#I literally wanted to make this set ever since I learned giffing
Text
Sunshine disguised as a Rebel
#Not me#Yok Not me#not me the series#first kanaphan#potatogifs#thai bl#asian lgbtq dramas#favorite character of all time#I literally wanted to make this set ever since I learned giffing#favorite characters#I changed the coloring like 5 times and everytime it got worse so I gave up
942 notes
·
View notes
Text
pornstar!moon-boys x fluffer!reader
part three: jake
a/n: some headcannons bc we filthy up in this bitch >:) 1.5k??? i'm overcompensating for something lmao
others: marc | steven | more steven
as a fluffer, it's your job to know how to keep the boys interested. each alter has their own preferences:
(NSFW 18+ under the cut)
jake: the troublemaker
GIF by manny-jacinto
Jake was the last (and final?) alter you met. He didn't ask for you the first time you met. Actually, you thought you were seeing Marc, but it turns out Jake was 'covering this one' for him, whatever that means.
It turns out Jake had been in the industry longer than Steven but you've just never met him. Unlike the other boys, he was used to taking whatever fluffer was offered on set, not really preferring or caring who was preparing him for the day. It never really mattered to him.
And then he met you.
His eyebrows raise when you walk in, eyes taking in every inch of your body. You're dressed in a pair of comfy shorts and an oversized shirt, hair styled casually so it's out of your face (Marc was going through a phase where he craves to see you in pajamas, needing that extra domesticity and softness).
Jake doesn't greet you, or even bother to stand up from the couch to shake your hand. He looks...amused, like he recognizes you.
"You're that girl that has my brothers wrapped around her finger." It's not a question, more like a statement.
He leans back against the couch as if to get a better view of what's in front of him. He looks like Marc, but he doesn't sound or carry himself like him. And he's definitely not Steven.
You don't deny his words, "And... you are?"
"Lockley, Jake Lockley." He still doesn't move to shake your hand, just says it with a nod.
"Another...?"
"Yeah, there are three of us... As far as I know."
"Where's --"
"Marc? I dunno." He doesn't look too concerned. It's almost like he's barely interested in the conversation when it isn't about himself. "But I'm here." You catch your first glimpse of his famous smirk, one that you've learned spells trouble.
You've named Jake as the troublemaker of the trio because he constantly bends the rules and does what he wants. Especially with you.
For one, he's the first alter you ever fucked. Actually, he's the first pornstar you've fucked, too.
Usually you have a longer session the first time, but 20 minutes would have to do. He's still staring at you, sitting on the couch with his legs spread wide. Inviting.
You go up to him like any other client, not phased by his dark eyes and mischievous allure, and straddle over his thighs. His hands immediately come up to hold your waist, steadying you easily against him.
Other than that, he doesn't make a move, clearly waiting to see what you'll do.
"So what do you like, Lockley?"
"Aren't you supposed to figure that out, sweetheart?"
Kissing Jake always takes your breath away. He's demanding but somehow he makes you feel like you need it, not the other way around.
He's dirty with it, drawing you in with soft kisses before nipping at your lips and then deepening it by laving his tongue against yours. It's addicting how smoothly he moves against you, tempting your body to take it a step up, to cross that line.
You are sitting up on your knees just a few inches off of his lap, hovering over and making out with him, hands cradling his jaw. You have the upper hand (and are literally over him) but you've never felt so lost in a kiss.
You feel his hands drag from your waist to your ass. He grasps you, shoving your loose soft shorts up so he can feel your skin against his palms. You let him.
That was your first mistake.
You're distracted by his mouth when his hand shifts from your butt to your aching center. You've been dripping -- soaking since he gave you a taste of his tongue, since he first held you.
You let out a surprised moan as his fingers press flush against your clothed core, stroking against your most sensitive area. He applies the perfect amount of pressure against your cunt, brushing and prodding at your entrance over your clothes before cruelly teasing your clit.
You let it go on far longer than you should've, but it just felt so good. And then it felt too good.
He rubs your clit until you're seeing white, until you can only think of him and how he's touching you.
You gasp, "Jake!" Your legs shake from having to hold yourself up as he pushes you off the edge. He growls as you wrap your arms around his shoulders to keep you steady. You settle back onto his lap, forehead resting against his chest as you pant and calm down.
He's hard as a rock against you, practically pulsing as he watches you come down from your orgasm and melt against him.
He figured you out, and you, him.
Jake gets off on getting you off.
When you're his fluffer, you're his to touch, tease, and prod, not the other way around.
You wouldn't really call him a 'giving' partner because at the end of the day, he does it for himself.
He's selfish in how he'll pull orgasm after orgasm out of you, just because it pleases him. He doesn't care if you're writhing under him.
That first session didn't end where it was supposed to. Giving you an orgasm was already more than you're used to. But he kept going. You were distracted, caught off guard.
That was you're second mistake.
Before your lust-fogged mind could wrap around what was happening, your loose and stretchy pajama shorts were tugged to the side and he was pushing up into you.
The stretch was intense, but he slid in easily with how wet you were for him. You both groan simultaneously as he filled you to the brim.
After that first round, Jake ceased production for the day, telling everyone to go home while yelling "Don't fucking interrupt me" on his way back to his dressing room.
---
(He's not allowed to fuck you during working hours anymore -- they even put it in his contract. He wasn't too happy about that.)
Needless to say, you were called back the next day.
As much as Jake loves to play with you, sometimes there isn't enough time, especially on bigger projects with less time to fool around. In those cases, he takes a quick sloppy blowjob.
And by sloppy, you mean sloppy.
He loves watching you struggle to swallow him down, eyes shiny with tears and drool dripping down your neck.
His hand grips your hair, guiding the smooth pace as you bob against him. You whine as he slowly speed up, your jaw is already tired and knees are sore. You hold on your his hips to help stay steady as he starts to thrust back into you, cock hitting the back of your throat every so often. You gag and he growls.
He's the one who pulls you off, knowing his own limits.
He's the most controlled out of the three, able to slip you off his cock just at the right moment before walking out and starting the day.
He groans when he peers down at you, "Fuck...I wish I could cum down that pretty throat," You're wiping your mouth, lips still vibrating from the way he fucked into you. "C'mon baby, let's go. Call time's in five." You comb your fingers through you messy hair before he helps you up.
Then you follow him out.
Like Marc and Steven, he also refuses to be prepped by anyone else. But he also takes it a step further (bc of course he does), he takes you to set with him. Like some 'bring-your-girlfriend-to-work' day.
(oh yeah...you're with them now...)
You didn't even know that you were allowed to physically be on set when scenes are being recorded, until Jake insisted, claiming he could only keep it up if you were watching.
Sometimes when he's fucking a girl (or fucking himself) he looks up, eyes scanning the room until he finds you. The cameras don't exist to Jake and this isn't his job. Porn -- or being recording -- is just him doing the company a favor and letting them have a glimpse into his bedroom habits. He doesn't give a fuck.
He meets your gaze and sends you a cocky smirk, hands restraining the body under him as he roughly slams his hips against hers. It never fails to make your breath hitch and skin bloom with heat.
He gives you the same intense look when you're under him, choking on his cock. He's imagining that you're under him now, stretched and ruined for him. Whimpering and crying out for more. As much as you try to ignore him, you can't. It's like driving past a car wreck, you can't look away.
Directors have had to scrap countless recordings for the final production of videos when he'd get really carried away, grunt dirty words in spanish to the girl in the corner of the room (you) that the camera can't even see.
It's not all bad though, the company sometimes uses those behind-the-scene vids of him, basically cuckholding you, for exclusive content. And viewers go feral for it. Probably because it's more genuine than half of the videos out there.
#jake lockley x reader#pornstar!jake lockley#jake lockley#jake lockley smut#moon knight#marc spector x reader#steven grant x reader#pornstar!moon boys
1K notes
·
View notes
Note
Hii I wanted to request Anthony Lockwood×fem!reader with the song London Boy. Where the reader is from Europe, and she just moved to London to become a better ghost hunter, but she gets rejected at Fittes and other agencies. Then she finds out about Lockwood&Co. and goes to a job interview and gets hired. Since she's from Europe, she has an accent, and like she doesn't always pronounce words right, Lockwood loves it and finds it adorable. As she lives with all of them, they start becoming closer. She and Lucy become like best friends. And from the whole start, when she met Anthony, she was crushing on him and he would often call her darling and love, because for him it's normal, but she would literally be running laps in her head. Lucy notices all of this and teases them about it. Happy ending with them confessing and kissing? As always, you can change it so it suits the song more, I really love your writing, and it never disappoints!!
Lockwood x Reader - London Boy
A/N: While I was researching possible words to mispronounce whyy did I find out that I was pronouncing one of them wrong this wholeee time AHHH also why was it so hard to find a gif where he's smiling. Netflix pls renew the series to give him more screentime where he doesn't look like he wants to dies plzzz. also this starts with a letter written by the reader to her sister a week after moving to London, 3.1k, enjoy!!
Dear Elizabeth,
I hope things are fine over there. London is...interesting. It's very cold and wet, for one. I always feel like I'm one gust of wind away from catching a cold, but a friend took me shopping a few days back, and I've got a much warmer coat now. You'd love Lucy, she's got your sense of humour and everything.
Things didn't work out so well at Fittes. Or Rotwell. Or any of the other agencies I had shortlisted. I'm at a small independent, Lockwood & Co. There's only four of us and Mr. Lockwood's only a year older than me (a misnomer if I ever saw one, I thought he'd be closer to eighty than eighteen), but they get by just fine and I'm learning loads.
Part of me still wonders if I made the right choice by leaving. I wish I was home; warm, dry and safe. I miss the fields, the bonfires, the cheap juice boxes... miss you and mum to bits. Give her all my love.
"Writing a letter?"
She slammed a hand over her postcard with an aggressiveness that shocked her as much as him. She was sitting at the kitchen table, opting for a change of scenery while she drafter her note. It was morning, and from the shuffling sounds outside, George and Lucy seemed to also be awake, but only Lockwood was in the kitchen with her. And the thing about Lockwood was - well, he made her a little skittish.
She panicked at his slightly taken aback expression, rushing to make amends. "No! I mean, yes, I am writing a letter. It's for my sister, Elizabeth."
"I'm sorry I startled you, I don't mean to pry."
"You weren't." God, did she completely forget how to hold a normal conversation? It was mind-numbingly difficult to generate coherent words or even thoughts with his buttery smooth posh accent washing over her. "I just - we keep odd hours and with the time zone difference I haven't had the time to talk to them on the phone."
"I didn't know you had a sister."
She looked down into her tea, suddenly shy. Keeping eye contact with him was difficult enough when they were all in the room, but his undivided attention was simply unbearable. There was something so intentional in his gaze that made her too nervous to think too much about it. So that just left a knot in her chest that would throb and set her ablaze any time he got too close. That, coupled with their extremely embarrassing first meeting, made her especially prone to stuttering or leaving the room whenever Lockwood was around.
Ironically, he was away handling a mild Type One case in Sidcup, for which the prestigious clientele warranted the inconvenient travel, during her interview. Which was just as well, because she was sure she wouldn't have been able to force anything out with him watching her as closely as George had. She had seen the newspaper clippings on the wall, but the dates had been cut off, so it hadn't been immediately obvious to her that he was a teenager like the rest of them. Besides, who had heard of an agency run by three teenagers and no adults?
Which was why she nearly fell out of her armchair the following morning when the front door opened to the sound of unfamiliar yet boyish laughter. The briefcase carelessly left by the entry way to the living room caught her eye first, followed by his crisp suit, his straight tie, and finally, the man himself.
She wasn’t one to believe in love at first sight, but as he grinned with his dimples mischievously winking at her, she felt that if anyone could change her mind, it just might be him. She felt the palms resting on her book grow clammy as her heart thudded dangerously, And this was all before he had even spoken or looked at her. As soon he opened his mouth, she was a goner.
"You guys have to read this: 'Lockwood & Co. - the answer to the Problem? For an independent agency with less resources yet arguably more success than the big two, could they be the key to ridding our world of visitors? Read more on pa-' Page six? So much of that trouble, all for a page six?"
"Now look what you've done, Lockwood. You've scared our newest member mute with that demented laugh of yours."
"How could I forget? Y/N L/N, the one agent with enough talent to, and I quote, 'somewhat-kind-of satisfy' George Karim. I was positively racing home to meet you. Forgive my, hmm, associates. I hope they didn’t give you too rough of a time."
"You make it sound like we're degenerates!"
"They can be quite bothersome when they want to be. I'm Anthony Lockwood, of Lockwood & Co."
He stuck out a hand, and she blinked at him. She felt a bubble of nervous laughter lodged in her throat, almost half-inclined to believe that this was all a bit; he really was that ridiculously attractive. His dazzling smile faltered, morphing into one of concern, until Lucy knocked enough sense back into her to respond. She shook his hand, embarrassed, mumbling a greeting. He walked away, loosening his tie, and she buried her nose deeper into the paper, wishing it would just swallow her whole.
They had been terribly busy the past week, and during the day she would mostly tag along with Lucy, so their paths rarely crossed. There was this one time when he had just been coming down the stairs as she and Lucy were returning from their shopping trip. She froze halfway in the motion of taking her coat off, then shrugged it back on. He looked mildly confused. She was desperately confused. She didn't appreciate Lucy's snicker.
"New coat."
"Yeah. It's real warm."
"I can see that." Her coat looked not all that much bulkier than Lucy's, but she could still hear the smile in his voice as she pulled her gloves off. Somehow, she managed to coordinate her limbs enough to take the coat off and hang it like a normal person, before briskly walking up to the attic, the side of her face burning from when she passed Lockwood.
"It's real warm." Lucy wasted no time teasing her as soon as they were in the attic. She groaned.
"What else was I supposed to say?"
"You were really excited about the pockets at the shop."
"They're-"
"Faux fur-lined, yes, you've told me a thousand times." She gave a knowing half-smile. "Couldn't manage telling him once?"
"He'd think they were stupid. He'd think I was stupid." Even more stupid that he already thinks, she wanted to say. But who could blame him? For all he knew, she didn't have enough brain cells to string three coherent words together.
Their cases were tiring, but the routine was still so new that more often than not, she would be too wired to peacefully knock out in the attic with Lucy after their cases. She'd open the door to the attic just a crack, and listen to the soothing sounds of paperwork rustling in the library, watching the barely visible soft shadows of Lockwood moving about. She could glean that they were a little burdened by the absence of a pair of hands, and she had tried to offer her help, but all she got was distracted pats on the forehead as her words went in one ear and out the other. She couldn't blame them; they really did look stretched thin, which made her especially thankful for Lucy's company even at their busiest.
Still, that didn't stop her from carrying her blankets down to the door to the attic in the dead of the night, leaning her head against the banister. If she were lucky, she'd catch a faint strain of Lockwood humming. As cheery and disarming as he was, picturing him humming felt too intimate. The little that she could hear reverberated through her skull, the notes knocking into her other drifting thoughts about him, his British smile and his stormy London eyes. But the Lockwood she curiously dreamt of at night never reconciled with the Lockwood she saw walking and talking during the day, and so their relationship had come to a sort of standstill, where he would smile at her and she would take the first socially-acceptable chance to flee the room. Only, it was a bit harder to escape early in the morning when they were the only ones in the kitchen.
Fortunately, the others soon came, and the tension eased. Lucy came in, sleepily trying to scrounge up some tea while George went off on Lockwood about his sleep schedule, or lack thereof, while Lockwood tried to stuff his face and busy himself in gathering his documents to keep from answering. She took advantage of the bustle to discreetly sift through the drawers. Lucy had mentioned that they had a postage drawer somewhere, but she didn't want to be too much of a burden by asking again.
"George, lay off me, I've got to get to DEPRAC. Luce and I will meet you at the Archives and - oh, darling, we keep the stamps here." Lockwood paused his hunt for some brown, non-descript envelope to pull open a drawer between the two of them. She could feel her face starting to warm, but only because of the embarrassment, not the nickname. "Mailman should be coming around soon, so you might want to hurry. Luce, yesterday's client should be coming around near 5 and you promised Holly you'd do the invoices while she was away. Oh, what now George?" She ducked her head, muttering some thanks that went unheard as George tried to force out how many hours Lockwood had slept, practically chasing him out of the house. Lucy raised her eyebrows suggestively, which she pointedly ignored.
That day was the most dull one yet, where she rolled around the house like a lost penny, trying to occupy herself. A letter arrived some time in the late morning, and she took the liberty of starting its case report file. Lockwood was the first one free, arriving home a little after lunch. She told him as soon as she saw him, while he was still taking his coat off, forcing the words out before she lost her nerve.
"We got a new case while you were gone. I started its file."
"Wonderful. Thanks, love." He rolled up his sleeves, putting on the kettle, while she surreptitiously leaned against the wall for support, trying not to think about how effortlessly pet names dripped off his tongue, like honey, before she got too shaky in the knees. She pressed on.
"It was from a Lew-tenant Smith."
"Who?"
"Lew-tenant Smi..." her voice trailed off. No, that didn't sound right. She couldn't imagine any of them saying it like that. Lockwood briefly leaned over her shoulder, a faint smell of soap lingering around him, before his eyebrows unfurrowed and he returned to his tea.
"Oh, I see. We pronounce it as 'left-tenant.' Now, where's he staying?"
Oh dear. She wasn't entirely sure. "Erm, Ald-wykh?"
"Ald-wich, we call it."
"Ah." Some part of her wanted to apologise, but he was looking at her with a strange twist to his lips and a certain fondness was shining in her eyes that, once again, she was rendered speechless. A silence followed, and for once, she willed herself to bear it.
"You haven't been stuck at home all day, have you? Have you been outside during the day any time this week?"
"I, er-"
"Luce, what kind of a friend are you?" Lockwood spun around to accost Lucy, who had wandered into the living room to see the commotion, bleary-eyed from whatever lair she had retired to to iron out the paperwork. "Y/N must be feeling cooped up. We should make a day trip of it. We'll get a break one of these days, and we'll take you around London, do all of it: high tea, the West End, go to a pub, watch some rugby- how are you with heights? Interested in the London Eye?"
Lucy groaned, stealing Lockwood's tea. "I don't know how Holly does it."
"Well, for one, I don't think she lets it pile up like you do."
Lucy shot Lockwood a dirty look, taking his biscuit too before turning back apologetically. "I'm sorry, Y/N, but how about next week?"
She laughed, pulling a weak smile from Lucy. "Don't sweat it. Hopefully, I'll still be around then." Lucy waved goodbye, retiring to her mountains of paperwork.
"Well, there goes my tea. Would you like some...?"
"Tea? Oh, um, sure."
"Brilliant. See you outside in five minutes." With that, he left the kitchen. Once she had caught up to what had just happened, she slipped her coat on, joining him outside just as he hailed a cab.
Surprisingly, he hadn't been exaggerating: Lockwood was fully prepared to take her to each and every one of those attractions, no matter how long it took. In the end, they narrowed it down to a rainy cab ride to a play at the West End, with high tea afterwards, though they did get around to the rest in the coming weeks. Oddly enough, they never planned it beforehand. The occasional lull in cases would sneak up on them, Lockwood would wander into the living room where she would be fused to an armchair, and suddenly it would be time for yet another trip around London.
But now they were at high tea, tucking in to the fading sunlight and excitedly discussing the play. A wind blew through one of the open windows, and she shivered.
"Everything okay, love?"
"I'm fine. It's just a little draughty, don't you think?"
"A little what?"
"Dra - erm, like, it's windy?"
"Drafty."
"Oh, come now, that sounds nothing like how it's spelt. How was I supposed to know that?" He chuckled, shaking his head slightly, as he polished off his food. But she was feeling bold enough to not let it drop this time.
"You keep doing that! You smile and turn away or you laugh and it makes me feel like I've put my foot in something - "
"No, no, dear god, no." There he was, laughing again. She hoped he would choke; but not too hard, just enough to shock some sense into him. "You don't - it's not your fault; believe me, I'm just an awful person. It's just...you really try your very best at...everything, really." His eyes fixed on hers and she found herself wanting to never look away. "It's...endearing."
"I’m sorry. I know my accent isn’t the clearest-"
“No, it’s fine. I like it. It’s very unique, and…beautiful. I’d pick your voice out of a crowd.” She felt this warmth wash over, and then chills run down her spine. He made her all nervous and giggly on the inside in a way that made her want to lounge around London, indulging herself in useless thoughts of ridiculous London boys with addictive smiles and silver tongues.
But like all good things, their excursion came to an end. She found herself dragging her feet to the front door with a boy with whom she was too scared to be alone with just 12 hours ago.
"I hope you had fun today. Not feeling too homesick, are you?"
She thought back to the green meadows and lightning bugs that she had dreamed about in the early hours of that morning. That life still seemed so precious, so sacred, but now it was oddly distant, no longer something she yearned for.
"I don't think so. You know what they say, 'home is where the heart is,'" she looked up at him, unable to resist the smile tugging at her lips, her voice dropping to a whisper. "But I think the English aren't half-bad either."
"Not half-bad?" They were so close now, she could feel his breath tickling her forehead. Her heart stuttered. "I took you out to the West End, and you call it 'not half-bad.'"
"Well, there are certain exceptions."
"Like what?"
Her stomach threatened to explode with giddiness. She was having a hard time regulating her breathing and looking at him at the same time. God, she was never beating the 'stupid' allegations. "I don't know," she fibbed in a flimsy attempt to seem cool. "Like...like you."
In the end, it was his eyes that pulled her in, pulled her under, because one moment she was teetering on the precipice of something new and terrifying, and the next there was soft skin brushing her frozen face, warm lips on her chapped ones. He tasted like summer in this cold, dead winter, breathing life and wonder back into her. It was dizzying, exhilarating, heart-palpitations-inducing...it was Lockwood, surrounding and consuming all her senses.
He pulled away, and all she stared at him blankly, as if he had stolen the words at the tip of her tongue. He gave a half-smile, and she grinned at him. He opened the door for her, murmuring in her ear in a way that filled her brain with pleasant static. "After you, darling." She rolled her eyes reflexively as a defense mechanism, but still her heart fluttered. They walked in to find George sorting the mail, mildly peeved, mildly concerned.
