#you pack up your shit and take off at 6am before the other person wakes up and then dont call the other person until six months later

[freebooter4ever]

She wimped out on not saying goodbye. She left a note for fucks sake! Thats not how you dont say goodbye.

[temozarela]

-> isn't it good, norwegian wood?

GETO X READER MDNI, slow burn, fluff, angst, smut, angsty geto, comfort, reader is kinda tired, plot

you and geto meet 6 years after his defection

WORD COUNT: 8.6k

TAGS: @sakuichan, @username23345

part 1

ao3 version

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You sat at your desk, staring blankly at the screen of your computer. You were supposed to be completing a report but the sun had long set and your brain refused to cooperate. Down-heartedly, you buried your head in your hands, stifling a yawn. Everything just seemed so… bad. Your hair was greasy, you were beginning to smell yourself through your deodorant and perfume, your coffee was cold, and you were the only person left in the office. Even Nanami had gone home 2 hours prior, leaving you to struggle over your half-finished report. Unfortunately for yourself and your coworkers, there has been an influx of curse users in Japan, meaning that your compulsory hours had been increased. At first you were delighted by the idea of some extra pocket money, but with all of the work you had been doing, there was no time to enjoy it. You knew it was getting worse too, you hadn't seen Gojo in a week and Shoko’s dark circles were deepening with every wave of injured sorcerers that washed up at her office. Of course, the higher-ups weren’t any help, so it had become the norm for you to wake up at 6am and return home at 10pm as you cracked down on the damages that the elders refused to assist with. This had been happening for a few months now, and you were exhausted. If it were any other situation, you’d request time off, but you knew that your coworkers would take on the burden if you didn’t. So there you were, fingers hovering over the keys as you tried to recount your hectic shift. It seemed so cruel, after stepping over so many dead bodies and dodging death countless times yourself, to be forced to relive it so soon. If they wanted to know what was happening, they could see for themselves. In fact, you’d welcome it. Maybe then, they’d dish out the work a bit more ethically.

You blinked slowly, attempting to force a rise of energy inside of you. You didn’t want to fall asleep at work again. Somewhere in the background, rain pattered against the windows. Shit. You reluctantly glanced at your screen, squinting at the brightness in contrast with the dark room. Realistically, you knew that you weren’t going to get anything else done that night, but you also knew that if you didn’t do it then, you would have to do it later. You groaned, wanting to slam your head against your desk more than anything. Tomorrow. You’d do it tomorrow. If you went home then and had a decent sleep, you’d be more motivated tomorrow. That’s what you told yourself. You were more than happy to turn the computer off and pack up your belongings. More and more, you were glad that you commuted by train, because the naps you took then were sacred, driving would’ve pushed you over the edge.

Arriving home looked like throwing your shit on the floor and staring blankly at the fridge, realising you were supposed to shop for groceries that day. Tomorrow you were headed into the countryside to check out suspicious activity, there was no way you’d be able to get your shopping done then. Usually you did city missions, but you were covering for the students. God knows they were doing too much as well. You sighed. There were enough ingredients for you to cook a meal, but you were so tired right now… you could go without… just for one night. Some nights you didn’t even change out of your clothes and you had given up on makeup a while back. At this point, your home felt like it was only your bed. Your TV, speakers, sofas, and books had gone untouched for so long, you’d be surprised if they weren’t blanketed with dust by now. You showered, of course, but it seemed like a mere blink before your body hit your bed. Sleep didn’t rest you anymore, but it was some sort of break in the chaos of your life. At the very least, you were happy to have that.

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The commute into rural Japan was pleasantly silent. It relaxed you to watch the swaying meadows roll past, the white splodges of sheep like a stroke of oil paint as the train hurtled past. You vaguely registered one or two others on the other side of the carriage, you remembered the monk especially. To your knowledge, it was your first time seeing a monk in public. Initially, the journey had been like any other: salesmen upon salesmen, and then a few. Each figure amongst the shuffling mass clad in a suit and tie, dark hair brushed back, and mouths set in a practised line between grey, hollow cheeks as they scrutinised each other through their furrowed eyebrows like some sort of Kubrick character. As the familiar robotic voice announced the train’s arrival at the city-centre, an encore of clicking shoes and soft whines of swinging briefcases played in a harsh crescendo, the piece hitting its chorus as the doors opened, and the salesmen poured out like river water through a broken dam. After that, it was quiet. On a weekday morning, not many were heading into the middle of nowhere, but it made sense to you that a monk might. The other man looked like a foreigner, so that wasn’t widely suspicious to you either, though you might have considered it further had you slept more the previous night. After an hour or so, your eyelids fluttered shut and you began to drift in and out of sleep, the beginnings of gentle conversation between the few other passengers barely registered by you, their low voices becoming incomprehensible as they were drowned out by the ambience of the train. Perhaps, if you had been more alert, you would have noticed that they were heading to the location of the investigation. Maybe, if you had realised that, you would have listened closer and overheard the utterance of a very familiar name. However, the world around you was in limbo, your drowsiness dosing your nerves in soothing honey as your eyelashes rested against your warm cheeks. Sleep was euphoric. It had become such a relief to you that you had abandoned any hopes of seeking pleasure through strangers or potential romantic interests, the effort of understanding and compromising was exhausting in itself and your mind still hadn’t gotten over your teen fling. You thought about it sometimes, the potential to reunite with him, but every year it seemed more and more impossible. Since he left, your coworkers relied on you more and watched you with the underlying concern that one day you would slip through their fingers. Although, another reason lingered at the back of your head. It had been 6 years, did he even still want you? You told others that you had moved on, but he waited at the back of your mind, tapping his foot impatiently. He appeared in your dreams as a looming shadow, only recognisable through the kind smile it bore. You also saw him sometimes in the faces of others, their dark eyes making you stop in the headlight of their stare- so close, yet so different to the expression you could love. Besides those torturous reminders, what you could remember of him was hazy, in fact you barely remembered what he looked like. That didn’t stop you from missing him, however. You remembered the comfort he once brought you. Perhaps that was what you missed most, more than his body or charm.

You blinked hazily as the train approached your stop. Lethargically, you reached for your bags, pulling them over your shoulder as you stepped off into the station, distantly followed by the other two passengers from your carriage. You winced as you finally made it outside, light rain beginning to fall from the greying sky. However, it was fulfilling to inhale the fresh air- much fresher than the air at Shibuya station- as you rushed to your taxi, and drove towards the investigation site which, today, was an abandoned hospital. Before your arrival, you instantly knew there was something wrong. It wasn’t unusual that the area was void of human life, after all, it wasn’t near any residential areas. Sure, it wasn’t particularly unusual that the plantation was yellow and clearly overgrown either. However, two of the windows on the second floor had been shattered, which wasn’t particularly unusual by itself, but the broken shards were littered below the outside of the building, rather than the inside. See, that was unusual. It had been broken from inside. Someone had needed to escape. Fast. Discreetly. There were fire exits left, right, and centre- as you’d expect from a hospital- it was strange that someone would choose to evacuate from a window on the second story. You knew it must have been an ugly building, even before it was neglected, the dull boxiness of the hospital seeming like the kind of brutalist hellscape you’d find in a post-Soviet city. The upper edges of the building were blackened by the weather, and the only visible colour could be found in the yellowed blinds which clattered and trembled behind the savaged windows. Your wary gaze found a half-filled syringe containing ominous orange liquid, discarded in the mud. It made sense since it was a hospital… but when you really thought about it… how did it end up there? It looked like this place had been practically untouched since its closure which was… probably around 10 years ago…

A shiver ran down your spine.

If the curse had anything to do with needles, you wouldn’t hesitate to turn around, you decided.

You hadn’t really been given clear instructions, in fact, you weren’t given much more than a place and a time. With a glance at your watch, you noted that you were 5 minutes early as planned, so it made some sort of sense to why you couldn’t see the window you were supposed to be meeting. It was only meant to be a quick chat to fill you in on the details before you looked for yourself, but you had assumed they may have arrived a little early anyway. Apparently that wasn’t the case, so you waited in the rain, feet planted in the overgrown grass and shivering as cold droplets trickled down your neck. The next time you checked your watch, it was the time of the meeting, and there wasn’t a single person in sight. Momentarily, you considered venturing inside. Maybe something had happened to them. You glanced around. The guy couldn’t have gotten lost, could he? It’s a pretty obvious landmark.

10 minutes late.

You were getting restless. And drenched.

The window could wait, you were heading inside.

The front door was unlocked, most likely in anticipation of your visit, and you walked into what you assumed had once been the reception. Everything was so… grey. You could tell that at one point, they had made an effort of decorating with bright colours, but years of neglect had sucked out the life like a backstreet dentist, leaving everything the same dull grey; not to discount the slight variations such as grey-with-a-hint-of-mustard-yellow and grey-but-slightly-pink-but-it’s-mostly-grey-who-are-you-fooling. It stank of wet paper and what you prayed wasn’t asbestos, as well as a lingering trace of chemicals. The mould was a delightful pop of colour however, adding a daring element of almost-grey-but-green onto the aged, pale wallpaper. You grimaced, seriously considering whether the window had been organised to hand over a hazmat suit and a Bible before you gave your life to spilled cleaning agents and an undiscovered fungus. Perhaps they’d name it after you when you died. It was the least they could do, really.

After you journeyed up the dark stairs, you approached the operating rooms, and a wash of dread doused you like cold water. Whatever it was, you were close to it. Very close.

Because of your distinct lack of briefing, you barely knew who or what you’d be facing. There was a growing feeling that you recognised something, whether it was the cursed energy signature from the imminent threat or the familiar arms of your creator, it sparked a powerful reaction in your gut. You squinted, trying to make out the outline of the doorway using the little daylight that reached the corridor. You couldn’t help but notice how it was shockingly tidy. Sure, it was fucking disgusting, but everything was in its right place, tucked away by the ghostly hands of a nurse one decade ago. For some reason, it made it all the more terrifying. You stopped in front of the door, attempting to breathe through the suffocating pressure of whatever was beyond the door. It really was familiar, but it was too powerful for you to focus on it. It was like trying to fight a court trial whilst being waterboarded, and you weren’t entirely sure you could do it in normal conditions anyway, but you definitely couldn’t whilst partially submerged in liquid. You knew that for sure. The sheer amount of cursed energy seeping through the cracks of the door was headache-inducing. You gritted your teeth.

It was disastrously clear, then. Whatever or whoever was on the other side of the door was not your intended opponent. This mission should’ve been a field trip for you. This, however. This was a Gojo-level enemy. Not as strong, of course, but it lay somewhere in the gaping gap between the strongest grade 1 sorcerer and Gojo himself. Needless to say, it was too strong for you. You could accept that fact easily. In all honesty, your pride had left you the moment you entered the hospital.

Slowly, you backed away from the door, eyes fixed on the source of the outrageous cursed energy signature. It was consuming, the same way smoke engulfs a room. Your breaths were shallow and your limbs felt numb, you were probably shaking too, but you knew it would be ok if you kept your existence unknown and made a nimble escape. As dull light began to assist your vision, relief filled you. You were almost out. A few more steps and you’d be back in the stairwell. Then you could run.

Except you couldn’t. Because your back had hit a wall. A wall that hadn’t been there before.

You looked left, then right.

No… there definitely… shouldn’t be a wall behind you…

Oh, God.

“Are you the window?” you nervously grinned at nobody in particular. You were staring too, wide-eyed at the dark corridor before you, well-aware of your hands shaking, “You’re awfully late, you know…”

“My apologies.”

“Ha…”

The sound of a smooth, human voice was somewhat of a relief to you.

You could talk your way out of this one.

“You know, I’ve been waiting for this for a very… long… time...”

…Or maybe you couldn’t.

Inwardly you groaned, wanting to cry, “Fancy being a good Samaritan and forgive me for my sins?” you tried. It was always worth preaching kindness to your potential murderer in what could very well be your final moments. They didn’t teach that at school, but it must’ve worked at least once before, right?

“Enlighten me.” The person- a man- behind you sounded stiff.

“I dunno,” you smiled weakly, “It might seem difficult to believe but… there could be a few people who’d have a bone to pick with me right now.”

The man behind you hummed in thought, “I’m shocked.”

“Really?” Since you started working more hours, you’d dealt with countless curse users. It’d be a surprise to you if there wasn’t a request for your bounty for you on some dodgy website. As much as you’d love a copy of your own ‘DEAD OR ALIVE’ poster to frame, the ‘ALIVE’ part terrified you. Unfortunately, being a wanted person wasn’t quite the honour that Luffy made it out to be.

“No.”

You scowled. In response, the man’s voice rang out behind you, “You don’t recognise me?”

“Aww,” you turned your head slightly to grin over your shoulder, “Did you think you were special? I’m sorry if I didn’t make it clear that we weren’t gonna be exclusive.”

Suddenly you were being spun around.

“Are you sure that you don’t recognise me?”

You blinked.

You blinked twice.

That voice…

“Holy shit.”

The man looked at you in the dark.

“You’re that monk from the train.” …No… you knew him...

The man’s grip on you tightened, “Come on...”

You winced, “Is that… not it?” When he didn’t reply, you partially disregarded your fear in lieu of guilt, leaning closer to squint at him, “I can’t really see, sorry...”

“Oh, hang on-”

No, you definitely recognised him… buried deep in your subconscious… somewhere…

“Holy shit.” you exclaimed.

“Geto?”

Exasperated, Geto looked down at you.

“Obviously.”

“Sorry.” you smiled, sheepishly, “You wouldn’t have happened to see a window around here, would you?”

Geto’s frowned, “There never was one, it was a set-up.”

“Why?”

“I wanted to intercept the students… but you’re here instead.” You cringed.

Man, he’s pissed…

“Geeze, sorry.” you drawled.

It was strange seeing him again. Truthfully, you had no idea how to act around him. You still couldn’t see him very well, but the glistening gold silk on his robes made him shine like a heavenly figure, though considering his criminal record… he probably wouldn’t be an angel.

There were better places to run into your teen crush-turned-serial killer.

“There’s a special grade curse in there.” you pointed to the operating room you’d just backed away from.

Geto looked at you strangely, “I know, I put it there.”

Of course.

“Seriously?” you muttered, embarrassed, “Almost gave me a heart attack, you know…”

An awkward silence arose between the two of you. You had planned your reunion with him countless times when you were younger. Out of the hundreds of different scenarios, none of them started like this.

“I… um…” you scratched the back of your neck, “Wanna go outside? It’s just… it’s dark in here… I can’t, you know…” you cleared your throat, “I can’t see you.”

“It’s raining.” Geto replied dubiously, watching you as if he expected something,

You raised an eyebrow, “You scared or somethin’?”

Geto snorted, “Of course not, excuse me for not wanting to get soaked.”

“Right.” you’d forgotten about the rain, it wasn’t difficult to believe that it had gotten heavier than before, “We can sit in the reception if you don’t mind getting mesothelioma.”

“It’s not exactly ideal,” Geto sighed, “but sure that works.”

You wanted to slap yourself for the awkwardness between the two of you, but there was something about it which reminded you of your fondness for Geto. That was it, wasn’t it? The fact you were always able to be a social disaster around him was what initially drew you to him. He was patient, but not pitiful. Truthfully, sometimes he was even worse than you.

He followed you to the bottom floor as you headed towards the front door. Once you were outside, you turned to get a proper look at him. True, he was recognisable, but he had changed so much in these last years. Notably, Geto’s face had slimmed, emphasising the sharp angle of his cheekbones and the hollowness of his cheeks. He was less of a boy now, and if you hadn’t known him beforehand, he would’ve intimidated you. His hair was longer too, the strands framing his face reached the peak of his nose whilst the rest touched his lower back. Geto’s eyes were exactly how you remembered them though; deep and pensive. He had the kind of resting expression which made you second guess yourself when you suggested something. It had always seemed that with every casual, self-deprecating joke, Geto was analysing it, carefully peeling the fragile layers of the satirical overtones to expose your innermost vulnerabilities. To many, it was unnerving. Any casual comment intended to pull a negligent laugh from others received a dark, analytical look from Geto. That’s how it had always been, and it’s why you had taken a liking to him. Often, you couldn’t find the confidence to admit to distress or insecurity, but Geto always knew. He knew from the way you would chastise yourself for the smallest mistakes, and the fact you’d stop talking when you were overwhelmed. You didn’t have to say anything, and that was a relief to you. Geto knew. You wondered if he knew how you were feeling now- you sure didn’t.

“Are you ok?” you asked, eyebrows furrowed. He was always difficult to read but he just looked at you. He wasn’t glaring, he wasn’t staring, he was just… looking. You watched him expectantly. “Geto?” you pressed. Geto didn’t respond, at least verbally. He just looked moderately pained, as he once did when he’d linger in the morgue with Shoko. His eyes flickered from you to the ground, almost… shyly? Was he shy?

“I was waiting for you.” Geto muttered, “You never came.”

Oh. Yeah.

Nevermind.

The honeymoon of your reunion ended with the clanging of a guillotine over cupid’s head. Inside of you, a small, childish hope had foolishly sprouted, praying that he’d be understanding. You cringed as you felt it shrivel up in the deepest depth of your gut, the blossoms blackening and ripping as it rotted within you.

“You act like your defection didn’t permanently scar the jujutsu society.” Geto raised his eyebrows, “Yes, it did.” you pressed before he could protest, “I couldn’t leave, even if I had wanted to. Yaga and Gojo wouldn’t let me out of their sight.”

And just like that, you were arguing.

“Did you even try?” he scoffed.

You groaned, “Believe it or not, Geto, becoming the housewife of a wanted criminal isn’t quite on my agenda. In fact, because of you I have more work to do than ever. We all do.”

“Just because everyone else is willing to suffer a poor job doesn’t mean you have to in order to save them.” Geto narrowed his eyes.

“Sure, but some don’t have a choice.” you challenged, “Remember Gojo?”

Geto scoffed, “Remember Satoru? Of course I do.” It was a low blow, you realised, but you couldn’t quite bring yourself to feel guilty. “Who do you think I am?” he asked, voice low and hurt.

You shifted, awkwardly, “You left him to suffer.”

“He’s suffering?” Geto’s tone dulled.

You didn’t know whether you wanted to laugh or cry, “You thought he wouldn’t?” a pause. “Well,” you added, quietly, “I don’t know if he’s realised it yet but… yeah, he is.”

“Oh.” Geto’s lips thinned, offence flashing in his narrowed gaze, “Why would you tell me that?” he muttered, flinching backwards as if your words had punctured him like a misfired bullet.

“You wanted to know why I didn’t join you. That’s why.” You looked away, failing to grasp for words that would just fix things between you, “Well, that amongst other reasons…” You didn’t want to explain your own turmoil and struggles. Love didn’t equate to trust. You loved his touch and who he was, but you couldn’t trust the man in front of you to hear you and react fairly. It was all too predictable, and you feared that if you told him, your instincts would be proven. Sure, he’d always been cunning and sly, but also… manipulative. The word struggled to materialise in your brain, your subconscious trying to sugarcoat it as ‘intelligence’ and ‘caring’ in its reluctance to face his change.

His upset gaze softened, “Other reasons?”

You shook your head, “It’s not important right now.”

“I’d beg to differ.” Geto argued, “I have a right to know.” He was pushing you, testing you, even. You weren’t in the right headspace for this, you were so tired… so, so tired…

“You have no such right,” you scoffed, “but I apologise that you weren’t prepared for the consequences of your own actions.” A tense moment passed and you sighed, “If it helps, I wasn’t either.”

It was a poor attempt at softening the blow of your unfiltered words, but it wasn’t untrue. Betrayal pinched and poked at the supple flesh of your heart. You needed to realise it but… it wasn’t that easy. “No,” Geto stepped towards you, “It doesn’t.”

“Pity.” you rolled your eyes.

The dry remark left your lips before you could stop yourself. Geto froze. The silence that followed weighed on your shoulders, guilt creeping up on you.

“I’m sorry.” you murmured, “I shouldn’t have gotten your hopes up.”

The crawling discomfort at your own insincerity grasped your shoulders with heavy talons, the needle-sharp fingertips grazing your gentle skin, teasing your raw skin as blood threatened to bead in their wake and flow.

“It’s fine.” Geto said, stiffly.

You groaned internally, it all felt so childish. For a fleeting moment, you questioned the boy you once knew. Was Geto the boy who’d read with you on those humid summer nights, or was he the unsettling murderer in front of you?

“I wasn’t expecting you to keep to your promise.” he added, bluntly.

“I mean, I was 17,” you agreed carefully, “I had no idea what the future would hold. Neither did you.”

It was a lifeline, the final one you could spare. You could only beg that Geto would catch it with splayed hands.

Geto looked at you with scrutiny, “That’s true.”

It was enough. You could work with this.

You watched him warily, nodding slowly.

“Was it worth it?” Geto asked, seemingly more neutral.

Was it worth it?

“I don’t know.” You replied, honestly, “Things could be better.”

Geto stepped forward, putting his hand on your shoulder, “Then come with me. If things are worse, go back and I’ll take the blame.”

All too forward, predictable and exactly what you feared.

“…if you want to,” he added a second too late.

With narrowed eyes, you ignored him, instead choosing to glance around the clearing, noting the same emptiness as before. Geto didn’t move, his hair starting the curl as rain drenched the two of you. His hand on your shoulder started to feel heavy as he squeezed you gently, letting the presence of his reluctant affection be known, despite his hard stare. What could you do? You were still as unsure as you were 6 years ago about joining him.

“Where are you staying?” you asked, the action of your head cocking allowing cold droplets to trickle down the side of your neck. You regretted it instantly. Perhaps a change of environment would help things. Perhaps it’d help you understand.

“Not far from here.” Geto responded monotonously.

“I’d like to come over.” you tried, “Not for long.”

He nodded to himself, “Ok.”

Then he spared you a small smile and your heart leaped with the first and only genuine affection he’d shown you since you’d reunited.

That was him. That was Geto, right there. It wasn’t much, but you revelled in what you had.

You inwardly sighed, tiredly.

Maybe, just maybe, the two of you would get there in the end.

As you journeyed to his home, which really was in the middle of nowhere, you sat side by side in what was mostly silence. The two of you talked too, dropping shallow comments about your lives and complaints about the overly-touchy couple on the other side of the carriage as you took the train a few stops further out. More and more, Geto seemed like himself, even if the progress was minuscule. It was something. If anything, hope thumped in your chest- naive hope albeit, but hope nonetheless. After a while, you finally approached his home. It looked small, yet lived-in. Outside, rows of vegetation orbited the building, as well as trees bearing fruit in various stages of ripeness.

“The girls are out, I’m afraid.” Geto called behind his shoulder as he unlocked the door, holding it open for you.

“Girls?” you inquired as you walked in, “Daughters or hostages?”

Geto laughed quietly, “Daughters.”

“You got a chick pregnant?” your response was paired with the twitch of your lip and the stutter in your step. You knew it was hypocritical, the sinking disappointment, you chastised yourself for feeling it… however...

The door clicked behind him and you heard his footsteps stilled behind you, “Does it matter?”

“Yes.” you replied, shortly.

“C’mon.”

You turned to look at him, blankly.

“Of course not.” Geto rolled his eyes.

You blinked, “Oh.”

“They’re adopted.” The way Geto said your name afterwards was in disbelief, “I told you I waited, didn’t I?”

“You may have mentioned it,” you sniffed, “yes.”

Geto raised an eyebrow, “You’re unbelievable,” he walked past you, brushing your shoulder as he did so, “you’re seriously more butthurt by that than the fact I murder people?”

“Ok?” you felt your cheeks burn, “And what if I am? I have priorities, Geto.”

He turned to look at you, his eyes boring into yours, “So, your priorities are… what, exactly?

“Um…” You scratched the back of your neck, “Nothin’” you waved your hand dismissively with a strained grin. “None of your business, really.” you rambled, searching desperately for some sort of a reaction, “You could use it against me, y’know? It’d be very dangerous if I told you.”

Geto looked at you strangely, “…Right.”

He was supposed to smile… or laugh… or do something at the very least, not just… walk past you…

You wanted to press rewind and try this all again.

You wanted to go home.

After a lost moment, you followed him helplessly. It was a simple home. There was more evidence of life there than there was at your home, you knew that for sure. Drawings that were clearly drawn by an adolescent hand were woven throughout the decorations, depicting a family of three. It was clear that they were close. You felt left out. It seemed you had missed out on so much. Maybe Geto was right, maybe this was a better life. It still didn’t remove your responsibility in the shaman world, but Gojo’s students were the strongest they’d seen in years, right? Maybe you were allowed this. Maybe you were allowed to welcome your lover as they walked through the door in the evening, embracing them softly. Maybe you could have this life. It seemed completely out-of-touch, you couldn’t just leave. You knew that. However… something was stopping you.

Geto led you to his kitchen, pouring you a glass of water.

“Oh?” you took the glass from him with a small smile.

Geto pushed it into your hands, “Don’t tell me you’ve miraculously stopped being so dehydrated since we last talked.”

He had a point, to be fair.

“Yeah, you’re right.” You took a sip of the cool water, “I don’t think I’ve had pure water for around 48 hours…” you murmured absentmindedly, the rim of the glass pressed against your lower lip as you spoke, your breath fogging up the glass.

Geto grimaced, “Shouldn’t you be taking care of yourself? You’re not a teenager anymore.” he looked at you, clearly unimpressed, “I just hope your diet is faring better.”

“You’d think, right?” you watched his lips thin.

Geto muttered your name under his breath, “Seriously?”

“Been too busy.”

“When was the last time you ate?”

You hummed pensively, “Good question.”

The way Geto spoke your name this time was dull, his eyebrows furrowed. You took a sip of water.

“Fine, I’ll cook you something now,” he turned his back on you, “do you still like spicy food?”

You watched as he gathered ingredients and boiled a pot of water. It was a shy wash of comfort, being back in his presence like this. Lord knows how long it had been since someone last took care of you. The rising smell of fresh vegetables seemed almost foreign to you at this point. Whilst the noodles were cooking, Geto disappeared momentarily as he changed into a baggy t-shirt and trousers. There he was, he was more like the man you remembered. Less tired, perhaps, though maybe you had taken on that burden in exchange. You didn’t speak as you idly sipped on the water, feeling like a small child as he cooked the first proper meal that you would eat in ages. He hummed softly as he mixed the broth, it was something you hadn’t seen him do before. His voice was low, almost inaudible, as he repeated the melody of a song you knew he loved…

What was it…?

Geto’s humming turned to soft singing as he stirred the broth.

…Isn’t it good?

Norwegian wood…

Oh, now you remembered it.

…She asked me to stay,

And she asked me to sit anywhere…

You hadn’t heard that song for years, not since he left. Geto used to play music as he cooked, ambling around the kitchen as he hummed to himself. You remembered how Gojo used to tease him about his ‘old man’ music. You did too. Affectionately, of course. It seemed so long ago, how you’d all linger in the doorway, despite his questionable music taste, hoping to grab a bite of whatever he was cooking. You forgot how good of a cook he was, you were looking forward to your meal.

As he cooked, the songs changed, ranging from ones you remembered to what you guessed were newer additions. When Geto began dishing up the food, he gestured for you to sit in the living room. And so you did, settling onto a sofa as you eagerly anticipated your meal. After a moment, he sat down opposite you, placing the bowl on the coffee table in front of you with a gentle tap.

You felt the warmth of the steam below your chin as you picked the bowl up.

“None for yourself?” you asked before experimentally sipping the broth.

It was as good as you remembered, you gladly noted.

Geto shook his head, “I already ate.”

“Ah.” you took a mouthful of noodles, “Makes sense.”

You ate in what was mostly stiff silence, interrupted by a few passing comments about the food or your lives. Out of the corner or your eye, you noticed Geto watching you, head resting on his hand. His lips were tugged into a pensive frown, his gaze gentle yet lost, as if a whirlwind of thoughts happened to be storming in his mind. Had you been less tired, maybe you’d be doing the same. Right now, however, you were enjoying some warm, hearty home cooking. Overthinking could wait, you were hungry.

“What will you do when you’re done here?” Geto asked suddenly, voice raised.

You swallowed your mouthful, studying him carefully, “Huh?”

“You would be less overworked if you reported me, so will you?”

What kind of question was that?

“I’m not gonna do that,” you swirled the noodles through the broth absentmindedly, “Though I do have a question…”

Geto raised an eyebrow.

“Assuming I don’t report you, I’ll be neutral,” slowly, you sat back, watching him, “Taking that neutrality assumes the side of the oppressor, then who do I side with?”

He sighed, “Me. Probably. That’s what you think, right?”

“Is it?,” your fingers drummed against the armrest, noting his tone like a pinch of salt mixed into a pot of honey, “Does that make Gojo the oppressed?”

“Going by that logic, yes,” he replied, too easily.

You took another mouthful, suddenly grateful for the distraction of eating, “And I?”

“Shooting yourself in the foot,” Geto said after a pause, “to you.”

“To me?” you echoed quietly, “I guess.”

“Still going to protect me?” Geto’s lip twitched as he watched you, ever-so carefully.

“I guess.” you repeated. The last thing you needed from him was a rivalry, you were initially hoping for a truce of some sort but the void darkness in his eyes drained the last hope you had. “I’m not here for justice or to solve anything, I’m here for money, mostly.”

Geto snorted shortly, “No different to the rest, then.”

“I guess not.” you chose to ignore the sting behind his words.

The two of you settled into waves of rumbling quiet as you finished your food. Geto seemed somewhat more distracted as he began to hum again, almost inaudible to you this time. You missed this- him, even. Despite the obvious, he held some sort of familiarity to you that not many did- now that you savoured. The two of you came together as you tried to fit together again, pushing and pulling at each other like oil and water.

“Y’know,” you placed the bowl down, “you’re acting all strange.”

Geto grinned, thinly, “Am I?”

“You are,” you couldn’t help but match his expression, “you know it too.”

His smile widened like the Cheshire cat, “Do I?”

“You do.”

A second of silence lugged by like a three ton truck.

“I missed you, Geto.”

The rain knocked against the windows gently, beading like crystals in front of the puffs of smoky black clouds consuming the sky. The lack of sunlight meant the room became darker too, the dim light doing little to relieve the gloominess of the bad weather. Outside, a wind chime rattled with the gust of the temperamental wind. Inside, the soft tapping of Geto’s fingers against the wooden table paused, leaving the ticking of the clock to slice through the ambient howling and tapping of the weather against the walls. Inside of you, however, your heart and brain played a tentative game of tug of war. You just did something big.

Like, really fucking big.

Well… not really, but nobody had told that to Geto, evidently, suggested by the way he gasped at you almost comically, eyebrows arched.

“I also like you, so if you wouldn’t mind fishing out the astronomical log up your ass, I’d like to have a conversation with you about it.”

Geto coughed, “Ok.”

“Ok?”

“Ok.”

You looked at him, an eyebrow raised.

“You didn’t even try to reach out to me.” he started, bluntly. “You didn’t try to find me. None of you did.”

You swallowed, suddenly feeling very unprepared.

Geto continued, “I’m not even upset that you didn’t come with me, you just didn’t tell me.” you nodded, mind racing.

“I couldn’t.” you replied.

“And that’s the worst bit,” His lip twitched as he looked away, “I can’t even be mad at you for it. You were just protecting yourself-”

“And you.”

Geto blinked.

“I was being tracked.”

Geto’s lips parted slightly.

“Same reason Gojo and Shoko didn’t come to you,” you told him, “Gojo knows where you are, he has done since the day he found out you left.”

“Oh.”

“I’m sorry, Geto.”

“I mean,” Geto coughed, “It’s fine I guess, but-”

“Not for that,” you rushed, gaining an unimpressed look from the man opposite you, “I’m sorry that things happened this way. I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help you when you were spiralling. I’m sorry that there was nobody there for you when you left.” you took a deep breath, “I wasn’t the person you needed me to be, though I’d like to be. If you’ll let me.”

Geto studied you, pensively, “Does that mean you’re staying?”

You winced, “I’m not leaving you again.” you offered. You weren’t quite ready to admit to yourself that you were leaving home. Not yet, anyway. “I’m not doing any of the murdering though, you can do that.” you grimaced.

After a pause, Geto laughed.

“Ok.” His gaze was warmer than it had been, more open, “I’d love that.”

“Murder? Yeah I figured.” you muttered despite yourself.

Geto simply laughed harder. He really was a sight for sore eyes. The way he smiled, the way he looked away when he smiled, the way his hair fell over his face when he shook too much… God, you-

“I missed you too.”

Your mind went black.

Oh, you had told him, hadn’t you? And he felt the same way. Surely there was a logical conclusion to this.

You stood and moved to sit next to him. Then you leaned towards him, noticing the way he flushed at the proximity.

“Can I?” your hands hovered in front of you as you moved to touch him.

He nodded.

Your hands tentatively reached to cradle the sides of his face, thumbs gently rubbing circles into the curve of his jaw. Geto’s hands moved to cover yours as he watched you, wide eyed.

“Can we? I’ve wanted this for so long… Just- trust me, ok?” you whispered, stumbling over your words, your voice low. He nodded faintly before his eyes flashed with indescribable emotion.

“Ok.” Geto sighed, almost inaudibly to you.

You smiled, “Ok.”

As you withdrew your touch, your fingertips lingered on his skin, grazing the surface of his soft, olive cheeks. He tilted his head as you moved, chasing your warm palms.

“Can I kiss you… Suguru?”

You saw him stiffen as his name rolled off your tongue. Geto blinked at you before the corners of his mouth twitched upwards in a grin. In place of a verbal response, he mimicked your earlier actions, taking your head into his palms. His touch was gentle, yet firm as he guided your face towards his. The feeling of Geto’s warm breath on your smiling lips made you buzz with anticipation, the butterflies in your stomach fluttering as you itched towards the sweet nectar of his mouth. He met you in the middle, fingers threading through your hair as he ever-so gently scratched your scalp with his blunt nails. You sighed, content, eyelashes fluttered close against your hot cheeks. It was a nostalgic kiss, a loving one, not the same heated one you shared so long ago. As your lips moved against one another’s, you were fixated on the lingering heat of his body, craving it like an addict for the mere seconds the two of you parted for air.

As soon as Geto urged your lips open with the swipe of his tongue, you knew you weren’t going back.

The desperately intimate movements of your tongues became hypnotic: rubbing, prodding, tangling. Your hands had slipped round his neck, your chest pressed against his torso. When you parted, you buried your head in the crook of his neck, lips pressed against the flushed skin as you panted. Above you, Geto gently stroked your hair, playing with the soft strands as you both gave yourselves time. You weren’t teenagers anymore, you couldn’t jump into something so intense without the knowledge that there was definitely an unwavering mutual understanding between the two of you. Slowly, you pulled away, looking up at him with wide eyes. The hand in your hair moved to brush the stray hairs away from your face, tucking them neatly behind your ear.

“Are you ok?” Geto murmured, leaning into you so that his lips hovered millimetres away from your cheek. The proximity, whilst lustful on the surface, carried more depth than you could comprehend. The weight of his hands, his lips, his voice, his words, were like bricks in your pockets, pulling you impossibly deeper into the encompassing aura of - just him. You couldn’t pinpoint what it was in particular that pulled you to him, realistically you knew it was a mixture of the history you shared and the absence you’d endured, but it was overwhelming and not enough all at once. Maybe it’d be a while until the trust you’d once shared would be recovered. Maybe it never would be. The consequences of your assumptions and his isolation could haunt you together. His radicalisation, your indecisiveness… maybe you were a lost cause, but the way hummed so soothingly as you nodded your affirmation doused your doubts immediately. He kissed you again, harsher this time, his grip on you tighter as he held you with desperation. You knew then, if you left now, you were never to be forgiven. But if you stayed... If you stayed, he’d never let you go.

Each touch rolled into another like the crashing of waves. Your shirt had been discarded by the fireplace a while ago, leaving Geto to revise the curves and contours of your torso with his left hand, fingers dipping into the hollows of your ribs and splaying over the small of your back. The whole time, he watched you, eyebrows pinched and mouth frowning in thought as he traced the tempestuous dark circles below your eyes with his right thumb. You were patient, meeting his distracted gaze as you idly played with his hair. This wasn’t the rushed goodbye you’d shared 6 years ago, this was a coronation of his love. Minutes passed and you were laid on the sofa, bare to his dark eyes. You had taken it upon yourself to step out of your underwear and to unclasp your bra. It was endearing, the way Geto obediently watched, eyes flicking between your breasts and cunt as you dropped the garments to the side. Amused, you cocked your head to the side, “Are you ok?”

Geto blinked at you, tugging at the hem of his shirt, “Yes,” he mumbled, looking to the side embarrassedly as he pulled his shirt over his head, “how did you want to do this?”

You hummed in thought. To be honest, you weren’t really that bothered, but it touched you that he asked. Though, you were aching and tired, so.. “As we are,” you replied, stifling a yawn, “please.”

He smiled at your apparent tiredness and pressed a chaste kiss to your forehead, “I’ll go slow but tell me if it’s too much, ok?”

You nodded.

“Good girl.”

Good girl?

Good. Girl.

You were fucking reeling.

After Geto wrestled his trousers and boxers off, he slid his hand between your thighs and pushed them apart, carefully. He leaned over you, using his own thighs to keep yours open as he kissed you again, messily, lazily. You sighed into his mouth, wrapping your arms around his neck as he moved his knee forward until it grazed your most sensitive parts. As Geto slipped his tongue into your mouth, you gasped at the sudden plethora of sensations- all of them far too much, yet far too good. You took your time as you grinded against his knee, moaning and muttering curses against his swollen lips. A few years ago, maybe you would’ve been embarrassed by the amount of time it took for you to feel ready to take him, but you didn’t want to rush this. It was as precious as the climax itself, and the pleasure of basking in his warmth and affection made you giddy and hot. You cracked an eye open as you parted for air to check on Geto, your hips not stopping their lethargic, yet desperate rocking against his knee. What you found wasn’t boredom or impatience, rather intense affection and peace in the stare of your lover. It was oddly sweet compared to the obscene way his knee glistened with your slick. Content, you closed your eyes again, letting Geto’s gentle lips on your chest and neck lull you into an orgasm that had your toes curling and back arching. He coaxed you down with soft encouragement and kisses as he moved his knee from your core.

You grinned as you looked at his awed expression, “Come on.” you teased. Geto rolled his eyes before adjusting your positions.

After a moment he settled, lowering himself to be closer to you. “I love you,” he whispered, peppering kisses over your face, “so, so much.”

A smile spread across your face before you could stop it, “I bet you say that to all of your victims.” you teased.

Geto groaned, “God, shut up.”

You laughed to yourself, breath catching as you felt him press against your entrance. The way he looked at you felt like lying in sunlight, and you forgot how tired and irritable you had been. This was all you had ever needed. Him- that was all.

It had been a while since you last slept with anyone, so the intrusion initially stung. However, a few kisses and gentle whispers later, he had eased himself in completely, and you were burning with anticipation. Geto looked at you carefully, visibly holding himself back.

