#being practical so she could pay off her loans
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The Body Factory (sexclubowner!h)
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Hellloooo!
It’s been a long while since I posted here. I am still going strong on patreon with 4-5 one shots a month with anywhere from 8 to 14k words usually (sometimes more) + blurbs. I decided to released one of my new tropes, just part one on here and if it sounds good maybe consider joining for $3USD a month to read more parts of this and many others coming up!!!
prompt: yn doesn’t feel fufilled in her relationship and so her fiancé, Arthur, comes up with an idea to help but it doesnt turn out as either of them expected aka sex club owner!h
word count: 8k
warnings: under-negotiation, power play, mean h, choking, safeword, cheating but not really yet
🛑 there is a scene that could potentially be triggering so i am going to put a brief summary at the end of the fic if you’d like to check whether it’s a appropriate read for yourself. 🛑
Author’s Note: I have had this idea on my mind for months and have been so extremely excited to share it with you. It has really really been inspiring to me as I don’t have a trope like this. I hope you enjoy.
++
Arthur was nice.
Arthur was a safe choice.
It’s why when YN’s father introduced them, it didn’t really seem like an option to turn down the invitation to go out to dinner at the swankiest restaurant in town.
The date had been so incredibly unexciting that YN had no doubt that he would not ask for a second one.
They had nothing in common, the space was often filled with an awkward silence, and averted gazes to the walls or out the window next to their seating.
Arthur was nice.
Arthur was polite, he held the door and paid for the bill before walking her to her car with the chaste kiss to her cheek.
It absolutely boggled her mind when her father informed her the next day that Arthur had told her that he had an amazing time and was going to ask her for a second date in the next upcoming days.
YN hated the mere idea of disappointing her parents, she had already let them down enough with her career choice not to join the family business
:readmore:
instead becoming neonatal nurse, despite that being a massive accomplishment, it wasn’t praised because she didn’t go to be a lawyer like both her mother and father.
It felt like most of the time she was on thin ice with her parents because of her education and career choice, even down to the car she drove (they thought it was too sporty and not practical enough) which left her in a precarious position.
She relied on them for help with her student loans.
YN was still trying to get her feet on the ground with her apartment landlord just bumping up her rent by nearly five-hundred pounds, her car note, among all the other things that came with being an adult that she wasn’t financially capable of managing yet.
Her parents agreed to pay for her school loans.
However, it came with silet threat of staying in their good gracious or they would cut her off at any moment, they had threatened it enough when she got into nursing school and informed them that she would be attending, she must have heard them threaten her inheritance half a million times.
Arthur was her ticket back into her parent’s limelight.
He was fresh out of law school but he was incredibly intelligent, good at what he did, and had multiple firms vying for him to join their legal council but he had chosen YN’s family’s business because of their well-known reputation.
Arthur came from old money, which had given him an extremely privileged life and a headstart into success as soon as he was born.
He was the great-grandson of an oil tycoon whom he had reaped the benefits ever since.
The second date happened, then the third, then the fourth.
No spark.
No chemistry.
Atleast on YN’s end because Arthur seemed happy as a clam in their relationship, he praised YN to anyone who would listen, and was consistently bragging about their life to anyone that would listen to him.
He was nice to her.
He remembered important dates, brought her flowers to work, and had dinner made when she walked in the door on nights that she worked late shifts and he got home before her.
Time passes and they celebrate their first year anniversary, then their second, then their third.
On the fourth was when he got down on one knee and professed his love to her in front of all their family and friends on Christmas Day at an extravagant party at his parent’s estate.
The diamond ring that he slid onto her finger was ridiculous, too big to not just be flaunting wealth, and it wasn’t a style that she liked but she lied and told him that she loved it.
There was an emptiness in her chest when he proposed, she was teary-eyed but she couldn’t determine whether it was from happiness or dread that she was going to spend the rest of her life with the man in front of her.
It wasn’t his fault in the slightest.
Arthur was just Arthur.
He lacked depth, there was nothing behind his twinkling brown eyes beside law, money, and judgement.
Arthur treated her nicely consistently, they barely ever fought, and he never raised his voice at her.
When he got frustrated, he just got an exasperated tone and took time to himself in his office until he had calmed down enough to talk.
But that was once in a blue moon.
They’ve never had a blow-out because he was so agreeable and accommodating.
That’s exactly what was missing from their relationship.
YN didn’t crave toxicity, not one bit, she wanted a healthy relationship with positive communication, understanding, and all the things that make that up.
YN did crave excitement, humor, sexual tension, and the type of relationship that kept her on her toes, got her adrenaline pumping and making her stomach turn in nervous knots because she didn’t always know what to expect out of her partner.
Arthur was as predictable as a clock, had no spontaneity up his sleeve, and his sense of humor was nonexistent.
YN had a partner that she’d been with in college named Klein.
He wasn’t the love of her life, not by a long shot, but he had been wild, on the edge of insane half-of-the-time, and always kept their relationship exciting.
He would show up at her part-time cafe job, with a fake excuse to her boss about a death in his family, and he needed her support.
When YN would walk out to his motorcycle with him, concerned about his grandmother’s death, he would only smile at her, inform her that his grandmother has been dead for fifteen years, and that he was going to take her on a hike to see a waterfall she’d mentioned wanting to see once in passing.
But then there was their sex life, it was phenomenal and unlike the few half-hapzard experience she had before him.
He was confident, dominant, and introduced her to things that she used to not even have the nerve to say out loud let alone do.
It was him who introduced her to BDSM and they explored it for nearly two and a half years of their relationship.
YN did research while they were together and after the fact, she had even attended a few virtual training sessions to learn about correct techniques, safety precautions, and learning the dynamic of power play which engrossed her to no end.
However, when Klein requested they open their relationship, that had been such an unexpected turn-off that she no longer felt the connection that was there before.
The end of the relationship was amicable, they were still friends on social media and liked each others posts but it was at that point they realized they wanted different things and they couldn’t provide that to one another.
Where Klein wanted flexibility, uncertainty, and fluidity.
YN wanted regimen, structured, and a deep sense of connection with one person.
She did not want multiple doms nor did she want her dom to have multiple submissives.
She wanted all the attention on her, her dom would be absolutely captivated by her and be so connected to her physically, mentally, spiritually that they only want her.
Her ideal dom would never mention sharing.
Which isn’t to shame it because it was more common than not to have an open relationship, partner sharing, and swapping.
YN loved the idea of becoming comfortable with someone enough that she could be a brat which she wasn’t an easy submissive she had come to learn.
Her dominant had to work for her submission, sometimes she crumbled quickly and other times it took multiple punishments until the smirk was wiped from her face and replaced with tears on her puffy cheeks from the pinpricks of pain.
After Klein, she had gone on a few dates, some she even hooked up with but she never clicked enough with them to talk about anything like that.
And so she wrapped it up into a nice, neat box and tucked it into the back of her mind because she would find the right partner who would be compatible sexually with her.
Right?
Arthur and her had no sexual chemistry.
Arthur was just as polite in the bedroom as he was outside of it, he never put her in a unique position, and preferred to rotate between the missionary and doggy style.
He would occasionally go down on her but he didn’t know what he was doing so it didn’t feel like much of anything as most of the time he couldn’t even locate her clit.
Which meant fingering was out of the question because he didn’t even know the g-spot existed.
Anytime she managed to orgasm, it was from her own hand, getting herself off because she was past the point of asking him to try to do it.
Arthur did not have a high sex drive and YN felt guilty for being thankful for it.
He wasn’t doing anything wrong, he was trying, and it was so unsatisfying that YN felt like her skin itched sometimes because she hadn’t realized until Arthur how much she craved sexual intimacy with her significant other.
Again, Arthur initiated once a week, sometimes twice or sometimes not for a few weeks when his work is really busy.
YN was six years into a relationship of unfilled desire, disconnect, and a lack of satisfaction which she would have never seen for herself at only being twenty-nine years old.
The wedding was set for fourteen months away, at a vineyard on the coast of Italy.
It was decided by everyone but her as with most things she felt like nowadays.
++
YN had been scrolling through a blog post when something caught her eye.
It was written by a female who had a similar lack of connection with her partner in the bedroom but wanted more.
The writer had described that as soon as she asked if they could experiment with BDSM that their relationship had completely shifted, they were more in love than ever, and their sex life was more amazing than it had been in nearly a decade.
It was the motivation that YN needed to have the conversation with Arthur, with the hope that it would ignite a flame that had yet to be struck between the two of them.
YN loved Arthur, she wanted to be in love with him but she couldn’t honestly say she was at this point in their relationship.
Arthur had been surprised by the conversation, over dinner one night, if the way he sputtered red wine onto his crisp white button-up was an indicator.
His eyes had gone wide in a look of almost horror and he cleared his throat a handful of times while they discussed it in more detail.
“I just feel like it would be something fun to try out,” YN tries to keep it casual, to not let on to how much she desired this or knew that she would already love it.
“Erm, yeah. I would be open to it,” Arthur had agreed sheepishly, putting down his fork and knife.
“No, I do not want you to feel pressured at all! I just -” YN begins to try to soothe because she had not meant to get such a reaction of concern more than lust out of her fiance.
He chuckles kindly, smiling at her as he reaches across the table to hold her hand, “We can try it, if that’s what you want. I am open to whatever will make you happy, sweetie pie.”
Sweetie pie….
YN tried not to blatantly cringe every time he called her that.
++
It did not work out.
They did not even get a few minutes into foreplay when Arthur backed out, saying that he just didn’t feel like he knew what to do, and that he’d prefer if they just did their normal thing.
YN agreed, trying to swallow the disappointed lump in her throat because she didn’t want to guilt him in to trying anything he wasn’t into.
They didn’t discuss it again after that for a long while.
++
Arthur wasn’t blind to the shift after that night.
He now knew that he was not satisfying a need that YN desired and she had just seemed more subdued since he had called it off but was trying to hide it because he knew that she wasn’t trying to make him feel bad about not wanting it.
It had been on his mind though.
++
“A sex club?” YN’s eyes nearly buldge from her sockets, puting down her glass of water and ignoring the splashes it leaves on her hand because what had Arthur just recommended they try?
“Yes. A BDSM club or a kink club they call it. Maybe if I see other people doing it or we get into the right atmosphere, it will work better. At least off the start?” Arthur seems just as nervous as her, he hadn’t touched his food.
“And…I just…” YN was at a loss for words because this is just the most unexpected turn of events.
“Maybe I can learn from others. Really get good at it for you, you know?” He suggests, his eyes looking anywhere but at hers.
“Yeah, yeah let’s do it.”
++
The Body Factory was the club that Arthur had decided after doing his research.
He needed somewhere secretive, exclusive, and with iron-clad NDA’s so that no one could use this against him in his profession which was fair enough.
That’s where The Body Factor came into play.
There were guidelines to a membership:
You must make over a hundred-and-fifty thousand pounds a year.
You were sign and resign an NDA every three months.
A deposit of ten thousand pounds, it will not be refunded if any rules or regulations are broken.
You will send in health screenings every two months, proof of birth control (if female), and a background check.
You may not belong to any other clubs during the time of your membership at The Body Factory.
YN was quite shocked that Arthur had dished out that amount of money on the deposit for something that they weren’t sure that they were going to like nor want to continue to visit even though the membership spans for a year at a time.
“If we go, hate it, and decide to never go back, just consider it a really expensive date night,” Arthur had assured her with a chuckle, she knew of his wealth but even this seemed a bit like frivolous spending but little did she know it was just his desperation to make her happy.
++
The club was in the packing district of all places, tucked back in between massive factories, some that were still open and operating, others that had been abandoned for years now.
It was actually in an old clothing factory that had been renovated to resemble any other high-end club, from the inside there would be no way that anyone could even tell except for the incredibly high ceilings at some points.
However, the location in the city and of building choice gave a lot of privacy of entering and exiting, it wasn’t advertised nor did it have any sign indicating of their presence.
It was a maze of alleyways until the entrance appeared, a dingy door that was rusted and gave no indication of what was inside, someone walking past would have never looked twice or thought anything of the building nor the entrance.
Everything was matte black, dark, and dimmed.
There were occasional deep emerald green accents but everything was sleek, modern, and simple but in the most elegant way as they walked in.
YN’s heart was in her throat.
Where people going to be fucking right when they walk in?
Or people being led around on leashes right off the bat?
Arthur may pass out.
However, there’s a front desk, almost like at an office with a woman dressed in a incredibly fitted sleek black dress with smooth, curled hair, and makeup like it was done by a professional, she had to be a model because she was gorgeous as she smiled widely and checked them in.
They had to show their licenses, hand over physical copies of their screenings, NDA’s even though they had to sign them virtually too.
There were two security guards in black suits with earpieces standing by large, heavy dark oak doors with their hands crossed in front of them.
This seemed like a movie or just not real with how sophisticated this whole process was.
“Enjoy,” Penelope, the receptionist had chirped with the whitest, most perfect smile she’d ever seen.
Arthur seemed a bit awestruck for a moment and YN couldn’t even fault him for it.
The two guards move aside to open the doors, nodding for them to go in before closing them firmly behind them.
YN finds herself reaching for Arthur’s hand, nervous and shaky with new experience anxiety and adrenaline that she was finally getting back into what she wanted even more so.
There were people mingling, sipping on drinks, and all fully clothed.
It wasn’t until Arthur informed her, “Play starts at ten, the first hour is to introduce, mingle, meet.”
Ah, that makes sense.
It almost builds the tension, YN feels like she can taste it on the tip of her tongue.
They walk over to the bar, another beautiful women greets them right away, laying a napkin down in front of both of them, “Newbies?”
“Yes,” Arthur nods, pointing to himself first, “I’m Arthur, this is YN, my fiance.”
The bartender quirks an eyebrow as she not-so-subtly scans them, “Nice to meet you two. I’m Raven. I bartend Friday through Sunday here. What are you drinking?”
“A moscow mule,” YN asks, maybe some alcohol will loosen her nerves.
“It’s a dry club, babe,” Raven smiles patiently as her long fingernails click against the smooth surface.
“Oh,” YN replies in surprise, looking behind her at the shelves only to see syrups for flavoring but no actual liquor bottles or draft taps to be seen, “A sprite?”
“Water, please,” Arthur adds as he rubs YN’s thigh, squeezing it in reassurance, “I forgot to tell you. No alcohol here. Everybody needs to be sober when playing.”
“That makes sense,” YN hums in agreement, never having actually thought about it much, but it could definitely get cloudy on consent when alcohol was being consumed in regards to playing which was a dangerous and unsafe mixture.
They sit, observed for a few minutes before a few people begin to flock towards them, greeting them and asking surface level questions until there’s a deep, almost eerie chime that echoes for a long moment through the club over the soft jazz.
It was signifying that the clock had struck ten.
Everyone quickly wraps up their conversations before moving to different areas of the rooms, some disappearing down hallways.
The atmosphere had changed significantly in a very quick spurt of time as people started undressing, kissing, moving as if they’d just gotten permission.
There was a couple of the couch across the room that Athur and YN were observing from their barstools.
The two started out slow, sensual, like any normal couple behind close doors but when the woman knots her hair into her partner’s hair and demands his mouth move lower, he obliges and Arthur gasps softly at the roughness displayed.
YN’s been aroused for the last five minutes of watching them but doesn’t make an effort to act on it, not yet atleast, and once the couple move so that the man is laying on the couch, the woman kneeling over his face, it changes her vantage point but it catches on something else.
In the corner, further back into the room, there was a man sitting in the corner where there was barely any lighting, dim and his goal was to obviously stay in the background.
No one was approaching him nor was he interacting with anyone else.
YN knew there was a no phone policy but this man was sat, scrolling boredly through his phone and only occasionally glancing up to observe the people in action around him before eyes dart back down like it wasn’t entertaining at all.
He wasn’t aroused, at least from what YN could see, and he was in a tight, well-fitted suit but his dress shirt was barely buttoned, open enough to show the definition of his pectoral muscles, the sharpness of his collarbones, and a variety of darkly inked tattoos.
He was fucking beautiful.
YN realizes she oogling him but can get away with it because it appears to Arthur that she’s still watching the couple like he is.
However, when the man looks up after a few moments once again, his eyes are instantly locked on YN.
She can’t tell what color they are from here but she knows they’re light, twinkling under the barely there light of a sconce on the wall and it’s smouldering as he doesn’t blink nor waver with embarrassment of being caught staring at her.
YN quickly diverted her eyes back to the couple, her heart was pounding, and a sense of thrill shot up her spine even though it was inappropriate.
She wasn’t here for new partners.
She was here to learn and explore with her own.
YN tries to play it casual when Raven refills the drink she nervously chugged, “Why does that guy have his phone?”
Raven’s eyes darted to the man before grinning, “That’s Harry. He’s the owner, my boss. He supervises the free play.”
“Free play?”
“Out in the common area, it’s considered free play. If you claim a room, you are in private play with whatever partners you bring back there. Harry just makes sure everything stays safe and consensual out here. He gets bored though and plays Candy Crush on his phone.”
YN cracks her own smile at that, trying to imagine the man trying to get rid of sugary sweets and getting frustrated when he loses a round.
“Does he not play?” Arthur asks curiously, now his attention has changed to Harry as well.
“Not often,” Raven informs them, leaning her elbow on the counter, “I can’t remember the last time he did. I’d say at least seven years ago, at least in the free play but he doesn’t reserve rooms or anything. He made it clear that he doesn’t find at least any of the current members interesting enough to engage with.”
“That’s interesting, considering he must have an interest in it, if this is his club,” Arthur replies to Raven before turning back to the scene of the couple, another member had joined the couple and was currently giving the male some startling rough looking bruised kisses and bites to his stomach and thighs.
Arthur was getting aroused by the look and feel of it, he reached over and brazenly took her hand, and led her to his groin where he was hard in his trousers, encouraging her to palm over him which she did as she tried to get into it.
This…This atmosphere, these people, they excited her.
Arthur still did not.
They manage to get to a couch, Arthur appears to be getting so turned on that foreplay isn’t in his realm of ideas because he’s hiking up YN’s dress around her hips and positioning her on top of him which is a new position (in all six years they’ve never done cowgirl) but still, her arousal is barely boiling above surface level.
YN licks her palm, reaching down to help moisten herself because Arthur was not doing anything to spark her to get wet.
It was actually making her more distressed that despite the scenario, she still didn’t feel the connection to her fiancé.
When she slides down, it’s fine, he was an average size so even without much lubrication, it didn’t feel like a stretch or burn when she started to move her hips but it wasn’t as pleasant as if she was sopping, dripping down her thighs.
Arthur glances to the side at one point, noticing that the male from the throuple was now pounding into the original partner with his had tight around her throat, pushing her further into the couch without mercy as she tried to whine through stutter breaths.
YN felt like she was being watched the entire time, which of course she was being watched by other members but it felt different, when she blinks around and notices that Harry has his gaze honed in on her with a twisted scowl of almost disapproval, it confuses her.
However, she’s brought back into the moment when Arthur pants out, “Can- I want to try that.”
When YN follows his gaze, he’s referring to the choking, and yeah, maybe that will light that match.
“Okay, yeah,” YN agrees as she brushes her hair off of her shoulders, wishing he would have taken this dress off of her instead of shoving it upwards where it felt confining.
Arthur smiles at her, leaning up to give her a chaste kiss which didn’t match their situation whatsoever that they were in at the moment.
YN was feeling anxious about the judgment other members might put onto them but not because she cared that people watched but because she knew Arthur and her were nowhere nearly as fluid, practiced, or elegant as the other members whom seemed to just melt into one another easily.
Arthur had never tried it before but his hand came up to her throat, he’s getting close to his own release which means that he’s not as focused, eyes getting a glazed over appearance.
YN soon realizes that he has no idea what he’s doing as he begins to cut off her airway by cupping her throat in the center instead of at the sides.
It hurts, she can’t breathe but not the way that feels tingly, excited, it feels like he could quite possibly suffocate her because of his carelessness.
They had talked about proper methods and he clearly hadn’t retained that information.
A few black dots begin to dance across her line of vision and her body starts to trigger a flight or fight response which she wants to use her safe word but she can’t speak.
YN takes to dig her nails into his hand but he doesn’t seem to understand that it’s not out of lust.
A true fear begins to take hold that something horrible will happen to her in less than a minute.
He’s truly going to injure her.
YN is in a full-fledged panic induced state.
Then suddenly, without warning, a strong arm is being wrapped around her middle and a big, ring-clad hand grips Arthur where it was around her neck so hard he yelps in pain and releases his grip.
The person is physically lifting YN off of Arthur’s lap, trying to steady her on her feet but they feel like jello and she feels light-headed, the room wouldn’t stop spinning.
“Are you fuckin’ kidding me?” The person’s voice is deep, raspy, and incredibly pissed off, “What the fuck is your problem?”
YN can’t even bring herself to look at Arthur right now, her full support into Harry’s side as she notices the two securities guards walking in.
“C’mon, let me sit you down. You’re okay but I want to check you out, alright? Yeah, c’mon, pet,” He encourages in a much softer tone, gentle and trying to comfort me as she struggles to catch her breath.
It takes a long second to realize that she’s crying, tears streaming down her cheeks, and fuck, she is so embarassed as every other member had stopped playing.
“We’re done for the night. We’ll re-open tomorrow at the normal hours of operation,” Harry announces to the room at large before looking to Raven, “Go close down the private rooms.”
Raven nods, no longer as smiley and bubbling but an expression of concern as she watches what’s going on with YN.
“Hey, darling. Can you tilt your head up?” Harry asks quietly once he sits her down in the same corner that he had been in, away from the group.
YN whines because her neck is aching, she doesn’t want to do anything as the drop in adrenaline has made her more exhausted than she’s felt in a long time.
“I know, I know,” Harry simpers in an unpredictably cooing tone, he taps his thumb on her chin to signal her to tilt it up and she obliges.
Harry prods gently at her neck, focusing on the center where the pressure has been, “Any sharp pains? Anything feel off or wrong like you need to go to the hospital?”
YN shakes her head, a fresh round of tears.
She knew that she wasn’t injured or seriously hurt.
YN felt more traumatized mentally than anything else.
“I need words, want to hear your pretty voice,” Harry orders in a honey sweet tone, eyes hyper-focused on her like they were in the beginning of the night.
His eyes were green.
Close to the accent color of the club.
“I’m okay,” YN manages to speak out, throat dry and scratchy.
Raven appears with a glass of water to hand to Harry before giving them their space again.
YN is about to reach for the glass but Harry is already moving it towards her lips for her, “Drink f’me.”
It’s strangely intimate as he tilts the glass, eyes watching her carefully and a sense of guilt sets in that she likes that Harry is tending to her, giving her his full attention.
“Is this a common occurrence? Between you two?”Harry doesn’t sound as kind anymore, his jaw muscle twitches slightly.
“Um, no. We came here to explore. I’m very much into this world and he isn’t. He’s told me he’s done his research in his free time but -“
“You’re telling me that you’ve never negotiated nor tried something like this and he full fledge tries choking?” Harry interrupts, outraged from where he stands up from squatting in front of her, “Did you ask or plan for that?”
YN shakes her head, a bit embarrassed that she was coming off as an amateur to someone…she felt an attraction to, felt intimidated by, and Arthur had ruined their experience here.
“No. We tried spanking a few times but he backed out. We were just supposed to come here to watch others so he could visual what all this looked like before putting it into action-“
Harry doesn’t let her finish as he storms away from her, his glare set right on Arthur who was sheepishly sitting back at the bar and nursing a drink as Raven talked to him.
YN’s heart rate starts to rise again when Arthur tenses, clearly being chewed out by Harry before her fiancé gets off his barstool and follows the club owners lead down the hallway.
YN rushes to the bar, Raven is already pouring her another sprite, “Calm down. He’s not going to hurt him or anything. They just need to have a discussion on whether or not Harry will revoke his membership.”
It feels ruined and it never even started.
All she can think about is that despite for a short amount of time she was getting what she asked from Arthur, there was still no god damn spark.
After a good half hour, the bar phone rings and Raven answers, murmuring a few words back into the receiver before having up.
“I’m going to take you back to his office now.”
++
Harry’s office was just as luxe, elegant as the rest of the club.
It was tense as soon as she stepped in the room and Raven left, closing the door behind her.
“I’ve decided not to revoke your joint membership after discussion with Arthur. However, there are contingencies if you would like to continue coming here. Are you willing to hear them? Arthur has already agreed to the terms.”
YN nods slowly, voice soft, “Yes.”
Harry keeps his face on her as he speaks, “I do not tolerate what happened here tonight in my club. Arthur has clearly proven that he isn’t educated enough to be able to have free access to the club and free play.”
“If you want to continue membership, Arthur will need to reserve a private room and lessons will be held until he fully grasps the concepts, displays understanding, and can play safely without supervision.”
“Who…Do you have instructors?” YN doesn’t think she wants another man involved in their sex life even in an educational aspect.
“Yes but I will be teaching the lessons,” Harry informs her, calm as ever, “I bring this up because I would need to be hands on, to demonstrate and display certain practice, power play dynamics but that is a lot to ask as I do not know your limits on sharing.”
YN’s speaking before she even realizes it, “Yes. We can do that.”
Harry’s lip quirks slightly before it disappears but it oddly enough seems like a reward.
“We can schedule. I will send the paperwork. I already have your questionnaires about hard limits, likes, dislikes, and willing to try. I want to make this clear, this will be purely educational and there will be no dynamic developing between me and you two.”
YN nods dumbly, at a loss for words because the mere thought of Harry domming her was a lick of a flame that she’d been missing so much.
“I will dom you with instructions interwoven for Arthur. We will try to keep everything minimal as I cannot stress enough that this is not anything but informative on my end to help improve your sex life as a couple.”
++
Three longs weeks pass before their first ‘lesson’.
Arthur voiced excitement about the instruction, never brought up the choking incident again, and never initiated any type of sex during this time either.
Everything was swept under the rug as usual in their relationship.
YN would never admit the fact that she had gotten herself off to the mere idea of Harry domming her because something about him had triggered something carnal, something near feral in her.
It’s more than she had even felt with Klein.
She knew it wouldn’t last forever but she was going to enjoy this to the best of her abilities.
++
YN only had excited nerves going into the night.
Harry had inquired more in the break of time about YN’s experience and was extremely pleased to realize that she wasn’t as much of a novice as he assumed.
Though she hadn’t experienced many partners or relationships within the community, her knowledge was expansive and deep enough to impress him.
Harry had texted her back with a simple message that had her core tingling enough that she had to rub her thighs together.
YN: Thank you for continuously checking in on my comfort and experience regarding these situations. I have many more concerns for Arthur as we’ve already discussed. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask!
Harry Styles: I do not plan to go easy on you. Unless you specifically want soft play for these experiences. I can be a softer dominant but my main modality is firm, mean, regimented with softer aftercare.
YN: You don’t scare me. ;)
She was already being bratty with him.
It sent a wave of good nerves through her as she waited for a reply to be sent to her inbox.
Harry Styles: It’s interesting that you’ve already started to decide to be bad for me when you don’t even know what I’m capable of, darling.
YN : I’m shaking.
YN: Terrified.
Harry Styles: I wish I could wrap my fingers around your throat right now. Show your fiancé the proper way to choke a god damn brat.
YN could feel herself pooling with arousal.
It felt a bit wrong but she reasoned enough with herself that it was all for the greater good of her relationship with Arthur but deep down she knew that was bullshit.
YN: You’re probably not much better.
Harry Styles: Quite honestly, haven’t worked with such a fucking disobedient bitch in a long time. I cannot wait to break you. A kitten who thinks they’re a big bad tiger.
YN: Fuck you.
Harry Styles: Kitty’s got claws.
Harry Styles: For now…
It felt bordering on inappropriate but YN reasoned again that Harry had made it clear that there isn’t anything happening, it is a strictly professional as a type of situation like this can be.
++
Saturday has come and YN wakes up to a text.
Harry Styles: Better wear something cute enough that I find you interesting enough to play with. Even if it’s just to teach.
YN rereads the message quite a few times and why is he so good at getting under her skin and she doesn’t even know him yet but it’s like he knows exactly how to wind her up.
YN: Black dress with tights.
Harry Styles: It’s good to know that you’re just another basic bitch.
YN: What will you be wearing then?
Harry Styles: That’s none of your fucking business. I call the shots, kitty. Not you.
YN: 🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕
Harry Styles: Good to know. Five spanks for the five emojis. Would you like to keep going?
She can’t even help herself
YN: 🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕
Harry Styles: Noted.
YN wants to reply, knowing he’s probably waiting but a tiny sliver of guilt starts to creep in when she thinks about Arthur because though she’s trying to convince herself this is perfectly fine.
It’s not.
Not with the emotions it makes her feel.
She hasn’t felt them in so long.
It scares her.
“Sweetie pie, are you having second thoughts? Should be getting ready,” Arthur steps out of the walk-in closet, adjusting the sleeve of his button up.
“No!” YN replies much too quickly, her tone high pitch, “Um, I lost track of time. I’ll get ready now.”
“Okay, I’m excited for this new experience with you,” He smiles sweetly, stepping over to press a kiss to her forehead.
It’s affectionate, loving, and she’s still thinking of other things than her fiancé.
++
YN decides on a black wide leg trouser with a corseted bodysuit that gave her tits the perfect push-up, she’s spray a very thin most of body glitter on her chest, she knew it would sparkle in the dim lighting.
She considered wearing the dress and tights to spite him but whatever, she’d be less easy access for him.
++
Arthur held her hand tightly as they entered The Body Factory.
YN was already searching for Harry, barely waving to Raven as Arthur leads them over but she doesn’t want a drink, she wants to play.
However her fiancé guide her to a stool, ordering for both of them as Raven has a look of curiosity as she slides them in front of him.
“Does he come out and get us?” Arthur asks Raven, looking around he doesn’t see him either.
Raven bites her lip, shaking her head with a chuckle, “No, I take you to your reserved room when ten hits.”
“What is it?” YN asks, unable to read what is going on the bartender's mind.
This conversation didn’t seem particularly funny.
“Nothing really. Harry just hasn’t offered private lessons for at least eight or nine years. Normally when couples have an incident like you did, Harry revoked their memberships without a second thought,” Raven informs them as she picks at a spot on the smooth surface of the bar absentmindedly.
“Why us?” YN wonders out loud, why after all that time did he make an exception.
“I wish I knew,” The bartender shrugs neutrally.
++
The deep chime rings out about forty-five minutes later.
YN cannot decipher whether she wants to throw up or jump up and down with excitement.
Especially when Raven guides them down a long hallway, then into another corridor until they reach a door with a sign that warns, “No members past this point. Private access only.”
“Um-“ Arthur goes to point out the sign, he was a rule follower to his core.
“It’s Harry’s private playroom that members can’t use but again, this is special circumstances,” Raven’s voice is hushed as she leads them into a surprisingly minimal room.
There were cabinets built sleekly into the walls where all toys and accessories must be held, a matte black.
Everything matched but there was a bigger prominence of the green accents that were more subtle in the main areas.
