#while I was in class i was kind of busy scribbling behind my notepad until

[majorpatheticcas]

AAAAAAHHH- SHOULD I MAKE THIS AS MY PROFILE??

Gosh it's been a while since I last took a drawing seriously hel..

Btw. (They're matching sweaters!!)

Balsam, aka Bal is from the one and only:

!@caycanteven !

[missinghan]

cold sun ⤖ han jisung

❖ genre : soulmate au; fluff; angst

❖ word count : 2,6k.

❖ warning : slight swearing

❖ summary : in a world where one will lose something if their soulmate doesn’t reciprocate their words of love once they turn sixteen, jisung is willing to take the risk so you won’t have to bear the burden.

❖ note : i just realized how i always tend to write for jisung when i'm down :')) anywho this piece is a little different than what i usually come up with but i hope y'all enjoy it ♡

It’s the first day of the week.

“Hey, Y/N. I like you!”

And Han Jisung is really annoying.

Those words come out so easily. It's casual in a way that makes you bury your red nose deeper into the soft fabric of your scarf, which makes your footsteps quicken unknowingly as his voice chases after you loudly. Either way, this isn’t the first time Jisung has said so. In fact, it’s become a habit for him to remind you every other day.

There’s no particular reason why. Or at least that’s what you think.

It’s the end of the week. Jisung decides to hang himself upside down on your bed while you’re stressing over a presentation. “Hey, Y/N.” A cold winter breeze comes rushing against the perplexing glass of your window, shaking the frame violently before all motions come to silence.

Until, “Y/N, Y/N, Y/N,” he creeps up from behind you and chirps into your ear.

“What?” you let out a groan of displease when tempting warmth embraces you whole, prompting you to drop your attention and looking over your shoulder.

Jisung pouts, “You didn’t answer me.”

“It’s because you’re annoying,” you sigh.

“Answer me when I call your name,” he pulls you in a fraction tighter, careful enough not to hurt you but firm to not let you slip away at the same time, and cradles your neck warmly, “So I’d know that you’re still here with me.”

“Alright, stupid.”

The all too familiar gummy smile returns instantly. “Hey, Y/N?”

And you can’t help but roll your eyes. “Yes, Jisung?”

“I like you,” he giggles into the hug, “I like you a lot.”

Han Jisung really is annoying.

He’s annoying because he talks too much. He’s annoying because of how he always asks for your notes after a gaming night with Felix just to nap in class. He’s annoying because he’d drop you in a heartbeat for a single slice of cheesecake from Jeongin’s mom’s bakery. He’s annoying because of how well he can get along with everyone.

Chatty, down-to-earth, easy-going with a lovable smile—attractive, very attractive.

It’s the week after that. “What...happened?”

“He lost his voice,” Jeongin sighs, looking like he genuinely wants to facepalm himself against concrete while walking with an incoherent Jisung to school; expressive hands with his mouth agape and all.

You tilt your head, “...for real?”

“For real.”

After a few seconds of eyeing Jisung struggling with converting what’s in his head, you exhale deeply and quickly rummage through your backpack, “Just stop, you look ridiculous.” And he does just that, zipping his mouth metaphorically and giving you those typical puppy eyes. “Here, use this.”

His eyes light up like stars when you rip off a page from one of your notebooks and offer it to him along with a pen. Truth is, you’re expecting something as predictable as ‘I like you’ or ‘It’s alright it’s just the worst cold I’ve ever caught’. But then, what’s displayed on the piece of paper right now only baffles you.

Park is going to murder you if he sees some uglyass tear in your Ochem notes :)

A forced grin splits your lips open. “Not if I murdered you first and then the entire school and then myself.”

The first genuine smile blossoms on his lips when you give him a mini-sized notepad and pencil the day after—his sixteenth birthday.

And Jisung decides this is it.

It happens when the sun hasn’t even come out yet and the irritating blue light from his phone reads 5:32 AM.

It happens when he sees your reclined figure leaning back against his mattress, his pupils tracing your delicate features. Perplexed emotions fill his eyes to the brim, fulfillment bursting within his chest when you stare right back at him with such purity. So pure that it seems you can do no harm to him and neither can he.

“Hey stupid,” you murmur quietly, shoving a notepad and pencil against his chest, “Happy birthday.”

Jisung gives you a bright smile, opens his mouth, and snaps it close mere moments later. Sixteenth birthday. Early in the morning. Tired grins. The fondness of being so disgustingly in love.

He can’t help but lean in and caves into the taste his soul has longed for as long as he can remember.

Two weeks have passed since Jisung has lost his voice.

Nothing has differed if you’re being completely honest. Han Jisung is still annoying. His lack of ability to speak doesn’t appear to be a problem to him at all. He loves chatting with people even though he’s more of a listener now. But with the small notepad you gave him a few days ago, being socially active is the norm for him even now.

Thanks to his rather short-period experiences of observing people’s expressions and how their features contort in certain ways when they’re feeling certain emotions, Jisung catches onto your mood more quickly during bad days to help you release your inner turmoil by scribbling down something stupid on the notepad. It’s kinda nice like this, you’d think to yourself sometimes.

Other times, you’re more scared that you might have forgotten what his voice sounds like.

“No wonder you got a fucking cold. Stop taking midnight showers already.”

You wave Jisung over when he closes the wooden door to your bedroom, droplets dripping from his hair as he scratches his stomach tiredly. His hair is a mess when he lazily crawls onto your bed, the cushion beside you dips slightly.

His index finger pointing at his post-shower head and a shit-eating grin are all you need to snatch the white towel around his neck.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed,” you mumble while rubbing the cotton fabric into his hair, “But you’re awfully upbeat for someone who’s lost their voice. Can’t you at least pretend to be sad about it?”

A noise of protest escapes his throat like second nature as your eyes carefully read the quick movements of his mouth. “And can you not be so mean to someone who’s lost their voice?”

A faint smirk creeps its way up to your lips. “Still like me now?”

Jisung thinks hard for a few moments before jumping out of bed to snatch his notepad from your studying area. Of course, I like you. I like you a lot. Your heartbeat momentarily spikes at his scrawny handwriting. Just when your gaze is averted away to cool the blush on your cheeks, he tugs at your sleeve again and points at a different mess of scribbles. You’re more gentle when I’m like this. And you’d always find me if I ever got into trouble. What’s there for me to be sad about?

“Annoying little shit,” you swallow your pride and let him settle his head against your chest.

His presence melts into yours during the hardest hours of the twenty-four, heartbeats on heartbeats and warmth on warmth. Your one regret is that you’re unable to register his tears that night, only the incoherent, breathless hiccups almost as to desperately call out your name.

It’s been a month since Jisung’s lost his voice. And the night when he kisses you for the second time, his notepad is long forgotten next to your pillow.

I-can’t-talk. Give-me-a-break.

Jeongin. Cheesecake. Please? Pretty please?

I’ll fucking kick you.

Wait, there’s homework?!

...so you’re telling me LMAO isn’t how French people laugh?

“This is what you’ve been doing during breaks huh…” you mumble under your breath while lazily flipping through the papers. The occasional ‘I like you’-s do pop up every two pages or so, which is more than enough to make you smile like an idiot. But that is until a peculiar paragraph yanks your attention by its neck and tosses it against a brick wall.

Mom, promise me you’re not going to cry.

He made auntie cry?!

I lost my voice for real now but it wasn’t supposed to be like that at first. I just wanted to mess with Y/N and freak her out for a day.

I’m seriously going to punch him.

She was a lot softer toward me after that, you know. I know it’s extremely selfish of me but I just can’t help being so happy. I’m sorry, mom. I really am.

Han Jisung you fucking idiot.

I was going to surprise her on my birthday by saying ‘good morning’ out loud but nothing came out. My voice was gone.

Guilt, anger, remorse take over you. You knew nothing of this. You never once questioned for a logical reason behind the loss of his voice and kept moving onward as if it’s not that big of a deal. You didn’t suspect it as a kind of prank, either. But you still care, all this time! You have been doing everything in your power as a way for both you and Jisung to treasure himself even if he can’t speak anymore.

I went to a check-up last week. Nothing came up. I’m sorry. Please don’t cry.

However, without fail, the obnoxious part of you will keep wandering back to the concept of soulmates that has been engraved so deeply into the society you’re living in. It makes no sense to you that Jisung lost his voice for no reason right before his sixteenth birthday. This explains it all now.

It’s going to be okay, mom. Because I have Y/N. I know she would come running toward my side over and over again even if she can’t hear me anymore. I really don’t know what I’d do without her in my life.

Jisung knew the penalty for being the first to exchange any words of love yet he still did it. And you were too busy overlooking that stupid pride of yours to say those three words back.

It’s getting to the point where I’m starting to forget what I used to sound like. I’m sorry. Please don’t cry.

Jisung fixes the strap of his backpack, looking up at his mom after slipping into his sneakers. She ruffles his bed head and hands him a small white box with Jeongin’s bakery’s signature logo on it.

He tilts his head in faint confusion, peering at the box of pastry in his arms.

“Give it to Y/N on the bus, okay? Her parents aren’t home right now. You know how she would always skip breakfast when they’re out of town.”

His eyes light up instantly in realization and Jisung nods, preparing to bid her farewell. Just then, his front door comes flying open. It can’t be a mere acquaintance because there are very few people other than his parents and himself who know of the spare key hidden under the welcome mat.

As Jisung turns around, he’s keenly aware of your teary eyes already trained on him. Which in hindsight, makes no sense. As a result, panic rises within the hollowness of his chest, his lips falling agape but no coherent words come out.

“Y/N, sweetheart,” his mom flinches, slightly caught off guard, “Is everything okay?”

A scowl stretches over your contorted features as you shut the door loudly. “What the hell is this?” you question, shoving the familiar notepad into his chest. “A prank? A prank?! Do you think that this is funny?”

Jisung’s frantic eyes move to read the paper and every single color on his face drains tremendously. He easily recognizes the peculiar paragraph by how much lighter the ink is compared to the rest of the messy lines because his pen was running low and his hand couldn’t stop shaking.

Your voice.

His eyes avert back to look at you. His brows furrow timidly and shaky breaths burst from his lips almost like a desperate cry for help. There’s too much he wants to say, too many things to explain, and too many questions running through his head that he can’t process what to do next. He might just overwhelm both you and himself.

I need to hear it again.

And you might not stay by his side this time.

“Okay, don’t answer me then, I guess,” you chuckle lowly, dipping your head and turning around.

Jisung grabs at your sleeve instinctively and drops the pastry box, his gaze empty and all too knowing. Sorrow glazes over his starry eyes when it starts becoming hard to breathe properly. The outlines of his lips are moving non-stop yet nothing comes following after that.

“I don’t know what you’re saying,” you rasp out and tug at his hand. Then it hits you. He’s like this because of you. Jisung lost his voice because of you.

His mom cuts into the conversation, “Y/N, you don’t understand!”

“I’m sorry, auntie,” you smile sadly and take off running into the streets.

You, in the midst of your self-loathing and guilt, allow your feet to go wherever they want as your vision spirals into a blur. A single droplet threatens to fall when a forceful hand yanks you back to reality.

It takes Jisung a moment to regain his regular breathing pace. And when he finally gets it, all he can do is call out to you with the same inaudible sounds and the same desperation in his eyes. It seems as though he’s fully aware that the prank was the stupidest, most irrational thing he’s ever done. But there’s more to the ocean within his eyes than just remorse.

“I already told you,” you clench your jaw and slap his hand away, “I don’t fucking know what you’re saying!”

A deep sigh. “Why am I mad? Of course, I’d be mad! It’s because of me that you lost your voice! It’s because I like you, too! Yet I never said it back… You lost your voice because of me! Don't you get it? Why can't you just hate me for the sake of it?!”

You miss his voice. You miss it a lot.

You want to hear it again. You want to hear him call you by your name. You want to stay up late and talk about anything to the ends of the Earth and back with him. You want him to be the obnoxious, chatty Han Jisung you've always known.

You miss how annoyingly loud he is.

“Y-Y...Y/N…!”

Jisung collapses onto his knees, a hand on concrete while the other is on his neck. His chest rises and falls unevenly, muffled noises of discomfort echoing deep down from his throat. Despite that, what you heard just now, is his voice.

“Answer me when I call your name. So I’d know that you’re still here with me.”

“I promised you, didn’t I,” you spread your arms and smile warmly, “That I’d always answer when you call my name. As long as I can still hear you, I will come running toward you over and over again. Doesn’t matter what it takes, doesn’t matter where you are.”

Jisung lifts his head and tears come rolling down on his cheeks. His throat feels swollen when he stutters with difficulties, trying to convey what’s in his head, “Y-Y/N, don’t- don’t go! Please don’t leave me...!”

“Come here,” you close your eyes with the widest grin on your lips, “I’m not going anywhere.”

Only when Jisung grows closer and throws his arms around you, sobbing into your uniform do you convince yourself that all of this isn’t a hallucination. The hug is a lot stronger than what you’d expect. First of all, you nearly fell over from the impact and your arms are pinned so tightly to your sides that you feel like your ribs are going to snap.

Everything is so overwhelming that all you can say is, “Ow.”

“Sorry,” he mumbles into your hair and loosens his arms a bit so you can loop your hands to the nape of his neck and hair.

“You’re so annoying, Han Jisung.”

He purses his lips, sniffling, “You tried to make me snap on purpose. Meanie.”

You quirk a playful brow, “Still like me now?”

“Yeah,” Jisung smiles, “A lot.”

Because he knows that he has you. Until every last star in the galaxy explodes as a supernova, Jisung has you.

[keilemlucent]

lavender latte: i

(T (for now!))

hawks | takami keigo x reader

chapter 2   ||   chapter 3 ||  chapter 4

ao3

word count: ~3k

You serve Hawks a lavender, oat milk latte. Not only is he hooked on your drinks, but he's also hooked on you as well.

a fluffy multi-chaptered piece i’ll release when i’m feeling it :’^) enjoy y’all. coffee shop au hell

||||||||||||||||||

You and Keigo met each other on the coldest, snowiest day of the year.

The temperature was near glacial. The air stung and bit like hell, wind kicking and spitting powdery snow as it fell in sheets from the grey sky.

The weather, horribly, prevented two of your coworkers from working the morning shift at the tea shop. Half of the trains were shut down across the city in addition to power outages. But, your cheap ass owner forced you to open. Alone. In a blizzard.

You were fairly certain that you wouldn’t be getting many customers.

Opening at the tea shop on a normal day was a hellish amount of work. As you unlocked the door and walked into your humble establishment of employment, you grimaced at the thought of all of the work you were to do.

After disrobing from your thick winter jacket, scarf, and mittens and throwing on your apron, it was time to begin. You made yourself a simple, oat milk latte and then started to get to work setting up for the day. 

It was hardly dawn. 

  Keigo was on early morning patrol. It wasn’t his favorite shift, oh, hardly, but he did enjoy watching the sunrise. And, while his wings were powerful, the snowstorm did force him to fly much lower in the grey haze of the day than he normally would. Stepping out of his apartment around just before 5:30 AM, Keigo almost moaned in anguish at the cold. He was infinitely glad he had worn a thermal bodysuit under his uniform.

His quirk afforded him much in terms of battle prowess, in addition to a few avian mutations. Most notably at that moment was his difficulty conserving heat. As Keigo stood on his balcony, frowning at the can of coffee in his hand, he made the prompt decision to fly to his area of patrol and grab a hot drink. The thought of downing something cold made his stomach turn.

Gracefully, Keigo turned and flew, letting himself be carried across town. The area he was patrolling was relatively quiet, mostly small businesses and lower-middle-class apartments. As he touched down, shivering and sleepy, he padded through the empty streets with his wings folded to his back.

  The wind was wild, wiping between buildings, making snowdrifts that blocked some of the doors of shops nearby. Part of you cursed, shaking your head. You desperately wanted to be warm, curled in bed with your cats, and watching cartoons.

You set up the shop, moving chairs and turning on machines. Though you were a tea shop, you sold more coffee than any sort. On a normal, fully-staffed day, you’d be in the back, crafting tea blends. But, that day was, in fact, a very abnormal day and it was about to get weirder.

  Keigo meandered around the streets, strangely at genuine ease. There were no civilians and very few stores open allowing him to walk freely, albeit coldly. Part of him wondered if he would even find a coffee shop.

But lo and behold, he did. 

Keigo opened the door, a cute bell ringing. The shop was themed warmly with yellow-toned wood counters and furnishings. There was a smattering of local art on the walls and jewel-toned accents. All in all, it was a cozy reprieve from the icy nature of outside. Keigo relished the heat.

It seemed only one person was working, you. 

  When you heard the bell sounding at the entrance of a customer, you piped up from behind the counter, “Just one sec!”

A kind laugh, “Take your time.”

You were struggling to reach a tea blend. It was high on the many shelves behind the counter. You clamored on top of the counter, rising on your knees to try and reach it. Your hands stretched to grip it with an arch of your back. You grinned in victory as you managed to grab it. You pulled back, miscalculating in your pride—

And then you were losing balance.

And then you were falling.

(How fucking cliche).

You would’ve hit the floor if it wasn’t for some unknown force, pushing you back onto the counter, steadying you. The sensation, new, perked you up, causing you to let out a high noise of surprise. You turned, your eyes going wide.

Several beautiful, scarlet feathers caught your fall.

Your eyes flickered up to your patron savior.

  Number two hero, Hawks, smiling at you and giving you a bit of cheshire grin, stifling a laugh.

You slowly descended from the counter, turning to face him at the register, “Well, I really have to say thank you. I nearly ate shit there.”

“All in a day's work,” Hawks winked at you. You beamed easily. Local heroes came and drank at the shop fairly regularly, but never anyone particularly famous, let alone the top ten. Never the incredibly stunning, wind-whipped bachelor hero that was Hawks.

“What can I get for you today?” You asked, going for a notepad.

Hawks eyes scanned the menu behind you. He hummed, pretty, amber eyes settling back on you, “Surprise me.”

Your eyes widened, but you nodded. You couldn’t stop smiling.

“Alright, let me ask a few questions, just to make your drink the best it can.” You told him. “First off, hot or iced?”

“Oh, definitely hot,” Hawks almost wiggled a feathered eyebrow at you and you couldn’t help rolling your eyes. 

“Okay, how much caffeine? Any allergies?” You asked, scribbling an idea down on the notepad. “Milk preference?”

“As much as you can legally supply me with, no preferred milk, and no allergies. Though, I do like things sweet,” Hawks was removing his gloves as he spoke. “Go crazy, give me the best thing you got, angel. Something that gives me the warm and fuzzies.”

Oh, that was a move. 

Hawks was notoriously (in the media) shamelessly flirtatious with fans and other heroes. It was always painted as something that was in good fun, never sexual, and just part of his brand. This was just common knowledge, but god you never expected it to be directed at you with a cute pet name.

  “On it,” You smiled back at him, face hot. You smoothed yourself down before beginning to craft his drink. 

It wasn’t often that you worked the front counter, and there was a good reason for it. Most of the time, you got too into making drinks, customizing them frivolously (often due to your quirk). Though you were skilled, it took a lot of time that people didn’t have for a coffee run.

But, on the day of a momentous snowstorm, you and Hawks had all the time in the world.

  Keigo was a bit stunned by you.  

You were cute, one. 

You were wearing a soft-looking turtleneck sweater, and high-waisted, wide-leg pants. They were fashionable but obviously aged. But it worked. A cute, embroidered apron was tied over you snuggly around your waist. It was adorned with buttons and pins, brightly colored.

 You spoke so frankly to him. You didn’t gawk at him for even a second, even when his feathers propped you up from falling. You blushed at his pet name but didn’t seem any more fazed than a bit of embarrassment. He liked it. It felt normal.

Keigo rested his hands on the counter, watching you flit about behind the counter. 

“I gotta ask, why are you open in this blizzard??” Keigo tilted his head as your gaze flickered to him. You were still smiling, just a bit, even hard at work. 

  You snorted, “Cheap boss who won’t close, and my coworkers are stranded without the trains running. I live close by and work hourly, so I might as well come in, ya’ know?”

Hawks laughed, something warm and full, so juxtaposed to the storm of flurries outside. 

It was odd, talking to the number two fucking hero so casually, but it felt good. There was a sense of awe and idleness, but it dimmed. There were no flashy heroics, just one person wanting a drink and the other making it.

Your quirk activated on its own as you stared at the syrups. Your quirk’s tell was so small and normal, no one ever caught it. A heavy dilation of the eyes was not something most people were tuned into. Yet there you were, submerged in sensation. Touch, sight, smell, taste, even sound, all blending together. They elicited something deeper in you, creating something abstract you could make tangible.

To make a feeling into a physical reality was a gift, but it came with drawbacks of course.

You poured a few syrups into the bottom of the cup, carefully selecting them.

“I can’t imagine how cold it is up in the sky,” You mused to yourself just before steaming some oat milk. 

“Oh, you have no idea, ” Hawks lamented to you with a groan. “I feel like I’m gonna lose a few toes whenever I work in this weather.”

“Just toes? I’d be worried about a whole foot,” You grinned back at him as you poured more things into the cup, stirring every few moments. 

The feeling in your mind was so tangible to you, and you could perfectly translate it to reality. Something warm, to beat away the frost of the world beyond the tea shop. 

You sprinkled the top with a few dashes of cinnamon, setting it on the counter in front of him. 

  Keigo looked down at the drink you made him, raising an eyebrow. He went to take a sip, but you stopped him, “I’d give that a few minutes if you don’t want to burn your tongue, tailfeathers.”

  Hawks nearly fucking squawked as he set down the drink, giving you a look of false anger, “ Tailfeathers? That’s not a kind name to call me. I don’t even have those.”

Keigo huffed, pouting at you. 

  “You call me, a stranger barista, angel, I call you tailfeathers. Easy trade.” You shrugged at him, tapping into the register system. “I’m not charging you until you try it.”

“Don’t tell me you’re going to upcharge if I don’t like it?” Hawks continued to pout, jokingly so, pulling out a wad of bills that was undoubtedly much more than any drink would cost. 

Your eyes widened, leaving you sputtering, “Oh, never— it’s on the house if it bangs as much as I think it will.”

Hawks laughed, out loud, bending back a bit. You watched his pretty red wings shudder and reflect the warm light of the coffee house. Keigo collected himself, over-dramatically straightening himself. 

You watched with anticipation as he took his sip.

  Keigo was a man of poor taste. Sure, dropping an unholy amount of money on frivolities was one of his small pleasures, after so much of the ascetic bullshit that the Commission put him through, it only seemed fair. But, caffeine was a necessity with his fucked up schedule and he’d be damned waiting in a line or making it at home. Canned coffee was saccharine and speedy and that’s all he fucking wanted. 

But, when the first drops of that stupid oat milk latte hit his tongue, Keigo was beyond enamored. 

Yeah, he wanted coffee to feel warm in this storm, but he didn’t expect to feel warm. With just one gulp, he could feel the heat, like the flames of a steady hearth, drift around his body. 

He brought the cup down from his lips, looking at you with awe. 

You had the smuggest grin spread across your face, arms crossed over your chest.

“Thoughts?” God, you were so cheeky. He loved it. You were so subtly bold.

“This,” Keigo took another greedy swig, wiping his mouth on the back of his ungloved hand, “is the best coffee I’ve ever had in my damn life.”

Your smile just got wider. 

“Glad I could meet your tastes, tailfeathers. No charge,” You gave him a cheeky little wink. You swore you saw his face get redder, but you dismissed it a moment later.

“Oh no, nu-uh,” Keigo pushed the bills towards you. “Take it as a tip then. Seriously. How did you make this?”

You stared down at the bills and Hawks’s hand. His hands weren’t particularly large, but they were scarred plenty. Veins and bone were accented by the dryness of his skin. 

You looked back up at him, still not taking the money, “Can you keep a secret? It’s a big one, especially considering you’re a hero.”

Hawks tilted his head, “If you say you used your quirk to mess with this drink, I don’t know if I’m legally able to keep it a secret.”

“Nah, nah. I didn’t ‘mess with your drink’,” You shook your head, nodding down to it. “Do you know what synesthesia is?”

(He did, surely. But he just wanted to listen to you talk more.)

“Enlighten me?” Hawks ask, stooping to rest his elbows on the counter, chin cradled in his hands.

  For being a man who could kill you in a split second, Hawks was remarkably cute. You understood his sex appeal long before he entered the shop. His hair looked unnaturally fluffy, wind-ruffled, and honey blonde. His eyes had a few cute bird-like markings ringing the sweet, amber irises. He had a delicate but defined jaw. 

He raised a sculpted, feathered eyebrow at you. 

(He’d caught you staring).

You cleared your throat, laughing it off easily (though you were mentally kicking yourself), “Synesthesia, broadly, is like senses overlapping in your brain. Like... The common example is seeing colors when you hear a month of the year.”

“Now, what does this have to do with my lovely drink?” Hawks batted his eyelashes at you. You could tell he was definitely flirting with you, but you brushed it off the best you could. 

He’s a hot guy you made coffee for. Happens all the time. 

“Well, you had me a little bit, I did use my quirk, but it doesn’t mess with your drink physically at all. Not even close,” You laugh. “My quirk allows me to conceptualize abstract ideas into tangible ideas.”

“That really makes it sound like you used your quirk to make my drink,” Keigo watched your eyes dilate as he spoke.

You blinked, and they went back to normal.

“No, no. It’s like for your drink,” Both of your eyes looked towards the steaming cup. “I took your request for ���warm and fuzzies’ to heart.”

Keigo blinked at you. 

Your pupils expanded again, “I figured ‘ you know, this guy has to fly around in the cold all day, right? Probably is freezing and far away from home ’— and there was my inspiration.

“I used my quirk to conceptualize... the idea of being warm and safe into a tangible concept. A nice, easy coffee drink. Four shots of espresso, oat milk, homemade lavender honey syrup, two of my own, specially made tea extracts, and a bit of cinnamon for good measure.”

Hawks blinked at you, “Your quirk gives you the... blueprints, to turn ideas, literal feelings, into reality and these blueprints just work?” 

You nodded and shrugged, “Most of the time. The less I’m focused on it, the more likely it is that the feeling won’t be able to manifest. I just get more exact with my construction with the fewer stimuli.”

“Drawback?” Hawks quirked an eyebrow, already having a good idea as to it.

You gestured lazily to the empty coffee shop, “I get overstimulated easily, quirk activated or not. Makes a lot of shit hard, but I like my quirk. I mean, it’s nothing like having a crazy strong pair of wings, but it services me well.”

“Did you really ‘manifest’ ‘warm and fuzzies’ into a drink, or did you make it a bit deeper than that?” Keigo sipped again, relishing how it warmed him all over once more. The taste that was dancing over his palette seemed a little more complex than what they were saying. 

“To be frank and to have a bit of an ego, yeah, I went for my go-to feeling when making drinks for myself,” You averted your eyes from him. “A good drink should feel like you’re getting hugged from the inside out, you know? Comforted. It’s hard enough to get that tangibly without a quirk. I just try to help where I can.”

  Keigo blinked at you.

You had turned suddenly, shy, eyes anxiously darting and a hand tugging at the sleeve of your sweater. A cute flush was spreading over your cheekbones when you finally looked at him again, “Kinda corny, right?”

Despite the fact that Keigo’s heart was fucking pounding, he shook his head, voice steady and sure, “Nah, I think it’s cool. You’re doing a lot more than just making coffee for folks.”

