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mostlysignssomeportents · 1 year

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Tiktok's enshittification

Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

I call this enshittification, and it is a seemingly inevitable consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a “two sided market,” where a platform sits between buyers and sellers, hold each hostage to the other, raking off an ever-larger share of the value that passes between them.

When a platform starts, it needs users, so it makes itself valuable to users. Think of Amazon: for many years, it operated at a loss, using its access to the capital markets to subsidize everything you bought. It sold goods below cost and shipped them below cost. It operated a clean and useful search. If you searched for a product, Amazon tried its damndest to put it at the top of the search results.

This was a hell of a good deal for Amazon’s customers. Lots of us piled in, and lots of brick-and-mortar retailers withered and died, making it hard to go elsewhere. Amazon sold us ebooks and audiobooks that were permanently locked to its platform with DRM, so that every dollar we spent on media was a dollar we’d have to give up if we deleted Amazon and its apps. And Amazon sold us Prime, getting us to pre-pay for a year’s worth of shipping. Prime customers start their shopping on Amazon, and 90% of the time, they don’t search anywhere else.

That tempted in lots of business customers — Marketplace sellers who turned Amazon into the “everything store” it had promised from the beginning. As these sellers piled in, Amazon shifted to subsidizing suppliers. Kindle and Audible creators got generous packages. Marketplace sellers reached huge audiences and Amazon took low commissions from them.

This strategy meant that it became progressively harder for shoppers to find things anywhere except Amazon, which meant that they only searched on Amazon, which meant that sellers had to sell on Amazon.

That’s when Amazon started to harvest the surplus from its business customers and send it to Amazon’s shareholders. Today, Marketplace sellers are handing 45%+ of the sale price to Amazon in junk fees. The company’s $31b “advertising” program is really a payola scheme that pits sellers against each other, forcing them to bid on the chance to be at the top of your search.

Searching Amazon doesn’t produce a list of the products that most closely match your search, it brings up a list of products whose sellers have paid the most to be at the top of that search. Those fees are built into the cost you pay for the product, and Amazon’s “Most Favored Nation” requirement sellers means that they can’t sell more cheaply elsewhere, so Amazon has driven prices at every retailer.

Search Amazon for “cat beds” and the entire first screen is ads, including ads for products Amazon cloned from its own sellers, putting them out of business (third parties have to pay 45% in junk fees to Amazon, but Amazon doesn’t charge itself these fees). All told, the first five screens of results for “cat bed” are 50% ads.

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/28/enshittification/#relentless-payola

This is enshittification: surpluses are first directed to users; then, once they’re locked in, surpluses go to suppliers; then once they’re locked in, the surplus is handed to shareholders and the platform becomes a useless pile of shit. From mobile app stores to Steam, from Facebook to Twitter, this is the enshittification lifecycle.

This is why — as Cat Valente wrote in her magesterial pre-Christmas essay — platforms like Prodigy transformed themselves overnight, from a place where you went for social connection to a place where you were expected to “stop talking to each other and start buying things”:

https://catvalente.substack.com/p/stop-talking-to-each-other-and-start

This shell-game with surpluses is what happened to Facebook. First, Facebook was good to you: it showed you the things the people you loved and cared about had to say. This created a kind of mutual hostage-taking: once a critical mass of people you cared about were on Facebook, it became effectively impossible to leave, because you’d have to convince all of them to leave too, and agree on where to go. You may love your friends, but half the time you can’t agree on what movie to see and where to go for dinner. Forget it.

Then, it started to cram your feed full of posts from accounts you didn’t follow. At first, it was media companies, who Facebook preferentially crammed down its users’ throats so that they would click on articles and send traffic to newspapers, magazines and blogs.

Then, once those publications were dependent on Facebook for their traffic, it dialed down their traffic. First, it choked off traffic to publications that used Facebook to run excerpts with links to their own sites, as a way of driving publications into supplying fulltext feeds inside Facebook’s walled garden.

This made publications truly dependent on Facebook — their readers no longer visited the publications’ websites, they just tuned into them on Facebook. The publications were hostage to those readers, who were hostage to each other. Facebook stopped showing readers the articles publications ran, tuning The Algorithm to suppress posts from publications unless they paid to “boost” their articles to the readers who had explicitly subscribed to them and asked Facebook to put them in their feeds.

Now, Facebook started to cram more ads into the feed, mixing payola from people you wanted to hear from with payola from strangers who wanted to commandeer your eyeballs. It gave those advertisers a great deal, charging a pittance to target their ads based on the dossiers of nonconsensually harvested personal data they’d stolen from you.

Sellers became dependent on Facebook, too, unable to carry on business without access to those targeted pitches. That was Facebook’s cue to jack up ad prices, stop worrying so much about ad fraud, and to collude with Google to rig the ad market through an illegal program called Jedi Blue:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedi_Blue

Today, Facebook is terminally enshittified, a terrible place to be whether you’re a user, a media company, or an advertiser. It’s a company that deliberately demolished a huge fraction of the publishers it relied on, defrauding them into a “pivot to video” based on false claims of the popularity of video among Facebook users. Companies threw billions into the pivot, but the viewers never materialized, and media outlets folded in droves:

https://slate.com/technology/2018/10/facebook-online-video-pivot-metrics-false.html

But Facebook has a new pitch. It claims to be called Meta, and it has demanded that we live out the rest of our days as legless, sexless, heavily surveilled low-poly cartoon characters.

It has promised companies that make apps for this metaverse that it won’t rug them the way it did the publishers on the old Facebook. It remains to be seen whether they’ll get any takers. As Mark Zuckerberg once candidly confessed to a peer, marvelling at all of his fellow Harvard students who sent their personal information to his new website “TheFacebook”:

> I don’t know why.

> They “trust me”

> Dumb fucks.

https://doctorow.medium.com/metaverse-means-pivot-to-video-adbe09319038

Once you understand the enshittification pattern, a lot of the platform mysteries solve themselves. Think of the SEO market, or the whole energetic world of online creators who spend endless hours engaged in useless platform Kremlinology, hoping to locate the algorithmic tripwires, which, if crossed, doom the creative works they pour their money, time and energy into:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/11/coercion-v-cooperation/#the-machine-is-listening

Working for the platform can be like working for a boss who takes money out of every paycheck for all the rules you broke, but who won’t tell you what those rules are because if he told you that, then you’d figure out how to break those rules without him noticing and docking your pay. Content moderation is the only domain where security through obscurity is considered a best practice:

https://doctorow.medium.com/como-is-infosec-307f87004563

The situation is so dire that organizations like Tracking Exposed have enlisted an human army of volunteers and a robot army of headless browsers to try to unwind the logic behind the arbitrary machine judgments of The Algorithm, both to give users the option to tune the recommendations they receive, and to help creators avoid the wage theft that comes from being shadow banned:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/05/tracking-exposed-demanding-gods-explain-themselves

But what if there is no underlying logic? Or, more to the point, what if the logic shifts based on the platform’s priorities? If you go down to the midway at your county fair, you’ll spot some poor sucker walking around all day with a giant teddy bear that they won by throwing three balls in a peach basket.

The peach-basket is a rigged game. The carny can use a hidden switch to force the balls to bounce out of the basket. No one wins a giant teddy bear unless the carny wants them to win it. Why did the carny let the sucker win the giant teddy bear? So that he’d carry it around all day, convincing other suckers to put down five bucks for their chance to win one:

https://boingboing.net/2006/08/27/rigged-carny-game.html

The carny allocated a giant teddy bear to that poor sucker the way that platforms allocate surpluses to key performers — as a convincer in a “Big Store” con, a way to rope in other suckers who’ll make content for the platform, anchoring themselves and their audiences to it.

Which brings me to Tiktok. Tiktok is many different things, including “a free Adobe Premiere for teenagers that live on their phones.”

https://www.garbageday.email/p/the-fragments-of-media-you-consume

But what made it such a success early on was the power of its recommendation system. From the start, Tiktok was really, really good at recommending things to its users. Eerily good:

https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1093882880

By making good-faith recommendations of things it thought its users would like, Tiktok built a mass audience, larger than many thought possible, given the death grip of its competitors, like Youtube and Instagram. Now that Tiktok has the audience, it is consolidating its gains and seeking to lure away the media companies and creators who are still stubbornly attached to Youtube and Insta.

Yesterday, Forbes’s Emily Baker-White broke a fantastic story about how that actually works inside of Bytedance, Tiktok’s parent company, citing multiple internal sources, revealing the existence of a “heating tool” that Tiktok employees use push videos from select accounts into millions of viewers’ feeds:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilybaker-white/2023/01/20/tiktoks-secret-heating-button-can-make-anyone-go-viral/

These videos go into Tiktok users’ ForYou feeds, which Tiktok misleadingly describes as being populated by videos “ranked by an algorithm that predicts your interests based on your behavior in the app.” In reality, For You is only sometimes composed of videos that Tiktok thinks will add value to your experience — the rest of the time, it’s full of videos that Tiktok has inserted in order to make creators think that Tiktok is a great place to reach an audience.

“Sources told Forbes that TikTok has often used heating to court influencers and brands, enticing them into partnerships by inflating their videos’ view count. This suggests that heating has potentially benefitted some influencers and brands — those with whom TikTok has sought business relationships — at the expense of others with whom it has not.”

In other words, Tiktok is handing out giant teddy bears.

But Tiktok is not in the business of giving away giant teddy bears. Tiktok, for all that its origins are in the quasi-capitalist Chinese economy, is just another paperclip-maximizing artificial colony organism that treats human beings as inconvenient gut flora. Tiktok is only going to funnel free attention to the people it wants to entrap until they are entrapped, then it will withdraw that attention and begin to monetize it.

“Monetize” is a terrible word that tacitly admits that there is no such thing as an “Attention Economy.” You can’t use attention as a medium of exchange. You can’t use it as a store of value. You can’t use it as a unit of account. Attention is like cryptocurrency: a worthless token that is only valuable to the extent that you can trick or coerce someone into parting with “fiat” currency in exchange for it. You have to “monetize” it — that is, you have to exchange the fake money for real money.

In the case of cryptos, the main monetization strategy was deception-based. Exchanges and “projects” handed out a bunch of giant teddy-bears, creating an army of true-believer Judas goats who convinced their peers to hand the carny their money and try to get some balls into the peach-basket themselves.

But deception only produces so much “liquidity provision.” Eventually, you run out of suckers. To get lots of people to try the ball-toss, you need coercion, not persuasion. Think of how US companies ended the defined benefits pension that guaranteed you a dignified retirement, replacing it with market-based 401(k) pensions that forced you to gamble your savings in a rigged casino, making you the sucker at the table, ripe for the picking:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/25/derechos-humanos/#are-there-no-poorhouses

Early crypto liquidity came from ransomware. The existence of a pool of desperate, panicked companies and individuals whose data had been stolen by criminals created a baseline of crypto liquidity because they could only get their data back by trading real money for fake crypto money.

The next phase of crypto coercion was Web3: converting the web into a series of tollbooths that you could only pass through by trading real money for fake crypto money. The internet is a must-have, not a nice-to-have, a prerequisite for full participation in employment, education, family life, health, politics, civics, even romance. By holding all those things to ransom behind crypto tollbooths, the hodlers hoped to convert their tokens to real money:

https://locusmag.com/2022/09/cory-doctorow-moneylike/

For Tiktok, handing out free teddy-bears by “heating” the videos posted by skeptical performers and media companies is a way to convert them to true believers, getting them to push all their chips into the middle of the table, abandoning their efforts to build audiences on other platforms (it helps that Tiktok’s format is distinctive, making it hard to repurpose videos for Tiktok to circulate on rival platforms).

Once those performers and media companies are hooked, the next phase will begin: Tiktok will withdraw the “heating” that sticks their videos in front of people who never heard of them and haven’t asked to see their videos. Tiktok is performing a delicate dance here: there’s only so much enshittification they can visit upon their users’ feeds, and Tiktok has lots of other performers they want to give giant teddy-bears to.

Tiktok won’t just starve performers of the “free” attention by depreferencing them in the algorithm, it will actively punish them by failing to deliver their videos to the users who subscribed to them. After all, every time Tiktok shows you a video you asked to see, it loses a chance to show you a video it wants you to see, because your attention is a giant teddy-bear it can give away to a performer it is wooing.

This is just what Twitter has done as part of its march to enshittification: thanks to its “monetization” changes, the majority of people who follow you will never see the things you post. I have ~500k followers on Twitter and my threads used to routinely get hundreds of thousands or even millions of reads. Today, it’s hundreds, perhaps thousands.

I just handed Twitter $8 for Twitter Blue, because the company has strongly implied that it will only show the things I post to the people who asked to see them if I pay ransom money. This is the latest battle in one of the internet’s longest-simmering wars: the fight over end-to-end:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/10/e2e/#the-censors-pen

In the beginning, there were Bellheads and Netheads. The Bellheads worked for big telcos, and they believed that all the value of the network rightly belonged to the carrier. If someone invented a new feature — say, Caller ID — it should only be rolled out in a way that allows the carrier to charge you every month for its use. This is Software-As-a-Service, Ma Bell style.

The Netheads, by contrast, believed that value should move to the edges of the network — spread out, pluralized. In theory, Compuserve could have “monetized” its own version of Caller ID by making you pay $2.99 extra to see the “From:” line on email before you opened the message — charging you to know who was speaking before you started listening — but they didn’t.

The Netheads wanted to build diverse networks with lots of offers, lots of competition, and easy, low-cost switching between competitors (thanks to interoperability). Some wanted this because they believed that the net would someday be woven into the world, and they didn’t want to live in a world of rent-seeking landlords. Others were true believers in market competition as a source of innovation. Some believed both things. Either way, they saw the risk of network capture, the drive to monetization through trickery and coercion, and they wanted to head it off.

They conceived of the end-to-end principle: the idea that networks should be designed so that willing speakers’ messages would be delivered to willing listeners’ end-points as quickly and reliably as they could be. That is, irrespective of whether a network operator could make money by sending you the data it wanted to receive, its duty would be to provide you with the data you wanted to see.

The end-to-end principle is dead at the service level today. Useful idiots on the right were tricked into thinking that the risk of Twitter mismanagement was “woke shadowbanning,” whereby the things you said wouldn’t reach the people who asked to hear them because Twitter’s deep state didn’t like your opinions. The real risk, of course, is that the things you say won’t reach the people who asked to hear them because Twitter can make more money by enshittifying their feeds and charging you ransom for the privilege to be included in them.

As I said at the start of this essay, enshittification exerts a nearly irresistible gravity on platform capitalism. It’s just too easy to turn the enshittification dial up to eleven. Twitter was able to fire the majority of its skilled staff and still crank the dial all the way over, even with a skeleton crew of desperate, demoralized H1B workers who are shackled to Twitter’s sinking ship by the threat of deportation.

The temptation to enshittify is magnified by the blocks on interoperability: when Twitter bans interoperable clients, nerfs its APIs, and periodically terrorizes its users by suspending them for including their Mastodon handles in their bios, it makes it harder to leave Twitter, and thus increases the amount of enshittification users can be force-fed without risking their departure.

Twitter is not going to be a “protocol.” I’ll bet you a testicle¹ that projects like Bluesky will find no meaningful purchase on the platform, because if Bluesky were implemented and Twitter users could order their feeds for minimal enshittification and leave the service without sacrificing their social networks, it would kill the majority of Twitter’s “monetization” strategies.

¹Not one of mine.

An enshittification strategy only succeeds if it is pursued in measured amounts. Even the most locked-in user eventually reaches a breaking-point and walks away, or gets pushed. The villagers of Anatevka in Fiddler on the Roof tolerated the cossacks' violent raids and pogroms for years, until they were finally forced to flee to Krakow, New York and Chicago:

https://doctorow.medium.com/how-to-leave-dying-social-media-platforms-9fc550fe5abf

For enshittification-addled companies, that balance is hard to strike. Individual product managers, executives, and activist shareholders all give preference to quick returns at the cost of sustainability, and are in a race to see who can eat their seed-corn first. Enshittification has only lasted for as long as it has because the internet has devolved into “five giant websites, each filled with screenshots of the other four”:

https://twitter.com/tveastman/status/1069674780826071040

With the market sewn up by a group of cozy monopolists, better alternatives don’t pop up and lure us away, and if they do, the monopolists just buy them out and integrate them into your enshittification strategies, like when Mark Zuckerberg noticed a mass exodus of Facebook users who were switching to Instagram, and so he bought Instagram. As Zuck says, “It is better to buy than to compete.”

This is the hidden dynamic behind the rise and fall of Amazon Smile, the program whereby Amazon gave a small amount of money to charities of your choice when you shopped there, but only if you used Amazon’s own search tool to locate the products you purchased. This provided an incentive for Amazon customers to use its own increasingly enshittified search, which it could cram full of products from sellers who coughed up payola, as well as its own lookalike products. The alternative was to use Google, whose search tool would send you directly to the product you were looking for, and then charge Amazon a commission for sending you to it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/10ft5iv/comment/j4znb8y/

The demise of Amazon Smile coincides with the increasing enshittification of Google Search, the only successful product the company managed to build in-house. All its other successes were bought from other companies: video, docs, cloud, ads, mobile; while its own products are either flops like Google Video, clones (Gmail is a Hotmail clone), or adapted from other companies’ products, like Chrome.

Google Search was based on principles set out in founder Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s landmark 1998 paper, “Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine,” in which they wrote, “Advertising funded search engines will be inherently biased towards the advertisers and away from the needs of consumers.”

http://ilpubs.stanford.edu:8090/361/

Even with that foundational understanding of enshittification, Google has been unable to resist its siren song. Today’s Google results are an increasingly useless morass of self-preferencing links to its own products, ads for products that aren’t good enough to float to the top of the list on its own, and parasitic SEO junk piggybacking on the former.

Enshittification kills. Google just laid off 12,000 employees, and the company is in a full-blown “panic” over the rise of “AI” chatbots, and is making a full-court press for an AI-driven search tool — that is, a tool that won’t show you what you ask for, but rather, what it thinks you should see:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/20/23563851/google-search-ai-chatbot-demo-chatgpt

Now, it’s possible to imagine that such a tool will produce good recommendations, like Tiktok’s pre-enshittified algorithm did. But it’s hard to see how Google will be able to design a non-enshittified chatbot front-end to search, given the strong incentives for product managers, executives, and shareholders to enshittify results to the precise threshold at which users are nearly pissed off enough to leave, but not quite.

Even if it manages the trick, this-almost-but-not-quite-unusuable equilibrium is fragile. Any exogenous shock — a new competitor like Tiktok that penetrates the anticompetitive “moats and walls” of Big Tech, a privacy scandal, a worker uprising — can send it into wild oscillations:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/08/watch-the-surpluses/#exogenous-shocks

Enshittification truly is how platforms die. That’s fine, actually. We don’t need eternal rulers of the internet. It’s okay for new ideas and new ways of working to emerge. The emphasis of lawmakers and policymakers shouldn’t be preserving the crepuscular senescence of dying platforms. Rather, our policy focus should be on minimizing the cost to users when these firms reach their expiry date: enshrining rights like end-to-end would mean that no matter how autocannibalistic a zombie platform became, willing speakers and willing listeners would still connect with each other:

https://doctorow.medium.com/end-to-end-d6046dca366f

And policymakers should focus on freedom of exit — the right to leave a sinking platform while continuing to stay connected to the communities that you left behind, enjoying the media and apps you bought, and preserving the data you created:

https://www.eff.org/interoperablefacebook

The Netheads were right: technological self-determination is at odds with the natural imperatives of tech businesses. They make more money when they take away our freedom — our freedom to speak, to leave, to connect.