"Ah, so you two finally decide to show up. You could've been dead in a ditch for all we know. Your dinner's gone cold, you know."
Lucy had skipped down the stairs once the front door opened, a little too immediately for her liking and now her eyes narrowed teasingly. All of a sudden, she had the embarrassing realisation how visible the front porch was from the attic. There was colour in Lucy's cheeks, which probably meant that she had somehow managed to work through all that paperwork. Drat. "I dunno. I think Mr. and Mrs. 'Darling' are- "
"Luce! Have I...told you about my coat pockets?"
Lucy rolled her eyes, heading back to the attic, while George shook his head and handed her a postcard. Lockwood's fingers lingered briefly on her wrist as he walked away, leaving her and her mind all topsy-turvy. With a start, she pulled herself away from delicious thoughts of Lockwood to the postcard in her hand. She scanned it eagerly, lips twitching as she reached the end of it. Her sister could be just as ridiculous and delusional as her sometimes, and she wasn't even in the same country.
Y/N -
Can't say much, haven't got the time. All's well here and we miss you dearly too. The house is just too quiet, but mum seems to be adjusting. We saw a picture of your boss in the paper the other day.
London boys truly are a different breed, aren't they?
Love, Lizzie.
#fanfiction#anthony lockwood imagine#anthony lockwood x reader#anthony lockwood x you#fanfic#lockwood & co#lockwood and co#lockwood and co netflix#lockwood x y/n#taylor swift#london boy#lover
121 notes
·
View notes
Text
"Okay, here's my guess. As humans evolved, the first big problem we had to overcome was me vs. us; learning to sacrifice a little individual freedom for the benefit of a group. You know, like sharing food and resources so we don't starve or get eaten by tigers, things like that.
The next problem to overcome was us vs. them, trying to see other groups different from ours as equals. That one, we're still struggling with. It's why we have racism and nationalism and... why fans of Stone Cold Steve Austin hate fans of the Rock.
What's interesting about you is, I don't think you ever got past the me vs. us stage. I mean, have you ever been part of a group that you really cared about? The Brainy Bunch is basically the first group that became a part of your self identity and now that it's breaking up you're feeling this new kind of loss, and you're scared of going back to being alone. I mean, that's my guess. The other possible medical diagnosis is that you're just a bit of a dick."
More The Good Place posting because I think the show is underrated and none of the actually good parts have clips or gif sets cuz they aren't funny. For context this was Simone (a Black woman) speaking to Eleanor (the white woman main character).
This is a very good quote to remember, as we dismantle whiteness and you find yourself getting defensive about it. Although, this also applies to other communities and interests you've used to define yourself (like when you see criticism of The Thing you identify with as criticism of you.)
Remember this quote, for example, when you feel so strongly about a show that you want to donate money to keep it from being cancelled. Or when you find yourself unable to make a sacrifice to the 'me' like say your morning Starbucks for the 'us' that wants to limit human suffering.
Maybe you actually are afraid of the gang (white ppl) breaking up and all that implies. Maybe you are scared of being alone if there is no (white) community."
And building on previous convos we've had here; since being alone outside whiteness is something y'all have talked about extensively on my blog..
Defining yourself outside whiteness might literally feel like an attack on your self but it's not. You are you and you are a person whether you're white, mixed, or not at all ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Whether you want it to continue being the defining aspect of your personhood will show through your actions.
But it is time to move on.
Because whiteness tries to force it's beliefs onto you when you identify with whiteness -ignorance, individuality, superiority- and it shows through that "do it yourself/not my problem" attitude if not through blatant racism. It's up to y'all to reject that pre-set definition and define yourselves, now.
What are your values? Your principles? Your likes and hobbies and dislikes? Like in a world without racism or sexism or transphobia or taika waititi or Stan lee... Who are are you when stripped of bigotry and socially constructed identities, ykwim? Y'all gotta figure that out.
And you won't be alone in that endeavor and I really can't stress enough how much easier it would be to our shared goal of destroying racism and white supremacy if it wasn't an abandonment trigger that put white ppl into a literal identity crisis to imagine a world without those things.
Like at it's core that's what those feelings are and idk about y'all but it feels like a huge disservice to literally every person on earth to keep compromising on human rights because white supremacists made y'all scared to be outside whiteness where the rest of us are when you don't even like how it feels to be white anyway.
Have some solidarity. Give a little of 'me' for the 'us' so we All can have better.
#whiteness#white supremacy#the good place#racism#individualism#us vs them#social identity theory#equality#human rights#solidarity#intersectionality#reblog
76 notes
·
View notes
Text
Babylon 5 S03E20 And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place
previous episode - table of contents
It's kinda wild how much b5 is exactly to my tastes. Take this (and many other!) episode titles for example. Pretentious? Maybe. Poetic? Certainly. Full of allusion? Definitely. Makes me get shivers? Absolutely. They even give me things to complain about. I'm well settled into complaining loudly about Londo bullshit.
Last episode's beverage (for data point purposes) was straight tequila with pepsi chaser. The hangover was vile and I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't sleep for three hours. Today's beverage - Bitterroot Brewing Co "Dirt Church" ipa. It's alright for an IPA.
"Z MINUS 14 DAYS"
I see we've moved several letters on from "t."
Yeah!! It's another Susan Ivanova personal log episode. The telepaths they've recruited are being dispersed. Sheridan is tired, and Franklin is still pacing the halls.
All the telepaths are being accompanied by a single Narn bodyguard. Fingers crossed for some of those bodyguards to start developing some telepathy of their own after spending a long time in close quarters with a telepath!!
Londo thinks it's time to "take care of" G'Kar?? FUCK OFF. He wants G'Kar tricked back to Narn and executed. Thanks to the previous flashbacks, I am well aware that this plot won't play out with G'Kar's actual death. But I still want to strangle Londo. Can I isekai into B5 just long enough to goddamn murder that man??
Religious Theo of the religious group whatevever is being highlighted this episode. In theory I appreciate how diverse B5 is, religiously speaking. In practice....ehhh. At least when it comes to people quoting the KJV and referring to "the lord" every other sentence.
Sheridan does look rough. And there's Delenn!!! Pretty in pink.
"[Ivanova] said you were carrying on cranky. I looked up cranky, it said grouchy. I looked up grouchy, it said crochetly. No wonder you have such an eccentric culture. None of your words have their own meaning!"
LOL!! Delenn is so cute. Also, very seriously, I apologize to every person who needs to learn English as an adult. It's a mess.
Once I saw a gif of Delenn propping herself up on a elbow in bed with Sheridan and I have been FERAL to see that scene ever since. Maybe today will be the episode? Delenn climbs in bed with Sheridan to make him sleep??
Na'Toth might be alive. Or her name might simply be a trap for G'Kar. I don't think Londo's plan is going to work out. If he didn't go back to Narn for literally every other Narnuan, I'm not sure he'd go back for his aide who is probably dead. Also I 100% have more faith in Vir than this. Idk where he got them, but he has a surprisingly well-developed set of morals and empathy.
Vir: "I won't. I won't go. I won't do it."
VIR BABY. Just say you'll do it, then go and collude and G'Kar. Londo is unhinged, threatening to have Vir's family stripped naked and whipped through the streets of Centaur's capital. What a fuck. He ought to be directing his energies towards getting back Lord Whatshisface who killed Adira on behalf of the Shadows. Refa. The show reminds me in a timely manner.
Speaking of Refa, he's giving very desperate vibes. Trying too hard to suck up, and that puts blood in the water for the sharks to scent!!
Well. Hopefully even if Vir gives into Londo's threat and tries to trick G'Kar, his obvious nerves give away that something's wrong.
Back to Londo and the Centauri court shenanigans. Londo is, undeniably, good at putting on the type of political front that works well on Centaur.
Susan's blowout is so good every day I have to assume it's part of the high-tech auto-dryer when you step out of the shower...or something. Because there's no way that SUSAN IVANOVA is spending twenty minutes every day achieving the most ideal blowout that has ever been hair-dried into existence.
OK I like the religious cabal a bit better now that I know they're smuggling up-to-date information about Earth politics into Bably 5.
GODDANG IT. G'Kar is trying to sneak back onto Narn. Well. At least I know he lives to die another day.
Vir, I am disappointed in.
Centaur attack on Vir!! He lives to become Emperor another day as well. Stakes drop considerably when you know certain characters' ultimate fates.
You know who I'd love to see again? AUNT PROPHETESS! Majel!!
Lord Refa's eyebrows deserve their own acting credit.
oooh, Centauri telepathy attack!!
Poor Vir. If only he had been able to keep his position on Minbar. He looked less stressed-out when he was spending most of his time surrounded by a tranquil environment.
The Baptist pastor is hanging out with Sheridan, who is struggling to relax enough to fall asleep while also doing paperwork. Maybe. don't do paperwork while getting ready for bed. Which the pastor is also bringing up, more delicately than I would.
the Pastor: DELEGATE IDIOT.
OK he can stay. He is speaking common sense.
"When youre worry tank gets full people stop coming to you, because they don't want to add to it."
Smart. "figure out how to relax or your people will stop reading you in in an attempt to protect you."
"Z MINUS 13 DAYS"
Zha'ha'dum minus 13 days??
G'Kar made it to Narn. There's climate change from the orbital bombardment. Constant wind, particulate coming down from the upper atmosphere, poor air quality. And I doubt they had recovered from the previous Centauri occupation, and possibly not even the Shadows' occupation before that!
Emperor Cartagia is going to be traveling to B5: that seems like a significant security risk! Maybe he'll get nerfed and we'll see the glorious ascension on Emperor Londo.
Refa's plot is to capture G'Kar instead of letting Londo do it. Fingers crossed for neither of them getting that glory.
Delenn says there's no pattern to the Shadows' attacks. The lack of pattern is probably the point - all over the place and unpredictable so the united forces are spread as thin and widely as possible. And the tactical data sorta supports that! They haven't attacked anything in the center of the sector, so refugees are going there. And Sheridan is picking this up now, too. They could nail all the refugees at once.
"I think this is as much about terror as it is about territory."
Yeah.
Hm, Delenn is horrified by Sheridan saying he needs to think like them to beat them. Unless she has a really compelling argument against it, I'm going to have to disagree. How can you counter a tactic unless you understand it?
Londo just knocked out a Centauri guard with a punch to rescue Vir. He gets no points from me, because he put Vir in that position.
Unfortunately G'Kar won't get to kill Londo for quite a few years, but maybe he and the resistance will get to kill Refa and his goon squad instead.
Damn it, Londo was two steps ahead of Refa this whole time. f.ucking annoying. Well. all Centauri warmongering genocidal politics are annoying. Refa being personally in charge of the bombardment of Narn is backfiring on his right now.
Oh so this means that Vir was an unwitting stooge in the plot all along, and that's extra scummy, considering it resulted in Vir being mindraped and made to believe he'd just given up his mentor and employer. Very very cutthroat politics. No wonder Londo didn't name the embarassment he was planning to remove on behalf of the emperor to prove House Mollari's value.
Baptist Pastor brought a gospel singer along with him, lol. That's very on brand. And super fucking amusing juxtaposition between her music and Refa being pursued and killed. "There's no hiding place down here." Refa being beaten to death.
Buuuut as much as I dislike Londo, I am a fan of the person responsible for untold suffering and death getting a tiny fraction of that delivered back to them. So...annoyingly... *sigh* go Londo...
It's so fucking funny that Londo had the ability to slip refa the other half of the two-part poison all along but instead he had him beaten to death for political purposes.
Vir is angry, but probably not enough to make him break from Londo entirely.
Delenn has a surprise for Sheridan - "the White Star was never intended to be one of a kind, only the first..." and now there's a whole fleet.
Hm. As far as first kisses on screen go, that one was pretty dated. I'm happy for them, but the "smear your face against the other person's face" is a style I'm glad has mostly gone away. It doesn't look very pleasant, hahah.
Mrs Sheridan, I presume?
16 notes
·
View notes
Note
literally what makes the aristocats bad. its got nice songs. it has silly characters. it’s got really pretty backgrounds and the old hand-drawn disney animation. it’s inspired by a true story. what’s there to dislike.
(*cough* aside from the racism that permeates most if not all of the old Disney movies but since that’s present in so many of them no special case should to be made against the aristocats for it to be a worse movie because of that shared trait *cough*)
also I hope this didn’t come across as like. confrontational or anything bc it’s not supposed to be. legitimately want to hear your thoughts 👍
No, I love this! I appreciate being asked my thoughts, especially since the good people in the tags have told me loud and clear that I am in the minority on this one.
I will say, I did not expect the poll to have quite the legs it's got on it now. My polls usually only get about 60 votes. If I'd known 4,700 strangers and counting would have an opinion on this, I might have worded it differently. The real reason I didn't include The Aristocats is because I knew it would run away with the thing. Most people consider it a classic, regardless of what my opinions on it actually are. I thought throwing in a cheeky little line about it would be a fun gag for my followers who know I'm a true hater at heart.
Before I even got this ask - and because the overwhelming majority of the tags on the poll are telling me I have no taste - I actually did start rewatching it! Hundreds of strangers on the internet have never been wrong before, right? Part of the problem is I have next to no nostalgia for it. We didn't own the VHS when I was a child, so the only times I ever saw it were when I'd go to a friend's house or borrow it from the library. Maybe my judgement was clouded by not having seen it in a very long time.
First things first: The good stuff. There are parts of this film that rank alongside the best of the Disney classics, and I would be remiss in not mentioning them.
The music, for one, is pretty good. You'd have to be some kind of real Scrooge not to enjoy "Ev'rybody Wants to Be a Cat" of course, but on a rewatch I did find myself grinning through "Thomas O'Malley Cat" as well. This is an easy point in the film's favor though, as I'm an absolute sucker for both big band and jazz. This is great use of your Scatman Crothers and Phil Harris, top points awarded for these two numbers in particular.
The animation is also pretty good. Especially on Edgar and Thomas O'Malley. Your mileage may vary on the Xerox style, but the animation itself is relatively unimpeachable. This was still during the era of the Nine Old Men, so there's all kind of impressive work being done with the big sweeping things like character movement and expression as well as in the more subtle animations like expressions and mouth movement.
The cats are doing all the cat stuff you'd expect like licking their paws and poof'ing their tails, but there's less expected movements here too, like arching their backs when walking alongside things or rolling in the dirt to dry off from the river. This is good character work, but it's also pretty standard for guys like Milt Kahl and Eric Larson. If you're at all interested in animation, I highly encourage you to read more about the Nine Old Men and their history with the studio.
(A big thanks to the tumblr gif artists for gif'ing the parts of this movie that look good so I can spice this post up with some relevant visuals!)
Now, the bad. Like many movies from this era, The Aristocats has something of a pacing problem. While it is necessary to do the work of setting up the conflict in the beginning, you might be surprised to learn that it takes 25 minutes for Thomas O'Malley to show up, which is when the story actually starts.
A huge part of the problem is that this movie suffers from a sort of directionless vignetticism that seems to have been driven only by the idea that it would be cute to see the animals do X, Y, and Z. "Oh wouldn't it be sweet to see the kitten paint?" "Wouldn't it be so adorable if the cat played the piano?" "Ohh, what if the mouse ate a cracker dipped in milk, wouldn't that be darling?" I have a very high tolerance for schmaltz, but The Aristocats is where even I must draw the line.
When the movie isn't being tooth-rottingly sweet, it's frequently boring, and when it's not being either of those things it's showing you another chase scene with the dogs and the butler. It's erratic, tiring, and strains the limits of the modern attention span even at the movie's incredibly sparse runtime. It's a 79 minute film and you feel all 79 of those minutes.
Tonally, much of the movie smacks of the kind of rose-tinted sentimentalism Disney was known (and even criticized at the time) for, but without the guiding hand of the man himself, nearly 5 years gone by this point. The studio was floundering in the wake of Walt's death, and The Aristocats is quite close to the nadir of this particular creative valley - though the distinction arguably goes to Robin Hood, I'm much softer on that film for a number of reasons.
The Aristocats reminds me a lot of Lady & the Tramp, in that it's the same story (down to the aforementioned racist caricatures of Siamese cats), but with cats instead of dogs and with a much less focused sense of purpose, tone, and creative direction. If you like The Aristocats for the music and the beautiful scenery, but you haven't seen Lady & the Tramp, give that one a try instead. The animation is better, the music is about on-par, and it doesn't have as many stupid chase scenes. Or just watch 101 Dalmatians, which outstrips both films on sheer charm alone.
I think I had more I wanted to say, but it was mostly rambling that got away from the point. On rewatch, I don't think this movie is as bad as I remember it being, but I stand by my decision not to include it in the poll.
tl;dr - The Aristocats isn't the worst. If you grew up watching it I totally understand having a soft spot for the music and the atmosphere. In a vacuum, I can't say I think it holds up but ultimately I'm not going to judge anyone for enjoying it. Thanks for the ask!
22 notes
·
View notes
Text
We're off to episode 3 another fantastic one for our fav couple. Let's get started shall we?
2x03 The Bet
Tim and Lucy are getting ready to head out when she asks how his night was. Seems like an innocent enough question by her. So Tim is honest. Lucy's response is sassy to say the least. Being as comfortable as possible in its delivery. Tim isn't too happy with her reply. Let me say this, Lucy is the ONLY person Tim would ever allow to talk to him like this LOL No way in hell he would indulge anyone else to even broach the subject. But then no one else would have the guts to like Lucy either. She is always the exception for him.
Once again Lucy is doing it for his own good. To shake him out of his routine. Help him move on. Everything this woman ever does is in his best interest. Tim’s deep breath in the first gif when she starts up is so funny. Like he is bracing himself for whatever Lucy barrage is headed his way. He knows she is going to say something he doesn't want to hear LOL She tries to broach the subject lightly but is instantly shot down. Now he isn't mad so much as annoyed which is progress believe it or not haha
Lucy clams up pretty quickly after he mentions jogging behind the shop all day. Her face is hilarious. Lucy has learned to take her foot off the gas when need be. She opened the door a crack to this convo and shut it quickly. It’s like she pokes the bear gauges his reaction then strategizes for a bit on how to better approach him later. She is no where near done meddling in this matter.
We rejoin them at the station booking a couple of sex workers. This is where Lucy decides to bring this subject up once again. The lack of personal space in this scene is primo. Personal space? Never heard of her.... I love it so much. My goodness they are awfully close to one another in this scene hehe She sees this as her window and is right back at it. Lucy is saying she thinks she can help him. He looks at her like she’s insane. But he allows her to continue. Almost bemused at her confidence to set him up properly. It becomes a point of pride for Lucy. The more he seems to doubt her the more she wants to prove him wrong. What else is new? Haha
This quickly goes from setting him up to a work flirt. I mean look at those two above. They're not subtle in the least...All their work flirts stem from challenging one another. This whole situation goes from helping Tim go out on a date to a competition. Because well it’s them LOL They’re both so damn competitive...That’s literally what this entire thing boils down to. Both of them digging in their heels and not relenting. Thinking they're right and the other is in the wrong.
Tim has grown a lot I keep saying but it’s true and I'm just so proud of him. Last season Tim wouldn’t have allowed Lucy anywhere near his personal/love life. Let alone make a bet about it with her. They’re both SO cocky and confident they’re going to win as well. They decide on the the winner's spoils. For Tim he gets 50 push ups after each call. Lucy gets the short sleeves she was robbed of.
Tim agrees and says she has to pay if he does this. Lucy doesn’t even care and hastily agrees to this. Just wants so badly to be in short sleeves. These two are ridiculous fools and I love them for it. Also the way Lucy looks at him after they make their bet above is so cute. Little smitten kitten this one. As I've said before as transparent as glass. She is so adorable in how she looks at him. If he looked next to him he would see the heart eyes being lodged his way. Also lets pay back attention to the lack of space. *sigh* I just love them so much.
Tim does what he does best. Getting under Lucy’s skin as much as possible. In a way only he knows how. Since Lucy is paying he’s taking Rachel to most expensive restaurant possible. He's such a shit haha I adore him though. The work flirt continues. We haven’t had one in a bit this definitely constitutes as one. Tim going on about the expensive food and wine. You can see the irritation all over her face. Eric and Melissa are masters at conveying so much with a look. Right now she wants to shove him off that chair.
Lucy is trying to turn it back in her favor. Saying how romantic it is. That he wouldn't have chosen that if he wanted his date to fail. Their banter is unrivaled. I enjoy their verbal sparring so much. Tim is ever so cocky of course. He thinks he has this in the bag. That Lucy is destined to stay in long sleeves till her probation is up. Well if he has anything to do with it she will.
He is more excited at the prospect of Lucy doing those push-ups and winning this bet than the date itself. Oh Timothy. His damn cute smile in that last gif though above. Lord help me. I swear he only smiles that way with her. Amazing the amount of chemistry these two have without even touching. Testament to how good it is.
I don’t know what’s funnier. The fact that Lucy is casing his date or that she dragged Jackson along for it LMAO Kills me. ‘Mama needs to get into short sleeves’ I’m dying haha Also Jackson telling her how weird this is. I loved their friendship so much. Down to do and help each other with whatever.
Tim crashing and burning on this date is too funny. He needs an ice breaker. What does he do to rectify the situation? Brings up his work wife. Yes baby, that’ll fix the current train wreck you have going on. Smh. He does look damn good though. Feast for the eyes and all that. I will say I did like Rachel. She was the perfect person to get him back into the dating world. A Lucy 2.0 you could say. Because she challenges him and calls him on his crap too. I mean look at that second gif. Got him to go from saying Chen to Lucy with a pointed look.
I like Rachel for what she represented for him. Showing him he could have a functional relationship post Isabel. I think she was very important in shaping Tim into who he becomes in that regard. I hope this doesn’t sound as mean as it may come off. Rachel was a means to an end for Chenford. A good one but one none the less. Serious enough to show Tim he was capable of that again but not enough that he would leave LA for it.(But that’s much farther in the future for s2.) I will say I do love what Rachel does for him in the long run. I didn’t hate their scenes by any means. They had their purpose. I.e. Lucy who will eventually win this bet as we will see later on.
