#when I see people going 'this fic does not use YN' I usually roll my eyes and close out of it

[tenpintsof-sundrop]

it's always so wild to me when people claim that the term Y/N in fanfiction is "cringey" (or when people very proudly announce that their fanfic does not use Y/N to other people who think that it's cringey) - because one of the reasons I stand by it is because I grew up in the Y/N era and I have been reading and writing fanfics since then, so it means I have been writing fanfics for over a decade.

so the fact that I am so hardcore pro Y/N means I am a fandom old, and it means my fanfics are better because I have experience. you should be looking for people who are pro Y/N because we have been in the fanfic trenches for years and we are the fanfiction wine moms who have years of experience writing fics in order to draft, write, and produce a fucking amazing fic with our experience

[deathbyyoongx]

everytime; chapter 1 — myg

╭ chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, ...

╭ word count: 2.8k

╭ summary: Everyone knew Min Yoongi as the guy who wouldn't say no to a nice pair of tits. His cocky attitude and stunning looks made it hard for most girls to resist. And even though you would like to say you're not like the others in that aspect, you unfortunately happened to be his ex. But even though you despised his guts for the last 3 years or so, he somehow managed to find himself a way between your legs on one semi-drunk night.

╭ pairing: fuckboy!yoongi x ex!reader

╭ genre: smut, angst, bit of fluff, more smut

╭ warnings: enemies to fwb, dom!yoongi, sub!reader, jealous ex!jungkook, bestfriend!jimin, hate sex, yoongi has a degrading kink but so does yn, brat taming, hair pulling, spitting, slapping, hickeys, choking, unprotected sex (STAY SAFE GUYS!), creampie, praise kink, hand kink, possessive yoongi, sexual content ofc, mentions of drinking, ...

╭ author's note: this fic is inspired by the song everytime by ariana grande. I also recommend using the chrome extension InteractiveFics for a better reading experience ;)

“I don’t know Jimin, I still have a lot of moving to do. I can’t bare to sleep another night without finding my bed sheets.”

For the last fifteen minutes or so, Jimin had been desperately trying to convince you to come to one of Hoseok’s infamous house parties. You were very hesitant on the idea of going, but part of you really wanted to go from all the stories you’ve heard from it. From people getting absolutely shit wasted and passing out onto the floor until the next morning, to couples and singles making out everywhere where they got the change to. Which usually resulted in Hoseok breaking them off, cause he really didn’t need to see all that. You would still love going though, not to experience those things yourself, but to witness them.

With an annoyed expression, he rolled his eyes and grabbed one of the closed carboard boxes out of the bunch. “Then we’ll search your bedsheets today, so you can come the day after tomorrow.” Rolling his eyes as he pulled the tape from the front. Your apartment was a mess. You just had moved out, out of your parents home and ready to start your own life. But that couldn’t happen yet until everything was where it should be. Being nothing more than glad when Jimin offered a hand to help today.

You playfully scoffed. “You really want me to go, don’t you?”

“Of course! College is over and you’re still not living your life to the fullest. You’re wasting your twenties, honestly.” He said in search of your dreadful bedsheets in between your box full of clothes and worn out plushies.

“That may be but at least I had one of the best grades in college.” You said a bit cocky, making Jimin’s eyes roll again.

“In sacrifice of having an amazing social life. Which, I can not blame you entirely for. But now is the time to rebuild that.” Jimin said as encouragement. “And look what I got here.” Smile full of pride, he presented you the bedsheets you had been looking for, which he found in between your underwear and bathroom towels.

You chuckled as you grabbed them out of his hands “Lucky you.”

“And besides, you’ve never gone to one of his parties. It’s a shame, honestly! His house is ginormous!” Jimin said in awe as he imagined himself back at Hoseok’s.

A sudden ring of your phone caught the both of you off guard. “Who is it?” He asked out of curiosity.

Your gut feeling was saying ‘Jungkook’, and your gut feeling, of course, was right. Cause when you grabbed your phone, his caller ID was right there, name in between yellow heart emoticons. “Jungkook.” You answered.

Jimin looked at you with a raised brow. “Are you guys back together or something? He has been calling you like almost everyday.” He wasn’t wrong though. Jungkook had become a bit clingy lately. Way clingier than he used to be, but you couldn’t really guess what the reason would be of his sudden change of behaviour. Everyone knew he wasn’t over you yet, so him suddenly being in love with you couldn’t be the reason.

You pressed the green button, picking up and placing your phone in between your shoulder and ear as you tear open another box. “Hey kookie!” I beamed.

“y/n! I heard you were coming to Hoseok’s house party. I was surprised, honestly. Didn’t suspect it would be your thing.”

You shook your head in disbelief “Ah yes, and who told you that I would come?” You said, staring down Jimin, making him laugh out of awkwardness.

That’s when Jungkook said “Jimin! He told me he was going to convince you today. I’m glad your coming out of your shell.”

“Great, right? Look, I really want to talk to you, but I was kinda in the middle of something. Is it okay I call you later?”

“Oh yeah, sure. Talk to you later then.” But before you could hang up, there was one question Jungkook had left to ask “Oh, should I come pick you up Friday?”

You smiled “Sure, sounds good to me. Bye bye!” You hung up, placing you phone back in your back pocket. “Apparently I was already going to Hoseok’s.”

Jimin innocently smiles, knowing he had been caught. “Look I was in the middle of convincing you, alright? And I also was pretty confident in convincing you too.” That last sentence came out more muffled than the other.

You chuckled in amusement. “It’s alright, don’t worry about it. Just another reason to come, right?”

Jimin smiled and playfully wrapped his arm around my shoulders, pulling me closer. “That’s the spirit, y/n!” The sudden grumbling of Jimin’s stomach caught you off guard. “We should order some food, don’t you think? It’s almost 7pm.”

“Sounds good, I’m choosing this time though.”

“Fine by me”

After a good ten minutes of choosing which restaurant you would order from, and after a good hour of waiting on your food, you and Jimin could finally start eating. It was just burgers with fries, cause one, you were craving it, and two, it happened to be the only kind of restaurants in your area.

But your appetite seemed to get lost when Jimin decided to tell that “He asked about you.”

“Who?” I frowned.

“You know…Yoongi.” He said as he bit his lip, a bit anxious for your respond. Second guessing if it was a good idea to tell you this in the first place.

A short silence came after that, not sure what you were going to respond. “What did he ask?” You tried your best to keep your act together of ‘not giving a fuck’, but all of your friends knew how much you actually cared, especially Jimin.

He bit into his burger before answering. “He just asked how you were, nothing special.” Quickly taking a sip of his fizzy drink. “Apparently Jia likes to talk about you. She really enjoys working with you.”

Jia, the new girl from work. Ever since college you started working at a little eat café that was open at breakfast and brunch hours. The work itself was fun and usually your co-workers were too. People come and go, and Jia joined your workplace a few months ago. You initially really liked her bubbly social personality, but the day she told you a guy named Min Yoongi was her casual fuckbuddy, your demeaner had changed.

“Did he tell her?” You asked, holding our breath.

“Uh, no. He didn’t. That’s how you became a topic in the first place, actually. Yoongi had asked me if Jia knew about you and him, but he wasn’t surprised when I told him she didn’t.” Jimin never really knew if it was even okay to bring up Yoongi with you. One time you were fine with it, others you were a complete trainwreck and didn’t even want to hear the first letters of his name. And even though you weren’t mad or crying right now, it still felt as if he better kept his mouth shut. And somewhere you knew Jimin felt like that, so you always tried your best to fake it as if it didn’t bother you. And usually it didn’t, but the combination of Yoongi’s and Jia’s name in one sentence was what bothered you this time. But still, hearing about Yoongi’s life was one of your guilty pleasures.

You let out a saddened chuckle. “I like it that way.”

Jimin smiled, but with a hint of sadness. He knew you weren’t fully over Yoongi yet, so he came to the conclusion he really shouldn’t have said that. “Would you like to talk to him again? I pretty sure he wouldn’t mind. I think he would actually really enjoy that, to be honest.” He asked out of pure curiosity.

As you finished the last of you fries, you stayed quiet for a minute, thinking. “Don’t lie to me.” You said, more as a defence than not believing him. After Yoongi stopped talking to you, you had built a wall in front of your heart. You promised yourself you wouldn’t keep on hoping on a sign of him still being into you. You couldn’t do that to yourself anymore, cause that was the one thing that really broke you down. Not him hooking up with other girls, not him not answering to you calls anymore, but holding onto every small thing you could that would indicate he still loved you.

“I’m not lying. I really think-”

“Can we like, not talk about him anymore. I want to enjoy some nice quality time with you without thinking about him.” Jimin noticed your annoyance and apologized for bringing him up in the first place. Which made you apologize for leeching out like that. At least you could enjoy the rest of your evening with him in peace.

After an hour or two Jimin had left, leaving you alone with your moving boxes. You crashed into your couch, letting out a heavy sigh. You still had some work to do, but progress was being made. You still couldn’t wrap your head around the fact you were finally out of your parents home. You could finally begin your own life and make your own decisions, good and bad. And one of the bad ones today was going to drink your feelings away. You usually didn’t do this, but tonight was just one of those nights. You didn’t want to feel the jealousy anymore. You didn’t had much alcohol in house, expect for that one nasty vodka bottle that was still from college. A few shots from it was enough for you though to feel a bit more relaxed.

Late hours like these were dangerous, especially when you were intoxicated. Cause no matter how hard you tried to resist the urge to do it, you always found yourself back searching Yoongi’s Instagram account. And luckily or unluckily for you, depends on what way you look at it, Jungkook always forgot to log out of your phone, so you used his account to look him up. Because of course, you had Yoongi blocked on yours. You did it so you didn’t had to urge to search him up like you did now, or weren’t tempted to text him. But like the idiot your are, you still do it, just not via your account.

And you always regret doing it too.

Cause here you were again. Staring down Yoongi’s every picture. From him looking like the hot bastard he is, to him partying and having his arm around a different girl each time. You hated it, despised it even. How could one person be so careless about someone’s feelings? Or how can one person have the lack of certain feelings. Especially since this wasn’t how he used to be. Yoongi used to be sweet and loving. What one would call ‘the perfect boyfriend’. But then…he changed into the fuckboy he is now. You sighed in nostalgia, deleted the search history and switched back to your account.

But your routine of cyberstalking Yoongi for the second time this week wasn’t done yet, oh no. Now we were at the part of staring down the unblock button for a good 10 minutes. You always found the strength to not do it. You even successfully had him blocked for 2 years now! And you’ve come to a point it would be way to weird to even do it. What were you even going to do? Text him? Tell him:‘Hey, actually, you’ve been on my mind ever since we broke up, but I’m too stubborn and jealous to tell you that. Please text me back!’

Hell no.

It was also obvious he was over you, by the way he was basically fucking every girl he had the chance with. You laughed at yourself. How could you still be so hooked on him? It’s been so long, yet still, he haunts you. The last time you saw him was when you were visiting your friend Taehyung, cause unfortunately for you, all your friends were friends of Yoongi. You told him you’d come over for his birthday and when you arrived, you saw him with Yoongi sitting in his living room. You also couldn’t blame Taehyung, cause he was desperately trying to warn you that Yoongi was at his place. But you were to distracted to be bothered to look at your messages that day. You awkwardly lied about being in the neighbourhood and just stopping by to say a quick happy birthday. But you, Taehyung and even Yoongi knew that was just a half-ass excuse to leave as quick as possible.

Something like that never happened again.

Sometimes you wondered what was going through Yoongi’s mind when he saw you again. Was he surprised? Intrigued? Unbothered? Annoyed? Why should you even care?

You told yourself that you would stop thinking about him for the night. And the text message from Jungkook also helped with that.

23:03 Jungkook: still up?

Some people would call it weird, still being friends with your ex, but you really appreciated having Jungkook in your life. But yeah, it came with its cons. For example, he grew extremely jealous when you were around one of the other guys. Not because he thought you or them would make a move on one another, but the mere possibility of it happening made him paranoid. Which have led to few very irritable discussions. You did had one common enemy, which was of course, Min Yoongi. But not for the same reasons.

23:04 y/n: yeah, but I’m heading to bed soon

23:04 y/n: why?

23:07 Jungkook: oh, I was just thinking of coming over

23:07 Jungkook: but I guess your too tired from moving

23:07 y/n: yeah, but lucky me

23:07 y/n: Jimin promised to help me next time!

You shouldn’t have said that.

23:08 Jungkook: I’ll come too!

23:08 Jungkook: An extra hand is always better, right? :)

You couldn’t help but chuckle

23:08 y/n: right

You told Jungkook a goodnight and left your phone on your nightstand to charge. You closed your eyes, ready to drift of to a deep night sleep, but one memory got recalled in your head before you actually fell asleep.

And it was the memory of Jungkook’s confession.

It was two months after your break up with Yoongi, which was, to say the least, messy. It was a lot of back and forth, pointless fighting and a lot of make up sex.

The reason of your break up? Being a little bit too possessive of one another…which let to accusing each other of cheating, where the two of you were both notguilty of. But the mind was a powerful thing. So you simply just texted him a quick ‘Have fun with your third girl of the week you fucking whore of a man’ to let him know how mad you were.

In hindsight, your usage of words may or may have not been a bit over the top. But in your defence, you’re emotions were a mixture of anger, jealousy and being unbelievably sexually frustrated.

“He’s not going to answer.” Jungkook said annoyingly as he closed his laptop. “I don’t understand how you can wait so long for a guy that doesn’t want you back. Didn’t you see him flirting with Hana?”

“No need to tell me again, Jungkook.” You reacted in a blunt manner, making Jungkook even more pissed.

“Sorry, but I’m just saying. You’re wasting your time and breaking your heart over and over again.” He placed his device under his bed and scootched over to me. “Why don’t we watch a movie for distraction.”

“You really think that’s going to distract me?” With furrowed eyebrows and a pout, you put away my phone on Jungkook’s nightstand.

Jungkook bit on his lip for a brief second, seemingly being lost in thought. “Can I try something else then?”

You let out an annoyed sigh. “Sure, kookie.” You felt his right hand grabbing your left arm. And what you thought was going to be a weird staring contest, happened to be Jungkook leaning in to kiss you. But out of reflex, you pulled away before he got the chance to do it. “Uh-“

A painful laugh escaped his lips. “Well, this just got…awkward.”

You blinked a few times “I’m sorry. It’s just-”

“A bit too soon…I get it. I’m just an idiot, sorry.” He awkwardly scratched the back of his head and let out a heavy sigh. “I-uh-think I’ll just go to bed early. Goodnight y/n.”

“Jungkook, wait-“ But before you could even get up to stop him, he had already left his room to sleep on the couch for the night.

While Jungkook was imagining every possible way he could disappear forever after the bold attempt to distract you from Yoongi, you on the other hand were on your phone again, typing away another message for Yoongi.

‘I shouldn’t have said that…I just hope you know how much I love you’ But when you woke up the next morning and never got a respond back from him, a switch flicked in your head. Which turned your love into full on hate for him.

But that evening Yoongi did text back. Idiot just forgot to press send…

Taglist; @flowerblu00

[maddiwrites]

The Hybrid (I)

Pairing: JJ x Reader

Summary: The Pogues rekindle their friendship with their old childhood best friend and JJ’s first crush, Y/N. Old feelings resurface for JJ and Y/N, possibly leading to a summer neither one of them could ever forget. Due to past trauma, Y/N is reluctant to let anyone into her heart, but JJ never backs down from a challenge, even if he knows it will come back to haunt him in the end.

Note: Thank you for being patient with me as I slowly write this series. I had this idea a long time ago and I’m not finding motivation to write it but the inspiration comes and go. I smile with every comment that is left on my fics and I’m so grateful for this community. Thank you for letting me pursue my creative writing without judgement. Love you guys! (Also, yes. If you didn’t see my last note, I based YN’s family off of the Gilmore Girls characters. That’s who I picture as them.)

Word Count: 8k

 Masterlist   Prologue 

You wake up to someone falling on your bed next to you with a dramatic sigh. Knowing exactly who it is, you choose to ignore her and try getting back to the dreamless sleep you were peacefully having before you woke up.

That is, until she sighs again. 

You flip onto your back and stare up at your ceiling fan that’s quickly spinning above you. “What, Rory?”

“How did it go with Andre and that boy?”

You look at her with one brow raised. “You woke me up to hear about Andre’s love life? That hardly sounds like you. You don’t care about high school drama or hookups.”

“You’re right,” Rory says. “But I thought I would ease you into what I actually need to tell you.”

You turn on right side and look at your sister confused. “What?”

She sighs. “The cafe’s basement flooded last night. Mom needs us there to help her clean up and take inventory on what’s salvageable.”

You turn back on you backside and close your eyes, exhaling a deep sigh. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Unfortunately not,” Rory says and pats you twice on your covered thigh as she sits up. “Come on. I made you pre-cafe coffee. It’s sitting in the kitchen.”

You throw your sheets off of you and trudge to the bathroom to brush your teeth and clean your face. It’s about 8 a.m. At least you were able to get about six hours of sleep. 

Last night, it was hard to let your brain rest to fall asleep. You kept tossing and turning, thinking about the blonde Pogue who walked you home. You missed how easy it was to talk to someone who you felt truly knew you. Your banter rolled off your tongue easily and you never had to worry about offending him because you knew him like the back of your hand. You knew what he could take and what he couldn't. 

Talking to him brought back childhood memories you had hidden deep in your mind. How JJ would constantly poke you until you ripped into a smile on days that were grey. How you used to steal John B’s bandanas until he was chasing you around his house to get them back. How you would draw a mustache and a unibrow on Pope’s face when he fell asleep by the water. 

Those days felt like they were decades ago. So far away, you didn’t know if you’d be able to reach for them again. If it was even possible to get back. 

You thought about texting him. Thanks for walking me back. We should all get together soon! You had written out. But then you deleted the whole message, telling yourself it was because you didn’t know if he even had the same number. But deep down, you were just afraid of the rejection. 

Its been about three years since the four of you had been together in one place. You don’t know what they’ve been through or if they’ve changed. They for sure as hell don’t know what you’ve been through. You don’t know if they're dynamic has changed. Clearly you and JJ can still joke with each other but what about John B and Pope? You heard about John B’s father disappearing at sea, most people believing he’s dead, but John B holding onto hope that’s he’s alive. You always thought about calling him to reach out and offer your condolences. But for the same reason you didn’t text JJ, you never called. It didn’t feel like your place. They had Kie for that now. A little part of you felt jealous of her, like she had replaced you and any memory of you. She seemed nice, but she wasn’t you.

“Ready?” Rory pops her head in to your room as you slip on a cropped plain white zip up jacket over your cropped black tank. 

“As I’ll ever be,” You say and snag the car keys out of her hands. “Don’t even think about it. I’m driving.”

Rory rolls her eyes. “I want to get there safely.”

“And I want to get there quickly.”

“Fine. But we’re taking my car. It actually has doors.”

For your sixteenth birthday, your grandparents gifted both you and Rory your own individual cars and even let you pick them out. Rory chose a black 2020 Honda Civic for it’s safety features and reputation for longevity as if she was planning on handing it down to her future kids. And you picked out a white 2020 Jeep Wrangler with a hard top that pops off along with the doors for a very open and thrilling ride. Everyone but you called it a death trap, but you found it to be the perfect summer car. 

You park Rory’s boring Honda Civic in the back of the cafe in a lot used specifically for employees. The cafe is already booming with teens and families, waiting for their morning coffees and fresh pastries. Kids your age are running around behind the counter with sweat dripping down their brow bone to get everyone’s orders out in a timely manner. 

In the back of the store, your mom walks up the steps from the basement with two large trash bags and immediately notices the two of you. “Oh good. You’re here. Rory, help the girls behind the counter. The dishwasher’s broken and poor Hailey is hand washing everything. Y/N, come with me downstairs.”

“Why does Rory get the fun job?” You grumble and follow your mom back downstairs after she tosses the two trash bags. 

“Because she’s actually nice to the customers.”

“Treat others how you would like to be treated. Isn’t that what everyone always says?” You smirk. You never agreed with the phrase ‘the customer is always right.’ It’s complete bullshit and being the employee shouldn’t mean letting yourself getting verbally abused by a ‘Karen’ on the other side of the counter. 

The basement is used for the cafe’s storage, lined with wooden shelves Steve put together that hold to go cups, back up espresso machines, boxes of coffee and food and ingredients, etc. Now all the boxes are dark and sopping, creating puddles on the concrete floor. 

“Oh my god. Mom. How did this happen?”

“Jenky water pipe busted in the middle of the night,” Steve walks down the stairs and passes your mom a knowing look. It didn’t surprise you that he was here. He’s the jack of all trades. Owns his own automotive shop, builds a lot of his own furniture, actually cooks a decent meal, and has the same outlook on customer service as you do. He was probably your mom’s first call. “Talked to the plumber. They can’t get here until at least noon.”

“Noon? We’ll be underwater by noon. I might as well turn all my employees into a swim team,” Your mom says.

Steve shakes his head. “I was able to hold the leak until he gets here. You should be fine.”

Steve was the first person that actually helped your mother out when's she moved to the Cut. Six months pregnant, she pushed her car into his automotive shop after it broke down on the side of the road. Their banter was similar to the one you and JJ have. He helped save your mom money by building yours and Rory’s cribs, changing table, and dressers. And ever since, the two of them had been connected by the hip, although they both refuse to admit it. You think the pair are just trying to deny the love they clearly share for each other. And you think the main reason for that is because of the incident four years ago with your mom’s ex boyfriend. No thanks to you.

 “Look at you constantly building your resume,” You smirk at him. 

Steve scoffs. “It’s more than what you’re doing.”

You roll your eyes. Steve is the closest thing you have to a father. He practically helped raise you with your mom. He’s the one you turn to whenever a fight with your mom goes too far, which isn't too often but it happens. He usually lets you stay at his house for the night to let you cool off. But he’ll never sugar coat his advice when it comes time for him to give it. Even if you don’t ask for it. He knows growing up with Rory has been challenging. She was clearly your mom’s favorite, or at least that’s what you thought. She has a 4.0 GPA with a realistic dream to get into Brown University and study journalism. She played by every rule, never got into trouble, and spent most of her free nights getting ahead of her school work or staying late at the cafe with an open book from the library across the street. She was an absolute angel to everyone else, making you look like her evil twin. 

You glare at him before turning to your mom with crossed arms. “What do you want me to do, Mom?”

