kat!” when they hugged, Katya noticed that she smelled like bubblegum. “This is my friend Violet. She’s a bitch, but a nice one.”

“Fuck off, Tracy” Violet answered, a bored expression on her face. “Do you know where’s Jaydinn?”

Jaydinn was one of the other girls that worked with them. She was working at the MAC counter for two or three months since Manila, the girl who worked there before, moved to Los Angeles. She wasn’t really close with Violet and Trixie, since they were working together for almost four years, but she sure made them laugh with her obsession over reality shows and some hilarious catchphrases such as “Hashtag Too Much!”. 

There were some other girls that worked there too, like Laila McQueen, a gothy short girl who was one of the horniest girls Trixie met in her life, and Jujubee, an asian woman who was there even before Trixie. A lot of other people worked at the main MAC store at the mall, but Trixie didn’t know a lot of them. 

“Probably coming back from her break” Trixie shrugged and turned to the Russian woman, whilst Violet left them to help a customer. “Let’s get lunch, shall we?”

“Sure!” Katya smiled, turning around before the younger blonde grabbed her by the wrist.

“Wait! There's…” Trixie lifted the other’s head by the chin, gently, “There’s some lipstick on your nose”. Katya tried to clean it up with her finger. “You made it worse! Gimme a second, I’ll clean that for you.”

The taller girl went to grab a makeup wipe that was there for clients to use. While Trixie cleaned her nose, Katya couldn’t help but smell her bubblegum scent, and stare at her bright blue eyes and the way she bit her lower lip when she concentrated. She grabbed Katya’s finger and cleaned it too.

“Done!” the blonde smiled, throwing the wipe away and turning back to Katya. “Red is a great color for your lips, but not for your nose.”  

“You smell like bubblegum”, the Russian looked deep inside her eyes, “And have really blue eyes. They are beautiful”. 

“Well, thank you!” Trixie could feel her skin getting red under all the makeup she was wearing. “I think we should- we should go” they started walking towards Macy’s entrance so they could get out. “Do you like Chipotle?" 

"Bitch, are you kidding me? Of course I like Chipotle” Katya cackled, like it was the most obvious thing. “They charge extra for guacamole, though, and I’m not the one” she stated, making Trixie laugh and agree.

Somewhere between Macy’s entrance and the Food Court, Katya decided it would be a good idea to hold the other girl’s hand, and Trixie wasn’t mad about it. The only girl she was used to hold hands with was her six-year-old daughter, so it felt good to be doing it romantically. Also, there was this thing about holding hands that felt so innocent and pure for Trixie, and she liked it. 

They went straight to Chipotle, where the brunette cashier - who Katya noticed to have a cool tattoo on her arm - recognized Trixie, and already knew what the blonde was ordering. The two women found themselves a nice table and sat down. The Food Court wasn’t full, what was very nice.

“So, did you date the girl with the cool tattoo?” Katya asked, right before Trixie took a bite of her food and looked at her, confused. “The Chipotle cashier.”

“Oh, no! She just knows me because I go to Chipotle very often. And she asked me for drugstore makeup tips once. Her tattoo is very cool, though. My friend Adore has a studio, she’s the one that tattooed her” she added, and Katya asked her if she had any. “Tattoos? Oh no, I’m so scared of the pain and regretting it.”

“You say that, but you’ve already experienced labor, which is like 100% worse”, the Russian giggled, “I have a small one on my lower back. It’s the black half of the yin yang symbol, Ginger has the other part. We did it, like, when I was sixteen or something”.

“So you guys are really close, yeah?” Trixie took a sip of her drink, and Katya nodded.

“She is my fucking ride-or-die. I don’t know what the hell I would be without this fucker, I wouldn’t even be living here, actually” the woman had a sparkle in her eyes while talking about her best friend. Trixie felt the same way about the relationship between Kim and herself. “She’s amazing.”

“Yeah, on the few times we’ve met, mostly at parent-teacher meetings, she was nothing but lovely to me!” she smiled. “But, hey, tell me how did you guys meet.”

“Bitch, that’s a long story.” The younger blonde nodded, indicating that Katya should continue talking. “Well, we met when I was a freshman and she was already a junior. We started talking because we were the ones who skipped classes just to smoke cigarettes. She was the first person who I told I was lesbian. After she graduated, she used to sneak me into her college parties, where I hooked up with girls, and it was an amazing part of my life. Then I graduated, and my family and I went back to Russia.”

“Where did you live before?” Trixie interrupted her. 

