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sleepyangelkami · 10 months ago

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PERVERTED I c.grimes

𝜗𝜚 WORD COUNT - 3.3K

CARL GRIMES X FEM!READER

𝜗𝜚 SUMMARY - you and carl had been best friends for as long as he can remember but lately he's feeling new emotions towards you, ones he doesn't think are too good for a girl like you. as if the world had been listening to his sins, they let him stumble upon your panties, left idly in your laundry basket.

𝜗𝜚 WARNINGS - smut, pervert!carl, innocence kink, corruption kink, masterbation, dom!carl, sub!reader, dirty talk, wet (day)dream, kinda manipulative carl, upskirting, aged up characters, use of y/n, petnames, intended lower case, nothing i write is ever proofread 🩷

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you still remembered the day you sat in your dad's farmhouse, surrounded by your family when you heard blood curdling screams from a man out front. you were young then, maybe just after turning eleven when you escaped out the front door, seeing a man carrying what appeared to be his son in his arms, covered in blood.

that was the day you met your soon to be, best friend.

over the years, you and carl grew close. some would say you were best friends, that was what you'd say too. you grew up with all older sisters so you didn't really have anyone your age growing up. not until you met carl and you knew you could trust him with anything. he always told you so. told you that you need no one if not him.

eventually you landed yourself in alexandria. with everything that had happened back at the farmhouse, then at the prison, then the death of your dear sister beth, maggie decided it would be best if you went to live with her and glenn. so that was exactly what you did.

alexandria was unlike anywhere you'd ever been your entire life.

it was blissfull, peaceful.

carl loved alexandria too. it had everything he could possibly need. his own room, his own comics, posters... you. he'd been sitting idly on his bed, flipping through a comic book and not so much as taking notice to the absolute mess in his room. he usually got like this on weekends, letting the room go absolutely horrid with a mess. he knew by any minute now you'd come stalking through the door, brows furrowing at the untidiness of his room.

knock !

ah, there you were.

carl tried to fight back his smile as he tossed the comic book to the side. "come in!" he yelled, flipping himself onto his back as he'd been laying on his stomach.

with no surprise, you stalked through the door. your lips were pressed into a smile as wide as anything, pretty white dress sat across your figure. it made carl remember just how innocent you were to the world around you. you had no idea of what thoughts ran through men's minds when they saw you. he had an overwhelming fear to protect you from it. but if he did, he wasn't too sure if he could protect you from him, too. "hi!" you practically beamed as you came in through the bedroom door.

"hey." situating himself up on the bed. "how was work?"

you worked in the kindergarten near your house. you'd always liked kids, having a certain bond with them that no one could quite explain. you liked taking care of them, you liked playing with them. judith was one of the many you took care of. of course, you were only eighteen so you didn't take care of them full time, you worked with another one of the staff members. "good!" seating yourself on the bed. "i got off early so i helped carol with her pie."

carl couldn't help the smile that tugged at his lips. his little baker. "that's good, baby."

baby.

to some, that would seem absurd to call your best friend. it would seem like the time of thing that you'd call your girlfriend or your boyfriend. that was what your new friend ron had told you when he'd heard it himself. that night you asked carl if it was odd, if the names he was calling you truly were weird. nobody else called you those names but you supposed you'd never questioned it for how long he'd been doing it. he'd shrugged his shoulders, telling you not to listen to ron and that it was, in fact, normal but if ron or anyone else had called you such names that you should tell carl immediately.

you'd only nodded your head, brain sort of scrambled.

"are you still okay for tomorrow?" you questioned, eyes scanning his face.

every saturday was the same. he'd come over to yours or you'd come over to his. tomorrow was scheduled to be your house, carl was supposed to come over and you'd have your saturday sleep over, filled with movies, junk food, really anything a teenager could get their hands on in an apocalypse. "'course." he practically scoffed out.

it was a tradition, one that could never be broken. "okay." you grinned, eyes flickering across the room before your smile slowly faltered. "carl, your room's a mess!"

carl only groaned in response, picking back up the comic and landing it on his face. he began arguing, telling you to leave it but you were already beginning to clean around the room, shocked by the state it had been in.

knowing he couldn't convince you to stop, he peeled the comic book off his eyes to take a look at you. and that was when he saw it. you bent down to pick up something that had been tossed idly on the floor. he watched as your skirt rode up, giving him a view of pretty pink fabric, covering what he so desperately needed to see.

instantly, his eyes widened slightly.

he'd thought about you like this before. it was only natural for a boy who grew up with you by his side for what felt like his entire life. he had you looking up at him with those doe eyes all the time not to mention the way you paraded around in dresses and skirts as if no one could see.

he slipped the comic book down onto his crotch, covering his obvious hard on. perhaps he was the problem. perhaps the problem was the way his eyes stared at the place he should have been looking away from.

but his feelings had been so... strong lately. it was like something had snapped inside of him and he couldn't stop thinking about it. about you.

more importantly, the sounds you'd make as he slammed his dick inside of you, or how wet you'd get over the simplest of things.

after all, he was your best friend, he'd seen you in many ways. he'd noticed it before, when he was touching you a little too much and suddenly you couldn't get comfortable, the smallest of whimpers leaving your lips as you cuddled into him, thinking the feeling would go away.

he knew exactly what he'd been doing.

his day dreams were cut off by rick entering the room, without knocking. that was how he always knew when it was you at his door, the only one in the world who knew how to knock.

you'd gone home some time earlier, leaving him with his impending thoughts. he'd tried not to think about it, about you, truly. but the way he'd seen your pretty panties lining your clothed pussy earlier had practically sent him over the edge.

"hey." rick walked inside the room, glancing around. "your room looks clean." clothes folded away, nothing thrown on the floor, no cups or dishes sat on the desks. "so i take it y/n was here."

"yeah." carl sat up against the headboard of his bed. "did you need something?" because rick didn't just make his way to his room for no good reason. i mean, he was a busy man.

he scratched his beard. "yeah, was gonna ask because a couple of us are going on a supply run tomorrow and i was wondering if you wanted to come." tomorrow. saturday. you and carl's night.

he contemplated.

the way his mind had been moving lately, perhaps it wasn't the greatest idea to have a sleepover with you just yet. he needed some time to himself, to cool off. he didn't know if he'd be able to control himself if you cuddled up against him the way you usually did, your legs hooked around one of his, sighing softly when you had no idea what he was doing to you.

maybe it would be better off if he called tomorrow night off. it was only one saturday, right? "yeah, yeah sure lemme just run over to y/n's and let her know."

rick was somewhat curious when it came to you and carl. you always looked so happy next to him, big eyes lighting up while he couldn't wipe the smile off his face. he'd also seen you two going through the trenches, even when carl was covered in mud and blood, some walkers, some human, some even his own, he'd still pull you aside, grasping your arm and holding you to the side, making sure nothing got to you, not even one of the group members. he wondered sometimes, just what was going on between you two. sometimes, he thought you guys were dating in secret, behind his back which he wouldn't be all too angry about. but there was a longing look in his son's eyes, one that told him he didn't have her to himself, not yet.

"oh, well if you have plans―"

carl was quick to cut the man off, picking up the jacket you'd folded and left on his chair. "no, no it's fine." slipping his arms in the holes. "she won't mind."

he wondered if you would.

surely, you were bound to be upset. you loved the saturday sleepovers. he'd imagine that you'd give him those doe eyes, showing just how upset you were but you'd shrug it off with a little smile, telling him to be careful. you always wanted so desperately to please him. he could see this, he adored you for it.

across alexandria, carl knocked against your front door. he waited momentarily before doing the same thing again. when he received no response, he made it his business to slide the unlocked door opened. he called out for glenn and maggie across the hallway, receiving, yet again, no response.

then his feet made it towards the stairs. he found himself walking around until finally, he stood in front of your open bedroom door. "sweetheart?" he called out, this time much softer.

from the door at the end of the hallway, he heard the response. "one minute!" the yell was from you, behind the door. "'m in the shower!" you had this weird thing about you where you showered multiple times a day, scrubbing your skin raw. sometimes you thought you'd never scrub off the mud that covered you from when you lived on the roads. carl noted that when he'd see your arms slightly red after the shower, not from the hot water. but he never mentioned it.

"okay!" he yelled back, now suddenly aware of the running water. "I'll be in your room!"

he heard a muffled 'okay' from behind the door before entering your room.

the walls were baby pink, everything else being a mixture of white and pale colours. what could you say, you were a sucker for pastels.

the room was like it had always been. he'd been in there a thousand times before, whether it was for a sleepover, for a mere five minutes to pop in when he was on his break or reading a comic book to you while sat perched on your bed, or holding you while you cried.

the point was, carl knew you through everything in your entire life. this room was practically his too. the same way his own was practically yours.

one thing was for sure, there was enough of each other's clothes in the other's room for it to be considered one another's.

speaking of clothes, his eyes snapped over to the basket of clothes that sat idly on your bed, waiting to be thrown in the wash. he assumed that's what you were going to do when you were out of the shower.

his eyes caught a glimpse of one of the shirts he owned. he knew you took it. rolling his eyes, he picked it out of the basket, stepping backwards as a couple pieces of clothes left.

"fucking idiot." he mumbled before picking the pieces up, placing them back inside the dirty basket. then his eyes caught that familiar pink cotton material.

he swore he held his breath.

the panties you'd worn earlier, clad across the part he so desperately wished to see. he couldn't help the way his hand reached down before standing up. every other piece of clothing, he'd tucked back into the basket. but this particular piece of clothing, he held it for a moment.

was it so wrong? to think of your innocent best friend in such a way? had you ever... thought about him like that?

questions swarmed his mind before you entered the room.

he spun around, tucking the garment into his back pocket. he used both his hands to lift the flannel back over his jeans, making sure the garment couldn't be spotted at all, even if someone had looked from behind.

"you okay?" you questioned, now dressed in a pale yellow shorts and a large sweater. it was getting dark outside, he noticed. probably your pijamas.

he watched as your hair dripped onto the floor beneath you. "yeah, yeah, i... needed to talk to maggie about something." he didn't know why he was lying. he really did need to tell you something but his mind was in scrambles, thinking of the piece of fabric in his back pocket, he couldn't possibly respond right.

"oh." you faltered slightly. "well, she's not here but―"

you frowned at how quickly he cut you off. "that's fine, i'll just tell her tomorrow." he crossed your bedroom, passing you to walk out the door.

you followed in confusion, wondering why he'd been so eager to run away. "well, i'll tell her you came by." wondering what was up with him at all. carl never acted like this.

suddenly, the boy swung around. "no, no don't tell her." waving you off. your brows were knit together in utter confusion. "i don't think i wanna talk about it with her anymore so... night!" practically racing out the front door and slamming it in his leave.

you stood stumped at your front door, confusion evident in just your eyes. "night carl..." mumbling before turning around, wondering what all of that had been about.

the sun had set when carl finally took the garment out again.

he knew it was wrong, he had to know. at least subconsciously, anyway because he waited until everyone else in the house had fallen asleep until he took them out. at this point, he'd been dressed down to just his boxers. it was late, time for the sleep he knew he wouldn't get. not when that image of you, bent over, was burned into his mind.

the mere thought had his hand inching downward while his other held the pretty panties in his hands. he stopped himself.

this is wrong. he thought. so fucking wrong.

but he felt so tempted.

the panties sat in his hands were the same ones you'd wore today, the same ones he'd seen you bent over in. he couldn't stop thinking about it, whether his hand continued down or not.

what you didn't know, couldn't hurt you.

surely, you'd never find out about something like this. he was safe, for now. his hand inched down, tracing just beneath his boxers before pulling out his length. he felt himself groan at the mere touch. he'd been hard since you left, it hurt. and he knew if you were here, you'd do anything to make sure he wasn't in pain.

even if he meant the blasted thing he was about to do.

his hand wrapped around his dick, he breathed out before pumping it once, then again, then again. "fuck." he breathed out, his head falling back and his mouth falling open.

he'd touched himself a thousand times before, for as long as he could remember, his mind always traced back to you. it was impossible to escape your grace. but there was something about holding your panties in his hands that made him feel even better.

as wrong as it may have been, he couldn't stop himself now.

if he was going to do it, he was going to go all in.

aimlessly, he used his other hand to prop your panties against his cock. they fell so loosely around his length causing him to groan. with his right hand, he held onto the panties before pumping his cock over and over again. he groaned, loudly enough before practically shoving his face in the pillows beneath his head.

"fuck, fuck, fuck..." his hands were big, long slender fingers wrapping around him. he could imagine you trying to take it. he'd imagine he'd have to coax you, gently running them up and down your thighs before pushing them inside. you'd be so wet, gushing over his fingers.

then he imagined you taking his dick, an impossible task.

he could imagine your pretty virgin hole, so tight. he couldn't even imagine you taking your own fingers let alone his dick. your walls would be so tight around him, clenching as he pulled every last moan out of you. you'd whine and writhe against him, it all becoming too much too quick.

and he wouldn't care. "take it, take it." carl mumbled into the air of his bedroom, eyes shut and imagining you while his hand never stopped its constant attack on his own dick. his hand sped up, so quick that he could barely breathe. "hah, good girl." his voice breaking, slightly higher pitched. "my good girl, mhm, good girl." breaths falling from his lips like chanting prayers.

it was wrong, to think of you like this. he knew that but he was too damn perverted.

he'd imagined what he could have done this morning, you bent down and picking something off the floor. he could have grasped your hips, holding them in place and peeking the skirt of the dress above your hips, getting the view he really wanted.

he'd imagined peeling the fabric of your panties away, getting a view at what he needed the most. the same fabric that was sat around his cock.

he couldn't stop the noises that left his lips, trying so hard to stay quiet but the way your panties felt against him was enough to have his hips rolling even if they hadn't wanted to. it was like you were there in front of him. he could ram into you as he pleased, holding your hips close as you sat on top of him. but he'd do all the work, of course, anything to coax those little whines out of you.

the many times he'd pulled at your hair for a reaction or rubbed your thighs gently, every murmur of a whimper that would leave your lips. he imagined it a thousand times louder now.

he couldn't help himself, flipping over so he was sat propped up on his knees but his hips thrusting forward into the little material.

the head of his dick hit against the mattress with every thrust, your panties wrapped up in his fingers and his cock.

he felt a sudden familiar feeling build up in his stomach. "fuck, baby, feel s'good." practically pussy drunk by now, despite the fact he hadn't even touched your pussy yet. "shit, jus' like that, c'mon, sweetheart."

"please, carl!" he could hear your whiny voice now. "touch me, please, please."

your voice, albeit in his head, was enough to send him over the edge.

he came with his eyes closed and mouth open, a moan falling from his lips. not just any moan, your name. he felt creamy liquid gush out of his dick, landing all over the pink panties that lay in his hands.

he thrust his dick over and over until he ran dry. then, he collapsed with a pant. his lungs were burning, they were raw and his head fell against the linen pillows. he barely so much as glanced down to your stained panties that wrapped around his fingers.

one thing was for sure, he needed to get to this damn saturday sleepover. fuck the run.

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trippinsorrows · 4 months ago

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through your eyes + au 3

authors note: well. this got freaky. some smut ahead, folks. this really is starting to feel like a completely different story, low key.

part one // part two // au solana instagram

warnings: smut

taglist: @sayyestoheav3nn @fearlesschimera @cyberdejos2 @annfg8 @trentybenty @sabrina-carpenter-stan-account @zoeyybellex3

word count: 4.3k

"I need to talk to you."

Solana should have been talked to someone about this.

But, she's felt torn.

Torn on just who she can talk to about it.

And lack of options hasn't been the issue.

If anything, there's a copious amount of resources and trusted confidants she could go to. Courtesy of her large family, host of cousins, and other good friends.

It's actually easier to start with who would absolutely be the worst person to go to.

And her mom, interestingly enough, is that person. Ironic given how close she is to her madre. One of her best friends, in many ways.

But, not for this. Because Nina will go to Xavier, Solana's dad, and somehow Wes, Solana's brother, will get involved, and it'll just be a whole mess.

Beyond that, there's her cousins. Jade and Anriel will scold the living shit out of her and probably confide in their mom, Solana's aunt Sharmell, out of concern. Aunt Sharmell will go to her husband, Booker, who won't hesitate to literally fly out to Miami just to tell his brother, Xavier, Solana's dad. Thus, the whole damn family knowing.

Then there's her cousin, Roxanne. Roxanne would be great if not for her inability to hold water. And Solana definitely doesn't need her mom's side of the family knowing. They'll kidnap her and force her to live in Mexico for the rest of her life, believing she's gone mad.

Might not be too far off though.

Rhea will just kick her ass for being so 'fawkin stoopid'. Jaida will encourage it, because Jaida encourages all things questionable. But Kayden....Kayden could be the one.

She's also bound to not respond well, but still, someone Solana knows will ultimately keep this between the two of them.

Kayden Carter looks over at Solana with intrigue. With over 15 years of friendship, she knows when her roommate and best friend is truly in a dilemma, that nervous, panicked voice she typically uses present already. This is definitely one of those times.

"Okay." Kayden motions for Solana to sit down on the other end of the sofa, waiting until she does so to ask, "what's going on?"

Solana takes a deep breath, both hating and needing to share this. "You know the event I attended with my family this weekend?" Kayden nods. "I—I met someone there."

At that, Kayden lifts a pierced brow. "Oh?"

Solana looks away, explaining, "I was trying to get away from Ethan and ran into this man by accident, and he ended up helping me out. Pretending to be my date or whatever. It got Ethan to leave me alone, so that was good."

"Forget about Page's annoying ass, what about the man? Is he attractive?"

Solana scoffs. "Very." She's not quite sure how to describe just how fine Roman Reigns is. "But—"

Kayden's expression sours. "He's an asshole, isn't he?"

"Notorious." Though Solana does her best to stay tucked away in her little corner of the world within that's away from the mafia life, she's not stupid nor entirely disconnected. It's common knowledge that Roman is a dick.

And yet....

"But, he was nice to me. He's been nice to me." Kayden's expression shifts into confusion, Solana clarifying, "he—he came to my job this morning."

"Holy shit, he's serious about this." Kayden scoffs and smiles, clearly intrigued by the mystery of it all. "Wait, who is this guy, Sola?"

And now, here comes the part that Solana has been dreading since decided she would confide in Kayden. "It's....it's Roman."

Kayden blinks, not catching on. "Roman who?" And it's just one 'you know' look from Solana that has her eyes widening. "No." Solana closes her eyes. "Please tell me you're kidding." More silence provides the answer she's certain her roommate didn't and doesn't want to hear. "Roman fuckin' Reigns? Solana, have you lost your mind? Do you know who he is?"

Solana leans back into the sofa, murmuring, "of course."

"No, you must not, because this man is the devil himself. He's a monster, Solana. If you heard half the things he's done, you'd be running the opposite way. You'd be on the other side of the goddamn world to get away from him." Kayden continues to freak out, lecturing and chiding Solana for what she clearly feels is a bad call. "I just-I don't understand. Solana, you've always been so against our world. You've essentially lived in seclusion just because you don't want to be a part of it, and now you're entertaining the literal embodiment of said world?"

Solana runs her hands over her face. "It's not—it's not like that."

"Then tell me what it's like, because maybe I'm just confused, but I'm pretty sure you're telling me that you're talking to Roman Reigns?"

That's exactly what she is, but Solana is lost on just how to express that despite everything that's been said about this man, in the two interactions she's had with him, he's been nothing but kind. In his own way, of course.

"He....he hasn't been that way with me," she finds herself defending while also recognizing that it truly is a weak defense. "He's been....nice. He helped me out with Ethan. He came to see me at my job just to ask me out--"

"Wait, he already asked you out?" Kayden looks like she's about to spazz out even more. She shakes her head, taking a second to calm down. "Solana, you're my best friend, and I love you, but he's probably just trying to fuck you. You're gorgeous with a great body, and he obviously sees how innocent you are. It's just a chase."

It makes sense, and Roman more or less confirmed as such with his comment about wanting her with no clothes on. That should be enough evidence for her to find a way to ward off his advances.

But.....

There's this part of her that's absolutely intrigued by him, as he so smugly pointed out. A part of her that wouldn't mind to get to know him more. Even if it makes no damn sense to her.

"I can take care of myself." It doesn't come out as confident and assured as she would like it to be, nor is she entirely certain of her assertion herself, but it's expressed regardless. "I—I can handle this."

Kayden looks just as unsure as Solana feels. "Your family doesn't know, do they?"

"No." Her eyes widen a bit. "No one does, except you now. So please, please don't say anything to anyone." Solana needs to at least figure out just what's going on before she has to face the inevitable backlash from her family and others.

Kayden shakes her head. "You know I got you, girl. Even though I do think you're fuckin' crazy, you've always supported me in my fucked up relationships, so I'll do the same with you." Kayden suddenly gives her that teasing expression, poking her arm. "Besides, it's not like he's ugly, am I right?"

So right.

"I get so nervous around him," Solana whines, laying her head back against the sofa. "He's just so....he comes on so strong."

Kayden smirks, leaning over and playfully nudging. "He wants him some Sola, girl." She laughs as Solana covers her blushing face. "Who could blame him? You're gorgeous, babe."

It's such weird experience. Solana is still trying to heal and learn to love herself again after calling off her engagement, so a man like Roman Reigns coming into her life out of nowhere and being so intent on just....her....it's a lot to digest. Because taking away all of the things about him that make him dangerous and avoidant worthy, he's still, hands down, the most handsome man she's ever seen.

"So where are ya'll going?"

Solana bites down on her bottom lip. "He invited me to WarGames. Said he'll send a car for me."

There's obvious surprise on the face of her best friend. "First date is watching him beat the shit out of other men?" Kayden says aloud, nodding and shrugging. "It tracks." Solana rolls her eyes. "Well, what are you gonna wear?"

She shrugs, truly unsure when she remembers what he said. "Something....something red." Kayden is curious, as Solana shares a version of what Roman said. "He....he asked me to wear red."

Told. He told her to wear red, but Kayden doesn't need to know that part.

Smirking, Kayden nods, impressed almost. "Damn. He already wants you wearing Bloodline colors? First lady type shit." Solana grabs a pillow and throws it Kayden's way, her friend laughing and then gasping. "Holy shit, you have to wear that red dress I got you last year for your birthday!"

The mention of that little piece Solana swore would never see beyond the back of her closet has her eyes widening. "Kayden, no, I can't. That's way too revealing."

"That's the point, duh." Kayden tosses the pillow back and stands up off the sofa, pulling Solana up with her. She then looks over at Dulce who's been sleeping peacefully as her mama stumbles into one of the most questionable decision of her life. "Come on, Dulce. We gotta get mama ready to get dicked down."

"Kayden!"

--------

Solana is a nervous wreck.

She hasn't been this anxiety ridden since taking her NCLEX-RN, and that was a damn near traumatic experience.

This is literally just a date.

Kind of.

Cause she's never actually been on a date before where the man will be preoccupied the whole night.

But, she's also never been on a date with someone like Roman before either. It's just all around a brand new experience that has her so in her head. She's in it during the car ride and especially when she arrives at the Warehouse and is escorted to Roman's locker room.

She nearly has a heart attack when the door is opened and she expects to see him waiting, but it's postponed, God looking out for her, when she sees he's absent.

The security leave her alone without any guidance or clue as to just what she's supposed to do, so Solana takes that time to text Kayden and let her know she's arrived and that she's safe.

For now.

Not wanting to focus too much on the unknown of it all, she takes in his locker room which is much nicer than what's probably necessary. Craft table. Weights section. Sofa. Flat screen TV. A trainers table. The works, essentially.

It makes sense when she thinks about it.

Roman seems like a man who only accepts the finer things in life, if not the finest.

But, it's the section on the craft table with a bottle of wine that keeps snatching her attention.

Drinking is probably the last thing she needs to be doing, but that's exactly what she does.

She quickly grabs the bottle and and a wine glass, filling it up halfway before downing almost all of it. It's the perfect combination of sweet and bitter and hopefully helpful in taking some of this edge off.

"You sure don't disappoint, do you?"

It's a pure stroke of luck that she doesn't drop the glass in her hand at the rumble of his deep voice behind her. But, it's truly a miracle that both the glass and herself don't fall to the ground when she turns around to look at him.

Mio dios.

Roman is standing by the door, his hair down and clearly wet, water droplets sliding down his bare chest, Solana unable to take her eyes off his bulging muscles and the intricate tribal tattoos that somehow add to the magnanimity and beauty of this man. He's wearing black cargo pants tucked into black boots, with the sacred, red ula fala resting around his majestic neck.

Roman Reigns in a suit is one thing.

But Roman Reigns shirtless is something entirely different.

She's almost certain the ground underneath her shakes a bit, also deeply impacted by the god among mere mortal men.

If not for Roman initiating something beyond her embarrassing gawking. she would continue to stare. For a long time. A very long time.

He walks toward her, every step bringing her closer and closer to melting into the ground. This man is a giant. In every sense of the word.

But, it's when he takes his finger under her chin, lifting her head a little and has the audacity to say, "you can do more than just look, if you want" that Solana just about spontaneous combusts on the spot.

He's maybe said a total of 8 to 10 sentences to her in the entire time they've 'known' each other, yet even in the midst of that brevity, he still gives her more of a visceral, bodily reaction than her ex ever did.

"I—" Words are a thing of the past, something she was once capable of but not anymore. The sight of God himself has a tendency to rob anyone of the right to verbalization.

Roman chuckles, his other hand moving to her hip. "You listened."

Solana is certain it's her that's trembling and not the room around her. It takes her a minute to process he's referring to her dress. "You—you said wear red, didn't you?."

"I did." He acknowledges, once again giving her a one over as he bites on his bottom lip. "Good girl."

Oh, fuck.

Solana has to get the hell out of here. The room is freaking in shambles at this point.

Or, maybe that's just her.

She's a stuttering mess trying to communicate with this man. "I—you—probably have to get r—ready."

Roman smiles, and her entire world flutters. "Do I not look ready to you?"

Hardly. This man probably doesn't even know what it's like to be unready. Never experienced that. That's a mortal thing.

"No—I just.....S—sorry."

Similar to their last two interactions, Roman brings his hand to her back and tugs her into him. Solana, once again, places one hand on his chest, not even thinking about the fact that the water from his hair continues to dampen his body.

Until water hits her palm.

Solana is on fire. In all areas. She stammers out, feeling stupid as all the outdoors for stating the obvious. "You're wet...."

His gaze flicks to the space between her legs. "I'd bet you are too."

What the hell?

How is he so.....raw?

She absolutely refuses to move an inch, refuses to cause any kind of movement with her legs that could alert her to the fact that he's probably not wrong.

Not wrong at all.

If only Roman was on the same page.

"You are, aren't you?" His eyes narrow slightly, hand gradually starting to move down from the her back to the sizable swell of her ass. "I bet that pussy dripping for me already."

Solana's eyes shut, her nails clawing against his chest. "R—roman." Her breathing is labored, heart beating a mile per fucking minute, and that only intensifies when he squeezes her ass. Her natural reaction being to arch into him, her breast pressing against his solid body. "Oh my God....."

"God can't do for you what I can, sweetheart."

Blasphemy. Filth. Pure disrespect, and yet her head drops against his chest as he slides his hand to the front of her, wiggling it between her thighs.

Solana means to stop him, means to push him away, but her body seems to have a mind of its own, because she finds herself widening her stance, giving him all the access he needs.

The go ahead.

And he takes full advantage of that, Solana gasping loudly when he moves to cup her through her underwear. Her soaked underwear. "Dripping." He taunts, and it's true. Legs no longer mushed together, she absolutely feels the wetness dripping down, soaking her panties. "I'm taking you out to dinner after the match, but I think we should just skip to dessert right now."

Eyes widening, she gasps again when Roman removes his hand and picks her up, her thighs naturally wrapping around his waist. He carries her over to the trainers table, plopping her down on the edge.

"Lay back."

Her stomach is all kinds of twists and turns. She's not stupid. Far from it. There's only one place this is headed. "I—what?"

Roman, however, looks bored, stating so plainly. "I don't make it a habit to repeat myself, Solana. Even with a pretty thing like you, so do me a favor and just lay back."

If someone told her this is how the night would kick off, she'd call them crazy as all the outdoors. There's no way in hell this man is about to do what she thinks he is.

Is he?

Voicing her thoughts, she struggles with just how to word what is an otherwise simple thing to ask. "Are you...."

His gaze is piercing. "Can I?"

What a fucking question.

Once

Once has she had someone go down on her, and it wasn't even her ex-fiance. It was a guy she dated in college for a few months. To say it was......disappointing would be an understatement.

She didn't even finish.

Back to the borderline crisis at hand, she finds herself oversharing. "My ex. He didn't—he wouldn't....."

"Well, he's a fucking idiot." Roman's cruel but accurate remark is accompanied by his big hand moving up the sides of her dress until its scrunched by her stomach. "Eating pussy is a delicacy."

Her eyes shut again. He's so nasty.

So why is it only making her wetter?

Roman's fingers lightly tugging the waistband of her underwear reminds her of the proposed question.

This is a bad idea. A very bad idea. She doesn't sleep around. Doesn't let random men go down on her, and yet, the minute Roman licks his lips, the decision is almost made for her.

"Y—yes."

That alluring, small smile is back as he moves his hand to her stomach, pushing down just enough to get her in position. "Lay down, and let me show you what it's like to be with a real man."

Sweet baby Jesus.

Solana is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, back flat against the cool table when he goes to pull down her panties, leaving her open and exposed.

She hears Roman make a sound. "Mmm. Pussy just as pretty as I imagined."

Her hands clench at her side. He's thought about this? About her? About her��

"Ahhh." Her back is almost entirely off the table the minute his thick tongue gives one full, sensation stirring lick up her cunt. "Roman...." she moans, hands planted on the table, head thrown back as his cool breath blows against her pussy.