For many years, even Tiktok’s critics grudgingly admitted that no matter how surveillant and creepy it was, it was really good at guessing what you wanted to see. But Tiktok couldn’t resist the temptation to show you the things it wants you to see, rather than what you want to see. The enshittification has begun, and now it is unlikely to stop.

It's too late to save Tiktok. Now that it has been infected by enshittifcation, the only thing left is to kill it with fire.

[Image ID: Hansel and Gretel in front of the witch's candy house. Hansel and Gretel have been replaced with line-drawings of influencers, taking selfies of themselves with the candy house. In front of the candy house stands a portly man in a business suit; his head is a sack of money with a dollar-sign on it. He wears a crooked witch's hat. The cottage has the Tiktok logo on it.]

#pluralistic #Lauren Leffer #tiktok #surplus allocation #fauximation #potemkin ai #the algorithm #creative labor #algorithms exposed #enshittification #bytedance #giant teddy bears #convincers #big store con #pivot to video #scissor bucket #Emily Baker-White

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moonbaby26 · 3 days

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Title: Past Wounds

(Chapter 12 of Doflamingo’s Marine Series)

*Crossposted to AO3 Here*

Chapter Pairings: Doflamingo x Reader

Chapter Warnings: language, violence, toxic relationship, binge drinking, mommy issues, brief references to past trauma and survival from past sexual assault including when characters were previously underage, talk of virginity loss, intentions to sabotage birth control, breeding kink, murder (not main characters)

Chapter Synopsis: As you and Doflamingo open up to one another, you find even more in common in the traumas of your pasts. While he still plans for the future, intending to never have you truly leave him or your new kingdom of Dressrosa again.

Author’s notes: As evidenced by chapter warnings above, there are a lot of potential triggers in this chapter. Nothing is overly gratuitous in my opinion. But still, fair warning. I always let the characters run the show for what they’ll say/do next and this was the result. More notes are at the end of the chapter as well including some insight into future plans for this story. 😄

Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

——————————

As Doflamingo had recounted to you those bits and pieces of his weeks spent with Tsuru as a boy, of course you’d sat in silence, listening intently. But even with the seemingly unflattering details he did allow, you felt like that curtain between you and his past was only being pulled back just enough to tease towards the bigger mystery.

Like a single flash of lightning across a dark and unfamiliar room. The parts he did tell would only let you make out some hints of shapes, pieces of him you’d never known. Before everything was plunged into darkness once more.

But telling you even this much did stir deeper things within that darkness for him at least. That was obvious in his many pauses as he spoke, and by just how quickly the wine disappeared the further his story went on.

He’d finished the first bottle in his hand before his strings had brought the second bottle to him and into the bed as well.

But regardless of his height, and the additional body mass that offered him, you started to realize even warlords had a limit. It was still too much, too fast for his body to put it away safely.

And he was self medicating. Wasn’t he?

“Doffy,” you did say in test after he’d quieted for a few more minutes.

He wasn’t smiling any longer, and his eyes didn’t move from you. “She left me there.”

And something warned you then. It was in the way his shoulders sank, but his muscles didn’t relax.

He didn’t want logic or reasoning right now. He didn’t want you to say that Tsuru had had no real choice but to desert him.

And desertion was absolutely how he saw it. That sentiment made further clear in the dangerous irritation which rose in his next words.

“But Rosi was good enough. You white coats took him from me as soon as you fucking could…and wasn’t he too young? He was younger than me! So why? Why was he better…no, he wasn’t.”

It did take you a moment to even realize who Doflamingo meant, even as you began growing more nervous as he seemingly argued with himself as much as anything.

Was he talking about Rosinante?

Codename Corazon was what you’d actually known him as. Tsuru had sometimes called him Rosinante though. Which that bit of familiarity finally made more sense if only tonight.

Because she’d met both brothers before they’d ever become criminals.

But you still weren’t following this new turn. How had the marines taken Doflamingo’s brother? Corazon had been killed a few years ago. All over a stupid devil fruit sale gone bad as far as you knew. The Donquixote family versus the Barrels pirates at Minion Island.

You’d been there that night as well, on Tsuru’s crew to pick up the pieces afterward. You’d seen the bird cage just before it came down…and the bodies that’d been left in the aftermath.

But this new confusion in your eyes only had Doflamingo leaning forward aggressively. You could see the added flush in his cheeks from all that wine as he closed in on you.

And for the briefest moment you’d envisioned one of those now empty wine bottles being smashed open against your face.

Because you somehow knew that he had considered it.

But then those same bottles only rolled aside with his movement within the bed. His words were slightly slurred the faster he tried to force them out.

The more he tried to make you understand that pain that no alcohol could ever quench.

“They turned my own baby brother against me….he hated me.”

The warlord’s lips were the only thing that met your face this time though. Not a fist, or the bottles, even as that kiss still held so much anger from within.

Doflamingo’s hand was tight on the back of your neck so quickly too, forcing you to him as his tongue and that secondhand taste of alcohol filled your mouth.

He was actually drunk tonight. And it was your job once more to prevent yourself from being further hurt.

“Doffy,” You said more insistently again, briefly breaking your mouths apart.

Yet you weren’t bleeding like before. So this allowed you at least a chance to try softness first. Even if it wasn’t organic at all. Even if every move you made was now purposeful as you brought your hands up to stroke his face before your mouths could reconnect.

His left eye did close at that sudden touch, his lips still parted as the bright red iris of the right eye focused on you cautiously.

“You’re okay.” You found yourself saying regardless as you petted this dangerous creature.

His muscles were still so tight, his breath a bit uneven as you stroked along those high cheekbones and up into that short blond hair.

But there was the slightest hope for you in the way he’d started to press his face into that touch after a few more moments. He didn’t want you to stop.

It wasn’t over yet though. It’d never be, when suddenly he’d next pushed his full weight against you. You were forced onto your back on the mattress. This behavior already seeming to follow the pattern of so many times before as your core couldn’t help but immediately tense, fearing penetration.

Yet he didn’t straddle you this time. His legs curled up instead, allowing him the room to lay down. Your head now by the foot of the bed, and both your and his feet nearer the headboard as he laid his face across your naked breasts.

In your surprise, his hand also caught your wrist, pulling your own palm back to the side of his cheek as he bid you to keep petting him again in this new position.

And so of course you did. Having to breathe a little more forcefully with his weight on you then. But it wasn’t that painful. You weren’t being fucked this time at least as you watched the ceiling while stroking his jaw before your fingers moved back into his hairline as you massaged his scalp lightly.

You weren’t stupid. The parallels were all far more obvious now. His biological mother had died early on in his life. And in his own mind at least, he’d reclaimed some semblance of that motherly bond when he’d met Tsuru. But then she’d left him too, and his father had died, and his brother eventually too. Those full details still unclear in his odd behavior surrounding their two names.

But no matter the hows or whys, he had lost one family member after another. It was hit after hit on an already troubled psyche to further grow that void inside of him wasn’t it?

And needy boys soon became needy men.

So he was burying all that desperation in you now, no question there. And before you, whoever else he could get his claws into you were sure. But for your own sanity, you would have to believe that everything he felt for Tsuru was still more from the boy within and not the hedonistic man that’d now torn through your body multiple times.

She’d have washed him into pieces if he’d ever tried anything inappropriate with her you were sure.

But with you? Those lines were already long gone. Clearly they were as he kept his face warm against your chest. Like it truly were an innocent refuge for him in this moment, but at the very same time you felt his already half hard cock rubbing against your legs.

He didn’t do anything more with that arousal right now at least. But his confused body didn’t seem to know the difference between affection and sex either.

Sex was affection to him. It was comfort. And evidently he sometimes wanted to be mothered by you as well, just as much as he wanted to always keep fucking you.

But the most immediate danger was again passing as you continued to give him what he wanted. You felt his muscles finally relaxing. All while you petted him more like something pitiful that had to be taken care of, rather than a true lover or equal partner in this instance at least.

Psychologists could fill entire books on a case study like Doflamingo you were sure.

And he wasn’t even done yet.

“Don’t leave me too.”

You heard those new drunken words break the silence. But you feared truly acknowledging them and possibly setting him off again as you just kept holding him. You stroked his face and down his neck to keep him calm.

Your heart rate was increasing regardless though as his arms tightened around your waist in return. His possessive body language was beginning all over again. But he said only one more heavy thing before closing both of his eyes.

“….don’t make me do it again. Don’t make me erase another light like you.”

——————————

That night felt endless. He had fallen asleep against your chest. So you’d been spared whatever sexual play he’d threatened from earlier, before he’d first started that story and gotten far too much into the wine.

But in exchange, you were left with a restless, fitful animal. Even though he was deeply asleep, you still felt him tensing and moving so many times during the night.

Sweat would form on his brow as his hands would clench. Sometimes with those fingers against your hips, or your arms, stomach, or elsewhere as he shifted around.

He was having nightmares.

And you couldn’t hope to sleep, your own body on high alert, waiting for strings to come out of his fingertips, waiting for pain if he forgot even for a moment where he really was.

Yet when he’d start moving again like that, you’d whisper his name and start stroking his head and neck once more.

His grimace would fade, and he’d start to still again.

It was exhausting. Like fighting a fire all alone the entire night. Fighting it, and protecting him when your own body and mind wanted so badly to give up as well.

And at some point you did. You didn’t have any endurance left when consciousness finally slipped away. But you’d already seen the sunlight through those portholes again when it did.

——————————

His head was aching. But warm fingers were caught in his hair. The sound of your heartbeat was against his ear as he tried to focus his good eye into that too bright daylight.

It was fucking morning again already. But he didn’t want to move. Your chest was soft, and your grip was still so welcoming somehow.

How much had he told you last night?

Those dreams had melted into the real words he knew he’d said. But it was hard to remember the difference, where one ended and the other began.

He’d tried to save himself all those years ago. He’d tried to do the right thing for what was left of his family.

Because Mariejois would never suffer a traitor. Blood traitors especially. The most grievous crime that could ever be committed against the gods was when one Celestial Dragon turned against another.

Death was the only possible result in such a rare tragedy. But Homing and Rosinante both had still chosen that fate in the end. His own blood had given him no choice but to carry out the only answer they knew would come for their crimes.

They’d chosen your licentious world instead of their heavenly birthright and had to be culled for it. Like diseased branches being cut away to save the larger tree.

And then he’d been fully orphaned, broken wings and all, stuck living alone in that same world in the end. But he was still carving out the best life he could in the circumstances.

He’d already retaken the Donquixote ancestral lands in Dressrosa. Retaken his heritage in the same castle his ancestors used to rule without mercy from.

And now he’d secured you, the elusive temptation that had evaded him for far too long beforehand. Of course you were no equal to him. The innate filth of your own blood was still something that could never be overwritten. But the gods were able to claim anything lesser than themselves that they desired.

So there was nothing improper in his need for you. Nothing he wouldn’t have still been allowed if he’d lived atop the world once more. He could have had as many human wives as he’d wanted. Bred all of them or none of them as he’d seen fit.

There were many half breed children in Mariejois. Most going straight into slavery of course, but not always. Pets were allowed too. They’d never hold the social status of a pureblood, but they could live a fully pampered life if their Celestial parent chose such for them. They could stay in the same home, be lavished and given affection like any other treasured possession.

And all this stress only reminded him of these possibilities time and time again.

He still wanted a replacement family for his that had been destroyed. He wanted you, his human mistress, and his half breed he could soon raise from you. He never wanted to feel as alone as he had in those nightmares ever again.

Doflamingo smirked, your heart beating so steadily beneath him still. That organ beat for only him, it belonged to him already.

But would you ever love him in return? Would you be grateful in the life he could provide for you? Would you understand how lucky you were to find this rare mercy within him at all?

It didn’t matter.

As long as he had what he wanted. As long as he always won and everyone else lost.

That was the natural way of things. And anyone who acted to truly interrupt these eventual outcomes could join Homing and Rosinante in his forgiveness of death.

He’d actually let you sleep though, as he’d finally untethered himself from your body. His bladder full from all the drinking of last night and his body needing relief as he’d taken the longest piss in the bathroom.

This vacation was finally over. All the meetings and business dealings he’d put off for the last few days to spend that time with you instead was now going to bite back at him in full force.

He knew this as he’d flushed the toilet and looked at himself in the mirror, knowing he needed to get ready to head to his office on board and start making overdue calls. But his mind still lingered in the past, even then.

Because his one intact eye that often reminded him of his mother’s perpetually sad ones reflected back at him tiredly in that mirror.

But the other eye was somehow sharp as always, even behind that milky white of scar tissue. As if it was watching him instead. The mismatched eye he’d been born with even before that arrow had first pierced it in this world.

The left eye and its larger red iris that used to frighten his peers and reject the sunlight enough that he’d been taught to cover it as far back as he could remember.

His one eye that matched the two of the one true god. The immortal who sat upon the empty throne. A being that he’d seen only once, when he’d brought Homing’s head to them in that last chance offering which was ultimately rejected. A past recipient of the Ope-Ope fruit’s greatest power he had no doubt.

Another ancestor of his perhaps, one whose eye and madness he had inherited. The nineteen original families of Mariejois had interbred for centuries after all.

But Doflamingo just laughed softly to himself, gripping the sink before he turned the water on to wet his hands and begin washing his face.

There was still so much that none of you knew. Information which those who sat on high would do anything to keep from spreading.

It was yet another reason you’d never be allowed to leave him once they realized how serious he was about you. Because those five old men and the monster they served would assume he’d shared all their secrets. And they’d absolutely kill you rather than give you any chance to talk if you ever fled from him and lost his protection.

Divorce would never be an option for you. It truly would be until death do you part.

——————————

You rolled over, and something about even being able to do that much was enough to finally wake you again. Because you weren’t trapped under him anymore.

Raising your head, you looked around, groggy and concern quickly growing on your face. Because you didn’t see him anywhere.

And as you’d experienced before, not seeing him was always worse to you. Because then you didn’t know his current mood, or his intentions. You had no sense of the current danger.

Slowly you sat up, bedsheets falling away from your nude form.

The sun was fully in the room. It was obviously later in the day.

There was a tray beside the bed. The same one that dinner had been served on last night. But all that was now gone.

A new plate was there. It looked like toasted bread. But with crushed tomatoes over it. Some had already been eaten, but there was plenty left.

You rose up carefully, peering into the drink pitcher beside it. Some kind of brightly colored juice was in the pitcher.

It should have been laughable of how cautious you really still were.

How afraid you were to do something as simple as eat when behind enemy lines like this. Pirates had prepared this food. They had readied this drink you had to remind yourself.

But only then did you notice a piece of paper, laid flat with its corner hanging out from under the pitcher on that silver food tray.

And when you slid that paper out, your very first reaction was to immediately be taken aback by the immaculate penmanship.

Truly, the only time you’d seen something like this was on decrees direct from Mariejois. It made the hurried writing you were more accustomed to in documented naval transmissions look like something you all had written with your feet by comparison.

Like this was a page fallen out of a book. But it wasn’t as you finally started to read it.

“I must have kept you up last night. That’s what happens when you let me drink too much, Captain. I considered leaving a string man to keep you company, but it would have been too boring just to watch you sleep.

We’ll be in Dressrosa by this afternoon. Clean yourself up and be presentable. Use my snail on the end table to summon anything you may need from the servants. I have work obligations. I wouldn’t recommend wandering the ship alone however. I wouldn’t want you to get your hands dirty again. My travel crew doesn’t have the best manners after all. I’ll come back to you when we’re nearer port.

-D.D.”

And you held that paper for a while afterward, just entranced in the sheer novelty of it. He had truly beautiful handwriting, and he’d taken the time to write it for you.

It was the stupidest thing you’d likely ever felt. But you realized no man had ever written you a personal note for any reason.

“What the fuck is wrong with me?” You said to no one but the sleeping snails. And then you did grab one of those pieces of bread off the food tray and took a bite of it in test.

And it was delicious. Because of course it was. With olive oil and garlic mixed in with some other seasonings you were too uncultured to identify in those crushed tomatoes smeared across it.

With the bread in one hand, you folded that note from Doflamingo gently with your other.

For some reason you didn’t want to get any food on it. And you didn’t want to throw it away either.

Just like him, it was insidious in how you kept thinking about it now. How you wanted to keep it.

How much you liked it.

——————————

The hours ran by so quickly. Just like he knew they would. He’d been on the phone with nobility from other kingdoms, with cipher pol agents, with pirate captains, and warmongers of all kinds. All his customers itching for their next arms, drugs, or random pick of any other contraband shipments that they’d been requesting which his networks were currently brokering for them.

It’d been interesting which clients dared to mention anything about the newspaper articles as well. Not all would, with his Joker identity and his public status as a warlord and king existing as two wholly separate things.

But of course there was one particular call that had everything to do with you.

Doflamingo had had his feet up on his desk by then, one ankle crossed over the other as he waited while it rang.

That cackling scientist knew better than to ignore a call from him. No matter what he may be working on with Vegapunk currently.

The transponder snail did connect at last. But the voice on the other end sounded far quieter than normal.

“J-Joker?” Came the question.

“Of course.” Doflamingo answered, but asking immediately. “Are you alone?”

“Alone enough. In a supply closet actually…” was the ridiculous answer.

A response the warlord knew was likely not at all a joke. What an idiot this was. But an extremely useful one. “Well, Caesar, I need to commission you for what should be something far more simple this time. Something I need immediately.”

Tight timelines were nothing new. The majority of the current drugs and war worthy poisons that Doflamingo sold all linked back to this growing business relationship with Caesar Clown.

Caesar and his constant need to prove himself superior to his official government boss, Dr. Vegapunk by any means necessary. Caesar also with his perfect combination of immorality, greed, and spinelessness to be used so well by a man like Doflamingo.

“Yes, of course, Joker.” The near salivation of what kind of new payday this would mean for him was all too evident.

The gas logia user loved his new patron’s very deep pockets. And Doflamingo was certainly willing to provide, given that the results remained what he fully wanted of course.

“I need a new drug. This won’t be a mass product though. This is going to be for personal use alone.”

There was a noise of interest at that of course. They all knew Doflamingo didn’t normally use his own supply of anything. Normally being the key word however.

And he just outright said it now. Because once the Heavenly Demon had made up his mind on something, it’s not like he’d have any further hesitation. “I’m in the market for a family actually. I assume you saw the papers.”

Silence hung for a moment. The cogs spinning no doubt. “Shurororo...” Came the odd, and bit nervous laugh. “I did, and that was a surprise. So bold of you, going after an enlisted woman…the marines must be scrambling.”

“They can waste their time all they want. It’s real.” Doflamingo said decisively. “I’m keeping her. But she may not be fully on the same page with all of that yet. But you know me…results are king. And I want to get down to business. I want a child with her. But I need a way around that standard marine issue contraceptive. I want to override it.”

“Oh my.” Caesar was truly caught off guard, but not for the underhandedness of course. The snail had an outright wicked smile then from the scientist. One that could have rivaled one of Doflamingo’s own. “Has baby fever struck in that oppressively hot country of yours? Though, all dynasties must start somewhere I suppose. So you’ll be wanting at least an heir and a spare then?”