“Florida. I was born in Russia, moved to Orlando when I was 4, went back to Russia after I finished high school, and now I’m here”, the woman gesticulated while explaining. “Speaking of Russia, they are fucked up with gay people. Anyways, no one in my family knew I was gay. But one day my sister found out and told my parents. Before I could say a word about it, they had already packed all my bags. So I called Ginger and told her everything and she offered me to stay with her. And now I live here in Boston.”

“Wow” the younger blonde girl didn’t know how to respond to the story, and was quite embarrassed for not saying anything “That's… Sad”.

“I’m happier now, so it’s all cool! How about you?” Katya saw the woman was confused with the question. “What’s your story?”

“Oh” Trixie paused for a second before continuing. “Okay. I am from Wisconsin and grew up with three siblings: two sisters and a brother. I moved here when my mom married my step dad - or should I say ex-step dad? They got divorced later. And he was a complete dick. My life was kind of normal, I guess. I was a good student, and I used to be part of the drama club, and also a choir girl.”

“And then you got pregnant and things turned upside down?” the Russian woman asked.

“Kind of. Well, nobody knew I had a thing for girls, except Naomi and Kim. One day, Naomi basically obligated me and Kim to go to this party that she was invited to - because she was popular and we were not - and then this boy Kyle, who was popular too, started hitting on me and stuff…” she looked away, unsure if she should continue, “You know the rest. The next day I felt super shitty and guilty. But I ended up coming out to my mom, and she was such a lovely parent." 

"Really?”

“Yeah, she was so nice and I’m so thankful for her. Long story short: later, I discovered I was pregnant. My step dad wanted me to die because I was such a whore, so my mom divorced him and only god knows where he is now”, Katya noticed the sad tone in Trixie’s voice. “I had my baby, and I got into the college I wanted in New York. But I had to stay here, and now this is my life”, the girl snorted. “I’m not complaining, by the way, I love my life. I love my daughter, my job and my friends, but sometimes I think about how things could have been different.”

“Why did you stay?” Trixie bit the inside of her mouth and the Russian realized she didn’t want to talk about it, felling really bad. “You- you don’t need to tell me. I’m so sorry for being invasive, and I’m sorry that we talked about uncomfortable subjects on our first date.” Katya apologized, not looking Trixie in the eyes.

“Hey, that’s okay, you don’t need to be sorry” the younger blonde put her hand on top of the other’s. “We will have other dates, right?" 

Katya opened a large smile, grabbing Trixie’s hand. "Totally. We could have dinner tomorrow, maybe?”

“Sorry, tomorrow I can’t. My friend’s birthday party is tomorrow night”, the girl massaged her temples, “And I still need to find Barbie a babysitter. Fuck”.

The Russian thought for a second, and an idea came in her mind, “Why don’t you leave her with me at Ginger’s house? I can babysit her and Melanie. Plus, they are best friends, right?”

“What? I don’t know, what if Ginger doesn’t want to?” Trixie sighed, “Also, there’s this girl who was her babysitter before and…”

“Trixie, Ginger thinks you are very nice and sweet. And she thinks your daughter is adorable. This wouldn’t be a problem at all for her” Katya told her.

“Are you sure? I don’t want to be inconvenient or something. When I go out I usually leave her with Kim or with my other friends. But all of my friends are going to this party, so, you know, I don’t have anyone to ask to watch her.”

“Now you have, bitch! And it will be so much fun!”, the woman smiled. “So, now that we got this out of the way, can we get dinner on Saturday then?”

“That seems like a good idea” Trixie returned the smile, before looking at the time on her phone. “Shit, my break ends in a minute. We should go." 

The pair got up and started making their way back to Macy’s. Suddenly, Trixie remembered what Violet had said earlier and started to laugh.

"What?” Katya asked.

“You do have poor taste in shoes, don’t you?” Trixie pointed to the other woman’s feet.

“Oh, come on!” the Russian rolled her eyes. “Even the Kardashians wish they could rock jelly platforms and Crocs like I do." 

"If you showed up wearing toe shoes on Saturday, I wouldn’t be surprised” Trixie joked. “Sure, I wouldn’t ever want to see you again, but I wouldn’t be surprised." 

"Ew, toe shoes are too much, even for me”, the older woman wrinkled her nose. “I’ll wear high-heels on our next date, sweetie, you don’t need to worry." 

"Oh, so it’s going to be a fancy dinner?”

“I can wear heels to go to McDonald’s if I want to, Trix. But I thought that a fancy dinner was a better idea.”

Before entering the Macy’s store, Trixie stood in front of Katya. “So, what are you doing after I go back to work?”

“I’m going home and do some yoga while watching Netflix, and then I’m gonna get Melanie at school. And, if I’m lucky, I’ll even meet you at the park.” Katya was smaller than Trixie, which meant she had to look up when talking to the younger blonde, and Trixie found it adorable.