Lucy and Jackson continue to watch the date. It looks like Tim is flailing and Rachel is off put. Tim admits the bet he has with Lucy. That he wants to win. Rachel flirts and says being with her isn't a win? Then they start to click a bit. Tim says he can help Rachel with her civil standbys. She asks what he’d like in return? Tim being Tim knows Lucy is watching. Has Rachel slap him in the face and leave. Lucy is crushed and convinced she will be in long sleeves the rest of her probationary period haha
Oh Lucy you know why you care if Tim dates LOL Just last episode you recorded an old ass book for this man. But it is far too early for you to understand the true meaning of those actions just yet. She cares so much and is so empathetic. She will do things to her own detriment. Like this date haha Jackson’s reply is the best though. ‘You just want everyone to be happy. That’s a good quality’ He was such a good friend. ❤️
I love that Lucy couldn’t stand the idea of Rachel thinking badly of Tim. So she made sure early the next morning to visit her and rectify that. Almost like she couldn't move on with her day until she did this. That even if they didn’t work out romantically, she had to come and defend Tim to her. Lucy has seen his good side more than anyone else. To her there is no one better to defend his name than her. So that’s exactly what she did. Gah I love it. She’s so loyal.
Lucy looks down and sees a pair of boots. Then Tim does his glorious entrance. A shot we all love let's be honest. He's all wet from the shower and in a low hanging towel. Phew lord. Lucy looks a little thirsty at first. Then she turns her brain back on. (I can’t blame her girl I'm thirsty from seeing him too ahaha) Lucy confidently looks him in the eye and says ‘Short sleeves’ then takes off with a glorious smile and stride out of Rachel's place and back to her car.
Tim is so mad he’s lost this bet he doesn’t even care Lucy is seeing him in a towel. Or the fact that he’s there cause he spent the night with her friend. He’s more annoyed she won the bet LOL Classic. He thought he was going to have his cake and eat it too. Sorry Tim that’s a hard no haha This ep was one big work flirt for them both and I loved it.
~~~~~
Side notes- Meh didn’t really have much. Was cool to have couple Castle peeps on the show Seamus and Jon retuning. And Wopez was cute with his mom and stuff but nothing major. Jackson' SL with Smitty was really good tragic but good.
Forgot to thank everyone last review my apologies. Always so very thankful to those that like/comment (I adore comments)/ reblog and such you all are the best. :)
#Caitlin rewatches The Rookie#chenford#chenford hiatus#summer rewatch#waiting on s6#s2#2x03 The Bet#the rookie#tim bradford#lucy chen#tim x lucy#lucy x tim#eric winter#melissa o'neil#otp: doing my job#otp: you know me so well. too well.#tim bradford x lucy chen
49 notes
·
View notes
Note
U wanna analyse this? The words kinda made me sad: https://www.planetf1.com/news/peter-windsor-oscar-piastri-negative-impact-lando-norris
oh babe that one's easy bc not only did Lando have his best season yet by a long shot, he has many many times publicly credited it to Oscar pushing him and giving him the kind of competition that he's needed. as in he's said it so many times it would take me hours to screenshot all of them. Andrea and Zak have said it too, and actually the article itself even admits it. at the very last race Lando said how much Oscar has brought and that Lando himself has learned from him.
so big shock, "planetf1" faked a headline for clicks lol.
just to get ahead of the inevitable doom and gloom that sports media posts for engagement, let me pass on what I learned while in hockey fandom:
if the headline is dramatic, it's fake and don't give it clicks and ad rev. if it's not something like "grosjean leaps through fireball" which is easily verifiable then trust me, they won't be able to back it up in the article. remember when Lando did the landolog of him and Oscar karting in Italy and how much fun they had? at the beginning, he joked that Oscar had been a "little snake" for getting there early and practicing. he literally laughed while he said it. but sure enough, headlines on sites w names like F1dotcomBizFunHorny4U had "McLaren's Norris calls teammate Piastri a snake".
negative stories get engagement and melodrama gets even more. they'll worry about fixing it to not get sued way down in the article under the tenth video ad.
if the article was cribbed/didn't get a direct interview with a named source with an actual role within a team then it's either fake or stretched beyond reality for engagement.
even quotations can get chopped to hell and misplaced to fake a story - like people seeing Pierre explain his lack of relationship with Esteban by saying that other drivers might not be close friends either and to not make assumptions. despite quotes from those other drivers that they do in fact like their teammate (Carlos actually said this about him and Charles to Esteban and Pierre on the fanstage at Vegas). if people want to go hogwild with a quote to fit their negative personal narrative then they will. sites that exist solely for ad revenue and sponsorships will do everything to draw those fans in.
if DTS ever lands on the truth it's because that storyline wasn't worth the time in post twisting it into lies. so the fact that Oscar and Lando haven't had melodrama between them and keep saying how well they work together and like each other could mean that we get some unedited actual decent content! but since the 2023 season was so boring it might mean that the editors decide to do a hatchet job and bring in the usual talking heads to fabricate a drama between them. it ultimately doesn't matter bc DTS is only good for f1blr so that we can pull stuff for memes and gifs etc. when Lando recorded his viewing of some of the seasons he spent most of it laughing.
also this isn't the 80s or 90s or even early 00s Formula 1. the drivers are expected to stay much more even keeled out of respect for their teams and even the Pierre/Esteban situation (jsyk I do know their childhood history) isn't like they're out for each other's throats. they have a solely professional relationship now and they'd both agree that being civil is much better than not having an F1 seat. drivers are also way too busy nowadays with their own sponsorships and work outside racing to sit and fester these crazy rivalries in bars and pubs - as well as the media duties for their team that are way more since Liberty Media took over.
every set of teammates will experience ups and downs and tensions but they also have every incentive to get over it and not fuck up their work environment. especially at McLaren where Andrea and Zak now take a hard line about the drivers cooperating at all times for the sake of the team, that's never going to spiral into the kind of drama that media want. Lando beating himself up this season is because he's 5 years in and dying for that win, it's his mentality and it clearly didn't stop him from snatching podiums and points anyway. does he envy Oscar's sprint win, of course!! but if he hated or even resented Oscar for that Sprint win then he wouldn't keep bringing it up on Oscar's behalf all the time. he would do like other resentful teammates have done and simply avoid talking about it at all.
tl;dr anon, for your own sake please customize your F1 media experience or it'll drive you crazy <3 and just to say, I don't look at anything but F1.com or AP news to get updates on anything and I don't pay attention to anything else.
#inchreplies#I hope this isn't talking down to you anon I'm just wanting it to be helpful#and some folks aren't aware just how much wider f1 journalism straight up tells lies#wank adjacent#but not really
13 notes
·
View notes
Text
Alone
Homelander x fem!reader
Word Count: 1k
Warnings: homelander is his own warning
Author’s Note: literally homelander my beloved. He’s so annoying. I would die for him. I hate him. He’s the love of my life. Hes the bane of my existence. Hes never wrong.
Requested: by anon, Hi Maya! First of all congrats on graduating! That’s amazing!! Second, I’ve caught up on The Boys. I was wondering if I could request a fic for Homelander where he feels like he’s all alone and has no one and reader (who works for Vought - can be a supe or not) comforts him and lets him know he’s not alone, that he has her and they kiss at the end. I just need some Homelander angst with a happy ending fluff in my life! If you want of course :)
Summary: the request!
I don’t own these characters. They belong to author/director/creator
(not my gif)
Homelander was breathing through his nose. The fake smile wasn’t breathable, he had learned through the years. It showed too much teeth. It hurt his gums too much. He waved as he walked, very straightforward, very rehearsed.
He had always known he was alone.
Ever since he was born he had been a lab experiment. But he had been the best lab experiment. He had been Voughts' perfect creation. No one was at his level. That’s why he was alone. Because the best never got company.
Someone bumped into him. His smile faltered a bit, ever so slightly. He was about to say something rather unsavory when he met your eyes. You were covered with show makeup and looking a little unlike yourself in the light of the spotlight.
“Are you alright?” you asked gently. “Sorry I bumped into you. You looked a bit out of it. Wanted to bring you back down to Earth before you start floating.”
Homelander smiled then, a real actual genuine smile. Yeah he was alone. But he had you.
You, his only semi equal in power in the Seven.
And you, the only one who was honest with him about anything.
“Think I’m catching a cold,” he said. You started to walk together then, arms brushing as you waved at the flashing cameras. You were going to be interviewed together this Sunday, one of the good press spots. They had started setting up you and Homelander together when they realized how much chemistry the two of you had. It was the kind of chemistry they forced out of Maeve.
“You can catch colds?” you asked, amazed.
“A bit of code they messed up when making me.”
“Oh you were computer made now?” He shrugged.
“Something like that.” He grabbed your hand as you took one last picture, stepping inside. There were less people watching you there. He was able to let his face fall, let the facade drop. His hand remained in yours. It kind of felt like you were anchoring him to the world for a moment.
“John,” you whispered gently. He looked back at you. “You’re using your super strength on my hand.” He looked down and noticed you were right. He let go quickly, wiping off his gloves. He cleared his throat instead of saying he was sorry but you got the gist.
“Y/N! Come sign some pictures!” Ashley called, ushering you over. You nodded quickly, looking back at Homelander.
“See you at seating!”
He watched you go without grabbing at you like he wanted to. He was back in the crowds, the masses, alone again. He watched you go, watched your fake smile go back up. He watched you before someone else tried to pull him away.
-
You found Homelander sitting, waiting for the movie to start. He was early, which surprised you. Usually he liked to mingle a bit more, boast about his role in the movie or something. You sat down beside him. You were pretty much one of the only people sitting down already.
“What are you doing?” you questioned. “Sitting here alone I mean. The Homelander should be out breaking hearts, taking names.”
“The Homelander is taking a break,” he admitted. He adjusted in his seat. You looked over at him and you stared at each other for a silent couple of moments. “What do you think about our role in the movie?”
“Our romantic role you mean?”
“Yeah.”
“I think it makes sense for the characters. We were both lonely. In the movie.” He grabbed your hand.
“Yeah. In the movie.”
“You do know I’m here for you whenever though.”
“I know. You’re the only one who has anything actual to say to me,” he said honestly. You put your head on his shoulder. He put his hand on your knee and you put your leg over his, making him choke up a bit.
“I’m sorry no one else knows how to act around you,” you whispered. “But you’re not alone.”
He looked down at you. You weren’t looking up at him or anything. You're just laying there. Completely comfortable, completely safe in his presence. No one who knew him trusted him. Not like you.
That’s all he needed to hear.
He nuzzled his head into yours.
You sat in the empty theater together, the only two sitting. You grabbed his gloved hand and put it to your lips. You rested there. His heart almost lept out of his chest.
-
The Boys Tag List: @demonchick1 @witchygagirl @lov3vivian @lovatnest @jojoesq
221 notes
·
View notes
Text
Finding Normalcy: a Joel Miller Fanfiction
Part One
Tags: Joel miller x reader / joel miller fluff / literally just two conversations / SLOWWWW burn / papi pedro pascal
Word count: ~12k
this gif is so funny
You had known Tommy and Maria for a long time, ever since you settled in Jackson a few years after the breakout. Slowly you came back to some sort of normalcy despite the lost lives that darkened your mind once the sun went down. Every morning you made coffee in the kitchen of your small house; every morning being grateful that you finally had hot water. Every day grateful that Tommy had been kind enough to lead you here, and that Maria had given you a house to make your own.
To repay for the couple’s kindness you kept your home beautiful, always making sure the garden was growing something for the community even if that meant your living room was covered in foliage during the cold winter months. You still kept to yourself; being one of the quietest members in the community. You didn’t frequent the bar or attend many of the events planned, but you gave back through your tending of the earth. You didn’t like talking to people much, and most definitely did not want people to notice you.
Until you saw him ride in on that stupid horse.
He was burly and built, with weathered lines in his face that said more than he ever would. And you wanted to know him.
So you tried to forget about him, this world was no place to make connections. Despite your efforts, he kept appearing in the routine of your daily life. Your eyes accidentally caught his when you ran to grab flour. You heard his southern accent from across the block when he walked past your house. You successfully ignored him until Maria dragged you to a housewarming party for Tommy’s brother.
I guess it gave you a good reason to shower- which you’ve been putting off.
Anxiety filled you as you walked up the steps to Joel’s- whose name you had just learned a half hour ago. Social situations always made you anxious, your hands would fidget and pull at your clothes and the inside of your mouth would be raw from you gnawing at it. All of this anxiety has grown exponentially since the outbreak of this pandemic.
The sun had set and the light was soft and warm inside the house. The walls were still blank and and still carried the smell of vacancy- Mr. Miller hadn’t been here long enough to make a home yet.
The smell of food and alcohol filled your nose as your ears were drummed with conversations. You find Maria as your safe haven in the warm kitchen, steaming plates of food there to fill your mouth so you don’t have to speak.
“I can’t believe I finally dragged you out of that house, I thought you had died in there.” She says with a slight smile on her face, though behind it is a true motherly warning despite you being more than thirty.
“Well I do feel like I owe you, so I figured I might as well show my face.”
She smiles without looking at you and nods her head in the direction of the living room.
“Go introduce yourself to Joel. You’re both recluses so I’m sure it’ll be a riveting conversation.”
You purse your lips at that and mumble a fine before stepping across the threshold of the kitchen. You hated this. Joel stood next to the fireplace with his arm up on the mantle, the muscles in his arm rigid under his skin. He was in the middle of a conversation that he most definitely didn’t want to be a part of. His eyes met yours again because you were- in fact- staring, which made you drop your gaze back to Maria through the walkway. She just looked at you with that disappointed stare and you continued trudging like a child forced to say hello to your estranged family members.
You walked to his right, away from the rest of the people and looked up at him and he met your eyeline. Your heart was beating hard from the anxiety of an impending conversation of pleasantries. You hate pleasantries. A few seconds of an awkward shuffle of you both adjusting your clothes and coughing passes.
“Hello.” He says it more as a question than a greeting.
“Hi.” You finally make eye contact with him as you tell him your name.
“You know Maria?”
“Yeah, she brought me here a long time ago.” You looked down at your shoes.
He responds with a huff.
“So Tommy’s your brother?”
“Mhm.”
Silence.
“You have that big garden right?” He crosses his arms.
“Yeah… If you want anything, you know. Potatoes… lettuce… ” You trailed off wanting to name more vegetables but you figured you shouldn’t.
He harrumphed. You saw a tinge of a smile at the corner of his mouth.
“Thanks.”
“Well, it was nice to meet you. Drop by if you need anything.”
He looked up at you with those big brown eyes.
“I will.”
And with that you turned away and immediately downed a shot of scotch to calm your heart.
_______________________________________
A few days later you were tending your garden when you heard footsteps behind you.
You whipped around to see Joel standing with his brow creased. You thanked the heavens that you would be able to talk to him without the pressure of a party.
“Hey, how are you?” You stand up and your knees pop. God, you're out of shape now.
“Fine. I was wondering if you have something.”
“What are you looking for?”
“Strawberries.”
“You makin’ jam, cowboy?” He looked at you sternly.
“No.”
Asshole. “I have some inside, follow me.”
You hoped he wouldn’t be this blunt forever. His footsteps fell heavy behind you as he followed you into your kitchen.
You pulled out the fresh strawberries from your cupboard and began putting them in a box for him to take home. Joel paces around your kitchen, looking at the flowers and pictures you’ve put up on your walls. His eyes land on a painting in the center of the wall.
“I like this.” He gestured to the painting.
“Really? Thank you, I’m rusty after so many years of not being able to paint.”
“You painted this?” He turns to look at you and it seems as though that permanent crease in his brow has softened.
“I did, I painted a lot before the world fell apart. Went to school for it.”
“You’re good.” He turns back to the painting while a smile takes up your entire face.
You finish closing up the box and hand it over to him.
“Here you are, cowboy.”
“Thank you.” He seems less offended by your unwelcome nickname. “What do I owe you?”
“Oh no, there’s no need. It’s free of charge.” You smile at him and he looks at you seriously.
“So you can hold it over me later? Nuh uh.”
“No, no, really. I mean it.”
“I’ll find a way to pay you back.”
You really didn’t need him to pay you back, but you liked the idea of having him around more often. Despite his bluntness and ability to make you incredibly nervous, he made you smile.
As he begins to walk away you blurt out “My door hinges are rusting. I need new ones.”
He looks back at you with an enthusiastic nod.
“I can do that.” You smile as he walks away, hoping you see him again soon.
———————————————————-
#pedro pascal#fanfic#joel miller#the last of us#tlou fandom#joel miller fluff#slow but steady#joel miller x reader
17 notes
·
View notes
Note
artists self rec! when you get this, reply with your favourite five arts/sets/edits/gifs that you've done, then pass on to at least five other people. time to shine and spread some self-love and appreciation 🥰 <3
oh my god sia i am SO SORRY i am only just now seeing this ask it's been so long i am so so--
Sia!!!
This was so hard to choose wow.
FANVIDS FIRST:
I'm Sorry | Merlin & Arthur from BBC Merlin [tumblr link] [direct yt link]
This took me over 2 months and, so far, it's the best fanvid I've ever made. I'm ridiculously proud of it and I only have a tiny bit of shame in saying so XD. The finished product ended up far better than the original concept I had in my head. I wanted to make a video that focused on how Merlin and Arthur forgave one another; Merlin, since the day he met Arthur, and Arthur when he learned the truth. Because the core of their relationship was unconditional love, to their own strength and detriment. I cried almost each time I worked on it.
2. I Became Greedy | Kurosawa & Adachi from Cherry Magic [tumblr link] [direct yt link]
This took me about .. I want to say a month? I'm also proud of this one. Cherry Magic is a light-hearted BL j-drama that - at its core - is about the importance of reaching out to others, and the bravery of reaching out and accepting someone else's outreached hand. I eventually want to edit a video on the overarching meaning of the show. But I... am a sucker for pining lol and I was so taken in by Kurosawa's pining. It was so poignant, I was literally clutching my chest in sympathy pangs. So, I wanted to edit a vid that emulated that and focused just on that feeling. And I think I??? did!
3. it's not living if it's not with you | Wei Wuxian & Lan Wangji from The Untamed/CQL [direct yt link]
This was the second fanvid I had posted to my youtube channel and I used a lot of editing techniques I had never tried before, so I learned a lot! I wanted to show as many aspects of wangxian's story and relationship in one video as I could without mucking up the pacing or making it messy in general. I love the colour palette and font I chose. Something else I really wanted to achieve was using a light-hearted song with a sad meaning over both sad and happy scenes, because that's a recipe for EMOTION. And judging by the comments I got on this vid, I dare say I succeeded XD I had a lot of fun making this! Even if I got stuck on it for a month and then thankfully could finish it when I was hit with an epiphany. I also cried quite a bit while making it shkgjhdf
Listen. I have. Emotions.
ART:
4. A Favourable Misunderstanding | Merlin & Arthur [link to full comic here]
A meme re-draw turned into a fluffy comic because it took on a life of it's own and Merlin & Arthur are a force to be reckoned with when being idiots in love. I was also super proud of this! Despite the many styles in one comic (which is fine, I was just worried about nothing looking like it matched) I was happy with how I drew them! Especially as I find Merlin's face very difficult to get a grasp of, for some reason. And I was also proud of their characterisations! I still get so happy to see how well-loved it is, and so perhaps it doesn't need its own rec but what the hell. I love it, too hehe.
5. Balls the Unfathomable | a comic about a weirdly wholesome demon summoning [link to full comic here]
My friends and I, while on a call, fell into doing a bit. That lasted a really long time. And during it, I became a summoned demon nicknamed "Balls". No, I'm not joking. It was ridiculous and hilarious.
Thankfully, I remembered most of it and immediately tried to commit it to paper for - what I thought - was going to be a short, half-assed sketch comic. Nope. I ended up with a multi-page comic with clean lines and everything.
Funnily enough, I hadn't actually ever finished a multi-page comic before this. Not one so polished anyway. Balls has that effect on people, I suppose. skjdhjkfdg
So yeah, I was proud of finishing it, and of choosing a cute, simple style and sticking to it (cute, "less realistic" styles don't come easy to me, so I struggled more than you'd think trying to figure out how I was going to draw this skdjhkfg) and of how I structured the panels, especially when I really was just winging it. I do not know how to panel (yet).
Basically; I adore my friends and the fun we have together and I had to share this particular shenanigan and Balls themself. They've become a beloved character amongst my friends and I.
_________
That's it! Long-winded commentary and all.
Thank you again for the self-rec, Sia! 🥺💕💕💕
psst hey, you should go totally check out Sia's blog - she does amazing edits and gifs
#once again i'm so sorry I saw this so late skjhgdfg#ask#ren replies#courtjestermerlin#self-rec#my art#pyjamacryptid edits#fanvid#artists on tumblr#merthur#kurodachi#wangxian#the untamed#cherry magic#mdzs#viddingisart#merlin#gayble tag
10 notes
·
View notes
Text
Atlantis
Stargate:Atlantis: Evan Lorne, Jack O'Neil,
WordCount: 976
T(W): None (Let me know if I missed)
Request: No
A/N: GIF Credit : unknown (please let me know if you know the owner)
Taglist: @make-me-imagine, Anyone who wants to be added message or sign up here
Being the younger sister of the Major was never easy but knowing that you would have to work with the insufferable Dr. Rodney McKay, that was a deal-breaker. You and McKay had never gotten on. You thought he was an arrogant, self-righteous, know-it-all who believed that a woman could never be as intelligent as he was, and he believed that you were, essentially, a child and not worth giving the respect you had earned and expected. It was the main reason that you had refused to go to Atlantis expedition and join your brothers team. You had known about and had been a part of the Stargate programme a few years longer than your brother and had worked with O’Neil’s team a few times within your time at the Stargate programme, mostly because your field (out with the air force) was linguistics and ancient Greek/Roman, Norse and Egyptian civilisations and history (yes you were aware than O’Neil and even McKay believed you to be a female Jackson).
