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mooncademia · 4 years

Text

Neko

PAIRING ~ Aizawa x reader

REQUEST ~ Anon: Hello Could you write a scenario where aizawa find out his girlfriend has a 2yo daughter and when they meet they get along very well :)) sorry if it's too specific😅

GENRE ~ fluff!

SUMMARY ~ After introducing Aizawa to your daughter, you were relieved to know that not only was he okay with it, but also on how well the two bonded. And thankfully…no jelly packs were administered to your child.

WORD COUNT ~ 2.0k

A/N ~ Tysm for requesting anon!! Tumblr is acting up and my post are aren’t showing successfully. I apologize for this, but I hope you enjoy 💗

*Knock knock!*

“Coming!” You exclaimed as you made your way from your room to the entrance door.

It was early in the afternoon and you just got changed into a dress. Today being a weekend, you were surprised to see your boyfriend, Aizawa Shouta, standing in front of your doorway during this unprecedented time.

“Shouta?” You wondered aloud, gesturing him to come in with a wave of your hand.

You noticed his casual attire: long black sleeved shirt rolled up to his elbows and black pants, paired with the usual boots he always wore. It was different seeing him without his hero costume and you couldn’t help but blush at his strong physique and how defined his arms look from his rolled-up sleeves.

“Hey,” He said with a small grin. “I just wanted to return the stuff that I borrowed a few days ago.” He held up a brown paper bag and you gladly accepted it with a smile. But before you thank him, another loud voice interrupted:

“MUM!!!!!”

A young girl pounced forward to hug your thigh while handing you a piece of paper excitingly with a wide, youthful smile.

You gasped lightly as you saw the drawing your daughter drew. “Wow! Very nice, Luna,” you said appreciatively with a nod as you stared at the doodle of cats on the paper before returning it back to her, mirroring her happy smile.

Luna beamed happily as she immediately trotted back to the living room to continue with her doodles, glancing at Aizawa for a few seconds before putting her attention back to her art.

“You have a daughter?” Aizawa asked with an eyebrow raised as you gestured him to the living room to sit on the couch.

Despite the fact that you and Aizawa haven’t been dating very long, you knew you had to let Aizawa know about your daughter sooner or later. However, you couldn’t help but question what his reaction will be.

Will he get mad that I didn’t tell him sooner?

Oh gosh, maybe he’ll break up with me….

Your heart began to thump faster and worried swirled in your stomach.

You took a deep breath and looked at him. “Yes. Her name is Luna. she’s 2 years old, and she loves cats.” Your lips twitched a small smile as you glanced at Luna doodling her cats, but your eyebrows slightly crossed when you continued. “Aizawa, I’m so sorry if I didn’t tell you sooner, I-“

You stopped mid-sentence when you saw Aizawa shook his head and grabbed your hand, giving it a little squeeze of comfort.

“Don’t worry about it, I don’t mind. Seriously.” He said reassuringly, glancing at Luna who was only a few feet away, doodling purple cats to her pure heart’s content. He smiled a tiny bit at Luna and her god-tier artwork of purple cats and seeing that made you love him even more.

The look of your eyes softened immediately and you wanted to tell Aizawa everything about Luna, your story, and so much more. Aizawa knew it too, seeing you fold your lips, trying not to swell up too much from relief and gratitude.

God, you were so lucky to have him.

“Thank you,” you said, squeezing his hand back. You opened your mouth to say something more until a phone rang loudly from the kitchen.

You mumbled a small “excuse me” as you headed towards the kitchen and Aizawa stared at Luna’s artwork of cats when you were gone.

“Do you like cats?” Luna asked him in a high-pitch tone when she noticed him staring at her. She lifted her cute head up and her wide eyes glistened.

“Very much actually,” Aizawa replied.

Under normal circumstances, a simple ‘yes’ would be enough for his answer, but something about Luna’s youthful and energetic spirit made him spilled out the truth further than he admitted. It was just like whenever he was with you. You always managed to break into Aizawa’s shell, letting him to unconsciously and comfortably share more about himself and his life even though he would normally never tell anyone about his feelings and all. And that didn’t bother him because he trusted you deeply.

But Aizawa was glad you were on the phone because if you were in earshot distance, you would probably be teasing him to death about his cute confession.

Luna got up and sat right next to him, carrying her paper and purple crayon and resting it on Aizawa’s lap abruptly.

“Draw me a cat, please,” Luna said to him.

Well, Aizawa definitely couldn’t say no right then and there. And he knew it from his embarrassing stories he has had with children, but let’s not bring that up.

Aizawa nodded silently, picking up the crayon and paper and leaning towards the table in front of him to draw a cat. And to be perfectly transparent: this wasn’t his first time doing this.

“OOOOOOO!!!” Luna yelped as she clapped her hands excitingly, eyes not tearing a second away from the drawing.

Aizawa handed the paper back to her when he was done. A furry little cat in purple that would probably make cat-haters rethink their beliefs. Luna held it up high, admiring the work as if it was from Picasso himself. “You are really really good. Can I keep this?” She asked in a cute tone.

Aizawa smiled at her and nodded.

“I like you a lot because you can draw really good cats,” Luna added appreciatively to Aizawa with a strong, powerful, child-like beam.

“Thank you,” Aizawa replied, his lips inevitably tugging upwards as he felt a sense of comfort and appreciation from the child. “We both like cats, huh?”

Luna nodded aggressively. “Yup!! Can you visit us more so you can teach me how to draw cats this well?”

“Only if your mother lets me.”

Luna curled her hands to a fist and pouted strongly. “I’ll tell her then!!”

Aizawa let out a laugh as he observed Luna continuing to doodle more cats, a few dogs and elephants here and there, and of course, more cats.

As you walked back to the living room, Aizawa noticed the slight crease in your eyebrows as you stared at your phone on your hand, as if quizzically thinking about something.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, a tone of concern lacing through his voice.

You bit your lip. “That was my manager. Apparently, something happened at work and they need me to come over to fix some things,” you said. Aizawa nodded at you to continue.

“It’s just that, today being a weekend, I promised Luna I would take her to the park this afternoon but my manager said I can’t miss out on this since it’s quite urgent.”

“I’ll take her.”

Your eyes widened at your boyfriend’s statement. Sure, you haven’t dated Aizawa very long but you knew him well enough that children plus him…well…it didn’t quite match up in your head.

“You and Luna?” You asked in surprise.

Aizawa laughed. “Of course me and Luna. It’s okay, Y/N. You go do what you have to do at work, and I’ll take her to the park this afternoon.

“Shouta I-“

“Trust me,” he said confidently. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure she’s safe.”

You smile a bit at your boyfriend. “I know she’ll be safe in your hands…but…I mean, you and kids?” You said teasingly with a hand on your hips. “You sure you can handle that?”

Aizawa rolled his eyes as he got up and tucked a piece of hair behind your ear, making you internally melt from his touch immediately. “Wow, you really are doubting me, huh?” He said back in a teasing tone, making you laugh at his remark.

“Fine,” you said, leaning forward to give him a peck on his cheek. Aizawa blushed furiously at your move. “I think I’ll be back before dinner, but if the situation gets resolved early, I’ll be back soon.”

“Don’t worry, Y/N. I’ll make sure she is safe and having fun.” Aizawa reassured you again as you scurried across the room to grab your bag and coat, telling Luna that you will be out for a while. Luna nodded in agreement and mentioned that she liked Aizawa because of the cat portrait he drew for her.

You smiled at your boyfriend. “I trust you, Shouta,” you said as you turned the doorknob to head out. You weren’t sure how Aizawa was going to take care of a child for the whole day, but your gut instinct told you that it’ll be okay. And from the look of his eyes, you also knew that he was completely comfortable with it as well.

“Oh!” You said, remembering something that just popped into your mind. You looked at your boyfriend with a smile. “Just one more thing: please don’t feed Luna your jelly packs.”

———

“And then we saw these BIG, big birds and they were flying so fast, and then he pushed me on the swings and I went up so high, Mum! I think I touched the sky!!! And then we fed some cats in the neighborhood and we stopped by to eat ice cream-“

“Ice cream? Since when could you eat ice cream?” You said as you stroked Luna’s hair and glanced at Aizawa who was trying to hide a sheepish grin.

“Since today?” Luna said, shining her bright eyes at you. “The strawberry one was so good!”

“You ate more than one?” You cut in again as you shot your boyfriend another look.

“Now, Luna,” Aizawa said rather quickly, dodging your glare. “Let’s just keep the ice cream treat between the two of us, okay?”

“I can’t believe my daughter is hiding secrets from me already…” you mumbled under your breath making Aizawa laugh. Luna nodded excitingly at him in agreement before plunging out to pet a cat strolling on the side walk.

The three of you were in the neighborhood and you and Luna were about to walk back home.

“You two had a lot of fun, huh?” You pulled Aizawa forward, giving him a kiss and a warm hug.

“Thank you, ” you whispered as you rested your head on his shoulder.

Aizawa patted your head gently. “You’re welcome. I love hanging out with her. She’s really fun, you know?”

You laughed as you pulled away. “I can tell.”

As you finished telling Aizawa what happened at work, evening came and the two of you said your goodbyes. Luna gave Aizawa a big ol’ hug and Aizawa knelt down to pat her cute head and whispered something about cats that made Luna giggled with excitement.

Seeing the two of them bond so well made you so happy, but later you had to deal with Luna’s aggressiveness as she continued to complain and pout when Aizawa headed back home.

“When can I see him again?” Luna asked tugging your hand.

You looked down and smiled patiently. “Very soon.”

———

The next morning, there was a package resting on your doorstep with a tag that said:

To: Luna

From: Aizawa

You smiled curiously as you picked up the package. What is this?

You carried the box inside and carefully opened with your scissors. You gasped immediately when you saw what was inside.

Inside laid a bright cat sweater with the words: GENKRI NEKO plastered on it.

With a too-cute cat head on the front and glittery colors painted all over, you knew immediately that Luna would love it.

A note dropped when you unfolded the swearer and you picked it up to read it.

Dear Y/N,

Here is a cat sweater for you to give to Luna.

Since she loves cats, I thought this will be perfect for her.

If you need someone to look after her, please let me know, I would love to spend more time with her.

- Aizawa Shouta

You shook your head and smiled as you folded the letter back up and stared at the cat sweater. You internally swore that it was Aizawa’s when he was a child from the “used-up” material that you felt and the wrinkled marks of the letters.

But despite it being somewhat old, you could feel the intense warmth and love radiating from the sweater.

And to you and Luna...that was completely enough.

#aizawa x reader #aizawa shouta #aizawa shouta x reader #shouta aizawa x reader #bnha x reader #bnha #mha x reader #mha #shouta aizawa #aizawa #aizawa shouta x you

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obeyme-kaidii-writes · 3 years

Text

Your Otaku

Leviathan x poly gn!MC x Mammon

Words - 2818

Content Warnings - panic attacks, lots of angst, but lots of cuddles too (mostly focused on the relationship between Levi & MC)

Prompt/Inspiration - loosely inspired by the “Ruri-chan is my Bae!” event (and I mean loose)

Summary - You, Levi, and Mammon take a trip to the human realm together, and things take a sudden turn for the worse.

AO3

Arm in arm with Mammon, you walked through the convention center with Levi chattering excitedly at your side. You had managed to surprise him with a trip to the human realm to visit a popular anime convention, and he was just beside himself with excitement. The pure joy was practically radiating off him.

“That Q&A was amazing! Omg I never thought I’d get to see them so close. And they actually looked at me! Can you believe it? I know they were looking at me. There was a connection. I just felt it!”

His eyes were glued to the map in front of him, and only occasionally did you have to tug on his sleeve a bit to keep him from bumping into people. He started making plans about where you three should head to next, and come up with a strategy for maximizing the amount of limited edition merchandise he could acquire. He’d need your help obviously. And Mammon’s too. He only had so many arms after all, and as much as he wished he could stand in line for each item himself, he knew he had to be smart about this.

“So, we are gonna meet back up here in an hour, ok?” he said, “Set an alarm so you don’t get distracted and forget the time.”

“Yeah yeah yeah. Got it. One hour,” Mammon replied. He wouldn’t admit it, but the idea of scoring limited edition merchandise actually had him rather excited. Perhaps he could grab a couple extra copies so he could resell them later? These nerds sure seemed desperate for these things, so he figured they’d sell like hot cakes and he’d be swimming in money in no time.

The three of you separated and went your different ways to go wait in line. You glanced at the shopping list Levi had given you. It was decorated with little doodles of Azuki-tan, color coded, and organized by priority. You couldn’t help but giggle at the thought of Levi working diligently to prepare this for you. You knew Mammon had one as well, but it definitely had way fewer hearts and stickers attached to it.

After an hour of line hopping, waiting, and more waiting, your DDD vibrated signaling it was time to meet up with your boys again and see how successful everyone had been. You glanced around and noticed Mammon right away. His face lit up when he saw you, and you returned his smile with one of your own. His arms were full of way more bags than you knew he needed.

“Did you get enough?” you teased, a small laugh escaping your lips.

“Oi! This is all Levi’s stuff remember? I might’ve grabbed a couple extras to make some quick Grimm, but most of this is his!” As much as he tried to deny it, you knew that less than half of those bags were for Levi, and you also knew that only a third were things he had intended to resell. You noticed some TSL merchandise peeking out from one bag that you were positive Mammon bought just for himself.

“Ok, let’s go with that,” you replied, still laughing. Mammon blushed, realizing he had been caught. He should have known better. You always seemed to see right through him. He was thankful you had decided to keep it to yourself though and let him at least pretend you didn’t notice.

CRASH

You snapped your head up and looked in the direction of the loud noise - the same direction you were supposed to be heading. It was only a moment later that you could hear the sound of laughter break out, and you had a sinking feeling that Levi was involved somehow. You didn’t even bother explaining to Mammon what you were thinking, you didn’t need to, you just walked as quickly as you could through the crowded pathways just short of breaking into a full out sprint.

What you saw when you arrived at the meetup spot made your heart ache. Levi was sitting on the ground, on his knees, and scattered around him were what you could only assume were the bags of merchandise he had been carrying. His eyes were laser focused on the objects in front of him as he attempted to gather everything up and put it back into his bags.

Behind him, only a few yards away, stood a group of teenage boys that were cackling as they looked on. It didn’t take you long to piece together what must have happened - Levi had been in a hurry, and the boys knocked him down, causing him to crash into a display, and sending his things flying.

You could catch bits and pieces of their conversation over the laughter and buzz of the convention center. “Loser.” “Weeb.” “Freak.” It made your blood boil. You wanted nothing more than to march over there and deliver a swift kick in the groin to all of them, but you had something much more important to do.

Not wasting anytime, you made your way to Levi, gathering things up as you went. You crouched down beside him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Hey babe,” you said, leaning forward to kiss his cheek lightly. You knew he didn’t like public displays of affection, but it was the only thing you could think to do to get him to shift his attention to you rather than his surroundings.

It seemed to work, for a moment at least. Levi turned to look at you, shocked to find you suddenly so close, but relieved all the same. You gave him a small smile, and rubbed his back. You could see he was struggling to keep his composure and not shift into his demon form in the middle of all these people. It was also obvious that he was only moments away from crying.

“C’mon, let’s go find somewhere to take a break,” you said, picking up the last of his bags yourself and rising to your feet. Levi gave a small nod and stood up as well, careful to keep his eyes trained on the ground in front of him. He dare not look around. He could feel the eyes of everyone boring into his back, and their whispers echoed in his ears. Freak. Loser. Weirdo. Creep.

He tried to take a deep breath to calm himself. He just wanted to take off running, but he knew it would only make things worse. He’d probably fall again like the loser that he was. He really should have stayed home. Why in hell did he let you convince him to go out today? If he was in his room right now like he should be, none of this would have happened. He was an otaku after all, and this was clearly divine punishment of some kind for him venturing out of his cave.

Mammon soon appeared beside you, “Hey! Ya can’t go takin’ off like that! What if somethin’ woulda happened to…” His voice trailed off as he became aware of his surroundings and noticed the group of teenagers standing a ways away. Their attention had now moved to you, and they were whispering rather loudly amongst themselves, and Mammon did not like the look in their eyes as they stared at you.

He looked back to you and Levi and realized just how shaken up his brother seemed. He could feel the waves of demonic energy rolling off him as he struggled to keep it together.

“Hey, I got this,” he said, moving to take the bags from your hands, “Y’all go on ahead. I’ll catch up in a bit.”

You gave Mammon a small nod, before linking arms with Levi and leading him away. He walked forward, robotically, no longer the bouncing, happy go lucky boyfriend you had seen just a mere hour ago. How quickly things had changed.

You felt so guilty for leaving him alone. You should have stayed with him. You knew he didn’t like crowds. Or people. If you had stopped to think for a moment you would have realized that it would have been better for you all to stick together. But you had let yourself get caught up in Levi’s excitement, and convinced yourself you had nothing to worry about.

Soon you approached a hall lined with closed doors. These seemed to be conference rooms, and a quick look inside told you they were unused.

“Here looks good. We will just rest for a bit inside, ok? Enjoy the peace and quiet,” you said as you opened the door and motioned for Levi to get inside. He listened obediently, not bothering to really pay attention to where he was going or where you had led him. His brain was on autopilot now, and he was just so incredibly tired.

Immediately upon entering the room, Levi’s self control finally started to crumble as his tail made an appearance, dragging along the floor behind him. He leaned his back against the nearest wall, and slid down to the floor, utterly exhausted. Before he could curl into a ball, you had locked the door and climbed into his lap, straddling his legs as you faced him. Once you wrapped your arms around his neck, it was like something just snapped inside him. He buried his face into the crook of your neck, clinging to your waist, sobbing uncontrollably.

As Levi cried, you gently stroked his hair and whispered in his ear, “Its ok now. I got you. You’re safe. It’s just us here.” You repeated this over and over again, like a mantra that you hoped would settle into his heart and disrupt what you were sure were very dark, chaotic thoughts.

“This is so not fair!” he wailed, “Why are there normies here?! They shouldn’t be here! This is supposed to MY place. MINE.”

He noticed the shirt he was wearing, and felt incredibly foolish for thinking it would be a good idea to wear it out of the house, “I’m so stupid. I shouldn’t have worn this. What kind of loser likes a children’s show anyways?”

He grabbed at his Ruri-chan shirt, and you were sure he would have ripped it off himself if you didn’t stop him soon.

“Hey, let’s not remove our clothes while we are out in public, ok?” you said as you gently grabbed his hand to stop the assault on his shirt.

He froze for a moment as he processed your words. You were right after all. Once again he was about to do something reckless and impulsive. How could you even stand to be around someone like him? He was just a gross, yucky shut in. When were you going to realize that and leave him? Surely it was only a matter of time. You would grow tired of his breakdowns. Get bored of his rants. Annoyed with his negativity.

You brought his hand to your lips and gave it a quick kiss before releasing it and pulling his head to your chest. He seemed to be calming down a little now, if only slightly, but you could still feel the rapid beat of his heart and saw his tail twitch beside him. You resumed stroking his hair as you had been earlier, whispering your affirmations and reassurances in his ear.

He wrapped his arms around your waist once more, before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, inhaling your scent. Your words were starting to reach him, and he concentrated on each and every syllable as he tried to ground himself. You were here with him, so he knew it would be ok. Everything always was when you were around.

He hadn’t the faintest idea why exactly you loved him or put up with his eccentricities, but you had never given him reason to doubt you. Not even for a moment. And even though he shared your affection with Mammon, you always made time for him and took an interest in the things that were important to him. You never forgot about him.

And you were always there to encourage him when he was feeling down about himself. That’s right. He was safe with you. The only person that truly understood him and accepted him for who he was, flaws and all. And you were here right now, holding him close, pressing soft kisses to his head. He could feel your warmth in his arms, and his muscles finally started to relax, aching because of how long they had been tensed.

His grip around your waist began to loosen slightly, though he was still holding your firmly, and his body had stopped shaking.

“Feeling a little better?” you smiled, as you tried to sneak a look at his face, but he kept his eyes hidden beneath his bangs.

“Yeah,” he said. Now that he was calmer he was beginning to become aware of the situation he found himself in and it was making him somewhat self conscious, though he wasn’t ready to let you go just yet.

“Alright,” you laughed, breathing a sigh of relief. You had your favorite otaku back. At some point his tail had disappeared too. As you continued to alternate between hugging him close, kissing the top of his head, and running your fingers through his hair, you felt the last of the tension leave his body.

“Ready to head home now? Or are you feeling up to checking out more of the convention?”, you asked, taking his face in your hands now and gently turning him to look at you.

He was not prepared for the love he saw in your eyes when he finally made eye contact with you. He was expecting something closer to pity, which was ridiculous really since you had never looked at him that way before, but this was a million times better. Without even thinking he kissed you gently on the lips. You could taste the salt from his tears in his kiss, but you didn’t care. It wasn’t often Levi initiated affection like this and you were determined to treasure every second of it.

He pulled away slightly, and rested his forehead against yours, keeping his eyes closed. You stroked his cheeks with your thumbs and smiled as you felt him lean into your touch.

“Thank you,” was all he could manage to say, and you knew exactly what he meant. It wasn’t the first time you had witnessed him having a meltdown after all, and you had begun to figure out what worked best to soothe him.

You kissed his forehead, “Of course. You’d do the same for me wouldn’t you?”

He looked up at you again as you started to wipe what remained of his tears from his face. He was sure he looked like a complete mess, but somehow you were still smiling at him so sweetly. He felt the heat rise to his cheeks, and you gave him a soft laugh. That was your Leviathan alright.

“Obviously,” he said, looking away.

“I think there was one more Q&A session scheduled,” you offered, trying to see if he was interested. Finally, he smiled back at you and you could see that familiar sparkle in his eyes. He definitely did not want to miss out on this, not when he had the chance to shake hands with his favorite manga artist. He bet they even had signed copies of the latest release available. And this artist usually had stickers and keychains to pass out. He just had to get a matching set for you and him. And maybe Mammon too. Maybe.

You stood up, your legs stiff from the awkward position you had been sitting in. You hadn’t realized just how uncomfortably you had been positioned until now, and your knees felt like jelly. You started to wobble slightly, but Levi had already gotten up himself and grabbed your arm to steady you.

“C’mon. Let’s go find Mammon and get to the conference hall. If we hurry, I bet we can get some good seats too. Oh is this the one that always hands out keychains and stuff?”, you asked as you stretched your legs and started to test out your ability to walk again.