The play bench hardware matches everything else but the cushion is a luxe emerald.
The bed was…unlike anything she had ever seen.
It was massive but fit well in the spacious room.
High posts on all four corners with subtle hooks to place restraints in.
The mattress looked fluffy and giving, it looked as if the sheets were a black silk but the duvet was a very muted pattern of black and green diamonds.
YN was in love with space.
It was so much more than she was expecting.
“Holy shit,” Arthur gapes at the elegance, clearly he had been expecting something different too.
“Okay, when Harry comes in, he will already be in the dom headspace and so he wants me to give you reminders. Harry will respect your hard limits as he’s reviewed them before the session. You have received a list of his so please do the same.”
“Just as you can safeword out at any time without consequences, Harry can as well. He will use the same ‘red’ if need be and will check your colors throughout to ensure safe play.”
“For this first lesson, Arthur you will sit and observe. Harry will display a safe, typical scene of play to understand what that looks like with whatever kind of submissive YN is. You may also use your safeword at any time to stop the play.”
YN swallows because would he allow that?
Surprisingly, Arthur’s face is still clear and happy as he starts to walk over to an overstuffed chair in the corner of the room and smiles at YN, “Can’t wait.”
YN raises a shocked eyebrow at his willingness but nods at Raven to show she understands.
++
They’re silent as they wait for Harry.
She wasn’t given instruction and because she was a bit nervous, she perched herself on Arthur’s lap as he rubbed her thigh and kissed her shoulder blades occasionally.
Then there’s a shuffle outside the door, the door knob twisting and the door opening.
Harry looked ethereal.
He wasn’t wearing a tailored suit like before but leather boots with a bit of a heel, form-fitting jeans that make his lean quads look biteable, and a plain black shirt.
His arms had even more beautiful ink than YN realized.
After Harry closes the door, his eyes lock on hers, not even acknowledging her fiancé’s presence.
“Stand up,” Harry orders loudly, a bit startling.
YN obeys instantly, her heart was pounding in her eardrums like waves of the choppy ocean.
A cruel smirk tilts on his lips when he scans her up and down.
“Did I strike a nerve, pet? This isn’t a black dress and tights. Are you already starting off so insecure? And you think you can handle me. What a cute, pathetic little kitten,” His voice is venomous, steady, and she’s clinging onto every word.
Arthur’s clearly confused but stays silent.
“I’m not pathetic,” YN argues shakily, it felt dangerous to get bratty so soon but it was her submissive profile and character, it came naturally.
Harry quirks a brow, “Sir.”
YN gives him her own confused look.
“I’m not pathetic, sir. Every time you speak, try again.”
“I’m not pathetic,” YN bleats easily, a flutter of her eyelashes.
Harry smiles like a goddamn wolf.
“Oh, you’re not? Let’s test that theory,” Harry draws as he takes a few steps backwards, towards the door, “Come to me.”
YN stands up, on wobbly legs, and begins to but is stopped in her tracks by his hard voice.
“Hands and knees. Crawl for me, I want to show your fiancé how pathetic you are for me,” Harry has a humor, an evil sense of it.
YN drops to her hands and knees, nearly panting already, and begins to move.
++
summary of triggering scene: YN’s fiance chokes her and though it’s completely consensual he doesn’t know what he’s doing and almost hurts her. YN cannot safeword out at the time but harry stops the scene.
#harry styles writing#harry styles#harry styles masterlist#harrystyles#harry styles boyfriend#harry styles fic#harry styles fanfiction#harry styles fan fic#harry styles one shot#harry smut#harry styles fanfic#harrystylesfanfic#fan fic#harry styles oneshot#harry styles au#harry styles smut#harry styles angst#harry styles fluff#patreon
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die for you , part 1
“ swear i couldn’t sleep a wink last night ”
series m. list
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( socialmedia!au )
yourusername
liked by jasonrob19, mush__27, trevorzegras, and 314,882 others
yourusername got new pink leg warmers 😈🎀
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username12 trevor has been liking and commenting for MONTHS there’s no way they’re not hooking up
→ username25 calm down she’s friends with turcs and cole 😭😭
logan.stankoven WE GET IT you got new skates or whatever
→ yourusername i will personally send you back to the ahl
→ logan.stankoven okay i was on fire on the texas stars 🥱
→ yourusername what if i light you on fire 🤗
→ logan.stankoven oh!
→ jpav8 let’s be nice guys
_alexturcotte is that the lululemon water bottle
→ yourusername HOW COULD YOU TELL FROM THE LID??
→ _alexturcotte my spidey senses tingled
→ yourusername turcotte tingle is insane
→ _alexturcotte HEY MAN don’t slander the family name ❌❌
username36 my figure skater idol 🙇♀️
username4 trevor zegras eh??
colecaufield and new skates and new skate guards and a new bag
→ yourusername you sent me money what was i supposed to do with it????
→ colecaufield use it to pay off your student loans 😒😒
→ yourusername but you already paid them off for me 😶
wyattjohnston_ that’s so preppy and coquette
→ yourusername stop. just stop 😭
→ wyattjohnston_ I’M TRYING TO BE SUPPORTIVE
→ yourusername THEN STOP
→ wyattjohnston_ you don’t want me to be supportive of you? 😔
→ yourusername no
jasonrob19 i bought those skates for you
→ mush__27 we know you spoil her 🙄
→ t.harley48 fr you ain’t gotta flex
→ yourusername indeed you did 😈😈
username41 i’m patiently waiting for the day trevor accidentally posts that they’re dating
→ username88 is he not with dixie??
→ username12 LMAO as if
jackhughes niceee solid skates
→ yourusername jack hughes 😱
→ jackhughes yes that’s me
→ yourusername i feel like a successful fangirl
→ jake30oettinger i thought you liked the stars 😒 yourusername
→ yourusername I LOVE THE STARS I PROMISE OTTER
trevorzegras 👍
liked by yourusername
→ _alexturcotte you’re such a pussy
→ trevorzegras you are what you eat
→ _alexturcotte stfu
→ colecaufield stop being so critical turcs
username53 it’s so preppy in here!
ilia_quadg0d_malinin oh please we all know i can do better
→ yourusername your ego is unbearably big
→ ilia_quadg0d_malinin say that to me when you land a quad
→ yourusername I LITERALLY DID IT BEFORE YOU THO????
→ ilia_quadg0d_malinin that’s a lie and we both know it
→ yourusername STOP GASLIGHTING ME THIS IS NOT BEST FRIEND BEHAVIOR
lhughes_06 Ma’am, would you like to visit the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey to watch us practice prior to our game against the Anaheim Ducks?
→ jackhughes you’re supposed to dm her, not publicly comment…
→ lhughes_06 YOU TOLD ME TO COMMENT ON A POST
→ lhughes_06 this is ur fault
→ yourusername YES I WOULD
→ lhughes_06 see it worked anyways jackhughes
t.harley48 you messed up the ice before practice 🤬🤬
→ yourusername stop whining start grinding 🥶
→ wyattjohnston_ stop whining start grinding 🥶
→ logan.stankoven stop whining start grinding 🥶
→ mush__27 stop whining start grinding 🥶
→ t.harley48 once i get on that zamboni it’s over for you all
yourusername
liked by miroheiskanen, trevorzegras, _alexturcotte, and 300,024 others
yourusername someone tell him i’m outside waiting rn 🙏
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username29 PLEASE TELL ME “HIM” IS TREVOR
ilia_quadg0d_malinin oh! when did you start posting about your crippling love life 😍
→ yourusername you’re like the only person i told and you proceed to make fun of me 😃😃
→ wyattjohnston_ no you told me
→ logan.stankoven and me
→ jpav8 and wyatt told me
→ hhinee you told me as well
→ miroheiskanen i also know
→ matt9duchene so do i
→ tseguin92 oh you told me too
→ t.harley48 don’t forget about me
→ jake30oettinger you literally told me too
→ mush__27 good lord how many people did you tell (i know about it too)
→ ilia_quadg0d_malinin you told an ENTIRE nhl team. yourusername
→ yourusername ……..i told you first…..?
→ jasonrob19 what are we talking about
nickrobertson01 that’s not one of your jackets…
→ yourusername how would you know if you haven’t been in my closet 🤨
→ nickrobertson01 you just gave me a closet tour on ft yesterday…..?
→ jasonrob19 then whose jacket is it?????
→ yourusername no one i swear it’s mine 😰😰
jamiebenn14 is that not a literal nightgown?
→ yourusername stop judging my stylistic choices 💔
→ tseguin82 THAT’S WHAT I WAS THINKING
→ yourusername you old men are NOT hip with the kids
→ jpav8 you’re breaking our hearts here 😔😔
username33 is that or is that not the outside of an ice rink???
username20 i swear to god she’s seeing trevor
username94 someone tell me i’m insane because i swear i’ve seen the ducks practice there before
→ username17 no no you’re not insane i think you’re right 😰
→ username11 lmfao maybe she just practices there too???
hhinee so to be clear, “him” is HIM right?
→ yourusername yes yes you’re right roop
→ jasonrob19 why do i not know what you’re talking about
username6 IF I’M RIGHT, i think i’ve seen that backpack in the background of one of trevor’s stories before…
logan.stankoven so what i’m hearing is if you hang out with him, you leave us alone?
→ yourusername what happened to the kid that BEGGED for my autograph when i showed up to one of the texas stars games
→ logan.stankoven YOU SAID YOU WOULD NEVER BRING THAT UP
→ yourusername 🙄
→ wyattjohnston_ HE BEGGED?????
_quinnhughes cool fit i like it 👍
→ yourusername aw thank you ☺️
→ username37 OH MY GOD IS IT QUINN
→ username72 WHAT THE FUCK WAIT A SECOND
colecaufield i see you’ve been gaining more attention..
→ yourusername are you saying i’m not successful enough to regularly get attention??
→ colecaufield oh my god YOU ALWAYS DO THIS
_alexturcotte i have never seen someone leave mid-convo as quickly as i just did
→ yourusername you were with him?
→ _alexturcotte no he just stopped typing all of a sudden
→ yourusername so you were.. texting him????
→ _alexturcotte yeah??
→ yourusername THEN HOW TF DID YOU SEE HIM LEAVE??
→ _alexturcotte I DONT FUCKING KNOW I WAS JUST YAPPING
→ yourusername you know for someone so smart, sometimes you make no sense 😭
mush__27 you being 1,500 miles away should be a crime
→ yourusername oh stop complaining i was literally back home like 8 hours ago
username17 has trevor not commented yet??
→ username99 it’s not as if he comments frequently
jake30oettinger you’re so not slick
→ yourusername that’s great i’m so glad you noticed even though you literally didn’t know until i told you!
→ jasonrob19 PLEASE GOD JUST TELL ME 😔
next chapter
notes )
your bitch is back with a trevor au and this time it’s gonna be irl + smau because i was fucking STRUGGLING with feather..
and also i’m thinking of the nickname being lacey because i think it’s just so cute and also i got a whole backstory and all… 😈
but regarding ilia malinin and all of my favorite dallas stars.. yall might have to know some stars and figure skating lore for this one but i don’t really think it’s gonna affect the plot of the story or the story itself (you just might not know who anyone is 😭😭)
as always if you wanna be tagged, just comment or dm me!!
#trevor zegras#trevor zegras fanfic#trevor zegras fic#trevor zegras x reader#trevor zegras x y/n#jack hughes#quinn hughes#luke hughes#alex turcotte#cole caufield#jason robertson#nick robertson#tyler seguin#jamie benn#joe pavelski#miro heiskanen#roope hintz#mason marchment#matt duchene#thomas harley#wyatt johnston#logan stankoven#jake oettinger
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Hidden Lies (1)
Pairing: Unknown x Reader
Warning: Violence, Crime, Almost Assault
Word Count: 4.9k
A/N: This is a remake of Poisonous Lies. Some parts may be familiar, and that would be why. I hope you enjoy!! Let me know who you think she'll connect more with!
This morning you woke up, listening to the sounds of birds chirping, the sun shining through your window, and feeling like it was going to be a great day.
“YN.” Your mom yells. It was too early and you were trying to wake up peacefully. “Y/N!” She calls out again, but this time it's more of a screech.
You groan loudly, folding your pillow over your ears, wanting to enjoy a little bit of time without her yelling at you. The sound of her shrieking voice was coming closer every second, until it was practically right in your ear.
Your eyes are still closed as you feel your blanket being ripped off your body, your mom cursing at you.
“Wake the fuck up!” She yells. “Don't you hear me yelling for you? I have shit to do, I cannot keep waking you up in the mornings! damn, you're going to make us both late”
You were 22 years old and you still live with your mother. This life you had was sad, although it was your fault. This technically was your choice. You had decided to drop out of school and go home to help your mom out after your dad was sentenced to 10 years in prison for a lengthy list of crimes, although well it wasn't his fault, it also was at the same time.
Your father had lost his job, and instead of telling your mother and them trying to figure it out, he went and got a loan from some people involved in crime that he most definitely should have not gone to. He didn't think about the fact that he would have had to pay that money back, plus interest. And when the time came for them to collect he didn't have it. So he was recruited for odd jobs until he had paid everything back, he didn't get very far though. His last job ended up being a sting operation and he was charged with trafficking drugs, intent to sell, attempted kidnapping, attempted human trafficking and a few other things. He wouldn't tell them why he did it, he didn't want things to get any worse, even though you weren't sure if they could or not. It wasn't his finest moment, he was trying to help his family even if it was the worst way possible. He was a good man and a good dad. Your father was a man who would do anything for his family, especially to protect them, and that’s exactly why he did what he did and now he was suffering the consequences of his own actions.
“I swear to god, YN.” Your mom yells as she grabs your arm, trying to pull you out of bed. “If you don't get your ass up in the next 30 seconds, I'm going to lose my mind! Your train leaves in 45 minutes and if you dont get ready and leave in 10 minutes then you're not going to be able to see your dad.” She sighs. “It’s his birthday, remember.”
Shit. You quickly bolt up in bed, scrambling to get out of your bed. You were rushing around your room grabbing whatever looked the cleanest on your floor before heading to your bathroom, slamming the door in the process.
Your mom sighs loudly before she leaves your room so you can rush around and get ready. You knew it was hard for her, not having your dad around, and you were sometimes difficult but you were trying. You felt guilty, especially since she wasn't able to go on the visit today, her shitty boss wouldn't let her have the time off. It had only been a year since he’d been locked up and you, mom and your brother had faced some very hard times. The three of you have been barely surviving paying the bills, mortgage, car, gas, groceries as well as trying to pay back your dad's loan in cash, rather than jobs similar to what your dad did.
Your mom was working 2 jobs, you and your brother both working full time, and all your money went towards everything needing to be paid, rarely leaving you much of anything left over but the three of you made it work, you always figured it out. You would do whatever you needed to do.
You're running down the stairs, trying to put your hair into a semi decent bun and forfeiting any makeup.
“You ready?” Your mom asks, car keys in her hand.
“Yeah, just let me grab my bag.” you breathe. You run into the kitchen, snatching your purse from the counter before you head back to the front door that's left wide open. You roll your eyes heading out the door, closing it behind you before sliding into the passenger seat of the car the three of you shared.
Your mom doesn't say a word to you on the ride to the train station. You hold your train ticket in your hand as she pulls in front of the station. “Please tell him happy birthday from me and that I love him.” she whispers as you're getting out of the car.
You give her a half smile. “I will mom.” You say, getting out of the car and closing the door. It doesn't take you long to navigate your way through the station, you’ve been making this trip a few times a month. You tried to see him as much as you could but between work, work and work, you never had a ton of time. You picked a seat on the train, setting your bag down in the seat beside you. You just made it on time, seconds later you were on your way and you couldn't wait to see your dad.
You stood in line, waiting to have your bag checked and to go through the x-ray machine. When that was all clear you headed to the front desk, showing your ID and filling out paperwork before you could even go into the room and wait for him. You sit down, your stomach is twisting with nerves. You weren't sure why, this was like any other visit you had been on.
“LN, YN.” You hear. “You can head in now.” the guard finishes, pointing towards a visitation room. The door buzzes open and you see your dad immediately, sitting in the back, in the middle of the room. His fingers were locked together with his head down. It felt like it had been forever since you had last seen him. “Dad.” you sniffle and his head shoots up, a smile spreads across his face so quickly as he stands up from his chair. You walk towards him, his arms are wide open, waiting to embrace you. You crash into his chest, wrapping your arms around him as he does you, holding you tightly. You missed his hugs, and the safeness you felt from him. You couldn't remember the last time you had felt safe.
You both let go, tears brimming in your eyes as you both sit down across from each other.
“Happy birthday dad.” you smile. He reaches out to grab your hand, whispering a small thank you while his head hangs low. “Mom also wishes you a happy birthday, and she says that she loves you.” You tell him, but you knew he already knew that.
“I know,” he smiles. “I'm assuming that she had to work today?” he asks.
You nod your head.
“She tried to get the time off but you know Dave, he’s a dick and wouldn't even let her have the morning off.” you tell him.
But again, you knew he already knew that. Dave and your dad had been friends for years, but after your dad was sentenced the man acted as if he never knew him and was never friends with him. Your eyes wander around the room, as if anything would be different since the last time you were here. Your dad begins telling you a story, something funny that had happened the other day. You were listening, but you couldn't help but let your eyes wander.
You looked out into the common room, as you were scanning the room, your eyes landed on someone. A man, a very handsome dark haired, angry looking man staring directly at you. You tried to look away from him, but it's like you were locked in with him. He was so captivating you honestly didn't even want to look away, but you do, not before he smiles at you slightly, giving you a small wink.
You’re brought out of your trance by your dad clearing his throat before continuing on with his story. You catch the end of it, laughing along with him even though you didn't really hear the rest of it. “Tell me about everything. What’s going on with you? How is your brother?” he asks. Before you can answer the lights of the prison flicker, the alarm blares as the red siren lights up the room on beat with the alarms.
“What’s happening?” you yell over the loud sounds. You were feeling a little panicked but before your dad could say anything you both hear yelling. You looked at the commotion in the common room, which was only separated from the visiting room by one large metal door. You glanced around, seeing the other visitors watching what was happening but no one was reacting to anything.
“I'm sure the guards will get it sorted, fights break out all the time. No need to worry.” Your dad tells you, trying to reassure you.
You couldn't help but worry. You watched as more and more fights were beginning to break out between prisoners, prisoners and guards. You watched in horror, as the prisoners seemingly took the guards down more easily then they should have been able too. Your eyes were darting to every window that you could see and watched guard after guard collapse, inmates grabbing the guns or batons, a cluster of inmates slamming guards into the windows, shaking what is supposed to be bullet proof glass.
Seconds later a fight in the visiting room breaks out after an inmate bashes a guard's head against the table. You're panicking now, other visitors are screaming, leaving their tables trying to escape, some pounding on the door, begging the guards to let them out.
The inmates from the common room begin trying to shoot the windows, or trying to pry open the doors into the visiting room.
The doors were buzzed open letting the guards from the front now rush in from one side to try and calm the situation but instead they let the inmates rush through the other doors into the room where you and your dad were. He had taken you to the corner of the room, standing in front of you to protect you. You peek out from behind him, the two of you watching in horror as blood and tears are spilled, the cries and pleas from visitors are yelled out as the inmates attack anyone in their way, including those who were just trying to visit their loved ones.
Your heart is pounding so loud, you can hear it in your ears. You feel weak, light headed. Your adrenaline hasn't kicked in yet. Your stomach is churning at all of the blood. Your father grabs your hand pulling you with him through another open door, and hopefully to safety. As soon as the two of you make it into another room, you're confronted by three large men.
“Look.” Your dad begins. “We don't want any trouble. I'm just trying to keep my daughter safe.”
The man in front smiles, but even his smile is terrifying.
“What a good dad you are. But don't worry.” He says. “We'll take her from here. I'll personally keep her safe.” He finishes, licking his lips.
“No thank you.” your dad says. “We're just going to go.” You grip onto your dads orange jumpsuit.
“Dad.” You whisper. He can hear the fear in your voice.
He runs forward, punching the man, pushing him into the two men behind him. “Run YN! Run!” He screams as the men grab him, taking him elsewhere. You try to run for the door but you're grabbed, pulled back and pushed against the wall. The man who had been talking to your father stood inches from your face. You could see the evil in his eyes as he eyed you up. You can feel his breath on your neck as he moves closer towards you.
You look both ways, trying to find your way to escape. There's only one other door besides the one you came through and you're pretty sure it's locked. Fear jolts through your body as you try and think of anything you could possibly say or do to get yourself out of this situation but you know that there is nothing you can do, except try and fight.
“Get away from me!” you yell, putting your hands on his chest and pushing as hard as you can.
"Don't fucking do that.” He snaps, shoving you against the wall. He raises his hand as he gets closer to you, his finger tracing your face. You squeeze your eyes shut, tears rolling down your cheeks and you let out a scream, as loud as you could. You switched between yelling "help me." And screaming, hoping someone would come for you.
The man slaps his hand over your mouth, angrily. "Why would you do that, don't you like me?" He asks. "It's been a long fucking time since we've been this close to a woman." He chuckles. You can feel his body pressing against you. You try to focus on anything else, but all you can hear is the sound of him breathing and the screams and cries of the ones caught in the riot.
Just as you were about to give up, you feel a release. You can no longer feel his body pressing against you, you can hear yelling much closer. You open your eyes and see a dark haired man, and a familiar other dark haired man pulling the men away from you. Within seconds the man who wanted to attack you was down on the floor, and the two men who saved you grabbed your hands, pulling you out of the room and away from the chaos.
Where was your dad? Was he okay?
The three of you ran down a hallway, the alarms are still blaring, you can just barely hear police sirens from outside.
The two men had no idea where to go, everywhere you looked there was violence, inmates with weapons and minimal guards that were alive.
"Hey!" You hear from down the hall. You all turn around and see the man that had you pinned against the wall. Anger suddenly fuels you, wondering where your dad was.
“What did you do to my dad!?” You scream. The man stops walking, a grin spreads across his face. “Don't worry, he's just fine. Now you two.” He says, pointing to the two men who were still holding onto you. “You don't get to take what's not yours.” He frowns. “I want her back.” He yells down the hall. The two men who had taken your father appear behind him.
“Fuck.” One says. they turn around, pulling you in a different direction. You were turning corner after corner until one of them found an unlocked door. He opens it, quickly pulling you inside before slamming it shut. Your body is shaking, you can't help but sob. You never in a million years expected today to turn out how it has.
Both the men quickly jump into action, grabbing whatever heavy pieces of furniture they can find to shove against the door. You watch them, still feeling just pure shock.
"I'm sorry." You whisper. You weren't even entirely sure what you were sorry about but it felt appropriate in the moment.
They both stop covering the door, staring at you. “Sorry for what?” One asks.
“I.. I'm not sure. But you're in this mess now because of me.” You sigh.
“We're in this because we didn't want to see an innocent woman get taken advantage of by some fucked up men. You didn't start it.” He says.
“What's your name?” The other asks.
"Y/N." You sniffle.
“I’m Wooyoung, and this is San.”
“Nice to meet you both. And thank you. I truly don't know what would have happened if you guys didn't save me.”
“It's nothing.” San says, giving you a half smile. He could not stop staring at you, just like when you were in the visiting room with your dad and he had caught your eye.
Before you could say anything back, the knob to the door started to shake. There's pounding at the door, and that's when you hear it.
“Y/N.” your dad calls. “Y/N please let me in. They're coming.” He cries. “Please.”
You run to the door, trying your best to move everything they had put against the door.
“Y/N stop.” Wooyoung yells, trying to pull you away.
“Please!” You cry. “Please help me. That's my dad, we need to let him in.”
San and Wooyoung loom at each other. They both know this is a bad idea but knew that there would be no chance of you letting up.
“Whatever happens?” San says. Wooyoung nods his head.
“Whatever happens.”
The two men help you pull the large filing cabinet, desk and other heavy things away from the door. You unlock the deadbolt, ripping the door open, the smile on your face falling immediately.
“I'm sorry Y/N. I'm so sorry.” He cries. He's pushed inside the room by the three men from before. He trips, falling to the floor with a thud. You wanted to go to him but the man has a gun now and it's pointed directly at you.
“You two aren't very good at hiding.” He chuckles.
“Eric, you don't have to do this.” Wooyoung says, his hands up as he inches towards you.
“Fuck you, Woo. You'd be the fucking same if you were locked in the hole for months at a time.” Eric snaps. “And now I have a chance for something real and you two are trying to ruin it for me.”
“I'm telling you not to fucking do this.” San snaps. He can see Eric eyeing you up, your dad laying on the floor, one of Eric's men's feet pinning him down.
“You think I'm gonna listen to you?” Eric laughs. “Just enjoy the show.” He says, grabbing onto Your wrists. Wooyoung and San try to lurch forward but they're stopped by the other two, flashing their knives. Eric pushes you against the wall, pulling you back towards him. He pulls you to the ground, climbing on top of you, straddling you. The gun is still shoved in your face. You say nothing, tears just stream down your face. Your eyes dart in-between San and Wooyoung as you silently plead for one of them to do something. To help you.
Eric rips open your shirt, exposing your bra. You look away, seeing Wooyoung and San nod towards each other. They both lunge for the men, knocking them down. Your dad scrambles to his feet taking over for San, as he runs for Eric, who was too in his own world with you to hear anything else. San tackles him, causing Eric to let go of the gun, it slides across the floor. Eric scrambles beneath San as he delivers hit after hit.
“Everybody get on the fucking ground.” You hear. Smoke bombs thrown into the room. Guards in full tactical gear flood inside, guns at the ready. San gets off of Eric, all of them men laying on the floor. “Hands on your head.” They yell.
You do as you're told. “We have a hostage located.” They go to you first, helping you up. You're coughing loudly as they guide you out of the room, into another one to be treated. They'd finally gotten everything settled down and started getting inmates back into their cells, or medical treatment.
“You took a fucking hostage, the warden is deciding your punishment.” A guard snaps at Wooyoung and San as they escort them past the room you're in. You push the nurse away, running out of the room.
“Wait!” You yell. “They didn't take me hostage. They saved me from him.” You say, pointing to Eric. “He tried to.. he tried to...” You cry. “They protected me from him and I'll forever be grateful.” you finish. You walk over to the two handcuffed men, wrapping your arms around both of them, until they're both escorted off. Both of them looking over their shoulders, giving you a smile and a wink.
Once you were checked out by the nurse and cleared to go, you were led out to the front where your mom was waiting for you. You sobbed into her shoulder as she hugged you tightly, apologizing to you profusely. She grabbed your hand, pulling you out to the car. you look back at the prison as she drives away, silently thanking Wooyoung and San for saving you. You'd have to find some way to properly thank them sometime.
“Do you want to tell me what happened?” Your mom asks.
“Dad and I were talking when fights broke out. Inmates were attacking guards and other inmates.” You sigh. “They opened the doors to the visitation room to let guards in but inmates rushed in.. one gut I guess had his sights set on me.”
“Dad protected you right?” Your mom asks.
“He tried. But there were 3 of them and one of him.. they took him away. And I was alone.” You look over at your mom, she has tears in her eyes as she listens to you. “But then two men rushed in and grabbed me, helped me escape. Took me to a room and barricaded the door.”
“They didn't hurt you did they?” She whispers.
“No mom, they didn't. Dad started banging on the door.. they helped me move everything and open the door but the bad guy was there with him, they pushed him in.. the guy tried to.. r..” you pause. Your mom looks horrified. “He didn't. Wooyoung and San tackled him and then the guards came in.”
“That was extremely lucky that they were there for you.” She sighs. “I'm so sorry baby.”
“It's not your fault mom. You didn't know that was going to happen.” You say. “No one could have predicted that would happen.”
The rest of the way you drive home in silence. You really want to just go to bed. Luckily you didn't have to work today so you could do just that. As you walked in the house, your brother Jaehyun rushed to you, hugging you tightly. “I'm so glad you're okay.” He says, squeezes you even harder.
“I won't be if you squeeze me anymore, you're gonna suffocate me.” You half chuckle, half panic. He lets you go, patting your back before heading back to the living room.
“Do you want some lunch?” Your mom asks. You raise an eyebrow. You had assumed she would have had to go back to work.
“Don't you have to go back to work?” You ask. She looks at the ground.
“Uh, well.. Dave said if I left to go to you, I wouldn't have a job. It's not worth it if he won't let me go to my child who was in the middle of a prison riot. Don't worry, I'll find something else.” She smiles.
Fuck Dave. You went up to your room, crawled in your bed and quickly fell asleep. The day was exhausting and you were still shook a week later. It was the week after the riot, and you had been answering everyone's questions about what happened, what it was like the guys who saved you. It was the talk of the town still but you were tired of talking about it. You were ready to forget about it now, which is why you agreed so fast when your friend Hwasa asked you to go out that night. There was a newish club that was apparently very exclusive and the two of you wanted in. You got ready in a hurry, doing your makeup and your hair the best you could. You slipped on your favorite club dress as well as shoes and headed for the front door.
“I'm going out, bye!” You yell, slamming the door behind you. You run down the driveway heading to Hwasa's car.
The drive to the club is long. When you finally see it, you're mesmerized. It's bigger than you imagined, the bright sign outside reads Ateez. You were so excited. The line was extremely long, and as you walked up to the bouncer he shooed you to the back of the line. It seemed like you were never going to get in.
After about twenty minutes, you noticed a man staring at you that was walking the line, he walked past you, before backing up to look at you again.
“L/N Y/N?” He asks, eyeing you up and down.
“Yes?” You respond, staring at the handsome man.
“Come with me.” He says, motioning for you and Hwasa to follow him. You and Hwasa look at each other, she shrugs her shoulders, following the man and dragging you along behind. He stops at the bouncer, pointing to you. “L/N Y/N. Add her to the list. VIP.” He finishes, bringing you both inside. What the hell did you do to get this sort of treatment?
The two of you walk behind the man, following him really without any questions. You pass what looks like the main bar, the dance floor and head up some stairs. The rope is removed from the hook, letting the three of you into the VIP area.
“You can stay here if you'd like. Your drinks are all on the house, whatever you'd like. If you need anything, my name is Mingi, don't hesitate to ask.” He says.
“Um, I do have a question.” You say, slightly raising your hand. “How? Um, why? And um what?” You say.
Mingi chuckles. “You helped my brothers out, by not adding time to their sentences. They both could have gotten a lot more time after that riot. But they didn't, because of you. So from now on, if you are in trouble or need anything, you have 8 men who will happily help you out.” He says. “Well 6 for now, until San and Woo get out.”
“All I did was tell the truth.” You say.
“There's a lot of women out there who would have lied, knowing who those two are.” He says.
“Also, You're related to them?” You ask, ignoring what he said before. You were too busy trying to stop your mouth from hanging down.
“Well.. in a sense.” He laughs. “Enjoy your night.” He finishes before leaving the room.