Your face got even redder as you rubbed the back of your head,

“I usually work in the back, so I don’t tend to make a lot of coffee for people. I make the tea blends that we sell. I don’t always use my quirk, but sometimes I do.”

Keigo watched you nervously pull at your apron, giving him an oddly desperate deadpan, “Please don’t turn me in.”

That made Keigo bust out laughing again. 

You couldn’t help but stare at him in shock, and then join him. You covered your mouth at first, but finally, just let yourself laugh with him. All it seemed like that there was in the world was you, Keigo, the lavender latte, and the snowdrifts outside.

  Hawks’s pager beeped, almost instantly pulling him from his laughing fit. He glanced at it, giving a dull grimace, “Duty calls, it seems.”

“You’d think villains would take snow days?” You told him as he re-gloved his hands. 

“It would really make my job easier,” He chuckled. Hawks pushed the forgotten money on the counter. “That’s all for you, ya hear me? Keep it or I will actually turn you in.”

Oh, you were feeling bold. 

Before Hawks could pull his hand away, you placed your own on his, stopping his movement.

“Only,” You somehow, one-handed, managed to pull a bit of receipt paper from its machine. Still one-handed you grabbed a pen and scribbled onto the paper. You pushed it towards Keigo. “If you take this very conveniently small piece of paper that totally doesn’t have my name and number on it. Just in case you’d like another lavender latte like that.”

  Oh, Keigo was floored.

He had rapid fucking fans. They were feral. He’d had fans drop their entire life stories on him, gush to him, stalk him— one time, a fan dropped to their knees and licked his boots. And he’d certainly received many phone numbers in his day, so many, but never like this. 

This felt a little different.

“Well, I was gonna say, I might need some contact to know when you work next. Just so I can grab one of your lovely drinks,” Hawks winked at you, all smitten.  He walked backwards towards the door, still meeting your eyes

“Feel free to.” You were just as starry-eyed as he was. “I have a lot to show you!”

And with that, Hawks whisked himself out of the door, fast as ever.

And you both simmered, full of intangible feelings. 

[taelme]

like or like like

genre: college!au, college frat boy!Johnny  (fluff, mild angst if you squint) 

pairing/s: Johnny / Reader , Lucas and the some of the 127 kids make appearances 

word count: 12k+ (wow this was a ride) 

tw: not much just mild language, mentions of smoking and they drink in this... also nothing SUPER scandy but they make out in this so yes

a/n: gif isn't mine!! also low-key inspired by that vid of 127 playing beer pong in America....  read this on ao3

"Life doesn't wait for you to enjoy yourself, Y/N....you know?"

You rolled your eyes, a huff of laughter escaping your lips as you looked up from your work to raise an eyebrow at the boy beside you, his puffy brown hair falling over his eyes as he bobbed his head to the imaginary music playing in his head.

"Are you high?" you dropped your voice to a whisper, pulling your earbud from your ear and looking at him curiously.

Scoffing at you, his eyebrows furrowed, as if he suddenly wasn't sure himself, "I don't...actually know....but don't be like that," he set his pen down, looking at you with a serious, wide-eyed expression. "As I was saying, why don't you give him a chance? What's so bad about it?"

You knew what Lucas was talking about, glancing at your very conversation topic that was currently seated a few tables away from you at the self-study tables in your school’s library, gaze intent on his laptop as he scribbled furiously on his notepad. Dragging your gaze away, you looked back down at the post-it glaring at you from its position on a hot cup of coffee sitting on your desk- supposedly from him, reading:

‘meet me before you leave?

-Johnny-’

You frowned after reading it for the umpteenth time, not knowing what he would want you to meet him for, a sick feeling in your stomach refusing to let you study in peace until you knew just what it was, and Lucas, of course.

"What do you mean, ‘give him a chance’?" You shot back at Lucas in a harsh whisper, your leg bouncing anxiously as you thought about the possibility of you and Johnny Seo together.

It wasn't as if you didn't know who he was. He was in your literature lecture, though he barely showed up. You only knew he was there because every time he was, he'd always find a seat behind you. Not to mention the way he would lean forward, so his lips were just barely next to your ear and you could smell his expensive perfume, just so he could ask to borrow a highlighter; his voice so enchanting you couldn't forget it even if you wanted to.

Lucas shrugged, "I mean, maybe he wants to ask you out, I mean...why else would he go through the trouble of buying you a coffee and shit if he didn't?"

You narrowed your eyes at him, "I don't think that's how it works, Lucas,” you told him, “plus, you know, you're not exactly doing a very good job in convincing me that Johnny, who we've known for like... ever but has never expressed any interest in anything other than in what stationery I’d brought to class, is actually into me."

Lucas clucked his tongue at you in annoyance, "you know, you don't always have to be so iffy about everyone that expresses interest in you," he gave you a pointed look, making you shake your head.

"I don't do it without reason," you murmured, twirling your pen between your fingers absently.

"You're making me want to day drink," Lucas huffed, "I'm leaving. Can you make sure you meet him so I can rejoice in how I’m right when he ends up asking you out."

Lucas stood up, the chair screeching against the hardwood floor loudly, slinging his bag over his shoulder before shooting you a smile, almost sending you face-planting into the table when he'd given you a firm pat on your shoulder.

"All the best," he held his fist up in a gesture to cheer you on, leaving promptly after to fulfil his promise of daydrinking, you assumed.

As the clock ticked by, every time you brought your hot cup of drink to your lips (as much as you didn't want to take it from him, you couldn't help it, the drink smelled too good to resist), you were reminded of the impending meeting you were going to have with Johnny, subtly glancing at his table every now and then, not knowing what gave you the courage to stand, beginning to walk over to him.

You clenched the strap of your bag tighter in your hands as you neared his table, being able to hear the muffled pumping bass of his music through his headphones. Holding the cup with the post-it in your hand, you took in a deep breath before holding it in front of his face.

Johnny didn’t seem startled, which intimidated you even more, simply setting his pen down and turning around in his chair to face you, giving you a small smile.

Johnny opened his mouth to speak, but you'd cut in quickly.

"What do you want?" you blurted, realizing you'd sounded a bit rude, but not moving to correct yourself in case it'd make your strong, totally unintimidated facade crumble.

Johnny removed his headphones, knocking the hood of his jacket off his head, revealing his dark blue cap, which he'd fidgeted with as he looked at his scribbles on his notepad.

"Did you like it?" he asked you, taking the cup from your hands, eyebrows raising at the lightness of the cup, since you'd finished the coffee.

“How’d you know my coffee order?” you murmured.

Johnny’s lips parted, giving you an unabashed smile, "Well, that’s for me to know and you to… ignore, but I’m glad you liked it.”

Placing the cup onto his table, Johnny looked back at you with an almost-analytical gaze, the intent in his eyes almost successfully making you avert yours.

"Anyway, what I wanted to talk to you about was,” there was a hint of anticipation behind his smile, “d'you mind doing me a favour?" he continued.

"... what kind of favour?" you asked, your head spinning as your imagination ran wild with all the possible things he could have asked you. It wasn’t as if he was gonna ask for you to go on a date with him as a favour like a cliché teenage rom-com, was he?

Johnny pointed at his notebook with his scribbles on it, giving you a sheepish smile, "I kind of need the notes for the week before last's lecture."

You thought back, frowning in confusion when you'd recalled that Johnny had been sitting behind you that week, remembering the disappearance of your blue ballpoint pen taking place that lesson.

"Weren't you there?"

"Yeah, I was. But... uh,” Johnny gave you a sheepish smile, his hand coming up to scratch at the back of his neck, “may have had a really bad hangover that morning...and I did remember taking notes,” he said pointedly, “but uh... I don't know if you can, but I definitely can't make out what this means.”

Johnny turned, picking up a sheet of paper that was tucked in between his book to show you, illegible scribbles scattered around over the lines, the words trailing off into lines at the end of almost every sentence.

You pressed your lips together to suppress your urge to smile, scrunching your nose up in amusement.

"Sure," you eventually sighed, a small part of you thankful that he didn't ask you what Lucas thought he was going to ask you.

"Nice, thank you so much, you're a lifesaver," he thanked as you were busy fishing in your bag for the notes you'd consolidated just prior to meeting him.

You'd rather not give him the soft copy, seeing as there were way too many typos and distracted musings in there, (which may or may not have been about him as well).

"When do you need it back by?" he asked, earning a shrug from you.

Johnny huffed, seemingly amused by your demeanour.

"Okay, it's fine. I'll return them to you as soon as I’m done with them," he told you, startling you when he'd reached out a hand to touch your forearm gently before you could turn to leave, "see you around," he murmured.

You nodded quickly, walking away before you could embarrass yourself, Johnny not being able to help the smile from his face at your flustered state.

===

The next time you'd seen Lucas was when he'd arrived unannounced at the door of your apartment, a luxury you very much cherished thanks to your parents, who would much rather you not live in a dorm after hearing stories about peer influences in college life.

"So, are you married to Johnny yet?" he'd asked upon seeing you open the door for him, making you roll your eyes.

“Hello to you too, Lucas.”

"Hello,” he giggled, “also, go get dressed.”

At the look of confusion you’d given him, glancing down at your loungewear, Lucas had given you an expectant look, his eyebrows raised.

“You're coming with me to the mixer, remember?" Lucas continued. Oh, that.

"Right,” you let out a small sigh, “are you sure it's mandatory for us to go? And he didn't ask me out, by the way," you were hesitant about the mixer, having heard your fair share of rumours about the group of guys that were holding the party.

Entering your bedroom, you heard Lucas follow you into your room while you decided on what to wear.

"He didn't? Weird," Lucas frowned, flopping onto your bed with a thud and leaning against the headboard, crossing one of his stretched-out legs over the other.

"Don't wear that. You always wear that," Lucas snapped when you'd reached for your trusty outfit combination, making you put it back with a frown, skimming through your clothes before settling on something a little more ‘presentable’ according to him.

"Stop looking so nervous, you'll have fun! The guys are all really fun once you get to know them. Trust me!" you frowned at Lucas.

He'd been to many of these 'mixers', while you'd taken the liberty of forgoing the first three that had been held ever since you enrolled, but all Lucas had told you was that in going, you'd be promised to booze, music, and fun.

And considering your lack of entertainment these days, you figured it wouldn't be so bad if you just went for one.

Only when you'd reached did you realize that you were somewhere definitely not up your alley.

It looked like a house from the outside, (you obviously hadn't explored your campus enough to have stumbled upon the frats and sororities), but you were already growing increasingly excited (or nervous, you couldn't tell. Both made you feel like puking, frankly) from the tension of the music and the crowds of people.

You noticed Lucas was pretty popular among the people here, especially the guys, and you and Lucas had been led by one of them to the kitchen, the boy- who had striking features and a kind smile, handing the both of you drinks.

"Thanks, Yuta, where's the rest of the guys?" you heard Lucas ask him, and you'd frowned when he turned to you, asking you to stay there while he went God knows where with Yuta.

You downed your drink quicker than you'd expected, taking the liberty to grab a beer before you'd seen a group of girls walk into the kitchen, relieved sighs escaping their lips.

"Thank God we got out of there," you heard one of them say, your head tilting at them in confusion.

You must've looked a little too sober to have fit in, the soda in your cup and the lack of perspiration on you. But you didn’t think much of it, your attention captured when you heard one of them start to sigh, shrugging off their jacket.

"Those boys scare the shit out of me... remind me never to think I have a chance with Jaehyun again," she sighed.

Her friend had simply agreed, but not without letting out a tired sigh as well, "it’s not like he didn’t tell you beforehand that he wasn’t looking for anything serious... you can't come here thinking you can land a nice one, the nicest you're gonna find here is like... Johnny Seo, and he's not even interested!" you tilted your head at them, blurting out before you could stop yourself.

"You guys know Johnny too?" you blurted, seeing them look at you curiously, narrowing their eyes at you as if you were some sort of jungle predator.

"Do you?" one of them had asked, and you didn’t miss the way she’d scanned your attire, almost making you squirm uncomfortably.

You nodded slowly, not sure why they had looked at you in such shock.

"I guess? He's in my lit class," you shrugged, taking another sip of your beer.

"What about him?" you continued, curiosity getting the better of you, but you were annoyed to say the least when Lucas had chosen that time to return to the kitchen, smiling and nodding at the girls in greeting (they seemed to recognize him, straightening up and adjusting their clothes immediately).

"Come on, let's play some games!" he said, not giving you a chance to respond before he'd dragged you further into the house, where you saw what looked like a lounge area, ping pong table set up for beer pong.

Looking around the room, you felt like you were seeing something completely new yet utterly cliché to you, how the music here was different in the sense that it wasn't any of that electronic music they were playing outside, the trap and rap catching your attention.

"I brought a guest!" Lucas announced upon entering the room, and your heart had almost stopped at the sight of Johnny, who was seated at the sofa with a drink in hand, looking up from his phone when he'd heard Lucas say your name.

His eyebrows raised in surprise, not expecting to see you here, making you take a bigger sip of your drink (which had been replaced by Lucas’ beer), glancing around the room and waving at the guys who greeted you with smiles and nods.

"First time at a mixer?" a boy that Lucas had told you was named ‘Ten’ had asked you, earning a nod from you.

“Uh-huh,” you smiled, though it seemed Ten could sense your tension.

"How are you finding it?" he'd asked as the boys had started playing games to decide how to split the teams.

"I pick Y/N to be on my team!" Johnny had shouted over the noise just as you'd turned to Ten, who chose to sit out of the game, to reply, "Loud."

Ten had glanced at the players you and Johnny would be against, shrugging, "You're in safe hands," he told you, shooting you a knowing smile before leaving to sit with Lucas who was seated next to a boy named Baekhyun.

You'd moved to do the same but were stopped in your tracks when Johnny had approached you.

"Hey. Didn't expect to see you here," he told you, leading you to an empty space on one of the sofas and pulling you to sit down next to him, squeezing you between him and the side of the armrest with the sheer amount of people trying to fit onto the sofa.

"Why so?" you asked, observing the first two teams that had gone up to play, finally putting a face to the name you'd heard in the kitchen down there. Jaehyun, he seemed nice, cute....but too competitive, you dismissed the thought quickly.

"Didn't see you at the last few mixers," Johnny explained, making you scoff.

"Didn't expect you to notice," you shrugged with a laugh.

Johnny didn't seem to find the joke as funny as you did, simply tilting his head at you.

"How could I not?" he murmured, dropping the topic quickly as the game had started, the guys around you cheering noisily as a lean boy named Doyoung landed his first shot.

"I think Jaehyun's team's gonna win," he leaned over and told you, keeping his gaze fixed on the teams, a calm yet focused expression on his face (while a part of you wondered how he was taking this game so seriously).

Johnny leaned back in his seat comfortably, his hands in his lap, leaning over you to place his drink on the small table beside the sofa.

You, on the other hand, were busy trying to communicate telepathically with Lucas.

He was frantically gesturing saying you should be flirting with Johnny but you glared at him, shaking your head furiously, catching Johnny's attention from your sudden movement.

“Hmm?” he turned to you, eyebrows raised in a silent question.

You shook your head, trying to think of an excuse, “Oh, nothing, I was just trying to figure out why that guy next to Ten was so familiar.”

Johnny laughed, scrunching his nose, “That’s Taeyong. Wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve heard of him… he’s got… quite the rep.”

Laughing (even though you had no idea what rep Johnny was referring to), you let out a small sigh, glad to have successfully diverted Johnny’s attention.

The game progressed quickly, Johnny’s prediction being right about Jaehyun's team having the upper-hand, and they'd won in no time.

Gulping down on the bare droplets left in your cup for good measure as you watched Johnny step up to the table, waving you over, you set your cup down and made your way over quickly.

You were nervous to say the least, not trusting your sense of aim, especially with how Johnny was towering next to you, his presence adding to your nervousness.

"Any words for the other team before you begin?" Baekhyun had provoked, urging their competitive spirits to awaken, as Johnny had leaned forward.

"Good luck," he shrugged casually, and usually you would've been put off by this kind of cocky behaviour, figuring the only reason why you thought it was okay now was because it was coming from none other than Johnny Seo.

"Johnny," you whispered while the guys on the other team, Jungwoo and Taeyong, had been busy throwing challenges and trying to hype their audience up.

Johnny leant over, bending down so he could hear you better.

"Yeah?" He shrugged off his dark coloured flannel, leaving him in his plain black shirt and ripped blue jeans. You’d felt as though you were having déjà vu, the many times he’d leant over to you during lectures making your face warm at his proximity.

You cupped your hands around your mouth like how you would if you were telling a secret.

"I'm not very good at this game," you murmured.

Johnny giggled, shaking his head at you in dismissal.

"It's fine, just have fun, it's just a game after all," he told you reassuringly, but once it started, it was like you were seeing a different side of Johnny (and suddenly it didn’t seem like ‘just a game’).

He aimed confidently, one hand shoved into his pocket so he wouldn't fidget around (or just to look cool, as Ten had pointed out), and had landed two shots smoothly at the start.

It was going to be your turn when Jungwoo had landed the ping pong ball in one of your cups. You scrunched your nose up, nervous for some reason about your next shot as you picked the cup up and downed it in one go, making Johnny raise an eyebrow at you in amusement.

Hoping your aim was steady enough, you held your hand up, ready to throw when Johnny had leant down next to you, softly instructing you on where he thought you'd be able to get a clear shot.

In your flustered state, you'd missed, and if Johnny was disappointed, he didn't show it.

Johnny had offered to drink the drinks on behalf of you whenever your team lost, which, of course, flattered you but also disappointed you because you were hoping to get to drink a little. Though you couldn't say you weren't impressed by how he was handling his drinks.

You weren't aware that your sulky demeanour was showing on your face as you saw the ball land in your side's cup again, already anticipating Johnny's hand swooping in to help you drink the beer.

"Why d'you look so sad, babe?" Yuta laughed, making you shake your head dismissively, before Lucas had outed you quicker than you could blink.

"Y/N hasn't had a drink the whole game!" he laughed loudly, knowing you had come here with plans to indulge before you went back to studying.

Johnny held the cup in his hands, looking slightly buzzed already, an intrigued smile on his face.

"You want this?" he asked, holding the cup up and you clenched the ping pong ball in your hands, nodding.

Throwing it quickly, you heard cheers erupt as it landed in your opponent's cup.

Johnny in his excitement, turned to you with the cup still in his hands. You’d raised your hands slightly in a move to grab the cup, though your actions went unnoticed by Johnny.

"Open up," he sing-songed, using one hand to tilt your chin up, bringing the cup to your lips and letting you down its contents.

Gulping the liquid down with a wince, you saw his expression change, his parted lips of concentration curving to form a slight smile.

"Happy?" he'd asked, eyebrows raising, making you nod quickly, directing your attention back to the game quickly.

You were excited when you saw that Taeyong's ball had missed, leaving one last cup on their side that you had to get rid of before you would win.

"Go ahead," you prompted Johnny, seeing him get into his position calmly, throwing the ball and shrugging nonchalantly when he'd seen it go in, the rest of the guys erupting in shouts.

You were amused that he'd reacted in such a way, walking over to the table of drinks and pouring something stronger for himself.

"Want some?" he'd asked before shaking his head, "Actually, no, I think you shouldn't," he laughed, making you raise an eyebrow at him, wondering why it seemed as though he knew your alcohol tolerance too.

You realized you had to play a final round against Jaehyun and Yuta, and this time you were a little more thankful for the fact that Johnny would drink on behalf of you, considering your tolerance wasn't the best and you were already starting to feel a little buzzed, smiling more than you were used to.

You could tell he was a little more relaxed too, even though the game was getting intense, even going to the extent of patting your head proudly when you landed a shot, resting a hand on your shoulder whenever it wasn't your turn (and sometimes even during your turn)

And after the previous game, you were even more determined not to have a repeat of the whole 'open up' situation, simply letting Johnny drink on behalf of you. Though your team eventually lost (Lucas would scold you later on saying it was totally your fault), the guys had moved on to a different game pretty quickly, deciding on a game of ‘never have I ever’.

You would've considered yourself to be a player with an advantage, seeing as you were pretty sure they were starting strong and you supposed you hadn't done a lot of questionable things in your life.

The guys had already lost two fingers by the first two players, who'd asked pretty mild questions related to drinking and skipping class, "Jungwoo, your turn."

The boy pursed his lips, before a mischievous grin appeared on his face, "I've got one. Never have I ever woken up next to someone I don't know."

You stayed the same, laughing at the way Taeyong had nonchalantly put a finger down, jumping with a start when you'd heard shouts erupt and many fingers start pointing at Johnny.

"Don’t lie! You have to put one down!"

Johnny raised his hands in defence, eyes widening, "Why should I?" He scoffed.

"You can't say you've never fucked someone when you were less than sober before," Jaehyun drawled, a hint of sulkiness in his tone, the now rosy-cheeked boy upset that he was left with only two fingers and silently hoping that he could drag someone else down with him.

Johnny shook his head, smiling smugly, "I, for one, happen to make sure I know the people I...have relations with, as a matter of fact," your eyes widened at his forwardness, looking down at your four extended fingers, hoping your shyness wasn't obvious.

"Jae, you're up," Johnny pat the boy on the shoulder, seeing him purse his lips.

Johnny tried not to glance at you, a part of him enjoying the breath of fresh air that you were still doing pretty well in the game, not seeing you pick up your cup more than once during the game so far.

Taeyong had snickered, leaning over to murmur something in Jaehyun’s ear.

Jaehyun smirked, directing his gaze at Johnny intentionally, "Never have I ever… made out with someone more than 8 years older than me."

Johnny refrained from standing up.

"Fuck you, Taeyong," lowering his finger before he picked up his cup, drinking it all the while with narrowed eyes directed towards Taeyong, making you laugh along with the rest at him.

"Wow, Y/N's doing pretty well," Jaehyun pointed out, "too bad we don't know enough about you," he said, heavy implications behind his words, earning a glare from Johnny.

"And you won't," Johnny butt in quickly.

Yuta spoke up, "alright, my turn. Never have I ever smoked."

The boys were confident initially, until Lucas had spoken up, his eyebrows furrowed as he pouted.

"Do e-ciggs count?"

Johnny nodded, knowing smile on his face, not seeming to mind that he had to put down a finger as well. You tried to hide your surprise when you saw how many of them had only picked up their cups after that, having lost the game already after running out of fingers.

A few of them had gotten up and searched for other things to play, Johnny leaning back in his seat, resting his weight on his hands as he looked at you.

"Did you have fun?" he gave you a soft smile, making you shrug, forcing your gaze from your fingers to look at him, momentarily distracted by how brown his eyes looked in this lighting, not to mention the hazy look in his eyes.

"Were the uh...notes, useful?" you asked in your lack of a better response.

Johnny furrowed his eyebrows, lips parting in thought before he nodded.

"Oh, right, I was gonna return them to you the next time we had class but I can actually give them to you now, if you want."

You hesitated before nodding, figuring you'd might as well since he had them now, your mind not registering the fact that this meant Johnny lived here and that getting them now meant getting them from his room, your alcohol-induced state thinking all the while that he just had them in his backpack somewhere here.

You were too focused on following Johnny to realize that the other guys were giving each other looks, assuming Johnny had brought you upstairs for other reasons, already passing the point in the house that guests were allowed in.

Though you had to admit you were a little thankful for that because you were starting to feel the drinks you'd consumed start to hit you, feeling your head get a lot heavier than it was just moments ago.

Johnny shoved the door open, revealing rather welcoming warm tones in the decoration, down to the different pictures he'd pasted around the room, varying from scenery to pictures of the other guys you'd seen downstairs.

"Is this your room?" you asked, hearing him grunt in affirmation, walking over to his desk and fishing out your notes from under the stack of papers.

He waved them at you and you'd accepted them gratefully, still standing around awkwardly next to his bed as he'd taken a seat on his bed, looking at you expectantly.

Too tired to form words, you watched curiously as he'd extended his arm, reaching over to tug on the hem of your shirt, urging you to sit down, his head pounding as well.

"Were they useful?" you asked, letting yourself sit on his bed with a light thud, the both of your minds too hazy to realize you'd asked him this already when you were downstairs.

Johnny nodded, his eyebrows raising as if he'd remembered something, leaning over your shoulder to flip the pages of your notes, pointing at something you'd written.

"There was… I don't really get this part, though," he murmured.

You tried explaining to him, only realizing how much the both of you were yawning when you were halfway through explaining, thinking that maybe this wasn't such a good time for you to be explaining literary concepts to him.

You laughed, shaking your head when you realized you'd been repeating yourself the past three sentences and Johnny hadn't even noticed, too busy staring at your lips as you spoke and trying to remind himself that whatever he had in mind probably wasn't what you had in mind.

"Honestly, I think I should explain this another time, I’m honestly really tired," you yawned, seeing him give you a tired smile, nodding.

"Who's your ride home?" he asked.

"Lucas," you yawned.

Johnny stood up, albeit reluctantly, and led you downstairs so you could go find Lucas, your heart sinking when you saw him passed out on the sofa in the guys' lounge room.

Hearing Johnny huff next to you, you sighed deeply.

"Well, there goes my ride," you frowned, attempting to shake him awake but to no avail.

Johnny cast an amused look at Lucas' sleeping figure, "I can uh...let you crash for the night? pretty sure the rest of us are too drunk to drive you back anyway," Johnny told you, making you shoot him a hesitant look.

"Are you sure? I can just like walk home myself or something—"

Johnny shot you a look, shaking his head as he was already leading you back up to his room.

You were surprised, again, at how the noise from the party was so muffled from Johnny's room.

"It's really late now, that'd be stupid and dangerous," he brought you back into his room.

Well, then.

"You wanna wash up first?" he yawned, and you realized he really wasn't kidding about this. "I've some clothes you can change into.”

Your eyes widened, before wincing at the throbbing ache in your head, the urge to just curl up in comfortable sheets and go to sleep stronger than ever.

“There’s a spare toothbrush and stuff in the cupboard behind the mirror, you can like... just go ahead and use that," he told you, and you'd stepped into the bathroom, shutting the door behind you.

If someone had asked you yesterday what you were planning on doing over the weekend, you definitely would not have expected yourself to be sleeping in Johnny Seo’s room for the night, much less after finding out all that you found out about him from the games you played prior to this.

Staring in the mirror in your tired daze after washing your face, you'd reached for the toothpaste, starting to brush your teeth slowly, flinching slightly when you heard a sharp knock on the door.

"Is it safe?" you heard him ask, huffing in amusement at the innocent nature of the question.

"Uh-huh, very," you murmured over the toothbrush, seeing the door open and he handed you a bunched up t-shirt and a pair of basketball shorts.

"Thanks," you said, spitting out the toothpaste and rinsing your mouth, closing the door behind you and proceeding to change into the clothes he'd given you, only there was a slight problem, the pants were much too big, sliding down your hips.

You'd tried to search if there was a string you could use to tighten the waistline of the pants, frowning when you saw none.

Peeking your head out of the bathroom, you spotted Johnny sitting at the edge of his bed, hands shoved into his pockets as he stared at nothing in particular.

"Johnny?" you called timidly, seeing his gaze lock with yours, tilting his head.

"Yeah?" he hummed.

"Slight problem, the pants are too big," you frowned, watching him raise his eyebrows, frowning, never having run into this problem before because he didn't usually give girls his clothes to wear.

"Oh, shit. Alright, wait hold on, I'll go see if I can get a smaller pair," he got up, walking out and going over to Ten's room, just as the said boy was trying to drag a very passed out Lucas into the room.

