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#break time over gotta finish this paper ! wish me luck
transgaysex · 1 year
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im in the middle of writing a paper for my final tomorrow but im taking a quick break to say im vibrating with excitement
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hyunjilicious · 3 years
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fwb [s. stan/c. evans/h.cavill]
A/n: DO NOT ask me why I wrote this. I have no idea why I did this to myself, but I thought I’d share anyway!
Summary: no matter how you put it, a catching feelings while you’re in a fwb relationship isn’t good! (SMUT, FLUFF, angst?) 9.2k
Warnings: threesome, dirty talk, unprotected sex, spanking, slapping, daddy kink, size kink, degradation, humiliation, oral, pain kink (+/- some dubcon), submission, cum play... issa lot ok? don’t read if any of these make you uncomfortable!! 18+ 
This is a standalone fic, and not part of any series. However, come talk to me about it, please!! Tell me what you thought!! And don’t forget to reblog in case you enjoyed it!!
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"Last question-" the interviewer announced. She turned around the papers in her lap and placed them to the side, before she intertwined her fingers and looked up at you with a devious grin on her lips. "I have to ask this, Y/n. We all need to know, who's your favorite? Superman or Captain America?"
Of course you couldn't help but chuckle, shaking your head at the question she came up with. It was fair to assume you hadn't been asked this before for the sole purpose of avoiding a scene, but the lady standing in front of you seemed overly pleased with herself. Unlike Henry and Chris, who were seated on either side of you. Even if you didn't actually turn to look at them, you could feel their glares throw daggers. Anticipation floated in the room, and judging by the way they just softly chuckled or refrained from making any kind of comment, you knew how anxiously they were awaiting your answer.
"I-" you said, before bursting into laughter.
"Even I would choose Superman," Chris joined in, placing a hand on his chest for emphasis. "Dude's got X-ray vision. He's faster than light, he can fly. He's the real deal" he raised his palms, ready to accept his defeat.
"See-?" Henry butted in, and you giggled, more to yourself, at the game they started playing. You knew very well it was nothing but a big, fat, obvious trap. "Superman's got all of those, but Captain America still manages to save the world time and time again, without superpowers. I think that makes him greater"
Oh, how screwed you were.
"So, Y/n?" the interviewer pushed, ever so obviously satisfied with the tension she created, "Who will it be? Steve or Clark?"
In turn, you looked at both of them. Henry was smiling his ass off, waiting for you to say the wrong name, while Chris seemed to be lost in thought.
"Ugh, ok" you took a deep breath, and glanced into the camera, "I'm sorry, but I'm Team Cap. I gotta be."
Whereas Henry accepted the defeat with stride and sweetly mentioned he couldn't ever blame you for choosing Captain America, Chris was ecstatic. He didn't even try to hide his excitement, the chair nearly breaking under his energetic jolts of pride. 
After a few more unimportant comments were made, the interview ended and the lights were turned off. You all hopped off your seats and walked over to the buffet table, your conversation still going strong.
"Really, Y/n? Cap?" Henry taunted, his voice low and mocking, right against your ear lobe as you popped a cheese stick into your mouth. "This guy? Why did you have to do me like that, hm?"
Henry placed the tip of his finger under your chin and elegantly prompted you to look up at him. 
"I don't know, man" Chris laughed from somewhere behind you, "I think I own fair and square, Cap is just the better superhero"
Henry scowled, glancing at the blonde, over your shoulder. His ice cold eyes made the salty treat get lodged in your throat, and you had to pull away from him in order not to actually choke. "Relax-" you said, raising your hands in defeat as you started walking towards the door, "It's not like I chose between the two of you. That would've been a whole other deal"
"Wait what-?" Chris deadpanned, "What does that mean?" He added, hurrying to follow you and ask for further details.
Needless to say, the subject wasn't dropped until quite a while later. People swarmed you, papers had to be signed and pictures were taken as the employers from all levels of the building gathered outside your dressing room hoping to meet some of their favorite superheroes. It was all a buzz and about 2 hours later, the three of you were finally able to leave, making a beeline from the back door of the building, all the way over to the car that was waiting for you.
You ended up on the backseat, again between them, but this time the atmosphere was relaxed. Your blood only started to boil when Henry asked for the partition to be rolled up. As soon as the space inside the car was divided and you were given your privacy, Henry grabbed your chin and forced you to face him.
"Think I forgot about earlier?" he questioned, his devious grin wide enough so that his perfect teeth became visible. 
You giggled and forced yourself out of his hold. Shuffling around the seat, you threw one leg over his thighs and sat down in his lap. Henry looked you up and down, remotely displeased with your attitude but he didn't complain.
You grabbed his cheeks into your palms and pushed yourself up against him, his face now inches away from your chest. "And what are you gonna go?"
He wasn't about to let his guard down, "You're acting all bratty now, but you'll regret that later, baby"
"I doubt that" you teased, bending down to tenderly kiss his sweet lips, "What could you possibly do that I won't like?"
"Wish you hadn't asked that" Henry laughed, his whole frame shaking against yours. He grabbed your ass and squeezed harshly, pressing you closer to him.
"I'm scared" you joked, trailing your lips along his cheeks, knowing just how crazy you could make him. 
"Y/n" Chris warned, "Today I'm on your side, but even I can tell you're pushing your luck"
Even if he didn't necessarily manage to deflate your attitude, you plopped down from Henry's lap and resumed your spot between them. The atmosphere didn't get any denser and the topic of conversation swiftly shifted to rudimentary randomness like what food should you order once you got home or whatever plans either of you had for that night. You subtly avoided the word 'date' when you told them you'd be meeting with a friend, and breathed out relieved when they didn't pressure you for details. That was a conversation to be had between 4 walls and with no prying ears.
Once home, your home - they came over, you casually opened the door and meant to make your way inside as if nothing was wrong, but Henry, just as previously stated, had other plans.
Securing a strong hold around your way smaller frame, he lovingly leaned down over your shoulder, "How are you doing, love?" he nonchalantly asked.
His scent overwhelmed your senses, and despite knowing where this was going, you tried to play it off. "Good, you?" you smiled, sinking into his arms.
"We need to talk"
"Do we?" you laughed, but managed to do absolutely nothing in terms of impressing him.
You knew just how much he loved it when you asked for it, and this was not something he'd ever let slide. "Come with me, darling," Henry cooed, gently guiding you into the bedroom.
You followed him without showing any kind of resistance, turning around in his hold and wrapping your arms around his neck. You stumbled backwards down the hallway, sloppily kissing his lips.
Much to your surprise, he was more than eager to reciprocate, his palms burning through the soft material of clothing that covered your sides. He kissed you deeply, his tongue exploring your mouth with so much fervor, as if he had been deprived for too long. 
Henry clumsily opened the bedroom door, stumbling forward with you against him, until he reached the bed. Considering how weak you were for him and how you always allowed yourself to get molded by his will, when he pushed you back against the bed, you fell with a small huff and remained there, only your eyes following him.
"What are you doing?" you asked, seeing him open your closet and actually step inside to look behind the corner.
Before he even started to answer your question, Chris walked into the room. He was casually undoing the buttons of his shirt as he strolled past the bed.
"Hi-" you giggled, extending your hands towards him. All you wanted was some attention.
"Hi, baby" Chris laughed, bending down to kiss your forehead. "You're gonna be good for us, ok? I don't wanna have to go to hard on you"
"Then don't" you pouted.
"That's only up to you" he added, straightening his back and finishing up on undoing his buttons. His tattooed chest became visible and your mouth watered in an instant. 
Burning from the inside with anticipation and pure lust, you fell back against the cushions, your thighs uselessly trying to alleviate some of the pain between your legs. But no amount of rubbing and friction would ever match up to the tension in the room, and you loved it.
A couple of moments later, Henry walked out of his closet, dressed exactly the same, clutching tight into his hands the famous superman costume. None of you has ever been too shy when it came to exploring new kinks and desires, but this, you did not see coming.
Your mouth fell open, "Really!?" you almost drooled, but he has probably never been any quicker to burst your bubble.
Staring you down, Henry clutched his fingers into the material of his suit, bringing his hands together in front of his chest, before tearing the material apart with a loud screech. He lightly huffed with the effort, but soon enough, the actual costume fell to the floor by his feet, while the red cape remained neatly wrapped around his fists.
Your eyes widened with enthusiasm and you wanted to shuffle closer to him, but once you pushed yourself up on your knees, you felt a tight grip around your forearms.
Chris pulled you back with force, "Arms up, darling" he chuckled. He didn't even give you a chance to follow his directions, as he yanked your top over your head in an instant and unclasped your bra before leaving your top half completely naked and exposed.
As he plopped down on the bed, Henry came up to you and forced your hands up, using his cape to tie your wrists to the bedpost. His face was hovering inches above yours, and you licked your lips before pushing yourself up to kiss his jawline.
"The hell's gotten into you, hm?" he groaned, tightening the knot. When he looked down, he seemed amused, kind of at the edge between disbelief and satisfaction, as if he actually wished you'd push his buttons. As if he was waiting for you to dig your own grave. "You aren't usually like this"
"Had a great day, that's all" you grinned as you literally met with the two of them approximately half an hour after you woke up. "Ready for it to get better"
"Is it, though-?" Chris laughed, fumbling with the button of your jeans before pulling them down your legs. Off with them also went your underwear, and then there you were, completely naked in front of them, hands tied above your head. "-going to get better, I mean" Chris added, rubbing his hands up and down your thighs.
"I think-" you began answering but Henry stopped you as he gripped your chin.
"Stop talking back, love" he threatened, "Don't you think you said enough today? Look where it's gotten you"
You studied his expression with big, curious eyes, your bottom lip consciously trembling as you muttered a soft excuse. You knew not taking him seriously would get you into even more trouble, but that's what you were all about.
Henry chuckled. Keeping his glare trained on yours he pushed himself up. His big hands found your thighs and forced your legs apart. 
With this new, sudden change in position, your eyes landed on Chris who looked down at you as if you were his prey. He had a bottle of beer in his hand, taking small sips as he stood back, allowing Henry to do his part. Even if he wasn't yet taking part first hand in this whole charade, he was ever so obviously still enjoying the show. 
You squirmed under their dominating stares, feeling every inch of your body burn with excitement and traces of actual embarrassment that did absolutely nothing other than turn you on even further.
"You know you fucked up, right?" Chris taunted before taking another sip of his beer. His hand reached to cup your thigh, moving it further up until his fingers got dangerously close to your bare pussy. "I mean you're all good in my book, but that's not how things work"
"It could be" you whined.
By now, it should have been clear that talking back was never an option. Chris just smiled sympathetically while Henry clearly showed he wasn't going to have you keep this attitude much longer. He shuffled to the side, responding to your comment with a sharp slap against your bare cunt. "What did you just say?"
The impact made you instinctively gather your legs together but he was quick to stop you. Henry forced your thighs apart again, his thick fingers pushing past your folds just enough to get you to get on alert. 
Your eyes snapped to Chris. You never thought of things like this, but just about now, having him on your side seemed like the best idea. Your stomach was tightening from the nerves building up inside your core and you needed his reassurance. 
"I'm sorry, doll-" he cocked his head to the side as you watched him, your eyes begging him to stand with you, "You know I'm always here for you, but breaking you is just too much fun, I'm sorry"
"Asshole" you rolled your eyes and regretted it even before Henry delivered another slap against your clit. You cried out and your muscles clenched against your will, your knees bending in a pathetic attempt to curl yourself into a ball.
"Come on, darling" Henry scoffed, easily handling your tantrum and forcing your legs back down, wide open for them. "You're only making this harder. Calm down, take your punishment and then maybe you'll get something in return"
"Ok-" you muttered, shame taking over your senses. 
"Ok, what?" Henry pushed and Chris shook his head in disbelief at how unwilling you were to follow your usual instructions.
"Ok, daddy-" you muttered, avoiding their eyes, "I'm sorry I-"
"Little girl-" Henry sighed, sinking two fingers into your dripping pussy, "Already apologising? Where did that attitude go? Your punishment didn't even start yet"
"Fuck" you cried.
Despite knowing it wasn't a good idea, you rocked your hips along his fingers. Deciding to let you play along, Henry pressed his thumb against your clit, applying that minimal amount of pleasure he knew would have you hollering. 
And when you moaned for the first time, he stopped. He stopped completely and retracted his hand, leaving you craving his touch. Again, you felt exposed and it only translated into a painful sensation deep inside your belly. 
Arching your back as a whine escaped your lips, you squeezed your eyes shut, "Come on!! Please-"
"Not yet, angel" Henry countered, spreading your legs again.
As he held one of your thighs, Chris grabbed the other one, both their hands gripping your flesh hard enough to bruise. You already whimpered in pain, but when the real round of slapping began you felt like your throat would eventually cave.
"Cry if you have to, angel. Just be a good girl" Henry taunted.
You struggled against their hold with each blow delivered to your sensitive pussy, crying out and begging for them to stop. You never did try to count, so you had no idea how long it took, as when he stopped, you fell down into the mattress, the pain dissipating into a burning sensation across your legs.
"Easy there-" Henry cooed, his big hand cupping your cunt, gently rubbing the sensitive skin he had just abused.
Tears rolled down your temples as you failed to calm down your breathing. "Fuck, ok, I get it-" you sniffled, turning your head around to hide your face into your shoulder, "I'm sorry, please. I'm sorry"
"Look at me, pet" Henry commanded, softly guiding your chin in order to uncover your face, "Don't hide from us. You're so beautiful crying like that, you have no idea"
A new fresh wave of tears streamed from your eyes, "Th-thank you..."
Ever so softly, Chris moved your thighs, separating them again. He kneeled between your legs, lowering himself until you could feel his breath against your folds. "Breathe, pet-" he cooed, pressing a lingering kiss to your clit.
Involuntarily, you flinched, your hips bucking. "Easy, baby-" Chris said barely above a whisper, placing a hand on your tummy to push you back down, "Relax for me, ok?" 
He swiped his tongue along your folds, forcing you to suck a deep breath, "You good?" Henry asked, his hand exploring your naked chest.
You nodded up at him.
"We barely started, ok?" Chris said, pushing himself up, "You'll be a good girl for us?"
"Yes" you nodded with eagerness.
"Full sentences-" Henry nudged, lovingly caressing your abdomen, "I know it can be a lot for you, take your time"
You swallowed deeply, "Yes.. yes, I will be a good girl for you"
"Good" he cooed, leaning down. You pushed yourself up to meet his lips, but he stopped midway, tapping your chin, "Open up, baby"
Slowly, your jaw lowered, as you stared up at him, big awaiting eyes and mouth wide open.
And he made you wait, finally sending you a lewd grin before spitting on your tongue. You felt it dribble down towards the back of your throat before you swallowed proudly. You wanted to open your mouth again, but he hurried to distance himself from you.
With a harsh slap against your tits, he pushed himself up. Henry grabbed your thighs, gathering your knees together. He pulled your legs up until your hips lifted from the bed and your upper back supported most of your weight, your knees close to your chest.
"Such a beautiful pussy" Chris chimed in, his face inches away from your opening.
Never in your life had you felt this exposed and humiliated, but you swallowed your pride and remained motionless, not wanting to get on their bad side again.
"Are you ready?" Henry asked.
"For- for what?" you panicked.
"Wrong answer" he scoffed, slapping your ass. You yelped in pain and wiggled in his hold, but he didn't stop. He spanked your ass again, and again, and again, his palm hitting the bare skin off your cheeks, pussy and asshole. "Try again, little girl."
"I- I'm… I'm ready" 
"See?" Chris beamed, spitting on your pussy. You felt it run down your folds until it reached your ass. "That's the kind of slut we want. One that says yes without even knowing what we're talking about"
"Come on" Henry huffed, slapping your cunt one more time before letting your body back down on the mattress again. He moved up along your frame and undid your hands. 
You were eager to relax your shoulders and to feel the blood flow through your arms again, but as soon as he released you from the bedpost, he brought your wrists together, tying them up again. "I wish I didn't have to keep you restrained like this, but how can I know what goes through that dumb little head of yours?"
You shook your head no, trying to tell him you were actually planning on doing anything stupid, but Chris understood something else completely.
"Nothing goes through that pretty head?" he laughed, and Henry couldn't help but chuckle along.
Embarrassed, you hid your face and looked down.
"Don't be like that, baby-" Chris added, bending down over your body to caress your cheek, "You know we're right. You don't need to be ashamed, we like you like this"
His thumb rubbed along your bottom lip before he leaned down all the way and kissed you. His tongue barged into your mouth, dominating you completely as you barely managed to keep up with him. "A dumb little slut, crying for cock. That's what you are, aren't you?"
"Yes, daddy"
"Then why did you hide your face?"
"I- I don't know…" you mumbled.
"You know we keep you around just to fuck you, so I don't see why you'd get shy all of a sudden"
"I'm sorry-" you nodded, licking your lips, uselessly trying to moisten them. "I didn't get shy, I-"
"So you like being our fuck slut?"
"Yes"
"Just a set of holes for me and Cavill over here to cum in, right?" he questioned, before kissing your forehead. "Our beautiful, little girl" You smiled at the pet name and looked up expectantly. His gaze lowered and his expression became stern again. "Get on all fours, darling. Time to make yourself useful"
With every movement of your legs, your cunt ached more and more, but you followed his command and pushed yourself up. Once on your hands and knees, you saw them get into position too. Chris crawled behind you as Henry settled before you, his crotch inches away from your face.
Your mouth watered as you heard their zippers being undone, and looked at them in turn, unable to hide your enthusiasm. 
At this point, you were eager for whatever they'd throw at you. Being in that mind state always made everything better. You existed in a haze, a world of blur where it was just you and your daddys. You wiggled your ass expectantly and licked your lips with absolutely no worry. In your head it was perfect.
Your bubble was burst by a harsh tug at the roots of your hair as Henry turned your head so you'd look up at him. He fumbled with his cock, giving himself a few pumps.
Just watching him with big, excited eyes, you opened your mouth for him. He chuckled at your state of pure submission and placed his leaking tip on your tongue, your lips instantly closing around him.
At this point, he still allowed you to control your own movements as you did a satisfying enough job at bobbing your head on his cock. You sucked with determination, hollowing your cheeks and taking him as deep as you could without gagging.
Your exquisite performance was interrupted when you felt something big and round trail along your folds, your eyes snapping wide open when you felt it enter you. Chris pushed his cock in with a satisfying grunt, slapping your ass in the process.
"Fuck, yes!" he exclaimed, his massive member spreading your walls apart.
A lump formed in the back of your throat, the feeling of being filled to the prim, overwhelming you. You were aware your rigorous sucking turned into a pathetic excuse as soon as Chris started rocking your body back and forth along his dick, as now, no matter how hard you tried, you couldn't get your mind to focus.
Seemingly not at all bothered by your suddenly sloppy blow job performance, Henry tightened his hold around your roots, keeping your head in place as he started fucking your mouth.
The simple fact that at this point, all you had to do was stay there and take it, made it close to impossible to not lose yourself. As Chris picked up his pace, using your hips and maneuvering your body to fit his needs the right way, your pleasure started building up in the pit of your stomach.
"Come on, baby-" Henry called, "Ready to take good care of daddy?"
And he asked this just to mock you, as your mouth was full of cock and he wasn't about to let you take a break. You only blinked, hoping to send the message along, despite knowing he wasn't waiting for an answer.
He steadied his hold on your roots and then forced you down his cock, his tip barging in through your neck, completely blocking your air supply. You remained there, not fighting against his hold, as Chris continued slamming his cock balls deep into your pussy.
The momentum of his thrusts pushed you forward, the ever so soft movement of your neck making Henry grunt with pleasure every time your body rocked into him. And they kept going, using you from both angles to fit their desires.
When it got too much, you felt tears prickle at the corner of your eyes as you saw no way out. You whined against his cock, your throat violently constricting in hopes of getting some air.
"A bit more" Henry cooed, maintaining his hold as you squirmed against it.
"Holy fuck-" Chris belted, both his palms relasing your hips only to be able to slap your ass harshly. "That's right, clench that pussy. Should fucking choke you more often when you're on my dick"
All you could do was whimper, forcing yourself to hold back cough after cough until you could no more. Tears streamed down your face as you started panicking, only then having Henry release you from his grip.
If he hadn't actually maintained his hold, you'd have crumbled into the mattress, a choking mess between their massive bodies. But Henry held on to you, pulling you up as Chris lowered his pace.
"Do you know how good you are, angel?" he asked, his thick British accent rolling off his tongue as exhaustion built up in his veins. 
You nodded weakly, and smiled with awe when he wiped your tears away with his thumb.
"I'd keep this mouth on my cock all the damn time if I could-" Henry added, his tone deep and loving despite the condescending note of his words. "Are you ready to go again?"
You whimpered a soft, "Yes-" voice so whiny that if you weren't so deep into sub space, you'd have cringed hearing yourself. "Please..."
Chris bent down over you, his sweaty chest pressing against your back as he wrapped his arms around your frame, his greedy hands coming to cup either of your breasts. He buried his face into your neck and then kissed along your shoulders. "Are you close, baby girl?" he asked, burying his cock deeper inside your belly, "You wanna cum on my cock?"
As you breathed out, you nodded a weak yes. A smile instantly reached the corners of your mouth as Chris found your clit. He rubbed slow, intricate circles around it, your pleasure translating into sobbing moans. "Now take Henry's cock inside that little mouth of yours, and when you're getting close, you give me a sign, yeah?"
"Ok" you panted, curious about what he must have had planned.
The curiosity swiftly left your mind as your eyes landed on Henry's dick again. He was close too, the amount of precum leaking out of his tip, giving away that fact. He allowed some of it to dribble onto your chin, lightly slapping your face before popping your mouth open.
Pressing your tongue flush against the underside of his cock, you fervently sucked away as Chris started picking up his pace again. As if you weren't already close to losing any kind of self control, the painful slaps he inflicted upon your ass drove you over the edge.
You maniacally wiggled your feet against the messy blankets, giving Chris the promised signal. 
Or at least you thought you gave it to him, as the next thing you felt was being pushed down along Henry's cock again. You took him deep down along your throat, moaning loudly against his member as an orgasm overwhelmed you. Tears of pleasure rolled down your cheeks as your body convulsed between them.
The sensation made your chest tighten and the lack of air started getting you dizzy. The electrifying feeling pulsed along your limbs, engulfing your middle in a sea of liquid fire. You didn't even feel the need to breathe as your mind rolled down a spiral of bliss. A whole white blur covered you as your brain stopped processing the information, too keen on sucking every last drop of pleasure from the orgasm you just received.
You were only pulled out of this trance when Henry pushed you off his cock, reality hitting you like ice cold water. You gasped for air, falling face first into the mattress, struggling to even breathe. 
Not that you cared at that point, but neither of them asked you to resume your position. Instead, they shuffled off the bed, and with a soft slap against your raised ass, called for your attention.
"Come here, little girl" Chris demanded.
That was not the kind of information you were able to process, so again, they had to do all the work. With a harsh grip on your upper arms, they effortlessly grabbed you and forced you to your knees between them. 
You looked up with what was probably the most obedient stare you had ever given them. You had two massive cocks hanging inches away from your face, and of course, your first instinct was to grab them as you popped your tongue out.
"No, kitten-" Henry laughed, petting your head and softly pushing you back. "Stay still"
And you did. Took a deep breath, finally feeling the engines inside your brain resuming their work. All your senses came back to you and it was as if you had been in a dream. Still, the excitement of seeing both Henry and Chris pump their cocks inches away from your face was difficult to contain.
"You swallow all, yeah?" Henry groaned, looking down at you with hooded, hungry eyes. "Don't use your hands. Use that slutty tongue"
Soon, hot cum started erupting from his tip, most of it landing directly into your mouth. Each time you swallowed you bobbed your head, proudly smiling up at them at the great job you were doing. 
"Good girl" he muttered, his voice hoarse and out of tone.
All that changed when Chris grabbed your shoulder. He growled out loud as his orgasm reached him, and he threw his head back, still furiously pumping his cock into his fist.
"Holy mother of - fuck - !"
You did your best to get as much as you could inside your mouth, but your cheeks were a mess, your tongue only managing to spread their cum more than actually lick it off. 
When they were both done, Chris helped you up as Henry kissed your forehead before walking out of the room without another word. The blonde cradled you to his chest, heaving as he held you.
"Such a good, little angel" he whispered into your ear. He was still panting, his hands clammy against your back, but he pushed through, focusing his energy on reassuring and soothing you.
"How are you, baby? Talk to me a bit" Chris pleaded, rubbing your cheek, "I wanna see those eyes"
As if every muscle contraction took up too much energy, you barely managed to look up at him, the most innocent of looks in your eyes. "I'm feeling really good" you sighed, leaning back against his chest.
"Good-" he laughed, his whole frame shaking as he hugged you closer, "Does anything hurt?"
"Everything" you giggled.
"Ok-" he sighed, accepting his defeat, "I'll ask again after we shower. You're all fucked out now"
"I like that" you mumbled as you all but drooled on him, sleep starting to envelop you.
"Would have been worried if you didn't"
Again, despite your direct state, you couldn't help but laugh with him. You softly pushed yourself up to plant a kiss against his naked chest.
Chris rubbed the back of your head as you did so.
"Hey-" Henry called as he walked into the room, but neither you nor Chris bothered to do anything else other than look in his direction. None of you moved. "Just a ran a bath-" Henry added, pointing to the bathroom, "Please don't fall asleep"
Chris helped you up and you wobbled your way across the room. "I'll go downstairs and shower" he said.
"You never wanna join us" you pouted.
"Just not really big on baths, that's all" Chris reassured you and then made his way out of the room.
After that, another wave of bliss followed. Another kind however. Henry washed every inch of your body, his careful hands caressing every dip and curve your frame. His lips were mostly on yours as he did so, never missing a chance to bring you even closer.
"Thank you" you mumbled, leaning against the marble wall as you watched him soap his broad chest.
Henry cluelessly raised his eyebrows, the movement of his hands slowing down as he waited for you to continue.
"For helping me wash up" you smiled, "You always do, but still. Thanks"
"No problem, darling" Henry nodded, gathering you closer again, and kissing your forehead. He got soap all over you again, and didn't even try to hide the fact that he loved having to help you rinse again.
A short while later, probably about 20 minutes or so, it was again the three of you, back in bed. You were laying between them. Judging by the light snores that danced off his lips and the peaceful way his chest rose and fell, Chris must have fallen asleep long before you and Henry finished showering. The sun started descending from the sky and the orange light in the room painted the perfect picture.
You cuddled into Henry's side, feeling your heart tickle the inside of your chest when he reciprocated the gesture. His warm breath graced the skin of your forehead as he gave you a longing kiss, barely even bothering to pull back before settling for a deep sleep.
You drifted off, content and with a smile on your lips, elated with what the day brought so far, and bubbling with anticipation for whatever surprises it might still have hidden.
By the time you woke up, fully rested, the sun was already sinking low behind the horizon, a red, tainted sky following in its footsteps. Extracting yourself from Henry's bear hold turned out to be much more than you expected, his reluctance to let you go, even in his sleep, making you giggle.
"How are you, sweetheart?" Chris asked, his voice a fresh tingle to your ears.
"Good-" you sighed, settling to lay down just a bit more. You kissed Henry's bicep as it spawned all across your chest, action which made him pull you even closer. "What time is it?"
"A bit past 6" Chris answered, rolling onto his side to face you. His shoulders slumped together making his chest stand out, but before you got a chance to take in the view, he cluelessly pulled up the covers all the way up to his nose. "Got any plans?"
"Yeah" you nodded, trying Henry's arm again, but he refused to budge once again. "I told you guys"
For a few seconds, Chris looked at you amused, and with a shake of his head, he grabbed Henry's hand, shaking him awake. "Wake up, buddy. Y/n's gotta get ready"
"No" Henry croaked, his light scruff tickling the back of your neck. 
To be fair, you were excited for your plans, but in a way, your heart broke thinking about leaving that bed. Eventually you did, the cold of the room clinging to your body in an instant.
You shivered your way to the bathroom, quickly washing up before returning to the bedroom. The scenery hadn't changed at all, the two men still lingering at the edge between dream and reality, their phone screens perfectly accentuating their lazy expressions.
Swiftly making your way past the bed, you slapped the light switch on, the warm light of your candelabra flooding room, much to their simultaneous dismay. "Why- just no, turn it off-"
"Yeah, sure-" you sarcastically responded, stepping past the ruined superman costume on the floor, and opening the closet doors. You grabbed a pair of underwear and stepped inside it, before rummaging for your favorite bra. "I'll just get ready in a pitch black room. Of course"
None of them was impressed.
"Who are you seeing anyway?" Chris questioned. 
You smiled innocently despite doing your best not to, and then turned to face them. "Sebastian"
"What" Henry gawked, sitting up in an instant, his frown taking over the previous sweetness of his features.
"What do you mean what?" 
"Yeah, haven't you two-" Chris began speaking but Henry cut him off with absolutely no remorse.
"You haven't seen each other in two weeks. I thought that was done for"
As you finally found your bra, you slipped your arms under its straps and pulled them up your shoulders. "We haven't seen each other because he's been visiting his family. We kept talking"
"Talking?" Henry raised an eyebrow. 
"Yeah we-" you sighed and then stopped. "Why are you acting like this? This is nothing new"
"I just-" Henry tripped over his words, shaking his head at the awkwardness he brought to the table. "I don't know, I'm sorry. I just didn't know it was that serious yet, that's all"
"It's not" you said, walking over to your makeup table and sitting down on the small, velvet chair. "We wouldn't be here if it was, would we?"
"I don't know, hun" Chris huffed, lazily slipping out of the bed. The way he walked made it look as if every muscle contraction pained him, leaning from side to side as he close to crawled his way to the bathroom. 
In the process, you caught sight of his naked body in the reflection in your mirror, catching everything from his tattooed chest, to his massive thighs and still impressive cock.
"He's a great guy. I hope things work out if you decide he's the one for you"
"Is he?" Henry chirped, making you turn to him, a thick layer of concealer that still had to be blended, smudged under your eyes.
"We said we're taking things slow, you know this" you sighed, waving your brush around, "We're not exclusive. We're not a couple. We're just- I don't know, dipping our toes. We don't wanna fuck this up."
"Then why are you here with us?"
Perhaps the words slipped past Henry's lips a bit too harshly. You did not expect that. Not from him.
"Uh-" you muttered, feeling cornered, "Listen, he's just one of my best friends. And I really like him, I never lied to him. He knows about you two. We're just-" and then you stopped again, dropping your sentence as your brows furrowed above a pointed look. "Since we started this thing, you both have slept with other people and I never said anything about it. But now that I actually find someone I like, you act like I've committed a crime. Why are you allowed to-"
"Ok, I'm sorry" Henry jumped to stop you, clumsily leaving the bed and padding over to you. "That was incredibly rude of me, I'm sorry"
"What's up?" you asked sweetly, dearly wanting to help ease the pain that upclose was so clearly visible behind his sad, blue eyes. 
And he hesitated, his eyes snapping to the window behind you before he licked his lips. "I just got comfortable, that's all. I care about you a lot, and I'll miss your sweet little body but if he makes you happy, I'll happily trade our encounters for... coffee dates?"
"Thank you, Henry-" you giggled, warming up at his sudden and sincere confession.
He kissed your forehead, the epitome of love gestures. His lips quivered, and brushed against your skin a few times before allowing you to finish getting ready.
Time had flown unreasonably fast, and in a matter of seconds, you found yourself running around the room, blazing through the last steps of your process, despite it not being neither tedious nor elaborated. To be fair, Sebastian was the only man in your life who you never tried to impress with your looks.
You felt appreciated and understood in his presence. He smiled when you talked and pecked your lips every chance he got. He was your friend before anything else, and regardless of the harsh reality you lived in, the status of your relationship changing was what you craved the most. He made you open up without even trying, his sense of stability and unconditional acceptance making you end up on his doorstep, dressed in just a hoodie and jeans, a bottle of wine in tow, ready to just kick back and feel your ultimate best.
For whatever reason, your heart started banging uncontrollably against your ribcage as soon as you knocked. When you heard the lock turn, your knees weakened.
He sprung the door open, welcoming you with open arms. You just took a step in and threw yourself against his chest, your cheek pressing against his shoulder as he brought you closer.
The fresh smell of his aftershave reached your senses, and you rubbed your nose against his perfectly soft jaw line. "You shaved," you smiled, knowing just how much he hated to do so when it wasn't absolutely necessary. 
"Thought it was about time" Sebastian laughed, his right arm still tight around your back as he leaned to the side to close the door.
You only then realised you didn't even bother to put your bag down, take your shoes off or even say hello before going in for a hug. You felt your cheeks burn at the realisation, but he did not seem to mind at all.
"Come on, make yourself comfortable," Sebastian said, starting to advance further into his apartment. You took off your shoes, and just when you were about to enter the living room, the delicious smell of basil stopped you and made you turn around.
You headed into the kitchen, your eyes landing on his tall frame, his back facing you as he stirred something on the stove. 
"You're cooking?" you asked, whiny with admiration and awe.
"Yes" he beamed, turning around. Only then did you notice what he was wearing. His usual black jeans and socks, but he had ditched his trademark sweaters, opting for an elegant button up instead. The sleeves were rolled up around his elbows, and he rocked a pair of fluffy house slippers, red with blue stripes, not fitting his attire in any way, shape or form.
You placed the wine bottle on the counter, and approached him cautiously. "What- um, what are you making?"
You felt bad, ungrateful and undressed. Where were his pajamas and the take out he always ordered? Did you miss something?
"There's this amazing spaghetti recipe I learned from my mum" he grinned proudly, eyeing the multitude of ingredients laid out all across the table. "It's not traditional or anything. She perfected the recipe over the years and you just have to try it"
"Smells delicious already" you giggled, looking around the kitchen.
The atmosphere was soft and warm, the lights were dimmed and slow blues tunes were playing in the background. It was nothing like you were used to.
You offered to help, but he insisted on finishing up alone. You always washed his dishes because he absolutely hated doing it, and you were also the one who always put his leftovers in the fridge, as he always forgot them on the table, cluelessly letting them spoil. It felt only natural to do so right now, so you made your way to the sink, and waited for the water to heat up.
"Stop" Sebastian laughed, coming up beside you to turn the faucet off. "Just relax for once, please" he begged, his hands on your waist effortlessly turning you around.
Your lower back pressed against the edge of the sink as he caged you in, his eyes warm and ambitious, boring into yours.
"I just want to help" you smiled.