“Actually honey. Can you go to Heywards and grab more coffee filters and napkins. The water soaked right through the plastic wrapping on our last box.”

You nod, leaving your mom and Steve to clean up the basement themselves. Before heading out, you sneak behind the counter and make yourself a quick coffee to go.

“Where you going?” Rory asks as she reaches behind you to grab a banana for her customer at the register.

“Heywards to grab a couple things for Mom.”

“Oh. Make sure to grab toilet paper while you’re out. I think we’re almost out of it.”

“Got it.” 

Heywards is only a short drive from your mom’s cafe. It’s the closest convenient store that isn’t crazy pricey. It’s where your mom gets all her supplies whenever she runs out of things before shipment gets there. 

You use to always come here when you were younger with the boys, each of you, even Pope, stealing a small bag of chips or a candy bar here and there. Little did any of you know, Mr. Heyward caught your thieving hands every time but never said anything. 

The bell above the door chimes when you walk into the store. You know this place as well as you know the cafe, finding the toilet paper and coffee filter immediately. 

When Mr. Heyward looks up from the counter, his smile grows. He can pick you out of a crowd anywhere, but he hasn’t seen you in a long time. Last time he saw you, you had braces and overgrown bushy brows. Now you had bushed hair and shaved legs. 

“Hi. Mr. Heyward,” You grin shyly at him. You don’t know how he’s going to react to see you, unsure of what Pope might have told him about you. 

“Little Miss Y/L/N? Is that you?” Heyward smiles widely, pulling your own lips into a wider smile. “I haven’t seen you for a long time.”

“Yeah, I’ve been busy with school and my mom’s cafe...” Both of those things were a lie. You just avoid the Cut to avoid the Pogues. 

“How’s the fam?” 

“They’re good,” You say as Heyward hands you your bags. “Mom says hello by the way. I’m actually taking these to her store now.”

“Well, don’t be a stranger. We miss your smiling face around her. Anette, too.” Heyward says, mentioning his wife. 

“Tell her I said hi.”

“Of course, darling.” 

Heyward and Anette always had a special place in their heart for you and Rory. They’re not one for gossip, but they knew a little bit about what your mom’s been through and have heard plenty of stories about your grandparents. They always thought, despite your mom’s background, that you and your sister were raised impressively. Anette always hoped that one day Pope and Rory would get together. Everyone always wanted their child to be with Rory. 

As your about to leave the store, the bell chimes again with another customer. Only it’s not another customer. It’s Pope and John B. They don’t see you at first, and you wonder if maybe you can sneak out without them seeing you. But something about that felt wrong. Especially because Heyward would more than likely mention to them that you were here. 

Pope sees you first and stops in his tracks. “Y/N?” 

“Hey, guys. Long time no see,” You smile at both of them. You bite down on your lip awkwardly when you meet John B’s stare. You don’t know if you should mention anything about his dad’s disappearance. But what would you say? Sorry? What good would that do?

“How’ve you been?” Pope gives you a small side hug, then John B. 

You shrug. “You know, living the dream.”

“How’s life as a Hybrid?” John B smirks. 

You roll your eyes playfully and groan. “Oh god. Never call me that again.”

You may be considered a Hybrid by everyone else, but you would never put yourself into that category. You grew up a Pogue, the same way everyone else did around you. The only thing tying you to the Kooks are your grandparents. 

“Why?” John B smirks. “I wish I was a Hybrid.”

You smirk back. “Maybe you will be one day. I hear you have a Kook of your own for arm candy.”

You saw a faint hint of blush on John B’s cheek at the mention of his girlfriend but you don’t mention it. “Sarah, yeah. She’s not like the other Kooks.”

“I would hope not. Her brother’s a dick.”

“Yeah,” They laugh. 

“We miss you, you know.” John B says. Pope looks at you, trying to read your expression. John B’s not wrong. They do all miss you, especially Pope. He felt like you were the only one who really understood him. Of course his other friends are great, but you actually took the time to try and understand his passions. Like forensic science. 

“I miss you guys too. It’s been a while.”

“Well, hey. We’re actually all getting together tonight at my place. Nothing big. Just a bonfire and a couple beers. You should stop by,” John B says.

“Yeah,” Pope says, immediately getting hopeful that you’ll show up. 

Your smile falters. The invite makes your heart swell and your lungs contract. It’s an invite you’ve been wanting for three years. And now that you have it, you don’t know what to say. It’d be different if it was just the four of you like old times. But now there’s Kie and Sarah and although you have nothing against them, you’re afraid they won’t accept you. The thought of your boys picking them over you terrifies you. 

“Okay. Yeah, sure. I’ll try to swing by later.” 

Pope smiles wide and looks at his friend to see his reaction. John B grins and nods, almost impressed that you had agreed. But he saw the twitch in your lips when the question was asked. 

“Great. I guess we’ll see you later then.” 

You nod. “Okay. Bye guys.”

You suck in a deep breath when the fresh air outside of Heyward’s store brushes over you. Your heart thumps wildly with both excitement and nerves when you’re finally able to collect your thoughts. You don’t know what you’ll do tonight, but the possibilities can change your entire summer.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

You spent the rest of the day mopping up the cafe’s basement and rearranging the shelves. You smelled of sweat and coffee grounds by the time you were done and dreamt of the shower you would be taking when you got home. 

Rory drove you home after the two of you closed up the cafe for the day. Neither of you said much. Rory was exhausted from running around behind the counter and you were too busy thinking about whether you’d go back to the place you used to call your second home.

You took a longer shower than usual, still pondering what your night would be like. Your head was telling you to stay home but your heart pulled you in the direction of the Cut. You yearned to hear about what the future held for Pope, and listen to John B retell stories of when you were kids, and be able to stare into JJ’s bright blue eyes without him noticing. 

You changed into a pair of jean shorts and a plain red cropped tank. Rory walks into your room as your brushing out your hair and looks at you as if you lost your mind.

“Are you out of your mind? You can’t wear that,” She says.

You brows scrunch together in confusion. “What are you talking about? I wear shit like this all the time.”

“Not to the Country Club, you don’t.” That’s when it hits you. Today’s been so hectic, you forgot what day it was. “It’s Sunday.”

Sunday dinner at the Country Club is now a weekly commitment forced upon you by your grandparents. Each week, your mom, sister, and you are forced to spend one dinner with your grandma and grandpa. This is basically your mom’s payment back for sending you and Rory to Kook Academy. Only they actually pay for the dinner. It’s usually the longest two hours of your entire week. It’s hard to listen to your grandfather rant about Real Estate and your grandma slyly critique your mother in almost every aspect of her life. 

“Shit. I completely forgot,” You say.

“Well, you better change. We’re leaving in about five minutes,” Rory says then plucks a gold necklace from your dresser. “Oh and can I wear this tonight?”

You sigh. “Sure.”

You change into a baby blue wrap around dress and pin your wet hair into a half up half down due. It’s gonna have to work for the limited time you have to get ready. After applying a thin layer of makeup to look the least bit presentable, you meet your mom and sister by the front door.

“Finally,” Your mom says when she sees you. 

“Sorry. I didn’t realize it was Sunday.”

“It’s okay, honey. I just don’t think I can handle another late remark from Mom today.” She looks you up and down and grins. “You look great.”

Despite the many fiery fights you and your mom can have, she is also your best friend. It’s kind of like a love hate relationship. Steve says it’s because you’re exactly like your mom - almost like a sixteen year old version of her. 

You really hope that isn’t true. You’re not ready to have a kid in two years. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Your grandparents are already sitting at a round table in the corner of the country club by the two tall windows that reach up to the ceiling with a view looking out into the golf course. The best seat in the house for the richest a holes on the island. 

“Lorelai,” Your grandmother grins, but you can instantly tell it’s sarcastic. “Did you have to walk here?”

You speak up before your mom could. “Sorry Grandma. It’s my fault we’re late.”

Your grandparents are hard on your mom but easier on you and Rory, especially Rory.

“Well, you’re here now,” Your grandpa says. He’s usually the mediator between your mom and grandma. Although he’s usually sucks at it. “Sit. Sit.”

Meanwhile, back in the kitchen, JJ shuffles through his many coworkers with his apron in one hand and a piece of fried calamari from Miss Carol’s appetizer in the other. 

“JJ -” She scolds and slaps his hand away from going in for a second piece. 

“Good evening Miss Carol,” JJ smirks and makes his way to the area between the kitchen and dining room where most of the servers and bust boys hang out. Some of the boys slap him on the back or shove him by the shoulder, chuckling to themselves. “What’s going on boys? Busy crowd?”

“What are you doing here? You never work Sundays,” His friend, Mitch, says. 

Luke Maybank was behind on several bills - worse than it’s ever been. They already shut off their electricity and JJ wanted to make sure the water wouldn’t be next. 

But JJ shrugs nonchalantly. “Little extra dough can't hurt.”

“Well, you picked a good day,” Raymond walks up to the blonde, rolling his sleeves. “You got Kook Royalty and their Hybrid offsprings in your section.” 

“What?” JJ looks through the small square Plexiglas on the swinging door. He knows exactly where to look and immediately sees you sitting with King and Queen Kook, looking absolutely miserable, pushing around your food with your fork. 

“Damn, Maybank. Almost broke your neck - you turned so fast.”

“Shut up, Easterling. I was just seeing how crowded we were,” JJ lied. He really just wanted to see if you were here. And now that he sees you are, he’s a little nervous to do his own damn job.

Raymond Easterling chuckles. “Yeah, I know what you were looking at. But don’t get your hopes up. There’s a reason Kooks call that girl the Heart Sucker. Not even the high and powerful JJ Maybank could get a piece of that.”

The guys around JJ and Raymond chuckle and nod in agreement, hearing the stories of how you’d reject every single guy that’s ever asked you out. Sometimes you’d go on a few dates, trying to push yourself out of your comfort zone, but then things would quickly become too much, and you’d get overwhelmed. 

JJ didn’t like the way Raymond talked about you or how the others laughed at your expense. His hands clenched into fists, tempted to throw a punch in Ray’s cocky face.  The guy’s just being a jerk because he’s one of the guys that got rejected by you, he thought. 

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” JJ shakes his head and ties his apron around his waist to distract his hands.

“No?” Raymond challenges him. “You think I’m wrong? You think you could pull the infamous Hybrid over there?”

JJ glances back through the window. You’re looking at your grandma with a clearly forced grin. You’re twirling your hair between your fingers, a habit you picked up when you were little to do when you’re bored. JJ would find you doing that in school all the time. 

You’re gorgeous, he thought. It’s no wonder that almost every guy on this island has tried to make a pass on you, including JJ himself, but his remarks always come off as playful, afraid of actually telling you how he feels about you. His fantasies about you went further than just getting you between the sheets. He could picture getting married, having children, and growing old together. Years ago, the two of you would talk about your future. Neither one of you cared about money or fancy jobs. All you wanted was to be free - of this island, of each other’s families, of responsibilities placed on you from birth. You hold the same values as JJ, and he’s never met another person like you. 

But JJ has a hard exterior. No one other than his best friends know his true heart, and he wasn’t going to let someone like Raymond Easterling find out about his soft spot for you. He would never hear the end of it.

JJ looks at you one last time. You’re talking to Rory, your face in his direction. This time you’re smiling, probably discussing something other than your grandparent’s expectations of you. He’d kill to see that smile every single day.

What’s the worst that could happen? You reject him? Yeah, that might kill JJ inside, but maybe you’d still be his friend, or continue to be acquaintances like you are now. As long as he gets to see you, he’d be okay. There was always the future. But who knows? Maybe you’d say yes? He’ll never know unless he tries. Right?

JJ fakes the same cocky grin that Raymond wears. “I haven’t failed yet.”

The guys around him whistle and shake their heads with smiles. 

“All right, Maybank. Let’s make a bet. I’ll give you one hundred dollars to get Y/N Y/L/N in the sack by the fourth of July.”

JJ scoffs. “You like giving away free money?” He ignored his racing heart at the thought of being that intimate with you.

Raymond nods. “Okay. Let’s put your money where your mouth is. Get her to say ‘I love you’ by the end of the season and I’ll raise you an extra hundred and cover all your dishwasher shifts in September.”

JJ raises his brows with surprise. No one offers to take the dishwashing shift. Sometimes the boys are pulled back there when the kitchen is short staffed and it’s easily one of the worst jobs at the Club.

This bet was almost too good of an opportunity to pass up. “Deal.” JJ says.

The boys shake hands on it and the other guys whisper to each other about how intrigued they are to see this play out.

JJ wipes his sweaty palms against his apron and pushes the door open to approach your table, hoping he can hear you over his thudding heart. 

“Good evening folks. May I take those empty plates out of your way?”

You look up at the voice you know so well and a smile raises on your lips. JJ meets your eyes and he winks at you, splattering your heart in flutters. 

“Please.” Your grandmother pushes her plate away from her, stuffed with filet and red wine.

“JJ,” Your mom grins up at him. Growing up, your mom always had a soft spot for the blonde Pogue. She’s heard the stories about his father, mostly from Steve, who actually grew up with Luke Maybank, his cousin. As a child, he was sent to live with Luke Maybank and his single father. Lets just say, he’s not surprised by the way Luke turned out. “Look at you. You’re all grown up now. Last time I saw you, Y/N was still pushing your head in the sand for stealing her popsicle.”

“Yeah. I quickly learned no one should mess with Y/N and her food,” JJ says.

“Never stopped you though,” You smirk at him.

“Lorelai. Who is this?” Your grandma asks, disregarding the boy himself.

“Mom,” Lorelai gives her mom a warning look. “This is JJ Maybank. He went to school with Y/N and Rory.” Lorelai knew to play it safe with her wording. She didn’t know where you and JJ stood. It’s been so long since you’ve seen him and she knew better than to ask. 

“Nice to meet you,” JJ says politely. “I’d shake your hand but mine are kinda full.” He motions to the plates in his hand.

“That’s quite all right.” Your grandma’s smile is so forced, it makes you uncomfortable. 

“I won’t hold you up. Has your server been around with the dessert menu?” JJ looks at you. “We have chocolate cake tonight.”

Heat rushes up your neck. Not because of the cake itself but because JJ remembered your favorite dessert. Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and chocolate sprinkles. It was safe to save you were a choco-holic. The boys use to make it for you every year for your birthday. It usually came out burnt, none of them ever remembering how to properly make it. But it was all you needed to feel like a very special girl. 

“Your favorite,” Rory elbows you.

Your grandma cringes. “Sounds like diabetes on a plate.”

“Mom,” Lorelai scolds. 

“What?” She asks, not understanding the concept of a filter.

Now heat rushes to your cheeks for an entire different reason. “He did. We’re not doing dessert tonight. Thank you, though.”

JJ nods but feels disappointed by the way your face flinched at your grandmother’s comment. 

“My pleasure,” He says like he was taught to do and excuses himself to drop the plates off in the back before he can say anything else that would probably get him fired.

Your mom looks at your with raised brows. “He’s cute, honey.”

“Lorelai, please. He’s the busboy,” Your grandma says.

“He’s a good kid, Mom.”

“If you’ll excuse me,” You stand up. “I have to use the restroom.”

Rory gives you a knowing grin as you walk away from the table. When you walk into the hallway between the dining area and the front lobby, you immediately feel like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders. Sometimes just the presence of your grandparents and their pompous judgements can be suffocating. You do your best to bite your tongue around them, excusing yourself when you feel yourself getting heated. 

JJ catches a glimpse of your light blue dress out of the corner of his eye when he rounds the corner to collect the plates off a different table. He looks over his shoulder at Raymond, who’s staring at the blonde watching you, and winks.

“Hey, Y/N,” JJ says, walking up to you.

You look up from your phone and immediately smile. “Hey. I was actually hoping I’d catch you out here.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” You nervously tuck a piece of hair behind your ear. “I’m sorry about my grandmother. She can be...”

JJ shakes his head. “Hey. It’s okay. I work for Kooks almost every single day. I’m use to it.”

You sigh. “That doesn’t make me feel any better.”

“Don’t apologize for something you can’t control,” JJ says. “Besides, that’s probably the nicest she’s ever been to me.”

You hide your face in your hands. “Stop. You’re making it worse.”

JJ laughs and takes your wrists in his hands, slowly pulling them away from your face. Your eyes shoot up to his, immediately feeling a tingling feeling run through your skin, straight to your heart. 

“It’s okay. I promise,” He says softly. His voice is so sincere that you have no other option but to believe him. It almost makes your feel guiltier, wondering how much bullshit he’s been through with ungrateful Kooks that it’s so easy for him to forgive and forget.

“Okay,” Your voice is a whisper, taken off guard by how close he is to you and how he still hasn't let go of your hands. 

In that same moment, JJ realizes he’s still holding you and gently removes his hands. He coughs awkwardly and scratches the back of his neck, where sweat begins to bubble. Why is he so nervous?

“So um...” You say, suddenly feeling nervous too. “You going to John B’s tonight?”

JJ’s eyes shoot up in surprise. How did you know that? “Yeah. I’m heading over there after work.”

“I saw him and Pope at Heywards earlier today and they invited me over. I wasn’t sure if I should come or not.”

“Why wouldn’t you?”

Because it’s different now, you wanted to say. But you didn’t because you feel like the elephant in the room would only grow. And you didn’t want to admit you were nervous to meet Kie and Sarah outside of school. 

You shrug. “I don’t know.”

“You should definitely come. The boys miss you.”

You pretend like a little piece of your heart didn’t just break when JJ didn’t say ‘we.’ 

“What time do you get off of work?”

“Around 9ish.”

You nod. “I can pick you up if you’d like and we could go together?”

Your heart races after you suggest it. What if he says no? Why were you feeling this way? This is the same kid you use to make fun of for pouring milk into his bowl before his cereal. 

“Yeah. That’d be perfect.”

“Great!” Your phone pings with a text from Rory, telling you that your grandparents are wondering where you are. “Shit. I have to get back. I’ll see you at nine?”

“See you then,” JJ nods and turns back to the kitchen. When his eyes meet Raymond’s, he’s reminded of what he agreed to. Almost surprised how quickly he forgot about it. You were able to take his mind off of anything without even trying. He clears his throat to get rid of the giddy grin he was wearing after talking to you, wanting to look tough and casual in front of his coworker. “Easy.” He says to him. But that felt anything but easy. He could vomit with nerves.

“There’s still plenty of time for you to screw up, Maybank.”

JJ huffs. He’s not wrong. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

You drive up to the front of the country club and park in front of the main entrance. It’s 8:57. You’re early and will look eager. So you wait until 9:06 to text him that you’re here.

You changed into a pair of dark washed denim shorts, a yellow cropped tube top, a grey flannel, and navy converse. You changed your outfit about four times before deciding on your first one, not wanting to look too casual or too dressed up. 

For the last three years, you wondered when the four of you would get back together as a group. You wondered if it would ever happen. And now that two Kooks are involved, you feel more nervous than excited.

You jump when the passenger seat door opens, lost in the depth of your own head. JJ smiles, not seeing your reaction.”Cool ride,” he says and looks around the interior. 

“Thanks,” you say, pulling out into the road.

“I got you something,” JJ says.

You glance at him with furrowed brows. What could he have possibly gotten you since you saw him last? A book mark from the Country Club’s gift shop?

JJ reaches into his backpack and pulls out a plate with clear wrap around it. Your mouth drops when you see the chocolate cake on a plate in his hands, the smell immediately hitting your nose with pure delight.

“You saved me a piece?” You jump in your seat excitedly.

“Had to hide it good too or else Miss Carol would have had my ass handed to me,” JJ jokes and even pulls out two forks. He undoes the wrapping and cuts off a piece. He waits until you hit a stop sign and says, “Open up.”

You look at him and immediately open your mouth. He gently places the fork between your lips and you take the piece of cake off with your teeth. Like a baby.

Your eyes close with pure pleasure. “Oh my god. That’s amazing.”

“Miss Carol does know how to bake a mean cake,” JJ says and takes a bite of his own.

“Another one,” You say, glancing at the cake again. Like you said, choco-holic. “Please.” You say when JJ teases you by holding the fork away from you.

JJ laughs. “I like hearing you beg.”

You slap him in the arm with the back of your hand. “In your dreams, Maybank.”

“You got that right, Y/L/N.”

The two of you finish the cake with only a few bites each. Small but rich in chocolate that leaves you craving more. You were gonna have to meet this Miss Carol woman. 

After he puts the plate back in his bag, JJ reaches for the aux cord, but you quickly slap his hand away. “Hey. What do you think you’re doing?”

“You’re seriously gonna make me listen to this the entire way to John B’s?”

You scoff. “I’ll have you know Blink-182 is one of my favorite bands.”

“It’s also soccer moms’ favorite band,” JJ laughs at you.

You turn up the volume, blasting ‘All the Small Things’ and point to your ear. “Sorry. Can’t hear you!”

JJ rolls his eyes but laughs along with you, even bopping his head to the beat. You drive with the windows down, dancing and singing along to a bunch of throwback songs with JJ as if the two of you have been doing this forever. 

You pull up to John B’s and park behind his dad’s old van, better known as The Twinkie. When you turn down the music, JJ looks at you with a shake in his head. “Next time, I’m driving.”

“What was wrong with my driving?”

“We’re in the Outer Banks, Sparky, not NASCAR.”

You scoff and follow behind JJ who’s leading the way up John B’s driveway. As you get closer, you smell the smoky scent of a bonfire nearby and eventually hear John B’s laugh mixed in with a female’s. Your smile falters as nerves gather in the pit of your stomach. 

“What’s wrong?” JJ asks.

“Nothing,” You say, but JJ easily catches your lie and gives you a knowing look. “What if they don’t like me?”

“Who? Pope and John B? I’m pretty sure they like you more than me even after three years -”

“Not them, you idiot,” You shove him playfully by the shoulder as you two let yourselves inside. “Sarah and Kie.”

“Don’t you go to school with them?”

“Yeah, but we don’t talk,” You say quietly, not wanting them to hear you.

“Hm.”

“What?” JJ shrugs. “Nothing. I just didn’t think you cared about what other people thought.”

“I don’t,” You say quickly. “But they're your best friends. It’s different.”

“You don’t need their approval. You technically were here first.”

“Yeah, but I’ve been replaced,” You try to say it as a joke and even throw a smirk in there. 

But JJ stops in his track and looks at you seriously. “No one can replace you. Not even if they tried.”

You open your mouth to respond, but you’re at a loss for words. It’s not a common occurrence that JJ gets all serious on you. Warmth covers you like a blanket and the longer he holds your stare, the weaker your knees become. 