“What the hell!” Hwasa shouts, heading over to your private bar. She orders multiple drinks and shots for each of you to be brought to your table. As you two sit there, listening to the music the DJ is playing, drinking and just having a good time you see five men walk into the room. They stop, staring at you. As they walk over they introduce themselves.
“Y/N.” One smiles. “I'm Seonghwa, this is Yeosang, Yunho, Jongho and Hongjoong.” He says pointing to each extremely handsome man.
“Nice to meet you.” You smile back, waving at them all while hiccuping in the process.
“Thank you for what you did for Woo and San.” Seonghwa says.
“Like I said to Mingi, I was just telling the truth. I didn't want them to get into trouble for saving me.” You explain.
“If you need anything, and I mean anything, don't hesitate to call.” He says, sliding you a piece of paper. Written down are 8 phone numbers for you. This was honestly fucking surreal. Who knew this could happen for simply telling the truth?
The men walk away and Hwasa stares at you in disbelief. “I almost wish it was me that day.” She laughs. “Let's go dance!” She says, trying to pull you up.
“Let me just tidy these glasses.” You slur, stacking all the cups and shot glasses to bring back to the bartender. He laughs as you place them on the bar, and thanks you through his chuckles.
You let Hwasa drag you down the stairs to the dance floor, immediately sliding her hands all over your body as you dance closely. The two of you always preferred to dance together, but sometimes if you were into it you'd dance with men. This time you were too into dancing with Hwasa, you didn't want any men to disturb you. You turned around, grinding your ass into her as you looked around the club. You glanced up at the balcony and saw six men leaning on the railing, all their eyes staring directly at you. Why did you feel like your life was going to get a lot more interesting?
#ateez#ateez fanfic#ateez fic#ateez x reader#ateez imagines#hongjoong#san#wooyoung#yeosang#seonghwa#mingi#yunho#jongho#kpop fanfic#kpop writing#kpop scenarios#kpop imagines
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Broke
Pairing: Wanda Maximoff x reader
Word count: ~8.8k
Summary: Your first introduction to the serious drawbacks of a relationship with Wanda.
A/N: This three-anon-requests in one drabble turned into a long one. ENJOY
Warnings: angst, comfort, violence and confessions
You frown as you continue to stare at your computer screen like you have been for the last five minutes. You don’t want to do this at all, but you don’t have much of a choice. You have to pay for rent and groceries, and your car needs to be fixed soon… You sigh in defeat as you click the accept button and commit to being even more in debt to the government. The thought makes your skin crawl, but you have no choice unless you want to lose your apartment and not eat for the next few months.
You’d initially tried to take out as few loans as possible because you hated the idea of being in debt. However, given your limited scholarship money and the fact that you were supporting yourself with a part time job and no help from family, you couldn’t help but borrow some. You’d underestimated how expensive this semester would be; however, and given it was your first of vet school you figured it would only get more expensive as time went on. You tried not to stress about this now, but as you borrowed another $10,000 for the rest of the year, you close your computer and bang your head on the table.
“Ow.”
Your shift at the vet clinic starts soon and you look back to your textbooks with a frown. You’re not sure how you’re going to keep this up. Vet school is a lot more than you thought it would be. It’s not just hard, but there’s just so much new information covered every day and the turnaround time for exams is extraordinarily short. You are still suffering whiplash from your first anatomy practical that you failed because it just hadn’t been what you expected. You briefly wonder how long you’ll be able to keep working this semester as you arrive to the parking lot to head to work.
“Hey there.”
You look up in surprise when you hear Wanda’s voice. You hadn’t expected her to be here and it clearly shows because the brunette laughs slightly. She’s waiting in her car for something, maybe you, and your car’s not anywhere in sight. You look around briefly in confusion before walking toward your girlfriend with a smile.
“Hey Wands. What are you doing here?”
You mostly are asking why Wanda’s not at work. She’s rarely free during the days, and she’d told you when you saw her the other night that she probably wouldn’t be able to stop by until the weekend. It was only Thursday. She adjusts her sunglasses slightly as she shrugs and mentions that she’s here to drive you to work. You are only a little surprised by this, but you start to walk around the car to the passenger side to get in. You’re going to be late if you don’t leave now.
“That’s sweet of you, but I could have driven myself. Not that I’m unhappy to see you.”
Wanda smiles as you get into the car, and she quickly leans over to kiss you. You two have been dating for almost 8 months, and Wanda can’t help but hope that the thrill of seeing you will never wear off. She’s had a change of plans today and there was barely any work to do, so she figured she’d try to enjoy her day as much as possible. Even if it meant only taking you to work now and maybe hanging out later, she was glad for a chance to see you. She realizes she needs to take you to work soon or you’ll be late, and she knows all too well how much you hate being late. With this in mind, she pulls away from you with a sigh and shakes her head as soon as she registers what you’d said.
“Actually, detka you couldn’t. I borrowed your car.”
You’re trying to focus on breathing so you miss what she says initially as you look outside the window to see that you’ve started moving. It’s not until you’re almost out of the parking lot that you turn to Wanda in confusion.
“Wait, what? You borrowed it?”
Wanda just nods as she reaches out for your hand and squeezes it with a smile. She hopes you won’t get mad at her for what she did, but it occurred to her the last time you’d gone out that you weren’t driving your car. She’d asked about it and you’d dodged the question before finally admitting that there was something wrong with it. You hadn’t gone into detail, but it was enough for Wanda to realize that it needed addressing. So she’d taken the liberty of having someone she trusted look at it and fix it up. They’d only just taken it and hopefully it would be done by the time that you got off from work.
“I have someone looking at it, so they can get it fixed up for you.”
You can’t help but melt at Wanda’s almost nonchalant statement about helping you out. You know that Wanda has money, and you’d been tempted multiple times to ask for some, but you didn’t want to take advantage. That said, having Wanda surprise you like this makes you feel like you’re the luckiest person in the world.
“Wands, you didn’t have to do that, but thank you.”
You kiss Wanda’s hand as you feel a weight lift from your shoulders at the news that your car is going to be fixed. That’s at least a few hundred dollars you won’t have to spend, and if Wanda weren’t driving almost 40 mph, you’d kiss her right now. You consider kissing her cheek, but you’re afraid you’ll still surprise her and cause her to swerve. This road is far too narrow for that, and you're not in the mood for a swim right now.
Your girlfriend might be absent often and unpredictably, but she cares about you and takes really good care of you. She did subtle things here and there to let you know that she cared. Checking to see if you ate, or making sure you’ve taken study breaks, and that you slept your full 8 hours are all things she's gotten in the habit of doing. You wonder how living with her would be, and you’re still thinking about this when Wanda drops you off at work a little bit later. You’re right on time and you do lean over and kiss her cheek before hopping out of the car.
“Thank you for the ride, Wands. Will I see you later?”
Wanda smiles as she tells you that she’ll be back to pick you up after your shift. You smile widely at this and lean back into the car to kiss her quickly before you near run inside. You’re sure that your shift will fly by now that you know you’ll be seeing Wanda later too. You walk into the clinic with a smile despite knowing how hectic it’s going to be today. It doesn’t matter. Nothing can bring down your mood now.
Halfway through your shift you get scratched by a cat during a nail trim, and you think you freak out your coworkers. When it happens you barely notice, and you’re still smiling as you put the cat, Jonesy back into his carrier. You clean up your arm and resume your day as if nothing happened.
Wanda texts you around 5 to let you know that your car is fixed and you send her almost 7 virtual hugs and kisses. She’s your favorite person today and maybe ever, and by the time Wanda comes to pick you up you’re nearly vibrating in excitement.
“Thank you, thank you! You’re the best!”
Wanda laughs as you near tackle her as you get into the car. You’re hugging her so tightly that you’re sure it’s near painful, and you force yourself to let up as you sit back in your seat and get buckled.
“Of course, Y/n. I was happy to help.”
You remind yourself not to cry again as you immediately grab her hand as she pulls out of the lot and onto the road. You wonder where you’re going now, but you figure you’ll wait until you ask about Wanda’s day.
“What was wrong with it?”
Wanda frowns slightly as she thinks about what she’d been told this afternoon. Apparently, your car was in pretty rough shape, but it wasn’t too unexpected considering how old it was. She’d almost considered buying you a new one when she heard what was wrong, but she’d been assured that it could be fixed. She also figured she needed to check with you before she did something like that. Not only was it a big gesture, but she wasn’t sure if you had any sort of sentimentality toward your car that would result in you being upset if she had it hauled to the junkyard.
“The alternator and transmission needed to be replaced.”
You cringe at this news and at how you would have handled it if you’d been financially responsible for it. That’s thousands of dollars and you definitely didn’t have the budget for that. If it hadn’t been for Wanda, you’re sure you would have gone home without a car. You’d have had to buy a bus pass or a new bicycle to get to class and work.
“Oh shit. That’s major.”
Wanda nods at this as she considers the fact that you’d been driving this car for who knows how long while it’s been acting up. You’d only told her that it ‘rides rough occasionally’ or is ‘slow to start’, and she hadn’t realized what this meant. She had been unaware of what was wrong and therefore oblivious to how dangerous it had been for you to drive this multiple times a week for work. She hates to think that you could have been hurt because you hadn’t been able to get your car fixed.
“It was. I’m glad nothing seriously failed while you were driving it, detka. That wouldn’t have been good.”
You nod at this because it had occurred to you that you shouldn’t drive the car until it was fixed. An unreliable car wasn’t just dangerous, but very stressful for you to drive. You’re eternally grateful to your girlfriend for having it fixed.
“I’m definitely lucky. For multiple reasons. Thank you again, I promise I’ll pay you back.”
Wanda’s already shaking her head before you're even finished speaking. Despite money being plentiful and never having any worries about having enough to live off of, Wanda isn’t frivolous with it. She spends a lot of money, but she tries to keep the larger expenses limited to essential things. She doesn’t mind spending money on you, particularly when its something like this; something you need, and she won’t hesitate to do so. She knows that you’re always worried about money. You’re a student in debt and your family isn’t alive to help support you. You’re doing it on your own with loans from the government and she hates how stressed that makes you.
If she can use her money to help alleviate this stress, and make sure you’re driving a safe car, she’ll do it. She would never hold your lack of money against you, and she doesn’t want you to feel indebted to her in anyway. She won’t accept your money and she wants you to know this.
“Don’t worry about it, Y/n. I’m happy to do this for you, okay?”
You just nod with a dopey smile because honestly Wanda taking care of you like this is something you could get used to. You’re afraid you’ll get used to it if and when it continues, and you sigh as Wanda gets on the interstate.
“So how was your day, Wands?”
As Wanda tells you about her surprisingly normal day, you think about how you can possibly repay Wanda for what she did today. Despite her insisting that you don’t have to pay her back, you still want to do something nice for her. Maybe you can take her out.
“What’s on your mind, Y/n?”
You and Wanda had arrived to your apartment a couple of hours ago. After a quick dinner, you’d started studying on the couch with Wanda by your side. She was free all night and as much as you loved this, you hated that you had to study tonight. She luckily didn’t hold it against you, and she seemed content to just lie beside you and watch as you worked harder than most people she knows. You skip between anatomy, physiology, and a disease course in the span of two hours. You cover a lot of ground and she almost falls asleep with her head against your leg when you sigh heavily.
She looks up at you with a curious frown as she sees that you seem distracted. You just shake your head in response to her question as you look to the clock. It’s nearly 10pm.
“I’m just tired, and I hate that I’m spending my time with you studying.”
Wanda sits up as she shakes her head with a small smile. She doesn’t want you to feel guilty for having to study. You’re going to be working hard for the next 4 years, and Wanda only hopes that she’ll be by your side through it to support you.
“I just want to be with you. It doesn’t matter to me what we’re doing.”
You can’t help but smile at this as you set your study materials aside and shoot Wanda a look. You are done for the night, and you want to do something fun now. Whatever Wanda wants honestly. You’ll just go along for the ride.
“Are you sure about that, Wands? There’s nothing else you’d rather be doing?”
Wanda rolls her eyes and fights a blush at your tone and the teasing smile on your lips. She leans in to kiss it away before she slides closer to you now that your lap is clear. You reach out for your girlfriend and pull her on top of you with a laugh. You kiss her again before she sighs in faux annoyance at your constantly dirty mind.
“You know what I mean, detka. I just like to spend time with you.”
You wrap your arms around Wanda’s waist and hold her close with another sigh. You’re tired but you wouldn’t mind going out tonight. You hadn’t seen Wanda for a while before today and you would love the chance to get out of your apartment. You were getting sick of these walls.
“Would you want to go out?”
Wanda blames her desire to make you happy for her decision to go out to a club with you. It’s almost 11 by the time they arrive and given that it’s dark and loud she feels almost incognito. This is more important to Wanda than you, but you do your best to keep her mostly behind you until you’re among the masses.
“Do you want to get a drink?”
Wanda nods as she follows you to the bar where she has a feeling you’ll be ordering a mocktail. You didn’t like to get drunk at all, but you especially didn’t drink on weekdays. Wanda smiles as you look to her to confirm her order. She usually likes something stronger, and she accepts her bourbon with a smile a minute later.
You two find a table and you sit across from each other despite your desire to hold her close. You sigh happily as you glance around at the other patrons who are dancing, drinking and mulling around with their friends. You’ll consider dancing later, but for now you want to just sit here with Wanda.
“I hope you know how much I appreciate you, Wanda.”
Wanda just smiles at you in admiration before she considers all of the reasons why she appreciates you. You’re smart, you’re dedicated, and you challenge her in ways that she’s not used to. You give her an opportunity to escape her long held role of mobster and become a typical woman in her mid-twenties. She was able to relax with you, laugh, and try new things that mostly went well. She now knows for certain that she hates camping and this is something that she’ll only ever try again with you.
“I hope you know I more than appreciate you too.”
She shoots you a cheeky smile despite the sincerity of her words and you can’t help but roll your eyes. You reach out for her free hand and play with the rings on her fingers before frowning slightly in thought. You’re not sure how to communicate this without sounding ridiculously sappy, but you figure honesty is the most important thing. You just hope Wanda won’t think poorly of you for it, but if history is any indicator, you don’t expect her to do anything other than flush prettily and return a similar sentiment.
“I mean more than just what you did for me today. That meant more than I can possibly say, but I mean the constant support and positive reinforcement.”
You smile when Wanda hides a laugh behind her glass as she looks at you like you’re the only one in the room. In this entire club. You’re the only one she truly cares to take notice of. You drink your mocktail and slide your chair closer to the table so you can be closer to Wanda. It’s not too noisy in here, but you also don’t want to shout what you say next.
“I feel safe with you, Wanda Maximoff.”
Wanda takes your hand and kisses it before she downs the rest of her drink. She doesn’t know how to tell you that you’ve come to mean the world to her. She enjoys a break from her work, sure, but being with you means more than that. She’s found someone who can weather her unpredictability and see past her high-strung nature and understand the anxiety that sometimes overwhelmed her. She wishes she could tell you more about what she does, but she’s afraid of putting you at risk. She’s only slightly less worried about you being scared off, regardless of it still being a possibility. Despite knowing that she’s not on the legal side of things, she can’t be sure that you’d accept that she embodies the illegal side.
Wanda only says a fraction of what she really feels, but she figures it’s enough for now when you smile brightly at her before dragging her toward the dance floor.
“I love that I can be myself with you. There aren’t many people I can say that about.”
Wanda tries to forget her paranoia and just enjoy her time with you as you lead her on the dance floor. You’re trying to get her to relax, but you can tell it’s going to take a little work to get her to this point. You are more than up for the challenge and you pull her closer to you as the music changes to a song that you haven’t heard in years.
“You know the last time I heard this song I was at prom.”
You remember that night not very fondly because you hadn’t really wanted to go. You were only out to a few of your friends so you didn’t feel comfortable skipping prom when you were asked in a very public way. You remember the dread, the horror, you’d felt and you doubt you hid it very well. Nevertheless, you’d gone to prom with him and he turned out to be a nice guy that you spent most of the time talking to about Disney movies and his job in a hardware store. You weren’t compatible, and you’d actually told him the next day that you weren’t interested in him.
You’re pulled from your thoughts by Wanda bringing her hands to your face. You turn toward her and see her questioning look.
“You went to prom? I hope you had more fun than I did.”
This immediately piques your interest because Wanda’s told you very little about her personal life beyond the superficial. She’s mentioned that she has a brother, but that her parents are dead and she has a lot of close friends who are like family to her. She’d mentioned things here and there about her childhood, but nothing very revealing. You didn’t mind but sometimes you wondered why Wanda was still holding back.
You hold her close and sway a little but mostly focus on telling her about your experience. It wasn’t horrible, but you certainly didn’t enjoy it. You never felt comfortable, and you are far more comfortable here with Wanda than you think you’ve been in a long time. You lean in and sigh as Wanda holds you tightly and laughs at your question.
“What about you? Did you enjoy yours?”
Wanda sighs as she thinks back to the somewhat anticlimactic day. She’d only been dreaming about the traditional prom experience since she’d learned it was a thing. She had imagined the type of dress she’d wear and how she’d do her hair. She wondered about her date and her first dance with them. She’d imagined the whole night vividly, and by the time it rolled around she wasn’t prepared at all.
“It was pretty tame. I ended up spending most of the night as a third wheel because my date wanted to hang out with his friends.”
You roll your eyes at the predictable stupidity of a high school aged boy before you kiss your girlfriend’s cheek. She turns to meet your lips for a kiss before your expression turns serious.
“What a dumbass. I would have loved to spend your prom with you. The highlight of mine was walking in and getting to leave.”
As the music changes, you and Wanda are joined by more people on the dance floor and as the crowd grew, you felt Wanda grow tense again. You do your best to distract her, and you even get her another drink that you hold for her as she clings to your waist. You don’t mind as she finishes her drink slowly, and it’s after midnight before you feel her relax again. You kiss her temple before running your fingers through her hair.
“How are you feeling?”
You wait as Wanda smiles slightly before nodding in answer to your unasked question. She learned early on that she couldn’t hide much from you when it came to her feelings. She’d actually worried that she was just terribly transparent and panicked about it for a while before you’d told her that you were just really good at reading people. Mostly because you paid attention to body language. As an introvert you really just spend a lot of your time watching and listening to people, and over the years that’s turned into a very important skill.
You hadn’t truly realized how much this skill would pay off until you started dating Wanda. She was secretive, to an extreme and it usually would have turned you off and made you suspicious of her. You didn’t like secrets, and although you somewhat vaguely understood why they were necessary in this case, you didn’t know how long you could live in the dark about it all. You ignore these thoughts for now as you watch Wanda wrestle with her decision to tell the truth. Even after months of being together, you hate that she struggles with being completely honest with you.
“More relaxed, thanks, but it’s getting more crowded.”
You nod at this because a quick glance around you confirms this. It’s gotten later and people are more drunk and rowdy which you don’t mind too much. You know that Wanda’s never comfortable in public and her coming out with you tonight was to make you happy. You’ll admit it was nice to be out with her, but you won’t complain about however you spend time with her tonight.
“We can leave soon if you’d like. I know it’s getting late.”
You were tired earlier, but you’d gotten your second wind as soon as you walked in here. Being with Wanda in public did that to you because not only did it happen so infrequently that you were always excited, but you knew you always had to be on alert. Wanda was always so observant and careful about everything that you figured it wouldn’t hurt for you to do the same.
She smiles slightly and nods as she looks behind her briefly. She wants to go back to your apartment and fall asleep on the couch watching old sitcoms or a cooking show. She wants to be able to show her affection for you openly without having to worry about anyone seeing. The only places this really happens are the privacy of your apartment or rarely one of your cars.
“I need to pee first, then we’ll go.”
You laugh at this and prepare to accompany her when she stops you. You frown in confusion because usually she encourages traveling together but she just smiles at you and shakes her head as she gestures to the DJ across the room.
“Stay. You can’t leave now; they’re playing your song. I’ll be quick.”
You want to argue, but then you realize exactly what song is playing and you don’t even bother. You shoot her a questioning look though as she walks away laughing as you’ve already started to dance.
“Are you sure? Okay, be quick!”
Wanda disappears quickly hoping not to leave you for more than a couple of minutes. If she gets her way she’ll return before your all-time favorite song is over. She does need to run to the bathroom, but she’s more concerned about dealing with the man who’s following her.
She noticed him as soon as you two sat down at a table with drinks. She hadn’t given him much thought, he seemed like a fairly typical, run-of-the-mill guy she’d expect to see here. She hadn’t spared him a second glance until he appeared again, still watching her, as you dragged her to dance before popping up two more times. She didn’t recognize him, and she was already texting Steve as she walked down the dimly lit hallway to the bathrooms. Steve stuck close by her whether she liked it or not, so she wasn’t surprised to hear that he was right outside and on his way in.
“I admit that I didn’t expect to see you here, Ms. Maximoff.”
Wanda stops short as she turns to see exactly who she was expecting. She frowns as she gives him another once over to confirm that she doesn’t know who he is. The more important thing though is that he clearly knows her, and for some reason he’s decided to follow her tonight.
“Cut to the chase, why are you following me?”
Wanda walks toward him slowly as she glares at him expectantly. She doesn’t see a gun on him, but she’s not foolish enough to believe he’s unarmed. She’s not even unarmed, and her clothes are a lot tighter than his.
The brunette shrugs as he moves out of the way for a couple that walk past him. He waits until they’re gone before he responds with a smile that makes Wanda’s skin crawl.
“I was asked to tail you because my employer is looking to exploit your weaknesses.”
Wanda feels her anxiety spike immediately, and she’s kicking herself for leaving you alone. She’s about to walk past him and go find you, but she doesn’t make it very far.
“I’m looking forward to telling her that we found one.”
Wanda doesn’t think twice as she stomps on his foot before punching him in the nose. He curses loudly and tries to grab her, but she dodges him before she kicks him onto his knees. She sees someone rush by the hallway before doubling back a few seconds later. She’s glad that Steve’s here because she really needs to go check on you.
“Here, watch him. I need to go.”
Steve just nods and doesn’t get a chance to speak before Wanda’s gone. He’d told Bucky to come by too since he was already around on business, and hopefully he’d be arriving soon if he hasn’t already.
You were only alone for about 30 seconds after Wanda left. You’d been dancing to your favorite song and not paying any attention to anyone around you. You were happy. You were spending time with your girlfriend, it was the weekend, and you had ice cream at home. You were doing pretty well.
Your eyes open and land on someone standing in front of you. This wasn’t odd because it was still crowded and you almost bumped into people every few seconds. The odd thing about this person though was that he seemed interested in nothing but staring at you which made you frown without realizing it. You open your mouth to ask what his deal is, but he speaks up first and doesn’t make you feel any better about his intentions.
“You must be Y/n. We’ve heard a lot about you.”
Your frown deepens as you stop moving completely and shoot the blonde a look. This better not be one of Wanda’s friends again. You’d already told her that you wanted to be introduced to them like normal people did it, and you wouldn’t tolerate anyone creeping on you. She’d agreed to this, especially after Bucky upset you so much, so you have a feeling this person’s gone rogue, or they’re someone you don’t want to talk to.
Figuring that Wanda should be back soon you decide to buy yourself some time. You look the taller man up and down before deciding that you could probably out run him if you had to. You hadn’t worn your heels tonight and you had very little athletic ability, but running was your thing.
“All good things, I hope."
You’re mostly kidding but when he just laughs at you, you realize you probably should have said something else. You sigh in defeat as you try not to show your nerves. You’re in a public, only kinda dark place, and Wanda’s nearby. You’ll be fine regardless of what this person wants from you.
“Definitely. More than enough to know that you’re exactly who we need.”
There’s very little chance you could have prepared for what happened next. The lights make it difficult for you to see him move until he’s right on top of you, and the music changes just in time to cover up your curse. He grabs your arms and covers your mouth as he hauls you off in no particular direction. You struggle to break free, but only manage to get an arm loose. You elbow him in the back of the head once and he barely even flinches, but as you're about to do it a second time someone grabs you and yanks you backwards.
“What the fuck?”
You shout in annoyance as you're basically thrown to the ground, but you don’t have time to recover before you hear a familiar voice.
“Y/n!”
You look up to see Bucky first, and you figure he must have grabbed you because he’s carting off the now unconscious blonde with barely a look back. You’re so confused and this only worsens when Wanda comes to kneel beside you where you’re still on the floor.
“Y/n, are you okay? Did he hurt you?”
You are too stunned to answer but you’re able to climb to your feet with Wanda’s help. You try to regain your bearings but the strobe lights are not helping at all. You’re looking around frantically before you seem to realize that you’re still in the club and that Wanda’s with you. You’re safe, or at least safer than you were before, and you decide you want to leave right now.
“What the hell just happened?”
You and Wanda are sitting in her car waiting until you’re calm enough to tell her what happened. Apparently her friends had shown up in the nick of time to save you from being abducted, and you still have no idea what to think about this.
Wanda shifts nervously as she tries to figure out how to explain this to you in a way that won’t freak you out even more. She’s tried to keep you in the dark about her work, but something like this hasn’t happened before. No one has been bold enough to follow her and target you all at once. It honestly terrifies her and she doesn’t know how to handle it.
Her anxiety definitely makes explaining this to you more difficult and she eventually shakes her head before she starts the car. She makes sure the doors are locked again before she puts on her seatbelt with a sigh.
“Can I tell you back at your place?”
You don’t respond immediately because your brain is running all the different ways that tonight could have played out. You are stuck on an extreme example, but the idea of you being kidnapped and beaten is hard to shake. You look to Wanda with a frown as you try to take a second to figure out what she’s feeling. You can tell how panicked she is, and you’re sure you look it too, but when you set your own fear and confusion aside you realize that Wanda knows what happened.
The fact that it’s already handled and no cops or even employees from the club were involved proves this. She had it covered meaning she must know what they wanted. You don’t understand how this is possible and you definitely want to know. You’re just afraid that Wanda isn’t willing to tell you tonight.
Wanda’s started the car and is about to put it in gear when you speak up. She hesitates because she honestly hadn’t expected you to ask this, and she doesn’t think she has an answer you’ll like. Regardless of her decision to tell you the truth.
“Are you just buying time to lie to me?”
Wanda immediately shakes her head before turning to you with a pleading look. She sighs as she reaches out for you and you just let her squeeze your hand as she tries to explain.
“No, I’m not. I promise. I just…I need to figure out how to tell you this. How to tell you more about what I do.”
You hadn’t been expecting this answer and you don’t hide it well. You eventually just nod before muttering an ‘ok’ and Wanda focuses on getting you home. She struggles with the best way to break the news to you, but in the end she has to be truthful. You should know that you were in danger tonight. You deserve to know the danger you’ll be in if you continue to see her, and that’s what makes Wanda the most anxious. Not only could you want to stop seeing her which would break her heart, but you knowing that you’ll be at risk of something like this happening again—it could be too much.
You have a normal life. You’re in school. You’re going to be a vet in a few years, and after that she’s sure you want a relatively normal life. She always knew that wasn’t in the cards for her, but in the time she’s been with you she’s started to think that maybe it didn’t matter. She could still be happy with someone and not worry about divulging too much of the truth to you. However, tonight proved her wrong and she knows that it was only a matter of time before something like this happened. This is why she was so insistent on not being seen with you. She’d hate for someone who was following her to realize who you were and try to hurt you because of it.
She has a feeling that tonight’s going to be an important decision point in your relationship. You need to have enough information to understand the risks, and Wanda needs to give it to you regardless of her own feelings.
She’s terrified because she knows that no matter what decision you make tonight, things will never be the same.
You’ve poured both you and Wanda another drink that you bring to the couch so you both can sit. You can tell Wanda’s on edge like you and you know that this won’t go well if you can’t manage to calm her down. You sigh as you sit and you gesture for her to join you before taking a deep breath.
“Okay, Wands. Let’s just start with what happened tonight?”
Wanda nods as she sits beside you awkwardly. On the way home she figured that the best thing to do is be upfront. You’re going to be worried no matter what, but she could still do her best to manage how you worried. Luckily she could tell you that these two men wouldn’t bother you ever again.
“Someone sent two men to follow us tonight. One was supposed to distract me while the other took you.”
The blunt words confirm your fears and despite wanting to ask a dozen questions you just nod. You take a large sip of your drink before rolling the glass between your hands.
“Okay.”
Wanda takes a sip as well before she tries to steel herself for what she’s about to say. This is the moment she’s been dreading for nearly 9 months. Since she met you and dared to consider a future with you, she’d been terrified of having to tell you the truth about what she does for a living. She knew it was inevitable, and that she honestly should have told you sooner but she was scared. She couldn’t lose you, but now she no longer had a choice in the matter. If she wanted to do her best to keep you safe, she had to make you aware of what you were up against.
“This will probably make more sense once I tell you what I really do.”
You can’t hide your surprise when Wanda says this and you unconsciously sit up as you look at your girlfriend with wide eyes. Is she really going to abandon the vague references to illegal activities and come clean? You’d be lying if you said you haven’t been waiting for this moment for months. You wanted to know what Wanda did, but you’d also learned to be comfortable in your denial. Sometimes the less you knew the better. At least you thought so before tonight when you almost got kidnapped.
That was still setting in, and you’re sure when you go to bed tonight, you’ll think about it more and freak out. You hoped that Wanda still planned on spending the night because you don’t think you’re going to want to be alone.
“I know I told you I run the family business with my brother, and that’s true. However, it’s more than just shipping and manufacturing things. It’s um…we’re criminals.”
You watch as Wanda downs the rest of her drink before you take a moment to repeat what she said.
Wanda is a criminal. She and her brother are criminals. You’re dating a criminal. That has to be why Wanda hates being seen in public or why she has so much money that she doesn’t hesitate to spend it on you. She’s loaded and it’s from a lot more than what she’s told you, and more than what you’ll ever understand.
You follow her lead and drink the rest of your whiskey before sitting the glass down on the table. You feel your head start to swim, but you don’t think it’s because of the alcohol.
“Okay. So you’re a criminal?”
Wanda just nods slowly as she waits for your brain to catch up and for you to really react to what she’s said. She’d expected you to be a little more upset than this, but she supposes there’s still time for that. She decides to get back to tonight before she gets too ahead of herself.
“Yes. Those men work for one of my competitors, and needless to say she’s not the most ethical person.”
Neither am I.
Wanda realizes this goes without saying when you nod thoughtfully. You try to imagine an organized group of criminals that live and operate in a large city such as this one. You can’t really understand how they all interact without drawing from television or movie portrayals, but little did you know that this is mostly accurate. It’s just a little more complicated than you’d think.
You try to come up with a way to describe Wanda’s dealing so that you can better compartmentalize and start to understand it in the most basic of terms.
“And you’re in charge of other criminals…so you run a gang?”
Wanda can’t help but cringe slightly at this but she nods because you’re mostly right. At the end of the day she knows that the terminology doesn’t really matter. You just need to understand the concept.
“A mob, yes. I have employees who do various things for me, but most of them live at the compound.”
