#did you get anxious tho on the way home I guess I’ll never ever know NOW THAT WE DONT TALK. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

matsbarzal · 3 years

Text

Time’s a Ticking || Matthew Tkachuk

Notes: anyways I decided to do matty and I found this long list of soulmate AU prompts so I know what I’m doing tonight yikes. so here’s a lil bit of a nervous/anxious matty even tho he refuses to admit it. hope you enjoy!!! let me know how you like it <3

Summary: everyone is born with a dwindling time on their wrist. the moment the time reaches zero is when a person meets their other half, the person who makes them whole; their soulmate.

Word Count: 3k+

10,584. 7 days, 8 hours and 24 minutes. 7 days until he’d meet his other half, the person that’s meant to complete his soul, be his better half, or whatever a soulmate is meant to be. Matthew wasn’t crazy about the idea of soulmates, sure, he was surrounded by people who were madly in love and happy and complete; but he was also surrounded by those people... the one’s whose time stopped, girls and guys who had a permanent marking of time on their wrist that would never move again.

He wouldn’t say he was a pessimistic person, but he had seen so many friends and family fall into a spiral after their soulmate clock stopped ticking, watched as their other half broke them without even meeting them. He wanted to be excited and optimistic but Matthew couldn’t bring himself to feel the same delight that his friends did on his behalf. Anything could happen in this 7 days, 8 hours... and 22 minutes now.

6160 minutes

You could feel the bump of the plane as it touched the ground. This was the one part of flying you hated the most, the anxiety and the bumping as the plane made its way down the runway towards its destination. You knew anything bad was unlikely to happen, but your nerves were on edge. All you could think about was the time on your wrist, the time that kept on ticking. It hadn’t stopped in your entire 21 years of life, and from the looks of it, you were approximately four days away from that happening.

Sighing, you listened to the claps from around you as everyone congratulated the pilots for landing the plane safely. Around you, people stood up and began collecting their belongings, grabbing their bags from the overhead compartments as the chatter continued in the cabin.

You politely smiled at the man beside you as he passed you down your bag, a quick “Thank you” leaving your lips as he gestured for you to walk in front of him towards the exit.

Originally, you hadn’t had any intention of leaving Alberta for the holiday break, but your parents had practically begged you to come home for the holiday’s, citing the fact you had remained in Lake Louise for the last year and that they had only seen you once since you made the choice to unravel everything you knew by packing a few bags and moving halfway across the country to Alberta to work at some fancy ski resort in the mountains.

It was originally only meant to be a few months worth of work, waitressing in Lake Louise at a 5-star resort that is, and then time kept going by, and the more and more you fell in love with not only the scenery, but the people. Everyone was happy there, tourists were always excited and polite, everyone just wanted the chance to see the Lake, skate on the Lake, whatever it was. No one was ever unhappy here, and you loved that.

You were pulled out of your thoughts as the line in front of you continued to move quickly, people eager to get out of the cabin and get back into the fresh air that flowed outside. You could barely contain your giddiness as you stepped off the plane. You could barely believe how much you missed the province, missed your friends, coworkers, you even missed the tourists. Who would’ve thought?

After about 20 minutes of watching the carousal spin and spin and spin, you finally eyed your bright red, Flames red, as a lot of people reminded you, suitcase. Grabbing it, you hauled the bag off of the carousal and onto the ground. You were eager to get to your car, which you had already paid a good 500 dollars worth of parking for, and eager to get the move on the three hour drive across Highway 1 to Lake Louise.

After four and a half hours of travelling, you knew this three hour drive was going to exhaust you. And with the temperature out in Alberta right now? All you wanted was your bed and a cup of piping warm hot chocolate to end the day.

4590 minutes

“Man, your face is already awful to look at. You really trying to ruin it even more right before you meet your soulmate?”

Before Noah could even think, a wad of tape hit the side of his head while exclamations went up around the room about the choice of target. “Whoops, guess my tape slipped... out of my hand.”

Matthew shrugged his shoulders, an innocent grin on his face as he stood up to grab the tape from beside Noah Hanifin’s locker.

“No, but seriously, why are you getting into fights with three days left on your wrist? Don’t go and get yourself killed or something, they’d be devastated if they’ve waited this long for your dumb-ass just to have 4000 minutes tattooed on her wrist for the rest of her life.”

Shrugging his shoulders, Matthew ignored his teammates comments, choosing instead to run his finger across the always-changing number on his wrist.

“It’s not like it matters anyways.” His words were barely above a mumble, but it was enough to spark the attention of his captain, who was quick to tell him to meet him in the trainer’s office after he was done showering and getting the blood that was currently dripping down his face, cleaned.

Obliging on his captain’s orders, he found Gio in the office, a tight smile the only warning that he was about to get ripped apart by the veteran. Gio was one of the lucky ones, he had barely been 16 when his clock finally hit the big 0. It made him an advocate for all the soulmate bullshit, constantly encouraging his teammates to wait it out, be patient, their time would come.

“Chucky, buddy, we gotta have a chat.”

Quirking his eyebrows at the older man, Matthew nodded, “Well Gio, I kinda figured that one out buddy, unless you pulled me in here to look at my oh so pretty face.”

“I’m serious. You need to stop with this constant bashing of soulmates and times and shit. I know you don’t like it and you hate the concept of soulmates and whatever, but you’re doing nothing but worrying the younger guys. These kids are constantly terrified their minutes are just going to stop and be etched into their skin.”