“JJ! Is that you?” John B calls out from the backyard.

“Yeah,” JJ yells back. He opens the fridge in John B’s kitchen. “Want a beer?” He offers to you.

You shake your head. “No thanks.”

For the first time, you take in John B’s home. It looks the same as it did three years ago, only a lot messier. The pull out couch looks like its been used recently with blankets and sheets tossed about on it. Empty beer cans and cigarette butts are thrown messily on the coffee tables and the air smells faintly of old marijuana. 

JJ leads you out to the back where four people are gathered around a fire. Three out of the four immediately smile when the two of you approach them, but Kie’s eyes narrow and her head tilts with confusion.

Shit, you think. 

“You came!” Pope laughs and hops up from his beach chair and embraces you in a hug.

You laugh, not expecting the embrace, but welcoming it all the same. John B’s next, giving you a quick hug and shaking his head.

“I gotta say, I didn’t think you were going to come,” John B says.

“You can thank me for that later,” JJ says jokingly.

“Actually when I heard JJ was coming, I almost changed my mind and stayed home,” You joke and smirk JJ’s way.

“Just like old times,” Pope says, looking between you and the blonde. The banter felt like the yall never separated in the first place. 

“Hey, you know Sarah and Kie, right?” John B points to the girls. Sarah stands up to say hi, and eventually Kie follows her, not wanting to look rude, but stays off to the side, keeping her distance.

“Yeah,” You wave awkwardly. 

“Hey!” Sarah says sweetly. “I didn’t realize you guys use to all hang out.”

“Y/N grew up down the street,” JJ explains and sips at his beer. 

“You want a drink or something?” Pope asks you, not knowing JJ already did.

“No thank you,” You say again.

“You don’t drink?” Kie asks. It was the first thing she’s said to you.

“Not usually,” You say and hold her stare. You try to get a read on her, but she’s had to get a tell on. You can’t tell if she just doesn’t like you or just doesn’t know you. Either way, it makes you uneasy. 

“Here, I’ll go grab you a chair,” Pope says and walks to the side of the house to grab another beat up beach chair. 

As the night goes on, you feel the tension in your shoulders loosen and your body feel lighter. Most of the night was spent retelling childhood stories the four of you shared. Sarah would laugh at most of them, occasionally rolling her eyes at her boyfriend from the stupid shit he would do, although it sounds like he’s no different to you now. 

You talked about the time you and JJ stole a golf cart for a joy ride on Figure Eight, or when you and John B pranked Pope by putting a dead fish in his locker, or how you and John B learned how to play guitar from youtube tutorials. 

Midnight came around quickly and exhaustion was slowly taking over your body. It’s been a long day between the cafe flooding, dinner with your grandparents, and now this. 

JJ was the first to notice you slowly fading. 

“You okay?” He asks you quietly as everyone else is caught up in conversation. 

“Yeah,” You say, lazily grinning at him. 

“We can leave if you want,” He says.

“You’re not staying?” You ask. It sounded like everyone was planning to spend the night here. And as much as you wanted to, you just didn’t feel comfortable enough yet. 

JJ shrugs. “My dad’s out of town tonight. It’ll be nice to have the house to myself.” Before you can say anything, he stands and brushes his hands against his pants. “All right, losers. We’re out of here.”

“Aw, you’re leaving?” Sarah pouts.

“Yeah, I’m beat and Y/N’s my ride home,” JJ says.

You were glad he didn’t call you out for being tired. You didn’t want to look lame in front of everybody, especially Kie.

“Thanks for having me,” You say to everyone. It might have been John B’s house, but it was everyone’s night you intruded on.

John B stands up to hug you. “Don’t be a stranger, okay?”

You nod. “I won’t. I promise.”

Pope hugs you next. “Text me when you get back safe.”

“I will.”

“Bye!” Sarah waves and Kie exhales a ring of smoke from her blunt.

You wave at them before following JJ back to your car. 

“Nuh-uh-uh,” JJ says. You didn’t realize you both walked to the driver’s side.

“What? No.”

JJ nods and holds his hands out for your keys. “I’m not dying tonight.” 

“You’ve been drinking and smoking all night,” You say. You didn’t think JJ was drunk or even that high, but you were not going to let a teenager with an ounce of alcohol in his system get behind the wheel. “Next time. For now, hold on to the cupholder.”

JJ sighs dramatically and goes to the other side of the car and hops in the passenger seat. 

This time you keep the music quiet, listening to the hum of the radio instead of your phone. 

“Take a left,” JJ says.

“JJ, I know where you live. And it’s not left.”

“Don’t you trust me?” 

You snicker. “Not in the slightest.”

JJ rolls his eyes. “Just take the left.”

You hold your hands up in surrender and take the left turn. He directs you for a couple more miles until he has you park in front of a 24 hour diner. 

“What are we doing here?” You ask.

“I’m in the mood for a milkshake.”

“We just had cake!” You say.

“Come on, Sparky. Show me what that mouth can do,” JJ smirks. 

You go to hit him again but he takes off running to the front entrance and pulls the door open. You chase after him, almost running into his back at the front host stand where JJ safely smirks at you in triumph.

“Two please,” He says to the hostess. 

The old cranky woman leads you to a booth off to the side next to a window without a word. 

A couple minutes later, a waitress walks by and asks if you’re ready to order. 

“Yes. One chocolate milkshake and one black and white milkshake,” JJ orders for both of you, already knowing what flavor you’d want.

“And fries, please.” You say. The waitress nods, takes your menus, and walks off. JJ raises his brow at the extra order. “What?” You shrug. “Just showing you what my mouth can do.”

JJ scoffs. “What a tease.” 

You playfully kick his shin under the table.

“Did you have fun tonight?” JJ asks.

“Yeah,” You answer. “Felt like old times. The girls are nice too.”

You were about to only mention Sarah, but you didn’t want to cause any issues with Kie. Not yet at least. Maybe she just needed time to warm up to you.

“See? I told you they wouldn’t bite.”

A couple minutes later, the waitress comes back with your milkshakes and fries. 

“How’s John B doing? You know, with the whole Big John thing?” You ask delicately, unsure of how JJ would react to you pestering about John B’s business. “I didn’t want to ask and bring the mood down,” You explain yourself although you don’t need to.

JJ shrugs. “He’s in denial I think. Won’t sign a death certificate until he sees a body. He could be worse, though.”

“Yeah,” You say softly. You don’t know what you would do if you were in that situation. In a way you felt lucky that you never knew your dad at all. It would be harder to lose him, knowing who he was.

You take a fry and dip it into your milkshake before taking a bite. This makes JJ freeze and look at you like you have two heads. 

“What?” You say with your mouth full.

“I can’t believe you just did that.”

“Don’t knock it till you try it,” You say and give him a look to do it.

JJ reluctantly picks up the fry and dunks it into his milkshake. He looks at the fry questioningly before popping it into his mouth. Somehow the sweetness of the milkshake and the saltiness of the french fry complement each other beautifully and his widen in pleasant surprise. 

“Oh wow,” JJ says.

“Told you,” You smirk.

You spend the next hour catching up, trying to fit the last three years into an hour. JJ does most of the talking because you want to know more about what John B, Pope, and JJ have been up to. Your life was so boring and depressing, you didn’t want to bore JJ with the details.

You drive JJ home and talk for a few minutes more when you park. He seems to be procrastinating getting out of the car, but you don’t mind. You could talk to him all night, suddenly not feeling tired anymore.

“All right. I’ll let you get home before the sun rises,” He says and opens the door. He pauses when his feet hit the ground and he looks back at you. “What are you doing tomorrow?”

“I have to work at the shop, why?”

“Well, there’s a storm coming in. John B and I might go out to surf the surge before it hits. You still surf?”

You scoff. “Do I still surf?”

JJ holds his hands up in surrender. “Just checking. You think you can handle the surge?”

“Let’s not forget who the better surfer is, JJ.”

“I didn’t. It’s still me.”

“You wish.”

“So I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Now you have a point to prove. You have to show JJ that you’re still the better surfer. 

“I'll see you tomorrow,” You agree. 

“Great, it’s a date.” He winks and shuts the door before you can tell him otherwise. 

You giggle to yourself as JJ walks up the front yard and stay there until he you see he gets in safely. 

You pull out of the driveway, wishing he had asked you out on a real date. One that didn’t involve John B.

Tag list: @super-funky-bisexual​ @sunsetswithjj​ @moniamaybank​ @throwawayfish​ @poguestyle17​ @5am-cigarette​ @jjpouggues​ @fly-away-from-here​ @buckys2thicc​

[bangtann-bangdamn]

Summary: All you wanted was a quiet place to study. Instead, you’re initiated into a host club after breaking a vase worth thirty-one million won

Pairing: OT7 x female reader

Genre: Slice of life, school AU, humour

Prompt: Ouran Highschool Host Club inspired

Word count: 1.4k

AN: I’ve wanted to write an Ouran inspired fic for a while but I didn’t know what to do with it. So this was the perfect excuse to dabble with the idea.

All you wanted was a quiet place to study. Which, considering the price people paid to attend this school, you would have thought that you would be swimming with choices. But apparently paying for an education eliminated any and all need for quiet study areas.

The library, the one place you thought you could count on, was currently home to the debate society who were not only loud but large enough that the three-story library no available tables. And even if you could find a spot, the space was open and all noise seemed to reverberate through the building with such efficiency that you could hear Lee Minho’s cackles from the ground floor.

So you made your way over to the abandoned music corridor. Or, at least, you thought it was abandoned. You had checked the after-school group list several times to make sure no one would be around and nowhere on the sheet did it say that Music room number three was occupied.

That was the only reason why you found yourself standing in front of the large ornate double doors that Tuesday afternoon. If you had known what was on the other side of the doors, you wouldn’t have entered the room with such confidence, letting the door bang against the wall as it swung open and revealed the seven most notorious faces around the school.

Seokjin was the only one with his back to you when you opened the door. He turned slowly and the sun seemed to follow his movements, casting a halo around his form. He smiled as his eyes met yours.

“Ah, I see we have a new visitor. Welcome to Bangtan Sonyeondan.” He stepped forward, his whole body oozing elegance as he stopped in front of you. He frowned as he brushed a strand of your short hair away from your face. “We don’t usually have a lot of guys pass through our doors, but we’re not one to turn away someone in need.”

You were often mistaken as a boy that you had somewhat grown used to it. You had cut your hair short before transferring schools. Not because you wanted short hair, exactly, but because you were tired of maintaining long hair. You had decided it would be much more practical to have short hair that only required a quick brush through in the morning so you could spend more time on your studies.

So hearing Seokjin refer to you as a male wasn’t what had you staring dumbly at them. It was the fact he was speaking directly to you in the first place.

In fact, as Seokjin took your hand and led you over to the rest of his group, your mind whirled to catch up with what was going on.

Seokjin placed his hand on your back and pushed you slightly towards the other guys, who eyed you with mild interest.

“Isn’t that YLN YN? The scholarship student?” Hoseok asked, turning to face Yoongi with a small pout on his face. Hoseok was a fourth-year student who was known for his love of all things cute. He was often found carrying a Kaws teddy with a giant smile on his face. The complete opposite to his best friend.

Yoongi nodded his head as he eyed you with the same lack of expression he was renowned for. The smaller man rarely spoke to anyone other than Hoseok, but half the female population were in love with him for his prowess on the piano.

“Isn’t he in our class?” Taehyung leaned towards Jimin, covering his mouth with his hand as if he were whispering but making no attempt to lower his voice. The pair kept to themselves, rarely engaging in any conversation with anyone except each other unless it was to make a joke. And even then, that had never happened in your time at the school.

Jimin stepped closer towards you, looking down at your clothing. As a scholarship student, you were awarded the benefit of not needing to wear a uniform. It had sounded wonderful when you started. You hated wearing skirts and you found the top button of your shirt always dug into your throat. So you opted to wear loose trousers and a nice baggy jumper to keep you warm. But then you had started and you realised what not wearing a uniform really meant. It was like a neon sign followed you everywhere, indicating that you weren’t even close to the wealth bracket these students came from. And thus, none had ever bothered to get to know you other than the courteous ‘hello’ when you were paired with them for assignments.

“I don’t recognise him…” Jimin trailed off as he got uncomfortably close to your face. You leant back in an attempt to keep some of your personal space.

Namjoon grabbed the back of Jimin’s uniform and pulled him back. “What have we said about invading people’s personal spaces.” Namjoon rolled his eyes as he let Jimin’s uniform go once he was a comfortable distance away from you.

Namjoon, you knew, was a third-year student along with Seokjin. Unlike Seokjin, he wasn’t known for his friendliness with the ladies. Sure, he was still well-loved by the female population of the school, but he was known as the calculating one. He made connections based on what his family needed.

“I’m sorry, I was just looking for a quiet place to study.” You took a step back, throwing your hands up to show that you meant no harm. All you wanted was to leave the room in one piece. Your back bumped into someone, making you jump. You whirled around only to come face to face with Jungkook

“I’m sorry about my hyungs, Yn.” Jungkook’s doe eyes looked at you sweetly, quietly begging you to stay. “They can be a little rude.”

He was the youngest of the group, only a first-year student. But just like the other students, he was well-loved. His family were known martial artists, most of whom belonged to the South Korean militia, but despite their fierce reputation he was known for being an absolute cutie-pie.

You could feel your resolve to high-tail it out of the room dissolve as you stared at him. It was the kind of face that was impossible to say no to.

“Oh, well I didn’t mean to intrude,” You stumbled out, blinking heavily in an attempt to clear your mind.

Seokjin slung his arm over your shoulder as he paid no mind to what you were saying. “Now we have to show our utmost respect, boys, to our lonely soul here. He needs guidance and has sought after our expertise.” You could almost see the stars in his eyes at the mere thought of being needed.

You jumped from his hold as you began to protest. “No, no! That’s not it at all. I’m good! Really!” you insisted no longer paying attention to your surroundings.

Which was probably why you backed straight into a display table hosting an expensive looking vase. One minute you were protesting help, the next you were scrambling after the falling vase in an attempt to catch it.

You never had a chance.

“Oh, Grandma donated that vase.” Taehyung pouted as he gazed forlornly down at the vase’s shattered remains.

“I’m so sorry, I’ll pay for it!” You insisted, reaching for the pocket in your bag with your purse.

“Wasnt that vase worth thirty-one million?” Jimin’s brow rose, barely containing his excitement at the destruction before him.

You blanched at the price. “Thirty-one million?” you repeated, hand freezing from where it held your purse in your bag.

“Oh, the poor dear will never be able to afford that!” Hoseok commented, looking over to Yoongi for confirmation. Yoongi swiftly nodded his head and Hoseok’s attention returned to you. “There must be some other way they can pay?” Hoseok turned towards Namjoon.

They all did. Which was when you knew you weren’t going to like what he said next.

“Hm, I suppose they could work as our lackey. If they worked the remainder of their time here, they should be able to clear their debt. So long as no other accidents occur, that is.” He sent you a pointed look before sighing as Jin waltzed straight back to you.

He spun you around as he sang, “So it’s official. YLN YN, welcome to our host club!”

BGW Drabble Master List

Master List

[jeonqukie]

PLAYING CUPID / 01.

SYNOPSIS / Consistently overshadowed by your older sister, you expect your days in high school to be filled with plastic smiles and apathetic peers with hidden intentions. Everything changes when four of the most popular guys in school join you and your best friend for lunch on the first day of school.

FEATURING / Kim Namjoon; appearances by Jung Hoseok, Park Jimin, Kim Taehyung, and Jeon Jungkook.

GENRES & TAGS / high school au, freshman reader, senior namjoon, student council president namjoon, best friend jungkook, lots of fluff, and some angst.

WARNINGS / Graphic and mature language, slight age difference/gap (to clarify, oc is 14-15 yrs old and namjoon is 17 - first part is rated pg); list will be updated as fic is updated accordingly.

WORD COUNT / ~10.3k

NOTES / I am a day late in posting this and I want to let you guys know that this is... not edited at all and I will be looking through this every now and then to correct any errors. But I hope you enjoy the first part of this series! I wasn’t expecting this to be relatively long, but it was all to set up the characters dynamics and the history behind the reader and Namjoon’s relationship. Any feedback is appreciated. To repeat, I’m so sorry this was super late. Please expect part 2 to be up in ~2 weeks. (´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡

All rights reserved © jeonqukie (formerly known as aiscka). All (or portions) of my work may not be reproduced, redistributed, reclaimed, translated, modified, or used in any way whatsoever without my permission.

“You’re Sena’s little sister, right?”

You’d be a damn millionaire if you made a dollar for every person on campus tried to break the ice with you. It was a severe understatement to say that your older sister was known around town. She was vice president of the student council, president of the debate club, and the best player on the varsity volleyball team. All of the teachers and faculty adored her, every girl wanted to be her, and every guy wanted to be with her.

For the longest time, you assumed your sister was a celebrity on campus.

You were so wrong.

It was because you never met him. You’ve heard his name so many times whenever your sister had sleepovers with her friends or when she was on the phone with a friend, whispering so softly into the receiver, afraid that someone would find out about that she had a crush on him. You were perplexed because you thought your sister was a very forward person; she had so much confidence talking to so many guys who desperately wanted her attention yet somehow her palms would sweat over him.

“Hey, you know who Kim Namjoon is?” You would sit at the cafeteria for the first time with your best friend, Jungkook, who had devoured half of his ham and cheese croissant sandwich. He looks at you and he would raise one brow.

“Oh no, don’t tell me you’re one of those girls who’s obsessed with hyung.” But Jungkook sees the genuine confusion form on your face. You catch a glimpse of your older sister who sat on the other side of the cafeteria, thumbing a reply on her phone while her friend nudges at her when she sees the notorious posse that every girl swoons over.

It was a scene right out of a movie.

At that time, you had the faintest idea who they were, but you were quick to find out why they were so well known around campus. Jung Hoseok was the senior of the group; he was a dancer and was featured in numerous music videos by well-known artists and he had an extensive list of choreographers willing to work with him. Kim Taehyung and Park Jimin were inseparable; they were juniors who ran the school newspaper and the school yearbook – Taehyung being in charge of the photography while Jimin being in charge of the organizing the yearbook staff. Meanwhile, there was Kim Namjoon; student council president, valedictorian of his class, member of the honor society and numerous organizations on campus.

“Wait, you know who Namjoon is?” You were curious whether Jungkook knew of him, not exactly knowing the guy.

“Yeah. I mean, he’s been my next-door neighbor for god knows how long. His folks and mine go out for golfing twice a month.” You just nod to his answer when you are shoving a chocolate moon pie into your mouth.

But your mouth instantly goes dry when the four guys appear right across from you and Jungkook are seated.

“Gukie!” Hoseok exclaimed at the sight of Jungkook still devouring his croissant. “Look at you! Finally, you’re with the hyungs in high school.” The tease made Jungkook’s ears go pink and you feel your own face get hot; not because of second hand embarrassment, but because you can see everyone’s eyes on you – the two freshmen who had no right to be sharing a table with, what you can only assume, the four most popular guys on campus.

There were many times where people would only want to get to know you because of your sister; girls wanted to get close to you because you were had a cool older sister and boys wanted to be with you because they were so eager to come over to your place and obsess over Sena.

Jungkook, on the other hand, had no interest in her. As a matter of fact, you met Jungkook when you were in middle school and took a swimming class and later found out that you two were in the same class and bonded over your competitive nature in swim class.

“Who’s this? You got a girlfriend on your first day already?” You and Jungkook exchange a look of disgust with each other and create a sensible amount of space for each other to establish that you both see each other as friends.

“Oh my god, wait – you’re Sena’s little sister, right?” Hoseok corrected Jimin who had made the assumption you and Jungkook were an item. Jungkook can see the way you scrunch your nose from his periphery, and he decides to answer for you instead.

“This is YN. She’s… literally been my best friend since middle school.” Jungkook introduces you to the four people right across from you. “YN, this is Hoseok – well, I call him Hobi-hyung. This is Jimin-hyung and Tae-hyung. I’m pretty sure you know Namjoon-hyung because –”

“ – school council president.” You interrupt because you didn’t want Jungkook to reveal that you had been inquiring about him earlier. “I remember because you made that welcome speech this morning at the assembly.”

Namjoon is rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment and you resume eating your packed lunch, despite losing all appetite because you are surrounded by so many people did not know. They weren’t terrible people, but you weren’t mentally prepared for such strong personalities and dynamics to be introduced all at once. You felt like an intruder – a fly on the wall – because everyone carried on with their normal conversations; Jungkook and Hoseok were talking about plans for the weekend and then Jimin and Taehyung were already drafting out ideas for the yearbook. Meanwhile, you sat in silence as you ate your tuna salad sandwich, reading a new book you were gifted over the summer by your parents.

“Let me know when you’re done.” A voice catches your attention, and you stop all chewing. “The book, I mean.” Namjoon clarifies and he sees that you are already halfway done with it. “I read it a year ago and I’d like to hear what you think of it.” He offers you a heartwarming smile and you nod once, returning the same grin.

“I started it a week ago. I really like it so far.” The conversation is light and drowned out by the loud voices beside you.

You never really pinned him as a reader.

“So, how’s your first day so far?” He inquires and you honestly thought that the conversation was… over. Normally, that’s how all the conversations go when people find out your Sena’s little sister. They feign their interest in you and instantaneously ask about her.

“It’s… nothing special.” You admit, smoothing your fingers on the pages of the book. “Most of the classes I have before lunch, Guk’s with me. Now –”

“Now, her large, wrinkled brain is going to abandon me and get into those advanced program and honors classes.” You are rolling your eyes at your best friend who whines that you decided not to take the same classes as him.

“We literally have homeroom, social studies, and PE together and then we see each other for breaks and lunch. I think you’ll live.” The group laughs which earns quite a bit of stares from outsiders, but they seem to be completely unfazed by it. Everyone turns back to their own conversations and, usually, your social presence isn’t necessarily sought out by people.

It wasn’t until you hear another inquiry fall out of Namjoon’s mouth.

“What do you have right after lunch?”

“Biology.”

“Honors biology, by the way. Can’t you spare just one regular class for me? Or does your GPA really matter that much to you?” Jungkook complains and you are left ignoring his comments.

If there was one thing that your older sister taught you (something you actually agree with) is that colleges love a good GPA and joining as many clubs as possible. You even remembered how she’d phrase it for you; college admissions officers will cream their pants when you score that 4.0 GPA and do something out of the box from the rest of your peers.