You suddenly realize why all of your two visits to the compound were as short as they were. You only went there twice to meet Wanda before immediately leaving. She hadn’t wanted you to be there and you’d been a little hurt by it, but now it made sense. If her employees were there, they could see you and you could only imagine how fast word spread about the boss dating someone. That would have put you at risk, and something like what happened tonight could have happened a lot sooner.
“Does...wait, so why did someone try to come after me?”
This is the question that Wanda had been waiting for you to ask. She won't disrespect you by lying, and she thought that given how you were handling everything so far, that this wouldn’t be too different. That said, hearing that your girlfriend of 8 months is a mobster and then being told that you were almost taken for ransom are two slightly different things. Wanda knows you're smart enough to come to this conclusion on your own, but you likely just want her confirmation so you can start to put everything in perspective.
“Likely to use you against me. If someone were to take you, they could negotiate some sort of ransom for your safe return.”
Wanda watches as realization of what almost happened to you tonight sets in, and she swears she sees you shiver where you’re propped up against the couch. You shake your head with a frown as you try to figure out how you feel about all of this. Besides the initial terror, you suppose that it makes sense. That someone who followed you and Wanda would realize that she cares for you, and can potentially be swayed to do as they say.
“Why would they use me? Just out of convenience?”
It’s not until you ask this question that you remember what Wanda’s told you. She doesn’t have many close friends who aren’t also involved in her work. It’s safer that way and the fact that you’re in her life now puts a huge target on your back. Her friends are trained and capable of taking care of themselves. You’re a vet student who’s thrown maybe two punches in your life, and neither of them landed.
It’s not until you look back up at Wanda and see her staring at her hands that you realize how unfair your question was.
Wanda clears her throat as she contemplates giving you an honest answer or the most honest answer. She’s not brave, or drunk enough to do the latter so she just shakes her head before looking up to meet your gaze.
“It’s because I—they know I would give them a lot to get you back.”
You can’t help but smile when Wanda says this, and you slide closer to her so you can grab her hand. You sigh in an attempt to calm down before you kiss her knuckles with a small smile.
“Despite how terrifying all of this is to think about, I’m touched.”
Wanda offers you a shy smile before she waits for your next question. You know the basics at this point. Mobster, competitors, and danger. That said, she’s certain you have a lot more questions, and she’s willing to answer a few tonight. Her anxiety however is starting to steadily climb toward an unbearable level, so she needs to stop thinking about this soon.
You only have one more question to ask before you don’t want to think about this anymore. You need a break and this includes mindless television and cuddles. You swallow the lump in your throat before asking the question you already know the answer to.
“This is why you don’t like going out in public. Any glimpse of us together…in the future could cause something like this to happen again?”
Wanda can hear the hesitation and fear in your voice and she hates that she’s giving it credence. She's aware that even though she stopped this attempt by killing those two men, there's very little stopping other people from trying the same thing. She knows she’s going to have to do a better job of protecting you. She’ll need to assign someone she trusts to tail you and make sure you’re safe. That however is an issue for another night, if it even comes to that.
Wanda’s main concern right now is just seeing if you’re going to say this is too much for you.
You don’t say anything immediately when Wanda nods and tells you that something like this or worse could happen. You try to consider how you can continue to live your life knowing that you run the risk of being nabbed or worse because of your relationship with Wanda. You wonder how you’ll be able to cope with only hanging out in private or not at all in the future. How will you manage a relationship with a damn mobster when you’re going to be a doctor? How can you reconcile this? Better yet, are you okay with everything that Wanda must do to make the money she does?
You’re not naïve enough to believe that Wanda doesn’t hurt people. She probably has to hurt or kill people who get in her way. If she’s really as infamous as you believe, there’s no way to establish dominance in a large city like this without making a name for yourself. This requires money, skill and support from employees. You’re getting a headache just trying to consider how large and intricate Wanda’s mob is, so you just shake your head and go back to the pertinent question.
Are you okay with this?
Do you want to continue seeing Wanda? Yes. You enjoy your time with Wanda and you’ve come to think of her as a permanent in your life. Regardless of how much this changes things, you’re not sure you can end things and say goodbye at this point. You’re too committed and you really do trust her when she says that she can keep you safe. You’re not worried about that, and this is certainly foolish or ignorant, but you can’t help it. You’ve always felt safe with Wanda and you don’t think that this could change. You suppose the issue though is that Wanda won’t always be with you. Like tonight, she left for 30 seconds and someone tried to come after you.
“Y/n?”
You look up from where you’d started to stare off in space to see Wanda shooting you a worried look. You hadn’t realized how long you’d been silent until you’re pulled from your thoughts. Wanda fidgets anxiously with one of the rings on her fingers before she takes a deep settling breath. She needs to say her piece and let you make your own decision. She tries not to cry as she lets you know that the decision is yours to make.
“I promise that I’ll protect you, and that I’ll do everything I can to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
When you see tears start to blur your vision you move so you’re almost in Wanda’s lap before you pull her in for a hug. You let out a breathy laugh before you shake your head. You wonder what you’ve done to deserve this type of dedication. You’re a broke student who has very little to offer someone like Wanda.
“You-you’re so sweet. I don’t even know why you’d go to all of this trouble for me.”
Wanda hugs you tightly before she frowns at your words. In some ways you’re so confident that it’s astounding and Wanda’s envious, but in others you’re just like her and your image of your self-worth is less than ideal. She’s not sure if it’s just been learned over time or you just happen to think this way, but when Wanda first realized how you saw yourself at times, she made it her goal to change your perspective. She promised herself that she’d show you how remarkable you are. How worthy you are of praise, love and happiness.
She speaks before she can stop herself and she feels you stiffen in her arms before you pull away.
“Because I love you, and I would do just about anything for you, detka.”
Wanda’s words make you start in surprise and you have to bite your lip to keep from sobbing. You’ve only felt this way about Wanda for months, but you’d been too afraid to say anything. You always fear that you feel more strongly than other people, and you don’t want to scare them off with your potentially overbearing emotions. However, when Wanda frowns as she sees you crying, you realize that maybe you should have told her sooner.
“God, I love you too. I really do.”
You kiss your girlfriend and feel relief wash over you as she holds you close and you practically melt. You know that there’s a lot to discuss and figure out, but for now you’d like to just bask in the fact that the person you’re in love with loves you too. You can’t remember the last time you’ve been this happy.
“I love you, Wands, an-and I don’t want to leave, but I can’t lie. It scares me to think about something like this happening again.”
Wanda can completely understand this and despite hating herself for it, she can’t guarantee anything. She won’t lie to you and say that she’ll keep you safe and no one will ever bother you again. She’ll tell you the truth and hope that you can put enough trust in her to keep her word. She’ll do her damnedest and if that’s not enough she’ll figure something out. She reaches out to wipe the tears away before smiling at you softly. You look so beautiful, and she hates that she’s made you cry.
“I understand, but Y/n, know that I’ll do everything I can to keep you as safe as possible.”
She squeezes your hand before kissing your forehead with a sigh. She rests her head against yours as she tries to get used to the idea of taking care of you. If you commit to this, Wanda’s never going to let you go.
“Do you trust me to do this?”
This probably isn’t a fair question because you still only know the bare bones of everything involved, but right now that doesn’t matter to you. You don’t need to know about Wanda’s infinite resources to believe that she’ll do all she can to make sure you’re taken care of. You kiss her one more time before nodding in agreement. You’ll figure out the details later, but right now you’re about to pass out from the flurry of emotions that you’ve gone through. You know Wanda feels the same because when you pull her towards you as you lie back on the couch, she doesn’t protest. She lies down beside you and simply kisses your cheek before closing her eyes. She’ll wake up later and make arrangements then. For now, she just wants to hold you.
“I do.”
Masterlist
#silver springs au#silver springs#silver springs drabble#wanda maximoff x reader#wanda maximoff x female reader#wanda maximoff fanfiction#wanda maximoff#wanda x reader#wanda x you#scheduled update
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My Sherlock
``I can't believe you forgot your work permit card''
Minji says it while looking at you in disbelief and mild anger
‘’It's okay,one is enough to get us in!’’
You are Minji's assistant. You joined the Officers College a year ago, and now this training year, Minji was in charge of you because she has more experience than you
She is better than you in everything, that's why she is your boss now
You and Minji entered the practical section of the college after Minji put her card as an admission print for the two of you
I clung to her back to enter with her, we were about to fall, she looked at me with more anger, I smiled at her face to calm her down, it seems that my face is not helping
She kept walking so I quickly followed her
Having received the task, we head to its location
“Wah, I remember living in this neighborhood when I was little!”
''fits you''
Minji replied while looking at the paper full of information
It was an old neighborhood full of people who had a prison record and I think they had priors
“In that case, I should be your boss, since it suits me.”
“Just remember that the person is being arrested on charges of borrowing money from the bank without returning it, 47 years old, his name is Michael John.”
She is still looking at the paper
“Leave it to me, you spoiled girl.”
We reached the door of his apartment, Minji knocked on the door
He opened the door
‘’Hello Mr. Michael John-’’
''I don't want offers!''
Close the door in our faces
"I don't blame him, my boss. You have the face of a beby I wanted to hug you while you were talking to him politely…"
''Stop’’
She rolled her eyes, and knocked on the door again
''I said I don't want offers! Go away, kids.''
He tried to lock the door again, I put my leg up and pushed the door hard before he locked it
''Who wants to give you offers, silly man?’’
I was staring at him as I moved my legs back
He was about to speak but Minji spoke before him
"I'm Minji, we from the Officers College want you to come with us to the College to pay off your loans’’
She took out her card
“I don't have loans, you seem to have misunderstood.”
‘’Michael John, 47 years old, your first loan was to buy a new car, now you have three loans and you haven't paid them off’’
Minji said with a stern expression on her face
“I don’t have money now…”
He replied with a sad expression
"You still have to go to the Officers College with us."
"Just let me change my clothes and put on shoes."
We waited two minutes outside
“What if he escapes through another door in his house?”
I said while looking at Minji's precious watch
“If he runs away, he is the stupidest person in the world. He will replace you in stupidity. His house is ahead of us, even if he runs away.”
"Calm down, Sherlock, it was just a question."
I said while looking bored at her
While we were still waiting, an old woman passed by us
"Girls, do you know where Main Street is?"
I was looking at Minjie while she was explaining to her with a smile. I also noticed that the middle-aged boy was approaching the older woman. After the old lady shook Minjie's hand to express her gratitude, the woman started walking while the boy followed her
Michael left his house
''Let's finish quickly''
he said annoyed
We were about to go until we heard the old woman screaming, to see the boy running with her bag, perfect timing to steal something
I quickly ran after the boy
''Y/N’’
I heard Minji calling me
“Go to the Officers College, I will catch up with you later!”
I said while turning right so I could catch the boy
She had no other choice, she had to drive Michael to college and complete the tasks on her own, She called you more than once but you didn't answer
Mingy couldn't tell the college, your first violation is not carrying your work permit, your second violation is deviating from your main mission, there are enough violations you have, maybe this will lead to your expulsion
Minji finished the tasks,She called you again, you didn't answer,She started to worry more
Her work in college is over, she decided to go back to the neighborhood, even though it's not one of Minji's habits, she calls while searching the neighborhood, it's been two hours and she's asking people in the neighborhood while describing what you look like, she couldn't find you
It became night, so Minji decided to go back to her house, while the expressions of frustration did not leave her face, and tears gathered in her eyes
What if you got involved in something while you were going after the boy? Why didn't you answer your phone? Should you be reported? Will you get fired?
These questions revolve around Minji's mind
As Minji walks home, she sees a figure sitting on her doorstep. She approaches more cautiously while bending over to see the face
''Hey my Sherlock…''
''Y/N!''
I stood but was surprised to turn back, Minji hugging me tightly
I slowly raised my hand and wrapped it around her neck, feeling calm from her holding me
“Do you miss me, my boss?”
She kept holding me, when she spoke her voice muffled as she spoke while planting her face in my shoulder
"Where did you go? Why didn't you answer my calls?"
“Sorry, I forgot to tell you that I forgot my phone with my card.”
Her body moved away from mine I could feel the warmth pulling away with her
I can see her eyes filled with tears, I'm starting to worry about why she's crying
''Y/N Why is there a red bruise on the side of your eye?''
Oh my God, her nose is red, her voice is shaking from crying, and she is asking about me, no one knows how much I want to kiss her
“Nothing serious, I promise, just someone hit me in the eye, but I finished him off and returned the stolen things.”
"What do you mean nothing serious? I almost reported you missing. You say nothing serious!"
I put my hands on her cheeks and wiped away the falling tears
"Look at me, I'm here, I'm not hurt."
"I want to believe you, but all I see is this bruise and the cut near your lips."
I took out a similar watch from my pocket
"Your watch, it was in the old woman's bag."
I gave her the watch and she still looked at me puzzled
"The old woman stole your watch, so the boy stole the bag."
She started drying her tears with her sleeve
"You look awful, get inside, I'll clean your face."
Hiding her face in her jacket, pulling her hat close to her head, and putting her hands in her jacket pocket, she walked without turning to me as she walked through the door
How can someone be so cute now, and she is the strictest person in her job
After I caught up with her and we took off our jackets, she ordered me to lie on her bed while she cleaned my face
She was quietly placing the plaster on my face, and there was a comfortable silence between us, but I decided to break it
“Thank God you are not a doctor!”
"Why is my hand heavy on you? Did I make it more painful?"
She asked me worried
‘’No just all of your patients will have a heart attack from your beuty’’
"Are you supposed to be flirting?"
We fell silent again
"Okay, I'm done with your face. I'm going to make some food for us."
I grabbed her wrist before she left
"Thank you, but you really don't have to do that."
“You could have said that before you lay down and growled in your stomach.”
She finished her speech with a smile trying to tease you with it
You were trying to act cool and ended up cursing your stomach
I followed her and watched as she cooked how she could be perfect without trying
“If you're going to stare at me…get the salt behind you’’
“Oh…”
You saw behind you to see that there were five colored packages, each one having a different color. Why didn't you bother putting the names?
I took a bundle facing her back, now I would stretch my hand on her shoulder so that she could see the bundle and choose which of them was the salt
''fine I'll take it myself then-''
She turned around until her hands collided with my chest, my hand still stretching out
What a shot from a romantic movie
We are so close to each other, I can see the surprise on the faces of both of us
I don't want a proper excuse to stay like this
''I-I thought you wouldn't bring salt''
I see the confusion on her face
"I'm so grateful that you thought the way I bumped into you’’
''What!?''
She starts pulling her hands off my chest
Did I make a mistake?
Since she's starting to get away from me, I'll apologize to her and won't talk about it again, it's ridiculous why I thought she'd like me
''Sorry, did I take it too far?’’
''Not that just--it was weird’’
"I'm sorry I promise I won't do it again I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable"
''No, don't think like that, you didn't make me uncomfortable, I just-''
“Choose your salt…”
I gave her the salt, she continued cooking, now it's the awkward silence
She served me food while looking into my eyes I could feel her, but I couldn't face her I couldn't look into her eyes I was looking at my plate
''Thank you for the food''
'’No need to thank me'’
We finished our food in silence
I did the dishes and she handed me the towel to dry my hands
"I don't want you to keep your promise."
You looked at her confused
''What?''
"You promised not to do that, which means we'll never be close again."
She said with a smile staring sternly into my eyes
‘’Huh…?’’
''I'd love to be close to you, I'm just too shy to say it, but it looks like I hurt you with my reaction''
"It's okay, you're my boss-"
“I am talking to you as Minji, not your boss.”
''Oh…’’
''You can approach me as you like''
“Oh really, Minji, what if I come closer now?”
"Come close, I won't go away, Y/N, no matter how close you are."
I started getting closer
''Tell me the limits''
I said and moved closer
"Come as close to me as you want, even if my soul gets mixed up with yours, I don't care!"
I'm two inches away from her face, she looks me in the eyes with her sternness, I can look into her eyes now, are you going to hate me for my next move?
I pursed my lips to hers, I could feel her tension
Kiss those lips you always wanted to kiss
She started kissing me, I could feel her trying to balance our lips
We started to drift away from each other a bit
"Do you like mixing our lips instead of our souls?"
I finished with a smile, she smiles too but she is shy so she decided to hide her shyness in my neck
"Y/N What do I do if you don't come back today? I'd quit being an officer in the college to hang your pictures everywhere."
"Stop thinking about it, I'm already here, and I'm sure you'll find me my Sherlock."
From that moment on, you and Minji made the best duo of officers
-
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❧ word count: 11.9k
❧ warnings: cursing, mentions of death/dead people in the context of him being hades, probably more legal jargon than there should be but i tried to make it as easy to understand as possible i promise, it gets pretty existential at some points but never overtly angsty
❧ genre: fluff, getting together, greek gods/goddesses au, hades jaemin, human reader, nades au, paralegal reader, bit of a ham-fisted persephone allegory, inspired by the gods/goddesses assigned to the work it unit in 2020 for this video, appearances by bestie jeno and coworker yangyang
❧ author’s note: ahhh my first fic back after over a year hiatus!! not super accurate to the original greek myths, i was just havin fun with hades as a concept rather than a strict characterization. i also watched mike flanagan’s ‘midnight mass’ and read john milton’s ‘paradise lost’ during the time i was writing this so get ready for some slight spiritual/religious iconography and overtones. hope y’all enjoy, i had so much fun playing around with my writing in this one!!
❧ spotify playlist
⤷ sequel
The god’s—Jaemin’s—eyes continued to stare you down. It felt like he was looking into your soul. And you wanted him to.
“I didn’t summon you,” you told him cautiously. “Or at least I didn’t try to.”
“Okay, so I’m thinking she could accidentally be pushed into oncoming traffic—”
“And who exactly would be doing this accidental pushing?” You cut Jeno off with a scoff.
Currently, you were laying on your back on your bed, head hanging off the end of it and phone in hand. Your best friend, Lee Jeno, was on the other end of the line, jokingly scheming to get you a job at his workplace. Jeno somehow worked as a legal assistant at the best civil law practice in your city, and you, on the other hand, were unemployed. This was what you got for taking an extra year to get your master’s degree to become a paralegal instead of immediately jumping into the workforce after undergrad.
That was where you and Jeno had met: Intro to Philosophy on your very first day of college as two bright-eyed freshmen with surprisingly similar career goals and the same taste in 00s pop punk bands. Now you were a year and a half past graduating with your bachelor’s, and six months past your master’s. And what had that extra effort gotten you? Many, many interviews that all ended the same way: You’re “an incredible applicant,” but “too educated” for the pay of the position and/or “too inexperienced.”
Jeno, on the other hand, had declined your suggestion to further your education together and instead landed himself a legal assistant job right out of college. So now here you were, living off the remnants of your student loans and savings as you desperately hunted for a paralegal job.
Your best friend’s elaborate plans to get you a job at his firm would typically make you laugh, but this time you couldn’t even muster up a chuckle. Earlier today when you checked your bank accounts during a break from emailing out your résumé, you were confronted with the fact that your savings were running out; you didn’t have enough to even get you to the end of your lease in six months.
“God will, duh,” Jeno said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. His current plan was centered around a junior partner’s paralegal dying of a myriad of mysterious causes, and apparently this time involved divine intervention too.
“Oh, right, of course,” you rolled your eyes.
“I’m serious about the fact that Yejin needs to go, though. I have no clue how she’s still employed. And you would be the perfect fit for Ms. Haseul, she kind of does a little bit of everything, but her main focus is general corporate representation. Wasn’t that what you specialized in for grad school?”
“It is, yes.”
“Then there we go!”
“I appreciate the sentiment, Jeno.”
You sighed. All this talk about a job that you’ll never have was bringing down your spirits. “Anyway, I have half a leftover pizza in the fridge calling my name right now. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Alright, bye, Y/N! I’ll keep my ears peeled for any sign of dissent in the ranks so you can slip your way in!”
“Right, bye.”
Hanging up, another sigh tumbled out of your mouth as you tossed your phone somewhere further up your bed. Truthfully, you weren’t hungry in the slightest, you just wanted to get out of that conversation. You brought your hands to your face to rub circles against your temples and closed your eyes; you were getting a headache. Hanging upside down off the foot of your bed certainly wasn’t helping, but you couldn’t be fucked to move at this point.
A moment of self-pity later and you opened your eyes with all intentions to get up and take your migraine medication, but you froze when you were met by a dark shape. Squinting, it took you a second to process that the shape was someone’s legs and shoes, and you let out a yelp. Startled, you went to twist yourself around to face whoever was in your room, but just managed to fall off your bed instead. You very narrowly avoided snapping your neck, landing on your shoulder instead, eliciting yet another yelp, but this time one of pain.
Scrambling to your feet, you were now face to face with the intruder. It was a man, younger, maybe around your age, donned in all black. Black shoes, black slacks, black suit jacket, and black vest underneath that was buttoned but with a neckline cut plenty low enough to show a good expanse of his chest. He had an eerie beauty to him: his face just bordering on gaunt with pronounced cheekbones, a sharp jawline, and a hint of bags under his eyes as if he had just woken up from a night of restless sleep. But he didn’t seem to have recently awoken, very much alert and well put-together in every other aspect. His black hair was perfectly styled back from his face save for one stray lock towards the middle, and his eyes were so dark they reminded you of black holes, threatening to sweep you away forever into a cold unknown. He had more piercings than you could count in the moment, silver and the odd jewel adorning his ears. The vest showed off four or five separate silver chains around his neck.
“What the hell are you doing in my apartment?” You breathed out, desperately trying to blink away the vertigo from your sudden change in orientation.
The man was between you and the doorway, his body language not indicating that he was blocking your way out intentionally. His hands were tucked in the pockets of his pants as he cocked an eyebrow up at your question. He seemed entirely relaxed and yet the air around you still felt as if it were growing colder by the second.
“I should be asking you that. What the hell am I doing in your apartment?” He repeated your question back to you, amusement in his tone as he studied you from head to toe, then back up.
“What?”
“I was summoned by someone. I’m not summoned often, usually Eros or Aphrodite are at the beck and call of humans.”
The names made your head spin, “Eros? Aphrodite? Like, the Greek gods?”
“Yes, of course.” One of his hands left his pocket, the many rings along his fingers glistening in your ceiling fan lights as he went to push the stray lock of hair back from his face. “Humans are always wishing for love or beauty or fame. Not as often are they wishing for my gifts, or at least not with such an intensity that I’m inclined to entertain those wishes.”
Something about his candor inclined you to ask, “Who are you?”
“I’ve had a couple names. Pluto, and you probably recognize me as Hades. But you can call me Jaemin.”
His words made your heart thunder in your chest once again. You wanted to tell yourself that this guy was crazy, but he sounded so assured and calm that it gave you pause. Not mention that he had just appeared in your home out of nowhere.
“Hades? God of the Underworld? In my apartment?”
“The very same. Please, call me Jaemin. As long as I can call you Y/N.”
“Oh, you know my name already,” you stated weakly.
The god’s—Jaemin’s—eyes continued to stare you down. It felt like he was looking into your soul. And you wanted him to.
“I didn’t summon you,” you told him cautiously. “Or at least I didn’t try to.”
He took a step towards you. “And yet here I am.”
Another step. “I was brought here by a desire, your desire. So, what do you really, really want, Y/N?”
His words dripped off his tongue and wound their way through your mind. “A loved one back from the dead? The death of an enemy? To die yourself? So much money you could never spend it all in one lifetime?”
Another step.
“No, none of those,” you shook your head vigorously, feeling like every sense of yours was alight with his proximity to you. Every sound was deafening, your skin tingled, and the scent of cinnamon and citrus danced around you. One more step and he’d practically be on top of you. “I don’t want any of that.”
Another step. He was right in front of you now, his startlingly cool breath washing over your face as he asked, “Then what do you want?”
“I just—” your hands were clenched into fists at your sides, fingernails digging into your palms as you struggled to find the words. “Want to work at Kim & Moon.”
Jaemin’s head cocked to the side as he studied your face, “Why?”
“It’s the best civil law firm in the city. I know it’s where I belong, if I could just get a job there, I know I’d do well.”
“This job? Does it pay well?”
“I-I don’t know,” you confessed. “Jeno hasn’t ever told me how much he makes, but that’s only part of why I want to work there. If all I cared about was paying my bills, I would’ve taken the first job at any sleazy ambulance chaser’s office I could find. But I’d be wasted on something like that. I’m smart, well-studied, and I’ll be good at what I do. I just know it.”
He chuckled, the sound sending a shiver down your spine.
“Yeah, I like that.”
Then all at once, Jaemin was no longer in front of you, and you felt like you could breathe properly again. He dropped himself onto your bed, settling in to recline leisurely against your headboard, legs crossed at the ankle.
“Alright, I’ll grant your wish,” he declared, slipping one of his rings off to roll it along his knuckles. The silver band caught the light and nearly distracted you from his words.
Pulling yourself out of your momentary trance, you immediately said, “But I didn’t ask you to—”
“Of course you did, or I wouldn’t be here. Do we really have to go through this again?” His eyes were fixed on the ring. “Now do you want that job or not?”
“If I say yes, what do you want in return? I doubt Hades himself is in the business of charity.”
“Smart. There will be an exchange, obviously.”
“Then my answer is no, I don’t want to be selling my soul or something.”
Jaemin suddenly flicked the ring up, watching as it did one, two, three flips in the air before landing in the palm of his hand, “As lovely as I’m sure your soul is, I’m not particularly interested in taking it.”
“Well then what would you want from me?”
“A third of your life.” He said it simply, as if you two were talking about him borrowing a cup of sugar, not your life.
“Wh—”
“Let me finish,” he instructed sternly, firm gaze once again on you. “Spend two-thirds of your year here, then spend the remaining third of it with me.”
“If I take four months off work I won't be able to keep the job you get me.”
“It doesn’t have to be consecutive. Give me your nights and I’ll call it even.”
“Why? Why me? Why would you give me so much for just… hanging out with you?”
He shrugged, “I’m tired of spending all my time with dead people.”
Despite his casual tone, you swore you saw something much sadder flash across his face for a moment. It was gone as soon as you had registered it, making you wonder if you just imagined it. When you remained quiet, chewing on the inside of your cheek in thought, he stood up and crossed the room to once again stop just a mere inch or two in front of you, “Do we have a deal, Y/N?”
A chance to use your degree and skills like you’d always dreamed, just for hanging out with a god every night? It sounded... not quite too good to be true, but definitely too easy. You couldn’t remember Hades being portrayed as a tricksy sort in the myths, and everything Jaemin had done tonight—aside from appearing in your room out of the blue—made you think that you could probably trust him.
“Yeah, sure,” you agreed, looking up from where you had been twiddling your thumbs anxiously to his hauntingly beautiful face. “Do we have to do anything to make the deal official or whatever?”
“What, like a kiss?” He grinned at you mischievously. “Since you asked…”
“Jaemin!” You scoffed, feeling like he was teasing you now.
“You’re the one who brought it up.”
“No I didn’t!”
“Anyway, a handshake will do just fine,” Jaemin held his right hand out in the small space between your bodies.
You took it, feeling the cold from his fingers seep into your own, and gave it one firm shake. Before you could take your hand back, he’d tightened his grip and turned it over. His other hand came up to slip a ring onto your ring finger. It was the same silver band he had been playing with before, and it magically changed size to fit your finger perfectly. Jaemin bowed slightly, bringing your hand up to press a feather-light kiss to the knuckle of the very finger he’d just put the ring on. His lips were cool like the rest of him, but you still felt warm at his actions.
“There,” he straightened back up and let go of your hand finally. “That should do it.”
You looked down at the ring he’d just put on your finger. It was a simple silver band of medium width that reminded you of your father’s wedding band.
“Goodbye for now, Y/N.”
“Yeah—” you cut yourself off when you brought your eyes up to see that Jaemin was gone. Staring at the empty space where he just was, you murmured, “Bye, Jaemin.”
That night you dreamt of a man cloaked in shadows guiding you to a tree, instructing you to pick the golden fruit that was growing on it. You gazed at the fruit, in a daze, mesmerized by their beauty. They were so inviting, the man’s voice soothing, and you lifted a hand up towards one.
You groaned against the bright sunlight streaming in through a crack between your curtains. Directly on your face. You threw your left arm over your eyes to block it out as you continued lying in bed, letting your mind and body wake up gradually.
Memories of last night’s visitor came back to you, and you sighed. Surely it was a dream. A weird, weird dream that your mind conjured up in an attempt to fulfill your wish for a job.
But when you squinted your eyes open and brought your right hand up enough to look at your fingers, the silver band that sat there let you know that it was real. You’d been visited last night, by Hades, who said he’d grant your wish for a job in exchange for a third of your life. And you said yes.
The loud sound of your phone buzzing on your nightstand prompted you to roll over and grab it to look at the caller ID. Lee Jeno.
“Yeah?” You couldn’t even muster up a proper greeting as you picked up, still bogged down by sleep.
“Y/N, great news!”
You glanced at the time on your phone before bringing it back up to your ear, “Jeno, it’s not even 9:30 a.m., why are you calling me? You can’t be on lunch.”
“I know, but as soon as I heard, I had to tell you!”
“Tell me what, exactly?”
“There’s a job opening at the firm! You have to apply!”
That woke you up.
“An opening?” You asked, shooting up into a sitting position.
“Jo Haseul, the junior partner at the firm I’ve been telling you about, her paralegal won the lottery and quit on the spot. No two weeks’ notice, they’re urgently hiring her replacement. I’ll text you the firm administrator’s email for you to send your résumé to!”
“That would be great, thank you, Jeno.”
“Of course!” He said brightly as another phone began ringing in the background. “I’ve got to go now, Ms. Kang is buzzing me.”
“Right, thank you again.”
“Bye!”
“Bye,” you brought your phone down to see he had already ended the call.
As you went to grab your laptop from the foot of your bed to begin drafting that email, your eyes got caught by the silver ring on your hand.
A week later and you were walking into your first day of work at Kim & Moon. The firm administrator, Jeong Jaehyun, was showing you around, and finally stopped his tour in an open-floor plan portion of the office where a grouping of eight desks were. A couple of them were empty, the others filled by various men and women hard at work, and also Lee Jeno.
“Y/N!” Jeno waved at you enthusiastically from where he was on the other side of all the desks, and you lifted your hand to give a small wave back.
“Oh, you know Lee Jeno?” Mr. Jeong asked as he guided you over towards your friend.
“Yes, we were in the same undergrad program.”
“Good, it should be easier to settle in with a familiar face nearby.” The administrator smiled as he gestured to the empty desk behind your friend. The one beside it was occupied by another young man incredibly focused on his screen, headphones in as his fingers flitted over his keyboard and he fervently typed out a court document.
“This is your desk, Ms. Y/L/N. Ms. Jo, your attorney, is on a call right now but she has been informed of your arrival. I’m sure she’ll meet with you when she can. In the meantime, please acquaint yourself with your workspace. Your computer is already logged in, and all of your passwords are on the paper right there. Is there anything you need at the moment?”
“No, no. Thank you so much, Mr. Jeong,” you bowed your head politely to him.