“Are you ok?”

“Yeah,” you adjusted yourself slightly, “m’fine.”

He grinned, kissing the column of your neck before he started moving, hands bracing you by your hips. Beads of sweat had appeared on his forehead and chest, causing his hair to stick to his face. You knew you were the same too, unable to ignore the way yours was sticking to your neck. Lazily, you pulled him further down onto you, wrapping your legs around his hips like a boa constrictor, causing him to penetrate you even deeper. The silence of the room was disrupted by the rhythmic groans and gasps the two of you released every time he rocked into you. You were so full, it felt like your nerves were on fire as he pushed against that spot inside of you that made you see heaven.

“Shit-” you whimpered as he sped up, biting into his shoulder as you gasped and moaned against the reddened skin.

Geto wasn’t faring much better as he uttered curses against your cheek, mixed within prayers and declarations of your beauty and significance.

“You’re so,” Thrust. “Fucking,” Thrust. “Pretty,” Thrust. “Like this-”

You could feel the hot puffs of air against your ear as he helplessly whined, his pace quickening despite himself.

“I’ve been,” Thrust. “Thinking about,” Thrust. “Doing this,” Thrust. “Since,” Thrust. “Last time-”

You couldn’t help it, the way his words drove you towards your peak like a wildfire.

“Please, Suguru,” you moaned, rocking against him as his cock hammered into you, “I’m so..”

“Close?” Geto grunted, “You’re close?”

“Fuck- yes!”

He swore under his breath.

Your back arched, chest pressing against his as his calloused fingers found your throbbing, ever-so sensitive clit.

You were so close, so, so, so close…

“Cum for me.”

With a scream, your orgasm washed over you, causing you to tremble with the intensity. Geto’s pace didn’t falter as you rode out the after effects. Well, not until he followed you closely after. Hips stuttering, you whined as you felt his cum drip fill you. He moaned loudly, eyebrows furrowed and abs flexed. You decided that it was one of the most beautiful sights in the world.

For a while, you panted against each other, Geto had collapsed on top of you and was now curled into you, head tucked beneath your chin. Absentmindedly, you stroked his air, sighing softly as he kissed your neck tenderly.

“Did I hurt you?” you felt his voice vibrate through where you were touching. Geto’s voice was low and rough- exhausted probably.

“Nah,” you replied easily, “tired though.”

He yawned, “Stay here then.” he muttered, sounding half asleep.

You laughed sardonically, “Is this part of your elite plan to stop me going back?”

Geto sat up, looking at you strangely, “You’re still thinking of going back?” He sounded more judgemental than hurt.

“Well,” you snorted, “probably not now.”

“Fucking hell,” Geto flopped down next to you, cuddling you again, “you scared me.”

You kissed the crown of his head apologetically, “Sorry, Suguru.”

The two of you laid on the sofa together in silence, communicating purely through loving touches and glances. Outside, you heard the rain become heavier on the windows, drowning out the buzz of the kitchen.

“I love you too,” you blurted, suddenly reminded of his abrupt confession, “by the way.”

Geto huffed, “I figured.”

“I’m staying here.” you added. A confirmation.

You felt him press a lingering kiss to your cheek.

“I figured that one too.”

You sighed, “I’ll need to go home and grab my stuff… and quit my job…” Geto snickered on top of you, “what a bore…”

“How long will that take?” he asked, voice rough.

“Like,” you wrinkled your nose, “three days, maybe.”

Geto groaned, “‘S long time.”

“Yeah,” you agreed irritably, “what a drag.”

He snorted, “I miss you already.”

“Tease.”

[idkthisisjustforfanfic]

too soon to tell, chapter t w o

You dropped your bag in the foyer of Harry’s house after work on a Thursday. It was quiet--he wasn’t home yet and you’d keyed in knowing that you’d have some time to yourself.

You felt a vibrating in your pocket when you shrugged off your coat, your visible reflection told you it was a FaceTime call, Alyssa’s name danced across the screen until you slid your thumb to answer.

“Hello, hello,” you greeted, walking to find a seat on the couch.

“Where are you?” She furrowed her brows as she took in your surroundings.

“At Harry’s--he’s out, though.”

She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. “I will never get sick of you lounging in his house when he’s not there.”

You rolled your eyes at your old roommate’s antics--she’d always been the number one supporter of your relationship and when you texted her earlier saying you needed advice, she promised to call on her lunch break.

“I’m not lounging,” you informed with a shake of your head. “I just got out of work, we’re having dinner tonight.”

“Mr. Popstar isn’t too busy?” She teased, aware of the tension both of your schedules had been causing.

“Apparently not.”

She forked a bite of food into her mouth, the sun was shining through the window behind her, the walls of your old apartment were redecorated now with the art of your replacement. “Is that what you wanted to talk about?”

“Sort of,” you leaned back and let out a breath. “I mean, it’s all connected--”

“What is?”

“I’m getting to it,” you made a face at her through the phone. “So--don’t freak out, okay? Cause I don’t even know if anything will come from it and Harry doesn’t know yet.”

She nodded and gestured with her hand for you to get on with it.

Knowing Alyssa, she was already jumping to conclusions in her head. You were pregnant, you were engaged, you quit your job, you had a huge fight with your sister. No, no, no.

“I interviewed for a job in LA...and I haven’t told Harry because all our friends have been so excited about us being in the same spot again but--”

Her eyes went wide at the mention of a US city, she did her best to hold back her smile until it faded when you said: “I don’t know. Something feels off between us.”

“Off between you and Harry? More than just being busy?”

“I’m probably overthinking it but,” you looked around his living room. Pictures of his mum, his sister, his cousins--even his manager--were tucked in frames and placed on shelves. There wasn’t a trace of you in his house except for the toothbrush upstairs and the key on your keyring.

“It feels like we’re not moving forward. And we’ve both been busy, like I’ve told you, but since we don’t live together sometimes we go days without seeing each other and it’s fine, I get that he’s busy, obviously, but--”

“But you want to move in with him.”

“Well, I don’t know--I did, sort of, I think--but then I heard about this job in LA and it sounds amazing but Jessie just moved here and no one will shut up about how great London is.”

Alyssa offered a sympathetic frown and repositioned the bowl in front of her to get another bite. “What’s the job?”

You almost didn’t want to tell her, sure she’d get excited and eager to have you back in the same country. You winced a little, bracing for her reaction. “S’with E! News,” you shrugged. “It’d be on-air.”

“Shut up! Are you serious?!”

“Yes m’serious,” you rolled your eyes. “But I haven’t told any of them because you know how they are.”

She nodded, “Jessie will not want you to take it.”

“God love her, but of course not. And Harry spends time out there, so it might be okay, but it’s not like I could ask him to go with me.”

“Why not? He’s famous, Y/N--he belongs there.”

“It’s too soon,” you whined. “He’s not my fiancé and we don’t live together, so--I don’t want to make it weird.”

“But you love him,” she reasoned.

“Yeah, but s’been weird lately!" You tried to drive home the point. "He’s made no mention of moving in and we’ve been dating for a year and a half, I’ve been in London for over a year now. He’s not even mentioned it, Alyssa, I swear. He’ll say things like ‘one day we can go on vacation,’ and ‘what should we do for Christmas?’ But he’s made no concrete plans to actually have a future with me.”

“Maybe he doesn’t think you’re ready.”

“Maybe he’s not ready,” you volleyed.

“Maybe,” Alyssa shrugged. “But you won’t know if you don’t ask him.”

“But if I ask him and he’s not on the same page I’ll look like an idiot and he’s busy with the album and now I’m thinking about moving to LA and--”

She watched you, waited for you to say more, but you were out of words. You changed gears.

“Maybe we’re just not meant to be long term.”

“Oh come on,” she groaned. “Not this again.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Your whole ‘we should have left it in New York’ shit.”

You lifted your eyebrows to demand further details.

“You were freaked out in the beginning that you’d move back there and it would be weird.”

“And?”

“Was it weird?”

“Not at first, I guess. But I mean, come on---don’t you think we should have taken some kind of step forward by now? Even just mentioning the idea of moving in together?”

“I don’t know,” she said truthfully. “Maybe it’s different with someone like him.”

You rolled your eyes--what if that’s what you were sick of?

People always said that: it’s different because of his job, it’s different because he’s on the road, it’s different because he’s famous.

Of course it was, and that was fine, for a while. But what if Harry’s job always got in the way of feeling normal? What if you couldn’t have a real wedding because of it? What if you could never send your children to summer camp because of it?

Were you willing to sacrifice your own future to live an unconventional life with someone just because you loved him?

“When will you hear back about the job?”

“Dunno--talked to them last week on Monday and they said this week at some point. S'been a while, so hopefully soon.”

You’d been keeping busy, trying to avoid your personal email at all costs and also making sure that Harry had limited visibility of your screen at all times.

“Do you want it?”

You thought on it for a second. Being offered a job at a company like E! would certainly be an ego boost, but the mere thought of having to explain to all of your friends that yes, you’d been back in London for 18 months and now you were packing up and moving even farther away than before wouldn’t be easy. That seemed to be the one certainty in the whole situation: no one would take it well.

“I don’t want to leave everyone here, especially Harry--but I also don’t want to be stupid and think that this relationship is going somewhere if it’s not.”

Alyssa nodded and let out a sigh. “I get that, I mean, of course you have to do what’s best for you. But I’d hate to see you not be with him just because things are hard right now.”

You leaned your head back on the couch and sighed. You didn’t want to break up with Harry. If anything, you wanted to move forward and move in with him and do what you’d always imagined: have a good job, have a few kids, try to be happy.

But what if you’d been naive enough to think you could have all of that with Harry and what if this is how you were finding out that you couldn’t?

Were you still stuck in your teenage fantasy of marrying the boy you'd long been crushing on?

She watched you for a second before she reassured: “you’ll figure it out.”

You smiled, glad you’d called Alyssa if only to have someone talk you off the edge a little bit. You missed waking up one room over and her love for basketball games and New York 99 cent pizza.

“Well it’s not like I have to make a decision right now,” you said. “I haven’t even heard back from them. For all I know they could never reach out again because I bombed my interview.”

She rolled her eyes at your self-deprecation and offered a few final words of encouragement before you hung up and promised to catch up soon.

Ever since you’d left, Alyssa had taken it upon herself to keep you up to date on the ins and outs of New York. New restaurant? She’d send you pictures and a 200 word review. Crazy subway rats making the news again? Articles and video proof would be sent your way in a matter of hours.

She’d gotten a new roommate to fill your bedroom and apparently things weren’t always peachy between them. Peyton was quiet and shy--according to Alyssa. She was up every morning at 6am and in the shower at 6:30. She did yoga in the living room and hated it when Alyssa left empty beer bottles on the coffee table.

Alyssa was starting to lose her shit, swearing up and down that she needed to either pull the trigger and move in with Owen or find a new place altogether. It was my apartment first, she’d say. She should leave, not me.

It had been hard that year to leave the city you’d grown to love but harder to leave Alyssa and Carly and the things that made New York feel like home. It was also, in hindsight, hard to leave the place where you and Harry reconnected and built the foundation of your current relationship.

You heard commotion from the front door only a few minutes later when you rummaged through Harry’s kitchen for a snack.

“Hi,” he called from the other room, a close-lipped smile when you stuck your head around the corner to greet him.

“Hi! How was the photoshoot?”

“Good,” he nodded, watching as you stuck your hand into a box of crackers. “What time are we meeting everyone?”

Right--Thursday also meant dinner somewhere downtown with everyone in tow.

“7pm--but Jessie said we should try to get there early since it’s a new place and no one’s ever been.”

He nodded in acknowledgement of your words but seemed distracted, like his mind was somewhere else and his body was the only thing tying him to the room.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” he nodded, looking back up at you. “Just a busy day and a busy week.”

You nodded, unsure if he wanted to say more or if you were supposed to have more of a reply than a simple nod of your head.

You’d both been stammering out awkward sentences and trying to dance around the elephant in the room for a few weeks, but now, under his gaze, you felt more uncertain than before.

“Are you okay?” He turned the question around and watched you closely.

“Yeah,” you shrugged, moving to sit on the couch.

“You seem--off.”

You didn’t know what it was. Could he possibly sense the tension in your shoulders as you waited for an email either way? You got the job! We regret to inform you…

Or was he just aware that you felt awkward since it had been almost two weeks since you had any considerable amount of alone time and even longer since you were able to have a date night that wasn’t interrupted by Jeff or Erica or someone who needed something from him.

He took a few steps closer towards you, a look of concern etched on his features. “What’s wrong?”

The words were on the tip of your tongue when he looked at you, eyebrows lifted as he waited for you to spit it out.

“I guess I feel like we’ve been distant.”

He pushed his head forward, almost like he hadn’t expected that to be the issue. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know,” you shrugged, caught off guard by his pushiness. Maybe you shouldn’t have brought it up.

“You don’t know?” He pressed.

You broke eye contact with him for a minute, wondering why you had to state the obvious. “Well, you’re busy all the time, Harry.”

He let his shoulders rise and fall in defeat, looking around the room in frustration. “I told you that finishing the album would be busy.”

“Yeah, but you forgot to mention that you’d also be busy when the album is done once promo starts and then tour,” your voice was quiet, not so much angry as you were upset.

You were tired. You wanted nothing more than to spend a night on the couch with him and only him, tell him about LA and about the sudden itch you felt to see more of the world than just London.

But with Jake and Adam always around and Bryn and Jessie, too, paired with interruptions from Jeff and Erica--it felt as if there was no hope for a private or honest conversation.

He came to sit closer to you on the couch now, took your hands in his. “I know my job is a lot, okay? I know it’s annoying that I don’t necessarily get weekends off or have a typical schedule, but once the album is out and the promo is done I’ll have a bit of a break before the tour. We can go on vacation somewhere, just us.”

It sounded nice, maybe a tropical island or a cabin in the woods. But before you could nod in agreement the thought of Los Angeles popped into your head.

His album was due out in December, promo from now through the New Year, some time off in February and March for both of your birthdays and then tour. You had no clue where you’d be by then.

Would you be in LA? Would you be in London? Would you be stuck in this same spot on his couch with decision paralysis and a crushing sense of uncertainty about the future?

He knew you were over-thinking and tilted his head. “What?”

You blew out a slow breath of air, twisted a ring on your finger and then looked up at him again.

You didn’t even have a chance to be more honest, a buzz on your phone on the coffee table in front of you both broke the room in half, the name of the woman you’d spoken to was in bold next to your email icon. You reached for it quickly, Harry’s brows furrowed when you pulled it close to your chest so he wouldn’t see.

“What’s that?”

Hi Y/N, thank you so much for your patience over the last few days. We would love to offer you a position with NBC Universal - E! News as an on-air correspondent in our Los Angeles headquarters.

You looked up at him quickly, cheeks red and heart racing.

“What’s happening, are you okay?”

“I got a job offer,” you said quickly, still holding the phone close to you.

“What?” He smiled, “why didn’t you tell me you were looking? I didn’t even know--”

“It’s in Los Angeles.”

His smile faded instantly, he blinked a few times like he must have misheard you. The leather of his couch felt cool beneath your legs, a clock on the wall ticked and for a second, you wondered if he could hear your pulse as loudly as you could.

He pulled his eyes away from you but then quickly scanned over your face. “Are you taking it?”

“I don’t know,” you said honestly.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Silence, words filled your brain and crawled up the back of your throat, desperate to be said out loud, in real life, instead of just circling in your head.

Because I don’t know what we’re doing or if we’re moving forward. I don’t know where I want to live. I don’t know if I can stay in London forever. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.

Only the last part made it out between your lips. “I don’t know.”

“Y/N,” he stood up, more angry now as he looked around the room and scratched at the base of his neck. “This kind of feels like a bombshell to drop on someone.”

“I was going to tell you--but we haven’t had a second alone, I just didn’t want to have to tell everyone before I knew what was happening.”

“You didn’t even tell me you interviewed,” he said.

“The last time I saw you alone we got interrupted by Erica three times in one conversation.”

“Probably for a good reason--”

“But you seriously can’t even put your phone down lately when we have dinner, even when everyone else is there!”

“I can’t help it that my work is insanely busy right now!”

“I don’t want to fight with you,” you said this quickly, voice higher than usual and a heat on your skin that he normally didn’t provoke, at least not in a bad way. You stood from the couch and put your hands on your hips. “I don’t know what I’m going to do and I don’t even know if this job is right for me and under no circumstances are you allowed to tell anyone. Especially Jessie.”

He rolled his eyes at that.

“What’s the eye roll for?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “Everyone just got back and now you might leave and--”

“I said I don’t know if I’m going to take it.”

He was quiet at that, clucked his tongue in thought but then disappeared upstairs to shower and change.

The car ride over was awkward, he asked how your day had been and you told him you talked to Alyssa, he bristled when you admitted you told her about it.

It wouldn’t be the end of the conversation, you were sure of that. You’d likely end up at his for the night and he’d apologize for being busy, you’d apologize for not telling him and maybe, you hoped, he’d ask you to stay over.

When you greeted Adam with a hug, you ignored Harry’s sour mood and opened the menu in front of you.

“My first dinner as a Londoner,” Jessie smiled, shimming her shoulders in excitement when Bryn looked over the specials across the table from you.

“This is on you, right? New job, new salary?” Jake teased.

“Maybe if I hadn’t just bought a whole new bedroom set,” she rolled her eyes.

“How’s everything with you?” Adam eyed Harry, his question veiled to avoid too many details in public.

Luckily, Harry’s ability to go out in public in London was similar to that in New York. As long as a private room or a table in the back was requested, he could typically get away unscathed if dinner was less than 2 hours and if he had his back to the dining room.

“Fine,” he shrugged, eyes still down at the drink menu.

“Fine?” Jessie leaned forward, her tone insinuating that she didn’t believe him. “You’ve been working really hard all summer and now all you say is ‘fine?’”

He glanced up at her, lips in a forced smile. “S’all good, Jess--just tired.”

Bryn gave you a look, one that asked what stick is up his ass?, before she changed the topic.

“Let’s not tell our server how fit she is tonight, yeah?”

Jake let out a snort of a laugh and sipped at the water that had already been brought to your table. “Alright, you thought the one last week was just as hot as I did.”

“I did,” Bryn agreed seriously, “but I didn’t offer my number unsolicited. How do you know she’s even straight?”

“She’s got a point,” Jessie chimed in. “Remember when you asked that girl to dance in the club when her girlfriend was right there with her arm around her?”

“I thought they were just mates!” Jake defended.

“You also have the worst radar for gay women ever,” Bryn nodded.

“When was this?” Harry asked, the hint of a smile on his face when he watched Jake adjust his napkin on his lap.

The words came out of your mouth without thought. “You weren’t here--you were in LA.”

He met your eyes when you replied, nodded, and then leaned back in his chair, effectively bowing out of the conversation without saying another word.

You weren’t trying to be short with him. You looked over to Jessie, who undoubtedly sensed the tension, and offered a smile. “How’s the flat?”

“Good,” she nodded. “Glad that all my furniture got put together without any scratches,” she reached over and patted Adam on the shoulder.

“We’re not children, Jessie, we can handle some furniture.”

“You broke my dresser when I asked you guys to move it into another room,” Bryn reminded, a look of confusion on her face at Adam’s retort.

“Only because it was already half broken and a piece of shit,” Jake said. “I love you, Brynnie, but that dresser was already knocking on Heaven’s door.”

Harry let out a laugh at that, another memory that he had missed while on a trip to a studio somewhere north of London. He excused himself to the bathroom after you placed your orders, and once he was out of earshot, Jake leaned down and looked at you.

“What’s going on with him?”

You forced a cheesy grin and blinked a few times. “He’s just grumpy.”

“‘Bout what?” Bryn asked.

“Guys,” you leaned back in your chair, hoping you didn’t have to say too much. “I can’t tell you every single thing that happens in our relationship.”

“Well, when it affects us I think we have the right to know,” Jessie shrugged, playing the typical we don’t like when our parents fight card.

“It’s not affecting you,” you shook your head, eyed her seriously over your glass of Pinot Noir.

Adam shrugged, a smirk on his face let you know he was trying to rile you up. “He’s grumpy at dinner and we’re all here and we’re all aware of it. We don’t like tension between you two.”

“Alright, leave the woman alone,” Jake waved them off. “As long as everything’s alright.”

“It’s totally alright,” you nodded, wondering when you’d gotten so comfortable lying to them. “He’s just busy with the next phase of work.”

With Harry’s album yet to be announced, you couldn’t sit around in a London restaurant and divulge details--even if you were all acutely aware of the work he’d put in and the upcoming announcements and events.

Adam let it go. “How’s work for you, Smalls?”

Another shrug of your shoulders, “s’good--I told you all about my November cover story, right?”

“Yeah,” Jessie sipped a glass of Cabernet. “But you said you didn’t know who it was going to be with.”

“Well, s’cause I had to drop the bomb on him first,” you nodded in the direction of the bathroom. “I’ll be sitting down in a few days with Ms. Gigi Hadid,” you lowered your voice and leaned forward to say her name.

Bryn’s eyes went wide, Jake grimaced.

“How’d he take that?” Adam asked.

“He’s not thrilled,” you admitted. “But I’ll talk with his team about what to avoid specifically, I guess. Her team will probably have a list of off-limits items too.”

Bryn let her elbows rest on the white tablecloth. “Yeah, but, you can’t just ignore the fact that she’s dating Zayn.”

“I also can’t just barge in and stir shit up,” you said.

Harry pulled his chair out next to you and sat back down. “Who are you stirring shit up with?”

Everyone chose to be quiet now--Adam looked down at his phone and Jessie reached for her wine again.

“Just telling them about my cover story,” you admitted, watching his face for a reaction.

He nodded, a tiny smirk in your direction. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t stir shit up,” he said, reaching to put a hand on your thigh beneath the table.

Those were the moments that made you feel less panicky--the realization that he was still choosing you and even when the tension was high and the mood was low, he’d reach over and remind you that yes, he cared. Even if he was late to dinner or distracted.

Which is why, when you got back in his car that night and headed for his house, you were surprised when his mood shifted again.

“I’ll just drop you at yours?”

“Oh--yeah, sure.”

“Did you want to come to mine?” He looked over at you like he hadn’t expected any resistance to sleeping separately.

You were quiet for a second--not if he didn’t want you there. “No, it’s fine.”

“I can’t read your mind, Y/N.”

“You don’t have to,” you said quickly, a prickly tone to your words when he made an unreadable face.

He drove in silence for a few minutes, closing in on your neighborhood when the street lamps disappeared for the sake of suburbia.

Eventually he cleared his throat and that sent you over the edge.

“What do you want me to say, Harry? Do you want me to apologize for interviewing for this job?”

“No,” he said simply. “I just don’t know why you thought you didn’t need to tell me about a huge decision like that.”

“It wasn’t a decision until today when they offered it to me.”

“Just seems like something you talk to your boyfriend about.”

You looked over at him in the dark of night, the glow from the dashboard didn’t help you see his features as he turned left onto your street.

“Well, sorry that we didn’t have the opportunity to talk about it between your work schedule and Jessie moving in and group dates--”

He slowed down on your street, put his flashers on when he stopped in front of your building. “I don’t want to keep secrets from each other,” his voice was softer now. “I don’t want to not know what’s going on in your life. I did enough of that for two years when we weren't talking.”

You sighed at this, the sentiment broke whatever anger was lurking inside you and when you looked up to see him, you wondered if you should ask him.

Are we ever going to move in together? Are we ever going to get engaged?

You figured the lead up to his sophomore album wasn’t the best time for that conversation. He pressed a kiss to your forehead and you climbed the stairs to your flat alone.

**

A few days later you sat nervously in a conference room and watched as beads of sweat formed on the water glass in front of you. Tyler had brought you in, offered you a breath mint, and promised you’d be fine. When you asked him if the whole room was hot he said it was just you and your nerves--but the droplets of water that raced towards the wooden conference table begged to differ.

You’d gotten email after email this morning: one from Jeff with the rules he and Harry had come up with and eight from Gigi’s team with requests for snacks, topics to discuss, topics to avoid, lunch request, arrival and departure time, and a few extra regarding booking her photoshoot the next day.

A text lit up your screen when you tried to smooth your your hair in the reflection of your screen.

Jake Newcomb (10:42am): In case you’re wondering what to get me for my birthday, a video of Gigi Hadid saying she loves me would be perfect!

You ignored his text and felt a pang of disappointment in your gut, you thought it would have been Harry with words of encouragement.

He was fine with you doing the interview, he seemed to come around to the idea when he met with Jeff and had a chance to mark some things as off limits.

So far, his list was as follows:

Don’t publish anything too negative about anyone in the band (if she says anything negative about anyone in the band)

Harry and Jeff got to listen to the taped interview

Harry and Jeff got to read the article before you sent it off to your editor and could make suggestions to cut things if they felt it necessary.

It seemed silly, but you’d long been used to the lingo of contracts and riders and ground rules for things like these. You knew both Harry and Jeff trusted you, in fact, Jeff was now choosing to see this as a good opportunity for press before the announcement of Harry’s album.

Your biggest concern, truly, was not looking/sounding/acting like an idiot in a room alone with Gigi Hadid. Your second biggest concern was conducting a unique interview and writing a unique article.

You knew that Naomi and Tyler were nearby for support if needed, Tyler had already walked by the conference room three times to see if your subject had arrived and likely to make sure you hadn’t sweat through your blouse. You thought the commotion in the hallway was him until you saw a group of busy-looking people with cellphones and sunglasses.

“Hi,” you stood from your chair, extended a hand in her direction and offered your best professional smile. “It’s nice to meet you, Gigi, thanks for doing this interview.”

She seemed hesitant at first, smiled a little and shook your hand. “Happy to,” she said. She turned over her shoulder and locked eyes with the woman who seemed to be the most in-charge of the group. “I’m good,” she nodded.

They hustled out quickly, you stood frozen in place and watched as she took off her coat before sitting in the chair you’d pulled out for her. Once the door was shut behind her posse, she let out a sigh that bled into a frustrated laugh.

“I could never do an interview with all of them just loitering around--wouldn’t that be so weird?”

You nodded, mirrored her smile and had to remind your body how to move. Left foot, right, breathe, sit in the chair.

You weren’t really one to get star struck, but then again, you didn’t spend too much time with celebrities that weren’t Harry or his close friends. You certainly never sat down with a model like Gigi to have a conversation that could be as awkward as this one.

She checked her phone quickly but then put it face down on the table. “I am happy to do this, I know it might feel weird for us to be hanging out--but boys are stupid anyway.”

You smiled at this, immediately relaxed when she leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs.

“Did you also get a whole list of things to not talk to me about?”

She stifled a laugh and rolled her eyes. “Zayn can be a man of few words but,” she looked down at your phone on the table. “Off the record--he had quite a bit to say when I told him you were doing the interview.”

“Off the record,” you laughed, “Harry did too. But how is Zayn?”

“He’s good--thinking about getting back in the studio at some point to start working on a new album, he’s been writing a bunch. Harry’s doing the same I assume?”

“Yes, yeah, he’s been really busy.”

“I know things might not have gone great between all of them at the end, but I don’t want this to be awkward for us.”

“Me neither. You can say as much or as little about the band as you’d like.”

She nodded, you figured it was time to give your pre-interview spiel.

“So, I’ll record us in a few seconds, you can obviously say ‘off the record’ if there’s something you don’t want me to include, but I like my interviews to be like conversations, basically. I’ll send someone on your team the recording when we’re done and a typed transcript. You’ll have 48-hours to look over it and revoke any statements that you don’t want me publishing or to clarify anything. After that I’ll write the story, send a final copy to your team before it gets finalized here, again, 48-hours to look it over and request any changes but at that time we don’t have to approve the requests. This is all in a document somewhere that someone probably signed for you--I’m sure your team is used to it, they know what they’re doing.”

You reached forward and pressed a few buttons on your phone, she watched until you looked up and told her: “It’s on now, so we’re recording and today is September 10th, 2019.”

She smiled like you were old friends. “Where do we start?”

“Is there somewhere you want to start?”

She leaned her head to the side. “We can jump right to it--”

“To what?”

“Oh come on,” she laughed. “Us talking about One Direction will make headlines for weeks.”

“Yeah,” you shrugged. “It’s funny that us just sitting down together will be a big deal, right? As if we’ve got nothing better to talk about than them.”

“Sexism at it’s finest,” she admitted.

“Do you find that a lot in your industry?”

She thought on this for a second, looked out the window but nodded. “It’s unavoidable, in a lot of ways. I think there have been a lot of changes over the last few years to at least move us in the right direction, but we’ve got a long way to go.”

“How would you want to see it change for the better?”

“Well, I’d love to have more privacy about my love life, for one,” she caught herself, looked to you quickly as if she felt bad. “Off the record, we can talk about it here, it’s fine. It’s different to talk about it with a woman, number one. And you’re you, you get it.”

“We don’t have to talk about it,” you offered.

“No, I don’t mind. Unless you plan on asking me stupid things like how amazing is it to be dating someone as handsome as him or do I find that his job overshadows mine, we’re good. We can be back on the record, too,” she looked down at the numbers on your phone, eyeing the ticking of the recording clock.

“But do you know what I mean? No one asks guys questions like that--or they’re different, at least. People just want to know everything about your relationship when you’re a woman and they view you in the context of who you’re sleeping with.”

“Yeah,” you nodded. “I get that.”

She smiled, “it’s hard to date someone famous, isn’t it? Lots of rules around it.”

You were surprised by the genuine look in her eyes, despite her own status and contracts and income, she seemed to be acknowledging that the two of you shared a unique experience and were now brought together under strange circumstances.

“It’s definitely hard for me--but, isn’t it easier seeing as you also have an assistant and a manager and people to, I don’t know, facilitate things? Not to invalidate how hard it still is.”

She laughed at that, “Yeah, in some ways, probably. He’s really private though, which is good for us. We focus on ourselves and do our own thing most of the time.”

“Right--you seem pretty private about it for the most part.”

“Yeah,” she shrugged, reflecting on your words for a second. “I think to me it feels weird that my relationship status can make so much news, you know? Modeling is my job and obviously that’s not your typical nine-to-five but--I like to focus on my work and when male journalists are continuously obsessed with my love life, I find that weird. I mean, you get that, right? I’m sure it’s no different with Harry.”

You bit your lip, embarrassed at how she’d managed to turn it around. She was right--you’d been getting more and more annoyed with how much your relationship with Harry was dictating your life--and for some reason, you admitted this to her.

“People are much more interested in me because I’m dating him--but they’d be just as interested in you even if you weren’t.”

“Would they?” She tilted her head to the side, another rise and fall of her shoulders as she looked around the room. “I get what you’re saying, but sometimes it feels like dating him gave my career a huge boost. I don’t know, maybe I shouldn’t have said that.”

“No, I totally get it. I feel the same way. I was building my career in New York and it was going well and I was writing fun stuff and making a name for myself and then I started hanging out with him and--”

“Everyone started to care more about you?”

“Exactly.”

You thought about the headlines, the articles, the pictures in tabloids that undoubtedly helped your name spread like wildfire through London and New York. You had to ignore it, most of the time, reassure yourself that you were a good journalist and a good employee and the good things in your career were not just a byproduct of the boy who slept in your bed.

She smiled knowingly, her lips in a thin line when she looked down to the tape recorder, almost like she felt guilty for steering the conversation in a different direction.

“Sorry,” you cleared your throat, sitting up straight. “Back to business.”

The conversation bled into more normal things: the upcoming fall fashion week, how she manages self-care when she’s busy jetting from city to city, and, try as you might, the two of you wound your way back to your commonalities a few times: sexism in your industries, life as young women dating famous men.

You thanked her profusely at the end and promised that Tyler would be in touch to confirm the date and time for her corresponding photoshoot later that week. She draped a Versace leather tote over her shoulder and seemed to float out of the office with a posse of beautiful people behind her.

You stood--still awestruck--in the hallway and watched as the elevator doors slid shut.

“She’s prettier in person,” Tyler said from beside you, a notebook in hand as he stared at the air she’d once occupied. “I didn’t know if that type of thing was possible but she’s definitely one of the prettiest humans I’ve ever seen.”

“She was nice,” you turned around to see Naomi behind him, also eager for more details. You headed back for your office in a trance, they scurried behind you as you thought aloud. “I mean, I didn’t think she’d be rude--but I didn’t know what to expect with the whole band history stuff.”

“Did you talk about that?”

“Less about the band and more about--” you blinked a few times and sat down at your desk, “sexism, what it’s like to be a woman dating a famous man and how that affects your career.”

Both of their eyes went wide, a smile tugged at Naomi’s lips when Tyler put a hand over his heart in shock.

“I’m sorry, so you’re telling me that you just had a heart to heart with Gigi Hadid about sexism and your boyfriends and--”

“I guess so,” you shrugged, just as surprised as they were.

**

You gave Harry fewer details that night over FaceTime as you brushed your teeth. He was somewhere in New York, disappointed that he’d miss Jake’s birthday dinner and celebration, but he promised to make it up to him when he got back.

He lifted a cup of tea to take a sip, light shone through the window behind him on your screen and he scrolled through emails on his laptop.

You spit into the sink, an ocean between you.

“Have you thought at all about the offer? You have to tell them by tomorrow, yeah?”

You nodded, wiped at your mouth with a towel and then crossed your arms. “I can stay, I mean--if you want me to.”

He made a face at that, leaned forward and furrowed his brows together. “Of course I want you to stay, Y/N, but I don’t want to be the reason you pass on something important."

You were quiet for a second, uncapped lotion before spreading some across your forehead.

"I'm sorry I didn't react well when you told me. I'm proud of you and it sounds like a phenomenal opportunity...I don't know, it's just the timing of it--"

You cut him off, “well none of this is ideal timing, Harry.”

“Do you mean with my album?”

“I mean with any of it,” you said truthfully. “The album, the job offer--”

“Well the album existed before the job offer,” he trailed off.

Only a matter of seconds and a handful of words had managed to get you elevated and angry and ready to fight. That was happening more easily, these days.

“So what am I supposed to do? Always come second? Make every decision in my life based off of your career and your music?”

“S’not what I’m saying.”

“Then what are you saying?”

“I’m saying that--I dunno--I thought you knew what you were getting into.”

Quiet, your hands gripped the counter in your bathroom. Your bare feet were on the floor and you wondered why you were trying so hard to make everything work if things were only getting harder.

“That came out wrong,” he shook his head, the look on his face let you know he wanted to take it back.

“No, it didn’t." You let out a sharp laugh. "I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“Take the job,” he said quickly, like he saw you reaching for the button to end the FaceTime call.

“What?”

“Take it. If it’ll make you happy, take it.”

“And what about us?”

“We figure it out,” he shrugged. “We try.”

You sighed, unsure what to say.

"It's Los Angeles," he said. "Not Antarctica."

You blew air between your lips, looked up at him for a second. The curl of hair that dipped onto his forehead, the way his mouth pulled up in the corner like it always had.

“I love you, Y/N. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

His words didn’t offer any relief and you spent most of the night staring at the ceiling, tossing and turning and wondering how on earth you were supposed to make a decision.

Leaving him in London felt stupid. A few bumps in the road and you were ready to jump ship?

But staying and hoping for a ring or a shared address felt even stupider, somehow. You couldn’t pass up a dream job and hope that things would go well for your career if you weren’t going to work for it.

A few hours of rest came after 3am, your morning coffee was a tad bitter and the clouds in the sky seemed to match your mood. Maybe you should have spent more time thinking it over, talking it out, even calling your mum or Katie for advice.

But you couldn’t have told everyone about the job offer without a certain answer, and unfortunately, the person you wanted to talk to the most didn’t seem like he could be impartial.

You’d been upset, you’d been feeling disconnected from him, but that didn’t erase all of the good times and the happy memories you’d made, right?

Naomi and Tyler locked themselves in your office for lunch on Friday, they promised that they’d never tell your boss and they swore they supported you either way. Tyler used an expo marker to make a pros and cons list of staying in London and Naomi came up with a points system for each bullet on the list.

You stared at it, looked at the names of all of your friends, your family, your favorite cafes and restaurants in London. At the very bottom of what had become a long list of reasons to stay was his name.

And on the other side, Tyler’s poor drawing of an engagement ring sat beside a big question mark.

You didn’t know what the future held for you and Harry, and maybe that was okay. You didn’t know what would happen when you packed your life into a suitcase and moved to New York, but you’d survived to tell the tale.

They were quiet, eyes darting from the board back to you as they waited for you to say something.

You sighed, Tyler shifted on the couch in your office and Naomi smoothed out her blouse.

“I can’t take it,” you said.

Tyler’s eyes went wide, “really? You’re staying?”

“I can’t leave,” you shrugged. “I can’t leave him behind and leave my friends and start all over in a new city right as I’m really finding my groove here again.”

“Okay, I know we said we’d support you either way but I would have been fucking pissed if you went,” Tyler admitted, moving closer to wrap his arms around you.

You laughed, let him squeeze you before Naomi joined in.

“Me too,” she confessed, a smile on her face when she pulled away. “But I would have at least faked happy for you.”

You bit back the doubt and second-guessing, used their excitement to fuel a regretful email.

Thank you so much for the opportunity, but after careful consideration I cannot accept this position due to the geographical location.

Your thumb hovered over the small blue arrow, a wave of panic flooded through you when you hit send, like somehow, something inside of you knew that everything was about to change.

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AN: apologies in advance for the cliffhanger......except I'm not sorry lmao

[ceo-of-daichi]

Characters ~ Iwaizumi Hajime x Fem!Reader

Summary ~ Iwaizumi has a big crush on you, but has no idea how to talk to you without panicking. Oikawa offers an easy solution, will you find out about your secret admirer? Will you accept his affection when you find out?

Genre ~ Fluff

Warnings ~ Swearing

Word Count ~ 1.8k

A/N ~ So here it is as promised... a fic that isn’t about the loml Daichi! Had fun writing this though, want to dedicate this to @iwaxme as like a late birthday fic? Its the least i can do for you babie❤️ Hopefully i do him justice🥰 Thank you @karasu-hoes for proof reading my fic!! I really appreciate it!

Hearing the familiar squeak of volleyball shoes as you walked up to the gym was like music to your ears. You had missed this crazy bunch over the summer break. You weren’t really involved with the Aoba Johsai boys volleyball team, however you enjoyed occasionally popping to their practices. Being good friends with Watari the rest of the team welcomed you with open arms. Walking through the gym doors, Oikawa instantly noticed your presence.

‘[y/n]-channnn’ You rolled your eyes so hard you almost lost them in the back of your head, as he skipped over to you.

‘What do you want, Oinkawa?’ Throwing him a slight smirk as you made your way over to Watari.

‘Rudeeeeee [y/n]-chann’ He whines while making his way back to the other 3rd years slightly dejected.