“Or just get smarter, Guk.” Hoseok poked fun at Jungkook, earning a shrug from Jungkook. Namjoon, on the other hand, is smiling from ear to ear at the dynamic between the elder and the youngest of the group.

“Let me see your schedule.” Namjoon urges as he spots your clear binder which has your printed schedule on the cover. You push over your binder to Namjoon who is scanning your binder; he reads through your name, your birth date, the list of teachers you had for the semester and the classes assigned to you.

You feel indifferent about the sudden attention on you, especially from Namjoon; a mere stranger who everyone obsessed over was so piqued by you. You observe the way the corner of his slips curve into an impressive smirk as he glances over at Hoseok.

“Guess who we have for calculus at the end of the day?” He slides over your binder where the rest of the group examine the rest of your schedule, only for Hoseok to find a coinciding class with you.

“How the fuck are you in a senior’s class? Are you some math whiz or something?” Taehyung’s eyes widen at the sight of an advanced calculus class on your schedule. It was one of the things you were proud of you; you were good at math – it happened to be Sena’s worst subject and your parents often joke what she lacked; you had gained immensely.

“Yeah, YN’s cracked, hyung. I don’t understand. I remember in middle school they had to make arrangements for her to get into a pre-caclulus class or some shit like that.” Jungkook finishes his fruit cup and gathers all of the trash on site to toss over to the closest garbage bin.

Namjoon is sliding your binder right back at you, brows raised at you with the same grin he had on. He stares at you for what seemed like a long time – to you, it seemed like a long time and he is glancing back down at where your fingers brush against each other and he pulls away, not wanting to make you feel uncomfortable.

“I – um, saw that you were taking orchestra too.”

You nod and chew on your cheek, self-conscious all of a sudden about your appearance because you are very much aware that Namjoon is examining every aspect of your face.

“Yeah. I mean, I already know how to play the piano, so I might as well learn how to play another instrument, right?”

“No – yeah, you’re right.” He stammers and he folds his hands together only to be interrupted by Jimin tossing over a bag of pretzels at Namjoon.

“Bell’s about to ring. Pretzels was all they had left. We need to head to physics soon.” Taehyung and Jimin are swinging their bags over their shoulders. Hoseok is too busy on his phone, showing Jungkook a video of his new choreography.

Suddenly, you are receiving a plethora of notifications in the depths of your jean pocket. Your fingers unlock your phone only to reveal a series of text messages from your sister.

Sena [12:29]: Did you just spend your entire lunch with Kim Namjoon?

Sena [12:32]: Earth to YN?

Sena [12:39]: GUK IS FRIENDS WITH ALL 4 OF THEM.

Sena [12:41]: You have officially made a fucking impression to this school. I’m so proud of you. You’re sitting with us at lunch tomorrow.

“Guess I’ll see you later, YN.” The bell doesn’t descend you back to reality. Instead, it was his voice that brings you to pack up your things into your bag. “You might want to sit at the back for Mr. Lu’s biology class; he’s a spitter.” Namjoon swings his backpack over his shoulder. “He reuses the same lesson plan every year. If you need any help with them, you know who to look for.”

As you’re swinging your own bag, Namjoon leaves you with a wink as he is exiting the doors of the cafeteria into the school hallways.

Now, you understand why the entire world was obsessed with Kim Namjoon.

“Alright, let’s get started,” Mrs. Kang, your calculus, is a middle-aged woman who didn’t look like she had aged past thirty. You found it incredibly hard to believe the woman was nearly in her mid-forties who had three kids of her own. She looked like a stern woman but had a good heart from what you remembered; she only wanted what was best for the class even though it meant tormenting them with a shit ton of homework. “I don’t need to go over the syllabus with you bunch. As you can see, this is a much smaller class than a regular class because not a lot of people pass this class.”

Silence fills the room from when you had first arrived. You were one of the last few people to find your seat because your class was all the way on the other side of campus. It seemed like everyone in your class were juniors or seniors. There were so many of them who knew each other from previous classes; they were all huddled in their own designated spots in the class, so you sat at the front of the class because all the seats at the back had been taken and it may help that you’re at the front because it’ll force you to pay attention.

“There’s a lot of material to cover and there’s only so much I can do. Since we’ve implemented the new block schedule, we’ll only be seeing each other for an hour and a half every Wednesdays and Fridays. First thirty minutes will be on new material, next thirty minutes will be spent on practice problems, and then the last thirty minutes will be working with your partner on getting your homework started. I’ve figured getting a head start on the homework for the last thirty minutes will be helpful just in case you or your partner are lost, you have me to ask for assistance.”

Someone’s hand raises up in the air out of your periphery.

Mrs. Kang points to them. “Yes, Namjoon?”

“How do we determine who are partners will be?”

“Please tell me we get to pick our partners.” Mrs. Kang is already turning her back to the class as she searches for a box that had been hidden behind her computer monitor only for her shake the contents of the box.

“The last time I gave the students the opportunity to choose who their partner was, I’ve written a disciplinary notice for academic dishonesty twice a week.” Mrs. Kang prefaced, and the room goes silent. As she continues ruffling through folded papers inside the wooden box, you are already aware of how the partner system is going to work.

Everything was going to be randomly assigned.

“We have 26 of you total which means there will be 13 pairs.” Mrs. Kang announces, and she walks around the class starting from the left where the person is picking a folded paper out of the box. Each person who had unfolded their paper sat patiently until Mrs. Kang had completed distributing the paired assignments around the room. She is fetching a pen and paper as she sits on her desk.

“Alright, our first pair is –” Mrs. Kang looks up to see two people raise their hands; it had been Hoseok and a girl with the prettiest bangs named Mimi. Mrs. Kang continued jotting down the pairs until you scanned the number on your own paper; a large 12 inscribed on your already tattered paper.

You hear Mrs. Kang’s voice as she calls out for the twelfth pair and you raise your hand. You don’t see anyone in your periphery raise their hands, so you turn your body around to search for your partner.

Your body turns cold and still, but you can feel your cheeks get warm at the sight of Namjoon seated down at the back with Hoseok with his hands raised, revealing that he had pulled the same number as you. The thumping in your heart is loud and it beats hard as each moment passes.

Both your hands lower and you are trying to turn your attention back to the front of the class where your teacher stood, but you can feel his eyes on you. You remembered scolding yourself, unaware of why you were so nervous and so shocked to be his partner – he saw you nothing more than another classmate; someone to help him with his assignments.

“Perfect! Since we have our pairs, everyone will be sitting next to their partner from now on; I don’t care where it’ll be. I just need you to sit with them, so we’re not scrambling at the last thirty minutes of class to find them.” Mrs. Kang says sternly, clearly not wanting to waste time in this class. “Shall we begin?”

“How do you already have so much shit to do?” Jungkook laid comfortably on your bed, shoving down salt and vinegar potato chips that your parents had bought from the store last weekend. “Do you like never take a break from reading or what?”

“It’s just a really interesting book.” You say as you flip through the next page and bite into an apple.

You two laid on your bed, basking in the afternoon sun. Normally, you two didn’t have this much down time. Last summer, you two volunteered to be camp counselors to lessen the boredom you two would endure. It was either that or spending every goddamn weekend on the golf course with Jungkook’s parents and yours.

“I was thinking of trying out for the track & field team.” Jungkook informs you and you resume reading. “Namjoon-hyung tells me that the team runs right after school and it sounds fun. Events are early though, and we all know I’m not an early riser.”

The mention of Namjoon urged you to reminisce back to your last period that day. Mrs. Kang mentioned that she wasn’t going to let the class immediately sit right next to their homework partner – thank god. You just wouldn’t know what to talk about with him; you don’t really know what to talk about with people because they always somehow led the conversation back to your older sister.

But, at the end of class, he did manage to keep up with you as you hastily packed all your items into the bag before you darted outside of the classroom. You planned on walking home with Jungkook and you two would meet at the front of the school. Namjoon, somehow, caught up to you in time.

He had grabbed your arm and greeted with you with his million-dollar smile. “Hey,” He breathes, and you stop to offer him a meeker and shier smile.

“Hi, what’s up?”

“You’re meeting with Guk?”

You give him a single nod before he hands you two pieces of paper. You’re curious as to what they are, and you see the words parent’s consent form along with the health forms to give to a doctor – for a physical.

“He’ll know what they’re for.” He reassured you and you hold onto the forms. “Thanks for that. I have to go; I have a meeting in five minutes with the student council.”

“I’ll be sure to give it to him. Was there anything else you wanted to tell him?”

He shakes his head, and he starts reversing his steps, clutching onto the straps of his bags. “I – um, I’m really looking forward for calculus – you know, the whole partner thing. I must be really lucky to be partnered with a cracked, math whiz like you.”

Now, you’re blushing because you weren’t really sure if you were supposed to be flattered or offended.

And he read you so well because he is suddenly panicking but he hid it. He stops his reverses, and he takes one step closer to you.

“I’ll see you and Guk at lunch tomorrow, if that’s alright?” He hums; his voice sounded so soft and clear to you – no one can hear a single thing he had said to you, but you heard him bright as day. Suddenly, you feel a grin creep up to your mouth and you nod once. You had regained some of your confidence back and Namjoon can see it. “Cool, well, I’ll see you ‘round, YN.”

“Earth to YN.” Jungkook snaps at you and you pay attention to your friend who is lying next to you. “Did you hear a single thing I said?”

“Sorry ‘bout that. I dozed for a couple minutes.” You admit and he scrunches his brows, dismissing your moment of silence.

“I was asking how it was like to be in a class of seniors.”

“There’s no difference, honestly.” You begin your thought. “It sucks just because I don’t really know anyone, and everyone knows everyone.”

“Yeah, but you have Namjoon-hyung and Hobi-hyung.” Jungkook reassures you. “They’re basically your friends now because we’ll be hanging around them a lot.”

You weren’t sure if you were looking forward to or nervous to be spending a lot more time with the older guys. They made a good first impression on you though; they’ve probably only mentioned your sister’s name once. Granted, it was only thirty minutes spent together, but it was so much better than most of the conversations you’ve had with everybody else.

“That’s true. I have Namjoon as my homework partner, so I’ll… definitely need to get along with him.” You chuckle under your breath as you read through each line without comprehending a single thing. Your mind had been so clouded with the idea of Namjoon and you weren’t sure why.

Jungkook decided not to stay for dinner that evening even though mom made two pans of lasagna to feed a village. However, he did help you and your mother prepare it. Your mom was pretty insistent on it, so you promise that you’d be giving him some leftovers for lunch the next day. Your dad arrived home next; it was a typical evening – he beelined to your mom, planted a kiss on her cheek and patted your back before he hastily moved to the office to continue working. Sena arrived home from school at a later hour than usual before she was already setting the plates on the dining table.

“Alright, Guk, final offer.” Your mother says as she is pulling out two piping pans of lasagna out of the oven.

“No, thanks, Mrs. LN.” He respectfully declines before he is swinging his backpack over his shoulder. “Mom’s expecting me home right about now for dinner. I’ll definitely ask YN to pack me up some leftovers though.”

“Alright.” She waves him a goodbye before you are showing him to the door. “Walk home safely.” She bids him a goodbye softly as she pulls the foils off the pan.

“Pack me an extra serving, please.” Jungkook pleads and you roll your eyes before he already made his way out of the door.

“Honey, dinner’s ready!”

“You did not tell me Jungkook was friends with Namjoon.” Sena settles herself on the dining table and you sit right across from her, waiting for your mom to begin serving everyone a slice of lasagna.

“Quite frankly, I didn’t know Jungkook even knew Namjoon either. I’d say I’m just as surprised as you are, but I really don’t know what the fascination is with Namjoon.” You lied through your teeth as your mom serves herself first (she called dibs on the corner piece) and you decide on getting the smallest piece since you weren’t so hungry that evening.

“Are you talking about Mr. and Mrs. Kim’s son? Is this the same Namjoon we’re talking about right now?” Your mom’s curiosity is evident in her tone, taking small bites out of a side salad she had prepared.

“Yes, and Sena is hopelessly in love with him.” You shove the lettuce into your mouth as you wait for your lasagna serving to cool down momentarily.

“How can you not be in love with him?” She breathes out hastily. Your dad has his brows raised in disbelief; his daughter talking endlessly about her crush.

“He is a nice boy; responsible, kind, gentle, polite, seems to get things done, really cute too.” Your mom lists his never-ending advantages, and you stray away from their eyes because you hate the admit that you find him incredibly cute.

“Can we please talk about something other than this boy?” Your father is already exhausted from listening to you talk about Namjoon and you don’t blame him, really. “How was the first day for you, dear?” He refers to you and you are still chewing on your dinner.

“I have three classes with Guk. I like all of my classes so far; I can already tell calculus is going to be… a lot of work. We have a test every week and we mandatory study sessions after school for the exam to qualify for college credits. Thankfully, I have a partner to work with just in case I don’t understand anything. There’s also –”

“Who’s your partner? Maybe I know them.”

Your silence is defeating, and you look at your dad who is waiting for his answer and you dart your eyes back at Sena who is piecing the puzzle in her head, so she drops her mouth open, gasping at your lack of a response.

“No fucking way!”

“Language, please, Sena.” Your mom scolds.

“I mean, you’ve been in the same classes as him before! I’m sure you’ve been in a group project with him or something. You guys are in the same clubs. I don’t understand why you haven’t asked him out.” You weren’t so sure what motivated you to blurt it all out because your sister was definitely a good catch, but the obsession with him was getting way out of hand.

“That’s ridiculous, YN. I would never ask out a guy. I don’t even know he likes me that way.” Sena is taking small bites out of her dinner and you sigh to yourself, chewing on the inside of your cheek. “If there was only a way for me to find out. It’s not like I have a sister who’s partners with him in a class – oh, she’s also best friends with his next-door neighbor! How convenient.”

She eyes at you where you decide to focus on your meal, but her eyes are pleading and desperate.

“I… am completely eliminating myself from this predicament, Sena. If you want to ask him out for yourself, you should do it. Besides, who wouldn’t like you? You’re amazing.” Your voice is sincere and genuine, and you hope she pushes all of her fears and insecurities to the side to do something about her feelings.

“It would just be so much easier if I knew if he thought I was cute or something.”

“Everyone thinks you’re cute.”

“That’s not the point, YN. Listen, how ‘bout this? You don’t even have to drop my name in there; just ask what his ideal girl is like or something… or let Guk do the work! I’m sure he already knows the answer. Just help a girl out, please, YN.” You sigh defeated because your sister was really good at convincing.

It wasn’t really hard to figure out what type of girl Namjoon was interested in or… if he was interested in girls. All of this was easier said than done and you were going to rely on Jungkook a lot on this.

“I’m not going to prioritize this.” You surrender and she is giddy in her seat.

“YN, you are the best sister anyone could ask for.”

Several weeks have passed since you had last had your conversation with your older sister. You made an emphasis that you weren’t going to prioritize delving into Namjoon’s personal life. You were purely on a calculus homework and best friend’s next door neighbor relationship with him. But you finally get an idea of what Namjoon likes in a girl when he had to leave early for calculus to get pep rally ready for the first football game that Friday.

Unknown [14:34]: It’s Namjoon. Got your number from Guk.

For some reason, you feel your heart leap out of your chest at the text message. You’re still seated in calculus class working on the first few problems of your homework without him. You look up to see that Mrs. Kang is too busy assisting other students confused with the problem. Honestly, you were confused too and were unsure with your methods, but your mind had been too focused on your cellphone the entire time.

Namjoon [14:35]: Should’ve gave you the heads up about this. Sorry about leaving you alone to work. ):

You [14:36]: It’s no big deal. Seems like everyone’s confused, tbh.

Namjoon [14:36]: Fuck, mb. It’s the first game of the night, so I’m kind of required to be here. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.

Namjoon [14:37]: I have some down time after setting up. Maybe we can work on it then?

You [14:37]: Just tell me the time and place, I’ll be there. (:

Namjoon says that he had somebody covering his duties for the student council before the game began. You see him rushing inside a computer lab that remained open for students to use. You had reserved a table at a secluded corner because you wanted to be away from prying eyes. He spots you trying to reread your notes and erase the umpteenth method you had tried for a word problem you were stuck on.

He admires the way your brows knit together; lips pursed as you began redoing your method on a separate piece of paper. He keeps standing, not taking his place on the chair right next to you – too afraid that you would interrupt your flow. You feel a presence right next to you and he nearly gives you a fright and you realize just how tall he is.

“You scared me.” You inform and he chuckles softly at how endearing it was. He takes the seat right next to you where he is already pulling out notebook and pencils from his bag.

“I left my book at my locker. Do you mind if I share your book with you?” You look at your open textbook and nod at once pushing the textbook closer for both of you to see. “Thanks.” He scoots much closer than you had intended and when he strips his hoodie off of him, you can smell his cologne and how good it smelled on him.

You ignore your thoughts and scurry back to the problem you’re on.

“What problem did you end on?” He inquires and you point to the exact word problem you had been staring at for the past thirty minutes in class.

“It’s been bugging me. I didn’t want to ask Mrs. Kang because I wanted to figure it out myself.” You were so stubborn, he thought to himself. You had only completed a total of eight problems when there was so much more to do for the weekend. For some reason, you decided to stay stuck on that problem for god knows how long and Namjoon found it adorable – one of the few attributes he liked about you.

He reads the word problem and begins trying to solve the problem on his own. After several tries, he had figure out what you had done wrong and he so desperately wanted to point it out to you. Just when he was about to open his mouth, you turn to him and shake your head, covering your ears with your hands.

“No. I refuse to let you tell me what you did wrong. I can figure this out myself.” You whisper harshly. Namjoon can’t help but respond with silenced laughter because this is exactly how your homework sessions have been going; just the both of you refusing to let the other correct each other until the other figured it out themselves.

“Can I give you one clue?”

“Nope.” You popped your ‘p’ to accentuate just how persistent you were. You stuck out your lower lip as you examined the word problem again and he looked at the glossiness of your mouth and the softness of your cheeks; how he desperately wanted to lay his own petals right on yours as his fingers crawl to your face.

“So, I have a question.” He starts.

“And I can try to give you an answer depending on what it is.”

“Are… you and Guk by any chance – y’know?” His question is vague, but you definitely know what he is asking you because lots of people were never really used to the idea of a boy and a girl ever being best friends; for some reason, people assume they always end up dating and never talking to each other again.

“God, no. I love him, but I don’t love him like… I’d date him.” Your cheeks were fully flamed, and you weren’t so sure why you were so embarrassed to discuss this with Namjoon. All the times you had to clarify people on your relationship with Jungkook, you were almost disgusted and quick to reassure people that you two were nothing more than friends.

“Well, is there anyone you were willing to date?” Namjoon is pushing the boundaries here and he knows it very well. But he feels like he has gotten to know you well enough in the past few weeks to ask such a question.

“Not that… I know of really.” You try to remain composed when you respond to his question, but you feel his eyes burn into your soul, so you’re doing everything you can to avoid his stare. But Namjoon continues to stare right into you. He really can’t take his eyes off of you. “Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever really experienced what it’s like to be attracted to –” Just when you had mustered the confidence to look at him, he is quite literally staring so deeply into your eyes that it is taking your breath away.

He is making you eat your words right now; you can’t take your eyes off of him.

“You don’t know what it’s like to…?”

“I don’t what it’s like to be attracted to someone.” You sigh softly; your breath fanning him. “On the contrary, I don’t think anyone’s ever really been attracted to me.” A chuckle comes erupting from your mouth, shaking your head. “Fortunately, that’s not really my goal in high school.”

“You don’t know that.” He quips.

“I don’t know what?”

“If someone’s been attracted to you before.” You shake your head in disbelief, chewing on the inside of your cheek knowing fully well that he was doing this because he wanted to seem like a dick for not disagreeing with your self-deprecation.

“Well, what about you?” You pose the question to him. “From what I understand, most girls and guys I pass by swoon every time you pass by.” He is chuckling to himself this time and he is very much aware of his desirability among his classmates. “You have plenty of choices; I’m sure you have the opportunity to date someone you must really like at this very moment.”

“That’s what I’m hoping on. I’m just not quite sure how she feels about me.” You feel like you were unraveling his darkest secrets and you were happy he considered you close enough to reveal who it is or give an inkling to who it is.

“Do I know her by any chance?” You’re hoping that you can narrow down who he is interested in. Because you barely knew anybody, you knew this would be a piece of cake.

“Yes.” He replies simply and he is staring at you. “You know her very well, YN.” He sighs, hoping you would finally understand what he is alluding to.

“Is she in my grade?” You were really hoping that the answer would be no or else you’d be breaking some terrible news to Sena that evening after the football game.

Namjoon nods slowly and he can see how you are not picking up his hints. He sees the slight disappointment in your face for whatever reason. Suddenly, he is perplexed because, in his eyes, he has made it pretty clear who he was interested in from the get-go. Many people should make the assumption, too, considering there was only one person he had his eyes on – only one person he was giving his attention to.

“Is it… that girl in Guk’s class who –”

As you are trying to list out the girls in your class who has interacted with Namjoon, he is in complete disbelief that you have not figured it out at all. How much more clueless could you get? He is sighing now because is frustrated. He admires your persistence when it came to solving difficult word problems in calculus but it’s frustrating when you are unaware of his feelings for you.

Just when is about to confess his feelings for you, you are greeted with another presence calling for both your names.

“So, this is where you two have been.” Jungkook ambles hastily towards your table and you grin from ear to ear when he is taking out his algebra textbook. “YN, one last chance, please. I didn’t pass my last quiz which brought me one letter grade down and my dad’s going to make me quit track & field if I don’t –”

“I told you I’d help you over the weekend, dumbass. I’m busy getting shit done with Namjoon.” You breathe softly before he is hugging you on your side and you grunt at how much stronger he has gotten. “But you’re buying me coffee for a week.”

“Sick.” Jungkook simply replies before he begins unpacking some of his homework. “You excited for the football game, Namjoon-hyung?” Jungkook queries and Namjoon is baffled because the moment is gone. One interruption from his next-door neighbor and the moment’s lost.

“Fuck yeah.” Namjoon replies and he sees that you’ve suddenly lost interest in the subject. You were subconsciously listening on their conversation while you are back to resolving the complicated word problem right in front of you. “Will you two be going to the game?”

“I’ll go, but YN won’t go because she hates crowds and, honestly, she doesn’t know how the game.” You exhale in response to Jungkook’s statements. Namjoon observes that you decide to move onto another problem, wanting to tackle the word problem at a different time. “Everyone you know will practically be there. Why not give it a shot?”