Seconds later, his tongue is back on her, fingers spreading her lips while his tongue teases a languid circle around her clit. "Oh my....."

The sound of his deep chuckle travels from his space between her legs. "I'm gonna make a fucking mess out of you."

And before she can process that, he tugs her by her thighs, diving face first into her cunt. Solana is a mewling, writhing mess as he sucks on her pussy like its the fuel and energy he needs for the fight to come. Laps at her with a hunger and desire that nearly matches her own, because whatever her ex did to her that one time is nothing compared to what he's doing to her right now.

"Shit...." Her body is hot, her nipples hardening by the second, and Solana can't help the way her thighs squeeze against his head, her lower half coiling and twisting from pleasure she's never experienced.

"You like that, don't you?" He hums, voice haughty and knowing. "Like me eating this pretty pussy, don't you, sweetheart?"

Her answer is an obvious one, breathed out over and through heavy pants. "Shit, yes." He sucks on her clit, the slurping sound practically filling the room and egging on her moans.

He pulls away, the absence something that's so much more noticable and painful than it should be. Only for her to arch again when his finger plays around with her nectar that feels like it's spread all over her lower half at this point. "Look how wet you are. I can tell she been neglected." Roman swirls his finger in circles around her clit, thumb applying just the lightest pressure. "Can tell she been needing me."

Solana can't and won't disagree. Not that she could anyway. Logic is very much a thing of the past. The only thing on her mind is ecstasy, and he's giving her more of that than she's ever had in all sexual interactions with all of her ex's put together.

"Goddamn, you taste good." He goes back to licking and sucking on her again, groaning almost. "Would stay down here all night if I could."

Solana nearly comes right then and there.

She wouldn't be opposed.

At all.

He stays with his head between her legs for what feels like inhumanly possible, long enough for that feeling she's only ever been able to give herself starting to rise. Toes curling and stomach twisting, she manages to whine out, "Roman, I—I'm gonna—"

He kisses her clit, coaxing her, guiding her, encouraging her. "I know, baby." She can practically visualize the smirk on his face. "Now be a good girl and come in daddy's mouth."

It's disgusting how that one filthy command manages to evoke her orgasm from her, Solana nearly sitting all the way up as her release shoots through her entire body. Roman continuing to suck on her and lap up every bit of it until there's not a fucking drop left.

Solana's practically lifeless body collapses against the table. Everything below her belly button is numb. Eyes shut, pulse probably in the danger range, she has no ability to do anything other than lay there and recover.

She's never come that hard, that much, that long.

Who is this man?

Solana whimpers a bit when she feels something against her, wiping her. A towel most likely. Strong but surprisingly gentle hands help her body to lift up only for her to fall against a solid chest, her forehead against Roman's shoulder.

She clutches onto him as he kisses her temple. "That's my girl." His girl. His anything. She's whatever he says and more. That's how fucked out he has her. "I'll see you after the match, okay?"

Sure. Fine. Whatever. Her ability to agree to anything was sucked out of her by that dangerous tongue of his, so the most she can do is nod against him.

Roman chuckles and gradually pulls away, Solana gripping on the edge of the table, eyes opening just enough to see that strong, muscular back of his as he walks out the door, closing it behind him.

She isn't sure how long she sits there, dress pulled up, towel covering her bottom half. She just knows that even after sitting for what should be a long enough time, her legs are still wobbly. Even as she moves around the room to look for her underwear only to see they're nowhere to be found, leaving her with one conclusion.

Roman took them with him.

The thought shouldn't make her pussy flutter. It really shouldn't and yet, here she is.

God, what did he do to her?

Swallowing, she does her best to maintain her pride and walks out, guided by the same guard who escorted her to Roman in the first place. He takes her up to what must be VIP seating. It's the perfect view of the celled ring and cages on the side intended for the participants.

Sitting there alone and with nothing else to occupy her mind, Solana's mind starts racing. That shouldn't have happened. She should have stopped him. Should have said no.

Even if she did want it just as much as he seemingly did. Nevertheless, that shouldn't matter. He's him. She's her. They're very different people. She's supposed to have morals and standards. Women who have that don't let men who are practically strangers go down on them.

But, that's exactly what she did, and she feels terrible about it.

"You must be my brother's flavor of the night."

Solana is already nervous as all the outdoors, yet somehow the interruption of her overthinking only serves to exacerbate that anxiety.

But, when she looks over and sees the source, Solana is unsure which is worse: what's said or who said it.

Rosalia Reigns isn't as tall or built as her twin brother. Not at all. A given considering their different sexes, but she's every bit as intimidating as him, and they do share some similar features. Same set of pretty brown eyes. Those full, pink lips and that overall powerful aura.

You know just by looking at her that she's an important person.

And she is. She comes only second to her brother.

Roman

Solana swallows and adjusts her dress as Rosalia gives her a oneover, not even trying to hide her distaste. "H—hi. I'm—"

"I don't care." Rosalia interrupts, a level of venom in her voice. "You'll be an afterthought come tomorrow morning when you join the rest of his whores on the island of forgettables."

Sting.

Solana shouldn't be surprised nor hurt by such cruel words. Rosalia, much like her brother, has never been known for kindness. Regardless, that knowledge doesn't stop the tears from pooling in her eyes.

Cause the words hit way too close to home given what just happened.

Something noticed by the other woman. An equally cruel smile growing on her face. "Aww, did I hurt your feelings?" Her smile deepens as she scoffs, sitting down in her chair. "Yeah, Ro definitely dropped the ball with you. You're dumber and more naive than the other stupid bitches my brother loves to entertain."

A stupid bitch. Any other time, Solana would disagree. She may not verbalize as such, but she would inwardly reject such a thing. But, she can't. She can't because it's true.

She gave Roman exactly what he wanted. Fell into his trap. Another of many nameless, faceless, forgettable conquests.

She's no different or better than any of the other women Roman messes around with.

She's now one of them.

And she feels disgusted with herself.

Not wanting Rosalia to see her cry, or anyone else, Solana mumbles a quiet 'excuse me' and rushes past the smirking woman. She needs to get out of here. Needs to go home.

Needs to never see or speak to Roman Reigns ever again.

This was a mistake. All of it.

And it can never happen again.

#roman reigns fic #roman reigns fanfiction #roman reigns x black!oc #roman reigns #arisnotebook

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anarcoqueer1994 · 2 years ago

Note

I need more of Eddie telling the band! Need it! Fix my brusied heart! Fix Steve's bruised heart! Tell me that he's everything! He is everything!!

Part 1 here.

Hope this fixes it <3 I'm going to admit my toxic trait is being angsty and not always being the best at fixing it. But I hope this is good. Thank you for reading!!

"Dude, what was that?" Gareth finally breaks the awkward silence between the 4 of them. They all look at Eddie.

He presses his palms to his eyes until he can see little white dots when he opens them again to stare at his three best friends. He feels like dirt. Actually less than dirt. He cared so much about what they would think of his dating Steve, that not only did hurt his favorite person in the whole world, but he did not even trust his friends enough to give them a chance. He finally lets out a sigh before saying "That was me fucking up. Like royally fucking up.".

"You going to explain, maybe?" Jeff asks, slowly putting the pieces together but confirmation from Eddie would be nice.

"I, um, I mean Steve and I have been seeing each other for the past 6 months, since Spring Break actually." Eddie finally says, holding his breath, waiting for a response.

"You guys have been seeing each other for six months?" Garreth parrots back in disbelief.

"Yea. He's my boyfriend...well he was. I actually don't know now." Eddie says sadly.

"You have been together for like half a year, and you didn't tell us, why?" Caleb asks, confused in why Eddie would hide this.

"I don’t know, man. It's just, in high school we would talk so much shit about people like Steve. And I know Steve better now, so I know how much of a great guy he is but like he is still an ex-jock. And I was worried about, you know." He mumbles.

"You were worried what we would think. Man, what is wrong with you?" Jeff laughs. "Eddie Munson isn't supposed to care what people think, even your loser friends."

'Besides, if you say he's good, we trust you, okay?" Gareth adds. "But I do have a couple of questions."

Eddie can't help but smile at his friends, even though his stomach still hurts thinking about the look on Steve’s face from a few minutes prior. But he indulges Gareth. "Ask away, I guess I owe you guys."

"Does he treat you alright?" Gareth asks simply.

Eddie nods softly. "He treats me better than anyone I've ever been with. He's always so soft and gentle with me. I swear, he looks at me like I'm something special, and I don't know why. Sometimes I don't think I deserve it."

"Do you love him?" Gareth follows up.

"God, more than anything." Eddie says with out hesitatation.

"And do you think he loves you?" He asks simply.

"I know he loves me. He tells me ever day." And not just with his words, but with his actions too. Steve shows Eddie he loves him every day with all the little things does for him.

"Then why are you still sitting down here, dude?" Gareth asks. "You better go and fix this before you lose him." He says it likes its the most obvious thing in the world.

Eddie hurriedly nods. Gareth is right. He has to talk to Steve, like now. He practically jumps up from the table, nearly tripping as does.

As he runs past his friends and up the steps, he looks at the cupcakes Steve had sat down on the small table by the steps. They looked homemade, a little messy but perfect. Steve had piped little silly hearts on them all, and in the center were little frosting dice. He can't help the way it makes his heart skip a beat. Steve was ridiculously romantic, and Eddie loves that.

He continues up the steps, two at a time, hoping Steve and the kids are up there, but they aren't. He frantically makes his way to door, only to see them sitting in Steve’s car through the window, still in the driveway. He's relieved.

As soon as he opens the door, all their eyes shoot up. He can see the look on Steve’s face, obviously trying to hold back tears. Even now, Steve is trying to be strong with the kids. Their eyes though looked like they could kill Eddie, even Dustin. He fucked up badly.

He nervously makes his way over to Steve's open window. When he gets there, Steve doesn't say a word, doesn't even look at him, just stares forward. Eddie tries anyway. "Stevie, can we talk...please? Alone?" He looks at the other 4 in the car.

Steve squeezes the wheel harder. He knows if he talks, he will start crying. And he doesn't want to do that in front of Eddie. Fuck, this hurts so bad. It felt like when Nancy called him and his love bullshit all over again. He is bullshit...he is nothing. Just a washed up ex jock, who is just there when people need him. He doesn't get the happy ending, the true love.

Dustin speaks up "You're an asshole, man. Go away." Not even Mike speaks up to defend him. Who does though, surprises him.

"He's not...." Steve whispers, unable to speak any louder. Steve can't see it, but Eddie sees all the looks of pitty shot at him. Eddie knows Steve shouldn't be defending him, but he is.

"No, Stevie. I am. I am an asshole. And I'm so sorry. Please can we talk?" Eddie begs.

Steve lets out a sigh before turning to the "kids." "Go on. It's fine. Go and clean up your shit so Mrs. Wheeler isn't mad." He tries to say in a straight voice.

They reluctantly get out but still shoot Eddie dirty glances as they head in. Eddie nervously walks to the passenger side and gets in.

"What do you want to talk about?" Steve chokes out, still not looking at him.

"What I said in there wasn't the truth. Steve, baby...I am so sorry. I did not mean it..." He tries pathetically.

Steve's hands are shaking as they stay rested on the steering wheel. He finally turns his head to look at Eddie. "Then why did you say it, Eddie? If you didn't mean it, why did you say it?!" His voices cracks, as a little tear escapes, running down his cheek.

All Eddie wants to do is reach over and wipe it away, but he thinks better of it. "Because I'm an idiot, sweetheart." He replies softly. "I shouldn't have hidden us, but today everyone was ganging up on me, and I got overwhelmed...and it just came out. You are not nothing, baby."

"Come on, Eddie! There had to be some truth to it, or it wouldn't have come out. I am not an idiot." Steve says in his bitchiest voice, his wall going up, trying to protect himself from more hurt.

It feels like a punch to his gut. Eddie really made Steve believe their could be some truth in his words. "Steve....I promise you, I was just being some vain asshole, too worried about my reputation as a cool metalhead." He says, knowing how lame it sounds to say out loud. "How could I, Eddie "the freak" Munson, possibly have ended up with the prettiest boy in school."

"What you said was fucked up, you know..." another tear escaping, but the punch is gone from his words.

"I know...I know. I am so sorry, princess. I'll do anything to make it up to you." Eddie pleads softly.

Steve gives him a sad smile, anger melting away leaving only hurt. "I'm just having a hard time believing that I'm not nothing...I mean, you didn't want to tell your friends. And like, I know I can be a little much sometimes, and overbearing. And I'm sorry if I embarrassed you...."He whispers. He feels like nothing, like bullshit, like trash. He isn't endgame, he's never anyone's endgame.

Hearing Steve Harrington apologize for being embarrassing makes Eddie feel like he is in some alternate dimension, maybe he never left the upside down. But more concerningly, to hear Steve sound so small, broke him. Steve was the bravest, sweetest, bitchiest, protective, hottest person he knew but right now, Steve felt small. And it destroyed him to know he caused this. He caused Steve to feel unimportant...unloved. and he had promised himself that he would never do that to him.

He reaches over and grabs Steve's hand, squeezing softly. "God, baby, you have nothing to be sorry for. I am the one who was so self centered, that I did the worst thing I have ever done. I hurt you." He moves his other hand to Steve's cheek, and to his relief, Steve leans into, doesn't pull away. "I somehow made the person who is everything to me, feel like nothing. And that just won't do."

"Eds..." Steve whispers.

"Stevie, I promise you, I will spend everyday trying to make it up to you."

"You...you don't have to...." Steve says softly, sadly.

"Yea, I do. Because Steve, you are everything. You are it for me, sweetheart. There is not a single day I will let go by without you knowing that. I will never let anyone, including myself, make you feel like you are nothing." Eddie leans closer, resting his forehead against Steve's.

By this point, tears were freely falling down Steve’s face. But now he's smiling, even laughing a little. "You are such a sap, Eddie." He jokes before leaning in and placing a tiny kiss against Eddie's lips. "And I love you so much."

Eddie feels a million times lighter as he keeps holding Steve. "I love you too, baby. And you are everything...you are everything....you are everything. " He repeats as I to make sure Steve understands how true it is, not leaving any room for doubt in Steve’s head.

Thank you for reading again! Also side note, did not want to drag this out but definitely see the others eating all the cupcakes downstairs, leaving only one and Steve and Eddie share it.

Tag list (you all are so sweat) There are more but the max mentions was 50. I will reboot and add more

@notsopretty-notsopink @pukner @justforthedead89 @lololol-1234 @little-crickett @thing-a-ling @swimmingbirdrunningrock @oldwitcheshat @my-baek-hurts @thequeenrainacorn @derangedhermit @plantzzsandpencilzzs @littlewildflowerkitten @ronance-is-my-wife @xjessicafaithx @cinnamon-mushroomabomination @sofadofax @just-a-tiny-void @whalesharksart @death-thee-nervousqueer @estrellami-1 @starman-jpg @oblivion-void @thequeenauden @thealwithnoname @sapphirecobalt-1 @thelady-mary @silentlycorrectingyourgrammar85 @theluckyalien @cheeseyberg @breealtair @messrs-weasley @heartthingsstuff @paintsplatteredandimperfect @tillystealeaves @pearynice @bela-valdis @beckkthewreck @breadboi66 @th30ra3k3n @0o-queendean-o0 @spideysteveloml @lauras2912 @seths-rogens @lovely-little-lass @envyadams-vs-me @meccaminayah @heartstarstar-blog @weirdandabsurd42 @virginlemontea @stevesbipanic @yulecogs

@sereinpetrichor @kittycat1810

#stranger things #steve harrington #eddie munson #steddie #steddie ficlet #fix it fic

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tip-top-cloud-surfer · 1 year ago

Text

The Danger Zone (Part 15) - Hangman

Pairing: Hangman / Fem!Bradshaw!Reader | OC

Word Count: 5.6k

This work, all my works, and my entire blog are 18+ ONLY.

Warnings: Unplanned Pregnancy; Military Inaccuracies; Some Body Insecurity (Pregnancy Related); Use of "You," No Use of Y/N, No Set Physical Description

Summary: You and Jake work on your relationship. Jake is officially promoted to Lieutenant Commander

Series Master List

Master List

After you moved back into your apartment with Jake, the two of you spent the next week focusing on your relationship.

While the two of you weren't strangers, there was still plenty of relationship moments that you had skipped over before and after you got pregnant. And now was the time to figure all of that out before the baby came.

You talked about the past. Jake explained the steps that he took after he left home to protect himself and now, by extension, you and your daughter. He had already been to see lawyers in the past about protecting his assets and what money was legally his and what money was legally his parents' money.

You told him more stories about your parents and about how their lives impacted how you viewed raising your own child. About the safeguards that you wanted in place to protect either one of you. And to especially protect your child. Jake updated his will to ensure that everything he had went you and the baby. And you were in the process of updating your own when one slightly contentious subject popped up.

Who would be entrusted with your child if something happened to both of you.

It was a subject that you brought up initially, playing off your own fears from your own childhood. Jake echoed your concerns and shared your desire to have it all down in writing.

But the question remained: who were you going to ask?

“You want it to be your brother?” Jake guessed, resting his arms on his thighs.

“And you want it to be Javy?” you returned softly.

You stared over at Jake from the couch. Your arm was lazily draped over your bump as you lounged around in Jake’s shirt and a pair of your boy shorts.

“I would feel more comfortable with Javy, yeah, but this isn’t just about me.”

“Or me,” you agreed, sitting up. “We have to pick someone that we both agree on.” You leaned back and rested your hands on your bump, looking at Jake through your eyelashes. “Why do you want Javy and Nat?”

“Javy’s the only person—besides you and the baby—that I consider to be my family. And I trust both of them with my life. And I'd trust our child with them too.” Jake paused for a moment before asking, “Why do you want your brother?”

“Well, he’s the last biological family that I have left. And Emma and I are really close. And I know that they want to have their own family one day. Bradley can tell the baby stories from our childhoods and our parents.” You shared a look with Jake before continuing, “And I trust Javy and Nat with my life too, but I’m worried that with both of them being in the Navy and neither of them expressing an interest in leaving it or having kids, that our baby wouldn’t fit into their lives.”

Jake didn’t disagree with any of your points, but it didn’t change how he really felt about your preference. Even though he and Bradley had a chat after your and Jake’s fight where Bradley apologized to him, they weren’t best friends. There was still distrust on both sides, and Jake was worried that if the baby went to Bradley and Emma, then he'd be written out of the storyline.

And he knew that Javy and Nat would never do that to you.

“But I know that you and Bradley don’t have the best relationship,” you replied softly, careful with your words. “And I don’t want you to feel like you don’t have a choice in this decision. This is your baby too and we need to agree on a couple.”

“I don’t feel that I don't have a choice,” Jake assured you, causing you to nod. “It’s just . . . there’s some thinking to do.”

“We don’t have to decide today,” you stated, slowly getting to your feet. Resting a hand on your back, you walked over to Jake, who automatically placed his hand on the curve of your bump. “I think that I’m going to shower and get dressed for lunch. I feel all gross and sweaty after this morning.”

“Do you need help?”

“If you want, but no funny business,” you warned him.

You bumped him on the nose with the tip of your finger, causing Jake to grin, remembering the last shower that you took together.

“Yes, ma’am.”

~~~~~

“You know that I can still drive, right?” you reminded Jake as he drove to Penny's house.

“I know, but I like driving you around. It makes me feel like I’m doing something for the two of you,” Jake replied, making you swoon a bit. “And besides, you have more space over there.”

"Alright," you agreed as Jake threaded his fingers through your own. "But after your promotion ceremony, I can drive home so that you can actually enjoy it."

"We'll see how it goes," Jake replied as you neared Penny's house.

Jake parked on the street and the two of you walked together around the house. It was the first family event since your and Jake's fight and you were hoping that it went well. At least, better than the last few had gone. Giving Jake's hand a squeeze, you called out to your family, who were seated around the lawn furniture.

“There they are,” Penny stated, standing up from her seat and moving to greet the two of you. “How’re you feeling?”

“Sweaty,” you joked, accepting Penny’s hug. “Thanks for having us.”

“Don’t even start with that. You know that you’re always welcome here. You too, Jake,” Penny stated, offering him a quick hug too. She took the plate of sweets that you baked before ushering you over. “Come and sit. Dinner’s almost done.”

You and Jake took your seats on the couch beside Emma, who greeted you both with a kind smile. While the two of you chatted about your weeks, Maverick walked over to you and Jake.

"How's the little birdie?" Maverick asked, referring to your child.

"Getting more active," you replied, accepted Maverick's hug and the bottle of water with a thankful smile.

"And you ready for your promotion, Jake?" Maverick questioned, handing him a beer.

"I guess," Jake replied, rubbing the back of his neck. "Not really much else to do except show up at this point."

"Yeah, I always found that the week after always ended up being more stressful than the week before it. Because then it all sinks in," Maverick stated, taking a sip of his beer and raising an eyebrow when he caught your look. "What?"

Bradley called out that all of the grilled items were done, and everyone got up to make their plates. The six of you ate in relative peace. There was still some tension there. Bradley and Jake were actively avoiding each other, but it was better than glaring at each other, so you would take it. As Emma told you about a wedding invite that she received from someone that you knew from college, Amelia came running down the stairs.

“What’s wrong?” Penny asked, standing up from her seat.

“My driving instructor cancelled,” Amelia stated, causing Penny to sigh and lower her head. “I’m not going to pass my test, Mom!”

“Amelia, you’ll be fine.”

“You won’t even let me drive to the bar, Mom,” Amelia replied, staring her mother down. “And I don’t think Rooster’s going to come driving with me again.”

“If you give me time to drink four more beers—”

“—Bradley,” Emma admonished, nudging her husband in the side. “She’s learning.”

“She hit the mailbox. Three, actually.”

“And you won’t let Mav teach me,” Amelia reminded her mother, folding her arms over her chest.

“For a reason,” Penny stated firmly.

“Mav taught me how to drive when I was her age,” you spoke up, reaching for your water. "And I turned out fine. I'm sure that she'll be perfectly safe with him, Penny."

“I can teach her,” Jake offered as soon as you finished talking, causing everyone to turn to him. He added, “But only if that’s okay with you, Penny.”

“Yeah, my test is in three weeks,” Amelia agreed, turning to her mom. “I need to practice.”

“Alright, fine,” Penny consented after a few moments of thought. “But no speeding. And don’t hit anything this time. Please.”

“Thanks for offering to teach her how to drive,” you told Jake, pressing a soft kiss to his cheek. “You didn’t need to do that.”

“No, I felt like I should,” he replied, squeezing your knee before getting up from his seat.

“Like you . . .?” you trailed off, running through the last few seconds of the conversation in your head. “Jake?”

“Hmm?” he asked, turning around after Amelia handed him the keys.

“Are you calling me a bad driver?” you asked him, frowning when you saw how his expression changed at your question. Now offended, you pressed, “Jake?”

“You did hit the garage,” Bradley reminded you, taking a long sip of his beer.

“Shut up, Bradley,” you told your brother before turning back to your boyfriend, who was quickly walking away from you with Amelia in tow. “Jake Seresin!”

“Sorry, I can’t hear you over the waves!” Jake called back, motioning to his ears as he and Amelia walked around the corner of the house. “I love you!”

Huffing, you sat back in your seat, folding your arms over your chest and pouted a bit. Rooster snickered to himself, earning a sharp look from you.

“Yeah, laugh it up, you big chicken. You stole the neighbor’s Playboy magazines and let Mav take the fall for it.”

And that got him to shut up.

“So, you guys are using the ‘l’ word with each other now?” Emma asked you, causing your frustration to leave your system.

“Yeah, we are,” you replied softly, a bit bashfully.

“So, everything’s patched up?” Maverick asked with an edge of parental concern.

"We're working through everything together," you stated, rubbing your bump with your thumbs. "And we've been doing a lot of planning for the future together. Wills, joint checking accounts, loan applications."

"All good steps," Penny told you with a supportive smile.

"So, you guys are looking at houses now?" Emma questioned, causing you to smile and nod.

"I'm hoping to get one in your neighborhood. So that our kids can go to school together," you admitted, causing Emma to beam. "But we'll see what we can find."

"We'll keep an eye out for any signs in our neighborhood."

"Thanks."

"So, you guys are buying a house together and doing all of these other things together," Rooster trailed off, sharing a look with his wife before asking, "Are you guys getting married then?"

"We've talked about it," you admitted quietly, glancing over at Penny and Maverick.

"And?"

"And when it happens, it happens," you replied with a shrug of your shoulders. "I mean, I'm due relatively soon. We'd have no time to plan anything. I'd look like a whale in all of the photos. And Jake could still get deployed without a lot of notice . . ." you trailed off, glancing down. "So, we'll just wait and see."

~~~~~

“Gently,” Jake told Amelia as she pulled into an empty parking lot. “You’re not a NASCAR driver.”

“Says the man who flies around in a fighter jet all day,” Amelia scoffed, driving into the parking lot. “Can we try backing into a spot? I really need to practice that.”

“Yeah, go over there.”

Amelia drove into the corner of the lot and stopped a bit suddenly, causing Jake to grunt as his seatbelt locked to prevent his head from slamming into the dashboard. Rubbing his chest where the seatbelt tightened, Jake turned to Amelia, who winced.

“I know, I know, easy,” Amelia sighed, slumping in her seat. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine. Just straighten out and drive down the row like you’re going actually to park.”

Amelia followed Jake’s instructions and eventually slowed to a stop. Looking over his shoulder, Jake pointed at the parking spot that he wanted her to aim for. Walking her through the process of backing up, Jake guided Amelia through the maneuver, taking the steering wheel from her for a moment.

After Jake walked her through it again and she pulled out of her spot, Amelia tried to do it herself. But when she finished crooked, Amelia let out a groan of frustration.

“It’s alright. Just straighten out and try it again,” Jake coached her. “You just need to pull the wheel less before you move.”

Amelia pulled out of the spot and tried to back in again. Jake helped her straighten out the wheel properly as she moved into another parking spot. The second try was straighter, though there was still room for improvement. And by the sixth try, Amelia backed into the spot on her own. Once she put the car in park, both Jake and Amelia opened their doors to check the lines.

“See? You just needed a little practice,” Jake replied, closing his door.

“Thanks,” Amelia returned, shutting her own door. “Especially because I know that you’re just doing this to impress her.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Sure, you don’t,” Amelia replied, glancing over at Jake. “You know, you’re a lot better than my mom at this stuff.”

“I’m used to staying calm,” Jake stated, turning to Amelia. “And besides, your mom does a hell of a lot more than I could ever do. She's allowed one weakness.” He paused for a moment before turning back to the lot. “Who’s been teaching you how to drive?”

“Just my driving instructor, really. Mom doesn’t trust Mav to do it because she’s worried that he’ll teach me to speed.” Amelia turned back to Jake and asked, “Do you really think that your girlfriend is that bad of a driver?”

“No, not at all.”

“If I promise to not tell her?” Amelia rephrased.

“I’ll be driving our family every chance that I can,” Jake stated, causing Amelia to laugh. “But you said that Bradley went driving with you once?”

"Yeah."

"It was that bad?"

“He freaked out and only lasted about ten minutes.”

“That doesn’t shock me,” Jake scoffed, shaking his head. “About him, not you.”

“My mom thought that I gave him a heart attack.”

“He gave himself a heart attack over nothing, I’m sure,” Jake replied, turning back to Amelia. “Besides, you don’t even have your license yet. You have plenty of time to learn and improve.”

“Thanks. You too.” When Jake turned to Amelia with a questioning look, she explained, “For when you teach your own kid how to drive.”

“Oh,” Jake replied quietly. “Thanks.” Controlling his own emotions, Jake cleared his throat and pointed at the space in front of him. “You should probably learn how to parallel park too if you’re going to pass your driver’s test.”

~~~~~

“I’m just worried that I’m going to look ridiculous,” you sighed to Penny and Sarah, glancing at the racks of clothes in the store.

It was only a few days before Jake's promotion ceremony, and you still didn't have anything to wear to it. So, you enlisted the help of Penny and Sarah Kazansky to find a dress for the occasion. But so far, it was not going well.

“You’ll be fine. And no one’s going to think that,” Sarah Kazansky assured you from another rack.

“Will I? Have you noticed that more than half of the maternity dresses look like they just used the fabric that no one else wanted to wear?” you sighed, showing Sarah a dress from the rack that proved your point. "This print is giving me a headache."

“Here, try this one,” she offered, handing you a plain blue one.

With some help from Penny and Sarah, you collected a few dresses before walking back into the changing rooms. You tried on one that you picked and immediately cringed at your reflection.

“How’s it going?” Penny called through the door.

“Oh, great,” you called back sarcastically.

“Just come out in one. I’m sure that it’s not that bad,” Penny tried to convince you.

Stepping out of the changing room, you shot Penny a look as she tried to hide her expression behind her hand. Sarah, however, noticeably winced. You sighed, turned on your heel, and walked back into the changing room. After you went through all of the dresses that you picked, the three of you headed to another store.

“Jake will love you in anything,” Sarah encouraged you, as you started to look disheartened.

“He has to,” you sighed, inspecting another dress. “He’s the reason why I’m fat.”

“Here, what about this one?” Penny suggested, holding out another dress to you.

“It doesn’t look half bad,” you agreed, studying it.

“Go try it on.”

You walked into a changing room and pulled on the dress. Letting the zipper in the back hang open, you stepped out to show Penny and Sarah. Penny got up and zipped up the back of the dress for you before the three of you looked it over.

The fabric was soft and stretchy and not too heavy. It accentuated your bump and breasts without making either look too big. And with Sarah’s approving look, you knew that it would be appropriate for the promotion ceremony.

“I think we found it.”

You paid for the dress and then Sarah and Penny insisted on taking you out for a meal. Sarah asked all kinds of questions about the baby and your pregnancy and you, in turn, had some questions for her.

"What did you get Ice for his promotions? I haven't been able to come up with anything good to get Jake yet.”

“When he became a captain, I got him a nice watch. When he became an admiral, I got him a new desk for his office." Sarah reached for her drink with a small smirk. "And when he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander, I gave him a baby nine months later.”

“Aunt Sarah!” you groaned, sticking your tongue out.

"Well, you're already working on that one," Penny teased, causing you to hold a hand to your face. "You could always get him something related to the baby."

"But is that really a good gift for his promotion?"

"You know, one time for Ice's birthday, I took a few portraits with the kids so that he could take the photos of them with him if he got deployed or sent to conferences.”

“Jake did love the ultrasound photos,” you replied, mostly to yourself. Thinking it over, you smiled and turned back to Sarah and Penny. “I’ll think of something.”