“Of course. Please let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you.” He pointed to the landline sitting on your desk next to the computer monitors, “I have a quick-dial button right next to Reception’s. Buzz me if you need something.”
“I will, thank you.”
And with that, Jeong Jaehyun took his leave of the pod that you were in. You sat in your chair, taking in the sparse supplies on your desk: two computer monitors, keyboard, mouse, a landline phone, a couple pens, and one sheet of paper laid across your keyboard. It was a list of your login credentials for your computer, work email, and the firm’s file management software, along with Mr. Jeong’s extension and quick-dial button name.
You turned back around to where you knew Jeno was already waiting for you. Your friend was practically vibrating with excitement in his own desk chair.
“This is so exciting!” Jeno exclaimed, momentarily drawing the attention of all the other employees in your vicinity before they went back to whatever they were doing. He continued on much quieter, “I told you you’d kill it at your interview.”
“Right,” you nodded, trying not to think about the silver ring on your right hand. “Thanks, Jeno, I’m excited to start.”
“I’ll give you the rundown of everyone at the firm, come here,” he scooted his chair over to make room for you to roll yours up to his desk.
His fingers quickly flitted across his keyboard and mouse to pull up the firm website. Hovering over the tab labeled ‘Our Attorneys,’ you saw a list of names drop down. He clicked on the first one, Kim Chaeyoung. It pulled up a profile, the picture showing a very determined older woman, her arms crossed over her chest as she very resolutely stared down the camera.
“This is Kim Chaeyoung, the ‘Kim’ in Kim & Moon. She’s the most senior attorney at the firm, and mostly does corporate compliance and medical malpractice law. She just stepped down from being managing partner at the end of last year.”
He clicked the next name on the list, Moon Taeil. This time a man was on your screen, a bit older than you, but not by too much. No more than ten or fifteen years for sure, quite young to be a managing partner at such a large firm. His gaze wasn’t quite as intense as Kim Chaeyoung’s, but it held an intelligence and wisdom clearly beyond his years.
“Mrs. Kim stepped down to let this man, Moon Taeil, take over as managing partner. Something about wanting younger blood in charge but…” Jeno looked around the pod before he dropped his voice to a whisper so soft you had to lean in to hear him, “The rumor is that Mrs. Kim is going to announce her retirement at the holiday party at the end of this year.”
“And what sort of law does Mr. Moon do?” You questioned.
“Mostly insurance litigation. He tends to get the nastier incidents though: shootings, stabbings, fires, the odd dog bite.”
You then went through the senior partners before getting to the first of the junior partners on the list.
“And here is Jo Haseul, your attorney. She’s the most senior of the junior partners, and rumors also say that she’s going to be made a senior partner by the end of this year.”
“You love your office gossip, don’t you?”
You studied the woman on screen. She was younger than you had expected, a fierceness in her eyes that both intimidated you and inspired you to follow her wherever she led.
“This isn’t even the juicy stuff, wait until you hear about the affair Mr. Noh supposedly had with his assistant in the 80s,” Jeno scoffed, then turned his attention back to the woman on screen. “Anyway, Ms. Haseul is Mrs. Kim’s protégé. She mostly does general corporate matters, medical malpractice, and the occasional pro bono representation for women in need. Restraining orders, child custody, divorce, whatever comes in the door. If you really want to get to know her, ask about those cases.”
“She sounds incredible.”
“I told you you’d be perfect for each other.” Your friend then pulled up the next junior partner, “This is Kim Doyoung, he’s Mrs. Kim’s son but you’d never be able to tell by how they act around each other. All business. I think he doesn’t want people to assume he only got his position because of his mother, but nobody who has actually spoken to Mrs. Kim would ever think she’d do something like that. She’s got some serious integrity.”
Jeno was about to move on to the next attorney profile, a ‘Qian Kun,’ when you heard a ringing from behind you.
“Oh, that’s you, Y/N!”
You quickly wheeled yourself back over to your desk, picking up your desk phone after the third ring, “Y/L/N Y/N speaking.”
“Ms. Y/L/N,” a woman’s voice was on the other end, and when you glanced at the caller ID, you saw ‘Jo Haseul’ across the screen. “This is Jo Haseul. Please come to my office now.”
“Yes ma’am.”
“I’m down the hall. Ask another assistant if you need help finding it.”
“Will do, thank you.”
She hung up, and you rushed to stand up. Grabbing one of the pens you saw earlier, you frantically scanned for a notepad to write with, but there wasn’t one on hand at your desk. You whipped around to face your friend, “Jeno, do you have a notepad I can use? Ms. Haseul wants to see me.”
“Here,” he handed you a notepad slightly bigger than your hand, spiral-bound at the top.
“Thank you!”
“The attorney offices are down that hall,” he pointed. “And Ms. Haseul’s will be on your left.”
“Got it, thanks!” You hurried in the direction he gestured.
Thankfully, everyone’s names were engraved on metal nameplates on the doors, making it easy to know when you had stopped in front of your attorney’s. Rapping your knuckles against the wood, you waited for a response.
“Come in.”
You entered already bowing, “Y/L/N Y/N, ma’am. It’s an honor to be here and I am very grateful for the opportunity to work with you.”
Jo Haseul appraised you for a moment from where she was sat behind her desk. She then nodded, “It’s nice to meet you. Now please sit, Y/L/N.”
“Yes ma’am,” you quickly sat in the armchair she had gestured to.
After brief introductions, Ms. Haseul gave you the rundown of the kinds of cases she tended to deal with—which generally lined up with what Jeno had told you earlier, her management style, workflow, and an overview of the duties you’ll be expected to fulfill as her paralegal. At the end of it, you left with pages of notes, a stack of papers in your arms, and your first tasks to do for her.
Stopping at your desk, you didn’t even sit as you organized the papers into three stacks: to correct, to file, and to copy. You picked up the last stack of things that Ms. Haseul wanted copies of, then turned to your friend, “Hey, Jeno, where’s the copier?”
The assistant sat at the desk beside yours was the one who spoke up in response, his headphones set aside now, “Oh, I’m going there right now, I’ll show you!”
“Thanks, Yangyang,” Jeno said, then nodded for you to go along with the other man.
Yangyang grabbed his own paper before leading the way out from the desks. He took off in the opposite direction from the offices down a different hallway, “It’s down this hall, first door on the right.” He then opened said door to reveal a room with four large copy machines in it.
“I’m Liu Yangyang, by the way,” your coworker introduced himself, stopping in front of one machine. “I’m Qian Kun and Dong Sicheng’s legal assistant. They’re Ms. Haseul’s associate attorneys that work under her so you and I will overlap quite a bit. Sicheng usually handles corporate matters with Ms. Haseul while Kun does the med mal portion.”
“I’m Y/L/N Y/N. It’s nice to meet you, Yangyang.”
“You too, Y/N. And I’m sure you’ll meet my attorneys at some point today. I apologize in advance, and yes, they are always like that. Kun’s a workaholic who would be here until two in the morning if somebody didn’t send him home, and Sicheng… you are allowed to say no to him, and I encourage it, actually. Booksmart but doesn’t quite get social cues. I’ve seen him accidentally sweet talk his way into having an assistant pick up his dry cleaning before.”
“Wait, seriously?”
“Yeah, I had to intervene to ensure feminism wasn’t set back fifty years,” Yangyang scoffed.
“Women everywhere commend you for your service to the cause, Yangyang,” you nodded solemnly, to which your coworker snickered.
“The dude’s wicked smart but dumber than a box of rocks. Associates, you know?” He shook his head then returned to instructing you about the machine.
After Yangyang had shown you how to use the multipurpose machine—scanning and uploading, printing, copying, faxing—he took the copies that he had made and left you there. Nobody was at the other copiers, making you the only one in the room. You took a deep breath to compose yourself after having so much information thrown at you from all sides. Right now, at this moment, all you needed to do was make a copy.
Putting the first document in where Yangyang had shown you, you’d just started tapping the touchscreen through to the copying option when a dark figure appeared at the edge of your vision. Your head snapped up to look at the man leaning against the wall beside the copy machine you were at.
You hadn’t seen Jaemin since the night you’d made your deal. You’d spent the entire next night anxiously waiting for him to appear, but he never did, and you eventually gave up and fell asleep. He didn’t come any night after that, and you kind of thought he might’ve forgotten about you, or maybe didn’t really want you to hold up your end of the deal. Realized that he could find better company than you.
But here he was, in your workplace, smirk on his face and delight in his tone, “Surprise! I came to visit you on your first day of work. I’m so proud!”
First rolling your eyes at the sarcasm in his words and the fake tear he wiped away, you then fervently glanced towards the door to the copy room, “What are you doing here?”
“I’m checking on my investment,” he answered coolly.
“What, me? You can check on me at my home tonight, not at my job on my first day of work! Somebody could walk in, how would I explain you?”
“Nobody’s coming.”
“The deal was that I would give you my nights. Sun’s still up.”
“Yes, you’re doing just fine,” he nodded as he adjusted his black tie, seeming satisfied with his ‘check in.’ “I’ll see you tonight, Y/N.”
And he was gone in the blink of an eye.
You immediately flopped down onto your couch when you got home that night. That was the most work you’d done in a while; you were tired both physically and mentally. But it was a good sort of tired. You finally had a job.
“Hi, honey, how was work?”
You shot up at the voice, knowing exactly who it was. Jaemin was poised in your armchair, half a smirk already on his lips. He was in all-black again, though a slightly different suit from last time, his slacks and suit jacket had thin dark grey pinstripes, over a black silk dress shirt with the top three buttons open.
“Oh, uh, it was good,” you said.
Silence fell over you two, and you started fidgeting uncomfortably as it dragged on. Finally, you said, “So... what do you want to do?”
“Have you eaten dinner yet?”
“I feel like you already know the answer to that, but no. I just got home.”
“Let’s get dinner then. Where would you like to go?”
“Uhm...” you wracked your brain for some places nearby. “There’s a ramen place down the street. Let me change out of my work clothes first, hold on.”
Re-emerging from your bedroom in more casual clothes, you saw that Jaemin had moved from his spot on your armchair and was instead standing, gazing out the window. And again, for a brief moment, you could’ve sworn he looked... lonely.
“I’m ready,” you announced yourself. It felt wrong to keep looking at him like that.
Jaemin turned around, focusing a dazzling smile on you, “Lead the way, Y/N.”
The place you were thinking of really was just a couple blocks down the street. Mumbling a thanks to Jaemin as he held the door open for you, you were immediately met with a packed restaurant. It was seat-yourself, and you managed to spot a small table for two in the very back corner, right beside the entrance to the kitchen. Guiding Jaemin over to it, you felt your face turn warm as he pulled your chair out for you.
The menu was a singular piece of laminated paper taped to the tabletop, and your eyes skimmed it. You ordered the same thing every time at this point, but it was something to look at other than the god in front of you. Speaking of, he was a god. Did he even need to eat?
“Jaemin.” You said his name as you looked up from the menu.
His eyes flicked up from where they’d also been reading the options, “Hm?”
“Do you even eat, like, normal food?”
“I can if I want to, I just don’t need it to survive like you do.”
“Oh, I see. And do you... like it?”
“Quite.”
It was then that a familiar waiter came up to your table, “Hi, Y/N! It’s been a while. Almost didn’t recognize you at a table instead of the bar.”
Typically, you would come by yourself and sit at the bartop to eat alone alongside all the other solo patrons. You rolled your eyes at the slight jab, “Thank you, Chenle, I feel so welcome.”
“Aw, you know you’re one of my favorite regulars,” the young man snickered.
“Yeah, whatever. Sorry I haven’t been by lately, I didn’t exactly have the funds to eat out.”
“That’s okay. But you’re back, does that mean that you found a job?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Congrats!” He then focused his attention on the man across from you, “Hi, I’m Zhong Chenle.”
You moved to introduce the two before Jaemin could open his mouth, afraid of what he would’ve said. “Chenle, this is Jaemin, a... friend of mine. Jaemin, this is Chenle, he’s a server here.”
“And I’ll be serving you two tonight. So, what can I get you?”
After taking your orders, Chenle took off to put them in. You shifted in your seat awkwardly. What were you and Jaemin even supposed to talk about?
“You usually sit at the bar?” Jaemin questioned.
“I’m not an alcoholic, despite how Chenle made it sound,” you scoffed. “I usually come by myself, and the bar is the quickest place to get your food and get out. And that way I don’t take up any tables that groups can use.”
“I feel honored that you brought me here, then.”
You searched his face for any hint that he was teasing you, but all you found was sincere curiosity. Suddenly feeling uncomfortable, you changed the topic, “So why did you show up tonight? You didn’t come all last week.”
“Well, I had to hold up my end of the deal first.”
“Right, that... makes sense.” Realizing that you hadn’t even thanked him for whatever he’d done for you, you added, “Thank you, Jaemin. For you know, the job.”
“You’re welcome.”
Chenle returned then with a small bottle of soju for each of you, informing you that your food would be ready soon.
“So is it everything you’d dreamed of? Working at Kim & Moon?” Jaemin asked before lifting his bottle to his lips.
“Today was only my first day but... yes. I’ve already learned a lot, was listened to when I spoke, and the partner I work for seems like an incredible woman so far. It’s wonderful.”
“I hope it stays that wonderful for you, Y/N. I’d like to see your eyes light up like this often.”
Looking down at the green bottle in front of you, you twisted your ring around your finger nervously. You didn’t know what to say back, your heart fluttering around in your chest. Jaemin was charming, too charming for your own good, and you sort of felt like you really shouldn’t have expected any less from a god.
“Are you curious?”
You snapped your head up to look at your companion, not even attempting to hide your confusion at his words, “About what?”
“What I did, to get you the job.”
“I mean, I am. I assume you had something to do with Yejin winning the lottery? You’re the god of everything below the Earth, including precious gems, gold, silver. The god of riches, wealth. In the modern day that would translate to how we view wealth and riches now, since I’m not really out here buying my groceries with rubies and gold coins. Right?”
Jaemin’s obsidian eyes practically glittered as he listened to you speak, his lips curling up at one corner before he took another swig of his soju. When you were finished, he set the bottle back onto the table to answer your question, “Hit the nail on the head.”
“Honestly, I’m just glad you did that instead of killing her or something horrible.”
His head jerked back as he looked at you with bewilderment, “Now why would I do that? I’m the god of the dead, not death. If you wanted her dead you’re talking to the wrong deity.”
“I don’t want her dead, that’s my point. That’s what Jeno was joking about on the phone before you showed up; I didn’t want you to get any ideas.”
“I don’t really find it fun to just push people into traffic.”
“So you were listening to—” You cut yourself off as you saw Chenle approaching with your food. Not a conversation to be having in front of your normal human waiter.
After he had left your table again, you returned to what you were saying before, “So you were listening to our conversation.”
“Can’t help myself, I’m nosy when it comes to the humans who summon me,” Jaemin admitted.
“So what does Hades do for fun then?” You asked lightheartedly, slurping at some of your broth.
“While I don’t necessarily enjoy pushing people into traffic, I do find it much more fun to let a human become suddenly awash with money and watch what happens when they eventually lose it all. See what they spend it on, who they spend it on. Themselves mostly, sometimes others, trying to get people to be their friends or lovers simply because of what they’ll buy them. I’ll watch them do what humans do best, use and abuse the gifts that were given to them. And then once they’ve been sucked dry both in their finances and their souls, find out how they try to move on.”
“Is that what you’re doing with me?” You set your spoon down, voice wavering. “Watching and waiting for me to end up like that?”
Jaemin took a pause, shifting forward in his seat before responding, “One of my favorite things about humans is how resilient you are. Always trying to bounce back. It’s fascinating to find out your breaking point, when you have no more bounce left.”
An absolutely devilish smile played across his features as he seemed to take delight in the notion. He didn’t exactly answer your question, but the lack thereof felt like enough.
“Why?”
“Because it’s different for every person, and always further than I think it’ll be. Even after so long, knowing that humans can still surprise me, it’s refreshing. Makes me think that…”
You blinked at him, waiting for him to finish. He was definitely well aware that he had your rapt attention, basking in the drama he had created by pausing. His eyes settled on you firmly, holding eye contact as something softer entered them.
“Maybe you’ll surprise me, too.”
Jaemin came back to your apartment with you after you’d decided you were full. You hadn’t had much of an appetite after that harrowing conversation over dinner, and he’d left you with a lot of thinking to do. It wasn’t every day that you heard a god’s perspective on human lives—on toying with human lives, watching for their eventual breakdown in the aftermath of the ‘gifts’ he gave them. If that’s what it did to them all, it seemed much more like a curse to you.
And you were of course thinking about whether it would happen to you too. You hadn’t wished for riches or wealth directly, definitely not so much that it would have the same effect on your life as winning the lottery. But that didn’t mean that you weren’t worried. And the idea of Jaemin watching you every step of the way, waiting to see when you’d slip up, when you’d meet your breaking point, made you shiver instinctually.
“Are you cold?” Jaemin’s question broke the silence that had been hovering over you two since you started the walk from the restaurant back to your apartment.
“Oh, no, I—”
But he had already shrugged his suit jacket off and laid it over your shoulders. There was no residual body heat in it, but it did help block out some of the breeze blowing past you. You hadn’t noticed the temperature at all, too wrapped up in your own thoughts.
“Thanks,” you muttered, wrapping the jacket tighter around your shoulders. It smelled faintly of spiced citrus.
“No worries.”
Back in your apartment, you wanted nothing more than to lay in bed staring up at your ceiling as you gave yourself over fully to the existential crisis you were descending into. But you still had a god to entertain.
A glance at the change in time on your stovetop clock let you know that you were only a couple hours into your commitment. You hoped he didn’t expect you to stay up all night with him. Leaving Jaemin in your living room once again, you changed into pajamas in your bedroom. If he was going to be with you every night from here on out, you were at least going to be comfy for some of it.
Jaemin was back in the armchair he had appeared in at the beginning of the night, one knee crossed over the other and a book in hand. You paused behind him on your way back into the living room to peer over his shoulder, trying to read the title at the top of the page he was on.
“The Turn of the Screw?” You questioned, walking around him to plop down onto your couch.
“I found it on your shelf,” he gestured to the built-in shelves in the walls around the recess that held your TV. “I hope you don’t mind.”
“Knock yourself out, I haven’t touched it since I had to read it for a ghost literature class like… four years ago.”
“Ghost literature class?” Jaemin lowered the book to rest on his leg while he regarded you with an eyebrow raised. “Did you go to school in the Underworld or something?”
“It was actually called like ‘Ghost Stories and Haunted Fiction of the 19th Century’ or something. The students just called it ghost lit. We read all these spooky stories, including The Turn of the Screw,” you explained, then looked around your living room. “I have a few more of them around here somewhere. Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein— I can’t remember the full reading list, but they’re scattered around.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” He raised the book back up to continue reading intently.
Since he seemed occupied for the moment, you pulled out your phone to distract yourself.
A couple hours later and you let out your first yawn of the night. You’d thought that Jaemin was so enraptured by the book that he wasn’t paying any attention to you. The chuckle he gave from across the room proved you wrong, however. There was definitely nothing funny in that story. You threw him a scowl, but he neither looked up from the book nor said anything.
Shifting in your spot to get comfy again, you returned to the article that you’d been reading on your phone and your guest was quiet once again. Another yawn split your mouth, and the words on your screen swam in your vision as your eyes teared up.
“Tired, Y/N?” Jaemin’s eyes still hadn’t left the book as he continued, “You should go to sleep, early day at work tomorrow, right?”
“And what are you going to do?”
“I thought I’d finish this book, if that’s alright with you. I’ve got about… thirty, forty pages left.”
“Oh, uh, sure,” you were surprised both that he was encouraging you to go to sleep during the time you’d agreed to forfeit to him, and that he wanted to finish the book.
Standing up from the couch, you shuffled into your kitchen to fill up a glass of water. After knocking back your nightly medication, you placed the water on your nightstand and went into your bathroom to do your nighttime routine. You found yourself hovering at the threshold between the hallway that contained your bedroom and bathroom, and the living room. It felt weird to just go to bed with someone else in your home, at least not without saying goodnight to them.
“Uhm,” you cleared your throat.
Jaemin turned to look at you from over the back of the armchair, “Yes, Y/N?”
“I just wanted to…” you felt the words catch in your throat. Pushing through your awkwardness, you twisted the ring around your finger as you forced the words out, “Goodnight, Jaemin.”
“Goodnight, Y/N.” He smiled at you before turning back around to face his book, “See you tomorrow.”
And with that, you retreated into your bedroom for the night, falling asleep almost as soon as your head hit the pillow.
The man of shadows was in your dreams again that night, drawing you to the tree with the golden fruit. His voice once more invited you to partake in picking the fruit, and your hand inched up, up, up, towards one. Your fingers had just wrapped around the fruit, ready to pluck it off the branch, when you woke up.
When you awoke the next morning, you went through the motions of your morning routine, strolling from your bathroom out to your kitchen, toothbrush sticking out of your mouth. You continued brushing your teeth with one hand as you grabbed the freshly popped toast from the toaster to put on a plate. As you went to lean over the kitchen sink to spit the toothpaste foam out of your mouth, your eyes got caught on something in the living room, which the sink overlooked. There was a small black pouch sitting on the coffee table, on the corner closest to the armchair.
After wiping your mouth off, you walked over to your coffee table, intrigue building as you picked up the velvet drawstring pouch. Looking around, you were only greeted by your empty apartment. This wasn’t here last night. Or at least, not before you went to sleep.
Pulling it open, you gently shook the contents out onto your palm. It was a silver bracelet, intricate filigree running along the band that was inlaid with gorgeous green and blue gems.
Jaemin’s words from dinner last night echoed in your head.
‘I do find it much more fun to let a human become suddenly awash with money and watch what happens when they eventually lose it all… It’s fascinating to find out your breaking point…’
A foreboding feeling colored your vision, and you rushed to tuck the bracelet back into the bag and throw it onto the table.
When Jaemin came that night, you were cooking dinner in your kitchen. He appeared there with you, leaning against the counter next to your sink as you were standing over the stovetop.
“Good evening, Y/N,” he greeted you.
“Hello, Jaemin.” You steeled your nerves, giving as nonchalant of a nod as you could towards the living room, “You left something here last night. It’s on the coffee table.”
The god regarded you with a tilted head, and you felt his eyes on your empty wrists, “That was for you.”
“I didn’t ask you for anything like that.”
“I know. It was a gift.”
“The job was plenty, Jaemin.”
He was silent as he continued to watch you cook. After a grueling couple of minutes of absolute silence, his eyes burning into you the whole time, you finally turned to properly look him in the face. Throwing on a smile, you informed him, “Dinner’s ready. Ravioli, would you like some?”
“Yes, please.”
You set two places at your dinner table before plating two portions of the pasta. Jaemin was still in his place next to the sink, observing your movements.
“Go ahead and sit, I’m just going to grab a couple glasses,” you gestured towards the kitchen table.
Without even waiting to see if he’d obey, you bustled over to a cabinet and took out two wine glasses, then grabbed a bottle of white wine you’d been meaning to finish off. When you turned back to the kitchen table, you were pleasantly surprised to see Jaemin waiting there patiently, fidgeting with his silverware. Setting the two glasses down, you noticed that Jaemin’s silverware was in different places than you had put them in when you hastily set the table. The fork was on the left of the plate, the knife and spoon on the right with the knife directly beside the plate and the spoon on the other side of the knife. Yours on the other hand were in the haphazard places atop the napkin that you had put them earlier.
“Apologies for the subpar fork placement,” you said, uncorking the wine to begin pouring it out first for Jaemin.
“Oh, it’s just a habit,” he explained. His tone then turned as teasing as yours had been, “My apologies for making you think your fork placement was anything other than above par.”
You then poured for yourself as you continued the banter, “Yeah, you know, I really pride myself on my utensil arranging skills. My feelings have been gravely wounded. I’ll never recover from this.”
“Then would you consider taking this,” he procured a small black pouch from his pocket, and you had a suspicion as to exactly what was in it, “as repentance, with my sincerest apologies?”
A bitter sigh came out of your mouth at him ruining the perfectly normal moment you were enjoying, “Jaemin, I told you I don’t want any more gifts from you.”
The way you spat out the word ‘gifts’ was apparently a lightbulb moment for him as he set the pouch down on the table and all playfulness dropped from his face. Disinterested in whatever he was going to say to try to convince you to take it, you picked up your fork, using the side of the tongs to cut one of your raviolis in half.
“Y/N…” he said your name almost wistfully, leaning forward towards you earnestly. “I really do just want you to have it. It’s not a test or a ruse, just… a token.”
“A token of what?” You snorted, spearing half of the ravioli that you’d just cut and bringing it up to your mouth.
“My affection?”
You choked momentarily on the pasta in your mouth, chewing and swallowing it as quickly as possible and taking a sip of your wine to wash it down. Jaemin still hadn’t touched his food, utensils undisturbed as he waited for you to collect yourself. When you searched his face for a smirk, a mischievous glint in his eyes, anything to indicate that he was being less than truthful, you found none. You were just met with deep open pools of black in his eyes, his mouth set in seriousness, and his hand once again holding the pouch back out to you.
“Your what?”
“I know you heard me.”
“Yes, and now I’m asking for clarification.”
“I find you fascinating, and not in the morbid kind of way like I described to you last night. I’ve found myself starting to become fond of you, and I wanted to show that to you with a… present.”
“What, like getting your puppy a new chew toy because they’re so darn cute?”
Jaemin chuckled, “Not quite. But still, will you please accept it, Y/N?”
You thought it over for another moment, chewing on the inside of your cheek. He was being sincere, you were sure of it. You’d caught brief glimpses of the kinder side to Jaemin just in the few times you’d met him: when he’d leant you his suit jacket walking home last night, telling you he was hoping you’d continue being in love with your job, the gentlemanly peck he’d left on your fingers the night you’d made your deal. And now, as he patiently awaited your answer.
“Alright,” you agreed, taking the small bag from him. “Thank you, Jaemin.”
“Thank you for letting me give it to you.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Pulling the bracelet back out of the pouch, you saw that it had a hinge mechanism on it that you couldn’t manage one-handed, and held it out to the god sitting in front of you, “Will you help me put it on?”
“Of course,” he took it, opening the band up with ease.
You held your right hand out towards him, and he brought the open bracelet up around your wrist. But you weren’t watching the way his deft fingers put it on around your wrist, the tips of them brushing over the sensitive skin at your pulse point, leaving coolness behind. You were watching his face as he focused on the task intently, his brows furrowing in concentration then relaxing after the bracelet had clicked shut. A small but tender smile took over his face, his eyes softening as he turned your hand over palm down, thumb running up your ring finger until it reached the silver band that resided there.
Your skin buzzed in the wake of his touch, an electric cold. You could hear your heart thudding in your ears and hoped that he didn’t have supernatural god hearing or something and could hear it too. If he did, he gave no indication of such. He withdrew his hands, leaving you more dazed than you should’ve been at the minimal contact you had. Jerking your hand back to your side of the table, you turned your gaze down at your food, trying to ignore how hot your cheeks were.
A light laugh came from Jaemin, but you couldn’t force your eyes back up to him, knowing that his were already on you.
That night you dreamt once more of the man cast in darkness, leading you to the tree of golden fruit. This time when he encouraged you to pick one, you grasped at the fruit with two hands, pulling it right off the branch with a firm tug.
Just about one month into your… arrangement with Jaemin, you were rooting through your fridge for something to make for dinner when there was suddenly a cool breeze on the back of your neck. Except you were indoors.
Spinning around, you were immediately met with the god extremely close to you, and let out an exasperated sigh, “God damn, Jaemin, are you trying to give me a heart attack?”
“I can’t help it if I make your heart race,” he grinned, the mischievous glint in his eye making your heart pound in a different way that it had been.
“Yeah, because you jumpscared me,” you rolled your eyes, shutting the fridge doors to then lean back against the appliance. “Anyway, it’s not looking like I have anything to make for dinner. You okay with eating out tonight?”
“More than, I was actually hoping you’d let me take you somewhere tonight.”
“Where?”
“My place. You’ve been such a gracious host this whole time, it’s time I repay the favor.”
“Your place, as in... the Underworld?”
“Yeah, why not?” He shrugged nonchalantly, an enticing grin on his features. A grin that invited you to follow its owner to places you’d never been before. “I promise you’ll come back.”
“In one piece?”
“Of course.”
You’d be lying if you said you weren’t intrigued, that you hadn’t tried to picture what the Underworld looked like. All you could come up with was the standard image of hell: flames, pitchforks, eternal torture. But now you were getting an invitation to go there with Hades and come back alive.
“And I’ll be back in time to go to work in the morning?”
“Yes, absolutely.”
“Alright, sure,” you finally acquiesced. “I’d love to, thank you for inviting me.”
Jaemin offered his hand out to you then, and you placed your atop. He gave yours a light squeeze, “Just focus on me, Y/N. Just look in my eyes.”
“Okay?” You agreed despite your tone pitching it up into a question, unsure of why exactly he was asking you to do that.
Nevertheless, you settled your gaze on his eyes, even as he drew you in closer by the light grip on your hand. You gave him an awkward half-smile, unsure of what exactly to do as you just stared him directly in the eye. His dark eyes had a calming effect, however, as you felt your breathing even out and your heartbeat slow. This close to him, and being able to unabashedly look at him, you were entranced by the unearthly quality to his beauty. It should have been disquieting, this spectral vision in front of you, but you just found yourself drawn even closer in body and mind.
Then suddenly everything around you was darker, as if someone had dimmed your kitchen lights. The air was cooler too, and you had the suspicion that you were no longer in your kitchen. But you were still looking at Jaemin, just like you said you would.
He was looking right back at you, unflinchingly, and a fond smile crossed his lips before he announced quietly, “We’re here. You can look.”
And you finally tore your eyes from him to take in your new surroundings. It was dark, just like you’d noted before, as if it were nighttime. The room you were in had black floors, black walls, and at the very tippy top of the black vaulted ceiling, a black wrought iron chandelier with flames glowing... blue? But you couldn’t focus on the flickering up above you as Jaemin’s fingers entwined with yours and he gently tugged you towards the other side of the room.
“Come on, this way.”
It looked like you were maybe in an entrance hall of some sort. It was then that you spotted a large black throne adorned with silver detailing and embellishments at the front of the room. Jaemin kept walking right past it, though, down an adjoining hallway.
Your wide eyes that had been taking everything in turned downwards to your hand that was holding Jaemin’s. His skin was the usual coolness you had come to expect, and your fingertips brushed against the multitudes of rings on his fingers. Seeing the lone silver band on your hand, the one that he was holding, made your face hot for some reason.
You passed through another doorway into a dining room. It contained a large dining table crafted from dark walnut wood, the twelve high-back chairs around it made of the same. A deep red table runner went across the length of the tabletop, matching the upholstery of the chairs. A feast was already laid out, and place settings for two of the seats were prepared.