“Well, I’m sorry to rain on your parade and say that this is not your lucky day”, the taller woman giggled. “Today my friend Kim will be waiting for Barbie, because she’s taking her to ballet class, and my shift ends a bit later than usual. So I think I’ll see you tomorrow night." 

"Fine,” Katya pretended to be upset, “but I will text you”.

“Of course you will. Now, let me go back to work.” Trixie hugged the Russian, and felt the woman’s hands on her back, before they pulled away. “Bye, Kat." 

"See you later, alligator”, the Russian winked, leaving her at the store’s entrance.

Trixie walked back to the MAC counter, where Violet seemed to be waiting impatiently for her.

“Shit, you are this hungry?” the girl laughed, going towards the lockers.

“Hurry up, bitch, I want to know everything!” Violet answered. Trixie rushed to put her stuff inside the locker and come back. “Who the hell is the girl who smells liquid lipstick, wears jelly platforms and eye-ball jewelry? Since when are you seeing her?”

“Calm down, Beyoncé! She’s just the babysitter of one of Barbie’s friends who I met that other day when Kyle left her alone.” Trixie tied her makeup apron on, “We are dating, I guess? I don’t know, we ate Chipotle today and we’re going out on Saturday. She’s also babysitting Barbie tomorrow night”.

“Damn, so you are back on the game, aren’t you?” Violet smirked.

“What do you mean?" 

"You know, you haven’t dated someone since… Pearl? And Pearl wasn’t even a date”, Violet replied. “Plus, you said it yourself that you don’t hook up with someone since high school." 

  "Yeah, I know. It’s pretty nice to be back on the game, then.”

“And you got yourself a pretty one, actually! I mean, she seems 100% Teletubbies crazy, but she has a nice smile.” Violet came closer to Trixie’s ear just so she could whisper, “And a great ass too”.

“Go to your fucking break, bitch." 

***

Friday night

"I’m going to leave Barbie with the babysitter first, are you sure you don’t want to take an Uber?” Trixie searched for her earring on the small box of jewelry, while  talking on the phone. “Alright, then, but if Naomi takes 3 hours to get ready, I’m leaving without you guys. Fine, just come here when you two finish, I’m almost done. Bye, Kim." 

Trixie was wearing her fanciest dress - the one she wore at her sister’s wedding - and it looked phenomenal on her. It was this sparkly silver cabaret dress that accentuated her curves very beautifully, and really contrasted with her skin color. But, for some reason, she couldn’t find the pair of the earring she was looking for.

"Barbie?” the woman screamed from her room, “Do you know where’s my earring?”

“The one Naomi gave you last Christmas?”, she heard her daughter’s voice coming from the living room.

“Yes!”

“I think I saw one of them on your nightstand”, Trixie turned around just to see that it was, in fact, on the nightstand. 

After putting the earring on, she made her way to the living room just to face her daughter sitting on the “dad’s chair” she had right next to the couch. “I found it, thanks sweetie." 

"You’re welcome”, Barbie put her dolls down so she could look at her mom. “You’re looking very pretty, mommy! Where are you going?”

“Thank you! Well, I’m going to Pearl’s birthday party”, Trixie sat on the couch, her shoes in her hands. “Oh, and I’m leaving you with the babysitter, do you need to grab anything?”

The little girl whined, “Is it Cynthia again? I like her, but I can’t understand half the things she says”. 

"No honey, I’m leaving you with Katya at Melanie’s house, she’ll babysit you two”, the woman answered, watching her child get off the chair.

“Oh. That’s fun!”, the kid walked towards her room. “I’ll just get my teddy bear and we can go." 

Trixie sighed in relief. So Barbie likes Katya, that was a good sign. If she was going to date someone, the person needed to be approved by her daughter. She didn’t want Barbie to go through the same thing she went as a kid with her step dad - although she was pretty sure that Katya wasn’t an abusive fucker who want’s people to screw themselves if they don’t act in a certain way. But if her daughter doesn’t approve someone, Trixie wouldn’t know how to live with this person knowing that her kid doesn’t want her to be with them.

"Open the door, bitch!”, the blonde heard Kim shouting, and got off the couch to answer.

When she opened it, she saw Kim wearing a short white flowing dress with some sparkles on the top that really matched her pastel pink hair. And Naomi was wearing a hot pink jumpsuit that just emphasized the fact that she was, indeed, a 90’s supermodel.

“You are vision in pink, aren’t you?”, Trixie asked the tall girl, who just laughed as a response. “I’m surprised it didn’t take you 14 hours to get ready." 

"Fuck off, Tracy”, Naomi answered, and the three girls spent some time just staring ate each other. “Let’s go, then! Where’s Barbie?”  