“Just one to start.” Doflamingo corrected, though beginning to grin a bit himself. “Quality over quantity.”

“Of course.” Caesar quickly agreed in that overly subservient way of his, but clearly still so interested. His own sadistic nature was likely highly delighted in it all. “How much modification though? I’m sure you’re aware of the kind of things I’m capable of improving on. Vinsmoke was hardly the only one at the pinnacle of that foray into eugenics. I could design circles around that fool.”

And here was the thing Doflamingo knew he had to be firm on. “Vinsmoke’s wife also ended up dead and his children little more than machines. My blood won’t be wasted in such a bland result. Nor does it need such improvement.” His voice did darken too, letting his seriousness on this point be most known. “No permanent damage to the woman either. If there was, your own death would be something I’d make you pray for, Caesar.”

It was a bit more complicated than just being able to do a clean execution of this scientist if it came down to it of course. Because they had other projects in the works that absolutely needed Caesar. The one still pending with Kaidou chief among them. But there were some things worse than death, and everyone knew Doflamingo could absolutely deliver on a threat like that if pressed.

And Caesar did stutter a little at that. The message was clearly understood. “Y-Yes, Joker. A low risk pregnancy then, of course. But might I recommend at least a little added insurance against toxins, and a bit of hardiness to physical shock as well at least?” Poisons being one of Caesar’s specialties of course. “Assuming she will be the last to know of her, ah…condition. Smoking, drinking, all those fun things you know would probably not be well advised, could have countermeasures put in place. And marines do brawl a bit at times, don’t they?”

“Fair point.” He did want you to be the last to possibly know. Because as strong willed as you were, he had the real concern that you’d try to sabotage things yourself once aware. He couldn’t say for sure, but it was possible. “Is that doable? Just enough to make sure it thrives even if the host decides to disagree?” Doflamingo asked genuinely.

“Oh, very much.” And at that Caesar recounted the specifications as if they were talking about nothing more questionable than a grocery list. “So you aren’t interested in twins or any multiples, just the facilitation of a single ovum being released. And the only modification being what would be required for healthy development in a possible unideal environment…if the mother is still out bar hopping and roughhousing or whatever I imagine marines must all do.”

“She roughhouses enough with me, yes.” Doflamingo conceded with another smile. “But she’s no delicate flower. We both get rather hands on, and into the drink together.”

And Caesar chuckled again. “Shurororo…I can make that work. It’s just canceling out the hormones of the contraceptive and then adding in a few other factors for those modifications…and different hormones to force ovulation too as it sounds like you’re in quite a hurry. Otherwise it’d be a small window each month naturally. I can make a fixed window instead so you know exactly when the timing is right.”

“And no permanent side effects.” Doflamingo reminded. “Or you know what will happen to you.”

“Yes, Joker.” He could hear Caesar swallow even over the snail. “I’m so much better than Vinsmoke though. No need for concern, really. It would likely be nothing more than fatigue and cramping. No worse than their monthly cycles.”

“Then do it. Put it in something clear and tasteless. I’ll have your normal development and rush fees wired over to you by tonight. I want it delivered directly to me.”

——————————

There was no knock on the door. No warning at all as it just swung open. Which of course, it was his cabin.

But that didn’t mean you didn’t startle all the same. For someone so large not to be heard coming down the hallway, that was bothersome.

That pink mass of feathers moved into the room as the door shut behind him.

Doflamingo stared at you for a moment, or you assumed that he was. It was hard to tell with the sunglasses back over his eyes before he smirked.

“Not a bad sight to have waiting on my bed after a long day.” He murmured, approaching you where you now sat fully dressed on the edge of his mattress.

And he crouched before you could reply to him. Squatted in front of you suddenly when he leaned in for a kiss.

It was a bit rough as his lips met yours, but nothing extreme this time as he smiled afterward, faces still almost touching as his tongue dipped out briefly.

He looked more than satisfied.

“You probably felt us turning, Dressrosa’s on the horizon already. We’re heading for the south port in Acacia.”

“Alright.” You said plainly. It wasn’t as if there was anything else you could do. You’d cleaned up, dressed, even put makeup on to cover the bruising.

“Let’s change the bandage again.” He said though. “How long are you going to be able to walk for?”

And at least this process you’d done more than once now as you offered him your thigh. “Won’t really know until I try. But you are not carrying me in front of any cameras.”

He actually feigned a bit of a scowl there. Far less intense than his real ones as he started undoing the string wrap again from around your leg. The cords obeyed him so completely, white and soft as it unravelled to the floor. “Oh, but you’re forgetting where you are now, dear. I’m the king of the literal country of love and passion. It’d look very chivalrous on tomorrow’s front page wouldn’t it?”

“It’d make me look weak.” You gave him a real look of distaste in return.

“Then at least damn take something for the pain you stubborn brat.” But he was smirking then. Too happy in this moment finally being here you were sure. He’d brought you home with him at last.

All the advantage was now his as well. You were about to be in his country, with his crew, among his everything. You would have no power here save for whatever his extremely limited mercy allowed and you both knew it.

“I’m not drugging myself up on painkillers when I’m about to be in the same room as Trebol and Diamante.” You said with added certainty there.

Doflamingo’s hands did pause at that in the midst of rewrapping your wounded thigh as he asked, “Why?”

“Why?” And you did look at him there like he had two heads. “You know why!”

Somehow it had always been them. The only Donquixote officers that could ever get close enough to you. Trebol and his stupid snot that you’d gotten your legs caught in before. And Diamante with weapons that rained down like confetti, cutting you through even your haki as he’d grabbed you with his bare hands more than once.

Diamante had been the one that had scared you the most though. Because by all rights he’d really had you that one time. Before your coat had torn at the last moment. Somehow you had slipped right out of it and run for all you were worth, bleeding and with a badly dislocated arm all the way back to Tsuru.

You couldn’t have been more than sixteen then and it had thoroughly shaken you. Even for all the abuse you’d known as a child. All the aggression and beatings you’d had before when you hadn’t submitted like your mother’s bosses had wanted you to. None of that was the same as Diamante had been with you then.

Because you’d seen it in his eyes and felt it in the horrible things he’d said to you as his hands had gone places they should not have.

Your first real brush with that level of opponent, both in physical strength and his ability to truly get within your head.

Maybe it was idiotic to still be holding onto that, considering the far worse things the man right here in front of you had done since.

But it was still different. Somehow it was. Bleeding, being grabbed and touched by Diamante with your arm almost twisted out of its socket at only sixteen. Versus being jaded and angry, several years older and stronger with a sexual appetite of your own by the time Doflamingo had first pushed himself between your legs in Mariejois.

It wasn’t the same in your mind, right or wrong as Doflamingo still watched you, as he did finish the new bandage.

“You’re still afraid of them?” He asked simply. And you really couldn’t read him well at all then, in his body language or tone.

You looked away from those red sunglasses before you could help it though. Dammit, this was not the right time for this, not minutes before your supposed public debut in Dressrosa.

“You wouldn’t understand.” You replied.

“Try me.” He said as his hands went onto your knees.

He was still squatted in front of you.

And he must have seen some look on your face, something different there that he wouldn’t let go of.

But you still couldn’t say it. Just like you’d never told anyone the full extent of what Doflamingo had done to you in Mariejois or on Sabaody.

And at last you saw real irritation cut across his expression when he got tired of waiting. “I’m not asking you twice.” His grip on your knees tightened as he spread them a little. Just enough to move his torso between them.

You took a breath, fear edging you back to the present and to him. Fine, you’d just goddamn say it then.

And those words did come running out, just everything at once. It was either all or nothing it seemed when it came to admissions like this.

“I don’t even remember what town it was. But Trebol got a hold of my feet with that mucus to slow me down. I should never have tried to take them both on by myself. I knew better, but you know how fast things can go sideways in the field. They had me alone and then my boots were in that snot, and I was trying to get out and Diamante was fucking right on top of me. He was hitting me with so much I couldn’t keep my haki up. So I was bleeding and they were trying to get into my head. Saying I was just a whore and laughing to each other about if I was a virgin or not…and then Diamante said he’d check.”

You heard a sound in Doflamingo’s throat. And you quieted as his face abruptly touched against yours. But he didn’t kiss you. His hands which had been squeezing your knees now relaxed as he began to stroke your thighs.

And you didn’t know what reaction you’d expected from him. But this was not it as you’d let Doflamingo lean further into you.

“How much did Diamante touch you?” Came the next quiet, but equally firm question.

Which you did make yourself answer once more. Because you didn’t want him to turn on you again. And even as humiliating as this all was, you tried to stay only with the facts, not the dark emotions they inspired.

“It was one hand under my skirt, a finger between my legs. And one hand in my shirt, under my bra. But I twisted away from him. Then he grabbed and dislocated my arm at the shoulder and my coat tore. Somehow I came right out of that coat. I broke out of the mucus with the last haki I could make, and I ran away from the both of them. I escaped.”

“Did he push that finger inside of you?” Doflamingo asked so specifically then. Almost as if this was what was truly important in it all to him.

And you felt your stomach turn, disgusting as it was. You did not like acknowledging any of it, but you still answered with the warlord’s face nuzzled oddly into yours all the while.

“No. His finger was just feeling me on the outside. He was about to I guess. Before I pulled away.”

And maybe there was the slightest hint of relief in the way Doflamingo’s back muscles relaxed at that revelation. But even that still wasn’t enough. As he did have another very personal question for you.

“How old were you really when you lost your virginity then?”

And fuck, why did it even matter at this point? But maybe this was his way of striking when the iron was already hot so to speak. He had you vulnerable enough right now to tell him the truth, and he never missed an opportunity did he?

“Eighteen.” You said simply.

“Consensual?”

“Yes.”

He pulled back slightly, and you felt that stare on you again. There was no smile at all. “It was Kuzan…wasn’t it?”

“Yes.” And you felt your face muscles tighten once more. You knew how insanely jealous Doflamingo could be. So that nervousness peaked within you all over again. You didn’t want to fight.

But his anger didn’t come. At least not in the way you would have expected. You saw his own face shift strangely as a smile formed instead. But it wasn’t like his normal ones at all.

“Well, I was only fifteen when I lost mine.” He said from nowhere as your eyes widened. “And it absolutely was not consensual.”

But at least a little like you then, it was like those words couldn’t stop once he’d let them out. Even as his smile began to grow. That expression contrasted the brief strain in his voice.

“It was a fucking powerhouse of a man. He could have just snapped my neck then and there with one hand. But I’d killed his whole crew to take his territory from him. So he was going to make me pay in spades of course. I’d never had sea prism cuffs on before or since. I didn’t know how to fight very well then. And certainly not with my devil fruit taken away once he got those cuffs on me. Even my haki was nothing to him then, he was just that angry. I’ll never forget…the smell of that. The sweat and the hate, getting fucked, bent over a crate in some sweltering warehouse. And you know who pulled him off of me and beat him to goddamn death right then and there for all of his trouble?”

And Doflamingo actually laughed, loud and long then, as if that was the far better part of that violent memory.

But the horror in your own face couldn’t be matched, not at all as you already knew what he was going to say next before the names came out of his mouth.

“Trebol and Diamante.” He grinned, his sunglasses still blocking his eyes from you. Not showing his true self in any of this. “They heard it and they found us before anyone else.”

And you were blinking back tears by then, something he surely saw in your own eyes as he did kiss you suddenly again to stop it.

But had he told you this as his own way of showing you weren’t alone in the things you’d experienced against your will? Or was it just to prove the complicated nature of the monsters he surrounded himself with? Your attackers were his rescuers.

Or…could even something as devastating as that be a memory he would willfully use to garner your sympathy? As another manipulation to make you pity him? Surely not…

And yet he was grinning fully once he broke that kiss with you again, watching you like your reaction was so much more important than his in all of this.

And your heart was torn, finding these stories all still the seeds of nightmares, no matter the motivation. And you didn’t want to let go of him either. Not at all as you again remembered that cowering response he’d shown you if only for that moment the other day as well.

You knew he couldn’t have faked that, not the reflex from when you’d hit him. And all the movements last night as those nightmares had torn through him when he was drunk.

That wasn’t fake either.

That was wholly real.

And yet Doflamingo did so easily unto others what had once been done to him, didn’t he? It didn’t change what he was at all. He’d held you down and forced his cock into you more than once now. Even when you cried, even if you screamed.

He was still so unpredictable. Even as he was starting to show you all the roots from which this evil had grown from.

He stole another long kiss from you though, as if he knew. As if he knew you were overthinking what he didn’t want you to and his hand moved up to stroke the side of your face before he finally pulled back away.

“My crew won’t hurt you again. That’s all you need to know. And I’m ordering you to report it to me if they do. Because nothing happens in Dressrosa without my permission. Understood?”

“Yes.” You said so simply. Yet inhaling though, fighting to draw those emotions back in regardless.

He didn’t seem rattled at all either now in comparison to you, as he finally stood and offered you his hand. “But let’s go. Everyone’s going to want to meet you. This is a big day for the future of our monarchy after all.”

—————————

And you had shaken that pain away as much as you could. You both falling back into your public personas. Everything was a careful production in times like this, that was certain as the two of you had released the grip on each other’s hands just before exiting up the stairs and onto the deck.

He let you walk yourself then. At least seeming to be in agreement there that neither of you wanted to portray you as overly weak or too injured in the public eye.

And of course his crew had already been lined up and ready, all staring at you as if you were still some mysterious creature who clearly did not belong amongst them.

You could only imagine the rumors rolling through the ship. Being that you’d never left their captain’s cabin a single time while at sea. And all the bloody sheets the servants had had to find and launder.

But you ignored their looks now. Your attention fully going to your first views of what would be your new home for an indefinite future.

The island nation of Dressrosa.

Mooring ropes were being cast out to the dock workers below as the large ship began the process of lining up against it.

You couldn’t see much yet though. Just as you’d heard, Dressrosa was difficult to appreciate from a distance.

A circular island fully surrounded by a massive cliff face of light brown, almost yellowish rock which now towered above the ship. Only the smallest slit had been cut into this natural fortress to accommodate the port entrance. Such a narrow view as you tried to look at the multicolored rooftops you could see just a hint of in that distance beyond.

Of course, the other thing that could not be ignored was the crowd which had gathered, fully awaiting the unloading of Doflamingo’s ship.

And he was back behind you then, just as you’d noticed the flashes of cameras in the distance.

“Welcome home, love.” That dark voice whispered near your ear once more as he’d bent briefly down. “Just follow my lead once we’re on the ground. They’re very excited today…so keep your head up and stay moving. We’re heading straight for the palace.”

——————————

There was that briefest bit of nostalgia for Doflamingo as his foot soldiers kept the walkway open, parting the crowd for the two of you when you’d first set foot onto these public docks.

It wasn’t so long ago after all when these very same peasants had been shouting his name alone in adulation for their new king.

But now they wanted to know firsthand if all the reports and speculation of his new interest were true.

In this, the kingdom of love and passion, its citizens were falling over themselves to get their first real looks at you. The woman who their most eligible bachelor and king had now expressed a public fondness for.

But as the king’s plateau and his palace atop it would soon be coming into view, he shifted on his feet, just enough to bump you with his hip as you both still walked.

The abrupt touch did have you looking up at him reflexively. Just like he wanted you to of course as he smiled down at you and another camera flashed.

That was going to be a good picture.

But over the shouts of those reporters and the crowd, they weren’t going to hear what he said to you either.

“You only get to see your new kingdom for the first time, one time, darling. Are you paying attention?”

——————————

And of course you were. But there were so many other stimuli to consider too. You knew even now you were the marines’ sole representation on this island. So you tried to stay professional, walking without a limp in your uniform despite the pain. And not too entranced in any new sight or bothered by all the attention.

The thing you were finding most distracting though were these little things jumping around near everyone’s legs.

You knew what they were, but you’d never seen them in person. Especially when some small metal dog ran out nearly underfoot. Barking artificially with its metallic shine of purple polka dots before a girl grabbed it up to reclaim it, giggling bashfully at you all the while.

The living toys of Dressrosa is what they were, seemingly ubiquitous in their dispersal throughout the crowd. Each and every toy that you’d noticed was unique as well. Oddly cute in their own ways, but still strange as they begged for recognition from their human masters.

You didn’t know if they were fully mechanical, or perhaps it was something more akin to the homies of Totto Land in Big Mom’s territory? If they contained even a piece of someone’s soul that would be far more disconcerting to you. As far as whose piece it was and if there had been full consent to make them.

Either way, it was certainly strange and something you’d be wanting to learn more about in the future. But everything would be similar in that regard right now. All new and your mind not really knowing where to start before that massive landmass and Doflamingo’s main residence itself were then above you.

—————————

“My officers are waiting for us in the Hall of Suits. I called them earlier to know when to expect us.” He’d spoken to you again as the lift doors had closed to bring you both up through the king’s plateau via the elevator. To him, it was a novelty to have to enter his own palace through the street level like this.

Normally he’d be coming either from the hidden underground port late at night, or just through one of the windows straight into his office or bedroom at the top levels if he really had been out in the city or beyond alone for some reason.

Which he’d absolutely be bringing you out there for a private tour of the island at some point. At least the public portions of it anyway. Secrets would have to come later. He knew you were too intelligent to be kept in the dark for very long. But he needed far more safeguards in place before you could learn too much.

Those real reasons he and Dressrosa both had become so much wealthier just in the two years he’d now run things here. The revelations would come in time. But when they did, he’d already promised himself that you’d have a ring on your finger and a baby in your arms. Because then you’d have no way to leave him without losing your life or the child’s. He’d make any other options of true escape impossible for you.

That was the primary reason for his urgency on that call with Caesar today. Because he did hear that clock ticking in his head. Every potential weapon he had, had to be used and it had to be now. He wasn’t going to come this far just to lose you so soon.

And it truly should be unholy, how easily he was still able to offer you a warmer smile even as these thoughts rattled in his head.

You had looked up at him then, and the need for closeness overcame him as he took your hand again. The reporters had been left outside. It was only his foot soldiers in the lift with you to witness that sudden affection.

Them staring in result of it too as the doors opened again and he walked you into the main palace entryway for the very first time, his hand tight around yours.

He liked the feel of it so much. Just like in Scylla as the two of you had walked those streets together. Your hand absolutely disappeared within his, but that warmth did not.

The sense of ownership so comforting to him along with it as he pulled you lightly, leaving the foot soldiers to their duties elsewhere.

And at the last moment, he was feeling content enough to add a bit more fun to this too.

“We’ll take a shortcut through the courtyard.” He spoke to alert you, but without explaining why of course.

Because he knew exactly which type of his royal subjects would now be lazing about out there in the evening sun hoping for even a crumb of his attentions.

Unless he instructed otherwise, every morning the palace gates would be opened for them. Of course there were rules, attire that was required for admission for instance.

Always, it was the smaller those bits of bikini fabric, the better as he’d then led you out under the archway and their giggling voices erupted immediately at first sight of him.

“Your highness! Welcome home!”

And oh they were in full form today. More lithe bodies splashing about and sprawled in all the reclined chairs by his pool than was even customary. But he knew they would be. They had wanted to see you, their new competition after all. They wanted to judge for themselves how serious he was in all of this.

Even he wasn’t narcissistic enough to hope for much response from you however. Not immediately anyway. You just weren’t that easy to fluster in public when in uniform, with some exceptions of course.