Jaemin let go of your hand to pull out a chair for you. You thanked him quietly as you sat down, eyes still scanning over the food options. He sat in the chair caddy-corner to yours, at the head of the table.
“Go ahead, Y/N,” Jaemin encouraged you as he reached forward to grab the bottle of wine that had been on the table as well.
“Everything looks... so good,” you said, not sure what to try first.
He uncorked the bottle, pouring the red wine into your glass first, then his. When he put the bottle down, you still hadn’t moved, too overwhelmed with all the delicious-looking choices.
“Do I need to make your plate for you?” He teased, already standing and grabbing your plate.
“This is good, you’ll probably like this one, oh you’re going to love this one, everyone likes that, mmm definitely not that,” he mumbled to himself as he loaded up your plate with food after food.
Your heart did flips as you looked up at him, the simple kindness of his actions making you feel warm despite the coolness of the Underworld.
Jaemin set your plate back down in front of you between your utensils, spoon on the far right, then the knife beside the plate, and the fork on the left. You waited for him to prepare his own plate of food, then finally be seated. When he’d finished scooting his chair up to table, he looked up from what he’d been doing, eyes catching yours, and a small, affectionate smile crossed his lips before he grabbed his wine glass. Then a wide, charismatic grin overtook his features as he held his glass out towards you, and you followed his lead, picking yours up to clink them together.
“To one month of… you and I. Thank you for agreeing to come here tonight, Y/N.”
‘You and I.’ His words both squeezed your chest and made it feel airy, like someone was inflating a balloon inside of it.
“Thank you for hosting tonight, Jaemin. And here’s to one month of…” you took a sharp inhale as you stumbled through your mind for any other word but couldn’t find one in that moment. “Us.”
You saw Jaemin’s pale lips softly, silently repeat the word before pulling into an alluring smirk.
And you each took a sip of the wine before digging into your food and kicking off the discussion. Over your month of dinners and nighttime socializing with Jaemin, you were used to your conversations meandering between the casual catching up of your workday to the serious contemplations of life and the universe. After all, if you were dining with a god, you were going to pick his brain for some philosophical inquiry. But on the days where some of the medical malpractice or domestic pro bono cases had hit you exceptionally hard and you wanted to leave well enough alone, Jaemin let you keep the topics light and surface level, keeping it at office gossip and the like.
Tonight though, with the special venue on your mind, you immediately delved into the existential, “So what are humans to you?”
“How do you mean?” Jaemin arched an eyebrow at your question.
“You’re a god. You’ve lived for thousands of years. You’ve seen millions of humans live and die. Surely, we all just kind of… blur together for you. Seem the same. Inconsequential.”
“No, not at all.”
“You’re just saying that because I’m here,” you teased before returning to your debate. “Most of us live and die without ever leaving a lasting impact on the world. Not that I think that’s necessary for having lived a meaningful or good life, I think that making even one person smile means that someone lived a good life. But in relation to you, a god, surely that makes us all indistinguishable from one another.”
“Is a play bad because it ends? Is a flower no longer beautiful because it will wilt? I think that humans and your lives are so intriguing because they’re finite.” He was as impassioned as ever when getting into your metaphysical dialogues— voice strong with resolve, leaning forward towards you earnestly, brow set just the slightest not with anger but determination, and hair falling into his onyx eyes that looked into yours without hesitation. “An incalculable but unquestionably limited amount of time, one chance, and each of you choose to live differently.”
“You still think that every human life is different from all the others?”
“Of course.” Apparently sensing that he hadn’t convinced you yet, Jaemin continued with an example, “Just look at you and your friend Jeno. Sure, the two of you converged pretty closely in college, but he made the choice to begin his career while you made the choice pursue higher education. Your two lives aren’t the same.”
“There’s also another major difference between the two of us.”
At the imploring tilt of his head, you deadpanned, “Only one of us made a deal with Hades for a third of our life.”
“An astute observation, Y/N,” Jaemin chuckled, relaxing back in his chair now that you’d changed up the tone of the conversation.
When both of your plates and glasses were empty, Jaemin took you by the hand once again to guide you from the dining room, as he apparently wanted to show you something. You emerged onto a patio of some sort, but that wasn’t what you were focused on. In front of you was a tree maybe ten or fifteen feet tall, an elegantly thin and sloping trunk, and along its many branches were round golden fruit the size of your palm. You couldn’t help the soft gasp that came from you as you took in the dazzling sight. Everything about the tree was normal from the texture of the brown bark to the dark green leaves, and even the dappling of the outer shell of the pomegranates that grew on it looked real, aside from the gilded color. It was magical, and you were happy just to know that something so beautiful existed.
“Thank you for showing me this, Jaemin,” you said, turning to look at the god who had stopped beside you.
You thought that he’d be looking at the scenery too, but his eyes were on you. He had a familiar look on his face, a small, tender smile pulling at the corners of his mouth, dark eyes holding a latent warmth like coals after a fire, and you felt tempted to get even closer to indulge in it.
But instead, you steeled your nerves to ask, “Why do you keep looking at me like that?”
Your tone wasn’t as accusatory as your words were, it was a sincerely curious question.
“Like what?” Jaemin was quick to reply with a question of his own, keeping his attitude light but genuine.
“You keep smiling at me with this soft little smile.”
“I keep doing it? When was I doing it before?”
“When we first got here, when you sat down at dinner tonight, and just now, when you brought me out here.” It had made your heart go haywire every time you noticed it, so you were able to list the instances from tonight off the top of your head. But that wasn’t all, there was a reason why it was imprinted into the back of your eyelids like a burned-out LCD screen, “It’s like… like… you want to kiss me.”
“I do,” Jaemin declared, eyes never leaving yours, voice never wavering, so damn sure of himself. Even as you were here in front of him feeling like you were nearly ready to rip your hair out from just a few little smiles from him.
He was always like this. So charming, so smooth, playfully talking around your questions. Pulling you along with him, dancing with you through your conversation. You had to meet him head on, even if it felt like you were going crazy doing so. You did it during your dinners, you could do it now too.
“Is that why you’re smiling at me like that?”
“Do you want me to? Kiss you?” He took a step towards you. For a brief moment he was all you could see, all dark hair, dark eyes, and silver earrings.
“I want to know why you look at me like that.” You stepped back from him, wrapped in the heady smell of his cologne. Cinnamon, bergamot, an earthy scent too maybe? Your head was swimming with it, but you needed to focus on the conversation at hand.
“And I want to know if you want me to kiss you or not.” Another step, once again narrowing the distance between you.
“I asked first, Jaemin,” you poked your pointer finger against his chest as a warning. “An answer for an answer.”
He stayed put, seeming to be fighting a delighted smirk from his face as he looked between your face and the finger you held up defensively between the two of you. Jaemin’s features relaxed as he clasped his hands together behind his back, looking into your eyes earnestly, “All of those times that I’ve been looking at you tonight, I was thinking to myself, ‘It feels like she’s come home.’ You just looked like you belonged here, in my home, with me. It felt like I belonged with you. And that made me want to kiss you. That’s why.”
Of all the answers you had been expecting, that hadn’t quite been one of them. Grand declarations of love were a faraway possibility, sure, you’d seen movies before. That’s not what this was, though. This was both more and less. You hadn’t anticipated for Hades’ answer to be so simple yet all-soul-encompassing as the idea of coming home. While everything tonight had definitely been new and unfamiliar to you, you hadn’t been intimidated or uncomfortable in any way. With Jaemin at your side, you’d been able to take it all in with wonder and an open mind, knowing that you had him right there watching over you.
“I believe you owe me an answer now too, Y/N.” Jaemin’s voice was quiet, low, meant only for you. “Do you want me to kiss you?”
Your gaze fell to the finger you had to his chest, your right hand. It had lost all the force you started with, limp and simply resting against him. You could see the silver ring there, and lower on your arm was the bracelet he’d given you, both pieces of jewelry glinting in the hazy light afforded in the Underworld. You briefly wondered if they had come from here, from deep under the Earth; if they’d come home tonight, too. The god in front of you remained silent, waiting for your response. If there was one thing Jaemin was good at, it was waiting— after he’d given you his final push.
Then you finally looked back up at his face, into the sunken obsidian black that greeted you there. That ever-stubborn lock of raven hair was hanging between his brows, and you had a sudden and smitten urge to fix it. But you had something more important to do in that moment. After all, he’d given you his answer, now you owed him yours. And you’d made up your mind.
Your mouth had barely started forming around your answer before it was captured by Jaemin’s in a kiss that was equal parts tender and ravishing. It felt like he was trying to devour your ‘yes’ right off your tongue and keep it all to himself. Admittedly, your head had started nodding before your vocal cords could work.
If you thought you were swimming in spices and citrus before, you were drowning in them now. Cinnamon, oranges, and… cedar. Your hand that had previously been poking at his chest was now crumpling the collar of his dress shirt, the other hooking a finger in one of the belt loops at the front of his slacks to yank him closer. His own hands were doing their part, too. One cupped your cheek while the other held you by your waist. The sweetest nectar was being dripped into your veins, and you hungrily took more and more with each wanton kiss from Jaemin.
When his lips finally parted from yours, you couldn’t help but steal just one more kiss. He let out a breathy chuckle as he clasped a hand over the one you were grasping at his shirt with to gently pull it off, his thumb then rubbing slow circles into your palm. His hand that had been on your cheek dipped to gently grip your chin, and as he looked at you, you knew exactly what he was thinking.
“I’m home,” you promised.
The shadowy man was back in your dreams that night, and this time the golden fruit was already in your two hands. He was encouraging you to break it open, feed on its juicy flesh that he promises will taste so good.
You woke up before you could follow through on the decision you’d already made.
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Hello! I'm not sure if my question will meet the criteria you posted regarding asks/headcannons/fanfics (itz my first time hehe), but I gotta ask 😅: If Thranduil, his wife, and the 5 brothers had lived in the modern times, what would their lives be like (ex. jobs, lifestyles, modern interests, etc.)? Basically a modern au of sorts...? I understand if you do not answer my question if it really didn't meet the criteria, but if you do answer, thanks in advance!
MODERN AU: THE ROYAL FAMILY OF MIRKWOOD
The House of Thranduil
Modern AU set in the United States (this writer is American and doesn't want to embarrass herself speaking of other countries, lol)
Fair Warning: This entire family is ridiculously accomplished in this AU, but this is clearly fictional so just ride along the fantasy with me!
Apologies for the length and infodump style--my mind really ran off with this concept!
Thranduil, The Patriarch
Businessman/CEO and 4th generation landowner.
Land ownership currently includes 1 million acres of timberland around the West Coast.
Business holdings include logging, saw mills, wineries, and forest-product manufacturing companies that employs thousands of employees.
Attended Wharton School to study business but dropped out in his third year when his father passed; (reluctantly) took over the company at 21 years old to prevent it from being seized by his father's scheming partners.
Met and fell in love with Maereth, a classmate at Wharton, but she was already in a relationship with someone else.
Continued to pursue her over the course of 10 years until they finally wed right before he turned 30.
His family home is a 2,000-acre ranch in Northwest Oregon, but he travels constantly all over the country.
During the economic downturn, saved the business and his people's livelihood by selling off a third of the family's acreage.
Refuses opportunities to expand in favor of maintaining fair wages for his employees and ethical and environmentally sound practices.
Personal hobbies include breeding and racing horses, outdoor activities, wine-collecting, and travel.
Despite rubbing elbows with powerful, rich businessmen like himself, he despises that crowd and spends only as much time with them as necessary for business.
His closest friends are the folks in his small hometown and the employees who work alongside him.
Maereth, The Matriarch
Born to a lower-middle class family from Scranton, Pennsylvania. Father was a construction laborer and mother was a part-time receptionist.
The middle child and only daughter; has 3 brothers.
Only one in her family to attend and finish college.
Practically engaged to her boyfriend at the time she met Thranduil.
Despite her rejecting Thranduil's advances and professions of love because of her existing relationship, she felt attracted to him and could not bring herself to forget him. They maintained a friendship after Thranduil dropped out of Wharton and moved back West.
Once her relationship with her boyfriend ended, Thranduil resumed courting her, but she rejected his marriage proposal out of a desire to pursue a career on her own.
Started her own company and ran it for several years before selling it at a large profit. Used the money to pay off her family's loans and help her parents retire.
Was finally won over by Thranduil's persistence and obvious devotion, and agreed to marry him.
Gave birth to their five sons over the course of a single decade.
Raised her children as a stay-at-home mom until they all reached their teens.
Currently sits on the board of the family's corporation and serves as the Chief HR Officer.
Chairs the family's private foundation that gives millions to charitable causes annually.
Is a talented crafter, craftsman, and builder, more so than her husband and most of her sons (except for Mirion), with enough skill to complete simple remodels on her own. She is the ultimate DIYer who dives eagerly into manual labor, which is one of the things Thranduil admires most in her.
Is also a successful gardener, able to keep flourishing backyard gardens that bear flowers, fruits, and vegetables of different kinds.
Spends most of her free time on endless home improvement projects or traveling as needed to visit her sons.
Mirion, eldest son - The Heir
The dutiful son who accepted his role as the eventual heir to the company. Started shadowing his father as a teen.
Married to his high school sweetheart, with whom he has two children (so far the only grandchildren of Thranduil and Maereth).
Lettered in 3 high school sports: baseball, football, and track, but discontinued sports in college to focus on academics.
Holds a degree in materials engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
Upon marrying, settled his family at a ranch house in Oregon to stay close to his parents and majority of their holdings.
Started his own construction company that eventually became a part of the family conglomerate.
Was a stay-at-home dad for several years to allow his physician wife to return to her small town practice.
Attends many high-profile social engagements on behalf of his parents.
The ultimate dad: very involved in his kids' lives and is beloved by their friends; their home is a popular hangout for the neighborhood kids.
Constantly hit on by single moms and dads; unfortunately for them, he is singularly obsessed with his wife.
Had a very brief stint as a commercial model during his college years, and agents often suggest he return to it--but he has zero interest.
Very down-to-earth and a homebody outside of work. Leans towards introversion.
Favorite past times: DIY projects around his house, fixing up old cars, riding his horses, playing with his dogs, and having neighbors over for big backyard BBQs.
The closest thing the family has to a cowboy. The only one of his brothers to reside in a rural area and the only one besides their parents to own and keep horses.
Turhir, second-born son - The Soldier
Knew early on that he wanted to travel the world and serve his country as a soldier in the armed forces.
Enlisted in the US Navy straight out high school and became a SEAL.
Joined DEVGRU (Seal Team Six) where he became the officer of an assault squadron.
Has been in back-to-back tours of duty since his first deployment at age 19.
Has a running count of 10 combat tours, which would have been more if not for an entire year sidelined while he recovered from a serious spine injury that almost left him paralyzed.
Is quietly the most decorated Navy SEAL in history, with commendations that include two Silver Stars, three Bronze Stars, five Purple Hearts, the Navy Cross, and the highest honor: the Medal of Honor.
The perpetual nomad/couch surfer and the only brother not to own his own residence.
Was cheated on by his girlfriend while he was away on deployment. Never recovered from the heartbreak and has had no serious relationships since.
Favorite past times: Training for triathlons (running, swimming and biking), spending time with his brothers, reading novels.
Has competed in the Ironman World Championship and Badwater Ultramarathon.
Consumes paperback novels like water; buys them from used book stores and then donates to libraries afterward.
Frequently does hands-on volunteer work for charities like Habitat for Humanity and local food banks.
Suffers from PTSD and depression, which he manages with medication and regular therapy.
Absolutely detests social media and refuses to engage in any of it.
Avoids press attention like a plague. Does not attend big social functions with his family unless begged to by his mother.
Stays so far away from the limelight, the press/media sometimes forgets he is part of Thranduil's famous family.
Arvellas, middle-born son - The Genius
A bonafide genius with an IQ of 165, tested when he was only 12 years old; was subsequently accepted into Mensa.
Although he was a clearly gifted child, his mother declined to accelerate his education or place him in a different school from his brothers. She believed it was more important for him to enjoy as normal a childhood as possible.
Started college at Stanford University at the fairly typical age of 17, but completed his premed degree within two years and was a Doctor of Medicine by 26.
Not a practicing physician since he has instead devoted himself to a career in medical research, specifically in developing targeted treatments for aggressive cancers.
In addition to his MD, he holds graduate degrees in biochemistry and biophysics.
Has more trophies and accolades than all his brothers combined, all of them for intellectual achievements in various fields.
Holds over a dozen patents for different scientific devices, processes, and formulas.
A polyglot who speaks 8 foreign languages conversationally, including Spanish, Mandarin, German, Italian, French, Arabic, Hindi, and Japanese. Once he has gained fluency in one language, he immediately starts studying another.
Also speaks at least a couple of constructed languages from sci-fi/fantasy worlds.
On a dare from his younger brothers, took and aced the LSATs and was accepted to several Ivy League law schools, though he never attended.
Stays in athletic shape through biking, swimming, and playing tennis.
Reads (and collects) comics and graphic novels as often as he reads scientific journals.
Goes to at least one comic con a year as his schedule allows.
Wears a coat and tie even more frequently than his father does.
Has been with the same romantic partner for the last 5 years, but has shown no signs of getting married.
Gelir, fourth-born son - The Adventurer
A wildlife biologist and rehabilitation specialist with degrees in zoology and veterinary medicine.
Specialty is working with and rehabilitating wild mammals. His favorite animal is the wolverine, which was the first truly wild creature he had rescued and nursed back to health early in his career.
Prefers to do contract work with non-profit organizations, which enables him to continue travelling due to a a less-restrictive schedule.
Also does a lot of short-lived gig work on the side that allows him to engage in his hobbies while earning. Examples are working as a safari guide, a park ranger, or climbing instructor.
An avid (almost obsessive) outdoor adventurer who avoids spending time in cities as much as possible, and likes to explore new remote locations through camping and hiking.
A skilled climber with experience in nearly all types, including free soloing, mountaineering, and ice climbing.
A licensed scuba diver and skilled surfer and rafter. Swims like a fish.
Licensed to pilot private planes, drive motorcycles, and drive boats.
Most widely traveled member of his family, having been to every continent in the world, including Antarctica.
Only one in his family who can speak an African language (Swahili), which he likes to crow to Arvellas about.
Has made a conscious decision to keep/owns no pets, due to his frequent travels making him unable to properly care for one.
The eternal bachelor whose interest rarely goes beyond a few dates; has never been in a serious relationship and understands his restless wandering would make him a terrible boyfriend.
Was previously reluctant to put himself and his work in front of a camera, but realized (through his brother Legolas) that he can make a good amount of money by creating and posting videos on social media--money that would fund his travels and exploits.
Has been approached by major producers to host his own adventure show series, but prefers to work with independent filmmakers on legitimate documentaries.
Legolas, youngest son - The Celebrity
Professional footballer. Star striker of the US Men's National Soccer Team and the Seattle Sounders FC.
Career achievements include an Olympic bronze medal, an MLS (Major League Soccer) Cup, and a FIFA World Cup (a US first!).
The most independently wealthy of all the brothers due to multi- million dollar endorsements that include Adidas and Pepsi.
Has his own staff that includes a personal assistant, a publicist/social media manager, a private chef, and very hardworking sports agent.
A social media star with a following of 50 million in Instagram and still climbing, making him by far the most famous one in his family.
Is occasionally able to convince Gelir to do adventure/extreme sports-related videos with him, which always go viral. While Legolas does it for the fun and bonding experience, Gelir agrees to do it mostly for the money. On rarer occasions, he is able to convince Mirion to participate as well, when it has a fundraising aspect.
Diagnosed with both dyslexia and ADHD, which he manages with medication.
Aside from playing soccer and other traditional team sports, his hobbies include extreme/adventure sports such as skiing, snowboarding, windsurfing, mountain biking, skydiving, and paragliding.
Also a talented sketch and comic artist who occasionally shares his works online.
His favorite charitable activity is visiting children's hospitals, (including making sizeable donations), and has been requested several times by the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Constantly being romantically linked to celebrities, less than half of which are actually true.
Receives a lot of attention from women and is frequently pursued by them. In all the "noise" on top of being in the public eye, he finds it challenging to find partners to genuinely fall in love with.
Tends to struggle with periods of loneliness, during which he seeks refuge in his family.
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I need to vent about my SIL especially after losing my MIL last week. This might be a lengthy post. Because I'm petty, angry & hurt. I need the catharsis of publicly shaming her sans her name.
My SIL grew up spoiled. She wanted for nothing. What she couldn't get from others, she learned to manipulate from them.
My hubs & his brothers had to beg, plead & steal for all they had.
SIL beat the shit out of my husband when he was around 5yrs old so badly with an extension cord - he still has nerve damage in his back.
Anytime she didn't get her way, she took it out on him because he was the youngest at the time.
SIL was a teen mom & there's no shame in that. But she has always been ashamed of being Hispanic.
She would bleach her son's head as a toddler & when he got older forced him to wear blue contacts until he stood up for himself in middle school.
SIL gloats & brags about ruining lives just because she's practiced enough to do it - careers, families, citizenship, etc
When our girls were smaller we gave SIL a chance hoping she had shed her skin. Nope, SIL was still SIL. She used her own nieces to make herself look good - new SOs, new friends & bosses. Once she seemed wholesome enough & secure, she wanted nothing to do with them.
SIL always lives outside of her means. When hubs Gpa was still alive she forced him to pay her mortgage, auto loan & so much more. Meanwhile vacays, cruises, designer clothes, motorcycles, bought her own cabin, etc
When Gpa cut her off, she bled everyone else within her reach, except us, dry & called it a day.
SIL tried buying our three daughters social security cards from us to get her bio father's family into the USA. When we told her no, she called CPS on us.
SIL treated MIL like shit. Which wasn't a surprise. SIL didn't like MIL was one of the few who didn't spoil her during her life. It was everyone else around her who did. & so SIL made it a point to ice out MIL, including keeping her son, MIL's grandson from her.
SIL tried to convince her son that his own son wasn't his just because she didn't like the girl. SIL made this girl's life a living hell. SIL forced him to terminate his parental rights, which he did. A paternity test proved he was his son, but by then the damage was done. The girl ran from that family & didn't look back.
SIL's son married a girl who had a child with someone else, nothing wrong with that. SIL had an issue with that because he was fresh out of HS. They now have a daughter together. SIL's son rarely interacts with her.
When MIL had her stroke that placed her in a long term nursing home - SIL got POA. SIL embezzled what money SSI gave her outside of paying for the home. We knew this would happen, but SIL was the only one capable of being her POA.
We found out one of my BILs was a child predator who preyed on one of our daughters. SIL who could care less about him before all of this - is suddenly his protector. & said despite what he did, he deserves love & his family. Girl, what? 👁️👄👁️
When Gpa died of Alzheimer's. We were not notified despite being very close with him. We had to find out through Google searching his name here & there. It was a few months after his death.
MIL, her stepsister & all of the grandkids were supposed to get an inheritance when Gpa died. Husband never received his. But he didn't want to take SIL to court. He just said, "She can choke on it."
The nursing home kept calling my husband about MIL because they hadn't heard from SIL in weeks, sometimes months. The only person visiting MIL was her husband she was separated from. We couldn't visit her because SIL told the home we couldn't without her permission.
We found out MIL had been diagnosed with uterine cancer while in the nursing home. We found out through one of the phone calls when they couldn't get a hold of SIL.
More phone calls from nursing home because they can't reach SIL to schedule cancer treatments.
Eventually the calls from nursing home said MILs cancer had progressed to the point of hospice because of the lack of consistent medical intervention.
SIL *finally* contacts us & said we can visit MIL before she's moved to hospice.
MIL was never moved to hospice we found this out because one of hubs paternal cousins got a job at the nursing home.
Last week when MIL died we found out because the nursing home contacted us because guess what? They couldn't get ahold of SIL.
SIL didn't even bother to contact us about her death. She posted about the funeral on her FB page. My aunt told me the details because I have SIL blocked, husband doesn't have her blocked.
I was confused about the funeral home being used because it wasn't the one that side of the family uses. So I called them. SIL went cheap - no embalming (not that I agree with it), no viewing, no open casket, just a graveside service.
I also found out MIL would not be buried next to her dad despite having a plot. She was so proud of that plot before being in the nursing home & comforted that she would be next to him. We still don't know if SIL sold the plot before MIL died because of her POA.
We visited MILs grave a few hours after the service (we didn't attend because predator BIL) & found out she was buried next to her mother, aunt & both maternal grandparents. Which made us glad she was at least next to some family.
There was no headstone at her grave. Which we know isn't placed right away. But knowing SILs behavior - we went in person & spoke to the funeral director. SIL did not purchase one, but said she would be back to place one on a payment plan. We told the funeral director that either SIL will ghost her or meetup & not buy one.
We told the funeral director we would purchase the headstone, but to tell SIL there was an 'anonymous donor'.
SIL did come in for the payment plan appointment, but once she heard there was an 'anonymous donor' - the funeral director said, "SIL had her checkbook out & immediately put it back in her purse when she heard there was a donor. She said she'll pay whatever they (us) don't pay."
We're paying for all of it tomorrow. Out of love for MIL, but also BDE & pettiness at this point.
One last thing. SIL used a free obit service, Echovita, which I'm not mad at. But it was a stock obit that ChatGPT wrote. Echovita has that as a feature. I got on Echovita & wrote one my damn self, that was actually personalized.
End Vent
#vent#petty#mother in law#sister in law#funeral#cemetery#headstone#obituary#evil#cancer#uterine cancer#stroke#nursing home#grief#grieving
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Kaveh story quick summary
(for myself mostly, but if someone doesn't want to read all and everything then yeah, here is the shorter version)
Story 1:
Nothing out of the things we would already know. He works hard, he got in debt and hides it quite well because he's bound by all the titles how other people perceive him.
Story 2:
He feels guilty that his father died and that his mother has been miserable ever since. After she left too, he's been lonely, and these feelings kept him up all night. This guilt was what made him so compassionate - he doesn't want people to be harmed by his actions, like his parents were.
>>He cannot accept pure goodwill, for when he makes choices, he believes that he should be punished, and finds some comfort in the pain.<<
I think he sacrificed the house on purpose and then decided himself to pay rent.
Story 3:
Tells about the beginning of his career after graduation and his first hardships in a professional manner.
>>his ideals and career goals were, as a certain someone had said, not easily attainable<< Who's this certain someone? *squints eyes*
It was also after he graduated that art has been treated as lesser compared to academics. Various of his beautifying suggestions were laid off because they weren't necessary. He doesn't agree with any of these, though.
His mother married again in Fontaine, and he was present there, she was happy, and he was happy for her and because she wasn't miserable anymore.
The mere act of sitting on the sofa tormented him with heretofore unmatched solitude. Here, he felt the old adage of all wise scholars being fulfilled: "Do the right thing, no matter what it costs you."
Story 4:
It is about how Dori commissioned him, and it sounds as if this project saved him. He was allowed to do ANYTHING, all the artistry and that.
They were almost done, but then the Withering came and destroyed everything. Kaveh begged Dori to let him finish it. And paid for it from his own pocket. So just like I have been predicting from the very beginning. He sold his house, put his private savings into it and everything left from Dori's funding. The rest was financed by a loan from her.
Story 5:
Alhaitham might not be younger than Kaveh - he enrolled later in age than other's (and exactly 2 years after Kaveh, so another point for me for the 2 years difference, even if not for certain in age, then in their classes at least).
It just says about how they met (in a library), started working together and were so smart and so goo, nobody could keep up with them. So Kaveh was trying to help the others who were doing this project with them.
As Alhaitham liked to put it, certain matters have their upper limit determined by talent and their lower bound determined by hard work. Ordinary people and geniuses would be separated by various practical realities, and they did not have to force themselves to fit into a group they did not belong to. Kaveh, however, was resolute in his belief that this was all the result of obstacles that appeared during the process, and that wisdom should be uncovered by many people.
That's what first caused a conflict between them, and I have to say, this one is hard to overcome. Especially if they are both bloody smart people, and both very stubborn.
Kaveh maintained that Alhaitham was too much of an egoist (...) Alhaitham for his part pointed out that Kaveh's impractical idealism was just a flight from reality, and that it would come to be a burden on his existence someday, and the source of Kaveh's altruism was naught but his inescapable sense of guilt.
Pointing back to the Story 1 because he's so right for that. So right, that this was precisely why they parted. And were criticizing each other's works. Kaveh was also forced to face the reality all over again, as yet another of his projects failed due to financial reasons.
As a genius, Kaveh longed to belong in a crowd, subconsciously fearing separation from it — this was the difference between him and Alhaitham.
Putting it here because this exact trait of Alhaitham is what stuck with me when I first read his stories.
Fast-forward to the present times:
He was sleeping in a tavern and once even passed out after one bottle. That's where he met Alhaitham again. And that's where he told him about all his problems.
Alhaitham then takes him home.
Knowing full well that Alhaitham never did perform a good deed unconditionally, Kaveh would be plagued by guilty conscience and proactively mention helping with household chores, only to become saddled with all the domestic errands… These might be an annoyance for someone at a low point in life, but they are also proof the most unshakable part of one's past is a friend that will never change.
Rationality and sensibility, language and architecture, knowledge and human feelings… Things that can never be integrated are what constitute the two sides of the mirror — indeed, of the entire world.
#Kaveh#alhaitham#kaveh spoilers#kaveh story#genshin impact#genshin#You are all right#he needs therapy#but it is also so beautiful that despite so many reality checks he doesn't forsake himself#he is still loyal to what he believes in#even if it's a result of his own guilt#he still helps people#kaveh leaks
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Shinkane Week 2022 Day 5
I’d like to say I started shipping them when she shot him or when he talked to her from his hospital bed, but I didn’t. I started shipping them from their first scene together. For the “wrath” prompt!
Turbulent
Ozone and rain.
The Enforcers emerged from the paddy wagon, while Akane hurriedly donned her new jacket. He was the last to step under the temporary shelter, his posture taut and already facing the closest alley. She glimpsed unruly dark hair, a fur-lined collar, and broad shoulders. A stoic side profile, or maybe, ‘brooding’ was the better word. He didn’t meet anyone else’s eyes, completely focused on obtaining the Dominator. But his eyes weren’t eager, the blue glow surging briefly, and he spoke of the case in blunt terms of hunting prey.
Her gaze tracked him, as he walked to the perimeter with clear intent. Kougami Shinya. Her first impression wasn’t of a leashed hound, but a wolf that only accepted to be tamed for the time being.
In the coming weeks, she’d realize how true it was. With every new piece of information she learned, it explained his demeanor. Simmering rage, just barely concealed under a veneer of self-discipline. Everything he did was in pursuit of his target. His quest for revenge was anger distilled, at Makishima, the system that allowed him to slip away, and towards Kougami himself.
And despite the warnings, she was unable to stay away.
***
Dust and cigarette smoke.
Adrenaline still buzzed beneath her skin; she redirected the frantic need to move, pulling on the shirt loaned to her. She stole glances at the owner. After four years, Kougami was tanned and more muscular. He’d always been the type to appear thinner with clothes on, but now, that strength was uncontained.