You were excited about the prospect of actually going to the lost city of Atlantis. It had been a dream of yours since you had learned about it at school. A whole city and civilisation believed to have been lost to the sea, with no sign of its ever being there. The mystery had haunted you since your lesson on it. The idea that the Ancients literally moved an entire city off Earth, made more sense that the sea swallowing the city whole with zero traces. When you had learned they were putting together a team, you immediately volunteered. Then you discovered your brother had been approached to be a team leader on the expedition (after he accidentally set of a piece of machinery the Ancients had left on Earth) and you were a bit more excited, it would be nice to spend time with your brother and not have to be deceptive about your role in the Stargate programme, he finally had the clearance for you to talk openly about it. Then you heard that McKay had confirmed he was going to join the expedition and your excitement faded almost instantly. Your brother, O’Neil and the current expedition leader (Weir you believed her name was), all tried to convince you to join as they would need a translator and someone who would have a better idea on how to communicate with anyone who was currently residing in Atlantis or the surrounding area. You were adamant that you could not work with McKay and opted to stay behind. Even Daniel tried to convince you to go.
Roughly one year after your brother had gone to Atlantis you were in your office doing some research for an assignment which was coming up. You were lost in your books and didn’t hear the knock on your door. You almost jumped 10 feet in the air when someone cleared their throat, rather obnoxiously loudly, in your office. After you had recovered you saw O’Neil standing there, smug look on his face like he enjoyed the momentary fear in your eyes. You looked at him, one hand still over your beating heart and the other planted firmly on the edge of your desk. “Geez Jack, you nearly gave me a heart attack, Is everything okay sir?” He smirked at you and gestured to the seat on the other side of your desk, you nodded for him to take it, he almost flopped down on it, still smirking at you. “Sir, I have to say, the staring and smirking is starting to make me uncomfortable.” You said nervously, trying desperately to look at something else, anything else that would break the eye contact. His smile grew wider and goofier at that response. Eventually he stopped torturing you, “Well missy, I have some news for you,” he leaned forward in his chair a bit, “and keep in mind, that this time it’s an order, not a request.” You looked at him and leaned forward yourself, “Sir?”, O’Neil, sat back a bit and rested one elbow on an arm of the chair and sat his chin in it, “You’re going to Atlantis.” You looked at him in stunned silence. He smirked at you again and left your office, thoroughly pleased with himself and the fact that he managed to tell you something that you were too busy computing to argue with.
The next scheduled departure for the Atlantis expedition was a month after the colonel had given you the news you were being shipped off to Atlantis, you packed the essentials and mentally prepared yourself, all your appeals for the mission had been denied, very quickly, and you could just feel the dread of being stuck on a limited building with McKay. You left with Major Lorne’s team for Atlantis, you were nervous about relocating to Atlantis permanently, and the thought of working alongside McKay was killing you, Lorne saw your unease and tried to comfort you, “First time going through the gate huh? It’s easy, a little cold, but breathe out as your exiting and it’ll be okay, I’m here for support if your need it.” You smiled a little at the sentiment before responding, “As much as that’s appreciated, this is far from my first time going through the gate, I’m more dreading the other side if I’m honest.” You gave a small laugh at the end, trying to show you weren’t annoyed or offended by his sentiment and words. You looked ahead at the sound of the Stargate starting up and took a deep breath. Lorne put his hand on your shoulder, “If you need someone to help you escape, just shout.” You smiled and thanked him, you knew he intentionally spoke a bit quieter than his initial attempt to speak with you and you appreciated that more than either of you realised.
#stargate atlantis#evan lorne#jack o'neil#reader insert#stargate atlantis x reader#x reader#evan lorne x reader
21 notes
·
View notes
Text
I have a few different questions in my inbox that revolve around my perspective on being a teen in the 2000s. A few points weren’t relevant for me, but I’ll try to cover some other aspects here in one rambling post since this might be faster...
TECHNOLOGY:
There were no apps, filters, or presets back then. If you wanted to edit a picture, you had to sit down & actually learn how to use photoshop (I think some kids with Microsoft computers used Paint too but idk). Knowing how to use photoshop gave you a huge advantage on myspace and most likely made you popular in online forums because you could actually make icons, wallpapers, & stuff like neopets userlookup profile banners. The kinds of things that kids can do to pictures today with a single tap of a button used to take like an hour + a lot of talent. Also, photoshop didn’t used to have the kind of recurring payment nonsense that Adobe does now. You’d just go to a store, buy the software cd, install it, and then it was on your computer for good.
Selfies weren’t really a big thing until myspace... and a lot of people called them “myspace pictures” for a while if you turned the camera to face yourself lol. Gifs also didn’t have a name... I just called them “animations" at first.
Modern cell phones can replace so much stuff that I used to have to haul around... like my heavy Nokia phone, disposable camera, giant chunky video camera + its gear, a giant binder of cds plus my cd player & headphones, a notepad with pens, and maps I printed out from the internet. My friends would also bring their GPS, a portable dvd player for longer trips, and ipods... except we didn’t have a way to get the ipod to play in a car yet (in 2008-ish I got one of those cords that you could set to the frequency of whichever radio station was pure static and then you’d get to hear part of your song... but you’d have to keep changing the radio station on the cord as you drove because pretty soon another song would start to cut into yours).
I didn’t even get the type of cell phone that could have internet or apps until like 2013. I was def late to that party, but my point is that the few kids who had sidekicks in 2006 weren’t the norm. I had a basic flip phone, but don’t remember texting much until 2007. Most of my friends and I just used our phones to call our parents, and then talked on MSN or AIM on our computers (if you were fortunate enough to have one in the first place... a ton of kids at my school didn’t have internet at home).
I know that videos on youtube from 2006 look like they're "filmed on a potato" and really bad quality or whatever, but part of that low quality wasn't the fault of our video cameras!! It was really distressing how I could have a relatively decent video, try my best to get all the settings right to export it for webstreaming, and then it would look like a garbled mess by the time it finished uploading through whatever hell portal it went through while getting online. Sometimes the process of sharing & downloading video files also lowered the quality. So the quality of the original videos we recorded wasn’t quite as horrid as the final uploaded versions (cell phone videos do not apply to this... those were just atrocious period).
Our tvs were not super blurry & pixelated like the bad quality youtube videos you might see of recordings from 2006 lol. Have you ever seen a movie from 2002? It’s fine. I do remember tvs suddenly becoming REALLY clear towards the end of college, though... maybe around 2010? I don’t remember exactly when. I only remember spending a few months continually pointing out how clear the details were onscreen and being shocked that we could literally see someone’s pores. So I suppose there was some minor improvement, sure.
My random opinion: there was something nice about having fewer choices in entertainment and needing to wait to access something (I’m not saying that having the freedom to do your own thing on your own schedule these days is bad or anything... it’s just different). My high school friends and I had like 5 tv channels to pick from so then everyone watched the same exact shows at the same time because we didn’t know when the next rerun would be (although weekly TV guides that got delivered in the newspaper would list the names of each episode coming up on the schedule and I would highlight the ones I wanted to see). Some kids with cable would leave the tv on for hours in the hope that they’d see their favorite music videos show up. Now people can instantly access an endless range of entertainment on their own time, so some of the excitement that came from anticipation is lost (like even waiting for someone to return the movie you wanted to rent felt like a bigger deal than just clicking on whatever’s next in your Netflix list). I spent a lot of hours of my life waiting in fun lines for midnight Harry Potter book releases, but now I suppose you could just download an e-book right when it’s released.
There weren’t verified social media accounts back then. YFly’s main selling point was the fact that celebrities were verified (that site didn’t really take off, but Brendon still had to sign up for an account in fall 2006). Without verified social media accounts, it was often really hard to tell if someone was real. There were SO many fake accounts for any & every celebrity. I legit believed that one account on Neopets was Emma Watson simply because so many other people were convinced too. There were a lot of fake myspace & facebook accounts for Ryan Ross & Brendon Urie by late 2006, but those always seemed very obviously fake to me (even if they actually managed to spell Brendon’s name right lol). Some newer fans who didn’t know as much about the guys were definitely fooled, though, so that’s yet another place where some harmful and/or inaccurate info came from.
FASHION:
movies from the 2000s aren’t a totally accurate picture of what teens dressed like… it’s more like an adult costume designer’s interpretation.
Most kids I knew in high school just wore a lot of American Eagle, Hollister, Abercrombie, and whatever PacSun sold (like Roxy). There weren’t so many aesthetics back then. The high schools that my friends and I were familiar with (in several different states) mostly had kids who were skater, scene, emo, goth, kind of punk, the generalized preppy look that made everyone into a Laguna Beach clone, or kids who didn’t care & just wore sneakers, flared jeans, and whatever graphic unisex tshirts came with their school activities.
Emo & scene were not the same thing. A lot of scene kids would get really upset if you called them emo. Some emo kids would be offended if you thought they’d ever be scene. Also: in my experience, emo kids were bullied waaaay more than scene kids.
I spent a lot of time at malls and was really into teen fashion magazines in high school like Teen Vogue, YM, Seventeen, Cosmogirl, Teen People, Elle Girl, etc. I just want to point out that styles changed SO much while I was in middle school & high school (2000–2007) and even more when I was in college. The popcorn shirts that I was obsessed with in 7th grade were only around for a short time. Flared sleeves were in towards the start of the decade, but that didn’t last long either. The 1960s came back briefly when I was in middle school, and then the neon 80s had a short comeback a few years later (but now I’m understanding why our teachers grumbled about how we were generalizing an entire decade with the looks of one moment lol). I can’t think of a single style that could possibly represent the whole decade of the 2000s. In 2004 I desperately wanted the flared jeans that Amanda Bynes wore in What A Girl Wants, but I wouldn’t have been caught dead in them in 2008. In 6th grade my favorite outfits were track pants that could snap off, flared jeans with flowers embroidered on them, butterfly clips in my hair, those clunky chunky brown sandals that looked like turtles, the spaghetti strap tank tops that were banned at school, a little triangle bandana thing on my head, foundation as some weird form of lipgloss, and body glitter. I fit in at that point, but I would’ve looked weird by 2002. Trends were super temporary & changed quickly. It’s not like the entire decade was into camo cargo pants, trucker hats, shirts/purses/hats/anything with your initial in rhinestones, madras shorts, platform sandals, jeans that laced up the sides, pants with flares as big as you could possibly get, colored skinny jeans, denim miniskirts with cropped leggings underneath, long camisoles with a lace bottom for layering, boleros, gauchos, striped polo & rugby shirts, that one style of adidas shoes, those velvet tracksuits, massively furry uggs, crocheted purses & shirts, jeans that looked like they were patched together, suede belts with the fringe that hung down to your knee, studded belts, etnies & vans, etc. Those things were from a range of different years. 2008/09 feels like it had way more in common with 2011 than with 2005. I thought the early 2000s had more in common with the late 90s than with 2006. I’m just saying... you can’t generalize the whole decade as a continuous look or sound.
TOXIC ASPECTS OF 2000s FASHION / TEEN CULTURE:
TW: eating disorders
Maybe movies didn’t show the actual types of tshirts that teens wore because those had a giant brand name plastered on them or were inappropriate? There was SO much sexual innuendo on shirts around like 2004. I just tried to google this and I’m shocked at how there are so few examples (I put some in this tag). I mean, it’s awesome that our culture has changed enough to recognize that those should be buried, but they were also so prevalent that it feels strange to see those shirts are just gone as though they barely existed. I’m able to find some examples of Abercrombie shirts still because the brand is popular, but those types of graphic tees were at almost every store in the mall for a season… even Kohls & Target were questionable. For a short time it was such a chore to find a tshirt that didn’t subtly say something sexual, which legit made me anxious as a high school freshman. A 14-year-old girl shouldn’t be walking around in a tshirt with colorful smiling flowers that say “guaranteed to get you up in seconds!” I hate that I was so naive that I wore that shirt to school for a long time, but I also hate that those types of shirts were created for the junior’s section of some stores. The graphics on those shirts were mostly designed to look like ads for things like tropical islands, travel, Asian restaurants, cleaning products, mountain resorts, etc… except it was usually sexual in some way if you stopped to actually read the small text. Other shirts were also surprisingly racist, sexist, and just generally weird for something that was obviously created for underage girls to wear.
Parts of the teen fashion industry basically fostered a bitchy culture where girls hated each other and were striving for male validation. Most stores at the mall (and even Walmart & Target) had those popular attitude tees that pitted girls against each other or reduced our worth to a few physical characteristics. The Abercrombie t-shirt that said “I make you look fat” stands out in my memory (but it’s just one drop in the bucket of all the similar tees they sold). And there were SO many shirts at various stores about blondes vs brunettes that I remember wondering whether my friends who dyed their hair felt like they were switching sides in a battle lol (there weren’t many shirts about redheads, but I remember seeing one at a store like JC Penny or Sears that had some kind of flames & implied something sexual because of course).
There was even a weird trend of graphic tees that made fun of rural populations... like Urban Outfitters had so many shirts mocking states that were stereotypically redneck. Abercrombie and other stores did too.
I still remember a teen magazine (maybe Cosmogirl?) had an article whose condescending tone was basically congratulating Rachel Bilson in The OC for eating cheeseburgers, being ok with her body/weight, and not trying to be skinny (she was probably a size 6 btw). She was legit considered “large” by several magazines back then, whereas Marissa on The OC was the standard of what was supposed to be “normal.” The media would create a culture where you needed to be super skinny to be acceptable, but then they’d blast those same celebrities for possibly being anorexic (and that shaming wasn’t done out of concern for their health… the tone was more like celebrating that a celebrity screwed up yet again). There really was no way to win.
I recently saw a current teen talking about that Senior Year movie on Netflix and how ridiculous it was that the main cheerleader girl claimed to be on an ice cube diet (as though that idea was absurd and Netflix was inventing it as a joke). That was an actual thing, though. I even remember reading the “helpful tip” in more than 1 magazine that the act of chewing on ice cubes would trick your brain/body into feeling a bit more full. I remember a couple girls who’d have cups of ice at lunch complaining about how their dentists told them that chewing on ice cubes was bad for their teeth.
The top & middle shelves of jeans at Hollister & Abercrombie were like sizes 00-5 and then the biggest sizes were at the bottom. You had to kneel on the floor to try to find a size 9 in their limited stock, which was the biggest size some stores sold (others went up to a size 11). Way too many of my friends viewed themselves as “disgustingly obese cows” for being a size 9/10. I was legit ashamed to be a size 5/6. Our world was created through a really narrow lens of magazines & tv & movies, and we mostly saw super skinny white girls.
Another aspect of the one-way dictation of culture was how “poor people” were very much looked down on in the early 2000s. The kiosks at the malls near me were full of counterfeit designer bags, sunglasses, shoes, etc. I’m mostly speaking for the preppy crowd here, but at a lot of high schools you were basically expected to have a small Coach bag and one of those chunky chain Tiffany & Co necklaces with the heart on it. That was just like the bare minimum (and it was embarrassing for the girls who were called out for clearly having knockoff ones… like I felt safer just not having those things than being caught looking like I wanted to, while clearly not being able to afford it). I was watching this youtube video last night (which is seriously funny btw) and the guy points out how Kate calls out Lizzie for being an outfit-repeater and then the characters in that movie look down on blue collar workers and people who might live in a trailer park. That is such a solid example of what our culture felt like back then. I’m glad that those comments seem noteworthy or abnormal now, but it’s hardly like the Disney channel invented that mindset. It was just everywhere. Like I cleaned hotel rooms throughout high school to be able to afford my clothes from American Eagle & Hollister, but that was a serious source of shame (even my mom looked down on me for that job). Sometime around 2009-2011 I started to notice a shift where it started to be more acceptable to admit that you shopped at Target or used coupons, and then shopping at thrift stores became mainstream cool and people were openly talking about their budgets, financial problems, etc. Maybe this shift was partially because of the recession in like 2008, but I really do think that a more connected society via the internet weakened the media’s ability to dictate such a narrow culture as we started to get inspiration & ideas from a wide range of perspectives.
You know how in the movie 21 Jump Street there’s that scene where Channing Tatum & Jonah Hill go back to high school in like 2012 and it’s totally different? That was one of the most relatable scenes I’ve ever seen in a movie lol. Suddenly it was cool for teens to care about things or actually try in school? Admitting that you like Lord of the Rings or anything “nerdy” was no longer an actual risk that might make you lose friends or expose you to ridicule? Wtf I felt so ripped off. You’re not asking to be bullied if you wear your backpack on both shoulders?! I had been willing to give myself back problems because I thought that was the price of survival. I spent a lot of the early 2010s being cranky that the teen culture I had worked so hard to conform myself to was vanishing and being replaced with something that I would have absolutely loved in the first place, thanks.
(I’m definitely not saying that everyone who went to high school in the early or mid-2000s had the same experience I did btw. This is just my perspective).
SOME PAGES FROM TEEN MAGAZINES
Teen magazines were full of “entertainment” in the form of attacking female celebrities. That mindset definitely wasn’t limited to just teen magazines or the audience of teen girls, but I’m more shocked in hindsight by how 12-year-old girls were basically taught to judge, sabotage, and compete against each other. It seemed normal at the time, too. It fostered a culture where a lot of us were super insecure & anxious that everyone was waiting to laugh at our smallest mistake or mock our flaws. Here are some random examples of the culture we were fed in the mid-2000s.
13 notes
·
View notes
Note
5, 16, 26, 27, 36, 37, 49 for the gif maker asks!!
5. What is your favorite movie/TV show to gif
at the moment it's supernatural but it's basically whatever my special interest is atm.
16. How long have you been making gifs
since like 2016??? I started with this a bunch of like website gif makers and obscure software before I finally figured out how photoshop worked in 2020.
26. How many un posted sets are in your drafts right now
like hundreds dating back to like 2018 probably haha. I am very bad about posting everything I make.
27. Have you ever made a set, decided you hated it and deleted it? What was it?
I think one??? it was when I first started giffing and it looked horrible and it was for a movie I had never even seen I just made it bc someone asked for it but it got like 30 notes and I deleted it a couple years after I posted it when I was looking through old sets.
36. Do you gif with something specific in mind or do you just wing it?
usually the former but sometimes I will just throw some effects together over clips and save them in case I want to use them later for something if that even makes sense.
37. What sets if any do you have planned to make in the future?
soooo many I literally have a list in my drafts...rn I'm working on the musical theater gif meme and supernatural gif meme so I have a bunch of stuff planned for those prompts.
49. How much would you say you’ve improved since you first started giffing?
a ton like I said I originally didn't even use photoshop so everything was pretty simple but I've learned a lot :)
questions for gif-makers?
4 notes
·
View notes
Note
Just asking... why do you criticize JKR but also reblog Harry Potter gifs? I'm saying this as a someone who's reread the books every two weeks in my preteen years.
Giving platform to her work contributes to her presence on this website, and the presence and popularity are a way to endorse products that give royalties to her. And you know what she uses all that money for.
Harry Potter was literally my childhood, and yes, it was hard to let it go completely at first...but she's really not worth it. You can't separate the work from the creator when it still gives the creator money.
Hey! Just to start, I wanted to firstly thank you for being kind in your question asking, and secondly to set the tone for my answer since obviously tone can be hard to read through text. My tone throughout this entire answer is one of kindness and sincerity. I am not at any point mad or upset.
I do not support JKR in any financial way. As soon as her twitter rant made its way to my side of the internet, I made the decision to stop purchasing anything official to do with HP. I was in the middle of collecting those 20th Anniv edition books with all the houses. I stopped. Previously I would have bought merch, I wanted to go to the theme park etc. I do not do or plan to do those things anymore.
I own merch that I do not wear outside my house, because I don't want to make people feel unsafe. I have a tattoo that I can't do much about, but when people take notice of it (and I feel I'm personally safe to do so) I say thanks but fuck JKR, right? So far, no one has disagreed with me, but I am armed with gentle arguments if someone ever does.
But I do still engage with fan content. I listen to a few podcasts that have openly distanced themselves from JKR (Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, and Witch Please), I still reread the books, I still watch the movies (which I have on dvd and bought long before any of this), I still read and write HP fanfic, and I still reblog HP content on tumblr alongside JKR criticism which I tag the same.
What I feel like your question is implying though is the idea that there is a right and a wrong way to respond to and/or boycott something like JKR's transphobia.
As a person who has been active politically for a good long while now, something that you learn quickly is that you can't do everything. For example, I love make up and I boycott brands that aren't cruelty free. But different people have different ideas about what cruelty free means. There's kinda three levels to it. 1) that the brand has a cruelty free certification 2) has a cruelty free cert and doesn't sell on mainland China where their gov can require animal testing on any product whenever they want, though historically this is rare 3) all of the above plus their parent company is also cruelty free.
I do number two because as much as I want to stop animal testing on cosmetic products, I do not have the bandwidth to work out what everyones parent company is. But there a lot of people who would say I must not care about eliminating animal testing if I don't go all the way. I would disagree with those people.
This is not the only boycotting I do. There are coffee companies I will not buy at because their owners came out as homophobes during my country's same sex marriage debate. I boycott Disney, because they're an evil company which yes, includes Marvel and Star Wars because they are the same company. By which I mean I do not financially support them and find ways to watch what little I do want to watch through other means that doesn't give the mouse any money.
But I also don't judge people who don't do those things.
My priorities are not everyone's priorities. Beyond even boycotting - I am in full support of BLM protests in the USA. But I am not American, and whilst there is a lot I can learn from race discussions the US has, my priority is always going to be my own country's racist history and present. And I'd rather use my time and energy to talk about and learn about what is happening in my country rather than theirs.
All of this is to say that, after paying attention to the trans and non binary people who were speaking about this topic at the time, parsing through my own feelings and thoughts on the subject, and then discussing them with people that I trusted to call me out if I needed to be, I decided fan content was okay. But that I would always engage with the books and movies in a way that was critical of them and their creator.
I don't view reblogging HP gifsets whilst also reblogging criticism as anything different to what HP and the Sacred Text does, or watching the movie with friends who I also have critical discussions with.
Does reblogging gifsets of HP increase her presence on this website, and therefore lead to more sales? It's unlikely. Most people on this website will be aware of what JKR has done and will have made up their mind already on whether they are going to continue supporting her financially or not. Will there be people who follow me thinking I'm a "safe" pro JKR person? Maybe, but they're unlikely to think it for very long given that I also reblog anti JKR stuff. And maybe the post that they see will be one of many interactions that chip away at their terfness.
In the end, it's just as likely that reblogging anti JKR stuff will be seen by a terf who uses that as an excuse to buy more HP stuff because they feel the need to support her more. This is also possible, but unlikely so it won't stop me from reblogging them.