Subconsciously running his fingers across the number on his wrist again, 4530 minutes. Wonder what that is in exact time. Shrugging his shoulders, he was quick to apologize to his captain. “Sorry, G. Not trying to scare the kids, just getting a little... I don’t know? Worried? It’s getting too close, I don’t want to get like... it’s not important, never mind. I’ll stop talking about times in the locker room. Sorry.”

Quickly tightening the tie that was now wrapped around his neck, Matthew raced out of the office before Gio could say something else to him. He eagerly grabbed his phone, wallet, keys and suit jacket before quickly making his way towards the parking garage, the only thing on his mind was of course, you.

2120 minutes

One whole day and just a few hours. You could barely breath as you ran your thumb over the little black number on your wrist. You knew it was inevitable that you’d be meeting your soulmate while working, the moment you looked at the work schedule when you arrived back from home, you knew you’d be stuck working during the time in which you were meant to meet you soulmate. You were giddy, sure. But what if they didn’t like you? What if whoever it was, was snooty, and rude, and didn’t like you for who you were?

“Y/N, you gotta stop thinking about it, babe. You’re gonna get your head stuck in a whirlwind of thoughts. Think about other things! Like... the Calgary Flames.”

Eyeing the blonde beside you, “Tell me Cassidy, why in the world, would I think about the Calgary Flames, instead of thinking about my soulmate?”

Your coworker shrugged her shoulders and gestured to the board behind your head. You had all been notified a day prior that the Calgary Flames had reserved a whole floor of the Chateau for the weekend. With your restaurant being directly in view of the Lake and the Mountains, you were expected to be the main dining spot for the team over their course of the weekend.

“Believe me, Cass, the last thing I want to think about is a bunch of hockey boys who are going to make me miserable the weekend where I’m supposed to be... not miserable.”

She winked at you, a teasing glint in her eyes, “Maybe one of those awful hockey boys has the same number on your wrist. Maybe Noah Hanifin’s your soulmate. God, I’d be so jealous, could you imagine being destined for that beautiful exhibit of a man? God, I’d climb him like a tree.”

Laughing, you wacked her with the towel in your hand as she continued to egg you on, gloating about how beautiful of a specimen Noah Hanifin was, and how she’d do just anything to crawl into bed with that man. Cassidy was always like this, bubbly, happy, positive. Her number had stopped moving 12 years ago, or so she says. She hadn’t been paying attention the day it stopped, the number etching itself into her skin permanently, to never move again. She was never negative about it, always saying that she hoped just the thought of her brought peace to her soulmate in their last moments.

“Okay okay, enough about the Flames. I doubt it’s even going to end up being any of them, hockey boys and I do not get along. Especially the one’s that are just constantly bothering people, and that’s the entire Flames roster, so... let’s get back to work.”

440 minutes

One thing Matthew was sure of was the fact that he loved everything about the drive to Lake Louise. He wasn’t notorious for being a huge fan of the scenery around him, but something about the drive across Highway 1, the trees, the snow covered mountains, they all just faded together and created this picture in his head. It was hard to describe, there wasn’t anything specific to the picture, it was just joyful, it was happy, it was calm. Jesus, maybe he was just fucking crazy.

A lot of people always said you feel more calm in the hours leading up to the first time you meet your soulmate. But he sure as hell didn’t feel calm. He was on edge, the scenery around him, albeit, it was beautiful, it was not calming him down. His leg was shaking, his foot tapping the ground beneath him on the bus. He could see Johnny giving him a look every time his shaking leg touched his teammates. He knew the entire team was frustrated with him. Two games straight, two 10 minute fighting majors.

He was being a pest, constantly egging people on, trying to ignite arguments or fights or just some form of stimuli to get his mind off of the only thing it could stray to. You. He didn’t want to think about whoever the hell you were, he didn’t want to get his hopes up that maybe his clock would actually hit 0, maybe he’d actually meet his better half. Or maybe he'd fall through a crack in Lake Louise and never have to worry about it again... hopefully.

“If you touch my leg... one more fucking time, I am going to sock you in the fucking face Chucky.”

Immediately pressing his heel into the ground, Matthew mumbled out a quick ‘sorry’ to the teammate beside him as he watched the trees continue to go by outside the bus window. The time was still changing on his wrist, every minute counting down as the minutes passed outside. There was barely any cell service on the drive up, so the only thing that could truly distract him at this rate, was you, and he hated that.

“Soooo... you excited Chucky? It’s gotta be the big day, no?”

If choking a teammate was legal, Matthew would already be wringing Noah Hanifin’s neck.

“Yeah, delighted.”

“C’mon grumpy pants, you’re literally like what? 6 hours away from meeting the person who’s supposed to complete your soul... and you’re in a foul mood. Did Doughty crawl up your ass and die last night or?”

Grinding his teeth, Matthew tried to bite his tongue, refusing to lash out at his teammate, even though he so desperately wanted to. He wasn’t going to be the cause for a toxic locker room, especially over something as stupid as soulmates.

It was obvious that something was going on, everyone on the team knew the time on his wrist equalled out to less than a day. Everyone could see how on edge he was slowly getting as the time dwindled down, but no one could figure out why he was getting more and more frustrated, why the excitement wasn’t shining through as the time continued.

“Why the hell aren’t you excited man? This person’s supposed to be the love of your life, and you seem like you couldn’t give two fucks if you meet them or not?”