He smiled even more brightly, knowing that you had remembered, “Yeah! I really wanted a chance at grabbing a matching set. If that’s ok with you, I mean.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” you said, giving him a quick peck on the cheek. He couldn’t help but blush again. How did you always manage to say just what he wanted to hear? How did you always know what would make him happy? He thought about all the fun you had had together earlier that morning, and all he had to look forward to this evening.

Yeah, he was glad he left his room today.

#gn!mc #poly mc #tw: panic attack #obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me levi #levi x mc #levi x poly mc #mammon x mc x levi #obey me fanfic #obey me angst #obey me comfort #levi comfort #levi fanfic #levi angst

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lovelivingmydreams · 3 years

Text

A story by heroes and villains

Roman Castile: Passion and duty

Roman finds that his different passions seem to get in each other's way for now. But one day, he will find a balance.

“Ugh! I am done!” Roman exclaimed relieved, barely hearing the hissed warning from the librarian. Homework had been draining. Sure they’d had fun. Especially when it came to teasing Virgil about his pronunciation when they worked on Spanish.

Still Roman was ready to do literally anything else.

“Give me a sec, I have to finish this thing for English,” Virgil muttered absentmindedly. Roman knew that Virgil had rewritten that particular assignment two times already.

“Want me to read it trough for you?” Roman offered. Maybe hearing someone say that it was good would be enough to stop him from second guessing himself again.

“You don’t…” Virgil started, somehow looking guilty.

“We’re here to help each other Virgil. If I didn’t want to help you I wouldn’t offer. I thrive on being of help to my friends. It’s no trouble,” he assured him. Virgil offered him a small smile and a nod in response. “Alright. You can read it when I’m done,” he allowed.

Roman took peace with that and opened his notebook to start doodling.

He had a few ideas for some more shirt designs. He’d enjoyed making his ‘coming out’ shirt. Then there was the Halloween party and every other social event this year has to offer where he had to slay. Junior year was a year to be noticed. Nothing wrong with putting down some ideas in advance. He just might come across the perfect outfit.

“Seems I’m not the only one who can draw up some clothes,” Virgil noted and Roman nearly fell of his chair when he jumped at his sudden proximity.

“Will you stop that!?” A thing about Virgil Roman had learned over the last week. He always seemed to pop up out of nowhere. One minute he’s gushing over the latest Disney trailer with André and suddenly Virgil stands next to him giving his two cents. It was terrifying.

“Not a chance,” Virgil chuckled as he picked up Roman’s sketches.

“This looks good though… You ever thought of becoming a fashion designer?”

Roman’s eyes widened. Making amazing outfits for a living? He could make a whole ‘wear your pride’ line and… Oh… Oh…!

“You are a genius!” Roman exclaimed. He’d had no idea what he wanted to do with his future, aside from hero work, but now the idea was brought up he wanted nothing else. Fashion designer, superhero, actor, maybe also Mr. Castile-Anker. That was a future he could look forward to!

Virgil chuckled. “It’s the least I can do. I sent in the designs like you said… I’m kind of excited.”

Roman beamed at him. “I’m sure next time you see DreamPrince on the news he’ll be wearing your design.” He was. He’d been shown some alternative designs by Manifestor and found Virgil’s drawing among them and immediately declared that that was the one.

As he’d told Roman, he’d changed a few things. He’d shown him on Wednesday to get his stamp of approval. Roman had gushed unapologetically, because he knew he’d have to tone it back a bit in front of the team.

Which had been hard.

Tonight he’d be taking it for a test run and he’d make sure to be seen by people and cameras.

“We’ll see,” Virgil smiled as he pushed his laptop with his assignment towards Roman.

Roman read it, dropping the subject without problem.

Virgil was easy to be friends with and he’d quickly learned to read his moods.

During lunch Virgil usually sat himself a little bit away from the group when he felt the need to just focus on his music and sketch a little before heading back to class. He was sarcastic, witty and could dish it out about as well as he could take it.

He was also very guarded emotionally, which Roman could understand, but whenever they were just the two of them, Virgil opened up some more. He’d learned about Virgil’s soon to be stepdad and the admittedly adorable meet cute he’d been a part of.

He knew that Virgil’s dad had found them a new home and they’d moved in just that week.

He learned that Virgil was mature and his dad’s only wingman which they both agreed was super awkward but also hilarious.

Roman had joked that Virgil might end up being his father’s best man. But apparently there was a family friend ‘uncle Thomas’ who might get that position.

Virgil had gone out with another girl that week. Anna, who’d had English with him last year or something. Virgil had listened patiently, but relatively unaffected to her asking him out and arranged another semi-date at the music store for the next evening. Luckily nothing came from it again. Roman asked him why he kept saying yes to people he barely knew. Virgil explained that he had missed out on enough chances to befriend others. So the way he saw it he’d at the very least get a friend out of it. Roman kind of took comfort in that. It didn’t sound like Virgil was trying to get a girlfriend or a boyfriend right now. Just trying to socialize. Roman had reminded Virgil to watch his boundaries though. He wouldn’t want him to push himself out of fear he’d be missing out.

One more thing he learned about Virgil: he was overly critical of himself.

“Well, I think you can hand this in with confidence Virge,” Roman concluded as he returned Virgil’s laptop to him.

“So… I recall something about pizza? I’m starving!” he grinned.

Virgil chuckled and lead the way. Soon they were sat at a table with their orders and they were talking about everything and nothing. It was great. And Roman was so close to asking Virgil out but…

“So… Um… There’s this… Shoot wait a minute,” Roman got up and picked up his phone.

“Si mama…?” he asked curiously after seeing the caller ID.

“Darling. I know you are out with your friend. But I wanted you to know we’re headed to the university now,” his mother informed him. The university… Wait. “Que?” Roman looked at his watch incredulously. He was going to be late. Unless he left right now that is.

“Perdona! I’ll be there soon.” He hung up and dug through his wallet for some money.

“So sorry Virge! Time got away from us I’m afraid. I swear I intended to give you that ride… Can you call your dad… You know what? Just use the change to take the bus or something alright? My treat! I’ll call you later!” he promised as he tossed down a few bills that should more than cover the tab and the tip before rushing away.

How was it so late already?

He sprinted around a few corners and found a spot to get changed. BS had explained about the sciency stuff behind his costume change, but all Roman really cared about was that he basically had a magical boy transformation. Sure he could sit there and let the tech do its thing, but it was much more fun to make up a cool transformation sequence.

First, hair. He retrieved a lip balm like object and applied the substance to his hairline. He tucked the balm away and with one smooth movement of his hand he styled and recolored his hair. Instead of parted in the middle with regal waves it was flicked to the back, save for a single rebellious strand dangling down his forehead. Instead of a deep ash brown it was warm chestnut in color.

Then he took a tini metallic bead from a ring on his finger and tapped it against his temple, before he swiped his hand in front of his eyes as his mask placed itself securely on his face, changing his eye color in the process. He tapped his wrists together in front of his chest and brought them down with force, feeling his blazer and shirt get replaced by the skintight suit. He tapped his right heal against his left before taking another power position and finishing his costume change.

How cool was his life?!

He created a platform to lift himself to the roof and sprinted towards the university. The GTH was in it’s basement. As he made his way there he started to think over asking Virgil out again.

Maybe, now wasn’t the time. Virgil was clearly still upset about the whole Janus thing. He didn’t say it but Roman could tell. And he didn’t want Virgil to think for even a second that Roman’s crush was anything less than genuine, he had noticed that Virgil still had trouble believing their friendship was real at times. Not to mention that starting a relationship with someone while he was still figuring out how to balance out superhero and civilian life was clearly a bad idea. He couldn’t even ask him out without being interrupted by his other life.

So, he'd wait until he had his life in order and he was sure Virgil was ready. There was definitely some kind of connection between them. And Roman was willing to wait until the time was right…

He knew he was being a coward, but his friendship with Virgil was so fragile.

He entered the basement campus with little hassle and dropped of his bag in his personal locker, making sure to lock it. If anyone with ill intent got in here they could easily find out his identity with it's contents and Roman didn’t want his name out like that. Not yet at least.

He hurried to the training hall, threw open the doors and slid inside.

“Your prince has returned!” he exclaimed, doing a pretty good job at pretending he hadn't just sprinted the whole way there.

“Has he now?” BS asked, apparently in a bad mood today.

“Oh come now big S, the boy is just excited for his present! I would be too if I got a new costume made for me by a secret admirer,” Sweets offered with a calming hand on BS' shoulder. Sweets was an empath. He could share his emotions and those of others, perfect match for someone who wants or needs to keep his calm.

But what sweets said made Roman rather flustered. “I don't think DreamPrince has had enough appearances to already gain such attentions. Whoever did this just couldn't stand to look at this any longer.” Roman gestured to his current costume.

“Speaking of which…” he held out his hand bouncing on his feet in excitement. He was supposed to meet the chief of police today and he wanted to look presentable.

Manifestor chuckled from his spot on the desk. “Give the boy his stuff. He's been looking forward to this day for the past four years.”

BS sighed and handed Roman a small box, which the young hero snatched up before rushing to the dressing room.

He turned his suit off and took off the containment units. He opened the box and switched the old units for the new ones. The bracelets were more comfortable and adjusted to his skin tone, the metal bead was replaced with two skin colored stickers he applied to his temples.

“Let’s do this,” Roman smirked excitedly.

“To adventure!” he called out as he crossed his arms and tapped at his temples while simultaneously clicking his wrists together. At the same time he tapped his right toe behind his left heel and brought his ankles together. He struck a power pose, facing the full length mirror and grinned excitedly. Virgil had added an insignia on his cape and golden trimming in the final design. There'd been a few options for his emblem and Roman had chosen the shield with a castle by the sea with the sun shining down on him. He looked quite dashing.

He left the dressing room and handed the box back to BS with an elegant gesture.

BS wasn't amused. Sweets and Manifestor on the other found it hilarious.

“So? What do you think?” Roman asked as he turned around to show off the end result.

A loud ‘bing' announced a message from his family watching from the observation room.

“Gaaaaaaay!” Roman rolled his eyes good naturedly. Remus was a fan.

“Stay away from Planes!” the next one read. Roman chuckled. He had asked Virgil about the cape, considering he’d expected someone as cautious as him to heed Edna Mode's advice.

Apparently Virgil had intended the Cape to be an addition for official events. So ‘Prince’ would look good on camera. He'd also pointed out that it would look badass for the prince to un-claps his Cape before a fight. He'd had a point and Roman actually loved it.

“You look very handsome darling.”

“Thanks mom!” Roman called out.

Then two beeps came from a device on BS wrist. He looked down and relaxed, tapping away at a holographic screen, turning up the intensity of his shadow. “The chief is here,” he announced.

Roman raised an eyebrow, that was not what BS had been so tense about. Something in his private life maybe? If that was the case he'd never find out.

Roman had no time to worry about that though. The door opened and in walked the police chief. A small but commanding African American woman. It was something in the way she walked that made Roman want to stand at attention. And so he did. He wasn't the only one.

“DreamPrince, at your service ma’am,” Roman introduced himself respectfully.

“So you are what all the fuss is about?” she asked as she looked Roman up and down.

Chief Davies pursed her lips before nodding to herself. “I’ve read your file, you’re quite the prodigy aren’t you?” she asked.

Roman chuckled a little awkwardly. “I’ve just been training from a young age, that’s all.” Most gifted didn’t realize their talent until they were well in their teens.

“Good answer. I have no time to stroke an adolescent ego. We’ve got work to do.”

Chief Davies turned to Manifestor. “You got the files I sent?”

Manifestor nodded hurriedly. “Yes. I had no time to review them though.”

“I’ll walk you through it,” she announced dismissively. The leader of Roman’s training team nodded and tapped at something on his wrist. The screen that had shown the messages from Roman’s family earlier was now filled with mugshots.

The men looked dangerous. Roman shifted nervously. “You… you want my help apprehending these men?” he asked, trying not to show how frightening it seemed.

“God No!” Roman hid his relieve. “These men are all in jail already, with iron clad cases keeping them there for a long time. You think I’m going to send some rookie after hardcore criminals? No offense, but you are still a baby,” Roman blushed at that and focused back on the pictures.

Wait a minute. “I know that guy! Remember at the end of my first week? I spotted some tugs bothering that kid and tossed a rock at them?”

“And by some miracle you weren’t found when said tugs came looking for you,” BS added through gritted teeth. Still upset at Roman's initial recklessness.

“I wasn’t the only one they were looking for,” Roman insisted. He’d been so sure he hadn’t been alone that night. But BS claimed the would have known if anyone else had been there.

He never went after the tugs after they left the alley. BS insisting he was done with back alleys for the night.

And now those guys were apparently behind bars?

“Next slide please!” Davies called out.

A picture of a ziplock bag with pictures, a USB stick and a note of cut out letters that said ‘your turn’.

“For almost a year now we’ve been getting mysterious packages like this. Pictures, audio and video recordings. Every last one had one of these men incriminating themselves. It’s like whoever delivers these stands right next to them, but never gets caught taking pictures or carrying a wire. I have a small task force on the case who have dubbed them ‘The Phantom’. We are keeping this as in house as we can. Once the public hears about the Phantom, we’ll lose the most valuable asset we’ve ever had. Plus until now we weren’t sure if they were a sensible vigilante or a mobster who was taking out competition in a very clever way. Given what you just said I’d be inclined towards the former. They might have some sort of gift that hides them well enough to get away with spying. But right now, they are putting themselves in danger.” Davies turned towards Roman.

“Keep an eye out, see if you can spot him during your patrol this evening. And if you do, get him on board with the program.”

“Prince did not go through all that training to be your recruitment poster boy!” BS snapped to Roman's surprise. That was the most emotional response he's seen from BS ever. Aside from when he scolded Roman on his reckless behavior.

Davies glared at BS, looking quite intimidating, despite barely reaching to his chest.

“Now don't go all noble on me BrainStorm. What? Did your heart grow three sizes while I wasn't looking? Is there suddenly room for more than one other person there?”

Roman knew that this was a threat. Davies knew BS’ true identity, where he worked, who he cared for. She could ruin whatever he had built in an instant.

Roman often wondered what kind of life BS had outside the facility. Did he have a partner? A family? Did they know about his past at all.

A few seconds ticked by with no one daring to do so much as breathe.

Then Davies relaxed and stepped back. “I'm no monster BrainStorm. I wouldn't ask some rookie to deal with this if I hadn’t tried everything else already. I send in my agents and even called in other gifted. All we got out of that was this,” she gestured and Manifestor showed the next image. A note in the same style as the previous one that said ‘no babysit!’

“Our profiler thinks they are young. So maybe your prince won't seem as threatening. They might've had his back once before already. If this Phantom were someone you cared for, would you rather we left them be, or would you drag their noble behind here yourself to give them proper gear and back up?”

The question hung in the air for a moment, BS had nothing to counter with. Roman imagined Phantom being one of his friends, or even Janus and the answer remained the same.

“I will do what I can,” he vowed before lifting his chin and facing the fierce chief head on. “But ma'am, I don't appreciate you threatening my mentor like that.”

BS had stood up for him, it was only right for him to return the favor.

Davies chuckled. “Just when I started to worry you were only brawn and a pretty face. You can be smart too huh? And you’ve got guts. You just might have what it takes kid. Now. I have places to be. Keep me updated, and don't lose this.” Roman accepted the watch he was handed with a confused frown.

“My people will call if we need you. Please use that brain and return the favor?”

With that she left. Well… that was intense.

Roman put on the watch and saw that it had a frequency displayed on it instead of time. He also spotted two buttons. One blue and one red. It didn't take much to realize that one was a panic button and the other was to make it so the cops could hear him. He wondered if it would connect to the nearest patrol car or to Davies directly.

He hoped he’d never have to find out.

“Well… time to show the city their hero is ready for action.”

It had been a pleasant evening so far. He'd stopped a few shoplifters, broke up a fight or two and dodged a few reporters, though he let them snap a good picture of his new outfit.

Now the sun was down however and he was making his way to the back alleys.

“Looking for a fight is foolish Prince!” BS growled through his earpiece.

But Roman wasn't looking for a fight. He was looking for someone who'd gotten him out of at least one pickle.

He ignored BS as he landed on a roof, overlooking the city using his sight. He didn’t know what he was looking for exactly, but it was his only plan.

Suddenly he spotted something strange and unusual. There was an energy, a few blocks ahead. But it was impossible for him to really see it. Like he was looking at it trough glasses with strong prescriptions.

He rushed towards it and found a gang of criminals with violently swirling auras. He knew what this meant. They were going to hurt someone.

“Send back up to my location,” he instructed before turning the receiver off. He needed to focus.

“I say we attack now! They are week! We can take them down easily.” A shorter guy with energy like glass shards insisted.

“Boss says we have a truce until the rat is found,” a giant of a man stated calmly, though his energy betrayed how much he wanted to go with the first guy's plan.

Were they talking about Phantom?

“What rat!? Those idiots just bragged to the wrong crowd.” The first voice shot back. Phantom was becoming a bit of a ghost story it seemed. Some who believed, judging by the shudder that went through the other men's auras at the mere mention of them. But clearly not everyone was convinced.

“Oh and they gave out pictures as well? Did a little livestream? We're not safe until this rat is lynched,” the tall man pointed out tensely. He was a believer. And he wanted Phantom dead. Not good.

Roman studied the tugs and to his relief he spotted they were all armed. Weird thing to be happy about. But it meant he had probable cause to interfere.

He jumped down, slowing his descent just so that he didn't hurt himself on the landing without sacrificing the cool factor.

“Do you gentlemen have permits for those weapons?” he asked as he rose up to his full length facing them fearlessly.

“what the…?”

“It's that Prince clown!” Rude.

The tall guy, the leader probably, silenced the group with a gesture and smiled, his anxious energy almost completely disappearing. He'd found something to vent on. “Sure kid. Got mine right here.”

Roman flung his cape in front of him and manifested a gelatinous shield around himself as the leader pulled out his gun and fired several rounds at him. The tugs wouldn't see it. But it was there, and it caught the bullets slowing them down until they were harmless, making them fall to the ground when they met with the fabric.

“Well now you just pissed me off. This is brand new!” he complained as he dropped both cape and shield.

“I suppose you won't surrender peacefully?” he deduced. The criminals all readied their weapons. Seriously? Did they not get that he was essentially bulletproof?

He sighed as he took off his cape and hung it on a water pipe that ran down the side of the building.

“Fine,” he sighed and then he amped up his speed a bit while shielding himself from the rain of bullets heading his way. He used the gelatin shield because he didn't want to risk the bullets ricocheting and injuring someone. Especially the gifted he was sure was still watching the whole thing.

It wasn't hard to disarm the criminals. He even managed to knock a few to the ground. But there were at least two who'd gone down without him even touching them. And he would’ve sworn he saw a figure move between him and a tug once or twice to block a blow. He couldn't really see the other hero. It was an odd sensation. But he could feel his presence better and better and soon he was adapting his moves to those of the Phantom. Together they took out the whole group. Though to the villains it would seem like he'd done it by himself. He stood victorious over the leader, a pile of disassembled guns behind him and sirens lighting up the alley.

He twisted his foot to show off his white boot with gold accents. “So… how does it feel to get your butt kicked by a guy in heels?” he wondered playfully before looking up towards the presence and winking in acknowledgment.

“Good job Dream Prince. We've got it from here.” Roman turned to the cops and bowed to them

“It's my pleasure to be of assistance to the police of this fine city.” Then, while turning around, he made a gesture that could be taken as a ‘goodbye’, or as a ‘follow me’.

He was glad to notice that the presence seemed to follow him. He found a fire escape and floated himself to the roof it led to.

He turned to face his hopefully soon to be partner in crime fighting.

He could hear the clanging of someone climbing the metal fire escape. And while he still couldn't quite make out the figure that reached the roof he saw his reflection in a pool of water left behind by the rain earlier that day.

An unfortunate weakness, but so long as no one knew, no one would be looking for it. In order to be a hero, no one could know Phantom really existed. Was that why the authorities were kept at a distance? Why Phantom never made introductions despite having crossed paths at least once before?

He stepped forward with a bow. “Greetings Phantom. I must thank you for the assistance. Both just now and three months ago. I am Dream Prince, he/him if you please. A pleasure to officially meet you.”

A distorted chuckle made him look up. He could see Phantom much better now. He was dressed in Male coded clothes, though that was no guarantee. The hero outfit was simple. A black t-shirt, boots and denims, paired with a black coat that reached down to his calves and had the collar popped up. He looked really cool… but Roman couldn't make sense of his head. He was looking right at him he could see it, but his brain couldn't identify a thing.

It was so weird.

“Phantom huh?” His voice was a strange deep echoing sound. The distortion was pretty spooky if he was honest, but he wasn't afraid. Phantom was on his side.

“Sure you can call me that. He/him… mind telling me what that was about? I thought you officials weren't let of your leash unless you could be responsible enough to not get yourself killed?”

Roman cocked his brow. “Says the guy who has half the criminal underworld out for his blood,” he reminded him. Phantom looked away. Clearly he knew Roman had a point.

“Do you have something against the program?” His tone had been oddly bitter.

“No I…” Phantom took in a deep breath. “Sorry, I’m just pissed at the cops for sending you, I guess.” He sure sounded upset. And Roman could understand that. Here Phantom was, doing his part and all the cops could do in return was bother him At least as far as the young vigilante could tell. But then why…?

“Yet you chose to follow me up here?” Roman pressed. That didn’t make any sense. Phantom had shaken off his ‘babysits’ before. What made Roman special?

“Um… Well… I just…” Phantom stammered. Roman wondered why. Was he bad with confrontation? Social interaction in general? Or had Roman said something that hit a nerve somehow?

“You interrupted my stake out!” Phantom blurted out all of a sudden.

“Do you know how long it takes to work my way up the ranks? First I have to find a low level runner, then I follow him to his boss, that guy to his and so up the ladder I go. I was getting real close to the big guy of this group. And now…” Oh… Well Roman could understand how that would be frustrating.

“I apologize,” he said sincerely with a small bow. “I merely intended to help. They were talking about killing you.” Surely he could understand that he could not stand by after hearing that.

“And now there is a price on your head! The leader of that little club is like two steps away from the big boss. They won’t be happy with you taking him in.”