"Hey, glad I caught you here, do you happen to have a spare pair of pants I could borrow?" Ten practically dropped Lucas once they were past the door, panting with a pained look on his face.

"Pants, for what?"

"For Y/N," Johnny said, already having anticipated the smirk Ten gave him.

"Just let her go without them, no one else will see," Ten shrugged, as if just having solved Johnny's problem with his Ten-logic.

Johnny shot him a look.

"I'm not doing that," he said firmly.

"Why? Is this the period where you get to know someone before you....what did you say just now? 'have relations' with them?"

Johnny rolled his eyes, "Yes and no. Look, enough questions. Would you just give me the pants?"

Ten scrunched his nose in amusement, walking over to his cupboard and rummaging around before pulling out a pair of shorts, tossing them over to Johnny.

"Have fun. Oh, and sweet dreams… if you even get any sleep tonight." Ten waggled his eyebrows at Johnny, which Johnny had promptly ignored. Walking back into his room and seeing you leaning against the doorframe of the bathroom with a tired look on your face, he held the pants up with one hand.

Johnny couldn't help but laugh at how tired you looked as he handed you the shorts, "here, hope these fit better."

You accepted them gratefully, eventually coming out of the bathroom with your clothes and Johnny's too-big shorts in hand.

Johnny had told you to just set them aside as he'd gone into the bathroom to wash up, coming out and walking over to his cupboard, almost forgetting you were there as he removed his shirt, his back facing you.

Your eyes widened, turning away quickly so you wouldn't start staring.

After you heard the door to the cupboard shut, you asked, "Are you done?"

Hearing his laugh in response, followed by a "yes", you turned around, seeing him turn his lights off to the room, though you could still see.

"Hope you don't mind that we're sharing a bed, by the way. I can go sleep in Taeyong's room, if you're not okay with it."

Stunned, you watched him slip into the bed, leaving a space for you.

"Oh, no it's fine, I mean, do you mind? I don't wanna impose or anything," you murmured, resting a knee on the side of his bed tentatively, seeing him shake his head.

You were used to sharing a bed with Lucas whenever he stayed over, but this was way different. Because this was Johnny, and not Lucas who you’d seen practically all sides of already.

"I don't mind at all," he assured you, and you'd taken that as your queue to slip into bed as well, stressed about which way to face, eventually deciding on lying with your back to the bed.

"Thanks again... for letting me crash, and stuff," you murmured, hearing him hum.

"You were really cool playing beer pong just now," you blurted, starting to ramble in your fatigue.

You heard him let out a small huff, already being able to picture the tired smile on his face.

"I had fun, since you were on my team," he murmured, and if you thought his voice when asking to borrow your highlighters or pens in class had an effect on you, the way he spoke to you now was much much worse.

"Hope Lucas doesn't mind the fact that you're sleeping here," he yawned.

You frowned.

"Lucas? why would he mind? He's been be—" you stopped yourself, realizing you couldn't just tell Johnny that Lucas had been nagging at you to try your luck with him.

"Huh? You guys aren't like… seeing each other?" he asked, and you shook your head.

Johnny didn’t know why he bothered asking. He already knew you and Lucas were just friends, he figured he’d simply wanted to hear it from you, just in case.

"Nope, far from that," you told him.

A silence had fallen between the both of you after that, and you'd turned your head to face Johnny, whose eyes were closed.

"Go to sleep, Y/N.”

You weren't sure why, but you felt like a child being put to bed by their parents when they weren't ready for bed yet, not being able to help the "why," of protest you'd mumbled.

"Because I'm really tipsy and you're making it really hard for me not to kiss you," he murmured, turning around to face the opposite direction, leaving you shutting your eyes immediately, warmth spreading to your cheeks quickly.

===

You frowned when you'd woken up to a weight on your stomach, groggily wanting to turn but confused at the sight of Johnny's pillow being empty.

Rubbing your eyes again, you'd glanced at your stomach, realizing that Johnny's hand was draped over your stomach, his palm tucked in under you like he was hugging a bolster, and his face snuggled up next to your waist.

Your eyes widened, texting Lucas and asking where he was, seeing that he’d given you a missed call.

10:21pm -don’t call me lucas i swear to god just text me- lucas 10:21pm -WHY what happened??? why can’t i call u???-

You saw that he was already calling you, not listening to you, and because your phone decided it would be good not to give you the option to decline his call, you picked up in your panic to get your phone to stop ringing.

“Lucas,” you whispered harshly, “I told you not to call me!” your movements had caused Johnny to stir awake, wondering what you were so tense about.

“Why can’t I call you? and why are you whispering!”

“Where are you?” you asked, hoping he hadn’t left the house without you.

“I’m in Ten’s room, where are you?”

“I’m in Johnny’s ro—” you felt Johnny shift, moving his hand to rest on your stomach, resting his chin on top of his hand as he looked up at you with tired eyes, his shoulder practically holding you down with his weight, making you stop talking to Lucas halfway in your distracted state, only snapping out of it when you heard a knock at the door.

“Come in,” Johnny murmured tiredly, and you brought your hands up to cover your face when you saw Lucas barge into the room, looking between you and Johnny before pressing his lips together, struggling to contain his smile.

“Uh...Y/N, I’ll just... wait for you downstairs,” he murmured, a slight giggle escaping his lips as Johnny waved at him with a smile, watching as Lucas closed the door behind him after walking back out.

“Good morning,” Johnny murmured, pushing himself off of you, getting up from his bed groggily as he fished for a bag from underneath his table, placing your clothes inside neatly along with your notes.

“Go on, poor Lucas is waiting for you downstairs,” he fiddled with his earring, holding the bag out for you.

You accepted the bag, getting up and smoothing down your shirt where it had bunched up while you were asleep.

“I’ll uh...return this to you after I wash it,” you said, and he was nodding patronizingly, hands on your shoulders as he guided you downstairs, seeing Lucas waiting in the kitchen, talking to Doyoung.

“Morning,” Johnny greeted Doyoung in the kitchen, seeing Lucas stand up and cover his mouth (though it was obvious he was grinning), nodding goodbye at Doyoung as you were practically pushed out of the door, Johnny smiling and waving you goodbye as he leant against the doorframe.

Once you were closer to his car, Lucas nudged you harshly, almost sending you stumbling onto the lawn.

“What the hell was that?” Lucas asked you in hushed whispers (or as hushed as he could bring his voice down), making you wince, letting out a groan.

“You’re asking me? I wasn’t necessarily prepared for you to pass out on me,” you glared at him, getting into the passenger seat of his car.

He sighed, thankful to be able to talk normally now.

“Yeah, well...” he trailed off, not being able to find an excuse for you. “But the way you two looked so cozy just now!” he diverted the topic, making your eyes widen defensively.

“That was all him, okay?”

“You see? I told you he was interested in you!” Lucas started the engine, beginning to drive slowly, making his tone more serious.

“But you guys didn’t…” he let out a grunt, “did you?”

You almost screamed, shaking your head vigorously, “Oh my god no, we didn’t.”

Lucas glanced at you pensively before looking back at the road, “That’s weird. You guys didn’t even make out or anything?”

“Lucas!” You scolded

“What? I’m asking important questions!”

You huffed in disbelief, shaking your head eventually, “No, we didn’t.”

Lucas hummed again, as if he was surprised, “… weird.”

“Why do you keep saying it’s weird?” you frowned, seeing him shake his head.

Lucas brought a hand away from the wheel to run through his hair, smoothing down the mess. “I don’t know, just...unexpected I guess. Johnny’s not usually so nice…”

“Take this for example,” Lucas gestured to the clothes you were wearing, “never in my duration of being here have I ever seen Johnny lend his clothes to anyone other than the other guys… and that’s saying a lot too because you guys didn’t even do anything last night.”

You contemplated on telling Lucas what Johnny had said before you slept, afraid that if you told him now he’d throw a fit and swerve the car, so you decided to wait until you’d reached your house, getting out of the car and grasping the handle of the bag tightly.

“I mean....okay he did say something,”

Lucas snapped his head around to face you, a questioning look on his face, eyebrows furrowing and lips parting as a hint of a smile played at his lips.

“We were like already going to sleep and all and we talked a little and then he suddenly told me to go to sleep and I was kind of sad because I felt like he was just trying to get me to shut up,” Lucas snickered at that, “but then I asked him why and then he said... it was because he was like really tipsy and I was making it hard for him not to kiss me.”

You scrunched your eyes shut, hoping the lift would reach your floor quicker.

“He said that?!” Lucas gasped, making you nod, gauging his face for a reaction, seeing him let out a loud strangled sound of excitement.

“Okay, well clearly that clarifies the question of whether he’s attracted to you,” he told you, making you frown, walking out of the elevator and unlocking the door of your apartment quickly, Lucas shutting the door behind him.

“Why do you look so hesitant? Isn’t this a good thing?” Lucas asked, seeing you shrug at him.

You sighed, feeling your headache worsen.

“Think about it, Lucas. I don’t know whether he’s actually interested and what he... intends to get out of it, you know? I heard some girls talking about the guys in the kitchen yesterday, and they weren’t speaking very highly of Johnny and his friends…”

Lucas dismissed your worries quickly, “that depends on how Johnny treats you, and of course, whether you’re willing to take the risk.”

“You said it yourself, it’s a risk,” you told him pointedly.

Lucas shook his head insistently, “Look, Johnny’s really nice, and if anything, whatever he’s been doing lately is just his way of trying to get to know you more.”

Lucas shrugged, walking over to your cupboard and getting out the spare set of clothes he kept here for days where he would stay over.

Taking in a deep breath, you let it out with a sigh, shaking your head.

“Okay, fine. I’ll just see what he does from here.”

Lucas smiled triumphantly, “That’s right. Now, I’m gonna take a shower and give you some time to think about him.”

===

“Hey,” you’d seen Johnny in the library when you were doing work in the spare time before your literature lecture, thankful that you’d brought the bag of Johnny’s clothes to return him. His hair was hidden again by his cap, turned backwards so it wasn’t covering his face, doing wonders in making him look like a typical boy (except typical boys didn’t look as good as he did)

“Hi,” you greeted, seeing him gesture to the table, “is there anyone sitting here?”

He gave you a small smile, adjusting his grip on his cup of coffee.

Shaking your head, you urged him to sit down, “Nope, go ahead.”

He gave you a smile in thanks, sitting down and laying out his things.

“Actually, since we weren’t very successful the other night,” he let out a huff of laughter, “I was wondering if you’d mind explaining to me that part in your notes again?”

Your eyebrows raised in surprise, nodding as you saw him push his notes towards you on the table, leaning forward to rest his weight on his elbows as you pointed with your pencil to explain to him the links between the different aspects of the story and how they related to that part he didn’t understand.

As you did so, you tried not to let yourself get distracted by the way he would take his lower lip between his lips in concentration, or the way he would bring the cup of coffee to his lips and nod at you as you spoke, stopping you whenever he didn’t get it to ask you if what he got was correct.

“Does that make sense?” you asked him to clarify once you were done explaining, seeing him nod slowly, eventually looking up to smile at you, nodding more firmly.

“Yeah, thanks so much,” he told you, putting his notes aside and opening his laptop up, typing away at whatever paper he was doing.

You noticed how different it was for him to be sitting at the self-study tables versus when he sat somewhere exposed with you, seeing how many more people approached him to say hi or walked past with the intention of getting his attention, and you lost count of the number of pretty girls that had chimed in with a ‘hi johnny’, but not without shooting you a surprised look, as if to silently ask why you were sitting with him in somewhere that wasn’t a party setting.

“Sorry, is it distracting you?” Johnny noticed after a while when he’d connected how you’d tap your pen and take longer to return to your work each time a girl or guy had walked past him to say hi.

You looked back at him in surprise, realizing he’d caught you staring at the girl that had just walked past the both of you, saying she would see him at the next mixer.

“Huh?” you raised your eyebrows in question, hearing him let out a huff in amusement.

“Nah...you just seem a little… distracted, is all,” he said, a soft smile on his face as he twirled his pen between his fingers, making you scoff, panicked at the thought that your distraction had been obvious enough for him to notice.

“You should be the one that’s distracted, with someone coming by to greet you every five minutes,” you shot back quickly.

Johnny shrugged, bringing his cup of coffee up to his lips with a smile, taking a sip before he spoke.

“I don’t know, Y/N… you sitting in front of me is already plenty distracting.”

You shut your mouth quickly, a small scoff leaving you.

“You know you shouldn’t say things like that so casually,” you laughed nervously, seeing him put his pen down, as if prompting you to continue so you did, “might make me get the wrong idea.”

He hummed, as if pretending to consider your words, though he’d already made up his mind on what he wanted to say.

“I don’t know, Y/N, what exactly is the ‘wrong’ idea?” he asked with feigned innocence, scrunching his nose up slightly, earning an exasperated look from you.

“You know what I’m talking about, Johnny.”

“Then you won’t mind telling me, right? You know, so I know that we’re on the same page?” he shrugged, prodding you further.

“Okay, fine. I just meant that if you keep saying shit like that to me I might actually start to think you like me,” you huffed, highlighting another line on your book, looking up when you hadn’t heard a response from him.

Johnny Seo wasn’t someone that usually expressed his interest like this, he was used to casual flirting, not flirting to win someone over, especially when that person was you.

And now that he was finally in that position, finding a way to express his interest in a way that wouldn’t intimidate you was a lot harder than he’d expected it to be.

Johnny shrugged, “… maybe I do want you to think that.”

Your lips parted, not being able to find a proper response to what he said, choosing to stare at him in shock, the way he was looking at you with an expectant expression, picking up his phone and texting someone as you tried to recover from your shock.

“What’s... what’s in it for you?” you asked, seeing him look up from his phone screen, giving you a shrug as he set his phone back down on the table gently.

“Well, you... I guess,” he answered, making you furrow your eyebrows, still a little bit unconvinced that he was being sincere.

I mean, not that you had any reason to question him, but you just felt like it was too good to be true.

“Oh… uh, well.”

Johnny decided to put you out of your misery for now,

“Anyway, should we get going? Lecture’s gonna start soon.”

He'd gotten up from his seat, slinging his bag over his shoulder as he gathered the rest of his things in hand nonchalantly, and you did your best to shove everything into your bag before carrying it in front of you, as if hugging it would make you feel a little more sane after what he'd just told you.

“The guys are asking when they’re gonna be able to see you again,” he laughed, making you frown in confusion, slightly out of breath from climbing the stairs up to the auditorium.

“Well, when do you think would be a good time for that?” you asked, seeing him scrunch his nose up.

“If I’m being honest, I wouldn’t bring you to see them if I had a choice… can’t trust some of them not to fall for you,” he tilted his head, lifting his cap and adjusting his hair before putting it back on.

You couldn’t help the laugh that left you.

“What the hell, Johnny, then why’d you even tell me they wanted to see me again?” You huffed, laughing at the absurdity of the situation.

Johnny laughed with you, shrugging when he realized what he said could have made you very confused, choosing instead to shake his head, dismissing the previous statements.

“You know what? It’s alright. I’ll let you know when the next mixer is, but then again Lucas will probably tell you first."

You couldn't help but laugh, knowing that was very much true, distracted as you’d reached the auditorium. Since it was your first time entering with Johnny, you’d wondered if people always gawked at Johnny like this as he walked past them, pushing the door open for you to the lecture hall.

“After you," he bowed dramatically, making you shove his shoulders so he would straighten up, not wanting to attract any more attention despite being flattered by the gesture.

You tried to remain calm at Johnny had taken his seat beside you instead of behind you this time, claiming it was to make it ‘easier for him to borrow your stationery’ (even though the both of you sort of knew/hoped that it wasn't true).

You watched as your professor had walked into the room, setting up his things noisily on the table as he invited ( or demanded ) for everyone to take their seats, announcing that today's lesson was rather content heavy.

Sighing, you took out your book, flipping it open to the pages he was referring to and having your laptop ready to take notes, Johnny taking the liberty to lean over and ask you for a pen, the smell of his hoodie making you wish you could just lean forward and nuzzle your face into it.

But of course, you stayed calm, squeaking out a small 'go ahead' to him, seeing him smile and reach over you to grab at the pink highlighter in your pencil case.

"Y/N," you heard him murmur, and you'd raised your eyebrows, nodding at him to continue as you typed down what your professor was writing on the screen. You hoped he wouldn’t ask you what the professor had just said because you were definitely struggling to pay attention.

"Do you wanna get dinner after this?" he asked, making you snicker, trying to stifle your laughter before it could echo throughout the room.

"Johnny, the lecture barely even started," you turned to him with an amused look, seeing him dismiss your amusement.

"But yes, I don't mind getting dinner with you after this," you replied softly, seeing his eyes widen, pretending to stab your highlighter in his chest with a wince.

"Ouch, you 'don't mind’? Hey, if you don't wanna have dinner with me you can just tell me," he teased, making you roll your eyes.

"Shut up before I change my mind, Johnny."

You realized how distracting Johnny's presence beside you was, thankful that he hadn’t chosen to done this sooner or you would’ve definitely left lectures feeling as though you’d never even attended.

It was the way he would lean over to peek at what you were writing when he got lost, or the way he would play with his earrings absentmindedly, which would make his earrings fall off occasionally, and he would have to fumble around to get it, making you unconsciously put your hand against the table to make sure he wouldn't knock his head against it, an action that didn't go unnoticed by him.

"Y/N," he whispered, the harshness of it making the people in front of you turn around, and you gave them apologetic looks in return, turning back to face Johnny with an expectant look.

Johnny leant over closer to you, turning to whisper, "What did he write, I can't read his fugly handwriting—"

"Johnny is there something so important that you have to be interrupting Y/N in the middle of my class?" you winced when you heard your professor's voice echo through the classroom, drawing a load of unwanted attention to you.

Johnny smiled, shaking his head, "Nothing, professor, just talking about how much I love your handwriting."

The professor eyed him suspiciously, nodding slowly.

"Flattered, but I’d like you to pay attention to the words I'm writing instead of the way I'm writing them," he sighed loudly, turning back to recollect his thoughts and pick up where he'd left off.

You'd silently nudged your laptop towards him, gesturing with your finger at the words Johnny was having trouble deciphering.

"Oh, thanks," he giggled.

You were pretty surprised at how Johnny had been keeping up considering the fact that he didn't always have the best track record for lectures. You were almost about to commend him for it until you turned and realized his head was close to hitting the table, already falling asleep.

Suppressing your smile, you'd reached a hand over to pat his head, making him jolt awake, confusion laced in his features.

Pushing his cup of coffee towards him, you struggled with the urge to smooth down his messy hair, "drink something. It'll keep you awake," you whispered.

Seeing him nod gratefully at you, he'd finished the rest of his coffee, leaning back and straightening his posture in an attempt to make himself feel less groggy, even at one point resorting to thinking about you so there was no way he could fall asleep.

At one point you'd took pity on him, initiating games of ‘tic tac toe’ on your spare paper to keep him awake, not wanting the professor to call you both out again.

"Alright, since I’m already starting to lose most of you, I’ll wrap it up here today. You're all free to go."

Johnny let out a relieved sigh.

"Finally, I'm hungry. Quick, let's go eat," he stood up quickly, taking his hat from the table and adjusting his hair before hiding it under his hat as he waited for you, ignoring the people who were staring as they walked past the both of you on their way out, surprised that Johnny Seo actually made friends in his classes that weren't his frat brothers.

"Did you have any place in mind?" you asked, seeing him nod.

"But only if you're okay with it, of course. I was thinking we could go to the burger joint just outside campus," he told you, his words alone enough to make your stomach grumble.

"I'm more than okay with that," you huffed, seeing his smile grow bigger, wordlessly leading you out of the lecture hall.

"You seem to know this area pretty well," he commented, after the both of you had discussed the other food places in the area that you thought were good.

You nodded, "I mean, I kind of have to. I live here," you let out a small giggle, seeing his eyebrows raise in intrigue.

"Oh, you don't live in the dorms?"

You shook your head. Johnny nodded pensively, making you curious to his reaction.

"What’s with the reaction?" you laughed.

He shook his head, and you spotted the burger and pizza joint down the street you were currently walking on.

"Nah, just, that kind of explains why the guys haven't really seen you around school," you raised an eyebrow.

"Do they spend lots of time in the girls dorms?" you joked, a part of you not expecting him to look so serious as he replied you.

"… I guess you could say that," he shrugged.

Walking into the shop, the owner had recognized you from how often you and Lucas get food here, and she had seemed to recognize Johnny as well.

"Y/N, usual for you and Lucas?" she'd asked before turning to Johnny, "table for the rest of the guys as well today, Johnny?"

Your eyes widened, strangely feeling shy that you were here with Johnny instead of Lucas, but if Johnny was shy, he did a pretty good job of not showing it, simply shaking his head with a friendly smile on his face.

"Nope, just a table for the two of us will be fine," he told her, and now it was her turn to look surprised, only realizing now that the both of you had arrived together, doing a poor job of concealing her smile as she led the both of you to a booth at the side.

You nodded at her in thanks before she'd placed the both of your menus down.

"Do you know what you want already?" you nodded at Johnny's question.

"Great, then we'll just order now," the owner nodded, taking your orders before leaving you two (not without a cheeky 'have fun' leaving her lips as she left).

"So," Johnny began, glancing at how you were typing away at your phone, since Lucas was blowing up your phone asking if you were with Johnny.

6:59pm -yes im with johnny now leave me alone pls ill update u later-

You set your phone down, looking at him expectantly, but he was having his own crisis about wanting to be forward with you but suddenly not knowing how to flirt when he looked at you.

You were thankful for the water that they'd served, bringing it up to your lips and taking big sips to take your mind off how nervous you were in front of Johnny, not only because he looked so pretty up close but also because of the way he gave you his full attention.

"Do I make you nervous?" he suddenly spoke, almost making you choke on your water, wiping your mouth with the back of your hand, making Johnny simply stare.

"Uh....just a little bit?" you confessed, seeing his eyes crinkle at its corners when he laughed at you, his laugh bubbling out in fits, making you smile, enjoying how cute he looked like this.

"Is there anything I can do to make you more comfortable?" he asked, and in your flustered state you'd laughed nervously, shaking your head.

"It's fine, it's not that bad," you lied, "it's not your fault, I’m just hungry.”

The way he’d simply smiled at you had made your hands come up to cover his face from your view, urging your heart desperately to calm down.

Feeling him pull your hands down gently, you pursed your lips, making him cast you a very amused look.

"You weren't this shy at the party," he murmured teasingly, making you desperately glance at the owner for help, seeing her prepare to bring your food to you (which you were very thankful for).

"Yeah, well, you didn't necessarily come with a sign that warned me that you're even prettier when I’m fully sober," you laughed, seeing his eyes widen, your words catching him off guard, and you noticed the way his gaze shifted, looking elsewhere as he used one hand to cover his smile. Perhaps... did you just make Johnny Suh... shy?

The owner had come to give the both of you your food, amused at Johnny's flustered state, enjoying seeing this side of him that wasn't the always-calm, flirting-is-his-second-nature exterior he showed her whenever he and his frat brothers would visit the eatery.

"You should be careful with your words too," he finally spoke after gaining back his composure, "might make me think you're interested in me too."

He shoved a fry into his mouth, his cheeks puffing as he chewed and you tried to resist the urge to reach over and pinch his cheeks gently.

You shot him a look, maybe I kind of am, you wanted to say. But for now, you decided on simply nodding in understanding as you ate your food, not having enough guts now to say it to his face.

As you two ate, he'd asked you questions about why you chose your major, even asking you how you got to know Lucas when the both of you are so different, and you actually found yourself growing more comfortable with him as you talked, starting to feel less like he was someone you were intimidated by and more like he was someone that you could see yourself hanging out with in the future (or more, if luck was on your side).

At one point, you'd started to delve into the things that were practically itching at your mind since the mixer you'd gone for, curiosity pushing you to ask him questions about the things the guys had said about him.

"C'mon, don't tell me you've never sort of... you know, wanted to be with someone that you knew you could never actually have?" he defended, the both of your food having been finished long ago, simply nursing your drinks that the owner was kind enough to let you have refills for.

You furrowed your eyebrows, shaking your head at him, "thinking back on it now, i don't think it's ever really… crossed my mind," you told him, knowing that was a big fat lie because here you were looking at Johnny sipping his drink and wondering how good his plump lips would feel on yours.

Johnny rolled his eyes playfully.

"What a bore," he joked.

"Sorry, I guess I’m just not fratboy material," you shrugged with a giggle, making him sigh, bringing his otherwise empty cup to his lips to let an ice cube slide into his mouth.

“It’s a good thing, honestly,” he told you quickly.

"Does it bother you?" he asked, the question catching you off guard as you raised an eyebrow at him, a silent gesture to prompt him to elaborate.

"You know, the fact that I’m associated with that kind of... behaviour," he told you, the mood suddenly growing a little too serious too fast.

You shot him a look, not knowing how he expected you to be honest with him, "Look, it's no secret that you've… you know, built up that kind of reputation for yourself, but I can't lie and say that it doesn't bother me at all."

"What part about it bothers you?"

You were confused at his questions, not expecting him to care about what people thought of him, but you didn't know that this was just a result of him not wanting to disappoint you, wanting to be honest with you about his intentions.

"I don't know," you lied, shrugging and avoiding his gaze, feeling as though you were an open book under the intense stare he was giving you.

Johnny shot you a skeptical look, one that said there was practically no cheating yourself out of this question.

"Be honest, please,” his tone was gentle, pleading. How could you possibly refuse?

You let out a breath you didn't know you were holding, "I guess I just… don't know how genuine you're being with me, you know? You have this...ability, to win people over. I can't help it if I find myself wondering why you started approaching me, asking me out on dates like this—"

"So you think it's a date?" just like that, the seriousness of the situation had dissolved slightly, a mischievous glint in his eyes as he smirked at you.

You scoffed.

"I say all of that and that's what you got out of it?"

You shook your head, the owner returning with your receipt and the both of you taking that as your queue to leave.

"Oh, I heard all of it, Y/N, believe me." He said, his tone firm, "and believe it or not, I’m telling you now that everything I’ve done to approach you and get to know you so far was genuine, because I’m very much interested in you, Y/N. Like… for real.” he told you.

"I wouldn't have even made Lucas specially bring you to the party if I didn't mean it."

Your eyes widened at that, making you think back to all the instances where Lucas seemed so confident that Johnny was into you but each time you'd approached him it just seemed like a normal exchange between friends.

"… here?"

You were pulled from your thoughts when you'd heard Johnny speak, looking back at him with a sheepish expression, "Sorry, can you repeat that?"

He gave you a look of mock annoyance, sighing dramatically.

"I said, can I walk you home? I won't impose if you're not comfortable. I just wanna make sure you get home safe, since you live outside campus and all..." he murmured, and if there was a meter for how much you were starting to fall for Johnny, it would've definitely jumped up a little now.

You nodded.

"I'm alright with it," you said simply, shaking your head at the way he tried ( and failed ) to contain his smile, nodding slowly.

"Y/N—"

"Can we play the silent game, please?"

Johnny shut his mouth quickly, nodding and actually proving successful in keeping quiet the rest of the way.

Only when you'd reached your apartment block did he suddenly blurt out, "Okay silent game over!"