[junker-town]

NFL Dad, Week 3: Protests, naps, and guacamole

One father of two young children attempts to watch the RedZone channel while parenting. Along the way: reflections on serving your country and the reliable success of guacamole.

Parents often talk about “seeing the world through a child’s eyes,” a cliché that should come with a $500 fine or a punch in the nose from someone without kids. What they mean, in plainer terms, is that they noticed something they had previously taken for granted because their dumb kids saw it for the first time.

Seasons changing is a great example of this. If you’re an adult with no kids, the shift to fall is automatic: you slide into your football-watching habits, dig your hoodies out of storage, maybe post some foliage on your Instagram. This ain’t your first rodeo.

My daughter is almost 3, and her preschool’s ENTIRE CURRICULUM is season-based: apples in the fall, snowflakes in the winter, seeds in the spring. She’s obsessed with books about autumn and Halloween. Instead of going to bed when it’s light out, her bedtime now happens at sunset; we look out the window and try to spot leaves that have started to change color. The farmer’s market we walk through on Saturdays now has pumpkins and squash, and when I take the kids to Trader Joe’s on Sunday morning, 70 percent of the items are pumpkin-flavored. I swear to God there’s pumpkin-flavored almond milk and a sign that says “All pumpkin everything!” It is 87 degrees outside.

But the equinox doesn’t lie: it’s officially fall. At least there’s football.

EARLY GAMES, FIRST HALF

— The dominant story line before the games, and even throughout them, is how players and teams react to President Trump excoriating the “sons of bitches” who kneel during the national anthem, tough words indeed from a patriot who loves America so much he wouldn’t leave her soil during the Vietnam war.

Maybe you voted for Donald Trump, and maybe you didn’t, but there’s no way around those five draft deferments. And, speaking as someone who’s actually been to war, avoiding war is genuinely a very good idea! It’s just a shame that the president abandoned that stance when it wasn’t his jiggling ass on the line.

Anyway, I wrestled with most of this a year ago when Colin Kaepernick first started his protest, and the video I made then still captures my feelings now:

Long story short: My father went to the Air Force Academy and served 22 years as a pilot. I served as a Marine tank commander in Iraq. Because of my time in the Corps, I have some friends who still wear the uniform, some who now work as FBI agents, and some who are underground, God rest their souls. The flag means a LOT to me. I love the anthem. But that doesn’t mean the anthem protests are ABOUT me, or what I feel.

A protest during the national anthem may be offensive to you. Your feelings are valid. But placing them ahead racial injustice in this country — or even a person’s peaceful execution of his First Amendment rights — demonstrates a woeful lack of empathy, or at least a willful ignorance of racism in America. If this isn’t self-evident already, I’ll just point out that the president responded to a white supremacist march that killed a woman by saying that SOME WHITE SUPREMACISTS ARE VERY FINE PEOPLE. I’m so tired of being gaslit about this shit. It’s exhausting.

— I don’t see most of the anthem stuff because I’m putting son down for a nap. When I come back, Rob Gronkowski scores a touchdown on third-and-goal. Save me, Gronk. Save me from the stupidity. Whisk me away to an island of frosty light beers and laughing at “69” jokes. I yearn for the intellectual upgrade.

— The Saints sack Cam Newton on third-and-three inside the 10. A goal-line stand? From the Saints? Something is amiss.

— Weird NFL continues: after the Steelers muff a punt, the Bears go up 7-0 with a Jordan Howard TD. Not long after, Ben Roethlisberger gets sacked and fumbles, with the Bears recovering. I took the Steelers -7 today, and I’m already sick with regret.

— AHAHAHAHAHA, I just saw Joe Flacco’s numbers against Jacksonville on the ticker: 8-18 for 28 yards with 2 interceptions. Holy shit, 1.6 yards per attempt! I hope they quarantined the stadium before Flacco could spread the plague any further. London suffered enough in the 17th century.

— At 1:34 p.m., everyone but me is napping: my daughter in her bedroom, my son in ours (the kids sleep in the same room at night but nap separately), and my wife on the couch as I watch RedZone. The shades are drawn and the TV is muted. Could I nap? Nothing about this column prevents me from napping. The Eagles convert a fourth-and-inches near midfield. The Jets punt.

— On third-and-goal in Indy, Jacoby Brissett fakes a pass and takes it on a designed keeper. Nice play design. Am I tired enough to nap? I had a cold brew a little before the games began; I don’t want to miss out on football for a failed nap.