Chatting to Watari as usual during their break you noticed an unfamiliar pair of eyes on you, usually it was just Oikawa being his weird flirty self however these weren’t his eyes, they seemed to bore through you.

Slowly turning around you locked eyes with Iwaizumi, why was he staring at you? Did you have a stain on your uniform that you didn’t know about? Luckily the minute you looked over at him he turned away, a slight pink tinting his ears. You were confused, however you brushed it off continuing your conversation with Watari. Meanwhile Iwaizumi was having an internal argument with himself, when did you get that pretty? Did that happen over summer or has he just not noticed you in this way now? Finding himself lost in thought for a good 5 minutes before snapping out of it, he had to talk to you…

Practice ending at usual time, you grabbed your stuff and got up off the bench. You were ready to walk home with Watari as usual, but before you could shout at him someone else wanted your attention.

‘Hey, [y/n]’ Iwaizumi started fairly confidently as he jogged across the gym to you.

‘Hm? Oh hey Iwaizumi what's up?’ Turning towards him and greeting him with a smile, suddenly he struggled to form a sentence, his face turning bright red. You were smiling so brightly it completely made him freak out inside, you were even more beautiful up close. Not used to feeling like this he began to panic.

‘Oh i was… i-i was just grabbing this…’ Mad at himself that he pussied out as he bent down to pick up a towel from the bag. 

‘Okay… well i’ll see you tomorrow’ As you walked off to Watari, Iwaizumi was mentally cursing everything. A simple conversation, that's all it was yet he couldn’t even do that.

Luckily for Iwaizumi, Oikawa saw the whole thing. Or at least Oikawa would say it was lucky for him, seen as though Iwa-chan clearly needed some help flirting.

‘I think that is the worst i have ever seen you talk to a girl Iwa-chan’ He said, flinging an arm around his pissed looking friend.

‘Like you could have done any better shittykawa..’ He huffed, trying to calm his blush down, that was still adorning his cheeks.

‘You clearly like her, let me help you!! I can wingman you!’ Oikawa stated excitedly, although Iwaizumi wasn’t too happy with this arrangement he agreed. He needed some help if he was going to get you to notice him. The worst thing was, he craved your attention, getting you to notice him or at least laugh and be happy due to him was his main focus.

Waking up late the next day, you started to panic. Refusing to be late to school, you jumped out of bed, throwing your uniform on and basically sprinting to school. By the time you got there you had about 10 minutes to spare, sighing as you started making your way towards the lockers needing to swap some of your books around. Opening your locker you noticed a loose piece of coloured paper falling to the floor, you definitely did not put that in there. Unfolding it carefully and reading the contents you face lit up in a bright smile.

‘Look Iwa-chann she's smiling and might even be blushing slightly!! I told you it would work!’ Oikawa whispered to his friend from around the corner. Iwaizumi poked his head around the corner smiling at the sight before him, Oikawa was right. Your cheeks were lightly dusted pink and you had a huge smile on your face. Seeing you like this because of him made his heart beat out of his chest. 

‘Come on Shittykawa lets get out of here before she notices us’ He had to stop himself skipping off he was that happy.

You peered around after you finished reading the note, no one looked suspicious or like this wasn’t their normal routine. The note was sweet even though it was only a couple of lines long, it was signed anonymously though. You calm down your blush as you head towards your classroom, your mind not being able to focus on anything apart from the note. 

After that you could not concentrate, your mind was clouded with curiosity. Would this happen again, or was it a one time thing? Was it a boy who sent it or a girl? They must know you because how would they know your locker number..? Your friends could tell something was off but everytime they questioned it you brushed them off, saying you were just spaced out.

At practice that afternoon, as you sat on the bench as you do almost every practice, you started to catch eyes with Iwaizumi more. Giving him small smiles here and there. Has he always been that attractive? The answer was yes and you knew it, but somehow looking at him now, the way he gave you a slight smile as he was practicing spikes, it was like something had changed. Shaking your head and smiling, not like anything would happen between you both, he was way out of your league. Plus you now had a secret admirer, and if they kept leaving you notes… You would have to figure out a way to find out who they were.

For the next week Iwaizumi left short and sweet messages every morning in your locker just to see your reaction. You were still clueless who it was, and he didn’t want you to find out any time soon, what if you were disappointed it was him? He couldn’t take his mind off during practice...After all, you were extremely pretty, and he was just Oikawa’s second to girls like you. He started to get angry just at the thought, wanting to throw a volleyball straight into the back of shittykawas head. But he refrained from doing so as he spotted you walking into the gym.

~ A Couple of Weeks Later ~

This is it you thought to yourself as you woke up at the bright and early time of 6am. You were going to catch the person who had been leaving notes in your locker, for the best part of 3 weeks. Packing up all your school books, you got changed and started your walk to Aoba Johsai. It was chilly out, so much so that you could see your breath in the air. Speeding up so you could get there faster, you spotted someone walking in front of you. Fairly tall and muscular built, he was wearing what looked like your school's uniform. Wondering what he was doing heading to school this early, it suddenly hit you.

Dropping back slightly, hoping he wouldn’t notice, you began to match his pace. Making sure not to lose him, as you suspected when he got to school he went straight to your locker. Slipping something inside. Due to his winter coat you couldn’t see his features, cursing you decided to follow him as he walked off. Praying he would go to the library or something to study, however where he went surprised you.

Ducking behind a corner as he walked through the double doors to the boys gym, no way. He was one of the volleyball boys? Impossible… He wasn’t tall enough to be Oikawa, plus he would never do something like use notes. Who could it be? Unless… You shook that thought instantly out of your head. There is no way Iwaizumi, the ACE of the volleyball team was leaving you notes.

It took you 10 minutes to gather up the courage to walk into the gym and confront whoever it was, but eventually you peaked your head through the double doors. Your eyes went wide as you locked eyes with Iwaizumi, you both just standing there staring at each other in disbelief.

‘I-Iwaizumi… you’ve been leaving notes in my locker?’ You couldn’t help but sound surprised. Blushing he started to slowly make his way over to you.

‘And if i did?’ A hint of worry tinting his tone.

‘I would say…Why me?’ This was something you were genuinely curious about, he must have girls flocking to him. Why you?

Your face started to flush as you realised he looked slightly confused by your question, like there was an obvious answer you were missing.

‘[y/n]... You're smart, funny, intelligent, you never take Oikawa’s shit. Hell most girls would be falling to their knees if they even got a fraction of what you take of him… And most of all… your beautiful’ He stepped closer cupping your cheek and looking into your eyes. When you didn’t reply, mainly because you were caught up in his eyes, he panicked.

‘A-Are you happy it's me?’ He drops his hand back to his side, waiting to hear the worst.

‘You are kidding right Hajime? I’m just… You're too good for me…’ On one hand he was completely imploding inside at the use of his name, it rolled off your tongue perfectly. On the other hand, he hated the fact you didn’t think you were good enough for him, even though in his eyes, it was the other way around. 

With that, he lifted your chin with his hand, getting a sudden boost of confidence, he pressed his lips against yours softly. You froze for a second, unsure of how to function, but soon enough you kissed him back, moving your arms around his neck. His lips were soft, and you enjoyed the kiss while it lasted. It wasn’t long before he pulled away a small smile on his face.

‘Is that enough proof that you are good enough for me? More than good enough for me… your perfect…’

Tags ~ @bb-noya​ @vventure​ @stcrryskies​ @iwaxme @ardorwrites-hq-mha @sugawarasimp @super-noya

[my-arlington-academia]

Cliffany part 2

O-kay, and that’s it! I don’t know if I’ll write a continuation tbh since it was just a silly little idea that came out of nowhere. (Although I did have some ideas for more!) I haven’t really been active on my fanblog lately so it’s not like it’ll make much of a difference though haha. By the way, I’m thinking about making my blog more "Dulcet-oriented" rather than just SE. I hope you guys don’t mind? Recently, I’ve been getting more and more into Black Tarot! So expect my blog to change a lil 🔮🕯🌌

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It had been a couple of days now since Tiffany’s last interaction with Claire, and while she was still ignoring her like before, Tiffany’s efforts in doing so had increased. The moment she spotted her in the corner of her eye, she would move at a faster pace, as if running away. Was it guilt after all? No, she just didn’t have the energy to deal with Claire’s annoying and unnecessary empathy. The empathy that she knew she didn’t deserve which made her feel even more frustrated towards Claire.

All she should be worried about right now is getting more followers on Instaglam, not avoiding a nobody like the plague. On that note, spring was coming soon, the flowers started to blossom and the days were getting longer which meant... that the "cottagecore" tag on insta would go trending soon, no doubt! And of course, living on the Arlington campus as one of its students, this gave Tiffany the access to its beautiful garden. Although honestly, she only ever went there to take pictures and this time wasn’t any different. She had prepared some tea sets and dresses for the occasion, all of which she would throw away once spring went away along with its "trends."

Carried by her confident footsteps, she walked to the garden. That confidence was only a facade though. She knew exactly what kind of people and who in particular went to take strolls quite often in this goddamn garden. But hey, it was 7pm and the sun would soon start to set. Knowing that Claire always arrives 15 minutes in advance to any meeting and most likely always wakes up at 6am, there was nothing to be worried about. Chances are, she was either doing her homework before going to bed like a goody-two-shoes or watering her weird-ass plants. Tiffany always had the horror of seeing these at Raquel’s parties. It just didn’t fit at all with the rest of what was going on in the room and ruined the whole "party" vibe.

In any case, there she was, searching for a good spot to take pictures and set up a fake picnic. That basket filled with different colored blankets, tea sets, biscuits, tea and a pie was way heavier than Tiffany had initially thought. Maybe she really should’ve asked for collab pictures with Trisha from the fine arts department. She didn’t really like her but when it came to follower count they were surprisingly close, although Tiffany was still number one of course. Still, if she had asked for a collab they could’ve carried those heavy props together.

After finding a good spot next to the pond, Tiffany set everything up in an aesthetically pleasing manner and got down to taking the pictures. She was taking different shots to post them one by one throughout the week and give out the illusion that she was taking those the same day she posted them. She was ready to upload the first one, call it a day and go back to the dorms without touching any of the tea or cakes. It’s all just useless calories anyways. As she was putting the tags on the picture, she started wondering what were the names of those flowers in the background.

"Ugh, fuck. What are those orange shits called again?"

"Marigolds."

"Ah right, thank y-"

Tiffany immediately snapped her head back. This annoyingly gentle voice could only belong to one person.

"...What the fuck, Claire. Where did you pop out from?!"

There’s no was she was there the whole time, right? It’s true that Tiffany could get lost in what she was doing once she was focused but it wasn’t to the point where she became completely unaware of her surroundings.

"I came by a few minutes ago... Y-you looked so invested in what you were doing that I didn’t want to bother you! I didn’t mean to pry."

Well, Tiffany could always upload those damn pictures from her room. Claire’s arrival just meant that it was time for her to leave. However, seeing that Tiffany started packing up her things, Claire panicked thinking that it’s her fault. Which was in fact, her fault... in a way.

"O-oh! You’re not going to finish your picnic? I’m so sorry, I’ll just leave! Throwing all of this good food away would be such a waste-"

"Are you fucking dumb?"

Did she not get that this was all only a set-up for taking pictures? It was obvious that Tiffany didn’t have any intention of eating or drinking any of that. Not to mention that after everything that happened the other day, she was still not scared of approaching her?

"I don’t give a damn about the food, it was just for my social media accounts you dumb bit- ... dimwit. I was already done anyway so you don’t have anything to do with the fact that I’m leaving."

"I see! T-then maybe I can help?!"

Help? What did Claire even know about- Actually, on second thought. This whole "cottagecore" shtick was a great fit for Claire. She probably already had all of the things Tiffany bought last week for those pictures, even better and more authentic-looking ones probably. This was maybe the one and only time Tiffany would let Claire "help" her. But from her point of view, she was mostly just using her.

"Hm. Is that so? How can you help me then... Claire."

"Wait just a second! I’ll be back right away!!!"

She ran immediately towards the dorms. Well, she'll probably bring a bunch of random stuff. In the end, Tiffany was really torn between the idea of staying and waiting for who knows how long and the idea of leaving right now. Surely, Claire would make a hilarious expression when she’d realize that she was played with and abandoned. While trying to laugh it off, Tiffany accidentally remembered what happened a few days ago, along with Claire’s crying face. Damn... Okay, fine. She’ll wait for her but only because it would be annoying if she bawled again like a damn toddler.

And so she waited until, from the corner of her eyes, she saw a girl with a pink dress running towards her. That girl, of course, being Claire. She carried a picnic basket with her too, but much bigger and more practical. For half a second, Tiffany thought that Claire actually looked maybe, just maybe, a little bit pretty. She erased the thought in a hurry, covering it with harsh words as usual.

"Wh-why did you change your clothes? You think I’m gonna take pictures of you?"

"Ah, no, well..."

Claire looked at the beautiful picnic set-up and the cyan dress Tiffany was wearing.

"I just wanted to fit in with the rest of what you put up, I guess. Also, don’t you think that we kinda match? I brought some of the cookies I baked and my favorite teas and tea set. I think mine will look better with your picnic blanket! Uh- N-not to say that yours looks bad!!!"

She was trying so hard to make herself likable that it was painful to see... and kinda cute. God, Tiffany was really hating her thoughts today. She was just going soft because of Claire’s aura or something. Again, this was definitely the first and last time she was letting Claire help her with anything. I’d be bad if she turns completely brain-dead and clueless like her.

"...Whatever. Show me what you got. I’ll decide if it’s good enough."

Claire was pulling everything out of the basket one by one. Everytime, better and better items were pulled out after the other. Her cakes and cookies gave off a "homey" feeling which was more fitting with the aesthetic rather than Tiffany’s store bought patisseries. Claire was staring at her, wide-eyed and excited.

"W-what do you think, Tiffany? It looks good, doesn’t it?!"

"Uh. Yeah, it’s fine, I guess. I’ll take a few pics."

That was a lie. This looked so much better than the try-hard bullshit Tiffany had done. She was good at riding on the "trend wave" but Claire was a natural when it came to this one specific thing. Tiffany was trying to look as poker-faced as she could so as to not show her satisfaction, but clearly, her apparent enthusiasm for each shot was  betraying her. Sometimes, she would accidentally take one with Claire in the shot and ask her to move.

"Hey. You’re ruining the picture with your ugly fac- dress. Move to the right."

Before Tiffany could even do anything about it, Claire was already pouring some tea into 2 cups.

"Woah woah woah, put the teapot down. I didn’t agree to this."

"But...This is a kettle, Tiffany. Not a teapot."

"Oh, shut it!"

Claire gave off such a dejected face that Tiffany, once again, felt like she was kicking a poor puppy to the ground. She held back on going off on a rant.

"But we’re already here and the weather is so nice! It would be such a shame not to use any of this at all..."

Claire looked around, observing this beautiful setting, not to mention, the sun was finally starting to set. Going home right now would be like an insult to the utter beauty of this scene, it almost looked like it came right out of a fairy tale picture book. Without mulling it over any further, Tiffany took a sip out of her cup.

"I’m only doing this because I feel compelled to, got it?"

Claire’s eyes lit up nonetheless.

"Alright! Please try out my cookies too!"

Tiffany contemplated them for a second... is it true that home-made stuff is more healthy? Surely, that’s just a myth, right? A cake from the store and a home-made cake will have about the same amount of sugar in them regardless of who made them and how. Well, she did see Claire share her food from time to time with her friends and while she would never admit it, it is true that she was a bit curious about trying them herself. What was the last time she had eaten anything "home-made"? Or did it ever even happen?

"...Okay, whatever. I bet they taste shitty."

Tiffany reluctantly took a bite... It was surprisingly really delicious!

"It’s bad."

"R-really?"

As much as she wanted to lie about it, she couldn’t after seeing Claire make that dejected face again.

"Uhhh. No, um. Hmm... On second thought, it’s pretty average. It’s okay-ish."

Tiffany really hated herself right now. Being mean has never been this hard before. She couldn’t wait for the moment where they would be done with this ridiculous play-pretend and go back to her room. She tried drinking and eating as fast as she could without making it look like she was in a hurry to run away from this awkward situation. And God, it was so fucking hard...

Unsurprisingly, they were both pretty silent the whole time. Well, it wasn’t like they had anything to converse about or things in common. Right as Tiffany was about to get up and pack up her belongings, for real this time, Claire spoke up. Nervously fiddling with the hem of her dress.

"Um. So you know, I have something to confess to you, Tiffany."

Oh God, not now. As much as Tiffany found this timing annoying, she couldn’t help but poke fun at that poor choice of words.

"Confess? Oh my, so you like me in that way, huh? That explains everything."

"Wha- N-no! That’s not it! I mean, realistically speaking, t-that would never even happen!"

Was she implying that she could never like someone like Tiffany? Well, Tiffany herself was the one who brought this up but she was a bit offended at that statement. Regardless though, the way she was trying to deny it so hard was kinda cute. No. Not cute at all! If this went on, Tiffany would really become crazy before the end of this day.

"Last time, you said that I was only being kind towards others to profit off of them and I didn’t say anything but... that wasn’t true at all! I always wanted to help you because I thought that you needed it, I swear. Not to satisfy myself! ... Well. Except maybe..."

"Except...?"

"T-today. I admit that I kind of had ulterior motives."

Now that piqued Tiffany’s curiousness right away. Suddenly, she didn’t want to leave as much anymore if it meant that Claire would finally admit that she did some things for her own benefit. Why was it? Did she want to post a picture of herself on Tiffany’s Instaglam to fish for compliments, knowing that she had a lot of followers? Claire hid her face behind her hands and muttered a few words.

"I... wanted you to warm up to me."

"...Huh?"

That’s it? That was it? Claire’s ulterior motive was for Tiffany to "warm up to her."?

"So like, you want us to be friends or some shit?"

"Oh no! Not necessarily that far, just... good acquaintances!"

Is she stupid? There’s no way that she genuinely thinks those "motives" are bad. Tiffany sighed in exasperation.

"Listen. I’m just really tired right now, I don’t have the energy to assimilate all the shit you’re saying. I’m packing all of this up and going back to the dorms."

In complete silence, they gathered all of their belongings and walked to the dorms while keeping a fair distance between the 2 of them. As if to say, "we’ve got nothing to do with each other." Surprisingly, Claire didn’t try anything anymore. Didn’t even wish for a "good night" or a "good evening" which was weird to say the least. Tiffany tried to ignore it and when she got back and unpacked all of the props, she noticed something that didn’t belong to her. One of Claire’s lunch boxes with cookies in them and... a note?

Here’s my number just in case ;3 Please give me my lunchbox back once you’re done eating the cookies!♡

"...Your note makes me wanna barf."

So that’s why she didn’t try anything. That sneaky little... she must've slid that into the basket when they were packing. She already knew that Tiffany would eventually be forced to talk to her again... as if! Who says she’ll return it? She can just throw all the cookies away along with the box... Or so she thought. Tempted, she took a bite, then another one. And another one. Her diet was ruined for sure now. Damn you Claire and your stupidly great cooking skills, as if you needed another skill to be better and more perfect than you already are. Tiffany put the box away, trying to forget the delicious taste and smell. Back to Instaglam she goes. Uploading the picture while adding the "marigold" tag on it. Going through the pictures again, she noticed that some of them had Claire in the corner. She was thinking of deleting them but... well whatever. She can just crop her out later if needed. Her dress looks pretty so it’s fine even if she does appear in the pictures. All we see is a bit of her hair, as long as her face isn’t visible, it’s okay. Yup. It was totally not because Tiffany was slowly starting to feel something towards the girl she was trying so hard not to get involved with.

[sneezingpotatoes]

Merry (LATE ASF) Christmas xD

Over a year late, but... You know?😂😂😂 I come baring gifts! xD Gotta keep my word no matter how long it takes lmao

Okay so I got my ex-best friend to draw Draco for me xD LOL She’s vanilla and doesn’t know about my kink so I had to kinda sneakily ask her to add the blush and stuff lmao BUT FOR THE MOST PART, this is my OC Draco xDD She did a good job with it! That’s him feeling all sickly in the story xD I might get her to draw my other OC’s too! If you want her to draw for you too or see what else she drew, her instagrams are: @ixreikoluxi and @ixreiko_luxi ((Just dont message her anything kinky LOL but she does do commissions on anime art!)) Also I tried new things in here... And there’s a lot that be happenin in this fic so hopefully it’s a good read lmao xD 

ANYWAYS MERRY (LATE ASF) CHRISTMAS AND ONTO THE FIC XD I think it’s around 15k words OvO ENJOY

December 23rd

 A soft murmur slips past Draco’s ears through the darkness of sleep, earning a sleepy snort and a shift on the couch from the sleeping drunkard. The murmur wasn’t loud enough to fully wake the hungover excuse of a man resting on the couch, but it did plant the seed of a weak headache into his temples from the lingering alcohol flowing through his veins.

“...co ... Draco! Wake up, please.” 

The gentle shaking of his arm causes Draco to slowly stir awake. The rugged man lazily blinks a few times, trying to get his eyes to focus through the dim light on the face hovering above him. He winces as he’s greeted with a sharp churning in his stomach from his heavy alcohol consumption the past few days, cursing at the situation entirely.

“Shit. Wahtimeisit..? Wahdoyouwant?” His voice was deep and groggy from sleep, words slurred from his mind and mouth both sluggish and still trying to register and function at the thought of being awake so early.

“It’s 10 ‘till 6am. I need you to do the Christmas shopping for me while I’m at work today.” The gentleman firmly instructed. Shit. He had forgotten about that. The rugged man audibly grunted, rubbing the sleep out of his tired eyes. “I left the shopping list and some money on the table. Do not forget about it, Draco. I mean it.” His voice was strict and bold, leaving a mark on Draco’s deafened pride. The gentleman locked the door behind him and was gone before Draco could even attempt to respond. 

“Could’ve at least turned off the fricken light, jeez.”

He groaned, dreading the long day of shopping he had ahead of him. Every time Reuben had asked him to go to the store for him, it was always at least a four-hour endeavor, seeing how Reuben always had items on the list that he had never heard of, and the nearest shops around his area were all unheard of and he had no idea where any of the items were. Even if he did go shopping on a regular basis, he was sure that he would still be lost in each of the supermarkets. Christmas was in two days, so that meant that everyone was out and about, doing their last-minute Christmas shopping, just as he was about to, seeing how he had waited nearly a month to even think about the list. Yeah, Reuben had warned him about this multiple times, that’s why he had made the list ahead of time, but Draco didn’t care. Well, he didn’t care until now. The rugged man cursed to himself just thinking about the long shopping list and having to deal with crowds of people. Why did he have to do all the damn shopping, anyway? ‘It’s not like you do anything all day, anyway. You just lay around or go to the bar and get drunk. The least you could do is help out around here and go to the grocery store.’ He could hear Reuben’s nagging voice already engraved into his memory. They’ve had this conversation once before, and Draco hated to be reminded of it. He sighs, shoving away the memory and slamming his eyes shut, trying to return to the peaceful slumber that he had been rudely awoken from.

4 hours felt like minutes according to Draco as he was rudely pulled out of sleep by warm licks to the tip of his nose. At first, he shoves the clever feline back away from his torso and rubs his freshly licked nose, sluggishly trying to go back to sleep. Absinthe returns a couple of seconds later, gently sitting on his chest with a soft ‘meowrr’ that makes the rugged man bat an eye at the creature.

“Jesus Christ, cut it out, will ya!?” The man grunted, remembering that he was supposed to feed the feline two hours ago, and that he probably wouldn’t hear the end of it with Reuben when he got home. She speaks again, hopping onto the floor and stretching outward near her food bowl. “Alright, alright already. Shaash, I’m goin’.”

Brain still foggy from sleep, the rugged man brought himself to his feet, releasing a loud, well-needed yawn that forced his jaw to slack all the way open as he headed into the kitchen, feeling the patient feline watching his every move. He takes the can of cat food from the cabinet and sluggishly places the food in the bowl, having Absinthe instantly begin to eat the protein packed meal.

“You’re welcome, little bastard.” He mumbled as he watched the feline scarf down the mushy substance, gliding a gentle hand behind her ears. “Must be good, huh?” It was odd. Draco normally judged Reuben for speaking to his feline like an actual person, but it was actually quite soothing to say the least, as it brought a wry smirk to his face. Obviously, he wasn’t going to tell Reuben that. The black cat abruptly stopped eating and peeked her head at the man crouched directly behind her, purring when he rubbed the right spot. He gave her one last rub before getting up to grab a change of clothes.

He called an Uber after taking a decently long, hot shower and eating a slice of cold, leftover pizza from the fridge for breakfast. Reuben was the only person with a car around here and he had taken it to work today, so he felt that an Uber would be the better option at least. The rugged man scoops the money from on the table into his pocket, grabs the shopping list and heads outside into the freezing winter air.

***

The sky was a nice dark gray, not doing the sun any favors with providing any warmth or sunlight really. There was a cold, gentle breeze that would occasionally brush through his dark black bangs and hug his neck and chest, forcing him to pull up his short jacket collar as much as he could in order to shield himself from at least some of the coldness. This would be one of the moments that he missed his trench coat and fedora the most. Reuben had made him throw the old things out entirely and get a completely new wardrobe about a week after he had moved in. He couldn’t complain; he didn’t much care about having to wear new clothes, he just wanted to keep his fedora and trench coat if anything. The sound of car tires sloshing in a puddle of rainwater catches his attention as it appears to be his Uber driver. The driver waves at his direction, beckoning him to come over.

“So, where we headed?” The uber driver asked as Draco entered the back seat.

“Just to the local shopping center up ahead. I put the damn address in the app, why are you asking me? Do your damn job.” He muttered, eyeing the long list in his hand. He’s sure that the driver said something back to him, but he wasn’t listening; He was already in a bad mood and had to prepare himself for the long endeavor ahead of him. 

The closer they got to the shopping center, the more Draco started to get annoyed. There were so many cars in the street, driving slow for what Draco thought was both to look at all of the Christmas lights and decorations hanging up on all of the lamp posts and just from the amount of people in the area period. There were so many people walking on the sidewalks with their families, friends, partners and just some walking solo; He was kind of glad that he hadn’t driven here himself. It would be hell to find a parking spot anywhere, and just hell to get out of here. He grunts to himself, noticing a few people wearing face masks that were walking along the sidewalks as well. He had forgotten that this was the perfect weather and season for people to get sick. It was probably the perfect place to get sick too, seeing how there were just so many people brushing up against one another, touching all sorts of the same products and just overall breathing the same air in general. The driver pulled over in what seemed to be the middle of the shopping center, having a giant Christmas tree on display to his left with so many bright lights and Christmas ornaments dangling from all of the branches. That seemed to be the hot spot of the entire center, seeing how there seemed to be a ton of families crowded around the tree, whether they were taking pictures in front of it, sitting and chatting, or just hanging out around the area. He paid the uber driver and exited the vehicle, instantly starting to make his way towards the nearest supermarket so that he could get out of this mess as quickly as possible.

Draco was hit with a little bit of relief when he entered the store, feeling the heat instantly wash over him as he grabbed his handheld shopping basket. It was short lived though as he saw how long the checkout lines were, and how many people were still shopping down every isle in the store. He briefly sighed, shoving all of his aggravation aside. He knew that he wasn’t going to get anything done fast if he just kept moping about the situation.

It took about an hour of roaming down every isle a few times, bumping into and being bumped into a good handful of times and scanning over the shopping list at least 30 times before Draco was sure that he had gotten a good selection of items off of the list and made the executive decision to check out. It didn’t matter which line he chose; each line was so long that it was stretching into an actual isle, causing multiple people to have to cut through every once in a while, just to get to the other side of the store. He picks the closest line to him and decides to start waiting now rather than later. Why does everybody have to be out shopping right now anyway? He thought to himself, feeling his arms starting to grow tired from carrying the heavy basket for so long. 

It wasn’t long before other shoppers began to slowly file in behind him, causing him to feel slightly uneasy from how close they had to stand in order to be out of the way of other shoppers. What made matters worse was that the person behind him sounded like he was under the weather and Draco didn’t want to be anywhere near it. The thick sniffling that was heard from behind him made Draco internally groan. Damn it, he hated this so much. The regret was really starting to sink in now. At this moment he wished that he had went shopping right when Reuben had made the list. There’s a chesty cough from behind him that makes Draco turn his head slightly enough to see a young man sniffling helplessly into the palm of his hand. He rolls his eyes, feeling like he’s stuck in his current position. He knew that he always had an option to leave the line, but he had already waited 10 minutes and he didn’t want to be there any longer than he had to. The shuffling of feet in front of him caught his attention as he followed suit and scooted forward a couple of inches as the next customer was being serviced. There were only two customers in front of him now, and he was actually standing inside of the gap with the chip racks and soda coolers; He was nearing the light at the end of his tunnel. He knew that he could wait a couple more minutes and put up with this a little while longer. That was until…

“Hh… Ah’TSSCHiuh!!” 

The loud sneeze from behind makes the rugged man flinch, feeling a gust of air and cold spray instantly hit the back of his neck. He slowly turns around completely this time, bringing a hand up to wipe where he had felt the sickly spray come in contact as he was greeted by a young man with short brown hair, sniffling and wiping his nose onto his jacket sleeve.

“Oh, come on, man! Are you freggin serious?!” Draco yells, feeling disgusted and aggravated at the stranger. The outburst causes a handful of eyes to veer over to their direction. The younger man could only give a sheepish smile in return, feeling way beyond embarrassed and nervous of what the rugged man would do.

“I, uhh… I’m sorry, man! It’s just allergies! ‘Tis the season, right?” The young man said with a pleading smile and nervous laugh, trying his best to ease the rugged man over. Allergies my ass. His voice sounded thick and strained just from that apology alone, and Draco already knew what this meant. He looked like a walking germ cell; ain’t no way that’s some goddamn allergies. 

“Un-fucking-believable.” He muttered, looking at his hand in disgust. He was furious way beyond comprehension, but he didn’t want to cause a bigger scene than he had already. For this kids’ sake. The young man pulled out a pack of tissues and handed him one with a shaky hand. “Where the hell was this at before you fucking sneezed on me?!” His voice was loud with anger again as he snatched the tissue out of the man’s hand and wiped his own in disgust. The younger man quickly fumbled into the packet again to grab his own tissues as his eyelashes began to gently flutter shut. 

“Ah’TSSCHiih..! Ih‘TISShiEW!!” 

The cans and bottles in his handheld basket clanked against each other as the young man jerked forwards, diving into his hand full of tissues as his bangs bounced off of his clammy forehead with each itchy explosion. He would’ve crashed into the chip rack if not for the kind stranger behind him. Draco was relieved when the customer in front of him was beginning to load the belt with his items, allowing him to scoot up some again. It was short lived though, when the young man also scooted up behind him, sniffling and coughing so close in his ear it felt like he was practically shoulder to shoulder with him.

Finally, after a few more minutes of waiting, it was Draco’s turn to quickly checkout and instantly leave the store. The cold air greeted Draco once again, but he didn’t care this time. He was just happy to get out of that store and separate himself from that walking germ infestation. His arms were already starting to get tired even though he had two more stores to visit; He just wanted to go home honestly and take another hot shower to cleanse himself. It was about a ten-minute walk to get to the next store on his list. The fresh air was really nice, but it was awfully cold and starting to loosen up his sinuses. He had to sniffle every few seconds just to try and prevent his nose from leaking onto his numb upper lip.

His second shopping experience was pretty similar to the last store, minus the disgusting event, but the process went by faster than he had thought it would, and for that he was grateful. He peered down at the shopping list once again, having a wave of relief brush over him from seeing the small handful of items that he had left to get: Cranberry sauce, Asparagus, wait… Proscouittio? What the hell was a proscouittio? The rugged man sat down on the nearest bench, allowing his arms to rest by setting down all of his grocery bags onto the cold concrete as he pulled out his cellphone and dialed up the pediatrician.

“Hello? Draco?” The smooth and concerned voice of the gentleman was heard on the other end of the phone.

“Yeah, it’s me. What the hell is a pro… scouittio?” The rugged man asked, voice still coated with irritation from having to be out shopping. He snuffled twice into a curled knuckle, giving the underside of his nose a quick wipe after feeling a faint burning at the back of his sinuses from the cold air. A light chuckle is heard on the other end from the gentleman.

“It’s prosciutto, not proscouittio.” Reuben corrected through a light snicker. Draco snarled, irritably bringing his phone closer to his mouth. 

“If you’re going to laugh and make fun of me, so help me God I swear I’ll hang up right fucking now and blow this money at the nearest bar in sight.” His voice was dry and grim, causing Reuben to stop his chuckling instantly. The rugged man snuffled thickly again, lifting up his arm to briefly rub his leaky nose along his jacket sleeve this time. 

“Okay, okay, calm down. There’s no reason to get all riled up.” Reuben’s voice had a naturally childish glee to it today that forced Draco to ease up a little, even if he didn’t want to. “It’s a thinly sliced ham. Very delicious. You can find it at Scardello deli a little way east of the Shopping Center. Oh, and Draco, make sure you’re reading all of the ingredients carefully. My parents are coming over and it has to be correct.” It was hard to pay attention to Reuben, seeing how his nose would not stop running no matter how many times he wiped at it. He had to keep sniffling to himself in order to barely keep the leakage at bay. He audibly sighs, as he felt his inner nostrils begin to tingle from the cold air just enough to make his chest bounce with a muted hitch.  “—And a block of Gruyère cheese from the deli too, please.” There was a moment of silence before Reuben realized that he had been talking to himself for the past few seconds. Another muted hitch escapes from Draco as his nose and lips began to quiver uncomfortably from the subtle itch. 

“Hehh…” He could feel his eyelids start to droop closed and his shoulders begin to rise from the third inhale that was audible this time and forced him to bring up a shaky hand to squeeze his nostrils shut with his thumb and forefinger. 

“Hello? Draco? Are you there—" The hitch only sounds like a soft grunt to Reuben as he is unable to hear clearly since Draco instantly pushed the device deep into his chest as he jerked forwards twice.

“Kxxnt… Hhuh-… Eh’GSXnt!” The first sneeze was weak and soft enough to go unnoticed, but it made the gentle tingle in his sinuses rattle, causing the second sneeze to sound a bit more agitated and loud enough to get picked up on the line.  

“Oh? Bless you, Draco. Are you alright?” Reuben asked, voice clearly coated with concern. The rugged man barely caught the sentence as he brought the phone back up to his ear, sniffling a handful of times into his curled knuckle.

“Yeah, ‘s just cold as hell out here. What were you talkin’ about?” Draco muttered, massaging the bridge of his nose with chilled fingertips.

“I said I need you to pick up a block of Gruyère cheese from Scardello’s Deli for me while you’re out. I must’ve forgotten to put it on the list.”

“Jeez, I need a drink.” Draco groaned as he massaged the bridge of his nose in irritation of the new item added to his list this time.

"Tell you what: I'll pay your bar tab for all of the hassle you're going through today, even though all of this could've been avoided had you listened to me." Reuben offered, mumbling the second half of his sentence in a matter-of-fact manner. Draco didn't care though. He was sold on the 'pay your bar tab' part.

"You've got yourself a deal then." 

“Good. Oh- And Draco, be safe out there. Don’t stay out in the cold for too long. Make sure you’re keeping wa--” 

“Tch.” Draco instantly ended the call after he irritably smacked his lips, ignoring the pediatrician’s advice. He didn’t need to hear something he already knew and was well aware of. Reuben wasn’t his parent. He knew how to take care of himself. The rugged man quickly stood back up in a huff and headed straight for the second to last store on his list. 

The next store that he needed to visit was a fresh produce store. Reuben was very picky about the ingredients that he needed. He always wanted it to be organic and to be from a certain brand, which was very annoying and very time consuming to find. If he had been lazy and just brought home a random brand of the product, he knew that he wouldn't hear the end of it from Reuben. Draco didn't know why the hell he cared so much, seeing how it all tasted the same to him anyway. What was the point? It was all food; one just costs more than the other.

The list was growing shorter though, and it only took him about half an hour to find the ingredients that he needed, and checking out was a breeze. The only place he needed to visit was Scardello's Deli. He was glad that this was his last stop though. He was growing rather hungry and decided to take this opportunity to grab him some lunch with the leftover grocery money, if he had any.

Upon approaching the Deli, his heart instantly sinks from how many people are inside of the deli, and just from seeing all the tables outside being filled as well. For a brief moment he had forgotten that it was almost Christmas and that the piles of people showing up to this Deli wouldn't be an exception. Scardello's was also a popular Italian deli, famous for their tasty, high quality ingredients; seeing this many people here on an average day wouldn't be surprising either. You'd be lucky if you didn't have to wait in a long line that extended outside of the store.

Draco quickly stepped in line, wanting to save his place before someone else had the chance to and began the waiting game for the last time. He was happy, seeing how after he was finished shopping here, he could finally go home and he also had free alcohol on his waiting list. It wasn't too bad though. He enjoyed the scent of freshly toasted bread and the savory scent of spices that were infused into the meats. This was the best experience he had today for waiting in a long line, even if he had handfuls of groceries in his hands.

After waiting for about 20 minutes in line, it was finally his turn to order and he was relieved. There was a big glass full of different types of meats on display in front of him, all looking very delicious, but he points to the specific type of prosciutto that Reuben had asked for, along with the block of Gruyère cheese. The cashier nods to the rugged man and repeats the order back to a couple of workers that were slicing meat in the back as he pressed a few buttons onto his register.

"Prosciutto di Parma. Good choice. Delicate to the tongue and sweet to the taste." The woman behind him stated as she approached the meat display and stood beside him. She held her black suitcase to her side as her long, white lab coat flapped behind her as she turned to study the rugged man standing in front of her. "Hmm... You don't look like the type to eat anything close to prosciutto... Who sent you?" She mused, chuckling to herself as she saw the confused, and now irritated glare on Draco's face. The rugged man furrowed a brow at the lady, feeling offended by her choice of words. ‘Look the type’? The hell does she mean by that? 

Her long, brown hair seemed to flow vibrantly behind her back, naturally complimenting her dark, purple orbs while she looked at the display case full of meat. She was actually very beautiful in Draco's eyes; he had to force himself to shift his gaze so that he didn’t end up staring for too long.

"I gotta $62.60 for a Prosciutto Di Parma an’ a Gruyère ." The cashier stated through a heavy Italian accent that instantly snagged Draco's attention and brought him back to reality. Over $50 for just some damn meat and cheese? What has the world come to, he thought to himself. 

"U-uh, yeah, and I wanna add your uhh... Italian Sub. That should be cheap enough at least." He muttered, dazed by both the woman still hovering over his shoulder and the price of the meat as he fumbled into his pockets for the leftover grocery money. 