"Johnny, you can't just declare—"

"I know but please, just listen, alright? I know given the whole... nature of my love life, if you can even call it a love life, whatever I’ve promised you doesn't seem so… legit. But I swear, it's just... I’m so used to casual flirting that I kind of seem like that boy who cried wolf or help or something... whatever!"

He looked at you with wide eyes, almost desperate to convince you of his intentions.

"I can get why you could feel overwhelmed now, so I’m not expecting any answer from you now...but whatever it is, I’ll respect whatever answer you have to give me, okay? Whether you want to continue getting to know each other… with romantic intentions, or… you know, not."

You looked at him with raised eyebrows in surprise, not knowing what else to do other than to nod, especially with the way he'd seemed as if he was about to lean in, and your breath hitched, but Johnny had pulled away suddenly, nodding at you, his fists clenching behind his back.

"Goodnight, Y/N." he said, promptly leaving before he could mentally kick himself even more.

===

2:51am -lucas help i keep thinking abt what johnny told me during dinner n now i cant sleep-

Lucas 11:02am -meet me at the cafe on your street in fifteen minutes, u can thank me later lol-

Seems like Lucas knew you better than to think you'd actually give up a whole night's sleep for Johnny, ( which you didn't, you'd ended up passing out at 3:30 in the morning ), and you hadn't bothered to read the message properly before putting on whatever you had in arm's reach and brisk walking to the cafe to meet Lucas.

Only Lucas hadn't told you he was going to bring help that came with light brown hair and went by the name of Yuta.

Walking into the cafe, you'd made as if to walk back out when you saw Lucas waving happily at you, smiling as though he totally didn't warn you that a cute boy was gonna see you while you were dressed in your pajama pants and t-shirt, slippers on and hair still messy from sleeping.

"Lucas," you frowned, sitting yourself down at the table and seeing Yuta look at you with a blank expression, nodding his head at you in greeting.

Lucas clapped his hands together with a stupid grin on his face, "Okay, great. So, as I was saying just now, Johnny asked her to dinner—"

Yuta snorted, shaking his head as he kept his gaze on the coffee he was stirring, ice clinking in the cup obnoxiously as your stared, wide eyed and eyebrows furrowed at him in offence that he was laughing at your dilemma.

"Johnny doesn't do dates," Yuta snickered, before realizing the implication of the statement, his mouth pulling into a frown, "forget what I said, continue.”

"Yeah, so then, he tells her that he's really into her and that he won't pressure her to give him a reply now and that he wants her to think about it and shit," Yuta nodded as Lucas had explained, turning to glance at you curiously, a part of him strangely not finding it weird that his friend Johnny would be into this pajama clad, mess of a girl sitting before him.

"Okay, now, as Johnny's close friend, what's your verdict?" Lucas said, tapping a (very loud) drumroll onto the table, thankful that there wasn't many people in the cafe at this time other than other working aged couple who were talking louder than his drumroll.

Yuta looked at you, sipping his drink with an intense gaze scrutinizing you.

"Do you like Johnny?"

You felt your cheeks heat up, "I mean, he's really nice and—"

"Yes or no?" Yuta said again, firmer this time which made you yelp out a "yes!"

Lucas eyed the both of you with a wide smile, covering his mouth in an effort to stifle his amusement, watching Yuta's expression slowly turn brighter, leaning his head back to laugh heartily.

"Great, cause he's totally whipped for you. And in my experience of knowing Johnny for like… two going on three years now, he's a sap, and from what Lucas has told me, he's definitely into you, and not just for a fuck in case that's what you're concerned about," Yuta shrugged, his tone matter-of-fact.

You almost choked at his bluntness, nodding slowly, seeing Yuta shake his head with a small giggle, a very contrasting demeanour from how he usually appeared to strangers.

"Don't be stressed, Johnny's the most genuine guy I’ve met, and when he says something like what he told you, I can assure you he really means it."

Lucas applauded, laughter bubbling from his lips as if he'd been holding it for very long, and you watched as Yuta stood up, giving you a reassuring smile that made you feel like all was good in the world.

"There's gonna be another party at our house tomorrow... yeah, just saying," he winked, leaving you to ponder on what he'd said. All the while, a very smug looking Lucas was looking at you expectantly.

"So what do you have to say now?"

You huffed, rolling your eyes, "Thank you, Lucas."

===

Plucking up whatever courage your emergency counselling session with Yuta had given you, you'd ended up standing outside the frat house, intimidated by the all-too-loud and curse-laced song that was blaring through the house (Lucas practically had to push you in the house in your anxiousness).

Your heart was practically thumping along with the bass as you navigated through the crowd in the living room to reach the kitchen. Making a trip to the kitchen first, you'd gotten a bit of liquid courage in your system, having to force yourself from the snacks table when a group of people initiating body shots had come to invade your personal space.

Thankfully enough (though you were slightly disturbed), you'd spotted Ten in this said crowd, and he'd cast you a smirk before gesturing upstairs, leaning over to you to say (or yell) into your ear.

"Johnny's in his room!" he shouted, adding an "alone!" as an afterthought.

"Why are you telling me that?!" you yelled back, seeing him shake his head, practically shoving you out of the kitchen.

"Why do you think?! Just gooo!"

And so you did, glancing around to make sure the people around you were mostly preoccupied that they wouldn't see you going upstairs, since that area was restricted for guests unless they were invited.

You knocked on the door, hearing a “Go away, Jaehyun, I’m not playing spin the bottle!" that was unmistakeably Johnny, making you laugh, shaking your head.

"Johnny, it's me,” you called, “Y/N. Ten said I could find you here," you winced, accidentally speaking louder than you'd intended to, having gotten used to speaking at a yelling volume while you were downstairs.

It was only a matter of seconds before you'd seen the door open, revealing a messy haired Johnny dressed in a black sleeveless top and shorts, and you'd tried not to let your eyes linger on his exposed thighs, looking back at his hair.

"You cut your hair," you pointed out, seeing his hand go up to his hair with a shy nod, before realizing you were still standing outside his room.

"I did,” he gave you a soft smile, “Hey, come in," he cleared his throat, a million questions in his head about your sudden appearance here.

As if you read his mind, you began.

"Yuta told me that you guys were having a party," you explained your presence here, seeing him remove his laptop from his bed and place it onto his bedside table.

"Didn't expect you to show up, to be honest," he huffed, though the laugh didn't seem to reach his eyes, he'd almost looked worried.

"That's actually kind of why I’m here," you started, feeling a little more confident speaking from where you were standing at his door, "I gave some thought to what you told me the other day."

Johnny’s eyes widened, his hand coming up in a gesture for you to wait.

"Look, before you say anything, I hope you're not being pressured into giving me a response, I really do want you to be sure about your decision," he looked at you from where he stood at his bedside table, searching your face for any sign of an emotion he could place.

"No, really, I’m not. I made up my mind," you told him firmly.

"I wanna give this a shot—"

"It's alright, Y/N, I totally underst- wait, what?"

You couldn't help the huff of laughter that escaped your lips, nodding at him, "Yes, Johnny. I wanna give this a shot."

You saw him bring a hand up to run through his hair, letting out a small sigh, "I'm... really glad to hear that."

He continued, taking steps towards you that you barely noticed with how distracted you were by the triumphant feeling of getting that off your chest

"And, you've really been nothing but nice to me from the start, you didn't try to use me for parties or like... clout or whatever, or even for... other stuff, and I really appreciate that, you know?”

“But that bad part about that is that I don't know what other way to thank you..." you felt your heart start to pick up speed at his proximity, the way all he had to do was just lean over and he would be at a very, very dangerous proximity to you.

"But at the same time, how can I resist?" Johnny looked into your eyes, his stare almost wolfish, looking as though he were 3 steps ahead of you and you didn't even know.

"May I?"

Johnny asked, his voice just slightly louder than a murmur but softer than you'd ever heard him, and he'd brought a hand up slowly, as if testing the waters, taking your unwavering gaze at him to be a good sign as he let his hand cup the side of your jaw, warmth spreading through your neck as his thumb softly caressed your lower lip, letting it spring back gently when he removed his thumb.

How could you refuse, when everything in your body was aching for him to close the gap between your lips and his?

His other hand smoothed down from your shoulder to find its place on your hip, and you watched as he'd began to lean in, letting your eyes flutter closed when you heard him murmur, "relax, baby."

"I haven't done this in a while," you dared to whisper, a small huff of amusement leaving your lips, "I'm going to disappoint you."

He shook his head, a huff of laughter escaping him.

"Indulge me, I’ve been thinking about this for ages now."

He connected his lips with yours, and you'd kissed him back, gasping at the feeling of his hands going to the back of your thighs, urging you to jump as he wrapped your legs around his torso, not breaking the kiss as he led you to his bed so you wouldn't have to kiss with a doorknob poking into your back.

Moving carefully, Johnny sat on his bed, leaning against the headboard with your knees on either side of his hips.

He swiped at your lower lip with his tongue, making you laugh at the sensation, letting him deepen the kiss, hearing knocking at his door, pulling away from him quickly with a start when you heard Yuta's voice.

"Johnny, did you talk to Y/N yet? Lucas said he brought her here but she disappeared."

You gave Johnny a panicked look, seeing him raise an eyebrow at you, moving to press kisses to your jaw, trailing them down your neck, speaking between kisses.

"Go ahead, answer him,” his voice was so intoxicating, you’d almost forgotten what he’d said.

You could practically feel his smile as he rubbed his hands soothingly over your thighs, amused at your shock.

You rest your arm on his shoulder, fingers combing through his hair as you mustered up your voice to reply Yuta, Johnny giving the skin at your neck a light nip at your delay, making you tug at his hair unconsciously, almost eliciting a groan from him.

"Yep, I’m here, Yuta! You can tell Lucas—" you swatted at the back of Johnny's head when he'd blown cold air on the spot on your neck he’d bit just before, making you shiver from the ticklish sensation, "you can tell him everything's fine!"

You heard a pause before Yuta replied with a hum. (though you swore you heard Lucas' tell-tale giggle)

Johnny smiled at you, "where were we?" he used his thumb and forefinger to guide your mouth back to his, feeling him tense up when you let you fingers find purchase in his hair, making you laugh, amused at his reaction.

"I love it when you do that," he sighed, and you'd pulled away, shoving yourself off of him as you flopped onto his bed beside him, Johnny looking down at you with a look full of admiration and a giddy kind of happiness.

You scrunched your nose up at him.

"Hope that didn't disappoint," you laughed, your heart swelling when you heard his own little giggle.

Johnny reached his hand over to run it through your hair, pushing it out of your face, before letting his thumb smooth over the skin of your cheek, shaking his head at you.

"Definitely not. I’m so satisfied I might just ask you to do it again."

===

lucas 2:23am -so....if ure doing all that funny business w johnny....- 2:23am -does this mean we get free passes for parties now?-

[wtf-yoongi]

“Let me play you what I have.”

pairing | yoongi x reader

summary | yoongi asks for your help with a song

genre/warnings | you’re both musicians (even though you don’t work in the music industry) so musician fluff i guess?

words | 1,648

note | i’m not even kidding at this point i think i’m in love with yoongi and i’ve never been more serious in the entirety of my life

“Mine was never this glamorous,” you joke as you stare into the high ceilings of the ground floor of the building. “This place is gigantic.”

“Well, it is fancy and over the top,” Yoongi agrees and shrugs as if he’s 100% indifferent to it all. “But this is just to impress visitors.”

You look around, trying to take in as much as you can while you follow Yoongi to the elevator area. Everything seems to be made of either glass or marble – well, the best glass and marble money can buy. The attention to detail is remarkable and you can’t help but agree with Yoongi: this is a little bit over the top.

“I thought you had seen this the last time you were here.” He looks at you now, taking turns between staring at your face and your hands. You can’t do it here where the walls are made of glass even if he’s wearing a cap and a mask, but you know his fingers are twitching.

“Not really,” you correct him and shake your head lightly. “First time I was here was before the tour. You gave me a ride and we took the elevator straight from the garage.”

“Oh…” Yoongi nods. He remembers now. “I should have showed you the place that day, sorry. We were in a rush.”

There’s a soft sound, signaling one of the elevators has finally arrived. Yoongi impatiently taps his right foot on the ground like he just wants the doors to open faster. You know he’s a little apprehensive from the moment he calls you to come around earlier, but you didn’t think you’d find him like this. 

You just want to calm him down somehow.

As soon as you’re safe inside the elevator with the doors closed, you extend your hand to him and his fingers stop fidgeting immediately to take yours. “You didn’t have to come greet me downstairs,” you comment casually, but there’s gratitude in your eyes.

“I know, I wanted to,” he says, taking his mask off and putting it in his pocket with his free hand. “And I needed to get out of the studio a little bit.”

“Something wrong?”

“Just a song that won’t come together, the usual,” he mocks and smiles to the ground. “This one is going to be stubborn, I just know it. I’ve been playing with this idea for days now and I don’t think I have a full verse yet.”

Yoongi’s voice is tired and passionate at the same time. Even if he’s complaining about it, you know he likes this sort of struggle to accomplish something he’s happy and satisfied with – the reward may be as grand as the effort. He’s always hoping for that. Artists are always hoping for that, you know it all too well.

“I was actually hoping you’d help me, if you don’t mind.”

He brings it up quietly and casually, but when you turn your face to him he’s not looking directly at you, deciding to keep his stare into the ground. He isn’t exactly comfortable with that idea and doesn’t know if it’ll work, but he’s happy to try.

You’ve talked about doing something together, working on lyrics or melodies or whatever came to mind, but never put much thought into it. Like that old group of friends who keep on saying you should meet sometime, but never actually do. You’re not mad if it never happens, somethings aren’t supposed to happen anyway.

Yoongi finally raises his head after he doesn’t hear it from you for a while, eyes expecting a positive reply so he doesn’t have to pretend that never happened somehow. Inside his mind, he’s already thinking about ways he can make it less awkward.

“That’s why you asked me to come?” You ask in a curious tone. 

“Well, yeah,” Yoongi laughs lightly and presses his left hand to the back of his neck, scratching it a bit in a nervous habit. “It’s ok if you don’t want to, though. It’d be good to just hang around and do nothing as well, I’m just waiting for some papers I have to sign and we can go somewhere if you want. It’s probably good to give the song some time as well, since…”

“We can try something, yeah,” you interrupt before he runs out of air. “I’m a little rusty, though, I don’t really know if I’ll be able to help with anything.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it.” Yoongi shakes his head and his hand follows. “I want you to listen and give me your opinion, that’s already enough for me. And I highly doubt it.”

You don’t have time to question him what the last part is about. As if on queue, you arrive on the 21st floor and it’s really not as fancy as the lobby, just like you remember, but you can see someone was still thoughtful enough to add fresh flowers to the vase in the corner. The people in charge of running the building are not sleeping on the job.

Yoongi is silently dragging you around the corridors and you can see the directions on the wall, but not for long enough to make any sense of them. A dozen more steps and you both stop in front of a door, Yoongi quickly tapping the keyboard on the right. There’s a beep before it opens.

He reaches inside to turn on the lights, but ultimately lets you in first. The room looks just like the last time, simple and straightforward in furniture and color, but not in music equipment. You can see he upgraded the digital piano to one that looked more like a real one, but still plugged to the wall. Maybe it makes him feel better knowing it’s a little similar to the real deal?

“New piano?”

“Yeah,” he assents, closing the door behind him. “These keys feel a little better, you know?”

Yes, you know. You can always tell when the keys just feel better under your fingertips. Playing becomes easier, practicing technique feels less like a pain. You nod.

“Let me play you what I have.”

You sit on the couch in one corner while Yoongi sits on his own chair, moving his magic mouse to light up the screen in front of him. You can see there are many layers on top of one another, but definitely not as many as you would expect coming from him. 

You’ve seen him working from home well past midnight, shirt half dressed with headphones on, keeping quiet so he doesn’t notice you behind him. Making music is intricate, but Yoongi likes it even worse, adding one thing on top of the other, filter after filter, until it feels like it’s too much and he can finally recognize what is standing out in a bad way. Then he mutes and saves the ones he likes for another time.

He makes some quick adjustments before pressing the spacebar, turning slightly so he can see your reaction. The beat you hear is nothing out of the ordinary – it’s a 4/4 time signature major key song, exactly how most happy pop ones go.

However, in true Yoongi style, there’s something else to it. The bass line tricks your head into some sort of rhythm and, despite having the poppiest of beats, you can hear an acoustic guitar streaming in the very background, almost unnoticeable. More bars pass and you can now hear a piano playing some sort of arpeggio – simple, but effective. It grows into what you feel is a chorus and then Yoongi is hitting the spacebar again.

“That’s all I have,” he confesses and shrugs, looking at you from under his eyelashes and trying to figure out your puzzled expression.

“It’s good, I like it,” you start and he’s soon looking at you incredulously, waiting for the real response. “Yeah, it needs work, but you made it sound like you had nothing.”

You’re both chuckling softly now and Yoongi lets his body fall into the chair completely, covering his face with his hands.

“Tell me what I have to do!” He begs with a muffled voice. “I hate this song already.”

All of a sudden, you feel like you should have done this earlier. His busy schedule kind of gets in the way all the time, but not really all the time. You wish any of you had enough courage to bring this up earlier, to stop being that group of friends that say things with no real weight to them. 

Musicians are sometimes overprotective of their work or scared to stick their noses into somebody else’s, but Yoongi falls into his normal self too fast – too comfortable, no sign of nervousness anymore. He’s not scared to show you his unfinished and imperfect work. It feels like you’ve been doing this for ages.

“I told you I’m a bit rusty, I…”

“Oh, don’t say that,” he interrupts with a smile, letting his hands show his face again. “You’re a classically trained pianist, 15-plus years of music classes under your belt, three years of being a trainee with top marks in songwriting. You can’t say you’re rusty when I hear you playing my piano at home. You’re not. At all,” he emphasizes as you continue to laugh at his reaction.

“Yeah, but I have almost zero experience in music production. And I also gave up being an idol so…” You try to argue, but he’s not having any of it.

“I bet you my new piano you have at least 13 ideas for this, I just feel like you do.”

There’s a smirk on his face now you can’t resist.

“Where are the lyrics you wrote for this?” You ask and Yoongi soon hands you a notepad with many lines scribbled on the first page. “Can you hand me that pen?”

Read more ›› masterlist

[dacrethehalls]

Wild Flowers

Summary: Samantha Harrington never expected to spend her entire spring break with Billy Hargrove and Billy Hargrove never expected to fall in love with Samantha Harrington.

Word Count: 9.9k

A/N: *RE-POSTED FROM MY OLD ACCOUNT* loosely based on the Chateau music video Dacre is in. credit to Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstine for the quotes in this, and shout out to all my faves who we name dropped in this.

******

"Hey....Emily.....No, Amanda? No-no, it's Laura!" Tommy H. sputtered, leaning against my locker. I rolled my eyes, grabbing my books and balancing against my hip.

"Tommy, we have literally been in the same class since we were seven and you still can't remember my name." I muttered, slamming my locker shut.

"Shit, it's Andy isn't it? Or is it...something that Starts with an R? Or is it a K? Kiki right?"

He could have gone on for hours guessing my name and would still get it wrong. I held up my hand, shaking my head,

"Stop before you hurt yourself. What do you want?" I asked, shifting the weight on my feet.

"Billy is busy today, he said his brother is in town or something and I was going to ask you to-"

"If you finish that sentence with 'ask Steve', I will punch you." I cut off, turning on my heel and strutting towards the parking lot.

"Aw, come on Regan lighten up! " He yelled as he ran to catch up with me.

"That's not my name either." I groaned, "Give it a rest will ya? And last time I checked, you and Steve are not friends...like... at all so go find someone else to blindly follow."

Tommy crossed his arms glaring at me,

"Oh my god. Yes, I'll talk to him."

He smiled at me as I kept walking,

"Thank you, Dot!" He yelled out as I stuck my middle finger in the air.

"That boy really needs to get his own personality." I breathed

I plod out to my car unlocking it,

"Maddie wait!" I let out a defeated groan. "What do you want Keith?"

"Can you cover my shift tonight?"

"I quit The Palace like, three weeks ago." I huffed, leaning on my car.

"And for the last time my name is Samantha. Like the show Bewitched"

"I thought your name was Krista?"

I rolled my eyes, getting in my car driving home.

******

"Not one, but seven. Seven different names Steve. All of which are nowhere close to mine." I grumbled laying across his bed.

"Sammy, relax."

"It's kinda hard to when you have lived in the same town your entire life and nobody can remember your name. Samantha." I drew my name out slowly, "It comes after 'Steve and'."

"Uh so i'm taking Dustin and the others to see a movie tonight. I won't be home until later."

"Way to change the subject, asshole."

"What?"

"I'm telling you that your friends are being pricks to me and you just mention going to the movies with some random kid."

"He's a good kid, Sam."

"Doesn't matter if he's the goddamn president of the United States, I'm telling you that something upsets me and you're blowing me off!"

"Sam, you can't let things like that upset you, okay? Now I gotta go or we'll be late for the showing."

"What I really need is to spend time with my big brother and just forget about this whole stupid thing."

"Maybe later!" He hollered, already out the bedroom door and trotting down the stairs.

I rolled my eyes, rolling onto my stomach and letting out a frustrated groan, blowing the hair away from my face.

Those were always the words I got from Steve when I asked if I could hang out with him; maybe later.

******

The next day at school was the usual, being ignored, people getting my name wrong, including teachers.

I had a nice cry at lunch in my car and ended my day in my favorite spot, a field full of wildflowers outside of the football field.

When the snow started melting away and the temperature went up I would spend my afternoon out there finishing homework and picking the flowers around me. I sat with my legs crossed, a pile of Johnny jump ups and dandelions beside me. I wound the stems together, finding the process relaxing.

"Samantha!" I jerked my head in the direction the voice came from, Billy Hargrove was striding towards me.

"Hi?" I questioned as he reached the blanket I was sitting on,

"Hey, so I was out of school for a few days," he chuckled, pointing at the disappearing bruise under his eye, "Basketball concussion, any way, we have third period chem together and I was wondering if I could copy your notes...and maybe your homework." He asked

Of course the only thing he wanted with me was to use me for my homework. At least he actually knew my name. I'll give him that. I leaned over to my bag, grabbing my chemistry notes handing them to him.

"Do you mind if I sit here with you incase I have questions? I know missing one of Mrs. Valentine's classes really means missing like, five classes. I've missed three so basically I'm fucked."

I chuckled, scooting over on my blanket to make room for him,

"Nah, Mrs. V has been out sick we've had a sub so you haven't missed much."

He offered me a soft smile, pulling his notebook put laying on his stomach, scribbling words on his paper,

"Man, you're pretty thorough, color coded and everything." He noticed, his eyes scanning over the highlighted words and pink gel pen. I hummed in acknowledgement, eyes focusing on the floral stems I held in my lap as I weaved them together.

"Jeez, I may as well just be reading the damn textbook... except at least this shit makes sense." He grumbled as he tapped his pencil against his notepad.

"Yup." I hummed, mindlessly twisting the stems around each other.

I still couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. Billy Hargrove barely gave anybody the time of day, let alone me. Sure, he had his little groupies that followed him around, but they were nowhere in sight. Even Tommy was gone.

"So, uh, you got any spring break plans?" I questioned.

"Not really. My brother is in town, though."

"Billy Hargrove doesn't have any spring break plans?" I gasped, placing my hand over my heart, "What, you aren't going back to bright, sunny California?"

"Pfft, I wish." He scoffed, "Get the hell out of here. It's April and it's still cold!"

"Yeah, that's the midwest for ya." I sighed,

I plopped the flower crown I was weaving on to Billy's head making him break his concentration.

"What's this?" He huffed, poking away his curls from his face as his eyes darted up at me. His brows were knit together in confusion, almost going cross eyed as he attempted to get a walked at what was on his head.

"It's a crown." I beamed, placing the other one I made on my own head, "The purple and yellows in the flowers really bring out the blue in your eyes."

"What kind of hippie bullshit is this?" He questioned, plucking it off of his head and staring at it. Despite his gruff demeanor, I could see the blush creeping up on his cheeks.

"Oh, come on. It makes you walked... soft..." I hummed, gently taking it from his grasp and putting it back on his head.

"Soft?" He scoffed.

Of all the things he had ever been described as, it was never soft. He was more likely to hear a string of profanities and slurs directed at him than to be called soft. Hell, I was occasionally known to call him a dickhead every once in a while. Especially after what he did to my brother. I was about ready to take that spiked bat and go after the bastard myself.

"Balances out the black eye, you know? Actually... it kinda matches." I observed, staring at the eerie yellow color that crept under his eye and in towards his nose. A sign that the bruise was healing.

Billy took his crown off once again, setting it next to his notebook.

"Question." I blurted,

Billy hummed as I laid back on the blanket, looking over at him while he continued to scribble notes down.

"How the hell do you know my name?" I asked.

He raised an eyebrow, staring at me, "I sit behind you in third and sixth period. I see you write it on your paper. Now your last name I don't know."

I let out a loud laugh, sitting up,

"You're kidding me right? Billy, you have to be joking."

The expression on his face led me to believe he was serious,

"Samantha Harrington, otherwise known as The Other Harrington, Steve's Sister, Hey You, Little Harrington, Dakota, Anna, Becca, any and every name that is not remotely close to Samantha." I huffed, blowing a strand of hair away from my eyes.

"You and Steve are siblings?" He pressed.

"He's a whopping 18 months older than me. My parents only wanted one kid, I was an accident. They sorta treat me that way too, the entire town does." I scoffed, rolling my eyes,

"They give me a credit card just so I wont bother them. But I don't use it. I don't need shit from them."

His eyes studied my features, eyebrow still raised as if he expected me to keep talking,

"When I graduate, I'm getting the hell out of Indiana." I sighed, fiddling with the stems of the flowers I had left in my lap.

"I want to travel, live in my car go on fun adventures with my best friend-if I had one. Find a house in a field of flowers. Make as many crowns as I want." I said, placing the flowers once again on Billy's head.

He let a grunt out in defeat as he moved the curls from his eyes once again,

"You know, if you got that cut off, you wouldn't have to keep brushing it out of your eyes." I commented.

"No way in hell I'm cutting this baby off." He replied, smoothing his hand over his hair after taking the crown off again.

I rolled my eyes for what must've been the dozenth time,

"Tommy mentioned something about your brother being in town."

Billy let out a disgusted groan,

"Unfortunately."

"That bad, huh?"

"That bad. He's the favorite son... Star football player, got a scholarship to some school he's way too stupid to attend." Billy griped.

"Does he have a better hair cut? When's the last time you brushed that rats nest?" I questioned, picking up the flower crown and placing it on his head for the hundredth time. Billy grunted in defeat, sitting up.

"According to everyone, he has a better everything then me." Billy rolled his eyes, pulling his cigarettes from his jacket pocket placing one between his lips.

"Bad habit." I scolded, taking it from his mouth and replacing it with a flower.

Billy grunted again, spitting the flower onto the ground as a dragonfly flew over us then zig zagged back, landing on Billy's shoulder. He glanced over at it with a soft expression before moving his shoulder so it would fly away.

"You know dragonflies are often thought to be loved ones coming to visit you after passing away. According to the Native Americans, they bring rejuvenation after hardship." I announced, watching another dragonfly zip past us.

Billy closed his book and sat up, "Thank you, Sam." He yawned, standing up.

"You're welcome, if you ever need my notes again just ask." I chuckled as Billy put another cigarette between his lips.