— DeShaun Watson hits Bruce Ellington with a beautiful throw over the middle for a score, and the Texans have a surprising 10-7 lead over the Pats. I managed to get a nap in yesterday afternoon. After my son’s swim lesson, my wife took the kids so I could stay at the pool and swim laps. I came home with that all-over muscle fatigue you only get from swimming, made a grilled ham and cheese sandwich for lunch, and crashed on the couch while the kids slept.

— Duke Johnson leaps into the end zone for a 19-yard touchdown to tie the game at 7.

CBS broadcast

See, this is why I’m hesitant to nap. Because even though the Browns-Colts game is the LAST game I’d want to watch this week, it has already produced two touchdowns I thought merited inclusion in this collection of notable plays.

— So much for the Texans’ lead: after a Watson INT sets the Pats up in the red zone, Tom Brady finds Chris Hogan wide open in the end zone for a TD. In Indy, Jacoby Brissett scores another TD on the ground, while the Saints and Falcons -- both on the road — build commanding early leads. If I napped now, I’d probably be awake by the third quarter of the early games. I’d miss nothing of note. I should just do it.

— On second-and-goal, Ben Roethlisberger goes to Antonio Brown 1-on-1 on a quick screen, and that’s a TD every time. It ties the game at 7-7, and while rooting for the Steelers feels gross, I have gambling interests to protect. Or maybe I’m just too tired to think straight? I should nap.

— It is 2:05, 31 minutes after I first started contemplating a nap. My heart is beating a little fast from the cold brew, but the exhaustion of parenting is resolute. I lie down next to my wife and throw my arm over my eyes to shade them from the flicker of the television.

EARLY GAMES, SECOND HALF

— At 2:38, I open my eyes, and Drew Brees is hitting Tedd Ginn over the top for a 40-yard touchdown. The safety help arrived too late.

— I scroll back through Twitter just a few minutes to see if I’ve missed anything big, and BOY HOWDY are people tweeting about the Bears.

Wow. #PITvsCHI http://pic.twitter.com/gG6Ry6Uylr

— NFL (@NFL) September 24, 2017

In the Twitter era, this is the perfect thing to experience AFTER it’s happened. I don’t have to wade through dumb exclamations or the confusion of the moment, and I don’t have to wait for the Bears’ false start on their untimed play. I just wake up to a brief, handy explainer. Naps are the best. Always nap.

— Stefon Diggs is going OFF. A long touchdown, his second for the game, makes it 28-3 in favor of the Vikings early in 3rd quarter. I picked the Bucs to win because Case Keenum is sun-bleached highway trash, but apparently Diggs, the Vikings’ defense, and home turf are more than enough to handle Tampa Bay.

— A flurry of touchdowns as my wife makes chorizo bean dip: Tom Brady to Brandin Cooks on a deep crossing route puts the Pats up 28-20; Golden Tate’s first TD of the season cuts the Falcons’ lead to 23-20; and Zach Ertz scores on a short pass for the Eagles. The Giants now trail by five* scores, 14-0 (*adjusted for Giants’ offense).

— My daughter is awake, but we’re not getting her out of bed yet. My wife is putting the finishing touches on the chorizo dip, and I’m making guacamole.

This is all I'm eating the rest of the day (thank u @celebrityhottub for the chorizo dip recipe)

A post shared by Matt Ufford (@mattufford) on Sep 24, 2017 at 1:06pm PDT

Guacamole take: guacamole has a huge range of success. My ideal guac has salt, lime, garlic, cilantro, red onion, and tomato, but I still enjoy it with fewer or more ingredients. Whatever you like is fine.

— Down two touchdowns, the Giants fail on fourth down in red zone, but the resulting Manningface minimized by RedZone’s double-box. I NEED FULLSCREEN ANGUISH, YOU HEATHENS. I realize only now that I’ve seen both of Manning’s interceptions today, but none of his reactions to them.

— DeShaun Watson still makes rookie mistakes, but his ceiling looks an awful lot like Russell Wilson at his best:

DeShaun Watson out here stealing Patrick Mahomes plays. http://pic.twitter.com/0e2VXqNOKS

— Clay Wendler (@ClayWendler) September 24, 2017

Watson caps that drive with a TD to his tight end, cutting the Texans’s deficit to 28-27. A few minutes later, they’ll kick a field goal to go up 30-27.

— Jameis Winston hits DeSean Jackson down the sideline for a TD as the third quarter ends; the Bucs now trail 31-17. Can Dirk Koetter wear his glasses any further down his nose? He’s like a disapproving librarian in a children’s movie.

— The Dolphins are losing to Jets 20-0. Living in the New York broadcast area guarantees me the Jets and Giants every damn week, but a small part of me wishes I were watching this game on local TV so I could see Cutler’s face.