It was too late, Matthew was exploding before he could even comprehend what he was saying. “It doesn’t fucking matter man, okay? I don’t give a shit about this soulmate bullshit. Everyone’s soulmate is gone one day anyways, what the hell does it matter if you meet them now? I’m gonna be aching at some point because they’re gone and I’m alone. Woohoo, I get to meet them today, woo-fucking-hoo. I could literally not care less, so stop bugging me.”

27 minutes.

It was all around, highly likely, that your soulmate had some form of connection with the Calgary Flames. Their reservation was scheduled for 23 minutes from now... and your wrist had that small number 27 etched on it as it continued to count down.

“Wow... maybe your soulmate really is Noah Hanifin... I’m sorry for saying I’d climb him like a tree.”

A loud laugh left your throat as you watched a guilty smile form on your co-workers face. “Cass, I highly doubt it’s Noah Hanifin. It’s probably just a coincidence that their reservation time coincides with my meeting my soulmate time.” Cassidy gave you a knowing look as she walked away, a small smile on her face.

You were anxious, you couldn’t deny it. Every second that counted down, you were nervous, what if you weren’t good enough for them? What if they were embarrassed it was you? What if... oh god... what if they hated soulmates? What if they were one of those people who was willing to cut the tie, ignore the call, ignore the connection?

You refused to think about that, instead putting yourself to work, clearing the tables and plates of the previous occupants, you waved off the clearing crew, instead choosing to do it yourself. Anything to get your mind off of it.

The Flames weren't the only occupants of the Chateau tonight, only taking up about half, you were able to still seat other tourists who were interested in the view tonight.

That’s how you found yourself, 25 minutes later, your hand on your hip as you interacted with the group of rowdy guys in front of you. They were from Edmonton, and they were absolutely hammered. They were as nice as you could expect them to be, continuously flirting your ears off, as they tried to impress you with their... what was it? Accounting job? You couldn’t remember for the life of you, your mind solely stuck on the small number 1 now etched on your wrist.

You were roused out of your thoughts at the feeling of a hand touching your waist. “C’mon sweetheart, you’re not even paying attention to us here. Take a shot with us, baby!”

You politely removed the offending wrist, a tight smile now etched on your face. “First, I would ask that you please don’t touch me. Second, I was most definitely listening. You boys want another round of beers, and 6 tequila shots. Unfortunately, I don’t believe the shots are the best idea, nor do I think the beer is, but I’ll definitely get you a glass of water.”

Spinning on your heel, you went to walk away but were stopped by the feeling of a hand tightly gripping your wrist, a small squeak falling from your lips.

“We don’t want water.”

“Please get your hand off of me.”

“Get us what I asked for then, bitch.”

You were about to retort, a vicious snarl on your lips, but your words were caught in your throat as you watched a fist connect to the cheek of the man in front of you, a gasp leaving your throat.

2 minutes

This had to be a joke. He was apparently two minutes away from meeting his soulmate, and here he was, in an orderly fashioned line as him and his teammates made their way into the restaurant. He could barely breath, his pants felt too tight on his hips, he could feel the sweat seeping through his shirt. Thank god he made the choice to wear black.

It felt like everyone’s eyes were on his, everyone was wearily watching the number on his wrist go down, as the obvious anxieties began to cloud his every thought, action, move... everything.

He tried to take his mind off of it, observing the restaurant as the team slowly made their way to their designated tables. There were a few other patrons, most of them caught up in their own world. One specific table caught his eye, they were a group of rowdy guys, maybe a few years older than him.

Quite frankly, they looked like all around assholes. Looked like the guys you’d see from Wolf of Wall Street, and from the looks of it, they were really starting to irritate their waitress. Although, all he could see was your back, your posture was unbelievably straight, your hand on your hip as you inventively listened to the guys in front of you.

Matthew continued to watch you, something inside of him telling him that he just couldn’t look away. He had to keep looking. He watched as you turned your body, ready to walk to wherever your destination in mind was, but he instantly zeroed in on the hand that was now tightly wrapped around your wrist, a violent look on the man’s face.

He wasn’t moving on his own accord now, his feet were basically moving by themselves as they raced towards you.

“Get us what I asked for then, bitch.”

His fist was connecting with the other man’s face before he could even think. He heard the gasp from beside him, he watched the number on his wrist hit 0 the exact moment he looked at you, a look of shock on everyone’s faces.

“Chucky!”

“What the fuck are you doing?”

“I’m going to call the police you fucking curly-headed fuck.”

He could barely focus on the voices around him. You were here. You were literally right in front of him. Both of your numbers were at 0, he could see it on your wrist. He was literally staring in the eyes of his soulmate.

“Oh my god, you punched one of our guests.” Your voice was like bells to his ear, soft, delicate, everything he wasn’t... but god, you were perfect.

“I’m Matthew, and yes... I uh... I think I did punch one of your guests. I also think you’re my soulmate. Does it count as self-defence... if I punched him in my soulmate’s defence?”

You laughed, trying to cover it up with your mouth as you watched your manager’s rush towards the now bleeding asshole at the table behind you.

“I think I like you already, Matthew.”