Well… He had a point. But Roman had back up. It would be rather stupid of the mob to come after a hero with government sanctioning. And these guys would go behind bars for a long time right? “You got dirt on them?” he asked. If the guns weren’t enough then surely whatever Phantom had gleaned from his stakeouts would be sufficient. Right?

“Yes… But that’s not the point. They have no clue about me. Not really. But you are out in the open. This is not your kind of mission Royal pain.” Oh, he had nicknames huh? It was an insult, but Roman didn’t mind witty banter. Especially if it came from a place of care. And Roman was starting to think it did.

“And now that you are out, you can’t expect me to hold your hand any longer…”

Roman crossed his arms and smirked catching the implications of what Phantom just said.

“You’ve been looking out for me all summer huh?” he guessed.

Phantom scoffed and probably rolled his eyes. While Roman still couldn’t quite see it, he would bet his entire Disney collection on it.

“It’s not like I came looking for you.” Phantom snapped. And Roman believed him.

“Still… Thank you…” he was going to say more but then he heard a beep in his ear followed by a loud voice. “Prince! Answer this instant!”

“Ow!” Roman exclaimed annoyed, reflexively reaching for his ear though it wouldn’t help much. He pressed the button to talk to BS. “One. Loud. Two. Rude! I am in the middle of something! And did you seriously remotely reactivate my com?”

He would demand a new com that couldn’t do that or he’d refuse to wear one period. What if he needed to concentrate right now? What if he was in the middle of tense negotiations or being told delicate information. As a matter of fact. This situation right here was delicate. One wrong move and Phantom might bolt. And he might not come along next time he found him. And even if he couldn’t get him to join the program, he wanted Phantom to know he had an ally in him. Someone to talk to, confide in, count on if he didn’t have anyone else.

“You do not turn off your com while going into a gunfight! It’s moronic to go in alone!”

Roman rolled his eyes. “I am fine, not a scratch on me.” He wasn’t going to mention that he wasn’t alone exactly. Phantom had never consented to BS and the rest of his team knowing.

“I’ll call you when I’m done here.” And this time he took the com out of his ear. BS could yell at him later.

“Sorry,” he sighed. “My mentor is… intense at times.” In a cold and distant way.

“Mentor?” Phantom asked.

“One of the people helping me practice my powers, test my limits. Comes with the program. It’s not just a babysit and a nice suit,” he joked casually.

“Oh…” Phantom’s tone was odd. It made Roman want to come closer and offer comfort. He didn’t though. They weren’t at that point yet. Not by a long shot.

“Listen, I admit I was sent by the chief. But I didn’t come here to recruit you. I wanted to thank you and tell you… If you ever need someone to talk to, to help you figure something out… I’d be more than happy to oblige. No need to tell me your name or anything about yourself,” he vowed as he reached out his hand. Phantom hesitated for a few moments before bridging the distance and offering his own.

Roman grinned and grabbed it for a firm shake. “I’ll see you next time,” he assured his fellow hero before letting go and turning around to finish his patrol.

Progress was made. Not much, but still.

He just might’ve made a new friend.

@cirishere @hestianerd1 @moonlightshow00 @naturallyunstablegamer @alias290 @meowthefluffy @frida0043 @angelic-cali @selenechris @theblackveilinreverse

End of this part meet Virgil and read his story.

Masterlist

#ts sides #sanders sides #Roman Sanders #Virgil Sanders #Prinxiety #Patton Sanders #Logan Sanders #Remus Sanders #Hero Au #Janus Sanders #fic

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spaced-out-imagines · 4 years

Text

The Smell of Jealousy (Omega!Dabi x Alpha!reader)

Warnings: slight mention of violence but nothing major

If you like my stuff you can buy me a ko-fi here!

A/n: this oneshot is for the wonderful @lucio-the-beautiful-goat who mentioned this idea to me when we were talking one day. I hope you enjoy it and sorry for taking so long to write it!

You were in yours and Dabi’s shared room located in the LOV’s current hideout. Your boyfriend had been sent on a mission by Shigaraki while you were forced to stay behind. You weren’t exactly happy that Shigaraki had sent your omega on a mission without you, but you couldn’t exactly go against your leader so you pushed down any protests that had threatened to escape your throat.

Your alpha instincts had been almost begging you to at least scent Dabi before he left, but you knew your headstrong omega would see that as you thinking he was weak and couldn’t take care of himself. So instead of scenting him you had given him a quick peck on the lips before he left, stating he would be back soon.

While he was gone you had just been lounging around, trying your best to keep yourself distracted. You fiddled with your phone, doodled on a random piece of paper, and even took a nap. By the time you woke up from your nap Dabi still wasn’t back and you were starting to grow concerned. He had left in the morning and it was already evening. You curled back up under the sheets on your bed, finding comfort in your omega’s scent that still clung to the fabric.

After a minute you pulled out your phone again, scrolling through some random websites to try and pass some time. After about another half an hour, you noticed a smell coming from the corridor outside your room. However it wasn’t Dabi’s scent. It was pungent and strong, and you felt your guard rise up as the smell of an unknown alpha reached your nose. Your door opened and your mouth stretched into a snarl as you prepared to pounce and catch them off guard.

However, as a familiar scarred hand reached around and finished opening the door, you stopped. Your omega stepped into the room, blinking in surprise as you were in a crouched position on the bed, looking ready to attack.

“Something wrong there doll?” Dabi asked as he stepped into the room and shut the door behind him. He took off his jacket and threw it on top of your dresser before making his way over to you.

Once he reached the edge of the bed where you were perched, your hands shot up and grabbed his face, catching him off guard. You brought his face down, making him bend over, before sniffing at the scent gland on his neck. Your face stretched into a snarl once more when you confirmed the fact that there was another alpha’s smell masking his own. You let go of him and backed up, retreating towards the headboard of the bed.

You shot Dabi a glare. “Why do you smell like another alpha?” you growled out. Your own scent had changed to an angry and sharp smell. You trusted Dabi wholeheartedly, you were bonded and that meant he was yours and you were his. But you still couldn’t help but get upset that another alpha’s smell was now clinging to him. The waves of jealousy hit you hard, but you refrained from yelling, wanting to let him explain himself.

Dabi stood tall but you noticed his hands were trembling slightly. He slowly sat down on the bed, but didn’t move any closer to you. He looked away from you, staring at his shoes instead. He paused to nervously swallow and then softly said, “doll I swear it’s not what it seems. When I was on the mission another alpha tried to act all cozy with me. I kept telling her I already had an alpha, and had the bond mark to prove it, but she didn’t listen. She managed to catch me off guard when I was talking to someone else and managed to rub some of her scent on me.” He slowly reached out and took his hand in yours, “I burned her into a crisp right after, although her friends didn’t really seem to like that.” He let out a dry chuckle and you realized in your anger you hadn’t managed to catch the faint scent of iron. You looked closely at his body and noticed his shirt and pants were torn in places and he had cuts on his arms.

You peered back up at his face. His lips were pulled into a frown and you could see he was genuinely sad and regretful that he made you angry. Even if Dabi was a prideful man, his omega nature made him more submissive towards you, and you could tell he was being completely open and vulnerable at that moment.

You brought up your conjoined hands to your lips and kissed his knuckles, prompting him to look back up at you. You peppered kisses across his knuckles and the back of his hand, a purring sound coming from your throat. You slowly felt his hands stop trembling and saw his posture relax a little. After a few more minutes of doing that you lowered your hands to rest in your lap.

“I’m sorry for getting angry omega. I just don’t like it when other alphas get too close to you. You’re mine after all and I can’t help but feel protective over you,” you said. You looked back up at Dabi, this time his blue eyes were trained on you, relief subtly shining through them.

However, Dabi couldn't help the small smirk that stretched across his face. “Were you jealous y/n?” he teased. You simply rolled your eyes, an indignant sound coming from your throat.

“Oh be quiet,” you muttered. You opened your arm as you said, “come here now. I want to get rid of that pungent smell that’s still lingering.”

Dabi kicked off his shoes before lifting his legs up onto the bed, he wrapped his arms around your waist and settled into your embrace. You immediately ducked down and licked at his scent gland. A shiver ran down his spine as you continued to lap at it until you were satisfied. You wiped away your saliva with your sleeve and then rubbed your scent gland against his, spreading your scent onto him. Purrs rumbled through your chest and Dabi let out a small hum.

Once you finished that you retreated just enough to press a kiss to his lips. The kiss was gentle and loving, and you didn’t want it to end but you eventually pulled away. You pressed kisses to his forehead as you whispered, “I love you omega.”

Dabi stayed silent for a second, relishing in your affection. “I love you too alpha,” he softly replied.

#dabi x reader #dabi #bnha x reader #mha x reader #mha imagines #bnha imagines #dabi imagines #omegaverse

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avversiera-writes · 3 years

Text

try again; in everyday we breathe life [tobirama senju/you] - chapter 4

Chapter 4 - Then

Summary: some comedy,, more doing the deedddd, some comedic relief, hah! light-hearted stuff while the glaring dramatic irony lingers

Word Count: ~4k

Author’s Note: ik ik it’s been a while! almost done tho. thank you for reading <3

also on AO3.

Chapter 1 - Now | Chapter 2 - Then, part 1 | Chapter 2 - Then, part 2 | Chapter 3 - Now |

Tobirama is busy meeting with delegates from Kumogakure, and you are stuck being a wife in your own home, trying not to get embarrassed in front of the servants as you talk about replacing the broken bed in your room and changing the curtains around the house, or some other household detail that needs attending. You also talk with the cook in the kitchen about dinner, as Tobirama’s students are going to come over tonight, and you want to make sure that the food will be up to their tastes.

You trudge through your day until past noon, deciding that it is a good time to drop by the Hokage mansion to get your stubborn husband to eat something. The more Tobirama gets busy, the more he ignores the simplest ways to sustain himself. It is even harder to get him off when he is hard at work and is very focused on his tasks. He has a way of zeroing in on whatever he is doing, and while he is quite efficient at it, hours can pass him by before he even considers taking a break.

This part of Tobirama, you admire and loathe him for it, because he rarely thinks about taking care of himself. It has always been work for him, and you know that he enjoys it more than anything, despite the stress that it brings him.

Now that you have taken a step back from being an active shinobi, you are able to look after him in your own way. There are times he resists being looked after, but after some pushing and prodding on your part, he would grudgingly accept it.

Being married to him and getting to know more sides of him is thrilling, and it makes you fall for him even more.

In your bedroom, preparing to drop by the Hokage office, you study your clothes, deciding which kimono you should wear and which outer robe or pair of sandals you want to match it with. You have never really thought about fashion that much, because you often opted for practical clothing. Now that you are the Hokage's wife, you know you have to look the part, and also, it does not hurt to wear something pretty for your husband.

After deciding with a light green kimono with a slit on the left leg, and pairing a yellow outer coat to complement it, you step out of the bedroom to head down the kitchen.

The house is quiet, except for the quiet footsteps just outside the house, indicating that the servants of the house are keeping away to give you some privacy. You really do not mind their company, but they are gone before you can express your sentiments.

You make a mental note to change that. Despite being in a village where classes of people are blurred, it seems to be different within clans. You know that some of the Senju have married with the common folk and into other clans, but since the two heads of the clan are Hokage, that part of the family is treated almost like royalty.

You shake your head. Hierarchies were the least of your problems, especially one that involves family. In the shinobi world, it is simpler, and there are many opportunities to move up your rank. Whereas, being part of the more mundane life, it is a whole different world from what you knew.

You uncover the pan where the cook had left the fried fish that Tobirama likes and you begin to pack it into a box, along with rice and some side dishes that he sometimes eats along with this kind of dish. You prepare his tea, and a few rice cakes, then you wrap everything into a nice blanket to make it easier to carry.

Footsteps approach the long kitchen, and you whirl around, only to spot Miura Kimiko.

“My lady, I am so sorry to interrupt!” Kimiko expresses.

“Oh, it’s you,” you greet. You throw a smile at the last minute to reassure that there is nothing to worry about. You are completely caught off-guard by her presence, since no one is really around you at the moment. “I have been meaning to talk to you.”

Kimiko smiles kindly. “Really?”

You let out a nervous giggle. “Well, it turns out that I may need your help after all. You know, with the...” You trail off and you give Kimiko an embarrassed look.

Kimiko’s face lights up in joy, and you finally let out a genuine smile. “That’s great, my lady!”

You press a hand to your forehead and laugh. “I had no idea that he would be so quick to decide. He seemed very eager.”

Kimiko laughs, and you take Tobirama’s wrapped lunch.

“I see,” Kimiko walks towards you, and pauses at the cupboards. “I will have to make a quick trip to the market. We can talk later, and I can show you and give you your first batch of tea for fertility purposes. Then, along the way, we’ll talk of the supplements that will ensure a healthy birth.”

You meet her eyes. “Thank you, Kimiko-san. I really appreciate this.” You give her a small bow. “I will put my trust in you.”

“I am honored, my lady,” Kimiko replies, and from there, you leave her be in the kitchen to make your way towards the Hokage office.

There was some waiting to be done, once you get in the Hokage office. The mansion is flourishing with many people, delegates and their aides that have been authorized to stay there for the duration of their visit. It seems that peace negotiations are coming along well, judging by the atmosphere of the place. There is no tension that you feel. You hope that Tobirama’s alliance with Kumo will come along soon, though you foresee the many months of more political talks that will ail his office hours.

Sensing that Tobirama will not be available immediately, you tell one of his guards that you will be waiting in the library for him, and make your way there.

You smile at the familiar sight, the moment you step in. It has been a while since you have been here, in this place, where you and Tobirama had spent a lot of your earlier years together, and where your love probably first budded from. You learned more from each other through observation and silence, and of course, your nonstop banter that somehow turned into a dance of flirtationship.

It seems so long ago.

You look to the table where the two of you had spent countless hours poring over research books, record books and writing into scrolls and manuscripts about plans for the growing Academy. This place has evolved–it used to be smaller. There are now more bookshelves that are being filled with newer books, and the restricted section, only accessible to those jounin level and higher, are also growing, no doubt due to your husband’s non-stop inventions. He had a huge hand in writing a lot of academic research and theory that will certainly help the future generations. That is what he is hoping for, after all, to build something that will last.

You finally sit at your table, where dust is gathering and swirling in motes due to the sunlight peering in from the window. There is a clock at the back of the library, and it clicks loudly, echoing in the dusty, warm place to signal the passing time.

You trace a finger on the table, remembering that Tobirama found it childish that you doodle on random things, and then you remember telling him off and to mind his own business.

“What are you smiling about?” Tobirama’s voice interrupts your thoughts and you turn your head to his direction. He comes closer and he glances at the table, probably coming into a realization. “I see. You were a bit of a terror back then.”

Tobirama sits across from you, and you notice that he is wearing his Hokage clothes.

“Long day?” You ask.

“The day has not even begun to start,” Tobirama sighs, and he begins to roll his sleeves back. “It is hard to keep track of the delegates coming in and out, and harder to make sure that our own delegates in Kumo are not messing up anything.”

“Well, have a little faith,” you tell him.

Tobirama rolls his eyes. “Yes, I’m sure a little faith will do it. One of them, by the way, is my eldest nephew, and he is everything Hashirama is and none of his mother’s tact and charm.”

“Your brother is charming, stop it.” You crack a smile.

Tobirama narrows his eyes at you as he unpacks the lunch you have brought him. “Yes, he has charm, and he is sunshine and all about inspiration, that will dazzle the leaders of Kumogakure.”

You roll your eyes. “This is a good thing. He gets to show off the youthfulness that peaceful times can only bring.”

If Tobirama could laugh out loud, this moment would be it. However, he lets out a huff of breath with a small smile, his version of being amused. “Perhaps. That ought to be the winning argument.”

You let Tobirama eat in peace, and instead, decide to wander around the library to find the old places you used to crash into when you and Tobirama had to pull all-nighters, or when you just needed some space from him being a blunt asshole. You pull out the books that he used to recommend you, and flip through the pages where he had left tiny notes and markers for you to find. All of them, you have kept and preserved.

Back then, you found this part of Tobirama confusing and annoying, because he keeps passing you one book after another in the guise of studying it, but now that you think about it, this was his way of letting you know that he was interested. You remember the folded papers and bookmarks that would fall out when you open them, and your miffedness from trying to collect them from the ground. You were convinced that Tobirama was out to get you.

“You know what, husband, I take it back. You were a bit of a charmer back then,” you note as you sense him approaching. You slide the book back into its shelf, creating a cleaner path from the dust.

“And you were quite mean,” Tobirama says with a hint of mock wonder. “What were your words? That I was a senile, arrogant bastard who can go stick–”

“Alright, alright,” you interrupt and shoot him a glare. “I said I take it back.”

“Yes, but my poor heart,” Tobirama sarcastically replies.

You look at him, feigning bewilderment. “Are you joking around with me? Wow ! You are capable of such things!”

Tobirama smirks. “I am capable of many things.”

You scoff. “Your audacity at this moment, Lord Nidaime.”

Tobirama does not even look like there is a hint of shame on that proud, stoic face of his.

You bite back a smirk, and the two of you stare at each other for a short moment. The air between you changes, and before you know it, Tobirama is pushing you against the bookshelves, his mouth on yours, and his rough hands slipping through the slit of your kimono to grope your hips. You hear books fall to the floor and scrolls rolling on its surface, and your hand goes above your head to find some sort of purchase.

“Maybe I should have done this earlier and saved us the confusion of finding out if we really did like each other,” Tobirama roughly whispers into your ear.

“If you did, I would have certainly, absolutely have stabbed my katana into your–”

Tobirama steals your last words by pushing his tongue through your mouth and you moan, pleased.

“Can you really afford to waste time like this?” You gasp as Tobirama delves into your neck intensely.

“I’m the Hokage,” Tobirama answers curtly.

“Some abuse of power right there.”

You close your eyes as Tobirama’s hands cup your ass and presses you against his body, where you can feel his half-aroused erection. You grind against him, and he pushes you into the bookshelf again, where you can feel the edge of the shelves pressing against your back.

“Haven’t you had enough?” You ask him beguilingly.

Tobirama stares at you with a serious expression, and something about it makes you weak. “Of you?” He plants a tender kiss on your lips. “If you begin to impose too much.”

You roll your eyes. “Alright, goodbye. I’ll see you at home. Enjoy your erection.”

You attempt to leave his grasp, but he steadies you in one place with firm hands.

“Where are you going, and with this cut in your clothing? Let’s put it into good use, shall we?” Tobirama says in a low voice.

He whirls you around, and hikes up your clothes up to your hips. The cool air makes you shiver, and you grab onto a shelf to steady yourself. Tobirama is taller, and he is pulling you against himself, making your balance unsteady.

Your husband runs a hand between your thighs, and you can’t help but moan when he begins to rub his fingers against your heat. He stops, and then you hear quick shuffling of clothes behind you. You reach behind you to feel Tobirama and you let out a low chuckle when you realize that he has opted to shed his Hokage robes.

“You have got it bad, Lord Nidaime,” you murmur.

“Yes, poor me, whatever shall I do now,” he says quickly. He grips your hip and positions it so that he can perfectly align against your entrance.

Then, he slips in, and you let out a long drawn moan as he sheathes himself inside you completely.

You hear him murmur curses, and you gasp as he rears back, only to slam himself back in with a precision that immediately paints your vision white. You forget you have legs, and you almost fall down as Tobirama begins to thrust into you unforgivingly. You let out a cry, and his hand quickly slaps over your mouth.

You hear his harsh breaths, getting louder and faster. Your lower back curves a little bit more, and the angle changes, and Tobirama begins to pound the spot that makes your body buck into him wildly.

With nothing to support yourself, you accidentally tear the shelf in half above your head, and more books come crashing into the floor. Tobirama moves the two of you away from the mess, and he plasters you against the wall. You can only gasp as he resumes his fucking, and the slick sounds of skin against skin, of the neck-breaking speed that Tobirama snaps his hips to, makes you come so hard that you only remember worrying about the roof or the floor caving in until Tobirama places you on a table, and begins to fuck you there.

You cry out, slewing curses with a creativity that only comes when you are high.

The table beneath you breaks, and Tobirama lowers your conjoined bodies onto the floor. You hold on to his shoulders, and lean back as he uses his tongue and his lips trace your neck and to plant light bruises there. You grind into him, chasing another high, and you end up pulling at his hair to expose more of his neck.

You suck on the side of his neck, and his hands on your hips begin to guide you into a slow, agonizing rhythm. Finally, the two of you kiss, and Tobirama gives you a hard thrust upwards that sends your legs flailing, and you feel his cock twitch inside you as he breeds you with his hot seed.

“Oh my gods,” you murmur, but you are not sure if you have said it out loud.

Tobirama is still breathing harshly against your shoulder, and he is holding onto you like a tight coil. You feel his heart thundering against his chest, and as you come to, Tobirama shows no sign of letting up his grip. Slowly, you run a hand down his arm to soothe him. You give light kisses on the side of his face, and you continue to caress him gently.

"Too much?" You ask teasingly.

Tobirama coughs, and even that sounds embarrassed. "We're really doing this."

"It hasn't set in yet, huh?"

Tobirama squeezes your waist with his arms as his reply and you rest your head on his shoulder.

"Are you going to let go of me?" You ask tentatively.

Tobirama lets out a sigh and you stifle a giggle. It is rare to catch a very soft Tobirama.

"Are you not tired?" Tobirama asks.

"No, not at all." You lean back and narrow your eyes at him. "Are you? Is your age catching up?"

Tobirama scoffs and he immediately scowls. "I am not that old, and I can go for more if you want."

You lean towards him languorously, a victorious smile spreading across your lips. "Yes, but you have a job to do."

Tobirama slowly eases you off of him. "They can wait. I think I'll get a chronic migraine because of some hard to please delegates."

"With that expression of yours, one might think you already do," you can't resist saying back.

Tobirama stares at you blankly. "Now I get why people are wondering why I married you,” he deadpans.

“I beg to differ, Lord Nidaime, I’m quite the catch,” you smile cheekily as you watch Tobirama’s ears flush pink.

You give your husband a few quick kisses on the lips before he can react, and you move away to stand up and gather yourself.

“Whoah.” Your legs wobble slightly as you take a step.

Tobirama catches you by the elbow, and you feel your face blush from his action.

“Careful,” he warns.

“Right,” you say in a quiet voice. You survey the damage and you swallow nervously. “Um...I am going to stay here, and clean up and also make sure that I do not look like I just got mugged.”