~~~~~

“So, what exactly did you need my help with?” Javy asked as he and Jake drove into San Diego.

“I need your advice.”

“Thank you for narrowing it down.”

“I need your help with picking out a ring,” Jake stated, causing the sarcastic smile on Javy’s face to fall.

“A ring ring?”

“Yeah, a ring.”

“No, Jake. A ring ring? You’re going to buy the ring?” Javy repeated, turning to face Jake, who kept his gaze on the road. “You’re going to ask her to marry you?”

“That’s the plan,” Jake agreed, pulling into a parking lot. “But I need a ring first to do that.”

“You’re serious?” Javy asked, causing Jake to shoot him a look.

“Of course, I’m serious, Javy.”

"What made you suddenly decide to take my advice?"

"I had a lot of time to think while we were fighting and she wasn't there with me," Jake began, turning off his truck. Turning to Javy after a pause, he added, "And every dream where we were separated, of her looking at me like she did during our fight . . . I couldn't fucking bear it, Javy." Jake looked down at his hands for a moment. "She and our baby deserve the world, and this is just another step in me giving them that. I want to call her my wife and fucking hell I want her to call me her husband."

“I get it,” Javy replied with a proud smile. "You're finally growing up, Jake. I knew it would happen one day."

"Yeah, yeah," Jake scoffed, pushing Javy's hand off of him. "Now, come on. I still got to pick one."

Jake and Javy got out of his truck and made their way down to the jewelry store. Standing in front of the display case with all of the engagement rings, Jake tried to not get overwhelmed with all of the choices. It almost felt like a test. Would he pick one that you would wear and cherish for the rest of your life? Or would he just look like an idiot kneeling there?

"What's your budget?" Javy started off with.

"We're having a baby in three months," Jake reminded Javy, staring down at the rings. "And we're trying to buy a house."

"Should we go to Walmart then?" Jake shot Javy a look, clearly anxious, causing Javy to chuckle and turn back to the display case. "Don't shit your pants over it. We'll find the perfect one."

"I remember telling you that," Jake mumbled, studying more of the rings below him.

"Turn around is fair play," Javy joked, picking up a card that showed off the different cuts and sizes. "Here, does this give you any sort of idea of what to get?"

"This is her mom's ring," Jake replied, showing Javy a picture of it. "She held onto it until Rooster proposed to Emma with it and I think she still has that in her head."

"You're just going to get a replica then?"

“No, but something similar, I guess. We're not her parents, but I know that she holds onto their story. And she's already cried to me about them not being here and I just want to make her happy and feel like they're still apart of this whole thing."

"You need to save these little speeches for your proposal. Stop wasting them on me," Javy stated, though it made Jake smile to himself. "Alright, those ones are similar over there."

"Can I help you gentlemen with anything?" an employee asked as he walked over to them.

"He's buying an engagement ring," Javy explained, causing the employee to nod.

Jake pointed out a few that looked good to him and inspected them closely as the attendant listed off their details. Moving onto the third ring that he selected, Jake paused, admiring it.

It was a simple three stone ring on a silver band. The middle stone was fairly bigger than the surrounding stones, which gave the ring an intricate appearance. It was similar enough to your mother’s ring, but it was distinctly its own ring too.

And Jake quietly favored the three stone rings, since you were going to be a family of three shortly. It just felt symbolic.

God, he was turning into a sap.

"She'll love it, Jake," Javy replied supportively, staring down at the ring too. “And you already got her pregnant anyways, so she'll probably agree right away.”

"Thanks, Javy," Jake returned, rolling his eyes before handing the ring over to the attendant.

~~~~~

After some research and asking around, you decided to reach out to a local photographer to put together a gift for Jake’s promotion. You never really saw yourself as the type to get a maternity shoot done, but Jake loved the photos from your ultrasound so much that you felt like it just made sense.

Ringing the doorbell and waiting a bit nervously, you smiled when the photographer came walking over to the door. She unlocked it and let you inside, offering you a kind smile.

“Hi, I’m April. It’s so nice to finally meet you,” she greeted you, shaking your hand.

“It’s nice to meet you too.” You followed her back into her studio, your nerves building a little bit. "I've never done anything like this before."

“Not a problem at all. I'll walk you through the process."

April gave you a brief rundown of her equipment and how the photoshoot would go. You already sent her some references and April told you that you would work off of those and see what direction that the photoshoot would take.

“So, you’re doing these for your boyfriend?” April asked as she fixed the lighting.

“Yeah, he just got a big promotion at work, and this was sort of my best idea of what to get him,” you explained, setting down your bag.

"He's a pilot, right?"

"He's a naval aviator," you agreed, looking around the studio.

"I can see the appeal," April mused, hopping down from the ladder and walking over to her camera. "Alright, let's start with that long dress then."

You posed a bit awkwardly for a time but as you and April talked more about your baby and your relationship with Jake and she put on some soothing music, you grew more confident and comfortable with the photoshoot.

"Do you know if you're having a girl or boy?" April asked, straightening up.

"Not yet no. We wanted to wait. Or, I wanted to wait, I guess. I don't think he cared."

"Do you have a preference?" April questioned, lining up another shot.

"Well, I'd be happy either way. I just want the baby to be happy and healthy. But I have a suspicion that we're having a boy."

"Does he want a boy too?"

"No, he wants a girl. Of course, he'll be so happy with a little boy, but I just know he's picturing a little girl." Smiling to yourself as you looked down at your bump, you heard the sound of April's camera going off. "She would have him wrapped around her finger the second that he sees her. That's the thing about men in that kind of industry. They're all tough and macho and then they have a little girl, and then they turn into puddles like that."

April took another photo of you as you talked about your child and Jake before walking over to show you the results. As she slid through them, she smiled at your reaction.

"The best photos are usually the ones that you don't know are being taken," April replied, stepping back. "Did you want to do some more in the dress, or did you want to change?"

"I think those are perfect. Can we do those black and white photos that I showed you next?"

You pulled on Jake's white button up and a simple pair of black stretchy shorts. Buttoning up the shirt so that your breasts were covered but your bump was completely shown off, you returned to where April was waiting for you.

Repeating a lot of the same poses that you did before in your pink dress, you added some more that really focused on your bump.

"Have they kicked yet?" April asked, taking a close up of your bump.

"No, not yet. But we're counting down the days until it happens. My boyfriend always tries to get them to kick before bed, but he hasn't been successful yet."

"He sounds like he's really excited," April mused, taking another shot.

"He is," you agreed, smiling softly.

April walked over to her prop box and pulled out a toy plane. Walking back over to you, she placed the toy on your bump and with just a little sticky material, it stayed in place for a few shots.

You wrapped up the photoshoot and April uploaded the photos to a flash drive for you to take home. You picked a few photos to get printed in time for Jake's promotion ceremony as you contemplated doing a few more. Especially as you looked over the other references that April pulled out.

"Do you do a lot of these?" you asked April, pointing at one.

The woman in the photo was kneeling on the floor, her bump and a well-placed arm protecting her modesty. You had seen photos like that one before but thought it was too bold.

But now you were having second thoughts about it.

"A fair number," April assured you, causing you to bite your lip. "Did you want to try them out?"

"I'd feel weird about those getting printed," you admitted, causing April to smile.

"I print those in house, usually. Or I just do them with a Polaroid. Does that change your mind?"

You went and changed again, still a bit shy as you kneeled down on your mark. You knew that you weren't exactly anywhere near your most beautiful right now, but these photos were for Jake, and he only seemed to get more loving with you as you got larger.

Resting one arm over your breasts, you arched your back and held the pose from the reference shot. April directed you to turn your head a bit towards her.

“Now, imagine that he’s standing right behind me.”

You adjusted your head a bit more and changed your expression until April took the photo.

~~~~~

It was a scorching hot day in Miramar, and you were trying to focus on the ceremony and not how much you were sweating. Hoping that you didn’t already look like a mess, you started to fan yourself with the ceremony pamphlet.

“You alright?” Bradley asked quietly, leaning over.

“I’m fine,” you mumbled back, fanning yourself some more. “Just a little sweaty.”

“A little?”

You elbowed him in the side before focusing on the stage again. You knew that Jake was up next and you didn’t want to miss it. And when they called his name and he got his new pins, you clapped proudly with everyone else as he shook Cyclone’s hand.

The ceremony wrapped up shortly afterwards and everyone stood up, but you continued to sit, not wanting to have to push through everyone. Not when your baby was sitting uncomfortably and moving around at the least opportune times. So, you would just wait for him.

Jake shook hands with the high ranking naval officers, trying to politely move his way over to where you were waiting for him. Excusing himself, he weaved through a few more people before he finally spotted you sitting towards the back. You smiled and waved to him, continuing to fan yourself with the pamphlet.

Jake strode quickly down the aisle towards you. Taking your time, you slowly stood up from your seat as Jake slid into the row in front of you to get to you faster because there was no way that Bradley was going to move out of the way in time.

“Congratulations, Lieutenant Commander,” you told Jake, wrapping your arms around his shoulders.

“Thank you,” he mused, pulling you in for a soft kiss and resting his hand on your bump.

“There are other people around,” Rooster reminded the two of you, earning a pinch from his wife.

“Sorry we’re so far back,” you stated as Jake pulled away. “I was worried that I’d have to pee and need a quick escape route.”

“That’s fine. You’re drinking enough water, right?” Jake asked with a dash of concern.

“Yeah. And now I really need to pee,” you replied sheepishly, causing Jake to chuckle.

“I'll go with you,” Emma offered, standing up too.

“We’ll be right back,” you promised Jake, pressing another kiss to his lips.

You and Emma walked away, leaving Jake and Bradley alone with each other. Jake could have walked off, but he wanted to wait for you. So, he just stood there awkwardly with your brother.

“Congratulations,” Rooster stated calmly, standing up from his seat.

“Thank you,” Jake returned with a nod. Taking his cap off of his head, Jake tucked it under his arm. “I’m sure that the rest of the squad will get their promotions soon.”

“It doesn’t matter to me. I’m separating in six months,” Bradley replied seriously, causing Jake to blink with surprise.

“You’re not renewing?”

“No. Neither is Payback.

“Right,” Hangman spoke, rubbing the back of his neck. “Why now?”

“Emma and I agreed to start trying for a baby in a few months. I’m already working towards my masters and Mav has a friend who could get me a job in the city once I finish it.”

“Have you told everyone?”

“She already knows,” Bradley stated, causing Jake to glance in the direction that you left in. “I’ve already accomplished everything that I wanted and now I’m ready to be home with my wife and our future kids. And maybe a dog if I manage to convince her.” Bradley scratched his cheek before dropping his hand. “We’ll tell everyone else after your baby’s born and things settle down.”

“Congrats to you too then,” Jake responded quietly.

“Thanks.” Bradley shifted his weight on his feet before asking, “Did they give you your orders yet?”

“Not yet. But I’m dreading it already.”

“Nothing you can do about it,” Bradley reminded him.

“No,” Jake agreed quietly. “Doesn’t make it easier.”

“No, it doesn’t.”

They didn’t say much more than that, but there was a silent understanding that passed between them. Jake looked up as you came walking over with Emma.

“You good?” you called out to Jake, noting his smile was slow to return.

“I’m good,” he assured you, pressing a kiss to your head. “I’m very good.”

“For the love of—”

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jenscx · 1 year ago

Text

ATTENTION 54 — letting go (half-written)

minji rushed out of the van. after having spent hours late at night, thinking about you, it felt wrong to want to hurt you back. how could she even think about wanting to intentionally hurt you? maybe you were stupid but your intentions were at least still good. hers were simply selfish and immoral. she wanted you to be hurt as much as she had been. was she even thinking then? you had tried your best to mend the broken trust but she was downright demolishing any possibility of being together again.

hanni was right. she was a hypocrite. minji could only hope that you were at your dorm now and none of your overprotective members (eg. wonyoung or gaeul) were at home with you. there was no way she would be allowed to even see you if they were there.

rushing to your front door, minji knocked. she knocked once. then twice. then thrice before eventually being greeted by the face of ahn yujin. a raised eyebrow and minji already knew she was going to have to start begging.

“why are you here?” yujin asks, leaning on the door frame. hesitantly, minji answers, “to see y/n unnie.”

“do you still think you can call her unnie after all this?”

she swallows deeply, “no but i’m willing to change that. just let me see y/n unnie and if she asks me to go away, i will.”

minji could feel her heart beating out of her chest. unlike last time, it was due to nerves of being so close to her crush. this time, it was like meeting her partner’s parents. during the course of their relationship, there wasn’t any time for them to formally meet each other’s members, only brief glances and greetings.

“why would y/n want to see you now?” it was question after question and soon, minji knew she was being tested. you had told her about your leader; an energetic and playful puppy but she was very intimidating at times. minji could definitely see the intimidating side of her now.

“i need a chance to explain myself.”

“did you give her that chance before?” minji fell silent. of course, it wasn’t the same situation. she was deeply upset and angered with you at that time but it seems so trivial compared to now. you had never meant to hurt her. you were just careless.

“no i didn’t. but y/n’s a better person than i am.”

“why is that?”

“she…” minji trails off, “never intended to hurt me like i did. i need a chance to at least let her know how i feel.”

yujin sighs, finally moving off the doorframe, “fine, come in kid. if i hear y/n crying, i will drop kick you.”

minji nods, her heart now beating with excitement, “of course.”

“she’s in her room, probably crying to taylor swift again. i swear i’ve heard enchanted more times than my own songs,” yujin grumbles as she quickly ushers minji to your door. true to her word, there was the slight melody of enchanted playing through your phone. minji could hear it from under your door.

slowly, minji knocked on your door. a sniffled, “coming!” sounded through and minji was scared shitless. yujin had decided to move to the kitchen instead to give you two some privacy.

“ahn yujin, i’m in the middle of my breakup playlist—”

“hi unnie.”

you stare. all you can do is stare. because kim fucking minji is standing right outside your room’s door, a small grin on her face and you hate how you don’t want to punch her.

“minji. uhm,” you frown, “wha-what are you doing here? like… in my dorm? cause y’know…”

her face falls slightly, eyes darting to the ground instead of looking at you.

“can we talk?”

“uhm, sure? come in, i guess,” you make eye contact with the puppy standing outside, yujin giving a thumbs up before mouthing, ‘good luck’. you needed it.

once the door was closed, minji takes her time to recollect herself. it had been so long since she was in your room. probably a few months since the last time. was that long? maybe it was long for gay people?

“i don’t want to be mean but minji, you told me to not bother you anymore and now you’re visiting my dorm? what’s going on?” you ask, genuinely confused. after your last chat online and the whole ordeal with that boy group member, you’ve given up all hope in restoring things with minji. yet, she was here.

“unnie, i need to speak but i can’t do it if we’re looking at each other. so can we just sit… back to back?” she asks shyly. a weird request but you’ve never rejected anything when it came to minji.

you were both seated on the floor, back to back with minji taking deep sighs.

“that time, when you were asking me if i was dating him… i wanted to tell you no. but i also wanted to hurt you. hurt you like you hurt me. i want to say that i didn’t mean any of it but i did. i wanted you to feel what i felt— like you weren’t my priority anymore and i had someone else,” minji says. tears start forming when you think back on the incident. “and i didn’t know that you were going to bake a cake for me. i know how much you hate baking… i hate who i was that day. i lied to my members, i hurt you, i probably ruined things with the company. all of that, for what, exactly?”

she halts suddenly before sniffling. you resist the urge to turn around and pull her into your arms.

“i can’t say i never meant to hurt you, because i did mean to hurt you. i was just so childish and immature. even though i was ready to forgive you in a heartbeat, i just couldn’t. i wanted you to feel how i felt. aren’t i an asshole? to make my loved one suffer through that?” minji sighs, pulling her knees into her chest. she was such a fucking asshole. that you could agree with.

you nod along even though minji can’t see you. your heart clenches just thinking about how you felt when you saw the tweet. seeing the girl you loved with someone else was heartbreaking, even if you weren’t together anymore. she was your first everything. no one else could compare to her.

“i was lying when i said we were nothing to each other,” minji turns around, throwing her arms around your back and pulling you close, “you’re everything to me, and it’s okay if you don’t want me anymore but i need to let you know that i still want you, desperately.”

you breathe out shakily, your voice at the edge of cracking and tears about to fall. minji sighs as well, maybe out of relief that her words of longing and feelings of desperation have finally been said out loud. you had half a mind to let her continue chasing after you, but why would you prolong your happiness? to teach minji a lesson? that was lunacy.

“i’m sorry, unnie. i… love you. more than i can ever express.”

it’s a miracle you get through her confession without bawling. it’s a miracle she’s even here now. you feel relief that minji wants you as much as you want her. her blatant confession was all you needed to forgive her. even if she treated you like shit, even if she said hurtful words that made you turn your pillow into an ocean, even if your group mates would definitely kill you for going back to an ex… you still want her.

eyes brimming with tears, a red nose sniffling, minji gazes at you with those big, brown doe eyes that make your knees weak. her lips enclosed in a pout, glossy from the tears that cascaded down her face. when she stares at you, nothing else matters. it’s like everything else fades away. all the drama from you and minjeong’s fake relationship, all the shit minji had said to you, all the hate comments, asking you to jump off a cliff. it all disappears as long as you stare into her eyes. everything’s gone.

everything but kim minji.

but she’s your everything.

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#attention ft. kmj #newjeans #newjeans x reader #kim minji x reader #minji x reader

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pinguwrites · 1 year ago

Text

Our True Nature | Tom Buckley

Pairing -> dom!tom buckley x student!psychic!reader

Summary -> You're different, you always have been; you've know that ever since you were a little kid who made your toys float in the air. Despite your great abilities you've pursued a rather humble life, looking for others like you. Your search comes to an end when you realize that your professor's assistant, Tom Buckley — the one you've been harboring a secret crush on — is a psychic, just like you.

Word count: 4.4k

Warnings: smut (minors dni), dom!Tom and sub!reader, age-gap (not specified, but reader is college-aged), praise kink, slight degradation, unprotected sex, semi-public sex, um superpower play??? telekinesis play??? I don't know what that shit's called, overstimulation, mild breeding kink, tom is wild and says dirty stuff, weird magic lore I made up (you can trust me, I used to write fantasy), mild hamilton reference ig, rough sex but not much emphasis on it

Disclaimer: Red Lights characters, plots, quotes, etc. do not belong to me and belong to the rightful owner(s). This is only fanfiction and this is just for fun.

When you first saw him it was like the world around you stopped. The rain that had been pouring down like a storm the entire day ceased its brutal assault, and in that week of dull weather and gray skies, the sun finally peeked out from behind the clouds and cast a heavenly glow around his body.

He looked like an angel. Dark hair caressed by sunlight, eyes as pale blue as a glacier, and the most handsome face you’d ever seen. It was all right there, across the parking lot of the university, just waiting to be seen. A god amongst humans, a flower in a field of grass.

But then the moment passed. He walked away, without any word or acknowledgment, like he never even saw you at all. It wasn’t until later on did you realize who this man was — Tom Buckley, your new professor’s assistant.

You supposed that was when the attraction started. You tried to kid yourself and say that it was actually halfway through the year when he started offering private study sessions, or when he made it a point to greet you good morning every day, or even when he insisted you call him Tom, but you knew the truth. You had fallen for him the second you saw him but were only too ashamed to admit it.

A god amongst humans.

It was a silly phrase you used to describe him. He wasn’t a god. Not even close to one. He was nothing like you. He couldn’t see visions of the future, or make a door open and close at his whim. He was just a person, a person you had a silly, undeniable crush on. A person you could not stop staring at.

He was currently leading the lesson today, showcasing a video on how a fake psychic used tricks behind the scenes to fool her audience, but you weren’t paying attention at all. Your chin was resting in your hand, and your gaze was upon Tom like he was the only thing that mattered.

You could barely see him in the poor lighting. The best you got was a figure and a shadow on the projection, but that didn’t deter you at all. All you wanted was to observe him, the way he moved, the way he talked, the way his hands would gesture as he explained the concepts students didn’t understand.

He seemed to notice your blatant staring, because after the video ended and he turned the lights back on, his eyes locked with yours, and he did what he always did: made you stay behind after class.

“Is something wrong?” you asked. It was a routine question. When the students got up to leave you would approach his desk, feigning confusion, waiting for him to say, ‘No, nothing, I just wanted to look over the assignment with you.’

You were sure your friends thought you were dumb. Why else would you need extra help all the time? but that was a much better assumption than the idea that you were fucking Mr. Buckley, so you never bothered correcting them.

“No, nothing, I just . . . ” Tom started but then trailed off. From this distance, you could properly admire the light freckles scattered across his pale face and took a moment to save the image in your head. When he continued, your attention snapped back. “I have a couple of questions.”

You raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“Yeah. Let’s go to my office.” He looked a little nervous for some reason. The walk to his office was spent trying to deduce why. Maybe something was wrong this time.

You sat down on one of the chairs by his desk. His room was filled with all sorts of odd things, namely technology used to disprove — or prove — paranormal activity. Occasionally, this material would be showcased in class, and he and Matheson would do replicas of former encounters to demonstrate how they worked.

You always paid very close attention to those days, in case you ever need the information in the future. How to Evade Ghost Hunters 101!

“What is it? Have I really done something wrong this time?” you joked, in an attempt to lighten the mood.

He laughed. A beautiful smile.

“Of course not, you’re my star student.” Your heart warmed at that. “I just wanted to test some things out with you. For the curriculum, Dr. Matheson and I were considering adding it to the course, and we want your opinion.”

You nodded. “That’s fine with me.”

“Good.”

He opened a drawer and pulled out a tarot card pack.

“We want to do a lesson on how pictures and symbolism can be manipulated to fit the victim’s life,” he said, shuffling the deck. “Tarot cards are so vague and general — The Fool, for example, represents new beginnings and adventure. Is that not the foundation of everyone’s life? To explore, to be inexperienced?”

You agreed. “And how are you planning on presenting this to the class? Give out a tarot reading to everyone?”

Tom chuckled. “I just want to try it out with you, to prove it.”

He held out the cards for you to pick, but you stopped him. “Aren’t I supposed to tell you what I want to know?”

There was a brief silence, and if you looked carefully, you could see a light pink tinge glaze over his cheeks, and his breathing hitch ever so slightly, his Adam’s apple bobbing.

“Don’t worry. Whatever you want to know about me,” you offered, amused at his reaction. “Tell me, what are you looking for?”

“I want to know your secrets,” he admitted. “I want to know what you’re hiding.”

“You’ll be disappointed. There’s nothing interesting about me.”

“We’ll see.”

You picked three cards and placed them down on the table. Each representative of either the past, present, or future, or at least, that’s how you were assuming he was doing the reading.

He turned the first card. It was The Star, reversed.

“Something in the past was bothering you,” he said. “You felt hopeless, like you had no more motivation . . . Am I right in guessing it was the result of something specific?”

“Yes,” you said. Obviously, his reading wasn’t true, how could it be? he wasn’t like you, but he was definitely right about the way people manipulated the symbolism. You doubted he knew the real reason why you had been so depressed.

He flipped over the next card. The Lovers.

He grinned. “I’m sure you can guess what this means. Are you in a relationship?”

You shook your head.

��Then it’s about a potential someone. You’ll find your complimentary, someone you can balance with — it could be platonic, or romantic, but no matter the type of relationship, they’ll be loving, and supportive.”

You looked into his eyes before returning your attention back down to the cards. Oh, how you wished it was him.

He turned the last card.

“The Ten of Cups. Your desires will be fulfilled. You’ll be happy, whatever problems you had in the past will be resolved.”

It was silent for a moment. You expected him to ask you questions of how accurate it was, and how quickly you connected his predictions to events in your life, but he didn’t.

“Do you believe in magic?” he asked bluntly. “The supernatural? You either do or you don’t, I can’t imagine you’d be wasting your time in this class if your opinion was neutral.”

You felt like you’d been put right on the spot. You thought about the right way to answer. “I believe in it, in the sense that I’m open about what we don’t know, and am optimistic about all the possibilities.”

He all but rolled his eyes. “C’mon. That was so wordy. I want to hear the truth.”

He leaned in closer. Your faces were inches apart, and you could feel his minty breath on your face.

“Yes,” you breathed out. “I believe in magic.”

He pulled away, satisfied. “I believe in magic, too.”

You quirked an eyebrow, amused. “Oh? Have you ever seen it in action?”

“Maybe,” he answered vaguely, a grin on his face. “Let me see your palm.”

You wanted to laugh, but you yourself was very eager to comply with his demands, not because you thought the experiments were interesting, but rather you enjoyed spending time with him, and the prospect of him touching you—even though it was only your hand—was thrilling.

Tom caressed the lines on your palms. He was distracted by it.

You weren’t sure what it was about him that made you so drawn. You didn’t believe in love at first sight, it was only something based on lust and looks, but this was more. You didn’t just like him, you found him utterly attractive, in a way that surpassed physicality.

It certainly wasn’t his personality. You thought you two were compatible in mentality, and you got along well, but he was rather boring. He wasn’t fiery nor exciting, nothing that could take you off guard or pique your curiosity.

He was intelligent. He told you he used to study physics, something you just had to respect him for, but you didn’t know that until just recently, and it’s not like his day-to-day actions showcased his genius.

You really didn’t know what it was, and a part of not knowing made it all the more mysterious. But it also made you feel vulnerable. In less than a year, you had become so hopelessly, irrevocably, in love with someone. He could do anything and you wouldn’t blink an eye. He had so much power over you, and he didn’t even know it.

“Can you feel it?” he asked softly, looking up at you.

You pulled your hand away, too flustered. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He took your hand again, unrelenting. He gripped it tighter, encasing it in his warmth. It felt so nice.

“Between us,” he clarified, his voice low. He was gazing at you intently.

“What do you mean?”

“Are you like me?” he asked, his tone almost desperate. “I see you do things, impossible things. When you drop a pencil in class it floats back up to your hand, when your coffee gets too cold I see you wrap your hand around the cup and make it bubble. No one else notices, but I do. I see it.”

You froze, or rather, your mind was instantly filled with so many thoughts you couldn’t comprehend them all at once.

You thought you were careful with your abilities because up until now, no one had caught you. Not since you were a teenager who copied off others during a test, not since you got your first car and put it on autopilot so you could sleep during a drive, not even since you were a little girl who was too lazy to tie her own braid at school.

“T-Tom,” you stuttered. “I don’t . . .”

And what was that he said about being like him? Was he implying that he could do these things too? That after all these years of searching, you’d finally found another psychic?

Tom’s face fell. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have.” He chuckled nervously. “I don’t know what I was saying. Just forget it.”

He cleared his throat. You still didn’t say anything. It was like someone had pressed a mute button and you couldn’t speak, no matter how badly you wanted to say something.

“You should go,” he suggested. “Thank you, for all the help.”

He stood up, and you did too, mirroring his actions. He lead you over to the exit. “Have a nice day, I look forward to seeing you in class next week.”

You turned around, not wanting to leave yet. “Tom . . .”

He was about to close the door when you stopped it with your foot, budged it open, and leapt into his arms, placing a passionate kiss on his lips.

You didn’t know what you were doing. You didn’t know what you were thinking. All that you knew was that you wanted him. Badly. As you pushed your way back inside the room, you feared for a moment that he was going to shove you off, tell you he didn’t mean it like that, but he didn’t. He pulled you inside and lifted you up, your legs wrapping around his waist, and sat you on top of his desk, returning the kiss with even more intensity.

“Tom,” you all but moaned. You felt confused and dazed, but with the way Tom was nibbling at your neck, sucking and licking, you could tell he wasn’t in the same boat as you. You relaxed, letting everything go. You could let him take care of this—whatever this was. Let him take care of you.

“Can I take it off?” he asked in between kisses. He tugged at your shirt, fingers hovering above the buttons.

“Mhm,” you nodded. “Please, please, please—”

The buttons unbuttoned themselves. You gasped a little in surprise as your shirt was tossed to the side. That was all the confirmation you needed—Tom Buckley was just like you.

The realization that you had finally found another was lost when he started kneading your breasts through your bra. “Such a needy girl,” he cooed. “Didn’t know she could get like that. Doesn’t want to answer my questions but needs me to please her.”

“Fuck,” you let out, surprised at the dirty talk, but pleased nonetheless. “I just want you.”

“I know you do. Staring at me like a piece of meat in class. That’s all I am to you, hmm? Just a hot teacher to fuck. You tell your little friends about me?”

“No!” You whined when his hands went underneath your bra and pinched your nipple. “Ow! I’ve never told anyone.”

“Ah, I knew you were a good girl.”

You whined again and nuzzled your head in the crook of his shoulder, not wanting him to see how flustered he was making you.

“Pretty girl,” he murmured, unclasping your bra, watching your breasts fall out. “Beautiful girl . . . Can I suck?”

“Yes!” you said impatiently. You found it sexy that he kept asking for permission, but also annoying—he needed to get straight to the point, and stop teasing you.

He latched his lip onto your hard nipple, swirling his tongue around the bud, occasionally nipping on it. While his mouth was occupied, his hands were roaming your body, up to your face and down to as far as he could reach, which while you were sitting down, was all the way to your ankles.