#Matthew Tkachuk #Matthew Tkachuk imagine #Matthew Tkachuk fic #NHL fic #NHL imagine #Matthew Tkachuk imagines #my fic #my writing #honest to god I wrote this in like an hour and a half #I dont even know if its good #it just feels so perfect to me #pls tell me if you like it

262 notes · View notes

ntamain · 3 years

Photo

Is my (24F) neighbour (27F) into me or is she just being friendly? How do I know if she's gay?

another gay gem from the r/relationship reddit

Update:

Image ID under the cut, please let me know if I did it wrong!

[Image ID: four screenshots of a post from the relationship subreddit by tumblr user nta-main. The title reads “Is my (24F) neighbour (27F) into me or is she just being friendly? How do I know if she’s gay?”

The text reads “Update post is now locked, I cant believe so many people were interested in us!! Thank you again for your support, comments and messages.

Hi all, I can't believe I'm asking for advice from a bunch of strangers on the internet but I don't really have anyone I can talk to about this. Sorry for the incoming essay but I guess I need to give history. I bought my first house in September last year, It was an odd time but everything just fell into place. It's quite a small village and everyone is really friendly so I got to know my neighbours soon after moving in - yes, socially distanced. Then I met my over-the-road neighbour, let's call her Elle. I can't describe it but it's the first time I've ever met someone and been lost for words and my heart was racing and just thought "omg", y'know?? So after I blushed my way through a welcome to the village type convo we only saw each other for a wave and hello for a few days.

To help kinda settle in I had my dog (Bea) with me for the first few weeks. During this time there was a massive increase in dog thefts in a nearby town, not just from gardens but literally wrestled away from people. If I'd have been working (furloughed off and on since March) then I would've taken Bea back to mum's but since I was home with her all day she stayed. So the local police advised to not walk dogs alone but we go out twice a day, a 10k run in the morning and a few miles walk in the evening. So obvs this scares me, but at the same time she is honestly a pain in the arse and gets upset if she doesn't go for a run and needs to be tired out so I'm kind of stuck at this point. Then along comes Elle. She knocked on the door and offered to come with us as she'd seen Bea and me in the evenings and everything kind of spiralled from there. I told her about my morning runs but she didn't really bite so I thought nothing of it. Then a few days later I bumped into her on a run, so she started joining us on those too.

A few months later and we are spending more and more time together everyday. It has now progressed to a run early morning, afternoon coffee, dinner most evenings and then the evening walk. It just seemed to happen without me really noticing. I didn't read into things that much as I don't want to get my hopes up and ruin anything until another neighbour commented about how much time we spend together and how "it's nice to see you young gals getting on" and winked. She actually winked at me. I asked her what she meant but she just laughed and said "you know what I mean". So now I'm looking back on things and wondering if she could like me too?

Here's some reasons why she might like me:

I went running along the same route at the same time for nearly 2 weeks before I happened to run into her a few days after I told her this?

I make her a coffee every afternoon (Elle is WFH) and take it over in her fave mug. She says I make good coffee but I'm pretty sure I saw a fancy coffee machine the first time I went round (it's not there now?).

Elle carried on running and walking with me even after Bea went home. I told her she was going back to mum's and she said well "I'll have to make another excuse to join you" and then we just carried on everyday.

She has tried really hard to bond with Bea. Bea is a very anxious dog and is scared of everyone except me and mum. Elle bought special treats to give her everyday and has been so amazing with her and never tried to force anything. When I asked her she said "it's important to me that she likes me and is comfortable". Bea actually fell asleep between us on the sofa yesterday and It just makes my heart skip a beat guys.

She invited me to the zoom quiz she does with her friends every fortnight or so and they were all like "oh so this is who we've heard so much about "

We realised we had become each other's support bubble. Elle asked if I was meeting anyone else and I said no, she said she was glad she had me all to herself (!!)

We gave each other quite personal xmas presents. Like, it actually made me tear up it meant so much to me. And she bought stuff for Bea!!

Reasons why she might not like me:

All the reasons above, but that she's just doing them because she's a fucking great person and we're friends?

It might sound dumb but idk I need your help guys. She is the just the most incredible person I have ever met and I really really like her but if she isn't gay or doesn't feel the same I don't want to lose her friendship as she has become such a huge part of my life. I genuinely have no experience with these kind of things as I went to quite a strict all girls school, so it's not as if there were any relationships around me as a teen and then I went to a very small uni (8 of us on my course). I guess another reason is that I've struggled with anxiety and depression for the past 10 years, as well as my weight and working on my self confidence, but I can say that right now I am the happiest and healthiest (both mentally and physically) I have ever been. I've only just really become comfortable with the fact that I'm gay and I have never really told anyone in real life, but I don't think people would be too surprised lol. I don't have any close friends as no one stuck around when I was really struggling with my MH a few years ago so I can't discuss this with anyone irl.

So I need your advice : how do I find out if she is gay? And no, I don't have the confidence to just ask!! What if she says no and I ruin everything? She has never mentioned anything about past relationships and I'm pretty tactless so not sure how I could naturally slip it into the convo. Like, "hey tell me have you ever had a girlfriend? Do you want one now?" Lol. And how can I make a move without really making a move so I don't ruin things??

tl;dr : Don't know whether my neighbour is gay and into me or is just really friendly. How can I make a move without ruining our friendship?

Edit: Ok guys, thank you so so much for all your support and encouragement. You've all given me a lot to think about. I think I'm going to casually slip some gay stuff into conversation and see how she reacts. Then bring up the neighbours comment like some of you suggested, seeing as tho the neighbour was heavily implying that we're gay. I'll do it tonight otherwise I'll talk myself out of it again. I will post an update to let you know what happens (eek). If you never hear from me again assume it went badly and I am consoling myself with cake and watching brokeback mountain in floods of tears.