"Not now" he shook his head, "We'll clean up later. Or tomorrow"
His words caused a lump to grow inside your throat, your lips involuntarily parting in surprise. You never spent the night at his apartment, and fervid anticipation started to surge through you.
"What’s going on?" you asked, cupping his cheek.
Sebastian leaned into your touch, his eyes all but fluttering closed. "Nothing. Why?"
As he spoke, he grabbed your wrist into his hand and brought your palm to his lips, kissing your soft skin as his eyes awaited your answer.
"I don't know…" you mumbled, feeling yourself melt. He was too close, too attentive and too focused on you, it felt so difficult to breathe. "Don't get me wrong, please. I absolutely love everything you did. But this is new. We never did anything like this before, what changed?"
"Is it bad?" he cautiously asked, planting his hands on the counter on either side of your hips. "That I want things to change between us?"
Your heart swelled. All the signs pointed in the right direction, but his words still managed to get your adrenaline going. "Change… how?" 
As soon as you spoke, you felt like throwing up. You couldn't help but wonder how dumb could you have been, to ask something like this. As if it wasn't obvious, but your brain was too busy drowning in excitement to actually allow you form any coherent thoughts.
"I mean-" he hesitated, his confidence shaking a bit. He looked to the side, licked his lips and then playfully rolled his eyes as the corners of his lips turned upwards, showing you that perfect smile you loved so much. "While I was visiting my family, I couldn’t stop thinking about you. My mom just couldn’t understand why I didn’t bring you along. I don't just want you for a date a week and a kiss after we drank enough wine. I needed that time apart to gather the courage to make the first step" he confessed. "I really fucking like you. I want all of you"
"Oh-" you froze.
"Please-" Sebastian whispered, gently tilting your chin up. "Tell me now if you want me to back off, because I'm really struggling to not kiss you right now"
As much as you wanted to tell him to do it, you refrained from doing so. Instead, you just grinned up at him, your eyes sparking with lustful temptation. He watched you closely, and when he figured out your play, he shook his head in disbelief for the briefest second. 
Following that, there was no awkwardness left. He engulfed your lips into the most passionate kiss. His tongue pathetically begged for permission, which you didn't hesitate to give. He explored your mouth as if it was the sweetest thing he ever tasted, kissed you deeply, moaning against your lips as his hands hazardously roamed your body. No matter what you did, you felt like you couldn't get close enough. You clung onto him, fisting the delicate material of his shirt into your hands, desperately trying to gather him against you. 
Sebastian was the one to break the moment, grabbing your cheeks as he pulled back. His lips were wet and slightly swollen, as he ruggedly breathed out against your skin. "So?"
"So, what?" you teased.
"Come on" he whined, kissing you again, this time more aggravated and determined. "Can we do this? Do you want it?"
"Are we going all out? Real couple? Exclusive, all strings attached kind of thing?" you beamed with excitement and so did he, hearing you.
"If you want to," Sebastian nodded. "I don't want to pressure you, but I'm crazy about you"
"You're not pressuring me. I adore you, Seb. I'm all yours"
"What did you just say?" he smirked, kissing your lips and moving down along your jawline, "That you're all mine? Pretty sure I've never heard anything more beautiful in my whole life"
"Well, you'd better get used to it" you giggled.
And the goodness kept coming. You ate and god, how grateful were for his mum's recipe, it was simple, delicious and it tasted like home. Sebastian refused to tell you how to make it just so he could be your personal chef and cook it for you any time you wanted.
You cleaned the kitchen together, ate cake until the button of your jeans threatened to burst, and then settled on the couch, drinking red wine while scrolling through Netflix. 
As ethereal as everything was, there was still a weight pressing down on your shoulders. You didn't want your relationship to start with you already hiding things from him, so you decided there was a conversation that really needed to be had.
"Sebastian?" you asked softly, grabbing his upper arm and squeezing lightly in order to get his attention.
"Yes, doll?" he hummed, a little bit distraught, before returning to search through the channels.
"Can you look at me a bit?" you muttered, "I wanna talk to you about something"
It was then he realised you were serious. Without question, he turned the TV off and leaned back on the couch, his slightly concerned eyes studying your features. "Are you ok?"
"Yes" you giggled and he visibly relaxed.
"Did I-"
"You didn't do anything!" you stopped him again, leaning down to kiss his lips. He was happy to reciprocate, but you didn't allow things to escalate. "I want to talk about something, and -" you cringed, your palms watering, "And I totally understand if it'll chance the way you see things"
"What are you talking about?"
He was rubbing your thigh, visibly growing impatient. But he allowed you to speak at your own pace.
"Um… you remember a while ago, I told you I was in that kind of a friends with benefits relationship?"
"Yeah" he nodded, "What about-"
"It is obviously over now that we took things to the next step, but these are my best friends we're talking about here. I just... couldn't help but wonder... I don't know… I feel like it wasn't fair to you.. considering how that went on until very very recently and-"
"Babe?" Sebastian stopped you, his voice soft and eyes even more so, "What are you trying to say? Did you think I'd be mad because you had sex before being in a relationship with me?"
"Huh" you gawked, "When you put it like that, it sounds really fucking stupid"
"I'm sorry, Y/n, but it kind of is" he laughed, shaking his head, "You're a free woman, you can do whatever you want. You don't have to explain yourself to me, especially when it comes to things like this"
"So you.. don't mind me seeing them again? Like friends, of course!"
He frowned a bit, scratching the back of his head. "I trust you, ok? I like to think that you wouldn't have been here with me if you had any feelings for any of them."
"Thank you"
"Come here-" Sebastian urged you, eager to bring you close against his chest again. He rubbed your back and rested his head on top of yours, "I really appreciate you telling me this. It was bugging you, and I'm glad you trusted me enough to tell me"
"I was worried it would be sitting in the back of your mind and you would feel uncomfortable bringing it up. I felt like I had to, like I owed you that much since you were so understanding with this thing from the beginning-"
"You don't owe me anything ok? I don't care what you did in the past, that's your business. I care what you do now, here, with me. And I might be blindly in love, but I doubt I have any reasons to worry"
"You really don't" you mumbled, settling into his lap and wrapping your arms around his neck, "I'm so happy to be here with you, I don't want anything else"
"Me neither, doll, me neither" he sighed, kissing your temple and bringing you closer.
The night ended relatively early. If you were in love with him at the beginning of the evening, now you were head over heels. You fell asleep cuddling, and you had never felt so loved before. Deep down inside, you regretted not allowing things to escalate, but sleeping with him so soon after your last encounter with Henry and Chris just didn't feel right. And of course he understood. The awe and respect for you was visible in his eyes when you explained what was holding you back. That night you slept better than you had in weeks.
The next morning, you left quite early, both of you having your schedules quite full. When you entered your apartment it was quiet and dark, and you couldn't help but smile bitterly at the memories from the day before.
You made your way to the kitchen, and stopped dead in your tracks when you saw a pink bag and a piece of paper right by its side. It didn't take long until you eyed the donuts inside the bag, but you didn't pay too much attention to them as you picked up the letter beside it and read it over.
"Hey, Y/n,
The reason I wrote you this is because I didn't want to interrupt your date, but this has to be said, you deserve that much. I can't lie and say that last night I didn't stay here until 3am hoping you'd come back. It's awful of me, I know, but I really hoped your date would go horribly wrong and that you'd come home early. It's not that I don't want you to be happy… I just wish it wasn't with him. And again, I can't lie and say that I didn't drop by in the morning. I brought you those donuts you love so much, but you weren't here. It was absolutely unfair of me, I know, but during these last few months, I fell in love with you. I know I should've told you before, and I hope you don't think I'm saying this now to burst your bubble. The reason I'm doing this is because you deserve an explanation. I'm sorry, but I can't be around you right now. I need to get you out of my head, and seeing you now, would only make it more difficult. Please don't reach out, you'll only pull me back in. I love you too much, I need some time away to screw my head back on. I'd be lying if I said I won't be waiting for you. Even if I won't actively/purposely do it, I can't imagine a day when I won't jump if you told me to. Please, don't think I'm doing this to hurt you, you're my favorite person in the whole wide world. I will always love you. I wish you and Sebastian the absolute best. This is difficult for me to say, but I hope he is everything you ever wanted. I hope he'll make you happy and treat you like the angel you are. This isn't goodbye or the end of our friendship, it's just me needing to step back. I wish you the best, god knows you deserve it!
PS: I replaced your superman costume, I know you begged me for weeks to give you one, and I ruined it yesterday. I had a spare one at home, it's on your bed now. I hope you don't mind I took the old one with me… you know? Memories...
All my love,
Your Henry"
2K notes · View notes
cherryyharryy · 3 years
Note
i have an idea for a request (it’s totally ok if you don’t want to do it) like an angst-> fluff where one of harry’s songs accidentally gets leaked bc of y/n like she has something on a flash drive and the song is on another and they get mixed up and obviously he’s really mad at y/n and they have a fight he’s super snappy with her but something happens to her like she gets into a really big accidental or something and he forgives her bc he cares about her more tha the leaked song
WC: 2.7k
***
Damage control wasn’t even an option. 
Y/n sat there, staring at Harry’s laptop, numb to everything except the blaring desire to go back in time just two minutes. Two minutes is all she would need to undo possibly the biggest screwup of her life.
And the worst part is that this mistake ultimately doesn’t affect her. At least not in comparison to how it will affect Harry. And his band. And his team. Basically everyone involved with his career. 
Her mind is equally begging for her to shut down and come up with a plan—an excuse—something, Is there anyway this wasn’t my fault?  
She checks the time, her heart sinking to her stomach when she realizes Harry and his team will be back any minute. Any minute and she’s done for.
They’ve only been together for five months, officially. She’s still new to most everyone. She’s that girl Harry’s dating.
“I told you he played in that movie.” Jeff’s voice echoes outside the studio. Y/n closes the laptop and prays for strength. 
“I have him confused with someone else.” Harry bustles through the door, a small crowd of people filing in behind him, back to the spots they left an hour ago. “Hey darling,” he greets, “finish your paper?”
Y/n’s frozen, morbidly wishing he had found out about his song leaking on his own so she wouldn’t have to tell him. “Uh, almost.”
He kisses the top of her head and hands her a cup of frozen yogurt. “Your favorite.” 
“Thanks.” She sets it on the table she’s sat at while Harry pulls up a chair beside her. “Aren’t you guys still working?”
He waves in the direction of his band, “Mitch’s gotta fix his guitar.” He snickers, and slides his laptop out from under y/n’s hands. “Had a bit of an accident in the car.” 
Y/n’s head tingles with what must be nerve damage, her place in this world, her place in this room, decreasing in value as Harry opens his computer.
“It’s gonna melt.” He nods to her yogurt.
“I’m not hungry.”
He furrows his brow. “You alright?”
“Mhm.” She looks around the room, everyone busy getting back to work, light chatter passing among them. “Uh, actually, I uh, I have to tell you something.” Y/n tries to swallow the lump in her throat with no luck.
“Okay…” He shuts the laptop and gives her his full attention.
“Okay, um—”
“What the fuck!?” The room freezes as everyone turns toward Jeff. “Harry someone’s got a hold of your song!” 
Harry scrambles to his manager, complete shock on his face as they both stare down at Jeff’s phone. “Fuck.” They start to play a video, the sound of a girl screaming, with Harry’s unconsented voice playing in the background, fills the room. “How the hell did this happen?” He’s gritting through his teeth, neck red, veins bulging in his hands as he rips the phone out of Jeff’s hand. “HOW? Someone answer me!”
Y/N considers keeping quiet. Playing innocent. What good will it do to confess anyway? It’s not like it’ll undo what she’s done.
Sarah chimes in from across the room, “It looks like it happened half an hour ago. That’s when this video I’m looking at was posted.”
Y/n’s staring down at her lap, holding her head up with her fingers pressed into her temples when Harry slings himself back into the chair next to her.
“All that work, all that fucking work,” he nearly growls, “for some cunt to spread my unfinished song around for a buck.”
Y/n peers up to the room, a completely different picture compared to five minutes ago. Now there’s talk of lawyers and pressing charges while everyone shuffles around. Jeff slams the door as he steps out with his phone to his ear, and y/n knows she can’t claim denial, it’ll only make things worse.
“Uh, Harry?”
“What is it?” He doesn’t look at her, eyes glaring at his phone while another video plays of a group of people reacting to his song. “Glad they fucking like it.”
“Harry?”
“What, y/n?”
She shrinks under his gaze, mouth dry as she forces her confession out. “I uh, this is all my fault.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m so, so sorry. And I’ll do anything—I know I can’t fix it—but...”
Harry’s tongue presses against the inside of his cheek, his eyes narrowing in on her as a morbid silence forms a little bubble around them. “Go on,” he whispers with grit, “finish what you were gonna say.”
She stutters, desperately trying to figure him out. “I’m just sorry. It was an accident.”
“An accident? How did you even manage to do this?”
“I—”
“Do you have any idea what this accident means, y/n?”
She reluctantly shakes her head no.
“How the fuck did you do this?”
“I—I don’t know...I was taking a break from my paper, and, I don’t know Harry.” She’s in tears now, warm and salty as they spill down her cheeks. Her mouth wobbles around another apology, but no sounds make it out.
“Fix it.”
“What?”
He stands up, yanking his laptop off the table, pausing to glare at her one last time. “I said, to fix it.” With that he storms across the room, slinging the door open just as Jeff reenters.
“Harry, your attorney—”
“Forget it.” He turns around and points his phone towards y/n silently sobbing in the corner. “She’s gonna handle it.” He takes one step out into the hall and stops, spinning on his heels to face the studio. “Don’t speak to me until you do.”
Mitch’s guitar that was fixed and propped against the wall, crashes to the floor when Harry slams the door. 
Chatter passes around the room one more time, only now everyone seems to be in agreeance—that girl never should have been allowed in the studio, and maybe, Harry should break up with her.
***
Early morning rain fell outside Harry’s apartment. It was still dark, street lamps burning through the fog in the city below. His home fills with coffee as he pours his fifth cup; the prior four never offering more than a few sips before he had abandoned them somewhere, the counter, mantle, bookshelf, because he can’t talk without his hands.
Y/n sits on his couch. It’s velvet and pink and too big for one person. She hated it the first time he invited her over. If he breaks up with her, she’s going to tell him how ugly it is.
“I don’t know what you expect me to do.” She’s exhausted. She hadn’t hesitated to drive over when he finally responded to one of her hundreds of texts in the week since the mishap. But now she regrets it. They’ve been going in circles with the same argument for the past four hours. She’s convinced he invited her over just to be mean. She sighs, rubbing her temples. “I said I was sorry. You know that I’m sorry. And you know that I never, ever in a million years, would have done something like this on purpose.”
“I’m allowed to be angry with you. I have every right to be.”
“Do you, though?” She straightens up on his ugly couch and looks at him leaning against the doorframe that leads into the kitchen. “Aren’t you a little tired of hating me? God Harry, everyone else in the whole world has moved on except you.”
“It’s not everyone else’s song, is it? It’s not everyone else’s months and months of hard work. It’s not everyone else’s unfinished art? Nobody else is having to deal with a girlfriend that is so careless, so thoughtless, that she actually managed to leak my song!”
“Stop raising your voice at me!”
“You had no business snooping around my computer anyway! I told you you could work on your fucking paper, not to go prying around my personal shit!”
“You know what,” she scoffs, shooting up off the couch, “this argument is so pointless. You didn’t want me here so we could talk. You just wanted to torture me because you’re mad that people don’t love your stupid song.”
“What the fuck did you say?”
She brushes his shoulder as she passes by him, and a drip of his coffee spills onto his hand. He curses, and follows her into the kitchen where he lays his final cup down on the island.
“You’re being a baby because people aren’t fawning over you like they usually do.” She shrugs and slings her bag over her shoulder. “It’s not your best song, Harry.”
The veins in his neck strain against his flaming skin. His cheeks are sucked in, and if he bites down on the skin any harder he’ll puncture his face. “Get the fuck out.”
“I was already leaving, dumb ass.” She strides by him once more, practically feeling the heat steaming off his body. When she gets to the front door, she pauses with her hand on the knob. “Your couch is hideous, by the way. Just because you’re rich doesn’t mean you have to buy shitty looking stuff.”
When she slams the door behind her, the apartment shakes, and cold coffee spills from each cup.
***
It’s nearing five a.m. when y/n backs out of the complex. Her wipers race across the windshield, but do nothing against the downpour wreaking havoc in the city. She does her best to stay on what she assumes is her side of the road, swerving to the right each time headlights blind her.
“Shit.” Nothing is open, and she can’t even see where it would be safe to pull over to let the rain pass. But her home isn’t that far, and traffic isn’t too bad. 
She comes to a stop at a red light, only to realize she missed a left turn she should’ve made a minute ago. “Damn it. Fucking hell.”
As soon as the light turns green, she spins the wheel to make a U-turn, and if it hadn’t been for the rain, and her own clouded mind, and Harry’s voice echoing in her ears, she might have seen the truck who didn’t even try to avoid her.
***
It’s the headache from hell that wakes her up. And it’s the sterile smell of hospital that jogs her memory. And it’s a nurse not much older than y/n that says something about you’re lucky to be alive. 
She’s poked and prodded and asked a thousand questions before her IV is adjusted and a pill to ease one of the many pains scratching her body is handed to her in a small plastic cup. A police officer repeats half of this process, and somewhere in the mess of her reality, she learns that the other driver was sending a text to his wife when he plowed into her car. He’s at home and she’s here. Lucky to be alive.
She made calls to her mom and friends, and even managed to type out a decent email to her professors for her upcoming absence in class.
When she automatically pulled up Harry’s name on her phone, the last text he sent, the one inviting her over so he could make her more miserable than she already was, sat there in all its taunting glory.
What is she even supposed to say? Hey, I know you hate my existence right now, but I’m lying here in a hospital bed with bandages wrapped around my head. It’d be cool if you stopped by.
It’s not long before the sun pops up and reminds y/n of just how early it is. The clouds part, and it’s like it had never even rained, like it had never even been dark for hours, and if she closes her eyes, y/n can pretend that the past week hadn’t even happened.
***
 “How are you feeling today?” The nurse checks y/n’s IV, humming after her question.
“Just sore. Ready to get out of here.”
“We’ve started the paperwork, so shouldn’t be too long. Who’s coming to get you?”
Y/n blinks, feeling stupid she hadn’t thought this far ahead. She doesn’t even have a car anymore. The nurse looks over the computer monitor, waiting for a response.
“Uh, my friend.”
“Awesome. Dr. Kirby has to come check on you one last time before you leave. I’ll go see if he can stop by now, if you want to let your friend know.”
As soon as the nurse is out the door, y/n scrambles to turn her phone back on, and once it is, her lock screen is filled with missed calls and unanswered texts.
She’ll respond later; gives her something to do in the car to occupy her in front of Harry. 
She can’t call him. Harry’s not a monster, although the past week doesn’t exactly prove her case, but she knows he wouldn’t refuse to come get her. If anything, he’ll be annoyed she didn’t tell him about the accident sooner. But she’s too emotional to deal with hearing his voice.
She types out a text recounting her last 24 hours, along with the name of the hospital. He immediately reads it, and a moment later he’s trying to call.
To: Harry
I’m too tired to talk rn
She lies. And it works.
From: Harry
I’ll be there as fast as i can
***
“Baby?”
Y/n cracks her eyes open, irritated she never quite fell asleep. Confused as to why Harry’s calling her baby. Angry that she cares. And the next words out of his mouth are ones she’d been predicting.
“Why didn’t you call me? I would’ve dropped everything. You’ve been here all alone, shit. Are you okay? What hurts?”
He’s hovering over her, fidgeting, unsure if he can touch her.
“I’m fine now. Just sore. And tired.”
“Fuck I can’t believe this, I—”
“The doctor already said I can go. I’m not allowed to walk out on my own, so, you need to let the nurse know you’re here. She’ll take me down in a wheelchair.”
“Baby I’m so sorry-”
“No, Harry. You would still be busy hating my guts right now—”
“Hate you? I don’t hate you?”
“Well you did a great job this week making me feel otherwise.”
Harry sighs, gripping the bed frame and dropping his chin to his chest. When he looks back up he has tears brimming his eyes. “I’m sorry,” his voice cracks. “I know I’ve been an ass this week. I—you were right. I took out my anger from no one lovin’ the song on you.”
“Well it’s not no one. A lot of people did. And it’s unfinished anyway. You wouldn’t enjoy a meal if it was only cooked halfway.”
He nods, but y/n knows he’s only accepting her words because of the situation.
“You mean so much more to me than a leaked song. I’m sorry I treated you like shit. And that I—I made you think I hated you. You have every right to hate me.”
“You annoy the hell out of me, but I don’t hate you.”
His lips twitch, but a few tears slide down his cheeks. “I’m sorry.”
“I know.” She takes his hand off the rail and smoothes her thumb across his knuckles. “You can make it up to me by getting me out of here.”
“I can do that.” He kisses the top of her head and hits the remote to call for the nurse.
“You can really kiss me, y’know. I’m not gonna break.”
He’s hesitant, but slowly lowers his head to press his lips to hers. He’s timid, and his lips are still damp from tears, but it’s more relieving than either of them would ever admit.
The nurse ends their moment when she pops in the room, pushing a wheelchair in front of her. “Hi, you must be y/n’s friend.”
“Friend?” He peers down at y/n, suggestion lacing the word. “Care to explain?”
“Not really, I’m so tired.”
“Mhm.” He clicks his tongue, supporting her arm as she swings her legs off the bed. Once she’s standing and steady, he tucks her hair behind her ear and bends down so his mouth can graze her lobe. “Since we’re just friends, I guess you’ll have to sleep on my ugly couch.”
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Stars on your Sleeve (Part 2) [A Jay Halstead Imagine]
A/N: The name of the girl is Y/N (I mostly write my imagines in second person POV...except for the one you guys might see in a few weeks) and cariña is just a nickname/term of endearment in Spanish that means sweetheart. Sorry if anyone got confused about that in part one!
"Dad," you started as you walked into Jay's office after school that day.
It was a Thursday and you had taken the bus from school to the district. It wasn't often that you did this, but you had gotten texts from both your mom and dad telling you that the current case was going to drag on and on tonight, so they wanted you at the district so that you wouldn't be home alone until two or three o'clock in the morning.
"Hi, cariña. How was your day? Learn anything interesting in school?"
"Dad," you groaned. "It's high school, half the stuff they teach me I won't ever use again."
"Well, excuse me for wanting to know about my daughter's day."
"Just can't wait for this week to be over to sleep in."
"You and me both, kid."
"Half the time you work weekends though, Dad," you pointed out.
"Comes with the sergeant title."
"And your sleeping in is like 7:00."
"Point taken. Now, did Mom pack you a few extra snacks or do you need some money for the vending machines?"
"She didn't--"
"Don't even finish that sentence, young lady," Hailey said as she burst into Jay's office. "I packed you a few extra things and you know it. You just want--"
"--Oreos," Jay and Hailey said at the same time.
"Hey, don't blame me! They taste good," you protested. "Anyway, Dad, can I use your laptop to do my homework?"
"Don't you have that school-issued one?"
"That one blocks Netflix."
Jay crossed his arms across his chest. "Homework, huh?"
"I'm just writing a paper. It's not like I'm doing math or reading something."
"What type of paper?" Hailey asked. "Because, I'm pretty sure that if it's a research paper, you need to focus."
"It's a narrative, so I don't need to be constantly focused, Mom."
"Makayla does the same thing," Adam said as he entered the office as well. "Let the kid have the laptop, Jay."
"Thanks, Adam."
"Uh," Jay groaned, "I guess."
"We also have a lead, so you wanna roll out after I give you the info?" Adam asked.
"Yeah. Sorry, Y/N, you need to go into the breakroom now."
"But why can't I stay in here?" you whined. "I want your spinny chair."
"Y/N, this is a case," your mom told you. "You know the rules: no being around the case talk. It's for your own good, we don't want to scar or scare you."
Mom, you know what I've seen, you wanted to tell her, but you knew it would be no use as your parents would never budge on this rule.
"I know, Mom."
Jay pulled his laptop from his desk along with the charger. "Rules?" he probed, holding onto the laptop and charger.
"Dad, I know the rules. Mom, c'mon, tell him."
"It's your dad's laptop, Y/N. I'm not arguing with you or him on this one."
Jay cocked his head to the side. "I'll give you the laptop after you tell me the rules...even though I know you know them."
You sighed. You went through this every time you used his laptop when he was going to be gone. "Only use my account, don't try to login to your account, and do not delete my search history."
"Here you go." He handed you his laptop and charger. "Good luck on your paper. Don't work too hard."
You went into the breakroom and opened the laptop. First, you pulled up Netflix, and then you pulled up your paper. It was your paper for your senior portfolio, which most people were putting off, seeing as you were only a freshman, you didn't need to work on it yet. But, you knew it had to be long, so starting it now would probably be helpful.
The paper was basically a narrative telling a story about each year of school. The stories had to be from two to five pages long, which meant that the paper in its entirety would be between 26 and 65 pages long. But, you didn't mind. It's not like you had to write a boring research paper. You also had to write about your career goals and one wish for your future as well, which would make the paper even longer still.
Seeing as your schooling didn't exactly match up with the American school system until you were around nine and in third grade, you had gotten permission from your teacher to just write about the sections of kindergarten, first, and second grade, as just memories from when you were six, seven, and eight years old.
You'd save the memories of six and seven for later, since you'd have to dig into the part of your brain where you were in the orphanage with your older sister, Illiana.
For now, you just scribbled down a few lines for ideas of when you were eight years old...which was pretty simple since a lot happened in your life that year.
***
"Y/N, we brought you some food if you--"
"Shut up!" Mouse hissed as the rest of the unit clambered up the stairs and into the bullpen. "She's sleeping."
Yes, when Mouse came home he returned to his job as the tech analyst of the Intelligence Unit. And, when Jay became sergeant, he pulled a few strings and got him a huge salary increase.
"I'll pull the car around front," Hailey offered.
"No," Jay whined. "That means I gotta be the bad guy and wake her up."
"Sorry, babe. I call dibs."
"Ew, guys, please keep the lovey-dovey nicknames to home. I don't need to see that," Adam joked.
"Shut up, Ruz."
Hailey swiped the keys from Jay's office and Jay went to wake you up. But, before he did, he saw the laptop, still open to both Netflix and your paper.
There wasn't much in the paper yet, as Jay had expected, only a few bullet points. His name caught his eye below the age 8 section...whatever that meant. He didn't mean to pry (well, really he did), but he closed the laptop without logging you out so that he and Hailey could take a look at it later.
"Y/N, Y/N, wake up."
You were woken up by someone gently shaking your shoulder.
"Quiero dormir, vaya," you whined. That was one thing you always did: reverted back to Spanish when you were tired. At least both Jay and Hailey understood it now because they had learned Spanish...which helped them with parenting because when they were mad at you, they'd talk in Spanish and that's how you know you were in deep shit.
"I know you want to sleep, and I'm not leaving," Jay answered. "But, we're going home so you can sleep in your bed instead of here."
"Mmmm, okay," you mumbled. You rubbed your eyes, but then decided it was too much work to get up, so you just sat up and closed your eyes once again.
"C'mon, cariña. Mom's got the car out front and then all you gotta do is stay awake until we get home, okay?"
"Mmmm," you mumbled and then stood up. He already had your backpack slung over his shoulder and was holding his laptop in the other hand. "Can I skip school tomorrow? I'm tired."
"Not a chance," Jay chuckled. "But, I can drive you to school and we can get you a frappucino on the way there."
"Mom won't be mad?"
"We don't have to tell Mom everything now do we?"
"No, we don't."
***
"What are you doing?" Hailey asked Jay as she slid into bed next to him that night. "Are you seriously checking our daughter's search history this late at night? C'mon Jay, she's a good kid. You won't find anything."
"That's not what I'm looking at. But, now that you mention it, I should probably check that, too."
"Then, what are you reading? Because I know for a fact that your case notes are definitely not as organized as that."
"Wow, Hails, you're so sweet," Jay said sarcastically. "It's Y/N's paper. The rubric was pasted at the top and it looks like she has to write about a memory from each year of her life and her career goals and a wish for the future."
"And you were snooping because...?"
"Because I saw my name. I wanna see what she says about us, Hailey."
"Jay, she loves us, baby. We're her parents. We both know that. You don't need to read her schoolwork to know that."
"Either way, I'm still reading it. Join me if you want, or go to sleep."
"Uh, fine. But if she asks, this was your idea and I will not hesitate to throw you under the bus."
Age 8, they both read to themselves, leaving/running away from orphanage
"God, no matter how many years it's been since she told us what happened, it never fails to break my heart," Hailey said.
Jay wrapped one arm around his wife. "I know, babe. I feel the exact same way."
"Hey, Y/N," the therapist started and you looked up at her. "Do you want to in that room over there and watch some tv while I talk to jay and Hailey? I can even turn on the Spanish movies for you."
"Okay!"
After getting you all set up, she left you in the room with a Spanish children's movie playing while she went to get Jay and Hailey.
"Jay and Hailey?" she asked as she entered the waiting room.
"Dr. Smith," Jay greeted.
"I have something to tell both of you, and Y/N told me it was okay that I tell you. When I asked if she wanted to be the one to tell you this, she said no because she didn't want to make you sad."
They entered the room where you had previously been and Dr. Smith sat in a chair and Jay and Hailey sat on the couch.
"What's this about?" Hailey asked.
"Well, she told me why she ran away from the orphanage."
Jay and Hailey were shocked. You'd been with them for three months and hadn't once mentioned why you ran away and what happened before Jay found you. It wasn't for lack of trying on Hailey and Jay's part, though. They tried. After all, they knew how to talk to child victims. But, they didn't want to push you too hard, and eventually, they just dropped the topic all together because they knew you'd talk about it when you were ready. Apparently, today was the day that you were ready to tell that story.
"And?" Jay pushed. "Why'd she run away?"
"She said that they came for her, the people who you were fighting," Dr. Smith said.
"Los Rebeldes," Jay said, more to Hailey than to anyone else.
"They came for her specifically?" Hailey asked.
"No, they just came to the orphanage. She said that she heard voices--male voices--telling them to get down on the ground and then some shots rang out. Her sister, Illiana, told her to hide and slipped the necklace around her neck. So, she did. She said she closed her eyes really tight and she just laid there, hiding and barely breathing. She said she heard a gunshot and then she heard Illiana scream and she heard squishing noises."
"Oh my God," Hailey gasped.
"You're saying they shot and killed her?" Jay asked, his voice cracking.
"That's what it sounded like, yes."
"How did she get out?"
"She said that she snuck out through a small door in the back of the room. She said it wasn't a real door, but it was a small door that led to the outside, by her description, it sounded about three feet tall and two feet wide."
"The waste doors," Jay muttered.
"The what?" Hailey asked.
"The waste doors...well, that's what we called them on Base anyway. They were these little doors where you could place stuff outside. Sometimes we'd put the packaging of our MRE's there or other crap we didn't need anymore. Not good for the planet, but yeah, that's what we did."
"So, Jay, you're telling me that Y/N essentially snuck out of the orphanage through a trash chute?"
"Well, we used them for waste, which is why we called them waste doors. But, I heard rumors of them being used at orphanages for parents to put their baby in a crib. They'd just open the door and place the baby in the little crib on the other side of the door."
"She moved the crib and snuck out through there?"
"If there was a crib, then she moved it and got out. If not, she just crawled out through there."
"Did she tell you anything about when she left?" Hailey asked Dr. Smith.
"She said that she didn't have much with her, just her teddy bear and that locket. But, she said that she walked for the rest of the day. And, according to her timeline, the soldiers came right after breakfast. She said she was really scared that they were going to find her and so she just kept walking. But then, she found a bit of a forest it sounded like and since it was starting to get dark and cold, she laid down."
"I found her in the middle of the night and she must've been there since sunset. No wonder she was hypothermic."
"We got her her first banana split after that therapy session," Hailey said. "I honestly don't know whether the food was to get her to try something new or to comfort us."
"Yeah, that was a rough night. I didn't even want her to leave my arms," Jay said. "Jay found me and I went home to Chicago," he read aloud. "Man, that night was rough, too. Probably worse than the night where we found out why she left."
"Now, it's crowded here, cariña so stay cerca to us or go mano a mano with me or Hailey, okay?" Jay asked you as the three of you found a parking spot at Navy Pier.
Adam, Kim, Kevin, and Will were all there as well. They had planned to go out and party and go to a bar when Jay returned home, but that changed now that he and Hailey had a kid to take care of, so they had decided to take a trip to Navy Pier.
In the airport, Jay had gotten a huge coffee from Starbucks, seeing as he had barely slept on the way home. Before coming to Navy Pier, you had gone to a place called iHOP where you had gotten some really yummy pancakes, and Adam, Kevin, and Will had made you laugh a lot and Kim spoke Spanish with you.
"What does that word mean?" you asked.
"What word?" Jay asked, looking down at you as he took your hand.
"Cr-crowded," you sounded out slowly.
"Uh, it means there's lots and lots of people."
"Oh, okay. I stay by you."
"So Y/N, what do you like to do?" Will asked you.
"I like reading and play fútbol," you told him.
"Really? Jay loves playing soccer!"
"We played back at the big house in España," you told Will excitedly. "We won and I got lots and lots of goals."
"Looks like you have a pro soccer player on your hands, little brother," Will said to Jay.
"Don't I know it."
"We go on the big thingy you showed me in the little book in the plane?" you asked Jay.
"The Ferris wheel?" You nodded excitedly. "We can do that, but let's walk around first. We might be able to play some games and win you a friend for Osito."
"Really? Osito have a friend?"
"Really," Jay promised.
As you walked down Navy Pier, you were excitedly pointing out every little thing you saw from the ducks and the seagulls to the big yachts floating down the Chicago River.
"Let's go into Garrett's, babe," Hailey suggested when they were inside the big atrium. "Give her a taste of Chicago's world-famous popcorn."
"I think that's a great idea," Jay agreed. "What do you think, cariña? Want to try some popcorn and then we'll get your favorite?"
You tilted your head to the side. "Popcorn? What is that?"
"Palomitas," Kim clarified for you in Spanish. "Hay muchos tipos diferentes de palomitas allí para probar y comprar."
"Oh, okay. Yes, please."
"What did you say to her?" Hailey whispered to Kim.
"Just gave her the Spanish translation of popcorn and then told her that there's a bunch of different types of popcorn that she can try and buy in there. But, you and Jay most definitely have your work cut out for you when it comes to learning Spanish. You're lucky that she's pretty good with English already and that I'm here to help you learn Spanish."
***
"Sleepy, cariña?" Jay asked as he heard you yawn from the backseat.