At the end of the day, how everyone has chosen to respond to JKR is personal, and there is no right or wrong way to do it, short of outright supporting and agreeing with her. I don't have to let go of HP completely, to let go of JKR. You might have felt that you had to, and I would not be mad or upset if you felt the need to block me because of this. But not responding in the exact way you did, does not mean that I am boycotting wrong, nor does it make me a bad person or anti-trans.
Maybe one day I will agree with you and stop reblogging them. My opinion is not stagnate. But that's where I'm at right now.
0 notes
Text
All I Want For Christmas is You
Pairing: Kim Taehyung x Female Reader
Summary: When Park Jimin is unable to escort his precious sister through the gauntlet of corporate holiday galas, he blackmails his best friend Taehyung into being her chaperone. After all, who better to safeguard his headstrong sibling than a man who would never want her for himself? (She and Tae have spent the better part of a decade mutually disliking each other, and that’s putting it mildly.) Yet, even the best laid plans may go awry at Christmas and Kim Taehyung is about to discover that the girl he never wanted has become a temptation he cannot resist...
Genre: Comedy • Fluff • Smut
Tropes: Brother’s Best Friend (Reader is Jimin’s Sister) • Enemies-to-Lovers
Collab: This work is part of the Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tropes Collab featuring original holiday themed works by @ppersonna • @xjoonchildx • @underthejoon • @yeojaa • @untaemedqueen • and @snackhobi
Word Count: 17K (I know—I am shocked too honestly)
Rating: Explicit (18+)
Warnings: suggestive photographs • mention of accidentally being hit with a baseball • hints of jealousy and possessiveness • light tit slapping • explicit sexual content • m/f oral sex • consensual unprotected sex (shield it before you yield it y’all) • Viola’s mirror kink makes yet another appearance •
Acknowledgements:
To @ppersonna (Lindy) @underthejoon (Fal) and @xjoonchildx (Ana) you guys are my heart. Your support, willingness to read (and re-read) and give honest feedback made this fic special. Your friendship is my daily dose of awesome. Truly, I love you.
To @untaemedqueen (D) all of the above applies to you, but I owe you a little something extra for the LITERAL HOURS you spent in the doc with me. This fic would not be here without you. You kept me moving. You inspired me. You were amazing. Thank you so very much. This story is lovingly dedicated to you.
To @hobi-gif for being the most thorough and incredible beta reader and for having all the important girl chats with me. I think you learned more about my past than you wanted... Either way you made this story better and I am profoundly grateful for the hours of time you spent. I have removed all the Hope-No-No words in your honor.
To @lemonjoonah as always, you knew EXACTLY what I needed to tweak to make this story work. (Gotta pass that Lemon Litmus Test or no dice lol.) My lovely soul twin. You’re a bloomin’ rockstar.
Please Picture This Taehyung:
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No. Absolutely not.”
“Yes. Because you absolutely owe me.”
“Then send me a bill, not your unmanageable harpy of a sister.”
Jimin raised a single unimpressed brow.
“Kim Taehyung. It was exactly five years ago today that I carried your drunken naked ass two miles in the rain after you set your clothes on fire and sprained your ankle at that Beta Phi party.” He paused dramatically. “Do you remember what you said to me that night? After I deleted several pictures off phones and paid off half the party to keep it out of the papers?”
The man in question shifted uncomfortably.
“That incident is a bit hazy in my memory. I’m not sure I recall—”
“Jiminie—you’re the best and I—I owe… you. I owe you the most, Jiminie. I do—I owe you a favor—one BIG favor—anything you ask… Even though... I actually like being naked. I don’t think we need clothes. We should all be naked. Everyone. Then there would be world peace.”
Taehyung’s jaw dropped.
“You RECORDED IT?!”
Jimin grinned, sliding his phone back into his pocket.
“Naturally. And I had it all ready to go—just in case you needed extra convincing.” He crossed his arms and fixed his best friend of nearly fifteen years with a triumphant smirk. “I’m calling in that favor today, Taehyung. Now are you a man of your word or not?”
“He did WHAT?!”
Your mother winced.
“Jimin was... uncomfortable leaving you alone for the holiday season. He normally accompanies you to the galas but this year—”
“This year I was going to go alone and finally build my reputation as an asset to this family!”
Park Soomin sighed as she watched her daughter pace fiercely around the living room of their luxury suite.
“No one doubts that you’re an asset, but… in light of recent events...”
Rage and embarrassment flared up in your chest before you could stop them.
“This is about Milo… isn’t it?”
The silence that greeted your statement was confirmation enough.
“Are you ever going to trust me again?” you whispered.
“Oh sweetheart... it isn’t you we don’t trust...”
Tears burned at the corner of your eyes, but you ruthlessly blinked them back.
You would play along with their humiliating schemes.
For now.
“So which one of Jimin’s Ivy League brat pack did he blackmail into babysitting me?
For the first time in the entirety of the conversation, your mother looked truly nervous.
“Kim Taehyung.”
You tripped over your own feet and face-planted into the sofa.
“Jungkook, I need to look into faking my own death. Nothing too over the top. Just a tasteful disappearance—”
The man in question could barely restrain his grin.
“You don’t pay me nearly enough to deal with your mother in the event of your tragic demise and miraculous resurrection.”
“I could pay you more.”
“Or,” Jungkook replied with a heavy dose of judgment coloring his tone, “you could put on this ridiculous tie and stop trying to weasel out of it.”
“Sometimes I wonder why I pay you at all,” Taehyung growled, yanking the tie from the younger man’s grasp. “Clearly I’m not the one in charge.”
“Your words, sir, not mine. Now shall we go over the details and itinerary?”
If Jeon Jungkook wasn’t the best executive aide in the city (and one of his closest friends) Tae would have drop-kicked him right then and there.
“Could you at least try to look like you’re not enjoying this?”
“I’m sorry, sir. It was insensitive of me to ignore your suffering in this delicate time. The trauma of escorting a beautiful woman to a series of glorified buffets weighs heavily upon you.”
Taehyung tightened the tie so aggressively, he almost strangled himself.
“Beautiful woman?!” he wheezed. “We’re talking about the girl who showed up to our formal graduation party looking like she just escaped from Azkaban.”
Jungkook bit the inside of his cheek thoughtfully.
“Tae… how long has it been since you’ve actually seen Ms. Park?”
“Seen? Maybe three—four years.”
The heir-apparent of Kim Holdings avoided the public end of corporate culture like the plague, preferring to leave the requisite schmoozing to his personable cousin, Kim Seokjin.
However, he had crossed paths with his adolescent nemesis in... other ways.
Taehyung was romancing a lovely young socialite who suddenly ghosted him after someone told her that he wanted at least eight naturally-birthed children.
Soon after, your favorite charity received an anonymous 30,000 dollar donation requesting that you be featured in the dunk tank for an upcoming benefit carnival and then the same anonymous patron paid for at least fifteen little league teams to attend.
In retaliation, someone petitioned the National Aviary Society (chaired by a very influential senator’s wife that no one ever refused if they wanted their permits to go through) to make Taehyung the MC at their annual awards ceremony—knowing full well he was allergic to birds (not dangerously allergic—just enough to be miserable).
Taehyung had sniffled and sneezed through approximately one hundred parrots, parakeets, and other assorted fowl until he was ready to commit murder.
The last several years had been littered with similar incidents of the two of you taking thinly veiled potshots at one another.
“I can’t imagine she’s changed very much,” Taehyung bit off absently. His mind was abruptly consumed by how he could get revenge for those demonic birds.
He didn’t notice the smile creeping over Jungkook’s face.
“No, sir. I’m sure she hasn’t changed at all.”
Taehyung had only ever had the wind knocked out of him once before.
He was Dionysia High School’s star pitcher for three seasons and during one particularly tense game against JY Prep, Lim Jaebeom whacked a line drive right into his solar plexus.
That’s how it felt to look up and see you at the top of the stairs.
In his head, you were still the mischievous imp from his childhood. Every prank he played was directed at the fierce little fiend with braids and braces who’d knocked him and his date into the university fountain while experimenting with her friend’s skateboard.
But she was gone… and in her place was something far more dangerous.
A woman.
Silken fabric wrapped tightly over curves you definitely didn’t have four years ago. That wild hair had been tamed into shining waves and pinned elegantly at the nape of your neck. The wicked slit that traveled all the way up your thigh teased a smooth shapely leg that all but demanded the viewer fantasize about running their hand up the length of it.
Suddenly it was very clear why Park Jimin wouldn’t let his sister venture into the corporate cesspool alone.
Because the sight of you could make a man desperate.
Betrayal—of all things—slowly crept over Taehyung as you descended toward him like some sort of angel floating down from the heavens.
His mind went blank. Just watching the seductive shift of your hips as you swayed ever closer felt like a violation of his friendship with Jimin. He could feel the judgmental stares of an imaginary Bro-Code Council boring into him from on high.
“I see you’ve recovered from your memorable tenure as the Aviary Society’s Master of Ceremonies.”
And just like that the brat was back.
Taehyung breathed a hefty sigh of relief, secretly thrilled to be in familiar territory with you.
“Naturally I was delighted to help Senator Mitchell’s wife. In fact, Mitchell’s office just fast tracked all my pending permit requests for the new year.” He tilted forward, coming into your space a bit. “I should really send you a thank you card.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” you scowled, breezing past him like an indignant queen.
Tae could practically see the steam pouring out of your ears.
“Of course not,” he chuckled.
The first gala of the holiday season was an extravagant annual affair hosted by Min Corp., a Seoul based investment firm that commanded billions in assets. This year, the theme of the event was the Joseon Dynasty and the entire ballroom had been gloriously transformed into a stunning celebration of the Min family’s royal heritage.
Attendees were gifted their own traditional fan, each uniquely crafted by artisans from Damyang. Taehyung’s was all black with bold silver calligraphy while yours was a beautiful bamboo and silk piece decorated with pomegranate trees.
You had already whacked three people with it by the time dinner was served.
“It really is a pity these fell out of fashion,” you lamented. “They’re quite useful.”
“You are deranged,” Taehyung mumbled, massaging his temples in exasperation.
“Nonsense. I only fanned those who deserved it.”
“Harkins?”
“He was staring at my rack for a solid minute.”
Taehyung could hardly blame the man, it was a battle he himself was losing after all, but Harkins was twice your age and married—therefore his ogling was in especially poor taste.
“Okay... What about Kang?”
“He was verbally abusing one of the waitstaff.”
“Alright, fair enough, but why on earth would you go after sweet old Mrs. O’Malley?”
“She was about to grab your ass.”
Taehyung’s mouth dropped open.
“She’s eighty-five!”
“And still kickin’ apparently.” You shook your head in disgust. “As if I’d whack an eighty-five year-old woman for anything less than non-consensual touching.”
“I- I- mean—surely you must be mistaken,” he coughed.
“Oh, there’s no mistake. That nasty old crone is a serial offender. She likes to play it off as dementia, but she’s as sharp as a tack. Last year she got a whole handful of Jimin. Honestly, I’d call the police on her, but the commissioner is her grandson so I doubt I’d get very far.”
Taehyung turned to the woman in question just in time to see her totter lecherously toward Jung Hoseok, fingers already twitching in anticipation.
“Is nothing sacred?” he mused hollowly.
You shrugged.
“Many people who accumulate as much as our families have start believing that they are entitled to whatever strikes their fancy.” Your eyes met his with a hint of bemusement. “Surely you should be used to this sort of thing by now?”
“Yes, but I was hardly expecting it from little old ladies!”
The remainder of dinner was a terse affair where you pretended he didn’t exist for the entire meal and he in turn pretended that the spunky young heiress seated to his right was the most darling creature to ever walk the earth. By dessert she was ready to get married and you were ready to vomit.
Afterward, Taehyung found himself quickly converted to your views on fan usefulness as you began strolling through the crowd intent on strengthening your family’s corporate ties.
“Kim Taehyung,” you ground out through clenched teeth, “how am I supposed to do business if you keep stabbing everyone I speak to!”
“I don’t know what you’re implying. I’m simply not used to carrying one of these. I may have accidentally grazed a few overzealous individuals—”
“My last three conversations have been rudely disrupted by the blunt end of that accused fan.”
Taehyung crossed his arms smugly.
“And what of it? Jimin sent me along to keep an eye on you and the gentlemen in question were hardly behaving themselves. No one has to put their hand in my back or lean that close to me when they’re talking business.”
“That’s because no one wants to get that close to you,” you replied sweetly. “You’re gross.”
A devastating grin slid slowly over his features as he leaned forward to whisper in your ear.
“I can think of several women who might disagree.”
He just barely caught the hitch in your breath before-
“Like who? Miss Blushes-and-Giggles from dinner?”
“Jealous?” Taehyung drawled cockily.
“Only in your dreams, Kim.” Then, with a deliberate flick of your fan, you turned your back to him. “I’m headed for the ladies room. Do yourself a favor and don’t follow me in.”
It was twenty minutes before Taehyung realized that you slipped out the back entrance of the restroom.
It took another ten for him to locate you on the balcony flirting outrageously with Min Yoongi.
The young heir of Min Corp. was just leaning closer to whisper sweet nothings in your ear when a black fan slid right in between the two of you.
“Lovely weather we’re having,” Taehyung observed cheerfully. His eyes bounced between you and Yoongi with barely concealed fury and you let out a miserable groan.
“Mr. Kim,” Yoongi cleared his throat significantly. “What an… unexpected surprise.”
Frustration clawed at your chest as your overbearing guardian nodded smugly in response.
It was time to teach him—and Jimin—a lesson.
“Yoongi,” you sighed, sliding your hand pointedly through the crook of his arm, “I’m not feeling at all well. Would you perhaps… escort me home?”
Taehyung suddenly looked as if he’d swallowed a live octopus.
Yoongi grinned, clearly thrilled with the prospect of simultaneously spending more time with you and irritating Taehyung.
“It would be my pleasure.”
“Jimin is gonna kill me,” Taehyung grumbled as he watched Min Yoongi help you into the passenger seat of his Aston Martin.
An ugly green feeling he refused to identify twisted sharply in his gut when you smiled coyly at the other man.
“This is ridiculous,” he snarled to no one in particular before yanking his phone out of his pocket.
Jungkook picked up on the second ring.
“Sir?”
“I need you to drive to Ms. Park’s apartment and tell me if she goes in alone or if Min Yoongi goes in with her.”
“You want me to what?!”
“Just do it!” he snapped, downing an entire glass of champagne before signaling his own driver.
Fifteen minutes later his phone vibrated from the car seat next to him.
1 New Message from: Jungkook
Her building has four separate entrances. Which one do I watch?
Taehyung could practically feel the vein pulsing in his forehead as he scrolled through his contacts.
You picked up on the fourth ring.
“Hello?”
“Where are you?”
“Oh it’s you… Wait—how did you get this number?”
“Jimin. Obviously. Now please answer the question.”
“Oh a ‘please.’ Who knew you had manners?”
“Answer the question, Park. I’m tired.”
The distinct sound of a zipper unzipping carried through the speaker.
“I’m at home, of course. Where else would I be? I just got here like a minute ago.”
He had a sudden vision of Min Yoongi helping you out of your dress. His grip on the phone tightened.
“Are you alone?”
You snorted.
“I don’t see how that is any of your business.”
Taehyung saw red.
“I’m coming over.”
There was a loud crash and several colorful words in at least three different languages.
“Wha- No! I’m trying to go to bed!”
“With who?!”
“With myself, you idiot!”
“Prove it!”
“Fine! I will!”
The line disconnected and Taehyung swore loudly. He was just about to direct the driver to your building when his phone went off again.
1 New Message from: Park Gremlin
He almost choked on his tongue.
You were clearly in the middle of undressing and—in your irritation—probably hadn’t looked too carefully at the picture you sent.
At first glance it was simply a shot of your empty room (presumably “proof” that you were alone) but you neglected to consider the floor-length mirror hanging in the far corner…
A mirror that showed you angrily holding up your phone with your gown pooled deliciously around your waist and the soft round swells of your breasts strapped into lacy red lingerie.
You were exquisite.
A fierce, hot sensation gripped him ruthlessly, and this time there was no mistaking it.
Desire.
Your phone lit up on the bed where you tossed it after snapping a photo for your tightly-wound man nanny.
1 New Message from: Kim Grinch
I didn’t know you liked Van Gogh.
Your head tilted in confusion.
There was a Van Gogh print in your room, but he couldn’t have seen it because it was behind you when-
Oh NO.
You gasped, scrolling back up to confirm what deep down you already knew to be true.
… You just sent Kim Taehyung a topless mirror selfie.
Several miles away, smiling smugly in the backseat of his town car, Taehyung was sure he could almost hear you screaming.
“Good morning, sir. Which would you like first; the bad news or the worse news?”
Taehyung groaned from underneath his covers.
“Don’t you ever knock? I could have a woman up here.”
“You’ve never brought a woman up here.”
“Is that the bad news?” Taehyung yawned.
“No,” Jungkook tossed a small stack of newspapers and printed digital articles into his lap, “this is the bad news.”
Pictures of you, Min Yoongi, and even himself were splashed over the front pages of all of them.
PARK ANGEL TRADES ONE CORPORATE HEIR FOR ANOTHER AT MIN GALA
WHO WILL WIN THE PARK ANGEL’S HEART? KIM TAEHYUNG OR MIN YOONGI? LET US KNOW IN THE COMMENTS
NEW ROMANCE ALERT? PARK ANGEL LEAVES JOSEON BALL WITH MIN SCION
“The Park Angel?”
“That’s what the media calls her... The public is rather fascinated with her actually.”
“Can’t imagine why,” Taehyung mumbled.
“Of course not, sir. It’s a great mystery.”
As usual, Taehyung chose to ignore his aide’s lethal snark and pressed on to the matter at hand.
“This is a flaming disaster.”
“Oh I don’t know. I really appreciated the picture of you staring on forlornly while she and Yoongi climbed into the Aston Martin. Takes a real gift to capture all that drama in a single frame.”
“Which one was that?!”
“It’s right under the MAN DOWN: PARK ANGEL LEAVES KIM TAEHYUNG HEARTBROKEN headline.”
Tae ran his hand down over his face in exasperation.
“I’m surprised my mother hasn’t called.”
“She has. Twice.”
“I don’t suppose that’s the ‘worse news’ is it?”
“No.”
“Of course it isn’t. I’m never that lucky.” He collapsed backwards into his pillows with a beleaguered huff. “Go ahead then. Tell me.”
“Park Jimin is on the line for you right now.”
After a small eternity on the phone with Jimin (assuring him that NO Min Yoongi had not despoiled his precious sister and YES he would definitely do better next time), Taehyung was forced to attend an impromptu brunch with his mother. It took considerable effort, but he was eventually able to convince her that you were neither breaking his heart nor expecting his child.
By the time he arrived to collect you for this evening’s event, Taehyung was already sick of hearing your name (he’d spoken it no less than three hundred times since Jungkook woke him this morning).
You were in much the same boat as Taehyung, having spent most of the afternoon pacifying Jimin and clearing up your own mother’s romantic delusions regarding the Min and Kim heirs respectively.
Tonight’s gala was a Victorian Christmas Ball thrown by the National Literary Fund and the entire venue had been transformed into a Charles Dickens fever dream.
Unlike the Min Gala (whose theme was guarded like a state secret every year) the Literary Fund’s tribute to A Christmas Carol was tradition and you were dressed accordingly in a custom corset gown with gorgeous detailing.
Every second of effort it took to lace yourself into the monstrosity was worth the look on Taehyung’s face the moment you slipped off your cape.
“Something wrong, Mr. Kim?”
Taehyung was desperately trying to look literally anywhere but your chest, where said corset was serving up your breasts like a debauched buffet.
Jimin. Think of Jimin. Think of what Jimin will do to you. Think of how much trouble she’s caused-
He peeked again.
I would pay a million dollars to suck those tits.
“Nothing at all,” his voice cracked.
The itinerary for the evening included performances by a local children’s choir, a traditional waltz, and—of course—dinner.
You both managed to get along without snapping at each other during the choral performance, but as two of the largest donors to the Children’s Literacy Initiative, neither of you could escape being drawn into the waltz.
The energetic socialite who Taehyung flirted with over dinner the previous night eventually lured him onto the floor while you graciously accepted an invitation from a lovely older gentleman who chaired the Fund’s event committee.
For the first few movements, you were thoroughly enjoying yourself. Mr. Lee was charming, respectful, and still an excellent dancer despite his advanced age. It wasn’t until a familiar sound caught your attention that the lightness in your chest suddenly felt heavy...
Taehyung was laughing.
You heard him do so many times over the years, and in each instance, the carefree magic of it never failed to make your heart flutter.
But now he was smiling down at the pretty little heiress and laughing for her… and the flutter in your chest was accompanied by something else.
Something that felt an awful lot like longing.
“Does he know you look at him like that?” Mr. Lee asked quietly.
Your eyes flew guiltily to his, but it was too late. The old man had caught a glimpse of the secret you buried deeply for more than a decade; so deeply, in fact, there were times you almost forgot it yourself...
Almost.
“No,” you whispered, “he has no idea.”
Disaster struck at dinner.
Taehyung quite liked dancing with the lovely Miss Something-or-Other. She was sweet and funny and (unlike with you) he wasn’t constantly torn between agitation and raging inappropriate lust in her presence.
The cold shoulder you offered him when he took his seat seemed even more frigid than usual and he spent half the meal wondering what he’d done to earn your amplified disdain when suddenly—
Your hand smacked down on his wrist, seizing it in a vise-like grip.
Taehyung nearly choked on his steak and was about to give you a searing set-down over your spontaneous grabby-ness when he noticed your expression.
“What’s wrong?” he whispered, leaning forward in concern.
“I-I need—”
It looked as if you were in some sort of physical pain and Taehyung was rapidly becoming worried.
“I need your help,” you finally managed to whimper and the next thing he knew, you were dragging him away from the table and into one of the secluded alcoves near the main entrance hall.
“Is there anyone around? Can anyone see us?” The look on your face bordered on unhinged.
“No. There’s no one. Park, are you okay? What’s going on I—”
“I need you to unlace my dress,” you hissed frantically.
At that moment, a bomb could have gone off and Taehyung wouldn’t have blinked.