But he would absolutely enjoy waiting to see if you carved out your own territory and put these girls in their place in the long run. They meant nothing to him of course, just time wasters to warm his cock in. And surely they all knew that too. But money talked, and he’d compensate them nicely when they performed well enough. They also heavily enjoyed whatever brief clout came from being his flavor of the week of course.

“Good evening, ladies. It’s good to be back.” Doflamingo did finally respond, letting those women hang on his every word as he tried to watch your reaction out of the corner of his eye regardless.

And you were watching them at least, not looking too impressed as he squeezed your hand a little harder.

“Perhaps we’ll be back outside tomorrow. I need to show the captain around the palace of course, but it’s been a long day already.”

Rarely would he have initiated conversation with them to this degree either, especially when just passing through.

But it was all for fun right now as he did see those pouty faces of theirs in response.

“Oh well, maybe tomorrow then! If she doesn’t have a bathing suit, she can borrow one of ours!” And they were giggling again. That mix of false politeness and challenge all at once.

You rolled your eyes, and that show at last of even the briefest negative emotion from you did make him laugh.

“We’ll see. I may have her too busy for all that.” And that was said in his deeper register. Enough so that that look on your face became more of a glare directed up at him as he grinned in return.

You didn’t like being hinted at as just his newest conquest either did you? But of course you were more than that. He just couldn’t help but be a bit catty too when there was so much of it going around at the moment.

He was tempted to grab your ass on the way out of the courtyard too. Enough that they would see it. But it wasn’t worth a full fight with you in this moment. Not when he knew you were about to be stressed enough as he brought you back inside and down that next corridor to the Hall of Suits.

———————————

T⨂ BE

CONTINUED

———————————

End Notes: As always, thank you so very much for reading! My Doflamingo fixation compelled me to write Chapter 1 of this fic initially as a smutty one shot after almost three years of my not writing anything. I just had to get it out of my system. And to my shock, a few people actually enjoyed it! So, loving the One Piece fandom as I have been, I kept going wanting to contribute the little bit that I could to the larger OP fan-fiction sphere in the name of this pink bastard.

Now that this has become a multi chapter story (rare for me even when I did used to write more back in the day), there’s concepts I want to touch on that I feel I couldn’t do otherwise in a one shot. And for those that have read this from the very first chapter until now, I wanted to give you that preview. So that you can decide if this is still where you want to follow.

The main thing I have been waffling on is whether or not Doflamingo gets his way on baby trapping reader. It’s like pandora’s box for me as I keep going back to it, picking it up, and then putting it back down. But in the end, I’ve decided to open the box. Because I, personally, have to know. I want to see which Doflamingo we get when he’s actually a biological father since he’s so weird about his bloodline anyway. And I feel it would have to be by choice like this. Because he’s too smart to let that happen by accident. So I can’t do it without all the setup that we now have.

Also, I want to see how this will affect Law. Because it absolutely will. When a truly innocent child is now thrown into the works (Law grew up with Buffalo, Baby 5, and Dellinger and knows they’re already as screwed up as he used to be). But also since this kid will be the next Corazon in title. So to carry that name, that innocence, and likely a strong family resemblance to their late uncle…it would be a mind trip for Law. Would he be determined to save them from their father’s influence in the same way that Cora saved him? Or would he still only be worried about his own revenge?

That being said, Doflamingo will definitely suffer for this underhanded bullshit he’s about to pull on reader. Karma is coming. I promise. He’s going to be put through it emotionally. Charybdis that started it all in Chapter 1 is going to be an island that will return to hurt them both. I’m also not done with Aokiji or Crocodile in this. They are diehard DoflamingoxReader antis. Aokiji because he truly cares about reader, and Crocodile because he’s watching a repeat of his own past trauma at Doflamingo’s hands and just does not want that shitbird to win yet again.

So we’ll see what happens. Nothing is set in stone as I do write in a very improv heavy style of letting the characters take it where it will go. But that’s what I can say for now. Thank you, thank you, thank you again! 😭

-Moonbaby26

#doflamingo x reader #doflamingo x y/n #doflamingo x you #doffy x reader #doffy x you #doffy x y/n #one piece x y/n #one piece x you #one piece x reader #one piece fan fiction #donquixote doflamingo #doflamingo #doflamingo one piece #op doflamingo #doffy #doffy one piece #one piece doflamingo #doflamingo’s marine

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lol-jackles · 6 months

Note

https://twitter.com/CineGeekNews/status/1735028345794855200

Warner Bros Discovery currently has an over 60% Probability of Bankruptcy.

I honestly am not sure if this is good or bad for the SPN revival. On the one hand, WB is NOT going to want to spend money on such a niche IP (that will really mostly only draw ppl who were already fans) if they are in such dire straits financially. On the other hand, they could bring in money by selling the IP to another studio who would obviously then want to actually do something with it since they spent money on it. But that also depends on another studio or streaming service wanting to do something with it which will be tougher. Netflix would make sense since they currently have SPN for streaming, except they will be losing their streaming rights at the end of 2025. A revival wouldn't even be released until then so why would Netflix want to put money into a revival of show that will, at that time, be streaming on a competitor (most likely Max since it will revert back to WB). Amazon is a possibility since both Jensen and Kripke are there (especially if they want to bring Kripke on for it) and Kripke seems to have some sway over there. But again, unless they buy the rights to SPN to stream on their platform, why would they want to make a show that will inadvertently benefit their competitor?

Thoughts?

https://www.macroaxis.com/invest/ratio/WBD/Probability-Of-Bankruptcy#google_vignette

[full disclosure, I sent this same ask to someone else as well, I'm not trying to spam people with it, I just wanted both your opinions!]

I went cross eyed reading the article, it looks like it was written by an A.I, which is not out of the realm of possibility given how many "journalists" are fired and Sports Illustrated was busted for using AI to write articles.

It really does not take much to avoid bankruptcy. Usually when a company is going to go under, the signs of it are obvious inaction for a long time and it inevitably dooms the business. The prime reason why WBD is not going broke is because they took immediate actions after the merger. What happens is the profitable parts of the business stays, while losses are either "turned around" or the business gets eliminated. Sometimes things like streaming subscribers will drop a quarter or two. Maybe a movie or two never gets released. But housecleaning is far more important than anything right now so that money is not wasted. The result is growing cash flow without losing much of the business.

Remember what I've said that cash flow is king? You can run a non-profitable company indefinitely with positive cash flow, but run a profitable company into the ground without cash flow. AT&T generated next to no cash flow. WBD exists for the very purpose of dismantling the legacy Time Warner conglomerate, that was the intention when AT&T sold it to Zaslav. It’s why they removed HBO from the name of Max. His job is to clean up its balance sheets, prepare its parts for sale, and pay himself handsomely in tune of $200 million last year. I begrudgingly admire Zaslav’s sticking with his controversial strategy, which saw other studios eventually following that same strategy.

By 2023, WBD paid off $12 billion in debt. That was a demonstration of faith by management in the turnaround efforts or else they would have kept the cash "just in case." The interest on the debt alone is eating $2 to $3 billion in free cash flow. Thats a lot of free growth in their bottom line when debt is paid down. Against all odds, WBD's streaming service HBO Max (and then just Max) is creating most of the cash flow improvement with $5 billion in cash flow. Advertising is growing in this segment at a robust pace. That said, the content decline for third-party licensing will have implications now that the strike is over and WBD has to start spending money on new contents on their prized IPs i.e. Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, DC, etc.

For niche IPs like Supernatural, I see 50% chance of WBD still licensing it to Netflix because third-party licensing is the new king. WBD will also offload low-performing shows in the same bundle with higher-performing Supernatural because it will allow WBD to continue their 'creative accounting' to avoid paying residuals to low-tier actors. Then I can see Netflix doing what they did with Gilmore Girls and produce a revival limited series for Supernatural, which will increase viewership for the OG SPN and continue to help retain subscribers.

On the other hand, WBD is rebooting every niche IP under the sun and I'm pretty certain they will make the same attempt with Supernatural. The strike is over and WBD need to make new contents to attract back subscribers they lost over two quarters during the strike. When SPN goes back to Max in 2025, an announcement of a reboot/revival will mean free marketing from devoted fans and ensure continual interest and viewership of the OG SPN.

#WBD #SPN revival specultion #cash flow

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veeranger · 11 months

Text

Vee’s Steam Summer Sale 2023 Recommendations

as always these are just personal opinions etc etc please look up some real reviews before buying a game if you aren’t sure and remember that steam will give you a full refund if you have less than 2 hours played in under 2 weeks.

im going to try to recc stuff i havent shilled every 6 months for the last 5 years but the VNs are going to be the same as always honestly

Fighting Games

Guilty Gear -Strive- Ultimate Edition 2022 ($55.99)

yes im specifically saying buy ultimate edition because it has all the dlc as of this writing. buy the base version if you want but i hate playing fighting games with incomplete rosters.

anyway this is my favorite fighting game, bar none. this is the game that after years of screwing around on a bunch of other games finally got me to really want to get better and actually play against other people. there’s a super active playerbase and at least another year of support from arcsys on the way. the best time to start playing strive was a year ago but the second best time is right now.

Idol Showdown (Free)

yes im shilling a free game here. idol showdown is a good fighting game and the result of like three years of hard work from a small team. try it out and give them some love

Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel ($4.99)

this is not a good game but it is a funny game. saber is in it.

Narrative Games

AI: The Somnium Files - $7.99

one of the finest mystery games you can play imo. maybe uchikoshi’s best work. a perfect blend of mystery, character, and style. every character and conversation is compelling in its own way and every little thing builds up to the huge moments which makes them all feel totally earned. as always uchikoshi is a genius in the way he blends his signature branching timeline style with the themes and core concepts of the game. the twists and turns this game goes down are so crazy that weeks later you’ll still be realizing how all the little things you thought were just quirks were actually foreshadowing. cannot recc this enough tbh.

Zero Escape: The Nonary Games - $11.99

another uchikoshi joint, also extremely good. ive only finished 999, the first game in this collection, but i can recc it just based on the strength of that alone. whereas somnium is a murder mystery, 999 is a visual novel about being trapped in a murder game interspliced with escape room segments. whatever you think you know you dont, 999 will take you down so many twists and turns you’ll be fucking dizzy when you’re done with it. big recc.

VA-11 HALL-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action - $10.04

i could probably talk about this game for as long as the others, even though its way way less complex. va-11 hall-a doesnt have a huge sweeping story with insane twists and massive reveals, but what it does have is an extremely personal narrative about loss, healing, and just living your life the best way you can in a horrible dystopian world. the cast of characters feel utterly real and you learn about the world they inhabit through interactions with them, rather than being infodumped by exposition. everyone has their own story and everyone is just trying to get by, including you. one of the best small scale personal narrative games ive ever played.

Night In The Woods - $9.99

another vn i would consider “small scale” but equally as impactful. nitw is a story about a disillusioned and struggling college drop out returning to her economically declining home town. nobody is secure, nobody is happy, everyone is suffering through their daily lives. you follow mae as she struggled to readjust to her childhood home and the people she left behind. until something happens that changes her priorities radically. all ill say. despite how i just made it sound, nitw is not all depressing. theres lighthearted moments and wacky days to cut through the bleak fog, as well as genuinely heartfelt moments that feel very earned. nitw is a game i think that everyone struggling through their 20s should play.

Grim Fandango Remastered ($3.79)

i know this is an old school adventure game and you might yell at me for sort of grouping it in with the VNs but i dont care. its a classic, its a beautiful game, everyone should play it. its old, it controls like shit, the puzzles are obtuse, but the experience is wonderful and memorable. its cheap as hell just go for it.

Action

Assault Spy ($4.99)

this goofy ass game is fun as hell. its a very dmc style character action with upgrades and moves to buy, and it actually has a pretty goddamn good mechanical system in place. the gameplay loop rules. only warning is this is not well optimized so watch your computer doesnt explode.

Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered ($40.19)

i shouldn’t even have to shill. a must play for any spider-man fan. one the best spider-man stories ever hands down. such an incredible experience seriously. i cant even say enough here, if you haven’t played this yet you should do it asap.

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales ($33.49)

everything i just said for the first game goes here too. a MUST play for miles morales fans. the combat is even better than the first too. you won’t regret playing this trust me.

Marvel’s Avengers - The Definitive Edition ($5.99)

no i’m not joking. ok well i kind of am but this game is getting delisted in september. it is an unforgivably mid piece of shit but if you have an interest in game preservation or playing something so bad they’re killing it forever, well here it is. they made all the microtransactions free btw.

Others

Tinykin ($13.75)

its like pikmin but its legally distinct! i like this game a lot, it has a very cute art style and its got easy to enjoy gameplay. i find it very relaxing. there’s a demo.

System Shock 2 ($2.49)

i will never stop shilling this game. fucking play it. its a cornerstone of video games. one of the most influential pieces ever put to pixel. you owe it to yourself to experience this if you feel any interest in it. maybe read a guide though its unforgiving if you screw around with your build.

Dead Space [2023] ($41.99)

exceptionally good. i dont have to shill the old shitty pc port of the original anymore. an A+ remake, i think it improves on the original in every conceivable way.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night ($11.99)

such a goddamn good metroidvania. its almost like the platonic ideal of a castlevania game. a true spiritual successor to SOTN. this isnt your dime a dozen soulslike vania, this is a true vania game in the best original style made by basically one of the core founders of the genre.

STAR WARS™ Knights of the Old Republic™ II - The Sith Lords™ ($3.49)

its a fuckin classic rpg. one of the best of the era. get it on pc so you can get that extended content mod they promised to import to the console version and then cancelled.

Save Room - Organization Puzzle ($2.09)

this is just a cute puzzle game. i like it.

#veepost

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harrysballerinahouse · 2 years

Text

Sir.

Pt 2. Coming soon...

CEO/BossHarry x FemReader

A little bit of enemy’s to lovers. Fluffy 🥰

T/w: aggression, attempted assault.

*********

Pleasing.

One of the most wild and out there inclusive and sustainable brands of a generation. Also your workplace since it first opened. You came on to a temp position as a lawyer planning to leave once they found someone with more experience to fill the position permanently, which turned into your contract being extended which turned into being offered the permanent position as the legal executive anyway.

It wasn’t your typical lawyer job, the dress code was a little more relaxed compared to previous companies you had worked for, even to this day you couldn’t bring yourself to not wear heels of some description to work. You held yourself to high standards in regards to your appearance, particularly when you never knew when the CEO would pop in.

You had really only spoken to Mr Styles a few times, but that was enough for you to form your opinion of him, he was your least favourite person to roam the Earth. You had major differences of opinion to how legal issues should be handled, you had always been down the line and straight to the point and you had the results and reputation to prove that it worked majority of the time. However Mr Styles was of the opinion that things should be negotiated and that Pleasing should be the sweet side of the deal rather than get to the point which meant in a number of cases you spent a lot longer negotiating deals than you should have and was also resulting in the company losing money.

You knew this was fact because your best friend worked in marketing and things were slow for him at the moment because there wasn’t much money to spend on promotion. Just last week Joel had been given a four day weekend just because there was no work to be done.

******

Today was a big day for you, the quarterly financials meeting, these generally involved the heads of each department, yourself included as well as the CEO and a few key investors. These were also the meetings you hated every last second of because the CEO never agreed with you or even bothered to look at your reports on how much the company was losing just in law suits in a week. Mr Styles was oblivious and honestly, you thought sometimes he was living in his own fantasy land, just creating the company as something to fill in his time.

Taking your seat a few places down from where Mr Styles would be seated, you place your cup of coffee above the meetings agenda and reports that were stacked at each seat. The other department heads and investors begin to roll in before finally Mr Styles himself arrives “apologies for the tardiness everyone, small family emergency” he mumbles taking his seat at the head of the table, “let’s get started shall we?” He looks around rubbing his hands together. The COO Adam stands and starts going through the overall loss and profit margins for the last three months and surprise surprise the company was still running at a total loss of almost 2.5 million per month.

Each department head then goes over their own profit-loss margins working their way around the table towards you. When it was finally your turn you look over what you had prepared before standing just as the others had. “Mr Styles, I would like to bring to your attention a string of recent lawsuits against us from another major skincare and cosmetics brand. In the last month alone we’ve run at a 5 million dollar total loss in just settlements to this company, the way we conduct ourselves in legal matters is simply not effective. I understand our sales have improved significantly since expanding the collections however, if we continue on this type of trajectory our reputation will eventually take a hit, NDA’s won’t stop a company that we’ve already settled with from dragging our name through the mud”

Mr Styles sits and ponders your words for a moment “I don’t see an issue with how we handle our legal issues here, we’re going to run at a loss when it comes to settlements.” You felt yourself getting angry at his statement “with all due respect Mr Styles, we should be fighting these lawsuits harder, we have the resources and knowledge to be able to so why aren’t we?” You ask the agitation clear in your voice. “Miss Y/L/N” Adam scolds you shrug “I’m just telling it how it is, we run at a ridiculous loss in legal because of these lawsuits because we’re not allowed to fight what we know we can win, I want to change that then Pleasing will flourish, this isn’t about ego or status, it’s about keeping this company afloat, we have staff in other departments having three day working weeks because we have nothing for them to work on!”

Mr Styles has was resting under his chin glancing between you and Adam, who was seemingly hoping his glare would kill you there and then, “alright Miss Y/L/N, I’ll give you this next quarter do run legal the way you want, fight which ever battles the way you see fit and we’ll see who’s method works better” you nod “thank you Mr Styles, I’ll be sure to keep you up to date” you say before sitting down trying to hide the fact that you were quiet impressed with yourself in that current moment.

The final piece on the agenda was the annual company holiday party. This was often something that would occur in early November to beat the holiday rush that the company experienced later in the month and into December. Since you had begun at Pleasing a large majority of the planning for the holiday party was left to you. The last few years this party had been held in the function room of a local hotel, this year however you were changing things up wanting booking a local winery instead with gorgeous views and amazing wines and cocktails, just what you needed to get through a day of celebrations with colleagues and of course the snobby CEO.

Finally once the meeting is over your able to go back to your office shutting yourself away. You turn to walk towards your desk to find Joel already sitting in your chair causing you to jump, gasping “what the hell are you doing?!” You exclaim “you scared the life out of me!” You scold placing your papers on your desk “I was bored, thought I’d come and see what you were up to, Harry has literally nothing for us to do in marketing because we have no money” he sighs dramatically. Joel was one of the first friends you made here at Pleasing, he took the gay best friend stereotype to another level. You think about his words for a moment “Harry?” You ask confused causing Joel to scoff “are you insane?! The ridiculously hot man you just had a two hour long meeting with!” You glare at him to tone it down “you mean Mr Styles…get out of my chair” you pester needing to get some work done.

“Mr Styles and I finally sort of understand each other, he’s letting me run legal the way I want for the quarter” Joel sits in a chair on the other sise of your desk giving you a sly eye “maybe he likes a powerful woman” he winks “stop it. He’s our boss” you say sitting down to go through some paperwork “are we going for drinks tonight?” Joel asks swiping through Grindr on his phone “for the millionth time, I said I would be there” you say a little snappy causing Joel to look up “for the love of all things gay we need to get you laid, snappy exec isn’t a good look on you.” He chimes in standing up “I’m sorry, I just have a lot to do,I got really angry in the meeting, I want to prove to Mr Styles that things need to change around here for good” you sigh. Joel comes around to you hugging your shoulders, “you’re the best lawyer here, I’m sure whatever you need to prove, you’ll be able to do it, and if you don’t just flash him your tits or something, I don’t really know what straight men want” he shrugs letting you go walking to your office door “I’ll see you tonight, don’t be late!” He calls out as he walking out.