— In a shocking turn of events, the Giants score an offensive touchdown! Less shocking, it’s Odell Beckham who scores it. For his celebration, he crawls on all fours and lifts his leg like a dog pissing, earning a flag for unsportsmanlike conduct.

And whatever, that’s part of the cost of doing business with a physical genius, but when Beckham scores again a few minutes later on an incredible one-handed catch, he raises a solitary fist in protest. And y’all, I don’t want to be Grumpy Old Columnist, but Beckham’s messaging priority is perhaps less than ideal here. “Okay, pretend to be a dog taking a piss — check. Up next: racial equality!”

The only explanation that makes any sense is that the first celebration was a reference to Trump’s “son of a bitch” comment. Regardless, the world was so much better when he was making out with a kicking net.

— Deshaun Watson does it again:

Deshaun Watson is just insane, man. @battleredblog http://pic.twitter.com/Po9IPRdBgf

— Clay Wendler (@ClayWendler) September 24, 2017

The Texans are running the ball with the lead in Pats territory with only 2:30 remaining in the game. Could the Pats lose this? The telecast cuts to Bob Kraft up in his suite, his mouth agape and forehead scrunched, like a billionaire trying to understand what starving people could be mad about.

But no, the Texans are stoned on third-and-one, and kick a field to go up 33-28. They are 100 percent about to lose this game.

— With 55 seconds remaining, the Bears punt on fourth-and-two just short of midfield with the score tied at 17. On the one hand, I respect the decision to remove the responsibility for victory from Mike Glennon’s hands. On the other: COWARDS.

A WILD FLURRY TO END THE GAMES

— The Patriots get the ball back with about 2:30 to play. Tom Brady converts the following into first downs: second-and-20, third-and-12, third-and-18. On the next play after the third-and-18 conversion, Brady finds Brandin Cooks for a toe-tap touchdown with 23 seconds remaining.

— Trailing by four, the Lions have entered the red zone, then exited it on penalties. Matt Stafford is incomplete on 1st and 30, but defensive holding on second-and-30 gives the Lions a first down and new life. Pass interference a few plays later gives them first-and-goal on the 1. Golden Tate scores a touchdown with 8 seconds left! The Lions are gonna win!

— In overtime, Tarik Cohen scores on a long run to seal the game for the Bears. Both my kids are up now, and my daughter is going around the apartment yelling, “DING-DONG! TRICK OR TREAT!” A few minutes later, Jordan Howard scores from 19 yards out to re-seal the game for the Bears, and whatever context there was for Cohen NOT scoring a touchdown is lost. Could I look up the box score to see what happened? Sure, but it’s more fun to have it LOST TO HISTORY.

— The Texans’ final prayer goes unanswered, as Watson’s Hail Mary is intercepted in the end zone.

— Wait, what?!? The Lions LOST? Tate’s TD is overturned, and the game is over. Just a BRUTAL blow for my fantasy team, and also the Lions.

Kevin Seifert of ESPN explained why it was the right call, but to me it doesn’t look like there was enough evidence to overturn the call. As swings of luck go, this should even things out for Tate, who caught the Fail Mary for the Seahawks ... wait a second ... FIVE YEARS AGO TO THE DAY. SpoOOOoOoOooOOookyyyyyy!

Sorry, I’ve been reading lots of Halloween books to my daughter.

— Eagles attempt a 61-yarder in a vain attempt to avoid overtime. Odell Beckham is back to catch a potential miss and … IT’S GOOD! HOLY MAMULA! MANNINGFACE FOR EVERYONE.

LATE GAMES, FIRST HALF

— After the hypodermic of adrenaline that ended the early games, the late slate has a whopping three contests: Chiefs-Chargers, Seahawks-Titans, and Bengals-Packers. If the NFL can push Seahawks-Titans to a late start, why not do it with two other games that start in the Central Time Zone? Push Bucs-Vikings and Browns-Colts to the second slate of games, and they won’t get lost in the early shuffle. “America’s Game of the Week” notwithstanding, I will never understand why the NFL doesn’t try to balance this more. It’s bad and I hate it.

— Kids change SO FAST when they’re young. Physical and linguistic milestones whiz past seemingly every week; go a month without seeing someone’s toddler, and you’re bound to meet an entirely new kid.

That said, this was my son’s favorite game in June, when he was just over a year old:

Fatherhood: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A post shared by Matt Ufford (@mattufford) on Jun 18, 2017 at 5:38pm PDT

It is more than three months later, and he’s STILL doing this. Just smashing his face into the couch or any soft chair like it’s the best thing in the world. (*slowly crosses off “engineer” on list titled FUTURE CAREERS*)

— Tyreke Hill has already scored a TD, on a great pass by Alex Smith. It’s still super-weird to see Smith throw deep with confidence, or at all.