"Ey, Giuseppe, put his order on my ticket." The woman stated as she gently grabbed his hand in order to prevent him from scrambling for the lose bills in his pockets any longer. “Grazie mille amico mio.” Draco gave the woman both a confused and disapproving look in return but she brushed it off as she placed her own order on top of his. 

“Nessun problema. Qualunque cosa per mia sorella!” The cashier replied with a smile as he typed away on the cash register. 

"The hell d’you think you’re doing, lady? I have the money to pay, you know." Draco muttered to the woman with shattered pride after she had placed her order. The cashier had told them to stand over to the side as they began preparing their food.

"Mm-hmm. Oh I'm sure you do." She said with a flirtatious grin. Draco couldn't tell if she was joking or if she was just being sarcastic. Or both. The childish tone of her voice reminded him of Lirin a bit, and made him unintentionally release an agitated sigh. "Nobody in their right mind walks into Scardello's with pocket change."

"Listen, lady, pocket change or not: money is money. Don’t give a rats ass about how it looks." Even though she was very beautiful, her beauty didn’t seem to filter Draco’s mouth nor his personality. He could care less, really. She could’ve been Beyonce in a two piece and he still would’ve said the same thing. 

"Hm. Touché." She muttered, giving the rugged man an approving nod before giving him a light punch in the shoulder. “Can you not call me lady though? Don’t you know how rude that sounds?” 

"Do I look like a fuckin’ mind-reader? I don’t know your name, lady.”

“The name's Sicily." Her response came out awkward sounding as she fought to keep herself from actually socking him in the shoulder again. “Gaash, do you kiss your mother with that potty mouth?” 

"Don’t you ever mention my mother ever again, you got that??" He mutters intensely, having the cashier interrupt their conversation with two bags of food in hand. 

She awkwardly thanked the cashier and gave him a tip before leaving the Deli. Draco followed her outside over to a wooden bench a few steps away from the Deli as she sat down and separated the food between both of them.

"Y’know, you’re being kinda rude to the person that just bought all this food for you. Here." She said as she gave him the bag with freshly purchased food inside. "That one's yours." Draco accepted the bag in silence as she taps the bench and invites him to join her and have a seat, in which he distantly accepts. The two sit in silence for a good few minutes before Sicily decides to cut through the tension. “I didn’t catch your name earlier...” She mumbled into her sandwich before taking a bite out of it. 

“... Draco, I guess...” He replied annoyed, only staring at his sandwich rather than eating it.

"Well, Mr. Draco... You’re an asshole, you know that?” She stated through a soft chuckle after hearing Draco release a loud, obviously aggravated grunt in response, “An attractive asshole, I might add. And honestly, you just have the manliest resting bitch face I’ve ever seen--” 

“What the hell are you getting at here?” 

 “You wanna know why I paid for your meal? I just wanted to make that sour face at least a liiiittle bit sweeter, you know?” The rugged man gave a perplexed look towards the woman sitting beside him. It felt weird hearing a woman speak so openly and without a filter just like him. 

“...Shut up...” Draco half-muttered after an exhausted sigh, before finally taking a bite out of his sandwich. 

“You’d like that wouldn’t you? Too bad. I’m not a sheep. I don’t follow orders.” She mused with a dorky accent, surprisingly earning an unexpected chuckle from the rugged man. He wasn’t expecting such a resilient response. He had to admit, she was a cute, quirky, and geeky person that made his heart flutter the more he talked with the woman. 

The two sat on the bench oddly enjoying each other's company and eating the delicious Italian lunch for about half an hour. Even though it was really cold outside, it didnt matter to them. It felt like Draco was genuinely having a great time with Sicily and he didn't want it to end. You might even say it was a first date at that. She seemed to be the only person that could get underneath his thick skin and actually make him chuckle, multiple times at that. Wait a minute, what was he thinking? It couldn’t have been a date. They were simply just having a decent lunch together. That was all. 

The half hour feels like seconds as the time flew by, though. They had already finished their lunch and Draco knew that he needed to get back and put the groceries away. Sicily seemed like she had her own plans to get back to as well, seeing how she was the one who had cut the event short. She did feel awful about ending their moment, so she paid for his Uber and waited with him until the Uber arrived to take him home.

***

Draco had an odd, empty feeling resting in his stomach as the Uber pulled up to Reuben's home. He was glad to be home and to have all the shopping finished; It felt like a huge weight was lifted off of his shoulders, but he still missed the company of Sicily. He thanks the driver for the ride after he collected all of his belongings and started for the front door, heaving all of the groceries along with him.

Draco raises a curious brow as he sees Reuben's car in the driveway. It was out of the ordinary to see Reuben's car here at this time, because he normally didn't come home until late at night. The rugged man adjusts the bags in his hands, dismissing the fact of the car being there only to be halted by a stray dog crossing his path in the driveway.

The dog looked like a black and brown German Shepard, but it had a deep cut along its left eye and it was faintly shivering from the cold winter air. Once Draco made eye contact with the canine, it slowly sat down and wagged its tail, patiently waiting. For what, Draco had no idea. He had seen this dog before. Multiple times at that. Reuben would always chase the dog away with his shoe whenever he saw him on the porch, but Draco never understood why. The rugged man cautiously approached the injured creature with a struggling hand to scratch behind its ears and the dog instantly dropped its mouth open and let its tongue hang out, clearly enjoying the attention and feeling of affection.

"You like that, dontcha boy?" As if in response to Draco, the dog barked and hopped up to place his paws onto the rugged man’s chest, trying to lick his face. Draco chuckled at the friendly creature and gave it a hug as he couldn't resist the poor, abandoned animal. He knew how being cold, lonely and abandoned felt and how much value was in the slightest amount of affection. He wasn’t fast enough to dodge as the canine licked his cheek a few times. "Okay, okay, down boy! Get down!" He had to force the dog down, seeing how the canine was overly excited from the rugged man and his attention. "What’s your name, anyway?" He muttered, trying to find a collar or dog tag on the animal, only to find nothing. The stray dog sat in front of the rugged man with excited eyes. It was hard for Draco to look back at the poor animal, but he knew that he couldn't take him into Reuben's house. The pediatrician had mentioned that he disliked dogs with a passion; for what reason, Draco had no clue. He gave the dog one last good rub and slipped past him in order to get to the front porch. The dog only sat in place, watching the rugged man as he stood on the porch, glaring back at the stray dog with guilt. “... You know what, fuck it.” He says as he grabs a slice of the prosciutto and tosses it to the stray dog. Immediately, the dog grabs the meat and runs into the grass, tearing the meat up and swallowing it savagely like he hadn’t eaten in a while. ‘You enjoy that, little buddy.” He whispers before sliding into the house. 

***

Draco released a light sigh as he was relieved to be back home and outside of the cold. Before he could enter the kitchen to set down the groceries, Reuben arose from the couch and greeted him with a cheerful grin.

"Welcome back, Draco. I assume everything went well?" The gentleman grabbed a few of the bags from the rugged man and led him into the kitchen.

"Yeah, but- wait, why are you home right now?" Draco asked, confusion coating his voice, as he sat the bags on the counter and began to take all of the items out. Reuben gives a slight chuckle as he takes the empty bag from Draco and throws it in the trash.

"I couldn't have you here while I wrapped up all the Christmas gifts, now could I?" He said, pointing at the elegant Christmas tree that now had multiple gifts resting underneath it. Draco rolled his eyes, aggravated at the fact that it would’ve been a whole lot easier if Reuben would’ve taken him to the store in the first place. “Oh, relax, would you? I thought I’d find you wearing an ear-to-ear grin from the clean slate you now have at the bar!"

"... Fine, just whatever... There better be a flask full of booze under there or you're catching fists." He falsely allowed the joke to slip off of his tongue, forgetting that he wasn't outside with Sicily anymore. Reuben doesn't mind though, and takes it as him finally getting into the Christmas spirit. "What's with the sweater?"

"Oh this old thing? You like it?” Humors Reuben as he stretches out the sweater in order to show off all the glowing Christmas lights and decorations on it. The rugged man only gives a disgusted look in disapproval at the ugly thing. "It even lights up, s-see?Ihktsh!" Reuben furrowed a confused brow as he barely caught the abrupt sneeze into a curled knuckle, feeling an overwhelming itch force entry into his sinuses and cut his shirt viewing short. 

A sharp, breathy inhale was the only thing Draco heard before he looked over to see Reuben twitching forward with each rapid sneeze, catching them with the top-side of his hand. "Hih-Ktsh! Hihktsh! Hh-Hihh! Hih'KSsh! HuhISsSCH'ue!!" The power of the tickling sensation was so strong and abrupt that his lungs didn’t know how to function properly with the irritant fighting in his sinuses.

He knew the feeling of this type of tickle. It wasn’t from sickness, nor from hay fever, and his house hadn’t been dusty enough to irritate him the past few days, so it could’ve only been one other thing.  A handful of muted gasps escape from the gentleman as he could feel his sensitive nose trembling in agony. 

“Hh-have youhh beenn playi’gw-wihh-hih! Wid dohh-gs??” The pediatrician struggled to ask between hitching breaths as he grabbed a few tissues from off of the counter with one hand and pinched his nostrils closed with his other hand. 

“Yeah, so what if I did?” Draco fired back, defensively as if the stray dog were under attack by the evil pediatrician. The gentleman only blew his nose in return, shaking his head from how intense the tickle was becoming. He instantly shuffled backwards after he blew into the handful of tissues for a second time, foolishly trying to expel the irritant as quickly as possible, only to rattle the irritant around and get hit with the full force of the tickling sensation. He coughed and fanned at the air as if doing so would remove the irritant that forced his nostrils to instantly tremble in aggravation. He could feel his body rejecting the irritant fiercely as his eyelids instantly slammed shut once again and his chest visibly bounced from the rapid, overwhelming breaths his body felt were necessary to take between each desperate sneeze he lazily caught in the handful of tissues. The sudden irritant caught both him and his body off guard as it physically tried to process what the devil Draco had brought into his presence. 

“D-Dr-a’KSh!Ihktsh!! Huh’kSsh!! I-Ihssh’uehh-hih! HihH’ksh’u!!… I-Ih-hhehh-HH…” Reuben barely squinted his eyes open to share a struggling glare with Draco, trying his hardest to speak but failed miserably, getting lost in his own sea of rapid hitches. The strength of the irritant forced the pediatrician to instantly jerk forwards into the damp handful of tissues with rapid, itchy explosions. 

“Hihktsh! Kshnt! IhKTSH-tsshIISsh! AlleH-Hh’Issh…! T-tIDSh’ue!! Hehh…D-dohhgs-s Hhgh-ihkssh’u! hHAH-ESsh’uekgshu! IH’KGshIEw!! Iksshu! Kgshu-IKGSshu!” The gentleman's body trembled with each sneeze as he struggled to take in a breath of air. He had foolishly tried to speak in-between the fit in vain as he had cut himself off with the rapid, tumbling sneezes. 

The rugged man gives Reuben a questioning glare as he released four more tired sneezes in-between desperate nose blows and irritated coughs into his handful of tissues. He didn't know that Reuben had a dog allergy; He also hadn't played with the canine for that long either, so he was confused as to why Reuben was having such a reaction.

"I'm a-allerhh-hih... Hahh...! Ihktsh!! Hheh'kssh-ISshu! 'EDSh'ue!! Ekgsh!! IsshShishh! IGSSch'uh! Hahh... Allergigk do dogs." He congestedly tried to explain again through disruptive hitches. 

Draco could see the pediatrician's pink tipped nose still twitching from the irritant lingering about as he dabbed away the allergic tears that started rolling down his cheeks with the side of his hand. He gave a sly smirk to himself, finding a hint of pleasure in seeing the arrogant pediatrician looking so vulnerable. It was nice to see Reuben knocked off of his high horse for a bit. 

"Well in that case, I want a dog." Draco humored to the pediatrician as he watched him still trying to catch his unsteady breath.

"Hah’KGshn! Ihgsh! Kgsch! H-how consihhderate o-of... Ih-Kgsshn! Hh-huh... youhh." His speech was still shaky and broken from the faint hitches riddled between his words. He blows his nose once again in an attempt to blow out the irritant that had entered his nostrils, but it does nothing but dampen the tissues further in his hand.  

 The gentleman irritably tells Draco to finish putting away the groceries and to throw his clothes into the washer as he left the room to take some allergy medicine, already beginning to feel miserable. He also couldn’t help but give a little chuckle to himself, finding the whole situation to be quite humorous. He only wondered how bad it would be if Reuben were to actually encounter a dog in person. 

The hot shower that Draco had been waiting for all day finally came and went, leaving him with a strong feeling of relief and relaxation. It felt like ten pounds had been lifted off of his shoulders, seeing how he still felt disgusting from that irritating encounter at the store. Reuben seemed to be feeling better as well, since he had stopped sneezing when he got out of the shower. He had to admit: The Christmas vibes were definitely present from both the nicely decorated Christmas tree and all of the decorations Reuben had been putting up all over the house. It was his first Christmas with the pediatrician, and it felt like it was going to be a great one at that.

December 24th

The loud clank of a pan serves as a rude awakening for the rugged man as he flinched awake from the couch. He tries to open his eyes but instantly slams them shut with a heavy wince from the blinding living room lights. A few light coughs escape from his grasp as he sluggishly wiped the sleep from his eyes. He felt groggy today. Groggier than usual. He releases a sluggish snuffle in an attempt to clear the wall of congestion that must’ve built up overnight. 

“Evening, Draco.” The lanky gentleman greeted from the kitchen, adding water to a pot before placing it on the stove top. “A pleasure to see you awake. I surely thought you were going to sleep the entire day away.” The rugged man remained silent as he blindly reached for his flask from off of the coffee table and instantly began consuming the alcoholic beverage, only to choke on the burn in his throat. That was strange. He thought that he was used to the burn of a little Whiskey. “How many times have I told you to stop drinking in the morning?” The rugged man winces, trying to clear his throat of the itch and now faint burn from the alcohol.

“Mornin’ to you too, asshole.” He muttered dismissively, hearing his own voice sound a little scratchier than usual. “HhUh-TDZSSH...!! EHh’GTSZSHh’UHH!! GOD--!! Damnit!!” He barely catches the first loud sneeze into the cup of his hand, almost spilling his flask from the force of the second loud sneeze that shakes his entire core. He yells a swear, feeling the most torturous burn scrape his raw throat from the loud morning sneezes. 

“Ah. Lovely.” The sarcastic tone from the gentleman earned a pained chuckle out of Draco as he struggled to choke down another swig from his flask. “I’m expecting company over soon. I’d recommend getting dressed and presentable.”

“Dressed and ‘presentable’? Screw off.” Reuben only sighed in return, not in the mood to put up with Draco’s shenanigans. A mild yawn escapes his lips as he glares at the clock resting on the stand. “3:30pm? Shit.” He mumbled as he rubbed a hand across his face in an attempt to wipe the sleep away as he got up to join the pediatrician in the kitchen. There were a lot of different foods scattered across all of the kitchen countertops with other food items cooking on the stove as well, and he was sure that he saw something baking in the oven. “Why the hell are you makin’ so much food?” Reuben abruptly stopped cutting the vegetables on the cutting board and sat his knife down in order to share a confused glare at Draco. 

“Draco, my family is coming over for the Holidays, remember?” His heart instantly sank after hearing those words. He had forgotten about Reuben’s family coming to visit. He dreaded this day as well because it was going to be the most awkward day of his life, which was probably the reason he had forgotten about it in the first place. “You do remember, don’t you?”

“HhUH-EGTSsh!! Y-yeah, sure. When are dhey cobin’ a-adywayhh? IH’TIZSSCH'ugh!! Shidt.” He asked between the forceful sneezes, dismissively trying to hide the fact that he truly had forgotten about his parents coming over. The gentleman raises a concerned brow at the second pair of harsh sneezes and gives the rugged man a quick gloss-over. 

“My blessings. Are you feeling well, Draco?” The pediatrician doesn’t hesitate to shove a cool palm underneath the man’s disheveled bangs and atop his clammy forehead out of his routine pediatric habit. “You look exhausted. Then again, when don’t you look exhausted?” Draco flinches and knocks away Reuben’s hand in return, before taking another swig from his flask. 

“’M fine. Your snooty parents must be talking about me already.” He humored, but not really. He didn’t want to offend the gentleman, but they both knew it was obvious. Reuben brushed off his comment, not disputing it either, seeing how Draco could’ve been right. His parents were a bit snobbish and he wouldn’t be surprised if they actually were talking about him right now.

“We agreed on 4pm, but knowing my family they’ll probably be knocking on the door any minute now. That is why I’d strongly advise getting dressed.” The rugged man leaned against the countertop in silence for a moment, trying to find at least someway to get out of this pickle he was forced into. 

“Why the hell do I gotta act all nice and prissy just to impress your damn parents? It ain’t like we gettin’ married.” He irritably muttered into his opened flask, dreading the evening he had to prepare for. The pediatrician took a moment to compose himself, trying not to let the stress of the day wash over him and cause him to say or do something he didn’t intend to. 

“Draco, can you please just wash up and get dressed? Don’t make this difficult. You can leave for the bar right after, I don’t care, just don’t embarrass me, please?” Draco gave the man a questioning look. He hadn’t heard the pediatrician ask him to do something in this pleading tone ever. It was... different. A bit concerning. 

“Whatever...” He grumbled, silently slipping out of the kitchen and leaving the pediatrician to continue cooking the feast in kitchen.

He had to admit that he was a little nervous about meeting Reuben’s family. If his family was as arrogant and uptight just like he was, it was going to be a long evening. Especially if Reuben was acting this way about his parents, something was definitely going to go down. He did seem like the type to have parents with high expectations and standards, which Draco knew that he wasn’t qualified for. Even though Reuben was how he was, he didn’t want to leave a bad impression on his family, but he couldn’t make any promises either. He knew that he was going to have to prepare himself to probably listen to his parent’s brag about how much money they make and how proud they are to have a Pediatrician as a son. He released a long sigh as he collected a some-what clean outfit, completely ignoring the pressed suit and tie that Reuben picked out for him, and headed into the bathroom. 

***

Draco took his time in the shower, not wanting to leave the bathroom at all and face a room of strangers. He already started to feel slightly worse from when he had woken up, seeing how his nose had begun to leak and itch more profoundly and his throat was really becoming agitated. He could already hear a few unfamiliar voices carrying into the restroom that made him uneasy. He was a complete stranger getting dumped into a family meet and greet. He knew that he would feel out of place and like he didn’t belong but there was no way to escape. All of his guests had already arrived and were chatting up a storm in the other room. He could make out Lirin’s high pitched voice, which gave him at least a little bit of comfort, but the other few voices made him release a tense sigh. This was going to be weird, but it was better to hurry up and get this over with now.

Draco slowly opened the bathroom door, deciding that it was time to leave the steamy bathroom so that the stuffy, warm air could stop making his nose leak so damn much. He carefully peered down the hallway, instantly being greeted by unfamiliar faces. There was a man with brown hair and glasses in a dark suit, looking like an older version of Reuben just with stubbles on his chin that was having a conversation with a mature woman, looking young for her age, with long, luscious brown hair; They looked like they had professions related in business or sales.

“Speak of the devil, that must be the man of the hour! My son here’s been tellin’ me all about ya!” The man in the suit said with open arms as Draco approached the group. He instantly pulled the rugged man in for a tight hug that took the breath away from him and caused him to cough over the man’s shoulder. “Don’t be shy! We’re all family here.” After a brief moment, he finally let go and gave Draco a good look over. “You look well! Seems like you’ve made yourself right at home.” The rugged man remained silent, unsure of how to respond to the sudden change of tone from his last sentence.

“Oh, don’t mind him, honey.” The woman said as she straightened up Draco’s shirt. “Donovan’s always been such a hard-ass to all of Reuben’s new friends, haven’t you, Donny?” She said, abruptly giving Donovan a death glare. “My name’s Colette.” Before he could even reply to the woman, Donovan stepped closer to Draco with judging eyes.

“I just don’t want my son to have any bad influences or distractions. You know how it is.” Draco took an uncomfortable step backwards, feeling the tense atmosphere weighing on his shoulders. He already felt like he was being pulled in both directions from both parents. The rugged man froze, feeling like the dark glare from Reuben’s father was judging his every move and action. He curses internally, feeling his nose start to run again, knowing that he can’t do anything about it at this moment.

“Dad I’ve told you countless times, he’s not a distraction. I’ve been doing just fine even with him here.” Reuben said through an irritated sigh as he stressfully massaged the bridge of his nose. Donovan instantly approaches Reuben with a stern voice, clearly not fond of the entire situation. It seemed like none of his words were getting through to him.

“Mmm. And just how long does this Draco plan on staying here?” The rugged man forcefully took this opportunity to turn around and grab a few tissues and wipe his nose, before the leakage had the chance to become visible. A hint of relief crosses over him as he quietly blew into the tissues. It was a soft enough blow to the point where it didn’t draw any attention away from the conversation.

“Ease up, darling. It’s Christmas. We came down here to enjoy the holiday with our son and niece. Besides, Draco looks like a responsible young man. If our son says he’s fine with him being here, leave it at that.”

“Yeah, Draco is SUCH a RESPONSIBLE young man.” Lirin childishly chimed in, hugging Reuben loosely from his side. “You should see how RESPONSIBLE he is when he’s drunk.” She smirked. Draco bit his tongue, trying his best to catch himself from saying an angry remark. Just hearing her sarcasm made him clench his teeth.

“Is that so…?” The voice of a clearly intrigued and curious woman fills the room as Sicily enters the house and locks the door behind her. “We’ll have to grab a drink later.” She flashes Draco a charming wink that makes him instantly look away.

"Sicily, darling! We thought you wouldn't be able to make it! What a pleasant surprise!" Colette exclaims in surprise as she embraces the woman. “Is that alcohol I smell on your breath?”

"Mom, relax. What are you, a police officer? It’s Christmas!” Sicily’s entrance cuts through the tense atmosphere as she gives Donovan, Reuben and Lirin a hug in greeting. “Anywho, don’t be shy now, Draco, was it?” She gave the rugged man a playful nudge in his side as she pulled him over onto the couch. Draco doesn't fight her as he allows himself to be forced down onto the couch, feeling both relieved that he got snatched away from the demonic man, but also, dare he say 'happy' to see Sicily for a second time. "Some parents, huh?" She says after observing Draco's facial expressions. "I know. Dad can be quite the handful. Just make sure mom doesn't get a hold of any wine, or that could be a real shit-show." She giggled to herself as she kicked off her boots. “Last year, mom had a liiiiittle too much of the holiday nog and almost broke all of my drinking glasses. Wanna know how? She was throwing them at pops for losing 10 grand in one of his stock investments.” Another, louder giggle erupts from Sicily, earning a darted glare from Donovan towards Draco. 

“Um, excuse me everyone. Dinner is almost ready, so if you all could please relocate to the dining room…” Reuben muttered, placing the dinner rolls on the table.”

  ***

“Honey, this looks delicious!” Colette exclaims, looking at all of the food Reuben had prepared. It did look delicious. How one man could make so many different dishes all by himself beat Draco. He did a really nice job with everything, but of course, he wasn’t going to tell Reuben that.

“Let’s dig in!!” Lirin exclaimed before instantly chowing down on her over-piled plate. She was the first to make her plate before anyone else cold even touch the food.

There were so many silverware and differently sized plates on the table and it made Draco squirm internally. It felt like he was being setup. He and Reuben both knew that he didn’t have any knowledge about dining etiquette, or any etiquette in general. Hell- he doesn’t even know the name of anything that’s on his plate! He’s sure that everything on the dining table was fancy and had a L or Lu in front of it. He wouldn’t be surprised if Reuben’s family called their glasses of water: L’agua. 

The rugged man watched as all of the family members delicately picked up their proper utensils and began to elegantly cut and eat the food on their plates. It was like he was in the realm of gods and goddesses and he was the only human in sight, attempting to mimic their custom. Even Lirin somehow managed to mask her gluttony. It was hard to even think about eating, seeing how he could barely survive the coldhearted looks that Donovan was darting his way. He could tell that he was subtly watching him, waiting to see which utensil he would pick up first and judge him if he grabbed at the wrong one.

“Aren’t you going to eat, Draco?” Reuben’s mom gave him a concerned look as she noticed he hadn’t touched his plate. “Your food will get cold soon. It really is good, I promise!” 

"Mom? Please." She whispered, feeling insulted. "Hey Draco, wanna blow this joint and go get some drinks? Lirin tells me you're a real drinker."

“I thought you’d never ask…” He replied with a nervous laugh, giving Reuben almost a puppy dog look of ‘please let me leave, this is my only escape.’ His parents tried to talk them out of it, but of course, Draco can’t be talked out of consuming alcohol.

***

 The music being played from the piano at the back of the bar rang blissfully in their ears as they entered the bar. It wasn’t too crowded, surprisingly. A soft aroma of alcohol filled the air as the two slowly approached the counter. There was a nice Christmas tree set up near the piano that lit up the room, with a male bartender wiping out a glass behind the counter.

“How can I help you?” The man said as he tossed the towel onto his shoulder and sat the glass down onto the rack.

“Let me get two shots of Bourbon for me and my friend here please.” Sicily ordered as she took a seat on the bar stool. The bartender nodded in understanding as he grabbed a bottle and started pouring the alcohol. Draco hesitantly sat down in the stool beside the woman, still tense and a bit uncomfortable with going into a bar with the pediatrician’s sister. “Relax, I just want to loosen up and have a couple of drinks with you.” She muttered, pulling out a cigarette from the paper carton and resting it on her rose red lips. She shared a short glance with Draco before it was awkwardly broken by the rugged man pretending to clear his throat.

 As the night went on, the fuzzier his head was beginning to feel. He had only had 5 shots and he could already feel himself starting to get a little more than tipsy. It was weird; Usually he could down more shots than this without feeling a buzz this early on. He could hardly think, let alone keep up with what Sicily was saying, not like what she was saying mattered, anyway. Draco was sure that she was one shot away from being completely plastered, seeing how her cheeks were flushed and her words were so slurred that it was a challenge to understand a word coming from her.

“It’s nice to let lose every once in a while, and take a break from all this classy shit.” She says, hoping to break the tension while allowing a long sigh to escape from her lips, causing a stream of gray smoke to bounce off of the counter-top and disperse into the air.

"You're tellin' me..." Draco muttered, grabbing the shot glass from the bartender and immediately scarfing it down like it were a dose a vicodine. "I could barely manage back there."

"Yeah..." Sicily distantly mutters, glaring down at the shot glass in her hand for a moment before irritably scarfing it down as well with haste.

“HhH’EGJISCH…!! ‘EGSSCHIUH!!” The rugged man dove forwards over the counter, holding his glass of whiskey away from him in vain so that hopefully it didn’t spill when he jerked forward with both of his itchy explosions. “O-oh shit! *hic*” He yelled with a breathy chuckle, finding humor from both Sicily’s laughter and the discovery of a small splash of alcohol that had spilled onto the counter from his glass. Sicily had toppled over onto the drunk man’s chest in laughter, struggling to breathe from how hard she was laughing. Draco’s own laughter abruptly stopped as the burning in his nostrils was still intense and flaring about.

“HhUH…!!” He sloppily leaned backwards with a deep inhale, barely able to stay upright from the weight of Sicily leaned so close up against him. He can feel his nostrils trembling in irritation from the burning as he slams his eyelids shut and dipped forwards again, slamming his glass onto the counter-top.

“Hhih…! Hhg’TIZSSCH’uhh! *hic* h-HUhgDzZSSCH’uhgg!!” His reflexes aren’t in tune from the alcoholic fuzziness as he is slow in turning his head away from the drunk woman. The first sneeze flies over Sicily’s head and lands on the counter-top, but he is able to partially turn his head over to the right and aim the second slurred mess of a sneeze towards the ground. Sicily shrieks in surprise from the two loud sneezes, feeling his chest tense up and shove her forwards, but she instantly smothered her chuckles into her hands as she pulled away from Draco and took a sip of alcohol from her shot glass. The rugged man brings up a sluggish, curled knuckle to lazily wipe underneath his faintly twitching nostrils, only to feel how moist and leaky they had been.

“Sh-shidt… Hheh…” He tries to cup his hand in order to lazily cover the disgusting mess on the lower half of his face, but before he can even ask for a tissue, his chest inflates quickly, forcing him to lean back once more with a disturbed grimace on his face. “

Sicily sloppily reaches into her purse, fumbling over herself as she takes out her handkerchief and shoves it into his cupped hand.

“Pineapple!” Sicily yelled abruptly, before he could even finish the oncoming sneeze.

“HhUHh’G-ghhn…?” The forceful hitch is instantly interrupted as his fuzzy and sluggish brain tried to wrap his mind around the randomness of the word pineapple. He sat there for a moment, confused, still waiting for the impending sneeze but the tingling in his sinuses had slightly died down to a quieter itch at the back of his nose.

“Ahh YEP, works everytimee.” She tiredly mused, downing her last shot of whiskey. Two hiccups escaped from her mouth once she downed her last shot and she giggled to herself before she flipped the shot glass upside down onto the counter.

“I use’to do thaht with Reuben when he’ws younger. That boy hadth’ most sensitive nose I’d ever seen. Once he start’d sneezin’ there was no goin’ back. ‘less you yell ‘pineapple!’ a’the right time. That’ll do it.” She muttered, fighting the effects of the alcohol that were trying to make her pass out on the counter-top.

"Hey... I wann' tell you somethin' an... An' you bettnot l-laugh..." The rugged man rubbed his face, feeling his mouth and tongue gradually becoming numb. It was definitely weird. He was feeling a lot of things tonight, both good and bad. He looked at Sicily with tired eyes, watching her back rise and sink with each breath she took as she rested on the counter with her head faced down in her arms. She grunted softly, as if signaling to Draco that she was still listening. "I... I r-really like you, you know tha?"

"Oh, that's nice. Me too." She muttered, giggling softly in her folded arms. At that moment, Draco's heart flew out of his chest as he struggled to sit upright.

"I'll have the ramen too. No eggs..." She weakly reached out to grab Draco's arm and shook it gently, "Please no eggs. I don't want eggs." He sighed and rolled his eyes, realizing that Sicily must've been talking in her sleep.

   December 25th 

“Hhg’tdsszhh! ‘Egsschh!!” The two tired sneezes were lazily stifled and released into the air as he shuffled around covered in his soft blanket in which he wore like an oversized jacket. He gently scrunches his nose around, feeling the tickle remaining at the same strength. He was lifelessly lying on the couch, too fatigued to do anything. Too exhausted to even sniff away the wetness leaking from his sore nostrils. What was the point? He had been sniffling and snuffling all night; every time he sneezed, the wetness quickly returned anyway. He was so congested to the point where it sounded like he was inhaling pudding every time he took a breath. The room was still dark, besides the random flashing lights of the elegant Christmas tree in the corner of the room. He audibly winced from the pressure pounding in his head with the pulsing of his veins. Drinking alcohol all day probably wasn't the best call, he had to admit. He felt so worn out and tired but he couldn't fall asleep; Not even the word Christmas could bring his spirits up. He snuffled lightly, too exhausted to even sniffle as hard as he needed to. His body tensed up reflexively as a shiver crept down his spine, forcing his body to quiver every once in a while. Blankets. N-need more blankets. A-and huhh-

“Draco…? Are you up?” The soft, sleepy and tender voice of Sicily cuts through his suffering as he can just barely see a thin figure slowly approaching from down the hall. She slowly made her way over to the couch and noticed the poor, sickly body lying there in pain. Her sleepy expression changes instantly to concerned when she observes the sick body closely. “Draco, you look horrible!” She exclaimed in an intense whisper, not trying to wake up the sleeping pediatrician. She held his clammy cheeks and frowned, giving them a smooth rub with her thumb to clear the sweat away. “You’re boiling! And-- Oh...”

"Ehh'hoOo! Hh-hih- HIH'gdzssh!" He can feel his cheeks start to blush a light pink as he barely realizes that he had sneezed on Sicily's neck and chest; He wanted to pull away but he was too exhausted and fever struck to do anything.

“HEH'Ssgk! ’M-m alrigh’. ‘ll jus’… Jus’ do the sleep. EEH'HooOgk! Hih'gSHUHhgk!Tiredhh…” He muttered, finding it complicated to compose the proper sentences and to communicate in general. At this point, he had partially given up stifling, forcing his sneezes to sound like a mixture of a cough and a mild yell. Sicily gave him a worried look, finding it odd to see a person so delusional and out if sorts. She was too worried to feel disgusted.

“Hey, Draco! Wake up! I ne...ed you t.. sta... Awa... Ke..!"

Draco wasn’t sure what dimension he had stumbled upon, but he couldn't hear or see Sicily anymore; He felt like he was asleep but at the same time, he wasn’t sure if he was. The blackness around him began to swirl into a spiral as if he were entering a portal, and before he could comprehend what was happening, he was back home in his old house. All the lights were off in the house but the single overhead kitchen light, which severed as a homing beacon to the rugged man. There was a tall, slender woman that stood hovering over the stove, humming an all too familiar tune.  

“Mm?” The woman slowly turned around to face the rugged man as if she were moving through molasses. The crimson locks resting beneath her shoulders dangled behind her back as she gave him a pained smile. “Just in time for dinner. Have a seat.” The bags underneath her eyes were complimented with a subtle dark circle, indicating that she had been overly exhausted and worn out for days on end. “Dinner’s almost ready.” 

“N-no, I...” Something isn’t right. Before he could do anything, the creaking of the front door catches his attention.

“M-mom...?” His words came out sluggish and muffled, as if he were moving in a time warp. With each hesitant step he took, the world around him blurred and swashed around, colors blending and smothering each other like dye on cake batter. The single word that he spoke seemed to echo for ages and bounce off of the walls and floors with a weird reverb like they were in a mutated cave. 

“You heard your mother, boy.” A dark tone from behind brings a boil to the blood flowing throughout Draco’s veins. He knew that voice all too well.  “Sit like a good dog.” 

“You...” He clenches his fists, feeling all of his uncontrollable anger rising to the surface.

“Draco. Draco, get up! Draco--!?”  He could barely hear the screams of his mother behind him as he was too busy dashing towards the figment of his father with a bawled fist, ready for a solid punch.

“I’LL KILL YOU!! YOU FUCKING MONSTER!!!” His own battle cries begin to drown out the loud crackling of the now roaring fire engulfing the walls and flooring. The dark, bulky body in front of him kept a cool smirk on his face, even in the given situation, which angered the rugged man and the fire even more.

“Draco, stop it!! Draco--!!!” The fear-filled screams from his mother began to cut in and out, almost mutating into the worried screams of the pediatrician.“Draco!!! Stop! Wake up! Blast--, he’s not responding!” Reuben yelled as he was holding on to Draco’s arms.

“We need to get him into some cold water, NOW! Start the bath!” Sicily nodded and darted for the bathroom, immediately starting to fill the tub with the coldest water she could. "Draco, you're hallucinating! WAKE UP, DAMN IT!" There was a slight shakiness to Reuben's voice as he struggled to pin the rugged man down. He had been in situations like this before and seen it plenty of times, but something about seeing Draco in such a broken state filled the pediatrician with more than just a little worry. 

“I-I’ll fucking--... Kill you... I swear it...”  The rugged man exhaustedly muttered, trying to punch the air but failing, since Reuben was holding him down in place.

"Reuben, the tubs halfway full!" Sicily yelled from the bathroom. The pediatrician signals for her to come and help him drag the sick corpse into the bathroom, in which she doesn't hesitate to do.

He was a tall, heavy and sickly thing. It took them a while to get him off of the couch with him fighting the two while weakly kicking and punching at the air as if doing so would hurt his invisible enemy. You could imagine how tough it was for them to force him into the bathroom, let alone the freezing bathtub.

"Help me get his shirt and jeans off..." Reuben muttered to his sister as he forced the rugged man to sit down on the toilet lid.

"W-whahd are yhou d-doig, pervert?!" Draco yelled, eyes sluggishly tracing the room and barely staying open. "G-Gedhh... HEH'Gdzsshiew!" The sneeze sprays the pediatrician’s pajama shirt as he temporarily flinches in disgust, but he doesn't let it bother him. He's in pure focus mode, as a trained pediatrician should be. "EHHgtsshnk!! Thad's whad you ged, b-bast.. bah.. heh-"

"Don't mind him, Sicily. He'll be fine." He says, noting Sicily watching with an expression on her face that he couldn’t read, but mainly to himself to give him some sort of relief while dealing with the given situation. He bites his lip, having mixed feelings about the situation. "L-Let's get him into the tub." The two nearly shove the rugged man into the cold pool of water, causing a lot of it to be spilled onto the bathroom floor. It only takes a second of being in the freezing water for him to snap out of it and realize where he was. Reuben sighs, feeling his heart nearly beating out of its chest. He had never seen Draco in such a state before in his life, and it worried him more than any patient he ever had. “Could you use this cup and pour some cold water over him?” He says, handing Sicily the small cup. “We still need to cool his body temperature down before he overheats. I need to go ge… some water. T-towels…” Before Sicily can even say anything, Reuben darted out of the room and closed the door behind him. She knew exactly what that meant.

“I need to ge… some water. T-towels…”

She heard him repeat it in her head. The tone in his voice when he said it. The strain and slight shake towards the ending. The pause in between and after. She gripped the cup tighter in slight anger. Two loud coughs from the rugged man jolt Sicily out of her own thoughts and redirect her attention. She can’t help but give the rugged man a good gloss over. He was visibly shivering in place, causing little ripples to bang against to tub walls. He looked like a dead corpse that still managed to breathe in her eyes. His red nose didn’t even attempt to hold back the sickly fluids that dripped down onto his chin and bare chest. He was too cold and out of it to care or do anything about it. She could see a tinge of black starting to linger underneath his eyes and his cheeks looked like pieces of cotton candy against his ghostly pale skin. She dipped the cup in the water on his side until it was submerged in the water and poured it over his head. He didn’t even flinch. He was probably too dazed to even feel the cold water, she thought to herself.

“… ‘ts c-cold m-mom-mm…” He barely mutters through chattering teeth, slowly closing his eyes and leaning back into the tub. Sicily immediately drops the cup and grabs the rugged man before his back can fully sink into the tub.

“Draco! Hey-hey, you have to sit up! Look at me!” She says, voice sounding strained from pushing the rugged man forward to sit upright. Draco doesn’t respond, allowing his body to fully go limp into Sicily’s arms. Sicily grunts, barely being able to keep Draco above the water from her current position. She hunches over the bathtub, trying to find the right position to comfortably hold Draco upright, but falls forward into the cold water on top of him. She releases a heavy exhale from the abrupt submersion in cold water and immediately pulls Draco’s upper half out of the water and into her chest as if he were hugging her. The rugged man takes in an immediate deep gasp and releases a handful of wet coughs over her shoulder, shivering like a madman. The woman gives a soft smile to herself, feeling the grown mans body tremble underneath her arms. She allows her fingers to rest on his clammy back, enjoying the feeling of his body up against hers so tight and closely. She closes her eyes, feeling warm from both Draco’s body and the happiness and comfort of Draco’s embrace. It felt as if time stood still for ages as the two leaned up against each other in the tub. Draco’s body had calmed down from the event, besides the constant sniffles, and they just sat there together. Holding each other. 