*****

By the time you left work it was 7pm, drinks were supposed to be straight after work at 5:30 but you got so caught up in a new lawsuit and then planning some more of the office holiday party that you didn’t even realise what the time was. You quickly pack up and rush off to find everyone already a few cocktails deep “I’m so sorry I’m late” you whisper to Joel with a pout he shrugs “it’s ok, we were just thinking of going to a different bar, look over in the corner” you look at him confused before looking over to see Mr Styles at a smaller table with a woman, presumably on a date “ugh, I agree with that, let’s get out of here, there’s a new bar just opened not far from my apartment, should we try there?” You ask starting to clear the table off a little to help the staff. The same group from work came here almost every fortnight so now you were all just in a routine of helping to clean up after yourselves before you left and it sometimes meant you got free drinks.

Heading out you glance once more in your bosses direction to see him already looking at you. You glare at him as his date clings to his side playing with the collar of his shirt. You roll your eyes before following Joel out the door. The group of you pile into an Uber and head over to the new bar near your place. Sitting down next to Joel you begin chatting to another of the girls from marketing as your first round of drinks arrive. You get a few rounds in before Joel nudges your side “my girl…what’s wrong?” He asks wrapping an arm around you, you shrug “I think it’s just work, that finances meeting took it out of me today” you sigh “I think I just need a night at home” you say softly spinning your glass in your hand glancing at Joel. He nods slowly “finish this round?” He asks and you nod breaking into a smile “of course” you giggle a little. You spent another twenty minutes or so with the group before you started to gather your things to go home.

Joel walks you out to the front of the bar pulling you in for a hug “look after yourself yeah? Please don’t work over the weekend” he sighs a little you nod hugging him back “I’ll try not to but lawsuits don’t sleep, see you Monday?” You ask softly. Joel nods “go get some sleep, love ya bitch” he smiles kissing your cheek before letting you go.

*******

The weekend went by slowly, but it was what you needed to reset. Sunday you had spent the afternoon sending off emails to vendors for the work party so that replies would come in early in the work week. You were lounging on the couch scrolling through Pinterest looking for decoration inspiration when your phone began to ring with a number you didn’t recognise. You glance at it for a moment before picking up “Hello?” You answer down the line waiting a moment for a response “Y/n? It’s Harr- uh, Mr Styles” you sit up a little “um Mr Styles Hi, what can I do for you?” You ask he clears his throat “I have a breakfast meeting tomorrow for a potential collaboration and I would be really grateful if you could come alone to go over contracts and everything?” He asks you process the question for a moment “Bess usually handles new contracts Mr Styles, do you really need me?” You ask “Bess has had a family emergency she can’t make it” he responds you sigh a little “yeah ok, I can fill in for her” he let’s put a sigh of relief “thank you so much, I really appreciate it, I’ll get the contracts and meeting details sent over to you and I’ll see you in the conference room at 7am” before you knew it he had hung up, you groan tossing your phone to one side giving yourself one last moment to relax before picking your phone up heading to your desk to look over the contracts overnight.

Spending most of the night going over the contracts and making changes to benefit Pleasing, you left your desk at 5am to start getting ready, having a shower trying to wake yourself up. Putting some makeup on around 6am your phone begins to chime with Mr Styles phone number illuminating your screen you quickly pick up “Good morning” you chime trying to sound enthusiastic and at least awake “Good morning, you’re up already by the sounds of things, have you had a chance to look over the contracts?” He asks hearing him clattering around in his kitchen “yeah, I looked over them last night and added in some proposed changes to benefit us, I’ll send them over to you now” you place your phone on speaker sending the documents off. “Did you sleep at all? This is an entire days worth of work” you giggle a little “after we spoke last night I got straight into the contracts, there’s a few more changes I wanted to make but it got to 5am and I figured I should probably get ready” the line goes silent for a moment “Wow Y/n that’s real dedication, are you sure your going to be ok to work all day?” Mr Styles asks “I’ll be fine, not the first time I’ve done long hours like that, I should probably get going, I’ll see you at 7 Mr Styles” you say before hanging up, wanting to end the conversation quickly.

Harry was honestly surprised at how dedicated to your job you were and he appreciated that a lot of the work you did was under the radar. On his drive in to work he stopped at one of this favourite coffee shops picking himself up his usual espresso and a latte for you hoping that he got your order right. He felt as though he had been a little tough on you, seeing that you were so dedicated to ensuring Pleasing was succuessful and even having the guts to make you opinions known in the finances meeting made him regret how he had treated you. Pulling into the car park Harry grabbed his bags and made his way up to his office dropping a few things off and picking a few up before heading to the conference room.

Heading down the hall Harry expected to be the first one there, but inching closer to the conference room he noticed the lights already on and the room essentially set up for the breakfast meeting due to start in half an hour. Walking in Harry finds you sitting at the table, head basically in your laptop still going over the contracts. “Morning” Harry smiles softly, you just about jump out of your skin partially due to sleep deprivation, but also not expecting anyone to arrive until closer to 7, “Mr Styles!” you exclaim trying to catch your breath “I didn’t expect you to be here so early” you sigh. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you, I actually came in to set up but looks like you beat me to it...I um I got you a latte I hope that’s ok” He says a little shy compared to how he usually presents himself. You look up from your computer smiling a little “thank you, you didn’t have to do that Mr Styles” He shakes his head placing the coffee cup next to you “Please... call me Harry.” You couldn’t help but blush a little at your boss asking you to call him by his first name. You were about to respond when some other lawyers and execs start to flow into the conference room.

The meeting ran reletively smoothly, both you and Harry managed to negotiate most of the changes to the contract, which for you, meant the night without sleep was worth while. Once everyone had left and it was just you and Harry you stretch in your chair, trying to hold in a yawn and failing miserably, you hear Harry chuckle off to the side “if you want the rest of the day off I wouldn’t be mad in the slightest, I understand now why we asked you to stay on permanently” he says softly moving closer to you.

You couldn’t help but smile a little at the compliment it was the first time that you’d felt appreciated in this role. You look up at Harry with tired eyes “I’ll be ok Harry, nothing a little bit of coffee can’t fix” he smirks a little “I’m sure your right but I’m concerned that that’s already your third coffee since we’ve been here, let alone the coffee you probably consumed before you got here” you sigh softly knowing he was right but not wanting to give in “Harry. I’ll be fine. End of” you retort. He holds his hands up in defeat. “Ok, I’ll leave you to it then, thank you for saving the day, I truely appreciate it, let me know if there’s anything I can do for you today” you shrug “no thanks needed, it’s what you pay me for” you smile softly. Harry only nods before making his way to his office.

The rest of your day dragged on, you got through a few contract changes and spent most of the afternoon on party prep to keep yourself awake. It was this weekend and everything was organised. Vendors has emailed you back with confirmations this morning, the last thing you had to do was find yourself something to wear. The company usually kept things semi formal for this particular event. You wanted to let your hair down a little and be a little more daring this year. You shoot a message off to Joel to see if he was free to help you pick something. Before he could reply your office phone began to ring. “Legal, this is Y/n” you answer not really looking at where the call was coming from “Y/n, it’s Harry, could you come to my office for a moment?” He asks you stammer a little trying to find your words “umm yeah ok, I’ll be there in 5” you hang up and collect a few things expecting this to be work related.

You make it to Harry’s assistance desk and smile softly at her “Hi, I’m just here to see Mr Styles” without saying a word she motions for you to head into his office. You walk towards the door and knock softly before opening it seeing Harry sitting at his desk on the phone. He motions for you to come in and take a seat. He finishes up with his phone call directing his attention to you “Hi” he smiles softly. He almost looked nervous and it made you a little bit giddy for him, which you weren’t sure how to feel about. “I just wanted to touch base and see how you were feeling, haven’t fallen asleep at your desk yet?” He asks you smile a little and shake your head “no, no unexpected naps yet” you giggle. Harry just smiles at you taking you in for a moment before realising himself that he was just staring at you, clearing his throat you bite your lip a little trying to hold in your awkward laugh “I um was hoping you had some time to talk to me about the company party? I know we touched on it briefly in the finances meeting but I’d love to know what you’ve got planned” Harry explains giving you his undivided attention “yeah of course” you spent about an hour going through all of your plans with Harry to which he hardly spoke and could barely take his eyes off you the entire time.

“This is amazing work, really thank you Y/n, a lot of what you do goes unrecognised because you never make a fuss or take credit for these things so thank you so so much” Harry smiles. All of a sudden you felt this wave of affection for the man sitting before you. You always thought he was some stuck up CEO when in fact he actually really cared for his company, it was nice that the feeling was mutual. “I should have let you run legal the way you wanted a long time ago, I’m sorry I’ve been so uptight” you shake your head a little “Mr Styles this is your company, you’re allowed to run it the way you see fit” he chuckles a little “even when I’m telling you your right you won’t take credit, be honest with me though, is it that bad?” He asks. You just nod “I think everyone tried to cover it, I just prefer to be brutally honest about it all“ Harry sighs softly “i really appreciate you bringing everything to my attention, I wish I’d been more open to listening to you in the first place...hey I usually have something at my place after the holiday party, I’d love to have you there this year...and you’re more the welcome to bring Joel everyone else brings their partners so you should to” his smile soon fades at the confused look plastered on your face “Mr Styles-“ you begin before he cuts you off “Harry” he says before letting you carry on rolling your eyes a little “Harry, you know Joel’s gay right?” Harry’s eyes grow wide and he begins to apologise profusely causing you to laugh “it’s fine, really it’s fine, quiet funny actually” you smirk. Harry’s cheeks has gone cherry red and was shaking his head to himself “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed anything, but either way the invitation stands” he says softly. You nod and smile “It’ll be just me, but I’d love to be there” you say softly causing Harry to smile “great”. You finalise a few other details for the company party before you head out making your way straight to Joel’s office.

“You will never guess what just happened” you giggle sitting down. Joel takes one look at you and speaks up “baby girl, have you slept?” He asks. You simply shake your head “no and that’s not what I was coming to tell you, Harry thought you and I were a couple” Joel breaks out in hysterical laughter “that’s the funniest shit I’ve ever heard, no offence sweetheart your adorable but even if I was straight your not my type” you pout a little “thanks?” You say softly not sure if it was really a compliment or not. “So it sounds like you and our hunky CEO are getting along?” Joel asks with a knowing look “I guess we are, he invited me to an after party at his place, he’s been really nice I don’t know what’s going on but it’s kind of hot” you sigh annoyed that you found yourself attracted to a man you usually despise.

“Don’t get too caught up ma’am, remember you saw him on a date like three days ago.” Joel reminds you. You tilt your head to one side for a moment thinking about his words “I guess your right, I hadn’t really thought of that” Joel shakes his head a little “babes you just need to get laid it’s been too long, what about that Tom guy from HR didn’t he ask for your number?” You nod “yeah he never texted me but maybe I’ll get drunk enough at this holiday party that I’ll make a move on him, but that’s a later problem right now I need your help to pick a dress can we go shopping after work?” You ask. Joel smirks “we could go now?” You glare at him “it’s only 4:30” Joel just nods and glares back “yeah and you’ve been here since 6:30 and been up all night and not had a lunch break so news flash sunshine we’re going” you groan a little “fine, let me go and grab my things” you say heading off to your office.

You head up to your office and grab your bags swinging by the legal receptionist desk “Hey Maria, I’m heading out for the day, just forward any of my calls to my mobile” you smile softly she nods before you begin to walk off “oh Y/n wait!” She calls out standing up coming after you “Mr Styles assistant dropped this off for you earlier” she says passing you an envelope you thank her before continuing back to Joel’s office. You open the envelope to find a note ‘consider this a bonus on top of your bonus, thank you for all of your incredible work, I’d be lost without you - H x’ you blush reading his note as you walk into Joel’s office. You pull out a cheque for five thousand dollars and gasp a little only expecting it to be a small amount. Joel looks up at you “what’s wrong?” He asks “Harry just gave me a bonus on top of my Christmas bonus…. And a note that’s ridiculously sweet” you pass it over to Joel who’s quickly reads over it and smiles “he’s got the hots for you, c’mon if your going to end up fucking the CEO after the holiday party the least you can do is look ridiculously hot”

******

Saturday morning. The day of the holiday party. It had both you and Harry all kinds of nervous. You and Joel had come to the venue first thing to help them set up before heading home around lunch time to start getting ready. “Do you really think Harry is going to like this dress?!” You call out from your walk in robe. Joel soon appears in the doorway “wow, now I’m no straight man but damn sweetheart you look fucking incredible, I’m so glad they had that dress in your size” his compliment causes you to smile a little looking yourself over in the mirror again. Joel had found the dress and you were initially a little skeptical that it was too much but you felt amazing in it.

The red fabric hugged your hips perfectly and the low back really complimented your shape, you pop some earrings in and some perfume on before grabbing a coat.

Arriving you see there’s already quiet a few people at the venue. You hand your coat over to the clerk before heading into the venue seeing several familiar faces. You take a moment to take the room in, everything was perfect. Joel nudges your side a little “you’ve outdone yourself….someone’s already gawking at you” he smiles “enjoy tonight please, I’m going to go and cause some trouble” he smiles heading away from you leaving you standing at the entrance. You look over towards Harry and see him staring at you not at all involved in the conversation around him. You decide to play hardball and head over to the bar first grabbing yourself a drink mingling with a few people.

About an hour passes you’d kept your eye on Harry and found him already looking at you almost every time you caught his eye. Next thing you know Harry is at the front of the venue with a microphone in hand. This was his usual every year, he would make a speech thanking everyone for another year of hard work. “Hi everyone, thank you all for coming out tonight, I’ll keep this short and sweet, I just want to thank you all for the hard work and effort you’ve put in this year, I just wanted to highlight a few that have gone above and beyond this year, Joel in marketing you’ve done some incredible stuff this year and boosted our exposure ten fold so thank you. Tania in development you and your entire team have put a lot of hours in and given us some of our best ideas this year and finally, Y/n our legal exec, Y/n goes above and beyond every single year with late nights, early mornings and sometimes missing out on sleep all together because the CEO is a bit of an ass” the room erupts in a sea of laughter as you smile a little watching Harry who was watching you “Y/n is also the reason we have a holiday party each year, she organises every last detail so on behalf of everyone thank you Y/n we appreciate you so much. And thank you everyone for coming out, now please go and enjoy your night blow off some steam!” Harry chuckles as everyone cheers as glasses begin clinking together as people toast.

You sip on your drink and glance over at Harry again noticing he was making his way over to you “Hi” he smiles softly “Hey” you respond “nice speech” you smirk trying to hold in your giggle. He chuckles softly “well you do way more than I expect of anyone you deserve the recognition” you shrug a little “the bonus check ontop of my bonus check was a bit much, but thank you Harry, I really appreciate it” you smile softly he chuckles a little looking at his feet “you deserve it and I would definitely be lost without you…” Harry pauses for a moment “you umm, you look stunning by the way that dress…wow” he sighs out. You blush and smile softly “thank you, you scrub up pretty well yourself Harry” from a corner you hear Joel calling out to you you sigh a little “sorry I better go rein him in, see you later?” You ask placing your hand on Harry’s forearm he nods smiling “of course” he says softly helping you off the bar stool you were perched on before leaning down to kiss your cheek.

You reach Joel who was just standing giggling at you clearly tispy “What the hell man, I was just talking to Harry and your big mouth just had to but in” Joel glares at you “excuse me Miss thing back that attitude up” you bat your eyes looking back at him “fine, I’m sorry, what’s up?” You ask “I was just talking to Harry’s assistant, that girl he was with at the bar when we saw him, complete doozy his assistant said she keeps calling him at work and he keeps screening her calls saying he’s not in or he’s busy” you look at Joel before scanning the room finding Harry chatting to Bess “ok, so?” You ask coming back to Joel “are you insane?! He gives you cute notes, bonuses and just talked about you like the sun shines out of your ass, he wants you dummy” you groan a little “but I hated him like a week ago” Joel grabs your shoulders “who cares? He’s got the hots for you and let’s be real you only hated him because of work crap, you actually don’t really know him they well, I’m not saying to have to marry him just go and have fun, let your hair down please” Joel begs you sigh and admit defeat, heading back to the bar for another drink.

Waiting for your order you hear someone slide in next to you, thinking it was Harry you turn and smile only to see if was Luke one of the office rascals, he did this to you at almost every work event, got up close and personal, making moves on you and using every derogatory joke in the book, you turned him down every single time. He’s appalling. You quickly turn away from him “awww c’mon sweet cheeks, got any love for Lukie?” He questions you groan a little not wanting to hear another word out of his mouth you feel him move closer to you and his breath that reeked of alcohol next to your ear “with an ass like that you’d have enough love for three of me-" he mumbles your drink arrives before he finishes his sentence. You walk away towards the bathrooms needing a moment to yourself.

Luke was the kind of guy that never took a hint so when you rounded to corner down the corridor to the bathrooms you turn a little and see him following you catching up to you quite quickly, “Go away Luke” you call out wanting to be left alone. He rounds you preventing you from making it to the bathroom “what’s wrong baby, we’re just having fun” he says inching closer towards you backing you against a wall “Luke leave me alone please” you beg scared for whatever fantasy he has going on in his head in one swift move he pins you against the wall your back slamming up against the brick kncocking your drink from your hand and some of your breath from your lungs. His knee moved between your thighs preventing you from kicking out against him his hands trying to make their way up your dress but trying to wrangle your arms as you try to push him away. “Luke get off me!” You yell as he leans in trying to connect his lips with any part of you he could get his mouth on.

Thrashing and panting in his arms trying to break away from his hold one of his hands starts to move up the slit in your dress, tears sting your eyes your lip trembling about to accept what was going to be your fate when all of a sudden it was as though Luke’s body weight had never been upon you. Without even thinking you drop to the floor covering your face sobbing into your knees trying to cover as much of yourself as you could feeling overly exposed. All you could hear was two men yelling at one another and the echo of fists making contact with skin rung through the corridor until finally everything stopped. All that could be heard were your sobs, you felt someone kneel down next to you causing you to shudder and hold yourself tighter. “Hey hey hey” the voice whispers reassuringly “it’s just me” you recognised Harry’s voice, but you didn’t want to look at him in your current state he places his hands next to your elbows trying his best to comfort you “c’mon, let’s get you out of here for a moment” he whispers.

Very slowly you stand still not wanting to make eye contact with him, with either of them, once you’re upright he slips his blazer off placing it over your shoulders “is there anything I can get you, do you want Joel instead of me?” He offers politely. You simply shake your head not really wanting to talk or even think. Harry begins to guide you outside to get some air. You weren’t sure who he was speaking to but you heard him talking to someone “make sure that piece of shit never steps foot in my company building again, he’s not welcome to pack his desk either, there will be nothing left of it” Harry’s tone was stern but very reassuring, he had your back right now and its exactly what you needed.