Hailey was driving and he was holding a big bag of caramel and cheddar popcorn...which Hailey was telling him not to eat all of it because she knew he would. You were in the backseat with your big stuffed bear, whom you had named Osita since she was a girl bear because she had really soft white fur and a pink ribbon tied around her. Jay had won that for you when he played a shooting game. You also had a stuffed duck that Will had won for you when he played a guess the weight game. You named him Pato...which meant duck in Spanish. You had gone on the Ferris wheel and had pointed out all the pretty things in the sky when you were up there. Hailey had never seen Jay so happy as when he was smiling wide at every little thing you pointed out and he tried to explain to you what they were.
"No," you answered as you laid your head against Osita. It was currently 3 pm Chicago time, which made it about 9 pm Spain time.
"Tell you what," Hailey started, "When we get home, we can show you your room, and then we can watch a movie and eat this popcorn. Because, if we don't start eating it soon, Jay will eat it all."
"Jay eat it all if we no eat it too?"
"Jay eats a lot," Hailey joked.
You reached your hand in front of you and towards Jay. "Palomitas please." Jay chuckled and Hailey smiled as he put some popcorn into your little outstretched hand. "Gracias."
"De nada," Jay told you.
"When we watch movie, how I get it?" you asked.
"We get it on the tv," Jay told you.
"No, how I know what they saying?"
Hailey hadn't thought that far ahead when she had suggested watching a movie. "Um," Hailey faltered. "We can make it so it's in Spanish."
"But then you no know what they say," you pointed out.
"We can put words on the bottom of the screen in English for us," Jay suggested. "Then all three of us will know what they're saying. Is that okay?"
"Okay!"
"Hailey," Jay whispered. "What are we gonna watch?"
"She's too old for princesses probably and way too young for action movies...how about Disney Channel movies? We could try High School Musical? That one's pretty good."
"You're kidding Hails. You watched that? Didn't it come out when we were like 20 or 25?"
Hailey held back a laugh. "Yes, it did. But, I babysat a lot of kids in my neighborhood who were around Y/N's age, and we'd always end up watching those Disney Channel originals."
"Okay, whatever you say, babe."
***
"I think I'm gonna bring her to bed," Jay said.
You had fallen asleep halfway through the movie. Before starting it, you had seen your room. It was purple! And, in black letters behind your bed, it said Salon de Y/N, which meant Y/N's room. Jay assumed that Kim had helped Hailey with the spelling and the boys had helped move the furniture into your room. There was also a little basket with a few things they thought you would like, such as a few different colored soccer balls and a bookshelf.
On the bookshelf, Hailey had picked out some books in Spanish that she had found at Barnes and Noble and some short chapter books in English that she used to read as a kid, such as the Nancy Drew series and Little House on the Prairie. She knew that you might need help reading them and might not be able to completely understand them all by yourself yet, but she knew that she and Jay would be there to help you.
"It's 6:00," Hailey protested. "Shouldn't we wake her up and have her stay awake for a few more hours so that her body can adjust?"
"If you're asking an adult like me that, yes, I'd stay awake. But, she's a kid. She needs her sleep. And, I'll probably be up before you anyway, so I can deal with her if she wakes us up at five in the morning."
"Okay super dad," Hailey joked. "Bring her to bed. I'll make us a quick dinner and cover this popcorn so it doesn't get stale. Can't wait for us to go to bed tonight." She winked.
"Hails, as much as I would love to take you up on that, I don't think it's a good idea when it's Y/N's first night. But, I will give you all the cuddles in the world tonight, don't you worry about that."
"As long as you didn't pick up the habit of snoring overseas then I'm all for that, babe."
***
Jay woke up to the sound of soft whimpering. It sounded like it was coming from the hallway but he couldn't be sure. He reached over Hailey and was about to grab her gun from her drawer where he knew that she kept it, but stopped when he remembered that it was probably just you. It wasn't just Jay and Hailey in the house anymore; you were there as well and that's probably where the noise was coming from. And, he didn't want to scare you by holding a gun.
He glanced over at the clock. 3 am. Yeah, sounds about right that you'd be waking up right about now since you'd slept for about nine hours and it was 9 am in Spain right now.
Jay slowly tiptoed out into the hallway, cursing himself that he hadn't left a light on or kept his and Hailey's bedroom door open so you could find them easily.
Jay reached out for the hall light switch and flicked on the lights, causing you to jump. "Hey, hey, it's just me. It's just Jay," he said calmly once he laid eyes on you. You were holding Osito and there were fresh tears running down your cheeks.
Jay never knew the force of an eight-year-old running into him could be so strong as to almost knock him over. You dropped Osito and wrapped your arms around him as if your life depended on it.
"It's okay, it's okay," Jay soothed. "What's wrong, cariña? Can you tell me what's wrong?"
"I-I no know where I was," you mumbled into his shirt. "Was dark. Think you and Hailey left, so I came to find you."
"Oh, sweetie," Jay started. "I'm sorry. I forgot to turn the light on for you in your room so that you'd know where you are. And, me and Hailey would never leave you."
"You promise?"
"I promise." Your stomach grumbled. "Hungry?" you nodded. "Alright, let's get you a sandwich and then get you back to bed."
"You eat too?" you asked.
"You know, I could go for a sandwich."
***
The next morning, Hailey rolled over to see that Jay wasn't in bed next to her and his side of the bed was cold. Then, she remembered you and walked over to your room and slowly opened the door. You looked up from the Spanish book you were reading and put a finger to your lips.
"Jay sleeping," you told Hailey.
Jay was sitting upright in your bed against the headboard, his thumb holding a place in what looked to be a Nancy Drew book.
"Did Jay read to you last night, huh?" Hailey asked as she walked closer to you and Jay.
"Yeah, he told me that Nancy does what you and Jay do with policia. Then, I sleep again and then I wake up and he sleep again, so I started reading in Spanish."
"I think we should let him sleep a little more while we go finish High School Musical and eat palomitas before Jay eats it all. Does that sound good?"
You nodded eagerly and closed your book. Then, you got out of bed and followed Hailey out of your room. And, after hearing that Jay had read to you and seeing him sleeping upright in your bed so that you'd be able to sleep, she had one more reason why she was truly head over heels for the man she married and got to call her husband.
"Look, Jay. She wrote her birthday in here for age 9," Hailey said as she pointed to the laptop screen.
"God, I don't think I'll forget that day for the rest of my life. It was such a good day."
"You are such a sap when it comes to Y/N."
"Hey! let me be sappy about our daughter, Hailey Anne. She's in high school now, high school. That means she'll be going off to college soon."
"Don't get too far ahead of yourself, sergeant," she joked. "Just keep reading this. It was your idea to snoop through her stuff after all."
"Jay, you got the stuff?" Hailey asked as she was sitting cross-legged on their bedroom floor with wrapping paper, tape, and scissors in front of her.
"Jesus, Hails," Jay laughed, "You make it sound like we're doing a drug deal."
"Well sorry if I want her birthday to go really well. Now, did you get them or not?"
"They're in here." He set a plastic bag down on the bed. He took out three framed pictures and laid them out on the bed. Of course, he made sure that the frames were different shades of purple. "Good?"
Hailey stood up and looked at the pictures. "I never know the CPD's sketch software could work miracles like this, so yeah, I'd say we did good."
Over the past month, everyone in Intelligence had told you that they were testing out a new sketch software to use to try to track down criminals. They let you play with it because they said they wanted to see what it would do...even though they knew what it did, how good it was, and it wasn't new. It was just a ploy to make sure they got your birthday gift right. They had told you to try and input someone's face from memory, someone like your older sister, Illiana.
So, when you had to go to the district for the day with Jay and Hailey, you'd ask to play with that software to work on your sketch. Little did you know, they were printing it out on fancy photo paper and putting it in a frame for your birthday. Jay had also swiped your necklace one day when you had taken it off to go swimming and had taken pictures of what your mom and dad looked like. Then, he and Hailey each took one parent and worked on making their faces through the CPD's sketch software.
"Now what the hell is this?" Jay asked as he held up a big board that Hailey had laying out in front of her as well.
"That, Jay, is so we can stick the back of the frames to it so that we don't have to give the three of them to her separately. Then, she can just take them off from it and place them wherever she wants in her room."
"You're smart. Maybe you should've gone to law school."
"Haha, very funny, Halstead. But then I wouldn't have met you."
"Eh, I beg to differ. You'd probably end up being some prosecution or defense attorney and then I'd have to testify, and after getting yelled at by you on the stand, I'd end up making an ass of myself and ask you out for a drink."
"Is that so?"
"That is very much so."
He walked up to her and grabbed her by the waist and she gave him a peck on the lips. "Hails," Jay whined. "Why'd you phone it in?"
"Because we have presents to wrap. Now, sit your ass down on the carpet and help me."
"Yes ma'am. But, damn, you're really going to be the death of me."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
***
"Before we do cake everyone, me and Hailey have one more gift for Y/N," Jay announced by tapping a fork gently against his champagne glass. Yes, the adults were drinking champagne because they were celebrating your first birthday with them as their kid. No, they wouldn't even give you one sip...but you didn't care and you didn't ask.
You had gotten spoiled all day. Will had taken you out for breakfast where you had gotten chocolate chip pancakes with all the toppings. Then, he took you to the sporting goods store where you bought an FC Madrid jersey and to Barnes Noble where you bought a few new books.
Then, when you got home, you were surprised to find everyone from Intelligence there along with some people from Med, and firehouse 51. Emilia, Mouse, and Makayla were there, and your friend, Rosa, whom Emilia had introduced you to earlier in the year at her welcome home party since Rosa was one of Emilia's little cousins.
You had gone outside and played a huge soccer game. And, when you got sick of playing soccer, Emilia busted out a makeup kit she had bought for you. And you, Makayla, Emilia, and Rosa did each other's makeup. While the four of you were doing makeup, a soccer tournament had broken out where Intelligence played Med, and then the winner of that game played Firehouse 51. Intelligence won against Med...mostly due to Jay. But, then they played 51 and they got creamed.
"Here you go, nena," Hailey said as she passed you the gift. Hailey had started calling you nena since Jay had a nickname for you, cariña, which you learned now meant sweetheart in English. So, she decided to call you nena, which meant honey. And, you and Hailey had thought it only fair if you came up with a nickname for Jay. So, the one you decided on was quite fitting in your mind: pecas...which translated to freckles. And, Will, well Will calls you Osa because your favorite animal is a bear. It's probably one of only three words he knows in Spanish next to hola and adios.
The gift was long and hard...like a piece of wood. You slowly opened the gift, wondering what else you could have possibly gotten.
You bit your lip as you finished tearing the paper off and flipped it over. "Mamí, Papí, Illiana," you whispered as you held back tears. "¿Cómo lo hicisteis?" you asked. Seeing as Jay and Hailey had been working very hard on their Spanish for the past nine months, they could understand you and could sometimes explain an English word to you in Spanish if needed.
"We didn't really need to test out the drawing thing," Jay answered. "We just needed a picture of Illiana. And, I got the pictures of your parents from the locket."
At this, you started to cry harder, remembering that day when Jay had to cut your necklace off of you in the back of the Med truck in Spain.
You stood up and hugged both Jay and Hailey at the same time. Now, you had both of your families watching over you: your biological family from in heaven and your parents in the here and now. And, your biological family now had no doubt in their mind up there that you would never, ever forget them.
"You remember what she called us that night?" Hailey asked.
"How could I forget? It was the first night she called us mom and dad. I still remember her exact words when I told her we weren't trying to replace her biological family: Son mi familia en el cielo y en mi corazon, pero vosotros sois mi familia aquí."
"They're my family in heaven and in my heart, but you are my family here."
"Exactly."
"Oh my God!" Hailey laughed. "She wrote sixth-grade: I cheated on a literature test and Mom had to come to pick me up and I got in trouble. And then, Dad went full-on dad-mode."
"No fucking way," Jay laughed as he brought the laptop closer to him and looked for the sixth-grade section. "I can't believe this is what she's going to write about!"
"Well, in her defense, it was the first time we had to ground her and the first time you went full-on, overprotective, my daughter can do no wrong dad-mode."
"Pretty sure the next time I'll do that is when she gets asked to the homecoming dance later this year."
"Jay! You will not! You will not scare the boys away from our daughter!"
"Well, they should be scared!" Jay argued. "We're both cops, babe. We can make their death look like an accident."
"Jay, what you're talking about is murder and I shouldn't have to remind you that that is illegal. If so, I am going to the Ivory Tower tomorrow to get you stripped of your sergeant title."
"Fine, fine. The next time I'll do that is when she gets her driver's license."
"Hey, on the bright side, we wouldn't have to pick her up from the principal's office then," Hailey pointed out. "She could just drive herself home."
"We wouldn't have to figure out which of us should go pick her up like last time?"
"Exactly. And I'm pretty sure she was thankful that it was you and not me who picked her up in sixth grade."
"Miss Halstead," your literature teacher said as she stalked over to you from the other side of the classroom. "Care to tell me what you have under your sleeve?"
"My arm?"
"I don't like being disrespected in my classroom. We both know you have your phone in there. And, lying to me will just make this worse."
"I-I needed it," you stammered, not wanting to have the whole class hear how stupid you were.
"For a test? You know the rules: no cheating. Principal's office, now. Grab your stuff. And, I'll be calling your parents as you walk down there."
You grabbed your backpack and started your walk to the principal's office. It's not like you had a choice...well, you did have a choice. You could've just not used your phone on the test. But, after that last grade you got on that essay and how weirdly worded the questions were, you basically had no choice but to use your phone. It's not like you were using it to look up the answers per se, but you were using it to try and understand the questions because there was no way you were going to ask that teacher.
"Mrs. Halstead, right this way," you heard the office secretary say as they led Hailey to the principal's office. Your phone was sitting on the principal's desk, the tab you had been using to cheat open and you were fiddling with the strings of your hoodie. You had thought about deleting your search history, but knew it wouldn't be of any use because Jay and Hailey would just be able to look it up with whatever police software crap that Intelligence had access to. You knew you'd be in more trouble if you deleted it and they found out that you were lying, so you decided you wouldn't delete it...even though you were regretting that decision as your phone screen stared back at you.
"May I ask why my daughter is in the principal's office when I thought she should be taking a test?" Jay and Hailey knew all about your literature test that day as you had read the book twice to be ready for it.
"That's exactly why she's in here, Mrs. Halstead," the principal told Hailey. "She was trying to cheat on her literature test."
"She wouldn't do that!" Hailey defended you. "She studied so hard!" She looked between both you and the principal, but your gaze stayed trained on the floor.
"Just take a look."
He passed Hailey your phone and she looked at the search history and the timestamps of said history. "Y/N, is this true?"
You nodded. Hailey sighed. "I'm assuming she's suspended?"
"Since this is her first academic infraction, I'm not going to suspend her. She does need to go home for the rest of the school day, though."
"Thank you. C'mon Y/N, let's go."
You hung your head as you left the middle school, Hailey holding your phone and still trying to figure out why you did this. But she knew that one thing was for sure: the minute Jay got home, he would not be happy.
***
"You're kidding me, right?" you heard Jay ask Hailey in the kitchen.
You were currently in your room, but the kitchen was right down the hall, so if you were quiet and focused enough, you could hear their conversation.
"I wish I was, Jay," Hailey said. "Just...here, take a look."
You assumed that Hailey was handing Jay the phone and he was looking at your search history.
Jay took a deep breath and restrained himself from shoving the chair into the kitchen table.
You heard his heavy footsteps coming down the hall and quickly locked your door and then sat back down on your bed.
You heard the doorknob jiggle as Jay tried to open your door.
"Y/N! ¡Abras la puerta inmediatamente!" (Open the door immediately!)
You were in deep shit if he was yelling at you in Spanish.
You didn't move from your bed.
"¡Ábrelo ahora!" (Open it now!)
"¡Estoy viniendo! ¡Calmáse!" (I'm coming! Calm yourself!) You got up from the bed and opened the door.
"Do not ever, ever tell me to calm down ever again! Do you understand me?" Jay asked angrily as he flung open your door after he had unlocked it. You nodded. "Now, I understand that you were caught cheating on a test. Care to explain that to me?"
"Not really," you sighed as you sat on your bed.
"I'm giving you one more chance to explain to me why you chose to cheat. And I suggest you tell me the truth, kid."
You looked up to be met with Hailey standing in the doorway. She nodded to you as if to say you better listen to your dad.
"Well?" he asked as he crossed his arms across his chest.
"I needed to cheat!"
"Nobody needs to cheat!"
"Well, I did!" You dug through your backpack and found the paper you had to write for the class that your teacher failed you on. "Because of this!" You threw the paper on your bed. "And because my teacher is a puta!"
"You do not call your teacher a bitch, young lady!" Jay yelled.
"Jay!" Hailey yelled. "Take the paper, go to our room and read it and calm down!"
"So Mom can tell you to calm down but I can't?"
Jay turned back to you, but Hailey grabbed his arm. "Bedroom Jay. Now." He left the room and Hailey turned to you. "As for you. You're grounded from your phone for the foreseeable future. Sorry, nena. Now, we'll be back to talk to you after we've read whatever it is you threw on your bed."
***
"We read the paper," Jay said as he and Hailey entered your room again fifteen minutes later. "And, I'm sorry for yelling. I know me and your mom are both detectives, but it'd look better if you told us why you cheated instead of leaving us to put the pieces together."
"I'm sorry, I really am. It's just, I failed that paper. And, I worked really hard on it. And, she said it wasn't a real tradition."
The paper topic was to write about a family tradition and you wrote about the Spanish tradition of eating grapes on New Year's Eve. With twelve seconds left of the year, you'd put a grape in your mouth for every second that passed. You'd try to get all twelve grapes in your mouth, but that was really hard. You wrote about the last time you did it with your family and your papí almost got all of them in your mouth while you only got three in your mouth since you were only three years old at the time.
One of the grading criteria for the paper was that it had to be a real tradition.
"She said that it wasn't a real tradition, Dad. She said that because she had never heard of it and that it sounded weird to her, that it wasn't real. So, she failed me. I also put some Spanish words in there, but I put the translations next to it. I thought it would make it more...what's the word? It's kind of like real? Like it'd make it more real to read? You know that word for it?"
"Authentic?" Hailey asked.
"Yeah, that. I thought it'd make it more authentic to read. And, I knew the material of the book. But, the questions were so confusing and I didn't want to ask her to clarify because she's mean."
"So you googled the questions to try to figure out what they were asking?" Hailey asked.
"Yes. I'm sorry. I really am. I just didn't want you to be disappointed in me and think that I've been here for four years and not know English."
"Oh, cariña." Jay crouched in front of you. "We'd never think that. I promise. And I know Mom would never think that either, right?"
"That's right," Hailey agreed.
"Now, I have to go make a phone call."
"You went off on that teacher, Jay! I don't think I've ever heard you that angry when you weren't in interrogation!" Hailey laughed.
"Well yeah! That teacher's logic and grading criteria were seriously flawed. And, you read that paper. It was really good. As Y/N put it that day, she really was a puta."
Hailey rolled her eyes.
"Wish for the future," Jay read aloud. "I wish that I could figure out why Los Rebeldes came to the orphanage and killed Illiana."
"I think that's enough snooping through her stuff for the day, babe," Hailey said, beginning to feel uncomfortable reading this. "Let's just go to bed."
"Yeah, I'm just gonna take a quick shower and I'll be back, okay? I love you." He gave Hailey a quick peck on the lips and made his way to the bathroom to take a shower.
"I love you, too."
But, Jay barely heard her. He was so lost in thought about how to get answers for you, for his daughter. Hell, he wanted those answers just as bad as you. What kind of sick bastard would come into an orphanage heavily armed and just kill innocent civilians and innocent children?
***
"Mouse," Jay said as he entered the bullpen the next morning, "I need your help with something."
"Jeez, Jay, you're late," Ruzek commented. "Where's Hailey?"
"It's her RDO. And, I promised Y/N a frappuccino because she had to wake up early for school and had to go to bed late last night because we were working a case."
"Does Hailey--"
"No, Adam. Hailey does not know that I gave our fourteen-year-old daughter sugar-laced coffee this morning. And, if you so much as say the words frappuccino, Jay, and Y/N in the same sentence, I will bump you back down to patrol so fast you won't know what hit you."
Jay started to walk towards the tech area where he assumed Mouse would be. His voice carried, so he hoped he'd heard him when he'd said he needed his help.
"Whose idea was it to give Jay all this power?" Adam asked rhetorically. "I think it's going to his head."
"I heard that Ruz!"
"You needed something, Jay?" Mouse asked as he turned around from his laptop and took a sip of his coffee.
"Yeah, can you do something off the books for me?"
"You don't even have to ask anymore, man."
"Just need to make sure you don't assign a case number to it."
"I can do that. Now, what do you need?"
Jay pulled out his phone and pulled up a Spanish newspaper article from two weeks ago. He laid the phone in front of Mouse. "This. This is why I need you."
Mouse looked at the phone and back up at Jay with raised eyebrows. "I'm gonna need you to translate that. I don't speak Spanish."
"Says that the guy who killed everyone in the orphanage that Y/N was in is meeting with his lawyer about an appeal. That son of a bitch. And, it's happening on Monday."
"He's meeting with his lawyer on Monday or you'll know if he won the appeal or not on Monday?" Mouse asked.
"He's meeting with his lawyer on Monday."
"And you need me because...?"
"Think you can hack into Spain's maximum-security federal prison system?"
"You cannot be serious."
"I am dead serious, Mouse."
"Why don't you just wait to hear the news?"
Jay sighed and took a seat next to Mouse. "Y/N has to write a paper and was using my laptop. It was this narrative thing for her senior project, so it's due in a few years. But, I'll spare you the details. Y/N had to write what one of her wishes for the future was and she wrote that she wants to know why the guy killed everyone in the orphanage. Not who, because we already know that it was Raúl Rodríguez. She wants to know why."
"That guy's the one who told them to attack the orphanage? The one that killed her sister, right?"
"That's the prick."
"Okay, I'll see what I can do. I'd know that if it was my sister or my kid that I'd want to know."
"Thanks, man."
"Video and audio?"
"Yeah. I'm probably gonna get Emilia in on this too to translate."
"Why? Don't you and Hailey speak Spanish?"
"We do, but they're gonna talk really fast and I probably don't know law lingo except for the word lawyer."
"Fair enough. I'll get to work."
***
"Hails, Hails," Jay shook Hailey awake.
"Jay? Why are you home so late?" she asked as she rolled over and opened her eyes. It was almost 11:30 and she had gone to bed half an hour ago...she thought Jay would've been home by 11:00.
"Paperwork," Jay answered honestly. He instantly regretted his decision of waking Hailey up knowing her history of insomnia. "But, I shouldn't have woke you up. I'm sorry, babe."
"No, I'm awake now. What's up?" She sat up in bed and turned on the lamp to see Jay changing out of his clothes and into his pajama pants and an old t-shirt. "You don't have to sleep with a shirt on you know."
Jay smirked. "You'd like that, wouldn't you? But, don't want our daughter to walk in on me shirtless."
"She's spending the night at Rosa's," Hailey informed him.
"In that case..." Jay trailed off and took off his t-shirt along with his pajama pants so that he was just in his boxers. "Better?"
"Much better."
Jay pulled back the covers on his side of the bed and slid in next to his wife. She cuddled into his side and he wrapped an arm around her.
"What'd you want to tell me?" she asked.
"How do you know I wanted to tell you something?"
"You had that look in your eye, Jay Halstead. Now, tell me."
"So persuasive." He rolled his eyes playfully.
"Shut up."
"You love it, though." He gave her a quick kiss on the lips. "You know how Y/N's biggest wish was to know why Raúl Rodríguez attacked the orphanage?"
"Mhmm," she mumbled.
"Well, I'm gonna find out why."
She pulled away from him. "What? How? You're going to Spain? To interrogate him? You know the CPD doesn't have jurisdiction there even though you were a ranger there, right?"
"Hails, I'm not going overseas to find him. I promise you that."
"Okay." She settled back into his embrace. "Then what are you doing?"
"Having Mouse see if he can hack into the prison system so that I can watch the lawyer talk to him."
"And you're going to be able to understand everything they're saying?"
"No, but Emilia will."
"You called her and told her your plan before you told me?"
"No! The only person who knows is Mouse. I figured I'd call Emilia tomorrow. Like I said, I was just at the district late doing paperwork."
"Okay, I believe you. And, we're not going to have her in the room with us, Y/N that is? We're going to tell her why he did this so she doesn't have to hear it from him?"
"Precisely. Now, am I right in assuming that since Y/N's gone for the night that we can be as loud as we want?"
"You are very much correct in that." Then, he gave her a kiss...and this time, he didn't phone it in at a peck.
***
You were sitting in the breakroom Monday afternoon trying to do some American history homework. There was so much reading involved, but it was okay because you liked history. And, there were pictures in the textbook...it wasn't like you were reading Romeo and Juliet like you had to do in English class.
You knew Emilia was here because she had brought you some fries, much to your mom and dad's dismay since your mom had packed you a few extra snacks. But, Emilia said she had to hold up her reputation as your cool aunt...even if she wasn't related to you whatsoever. And so far, she was holding it up.
You didn't know why she was here, but you assumed it was because Kim was in the field and they needed someone to translate audio. Sometimes Jay would call in Emilia if he knew that she wasn't working to do some translating so he didn't have to deal with calling up a patrolman. You also knew from hearing some of his conversations with Will that Will wanted to ask her out.
And, you hoped she say yes. You wanted Emilia to be your actual aunt. Apparently, she had a thing for doctors according to Jay's side of the phone conversations you'd heard, so you hoped it'd work out if your uncle Will ever got the balls to ask her out.
All of a sudden, Emilia came into Jay's office and he took off running. Hailey saw this and she started following them.
"What?" you asked yourself.
They always would tell you if they had to leave and they'd always be sure to tell you they loved you before they left.
You quietly walked out of the breakroom and towards where you had seen them running to. You assumed they were in the tech area because of the direction they ran in and the fact that whenever Emilia was here, she was most likely in the tech room.
As you got closer, you started hearing Spanish.
Someone talking about an attack...an attack on an orphanage.
A man said it was in the Tabernas Desert.
You peeked your head around the corner to see that on the screen there was a man in a nice suit and someone sitting at a table with handcuffs on.
"Anything we don't already know?" Hailey asked.
"Not that it sounds like right now," Emilia answered. "They're just talking about the orphanage Y/N and Illiana were in and where it was."
So this is the guy who did it. This was the guy--no, the monster--who led the attack that killed your sister.
"The lawyer just asked Rodríguez why he did it," Emilia said.
"And?" Jay asked
"Jay, I need to be able to hear them talk, so shut up."
Jay held his hands up in a sign of surrender.
"The lawyer just asked if it was something personal, something like Rodríguez being an orphan and he didn't have a good experience there so he attacked it, something that would tug at the board of appeals heartstrings essentially." There was a pause as Emilia continued listening. "He said no." She paused again. "Oh my God."
"What?" Jay asked frantically. "Why did that prick kill innocent children?"
"He said he ordered the attack because the orphanage was receiving aid from the US, for things such as food, clothing, and basic necessities."
"Un-fucking-believable." Jay wanted to punch something, but he restrained himself. "So, because our country was helping those who couldn't help themselves, this prick went after them?"
"That's what it sounds like. I'm sorry, Jay."
"Hails, how are we going to tell Y/N?"
"You guys don't have to tell me," you said as you made your presence known. "I heard the whole thing."
Jay sighed. "I'm sorry cariña, really I am. I'm sorry that this happened to you. That you had to find out this way. That this was the reason for what that monster did. I'm sorry."
"Dad read my outline?" you asked, turning to Hailey.
"Yeah, nena, he did. It was just open and you know him, he couldn't stop himself."
"Because he's a detective before he's a sergeant, just like Nancy Drew," you said, bringing it back to the books you'd used to read with your dad every night when you had just come over to the states from Spain and were working on your English.
"This should never have happened," Jay said softly as he walked over to you and brought you into a tight hug. "People that do these kinds of horrific acts shouldn't have the right to be born, much less to live."
"But if that wouldn't have happened you wouldn't have found me. And I wouldn't have found my forever Mom and Dad."
A/N: I wrote over 6.5k words to get this posted today! That's a new personal record for me! Also, my neuroscience class is kicking my butt right now, so if I don't update as frequently, that's why. Hopefully, I'll get one out every week or every two weeks at the latest. Please like/reblog and comment because I love getting feedback and it keeps me motivated to write. If you want to be added to the taglist, just tell me and I’ll add you! 
taglist: @theambracer88 @virtualreader @kelelas-life @celyndavies @brookerz122493 @musicismyescape27 @anotherfan07 @thexplosivegirl @dreamingwithlens @xoxmariaxox @onechicago18 @iamasimpingh0e 
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wayward-dreamer · 3 years
Text
Life’s Lessons - Part 12
Title: Life’s Lessons - A Lesson in Doing Things Right
Pairing: Mechanic!Dean x Female!Teacher!Reader
Word Count: 7,392 (texts, thoughts and song lyrics in italics)
Part Summary: Dean and Y/N go on their first official date. The night has to come to a close early, but not before Y/N gives Dean something to hold him over until they can be together again. A busy week keeps them separated, but a little rendezvous at the school between breaks in parent/teacher conference helps deal with not being able to see each other.
Warnings: Brief mentions of insecurities. Other than that, Fluff... like so much fluff. Dean being sweet AF (yes, that’s a warning). And SO MUCH SMUT. Dry humping, Semi-public, Oral Sex (Male Receiving), Vaginal Fingering, Unprotected sex (wrap it up before you tap it, people), Biting, Dirty talk, Swearing. 
Music: Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin (not featured within the chapter, but listen to it during the Dean and Y/N school scene).
Life’s Lessons Spotify Playlist
A/N: Thank you to everyone who has been reading and loving this series! It honestly means so much to me to see how much you guys have been enjoying it! Seriously, thank you so much! Only 3 chapters and an epilogue after this. I can't believe how time has suddenly flown by and we’re nearly there! I can’t wait for you guys to see what else is going to happen as we come closer to the end. Happy reading and enjoy! :)
Life’s Lessons Masterlist
Dividers by the wonderful @firefly-graphics! Check her out for all your AU needs!!!
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Before Y/N knew it, it was the next day and the day of her first date with Dean that night. Being the gentleman that he was, he left after they watched TV for a while the night before, to go sleep in his own bed. He had left regretfully, leaving her with a kiss she could still feel even as she went to bed. The sexual chemistry between them was tangible, and she wanted to almost skip the date and pull him into her bed to see what that chemistry could do. However, Dean seemed to really want to take her out and she would never refuse him.
Though it did beg the question… did they need to be going out on dates? In her heart she already knew how she felt for him. This wasn’t dating for her; this was much more. She had an inkling that he may have felt the same, considering he told her that she was it for him. Maybe some would say it was too soon to be feeling that this was what she wanted and nothing else, but she couldn’t help it. That’s how she felt. She knew he was the one since the moment they met, even if he was with someone else at the time. Everything had worked out the way it had for a reason. She was never one to believe in soulmates and people that were destined to be together, but she knew she was meant to be with Dean.
She was really looking forward to that night, but she was going to wait to bring these things up with Dean. She didn’t want to spoil his efforts to make this a special night for them. It was pretty simple, just dinner and a movie, and that’s all she needed.
Y/N was glad she had that Friday off before she went back to school on Monday and took it as an opportunity to see the girls. It was a rare occasion that Meg didn’t have a shift on a Friday, and so they took the opportunity to see each other and catch up.
They had come over and had sandwiches and soup for lunch, and they all caught up about everything they had missed in each other’s lives over the holidays. She told them about her family and how she had so much fun seeing them again, and about the present Dean had gotten her, showing them. Charlie had already seen it, obviously, but she was still happy for her friend, nonetheless.
“Please thank Dorothy as well, I know she must’ve had to pull a few strings for Dean” Y/N said, looking over at Charlie.
“It was no hassle, really. She just called in some favors that she was owed” Charlie shrugged.
There was a short pause in the conversation before Meg spoke up.
“So, Dean looked pretty happy by the time midnight rolled around for us” she started, putting her spoon down as she finished eating. “Did you have something to do with that?”
Y/N bit her lip, trying to keep the smile off her face, but failing. “Maybe.”
“I knew it. He looked way too happy when he came out of the room after talking to you” Meg grinned. “So… did you do something dirty?”
“Meg” Y/N laughed, slightly embarrassed. Charlie chuckled but made no move to stop Meg.
“Well?” Meg wondered, raising an eyebrow.
“We… may have” Y/N said, shrugging. Meg looked at her, knowingly. She knew she couldn’t keep a secret very well and they would get it out of her eventually. “Okay, fine. We had phone sex.”
Meg suddenly cheered as Charlie groaned, taking out a couple of bills from her pocket and handing them over.
“You guys bet on this?” Y/N asked, shocked.
“Meg made a bet that you and Dean had phone sex” Charlie frowned, as she watched Meg pocket the money.
“Wow” Y/N said, shaking her head. Though she wasn’t surprised by her friend doing that.
“So… how was it?” Meg asked, grinning.
“It was… intense. I’ve never done that with a guy before… but it was really hot” Y/N laughed, slightly as she described that night to her friends. “Now, I just want to be with him properly.”
“It’ll happen” Charlie said, smiling reassuringly.
“He asked me out” Y/N said, smiling. “He’s taking me to dinner and a movie tonight.”
Both Charlie and Meg looked at her, wide eyed. “Uh, excuse me… why didn’t you open with that?!” Meg asked, shaking her head.
“I meant to, sorry” Y/N chuckled softly.
“Oh my god, you’re going on your first date with Dean!” Charlie clapped her hands, giddily.
Y/N laughed at her, shaking her head. She sobered as she thought about what her friend just said. “It doesn’t feel like a first date though. I mean, we spend so much time together, we’ve been having dinner together almost every night since I ended things with Mark. It’s all felt like we’re dating… so is this really the first date?”
Charlie nodded, understanding what she meant. “Well, it’s more of an official date. You and Dean are pretty much together anyway, he clearly just wants to do it the right way.”
“I guess you’re right” Y/N nodded. “Doesn’t mean I don’t want to jump his bones.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll make you look so irresistible tonight, he can’t possibly think of anything else” Meg smiled, wagging her eyebrows.
“You don’t think it’s too soon?” Y/N asked.
“Hey, Charlie said it, you guys are pretty much a couple anyway. It’s gonna happen sooner or later” Meg shrugged, as she got up and carried her plate over to the sink.