“We usually have half of the bleachers reserved for the student council since we’re in charge of tickets and concessions, so it won’t be that big of a crowd.” Namjoon attempts to entice you with modifications to appease your concerns. “Plus, we’d all get to hang out with each other; no homework, no calculus talk – just… us.”

Jungkook is stunned to see you agree.

The night was a lot more enjoyable than you thought it would be. Namjoon waived off the entrance fee for the game the moment he mentioned that you and Jungkook were volunteers. Taehyung was already on the field taking photographs of the football players and cheerleaders while Jimin took photographs of the students on the bleachers. You even passed by your own sister who was busy with her own group at the entrance entertaining friends, families, and alumni into the bleachers. Meanwhile, Namjoon was overseeing every single aspect of the event; he was mainly at the concessions, not wanting to create so much traffic around it.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” You offer your assistance before he notices that you have your hair all tied up. “I’ve washed my hands if that helps.” Namjoon can’t hide his smile and he offer you a pair of food safe gloves.

“I’m usually one to decline help, but we really need it. Let’s see – Yuqi really needs to go use the bathroom, so you can be in charge of the drinks and chips right now.” You take your station at the drinks and chips stations. It was going faster than you had expected; people ordered too fast or too slow – there was no in between. There were people who were very certain with their order which you appreciated. Then, there were the people who were very fickle with their order and you can’t help but stand awkwardly to wait for them to decide.

“I can’t believe you roped me into helping.” Jungkook grumbles under his breath. “Hey, I didn’t rope you into anything.” You take the five-dollar bill from the student and offer them back their change.

“Yeah, but you made me seem like a real asshole sitting there not helping.” You can’t help but laugh at Jungkook’s pout because you knew just how much he wanted to just spend his time on the bleachers, watching the game with his hyungs. But he was stuck here helping out the student council while most of them were on their bathroom breaks.

“Once someone’s back from their bathroom break, you can go back to your game.” You soothe him and the chaos outside the booth is starting to die down. Less and less people were coming because they’ve all satisfied their craving and the game was building up – it was pretty close, so you understand why Jungkook was in there sulking with you. When you turn to look at Namjoon, hoping to convince him to let Jungkook off the hook, you don’t see him there.

You look out the window to hear your sister’s pretentious giggle. She laughed so differently around him – acted so differently around him. He stood right next to her with the rest of the council members, giving them a big pep talk. She looked at him like he was an angel who fell from heaven. Their conversation ends and the rest of the council members disband except Sena and Namjoon. They are having a personal conversation and you can’t read mouths, but you can’t tear your eyes away from their beaming faces.

“Hey, can I ask you something?” You clear your throat, speaking so softly so only Jungkook can hear you.

“I’m all ears.”

“Does – does Namjoon have a type?” You say out of curiosity. Jungkook raises a brow at you, curious as to what motivated you to ask the question.

“Uh, I don’t know. I’ve never really heard hyung talk about any girls… or his type, to be honest.” He hums and he is staring at you stare at your sister and Namjoon. “Why’d you ask?”

“It’s… for Sena.” It was the truth, but your own curiosity was definitely a motivating factor. “She’s been obsessed with Namjoon since… as long as I can remember.” You breathe out, hoping no one else can eavesdrop on your conversation. “She’s been talking a lot about him more since she found out I knew him, y’know?”

“Huh,” Jungkook leans on the table and folds his arms. “Why doesn’t she just tell him?”

“Apparently, she needs some sort of confirmation that he thinks of her that way too, so she doesn’t make a fool of herself.”

“Why don’t you just ask him then?” Your silence is clearly something Jungkook wasn’t expecting because you never actually considered it once. “He’s a pretty easy-going guy; just ask him and he’ll be honest.”

“We’re not on that level of friendship yet, I guess.”

“Well, I consider you guys close enough to ask that kind of question.”

“Then, he’d just assume I’m being friends with him because my sister was using me.”

“Well, are you?”

“No.”

Your own answer stuns you almost. Just a couple weeks ago, you knew nothing of Namjoon and, suddenly, you are on a level of friendship where you think you can confide him in anything. Perhaps, now, you really understood why everyone obsessed over him; why everyone wanted to be friends with him, why everyone wanted to date him, why everyone just wanted to be noticed by him.

“Then, feel free to ask him yourself.”

You hadn’t really worked up the courage to talk to Namjoon about his dating life. You repeated to yourself that it wasn’t really a priority to delve into what goes on behind the scenes with Namjoon. You were in a consistent state of going to school, doing your homework, reading books, and retraining your body to try out for the swim team next semester. 

But the time came when you got sick for an entire week and missed so much material, especially calculus material.

But you were eternally saved by Namjoon himself.

Namjoon had requested to drop off the homework sheets and printed copies of his notes over to you. Everything was so detailed, and you were impressed with how organized everything seemed to be. You didn’t know what motivated you to reach for your phone on your bed and dial in his number. Maybe you felt like it deserved a personal thanks rather than a typed one.

“YN?” His voice on the other line sounded so surprised and there was so much noise on the other end. “Give me a second.” He excuses before you hear him move to another location, somewhere much quieter.

“How many times do I have to thank you for being an absolute saint?” Your voice sounded so stuffed. The flu was getting to you really bad, but you were recovering well. But he chuckles into the receiver and you are flipping through each page he had printed before you fall onto your bed, sighing blissfully. “I’m serious, Joon. I’ll say it a million times if I have to.”

“You’ve pulled my weight when I was off doing council work so much. I’m sure if I got sick, you’d do the exact same thing. It’s what partners do.” Namjoon is smiling from ear to ear; he was glowing, and no one was there to really witness it. “I – um, did you see my note attached at the back?”

You are now flipping through the pages frantically until you see a handwritten sticky note that read: “We have a quiz on the Monday you come back. I’m free this weekend if you wanted to study with me.” And there was even a little smiley face attached to it and you are experiencing a whirlwind of emotions.

“You have got to be fucking with me.” You can feel the panic starting to bubble in the pits of your belly, but you were trying not to let it show. “You’ve already done so much for me. I can’t rob you of your weekend. It’s just – It’s just too much.”

“I’m happy to do it, Ace. I promise.” The guy deserved everything in the world because he was too generous for the world and you weren’t so sure what you did to deserve such kindness.

“Ace?”

He chuckles embarrassingly into the receiver, chewing on his cheeks. “I – uh, it’s a nickname. I hope you don’t mind.” Suddenly, butterflies erupt from your stomach and there is a glow on your cheeks that you are very much aware of and you are curling into your bed with a shit eating grin on your face.

“I – I like it.” You sigh and Namjoon leans on the wall as he observes the rest of his friends and council members enjoy slices of pizza, taking a well-deserved break from preparing for the pep rally event coming up next week.

“So, is that a yes to a study session this Saturday?”

“Yes.” Your voice is small and hesitant because it feels like you’re doing something wrong when you were just having a quiz session with your calculus partner.

“Great. My place or yours?”

Namjoon insisted on coming over to your place because you were still recovering. Coincidentally, your parents had the weekend trip away with your dad’s work colleague for a wine tasting event. You debated whether you wanted to tell Sena that Namjoon was going to be arriving in an hour, but you soon realize that she was out with her friend’s house for a movie night session.

You had the place all to yourself and you were relieved and frantic all at once.

You busied yourself the entire day to make yourself look decent; brushed hair, brushed teeth, clean face, and fresh clothes. You throw used tissues into trash bins, changed your sheets, and kicked all of your dirty laundry into your hamper that had fallen on the carpeted floors. As you are jogging downstairs, you discover you have no food in the fridge, so you’d probably have to order a pizza or something to share with Namjoon.

Immediately, you question why you are so desperate to make the place and yourself so presentable when this was a mere tutoring session with your calculus partner?

The doorbell ringing prompts you to peek through the peep hole and you see him; he is wearing a regular white t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. He has his hoodie thrown over his shoulder as he begins texting a message on his phone, waiting for you to open the door for him.

When you unlock the front door and open the door for him, you smile timidly at him.

“Hi,” You greet him nervously.

“Hey, Ace.” He waves before he examines how you look. Despite your red nose and tired eyes, he missed seeing your face for a week; he really did. You stood awkwardly fiddling with your fingers and he can sense just how anxious you are, so he decides to tread lightly. “May I come in?”

His tone is so polite which effectively allows you to open the door wider for him to enter. You are nodding and you close the door shut behind him, ensuring that you have locked them. “I – um, I can’t really offer you anything to eat since my parents are out of town, but we can order pizza, if you want. It’s what my sister and I usually do.”

“I’m more than okay with pizza.” He permits and you nod and begin walking to the living room. “Will we be working here?”

“We can work anywhere.” You announce. The conversation is so light, and you hate how quick yet reluctant you are to your responses. “I – I can get you a glass of water, if you’d like. I’ll just get my things from upstairs and bring them down to the living room.” You inform him and he nods as he is making himself comfortable on the couch.

You are scurrying off upstairs to go get your materials and catching your breath because you think you were holding your breath the entire time. You’re stalling because you’re making a check list of every single thing you need for downstairs to avoid seeing him or talking with him. Just when you are about to exit, you see him at the bottom of the stairs. He is examining each family portrait on the wall.

Your face is hot because you can only imagine how terrible you looked like a child, so you jog downstairs with your study materials to gain his attention. “I never really realized how much Sena looks like your dad.” Namjoon comments and you stop in your tracks, only to examine the portrait he is looking at. “Exact same nose and smile.”

You purse your lips into a thin line because you are reminded once again that he is probably only interested in getting to know Sena – there was always that possibility. You were so familiar with this feeling of discussing your sister with other people because – yes, she is absolutely beautiful and intelligent and there was no denying it.

“But you are like your mother.” He comments as he takes a closer look at your mom who seems to be so much more youthful. “The way she’s smiling here looks so much like the way you smile.” He describes and you allow him to explain more by staying silent. “When you smile, your nose kind of crinkles and the corners of your eyes creases and your dimples are a lot more –”

Your throat seizes because you’re flattered and aware that he has perfectly examined your appearance and all the features in what he sees. He grows silent and he is chuckling nervously, scratching the back of his hand to distract himself.

“Sorry that was… super random.” Namjoon clears his throat, and you are shaking your head before you point towards the living room.

“I – I’m ready now.”

Now, you’re desperately hoping Sena doesn’t come home too early from her friend’s house.

Hours have passed since Namjoon have gotten you caught up with all of the materials and have assisted you through last week’s homework sheets. Namjoon was impressed with how you can keep up despite your recovering condition. One minute, you were sneezing and wiping your nose clean and, the next minute, you have your lips pursed and brows furrowed as you are writing equations down on a separate piece of paper.

“I got a question for you.” Namjoon begins and you are still too busy piecing everything together for a specific word problem you wanted to master.

“Shoot.”

“Are you always this focused?” You are typing things into a calculator before you are erasing things on your paper and you turn to look at him, showing him the calculator.

“Is this the right answer?” You ignore his question for a moment.

He nods and you grin at him before you proceed onto the next word problem.

“If I’m a week’s worth of lessons behind, yes, I’m focused all the time.” Namjoon is shaking his head and he is in awe at how you are so quick at writing all the information; he notices how neat your handwriting is too. Namjoon checks his watch and realizes just how late it has been and he clears his throat as he looks out the window to see the sun has gone completely down.

“Will your sister be coming home tonight?” Namjoon notices that you stop writing – you stop solving the word problem that you are tackling because you, suddenly, realize that he is asking about your sister.

“She’s probably still at a friend’s house or something.” He senses the atmosphere has changed and you shift your mind back to the practice problem right in front of you. “Why do you ask?”

“No reason – well, I honestly thought she should be taking care of her recovering sister.” You snicker at his statement.

“She’s a great sister, but she’s not that great.” You quip, biting your tongue at how ridiculous he sounded. “I think we can all agree that she’s smart, charismatic, and ambitious. I will admit she’s a really considerate sister too, but she thinks caring for her ill sister is a parents’ job – not hers.”

“Okay, okay, I get it she’s amazing but not… amazing.” He raises his hands to surrender and his words coming out of his mouth urged you to inquire about his relationship with her.

“If you think she’s amazing, why don’t you date her?” The words came spilling out of your mouth uncontrollably. Maybe it was the meds, you thought. You see the grin disappear from Namjoon’s face into utter confusion and he tilts his head for further clarification. “What I mean is that… you’ve known her and worked with her for so long and she’s a great girl – I’m obviously really biased considering she’s my sister, but you two would make a… great couple.”

You didn’t believe that you were talking about this to Namjoon. You didn’t think you would have the guts to discuss this with him, but the opportunity came up and you took it. But you are faced with such an unfamiliar emotion. True discomfort arises at the pit of your stomach as Namjoon’s brows furrow together and he is shaking his head with the same boyish grin he always flaunted to the world.

“Ace, she’s great, but I… honestly see her as a friend.” He isn’t so sure how many times he’s reiterated those words before. Because little did you know, so many people have asked the exact same thing. Peers and colleagues in their class were very much aware of Sena’s not so little crush on Namjoon for quite some time.

“Well, I mean, isn’t that how all relationships really start? Becoming friends and then possibly developing feelings for each other? Most people always see each other as friends until one of them is aware of the others’ feelings, right?” Your tone was so quizzical. You were treating this conversation like it required rationale and logical reasoning to tackle the issue at hand.

But this wasn’t a problem the mind can solve.

“That’s the usual circumstance, yes.” He admits and he sees that you resume back to the worksheet. “But I’ve known Sena’s had a thing for me and, quite frankly, I’ve been interested in someone else for a while, remember?”

“Someone far more interesting than Sena?” You are in disbelief. You are trying to eliminate other people in school who is on the same social standing as your older sister. “That’s… not possible.” You breathe.

“You’re wrong.” You stop writing because you are retracing your steps on the word problem you are solving. He finds it so endearing how you can’t seem to understand that he is utterly into you, but you are so lost in numbers.

“No, don’t tell me, Joon. I’ve told you this hundreds of times –” You lift your head to look at him to accentuate your reminder; you didn’t want to know what you wrong, you wanted to solve the problem yourself unless you demanded the assistance yourself.

Normally, Namjoon would comply with your request. It was so rare for him to point out your mistake, but he figured this was the perfect time to do so.

“You’re so stubborn.” He breathes before he dives in.

You don’t complete your sentence. Because when you turn your head to look at him with pleading eyes, you are met with his pillowy petals on yours. Your cheeks heat instantaneously, and you can feel your heart leap from your chest.

His kisses were soft and slow. You don’t realize that he has already cupped your cheeks. You’ve never kissed anyone ever before but, for some reason, it was like you knew how to move your mouth against his. He was gentle but there was a certain control he possessed. You pull away momentarily to breathe and, suddenly, you feel the heat of his tongue swipe on your lower lip. A shuddered whimper leaves your mouth before you are regrettably pulling away from addiction.

“N – no, that’s not possible.” You’re still in denial from the events that occurred. “Sena – she’d be so… betrayed if she –” Your brain is glitching and it didn’t help that you can taste the mint of his lips on yours.

“Listen, Ace, for one moment stop thinking about Sena and answer me honestly.” Namjoon positions his body to look straight onto you. “Do you feel the same way I do or not?”

“I don’t – I don’t know.” You shrug before avoiding his eyes. “I – I shouldn’t like you.” You sigh defeated and you are covering your face. You were ashamed not because you like him, but because you didn’t understand what you were really feeling, and you didn’t understand what you wanted to do. “Why – why do you like me?”

“You’re hardworking and incredibly intelligent.”

“I know plenty of other girls who are… exactly the same.”

“Your tastes in book are impeccable. You’re selfless to a degree that I can’t quite comprehend. You keep to yourself, but when you speak your mind, it leaves a lasting impression. Listen, YN, I can keep going, but you can’t… keep doubting my feelings for you.” Namjoon justifies and it was a tough pill to swallow.

You were too stunned to say anything. Too many emotions flooding your brain and it took too long for it to process, so you remained expressionless. Namjoon found it incredibly difficult for him to read your face.

“Ace, it’s really hard to tell how you’re feeling right now.” He points out and you understand just how awkward you sat there; head spinning with so many things to say but very little coming out of your mouth.

“I – I don’t know what you want me to say.” You admit. “I’m not sure what you’re expecting out of me with a confession like this. If I don’t feel the same way, what would’ve happened? If I do feel the same way, what – what was I supposed to do?”

“Well, for starters, do you actually feel the same way as I do?”

“I – I do.” You croak to respond to his inquiry. “I – I don’t think I’ve ever admitted that to myself either, but… I think I like you.”

A wave of relief washed over Namjoon, but there’s a bit of relief for you too. It’s out in the open now, and you know that there’s nothing really you can do about it. There’s a very content grin plastered right across his handsome face, but it slowly transforms into a frown as he realizes that, despite your feelings for each other, nothing will change between the both of you.

“Namjoon, we can’t be anything more than friends.” You realize the unfortunate circumstances the both of you were in. “It’s not fair to my sister. I don’t think it’s very fair to make me choose between you and my sister. I – I don’t think it’s very fair that… you’re in this position.”

Your heart swelled just moments ago, and you can feel it crumble into pieces as the words come spilling out of your lips.

“I understand.” He agrees softly and you perk up at his acquiescence. “I’m not going to force you to be in that position, Ace.” The reassurance softens your tense form, and his fingers cradle your chin, lifting up to be at eye level with you.

“But when you’re ready to reconsider... us, I’ll be waiting.”

↪ Please stay tuned for the next part!

[orbitariums]

34+35 | harry potter x black reader

hey y’all! as we know, there is a shortage of black reader harry potter fics, and i’m here to help fix that. here’s my second harry potter x black reader oneshot! i wrote one on christmas for fred weasley, and another will be coming with neville longbottom and a black slytherin reader! enjoy!!!

warnings: none, except 1 crude joke

word count: 2k

     The Gryffindor common room was buzzing with chatter and livelihood. Everyone was up late, too excited to sleep due to the fact that tomorrow was the next Dumbledore’s Army lesson with Harry and the rest of them. They had only been meeting for a very short period of time, and already had made so much progress. Winter was settling in, and the common room smelled of warm hot chocolate and peppermint treats. The fire crackled in the background, once in a while changing colors from the charm the Weasley twins had cast on it. You were sitting on top of a table in a corner of the room with your friends, your legs swinging back and forth above the ground. Although your discussion with your friends was scintillating, you were far more interested in the boy across the room, who was huddled in a tight circle with the usual people— Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.

      “You gonna keep staring at Potter or are you going to say something?” joked your friend Mariah, earning a playful glare from you. 

     “Oh shut up,” you chuckled to yourself. “You know I’ve got no problem talking to that boy.”

     “Oh, believe me, we know,” retorted your other friend, Kit. 

It was safe to say you were very interested in Harry Potter, and had been for a while now. And you weren’t shy, either. You talked to him when you could, tried to show interest. Except, it was unclear whether or not he was getting the hint. You’d work until you knew he did, and knew that he wanted you too. 

     You stuck out your tongue at your teasing friends as you leapt off the table, heading over to Potter and his friends, glancing back at your friend group mischievously, a smirk etched on your lips. You reached Harry, who only looked up at you once you started talking.

     “Hey Harry,” you grinned, your eyes twinkling. 

     “Hello,” he smiled back, offering a simple wave in your direction. 

     “Hey Hermione, Ron,” you nodded at the others, so as not to be rude. They greeted you back, and then you pivoted on your heels so you were only facing Harry, placing all your attention on him. “Can’t wait for tomorrow. You have no idea what a lifesaver this has been from ‘Umbitch.’”

You earned a chuckle from Harry, and you giggled as well.

     “‘Umbitch’, I like that. Really, it was Hermione’s idea, I can’t take all the credit. But thank you,” Harry replied modestly, although he couldn’t deny the way his cheeks started to slowly heat up from your compliment.

     “I know, you’re all amazing,” you grinned. “But you’re really amazing at what you do, Harry, don’t forget that, okay?”

Harry chuckled nervously, ducking his head down and running his hands through his tousled, black hair, stammering,

     “Yeah, I-I won’t.”

You smirked, meeting his gaze for just a moment before smiling softly,

     “See you tomorrow, then?”

     “Yeah… see you,” Harry said wistfully, watching as you gave him a three-fingered wave and bounced away back over to your friends, who all began laughing and looking back at him once you returned to them. 

Harry didn’t realize he’d been staring after you until he was interrupted by the laughter of Ron and Hermione. He snapped his head away and turned to face them, his lips open in an o-shape.

     “Honestly, mate,” Ron chuckled, shaking his head. 

     “Don’t you know she likes you?” Hermione said matter-of-factly.

     “Oh, yeah,” Harry shook his head quickly, shrugging. “Me and YN, we’re… we’re friends. I think… I hope…”

He glanced over his shoulder at you, blushing when you caught him looking and just smiled at him with a shake of your head, then looking away. 

     “No, you idiot. I mean she likes you,” Hermione whacked Harry on the head with her book, trying to knock some sense into the clueless boy, who wasn’t very apt at love after all. “As in, she finds you attractive, she wants to be with you.”

     Harry’s blush went even deeper, his cheeks darkening to a rich red. He honestly hadn’t thought of it at all, he just thought you were being nice. Then again, Harry could never tell when someone liked him. Hermione had always been the one to point out the way girls stared longingly at Harry from the back tables in Potions class or otherwise. But when it came to you, it was different. It felt like more than an ego boost, because somehow, Harry knew that he liked you too. You were utterly gorgeous, smart, and there was an air of confidence about you that was missing from most of the other girls who’d liked him. You weren’t afraid to talk to him, and you knew exactly how to make the butterflies in Harry’s stomach swarm. 

     “She likes me?” Harry repeated, amazed, glancing over his shoulder at you again.

Once again Hermione knocked Harry on the head with her book, chiding him,

     “Don’t keep looking at her like a creep!”

     “Alright, alright,” Harry complained, rubbing his head. “Ow.”

     “You really didn’t know, mate?” Ron asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

Harry shrugged, though he couldn’t get rid of the way that his whole body seemed to be tingling with excitement. If this really was true…

     “No. Why- why does she even…? How d’you even know?”

Hermione chuckled and rolled her eyes,

     “Anyone could see the way she looks at you.”

     “Honestly. It’s like you’re a tall glass of water and she’s been in the desert for days,” Ron added, only making Harry blush even more, if that were even possible.

Hermione glared at Ron, shaking her head,

     “Look, all we’re saying is, she likes you. And, honestly, you’re lucky she even looks at you.”