Sitting down outside your still hadn’t worked up the courage to look at Harry he just sat with you in silence ready to listen if you needed him to. You eventually break the silence when Harry hands you a clean tissue from his pocket “thank you” you whisper, quieter than you’d ever been, you soon follow up “I’m sorry” you glance up a little to look at Harry who was looking at you with a red mark to his jaw but with nothing but concern for you “please….don’t apologise” Harry whispers in reply “none of this was your fault, he’s a tool” Harry whispers taking your hand in his rubbing the top of your knuckles softly “is there anything I can do?” He asks shaking your head you move to rest your temple on Harry’s shoulder the come down from all the adrenaline making you sleepy.

You stay like that for what felt like hours, not speaking, just sitting “I think I want to leave” you say softly hugging Harry’s blazer closer to you taking a deep breath in “want me to take you home?” He asks it was evident in his voice he felt more uncomfortable about leaving you alone after what he just witnessed. You nod a little “yes please”. Harry wraps an arm around you hugging you a little “need me to grab anything for you?” He asks softly “I- I left my coat inside….but please don’t leave me Harry” you beg you voice beginning to shake. Harry scoops you up holding you to his chest rubbing your back “it’s ok, you’re ok I promise, I’m not going anywhere” you both stay put until you calm down again “how about, we walk around to the front of the venue and get your coat so no one sees and then we can go?” He asks you nod softly in his chest “thank you” you whisper softly.

Harry helps you to your feet before guiding you around to the front of the venue you go to walk up to collect your coat when you stop “I’m sorry Harry” he shakes his head “please y/n don’t apologise, he was being an ass hat” you shake your head “I’m sorry that he hit you” Harry let’s out a huff, when you look up at him he was smiling at you “I’d happily take a few hits if it means stopping him from getting to you y/n, please don’t apologise for his shitty behaviour” he says softly holding a hand out to help you up the steps to the front entrance to collect your coat. Taking Harry’s hand you felt safe so safe that once you made it back into the venue you didn’t want to let go. Harry let you hold his hand to collect your coat, walk to his car even on the drive home he never once asked you to let him go. Pulling up outside of your apartment you just stare at the building not wanting to get out Harry gives your hand a squeeze “why don’t you stay in my guest room tonight?” He asks “I want you to feel safe” he adds you look over at him and nod “please” you whisper Harry just nods and smiles.

Harry came up to your apartment to help you grab a few things but in reality you just didn’t want to be alone. You sit in silence on the car ride to Harry’s. Making it up to his penthouse he helps you get settled showing you the guest room and bathroom. He lets you get settled and into some comfy warmer clothes while he makes you both something to eat as you make your way back to the open living and dining space Harry makes his way to you with a cup in hand as the smell of eggs fills your senses “hot chocolate?” Harry offers you nod smiling a little for the first time tonight “thank you” you take the mug from Harry’s hands and sip the warm liquid. “Are you hungry? I’m making omelettes” Harry offers you nod a little “yes please.”

You follow Harry back to the kitchen and sit at the kitchen island watching him cook “thank you” you say after a few minutes after you sat down “I’m sorry I haven’t always been the nicest employee ever” Harry turns a little smiling at you “you’re probably one of the only employees who’s is completely honest with me and I really respect that and appreciate it, so I should be thanking you” you couldn’t help but blush a little.

You and Harry ate together and chat for most of the night, you happened to glance at your phone and see it was almost midnight “Harry weren’t you supposed to be having an after party here?” You ask. He nods “I actually decided to cancel, my staff as individuals come first, especially when without them I’d probably be broke” he jokes you smile a little “I’m sure on the back of such a successful music career it would take a while for you to go broke” Harry chuckles before you reach out rubbing your thumb over the growing bruise on his jaw “y’ok?” You ask softly Harry nods taking your hand in his “I’m ok, I want you to be ok though” he says softly you shrug a little “I’ll be ok, I think it just shocked me more than anything I didn’t expect it to happen” Harry’s brows crease “you shouldn’t expect it to happen, no one should expect for something like that to happen to them” you sigh looking down and yours and Harry’s hands “I don’t even know why I reacted the way I did” you let out a shaky breath trying to hold your tears in “because it’s never happened before? Because I should be able to provide you with a safe workplace” you let out a little scoff as some tears slip “I wish I could say it’s never happened before” Harry sighs standing “shit” he mumbles softly pulling you into his chest “I’m so so sorry” he holds you close as you give in letting your tears fall staining Harry’s white dress shirt with your tears and makeup.

After what felt like forever you calmed down and collected yourself, looking up at Harry you see him trying to hold back his own tears “I’m so sorry that happened to you, I’m sorry for every shitty man you’ve ever had to put up with, no one deserves to go through that” Harry places a kiss to your hair still holding you close “thank you for looking after me” you mumble sighing out, “Anytime” Harry whispers softly.

*****

Once you had both collected yourselves Harry got you set for the night in the guest room, but part of you didn’t know what to do, you felt too disgusted to even think about sleeping but you were more tired than ever. Then there was the fact that you were at your bosses place in his guest bedroom in your underwear. Harry had really gone above and beyond for you in the last few weeks and you had been so tough on him prior to that. You felt terrible.

At around 4:30 your usual alarm started sounding from your phone you rolled over groaning a little turning it off sitting up a little, you sigh a little and drag yourself out of bed to the bathroom before heading out to the kitchen for a glass of water you head out to the couch and sit down watching as the London breeze moves the trees in the park across the road. You sigh softly you pull your knees up to your chest it wasn’t long before the kitchen light flicked on. You turn in your seat looking over to see Harry in track pants, chest bare.

You sit just watching your boss making coffee, it was such a mundane activity, you’d never really thought of him doing these things himself, you figured he had a whole team of people that did a lot of these things for him. “Morning” you say loud enough for Harry to hear. His head pops up looking in your direction “Hey” he smiles, “I thought you’d be asleep still” you shrug a little “I couldn’t really sleep” you sigh getting up to sit across from Harry at the kitchen island. “Coffee?” He asks, you nod slightly “yes please” Harry passes you a cup before coming to sit next to you. “I won’t stay long I’ll just have this and order an Uber” you say softly glancing over at him “don’t rush please it’s only just gone 5am, besides it’s nice having company” he starts before sipping from his cup.

“I’d love to hear more about you, and how you plan on helping me run Pleasing permanently” Harry’s statement causes your ears to perk up. You look over at him confused as ever “what are you talking about?” You ask softly he just grins “I don’t need to wait for the rest of the quarter, you’ve proved to me this week that I’ve been doing things wrong, and I’d love your help to fix it, Adam gave his notice Thursday his family want to move back to the US and put their roots down permanently I had a month to find someone to fill the position but I think I’ve already done it” Harry says glancing at you trying to hold in his smile.

“Is this a joke?” you ask not believing Harry completely he just laughs before turning to look directly at you “Miss Y/L/N, I would like to formally offer you the position as the new COO for an immediate start….please say yes, the CEO’s been on my back about this” he whispers the last part causing you to giggle before nodding biting your lip softly “Ok…I’ll do it” you smile, Harry just about jumps out of his seat “are you serious?” He asks, you just nod giggling a little “yeah I’d love to” you smile Harry jumps off his seat pulling you into a tight hug. “Thank you, thank you, thank you” Harry whispers kissing your head softly.

You pull away looking up at Harry who was already smiling down at you. You reach up running your hand over the bruise that had popped up on Harry’s jaw from the night before you sigh a little. Harry moves to cup your cheeks shaking his head a little “it’s ok” he whispers. He leans down a little to rest his forehead against yours but hesitates “sorry, I should have thought about that more” he pulls away a little.

Before you even thought about what you were doing you pulled Harry back down to you connecting you lips to his in a quick kiss. Harry stumbles back a little shocked at your actions. He looks at you wide eyed panting a little you feel the heat rise in your cheeks embarrassed at what you’d done. “I- I’m sorry” you whimper hastily making your way back to the guest room ordering an Uber while you pack your things. Harry waits a moment trying to process what had just happened “y/n” Harry’s says softly standing in the doorway “I’m sorry Harry, I’m- I’m just going to go” you say softly pulling your bag over your shoulder pushing past Harry heading to the front door “y/n wait please” he sighs trying to head after you. Before Harry could go after you you’d slipped outside and into your Uber.

******

You spent the better half of the rest of the weekend feeling like that dumb cliche employee. Monday morning rolled around and you were dreading it more than ever. You’d have to face Harry and more than likely face the millions of questions to where you disappeared to on Saturday.

Parking your car you sigh a little just sitting for a moment trying to hype yourself up enough to go inside. You hadn’t heard from Harry all weekend Joel had tried to text and call but when you never replied he stopped. You wanted to talk to him about this in person and God knows he’ll be sitting in your office waiting for you when you finally make it up there.

You drag yourself inside and head up to your office. You should get into betting, just as you expected Joel was sitting in your chair waiting for you when you walked in the door “Hi lovely” he says giving you a sympathetic look. “You already know?” You ask “I think everyone does” he says softly you groan a little sitting across from him “but I do have some questions, where did you go? After I tried to call and you didn’t answer I went over to your place and it looked like there was no one there but your car was in your spot” you bite your lip softly knowing there was no talking yourself out of this one. “Umm, Harry let me stay at his place for the night, I didn’t want to be alone”

Joel’s eyes go wide as he grips the edge of your desk “I’m sorry ma’am he let you stay with him? I don’t want to break away from the main issue here but that a big thing for even you to be ok with” you shrug “he did literally everything to help me feel safe, then I fucked it up Sunday morning by giving him a peck on the lips and then running out of there like a 15 year old girl” Joel sighs running his hands through his hair “I’ve known you for a while now, whatever is going to happen with you and him will happen, and I know you’ll work it out, I was honestly just coming to make sure that your ok” he says standing up coming around to hug you tightly “I will be I promise” you mumble into his shoulder hugging him back “text me if you need anything?” He asks you nod before he lets you go kissing your temple before heading out.

Sitting at your desk sighing softly you felt guilty. Like you’d just left out a major detail of the weekend where you would essentially become Joel’s boss, well, everyone’s boss really just a step under Harry. You get settled in for the morning working through the piles of papers on your desk. Just before lunch your office phone rings. You jump a little before picking it up “legal, it’s Y/n” you say softly pushing some papers away “hey, it’s just Harry, have you got some time to come up and talk about your new contract?” He asks. You suck your teeth for a moment “umm yeah, sure, I’ll be up in a few” you say softly.

Heading up to Harry’s office you couldn’t help but hesitate to knock on his door. You knock softly and instantly cringe realising how awkward this was going to be. Harry calls out for you to come in. You smile softly as you walk in and Harry looks up from his computer “hey” he smiles wide standing up “how are you?” He asks leaning against his desk you blush a little “I’m good Harry, what’s up?” You ask, “I have something to show you” he smiles “follow me” he says softly heading out of his office. You follow suit heading away from Harry’s office to another. “I thought you might like an upgrade” he smiles softly motioning to the door with your name and new position on it “wow, you work quick here Styles” you giggle softly. “Well I wanted to make sure it was perfect” he smiles softly opening the door letting you in first you smile wide at the newly decorated office.

The walls were a light grey but still crisp and relaxing a timber accent wall behind your desk to lighten the room up. Harry had even decorated with a new, bigger desk than the one you already had, a new desktop and some plants scattered around your office “I um, noticed you had some plants in your office I thought you might like some more” he says softly from behind you “Harry, thank you so much I love it” you smile turning to face him to find him already staring at you.

Biting your lip softly you speak up “Harry I wanted to apologise, for Sunday morning I shouldn’t have done that” you say softly. He shakes his head “it’s ok, honestly. I was actually going to ask if you were free for dinner tonight?” He asks nervously letting out a breath that he felt he’d been holding in forever. You glance at your feet before nodding a little “I’d be ok with that” you smile softly. Harry tried to hide the childish grin plastered across his face “great, I’ll come and find you later?” He asks. You nod smiling a little “oh feel free to move into your new office whenever you’re ready, Adam decided to work from home for his last week so this is all yours whenever you want” Harry says softly stepping closer to you.

“I just wanted to say thank you, you really saved my butt on this, I think we’ll make a great team” you look up at Harry your breathing unsteady as Harry leans down to peck your cheek. You blush a little before there’s a knock on the door making you both jump stepping away from one another.

“Mr Styles there’s a phone call for you” his assistant calls out. Harry steps closer again his hand slowly falls to your waist squeezing a little “take a message please” he calls out softly looking into your eyes “happy?” He asks softly you nod moving your hands to rest on his chest “very happy” you smile softly as Harry’s hands snake around your waist. “Y’know I kind of didn’t like you when I first started here, but you’ve grown on me really quickly H” you admit glancing up to Harry’s eyes seeing him chuckle a little “hmm, I love being called H” he smiles before letting out a shaky breath “is this ok? I don’t want to push anything or go to fast I-” you cut him off before he could finish “Harry it’s ok, I trust you” you whisper.

Harry smiles widely leaking down kissing your forehead softly before pulling you in for a hug. You sigh softly relaxing into his chest, it was only a few moments of complete relaxation before your phone began to ring. You slowly pull away from Harry’s warmth glancing at your phone “it’s Maria…I should probably answer it” Harry smirks a little “probably just passing a message on from your boss, I hear he’s hard to please” he smiles as you release from his hold to grab your phone.

“Hi Maria, everything ok?” You sit at the end of your new desk as you talk to Maria, she soon brings up a job you’d be working on for a few weeks you move to the desk chair logging into the desktop phone held to your ear with your shoulder as Harry just watched you. After around twenty minutes and a few transfers of the call it finally ended and Harry was still patiently waiting for you sat on the sofa smiling at you.

“What’s that look for Mr Styles?” You ask trying to hold back your smile to hide how much you enjoyed this. “Just thinking about how glad I am that you said yes to this job, you’re perfect for it” Harry smiles you blush and giggle a little “I’m glad I said yes too” your phone begins to ring again causing you to sigh a little “I should get back to my old office, but I’ll see you later?” You ask standing up Harry following suit “definitely” he smiles you come over kissing his cheek softly.

******

The rest of your day flew, you hardly got a chance to look at your phone the rest of the day. When your finally caught up with everything it was almost 6:30 and you hadn’t heard from Harry yet, everyone else had started to head home you wanted to try and get as much work done before you moved out of this job for good. You go so caught up the next time you checked the clock is was 8pm you started to pack up your things to head home when your office phone began to ring. You recognised the extension as Harry’s office you pick up smiling a little “Hey Harry” you sit down again “Hey, so I was thinking considering I’ve left it pretty late to go out for dinner, how about I order in for us? Maybe I could help you move office tonight as well?” He asks you blush and giggle a little you felt like a giddy teenager “that sounds great, I’ll start packing some stuff up” “I’ll meet you in your office in a few” Harry responds you nod a little “sounds great H, see you soon” you smile before hanging up.

Harry felt genuinely nervous to spend some time alone with you that wasn’t after a traumatising event. He really wanted to get to know you better but didn’t want to go to fast. Harry ordered some dinner for you both setting it out in your new office before heading to your old office finding you still working “Hope your boss pays overtime” he smirks leaning against the door frame “he’s buying me dinner so I can’t complain” you wink as he walks in “c’mon, it’s only Monday and you’ve been here for 12 hours dinners in your new office” he smiles holding a hand out to you.

You gladly take it looking around your office a little “mind grabbing a box?” You ask look at them all scattered around your office “of course” he smiles picking up a couple of boxes stacking them on then each other. You grab a box of your own a few other bits and bobs. You walk with Harry in silence to your new office “it’s kind of scary only being down the hallway from you instead of on an entirely different floor” Harry chuckles “I didn’t know I was that scary” he glances in your direction “I wouldn’t say scary, maybe a little bit intimidating, but I think I’ll get used to it” you smile up at him turning into your new office seeing Harry had set dinner out already “H….you did all this already” you say softly looking around placing the boxes in your desk. “Thank you” you smile as Harry places the boxes he had next to yours and kissing your cheek on his way back up “my pleasure” he says softly cheeks a little red.

*******

Sitting down to dinner with Harry was honestly a little…awkward to say the least but in a good way, in a goofy way. The last time you sat down together in a work environment like this you basically argued about how legal should work. But this was a nice change, a mundane change. “So..” Harry starts “tell me more about yourself, I know where you went to uni and I know what you do for work so tell me about siblings, home life all that fun stuff” He finishes sipping from his water as you kick your heels off tucking one leg under the other on your seat. “Ok, I’m the oldest of four kids, my siblings Jared, Nick and Ashlinn think it’s crazy that I work for you. Grew up on a farm outside of Cheltenham then moved to Oxford and you know the rest” you say softly glancing at Harry. “Wait” Harry chuckles “why do they think it’s crazy?” He asks “well because you’re you, Harry Styles had, or still has, a successful music and acting career and is CEO of multimillion dollar company.” Harry hides his grin “well their sister is quiet impressive herself” he says glancing up at you as you try to hide your red cheeks.

“Tell me something no one knows” he says softly you giggle a little “like what?” You retort, Harry just shrugs “there has to be some deep dark secret there that no one knows” he says grabbing some more food you think about it for a moment “oh here’s one….I had a major crush on you growing up, when you were on x-factor……I don’t know why I told you that, it’s kind of embarrassing”. Harry laughs scooting a little closer to you “that’s actually really sweet, can I ask what changed? We’ve had a rocky work relationship the last few years.” You ponder Harry’s question for a moment “when I started here I loved it, and I still do now but in between I think I felt a little like the legal exec at the time was taking advantage of my commitment to the job which meant I resented you because he always blamed you, I think I just needed to see that young kid with curly hair in the CEO that I work with now, and I have, and he’s one of the nicest people I know here” you smile a little “you’re too nice to me Y’know that” you giggle a little “you just grew on me, I guess especially over the weekend, I’ve never felt so supported until that moment so thank you.”

Harry shrugs “honestly you’re my favourite employee I trust you more than anyone here m’glad we’re getting along better, m’glad I offered you the legal execs job, that’s not the first time I’ve been told he was hard to work with, I’m sorry some of my staffing decisions haven’t been the best” you start shaking your head “don’t apologise Harry, jobs interviews are basically just trying to judge someone character is half an hour it’s hard to do” you giggle a little turning your body to face Harry more your knees touching “what about you H, tell me about you and your family” he shrugs a little “there’s probably not much you don’t already know, I’ve got mum and Gemma they’re both really supportive….I’ve always found this really difficult trying to get to know people when they already know everything about me.” Y/n was giving Harry her undivided attention she understood where we was coming from because he was right she already knew a lot about him.

****

You and Harry finished up dinner and moved the rest of your office before moving back to the couch sitting next to one another “I haven’t told anyone yet, about the job offer, not even Joel” Harry glances at you “are you worried?” He asks softly you shrug moving to rest your head on his shoulder lightly “a little bit, it’ll be ok right?” You ask, your anxieties really coming to light. Harry nods wrapping an arm around you “your going to do great, I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t think you could do it” he says softly placing a kiss to your hair you hum a little snuggling into him a little more a wave of fatigue coming over you “we should get out of here, it’s almost 1am” you mumble trying to stifle a yawn. Harry chuckles a little “c’mon, I’ll walk you to your car” he smiles before standing up.