“S-Sicily…” Draco’s faint whisper barely cut through the thin silence.

“It’s me, Draco.” She whispered back softly, still resting her head atop of Draco’s shoulder and hugging him. The rugged man slowly pulled away and nuzzled their foreheads together. She kept her eyes closed, enjoying the company of the rugged man. She moaned softly, feeling the warmth from his forehead rub against hers. The warmth from his fever radiated off of his face against her skin, summoning a faint smirk to cross her lips. She can feel her heart race a little from the shift in the room as she feels a cold hand rake through the side of her hair. She flinches as the cold water from his hand drip down her left side. His hot breath comforts her as she smells a hint of Marlboro and leftover booze beam closer. She can feel his shaky breaths get stronger and closer as his warm lips come in contact with hers. He gives her a long peck on her soft lips, allowing her body language to convey to him if he should stop or proceed. She gasps internally, half knowing what was happening and half not. She doesn’t fight it though, and brings up a hand to trace a line down his chest as he pulls her closer and gives her two more deep kisses. He can’t help but moan as she gently pushes his head closer to hers. It was a very intimate moment, that’s for sure. If Draco had any questions, they had all been answered right now.

He slowly pulls away and nuzzles her forehead again, allowing them both to catch their breath. Sicily’s eyes were locked onto his as she seductively licked her lips, signaling that she was ready for more. He swallows down a cough as she leans up against his chest again, but this time, pushing him back and forcing him to lay his back against the curve of the tub wall. Draco is caught off guard by this action and flinches, uncertain of what she was going to do next. He can feel his heart begin to race as she starts to give him kisses on the top half of his chest.  Once she reaches his neck, she rests her body on his and starts to give him pecks all over his face. She reaches his nose and gives it two pecks, feeling her insides start to get all warm and excited.

Her adrenaline was rushing all over for many different reasons. She knew about Reuben. She knew about him being gay and she knew about his sneezing fetish. She knew he had the hots for Draco way before he himself probably did. She knew that something was off when he said he needed to get some water. He couldn’t handle Draco sneezing on him or him being practically naked in the bathtub. She herself didn’t have the fetish, but she was overly curious about what was so appealing about it. She couldn’t knock it until she tried it at least; she was already in the mood to get dirty with Draco. It did give her a rush knowing that she had the man Reuben had his eyes on. She was doing things to Draco that Reuben would probably never get to do. Draco sneezing on him was probably the closest thing he would ever get. 

“S-Sicily I—… Hh…” He whispered weakly, closing his eyes and slowly lifting a hand to his face. She immediately grabs his wrist and shoves it back down into the water and holds his other hand hostage under the water as well.

“I know.” She says, watching his red, glistening nose twitch above her. Another peck from Sicily occurs on top of his nose. She can feel his chest rise with another weak inhale. “Don’t worry, I don’t mind. Just sneeze.” Draco snuffles twice, giving Sicily a confused glare.

“W-waih wah?” He says, trying to lift his hand again only to have Sicily press more weight down against it and prevent him from doing so.

“You heard me.” She reaches her head up to Draco’s, using her nose to lightly rub against the moist rims of his nose to try to coax out the sneeze before he can say anything else.

“B-but I ne—” Sicily shushes him and pecks him on the lips before continuing to rub his nose in different patterns and speeds. He produces two loud snuffles, sounding both thick and wet, which creates a spark in Sicily’s eye. “W-wa- HhiH… Hih! W-wahd are y-you HiHh…. Hh-doig??” He manages to say before tilting his head back against his will, involuntarily trying to escape from the induced tickling sensation on his already sensitive nose. She reaches up to follow him, giving a subtle giggle, enjoying the chase.

“Stop fighting me and just do it already.” She says as she can feel his chest practically jumping with each stuttered inhale. Cold, clear sick coats the tip of her nose as she feels his nostrils twitching up against it. She knew that it was building up in there to the point where his nose was crying and leaking sick tears for a release.

“HhuH! …. Hh-hUh! HhIH!” She tightens the grip on his wrists in anticipation, feeling slightly aroused by it all. It was like waiting for the inevitable. A devilish smile creases her lips as she watches the rugged man’s face grimace in torment. He snuffles thickly a few times in vain, as the sick just leaked immediately back down anyway; he just accepted the fate of not being able to use his hands. He felt awkward not being able to have the freedom to cover his mouth. He wanted to turn away from her but he knew that wasn’t what she wanted. He curses mentally, feeling a little embarrassed but more irritated with the pestering itch in his sinuses.

“HIH… HHIH…! HHG’TIZGSSSSCHK’ughh!” She slams her eyes shut and flinches hard, unprepared for the sudden cold spray of sickly fluids. She wasn’t sure what position she was supposed to be in for the actual sneeze. She was too intrigued by the satisfaction of him suffering with his nose to think that far ahead. But this was something… new. “H-HUhgDzZSSSGCCH’kguhgg!! ‘HEEHGSSZCHH’uhh!!!” The second batch of mist sprays her face and she can feel glops of sick make contact with her face and chest that start to slowly drip down. At first she’s disgusted, but she is oddly satisfied in a way. The third sneeze hits her back-to-back with a new batch of wetness, and by this point, she feels like she’s being rewarded for her good deeds. A subtle moan is released, more to herself as she realizes that she liked it more than she thought she would. “Eh… HehhgKSSZCHHh’kt!!” She squirms, feeling a rush when his body jerks underneath her from the harsh coughs that follow; the rattling coughs remind him of how much he feels like a pile of crap all over again. Sick was all over both of them and he knew it. It was hard not to hide all of it, especially since he didn’t have his hands to cover or wipe away at it, and his nose was practically drooling over her nose tickling his. There was bound to be a lost of discharge. He can feel his cheeks start to flush a dark red from embarrassment as he tries so hard to sniff everything away. All he wanted to do was get out of the bath and hide on the couch. “S-sorry.” He mutters between sniffles and nose twitches, feeling slightly guilty as he tried to clean himself up without his hands.

“Thanks.” She says, kissing his now sick coated lips and giving him a smile. “Now I know.” Draco pauses for a moment, surprised at what he was hearing. Was he still hallucinating from the fever?

“Huh..??” He says, overly congested, trying to clean himself up with the bath water now that his hands are free.

“Now I know that you are the one… And this secret stays between us.” She said with a final kiss before getting out of the tub. The whole time she dried herself and left the room, Draco was still sitting there dumbfounded, overly confused about everything. He didn’t know how to feel. He was happy that he pretty much made out with his newfound crush, but… What the hell just happened??? Was any of this real..? N-no… It couldn’t have been…

“… I need to go the fuck to sleep…” He muttered before sinking into the tub again

***

“Reuben, I don’t care! I wanna open gifts now!” A loud, high-pitched voice rings the ears of Draco and causes him to stir awake against his will. “We’ve waited long enough! It’ll be New Years if we wait for him to get up!”

The rugged man sluggishly cracked open an eyelid to be blinded by the Christmas lights from the tree and the fire in the fireplace. Someone must’ve moved me back onto the couch… What the fuck… Immediately he feels his nose start to run like a faucet as he tries to sit up on the couch. He grimaces when his body aches and finds it a challenge to even sit upright. He sniffles a few times, trying to stop the leakage but it does nothing but make the sick dance around in his nostrils before returning back to the same spot it was in before so he just gives up and lets it stay there, too fatigued to attempt to blow his nose or wipe it. His heart skips a beat as he notices Sicily lying on the floor right beside the couch.

“Look who’s awake!” The pediatrician says, relieved to see him up and at ‘em. “Did we wake you?” Draco only sniffles in return, feeling grumpy and too sick to respond. He just wanted it to end. And by it, he means everything. This damn cold, flu, whatever the hell that kid gave him, Christmas, this day, pretty much EVERYTHING. Just leave him alone. “You should go back to bed and get some rest if you still aren’t feeling that well, Draco.”

“I wahs tryig do before your loud ass woge be ubp!” He yelled congestedly, coughing into the blanket right after. He winces, feeling his entire body feeling sore; inside and out. It felt like his whole body would break if he coughed or sneezed again.

“Okay, okay! Everybody calm down.” Reuben says, looking more towards Lirin as she raised a fist to him. “Don’t get too riled up, Draco. Your body is still recovering.” The rugged man leans back into the couch feeling defeated and overtaken by pain. He just wanted someone to put him out of his misery.

“I… I deed sobe paid bedicinde.” He mumbles through wet sniffles, sounding clearly beat down and worn.

“I’ll get them.” Sicily says, stretching from the floor before Reuben can leave the room. He freezes for a second but then nods in acceptance for her to get the meds. She returns a moment later, with the bottle of NyQuil and pours him a cup.

“I deed like… dhree o’ dhose…” He mutters through a strained voice as he shots the cap of medicine down.

“You ‘deed’ to blow your nose.” She jokingly mocks, pouring him a second cap full of NyQuil and handing him some tissues. He snuffles dismissively and jokingly steals the cap, chugging it down and returning it back to her with a mumbled ‘fuck you’ under his breath. She giggles, feeling slightly relieved that the old Draco was starting to come back a little. Reuben distantly watches the two from the distance, feeling a little excluded and odd. He knew something was going on here, but he wasn’t sure.

The gurgling sound in the tissues grabs the attention of the entire room as Draco gives one good blow into the handful of tissues. One blow and that’s it. Fuck it. He was too tired and that single blow took the wind and force away from him. He weakly coughed a few times into the tissues and threw them onto the floor, immediately sinking back into the couch.

“Let’s do the fucking gifts so you assholes can get out and leave me the hell alone.” He mutters, voice barely audible.

***

The gift exchange was fun for the most part. Everyone was having a great time except for Draco of course. Everyone seemed happy with their gifts. Reuben bought him a brand-new motorcycle so that he didn’t have to Uber or wait for him to drive him around. Lirin bought him a book on tips for being sober. And Sicily went out and got him a new flask with a bottle of Jack Daniels and a pack of Marlboros. One thing he could say was that this was the first Christmas that he had in a long while that actually felt homie. And it was the first Christmas that he had been too sick to participate in the festivities for.

“Alright Draco. Thanks for being apart of our Christmas and opening the gifts. We’ll get out and let you rest.” Reuben says, watching the NyQuil already start to take its’ toll.

Reuben and Lirin walk out of the room, leaving Sicily and Draco together again. She was sitting beside the rugged man on the right side of the couch. They sat together in a peaceful silence, besides Draco sniffling every couple of seconds. He didn’t mind her company. If anything, he was glad that she decided to stay.

“Alright, you’re tired. Time to go back to sleep.” Sicily says as she tries to get comfortable on the couch. “Come here.” She gently tugs on his arm for him to come closer to her on the couch. He exhaustedly obliges and nearly collapses into her chest, shifting around to get comfortable in her embrace. She blushes a little, feeling his head resting on her chest. Best Christmas gift ever, she thought to herself. She closed her eyes and raked her fingers through his damp hair, massaging his scalp as she tried to fall asleep wit the sick rugged man. She cracks an eye open as she feels the rugged man shift uncomfortably in her embrace and freeze before lightly jerking forwards twice, releasing two weak sneezes aimed at the floor.

“Hhuh’kgDTzsshn! Eh’Dsschkn!” The two weak sneezes take whatever energy he had left and he doesn’t even sniffle, feeling his entire body becoming too tired to do anything at the moment. He can only release a shaky exhale and collapse into Sicily’s embrace. She smiles, feeling overwhelmingly happy at the situation.

“Merry Christmas to me…” She happily mutters to herself before joining Draco in a long, well deserved sleep. 

END. 

Hopefully it was worth the wait LOL XD A lot is going on in this fic but I like’d working on it even though I had some intense writers blocks lol xD Like I said, I’m working on like 5 different fics all at the same time hahaha so hopefully I can post those because I been writing a lot, just not all on the same fic ahaha.

[selfindulgentpoorlywritten]

Hip-Check (Matthew Tkachuk Imagine)

Alright y’all, I finally fixed it! Hopefully this version is more coherent now that I’m not drunk off my ass.

Rating: T

Pairing: Matthew Tkachuk/Reader

Words: 1572

Warnings: none

Requested: yes/no

Summary: You’re just trying to get coffee after a long night at work. You end up getting a little extra.

Your job fucking sucks. Well, it doesn’t really, you’re just in a bad mood after a shitty shift. Spring and summer are the busiest time of year, which is stressful enough, but also everything that could go wrong did go wrong today. A real Murphy’s Law of a shift. Your propane tank had a leak, so your forklift ran out and stopped at the far end of the dock, meaning you had to walk all the way down and back with the tanks since everyone else was too busy to grab one for you. Then the system went down, so you had to run all your bills to and from the supervisor’s desk for them to put in directly. Then approximately eight million pallets needed to be repaired or entirely re-stacked throughout the seven hours you were there. Oh, and your unbearable coworker with an obvious crush on you— while also seeming to think you’re his personal therapist— kept stopping by your trucks to chat. So over all, super fun day. Or night, rather. You get off at 6am, meaning it’s 6:15 when you get to Starbucks to treat yourself to something sugary and caffeinated before going to give your friend’s daughter a lift to school.

The drive-through is packed, so you decide to go inside and wait in that hellish line instead. At least that way you can play on your phone without someone honking at you for not moving up two feet .2 seconds after it opens up. You’re not really in the mood to be around people, especially in a noisy place after a noisy night at work, but whatever. You open the door, and just before you can go through, someone darts inside in front of you, jostling you a bit. Irritating on its own, yes, but what really gets your hackles raised is that they don’t even say anything. No apology, no thank you, no nothing. Just breeze past you, fucking ram into you, and say fuck all about it. Any other day, you’d roll your eyes and let it go, but not today. Not today.

“Hey man,” you call as you come in the door behind them, “What the fuck?” They turn to face you, looking annoyed, and oh shit. You know exactly who that is, and you don’t really want to piss him off. But you started it and now you’ve gotta finish it.

“What?” he demands, standing tall and crossing his arms over his puffed up chest like he’s trying to be intimidating.

“Did you seriously just do that?” it’s not really a question, more like a confirmation. A bit of an aggressive confirmation, but.

“I’m in a hurry,” he says, like that’s a legitimate excuse.

“So am I,” you’re not, “You don’t see me pushing people.” A few people had looked over when you’d first confronted him, but they’ve all looked away by this point, more interested in coffee than you two, so you don’t feel too bad. That’s the beauty of cities: no one gives a shit what you do so long as it doesn’t affect them. Tkachuk stares you down, but when you just fold your arms and stare right back, he huffs and rolls his eyes. He throws out a “whatever” and turns his back on you. Oh hell no. You get in line behind him, because you’re not about to wait longer than necessary, but this definitely isn’t over.

“Are you fucking serious, dude?” you hiss just loud enough for him to hear. He turns back toward you.

“I don’t have time for this,” he snips right in your face. This close up, he’s huge, and it’s more than a bit intimidating, but your spite carries you through.

“Neither do the rest of us,” you spit back, “You can wait like everybody else. There’s a fucking line anyway.” This is so stupid. You would’ve held the door for him if he’d just waited a damn minute. Something changes in his expression, though, and he deflates a bit. The person behind you clears their throat, and the two of you shuffle forward to fill the several-person-wide gap that had formed. With that second to breathe, your anger starts to dissipate pretty quickly. God, you’ve been so rude to the other customers, causing a scene like this. At least it seems like Tkachuk is starting to unwind, which makes it easier for you to regain your composure.

“I’m sorry,” he says after a pause, like apologizing was akin to bathing a cat, “It’s just--” He trails off, looks frustrated, shuffles up in the line, looks frustrated some more.

“My sister is in town and I promised I’d get her Starbucks for her first day here,” he explains, like he’d rather be admitting to murder, “I forgot about it, so I’m trying to get it before she wakes up.” Oh. That’s actually. Sweet? Obviously it’s still a dick move to check someone in a coffee shop, but the fact that he did it for a good cause helps soothe your anger all the more.

“I just want everything to be perfect, y’know?” he finishes, head still held high despite his hunched shoulders and clenched fists. You’re not usually a touchy-feely person, but you’re nearly overwhelmed with the urge to hug him. You wish your brothers cared that much about you. While you don’t hug him, you do touch the outside of his wrist with gentle fingertips, looking up into his eyes when they snap to you. They’re a disarming shade of blue that you hadn’t really noticed before, and you almost forget what you were going to say. Focus.

“I’m sure she’ll be happy just to have her brother around,” you assure him, all annoyance forgotten, “As long as you don’t hip check her through a door.” Okay, maybe not entirely forgotten. It gets him to laugh, shaking his head a bit, and his posture relaxes. You can feel the muscles and tendons in his wrist and forearm go slack, and for some reason his hands going soft makes you want to hold them. You’re gonna end up in love with the dude by time you leave, at this rate.

“I really am sorry about that,” he says, “I thought I had enough room.” You just shrug and straighten back up alongside him.

“Eh, It wasn’t that big of a deal,” you dismiss, “I just had a bad day at work and took it out on you. Sorry about that.” His brows look much cuter when they’re furrowed in confusion rather than anger.

“You had a bad day at work already?” he asks. You huff a laugh.

“I work night shift,” you explain, “So I guess more of a bad night at work.” You watch as realization dawns on his face, his mouth making a silent “oh”. Then you realize you’re still basically holding his wrist, so you bring your hand back to your side and hope he didn’t notice, so you can avoid that embarrassment. Except he stops you with a soft grip on your fingers, pulling you to the counter alongside him. He snags a pen from the counter and scribbles something on the back of your hand while effortlessly rattling off his order to the barista.

“And whatever she wants,” he tacks on at the end, motioning to you with a jerk of his head.

“Oh, you don’t have to,” you say, dumbfounded at how far left this interaction has gone. How the hell did you go from wanting to punch him, to him offering to buy your coffee? Damn, you must be charming.

“It’s the least I can do,” he insists, and you’re not about to turn down a free drink. He plunks the pen back onto the counter and pays after you order, still holding your hand. When you look down, you-- oh. That’s. That is his phone number. On your hand. Your hand. After you just chewed him out in public for being rude, and he gave you his number. What the hell.

“I forgot that we have to wait for them to make the drinks, so this doesn’t have the same effect, huh?” he says, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly with one hand, and leading you to the waiting area with the other. Matthew Tkachuk just gave you his phone number. Maybe you got hit in the head with a box on the dock, and this is all a dream. That would make more sense.

“I was gonna say ‘text me’ and walk away all cool, but,” he shrugs, “Doesn’t always work out that way.” He was trying to be cool. He was going to write his number on your hand and walk away “cool”. Well, if he’s going to give you the opportunity, you’re not going to overlook the chance.

“Damn,” you say, shaking your head facetiously, “Gotta work on your timing.” Tkachuk looks mildly devastated until he realizes you’re joking, which makes you feel mildly powerful. He must really want to see you. The both of you chat for a few minutes, the subject switching between hockey and coffee and family until his name is called. He steps forward to take his drinks and when he turns back to you, he looks conflicted.

“Better go give her that coffee,” you say, “I’ll see you later?” A small smile grows on his face.

“Yeah,” he replies, eyes soft, “Yeah, you will.”

[whatkikiwrote]

Jen is a character out of an unwritten book. Fairy Michael said it best, "That girl is from another planet." The girl with the spider legs. I say is because a person like Jen doesn't just leave this planet when they die, it'll take awhile before a sparkle like hers dissipates. She was fire, fun and one of the most hilarious people I'd ever met. She was smart as a whip and great company. Jen and I were the girls dating the Hungarians. Thomas and Sam were attached at the hip, which meant for better or worse, so were Jen and I. 

The four of us lived a few months together in a rusty shipping container until the rainy season hit and we were practically flooded out. That was November 2015. The rain in Big Sur fell especially hard that year, breaking California out of it's drought. We were always together in the beginning. Jen would wake at dawn to work her morning shift at Ripplewood and Sam was always ready to walk her to work. If you were unfortunate enough to be in the Ripplewood parking lot around 6am, you'd encounter them with their tongues down each other's throat. Sam and Jen were always making out. I remember once my parents came to visit from Boston, so we took them to the aquarium and my dad joked that Sam and Jen missed the whole thing because they were too busy engulfed in each other.

Living in the shipping container in late October provided minimal heat and sometimes the night temperatures dropped below freezing, so we spent a lot of our time at the pub. To stay warm Sam, Jen and I spent hundreds of hours in the soft glow of the pub's fireplace, while Thomas worked in the kitchen. The pub was located in the same parking lot as our little container, so we would joke it was the living room. I'm sure I'm not the first to say that about the Maiden, and if you were lucky to have spent an evening there, you understand how special it was. A little cozy corner community of people off the beaten Highway one path.

To bide our time I wrote. And drank.

Harassed the bartenders.

 Sam read countless books. But Jen could never sit still. She would pick up a book she was interested in, read a few pages and then start another one. She'd get bored, order a beer from Spencer or, if it was Friday night, from Heavy Metal Chris. She'd roll a cigarette on the bar, go outside by the barrel to smoke and every time I’d glance out the window at her, she would be hugging someone new. Lots of times she'd spot a friend in the parking lot, jump in their car, leave her stuff inside and come back hours later to her beer and purse, right where she'd left them. You don't deserve that kind of community love unless you work for it and Jen certainly did. She was always around and if I needed her in a pinch, I only had to use the “Big Sur telephone”,  "Hey everyone!” I’d call into the open doors of the pub, If you see Jen, tell her I'm looking for her." "Which Jen?" Someone would ask. "The one with the long legs." I’d reply. "Crossed eye Jen?" That was another thing about us. We both had occasionally lazy eyes.

In November Thomas and I moved into our Kia Forte and Sam and Jen moved into her Jetta. We didn't see them as much. Sam and Jen stayed in the valley, sleeping at The Grange while Thomas and I drove down to the south coast and spend our time off surfing at Sand dollar. I remember once we took Sam and Jen out to surf. I let her borrow my board and watched in horror like a worried mother as she flipped and flopped and smashed her and my board over and over again until she realized she could use just use it as a boogie board. I can still remember the endless joy on her face, even today, years later, holed up in a giant downtown apartment, far far away from the Pacific. That cute squinty smile. She wouldn't give me my board back for the rest of the day, no matter how much I pleaded.

In late December Thomas and I decided to move to Monterey. The day we signed our lease I drove to LA to get the rest of my stuff I had left behind when I abruptly decided to follow my heart and move to Big Sur. When I came home to Monterey, the apartment had been completely decorated. It looked like a homeless hippie had vomited all over our walls and, I guess she kinda did. Jen welcomed me with her big goofy googly eyed smile and offered me a plate of burnt cookies. That wasn't the only time Jen decorated my apartment or cooked for us .Once she made a stew of eggs, beans, greens and any condiment and spice she could find in the fridge and cabinet, including the fish sauce. We all took bites to be nice and then fed our portions to the dogs when she wasn't looking. Poor dogs.

Jen and Sam lost their jobs that winter and survived off of Chips Ahoy. They'd sleep over regularly to do laundry, take showers, smoke giant bong rips. We’d get massively stoned and lounge around listening to music while braiding each other's hair. We always had some new abalone or jade or money or doobie or gossip to share. Our collective favorite drink was a latte with a double shot of Bailey's so when they would sleep over, as a thank you, Jen would always make us Bailey's coffee in the morning. One thing Jen was exceptional at, other than being a phenomenal friend and muse, was making lattes. 

Once Jen hosted a dinner party at Coast Gallery, where Henry Miller’s famed water colors hang on the walls. It was just the four of us and Geologist Steve, who was living there at the time. Jen welcomed us at Steve’s door as if it were her own home. The small apartment had access to the latte machine in the commercial kitchen and together we drank at least 10 if not more coffees. She had made little foam hearts in every cup.

 High on caffeine we walked out to the balcony where the cafe serve sandwiches and drinks and looked out at the moon shinning off the ocean. There were few clouds in the sky as the marine layer had dispersed and clearly we could see shooting stars falling around us. Thomas took me by my hand and we started to waltz, as we circled around, I caught a glimpse of Sam and Jen, tongues down each other’s throats. It’s silly how when you are young you believe a moment can last forever.

Jen and I were like sisters. We didn't always get along in the beginning and we'd go long spans of time not seeing each other, but we always had the other's back. If I needed a job, she'd find one for me. If she needed to talk, we'd find each other. Once I took her to that dive bar in Seaside every Big Sur local has been to. I forgot the name. It was noon on a Tuesday and the place was packed. We spent too much money on booze and too much time complaining to each other about the difficulties of being us. After a very short lived game of pool, we decided it was time to leave, but as I reached to open the door, a man blocked my exit and said, "Where do you think you're going?" I stood motionless, freaked out, but Jen just swatted him away and walked out of the dark into the daylight without a blink. 

Eventually she and Sam made a deal with some deeply loved locals and ended up building their own little shack on a mountainside. Jen found a book on gardening and designed her own, at one point she dug out her own stairway down to the garden. Sam and Jen’s only other source of entertainment was a keyboard piano. When Thomas and I would come to visit, Jen and I would play duets. We were shit at it, but that didn't matter. Jen and Sam were living in a dream world. They forged for seaweed at the beach and dried it. They found a colony of bees and tried to harvest the honey. Two of their four walls were made of glass. They watched and documented the Sobranes Fire from their bed. One day as the fire raged, we climbed on their roof and drank Bailey's coffee from their makeshift kitchen: a tarp, a cooler and a small propane stove

.It's been 3 years since I've seen Jen. Thomas and I ran out of money and options after the Pub closed, so we decided with heavy hearts to move to the other side, my side, of the country. She and Sam broke up about a year after we moved. A poor choice, a painful ending, a breakup I wonder if I could have stopped, had I been there.

Despite the distance, I still shared photos with her, of the dogs, of our wedding, our first born little girl. And Jen has never left us, it wasn't even a week ago Thomas and I were sharing memories about her. I still have the pieces of jade we traded,  but I'm realizing now that she's gone,  how little of her I still keep. My apartment used to be where she kept her books,  her clothes,  some memories. Typically when a person you love dies,  there's a funeral to attend,  a gathering of friends to mourn with, but all I have is Thomas and somehow we'll have to tell Sam. How do you tell someone the greatest love of your life is dead? I'm sure it'll be a few more hours until I find out the details of her passing, a few more hours until the shock wears off and I find myself mourning my friend while playing with my children,  doing the dishes or driving in the car. 

Everyone has their own idea about what happens after we die. Thomas thinks we live on only in memories and DNA, I think a bit more spiritually than that.  Anyway, what we think doesn’t matter. Wherever Jen is, besides in all our hearts,  I know she's having a hell of an adventure and I hope someday we can ride those waves again at Asilimar.

[ellidoesstuff]

“So What’s Band Like” pt. 2

aka random stuff people in my marching band have done but make it reminiscing on my freshman marching season edition and more focused on general events then what specific people have done

okay so like just to cover bases that one good percussionist from part one is the only percussionist that continued on into high school band

which is a fucking upgrade if you ask me

also i’m the only flute of my grade so i was flute baby™ last year

and then oboe baby when concert season came around

or as i like to call it

boboe™

oh and don’t fool yourself into thinking we have an oboe section either

it’s literally just me and my friend

anyway lets get deeper in to it then your boyfriend/S.O will ever be in you

or then you’ll ever be in your girlfriend/S.O

I ain’t gonna assume your situation

first band competition of the year we got stuck in a very hot band bus in a thunderstorm for like probably over an hour

we ended up being one of the only bands that actually stayed and performed which was cool 

what was also cool is that we sang the 99 bottles of beer on the wall song and actually made it to 0

i’m also proud to say that one of the people who started that was my crush at the time, and my boyfriend now

how chaotic of him 

but then again

he’s a percussionist

also my section leaders piccolo decided to just d i e and she couldn’t play for our entire performance at that competition

moving on

catch us drooling over a 200 plus member band at an away game with an elaborate Aladdin themed show

that same band played megalovania as a stand tune and when I say my band dropped all conversation and bopped to that shit I mean it

also the sunset that night looked like the teletubbie sunrise

when i informed my now boyfriend and my section leader of this they both looked at me like “why the fuck did you just ruin that beautiful sunset”

it is what it is

one time we had a flute hangout after school and before a Friday night away football game 

except make it like the flute section featuring the alto sax section leader and my now boyfriend (who if you don’t remember is a percussionist)

oh and also briefly featuring one of our drum majors from last year and a trombonist 

anyway we ate little caesars pizza at a playground in a neighborhood near the school

we also played on said playground

in the process putting my kermit plushie, who will most likely be a reoccurring character in this series, in the baby swing and pushing him

we then made friendship bracelets but my now boyfriend didn’t know how 

so i did what anyone who knows how to make friendship bracelets and who’s crushing on someone who doesn’t know how to make friendship bracelets would do

i taught him how to make friendship bracelets

we also sat on the band bus together to and from that nights away game where I continued to help him make a friendship bracelet and then we looked at memes on the way back

some of them were funny, some of them weren’t

i laughed at all of them 

why?

because i was and am…

a fucking simp

we hosted a competition the same day that we marched a two mile parade so basically everyone went home and crashed that night

Me, my friend, and my now boyfriend spent like over fifteen minutes trying to find this one band just so we could hand them a single candygram to give to some kid

that kid better have appreciated that candygram

My two friends and I also received a joint airgram from our moms so we all prompted to split the tiny piece of card stock into three and we each have a piece

It’s almost like a friendship bracelet

but one hundred times easier to loose

moving onto big boy competition territory 

aka the Atlantic Coastal Championships 

or at least i think that’s what ACC stands for 

We were the first people to perform that day so we had to wake up at the ass crack of dawn to get to the competition in time

Like legit imagine a bunch of tired band kids on a school bus at 6am

It was actually kind of nice and very quiet

My now boyfriend and I watched Coraline on my chromebook on the way there

We also watched Coco on the way back but we aren’t there yet

I brought my Kermit plushie, as I should’ve, but he did not escape unscathed 

My now boyfriend accidentally dropped him in his spilled chocolate milkshake which had made a fairly accurate rendition of Willy Wonka’s chocolate river on the stands

He was more upset about it then I was honestly and apologized a bunch while frantically trying to scrub the chocolate stain out of Kermit’s green plush flesh with his jeans

My now boyfriend also decided to spin Kermit up in the air like a helicopter and Kermit nearly flew over the back end of the bleachers since we were sat in the top row

Luckily he didn’t fly over but we quickly stopped throwing him around and Kermit promptly sat on the bleachers next to us for the rest of ACCs

Moving forward, I would highlight the game directly after I actually got together with my boyfriend but not a single fucking thing happened

Other then the fact that the concession stand ran out of hot chocolate 

But not before my boyfriend, our two friends, and I could get our hands on some

Flash forward, our football team, in an act of what was probably some form of witchcraft or just downright luck, qualified for playoffs and the first playoff game was a FOUR HOUR drive away

They really said “okay everybody lets travel to the other side of the state for a single football game”

And before you say “well it would take a lot longer to get to the other side of my state!”

pack it up west coast/midwest

I live on the east coast our states are  t i n y

we had to leave for this game in the middle of the school day right after lunch which meant i had to bring two separate book bags to school that day 

one bag for band and one bag for school

regardless we drove on the bus through mountains and trees for four hours before stopping off to have dinner at some rando restaurant

and no offense to old white people but like it must have been senior night or some shit because when I tell you the only people in that restaurant were like 70 to 80 band kids and a bunch of old white people I am not joking

It was terrifying

And I mean like I’m not inherently scared of old white people  

But what I am is non-binary growing up in a conservative area of a conservative state

And I was also holding the hand of my wonderful boyfriend who happens to be a person of color

I was scared I was about to be hate crimed 

Or he was about to get hate crimed

Luckily I think the fact that we were part of a flock of like 80 other teenagers all wearing red shirts and sweatpants scared them off

Or maybe they didn’t even notice and my social anxiety just said “they’re looking at you, love ;)” when they probably weren’t

We also ran the ice cream machine at that place dry

Anyway this was like November and it was super fucking cold outside so the home schools band invited us inside the school building when we got there since it was still a bit before the game

I got to talk to some of the flutes and they were super chill

We also made this weird ass dance circle where we went back and forth doing steps that I forget but remind me of the cotton eyed joe for some reason

Maybe that’s what we were dancing?

I don’t remember I just know like the entire low brass section plus a select group of the upper woodwinds/percussion were all in on it

I also remember what I think was one of the flutes looking at me and my boyfriend who was hugging me from behind and being very physically affectionate, as he usually is, and mentioning something about wondering what instrument he played

If in some miraculous event you are reading this mystery flute girl, he’s a percussionist 

you’re welcome

Nothing really stands out about the game itself other then how fucking cold it was and the fact that our football team won…

by a single point

We then all enjoyed the four hour ride back to the school

Most people spent it sleeping as it was like ten pm

Yeah you do the math we left at like 10pm

JK I’m not gonna make you do math we got back to the school at like 2am

Also notice how I said most people spent it sleeping

I probably would have been one of those people

However my lovely boyfriend, who again I do love, decided that a can of Mountain Dew at 10pm was a good idea

Baby, I love you, but why

10pm is too late for a Mountain Dew

We did end up sleeping for like an hour tho which was nice while it lasted

But then we had the glorious “Everyone we are about thirty minutes away from the school please call your parents to come pick you up” wake up call from our band director

And when I tell you that in that moment it felt like I was in between two different plains of existence

I am not kidding 

It is a very interesting vibe

Anyway I apologize for how painfully long that was but I literally could go into so much more detail. This is just grazing the surface of the experience that was my freshman marching season. However, I’m stopping myself here. If for some reason you want to read more of this and aren’t willing to wait for me to make the part three that will be directed toward this years socially distanced band season, you can read the first one of these which has a remarkably funnier collection of events and a lot less cussing. What can I say, I was an eighth grader in middle school band with an instructor who was very lenient on what we did when we weren’t playing. Until next time, this has been Elliot, signing off until i inevitably find something else interesting to share with the internet. 

[taesbetch]

01 | Den Of Hybrids

Pairing: BTS  x Reader

Genre: Fluff, Angst

Word Count: 5.1k

Summary: Taking care of six hybrids can be a pain in the ass but when a stray needs y/ns help, y/n brings him home to his new family. Follow Y/n as she tries to help Taehyung (The new hybrid in town) fit in and continue to keep the other six alive along with other troubles that life brings.

Next |

“y/n. hey, wake up!”

You groaned as your body was shaken furiously by the one and only jeon jungkook. That fucking bunny was the end to your peaceful rest almost every morning. Hearing growling next to you, you awaited the routine argument between your eldest hybrid and your youngest.

“Y/n I’m hungry” Jungkook whined as he continued to shake you back and forth. Answering him with a groan you desperately tried to fall back into the slumber you were so rudely pulled from.

“Jungkook, fuck off and make your own food!” Jin growled his ears perked up, suddenly wide awake.

“I’m banned from the kitchen remember, she said I was never allowed to touch cooking supplies without you or Namjoon present” Jungkook answered, unbothered with jin’s annoyed tone as he continued to tug at the white sheets covering your body.

“we’re trying to sleep” jin grumbled as he rolled over, placing the pillow over his head.

“well if you slept in your own bed, you wouldn’t be interrupted,” Jungkook said sassily as he placed his hands on his hips, a small pout making its way onto his face.

A small growl made its way from jin’s lips but that was all he replied with knowing that jungkook held some truth in his statement. Knowing that Jin only slept with you because your attention was mostly occupied with the younger hybrids you let out a sigh and decided to give him some peace and quiet by distracting the alert bunny.

Jin was the first hybrid that you had bought. You may have been sixteen but lying about your age to save what was classified as a ‘senior hybrid’ didn’t seem like a sin to you. ‘senior hybrids’ were often overlooked as they are said to of passed their ‘prime’. Which to you seemed like utter bullshit, to put a timer on someone’s ‘prime’ was stupid as each person is different. When you saw jin argue with the person selling him because they forgot to pack him lunch you knew he was the hybrid for you.

“Okay, I’m up,” you said as you sat up, rubbing the sleep from your eyes. Slipping your feet into the slippers sitting by your bed a yawn escaped your lips as jins arm tried to pull you back into bed.

“Breakfast!” Jungkook cheered as he bounced around excitedly.

6am

This is when your day starts. This is when the chaos begins.

With jungkook happily escorting you down to the kitchen, you smiled as he looked back at you every couple of steps, making sure you were still following him. When you first were left the mansion of your grandmother you felt a little overwhelmed. And though you had Namjoon to help you out the idea of keeping a mansion alive scared the living shit out of you.

Namjoon was your grandmother’s hybrid, he pretty much watched you grow up which is why the two of you have such a strong connection. When she passed away, she left everything to you, her favourite grandchild.

As you made yourself and jungkook some breakfast you smiled at how far you had come. When you were first given your fund trust, you had panicked. 500 million was enough to keep you more than comfortable but you didn’t want to become one of those kids who did nothing and had everything.

So, you used the money given to you for the house maintenance and your hybrids and used your job to buy yourself clothes and anything materialistic.

“Bacon and eggs! Baconnn and eggs!” jungkook chanted as you brought his plate and yours over to the table. the two of you sat down, jungkook in front of you at his usual spot.

You watched fondly as the boy gobbled up his food. When you turned eighteen you had seen an ad for a sixteen-year-old rabbit hybrid being sold for nothing. This waved major warning signs as these hybrids were usually sold into trafficking rings. Immediately, you contacted the owner and told him you would take him. When you brought him home to Jin your dog hybrid and Namjoon your lion hybrid you were a bit worried he wouldn’t do so well as bunnies were prey animals, but the young and energetic bunny had a blast. Quickly figuring out that his knack of destroying things was the reason his owners gave him up you took extra pre-cautions, knowing that you would never give this bundle of joy away.

7am

Looking at the empty chairs you realised you had let time slip by. Getting up with your plate you began to cook breakfast for the other hybrids as jungkook skipped upstairs to get ready for the day. Letting the food simmer, you began your marathon around the house to get the hybrids together.

Each hybrid had their rooms altered to there needs, all of them had a second floor and special functions.

Since you were on the first floor you ran to Namjoon’s room first “Namjoon! Breakfast in ten!” You yelled as you swung open his door. You smiled as you saw him awake and dressed as usual.

“Ill plate it, while you wake up the others” He smiled as he turned towards you. sending him a flying kiss you raced to the next room. Hoseok was your horse hybrid and boy were you in over your head when you got him. A horse hybrid needs access to the outdoors and needs to have the freedom to shift whenever they need. they also have dietary needs and must eat twice as much as any other hybrid.