The girls helped Y/N pick out what to wear for her date with Dean. Something that was appropriate for the type of date it was and sexy at the same time. She settled on a black dress and her black over-knee heeled boots, and her long fawn coat. As it got closer to the time for their date, Y/N got ready. She did her make-up and hair, putting a slight wave through it and settling it over one shoulder. The girls left once they gave her a look of approval and wished her luck. Y/N promised to call them and tell them how it went.
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“1… 2… 3”
Dean counted down as he lifted the frame from one side, Benny on the other. They slotted the hooks on the wall into the grooves on the frame. Dean stepped down from the ladder to see if it was properly aligned and even, smirking when it looked perfect. Benny stepped down from his ladder, standing next to Dean and admiring the framed black and white photo of the Impala, that Y/N had given him for Christmas.
They had been at the new building all day along with Ellen, all three of them fixing the place up before all the new equipment and machinery came in the following week. Ellen had fixed up the reception area and some parts of the garage with Benny, while Dean fixed up the office and some of the workstations. Some of the other workers would be in over the weekend to take care of other duties as well. It had been a tiring day, but he wasn’t about to let that stop him from thinking about Y/N and their date that night.
To others, it might’ve seemed a little redundant to take her out on a date when they were practically a couple already, but it wasn’t to him. He wanted to show her what she meant to him and treat her special. He wanted to do things right this time. He had taken Lisa out on dates but there wasn’t all that much effort put into them, most of the time ending up at the diner or the bar. Things were different with Y/N. She wasn’t just any girl, she was… well, he was in love with her. He needed her to know that, even if he couldn’t say it just yet.
A bump on his shoulder alerted him that Benny was still there, a slightly amused expression on his face to see his friend spaced out for whatever reason.
“You okay there, brother?” he asked.
“Yeah” Dean nodded, picking up the ladder and walking out of the office to put it back in the corner of the garage. Benny followed behind him, doing the same.
“You spacing out wouldn’t have something to do with a little lady by the name of Y/N, would it?” Benny grinned.
Dean rolled his eyes, shaking his head. “It’s none of your damn business, Lafitte.”
Benny chuckled to himself as he followed behind Dean, back into the office. “Things getting anywhere with you two, yet?”
“Yeah” Dean said, not wanting to say too much just yet.
“You gotta give me a little more than that, chief” Benny shrugged, not budging on the topic.
“Well, considering you won’t drop it… yes. I’m taking her out tonight” Dean told him as he looked down at some papers on his desk, sorting through them.
“Nice” Benny said, clapping him on the back. “Now, why ain’t ya shouting that from the rooftops, man?” the Southerner asked, confused that Dean was being so secretive.
“Because…” Dean trailed off, as he looked at his Southern friend, dropping the papers on the desk. “I just wanna be cautious. That’s all.”
Dean didn’t want to jinx anything by making too much of it. He had gained a whole lot of luck by her coming into his life. He didn’t want to start losing it.
Benny nodded, understanding. “I get it, brother. I do.” Benny tapped him gently on the back again, a soft smile on his face. “I’m happy for ya, Dean. ‘Bout time you got a good woman.”
Dean smiled, his mind instantly on Y/N as he nodded. “Thanks, Benny.”
Dean fixed up his desk a little before he glanced up at the clock, seeing that it was time for him to leave, go home and get ready for his date with Y/N. He said a quick bye to Ellen and Benny, who were just fixing up a few things before they were due to leave as well. Dean pulled out of the parking lot to the new building, flooring his beloved Baby as he headed home.
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When Y/N heard the doorbell ring a few times, she smiled as she walked out of her room and down the hallway. She opened the door and smiled even wider as she saw Dean, looking incredible in his black jacket and dark blue jeans, a black sweater underneath and a black scarf around his neck. He hadn’t shaved and she was glad for it, loving a little scruff on him. Dean looked her up and down, smirking. She looked so good as she leaned against the door, her dress and boots making her look irresistible.
“You look… you look amazing” he told her, still smirking.
“You look pretty amazing yourself, handsome” she said, leaning into him as she kissed him.
“Ready to go?” he asked before kissing her again.
She moved back and picked up her bag, smiling at him. “Ready.”
She locked up her house and followed him over to the Impala, smiling as he turned on his music and drove them into the main town square.
They got to the restaurant in time, Dean giving them his name and being led to the back where it was slightly quieter, to a table for two. They sat down across from each other and Y/N smiled as she looked around the room. It was a quaint place, exposed brick walls with black and white photos of Lawrence and of Kansas City landmarks. Each table had a candle in a glass holder, bathing the room in a warm glow. As they had walked through, they had passed the kitchen, and her mouth had watered at the aromas wafting through.
“I love this place” she said, smiling at him as they settled in.
“Yeah, it’s pretty awesome” Dean smiled, looking around. “Food’s insane, too.”
They gave the waiter their drink orders, telling him they’d need a few more minutes to decide what to eat. When he came back with their drinks, a whiskey for Dean and a glass of white wine for Y/N, they decided on what they were getting. The waiter took their orders and then they were finally alone.
“So…” she said, trailing off as she flashed him a smile.
He smirked, leaning forward and folding his arms on the table. “So…”
She couldn’t keep the smile off her face. “I’m so happy we’re doing this.”
“Me too” he nodded, as he continued to look at her. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re wondering why, though.”
“I kind of was.” Y/N pursed her lips, nodding. “Can I say something, and you promise not to overthink it?” she asked, hoping he’d be fine with the question she wanted to ask.
“Sure” he shrugged, not seeing a problem just yet.
“I’m so happy you asked me out on a date” she started, reaching over the table and holding his wrist. “I just think… maybe we don’t need to? I mean, I know how I feel about you. It’s way past the dating stage and it’s scary to think of that way, but it’s true-” she rambled, and Dean cut her off with a small chuckle, as he took her hand off his wrist and clasped his with hers.
“I know we don’t need to, because I… I know I feel about you, too” he said, as his thumb ran over her knuckles. “I just wanna do the right thing here, Y/N. I have to do things right this time. I took Lisa out on dates, yeah, but they weren’t much to write home about, you know? I want things to be different with you.”
She smiled, genuinely touched by what he said. “That’s very sweet.”
“Well, I’m a sweet guy, what can I say?” he grinned, his cocky attitude on full display.
She rolled her eyes as she laughed. “How humble of you.”
“And hey, what kind of a boyfriend doesn’t take his drop-dead gorgeous girlfriend out on a date? Come on” he said, feigning anger but a smile came through as he brought her hand to his lips and kissed it.
“That’s true” she said, giddy from the sweet gesture.
“And we gotta have some stories to tell our kids someday” he said, as he picked up his drink and took a sip.
She stared at him, wide-eyed. He clearly hadn’t realized what he just let slip.
“Kids, huh?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. She bit back a laugh as she saw his eyes bulge out of his sockets.
“I-I um…” he stuttered a little, as he tried to find the words to erase what he just said. When he looked at her and saw her smiling at him, with some new look in her eyes that he couldn’t quite place, he knew he didn’t need to hide away what he just said. “Yeah. Kids.”
She picked up her glass and took a sip of her wine, smiling around the edge of it. When she put it down and looked at him, she took his hand again. “Just know that I don’t need more than just you to know how you feel, but I’m glad for this date and any others all the same. And I can’t wait to tell our kids about them someday.”
If his friends could see him now, they’d rip him a new one for the full-blown chick-flick moment he was having. He didn’t care, though. He had the most amazing woman, and he was lucky to have her in his life.
He would never stop thanking whatever higher power existed for her coming here to Lawrence.
After dinner, they walked over to the cinema complex and bought tickets to an action movie. Y/N adored him for trying to say that they should go see a rom-com for her, but she told him that just because she was a girl, it didn’t mean that she liked all of the rom-coms out there. She had a feeling he was very relieved that she had insisted on the action movie. Dean bought them a large popcorn and drink combo to share, and they sat in the back row.
They munched on the popcorn as the movie played out as every other action film did. However, during one particularly steamy scene between the male and female protagonists, Y/N felt her body heating up. She crossed her legs uncomfortably, feeling hot as she sat next to Dean while the actors on screen were all over each other. She glanced over at Dean, seeing him shift slightly in his seat. Flashes of the night in her hotel room on New Year’s entered her mind, remembering how Dean had brought her so much pleasure just from his words.
At the same time, Dean was thinking about the same night, too. About how hot she sounded, about how he wanted to hear her say his name like she had that night, over and over again. You couldn’t cut the sexual tension in that cinema with a knife, as the rest of the movie carried out. They had both never been so relieved when it was finally over.
The drive back home had been silent, except for the music softly playing from the car’s radio. However, Y/N smiled to herself as she felt Dean’s hand slip into hers on the seat, in between them. He held it tightly and squeezed, lifting it as he turned his head and planted a kiss on her knuckles. When they arrived home, Dean parked the car and got out, taking her hand in his again when she got out as well. They walked across the street to her house, hand-in-hand, content to just be together. Finally.
Y/N walked up the porch stairs and to her front door, turning around and smiling up at him. She leaned up, her heeled boots giving a little more advantage to reach him better, planting a searing kiss on his perfect lips. Her arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him in deeper as his wrapped around her waist, inside her coat. She pressed back against the door as they continued their kiss, neither of them making a move to stop. Y/N pulled away and nipped along Dean’s stubbled jaw, loving the slight sting of his stubble across her lips.
“Y/N, uh, we should stop” he chuckled slightly, pulling an inch away from her to look her in the eyes.
She hummed as she combed her fingers through his hair, causing him to groan at the feel of it. “I think we should move this inside, don’t you?”
“I’d love to, sweetheart and believe me I really want to, but I gotta be up super early to uh… do something” he tried to explain as best as he could, without sounding suspicious. Which he hadn’t succeeded at because she frowned at him.
“Do something?” she asked, confused. “What?”
Dean blinked a few times, trying to think of something. He didn’t want to tell her that he had to go work on the new house, considering he completely envisioned her in that place. He wanted it to be a surprise for their future together.
“I can’t say, not yet at least” he replied, looking sheepish.
She raised an eyebrow as she looked at him but decided not to push any further. She trusted him and she knew that he’d tell her when he was ready.
“Okay” she nodded, slightly disappointed.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart” he whispered as he leaned in and kissed her nose.
“It’s fine” she shrugged, trying not to let it get to her. She turned around and faced the door and was about to put the key in the lock when Dean wrapped his arms around her waist, locking her in his embrace. He nuzzled his nose along her jaw, and kissed her cheek, softly.
“I’ll make it up to you, soon. I promise” he smirked, tilting his head to look at her.
Feeling him extremely close to her, his front to her back, gave her a naughty idea which she couldn’t get out of her head now that it was in there.
“I know” she said, turning her head to look at him. “But in the meantime, maybe I can leave you with a little something…”
She emphasized her words with a small tilt of her hips, pushing them back into his. He hummed as he felt her ass against the crotch of his jeans, his cock twitching slightly in his pants.
“Don’t play dirty with me, sweetheart” he growled in her ear. A shiver ran down her as she bit her lip, rubbing into him again. She could feel herself getting wet between her legs.
“Somehow I think you like that” she sighed, as she leaned back and pecked his lips. She took his hands in hers, moving them to hold onto her hips. She slowly began rutting back against him, his groans alerting her to his arousal. She moaned as she felt his cock becoming hard, straining against his jeans.
“Shit, Y/N” he hissed, feeling the pressure in his pants and not being able to do anything about it. He glanced around, hoping that no one would come out of their houses and see them. “Someone could see us.”
She shook her head, not letting him move away. “It’s okay, baby. It’s a quiet street, no one’s going to know.”
Dean thrust his hips forward against hers, growling as he felt his cock press against her ass every time he moved forward. She took his hands and moved them up her body, moving her coat back as she planted them on her breasts. He grunted as she pushed into him a little harder as their hips continued to meet, his covered hard on rubbing against the fabric of her dress over her behind. He could feel that he was about to lose it, as they continued to grind against each other.
“Fuck” he bit out through clenched teeth. He palmed her covered breasts, leaning in to kiss her neck. “Shit, sweetheart, fuck” he huffed as he groaned.
“Dean” she moaned, as she glanced back at him. Seeing her hooded eyes as her perfect mouth hung open from the pleasure that coursed through her, pushed him over the edge.
“Fuck, Y/N” he grunted as he leaned his forehead on her shoulder, shaking as his seed released inside his jeans.
Y/N smiled as she felt him breathing heavily, his chest against her back. She didn’t cum, but that didn’t bother her when it came to Dean. This was about him and just giving him another little preview of things to come for them.
“I feel like a teenage boy.” He shifted uncomfortably, his jeans no doubt stained now.
“You’re fucking full of surprises, sweetheart” he chuckled, as he nuzzled into her neck.
She laughed a little as she turned around, cupping his face in her hands. “You have no idea.”
She leaned in and kissed his lips, smiling into the kiss. He pulled away and looked at her, lifting a hand to stroke her Y/H/C hair back as he cupped her face.
“I better go” he whispered as he looked into her Y/E/C eyes. He leaned in, softly kissing her lips. “I’ll call you tomorrow after I’m done.”
“Okay” she said, smiling at him.
Dean stepped back from Y/N, winking at her before he turned around and walked down the porch stairs. Y/N went into her house, locked the door and practically screamed as she thought about everything that had just happened outside, a few minutes ago. She couldn’t believe she did something like that but as she had already realized, when it came to Dean, she lost all her inhibitions.
As she got ready for bed, she couldn’t stop thinking about how things were already so amazing between the two of them, and they were only going to get better.
Dean cleaned himself up and got dressed into a black shirt and sweats. When he climbed into bed and stared up at the ceiling, he smirked as he thought about Y/N. She kept surprising him, and he loved that. Given their age difference he had to keep up with her a little, but she was incredible in every way.
She was going to be the death of him, he was sure of it, but damn it if she wasn’t the most amazing woman he had ever been with.
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The next few days were incredibly busy for both Y/N and Dean. He was busy with everything at the new garage, and she was busy with getting back to school and the start of the next semester. They had parent/teacher conference as well, so that added another layer of stress to that week.
The day of the parent/teacher conference was a long day. A day of classes first, and then once the kids left, the teachers set up their classrooms and made them look fancy with all the projects. Y/N had set up the room with different quotes from books and photos of literary figures, some that they had already studied and some that they would in the future. Parents of every form were there; couples still together, couples divorced and co-parenting, single moms, single dads and foster parents.
She was happy that she had this opportunity to meet them, and she was glad that things had become better, with almost all of the kids doing well. Some were at higher levels than others, but everyone was doing as well as they could in terms of their aptitude, and Y/N felt good about that. There were a couple, however, that she knew were going to have trouble in high school if they didn’t turn it around, quickly.
In between sessions, Y/N scrolled through her phone’s social media apps, texted Charlie and Cas down the hallway if they could take a break at the same time as her. After about only 15 minutes of catching up, however, they all had to go back to their next meetings. The hours were ticking by slowly, as she kept herself entertained with a book in between meetings. At another break, she was trying to read but she just couldn’t concentrate. Looking at the time, she realized that it was 6.30pm. Dean would’ve finished work half an hour ago, so she decided to text him.
Y/N: Currently waiting on my next meeting, but I’m so bored. I keep trying to read but I think I’ve read the same line 500 times in the last few minutes.
Dean: Well, I literally just finished work and on my way home!
Y/N: Oh no! What happened?
Dean: Eh, late deliveries that I had to wait around for. Dinner might be late, unless… pizza tonight?
Y/N bit her lip as an idea came to her. Now that he wasn’t making dinner and they could always order pizza a little later, she wanted to see what he thought about her idea.
Y/N: Sounds good, but maybe we can hold off on it for a bit?
Dean: Uh… I guess. Why?
Y/N: Do you think you can come to the school?
Dean: What are you up to, sweetheart?
Y/N: Why don’t you come here and find out? ;)
Dean stared down at his phone, every possibility of what she wanted going through his head. He shook his head. It couldn’t be what he was thinking.
Dean: Do I want to?
Y/N smiled as she shook her head. He clearly didn’t realize she was being serious about him coming to the school.
Y/N: Yes ;)
Dean choked at that message. Was his teacher fantasy about to play out? He almost couldn’t believe it.
Dean: On my way!
Y/N laughed at the gif of a car speeding that he had added.
Y/N: Give me 15 minutes with the next parents, and then I’m all yours, handsome. She added a heart emoji.
Dean couldn’t help but let out a groan when he read that.
Dean: Damn right you are ;)
Y/N felt a shiver run down her body as she bit her lip, reading his message. She had no idea what was going to happen once he got to the school, but damn she was excited to find out. The haze of arousal was broken however, when the next parents came in. They were talkers and the meeting went a little over time, but eventually they were both satisfied with everything Y/N told them. They thanked her and left, leaving her to wonder when Dean was going to get there. She stood up, took off her glasses and shut the lid of her laptop and was just about to message Dean and see where he was, when a light knock on the door interrupted her.
She smiled when she looked up and saw Dean leaning against the doorframe, smirking at her. He walked in and closed the door behind him, locking it, and pulling the blind down over the window in the door.
“I came in when the parents were leaving” he said, as he walked over to her. He gently pulled her towards him by her hand, her body close to his as he wrapped his arms around her waist. She smiled up at him, her arms automatically wrapping around his neck.
“I’m glad you did, but there’s still some people here so we have to be quiet” she told him. Even with her heeled knee-high boots on, she still had to push herself up slightly on the toes, to press her lips to Dean’s. “And… we have to be quick before the next meeting in 20 minutes.”
“Oh really?” he grinned. “What’re you planning on doing to me in 20 minutes?”
She hummed against his lips, her fingers combing through the short hair at the back of his head. “So many things. I’ve barely seen you; you’ve been so busy with the new site and I’ve been busy with everything leading up to tonight.”
He groaned, as one of his hands slipped down slightly, laying over one side of her behind, covered by her grey A-line skirt. “Fuck. I know. I swear, when things calm down slightly and it’s just up to the contractors to get all the heavy machinery into the site in the next few days, I’m taking you out.”
“I look forward to that, but I hope that doesn’t mean we can’t do a few things right now” she whispered against his lips.
“Definitely not” he whispered back, finally claiming her lips in a searing kiss.
If it were even possible, they pulled each other in even tighter, their bodies moulded together as they continued to kiss, passionately. Y/N softly bit Dean’s bottom lip, causing him to open his mouth and deepen the kiss. She moaned into the kiss, feeling his hand press a little harder into her ass. She pushed into his body, causing him to take a few steps back until his back was pressed against the wall. Her arms came away from his neck, her hands roaming over his muscles through his jacket and moving down his chest.
Her hands moved under his maroon button-up and pushed it off along with his jacket, Dean taking over in removing them completely and tossing them on the floor. Her lips moved away from his, kissing and nipping along his jaw, moving down to his neck. He groaned as she nipped at his neck, his hands groping her ass. Her hands moved over the black t-shirt covering his chest, and down to the outside of his jeans, feeling that he was getting hard already. She rubbed her hand along the seam of his jeans, feeling him grow harder. Dean hissed, feeling the pressure of his cock against the fabric of jeans. Suddenly, Dean stopped for a second, looking around. “Are you sure about this?”
“Of course,” she said, as she cupped his face. “Dean, what’s wrong?”
He smiled at her, a little sadly. “Should our first time really be like this?”
She smiled at him, her heart bursting with love at his concern. “Dean… I want you. I know you want me, too. I know you keep saying that we should do things right, but what’s right is you and me. Does this feel wrong to you?”
“No” he said, shaking his head, his response quick and firm.
“Then… there’s no problem, right?” she asked, biting her lip.
He groaned as he looked at her doing that. That always made him weak. “Right.”
Y/N smiled at him and went back to what she was doing. She unbuckled his belt and pulled it through the loops, tossing it behind her. She unbuttoned and unzipped his jeans, pushing them down slightly. She pulled down his boxers and gasped as his cock was on full display, hard, as his length and girth made her mouth begin to water. He was bigger than any of the other men she had been with, and she felt her heart begin to beat faster. She lightly grasped it, her hand moving slowly along the shaft. She stared into Dean’s eyes and smiled, biting her lip. He let out a shaky breath as he looked at her, his eyes clouded with arousal. Her fingers moved over the tip, feeling pre-cum drip out onto her fingers. She took his cock in both of her hands, pumping them up and down as she moved down to her knees.
Dean groaned as he watched Y/N get on her knees, his cock in her hands. She leaned forward and kissed the tip, her tongue circling the head. She sucked at the head, slowly taking in more of him, inch by inch. Her hand grasped the base of his cock, pumping up and down as she bobbed her head, wetting the shaft with her saliva. She looked up at him as her other hand cupped his balls, massaging them in her hand.
Dean grunted, throwing his head back against the wall, his mouth hanging open. “Fuck, sweetheart. You’re so fucking good at that.” He looked down at her, his thumb stroking her jaw, as her cheeks hollowed while she continued to take him into her mouth. “Love seeing your mouth on my cock.”
She moaned loudly as she drew back and pulled her mouth off him, her hand continuing to move along his dick. “Your cock feels so good in my mouth, Dean. I can’t wait to feel you inside me.”
Dean couldn’t wait for that either. He took her hand off him and tugged, making her stand up. Her mouth felt incredible, but he definitely didn’t want to cum yet.
Y/N let go of Dean’s hand and moved hers under the waistband of her skirt, pulling out the end of her black, full sleeve top. Dean moved her hands away, taking over as he pulled the end of her shirt over her breasts, revealing her dark red bra. He reached up and pulled the cups down, her nipples pebbled and aching against the slight chill in the room. He leaned into her right breast, kissing her flesh, his tongue circling the nub. She grasped his hair in her hands, bringing him in closer.
“Dean” she gasped, as he sucked and nipped at her, moving to her left and doing the same.
Dean bent his knees, grasping the bottom of her skirt and bunching it, revealing her matching panties. His hand moved in, his fingers rubbing along the outside of the fabric, feeling how wet she already was.
“Shit, you’re so wet sweetheart. Did sucking my cock turn you on that much?” he asked, his voice husky as his fingers moved faster along the fabric.
She let out a shaky breath, as she nodded. “Yeah.”
“Yeah?” he chuckled, slightly.
She nodded, frantically as his hand continued to move. “Dean…”
“What, sweetheart?” he asked, kissing her nipple.
He hooked a finger in her panties and moved them to the side, groaning as he felt her wetness against his fingers. He ran them along her folds, his thumb flicking lightly over her clit.
She moaned, her chest heaving as she breathed deeply. “F-fuck me. Please. Please fuck me.”
Dean moved them backwards, until her ass rested against the edge of her desk. He grasped her thighs and lifted her up, sitting her on top of it.
Dean’s hands moved down along her thigh-high stockings, biting his lip as he felt her soft flesh against his fingers. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him for a heated kiss. Her hand cupped his jaw, bringing his mouth tight against hers. They parted when they needed to breath, as she wrapped her boot-covered legs around his hips. Dean lifted his black shirt up and took it off, her hands immediately roaming over his muscular arms and shoulders, his hard but soft torso. She bit her lip, keeping herself from moaning too loudly at the sight of him. He was truly the most gorgeous man she had ever been with. Dean moved closer, as he took hold of his cock, pumping his hand along the shaft a few times.
He stopped, however, when he realized something. “Shit, I don’t have any-” he started but she cut him off with a quick kiss to his lips.
“I’m on the pill” she nodded as she looked into his eyes. “We’re good.”
He smirked slightly, as he looked at her. “Okay.”
He took hold of cock and guided it to her entrance, pressing the tip in. He moved forward, slowly sinking into her warm cavern. She hummed at the feel of him, her walls stretching to accommodate his size. He gave her a second to adjust, before he slowly started to pull out. He pushed back in, setting a slow rhythm.
“Y/N” he moaned, softly. “Fuck, you’re so fucking tight. So fucking perfect.”
His hips met hers, as he gradually picked up the pace. He thrusted into her at a moderate pace, causing her to moan loudly, forgetting where they were.
He laughed as he pressed his lips to hers. “Shh, sweetheart. Can’t let anyone hear us.”
She whimpered, as she moved her hips against his. “Fuck, Dean.”
Dean growled low, feeling it rumble in his chest. “Shit, sweetheart. You feel fucking amazing wrapped around my cock.”
“Dean” she moaned quietly. “Fuck me harder.”
“Harder, huh?” he grinned, pressing his forehead against hers. “Like this?”
He drove his hips in, the drag of his hips longer as he continued at the pace he had set, but his cock moving in harder and deeper within her.
“Yes” she gasped. “Just like that. Oh god, Dean.”
“You like that?” he asked, as he looked down at his cock driving into her.
“Yes” she moaned, her voice choked as she tried to stop herself from raising her voice.
She threw her head back, exposing her neck, her chest pushing out. Dean leaned in, kissing her neck, along her collarbone and down the valley of her breasts, feverishly. She moved in, wrapping her arms around him, tightly. Their faces were close to each other, their hot breath mingling as they let out small moans, gasps and groans. Y/N leaned down, sinking her teeth into Dean’s shoulder as she tried to stop herself from moaning loudly. Dean hissed at the sting of her teeth on his flesh but moaned softly as it added another layer of pleasure to what he was already feeling.
Dean’s hips picked up pace, the desk underneath them beginning to rock back and forth from the force of his thrusts. Y/N pressed her lips together, trying to keep quiet, as her hips met his, matching his pace. They were both close.
“Fuck, Y/N” he grunted, pressing his forehead against hers.
“Dean” she moaned, opening her eyes and staring at him. “I’m so close.”
The coil began to wind up tight in her core, ready to break at any moment. She whimpered as he grabbed her hips and drew her in closer, his cock hitting her g-spot with every thrust.
“Cum for me, Y/N. Cum on my cock” he groaned, his hips unrelenting.
Items on the desk began to shake, and Y/N knew she had to get to her release before something fell and alerted someone to what was happening. Somehow Dean understood when she looked down at the lamp shaking; he quickly licked his fingers and brought them to her clit, circling the little bundle of nerves in tight, fast circles.
She let out a harsh gasp, her mouth hanging open as the coil snapped, panting quick, shallow breaths as she came. Her release slicked his cock, warm and wet against him. Dean’s thrusts became erratic, stuttering as he approached the edge.
“Dean” she moaned as she cupped his face, looking into his eyes. “Cum inside me.”
He panted, his breath hot against her lips, letting out a choked grunt as he thrust into her few more times, falling over the edge as he came inside her. He leaned his head on her shoulder, his hips slowing into shallow thrusts. He slowly pulled out of her, as she felt his seed drip out of her.
Y/N leaned her cheek against his head, combing her hand through his sweat soaked hair as they both came down from their high, breathing deeply. After a few moments, he slowly lifted his head, looking into her eyes. She smiled at him as he smirked, both of them laughing quietly. He leaned in, kissing her softly, a change of pace to how he had just fucked her, showing that he was as sweet as he was incredibly sexy. He kissed her lips, once, twice, three times before slowly moving away from her.
Y/N reached over and took out some tissues, cleaning herself as she passed Dean a few as well. He cleaned up and then pulled up his boxers and jeans, buttoning them up and pulling up the zip. He picked up his belt from the floor and put it through the loops, buckling it. She fixed her panties and pulled her skirt down, fixing the cups of her bra and pulling her top down, tucking it back in. Once they had redressed, Dean walked over to her as he shrugged on his jacket. He held her hips as he leaned in, kissing her again.
“You should head home” she told him, smiling. “I’ll be there in another hour.”
“Okay, I’ll order the pizza” he said, cupping her cheeks in his hands. “Should be there by the time you get home.”
“Sounds good” she said, still smiling.
There was a moment of silence between them as they looked at each other.
“That was amazing” she said, feeling her cheeks heat up.
“Fuck yeah, it was” he grinned, his eyes lighting up.
She laughed at him as she lightly smacked his chest.
“I’ll see ya in a bit” he whispered against her lips, kissing her softly.
“Yeah” she whispered as he pulled away.
Dean walked over to the door and unlocked it. He opened it and turned back to her, seeing her watching him. She looked even more beautiful with her lips slightly swollen from kissing, and the knowledge that he had just ravaged her almost got him hard all over again. With one last look and a wink at her that caused the most beautiful smile to grace her face, he left and walked down the hall, ready to head home and wait for her.
Y/N fixed everything on the desk which had moved during their rendezvous. After the last few couples came in for their meetings, she packed up her things, put on her coat and scarf and shut off the light in the room. She walked down the hallway, the heels of her boots echoing off the floors.
As she drove home, the smile just wouldn’t leave her face. What they did back there, had been everything she could possibly want. It had been everything that they both needed. It solidified everything they both wanted from each other and for their future.
They were each other’s future.
And that was the biggest reason to smile.
-x-
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cherripeach · 3 years
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Chapter 14
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Little Match Maker
Summary: Your life motto is “I have the power of god and anime on my side, don’t mess with me,” and you stand by that with your life. No human, magician, or random creature could ever stop your firm belief in it.
However, getting transported to this world that seemed to turn your already bad luck worse was not what you wanted to be in your life story, but you made the most of it. Making friends, enemies, and disasters, you were in your prime in this world, and so you decided to help as many people as you could flourish, at least what you believed to be.
Chapter 1:11-12 good credit, bad credit, you dead: ghost credit
Running to the store on campus, so cute.
Warnings: Curse words, implied violence
Words: 3.1k
Relationships: developing but future twstxreader
Ace groaned while face planting on the counter, “We finally finished peeling them all!”
Deuce moaned in pain, “My arms hurt…” He, then, stretched his arms and popped some of his knuckles while rolling his neck. 
You agreed with the two boys, “Yeah, I don’t wanna move for the next decade.” You made your seat on one of the stools next to the counter to take a break after standing for what felt like hours. 
Trey chuckled at your reactions, “Great work. I’m sure that your hard work will all be worth it.” While you three were sulking, Trey began cleaning up as much as possible by putting things away and putting things in the dishwasher. 
Grim grumbled, “I’m getting hungry just by the smell, yanno.” The cat had tried to take as much of the ingredients as possible while you were preparing, but barely managed to get any.
Trey took a sheet of paper out from a binder and sorted some of the ingredients next to some cooking utensils, “The marron base uses butter and sugar. And then, I also added some oyster sauce as a secret ingredient.”
Ace and Deuce jumped up from their positions of dread in shock, “Oyster sauce?!”
Trey placed the sheet down and grabbed a bottle of the sauce,  “Exactly. The savory flavor of the chestnuts gives the cream a rich flavor. And then, to make it better, I use this,” He motioned to the sauce in his hand,  “‘Walrus-brand young oyster sauce’.  There’s no famous pâtissière who doesn’t use this for their tarts, you know?” He ended it all with a closed eyed smile. 
Deuce mumbled, “Really…? It’s a pretty salty sauce, isn’t it?”
“You know how they put chocolate in curry, too?” Ace gave an example,  “It kinda makes sense…”
You were,  on the other hand, not having it, “Naw, dude. It doesn't; sweet can't just nullify salt or reverse. It’s practically impossible.” You shook your head while the two idiots were just pouting in their confusion. 
Trey chuckled while clutching his stomach, “You're right! I was just joking! There’s no way I’d put oyster sauce in a dessert, you know? How’d you know?”
The two idiots never would have guessed that. 
Ace’s hand’s shot up in his defense, pointing at his senior, “What the heck!? Are you making fun of us!?”
“It’s obviously impossible if you think about it a little.” Trey’s lighthearted giggle switched to a more wise old lecture, “The moral lesson here is that you shouldn’t believe anything you’re told. Learn to doubt a bit, okay?”
You nodded your head, “See, Ace. I don’t gotta learn that because I knew right away.” 
You were a genius. In all eyes besides Ace’s, that is. 
Ace snorted, “I bet it was a lucky guess.”
You fought back, “Pshhhh. No way.” You knew this was just the start of one of your many squabbles. 
Grim whispered to you behind his hand, “This guy looks nice, but he’s the type who can tell lies with no problem, huh…”  
“I guess so.” Your eyes widened at Grim’s statement. 
Trey rallied you all together to begin the next step, “Next is the fresh cream!”
A shrill scream ran through the air.
Ace bounced up and questioned Trey, “What’s wrong?”
You joined Ace with your question, “Are you okay?”
“I got carried away with the chestnuts you picked that I went overboard with making the marron base.” Trey laughed at himself and rubbed the back of his head, “We’re a little short on fresh cream.”
Deuce offered, “I’ll go buy some. Do they sell it in the school store?”
Trey explained,  “That shop sells pretty much anything, so I’m sure it should be there. Can I ask you to buy some other stuff while you’re at it? Two packs of milk, two cartons of eggs, silicon cups, and five canned fruits…” He writes down the list of items and hands them to Deuce. 
Deuce reads the list before commenting, “I don’t think I can carry all of that alone…” 
This was your chance, “I’ll come! I need to see if they have uniforms there, anyway.” Maybe you could find some uniforms or even some other clothes for a nice price as if you had any money. 
Grim interjected,  “I’m going, too! I don’t wanna mix more dough!” He raised his little paw as far as his body would allow it. 
“Understandable.”  You did not need to lose your arms over baking. 
The three of you began your walk to the grocery store on campus with only some light chatter about how excited you all were to taste the finished product and how Grim shouldn’t steal it all. 
The grocery store was the size of a drug store, but apparently from what Trey said it had everything anyone at this school needed. It’s gotta be a magic store.  
“We sure this is it?” You questioned Deuce because he was sure to know more than you, right?
Deuce pointed out, “I haven’t heard of any other shops here.” 
Grim quickly agreed, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let’s get a move on!”
While still warry, you approached the place behind the two overexcited shoppers, both who had stars in their eyes as someone from a novel would say. 
Deuce gazed around the place with wide eyes after opening the door where a little bell rang, “Pardon us! Whoa, what an amazing shop… Crystal skulls, magical texts, and… wh-what sort of animal is this…?” Deuce motioned to an animal’s skeleton that was just laying out on one of the shelves. Grim and Deuce took two steps closer to inspect the animal while you took two steps back. 
Grim, who began to travel by himself around the store, questioned Deuce and you, “Can we really find some fresh cream here?”
“I’d be surprised if we couldn't find it.” You opened a box that was filled with dusty books while nodding to Grim. 
Out of nowhere came a voice near the counter,  “Hey! Little lost lambs, what can I help you with? Welcome to Mr. S’s Mystery Shop.” The man had one of the oddest outfits with a bright pink shirt but then a black and dark purple jacket. His fashion sense was certainly new, but his vibe was what shocked you the most. Almost like he knew too much. What is it that you wish for today? A charm against cheating?” He pulled out a slip of paper from his chest pocket, “ An ancient king’s mirror?” a small mirror from his sleeve,  “Or maybe, some cursed tarot cards?” He even pulled a box out of thin air. 