Harry holds his hands out to help you up which you gladly take. He pulls you up a little too quickly causing your tired body to jump into Harry’s. His hands move to your waist to steady you “y’ok?” He chuckles looking down at you. You nod rubbing your eyes a little “y’too cute” he smirks you smile a little “your not bad yourself Styles” you say wrapping your arms around his neck edging him closer towards you. Harry begins to slowly edge his lips closer to your and then back a little as if he was having his own internal struggle “you wanted to know about me?” He asks softly referring to your earlier conversation. You nod a little as Harry sticks your hair behind your ear, he pauses for a moment letting out a shaky breath. “I was harsh on you on purpose...” he starts “because I find you really attractive…I didn’t want to let myself get too caught up if you had a partner or if you weren’t looking for anything but I think working closer with you these last few weeks seeing how compassionate you are and how strong you are-“ even though he was pouring out his feelings to you, you couldn’t let him finish because you knew how you felt about him already. You wrap your arms around his shoulders pulling him in for a kiss, nothing to extravagant just enough for him to realise you didn’t need to hear anymore because you already knew.

His hands automatically drop to your waist pulling you closer to him you smile on his lips Harry hums against you one hand moving to cup your cheek softly. He slowly pulls away looking into your eyes trying to read how you were feeling and where the sudden confidence came from to kiss him. Harry grinned at you like a kid “sorry” he chuckles a little “I didn’t mean to just stare at you” he pulls away a little seemingly catching his breath. “It’s ok” you say softly “we should get home…” Harry says softly, you shrug a little “Honestly we have to be back here so soon we may as well just sleep here” Harry looks at you a crease present in his brows “why’d I get the feeling you’ve done that before” he says softly you shrug a little “I won’t confirm or deny” you knew Harry could read straight through you in that moment. You’d done it before on several occasions in fact.

“Well if you’re going to be too stubborn to go home then it’s only fair I stay here too” you giggle a little “c’mon then I’ve got a spot” you take Harry’s hand leading him to the elevator “it goes without saying, this is kind of my secret spot, not even Joel knows about it but as my boss please don’t get mad at me” Harry wraps an arm around your shoulder as you lean into him “not making any promises” he says softly before kissing into your hair, you glance up at him “I’m joking” he chuckles “your dedication is what keeps this place going half the time I don’t think I could ever actually be mad at you, frustrated, maybe. But not mad” he smiles softly as the elevator dings to the very top floor.

It was smaller than all the other floors, which is why it was used for storing spare furniture, sometimes you came up here just for some peace and quiet, it also had the best views in the building, Harry thought it was his office, but he was wrong.

The nights you stayed too late were the nights you ended up sleeping up here and using the office gym to shower and change to make it look like you had been home. “What are we doing up here?” Harry asks as you lead him towards one of the offices that you’d basically turned into a bedroom “this is my little spot, for me” you say softly opening the office door to reveal the makeshift bed, with blankets and pillows and an overnight bag on the floor holding a spare change of clothes and some comfy clothes for you to sleep in. “Ok” Harry says softly “I’m not mad, but I am a little concerned to how much overtime you probably haven’t been paid for since you worked here, sweetheart be honest with me, how often do you stay the night at work?” Harry asks dropping your hand to look at you properly. You shrug a little “once a week sometimes twice, it just depends really, on really bad weeks I’ve stayed up to four nights, I go home on my lunch breaks to get more clothes.”

Harry stares at you in awe “why did you never tell anyone?” He asks genuinely shocked by what you were telling him “it’s my choice Harry, I truely love my job, but it takes sacrifice” you say looking down at your feet. Harry sighs softly kissing your forehead “thank you” he whispers softly “for every single thing you do I don’t think I’ll ever be able to thank you enough” he says wrapping his hands around yours bumping his nose to yours “thank you” you say softly “this is kind of my favourite place, look at the view” you tug Harry’s hand a little.

“I already like the view” Harry says pecking your lips softly you giggle against Harry’s lips “I’m serious you goose” you say after he pulls away you tug Harry’s hand again causing him to turn to look out the window “wow” he exhales looking out at the London sky line “I’ll never get used to being home all the time” he says softly you snuggle into Harry’s side a little “cold?” He asks softly you nod it wasn’t very well heated up on the top floor “c’mon let’s get tucked in….umm, do you mind if I sleep in my boxers?” He asks nervously “no not at all” you smile up at Harry kissing his cheek before grabbing your bag taking out some clothes before slipping out to the bathroom leaving Harry to get comfortable.

Arriving back Harry was snuggled into the makeshift bed with just about every blanket and throw over him waiting for you he smiles in your direction an oversized jumper covering a quarter of the way down your thighs. “This is quiet domestic of us” Harry’s says softly pushing the covers back for you. You giggle a little climbing in next to him “it is, I hope it’s comfortable, half the time I’m so tired by the time I get up here I just fall asleep” Harry smiles a little turning to you “it’s surprisingly comfortable” he says softly you raise an eyebrow at him “ok it’s not the most comfortable thing ever, but I’m not worried about comfort” he says smiling a little.

“Do we need a pillow wall?” You ask jokingly. Harry chuckles “I think we’ll be ok don’t you?” He asks you nod smiling “I was joking” you giggle. Harry smiles as you lean over to kiss his cheek. “Goodnight Harry” you whisper softly snuggling down into the covers already becoming groggy due to current lack of sleep. “Goodnight y/n” Harry whispers before you fall asleep.

*****

Waking up the next morning the weather was less than pleasant, you were almost hugging the side of the bed trying to keep some distance between you and Harry. It had been a confusing 72 hours to say the least between kissing Harry, accepting a new position and now sleeping in the same dodgy ass bed with him you didn’t know what to think about any of it. You sigh a little rolling over expecting to bump into Harry but finding nothing.

You sit up looking around the room seeing no one else there you sigh a little look at the time seeing it was only 6:30 you drag yourself from the bed packing everything up before grabbing your overnight bag heading down to the work gym you shower and get yourself ready for the day. Heading down to your car to drop your overnight bag in the trunk you see Harry pulling in. He steps out of his car coffee and breakfast in hand a Pleasing hoodie hugging his torso.

“Good morning” you say softly causing Harry to jump “Hi” he smiles before glancing at his watch “it’s early, I thought you’d be asleep still” you shrug a little “honestly this is like a sleep in for me” you giggle a little Harry just smiles looking you up and down “I love that sweater” he chuckles referring to cream coloured knit with lemons on it. “How does coffee and breakfast in your new office sound?” He asks beginning to head to the elevator to take you both back inside “I would say you know how to keep a girl happy H” you smirk glancing in his direction.

You both climb into the elevator Harry hands you your coffee kissing your temple “I hope I didn’t wake you this morning, you looked so peaceful” he comments as if it wouldn’t just make you melt you just look at him smiling trying to find your words eventually giving up lifting your jaw to close. You make your way up to your office with Harry beside you in silence you sit down together stealing small glances at one another every so often. 8am rolls around and everyone else slowly starts to flow in meaning both yours and Harry’s phones soon started ringing yours first with Joel’s name illuminating your screen “sorry I should grab this” you say softly picking up the device sliding across to answer the call. “Hey you, wha-” you didn’t even get to finish before Joel was booming down the line “what the fuck?! Did you quit?!” He almost screams “What? No why?” You ask “your office is empty” he says genuinely sounding disappointed “oh my goodness honey no, I haven’t had a chance to tell you yet, I’ll be right down don’t move” you say before hanging up.

Looking at Harry the crease in his brow present “is everything ok?” He asks softly you nod “I haven’t told Joel about the promotion and he thinks I’ve left because my old office is empty” you say softly standing grabbing your phone “I’m sorry I’m running out on breakfast” Harry shakes his head taking your hand “it’s ok y/n do what you need to I’m here all day” he smiles a little standing as well grabbing his things “I’ll see you later?” He asks softly, you nod as he pulls you closer checking the coast was clear before pressing his lips to your causing hands to rest just under Harry’s jaw “don’t get us a caught Harry, dunno what the boss would think” you hum against his causing him to chuckle and smile “you’re so cheeky” he chuckles against your lips pecking them a few more times “let me know if you need anything ok?” You nod slowly peeling away from each other.

*****

Racing down to your old office you find Joel sitting in the new bare office “hey” you say softly he looks up at you and you couldn’t read him at all, he looked angry upset and confused all at once but you couldn’t pin point one. “Let’s go talk” you say softly “just tell me one thing…are you leaving?” He asks you shake your head smiling a little “no sweetheart, I’m not leaving” you say “c’mon I have something to show you” he follows you up to the CEO floor, “what are we doing up here?” He asks. “Going to my new office” you smile as you make it to your office door with your name and position printed upon it. Joel looks at the door then back at you then back at the door “that….that’s you, it…it says COO” you nod giggling a little “yeah it does” you say softly letting the information sink in yourself.

“Are you serious? Babes that’s amazing! I’m so proud” he smiles pulling you in for the tightest hug you’ve ever had “thank you” you giggle a little hugging him back “we need to celebrate!” He says pulling away holding your shoulders “drinks Friday night to celebrate you?!” You nod “I would love that! Come in, there’s more to tell you” you say softly opening your office door for Joel. You chat for about an hour and tell him everything about what was going on between you and Harry.

Once you had finished Joel just looked at you a little shocked but also processing everything still “invite him along…on Friday, we can all hang out together and try and sus him out for you” you nod “ok, but hear me out for a second, I like him, he’s actually really sweet, I’d love to spend time with you guys and with him all together it’ll be great” Joel stands coming to hug you “I’m so proud of you, I’m glad that you guys are doing whatever it is that your doing, you’d make a cute couple, and freakin hot power couple I mean look at this, working on the same floor just down the hall from one another” Joel smiles giving you a squeeze causing you to giggle “ok, ok calm down” you laugh. “I better go, my best friends my boss now I don’t want to upset her” he chuckles you pout a little before saying your goodbyes.

****

You spent a large majority of your week on zoom calls with Adam trying to fill in the gaps for the COO job and trying to find someone else to pick up the leftovers in legal now that they were one down. You and Harry had kept things pretty relaxed most of the week you had texted on and off throughout and he had arrived with coffee for you both almost each morning. Starting the morning ritual of coffee a kiss and a little catch up on the main issues for the day. Neither of your had brought up that fact that you weren’t sure what was happening just that you were enjoying being around one another. You didn’t want to leave the little bubble you had created it was comfortable and it felt incredibly safe, just what you needed.

Joel swung past your office Friday afternoon double checking you were still on for the night you assured him for what felt like the 10th time this week that you and Harry would be there on time, with bells on.

At 5:30 you had for once managed to get everything done for the day, you took yourself down to Harry’s office his assistant already gone for the day, you knock softly and hear him call out. You let yourself in smiling softly “hey you….almost ready?” You ask softly moving towards his desk. Harry stands “just finished up, what a day, I didn’t realise how hard my job was going to get when I have such an attractive COO, it’s hard to focus with you walking past all day, especially in those jeans” he teases as his hands move to hold your waist “can I steal a kiss before we go for drinks?” He begs pulling you closer. You giggle wrapping your arms around him “mmm I’m sure I can spare some time for you” you say softly before pressing your lips to Harry’s.

Harry pulls you closer his hands moving lower to grip your rump your hands move to his chest grinning on his lips “can I tell you something?” You ask. Harry nods pulling away for you to look up at him “I kind of missed you this week” you say softly causing Harry to smile “I missed you as well” he sighs softly pulling you back to him kissing you again. After a few more minutes you pull away “c’mon we don’t need to be late, Joel will destroy us both” you say softly. You walk out with Harry keeping a bit of distance between you both you didn’t need investors seeing you all cuddled up to one another.

The walk to the bar got you thinking about what you would say if someone asked what you and Harry were doing. “Hey H” you say softly glancing over at him, he simply hums in response hooking his index finger around your pinkie “what are we going to say if someone asks what we are? We’re not exactly great at keeping our hands off each other” Harry glances at you sucking his lips in “that’s a good point, what would you like to tell them?” He asks you shrug a little “I don’t really know, I know I like you” he takes your hand properly giving it a squeeze, “I’m the same, I don’t really know what I want to tell them but I know I like you” he smiles softly pulling you into him kissing your temple softly you blush a little as you walk up to the bar.

Joel had organised an courtyard table knowing that Friday nights closer to the Holiday season got stupid busy and that you and your work mates liked being outside in the fresh air after being in the office all week. You guide Harry through the crowd of people until you make it outside to the courtyard seeing Joel, Kim and a few other work mates sitting around a table. Joel sees you first, coming over to give you a hug that you gladly accept “I’m so glad you made it” he says softly “me too, I hope you guys haven’t been waiting long” you smile a little pulling away “obviously you know Harry” you giggle a little as Harry smiles at Joel before Joel yanks him in for a hug “look after her, us gays may seem sweet but we’re vicious” he says just loud enough for you to hear. Harry just chuckles “no intension of going anywhere or hurting her” Harry says smiling in your direction staring at you in awe, you blush a little and kiss his cheek once Joel lets him go you head over to sit down with the rest of the group.

You were all pretty squished up on the picnic style benches and the others couldn’t really stop staring at the fact the CEO was there sitting at the table as well. Joel helps you to get the conversation flowing and after an hours and a few rounds everyone was having a great time, the other girls partners had arrived and Joel was getting you all to help him find someone on Grindr for the weekend. You all ordered some food for the table and being a few drinks in you were getting a little clingy to Harry’s delight it seemed, he had wrapped an arm around your waist pulling you into his side kissing your head causing Kim to shriek “hold the fuck on” she says pointing at you both “wait…are you guys… y/n?” She asks you giggle a little shrugging “we like each other it’s as simple as that” you say shutting down whatever else was going to come out of her mouth next. You look up at Harry who was simply smiling down at you trying to hold in his laugh. “Well I think you two would be adorable together, full on power couple right?” She says looking at Joel who then looks at you “she’s not wrong you know that” he just smirks you nudge him a little before Kim continues “I’m just saying, you know that Dan and I met at my old job and we both really liked each other, poor thing didn’t ask me out until that day I was leaving to work at Pleasing and it’s all worked out we’re engaged now” she says flashing her ring more towards Harry than you, given this was information you knew already.

Harry just reaches for your hand giving it a squeeze not wanting to put any pressure on you about whatever you were both doing you peck the corner of his lips “thank you” you whisper softly you sit around for a while before Harry squeezes your hand again holding up his phone “I gotta take this” he sighs softly you simply nod moving in to kiss his cheek but Harry moves to catch your lips instead smirking when he pulls away “just missed you” he smiles “I’ll be back in a few” he says softly pecking your lips once more. You giggle a little as he walks away to take the call, turning back you find the rest of the table staring at you.

“You have to tell us everything” Siobhan pipes up, you giggle a little and tell them most of what happened at the holiday party the weekend prior “Harry’s hardly left my side all week, it’s kind of comforting knowing he’s just down the hall too, I feel safe with him around, I feel terrible that I used to think he was horrible, he’s actually one of the nicest people I’ve ever met” you groan a little covering your face with your hands “I really really like him” the others were just looking at you giving you their undivided attention “oh my god she’s got the feels” Kim’s partner says you smile a little “I kinda do don’t I? I’m just scared it’s a little too quick I’d love to date Harry but I wanna get to know him better first” you say softly before taking the last sip of your drink “anyone else want another round? Must be my turn to buy?” You ask.

You get everyones order before heading inside to place it. While you wait you check your work emails to make sure nothing major had come up since you’d been out, when a strong pair of arms wrap around you and an all to familiar scent filled your nostrils. You smile a little wrapping your arms around his leaning into his chest “your supposed to be having fun not working” Harry whispers you giggle “says you taking work phone calls in a bar” you retort Harry just smirks placing a few dainty kisses to your neck “wrong Miss Y/L/N it was actually my sister, she was just checking in we do it every week at the same time because we’re both so busy” you turn in Harry’s hold smiling a little “H, that’s so sweet, I’m sorry I shouldn’t have assumed it was work” he shakes his head “it’s ok, I can understand why you would think it’s work, we are there a lot and it never stops” he says as you wrap your arms around his neck “I like your friends” Harry’s whispers his lips a mere inch from yours “really?” You asks smiling he just nods “they’re really fun, and I like that they’re ok with us not labelling things” you hum smiling a little “but, they got me thinking a little bit” Harry continues “I would love to take you on a proper date…if you’d like that?” He asks.

You pause teasing Harry making it seem like you were thinking about his offer “I’d love to H” you smile as Harry pulls you in close “you’re so cheeky sometimes you know that” he smirks before kissing you softly hands squeezing your waist as the bartender placed all the drinks you ordered on a tray for you to carry back out. “Do you guys do this every week?” Harry asks helping you to carry a few drinks back yiu shrug a little “we try to do at least once every two weeks but sometimes it’s more sometimes it’s less just depends on what we all have on, why?” You ask glancing at Harry for a brief moment “I was just wondering, seems like it’s good for morale” as soon as the words leave him mouth glare at him “don’t go all boss on me Styles, don’t overanalyse things, we do it for fun and to blow off steam if we’ve had a hectic week. It’s nice to just socialise with one another outside of work” you say softly making it back to the table placing the drinks down.

Harry moved to take your hands turning you towards him “hey,” he says softly “I’m sorry babe, I didn’t mean to read into it too far” he cups your cheeks kissing your nose before chuckling a little “you look so cute like this” he smiles you shove his chest a little trying to hold in your smile “you just called me babe” you smirk a little Harry jaw drops open to argue back before he stops himself “I guess I did, are you mad about it?” He asks his hands dropping to grip your hips you shake your head “not at all, I kinda like it” you wink smirking up at him before pulling him down til his lips meet yours in a needy kiss, you run your tongue across Harry’s bottom lip before realising your still with all your friends your pull away giggling a little “sorry” you smile seeing Harry looking all flustered he shakes his head a little dropping his head to your ear “what are you doing to me sweet girl” he whispers causing goosebumps to erupt on your skin. You look up at Harry with innocent eyes “stay at my place tonight?” You ask Harry nods leaning down to kiss you once more before you both sit down.

*****

Gathering your things to head home with Harry felt a little odd. Harry had said goodbye to everyone already and was headed out to flag down the Uber he ordered for you both. You did the rounds giving everyone a hug as they all started to collect their own belongings so they could head home too. You make it to Joel and hug him tightly “I was skeptical about this thing with you and Harry, but seeing you with him you look so happy sweetheart and he hardly took his eyes off your tonight, I have a feeling this is more than just liking each other and screwing around for fun” Joel smirks raising an eyebrow you smile a little “well I don’t want to jinx it, but I think that too, he’s everything I’ve ever wanted and more and he’s so damn supportive…he asked me on a proper date because of you guys, so thank you” you smile hugging him once more before saying your goodbyes and heading out to Harry “Hi handsome” you smile walking up behind him kissing his arm he turns to look at you smiling a little phone to his ear he leans down kissing your head softly taking your hand giving it a squeeze you rest your head against his arm as the Uber pulls up.

Halfway to your apartment Harry finishes up his phone call he leans over pecking your cheek placing his hand on your thigh “we have a problem” he sighs softly you look up at him with worried eyes “Luke’s suing for wrongful dismissal….says he didn’t do anything wrong and we had no right to terminate him.” You felt the anger rising and your blood rushing in your veins, you sit up instantly feeling sober “are you fucking shitting me?” You look at Harry already getting angry enough for tears to begin brewing.