— Davante Adams fumbles just short of the end zone, and Aaron Rodgers does a nice job of preventing a Bengals touchdown on the return. After review, though, Adams is ruled down and the Packers have first-and-goal inside the 1. Lance Kendricks gets wide open on play-action and catches the touchdown, tying the game at 7 in Green Bay.

— Our neighbors have come over because we made too much dip and guacamole, and there are now four kids under three years old in my two-bedroom apartment. The math sounds bad, but it’s not: their kids are younger than ours — a 2-year-old daughter and a newborn — and anyway, they’re a delight. In 13 years of living in New York City (in six different apartments), I’ve never had good neighbors before. When we eventually move, I’m bringing them with us.

— On a Titans third-and-10, Marcus Mariota sails a pass that gets picked off by Kam Chancellor. Richard Sherman, though, gets flagged for pass interference (ticky-tack in my opinion, but I’m not an objective viewer). He also gets flagged for holding on the return (also ticky-tack), then tears off his helmet to argue with the refs, earning a misconduct foul (definitely warranted). The penalties cost the Seahawks possession and 30-40 yards of field position. After several more penalties, Tennessee kicks a field goal to go up 3-0.

This is fine. Everything’s fine. This column will not be me yelling about the Seahawks every week. (*jaws clench so hard my head vibrates*)

— Y’all, we need to talk about the most nonchalant human being on the planet:

To make matters worse for the #lions. The food is on fire at Ford Field by the locker room. http://pic.twitter.com/aLFNDj4kc3

— Evan Jankens (@KINGoftheKC) September 24, 2017

That lady has straight-up ICE WATER in her veins. “Oh, a fire as tall as I am? (yawn) Not really much I can do here. Let’s just close the— yep, open this other door to get that closed. Anyway, let me know if it’s still there after my break.” She’s the Daenerys Targaryen of concession workers.

— Philip Rivers has thrown his THIRD interception, and it’s barely the second quarter. Every time I look at him, I just think, “Eight kids, man. EIGHT. KIDS.” That HAS to define his entire life. Like, when was the last time he took his family to a restaurant? Never, right? I have two kids that are relatively well-behaved; my wife and I have taken them to restaurants three times this year: brunch twice (one disaster, one white-knuckle balancing act), and dinner once (only a success because the pizza place had just opened and there was no one else there). We have no desire to take them out again. Maybe in another year or so.

I guarantee you the youngest Rivers children are being raised by their siblings. Nobody parents that well past three kids.

— The Bengals have dominated offensively so far. They’re up 14-7 on Gio Bernard’s short catch for a TD ... No, make that 21-7. Rodgers throws a pick-six — only the second of his career — to William Jackson.

That’s mind-blowing. This is Rodgers’ TENTH season as a starter, and that’s only his second career pick-six? Matt Schaub once doubled that in a month.

— Richard Sherman, who has apparently lost his damn mind, earns a flag for a late-ish hit on Mariota.

FWIW here is when Sherman hit Mariota http://pic.twitter.com/WTeBy9IrHC

— Ben Baldwin (@guga31bb) September 24, 2017

Taylor Lewan immediately gets up in Sherman’s face, and I think he gets flagged too, but my daughter has come up to me saying, “I want to be an animal. I want to see a jellyfish.” Is Richard Sherman ejected? What’s happening? “I want to see a jellyfish.”

Goddammit. Okay, sweetie. Let’s watch some f**king jellyfish.

“What’s that?” she says, pointing at my laptop screen.

“It’s a jellyfish, sweetie. These are all jellyfish.” Richard Sherman is still in the game. The Titans kick a field goal, 6-0.

— My son’s other obsession tonight — besides smashing his face into the couch — is the hokey-pokey. He’s no good at putting his hand in and shaking it all about, but he DOMINATES at turning around. He spins around in circles until he careens left and crashes into the credenza. He thinks it’s hilarious. He is correct.

— Stop me if you’ve heard this one: the Seahawks have a third-and-long, leading to a Russell Wilson sack. With the Seahawks missing their top two special teamers, Adoree’ Jackson takes the ensuing punt back for a score ... but it gets called back on a block in the back, yet another ticky-tack call. LET ‘EM PLAY, REFS.

After doing little on offense for 28 minutes, the Seahawks and Titans come alive inside the two-minute drill, with the Seahawks engineering a quick touchdown drive before the Titans kick another field goal to go into the locker room up 9-7.

— Rodgers is sacked again near the end of the half, and the Bengals call timeout to force the Packers to punt ... but the punt is muffed! The Packers recover, but the clock runs out during the scramble for the ball. Y’know, looking back on this play, I probably didn’t need to write this paragraph.