He switched nipples and went to your other breast, making you release a sigh of satisfaction. He eventually let go and gave you another kiss, his tongue slipping inside.

You looked down. He was hard, subtly trying to grind himself between your legs. “Mmm,” he moaned against your lips.

His moan was wonderful. If not for your own pleasure, you wanted to continue this just so you could elicit another sound out of him.

In a bold move, you reached down and squeezed his crotch. He let out a sound, more strangled this time, and pulled away, a string of saliva connecting you both.

He placed his hand over the hand that was palming his cock, encouraging you to keep going, with eyes shut and nose scrunched up. He then moved it to lean on your shoulders.

“Do you like it rough or vanilla?” he asked. “I can do both.”

You tried to hide your grin. “Rough.”

He knew that by saying that you didn’t want it completely that way. The actions, yes, but you still wanted to hear him praise you, to caress you, to whisper sweet things in your ear.

“You sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay.” He picked you — handsome and strong — and laid you down on the couch. It wasn’t that large, but at least it was more comfortable than his desk, and you didn’t want to wait any longer by going to his place or yours.

“I want to let you know,” he started seriously, “that this isn’t a, uh, one-night stand. I don’t want that, not from you.”

“I don’t want that either,” you said.

“And I don't do this often. Well, I don't do this at all. With other students, I mean. You’re the first. I don’t want you to think that I’m just, how do you say it? playing you?”

You giggled. He didn’t seem like the playboy type at all. In fact, when most men and women flirted with him, he usually got all uncomfortable and quiet, a fact that boosted your ego, as he never felt that way around you.

“This is serious for me, too. Let’s keep it a secret until this semester is over. And when I’m out of your class we can make it public, okay?”

He nodded, and leaned down to kiss you again, soft and delicate.

“Take off your shirt,” you demanded.

He smiled at your behavior. It took a minute, because he was wearing his suit, but he managed to get it off with your help. You didn’t want to damage his clothing, it was probably on the more expensive side, and he looked so exquisite in it.

You admired his chest. He was lean, but you could still see some faint muscles. After all, he had carried you to the couch. He was perfect. It was just what you had hoped for.

This moment didn’t feel real. How was it that you had gotten so lucky? You were here with the man of your dreams, in his arms, and you were about to make love.

“Get on your knees.”

You did as he asked. You had done this a couple times before, so you weren’t really worried. You could even take cock all the way in, but when you saw his size, you gulped.

He guided your face to it. You licked the tip to the base to the balls, wondering how you were going to make it fit. You reasoned with yourself that if you couldn’t you could just use your hands for the rest.

That was, until he slid his cock inside your mouth and pushed it as far as he could. You controlled your gag reflex and started bobbing your head up and down, the sensation causing your eyes to tear, but not in pain.

He wiped them away. “Are you okay?”

You didn’t say anything, not with your mouth filled. You showed your answer by sucking him, fondling his balls, looking up at him through fluttering eyelashes.

“Ohhh, you take it so well. So well.”

He pushed your head all the way down, keeping it there for a few seconds. You breathed in through your nose, trying to keep yourself under control whilst still making the experience pleasurable for him. He seemed to like it, with the way he was rolling his hips against your mouth, even though there was nothing left to fit inside.

Then, suddenly, you felt something rubbing your clit through your pants. You tried to pull off of Tom, concerned at what it might be, when you realized it was him. He was the one doing it, making you feel this way.

He kept your head in place, a pleased smile on his face. “Like that?”

You moaned. You couldn’t concentrate on him, not when your body was being pleasured so good. How much practice had he had with his abilities? How could he focus when you were going down on him? It was probably the age. He wasn’t that much older than you, but he was older, and surely that came with more practice.

He pulled you off of him after a few minutes of you squirming and gagging, placing you down on the couch. He made sure your head was in a comfortable position before taking off your pants and pulling out his cock. Your pussy was still being rubbed, by whatever invisible force he was using, and it was about to make you come.

“I—I’m gonna—”

“I know,” he shushed, pressing his cock at your entrance.

“Let me make you—”

“No,” he growled. “I’m going to come inside of you. Don’t think, just let your professor handle it.”

You knew he wasn’t technically your professor. He was just the TA, but it was still sexy to hear him say that. It reminded you of your student-teacher relationship, the forbiddeness of it all.

You came just as his cock slid in. He sighed, feeling your pussy flutter and your cream leak out on him. He looked down, taking in the view, before pulling his cock out and slamming it back in, taking you off guard.

His pace was unrelenting. You didn’t know he could be so animalistic. He was panting and groaning in your ear, holding your body in place even though you weren’t going anywhere. He was still rubbing your clit — technically — but you didn't mind. You could take another orgasm. Besides, you weren’t sure if he would stop even if you asked. He looked so blissed out, like he was in another world, the only thing driving him his primal instinct.

“Gonna fill you up so good,” he said, increasing the intensity of his pace. The couch was now shuffling a little, moving forward a little bit each time, but Tom didn’t seem to notice. “You need it so bad. Just want me to take care of you, yeah?”

“Yes,” you cried out, rather pathetically. It was crazy to think how submissive this man could make you. You had never been like this with any of your other partners, but with him, you felt safe, like you trust him with anything.

“I can imagine — you in class, giving me one of those eyes you always do. Fuck — the other students don’t suspect a thing, but both you and I know that I’ll have you over my desk by evening.”

The thought alone made your mind whirl.

“I should fill your panties with my cum, make you walk around in it,” he said. That shouldn’t have aroused you as much as it did. He noticed your reaction. “Oh, you enjoy hearing me say those things? Those depraved, dirty things.”

He hit that spot in you, the one that made you go crazy, and you cried out, clutching his shoulders.

“There it is,” he said, mostly to himself, as he kept ramming that spot over and over again. The added sensations made you go limp in his arms. You could feel that familiar coil in your stomach, the one that told you you were going to orgasm again.

You threw your head back, looking up at the ceiling as you came, but your peace of mind didn’t last long. He grabbed your chin and forced you to look back at him, beating that same spot again, all while continuing the assault on your clit. “Look at me, I want to see your face.”

You looked right into his eyes, his beautiful blue eyes, and you could tell an orgasm was coming for him, too.

You felt a little ashamed that in such a short time he had made you come twice, and you hadn’t at all — at least, not yet — but like he said before, he didn’t want you to think, so you didn’t, and let whatever thoughts you had left bouncing around in your head leave.

“You’re wonderful,” he praised, kissing you again. He couldn’t get enough of it. Your teeth clashed briefly, but neither of your cared. He just wanted to taste you. “I can’t wait to be with you.”

With that, he came inside, filling you up to the brim with his hot seed. He kept his cock in, holding your hips in place, until he was satisfied and pulled out.

He laid on top of you on the couch, caressing the side of your cheek as you both recovered and took your breath.

It was silent. Just the two of you, in his office. You had finally found the one. The one you were sure you were going to spend the rest of your life with, all happy and in love like a fairytale.

“I didn’t . . . I didn’t think I’d ever find another,” you finally said.

“I didn’t either. I’m glad it was you. I’m glad it’s you I get to share this with.”

“Hey, what was with the cards? Were you just testing me?”

“Yeah.” He turned to face you. “I wasn’t sure if I was just seeing things. I mean, you get up so early and go to work, sometimes you just imagine a kid opening a door on its own or playing tricks with her assignments. I had to be sure.”

“So, you weren’t intending to tell my future?”

“You can’t actually do that,” he said.

“Yes you can.”

He blinked, surprised.

“I know you said the interpretation is very broad, but it still works.”

“You can actually tell the future?”

“Yeah. It doesn’t have to be with Tarot cards only. But whatever methods, I don’t do it often, I feel like it messes with things. But sometimes I just get these images in my head, and I can’t stop it.”

It hadnt occurred to you that even though you were both psychic, your powers, or at least, the direction you went with them, were different.

“If you weren’t reading my future, what were you doing?”

“I noticed that objects imbued with magic, especially artifacts, radiated energy—a feeling, one that only I could sense. If I gave the same impression on those cards, and you happened to pick them, it would either be a huge coincidence or it would mean you were drawn to them, albeit unknowingly. It was just something to give me more confidence.”

You weren’t aware that was something a person could do. You supposed there were plenty of things you didn’t know. You were looking forward to learning from him, and teaching him as well. You were both in uncharted waters, not knowing where this would lead you both. But it was okay, as long as you had him by your side.

You did worry a little that this intense connection you felt with him was only in an otherworldly sense, that you fell for him because of this magic, but you shook the thought away. That wasn’t true. You wouldn’t let it be true. You loved him and he loved you—and that was it. Nothing more.

“I can do another round,” he said suddenly. “You?”

You grinned and nodded. “Yeah. But this time, I want to ride you.”

He laughed and flipped you both over so that you were on top of him. “Show me how you get off, babygirl.”

Taglist:

@henrywintersdearestgirl

@shroombloom-rry

@meetmeatyourworst

@mrkdvidal1989

#pinguwrites #tom buckley #tom buckley x reader #tom buckley x y/n #tom buckley x you #cillian murphy #red lights #fanfiction

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wonwoosthetic · 1 year ago

Note

Helloooo

Can you write about the NANA TOUR with minnie? plsss (can you also include the reaction of carats to her waking up and her closeness with wonwoo)

series masterlist

word count - 12k

a/n: thank you for the request!! I was very happy to write Minnie into these episodes/parts bc omg even just watching them was so much fun already! I had to change up a few things, for example like them not waking up Minnie but her already being up, I hope that's okay :) at the end of the chapter you can find a link to some Fan Twitter edits, I hope you like them too :) if there's anything else you'd like to see, please let me know! Love you all! <3

[everything in brackets like this was added by me]

everything in italics wasn’t caught on camera, but is just for you <3

Go Together NANA TOUR 🌷Minnie

EP1-1. Don't Let SEVENTEEN Know

Yeongseok was getting every piece of information about the other members out of S.Coups. What will they be doing at 5 in the morning? Which members are going to be drinking most likely? Who will be the most excited? The leader of the idol group was giving him every answer in detail, knowing the rest of the group like the back of his hand.

"Who will have the best reaction when they find out we're going?"

The question was thrown into the room, making the wheels in Seungcheol's head start turning right away. It didn't take him long to have the answers, remembering each time the members had excitedly talked about the Youth Over Flower program even before they had the luck of picking it out of the hat as a prize for their hard work.

The '95 Liner started listing off some of the brightest members of the group. At the, once again, mention of Mingyu, the producers couldn't help but chuckle, remarking that the leader had repeatedly talked about the taller member.

Amid their conversation and after a particular question from the producer, the two men realised that while Minghao would be definitely excited, he might also be possibly slightly disappointed in the trip. Seungcheol explained that it might surprise him that it would suddenly not only be him and Jun in Rome but he and the 12 other members. Na PD made sure to let the leader know he'd be looking out for the '97 Liner with an extra eye and keep him close.

A follow-up question from one of the producers behind the camera caught Cheol's attention.

"Other than Myungho-shi," he wondered, "are there any other members we need to take care of?"

For a second, 'Coups let himself think.

"Minnie."

"Minnie-shi?" The producer asked him again.

The '95 Liner nodded. "She... you'll see... she can get... how do I say this?" He wondered out loud. "She tends to look for a person for.. comfort? She wants to have someone right next to her that... she can trust and she can be comfortable with because... It's like... she gets like this and just wants to have someone that will... lead them well. She's just very careful sometimes," he explained. "Especially with this program because she won't trust you well at first," Cheol chuckled, "because of the past 'Youth Over Flowers' episodes."

[Leader who knows his members very well]

"Okay, okay... I see... So, Minnie will be clingy? Once she trusts us." Yeongseok questioned him further.

Cheol nodded. "Yeah, maybe... and it might seem cute, but don't let that fool you," he suddenly warned the older man, making him chuckle.

"W-What? What do you mean?" He laughed.

"She has a very strong personality," Coups smiled with wide eyes, embellishing his statement.

"Aaah," Na PD nodded his head. A memory made him chuckle again as he put his hand on the idol's shoulder. "She was already making deals with me during the first Game Caterer episode."

[Kids who like debating]

The comment made the leader laugh out loud and touch the older man's arm as he threw his head back in glee. Yeongseok joined him, chuckling along with the '95 Liner while some giggles could be also heard from behind the camera.

"That means she's comfortable with you, hyung. That's a good sign," S.Coups assured him with a nod. "If she puts up a fight with you, it means she likes you. Then she'll also be more fun."

Na PD took a deep breath in, "Aah, ok. That's good then, I guess... a bit confusing, but..." his eyes closed for a second as he chuckled before catching himself again. "Then I'll make sure to keep Minnie close to me as well. Along with Myungho and Mingyu."

"And anyone else?" The producer from behind the camera asked furthermore, clearly wanting to make sure that each member would be in good hands.

Cheol pressed his lips together before the next member's name rolled off his tongue. "Woozi?"

After knocking on the hotel door, S.Coups let himself in.

"You're so loud," he commented right as he entered, the camera not following him.

"Come in," Hoshi just ushered him inside. Followed by Joshua, who repeated it,

"Come in, come in."

"You're too loud," the leader told them again.

Minnie sighed softly, a smile evident through her voice, "I've been telling them that."

Mingyu interrupted her before she could say anything more. "But-" and suddenly started singing a random tune. The maknae was quick to join his hyung, coming up with lyrics that would fit the instrumentals the group was playing in the background.

"Did they wake you up?" The girl suddenly wondered.

Seungcheol shook his head, "I was already awake."

"Why are you awake at this hour?" She sounded clearly confused, maybe even slightly concerned, but the '95 Liner just brushed off her worry as he remembered the 'script'

"I think I lost my phone."

Dino was still in the middle of his written-on-the-spot song when he called the leader's phone as he asked him to do. Hoshi and Na PD were still in the hallway of the hotel floor when the phone rang. Unbeknownst to everyone but the '96 Liner, Yeongseok picked up the call and followed the idol back into the room, hot on his tracks.

After the two came in, the older man revealed himself to the six members who were in the room. Starting on the left side of the room, Seungcheol had taken a seat on one of the extra armchairs while Joshua and Seungkwan were occupying the couch and table right by the window. Mingyu had gotten comfortable laying on the bed, while Minnie was sitting up and the youngest decided to stand right next to the mattress.

Na PD barged in, still on the phone, "Coups-ya, how can you leave your phone just lying around?"

As soon as he came into view, the members jumped back in surprise. Joshua sat up straighter while Mingyu just continued to lounge off. Minnie's mouth was hanging open wide, gazing at the man in front of her with big eyes.

But he kept up his act, "How can you leave your phone lying around?"

Their leader had fallen into a fit of laughter, gripping his crunches tightly as he tried to collect himself again while the rest just looked around the room in a state of shock and surprise. With so many cameras on you all of a sudden, the expressions on each of their faces were understandable.

Hoshi joined Minnie on the side of the bed she had claimed, reaching out for the hand of the producer.

"Ah... wait a minute- we really... woah..." He kept on starting sentences and not finishing them.

"This can't be it," Joshua threw into the room, now also up and closer to the bed as all eyes were on Yeongseok, who held onto the '96 Liner's hands tightly as he talked.

"Hey!" He started, "This is what was promised."

Hoshi sighed out loud in frustration, "No, but our concert just ended yesterday-"

"Wait," Mingyu suddenly jumped in, scooching up further to the front of the mattress to stop right in front of Na PD. "Are we not going to Korea?"

The producer shook his head with a smile, "You can't go! That's not where you're going." Making the rapper's grin widen even more and eventually errupt into bright laughter as he threw his hands up and let himself fall back onto the bed. Even before his back hit the white sheets again, his arms wrapped around the girl who was still quietly in the background, hiding her mouth behind her hand that was covered by the black zip-up hoodie she was wearing.

"WOAH, that's so nice!" He called out happily, tightening his arms around her as if she was to thank rather than the man standing in front of the group.

Each member received a microphone to be clipped by the collar of their clothing and got to sit back down comfortably. Minnie decided to stay on the right side of the bed, her shoulder brushing against Hoshi's.

Everyone but the leader was still in somewhat of a bubble of the unknown, unsure of what would be happening next or where they would even be going even after they had started interrogating the producers and staff members about their schedule.

The performance unit's leader had another important question, "What's the thing where Myungho and Junnie are going to Italy, hyung?"

"Myungho and Junnie are going to Italy," Na PD simply answered, making the girl's eyebrows scrunch in confusion.

"Ah, so separate-" Hoshi started but was interrupted by Seungcheol, who chuckled at the disarray of his members.

"No," he smiled, "You're going together."

"We're going?" The '96 Liner looked up at the older man, who seemed to be also very much amused at the situation, but one member caught his attention.

"Minnie-ya," he turned to the girl with a smile, who met his eyes, "You've been so quiet."

She chuckled to herself, taking a deep breath in. "I... I'm still in shock," making the other producers smile as well. "Are we really going to Italy?" Her big eyes were fixed on him, not even daring to blink, too scared for it all to be a dream and blinking would wake her up.

Mingyu had fallen to his knees, clasping the producer's hands into his, practically begging him to not be lying to them. He desperately wanted the news of their apparent Italy journey to be true.

"Can I tell them that?" The older man asked his fellow producers who nodded with multiple chuckles. So, he turned back to the '97 Liners who were still gazing up at him with expecting eyes. "We're going to Italy." He assured them.

With big smiles and eyes, Minnie and Mingyu turned to each other, giggling before the rapper let his head into her lap, his cheek brushing against the white silk of her pyjama pants.

[Dream destination of the younger ones?]

Very quickly, Yeongseok explained the next few steps that would involve waking up the other members who were sleeping and gathering them all in one room to let the program officially start.

Only problem: some of the members were still drunk enough to most probably hardly remember anything about the events the following day.

"Right now, I-" Dino explained, "We're kind of drunk."

"We are drunk," Joshua agreed, his voice just underlying the statement he had just given.

"It's okay," Na PD assured them. "Everyone's drunk."

"Noona isn't," the youngest pointed at the girl who had stood up and was straightening out the hoodie she was wearing.

Yeongseok looked over at her. "Minnie, you're not drunk?"

The camera focused on the female idol who shook her head. "No," she chuckled, "I was sleeping, but my phone kept going off," she explained. "These idiots were texting me to come over."

[Interruption of her beauty sleep]

Her comment got a round of chuckles from the producers behind the cameras, making her smile and shake her head.

"So you haven't been here for long?" Shin Hyojung, one of the female producers, wondered.

"No," Minnie answered again. "I actually came like five minutes before you barged in."

"Woah," Na PD gasped, "So you could've caught us even before Hoshi..."

[Lucky timing]

"We really wanted her to drink with us," Hoshi walked over to the '97 Liner, linking his arm with hers.

"And I wanted to sleep," she added with a smile at the older member.

First on the list: Waking up Dokyeom.

The group, along with the producers exited the hotel room and rushed into the lobby, on their way to find the room of the other member. Minnie walked alongside the leader, Seungkwan was right in front of them, walking backwards so he could face the two.

"Pledis really does this?!" He continued to question the reality of the situation.

The girl shook her head, looking down at the floor before glancing forward again. "That can't be real. They can't just take us to Italy like that, right? Pledis wouldn't allow that."

"But they are," the leader stated, continuously laughing at the situation.

"That's crazy," she mumbled to herself, hugging her arms close to her torso

She had found the idea of barging into the other members' rooms entertaining, yet scary at first. She wasn't able to get the thought of them doing the exact same to her out of her head. 'Thank God, I was with the drunk part of the group...', Deep down, she knew she had to thank Dino and Hoshi for blowing up her phone and getting her out of bed because the situation could've gotten quite uncomfortable for quite a few people. These thoughts led to her staying in the background during their break-in into Dokyeom's room, choosing to laugh along with the members as they loudly shouted out for the '97 Liner to get up.

With his bloodshot eyes, he was still looking around the hallway on their way out towards the next victim's room. He tapped the girl's shoulder, making her turn to the right, immediately a giggle tumbling from her lips as she took in his dishevelled look.

"Minnie-ya..." Dokyeom gasped, "Is this real? Are we really going?"

The female idol patted his back with a smile, "Yes, we're really going right now."

"Woah..." he breathed out as they stopped right in front of the producer's room.

Seungkwan reached out to unlock the door with the master keycard, but his hand was slapped away by the '97 Liner rapper.

"Just go!" The leader, from the back of the line, called out, "Just go in with 'Woozi!'"

"What if he's not sleeping..." Seungkwan wondered out loud.

After a few more moments of debate, the members agreed to let Yeongseok walk in first to wake up the '96 Liner by pretending he was one of their managers. Waking him up softly like one of the staff members was definitely the better choice rather than barging in and screaming at his face like they did with the main vocalist right before.

Na PD didn't need much convincing before opening the door and stepping in. Everyone was surprised by the brightness of the room due to the lights that were still on - hardly anyone expected Woozi to be still up at this time. Well... he wasn't exactly. Walking further into the hotel room, the group of idols and producers found the singer lying on his bed, no sheets covering his body, still in the clothes he had worn before, spread out on top of the mattress.

One chuckle after the other fell with each step they took further into the room. All the while Yeongseok kept up his act of their road manager, trying to get Woozi out of bed.

Clearly confused, the '96 Liner pushed himself off the bed, the sound of each member's laughter echoing through the room as they started surrounding him. Mingyu's distinct laugh bounced off the walls specifically.

Minnie's eye drifted from the flustered member who had just been pulled out of his slumber, to the table right next to the bed. She immediately laughed even harder than before, walking up to Hoshi to show him.

After smacking his arm, she pointed forward, "Look at his protein powder!"

"Ah!" The performance unit's leader laughed out loud, "His protein! Look at the protein!" He caught the attention of the rest of the people in the room. Each member started laughing even more at the mention of the massive box of protein powder he had brought along for their, in relation, rather short Japan trip.

The producer was still too dishevelled to form proper sentences, just clearly wanting to get the group out of his room and onto the next one.

"Woozi-hyung, why are your sunglasses on the bed?" Dokyeom commented once his eyes found the accessory lying close to the pillows. Hoshi had reached out and grabbed them, handing them over to Mingyu, who put them on the older member's face and pushed them up to keep his hair looking somewhat sane.

Minnie chuckled with a shake of her head, "Woozi-hyung might just be the most fashionable sleeper I've ever seen." Then she turned to the producer. "But without them, you currently look like a crazy scientist." Getting a sarcastic grin from him in return, as Mingyu hit her arm with a chuckle.

"To which door are we going next?" Yeongseok wondered right away, as soon as Woozi was ready to go. He had gotten into the flow of the Seventeen members waking each other up. Each time, using their creativity and knowledge about one another to come up with fun ways to rip them out of their slumber and surprise them with the news.

"The room next door is-"

"Wonwoo," Minnie finished the sentence of the staff member quietly under her breath. Not enough for the rest to notice, but the camera right next to her had caught it.

Mingyu's voice suddenly rang through their ears. "But- I'm sorry. We'll skip Wonwoo-hyung."

The girl's eyebrows scrunched in confusion as she looked at her fellow '97 Liner, "Why?" Followed by Na PD who threw the same question into the room, sounding slightly more concerned than the girl, who just seemed confused by Mingyu's sudden comment.

"I just don't think it's going to be funny," he told the older man before meeting the eyes of the female member.

Minnie opened her mouth, still a slight scrunch in her eyebrows, but as soon as she closed her lips again her eyebrows returned to a neutral facial expression. Dino was quick to react.

"No, no, no, Wonwoo-hyung is fun," the youngest commented, already ready to make his way to the next room.

The girl was next. "Mm, it's gonna be okay," she assured the rapper, speaking softly as she walked up to him. "We'll make it fun."

Arrived at the next room, Seunkgwan and Dino were the first in line, right next to the door. The '98 Liner was already holding the keycard up, excited to wake up the next member.

"Wonwoo?" Na PD asked them again to make sure.

The main vocalist nodded, "Yes, we'll go with Wonwoo."

The producer of the show had caught up with the two youngest, standing next to them as the Seungkwan reached out to knock.

Minnie had come closer, stopping between Hoshi and Dino, waiting for the singer in front of them to finally open the door.

For a moment, the group waited after Seungkwan had knocked on the door three times. Only that Hoshi had already become too impatient,

"We can just go in." Not even wanting to wait another second, making the girl next to him chuckle.

"Let's go in," Dino whispered along with the older member, ushering Seungkwan to just open the door. With a soft push down on the handle, they opened it. Before they let themselves in, Hoshi had pushed Minnie forward, right past the maknae, who added another quick whisper of,

"Noona, go in first."

With quick, yet quiet steps, the female member pushed the door slightly more open and stepped into the room right after flicking on the lights.

"Oppa?" She greeted him at first.

Dino followed right behind her, with Seungkwan afterwards, who held the door open for the cameraman.

"Wonwoo-hyung, they say we need to go," he commented as soon as he walked in.

"Huh?" A raspy hum came from the other side of the room.

While all the other members were toddling inside in a line, one after the other, Minnie's voice was caught by the microphone.

"Oh- pull up the covers," she hastily stated. "Cover your body."

"Why-" Wonwoo was about to ask her a follow-up question when Na PD's voice echoed through the room.

"Wonwoo-ya!" He called out as he revealed himself from the hallway, appearing at the foot of the bed, on which Minnie had sat herself down, while the rapper was holding up the covers over his chest. "It's time to go!" The producer chuckled at the reaction of the '96 Liner as he let himself fall back against the mattress. "Wonwoo-ya... why are your shoulders so wide?" He laughed as he got closer to the bed, his hands finding his bare shoulders that had gotten famous ever since their Game Caterer episode.

The female idol laughed along with her members, holding onto the massive block of a power bank and his glasses as her eyes switched from watching the group in front of them to the man to her right, still hiding underneath the white hotel bedsheets.

"They're definitely wider than Mingyu's!" Cheol commented with a chuckle, making the girl divert her glance over to the '97 Liner, who continued to stand still with what could almost be considered a pout on his lips. She tilted her head with a tight smile decorating her face.

Yeongseok's laughter and voice filled the room, "I think we need to cover him up!" As he tried to do exactly that by tucking the sheets closer to Wonwoo's side. "Stay like this! Stay like this right now!" Pulling them even higher up to his neck.

Not able to hold back a smile, Minnie carefully opened his black frames and tried to place them onto his nose, knowing just how blurry everything must have been for him, making the situation even worse. As they happened to fall slightly crooked, she reached out again to fix them. "Wait," she chuckled, "You have to wear them properly."

"Oh," Na PD looked at him, "Yes, wear your glasses, please."

While Seungkwan's attention was now on the magazines that had been placed on the nightstand, the girl seemed to have noticed the redness shooting to the tips of the rapper's ears, making her smile even wider as she tried to cover them with his hair, running her hand over them and through each strand.

With a quick hand motion and moving lips towards the '98 Liner, he immediately knew what the girl had asked him to do.

"Ah- wait, wait, where are your clothes, hyung?"

"Oh, where are your clothes, Wonwoo-ya?" Yeongseok immediately engaged with them, looking around the room before the '96 Liner pointed towards the couch. He pushed himself up to sit up straight, the white blanket falling off his shoulders exposing just the very upper area of his torso.

"Oh? Hi, PD-nim." Wonwoo threw everyone off-guard at the sudden greeting. He had only now straightened his glasses properly and blinked enough times to get adjusted to the bright lights in his room.

Along with Yeongseok, who greeted him as well with a surprised tone lacing his voice as their hands interlocked, Minnie chuckled with the other members at the conversation happening in front of them. With laughter, the girl let herself fall forward, the palm of her right hand hitting Wonwoo's bare skin and shoulder muscles.

After being handed a shirt, the rapper turned to the two members that were closest to him - for one, Minnie on his left, sitting on the bed, and Seungkwan still standing to his right.

"What is this?" He asked them, the corners of his lips curling up into a tired smile.

"Hyung," the '98 Liner started, "We're going."

"Youth Over Flowers is starting," the girl explained further, giggling once again as the surprised eyes of the '96 Liner met hers.

"Going now?"

"Right now," she nodded, her hand still on his shoulder, only leaving it when he pulled the black shirt over his head and torso.

The quick comment, "That's my shirt," by Mingyu was met with a blank stare from the girl as she pressed her lips together, and quietness washed over the room. Wonwoo having to put on pants first, was the next big attention seeker.

While the rest of the group was debating who to wake up next, either Jun or Minghao, Na PD also admitted to his guilt of having to explain to the '97 Liner that he'd be going to Italy, not alone with his fellow Chinese member as he had thought, but with all the Seventeen members together. Minnie's hand was gripping the sheets, holding them up just slightly after she had noticed the struggle the rapper was having as he tried to put on pants without revealing himself to an entire camera crew and staff members.

They decided to go with Jun next. Apologising to him would be easier, or so Na PD thought before they barged into the '96 Liner's room, ripping him out of his slumber. Now, the producer was standing by the left side of the bed, his hands intertwined in front of him as he tried to find the right words.

"Jun," he spoke ever so softly, "I have something to tell you." The still dishevelled member looked to his right, trying to find the eyes of the older member while Dokyeom was trying to place the microphone onto the collar of Jun's shirt.

"I don't know from what point I need to start telling you," Yeongseok admitted, getting a round of laughter in return.

Minnie, who had taken her place next to the maknae, let her head fall onto his shoulder as the giggling shook both of their bodies.

"We lied about so many things," he admitted. "I don't know what to talk about first."

Jun let his eyes drift around the room, trying to find some explanation in the glances from his members, but they were all just smiling back at him in pure amusement. With a hand, he covered his mouth nervously.

"From what is it the truth?" He wondered, hoping to be able to figure out the starting point of what the producer kept on claiming to be 'a series of lies'.

"There's no truth," Minnie stated with a chuckle. "It's all lies."

"Hey!" Na PD turned to the girl, pointing at her with a smile, "Don't say it like that!"