You, however, were completely preoccupied with your own distress and therefore oblivious to his.
“My earring broke during dinner and fell down there and now it’s stabbing me—”
Your eyes were beginning to tear. Taehyung remained frozen, still trying to figure out whether or not this was a lucid dream.
“—it’s definitely pierced the skin and there’s a possibility I’m gonna start bleeding through the fabric—”
The mention of blood snapped him out of his daze somewhat.
“A-Alright. Just turn around—brace yourself on that wall.”
You quickly did as you were told and Taehyung began to tug fruitlessly at the ties cross-crossing your back.
“Why won’t this—”
His fingers fumbled over the knots, desperately trying to loosen them, but they simply wouldn’t budge.
“I can’t—I can’t get it. Whoever helped you into this thing made sure you weren’t getting out of it.”
You whined in frustration and the earring shifted a bit in response.
There was only one other way to fix this (and you would almost rather be in pain).
“Taehyung I—” you turned to face him again, forcing your eyes shut before reluctantly doing what had to be done “... I need you to reach down the front of my dress and get it.”
He blinked. Twice.
“I’m sorry—What did you just—”
“Please, Tae,” you whispered desperately, letting your lip tremble in a way he had never been able to resist, “it hurts…”
He gulped.
His eyes dropped to the matter at hand.
This is fine. Everything’s fine. She’s in pain, right? You’re basically a doctor right now. You’re just going slide your hand in between the most mouthwatering pair of breasts you’ve ever seen and then—
Taehyung’s manic inner monologue was interrupted by the sound of his own moan. He immediately faked a coughing fit to cover it and prayed you hadn’t noticed.
(You hadn’t. You were actively being stabbed.)
“I can’t believe I’m actually doing this,” he muttered, curling his fingers over the scalloped edge of the bodice.
You bit your lip, desperately trying to hold back any reaction, but when his knuckle brushed the pebbled tip of your nipple, you gasped.
Oh.
His hand stuttered, lingering a moment too long over the tight little peak as his gaze suddenly shot up to meet yours. Both of you had been studiously avoiding eye contact, yet now it was as if neither of you could look away.
Taehyung wet his lips reflexively.
“It’s too tight,” he whispered, “I need more leverage.”
Then his arm wrapped over the curve of your lower back and he drew you tightly against him, anchoring your hips just enough to fully slip his hand between your body and the corset.
You were so warm.
So soft...
“I can feel it,” he grunted, “but I can’t get a good grip on it.”
His mouth pressed into a tight line as he leaned forward, bringing your back up against the wall. You let out a little squeak and his eyes darted briefly down to your mouth before he spoke again.
“Hold on to me.”
You nodded and wordlessly slid your arms around his waist.
If you concentrated hard enough, you could almost pretend that this wasn’t one of the most erotic moments of your life.
You could almost pretend that it meant nothing.
Your mind was spinning wildly, wondering what he was thinking, wondering if he noticed how strangely you were breathing or how hard your heart was beating...
“I’ve got it,” he murmured. Shivers shot down your spine at the dark timbre of his voice.
He was so close. You could feel every word he spoke brushing softly against your skin.
“On ‘three’ I’m going to pull it out… Are you ready?”
You drew in a final steadying breath.
“Do it.”
He nodded.
“One… Two… Three—”
Taehyung yanked his hand back and several things happened at once.
Your breasts bounced almost entirely out of the corset.
The decorative clasps on the front of your gown tangled with the buttons on his shirt and when he pulled back, three of them went flying off like stray bullets.
And finally, the corset didn’t relinquish Taehyung’s hand quite quickly enough and, as a result, you toppled forward and crashed down on top of him, smashing your newly bare breasts to his newly bare chest.
It could have been ten seconds or ten hours that passed by while the two of you lay there, breathing heavily in a pile of confused arousal when—
“... Is… everything alright here?”
You both looked up to find a thoroughly scandalized member of the waitstaff standing over you.
Taehyung saw his life flash before his eyes—ending (of course) with Jimin murdering him for this.
He gulped again.
“I can explain.”
It was decided—for the sake of appearances—that you would both leave the venue (immediately) in separate vehicles.
Taehyung dropped a cool three hundred in crisp bills on the unfortunate waiter in order to help him ‘forget’ whatever he may or may not have seen.
Neither of you spoke another word to each other in the ten minutes it took to bribe all the appropriate parties, gather your coats, and call for two separate town cars.
Something had happened when he touched you; a subtle shift in the precarious balance of your relationship that you both felt keenly, but could not possibly begin to define.
Taehyung barely even remembered climbing into the back of a vehicle. His body was firing on auto-pilot after the sensory overload of the last half hour. It wasn’t until he was nearly home that he realized he was still holding onto your earring.
His mind began to wander as he examined the troublesome bauble in his palm. It was a striking piece; deceptively complex and unexpectedly beautiful.
Just like you.
He told himself that the heat pooling low in his belly was anger—that the strange anxiousness to be near you was simply a desire for retribution—that it was merely platonic curiosity that left his hands aching to explore the rest of your curves.
Lies.
… and pitifully transparent ones at that.
Still, he clung to them desperately out of self-preservation.
The gentle hum of his phone suddenly disturbed Taehyung’s silent contemplation.
1 New Message from: Park Gremlin
I made it home safely.
Taehyung’s fingers were typing a reply before he could properly consider the consequence of his actions.
To: Park Gremlin
I require proof… like last time.
He nearly threw the phone the moment he sent it, running his hands down over his face in disbelief.
You’re playing with fire, Kim Taehyung.
And he was burning up already. He had no business sending you texts like that. Maybe you wouldn’t catch it. Maybe he could just-
The phone went off again and it was embarrassing how quickly he scrambled to open your response.
His heart stuttered in his chest. His breathing ceased entirely-
And he knew—he knew—there was no coming back from this.
At first glance the photo was nearly identical to the shot you sent him last night. Same room, same angle…
same mirror.
Yet this time, the reflection was quite different.
The temptress in the glass wore nothing but that sinfully delicious corset and a pair of silky lace thigh highs, each accented with a green satin bow.
He wanted to rip them off with his teeth.
“Oh Taehyung,” he whispered, as a dark wave primitive longing tore through him, “you are in so much trouble.”
Across town (buried beneath a pile of blankets) you were still struggling to process the boldness of your own actions when his response lit up your screen.
1 New Message from: Kim Grinch
Green is my favorite color.
“WHERE IS HE—”
Taehyung awoke to a series of crashes and shouts echoing from the floor below him.
Jungkook was already seated in the corner of the room reading a newspaper.
“Good morning, sir,” he said without looking up. “Would you like the bad news or the worse news?”
Suddenly the french doors of his bedroom slammed open and one very irate Park Jimin stormed through.
“I swear I should have seen this coming. The two of you have always been obsessed with each other, but I never imagined—”
Taehyung’s eyes widened guiltily. He quickly schooled his features into a confused glare.
“Jimin, I’ve only been awake for fifteen seconds. What the hell are you talking about?!”
Another stack of newspapers hit his lap and this time the pictures were mostly of him with his shirt ripped halfway down his chest.
KIM HEIR AND PARK ANGEL CAUSE AN OLD-FASHIONED SCANDAL AT VICTORIAN BALL
FORGET MISTLETOE: KIM TAEHYUNG DISCOVERED UNDER THE PARK ANGEL AT CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION
NAUGHTY NOEL? PARK ANGEL’S STEAMY AFFAIR WITH CORPORATE PRINCE
PARK ANGEL TOPS KIM TAEHYUNG’S CHRISTMAS TREE
He winced a bit at that last one.
“You have ten seconds to explain before I start throwing things.”
Taehyung opened his mouth to do just that, but he was interrupted when his mother marched into the room waving the same articles that Jimin had just thrown at him.
“KIM TAEHYUNG I raised you better than this! How could you!? That poor girl!”
“Mother!” he squeaked, yanking his blanket up over his chest like a frightened debutante.
Jungkook began surreptitiously filming the whole debacle from the corner.
“Indeed,” Jimin added darkly, crossing his arms over his chest, “how could you?”
Taehyung sighed heavily.
“Is anyone else going to come charging into my bedroom?”
“Just answer me once and for all, is she pregnant?”
“WHAT?!”
“NO! Mother! Oh my—”
“Why does your mom think my little sister is pregnant?!”
Taehyung waved his arms wildly in exasperation.
“My mom thinks everyone is pregnant! You know this!”
Jungkook could no longer contain his hysterical cackling. He very nearly fell off the chair trying to hold it all in.
“Mr. Jeon,” Taehyung ground out irritably, “if it’s not too much trouble, could you please escort everyone out of my bedroom so I can get dressed!”
“So you see—I was basically like a doctor,” Taehyung finished emphatically.
He spent the past twenty minutes explaining to the entire table (which now included both you and your mother) why it was necessary to shove his hand down the front of your dress.
Park Soomin had shown up at his door looking for answers (and dragging you behind her like a sacrificial lamb) about three minutes after Jimin.
You had taken one look at Jimin’s murderous expression and insisted that the situation be evaluated over breakfast at the cafe down the street (where there were lots of witnesses).
Which was how you, Taehyung, Jimin, and both your mothers ended up discussing your cleavage over coffee in a public restaurant.
Jimin was the first to break. It was a few snorts at first, but he was basically in tears by the end of it, wheezing about how he never doubted Taehyung for a second and holding on to his sides from laughing too hard.
Taehyung’s gaze met yours for a brief, heated exchange. He conveniently forgot to mention your slightly-less-than-explainable ‘check-in’ texts, but their existence was palpable in the air between you.
“I think I’ll take a walk,” you muttered, excusing yourself from the complicated atmosphere at the table.
Taehyung’s eyes lingered on you a tad too long as you wandered away, a fact that wasn’t missed by either of your mothers.
“Just a few more events and you can go back to not seeing her at all,” Jimin chuckled, patting him on the back.
“Yeah,” Taehyung answered with a tight smile. “That’s… great.”
The cafe had a lovely little balcony area decorated with all sorts of comforting Christmas foliage. It was far more inviting than the awkward conversation and confusing stares you and Taehyung had been trading all morning.
For the first time in the nearly fifteen years of your relationship (such as it was) you didn’t know where you stood with him… and it bothered you more than you cared to admit.
Taehyung had always been important to you, whether you wanted him to be or not. He mattered—effortlessly—from the first moment you met him and continued to do so without regard for your sanity.
Whatever was building between you now would almost certainly bring change… though what kind of change was anyone’s guess.
It was hard to imagine the years ahead without the strange excitement he always brought to your life, but some things were simply out of your control…
“I never thought I’d see you here.”
A profoundly unpleasant feeling (something similar to falling through the ice on a frozen pond) overtook you.
“Milo.” Even saying his name felt gross. You sighed. “What is so strange about seeing me here?”
The man in question blushed in a way you once found irresistible.
“I looked for you everywhere. All your usual places—”
“I avoided them.”
I avoided you.
Milo nodded.
“I—I figured.”
He took a step closer and you instinctively moved back. The hurt in his eyes was unmistakable, but you had long since become immune.
“What are you doing?” you hissed angrily. “I thought I made myself clear the last time we spoke.”
“Yes, but—” his hand reached out to curl over your forearm and you recoiled, “you didn’t give me a chance to explain—”
“Excuse me.”
You both turned to see Kim Taehyung with his arms crossed over his chest, glaring at Milo like he was a roach that crawled across his dinner plate.
“Your mother sent me to come find you. She wants to leave.”
You nodded and moved to pull away, but Milo’s grip tightened on your arm.
“No—please if you just give me a minute—”
“That is enough,” Taehyung snarled, seizing the other man’s hand and forcibly removing it from your person. He angled his body between the two of you protectively. “I think it’s time for you to go.”
Milo’s eyes narrowed.
“You’re Kim Taehyung. I read all about you in the papers this morning.” His lips twisted into an ugly sneer as he addressed you. “You really think you’re better off with him if that’s the way he treats you?”
Taehyung tensed menacingly beside you, but you laid a gentle hand on his arm to calm him.
“None of that is any of your concern.” Your gaze rose to meet his defiantly. “Nothing about me is your concern anymore.”
Milo’s eyes fell to where your palm rested on the other man’s sleeve, noticing the way you both unconsciously leaned toward one another.
“This isn’t over,” he muttered, storming off.
After he was gone, you let out a breath you hadn’t known you were holding.
“Thank you,” you whispered (though you couldn’t resist adding), “I could have handled it myself of course…”
Taehyung laughed.
“Oh I know. I was at that party where you knocked out Tyler Jung for grabbing your ass.”
You grinned.
“I’d forgotten about that.”
“Well I’m sure Tyler hasn’t.”
(He neglected to mention that he split Tyler’s lip behind the library the next day, just to make sure it was extra memorable for him.)
“I wish I could forget about Milo.”
“... Are you still in love with him?”
The words tasted like ash in his mouth.
“No.” You smiled softly. “I’m not sure I was ever in love with him actually. It’s more—” you sighed, “—embarrassment… wounded pride.”
Taehyung tilted his head curiously and you found yourself continuing.
“In the beginning, he was very playful and charming—and obviously handsome. He reminded me so much of—”
you.
You cleared your throat.
“Anyway… I was quite taken with him at first. I didn’t suspect any ulterior motives.” You shrugged, trying to hold back the unpleasant emotions that always threatened to overrun you in moments like this. “I just thought he liked me.”
Taehyung’s eyes filled with sympathy and understanding as you spoke. It felt oddly natural to open up to him this way.
“Jimin is very protective of me—with good reason it turns out. He was suspicious of Milo and hired people to do some discreet digging.”
Your hands wrapped around your body for both warmth and comfort.
“Milo’s family owns several companies, just like ours, but they’re all struggling. His father sent him to me hoping that he would eventually get compromising information… a sex tape or photographs—something of that nature. They intended to blackmail Jimin into doing business with them.”
Taehyung felt his jaw clench painfully. Fury, hot and profound, rolled through him.
“I should kill him.”
You shook your head, amused in spite of yourself.
“That’s exactly what Jimin said.”
“He has good instincts.”
“Scum like Milo aren’t worth it,” you chuckled. “He never got what he wanted… but I was still mortified. I felt like such a fool for believing him.”
“No,” Taehyung’s hands slid up to cup your shoulders, “it’s not foolish to believe that someone cared for you.”
It would be so easy to care for you.
“Besides…” his eyes fell briefly to your lips as he searched for the right words, “I saw the way he looked at you and—even though he’s clearly a terrible person—I believe his feelings may have been genuine.”
You nodded.
“That’s what he keeps trying to tell me—that he did have bad intentions, but ended up falling for me anyway.” You shook your head. “As If I could believe a word he says.”
The silence between you stretched comfortably. Taehyung sensed you had more to say, so he waited until you were ready to voice it.
“I think that’s why I’m so sensitive about handling things on my own lately… and just now even. I want to prove to everyone—to myself—that I’m not a liability.”
“Hey,” he whispered, tipping your chin up till your gazes met, “no one thinks you’re a liability. And even if you are capable, no one should have to fight their own battles all the time—especially when they’re emotionally compromised…” His thumb gently brushed away the small tear that escaped down the curve of your cheek. “That’s the benefit of having people who care about you.”
“... Like you?”
The words left you so softly, you could almost imagine they were still in your head where they likely should have stayed.
Taehyung’s eyes widened in surprise. His gaze became even more intent and you ceased breathing altogether. After a moment his lips parted as if he was about to speak-
“What’s going on, guys?”
You both jerked back at the sound of your brother’s voice. He was standing in the entrance to the balcony, gaze darting suspiciously between the two of you.
Taehyung was a bit dazed, but you were always quicker on your feet.
“I ran into Milo… Tae was calming me down.”
Jimin’s eyes hardened immediately.
“Where is he?”
“Long gone,” you mumbled, ambling over to the familiar warmth of his arms. “I just want to go home.”
The Black and White Ball was one of the most coveted invitations of the holiday season.
The dress code was quite strict (all black or all white—no exceptions) and it was one of the few events where people actually arrived in limousines.
Taehyung loathed limousines. He felt absurdly pretentious pulling up to your building in such a gauche ride, but traditions and appearances meant too much in his world to simply disregard them.
His ensemble for the evening was a beautifully tailored black suit with hand-stitched baroque detailing. Oddly, he found himself wondering what you would think of it...
“You look like a vampire.”
Taehyung turned at the sound of your voice and was struck, yet again, by how incredibly beautiful you were.
You had chosen to wear white, donning an exquisite gown with delicate pearl beading and a daring sweetheart neckline that molded perfectly to your frame.
If he looked like a vampire, you were surely an angel.
Still…
Angel or not, he couldn’t let that comment pass.
“I think I’m offended.”
“I can’t imagine why. After all, loads of women are attracted to Nosferatu.”
Taehyung’s eyes narrowed.
“There are so many sexy vampires in popular culture, but you just had to lump me in with the creepy bald one...”
You shrugged playfully.
“I wouldn’t want you to think I was going soft.”
A wicked grin danced over your lips as you strolled past him regally—just as you had many times before...
This time, however, he let his eyes linger a little longer on the view.
Lord have mercy.
“Of course not,” he coughed.
“You’re what?!”
You rolled your eyes.
Tonight had been going rather well.
The two of you formed a mutual unspoken agreement to pretend that your last encounter on the balcony (and on the phone) had never happened and (despite the heated glances you occasionally traded) the bickering and playful banter characteristic of your relationship had all but returned to normal...
Until Taehyung learned of your participation in the evening’s main event.
“I told you, I’m part of the date auction this year.”
“Does your brother know about this?!”
“I didn’t see any reason to bother him with it.” You were suddenly preoccupied with your nails.
“Woman,” Taehyung sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, “are you trying to make my life difficult?”
“No, I’m just naturally gifted in that respect.”
You turned and began making your way to the front, but Taehyung was hot on your heels and clearly not ready to let the matter rest.
“I cannot believe you’re actually going through with this! It’s not 1810, you know. We shouldn’t just auction off women for dates—”
“You’re absolutely right, Tae Tae.” You brushed a condescending pat over his cheek. “Nowadays we auction off the men too.”
Then you sauntered off to join the rest of the participating women—and men—backstage, leaving Taehyung to stew about the entire situation from the crowd.
“As you know, all proceeds from tonight’s auction go to fight childhood hunger right here in our city. For legal purposes, I must advise all bidders that you are only bidding on the company of the individual in question.”
Taehyung shook his head. “Jimin is probably going to kill me for this.”
“If you place the winning bid, then you and your date will receive two VIP tickets to the Governor's Winter Wonderland Gala which comes with a variety of amenities including; a luxury limousine service, one of the private and famously romantic Winter Wonderland dinner experiences—”
His eyes fluttered shut. “Jimin is definitely gonna kill me for this.”
“—unlimited free drinks, ten complimentary tickets for each of the grand prize raffles, photos with the Governor and his family, along with many more surprises!”
Taehyung grabbed a champagne flute from a nearby waiter and downed it in one go.
“And now for our first date of the evening! Mr. Jackson Wang!”
Jackson went for a cool six grand because no one was brave enough to outbid his girlfriend.
After him, the beautiful Manoban heiress and her handsome cousin Kim Namjoon went for twelve grand each.
Jung Hoseok started a frenzied bidding war between two young socialites and Mrs. O’Malley. He ended up going to the lovely Ms. Ana Fallon for a staggering twenty thousand dollars.
Taehyung’s own cousin, Kim Seokjin, paid a jaw-dropping twenty-one thousand dollars for Lin Yuna, the young CEO of Lin Cosmetics. (Taehyung made a mental note to ask him about that later.)
Then it was your turn.
“The next lady on our list needs no introduction. The lovely Park Angel has graciously agreed to a date with one lucky bidder tonight! Who will it be? Do I hear ten thousand?”
“Ten thousand.”
Taehyung swung his head toward the first bidder and breathed a sigh of relief.
Tam Martin, one of your best friends and very gay.
“Eleven thousand.”
“Twelve thousand.”
“Fifteen.”
“Sixteen thousand dollars.”
“Seventeen thousand.”
“Eighteen.”
Taehyung was having trouble keeping up with all the bidders. His ears were starting to ring again and a strange unpleasant nausea was building in his stomach.
“Twenty thousand.”
“Twenty-five thousand.”
“Thirty thousand!”
At the sound of the last bidder’s voice, you noticeably paled. Your eyes flew to Taehyung’s and immediately he knew exactly who it was.
Milo.
Before he could even react to the new information, another voice joined the fray.
“Forty thousand.”
Min Yoongi smiled smugly from the other side of the room and even had the audacity to throw you a wink.
You smiled shyly at the young heir’s boldness and Taehyung felt something downright unholy rise up in his chest.
No.
Milo was still bidding.
“Fifty thousand dollars.”
Not her.
“Sixty,” Yoongi countered.
She’s mine.
Suddenly Taehyung was on his feet.
“One hundred thousand dollars!”
The silence in the backseat of your limousine was deafening.
Tension charged the air like an electric current as the significance of the last hour weighed heavily between you.
The spacious luxury vehicle allowed you to sit facing one another. Taehyung’s eyes were focused on his hands, but you were looking at him—letting your mind run wild with speculation.
And hope.
Part of you was still there, on the stage, watching him stand up and bid a fortune for the pleasure of your company.
His gaze was so fierce when he spoke, like an ancient emperor calling out his decree for the people to obey.
You dreamed about him bidding on you when you signed up for the auction (even before Jimin bullied him into accompanying you). You let yourself imagine him speaking out again and again till the others stepped back—
Yet you never dared hope for it.
However, the last several days marked an unexpected turning point in your relationship.
For years, you and he were like magnets with a too-similar charge, but something had shifted irrevocably between you, and somehow your stubborn similarities became opposites that could not resist their attraction.
Kim Taehyung was one of the wealthiest men in the city…
But he didn’t need to buy your heart.
It had always been his, even if you didn’t want to admit it.
He had claimed you tonight—and every single soul in that ballroom knew it.
The next move was yours and you intended to make it.
“Mmm,” you hissed a bit, bringing your hand to rest just below your breasts.
Taehyung’s gaze flew up in concern.
“Is everything alright?”