     “Hey,” Harry frowned, and Hermione shrugged,

     “It’s true. She’s incredibly smart, and she’s out of your league.”

     “Ouch, Hermione,” Harry pressed a hand to his heart.

     “No offense, mate, it’s just true. But don’t worry, she still wants to thirty four plus thirty five with you,” Ron smirked, laughing at his own joke.

     “Ronald!” Hermione whacked Ron this time, except on the arm, but he only guffawed. 

     “What’s that mean?” Harry asked in confusion, furrowing his eyebrows. 

| | |

     The Room of Requirement was bustling once again with excited witches and wizards ready to learn. You pulled up with your friend group from last night, and they were on your ass about talking to Harry again today. You shoved them away playfully, already knowing you would have him wrapped around your finger soon, if you didn’t already. 

     “Welcome, everyone!” Harry said cheerily, glancing all around the room at all the bright faces in front of him, lingering especially on yours. He looked away as if breaking out of a trance, smiling nervously. “Today, we’re going to be continuing practicing our stunning spells, and after that, we’ll be moving on to counter-spells. Thanks everyone for continuing to show up, we’re really doing great, I’m proud of you all.”

     Harry was met with uproarious applause that made him, Ron and Hermione laugh and smile. Soon enough, things were getting started, and you were all lined up in front of the target dummies, each of you practicing your wand movements to stupefy the target, which was enchanted to move towards you. If you failed, it would knock you off your feet. 

Harry was monitoring everyone, walking around and helping people out wherever he saw fit. He got to you, and swallowed hard as he approached you from behind. You could feel his touch on your shoulder, his cold hands brushing against the bare skin on your neck slightly.

     “It-it’s more like… this,” Harry said quietly from behind you as he placed another hand on your forearm and bent it slightly to a better position. 

You glanced over your shoulder at Harry, your eyes locking on one another’s. Harry looked awestruck, his eyes slightly wide and his lips slightly parted as he anticipated your response. You could feel the way he was waiting, gazing at you almost hopefully, wanting you just as much as you wanted him. Your eyes flickered up and down his face as you smirked just a bit, then offered him a smile. You turned your head back to the target, which was getting closer to you. He backed away and you performed the spell perfectly, on account of his assistance of course.

     “Good,” Harry let go of a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. 

     “Thanks,” you grinned knowingly. 

     From that moment on, you and Harry kept sharing glances for the rest of the session, not without interruption from your respective friend groups tittering about your obvious crushes on each other. The class slowly dwindled to an end, to the dismay of the many students, who were already looking forward to the next lesson. Harry said his farewell to everyone and thanked them all again, and everyone began to filter out of the room. 

You stayed behind though, lingering by the door. Hermione and Ron made their way out, saying goodbye to Harry and then to you, sharing a knowing glance. 

     “Harry,” you said, causing him to look at you. He hadn’t noticed you had stayed behind until then. 

He smiled, already getting nervous again,

     “Hey, hi, I mean… hello.”

You chuckled to yourself, folding your arms,

     “Hello.”

Harry cleared his throat, trying to get himself together and not look like such an idiot in front of you, as he was sure he did every single time,

     “Er… you- you did great today.”

You moved closer to him so you were standing in front of him, still smiling sweetly,

     “All thanks to you.”

     “Oh, I-” Harry shook his head bashfully, looking down at the floor. “No…”

     “Seriously, Harry. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Harry laughed nervously, keenly avoiding a snort,

     “Really, you’re… brilliant, already. I just… what am I?”

     “A talented, brave boy is what you are,” you replied. You thought for a moment, cocking your head to the side. “Would you mind… just showing me again— what you did last time to fix my posture? I think I could really use it one more time.”

Harry glanced up at you in surprise, blinking a few times,

     “Oh, yeah, of-of course. Erm.”

You turned around, facing the nearest target, and putting your wand at the ready. Harry was more nervous than the last time as he got behind you, inching his hands slowly towards your shoulders and your arm, shuffling in a bit closer until your bodies nearly brushed against one another’s, getting a whiff of your vanilla scent. 

     “You just, um,” Harry sighed out, distracted by everything. 

You turned suddenly so you were facing Harry, not even inches away from him. His whole body went warm, and you could see the way he was looking at you, waiting for you to make the move. 

      “You see… it’s more like this,” you repeated his words from earlier, only you weren’t showing him how to cast a spell, you were leaning into him. 

    And he was leaning in too, closer and closer until your lips touched. You could feel his breath against your skin, and he yours, as your lips connected and you were kissing. You were kissing like it was the only thing you knew how to do, the only thing you wanted to do. And for the both of you, you’d wanted it for a long time. Harry was just shit at picking up on hints. You had to quite literally show him. You pulled away, making eye contact with him and giving him a gentle smile. 

     Harry was still in shock, nearly immobile. He’d wanted this of course, but the shock stemmed from his disbelief that you could ever want him like this, too. How? When you were so beautiful and popular and self-assured, and Harry was a nervous wreck compared to you? Although he supposed now, all that didn’t matter. He had you now, and that was all he cared about.

     “Do you get it now?” you asked quietly.

Harry swallowed, his eyes darting from your lips to your eyes, 

     “Yeah.”

      “Good,” you grinned, and leaned in again.

[talesofstyles]

Mess Is Mine II

Hello, hello! I’m back again with the promised Mess Is Mine part 2! This baby is quite long (nearly 10k!) but it’s probably one of my favourite fics that I’ve ever written. This doesn’t have actual smut yet (I’m planning allllll the good stuff for part 3 so watch out for that one! These four @theasstour @always-jackedup @waitingfortwilight and @all-things-fic know what I’m talking about *insert those moons emoji*) but it’s not technically kid-friendly either towards the end so read at your own risk. Hope you like it! 

Part I

Harry remembers.

The other day, when he took Anya for a play date with YN and her kids at the Heath, she mentioned that she always pick her kids up from school every Tuesday (her ex-husband every Thursday, and other days an Italian student she hired as an after school nanny who also teaches the kids some Italian—Harry managed to get the agency’s website and number from YN in case he needs to hire someone for Anya too when she starts nursery later in January). After school, YN always takes the kids straight away to Kensington Garden because the kids are obsessed with the playground.

And it’s Tuesday. Which means that YN will be picking her kids up from school and take them to the playground before going home. There is absolutely no reason for Harry to go that far down there because the playgrounds around his home are perfectly fine if he wants to take Anya to get her wiggles out before her bedtime routines start at 6pm. But he figures he should give it a shot anyway. He doesn’t want to arrange another play date just yet because it’s too soon, but knowing that there’s a high chance of him “bumping” into them at the park, he knows he can’t miss it.

He will never admit it to a single living soul, but deep down he’s just as giddy as Anya when he thinks about YN and her children. Ever since they came home from the playdate at the Heath the other day, the two of them have been talking about it non stop. Their daily conversation revolves around how funny Pippa was, how fast Finn could climb and how nice was YN. He doesn’t know why they’re feeling that way exactly. Maybe it’s the excitement of having new friends? And not just for Anya but for him too? Maybe. Maybe he likes talking to YN because they have something in common? None of Harry’s friends is a single parent (well he’s got some single dad friends but usually their kids live with their mums so it’s not quite the same) besides his own mum so he doesn’t get to talk about it to someone who truly understands the joy, the misery, the ups and downs as often. Or maybe it’s because when they’re around YN and her kids, he kind of gets a glimpse of how life is with a proper family? Nobody knows exactly.

Anya is two and a half, and if you ask Harry he’ll swear it’s the best age ever. It’s his absolute favourite stage. He says that at every stage but he just can’t help it, it just keeps getting better. For now, it’s the funny, most random questions throughout the day that Harry can’t get enough. Like the other day when she asked, “is the baby wearing a swimsuit?” when Michal explained to her that the baby in Gemma’s tummy is just swimming around in there for now. Or when he managed to get her to sit on the big potty and she asked where her pee went after she flushed it.

It’s questions like these that make Harry pause throughout the day and think about how crazy it must be just starting to figure out the world, spending your days pondering life’s great mysteries like why the milk spills when you knock over the cup, why running around naked feels exhilarating and why you can’t eat just ketchup for lunch.

When Anya was about to turn two, Harry was semi-terrified. Two-year-olds usually get a bad rap and there’s this thing called terrible twos that everyone seems to be obsessed with reminding him whenever he tells them about his daughter’s age. People say they have almost zero impulse control, their brains seem to think their bodies are far more capable than they actually are (and as Harry watches Anya try to button her own pyjama top, he realises they were not joking), they cry over spilt milk (literally) during breakfast and don’t you DARE not cutting their sandwiches right. But in between these moments of chaos and complete madness, Harry realises that she becomes his baby again just like that and want him to kiss her ouchie finger and rock her to sleep and it instantly makes up for all the other stuff. It’s like all day long they’re doing this delicate dance of wanting to fight for their independence but at the same time she still needs him oh so desperately and he’s just along for the ride.

Most days Harry spend half the day wondering where the hell did his baby go and when did she get so big and the other half sniffing her little head because it still smells like a baby. He’s amazed at the person Anya is becoming, mostly because he recognises parts of himself in her. Two and a half is that perfect short-lived stage between a baby and a proper child and Harry wants to wallow in the in-between as long as he could.

None of Harry’s friends has a child around Anya’s age and she doesn’t go to the nursery just yet so she didn’t have any friends before she met Pippa. That’s why Harry is so glad to see his daughter interact with kids around her age. Ever since she was born, he’s been so protective over her and he could count only with his fingers on one hand how many times he’s taken her to a playground, so he’s definitely lying if he says he’s not nervous now.

It’s in the middle of the week so Kensington Garden isn’t that crowded. And it’s after school so there are kids on the playground but not as many because it’s a bit chilly too. When Harry gets there, there are only about five other children playing around and Anya immediately runs towards the big pirate ship and Harry trails behind her as she walks through the wobbly bridge towards the ship. 

Anya can’t stop giggling as Harry pretends to be the naughty crocodile and go around the ship to “scare” her. They’re both so into the pretend-play that Harry doesn’t even notice who just enter the gated area. 

“Harry?” YN says, sounding more like a question as she walks towards the big pirate ship. She has been taking the kids to that playground for years and not once she had ever seen Harry in there before.

Hearing her voice, Harry immediately turns around to see her. “Oh, YN, hi!” He smiles and walks towards her, arms reaching out for a quick greeting hug. “You alright?”

“Yeah, you?” YN nods, smiling back at him. “Where’s Anya?”

“On the ship. Go get her!” He tells Pippa and Finn and they immediately climb onto the ship.

The kids are surprised to see each other again quite so soon, and they’re over the moon. It truly is amazing to see how quick their friendship blooms. YN and Harry watch them closely as they make simple conversation about their children. It’s not that they can’t think of any other topics, but it’s just when you have kids, they became the centre of your world and nothing else matters just as much anymore. 

There’s a little cafe not far from Kensington High Street that YN frequents quite often. Sometimes just before she heads to work in the morning when they’re late and she doesn’t have the time to brew her own coffee at home. They have a quite wide selection of pastries and YN usually takes the kids there on Tuesday for their after school snacks. Today, she asks Harry if he and Anya want to go with them after the kids played on the playground and of course Harry doesn’t say no.

“Anya, what would you like darling?” YN looks down at Anya as she stares at the bakery display. She takes her kids quite often there, so it doesn’t take them as long to order their favourites.

“Tha’ one, please,” she says, pointing at the rows of eclairs on the display.

“Thank you for saying please,” Harry smiles at her.

Looking up at Harry, Anya smiles back and reaches out both of her arms. “Daddy, up!”

Harry sighs and rolls his eyes playfully before he bends down to pick his little girl up and brings her close to his chest. Anya rests her head on his shoulder instantly, her little hand grips the collar of his shirt and Harry nuzzles her head.

“Harry?” Pippa’s little voice calling him as she turns around and walks towards Harry who’s still holding Anya.

Harry smiles and looks down at her. “Yes, sweetheart?” 

“Can I get a cuddle like Anya please?” Pippa requests innocently, seeing Anya resting her head in the crook of Harry’s neck. Ever since they first met at the studio the other day, the two of them behave pretty much like twins. Anya wants to do what Pippa does and vice versa. Whenever Pippa goes on the slide, Anya trails behind her. Whenever Anya hops on the swing, Pippa wants to as well. So it makes sense when she sees her friend being cuddled, she wants to be held as well.

YN turns around abruptly when she hears Pippa’s request. Her cheeks flush from embarrassment as she scolds her daughter gently, shaking her head. “Pippa.”

“Of course!” Harry answers happily, ignoring YN. His face beams as he crouches down to pick the little girl up before YN can stop him.

“Harry, you don’t have to- Pippa, darlin’, come with mummy. Harry can’t hold both of you, that’s too heavy,” YN reaches her arms out to take the three year old from Harry’s right arm.

But the little girl shakes her head boldly. “No, mummy. I wanna be with Anya!”

“S’alright, love,” Harry grins at YN and she looks down to hide the smile that’s creeping onto her face at the mention of the pet name. “M’a big lad. I can surely hold two little girls, can’t I? Weighs like cotton, both of ya.”

YN rolls her eyes and the kids giggle, before returning to the till. There aren’t that many people queueing but there are at least two other people before it’s their turn. “You can just go and find us a table.”

“No, I’ll get this,” Harry insists.

“Just go, I’ll get this. You can’t even get your wallet because you’ve got your hands full, literally,” she chuckles. “You can get your turn next time.”

Harry smirks. “Oh, so there’ll be next time then?”

“Unless you’ve had enough of me and my circus troupe,” YN shrugs playfully and Harry bursts out laughing.

“Never, darlin’.”

***

Harry and YN arranged another playdate for the weekend when they “bumped into” each other at the park the other day. They thought it would be nice for them to take the kids to Windsor Great Park to walk around and get some fresh air, and maybe even see the horses and the guards marching down to Windsor Castle.

James has to work on Saturday so they agreed to switch the day; YN gets the kids on Saturday and James will have them on Sunday then take them to school on Monday morning. After James moved out of their home nearly two years ago, he decided to get a flat not far from their home so he could still see the kids all the time and so far it works perfectly. Although separation is never easy, the fact that they’re civil towards each other surely helps. Of course, they went through a period of time where they couldn’t even face each other, but they know that they have two small children and they need to raise them together.

Luckily Harry is free on Saturday as well so they can still stick to their plan, and even better because they’ve got higher chance to make it in time before the changing of the guards begins. The ceremony is much smaller than the one in Buckingham Palace so they don’t need to worry about the crowd. 

It’s 9am, Finn and Pippa are still eating their breakfast when Harry and Anya show up at their home to pick them up so they can go together. The kids are beyond excited and run to the front door to greet Harry and Anya before dragging them to the kitchen right away.

“Would you like something to eat before we go?” YN asks Harry as he steps into the kitchen. “Or something to drink? Coffee?”

“Coffee would be nice,” Harry smiles at her. “Thank you.”

“How about you, darling?” YN turns to Anya as she pours some coffee from the pot into a cup and hands it to Harry who’s leaning on the kitchen island.

“I want that, please,” she says, pointing at Pippa’s bowl of shreddies and milk. “Like Pippa!”

“Anya, you already had your breakfast at home,” Harry reminds her. “Are you sure you want some?”

The two and a half year old insists. “Yes, daddy! Like Pippa,”

“Okay then.” Harry gives up, taking a sip of his coffee. As he takes a sip of the coffee, his eyes widen and he turns to look at YN. “This is really good. I’m not just saying this because I have to, but this is really good.”

YN grins. “I’ve just got the beans the other day so it’s still fresh, and nothing beats freshly roasted coffee beans.”

“Didn’t know you’re a coffee snob, love,” Harry says teasingly.

“Hey!” YN protests. “I wasn’t like this before. I was perfectly happy with my jar of Nescafé but James always took the piss of them and introduced me to proper coffee. I can’t look back.”

“Nescafé, good Lord,” Harry laughs. “What’s the bean? I can taste a bit of caramel. S’really good.”

“Colombian,” YN answers as she takes a sip of her coffee. “It’s rich, a bit sweet and you’re right, you can taste a bit of caramel.”

“Oh, I don’t think I’ve ever bought this kind before. Definitely gonna get them,” Harry says. “Can you tell me the secret to make a coffee this good?”

YN chuckles. “There’s no secret.”

“Your techniques then. Have you got some fancy brewing methods or something like tha’?”

YN shakes her head, still smiling. “French press, pour-over, brew duration, water temperature; you can refine your brewing methods and techniques all you want, but at the end of the day, the coffee beans you use are going to have the biggest effect on the flavour.”

“Mummy! I’m done,” Pippa announces as she climbs down from the dining chair before taking her bowl to the counter next to the sink. Then she pushes the stool from the corner of the room towards the counter so she can put it in the sink.

“Wow,” Harry smiles at Pippa. “You put it in the sink on your own! You’re such a good girl.”

“M’a big girl,” the little girl smiles sheepishly.

***

It’s raining when they’re in the car, but as soon as they get there, the rain stops and the grey sky turns blue. The girls are mesmerised by the castle when they walk past by it from the car park to the Long Walk. Luckily they get there just in time to see a couple of horses and the guards walking around, although it’s a bit too early for the actual ceremony. But that’s certainly enough to make the kids, all three of them, jumping with excitement. 

They walk through the Long Walk, then when the kids get bored from just walking, Harry and YN combine the game “IT” and hide and seek and run around the grass. The kids can’t get enough and they need a lot of convincing before they end the game and walk again to go for a pub lunch.

The Boatman is Windsor’s only pub on the river at the foot of Windsor Castle, overlooking Eton Bridge. They settle for this one for lunch because they promised the kids before they can see the boats from the floor to ceiling windows, and fortunately there are two boats right in front of the pub because otherwise they’re pretty sure that one of them would throw a fit for the lack of the promised boats.

The kids are happy because they can look at the boats from their seat as they eat. They eat their lunch without a fuss—probably because they’re hungry too after all the walk—and because Harry and YN are feeling like a cool mum and dad, they let the kids get some ice cream afterwards and they lap it up happily as they point and gawk at the boats.

“Daddy, I want some,” Anya says as she tilts her head at the chocolate mousse in front of Harry.

“Here you go,” Harry says as he takes the spoon towards Anya. Then he takes some more of the chocolates before bringing it towards Pippa who’s sitting next to Anya. “Do you want some as well, darlin’?”

Pippa nods and smiles sheepishly before she opens her mouth so Harry can feed her some of his chocolate mousse. “Thank you.”

“Don’t think I forgot about you, mate,” Harry smirks as he takes another spoonful of the chocolate towards Finn and Finn opens his mouth right away. “Is it good?”

He ends up feeding all of his pudding to the kids. The three of them waits patiently for their turn for Harry to feed them, and they giggle every time Harry drives the spoon into their mouths like an aeroplane, fire truck, race car, literally everything they can think of; they can just request and Harry’ll do it with no questions asked.

Seeing how kind and loving Harry is not only to his own daughter but to her children as well, treating the three of them equally and giving them just as much attention gives some sort of hope for YN. Maybe there really is someone out there who will love her children like his own. Maybe one day she can start again.

She hasn’t seen anyone else after she and James were done. Not even one bloody full date—she went on a date twice but she chickened out and went home halfway through the main course. Then she called James and they shagged. And James isn’t much better, he never went on a full date either. Never even took anyone out for dinner, only drinks. And after a few drinks, he usually makes up some sort of emergency and shows up on YN’s door, and they always end up in between their sheets.

A few months after James moved out, he begged YN to take him back. Feeding YN all the things she wished he’d say before all hell broke loose, but it was too late. She’s not the one to give second chances. For her, if he could leave them once, he’ll probably do it again. It took her months to stand back on her feet and she wasn’t going to throw that away for the same guy who made her like that in the first place.

Does YN still love him? Probably yes. At least a little, she won’t lie. But will she take him back? Absolutely not. Does she want to try and love again? Yes, but there’s got to be some perfect guy sent from Heaven for her to even open up just a little.

Harry fancies YN. Kind of. He’ll never admit this to one single living soul though, at least not yet. After Anya came into his life, he has never been on a date. Ever. He thought he had loved someone before, but after he saw Anya for the first time looking like a little pink sausage in a blanket, he doubted that he ever did. He liked some people, sure, but did he ever truly love them? At least one of them? He didn’t.

Anya instantly became Harry’s whole world just like that, and she still is. She’ll forever be. Going on dates and finding new birds seem like a whole different world to him and yes, sure, sometimes he craves that but when he thinks about it thoroughly he always backs down. Because now that there’s Anya, he can’t just think about himself. If he ever has another relationship, there’ll be three people in it; him, Anya and whoever that person is. He needs to find someone who’ll love his daughter like her own. He needs to find someone who’ll accept his whole package. And it’s not easy.

He also knows it could be nothing though. Maybe he doesn’t really fancy YN. Maybe it’s just because he never sees someone who talks to his daughter like she’s one of the sweetest, funniest, smartest, and the best little girls in the whole world. Maybe it’s the fact that YN is a mother and it’s the little things that she does—maybe without even realising—that fascinates Harry. The way that she brushed Anya’s fringe to the side so it wouldn’t cover her eyes when Anya and Pippa were dancing around in front of her. The way that she instantly pulled out some tissues from her handbag to wipe the kids’ faces when their faces were covered with chocolates. The fact that she hugs Anya just as often as she hugs her own children, kissing her cheeks, holding her hand as they walk around. And Anya is glued to her.

“Anya really likes you,” Harry says, looking over to YN in the passenger seat beside him before putting his eyes back on the road before him. The walk really knocks the kids out, and they’re all fast asleep not even five minutes after they got into the car.

YN chuckles. “Nah, she likes Pippa.”

“She does,” Harry lets out a chuckle as well. “But she really does like you. I’ve never seen her warm up to someone as quick.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” she smirks.

“You should.”

“Pippa really likes you as well. Finn, too. Well, Pippa does like you a little bit too much m’afraid,” YN turns to Harry and Harry laughs.

“I really like her too, she’s the life of the party. The thing she says,” Harry shakes his head as he laughs. “How did she come up with those?!”

YN tries to stifle her giggles so she won’t wake the kids up. “I’ve got no idea.”

“Have you got other plans for today?” Harry asks.

YN shakes her head. “No. Why?”

“Should we go somewhere else?” Harry suggests. The tension shifts a little as Harry begins. “Going out today and the other day, it makes me realise that I’m a really shit father. I always get scared that there will be paps around and Anya will be in danger, so I never really take her out. Well, except on holiday somewhere secluded. But that’s only like what, once a year? That’s not enough. She deserves to go out and do fun things kids around her age do. Deserves to be a child.”