“Hoseok! Breakfast in ten” You shouted as swung his door open, slamming it shut just to make sure he wakes up. Hoseok was a stray; he didn’t like talking about his past so you didn’t push him. As long as he was happy and healthy now, you didn’t mind that he kept that to himself.

Running up to the second floor of the house you skipped jungkook’s room as he was awake and ran to jimin’s slowly opening the door as you didn’t want to scare your second bunny.

You got jimin and your cat hybrid Yoongi at the same shelter and clearly, something shady was going on as jimin is scared out of his mind and Yoongi is cold and aloof. the two had obviously reacted differently to the shelter and were now reacting differently to you. Jimin, although frightened and timid was making an effort to connect with the others, he loved cuddle time but would never confidently come to you and demand it. Yoongi, however, was often pouty and moody, sending you glares and swatting your hands away when you would try to come near him.

“jiminieee” you cooed softly as you walked into his room. The boy would often shake under his bed, terrified after being woken up by loud banging and shouts of breakfast.

Kneeling down you smiled softly as you saw the boy with his favourite blankie wrapped around his head. He tried his hardest to smile at you even though his body shook with anxiety.

“breakfast in ten sweetheart,” You said as you backed up, giving him room to crawl out. Watching him crawl towards you, you gave him his morning hug laughing at how utterly adorable he was. Leaving jimin’s room you ran over to Yoongis, knocking obnoxiously hard just to annoy him – he didn’t like it when you entered his room so instead you shouted from the outside. “Breakfast!!!!!” you yelled knowing your voice would also alert the semi-awake dog hybrid in your bed on the top floor.  

Running upstairs you gave Jin a head rub as you walked past each other. The sleep hybrid going down to eat, you going up to get changed.

Pulling off your pyjamas you quickly changed into a jumper and some leggings. Today was restocking day, which means you need clothes that are comfortable and clothes you can move in. taking all seven hybrids to the shops was maybe the hardest thing you’ve ever done but in order to get everything everyone needed, they all had to come.

“Good Morning everyone,” you said as you strolled downstairs, still slightly tired but ready for the day. The group mumbled a good morning back as they ate their food. Walking around the table you gave them all kisses on the head.

“Don’t forget your lists, we leave in an hour” you said as Yoongi fought of your love before giving up and letting you kiss his head as well.

“in an hour!”

You jumped in shock as jungkook appeared out of nowhere, pouting his lips and whining like the baby he was.

“yes jungkook, an hour. I’m not leaving any earlier” You said sternly. There have been a couple of times when jungkook has pleaded you to take him early. His need to get things done not coinciding with the schedule of everyone else, but boy was it hell.

He whined again before stomping back up to his room to occupy himself for the next hour.

Your work as an author meant you were able to take the hybrids anywhere at any time, they wanted. However, for poor young jungkook re-stocking day was set which meant that he would have to wait today, something he was not used to at all.

“Y/n, I put the mail of today on the table, I can go through it later if you like” Namjoon suggested as he put his plate in the sink, checking the other hybrids plates to see if they had finished.

“That would be great, thank you,” You said gratefully.

“Y-y/n”

Turning around you watched as jimin shuffled towards you, his ears low and a soft blush covering his cheeks.

“yes jimin” You smiled ass he played with his hands.

“c-can you h-help me with my list” he asked as he pulled a piece of paper out of his back pocket.

“Of course I can! Come here, let me see it” you said as you signalled for him to follow you to the kitchen counter.

As he passed you the list you were shocked at how little was on it. This may have been jimin’s first re-stock day as you only adopted him a couple weeks ago but you were sure you made it clear that they could put anything they wanted down.

“s-s-sorry did I put to much” he whined as a small tear escaped his eye. Your heart broke as you denied his assumption.

“no actually, there’s barely anything on here. In fact, these are things you need but…where’s the stuff you would like?” You asked him as you grabbed a pen laying near the sink reminding yourself to scowl jungkook for leaving things on the counter.

“things I…like?” he asked quietly, his mind drifting into deep thought.

Seeing Yoongi glide through the living room you signalled him over. Even though he rolled his eyes in annoyance he made his way to you, wondering what it is you wanted.

“Yoongi, can I please see you list?” You asked as jimin started writing things down. Yoongi passed you his list, his eyes watching you carefully as you looked at it.

“nawh, you guys, its okay too put more – anything you like you can write down,” You said as you put his list on the table. Yoongi looked at you in shock before confusion covered his face.

“anything?” he asked.

“Yeah! Jungkook has a 6ft basketball hop on his list. Usually, I approve the lists beforehand but this time I’ll let you guys have fun. Go nuts, whatever you want mkay!” You smiled as you placed your hand on jimin’s head.  

---

“Okay team. This is the plan.” You said, turning the car off. Here you were at the best shop ever. Towns had everything you could ever need. hybrid needs, human needs, clothes, food – EVERYTHING. So here you sat in the parking lot. Your black van filled with your hybrids, ready and excited to shop for there things.

“Jungkook, your shopping with me. Namjoon, you and jimin will go together and the rest of you will go alone. We’ll meet at register 5 in an hour and a half.” You said, looking at everyone seriously. This wasn’t a game. Oh no, re-stock day was the most intense days ever.

“Understood?” you asked. They all nodded before everyone made their way out of the car, racing towards the shop's doors.

You chased after jungkook, knowing exactly where he was trying to go.

“No, bad bunny” you said as you gripped his arm. Jungkook whined as you got a cart and dragged him to the clothes section.

“Y/n!! let me check if there a new addition out” he pleaded

“We aren’t here to look, we're here to shop and get out. Checking out new additions isn’t on the list so it's not happening today” You stated as you threw things he had on his list in his cart.

“Okay well, can I check if they have my hoop! Sometimes they have one in store” He suggested his excitement clear as he bounced slightly, his smile wide and his hands clenched into fists.

You looked at him with your hands on your hip. The bunny had a knack for not giving up so you knew you’d lose this argument eventually.

“Okay, fine. Go check out if they have your basketball hoop, but if they don’t – you come right back here okay! I'll be here, in the medication section, where you left me. Okay?!” You asked as he squealed with excitement.

He nodded at you waiting for you to give him the all clear.

With one last sigh, you waved him off, watching as he ran away happily.

It had been ten minutes and you suspected your hybrid had gotten distracted, knowing that you shouldn’t have trusted him you started moving out of the hybrid medication aisle, getting ready to hunt for your youngest when-

“Y/n! this man wants to take us away!” Jungkook shouted as he rushed over to you, holding the arm of a hybrid you had never seen before and being followed by who looked like a stray catcher.

They stray hybrid looked at you, his eyes pleading you to help him. Looking at the determination in jungkook’s eyes you soon realised there was no way this stray was being taken away.

“Sorry sir, is there a problem with my hybrids?” You asked as jungkook dragged the strange hybrid behind you, glaring slightly at the neatly kept man. He certainly worked for the government.

“my apologies, I didn’t know they were both your hybrids,” the man said eyeing the dirty stray standing next to your well care for hybrid.

“I just adopted him, that’s why we're here, we're getting him what he needs” You stated giving the man a friendly smile. He looked at you understandingly before nodding his head.

“my apologies then, have a nice day,” he said. Before leaving he shot the unknown boy a dirty look before walking away. You watched him go, making sure he was out of earshot.

“Nice to meet you, I’m y/n” you said as you analysed the boy. He was tall and had ears that resembled your dog hybrid, by the look of his clothes you could tell that he must have been on the streets for a long period of time.

The boy looked nervous, he remained silent as his gooey brown eyes dropped to the floor.

You looked at jungkook who just shrugged at the boy’s behaviour.

” I told him he could stay with us” Jungkook smiled happily. You looked at them in shock not knowing quite what to do. Obviously, you weren’t about to let the hybrid go a night without shelter, but his situation was unknown.

“Do you have a negligent owner?” you asked softly, not wanting to upset the boy. He gulped before nodding his head – jungkook giving him a sympathetic look.

“how long have you been on the streets?” you asked, anger filling your body of the thought of this poor boy not being cared for.

“half…half a year” he whispered his eyes watering. The pain in his voice was enough to have you making a decision on his future. You were going to spoil him as much as you spoiled your other hybrids and love him as much as he would let you.

You sighed before wiping out your phone, people piss you off. If they couldn’t care for a hybrid, they shouldn’t have gotten one. They are half human, they have emotions.

“would you like to stay with us. Say the word and i can adopt you” you asked, your eyes soft as the boy struggled to look at you.

“but…how?”

“Y/n’s got connections! If you’ve been neglected, they look at your last visit to the doctor! And if you haven’t gone in a while, an owner like y/n can take you in because she’s the best!” Jungkook explained enthusiastically.

“a-are you sure? Wouldn’t two hybrids be too many?” he stuttered his eyes wide with amazement.

Jungkook laughed as you gave him a cheeky wink.

“there’s six of us, silly” Jungkook laughed.

“SIX!”

“Yep! And we’ve got room for one more, so what’d ya say?” You asked, your thumb hovering over the call button of your hybrid centre friends.

“i…I would like that” he answered, his eyes dropping back to the floor

“Than its settled, what’s your name and what kinda hybrid are you honey?” you asked him as your phone rung your friend. Bringing the phone to your ear he looked at you and jungkook before gulping and answering.

“er,im a dog hybrid and its taehyung, Kim taehyung”

“Jungkook, go help taehyung pick out some clothes – call Namjoon and tell him were extending the time to two hour- oh hey!” You said to jungkook who nodded at everything you were saying before your friend answered the phone.

“I need you to check out Kim taehyung’s doctor appointments – the boys coming home with me,” You said as the two hybrids walked off to the clothes aisle.

“Is this real? Am I really going to get adopted?” Taehyung asked jungkook as jungkook chucked clothes at him.

“Well duh, Y/ns not just gonna leave you here. And once she’s decided you're going to be a part of our family, there’s no way she’s going to let anyone take you away” Jungkook stated before placing his hand on the boy's shoulder.

“Welcome to the family”

---

As everyone loaded their things into the van, all the hybrids cooed over how adorable taehyung was. Jin was thrilled to have another dog hybrid around and jimin seemed excited to have someone the same age as him.

You smiled as you left the parking lot, the voices behind you getting louder as taehyung conversed with everyone. It was nice to hear them getting along so well with the new addition to the household. You didn’t want to tire him out but the builders you called were still getting his room together, so you would have to stay out a little longer.

Good thing you knew exactly where to take them.

---

“Why are we here?” Yoongi groaned.

“the builders are at our house. y/n said their building taehyung’s room” Namjoon answered as he patted taehyung’s back happily.

“you’re gonna love it! We have a pool and quad bikes!” hoseok said excitedly.

“a-and Y/n is really nice!” Jimin chimed in, knowing how taehyung must feel. Jimin remembered when he first joined the family, hearing from the other hybrids that Y/n was friendly really helped him settle in and now that he knows for himself how great of an owner, he thought he should do his part and help taehyung.

Taehyung tuned in at how genuine each hybrid sounded. He was still completely flabbergasted at how someone could care for six hybrids. The boy always believed that each human had a love cap. And once they were out, that person was no longer capable of loving anything or anyone else. But as he looked at the other boys laughing with each other – clothes on their bodies, the car packed with items they wanted and their love for you evident – he thought that maybe he was wrong.

--

“Hoseok! You need to shift!” You shouted as you packed away the last of your shopping. All the hybrids ran around you, putting their stuff in their specific spots. You smiled at taehyung as he watched in awe at the house’s operation.

“Put your stuff down here, ill take you to your room in a second,” You said as hoseok walked into the kitchen, his face twisted in protest.

“Ugh! Nooo I don’t want to!” he whined as you walked over to the hybrid maintenance cabinet where you kept all the hybrids medication. Each person had their own cabinet filled with health care for when they got sick. Each hybrid has their season of sickness when they need extra vitamins to make sure they’re in tip-top shape.

“The Doctor said three times a day” You stated as you labelled Taehyung’s container, putting everything you bought for him in there.

“Y/n! Y/n!” jungkook yelled as he bounced over, dragging a very afraid jimin behind him.

“I feel fine I swear!” Hoseok answered, hoping he wouldn’t have to go.

“you said that last time and you got sick. I'll take you to the field, you love the field!” You answered, looking at the horse hybrid, there was no way you were going to budge, he was going to shift no matter what!

“Y/n! Y/n! Y/n!” Jungkook repeated bouncing behind you. Taehyung looked between you and jungkook in shock, wondering how you were able to ignore the hybrid behind you.

“I do love the field…” he nodded, finally coming around to the idea of shifting.

“Namjoon, you’re coming too” you yelled to the man sitting on the couch. His ears perked up as he looked at you excitedly.

“Y/N” Jungkook shouted loudly. Taehyung was absolutely floored, if he had shouted at his owner the way jungkook just had he would have been punished, but here you were standing calmly as you addressed Namjoon.

“really?!” Namjoon asked excitedly causing you to laugh. He was a hundred percent the most mature but it was moments like these that you loved, when he let his childish side show you loved it.

“Of course! I haven’t forgotten about you” you answered as he jumped up doing a small happy dance.

“Y/NNNNNN!!!!!”

“both of you go and get ready!” You exclaimed as you shooed them off. The two of them running to their rooms.

“Y/N-“

“YES, my dear hybrid bunny. Whatever is the matter?” you said turning to the boy who had been yelling at you.

“Can I take jimin and taehyung into our gym?” he asked, a pout on his lips. You had to put a lock on the gym room and hide it from jungkook. There was a time when jungkook would live in the gym, it so bad that he would steal dumbbells from the gym and hide them under his pillow, so he could lift in the middle of the night.

“I’m gonna toughen jimin up” he said as he fake boxed jimin’s arm, hitting him softly.

“Hey, don’t hit your brother! You know he doesn’t like that” you said as you pulled the boy from jungkook’s energetic wrath.

“I dunno kook…can you take Jin? Jimin hasn’t shifted in a while so I was thinking of taking him to the fields and taehyung just got here” You explained as you scratched jimin’s ear.

“ugh, fine” he grunted before walking off to find Jin.

“What’s the field?” Taehyung asked shyly as hoseok and Namjoon came back with backpacks.

“well y/n opened up a business. She created a placed where hybrids can shift outside safely and be supervised and cared after” Namjoon explained as he grabbed the car keys.

“Do you wanna come? Even if you don’t have to shift it’s a nice place to relax.” You asked as jimin went to pack his bag.

Taehyung nodded, agreeing to join you.

---

Watching hoseok frolic around you waited outside a changing room for Namjoon to shift so you could collect his clothes. As your lion strolled out you smiled before rubbing his fur. He was stunning, and everyone agreed as they looked at him in astonishment.

You liked to make sure that their shift bodies were just as well kept as their human bodies, they were a half-half after all.

“joonie, we need to get your mane trimmed” you stated before picking up his clothes. With your back turned you saw the lighting behind you change before hearing the voice of one of your workers.

“Hey boss!”

Turning around you saw the glowing skin of Jackson, a very dedicated worker. “Hey Jackson! Do you mind giving Namjoon mane a trim?” you asked as Namjoon walked in circles before stretching his body.

“Of course, I can, I just wanted to say thank for letting me bring my cat to the social den, she’s a lot happier” he stated as he too gave Namjoon a pat. Jackson was without a doubt namjoons favourite worker.

“well she can come anytime and don’t worry about paying, ill cover your membership” you smiled at him.

“Oh- wow, thank you so much, wow I really appreciate it” He gleamed his hand coming to his cheek as he blushed with shock.

“You’ve been with us for years, it’s the least I could do. also, don’t be hesitant to bring her with you when you work. I would hate for her to be separated from you for such a long time” you stated as Namjoon circled you, rubbing his head against your hand.

“Thank you very much, I better take this big boy before he dies from anticipation,” He said with a chuckle.

You laughed before giving Namjoon the signal that he can go. The two of them left as jimin entered the changing room.

“What’s the social den?” Taehyung asked you waited for jimin.

“it's for new hybrids and their owners. You pay a membership and you go and socialise with other hybrids and their owners. It’s a good way to make friends and help your hybrid adjust” You answered.

Taehyung nodded before looking around nervously.

“you...arent gonna make me go are you?” He asked. You laughed before shaking your head.

“I think you’re surrounded by more than enough hybrids at home” you replied. Grabbing jimin’s backpack you pulled out his holding sling and slipped it over your neck like you would a handbag.

“What’s that for?” Taehyung asked.

“full of questions, are we?” you joked “Jimin is a very shy bunny so he prefers to chill with me, this way I don’t have to hold him, and he can hide if he gets anxious”.

A white bunny tried its hardest to push open the changing room door. You quickly opened it for him with a soft giggle as you bent down. Opening the pouch for jimin to hop into, you helped him out adjusting the sling so he sat comfortably next to your stomach.

Taehyung smiled as he watched jimins head pop out of the sling.

“Let’s sit and drink tea like the rich bitches we are”

--

As you sat and watched Namjoon play with the other lion hybrids at the observation café taehyung sighed in contentment. You checked on jimin who was having a little nap.

“You’re right, this is relaxing,” Taehyung said “So you run this place? Is that how our house is so big?”

Your heart swelled when he said ‘our house’ it was nice to know he was coming to terms with the adoption.

“well I run this place, but It doesn’t cost to come here. The only thing that requires paying for is the grooming and this cafe. But day-care is free. Our house was given to me by my late grandmother, she left me the house and Namjoon” You explained.

Taehyung played with his mug as he nodded his head.

“so, do you do a lot of hybrid work?” He asked as he watched the people in the café, their smiles matching the ones he had seen on his hybrid brothers. He had never seen this much happiness before. It was odd for him.

“I do own seven hybrids” You laughed “it would be strange if I didn’t try and help out where I could” you shrugged.

Taehyung hmmed in agreement before taking a bite of his sandwich. You were going to as him a question about his past when you saw hoseok coming back from his trail run.

“Looks like its time to go home” You said before carefully standing up trying not to wake your sleeping but failing miserably.

--

When you got home you immediately took the gym keys away from jungkook much to his dismay.

As the hybrids gathered in the lounge to watch re-runs of keeping up with the Kardashians a letter that sat on the counter caught your eye. Its electric blue envelope sent shivers down your spine, the design of it bring back memories of someone you would rather forget.

As you picked it up, the laughs of the hybrids halted as they sensed the change in your demeanour. Reading the letter, your stomach filled with dread. The news the letter presented made you want to vomit in horror.

“what’s wrong?” Namjoon asked worriedly as the seven boys waited for you to explain. Turning around to them you let out a huff of frustration.  

“Aunt May is coming over”

[stripper-patrick]

Team meeting♟ Thor

Warnings: porn, language

Titles are so damn hard but Thor’s harder

Relationship: Thor x black plus sized reader

“Team meeting in 10” The intercom screams. I jolt up losing my breath and groan. It’s too early for this. I stand up and stretch scratching my ass before I go into the bathroom fulfilling my morning routine before taking off my silk scarf and letting my curly hair fall. I rustle it some trying to make it look decent and I grab a bra putting that on and my phone also grabbing a blanket before heading downstairs to the conference room.

I see Tony, Steve Peter Who’s half asleep, Clint, Nat and Vision with a cup of something in his hand. Thor is also in the room. He gives me that perfect smile winking at me.

“Y/N I have your coffee right here” he adds. I sit next to him thanking him. I wrap the blanket around my legs pulling one knee up to my chest.

“Why is Peter half dead”

“He pulled an all nighter” I nod my phone rings and I groan. It’s a spam caller. I decide to answer it.

“Hello?” The other person says

“Local sperm bank you Jack it we pack it how may I help you?”

“I’m sorry I have the wrong number” I roll my eyes and hang up the phone.

“Sperm bank?” He smiles

“It was a spam caller” they nod and Steve speaks making peter wake up.

“Ok we need to talk about how to take down Thanos” I’m listening intently when I feel a large hand slide up my thigh. Thor is next to speak and I look down at his hand creeping higher and higher to my shorts. I bite my lip and Tony responds to Thor.

“How are we going to defeat a gotdamn rock” Thor pulls my underwear and shorts to the side sliding his middle fingers between my folds and up to my clit circling it lightly. I let out a puff of air along with a small moan. Luckily nobody noticed. He slides two fingers into my pumping dangerously slow. I close my eyes just enjoying the pleasure but hating the torture.

“Y/N do you have anything to say about this” Tony questions. I snap my eyes open and everyone looks at me.

“Uh” I nearly let out a moan and bite my lips stopping myself “I think we should um” he presses his thumb to my clit making my thoughts jumble together “we should stop him from getting the glove thing”

“Yea we’ve established that but what can we do to advance that” he asks

“I can’t advance anything it’s 6am” I say

“Noted” he nods continuing the conversation. Thor finally speeds up a little and I finally feel that knot in my stomach ready for its release. I place the blanket on my shoulders hiding my arms and I hold Thor’s wrist as he pumps. I finally feel the start of my release and I close my eyes as my breathing picks up.

I feel my legs begin to shake but he rips away the pleasure that was once mine. My eyes dart open to see the god smirking before me as he regains his power. I try to push his fingers back inside my core but he pulls his hand away.

He slyly sticks his middle and ring fingers in his mouth. We finally get through the meeting and I stand up. My legs feel like jelly and I glare at Thor. He winks back at me.

“Thor can we talk please” he nods and stands tall before me. I walk in front of him and once we get away from the group he grabs my behind and is all over me. I open the door to my room and shut it quickly.

His lips are all over mine and my hands pull him closer by his t-shirt. The god of thunder picks me up and lays me on the bed where he ride me of my shorts and underwear.

“You have on too many clothes” I say between kisses.

“You have nipple piercings? Sexy” He chuckles lowly and sits on his knees. Thor pulls his shirt of his head letting his hair fall on his shoulders. He takes off his shorts and I can see his gigantic dick straining in his boxers. I grab a condom from the drawer and hand it to him watching as he rolls it on. He curls his fingers and I wrap my legs around him like a koala bear and slide myself onto his big length. He’s so girthy.

“Oh my god”

“Yea that’s my name” I begin to rock myself on him and he moans squeezing my But cheeks between his strong hands.

“I’ve dreamt about this more than you can imagine” he moans slapping my behind. He pushes deeper into me and I moan louder feeling him past my cervix. I grind my hips against him as he keeps thrusting into me deeper and harder with every stroke.

“Fuck don’t stop” Thor pulls my hair back having all open access to my neck where he sucks a patch of skin most likely leaving a bruise. He licks my neck and takes in another patch of skin.

“Please” I don’t know what I’m begging for but I do at the same time. I just can’t put t into words so I grab his hand and wrap it around my throat. His eyes turn darker and if even possible he goes deeper making me scream out.

“Shit” Thor restricts most of my air flow so I’m left with the unexplainable pleasure derived from this god.

“Are you gonna come already? Huh? I wanna fucking feel you clench around my dick. I wanna fill you up my love” he’s so sweet yet so filthy and it’s making me ache in the best way.

I nod and tap his arm. He keeps his hand locked around my throat “hold onto me ok?” I nod and his fingers move down to my clit rubbing madly making me sees stars and even black dots.

He finally lets go and I take a big breath of air. In that second I didn’t know if I wanted to scream from my orgasm or take a gulp of air.

“Oh fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck” I repeat. His name is repeating from my mouth like a broken record.

“Please Thor” my entire body jolts around him as he lays me down and continues to slam into me. I already feel another orgasm building up.

“Oh fuck keep going”

“Oh shit” he grunts. We both climax at the same time. The slushy sounds my pussy is making can’t compare to the pornographic moans I’m uttering.

The door busts open and Thor is still inside of me throbbing when we look up to see the entire gang with their jaws dropped and eyes spread just as open as my legs.

“Hi” Thor smiles.

“I want my $50 bucks” Nat calls out. Bruce, Tony and Steve hand her 50’s and I scoff

“You bet on us?!?”

“I bet y’all would get together not exactly the sex part but I mean hey whatever gets up to the line. And we completely crosses it” she winks. Thor lets out a roar of laughter.

“You have nipple piercings?” Vision eyes. I cover them quickly

“Out” I yell

“Don’t let Thor electrocute you from your nips” I throw the pillow at the closing door and groan.

“That can’t happen. Right?” I ask

“It could but it won’t” he says pecking my lips

[pug-bitch]

That’s not why I’m going (12)

If you can breathe

Book: The Royal Romance

Pairing: Drake Walker x Amara Suarez

Rating: some foul language, some extremely suggestive, and one VERY steamy scene, around 60 diamonds again :D. This is absolutely NOT appropriate for people under 18.

Word count: 4,160 (let me know if the ‘keep reading’ cutoff isn’t working well!)

Notes: This picks up pretty much where we left off, during the last night in Lythikos, after Amara’s revelation, starting with Drake’s POV.

*****

Drake had barely gotten any sleep after Amara’s panic attack. He wanted to make sure she was ok and after she opened up to him, he’d just held her in his arms until she stopped shaking, and cried herself back to sleep. Meanwhile, Drake was still stroking her hair, and trying not to move so he wouldn’t wake her up.

Her slumber didn’t last very long, though. When she wakes up, still way before dawn, she looks up to see if Drake’s eyes are closed, and when she sees they are open, she kisses him on the cheek.

‘Good morning,’ she whispers.

He smiles at her and replies, ‘Good morning, Suarez.’

A comfortable silence remains between them for a while, until Amara breaks it. ‘I’m so sorry about earlier. Thank you for being so understanding. I was terrified of your reaction.’

Drake’s heart breaks a bit more at her words. ‘Why? Did you think I would judge you for something you’re not responsible for?’

She holds his gaze. ‘I mean...no, but I’ve been judging myself for so long, it’s hard to imagine a reality where no one blames me.’

He nods. He wishes he could take on her pain, and help her understand that none of what happened was her fault. But this is too big a job for now, he knows that. It will take time, and he is willing to be patient. He’d spent the past few hours thinking back on Amara’s conversation with her dad, and something remains on his mind. What did Michael tell her that was so awful? He doesn’t want to ask, but he hopes she will open up about this, too. It seems like it was a big part of her decision to come to Cordonia. He sincerely hopes she doesn’t regret that decision, because, no matter the reasons, Drake definitely is grateful for it.

‘I know I don’t know the whole situation,’ Drake says softly, ‘but there is no way anything was your fault. You were both cops, and it was a perp who shot the gun, as it unfortunately happens.’

Amara nods. ‘I know. On paper, it’s no one’s fault but the murderer’s. But when I had to tell Michael that his husband got shot and killed on MY interrogation, believe me, it was a different deal. When I had to tell my dad his son was dead because MY perp shot him in the heart, I felt responsible.’ She pauses. ‘My dad never blamed me. Not once. He wept for months, still does sometimes, you’ve seen him. Michael, on the other hand… he and I used to be like siblings, too. We loved each other. I’m the godmother of their daughter. Now… seeing me just reminds him that I live, while his husband is in a coffin.’

Fuck, he thinks. This is so much pressure and responsibility on one person. Who was there to support her? He could tell she and her dad had a good relationship, but since they were both mourning, maybe he wasn’t the best person to help her grieve. He doesn’t know what to respond, so he merely hugs her a little tighter.

After a while, he dares to ask the question that he sometimes asks himself about his father. ‘Do you...do you ever talk about him? Sergio? Like, tell funny stories about him, or reminisce about your childhood?’

Amara smiles, but she looks pained. ‘Not really. I don’t want my dad to suffer, so I don’t bring him up at all. I’m not really on speaking terms with Michael, so… My best friend, Mia, knew him well, but she and I don’t talk about him. I don’t know why.’

‘Tell you what. It doesn’t have to be now, or even today. But at some point, I’d like you to tell me one anecdote about Sergio, every once in a while. I mean, only if you’re ok with it.’

She smiles, and Drake can tell it’s an honest one this time. ‘That’s a really sweet idea. I’d love that.’ She glances at her phone. ‘Shit! It’s 6am! Shouldn’t you go back to your room, in case--’

Drake interrupts her with his hand on her mouth. ‘In case what? I don’t give a shit.’ He kisses her on the lips. ‘I just want to be with you right now.’

*****

They had to get up eventually and join the others for brunch, their last group activity before their departure from Lythikos in the early afternoon.

Amara was grateful that Drake had insisted to stay with her longer than usual this morning. They had snuggled together in bed, and lazily let their hands wander all over each other. They’d even had time to take a shower together, which was now their new normal, and she couldn’t help but think she’d miss it when they’re back in the Capital. Although, now that Maxwell knew about them, maybe they could afford to be a bit less careful. Amara tried not to think about Liam or his potential reaction. She’d noticed his lingering looks on her during the wine tasting, and she didn’t care for them.

‘Who wants me to get them a bloody mary? I make a mean one!’ shouts Maxwell, while everyone else, slightly hungover, winces at his loudness.

Amara feels like shit as well but it’s not from last night’s drinking. Still, she could benefit from some hair of the dog. ‘I’ll have one, please!’

Maxwell’s hand is heavy as he pours Amara’s cocktail, to which he adds a flurry of olives and a piece of celery that looks like a small tree. ‘Tadaaa! My turn to grace you with eternal cocktails, my Lady.’

Amara chuckles. God, she’s grateful for that little bastard. She wishes Mia could meet him. They’d be two peas in a pod. ‘Thank you, my Lord. It’s a thing of beauty.’

They all enjoy the delicious brunch, and conversation flows freely, until Madeleine spills the entire contents of a coffee mug  on Hana’s lap. Hana gasps and Liam, whom she was engaged in a lively conversation with, instantly offers his napkin.

‘Oh Lady Hana, I’m so very sorry,’ Madeleine exclaims with a fake smile. ‘I hope I didn’t burn you!’

‘I’m fine, no worries,’ Hana gracefully replies.

Amara gets up immediately and offers Hana her help to clean up in the powder room. She figures, it’s safer for her to be away from Madeleine right now, rather than punching her smug face. As they walk away, Madeleine’s pursed lips reveal a hint of a cruel smile.

Once in the bathroom, Amara closes the door behind them and asks Hana: ‘What the fuck? What’s her problem?’

Hana shrugs, ‘I don’t know. She just doesn’t seem to like me. I mean, who knows, maybe she didn’t do it on purpose.’ Amara gives her a pointed look and Hana concedes, ‘...alright, you have a point. She definitely meant to do that.’

Amara grabs a washcloth and soaks it, when Olivia barges in without knocking. ‘What the fuck?’ Great minds think alike. ‘Obviously, the bitch is territorial. She can’t handle anyone else talking to Liam.’

Amara nods, ‘Clearly. Has she always been like this?’

‘Pretty much,’ Olivia replies. ‘Except that now that all her marriage prospects are fleeing court one by one, she’s getting more and more desperate.’ She shoots a scary look at Hana. ‘Did she burn you?’

‘No, it was just warm. I think the point was more humiliation than injury.’ Hana roughly dries her clothes and walks out. As Amara is about to follow suit, Olivia blocks her.

‘You look like shit,’ she spits.

‘Gee, thanks, Olivia, you have a way with words.’

‘Have you been crying?’

Amara debates telling the truth, but opts for a different question, one that she’s been itching to ask for the past day. ‘How did you know I was a detective?’

Olivia smirks and clicks on the door lock. ‘Going straight for the jugular, huh? I googled you. After some digging, I found another NYPD detective with your same last name, and his obituary. There were some articles, too. Not easy to find, but I’m pretty good at digging.’

Amara nods, tears filling her eyes. Damn, she didn’t want to cry in front of Olivia. ‘Well played, Nevrakis.’

‘I’m a steel trap. But other bitches around here are not. So, watch out, ok?’

Amara nods again, trying not to talk, knowing what would happen if she opened her mouth right now.

‘For what it’s worth, Suarez, I’m sorry. This is a fucking terrible situation to be in.’

Olivia holds her gaze, waiting for her to say something, but she doesn’t.

‘Suarez, can you breathe?’

Amara lets out a muffled laugh. ‘Barely.’

Visibly not satisfied with this response, Olivia takes one step closer to Amara and repeats, maintaining eye contact: ‘Can you breathe?’

‘...yeah.’

‘If you can breathe, you can stand. If you can stand, you can fight.’

*****

Drake was packing for their imminent departure. He was feeling wistful about their time in Lythikos, and was expecting Amara to come over to hang out a little longer before they had to leave. Olivia had really pulled through, because besides Maxwell’s little eavesdropping moment on the first night, they had been left completely alone.

He’s retrieving his toiletries when he hears a knock. He almost yells out ‘Come in, Suarez,’ but something tells him not to. She usually just rattles the door and comes in right away. This doesn’t sound right.

‘Come in!’

Sure enough, it’s Liam. ‘Is this a good time?’

‘Sure, just hold on a second.’

Drake pulls his phone out of his pocket as fast as he can, and starts typing a text to Amara.

Don’t come in yet - Liam’s here.

Phew. Dodged a bullet.

‘What’s up, Li?’

Liam is sitting on Drake’s bed, smiling. ‘Nothing, just haven’t seen you much today, and since I’m all packed, I thought I’d pay you a visit.’

Drake’s phone buzzes: Ok :( from Amara. Good, she’d seen the text before coming over. But is he out of the woods, though? What if there’s some kind of evidence in the room? He hates that he’s becoming paranoid, but he doesn’t exactly have a choice. ‘Yeah, sounds great. Did you enjoy your stay in Lythikos?’

‘I really did,’ Liam replies. ‘Can we talk about how crazy Madeleine was this morning, please?’

Drake makes a shocked face and puts down the toiletry bag he was packing. ‘Right? What was she trying to do, send Hana to the burn unit?’

Liam shakes his head. ‘Honestly, I’m still pissed at Regina for pushing Madeleine onto the competition. I talked to Leo last night and he warned me about a lot of things.’

‘No shit. He knows firsthand.’

Drake had missed normal conversations with his best friend, and he hadn’t realized how much.

‘Yeah,’ Liam added. ‘He basically told me he’s glad not to be in my shoes.’

‘Except that, well...he’s the exact reason you’re in these shoes right now.’

Liam chuckles, but there’s a sadness to his laugh. ‘I guess you’re right. He’s living the life, or whatever.’

‘You’re allowed to be mad at him, Liam.’

He shrugs. ‘What good would that do? In any case, he told me to be careful about Madeleine’s demeanor with the other suitors. She tends to sabotage, and she especially likes blackmail.’

‘Yeah, you have to keep in mind that she’s a monster.’

Liam gives him a concerned smile. ‘I’m sorry about what she said to you the other day. You know, about Savannah. I should have stood up for you, and I’m glad Amara did what I was too chickenshit to do.’

True, Amara was, once again, the only one who had his back. ‘It’s ok. I won’t let Madeleine get in my head. I’m just constantly worried about Sav.’

‘I know, and I wish I could help.’

But you could, Drake thinks. You have the workforce for it, and the means to look into it. But you never offered. ‘That’s ok.’ Drake says.

‘In any case,’ Liam says, swiftly changing the subject, ‘I think you were right about playing it cool with Amara. If I show too much interest in her too soon, Madeleine may target her as a response. See how she acted with Hana when we were just having a conversation…’

Liam had a point, Drake knew that. But still, it irked him that he was so confident about winning Amara over in the long run. He remains silent, not wanting to betray himself.

‘But now,’ Liam continues, ‘I don’t really know how to proceed. I can’t show interest for her in public, and she doesn’t want me to break the rules and arrange any sneaky dates. When am I supposed to see her alone, then?’

God, Drake wanted to punch him in the dick. Can he let go, ever? Had Amara sent him any flirtatious signals? Had she ever responded positively to any of his advances? Had Liam always been like that? Drake remembers Claire, the noblewoman Liam was madly in love with, when they were younger. She had given in to him, even though she kept telling Savannah that she had a crush on Maxwell, who was blissfully unaware of the whole thing. So, maybe Liam had always been relentless and entitled, but Drake had never really paid attention. Does that mean he’s not any better?

Drake had zoned out, and realizes that Liam is still babbling on about ways to seduce Amara. Is he fucking serious?

‘I could try to give her a rendezvous again, maybe after the regatta, without anyone knowing, what do you think? I could invite her to have a drink with me on my balcony, away from prying eyes.’

Oh boy. He’d have to tread lightly on this one. He couldn’t show his cards. ‘Liam. What did she tell you last time?’

‘She wants to play by the rules. But--’

‘Exactly,’ Drake interrupts. ‘She’s not like most women at court, who would sell a kidney for a night with Prince Liam. She responds to subtlety, and she’s made that clear to you.’

Liam holds his gaze for a few seconds, and Drake holds his breath. Was that too transparent? Fuck, he remembers that he left the condom wrappers from their first night in the bathroom wastebasket. Let’s hope Liam doesn’t need to use the bathroom.

‘You’re right,’ Liam concludes. ‘I’m too pushy. It’s just difficult to resist, I mean, have you seen her?’ Yup, Drake thinks. He’s seen her. Naked. ‘It’s not just that, that’s not what I mean.’ Yup, Drake knows. ‘She’s different, she’s honest, spontaneous, just the whole package.’

‘Yeah, she seems wonderful, I’m not saying she’s not. I’m just saying, be respectful. Don’t put her in situations that she’ll find awkward, like summoning her to the gardens so you can fuck in the maze. Which we all know is your MO.’

Liam chuckles. ‘I do like the maze. And between you and me, I’ve been thinking about her, a LOT. I mean, her tits in that blouse last night…’

Although Drake agreed with the statements about her tits, he had no interest in that so-called locker room talk. He never had any interest in partaking in those, in his opinion, disrespectful ‘manly’ chats about women’s bodies, and when it came to Amara, it actually made his blood boil. Liam was usually not the type to discuss those things so openly, either, so he must really want to get laid. Drake almost opens his mouth to tell him that Madeleine is probably DTF, but stops himself. To be honest, any woman in that competition --except Amara, and probably Hana-- would have slept with Liam in the maze if prompted. Liam was just barking up the wrong tree.

He needs to change the subject, stat. ‘Well, our cars are leaving soon, right? When’s yours leaving?’

‘Oh, I’m about to head downstairs, Bastien and Thierry are expecting me any minute. I need to get back to the Palace, Father wants to see me.’

Thank God for Thierry, Liam’s more than punctual chauffeur, and for Constantine, who did not like to be kept waiting. ‘Alright, I guess we still have an hour or so before our departure, so I’m gonna finish packing. I’ll see you in the Palace later for dinner?’

Liam pats Drake’s shoulder. ‘Yes you will. Good talk, friend.’

As soon as Liam is out the door, Drake excitedly takes out his phone and texts Amara.

Wait a couple of minutes and come over - Liam is leaving.

*****

Amara is relieved to see Drake’s text - she was getting anxious she wouldn’t get to see him before they had to leave, even though they’d be in the same car.

‘Drake?’ she whispers while peeking her head into his bedroom.

‘Come in!’

She gleefully obliges, determined to spend the next hour of free time with Drake. ‘So, what did Liam want?’

‘Honestly, he kinda wanted to talk about you again. I had to dodge a few pointed questions. I talked him out of inviting you for alone time in his room after the regatta tomorrow, but...I wouldn’t be surprised if he did anyway.’