He drove on, turning a corner. “The group is based in one of the abandoned ruins. We have food, water, medicine. Cigarettes are practically currency. We turn the lights off at night, for safety.”
“Have you gotten into many fights?” A faint white line ran down his jawline. She didn’t remember it.
“Plenty. More than I can recall. I can share them with you later.” The car hit a bump. “Sorry.”
“No, it’s alright.” She looked behind. The dirt path was free of drones, the lush trees framing either side. Towards the horizon, a gray haze remained. Another distant boom resounded, and her heart sank.
“Almost there.” He reassured, voice steady.
In this brutal place vastly different from home, Kougami didn’t flinch. He seemed perfectly accustomed. She should’ve been frustrated, appalled, saddened. Even so, all she felt was overwhelming relief that he was alive.
***
Ironwork and warm lights.
She was surprised at how spacious an Enforcer’s quarters were, and compared to her prison, it was a definite upgrade. Her belongings had been moved in quickly, especially with the help she received. “Thank you, again. This isn’t bad, I’ll get to experience how you lived.”
However, Kougami hadn’t budged from the couch, hands interlocked in that familiar pose of deep thought. “I still don’t like that you’re an Enforcer. Statutory or not, it’s the same.”
Akane stood over him, gently caressing his tense shoulders. “I’ll continue investigating, just in a different way. The foxes are out there.”
“Yes, and I won’t stop until every one is arrested. You suffered in that underground cell, and they need to pay.” His tone was foreboding, a dark promise.
After all these years, his default coping mechanism hadn’t changed. She sighed, and buried her lips against the top of his head, amidst the new gray visible. “Will you stay for dinner?”
“Of course.” He brought her in for a kiss, with a searing intensity only he could deliver. His wrath was a reckless beast, but it was fighting for her sake this time, and for once, she couldn’t protest.
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NAME. Milena Barbosa
AGE & BIRTH DATE. 29 & December 5th, 1995
GENDER & PRONOUNS. Female & She/her
SPECIES. Druid
OCCUPATION. Musician, Drummer for Huntress
FACE CLAIM. Julia Dalavia
biography
( tw alcoholism, death, sad times ) The imperceptible lineage of the lunar court prompted a child to be born amidst a wretched winter storm as combative and ornery winds drowned out the wailing cries of a seemingly ordinary baby girl. Milena was the eldest, a child who saw the love drain from her parents eyes as it was replaced with mere exhaustion and resentment. That did not stop her parents from having several more children, a motley of boys and girls that ran rampant around the house, that managed to make a home out of the cramped and overrun place. Love had blossomed there, but it had not prevailed, waning under the pressure of such rambunctious children, the overdue bills, and the house that seemed to nearly sway whenever the winds in Chicago became too mighty.
Milena’s mother, when she was just shy of seven, made a decision that proved pivotal to the small cluster of Barbosa children and their father; their mother chose herself and her career. This was where the pitfall was produced, where her father began to nurse a bottle of liquor instead of aiding his children through the basic qualms of childhood. Milena snapped to swiftly, changing diapers of her toddler siblings, appreciating how to cook -though Hamburger Helper was a childhood staple- yes, she was not even at an age of double digits, but Milena felt akin to a parent, rather than a sibling. Bills piled up quicker, paychecks became infrequent, and shadier parties haggled her father for debts he could no longer pay. It all prompted Milena, a blank slate in need of guidance but absent of it, to learn a very valuable lesson of self reliance; to live among wolves, you have to act like a wolf. Or, rather, allow the wolf to believe one is of their kind; better a fox than a wolf, and much like the divergence of foxes from the lineage of wolves, Milan adapted. Cunning, swift, she lied and maneuvered her way through life, fringing on the need to protect and aid her younger siblings.
The entirety of her being became dedicated to them, slipping canned goods into various pockets, traveling out of the way to pilfer from certain corner stores; lies and thievery had become a dependable second skin, an adaptation that she relied on when money stretched too thin to handle. A survivalist molded into a nurturing spirit, in spite of the resentments felt for her mother, towards her father; Milena still wiped the drool off his lips, swiped the empty liquor bottle from his hand and helped him to bed. A quotidian routine that spiraled from adolescence to the miniature adult she was forming to be as a teenager. The one constant despite her father’s raging habit was a hidden talent that formed in the resonance of music. Song was in her blood, a distant cadence that spoke to fey and elves, gelid spires and snowy tundras; Milena had no idea the Noble blood which she came from but her musical talents were profound.
Despite the misfortune and poverty which surrounded her, Milena had the anomalous yearning to learn the cello in middle school, musical passion which grew in a maddening flurry as she swiftly shifted to learning the flute. In such rapid succinctness, of bloodied fingers from hours of practice, from labored lungs after her attempt at woodwind instruments, Milena diverted to a completely new realm of music altogether; rock music, punk, whatever one would like to call it. She coveted a prodigal favoring for drums and guitar, instruments which lanced any compressed rage and embitterment from her home life that she so desperately wished to escape from. Her first guitar and amp had been loaned and inevitably purchased before she graduated high school, an investment that was discounted for her from the local music store considering her predicament. The guilt from the investment was clear but Milena often sacrificed plenty of herself for her younger siblings, something she continued to do as they all aged and she felt horribly affixed in the same place. Days passed, years tallied on; Milena never did graduate from high school as her father’s alcoholism worsened and the mouths to feed became older, not as easy to satiate as growling stomachs grew. Milena had dreams and ambitions, much the same as any human born upon this earth, but she settled; a girl forced to be a mother figure, a nurturing presence as she fought to ensure the lives of those who came after her would be better. Seven younger siblings, crammed within a house in the back yards of Chicago; Milena could only pray they’d never have to wipe the drool from her father’s lips, scrub the smell of alcohol from the carpets, nor carry him from couch to bed. If she stayed, they wouldn’t have to; and so, she lingered.
Life was grueling when it came to the patterns of her quotidian life; music became a secondary presence to the meals she had to cook, the homework she aided her siblings with, the crappy hours spent working multiple jobs to ensure they’d not lose the house. It was ordinary, it was routine, but one day Milena was to come home to find the unexpected. The Eye of Horus; someone from their organization sat and lingered in their shoddy Chicagoan kitchen, adorned in a pressed suit, sipping some likely over expensive latte, surrounded by the chipping paint and faded linoleum of Milena’s family home. They spoke of trials, they uttered promises of enhancements that one like her could never dream of. Their gaze upon this world went farther into depths of perception and manipulation than Milena could ever understand; they knew of her blood, spoke of distant nobility that had arisen from a mere donation of her blood to a blood bank.They wanted her; the process was simple, a series of trials to activate the powers within her. She’d be paid for her time, allotted a sum of money to pay for her contribution to the trials, but as Milena looked over towards her father, the human had to decline. There was also the idea that this random was absolutely insane, speaking of elves and eladrins, nobility and song. They were persistent and a horrific compromise was made; if she spoke to her siblings and they were invested in the idea of such a trial, The Eye of Horus could enact such experimentation. What could there be to lose? Either this very man, the organization he spoke of, was a hack of complete insanity; or their lives were to be forever changed.
After Milena’s explanation, none of her siblings were necessarily interested in the cause, but three had been invested for pure avarice of compensation alone. They went off to weekly trials, came home with pinpricks and signs of adverse reactions to look out for until one day the three had vanished. The Eye was an organization which was everywhere and nowhere and it was under such realization, such horror, that her three siblings were lost to her; whether they’d successfully flown the coop or that they’d been taken, she’d never know the truth. Idiocy, greed, all things which propelled their involvement with The Eye, Milena’s guilt only strengthened at their disappearance.
Her time shifted to divulging in whatever she could discover about the Eye of Horus; long nights nursing a pot of coffee, hours dwindling away in the local library attempting to unearth the obscurities of such organization. Retaliation for her sleuthing came swiftly, though they’d cut off contact from Milena, seemingly abducted her siblings completely for their experiments, they could not allow her to dig into things which she could not yet understand. Her world shifted entirely as the slaughter of her own was enacted; her father, her siblings, as they slept within their home they were cut down. A lesson and a warning not to delve into matters that no longer concerned her. A fox smartened up quick, they were ambitious and driven for success, and though she wept and grieved, Milena would not let the Eye succeed on completely overturning her life. Rome was often at the epicenter of the excerpts and articles she discovered and so, through the estate sale of her childhood home, Milena kissed the scars of her adolescence goodbye. The only remnant of such life was a few of her clothes, her first guitar and amp, and the ambitions of her siblings disappearances, her family’s deaths that wrought her presence within the Italian city.
Milena did not find the Eye first, an archdruid had found her; Octavian. Once turned into a pariah and a monstrosity by Rome’s Senate, by the Eye all had turned against him and she found a similar flame within herself. Octavian turned Milena into the Fox; his survivalist acolyte that seemed to have several lives as the Eye swept through their kind. Despite their supposed reform, a fox does not forgive nor forget quite so easily.
personality
+ Ambitious, compassionate, endearing
– Revengeful, nihlistic, impulsive
played by gia. est. she/her.
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A Bloom In Time Ch29 Time Filler
(This is just a random slice of life chapter to fill the gaps before the next major event in the story. Sorta like one of those speed montages in shows or games.)
Days passed since that incident out with the mafia, and the entire thing had been pushed to the back of their minds as her or the girls got things settled. Most of the days Poppy spent watching television marathons with the girls since she found them all really interesting. Most of them was kiddy shows like Detective Pengiun. Science Owl's Magic Hour, etc. But there was also reruns of Cookie's cooking show. Poppy had to ask what reruns were and Bow kindly explained that they were episodes that already aired but were being shown again, rerun on air. Therefore being dubbed reruns. They were great if you wanted to rewatch a favorite episode of yours or series, or if there was an episode you missed, so you could have a chance to watch it. Poppy found it fascinating they could magically show endless shows without having to plug in a projector and record player. Besides that she finally got to see what kind of movies this Conductor person made. Most of them were serious, with great plot stories, drama, a wee bit of romance, but mostly action. Weired titles tho. The Good, The Bad, and The Swan. Gary Pecker High Goon. Blazing Beaks. And so on. She had to admit, for a bunch of owls they were pretty good. Most of Mr. Grooves stories on the other hand were to put it lightly eye soring. Yeah. Most of them have nice or even great plots, but it was usually blind sided by the flashing or bright lights that made her head sore. But there was a few good ones too in the bunch without blinding lights. Poppy was surprised to find out the children had even starred in some of their movies. Mr. Grooves being called The Big Parade, and Conductor's being called Murder On The Owl Express. They were low key, but still enjoyable....That WAS until she saw the complete and utter DANGEROUS situations those two were put through!! Who has a child jump from building to building tons of feet in the air being followed by rockets and sparks of electricity?! AND WHO MAKES A CHILD JUMP OVER BOMBS AND DISMANTLED TRAINS WHILE SHUTTING OFF A TIMED BOMB?! She asked the two about it horrified and they just shrugged it off like they did this kind of stuff everyday.
...
CLEARLY she was going to have to have a talk with those loony birds and give them a piece of her mind. If they expected her to be doing some death defying stuff like that then they were CLEARLY mistaken. Speaking of those two birds, she would be getting a notice from one of them very soon. The next day actually. She was just sleeping soundly on the attic floor (the girls had been nice enough to loan her a miniature pile of pillows to lay upon as to avoid sleeping anymore on cold hard wood) when a sound a came ringing out. She didn't pay very much attention to it first, because...well she was sleeping in and felt like getting some good shut eye from doing nothing but playing with two energetic girls in a limited space it too her a long time to crawl around in. Plus being two rooms over she didn't really hear it all too well. But two little kids running around sure did. Which is when she woke up to Hattie forcefully shook her awake against her will.
"Wh-what-"
"Get up!," hattie yelled practically in her ear making her yelp and sit up fast. Hand shooting up to clutch her ear as she tiredly blinked at the girl.
"What the world are you doin'?" She barely got time to ask before Hattie grabbed her hand and pulled. Telling her to get up and go to the phone. "Phone? What you mean a telephone?"
"Yeah! DJ Grooves wants to talk to you."
So the little alien had a telephone on this ship too? Huh. You learn something new everyday. And apparently Mr. Grooves wanted to speak to her? Huh. Ok. She'll get up. Poppy slowly and tiredly got up and made her way out of the attic, following Hattie down the ramp and and tiredly rubbing her eyes as she walked after her towards the machine room. Already groaning at the fact she'd be having to crawl through a small hallway again. But once she did, the sounds of grinding gears graced her ears as they rattled and worked. And found the girls huddled around what she definately recognized as something from her time. An old fashioned (well to the girls and everyone else it'd be very old fashioned by now but in her day it was a pretty new technology) phone stuck to the side of the wall and it looked like bow was holding up the end you could hear someone's voice from and speaking something but stopped when Poppy came tiredly walking towards her. Bow happily handed her the other end of the phone and Poppy nodded in thanks before holding said object to her ear to listen.
"H-Hello? *yawn*"
"DARLING!! Thank goodness you're awake!," the happy voice of Mr. Grooves boomed out from the other side of the phone making Poppy wince and pull her head away from the speaker. "I have wonderous news, Darling! Incredible, fantastic news!"
"You don't say," she muttered softly rubbing her ear.
"I found a young lady who could not only play one role but TWO in our little plays! Can you believe that!" Oh. So he found someone to fill in another role. Nice. "We're nearly meeting our quota for the entire staff!! There's still much things to prepare for like the scenes and of course, but by the end of next month I'm sure we'll have everything we'll need to start rehearsals. ....Considering if I can find someone else to fill the last few roles of course. The pressure's really getting to me, Darling."
"I'm sure ya'll find someone...*yaaaaaawn* Yer good at your job," Poppy complimented as an attempt to bring some ease to the nervous penguin.
"Darling, you are absolutely right! I'll keep you filled in on the juicy details as they go, for now don't forget to study up on those lines dear! DJ Grooves out!"
And then he hung up. What a way to start the morning.
This was falling in such a regular routine she was starting to lose track of time and days. Kinda hard to considering you couldn't really tell time from space and there wasn't any calenders around for her to really get a good idea on what day it was or how to calculate it all. Luckily she had plenty to do around the ship. The girls acted like they were a little disappointed Snatcher told them essentially to not leave the ship with or without Poppy without his say so first, so it was pretty much a grounding without being grounded. But luckily they had a remedy-.......Making Poppy play with her. Most of the girls' days the past few-...Weeks? Days?? Was filled with Poppy running around playing whatever games these two came up with from pillow fighting to storytime. She didn't mind of course but all of this was starting to wear down on her. She was going crazy from the limited space and just watching tv. But she had other things too to try out. Like cooking one of those giant fish she got.
Hattie had walked in on her in the kitchen one afternoon(??) with one of the fish in a pan and going through her cabinets sprinkling any herbs she recongized on it, wearing that cooking apron she bought from Mafia town. She didn't hear her walk up to her until she spoke curiously looking at the entire thing she was attempting to cook. "Whatcha doing?"
Poppy had jumped almost dropping some basil and blinked down at the young girl. "Oh..It's just you." She turned back to the fish. "Ah'm makin' lunch."
"With the fish??"
"Yep! There used to be this stream in the woods where I caught these here suckers all the time. Roasted them over a fire lots of nights and made a good meal. Where I'm from ya gotta be resourceful and make do with what ya had....I don't suppose ya'll have a fire place 'round here do ya?"
Hattie shook her head no before pointing to the over attached to the stove. "But I have this. Cookie uses this to make cakes." The child happily licked her lips. "AND COOKIES!! I love her cookies!!"
Poppy opened the strange door attached to the stove top and blinked at what was inside. "What is it?"
"A stove. You bake stuff in it."
".....THIS is a stove?," She rose a brow. "Where in tarnation are ya'll supposed ta put the wood and light the fire to heat this thing up ta bake??"
"...Um." Hattie peeked inside too slightly confused at Poppy's question ...before shrugging. "I don't know, but Cookie presses the big blue button there-" she pointed to a blue button at the headboard of the stove. "-and it starts to heat up."
"....Fascinatin'."
A stove and over that didn't need fire or wood to cook? Wow. Alien technology was sure something else wasn't it. Poppy made a mental note to ask Cookie to help her figure out this crazy contraption when she got the chance. For now she just pushed the seasoned fish into the oven and pushed the blue button Hattie had pointed to. Within half an hour of Poppy sitting there waiting, the thing got to be an impressive hot temperature. After a little while longer(and the girls asking her to read to them again while they waited), she got a whiff of some mouth watering roasted fish! She wasn't sure exactly HOW it worked and had to ask Hattie to turn it off(by pressing the same button again) but the three were treated to some of that delicious roasted fish. Poppy didn't like to brag or anything, and she wasn't the best cook, but she could make a darn good fish meal. It also took her a while to figure out how to use the laundry machine and dryer in the storage room as there wasn't any lines to hang the wet clothes on and she nearly had a heart attack when she pushed a button on the washer and water all of a sudden started spilling into it. Bow had to reassure her this was the way Snatcher always did it and sometimes Cookie if she had a lot of time on her hands-...paws. Another day(??) and again she was started to get frustrated and feel enclosed in whenever she couldn't walk around anywhere else besides the control room, attic, and kitchen. Until finally-
FINALLY!!
Snatcher decided to show his jack o lantern face again. The purple onion. He just popped up one day outta the blue so randomly and suddenly she nearly had a heart attack just walking in on him curiously waiting for her outside the machie room- But we're getting a little bit ahead of ourselves. It would be a MORE surprising coincidence after the fact she had yet ANOTHER call from Mr. Grooves, this time thankfully in the afternoon instead of early morning, no need to wake her up this time.
"DARLING!! SPLENDID FANTASTIC SPECTACULAR NEWS!! WE FINALLY MANAGED TO FILL ALL THE ROLES OF OUR SHOW!! OH IM SO HAPPY DARLING!! YOU HAVE NO IDEA!!"
Poppy was smart enough to hold the old phone away from her ear this time as she could hear him loud and clear through the device. "Oh, Im sure I can, Sir. That sounds delightful."
"IT IS DARLING!!! OH YOU MUST COME IN IMMEDIATELY FOR COSTUME FITTING!!"
"Wait...As in right now?"
"Oh no of course not! First thing tomorrow mourning, Darling! I want to make everything as perfect as possible!"
"Sure thing!"
Shortly after that the two said their good byes and she hung up before crawling her way back through the small hallway and back into the control room where she met none other than the man of the hour himself....Or should I say noodle ghost? Snatcher was waiting for her arms crossed and with that famous frown of his gazing as Poppy came in and paused standing up at the sight of him. Wearing that plain pink dress she bought some time ago.
"You're late!," he huffed, "You know my time is precious to me as an all powerful being like myself."
"Well, excuse me. But I will remind you I sorta have a second boss at the moment?" She frowned back. "Or did ya'll forget me stupidly gettin' mahself inta debt...again?"
He smirked. "Oh I didn't forget a thing, Red. I love the way you're always stumbling around like a frail leaf in the breeze.~"
"OH!!...PECK OFF YA ONION!!" She scowled more at him as he chuckled. "Do ya know how hard it is ta work two jobs and watch these lil guys at the same time?!"
"Welcome to MY world! And you know I could always scare you out of any debt you got yourself into with those pecknecks down there." He offered genuinely. "I may not look like it, but I'm very good at legal technicalities. I did want to be a lawyer at once upon a time!"
"....That's..actually very nice of ya to offer me, but hard pass. I got mahself into this mess and if I'm gonna survive on my own after this, ah need to learn how to work on my own out there. And I can't go back on my word after I caused so much trouble for Mr. Grooves and Mr. Loudmouth. And I already agreed to everythin'. I need to take responsibility and not just leave him with another problem." Snatcher stared at her for a moment before sighing and smiling widely again. Ah, Poppy. Always the stubborn old gal taking the weight ofworld on her shoulders. "What are you even doin' here anyways?," she asked eyeing him up and down, "It's not like ya'll drop by whenever ya want anyways, but why now?"
"Food delivery."
"What?"
One of those long noodle arms detached itself from his crossed arm position and pointed down to a small bag the size of the two kids rummaging through it. Food was flowing out of it with apples, lettace, and a few other food varieties falling out. Making her eyes go wide as a moment later Hattie pulled out a s bag of cookies and squeled in delight at them.
"I said Im not completely heartless," he spoke Snapping her out of her staring to look at him. "I get them food and make sure they're well fed. ...What? Did you think I wouldn't provide for them? It's been almost a month since you're little incident so I came like any good king would and supply my people."
One of his clawed hands patted Bow on the head when the little girl hugged his tail but Poppy didn't notice. Her eyes went as wide as puddles as she stared at him like a cartoon character. .....A...Almost a month?? .....A MONTH!?!? SHE HAD BEEN COOPED UP HERE JUST WATCHING CARTOONS, PLAYING, AND WHATEVER ELSE FOR A MONTH!? PECKING PECKNECKS!!! She loved the kids as they were darlings, BUT SHE NEEDED SOME OUTSIDE WALK AROUND WIDE AREA TIME!! FOR PECKS SAKE!!! ...Well, that would also explain why the food in the fridge was starting to lower quite a bit. But seriously!? He was gone for a whole pecking (almost) month and didn't bother to tell her or visit!? Gee. What a swell boss. Poppy groaned and shook her head ....before sighing and walking around him and picking up the bag from the two girls, who at the moment, was picking up the fruit that spilt out but stopped and followed after her as she walked.
"Well, thank you for that brilliant update of yers. But ah'm goin' to that fitting or whatever tomorrow an' if ya'll don't like it then come with or too bad. But I ain't gonna beat 'round the bush anymore with these jobs."
Snatcher grumbled but SOMEHOW ended up agreeing to teleporting the trio into the Dead Bird Studios the very next day. Kinda surprised to find Poppy the one up and adam with the two girls still yawning but visibly excited they'd be getting to go somewhere today finally after being cooped up all the time. The teleporting worked as quickly as any other time he did it, when the girls and her grabbed a hold of his clawed hands. Purple energy completely took over the world around them like the many times he's done this before and swallowed them all whole, she was pretty used to this by now so she just stood patiently. Poppy closed her eyes when purple invaded her vision and the air suddenly shifted again to that blazing hot sunny desert area she saw before with the famous studios in front of them all. With Poppy in the lead the girls excitedly followed and Snatcher like in mafia town resumed to sticking into a shadow again. But this time Hattie's shadow. The two girls were babbling excitedly about how they were going to see Mr. Grooves put together their favorite story right before them. And speaking of said penguin, he was awaiting their arrival as soon as they stepped through the dimly lit hallway and into the lobby. The secritary was there too, the bird briefly looked up when the trio of gals came in but only gave them a glance before looking back to his computor screen and going back to work. Mr. Grooves lit up as soon as his eyes landed on Poppy and his large beak curled up in a smile.
"DARLING!! You're finally here!," he shouted sounding almost nervous as he rushed up to them frazzked and Poppy blinked as he grabbed her hand. He was sweating a bit from worrying. "I was beginning to think you wouldn't come!" Before she could say a word he turned and pulled her towards a pair of the giant pair of the doors to the right. "Come, come. There's so much to get done and so little time to do it!!"
"O-Oh..Ok?"
The doors creaked open with a massive creak and the sounds and sights that greeted her when they opened astonished her. The place would've been very dark if it wasn't for the giant lights on the ceiling shining brightly down onto the MASSIVE hussle n bussle of the people-...penguins inside. There must've been(at least to her) hundreds of penguins behind the door everywhere. Carrying things around, pushing giant colorful props or giant crates on wagons for whatever reason, a few penguins with headsets and clipbourds were ordering things into them and checking things over and over again on the papers in their flippers. Apprently it must've been surprising for the girls too because they were gawking around too as they walked. As soon as Mr. Grooves stepped in almost all the penguins who weren't moving things turned their attention to him as he briskly walked past leading the girls.
"Mr. Grooves," a lady penguin called out nervously. "Night Scene three collasped under the weight of too many stars hanging off it-"
"Remove any unneeded weight, but keep as many shiny stars as you can!," he quickly shouted back.
"Silver or gold ones!?"
"BOTH!!"
"Mr. Grooves! The steel poles for the support system came in-"
"Give them to the engineering team immediately!!"
"Sir! Coffee and lunch for staff arrived."
"Pass it out immediately!"
A whole bunch of 'Sir!'s and 'Mr. Grooves!''s and "Boss!"s was thrown by the multiple penguins around them and Mr. Grooves impressively shouted back while manevouring Poppy around and forward the moving crowd. Sometimes completely stopping her before she hit something before suddenly tugging her forward again making her almost trip multiple times. The girls not far behind him dodging between them all with much more impressive skilled than Poppy. Easily keeping up with the two.
"W-Where in tarnation are ya'll takin' me?", Poppy managed to force out before ducking under a plank of wood being carried passed them.
"Costume fitting!," he answered back quickly, "We're already ten minutes behind scheduale!"
It was seven in the morning. But that didn't matter to the rushing penguin it seemed when he suddenly made a sharp turn to the right which made Poppy yelp and almost trip over her own foot but luckily she didn't. usually she REALLY didn't like being pulled around and would've yanked her hand away long ago but she was kinda lost in this kinda environment and would've probably gotten lost again. The hallway was a little quieter but you can still hear the noise from behind them. The hallway was a lil more dimly lit than the giant room back there but they could still see the many red doors lining the left of them and they could DEFINATELY see the crew of people up ahead of them. Four humans(2 men 2 women), and two owls. One of the owls looked older than the other, a few grey feathers sticking out here and there, with rhinestone glasses a pink dress and a pin cushion strapped to her wrist. The other female owl behind her was holding a mountain of folded fabric and a small suitcase on top of it. The owl scowled angry, wings on her hips, and tapping her foot against the floor as Mr. Grooves ran up to her out of breath and wheezing.
"You're late," she stated calmly despite her face.
"I know, I know." He apologised still nervous. "Apologies for the misunderstanding, Ms. Talon. I should've told her what time to be here but all this pressure has been building on me I forgot."
The owl lady sighed and waved him off. "No matter. Now that she's here I can get the measurements to finish these orders."
Measurements?," Poppy asked curiously.
"For the costumes," Ms. Talon answered, shifting her glasses and looking Poppy over, "You must be the princess. It's about time you got here. I only have so much time to work on these and making costumes of this scale on such short notice aren't easy."
"Uh..Sorry, Ma'am."
"Oh don't apologize." A familiar figure stepped forward with long brown hair and copper eyes smiled at Poppy when the red head looked over at her. "After all woman are known to be fashionably late.~"
" Ms. Hazelle!" Poppy's face lit up seeing the familiar face of the witch. Making two yellow eyes pop out from Hattie's shadow at the mention of the name. "What are you doing here?"
Hazelle smirked and waved her off. "Don't call me miss. Im not that old.~ But to answer your question, I'm going to be your fabulous coworker for the movie-"
"REALLY?!," Bow asked wide eyed at Hazelle who nodded.
"Yep! You're looking at the evil step sister of this Starella character you're playing. I figured what better way to get to know my pal's new friend better-"
A wing shoved between them interrupting their conversation and turned Poppy's attention back onto the elderly bird as the door next to them opened and she gestured Poppy to it. "If you'll please? I have much work to do."
Poppy happily oblidged and walked through the door followed by both lady birds and waved a quick good bye to Hazelle. At the same time another penguin had rushed up to Mr. Grooves babbling wildly about something catching on fire and they needed him right away to assess the damages and the panicked penguin boss quickly agreed rushing away to help with whatever was wrong. Leaving the group of humans awaiting to be measured. No one noticed the way Hattie's shadow enlarged and creeped along the floor and up the wall until it was level headed with Hazelle who regarded it with a lazy gaze and smile. As two angry yellow eyes glared at her very core.
"W H A T A R E Y O U D O I N G?!," he whispered to her with bit and anger in his tone dripping with each word he spoke.
"Oh come on. You know I couldn't just pass up this chance to see how it plays out. Besides. Maybe I can help when things finally go south from all this mess building up. Can't take a broom and sweep it under the carpet this time, Snatchy."
"I. Am. WORKING ON IT!!" Hazelle shushed him when one or two people turned to them...before shrugging and going back to talking to whoever they were originally talking to. "....I just need some time to figure out the best way to tell her is all."
"What have you been doing all this time in that forest? Sitting on your butt reading and doing whatever you usually boringly do and avoiding it?"
".....No," he didn't sound very convincing and Hazelle groaned facepalming. "I swear. I know it. I just KNOW this is gonna end badly."
The girls were behind them and were surprised to see Mr. Thor and Mr. Timophy from the forest there. Apparently the museum they had gone on an expidition on had long sense closed after their freezing for who knows how long and had parted ways with Mr. Oldster looking for more work and had stumbled upon Mr. Grooves's ad in the newspaper. And had sucessfully taken two important roles in his play. With Mr. Thor as the Milkyway Prince and Mr. Timophy as Starella's Father. Well that was all swell and dandy with the beefy mafia woman with them being the evil step mother. Looks like it was all coming together and they excitedly babbled to themselves about how this would be the best show ever when another familiar face popped up next to them in the form of a small boy around their age.
"Timmy! Hi!," Bow greeted and fist bumped him when he held up his hand.
"Whatcha doing here?," Hattie asked him.
He casually shrugged. "Hazelle's been hired here and I wanted to tag along, eh? A real movie studio and getting to see the action in person. Pops thought it was 'a good educational experience' as he put it."
"Sounds like, Moon. Where is he anyways?" They hadn't seen him in like-...Forever.
"The spook the spook got shook him pretty good. He's staying in the comfort of that empty ghost zone for the time being." He Gave the two of them a curious look before asking. "By the way I meant to ask about that red haired lady who just went into that room. Who is she?"
"Oh. You mean Poppy?" Hattie asked and Timmy nodded and she shrugged. "She was locked in the crazy peckneck's mansion."
"Ya mean when noodle man stole your time piece? Moonjumper told me all about that part when he got home."
Hattie sighed. "It's a long boring story."
"I got time. Tell me."
And so Hattie spilt the whole story to him. In the mean time Poppy was getting poked and prodded by measuring tapes, fabric scrapes quickly cut from the base pattern were safety pinned around her. Ms. Talon explained that the base pattern was an experiment she'd made to make sure all the fabric pieces would fit right and that Poppy was able to move around comfortably in the actual costume and constantly asked how the movement felt and if anything was too tight, too loose, needed to be adjusted a size, if she had trouble walking around in it, etc. All the while at most it took maybe twenty to thirty minutes tops of Ms. Talon carefully walking Poppy move around in the dress and making adjustments whereever she decided needed it the most. Poppy was just going with this because she was the dress expert after all, and she learnt with everything going on for now it was better to just go with it unless she absolutely found it something she didn't want or really agree with. And so far there was nothing wrong with trying on a dress she was gonna have to use anyways. When the old bird was finally satisfied she had Poppy take off the prototype dress with her help and soon after sent her back out before calling in the next person in, which by coincidence happened to have been Hazelle. Also ironically none of the adults before this had noticed the kids chatter, but if Snatcher did he would've definately risked revealing himself when the girls told Timmy the entire tale of how Poppy came to be as his purple eyes widened in wonder.