Tobirama throws you a dirty look as he searches for his clothes. “Don’t worry about the mess, I will take care of it.”

“I was talking about myself,” you run a hand through your hair.

Tobirama quickly puts on his clothes, and you watch him, surrounded by the broken bookshelves and the books littered on the floor. You can sense that the two of you are panicking about getting caught, or having someone walk in here, especially when the Hokage mansion is housing so many people.

“You’re the worst,” you blurt out.

Tobirama raises an eyebrow and slides on his sandals. His serious expression becomes funnier as his hard features begin to morph into helplessness. You note the blooming bruises on his neck, and you gesture at it, with the same helplessness.

“Right,” Tobirama awkwardly says and tugs his collar up.

The two of you stare at each other with the familiarity of two strangers in the wrong place, and Tobirama skeeters out of the library in the most elegant way that he can muster, and when he is gone, you slide to the floor, staring at the space in front of you, then, you begin to laugh out loud.

Instead of going straight home, you try your best to clean up the library, and to check your image on the glass window to make sure you look representable. Then, you wait for Tobirama in a common lounge since this whole ordeal took the whole afternoon, and it is now nearing dinner.

You wrap your outer coat tighter, and try to mask the slight limp that you have developed over the course of the afternoon.

Finally, your husband is out of his work’s clutches for now, and the two of you hurry home, trying to beat Tobirama’s students there so that the two of you can freshen up.

However, your plans are ruined, when you find the six of them standing on the yard, aghast as the servants haul out the bed that the two of you have broken, and they watch, as a new bed is carried into the house.

Tobirama stiffens beside you, and you manage a small smile, knowing that you look disheveled as you feel.

In the yard, both Hiruzen and Danzo look horrified, Torifu is pale, Kagami and Homura have their mouths opened, and in all of their eyes you can see a growing realization, while Koharu struggles to keep her face from deviating from her usual strict expression.

Tobirama stands beside you, calm and collected, regal and shameless. He nods, and he leaves you in the yard and walks abruptly into the house.

“EW!” The boys shouted.

Koharu rolls her eyes and she starts to walk away. "Get it together," she snaps.

You resist the urge to put a hand on your face to cover up your embarrassment, and instead, choose to walk towards the house with your whole chest.

To be continued...

Chapter 5 - Then >>

#angelica writes #Tobirama Senju #Senju Tobirama #tobirama x you #tobirama x reader #naruto fanfiction #you never said goodbye timeline/au #'til death do us part

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chickensarentcheap · 4 years

Text

Best Part of Me -Chapter 87

Warnings: none

Tagging: @c-a-v-a-l-r-y, @innerpaperexpertcloud, @tragiclyhip, @alievans007

She dreams of the first Christmas in Telluride. That old farmhouse long before the extensive renovations that had transformed it from drafty and ill kept to a beautiful, warm place perfect for a growing family. It had had promise. High ceilings and original hardwood floors that could be refurbished. Thirty acres of property that backed onto a creek and woodlands and came with an incredible view of the snow capped mountains. After months of living with her mother and step father while getting their underneath them, the home represented the official start of their new lives in the States. Set a thousand feet from the main road and surrounded by towering trees, it had provided peace and quiet and a sense of safety and security; two things they both craved and believed would be the perfect setting for raising children in. At the time they’d had no plans of ever returning to Australia, and while Tyler had initially struggled with the culture shock and the enormous change he’d made in his life, he’d actually adjusted quite well to the change of scenery and the colder climate. There hadn’t really been anything for him back home; aside from a couple of old friends. His relationship with his father had always been toxic, and only became more so with each passing year. A change will be good, he had said. And his words had quickly been proven right.

There were no memories haunting him in Colorado, and a drastic change came with the trading in of the beach and sweltering heat for the mountains and the forests and the cooler air. He was noticeably happier; smiling and laughing more and possessing a much more positive outlook on their lives and their future. The ghosts of his pasts didn’t follow him there, and he started sleeping better and rekindled the passion for working out religiously; putting on the weight and the muscle -and the some- that he’d lost during that long and often agonizing recovery after Dhaka. They’d just had Millie then. Ten months old and chubby cheeked; thick and wavy sandy blond hair and enormous blue eyes framed by impossibly long, dark lashes. An extremely happy and healthy baby. Full of curiosity and wonder and in love with the world; always giggling and smiling and in turn making their lives even brighter. The twins hadn’t even arrived yet; a month before they'd make their rather dramatic entrance into the world.

He’d gotten up in the middle of the night with an uncharacteristically unsettled and grumpy Millie; a mixture of teething and a stubborn cold that was making it hard for her to sleep. And when an hour passed and he still hadn’t returned to the warm confines of their bed -either alone or with the baby- yet all was silent in the house, she’d gone looking for them. She’d expected to find him passed out on the couch with Millie on his chest, but instead discovered him standing in front of the Christmas tree. The lights on and their daughter in those strong, protective arms; voice soft and quiet as he talked to Millie about her very first Christmas that was quickly approaching. About how spoiled she’d be and how he was happy that she got to experience the extra bonus of having snow; how he’d always dreamed of experiencing a white Christmas when he was a kid.

And he’d told her about what the holidays were like when he was growing up. How his mum put so much time and effort into making it amazing for him; sharing the traditions she’d grown up with and creating her own that he’d hopefully one day continue with his family. It was the one time of the year his father wasn’t drunk. When he stuck to only one glass of wine at dinner and never raised his voice or his hand to either of them. For twenty fours hours, they were a normal family, and that night he’d go to bed and pray for one last Christmas gift: that he’d wake up and his father wouldn’t go back to his ‘old self’. That wish never came true, and once his mother died, Christmas lost any and all meaning or importance for him. Relegated to just ‘another day’ in his life; another chance for the old man to beat the shit out of him and degrade him and try to break his spirit.

He’d tried with his first marriage and child. Attempted to get into the Christmas spirit and bring back some of his mother’s traditions; wanting to make the time magical and beautiful for his son. But he could never seem to totally commit to it; too many bad memories holding him back. The pain of his mother’s passing and his father’s treatment of him still too raw, even though it had been more than fifteen years prior. But he was determined this time, he’d told Millie, as he stood there with her in his arms. Things would be different. HE’D be different. Because she and her momma and her soon to be born brothers deserved that; a husband and a father who was ‘all in’. Someone totally committed to making every second of every day matter. He wanted to be a better person this time around. A better man.

It had been a beautiful thing to hear. And see. This big, strong man covered in scars and tattoos, looking at his little girl with so much love and awe in his eyes. And Millie caught up in looking at him with pure adoration AND at the tree; amazed by the multicoloured lights and her little hands exploring the branches and the decorations. Esme hadn’t had the heart to disturb them, and she’d never told him about what she’d witnessed. That moment had been reserved for father and daughter. Instead she’d just gone back upstairs and returned to bed; pretending to wake up when he finally climbed back in beside her a half an hour later.

She stirs to the ring of her cell phone; muffled by its resting place under the pillow next to her. She had somehow managed to drift off, her body and mind finally giving in to exhaustion; lulled into a restless sleep by the continuous beeping of the EKG machine and her husband’s soft, slow breathing. The room is dark; illuminated only by the moonlight streaming through the window above her head and the glow of the bedside monitor. At first she’s disoriented. Blindly reaching for that solid, warm body that is usually beside her, but finding nothing but cool, crisp hospital issued sheets. It effectively snaps her fully awake and plunges her back into reality. The dream had been so vivid; as if she was experiencing that tender, beautiful moment for the very first time.

It’s heartbreaking to wake up to. Her children thousands of miles away, her husband’s life still teetering on a very narrow and dangerous ledge, the sounds of hospital life just beyond the closed door; bells routinely going off signally patients -or their families- need help, the quiet chatter of the nurses at the central workstation. And for a moment she doesn’t move; lying on her back in the middle of that little pull out couch, tears filling her eyes and a tremendous ache inhabiting her chest. She feels empty. Lonely. All of the fear and the worry and the anger sitting so heavily on her heart. And when her phone stops ringing and then immediately starts up again, she gives herself a pep talk: “You can do this. You HAVE to do this. He needs you to do this. He needs YOU.”

She reaches under the pillow and snags her cell, frowning at the word HOME emblazoned across the screen. She glances at the illuminated wall clock across the room; it would be just shy of five am in Cooktown. She can’t help but think the worst; that the situation isn’t over after all and troubled has followed them home. And she tries to keep the panic out of her voice when she answers.

“Hello?”

“Mommy?” That little voice greets. A harsh whisper; neither tearful nor scared.

“Amelia.” She hasn’t used that name in years. Adopting the moniker Millie when the then three year old decided that was what she preferred to be called. And she quickly sits up and swings her legs over the side of the bed; shoving her feet in the pair of flip flops that sit on the floor next to her. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Well...yeah...there IS something wrong.”

“What’s going on?” She rakes a hand through her hair as she stands, then grabs the hoodie off the chair beside Tyler’s bed and shrugs into it. “Are you okay?”

“I guess.”

“It’s five in the morning, doodle. What are you doing up? You should be asleep.”

“Is daddy there?”

“No,” Esme lies, then steps out into the hall. Giving a small smile and a nod in greeting to the armed guard -one of Anil’s people- that sits next to the door. A precaution; in case some loyal and overzealous fan of Asif’s or Mahajan’s attempts to cause trouble. “He’s not.”

“Where is he?”

“He had to go and do some things.”

“Work things?”

“Yeah. Last minute stuff. Things that couldn’t wait and he had to get done.”

“Do you know when he’s going to be back? I tried calling his cell but it just went to voicemail. I want to talk to him. I want to talk to daddy.”

“He probably has his phone turned off. It’s important work stuff.”

“I’m important,” Millie reminds her. “And daddy always says that us kids are more important than anything else.”

“Well you guys are. You ARE the important thing to him. But I don’t think he was expecting you to call at this time of night. Not when you’re supposed to be in bed. Sleeping. And why aren’t you? Sleeping?”

“I had a bad dream. So I went into your room to get daddy. I forgot you guys weren’t home yet. Daddy always helps me after a bad dream. Always. He makes me warm milk and oatmeal and then he lies on the couch with me and rubs my tummy until I fall asleep.”

“Maybe you can ask Ovi or Uncle Kyle to do that,” Esme suggests.

“I don’t want Ovi or Uncle Kyle. I want daddy. That’s what daddy does for me. Not anyone else. I don’t want anyone else doing it. Just daddy.”

“Millie, we are thousands of miles away. Even if he was here, he wouldn’t be able to do anything for you.”

“But I could hear his voice and it would make me feel better. Remember how sometimes when he’s away for his job, I’ll call him and he’ll talk to me until I fall asleep again?”

“But he can’t do that, sweetie. Because he’s not here.”

“But if he’d turn his cell back on, he could do it. Can you call him on his other phone? His work one? And tell him I need to talk to him? If you tell him I had a bad dream, he’ll turn his other phone back on and call me. I know he will.”

“Millie, I can’t call him. He’s busy. And not even I can talk to him right now. I’m sorry. I wish daddy COULD talk to you. But he can’t.”

“Is he okay?”

Esme blinks. “Why wouldn’t he be okay?”

“You sound sad. Why are you sad? Is daddy okay? Did something happen to him? Is that why you’re sad?”

“Nothing happened, doodle. And I’m not sad. I’m just tired. It’s only one in the morning here.”

“I’m sorry, mommy. I didn’t mean to wake you up. I miss you.”

“I miss you, too. I miss you so much.”

“Will you and daddy be home soon?”

“I hope so.”

“I hope so too. Will you tell him I called? I left him two messages. On his cell. Will you tell him to listen to them?”

“I’ll tell him. I promise.”

“Ask him to call me later. I want to talk to him, okay?”

Esme nods, then swallows around the lump of emotion sitting in her throat. “Okay.”

“I love you, mommy. Tell daddy I love him. That I miss him. Today is Saturday. The sun will be up soon. We always watch the sunrise together on Saturdays and then we have breakfast and go surfing.”

“I know you do,” she brushes away the tears that finally manage to escape. “I know you guys do that together. And you’ll get to it again when we’re home, okay?”

“Are you sure you’re not sad? You sound sad, mommy.”

“I’m okay. Just tired. And homesick. I miss you. I miss all of you. So much.”

“I miss you too, mommy. I’m sorry I woke you up. You can go back to sleep now. I’m going to take Saju out to pee; he can watch the sun come up with me.”

“That’s a good idea. I’m sure he’ll like that. I love you.”

“I love you, mommy. Tell daddy I love him. And give him a hug and kiss from me.”

“I will,” Esme promises, and then disconnects the call.

Her hands violently tremble, making it nearly impossible to tend to the simple task of slipping her phone into her pocket. The ache in her chest worsens and her legs feel numb; threatening to give out from under her And she slumps back against the wall as the first sob escapes a pitiful, choked sound accompanied by another she attempts to to stifle with her hand. All she can hear is her daughter’s voice; tiny and beautiful and so innocent. Millie’s words replaying over and over again in her mind. About wanting to talk to her daddy...NEEDING to talk to him...because he’s the only one that can make things better. The one she relies on to chase away the monsters and make her feel safe and secure again. Six years old and her father is her entire world. That precious little girl who’d inherited his eyes and his smile.

The tears finally come.

****

When the return to sleep fails her, she heads to the family kitchen. It’s spacious and modern and stocked with free ‘goodies’ donated by the hospital; various flavours of teas and coffee, pastries and other desserts, and a selection of non perishables. Each family is given a small pantry and bar fridge marked with their last name; safe places to keep things purchased with their own money. It’s the small comforts that make a difference; those tiny details and touches that somehow manage to lift some of the stress, fear, and worry that have become your driving forces.

She boils water; thumbing through the wide selection of flavoured teas that sit in an ornate basket on the counter. And she freezes when she hears it; blood running cold and the hair on the back of her neck standing on end. The distinct sounds of wailing and sobbing coming from somewhere on the ward. At first it makes her heart skip a beat, then causes it to pound furiously in her chest. It’s gut wrenching; the harsh reality of someone else’s grief. Someone else’s loss. It makes you sympathetic towards them but also fearful that you just may encounter the same situation. You can prepare yourself for it; the chance that the person you love may not make it out of a place like this. That they may never improve and will only experience setback after setback and never find themselves well enough for the ‘step down’ unit. It would be foolish NOT to consider that.

But you’re never fully prepared for when it actually does happen. The loss enormous. Sorrow profound. Seven years ago, the loss would have been tremendous; robbed of what ‘could have been; and left to go through a pregnancy alone and then raise a child that belonged to a dead man. Now it would be catastrophic. Years of giving everything of yourself to someone; loving them with every bit of your body, heart, and soul and getting that same love in return. Having someone that looks at you as if you’re the most incredible and beautiful being on earth; their devotion and faithfulness unconditional and going hand in hand with their willingness to protect you at all costs. And having a family together has only elevated things ever further; creating life together and then getting to share in both the joys and the tribulations of raising them. It’s a partnership; working side by side and each bringing out the best in the other. And all of a sudden that is taken away…

She refuses to think about it. What life would be like without him. The enormous hole that would be left behind. Losing her father as a teenager had been bad enough; a loss that she still mourns even decades later. But to lose your entire world? The love of your life?

“Stop!” Esme orders aloud, and then inwardly scolds herself for letting her thoughts go to that dark, horrible place. It almost feels like a betrayal; counting him out at the very beginning of the fight. He’s never given up; no matter how dire a situation or how exhausting -whether physical or mental- the battle is. Always the one to keep her going when things seem hopeless. If the situation was reversed, he wouldn’t give up on her, and she feels ashamed for even considering doing it to him.

She turns away from the counter, mug of tea in hand then gives a small start and a ‘fuck!’ when she discovers she’s not alone. A man younger than herself; smooth, dark skin, a shock of black, curly hair, and kind, chocolate brown eyes.

“My apologies,” he gives a sheepish smile. “I did not mean to frighten you.”

“It’s okay. I didn’t even hear you come in. Lost in my own little world, I guess.”

“Sometimes it’s nice to have that little world. A place to escape to. To get away from this The smells, the sights, the sounds. That machine...the beep, beep, beep...drives me insane.”

“I hear you. I think the sound is permanently etched in my brain. It’ll be a long time before it disappears. And I just got here.”

“What are you in for?” he asks, as she moves towards the door. “Sorry. I try for humour; when things are difficult. It’s how I deal with the stress. How I cope.”

“I hear you on that, too. I’m the same way. I guess I try cracking jokes or making light of things because I’m hoping it will make ME feel better. It drives my husband crazy sometimes. Especially when a situation definitely does NOT call for it. Or I ramble. Kind of like what I’m doing right now. Only about ten times worse. He’s the strong, silent type. I’m the chatty one. Even during moments I shouldn’t. Like right now for instance. Sorry. I ramble. Like I said.”

“It’s alright. I don’t mind. We all have our ways of coping. Is that why you’re here? For your husband?”

Esme nods, then leans back against the doors, eyes riveted on her cup as she repeatedly dunks the tea bag into the boiling water. It’s nerves; the fear that those threatening tears will let loose. She’d thought there were no tears left after her emotional meltdown following her conversation with Millie. That she’d cried herself dry. At least for the time being. And the last thing she wants is to lose it in front of a complete stranger.

“He got hurt,” she says. “At work.”

“He works here? He’s from Bangladesh?”

“He’s Australian, actually.”

“You’re a long way from home.”

“We are. A very long way. Or least it seems like a very long way. I know; I don’t have an accent. Or if I do, it’s just starting and not very noticeable. I’m originally from Colorado.”

“And you married someone from Australia? How did that happen? You met on vacation?”

“Through work. We were assigned to the same project.”

“And he’s hurt? Bad?”

“Bad enough to be stuck here. It’s going to be a long road. Something tells me we’ll be here a while. He’s in pretty rough shape.”

“Must have been one heck of a workplace accident.”

“Someone tried to kill him,” she admits, and then quickly adds “He’s in private security. A job got out of hand. There was nothing he could have done about it. There was no way he could have expected things to turn out THIS bad.”

“I’m sorry. That he has to be here. That YOU have to be here.”

“So am I,” she gives a small, sad smile. “But thank you. Why are you here?”

“My wife. She’s been here for almost two weeks. She had a stroke. While giving birth. Our first child.”

Esme’s eyes widen, and one of her hands slides inside of the open hoodie and instinctively rests on her baby bump.

“The doctors say there is no brain activity, but I’m not giving up hope. Sometimes, miracles happen. I can’t just give up on her. She wouldn’t give up on me.”

“I am so sorry. I can’t even imagine what it’s been like for you. And the baby? Did the baby make it or…?”

“Baby is fine. Very healthy. Very beautiful.” He pulls his cell phone from his pocket, then turns on the screen and holds it out towards her, showing off the display. A beautiful infant with gorgeous dark eyes and little pink bows in her coal black hair.

“She’s beautiful. Congratulations. It must be so bittersweet; having a new baby while your wife…” her voice trails off, unsure of what to say next.

“You have children?”

“I do. I have five of them.”

“Five? Forgive me; you don’t look like a woman with five children.”

“Thank you, but believe me, I feel like a mother of fifty right about now. It’s hard; being so far away from them. They have no idea what’s happened. I feel terrible for lying to them, I do. But I really don’t know what to say. They’re so little; the oldest is only six. How do I NOT traumatize them? How do I tell them? I’m just so lost when it comes to this. To a lot of things, actually This is...hard Very hard. Having to trust complete strangers with the life of the person you love. To just put his life in these peoples’ hands. I’m not having a good time with it. At all. I’m sad. I’m angry. Mostly sad, though.”

“Angry?”

“At the person who did this to him. They’re dead, and believe me, there’s a special place in hell for them. But I’m still angry about it. And I’m angry at myself too. Because I made a mistake. And I guess in a way I feel guilty; that my mistake led to this.”

Her companion gives a sympathetic smile. “I don’t think he’d want you to blame yourself.”

“He definitely wouldn’t. Tyler would be pretty mad about it, actually. He already thinks I’m too hard on myself in a lot of ways. That’s his name, by the way. Tyler. My husband.”

“My wife is Priya. I’m Sanjib.”

“I’m Esme,” she shakes the hand offered. “I should get back. I know he’s not conscious and probably won’t be for a while, but I still don’t like leaving him alone. I like to think he knows I’m there. He has PTSD; hospitals trigger it. He will not be happy when he comes out of sedation, that’s for sure. This is the last place he’ll want to be. It was nice to talk to you, though Thanks for tolerating me.”

“We should meet. Every day. At a certain time. For tea. I would be nice to have someone to talk to. Other than doctors and nurses”

“It would be,” she agrees. “And someone other than my six year old who called me from Australia and should be sleeping. She had a bad dream and daddy always takes care of her after a bad dream. She’s missing him. A lot. But whenever you feel up to it, just come and find me. It’s hard to miss our room; it’s the only one with the armed guard sitting outside of it.”

Sanjib arches a quizzical brow.

“It’s a long story that needs a bit of time to tell. One that definitely calls for more than one tea. But it was nice talking to you. And I hope your wife heals. I hope a miracle DOES happen.”

“I hope for the same for your husband. That he’s awake sooner, rather than later.”

“Yeah,” she says, and opens the kitchen door. “So do I.”

****

When she returns to the room, Julie is stepping out; slipping the patient chart back into the holder on the door and then turning to greet her

“Is everything alright?” Esme asks, unable to stop herself from fearing the worst. Even the warm smile on the other woman’s face and the gentle hand that first touches her cheek and then lays on her shoulder. “Is he okay? Nothing’s happened, has it?”

“Everything is fine. I was just checking his vitals.”

“And they’re good? He doesn’t need to be intubated or…?”

“He’s doing all the breathing on his own. Doesn’t even need the nasal cannula anymore. And his oxygen level is still staying over ninety four.”

“And that’s good? That’s what we want it to be? Or better? It’s a good sign that he doesn’t need any help?”

“A very good sign. He’s a lot further along than anyone thought he would be, that’s for sure. Usually in cases like this, when someone has experienced that level of trauma AND so much of it, it takes weeks, sometimes even months, to see even a glimmer of progress. There are people who have been on this ward for a long time, with less done to them, that aren’t where he is. He’s got a strong will to live, that’s for sure.”

“He has five reasons to stay alive back home. There’s nothing he wouldn’t do for them. No fight he wouldn't fight. If it was seven years ago, you wouldn’t be seeing what you’re seeing right now. Before the kids? He wasn’t the person he is now. Once our daughter came along, everything changed. HE changed.”