Hi reddit, yes it's me the useless lesbian. First off I want to thank you all for your support, encouragement and advice - and the undeserved awards! I never expected this many of you to take the time to comment and that so many of you were rooting for us.

So I had the plan to drop these gay hints into convo like you guys suggested but honestly it all went out the window. Elle was kinda stressed friday after a shitty work zoom and just needed to vent so it wasnt the right time to start anything. Though I guess I must have been a bit off thanks to spending all day overthinking things on here, as Elle turned up Saturday morning rambling about stressing me out and apologised (!!) for ruining dinner. Obvs I said "what are you talking about you can talk to me about anything", and she said "anything?" and I said "anything" back. And guys the tension was unreal, staring at each other and hoping our lesbian mind reading powers would kick in.

Then there was some loud noise like a car backfiring or something and the moment went. So I went to make coffee and then Elle asked me why I was a bit quiet the night before and I said something about overthinking stuff and she said "what stuff" and idk you guys I wasnt prepared to be put on the spot my casual gay pop culture references were useless in this moment. My mind just went completely blank and I forgot every single thing you guys suggested and my heart was pounding and I just blurted out you know I like you, right?.

...And then she kissed me. Kissed me. We straight up just snogged in the kitchen and it was fucking great. So...you were right. You were all fucking right. She's gay, she likes me and has been trying to drop hints for nearly 5 months. sigh

We were both just too scared to make a move or ruin anything. Turns out she's been burned by straight girls in the past, so she's pretty wary and was hoping I'd straight up say I'm a lesbian so she'd know for sure - maybe the I'm a lesbian wall hanging would've been a good idea after all? Her friends have been helping her drop hints, she showed me the group chat and guys their suggestions ranged from flirting more to just turning up in a trenchcoat and nothing else lol. Also, the winking neighbour has been making comments to her as well, so shout out to her for trying to make this happen too.

So no cake and cry watching brokeback mountain, just 5 months of dating to catch up on. As for worrying about how our current schedule could be more date like during lockdown, you were right it's kinda irrelevant when you've essentially been dating the whole time. Though we never made it to our morning run yesterday, in fact we didn't leave the house at all, ha.

Thank you guys for giving me hope, even if all your suggestions completely disappeared in the moment. Maybe I'll show her the post later and ask if any of the suggestions would have worked.

tl;dr: she's gay, into me and I'm an idiot”

End image ID]

#this is for sure already on tumble #but it's so cute #I had to #mine #r/relationships #tw// ed #edit: I'll add a transcript in a minute just gotta figure out how to make it accessible

54 notes · View notes

iwantagfplz · 3 years

Text

I tried to explain how comphet affected my life.

Sorry if I made some mistakes, English isn't my first language:)

Since I'm a little girl, I would see on the tv or read in books that I should like dogs. They seemed to be #1 pet that people chose. I didn't know if you could have something else. And if it was possible I didn't see it, ever. Only dog owners, tbh the idea of cat owner didn't even cross my mind because NOTHING ever mentioned it.

People would say : Everyone likes dogs because they are this and that , it's normal! You will all have dogs one day!

I saw the other kids playing with dogs and some even owned one. I personally was comfortable with cats and I would often just stay with them.

For me it's as simple as If I liked art but everybody else's liked sports. People would expect me to chose and play a sport when I didn't like any.

When I was around cats I wouldn't think about dogs or talk about them. I just didn't care. I would get so mad when friends would leave me to go play with a dog when we're fine without one! Ugh anyway little me was upset 85% of the time cause dogs were just THE PET and it was ALWAYS about THEM.

I never thought I could own a cat, I was okay with just being around them, I was happy with just that. And anyway I never saw a cat owner anyway so it's not a thing I guess *I told to myself*

When a cat would come to me and showed me affection I would be SOOO HAPPY. Like that's the best feeling ever. But when a dog did I would tense up and try not to run away. I didn't understand how people would feel comfortable with them , I just didn't get it.

- you just didn't find the right dog for you , they would say.

And I believed them.

As I grew older I saw how people would abandon cats to choose their dogs , that's how everybody behaved smh. I thought I would do that too when the day came when I had to make that decision . Because everyone liked dogs more . Honestly I didn't care cause I never had to make the choice yet so I didn't give it that much thought.

But the day came , I had to choose between a dog that I could adopt or just stay with a cat , I didn't even hesitate, I refused to adopt the dog.

People were surprised, that dog was one of the most popular races and I just refused it?

Why? They all asked.

- I didn't like him.. I like the cat more and I won't choose the dog over it , I said

They laughed and said that one day I'll choose the dog and be his owner. I ignored it cause I didn't care.. yet

I was now 15 and when I would go out and see cats I would want to play with them SOOO BAD. I literally loved them so much. I would think about them and would love spending time with them. But when I saw a dog I felt anxious and uncomfortable. I told my friends if they relate to that and they said that I'll warm up eventually and that it's normal to be nervous around dogs. They said that you react that way when u like something, it's because you dont know how to act around them and that's cause you care , so u must like dogs.

That makes sense , I think. So I believed them again.

I would often see people with dogs and just wish I could have one that I liked too. So I could be like everyone and having a pet that loves me as much as I love them. They seemed so happy.