"You're all kidding!"
Hattie shook her head. "Nope! That really happened."
"So...Finding all that hidden gold in the attic then? That was real too?," Timmy asked.
"Yep! We still got the gold skull to prove it! Like some pirate!," Hattie stated proudly but stopped when Poppy came over and smiled at them. "Hi Poppy!"
"Hey, sugarcube. Whatcha lot talkin' bout?," she asked.
"Hattie was just telling me the exciting discovery of you finding gold in the attic," Timmy answered quickly with a sweet smile. "Is it true there was a whole bunch of gold hidden under the staircase shaped like a castle?"
Unsuspecting anything Poppy only smiled at the little boy and nodded. "Yep! It's a long story but ah would appreciate it if ya'll wouldn't go 'round tellin' everyone 'bout that."
"Of course, Ma'am. I wouldn't dream of gossiping about something like that. It wouldn't be very kind of me would it?"
Her smile went wider as Snatcher glared at him from over her shoulder. Giving Timmy a suspicious glare. "Have ya'll been enjoyinh yer stay here then?"
He nodded. "Yes, Ma'am. It's very interesting to see all the action behind the cartoons and it's nice to take a break from magic lessons for once. Have you been liking it?"
She chuckled nervously and glanced back up the hallway to see Mr. Grooves chatting with another penguin who handed him a tall stack of papers. "You can say that. Truthfully Im nervous 'bout when the real action here is gonna start."
Timmy nodded. "Totally understandable, Miss. This does take a bit of work eh? Then again a wise man once said 'things get hard before they get better'. So you should have no need to worry!"
Snatcher couldn't stop the suspicious look he threw at the boy but he had to duck back into Hattie's shadow before the crowd of waiting people and penguins noticed a shadow with yellow eyes and freaked out. They were only there for a little while longer as Snatcher wanted to have one or two more words with Hazelle before they were all teleported back to the ship. But before that Mr. Grooves managed to pass out the stacks of papers to all the actors and actresses, explaining that it was the scripts for the play with their along with everyone's movements, places, and lines. Since they wouldn't be starting rehearsals until they could gaurentee the scenes would be completely be put together and for everyone to study, study, STUDY these scripts so they'd be prepared and read and to practice the movements and lines there in the mean time. Ok. Seemed simple enough in her eyes. The thing was about as think as your average library book and was expertly detailed and written to be very clear for everyone to read. Hats off to the script writer for their excellent skills. They were able to exchange a few words with Hazelle and Timmy before turning again to make their exit straight back home to Snatcher's orders, but not before Snatcher hissed one last thing at Hazelle.
''You BETTER not do anything foolish!," he hissed a warning at her to which she glared back.
"The only one acting 'foolish' around here is YOU, Prince. I'm just enjoying the back seat view in case I'm needed. If I was you, I'd be taking your own advice."
Snatcher gave her a blank look before silently slinking away from her and back down the halls after the girls who'd no doubt be dodging the working Penguin mob again. Hazelle nor anyone else noticed the thoughtful look Timmy was giving all of them and only snapped to attention once Hazelle decided it was also time for them to leave. And get him back home to Moonjumper who'd be eagerly awaiting his arrival back home and Timmy's progress report on what Hattie told her all about Poppy. And tell him when he arrived home and Hazelle had left they did.
"My boy. What did you find out?"
"....*sigh* Sit down. It's gonna be a wild one."
The days were passing filled with reading and trying to make heads and tails of the practically book Poppy was handed by the penguin and would often go over the lines and movements in her head and spare time. She once compared the script to the actually Starella book and noticed a the lines and the movements described in the script were the same in the book, only more detailed since this would be a real life action play and not just a picture book being read to them. They would have actual people like Poppy and Hazelle be on stage for the whole veiwing pleasure. The whole thing made her get MAJOR butterflies in her stomach especially since she didn't know WHEN she was about to get called back for actual rehearsals with people and filming crew for LIVE television. But she pushed on. Practicing herself (or at least trying to)in the attic with no one else watching and trying to play and manage two energentic lil girls at the same time and taking care of them the next couple of days too. Bow having a slightly much more clingy but kinda cute bond building between the two. Poppy smiled whenever she agreed to play pretend with her or helped her comb through her curls and in turn letting her and Hattie braid her hair or doing whatever do they wanted to try out on her. And Hattie asking her every so often to lift something as she was 'So cool!' in her words when she did things like a superhero. And of course excitedly asking her to read to them every night and sometimes during the day. Mostly it was Starella since they were so excited about the play coming out of their favorite bedtime story. Which often included Poppy tucking the two girls in afterwards and leaving to flop her own exhausted self into the small bed made of pillows she had made for herself. And it was one night when they were sleepily blinking against the soft pillows as Poppy read that she got the surprise of her life.
"Starella happily agreed and her father returned. Upon hearing what her Stepmother and Stepsister had done while he was away, he banished them from his home never to return again." She turned to the last page where it showed a very elaborate wedding and the Prince and Starella being the ones to be wed. "After a few years of letting their love and fondness for each other grow, Starella and the prince were finally married. The End." Poppy closed the book and stood up. Stretching out her back and yawning herself as she walked over to the night stand beside the bed with the lit lamp. She found that the night stand would be the book's new home for a while since they kept requesting it so much. Not that she actually had any objections to reading it so much, after all she needed as much info on the book as possible. The book was placed down and the lamp shut off cutting off most of the light in the large room minus the nightlight and Poppy smiled at the two children trying to blink awake at her. "Ok. Bed time you two."
Bow smiled at the lady pulling the rocket ship patterned blanket up to their shoulders. "Poppy...Can I call you mama?"
The blanket stopped and blue eyes looked at Bow at the sudden question- "I wanna call you mom too!" Hattie piped up shifting a little bit closer towards Bow's side of the bed and Poppy's shocked gaze snapped over to the girl who's eyes lit up with even more sparkle.
Mom?....A REAL MOM!! Just for them. Just like Snatcher said. A mom who could pecking bench press a mafia, read them stories, and was gonna be a star!! Poppy on the other head completely blanked out as if her brain was a computor and she couldn't process the info she heard properly. ....Mom? Mom who? Her?! Oh NO! No. Surely they couldn't have been referring to Poppy herself. I mean her a mom? Ha! In her dreams. Don't let it fool you, she absolutely adored children. Thought they were the cutest things since rosebuds, and these two were no exception. She loved Hattie's adventerous and free spirit. Reminded her of herself when she was a little girl. And Bow was such a sweet little girl if not also adventurous in her own ways, and she'd be lying if she said she wasn't upset these two sweet kids didn't have any more family beyond the kooky ghost. BUT HER A MOM?! Honestly she's never seen herself having any kind of children in her life let alone a mom!!
"Uh- ....Who me?," she managed to stutter out through her stupor finally before shaking her head. "Y-Ya'll must be mistaken. Ya wouldn't w-want me as a mum. I wouldn't be good at it."
"B-But...You're always telling us stories," Bow reasoned face a little crestfallen, "And playing with us."
"And cooking and cleaning and you're really, REALLY cool!!," Hattie added, "And protecting us."
"W-Well yes. T-That's what I'm supposed to do b-because Snatcher asked me too-"
"So you love, Snatcher?," Hattie asked leaning her head forward to look at Poppy better. "If you guys are a couple then that really makes you our Mom!"
Poppy did a complete 180 stop, rewind, and replay of hattie's question in her mind before a pink rose in her cheeks and she stammered. "W-WHA- Now d-don't you get those silly thoughts in yer head! Your daddy's a very nice man- uh....Ghost. But that don't mean we're cohootin' like love birds! The most we are is...maybe pals, but that's 'bout it. Ya'll don't have a step mum-''
"We don't have any moms."
The sad tone in Bow's voice made Poppy pause in anything else was about to say. That reality hit hard in her mind as all of Snatcher's words came a rushing back to her-
"They're orphans." " They have no one else." "I don't know anything about Bow's past and neither does she. As far as I know she was raised in a crummy orphanage her whole life before she decided to run away and get tangled up in the mess Hattie made when she first arrived." "Turns out she never had anything there to begin with." "I don't know how long she was out there and I don't know why she wanted to go back to where she came from or what happened to make her flee again. Never asked. But I also never questioned it when she came back and decided not to leave again. She's a smart kid. Here there's people who care about her and want her to be safe."
They...They really didn't have anyone else besides themselves and that ghost. Any potential moms weren't here for whatever reason. They probably didn't even have a constant lady figure around to play with or to look up to. But there was one giant problem with this...Poppy wasn't a mother. She never planned or really wanted to be a mother, and she wasn't planning on staying here forever. She had her own life plans ahead of her she wanted to fullfill. But-....What was she supposed to tell these girls!? They really had no mother to look up to and she wasn't interested in being their mum-
"Don't you love us?," Bow innocently asked in a low voice both children gazing at her with large almost worried eyes.
Poppy still sat there in an uncomfortable silence, the sudden question making any answer die on her tongue immediately after gazing into those sad inoccent eyes of the kids who literally saved her life on one or two occasions, set her free, and honestly made her smile more than she had for a long time. Life almost felt normal behind the chaotic mess it really was.
"Of course I do.....Ya'll may..c-call me that if ya really want to. Ah don't mind."
She may have been lying to herself on that last part but it was too late to take any of that back now as she slowly pulled the blanket the rest of the way up and stood there watching as they fell asleep with happy smiles on their faces. Their new mother. Her a new mother. Watching over her children before her emotional departure to the control room. How does she keep getting herself into these situations? HOW!? How was she supposed to be dealing with any of this now that she was a 'mother' on top of the giant pile of mess she was supposed to be cleaning up herself. Two debts and an (not sure if she wanted or not) title for two little girls' happiness. Things couldn't possibly get anymore worse for her. The silence of the control room she crawled into was one good thing at least. It could give her peace of mind knowing that the only sounds came from Rumbi as he softly swept to and fro everywhere. It was a blessing really. All she needed while passing the large windows as she took a glance out to look at the beautiful world down below....And was met with the twitching figure of red eyes pressing against the glass.
She screamed.
#ahit dj grooves#ahit cooking cat#ahit timmy#ahit bow kid#ahit mustache girl#hazelle#ahit vanessa#ahit moonjumper#ahit hat kid#ahit conductor#ahit snatcher#the florist x snatcher#snatcher x the florist#ahit florist#a hat in time florist#snatcher x florist#a hat in time snatcher#dad snatcher#snatcher#a bloom in time#a hat in time
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Our Lives Chapter 1: Moving In- Robin Buckley x OC
Robin Buckley x Wendy Thimble
Description: After Robin moves into her new dorm room, she gets a delightful surprise when meeting her roommate.
Word Count: 2k
A/N: And we have come to another mini series! This was written for my 400th fic celebration and I'm honestly surprised I got this far haha. Anyways, enjoy!!
It was March 16, 1987, a.k.a. Spring Break. That meant it was nearing the end of Spring semester in 1987, and Summer school would be coming up soon for colleges around the country. That meant that people would begin moving into their dorms in preparation for either the upcoming Summer semester or the farther away Fall semester. Normally, teenagers would be excited about that because that meant moving on and finally starting their lives now that they were unencumbered by high school expectations or their parents.
For Robin and Wendy, however, it was a different story. March 13th marked their two year anniversary since they started dating, but things had been a dream since the beginning. It had also officially been the one year anniversary since Hawkins basically went to hell. And yet, through the many changes that the town went through, they stayed together. They were both happy with each other and they truly loved each other. Though they were going strong, big decisions had to be made involving their futures.
Robin had been accepted into a school that was just one town over on a marching band scholarship and she was happy with that. She was going to school without having to pay student loans in the future and she still got to be close to her friends still as the school was just half an hour away). Wendy, meanwhile, was given a few offers but she had yet to accept any of them. She knew what she wanted her major to be, but she just couldn’t decide on a school yet. Most of them were pretty far away, and she had no idea if she wanted to be so far from her friends and family.
The one she was most worried about was Robin, though. Though it realistically felt irrational, Wendy was nervous that them being apart from each other would put them in a rocky place. And, though Robin hadn’t explicitly said it, Wendy had a distinct feeling that she felt the same. Of course with a…unique relationship like this, things just felt different. Lesbian relationships were practically unheard of and it made them all the more worried about it. But, Robin already accepted the scholarship and it was for something that made her happy, so no matter what Wendy would make sure that she stayed there.
The college didn’t have dorms as it wasn’t quite big enough, but there were apartments right beside the school that provided housing that was much cheaper than the other surrounding complexes. Wendy still hadn’t made an academic decision when Robin came up to her and asked for help moving into and decorating her new apartment’s room. For a moment fear struck her because that meant that this was all becoming real, and that Robin was actually moving away. Nevertheless she smiled and agreed.
That next Saturday when she pulled into Robin’s driveway and honked to alert her girlfriend that she was there. Once Robin opened the door Wendy hopped out of the car and helped her pack all her things into the car. Once everything was inside, they climbed into the car and drove off. The entire half hour was spent jamming out to music with the windows down. For a fleeting moment they felt at peace.
Then, finally, they pulled into the parking lot. They grabbed as much as they could before making their way up to Robin’s designated apartment. It was decently sized with two bedrooms, one bathroom, a living room and a kitchen. Robin chose the slightly bigger bedroom because “the early bird gets the worm,” and so they began setting up. Beds were already provided for them (as were most of the big furniture like dressers, nightstands and the couch) so while Robin got to work making the bed, Wendy got to work on hanging up posters and pictures Robin had brought.
A small smile appeared on her face as she hung up a picture of the two of them. It’d been taken while the whole friend group was hanging out. Will’s Aunt Judith let him borrow her camera and told him to work on his photography skills. So, he went around taking pictures of everyone. This particular picture had been taken when Robin and Wendy were laughing at something that Eddie said. Wendy’s head had been on Robin’s shoulder while the girl’s arm was wrapped around her waist as they laughed.
She remembered the time fondly as she hung it up with the others. As she continued to work, her eyes slowly moved past the room’s still open door and stopped on the other untouched bedroom.
“So, have you met your roommate yet?”
“Nah,” Robin answered a little distractedly as she moved around a few pillows, trying to figure out how she wanted them. “The apartment manager assigns us roommates, but I haven’t been given one as far as I know. They usually try to pair up people with the same gender, so I’ll most likely get a girl as my roommate.” Wendy hummed in response before looking back at her with a teasing grin.
“Just try not to fall in love with her, okay?” It was meant as a joke, but both Robin and she could hear the twinge of uncertainty in her tone.
“Why would I when I got a babe like you?” Robin joked in response, which successfully broke the tension. The couple laughed as they got back to work decorating.
Over the next week Wendy came over a few more times either with groceries or a few more decorations. The days that she couldn’t come over they would talk on the phone. They didn’t talk about anything in particular, nor was it anything consequential, but they both always hung up with smiles on their faces. Usually Wendy hated not being able to see her girlfriend, but she’d been working on something that required some time away. She made up for it, though.
“So, have they assigned you a roommate yet?” Wendy asked one day, twirling the cord of her phone absentmindedly.
“Yeah, actually,” Robin answered, a surprised lilt in her voice. “Management sent me a notice this morning. My roommate moves in this Saturday.”
“Ooh, that’s fun. Did they give you any names?”
“Nope. All I know is that she’s a girl and she moves in May 23, so tomorrow,” Robin informed her.
“That’ll be exciting. Just try not to fall in love with her, yeah?” Once again she was joking, and this time they noticed that she was no longer uneasy about the idea. It made a smile form on Robin’s face.
“I think I can manage that,” she responded simply.
Finally, Saturday rolled around. Robin had gotten up bright and early to make sure she had enough time to get ready. She wanted to make sure that she made a good impression with the girl she’d be living with for at least the next year. It’d probably be a bad omen if they didn’t end up getting along.
She’d pulled out all the stops. As usual, she showered that morning, then spent the next hour and a half deciding what to wear. Usually it only took a few minutes to decide but, to reiterate, she wanted to make a good impression. She wanted an outfit that wasn’t too formal, but she didn’t want it to look like she just rolled out of bed and put on the first thing she grabbed. There were several times she debated on calling Wendy for advice, but her girlfriend had informed her yesterday that she’d be pretty busy tomorrow and may not be home for a few hours, so that was unfortunately out of the question.
Sweatpants and leggings were out of the picture, so she decided on a nice pair of blue jeans. She also didn’t want to wear too nice of a blouse because her roommate may need help moving stuff in and sweating in a formal blouse would just be embarrassing. But, at the same time, t-shirts were way too casual, so she needed a middle ground. So, a plain and slightly cropped green shirt was the way to go.
Once that was figured out, she worked on her hair and makeup. She chose not to deviate from her normal style so it took no time at all to finish getting ready. Now that everything else was out of the way, she ate breakfast then sat in the living room to wait for her new roommate there. She was almost too anxious to sit still, but she eventually grabbed a pillow on the couch and clutched it so she would have something to hold onto and mess with while she waited.
Finally, after what felt like hours (though it probably wasn’t longer than just one) later, Robin’s ears perked up when she heard the front door unlock. She stood up and hurriedly flattened down her hair despite it being almost perfect, taking a deep breath afterwards. She listened to the front door open then close, then a voice called out to her.
“Hello? Anyone home?”
“Wendy?” She questioned curiously, walking towards the front door. Sure enough, Wendy stood in front of the door with a bin of indiscernible items. A smile appeared on the girl’s face when she noticed her girlfriend.
“Hey Robin,” she greeted happily. “Thank god, I got scared and thought you weren’t home then it would’ve been really awkward because I’d announce my presence to an empty apartment.” The girls laughed, though Robin was still confused.
“Um, babe, not that I’m not happy to see you because believe me I am, but I’m still kinda waiting for my room…” she trailed off slowly as things began connecting in her mind, and her brows furrowed. She’d never given Wendy an extra key. There were only supposed to be two; one for her and one for…
Wendy watched her girlfriend piece the pieces together with an amused look. She always looked so cute when she was thinking. Finally after a minute or two Robin’s eyes widened and an excited gasp escaped her lips.
“Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, you’re my roommate?” She questioned ecstatically, practically jumping up and down. A small laugh left Wendy’s lips as she nodded.
“The school offers a great writing program and after I sent in my essay they offered me a scholarship. I talked to the apartment’s management and asked if I could be paired up with you since we already knew each other,” she explained. “It’ll be practice for when we actually get a house together, you know?” Robin’s eyes softened at her explanation.
“You wanted to go to school here for me?” She asked softly, earning a slightly unsure nod from the girl.
“I hope it’s okay that I did this. I mean I probably should have asked because maybe you wanted to meet someone new and I may have just ruined that because I was insecure about you meeting other girls. Oh my god did you want to meet new people? Wait, I shouldn’t have said that part about me being insecure but I guess it’s probably best to be out in the open with my feelings but I don’t want to drag you-”
Her very nervous rant was suddenly cut off by Robin grabbing her face and pulling her into a kiss. Though surprised, she quickly reciprocated it, carefully dropping the bin in her hand so nothing broke while she wrapped her arms around Robin’s waist. When they pulled away for air they both had wide smiles on their faces. Robin leaned her forehead against Wendy’s as they stared into each other’s eyes.
“Wendy this is the best case scenario for being assigned a roommate,” she muttered softly as she rubbed her thumb over the apple of the girl’s cheek. “You are the best possible person to live with and I’m so glad you did this. Understand?” Wendy kept silent as she nodded in response, but she couldn’t hide smile from widening.
“Yeah,” she whispered, leaning in to give her another chaste kiss.
“Alright, want some help decorating your new room?” Robin asked once they pulled away.
“Thought you’d never ask,” the girl responded with a toothy grin. They pulled away from each other then Wendy leaned down to pick up the bin before following Robin into her new room. It was safe to say that they were both happy that she did this.
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17 Superstars We'd Love to Recruit for Our Payday Loans Cash Team
Brenda Procter has actually been combating the great battle against payday lending institutions for twenty years, and boy does she have some stories to tell. For beginners, Procter a Missouri state extension expert and professor of individual financial preparation at the University of Missouri can state how a local payday lender really propositioned an undoubtedly cognitively impaired member of her financial therapy group while he was in the drive-through line at Taco Bell, only to be rebuffed by the caseworker being in the motorist's seat next to him.
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https://i.ytimg.com/vi/XQ-VClzagxA/hqdefault_496033.jpg
" In my experience, these loans are not created as a short-term, one-time solution as the companies like to say they are however are instead planned to keep individuals trapped in a cycle of debt and to prey upon the elderly, handicapped, poor and minority populations," he told WalletHub. "We were trained to push people towards larger loans and motivate them to pay them back as slowly as possible.
It did not matter if customers had loans out at other payday financing shops or were living off little repaired earnings. Credit worthiness was not really essential." While they're definitely interesting, those of you who are unknown with payday loans may fail to comprehend the significance of these tales. So, let's take a better look.
Payday loans are billed as a short-term option for short-term cash-flow problems, however they're not always marketed or used for that purpose. Part of the issue that contributes to a borrower's ultimate failure to pay back the loan within a brief duration is that lending institutions generally do not examine their customers' credit or ask about a customer's monetary position.
This leads to a continuous cycle of financial obligation. Just consider the following statistics from a recent Bench Charitable Trusts research study: Twelve million people get payday loans each year, investing $7.4 billion at the same time. While the average payday loan requires repayment of more than $400 within two weeks, the typical debtor can just pay for to pay back $50.
The average payday loan is for $375, yet leaves the debtor indebted for five months and on the hook for $520 in interest. "Seven out of 10 payday loan borrowers utilize the loans to pay for things like lease and energies and other recurring expenditures," adds Nick Bourke, the director of Bench's Safe Small-Dollar Loans Research Job.
Ninety-seven percent of payday loan volume goes to people who are repeat users they use 3 or more loans annually." Simply put, we have a product that's seemingly meant to offer a short-term financial bridge, yet whose marketing by loan providers and ultimate use by consumers are typically straight at odds with that intent.
Many on the consumer side of things are likewise calling for increased policy. To date, 15 states have prohibited payday loans while others have passed legislation to considerably restrict their effect. But why stop there? Procter believes payday loan providers simply have excessive at stake and are too effective at both lobbying and skirting the spirit of laws while at the same time adhering to their letter for additional guidelines to move on.
They're likewise well-known for a practice understood as "license leaping," which basically includes tweaking their items simply enough to keep them both legal and just as predatorily successful as before. Payday loan providers are likewise significantly moving operations online in order to prevent regional limitations. A lot of physical stores stay, nevertheless, and they're usually clumped together in low-income urban areas, essentially searching in packs.
" In Missouri, you can just renew one payday loan 6 times. So, if you remain in a store and you have actually type of worked that customer for all you can get out of them and they still can't pay since that usually is what occurs then they'll probably state something like, 'Well, possibly you could get another loan.'" And so, Procter states, "they'll go to the shop across the street, next door, or whatever" to take out yet another in a growing line of payday loans used to pay off responsibilities related to those that preceded it.
It's not uncommon to see individuals with several thousand dollars in payday loan financial obligation, and all they've done is pay interest approximately that point." Most recently, payday lending institutions have begun affiliating their companies with Native American people, which are unsusceptible to certain federal and state regulations, as another strategy to prevent their states' usury laws.
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c, a, t
Hardy-har.
C - Caregiver - How do they give/receive care best? Do they care for everyone or just a small number of people? How do they react to someone in need?
Privately and Safely. Two very important words for her when it comes to vulnerability of any kind for her. At least on the receiving end of it all. She tries to be reasonable about friendly caregiving or casual caregiving, but PDA??? NOT IN FRONT OF OTHERS THANKS.
Her style of giving is a little more open. If somewhat gruff at times in the softer way she cares. Giving someone a place to say? Pretty neutral caregiving. Feeding them? Same. Kicking the ass of whoever is hurting them? Easy and upfront. But if it's the kind of care that's more intimate she starts to mask it with gruffness and dark humor and 'nah, I don't care--take this hug'. And starts falling into the PDA category for her. She's ever conscious of her public image.
Devang is somewhere between the two. She will often fall into the cause of random people she encounters who just seem in need. But she tries to keep from getting too far into random people's business too. The number of people that end up getting 'adopted' or put under her proverbial umbrella tends to vary, however. They tend to get priority over any old person she decides to tend to.
A - Advocate - How do they show their support for others? Are there any causes that they publicly support? Why?
Poorly, usually. Lmao. At least in her interpersonal relationships. Her support can often come off as super critical or even derogatory. Especially if she's talking. Her support tends to be quiet and in her actions. Be it a hug or touch or a quiet feline purr.
She puts a lot of her financial support into things that are more in the public domain. Donating to places she trusts to use it appropriately. Like Miles' and Rook's charities. Or funding college educations by anonymously paying off a chunk of random loans. Things like that. Every Tuesday she uses Patch's to send pizzas out to group homes and shelters and such.
Political stuff doesn't come up in RP much, for good reason. But she is NOT a christo-facist to say the least.
Are you happy? Yes. Does it hurt or violate the consent yourself or others? No. Then it has her support. Directly or not.
T - Teacher - How often do they have to teach others? How do they go about it? How do they learn best? Do they dive in first and reflect later or study the theory of something new before putting it into practice?
Devang is a source of vast amounts of information, observations, and experiences. This makes her pretty good at offering fairly sound advice or sharing her knowledge on particular topics. Obscure or day-to-day. She's a hypocrite, but the kind that tries to help others despite her foibles.
She finds herself 'teaching' more often than she strictly enjoys.
She tries not to be overbearing or come off like some 'know it all'. She doesn't know it all and she is deathly aware of it.
Devang often has deep dives into wikis now that the internet is a thing. Before that she would wander into a text book every so often and ply over it for a while.
She picks up on things very quickly, but also sort of self-prunes. She could get balls deep into, say, piano lessons, but considers herself to rough or stupid to manage it. She can't swim to this day or play chess worth a damn--etcetera.
A lot of her knowledge, being gotten from experience, requires her to learn things in the heat of the moment rather than study it. Though she will study something that blindsided her at a later date.
She does best with reading and hands-on learning.
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Losing Control, Chapter 1/Teaser
Summary: Emilia’s smart mouth begins getting her into trouble with her mischievous Professor, soon getting her entangled in a risky, yet exciting, relationship with him.
WARNINGS FOR THE FIC: Slight dub-con. D/s dynamics, professor x student relationship.
Emilia couldn’t get out of the building quick enough, practically sprinting down the path and then heading up the road in the direction of her flat.
She knew that skipping her seminar at the end of the day was risky, even though she had taken it mainly for extra credit. But she was bright and top of most of her classes, and she had never missed a single class or seminar in the last year since being at Uni. So she was overdue skipping one.
Even if that class was Norse Mythology, with one of the strictest Professors there...
Professor Laufeyson.
He was a great Professor, really focused and passionate about Norse Mythology. But he was annoyingly strict, especially compared to most of the other Professors. Emilia was sure she had never even heard him laugh before, come to think of it.
But she had a very good excuse for skipping out early. She was moving tonight, to her brand new flat. And she was so excited. She had saved up hard for the past few years, to be able to get out a mortgage, so she could now drop her smaller part time job and focus on her studies more, while continuing with her other job.
She had been given a hefty amount of money when her parents passed, so she didn’t have to worry about her University loans as she’d been able to pay all of them off already. And she had enough left over to pay for the deposit on the flat.
It had been hard, between being at Uni, studying and having two jobs. She had barely any time for anything else, never mind hobbies. But she wanted to get a good head start on savings, a safety net.
And it was worth it. Her new flat was closer to University, in a safer location and it was much bigger. Actually having separate rooms instead of a kitchen, living room and bedroom all in the one room. It was more homely, and she couldn’t wait to furnish it. Make her mark on her own place.
She hadn’t been able to book the moving company for over the weekend, so this evening had to do. Hence why she needed to leave Uni early.
As soon as she got home, she got the last of her things packed into boxes just in time for the moving company arriving. They were quick with getting her furniture into the van and all of her boxes too. They then went on ahead while she hailed a taxi to take her to her new flat, it was only ten minutes by car.
The guys had already taken some of her things into the building and upstairs outside her door. She got it unlocked and the guys headed straight in with her furniture. She took the time to take in this moment, finally, after working so hard for this wonderful flat, it was now all hers.
‘There’s just some boxes left, but we are out of time you’ve paid us for. We can do the last boxes but it’ll cost you.’ One of the guys said after taking the last of the heavy furniture up.
Emilia rolled her eyes. Of course it will.
‘It’s fine, I’ll manage. Thanks.’ She headed back down and saw the guys off, then she looked at the last five boxes and groaned.
-
Over half an hour later, Emilia was wrestling with the last large box up the stairs. It was exhausting and she was beginning to question why she picked a flat on the top floor. Granted it wasn’t a really tall building with heaps of residents, but it still had four floors and that was more than enough to struggle with.
She was only one floor up with the last box, just beginning to ascend the next set, when she heard footsteps coming up behind her and they stopped abruptly.
‘You’re going to have to wait, buddy. As you can see, struggling a bit here.’ She said without looking round, she was too busy focusing on not dropping the rather heavy box that she was realising must be the one with her DVDs, CDs and records.
‘Emilia Cooper, still a smart mouth out with University, it seems.’
That voice made her falter, she almost dropped the box in surprise, but she was saved as a hand shot out and steadied the box while she suddenly felt a hand at her back to steady her too.
She turned her head slightly and her eyes widened, even though she recognised the voice it was still a shock to get confirmation that it was indeed Professor Laufeyson that was keeping her from falling back down the stairs or dropping the box.
‘Professor Laufeyson!’ She said in surprise, then quickly moved forward and regained herself.
‘Let me take that for you.’ Loki offered, putting his hands out.
But she continued upstairs, even though it was a struggle. ‘No, no. I’ve got it. I’ve got it.’
Loki smirked and watched in amusement as she struggled with each step until she got to the next landing. Where she leaned against the wall and looked at Loki, who had followed her up. He just put his hands out, an eyebrow raised.
She rolled her eyes and passed him the box.
‘You weren’t at my seminar today.’ Loki stated as they continued upstairs, Loki carried the box with ease, much to Emilia’s annoyance.
‘You actually noticed?’
‘Of course I did. I was going to have words with you on Monday, but I guess now I know the reason. But still, it will give me the weekend to decide if it’s a good enough reason for skipping my class or not.’
Emilia rolled her eyes and internally cursed.
They reached the top floor and Emilia opened her door so Loki could place the box just inside the door.
‘Thanks, Professor. Hope I didn’t hold you up from visiting… whoever you’re visiting.’ She smiled at him, hoping he would just leave now.
‘Not at all.’ He merely took a few steps to the adjoining flat from hers, pulling out keys he unlocked the door. Glancing back at her, seeing she was wide eyed and mouth slightly agape, he winked at her and then stepped inside his flat.
‘You have got to be fucking kidding me.’
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