Grim was frozen in shock for a moment and joined the conversation with a breath, “Ah, you startled me!”
You added on, “He reminds me of those characters from video games and movies that are just normal store owners or vendors that have some of the oddest items.” Looking at his shop, you believed yourself for a moment. 
The three of you made your way to the little counter at the back of the store. 
Deuce took out the list from his pocket and handed it to the man, “Um… We would like to buy the things written on this note.”
Grim used his arms to pull his face onto the counter as to be seen and begged,  “And I also want some canned tuna!”
“With what money?” You waved at him in disbelief,  “And I have a question for you, Mystery man.”
Deuce pushed Grim off of the counter,  “No! We will not buy any canned tuna!” which only caused Grim to growl at Deuce. 
The male scanned the note while tapping his finger in his chin,  “Mhmm. What do we have here? Fresh cream and eggs… Oh, my! What a pretty sweet line-up” He gave Deuce a thumbs up, “OK! I shall bring them out now. And I’ll get back to you in just a minute.” The male nodded at you with a small wink at the end of his sentence. 
Totally an odd vibe.
Deuce gasped in disbelief letting go of Grim’s fur,  “Whoa… Will he really have some here?”
You voiced your thoughts, “Maybe the back is just really big?”
The man returned with five bags full of items on your list, “Here, thank you for the wait. It is rather heavy, so are you sure you can carry them all?” The male, then gestured to a sign right next to the cash register about a special bag to carry all the items, “If you act now, I can throw in a special bag to carry all of those things for 30% off of its original price!” Deuce took out the money Trey gave him and handed it to the shopkeeper. 
Grim blurted out, “What did you say? Hey, that sounds interesting!” The cat grabbed your clothes as he normally does pointing at the sign to get your attention focused on it. 
Deuce shook his head while grabbing three of the five bags, “We. We will have to decline! Let’s go, Grim!”
“But why?! I wanna play more!” A pointing Grim was not resulting in a good day for anyone, but at this rate you couldn’t spend money on any food. 
“About that question,” You brought it up to the shopkeeper. 
The off-vibe man nodded,  “Ok, what's the problem, little lost lamb?”
You asked, “Do you sell uniforms or at least know where I can find one?”
“I should have some, but they're all used ones. I’ll even cut the price because of how damaged they are.” He then told you the price which was great for uniforms but as someone who owned no cash, not the best.
You thanked the male as you picked up the last two bags while the other two began to walk out, “Thanks! I’m gonna come back once I have the money, but please save them for me.” 
“Ok! of course, little lost lamb. I’ll have them in stock just for you.” He winked at you again, and at this point and time you’re just gonna assume it’s normal for him. 
“Thank you so much!!” You responded while finally walking out of the shop. 
Once outside, Deuce began a new conversation, “That was a very amazing shop, in a way…”
Grim was still pouting at the two of you for not giving him free food, “Boo, you two are so stingy.” His arms were snuggly crossed over one another and even his ears were flattened against his head. 
Deuce swung around to ask Grim, “Who are you calling stingy?!” This, however, almost resulted with Grim getting a concussion because of how the bag of canned fruits and heavy cream knocked Grim to the ground. 
Deuce quickly apologized, “Sorry!”
You placed your bag to check on Grim by feeling on his head for any bumps or any scrapes from the bag,  “Well, no one would give a brat what they want now would they? I know you want some tuna, but money is tight right now and I can’t get you any for a while. Once I save up enough, I promise I’ll get you some.” You brushed back his hair before flicking at his forehead, “Just remember to keep that ego in check. Soon, who knows, maybe I can even buy a hairbrush and maybe even a phone.”
 Deuce coughed before fixing the bags in his hold to reach his hand out to you, “The bag with the milks is heavy, isn’t it? I’ll hold it for you. I’m experienced with carrying heavy loads.”
You shook your head, “No way, lover boy, I can handle myself just so you know. And besides that's an odd area of expertise. Any reason why?” You kept walking to distract the male from taking your bag.
Deuce flushed red before starting his explanation, “Yeah, Mother always takes me with her during timed sales. She buys a lot, so I end up helping her with the bags. I’m the only man in the family, so I’m used to helping a lot with hard labor. Ah, I’m sorry… I keep talking about myself.” His face flushed even darker. 
You rolled your eyes, “That is incredibly sweet of you, Deuce. Don’t be scared to talk to me about anything. We’re friends. You must care for your mother a lot with how you talk about her.”
Deuce stuttered, “No… That’s not true at all. I… Mother was…” Deuce flies back onto the ground after connecting with someone’s chest, “Ouch!”
All of the materials that Deuce was holding fell to the ground, but the biggest problem was that the eggs were now completely broken and leaking everywhere on the sidewalk. 
Grim gasped and fell to his knees to try and save the groceries, “Ah, the eggs!!”
“Hey, you ok?” You reached out your hand to Deuce who grabbed it so that you could pull him up onto both of his feet. 
Deuce locked eyes on the bag of now broken eggs and cursed, “Damn it!” He picked up the bag of eggs and began to check to see if any of the eggs were not broken and could be used, “All the eggs in the carton broke! The plastic bag’s now reeking with eggs…!” Deuce tossed them in the trash while Grim squirmed to grab the bag from him. 
A white haired familiar looking male scoffed at the three of you, “That hurt! Where the hell’re ya lookin’ at,” His eyes darted to each member of your little group before continuing, “Wha? You’re the guys who ruined my carbonara’s soft-boiled egg during lunch today!” 
Another familiar red haired student was right on his side, “Damn, it’s you guys again. Ya better give us a break.” 
You grabbed as many bags as you could carry that Deuce had before, and you snorted, “And I thought I already crushed your egos, but I should have known you can't break a brick for a brain.”
The white haired boy snickered at the three of you, “Well it seems the little supervisor can’t even get us in trouble so no need for fear. You can’t harm us.” 
Deuce had been standing in place for the last couple of seconds with his eyes on his feet, “…Aren’t you the ones at fault for bumping into me?” His sharp gaze met that of the duo of delinquents, “Even during lunch. The egg wasn’t really that badly harmed, but you made a huge scene out of it. Our carton of eggs is totally ruined, though.” Deuce rolled up the sleeves to his jacket. 
Grim agreed standing as tall as he could across from the two upperclassmen, “He’s totally right!”
You walked over to where Deuce and Grim had made their little fighting stance, “Let’s just leave. They’re not gonna listen and we shouldn't get into a fight with idiots.” To further get Deuce’s attention, you pulled into the shoulder of his jacket to motion toward the bags, “We can always replace them. Let’s just get what we have back.”
The white haired boy swore, “The hell? You sayin’ it’s my fault, then? And idiots? I’m much smarter than any of you. Respect your elders!”
Deuce paid no mind to you or your constant poking on his shoulder, “Yes, please pay us back for the eggs. And also, please apologize to the chickens.”
“Hah?” The red haired boy quipped at Deuce, “Makin’ a ruckus over eggs, are we?”
Deuce grunts, “Hah?” before turning to you, “Remember the promise right?”
You nodded at him. 
“Then, back up.” He lightly pushed you to make you back up, “And don’t get involved.”  You locked eyes with the male only to see his eyebrows furrowed and a large scowl on your face. And as much as you wanted to help him and get him out of this situation, there’s nothing you can do against magic users. At least not yet.
The two other students did not realize how ready Deuce was to make this physical or how personal this was. 
The whit haired boy groaned, “It didn’t hit the ground so you can still eat it. Stop makin’ a fuss over little things.” The boy slapped his friend before whispering something to him. 
The other boy snickered before adding, “Ya better be thankful they broke inside the plastic bag!” 
“Not only are they dumb, but blind too,” You mumbled to yourself which Grim could hear from his small chortle. 
Deuce still had not lost his eye contact with the other two boys, seemingly eyeing them down to wait for the perfect moment. 
Both of the boys let out the largest giggles possible that a teenage boy could without sounding like girls gossiping with their heads thrown back and their hands clutching their stomachs. 
“Laughing at something that is surely your fault.” You rolled your eyes while trying to get the boy’s attention on Deuce who was in your eyes about to murder a bitch, “I think you should just pay us back for it. Maybe some extra too for having to deal with your terrible attitude to even it out.” 
Neither student responded to you only grunting out stiffles of laughter for the next couple of seconds. 
Deuce muttered to himself breaking eye contact with the two to gaze down at his hand which was clenched like in one of those TV shows when a character is going to do something he regrets, “... Mess with me, will you…”
White haired kid raises his eyebrows in confusion as Deuce looks to be slowly going insane,  “Huh?”
Deuce exploded at the two, “I told you to stop laughing, damn it!!” His feet began to move closer and closer to the two who just stood in horror for the boy who was once silent, “You ain’t got no choice but to apologize for something that’s your fault! These eggs will be used to make a delicious tart in place of turning into chicks, bastard!! Do you understand me, huh!?”
“Wh-what’s with him all of a sudden…?!” The red haired boy was backing away from the approaching student and had a look of disbelief on his face. 
Deuce grabbed his fist in one hand and cracked the knuckles of the other one, “If you’re not gonna pay me back for the 6 eggs, I got no choice but to beat the hell out of you six times.”
The white haired male faltered, “Huh!?” before seeing the blue haired male coming straight for him with his fists in a fighting position. 
 “Grit your teeth, you little bastards!!” And with that Deuce began his little fight by pulling at the kid’s clothes and punching them a little too hard.
“Where does that phrase even come from?” But what could you do besides stand there and wait even if you didn’t want the two to get hurt going into the fight now would be harmful.
You really need to stop getting involved in fights. 
31 notes · View notes
radiant-flutterbun · 2 years
Text
Just Evan Part 4
First | Previous
Evan theme
Weeks passed and everyday Evan convinced Fallen to leave the clan for longer and longer periods of time. They went on dates all over the city of the Beacon. They hung out with the mirror who had invited them to that party a few times. They started to form regular spots to spend time together.
Until the day of the test.
Evan didn’t bother Fallen that day. He was too nervous and pooled over his books. So Evan wished Fallen luck, told him he’d do just fine and let him take the test in peace.
He paced as he waited for his boyfriend to finish taking the test. The clan was so boring without Fallen’s company. It wasn’t fair of Isra to take away his boyfriend and stress him out for no reason!
When hours passed and still no sign of Fallen, Evan began to worry. 
He flew down to the room where Fallen had been left to take the test and his heart caught in his throat when he saw that the room was empty.
“He’s done? Then where is he? He promised me we would go out after!”
Evan flew up to Fallen’s room and knocked on the door. He heard sobbing.
“Fallen? Fallen! What’s wrong?”
The door opened a crack and Fallen peeked his tear streaked face out.
In his claws was a stack of paper. On it was written an F with a note to review.
“I failed.”
Evan blinked. “What? But that can’t be true! You’re Fallen! You’re so smart! This must be-”
“And it’s all your fault!”
Evan froze. “Wh- what?”
“I should have been studying! But you kept distracting me!”
“I was trying to get you to enjoy life a little more!”
“Well I’m not enjoying life now! Now I have to retake this! Which is not going to look good on my record!”
“I’m sure it won’t make a difference. It’s just one bad grade.”
“Just one? I shouldn’t have had just one! If you’d just have let me study!”
Evan scoffed “Oh so you’re really putting all the blame on me, huh?” His tail flicked “if I recall you were already procrastinating when we met.”
“Yeah and you just encouraged me to procrastinate even more!”
“And wasn’t it worth it? You got to see the lantern festival because of me! You got to go to parties because of me! You got to make new friends because of me! You got to experience your first kiss because of me! Isn’t all that more important than one lousy grade?”
“No! Now I might not be accepted into the university I want!”
“Then choose a different university! Sometimes you just gotta roll with the punches, Fallen.”
Fallen glared at Evan. “I don’t think we should be seeing each other anymore.”
“Are…” Evan paused, “Are you breaking up with me?!”
Fallen crossed his arms and looked away. “Yeah. I guess I am.”
“Over a bad grade? That’s so fucking stupid. You’re making a huge mistake.”
“Am I?”
“Come on. You can’t be serious.”
Fallen was silent.
“Fine,” Evan’s feathers poofed. “I’ll give you a choice. It’s me, or your stupid studies. Choose wisely.” He grinned smugly.
Fallen flicked his mane out of his face. “Then I choose my studies.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“But I-”
“You’re a distraction. And if you really cared, you would respect my decision to end our relationship. So, goodbye Evan.” Fallen shut the door, leaving Evan flabbergasted.
***
Evan paced in his room yet again, this time fuming.
“I cannot believe it!” He stomped his foot. “How dare he!”
He picked up a pillow from his bed and threw it across the room.
“He’s so stupid. He’s making a mistake! Break up with me? No, no, no. And for some dusty books too? It’s not fair!” He turned his entire bed over, spilling blankets and pillows onto the floor.
“How dare he!” He dug his claws into a pillow. Feathers spilled out. He ripped the pillow in two and then picked up another one with his mouth. His fangs sunk into the pillow as he shook it like a dog with a new toy. Feathers went everywhere.
“I just… I just wanted to show him there was more to life than school.” He sniffled and the tears came.
He crumpled on top of the ruins of his bed and sobbed.
“It’s not fair. It’s not fair. It’s not fair!”
He stared at his shaking hands. Or were they called paws now?
He remembered the night he died. He had gotten sick. So sick. He only wanted to sleep it off. He would have never guessed that he would have woken up in a funeral home. His life had been such a waste. He didn’t do anything except read comic books and watch superhero movies. He was never good at school, or sports or anything else. He wasn’t an artist like Mason. He wasn’t anything.
He was just an unremarkable kid or died suddenly and tragically because a god wanted to play with him like he was a toy.
Muerto learned how horrifying necromancy could be by trapping a soul inside a rotting body. Evan’s body. Evan’s soul. No chance at an afterlife. A fate worse than death. A fate to slowly rot and become nothing and be conscious the entire time.
Now he was alive and didn’t want to waste that. Not again. Never again. He wanted to find love and friends. He wanted to be a careless teen. And all he got was heartbreak.
“I miss Mason.”
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thewildwaffle · 4 years
Text
Plants With Teeth
A requested idea from a reader on ao3.
“Welcome to the Junto Space Port," the security repeated the same old procedure with each new wave of visitors passing through. "All incoming travelers must check-in through customs before continuing. Please make sure proper identification is ready to be presented." Kartch followed the flow of travelers without much thought. She'd done this route so often with her business ventures, she almost had the number of steps from the terminal to each of the check-in spots memorized. Her eyes glazed once again over the sea of fellow travelers. There was an exceptionally large variety of species on this trip. That wasn’t too odd. It was a popular time to travel to Junto. The weather was exceptionally pleasant this time of the year, celebrations and festivals were going on nearly in every street and township in the region, the harvest of several important crops was just about wrapped up, and business and inter-solar trade were booming. Kartch wondered just how many of her fellow ex-passengers were here on vacation and how many like her were here to work. A heavy something from behind smacked into her short tail. It didn’t hurt really, but it was enough to throw her off balance. With a surprised squeak, she dropped her luggage and reached with all four arms instinctively to try to grab something, anything, to stop her fall. Before she hit the floor, strong hands grabbed her and carefully helped her back up. “Woah there, I gotcha, I gotcha,” a voice she could tell was being translated by her chip filled her ears. “Sam, you gotta be more careful, you nearly took them out!” Kartch looked up into the face of the alien that had saved her, who in turn looked down at them with a concerned expression on their light brown face. “I’m sorry about that. Are you okay?” It was a human. Kartch stared for half a glip before catching herself. She’d of course seen plenty of humans before but hadn’t ever dealt with them directly or this closely. Now one was basically holding her.
“Sorry Mirela,” another voice piped up from behind. Kartch looked, it was another human carrying what looked like must be a large, hard plastic case that must have been what hit her earlier. “It’s not me you should be apologizing to,” the human holding Kartch helped her back up to her feet and picked up the dropped luggage. “I’m sorry,” the reprimanded human dipped their head. “I wasn’t looking where I was going and shouldn’t have been messing around with the boxes like that.” Kartch made a gesture as if she was brushing herself off. “I accept your apology. I’m not hurt and all is well.” Mirela frowned at the other human as she stood back up to her full height.“You shouldn’t have been messing around with them at all. Those are merchandise, not toys.” Mirela leaned over to pick up another two boxes that appeared to be identical to the ones her companion was carrying. Never one to be rude enough to ask aloud, Kartch wondered what the humans were carrying and what they planned to sell. Instead, she asked, "Those look heavy. Wouldn't you prefer a wagon to carry them?" The human Mirela smiled. "We're fine. We’ve got someone getting one for the rest of what we've got. And well, these things are lighter than they look. They're just a bit bulky to carry. Thank you for your concern though." Then as if knowing the question Kartch had on her mind. "We've got a few little plants we're taking to the street market in the north Jupo District." “Plants?!” Kartch started and gave the pair of humans with a bit of alarm. “To sell? From Earth? I hope you don’t have much trouble getting through customs.” “Yeah, no we made sure we followed all the requirements. No pollens, nothing bearing easily spread seeds, nothing poisonous, etc.” As Mirela spoke, another human approached, pushing a wagon laden with more of the large boxes. Mirela glanced over at the new arrival before turning back to Kartch with a soft smile. “We did our research, don’t you worry.” “Mirela,” the new human stopped the wagon to look between their companion and Kartch. “Uh, they got the plants up here in good time alright. Um. Are we… what’s going on?” Kartch cleared her throat. “Ah, well. I won’t keep you. May the stars grant you luck.” With a smile and a wave, a common farewell among humans, Mirela and the other were off. As Kartch continued on her way, she couldn’t help but steal another look at them. Humans, she thought. Huh. Well, go figure they’d want to visit Junto. Compared to their home planet, or at least what she’d heard of it, Junto must seem to be a paradise of safety and splendor. The customs lines were long and weren’t moving as fast as she’d like. It took forever to wind through the twists and turns of the queue. She kept looking at her timepiece, growling quietly each time she did so. She wished they’d open more customs booths, that would help ever so much with getting everyone through more efficiently. Or that they do something at least, this was taking more time than she'd planned. After what seemed like partecs, she reached the front of the line. She hefted her luggage onto the inspection counter with a huff that was a mix of exasperation from her wait and relief that it was over. The security personnel began with the regular questions and asked for identification. As she pulled it out and handed it over, she saw the humans she had run into earlier arrive at the front of the line just next to her. She heard them being called up and watched only for a moortik as they placed a few of their boxes on the counter before she returned her attention to her own business. It was not polite to stare after all, and she just needed to make sure she got through here without any more further delays. The security personnel behind the counter was just finishing up with their inspection of her luggage and wrapping things up when a surprised screech nearly made everyone jump. Kartch turned her head, looking for the source of such alarm. Surely someone was hurt? Or in danger? What was it? “What are those things?!” Kartch found the source of the alarming sound. It was the security personnel at the counter with the humans. Said personnel was now looking slightly orange in the face and was staring into the now opened boxes the humans were transporting. Kartch, as well as everyone else nearby, leaned in to try to get a better look at what all the commotion was about. The human Mirela sighed and pulled the box open a bit more and pulled out one of the specimens. It was a flexible clear cylinder with a small green plant inside. Kartch could see the plant had large oval-shaped leaves or petals at the end that had a bit of red coloring with small thin stems pointing out and slightly up from the petals. So those were the plants the humans were going to sell? Well, they looked harmless enough, cute even. What had gotten into the security-? “Are those teeth?!?” the customs worker nearly squeaked out the words. Everyone who had been looking on froze. What? “They’re venus flytraps,” Mirela explained calmly. “They’re a carnivorous plant from Earth.” She pulled out an important-looking paper and handed it across the table. “We have a permit to sell them and a signed acknowledgment from the Inter-System Trade Commission of their safety and potential as a useful house-plant, as well as permissions to sell and trade them within the Junto system. The customs personnel didn’t look like he’d quite overcome his shock just yet. “Carnivorous… plant?” he repeated back. Kartch agreed with his confusion. Those two words didn’t sound like they belonged together in the same sentence. That little plant in the human’s hand didn’t look like it deserved such a bizarre description. Her own customs personnel, finally breaking his stare at the proceedings of the booth next to his own, finally shut Kartch’s luggage, stamped its carding, and slid it back to her with a silent nod before returning attention back to the drama next to him. Kartch pulled her luggage off the counter and slowly stepped toward the exit, her eyes still locked on the strange plant in question. It didn’t seem that strange-looking to her to cause such a ruckus. But then she saw it. Or rather, she got a better look at it. The stems she thought she saw curving delicately away from the petals were actually teeth. Oh. Those were teeth. That plant had teeth. Plant teeth. Those petals were some sort of plant mouth?! The customs personnel numbly took the paper the human Mirela handed and scanned over it, looking perhaps a bit too dumbstruck to really comprehend what was actually written. Mirela continued to explain what the plant was and did. How it could survive in even the poorest soil, how it could trap and digest small insects and pests for nourishment, and how the Inter-System Trade Commission as well as several committees and interplanetary environmental groups had studied and approved it, and were even pushing for it’s use in helping to combat a dangerous pest infestation problem on the third moon of Biurbitak. Kartch could stop and wait forever to hear more, the next person in line behind her slowly shuffled up to the counter. And anyway, she did have places to be. Blinking and shaking her head, she tore her eyes away from the strange plant held by the strange alien. As she finally walked out of the exit, she felt her fur prickle across her body. Carnivorous plants. Those are apparently a thing. She took a deep breath and let it out. What kind of planet must Earth be that it’s so dangerous, even the plants have teeth?
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super-cool--cow · 3 years
Text
Love and letters -- Harry Styles
Word count: 1515
Summary: You have left Harry to work in Paris but you can’t stop thinking about him in the train.
Warnings: Violence (not explicit), angst, death
*not my gif*
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The city looks beautiful from here. Like this, it's just a city where people can dream and live and love. Love without problems and fights, but just good, lovely, movie-love.
From here, people don’t break up and they definitely don't do it by packing a bag and leaving a note before the other wakes up. Only horrible people would do that.
And yet, here you are. Sitting in a train towards France, with a suitcase under your seat. You look at your watch, 6.23 am. 
His alarm will ring in seven minutes. He will wake up to find you gone... He will walk out into the kitchen, thinking that you’re making breakfast for the two of you, but instead he’ll find a letter next to the oranges. 
---
“Baby? Are you ready? The reception is in an hour so we have to hurry!” You yell as soon as you step through the door. You get no answer. 
When you step into the kitchen, Harry’s standing with his back to you. You walk over to him and wrap your arms around his waist. “What are you looking at, Bub?” you ask him, trying to see over his shoulder. 
You freeze when you see the letter in his hands. “Harry, I- I can explain.” Your arms fall away from him as he turns around, clutching the piece of paper in his tightened fist. 
“Why does it say here that they’re excited to greet you at your new job and that they’ve set up your office? And why does it say that it’s in Paris?” he asks through clenched teeth. 
“I- I got a job in Paris... I’m moving there next week,” you tell him while staring at your feet.
---
“Ma'am? Ma’am?” Your thoughts are interrupted as a woman looks down at you. She almost looks like a flight attendant or something like that. “Ma’am would you like something to drink?” You see the filled up cart in front of her, realizing that she’s a... I don’t know, ‘train attendant’? 
“Uhm, yes. Yes, thank you. A cup of coffee?” She smiles at you warmly. If you could be hugged by her for about an hour you’re pretty sure that everything will be better. 
She hands you the steaming cup and you pay her. She rolls down to the next occupied seat in the train, leaving you alone with your thoughts once again. It’s 6:34 now. Has he found the letter? Maybe he’s pressed snooze so that he can sleep a little longer. Every part of you hurts at the thought of hurting him. I’m a terrible person...
---
“Were you ever going to tell me?!” Harry yells at you, pacing back and forth in the living room. You’re standing by the couch with your arms crossed.
“Of course I was going to tell you! I just didn’t know how to!” you shout back at him. He stops dead in his tracks, staring right at you. You can almost see the fire, the hurt, in his eyes.
“You didn't know how to tell me that you have accepted a job in Paris?” He walks into your shared bedroom. You stand for a second debating if you should follow him.
When you come into the bedroom he’s standing in front of the closet, back to you.
“Harry, I’m sorry. I really, really am, but I cannot say no to this opportunity for... for...” He turns around slowly.
“For me” he finishes your sentence with ice in his voice. You don’t say anything, you just look at him. He turns around and opens the closet. He pulls out your suitcase. “Leave. Leave right now,” he orders, still not looking at you.
“I- Harry,” you stutter. You’re doing everything you can for the tears to not spill out. 
“I don’t wanna hear it. Just get the fuck out of my sight, I can’t even look at you.” The words hit you harder than anything. Harder than a brick in the face or a house in the stomach. But now it isn’t sadness that’s hitting you, it’s absolute rage. 
“Get the fuck over yourself Harry. I am not leaving this apartment tonight.” You make your voice as cold as his.
“What did you say?”
“You heard me. You need to grow the fuck up and either have a conversation about this with me or-”
“Or what? You're gonna leave me? You’re already leaving me, right now,” he spits at you. 
---
The train comes to a whining halt at the new station. You look out at all of the people standing there. 
They probably all have completely ordinary lives with jobs and families, maybe a dog. Like that man standing by the ticket booth. He’s standing with a little girl, maybe around five years old or so. She’s smiling up at him as he pays for the tickets. 
He looks down at her and smiles back at her before handing her her ticket. They walk over to the information screen. He lifts her up and says something to her. She smiles and points up at the screen. They look happy, content. 
You could have had that with Harry, it’s what he always wanted. And he wanted it with you.
---
“I could come with you,” Harry says. You sit across each other at the dining table, this was the first either one of you had said. 
“What?”
“I could come with you to Paris. It’s not that far away and I can technically work anywhere, even the Bahamas for that matter.” He smiles at you with bright eyes. 
“I can’t ask you to do that-” “You’re not asking, I’m offering,” he interrupts you and reaches over the table to grab your hand. “Let’s do it, let's move to France together.” You stand up and walk over to him. He pulls you down onto his lap, kissing you softly. 
“Okay,” you mumble into the kiss and you can feel his smile. 
“Okay.”
---
Your phone starts to ring on the small table in front of you. Quickly you pick up without even looking at the caller-id. “Harry?” you ask as soon as you answer. 
“Uhm, no. It’s Caroline, I sat in the booth in front of you?” Of course it’s not Harry, you deleted his number earlier. 
“Caroline! Hey, what can I do for you?” You try to sound as normal and cheery as possible but it’s difficult. 
“I just wanted to congratulate you on your new job and wish you good luck. You really were a great colleague,” she tells you. The two of you weren’t close but it’s still nice.
“Thank you so much, Caroline. It really means a lot!”
“Well I gotta go now, boss is calling me. But um, eat a croissant for me.” The line crackles and she hangs up. 
---
“Goodnight, baby,” Harry whispers and turns off the lights. Wishing minutes he’s asleep, snoring lightly. 
But you can’t sleep, thoughts are streaming through your head like the ocean during a thunderstorm. In three days the two of you are leaving for France. 
You can’t do this to him, to you. He’ll be unhappy in France, your workload is at least three times as much as it is now. You need to start fresh, without Harry. You love Harry, you really, really do, but this can’t go on. 
You fight and you fuck and then everything is fine for a while. You both know it’ll never work. The idea of you and Harry strolling around Champs-Élysées is amazing, but it’s not realistic... 
Thoughts like this go through your head until 4:45 am.
You go out into the bathroom. You look yourself in the mirror but you hardly recognise yourself. Bags under your eyes, tired.
You have to go.
You pull out your suitcase from under the bed. It’s the same one that Harry had pulled out less than a week ago. 
Quietly you pack your clothes and everything else that’s necessary. Harry stirs a bit in his sleep but he doesn't wake up. You walk over to him and softly press your lips to his. “I love you,” you whisper, before walking into the kitchen. 
After finding pen and paper you start to write: 
Harry, my love. 
I’m sorry that I have to do this to you, but I’ve left for Paris alone. I love you with every part of me and it hurts. And not in a good way. 
The way that I love you is absolutely unimaginable, not even Shakespeare would be able to understand it. So I have left. 
We both know that this will never work, the two of us, together in Paris. So stay here, be the man I know and love. Find a woman who sees what I see in you and stay with her. Build a family, have children with her, love her. 
I won’t come back so don’t look for me. Please.
I love you. Goodbye.
---
A voice comes through the speakers just before your tears start to come out,
“It seems that there are some troubles with the train tracks-” he doesn’t get to say anything else. 
An explosion stops time. 
You can feel your body getting hurled ups in the air, but the only thing you can see is him.
Harry.
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Text
We've Got Tonight - Ch 5
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Summary: “It’s not your job to do this, Andy. You make people happy. I was in the diner all of ten minutes, and you knew exactly how to get me to smile. You do normal, real things like garden and sing karaoke. Saving the world is my job, Sam’s job. Sometimes it’s even Cas’s job, but it’s not yours.”
Inspired by Bob Seger’s “We’ve Got Tonight”
Warnings: Major Character Death, More Major Character Deaths (sort of?), higher than show level violence, blood, light smutting, language, demons, apocalypse, inferred suicide, cult activity.
18+ ONLY, MINORS DO NOT PROCEED
Author’s Note: This story is set hazily around season 8. Just squint a little, and it’ll settle in somewhere. I wrote this story after certain big revelations in the show, but before other big ones; you’ll most likely be able to tell which. I play with time a bit in the story itself, so if things seem out of order, they are. Hopefully, by the end, all the pieces will fit together.
What the hell, let’s give it a shot.
Image and major edits by the incomparable @there-must-be-a-lock . Heavy editing and cheering by @thoughtslikeaminefield . Thank you both so much.
This chapter in particular is dedicated to @foxyjwls007 . If I'm going to torture you with something, it's not going to be a cliffhanger. I'm going out of town for two weeks, so you get an update early since I won't be able to post while I'm away. Thank you for the encouragement.
In case you missed it: Chapter 4 ItMightHaveBeenIntentional’s Masterlist
...
We’ve Got Tonight
Chapter 5
“Miss? Miss? Hey, are you okay?”
A hand grips Andy’s arm, firm but polite, and she jerks to, almost losing her footing. It’s been a long day already, and she still has two hours before she can go home, shower, and put her feet up for a little while before karaoke at the Brass Monkey starts up.
Maybe I can even fit in a nap, she thinks excitedly. But first, gotta wake up and make it through the rest of my shift.
Of course, if she hadn’t been tossing and turning all night from a crazy dream, she wouldn’t be as tired as she is now, but that’s neither here nor there. And it doesn’t help that she can’t even remember the stupid dream. It was really long, though, and there was blood and books and…someone...
“Can I get a refill over here?”
One hour, forty-seven minutes, and twenty-two seconds to go. She can do this.
The minutes crawl, though, and it’s all she can do to stay on her feet and focus. The lunch crowd has long since thinned, and she’s about to ask if she can maybe take off a little early when the door chimes, and she catches the tail end of the entering customers’ conversation.
“Could you at least consider putting something green on your plate? Like, ever? Broccoli won’t kill you.”
“I’ve already told you, I’m getting breakfast since you didn’t wake me up early enough to eat a decent one this morning. Pancakes, bacon, and coffee, which, I might add, grows on a tree, so it counts as a plant. That’s balanced enough for me. You like broccoli; knock yourself out, Jolly Green.”
“Sam isn’t green, Dean. Is your vision faulty? Perhaps we should get your eyes examined. Or you could try carrots along with the broccoli. Carrots are supposed to improve vision.”
No. No, no, no, she thinks, her mind whirling frantically. It was a dream, they can’t be here. This is...this is how it started, and...
She turns, and there they are, Sam and Dean dolled up in their clean, pressed feds suits and Cas looking just as rumpled and bewildered as she suddenly remembers. They seat themselves at an empty table in her section, but any thoughts of leaving early evaporated the second she heard their voices.
Every moment of the dream, every minute of those four weeks comes screaming back, cramming each terror-laden, tension-ridden second into her mind so fast she actually does stumble and has to grab the back of a nearby booth to keep from hitting the worn-out linoleum.
“It...hasn’t happened yet.”
“I’m sorry, did you say something? Hey, hey, hold on there. Are you okay?”
Then Sam’s hand is supporting her elbow, helping her straighten up, and she looks up into his concerned eyes, unable to express how glad she is just to see him breathing. Behind him, Dean and Cas are arguing about something trivial, wonderfully animated and alive and completely unaware of her.
“I’m sorry, hun, it’s just been a long shift. Gimme a minute to grab some waters and menus, and I’ll be right over.” Sam accepts her flimsy excuse at face value, and why wouldn’t he? He hasn’t lived with her for the better part of a month, hasn’t saved her life once, hasn’t tried to save the world with her. He doesn’t know her at all.
Why should he question a strange waitress in a strange diner who says she’s had a long day? He’s met hundreds of women just like her, maybe thousands, and he’s got no reason to question a completely legitimate statement.
She rushes into the back to find the coldest water possible to splash on her face. Her reflection gapes back at her from the staff bathroom mirror as the enormity of her situation begins to dawn on her.
Why? Why is this happening? Either she actually lived through those weeks and is somehow getting a do-over, or she dreamed the whole thing and is getting a shot to fix things from this end. But why? And how?
How in the hell?
Think, Andrea, think. It was real. It will be real. It hasn’t happened yet. You haven’t screwed everything up yet. You have to fix this. But how? How can I fix it when I screwed everything up so very badly last time?
Just...think. Think. Start small. Try to stop it before it happens. But...the cult. Crowley said they were real. They found me before, they’ll find me again. I could talk to Sam and Dean and Cas about what's going to happen. They’ve been through enough insanity in their lives that I actually have a pretty good shot at convincing them.
She stares into the mirror, racking her brain for every helpful detail she learned during her time with the Winchesters.
They're already investigating all the break-ins hereabouts; those were the cultists looking for me in the first place. Then they find me, take me, bleed me, and start the apocalypse. The boys could stop the ritual before it even happens.
Her reflection in the mirror frowns, unconvinced the solution could possibly be that easy.
But the literature, the books, it’s all still out there. Someone else could find it, could come after me. My blood is the problem. I’m the key. As long as I’m around, someone could still use me to end everything. Crowley can still use me to get to them. Think. You’ve got to actually stop everything and save them this time.
Her eyes widen as realization dawns. The world can’t make it without the Winchesters. There’s only one way out of this.
Fifteen minutes later, she sets a fresh green salad in front of Sam before dropping a towering stack of steaming pancakes in front of Dean.