LATE GAMES, SECOND HALF

— On Sundays, the kids are supposed to take a bath together, but they’ve got their own ideas about that; my son refuses to sit down, and my daughter screams “I’m not ready yet!” any time we pick her up. So, separate baths.

At one point, as both kids cry, I see the referees signal TDs for Seahawks and Packers, but not the touchdowns themselves.

— The Seahawks defense looks tired. The tackling on Rishard Matthews’ 55-yard TD is pitiful (and, ahem, aided by the tight end tackling Kam Chancellor from behind, I REGRET ASKING FOR LESS OFFICIATING), and they’re similarly flat-footed on Jonnu Smith’s 24-yard score that puts the Titans up 23-14.

— Following a sack on third-and-seven, the Bengals miss a field goal. They still lead 21-14, but now it looks tenuous.

— The Seahawks never look close to completing a third-and-11; they are now 2/10 on third downs. Before they punt, RedZone clicks back to Bengals-Packers.

I see it on Twitter first: DeMarco Murray has scored on a 75-yard run. It’s a little after 6:30; my kids will be going to bed in the next half-hour. I pause the TV. “Actually,” I say to my wife, then turn the TV and cable box off completely as a way of finishing the sentence. “But can you still pick up where you paused?” my wife asks. “Nope,” I say, and that’s the point, because I’m a dumb baby who hates watching his stupid football team.

— My daughter, who refused to eat dinner at the prescribed hour, is finally eating her spaghetti as long as I’m reading the same four godforsaken Halloween books I’ve been reading to her for the last two days. My wife got those books out of the closet when she was in there to get something else and she “just happened to see them.” There are five weeks until Halloween. In a month, this column might be about divorce.

— I put the kids to bed at 7:00, and turn the TV back on. The Seahawks have the ball and trail 33-20 with about 8:30 left, which means this will be just stupid enough to keep me watching as the Seahawks lose by one score. Almost immediately, Seattle’s dangerous-looking drive gets blown up by intentional grounding, setting up third-and-29, then fourth-and-22.

They go for it. It’s a ... Hail Mary into the end zone?

Seahawks just whiffed on a three-man rush on 4th and 22. Wilson had about .7 seconds to throw. Embarrassing.

— Robert Klemko (@RobertKlemko) September 24, 2017

The half-moon of regret that is the Seahawks offensive line. Couldn't protect for four seconds against a three-man rush on fourth-and-22. http://pic.twitter.com/kSVeZGLUjh

— Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) September 24, 2017

That Barnwell tweet is all I need this season. Finally, a nickname for an utterly unworthy unit. The Half-Moon of Regret. Might not be as catchy as Legion of Boom, but I’m determined to make it stick.

— TV back on, Seahawks have the ball and trail 33-20 with 8:30 left. With just under 8:00 remaining, RW intentional grounding, 3rd and 29.

— KC still up 17-10. What the shit? Have they just been playing backgammon for the second half?

— Some good endings brewing: the Packers are in the two-minute drill down seven; Chargers down seven with the ball and four minutes remaining. The Seahawks have just scored to cut the lead to six, but need an onside kick for any realistic hope.

— Rivers sacked on third-and-10 by Justin Houston, and Kansas City easily recovers the onside kick. But hey! We still have excitement in Green Bay: first-and-goal for the Packers with 30 seconds.

— Jordy Nelson scores his second touchdown of the game. Big ups to Jordy for being questionable all week after last week’s zero-catch scratch. That way he could produce zero points for my fantasy team last week and make me gun-shy enough to bench him this week. THANKS FOR TWO KINDS OF NOTHING.

Green Bay kicks the PAT to go to overtime, even though Mike McCarthy ALWAYS loses the toss, then watches as the game ends without Aaron Rodgers ever touching the ball in OT. It’s so good to see a coach refuse to adapt or take chances or learn from his mistakes in any way. I think it’s great that he’s singe-handedly prevented the best quarterback of all time from winning more than one championship. Give him a lifetime contract, I say, so he can be mediocre forever.

Whatever, I’m all for Cincinnati-Green Bay going to overtime, because I always want more of any game called by Tony Romo. No one this new to a job should be THIS good at it.

Tony Romo is so good, I'm glad CBS finally gave Jim Nantz a broadcast partner who wasn't a talking block of marzipan

— BUM CHILLIPS (@edsbs) September 24, 2017

— The Packers, after losing the coin toss (of course) miraculously force the Bengals to punt. Facing third-and-10 from his own 22, Rodgers hits Geronimo Allison deep on a free play, because that’s what Aaron Rodgers does: murder you on free plays. Allison winds his way inside the Bengals 10-yard-line, and this one’s over.