“I think you’re underestimating the role YOU played. That you DO play.”

“He is so strong. The strongest person I’ve ever known. And if anyone can defy the odds and prove people, it’s Tyler. So I hope you go and tell that one doctor...the neurologist...exactly what you’re telling me. Because he has been nothing but doom and gloom. He even told me not to expect much. Not even long term. I basically told him to go screw himself. No one is going to talk about my husband like that. No one is going to count him out. I don’t care how many degrees they have before or after their name. I know Tyler. And he doesn’t give up. He doesn’t know the meaning of it. And he is stubborn as hell! You’ll get to see that soon enough, I’m sure.”

“He’s already showing it. And so you know, he did wake. Very briefly, but…”

“Wait? What? What do you mean he woke up? How? Is that even possible? How can he? The surgeon said it would be a few days before they’d start bringing out of it. How…?”

“While it’s heavy sedation, it is still only sedation,” Julie explains. “It isn’t a medically induced coma. So brief periods of wakefulness and some level of lucidity are common. He likely won’t remember experiencing it, but it will happen.”

“And he was fully awake?”

“Fully awake in terms of all the drugs continuously being pumped into him. But he did open his eyes and ask ‘who the hell are you?’”

Esme gives a small laugh. “That sounds like Tyler. He hates hospitals. They trigger a lot of bad things. It’s good he’s doped up. If he knew where he was and he had the energy, he probably would have lost it. He has pulled out many an IV. He won’t think anything of pulling out a central line. Did he say anything? Did he ask about his kids or…?”

“He asked for you. Seemed worried. I told him you were fine. That you just stepped out for a minute. I asked him how he was feeling and he said sick. So I gave him an anti nausea med through the line. The pain medication he’s on is notorious for making people sick, And he asked for water. So if he does wake up and wants something to drink, that’s what he can have.”

“I can’t believe this even happened. Especially so soon. I didn’t think there was a chance of something like this. The way everyone was talking, it sounded like even after he was brought out of sedation, he might not come to right away. That it could take weeks, even.”

“Well between you and me, hun, doctors aren’t always right. I’ve seen a lot of patients they’ve been plenty wrong about. Now don’t get your hopes up; it might not happen again right away. That might have been all the energy he had to spare for a while.”

“But it’s a good sign, right? That he DID wake up? I don’t care how long it takes for him to be okay. Just as long as long as he is in the end. And this has to be a good sign.”

“It’s a sign that his brain is working the way it should. And I’m going to make sure I tell that neurologist, too. There is nothing wrong with that man’s brain; not when he can call his wife by name and answer me when I ask him how he’s doing. Everything’s going right for him, I promise you. And he’s in good hands. Very good hands. I’ll see that he gets everything he needs And that that mean old brain doctor gets put in his place.”

“You have no idea how much I needed this; to hear this. It’s just been a nightmare; I’m still trying to wrap my head around what went wrong. How could it go so bad, so fast? And then our daughter called and she’s six and her daddy is her entire world and they have this amazing bond. I mean, he has a bond with all of them, obviously. But it’s different with her; he calls her his miracle baby. He lost a son. From his first marriage. And he never thought he’d be a dad again. And then we met in a crazy way and we made her and he then he survived what he did and…” Esme takes a deep, shaky breath. “....it’s just different. What they have. She thinks the sun shines out of his ass and they’re so close and she misses him so much. I don’t know how to tell her. It’ll break her heart regardless. All she wants is to talk to him and I don’t know how to tell her she can’t. I don’t know what to say to any of them.”

“What do they think they can handle hearing?”

“I don’t know,” she admits. “Millie is so smart and so intuitive for her age. TJ is tough on the outside but a total softie on the inside; he has a huge heart and feels and loves so deeply. And Tanner is crazy intelligent and an old soul. But they’re still babies, practically. She’s six. They’re five. What do I tell them other than daddy got hurt and can’t come home for a while? I don’t want them knowing details. You’ve seen him. Would you want your children knowing how bad he looks?”

“No. I wouldn’t.”

“And the one person I have to talk me through things like this, I can’t turn to because he’s the one that’s hurt. He’s the rock, not me. He’s the one that talks ME down. I have no clue what I’m doing right now. Other than lying to my children.”

“Just tell them the parts of the truth you know they can handle,” Julie suggests. “They don’t need details Especially ugly ones. Tell them that daddy is hurt and unfortunately can’t come home for a while. But as soon as the doctors say it’s okay, he can be sent to a hospital there and then they can see him as much as they want. It’s what I’d tell my kids And my grand kids.”

“It’s just so hard; being away this far from them. Especially the baby. She’ll be four months old next week and I’m thousands of miles away from her and I‘m afraid she’s going to forget me. The farthest away I’ve been from her is a few hours. And that was only for two days! I could be here for a few WEEKS. I can’t go home; I can’t leave Tyler alone here. I just can’t.”

“Is there anyone that could bring her to you? A friend that wouldn’t mind doing that?”

“Our oldest would do it In a heartbeat. He’s technically not ours, ours We’re his guardians. We’ve had him since he was fifteen. He’s twenty one now. I trust him with my kids’ lives. He’d do it. No hesitation. But then that leaves my brother alone with four kids and I don’t think he can handle that. And I’m not asking him to do it. He and Tyler do not get along; my brother thinks my marriage is an epic disaster and the worst mistake I ever made.” Esme sighs and pushes a hand through her hair. “I can’t believe I’m rambling to you like this. I’m sorry; I’m sure you have a lot to do. I shouldn’t keep you like this.”

“Part of looking after patients is caring for their families too. And you’re a long way from home and you’re going through a hell of a horrible thing. You can lean on me. I’ve got broad shoulders. Why don’t you sleep on all of this? Or at least try and get some rest. This is only the end of day one; you don’t have to have everything figured out . Get some sleep and hopefully something will come to you in the morning.”

“I’ll try. It’s hard. Sleeping alone. You get used to someone being there. I tell you, I will NEVER complain about his cold feet and snoring every again. It’s so weird; the rest of him is a furnace, but those feet!”

“My husband is a snorer. You know how many times I’ve wanted to smother him with a pillow over the years?”

“Oh, I’ve had those moments, believe me. But apparently, I talk in my sleep. Tyler says he can carry on full conversations with me. Apparently my favourite thing to talk about is grocery lists. I always talk about peanut butter, ketchup, and kitty litter. And we don’t even have a cat.”

Julie laughs at that. “Try and get some rest, okay? You got a little one in there that’s depending on you. Come here…” she draws Esme into a tight embrace. “...you’re not alone. Remember that.”

“I’ll try,” she promises. And that pure, affectionate, and comforting moment once more brings tears to her eyes. And it’s sad. That harsh realization that this is the time in decades…maybe even ever…that she’s felt a hug like that Unconditional. Compassionate.

Motherly.

*****

“Your daughter called,” she says, as she parks the chair beside his bed. Gathering the hoodie around her as she sits, then putting down the safety railing

He’s succumbed to the mixture of sedation and the heavy duty anti nausea meds, and with his head turned towards the door, the facial injuries are hidden. No stitches -sixty altogether, thirty holding together the damaged muscle and tissue, the others closing the skin- or swelling, or bruising visible. A slight smile curves his lips; no furrows present across his brow, features bathed in the soft glow from the bedside monitor. It’s the first time in years she’s seen him this peaceful. Where he isn’t hampered by the demons and the mistakes of the past; his brain unburdened and at rest. His body pain free. Breaths slow and even. Relaxed. Right arm resting across his stomach, left lying flat on the mattress. And that’s the hand she takes; holding tightly as the fingers of her other hand repeatedly drift along his forearm.

“She wanted me to tell you that she loves you. And she misses you. She left you a couple voicemails; I’ll play them for you when your phone charges. I don’t know what to tell her. To tell any of them. I’ve never had to give this kind of news. You’re so much better at this than I am. This whole parenting thing. You always have been. You’re a ten; I’m hovering somewhere around...I don’t know...a six. Although you’d probably tell me I’m full of shit and that I’m being too hard on myself. I just wish I could talk to you about all of this. You’re way better at figuring this kind of stuff out than I am.”

She laces their fingers together, thumb brushing against the side of his. “And just so you know, I’m kind of pissed you had the nerve to wake up while I wasn’t here. I’ll try not to be offended that you woke up for another woman and not me. Unless you’re just pretending to sleep; hoping that I’ll just shut and you leave you alone. Sorry buddy, you’re stuck with me. For about another fifty years.”

She lightly scrapes her fingernails along his forearm, watching his face for any sign of impending consciousness. “And speaking of being stuck with me, I went through your things and your wedding ring has mysteriously disappeared. No one has seen it. Not in the ER, not in the OR. So it looks like you’re finally going to have to upgrade. You’ve only been talking about that for HOW long? I know you hate change; I know you’ve got a connection to the first one. But it looks like you’re going to have to suck it up and get a new one. Or, I could just go ahead and pick one out for you and surprise you with it. Our anniversary in three months, you never know. Looks like you’re not going to be getting your normal gift, sorry. You’ll have to settle for something else.”

She had been surprised at how much it had hurt; realizing that the ring was in fact gone. She had searched the bag of blood soaked clothes; rummaging through every pocket in hopes that he’d either taken it off before going into the storage facility of someone else -maybe Koen or Rata on the way to the hospital- had removed it and tucked it away. She couldn’t imagine hospital staff NOT giving it to her. But just when she thought her heart possibly couldn’t break even more, it had. And instead of tears, she’d felt anger. An all consuming rage towards Nathan. It was his fault, after all. He was the only one to blame for all of this; her husband’s battered and bloodied body, the weeks and months and maybe even years of recovery that lay ahead of him, the thousands of miles separating her and her children. Now the missing ring. There was only one person to blame for all of it. And while he was dead and that should be enough to give her a sense of comfort, satisfaction, and finality, it only made her even angrier.

She’d called home about it. Preferring to speak to Ovi or Nik or even Anil. Someone with at least an ounce of compassion in their bodies. Instead she’d been relegated to talking to Kyle. And while he’d listened to her long winded, rambling rage towards Nathan and the world in general, and her whining and complaining about the ring being lost, he hadn’t been the most sympathetic when it came to advice giving.

“It’s just a cheap piece of jewellery. Put on your big girl pants and get him a new one. No big deal. It’s your own fault you’re in this mess anyway. If you had just listened to all of us and left him a long time ago, you…”

She’d hung up. Not even giving him the chance to finish.

“I miss you,” she says, and issues a long, shaky sigh. “I know that sounds weird because you’re literally right here. But I do. I miss you. I miss you so much. I miss how we sneak the good snacks after the kids go to bed; sit on the couch eating ice cream right out of the carton. I miss how you tease me about being so short but never complain when I ask you to reach something at the bottom of the washing machine or on the top shelves in the kitchen. And I miss those talks. You know the ones. In the middle of the night AFTER we’ve done other things. We’ve always had those talks; right from day one. I can’t remember who started it, but do remember you complaining about how cuddly I was. It was a half assed complaint, mind you. I saw the smile on your face; you didn't mind it one bit. And you were a pretty good cuddler for someone who said they hated it so much. Maybe you secretly liked it and you just had never found someone you WANTED to cuddle. I know, it’s not very bad ass mercenary; being a cuddler. I’ve always loved that about you. That you’re such a study in contradiction. Everyone else only gets the one side of you; the mercenary side. But you’ve always let me see all of you. Even seven years ago. After that first time, you never hid it from me. Who you really are. For some reason you never felt a reason to hide it from me. And I think that’s one of the things that made me fall in love with you as fast as I did. That you were so honest and real and you didn’t pretend to be someone you weren’t. You didn’t hide the fact that you were a mess. And you didn’t care that I was either.”

Esme reaches out to move his hair off his forehead, then uses a fingertip to trace the scar that curves over the bridge of his nose. “I really do miss you, Tyler. And I know it probably sounds stupid to you because you ARE alive and you ARE going to be fine, but I can’t help it. I’ve spent seven years with you. Being able to hear your voice and your laugh whenever I want and seeing you smile and that cute little frown and pout you get when you’re really focused on something. Or when you’re trying so hard not to laugh when one of the kids drops the F bomb in the correct context. Remember that time in Telluride when we were in town and someone was texting and driving and turned into the crosswalk while you were walking with the twins? And TJ flipped him the bird and called him a stupid fucker? I wonder where he learned THAT from? You didn’t know whether to give him shit or be proud of him. I know you don’t think being adorable can go hand in hand with being a bad ass, but you manage somehow.”

She runs her knuckles along his jaw, then lowers her head to press a kiss to his forearm. “I just need you to be okay,” she says, and struggles to hold back the tears. “And I don’t want to hear any of your shit about how strong I am and I’m more than capable of doing this by myself; raising five kids. And maybe I am. Maybe I could handle it. Maybe I could handle them and another one. But I don’t want to do this by myself. That isn’t what I signed up for six and a half years ago. We’re supposed to do it together. And I’m not letting you back out on me. Ever. So I really need you to be okay. Because I need you. More than you realize. And probably more than I’ve ever let on. Why do it alone when you have someone so amazing to do it with? So you have to get better, okay? I need you to get better. Besides, you still owe me a trip. You have this really uncanny ability of getting out of taking me on trips, you know that?”

She releases her hold on his hand, then wraps both arms around his and lays her forehead in the crook of his elbow. Staying there for several minutes; eyes closed as she desperately holds back the flood of tears. And she almost doesn’t feel it; that light brush of fingers against one of her arms. Wondering if she actually just imagined it. Or perhaps his body had given an involuntary shiver or jerk; a known side effect from the meds.

“Don’t cry, baby.” His voice is barely above a whisper. Quiet and weak. But very much him.

She raises her head to look at him. And the tears that threaten now are ones of relief. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

“So you WERE pretending to be asleep.”

“I was listening.”

“Always the strong, silent type.”

“Please don’t cry. I hate when you cry.”

“It’s happy tears, I promise. Can you see me properly?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Well you’re pretty doped up. You could be seeing five of me for all I know.”

“Just one.”

“Out of both eyes or….?”

“Not so good out of the right. But yeah. Out of both.”

“I don’t think you’re really supposed to be awake right now. The doctors sort of said you wouldn’t be for a while.”

“Fuck ‘em. I do what I want.”

Esme grins, then pushes the chair away from the side of the bed and stands. “Yeah, you always do.” She presses a kiss to the corner of his mouth. “How are you feeling?”

“Okay.”

“Are you in pain?”

“No. Just tired”

“Well you’ve had a hell of a day,” she reasons, combing her fingers through his hair and resting her hand on the top of his head. “As happy as I am that you’re awake, you really need to go back to sleep. That’s what you need right now. Sleep.”

Tyler nods. “You okay?”

“I’m okay.”

“The baby?”

“The baby’s fine. You don’t need to worry about us. There’s a lot of people that are stepping up to take care of us. Time to worry about yourself for a bit. Just close your eyes, okay?”

“Cold.”

“You’re cold?”

He nods once more.

“I can go and find you another blanket. I can…”

“No,” he quickly objects. “Stay. Don’t go.”

“I won’t,” she promises. “I won’t go anywhere. I’m right here.” She places a hand on the side of his face and presses a kiss to his temple. “I’m not leaving. I’m right here.”

“You’re warm.”

“It’s your sweater. I always steal them. They seem to keep me warmer than mine do. Here…” she shrugs out of the hoodie and gently lays it over him. “...that’ll help. You really need to sleep, Tyler. That’s the only way you’re going to get better and get out of here. You need to close your eyes and get some rest, alright?”

“Alright.”

“I’ll be here when you wake up. However long that is.”

“Love you.”

“I love you, too.” She presses a kiss to the bridge of his nose, then rests her forehead against his. Eyes closed as her fingers continue to run through his hair. It is soft and comforting. Soothing. Quickly helping him drift off once more.

#Tyler Rake #Tyler Rake fan fiction #Tyler Rake fan fic #Best Part of Me #Chris Hemsworth character #extraction #extraction 2020

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iamcinema · 3 years

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IAC Reviews #18: The Basement (1989)

Well, here we are again.

I mentioned this with a previous review on Captives, but this year, in spite of all the awfulness that has gone on, it’s been surprisingly kind to me as far as getting lucky with uncovering stuff that has slid through the cracks. With Captives, I’ve waiting roughly ten or so years to finally get the chance to see it in all it’s mediocre, obscure glory. I wasn’t too sure when I’d ever get the chance to see Tim O’Rawe’s super 8 anthology, The Basement either given it’s own obscure and odd history. That day is finally here, and needless to say I couldn’t be more excited. ________________________________________

The Basement is a 1989 super 8 horror anthology directed by Timothy O’Rawe, whose only other major, notable credit is Ghoul School the following year. Our story centers on that of four strangers who find themselves a mysterious basement where they’re met by an entity only known as The Sentinel who shows them their inevitable fates and what awaits them in the great beyond.

The film’s history is a bit spotty from what I could find, but the short version is that it was in production for just a bit over three weeks before O’Rawe abandoned it, leading to him eventually work on Ghoul School. It presumably sat in storage forgotten for roughly 20 years until Camp Motion Pictures edited it in 2010 and distributed it in 2011 as The Basement: Super 80s Retro Collection; which also included Cannibal Campout, Captives, Video Violence, and Video Violence 2. Now, as to how it was rediscovered, I’m not sure. I don’t know if it’s a case like Metal Noir where it was found on accident or O’Rawe found it in his collection again before handing it off to CMP. Now, with that said, I feel like we have a bit of a situation on our hands because I don’t know how fair this review might turn out given what we know for the time being.

The Basement in One Gif:

Oh, oh you guys. I think I found the perfect film and it might outshine Las Vegas Bloodbath here with just the finest, most outstanding acting and line delivery I’ve ever seen. I knew from the first three minutes that I was in for something special and seeing it all over again is just. Wow. ________________________________________

So, before I dive in I think I should say that I’m not sure how fair this is going to be given that the film was abandoned and was more than likely unfinished. I can’t make heads or tails of it all with the plot holes going on or the clumsy acting and dialogue, like if it’s a timing and budget problem or what. It’s truly fucking bizarre. It also doesn’t help that without a vague plot summary online, you probably won’t have much of an idea as to what’s going on, and this is going to cause a ton of problems from the jump.

With the opening, we’re already off to a bad start. We see our main four wandering around a dingy basement, wondering how they’re going to get out. There’s no rhyme or reason for it. They’re just sort of there and we aren’t told how they ended up there. Now, I don’t know if this is a problem with the writing and it was never considered or it was probably with the timing and the scene was never shot before O’Rawe abandoned the film. It would have been nice to have say, a Cube or Saw scenario where they all just woke up there.

From what I found, it says they were summoned there, presumably by The Sentinel or the evil energy from the house that they supposedly released, but that still raises the question of why they didn’t go back the way they came. If the house trapped them inside, then it surely wasn’t conveyed or alluded to. It’s not like an underground mine or cave where it’s easy to get lost. There’s also the question of why the Sentinel is choosing to specifically punish them, given that he shows them visions of their futures that will ultimately condemn them with no chance of redemption. So, we’re going into predestination territory?

Next to this, the more obvious problem is the acting and line delivery. It’s pretty damn bad, full of overreacting and what I can only guess is just bad dubbing. Once again, I can’t tell if the dubbing came about at the hands of CMP or it was already like that when O’Rawe was working on it. It’s likely going to be the best-worst thing about this, so I hope you’re in the mood for bad cheese. ________________________________________

Our first story, The Swimming Pool, centers on Victoria who, for some reason, really has it out for her husband and we’re never told why. She just hates him because “plot device” I guess. The bad line delivery and dubbing shines here and it’s boarding on being horrible and comedic, which isn’t the best way to kick us off into things.

We find that after her husband goes for a swim that there’s some sort of water entity in the pool and she sort of just has a odd reaction to it all, where one moment she’s reacting to it and the next she’s sitting by the water. I can’t tell if this is supposed to take place the same day, which it looks like, or they didn’t to a good job to show some sort of transition to another point in time. Also, she has names of her enemies and other doodles scribbled in a book like an eighth grader for some reason. It’s so corny and cheesy.

There’s no sort of lore or explanation for where the pool demon thing came from, let alone why Victoria feels compelled to do this. The ending also makes no sense either when we see what becomes of her either. It’s should be noted that this chapter is just around the ten minute mark, making it the shortest of the lot. Now, I can’t tell if it’s like this intentionally or there were more shots planned, but didn’t get filmed due to the film being abandoned. I’m not too sure, but it’s probably the worst of the four.

We get our next chapter in the form of Trick-or-Treat, a sort of Christmas Carol style story centering on a widowed high school teacher who is visited by various monsters who demand he changes his ways for hating kids and disrespecting the spirit of Halloween. We get an interesting fantasy sequence where he unleashes his pent up anger our on his students before veering off a bit towards this story’s sort of second act where the spirit of his wife visits him, warning him to change his ways before he faces a similar fate she has. You’d think that would lead to a sort of revelation for him to do something, but it doesn’t. Like, man, you can’t even just fake it for a day or anything? It’s not like they implied they were going to keep tabs on you every Halloween or anything, so why make a big deal about it?

If I had to find some sort of positive about this one, it’s that it probably has the most decent special effects and makeup work of the four. But, of course I’m not sure how much of a positive that is and what it says about what we can expect from the other two stories. It may or may not also be the most rounded of them too, again, not sure if that’s a major positive given when we have to work with and it works fairly decently as just a stand alone short film on its own.

The third chapter brings us to Zombie Movie, centering on a film crew working on a low budget zombie flick with their asshole director, Adelman, and things slowly go to shit when their picture becomes a reality. Hmm, low budget 80s zombie flick...bad director...I think I’ve heard of this before! It’s also neat to see a small easter egg here in the form of the production assistant, played by JR Bookwalter, wearing a Dead Next Door shirt, as O’Rawe got a special thanks notice in the credits of that film as well. The dubbing here is particularly awful, but at least he wasn’t wrong when he said the zombies look like assholes!

As for why any of this is happening, we don’t get an answer. Why? Who cares! Maybe it just hearkens back to the last story where it’s happening due to the director disrespecting the art of zombie films. Your guess is as good as mine. It’s a shame too that the acting here absolutely sucks for the most part because this could have been the best one of the bunch...maybe. There’s a bit of an issue towards the end where the director immediately jumps to there being zombies on the loose and not a bunch of jackass trespassers causing trouble, but maybe there’s a deleted or unrecorded scene where the actresses tell him what the PA was freaking out over and he got paranoid? I’m not too sure. Either way, it feels like a sloppy way to bring things to a close.