"You have to be honest with him, hyung... He was so excited for the trip." She fought back, all while fighting her own giggles as Jun kept up his confused facial expression, switching between the two arguing parties.

"That..." He started once again, still flustered by having to admit to the fake schedule they had created for the idol group. "The... this program," Na PD finally let out. "That entire program."

Still slightly unsure of what exactly the man was talking about, the '96 Liner slowly nodded his head, "Aah... ah... okay..." Making the members around his bed chuckle.

The older man kept his stance with his intertwined hands, looking down at the performer with pure guilt written all over his face. He repeated his apology, explaining that the schedule wouldn't include the other two famous men, but the rest of his group instead. Trying to lift the mood by elaborating on how wonderful it is to be able to spend that time with the rest of his members was used to more so soothe him instead of the idol as Jun was still very much disoriented by the sudden intrusion.

"Do the members know too?" He wanted to know.

In chorus, they started explaining to him they had only just found out as well and weren't in on any 'plan' as he had thought.

Na PD placed a comforting hand on the '96 Liner's shoulder. "The people in front of your eyes right now," he started, "They didn't know anything 5 minutes ago." What he did leave out was the fact that not only were they unaware of the situation they'd be thrown into, but also unbelievably unprepared, as a rap battle seemed much more important.

The youngest of the group had another confession to make as he opened his mouth. "And hyung... I'm drunk right now." He suddenly revealed. The girl on his right wrapped her arm around his waist, patting his back as the room erupted in another round of laughter. Wonwoo was quick to jump into the situation, holding up his hand, showing four fingers that he moved around in front of Dino's face, a fond smile making his lips curl.

"Oh-" the maknae was surprised by the sudden action, "Three?" He called out, getting another chuckle from everyone in the room. Minnie's palm hit his chest with a giggle.

On their way out, onto the next room, the female member was interrupted in her conversation as the youngest called out for her.

"Noona!" He turned around to face her while she was walking a few steps behind them, next to Seungcheol.

She hummed in response, "Hm?"

"I really wasn't too weird, right?" He stopped in his tracks to let her catch up with him before he interlocked his arm with hers. "You were the only really sober one, so please tell me. I wasn't too weird, right?"

With a tight smile on her lips, their looks met. "Well..." she started, already making the maknae close his eyes and groan in embarrassment. "You weren't weird. You were just being you. But you did start a rap battle all of a sudden," she recalled with a giggle.

"Ah...," he sighed, letting his forehead rest against her shoulder, "Noona, why did I do that?"

Her lips formed a fond smile as she patted his back. "Don't worry about it. The people watching this will find it funny."

"Are you sure?" He asked her further, still with a slight sulk lacing his voice.

[Younger brother looking for affirmation]

She nodded, her hands brushing over his hair, making him smile.

The members had made their way into Vernon's room. Seungkwan had gone in first after the group was convinced that he the second youngest was actually still awake and not sleeping, like the rest had been. Inside, they were greeted with yet again the bright lights of the room, and, just like with Wonwoo, another two copies of their magazine cover on the table that Dino presented proudly to the camera.

The '98 Liner had himself fully covered by the white bedsheets, confirming the suspicion they had of him, like his fellow HHU member, not wearing anything to bed.

Mortified by the sudden amount of people invading his room, he had pulled the blanket up to his face. Even with Seungkwan's warning, nothing could've prepared him for this moment.

Minnie and Hoshi had joined him on the mattress, sitting down on the left side that was kept free while Na PD tried to get the younger member out of the comfort of the bed.

"I'm in such a dirty state right now," Vernon confessed, now hiding his entire face behind the safety of the sheets. "I'm only wearing this right now," he pointed to the thin piece of clothing working as a robe.

Yeongseok chuckled flustered. "Oh- you're only wearing that?"

Without a warning, Hoshi's hands suddenly travelled underneath the covers, getting a look of confusion from the girl in return. He patted around the mattress and body of the man underneath them when he suddenly nodded with a big grin.

"Ooh, he's really only wearing this," he told the rest of the room. The members and crew chuckled at his uncalled action. Shocked, but definitely not surprised.

Minnie, who kept her eyes on him, leaned closer to him, slapping his leg with an amused scoff, "You can't do that!"

Her fellow '97 Liner and rapper right next to them, hunched over in laughter, his hands falling to the shoulder of the performance unit leader, pushing him away.

They agreed to let him put on clothes first before they would move on to the next room. But the blanket still covering him turned out to be more of an obstacle than expected as he started squirming around, Na PD trying to lift the sheets to give him some more room to put on the pants that were handed to him. The movements seemed too funny for the group not to comment on them.

"Are you shedding?" Seungkwan was the first to comment.

Minnie smiled at his struggle. "You look like a transforming worm, Vernon," getting a round of chuckles from the members.

Getting Jeonghan out of bed was easy for the group. The '95 Liner was quick to play along and jumped into character almost instantly when Yeongseok was the first to walk into his room. He was up on his feet and ready to jump into action. You could've thought he hadn't even been sleeping.

"I don't know," Jeonghan mumbled, "I don't know how I am right now." While some of the other members were still focused on the magazines with his pictures on the cover. Somebody had placed a few copies of them on his table as well.

Na PD chuckled warmly, "You're very pretty right now. It's okay, it's okay." His assuring words made the vocalist nod and ready to go on to the next room.

Minnie sighed, "You could really wake up Jeonghan-hyung at any hour and he'll look pretty. That's so unfair." Followed by a slight sulk that was caught by the members. She was just about to turn around when Seungkwan's follow-up comment made her stop.

"Then you gotta work on your beauty sleep, noona." His words made her open her mouth but close it quickly, reminding herself of all of the cameras that were on them, so she just nodded. But a sarcastic smile was plastered on her face.

Woozi couldn't help but shake his head in amusement at the two. "Don't listen to him," he mumbled, patting her back before he turned around to leave them alone.

Next and final room: Minghao. The member Na PD was dreading to face, having to, once again, explain the situation and the lie they had come up with, making the '97 Liner believe he'd go on a trip to Italy with Jun alone, along with two other people from the entertainment industry. Well, now he'd get to enjoy the Italian flair with 12 of his members.

Standing in front of the last hotel room they'd break in, the debating started. How would they greet the member who was looking forward to the trip the most?

Seungkwan proposed that Yeongseok should go in first, clapping and congratulating Minghao on the trip. Jeonghan had the idea of letting the '98 Liner walk in first to wish him 'safe travels', but he stopped himself in the middle of the sentence, deciding that it would take too long to let one member after the other inside. Final decision: all of the barge in at the same time, clapping and celebrating. That would wake him up, for sure.

After one flick of the lights, the members rushed inside, their loud voices immediately filling the room as their claps bounced off the walls. Wide eyes welcomed them as Minghao looked around the room in surprise, taken aback by the sudden appearance of his members along with crew members he didn't recognize right away. Only after Seungkwan introduced Na PD, did the '97 Liner realise who was standing in front of him. He sat himself up to greet him.

Then it was time. The explanation.

Yeongseok started. "Oh, to be honest, Myungho-ya... there's something I need to apologise to you about."

As soon as the soft and delicate words, "What is it?" Left Minghao's lips, the producer stepped back. You would've thought he had to tell him Santa wasn't real by his reaction.

But after a moment of silence, he spilt the truth, explaining that Jun and his 'trip to Italy' was happening right at that moment, adding that the rest of the members were coming along too though. From her position next to S.Coups in the corner of the room, Minnie, along with the rest of the members burst into laughter when he started clapping and smiling almost painfully fake.

Minghao got dressed and the others got themselves comfortable around the room, spreading out onto the bed, and the couch, and some chose to stand up.

That's when Na PD spoke up again, "Okay, everyone's together, right?" A conversation easily followed. Hoshi started by explaining their fully packed schedule, which made the members realise that they would not even have the time to film 'Youth Over Flowers' at any point during that time, but the producer clarified the careful thought process that went into kidnapping the idol group and giving them a well-deserved break during such a busy time.

As the realisation of it happening right now hit Dino, he groaned and let his face fall into his hands, catching the attention of the girl. Minnie chuckled at the youngest antics, elbowing the leader on her right before she nodded towards the bed, where the maknae was contemplating all of his life choices.

"Look at Dino." Seungcheol joined her giggling, eyeing the youngest member carefully. "He's still drunk," she shook her head with a smile.

While Hoshi and Dokyeom discussed which month they had thought they'd get to film the program in, Shin Hyojung spoke up from behind the camera.

"Considering that, too," mentioning the packed schedule of the idol group. "we freed space for a week." Which caught the attention of each member.

Various gasps and hums echoed through the room.

"An entire week?!" Minnie wondered out loud in shock, getting a nod from the female producer in return.

"An entire week," she confirmed.

After she dropped the next lie, which had been the fake schedule they created for the entire week, another round of gasps could be heard from the singers. None of them could really believe the time and dedication the production crew had put into this - just for them.

"All fake," Seungcheol commented.

Minnie turned towards him. "Did you know about them being fake?!"

He was quick to shake his head, "I swear, I knew as much as you guys about this. I only found out a few hours before you."

"That's crazy..." the girl mumbled, her arms crossed in front of her chest, tightening the zip-up hoodie around her frame.

"I'm going to make some announcements," Na PD called out to get the attention back to the moment. "And we can talk about other things later!" Firstly, he let them know about their destination as only some of the members had caught onto where they were going - Rome, Italy. While sounds of surprise and happiness filled the room, Minnie stayed quiet and surprised Cheol when she suddenly wrapped her arm around his. The crutch made it slightly awkward, but it didn't stop her.

"Who has been to Italy?" Yeongseok wondered, getting a round of shaking heads in return.

"None," was repeatedly thrown into the room as different members answered him.

"No one?!" Na PD was well surprised by the answer. "Minnie," he caught the attention of the younger woman. "Not even you?" Expecting for at least her to have been to one of the most visited countries in Europe. But she shook her head as well,

"Not to Italy, no."

"That's why we picked it," another female producer explained from the other side of the room.

"We've never been to Europe," Seungkwan wined.

Woozi nodded in agreement, turning to Yeongseok, "We haven't been to Europe either."

Minnie's head dropped to Seungcheol's shoulder. He let go of his right crutch, using his now free hand to caress the arm she had interlocked with his.

Na PD's speech went on. "To be honest, Seventeen has had a really packed schedule up to now. I know that you had a really hard time." He got sounds of agreement and nodding heads in return. "You must've had no time to rest at all. So, the concept of this Italy vacation is different from our usual 'Youth Over Flowers'." He continued to explain the differences in the program the group would film. They wouldn't face any hardships, not suffer as they go along. It would be an 'all-inclusive package' for a real holiday.

"So, you just need to play. We searched and rented all places where we could play and enjoy. At breakfast, go visit stuff and eat delicious things. At dinner, we get together and play," he explained further. "We're going to spend a week like this." As expected, the members reacted in glee. Happy, surprised and yet still not fully believing things that good would happen to them.

Woozi was the first to question the sincerity. "We can believe this, right?" Which made Yeongseok turn to him in surprise,

"You can trust me! You can trust this!"

Minnie squinted her eyes jokingly. "I feel like that's exactly something that someone who'd try to trick us would say."

"No, ah-" He sighed and shook his head with a smile, "Really. Trust me with this." Turning to the other producers, he looked for help. "Tell them that this is right!"

After revealing the new name of the program 'NANA Tour', the group almost forgot it was too good to be true. But the following words from Na PD made them realise they may have started celebrating too early.

"Since our trip is an all-inclusive package," he stated, "there's nothing that you guys need to prepare."

"Huh?!"

The members started to look for each others' gazes, trying to find some sense in a moment of confusion.

"You don't need your bag or anything else," Yeongseok explained further. "The things you need are the clothes you're wearing and a cell phone. You don't need your wallet."

"Really?" Dokyeom asked out loud.

Minnie glanced at the man in confusion while mumbling to herself "But I'm wearing pyjamas." Her worried tone got a chuckle out of Seungcheol as he looked over to her, shaking his head.

But even with all the good news the group had gotten, bad news was about to follow as well.

"The problem is that we- our package's departure schedule is a bit early."

The girl opened her mouth to say something, but Woozi beat her to it as he pointed at the man on the bed.

"I'm saying that his eyes are scary!" Making the crew of producers and cameramen laugh wholeheartedly and zoom into Yeongseok's face.

"How could you let us leave us without anything on us?!" Minnie called out in frustration. "That's not right... You have something planned! Don't lie!"

Na PD couldn't help but chuckle, hunching over before holding himself up from the mattress by his hands. "No, I promise. We're going to go to Italy. But the problem is that we have to go kind of early!" He argued back.

A comforting hand found its way to Minnie's back as Cheol shrugged his arm out of her grasp to wrap it around her frame. Her eyebrows were back scrunched up in confusion as she whispered to the leader,

"I don't trust him." To which he chuckled.

"It's okay, you can trust him." But she just shook her head with a pout on her lips.

Her attention went back to listening to the producer as he spoke, "You guys are going to get dressed starting now and in three minutes-"

"What?!"

"In three minutes?!"

"Hyung!"

"This is so much fun," came from Jeonghan, who seemed to be the only one to enjoy the stress that was put on the group with that statement alone.

Na PD was quick to add, "Because you don't need a bag or wallet! We have all of your passports."

Right away, questions started coming from left and right.

"Can I still brush my teeth?"

"Can't I take a shower?"

"Is there underwear in the package?"

"Everything!" Yeongseok answered Dokyeom's question. "Just wear what you're wearing now-"

"I can't wear pyjamas to the airport," Minnie sighed out, running a hand through her hair with a deep breath.

Jeonghan grinned at her, "Don't worry, Minnie-ya. You make everything look fashionable."

With scrunched eyebrows, she glanced over at him, not able to hold back a smile once she came to sight with his.

As soon as Na PD gave the official 'ok' to split up and start getting ready, the members split up quickly. They rushed out of Minghao's room one after the other, trying to get to their own rooms as quickly as possible. Jeonghan didn't seem to be nearly as stressed as the others as he decided to stay back. Minnie was doing the same, standing still in her place next to the leader.

"Oh... oppa...," she sighed. Cheol immediately knew what she wanted to say, so he was quick to interrupt her, patting her back once again.

"No, go, go. Get ready. Change your clothes. I'll meet you downstairs," he assured her.

"Really? You'll still be here?" She asked further, getting a nod from him in response.

"Ok..." she mumbled. before she left, she hastily threw her arms around his shoulder, giving him a quick squeeze before exiting the room as well, thoughts of which clothes to take out of her suitcase already rushing through her mind.

She had already finished packing her luggage the evening before, right after the concert, wanting to spare herself the stress of packing it right before their flight back home. Therefore, Minnie's baby blue suitcase was already in the hallway, where she had to put it on the ground to open it.

"Ok," she thought out loud, "Rome is probably hot right now at this time of year... but I want to be comfortable on the plane. So... I'm not gonna wear shorts, but thin long pants. But a short shirt. That should be fine, right?" She looked up from her position on the floor, glancing at the cameraman, who just shrugged back.

The girl chuckled and nodded to herself. "It'll be fine," she stood back up after gathering everything from her suitcase, including a pair of sneakers. "More important is... what will I take in my small bag," with a hand on her chin, she contemplated. "Sunglasses... maybe tissues... I can't bring make-up, right?" The cameraman shook his head. "Ok... that's... ok... but suncream. I'll need suncream. OH- and chapstick- hold on. I also need to brush my teeth..."

After Wonwoo, Minnie was next to enter the meeting room, getting greeted by Na PD immediately, and the '96 Liner along with S.Coups, Hoshi and Minghao who had already taken a seat on the chairs and couch. She had changed into a pair of jeans along with a slightly cropped white shirt and a grey cropped cardigan on top. A black hat was on her head, but she had taken it off once she walked in.

"Minnie, come in and sit," the producer ushered her inside. But something caught his eye. "Ah- Minnie-ya," at the sound of her name, the girl stopped in her tracks.

Yeongseok reached out his open palm. "Give me your bag."

Her hands found the handle on her shoulder in an instant, clinging onto it tightly.

"But I need it," she fought back.

With a sigh, the producer continued looking at her. "I promise you, everything you need, you'll get from us. Come on, give me the bag."

Hesitantly, the female member let the leather brush off her shoulder, before slowly handing it over. But just before Yeongseok could get a hold of it, she pulled it back, "Wait! Can I take out what I need?"

A chuckle tumbled from his lips as she shook his head. Glancing over at the other members, he only found amused faces looking back at him. He took a deep breath, "What is it that you need so desperately?"

As an answer, Minnie placed the bag on the console table on the left side of the room and started rummaging. Picking out the important things, she counted them, "Chapstick, sunscreen, and... sunglasses!" She showed the things to the producer, who nodded after inspecting them.

"Ok, ok, you can take them. If they fit in your pockets. Now sit down." With a nod and a quick, "Thank you," she went after his orders.

Na PD, Cheol, Joshua, Wonwoo, Dokyeom, Vernon, and Minnie made their way downstairs with the elevator. Stopping in the garage, where a car was already waiting for them. Just as they were about to leave, the '96 and '98 Liner of the Hip-Hop-Unit walking towards the vehicle first, Yeonseok calling out for S.Coups caught their attention and made them turn around again, almost forgetting that their leader wasn't going with them.

One after the other, the members said goodbye to him, hugging him one last time before they'd be on their way. Minnie stood still between him and the producer.

"Aah, you're not coming with us!" Vernon suddenly realised.

The girl pouted, "How the heck is he supposed to come with us with his injury?!" Clearly frustrated by the situation.

"I totally forgot about that," the younger member nervously chuckled. After individually making sure they had said goodbye properly, wishing him a comfortable ride home, it was Minnie's turn to hug him. Without a word, she threw her arms around his shoulders as Joshua patted the head of their leader. With a sigh, she let him go again.

"I don't like this...."

"Don't be like that, Minnie-ya," he nudged her. "Have fun in Italy. Be careful."

She nodded hesitantly, "I guess we will."

"You guess?!" Na PD gasped next to her, making the girl chuckle. "You guess?! We'll make sure that you guys have fun."

"Ok, ok," she nodded again. One last time, Seungcheol opened his arms to pull her in. Just as she was about to let go of him, the '95 Liner whispered something into her ear, to which she frowned at first as soon as they separated, but then she assured him, she had understood him. With a last wave, she bid him her final goodbye before she'd get to see him again in about two weeks.

[they will reunite well]

EP1-2. Off to Italy

Minnie took her place by the window, with Minghao on her right. The bus had started its engine and was about to start driving away. The members looked outside to see their CEO, managers, and most importantly their leader standing on the side, waving them off.

[bye bye]

With a sad smile, the girl waved back, nodding at S.Coups after he had motioned something with his hands. Her gaze didn't leave the window until everyone was out of sight. Only then did she let herself fall back against the seat, looking down at her hands with a sigh. Her fellow '97 Liner noticed her quietness and placed a hand on top of hers, making her look up.

She was greeted with the kind smile of her best friend, making her grin in return. He gave her hand a little squeeze, which she copied, quickly developing into a battle of who could squeeze the other person's hand harder. Even if it was obvious who would win, Minnie still put up the fight, grinning down at their hands, and just taking a moment to be thankful for the person to her right.

Hoshi, Wonwoo, and Minghao were sitting together at Incheon Airport, waiting for the connecting flight with Na PD, who was behind the camera they had set up, engaging in a comfortable conversation.

Minnie suddenly appeared from the background, joining the group on the floor, her phone in her grip.

"Did you talk to your mum?" Yeongseok asked.

The girl nodded with a smile. "I told her we're going to Rome."

He chuckled, "What did she say?"

"'Why not closer to us?'" Minnie changed her voice into a slightly higher tone, impersonating her mother. "'I could've brought you guys something to eat.'"

[caring words of a mother <3]

The members around her started laughing, with Hao leaning onto her shoulder.

Na PD scoffed with a chuckle. "Does she think we won't feed you?"

Minnie shrugged, "I think she also thinks this will be more like 'Youth Over Flowers'." To which the producer laughed in return.

Deep in her slumber, the female idol was catching up on the few hours of sleep she had missed out on due to the intense rap battle her fellow members wanted her to witness.

[beauty sleep]

"Minnie-ya," a soft voice from the right spoke up. When she didn't react, a hand reached out to nudge her.

The camera angle expanded, to expose Wonwoo, who was trying to get her to wake up. With one more gentle shove to her arm and a repetition of her name, his voice ever so soft, Minnie's eyes fluttered open. For a second, there was clear confusion written on her face, but as she looked to her left, she found the rapper's eyes already on her, she smiled.

"Hm?"

"Eat something before we land," Wonwoo spoke quietly, not trying to distress her as she tried to adjust her eyes to the brightness. Minnie nodded and with a quick click of a button, she let her seat straighten back up.

"When do we land?"

"In like two hours."

"Ok," she answered, trying to hold back a yawn without any luck. Then she glanced at the clock. "Ah... I forgot about the time difference... it's evening now."

"Mm," Wonwoo looked away from his phone to glance over at her, "Are you still tired?"

For a second, the girl seemed to think about it. "A little bit. I hope I'll get to sleep."

EP1-3. First Step of the Travel

After landing and walking through the airport for a good bit, they arrived at the visa checkpoints. Jun and Minghao were separated from the group due to their Chinese passports, but what caught the members off-guard was when Minnie was directed towards a different line than them.

"Where are you going?" Mingyu asked the girl as he filmed himself.

"We took Minnie's EU passport, not her Korean one, so she has an easier way," one of the producers behind him explained to him. The '97 Liner nodded while watching her walk away.

The female member had gotten her own vlogging camera, filming the lower side of her face that was still covered by a mask. She didn't start talking until she came to a halt and pulled the mask down and the camera up to show her entire face.

"And now we'll wait. Because the members are gonna take a little bit longer than me." And ended her commentary with a smile.

Dino, Hoshi, and Wonwoo were the first to join her.

"Noona, you just walked through the gates!" The youngest called out as soon as they had caught up with her.

Minnie chuckled, "Yeah, it's like this within some countries in Europe. If you were born here."

"Aaah," he nodded. "Practical."

When she saw the vlogging camera Hoshi was holding up, the girl put her own one down, focusing more on her surroundings as they walked through the entrance/exit of the airport and out into the warm late summer air.

The rest of the members, besides Jun and Minghao, were already hot on their tracks as well and followed them to the bus that was waiting for them outside. Walking in, they greeted the driver before cramping together into the seats at the back. Vernon and Minnie decided to sit together with the younger member by the window and the girl by the aisle.

During their little gaming session, the girl decided to relax, mostly focused on her own phone, texting her mum about their arrival, sending a quick message to their leader and scrolling through Social Media.

When Minghao and Jun finally joined them on the bus, they were ready to leave. Right from the start, the producers could feel the energy coming from the group. Everyone was excited and most of them had slept enough on the flight, explaining their high energy levels.

"The name of the airport," a staff member suddenly spoke up, "is Leonardo Da Vinci Airport."

"Ooh, Vernonnie." Dokyeom's voice rang through the ears of the girl. Only a split second later, she started to laugh. The members quickly caught onto the comment by the '97 Liner.

"No, Leonardo da Vinci."

"Not that Leonardo, Dokyeom-ah," Minnie and Mingyu spoke at the same time, both smiling at the situation. It was only then that Vernon, the man in question, realised what was being said, making him chuckle as he ran a hand over his face.

During the rest of the drive, Na PD was in charge of entertainment. He started with the description of their accommodation, mentioning that it was an Airbnb they had booked. But before they would get to their housing, the crew had decided to make a quick stop by the Colosseum to take a group picture and let the idol group roam around a little bit.

The producer started them off with some facts.

"You all know what it looks like, right?"

The group agreed in union.

"Round and pretty," Minnie added with a bright face. At the sound of her voice, Wonwoo turned his head to glance over at her, a fond smile on his lips.

"Right," the producer answered, "Round and... yeah, pretty I guess too." Making the girl chuckle. "It's a building that was built about 2000 years ago. It's an ancient theatre. Simply put an amphitheatre. There's an audience, and what do you think they did in the centre?"

"Duel," Wonwoo and Minnie answered at the same time. With grins, they glanced at each other, chuckling when their eyes met. European history had always been a big interest of theirs.

"Exactly," Na PD pointed at the two. "Duel. Gladiators would fight each other or a tiger vs. human."

The girl suddenly gasped quietly, "Hoshi-hyung..." Which only seemed to have reached the ears of the two '96 Liners next to her, who had turned to smile at the other one, clearly amused by the comment of the female member.

After they arrived at the sight, the group quickly split up again into smaller portions, each member wanting to see and explore the ancient building for themselves.

Minnie stood still as her eye raked up and down the height of the Colosseum, astonished at what she was seeing with her own eyes.

"It's so much bigger than I expected for some reason," she commented out loud, catching the attention of Yeongseok, who had stopped to her left.

He nodded. "Mm, but you must be used to buildings like this, or not?"

The girl shook her head with a smile. "I don't think you can ever get used to this. Ancient buildings are always so shocking when get to see them in real life."

"The Eiffel Tower for you too? You must've seen that quite a few times already," he continued the conversation as the two made their way further around the arena.

Minnie chuckled, "Yeah, I guess so," she explained, "But it's a lot smaller than people expect."

"Oh, really?" To which she nodded.

"So, this," she pointed towards the building right in front of them, "Is... insanely beautiful. Especially now at night."

Once the idol group had gotten back together, the individual sightseeing coming to an end, they decided to try to give their leader a call, reminding themselves of the fact that the time in Korea was 6 a.m., so the chances of him picking up were slim. Explaining, why they were so surprised when Seungcheol did in fact pick up the call, revealing his tired face on the screen of Hoshi's phone.

"Oh, he picked up!" Dino called out, making the girl, who was still in awe of the arena, turn around.

"S.COUPS!" Jun shouted out in glee. Minnie chuckled, watching the screen, seeing how clearly tired the '95 Liner was, assuming they had ripped him out of his sleep and that ungodly hour.

"We came to the Colosseum," Hoshi explained to him.

"Is it fun?" The leader wondered, his voice laced with pure exhaustion and still deeper than usual.

"It would be more fun with you here," the girl smiled, getting a chuckle from him in return.

"Mh, I bet," he sarcastically answered.

The performance unit leader suddenly announced they'd be taking a picture, surprising Cheol over the phone, who did his best to do some kind of pose in his position on the bed. Even with his absence, a group picture with all of them together was necessary.

EP1-4. Something Happened in Their House

In groups, the members were ordered to leave the bus and start their seven-minute walk towards their Airbnb. Minnie was in the second group that got to exit the vehicle, along with Hoshi, Wonwoo, and Minghao. As soon as they stepped out and fell into their usual walking tempo, for comfort, the girl looped her right arm with Wonwoo's left - no reaction from him. The group easily fell into a natural conversation, commenting on what was around them, what they passed, and the warm weather they were lucky enough to catch during this time of year.

"I'm not normally sentimental," the '96 Liner from the Hip-Hop-unit suddenly stated. "But it's gonna become sentimental."

The female member nodded. "Because we're on our first real vacation as a group, minus Seungcheol-oppa. And in a really nice city as well." The three men agreed with nods.

When they finally arrived at their housing for the night, they got to walk through the apartment in the old building the crew had rented out for the group. Each room had its own charm and the members already knew it wouldn't be easy to choose. But then again, their individually designated rooms often get lost after nights of drinking and playing games, and suddenly four people are sleeping in a two-person bed. So the choices weren't all that important to the singers.

They decided to let faith decide and play a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors. The winner would get to choose first, then the second, and so on until each member had a bed assigned to them.

One after the other, the singers walked around until they reached the room they had chosen to sleep in. Dino and Jun had decided on the three-beds room, leaving one still free. That's when Minnie appeared from around the corner to glance inside.

"Ooh," she commented with a smile as she came in. "I don't think we've ever shared a room together in this constellation, right?"

Jun agreed, "Yeah, I don't think so."

"Noona, stay, it's gonna be fun," the maknae, who had already made himself comfortable on one of the beds that had gotten pushed together.

Minnie chuckled, walking in to throw her cardigan and the pouch she had taken from the plane, onto the mattress. "Of course, I'm gonna stay with you guys."

"Yeyy," Dino looked up at the older member, who smiled down at him. He was quick to sit up straight once he noticed she had gotten comfortable on the other bed right next to him. "Do you want to sleep by the window?" The youngest asked her.

"Hm?" Minnie wondered, turning to her right to see the window being closest to her bed. "I don't mind it."

"Okay," he nodded before throwing himself onto the sheets.

Minnie and Jun had left their assigned rooms. He had joined the four beds Joshua, Hoshi, Mingyu and Dokyeom-room, engulfed in comfortable conversations as they settled into their housing, while Minnie paid a visit to Jeonghan, Woozi, Wonwoo, and Seunkgwan's room.

The girl was sitting on the bed with the '98 Liner when Na PD surprised them with a visit. "Please wait in the room for five to ten minutes!" He announced as he waltzed in.

"Okay," he got a reply in chorus back.

As soon as he left again, the group started talking.

"His eyes are weird, I keep on saying this," Woozi commented, getting a round of chuckles from the members in return.

"They're spun around," Seungkwan added.

Minnie sighed, "I'm telling you, we still can't trust them. What are we gonna sleep in? We don't have any extra clothes." Her question seemed to get the roommates to thinking, the wheels inside their heads visibly starting to turn.

"Maybe... maybe they'll give us something," the youngest of them answered her with a shrug.

"But we're definitely gonna have to work for them," the '96 Liner stated. "They're not just gonna give us everything."

"Yeah, I don't think so either," the girl agreed, letting herself sink into the mattress.

After a few minutes, the members were called to gather in the kitchen. Walking in, they could already see that something had been set up.

"Tax-free?" Minnie wondered out loud as soon as she had entered the room. Joshua, who was already sitting down, turned to where she was looking at - a poster on the wall.