“Yes, it’s just that scratch from the earring,” your fingers rubbed gingerly at the spot, drawing his focus to it, “it still stings.”
“Oh… I—” he shook his head, “I didn’t realize it was that bad.”
“Do you want to see?”
Taehyung’s eyes rose slowly to yours.
You watched the subtle rise and fall of his chest as he considered your words. Anticipation vibrated through your blood like notes struck on a piano—
Then he nodded...
And you both were lost.
Trembling fingers slid the zipper down the side of your gown. The dress itself was a marvel of physics designed to support you without the need for a bra.
Taehyung drew in an impossibly deep breath as the fabric drifted to your waist, baring the perfect mounds of your breasts to him entirely.
“Here,” you whispered, pointing to a small red mark just under the curve of your left one.
He bit back a moan.
“I—I see. That looks… painful.” His fingers dug into the seat beside him. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
You nodded.
“Kiss it better.”
Taehyung felt the air knock out of his lungs like a sucker punch.
This must have been how Adam felt when Eve offered him the forbidden fruit all those millennia ago.
He knew he shouldn’t—
but he could never deny you.
“Of course.”
You watched as his tongue darted out to wet his lips. He looked like a man possessed and you reveled in the power of it.
It was for you.
He wanted you.
Your back arched up the slightest bit, beckoning to him—offering him a taste of what he was so desperately craving.
Touch me… please.
Large palms landed on either side of your thighs, bracing him on the seat beneath you. The tip of his nose teased the delicate line of your collar bone and he swore violently under his breath.
Then his lips were on your skin and your mind went blank.
“Taehyung—“ you moaned.
Hot open-mouthed kisses spread over the soft swell of your breast and you gasped— shuddering helplessly as a fierce wave of pleasure tore through you.
Sweet merciful heavens.
Over the years you imagined a moment like this thousands of times in your head—only to discover now that you had pitifully underestimated both his passion and his skill.
You had dreamed of a quiet fire—but he had unleashed an inferno.
The lewd sounds of his mouth nipping and sucking at your tender flesh filled the small space around you as he poured himself into each obscene contact—stopping briefly to flick his tongue over the taunt peak of your nipple. You trembled breathlessly at the sharp snap of sensation, letting your head fall back against the seat as you buried your fingers in his soft curls.
“T-Tae—”
Finally his mouth fastened over the tiny scratch, and the kiss deepened. You knew what he was doing, what the result of his efforts would be—
He was marking you.
And you wanted it.
Oh how you wanted it.
Suddenly the car took a sharp turn, causing Taehyung to lose his grip on the seat. His arms wrapped around your torso for balance, dragging you fully against him.
“Does it feel better, Angel?” he growled.
You nodded frantically and he nipped at the underside of your breast.
“Speak up.”
“Yes, Taehyung,” you whimpered, “it feels so much better.”
“Mmmm,” he hummed, brushing his mouth along the sensitive column of your neck. “Who knew you could be such a good girl?”
Then his hand came up to grip your chin, turning it so your lips were almost against his—
“Madame. We’ve arrived.”
The driver’s voice cut over your senses like a shard of ice.
Taehyung jerked backward and immediately buried his face in his hands.
Your fingers hastily yanked your dress up and you stumbled out of the car in a daze, letting your feet carry you forward until you collapsed on top of your bed.
Did we just...
You hadn’t even begun to collect your thoughts when your phone buzzed from inside your purse.
1 New Message from: Taehyung 🙄🥴🙈
I need to know you made it safely to your room.
You grinned.
Greedy boy.
Back in the limousine, the boy in question was nervously tapping the corner of his phone against his chin as he waited for your reply.
1 New Message from: Angel 🤬🥵😅
Oh? But you saw me walk in… and I’m already in bed.
Taehyung growled in frustration.
She would be a tease.
To: Angel 🤬🥵😅
I tend to worry. Put my mind at ease.
He shook his head.
I have officially gone insane.
The phone buzzed again.
1 New Message from: Angel 🤬🥵😅
Well… We can’t have that can we…
Taehyung literally felt the whine tear out of him as he opened the picture.
Your gorgeous body (the body he’d had his hands and mouth on for one glorious minute) was nestled decadently atop a pile of fluffy blue blankets and wrapped in nothing but a tiny silk robe.
The neck gaped open just enough to show off the pretty red marks he left on the delectable curve of your breast.
He groaned, biting down hard on his bottom lip.
To: Angel 🤬🥵😅
That's all I get after I made the pain go away? Good girls send real proof, Angel
The screen lit up again almost immediately.
1 New Message from: Angel 🤬🥵😅
Guess I’m not such a good girl after all...
Jimin came tearing through the Kim Manor front gate at precisely 7 AM—only to find Jungkook camped out at the entrance with several outdoor space heaters and a giant mug of hot chocolate.
“He told you not to let me in, didn’t he?”
Jungkook took a long satisfying sip of his cocoa.
“I hope you don’t feel singled out, sir. I’m not allowed to let his mother in either.”
“I need to talk to him.”
“Of course, Mr. Park, let me just pull up his schedule—”
“I need to talk to him now.”
“I’m afraid Mr. Kim is booked solid for the morning.”
Jimin stomped his foot like a petulant child.
“I know he’s up there.”
Jungkook grinned.
“You’re welcome to climb the trellis and check. I promise not to stop you if you make it all the way up.”
“COME DOWN HERE AND FACE ME YOU COWARD!” Jimin shouted at the top of his lungs.
Jungkook took another long pull of his drink.
“Might I inquire as to the reason for your visit today, sir?”
“The reason for my visit,” Jimin yanked out his phone and angrily began typing into the search bar, “is that your boss paid ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS for my sister at a date auction last night and I want to know what the hell is going on between them!”
The article Jimin pulled up (DEVILISH KIM TAEHYUNG BUYS HIMSELF A $100,000 ANGEL) featured an image of the two of you entering the Black and White Ball. Your head was thrown back in laughter and Taehyung was grinning down at you as if you’d personally hung all the stars in the sky for him.
A genuine smile crept over Jungkook’s face as he studied the photograph.
“That’s quite a headline.” He handed Jimin’s phone back. “Have you asked your sister about it?”
“No, I swung by earlier, but she wasn’t home so—” His eyes widened. “Oh my—is she—”
Jimin suddenly took off running for the trellis, and Jungkook scrambled out of his chair to chase him.
“KIM TAEHYUNG IF MY SISTER IS IN THAT ROOM—”
He was already three feet off the ground when Jungkook yanked him back.
“I thought you said I could climb the trellis!”
“Yes,” Jungkook wheezed, “but I didn’t think you’d actually do it!” That trellis is a hundred years old! A few more feet and I’d be scraping you off the antique brickwork!”
Jimin scowled and crossed his arms.
“Are you by any chance open to bribes?”
“Normally yes, but Tae promised to double my Christmas bonus if I didn’t accept them today.”
Jimin continued to eye the trellis speculatively, clearly willing to take his chances. Jungkook sighed and rubbed his forehead.
“Mr. Park, I promise you… He came home alone last night. In fact, they both returned earlier than usual because your sister had a 7 AM finance meeting.” He paused significantly to glance at his watch. “Which is probably where she is right now.”
“Oh… Well.”
Jungkook bit his lip to hold back a snort and Jimin’s eyes narrowed.
“He has to come down eventually.”
“One would think.”
The young Park heir glanced toward Taehyung’s window again just in time to see the man in question dart back behind the curtains.
"I KNOW YOU'RE AWAKE, KIM TAEHYUNG, YOU PHILANDERING SLEAZE BAG!"
Jimin made another jump for the trellis and this time Jungkook caught him in mid-air.
“Sir, I’m sure it was just the maid!”
“It’s not the maid! I’d know that raggedy mop of his anywhere!”
Jungkook was out of breath at this point. Park Jimin might be small, but he was fierce.
“Perhaps it’s best if you took a moment to collect yourself,” he grunted. “There’s a lovely new spa down the street and they sent Taehyung two free deluxe packages.”
Jimin stopped struggling.
“Oh?”
Five minutes later, Jungkook sighed deeply and fished his phone out of his back pocket.
“He’s gone, sir.”
“Excellent work, Jungkook. I never doubted you for a second.”
“However…”
“... However?”
“I had to give him your spa passes.”
“YOU DID WHAT?!”
“Are you headed for a gala or the guillotine?”
Taehyung rolled his eyes.
“I don’t pay extra for commentary.”
“It’s complimentary, sir.”
The Kim heir tugged absently at the material of his absurdly expensive evening wear.
Why do these events always have to be so uncomfortable?
“Seriously, Tae… you seem,” the young aide searched for the right words, “unusually tense.”
Taehyung’s mind flashed back to three nights ago when he had his mouth wrapped around your breast.
“Not at all,” he coughed, loosening the collar of his shirt.
Jungkook bit his lip.
“Is this about Ms. Park, sir?”
The cufflinks Taehyung was attempting to fasten suddenly went flying across the room and hit a lamp.
Both men winced.
“I think that was your grandmother’s.”
Taehyung sighed.
“I admit there have been… some developments.”
Jungkook nodded nonchalantly, trying to disguise the fact that he was internally frothing at the mouth for details.
“... Such as?”
Taehyung gulped.
“It started out rather innocently I suppose…” he cleared his throat, “but there may have been some suggestive photographs.”
“There may have been? Are you not sure?”
Taehyung colored guiltily.
“Well—”
“Do you need me to check for you, sir? I have an art history degree.”
“Absolutely not.”
Jungkook grinned.
���That’s what I thought.”
Taehyung yanked his tie out of the younger man’s hand.
“Things have… escalated a bit.”
“Escalated how?”
I licked her tit in the back of a limo.
“Physically.”
It was everything Jungkook could do to maintain a straight face.
“That’s… shocking.”
“Then why don’t you seem shocked?” Taehyung grumbled.
A small smile played across Jungkook’s lips as he pointedly ignored the elder man’s observation.
“So what are you going to do, sir?”
Taehyung was silent for a long moment.
“I honestly have no idea.”
Watching you walk toward him was an experience.
Taehyung wondered absently if this was how it would be from now on; if for the rest of his life just the sight of you would be enough to scatter his mind and his pulse and even the way he breathed.
Your dress tonight was deadly.
It was a decadent red satin halter that clung to every curve. The truly wicked detail, however, was a daring slit that ran the entire length of your leg.
Taehyung was certain he was going to trip over his own tongue at some point if he looked directly at you for too long.
Oh help.
Memories of your previous encounter flooded his senses. Every second you were getting closer and he didn’t know what to do—what to say.
So he didn’t say anything at all.
Not a word when you reached the bottom of the stairs. Nothing but silence as he opened the door of the limo for you. More silence and no eye contact as he settled into the seat across from yours—
And you tolerated that for about three minutes.
“I never thought I’d see the day when Kim Taehyung didn’t have a comment about something. Perhaps I should mark this down on my calendar.”
The words were lightly spoken, but you were shaking on the inside. The last time the two of you were alone together he had your dress around your waist and you were moaning his name. Now he wasn’t talking and you were torn between panic and irritation.
Taehyung, however, latched onto your passive barb like a lifeline.
“Is that a hint of sarcasm I hear from the benevolent Park Angel?” He grinned. “Surely not.”
“Red is not a particularly angelic color. Perhaps I’m feeling feisty today.”
Taehyung leaned back in his seat and indulged himself in a thorough examination of your outfit. The urge to run his hands over the satin-covered lines of your body was nearly unbearable. He curled his fingers into fists to keep them from doing just that.
She is definitely trying to kill me.
“Should I be worried?”
Now it was your turn to grin.
“I guess we’ll find out.”
The Governor’s Winter Wonderland Gala was by far the most extravagant event of the holiday season. Tickets cost a small fortune and sold out almost immediately.
But it was well worth the price of admission.
Thousands of lights sparkled overhead as you made your way through the great hall of Governor Kim’s mansion.
It was like stepping into a fairytale.
Taehyung couldn’t take his eyes off you. The sheer wonder in your expression was breathtaking.
You were breathtaking.
“Governor Kim, it is such an honor to finally meet you.”
The Governor was a handsome man in his early fifties with a smile that was every bit as lethal as it had been twenty-five years ago.
“The honor is all mine, Ms. Park. I trust my nephew is treating you well.”
Your eyes widened.
“N-nephew?”
Taehyung shrugged.
“I don’t really talk about it much.”
The Governor chuckled and you cleared your throat to cover your nervousness.
“Yes, he’s been a very capable escort.”
“Is that so?” Governor Kim smiled charmingly. “Well if it doesn’t work out, my son Seokjin is still single—”
“Thank you, Uncle. It was lovely to see you as always.”
You squeaked as Taehyung placed his hand firmly on the curve of your back and practically dragged you away.
The Governor just shook his head and laughed.
“Oh kid, you’ve got it bad.”
Everywhere you looked there was beauty.
Whoever planned the gala this year had truly gone above and beyond. Surrounded on all sides by glittering trees and snowy vignettes, it was easy to be swept away in the festive magic of the evening.
All in all (despite some initial awkwardness), you were having a fantastic time...
Until she showed up.
“Kim Taehyung! Is that you?”
Every single hair on your body stood on end, but before you could determine the source of the shrill squealing, you found yourself being nudged aside by a blinding golden gown and some very high heels.
“Aubrey,” Taehyung grunted as five-and-half feet of gorgeous wrapped herself around him like a clinging vine. “Long time no see.”
“Not since that vacation in Aspen,” she giggled. “We had quite a time, didn’t we Tae Tae!”
Suddenly you had the most unholy urge to slap the spray tan right off this woman.
Instead, you plastered on a vibrant smile and placed your hand on Taehyung’s sleeve.
“Um. Excuse me, Tae Tae, perhaps you could introduce us?”
Taehyung looked as if he’d just been served raw fire ants for dinner.
“Yes. Of course. This is—”
“Aubrey Alicia St. Valentine,” she interrupted with a smug little smirk. “Taehyung and I go way back.” Her expression grew just the slightest bit tighter. “And you are?”
“His date,” you deadpanned.
“Aubrey,” Taehyung cleared his throat, “I’d like you to meet Ms. Park she’s—”
“Oh my goodness! You’re Jimin’s little sister aren't you!” Aubrey slapped her hand over his chest and he winced. “That is so precious of you to take her around like this!”
Your eyebrows raised right up into your hairline and Taehyung groaned.
“Yes, he was kind enough to sign me out of the nursery for the evening.” You offered them both a painfully vacant nod. “If you’ll excuse me, I think I see one of my play-dates near the buffet.”
Then you turned on your heel and sauntered off without another word.
Taehyung moved to follow you, but Aubrey curled her fingers into the crook of his arm and pulled him back.
“Oh let her go, Tae. You and I have so much catching up to do.”
Taehyung pointedly removed her hand from his elbow.
“Some other time perhaps.”
Aubrey pouted prettily.
“You’re not running off after her are you? She’s a big girl, she can take care of herself.”
Taehyung crossed his arms and fixed her with a knowing look.
“Funny... that’s not what you were implying a moment ago.”
“A moment ago I didn’t have you all to myself. Now I do.” She had the decency to blush. “Perhaps I got a bit jealous.”
“You don’t say.” His eyes continued to search the crowd for any sign of you.
“It seems I had good reason to be,” she murmured quietly.
“Aubrey... Listen I—”
She cut him off with a finger to his lips.
“Don’t bother Tae Tae. I’m petty, but I’ve never been pathetic.”
He grinned.
“Never.”
The lady sighed and gave him a heated once over.
“What a shame.”
Then she strolled off with a rueful smile.
“You know what I don’t understand?”
You turn to find Min Yoongi leaning casually against a nearby column. He looked absurdly handsome as always, but his grin was just the slightest bit mischievous.
“What don’t you understand, Mr. Min?”
The question was clearly a bait, but you were still fuming from your earlier encounter with Ms. St. Valentine and therefore desperately in need of a distraction.
Yoongi pushed off the column and lazily made his way toward you.
“I don’t understand how a man pays a hundred thousand dollars for an evening with the most beautiful woman in the city, and then leaves her all by herself.” He leaned forward with a playful grin. “Perhaps you could enlighten me?”
Oh he’s good.
You made a show of tapping your chin thoughtfully.
“I’m afraid I don’t have an answer for that one.”
Yoongi sighed and shook his head.
“Couldn’t be me.”
You laughed then. He really was a delightful man. In fact, if you still had your heart, you might have considered letting him take a shot at it.
Alas.
You tilted your head speculatively.
Surely there was no need to brush away good company...
After all, no one else is interested in spending time with me.
“Since my escort is otherwise occupied, perhaps you could join me for dinner?”
Yoongi held out his hand.
“I’d be delighted.”
Taehyung wandered around the mansion for nearly forty-five minutes looking for his date.
Panic was just starting to build in his chest when he finally spotted you
—at his private dining table with Min Yoongi.
It was everything he could do not to storm over and yank the other man out of his seat by the lapels.
Alright, Angel. If this is the game you want to play… then let’s play.
Taehyung felt his anger rise with every step, but he ruthlessly suppressed any sign of it and instead adopted a charming smile.
“Min, I didn’t expect to find you here. What a… delightful surprise.”
Yoongi’s expression was just a shade too satisfied. Taehyung could already feel his blood pressure beginning to skyrocket.
“Yes, Ms. Park believed that you were otherwise occupied and invited me to share the meal with her.”
“I see,” Taehyung practically snarled. “However,” his gaze landed heavily on you, “since I paid for this table, I hope you won’t mind if I join you as well?”
You avoided looking at him up to this point, but now you were choking on your wine
“Easy there, Angel,” Taehyung murmured as he pulled up a seat extremely close to yours—so close that your thighs were nearly touching.
Oh boy.
Over the next several minutes Yoongi continued to flirt openly and you continued to smile prettily and pretend Taehyung wasn’t there (which naturally infuriated him).
You should have known he wouldn’t let you get away with such behavior so easily.
This was Kim Taehyung, after all, and if there was anything that could be counted on when it came to your shared history, it was that one (or both) of you was always ready to escalate.
You had just offered the young Min heir yet another flowery compliment when you felt Taehyung make his move.
Two warm fingers slid under the silken slit of your dress, coming to rest possessively over the soft flesh of your inner thigh.
You squeaked and nearly spat up your drink.
Taehyung leaned forward in fake concern, wrapping his arm around you as if to offer aid.
“Are you alright?”
His hand continued to move significantly beneath your gown, but his face was the picture of innocence.
You glared.
“Just fine, thank you.”
A slow grin crept across his features as he began to trace soft intimate patterns over your skin.
On the other side of the table, Yoongi tilted his head in genuine solicitude. “Are you sure?”
You nodded sharply.
Satisfied, he resumed speaking about whatever it was he’d been saying—though you couldn’t understand a word of it at this point because the torturous strokes Taehyung was leisurely drawing over your thighs were moving closer to your center with each passing second.
Yet you made no move to stop him.
You should have.
You should have slapped his touch away—rebuked him for his boldness—
But you didn’t.
So he just kept nodding and smiling while Yoongi spoke, even as his fingers teased you with the maddening persistence of a man who knew very well what he was doing.
You gasped aloud when he finally brushed the pad of his thumb over the thin cotton of your panties.
“T-Taehyung—”
“Hmm?” he turned to you, seemingly surprised by your attention (it was—after all—the first time you’d addressed him since the beginning of the meal).
“Could you pass me the salt,” you sputtered (hoping to cover the fact that you moaned his name involuntarily). Unfortunately, Taehyung seemed wholly aware of your ruse, offering you the salt shaker with a superior smirk.
You seriously considered stabbing him with a fork.
However, before you could carry out any bloodthirsty plans, he pressed his fingers directly over your clit and your eyes rolled back in your head
“Oh my g—” you bit your lip stubbornly, “this lamb is just so good.”
Sweet mother of macaroons, he is too skilled at this.
You shoveled another bite into your mouth to cover your whine as Taehyung began to rub tight little circles over your sweet spot.
Across the table, Yoongi nodded in blissful unawareness.
“Yes, I agree, the lamb is excellent—very tender.”
Taehyung took advantage of the momentary distraction to slip beneath the fabric of your undergarment.
Your fork clattered to your plate and your hand came up to cover your mouth as he began running his fingers up and down your soaked slit.
It was everything you could do to hold back your depraved whimpering.
“I can’t wait to taste it,” Taehyung replied, flicking your clit in a way that guaranteed he wasn’t referring to the lamb.
At this point Yoongi seemed to notice you were in some sort of distress. He wiped his mouth with his napkin and leaned forward.
“Ms. Park, are you well?”
Taehyung chose that moment to sink his finger into the welcoming heat of your pussy.
“Yes,” you almost sobbed, “I’m-I’m very well—thank you.”
“Excellent,” Yoongi smiled as he rose to his feet. “If you’re feeling up to it, perhaps you could favor me with a dance?”
Several attendees were already making their way to the center of the floor and the orchestra was beginning to play.
Your entire body, however, was vibrating like a plucked harp string and Taehyung was still brushing back and forth against your clit, driving you toward a release that promised to be explosive.
There was no way—simply no way—that you would be capable of hiding it.
“Yes! I would love to dance with you,” you squeaked, grabbing hold of Taehyung’s wrist frantically. The feel of him pulling out of your sopping core was nearly enough to have you coming right there.
Thankfully, Yoongi remained utterly oblivious to the debauchery unfolding beneath the table. He took your hand and helped you to your feet with an eager smile (and it was a good thing too because your legs were still shaking).
When the two of you reached the dance floor, you turned back for the briefest instant—
just long enough to meet Taehyung’s heated gaze as his lips closed over the finger he buried in your cunt.
Emotions were a funny thing.
They impacted your judgement, affected your body, altered your behavior…
And occasionally eroded your common sense.
Sitting alone in the corner of the Governor’s ballroom, Kim Taehyung found himself experiencing a full spectrum of emotional side-effects.
His hands clenched as he watched Min Yoongi spin you around the floor.
His heart pounded every time he caught a flash of your shapely leg peeking through the slit in your gown.
His blood boiled when you threw your head back and laughed at something the other man said.
It was difficult to pinpoint which emotion was to blame for each of these reactions. There were certainly a number of them boiling over in his subconscious.
Frustration—
I didn’t even want to talk to Aubrey! How are you acting like anything she said was my fault?!