The final chapter brings us to Home Sweet Home, the simple story about a guy named Scott who purchases a house in the countryside with a gruesome history and begins to question his sanity in the process when it seems like the rumors about it might be true after all. It’s arguably the most generic of the four and here I would say that’s a compliment to play it as safe as possible.

Almost right away, I noticed something off, and I don’t mean with the dubbing because that’s weird on it’s own. There’s a weird point in the conversation he has with the realtor about the house where she mentions that part of the legend with the house is that the owner committed suicide after going on a killing spree and it ties into why they haven’t found him. I can’t tell if it was a clumsy way to explain things, but wouldn’t it make sense for the police to have found him if that was the case? Again, your guess is as good as mine. With that being said, I hope you enjoy night shots because we’re going to get a ton of them!

Things begin to pick up a bit after Scott arrives to the new place and starts to get settled in with the help of a friend who shows up after talking to the realtor. I’m not sure how he thought he would get lucky that way, but alright. The conversations afterward with his girlfriend are also what you can expect as far as acting goes too, which isn’t anything too special. From here on out, I anticipated a ton of squinting because it’s hard to tell what’s going on at any point if there isn’t even a little bit of candlelight. It’s like watching Nekro, but somehow worse, yet better than Blood Lake, which sucks because if some of these shots weren’t so damn dark, the special effects would look pretty damn cool. It’s also kind of a downer in a way to know what comes next given how this guy wasn’t an asshole who had it coming like the other three did too.

The film ends with the Sentinel showing them what awaits them now that they’ve been judged for their actions, and it goes the way I’m sure you can already picture it going before we close to the credits with some mediocre 80s tunes. Estus Pirkle approved perhaps?

________________________________________

So, that was The Basement. It was a weird ride from start to finish and I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about it. It’s one giant anomaly and I feel like now I have more questions than answers.

I mentioned it before, but it’s worth saying again that I want to know how much of the problems here are just a result of the project being abandoned, the film naturally being this flimsy, or CMP had something to do with it because I feel like I had this issue too when it came to Captives and I can’t tell if they how much of the film was really saved and how much of it was butchered by Majestic Home Video. It could be a bit of everything here, though I don’t want to believe that CMP would try to sabotage this given how long it had been out of the public eye for.

That being said, there’s so much going on here and trying to wrap my head around it hurts. I can’t tell if the acting is naturally this trashy or it’s only enhanced by the dubbing. It also feels like more stuff was supposed to be going on, but it just didn’t for one reason or another and I’m not sure if that robs something from it or was for the best.

As I mentioned with the whole Swimming Pool chapter, it feels like something else was originally planned to happen at some point and things just fell through. It would have been nice to have a sort of story line like with the Are You Afraid of the Dark episode, “The Tale of the Dark Music” where Victoria makes some sort of deal with the entity in exchange for something in return. It would explain more of her logic and reasoning behind her method of madness instead of it all seeming random.

With Trick-or-Treat, having more padding or explanation to justify his hatred of kids and Halloween would have been great too and not slow down the pace of the story. Hell, give me a brief one-off bit like with Night of the Demons where they’re being a bunch of dicks to the old guy. There, problem solved. It’s a lot easier than a single, brief shot of some kids who poorly try to egg his house. Again, nothing would have been lost here if they went that direction, unless the whole point was to make him the old geezer type who just hates the season and that’s it.

Zombie Movie probably could have had the most potential to be the best of the four if it wasn’t for the painfully bad dubbing and acting. If that was a non-issue, I could buy into the premise more without much of a problem. Plus, it feels like a cameo on part of Bookwalter with how flimsy the execution was, or even Carl Burrows who played one of the B actors and has the most prolific career of the cast; being in other stuff like Ghoul School, Psycho Sisters, Toxic Avenger III, Crybaby Lane, Mysteries at the Museum, The Sadist, and Psycho Street to name a few.

Home Sweet Home still feels like the more normal and grounded one of the bunch and I’m not sure if playing it safe helped in the end either. It probably could have been saved if it was stretched out a bit more and we got to see more into Scott’s psyche and go on the journey with him about whether or not his dreams and hallucinations are real. It also doesn’t help either that some of the night shots make it hard to tell what’s going on because what you can make out with some of the gore scenes are pretty cool and it feels like we got robbed here. I’m still not sure why Scott is being thrown under the bus with Victoria, Charles, or Mr. Adelman considering his only “crime” seems to be not taking a superstitious rumor seriously. Talk about harsh.

Beyond this, there’s not a ton to talk about either. The music is fairly average and not all that interesting, being what one could expect from something on a low budget for the time and when your sound producer and editor is one of your guys providing additional voice work, you can only expect so much and even then it’s probably too much. This is such an oddity and I’m still kind of surprised that it was found again after all these years. It’s funny how things like this just slip through the cracks of time and it’s good to know this more than likely won’t go missing again, though I’m in no rush to take this out of the vault to revisit any time soon.

Rating: 3/10

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squidthechaotickid · 4 years

Text

Ink was really bored, which never lead to anything good. He had done some dumb stuff before while bored, including drinking too much of a paint color or accidentally blowing part of an AU up.

"What should I do?" He thought aloud. If he'd been at Blue's house, Dream would've probably found something for the artist to do so he didn't accidentally destroy the entire Multiverse. Unfortunately, he wasn't here, and Ink had no one to keep him from doing something dumb.

"Hmmm… I have an idea!" Ink grinned as he painted a new outfit for himself, throwing it on and looking at himself in a painted mirror. He wore a white shirt with a light blue hoodie and brown shorts.

"I'll go to a kindergarten class and pretend to be a student! What could possibly go wrong?"

Ink didn't learn from his past mistakes.

After finding a suitable AU (and foraging a few papers to make him an official student), Ink wandered into the school. He followed a few students who seemed to be around the age he was looking for. Soon he was walking into a classroom full of kids. He took a random seat, looking at the teacher.

The woman looked up, noticing him immediately. "Looks like we have a new student in class. What's your name?" "Ink," the artist replied. The teacher smiled. "I'm Mrs. Anderson, nice to meet you Ink." Ink nodded in response, eager to start whatever it was students did that would cure his boredom.

It had been a while, and it was okay. Definitely not as cool as he'd expected, but still. He made some cool friends, though. There was Ava, that human girl with the black hair, Joshua, the other human with curly brown hair, the bunny monster Jess and her twin Johnny. They were all doodling together when the teacher called out.

"Alright students, time for recess! Line up, would Ink like to be the line leader?" Ink's eyes changed to stars at that. "OF COURSE!" he shouted, a bit too enthusiastic. "Shhh, we aren't outside yet, use your inside voice." "Oops, sorry!" Ink followed the teacher, leading the class to the playground where they immediately began to run around, Ink climbing onto the playset.

"Hey, Ink!" He turned to face his new friends. Johnny waved at him. "Wanna play with us?" He grinned. "Sure! I have some cool toys!" "Really?!" Joshua grinned. "What are they?!"

Ink pulled out a small paintbrush. "Watch this!" He began to paint something, starting with a line, then a hilt, and a blade…

Ink made swords. He made 5 different swords. For kindergarteners. He isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer.

"WHOA!" Ava picked one up, stumbling back a bit. "THESE ARE SUPER COOL!" Ink put a hand over her mouth. "Shhhhh, don't tell the teacher I gave them to you. Now, let's go stab stuff!"

The kids cheered, charging at a tree and beginning to hack away at it. Somehow, they managed not to cut off any of their limbs. It didn't take long for the teacher to notice 5 students beating a tree, though she had assumed they were pretending to use sticks as swords.

Oh, how wrong she had been.

"hOW DID YOU GUYS GET SWORDS?!" Jess ignored the question, instead screeching, "FOR HONOR!" and stabbed the tree again. Mrs. Anderson quickly snatched the swords away, causing the children to pout in protest.

"Those were ours!" "You do NOT need those. I… I think I'm going to end recess early." As she began to round the students up, Ink poked Joshua. "Meet me by the monkey bars tomorrow, I have plenty more toys!" Josh nodded, grinning, before quickly running into line.

The rest of the day went accident free, though the teacher didn't let any of the kids out of her sight. In the end, Ink was pretty happy with it.

When he went home, Dream asked what he'd done that day. "Stabbed a tree with some kindergarteners and swords. I think I'm going back tomorrow!" Dream looked over, blinking a few times before sighing. "Don't get anyone killed, and sure."

Ink grinned. Looks like he was leading a double life as a kindergartener now.

#Ink is being an idiot again #Someone stop him before he does something dumb #Ink #Ink sans #Ink!Sans #Undertale #Undertale AU #hey I did a thing

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blurry-fics · 4 years

Text

Chapter Twelve

Where Did We Go | Series Masterlist

Warnings: Angst, angry!Tyler

Word Count: 2049

Author’s Note: Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope you enjoy this chapter today :) (picture credit)

I idly drew doodles in the margins of my notepad as the team droned on about some matter that didn’t really concern me. My head was so heavy on my hand that I knew it would leave a mark when I finally pulled away, but I didn’t care. Next to me, Josh actually seemed to be paying attention, but he was still drumming his fingers on the table. I liked the beat.

Another song lyric floated through my brain, so I quickly wrote it down beneath the others before it got away from me. Lately, it felt like the only thing these meetings were good for was coming up with fragments of song lyrics and making my throat sore. Nothing else productive ever seemed to get done.

“We got the visuals back from the artists. I have some stills here, but you should all be receiving an email tonight with the full videos for review.”

Now this actually seemed interesting. I scribbled down the words “visual review” in the corner of my page, ripped it off, and stuck it into my pocket. Nobody seemed to notice.

“We think that the visuals are adequate, but not exactly as we intended.”

We?

“And as a result, we’re thinking about cutting the payment of the artists. This will also save us some room in the budget to put elsewhere.”

I leaned forward in my chair. People’s eyes immediately went to me, anticipating what I was about to say.

“Cutting the artist’s pay? How do we know if their work is ‘adequate’ or not if my team hasn’t even had a chance to do a full review?”

“Well our artistic board-”

“Exactly, your artistic board. Last time I checked, your artistic board isn’t the one putting on a show,” I said. “And no matter how we feel about the visuals, the artists did the work and deserve full payment for their time and effort.”

“But they didn’t deliver-”

“They did. The visuals were done to the best of their ability and provided by the deadline that we gave them. We’re giving them full payment and my team can decide whether the work is satisfactory or not.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Joseph, but then we’re going to have to raise ticket prices to make up for the losses.”

“What is all this crap about raising ticket prices?” My voice was getting louder now. “We gave you the budget months ago! Everything was laid out with enough money to cover all costs and keep ticket prices exactly where we wanted them, but your company decided to put things off until it didn’t work anymore.” Josh reached out and put a hand on my back. My shoulders relaxed, but my voice remained raised. “Our fans are not in charge of paying the price for your poor choices. That art looks fantastic and, if I’m being honest, the only people here that aren’t delivering satisfactory work is you.”

I stood up then, sending my chair flying out behind me. Josh’s hand fell away from my back. I turned on my heel and headed for the door, still fuming.

“Where are you going?” someone asked. I couldn’t place the voice.

“I’m taking a break. I’ll be back in ten.”

I walked down the hallway, unsure of where I was going, until I found a sign marked with the stairs. My hands were curled into fists at my side until my nails were digging into my palms. It had been a long time since I was this angry, but the stupidity of the company we had chosen to put on this tour was sending me over the edge. Tour was only a week and a half away and it still felt like we had more loose ends than we did answers.

Most of all, I hated that this was what I was missing out on time with my family for.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and immediately dialed Y/N’s number. She would know what to say to get me calm again before I walked back into that conference room. My leg bounced as the phone rang, alleviating only a small portion of the emotions I was feeling. They were quickly getting overwhelming.

“Tyler?” she answered. Just that simple word was enough to release some of the tension in my shoulders.

“Hi, love.”

“What’s going on? Aren’t you supposed to be in a meeting right now?”

I pinched the bridge of my nose, “Yes, but it’s not going well. I just blew up on the company representative.”

“Oh no,” she sighed. “What are they trying to get you to do today?”

“Raise ticket prices again! It doesn’t matter how many times I tell them I don’t want to do that, they won’t let it go.”

“Ty, hey, it’s ok. At the end of the day, you still have the power in this situation.”

“I know, I’m sorry.”

“Is there somewhere else that you can cut costs a little bit? Weren’t you talking about maybe switching out some of the fancier effects for something a little simpler?”

“Yeah, there’s definitely places that we could do it, they just don’t like to listen to those ideas as much. It’s hard to convince them that it would actually help the budget.”

“I know, but it’s worth a shot. It’s like I’ve been saying, you and Josh just need to team up and get your ideas in there. Plus, you have Mark to back you up too. The power is there.”

“I’ll talk to them before the next meeting and really get things solid. I hate to ignore the progress that we are making, but the problems just feel so much bigger right now.”

“You’re going to get this worked out, Ty. I know you will. Think of how much you’ve been through to get here. Even if, at the end of the day, things don’t work out exactly how you want them to, you know people will be happy as long as you’re there singing the songs with them. You were popular even before you had the big productions.”

I sighed. “You’re right. I’ll try to keep that in mind. I just get so wrapped up in this vision that Josh and I created that I forget it’s the music that really matters. Thank you.”

“Of course. I know the show is going to be great no matter what you end up doing.”

“You always know the right thing to say,” I smiled.

“It’s a talent of mine,” she laughed.

“I just wish that I wasn’t stuck at this stupid meeting today.”

“It’s ok, Ty,” she said, but I could tell that her tone had changed. “You’re doing important band stuff. We’ll have a break soon enough.”

“I hope so.”

Our conversation was interrupted by the door to the stairs swinging open. Josh’s head poked through the door, quickly scanning the area. Relief came over his face as soon as he saw me.

“There you are. We need you back in the conference room. Things are happening.”

“Ok, let me finish this up and then I’ll be there.”

Josh nodded and disappeared again, letting the door swing shut behind him. I waited for it to fully close before I started talking to Y/N again.

“Sorry about that. Josh showed up.”

“I heard.”

“Anyway, I guess they need me back there.”

“Time to let you go?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright. I love you, and don’t let them get to you, ok, Ty? I know you can find a way to put on the show you’ve been dreaming about.”

“Thank you, Y/N. I love you too.”

“Bye.”

“Wait.”

“Yeah?”

“Did you remember that I’m going over to my parents’ tonight for dinner?”

“I remember now,” she laughed. It sounded forced.

“Ok.”

“Good luck, Ty.”

“Thanks.”

“Bye.”

I ended the call, now feeling a different sort of discomfort in my chest. It took me a moment to finally get off the steps and walk out the door back towards the conference room. My mind was running its endless loop of questions, but no matter where I looked, I came up with no answers. It felt like a weight in my head, dragging me further and further down.

I hadn’t felt that way in a long time.

* * *

The meeting finally ended around four that night. There was another one scheduled for the next day - which the company claimed would be the last additional meeting we had to schedule - although after today’s events, I was feeling hopeful. They were finally starting to listen to the ideas that Josh and I had, helped along by the fact that Y/N had given me a new sense of confidence about the show. After a few more emails and phone calls, I was sure that things would finally start coming together.

My mom was the one to open the door when I knocked. She immediately pulled me into a hug, squeezing me tight enough that I nearly coughed. I didn’t blame her, I had only been able to find enough time to see my family once since I had gotten home from tour a week and a half ago, and most of my siblings hadn’t even been around. This time had been a little more planned so that Zack and Maddy would be able to stop by too.

“I’ve missed you so much,” my mom said, pressing a kiss to the top of my head.

“I’ve missed you too, Mom.”

I went around and hugged each of my siblings and my dad. It was nice to have everyone together again for a family dinner. The last time we had a get together like this was before the Australian leg of the tour nearly a month and a half ago.

“Dinner is already ready, if you guys want to eat. I made it early since I figured you would be hungry after your meeting, Tyler.”

“Thanks,” I smiled.

Everyone stayed pretty quiet, aside from small talk, as we dished up our food. I was sure that my family was full of questions to ask me, but they knew better than to try and ask before I was settled at the table. Right now, my mind was on food and food only.

We eventually all sat down at the table in the places that we had been assigned since childhood. Once everyone was comfortable and had taken a couple bites of food, the questions slowly began to come out.

“How was your meeting today, Tyler?” my dad asked.

“It was alright. I kind of blew up on the representative today-”

“Tyler,” my mom chimed in. Zack barely concealed a laugh.

“Mom, listen, it’s only because they keep trying to make us raise ticket prices even though we’ve had the budget planned out for weeks. It didn’t matter how many times I told them that wasn’t going to happen, they kept insisting.”

My mom kept a disappointed look on her face, but deep down I could tell that she knew I was right. From day one, she had always made sure that I knew staying true to myself was vital as I continued to pursue music. That advice had stuck with me since.

“Are they starting to listen though?” Maddy asked. “I mean, there’s only like a week and a half until tour starts, right?”

“Yeah, they’re finally coming around. Josh and I have been fighting with them pretty much all week, though. They’re bringing us in for another meeting tomorrow.”

“Another one?” Jay asked.

“They flew Josh in?” Zack chimed in right after.

“Yes and yes. That’s how big of a problem all of this is.”

“Geez,” my dad said. “That sounds intense.”

“It is. I’m barely hanging on by a thread here.”

My mom reached over and reassuringly rubbed my shoulder. “You’re safe here, Tyler. We’re not going to let you fall.”

I quickly glanced around the table to see that the rest of my family was nodding along with my mom. Warmth spread throughout my chest at knowing that they still had my back, even if I couldn’t always make as much time as I wanted to for them. At the end of the day, they were still my family.

We’re not going to let you fall.

* * * * *

Taglist

@tylersheavydirtysoul @faceofcontvsions @ohprettyweeper @shaytwentyonep @tyler-josephs-floof @angelicopioid @topownsmyheart @harishaanne @addictwithaheavydirtycheetah @somethingboutyou1 @boiled-onionrings @heythereitm3 @gaysludge @breadbinishigh @5secondsofmoxley @patdsinner33 @littlerachelbee @royal-avengers

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statistically-unlikely-monster · 4 years

Text

Secrets No More

Chapter 3: Trials and Tribulations

Poor Matt is just trying to be a good friend but Tom and Edd are acting weird. (Thank you to thelollipoper for the chapter name)

Edd slipped in the house just before 1:00 AM. All was quiet except for the sound of pittering paws against the floor. A purring ball of fluff rubbed itself against Edd’s leg, green eyes gleaming in the dark.

“Hey Ringo,” Edd whispered, patting the cat’s head, “Can’t play right now. I-” his sentence was cut off by his own yawn, “I need some sleep.”

He crept up the stairs, casting a quick glance at Tom’s door. It was opened just a crack, but he thought better of looking inside. Edd slipped into his own bedroom, hid his costume under the bed, and passed out before he could even cover himself up.

Not long after, Matt woke up, already energized and ready for the day, “Good morning beautiful,” he flirted with himself in the mirror, “Aren’t you the epitome of beaut- AHH!” He was cut off by Tom, who came in without him noticing somehow.

Tom was covered head to toe in twigs and mud. This was the second set of pajamas he destroyed. His old ASDFLand shirt had more holes than Swiss cheese, and his sleep pants were practically shorts.

“What happened to you?!” Matt shouted.

“…Long night,” Tom muttered, rubbing his eyes, “Woke up in the backyard this time.”

“You and your furry friends need to calm down with the partying. You look awful” Matt commented, grabbing a hairbrush off his desk to comb out the twigs from Tom’s hair.

Tom was too tired to tell Matt to get off, so he just stood still and let it happen, “Gee, thanks.”

Matt chimed, “You know what, I need to make an update on my channel.” He gestured over at his desk. A webcam sat among several different bottles and tools that Tom was pretty sure were for torture despite Matt telling him they were for taking care of the skin, “How about I give you a makeover?”

“Polite pass.” Tom grumbled, pausing to think for a minute before speaking up,“There’s uh… there’s actually something else I was wondering about. Do you know any ways to keep calm?”

Matt’s face lit up in excitement, “Oh, that’s easy! You could do meditation, that’s a good go to. If you’re not into that you can use lavender incense or hemp oil. There’s also something I do as a quick fix. Just try saying the alphabet backwards. You’ll forget all about what’s stressing you out because you’re busy trying to say it.”

Tom nodded, surprised that what Matt said sounded actually helpful for what he was trying to do, “What about staying awake?”

“Like fighting off drowsiness? Usually just drink some coffee and energy drinks-” Matt chirped before interrupting his own train of thought, “Wait, does this have something to do with what’s been going on with you?”

“Sort of.” Tom yawned, rubbing his “eyes”, “Thanks for the tips, Matt” He walked off with a small wave.

“Wait, at least tell me what you’re doing!” Matt called him. He dropped off the hairbrush on his dresser and poked his head out of his room.

Tom shouted at him from the bottom of the stairs, “Nah!"

Matt just sighed with a shake of his head. He slipped out of his room and went downstairs. Ringo weaved under his legs, almost tripping Matt on the last few steps.

"Whoa, watch where you’re going kitty,” Matt chuckled, reaching down to cradle Ringo in his arms, “What? Did Edd not feed you this morning?”

Ringo mewled as if saying yes, reaching little paws up to bop Matt on the nose.

“Alright, let’s go get you some food.” Matt chuckled, tickling Ringo’s soft belly. He waltzed into the kitchen holding the cat like his baby and froze. He felt a breeze brush past his face. He looked over and noticed that the backdoor was hanging wide open and letting the chilly fall air in, “Oh Tom, you left the back door open.”

Tom shook his head as he tried to figure out how to fix the coffee maker, “Nope.”

“Wh- oh,” Matt rounded the counter and saw what he was talking about. The back door was technically still closed and locked, but someone busted in the glass to the point there was nothing but a pile of shards right in front of it. A single claw mark was scratched into the metal frame, “Huh…Edd’s not going to like that.”

Tom kept quiet as to how it broke, but he just shrugged and said, “Blame the neighbors?”

Matt nodded, “Blame the neighbors.”