“Harry,” YN glances at him. “You are the furthest thing from a shit father, I’ve seen you with Anya. You’re only trying to protect her the way you know how.”

“Thank you,” he smiles at her. “Really. That means a lot.”

“Right. Should we go to V&A? There are usually a lot of fun activities for kids. Last time we went there, the kids were given backpacks called Agent Animal Bag, and they went on an adventure to find animals, explore sounds and textures. T’was really fun.”

“Oh, that sounds great!” Harry says excitedly.

“But it’s Saturday, it’s definitely gonna be crowded. Are you sure you’re comfortable taking Anya there?”

“Screw it. We’re going there.”

***

The kids were over the moon when they woke up and realised that they weren’t going straight home after lunch. Finn and Pippa excitedly showed Anya around the museum and although it was rather crowded, it made it even better because Harry could blend with the crowd. They stayed at the museum until nearly closing time, and Harry agreed when YN asked him if he and Anya would come inside when he dropped YN and the kids at their home afterwards.

“Stay for dinner?” YN asks, sounding more like a suggestion rather than a question, bringing a smile to Harry’s face instantly as he realises that maybe she enjoys his company as much as he enjoys hers.

Harry takes a sip of the tea that YN made for him, purposely holding the cup in front of his mouth even after he takes the sip to make it less obvious that he’s having a hard time trying to keep himself from grinning like an absolute idiot. “I’d love that, but I don’t want you to go to too much trouble for me.”

“S’nothing, really,” she shoots him a smile. “Tha’ a yes?”

“Tha’ a yes,” Harry answers. “But you have to let me help you.”

“Great. You’re on babysitting duty,” YN looks over her shoulder to smirk at Harry before walking towards the cupboard to get some pasta. “Go to the nursery.”

“Nooo,” Harry groans playfully. “I mean here in the kitchen. They’re alright there.”

YN laughs. “I don’t need help. Don’t expect me to cook some fancy shit because I’m a terrible cook.”

“Now you’re just being modest,” Harry disagrees. “What are you making?”

“Chicken and broccoli pasta, don’t laugh,” YN says as she tries to look at Harry seriously but the two of them bursts out laughing merely a few seconds after. “You’re not a vegetarian, are you? Any allergies?”

“Nothing that I know of.” Harry says as he takes another sip of his tea. “Tell me what to do.”

“Just sit there and talk to me,” YN tilts her head to where Harry is sat before she opens the fridge to get some chicken and frozen broccoli. “The chef could use some company.”

“I can do that,” Harry answers, tapping his fingers on the countertop of the kitchen island. “So, how did you and James meet?”

YN rolls her eyes and looks at Harry. “Really? That’s the best question you can come up with?”

Harry laughs. “Sorry, I’m curious. Not often I get to be the other side of this, y’know. You can ask me anything too if you’d like.”

“Oh, is this the grown-up version of truth and dare? Or spin the bottle only without a bottle?”

“More like 20 questions but we can do spin the bottle if you prefer.” Harry shrugs playfully.

This time YN laughs. “Fine. Glasto.”

“Ooh, cool kids,” he comments. “Did you go together? Have mutual friends? How old were you? How did you get together?”

“Goodness you’re full of questions,” YN says as she flips the chicken in the pan. “No we didn’t, didn’t have any mutual friend either. I went with some of my mates, he was with his. He was the only person who noticed that the drunk swaying people to my left kept on accidentally hitting my face with their hippie-wear. Several times he gave me direct eye contact and asked, ‘this is funny, but seriously, are you okay?’ And I just laughed and said I was totally fine. Then he asked for my number. The seven of us—my mates and his—ended up getting along and the following weekend he tried to get the group together but after that proved to be a logistical nightmare, he was like, ‘um, so basically I just wanted to see you.’”

“Aw,” Harry sighs. “How old were you two?”

“I was 19, he was 22. Got married two years later.”

“What?!” Harry nearly spits his tea everywhere. “So you were 21? Bloody hell.”

“Yeah,” YN chuckles. “Then we had Finn about three years later.”

“How long we-“

“Hey! S’my turn,” YN cuts him short. “Is it easy for you to go on dates after you had Anya?”

Harry shakes his head and smiles, “I’ve never been on an actual full date after I had Anya.”

“You joking?” YN looks at him in disbelief.

“No, I swear,” Harry shakes his head again. “I know I need to settle down. Can’t go the way I used to before I had her, y’know what I mean? I want to find the one but I don’t wanna rush things. M’happy with just the two of us.”

YN smiles at him. Before she actually knows him, she doesn’t see Harry Styles as the type to settle down before he’s at least 54, so to hear him confessing in her kitchen that he actually wants to settle down is a bit of a surprise. “I’m sure you’ll find the one.”

“How about you? Are you seeing anyone right now? Do you go on dates?”

This time YN shakes her head. “No. Just like you, I went on a date twice but I always left early. I wasn’t ready yet and I know that I don’t have to force myself so I haven’t tried again.”

Harry is about to open his mouth when Finn walks into the kitchen and walk towards YN. She pulls him for a side hug as she stirs the pasta in the pot and kisses the top of his head. “Y’alright, my love?”

Finn hums. “Mhm.”

“Did you have fun today, Finn?” Harry asks, smiling at the little boy. Finn is shyer than Pippa so Harry needs to work hard to crack him if he wants the little boy to open up to him more. “We did quite a lot, yeah?”

Finn smiles at Harry, his hands still wrapped around YN’s waist. “T’was really fun.”

“What was your favourite thing that we did today?” Harry asks him again. Being with Finn for the whole day kind of gives Harry a glimpse if he were to have a son one day and he absolutely loves it. 

“When we played at the park,” Finn answers. “T’was really fun.”

“Ah, yeah, that was fun,” Harry agrees. “Quite a runner you are, eh. You were really fast, none of us could get you.”

Finn giggles. “Mummy says if I eat my veggies, my legs will get super long and I can run very fast.”

“Your mummy’s right,” Harry nods. “You’re really tall. Must be because all the veggies you ate, huh?”

“Dinner is almost ready,” YN says as she turns off the cooker. “Could you please get the girls and tell them to come down, my love?”

“He’s a really good boy,” Harry comments after Finn nods and disappears to get the girls from the nursery. “You’re so lucky.”

“Thank you,” YN smiles as she grabs a serving bowl from the cupboard. “He’s definitely my easiest kid.”

“They’re both wonderful, your kids,” Harry laughs. “Can I please at least help you set the table?”

“Fine,” YN answers. “The plates are here, there are utensils, everything you need,”

“Okay,” Harry exclaims as he begins taking the things that he’ll need to set up the table. 

It has been a while since the last time YN had a company in the kitchen as she prepares dinner. Sure, James still comes for dinner sometimes before he takes the kids to his place or even in the middle of the week, but of course, now that they’re not together it’s different.

Having Harry in her kitchen, seeing him making his way to the cupboards as if he knows exactly what goes where and saying something funny or laughing really hard at something YN says, YN feels the warm tingling feeling inside her. She tries to brush it off almost immediately. It won’t be appropriate, will it? He is the father of her children’s new friend for fuck’s sake. But as she thinks about it more, well, she is single. So is he. There’s nothing wrong about it, isn’t it?

No, don’t be daft. YN thinks to herself. He is a multimillionaire Hollywood A-List (no, in Harry’s case the A does not stand for arsehole, he is one of the sweetest people she’s ever known). Even with a kid, he can still get whoever he wants. Supermodels, chefs, singers, actresses, musicians, gymnasts, circus performers—okay, we get it—he can have them all. Women throw themselves at him. Younger, hotter, spaghetti-legged women. He’ll never fancy someone like her, not in a million years. This playdate thing is just purely for the kids. Not more. And who’s YN anyway? Just one Notting Hill based pathetic divorcée who still occasionally shags her ex-husband with a boring job at a national television (okay, let’s hope her boss doesn’t read this because she actually loves her job. Mike? In case you read this, YN’s joking, okay? She’s just having a moment right now).

Halfway through dinner, YN thinks she has managed to brush the thought of her and Harry off her mind. That, until Harry grins at her and refreshes her water. Fuck.

“Thanks for dinner, love,” Harry says as he walks to the door, Anya asleep on his chest. “And for everything today. I had a blast.”

“Dinner was nothing,” YN smiles as she trails behind him, walking him to his car. “And thanks for today too.”

“Dinner was absolutely delicious, love,” Harry smiles back at her, his head poking through his car’s door as he buckles his daughter into her car seat. “Will we see you at Kensington Garden again on Tuesday?”

“Most likely,” YN chuckles. “Bye, drive safely.”

“Bye,” Harry waves before he drives away and YN walks back inside. 

It’s half ten when Harry and Anya finally leave, and the kids are already asleep. The three of them fell asleep on the couch in front of the telly in the living room because YN put some film for them to watch together whilst YN and Harry cleaned up the kitchen. When they saw the three sleeping kids in the couch, they couldn’t help but laugh in victory because they knackered them out just enough for them not to fuss about bedtime. Yes, their bedtime routine is out of the window but there was no way in hell they were going to wake them up.

Harry helped YN to carry Finn whilst YN carried Pippa upstairs to their nursery and tucked them into their beds. The sight of Harry kissing her children’s forehead and whispered goodnight in their ears definitely did not help brushing that thought from dinner about them being together off her mind, in fact, her heart is beating even faster every time their hands accidentally brushed together. Or when Harry smiled at her as he closed the nursery’s door behind him. 

Fuck, she says to herself. This is not going to end well.

***

In the span of eight weeks, YN and Harry had arranged twelve playdates. Not that she’s counting or anything (okay, this is a straight old codswallop, she’s totally keeping scores). And that doesn’t count some Tuesdays where Harry and Anya would “bump into” YN and her children at the playground in Kensington Garden.

Kew Gardens, The Zoo, Sky Garden, London Transport Museum, Golders Hill Park, Petersham Nursery in Covent Garden, Discover Children’s Story Centre (this was their favourite and they went there twice), some fancy kids event in Harrods that Harry managed to get them into, The Science Museum, It’s a Kid’s Thing in Earlsfield, Bramley’s Big Adventure and The Idol in Barking, and YN is pretty sure that they have ticked off most of the places to go with kids in London from that article in TimeOut. 

It’s just another Tuesday, and like most Tuesdays, she bumps into Harry and his daughter at the playground again and YN invite them over for dinner. Now, the kids are playing with some puzzles in the living room while Harry helps YN to cook dinner for the five of them. 

“Y’want some?” YN asks Harry as she pours some wine into a glass, and she doesn’t even wait until he responds before she pours some into another glass.

“Thank you,” Harry smiles as he takes the glass. They’ve just put the sausage and white beans casserole in the oven so they’ve got time to just chill and have a chat for the next 35 minutes. And Harry knows if he wants to talk, now’s the time.

Harry hasn’t felt this way for a while. This, whatever it is that he’s been feeling for the past two months, he hasn’t felt it in years. And even then he swore it was never this strong. He’s happy. The happiest he’s ever been. And he thinks he knows why.

The first four weeks after he met YN, he tried to brush his feelings off because come on, it’s YN. It’s the mother of his daughter’s friends. It wouldn’t be appropriate, would it? But then he starts thinking… why? Why wouldn’t it be appropriate? Both of them are single, aren’t they? And if there’s a chance, no matter how small it is that YN may be feeling the same way, he wants to know. He needs to know. He feels bad because he may be putting his daughter’s only friendship on the line, he knows that if YN doesn’t feel the same way then they will definitely grow apart and he’ll have to explain to Anya why don’t they go out with YN and her children anymore. But he doesn’t know how long he can keep it in. YN is bound to know sooner or later anyway.

In the next four weeks, Harry has been trying to find a way to tell her how he feels. Unfortunately, he never got the chance to. Every time, he either chickened out last minute or being interrupted. So now that their dinner is cooking in the oven and their children are playing nicely together in the living room, he knows that it’s now or never.

“So, uh,” Harry finally begins, taking a swig of his Chardonnay. Hoping he’ll find the courage that he needs from the drink. “This might be, um, weird. But, um, shit I haven’t done this in years bear with me,” he laughs nervously.

“What?” YN mimics Harry’s nervous laugh.

“You can absolutely say no. We can just forget it and pretend I never ask you this. I mean, I get it, you may think this is a little bit weird. But, um,” Harry clears his throat before he continues. “Would you like to go and have dinner with me sometime?” 

“Harry, we’re literally making dinner right now,” YN deadpans.

“No!” Harry shakes his head. “I mean, just the two of us, without the kids. It’s a date.”

Out of YN’s possible reactions, this is the last thing Harry initially thought how YN would react. He’d imagined three different scenarios; scenario one would be YN grinning ear to ear and nods frantically as she jumps into Harry’s arms and Harry takes her to the bed—okay that was the one scenario that had the lowest chance to ever happen but a man can dream. Scenario two would be YN sternly saying “absolutely not, Harry” then proceeds to kick Harry and his daughter out of her house. Scenario three would be YN choking on her food when Harry asks her out halfway through dinner and they end up in A&E. 

Harry’s mind is pretty wild.

His eyes widen in surprise when YN giggles. “Thought you’d never ask.”

“What?!” He looks at her, surprised. “So you knew? All this time?”

YN is clearly having fun with this. “Knew what?” She asks nonchalantly.

“You’re gonna make me say it, aren’t ya?” He says, his eyes twinkle in delight. “That I fancy ya?”

YN giggles again, folding her arms. “Well, you weren’t being very subtle but you weren’t straightforward either.”

“Tha’ a yes, then?” Harry grins, taking another slug of his wine.

YN smiles back at him. “That’s a hell yes.”

Harry can’t stop grinning ear to ear. “Can I kiss you?”

“Whoa,” YN lets a little laugh.

“Alright,” he says. “But you’ll let me kiss you after the date, right?”

“Who says I don’t want you to now?”

“So you do?”

“Just shut up and kiss me, Styles.”

***

“Say I am smart,” Harry says, asking Anya to repeat after him.

Growing up, Harry always thought too much of what people think and say about him. Especially early on in his career. That’s why ever since Anya was only nine months old, he has started doing affirmations religiously during bedtime. Harry always says Treat People With Kindness but with his own daughter, in addition to that, he also wants to teach her early from the beginning of her life that she needs to speak to herself with kindness too. Because he knows that when people grow, himself definitely included, they develop a habit of criticising themselves, harming their own self-confidence and lowering their resilience. With the affirmations, he doesn’t need to worry because he knows that a positive belief system has already been created from within his little girl.

“I am smart,” Anya repeats after him, grinning to herself in front of the bathroom mirror. She’s standing on top of the counter and her back is against Harry’s chest.

“I am beautiful,”

“I am beautiful,” she lets out a little chuckle as she repeats after her daddy.

“I am kind,” Harry smiles as he says the words and Anya repeats after him. “I am loved,” he says. “I am strong,” Anya repeats after him and showing him her little muscles, making Harry giggles. “I am brave,”

“Say I’m not better than anyone,” Harry continues. “Nobody’s better than me,” Anya repeats after him and shaking her head as she does. “I work hard.”

“What’s your name?” Harry asks her, wrapping his hands around her little body, hugging her from behind.

“Anya Marigold Styles!” She giggles as Harry tickles her sides a little bit.

“If you fall?” He asks her again.

“I get back up!” She answers proudly.

“M’best girl,” he squeezes her from behind. “Now gimme a kiss.”

He knows maybe it’s still way too soon to be thinking about it, but the thought of maybe giving Anya a mum (and two siblings at once!) really does warm his heart. Don’t get him wrong, he knows he’ll be just fine if it’s just the two of them together forever too. But he doesn’t want her daughter to sit on the playground and looking around at her friends with their mums and dads together and think “why don’t I have that?”

“That’s Roo’s mummy,” Anya says as she points at Kanga. Harry is reading one of her favourite bedtime stories in her bed.

“You’re right,” Harry hums before asking a question he regrets literally the second after. “D’you want to have a mummy?” 

“I have a mummy,” says Anya nonchalantly.

“What?” Harry looks at her in surprise. “Who?”

“YN,” she answers.

“Um,” Harry panics. He swears he never tells Anya that. She comes up with that herself. “Why do you think that?”

“Because she blows my soup when it was too hot, daddy,” she explains. “And she kissed my ouchie finger and give me cuddles. And Pippa calls her mummy.”

“That’s because she’s Pippa’s mummy,” Harry reminds her. “Not yours.” Yet. He says to himself.

“No!” Anya protests. “She’s MY mummy too!”

“Alright, alright, s’time for bed, night night,” he says, leaning down to kiss her forehead. “Daddy loves you so much, alright? Sweet dreams, m’love.”

***

Harry takes Anya to YN’s home so Anya can stay with Finn and Pippa while Harry takes YN out on their first date. Alessandra, YN’s Italian babysitter arrived half an hour earlier before YN and Harry have to leave so Harry could make sure Anya is warming up to her first.

It’s not that Harry never trusts someone to take care of his daughter, he’s got an occasional babysitter back in LA, but it’s the fact that it’s the first time Harry leaves Anya not for work-related things. When he went on that disastrous date, his mum watched Anya so he had nothing to worry about. And he somewhat knew anyway that he would be home early because deep down he wasn’t ready.

Is he ready now? He thinks so. Aside from how Anya is behaving at home with the new sitter she has just met thirty minutes prior, he’s got nothing to worry about in his mind. Of course, he’s still a bit nervous. First dates are always nerve-wracking. But it’s YN and he likes her. And whatever is gonna happen, what matters the most to him is for them to spend some time together and really get to know each other. 

Harry is taking YN to Margot, an Italian restaurant in Covent Garden. As soon as they walk inside, a woman in a grey dress shows them the cosy corner seat by the window that turns out Harry has reserved for them and presents them two large grey folders.

“Would you like to order drinks?”

“Yes please, and food, too,” Harry smiles at her before looking down to scan the menu and looks at YN. “What would you like?”

“Hmm,” YN hums. “I’d like a Negroni please, then the scallops and the tagliolini.”

“A gin and tonic for me,” says Harry afterwards. “Then the scallops as well, and the hake.”

The waitress moves away and Harry pours some water for both of them before taking a sip from his glass. “Y’know, I thought I was gonna be nervous. Well I am, a bit. But this is probably the most relaxed first date I’ve ever been on.”

“We went out for supper a lot of times already,” YN chuckles. “I could probably guess what you were gonna order.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” YN smiles smugly. “I know it was between the hake and monkfish. You wanted the fennel that came with the monkfish but you couldn’t say no to the Sardinian Fregola that came with the hake, so…”

“Wow,” Harry exclaims, impressed. “How’d you know?!”

YN just shrugs, the smug grin hasn’t come off of her face. “I’m just really good at this.”

“Okay, next time we’re definitely playing that game,” Harry says, taking a sip of his water. “I’m probably just as good. I just haven’t tried it yet.”

“Challenge accepted.”

Not long afterwards, the waitress comes with their drinks and a basket of complimentary bread. They both take a sip of their drinks and Harry pulls the bread to the middle of the table. “Bet I can guess your favourite,” he says, looking at the different types of bread in front of him.

“Go ahead,” YN smiles, taking a sip of her drink.

“Focaccia?”

“What?” YN asks, surprised. “How’d you know?”

“You’re not the only one with the talent darling,” he smirks at YN, taking the sourdough so YN can have her favourite. Harry knows this because he remembers that YN always takes the focaccia whenever they’re eating out with the kids. “You look beautiful by the way.”

“Eh, you’re not that bad either,” YN says teasingly. “Okay I’m joking, you look really fit.”

“Really?” Harry smiles smugly. “Thanks, love. S’a new shirt. Bought it just f’you.”

YN chuckles. “Did you, really?”

“Yeah, wanted to impress you,” he says as he refreshes her water. “D’you like it? I remember you told me the other day that you like men in black. Was panic last night when I realised that I didn’t have any black shirt so I bought it this morning on my way to the studio.”

“Oh my God, you shouldn’t have,” YN gives a snort of laughter and hastily stifle it. This is a posh restaurant and people are already looking at them. “Any other shirts would be just fine.”

“Yeah, but it wouldn’t be black would it? Wanna wear black f’you,” he adds.

“That’s really nice of you,” YN grins. “But I don’t believe that you don’t have a single black shirt. Bet you do, you just don’t remember where it is.”

“Okay, I’ll be honest here,” he says, taking another sip of his drink. “I have it but when I tried it-”

“Oh! Didn’t fit?” YN tries to stifle her laughter but she fails miserably.

“Oi! Don’t laugh, s’not nice,” he grumbles playfully. “Av got a bit of a belly now. Body’s not like when I was 21 anymore. Need to hit the gym again soon.”

“Don’t, I like it,” YN shakes her head gently. “Bit squishy.”

“Wanna make sure you’re the hot one between us, aren’t ya?” Harry rolls his eyes and YN let out a giggle. “Oh, I just remembered, before we get carried away I need to ask you something.”

“What is it? You’re scaring me.” YN’s brows snap together.

“No, don’t be, s’nothing,” Harry smiles at her reassuringly. “I just want to make sure that I don’t step on anyone’s toes. Especially James’s. I want to make sure that nothing is really going on between the two of you anymore because I don’t want to be the one that separates a family. I mean you’ve got children together. I really, really—and I can’t stress this enough—really like you but I’m okay to step aside.”

“Harry, I kissed you last night. In my kitchen. Wouldn’t have done it if I was still thinking about getting back together with my ex-husband, would I?” YN explains to him. “There really is nothing going on any more between James and I. When we talk it’s always about the kids or about the progress of our case. Just that. He tried, a few months after he moved out, but I didn’t want to. I don’t want to. I don’t give second chances.”

YN is debating whether or not it’s worth it to come clean to Harry now that she still shagged her ex-husband occasionally after they were separated and up to just until the night before she met Harry, but then she realises that it’s not really his business, is it? At least it wasn’t his business then so clearly he doesn’t need to know. Besides why on earth would she brings up her sex life with her ex on her first date with her new bit?

“Okay, good to know,” Harry says to her. The waitress interrupts them as she brings their scallops to the table and disappears after they both thanked her. “Also, noted.”

YN chuckles. “Write it in capital letters so you won’t forget.”

“Will do,” Harry joins her chuckling. “So, how long were you married?”

YN holds up seven with her fingers as she chews her scallops. “Wow, that’s quite long,” Harry comments before taking a bite of his starter. “Got any marriage tips?” 