“Fresh pot of coffee coming off in two, be right back with your refills. Need any more butter or syrup, hun? How ‘bout a couple of extra pieces of bacon on the house?”
“Don’t encourage him, please,” Sam groans. Dean slaps his brother on the back of the head, sending Sam’s coiffed hair into a tizzy of disarray. Sam swipes back at his brother, who waves off Sam’s attempts at retaliation like he’s swatting a fly.
“You shut your pie hole. She said free bacon. That makes her a queen.” He turns his most charming smile on her, glancing down at her name tag then back up to meet her gaze squarely. The crinkles around his eyes deepen with his grin. “Andrea, is it?”
“Andy,” she corrects automatically, and she can’t help her answering smile. He throws her a wink that clearly says he knows he’s cheesy but it's all part of his irresistible charm.
She doesn’t disagree.
“You are a goddess, Andy. I love you, and you need to know that.”
“You don’t,” she says, only just managing to keep her voice and smile level, “but you could.” His answering laugh sends a twinge through her chest, and if she clenches her jaw a little around her smile, she figures she’s entitled.
When the men finally finish eating, she offers a slip of paper to Dean, while Sam pretends he isn’t rolling his eyes.
“There’s a karaoke competition at the Brass Monkey tonight. Winner gets tab on the house for a week. Interested in maybe meeting up there around ten or so? We could have a drink, sing a song, and see where the rest of the night takes us.”
He grins and takes the slip from her with sure fingers. She’s certain he has her number memorized before the paper even retains his prints, but he makes a special show of tucking it safely into his pocket.
“Dean, do you think it wise to allow yourself to be so distracted when we’re in the middle of an investigation?”
And without even realizing it, Cas gives her the perfect opening.
“Oh, you boys investigating all the break-ins hereabouts? Were they too much for our local boys to handle? Listen, hun, my friend was one of the ladies whose house got broken into. If you want to stick around for a few minutes, I can fill you in on what I know and send you her way. Would that help?”
Castiel’s eyebrows lift in surprise, and he is clearly pleased with his first-rate investigating skills. “That would help immensely, Miss Andrea. Thank you.”
She can’t believe her luck at such a perfect lead-in, and she runs with it.
“Now that I think about it, the shop next door mentioned something about their alarm getting tripped a few nights in a row. Maybe I could talk to your friend while you two check it out? And I’ll see you tonight, Dean? Ten o’clock?”
Dean’s grin softens, and she can see the faintest tinge of red along his cheeks. She didn’t notice it the first time around, and now she wishes she’d paid more attention. Then the brothers leave, and she’s alone with the angel. ...
Chapter 6
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frecklef0x · 3 years
Text
Mass Effect 1: Playthrough Masterpost
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At last, I have finished Mass Effect 1!
I have heard some mutuals say they wish they could play it again for the first time, and you kind of can--through me! I’ve been posting little “episodes” of live-tweet-stream-of-consciousness as I play, and now I’ve compiled them into one post to make my life easier.
Anyway, here’s the first one, the rest are under the cut. :)
frecklef0x plays mass effect: (ME1) episode one
My ass looks great in this uniform, first of all
Impaled robo zombies, yikes
Cheap shot, Saren, smh. How will I pass my spectre test now?!
Why does he have robot eyes? Is he like, Geth-Turian? Why? Is he a robo zombie also? Was it the beacon???
Cool beacon nightmares, I'm sure this is fine
This Kaiden guy has implants? ORTEGA?!??!?
"Call me princess again and you'll be picking your teeth up off the floor" lol obliterated
The citadel elevators are very realistic, five minutes of tense silence huh
Ya girl got a PROMOTION and a DOPE SQUAD time to catch a TRAITOR
frecklef0x plays mass effect: (ME1) episode two
First things first, gotta go find the blue scientist to join the gang
This galaxy is HUGE! How many of these places will I actually be able to go?!
Only two friends at a time????? D:
Ah, a distress signal, let's see wha--A DESERT CENTIPEDE NOPE ABORT ABORT
Robo aliens? In MY Theronian mining facility? Its more likely than you think
Running over dudes in my Mako is extremely satisfying tbh
*runs over geth troopers* *runs over geth armature* *runs over geth colossus* ... *backs over geth colossus*
Working elevators in the ancient ruins ✔
Oooooooh man hope this nerd is gay
Wrex, a friend of yours? Nope, not a friend, too murdery
"ShAaaAame about the ruins Shep, sOooOo much collatoral damage, SHEP" stfu Council, "ruthless" was in the resume when you promoted us, 10/10 would shoot lasers through archeological digs again
When Kaiden calls us "ma'am" I am, uh, into it
frecklef0x plays mass effect: (ME1) episode three
Time to talk to the gang! Gotta meet the fam proper
Oh dear seems we got a shmee of racism on board, compatriots
Wow Raina, good foot-in-mouth moment with Wrex there huh...sorry about the eventual extinction of your race, lost this round of Pain Olympics
OH SHIT OH SHIT BLUE HOTTIE BIGENDER? THIS IS NOT A DRILL???
“hi I’m Kaiden wanna hear about my last crush ;)” “hi I’m Liara wanna hear about Asari mating rituals? ;)))” damn we really slidin right into the DMs no chill
Garrus: fuck rules and red tape amiright Raina: oh u right ;)
Guess I’ll actually do a mission now LETS GO LESBIANS LETS GO
Honestly rolling out with Tali and Liara is a mood, squad goals
Raina @ every corporation on Noveria: I would sell you to satan for one(1) corn chip
This reactivation puzzle is some shit
I see some Mistakes were made
We already killing moms at this stage damn BioWare
FUCK FUCK BENEZIA KILLED ME AND I LOST A FUCKTON OF PLAYTIME
THERES LIKE NO AUTOSAVE IN THIS BITCH FUUUUUUUUU
fuck fuck fuck god damn it gotta shoot a bunch of deranged baby bug people again god DAMN IT
Okay we killed Liara’s mom in front of her hope that’s fine
And we let mama bug go free because after talking to Wrex, Raina’s like “this galaxy is a little trigger happy with the genocide, good luck out there bug mama ❤️ be cool please”
I have literally watched the scientist in the hot labs get killed three times now
So far the debreifs with the council have not gone very well
“You let bug mama go?! How many generations until they take over everything???” “My money’s on two :D Place your bets now assholes or stfu :DDD”
Asked Liara if she was okay and she seems pretty Cool With It
I hope to one day return to Noveria and Death Star it into oblivion
frecklef0x plays mass effect: (ME1) episode four
Talked with Tali and this situation with the Geth and the Quarians is giving me an existential crisis
You “inspect” my beautiful ship? You got somethin’ to say about my crew??? Talk shit get hit, bitch I will kill you
Yoooo my old earth gang, yeah what the hell, I’ll help ou—oh nope nvm he’s a xenophobe, you hang him and I’ll shoot his friend in the face, thx for your time
Went to the citadel to finish some assignments, left tasked with twice as many
“dOn’T cUt CoRneRs” fear not dear Kaiden, I have a permit: this piece of paper that says I do what I want
Still with the elevators, I really cannot with this
“You make it all sound so...dangerous...” ;) ;))))))
frecklef0x plays mass effect: (ME1) episode five
Headin’ to Virmire to rendezvous with the Salarian team
A cure for the genophase?!?!?! :D
Oh wait oh no are we for real gonna talk about destroying the cure like Wrex isn’t standing right here omg
SHIT GUYS NO NOT LIKE THIS WREX PLEASE
Phew for a conversation that basically started with guns drawn, it went pretty well... “What Saren has isn’t even a proper cure, he’s just fucking with the Krogans at this point. Are we gonna stand for that? Or are we gonna murder?” “Damn Shep, you right, we gon’ murder”
Okay Ashley, go join the aliens, try not to die
Shadow Team!🎵 tearing through the base 🎶 disabling all the     defenses 🎵 (you gotta sing it to the tune of the Trogdor song)
We free the prisoners!!! :)
We shoot the prisoners??? :(
“Raina? How can you shoot them where they stand?” So it’s more merciful to let them explode? NAH FAM
This scientist is responsible for the mind control stuff? For Benezia? Fine     I’ll let her go but I hope she explodes
We did not learn our lesson concerning beacons I see
Wait if even Saren is worried about his mind control ship does that mean there are larger forces involved here?
Oh. Oh fuck
Ugh Ashley I EXPLICITLY TOLD YOU NOT TO DIE
(so we really never found any info about that genophase cure huh? disappointing)
Oh Seren, you dumb dumb. You absolute fool. Clown man.
When Raina slings Kaiden over her shoulder to carry him to the ship—mmmmmmmmwoooow I am very bisexual
Bruh Raina takes every council call and she disconnects pissed off every time
WAIT I literally just hung up with the council, ASHLEY is DEAD, and Kaiden needs a DTR RIGHT NOW?!?!? Boy, NO, READ THE ROOM
This has been a stressful day
frecklef0x plays mass effect: (ME1) episode six
Shepard will avoid her feelings and go to Faros instead
Seeing Ashley’s figure greyed out and her locker inaccessible makes me sad
Wrex and Garrus, let’s go shoot some geth 💪 
A mind controlling planet—of course!
Shep gets all her renegade points shooting capitalists
Saved, uh, about half the colonists
If I have one more bad acid trip I stg
Oh nope here’s another one
Shep needs a nap
frecklef0x plays mass effect: (ME1) episode seven
Ah, the council. Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal.
At least Liara is good at pep talks ;)
Joker, you cockblock
Haha DUDE we airborne, you THOUGHT
Now that I am exiled from the Citadel, guess I’ll run some galactic errands:
o   Killed corporate scientists who though we would rescue them lol
o   Destroyed a bunch of geth camps helping Tali on her pilgrimage
o   Disabled a nuke and killed some pirates
o   Shut down some evil Cerberus experiments
o   And illegally traded information!
Okay time to get back on track
So we may or may not be flying to our doom
OH GOD LIARA LOVES ME!!! RAINA, YOU DISASTER, YOU DID IT AAAAAH ❤️❤️❤️
frecklef0x plays mass effect: (ME1) episode eight
You know what I love? Being murdered by geth armatures
All these Ilos ruins be looking the same
Security panel is only kinda helpful
Oh, luckily I know Prothean now!
“CANNOT BE STOPPED” wow very encouraging, thanks
After that super motivating message and disabling security, its time to go down, down to goblin town
Vigil? Oh word?
My girlfriend is GEEKING out
I knew something what wrong with that fucking Citadel
Vigil: information is power. Also Vigil: What does it matter why they do what they do? All that matters is you stop them
“non-essential” personnel die first, huh? GROSS, VIGIL (gotta be honest that hits different in 2020)
Garrus gets it, I knew we liked that guy
Okay, find conduit, save galaxy, break millennium-old genocide cyle, nbd
Ugh Mako you gotta do me dirty one last time I see, I hate this thing
THE CONDUIT STRAIGHT YEETED MAKO
The citadel robot says we’re doomed : )
This shootout is SO fun, seriously
Saren get it toGETHER
Renegade Raina can kill with a conversation apparently, well done then
Concentrate on the Sovereign—why am I gonna save a council that hates my guts, sorry, but I have a JOB to DO that you ACTIVELY HINDERED
Great, zombie husk Saren, just what I needed as I mull over the possible consequences of my galaxy-altering decision
GO JOKER GO
Humanity-only council seems…questionable. Raina didn’t love the council but this sits wrong. Couldn’t we just appoint a more diverse council, including a human?
Anderson seems like a good enough dude, so…we’ll see.
TIME FOR WAR BOYS, GODDAMN WHAT A GAME
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phantom-curve · 3 years
Text
someday this will have a real title pt. 3
wow this one got away from me a lil bit. did I use it as an excuse to listen to Wake Up on repeat for an hour? yes. did I cry while writing it? yes. do with that information what you will. 
I really like how this is turning out. honestly, thinking of writing a companion piece from Luke’s POV once I finish Julie’s. also, I realized while writing this that Luke basically ‘poofs’ into Julie’s space every time he interacts with her even though he’s not a ghost and I love that consistency.
still have no idea how long this will be, so thanks for just going on this adventure with me!
tag list: @blue-hat-girl, @lwhoscribbles (thank you! honestly, they’ve got such strong voices writing these characters is a delight. also, titles are hard), @bluefyoto94 (thank you!), @5sosmukefan, @moonlightxnder, @leahthewonder​ lemme know if you want to be added!
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The second the entrance of Los Feliz High School was in her sight, Julie was unbuckling her seatbelt, bolting out of the car in a mad dash to escape into the academic institution. Luke didn’t even have time to fully park the car before she had slipped out of it, her curly head disappearing into the mass of students surging through the front doors as the first bell began to ring. Social etiquette dictated that she wait around long enough to at least thank Luke for the ride, but honestly, social etiquette could suck a fat one. She had been dealing with fake social graces for the last year and frankly, she was sick of all of the bullshit. She didn’t feel particularly inclined to extend said graces to overconfident band boys intent on disrupting her carefully constructed routine.
For the last year Luke had been content to ignore her presence in the few classes they shared, perfectly happy basking in the glory of being an upperclassman with unprecedented musical talent. Luke knew exactly where he was going and how he was going to get there. He didn’t stop to wait for the school to hook him up with gigs, he went out and made the shows happen for his band himself. Julie had always admired his confidence, wished she could be more like him.
She hadn’t always loved the cockier side to his attitude though. He had a tendency to act like god’s gift to music and it drove her insane considering there were kids at this school that worked just as hard as him but wouldn’t ever make it quite as far. Not everyone could be born with that kind of talent, but that didn’t mean he had to rub other people’s faces in it! She should know, hadn’t she always been complimented on her musical ability before anything else? And now that she didn’t have that same gift to offer up to the masses, wasn’t she just another forgotten face in the crowd?
Head low, shoulders hunched against the onslaught of emotion, Julie pushed her way through the morning crowd of students. She didn’t look up until she knew her locker would be in front of her, and even then she only lifted her head long enough to bury it inside of the metal box, pretending she was searching for the schoolbooks already in her backpack.
“Hey, under achiever.”
The familiar voice was warm, the nickname affectionate instead of insulting. It pulled a reluctant smile from Julie as she turned to meet her best friend’s gentle gaze.
“Hey, disappointment.”
Flynn gave her a little hip bump and a sad smile. Oh. So, word had already spread around the school.
“I don’t wanna talk about it.”
Julie hefted her backpack higher on her shoulder, one hand reaching to pull her hat low. Too late she recognized how her own actions almost mirrored Luke’s earlier. Flynn, best friend that she was, linked her arm through Julie’s and began to lead them down the hallway towards homeroom.
“Okay.”
Julie breathed a sigh of relief. Her best friend could be like a dog with a bone sometimes, unable to let any perceived injustice go without a fight. She was thankful she had avoided whatever rant Flynn had at the ready for the time being.
“But we’re gonna have to talk about it eventually, Jules. You can’t just let them kick you out! You’re Julie Molina! Voice of an angel! Queen of-!”
Or maybe not. Flynn’s declarations cut off immediately at the cold look Julie sent her way.
“Right, don’t wanna talk about it.”
Julie nodded fiercely, unmoved by Flynn’s disappointed sigh as she pulled out of her grasp and slipped into her desk. Flynn hadn’t lost her mom and her ability to play music all at once. Flynn didn’t have the entire school breathing down her neck. Flynn’s life wasn’t falling apart in front of her eyes. Flynn didn’t get to judge. Head down, Julie fought back the feelings of shame and guilt, focusing on her anger instead.
She made it through most of the day like that, relying solely on the fuel her fury provided to get her through her classes. Until her last two classes of the day. Composition and Solo Vocal Studies. Except, she wasn’t in those classes anymore. She had been dropped from them like the useless failure that she was. Her dad still didn’t know, so there hadn’t been a meeting with the school to change her schedule. But she couldn’t just go to a class she had been asked to leave. The final bell rang, and Julie was left by herself in the empty hallways. She glanced at the closed classroom doors around her, feeling small and lost. Suddenly, the red-hot rage that had sustained her all day was doused by an overwhelming wave of sadness. She was alone.
Unable to stomach the thought of losing it in the middle of the school, Julie sprinted for the nearest exit. Her surroundings were a blur until she practically slammed into the metal doors, crashing her way outside. She took a few steps before doubling over on her knees, gasping for breath. She squeezed her eyes shut, focused on nothing more than the air going in and out of her lungs. It was breezy, the warm wind blowing her hair around, the wayward curls tickling her face. The sensation helped to ground her, and she finally opened her eyes, the panic receding as she stood. The door creaked open behind her. Julie stiffened at the noise. The hair on the back of her neck felt electrified, and she didn’t have to hear him speak to know who it was. A throat cleared.
“You, um...you dropped this.”
She heard fabric rustling, the soft swoosh of what must be his arm lifting. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment, the frustration she’d been thriving on all day creeping in at the edges. She clung to it like a lifeline as she turned to meet his puppy dog eyes.
“What, are you stalking me or something?!”
Her voice was hoarse, not as strong or snappy as she had intended. She balled her hands into tight fists at her sides, ready to verbally attack as she leaned forward waiting for him to respond. He didn’t say anything, eyes soft as he looked down to where his hand was outstretched holding...her hat. Her hands flew to her head, landing on hair instead of the trusty ballcap she had kept perched there for the last year. So that’s how her curls had gotten loose earlier. Heat rose again, burning its way up from her chest to her cheeks to the tips of her ears. She snatched it out of his hands, shoving it back on her head with more force than necessary.
“Thanks.”
“Sure thing. You, uh, bolted outta there pretty quick. Everything okay?”
She watched him bob slightly, like he couldn’t stop moving for even a second. His voice was melodic, somehow everything he said sounding like he was on the verge of bursting into song. In another life, she probably would have been charmed by him. Not in this life though.
“Fine. Looks like I’m done with school for the day I guess.”
She practically sneered at him. Something about his gentle prodding scratched at her. Everyone knew she was a disaster. Everyone knew she was out of the music program, a washed up has been before she had been able to even make it in the first place. He didn’t need to use the kid gloves with her.
“Oh yeah, I forgot you usually have...”
He trailed off, eyes downcast, hand reaching up to scratch the back of his neck. She glared, not even noticing that he somehow knew her schedule.
“Yeah. Usually. Not anymore. So.”
He rocked back on his heels, hands shoved in his jean pockets, arms flexing in an unfairly aggressive display of hotness. His eyes were still looking at her with that same gentle expression. Like he cared. Her fingertips itched and she realized with a start that she desperately wanted to grab her keyboard and pound out an angry ballad about this...this too nice fuckboy with a pretty face and she could see the notes forming now and she could practically feel the smooth chill of the keys under her fingers and...she staggered backwards.
What the hell was that?! Her heart raced, adrenaline spiking. Oh no. No no no. She couldn’t want to play for this dumb boy. She hadn’t been able to play for her dad or her brother. She hadn’t been able to play for Flynn, hadn’t been able to play for her mother. She couldn’t even play for herself! What kind of special magic did Luke freakingPatterson possess that made her want to play again? It wasn’t fair.
“I gotta go.”
She swerved around him, reaching for the school doors. They held fast, locked from the inside. Her shoulders slumped. Just her luck.
“Hey, Julie?”
She didn’t answer, but it didn’t stop him.
“I’m really sorry about your mom. She was an incredible songwriter. You are too.”
The last part was said quietly but Julie heard it anyway. She couldn’t help but scoff as she turned to face him again.  He stood perfectly still this time.
“How would you know that?”
His eyes, still so soft, crinkled a bit at the edges. Not a full smile, but she could tell he wanted to. Without breaking their stare down, he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a worn, folded square of paper. Her gaze dipped, eyes widening. Her breath caught in her throat. It couldn’t be. He held it out to her.
“I found it last year. In the practice room. I know I should have given it to you earlier, but there was never a right time. I’m sorry.”
Julie’s vision swam. Tears spilled down her cheeks as she reached out to take the paper he offered.
“I thought...I tried to...”
“I know.”
His voice was the sweetest croon as his fingers closed around hers, tucking the sheet music safely into her palm.
“I went back the next day, but...it was gone.”
“I’m so sorry. God, I should have had Alex give it to Flynn or something.”
“No.” She locked her eyes on his once more. “It wasn’t the right time.”
He gave her a small smile, bouncing just a bit on the balls of his feet again. And then, as if understanding that she needed this moment to herself, he gave her a small nod and disappeared around the side of the building. Julie closed her eyes for a moment, clutching the papers to her chest.
Last year, in a fit of heartbroken rage and unable to express herself through music like she had for her entire life, Julie had locked herself in the practice room after school and thrown an all-out tantrum. She had screamed herself sick, cried until she couldn’t breathe, and in a final fit of uncontrollable emotion, trashed the last song that she had written with her mother, finished just days before she took her last breath. It had been satisfying in the moment. A vow to give up the part of herself that was made up of her mother, cut the pain off at the source so to speak. She had regretted it the instant she woke up the next morning, but it was too late. By the time she got to school, the first student on campus even, the practice room had already been cleaned. The hollowed out, empty feeling of loss that had followed had been gut wrenching. The realization that she had thrown the last connection to her mother in the trash left a gaping hole in her heart. It had been a fitting punishment that Julie had never even gotten to play the final product. A fitting punishment that she would never play anything again.
Luke had just changed all of that. He had given her that piece of her heart back. Fingers trembling, she unfolded the pages. She traced the looping letters of her mother’s familiar handwriting, following the notes up and down the bars, the melody playing in her head as she read. At the very end, a final message she had missed before:
Julie, you can do it.
Love, Mom
It felt like coming home. Pages clutched to her heart once more, Julie leaned against the building, lifted her face to the sky, and wept.
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snowdice · 4 years
Text
Finding the Time to Study Fic 2 [Day 15]
Here is my starting post for today’s study break stories session. See this post for more details and feel free to send me asks to keep me going! It’s been a lot of fun so far! I will reblog this post with the story as I write them today. I’ll be constantly looking for ideas of times and places for Janus to have missions, so feel free to send in any you can think of at any point!
If you are a new follower or just don’t want all of these posts clogging your dash, please feel free to block the tag “study break stories” as all posts and voting about it will go there. You can still see the finished product of the story even if you are blocking that tag as I will not tag the edited chapters with “study break stories” but with the tag “folds in paper.” See edited chapters below. Chapters 3-7 and what I have of Chapter 8 are under the cut.
My Masterpost Part 1 Part 2
I also have a playlist on youtube (because Spotify didn’t have one of the songs I wanted). It’s short, and not really for serious listening, but I had fun with it.
This thing is going to be 1K words with the semester I’m having. :P The plan is to do a lot of work today. I even have my dinner in a crock-pot. I’m giving a presentation on October 13th and want to basically knock out the prep today so I don’t have to have it hanging over my head. Not sure if I will achieve that, but that’s the plan! I have big goals! Wish me luck! :D
Chapter 3
Janus and Remus both appeared at the same moment a couple of feet apart in what looked like the inside of a garden shed. There was already a man waiting for them a few feet away. “Sup babes,” Remy said, just like he always did. The T-Agent looked their costumes up and down and whistled. “Now that,” he said, “almost makes me want to be one of you time jockeys.”
“They wouldn’t let me have a gun or a canister of moonshine,” Remus pouted.
Remy snorted. “Sorry, babes, but that makes my job a lot easier. If I’ve gotta fish you outta the 1920s criminal justice system, I’d rather it not be because you shot someone on accident ‘cause you don’t know how to use the safety.”
 Remus groaned dramatically. “Everyone is lame.”
Remy just shook his head. “Meet back here when you’ve got the necklace,” he said. “Don’t make a move until after 11:05pm and before 11:17. That’s your window.”
“We know,” Janus said. “See you then.”
“Have fun at the party boys,” Remy said and then lowered his shades to look at Remus, “but not too much fun.”
“Yeah, yeah,” said Remus, already towing Janus out of the garden shed. The way had been specifically cleared for them, so they met no other people before they’d rounded the house the party was taking place and had gotten onto the driveway in front of the house.
 Without missing a beat, they strolled up to the front of the house, just as a car pulled into the end of the driveway. Janus rang the doorbell, and a few moments later, a man who was clearly the butler answered the door. They handed over their invitation, and the man immediately let them in.
The party had already started when they slipped into the medium sized ballroom that had been decked out in streamers and other decorations. Janus’s nose immediately wanted to scrunch as the smell of sweat from all the dancing already going on as well as the too strong perfume meant to cover that stench wafted over him. It was by far not the worst smelling time period, but he was pretty sure some people still weren’t aware deodorant had been recently invented.
 He checked his time piece which had been disguised as a fancy wristwatch for this trip. “Okay,” he said. “We have about two hours before we need to make our move. We should…”
Remus’s attention was already being dragged away by a young man who seemed to be providing guests with food. “I’m going to go ‘mingle’,” he said, winking.
“No!” Janus hissed. “Re- Richard! No!”
Yet, he was already disappearing into the horde of stinky bodies, likely to go scandalize a bunch of rich folks, and leaving Janus alone. Janus mumbled a curse under his breath that he was sure no one around him would understand even if they could make it out.
 Unsure what to do with himself, he wandered over towards where the live musicians were playing jazz music, being sure to keep out of the way of the dancers. He was edging around the makeshift dancefloor, when one of said dancers must have misstepped and knocked into another one. The second man stumbled right towards Janus, arms pinwheeling. Janus reached out on instinct to catch the man as he fell.
There was a moment where the two of them just stared at each other, surprise evident on the other man’s face. He was wearing a mask that just covered the area around his eyes and the top of his nose, revealing a smattering of freckles across his cheeks that Janus imagined extended to his nose.
 The mask was a light blue velvet with a flower stuck on the side near his right ear, and a trail of curled golden ribbon bobbed down around his chin. The party continued on around them, a blur of movement and sound.
“Are you alright?” Janus asked.
The man blinked up at him and then tilted his head slightly to the side as though confused, before a smile slowly grew on his face. “Oh, I’m fine Dove.”
“Dove?” Janus asked.
He giggled. “You have dove feathers on your mask,” he explained, reaching up a hand to touch one. His finger brushed the tip of Janus’s ear, “and I don’t know what else I am supposed to call you.”
 “My name is Lee,” he automatically lied.
“Is it?” he asked, sounding amused. “Doesn’t seem to fit you well. I like Dove better.”
“Oh?” asked Janus. “And what’s your name so I can not call you that?”
The man chuckled. “Call me Pat.”
“Hello Pat,” Janus said.
“I thought you didn’t want to call me by my name.”
“I changed my mind.”
“Hmmm,” Pat said, finger tracing idly across Janus’s forearm which was when Janus realized with a start that he was still holding the man in his arms. He quickly went to release him, which Pat allowed with clear amusement.
 Yet, instead of completely stepping away, Pat grabbed Janus’s arm. “What are you doing all the way over here by the way?” he asked. “Don’t you want to dance.”
“Oh,” Janus hesitated. “I don’t really dance.” Or at least not in the way the people around him were. He’d had basic training for this style, but it had been a while and he was a bit rusty.
“Everyone dances Dove,” Pat claimed. “At least if they know the steps and have the right partner.”
“But I don’t know the steps,” Janus said with an eyebrow raise.
He hummed. “Well, I know the dance pretty well by this point,” Pat said. “Why don’t I teach you how it goes.”
 He was agreeing with the soft beseeching tone before he even realized it. Pat pulled him into the middle of the throng of people. He seemed to think, bopping his head to the music playing for a moment, before looking back at Janus. “Heard of James Johnson?”
Janus inclined his head.
“Well, have you heard his new song? Because there’s a dance that goes with it.”
He took a few steps away from Janus and started to dance. Despite his claim to know the steps, he wasn’t particularly good, but he made up for any loss of rhythm with pure enthusiasm.
 Janus found himself smiling at the man, and after a few moments, joined in with the dance. Despite his lack of practice, he ended up having a better natural rhythm than Pat. Pat didn’t seem to mind that he was being outperformed, however. On the contrary, he giggled at himself the couple of times he stumbled.
When he fell into Janus’s arms for the second time that night, Janus decided he’d probably had enough dancing for the moment and pulled him off to the side to get something to drink and cool down a bit.
He watched the man take a snack and some punch from one of servers and thank him happily before turning back to Janus. Pat was easily able to keep Janus’s attention as they chatted. He was bubbly and soft, and Janus found himself enchanted as they talked.
 He was explaining the steps of a different dance, a couples one. “Knowing how to perform the tango will entrance any girl you want,” Pat said, something mischievous sparkling in his eyes. “Assuming you’re that type of fella.”
“As opposed to what?” Janus asked.
Pat leaned in a bit closer. Not too much, but enough that he was definitely in Janus’s space. “A different type of fella,” he said simply, before smiling and leaning back.
Janus let out a shaky exhale and took a sip of punch. He glanced over at Pat. “Tell me about yourself, Pat,” he said.
Pat hummed in contemplation. “Well, I went to France recently.”
 “You did?”
“Oui, c'était amusant, mais j'ai eu des ennuis”
“What kind of trouble?” Janus asked curiously.
“Oh, the kind with a pretty boy and crepes that were way too sweet. Anyway,” he continued. “Other than that, I mostly help out my friend. He’s an inventor.”
“And how do you help him.”
He shrugged, “Running errands mostly, and making sure he gets enough sleep, because otherwise he gets distracted and forgets. And you?”
“I’m a banker,” he said, remembering his cover, but felt compelled to add, “but I like to travel as well.”
“You do look the type?”
“And how is that?”
   Pat shrugged. “I can always tell a wandering spirt from the masses, and you are easy to spot.” Pat looked at him then with a secret smile on his face, and Janus felt suddenly known, like the man in front of him had known him for years even though they’d only just met. Looking at him then, he wanted suddenly for that to be fact and not a flight of fancy.
He was brought firmly back to reality in the next moment. “Lee,” a pointed and familiar voice said. Janus’s head snapped up to see Remus, staring at him. He tapped his wrist. Janus glanced at his own wrist: 10:58pm. He just barely managed not to curse.
 “I,” he said looking up at Pat. “I’m sorry, but I have to go.”
“That’s okay,” Pat said easily. “It is getting rather late.”
“Yes,” Janus agreed. “Well… goodbye.”
Pat, titled his head, a half smile on his face. “I’ll be seeing you around.”
Janus nodded, and turned away from him towards Remus. He didn’t look back as they excited the ballroom. They snuck into a small side closet for coats that wasn’t being used as it was summer.
“So,” Remus said when the door closed behind them.
“Don’t,” warned Janus.
“I’m not one to judge,” Remus said.
“Shut up.” He glanced at his watch. It was 11:02. “We’ll go in 5.”
 “I have to give it to you. He was very cute.”
“We’re not talking about it.”
Remus just laughed joyfully, and Janus did his best to halt the blood rushing to his cheeks.
At 11:07, well into their window, they slipped back out of the closet, and towards the stairs as the party raged on.
Despite how Remus usually never shut up, he was able to be quiet when it counted. They snuck to the master bedroom of the home’s owners in silence. The door was already wide open by the time they got there, and Janus didn’t think anything of it. At least, he didn’t until they entered the bedroom, and there was someone already there.
 He turned from the dresser he’d been standing in front of to face them, sending Janus the same smile he had down in the ballroom. Janus and Remus both froze. “Sorry, sweetie,” Pat said. “Were you here for this too?” he held up the necklace they’d been sent for. He closed his fist around the charm made out of time travel tech.
“What?” Janus said.
Pat giggled and winked. “Unfortunately, I need it a bit more than you at the moment. So, I’m gonna have to go.” Janus stepped forward, not really sure what he was intending to do, but Pat just smiled. “See you some other time, my Turtle Dove.” With a snap of his fingers and loud crack, he disappeared. The mask he’d been wearing fluttered to the ground.
  Arc I: Finding Cinderella
Chapter 4
Janus was frozen in surprise for a few long moments after Pat disappeared. Which had been, admittedly, his mistake, because, while their window had technically been until 11:17pm and it was only 11:10, the loud crack that whatever Pat had been using for time travel made, garnered the attention of someone else.
“Uh oh,” Remus said, likely hearing footsteps. “Hide.”
That snapped Janus into action, but instead of hiding immediately like a sensible human being, he chose to go for the only link to the man who’d just stolen time travel tech and waltzed away, the mask.
Which was why he ended up getting arrested.
 Remy tsked the moment they were all alone in the police car having come to ‘transfer Lee to another facility.’ Remus was already waiting in the front seat, and flashed Janus a smug smile. If Janus wasn’t still handcuffed, he’d slap him.
“Well,” Remy said. “At least you didn’t shoot anybody like I asked. I was joking by the way. I didn’t really want to pick you up from a 1920s police station period.”
“It wasn’t my fault.”
“Mmm, nah, ‘cause Remus managed to not get arrested this time, so you defiantly screwed something up.”
“Oh, he defiantly wanted to screw something all right,” Remus said joyfully.
 “Remus,” Janus hissed.
“What?” he asked. “I’m not the horny one for once. Well, no, that’s a lie, but it didn’t affect the job this time.”
Janus groaned and leaned his head back against the seat.
Remy pulled into a seemingly random garage around 20 minutes later. “Alright,” he said. “Here we are.” He got out of the car and then helped Janus out before uncuffing him. “Here’s your ‘watch,’” Remy handed him the timepiece that had been confiscated when he’d been arrested.
Janus put it on and activated it. “Shit,” he said.
“What?” Remus asked.
“An appointment with cultural outreach has already been downloaded to my calendar for once we get out of decon.”
 “Oof. Going to baby jail,” Remy laughed. Remus was cackling.
“This,” Janus said, “was not a cultural faux pas. I did nothing that indicated that I was not from this time. I am not some rookie.”
“Don’t forget cell phones don’t exist in the 1920s,” Remus sang.
“The real question is whether or not my foot exists in your…” Remus disappeared before he could finish, a smirk on his face. Janus growled. “By Remy,” he gritted out. He selected the decontamination chamber from his queue, ignoring the appointment that came after it for now.
He knew exactly where Remus would be standing when he landed, which was why he stepped forward on reentry to ram into him.
 He yelped in surprise. “Sorry,” Janus said pleasantly. “I must have also forgotten landing procedures.
Remus laughed good naturally. “Aw, come on Jay,” he said, bumping Janus back, albeit much gentler than Janus had been. “It’s not a big deal. You just go talk with some crusty old college professor who is far too interested in spoons and then everything’s fine.”
“It’s the principle of the thing,” he growled. “They’re treating me like I’m an idiot who accidently invented disco in the 1920s when I was conned by some free agent time traveler.”
“‘Conned,’ Remus said. Is that what they’re calling it now?”
 “I know where and when you live Remus,” Janus said.