Slightly confused, yet intrigued, the girl took a seat opposite Woozi and next to Jeonghan, waiting for the next steps as the two main songwriters of the group grinned at each other. Both were still carrying only a small amount of trust with them when it came to the program they were filming.

Yeongseok brought in a shopping trolly, that he placed on the table the two were sitting on, revealing it to be filled to the brim and explaining the meaning of it to the group. As they hadn't had time to pack anything, aka the crew didn't let them bring anything other than what they could carry on their body, the producing team would provide them with everything they could possibly need.

Ranging from toiletries to clothing or even electronics, the crew had thought of every single thing. The first thing they presented were T-shirts. But not just any shirts. Custom-made T-shirts for each member. The group gazed at the item of clothing with wide eyes. Every shirt had a different design, fitted to the member whose name was written across the chest. Cherries for S.Coups, dumbells for Woozi, and so on.

Next was underwear. A true essential.

"Hold on," Minnie suddenly stopped. She pointed to a pack of black underwear with a rim she only knew too well. "I have to work for the underwear I model for? I thought I'd get them for free." As they were Calvin Klein underwear the production team had packed for her, the girl was surprised.

"AH!" Seungkwan suddenly shouted out. "You don't have to remind us of that photoshoot!" Getting a round of chuckles from the members in return, and a sarcastic big grin from the girl.

"You're welcome!" To which the '98 Liner only glanced at her in disgust.

"I'm sorry, Minnie-ya," Na PD told her. "But you also had to work to become an ambassador, right?"

With a squint, she glared at the man to her left. "Touché," she mumbled loud enough for the other members to hear, who laughed at the conversation.

The show continued as he presented the rest of the containments of the bag: Kimchi (jongga, of course), dumbells for whoever would want to work out, cup ramyeon, shorts, shampoo, a NANA Tour guidebook, zip lock bags, fans, wet tissues, stir-fried gochujang, toothbrushes and toothpaste, a bag, merch, and even earphones.

Then, last, but most definitely not least, the producer pulled out an envelope, with a quick side-remark.

"Jeonghan-ah, you'll really need this. You're going to cry," he explained. "For all of you, filled with his heart S.Coups' letter." Without missing a beat, the vice leader of the group suddenly erupted in fake tears, his groans echoing through the room. The girl couldn't help but chuckle as she nudged him with her elbow. Once he returned back to his normal state and Na PD sat back, she leaned over to the '95 Liner.

"Cheol told me to choose the letter."

"When?" He looked down at her in slight confusion.

"When we said goodbye to him. He mentioned a letter, but I was so confused about what he meant. But it must be this." Jeonghan nodded, leaning apart again to avoid suspicion from the production crew.

After they were introduced to all of the items, the group was clearly intrigued by what they could get. They knew they could, but how? Well, definitely not for free, of course. Yeongseok explained they would have to play a game, earning item after item with each round they'd win. The game they had decided on was 'Human Zero'. A game Seventeen was somewhat familiar with, but since they hadn't played it in quite a while, the worries were accordingly high.

But as soon as the game started, every fear had made its way out of the window. The group was surprisingly good at the game Na PD had chosen. In each round, the members made the right decision with who decided they should and shouldn't stand up. They were very good. Too good in the producer's opinion. Suspicion rose.

Even when they asked Hoshi what number Yeongseok should shout out next, the idol group stood strong and won another round.

It went as far as that the members even individually promised to stand up, making him almost want to shout out '13!' but if there's one thing Seventeen was flawless at, it would be teamwork - and teamwork only worked amongst the team, individuals outside of the group wouldn't understand.

Even though the idol group won each round unexpectedly, even with repeated attempts to change the game's rules and make it less likely for them to win and to prove they weren't cheating, it was still as entertaining as everyone expected. The entire crew was laughing along with the singers, surprised by the unexpected win after win.

The planned five rounds quickly turned into fifteen with Seventeen winning each round and the production even adding products they could win. But just because it didn't turn out the way the crew had planned, didn't mean it was any less entertaining. If anything, it made it all that much more amusing. It was the living proof that Seventeen talked, slept and breathed a language only they could understand.

"Just take all of this," Na PD sighed in defeat as he pointed to the prices on the table.

With all the interesting things they had earned, there was one thing that was still a mystery to the group and they'd finally get to reveal.

Jeonghan got handed over the letter Seungcheol had written to his members. He opened the envelope and opened the piece of paper, a piece of plastic being the first thing to catch their eyes.

Minnie glanced at it. Her facial expression of confusion quickly changed into surprise as she realised what the '95 Liner had just picked up - Coups' credit card.

"Oh wow..." Jeonghan gasped out loud along with Dokyeom who looked at the letter with wide eyes.

"That's not a letter," the girl commented, leaning in to try and read the words that were written on the piece of paper the card had come in. He read it out loud.

"Thank you for picking my letter. I feel so sorry for you guys going without any preparation. You can use this card however you want. I will be waiting for you well in Korea. You can use this card however you want, okay? Have fun. I love you."

A round of claps and gasps in affection filled the room.

"It really is his personal card," Dokyeom pointed out.

"His personal card?!"

"Woah... he really is the best leader," Minnie commented. A round of heads nodded in agreement.

They decided on Dino to keep the card safe as he was already the manager of the pocket money they had received before their departure.

So after a long day of travels and finally also a game, the group was released.

"Since it's late, hurry up and wash up. Change into these clothes and let's rest well," he dismissed the members.

"Good night," Minnie's voice echoed through the room as some members clapped in appreciation

"Well done, guys."

"Great job."

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#minnie 🌷#seventeen #seventeen oc #seventeen 14th member

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studentinpursuitofclouds · 8 months ago

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Hihi I'm new here! I really like your headcanons. Would it be alright if I could ask headcanons for the bachelors and how their romantic relationship with a farmer that already has a kid from a different relationship progress?

Like, one day a kid just randomly shows up at the farmer's doorstep with a social worker and farmer had to explain that their ex couldn't keep the child anymore, and the kid is also super anxious about moving in with them or something.

I'm really sorry- it was a scenario I've seen dabbled into once and I'm just very curious as to what others think of it too aha.

If this ask is not your cup of tea, feel free to disregard it. Have a great day op 🙏✨

Hellooooo!

Sorry for the delay, dear anon. This headcanon just turned out bigger than I planned 😅 Hope I understood your question correctly. Thank you very much for the ask, and enjoy! 🫰💕

_________________________________________

SDV bachelors x Farmer, that already has a kid from a different relationship:

Shane:

Oh, man. This is all very awkward...

Shane knew about Farmer's ex, the reason for the breakup and the fact that the child was in the care of their ex in Zuzu City.

Farmer visited their child almost every week, calling and writing letters, but Shane himself was not particularly involved, not knowing how to approach the little one.

Naturally, when the kid came to visit the farm, the chicken man would try to make the kid feel comfortable, but considering everything they'd been through, even here it was pretty awkward.

On the plus side, they was the same age as Jas, and the kids had become fast friends in a short time.

Farmer encouraged their spouse's attempts at friendship with their kid, but again, things were still pretty awkward.

When the Farmer's child arrived with a social worker some time later, Shane noticed how much the little one resembled him in his yought - confused, scared, resentful of everyone and tired of everything. Their familiar world where both parents were together was gone forever.

Later, Shane was able to explain how he'd been in a similar situation, how he'd almost lost because of the mistakes he'd made trying to cope with pain.

The kid quickly found common ground with him. Especially after they confessed that they liked chickens!

Shane doesn't claim to be a father, as the kid is pretty mature and understands on their own.

But he will treat them with the same care and responsibility as he does Jas.

They are all kinda weird family, but Shane loves them all and still can't believe how lucky he is.

Sam:

It's quite a tricky situation, but thanks to his friendliness and personality, Sam is great with kids.

When Farmer finally introduced their kid to Sam, the young guitarist immediately went into cool brother/uncle mode.

The kid was worried, but Sam began to slowly gain their trust by asking about their interest in comics or other hobbies.

It makes him happy that the kid can forget about problem and concerns at least for now, because children should be happy and play while they have their childhood.

Sam knows that Farmer broke up with their ex more or less calmly, without scandal or drama, but he knows, like Farmer, it was still hard for the kid.

He's glad that he and Farmer are trying their best to be in theirs life.

The kid's upset look and the presence of the social worker took Sam by surprise.

While the social worker was talking to Farmer, Sam offered the anxious kid something to eat. Or some space, if they still feel uncomfortable.

After learning the reason for the visit and the fact that the kid will now live on the farm, Sam gently asks his partner how he should handle this. He wants to cheer the kid up, but he also doesn't want to make them more anxious.

Fortunately, Vincent and the kid get along quickly, which pleases both Farmer and Sam. Now, though, they need to keep an eye on the kids, or they'll both get into more trouble.

Jodi and Kent also do everything they can to make Farmer's kid feel comfortable (Jodi now spoils them with tasty baked goods).

Farmer can't help but be joyful with how hard Sam tries for them and their kid and his family to keep everyone happy.

Alex:

Farmer was telling Alex about their loser ex, who had decided to trade Farmer and their child for a some stranger. What a shameless cheater...

Farmer visited their kid almost every week, but Alex was only able to go with them a few times.

At the sight of their ex, the athlete was so itching to break their nose. But he tried to keep his temper in front of the kid.

The child turns out to be a kind young one, though a bit shy and reserved. Alex thanks Yoba that they are more like the Farmer in looks and personality than the other parent.

Despite the awkward pause at first, the kid seems to like Alex. Of course, he's cool, kind, and gives them ice cream! Alex's trips with Farmer became more frequent and his friendship with Farmer's little kid grew stronger.

Some time later, when a confused Alex let the stranger into the house, he was shocked to find Farmer's kid standing behind him. They looked... so sad.

The social worker announced that the ex had decided to relinquish parental rights and the child had been brought here.

The poor kid was quieter than a mouse, but Alex was as friendly as possible and tried to cheer him up.

In the back of his mind, though, he felt a wild rage, because he could hear that the reason the ex had refused to give up their own child was because their new partner didn't want to babysit them.

Alex knows more than anyone what it's like when one parent is such a dirtbag. But right now he doesn't care about losers, he's got Farmer and their kid.

Getting the kid used to the new environment was very difficult, but Alex helped them get to know the local children.

Evelyn accepted the kid as her own great-grandchild, remembering to feed them delicious baked goods. George was a bit stingy with his emotions, but he also accepted them as his own.

Alex will not leave them in trouble and will help them to cope with all the difficulties. Now the Farmer and their child are his family.

Sebastian:

Sebastian feels awkward and doesn't know what to do. Help.

He and the Farmer's child were so similar in personality when they met - silent, shy and withdrawn.

Sebastian realises that Farmer's child is having a hard time with the fact that their parents are divorced. But emo doesn't know how to start a conversation.

So when Farmer left Sebby and their kid alone for half an hour, there was an awkward silence for the first 5 minutes.

The kid was already getting bored. Sebastian decided to give it a try after all.

"Do you like frogs?" Judging by the spark in the kid's eyes, they had already found at least one topic of interest to both of them.

Farmer smiles when they returned to see the two of them chatting about different amphibians.

A few such encounters and Sebastian had become a cool uncle to them.

Sebastian was hurt to hear that Farmer's ex had given up their parental rights, when Farmer's kid had already visited them, with a social worker.

He will leave the kid alone, as they definitely need some time alone and to collect their thoughts.

Yet, Sebby and the Farmer are always there to cheer up the kid.

On a rainy day, he will show the baby the best place to find frogs.

Sebastian is good at supporting both his partner and their baby.

It can be awkward at times, but Sebby loves them all, so it will be okay.

Harvey:

Given Harvey's profession, he's pretty adept at finding common ground with anxious children.

So when Farmer first introduced Harvey to their child from their first marriage, the local Pelican Town doctor already knew how to behave.

He's glad that despite the divorce, Farmer is trying their best to support their kid, as stress can take a big toll on not only their mental health, but their physical health as well.

Even more so, it's not the child's fault that fate has worked out this way and their parents live in completely different places.

Of course, Harvey is not as "cool" as other bachelors, but he manages to interest the child in his model aeroplanes.

Maybe if they like to read, the doctor will give them something interesting to read (something that isn't a medical encyclopedia).

Harvey almost cried when the kid called him uncle and cool adult.

And all was going smoothly until a social worker knocked on the door of the farmhouse.

After explaining that the other parent, Farmer's ex, could no longer financially support the child, they placed the child in their care.

Harvey is worried about them, because all the fear of moving, new surroundings, and separated parents can have a very negative effect on poor kid.

Harvey will try to be there to help them and Farmer.

Maybe insist on therapy for the kid. Still, it could use some professional help.

Fortunately, Harvey knows what to do and he won't let anyone or anything upset Farmer and their kid. Doctor's words!

Elliott:

Elliott still can't believe that Farmer's ex turned out to be such a coward and unworthy person! Cheating on Farmer. when they already had a child together!

Of course, now Farmer is with him, and yes, it's not worth spending all the nerves on the past, but it's just that the writer is outraged to the core.

Also outraged that the ex just abandoned their child like that, saying they "don't have time for them now." Unbelievable!

Poor child... As much as the Farmers tried to comfort their own kud, all of these events took a heavy toll on them. And Elliott decided it was his duty to help the kid and Farmer, the love of his life.

His first attempts, though, end awkwardly, as Elliott doesn't know where to start. And should he start so immediately? Maybe they need some alone time on the contrary?

He decided to pick up a couple of books to help (mostly children's books, and a couple of books about how to communicate with children/teens).

The writer was lucky that the kid loves books!

There was even a moment when the kid felt comfortable around Elliott and asked them to help make their own little book. Elliott is more than happy to help them.

He also won't forget to praise the Farmer, because it was through their efforts and love that their child didn't fall victim to the neglect of the other parent. It's a shame that, coincidentally, the kid didn't arrive sooner.

Elliott will have a bit of a hard time, but he will do a great job in the role of carer for the Farmer and their kid, accepting them as his own child.

#stardew valley #sdv #sdv headcanons #sdv shane #sdv sebastian #sdv alex #sdv harvey #sdv elliott #sdv sam #thanks for the ask!#hope that I have not strayed from the main question and that this is exactly what you asked for dear anon 💕#Because I might have gotten a little carried away 😅

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russellsppttemplates · 10 months ago

Text

It's just the beggining (Oscar Piastri)

Oscar hasn't done or said anything, so you're taking matters into your own hands

Note: english is not my first language. It's my first Oscar piece and I'm nervous posting this, but hopefully you enjoy it! 🫶

Thank you so much to everyone who likes and reblogs, your feedback is appreciated 🤍 and I'm taking requests so if you have any ideas or concepts you want to share, feel free to do so as I'll try to get to them the best I can!

my masterlist

Cw: mentions reader's grandparents' health issues, mentions the situation with McLaren and Daniel, insomnia

Tag list: @myloverjk-blog

"Hey, Y/N!", James called you once he saw you walk by his classroom, "hey", you greeted back, adjusting your books on your arms.

"There is a new kid, I'm sure you know, Oscar Piastri his name is, and apparently he's staying the long weekend too, like you", he trailed off, not knowing if he was stepping further than he should.

"Yes, I am staying, it's okay to talk about it", you gave him tight lipped smile, "well, I was hoping you'd keep him company - he's a bit shy, but he's very fun to be around and the teacher also thought it would be good since you're both staying", he reasoned as you nodded.

You had to stay back because your grandparents didn't live in England, and because of their old age and problems that naturally arose with that, your parents had to fly out and spend sometime with them, meaning you didn't have anyone back home, so you stayed. As for Oscar, you found out that he was staying back because his family was in Melbourne.

"At first, I just had online schooling, but it got trickier to manage and my dad needed to go back to work so I had to stay back", he explained when you asked him why he was there, "and I hope I can focus on racing, but you already know that", he scoffed softly.

"I don't think I do, I'm sorry", you narrowed your eyes, genuinely unaware of what he was talking about.

After he told you all about his career until that moment, as well as his hopes and dreams, he chuckled, "you really didn't know?", he wondered.

"I didn't! The girls said something about you moving here but I didn't listen much, I'm not that into gossip and my memory is like Dory's, I can never keep up with the latest who likes who and who flirted with what's his face", you earnestly replied.

For the first time since he arrived at the school, he felt like he could really trust someone and he could hope for new friendships on this side of the world.

You were there for his final race in F4, clapping at him on the podium, and even F3 and F2 despite your university deadlines, always making sure you could support him in every way you could.

"Hey, Osc", you said over the phone, setting your pen down the desk and swivelling in the chair. You wanted to get as much knowledge and experience as possible, so you applied to do a internship in a physiotherapy clinic near your apartment during the summer.

"Hey, Y/N, how are you doing?", he asked as you could notice the antsyness on his voice.

"I'm good, it's a bit of a slow day here, my supervisor said I could read up on a few articles", you mused, "is everything okay?", you asked.

"I was wondering if you wanted to have dinner tonight", he began, "you can come to my flat if that's okay, I'll order something in since I can't be trusted in the kitchen", he suggested.

"Fine by me, I'd like that, sounds really nice", you smiled, "I'll see you soon, then", you added, not wanting to dwell much on the fact that he didn't answer your question.

When you left the clinic, you walked to Oscar's place since the sun had graced you for the day and it was still nice to be out. Knocking on the door, you waited for him to open it, "I'm still in my scrubs as I didn't see the need to change", you said as you walked inside, hugging Oscar after dropping your backpack on the floor.

"Hey, you look nice, don't worry about it", he smiled as he led you to the living room, "I had to go and get the take out myself, but it's still warm", he said as you sat at the dining table.

"Now can you tell me if there's something wrong?", you wondered as you poured some of the wine he kept for you at his place on your glass.

"I have something to tell you actually", he played with his glass while he fought the smile on his lips, "this weekend I finally had some conversations with McLaren", he began.

"McLaren?", you asked as you served yourself of the food in front of you, taking some bimi brocoli and then some of the warm noodles.

"Yes, McLaren. We finally spoke about contracts and, this morning, I signed the official driver contract for next season", he stated as if he was saying that the sun had been out today.

"You did what? Since when has this been in the works?", you gasped, dropping the kitchen utensils and looking at him intently, "you're driving for McLaren next season?", he nodded, "like, driving on track? Oh my Goodness, Oscar! That's amazing!", you got up and hugged him, "why didn't you lead with that?", you pinched the nape of his neck playfully as you kept the tears from falling from your eyes. This was his dream and he was getting to live it as early as the end of the year when pre season preparations began.

"I didn't want to tell you over the phone", he shrugged his shoulders.

"But how? This is huge, Oscar!", you smiled, your teeth showing and eyes squinting with how high your cheeks rose.

"There were a lot of conversations about it, specially the last few weeks", Oscar explained, "they still want to keep it quiet", he warned.

"So you're driving alongside Lando?", you wondered. You only followed motorsport and the Formula series because of your bestfriend, so the assumption you made was based on what you had seen and read.

"Yes, hence why they want to keep it quiet, I've only told you and my family", he mentioned, "my manager knows that, obviously, but I really need you to keep quiet about it", he smiled.

"Absolutely, don't worry!", you assured, "this is so amazing Oscar! You're going to drive in Formula One! Aren't you amazed?", you beamed.

"I put in the work too, you know?", he dramatically feigned offense as you hugged him tighter, "this is your dream, Osc", you cooed, letting the tears fall freely down your cheeks as you swayed you both around, "I'm so proud of you", you hiccuped, holding his head close to your lips so you could kiss his forehead.

"Let's eat, this is getting cold", your best friend urged as the situation for more intimate and brought you closer and closer to the thing he had been avoiding for nearly a year.

The feelings he had been arbouring for you weren't just friendship. How could he keep himself from being in love with you? You had been there with him and for him when he was alone in a new country, being the other shy kid that spent the long weekend im boarding school, and since then you had been attached by the hip. You were kind, caring, intelligent, beautiful inside and outside and anyone would be a fool to not see why Oscar felt the way he did about you.

"I'm just going to a training camp, Y/N, I do these every year!", Oscar reasoned as you groaned.

"Who am I going to complain to about university? Or how noisy my neighbours are? I'm going to die of boredom", you stated, "when you come back, I will have ceased to exist because of boredom and lack of attention", you exaggeratedly threw yourself on your sofa.

"You won't, silly", he chuckled, pulling you up since his trainer was picking him up soon, "you're going to go out and enjoy yourself, okay? You'll barely notice I'm gone", he tried as you helped him with his suitcases down to the door.

"I'll miss you", you muttered as you hugged him, "enjoy your training camp!", you smiled as you pulled away, waving at him before you made your way to your place.

Getting on with the project you had to hand in at the end of the week, you got it all through to the end, leaving time to proofread later.

You clicked on the folder where you kept your photos and videos, looking through them and reliving all of the memories you had in there.

Most of them had Oscar somehow, wether it was a screen grab from one of your FaceTime calls when he was at races, picnics in the park and lazy days at your place.

You had to admit it, for your sake and Oscar's sake as your friendship was on the line. At first you thought it was just the fact that a boy seemed to want to spend time with you, so you put it to that. Recently, however, things changed perspective and you felt stronger feelings and emotions when you thought about him.

You loved spending time with him and cherished every single hour he chose to spend with you whenever he didn't have racing related duties. Every time he hugged you, you clung just a little longer to feel hia body against yours and his arms enveloping you.

Whenever someone approached you in the rare times you went out clubbing with your friends, "I have a boyfriend" became more a wish and a need rather than some made up excuse to get guys to leave you alone.

So, to sum it up, you either had an honest conversation with him or continued to dwell on feelings you couldn't keep to yourself.

"Y/N just sent me a picture of her notes, can you believe they ask them to know all of that?", he showed his trainer Kim while they had lunch after a strenuous workout.

"I had to learn most of that, too", he said nonchalantly, not necessarily diminishing your competences and intelligence but letting Oscar know that maybe his infatuation with you had a source elsewhere.

"Y/N is very smart, I'm sure she'll do really well - oh, she sent me a picture, she's all dressed up!", he said as he inspected the mirror picture. He assumed it was a requirement for your presentation, as you usually preferred comfy attire, since you had a pair of trousers and a shirt, some small heels on your feet and your bright smile that left him feeling butterflies in his stomach every single time, "she looks gorgeous", he said as he texted you the same words along with wishes of good luck.

"Something you'd like to say?", Oscar quesioned when he felt Kim's eyes on him as he put the phone back on the table, screen down.

"I'm just here wondering why you're not together", the trainer offered simply after he wiped his mouth on the napkin.

"No, we are not together, at least not yet", he mused. The thought had crossed his mind, admitting how he felt about you before the season began. If everything went belly up and you didn't feel the same and didn't see him that way, he would occupy his time and channel all of his energy into racing; if you did feel the same, he would have been worrying for nothing and would have a extra spring up his step for his first season in Formula One.

"Good to know you're working on it", Kim waved his fork at Oscar, "now we need to finish this and we'll do some recovery stretches", he announced as Oscar groaned, prolonging his meal as long as he could.

Today, Oscar was coming back from Lanzarote and you couldn't wait to speak to him. Lately, it all dawned on you.

It happened a couple of nights ago, a slight insomnia episode keeping you up when you thought about what things would be like from now on. Oscar would travel a lot more, and he would be in a much public role compared to his previous one. It would seem stupid to other people, but a lot more people would know him, and you were sure they would fall in love with him. How could they not? Hence why you wanted to quit those thoughts while you were ahead of them.

I'm on the cab to your place, it should take another 10 minutes and Can't wait to see you, Oscar texted you just as you finished tidying your living room.

You missed him dearly, so when you threw yourself into his arms, you didn't let go as he kicked his suitcases into your apartment while still holding close to him, "I kind of need to get my backpack off my back, and I can't do that if I don't set you somewhere - only for a bit at the very least", Oscar suggested after trying to balance you against his body with one arm but he didn't feel safe enough to let you go without you falling.

Reluctantly, you got back down, feet back on the floor as he discarded his backpack before he tapped your hip twice, "up again, I want a proper hug", he mumbled as you jumped back, his hands protectively holding your thighs up as he nuzzled his face on your neck, "I need you so, so much", he sighed.

"I missed you too", you replied back, "and I don't ever want to miss you like this when I don't know how to feel about you", you forwarded. Now or never, you thought as you jumped out of his hold and faced him.

"I missed you like I have never missed you before, not even when you go a visit your family or when you went away for triple headers - and I've been trying to understand why and I finally realised what it was. I like you, more than friends like eachother - for Goodness' sake, I'm in love with you", you chuckled nervously as you admitted it out loud to him, "and everyone else will love you too - I just know it -, so soon enough you won't be my Osc anymore and I couldn't not tell you. People - and these gorgeous girls all over the world - are going to like you so much and I won't be able to compete with them, so I'm just telling you how I feel. You can leave if you want or we'll just stay here in silence of that works too, but I needed to admit my feelings", you let out in one go.

Oscar smiled, a big teeth and gums showing smile as his eyes crinkled at your words, "I'm not leaving, and we are not going to be silent - at least immediately - because I want to tell you how I feel", he began, "I'm in love with you too; I have been for about two years and only realised it a year ago, and I don't want to pretend anymore. I want to be able to kiss you, to hug you, to take you with me wherever possible, to sleep next to you, to argue with you, I want all of it. With you", he said, hand cupping your cheek as his eyes asked for consent to kiss your lips.

It was as you dreamed it would be, soft, gentle and caring, lips moving in sync as you held him by his waist, pulling him closer to you.

"I thought I was loosing you to the whole F1 fandom", you chuckled, looking up at him once you pulled away.

"Of course you won't, you're my best girl", he winked, "this is just the beggining for us", he added as he pulled you to cuddle on the sofa, sharing his stories of the past days as you revelled in the feeling of being in his arms.

#oscar piastri imagine #oscar piastri x reader #oscar piastri x you #oscar piastri fluff #oscar piastri fanfic #f1 imagine #f1 fluff #f1 fanfic #f1 x reader

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cloudyskydreams · 3 months ago

Note

How would sanses and papyruses you write for react to an unexpected and high-risk pregnancy that their partner wants to keep (if you're comfortable writing for that)?

While I do have the facilities to get pregnant I know absolutely nothing about pregnancy as the topic terrifies me so sorry if these are a little weird~ hope you enjoy!

I'd like to start off by saying high risk or not if you decide you want to keep the baby the boys will agree with that, they understand it's your body your choice.

Sans: When you tell him his world sort of stops. He's gonna be a dad? He's gotta sit down especially after you tell him it's high risk and what that entails. He knows he'll be an alright dad he raised Papyrus great so he's only a little worried about that. Absolutely terrified for you though, does as much research on the human body and high risk pregnancies as possible to ensure he knows how to handle everything he possibly can. He's happy he's gonna be a dad.

Papyrus: He's overjoyed immediately, he's going to be the greatest father ever he's sure of it! His reaction turns to worry when you explain the high risks though. He's not the smartest medically so he'll leave most of it up to the doctors but he does some research. He would find a support group for you two to join and get some real life advice too. He's so excited to be a father he has the baby's room done a month after finding out your pregnant.

Underfell:

Red:He panics at first, all he hears is the word pregnant out of your mouth and he's already spiraling. He doesn't think he'll be a good dad at all and you'll have to probably help calm him down. Then you drop the high risk news and he gets upset at first and asks why you're keeping it. He'll come around he's just scared. He picks up the housework and does his own research over time. Becomes twice as protective of you and basically growls at people if they get too close and he doesn't trust them. He will absolutely argue with the doctors for you if needed, he's making sure your voice is heard even if he has to raise his to do that.

Edge: He's shocked at first, not upset or anything just shocked. He wasn't expecting to be a father but he sure is excited now that he knows he's going to be one. He's going to be the best dad and his child will have nothing but the best. Once he hears of the high risks he's nervous and upset but not at you simply at how things are. He'll ensure the best doctors and treatment for you and will attend every appointment by your side.

Underswap:

Blue: He's so excited once you tell him you're pregnant. He knew he wanted kids at some point, having loved easing Stretch. So this is wonderful news to him! Of course the high risks worry him but they are not putting a damper on his good mood. He's gonna be a father!! He does everything in his power to make sure you're comfortable and taken care of. He does research and does his best to sum everything up for you in case you have any questions when you're not at a doctor's office. Of course he always writes them down so he can double check with the actual doctor too and is always so proud when he gets the answer right.

Stretch: Another one who panics at first. He's worried about being a Dad he can hardly take care of himself like he's supposed to how can he raise a kid. Once he calms down he's nervously excited. Then the high risks come up and he's panicking again. He takes care of the chores to the best of his ability and does his best to help with everything pregnancy related you want him to even though he has no idea what he's doing. He definitely gets Blues help quite a bit.

HorrorTale:

Axe: Pregnancy was a risky thing in their underground. He's happy of course you're carrying his baby! He writes this down immediately so he doesn't forget. He doesn't really understand the high risks but he writes as much as he can about it even starting a brand new journal specifically for your pregnancy. He might forget stuff alot but he's trying his hardest to take care of you Willow definitely helps out a lot. Makes sure the house is stocked with all your comfort and favorite foods and is constantly making sure you're eating.

Willow: Like Papyrus his reaction is happiness upon first hearing this, he loves children and now he's going to have one of his own something he never thought possible. The high risks worry him but pregnancy underground was high risk as well so he wasn't expecting it to go extremely smooth. He does his research a bit more than Papyrus as he's a worrier and he definitely takes care of everything around the house. Constantly pampers you and is making sure you're alright. The minute something seems off he's rushing you to a doctor.

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formosusiniquis · 2 years ago

Text

There's something about the idea that every adult that spends more than ten minutes alone with Steve Harrington is instantly enamored with him

The King Steve era house parties don't get broken up by the cops anymore. Steve is too far from his nearest neighbors for a noise complaint and the cops who would do it like Steve. They know they don't have to worry about any underage drinking and driving incidents after a Steve Harrington party because anyone who doesn't have a DD just crashes at the Harrington place, it's not like they have to worry about getting out of there before his parents get home.