Occasionally I would see a dog that I thought was cute and think if I had to adopt one it would be this one. I would obssess over it cause finding a dog that I thought was cute was soooooo rare. I felt normal now that I knew some dogs are indeed cute . But when that same dog would come towards me, again that feeling of wanting to run. I didn't like when they would come to me, it didn't matter If I thought it was cute, I never wanted to be near them.

Years later , I'm now 18. I see the most adorable dog I have ever seen. It's the first dog I actually want to pet. I was scared but my friends told me if I wanted to adopt it I had to see if it likes me too. So I took my courage and i did. I was happy I did but I felt so overwhelmed and uncomfortable cause it was sooo out of my comfort zone. I told myself its normal and it's going to pass, you like that dog a lot so just try.

Months later , I'm still not comfortable and it's so overwhelming. But I can't give up , not now that I finally found a dog I like that much. I could be a dog owner too, like everybody else! I wouldn't feel left out if I adopted him. I could do it...

One night , I'm at my friends house . We're talking about being a pet owner and stories that happened. I'm not interested but I keep listening. They noticed I'm not really listening and asked me what I was thinking about.

Me - about the dog, obviously

Them- So are you going to adopt it?

Me- * I hesitated* anyone in my shoes would've already adopted him right?

Them- yes cause it doesn't makes sense . You like the dog, the dog likes you.. but don't rush it it's okay. You really like him right, so why not?

Me- idk.. I don't think I should . I'm not ready yet...

They didn't say anything and just nodded.

That night I cried. That's it, I'm never going to have a pet. I just can't do it. I tried but it's never right. Why am I like this? Why do I make things so complicated?

At home I would often imagine my life with the perfect dog I would see or hear about on tv. Why can't I just choose one irl? How can they be so different? I didn't know either

I just want to be happy. I can't even have a cat and I never saw anyone talking about that possibility cause it's not an acceptable pet to own for me. I'm supposed to like dogs so why do I prefer to stay with cats ? I would just stare at them and want to play with them. Its natural for me to be with them , but not with dogs..

I had so many opportunities where I could adopt one but they weren't my type of dog at all..

-What's your type then?!

- idk...

And the conversation would end with me being confused and them frustrated.

People would envy me because dogs seemed to like me and would come to me .

I heard people say: You should be happy that so many dogs like you and you can't even choose one? You could adopt one if you wanted to but you always find a reason to decline. People wish they had a dog that also likes them back you know? You are too complicated and picky!

It would make me so mad and I wish I could yell that I DONT CARE CAUSE I DONT FEEL COMFORTABLE WITH THEM OKAY!? NONE OF THEM FEELS RIGHT

Even tho I liked the attention , I wouldn't purposely go to them cause I felt anxious and so uncomfortable.

I kept the hope that the perfect dog is somewhere and I didn't find him yet. I'll find my dog and I'll show them that I also can have one.

One day, a situation happened when I had to take care of a cat and I felt weird, I wasn't supposed to want to keep him and take care of him like a pet. I knew it wasn't normal so I distanced myself from it. Yes I was sad but it was better for me than wanting something you can't have.

I would sometimes pet dogs just to test myself again and it felt so forced. Like I didn't want to but everyone said that I had to .

I was on my phone, (weeks later) and I found

A blog talking about cat owners. WAIIITT THEY EXIST!? WHY AM I JUST DISCOVERING IT?! I asked my parents and I immediately regretted it .

- Where did you see that!? They arent normal, cats aren't pets to own. Keep these thoughts away and don't mention that ever again understood!?

And I didn't ever mention it.

But I finally understood. I kept having flashbacks of behavior that people would have with their dogs but me wanting to have with cats.

I was happy and finally felt understood.

I am not weird . I am normal too..

Now let me tell you

Dogs=boys

Cats= girls

Yeah so the more you know 🥰🏳️‍🌈

Also I still find myself being confused because of comphet but I am more aware now so it helps!

Ps: Its just a metaphor I chose to understand comphet better and so people can understand better too. Please don't get offended I'm not literally comparing animals to humans :(

#comphet #wlw #lgbt girl #lesbian #compulsory heterosexuality

30 notes · View notes

hasquetzorkukudoneanythingwrong · 3 years

Text

Monster au part 1 - divine serpent

Rex was a relatively normal young man. At 23 years old he was only recently able to move out of his parents' house. But he wasn't able to do this on his own, he actually got a bit of help from a new program introduced by the government.

Recently the UN had actually revealed to the public that the existence of mythical humanoid creatures had been real the whole time and weren't just relegated to myth. To help get humanity acclimated to these new people, a program that allows people to take one of these beings into their home was introduced, so that they can adjust to human society and so humans can get adjusted to their existence.

Rex had participated in this program, mostly because the government would be helping pay for his new house so he can house the mythical being. He wasn't given much knowledge to work with, other then a few basics. They were a women, and she was draconic in biology, tho saurian may be more appropriate when you actually see her. He was also told that she was relatively tall as far as humans were concerned.

*knock knock*

A knock was heard at his door.

Rex, opening it: hello?

There stood a brown haired woman, dressed in a black suit, she looked like a government agent.

???: you're Rex right?

Rex: yeah...

???: perfect! Your new homestay's arrived!

Rex: wait! Already!? Didn't I have another week before she arrived?

???: oh right! Sorry about that, but she actually came earlier then we expected!