Remus gave him a dopey smile as the decontamination cycle finished and the door unlocked. Janus’s wrist buzzed telling him that the coordinates to the cultural outreach office were now unlocked. Instead of pulling them up, Janus walked to the door.
“Um,” Remus said, following him. “Aren’t you supposed to be going to your appointment?” Janus just kept walking towards their office. “Uh… Jan?”
“It’s absolutely ridiculous that I have to go to cultural outreach,” Janus said. “In fact, no one can make me. If they want me to go have a discussion about the definition of ‘bushwa,’ they’re going to have to have me dragged there.”
 “Mmm, I feel like The Boss won’t be too happy about that, and I have a feeling she’d be 100% down to dragging you there herself.”
“Well, then, let her,” Janus said, stalking through the door to his office. “I’m not going to…”
“Ah, Agent Picani,” the woman standing next to his desk, clearly waiting for him, said when he came through the door. “Dr. Picani was informed that there were complications with your last mission and wishes to have a conversation with you and asks that you meet him in his office at the AMO.”
“Oh, um,” Janus said, stumbling a bit before plastering on a regretful half smile. “Unfortunately, I actually have an appointment right now at Cultural Outreach. It’s mandatory and very important, and I have to go now. So, I’ll have to take a raincheck on that.”
 “But-” she started, frowning.
“Remus, work on the report!” Janus said quickly as he waved his hand to bring up his timepiece display and jammed his finger at the glowing appointment card in his queue. A few moments later, Janus was at Cultural Outreach.
Cultural Outreach was not part of the TPI, though it often worked very closely with them. It was a collaboration between the government and multiple universities to help government workers, politicians, and other citizens understand and bridge cultural gaps. It had existed before time travel was invented but had expanded to also teach people who needed to time travel how to behave in unfamiliar times and cultures.
 After it had to be expanded to provide for the TPI, it had been moved to Silver Mountains University. The building had once just been a museum, but it had been thoroughly renovated and there had been add-ons for office space and some classrooms. It was still a museum, however, its purpose had expanded greatly and there were many areas that were off limits to the general public.
One of these areas was the fourth floor, where Janus’s timepiece had dumped him. This was the floor that was almost exclusively for TPI agents and staff of Cultural Outreach who worked with them.
 He immediately turned away from the reception area, hoping that he could escape and go sit on the university’s quad or something of the like for the next hour or so in hopes the woman his brother sent to fetch him would give up and go back to the AMO. Yet, the receptionist apparently saw him.
“Janus Picani?” he asked.
Janus grimaced and turned back towards him. “Yes,” he said.
“Is something wrong?” he asked. “You’re 5 minutes late for your appointment and seem disoriented.
“Nothing’s wrong.”
“Is your timepiece malfunctioning?”
“No.”
“Uh… okay. Well, if you sign in here, I can take you to your appointment.”
“…Fine.”
 He begrudgingly stepped forward and touched the screen he’d gestured to sign with his fingerprint, and then let the man lead him down the hall.
The door they stopped at was propped open slightly, but he still paused and knocked. “Professor Eran? Your 2:30 is here.”
Janus had just a moment upon hearing the name to think that maybe there was actually some sort of intelligent design of the universe and whatever being of ultimate power had crafted it was a dick.
The door opened and Virgil Eran’s eyes immediately narrowed on him. “Janus.”
“Virgil.”
“I see you’re still late for everything.”
“I see you’re still a bastard.”
 Janus saw the receptionist slowly back away in the direction they’d come.
“Why don’t you come in?” Virgil said faux pleasantly.
Janus did, because he really didn’t have much of a choice at this point unless he wanted to jump out of a window… or push someone out of a window.
Virgil turned back into his office and took a seat behind his desk. Janus unhappily followed him in and sat across from him.
He took his time pulling up whatever the TPI sent him and reading it over. “So, I see you failed your recovery mission and were arrested in 1923.”
 “It wasn’t like that,” Janus said. “I shouldn’t be here.”
Virgil gave him that same suspicious look he used to give Janus whenever Janus claimed to have not eaten his hot pockets out of the freezer in the middle of the night. He’d only been lying 80% of the time. Virgil had a tendency to forget what he’d eaten in a half-conscious state at 3 o’clock in the morning.
“I shouldn’t,” Janus snapped defensively. “Nothing went wrong with anyone from the time period. An illegal time traveler screwed up the mission details.”
“Well, it is still protocol to make sure nothing slipped when agents go off script. You weren’t prepared to be in a jail cell, and it is possible that you screwed something up.”
 “I didn’t screw anything up,” Janus growled.
“Alright,” Virgil said pulling up a document on his desk. “The mission started on July 27th, 1923 at 9:58pm, correct?”
“Oh, god, we’re not really going to fill out a time sheet. I don’t have time for that today.”
“It is protocol and best that the information is documented when it is still fresh in your mind. Besides, your schedule has been cleared for the rest of the workday.” The bastard was enjoying this. He knew how much Janus hated this stuff.
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Janus said, “it was the damned illicit time traveler.”
“And I will be the judge of that,” Virgil said. Janus should have just bit the bullet and had coffee with his brother. “If you truly did nothing wrong, your supervisor will see that when I send this to her.”
 Yet, despite the fact that Virgil clearly relished in his suffering, he was charitable enough to do most of the actual filling out of the forms. He’d read out the questions and write down what Janus said instead of making him do it himself. Janus really only had to do a quick quality check and sign it at the end.
He still was an asshole about the details, but really he’d been like that about stupid thing like the settings for the dish washer and how the pantry was organized during their college days before they’d had their falling out, so Janus wasn’t particularly surprised. When they were finally done, Virgil sent it off to get filed by the TPI.
 Then, they were left staring at each other with nothing between them but almost a decade of radio silence and a whole lot of awkwardness.
“I should go,” Janus finally said, standing up.
Virgil tilted his head slightly to the side and gave him a half smile. “Don’t lock the door behind you,” he said. “Not that I’d expect you too.”
Janus took it for the clear attempt at a joke it was intended to be and puffed out a breath of amusement with a head shake. “No risk of that,” he said. Then, he turned and walked out of the office.
 Chapter 5
Janus stepped back into the reception area and booted up his time piece. Instinct said to go back to the office despite the fact that it was late enough that most people had gone home, but he hesitated. Surely Emile had given up by now, but considering he’d sent someone to ambush him in his office, Janus wasn’t sure if he should trust that. He could just go home, but he already knew his mind was racing too much to sleep tonight so he’d probably just end up staring at the lake for the next 6 hours. So, he decided on the only other legitimate option he had. He pulled up Remus’s home coordinates and selected.
 The home that Remus had chosen (after his long line of rejected requests) managed to somehow make no and absolute sense simultaneously to anyone who knew him. It was a small farm in the United States just west of the Mississippi in 1842 in what would be ratified as the state of Iowa in a few years. When asked why he would choose that time and place, Remus always responded with “I thought it was funny,” whatever that meant.
Unlike most time agents who simply used the identities assigned to them by the AMO as a cover, Remus actually lived his part time.
 Janus was… fairly certain he was cheating a bit to get everything done, but he maintained his small farm all on his own, growing most of his own food. The neighbors he had lived very far away, but he still spoke with them far more than Janus did his own.
Janus appeared inside the small home, his eyes already shut. “Are you hear and dressed?” Janus called. Something bumped lightly into his legs.
“I’m in the kitchen!”
Janus peaked his eyes open and squatted to pet the cat at his feet. “That doesn’t answer my question!” he called back to Remus.
 “It’s a surprise!” Remus said.
“Remus.” Diesel Fuel the cat flopped to her side on the ground as Janus continued to pet her ears. He heard Remus’s footsteps, and saw cloth covering his legs, so risked looking up. He was currently not only dressed, but wearing an apron that Janus was fairly sure was not time appropriate judging by the fabric and cat pawprint design. He had a bit of flour on his hands, and it may have been a bit too white for the time and place, but Janus couldn’t be completely sure.
“What’re you doing here?” Remus asked.
 “My day has been an endless series of frustrations,” Janus said. “So, I have come to see the only tolerable being in the history of the universe.”
Remus snorted. “Since I know that isn’t me, I’ll assume you’re talking about the cat.”
“I still don’t understand why you tolerate this creature,” Janus addressed Diesel Fuel. She blinked slowly up at him. “To be fair, he was assigned as my partner. I didn’t have much of a choice in it. You could go always run away and become feral in the woods if you’d like.”
“So could you, technically,” Remus pointed out.
“I’m thinking about it after today.”
 “Would you like some bread?” Remus asked. “That’s all I’ve been making this afternoon. Some fresh should be coming out of the oven in a few minutes.”
“Do you have anything stronger made out of wheat?”
“Ew, no, but I do have vodka.”
“Vodka works.”
“Want me to mix it with something?”
“No.”
“One of those night then,” Remus said, easily. “Let me finish up the bread, so I don’t burn the kitchen down. You can go get the alcohol from the cellar while you wait if you want, or you can just flop down on the couch.”
He was going to just flop down on the couch.
 He did just that as Remus disappeared back into his kitchen. The cat hopped onto his stomach, proceeding to purr loudly and kneed at chest. Janus petted the cat and listened to the noise of Remus moving around in the other room, letting his mind drift. His mind drifted to Virgil for a bit and he steadfastly did not allow it to drift to his brother. Yet, the thing that most was on his mind was the strange man who had flirted and charmed Janus all night before mercilessly screwing him over. ‘Pat’ he’d said his name was, but surely that was not his real name.
 Janus sighed and scratched the cat’s ear. “He certainly wasn’t an amateur,” Janus mused to the cat. “With that amount of precision to get in before we did, he must have someone not on the ground feeding him information. Perhaps more than one.” He was part of a group of time traveling thieves perhaps or something worse. “I didn’t get a good look at his face since he was wearing a mask,” Janus said, “but I spent a lot of time with him, and I’m sure Remy swiped the mask from the police since it had been on me when I was arrested. It’s a good lead.”
 He continued to pet Diesel Fuel. Eventually, Remus came back in, noticed Janus hadn’t bothered to get the alcohol and went outside to the cellar. “I’m going to find him,” Janus told Diesel Fuel. “I’ll stop whatever it is he’s doing, and I’ll bring him in.” Diesel Fuel mewed her support, and Janus patted her on top of the head.
Remus came back in with the bottle of vodka and handed it to him without a word. He sat down on the couch near Janus’s feet and patted his lap so Diesel Fuel would come over to him and allow Janus to sit up.
 The bastard waited until he was approximately 3 shots in (he didn’t have a shot glass and was just taking drinks from the bottle) to ask the questions Janus really didn’t want to answer. “Are you mad at Emile?” Remus asked.
Janus groaned, trying to wash out the bitter taste of shame and grief with the sharp sting of vodka. It didn’t work. “No,” he said to Remus.
“Then why have you been avoiding him?”
“Shit, I’m here because I didn’t want to think about it. Can’t we just not.”
“Don’t want to think about what?
“It’s none of your business, Remus.”
 He could feel Remus frowning at him, but Janus stared resolutely ahead. At least, he did until a foot poked his face. He slapped it away, but it did the job of getting Janus to look at Remus.
“It is my business,” Remus said, foot still in the air. “I’m your partner and your friend.”
“If I’m your friend, you’ll drop it.”
“So, you’re not mad at Emile,” Remus continued, contemplatively. “Did you do something to him, then?” Janus bit his lip and looked away. “What?” Remus asked. Janus didn’t respond. “Look, I’m sure he’ll forgive you for whatever it is. He’s a good guy. Just talk to him about it.”
 “I can’t,” Janus said.
“Whatever it is, it’s probably been long enough that he forgives you. You literally just have to have a conversation, say you’re sorry, and everything will be A-OK.”
“I can’t,” Janus repeated.
“Why not?”
“He doesn’t know about it.”
Remus paused. “So, as far as he knows, you just cut contact with him all of a sudden for no reason and have been avoiding him ever since?”
Janus looked at his shoes. “Yeah.”
“That…” Remus said, “is not fucking fair Janus.”
“I know.”
“Then why the hell are you doing that to him? He’s like… soft and feeling-y. He’s probably really upset.”
 “I know, Remus.”
“Tell him. Whatever it is.”
“I can’t.”
“Look,” Remus said. “You tell him and he either forgives you or he doesn’t. If he does, everything’s fine. If he doesn’t… well, it’s not like it would be any different from you two never being in the same room the last few years. Either way, you can’t just do this to him. He’ll probably forgive you. He’s your brother. Brothers don’t… brothers would forgive each other.”
Janus laughed softly and met Remus’s eyes. “That’s the problem,” he said. “He’d definitely forgive me.” He turned away and opened the vodka bottle again. “Now, if you’ll shut up for a few minutes, I’m going to drink until I black out.”
 Chapter 6
“Really, Khalid,” Janus said, storming into his boss’s office. “A yellow?” It had been about a week since the 1920s incident, and his incident report had finally been cleared. Sure, it wasn’t a red or a black and he wasn’t facing any reprimand, but it should have been a green.
She looked up at him, clearly unconcerned. “There was an incident,” she said. “You handled it well, but there was one. Therefore, yellow.”
“It wasn’t a time travel incident! It was a rouge time traveler.”
“Janus, you helped me make these rules,” she said impatiently.
“Which is why I know this is bullshit,” he snapped.
 She rolled her eyes. “If it was anyone else, you would agree with me. While you didn’t go against protocol and had no time related incidents, the fact of the matter is, you were still distracted by this ‘rouge time traveler,’ didn’t complete your mission, and were arrested.”
“He was good,” Janus said. “You can’t fault me for that. He also could be dangerous and you’re busy handing out yellows instead of working to track him down.”
She raised an eyebrow. “We are working on tracking him down,” she said. “We have done an analysis on the mask and found fibers dating to the 2010s and some DNA. Though it isn’t exactly a high priority.”
 “We have no idea who he is or what he’s planning to do. Why is that not a high priority thing?”
“At the moment?” she asked. “Because we have reports of a time bomb being activated.”
“What?” Janus asked sitting up. “When?”
“New Years Eve going into the year 3,000 in Brazil,” she said. “Which you’d know about if you’d bothered to check your integration port this morning before storming into my office.”
“It’s my mission?” Janus asked.
“The incident investigation is over and your active again despite the dreaded yellow,” she said, clearly making fun of him a bit. “So, yes, and it’s a high priority mission, so I’ll be running it.”
 “Who all is going?” he asked.
“Other than the two of us, Remus, Lena, and Fred,” she told him. “We leave in three hours, so, you might want to run off to Rhi before Fred gets to her and ties her up for an hour on details.”
Janus nodded and got to his feet. He turned back at the door. “I still don’t deserve the yellow,” he hissed.
She waved him off. “I’ll see you in a few hours, Picani.”
He ground his teeth a bit about the dismissal of his worries, but his resentment was slightly soothed by the fact that she’d assigned him to go on such a high priority mission and with only senior agents.
 He took the advice and grabbed Remus from the office, noting Lena hadn’t been able to wrangle Fred yet as she was still at her desk, and they both headed off to see Rhi.
A few hours later, they were all in decontamination together, decked out in truly god-awful costumes. The turn of the third millennia had been a wild event, and the best way to fit in was to look like you’d grabbed something from every century in recorded human history, dyed it in neon paint, and rolled around in a vat of glitter.
Remus had opted to stick his head in a vat of glow in the dark green paint that costuming had offered them, and it wasn’t even going to be slightly disruptive to their covertness.
 In fact, costuming had frowned when Janus had insisted he not get his hair dyed and instead wore a bowler hat. They had required him to have flowers made out of glitter on it.
There were five people waiting for them when they landed 6 hours before the turn of the millennia. Three were touchdown agents, including Remy, and two were on location tech support. Usually it would be overkill to have that many people there just for support even with five agents in the field, but today the TPI needed to be cautious because they were planning on instituting a time lock.
Time bombs were dangerous things that would ripple through time if not contained. Even if it did end up going off (killing everyone in its reach), the time lock would serve to prevent most damage outside of the city and, more importantly, the year it was planted.
 Janus had only been in two time locks before, and he was one of the most senior agents in the TPI, outranked only by the founder: Lia Khalid. Time locks were designed to keep all time linear in a certain fixed time and geographical area as well as prevent any time travel in and out. Once it was engaged, all forms of time travel would not work for the duration, bar the pin device. Khalid was already switching out her regular timepiece with the slightly bigger one that was designed to support the time lock.
There was a failsafe back at the TPI that could be engaged in an emergency, which was why tech support was here, but other than that, the only thing that could break the time lock was that timepiece, and it would break the moment the time lock ended.
 As soon as it was on Khalid’s wrist, she looked up at them all. “Our information says the time bomb was planted in the costume of one of the ‘Millennium Birds’ who are the organizers of the different events,” she said. Janus had seen a photo of the identical costumes in the mission details. They were all robe like garments with giant fans of feathers coming from the neck that coalesced in a peak a foot above their head to hold a fake bird egg. At least they’d be easy to find. “There are 25 of them throughout the city. We need to find each of them. So, we don’t double count, you’ll need to subtly,” her eyes touched on Remus, “scan each one you find for the bomb and tag them with a tracker if it’s not on them. You can view the already tagged ones, as well as the rest of us on your timepiece even once the time lock is engaged. When you find the bomb, call it in.”
 They all nodded, and Khalid looked over at one of the techies. She nodded at her and then the techie flipped a couple of switches. “Three, two, one,” the techie said. There was a slight shift in the air that most people would disregard, but Janus as a seasoned time traveler could feel the change even before his wrist buzzed. He glanced at his timepiece to see it had a big red ‘X’ across its display. He tapped it and was still able to bring up the map of the city with 10 green dots on it all clustered together in their current location.
 After that, he tested the scanner on his timepiece that he would use to search for the bomb, just to make sure the time lock hadn’t messed anything up with his equipment. He glanced up to see everyone else was doing the same.
“Keep in contact,” Khalid said before everyone split up. Janus and Remus started by going North while Fredrick and Darlene were to go South. Khalid was a floater who would tag any Birds she saw but was mostly there for backup and orders.
Janus and Remus stepped into the chaos of New Years Eve before the turn of the third millennia. The streets were already swamped with people and it would only be getting worse the later it go.
“Where should we start?” Remus asked.
 “Let’s go all the way North to the games area,” Janus said. “We can work our way back here.”
“Okay!” Remus said. “I wonder if they have those fun little genetically modified goldfish as prizes. I’ve always wanted to eat one and see if I end up getting whatever design was on the fish on my body.”
Janus gave him a disgusted look.
“What?! People eat fish all the time!”
Janus shook his head. “We’re not playing the games anyway. We have work to do. Important work.”
“Boo,” Remus replied. Janus chose to ignore him as he spotted one of the Millenia Birds letting people into the gaming area.
 They walked over towards the entrance. Janus got in range first and moved to subtly scan the Millenia Bird, Remus doing the same the next moment. After a second, Janus’s timepiece buzzed and lit up red, meaning the bomb was within range. “Well, that was easy,” he said. “It was on the first one we found.”
“Uh…” Remus said. “Jan.” When Janus looked, he was holding up his wrist to show his green lit time piece.
“What?” Janus asked. He quickly moved to rescan the Millenia Bird, and his timepiece came up green as well. Which, meant the bomb was not in range, even though the Millenia Bird had not moved. “But…” He and Remus’s eyes met, and they quickly both started turning in a circle to look at the crowd around him. No one looked like they’d just stolen a time bomb off the Millennial Bird, but then Janus’s eyes caught on a man. He blended in perfectly to his surroundings. He was wearing the disgusting garb of the times, a large light blue piece that bubbled near his hips, and had most of his skin covered in rainbow neon paints. Yet, something about him, the curl of his hair or the way he moved, drew Janus’s eyes to him. He recognized the man immediately even in a completely different dressing style. Yet, what cinched it was the moment Janus’s eyes met his and they seemed to sparkle slightly in the afternoon sun. The next moment, the person Janus knew as Pat, turned to disappear into the crowd.
 Chapter 7
“Him,” was the only thing Janus said before taking off after the figure who had just disappeared into the game area.
“What?” Remus’s voice followed after him. “Janus! What?!”
Janus did not pause, just continuing to run after Pat, hopping over two barricades as a shortcut. Janus cursed when he lost sight of the man for just a moment near the prize table filled with colorful goldfish, but he was able to spot him once again walking into one of the tents. Janus blasted into the tent. It was a game where they raced rats, and when Janus entered, Pat was cooing at one of them.
 “Who’s a tiny little squishy precious baby?” he was asking one of them, wiggling his pointer finger at it.
“You,” Janus growled stepping up to him.
He turned and tilted his head at Janus with a frown. “Um, me?” he asked, pointing to his chest, all sorts of innocent, but Janus could see a spot of hidden amusement in his eyes.
“Where is it?”
His eyebrows drew together, but it was an act. It was clearly an act! “Where is what?”
“The…” he glanced around them at the people surrounding them. “Thing you just took.”
“I didn’t take anything,” Pat said with a frown.
 “Oh, no,” Janus said. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fooling me twice is not an option.”
“I’m sorry sir,” Pat said. “I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Bull. Shit.”
Just then, Remus jogged into the tent. “What’s going on?” he asked.
“It’s him,” Janus said pointing. “He took it. He has it.”
“I… don’t know what you’re talking about,” Patton said. He looked over to Remus with a confused frown.
Remus looked at Janus. “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” Janus said. “It’s him. It has to be him. He’s the mask guy.”
Remus squinted at Pat. “He is?”
“Whoever you think I am, I’m not. I haven’t worn a mask all night. I just did the face paint,” he pointed to his cheeks.
 Remus raised his wrist and his timepiece lit up green. He looked at Janus.
“I lost sight of him for five seconds. He must have stashed it somewhere,” Janus said. He turned on Pat. “Where did you put it?”
“…Are you,” Pat asked, his eyes going back and forth between Janus and Remus, “… the police?”
“We are, actually,” Khalid said as she stepped into the tent. Remus must have called her. She inserted herself between Janus and Pat. “Agent Khalid,” she said, offering a hand with a smile. Pat looked at it in surprise and then smiled back hesitantly as he took it. “Apologizes, one of the big game prizes was stolen by someone matching your description. Would you mind coming down to security for questioning? Just to clear it up.”
 “Oh,” Patton said, hesitant. Janus expected him to refuse outright, but then he said. “Uh, sure.”
“Thank you very much, Mr…”
“Jonas,” Pat told her earnestly. “Do I need to be handcuffed?”
“No,” Khalid said. Janus frowned at her, but she ignored him. “It’s just a talk for now.” She gestured to the tent entrance. “Come with us.”
He did without argument, and Remus and Janus followed behind the both of them. Khalid did not lead them back to the base, but to a little spot that said “security” near the center of the event. Remy was already there waiting for them at a desk.
 “Remy, would you please take Mr. Jonas to go sit down?” she asked.
“Sure, boss,” Remy said, standing up. He led Pat away.
Khalid turned to Janus and Remus once they were out of earshot. “What is going on?”
“It’s the mask man,” Janus said, “the one from 1923, and my scanner said the time bomb was on the Millenia Bird outside the games entrance, but then it was gone the next second, and I saw him, and then he ran away.”
“So, does he have it on him?”
“No. I lost sight of him, and he must have stored it somewhere, but I know he took it.”
10264
“He’s the man from 1923?” she asked.
“Yes! Remus, that’s him, right? You recognize him.”
“Well,” Remus said thoughtfully. “He was in a mask, and it was dark in the room with the necklace. Other than that, I only really saw his back, and he was wearing pants. Mr. Jonas is wearing a dress, so I can’t really tell if their asses match.”
“Okay, but I was with him for hours. I swear it’s him, and I swear he took it,” Janus just about shouted.
“We’ll question him,” Khalid placated, “and Fred and Lena will keep looking in the meantime.”
 “He knows where it is,” Janus insisted. “I swear.”
“Okay,” Khalid said, before leaving to follow where Remy and Pat had gone. She stopped Janus with a hand on his shoulder. “I think Remus and I will do the interrogation.” He opened his mouth to argue. “You know the most about him, so observe from the sidelines and see if he makes any mistakes that indicate you’re right.”
“That’s just to placate me and you know it.”
“Observation’s over there,” she said pointing.
He got a thumbs up from Remus as he walked by, and Janus glared at his back before walking off to the indicated location.
 He watched as Remus and Khalid entered the room, and Remy left it. Remy joined him in the observation room after leaving and leaned against the wall.
Pat was sitting at a table and watched Remus and Khalid with that same rubbish placid confusion that he had before. “So,” Khalid said, “Mr. Jonas.”
“You can call me Nick,” Pat interrupted.
“Lia,” Khalid replied. He smiled at her happily. “So, are you enjoying your day?” she asked.
“I am!” he replied. “It’s a big day. You only get to see the turn of a millennia once in your life.”
“Ah, yes,” Khalid said. “Doing anything special for it?”
 “Um, not really,” he said. “Other than the party. I’m going to meet up with my roommates after dinner. Kevin doesn’t like this sort of thing, and Joe couldn’t come.”
“Your roommates,” Khalid said, considering him. “Do you live around here?”
“Uh huh,” Pat replied.
“Do you have any ID?”
“I do, want me to get it?”
“If you wouldn’t mind.”
Pat unzipped one of the bubbles on his waist and handed her a chip. “Remus, would you mind going out and getting the ID scanner?” she asked, even though her timepiece would be able to read it.
“Ah, shit,” Remy said. “Props. What do those things even look like?”
 As Remy scrambled to find something that would pass for an ID reader so “Nick” didn’t get suspicious of Khalid using her timepiece, Janus watched the two alone in the room like a hawk.
“I see you’re wearing a dress inspired by the 2770s,” Khalid noted, as Remus came to stand next to him.
“Yeah!” Pat replied. “Joe made it for me. He’s really good at fashion design!”
“Can I see?” she asked.
With a happy smile, he reached over the table to let her get a look of the sleeves. Janus saw her subtly scan the fabric, probably to make sure it was from the 2990s and not actually from the 2770s. Considering she didn’t mention it, Janus assumed it checked out.
 Remy came back with some sort of device then and handed it to Remus who saluted and wandered back into the interrogation room. Khalid pretended to scan the ID in her hand. She handed it back to him without comment. “So, you said you live with your roommates: Joe and Kevin?” she asked.
“Yep!” he replied. “We’re practically like brothers.”
“Would you mind calling them?”
“Erm,” he titled his head like he was confused by the question. “Well, like I said, Joe is a bit busy, but I could definitely call Kevin.
“Here,” Khalid said, “use my phone.”
“I have my own,” he said with a frown.
“Humor me,” she requested.
“Uh, okay,” Pat agreed. He took the offered 2999 phone and dialed a number on it. Khalid reached over to put it on speaker.
“Hello?” a voice asked after a few seconds.
“Um, hey Kevin, it’s Nick.”
There was a sigh on the other end. “Hello Nick, is something wrong? Why are you calling me from someone else’s phone?”
“I’m fine, I think.” He looked up at Khalid. “Why am I calling him exactly?”
“Hello, I’m Officer Khalid,” Khalid said. “I just wanted to confirm that you are Nick Jonas’s roommate, and he does live in Manaus.”
“Yes, we live together with our other roommate,” the man replied flippantly. “Officer? Is something wrong?”
“I believe there was just a case of mistaken identity,” Khalid said.
“Bullshit there was!” Janus hissed, though she could not hear him.
“No need to worry,” Khalid continued.
“I’m good Kevin,” Pat said.
“Are you absolutely sure?” Kevin asked.
“Don’t be Paranoid, Kevin. I’ll see you Tonight for the New Years Celebration. You know I Live to Party.”
“I am hanging up now,” Kevin said.
“No! Comeback.” The line went dead. Pat handed the device back to Khalid.
She took it and smiled at him. “Give us just a couple of minutes,” she requested. He nodded easily, and she and Remus exited the interrogation room. “I… think we’re done here,” Khalid said.
“No, he’s lying,” Janus insisted, and got a dubious look in return. “I know he is! Remus!”
“The alibi is pretty solid…” Remus said, “and he doesn’t have the bomb on him.”
“Oh, come on,” Janus said. “You can’t say there is nothing fishy going on here.”
Khalid and Remus shared a look. “Janus,” Khalid said. “I respect your intuition. It is usually very good, but you have been a bit intense about the man from the 1920s, and I think that may be blinding you a bit...”
“I am not imagining this!” Janus said. “That’s him and he took it.”
“You only met him once while he was wearing a mask,” Khalid pointed out with a frown, “and you didn’t see him take the bomb, did you?”
“No, but he looked at me and I knew,” Janus argued. They both gave him a skeptical look. “Oh, come on!”
“You know that’s a little weak, Jan,” Remus said.
“Let me talk to him,” Janus requested. “Just give me five minutes to talk with him.”
Khalid raised one eyebrow. “Fine,” she agreed. “You have five minutes, but after that, you have to let it go. We can’t waste any more time.”
 Chapter 8
Pat looked up as Janus stepped into the interrogation room. “Hi,” he said with an innocent smile that could cut steal.
Janus didn’t say a word as he took a seat; he just watched him intently. He leaned slightly over the table and steepled his fingers in front of his chin. “So, your name is Nick this time?” Janus asked.
“Nicholas Jonas,” he said. “Always has been.”
“Stop it,” Janus said.
“Stop what?”
“Cut the crap. I know.”
Pat leaned forward, mirroring Janus as he leaned closer, interlocking his fingers and laying his chin on top of his knuckles. “What did you say your name was again?” he asked, pleasantly.
 “Janus,” Janus replied.
“No, I’m Jonas,” he said, pointing to his chest.
“Not Jonas,” Janus spat. “Janus.”
“Um,” Pat said, eyes alight with amusement. The bastard. “Those are the same words.”
“No, they’re not. It’s Janus. J-A-N-U.-S.”
“Well, that’s confusing,” Pat said with a frown, but his nose was crinkling. “It’s close to my name. You should go by a nickname instead.”
“What?” Janus said. “No.”
Pat hummed. “How about Love Bug?”
“What! No!” Janus sputtered, almost flipping the table, as Pat winked at him.
“BB Good?”
“What does that even mean?!”
“Mandy.”
“No!”
“Okay, okay, how about Macy Misa.”
11594
Janus stared at him for a moment. “Fine. Whatever. What was I even talking about?”
“Hmm. I Believe we were talking about my name and how you think it’s not my name.”
“Right,” Janus said. “So, Nick. That was your roommate, Kevin on the phone, right? He seemed a bit unhappy with you. Any reason?”
“Nah, we’re Cool” said Pat. “That’s Just the Way We Roll.”
“Not because you’re messing up a mission right now?”
Pat’s eyes crinkled together. “A mission?” he parroted. “I’m not messing up a mission.”
“Oh, really?” Janus growled. “Because you’ve been captured by the TPI, and I know who you are and what you’ve been doing.”
“I have no idea what the TPI is,” he claimed.
“Yes, you do!” Janus said, standing up. “You obviously do! Or you wouldn’t be playing this game!”
 “Game?” Pat asked. “Macy I ask you what you’re talking about.”
“This is all just a game to you isn’t it!” Janus said, slamming his hands down on the table in front of them.
“Whoa,” Pat said, putting his hands up. “Calm down. Your face is getting all red. You must be Burnin’ Up.”
“I’m not sure what, but something about what you just said pisses me off.”
“And that is five minutes,” Khalid said, bursting into the room. He felt a tug on the back of his shirt and glared back at Remus who was putting his own body between Janus and Pat.
 “There was no way that was five minutes,” Janus growled.
“It was five minutes,” Khalid gritted out. “Remus, get him out of here.”
“Come on Jay,” Remus said, dragging him back towards the door.
“Remus, I swear to god.”
“Just chill, Janus,” Remus said, slamming the door closed behind them.
Janus shrugged him off. “You chill!” he snapped. “He’s playing you all for the fool.”
“Wow, Macy,” Remy drawled like an asshole. “I’ve never seen you so fired up.”
“Oh, my gosh. No one is going to believe me, and he’s going to get away with this.”
“You’re not really helping your case, babe,” Remy said.
 Remus grabbed him by the shoulders again. “Here, let’s go get some water.”
“I don’t want water,” he said even as he let Remus lead him to another room to get a glass of water.
“Look,” Remus said. “I know the Mask Guy thing really sucked, but you have to look at the facts.
“I am looking at the facts,” Janus insisted, “and the facts are, he’s fucking with me.”
“You don’t know what mask guy looks like,” Remus said. “You didn’t see Nick take the time bomb, he has an ID from this time period and a roommate in this time he called on the phone, and he legitimately seems to not know what any of us are talking about.”
 “Did you even listen to our conversation?” Janus asked. “He was screwing with me the entire time!”
“Janus…” Remus said.
“What?” Janus said, narrowing his eyes at Remus’s tone.
“I know you recently had a bad experience, but not everyone who flirts with you is doing it out of evil.”
Janus’s mouth hung open for a few seconds. “That’s what you got out of our conversation?”
“He called you Love Bug.”
Janus felt his face heat a bit at the reminder. “That’s not… I. I’m stealing your cat and then never speaking to you again.”
Remus laughed. “Ah,” he said. “Young lust.”
Janus elbowed him roughly in the side. “No!”
“Yes!” he crooned, pleased.
45 notes · View notes
ofstarsandvibranium · 5 years
Text
Two for One
Fandom: Marvel (Professor AU/College AU)
Pairing: Stucky x F!Reader
Summary: Ever since you became the TA for Professor Romanoff, you’ve been seeing a lot of Professors Rogers and Barnes. They seem to be attracted to you, but you have a hard time deciding between the two. What do you do?
Warning: smut - bjs, threesome, semi-public…just a whole lot of naughty mk?
A/N: based off of this post and my tags in it. also, word count is about 4.1k. so yall better appreciate this and the struggle i went through to write this (i’m looking at you @chloerinebarnes )
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Steve was sure that if Bucky bit his lip any further, he’d draw blood. He nudged his boyfriend with his elbow, gaining his attention back, “Cool it with the staring and lip biting. You’ll scare her off.”
Bucky groaned, “She’s killin’ me with those jeans, babe.”
Steve snorted, “Tell me about it,” he murmured as his eyes went back to across the lounge. You were standing off to the side, speaking with Professor Romanoff, the teacher you were a TA for. You were nodding to everything that she was listing off for you to do. After handing you a stack of papers, you saw yourself out of the lounge. Bucky and Steve’s shoulders sagged in disappointment. 
Ever since you became Professor Romanoff, aka Natasha’s, TA, Steve and Bucky have been seeing you more and more. Not that they minded. You were beautiful, funny, and smart. Honestly, you were the missing puzzle piece in their life. 