"I may take you up on that, Sam. Turn the B I have into an A." He laughed as he attempted to light his cigarette, "It's getting dark out, you okay out here by yourself? Or if you want I can walk you out to your car or give you a ride home."

"Thanks, but I might stay out here a little bit longer. The stars are almost out, I like watching them." I mused, earning a raised eyebrow from Billy.

"Okay. well, have a good spring break Sammie. Thanks again." He conceded, rocking back on his heels and heading towards the parking lot.

******

A tap at my window nearly made me jump out of my skin. I spun around in my desk chair, opening the blinds, assuming Steve was an idiot and forgot his key again. To my surprise, a familiar mullet-headed boy offered me a grin and a wave. I glanced over my shoulder to my bedroom door that was still ajar. I rushed over to close it, being careful not to slam it for fear of Steve finding out who was at my window.

I returned to the window sill, unlatching it and throwing it open. I watched as Billy climbed through my window, nearly knocking my glass of water off my night stand.

"What are you doing here?" I questioned.

"You want to travel? Go on an adventure? Let's do it." He panted, adjusting his jacket as he got his footing on the carpet.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Let's just forget about this shitty town and our shitty parents and step out of the shadow of our siblings."

I stared up at him, dumbfounded for a moment, only to notice a new bruise on his cheek. I furrowed my brows,

"Billy. What happened?"

"Don't worry about it, Sammie," He murmured, walking over to my bookshelf glancing at the books, various academic trophies, and my collection of porcelain horses.

He picked up my polaroid camera, pointing it towards me and snapping a picture of me.

"Excuse you!" I exclaimed, trying to snatch the photo out of his hand as he shook it.

"Not a chance, princess."

"Princess." I mumbled under my breath.

He placed the picture in his jacket pocket as he grinned down at me,

"Are you really that desperate to do something over spring break that you want to spend it with me? The other Harrington?" I questioned, crossing my arms.

"Sam, knock it off. You may be a little off your rocker but it's in an endearing way," Billy grinned, lifting the camera up and pointing it at me and getting into the frame as well.

"So what do you say? Hmm? Let's go on an adventure, use up some of mommy and daddy's money. Get out of Indiana or not." He clicked the shutter button, making the camera flash.

He grinned at me, placing that picture in his jacket pocket as well.

This boy was completely crazy, but I knew that Steve would be too preoccupied with the kids that decided he was the best brother figure they could find. He wouldn't even notice that his own flesh and blood sibling was gone. It would also drive Steve up the wall if he found out who I was with.

"Okay. Fine, let's go." I cheered, jumping up and grabbing my bag, packing a bunch of clothes for various occasions. Billy sat on my bed watching as I ran around my room gathering as many things as I could.

"I don't know if Steve is still awake or not so you gotta go back through my window. I'll meet you outside in like ten minutes." I whispered as Billy got up and started climbing out my window.

I shut it behind him, grabbing my bag and heading down the stairs.

"Hey Steve, I'll be home later." I called, walking past him and all his middle schoolers who were all yelling at one another.

Steve threw up a thumb, not even acknowledging me as I pranced out the front door. The thought of getting out of Hawkins sounded more and more appealing. I bumped my bag into Billy's butt, making him turn around.

"There you are." He grinned, taking my bag from my hands.

"We're taking the Camaro."

"No, we're taking Priscilla."

"What the fuck is a Priscilla?"

I grinned, nodding my head to my bright red 1965 Volkswagen Beetle, my baby that I had saved up for and bought myself after turning sixteen.

"I am not riding in that death trap."

"It's okay, Prissy. The mean mullet man didn't mean to call you a death trap. He's just intimidated." I cooed, patting her hood and smirking over at Billy.

"I'm not intimidated." Billy whispered under his breath.

"Then lets go!" I giggled, taking my bag from him and putting it in the back seat.

Billy shook his head, opting not to continue the argument. He grabbed his bag, placing it next to mine.

"You can park your car in the garage."

I pulled out, Billy replacing my spot in the garage with his car. I shut the door as Billy climbed into my car with a grunt.

"So, I didn't think I could actually talk you into doing this since we kinda just met, so I didn't plan this far ahead." Billy admitted, glancing at me.

"It's okay. I know a great place to go to start our adventure."

******

"What the hell is this place?"

"Some boujee country club my parents used to belong to." I replied, "It's disgustingly expensive."

"Then what exactly are we doing here?" He replied, raising an eyebrow at me.

"We're getting a room for the night. For free."

"For free? Yeah, right." He scoffed.

"You think I can't do it? What with my Harrington charm?" I drawled, twirling a strand of hair around my finger.

He rolled his eyes at me,

"Tell you what, let's make a bet." I proposed.

"Now you've got my attention."

I pursed my lips, humming to myself as I thought of what our wager should be,

"If we get in... you have to get your mullet cut off."

"Hey! No way in hell!"

"What, you worried that I'm right?"

"No." He scoffed.

"Then what's your wager if you win?"

"Priscilla." He smirked.

"You got a deal."

His smirk dropped as he realized that I had the confidence to bet my car, my baby. He knew he was getting that haircut.

"Come on, blondie!" I called as I skipped up to the front of the club.

Billy and I both wondered to the front doors, inside a fountain trickled in the background and the pristine white tiles reflected the lights from the ceiling.

"Welcome, how can we help you?" The woman behind the front desk greeted. "Hello, I'm Samantha..Harring...rove.. uh Hargrove," I chirped, glancing up at Billy who looked at me with shock, "And this is my Husband.....Billy." I snaked my arm through his, leaning my head on his shoulder hugging him into my side.

He put on an unconvincing fake grin, flashing it at the woman,

"My parents had a membership here and Billy and I are newly weds. They gifted us a membership under their names." I chided.

"Yes ma'am! What are your parents' names?"

"Timothy and Patricia Harrington."

The lady's head shot up at the sound of my parents names.

"I didn't know Timmy and Trish had a daughter! I thought Steve was their only child." She beamed as I dug my nails into Billy's arm.

He cleared his throat, slightly nudging me in an attempt to get me to loosen my grip,

"You know, your parents said this place was nice, but I hear there's a much better place upstate. Maybe we should cancel the membership and head up their instead."

"If you stay here, all of our newly weds get complimentary room service." The woman offered, startled by Billy's suggestion to take our money elsewhere.

"That sounds nice, doesn't it, sweetheart?" I encouraged.

He gave me a nod, letting out a sigh of relief when I retracted my nails from his skin.

"You'll be staying in suite 315, it's between the gym and the indoor heated pool." She instructed, pointing out the window behind her.

"Thank you." I cheered enthusiastically.

"Congrats!" She called after us as we stepped back outside. Billy pulled his arm from mine,

"I think you made me bleed." He commented, staring down at the half moon marks on the inside of his arm.

"Don't be such a baby." I retorted, going to the door of our room and shoving the key in the lock.

I let out a sigh of relief as the chilled air from the room hit me in the face. The bed was enormous, covered in crisp, white sheets with the logo of the club embroidered into them with green thread. Billy trailed in behind me, throwing his bag down on the floor by the bedside table. I slipped off my shoes, immediately hopping off the floor and landing face first on the bed.

"They're so soft!" I exclaimed, voice muffled by the sheets against my skin.

Billy laid on his side beside me, reading off the menu of the country club's overpriced restaurant,

"On tonight's dinner menu we have pacific caviar and braised lamb with whipped garlic parmesan mashed spuds." He mocked in the most obnoxious, rich old lady accent I had ever heard. And I had heard my fair share of obnoxious rich old ladies at my parent's stupid dinner parties, "Darling, I heard the wine selection is to dieeee for." I rolled over, flicking my wrist while holding my hand over my heart.

"How about we just order a pizza and go for drinks later at that bar we passed. Maybe do some golf cart races?"

"Sounds like a plan to me. But first we have to do something with that rats nest on that head of yours." I smirked, running my fingers in his curls.

Billy swatted my hand away, turning his head to glare at me.

"The mullet stays," he mumbled.

"But my dear husband, remember the bet we made in the car? The one where if I could actually get us a room here you would cut your hair." I giggled, tapping his nose.

"It's never going to happen. I don't remember shaking on that deal." He grunted.

"You lost fair and square buddy. Say bye bye to the mullet."

******

I smirked as Billy strolled out of the salon, his mullet was gone and replaced by a clean shave in the back and his natural curls still up front.

He looked even more handsome than before. I let out a whistle letting, him know I liked it.

"It looks like shit," He objected, crossing his arms.

"No it doesn't. Now come on, there's a club here we can go to. We'll have a few drinks then go back to the room and order pizza." I hummed, grabbing his hand and pulling him towards the club.

"This place is obnoxious." Billy cringed, peering around at all the random couples spread throughout the bar.

"It's a country club. It's supposed to be obnoxious." I chimed, pulling Billy to a table and sitting down at it.

We ordered a few drinks and a appetizer as we people watched the rich folk around us.

The beginning of the song from Dirty Dancing started blasting through the speakers, making me gasp. I turned my gaze over to Billy with a big grin on my face.

I didn't even have to say a damn word,

"No."

"Come on please, I've always wanted to do it. Billy PLEASE!" I begged as I started swaying my hips along to the song.

I danced around his chair as he watched me with a deadpan expression,

"You're the one thing I can't get enough of!" I belted.

"No."

"AND I OWE IT ALL TO YOUUUUU." I sang as Billy groaned, standing up and walking away from me.

"Oh, come on! Where are you going?" I laughed as I kept dancing

"Are we going to do this or not?"

I let out a loud squeal, causing the people around to stare at us.

I started singing at the top of my lungs, walking towards Billy grabbing his hand as we started to twist back and forth along to the song.

"This will never happen again," He gibbed as I twirled around him.

"This is our first dance as husband and wife. We had to make it memorable." I quipped, doing a boogie away from him as the song built up. I kept swaying back and forth before running towards Billy and jumping as he caught me by the hips, lifting me above his head.

I crossed my legs, putting my arms out, smiling knowing that Jennifer Grey would be so proud.

I smiled down at Billy who had a huge shit eating grin plastered across his face. He placed me back on my feet, pulling me closer to him as we kept dancing.

"Ahem, Mr. and Mrs Hargrove, I'm going to have to ask you to leave the club for tonight. You are disrupting the rest of the customers."

Billy and I glanced over at the waiter, busting out in laughter as we ran out of the bar. "People don't know how to have a good time anymore." I groaned as we stumbled into the lobby.

Billy grabbed my hand, pulling me over to the grand piano in the corner.

"I noticed your keyboard in your room. You play?" He asked, sitting on the bench.

He cracked his knuckles, wiggling his fingers before pressing them on the keys, playing the beginning of Claire De Lune.

I glanced at him from my peripheral, pressing my fingers on the keys, playing along with him. "Been playing since I was seven. Rode my bike to my lessons every week."

Billy bit down on his lip before the corners of his mouth turned up.

"I think I started lessons at seven too."

"Who knew the Billy Hargrove has a thing for Debussy and ivory keys." I praised.

He swayed along to the music we were producing together,

"Ahem."

We both turned our heads over at the person behind the desk who was pointing at the giant sign behind us stating that the piano was not to be touched.

"Oops." I giggled, standing up, "Let's go back to our room before we get into more trouble."

"Nah, I'm sure we can find some more trouble we can get into." Billy chirped, standing up. We both shuffled outside and around the country club before coming up to a closed off section.

"You ever crash a wedding before?" I smirked, eyeing Billy as he lit a cigarette.

"Bad habit!" I scolded, taking the stick out of his mouth and replacing it with the pendant from his necklace.

"Will you stop that!" He grunted, taking the cigarette back from me, "We are not crashing somebody's wedding."

We continued our walk around the courtyard, coming across a golf cart. We both looked at each other than made a mad dash to the vehicle

Billy slid me over to the passenger side before climbing in the driver's side, pressing his foot all the way down on the gas pedal.

He drove off the sidewalk turning the wheel sharply making golf cart whip around in a circle.

Before long, the security guards pulled us over, screaming at us to stop and pointing at more signs stating boring rules for the boring people who actually paid money to stay at this place.

We laughed all the way back to the hall leading to our suite,

"Tonight was fun." Billy cackled as we walked into our suite.

"Yeah it was. I'll take the bed. Is the couch okay with you?" I questioned as Billy pulled his shirt over his head, throwing it on the floor and falling face first onto the couch.

"Mmhmm." He hummed.

"Good night, Billy." I whispered throwing a blanket over him.

He let out another soft hum.

"Good night, Sammie."

******

The next morning, I woke up and went down to the travel desk in the lobby, setting up all the things I needed to to surprise Billy with a small trip to California.

I tiptoed into the living room and over to the couch, shaking Billy slightly. "Wake up sleepyhead. Check out is in an 45 minutes and our flight leaves in an hour."

Billy grunted, lifting his head to walked at me.

"Did you just say flight?" He grumbled, his voice hoarse with sleep.

"Sure did. The in-laws bought us round trip tickets to California for the next two days." I beamed as Billy sat straight up, looking at me.

"Did you really buy tickets to go to Cali? Sam, you're shitting me."

Billy climbed over the couch, picking me up hugging me to him. "Thank you Sammie!"

I leaned in kissing Billy's nose, causing him jump a little from shock,

"Come on and get dressed!" I trilled, pushing him toward the bathroom.

******

The flight was longer than I expected it to be. Once we landed in California, I picked up the car I had rented. I eyed Billy who about fell on the ground when the blue convertible Corvette was brought to us. "That's the car you decided to rent!?" He exclaimed, almost drooling over it.

"Mmhm," I hummed, throwing my bag in the back seat and then climbing in the front.

"You know where the Chateau Marmont is?" I questioned, smiling at him.

"Did you get us a room there?" His eyes grew wide.

"Nah, it was too expensive, even for my parents. I booked a hotel overlooking the beach."

Once we got settled into the hotel, both of us were starving. We ventured out, finding some Mexican restaurant that Billy started raving about.

The food was decent and not too expensive but it wasn't like I was afraid of my parents finding out about me spending the amount of money I had in the past few days. They didn't care as long as I didn't bother them.

"Hey!" Billy yelled, catching up to me. "Uh..um.. I got you this," He panted, placing a heart shaped ring into my hand.

I examined it, smiling up at him, "Tanzanite, the December birthstone has energy for emotional healing from all worries. It brings happiness." I informed.

"Yeah..okay. I uh, just found a quarter on the ground and put it in a gumball machine. I mean, you're my wife and I didnt even give you a ring so." He grinned, gesturing to the ring.

"See, tanzanite brings happiness." I beamed as I slipped the ring on my left hand.

"So, does your mom live here?" I questioned as we made our way down the street.

"No. She passed away a while back." He sighed, a frown forming on his face.

"I'm sorry for your loss. You two were close?"

He nodded

"My mother was my best friend, she was a phenomenal woman. I never understood what she ever saw in my dad, he's a shit person." He chided through clenched teeth.

"Does he do this to you?" I asked, lightly touching the yellowing on his skin. He ignored me, walking ahead of me getting into the car.

"He does doesn't he? Are you going to be okay when we go back to Indiana?"

"Yes, Sam, I'll be okay." He retorted as we drove off into the direction of the hotel.

"Are you sure? If you ever need a place to stay you are we-"

"I'm fine Sam. Drop it." He snapped, cutting me off.

"Billy Hargrove is that you?!" Billy's head snapped to the car beside us at the red light we were stopped at.

"Sure is." He chortled, pulling his sunglasses down to his nose.

"Are you back for good?" The guy asked.

Billy shook his head "Nah, my....Sam and I came here for our spring break. We're leaving tomorrow night."

The guy in the car frowned as the light turned green.

"There's a party tonight at Olivia's place! Better see you there!" The boy yelled, driving off.

Billy's eyes lit up as he glanced over at me.

"Party tonight?" He questioned.

I pursed my lips together, rolling my eyes,

"Do we have to?" I groaned.

"Yes, I haven't seen these people in a long time!"

No matter how hard I tried to change Billy's mind, he wouldn't budge. And that's how I ended up at a party full of people I didn't know, sitting next to a Pug named Joe. Not exactly my ideal way of spending my first time in California. But I could tell that Billy missed his friends so I tried my best not to complain.

Music blared through the house as random teens danced around to Crazy Train by Ozzy Osbourne. I pushed past the crowd, finding Billy talking to some random girl by the keg as he poured himself another beer.

I was never a partier, when my brother dated Nancy Wheeler, she would always make him take me to parties. Most of the time it would end with me walking home or me hitching a ride from Jonathan Byers who hated parties as much as I did.

I stood next to Billy, nudging him with my elbow, frowning at him nodding my head towards the gate we had walked through when we arrived to the party.

"Sam, it's a party go have fun. Go drink." Billy shooed at me with his solo cup.

I rolled my eyes, walking towards the beach, digging my toes in the sand once I set foot on the grain surface. I plucked a few evening primrose from the steps, placing the stems into my plaited hair as I continued further down to the water. The booming music became more and more distant.

The beach was beautiful, and the California sunset even more so. What everyone considered a beach in Hawkins didn't even compare to this.

I took my time walking along the shore, picking up only the best shells and pieces of sea glass.

"Why aren't you at the party?" I heard a voice from behind me, I recognized it, so I didn't bother to look up,

"What're you doing?" He asked, watching as I scooped a sand dollar off the sand before the tide could pull it back in, "Collecting shells?"

"She sells seashells by the sea shore," I chirped, offering Billy the sand dollar. He rolled his eyes, taking it from me and throwing it into the ocean.

"Hey!" I hissed, crossing my arms.

"God dammit, Samantha can you not be weird for once? You're embarrassing me in front of my friends."

"I don't see anyone but us around," I shrugged, reaching into the water and picking up another shell.

"Sam. Please. Just pretend to be normal." He begged, reaching for the flowers woven into my braid and pulling them out.

"Excuse you!" I yelled, smacking his hands away, "Go party with your friends. I'll be okay by myself. Always have been." I fumed.

"I'm not leaving you out here alone. Just come back to the party, pretend to be normal and we'll come to the beach tomorrow."

"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."

"Are you really quoting Dr. Seuss? This is the shit im talking about. Normal people don't quote Dr. Seuss."

"If normal people don't quote Dr. Seuss, how do you know it's a Dr. Seuss quote?" I replied, and that was as close to a rebuttal as he was going to get from me tonight. I wasn't about to get dragged in to a Billy Hargrove argument. Especially not on spring break.

Billy continued to follow me as I kept examining shells and placing them into my pockets.

"Somebody has to go polish the stars, They're looking a little bit dull. Somebody has to go polish the stars, For the eagles and starlings and gulls have been complaining they're tarnished and worn, They say they want new ones we cannot afford. So please get your rags and your polishing jars, Somebody has to go polish the stars." I beamed, spinning in a small circle, kicking some water up at Billy.

He let out a frustrated groan,

"Harrington, you are really starting to piss me off." He snarled, grabbing my arm, "God, you're acting just like your brother." He snapped, "No wonder nobody bothers to get to know both of you, you're the same person."

I couldn't remain neutral any longer, I yanked my arm from his grasp and gave him a shove backward before turning on my heels and strutting back the way I came.

"Where the hell are you going?" He hollered.

I resisted the urge to turn around and scream back in his face as well as the urge to reach up to wipe the tears that had started to fall onto my cheek. I couldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing that he hurt me. My attempt at escape was thwarted when he ran up behind me, grabbing my wrist and spinning me around to face him,

"Let go of me, Billy." I hissed, straining against his grasp.

He gripped onto me with white knuckles,

"Not until you tell me where the hell you're going."

"Away from you." I spat.

"I'm not letting you leave here by yourself."

"You don't own me, you don't get to decide what I can and can't do."

"You're out here with me, I'm responsible for you."

"I'm responsible for myself, always have been. Find your own way home, asshole." I tore myself from his grasp, turning my back on him and making my way back to the car we rented, climbing in.

******

I drove around for at least two hours before heading back to the hotel. I knew that eventually the asshole known as Billy Hargrove would make an appearance, taking place of the boy I had been around for the past few days.

I figured it was from him being vulnerable with me and opening up to me about his father and mother. But the loss of his best friend and the fear of his father gave him no right to treat me or any other person that tries to get close with him the way he treats them.

I grew up almost raising myself, in a semI neglectful home with a vain mother, an absent father, a star athlete and a favorite brother. And that made me angry. That my own flesh and blood never took the time to come to my piano recitals, or come cheer me on for any academic achievement.

Hell, I doubt anyone in my family even knew that I was graduating a year early. I was counting down the days to graduation. I would be my own person, I would travel to places and do things that my brother would be too scared or stupid to do.

I opened the door to our hotel room to find Billy slumped on the couch asleep. I went over to him, taking his boots off and covering him up with a blanket.

"You're back." He grumbled, half asleep.

"Mmhm. Go back to sleep." I whispered, setting a glass of water on the table next to him then walking to the room, shutting the door.

******

I woke up the next morning to Billy shaking my arm. "Hey...Um I'm sorry about last night."

"I only accept apologies from assholes when there are pancakes involved." I grumbled, pulling the covers over my head.

"Sam..." Billy whined. I felt the bed shift as he sat next to me, resting his hand in the curve of my waist,

"Go away." I objected, kicking at his butt and wiggling out from under his touch.

A small chuckle left Billy's lips as he moved the covers from my head, "I really can't take you seriously when you're mad." He laughed.

I glared at him,

"You're a jerk. Get me pancakes and then we'll talk."

"Get up and get dressed. I'll take you to the best pancake place in town."

I wandered out of my room, passing Billy who was sitting on the counter with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

"Are you really not going to talk to me until I feed you?" Billy asked as he followed me into the elevator. I glared over at him angrily, not breaking our eye contact, pressing the button that would take us to the lobby.

"Sammie..."

I crossed my arms, examining the tiles of the elevator floor.

"I know.. I'm an ass okay? I'm sorry for what I said, you're nothing like Steve and it's a goddamn shame that nobody in that shit stain of a town doesn't see you as Samantha. You're crazy and quote Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein as a means to fight. You always know what to say and the right time to say it. I didn't mean anything I said last night."

My head still faced the opposite from where Billy was standing. I uncrossed my arms, reaching down grabbing Billy's hand.

"You're still an asshole" I asserted,

I could feel him relax underneath my touch. I glanced over at him, he was staring at me, cigarette still hanging from his mouth.

"Bad habit." I jeered, taking the cigarette out of his mouth and replacing it with a lollipop I found on the floor of the elevator.

Billy took the lollipop out of his mouth, dropping it to the floor gagging. "Gross!" "Still better than the cancer stick." I retorted, crossing my arms again and staring him down.

"You're an asshole." I repeated, skipping out of the elevator and outside to our car.

"These are some of the best pancakes you will ever have." Billy hummed as he started the car, heading in the direction of the diner he was taking us to.

He was right. They were some of the best pancakes I had ever had.

"So are you going to talk to me now?" Billy questioned, reaching for my hand and interlocking our fingers.

"I told you I would once you fed me." I quipped, pushing my plate away with my free hand.

"I'm truly sorry about last night Sam. I shouldn't have forced you to go to the party and expect you to want to stick around. And I'm really, really sorry for comparing you to Steve. You're not like him at all."

I squeezed his hand, peering up at him.

"You're an asshole. But, I forgive you."

******

Billy and I sat in comfortable silence on the car ride home from the airport. I couldn't help but have this feeling that once we got home and went our separate ways that Billy would go back to his friends and I'd go back to my flowers. Despite him profusely apologizing over our fight on the beach, I feared that he would go back to being his asshole self and only talk to me when he needed notes- maybe even to get under Steve's skin by being around me.

I pushed my feet up in the dash as Billy silently hummed to himself, tapping on the steering wheel.

"What's going to happen on Monday?" I questioned, peering over at him, "The past few days have been...amazing to say the least but once school starts back, are we going back to Billy Hargrove the king of Hawkins and The Other Harrington."

I started to nervously fidget with the ring Billy had given me, twisting it around my finger.

Billy reached over, grabbing my hand and squeezing it "When school starts back on Monday, I'll be Billy and you will be Samantha. I know im an ass, but I won't pretend this trip didn't happen, that I don't love you."

I turned my head at him in surprise over the fact that he just admitted that he loved me.

"Sammie, you make me less pissed. Not... not pissed, but I feel like I use to before I lost my mom."

"I saved that flower crown you gave me. It's in a box under my bed next to a flower crown she made for me on my fifteenth birthday."

Billy brought the back side of my hand to his mouth, placing a kiss on it.

"You promise?" I asked hesitantly. He sighed, pulling over on the side of the road.

"Sam, I'm not sure if you heard me the first time, but I'm in love with you. You somehow talked me into getting a haircut,-"

"You lost a bet and those were the stipulations." I corrected, earning an eye roll from him.

"I cut my hair for you, and I opened up to you about my father. And told you about the only other person that I knew that was as kind and loving as you are. It was a no brainer that I would fall in love with you. I just didn't expect it to happen as fast as it did."

I leaned over, kissing his cheek,

"You are an asshole with I really nice hair cut. I love you too, Billy Hargrove." I reached over, turning the volume up as the guitar riff to Highway to Hell blasted through the cars speakers. I started dancing along to the beat beckoning Billy to get out of Priscilla and join me on the side of the road.

Billy laughed, getting out grabbing me by my waist as we started dancing together. We danced and twirled around to the music, singing along to the words together.

Billy placed his hand on the small of my back, pulling me closer to him as his other hand snaked behind my neck, bringing my lips to his.

"So, uh, I was wondering if you wanted to go get dinner later? But not like friend dinner...uh like a date? And you be my girlfriend." He babbled.

I chuckled, kissing his nose,

"You're cute when you're nervous. Hasn't this week been one long date?" I questioned, intertwining my fingers with his.

Billy leaned in, his head resting it on mine. "I don't want to go home." He confessed, opening his eyes looking down at me.

"We have to go back to reality. And when graduation comes around, we'll pick back up where we left off, travel the world together forget about Indiana."

I twirled around Billy's fingers before wrapping my arms around his neck.

"So now I'm included in this adventure?"

"You are my husband, you kinda have to go with me." I retorted, resting my head on his shoulder as the song slowly came to an end.

Billy wrapped his arms tighter around me, placing a kiss on top of my head.

"Back to reality."

I pulled up in front of the Hargrove household, glancing over at Billy who was almost as pale as a ghost. "I'm going in there with you."

"No you're not. Sammie you are safe out here."

"But you aren't safe in there." I retorted, getting out of my car.

"He won't do anything to you in front of a stranger." I added, reaching down for his hand. We walked into his house to find what looked to be his father and brother sitting on the couch watching whatever game was playing on the television.

Both men drew their attention to the door. Billy's father glared at both of us his arms crossing over one another.

"Where the hell have you been?" He snarled, standing up from his recliner.

"Uh...um," Billy sputtered.

I squeezed his hand trying to give him reassurance as Neil turned his focus from his son to me.

"You were off doing God knows what with this whore weren't you?!" Neil boomed, not breaking eye contact with me.

"Um.. uh."

"That's not an answer, Billy."

I groaned,

"Yes, Mr. Hargrove he was with me. We went to my parents country club and then flew to California for a few days. It was a lot of fun. I found a lot of pretty shells. I see where Billy gets being an asshole from." I exclaimed as Billy's hand tightened against mine.

"I want you out of my house!" Neil howled, taking a step toward Billy and I. Billy instinctively took a step in front of me.

"You want me out? Fine."