A few hours later, Edd sat at his desk, looking over the fur he found at the scene. It was short and covered in a sticky substance that made it stay together in a spike. As far as he could tell, it was some sort of hair gel.

Grabbing up his notepad, he took a quick sketch and made a list of what he found so far.

“Weirdest animal I ever seen,” he muttered, doodling his best guess of what it was in the corner. It looked something like a spiky haired dog.

Just as he got done, he looked back at the fur and froze. The clump was changing color. Somehow it went from a deep, almost black shade of purple to a soft brown. “What in the-” Edd gasped, quickly grabbing his phone and recording the change, “That’s so cool.”

Suddenly he heard footsteps coming toward his room. In a panic he shoved the fur into a desk drawer and flipped his notebook to an empty page. Matt poked his head in without knocking and smiled, “Oh hey, you’re awake! For a second there I thought you were going to sleep all day,” he paused, noticing the nervous expression on Edd’s face, “Please don’t tell me you’re acting weird too.”

Edd shook his head, “No, no, you just surprised me, that’s all.” He hopped up from his desk, grabbed his bag from under the bed, and headed for the door, “Look at the time, I should’ve been up by now. I need to go do some errands. Think you can hold down the fort while I’m gone?”

Matt nodded, “Yeah, should be easy enough. Tom and I were talking about relaxation stuff, so I think he’s planning a spa day for us.”

“At least it isn’t vodka.” Edd commented, “Alright, I’m heading out.” He headed out the front door, grabbing the handles of his bag just to make sure it was still there.

He walked halfway to the police station, stopping in an alley to change and hide his normal clothes. Pocketing his phone, he flew over and stopped right at the door.

The police station was a small concrete building painted bright white. Small hedges lined the front, and around the side were all the squad cars. Poweredd stepped in, immediately greeted by a guard.

“Hello,” He greeted, “I’m here to talk to the police chief.”

The guard looked him over and wordlessly unlocked the main doors leading into the lobby, “Talk to the secretary for an appointment.” The guard stated flatly, waiting to lock the doors behind him.

Poweredd made his appointment, then awkwardly sat around in the waiting room for a bit. Everyone stared at him because of his costume, so he just looked down at his feet and tried to ignore them. He was still a very obscure hero, so except for the select few people that knew him, he was just some weird grown man in a halloween costume.

“Well, well, well, bit early to see you,” The police chief soon arrived, sipping on a cup of coffee, “Come with me.”

The chief led Poweredd into his office, motioning for him to sit in the chair in front of his desk, “Donut?” He offered, holding out the mostly empty box for Poweredd.

Poweredd shook his head, commenting as the chief set the box aside, “Bit stereotypical for a cop to have donuts, don’t you think?”

The chief chuckled, “If I had a dollar for every time I heard that. But aside from that, what made you poke your head out before dark?”

Poweredd pulled out his phone and loaded up the video from before, “I think I found something important from last night. Here, look at this,” He handed the chief the phone and continued explaining, “I found this on the scene. It’s fur from something, definitely not an ordinary animal though. It’s color changing. Probably why we didn’t find any evidence or even catch the thing. It’s changing itself to blend in.”

The chief put down the phone and stroked his chin, “Well, that does explain quite a few things. But while we’re here exchanging clues, I found a little something while cleaning through the older files.” He reached down into his desk drawer and pulled out a thin file folder, “Call it a hunch, but I don’t think this is the first time that thing showed up.”

Poweredd opened up the folder to find several clippings of newspapers along with a single photo from a traffic cam. Suddenly it clicked as to why he was getting deja vu. Each piece showed the same thing; a large, hulking beast with a single empty socket in its head, two purple horns, and the same short spiky purple fur that he found at the scene, “Wait, that can’t be possible. Edu- I mean Numero Uno defeated that thing.”

The police chief shrugged, “From what I gathered, it disappeared that night without a trace. That thing was probably hiding under our noses this whole time. Why now of all times for it to come back, I don’t know, but it isn’t going to stop until someone stops it.”

Poweredd nodded, tucking everything back into the folder before handing it back to the police chief, “So what should I do then?”

“Well obviously keep doing your normal work at night, but I think it may also be of benefit to go undercover. Investigate around during the day for any sort of suspicious behavior.” The chief scribbled down his phone number on a spare napkin and handed it to Poweredd, “Report back to me the minute you find anything.”

Poweredd nodded, “Thank you sir. I won’t let you down!”

#eddsworld #ew edd #ew tom #ew matt #ew poweredd #ew monster tom #eddsworld fanfic #secrets no more chapter 3 #this is a bit of a filler chapter #don't worry good stuff is coming next chapter

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random-contemplations · 5 years

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So here’s the fanfic, I might write a pt2 if I get round to it. Also sorry the spacing is a bit shit on mobile, I promise it looks better on the desktop version!

Edit: the whole thing is up on my A03 which is random_contemplations if you want to check it out!

#crisana #skam españa #cris soto #joana bianchi #croana #crisana fic #croana fic #fanfic #tp

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goodbyejuly · 5 years

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[Vigilante!Seulgi] PT1

Warning: Violence, Language, Kidnapping

Genre: Angst, AU!

Kang Seulgi is the best girlfriend you could have ever asked for

She's kind, cute, a amazing dancer, and a talented artist

In fact, she has a whole sketchbook filled with drawings of you

There's just one issue you have with her

Her constant habit of staying out late

You've talked to her about it multiple times and she always says the same thing

"I went to work out. It takes my mind off things"

And you do believe her since her body is so toned there's no way she's not working out

You just hate how tired she looks in the morning after her workouts

"Seulgi, baby, maybe you should just stay in for the night. I know what working out does for you but you shouldn't over work your body" you says as you try to pull her back in bed

When you touch her hand she hisses and pulls it back slightly you look down at your lovers hands you let out a loud gasp

Her knuckles are covered in dark bruises

Before you can ask her what happened the TV cuts you off with a flash news report

"Good evening everyone" the news anchor starts "We have recently been informed that 5 men involved in underground dog fighting have been found beaten and tied to poles outside of a police station. When one man was asked about how they ended up there he told police that a woman wearing all black had beaten the 5 men with her bare hands and threatened to beat them again if they did not tell the police of their crimes. When he was asked about the appearance of the woman he said he couldn't see because she was wearing a mask that looked like a black bear."

You were extremely shocked by this

One girl took down 5 men like it was nothing

When you look up at Seulgi you see her give a small smile at the mugshots of the criminals

"Police say they still don't know all of the motives the girl may have and that she is very dangerous, so, police advise making safe choices while going out at night. If you have any knowledge on this situation the police encourage you to contact them immediately. Again, It is be-"

Before the news anchor can finish her sentence, Seulgi changes the channel and kisses you on the cheek

"I'm going to the gym" she says while picking up her duffel bag "Stay safe, we don't know if this vigilante girl's trouble. I love you, Y/N"

That's weird, you think, why is she worrying about me when she's the one leaving?

You again try to ask her a question but Seulgi's already out the door before you can say a single word

As time goes by you can't stop thinking about the 'vigilante' girl from the news

And you try you hardest to not worry about Seulgi, she's stayed out late before and always made it back in one piece

But you fear she'll run into the girl and become her next victim

You know Seulgi's strong but you don't think she can compete with a girl that can beat down 5 full grown men to a pulp

Having enough of your wild thoughts, you decided to call Seulgi's phone only to met with her voicemail several times

"Great, she leaves this late and doesn't even answer her phone" you sigh to yourself, having only one other option

Go find the girl yourself

You quickly get dressed and head out to search for your ditzy girlfriend

After a few minutes of walking you hear panicked breathing and hurried footsteps from behind you

When you turn around, a man, bleeding from his forehead, grabs you by the shoulders and tries to catch his breath

"Help me, please!" he begs. He shakes you causing you to panic

You start to panic even more when you see two other men run towards you in the same state as the first

"She's coming!" they say before running past you

Unsure of what to do you run with them

Whatevers coming after them probably won't treat you any differently

You turn around to catch a glimpse of what you're running from

And then you see it

You see her

The girl that beat up 5 men for dog fighting and threw them to the police like it was nothing was running so fast in your direction

"Fuck" is the only thing that you can say as you feel her get closer and closer to you

Tears start blocking your vision and you prepare for the worst only to have the girl run past you and jump on top of one of the men, bringing him down to the concrete

Out of panic and confusion you hide in a alley as the girl ruthlessly beats all three men

Only a minute passes and the only audible sound is the three men groaning in pain

You pray that the girl forgets about you and just does what she needs to do to the men

But, your prayers are soon denied as you hear the girl's footsteps get closer to your hiding spot

You try your best to curl up and hush your crying so the girl doesn't see you but she kneels in front of you, helps you up and tells you in a stern voice to go home

You don't give any second thoughts or objections to the masked girl and you run off to your house and when you get home you don't even think about sleeping

You wait for Seulgi to come home so you can tell her about everything that had happened

When Seulgi comes home a few hours later she looks pissed off, but that doesn't stop you from telling her what you had gone through

"Why would you leave knowing what was out there? I even told you to stay safe and you decided to ignore all of that!" she practically yells as she paces back and forth in your living room

"I did it because I was worried about you! I couldn't stop thinking about what you would do if something happened. You wouldn't answer your phone either!"

She softens up when she sees the worry in your eyes and opens up her arms to hug you

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you worry. I just don't want you putting yourself in danger for me" she whispers "I don't know what I would do if something happened to you ,Y/N"

You stay in each other's arms for a few minutes, basking in the familiar warmth the hug gives

When you pull away, you see her knuckles have split open and are slightly bleeding

"Oh my god, Seulgi! What are you doing to your hands?" you say while leaving to find the first-aid kit you have

Seulgi whispers a soft 'shit' before going back to her soft, ditzy attitude

"Oh, guess I'm punching the punching bag to hard" she nervously giggles

You tend to her hands in silence apologizing every now and then when she winces from the pain

As much as you trust your girlfriend you knew she was lying

There were too many things point to her doing way more that punching a gym bag

But, you say nothing and continue to aid to her knuckles

When you finished, she held your hands and gently kisses both

"Thank you, honey. We should sleep now, it's late and I know you're tired" she says while trying to pull you into your bedroom

You get in without hesitation and cuddle up to her but you still feel uneasy even in your girlfriend's arms

And it wasn't because of your incident earlier

It was because tonight was the first time in your years of dating Seulgi that you 100% knew she was lying

And it scared you

You always trusted Seulgi and knew that she would never lie to you

But knowing that the story of her wounds is a complete lie, you fear that the truth must be awful if Seulgi wants to keep it from you

Turning to face your now sleeping girlfriend, you place a quick kiss to her forehead before closing your eyes trying to clear your mind of any intrusive thoughts

When you wake up you notice Seulgi sitting up in bed facing you with her art journal

"Please don't move. I'm trying to draw you" she says with a soft voice

You were kinda used to this, Seulgi loved to draw especially if she got to draw you

But, she's never drawn you while you were sleeping so it was a little weird but still endearing

"Drawing me while I'm sleeping? A little weird don't you think babe?" you joke

"Hey, talking causes movement, love. Plus, you're adorable when you sleep"

You stay still until she puts down her pencil and shows you her work

"Woah, you're so talented" you say in awe

"And you're so beautiful. I'm gonna go take a shower, I forgot to last night"

"Yeah, you should. I love you but you really smell" but all Seulgi could do was smirk at your comment

"Aw, don't say that you really hurt my feelings" she pouts "Gimme a kiss"

When you playfully shake your head no, Seulgi lunges for you

"Ah, no stop!" you giggle as she continues to litters your face with small pecks

"I just wanna kiss my baby!" she says while struggling to place one finally kiss on you lips

"You can kiss me when you're out of the shower, smelly" you tease, still trying to stop her overflow of kisses

She pouts once again and finally gives up before getting out of bed

"Fine, but when I'm done I expect one out of this world kiss"

"You can have infinite kisses when you're done" you say with a wink before your girlfriend heads to the bathroom

While waiting for her to finish, you hear her phone go off in her gym bag

Deciding to find it so you could give it to her, you begin to start looking through her bag for it

But your search was soon put on hold when you see a black journal stuffed in there

Your first thought was that it was just another one if her many art journals but Seulgi's never had a plain black journal

There were no stickers, doodles, and her name was no where on the outside

Even though you knew it wasn't good to look through your partner's stuff, your curiosity took control and you opened up the journal

You stunned to see a drawing of a random person you'd never seen

But it wasn't a normal drawing, it looked like a wanted poster

The drawing of the person looked so intimidating and it was accompanied by information like height and the places they could be found at

But the part that scared you the most was the section titled: Crime

Shocked by the page you decide to flip through the whole journal in hopes of finding a different image but you are only met with similar ones

Murder, Robbery, Abuse

Your shoulders sink as you see the crimes in this book

You also notice how some of these images have huge red X's drawn on top of them

If you weren't already scared and confused, the next thing you saw definitely changed that

You see drawings of the 5 men found outside of the police station. Each one having a huge red X drawn on top of them

Then, to add to the already horrifying discovery, you see the 3 men from last night

The 3 men that were beat senseless by the vigilante girl. Each one decorated with a huge, red, X

"Oh my god" you whisper, trapped in a frozen state, unsure of what to do

You look back into Seulgi's gym bag unable to believe this was in her possession

As you search through her bag looking for any possible explanation you finally see it

A black bear mask

The same from last night

"Alright love, I'm ready for my kis-"

You turn to face her and are met with a face of sheer panic

"I-I uh..." she struggles to say anything as she continues to look at your scared face

"Please, don't call the police" she softly begs

She looks like she might cry and you see her nervously fiddle with her fingers

"I won't, I promise. I just want to know what's going on"

Your soft tone calms her down and it especially helps when you hold your hand out for her to hold

She takes it and sits next to you before begins to tell you everything

"I didn't tell you earlier because I didn't want you to get more involved than you already were. It's already dangerous that your dating me and I just thought if you were aware of my secret it would just make things worse for you" she says, sadness obvious in her voice

"Baby, I understand why you would be worried about me but, you need to tell me these things. I'm here for you, always"

Your words give her comfort but she is still hesitant

"I understand if you don't wanna be with me anymore. What I do isn't safe and I don't want anything to happen to you. It's r-"

"Are you kidding" you interrupt "You're the city's badass hero and I have the privilege to date you. Oh my God, I could be your sidekick!" you say with excitement

She giggles, feeling much better because of your words

"As cool as that would be, I would much rather you be my girlfriend"

"Suit yourself, I would make a great sidekick though."

You stare at her for a moment, just admiring her beauty

"I love you. And I always will, no matter what dangers your 'hobby' brings, I'll always stay by your side" you say staring into her eyes. Wanting her to see that you truly mean it

"Thank you. I love you too, more than anything"

"You know I never gave you that kiss you wanted" you say with a smirk

"Yeah, you know you should always keep your promises, love" she says before leaning in to kiss you

Sure, you and Seulgi did have plans to go out today but you figure it would be better for the two of you to stay in

After hours of laying together and talking you finally look at time and realize just how long you two had stayed in bed

"Oh my God, Seulgi it's almost 9 o'clock. We've been in bed all day!" you say. It was quite surprising to see that you've spent almost the entire in bed

"Let's keep it like that. This is nice" she says while still trying to cuddle you

"Hey, don't you have some vigilante stuff to be doing?"

"It can wait, I wanna spend my time with you"

As she buries her face in your chest you can't help but feel a little bit of guilt

"No. There are people that need help, bad guys that need their ass kicked. All of that's done by you. I can't let you pick me over them"

When you finish talking she looks up at you, searching your face for any emotion she can grasp

"Are you sure? I know what I do is important but you'll always be the most important person in my life. I don't want you to feel like y-"

"It's ok, Seulgi" you interrupt "People need you now, I can always have you later" you say with a soft smile

Seulgi pouts but nods and starts to get up

"Alright. I'll go save the day, again. Promise you won't come and look for me this time."

You stick out your pinkie with a smile

"I promise"

She interlocks her pinkie with yours and gives you one final kiss before grabbing her bag and leaving

While Seulgi's gone, you pass time by aimlessly scrolling through your phone

After a hour of doing nothing, you hear a soft knock on your door

Thinking it's just Seulgi knocking since she probably forgot her keys (again)

But when you open your door, you're met with nobody

Only a pink box accompanied by a small tag with the words 'To the lovely Y/N'

Taking the box inside, you begin to open it

Opening that box was one of the worst things that you've ever seen

You're met with a picture of you and Seulgi in your apartment

Taken from the outside your apartment

You continue to look through the box, only to be met with more pictures

You've been so oblivious

Thinking you were completely fine when you've been watched for over a month

Finally, when you reach the bottom you see a note

Hoping it had some explanation you quickly read it

Being the city's vigilante girl is pretty time consuming.

I wonder if she has enough time to protect you?

~Draco

You could barely move

You wanted to cry

Someone knew Seulgi's secret

You quickly ran back to your bedroom, grabbed your phone to call Seulgi

You prayed Seulgi would answer quickly

"Hi baby! I'm almost home so you d-"

"Somebody named Draco knows about your secret and I think they're coming after me!"

The slight pause from Seulgi's line only fills you with more fear

"Get out of the house. Go somewhere where there are a lot of people, I-I don't care just don't stay in house!"

Before you can utter out a response you hear glass breaking from your living room

"Seulgi I have to go I think someone just broke into our house!" you say before hanging up

Knowing it would be impossible to leave, you hide in your closet

While hiding, you hear the faint footsteps of the intruder in your kitchen

Your phone vibrates as you receive a text from your girlfriend

From:My bby💖💖- I'm almost there, I promise you'll be safe

You look around for something to defend yourself with

No matter what happens, you refuse to go down without a fight

Deciding one of Seulgi's heels is your best bet, you grab it and prepare for the worst

You hear the footsteps enter your bedroom and you hold your breath

You feel tears burning in your eyes but you continue to stay ready

Suddenly, the closet door flies open

You swing the heel into your intruder's face, causing him to fall to the ground with cries of pain

You push yourself off the floor and make a run for it

Your short escape was quickly put to a halt as you're met with 5 other men just like the first

You can barely think as all the men run towards you

You try your best to fight back but they still manage to pin you to the floor

"Well, well. Draco will be very happy to see that got our target. And, must I say, you somehow manage to be even prettier than you pictures" one man says while trying to caress your face

Disgusted by his actions, you turn towards his hand and try to bite it

"Oh!" he says with a smirk "That's cute, I like em' feisty"

"Fuck off" you spit out

You wish you could express your anger in more violent ways, but because of your current position that wasn't gonna happen anytime soon

Just as the man opens his mouth to respond, the man from before enters the room covering his right eye with his hand

"Woah, what happened to you?" one of the men questions

"This bitch hit me in the eye with a heel!"

You can see the anger radiating off of him, but all you can is smirk at his state

"You little-"

He raises his foot to kick you but is quickly punched and shoved to the ground

"Look, we promised Draco we would get them back unharmed. So until Draco's command, you don't lay a finger on them. Understand?"

As the two men continue to argue, you notice something about all 6 men

All of them have a Cerberus tattooed to their forearm

"Alright, tie em up, we gotta hurry before that bitch gets here. Hold still for us sweetheart~" one of the men coos as they bring a rope your way

You squirm but it is futile as they tie you up and carry you to a black van parked in front of your apartment

As you ride in the van, you take the time to memorize the features of your kidnappers

You want to remember who did this to you

After a hour of so of driving, you come to a stop

"Alright angel, I hope you're ready to meet Draco. They've been dying to finally meet you"

4 men leave the car while the other 2 carry you inside what looked like a regular building

But of course this wouldn't be a normal building. You already no that from your situation

You just pray that whatevers in that building won't be too bad

Inside is a woman, all by her self

The men place you on a chair and walk to the back of the room, watching

"No, no, there's no need to stay here. I wanna talk to them. Privately" she speaks

Her voice matches her appearance perfectly

Sultry with a slight hint of danger

Just as the men begin to leave, she stops them once again

"Oh, before you go, please untie our guest, I can't imagine how uncomfortable it must be"

A quiet 'yes ma'am' is uttered from the 6 men as one comes to untie you

While you're getting untied, you look at your surroundings

Everything is black and gold

If you weren't being kidnapped right now you'd actually be enjoying the scenery

You soon notice the 3 statues of dogs right under a huge painting of Hades with his Cerberus

"I see you noticed my painting" the woman started "It's one of my favorites. I just find it so fascinating how even the God of the underworld can have such a loyal companion. A powerful duo that can make Gods quiver"

You're not quite sure how to react

One second you're being shoved into a van and now you're getting a lesson on Greek Gods?

"I'm sorry, where are my manners? I'm Draco. It's a pleasure to finally meet you Y/N. And might I say, you're pictures don't do you enough justice"

She gives you a big smile, one that causes her eyes to smile as well

But you don't let her nature fool you

"What do you want with Seulgi? I know you have no interest in me so quit the bullshit and tell what you want"

Draco giggles

A giggle that soon turns in to a hysterical laugh

Suddenly, she slams her hands on table in front of you and her whole demeanor changes

"You know, I tried to make this some what decent for you but since you can't appreciate it I tell you. I am the Kingpin of this city. Almost every criminal you know works for me. But a little issue started to arise. You see some of my people started ending up in jail. Some drug dealers, dog fighters, and my best men had a new home in a cell. And, you know who's responsible for that don't you, Y/N?"

It was a rhetorical question buy you still nodded hesitantly

"Good, you're as smart as you are cute" she says, smirking "I am Hades. I am the God of this city's underworld. But you're little Seulgi want's to be Hercules and try to stop me. But I won't let her"

"And if you're really smart..."

You gasp as she pulls out a gun and points it straight to your head

"You won't let her either"

To be continued...

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bts-aesthetic-drabbles · 4 years

Text

House Party: Part 1

Background Info: You are a foreign exchange student at Seoul University where you are studying in medical school.

Warnings: Sexual Content, Drugs, Alcohol, Swearing, Angst

I am running down the overcrowded sidewalk of my school aggressively trying to make it on time to my 8 o'clock Chemistry class, for the third day in a row. With mid terms coming up in the next few weeks, I have been desperately trying to prepare for them by staying after class for extra labs and lectures. I have lost track of how many "all nighters" I have pulled this past semester.

I have to keep my grades up in order to keep my spot in Seoul University's highly sought after medical program. I was lucky enough to get in based on my outstanding test scores, but maintaining the same standard of test scores in university is not nearly as simple as it was for me when I was in high school.