Amara rolls her eyes. ‘I know we’re supposed to be threatened by his relentlessness, but I’m just annoyed. True, I’m officially competing for his hand, but I’ve never showed him any sign that I want to be invited into his room.’

Drake nods. ‘That’s what I told him. Just be prepared to dodge him, that’s all.’

Amara smiles, touched by his concern for her. ‘Um, Drake?’ she asks hesitantly.

Drake sits down on his bed, gesturing for her to come closer.

‘I hope I didn’t ruin everything,’ she adds. ‘When I opened up to you, I didn’t intend to make things tense, or weird… Point is, I hope you don’t see me differently now that you know...what I’ve caused.’

Drake takes both her hands in his, and pulls her closer, until she’s sitting on his lap. ‘Suarez, you didn’t cause anything. And I could never see you any differently. You know how I see you?’ Amara shakes her head. ‘I see you as the woman who shook me awake. Who gave me a reason to smile. Who is helping me see the positive in the world. All that you’ve caused, for me, is happiness.’

Amara’s eyes fill with tears, but this time they’re not tears of pain. She cannot believe the man who is in front of her, cannot believe that they found each other. She doesn’t know what to say, except that she feels the same. Awake. She’d been stuck in a slumber for two years, but now she’s awake, with him.

She pulls him in for a long, deep kiss. Her lips capture his, and they melt into each other. She wonders if she’s ever felt this way about anyone before, if she’s ever felt this close to a person she only knew for less than a month. She straddles him, holding him close, as he wraps his arms around her waist. Their kiss becomes more urgent, as if they needed to be as close to one another as they could.

Drake’s hands wander lower, as he firmly grabs her ass, while Amara’s start unzipping his pants. She strokes his penis through his boxers, and he lets out a low moan. ‘Take off your pants,’ he whispers through their kiss.

Amara removes her jeans, too happy to oblige. After going to swiftly lock the door --she mentally thanks Olivia for this godsend of a lock--, she goes back to Drake’s arms, straddling him again as he sits up, his arms tightly wrapped around her. She feels his cock stiffen more and more, until it’s ready to burst out of his boxers. She quickly frees it with one hand, still kissing his lips. ‘God, I want you,’ he groans.

His hand travels between her legs, gently caressing the wet fabric of the seat of her panties. She wants him so badly, she thinks. He slides one finger, then two, in her slit, and teases it until her hip movements are desperate, and he understands she cannot wait anymore. He pulls her panties to the side and seamlessly enters her, making her moan intensely. This was her favorite moment, every time. The very moment he entered her, and she felt her walls stretch, then contract around him, making him hers completely.

Their hips move together, while Drake’s hands find Amara’s breasts and knead them underneath her bra, softly pinching her nipples. Amara loves how he gives them so much attention. She rides him harder, faster, until he moans louder and she gets closer to her orgasm. With every movement, she feels closer to the edge, losing herself in the moment and in his touch. He must feel that she is on the brink of letting go, as he whispers in her ear, breathlessly, ‘Come for me,’ and it sends her over the edge. She comes on his cock with a low groan that she feels lasts for a long time, until she hears him say with a raspy voice: ‘God you feel so good… I’m about to come…’ She resumes riding him and picks up the pace, wanting him to reach climax just as she reached it herself. Soon enough, he digs his fingers into her back and she feels him fill her with his pleasure. ‘Mmm,’ he moans, ‘Fuck, Amara, you’re amazing.’

She smiles, kisses him again, and they stay tangled in each other for a little while, until they come back to their senses and realize they probably should go back to reality, if they don’t want the others to send a search party.

*****

In the car taking them back to the Capital, Drake sits with Maxwell, while Amara is next to Hana. Hana had been eager to chat with her friend, and neither of them had the heart to prevent that from happening, however much they’d wanted to sit together. Maxwell was a good travel companion though, as he provided constant commentary which did not necessarily need any response, but he was open to conversation if Drake was so inclined. Today, in the light of the relaxing and satisfying moment he’d shared with Amara, Drake was in a phenomenal mood, so conversation was welcome. The two ladies were chatting away, not paying attention to them at all, so Maxwell saw an opening to talk about what he’d found out.

‘So,’ Max whispers, ‘do you guys really like each other?’

Drake chuckles and whispers in turn: ‘Yeah Max. Really. Thanks for being cool, by the way.’

‘Who am I to get in the way of true love?’ he says playfully.

Drake almost protested, almost said come on, hold your horses, this is only the beginning, but then he didn’t. He liked to think that it was going this direction. So, he remains silent and merely smiles.

‘Oooooh,’ Maxwell teases, ‘do you have feelings?’

Drake smiles, considers whether or not to open up, and chooses to tell the truth. ‘Yeah. I have feelings.’

Maxwell beams with excitement. ‘OMG I just KNEW that these sex noises were full of love!’

‘Alright, calm your tits, Maxwell,’ Drake says softly, with a smile on his lips. ‘By the way, why were you coming to my room that night?’

Maxwell, visibly caught off guard, stays silent with his mouth open for a few seconds too long, before finally replying, ‘Oh, I just wanted to see if you were ok, after everything Madeleine and Kiara had said that afternoon.’

*****

Back in the Capital, Amara unpacks in her room, before it’s time to head downstairs for dinner. There is something she can’t get out of her head, but for once it’s not torturing her. On the contrary, it makes her smile, in a way that she can’t control. When she hears Drake’s soft knock on the door, she turns around, still smiling.

‘Hey Suarez, I just wanted to see if you settled in okay.’

She gestures for him to close the door, and closes the distance between them to wrap him in a warm hug. ‘He used to make us breakfast every Sunday after our mom passed. My dad was too sad to function and I was only 10, so the stovetop was not my forte. Sergio was 16, so he took on that role for a while. He made us frittatas, or omelets, or sometimes huevos rancheros. Everything he made was so fucking disgusting,’ she breaks into a fit of laughter, ‘I’ll never forget the glance my dad and I exchanged every single Sunday, when we took our first, horrifying bite of Sergio’s gross as fuck eggs. But we never told him, because he was sweet enough to take care of us.’

Drake smiles, and strokes Amara’s hair. ‘That’s a sweet --and mean-- memory.’

Amara nods. ‘It is. And it feels good to share it.’

*****

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[charanteleclerc]

you’re in my mind (under my skin)

A/N: This is for sloangreytrash who requested simi! Sorry it’s taken a while, hope everyone enjoys!

The first time Seb saw him, he was wasted. Seriously wasted. He’d been drinking steadily since about midday, flipping between heartbroken, raging and pretending getting dumped was the best thing in the world with every other drink. He’d anticipated the break-up - he’d have been blind not to see it coming - but it didn’t really make it hurt any less.

He’d convinced his friends that going out was a good idea, or maybe he hadn’t, and they’d planned on going out anyway. It was a Friday after all. Dan had abandoned them almost as soon as they’d gotten to the club, and Seb didn’t blame him. He’d seen him hanging off a tall, ridiculously good-looking man. If he’d been quicker, he’d definitely have tried his luck, but the guy seemed pretty preoccupied by Dan now. Jenson and Charles were still with him though, Jenson from actual sympathy, Charles was probably still here because his latest crush hadn’t been spotted yet. Not that he’d admit it, he was kinda glad, in a selfish way. He loved Charles like a little brother (it didn’t matter that Charles was less than a year younger than him, it was still younger), and he didn’t blame Dan and Charles for not wanting to stick with him the entire evening. But, company was company. And company also loves misery, misery such as Jenson also trying to bleach his brain with alcohol.

Break-up’s were hard.

“You know what?” Seb banged his glass down on the table, making Jenson jump. “Fuck ‘em. You deserve better. I deserve better.”

“We deserve better.” Jenson nodded, his eyes a little unfocused. “Why?”

“Because we just do.” Seb explained. “Charles, Charles, go find your boy. Because me and Jenson, we’re gonna pull tonight.”

“We are?” Jenson blinked. Charles looked like he was watching a funny car crash in motion. Part distressed but part hilarious.

“You are?”

Seb nodded. “Yes. Yes we are. We are going to get over our shitty ex-boyfriends, we’re going to get them out of our systems, and we are going to do that by getting drunk, then getting under somebody else.”

“You’re a genius.” Jenson said solemnly. “I’m gonna go. Find someone. To get under.”

“Jenson, Jense…” Seb grabbed onto Jenson’s arm, grinning like a maniac. “I don’t wanna see you until your walk of shame tomorrow.”

“Got it.” Jenson finger-gunned, walking away a little unsteadily. Seb sent a satisfied grin at Charles, who still looked distressed but was definitely struggling not to laugh.

“It’s a brilliant plan!” Seb protested.

“Sure, sure.” Charles snickered, the amused part of him finally winning out. “Whatever, I’m going to find someone interesting.”

“Is it Pierre?”

Seb couldn’t see Charles blush in the low light, but he was pretty sure it was there. “Just somebody.” Charles said, before leaning over to give Seb a quick hug. “Love you. Come find me if you need to.”

“Love you too. Go find your booty call.” Seb teased, ignoring the glare he got in return. He didn’t care, Charles would eventually come to his senses and realise that he’d been head over heels for Pierre since he’d set eyes on him, but it wasn’t his problem. Or more accurately, it wasn’t his problem right now.

He stood up, scanning the room. He needed to dance, and he wanted another drink. He just wanted to forget that Mark even existed, and the easiest way to do that was vodka. Or tequila. Alcohol in general.

“One vodka shot.” He motioned at the bartender. The guy standing next to him made a noise. “What?”

“Do you think you’re up to that?” The guy smirked. Seb glared. Was this guy assuming he couldn’t handle his alcohol? By a look? He didn’t know his life. He could make his own goddamn life choices.

“Totally am.” Seb replied, jaw set. “Are you?”

“Always.” The guy replied. Seb’s drink appeared before him, and he didn’t even stop to think before he was throwing it down his throat, determined to prove a point.

“What do you say to that?” Seb challenged. The guy shrugged.

“Maybe I should buy you another?” He offered. Seb narrowed his eyes, before nodding.

“Double.”

“Brave.” The guy smirked. “But sure. Two vodka doubles.”

Well, at least he was getting the drunk part of his checklist done.

                                                            ~*~

Seb stepped off of the bus, slowly making his way towards his house. The sun was just about rising, and he looked wrecked. He knew that, he felt it as well. But a one-night stand was exactly what he’d aimed for, and why not? Hard, fast, drunken sex. And he’d only thought about Mark once, and he was pretty proud of that. Small steps.

He unlocked the front door, trying to shut it as quietly as possible. He loved Dan, Charles and Jenson like family (and they really were, to be honest), but he also knew that they’d tease him about this for days.

He snuck into the kitchen, cursing when Dan was already there, making a couple of coffees. Dan grinned, snickering. “Want a coffee?”

“Sure.” Seb muttered, sinking onto a chair. So goes his cunning plan. “What are you doing up at 6am?”

“The question you should be asking is ‘why haven’t you gone to bed yet Dan’?” Dan look very satisfied with himself. Seb rolled his eyes.

“Why haven’t you gone to bed yet Dan?” He parroted back, obediently.

“Because of the incredibly gorgeous guy still in my bed.” Dan replied smugly. “The sex is -”

“I don’t want to know.” Seb groaned, putting his hands over his ears.

“I’m assuming you had a good night?” Dan asked. “As you’re only getting back now?”

“Best way to get over someone is to get under someone.” Seb chanted, making grabby hands at the coffee. “Please Dan. I need.”

Dan took pity on him, handing him a mug. “Is it going to be a ‘might see them again’ situation? Or a ‘person at the right time’ situation?”

“The second.” Seb mumbled, before taking a gulp of coffee. “Go get back to bed. Incredibly gorgeous guy might start to think you’ve found a better option.”

Dan made a noise, a dazed grin on his face. “Seb, this guy knows there’s no-one better.” He grabbed the two coffees, giving Seb a goofy grin. “Don’t interrupt.”

“Don’t give me a reason to!” Seb called after his housemate, focusing on the coffee. Dan was an idiot, but he was also a genius in the kitchen, and he was the only one in the house who could actually make a decent coffee with their demon of a kettle.

He heard the front door open and close softly, and Jenson appeared, his face falling when he saw Seb sitting at the table. “It was your idea.” Jenson warned, attempting to stop the inevitable teasing.

Seb grinned. “Well, you’re unlucky enough that you’re going to have to make your own coffee. You missed Dan.”

Jenson groaned. “I hate you and your insanely good coffee.”

“No you don’t.”

“Can I go and wake him up?”

“Um… not unless you want to be scarred for life by the sight of his butt.” Seb admitted. “He’s still got a guest.”

Jenson made a face. “What time did you get here?”

“About five minutes ago.” Seb yawned. “I’m going to try and grab a nap.”

“Worn yourself out?” Jenson grinned. “If you’re doing that, can I have your coffee?”

“No. Fuck off.” Seb cradled his mug to his chest. “This is mine.”

“I hate you.” Jenson called as Seb stood up, walking off towards his bedroom.

“No you don’t!”

                                                               ~*~

Seb saw him next at the library, when he was a few hours into an essay and only fuelled by Red Bull and a cheese toastie. The guy dropped into the seat opposite him, the same smirk on his face from the night at the club. It took Seb a few minutes to even notice he was sat there, too focused on the fact he was writing something that was pure bullshit. Hopefully good bullshit. Seb blinked when he looked up, seeing the guy there. What was his name again? Chris? Kevin?

“You look like you could do with a break?” The guy said. Seb just blinked again. Was he beginning to hallucinate? Because he could see his one-night stand telling him he looked stressed. “Do you want to grab a coffee?”

“No.” Seb said quickly. “Er, no, if I have anymore caffeine I might have a heart attack.” He explained, still feeling confused. And a little guilty. The guy’s smirk got even… smirkier? How was that even possible?

“Okay. Would you like to grab a cup of water then?”

Seb nodded dumbly, then shook himself. “I do really need finish this.” He said apologetically. The guy shrugged.

“I can wait.” He said, settling back into his chair. “Wake me when you finish.”

Seb blinked as the guy tipped his hat over his face, and almost immediately fell asleep. Seb turned in his seat, looking around, half expecting a camera crew to jump out from behind a bookcase. It had to be a prank. One-night stands don’t just appear out of nowhere and fall asleep in front of you!

When no camera crew appeared, and the guy - Ken? - still seemed to be fast asleep, Seb went back to his essay, feeling slightly unsettled. He’d thought that they’d both understood what was expected, which really only came down to two things - have mind blowing sex (and it had been mind blowing), followed quickly by never talking to each other again. He was holding up his end so well that he’d even forgotten the guy’s name! He hadn’t even known the guy was a student until now. Unless he was a faculty member. Shit, was he a faculty member? He could really do without the complications that would bring.

He kept dragging the attention back to his essay, only letting himself sneak a glance a couple of times. He could ignore him. It was possible. But he didn’t really remember writing the last bit of his essay. Too preoccupied. Although he wasn’t really sure what he was saying in the rest of the essay either. He packed up his laptop, hesitating a little before leaning over to give the guy a shove.

“Hey, er, hey.” Seb said quietly. The guy started a little, looking at Seb from under his hat.

“You’re finished?”

Seb nodded, looking at his bag. “You’ve been asleep about two hours.” He added. The guy didn’t look fussed.

“That’s okay. Coffee? Or water?” The guy asked again. Seb nodded, still confused about the entire situation, but willing to go along with it for now.

“Lead the way.”

                                                          ~*~

Okay, so it was less a one-night stand, more a two-night stand. What could he say. The guy was a smooth talker when he wanted to be.

Still hadn’t learnt his name though.

They’d gone for coffee, and they’d lasted about 20 minutes before Seb had fallen for the smooth voice and the calm confidence. And that smirk . That smirk did something to a guy. They’d tried for pretence of actually talking, but Seb couldn’t say what they’d talked about. He remembers him staring, and feeling increasingly turned on, and then he was receiving the best blowjob he’d ever had. He didn’t even care that he was getting sucked off in a coffee shop toilet. With Mark, they’d never do anything so spontaneous. Everything about them had been formulaic, and just the fact that he was doing something risky, slutty even, just made him feel fantastic.

He collapsed onto the sofa, staring at the ceiling. He couldn’t tell his housemates. At all. He’d get knowing looks and remarks and he still wasn’t sure what this was. He could hear someone coming down the stairs, and he flung a pillow over his face. Maybe he could just hide here.

“Seb?” Charles sounded like he was above him. Seb pulled the pillow off, staring up. Charles was grinning down at him.

“Hi.” Seb said. He wasn’t going to tell anyone, and Charles wasn’t going to be able to tell from just his face. Hopefully.

“You look like your having a dilemma.” Charles said happily, patting Seb’s head. “What’s wrong?”

“I had a blowjob in a coffee shop toilet.” Seb said, eyes widening and slapping a hand over his mouth. “Shit. No I didn’t.”

“You… what?” Charles looked shocked. Seb just stared up at him, and then Charles burst into laughter. Seb glared.

“It’s not funny.”

“Yes, yes it is.” Charles cackled. “You slut! Who was he?”

“The guy from the club.” Seb replied sadly. “He found me at the library.”

Charles continued to snicker, moving around the sofa and sitting on Seb’s legs. Seb wiggled, making himself comfortable. Charles wasn’t exactly heavy, just a little awkward. “Do you want a hug?” Charles asked, looking serious. Or as serious as he could whilst he kept on letting out little bursts of laughter. Seb nodded, moving his arms so Charles could lie down, wrapping his arms around him once Charles was settled.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Charles asked. Seb shook his head.

“I need to think about it first. But thanks.” Seb replied. “Have you talked to Pierre since the other night?”

Charles shrugged. “A little. Nothing happened, that night. I just crashed there.”

“No judgement.” Seb said quietly. “I mean, I really can’t now.”

“Nope, you can’t.” Charles started to laugh again. “I never thought you’d be such an exhibitionist.”

“Neither did I.” Seb replied honestly. “It just kinda felt right, y’know?”

Charles nodded. “I get it. Just, be safe. Don’t let yourself get broken.”

“I will.” Seb sighed. “I promise.”

                                                        ~*~

He was a liar. A complete and utter liar, and he couldn’t even start to feel mad. He hadn’t even meant to run into the guy again - Keith? He should really ask him for his name - but the guy had appeared beside him after football practice, leering at him in a slightly sinister but ridiculously sexy way. He really shouldn’t be blamed for anything that happened after. He was high on exercise, and the guy happened to be there, he wasn’t responsible for anything. At all.

Though he was really starting to enjoy sex in semi-public places. Or maybe it was just sex in semi-public places with him. Seb really wasn’t sure.

And now he kind of wanted to find this guy. Maybe even talk to him. He had a right to be curious, he’d had sex with him three times now. Finding out his name would at least be helpful. It wasn’t exactly like he could just wander round campus asking if anyone had seen a really sexy guy with a lazy smile. Well, he could. But he wasn’t going to to.

“Okay, so you don’t know anything about this guy?” Jenson asked, sounding a little alarmed. “Seb, he could be like… I don’t know, a serial killer!”

“I’m still alive.” Seb muttered, blushing a little as his housemates all fixed him with stern looks. “Sorry.”

“You really don’t even know his name?” Dan asked, perplexed. “Nothing?”

“His name starts with K. I wasn’t really preoccupied with his name the first time I talked to him, and then it just became awkward. And we don’t really spend much time talking.”

“Too busy have sex in public places.” Charles teased. “Okay, so we start with nothing. How about someone goes somewhere with you? Then he has to introduce himself.”

Seb could’ve kissed him in that moment. “You’re a true genius Charles. Pierre doesn’t know what he’s missing.”

Charles blushed. “It’s just an idea.”

“A brilliant idea!” Seb exclaimed. “So what, I’ll just wait at my lectures for you guys?”

Dan nodded. “We’ll find this guy. He can’t be that elusive.”

                                                           ~*~

The problem was, none of them had considered the fact that they were all tied up themselves. Dan was consistently late to meeting Seb, and always with Jev hanging off his arm. Seb tried not to feel jealous, and tried his hardest not to feel like a third wheel, but he didn’t want to get in the way. And Jenson and Charles were both crushing hard, and as far as Seb could see, their affections were being returned, except no-one was saying anything. Nico and Pierre were great guys, and Seb didn’t want to get in the way again. True love was always difficult to achieve when your lovesick housemate was hanging around in a slightly awkward way. So the constant supervision was dropped, and he was back to being slightly lonely, and just waiting for the guy to appear from the shadows.

Except he didn’t.

A week turned into two, then three, and quickly a month had gone by without a sight of the the guy. Not even a whisper. And honestly, he was okay with it. It wasn’t something to mourn, and in reality, had helped him a lot. It’d stopped him moping about Mark, and gave him something to focus on. Maybe he didn’t need it now. His housemates weren’t giving him sympathetic looks anymore, when Seb saw him. He was spending more and more time at the library, needing the excuse to get out of the house. Jenson and Charles had come to their senses, and three couples surrounding him, it became a little stifling.

He was in one of his self-imposed exiles, having found it difficult to concentrate with whatever Dan and Jev would doing above him. He’d fled to the library, and hadn’t even realised he was in his pyjamas until he’d arrived. Thankfully it was nearly midnight, hopefully no-one he knew would see him like this.

So when he woke (he didn’t know when he fell asleep, but a while ago considering the lines of text he’d typed with his head), the guy was sitting opposite him, looking amused.

“Late night?”

Seb gaped, opening and shutting his mouth a few times before nodding. “Yeah, um, all my housemates are having sex.”

The guy raised an eyebrow, grinning. “And you’re not joining in?”

“Not like that!” Seb exclaimed, flustered. The first time he sees this guy in weeks, and he’s camped out in the library like a homeless person, with probably impressive bedhead and in his pyjamas. Someone should really just put him out of his misery. “Not with each other, with their boyfriends. Like normal people.”

“And you’re not because…?”

“I don’t have a boyfriend.” Seb mumbled. “Or girlfriend. Or friend at the minute.”

The guy just kept on staring, before standing up. “My place is nearby. If you want to be somewhere that isn’t this library.”

“I’m in my pyjamas.” Seb got out. The guy just continued to smirk.

“I can see that.”

Seb nodded, jumping up and packing up his stuff. He hadn’t brought much, and he didn’t pack it with too much thought. He was still having trouble processing that the guy was here, and he’d seen him at his absolute worst.

They didn’t say anything on the walk to the guys house. What did they really have to talk about, really? Seb wasn’t sure why he’d been invited back - well, he had an idea, but still. It didn’t feel like the other times. He vaguely recognised the flat they stopped at, a distant memory from an alcohol hazy night. He hadn’t really had time to actually look at the flat, and it was nice. Cozy.

“Do you have any housemates?” Seb asked lowly. The guy shook his head.

“Don’t get on well with most people.” Came the curt response. Seb nodded, like that made sense. He’d never really had a problem with people, well, most people. He walked around the room, being drawn to the varying trophies that sat on a bookcase.

1st place Karting Regionals - Kimi Raikkonen

“Kimi.” Seb breathed. “I knew it started with K.”

“Do you want a drink?” Kimi asked, and it felt good being able to give him a name. Kimi. Seb shook his head, yawning.

“I’m good, thank you.” He smiled, sitting down awkwardly on the sofa. “You’ve already done enough saving me from the horrors of the library.”

“Well, if you ever need to just get away…” Kimi shrugged. “You’re always welcome.”

“Why?” Seb blurted out. Fuck his stupid ability to never shut up. “Sorry, I didn’t mean -”

“It’s okay.” Kimi smirked. “I don’t know, I like you? You seem interesting.”

Seb nodded, still feeling a little lost. “But, I still don’t understand why? Why me? Why pick me up for a couple of hook-ups and then disappear?”

Kimi shrugged. “I don’t do people.”

“No shit.” Seb grumbled, folding up on himself. He was pissed off, and he still couldn’t go home. He certainly didn’t want to go back to the library. He just wanted to be in bed, pretending that this wasn’t actually happening. “Thanks for letting me stay here, I’ll be out of your hair soon.”

“I don’t want you to go.” Kimi said quietly. “If you don’t want to.”

Seb frowned a little, looking over at Kimi. “I thought you didn’t do people.”

“I don’t. But I want to do you.”

Seb snorted. “That sounds way worse.”

Kimi gave a small huff of laughter. “Well, in both ways.” He looked over Seb appreciatively. “I’m open.”

Seb blinked, and then jumped over the sofa. He grabbed Kimi’s face, kissing him hungrily, desperate. Kimi hummed, pulling Seb against him, walking them towards his bedroom. “So eager.” Kimi murmured, nipping at Seb’s lip. “Did you miss me?”

“Not at all.” Seb grinned, kicking off his pyjama pants and pulling his shirt off. “I think you have too many clothes on.”

Kimi nodded, following Seb’s lead, watching Seb lie down on the bed. “You look obscene.”

“Look in a mirror.” Seb replied, dragging Kimi down. “Now fuck me.”

“My pleasure.” Kimi smirked, leaning over and grabbing a condom from the bedside table. Seb hissed as Kimi slid a finger into him, slowly. Kimi kissed him lazily, working him just enough to slide a second finger in. Seb might not have remembered much from that first night, but he hadn’t forgotten how good Kimi was with his hands. His nerves were already running on electricity, another spark jolting when Kimi curled his fingers just so. “You feel so good.”

“More.” Seb panted, gripping the bedsheets. “More.”

Kimi grinned, sliding in a third finger, and it was almost too much. Seb started to push back a little, but Kimi just held onto his wrist, shaking his head.

“Not yet.” He said, sliding his fingers out. “You’re not to come until I tell you to.” He whispered, lining himself up. Seb nodded, throwing his head back with a whine when Kimi pushed in.

“Fuck, Kimi, fuck, move it… ”

Kimi was holding onto his waist, hard enough to bruise, but Seb didn’t care. He wanted to move, he wanted to roll his hips, but Kimi was holding him in place, caging him in. He held onto the bedsheets, desperate to hold something. Kimi seemed to have figured out the perfect angle, and Seb was shaking, trying to hold on. “I need, I need to…”

“Not yet.” Kimi breathed, releasing one hand from Seb’s waist. “Not yet.”

Kimi wrapped a hand around Seb’s dick, grinning when Seb whimpered. “Does that feel good.”

“So good, please…” Seb trailed off. His legs were trembling where they were wrapped around Kimi’s waist, he was so close…

“Come for me.” Kimi commanded, and it was all Seb needed. His vision went black, and when he came down from his orgasm, Kimi was shaking, hips stuttering. They stayed like that in silence for a few seconds, until Seb started to laugh, a little hysterical.

“You’re easily the best lay I’ve ever had.” Seb giggled, laughing harder when he saw Kimi’s incredulous face. “Fuck, I needed that.”

“The sex?”

“The sex. Or more specifically, the sex with you.” Seb admitted. He winced when Kimi pulled out, smiling when he caught the soft look on Kimi’s face. “I might take advantage of your bed.”

“Less distractions here?”

“Oh, definitely more.” Seb chuckled, getting up to clean himself off. “But worth it.”

                                                         ~*~

“So not a serial killer?” Charles asked, squinting a little. Seb laughed, happily accepting the coffee that Dan passed him.

“Not a serial killer. Possibly a vampire though.” He joked. “Tends to hang around places at night.”

“That’s not alarming.” Jenson muttered, grinning when he caught Seb’s look. “I’m happy for you. And jealous, you can enjoy an entire apartment.”

“Well, thank you to all of you for having so much sex I actually ran out of here.” Seb said, giving a little groan of pleasure when he took a sip of the coffee. “But fuck, I’m never leaving, and it is because of your coffee.”

Dan grinned, looking pleased. “And my skills strike again!” He cheered, giving a quick bow. “I thank you, I thank you.”

Seb laughed, listening to his housemates chatter amongst themselves. He’d missed this, but they’d all missed this. But he wasn’t going to disappear, to make them worry and abandon them. He loved Kimi’s place (more the bed than anything), but they were going to take it slow. By Kimi’s own admission, he wasn’t a people person, and having someone hanging around all the time felt like too much. And he didn’t want to give up this, sitting down and joking around, chatting about the most stupid things. They were young, and in love, and maybe it would last. Maybe it wouldn’t. There was no need to worry about the future yet, it’d come for them. But maybe they could enjoy the present. And maybe a bit more of Dan’s coffee.

                                                              ~*~

[shadowmcfly]

Calgary Expo

I cannot even BEGIN to process all that happened on this adventure. This will be a long post!

I made new friends from Canada and Australia! I was very thankful to be included in a wonderful dinner with the local DeLorean club, where everyone was so warm and welcoming.

Canadian hospitality is real, and the kindness I was shown meant so much to me. This was my first time out of the US and using my brand new passport, and I know for sure it will not be my last.

I cannot even begin to express my love and gratitude to Oliver and Terry for all that they've done for me, and continue to do. It's hard to explain, but some human beings are just... special. And these two are like Walt Disney magic. And sometimes, if you're lucky, that magic will touch your life. So much that happened was a beautiful byproduct of that magic.

My trip started off extremely rocky, with waking up to my 3:30am alarm to see my flight was canceled. I panicked and got on the phone with the airline. If I wanted to get into Calgary that day before 11pm, I had to leave NOW to catch a 6am flight. An hour earlier than my 7am original flight.

I somehow made it. And when I checked in saw the airline put me in first class for the inconvenience. Now that's a way to fly into Canada for the first time! This was my first weird divine streak of luck that would carry throughout the trip. Little did I know.

I went straight from the airport, luggage and all, to the Calgary Stampede where the con was being held to meet Oliver and Terry at the booth. From there we decided to visit the Calgary Tower which was right across the street from the hotel.

We had an INCREDIBLE and tasty dinner at the top of the tower, where the floor slowly rotates so you can see the whole city. From there we went up to the top of the tower. I stepped on the glass floor which was SCARY, but pretty damn cool.

I've been to quite a few cons, but it was a first to see a casino right next to the event center!

The DeLorean was located right between the Celebrity Autograph area and the Photo Op area, so I sure didn't have to go far to get both of mine done! That was pretty cool.

The first day I got to meet James Tolken (who came by the booth), who played Strickland in BTTF, and is also well known for his work in Top Gun. He is such a delight, and a very sweet person. He proudly sported a Flux Capacitor pin from the booth during the big BTTF panel on Friday night.

Friday morning was the Parade of Wonders, and as we pulled up in the DeLorean I was told that both Christopher Lloyd and Lea Thompson were riding right in front of us in the parade. OH OK?!?!?! NO BIG????? I had a lot of fun posing for photos with the car, and chatting with people. If you're wondering, when Chris and Lea arrived later on I did not approach. I was there representing Team Fox, and I wanted to remain professional and courteous. My time with them would come later, and it was very cool to watch them arrive and be so close to that. Lea loves doing Instagram stories, and I was thrilled to find out I ended up being a part of them from the parade! When I saw she was taking video I enthusiastically waved at her and got acknowledge with a "Hi!!!!!!".

The parade was beautiful, and I had so much fun getting to be a part of it. We ended up on the news, photos on news websites, and Troy was gracious enough to bring me a copy of the newspaper we were in, which I brought back with me. The route through downtown Calgary was beautiful, and what a way to see it!!!! So many people came out to both participate in it and watch it! Truly unforgettable.

The big BTTF panel on Friday night was absolutely fantastic. Michael walked out on stage and I got choked up at how grateful I was to be seeing this and watching this cast come together. Tom Wilson was so incredibly hilarious and personable, and guided the panel amazingly. He's very good at that, and offered some really insightful answers to questions these guys hear all the time. It was special to hear Tom talk about how he was bullied in school, and hearing him talk about how he had to search deep to be able to play the other side of that line. Christopher Lloyd was hilarious in how utterly over it he was with some of the questions. He's happy to let the others take over, and watching him and Tom is a gift.

Each one of them did their favorite line/lines from the movie, and hearing Michael do Marty quotes made my life. He's just as smart and witty as ever. Truly.

Michael: "Ok, you're playing this slacker kid who loves to play guitar and wants to take his girlfriend alone up to the lake. And I was all, ok I got this!"

Friday was a great day raising funds at the booth, and little did I know what exactly was going to happen Saturday.

The first thing that happened that day that led to something amazing was that I missed Michael's first autograph session. I walked up with my two tickets I had gotten taken care of in ADVANCE, and was told to come back at 4.

I was pissed but let it go, because then I could go ahead with my plan of one of those autographs being on our new photo together. I was hoping I could get my behind the scenes photo signed at the earlier time, then go back again for my 2nd. I wanted a few more seconds during that autograph time to connect that first time vs the rush and go of the photo ops.

That was the first divine thing that happened that lead to the vest. Getting turned away from that earlier time.

Even though I met Michael in 2016, I was in line for our photo trying to shake off the nervousness I felt. One of the staff members looks at me and says, "YOU have to wait in line?". I laugh and say yes. When it was my time, Michael looked at me very warmly and I think my eyes were wide as saucers.

I ask him if I can put my arm on his shoulder and he's ok with it.

"Let's do one of these." He says, and quickly makes the watch gesture I know all too well.

Oh yeah. Let's go. I've waited years for this.

Click.

I spend so much of my time making that shocked expression, but I couldn't do it for probably the first time ever. I was too happy. I smiled and beamed like the happy fool I was. Looking back, I kinda wish I did it, because that would have been hilarious. But I let the Master take the reigns. I thanked him and left, eyes wide and whispering, "Holy shit." under my breath over and over.

My duo photo op with Michael and Chris was about 40min later, so I queued back up in line.

When my time came I took a moment to be completely and utterly star struck by looking at Marty and Doc here in front of me. What even IS that??? How can you process that???

Michael warmly regards me.

"Hi again!" He says.

"Hi Michael, hi Chris!!!".

I ask Chris if I can put my arm around him, and he says I can. Michael looks at me talking to Chris in that moment.

Click.

I thank them and go whooping all the way to pick up my printed photo.

I go back to help at the booth until that 4pm autograph time.

The line is like being packed into a can of sardines, and the staff member laughs and remarks that I'm number 100 in line.

There is a strict NO PHOTO policy. You can't take a photo of Michael signing.

I have two photos for Michael to sign: our brand new photo together and a rare behind the scenes photo that I loved so much when I saw it, I asked my friend if I could get it printed and signed on the promise I wouldn't post it to social media, ect.

My time comes. One of Michael's handlers sees the behind the scenes photo.

"I've never seen that one before."

And takes a photo of Michael signing it. The second divine thing that happens.

I panic, but turn my attention to Michael quickly because I've got a few seconds. Go.

He's signing and as he is, I say:

"Hi Michael. I just wanted to say that it's an absolute honor using this costume to volunteer for your Foundation."

Michael looks at me.

"Thank you. I certainly appreciate that."

I thank him and leave, slipping back into the booth.

But the photo.

Would it have been the worst thing ever if it got posted somehow? Probably not. But I can't shake it.

I tell Terry what happened.

She walks me over, warmly greets everyone, and explains the situation. The photo is deleted, and as we're here getting this sorted, Michael is... there.

He's right there.

The line is gone. The only people there are the handlers, staff, and Terry and I.

Somehow... Michael was still there even though the line was gone.

Michael looks at me. Bright blue eyes. Recognizes me.

He's sitting but puts his hands on the table and stands.

"Your jacket."

"Wh.... what??"

"Your jacket... your vest. I wanna sign your vest."

"Wh....???" My eyes WIDE.

I take it off, it's laying front side up in front of him on the table.

I see he's going to sign the front and I remember I can form words if I try.

"Oh... oh uhhhhh Michael? I'm so so sorry but uh, could you sign the inside??? I use this a lot for charity work."

Oh my GOD. Who the hell do I think I am?!?!?! I panicked because I needed to keep using that vest.

I squeak out my name, when he asks, I think Terry echos me because she's much more composed and professional than I am right now.

With an elegant swoop of a black sharpie, he signs the vest. Right side on the inside.

I think I squeaked out a thank you or was just mute by that point, I don't remember.

Michael disappears and the most shell-shocked I've ever been, look at the vest.

It has my name on it.

He signed my name.

"Shannon

Love,

Michael J. Fox"

I lose it. I somehow make it back to the booth and call my mom. Crying and squeaking.

It sounds like she might be crying too.

It snowed. A lot. We walk out of the con center into a blizzard. Honest to god. That was a first.

Our friends graciously give us a ride to the dinner we're all going to with the local DeLorean club members as well as other DeLorean owners. A truly great group.

I'm told I must try something called "poutine". Never heard of it. It's french fries, gravy, and curd cheese. It's really good.

I'm pretty sure this was fit in at some point Saturday. When Chris came in the booth for his photo op session, I was able to briefly thank him for being here. I kneeled down, and shook his hand. But.. I didn't want to let go.

"Chris, could we hold hands for our photo?"

"Yes, absolutely."

He is so wonderful and special. He regarded me with nothing but warmth in our moment.

On Sunday for Lea Thompson's photo session at the car I did a brief TSA as we call it: handling bags and making sure they get back to their owners. As she was walking out of the booth I told her thank you, and got a, "You're welcome sweetie!" in return.

I'll tell you what guys, I couldn't shut my brain off Saturday night. I couldn't sleep for the best reasons possible. Which was a very welcome change for once.

I helped tear down the booth as normal on Sunday, and that was it.

This trip was magic.

[writingsofadream]

Chapter One | The Beginning

Pairing : Jungkook x Reader

Story: You knew being an intern at BigHit wouldn’t be easy, but you’d never imagined Jungkook would make it even harder. 

You are a new intern at Big Hit, and you get to meet the boys. Set in the real world (as opposed at an AU), and just before the Love Yourself: Tear Comeback. 1.8k words in this chapter.

|||||||||| 1 ||||||||||

The harsh and unforgiving buzz of your 6am alarm screeches through your bedroom, penetrating the soft blankets and making its way into your dream. For a second your thoughts are confused and muddled with the morning noise, but then you feel your body wake with a start.

Today’s the day.

Hurriedly you push the blankets off your body and slip out of bed, into your comfiest dressing gown and the ridiculously old slippers you refuse to replace. Their sentimental value outweighs their depreciating quality, so you continue to wear them to pieces.

Your internship starts today. With Big Hit.

You couldn’t believe your luck at being chosen from over 15, 000 college applicants, especially as Korean was only your second language, (though you were undeniably fluent), and you had just arrived in Seoul a little over six months ago. Somehow you had been picked, and your astonishment had turned into realisation and immense butterflies in the weeks since the fateful letter had arrived. And now today was finally the day.

Big Hit was such a huge contributor to K-pop and the music industry through BTS, but most of all it was an undeniably successful music production company. You were overwhelmed at the thought of being able to see first-hand the work that goes into such a huge corporation, and as a business major it was pretty much all you could think about. Most of your friends had been shocked at the prospect of you being near BTS for 4 months, but you just couldn’t keep your mind off the school side of things. After all, that was why you applied, and no doubt they were going to be perfectly normal boys anyway. Well, men.