His teachers can't help but let certain things slide. Excusing a middle school Steve's tardiness, the Harrington house is such a long bike ride away from the school and the bus route doesn't reach the grounds of Loch Nora. High School Steve's grades are average at best and his attention drifts, but his questions if poorly worded are insightful at heart and if you catch him away from the friends he tries too hard to keep he's polite and willing to spend time discussing his school work. By senior year they're excusing his tardiness again, they all know he has to swing by the middle school on his way over; and his forgetfulness too, two concussions in as many years it's a wonder he's not worse.

Joyce Byers, who by all accounts should hate this boy who fought her son and belittled her family, already has a snag in her armor thinking about a little boy who used to bike to Melvalds all alone for more milk and the sugar dusted cereal his mother didn't like him to have. Has her walls damaged by Jonathan coming home with a Christmas present they both know Nancy Wheeler even in her middle class glory couldn't afford. Has the adoption papers ready to be notarized when that same little boy, just a little bit bigger, offers to cart her Will around town since he knows she and Jon are busy and he has nothing better to do; really, and Will is the only one that ever says please or thank you.

Hopper, who largely left the everyday police work to the other officers, didn't interact with Steve much until the Upside Down business started. He's ready to add Harrington to the list of kids he'd die to protect the second the bloodstained boy cracks open a bleary eye from the Byers' sofa. Concussed and happy for it since it meant the youngest ones were safe.

Claudia Henderson has decided that the law has little to do with family. She's seen too many young men in the hospital grieving loved ones they can't see while parents who don't care make decisions for the dying. Steve Harrington is hers now has been since he did her Dusty's hair. The Sinclairs only let Erica roam the mall on her own on days they know Steve is working. They know no matter what Erica and Lucas promise the two of them aren't staying together. There's something rotten in Hawkins, and the kids don't whisper as quietly as they think they do. They know there's something they are missing, but they don't need to know everything to know they can trust the boy who put himself bodily in front of their child to protect him. Karen still occasionally mourns the loss of Steve as a son-in-law but the fact that he still drives Mike around even on his surliest days, she couldn't ask for more.

Wayne Munson lasted the longest. A product of night shifts and a powerful wariness around anyone whose tax bracket exceeds his by more than one jump. But he knows the kind of skittish that Steve is, remembers an eight year old boy with eyes he hadn't grown into who used to skitter away from a sharp tongue or raised hand just the same. Even then all it takes is sitting next to Steve on a rare night off, the game fuzzing in and out on the TV, listening to him softly explain the rules of it all to his boy relating it back to the ones of that dragon game Eddie likes so much and he's gone. Steve's a hard worker, a wage slave as much as Wayne these days, seems wrong to begrudge him just cause the house he's kept at is a little bigger than theirs. There are worse boys to have as future in-laws, even if he is a Cubs fan.

The only person who doesn't seem to get the memo is Richard Harrington. So rarely around his own son he isn't swept up in the charm. Richard and Stephanie Harrington make their way back to Hawkins, unannounced on a Tuesday. The sleepy morning hours are still lingering when they make their way into the house, through the foyer, and onto the kitchen; following the sounds of crooning oldies. Richard has long thought his son a disappointment, too lazy to get into college and too spoiled to leave home, catching him dancing around the kitchen like a fairy with some trailer trash punk is really the last straw. He lets the wife he wishes he didn't have make some asinine comment to this freak that's in his kitchen, and turns to the child he never wanted to say, "I want you out, I won't have a queer living under my roof."

Stephanie and that long haired bastard both rear back like they've been slapped. While Richard is forced to watch as the son he's neglected straightens up, every ounce the man every other adult on Hawkins has watched him become, look him in the eye and say, "It's not your house, it never was. Grandpa Otis left it to me. So if you've got a problem with me or my fucking boyfriend, you can get out of my house. Looks like you're already packed."

That empty house gets emptier as Richard, alone, takes the furniture he paid for and the clothes that lingered in the closet; but it's quickly filled with the hand-me-downs of everyone who has ever fallen for that Harrington charm. They're all too happy to help Steve fill what's his.

#steve harrington #stranger things #stranger things fic #steddie #steve harrington hc #wayne munson #joyce byers #chief hopper #jim hopper #steve harrington's parents #i find steves mom to be fascinating and i genuinely think she really loves her son #i think she saw her boy happy in the kitchen with eddie and immediately wanted to meet him #maybe made a comment about eddies hair like mother like son #i think theyre relationship is extremely complicated but i think push come shove her son will always beat her husband #i couldnt think of a good way to work the buckleys in here but they also think steve would be an excellent son in law

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the-universal-sun · 2 months ago

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How do you think the Stan twins act when unwell/hurt, do they hide it or are they more likely to seek someone for comfort or help when regressed?

Thanks in advanced!

Thank you for the ask! Small content warning for brief mentions of the act of throwing up, nothing too much!

I think to an extent, both Stan and Ford, no matter their headspace, would attempt to hide any sicknesses or injuries. To the point a rule needs to be put place for both of them to tell when they not feeling okay, physically or mentally

For Ford, he’s just so used to having to take care of himself whenever he gets hurt that he doesn’t really think to tell Stan that he’s hurt. He’s had to take care of himself, his injuries, by himself since Bill came into his life, and even more when he was traveling the different dimensions. Besides, he may be little but he can take care of himself, right? Wrong. He may be able to put a bandaid on, but he doesn’t think to clean it disinfect it, and he doesn’t play any gentler, meaning he keeps running around, falling and hitting corners, making his scrapes and bruises worse, which means he starts to cry. Stan panics for several minutes, wondering when his Poindexter got hurt so badly, was Stan playing too rough? But no, once he got Ford’s tears calmed down, he asked what happened and Stan’s even more upset when he found out Ford was already hurt but just didn’t tell him. Didn’t he trust him? Did Stan do something to lose his brothers trust? Stan knows his questions have to wait until his Poindexter was big again, these questions would only upset him even more, and the point of regressing is not not stress. What Stan does do is clean and bandage any scrapes or cuts, kisses any bruises, and decides it’s snack time and then nap time. Big talks can come later.

It is different for if he’s sick or mentally unwell. He can’t really hide his sniffles and coughing (Ford would so have the ipad kid cough), but Stan thinks it’s cute that he tries. But he quickly gets Ford some cough syrup, a decongestant, and some warm honeyed milk, and lays him down in bed with a nature documentary, baby reading him some books at request. If Ford’s not feeling to well mentally, he still tries to hide it, and he does really well. Really only Stan can tell, but that’s because they know everything about each other. Stan can tell when Ford isn’t doing to well by how his eyes will shift aground rather than focus on one point. How his smile seems to turn up evenly at mouth corners, instead of tilting up to the right, his real smile. How he hides his hands more when he usually talks with them, throwing them around to explain his point. But since Stan can tell, he knows to be gentle and soft with Ford, wrapping him up in a blanket burrito, Dr. Mittens tucked closely to him, and softly rocks him. Or, after the twins find out and spend time with their small Grunkles, goes up to Stan, loosest sweater in hand, bundles into the sweater with Stan’s help and curls up into his lap. Stan only wants to take the best care of his Little Poindexter, so he’ll do or be whatever Ford needs in that moment.

Now Stan is different, not only because he’s a younger little, but because of how his trauma affects him. He’s so scared of being a burden, of being abandoned, that he will actively hide any injury, illness, or bad days he’s having because he’s just so terrified that Ford will get tired or annoyed with him. If he sneaks too much pudding and gets a stomach ache, he’ll keep it to himself, just sitting solemnly on the floor until he either throws up or whines too loudly and Ford asks him what’s wrong. Which is his weakness, if asked by Ford if he’s feeling bad or ill, Stan cannot lie to him because that will make him feel even worse than he’s feeling now. If he gets a scrape or a cut, he’ll panic and won’t have the mind to bandage anything, so he just winces everytime his clothes move against his injury. Ford watches his with a hawks eye when he’s little, so he can only hide his injury for so long until Ford’d on him, kissing his boo boos and cleaning and bandaging them. Stan always braces himself for lectures or for stern words, which never come. Ford soothes him with soft touches and gentle coos, telling Stan he’s not mad, that he can never be mad at him (true) but to “please please please say something the next time you’re injured, Lee. I care so much if you’re hurt, I want you to enjoy being little without worries of this, sweet boy. Please let me take care of you.”

I mentioned in my Halloween drabble that Ford has a rule for Stan to tell him if he’s feeling overstimulated or anxious, or just feeling bad emotionally in general. That rule pertains to both Stan when he’s big and when he’s feeling smaller, when he’s Lee. The rule was first for Stan when he’s Big Stan. He got overwhelmed in a busy crowd in Gravity Falls, and left Ford’s side to hide out in an alley way. Ford was so scared to see him missing and ran around searching for him. Stan felt so bad that they both agreed to Stan saying something if he was getting too in his head and anxious. That way, Ford could take him to some place quiet, to help him calm down and settle him. The rule extended to when Stan was Little after his first meltdown. He had a nightmare, never told Ford, and was anxious and on edge all day. And sometimes, when people have bad anxiety days with no way to cope, the smallest things all joined together can cause a meltdown, which is what happened to Lee. Again, Ford wasn’t mad whatsoever, he just felt upset that Stan didn’t feel like he could come to him when he was feeling upset and unwell. Now whether he’s feeling Big or Little, Stan will tell Ford when he gets to feel to much and Ford will take care of him, whether that means taking him to a secluded and quiet spot and just softly talking about inane things to calm him down or wrapping him up in a weighted blanket, his stuffies, and maybe a pacifier if he’s feeling little enough.

These two love each other so much :,,,))))

(Sorry if Stan’s seems much longer than Ford’s, for some reason, though I relate to both of them, Stan just inspired me so much)

#gravity falls #gravity falls agere #age regression #stanley pines #sfw agere #stanford pines #fandom agere #gravity falls headcanons #gravity falls stanley #gravity falls stanford #stan pines headcanons #ford pines headcanons #stan o war #sea grunks #grunkle stan #grunkle ford #age regression headcanons #agere headcanons #gravity falls age regression

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inthedayswhenlandswerefew · 1 year ago

Text

Napoleonville [Chapter 5: The Haunted House]

Series Summary: The year is 1988. The town is Napoleonville, Louisiana. You are a small business owner in need of some stress relief. Aemond is a stranger with a taste for domination. But as his secrets are revealed, this casual arrangement becomes something more volatile than either of you could have ever imagined.

Chapter Warnings: Language, references to sexual content (18+ readers only), dom/sub dynamics, smoking, drinking, drugs, infidelity, kids, parenthood, Adventures With Aegon, Targ family dysfunction, bodily injury, no Willis this time yay!!! 🥳

Word Count: 7.3k.

Link to chapter list (and all my writing): HERE.

Taglist: @marvelescvpe @toodlesxcuddles @era127 @at-a-rax-ia @0eessirk8 @arcielee @dd122004dd @humanpurposes @taredhunter @tinykryptonitewerewolf @partnerincrime0 @dr-aegon @persephonerinyes @namelesslosers @burningcoffeetimetravel-fics @daenysx @gemini-mama @chattylurker @moonlightfoxx @huramuna @britt-mf @myspotofcraziness @padfooteyes @aemonddtargaryen @trifoliumviridi @joliettes @darkenchantress @florent1s @babyblue711 @minttea07 @libroparaiso @bluerskiees @herfantasyworldd @elizarbell @urmomsgirlfriend1 @fudge13 @strangersunghoon

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Every house is haunted, not just by phantoms of the past but by the ghosts of what could have been. They live in shadows, in doorways, in the periphery of your vision; you walk through them like smoke or mist. Their blood—pooled and pulseless—is a cold spot in a sweltering room, their fingerprints are the woodgrain swirls of floorboards. If you listen closely, you can hear them at night in the chorus of the cicadas and the owls and the wet westbound wind. They whisper questions you’ve never been able to answer: Have I made the right choices? Have I done the best I could? Is love a myth or does it only exist for other people? Am I a prisoner of the past or the future or myself? Why have I never been chosen?

In the bathtub, you stare at the pale blue walls veined with cracks like the legs of a spider. On the tree swing in the front yard—here long before you moved in, inherited from the effort and care of another family’s hands—you skim your bare feet over emerald blades of grass and watch the lightning bugs appear at dusk. In Cadi’s room, you play the Nintendo when she asks and try to forget who gave it to her; and when she asks about Aemond, you say he’s busy with work, because how else can you explain his absence to a child? In the kitchen, you break eggs into glass bowls of vanilla, sugar, flour, butter, baking powder, but you keep getting pieces of shell in the mix, something that almost never happens anymore. You snap, grab an egg, pitch it against the refrigerator where it explodes into calcium carbonate shrapnel and sterile yellow gore.

Amir looks up, startled. Behind his rectangular tortoiseshell glasses, his eyes dart between you and the viscera that stains the refrigerator door. At last he says softly, seriously: “What is it you liked so much about him?” Implicit in this statement are others: You’ve never liked a man this much. You’ll never see Aemond again.

You study your palms, tools of creation, tools that destroy. “I spend every second of my life consumed by responsibilities. The house, the car, the bakery, the bills, Cadi, Willis, myself, even you. There’s no one to tell me what the right thing to do is. There’s no one who can carry the weight for me. I can’t show it when I’m tired or frustrated or scared. And so to have someone who—even for an hour, even for fifteen minutes—could take care of me, and make all the decisions, and convince me to trust him…it’s the closest I ever get to being at peace.”

Amir gives you a sad, vanishingly small smile. “I’m so sorry.”

“Me too.” And you wet a dishcloth so you can begin to clean up your mess.

~~~~~~~~~~

It’s Thursday, and you’re coming home after delivering cakes for a birthday party down in Thibodaux. Your car radio is blaring Message In A Bottle by The Police. When you roll into the gravel driveway, the red Audi Quattro is waiting for you: parked right beside the house, like he belongs here, like he owns it. You throw open the door of your Chevy Celebrity and rage up the sloping, groaning steps of the front porch.

The first thing that hits you is the cold. There is an ambient humming, a chill that raises goosebumps on your bare arms. When you rush to the kitchen, you find an air conditioning unit in one of the windows, a metal box that turns the Fall-Down House into a tundra. They’re sitting at the hastily-cleared counter: Aemond leafing through the ledger book containing the financial records for the bakery, Amir beside him sipping a glass of sweet tea. Aemond glances up at you and then back down at the pale green pages, the lines of his face intense, focused. Amir greets you with a nervous titter, hiding behind his sweet tea. Ice jangles in the glass.

“What the fuck is that?”

“Our new air conditioner!” Amir says, overjoyed. “The customers are going to love it. No more waiting around in a stifling kitchen. You know how miserable it gets in here during the summer. We won’t be able to get rid of them! They’ll be purchasing cupcakes by the dozen just to have an excuse to get out of the heat!”

Aemond is still scrutinizing the ledger. “Why aren’t you buying in bulk?” he asks Amir. “The shelf life on things like sugar and flour has got to be six months at least.”

“We don’t have the liquid capital. We can’t spend cash if we don’t have cash.”

“And all these business expenses—mixers, coolers, pans, blenders, knives, the gas you burn when you make deliveries, the water you use to wash dishes—those are all tax write-offs, right?”

Amir hesitates. Aemond is aghast, his eyebrows shooting up into the blonde hair that shags over his forehead. The strands are damp with sweat and curling at the edges; he’s been working hard. He’s the one who heaved the air conditioner up onto the window ledge. His Marlboro jacket is draped over the back of his barstool. He’s wearing jeans, a black MTV t-shirt, and his Adidas sneakers.

“Please tell me you haven’t been paying income tax on money you aren’t actually keeping.”

“I didn’t know what we were allowed to write off, I was petrified to make a mistake! I don’t want to end up in Rikers!”

“They don’t put people in Rikers for tax evasion. You’d only go to minimum security.”

Amir rolls his eyes. “Well now you’ve convinced me.”

You are betrayed, furious. “You’re showing him the book?”

“He’s very bossy,” Amir says, slurping his sweet tea. “As you know.”

Aemond asks you, making notes on a legal pad he’s commandeered: “Do you have an IRA?”

“A what?”

“An IRA,” Aemond repeats slowly, emphasizing every syllable. “An individual retirement account.”

Should I? Could I? What the hell is that? “Um. I don’t think so.”

Aemond sighs, exasperated. He jots down another bullet point on his legal pad. “You need one.”

“I need you to get out of my house.”

“Shh!” Amir pleads. “He bought us an air conditioner!”

“Do you know how much that’s going to cost us in electricity? The bill is going to go through the roof. We’re not going to be able to afford this. And he doesn’t care, because he hasn��t even thought of it. Drop an oil rig into a lake and solve the unemployment crisis. Throw an air conditioner in a window and buy someone’s loyalty. He doesn’t understand us. He doesn’t care about us. He’s not capable of it.”

“I’ll pay for the electricity,” Aemond says. Now he’s looking at you.

“Get out,” you demand.

He seems—perplexingly—to be genuinely wounded. “I’m trying to help you.”

“Get out!”

Aemond stands, walks to you, backs you up until your shoulder blades hit the refrigerator. The metal door is cluttered with Cadi’s drawings, secured there with multicolored alphabet magnets: dinosaurs eating people, Rambo, astronauts rocketing to the moon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Aemond is so close you can smell the cigarette smoke and cologne and sweat on him, see the smudges of ink on his fingers. His right eye travels all over you, defiant and hungry. His left eye—and you only notice when there’s no space left between you—is an impassive, glassy, not-quite-identical blue that never moves. It’s an imposter, and a very good one; but it’s not him. You think, unable to say it: What happened to your face? Who hurt you? Instead you strike out to shove Aemond away with both hands.

“Get out of my house—!”

“You want to get rough with me? Will that make you feel better?” he murmurs darkly, ignoring your palms when they collide with his chest, his collarbones, his jaw. Your flesh can’t hurt him, it can only graze his skin like stray bullets. “You want to hit me? Go ahead. I’ve had worse. I promise you I have.”

“I hate you!”

But you haven’t said the right word, and you both know it. He grabs your wrists, holds them still, whispers low and menacing into your ear as you struggle to rip your hands out of his grasp. “I dreamed about you all night. Tying you down, stretching you open. I want that. I think you do too.”

“I don’t want it,” you hiss; but already you’re imagining him on top of you, inside you, in control of you, and to resist that is like trying to fight the instinct to seek water, sleep, sunlight.

“Then tell me to stop.”

You glare up at Aemond, raging, burning. His gaze locks with yours and stays there. You are suddenly aware of the heat of his fingers linked around your wrists, of the pressure of his hips against yours as he pins you to the refrigerator. You can’t say it. I don’t want him to stop touching me. I don’t want him to leave and never come back.

Again, Aemond dares you: “Tell me to stop.”

From the kitchen counter, Amir is gawking at you both, his eyes huge, stunned, painfully uncomfortable. Nonetheless, he doesn’t look away. “I’m not leaving,” he informs Aemond. Just in case you’re weak enough to agree to something you’ll regret later; just in case you need a friend.

The spell breaks, the curse lifts. Aemond releases you and takes several steps back. He breathes deeply, running his fingers through his damp hair, composing himself. “You’re a good person,” he says to Amir.

“Thanks. I’m afraid I can’t return the compliment.”

Aemond turns back to you. Now he’s penitent, measured. Already, a part of you misses the weight of his bones on yours. But that’s not why Aemond is here. “Let me talk. Let me explain.”

No, you almost say. I’m not interested. I don’t want you anymore. There’s nothing you can tell me that will make me feel at peace with you again.

Instead, after long moments colored by waning sunlight and the whirring of the new air conditioner in the window: “Okay.”

~~~~~~~~~~

You’re on the tree swing, gripping the ropes and swaying slightly back and forth as you push off with your bare feet, rocking from your heels to your toes and then back again. Aemond lights a cigarette and takes a drag as he sits cross-legged on the grass in front of you. Amir keeps peeking out from between the blinds of the living room windows. Aemond glances around the yard, and you realize he’s searching for the alligator. His Marlboro jacket is folded neatly on the ground next to him.

“The gator’s not here right now, Aemond. She’s probably over in the trees. She’s not going to hurt you.”

He nods, but he doesn’t seem convinced. He fidgets restlessly with his cigarette.

All that money, all that power, all that ecological ruin, and he’s petrified of a five-foot gator that’s probably never eaten anything bigger than a pelican. It’s ridiculous. You smile weakly. “I think you have a phobia.”

He gestures to his scar, to his ruined left eye. “I’m afraid one will sneak up on me and I won’t be able to see it.”

He’s never spoken like this to you before, acknowledging his limitations, his impairment. He’s trying to be honest. He really is. “Where’s Christabel?”

“Back in the U.K.”

“When are you getting married?”

He shrugs, uninterested. “A few months from now, I guess. July. August. It doesn’t matter. I’m not really involved in the planning.”

“You’re a cheater,” you say. It comes out less accusatory than mournful. Why did you have to disappoint me? Why did you have to ruin this?

Aemond is dismissive. He puffs on his cigarette. “Everyone cheats.”

“No they don’t.”

“Everyone from my world cheats,” Aemond amends. “You marry for money or status or land or whatever, to prove you can snag someone who should be above you, to make your parents proud of you, to make sure your children have the right last name and titles. Then when the novelty fades—and it does, it always does—you find passion elsewhere.”

“That’s barbaric.”

“That’s aristocratic. Poor people get divorced two or three times. They have public brawls and call the cops on each other. We just have a different solution to life’s inevitabilities. My mother cheats with Criston, Daemon and Rhaenyra cheated with each other, I cheat with you, Aegon cheats with…I couldn’t even list them. A lot of people.”

Aegon. So that’s the debaucherous brother’s name. “Not all fancy rich people cheat. Prince Charles doesn’t cheat.”

Aemond bursts out laughing. “Of course he does! He’s been fucking Camilla Parker Bowles since like 1970!”

Your stomach sinks. Poor Diana. “I thought they were just friends now.”

“Yeah, sure, that’s what the tabloids say.” He inhales smoke—cancerous, lethal—and then exhales it in a grey gale like fog. “I think they stopped for a few years after he got married. But presently they spend as much time as they possibly can rendezvousing at all their friends’ country estates. Charles and Diana are miserable, but they’ll never split up. She’s entertaining herself with a cavalry officer named James Hewitt. Who looks suspiciously like Prince Harry, by the way.”

“And who does your father fuck on the side? Nancy Reagan?”

“He prefers the memory of a dead woman to my living mother. I’d say that counts as infidelity.”

The photograph Aegon showed me on the Targaryens’ refrigerator. Rhaenyra’s mother. And what else had been on that refrigerator? Pictures of the rest of the family? Old sketches and report cards? Souvenirs? A calendar with upcoming birthdays circled or starred? No. There was nothing. You consider Aemond with a disorienting blend of pity and barbed, venomous frustration. “I’m sorry Viserys has never been a good father to you. But that’s not an excuse to ruin other people’s lives.”

“Look, what you did…” Aemond begins with sizable effort. He puts the end of his cigarette out on the sole of one of his Adidas sneakers. “To walk away from something you believe isn’t right when everyone else is telling you to stay…that’s not easy. And maybe for you it didn’t feel so insurmountable because you’ve had to learn how to survive painful things on your own before. But all I’ve ever done was break my own bones so my father would notice me. I don’t mean that as a metaphor. I’ve fractured my ribs, my hands, my skull. And it’s still not enough. Love isn’t given in my family. I have to earn it. It’s all I know.”

“You could learn something new.”

He shakes his head. “I can’t. I won’t. That’s not a language I speak.”

Exactly how bad of a father was Viserys Targaryen? “Aemond, what happened to your face?”

“I don’t want to talk about that.”

You study him. “What do you want from me?”

“I want you to be my Camilla,” Aemond says.

“No. No way.” But you’re amazed by how badly you want to say yes. One word and he’ll touch me again? One word and I can have him back the way we were before? It doesn’t seem possible to resist that. It’s not something that should be expected of any mortal.

“I want to be around you. I want you to keep making me feel the way you do, because it’s…it’s…it’s not something I get from anyone else. And I want to make your life better. I have the ability to do that.”

“Because you’re an oil tycoon.”

“Yes,” Aemond agrees. “I was born to be one, and so I am. But even if I wasn’t—if I refused, if I died—it’s not like the trillion-dollar industry would just disappear. There’s Jade Dragon, sure, but there’s also ExxonMobil, Shell, British Petroleum, Chevron, Valero, Marathon, a hundred others. Someone would be drilling on Lake Verret regardless. But the person in charge might be less scrupulous than I am. I’m doing the best I can here.”

“Were you in Ketchikan when the spill happened there?”

“No. I’ve never been to Alaska. That was someone else’s project. It was a fuckup, it was Jade Dragon’s fault. But my father is the one fighting it in court. I have no control over that.”

Someone else’s project…

“Come to my house tonight,” he says.

“No, Aemond.”

“Then come over on Saturday.” And you think: He remembered which days Cadi is usually with Willis.

“I don’t want to be your mistress.” I want to be more than that, oh God, I want so much more. You think of Christabel touching him and wrenching nausea cuts through you like a blade. You imagine Aemond’s hands taking off her clothes—zippers, buttons, ribbons, belts—and you feel like there’s almost nothing you wouldn’t do to stop it from happening.

“We’re from two very different words,” Aemond says calmly, sensibly. “And it’s going to be impossible for us to understand each other unless we make an effort to learn about where we’ve come from. You’ve invited me into your home, your business, your family, and I’m very grateful for that. Now I need to do the same. And I think if you see more of my life, you’ll realize why I make the decisions I do and what it would mean for us to be together. Because in my experience, husbands and wives aren’t soulmates like they are in books or movies. It’s someone else who you actually…” He breaks off, then continues once he’s decided on the phrasing. “Spend most of your time with.”

Part of you knows that this arrangement would be hopelessly inadequate; you would feel like you were settling for less than you want, you would feel unchosen. But the louder part of you is clinging to it like a life raft. I want him to touch me again. I want him to make me forget about everything else. “I’ll think about it. Visiting the house, I mean.”

“Please do,” Aemond says. “How was Cadi’s weekend fishing?”

He really does listen to you; he remembers things. Even things you mention once and then never again. “She loved it. Willis knows more about the bayou than I’ll ever know about baking. They caught three catfish, four breams, and a bass, and then they made them into fish sticks. Thank God she has one parent who can cook. Even if Willis thinks Hungry Jack mashed potatoes are a vegetable. You know what he puts in the pot instead of milk? Coffee creamer. Cups of it.”

Aemond doesn’t seem pleased to be reminded of Willis’ existence. He says, rather mechanically: “I’m really glad Cadi enjoyed herself.” He grabs his Marlboro jacket, rises to his feet, scans the yard for the alligator. She’s made an appearance at last: she’s sunbathing about ten yards away, nowhere near close enough to be a nuisance. Still, Aemond frowns. Then he clears his face and looks back to you one last time as he strides towards his Audi Quattro. “And Cupcake?”

You peer up at him, shielding your eyes from the late-afternoon sun. “Yeah?”