I finally stumble into the lecture hall just in the nick of time as the professor calls my name, "-(Y/N). Huffing and puffing in exhaustion I drop down onto my seat and sling my heavy backpack on the floor as I raise my hand to make my attendance known to the professor.

I have got to start sleeping more...I can not afford a single tardy or missed class. My parents will be so unbelievably disappointed if I manage to get kicked out of this program that I’ve worked so hard to get into.

"Hey! You left this on the table yesterday on your way out of class. I tried to chase you down to return it to you but you ran off too fast for me keep up " a melodic voice chuckles from behind me as a large hand pops up next to my head.

In the hand is my cherry colored faux leather journal that is filled with very personal drawings, poetry and photos that I have taken throughout the past few years. It was been with me for quite a long time and houses some of my deepest and darkest feelings. I am mortified to think that someone might have seen what all is inside it.

I can feel my cheeks blushing like crazy as I look up any meet the gaze of the man’s shining eyes. His kind and comforting smile makes makes my heart flutter. I carefully reach out and take the small journal from his outstretched hand and look down at the desk in front of me as I grasp the framiliar book. I really hope he didn’t look at any of the things in this book...some of its contents are beyond embarrassing.

“You really should hold onto personal things like that better. There are some cruel people out there that might try to use something like that against you one day.” He says politely with a shrug as I take the book from his hand and clutch it to my chest. Ah, so he probably did at least glace over it for him to know it’s very personal. I wonder what all he saw? Was he looking for something in particular, perhaps it was just my name? I really shouldn’t always assume the worst in every situation.

None the less, he did find it and return it to me so he is owed a thank you, “ Thank you so much, I have been so scatter brained lately. I can’t seem to keep my head on straight!” I bow my head lightly to the guy and turn my attention towards the front of the class as the professor begins his lecture.

Throughout class I can’t seem to focus on anything the teacher is saying, my heart is pounding in my chest and my mind keeps on reeling. I feel like I am drowning in my own thoughts about what the guy next to me is thinking about me and what he might have seen in my notebook.

Was it something super sad and embarrassing like an emotionally charged journal entry about how lonely I am because I have no family around here and I’ve lost all my friends since moving countries. Perhaps he saw some of the (potentially creepy) polaroids I’ve taken of random groups of friends on campus that are laughing and playing games together.

Maybe be saw the sketches of random people, places and things that inspire me. The emotions, sights and experiences of everyday life that make it so beautifully fascinating.

Maybe he took the time to look at everything in the book and maybe was able to piece together how much of a depressed loner I am. Maybe he looked at the contents and connected the dots of my soul that show exactly who I am and how I feel. And maybe he showed it to all of his friends and they had a good laugh together at how much of a loser I am.

Negative thoughts continue to roll around in my brain until finally I am forced to snap back to reality as the teacher ends class and people start slamming textbooks closed all around me. I shake my head and look down at the pencil in my hand and find that I had covered my blank paper for notes in doodles of random things.

I take a deep breath and begin packing my notebook and pens back into my bag as I force my mind to refocus on reality. I can not believe that completely zoned out for this entire class, I am going to be up all night tonight trying to read what I missed. It’s not like I have any friends here that I can get the notes from. Great job (y/n), way to totally fuck yourself over yet again....

Just as I reach to tuck my red journal I nto my bag I find that there is a small folded piece of paper sticking out of the top of it. I bite my lip lightly and tuck the paper further into the pages of the book and make a mental note to check it out later as I stuff the book into my backpack and shuffle out of the nearly empty classroom.

As that was my last class for the day I decide to make my way to the large courtyard in front of the main part of campus. The courtyard is often filled with students studying and hanging out with friends at any given time of day. People like to play sports, board games, read and have meals in the lush green grass.

Most days I set up my portable hammock on a couple of trees that are off to the side of the large lawn. The spot is next to small garden that is filled with a dozen different kinds of flowers and has the best view of campus. I like to study here and people watch from my secluded little spot. It’s quiet and peaceful and helps me to get my buzzing thoughts together.

I set my hammock up and carefully lay down in it so I don’t too over, which I have done an embarrassing amount of times. I just kind of flop backwards out of the nylon swing with my limbs flailing like out of some kind of cartoon.

I pull out my journal and open it up to the page where the folded note is. With slightly shaking hands I unfold it and read what the scribbled Korean handwriting says.

Hi! I want you to let know that I tried very hard not to look at what all was in your book when I found it yesterday. I just wanted to find your name so I knew who I was returning it to but...as I flipped through your journal I fell in love with your art. Your photos and drawings had me in a trance, the way you capture the essence of such complex things like emotions and relationships is so unique and it really moved me.

One of my best friends is an art major here and I think he would die to see some of the things you’ve created.

Also, I noticed that a lot of your book was written in English, which is so cool! I’d love to hear you speak some English sometime. Maybe you can meet another one of my friends who also speaks fluent English as well!

Sorry for rambling...Anyways,

I’ve noticed that you always seem to be in such a rush...and seeing how full your book is, you don’t seem to get out very much. So, I’ve decided that you are coming to party with me this weekend. I can tell that you need to get out of your own head and have some fun for a change. I know you will probably want to say no, so here is some motivation for you to agree:

1. I am not some kind of crazy person that is trying to lure you off campus to hurt you or something. The party is at one of the frat houses just off of campus and there will be a bunch of people there so you don’t have to worry about that. You are welcome to bring a friend if you want.

2. There will be plenty of food, drinks and fun involved. I can introduce you to the friends that I mentioned earlier.

3. I will let you copy my notes from class today since you seemed to be a little spacey and in another world today.

I can’t wait to hear from you! Text me for details! (XXX-XXXX)

-Jeon Jungguk

The handwriting is rushed and a little scratchy in nature. At the bottom of the note I spot a cute drawing of a planet and some stars on it, along with a tiny smiley face.

A party? I’ve never once in my life been to a real party...what do you even wear to a party? What do you do? I can’t imagine that I would be much fun to even hang out with considering I literally bake cupcakes in my dorm room microwave on Friday nights while listening to recorded lectures as a form of ‘fun’.

But maybe it’s for that exact reason that I should try to have some real fun for once. Fun that other people my age are having.

I type Jungguks number into my phone and send him a text with a little planet emoji to let him know that it’s me. He responds almost immediately with, “Ah, so you got my note! So, what do you say? Will you be coming?”

I agree to come and he texts me the address and time for the party and tells me to be sure to pack a small bag with some essentials just incase we end up staying at the party over night. I googled it and apparently, that is a normal thing that sometimes occurs at parties...

I scuttle up and out of my hammock and fold it up and put it in my backpack along with my journal and begin making my way to my small apartment on the far end of campus. I was lucky enough to be able to afford an apartment rather than having to stay in one of the school crowded dorm rooms.

I quickly make my way down the sidewalk towards my home. After several minutes the framiliar grey and white building comes into my sight and I watch as dozens of my fellow students make their way in and out of the popular apartment complex.

The place is nothing that special but it is conveniently in the middle of campus and even pretty modern with its decorations and room accomidations, expecially considering the cheap rent.

I currently am staying in one of the one room studio styles apartments that is on the top floor of the glass building. I press the elevator button and watch as the doors immediately open and reveal an empty elevator. How fast and convenient! That never happens!

I scurry into the elevator and begin rapidly pressing the close door button before anyone can get on. I hate riding the elevator all the way to the top floor with a group of university students.

Just as the door is about to close a tan arms shoots through the narrow gap in the door and says, “hold that elevator please!” Damnit. So close.

I press the ‘door open’ button of the control panel and the door dings and reopens to reveal a very disheveled and stressed looking man.

His dark brown hair is askew and one arm is overflowing with textbooks and lose pieces of paper. He must be a science major. His aura reeks of chaos and stress, much like me.

He clamors into the elevator and flashes a dimpled smile my way as he thanks me with a small bow, “Floor 7 please. Thank you so much, I am in a huge rush. I got out of a study group late and I really need to get back to my room so I can take care of my plants! I’m already a whole hour behind schedule and I’m sure they are dying of thirst andI need to cook something for dinner and...ah sorry I’m rambling and I am sure you must think I am crazy....” He says as he runs a long hand through his messy hair and glances at the floor.

My eyes must have been wide as saucers as I tried to process the guys increasingly panicked speech, “Uh, no I don’t think you are crazy. I just think you are stressed out and in need of a break. Which I totally understand. You must be a science major like me. Hello, my name is (y/n)” I say with a friendly smile as I extend my hand towards him.

His eyes light up and he sticks his hand out towards mine and shakes it once before running his hand through his hair again, “Hi (y/n), my name is Namjoon! Actually I am an English and world studies major, but I am getting my minor is in science. What made you think I was a science major?”

Oh an English major, I bet he can speak English! I haven’t met too many English majors here in Korea. I decide to switch from Korean to English and speak the the guy to test his ability, “Ah, it was the large stack of books and the intensely stressed aura you had on you Namjoon. I think you should take some time to destress before you make yourself sick” I say in perfect English.

I watch as his eyes go wide and his mouth parts slightly as he hears me speak English yet he responds quickly and easily is English, “You speak English so well! You must not be from Korea... And yes stress is defiantly a problem. But I am trying to study as much as I can today before I spend my weekend relaxing and having fun with some friends. I advise you to do the same science major (y/n). It was nice meeting you! See you around!” He says as the elevator stops on floor 7 and the door opens allowing him to step out.

The door closes and the elevator fills with silence as I smile to myself remembered the cute dimples smile of the man I just met. The elevator ascends on more floor to my floor and I step out and make my way to my room.

I unlock the door with my keycode and push my door open and remove my shoes before stepping into the framiliar room. I flick the lights on and I can hear the faint hum of electricity as the room is illuminated. I throw my backpack down on my dining room table and sigh loudly as I throw myself face down on my nearby bed.

What a day.

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shadesofjungkook · 5 years

Text

a secret garden(ia) of love

words: 2685

au: tattoo artist!jungkook x florist!reader

genre: fluff (warning: there’s some swearing but it’s still hella fluffy)

a/n: my first request (woop woop)! thanks so much to the anon who requested this! i’m still sort of surprised ppl would want me to write their ideas out so i’m truly honoured. and to anyone who’s ever read any of my stuff thank you! 💖 asdfghjkl i’m going to stop talking now and let you read! have a good night!! ✨

did jungkook look like a bad boy? yes. was he? nope. not even in the slightest. especially not when he was currently harbouring the biggest crush on you, the florist working at the shop across from his tattoo parlour.

jungkook doesn't understand his crush on you and where it comes from. sure, he thought you were cute in your little apron. sure, he thought you were even cuter when he spotted you talking to and keeping your flowers company. sure, he was completely endeared by your obvious bias to a particular flower over the others. but he still couldn't understand how he became this blushing mess of a person, who likes to glance out the parlour's windows every now and then to see what you were up to.

what made this crush excruciatingly painful was the fact that he's never spoken to you. he's never gotten to hear your voice as your flowers have and he's never gotten the chance to learn your name. he was just too damn shy and embarrassed to even try. not that it mattered, jungkook thought. he couldn't fathom someone who seemed as sweet and bright as you, ever liking an oversized kid with an arm full of tattoos and ears decorated in piercings.

so, instead, he takes all his feelings and let them bleed out through the ink of his pens. he draws and draws the flower you seemed to love so much in every variation he can muster in his mind. and at times he finds himself doodling you with that flower tucked behind your ear, a light blush staining your cheeks.

he was whipped. a sad sort of whipped because he knew he didn’t have the courage to march across the street and ask you out, but whipped nonetheless. he convinced himself that he didn’t mind though. believing he was content enough to admire you afar, the same way you admired your flowers.

it was a real shame though. because much to your own frustrations, jungkook never seemed to notice the pair of eyes that admired him from across the street.

a few weeks pass and there’s no change in jungkook’s adoration of you. but he’s currently too busy with work to be thinking about it all the time. if he wasn't working on a barrage of clients he was sketching tattoos designs for others between his appointments. he was completely swamped, but he doesn't mind. this was what he lived for, putting art on people.

but no matter how much jungkook loved his job he was still excited at the fact that he had only one client left for the day. he had already prepped his studio with what he needed, giving him a handful of minutes to relax before the appointment began. so he decides to spend it at the front desk with his co-worker yoongi and chats with him about his day.

jungkook has his back against the door so as he chatters away, he doesn't hear the sound of two people walking into the parlour. it isn't until yoongi nods his head in the door's direction that jungkook looks back to see who's there. he immediately straightens up and turns around outstretching his hand to the two people standing approaching him. but his hand and jaw nearly drop with when sees who's standing there.

this must be some sick twist of fate jungkook thinks. because standing right before his eyes is you, his crush, the florist from across the street. jungkook gulps, his palms already starting to sweat as he takes in your appearance. your friend moves first, grabbing jungkook's hand and giving it a firm shake. she offers a polite hello as does he. she then drops his hand right after and turns back to you, ushering you to follow her up to the front desk. you smile politely as you pass by jungkook and stand next to your friend.

yoongi is well aware of jungkook’s little (huge) crush on you. (not that jungkook ever did a good job at hiding it.) so he smirks to himself as he asks for the name of the person who booked the appointment. your friend raises her hand at the call of her name, “that’s me.”

yoongi nods and turns to you, “i’m guessing you’re here as moral support?” you smile a little and nod. “yup, she said i had to come because who else would hold her lifeless body if she faints during the appointment.”

yoongi chuckles to himself and he sneaks a glance at jungkook. he can already see how entranced the boy was by your voice. jungkook never really knew how he imagined your voice to be. but somehow hearing it at that moment it seemed perfect for you. yoongi clears his throat and interrupts jungkook’s rosy thoughts. he then points to the lovestruck boy and introduces him.

“jungkook here will be the one doing your tattoo. he’s the best in the shop so you don’t have to worry, you’ll be in good hands.”

your friend smiles and turns towards jungkook with her hand outstretched for another shake. she introduces herself again, this time stating her name. "i'll in your care, captain," she says as she finishes it off with a salute. jungkook chuckles but salutes right back. he feels a little bit relaxed until he sees you peek from behind your friend. you shuffle up a little and offer your hand for a greeting as well.

jungkook drops his salute in a heartbeat and reaches out to hold your hand. he moves it up and down slowly, selfishly prolonging the moment as he offers up his name to you. you give him your own name too and jungkook beams. his smile is more to himself than to you, but he is so unremarkably happy to finally know your name. he repeats it in his head over and over again, locking it away to keep in his memories forever.

he reluctantly lets go of your hands and smiles to you and your friend. “it’s nice to meet you both. you guys can follow me and i’ll take you over to my studio.” you both nod and bid your goodbyes to yoongi as you two turn to follow jungkook. yoongi smiles back in acknowledgment but smirks when all your backs are turned to him. he scoffs in amusement to himself, “that kid is so whipped.”

the three of you move towards the back of the parlour and step into jungkook’s studio. as you enter you marvel at the space. it's quaint but decorated with beautiful artwork and designs that jungkook has drawn. in the middle of the space, you notice a large chair and a table filled with different ink and tools. jungkook motions for you and your friend to make your way towards the chair as he goes off to grab his designs.

your friend sits in the chair as you stand next to her. she zips off her hoodie and exposes her arm and turns to you with a worried look. you give her a comforting smile, "don't worry it will be fine." as you rub her back to calm her down, jungkook returns next to you both. he has his designs in hand and smiles.

"ready to get started?"

your friend gulps but nods. jungkook puts on his gloves and immediately gets to work. he preps and shaves her arm, then applies the stencil of a bird on her arm. despite your presence in the room, he's efficient in his movements and pays no real attention to you. he finishes off with the prep and moves on to start the tattoo machine. the buzzing sound of the machine fills the room and jungkook looks to your friend one last time.

“ready?” he asks tattoo gun in hand. your friend immediately grabs your hand and gives it an uncomfortable squeeze. “ready.”

jungkook chuckles, “you don’t have to worry, it’s a lot less painful than people expect. it’s a relatively small tattoo so it will be over in no time.” your friend releases a breath she's been holding and nods her head. “okay. i trust you. i’m ready.”

“okay, i'm starting now,” he says. the tattoo gun meets the surface of your friend’s skin and she squeaks, squeezing your hand again. jungkook pauses, but your friend prompts him to continue. a few more seconds in, the pain disperses from her senses and she relaxes, letting go of your hand and starting small talk with jungkook. you say nothing throughout the appointment. you were too engrossed in seeing jungkook in his element to think of anything else.

just like jungkook said the tattoo doesn’t take much time. when he's finished filling in the last bit of skin, he pulls back the gun and he relaxes back into his seat. he turns of the tattoo machine and lets a breath escape from his breath. "it's done for now."

you and your friend both look at her tattoo and gasp. “wow this looks amazing!” your friend says ecstatically. she smiles brightly as she shifts to show you the bird. you lean down and take in the tattoo that jungkook has skillfully drawn onto her arm. you ogle at his craftsmanship, at the details of the bird, its feather, the clean lines and shading.

“wow,” you whisper, “this is absolutely beautiful.” jungkook looks down into his hands, a sheepish smile on his face. he had managed to be professional this whole time but crumbled at your admiration of his work. he felt prideful knowing he had worked on that design for countless hours. and even if it wasn’t made for you to bear he was happy you still thought it was beautiful.

as you and your friend continue to gawk at the tattoo, jungkook gets up to grab his aftercare supplies. he comes back and begins to apply ointment and bandage up your friend's arm, instructing her how to take care of it until their next appointment.

“thank you so much jungkook,” she says as she gets up from her chair and puts her hoodie back on.

"no problem, it's my pleasure," he replies

quickly grabbing her wallet you friend announces she’ll be back as she heads to the front to pay and book her next appointment. she instructs you to stay back in the room and you nod in agreement.

when your friend walks out the room professional jungkook goes out the door with her. meaning lovestruck, anti-bad boy, jungkook was back in business. he doesn’t know how to deal with this sudden alone time with you. so he moves around like a headless manic cleaning up his station to distract himself.

you watch him move around at a fast pace with only the clinking of his tools filling the room with sound. you don't know what to do or what to say to cut the tension in the room. desperately, you look around the room hoping for any sort of conversation starter. that's when you noticed one of his designs on the wall.

“oh! you like gardenias?”

jungkook’s head snaps up and his eyes feel like they want to pop out of their sockets. shit, he thinks. he’s left his sketches of those flowers posted around the walls of his studio. (although he thanks every deity to his knowledge that his co-workers bullied him enough into hiding that one sketch of you).

he breathes out a shaky chuckle, a hand rubbing along the back of his neck, “uh, yeah…”

your face brightens. a smile instantly gracing it and instantly shooting arrows into jungkook’s heart.

“i love those flowers! i didn’t think anyone else really knew about them.”

“uh well, they’re too pretty to not fall in love with them,” he says. describing you, not the flowers.

you nod your head, “yeah, gardenias are really pretty. i love the meaning behind them too.”

jungkook raises his eyebrows and moves a little closer to you "what do they mean?"

"they mean secret love," you say a small smile appearing on your lips as your gaze attaches to his.

jungkook's cheeks? redder than the roses he saw you take care of just yesterday. of course! his mind screams. of all the meanings in the world, of course, this one flower has to mean secret love

as relaxed as he can jungkook responds. “oh really? huh, wow. the more you know i guess. i didn’t know you were so knowledgeable about flowers.”

your smile falters slightly and jungkook panics wondering why. you let out a strained chuckle, trying to fill the sudden silence. “uh, well, i do own the flower shop across the street from here.”

shit. jungkook thinks. he wants to mentally beat himself up for feigning ignorance but jungkook knew to was too late to back out now. “oh! that’s your shop? your flowers are very pretty. no wonder you seemed a little familiar.”

your smile returns, happy with this revelation. "yeah! that’s my shop. i’ve seen you a couple of times outside your parlour, so i’m happy to finally meet you in person,”

dear god jungkook prays, thank you.

you continue speaking feeling a rush of heat and red creep up your neck and to your cheeks, “actually, this silly of me to ask, but uh..."

you pause, your hands are damp as they rub against in each other. your face feels like an inferno as you look away from jungkook’s gaze.

“i… uh, think you’re really cute? like your tattoos are really beautiful and you seem like a super nice guy. i always see you laughing from my shop- OH not that i’m spying on you or anything, i just-” you pause and take a deep breath. your lift your head up to see a jungkook that looks like he’s about to lose his soul. “i was just wondering if you wanted to grab a coffee or something sometime or i don’t know a movie? i… i... i’ll shut up now.”

if humans could self-combust, jungkook would have done so at this moment.

he doesn’t know what to feel right now. happy? surprised? suspicious? he looks at you and you’ve returned your gaze to the ground, too embarrassed to look at him. he stares at you in complete shock, the moment replaying in his head as he takes in what just happened.

no. fucking. way. jungkook thinks no. fucking. way.

“holy shit,” he says. you snap up to look at him. scared of what holy shit might mean.

“holy shit,” he repeats, his eyes meeting yours. “if i admit, that i’ve had a crush on you for a while too would that answer your question?”

your jaw drops in awe. “holy shit,” you say back, earning a snort from jungkook.

he smiles wide, his lips stretching from cheek to cheek. “hell yes, i’d love to get coffee with you or a movie or a something, sometime.”

you laugh, your hands reaching up to hold your face, feeling your cheeks ablaze. “wow" you breathe out "i can’t believe that actually worked out. i thought i'd never have the courage to speak to you”

jungkook chuckles along with you. "same, to be honest."

he steps closer until he's right in front of you. he gently peels your hands away from your face and holds them securely into his own. both of you look down at your hands, internally screaming, stunned that what had been a dream for the two of you was now a reality.

jungkook is the first to break the silence, “does friday night work for you?”

you look up and join your eyes with his and grin again. “that would be perfect. it’s a date.” you finish with a smile. a new found confidence overtakes you as reach up on the tips of your toes and place a quick kiss on jungkook's cheek.

jungkook thanks every deity he's ever known as his blush hits his face in full force. he looks you with a smile as soft as the petals of a gardenia and whispers,

“it’s a date."

p.s: i made a sort of sequel called doodle sessions! check my masterlist to read it!✨

#jungkook fluff #jungkook scenario #jungkook imagine #jungkook fanfic #jungkook x reader #bts scenarios #bts imagines #bts au #bts fluff #jungkook au #tattoo artist!jungkook #florist!reader #request #anon! i really hope i did you a solid and you like this 💕#long #writing

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