“That’s not everything…he’s suing me personally as well and he’s trying to get me with an assault charge for punching him” your jaw drops you felt so incredibly guilty, “Harry I’m so-” he cuts you off before you even begin to apologise “No, please don’t do that pet, he did the wrong thing, we’re going to fight this” you sigh kissing Harry’s cheek hiding your face in his shoulder to hide your tears that we’re trying to escape “what do you we do H?” You ask softly “we’ll he’s trying to make it look like we planned everything down to him coming after you, so my lawyer said we just need to limit our public contact with one another and keep it professional at work, we’ll be ok sweetheart, I promise” Harry says grabbing your hand squeezing it as the Uber pulls up at your apartment. “I should go home” Harry sighs softly “need to do some damage control” he says pulling you in close to hug you you whimper some tears slipping as you nod. “Hey, we’re going to be ok, this isn’t forever he’s just a small problem, c’mere” Harry whispers lifting your chin whipping your tears kissing your head then moving to connect his lips to yours, resting his forehead to yours he sighs softly “I wish I could just sneak you home with me” he smiles a little.

You giggle a little sniffling “me too” you peck Harry’s lips again “I’ll call you in the morning” Harry says placing little kisses over your face “thank you” you smile a little before collecting your things getting out of the Uber you wave a little as the car pulls away.

You turn to your apartment and sigh as your lip begins to tremble again.

Why did this have to happen now.

#Harry Styles #harry fanfic #harrys house #harry styles pleasing #pleasing #ceo harry #harry fluff #harry #one direction #harry fic #harrystyles harrystylesimagines #harry angst #imagine

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iamnotawomanimagod · 7 months

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Okay so bc I’m lazy i just decided not to keep watching the house of jay z so pls could you spoil the entire show for me? 🥺🤭

"House of Jay Z" lmfao Nins you're so fucking funny

Okay, here we go! Also I'm sorry this is SO long, I tried to keep it short, but a lot happens!

Just to refresh your memory - the first episode sets up a few storylines.

One is the trial against Fortunado, with prosecutor Auguste Dupin leading the charge. During the trial's opening remarks, he indicates that there is an informant among the Usher family. This immediately causes a lot of paranoia and distrust, which impacts a lot of the decisions the characters make.

Another storyline with Auggie and Roderick takes place after the deaths of all of Roderick's children. That's where the two men are talking in Roderick's broken down childhood home.

Third, we've got Roderick's "miracle drug" - Lidogone. It's meant to be a non-habit forming pain reliever and he's made his fortune primarily from its sale. Big shocker - Ligodone is absolutely addictive, and Roderick knows that all along.

Another key to understanding what happens is Carla Gugino's character, aka Verna. She is present and/or involved with all the deaths of all of the Usher children. She's basically a sort of devil/karma collector/god of death. Also, Verna is an anagram of Raven, which is a reference to Poe's "The Raven."

So all the Usher kids die in different horrible ways, which is revealed in the first episode, right? And Verna is there to give each of them an out - but only if they take it, which none of them do.

1 - Perry/"Prospero"

The youngest of Roderick's children (he's 25) dies in an abandoned warehouse party/orgy he's throwing, because he hooks the sprinkler system up to some tanks on the roof, not realizing those tanks are full of illegally stored acidic waste. (The building is owned by Fortunado, Roderick's pharma company, so it's kind of Roderick's fault too.) He wants water to fall on everyone to make the orgy sexier, and plans to turn it on right at midnight.

Before midnight, Verna appears (looking a lot like Red Coat from PLL lmao) and tries to tell Perry that he can end the party early (implying he doesn't have to die in such a horrible way.) But he doesn't really understand her, blows her off, and goes back to the party.

Verna tells all of the waiters/bartenders etc to leave before the acid rain falls. She also tells Roderick's wife, Morrie, who is there in secret because Perry invited her, but Morrie doesn't go. As a result, Morrie is also burned horribly by the acid, but she's the only survivor of the party and is rescued and sent to the hospital. Keep that in mind for later.

Perry dies horribly with all of his friends/lovers, everyone getting burned by the acid together into a big gross pile. He was a bit of a shit, as he was recording the whole party and intended to blackmail everyone there with the footage, so it's not a big loss. One down, five to go!

2 - Camille

She dies because she's snooping on Victorine's work, trying to prove that Victorine is the informant for the prosecution. She gets mauled to death by one of the chimps Victorine is testing her medical device on - a heart monitor thing that will not only assist with keeping heart rate steady, but can also map arteries and capillaries, making it possible to catch things like clots and strokes earlier.

Camille is a PR person, and is often the one who spins the family's scandals and losses as positive things. She also "knows everything" about everyone, but seems to resent Victorine for reasons no one else really gets.

Camille goes to Victorine's lab and discovers that Victorine has faked all the results of her miraculous heart device, and she pumps the chimps full of adrenaline to make it seem like it's working.

Verna, pretending to be a security guard, tries to warn Camille away, and tell her to leave, but Camille doesn't go. Verna corners her in the room with all the chimps, and gives a big speech about how horrible animal testing is. Then basically "becomes" the chimp that mauls Camille to death. Another one bites the dust!

3 - Napoleon

He dies because he goes insane, and starts hallucinating a demon cat in his home. He is the most emotionally distraught at the deaths of Perry and especially Camille, as he was closest to them. He wakes up one morning after they've died, and finds his boyfriend's cat (named Pluto) completely butchered, and Leo has blood on his hands.

So Leo convinces his boyfriend that the cat must've just gotten out, and he goes out and adopts a cat that looks *exactly* like Pluto, and tries to pass it off as his boyfriend's cat.

He adopts the cat from a shelter worker - but it's Verna. She does give him the same opportunity to die a less gruesome death, as she attempts to get him to adopt a different cat (but not one that looks like Pluto.) This would've meant coming clean to his boyfriend about killing the cat, though, so Leo doesn't listen.

Throughout the episode, no one else ever sees the cat Leo adopted. It turns out that it's just Verna, basically baiting Leo into destroying his own apartment and eventually, himself.

He ends up throwing himself off his balcony in an attempt to catch the cat - who is just a figment of his madness.

It's also revealed at the end that the real Pluto is totally fine, was never killed by Leo (he just accidentally got let out of the apartment,) and all of the violence against the cat in this episode was in Leo's head.

4 - Victorine

This storyline is based on "The Telltale Heart" by Poe, and is probably one of my favorites in terms of the stories Flanagan adapted for this miniseries.

Victorine is approached by a woman with a type of heart failure that is very hard to treat. This woman is actually Verna, of course.

Victorine thinks this woman is a perfect candidate for human trials for her heart device, even though Victorine knows that the device doesn't actually work. The woman is very vulnerable and uncertain about the procedure, but Victorine insists it's all good. (That was Verna attempting to give Victorine an out, and a less painful death.)

She still moves forward with setting up the procedure, even going so far as to forge her partner's signature (who is a talented heart surgeon) on the pre-surgery documents. When her partner finds out about this, she is super pissed and breaks up with Victorine. She says she's going to expose everything Victorine has done.

In a fit of rage, Victorine throws a little decorative sculpture thing at her partner and her partner gets hit in the head and dies. Victorine doesn't remember this, however, and spends the rest of the episode trying to call her partner and get her to do the surgery.

All the while, whenever there is silence, Victorine keeps hearing the little chirp of the heart device. She starts listening to very loud music to drown it out.

Roderick (her dad) eventually goes to her to talk to her about human trials on her device (he's dying of a brain disease and wants the device for himself.)

But when she turns the music off, he can hear the chirping too.

They go to the next room and find Victorine's partner with her chest cut wide open and the device wrapped around her dead heart. Victorine realizes what she's done and stabs herself with a scalpel. (But don't worry, Roderick makes sure to do surgery on her partner himself to get the device out so the cops don't take it. This family sucks.) Four down, two to go!

The remaining Usher children are from Roderick's first marriage to a woman called Annabel Lee.

5 - Tamerlane

Tammy is having a very hard time sleeping, and in fact hasn't slept in weeks. She is also certain her influencer fitness bro husband is cheating on her. That's because Verna keeps appearing in the background of her husband's videos to make Tamerlane paranoid.

Tamerlane fires/breaks up with him, and tries to do the big launch of her Goldbug luxury subscription packages herself. She hallucinates that Verna is there in the front row of the crowd, thinks she's the "other woman" that her husband is cheating on her with, and throws a microphone stand at her.

It turns out to actually be Juno, Roderick's very young wife, who was there to support Tammy, because Juno is a sweetheart and is way too good for the Ushers.

Tammy returns home after the disastrous launch, but starts seeing Verna in all of her mirrors. Verna keeps telling her to go to sleep, to get some rest, to stop being so paranoid and looking for enemies everywhere (her way of trying to give Tammy a peaceful death.)

Tammy starts smashing her mirrors in an attempt to get Verna to stop taunting her. This leads her to her bedroom, where she has a mirror on the ceiling and as her headboard. She smashes the ceiling mirror and the falling shards of glass kill her.

Just one last Usher child remains...

6 - Frederick

Freddie is the eldest child of Roderick Usher, and the final one to die. He's the worst, and imo he could've died a lot more painfully.

When he finds out that his wife Morrie was at the party where Perry died, he goes full asshole abuser mode, in the worst possible way. He removes Morrie from the hospital early and makes a sickbed for her at home. He tells his daughter Lenore (the only grandchild of Roderick) that he's going to get doctors and other help for Morrie, but Lenore never sees anyone coming in or out of the house.

That's because Frederick is essentially keeping Morrie captive and denying her medical treatment. He's using a paralytic to keep her immobilized and unable to speak, but completely aware. So she's just suffering and in horrible pain from the full-body acid burns, and he's using that to punish her for going to the party and presumably cheating on him.

He eventually prints out a million pictures of them on their wedding day and puts them all over the walls in her sickroom. He makes a speech about having to "put his house in order" and about how much he loved her smile when they met.

Then he rips all of her teeth out with some pliers. (This isn't shown, thank god.)

Lenore is growing more and more suspicious of her father and his treatment of her mother. He starts telling her that Morrie is too unwell for visits. When Lenore confronts him about it, he forbids her from checking on Morrie and then leaves the house.

Lenore breaks into her mother's sickroom, finds her being held captive there there, and calls the police. Morrie is rescued and returned to the hospital. We'll talk about what happens with Lenore later.

Frederick left the house to go oversee the demolition of the warehouse where Perry died. It's happening at night, under the table, without any proper permits. He decides he wants to go in and take a piss on the spot Perry died.

It's important to note that he's been doing a shitton of coke for several days now. Earlier, after ripping Morrie's teeth out, when he was getting ready to leave, he was scooping some more coke into a little baggie. We later see that Verna was behind him, urging him to take "more." It turns out that the "more" in question was actually some of the paralytic powder that Frederick was using on Morrie. So he does a bump of his "coke," unzips his fly to pee, then goes rigid and collapses to the floor, paralyzed.

Verna appears, impersonating a construction worker, and explains what's happening to him. She was going to give him an out, just like she did with his siblings, until he ripped Morrie's teeth out. Verna decides then that Frederick will not get the chance for a peaceful death. So she makes sure that he's got the paralytic instead of the coke, waits for him to be alone in the warehouse, then mimics his voice on the radio and calls for the demolition to begin.

Frederick dies paralyzed on the floor, with his dick out (embarrassing,) as the building collapses around him. A big metal piece of the rafters breaks free, swinging like a pendulum, and slowly cuts him in half. Still too good for him, if you ask me.

So now all of Roderick's children are dead! But we're not done, we've still got the terrible twins to contend with.

7 - How Madeline and Roderick fucked over Auggie Dupin

Back in the late '70s, Dupin used to be an investigator for Medicare fraud. He uncovered a conspiracy where higher-ups at Fortunado were forging the signatures of their lower-level employees (like Roderick, at the time,) and their patients, making it seem like the patients had signed off on agreeing to medication trials. They took advantage of a lot of sick, elderly, and mentally unwell people to do so.

For months, Roderick acts like he's going along with Dupin's investigation and plan to ruin Fortunado. He agrees to be a whistleblower and testify that Fortunado forged his signature and lied to their patients.

When the trial finally happens, Roderick lies under oath, says he did sign those papers, and insinuates that Auggie has been harassing him and his family into helping bring down Fortunado. Roderick is very briefly arrested, but quickly set free by Fortunado lawyers. Auggie is left with no case against Fortunado at all, because his key witness and whistleblower betrayed him.

When Roderick's very good, sweet first wife (named Annabel Lee, after the Poe poem) finds out about this, and that Roderick planned to turn on Auggie all along, she is devastated and angry. She leaves Roderick.

It's later revealed that Roderick basically bought their children (Tamerlane and Frederick) away from her by showing them a lavish lifestyle that she couldn't compete with, and Annabel Lee eventually kills herself from the loneliness.

(In the present-day timeline, Auggie admits that the only reason he trusted Roderick was because of Annabel Lee being a genuinely moral, kind person.)

8 - The Deal with Verna

Back in the late 70s, once word gets out that Roderick lied to save the company from litigation, Roderick is considered set for life at Fortunado. His horrible boss, Rufus, keeps talking him up at this big New Year's Eve party, telling him how everyone knows that Roderick is Rufus's number one man.

Later on at this party, Madeline lures Rufus into the basement. She and Roderick then brick him into a wall that's under construction, Cask of Amontillado style. They also poisoned him with cyanide for good measure.

Because Rufus talked up Roderick so much, it's almost guaranteed that Roderick will inherit Rufus's position/title when Rufus turns up missing.

Madeline and Roderick leave the Fortunado party to establish an alibi elsewhere. They find a small, relatively uncrowded bar. It's here that they meet Verna.

Important to note - Madeline was the mastermind behind all of this. She convinced Roderick to betray Auggie. She came up with the plan of trapping and killing Rufus, letting Roddie take his job. She is absolutely the smarter of the two, and is basically always pulling Roderick's strings in the background.

Everything that Roderick is, he owes to Madeline's ruthlessness, cleverness, and total disregard for everyone else but herself and her twin brother.

And to one other thing...

The terrible twins are the last people at the bar, and are talking about their ambitions and dreams while they drink with Verna. As the conversation goes on, Verna reveals that she knows what the twins did to Rufus just hours before, which should be impossible.

She then gives them an offer, and makes it clear that it's not a hypothetical, but a deal that she wants to make with them.

If they accept, their family will never again be able to be convicted of any crime, including the murder the twins literally just committed. No legal charges will ever stick. They'll achieve anything they can imagine, and have a lifetime of money, luxury, and comfort.

But the trade-off is their entire bloodline. When Roderick and Madeline reach the age where they would've naturally died anyway, all of their offspring will die before them.

Obviously, they took the deal. Madeline never has children. Roderick pops them out left and right. And one of his children has a child, too - Lenore. And the trade-off is the entire bloodline.

9 - Lenore

Roderick loves Lenore very much. He considers her the best of the Ushers and has faith that she will be a good person. And the narrative makes it clear that this is true, as Lenore is shown constantly questioning the older members of her family about what's right and wrong, and why they're doing the things they do.

After the joint funeral of Tamerlane, Frederick, and Victorine, Roderick's brain disease makes him collapse on the street. Lenore stays with him that night to keep an eye on him, because Roderick's very young wife, Juno, has left him. (We'll get into that later, as Juno is a key part of the ending.)

The night Lenore stays with Roderick, Verna appears to her and tells her a story about Morrie. Because Lenore intervened, Morrie will make a full recovery. Then she'll go on to start a non-profit foundation for victims of domestic violence. That foundation will go on to help millions and millions of people. Morrie calls it "The Lenore Foundation."

Verna apologizes to Lenore, says she doesn't want to do this part of her job, and then gently touches Lenore's forehead.

Lenore basically goes to sleep, dying peacefully, but she's also not even 18 yet so it's a big bummer. (One of the implications of this is that all of Roderick's children could have died this way, too, but they were assholes so their deaths were gruesome and painful.)

Roderick is obviously very distraught by this. He goes to his childhood home and asks Auggie Dupin to meet him there.

10 - The Deaths of the Terrible Twins

As he finishes telling him the whole story, the question of whether or not Madeline and Roderick really believed that the deal with Verna was real or not comes up. Roderick admits that he believed it, and that he knew that he would "climb to the top on a pile of corpses" and that he didn't care. He chose to do it all anyway, knowing how many people would be killed by his drug.

All throughout their conversation, Auggie keeps hearing some clunking noises in the basement. Roderick tells him "it's just Madeline."

We then find out that Roderick brought Madeline to their childhood home and shares a drink with her. He actually poisons her. After she dies, he takes her eyes out and replaces them with blue stones, mimicking the burial of Egyptian pharaohs.

Madeline, either back from the dead or having never really died, comes up from the basement wailing, her eyes gone and replaced with stones. She runs straight for Roderick and begins strangling him. At that point, the storm that's been brewing all night reaches a frenzy, lightning strikes the crumbling house, and it starts collapsing.

Auggie flees the house just before it completely falls. Madeline and Roderick are buried beneath the rubble. And so, all the Ushers are finally dead.

Epilogue - Juno

Some background - Roderick met Juno in a hospital. She was there after suffering a serious heroin overdose, which including losing her leg. (The actress playing Juno is a real amputee, so that's a fun bit of representation.) She's in a coma when Roderick hears about her - a young woman who suffers from a terrible heroin addiction and has no family, prospects, or assets of her own. Juno is given the highest dosage of Ligodone that anyone has ever received. She wakes up in no pain. She and Roderick fall in love and get married, and she continues taking the highest dosage possible, at Roderick's insistence.

Juno believes their love is real. As the show goes on, she starts expressing interest in weening herself off Ligodone. Roderick forbids her from doing so, asking her how it would look in the midst of Fortunado being on trial. When she insists, saying it should be easy since it's non-addictive, Roderick reveals that it's VERY addictive and that recovery will be a slow, painful, years-long process. He also admits that the reason he loves her is because her body is so good at processing Ligodone, and she's taking so much, that she "basically is Lidgodone." He even compares himself to Dr. Frankenstein and her to his monster. This is when she leaves him, telling him that she'll endure three years of pain and discomfort over a lifetime with him.

And then, with everyone else being dead, Juno is the only person left in the will.

She completely dissolves Fortunado and gives most of the money away. She also manages to overcome her addiction to Ligodone, slowly and painfully, but on her own terms. The heroin addict - "junkie slut" as his kids so often called her - wins it all, dismantles the horrible pharma company, and gets to live her life without the Ushers.

Auggie's final scene is him standing at the graves of the Usher family. He says: "Goodbye, Roderick. I'm going home to my husband and our kids and their kids. I'm the richest man in the world, you know?" SO on the nose and cheesy, lmao. One of the criticisms that I do have of this show is that it's pretty heavy-handed and can be very preachy at times. But putting that aside, I really enjoyed it!

Anyway - in the final scene, we see Verna placing objects of importance on each of the headstones for all of the deceased Ushers: the mask Perry was wearing the night of his death; Camille's phone (for her PR job); Pluto's collar for Napoleon; Victorine's heart device; Tamberlane's "Goldbug" pendant; Frederick's baggie of coke (lmao); the blue stones that became her eyes for Madeline; and a whiskey glass for Roderick. Lenore gets a beautiful raven's feather, wrapped in a white ribbon.

As she places these items, Verna speaks in voice over and recites the Poe poem "Spirits of the Dead."

There ya go! That's the basic meat of the story and as many details as I could include. I honestly skipped over SO much and left out some characters entirely, but I think this'll give you a good idea of what happens plot-wise.

Love you, Nins <3

#asks #nins tag #h-f-k #tfothou spoilers #this is specifically for Nins and not meant for the fandom fyi

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