Rex: well that's annoying... I don't have a bed prepared just yet!

???: guess you'll have to share!

Rex: !!!

Rex: don't just say things like that!

???: hahaha! Sorry about that!

From behind the woman, Rex could see a big truck opening up.

Rex: is she... in that truck?

???: yup! She's coming out as we speak!

Rex: uh... how big is she?

???: not too big, it's mostly just the tail and wings that take up so much space.

Rex: right...

Eventually Rex's new homestay could be seen coming out of the truck. She was a large blonde woman, with arms and legs covered in feathers that ended with pointed claws. On her back, were large wings, also covered in feathers and she had a large, thick tail too.

???: there she is!

Rex: ...

Rex was awestruck at her. She was beautiful... divine even. Something about her made her more beautiful then any woman Rex had seen before.

???: *waving her hand* hello!? Earth to Rex?!

Rex: fuck!

???: don't just stare like that... it's rude!

Rex: right... sorry.

The serpentine woman came to the door.

???: now, allow me to introduce you two to each other! This serpentine woman is named Victoría, she's part of the feathered serpent race from the deep Yucatan jungles! And this young man is Rex, he'll be your host while your here!

Victoría: Hola! It's so nice to meet you Rex!

Rex: r-right! Good to meet you too!

???: and I'm agent Leo! I'll be your guys' coordinator! If you ever need anything relating to this agreement then don't be afraid to call!

As Leo said this, she handed Rex a card with her number on it.

Rex: right, I'll be sure to do that!

Leo: alright! Well I'm done here! I'll be seeing you within the week to check up on things!

The agent left, and the two were left together.

Rex: so... let me show you around your new home...

Victoría: I'm so excited!

Rex, blushing like hell: r-right!

Rex showed his new roommate around the place, it was very big as to accommodate for her large size. Most of the furniture was huge, and the bath looked almost like a pool. The ceiling reached up to 12 feet above the ground. Rex had only been in the house a few days, so he still wasn't used to it himself just yet.

Rex: unfortunately your bed hasn't arrived just yet...

Victoría: oh no... I guess I can share with you then!

Rex: !!!

Rex: a-are you s-sure that's a g-good idea?!

Victoría: oh come now Rex! It'll be OK!

She was way to casual about it. Rex had never even had a girlfriend before, and now all of a sudden this large beautiful monster girl was suggesting they share a bed...

Rex: I'm not even sure we'll fit together that well...

Victoría: it's better then nothing! Just relax!

Rex: r-right...

But before they were to retire to the bed, there was still plenty of time. They got to know each other first. It seemed Victoría had already gotten a taste of modern human society, as she had become enamored by the art of combat known as lucha libre!

Rex: lucha?

Victoría: si! The way the combatants are able to fly about without wings, and the purity of hand to hand combat without weapons es muy fantasíca!

Rex: huh...

They watched a few matches and to his surprise Rex found himself actually enjoying it. He even found himself cheering alongside his new roommate!

Victoría: see!? I knew you'd like it!

Rex: you had a point... I didn't think I'd get so invested!

Victoría: that's the power of lucha!

The two continued on with getting to know each other... but eventually it had gotten late so it was time to go to sleep.

Rex was anxious as all hell to be sharing a bed. When he looked at it again, it actually did look like it could fit the both of them... did Leo consider this an actual possibility?

She may not look it, but Victoría was also a bit anxious about the idea. She had kept her cool for a while, but now that the time came she couldn't hold in these feelings. She couldn't turn back now tho, she already told Rex to relax, so she had to follow suit.

The two were in bed together, just about to sleep...

Rex: w-well... g-goodnight!

Victoría: si! Goodnight!

The two didn't face each other, to help with their nerves. Tho now Rex had to deal with her wings right up on him. Eventually they did fall asleep, it was a surprisingly nice sleep. Tho when Rex had woken up... he saw that it her sleep Victoría had actually held onto him in her sleep.

Rex, redder then a strawberry: h-h-holy fuck!

A/N: owo? What's this? An au? That's right! A vaguely slowburnish au for RexCoatl! Based on the Manga Monster Musume! If it wasn't obvious, Victoría is meant to be Quetz, since she's not an actual goddess in this scenario, I decided she needed a more average name, and of course Agent Leo is meant to be Da Vinci! Hope you guys like it!

Tags

@hasereshdoneanythingwrong @haskamadoneanythingwrong @hasbbdoneanythingwrong @grievouslyxorvia @renmeo @kazmetic @valiantstrawberrymilk @exmeowstic @hasishtardoneanythingwrong

#fate grand order #quetzalcoatl #wife #rexcoatl #mastersona #rex #leonardo da vinci #monster au

9 notes · View notes

babiesdreams · 3 years

Text

Superhuman +18 Chapter 1

Warnings: Violence, mentions of blood, smoking, mentions of suicide, gore(?.

Renjun’s story:

She came to me when I was just sixteen. I knew something was wrong with me since a long time ago, but her presence made it worse. She always makes feelings much more intense and pure... It’s really hard to leave feelings aside.

You know my... powers are related to feelings, the purest feelings are the strongest power source. I’m basically a generator. Anger and sadness are usually the best ones.