Billy pushed past Neil, heading the direction of his bedroom, me following behind. He grabbed the remainder of his clothes from his closet, stuffing it in trash bags. I reached under his bed, grabbing a shoebox with his mother's name scribbled across it

"Can't forget your flower crowns." I whispered, sitting the box on the bed, helping Billy grab all of his belongings.

"You have nowhere to go." Neil laughed, standing in the doorway and crossing his arms.

"My house is big. He can live with me." I retorted, stepping in front of Neil, blocking his view of Billy the best I could.

"And your parents are going to be okay with that?" Neil challenged.

"I don't think it's any of your business how my parents react to Billy coming to stay with me."

Billy walked over to me with the trashbags full of his belongings.

"He isn't your concern anymore. You can fuck off." I spat, reaching back for Billy's wrist and bumping my shoulder into Neill as we walked in the the hallway.

"You'll be back after this slut gets tired of you." Neil yelled following after us. I stopped turning to face him.

"I can assure you, that I won't get tired of him. We got married when we were in Cali." I chortled, flashing my left hand up at him.

"Like I said, Billy isn't your concern anymore." I lifted my middle finger up at Neil as Billy pulled me out of the house and out to the car.

******

"Steve isn't going to be happy," I mumbled, pulling into my driveway.

Billy let out a small laugh, leaning over kissing my cheek. I faced him with a stern expression,

"Please be nice. I'll handle all the talking." I stressed, squeezing his hand. I placed a quick kiss on his lips before stepping out of Priscilla

"Where the fuck have you been, Samantha?" Steve gripped, walking out of our house and crossing his arms.

Billy slowly got out of Priscilla, walking around to stand behind me.

"Let me rephrase that, where the fuck have you been with Billy Hargrove." Steve seethed.

"California." I stated as a matter of factly.

"California!?" Steve blurted, his jaw dropping, "What did you do to her, Hargrove, kidnap her?!"

"He's my friend...boy," I said as Billy intertwined our fingers, "Err my boyfriend."

"Since when?"

"Since this morning."

"Sam, you don't socialize you go to school and come home."

I rolled my eyes, opening my mouth to say something only to be cut off by Steve,

"How do you two even know each other? God Samantha, leave it up to you to become friends with the biggest asshole in school. Do you even remember what happened to me in October?"

Billy stood between us placing a hand on Steve's chest. Steve quickly stepped away from Billy's touch, "Man, I know we have our issues. And I'm sorry for everything I've done to you." He began.

Steve crossed his arms over his chest, raising an eyebrow and shifting his weight onto his heels, "But I actually give a shit about Sammie. And nobody appreciates her damn near as much as she deserves." Billy mused, glancing down at me.

"Stop acting like you care, Steve." I grumbled under my breath.

"You're my baby sister, of course I care."

"Really? Do you even care enough to know that most of your friends don't even know my name?" I fired back.

"What're you talking about?"

"In fact, most people don't even know my name. Not just your friends. And you know who did? Billy. You know who came and talked to me without prefacing it with 'can you tell Steve'? Billy." I defended, "He actually talks to me like I'm a real person and not just a means to get to you."

"Are you sure that isn't what this is? A means to get to me?"

"Is it really that hard for you to believe that somebody cares about me?"

"I find it hard to believe that Billy Hargrove cares about you."

Billy dropped my hand from his grasp, balling up his fist. I stepped ahead of him, blocking his path if he decided to make a move.

"Somebody has to! Mom and dad sure don't. And you're too busy running off with a bunch of middle schoolers who you call your siblings to pay attention to your actual younger sister!"

"Sam, this isn't about mom or dad or me or them!"

"Bullshit it isn't!" I snapped, "My entire fucking life I've been walking around in your shadow and I'm goddamn sick of it!"

"How many times have I told you that people don't know my name? How many times have I said that kids I've known my whole life, gone through kindergarten with, don't know my name? All I am is Little Harrington or The Other Harrington. I'm not Samantha. I'm not my own fucking person. And that's on you, Steve!"

"How is it on me that you don't do anything to get attention?"

I could faintly hear a rumble in Billy's chest,

"Because you've never taken me seriously! Never stood up for me when I needed you to. Steve, I needed you to be my big brother and protect me and you didn't!"

Steve opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but I cut him off,

"Go take care of the rest of your 'little siblings' hope you don't let them down like you did to me." I snarled.

Billy went back over to Priscilla, grabbing my bag from the car and following behind me.

"I don't think so. You are not going into my house." Steve said, grabbing his arm.

"Fuck you, Steve." I spat as Billy yanked his arm from my brother's grasp.

They squared up with each other, chest to chest. Neither of them particularly wanted to get into a fight, especially not in front of me. I intertwined my fingers with Billy's and took him inside with me.

"What the fuck is he doing here?" Dustin asked as the other kids stood up in defense.

"Ask your older brother, he seems to be pretty open with you guys." I sneered, pulling Billy up to my room.

I shut the door behind us, leaning back on it and letting myself cry.

"Hey, hey, hey, baby, no." Billy comforted, pressing his forehead to mine. "No crying." He cupped my face in his hands, making me look at him

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."

I smiled softly at him as he kissed me,

"Normal people don't quote Dr. Seuss." I sassed, wiping my face with the back side of my hand.

"Well, as it turns out, I'm not as normal as you think."

******

Monday I could feel every single eye on me. The worst part of living in a small town was word got around fast.

"Christy, is it true you and Billy Hargrove robbed a bank over spring break?"

I rolled my eyes as I shut my locker door,

"No, it's not true." I grunted, walking past Carol and into Chemistry. A smile spread across Billy's face as I walked down the row of desks and took my usual seat at the one in front of him. He leaned forward in his desk, pressing a kiss to my cheek,

"I missed you," He whispered, placing another kiss on my shoulder.

"Two whole periods without me, how did you live!?" I exclaimed,

"It's not like you didn't just move in with me." I joked, leaning my head back so it was laying on his desk.

Billy chuckled, leaning forward connecting our lips together, earning various grunts and sighs from some of the girls in our class room.

By lunch people were well aware of Billy's status. People know knew who I was and who I was dating. But they still intentionally called me some random name.

Most of them probably figured that it got under my skin, so why would they stop?

"Sammie, are you okay?" Billy asked as we walked into the lunchroom together.

"Yeah, I'm just not used to being this...well known. And people are now purposely calling me different names." I sighed as I grabbed a juice and a banana in the lunch line.

"Mr. Hargrove, your new haircut looks wonderful!" Edna, the lunch lady chirped.

"Doesn't it?" I questioned, running my hand in his hair.

Billy rolled his eyes, swatting my hand away before paying for both of our lunches.

"Oh! Miss Hayley! Will you please tell Steve he still owes us money from before spring break."

I grinned at her, knowing that she didn't mean any harm by calling me the wrong name, unlike the rest of the school.

"Sure thing, Edna."

I followed behind Billy as we both sat at the lunch table with Tommy H. and Carol.

"Nicole are you lost?" Tommy H grimaced as I sat next to Billy. "No, I'm not." I mumbled. "Then why are you sitting here? Last I checked you weren't popular." Carol snorted.

The walked on Billy's face made me think he was about to kill everyone around him.

"Knock it off both of you. Samantha is my girlfriend." Billy chided.

"Ew, why would you want to date Kayla?" Tommy sneered, giving me a disgusted look "You know she's Steve's sister, right?"

In a flash Billy flew across the table, throwing his fist into Tommy's face. He then climbed on the table, placing his pinkies in his mouth and whistling.

"Just so we are all on the same page, This girl has a name, and It's Samantha. She's my girlfriend...Samantha Harrington is my girlfriend. If I hear anyone call her The Other Harrington or anything that is not Sam, or Samantha, one more time, you will really be wishing you didn't." He threatened, "Now what is my girlfriends name?"

In unison, the entire lunchroom sang out my name. I could feel my cheeks grow warm. I knew for a fact I was as red as a tomato.

"And if any of you mess with her? You'll deal with me," He yelled as one of the coaches marched over, pulling Billy off the table and escorting him out of the cafeteria.

I cleared my throat, poking at my plate as Tommy climbed back back up to the table, holding his bleeding nose.

"The chicken is really good today isn't it?"

******

The week was long and uneventful, and by Friday not only did everyone- including teachers knew my name, they also came up to me apologizing- something I'm sure was Billy's doing.

I didn't hate this new found fame but I didn't love it either. Billy made an ass out of himself at lunch, landing him a weeks worth of detention. So every day I would go sit in the field, making 2 floral crowns while I waited for Billy to get out of his detainment.

"How was detention?" I asked as Billy plopped down on the blanket next to me ,taking my floral crown from my head and placing it on his own.

"To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world." Billy sang, kissing my cheek.

"Quoting Dr. Seuss again are we?" I sassed.

"I love you," He uttered as a dragonfly flew by landing on my nose.

I chuckled, shaking my head startling the bug away.

"Looks like your mom loves me too."

Billy smirked, pressing his lips onto mine before stretching out onto the blanket, placing his head on my lap, staring up at me with the utmost adoration.

It didn't matter anymore to me that people got my name wrong, or how I would become a distant memory after graduation,

The soft boy with a hard exterior had the free spirited girl with a love for wildflowers.

We had each other, we made each other shine.

And that's all that matters.

[pluto-fics]

When you need to study

Kim Seokjin

It was that time of the semester again. The big exam time.

Your head was fuming and yet, you couldn’t bring yourself to look away from your books, sprawled across your desk. It’s not like you started to study later than you should have, it’s just that, despite having spent whole days and nights studying, you still felt like you could never pass the exam.

The quiet buzzing noise of your phone atop of your desk seemed like the roar of a wild creature in comparison to the silence in your room. When you checked your notifications, a soft sigh escaped your tense body as it finally began to relax.

Jinnie 💖

[Hey, darling. I’m close to your house right now, would you mind it if I came over in a few minutes?]

A smile played on your lips when you read your boyfriend’s message. Maybe you really should stop studying for today and spent a few hours with Seokjin instead.

You

[Sounds good. Should I make dinner for us both?]

His answer arrived almost in an instant.

Jinnie 💖 

[How about I cook for you instead so you can finally relax for a while?]

This made you giggle. He knew how much you were stressing out because of your upcoming exams. He was also the one to repeatedly remind you to take breaks and eat or just relax. It was sweet to see him caring about your well-being, not like it was a special occasion, though. Seokjin always made sure you were at your absolute best, at least health-wise.

You

[I’d love that. Thanks Jinnie. I love you! 💕]

-

Jinnie 💖 

[Love you too, (Y/N). I’ll get some things at the grocery shop and be there in 20 minutes ❤]

Min Yoongi

Silence filled the air of the Genius Lab around you and your boyfriend, Yoongi.

Whilst Yoongi was clicking and typing away at his several devices he uses to produce songs, you were sat on the couch behind him, quietly working on some tasks your teacher handed out to you and your classmates in preparation for the upcoming exams. A lot of people would have felt uncomfortable with this kind of ‘date’, but for you and Yoongi it wasn’t uncommon to meet up just to seperately work on something. It was the presence of the other that was enough for the both of you to feel less lonely while shutting yourselves away from the world to focus completely on the one thing you wanted to get done.

Surprisingly, Yoongi was the one who broke the silence as he let out a deep sigh and leaned back in his chair before spinning around with it to face you. “Aren’t you hungry? You haven’t eaten all day, (Y/N)” he said, now getting up from his chair. You just hummed in response, finishing the sentence you were writing down before looking up at him and nodding. “I really should eat, huh?” you asked, a smile froming on yours and Yoongi’s lips in unison. He nodded shortly then asked “The usual?” to which you smiled even more. “Yep” you said and patted the free space next to you on the couch, Yoongi immediately scooting closer with his phone in hand and falling down beside you as he called the delivery service and placed your orders.

“Are you done with the track yet?” you then asked after he finished the call to which he shook his head a little. “Not yet, but it’s almost how I want it to turn out” he says, his arm naturally finding it’s place around your shoulders as you automatically lean into him and close your eyes. “Can’t wait to listen to it” you say honestly and, for the first time today, felt the tension leave your body and instead felt the feeling of relaxation taking over you, finally able to focus on something else than your exams. That other something being: spending time with Yoongi.

Jung Hoseok

Thud!

Your forehead met the top of your desk for what felt like the hundredth time today. After having pulled an all-nighter last night to memorize as much of the important notes you took during class as you could, you only took a 45 minutes nap this morning before getting up to run some errands during the day. And here you were, back at your desk to study. Or at least attempt to, but failing miserably due to how sleep-deprived you felt.

“Ugh, I can’t concentrate like this...” you mumbled to yourself and leaned back in your chair, staring at the ceiling for a couple of seconds before you decided to check your phone for messages. 

Thus, you were met with a bunch of notifications, messages from friends and so on. However, one contact name sent a smile to your face and a certain warmth to your heart as you tapped on the messages he had sent.

Hobi ❤

[Good morning, my angel ❤ Did you sleep well?]

[Seems like you’re busy again today... Remember to take breaks and relax a bit, alright~?]

[Hey, how about you take a break tonight and come over for a while? I miss you, baby ❤]

You felt a sting in your heart, feeling as though you were the worst for not having found the time to check your messages for a whole day. So you immediately typed your reply, apologizing to Hoseok for not having answered his texts and telling him about how tired you were. His response followed quick, almost as if he had been expecting your reply.

Hobi ❤

[It’s fine, don’t worry about it. How about I come and pick you up right now and we just have a nice, calm movie night together? Or a nap date, I don’t care as long as I get to see you, baby]

Giggling a little, you replied with an ‘alright’ and honestly began to feel excited to see your boyfriend again as well.

Kim Namjoon

“Argh!”

You were frustrated. Stressed out. Completely devastated. 

Almost a whole hour had passed since you first attempted at solving one of your practice algebra exercises and you still didn’t get any closer to the solution of it. Dropping your pencil and massaging your temples, you closed your eyes and tried to clear your mind of the countless numbers and mathematical formulas.

That was, until Namjoon came into the living room, carrying two cups of hot beverages towards the coffee table you sat in front of. “What’s wrong Babe?” he asked, a sweet smile beaming your way. You grumbled quietly in response. “Still that stupid exercise, huh?” he then guessed in a mumbled voice.

Taking a seat next to you, he then scanned the task given in the exercise and hummed quietly while seemingly trying to come up with a solution as well. “That really is a hard one” he then sighed, your eyebrows furrowing. “Of course it is, I wouldn’t have been stuck with it for almost a full hour if it wasn’t” you almost snapped. Namjoon, however, stayed completely calm, knowing that it was just the stress that was building up inside of you which made you act up like this.

Thus, he simply asked “Have you tried this yet?” and came up with a, indeed, very logical way to solve the problem. Your eyes widened while he explained what he was thinking, your mind racing and your head nodding on it’s own, agreeing with Namjoon’s suggestions. “Oh my god, you’re a genius! Of course, I should have just done that instead of taking the square root.”

Namjoon just chuckled and gently stroked your back while you quickly scribbled down your calculations and result. “Maybe you should take a break, (Y/N). You’ve been studying for hours, of course it’ll get hard to concentrate at some point” he speaks in a gentle voice “Why don’t we order some food and watch a movie together, hm?”

And how could you disagree with the man who just solved that devilish mathematical problem in less than 3 minutes?

Park Jimin

It was completely silent in your room.

You were sat on your bed, well, more like inbetween Jimin’s legs while he hugged you close and rested his chin on your shoulder, quietly watching you write down a bunch of important text passages from one of the books you had had to read for your english classes.

“And... he pulled her in... for... a kiss” you suddenly heard Jimin mumble the english phrase from the book before you felt him pressing a quick kiss against your cheek and chuckling quietly. You immediately giggled, turning your head to smile at him.

“I’m sorry, Jimin. I bet it’s boring to watch me study but I really need to prepare for next week” you spoke. He shook his head slightly and smiled. “It’s fine. You look cute when you’re concentrating so hard” he stated with a grin.

You could feel the blush rushing to your cheeks as you rolled your eyes playfully and leaned back against his chest, resting your head on his shoulder. “Hmm, I wish I could still concentrate but my lovely boyfriend keeps distracting me every few minutes” you then said with a teasing smirk and felt Jimin stroking your sides lovingly. He placed another kiss on your cheek and said “Sorry Jagi, I just really wanted to see you today. I didn’t mean to keep you from studying, though.”

“It’s alright, I missed you too. I just wish we could do something fun instead of... well... this” you replied, glaring at your books and notepad as you finished your statement. To this, Jimin giggled before suggesting to keep studying for an hour or so and then going out for dinner together.

“Sounds perfect, thank you Jiminie” you smiled happily and pecked his lips before continuing your note taking from before as Jimin smiled because of the nickname you gave him and buried his face in the nape of your neck while waiting for the final hour of studying to pass.

Kim Taehyung

“I’m really sorry, Tae, but I really need to study tonight” you said to your boyfriend who you were talking to on the phone.

“(Y/N)~! You can’t leave me hanging like this, we haven’t met in days” was his reply. You sighed and dropped the pen you had used to scribble notes into your notebook with. “Tae... I miss you so much, I really do, but I can’t just go out now when there’s so much that I still need to memorize and revise...” you explained to him, a sigh following your words.

Taehyung went quiet for a few seconds before he then said “Fine.”

“I’m so sor-”

-

“If you can’t come out, I’ll just come to you then. I’ll be there in half an hour.”

And with that, the call ended. You blinked a couple of times before sighing again. You should have known that it’d end like this, but who were you to complain? After all, you didn’t lie when you told Taehyung how much you missed him. You craved his hugs so badly right now since his embrace always helped you to relax. And god, were you tense and exhausted right now.

Your doorbell rang half an hour later, just like Taehyung had promised, and as soon as he entered your home, your arms moved on their own to hug him tightly. It startled him at first, but he quickly returned the hug with a happy giggle. “Aw, I missed you too, Jagiya~” he teased and kissed the top of your head.

Jeon Jungkook

You puffed out a breath after finally finishing the task you had started on 40 minutes ago. Your eyes now wandered from your notebook to the back of your boyfriend’s head, as he busied himself with a computer game to not disturb you while you were studying. A smile grew on your lips as you heard him making fun of Taehyung, who apparently played the game with him online, for almost getting killed by a beginner.

Quietly getting up from his bed, you moved closer to Jungkook and waited for the right time to gently place your hands on his shoulders, not wanting to shock him and possibly making him do something stupid in-game by accident.

But once your hands met his shoulders, Jungkook flinched a bit in surprise before chuckling. “Ah~, (Y/N), why do you sneak up to me like that?” he asked amused and glanced back at you with a smile before focusing back on the screen in front of him as you smiled. “Sorry, I just wanted to surprise you a little” you said honestly and now watched what he was doing in the game, as well. “Taehyung is telling me to say hi to you” Jungkook then said, erupting a giggle from you. You leaned in to Jungkook’s microphone on his headset and said “Hi Tae” before pecking Jungkook’s head.

“Do you want me to stop?” Jungkook then asked you to which you simply shook your head. “No, I like watching you play. I need to take a break from studying anyway” you replied honestly with a smile and gently pulled back his chair a bit, Jungkook immediately realizing what you’re about to do and gently pulling you down to sit on his lap before he continued to play the game with a happy grin on his face.

“I love you, babe” he then said, only to get teased for it by Taehyung afterwards.

[purrincess-chat]

Moves Like Jagged CH3

Bet you weren’t expecting to see this! I wasn’t either tbh, I just decided to do this like an hour or so ago and suddenly I had a whole chapter. The shenanigans continue!

Rated: T

Pairing: Adrinette

Summary:  After the events of Troublemaker, Jagged Stone can't help but feel like something is missing in his life, an obligation that he's not fulfilling, but when he decides to set Marinette up with her crush, she is desperate to find a way out of it. Will true love prevail, or will Jagged's wild antics sink this ship forever?

Read on AO3

Chapter 3

The following morning, Marinette climbed down the stairs reluctantly, forehead scrunched with worry as she made her way to the café next door. She took her place at the table, curling her shoulders as Jagged set down his newspaper and peeked over his sunglasses with a disappointed frown. Neither of them said anything for several moments, and pressure built in her lungs until she couldn’t stand the tension anymore.

“I’m so sorry, Jagged!” She blurted, covering her face.

“What happened last night, Marinette? Everything was going so perfectly. What was all of the penguin business?” He asked, shaking his head.

“Sorry, Jagged, I should have warned you,” She said, peeking through her fingers. “Whenever I talk to Adrien, my words don’t tend to come out right. I just clam up and start stammering and…yeah.”

Jagged sat back, pressing his palms together over his mouth while he thought. Marinette shifted uncomfortably in her seat, bracing herself for what was inevitably to come. Jagged would probably give up on her and rule her a lost cause then he would always think she was lame for being too scared to talk to a single boy. She had enjoyed their friendship while it lasted.

“You’re going to need more help than I thought,” He said decidedly after some time, sitting forward again to take a sip of his coffee. “Good thing for you, I love a challenge.”

“You what?” Her eyebrows raised in surprise as he stood up.

“I know what I have to do. Just hang tight and let your uncle Jagged work.” He draped an arm over her shoulders with a wink. “When I’m finished, you two will be hearing wedding bells.”

“You think so?” Marinette’s cheeks flushed, and she cupped a hand to her face, biting back a smile.

“Of course, love. With me helping you, there’s no way we can fail.” He waved his arm as if showing her the bigger picture. “I’m gonna do some solo work. You go off to school and make good grades or whatever I’m supposed to encourage kids to do nowadays.”

“O-kay,” Marinette said, waving as Jagged donned his sunglasses, grabbed his newspaper, and slinked up the street inconspicuously before she sat back with a sigh. “We’re not out of the woods yet.”

***

Adrien climbed the stairs in the school courtyard nervously, approaching Mr. Damocles’ office as thousands of thoughts raced through his head. Why was he being called to the principal’s office? He hadn’t done anything wrong. Sure, he’d been late to physics a few times in the past few weeks, but it wasn’t like he was ditching on purpose. Hawkmoth kept making akumas, and he couldn’t just not be a superhero. Hopefully Mr. Damocles wouldn’t send a letter home about this. If his father found out he’d been missing class, he would pull Adrien out of school for sure!

“You wanted to see me, Mr. Damocles?” Adrien announced, knocking on the door as he entered.

“Yeah, come in and sit. I want to have a little chat.”

Adrien gulped, letting the door shut behind him as he stepped inside and took a seat. His fingers drummed on the arm of the chair until the chair spun around, and he found himself face-to-face with Jagged Stone.

“No way! But you’re not-” Jagged held up a hand, a smirk curling on his lips.

“Yeah, yeah, I know who I am,” He said, leaning back and propping his feet up on the desk. “You and I need to have a little chat.”

“Wait, so I’m not in trouble, am I?” Adrien’s eyebrows creased, and Jagged shrugged. “What do you want to talk to me about?”

“I wanna talk to you one-on-one, man-to-man, rockstar-to-whatever it is you do with the perfume ads.” He waved it away. “Now, if you had to pick, what would you say is your ideal girl?”

“My ideal girl?” Adrien tilted his head to the side. “Why is that-”

“Ah, ah!” Jagged held up a hand. “Just answer.”

“Okay…Uh, I guess someone who’s smart and kind and who loves me for me, not just because I’m famous, someone I can be myself around,” He said, rubbing the back of his neck with a shrug, and Jagged nodded thoughtfully, jotting his answers down in a notepad.

“Are you currently in love with anyone?” He continued without looking up, and Adrien felt his cheeks flush.

“Uh…”

“Yes or no, boy?” Jagged pressed, waving his hand in a motion for him to hurry up.

“There’s a girl, yeah.” He said finally with a nod, and Jagged scribbled something in his notes again.

“And she fits all of those things you mentioned?” Jagged asked, and a dreamy smile curled on Adrien’s lips.

“Everything and more,” He sighed.

“Is this girl a friend?” Jagged continued.

“Yeah, she’s a good friend, and I see her every day. She’s the most amazing girl I’ve ever met.” He blushed, shifting his gaze to his lap shyly. “I only wish that she would open up to me more.”

“So, this girl, she has trouble speaking to you?” Jagged arched a brow.

“Well, not exactly. It’s complicated, but she kind of can’t talk to me,” He said, choosing his words carefully.

“I see.” Jagged rubbed his beard. “This girl you like. Does she go to school here? Is she in your class?”

“Maybe.” He shrugged, and Jagged’s eyes narrowed and lips pursed.

“A bit shy, huh? No worries. I totally understand,” He nodded in understanding. “Can you tell me about what she looks like?”

“Well, she’s gorgeous. She’s got the softest black hair that always smells like flowers, the most incredible blue eyes, and tiny little freckles across her nose.” He listed, leaning his head back as he pictured her in his mind.

Jagged stopped writing, shooting up out of the chair with a grin. Adrien flinched as he moved around the desk and pulled him to his feet, crushing him into a bear hug. Although he didn’t quite understand what was going on, he wasn’t one to question Jagged Stone.

“I knew there was no way that you wouldn’t be in love with Marinette,” Jagged laughed triumphantly, and Adrien felt his spine stiffen.

“Marinette?” He leaned away from Jagged in confusion. “No, she’s just-”

“Mr. Damocles?” The speaker on the desk called out. “Sir, there seems to be a crocodile in the girl’s restroom. Can you call animal control?”

“Well, that’s my cue. Being a principal is hard work.” He grabbed his notepad from the desk and flipped the cover closed. “Listen to your parents, just say no and all that jazz. Jagged out.”

Adrien watched in confusion as he crossed the room in quick strides, disappearing out the door as the speaker called out for assistance once more, sounding more frantic than the first time, and he couldn’t help but wonder what exactly just happened.

[imagine-korea]

may i request a ship at first sight for nct, got7 and bts? 🖤

Of course, love! Thank you for requesting!

- Admin Saturn

In NCT, I think that you would fit well with Doyoung!

You first saw him in a convenience store across the road, parallel to the one that you work in as a cashier. He was looking for a specific flavour of ramen noodles. From what you could see, his face displayed an adorable pout and you found yourself staring at him until a customer came at your desk to purchase some things which shifted your attention. After getting done with the customer and waving them as a sign of farewell, you quickly turned your head to where it was could spot the same man you saw before. 

He had moved further in the aisle with the pout on his face clearly bigger than before. Not more than five minutes later, he had exited the store with nothing and for a second, you thought that he was going to come to the store that you were in, in search for what he could not find, fortunately in your case. You had sadly turned away from the window and gave your attention to your customers that were coming in and exiting.

 What took you by surprise was that he had entered and had given you a wave with a bright smile. “Hello! Is there any (Random flavour) Ramen over here?” He asked you hopefully. You looked into his sparkling eyes and lost yourself for a minute before looking at the computer just beside to check if his preference was in stock, and luckily, it was. You looked back at him and returned his smile before replying, “Yes, we do! Would you like me to get it for you?” He pumped a fist up in the air and you giggled at his childish antics. “No, that would be quite alright. I don’t want to disturb a beautiful specimen like yourself!” He cheekily replied, a bit too excited, to his dismay as he wanted to look cool. However, you thought he looked absolutely adorable. “That was cheesy.” “I know.” Both of you stared at each other for a while before erupting to fits of laughter. 