The shower was warm and enjoyable as it flooded over your body, and you shut your eyes for deeper enjoyment. Mixed with the sound of light rain from outside, the butterflies in your stomach were almost calming rather than anxiety-inducing. You shave, and wash your body and your hair - the light and flowery scents were your favourites, and you’re all too aware your self-presentation will be taken into account by all officials you meet.

Hopping out, you put on your pre-selected outfit, looking at yourself in your bedroom’s full-length mirror. A white button-up shirt, with tightly flattering black jeans cuffed at the ankles and your faithful black and white vans. You look presentable, yet still young and obviously intern-esque. Appropriate for an 19 year old intern, you thought.

Heading through to the kitchen, you quickly pop some 3-minute oatmeal into the microwave, and begin cutting up the banana and strawberries to go with it. Your tiny kitchen hugs around you reassuringly, and you look around gratefully. It was truly the perfect apartment, modern yet tiny and with a surprisingly modest rent. In the middle of a strawberry cut your phone rings, and you check it with nervousness. A text from Shia, your best friend and long-suffering brother’s girlfriend.

“Good luck, Y/N! We all love you and are rooting for you!”

Beneath was an adorable photo of them together with your parents, giving you genuine open mouthed smiles and a thumbs up. You couldn’t help but smile too, it was too damn cute. No doubt it had been taken in advance, since the time difference had to be accounted for. You quickly tapped out a thankful reply, sent it, and retrieved your warm oatmeal from the microwave to dig into the early breakfast.

7:30am

Your phone buzzes again, this time reminding you to take your daily birth control pill. Gulping it down with water, you wondered why you were even still bothering. It’d been almost a whole year since your last kiss with a boy, let alone anything more promiscuous than that. Still, shorter periods was a plus and you didn’t seem to have any negative side effects, so you figured it was somewhat worth the routine and $30 a month. Seeing the time, you grabbed your bag and double checked you had everything you could possibly need. Gum, cards, offical ID… everything seemed to be in its rightful place, which seemed promising. You’d even remembered to fill up your metal bottle with fresh cold water and ice, which you loved regardless of the raining weather outside. Stepping out of the apartment, you locked the door behind you and headed down the copious stairs leading to the outside of the building. Sure, you didn’t have to be there until 8:30am and public transport would get you there by 8:10 - you still wanted to be on time for one of the events that could turn into a momentous event for your college work, or even your career.

7:40am

The train is packed, and you find yourself squished between a businessman who pays you no attention and an old lady carrying three purses. The smell is rather damp, and the Monday mood is evident throughout all passengers’ moods. You were undeniably glad you had remembered your tiny bottle of perfume, your favourite travel-sized scent; a little bottle of Marc Jacobs in the scent ‘Daisy’.

A young boy, most likely around 17 is eyeing you up and down from across the train, and his eyes are making you slightly uncomfortable. Sure, you have a nice body and you’re not stranger to their gaze, but it never gets easier being openly gawped at. You shift from foot to foot, hoping that the train has no delays and he doesn’t get off at your stop. He gets off one before, and makes sure to brush against your ass as he makes his way past and out the doors. Gross.

8:10am

You try the door of Big Hit Entertainment nervously, only to be met with resistance. Looking next to the door, you see a keypad clearly needing a set of around 5 numbers to be punched in. Dammit. Shit. How fucking awkward. Waving through the clear door, you try and get the attention of the woman behind the front desk. Eying you with a steeled look, she simply goes back to her mundane work. She must think you’re just a crazed fan. Perfect.

Knocking again, she looks up with clear annoyance on her face. You quickly snatch your ID and the acceptance letter from your bag and bang them against the glass, motioning for her to come and take a closer look. Clearly rolling her eyes, she gets up in a clear movement of frustration.

Once close enough, her eyes go wide and the look on her face is replaced with that of surprise. She swiftly punches numbers in, and the door swings open. Some of the fans who had been standing further back, from the other side of the road start to rush forward, and as soon as you’re through the door she slams the door behind you.

Now up close, you see she’s quite beautiful with wide doe-eyes and perfectly Korean features. She looks as through as was ripped straight from the pages of a magazine, particularly in her dark blue dress that’s tight and works her small curves to the best of their ability. Her lengthy legs in their sky-high heels make her a good 10 inches taller than you, and you feel considerably uglier in comparison.

“I am SO sorry,” she gushes. “I thought you’d be older, and not here until at least 8:30. Again, I seriously apologise! You must think me so rude.”

Her previous annoyance has been completely wiped away, and she now flashes you a sheepish and apologetic smile.

You give her a quick, reassuring smile back, and even laugh a little about the situation.

“No doubt young girls like me try and get in all the time, no doubt! I definitely don’t blame you for being good at your job!”

She laughs in return at this, nodding enthusiastically.

“You’d be astonished at how many young girls want a glimpse of BTS, it’s no wonder they come in through the back! I’m Jinwah, by the way, it’s nice to meet you Y/N… even if our first meeting has been a little difficult!”

You flick your wrist up and check the time on your small gold watch, a present from your father before you'd left for Korea. Your deep sentiment definitely transcends no-longer-fuzzy slippers. 8:24. Definitely time to go.

“I’m so sorry, but I definitely have to get to where I’m supposed to be now. Room 753?” you ask quizzically.

“Take the elevator to floor 14, then it’s the 8th door on your right. Good luck!”

She flashes you another award-winning smile, and you can’t help but seriously like this girl. We could definitely become friends while you’re here, in fact, you might make it a personal goal. You could do with more friends in Korea, since you’re currently sitting at only two.

You send a quick “thanks!” her way, and walk over to the elevator. Pushing the button, it pops open right away for you. Getting in, you repeat to yourself that it’s the eighth door to your right, and you punch in the 14th floor.

Whizzing up, your stomach is in knots as you attempt to mentally prepare yourself for your first impressions. A spritz of your perfume and the doors open, allowing you to step into a white-walled and modern looking hallway. It screams office building, and the buzz of talking is thick. People are all throughout the hallway, and going in and out of the rooms, much busier than the lobby downstairs. You suppose they must all come in through the secretive back entrance, being staff and all. A large and busy woman in a black and white dress notices you, and comes striding towards you with her clipboard. Her smile makes you less nervous, though you feel exceedingly out of place and awkward.

“Welcome! You must be my intern, yes? You’re Y/N?”

Her smile and her warm demeanour melts your butterflies, and you feel much better having met the woman who you’ll be shadowing for the next few month.

“Yes, that’s me,” you reply, “I’m very honoured and excited to be here!”

“Good, good!” She replies, bustling with enthusiasm. “Shall we get started? The very first thing I’ll have you do is meet the boys, they’re all in dance practice right now so I’m sure they’ll be happy to have a quick break.”

She says this with a chuckle, but you suddenly feel nervous again.

8:45am

On our way towards the room you hear it from all the way down the hall. The loud, banging sound of all their feet falling to the floor in synchronisation, and it sounds almost mesmerising with their music playing in the background.

She doesn’t even bother knocking, and simply opens the door with blatant familiarity. Of course she knows the boys well, you chastise yourself. It’s you who’s the outsider.  

[thedarkrose17]

Chapters: 4/? Fandom: Final Fantasy XV Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Prompto Argentum/Noctis Lucis Caelum Characters: Prompto Argentum, Noctis Lucis Caelum, Gladiolus Amicitia, Ignis Scientia Additional Tags: Mutual Pining, Eventual Relationships, Accidental Baby Acquisition Summary:

The first thing Prompto wakes up to is concerned voices and someone fussing or whining.

It takes a few moments to sit up, adjust in the tent and glance around. It’s just Ignis, Gladio and a fussing baby. He blinks and looks again. The baby wasn’t here last night. ☆ ☆ ☆ A.k.a The astrals get tired of Prompto and Noctis' pining and decide to try and get them together

Read under the cut or on the link :)

Noctis is almost asleep when he hears a familiar squeak.  He yawns and grabs his phone, unlocking it and checking the text.

‘He's cute (ᗒᗨᗕ)’

“Both of them are.” Noctis mutters back.

Noctis smiles and looks around for the familiar furry face and finds Carbuncle on the floor, legs too tiny to get him on the bed.

The Prince slowly and carefully frees his arm from around Prompto before carefully helping the tiny fennec fox up onto the bed.

He gets an emoji with heart eyes in response and chuckles quietly.

“Not dating.” Noctis mutters, another message coming through his phone.

‘Shame (╥_╥)’

‘Baby's cute though (* >ω<)’

Noctis nods and gently rubs Solis’ back.

“I feel like I'm texting Iris and not a magic messenger.”

‘Rude ( ︶︿︶)_╭∩╮’

Noctis makes the most inhuman sound a person can ever make at the reply, Ignis even gives him a weird look for that. Gladio meanwhile tries not to laugh.

Noctis chooses to ignore them and reply to Carbuncle instead.

“What the fuck...You actually flipped me off.” He whispers.

‘(◕‿◕✿)’

“...You're a little shit. You know that.”

Noctis sighs and reaches out to touch him. Carbuncle carefully walks closer and sniffs Solis. Solis doesn't even stir.

‘(T⌓T) He's sick

“He's got a cold.” Noctis replies, sighing. “Hopefully he'll be alright in a few days.”

‘(╯°▽°)╯ ┻━┻ it's not fair!’

“Yep exactly.”

‘He's brave.’

“He is?”

‘He crawled over and pet me. When you first met me as a baby, you wailed.’

Noctis blushes and groans. “He takes after Prompto then, rushing off to pet soft animals.”

Carbuncle gently nuzzles Solis and Noctis gently scratches behind Carbuncle’s ear. He yawns and Carbuncle copies him moments later.

Solis slowly wakes up with a tiny yawn. He sniffles, blinking sleepily before he notices Carbuncle. Solis stares and grabs at the fennec fox with a tiny coo. He sneezes and whines before grabbing onto Carbuncle’s ear.

Noctis stares, mouth open slightly as he does. Solis can see Carbuncle. Just like he can. Honestly he doesn’t know if he should feel stressed by this or relieved.

“...I didn’t actually tell you his name.”

‘Nope!’

“Solis.” he replies and glances at his son. “And that’s Carbuncle….You’ll probably not be able to remember that or pronounce that for a while...So Carby for now...And you probably have no idea what I’m saying.”

Solis whines and clings to Noctis with one hand and Carbuncle’s ear with the other. He lets out an excited shriek before he starts coughing, Noctis carefully rubs his back and gently kisses his head.

‘Fatherhood suits you (* >ω<)’

Noctis smiles softly and glances at Solis.

“He’s a little ray of sunshine.”

‘(ᗒᗨᗕ) So pure.’

“Mmm?” a familiar voice groggily speaks up next to him and Carbuncle disappears much to Solis’ dislike as he whines about it.

Prompto yawns and gently reaches up, stroking Solis’ cheek.

“How’s my little soybean?” he yawns as Noctis huffs.

“No bean names.” he grumbles and Prompto tiredly smirks. “He’s not been awake long. Still has a cold.”

Prompto leans up, planting a kiss on Solis’ cheek. “My poor sunbeam.”

Solis whines and the boys attempt to soothe him.

* * *

A week later thankfully the cold is gone and everyone is relieved. Solis had cried a lot during his cold, it had been stressful and honestly heartbreaking at times to see him so miserable but now he was back to normal.

Noctis has put him in a little grey baby grow with “Ready player 3.” wrote across it, controller at the side, along with little cartoon chocobo face socks. Prompto claimed to have died the moment he saw it, the “I saw a cute thing” voice coming out the moment he saw Solis.

Ignis told them about a festival in Altissia, the chocobo moogle festival he’d heard about and Prompto almost yells about having to go as soon as possible. Solis squeals just happy to contribute to the conversation in his own little way.

Noctis looks like he’s not fully awake yet. He’s yawned about four times now, scratched at his stomach/happy trail which Prompto almost short circuited over and complained about the sun asking if it could turn the brightness down.

Ignis actually chuckled and agreed it would be a nice break for them all. Gladio asks if Iris can tag along and Ignis smiles.

“It would be a delight to have her.” the advisor says and Gladio shoots her a text. He gains a reply moments later of keysmashes and crying emojis. He takes that as a positive response.

“She’ll be here in five.” the shield replies, Noctis catches sight of the text and looks confused.

“You understood that?” he asks with a yawn.

“I’ve seen enough of it from Prompto.” Gladio replies.

“Hey! Check the internet, people do it.” Prompto huffs.

“Some of the lgbt youth online do it Gladio. I don’t actually know why.” Ignis says.

“...Iggy you’re twenty two, I’m twenty three. We’re all “youth.” still.” Gladio says putting an arm around him.

Ignis leans into it and rubs an one of his eyes. “I mean younger than us Gladio.”

“Small, bi and ready to try at your service.” Prompto replies, standing up straight. He’d salute if he wasn’t holding his precious sunbeam.

“Small, gay and ready to decay. It’s 6am, I’m practically a zombie.” Noctis mutters. “Small, ace and wielding a mace can work occasionally  too.”

Gladio snorts and rolls his eyes and Ignis sighs.

“Neither of you are small.” Ignis huffs.

* * *

Iris comes in with her luggage and a smile on her face.

She wore a black short sleeved shirt with red roses on it,some rounded sunglasses over her eyes, black shorts and knee high cat socks with her regular boots.  

The boys are wearing more casual outfits too. Noctis is the only one wearing his chocobo moogle festival outfit since he’s the only one who has one. Gladio meanwhile has decided today is a shirtless kind of day much to the complaints of Prompto, Noctis and Iris.

She asks if she can get a t-shirt from the festival when they get there and Gladio replies with a simple “We’ll see.” He’ll probably get her one.

Ignis during this decides to pull out his phone and check the weather forecast for the day.

The forecast apparently is set to be a nice hot day. Clear skies and warm temperatures until the evening. Perfect day for a trip.

* * *

They’d packed up and checked out by 7, finally reached Galdin by 9 and quickly headed down to the docks, heading up onto the royal vessel.

Iris stared up at the boat, slowly pushing her shades up onto her head. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever been on a boat before, she moves to step on before Prompto yells, causing her to freeze.

“Wait!” Prompto yells, handing Noctis baby Solis and rushing off leaving everyone except Solis confused.

Solis seems more focused on a seagull flying around. He flails in Noctis’ arms until Gladio speaks up.

Iris unfreezes and glances over, pulling her shades back down and heading over to Ignis.

“He’s starin’ at a seagull, I think he wants you to too. Or he has no idea what it is.” Gladio says.

Noctis looks confused until he spots it, and gently bounces on his feet with Solis in his arms.

“It’s a seagull. Smaller than the other bird at the hotel. Way smaller. These just steal food if they can.”

“One tried stealing my ice cream when I was five.” Iris chirps in.

“I saw one steal chips from a store online.’” Gladio adds making Noctis look back at him sceptical.

“It’s surprisingly real.” Ignis chirps in causing Noctis to whistle.

“Wow.”

Solis bleps, getting a little squirmy in Noctis’ arms.

“Should we go hunt for Prom?”

“Relax. Kid’s probably taking a piss.” Gladio mutters.

“Gladdy!” Iris cries.

“Gladiolus!” Ignis huffs.

“...What?”

“Oh shit! He brought out the first name.” Noctis says with a smirk.

“Noctis!” Ignis huffs. “Infant present. I would prefer you both either watch  your language and not be crass or cover his ears.”

“To be honest I think he’s staring at the tourists...Or like five seconds from needing a change.”

Iris glances over. “Nope...He’s definitely staring.”

* * *

Prompto rushes back five minutes later, tripping up over his own feet on the dock. Luckily Gladio grabs his arm and heaves him up before he faceplants. He blushes and thanks Gladio.

The blonde has a very tiny hat, it seems to have a blue band around it filled with doodles of cartoony fish along with a bottle in his pants pocket.

Iris coos at how cute and small the hat is.

“All they had was fish themed hats.” Prompto says, carefully putting the hat on Solis’ head. “There we go~ Protect you a little from the sun...I got him sunscreen but...Um do we have sunscreen for us?”

“We have some stocked on the boat..” Ignis states and lets Noctis lead the way onto the boat but Noctis lets Iris on first before following her on.

“This is gonna be Sol’s first boat ride.” Gladio says and Prompto in front of him gasps.

“...Do people celebrate that? Would it be weird if I celebrated that?”

“You got excited about his first hotel stay.” Gladio adds. “So maybe not?”

“I’m celebrating it then~” Prompto replies planting a kiss on Solis’ hat.

Solis clings to Prompto and attempts to take off a sock. Noctis heads over and carefully stops him, he boops Solis on the nose and Solis grabs for him.

Prompto smiles and carefully hands Solis over to Noctis. Solis makes a happy squeal loud enough for the rest on the boat to hear him. He earns some smiles and awws from Iris and Prompto.

* * *

Noctis hands Solis back to Prompto so he can steer the boat.

Prompto seems happy enough to sit Solis on his lap and hold him close. Solis meanwhile seems fascinated by Prompto’s glove, he stares at it and attempts to grip onto said glove.

Ignis was sat next to Iris, the duo surprisingly drifting off during their journey and Gladio was reading.

Solis gets whiny the longer they stay on the sea and Prompto decides to lie down on the surprisingly comfortable sofas with Solis. The duo yawn and end up napping together.

Gladio throws a blanket over the sofa to shield them from the sun or try to and neither of the pair stir from this, maybe 6am was too early of a start for them.

Gladio hears Noctis yawn from the captain’s seat and heads in.

“Hey princess.”

“Hey.” Noctis blinks tiredly and glances over at him before his eyes return to the sea.

“Tired?” Gladio asks and Noctis nods.

“I was on baby duty last night. Prom’s stomach was acting up so he slept it off.” Noctis yawns and Gladio places his hand on his shoulder. “Alright stop the boat. Someone else is taking over.”

Noctis doesn’t even protest, he brings the boat to a stop and rubs at his eyes. “...Controls are pretty easy.” he mutters as Gladio scoops him up out of the seat and carries him back to the others.

He’s pretty much asleep in Gladio’s arms by the time Gladio realises there’s nowhere for the prince to lie other than the floor.

So for now he gets put there, near Prompto’s little sofa while Gladio decides to take over controlling the boat, he’s swiftly banned from continuing the moment Ignis wakes up.

Noctis after that is placed where Ignis was. He naps the rest of the trip near Iris.

* * *

They splash out for a more expensive room, they’re on the rare occasion allowed to nap due to the long boat trip and the fact they have a few hours until the festival.

Ignis decides instead to leave the room and browse the sights with Gladio and Iris in tow. Prompto is sure Iris only went to give him, Noctis and Solis some alone time.

Noctis sits on the bed, taking off his boots and putting them at the side of the bed before lying down on said bed.

Prompto smiles at the sight and heads over with Solis in his arms. He bites his lip before speaking up.

“Can you take Sol for a sec?”

Noctis sits up and carefully takes Solis from Prompto. Solis whines and Prompto feels guilty so much so he attempts to explain himself to the baby.

“I’ll be back like super quick ok? Just stay with Noct ok?” Prompto says, planting a kiss on Solis’ head. “Be good for daddy ok?”

Noctis blushes a little and gently soothes their son who honestly doesn’t understand any of this. Prompto is going to kill him one day. He’s only making the crush he has on him much worse at this point.

“You forgot to go pi-Pee before we left huh?” Noctis asks earning a whine from his best friend in the process.

“I thought I could hold it! But I’m dying.” he whines at the Prince who snorts a little. “Go on. We’ll be ok.”

Solis looks at Prompto and whines and Prompto looks conflicted as he heads into the bathroom.

Solis wails and Noctis hears a heartbroken cry of “I’m sorry!” practically yelled from the bathroom.

Noctis tries to get Solis’ attention, trying to distract him until Prompto returns.  He hums to him and gently rubs his back and when that fails, he sings which gets Solis’ attention immediately. It’s something from anime but Solis doesn’t know that.

He smiles when Solis calms down and hears the bathroom door open moments later, a flustered blonde quickly coming out.

“Papa’s here buddy don’t wo-” he pauses and looks over at Solis and Noctis, mouth slightly open. “You’re a baby whisperer too huh?” he mutters.

“He likes singing.” Noctis replies, smiling before sitting up. “Can you take him back for a second? I have to pi-”

“Sure!” Prompto interrupts and blushes, apologising before taking Solis back and sitting on the bed with him.  “You think your dad would have had a bathroom on that boat.”

Noctis gets up and agrees, heading over to the bathroom, opening the door but pausing when Prompto speaks again.

“Blue Exorcist.” the blonde mutters.

“Huh?”

“You were singing something from Blue Exorcist to him.”

“...Oh yeah? What one?” Noctis replies with a smirk. No point in denying it.

“Itteki no Eikyou.” Prompto replies, sticking his tongue out. “We're a magical girl and boy anime house only mister.”

Noctis laughs a little and rolls his eyes before heading into the bathroom. “Like you’ve ever watched one.”

“Hey! I’ve watched-”

“Other than Sailor Moon.” Noctis replies from behind the door.

Prompto covers Solis’ ears before Noctis hears him clearly say “Fuck you.” with a snort which makes Noctis laugh.

* * *

Solis wailed again. It was a fairly short cry as Prompto decided to finish the anime song Noctis previously sang to the baby.

The song seemed to calm Solis and Prompto was so focused on soothing Solis with the song he almost missed Noctis come out of the bathroom.

“You finished the song?” Noctis asks, startling Prompto.

“Dude! Warn a guy first.” Prompto gasps and then makes a sound of confirmation to his question.

Noctis heads over and Prompto scoots up before lying down with Solis. Solis seems happy when Noctis lies next to them. He yawns and smiles a toothless smile.

“Hey sunshine.” Noctis mutters to him and he’s rewarded with their baby flailing. To Noctis it looks like an attempt at dancing honestly. It’s weirdly cute.

Prompting laughs quietly and carefully puts Solis between them. The baby sneezes and looks like an Anak in the headlights, prompting Prompto to blow a raspberry at him wondering how he'll react.

Solis jumps and stares up at Prompto looking utterly confused or as confused as a baby could look.

Prompto blows another raspberry at Solis and Solis rewards him with a burp.

“Nice.” Prompto mutters with a snort making Noctis laugh.

* * *

They undress Solis down to his nappy due to the room being a little warm and worrying the baby might overheat. Said baby attempts to crawl off in the process but the duo manage to keep him in one spot.

Then they decide to undress down themselves to just their boxers. They leave a balcony door open for a breeze, too lazy to put air conditioning on before napping together for a few hours, Solis safely in Prompto's arms.

* * *

Prompto awakes to cooing and yawns, carefully sitting up and gently holding Solis close. Solis naps peacefully, Prompto smiles and kisses his head.

Prompto spots Iris and the boys in the room and yawns wide. Iris at that point notices he's awake and rushes over, not phased by him and Noctis being half naked.

“I got you guys something.” she says with a smile and Prompto feels a chill from the breeze. He seems confused before glancing down and panicking, looking back at Iris with a look of embarrassment on his face.

“Y-You did?...Um...Can I just wake him up and we'll um look more...Presentable?” he nervously asks and Iris laughs a little.

“Sure! Do you want me to take Solis?” she asks and Prompto nods, carefully handing the sleeping baby over.

“H-He'll wake up pretty soon. He's due a feed.” Prompto stutters before elbowing Noctis when Iris heads over to Ignis and Gladio. “Dude wake up!” Prompto whisper yells to the Prince.

Noctis doesn't react.

* * *

It takes several attempts but Prompto manages to wake up Noctis and the duo quickly get re dressed.

The duo head over to the kitchen  where Ignis has set out some sandwiches for the group. Prompto smiles and the duo thank him, grabbing a sandwich each before Iris comes over with Solis.

Solis seems fascinated by her hair, attempting to reach while he clings to her shirt with his other hand.

“Hi buddy~” Prompto coos after he takes his first bite.

Noctis wiggles his fingers at Solis who giggles a little, Prompto nearly chokes over it so much Noctis thumps his back.

“T-That almost k-killed me.” Prompto gasps. “Cuteness overload.”

Noctis rolls his eyes and smiles at Solis. “That's Prompto speak for he's ok just being dramatic.” he mutters to Solis with a smirk, he laughs when he hears a dramatic gasp from Prompto.

“How dare you.” he says in his sassy voice, pulling a face and making Solis giggle harder than before, making Prompto and Noctis start laughing too. “Oh em gee, adorbs.” he mutters, Noctis making a noise of agreement around his sandwich as he takes a bite.

“Gladdy?” Iris looks over at her brother who's currently half way through his second sandwich.

“What?” he asks, mouth full to which Ignis sighs at.

“Can you take this little cutie?” she coos at the baby and Gladio carefully takes him.

Solis clings to him as Iris rushes off, quickly returning with a few bags. She thrusts the tiniest one at Prompto.

“It's for Solis but I got ones for you guys too.” she says with a smile. “I hope you like them.”

Prompto quickly finishes his sandwich and fishes in the little bag. He's weirdly excited as he carefully pulls out a tiny Moogle onesie.

His eyes light up as he looks at it. There's a little hood, with a tiny pom-pom antenna and little purple wings. It's adorable and he can't wait to put Solis in it.

Noctis stares, zoning out trying to imagine the baby in his little onesie. Maybe they can put him in it later, he’ll probably gain a new home screen on his mobile from it.

“Wait...We have ones too?” Noctis asks moments later.

Iris nods and grins, pulling one out identical to Solis’ but adult sized.  Prompto gasps and looks over at Noctis.

“Dude we have to.” he mutters and Noctis can't bring himself to say no.

“Later. After the festival.”  Noctis mutters. “Just no pictures of me.”

Prompto pouts but agrees as he holds his onesie. He smiles at Iris and gives her a hug or a side hug.

“Send me pics later of them.” she whispers to Prompto.

“Will do.” he whispers back.

* * *

They all head out later for the festival, Noctis carrying Solis while Prompto has the nappy bag across his shoulder along with his camera in hand.

The group part ways. Ignis heading off with Gladio and Iris. The duo seemed rather content to be around each other and Iris seemed happy enough to be around that even if her brother had his arm around the chef’s waist.

Prompto meanwhile walked around with Noctis and Solis, practically beaming when someone commented on how cute their son was. Noctis being Noctis had no idea how to respond to such so he awkwardly thanked people and agreed with them.

Solis just sat in the baby carrier on his dad's chest and was plain adorable. The usual honestly. Until they had to take a detour and go hunt for a bathroom to change him. He was grumpy at that time and rightfully so.

The trio after that continued to roam around the festival, Noctis explaining what happened last time he came and watching Prompto's eyes light up. He didn't miss the slightly betrayed look Prompto gave him when chocobo chicks was brought up.

They fell into a comfortable silence after that which only lasted for a few moments before Prompto spoke up again.

“...Do you think Gladio and Iggy seemed glad to like abandon us?” he asks and Noctis sighs before nodding.

“Gladio put his arm around Iggy, Prom.” Noctis replied. “So yeah.”

“Oh em gee! I thought I was seeing things!” Prompto gasps.

“Nope. Totally had his arm around him.” Noctis replies popping the p.  He smirks a little.

“...You think they're…”

“Dating?” Noctis asks and Prompto nods. “They've been close for years. Wouldn't surprise me.”

Prompto grins and pulls out his phone. “I'm totally asking them...What if they're married?”

“Prom, neither have rings.”

“Maybe they're allergic.”

“I think we'd know if they was.” Noctis adds.

Prompto gestures to the baby and his ears, Noctis catching on quickly and covering Solis’ ears much to the baby's dislike.

“...Suddenly all the fuck eyes make sense.” Prompto mutters and Noctis wheezes.

“...What?”  he asks trying not to laugh.

“I'd see them like giving each other bedroom eyes sometimes. Usually when they thought we was asleep or like busy. At first I thought it was just a weird staring contest”

“Gods if they've been keeping a relationship a secret from me I'll be pissed.” Noctis replies. “Like it's not a big deal but I figure they'd like tell us.”

Prompto pouts and agree.

“Anyway let's enjoy the festival.” Noctis says  leading the way. Prompto nods and follows him.

* * *

The trio explore, wandering around as Prompto takes pictures of the sights.

They walk around for a while before Prompto carefully pulls Noctis to a stop, bouncing on his feet a little as he does.

“Hey...I gotta go…” he mutters and Noctis gestures to a nearby bathroom with his head.

“There's one over there Prom.”

Prompto sighs with relief and rushes off.

“Bee are bee!” Prompto yells as he practically sprints off.

Noctis watches him with a smile before looking down at Solis.

“That's your father right there. He's a nerd but I love him..He's my nerd.” Noctis mutters to his baby son. “..Least you can't tell him I said that.”

Solis sneezes and whines, Noctis mutters comfort to him before the duo fall silent as the wait for Prompto. Solis flails on occasion which Noctis finds cute honestly.

He zones out, focusing on the baby. He smiles and gently runs a hand through feathery blonde baby hair. He's so out of it, he misses the mascot coming closer.

He hears a familiar caw and tenses up, eyes widening in fear. Noctis glances up his fears confirmed when he sees Kenny Crow.  He freezes honestly, breaking out in a cold sweat.

“Don't come closer. Don't come closer.” Noctis mutters to himself.

Solis wiggles in the baby carrier on Noctis’ chest. He grumbles and frowns. Noctis can't comfort him, too frozen as he stares at Kenny Crow.

Solis continues to frown and wiggle and Noctis comes to realise this is how Solis expresses anger. Wiggles.  Anger wiggles he calls it in his mind.

The baby continues his anger wiggles which in turn makes Kenny come over not realising what the wiggles mean. Noctis feels sick honestly.

The mascot attempts to talk to the terrified Prince and the baby, unaware he's the source of the Prince's fear.

“Noct?”  a familiar friendly voice speaks up before the person heads over. Prompto. He looks at Noctis, noticing how terrified he looks.

He notices Kenny and it all makes sense.  He also notices that Solis has stopped wiggling but he's managed to notice Kenny. The baby stares looking terrified before he wails loudly and Prompto realises at that point he has to be the knight in shining armour.

He apologises to Kenny Crow and quickly takes Noctis and Solis says far away from the mascot. Far enough for the duo to relax and calm down.

He carefully leads them to a table outside of a food joint and sighs.

“I'm sorry.” Prompto says.

“Why? You got us away from that daemon.” Noctis mutters. “I should be thanking you.”

Prompto smiles softly offering a hand to Noctis to hold. “Don't thank me. My boys was scared, I was just taking you both out of that.”

Noctis grabs his hand and squeezes it. “Can we sit here for a few seconds?”

Prompto nods and looks at Solis.

“It sucks he got scared.”

“Fear is a normal response to Kenny.” Noctis mutters and Prompto smirks.

“I like him.”

“You like birds.” Noctis replies.  “That's why.”

Prompto smiles and sighs.

“I just don't find him scary.” Prompto says, rubbing his thumb against Noctis’ hand. “I'll protect you both from him. Don't worry.”

Noctis smiles softly.

“Thanks.”

* * *

Noctis bottle feeds Solis while they sit there, Solis suckles greedily which prompts Prompto to speak up.

“Dude he'll get gas if you let him suckle so quick. He'll be uncomfortable.”

Noctis repositions Solis and adjusts the bottle, Solis suckles slower much to Noctis and Prompto’s relief.

“There's a Chocobo mascot wandering around. I think you'll like it if you're fine with dancing a Chocobo dance in front of people.”

Prompto blushes but looks excited. Noctis can see a spark in his eyes.

“We'll go find them after I burp him.” Noctis adds, laughing to himself as Prompto does his adorable little victory tune.

* * *

It takes longer than expected to burp Solis. Noctis wonders if the baby is dragging the waiting around process out or if said baby is having a difficult time.

Unfortunately Solis throws up a little during the process. Noctis’ face draining of colour the moment he gets baby vomit on his sleeve.

“Prom..We have an issue here.” Noctis speaks up and Prompto quickly rummages in the nappy bag, pulling out baby wipes.

He winces and opens the pack, carefully heading over and wiping Noctis’ sleeve and Solis’ mouth with wet wipes.

“He’s not sick right?” Prompto asks and Noctis shakes his head.

“He’s not fussing...Still want to see that mascot?”

Prompto practically beams and nods, rushing off the moment Noctis stands. The royal smiles as he watches him and then glances down at Solis who flails excitedly.

“He makes it hard not to get excited huh?” he mutters to his son who squeals in response. Noctis laughs and follows the direction Prompto went.

* * *

They catch up fairly quickly, Prompto having decided to wait for them and the small family head down to the Chocobo mascot.

Prompto beams when said mascot notices them, he beams a little more when the Chocobo mascot waves at them.

Prompto gets called over to do the dance and honestly Noctis has never seen someone so excited.

Solis flails a little as he stares at the sight, he seems fascinated, he squeals and giggles when the dance starts and gets more vocal than he has been before when Prompto copies the dance.

Noctis likes to think that this is a baby version of cheering Prompto on that or Solis is just making noises because he doesn’t know how to deal with emotions. He snaps a few photos off Prompto’s camera, Solis attempting to grab the camera from his little baby carrier.

The mascot hugs Prompto who returns it eagerly and the trio are on their way waving the mascot bye. Or Prompto is, Noctis just says bye awkwardly and prays the mascot wasn’t the same person from his visit previously.

Up next they head to the chocobo races. Noctis deciding his knight in shining armour deserves another treat.

“You sure you don’t want a go?” Prompto asks.

“Nah I’ll stay on baby duty.” Noctis replies. Plus his back is aching a little and last thing he wants is to annoy it further.

Prompto asks if he’s sure it’s ok he just goes and Noctis nods.

“Just go have fun.” he says with a smile , glancing down at Solis who’s looking at one of the nearby Chocobos. He’s not completely sure of the adult ones yet.

Noctis strokes his soft blonde baby hair and smiles making his way over to the course to cheer on Prompto as he’s lead away to pick a Chocobo.

* * *

Prompto had sped through the course in lightning time. Noctis is sure he beat his score from the last time but all that is forgotten the moment he sees Prompto’s bright smile.

Prompto coos over the race Chocobo, giving her a scritch and little cuddle before bidding her goodbye as he hands her back to her owner.

“How was it?” Noctis asks, already knowing the answer.

“Amazing! Noct she’s two and her name is Butterscotch and I would die for her.” the gunner cries.

“Don’t die, I need you for this parenting deal.”

Prompto blushes and smiles.

“No plan to.” he says, biting his lip. “Now let’s go to the prize counter!”

* * *

They get back into their hotel room at seven pm. The baby carrier is quickly removed from Noctis’ chest the moment Solis is out of it with a sigh of relief.

Solis is placed into a cot before Prompto and Noctis begin to undress.  Prompto without hesitation slips into the moogle onesie Iris got him.

“Aah~ Dude it’s so soft and warm~” he gasps and that’s enough to make Noctis change into his.

Prompto grins and grabs his phone, flicking on his camera app.

“Say Kupo!” he says with a grin, he puts an arm around Noct and the prince reluctantly says it as Prompto takes the photo, then sends the selfie to Iris.

After that they quickly change Solis before dressing him in his moogle onesie too. The duo freeze for a second before Prompto takes many photos, some going to Iris.

“Hey can you send one to me? I want one as my lockscreen.” Noctis asks.

Prompto smiles and quickly sends a couple for him to choose from.

* * *

They end up ordering room service. Ignis will kill them when he finds out they’re sure but for now it’s a good idea to have ice cream and catch a film on the hotel room’s tv.

Prompto snuggles up to Noctis’ side and Noctis puts an arm around him to get a little more comfortable. He tells himself it’s fine and Prompto looks comfortable and content at his side so he shouldn’t worry.

Prompto’s texting on the advert break. He’s texting Iris and gushing over the baby with her, among other things.

“She’s calling us old for being in bed at seven.” Prompto mutters.

“Tell her we’re only five years older than her.”

Prompto texts back and stretches against Noctis.

“Should I ask about Gladnis?”

“Glad...Nis?” Noctis asks, confused.

“Yeah...Like a couple name. People combine names together.”  Prompto replies.

“Oh that explains some stuff...Yeah ask.”

Prompto grins and texts back, gasping moments later.

“...What? What is it?” Noctis asks.

“...They’ve been dating since they was in high school.”

“What the fuck...How did I not know?”

“Iris says we’re just oblivious.”

Noctis huffs and carefully gets up, Prompto whines and reaches out for him.

“Noo you were comfy.” he huffs before pouting.

Noctis rolls his eyes and smiles.

“I’ll forgot something. I'll be back.” he says heading over to Solis’ cot. Said baby is wiggling around with a frown. “He’s angry.”

“How do you know?” Prompto asks.

“He wiggles and frowns.” Noctis says reaching over to open a drawer on the nightstand.

Prompto gasps and quickly heads over, he laughs a little at the sight and gently strokes Solis’ cheek.

“Dude...This is adorable.” he mutters. “Gods...Noct he’s too cute.”

Noctis smiles and agrees, pulling out the little Carbuncle statue from the drawer and placing it in Solis’ cot.

“Don’t be too grumpy for Carbuncle ok? He’ll let me know how you were.” Noctis mutters and plants a kiss on Solis’ head.

“Yeah be nice to….Carbuncle???? Why haven’t I seen him?” Prompto mutters, planting a kiss on Solis’ head. The kisses seemed to have quelled the baby’s anger who currently is staring at the statue.

“He’s only appeared to me and Solis. I don’t know why he likes making me look crazy by showing up on photos and not letting others see him.”

“Do they like each other?” Prompto asks.

Noctis nods and smiles. “He made it clear he thinks Sol is cute.”

Prompto beams and looks down at Solis. He holds onto the cot looking at their son, who’s staring up at him sleepily.

“Sleep. You’ll be sleepy and cranky if you don’t.” Prompto mutters.

“Also Carby’s waiting for you.” Noctis adds. Solis coos and yawns, Noctis strokes his cheek. “Yeah he’s waiting.”

Solis drifts off soon after, Prompto and Noctis heading back to curl up on the bed and watch their film. They return to their snuggling position and quietly talk to each other once it ends and a new one starts.

They might end up having a film marathon for hours. It extends past when Gladio, Ignis and Iris return at ten and even well past when the trio call it a night.

The boys are sleepy come the fifth or sixth film. They’ve lost count how many have played. They’re honestly blending together at this point plus they’re kind of stuffed due to the fact they ordered a large pizza and shared it together.

Prompto at this point is sluggishly pressed against Noctis and the royal is on his back, occasionally rubbing his stomach just as sluggish.

Prompto blinks slowly. He yawns and grunts. He wonders if the pizza was too much. Prompto hears a yawn right next to him and decides at that point film night is probably drawing to a close.

Neither have the time to turn the TV off. They just attempt to get comfortable and snuggle more against each other. Prompto’s almost asleep when he feels a kiss against his head. He drifts off with a smile on his face.