Rage—
Why is challenging people to duels illegal? I would fight Min Yoongi at dawn. I would fight Min Yoongi now.
Jealousy—
You asked her to dance while my fingers were in her pussy. We are not the same.
But perhaps the most persistent—the most overwhelming— emotion twisting through him was longing.
You and Taehyung spent nearly four years apart, and he was so desperate to be near you—even then—that he resorted to childish pranks in order to remain a part of your life.
He hadn’t recognized his actions or desires for what they were. He hadn’t realized what you meant to him...
But now, after spending the last several days with your hand on his arm and your laughter in his ear, he could no longer imagine spending another moment without you.
Everything seemed to crystallize as he watched you laughing and dancing in the arms of another man.
Uncertainty became clear. Complications became simple.
And when he saw Min Yoongi’s hand slide dangerously close to the perfect swell of your backside—
Emotion became action.
“Mind if I cut in?”
It wasn’t a question really. Taehyung was already shouldering his rival out of the way and pulling you into his arms.
“Taehyung,” you hissed, shooting the bewildered Yoongi an apologetic look over his shoulder, “what are you doing? This is so rude—”
“You’re absolutely right,” he agreed, sweeping you through the couples on the floor with practiced ease. “It is unpardonably rude to steal someone else’s date. He’s lucky all I did was steal you back.”
Your mouth dropped open.
“Oh? So you finally remembered that I was your date?”
Taehyung’s grip on the curve of your waist became a shade rougher as he pulled you through the next turn.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“It means—” you stepped forward vigorously, nearly smashing your body into his, “—that you spent forty-five minutes with Aubrey Alicia St. Valentine when you were supposed to be having dinner with me!”
Taehyung growled and yanked you flush against him.
“I spent forty-five minutes looking for you while you were giving away my table to Min Yoongi!”
The two of you sailed through the next several movements glaring at one another before you snapped again.
“None of this would have happened if you had just told Aubrey St. Spray Tan that you were with me—”
“I did!”
“Instead, you let her call me a baby!”
“What let? Aubrey is a grown woman!”
“But—”
“And—you stormed off before I could say anything, so how would you know what I let?”
“You didn’t come after me!”
“Yes actually I did—but she grabbed my arm!”
“Really? Well what else did she grab?”
Taehyung abruptly realized how silent everything around you had become.
People were staring—and not even discreetly— just full on staring with their mouths hanging open.
Well that’s great.
Taehyung’s hand closed around yours and you suddenly found yourself being marched across the dance floor at a breakneck pace.
“What are you doing?”
“Continuing this discussion in private.”
“We can’t just go somewhere private in the Governor’s mansion!” you sputtered, struggling to keep up with his larger strides.
“You mean in my uncle’s house? Yes—actually we can—and we will.”
Taehyung proved to be a man of his word, dragging you past two security guards and into the roped off section of the manor with nothing more than a nod.
The residential wing of the Governor’s home was beautifully decorated with traditional Korean artistic touches—all of which you were unable to appreciate while Taehyung was speed walking you through the halls.
After a surprising amount of turns and archways, he yanked open an ornate wooden door with the words Reflection Suite written on a plaque above it in beautiful calligraphy.
You almost giggled when you got a look inside.
On the surface it was a tastefully furnished guest room with a simple cherry wood desk and a cozy double bed set in an elegant matching frame.
However—
The ceiling and one full wall were nothing but massive mirrors.
Reflection suite indeed.
The door slammed shut and Taehyung rounded on you with a stormy expression—though you weren’t waiting on him to fire the first volley.
“This is definitely going to get us in trouble.”
“I told you, I can go wherever I want in this house. It’s fine.”
“Then why did you take us here?”
“Because you were shouting—”
“I was shouting?! You were shouting I just—”
Suddenly your back was against the wall and Taehyung’s mouth was on yours.
He hadn’t brought you here for this. When he grabbed your hand, he was only trying to get away from the crowds. He told himself that he needed privacy so you could talk—so he could clarify things.
But the minute the door closed and you flared up again in all your magnificent rage, he was lost.
He had to kiss you then.
You were so lovely. So fierce. So wildly irresistible and he was too utterly smitten to fight the need to be near you—to be with you in every way that he could—for a single second more.
The shock of Kim Taehyung pressing his lips to yours lasted about two full seconds—and then there was nothing but ravenous insatiable need.
Finally.
Everything was him.
Everything was this—this sweet indescribable ignition of a desire that spanned years. You moaned eagerly against his mouth in wanton delight. After a decade of sparks, you were more than ready to burn.
“Taehyung—”
His name poured out of you like a prayer. You needed him everywhere and miraculously he seemed to understand—
Not that he was prepared to be polite about it.
“Where’s that smart mouth now, Angel?” he growled, tangling his hands in your hair to expose the tender column of your throat. “Nothing to say?”
Your only answer was a desperate whine as he spread hot-open mouthed kisses down the soft skin of your neck all the way to your collarbone.
Now was not the time for patience. He would be tender with you later. You absolutely deserved soft sweet caresses and slow leisurely love making and he was absolutely going to give them to you—every day if you’d let him.
But not today.
The minute his mouth encountered the barrier of your dress, he gripped onto the sides and yanked it down to your waist.
“You knew just what you were doing in the back of that limo, you little brat,” he hissed, taking one swollen nipple into his mouth and tormenting it with his tongue.
“Tae-ahhh!” Your back arched involuntarily in ruthless pleasure.
“I spent hours—days even—wanting to get my hands on these perfect tits.” He licked the other nipple obscenely, squeezing the soft mound till it bulged through his fingers. “And you offered me the barest taste with that coy little grin, knowing it wouldn’t be enough—”
He reared back and landed a firm slap on both breasts and you screamed.
It was so so good.
“Look at them now,” he murmured, “so swollen and needy and mine.”
If any other man had said those words, you would have cut his heart out with a butter knife.
But you had always belonged to this man body and soul, and to hear him acknowledge it so primitively felt like the sweetest vindication.
“Yes!” you sobbed.
The affirmation only inflamed him further. He teased and fondled the tender flesh till you were shaking.
Your fingers curled into the soft waves of his hair as he indulged himself. He looked so ridiculously good sucking your nipple, moaning lewdly with his eyes pressed shut in cathartic bliss.
“This is all your fault, Angel,” he groaned. “You just don’t know how to behave.”
His hands gripped the curve of your backside, lifting you right off the floor and into his arms. Your mouths fused together heatedly as he carried you to the bed, and you giggled against him when his words finally processed.
“You’ve been saying that for years.”
“It’s been true for years,” he muttered, pulling one of your legs up around him so he could grind against your cunt while you kissed.
Your fingers tugged at the buttons of his shirt, tearing them off when they didn’t unhook fast enough. You waited too long to be with him like this to care about anything other than the feel of his skin against your own.
“Impatient, are we?” he chuckled, bringing his lips around to nip at your ear.
“You’re one to talk,” you shot back, yanking the ruined garment right off his shoulder just so you could sink your teeth into it.
Taehyung moaned loudly, snapping his hips against yours with an involuntary jerk.
“You really are such a brat,” he hissed, fisting his hands in the satin length of your skirt. “Let’s see how fierce you are with my tongue in your pussy—”
His words were so filthy and raw, yet they stoked a frenzied need in your belly like nothing you had ever encountered.
“This dress is evil,” he snarled, fumbling with the zipper for a moment before switching to a more destructive tactic. “It has tormented me all night and now it’s in my way.”
The stitching proved no match for his resolve, and—after a few vigorous tugs—he ripped it apart from the slit on up, leaving you covered in nothing but the thin cotton underwear he had breached earlier that evening.
After disposing of your shredded gown, Taehyung paused for a moment just to take in the sight of you.
“What a perfect little angel,” he taunted playfully, snapping the band of your lingerie against your hips with a cocky grin.
Then he brushed his nose right up against the sopping fabric and inhaled deeply. “You smell just like heaven,” he growled before licking you right through the cloth, “and you taste even better.”
The sensations twisting through your body were merciless. You needed more or you were going to shake apart.
“Taehyung please,” you whined, pressing against him shamelessly.
“Oh a please?” he chuckled, throwing your own words from the first night back at you. “Who knew you had manners?”
You would have screamed in frustration, but he cut you off with an open mouthed kiss right over the wettest part of your panties.
“Perhaps I can make a good girl of you yet,” he chuckled, as you opened yourself wider to encourage him.
You nodded frantically, letting out another moan when he yanked the flimsy little scrap of lace down your legs—smearing a line of arousal over your thighs.
“So messy,” he tsked, tapping his finger right above your knee where the naughty little streak ended. “What am I going to do with you?”
Then he pressed his tongue over the shiny trail of slick and licked it right off.
You gasped loudly and his lascivious smirk was almost beautiful enough to make up for all of the shameless teasing.
Almost.
"You want my mouth, pretty Angel?” he whispered, letting the words brush maddeningly against your folds. “You want me to feed on this sweet little cunt?”
Every cell in your body cried out for release. He already edged you under the table at dinner and now he was determined to unravel you entirely. You would say anything—do anything.
"Please—" you whispered.
"Please who?"
Normally you met his arrogance with a cutting riposte, but an entire evening of methodical torment had left you beyond desperate.
"Please Taehyung,” you begged needily.
He grinned.
“That’s right, Angel. Kim Taehyung. Not Min Yoongi or any other pathetic trust fund prick that’s panting for a taste of this pussy.” His eyes fastened on yours significantly. “You belong to me.”
Then his tongue licked a flat stripe over your glistening slit and you sagged onto the bed in relief—only to be thrown back into oblivion when his lips closed over your clit.
Your body arched involuntarily as a ruthless wave of pleasure tore through you. Your eyes and mouth flew open in a silent scream and it was in that moment you remembered exactly where you were.
Underneath a giant mirror.
The passionate woman staring down at you was nearly unrecognizable. Her body was littered with her lover’s marks. Her hands gripped feverishly into the sheets beneath her—-
And Kim Taehyung was kneeling between her thighs, suckling on her weeping cunt with obscene satisfaction.
It was the sexiest thing you had ever seen in your life.
Your hands reached down to tangle in his hair, using it for leverage as you ground against his face.
Then suddenly his grip on your legs tightened and his tongue plunged roughly into your trembling core.
“Tae—ahh oh my—I can’t—”
The sensation was so intense that your hips bucked violently. You could not keep still. You were charging towards an explosion and your body was shaking itself apart.
The noises tearing from you were incoherent. Everything around you focused in on the juncture of your thighs where Taehyung was licking inside of you again and again until—
You shattered.
And the force of it nearly bent your back in half.
Delirious sobs poured from your lips as he worked you through it, letting the obscene flood of your cum soak his face.
The sight of him slowly lapping at the release between your folds, was unspeakably erotic. He ran his hands in soothing circles over your skin while you twitched and fluttered back down from your high.
Then he was kissing you again.
It was softer this time, but you felt truly depraved—and instantly obsessed—with the taste of yourself in his mouth—on his skin.
You could barely understand this ravenous hunger. You’d just found relief, yet you were already reaching for more.
Your hands snaked down and wrapped around his still covered cock and he hissed in ragged pleasure.
“So eager,” he gasped, as you pushed him back against the headboard—but you didn’t have time to bother with his teasing.
You were gonna blow Kim Taehyung into space.
He bit his lip when you yanked down his pants and boxers together, freeing his arousal with stunning efficiency.
It was almost unfair to discover that his cock was every bit as beautiful as he was.
“Of course,” you muttered.
The sultry smirk he shot you in return had your cunt flooding all over again.
“You think Min Yoongi has a cock like mine?”
“I don’t think about Min Yoongi’s cock,” you retorted, wrapping your hand around his length, “you’ve always been the biggest dick I’ve ever met.”
“I knew you thought about my dick,” he groaned as you began to work up and down the swollen shaft.
After a moment, his hand slid over your chin to grip your hair, drawing you forward till your lips were almost touching.
“I wonder what this pretty mouth can do,” he whispered.
You gasped against him and he smiled.
“Do you know how often I pictured your lips around my cock, Angel?”
You mewled shamelessly and he growled, cupping your cheek as your hands continued to service him.
“Do you know how often I imagined this perfect throat stuffed full of my cum?”
His palm slid down to lightly grip the soft flesh of your neck and you shuddered against him with a needy whimper.
“I know you could suck me so good, Angel. I’ve wanted it for so so long...”
Your mouth actually watered with anticipation.
The desire to be good for him—to give him whatever he asked for—consumed you.
Taehyung let his head fall back against the headboard with a groan at the first brush of your lips along his shaft. His hips rutted involuntarily as your tongue wrapped around the tip and you hummed with pleasure at his enthusiastic response.
After a moment you slid him into the welcoming heat of your mouth, taking him in as far as you could in one stroke. His jaw dropped open and his entire body jerked forward.
“Yes, that’s it, Angel—feels so good.”
His praise was addictive.
You loved that you could bring him to this. You loved to see the haughty Kim Taehyung coming apart as you sucked him.
It made you feel beautiful—powerful even—and you reveled in every second of it.
Your eyes were starting to tear. His length began to throb and pulse against your tongue and you knew he was close—so close you could almost taste him—
Yet suddenly he was pulling you back and you whined pitifully at the loss.
Taehyung chuckled, dragging you toward him till your dripping core slid across his cock.
“I’m not coming before I get inside that pretty little pussy,” he swore, working your hips over his sex till it was drenched in arousal.
The crass words filled you with the fiercest, most incredible want and you clenched reflexively against him in response.
“Is that what you want?” Taehyung whispered as he bore you back into the mattress, pinning both your wrists above your head. “You want me to fill your empty little cunt?”
You did.
You wanted it so so bad.
“Please.”
Taehyung gently lowered himself closer to you, resting his forehead intimately against yours as he lined up his cock at your entrance.
“Are you sure, Angel? Because there’s no going back after this... If you give yourself to me, then you’re mine—and I’ll fight tooth and nail to keep you.”
“Taehyung, you idiot,”—a tender smile spread over your face as you wrapped your arms around his neck—“... I’ve always been yours.”
He swore violently—letting the slight tremble in his voice betray just how deeply your words affected him.
Then his fingers tightened on the soft flesh of your hip and he filled you to the hilt with one delicious thrust.
There was a moment—the smallest space in time—where your eyes locked together and everything seemed to suspend; a strange perfect calm before a monumental storm.
Then your world caught fire.
Taehyung drove himself into you with passionate fury, letting years of denial fuel the insatiable rhythm of his strokes.
Every time he told himself no. Every time he held himself back—
Every bit of it burned away as you screamed his name.
The feel of him was indescribable.
You imagined it too many times to count, yet your dreams fell pitifully short of the visceral reality.
He was bloomin’ magnificent.
Your fingers clawed up and down his back, desperate to hold on to something while he pounded into your g-spot like an animal.
“This tiny cunt is the tightest thing I’ve ever had around my cock,” he gasped and you whined needily at his praise. “Like it was made for me—” his hand came up to grip your breast, “like you were made for me.”
“Yes—”
Taehyung’s need seemed to amplify with every whimper and moan that fell from your lips. The feelings you sparked in him were fierce and unapologetically primitive.
He would go to war for you—build a fortress for you—fight a dragon if one dared come close.
You were his.
And he felt like a savage every time you cried out for more.
Suddenly an unexpected movement in his periphery caught his attention.
He’d been so consumed with the extraordinary rush of claiming you that he’d forgotten—
This guest room was thirty-five percent mirrors.
And now… he couldn’t look away.
The sight of your bodies tangling together in headless bliss played out before him like a scene from his most debauched and forbidden fantasies. His reflection grinned back at him in fascinated ecstasy while his beloved nemesis lost herself in the pleasure of his cock.
Something dark and wild began to burn in his chest as he studied the lovers in the glass.
“Look at you, Angel,” he whispered softly, “you really are perfect.”
Then he pulled out of your core and you whined bitterly in protest, chasing his body to rid yourself of the sudden unacceptable emptiness.
“Still so needy,” he taunted, gripping your hips and flipping you on your stomach before you could even think to protest.
“I want you to watch that pretty angel in the mirror come on my cock,” he groaned, plunging back into you from behind.
The new angle was somehow impossibly deeper and your body shook as another wave of pleasure overtook it.
Your fingers clawed into the mattress for purchase as he pistoned into your trembling mound.
Only Kim Taehyung could rail you like a whore while he worshiped you like a queen.
He gave you a moment to adjust before drawing your body back against his chest. His arm wrapped over your stomach as he slowly eased your legs apart, unfolding the lewd tableau of your bodies joined together for the voyeuristic gaze of the glass.
“Look at yourself, Angel,” he growled, mesmerized by the way your breasts bounced with every thrust. “Look at how well you're taking me.”
Then his fingers slid down to rub your clit and you screamed.
“Tae! Ah-ahh!”
The pleasure building within you now was violent. You were coiling too tightly, too fast—
“That’s right Angel. Take it all.”
Your eyes locked with his in the mirror for the briefest instant.
And then you flew apart.
Taehyung threw his head back with a carnal moan as you clamped down around him. His body was hurtling toward its own release with reckless speed.
“I’m close,” he panted, “where can I come?”
“Come inside me please,” you begged, and Taehyung’s eyes widened in frenzied lust.
“That’s what you want? Huh?” his thrusts became rougher as he chased his relief, “You want me to fill this puffy little pussy with my cum?”
“Yes, I want it so bad—“ you sobbed.
“Sweet Angel,” he groaned, gripping at your breasts as he pulled you tighter against him.
Then he met your gaze in the mirror again.
“I want everything with you; a home—a family—your body in my arms every morning when I wake up—” his voice trembled, “I want it all.”
The raw vulnerability in his eyes nearly broke you.
“Tae,” you gasped softly, too overcome with joy to manage anything else.
His mouth pressed hungrily against the curve of your shoulder. You could feel his cock throbbing in your core as he bent you forward, pounding into your sex with exquisite precision.
"Stay with me, Angel,” he whispered. His thrusts became erratic as he neared his high. “I don’t want to live without you anymore.”
The glorious thrill of his words tore over your senses with euphoric brutality. Your walls tightened greedily around his cock and the taunt cord of pleasure finally snapped.
He came with a broken groan, flooding the welcoming heat of your womb with his release.
“KIM TAEHYUNG!”
The sound of his name being shouted by the absolute last person in the world whose voice he wanted to hear woke Taehyung from a dead sleep.
His eyes widened in panic as he began yanking pillows and covers from all over the bed in a frenzied attempt to hide—
The doors to his bedroom flew open with a resounding crash.
“Jimin,” he squeaked, trying to look as casual as possible next to a giant pile of bedding. “What uh—what brings you here at—” his eyes darted to the clock on the wall, “—7:30 in the morning?”
Then he frowned.
“And how the hell did you get past Jungkook?”
Jimin’s murderous expression broke momentarily to allow for a smug grin.
“Kendra.”
Kendra Jackson was Jimin’s executive aide. She was fierce, capable, intelligent—
And insanely gorgeous.
Taehyung groaned.
Poor Jungkookie never stood a chance.
To the surprise of absolutely no one, yet another newspaper landed on Taehyung’s lap.
KIM HEIR BRINGS NAUGHTY ANGEL HOME FOR CHRISTMAS
Underneath the headline was a picture of you and Taehyung (dressed in clothes you stole from Jin’s childhood bedroom) kissing passionately against the side entrance of the Governor’s mansion.
One of your legs was wrapped around his waist and he was clearly grabbing your ass.
“Ah… well you see the camera distorts everything from this angle—and-and the lighting is bad so it’s not really what it looks like—”
“Is that so? Cause it looks like you’ve got your tongue down my baby sister’s throat!”
“Okay—okay,” Taehyung massaged his forehead nervously, “so maybe it’s sort of what it looks like but—”
“I’ll kill you.”
“No wait—” he held up his hands to delay an already advancing Jimin.
“Why should I wait?!”
“Because—”
“—I trusted you with the most important person in the world to me—”
“The situation is just not that simple.”
“—and you grabbed her ass in public!”
“Admittedly not my finest hour.”
“So you tell me right now—”
“But you don’t understand it’s—”
“—Why the hell would I wait?!”
“BECAUSE I’M IN LOVE WITH HER!”
For a moment there was absolute silence.
Then your head popped out from the massive pile of bedding.
“Really?”
Jimin’s mouth fell open.
Taehyung groaned again.
“As usual, your timing is impeccable.”
You rolled your eyes, ignoring his comment.
“Are you really in love with me?”
“Of course I’m in love with you! What part of I want you to have my children did you not understand?!”
“I think I’m gonna be sick,” Jimin choked.
“That’s not the same thing!”
“It is for me!”
A radiant smile lit up your face.
“I’m in love with you too.”
Taehyung’s expression softened.
“Angel I—”
Then you were kissing and Jimin swung around with a horrified shout.
“Oh! No no no—Come on!”
He stumbled out of the room, hands firmly clamped over his eyes.
“This is not over, Kim Taehyung!” the scandalized young Park heir howled in exasperation… but there was a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
Back in the bedroom, Taehyung shook his head at Jimin’s ridiculous caterwauling.
“No, it’s not over,” he laughed, pulling you deeper into the comfort of his arms. “It’s only just begun.”
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my story.
This baby took FOR-EVER to write. I started it in November and literally worked on it a little every day.
If you enjoyed it— even just a tiny bit—please consider taking a moment to leave me some feedback. It is so incredibly uplifting and rewarding to hear reader thoughts and reactions to my work.
I promise to treasure every word like gold. It took a lot to bring this story to life. Your kind words would mean the world to me.
#bts#kim taehyung#Kim Taehyung smut#kim taehyung oneshot#Kim Taehyung x reader#kim taehyung scenarios#bts smut#ficswithluv#bts v#kwritersworldnet#bangtanarmynet#bangtanhq#networkbangtan#armysource#heartsforbts#btswriterscollective#bangtanidx#magicshopnet#bts fan fiction#kim taehyung fanfiction#bts Christmas
6K notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
blindsky
BlindWish
thebittertrain
God is~Busy, How Can I Help You?
moomoo-4-with-sun
imMOOvable love
bookishbarnowl
I have no idea what I'm doing. Here We Go
sorrelbriarrose
Sorrel Harrow