Don’t get it wrong, Steve and Bucky were completely devoted to each other. But for the past few years, they’ve been feeling like they were missing something. And they believe that something is you. 
But how does one go about proposing a polyamorous relationship? You don’t. It’s not a very common thing and it’s not accepted in a lot of places. Nonetheless, Steve and Bucky adored you from the moment they met you. 
So, they hatched a plan. They would worm their way into your heart individually and when it came to the point where you “have to choose”, they’ll give you the other option: a two for one deal. 
_________________________
You’re in the school cafe, a pile of papers off to the side that you’re making your way through. You suddenly feel a presence looming over you and you look up to see Professor Barnes. 
You give him a polite smile, “Hey there, professor! How’s it going?”
“Monday mornings were never my thing hence,” he gestured to his large coffee cup.
You snorted, “Tell me about it,” you pointed to your own, “This is my third one already.”
“Mind if I sit?” he points to the seat across from you.
You shook your head, “Not at all!” you move your things around to give him a little bit more space, “Enjoy your weekend?”
He shrugged, “Just stayed home, watched some Netflix, graded papers. The usual.”
You nodded, “That’s become my usual now too. Although, yesterday my friends Pietro and Wanda dragged me out of the apartment to go to a bar. Gonna be honest, had a bit too much.”
“That explains the coffee and you still grading papers that are probably due today.”
You sighed, “Yeeeaahhh. Never listening to the twins again,” you said with a snort. 
“I wish I could help. Russian Literature was my minor. But I’m sure if Nat found out, she’d have both our heads.”
“Definitely. Romanoff’s great, but, damn, does she terrify me!”
Barnes snorted, “Same here.” he stood up and grabbed his coffee, “Well, I’ll let you get to it. Good luck.”
“Thanks, Professor Barnes!”
He smiled down at you, and with a wink, he said, “Call me Bucky,” and he waltzed out of the cafe like it was nothing. And you hated to admit that that little gesture made your cheeks heat up and make your panties slightly damp.
___________________
You were struggling with holding the pile of graded papers in your arms and trying to get your notebook out for Romanoff’s class. Just when you thought you had it, all the papers tumbled forward onto the ground. You groaned and hung your head back, staring up at the sky asking, “Why me?”
You bent down and began to collect the papers, and then another pair of hands came into view. You tried to object, “It’s okay! I got-” when you looked up, staring back at you was he striking blue eyes of Professor Rogers, “I-I got it, Professor Rogers,” you stammered as you quickly collected the essays.
“It’s alright. I don’t mind helping,” he said with a shy smile, grabbing the leftover papers and handing them to you. You both stood up and awkwardly stood there, “So, uh, headed to Nat’s-I mean, Romanoff’s office?”
You nodded, “Yeah. Gotta turn in all these papers I graded.” you gestured to the pile that was back in your hands. 
“Oh, well, my office is in the same direction. I’ll accompany you.”
You two walked together, towards the Literature and History building, “So, uh, how was your weekend?”
“Oh, uh, pretty bland, honestly. Just hanging out and grading papers. What about you? Did you spend your weekend grading all of these?” he points to your pile.
“Sorta,” you answered, “I got most of them done. Then I went out last night. Got drunk and never finished the rest. I just finished up in the cafe. Professor Barnes was actually there too. Surprised you weren’t with him. You two are usually attached to the hip,” you say teasingly.
Rogers snorted, “Please, I couldn’t shake ‘im even if I tried. We actually live together. We see a lot of each other and you would think we’d get sick of each other. But we don’t.”
“That’s good. I love Pietro and Wanda, but, God, I don’t think I can spend every second of the day with them.”
He chuckled, “Guess you just gotta find the right people that’ll make you want to see them all the time.”
Soon enough, you were in the building, standing in front of Professor Romanoff’s office, “Well, here’s my stop,” you say.
“Yeah. Anyway, I hope you have a good rest of your day, Y/N.”
“Thanks, Professor Rogers. You too!”
“Please, call me, Steve,” he says with a grin and then turns around, heading for his office in the other direction.
___________________
Bucky is eating lunch in Steve’s office. Steve is typing away at his computer, occasionally pausing when Bucky feeds him a forkful of penne pasta into his mouth. 
“So, progress?” Bucky asks, his own mouth full of pasta. 
Steve chews a few more times before swallowing. He takes off his glasses and sets them onto his desk, “Told her to call me Steve after I helped pick up her papers that she dropped and accompanied her on the way to Nat’s office. She said she came from the cafe and you were there?”
Bucky nodded, “Yeah. Grabbed some coffee, sat with her and chatted a little bit. When I left, I told her to call me Bucky. You still think we should do this?”
“I really like her, Buck. I just-don’t you feel it? That spark with her?” when Bucky nodded, Steve continued, “Then can you imagine how it would be if all of us were together?”
“It’d be like nothing we’ve ever felt before,” Bucky murmured.
“Exactly. We gotta try, but we can’t be too overbearing. She’s gotta be the one.”
Bucky set down his tupperware of pasta and rest his hand on Steve’s, “She’s out missing puzzle piece.”
___________________
You sat in the lounge next to Professor Romanoff, or Nat, as she’s allowed you to call her. You’re both going over test grades and that’s when you hear the screeching of wood against the floor and then you look up to see Bucky and Steve settling across the table from you.
Your eyes brighten and a smile appears on your face, “Hey, Bucky! Hey, Steve!”
Big grins appear on their faces when you acknowledge, “Hey, doll,” Bucky says, and you feel your cheeks heating up. 
You duck your head down, biting your lip and continuing to grade papers. You hoped that Nat ignored that interaction, but she didn’t. While you continued to grade papers, Nat gave questioning looks to the professors across from her. Both gave her shrugs and pulled out their own work that needed to be done. 
Words started to blur as your eyes skimmed through another test, your red pen marking wrong answers. You could feel yourself getting a headache so you groaned and fell back into your seat, “I need a break. I’m gonna walk to the cafe. Do you guys want anything?” Nat and Bucky shook their head but Steve stood up.
“I’ll go with you. I think I need to stretch my legs anyway.” he turns to Bucky and gives him a nod, and then follows you out of the lounge. After you both leave, Nat turns to Bucky.
“What the hell are you guys up to?”
“Steve and I both like Y/N, so we’re trying to ease our way into her heart and possibly propose a poly relationship.”
Nat groaned, “Jesus Christ. You know what happened the last time you tried that. You and Steve ended up heartbroken and nearly broke up because of it.”
“Dot wasn’t right for us,” Bucky said with a shake of his head, “But Y/N’s different. You know she is, Nat.”
“Maybe so, but then again, you hardly know her.”
“And that’s why we’re trying to spend as much time as we can to get to know her.”
Nat shook her head, “You’re playing a dangerous game. She’s a student.”
“She’s graduating this year. Once she’s graduated, then Steve and I will ask. Trust us, Nat. We learned from the last time and we know what we’re doing now.”
____________________
“So, the semester is half way over and you’ll be graduating soon. Have any plans on what to do?” Steve asked, his hands curled up in his pockets. 
“Travel. Find a job. Maybe find some love on the way. I don’t know.”
“Not looking for love right now?” he asked with a teasing smirk. 
You shrugged, “Oh trust me, I’ve been looking. Just haven’t found anyone that clicks with me, ya know? Someone funny, smart, compassionate, independent. Oh and knows how to cook. It’s surprising how many people here barely know how to cook.”
Steve snorted, “Bucky loves to cook. He cooks our meals all the time. I know how to cook too, but for Bucky, it’s his stress reliever. He’s in his element when he cooks, plus everything is delicious when he makes it.”
“I’d love to try something other than ramen and burgers.”
“I’ll bring you some tomorrow. Buck loves to cook for other people so it won’t be a problem.”
You shook your head, “I can’t ask you guys to do that. You don’t have-”
“You’re not askin’, sweetheart. Plus, we want to do this. Trust me.”
You sighed, “Fine.”
Steve was beaming right then and there, “Great. Do you have any food preferences?”
“Surprise me.”
_____________________
It became a regular thing after that. You and Nat would be in the lounge going over lecture notes or grading papers. Steve and Bucky would appear and slide over some tupperware for lunch that Bucky had prepared for you. At one point, they started bringing some food for Nat too since she complained about them not bringing food for her. Plus, they didn’t want to seem too suspicious. 
As the semester progressed, you found yourself in the company of Steve and Bucky often. Sometimes it was both of them, sometimes it was one or the other. You’d have lunch with them, walk with them to class or the office building. Relax under some trees while you graded papers. You also ended up getting both of their numbers and all three of you would be in a group chat texting away or texting to either men individually. 
You were around them a lot and you couldn’t help the feelings you were starting to develop for both them. It was conflicting. Very much so. You were a student and they were professors. 
It was a month before the semester ended, before you graduated, and you’d had enough. Enough of the feelings and the confusion. It had to stop!
So you burst into Bucky’s office where you knew both men would be. As soon as you step into the room, you freeze. There right before was Steve and Bucky, but they were tangled up in each other, making out. 
“I’m so confused,” you murmured as they stared at you wide-eyed. 
“Doll, I-we-”
“I-I should go. Sorry. I didn’t-I’m gonna-” 
You turn to leave but Steve cried outs, “Y/N, wait!” and you stop. You look at them and they’re staring at you with pleading eyes, “Sweetheart, please, don’t leave. Just-Just close the door and we’ll explain everything.”
Slowly, you move back inside, closing the door behind you. You sit at the chair across from Bucky’s desk. Bucky sits back down into his seat and Steve stands off to the side, running his hand through his disheveled hair. 
“Are-Are you guys together?” you ask apprehensively. When both men nod, you let out a shaky breath, “I-I don’t understand. Both of you made it seem like you were interested in me. Were you just toying with me? Is that it?!”
“No!” both said unison. 
Steve cleared his throat, “It’s nothin’ like that, Y/N. We swear. We-Bucky and I, we’ve been together for a long time. We love each other a lot, but-”
Bucky interjected, “But we feel like we’ve been missing something. And we think that something is you.”
You became even more confused, “But you’re together already. How would that even work?”
“A polyamorous relationship. The three of us can be together. Bucky and I have strong feelings for you, Y/N.”
You shook your head, “This can’t happen,” and suddenly, it felt like Bucky and Steve’s hearts were breaking all over again, but then you continued, “I’m still a student and you’re professors. If this got out, I’d be expelled and you two would be fired. I-” you take a moment to let out a deep breath, “It’s funny. I was coming here to tell you that I can’t choose between you two. I have feelings for both of you, so I was just-I don’t know-take myself out of the equation.”
“But you don’t have to, doll,” Bucky says with a hopeful gaze.
Steve rest his hand on Bucky’s shoulder to prevent him from getting ahead of yourself, “But we understand your reasoning why you don’t want to be with us.”
“I didn’t say I don’t want to be with you. I said I can’t right now.” that made both men’s ears perk, “I’m graduating next month. We can put all of this on hold for now and once I’m outta here then...”
“We can wait!” Bucky said all too enthusiastically, which made Steve chuckle.
Steve’s hand moved from Bucky’s shoulder, down his arm and to his hand where they laced fingers, “We’re willing to wait for you, sweetheart. You’re worth it.”
You moved around the desk and to the two men, grabbing each of their hands in yours, “Thank you. You guys mean a lot to me,” you leaned in and pecked the cheeks of each men, “I’ll see you guys soon,” and then you were out of Bucky’s office. The end of next month couldn’t come any sooner. 
__________________
“Y/N L/N!” your name was called as you walked across the stage, shaking the dean’s hand, and accepting your diploma. Cheers from your loved ones and peers brought a huge smile to your face. You walked down the steps dancing on your way back to your seat, your classmates buzzing all around you. 
After everyone’s name was called, the dean stood up the podium to give final remarks and the changing of the tassels, “Now, everyone, I present to you the Class of 2020!” everyone cheered as caps went flying into the air. You hugged the people around you, and waited for your family and friends to meet you on the field. In the meantime..
“I’M SO PROUD OF YOU!” Bucky cried out as he gave you a big ol’ hug. Steve stood behind him, holding a bouquet of your favorite flowers. 
“Congrats, Y/N,” Steve gave you a hug, nothing to make anyone suspicious.
You were beaming at them, “Thanks you guys. I can’t believe it. I graduated!”
Bucky was ready to ask you out right then and there, but stopped when he saw your family approaching. He and Steve stepped aside to allow you some time with your loved ones. They mouthed, “See you later,” and both walked away to congratulate other students. 
You watched as they departed. A part of you wanted to chase after them and kiss them both then and there, but that would stir something up and you didn’t want any trouble on this momentous day. Soon, Y/N. Soon. 
The day after graduation was when you were to pick up your official diploma. You knew from the group chat that Steve and Bucky would be on campus, due to finishing up finals. And after you picked up your diploma, you wanted to go see them. 
With diploma in hand, you approached the office building, sending off texts to the men:
You: whatcha up to?
Bucky: grading finals in Steve’s office
You: can I stop by?
Steve: of course ;)
Bucky: BRING COFFEE!
You giggled, knowing how predictable Bucky was, two cups of coffee with you already. You approached Steve’s office, knocking on the slightly ajar door, “May I enter?”
The door swung wide open, and Bucky immediately pulled you inside, closing and locking the door behind you. You snorted, “Wow, eager mu-mmf!” you couldn’t finish the teasing retory as a pair of lips matched up with yours, hands cupping your face. 
You heard a chuckle from behind you, “Buck, careful, you’re gonna make her spill the coffee she got for us.” He went over and grabbed the coffee tray from your hands.
You pulled away, mumbling, “Thank you,” to him and then looking back at Bucky who sported a dopey grin on his face, “How long were you waiting to do that?”
“So fucking long,” he mumbled, pressing his lips to yours once more, but it was brief since you pulled away.
“Hey now, two kisses and Steve hasn’t even gotten any from me yet. You’re starting to get greedy, mister.”
Bucky’s cheeks flushed and he ducked his head down shyly, “Sorry, doll,” he then moved aside for Steve. 
Steve pulled you in, wrapping an arm around you and slowly leaning in. His lips were hovering over yours and right as you were about to tell him to hurry up, his lips met yours in a passionate kiss. His fingers dug into your skin as he held onto you for dear life. For so long him and Bucky have wanted you like this and he feels like if he lets go, if he pulls away, it’ll all be a dream. 
Steve began to walk you backwards until your backside hit the edge of his desk. You pulled away to look at the two men, whose soft gazes faded and turned into lustful ones. 
You smirked, “I’ve always fantasized about being fucked on a desk.”
Both men growled as they started to undo their pants. Steve pressed you up against the desk, kissing you heatedly, while Bucky began to remove things from the surface. You hopped onto it after receiving the okay from Bucky. Steve worked on getting your jeans off while Bucky pulled of your shirt. Clothes flew around the room with no care where they landed. 
“Ah fuck, baby doll. You’re so fucking gorgeous,” Bucky moaned, his hand slowly pumping his cock and the other kneading your breast. 
You laid across the surface, opening your mouth, welcoming Bucky’s length. You both moaned when his dick entered your mouth. Bucky thrust his hips back and forth, loving how you looked taking his cock. 
Meanwhile, Steve was paying special attention to your pussy. He licked a strip up your slit, tongue circling around your clit. When you moaned a little too loud, Steve pulled away, “Quiet now, honey. Someone might here your pretty little noises and those are for our ears only.”
Bucky pulled out of your mouth for you to reply, “Sorry, Steve.”
“How wet is she, Stevie?” Bucky asked through his panting.
Steve licked his lips, “So fucking wet and she’s so sweet,” he murmured before slurping up some of your juices. 
Bucky whined, “Lemme taste.” Steve then stood up and leaned over the desk, pulling Bucky towards him, Lips smashing against lips. You wished you could’ve seen the two men swapping your taste, but the view was blocked by Bucky’s body leaning over yours. 
When they pulled away Steve cleared his throat, looking from you to Bucky, “So, how’s this gonna go: i fuck her pussy while you get her mouth, or vice versa?”
You shook your head, “No, I wanna feel you both at the same time.”
Both men moaned at the thought of both of their cocks filling you up to the brim. Steve nodded, “Very well. Bucky, on the table. Sweetheart, straddle Bucky.” Both you and Bucky did as you were told while Steve pulled out a bottle of lube from a drawer. 
You gave him a questioning look and Bucky chuckled, “This isn’t the first time we’ve fucked in this office, doll.” And just the image of Bucky and Steve fucking in this office made you even more wet than before. 
Steve, with his cock lubed up, knelt behind you and in-between Bucky’s legs, “You ready for us, babygirl?”
“I’ve literally been waiting all semester for this, Steve. Now hurry up and fuck me.”
Both men snickered at your haste, “Gotta give our girl what she wants,” Bucky mumbled as he lined himself up with you and you lowered yourself onto him. Steve was right behind you, pushing you forward and slowly easing himself into not wanting to hurt you. Moments pass they’re both inside you and, holy shit, this is something you’ve never felt before.
Both men stay still as they let you set the pace. You rock your body back and forth, allowing both cocks to drag themselves in and out of you. Seriously, the feeling was something unworldly. What made it ever better was Bucky’s lips on your chest and Steve’s hand working your clit. These men both knew what they were doing. 
“So fucking sexy, sweetheart, taking our cocks at the same time,” Steve murmured into your neck, “You love this, don’t you? Love being filled to the brim.”
Bucky bit at your skin, making you hiss, to which he mumbled, “Answer him, babydoll.”
“Yes, Steve. Love your cocks filling me whole,” you gasped when Bucky’s cock just hit that spot that made you shudder. With the way things were going, you knew you were gonna be cumming soon. 
“Wanna make a mess outta you, sweetheart,” Bucky whispered, lips still wandering over your neck and chest, “Wanna fill you with our cum, paint you with it. Mark you as ours.”
“I’m yours,” you panted out, “I’m all yours,” you moved your body faster, desperate for your release. 
“Go ahead, baby, cum on our cocks. We wanna feel ya,” Steve mumbled in your ear, his hand working faster on your clit. You dug your nails into Bucky’s chest, a pain he happily welcomed. 
“Come on, baby. Give it us. You can do it,” Bucky encouraged you, slapping your ass and kneading the flesh. 
“Fuck, fuck,” you said through gritted teeth. A powerful wave of pleasure washed over you as leaned down, resting your head against Bucky’s while you came.
“So pretty when you cum,” he whispered.
“Such a good girl,” Steve murmured, kissing your back and shoulders. You moved a bit and felt something wet. You sat up and looked down to see that you just squirted all over you and Bucky.
“Oh shit. I’ve never done that before,” you murmured.
Bucky snickered, “First time for everything,” he said with a wink. 
You then moved off his lap, “Well, lemme clean this up for you since it is my mess.” Both men hissed when your hands wrapped around both their lengths, your mouth gliding over Bucky’s stomach and pelvis, collecting your own juices. 
“Oh my God, you’re perfect,” he moaned, his hand grabbing your head and trying to push it towards his cock.
You slapped his hand away, “I already sucked you off, babe. Now it’s Steve’s turn,” you said with a smirk. You gave a wink to the blonde as your mouth lowered onto his dick. Bucky was right, you are perfect. And you’re theirs. All theirs.
2K notes · View notes
astralaffairs · 3 years
Note
do you think we could get a v2v 04 snippet 🥰🥰 im so intrigued in this fic and definitely excited to see where it goes! - 🎈
ill give u the lil opening scene for now ;) a girl’s gotta have SOME secrets (aka the draft is under major construction rn lol)
----
MUCH TO HER dismay, Y/N woke up with a splitting headache and an unimpaired memory of everything that'd happened the night prior.
She still finished grading the essays for Thomas, but she dropped them off at the faculty mailboxes that Sunday afternoon - she couldn't face him, at that point. On Monday, she gravitated back to her seat at the rear of his lecture hall. She did the same on Wednesday.
Her responses to his emails and his texts were short and to-the-point. He needed her to grade the recent papers from his International Security class? Sure, but she was busy during his office hours; any chance he could leave them in his mailbox so she could pick them up the next morning? Thanks, that'd be great. He wanted her to work with him on laying out the rubric for an essay? No problem. She'd set up a shared Google Doc right away.
It was a week after Y/N had last spoken to Thomas that Dolley was over his apartment that weekend with James. She was smug when she came home to Y/N.
"Thomas is looking for you," she said mildly, and Y/N glanced up from her laptop on the couch with a skeptical gaze.
"And what, exactly, makes you say that?"
"He asked me to tell you."
Y/N's eyebrows shot up. "Wait, seriously?"
"Mhm." Dolley's smile was self-pleased. "He was home when I was over, and he said he needed to talk to you."
"Thanks for letting me know." Y/N's voice was tense as she looked back to the paper she was writing, and Dolley took a seat beside her with a glass of water.
"Can I ask why that might be?"
"No clue."
"So are you going to talk to him?"
"I have class with him Monday. I'll see him then."
"Y/N." She gave her a deadpanned look, and Y/N looked tired when she met her eyes. "Did something happen? You haven't mentioned his name even once all this week."
"No, everything's fine," Y/N assured her, but Dolley looked less than convinced.
"Then why do you look so unhappy right now, dear?"
"What? I don't," she replied defensively, and Dolley raised a skeptical eyebrow.
"How daft do you think I am?" she asked, folding her arms after she put her glass on their coffee table. "You can deny wanting to sleep with him all you'd like, but I know how much you like Thomas. It isn't exactly subtle. So what happened with you two?"
Y/N sighed, rubbing the side of her nose. "It's not really that big of a deal. I'm probably blowing it out of proportion, but he drove me home from the party at their apartment last weekend, and..."
"And?"
"And I came onto him." She was wincing at even the memory. "I was drunk, though, and he knew that, but it was so stupid. I'm still kind of mortified, so I've been dodging his attempts to talk to me. I don't know how I'm supposed to face him."
Dolley took a deep breath, eyeing Y/N where she sat with her head in her hands, her laptop closed on her lap. "Well, he clearly wants you to talk to him, so I'm sure he didn't think it was quite so bad."
"But I'm gonna be an anxious wreck the next time I have to talk to him," she groaned.
"You're his TA and his student," Dolley pointed out. "You can't avoid him forever."
"I'm not trying to," Y/N said. "But… y'know. I can still put it off for a little while. Midterms are only a week away, and then it's spring break. If I can make it that far, I don't have to talk to him until fourth quarter."
"You're being ridiculous."
“I’m being practical,” she replied, “besides, it’s only two weeks till break. The only time I’m gonna need to talk to him is when I turn in my midterm.”
Dolley snorted. “I’d wish you luck, but this one’s a lost cause, dear.”
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pinkhairedlily · 3 years
Text
Wanting Validations
Chapter 5 of The Spring He Came Back | 5 of 12
“Momo, don’t forget your bento,” Baba called out just before Hinamori dashed towards her bicycle. She grabbed the two packed bento from her grandmother and pecked her cheek.
“I’ll try my best to give this to Hitsugaya today.” She was having trouble finding Hitsugaya without being caught by professors and other supervisors. “He’s gonna miss out on the fresh watermelon slices you packed in otherwise.”
Despite their staggered meetings, she found herself in high spirits. Dr. Aizen has continued to depend on her more, even letting her write a draft for a book section. She wasn’t sure if she had the qualifications to write such. She was only finishing her first semester, but the professor tempered her self-doubts with assurances.
“I don’t know if you ever noticed this, Hinamori. You’re a fast learner. You have the highest grades in your section, even above the upper middle-class folk,” Dr. Aizen handed her a large bulk of papers. “These are some designs I’m planning to use for my large-scale project next year. Go through them and annotate for me, would you?”
She was continuously yawning until she reached the academy. She glanced at the clock tower in the middle of the campus grounds and figured she can slip in a quick nap before her morning classes. She was busy deciphering the documents in the past few weeks to the point that she would sometimes go without sleep.
“I think I have a migraine,” Momo grumbled to herself. “Dr. Aizen should be consistent with his handwriting. The varying strokes in each document are like sending me on an acid trip.”
“What sends you into an acid trip?” Hitsugaya popped in behind her, dressed in the flashy, identifying grabs of a Soul member. He reached out to grab her arm and led her through a narrow alley between the buildings.
“Hey, good morning Shirou,” Momo said sarcastically while trying to match his steps. They arrived in front of a small almost-dilapidated room. “Are you gonna murder me?”
“Maybe, do you want me to shower you with yellow petals?” he joked. The room inside was definitely not worn down. The three Rs were there but were all asleep in bunk beds. Rukia and Renji sleeping together in the lower bunk with backs behind each other. That made Hinamori blush until she remembered Hitsugaya saying they were also childhood friends. Rangiku was passed out in the upper bunk with a subtle smell of alcohol.
“I see your nostrils twitching. Rangiku needs alcohol sometimes to power through her exams,” he gestured for me to sit on a day bed on the corner of the room.
“What is this?” Hinamori asked, feeling a little slow because she was only able to get two hours of sleep. She sat beside him and controlled the urge to close her eyes.
“It’s an escape dungeon. They think this is the sleeping quarters of the custodians, which of course is, but they rented it out to us.” Seeing Momo settled, he started to fill the nearby kettle to boil some water. “Did you get converted into a coffee addict or are you still my tea-loving friend Momo?”
“Black tea please.” Momo smiled at him. “How erratic are your schedules? Our class is about to start in one hour.”
He glanced at her, smirking. “How erratic is your schedule? Your eyebags are heavier than mine. Oh, is that a bento?”
“Baba made this. It has watermelon inside.” At such an opportune moment, Hitsugaya’s stomach grumbled. “Come on, let’s eat together like the good old days.”
She thought he was about to grab his bento box, but he reached out across her, their faces looming closer to each other. “Why don’t you sneak in some snoozes while I eat?” He was arranging the pillows behind her.
Hinamori woke up to the school bells ringing, a flurry of robes, and cacophony of curses. Slightly disoriented, she found herself waking up from Hitsugaya’s lap who was frozen red in his place, the empty bento box on the table beside him and a gray flask. How she got to that position she will never know because panic started to set in.
“Good morning, Hinamori!” Renji and Rukia both yelled before running through the door.
“Gotta go, childhood friends. Gotta thank you Histugaya. Renting this place primarily to see Hinamori and secondarily for us to rest is genius,” Rangiku said as she traipsed outside.
“Fuck,” Hitsugaya muttered under his breath, truly embarrassed. “Here’s your black tea Momo. Tell Baba her bento gave me the energy I needed.” He handed her the gray flask without meeting her eyes. “You gotta go, although your classroom’s much nearer.”
Still disoriented, she started towards the exit. Remembering a nagging question in her mind, she halted and glanced back at him, “Shirou-chan.”
“Hmm?” He still wasn’t meeting her gaze.
“How did you preserve the daffodils? It was below zero temperatures that week. Frost would have already killed them.”
This time he looked at her. “I just sprayed them with a solution I made, Momo. But I know you would have found a way to alter them naturally.”
Hitsugaya always has this weird way of validating her. His trust in her abilities has grown so much despite the time that they were apart. She wanted to honor that. “Thank you.”
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It has soon become their morning routine – Hinamori with her bento boxes that soon included the rest of the group, Hitsugaya with the black tea for her and coffee for the rest, and few minutes of snooze on the sofa slash day bed. It wasn’t as if they haven’t slept beside each other since they were kids, but the slight reprieve was something to look forward to. They would be able to slip in mundane conversations in between, but almost often Hinamori would doze off in the middle of Hitsugaya’s rants. She has fully exchanged her nights with sleepless annotations for the experiment designs. She knew Dr. Aizen was ambidextrous, but it bothered her that the blueprints and guides frequently changed handwriting styles, and the discussion structures varied. Well, it couldn’t be helped that the professor’s thoughts ran too wildly that his hands were barely able to keep up. By the end of the semester, she was able to finish the book section, submit the annotations with her own suggestions for recalibration, and top her class.
“I think it was only a matter of time, Hinamori.” Rangiku quickly stole Hitsugaya’s sandwich from his hands and sat across them in their (open) secret hideout.
“What is?” Hinamori resisted the urge to clean the room. Printouts were sprawled everywhere, coffee stains on beds and tables, and a lot of instant ramen packs. While general admission students have the benefit of semestral break, the core Soul group tended to be occupied with competitions, conferences, and exhibits abroad. Hitsugaya’s group will be traveling to Karakura next week to compete against the infamous Ishida Uryuu, a prodigy of optics in physics.
“Why don’t you make your own sandwich Rangiku?” Hitsugaya grunted as he downed the last bit of his coffee and decided to lie down on the day bed behind his childhood friend’s sitting figure. After a minute or two, he started to snore.
“Your membership to the core group, of course. Hard to miss your superb accomplishments,” Rangiku replied. “Your radiant personality is also a plus. That would make it easier to hang out with us.”
Hinamori blushed at the compliment. “Thanks, Rangiku, but I really doubt I’ll get in.” The gap in expertise and intellect between core and general admission students was assumed to be wide enough to hinder friendships between the two groups, but she never felt that way with them. Granted that she was Hitsugaya’s friend, they never reacted strongly to her addition. It was true however that there was a gap. What inherent genius they have been born with, she compensated with hard work.
“Wish us luck though. I hate to see the bastard Ichigo smirking if we fail in the exhibit.” She’d be exaggerating, but veins really started to pulse around Renji’s temples.
“Stupid, there’s no if. We won’t fail. As if I’d let Ishida rub his win over my dead body,” Rukia interjected with the intensity of her competitiveness. She turned to Hinamori with an embarrassed smile. “Well, the deliberation will probably happen over the break. With us out in Karakura, they’d probably not look much into your relationship with Hitsugaya or with us.”
“Apparently, according to the academy’s standards, friendships are not meritorious. Such a stupid rule,” Renji added. This was the reason why they avoided letting both students and professors see them together. Only Dr. Aizen knew of their friendship. He made her feel like she could trust him with her secrets.
As if Rangiku read her mind, she quipped, “You’ve been meeting Dr. Aizen lately, right Hinamori?”
“I volunteered as his research assistant. The professor has a lot of projects with the academy so I do my best to ease the load.”
“How many projects is he handling?”
“He has five large-scale projects programmed for this year.”
“And he’s doing it solo? Wow, that’s a lot of work and a lot of funding.”
“Thank God for the investors, I guess.”
“If you get accepted as a core member, he would lose a great RA,” Renji assured her. A big question mark was probably on her face because he immediately expounded his statement. “Core members are expected to complete projects on their specialization. If you’re as genius as the midget sleeping over there or Rukia’s brother, you can complete as many as you like. But most of the time, we work in groups like how professors work together too.”
Rukia aided him, “What Renji is trying to say, you won’t have the time to help Dr. Aizen anymore.”
A foreign feeling crept along her insides. Over the years, she has mastered the act of hiding her emotions with a nonchalant smile, and she did this now to brush off three pairs of probing eyes. Confusing emotions from the conversation accompanied her to the semestral break party organized by her section. Balloons and streamers decorated the interior of their go-to ramen house. The owner, enamored with the boisterous students, provided free-flowing broth and discounted noodles refill. Several of her classmates tapped her on the shoulder and congratulated her for landing on the top.
In the midst of jovial cacophony, she felt untethered. Needing the space to rationalize her thoughts, she quietly slipped out of the party and traced her steps back to the academy. She was floating in-between circles, trying to walk beside her friend and at the same time, trying to make sense of who she was and what she wanted to be. Her memories brought her back to her first conversation with Dr. Aizen where she truly felt seen and needed.
But she was spending her days playing catch up to someone who doesn’t need her. Did she really want to join the core group to realize her dreams or did she want to join simply because of Toshirou? She found herself in front of Dr. Aizen’s office. “Professor.”
The door opened, revealing a disheveled glass-less Aizen. His furrowed brows immediately softened when he saw her. “Hinamori, come in.”
Hinamori hesitated because she didn’t know why she went to his office in the first place and what she wanted to talk about. But she stepped in anyway without further prodding, afraid to disappoint him. “Professor, I-“
“I saw your annotations, and I appreciated the suggestions for calibrations. You made my job much easier, Hinamori. You brought these projects closer to completion at a much earlier date.” He brushed his fingers through his brown hair and sighed contentedly. “But I need you to do one more thing for me. It’s very urgent, and only you can do it.”
Warmth coursed through her body. He trusted her well enough to do this. “Anything for you, Dr. Aizen.”
He quickly scribbled something on a piece of paper and handed it to her. It was a description of a notebook– plain black cover, velvet finish, coffee-stained surfaces, and the first few pages ripped out. “It’s my long-lost notebook. I’ve searched everywhere, but I cannot find it. Maybe you can look through the libraries.”
“It will be difficult, Professor, given the broad description, but I will not let you down.”
“Of course, Hinamori. I know you too well already. You exceed my expectations. Do find it quickly for our funders. They are expecting me to complete the study over the break.”
“Over the break! That’s short notice, Dr. Aizen. You need to rest!” she complained. Embarrassed of her outburst, she covered her face with her small hands, flushing red at her visible concern towards her mentor. “I mean, please think of your health Sir.”
The brown-haired doctor looked at her incredulously and placed his hands on her shoulders. “I really lucked out with you, Hinamori. Why are you here again? Do you need to tell me something?”
She peeked at him through her fingers but found she can’t return his steady gaze. Straying her eyes to the floor, she requested, “Please deny my membership to the core group, Sir. I want to stay by your side more.” All of her senses were overwhelming her because of his close proximity and the comfortable weight of his large hands on her shoulders. Her emotions may have gone into override when he pulled her into a hug.
“Of course, Hinamori. You’re my one and only precious research assistant.”
She found the notebook the following day in the same library where she and Hitsugaya used to go, conveniently so as it was positioned beside her most borrowed ecology book. It was a tattered piece of document, but the experiment design and the parameters set were the first of their kind. She brought it immediately to Dr. Aizen and suggested to patent it. “You could name the methodology after you, Professor. Or better if it’s a theory – Aizen Laws on Ecological Succession or something.”
“Aren’t you a doll? You always say the most interesting things.”
With the set deadline for this particular study, Hinamori agreed to accompany the professor in a fieldwork on a mountain outside of town for a week. She would be back in time for Baba’s birthday.
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She didn’t make it back in time. She got stuck with Dr. Aizen for two weeks in the mountain because he needed to repeat his sampling, not that she regretted it. Baba will understand. I expect she’ll be angry for a few days, but I’ll make it up to her. I just missed one birthday after all.
What she didn’t expect was Hitsugaya standing guard under the camphor tree, worried, angry, and defiant at the same time.
“Where the fuck did you go, Momo?”
NEXT CHAPTER | 6 OF 12 | IN RETROSPECT
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