“Really, H?” YN rolls her eyes playfully as she brings a napkin to wipe the corners of her lips. “Asking for marriage advice from an almost divorcée?”

YN and Harry arrive at YN’s home five minutes before midnight. When they get back, the kids are all fast asleep in the nursery. Anya is sleeping with Pippa in her bed. As they walk into the house, Alessandra greets them with a smile.

“Hi,” YN greets her. “How was it?”

“Yeah, was everything okay?” Harry adds before he lets out a yawn.

“Everything was good,” she answers. “Anya was a little shy at first but she warms up quickly after you left. They’re all being really good. They finished their dinner and went to bed without a fuss.” 

“Oh, that’s great, thank you,” YN says to her, pulling her phone out from her handbag to get an Uber for her.

“Thank you so much Alessandra,” Harry smiles at her as he digs out some cash from his wallet and he hands it to her.

“Uh,” Alessandra looks down at the cash in her hand. “S’too much.”

“You’ve got one extra kid to take care tonight,” Harry insists. “Also we stayed a little later than we told you.”

“Ah, your ride’s here,” YN says, looking down at her phone and taking bottled water from the fridge quickly before she and Harry walk Alessandra to the door. “Bye, have a good night. See you tomorrow!”

Harry lets out another yawn as they walk back into the kitchen. Stealing a sip of water from the bottle in YN’s hand before he slumps against the cabinet. 

“You’re tired,” YN says. “Wanna stay the night?”

Harry turns to her in astonishment. Sleep is definitely gone from his eyes. “Really? Are you sure?”

“I am,” YN nods. “‘Sides Anya is asleep, don’t wake her up.”

“Okay then,” Harry grins.

“Y’look happy,” YN smiles, walking towards him. Their fingers intertwine as soon as they’re within arm’s reach.

“That’s because I am,” he says before he leans down slowly to press his lips against her forehead. “Y’make me so bloody happy, y’know that?” 

“Isn’t it too early to be that soppy?” YN jokes.

“It’s midnight-“

“No,” YN laughs. “I mean, it’s only our first date.”

“Oh, that,” this time Harry laughs, taking her knuckles near his lips to press a kiss on it. “Don’t care. M’a soppy lad.”

“I had a great time tonight,” YN says, smiling as Harry circles her hands.

Harry’s grin widens. “M’glad. I had a great time too,” he adds. “So, we can do it again soon, then?” 

YN nods. “Definitely.”

Harry responds by taking her chin and pulls her face close to his. As her face comes closer, he can feel his heart beating frantically as if it’s gonna jump out of his body. He knows he’ll never forget how she smells like roses and berries and with just a slight hint of vanilla. He knows he’ll never forget that one second right before he plants his lips against hers, when he just looks at her face and pause and think about how the hell did he get so lucky. He knows he’ll never forget the moment when he finally kisses her again. Right in that very same kitchen. Both of them smiling against each other’s lips. 

The kiss intensifies. It goes deeper with the ticking clock. Harry swipes his tongue along her bottom lip subtly, causing her to part her lips. The kiss is demanding. He is kissing her as if he’s fighting for his life. Maybe it’s the fact that it’s been far too long since he had something like this. Or maybe it’s the fact that he truly likes her, and that to finally be able to kiss her, he can’t really put it down into words how happy and excited he is. 

The kiss is soft, yet hot and breathy. It’s not about them trying to fight for dominance, but more about seeking closeness and intimacy that they’ve been craving for so long. Harry presses one long kiss against her lips before he pulls away, both of them trying to even their breath as they smile at each other.

Taking her hand, Harry begins walking to the living room and sat her down on the couch. She thinks he’s going to sit beside her and they’ll continue their snog session, but he surprises her when he stands up instead and walks towards the back of the couch.

“Where are you going?” YN asks, looking at Harry from her shoulder. 

“M’not going anywhere darlin’,” Harry answers as he stops behind YN. He takes YN’s ponytail into his hand, moving it aside, leaving most of the back of her neck and shoulders exposed to him. He bends down and begins kissing the end of her hairline just above her neck, leaving a trail of little kisses down to her left shoulder, yanking the part above her shoulder from her dress aside. Then the trail of kisses go back up again towards her neck and up just behind her ear, causing her to let out a breathless moan and licks her lips.

This time he opens his mouth, letting his tongue dance around her skin. From the side of her neck, to her jawline, down her back, and the front side of her just above her sternum. Then he sucks gently, the top of her ear, the back of her neck. One of his hands roams around her back and the other squeezing her breasts through her dress. He grabs her hair again and gently pulls it to the side, leaving the other side of her neck open, giving the same amount of attention as he does to the other side earlier.

“Fuck,” YN whimpers. “Harry, s-stop. N-need to take it slow. Can’t rush this.”

“You’re right,” Harry immediately pulls away and stands up straight, trying to catch his breath. “We need to take it slow. I’m sorry.”

“Are you joking? What are you being sorry for? That was-“ YN breathes heavily. “It was- I can’t even. Where did you learn that?!”

Harry laughs at her. “Go get some sleep,” he says as he kisses the top of her head. 

“You’re still staying for the night, right?” 

“If you want me to,” Harry smiles at her.

“I want you to,” YN reassures him.

“Okay,” he nods. “Go upstairs first. I’ll just, uh, need to sort something out.”

YN looks at him confused for a second before something clicks on her mind. Oh. She looks down to confirm her assumption, and she was right. She snorts in laughter. “God, H, you could besiege a castle.” 

“Oi!”

Part III

[tnystrk-exe]

Most Girls

Tony Stark X Reader

Request: @thefantomfandom Could you do a Tony Stark x Reader songfic based on “Most Girls” by P!nk?

AN: Never did a song fic before, I guess this is where we see if I can friend. Sorry it took so long. You’ve been extremely patient with me, thank you.

Sure, getting gifts and doted on were great, but after a while it all felt so empty. What was everything in the world, if there was no emotion behind it? Time and time again, someone came into your life, gave you a couple of things, and expected love to just blossom from those objects. It never did. Eventually you gave up on the idea of love, writing it off as another way of selling crappy Hallmark cards.

  With the closing of that door, you focused on yourself. More specifically the powers you had and how you could use them. Psychokinesis wasn’t much, but hey, if the Avengers could have a man in a can and two spies fighting big baddies. You could take out the little guys on the streets.

  The rise of heroes caused an inflation in crime. If you could help out the people in your neighborhood why not? It felt very selfish to keep these powers to yourself. Of course being a vigilante didn’t exactly have the best pay, so you had to keep your day job. That meant a bunch of excuses and make up to cover up bruises from the night before.

  Now you found yourself walking through town looking for trouble. Tonight would be a longer night since you had the following day off. No rush to go home. It didn’t take long to find three guys cornering at most a 16 year old. You saw one of them reaching into their pocket.

  “What the fuck?” He patted his pocket, “It was here a second ago.”

  “Looking for something?” You asked, casually tossing the knife in your hand. Getting the kid out was priority. So, getting the three men to follow you was the plan. “Here, take it.” You sent the knife back, making it go through his hand.

  “Fucking bitch!” He screamed, “What the hell are you two waiting for? Go get her!”

  If the past seven months had taught you anything, it was how to fight, you could handle those two. Mr. Stabbed still held the kid by the throat, fortunately his body was positioned just well enough that the dumpster you forced his way didn’t hurt the kid.

  “Run!” You instructed, noticing the kid was frozen in fear once the man let go, passed out from the pain. Dumb and dumber ran over, fist ready. “Come on guys we can talk about this,” you taunted, dodging a fist, “Okay, then, no talking.” Taking back the knife from Stabbed’s hand you started to use it. That was until you felt a gun’s muzzle pressed against the back of your head.

  “I leave you three goons alone for ten minutes,” spoke who you assumed was the leader.

  “Hey! This was just a party of three,” you spoke, buying yourself some time and thing a plan through, “You gotta make a reservation and come back later.”

  “Shut the hell up,” he noticed Stabbed passed out pinned to the wall with a dumpster, “You dumb fucks check up on him. I’ll take care of your mess.”

  Finally, you thought of something before the well known sound of Iron Man’s repulsers met your ears and the gun was shot out of the leaders hand. You grabbed the leaders hand, successfully dropping him to the ground, and hurled the dumpster to the other two. Knocking out the leader, you started to walk off.

  “Hey, Skywalker!” Tony called out, “No thank you? You left your dumpster partner behind.”

  “I had it handled,” you answered turning to look at him, “Dumpster there is a solo act, he doesn’t work well with others. It was a one time thing. Very honored.”

  “J, send our coordinates to the police.” Tony walked up to you, “What else can you do?”

  “From what I know, just this,” You made the Iron Man suit walk backward, “Doesn’t work for biological matter. Don’t know what else I can do and I’ve never been curious enough to find out.”

  “How come?”

  “Parents were bible pushers. Their kid does some demonic stuff,” you shrugged, “What is this Stark, recruitment?”

  “It could be, I’ve seen clips of you. Though that’s usually Hawkeye’s schtick.”

  “Not interested.”

  “At least let me help you get a better outfit. You’ve got no protection. What fashion line is that? Jessica Jones meets the Winter Soldier?”

  “See you around, Stark.”

  “Ditto, kid.”

-

  A couple of days later you went back home after a day of work and a night of fighting. You just fell onto your couch, your muscles aching. That man had a goddamn punch to him, but he definitely had it worse than you. Reaching for the remote, you finally noticed a brow paper bag.

  ‘I didn’t make your partner anything. -TS’

  You sat up, of course he snooped and found out who you were. Sighing you looked through the bag and pulled out the suit Tony had made. Okay, so it actually looked pretty fucking great. For the better part it was all black, so you’d blend in with the shadows. He even made a mask to cover up the bottom half of your face that put your ski mask to shame. Quickly, you changed into the suit. Oh yeah, you could get used to this.

  There was a knock at your door. It was late, so it had to have been an emergency. You tugged on your normal clothes over the suit.

  “I was going to go the dramatic route, but then I got to thinking the mask should have a backing. Since last time I met up with you, you had a gun to your head,” Tony spoke as soon you started opening the door, noticing the leather peeking from your collar, “You’re wearing it.”

  “I can’t deny it’s better than being in street clothes,” you leaned on the doorway, arms crossed over your chest, “Thanks.”

  “Let me have a look. It will help me make improvements on your next suit.”

  “I’m not an Avenger, I don’t need you to make me another suit.”

  “Yeah, okay,” he rolled his eyes, “You go through these suits like Skittles there’s nothing bad about having a new one on hand. Let me see.”

  You pulled him into your apartment and closed the door, having seen and heard enough about him to know he would be to stubborn to just leave. “So a free strip tease,” you muttered, taking off the clothes again.

  “Damn, I’m good!” He said, looking over to see just how well it looked while still providing protection. “Still, I’d change that,” he tapped your thigh, “Maybe add small compartments around the waist.”

  “This is all fine as it is. So, how much do you want for it?”

  “How much do I..?” He did a double take, “It’s a gift.”

  “I won’t take it without giving you something for it.”

  “Fine then, come train at the compound. Let’s see what you can really do with those powers. That’s the only form of payment I’ll accept.”

  You thought it over, “Only on my days off and I got to be back before nine, at least, for my patrols.”

-

  Seven months later you still worked to make your town better, occasionally helping the Avengers when they needed it. Nothing big, ever, Tony knew you wanted to stay low key. Just the things where it would be easier for your powers to be used. Still, you trained with Tony two days out of the week and sometimes he’d conveniently have a test flight during your rounds. It was hard to mind since he was so easy on the eyes.

  Tony pinned you down to the mat, “Not so tough without your powers, huh?” He grinned at you before rolling off of you, laying beside you panting, “And you said I couldn’t take you.”

  “What? That was your first pin out of nine?” You laughed, “Got another fight in you old man?”

  “No, were done with the physical...unless.” He winked at you. Lately he’d been more touchy. Then the gifts came. If anything he seemed to be interested in a sugar daddy arrangement and you weren’t interested. He didn’t understand why there seemed to be something for a while until you started to pull away from him.

  You stood up and offered him your hand, glancing at the clock in the training room. “I should go. Last thing I need is Tony Stark tiring me out before my rounds. Besides I have work tomorrow.”

  “You don’t have to work,” he scoffed as he let you help him up, “I could take care of you just fine.”

  “So could others,” You rolled your eyes, “I don’t need anyone to take care of me.”

  “Wait, there are others?”

  “Many. A line right out my apartment building.” You grabbed your bag and walked to the showers, “See you, Monday, Iron Dud.”

  “Maybe, I should join you tonight. You won’t be as tired in the morning.”

  “Isn’t the crime in my town a little below Iron Man’s pay grade?”

  “Test runs. I need to make some modifications. I’ll meet you there.” He left you to do what you needed.

  Six hours later the two of you were running your streets. Though, like always, they were calm and quiet once people found out Tony Stark was on patrol with you today. You were respected, sure, but he put the fear of god in people. The man took down aliens for fucks sake. You weren’t a walk in the park, but they were used to having you around.

  So instead the two of you had a small power training session.

  “Come on, YN!” Tony groaned, “You’ve made yourself levitate before. Just trust me to catch you.”

  You peered over the edge of the building. “Yeah, three inches. Where have you been the last three months. I’m not exactly the trusting type.”

  “Would it help if I was on the ground? Maybe you just need that push of fear to get you there.”

  “Tall buildings and falling aren’t exactly my forte, Tony. I like to think I’m a very grounded person.”

  He walked off the side of the building, his suit activating the flying mechanism last minute. “Here kitty, kitty,” he joked, as he landed, holding his arms out. “I got you. Think of it as an extreme trust fall.”

  “God, Stark..”

  “Glad you think so highly of me. Come down. Can’t know what you can’t do until you push yourself. Trust me. Just concentrate and fall.”

  “Why do I even wanna fly if I don’t like heights?”

  “Well, wouldn’t it be nice to know that you’d be safe anyway?”

  You watched him carefully before nodding. Taking a deep breath you let yourself fall down. Something in you triggered and it almost felt like slowing down, but it didn’t. The air left your lungs when you were caught by Tony.

  “How did that feel?”

  You took a deep breath, “I don’t advise being caught by a man wrapped in metal. I slowed down about midway, but maybe the whole falling off buildings should just be a Spider-Man thing for now.”

  “Practice some more later?” He asked, letting you down.

  “I think, I can handle it,” you agreed.

  “It’s late, you have an early shift. I should walk you home.”

  “You may know who I am under this mask, but no one else here does. Why would I let you walk me to my front door?”

  “The line outside it may raise some concerns about who you are,” he sassed.

  “Better change your tone, someone might think you’re a little bit jealous.”

  He smirked, “I’ll be jealous when there’s actual competition. Text me, when you get home safe, Jedi.”

  You watched Tony fly off towards the compound before walking to your apartment. That was until you heard a car alarm go off on your way.

  “Really? It was time for me to clock out you two,” you complained loudly, the pair ran off, “Nope! This isn’t a you get a warning and a slap on the wrist situation.”

-

  The following day was tiresome to say the least, you woke up late, the car wouldn’t start, and wasn’t it just a great day to forget an umbrella? At least it wasn’t an office day and the coffee shop you worked every other day was within walking distance. Sighing you sped up, thankful you kept a pair of spare clothes at the shop. Other than the mess of the morning, everything was going great. The customers weren’t so rowdy every so often you’d sneak a cookie to a kid that would stare at them for a while but only ask for a juice. Sure you bought them, but the kids always seemed to like it more when they thought it was a secret.

  The singing of the bell announced a new customer, you quickly placed the current order on the table and went back the the register.

  “Who’d think we’d meet here?” Tony greeted, sending out another text before pocketing his phone.

  “I’m sure you say that to all the baristas you see at least once a week.”

  “But you’re the only one I drive thirty minutes away for.”

  “Mhm, I’m sure. What’s the order today, Stark? You’re holding up my line.”

  “The darkest brew or, you know, maybe something you think matches sex life.”

  You raised a brow, “That’s what you want?”

  “Undoubtedly.”

  It took a while to clear out everyone else’s orders, but Tony was used to waiting for his order to come last. The arrangement usually allowed more time for the two of you to talk a while longer.

  “I’ve got a white mocha vanilla bean latte for a Mr. Toyota Stink.”

  He chuckled and took the drink, “Vanilla? I think I could be.”

  “Here.” You took the cup back and placed his usual in his hand, handing over your last cookie of the day with it.

  “Thank you, this is a lot better.”

  “So, what brought you around today?” You asked taking a drink of the latte.

  “Never texted me you got home safe.” He handed you half of the cookie. “Sure, I could have texted you, but that seemed a little too clingy.”

  “Well thanks for checking up as you can see, I’m perfectly fine. No need for the big bad Iron Man to fear. Go talk to that kid,” you nodded toward a little girl eyeing Tony, her small fist clenching her Iron Man shirt nervously, “Give her a good bragging story.”

  He turned and gave the girl a surprised smile before going over to her. “Hey! Are you trying to take my job away?” Tony kneeled down to her level to talk better, you smiled briefly watching their interaction before getting back to work.

  Tony rapped on the counter twenty minutes later watching the kid and her mother talk animatedly about meeting Iron Man. “That was fun. Cute kid.”

  “Kids do tend to be that way,” you nodded, “I’m sorry for not shooting you a text though, just on the way home things came up, and I sort of knocked out first thing.”

  “Hey, no worries,” he waved it off, “I know you can take care of yourself. It’s always just a whole façade to see you anyway.”

  “Is it?” You smirked lightly.

  “Don’t let it go to your head. You have a line out your door, I have other baristas. It would probably be really toxic to continue pawing at this let’s say 7 tomorrow night.” An off day from both jobs, how far ahead did this guy think?

  “Oh, I see what you mean.... Would it be as toxic to agree to it?”

  “I guess we’ll have to find out.”

  “Guess we will.”

-

  There was a knock on your door and you set your bowl of cereal on the table. You made a quick mental rundown, but nope the only person you were expecting today was Tony.

  “Oh, YN! This is your place? Nice,” Happy greeted, the annoyance leaving him.

  “Hello, Hap. What do I owe the pleasure of seeing you today?” You asked, confused.

  “Tony set up a day for you. Shopping, make up, hair cut, if you want, basically a full day of date preparation I guess?”

  “Uh huh,” you sighed, “The famous Stark treatment right?”

  “That’s what they call it?”

  “Happy. I’m completely fine. Why don’t you take this as an easy day and relax? You seemed pretty annoyed about this when I opened the door.”

  “You sure, YN? I don’t mind. Come on, it’s you. I thought it was gonna be some other run of the mill girl that he goes for.”

  “Thanks, Happy,” you laughed, “I think? But no I’m fine go enjoy the rest of your day.”

  “See you later then. It was nice seeing you.”

  “Nice seeing you too, Hap.”

  So obviously going for Tony after your whole I’m tired of men and their buying me crusade wasn’t the smartest idea. Something about him just felt different. Maybe you were just another notch in the bedpost to him. Probably. He’d be disappointed for a week at most before he caught someone new and the two of you would probably go back to normal.

   He texted you a couple of times, but you decided to ignore them. If it was a mission he didn’t bother with texting. Besides you needed to fix up your car and getting some rest before going out for your rounds would be good. So, you grabbed the radio, tools, and went outside to repair your car.

  Two hours later your car finally came back to life. “Yes!” You cheered, patting the steering wheel. A quick test drive around the block to make sure it was actually working again and you would finally get to relax for a while.

  Eight rolled around, your feet were propped up on the couch and some random romcom was on to fill in the time. Actually, it was about time to start getting ready for the night job, but right now you were to comfortable to consider getting dressed. That was until another knock at your door made you get up with a loud groan.

  “Hey, Tony,” you greeted seeing it was him at the door.

  “You ditch me and that’s it? Hey, Tony,” he looked annoyed.

  “Basically,” you shrugged, “Sorry.”

  “Can I at least have some explanation? Because I thought I was reading something here for a while now.”

  “You weren’t wrong. It’s just, y’know I stopped dating and things before doing this vigilante stuff right? Well everything in those past relationships were just materialistic. I got tired. Then you started up with the gifts and I didn’t think much. We were just friends that was okay.”

  “So, that’s why you weren’t the same for a while,” he reasoned.

  “Yeah, I guess I pulled away a little. Then you sent Happy over for the usual Stark pre date day. The usual wine, dine, grind for your flavor of the month. It felt too materialistic, I didn’t like the signals coming from the situation.”

  “Telling me to back off with it would have gotten us lightyears ahead, YN.”

  “Talking isn’t what I do best.”

  “That makes two. Are you going to let me in?”

  You stepped to the side and closed the door behind him. “Now what?”

  “YN, you weren’t just someone I was trying to get in my bed or someone I was trying to win over with a couple of bucks. I care about you.”

  “I care about you, too, Tony.”

  “Let’s just reboot this date then. You. Me. A pizza. Hell, you can even, how did you put it? Wine, dine, and grind me,” he said jokingly. “I’ll put the suit on watch dog mode so that you can skip out on patrol one night. You deserve a break every now and then.”

  “A break night it is,” you agreed, “Don’t have any wine though, settle for some horrible beer my friend left last week?”

  “Sure. Does that take grind of the table?”

  “How about we wait for a while for that thought, big boy,” you joked patting his chest playfully, “You can stand to wait.”

  He laughed, pulling you in close, “That’s fine. I can wait for that as long as you’d like. However don’t you think I’ve waited long enough for a kiss?”

  It took a second to relax in his arms, easy but you were used to only being this close to him during training. “Depends on how long you’ve been waiting.”

  “Not when I met you. That’s incredibly sappy and you were fucking annoying.”

  “You weren’t a damn joyride either.”

  He laughed as you tugged on some of his hair. “I dunno maybe three to five months in. That long enough pining to earn me a peck?”

  “Maybe something quick, you did just call me annoying.”

  “Sure, I think you’re annoying but I like you anyway don’t I?”

  “That’s supposed to make kissing you more attractive?” You laughed.

  “Yeah, it is, c’mere.” He leaned in closer.

  You met him half way. Your hands played with the hair at the back of his head, while his gripped at your hips. Tony deepened the kiss and you made a soft sound.

  “I’m holding you to that waiting thing,” he said, abruptly cutting off the kiss, “Besides I’m hungry.” He gave you another quick kiss before going to sit on the couch.

  You made your phone go to your hand and started ordering dinner. The whole while making pens flick themselves at the back of Tony’s head. Maybe you had read him wrong, but you were willing to try this out with him.

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