“When you come to the house…” He grins. Not if. When. “Bring your swimsuit.”

~~~~~~~~~~

You cut the engine and survey the grand entranceway of the house that the Targaryens call The Last Desire, words in Greek that you couldn’t pronounce. The blue merle Great Dane—Vhagar, you recall, yet another bizarre foreign name—is lurking between the towering white columns of the wraparound porch. “Fantastic,” you mutter, stepping out of the car. It’s Saturday, 2 p.m., hot and muggy and cicadas screeching in the southern live oaks. Green anoles dart across the cobblestones and freshly-painted white wood of the porch. Whooping cranes, haughty and fragile, ogle you with reptilian yellow eyes.

You pause when you reach the bottom step of the porch. The Great Dane growls at you, her lips curling up to show long fanglike teeth. You’re carrying two bakery boxes stacked on top of each other: one contains a dozen blueberry pie cupcakes, the second filled with fresh Cap’n Crunch Treats. You glance around for someone to assist you with the hostile dog situation. You have no interest in attempting to shove her away like Alicent did on the day of the engagement party.

Blessedly, the head butler materializes in the doorway and beckons you inside. When Vhagar snarls as you approach, the butler pulls a small plastic water gun from the pocket of his black dress pants. “I’m terribly sorry for the inconvenience,” he tells you, and then squirts the dog several times. Vhagar reluctantly lopes away. “Please allow me to escort you to the pool. Mr. Targaryen instructed us to be on the lookout for you.” Then he breezes into the house without checking to make sure you’re following him.

You trot after the butler through the white-and-gold foyer, the deep red living room, and then out into the garden. There is a long row of neon green lounge chairs on the side of the pool opposite of the water slide. Three of the chairs are occupied. Helaena is stretched across one wearing a frilly one-piece, floral with ladybugs; her chameleon is perched on the top of the adjustable backrest. Alicent is in the chair beside her, dressed in a turquoise blue coverup that matches the pool water and reading The Silence of the Lambs. They both wave nonchalantly, seemingly unsurprised by your presence. And then there’s Aegon. He’s smoking a joint as a black boombox beside him plays The Cure’s Why Can’t I Be You? You place both bakery boxes on a table shielded from the sun by a large green umbrella.

“What’s in there?” Aegon asks. He’s wearing pink plastic sunglasses, a radiant fuchsia sunburn, and a Speedo patterned with pineapples. His ferret is curled up in his lap and napping.

“Blueberry pie cupcakes and Cap’n Crunch Treats.”

“Yes! Pass me one of each.”

“Don’t be rude, Aegon,” Alicent says dully, turning a page of her book. “She’s not a servant.”

“She’s a literal baker. I’m asking for baked goods.”

“Dear, I’ve been singing your praises to every single person I cross paths with in this jungle of a town,” Alicent tells you, ignoring him. “Have you noticed yet?”

You hand Aegon his treats; he marvels at the miniature blueberry pie placed atop the cupcake frosting before scarfing it down. “I think we’ve had more customers than usual this week, now that you mention it. Thank you so much! Amir and I are more grateful than we could ever express.”

“Oh, it’s the least I could do, love,” Alicent says. Criston appears with a strawberry daiquiri and gives it to her, complete with a swirl of whipped cream and a little pink toothpick umbrella pierced through a wedge of lime. Criston wears a pair of roomy Hawaiian board shorts and his single gold earring. Alicent takes a sip. “Heavenly! I am completely revived.”

“Helaena, would you like one?” Criston asks.

“Yes please.”

“And one for Aemond’s friend too, please,” Alicent says. Criston nods and hurries off again. Nobody asks if Aegon wants a strawberry daiquiri. He gnaws moodily at his cupcake and then when it’s gone moves on to the Cap’n Crunch Treat. Helaena’s chameleon snatches a dragonfly out of the air with its tongue. Alicent shudders.

Aemond’s friend? Friend?? You sit down on the lounge chair next to Aegon, still wearing your pale pink coverup. He tells you: “Aemond should be back soon. He got a phone call and had to swing by the rigs after lunch but he didn’t think it would take long.” Then Aegon smiles toothily, and you notice he has residual white powder around the corners of his lips and just inside his nostrils. “It’s good to meet you properly this time, now that I’m aware of all your talents.”

“You know about Aemond’s…uh…preferences?”

“Oh yeah, and I knew he had a girl. He always has to have a girl. I just didn’t know it was you. He doesn’t usually bring them around the family.”

You steal a glimpse of Alicent and Helaena. If they’re listening in, they’re doing an excellent job of not acting like they are.

“I think we should address this,” Aegon says.

You are stymied. “Address what?”

“It would never work, me and you.”

“I hadn’t even thought of it.”

“Sure you haven’t,” Aegon says. He flourishes a hand melodramatically. “You need a dom. I am, lamentably, an irredeemable sub. I’m a sheep in wolf’s clothing.”

“Okay, Aegon.”

“I just needed to break the tension.”

“I think you’re imagining that.”

There are footsteps, the slapping of flip flops against the cobblestones, and then someone who looks like a younger, more cheerful, more sober Aegon arrives at the pool. He is dressed in royal blue swim trunks that stop at his mid-thigh; his wavy blond hair is down to his shoulders. Like his family members, he also does not seem at all surprised to see you. “Hi,” he says, shaking your hand. “I’m Daeron. I didn’t get to introduce myself at the engagement party. I’m sorry about that. I was entangled in a very competitive tennis match on the courts out back for most of the day.”

Alicent asks: “Daeron, love, would you like a strawberry daiquiri when Criston reappears?”

“Yeah, Mum, that would be great.” He parks himself on the available chair beside her and begins asking about her book. As they chat, a blue macaw flaps through the garden and uses its long, leathery talons to claim the backrest of Daeron’s lounge chair.

“It’s so sweet of you to take an interest in my reading, Daeron,” Alicent gushes. “None of my other children ever do…”

Aegon groans loudly. Everyone ignores him. Criston arrives with two strawberry daiquiris, one for you and one for Helaena. You take a sip through a plastic straw with several loops in it: icy cold and jarringly sweet.

“And one for Daeron too please, Criston,” Alicent requests. “Did you hear that he just got another article published? It’s about evaluating rock wettability.” Her tone suggests that she has no idea what this means; nonetheless, she is ardently enthusiastic.

“That kid is going places,” Criston says admiringly.

Aegon counters: “That kid’s had phone sex with Michelle Pfeiffer.”

You laugh, thinking that it’s a joke. Daeron just gives you a sheepish smile. Oh, you think. Not a joke.

Criston hustles back inside the house. An old man passes Criston as he strolls out to the pool. He looks around blearily, like he’s hungover or has just woken up from a nap or both. His bloodshot eyes skate over you without much interest. He squints at the pool floats that bob in the rippling, crystalline water, sparkly rings and an assortment of foam noodles and a giant cartoonish alligator.

“How was Kiribati?” Aegon says.

“Much better than here. This goddamn humidity!”

“I can’t believe you missed the engagement party, Father,” Alicent says glumly.

“Oh no, how could I! I’ll never have any way of knowing what transpired!” He plops down onto a chair near the end of the row. His bare feet are gnarled, his toenails long and yellowed. “Let me guess. Cake was served, champagne was toasted, people bragged about their stupid hobbies and their ugly children, that girl scuttled about with her perpetually-startled eyes and asinine comments. Do you remember when she tried to give me her condolences when she learned your mother passed away years ago? Why would I want some moonstruck idiot’s condolences? She didn’t know your mother. She doesn’t know anything.”

“Christabel is very young,” Alicent offers gently.

“She’s very something, that’s for sure. Very useless. Very irritating. This family would be in a much better state if Viserys wasn’t the one making all the decisions. His judgment has declined precipitously.” He casts a poisonous glare at Aegon. Aegon pretends not to notice.

“I like Christabel,” Helaena says. Her chameleon gobbles up a butterfly that ventures too close.

“Yes, I’m sure you do.” The old man’s voice is kinder now. “You see the best in everyone. But dear Helaena, we are in for a lifetime of insipid simpers and vapid conversations.”

“A lifetime?” Aegon says. “So not much longer for you, Grandfather. What a comfort.”

The old man glowers at Aegon. “We should have left you in Alaska to have your throat slit by those animals.” And you hear Aemond’s words reverberating in your skull: I’ve never been to Alaska. That was someone else’s project.

Aegon is rolling himself a fresh joint, accidentally spilling sprinkles of weed on his slumbering ferret. He snorts. “I don’t care what Alaskans think of me.”

Daeron says: “Aegon, you poisoned 1,000 square miles of the ocean.”

“The fucking ocean,” Aegon mutters. “What do we even need the ocean for?”

“Vacations,” Otto says.

Helaena adds: “Sushi.”

Daeron is distressed. “Actually, the ocean is super important.”

“Why are we talking about the ocean?” Aemond asks as he strolls through the garden and pauses by the edge of the pool to dip a foot in to test the temperature. He’s wearing black swim trunks and nothing else, just his skin, just his scar and his glass left eye. He sees you, smiles, goes to the bakery boxes and lifts out a cupcake. He sits down on the edge of your lounge chair as he licks off the wave-blue frosting. No one makes any comment, and no one brings up Aegon’s role in the Ketchikan oil spill again.

Criston returns once more with a strawberry daiquiri for Daeron. “Well, I’ve just about killed the blender, so hopefully we don’t need any more—”

“But Criston!” Alicent cries. “What about Aemond and my father? Perhaps they are in need of refreshments.”

Criston sighs. Crestfallen, he looks at Aemond. “Do you want a strawberry daiquiri?”

“No, that’s okay. I’ll just have a few sips of hers.”

Aegon says: “Can I get a pina colada?”

Criston turns towards the old man. “Otto? Daiquiri?”

“No, but if you could immediately teleport me back to the South Pacific, I would greatly appreciate it.”

“Pina colada??” Aegon says again.

“Okay, Aegon,” Criston snaps. “Calm down. Let me figure out if we have any more coconut cream.” Alicent’s part-time bodyguard and personal assistant, part-time babysitter, part-time affair partner vanishes into the house yet again.

Aegon lurches to his feet. “No one listens to me,” he tells you morosely. “You see that? No one remembers. That’s how you know they don’t care.”

“Don’t be dramatic,” Alicent tells Aegon, not looking up from her book.

“Wait, someone is missing…” Otto muses, stroking his beard.

Aegon staggers to the edge of the pool, drags over a sparkly turquoise inflatable ring, and flops onto it. He paddles himself out towards the center of the pool. His ferret bounds after him, leaps into the water, and swims until it reaches Aegon, wriggling through the blue like a golden-furred snake. “Hey Sunfyre, you wanted to come too?” Aegon lifts the soaked ferret from the water and places it on his chest, soft and sunburned. “My bad. I assumed you’d prefer dry land.”

Otto—cantankerous and grating—looks around, baffled. “Wait, where’s Viserys?”

“He’s inspecting some of the rigs out in the Gulf of Mexico,” Aemond says as he finishes the cupcake and takes a slurp of your daiquiri. “He won’t be back until the end of the week.”

“Thank God,” Aegon exclaims from the middle of the pool.

Alicent changes the subject. “How long have you been baking, dear?” she asks you.

“Forever, basically. But I started getting serious about making it a business when my daughter was really young, about nine years ago. Now Amir and I sell hundreds of items a week, sometimes thousands.”

Daeron is nodding along, but he appears a little confused. He has gotten himself a Cap’n Crunch Treat and is feeding pieces of it to his blue macaw. “And you do that because…you want to?”

“Well I have to pay rent.”

“Oh. Right. Of course.”

“And I could have been a checkout girl at the Doller General, or worked seasonally harvesting soybeans or sugarcane, or begged my ex-husband to get me a job in the Assumption Parish Sheriff’s Office…but I wanted to do something that didn’t make me miserable. And something that was really mine, that I chose.” Aemond is watching you thoughtfully. The other Targaryens are a tad interested but far more perplexed. They can’t understand work the way you do. They can’t understand money as something that must be counted.

“Brilliant!” Alicent declares at last. “Well, maybe one day we’ll have you making six cakes for Helaena’s engagement party, who knows!”

“It would be my absolute pleasure. Do you have a potential husband hanging around, Helaena?”

She giggles, covering her blushing face with both hands. Her chameleon creeps down to cling to her shoulder, as if to make sure she’s alright. Its conical eyes flit in random directions, an unmitigated freak of nature. You should have more compassion for it.

Aemond grins. “Helaena is responsible for no less than three broken engagements. She can’t commit.”

“And she’s only into guys who look like Aegon,” Daeron adds.

“No!” Helaena objects. “That is such a lie, that’s not true!”

“Evander?” Daeron says.

Helaena pauses to think. “Okay, yes, he looked kind of like Aegon.”

“He did, didn’t he?” Alicent frets, nibbling at the fingernail of her pinky.

“Dimitri?” Aemond says.

“Oh no,” Helaena moans; but she’s laughing too. “Oh no.”

“Sebastian?” Aegon says, and now they’re all howling.

Otto shakes his head. “Freud would definitely have some thoughts about this.”

“Bloody hell,” Helaena whimpers, swiping tears from her face. Her chameleon nudges her jaw with its shimmering, blue-green muzzle. “I totally only date guys who look like Aegon.”

Aegon shrugs from where he’s floating in the pool with Sunfyre. “Good taste, I’d say. Fuck them all, homegirl.”

“Aegon!” Alicent shouts, scandalized.

Criston dashes out of the house and to the edge of the pool, clutching a pina colada that is swiftly melting. “You better paddle yourself over here, kid. I don’t offer in-water delivery.”

“You’d do it for my mother.”

“Probably. But you’re not her.”

Aegon groans as he splashes around without making much progress. “Okay, okay, give me a second…”

Aemond turns to you. “How do you like the house? I realized I never got the chance to ask last weekend.”

“I like all the stained glass, and I like that every room is a different color. The living room is red, the dining room is yellow, the kitchen is teal, Aegon’s bedroom is black—”

“Wait, how do you know?” Aemond is alarmed.

You chuckle. “No, no, not like that. I was lost and looking for a bathroom.”

“Didn’t do anything,” Aegon announces from his pool float. “Didn’t do it, didn’t try it, didn’t even think about it. Well…maybe I thought about it. But I definitely did not do anything.”

“Okay.” Aemond exhales, relived. “Close call.”

“What color is your room?”

He’s not going to waste the opportunity to extend an invitation. “Let me show you.”

On the same floor as Aegon’s punk rock bedroom and the lilac bathroom, you trail Aemond to the end of the hallway. At last he opens a door to reveal a room that is a deep, vivid blue like sapphires. The bookshelves that touch the ceiling are filled not with texts on engineering or the energy industry but histories of people whose names you don’t recognize. He has a massive wooden canopy bed swathed in dark blue velvet patterned with circling koi fish made of stars. He has a writing desk, a wardrobe full of suits, a television with an extensive VHS collection. The stained glass windows are a whirlpool of cerulean, navy, aquamarine, indigo, steel, azure. When you peer through the glass, you can see the gleaming currents of Lake Verret and the twisted dead ends of the bayou that forms at its edges, treacherous and untamed.

And when you start to feel that if Aemond tried to grab you, undress you, tie knots around your wrists you wouldn’t stop him, you tell him that you want to go back outside to the pool; and Aemond listens, and he doesn’t try to touch you even once.

~~~~~~~~~~

It’s Monday, two days later, and Aemond calls to ask if he can bring you and Cadi dinner. He shows up with all the trappings of what he insists is real Italian food, doubtlessly prepared by his family’s private chefs: focaccia, caprese salad, ossobuco, risotto, Bolognese, panna cotta. He forgets the red wine, so you drink sweet tea instead, the three of you crowded around the kitchen counter, ceaselessly passing dishes back and forth while the little pink Panasonic boombox plays You Spin Me Round by Dead Or Alive.

“Hey Mom?” Cadi says as she chomps on a hunk of focaccia.

“Yeah?”

“Why don’t you ever cook dinners like this?”

There’s a tiny little gut punch, something you’re used to swallowing down even if it bruises you to the heart, to the bones. She doesn’t know any better. You can’t cry, you can’t get mad. You shrug, dispassionate. Aemond glances over at you, abruptly tense but not saying anything. “Well honey, it’s probably because my job can be really busy sometimes, and I spend most of the day in the kitchen, so when dinner time comes around the last thing I want to do is cook. But we always have food to eat, right?”

“Yeah. Like Amir’s leftovers or frozen pizza or something. But all my friends’ moms cook nice dinners most nights. Can’t you do that? When I go to Michelle or Erica’s house for dinner their moms make barbeque ribs, gumbo, seafood boils, etouffee, tasso ham, homemade macaroni and cheese, like real dinners. I want us to have that too. What if my friends want to eat dinner here sometime? I can’t bring them over and then just throw some Swanson’s meals at them.”

Aemond has put his fork down on his plate and is clasping his hands together, trying to figure out what to say. But he shouldn’t say anything. It’s not his place.

You tell Cadi, as calmly as you can: “Different families have different kinds of dinners, and that’s okay. I bet your friends’ moms don’t have cakes and cookies around all the time, but you always have tons of dessert options. Our situation looks different than theirs, but there’s nothing wrong with either one.”

“But desserts aren’t even good for kids. Dinner is way more important. You can’t say I get cakes instead of dinner, too much cake will give me diseases or something.”

“Okay, Cadi. That’s enough. Let’s talk about this later.”

“I’m just saying it seems totally unfair that my friends get real dinners and I almost never do.”

Michelle and Erica’s moms don’t work. They have husbands to support them. So they can spend all day babying a fucking tasso ham, but I don’t have that luxury. And I don’t want to be chained to a man. I don’t want to trade having a say in how my life turns out for being able to slave away over dinner for four or five hours. “I regret to inform you that I’m not like Michelle and Erica’s moms.”

“I wish you were,” Cadi murmurs, entirely unaware of what she’s done. You bite your lower lip so you don’t snap at her, or try to explain, or break down sobbing. You taste blood, hot sharp copper that blooms like wildflowers.

Aemond stands up. His barstool squeals against the sloping wooden floor. “Hey, can I talk to you outside for a minute?” he asks Cadi.

“Aemond, what…?” you begin, but he’s already headed for the front door.

Cadi blinks up at him, horrified. “Why?”

“You’re not in trouble or anything. I just want to show you something. Come on. It’ll be quick.”

“Okay,” Cadi says doubtfully, looking at you. You give her your best reassuring smile, and she slides off her barstool and follows after Aemond. The front door opens and shuts. You don’t hear shouting, you don’t hear much of anything except the air conditioner and the boombox and the mourning doves, the long-eared owl, the cicadas, the bayou, the universe. You go to one of the living room windows and part the blinds to peek outside.

What you see is strange. Cadi is sitting on the swing, and Aemond is kneeling in front of her so they’re just about at the same eye level. You can see half of Aemond’s face; Cadi is blocking the rest. He’s explaining something to her with patient yet insistent gestures of his hands. Cadi says something, and Aemond nods and replies. He points to his scar, his glass eye, and says something else. Cadi asks a question, and Aemond hesitates. Then he acquiesces and moves closer to where she is perched on the tree swing. He reaches up towards the scarred side of his face, but you can’t see his eye. When he lowers his palm, there’s a small piece of curved, oval-shaped glass that glints in the dying sunlight.

“Cool!” you can hear Cadi exclaim, muffled through the windows that are now closed on account of the new air conditioning unit. She says something else, and Aemond agrees. You watch her hand extending towards his face, towards the injury he has revealed to her for reasons you can’t comprehend. You rush to other windows, trying to get a better view, but there’s no way for you to get a clear line of sight. Before you know it, your hear their footsteps drumming up the porch steps. The front door opens just as you’re scrambling back onto your barstool.

“Everything alright?” you say, more nervously than you intend to.

“Yup,” Cadi replies. She climbs into her seat and resumes wolfing down focaccia and Bolognese.

You look over at Aemond, bewildered. His glass eye is back in its socket. He appears composed, but you notice the fresh sheen of sweat on his forehead, at his temples, at the nape of his neck. He gives you a casual little smirk and then returns to his barstool. He picks up his full glass of sweet tea and drains it in three massive gulps.

“Hey Mom,” Cadi says, and your throat is suddenly full of embers.

“Yeah, honey?”

“Tonight is really fun,” she says. She twirls her fork in the pappardelle pasta of the Bolognese, splattering red sauce over her cheeks. “This is great. I want to do this more often.”

And the embers in your throat cool, vanish, are replaced by something vast and free.

“You really do need a new house,” Aemond says as he helps you clean up after dinner; Cadi has already abandoned you both for her Nintendo. “There are new constructions a little further down Route 401, between here and Lake Verret. Three bedrooms, two baths. Not a castle or anything, just the right size for you and Cadi. We can go look at them sometime.”

“I don’t need a whole new house. There are midcentury homes all over the place down here. They’re small, and they might need fixing up, but they’re a lot cheaper.” Then you add, because it sounds less pathetic: “And maybe it’s nice to have a house with some history, some character.”

“Old can be charming and quaint, sure. But brand new is better.”

“Why’s that?”

He smiles. “No ghosts.”

#aemond targaryen x reader #aemond targaryen #aemond targaryen imagine #aemond one eye #aemond x reader #aemond fanfiction #aemond #aemond x you #aemond x y/n

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libraryofgage · 1 year ago

Text

PJO Steddie Six

One | Two | Three | Four | Five

And we back at it again with the PJO AU

The new series on Disney+ right? Like, that's soon and I'm fucking excited to start watching it omfg

Anyway, hope you enjoy this one! A little more Steddie flirting and some of Steve being a goddess's favorite little guy lol

As always, if you see any typos, no you didn't ;P

-----

"Your, ah, bat," Chiron says, glancing at said weapon leaning against the side of Steve's chair, "it's effective against monsters?"

Around them, the sound of chewing can be heard as the kids descend on the snacks and refilling cups. Dustin, Max, and Erica in particular have chubby cheeks as they shove cookies into their mouths. In comparison, Steve hasn't touched a thing on the table. Not because he doesn't want to, of course, but because he'd rather avoid Lucas inadvertently biting him (it's happened before, he doesn't want it to happen again).

"Max's mom gave us some Celestial bronze, Dustin figured out how to melt it down, and Will suggested embedding nails in a reinforced bat. So we did," Steve explains, shrugging once.

Sitting in the chair directly to the left of Chiron is Eddie, his fingers drumming on the table as he looks between Steve and the centaur. He's been like that for the past 15 minutes, managing to keep quiet unless he's answering a question or adding a detail about their drive up that Steve missed. It's odd to see him so....restrained, but Steve can tell he's trying to be on his best behavior, likely to give him and the kids a better chance of staying.

Chiron hums in thought, considering the kids. His gaze lingers on El the longest, watching as she sips milk tea from her cup and passes Mike a bowl of grapes when he asks for it. "And you're sure El's powers aren't permanent?" Chiron finally asks.

Steve nods once. "We've timed it before. Worst cases fade in a few hours. Since El and I are related, she can't freeze me," he explains, offering a little more information than he needs to in the hopes of earning Chiron's trust.

The centaur must see through him, but his smile isn't unkind. "I see. And do you know all of their parents? The godly ones, I mean."

Steve nods and points to each kid while listing their godly parent. At the end, he points to himself and adds, "And mine is Zeus, which was probably obvious."

"Just a little," Chiron says. He considers them all for a moment before sighing. "Well, as long as you'll take full responsibility for El and her powers, I am happy to welcome you to Camp Half-Blood."

-------

Camp Half-Blood is nice.

Steve likes the strawberry fields, he's already looking forward to giving the climbing wall a try, and Eddie's brief mention of Capture the Flag earlier has him regularly glancing at the forest. The kids seem eager to explore, too, with Dustin practically lighting up when Eddie points out the Haphaestus cabin's workshop, Will and Erica looking wistfully at the pegasus stables, Lucas and Max practically vibrating with excitement when they pass the practice arena, Mike nearly breaking off from the group to jump into sparkling water on the beach, and El tugging on Steve's hand excitedly when they pass the archery field.

The tour ends in the middle of the cabins by a fire pit. A young girl is stoking the fire, keeping it going and smiling softly as the flames dance in front of her. She glances up to meet Steve's gaze, and he immediately recognizes her. He's ready to greet Hestia when she subtly shakes her head and turns back to the fire.

Steve forces himself to look away, studying the cabins, instead. There's one for each deity, and several other groups of cabins are scattered around the area like they keep adding more. A path of mismatched stone has been paved from each one to the fire pit, keeping them all connected.

His attention is immediately drawn to a cabin with a cloud and thunderbolt above the door. It looks kind of like a marble box with huge columns, a domed roof, and bronze doors that gleam in the sun. It looks imposing, and Steve can't imagine anyone actually staying in it.

"That'll be your cabin," Eddie says, pulling Steve's attention away. He grins when Steve looks at him, rocking back and forth on his feet. "And that's the Athena cabin, the Aphrodite cabin, the Morpheus cabin, Plutus, and Nemesis. Each has a lead camper in charge of getting new campers settled."

Steve blinks, frowning slightly. "What do you mean?" he asks.

"Well, the kids will stay in the cabins of their godly parents."

"No. They won't."

Eddie pauses, seeming to realize there's a problem. He looks at the cabins, then the kids, back to the cabins, and finally settles his gaze on Steve. "It's possible to visit between cabins, but we've never had a camper, like, not live in their parent's cabin."

"Has anyone tried?"

"Well. No."

"Does anyone live in the Zeus cabin right now?"

The moment Eddie shakes his head, Steve leads the kids toward the Zeus cabin. He feels a little resistance when he reaches the door, but he stubbornly ignores it and crosses the threshold to find an empty space. Well, mostly empty. He blinks, looking over the alcoves with golden eagles and the giant statue of Zeus in the middle. From the inside, the domed roof has mosaic clouds drifting across it with lightning bolts striking out from them.

"You've got to be kidding me," Steve says, frowning as he looks around the cabin. A cursory glance reveals that there is, in fact, a single bed somewhat hidden behind the statue of Zeus.

"I'd rather not sleep with your dad staring at me," Erica says, frowning at the statue before looking up at Steve. "I'm sure the Aphrodite cabin won't be so bad." Despite her words, her tone is reluctant, implying she'd rather not sleep with a bunch of strangers.

Steve closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, and turns to look at the kids. Eddie is at the back of the group, watching him with a curious expression. "Okay," Steve says, his tone immediately getting the kids' attention, "I'm going to ask a question, and I want honesty. Who wants to stay in their parent's cabin?"

A few seconds pass in which the kids all glance at each other, silently asking the same question to see if anyone's answer will be different. When none of them raise their hand or say anything, Steve asks, "Does that mean you'd like to stay in a cabin together?"

The kids all nod, and Eddie looks ready to speak when Steve nods and herds the children out of the cabin. He glances at the fire pit, sees Hestia is still there, and tells the group, "Just hold tight."

He strides over to the fire pit and crouches next to Hestia, waiting patiently. After a few moments, the goddess smiles at him and says, "Hello, Steve. Welcome to my hearth. Would you like a cookie?"

Steve nods and takes the chocolate chip cookie that Hestia offers. He doesn't know where she got it from, but he doesn't question it. "Lady Hestia," he says after taking a bite, "I would appreciate your assistance."

"Your father would not appreciate other children in his cabin," she says, her voice gentle and coaxing.

"The kids want to stick together," Steve says, figuring that should be more than enough explanation.

"And what do you want, Steve?"

Steve is about to answer that he wants the same when Hestia meets his gaze. The words die in his throat as he's forced to actually consider the question. What does he want? He wants the kids safe, of course, and they'll be safest with him. But he also finds himself wanting a space of his own, his eyes glancing at Eddie before quickly looking away. He likes the idea of being alone with Eddie, something that likely won't happen unless Steve can put a door between them and the rest of the world.

He takes a deep breath, the two thoughts at war within him. Before he can say anything, though, Hestia smiles. "I'm sure Lord Zeus would prefer you stay in his cabin," she says, a brief flash of dislike crossing her eyes, "so I will work with it."

"And you won't get in trouble?" Steve asks, wondering if he really needs to worry about a goddess. She's doing him a favor, though, so he can't help himself.

"There is little your father can do to me," Hestia says, shrugging as she waves a hand toward Zeus's cabin. Nothing on the outside changes, but Steve knows the inside has been completely overhauled.

He looks at Hestia and smiles brightly. "Thank you," he says, pausing before digging into his jacket pocket and pulling out a pack of gum. "I can give you something better at dinner, but would you like one?"

Hestia lights up and happily takes a stick, carefully unwrapping it before popping it into her mouth. After chewing a few times, she blows a large bubble, grinning when it bursts a few seconds later. "Thank you," she says, beginning to blow another bubble. A breeze kicks up, sending a slight haze of smoke into Steve's eyes, and by the time he clears it away, Hestia is gone.

Steve stands, brushes non-existent dust off his jeans, and walks back up the steps. "Okay, let's try again," he says, flashing a grin at the kids and Eddie before opening the door.

The cabin has, thankfully, changed on the inside. It now has a skylight in the ceiling, allowing sunlight to stream into the room. There are several bunk beds pushed against the walls and three doors on the opposite side of the cabin. Each of the bunks has one of the kids' names carved into it, and the left-most door on the opposite wall has a small sign with Steve's name right in the middle of it.

"How is Zeus not smiting you right now?" Eddie asks, following the kids into the cabin and staring at everything around him.

Steve shrugs, watching as the kids choose their bunks by throwing themselves onto the beds and splaying their limbs out like starfish. He walks over to the three doors. The far right is a bathroom with multiple stalls and showers and the middle is a storage closet with cleaning supplies. He studies the door with his name on it for a moment before taking a deep breath and opening it.

The room inside is large. Like the main portion of the cabin, the room has a skylight. The walls are ringed with real clouds, all of them fluffy and white and leisurely drifting along. In one corner of the room is a small fountain covered in clouds and tiny carvings of women holding urns and smiling. A small bowl next to the fountain is filled with gold coins, and two oversized chairs are set up in the adjacent corner. The opposite wall is covered in shields and swords with one open spot that Steve knows is for his bat. In the middle of the wall, just above the spot for Steve's bat, a large crystal ball hovers, filled with lightning bolts that streak across it.

As Steve takes it all in, Eddie wanders over to the weapon wall and pokes the crystal ball, the door swinging shut behind him. His hair begins to float and stand on end from the static, and Steve snorts. "Don't mess up your hair even more," he says, grinning at Eddie as he bats his hand away.

When their fingers brush, a tiny shock passes between them, an almost imperceptible arc of lightning connecting their fingers before Steve jerks his hand away. "Sorry," he mumbles, frowning slightly. He can dismiss the other two times this has happened (he was surprised by the pool and barely maintaining control outside the camp), but a third time means it's significant, right?

"Don't apologize," Eddie says, reaching out and poking Steve's hand. Another shock passes, and Eddie grins wide. "It's cool."

"It could hurt you," Steve corrects, sliding back a step only for Eddie to follow. He frowns a little more, backing up again. Eddie follows again. They keep this up, amusement budding in Steve's chest and changing his frown into a smile, until Steve is backed up against the wall and Eddie is crowding into his space.

Eddie lights up like he's won and shifts closer. "You wouldn't hurt me, Stevie," he says, utterly confident in his assessment.

Steve snorts, raising an eyebrow at him. "You barely know me," he says.

"That's easily fixed."

"I could be a terrible person."

"You're not."

"I could be. Maybe this is all an act."

Eddie hums softly, leaning closer until their hands are close to brushing and they're inches apart. A low buzz starts to build under Steve's skin, reaching out to Eddie with such desperation that Steve doesn't think before grabbing his hand. Tiny sparks pass between their palms again, and Steve somehow feels himself calming down.

"I don't mind falling for it," Eddie whispers, his smile softening, and Steve finds himself thinking "it" probably isn't the word Eddie actually wanted to use.

He swallows around a sudden lump of nerves in his throat, lost for words and about to just turn to action (kissing seems like a pretty good action right now) when one of the kids bangs on the door. Eddie jerks back, blinking a few times as his cheeks start to flush. "Steve!" Lucas shouts, knocking on the door again, "C'mon, man, we wanna see more of the camp."

Steve swallows again, noting the way Eddie's gaze drops to his throat, and quickly looks away. He pulls the door open, somewhere between grateful for and annoyed by the interruption. "Have you guys figured out who's sleeping where?" he asks, letting himself get distracted by Lucas rolling his eyes and Dustin shouting about Mike stealing his bunk.

------

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#steddie #steddie fic #semi divine steddie #pjo au #percy jackson au #steve harrington #eddie munson #the party stranger things #stranger things fic #my writing

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