Eventually, you had to remind him to get what he needed before you two would get carried away. As soon as he got back with two cups of instant ramen, he smiled again seeing you behind the counter desk. He purchased what he needed to and you expected him to leave but, he opted to surprise you, once again. Taking a piece of paper from your notepad and snatching your pen from your hand, to which you protested, he scribbled down his number before giving it to you. “It was wonderful meeting you-” He paused and looked at your nameplate that you wore with your work uniform, “- Y/N.” Naturally, you returned the compliment before stopping mid-sentence and waited for him to say his name. “Doyoung. Kim Doyoung.” 

Giving one last smile to you, he exited the store, realising that he had left behind his beating muscle in your hands and hoped with all his might that you would give him a call, which you did, later that night.

In GOT7, you would go well with Jaebum!

“Ah! New house!” You breathed in the fresh air as you entered your newly purchased furnished house. You closed the door behind you and jumped on your couch, taking out your phone from your bag and texting your parents that you arrived safely. You opened your social media accounts and checked what you had been missing out on for the past few days, while you were busy packing up from your run-down apartment to shift to your double-story house that you had worked so hard to afford. 

Going up to your room, you were about to start unpacking as you heard the bell from your front door. “Damn it! I was just about to start!” You came down the staircase, thinking about how you would greet, as you assumed, your new neighbor. 

However, when you opened the door, all the ways of greeting them were swept out of your mind astounded saw handsome man around your age, towering you in terms of height, smiling cheerfully. “Hey, neighbor! I’m Im Jaebum and I live in the house right next to yours! I heard that someone was moving in so I wanted to be the first one to welcome you into our neighbourhood!” You were snapped out of your daze and replied to him with your name and thanking him for his kind gesture.

After exchanging a few friendly sentences, gasped, “Oh, my god! I’m so sorry, where are my manners? Would you like to come in?” He chuckled deeply and mentally screamed at how adorable you just looked. “No worries, really. Sadly, I have to deny your tempting offer. I really should be going along.” You frowned a little as you had hoped for him to accept. Your disappointment, however, soon vanished as he continued, “If you need anything, though, please don’t hesitate one even bit before coming to my house! You’re welcome anytime!”

He stepped back from your porch and moved along, all while thinking about how his day had just been brightened suddenly and that it was a good choice to stop by, after all.

In BTS, you would look good with J-Hope!

It’s funny, really, how you two met. It was less of a coincidence, more of fate.

You first became friends with him when you were around fourteen, and it was at school. He was your classmate. You two were neither too close or too distant. A mutual friend had introduced you two to each other. 

A drawback, though, was that your father was a business man, and unlike what most people thought of businessmen, he was the type who had to move a lot in order for his business to reach to the top, despite being one of the most successful people in the country. 

Having stories and books as examples and burden of being treated and thought of highly all the time had become an inspiration for you to work your way to the top, much like your father, and become an independent woman like you had always dreamed of. 

That is exactly why you never once asked your father to lend you money, you always studied hard and managed to stay at the top of your class, at some point, even your school. You especially loved to invest your time in doing part-time work to buy stuff for yourself, however, your parents would occasionally gift you with things.

You met him again when you were seventeen while you were working as a waiter at a restaurant. It turned out, he had also applied for the same job as you and you two seemed to become much more closer than you were as kids. You two exchanged numbers as one of the first things after recognizing each other to make sure that you two wouldn’t lose contact again. You were friends, close ones, again for another two and half years. Maybe, you thought of him more than that, but you didn’t find that out about yourself just yet.

Unfortunately, you had to leave again, and this time, not only did you have to bid farewell to Hoseok, but your country, too. You had been accepted in a foreign university. It was then that you realized how much you would miss him and his ways of making you smile, laugh, happy, angry, comfortable, everything. It was then that you realized him that you loved him. And it was exactly then, when you two shared you first kiss.

Oddly, you met him again, after five or six years, when you returned to South Korea and took over your father’s business. It was complete nostalgia, from when you were five to when you kissed Hoseok, you remembered every little detail. Fate worked beautifully once again, when your assistant came into the office with Hoseok right behind her. “Miss Y/N, CEO of Jung Coorperations wanted to seal the companionship between the companies upon this meeting. I’ll leave now, call me when you need something.” She left with a last smile and let the door close, sealing you two alone and together. 

“Hoseok.” You breathed out and went to hug him without wasting a second, which he gleefully returned. “Oh, God, I missed you.” He whispered in your ear.

Your reunion with him was a miracle and it still felt as if you were as close to him as you were when left.

[wannawrite]

Double Trouble

who?: Wanna One’s Kang Daniel, Nuest W’s / Pd101’s Kang Dongho genre: 🌺 type: bullet point blog navigator. • weeks leading up to prom, someone has been dropping love letters into your locker • you’re certain about who you’re prom date is going to be....or are you? rae, @lalisalsa, requested this and she really loves angst so I’ll try to make it v v angsty >:) HOPE YOU AREN’T DISAPPOINTED BEB sorry this is so short and delayed and kind of sub-par, I’ve just been extremely busy and exhausted. - Admin L 

disclaimer: photos used do not belong to me and all credit goes to their original owner 

• Who? • You needed a name. • Who had been the person dropping secretive love letters into your locker? • The envelopes were a soft, baby pink spritzed with a flowery, dreamy perfume and containing words written on creamy paper that would make anybody’s heart flutter. • they made your heart beat terribly fast and redness rush to your face immediately • all of you friends would snicker and tease you about the mystery sender • NDOSHSKDH WHO IS IT • THIS IS SO UNFAIR • again, this is set in a high school - junior college AU bc I am BLAND and unimaginative • the first letter came in when it was about a month before prom • and it wasn’t signed or stamped with some mark that signified who the secret admirer was • but it came nicely packaged and clearly, a lot of effort was put into it • love makes you do peculiar things • anyway, you were shocked, stunned, brain unable to process that someone had written a LOVE LETTER to YOU • sounds pathetic but uh...not everyone gets this on a daily • you haven’t gotten one in...7 years?   • LET ME REJOICE IN PEACE • haha • those kindergarten love letters count okay. yet, I never received any rip my love life since the start • i :) was :)) unlikeable :))) romantically :)))) anyway :))))) • if anyone tryna fall in love for the new year, do hit me up • I’M KIDDING • or am I? • is the sender serious playing games with you right now? • You’re on the brink of losing it • okay, let me read out what your secret admirer sent • a small excerpt because everyone can keep their secrets ;) • ‘one day, I hope you’ll come to accept my feelings for you. I can only hope my dreams of us together would come true.’ • ‘humbling myself to finally look into your eyes and confess my love in person.’ • *add 5-7 more lines that I was too uncreative to write* • I’m sorry, I’ve never professed my love to anyone before • okay maybe...once? but that's a story for another time • and - how unromantic of me - I did it over text so uh...0 experience • WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN? • HAS SOMEONE HAD A TREMENDOUS CRUSH ON YOU • FOR SO LONG THAT THEY CONSIDER IT LOVE • how adorable • you find them lovable already • unless they’re some creepy, stalker/serial-murderer • racist • misogynist • okay you get the drift • you had clutched the letter close to your chest, feelings stirring up inside like a whirlwind • warmth rushing to your face as your trembling fingers fought to tuck the note into your backpack - out of everyone’s sight - and lock up your locker • without taking out your books for the necessary classes lmao • if you were a cartoon character, there would be a crown of hearts floating over your head and the beating of your heart would be the main bgm • ‘hey y/n,’ your close friend and table partner, Choi Minki greeted with a grin on his face, his navy school bag slung over one shoulder, hands shoved into the pocket of his school slacks. ‘Ready for class?’ • brain: no No nO NO I’LL NEVER BE READY • you: yupp! :D super ready!! Ever ready!! ✨����💖🌸✨💫🌸💕💖 • you: boRN ReADY 😫😫😤😤👏🏼😭💯💯👅👅🤣🤣🤣 • brain: MISSION ABORT MISSION ABORT YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO FOCUS ON CLASS WITH THIS SECRET ADMIRER ON YOUR MIND • *sobs for eternity* • well uh what the hell happened in maths class??? • you were 90% sure that all the curious stares from your classmates were due to the fact that your eyes were glossed over, clearly in some sort of la-la land. you rested your chin in your hands, lips letting out a dreamy sigh once in a while • ‘MATH NOTES’ was scribbled in a pink Midliner - art marker - at the top of your notebook page but other than the date, the lines were left blank • your mind was too busy focussed on a different date • even Minki was having a hard time figuring out what was wrong with you • *poke poke* • ‘hey, can I borrow a stapler?’ • *no answer* • instead, he spots a couple of different coloured hearts scrawled on your notepad • ahh • love virus • I love Nu’est with all my heart • ignored, Minki moves on to ask Aron - the classmate sitting in front of you - for a sharpener • Aron’s brows furrow in confusion when he sees you, then he laughs it off, shaking his head. • ‘ahh, who is it that has taken our dear friend’s heart?’ • I’ve been reading many webtoons recently bcI’vebeenquitestressed and I can totally imagine how this would look like • especially with the blushes! • uhm who were you? you rarely ever dozed off or daydreamed in class. This was a huge first for you • the bell finally rang and Minki had to shake you out of your oblivion • the sides of your forearms were neatly decorated with Midliner ink, signed by Choi Minki • ‘huh?’ • ‘let’s go! We’ll be late for chemistry!’ • I sense chemistry between my secret admirer and me • THIS MUST BE A SIGN • THEY MUST BE IN MY CHEMISTRY CLASS • your sneakers slap against the tiles, the sound of the impact echoing down the hallway as you race towards the laboratory • dishevelled, you and Minki arrive just before your teacher does and you scramble to take a seat • both of you end up sharing a bench with Hwang Minhyun and Kim Jaehwan, right behind Kang Daniel, Ong Seongwoo, Ha Sungwoon and Yoon Jisung • HYUNG LINE • Minhyun texts you often so you don’t have any qualms with sharing a bench • he just doesn’t have any shared classes with you or Minki, or Aron,,,or Dongho this term :((( • but, intimidation creeps upon you when you realise you’re surrounded by members of a popular clique in school • Minki is friends with all of them so he pays no mind and probably doesn’t sense your ‘I’M FREAKING OUT’ signal • however, as soon as class starts, you’re back to meddling with your suspicions on who the letter sender is • suddenly, your ears pick up soft taps on your bench and you’re snapped back to reality • or is it? • because Kang Daniel, turned his seat around to face you, eyes twinkling with a smile • ‘hi, uh...could I borrow your periodic table for a second? I forgot mine in my locker.’ he asks, ears reddening the slightest bit • still entranced by his gorgeous features and suave tone, you absent-mindedly hand him your print out, not realising you’re checking him out • what a view • I could stir up some chemistry between me and you • *holds up stirrer* • enough puns pls they’re so bad anyway • his eyes scan over it for a second before he writes down his answer and returns the paper back to you • ‘thank you! oh, I’m Kang Daniel, by the way.’ • SWOON • cue Minki and Minhyun’s amused, muffled giggles • ‘oooh heHeHEhEHehE >:)’ • you introduce yourself • then return to work • but your eyes sweep over Daniel’s desk, and it seems as if he’s hard at work, penning something down • it doesn’t have anything to do with chemistry • because he wrote the title as ‘the love I want to confess’ • OH • MY • GOODNESS • !!!!!!! • brain: stop stop stop!! It doesn’t necessarily mean ANYTHING! DON’T MAKE A FOOL OUT OF YOURSELF • yeah, you decide to listen to your head, pulling your lips into a tight smile as you try to refocus your attention on your worksheet • Minki wants to stab you in the heart with a stray pair of vernier calipers he found • probably from a physics class kid who walked into the wrong lab and dropped it • you don’t die and make it back safely • at home, you keep the letter, tucking it away from prying and curious family • hope rises as you fall into bed and pull the covers over your head • but no letters are present in your locker the next day • and the next • and the next • ....and the next • until, one day, you don’t expect anything anymore • studies have taken over most of your thoughts • you’re just about ready to go prom outfit shopping with your friends when you remembered you had left your notes in your locker • an identical envelope tumbled out of your locker • it landed on the floor with a loud thud • or was the sound from your heart? • again, I shall reveal a small portion if this confession • ‘getting ready for the big day already? well I hope you’ll only be dancing with me.’ • ‘never worry about my identity, you’re inching closer to me everyday.’ • more clues • well, recently, you had made friends with a transfer student, Jeon Heejin, hung out after school with Minki and Aron and gotten Kang Daniel’s number • on Thursday afternoon, Dongho and Kyulkyung had invited you to go bowling and that was how you spent your afternoon • hm • at least you managed to form a group of suspects • it had to be one of them • there was only time left to wait and see • 1 week and 4 days before prom,,, • I’m sorry I’m skipping over a lot of plot development and elaboration :((( • this time was different, the sealed envelope was waiting for you on your desk • and it just happened that you running late that day, stuffing your breakfast sandwich into your mouth as you dashed to your table, shoelaces untied and uniform unkempt • you paid the latest love letter no mind, tossing it into the bottom of your school bag, it lay there, forgotten • until,,, • ‘hi, do you have the textbook? Can I borrow it?’ Dongho whispered as he bumped into you in the corridor, probably on the way to his next class empty-handed • rolling your eyes in a playful manner, you unzipped your bag with the intention of taking your textbook out • uh...looks like you need to be a tad bit more organised in that department • schools supplies were jumbled up in your bag, a couple of items fell out of the open flap • including the letter from the secret admirer • puzzled, Dongho picked it up along with the rest of your things • ‘ooh, a secret lover?’ he teased, eyes speckled with curiosity • immediately, you yanked the envelope out of his grip with a blush seeping onto your face • ‘n-nothing! you’ll be late for class!’ you called, shooing him off before he could say anymore • thankfully, your friend was kind and understanding enough to let the matter drop • you managed to make it through the day without much problems. school was rather eventful, you got a chance to bond with Daniel and Minhyun over lunch because Minki was sick • ripping open yet another packet of jellies, Daniel whined, brows furrowed, ‘hyung, are you sure you can’t make it next week?’ • next week? • Minhyun sadly shook his head, biting his bottom lip in an upset manner. ‘I’m sorry Daniel. I have some committee things to settle at the time of your game.’ • game? • oh, pre-prom activities • Daniel sighed in disappointment, he chewed on a candy to calm his feelings • ‘wait, you can invite your new friend. It’ll be a first and it’ll be more fun!’ Minhyun suggested, gesturing to you in an attempt to cheer Daniel up • Daniel went from staring into space to excitedly chatting about it • words you caught: prom, basketball game, hyung always goes to cheer me on, the rest of my friends are coming but it isn’t the same • ‘woah, woah!’ you uttered, putting your hands up in a gesture for him to slow down. • ‘so are you in?’ • YES. I DOVE IN HEAD FIRST • ‘sure I don’t mind going.’ • the boy practically jumped across the table to embrace you tightly. ‘ • ‘wear my jersey!’ • uHM WOAH I KNOW WE’VE BEEN FRIENDS FOR THREE WEEKS AND TEXTED AS MUCH AS I TEXT MY NU’EST FRIENDS BUT WOAH • ‘of course! If you don’t mind.’ • ‘thank you! I love you so much!’ Daniel yelled before continuing on about how much he was anticipating the game • i  l o v e  you so much • is it Daniel? • you gaped in shock, sitting in silence as the beats of your heart drowned out anything else • Daniel • Daniel was the man in love with you • that was the only thought that plagued your mind for the rest of the day • hmm what did that letter say after all? • ‘one more week to the dance, looks like a I’m cutting it really close. Apologies. You’ll see soon.’ • ‘Don’t worry. If anything, I’ll be the one dateless at prom. You’ll always find a knight in shining armour in me. Let’s not joust anymore’ • ‘Kiss me in A summer Night dream? I’m thinking of only you, my Gem.’ • so romantic • I’ve found out that I absolutely have 0 talent in writing love letters • tbh these are so creepy I would be calling 999 already   • my love life only taking Ls • SUSPECT ACCUSED • SUSPECT GUILTY • SUSPECTED: KANG DANIEL • geez he really put effort into these and only reveals his name now wow • for that, I shall wait to text my reply hehehehe >:) • wouldn’t it be better to talk to him in person? I’ll call him to go out later • ahh, he’s busy training for Monday’s game • we can talk then! :) • your family nearly dies of shock when you burst through the front door, a skip in your step and screaming out incoherently • they don’t question your strange behaviour though • something magical is gonna happen at the game and you’re sure of it • clad in Daniel’s jersey, you make your way to the school stadium the following week, itching for the big surprise, your lips tugged into a gigantic smile • students start to fill in the sports hall, gossiping excitedly and predicting how the friendly game would play out • even Heejin attends the game, face pink and hair tucked into a coral beanie. She offers you some chips • Daniel’s most likely still gearing up for the game so you agree to sit with her on the bleachers to watch. • just as you approach the busy stairs, someone calls your name loudly from behind causing you spin round and nearly knocking into the broad chest of a cheerful Dongho • ‘I didn’t think I would be seeing you here,’ he said, pleasantly surprised. His gaze flickered to your shirt - Daniel’s school team jersey that is. ‘How supportive of you! So sweet. • *head pats, dad boyfriend smiles* • Dongho and Daniel would so get along! You could pretty much feel your heart soaring with elation • This is perfect! All I’ve wanted in life! My friends and my future boyfriend let’snotgetaheadnowshallwe to be close friends too! • Suddenly, just as you were about to gush about Daniel and his undying love, Dongho grabbed your hand. • ‘c-can we head outside for a second? I need to talk to you about something urgent.’ • ‘ATTENTION LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE GAME WILL BE STARTING SOON...’ • you grimaced, wanting to be the first one to catch Daniel’s eye when he emerged onto the court • ‘sorry, but we should take our seats, I’m sitting with Heejin, come join us. You know her, uhm, the transfer student, physics-‘ • you jumped as loud airhorns sounded to announce the arrival of the teams • Dongho quickly hustled the both of you to your seats • the crowd of students started cheering wildly when your school’s team emerged led by Lai Guanlin • your screams were the loudest when Daniel stepped out of the shadows • his charming gaze bore into yours, a smile gracing his features • HEART BEATING STARTS ACCELERATING • HE DOESN’T BREAK EYE CONTACT EVEN AS HE ACKNOWLEDGES THE CROWD • WHATTA MAN • ‘it was me.’ A familiar voice whispers into your ear • WAIT WHAT? • your eyes go wide like glossy marbles, confusion beginning to stir within you • No, I could be wrong. I barely heard him anyway. I’ll ask later • ‘I was the one who sent those letters to your locker.’ • w h a t ? • no way • ‘it isn’t Daniel.’ • Daniel smiles at you one more time as the referee begins to signal for them to take their positions • your grip tightens around the hems of his precious jersey • you aren’t sure what to make of the sudden situation • Dongho • What’s his last name? Kang • Daniel • Another Kang • The Kang twins daddies  • two Kangs, one of them has been sending you love letters • you want to believe it’s Kang Daniel, your new friend and crush • but it’s the boy who has been your friend for so long you don’t exactly remember for how many years • thud thud thud • looks like you’re caught between the two Kangs • Dongho’s eyes are begging you to believe him, trust that he’s telling the truth • Daniel’s eyes are clear, bright, they aren’t ones of deceit • ‘I-I....’ • you can’t seem to form a coherent reply • your lips seal shut, forcing your jaw that fell in shock to close • the referee blows the whistle, Dongho’s eyes don’t leave yours • the crowd drowns all other noises, yet all you can hear is the thudding of the ball, the sound of your fragile heart crashing against your ribcage • Daniel? • or Dongho? • let the game begin

[relanah-qahs]

IN THE HANDS OF THE ENEMY

Whumptober 2020 no.2 Title: Pick Who Dies Fandom: Final Fantasy VII Prompt: “Pick who dies” | Collars | Kidnapped Rating: T, Characters: Tseng, Reno Words 1645

Tags: Angst, Hurt No Comfort, Dropping the Plate, Guilt, metaphorical collars

AO3 Link.  FFNet Link

Summary: The Turks are forced to drop the Sector 7 Plate and be the ones responsible to kill over a hundred thousand civilians. Tseng would never make his fellow Turks suffer that burden...would he?

εγλ 0007 April 9. 10:45. Shinra Building, Executive Meeting Room.

Tseng sat ill-at-ease while scrolling through his phone, absentmindedly checking the status of each of his Turks. Reno was in the Sector 5 slums to check on Aerith today, Rude would join later. Cissnei was in Junon assisting the Vice president. 

Reeve sat next to Tseng at the conference table, his organized binder and clipboard neatly stacked in front of him, he lightly tapped his fingers on his pen in nervous anticipation while eyeing the clock. Scarlet sat across from them also scrolling through her phone, but appearing much more relaxed and smiling. Palmer was next to her with his nose in a newspaper, occasionally giggling or “ooh”-ing at something he read. 

The meeting was supposed to start already, but Heideggar and the President had yet to arrive. Tseng guessed this meeting had to do with last night’s bombing of the Sector 5 Reactor. Although AVALANCHE had taken the credit for this attack and the one on Sector 1, it was known to only a few select Shinra executives that it was actually Shinra weapons that caused the devastating explosions. Tseng wasn’t sure how many employees were aware of that fact; Scarlet certainly knew, Palmer probably wasn’t smart enough to pick up on it. Reeve probably suspected that it wasn’t only AVALANCHE responsible, in fact he had repeatedly mentioned in previous meetings that a small vigilante group with limited resources weren’t capable of the destruction that they were threatening. But there was no way for Reeve to confirm any of his suspicions that it was actually Shinra responsible. 

Tseng knew. He still remembered the sick feeling in his gut when Heideggar showed him the remote device connected to the Reactor’s core. Just push this button, and the gun turrets and other weapons will self-destruct, causing the reactor to overheat and react with the mako radiation. Although Tseng had killed for Shinra several times before, even he was horrified at the blatant display of wanton destruction and the indifference to the loss of innocent life. He kept his horror inside though, he didn’t dare show his superiors his true feelings on the matter.

Finally the President entered, escorted by two SOLDIER grunts, and Heideggar followed close behind with a wicked smile plastered on his face. The meeting began by following the usual routine of these board meetings. Tseng listened to the President’s speeches but never really processed them, instead he diligently scribbled the words onto his notepad. Today started out no differently, until something was said that made Tseng look up in horror.

“We know AVALANCHE’s base is located in Sector 7. We will separate the Sector 7 plate and crush out all resistance.”

“I object!” Reeve immediately shouted. “Mister President, there are over eighty thousand residents in the Sector 7 Undercity alone. We don’t have the resources to organize an evacuation on that scale and in such a short amount of time. And rebuilding the Plate along with the infrastructure lost will take years and billions of gil.”

Heideggar laughed. Palmer stared down at the table with a puzzled look on his face. Scarlet simply smirked. Tseng glanced back and forth to Reeve and the President.

“We won’t be evacuating,” the President said. A dead silence weighed heavy throughout the room. Tseng put his pen down and leaned back in his chair.

“Sector 7?” said Palmer. “Isn’t that where the employee housing district is? We won’t evacuate the Plate either?” 

“This is a necessary advancement for Shinra’s goals.” The President spoke calmly--too calmly, Tseng thought, for talking about the deaths of potentially over a hundred thousand people. “We will put the blame on AVALANCHE. The citizens of Midgar will put their trust in Shinra and we will unite against the common enemy: Those in the way of progress.”

“Tseng, gather your Turks here.” said Heideggar. “You will be the ones to carry this out.”

Tseng felt as though the air vacuumed out of his lungs, he gripped the arm of his chair so tightly his knuckles turned white. Years of meditation and psychological conditioning trained him to hide his emotions under any kind of pressure, but the audacity of this order was nearly enough to crack his mental shields. He looked to the President. “With all due respect, Sir, this task may be far above the Turks’ abilities.” 

“You are capable, and you will follow my orders.” The President said sternly while glowering at Tseng. “We have the Turks on our leash. Have you already forgotten? It is only because of mercy did we spare you and your subordinates from execution for treason. If you refuse this order, we will reorder execution for all of you. The SOLDIER operatives will take over from there. No matter what you decide, someone will drop the plate. I suggest you choose wisely.”

Tseng lowered his gaze to the table, letting the President’s threats sink in. Finally he spoke, “Understood, Sir. I’ll gather my men once this meeting is finished.” 

“A smart decision.” The President leaned back in his own chair and smiled to the other board members. “Scarlet will send you the details of the Plate defense system later today. This meeting is adjourned.”

“Sir, please,” Reeve begged. “I’m asking you, no, begging you to reconsider! Killing an entire ward’s worth of civilians over a small group of petty criminals is--”

“Quit bothering the President, Reeve!” Scarlet screeched, then let out her signature kya-ha-ha laugh.

“All those poor people in the slums.” Palmer shook his head and slowly got up from his chair and headed to the door. “And everyone in the employee housing district. How unfortunate.” 

Tseng paced in the Turks office. He was alone. He felt like he needed to scream. The Turks had murdered on behalf of Shinra before, they knew what the job entailed before enlisting. Every one of the people Tseng killed weighed so heavily on his conscience, their last moments often scenes in his nightmares. Tseng had learned to compartmentalize his guilt and his professional character over the years. The Turks were Shinra’s lapdogs, the dark suits their studded collars. But this order? This might be too much. 

After taking some deep breaths, Tseng texted Reno and Rude to report to their office ASAP. He checked his computer to find the encrypted email from Scarlet that had the instructions on the plate separation code. So it was only a matter of typing in a security code into the defense system terminal….Why was this so simple? Why was there a separation protocol already programmed into the system? 

It would be unlikely the Turk responsible would survive this mission without very careful planning. After entering the code, the self-destruct timer would automatically be set for ten minutes until detonation, which meant there wouldn’t be much time to retreat. He would need to send out a chopper to escape the sector before it collapsed. Tseng knew he wouldn’t have the skill nor the speed to save himself.

Reno is good with technical matters, and he is fast too. He can do this. 

Tseng shuddered at the intrusive thought. No, he couldn’t put Reno to this task. His second-in-command was a very dedicated and talented Turk, but was also the most empathetic of the group. Reno had a tendency to wear his heart on his sleeve and still managed to keep his kind heart even after years of working in a mercenary organization that necessitated selling one’s soul. 

He couldn’t ask Rude to do it either. Rude wasn’t as fast at Reno, and was unlikely to survive the retreat. Besides Rude, like his partner, also managed to keep a conscience despite his profession. Neither of the duo would forgive himself if he was forced to this task. 

So what could Tseng do? If any of them refused, that meant certain death for all of them. Out of the four Turks, only Reno and Cissnei were likely to survive the mission, and Cissnei was busy with her current assignment. 

Tseng buried his face in his hands. Him dropping the Plate meant almost-certain death, assigning Reno to the task meant condemning him to a lifetime of extreme guilt. Tseng knew what he had to do—he would spare Reno the burden of a guilty conscience. 

For an hour, Tseng practiced his words to his fellow Turks carefully. We have been tasked with separating the Sector 7 Plate. The President says if we refuse, we will be executed. I will enter the code and escape by helicopter. He took deep, even breaths and meditated for a bit to calm himself down. 

Reno was the first to arrive at the office. He was limping and his face had some dirt and scratches. Tseng was barely listening as Reno sprawled out on the couch and recalled his earlier assignment.

“So there was this spikey-haired guy with Aerith claiming to be a first class SOLDIER. Aerith called him her bodyguard. One thing led to another, and he starts attacking me and my squad. So of course I had to defend them and Aerith. He managed to get away with her, but I’m pretty sure she’ll be fine. Rude’s checking on her now.”

“Reno,” Tseng interrupted him. He looked at his desk, he couldn’t meet Reno’s eyes as he was about to say his piece. “We have been tasked with separating the Sector 7 Plate. The President says if we refuse, we will be executed,” Tseng gulped. He knew what he had to say next, that he was offering to be the one to press the button that would kill so many people. He heard his voice, but had no control over the words that came out of his mouth. “You are the best one for the job. You will enter the separation code and escape by helicopter.”

Tseng never corrected himself. 

[tokyoteddywolf]

An Armful Of Feelings, A Shance One-Shot

*wheezes* okay, this grew way over what i originally planned, but i also kind of like how it turned out, so here, have a Shance one shot with a lot of fluff, a splash of angst, and a bit of a surprise. :)

keep in mind: Lance is 22, Shiro is 26, Pidge is 20, Hunk is 22, and Keith is 23.

Enjoy! (This is 5,000+ words that got way out of hand....)

Prompt: “it seems we’re the only two people in this class that actually know what the fuck is going on want to team up for this project and ruin everybody’s lives” au

Lance yawned as the teacher droned on and on about some cellular structure, and sleepily scribbled down the notes. Even if he was twenty two, college could still make you feel like you were back in middle school. He took this Human Based Technology class mainly because he was a top student when it came to human anatomy and specialized in nerves and muscles, and planned to go into neurology. He figured it would be an easy class to pass, and boy was he right. His friend Pidge, who was an actual certified genius, flicked a small paper ball at him to get his attention. He looked over at her and snorted at the dead look on her face. Yup, she was bored too.

“Alright class! As you know, the Fall Semester is ending soon in a little over a month. Therefore, your final assignments shall be given out today so that you may have the entire month to work on your projects.” Lance perked up at this information. Final assignment? A month? Why would they need a month to work on a project? “The reason you have the rest of the semester to work on this, is because it is a contest as well. You must take some form of human based technology and either produce a study on it or improve it so as to better improve the lives of those who use it. If you decide to do a study paper, you are excused from the contest as everything is graded based on presentation. If you decide to improve the technology you've decided on, you must bring a model, blueprints, a speech on how it works, and a demonstration or slide. You may work in pairs for this project, and everything is due before the final day of class.”

Lance and Pidge slowly turned to each other and grinned like a pair of wicked Cheshire Cats. “Wanna team up since we're the only ones who know anything in this class?” Pidge asked, smirking. Lance's face matched her own. “Fuck yes, let's wreck these losers.” He purred, the two friends chuckling evilly as the rest of the class realized that there was no way in hell they would beat these two at their best subject.

“So, what should we try first? Wheelchairs? We could attempt hover technology...” Pidge said, idly nibbling the end of her pencil as she lay on her bed with a notepad in front of her, Lance eagle spread on the floor staring at the ceiling. “Nah, hover technology hasn't been researched enough yet, and people are already working on improving it.” The Cuban male huffed, waving his hand in dismissal. Pidge hummed thoughtfully, wracking her brain for any more ideas, and blinked as her phone dinged and lit up with a notification.

She unlocked her phone and checked the message, noting that it was from her brother's friend Shiro. Shiro went to the same college as her and Lance, actually. He was working on a Masters degree in veterinary practice after his break in the Military. He was four years older than Lance, six older than her. She glanced over to her bored meme loving pal, smirking slightly. Lance and Shiro actually knew each other through Shiro's younger brother Keith, though Shiro hadn't really talked with Lance much, and Lance had the biggest fucking crush on the Japanese-American she'd ever seen. It was admittedly kind of cute yet frustrating because when Lance pines, he pines hard.

Sighing, she read the message.

Absolutely Shiro-Done With Life

hey pidge my arm is acting up again, can you come over to take a look at it real quick?

Pidgeotto The Great

yeah sure give me a while tho im busy thinking of a project to work on for a class.

Absolutely Shiro-Done With Life

okay thanks. :)

Pidgeotto The Great

ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

Absolutely Shiro-Done With Life

why are you like this

Pidge laughed and shook her head, grinning. Lance sat up. “What's so funny?” He asked, raising a perfect eyebrow. Pidge shrugged. “Just Shiro. He needs some help with his prosthetic. It's probably the inner joints again, probably just flexed something wrong and the attachment slipped.” She explained, blinking at the sudden thoughtful look on Lance's face. “I know that look. What idea do you have this time?” She asked, sitting up properly as Lance got to his feet and grabbed the notepad and pencil, scribbling something down and mumbling to himself.

Pidge knew better than to interrupt him while he was in Thinking Mode, so she settled against the wall lining her bed and watched him pace back and forth while he jotted down notes and was muttering something that sounded like calculations. When he finally turned to Pidge, she blinked in surprise as he suddenly shoved the notepad into her lap. “We can do this for the project! It's perfect!” Lance chirped as his small genius friend read over the notes with a critical eye. A huge grin split her face as she looked from the notepad to her beaming pal. “Okay, but if we do this, we're gonna have to ask Shiro for help. You gonna be able to control your awkward crush self around him enough to get any work done?” She teased, noting how he got a little red cheeked and shuffled in place.

“Yeah, as long as I focus on the project and not Shiro himself...” Lance explained, still a little flustered. “I'll give him a quick text and have him come over so we can chat about this in person!” Pidge cheered, picking up her phone and quickly typing out a message to the source of the project's idea.

Pidgeotto The Great

actually, do u think u can come over to my dorm real quick??? I need to talk to you about smth and id rather do it in person than over the phone. I'll fix ur arm while ur here, since I keep my tools with me.

Absolutely Shiro-Done With Life

Yeah, sure, I can do that :) What exactly do you want to talk about?

Pidgeotto The Great

u'll see when you get here, its nothing bad. I have smth to show you as well, so hurry up and get ur ass over here!

Absolutely Shiro-Done With Life

Language, Katie. But sure, i'll be there in a few minutes.

Pidgeotto The Great

ur not my dad (=^=) but yeah see you soon!

Lance was the one to open the door and let Shiro in, since Pidge was busy working on the blueprints Lance had roughly sketched out. “Hey Shiro! Glad you got here so fast, me and Pidge really need your help on this.” The skinny man said, grinning and thanking everything holy that he'd taken all those drama and acting classes back in high school, appearing as his normal, aloof self while Shiro smiled back. “Hey, been a while since we've talked, huh? So, what do you two want to talk to me about?” Shiro asked as Lance let him inside, shutting the door behind him and moving over to where Pidge was working at her desk.

Pidge looked up at the sound of Shiro's voice and grinned. “Well, you know how me and Lance have that Human Based Technology class? There's a big project we have to do, and me and Lance got to team up for it!” The small girl explained cheerfully, though the light malice in her smile had Shiro shuddering a little. Pidge had no mercy in competitions, she was a terrifying opponent in a battle of technology and wills. “And I'm supposed to help you how?” Shiro asked with a raised eyebrow, curious.

“Well, we're supposed to take a human based technology and improve it further, so Lance and I were thinking of doing prosthetics and wanted to ask you if you'd let us modify your arm!” Pidge declared, sitting up and pushing her glasses back into place. Shiro blinked, startled, looking over to Lance, who nodded, then focused back on Pidge. “You… want to make me a new arm?” he asked, a little confused and a slight bit apprehensive. His current prosthetic wasn't all that advanced, and often ached during cold weather or the joints would stick and refuse to bend, and would twinge painfully at the connections sometimes. Lance jumped into the conversation to explain. “No, not a new arm, a better arm, one that should work like it was your old flesh one instead of metal, at least according to my calculations.”

Pidge nodded enthusiastically, and picked up the notebook to show him the detailed layout of the arm Lance had sketched, complicated words and numbers scribbled next to the diagram. Shiro scanned the page, eyebrow raising higher and higher until he looked at both students with a conflicted expression on his face. “If I agree to this, what exactly do you need me to do?” he asked, folding his arms over his chest. Pidge motioned to Lance.

“Well, all we'd need at first are measurements. Once the prototype is finished, we'd test how the cuff attachment fits on you, then make sure it was comfortable before connecting it to the actual prosthetic. Once everything is done and all the tests are finished, we'd have to take off your old prosthetic to put the new one on. The new arm is supposed to use extremely tiny needles to enter your, ah, stump, and connect to the proper nerves and muscles like how it is for a flesh arm, and connects to your neural pathways so that the electric impulses you use to move your body are used by the prosthetic as well. Basically giving you an arm you use with your brain rather than your muscles.” Lance explained in all seriousness, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly. “Of course, you don't have to if you don't want to. We can always just do a model and some blueprints and just explain how it works...” He mumbled, scuffing at the carpet with a sock covered foot. Shiro hummed thoughtfully, turning the idea over in his mind for a few minutes.

“Pleeeeaaaaseee Shiro?” Pidge whined, turning big brown puppy eyes to the six-years-her-senior man. “You'd let me and Lance build you a new arm, right? I am the little sister of your best friend after all~!” Shiro wavered, before glancing over to Lance and immediately regretting it as the Cuban male also turned the pleading pout on him, big blue eyes and trembling lips and oh god dammit he was going to agree to this one way or another wasn't he?

Shiro sighed. “Alright then, I'll let you do this. But you better go all out. Anything less than an A and I'm calling Matt.” Pidge whooped and Lance grinned before yelping as he was yanked into a group hug by the excited girl, Shiro getting dragged in and pressing against Lance's side and oh boy he hoped his face wasn't as red as it felt- “Thank you thank you thank you Shiro!!! Me and Lance are gonna build you the best fucking arm this side of the moon!” Pidge declared, arms around both of her taller friends. Shiro laughed and contributed to the group hug, a quick squeeze, before pulling back. Lance missed the heat almost instantly.

“Come back over tomorrow and we should have some blueprint outlines done. I'll take your arm measurements then. For now, let me take a look at your current prosthetic. You said it was acting up, right?”

Lance sat on the bed, fighting down a blush and distracted himself with scribbling out more detailed sketches of the new prosthetic, listening to Pidge and Shiro chat as she fixed up his arm.

A week later, Lance hissed in pain as a piece of the metal arm shell he was working on slipped and cut his palm. Pulling back, he shook his hand, trying to work off the sharp throbbing pain. “Lance, are you okay?” Shiro asked from where Pidge was examining his arm again, the joints having been sticking a lot more than usual recently. “Just peachy. The metal doesn't want to work with me today.” Lance groaned, scrutinizing the blood welling up from the cut. It wasn't very deep, but not shallow enough that he wouldn't bleed.

Concerned, Shiro got up, moved over and took his hand to take a look, not noticing the sudden flush on Lance's cheeks as he clicked his tongue in worry. “That's going to need a bandage for sure… Hey Pidge, where are the bandages?” Shiro asked, turning to where Pidge was watching the exchange with amusement. “Desk drawer, third from the top.” She replied, and Shiro dragged Lance over to sit in Pidge's green swivel chair, rummaging around in the mentioned drawer and pulling out a box of large band-aids, the kind you use for knee scrapes.

“Here, let me see.” The larger man ordered, and Lance swallowed thickly before holding his bloody hand out, palm up. “Here, use this to wipe up the blood before he drips on my floor.” Pidge called, tossing an old towel over to Shiro, who caught it and started cleaning away the red liquid before unwrapping and carefully pressing the band-aid on. Lance was 90% sure his heart was about to jump out of his throat. “There, is that better?” Shiro asked, and released Lance's hand. The Cuban male laughed awkwardly and stepped back to breathe. “Uh, yeah, it does feel better. Thanks, Shiro.” He admitted with a wry grin, Shiro smiling back in relief.

“Okay, tender bro moment over, Shiro get your ass back over here so I can finish up adjusting that joint.” Pidge drawled lazily from her spot on the bed, amused when both men jumped, startled, like they'd forgotten she was there. “Ah, right. Sorry.” Shiro muttered, before moving away to go sit next to Pidge and her array of tools. Lance cleared his throat nervously before going back to working on the model prosthetic he was attempting to build.

To be honest with himself, that was probably the closest he'd ever gotten to holding Shiro's hand…

“No no, Lance, the blue wire connects to this finger, not that one.” Hunk directed his best friend gently, as Lance was working on the hand part of the prosthetic back at his own dorm. It had already been two weeks since the whole bandage incident, and Lance's crush had started to spiral out of control the more time he spent with the older man. Ever since then it just seemed to get worse and Lance had no idea how to fix it. Small encouraging comments as he worked on the wiring, smiles and soft looks, they'd even started trading stories on their families. (Lance had so much blackmail on Keith now, it made even Pidge impressed. And she was the Queen of blackmail.)

Sure Lance was known as the campus flirt, but he never really succeeded in any of his endeavors. He'd dated before, but it's not like he ever had to deal with a crush this bad, and he really didn't want to mess up the current dynamic he shared with Shiro, so confessing was a no go. Sighing, he set the tangled up mess of fingers and wires down and groaned into his hands.

Hunk, his roommate, best friend and mechanical genius, raised an eyebrow. “You doin' okay buddy? If it's too confusing I can always take a look for you...” He asked, concerned. Lance huffed out a short laugh. “No, it's not that. I'm just having some… problems with my feelings lately, that's all.” Hunk made a soft, drawn out 'oh' sound and smiled sympathetically, patting Lance on the back.

“Ah, I see, you're crushing hard on someone again. Still Shiro or do you have your eye on someone new?” Lance sighed. “Nope, still stuck on Shiro… and now that we're doing this whole new prosthetic thing, we keep spending more time with each other and it's doing bad things to my heart, Hunk! I don't know how many more looks or praises I can take from the guy before my heart decides to give up and die in my throat! I'm dying from love, dude!” he whined, slumping against his pal. Hunk chuckled and ruffled his roommate's hair affectionately.

“You'll live, buddy. Remember how bad I was with Shay before I told her how I felt?” Lance snorted. “Yeah, I remember. You kept baking foods that were a little too salty and binged on chocolate chip cookies. You were afraid of her brother and how he'd react if you tried dating her.” Hunk grinned sheepishly. “Don't get me wrong, he still scares me, but everything ended up just fine once I confessed and I now have the sweetest girlfriend on campus.” “Dude, you and Shay have been the reigning champions of the Cutest Couple title for two years running.” Lance deadpanned, and Hunk laughed. “I think you and Shiro would be cuter than me and Shay, honestly. But, if you're going to confess, you'd better do it in the best way possible.” The engineer said cheerfully. “Oh yeah? How?” Lance grumbled, tilting his head from his pal's shoulder to look at Hunk's smirking face.

“Why, in the most dramatic and Lance-like way possible, of course!”

The two boys didn't stop laughing for hours after that.

“So, exactly how is this supposed to work?” Keith asked the tiny technology expert as she finished adjusting the attachment cuff and corrected the size, looking intrigued by the now mostly formed arm. Pidge sighed.

“Well, this cuff keeps his arm from falling off. All we have to do is slide the inner mechanism parts into the metal casing we made from the mold we made from Shiro's left arm and hand, though we flipped it so it became a right arm and hand, and then we connect it to this cuff that's supposed to fit over Shiro's stump to keep the prosthetic from falling out or disconnecting, which would probably be a little painful. The cuff is designed to hold onto the skin around his arm, tight enough to stay but loose enough to be comfortable and not constricting the blood flow. The arm itself is going to basically use a bunch of tiny, dissolving needles to shoot wires into his body and connect to the proper muscles and nerves you use to move your arm. Everything is going to be secured so that it won't disconnect, and the wires are supposed to also attach to the bone so that tugging on his prosthetic won't make it pop off. The cuff is just an added measure to keep everything from aching, since even though it's lightweight it's still going to ache a little if left hanging for too long. The adjusting nanomachine fabric I added will prevent chafing and will adjust when Shiro flexes or moves his arm. It also covers the scarring, which is an added bonus, since we all know he doesn't like looking at the reminders...” Pidge trailed off, and Keith nodded grimly.

“Yeah… I'm just glad the nightmares have mostly stopped...” Keith muttered, flopping down onto the ground. Shiro had gone to the Military after high school, and had stayed there for a few years before being honorably discharged after losing his arm during his time as a POW. Army life had changed his brother, and Keith was pretty sure most of it was for the worst. Nightmares, PTSD, a lost arm and a changed personality. He wasn't as happy-go-lucky as he used to be, and had lost a few memories too. It took him a long time to go back to college, but Keith was glad he did. He seemed to open up more nowadays, and was much less closed off than before. The young astrology student sighed and tilted his head to look at Pidge with a sudden smirk, and the upside down girl at the desk turned to give him a raised eyebrow look.

“So, how's the plan going?” He asked, wiggling his eyebrows. Pidge laughed. “Stop that you dork. And the plan is working perfectly. It's only a matter of time now~!” The twenty year old woman sang, as her partner in crime gave her a thumbs up. “Soon, my conspiracy theory comrade, soon.” Keith purred sinisterly, and Pidge giggled evilly. “They'll never know what hit them.”

Lance exhaled deeply and rolled his shoulders. Today was the day. The deadline was tomorrow, and they had finally finished building the prosthetic arm and put it through more tests than he'd taken in his junior year of high school. Every single test proved the arm was ready. Now all that was left was actually attaching it to Shiro. He knocked on the door, and when he was let inside, he was faced with Pidge, more serious than he'd ever seen her before. “You ready for this?” The gremlin asked, quirking a brow at him. Lance nodded firmly. “Let's get this show on the road.”

They started setting up everything they needed, like pillows, towels, adjustment tools and double checked the testing checklist they would use once the arm was properly connected to Shiro's body. “Okay, I called Hunk and Keith over as well, because we need to document this and I can't hold a camera while adjusting connections and you can't either since you're the one moving it into place.” Pidge informed him as she prepped the prosthetic for attachment, as Shiro would arrive with Keith. Lance nodded from his spot on the bed, where he was arranging the pillows for Shiro to sit with in order to keep him as still as possible while they put the new arm on.

Sure enough, less than a half hour later, an engineering student, an astrology student and a veterinary student walked through the door like the start to a weird joke with a bad punchline. “You ready for this, Shiro?” Pidge asked as said man settled onto the bed and clutched a pillow with his good arm. “As ready as I'll ever be.” He joked, though it sounded a little strained. “Okay, first things first, we have to take off the old arm. Try not to freak out, okay?” Pidge warned, knowing about his panic attacks and giving fair caution before she tried anything.

Shiro swallowed thickly and nodded. “Don't worry, it's not going to hurt, and I'll stop if it gets too bad.” Pidge soothed before she moved around him to start undoing the latches and connections to his stump. Shiro did really well, at least until she actually pulled off the arm. That's when everything went wrong. Shiro started hyperventilating, eyes darting around frantically and pained noises leaking through his tight-lipped mouth.

“Shiro, calm down, you're okay, it's just me, Pidge, see? I'm not hurting you, you're in my room, and- WOAH!” Pidge tried to calm down the former soldier, but ducked with a short scream when Shiro lashed out at her. Good thing nobody was in the dorms at this time of day. Lance was thankful for the soundproof walls as Shiro panicked through his flashback, the older man wheezing for the people he couldn't see to leave his arm alone.

“Shiro! Snap out of it! You aren't in the enemy camp, you're safe, it's okay!” Keith yelped, attempting to hold down his big brother, and ultimately getting hurled across the room. Hunk stepped in and managed to hook his arms around Shiro's shoulders to restrain him, but his legs still flailed and kicked frantically, and Lance was terrified that he was going to hurt himself like this. So he did a stupid, very Lance thing and stepped closer to the writhing, screeching man, ignoring the sharp flash of pain across his arm when nails sliced into them, and carefully put his hands on Shiro's cheeks to force him to look into ocean blue eyes. Hunk tightened his grip on the man.

Shiro panted and wheezed, chest heaving, his knee drove itself into Lance's gut but Lance was more durable than he looked, so he toughed it out and spoke as calmly as he could. “Shiro, you have to snap out of it, buddy. You are just fine, nobody here is taking your arm. You're okay. It's not real. Look at me, because I am real and whatever you're seeing isn't. Just, focus on me, okay?” He asked, though his stomach ached and was probably gonna bruise and his heart was pounding like crazy. Shiro slowly started to calm down, silver eyes unclouded and looking at him, and Lance could hear the background sound of Pidge helping Keith up.

Less than twenty minutes later had Lance sitting next to a prosthetic-less Shiro, rubbing small circles into his back as his crush quietly sipped a glass of water. Pidge was doing a minor repair to the new prosthetic, since it had gotten knocked over in the struggle, so they had a little while to breathe. Shiro cleared his throat gently. “I uh, I'm sorry for freaking out like that… you were all just trying to help...” He murmured, subdued and solemn.

Lance laughed lightly. “Nah, man, it's okay. I've had worse from my siblings. Plus, we knew you might freak, going in. Nobody blames you for having the reaction you did, it's only natural after what happened to you back then… But, now everything is okay again, and once Pidge finishes up you'll have a new arm!” He reassured, smiling. Shiro huffed, mouth twitching up in a faint smile.

Keith and Hunk were currently in the dorm kitchen working on getting some food after the whole fiasco, so it was just Lance, Shiro and Pidge in the room for now. Pidge piped up from her spot at her desk. “Lance is right, Shiro! Though he still shot down my idea of getting a bulletproof vest.” She sounded like she was pouting, and Shiro blinked. “They only stop projectiles, Pidge, they don't protect you all that great from a kick to the chest. You'd still get tossed and bruised.” Lance defended himself, rolling his eyes. This led to an intense debate between the two on force, inertia, the density of padding versus the strength of a kick, the vulnerability of the human body, and a bunch of other terms that had Shiro feeling like he was in the middle of a scientific lecture on physics.

Luckily, the debate ended with the return of Keith and Hunk with a large plate of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and various other snacks. Pidge finished checking the wiring and nodded in satisfaction, moving over to Shiro. Hunk held up the camera. “Right, we're rolling!” The big man signaled. “Okay, on three, big guy.” She muttered, Lance getting into position to hold the arm steady. Shiro nodded, keeping as still as possible as Pidge unlatched the cuff and pressed it into place at the edge of his stump, lining up the tiny near-invisible needles to the correct marks Lance had traced onto a diagram earlier.

Lance's sharp eyes and steady hands guided the robot arm into place, and Pidge counted under her breath. “One...two...three!” On three, she and Lance moved and quickly attached the prosthetic, Pidge's quick fingers moving up to lock the cuff over the held position of the arm, which triggered the launching of the needles and wires.

Shiro grunted as a prickling feeling erupted all over his shoulder and stump as the needles did their work, attaching the wires to their assigned places and nerves. The needles were made of condensed nutrients that were absorbed by the body once their job was done. The cuff locked into place, keeping everything still as the tingly feeling faded away and Shiro now had a hunk of metal connected to him.

“Alright, now we just wait a few moments for the nerves to kick in… Shiro, let me know if you start feeling any phantom pains or anything like when you had your actual right arm, because that means it's starting to work.” Lance ordered as he and Pidge moved away to let the arm do it's work. Shiro nodded, his brain getting used to the new attachment, until he suddenly jolted and started staring at the arm in shock.

“Shiro?” Keith asked, worried. Shiro's reply was a near whisper. “I- It's like I can feel the wires like muscles…” Pidge's eyes lit up. “Okay, try telling it to move with your brain!” Shiro nodded and narrowed his eyes, concentrating, and the fingers twitched. A quiet gasp echoed in the room. “Try again, like, give us a wave maybe?” Lance asked, and Shiro complied, the arm twitching and suddenly moving up to wave at the camera. A grin started to spread over Shiro's face. Pidge bounced up and down on the balls of her feet excitedly as she whipped out the testing checklist.

Shiro then proceeded to ace every single test with ease, becoming more and more used to using the arm as each test went by. Soon he didn't even have to focus too hard in order to move it, as it worked just like a real arm. Shiro couldn't stop smiling, and it was honestly the most adorable thing Lance had ever seen. Once the final test had passed, Pidge declared him officially cleared to use it however he liked. The first thing he did was scoop the prosthetic creators up in a huge hug, laughing joyfully and spinning them around, much to  Pidge's loud squawking protest and Lance's surprised yelp.

Shiro actually even kissed the girl on the forehead and Lance on the cheek in gratitude before letting them go and practically bounding over to his brother like an overeager puppy to show off how his new arm moved. Keith had never seen Shiro like this before in his life, so he was a little blinded by the beaming smile on his older brother's face.

Hunk wandered over to Lance, trying not to laugh at how the biologist student was bent over, one hand supporting him on the desk while the other clutched at his heart as he wheezed and sputtered through a blushing face that put the color of a red bell pepper to shame. Hunk gently reminded Lance to breathe while Shiro practically sang praises behind them. Lance couldn't stop smiling for the rest of the day, and neither did Shiro. Pidge had new blackmail material on Lance, and quite happily shared it with Keith. Lance also didn't sleep that night, at least not as well as usual.

They got an A+, and the blueprints were actually being sent to the top research facility in prosthetics! Pidge could not stop freaking out over this news, and was currently walking behind Lance and Shiro, babbling to her parents about it. They were on their way back from the last class of the day, as everyone was getting ready for the break between semesters since the last day of school was tomorrow. Pidge waved them ahead as she continued to talk with her brother over the phone, so it was just the two college students as they walked towards the dorm building.

Lance walked next to Shiro, humming idly as his eyes flicked over to the taller male now and then. “So, Lance?” Shiro started, and Lance jumped slightly, not having expected Shiro to start talking. “Uh, yeah? What's up?” He asked, trying not to seem a little panicked. “So, uh, I was wondering… are you free this weekend?” That was not a question Lance was expecting, and he stumbled over a loose chunk of concrete on the sidewalk, falling forwards with a yelp, scrunching his eyes in anticipation for the inevitable crash to the ground.

Which… never came, as two strong arms shot forward and caught him before he hit concrete, one smooth metal and the other firm, warm skin and muscle. “Woah, are you okay?” Shiro asked, concerned, and Lance blinked up at him and offered an awkward smile as he scrambled to stand back on his own two legs. “Yeah, I'm cool, just didn't notice the pothole, haha.” He joked, attempting to cover up his embarrassment. Letting go of his hold on the other, Shiro smiled warmly at him. “Oh good. So, about this weekend… maybe I could treat you to lunch or something?” Oh, they were already at the dorms...

Lance smiled at the slight flush over the taller man's cheeks. “Yeah, I'm free on Saturday, if you'd like...” Shiro's smile widened. “Great! It's a date then. See you around, Lance!” Lance's jaw dropped as Shiro gave him a friendly wave goodbye and started jogging up the stairs to his floor. Lance could practically feel his face turning redder and redder as he processed the words.

“It's a date then!…..It's a date then….a date….”

Later, Hunk came home to find Lance screaming into the thickest pillow they had, and laughed like crazy when he learned the reason why.

That year, there was a new Cutest Couple in the yearbook. Lance had never been happier in his life, and Shiro was just as pleased.

Two college students, finally free from school, sat next to each other on lounge chairs outside a cute little drink store and watched people walk by. Both were wearing clothes more suited for summer, the man in a tank top and shorts, the woman in a t-shirt and jean shorts. Oddly enough, both were wearing sunhats and sunglasses.

The shorter woman sipped her lime green syrupy drink and smirked at her phone where a picture of two men holding hands, laughing, popped up on a Facebook post. The man next to her mirrored the smirk, and reached out his fist to bump against hers while he drank his own cherry red Italian soda.

“What do you think, Keith?”

“Pidge, I do believe that we can proclaim this mission, accomplished.”

The plan had worked, and the two lovebirds were none the wiser.