I finally got out of my home, I was gonna start a new life, a new stable and normal life. For once I wouldn’t be judged for being too shy, or not letting my feelings in, or for being “a psychopath”

But then she passed by, offered me a cigarrette and whispered how she knew everything. I felt like my whole life plan ended right there, but she was right. If I simply ignore my abilities I’m only making it worse, I had to learn more about them, and use them in my own advantage. I needed to know how to properly control it before getting into another messy life, before hurting anyone else, so she was a savior at the time.

-------------------------------------------

“You have to meet them” 972 shouted at me. “I don’t want to, we can just go as a duo” I screamed back. “Huang Renjun, your anger levels aren’t under control, please relax, or I’ll have to call security”

“I don’t want others to get involved with me” A soft wave moves the air around me, as I start getting more and more angry. “You know what happened”

“Huang Renjun, control yourself or I might take action” 972 kept her angry tone, making it worse. “Let me go alone on the mission” My eyes fire up with anger, feeling how my power grows inside of me. “Stop. Now” She demands, making everything worse.

A big explosive wave brushes the whole place, destroying everything on its way. I fall on my knees, crying for what I just did. “I can’t have a team, I’m a monster, I’ll fuck everything up” I shout with a broken voice tone. For a moment I thought she was dead, but then her voice sounded in the distance.

“We all are monsters here” Her voice whispers as her hand rests on my shoulder. “We... all... are” She whispers with a sad tone.

Shotaro’s story:

Since I was born, the weather changed along with my mood, if I cried, it would start raining. If I was angry, it would turn into a thunderstorm. I think you get it. The thing is that at first I was quite good at controlling my mood, but growing up made it harder and harder, to a point that I couldn’t control anything about it. I got scared of feeling, and isolated myself for months, but that only made it worse.

When I got in here, I wanted to learn how to destroy my powers, ended up knowing how to control them. Now it’s not at all linked to emotions, more like I have full control over the weather, I can change it as I want.

I was known for being the best at controlling my powers and even if they’re not the most powerful ones I think my ability to control them made me stronger, that’s how I ended up being the leader.

---------------------------------------------------------------

“Guys you need to practice more” I say calmly. “Why would we practice? we are quite strong” Jisung says, not taking his eyes off the screen as he plays some stupid videogame. “It doesn’t matter how strong you are if you can’t control it” I say calmly, trying to make them understand. “You’re just jealous of our powers” Jaemin spits out, taking another chip into his mouth.

“You all are bombs, uncontrollable bombs, that’s not useful at all. Sure you’re powerful, but you’re basically dangerous for everyone” I say with a more serious tone. “Should I make him think we are training?” Chenle asks to the rest. “I heard you” I tell him.

But all the mess calms down when Renjun stands up. “Let’s go train, he’s right” He says with a serious voice and everyone follows. I sigh, feeling useless in comparison to his natural leader abilities, but yet glad that he helped me with it.

Jaemin’s story: healing body (His fluids heal any harm)

I realized when I was a kid, I used to cry whenever I got hurt and then everything was fine. It got more intense when I kinda saved my mother.

I was holding her hand, focused on the beats produced by some machine. The sudden beep, made me anxious. I didn’t really know what to do, I panicked and started crying and when I realized she was fine again.

With time and some exploring I realized it wasn’t only my tears that healed people, but all my fluids. Someone could be dying and if I licked his hand, they’d be completely fine. It feels like a lot of responsability tho, you never know the story behind someone dying.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The agonizing man starts choking on his own blood, trying to breath, yet unable to do so. I roll his body, getting him to rest on one side, to stop him from choking. I take his bloody hand and lick his index finger.

Seconds later, the blood stops coming out from his mouth, and the cuts on the man’s stomach dissappear. “What did you do?” He says with a low voice tone. I look at him challenging, sometimes people really are ungrateful. “I just saved your life” I reply, proud of myself.

“Nobody asked you to do so” He shouts at me. “S-sir, I saved your life” I say stuttering. “They are gonna get my family if I don’t die you idiot” He shouts at me. I step back, scared of his words, letting tears fall down my cheeks. “I-I didn’t, I didn’t know that”

That’s where I discovered that saving a life sometimes mean killing others. Butterfly effect. Maybe someday I could have saved a serial killer and then how many deaths would I be responsible for? I needed to learn that I can’t save everyone and sometimes I need to let people die.

Jeno’s story:

I was an average student when I found out. Well actually I was a pretty stupid teenager. Classes were boring so I just went around with my friends, play games, and live life I guess. One day I saw soe students bullying a transfered kid, and I got into the fight.

I have always been pretty strong, so fights were an easy task for me. However those kids were much older than me, and I was alone. So they basically beated me up, until I did it. I don’t even know how I did it, I was just angry.

Trash from bins started floating, making people concern as to what was happening. I’ve heard my eyes turn red whenever I use my abilities so that might have helped to make them fear me. But after that day I became the school’s king.

Being at that place I started to hating my powers. I just wanted to feel normal, to be normal. But I guess that’s something none of us can really achieve. So I just kept training my brain and try to be better.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

“Get out of the way” I say to Jaemin. The scared boy gets behind me, making me feel his shaking hands on my back. “So you want to die sir?” I say, looking at him with a fierce look. The man nodded, so sure of his decision, and I smiled at him.

“Have a nice trip” I say, while concentrating on the knife resting on the floor a few meters away. I held the knife mentally in front of him, pointing at his neck. “Do it” He says, crying desperately. “Look away” I whisper to Jaemin, before tearing his throat open. My figure gets covered by the man’s blood, while he dies slowly in front of my eyes.

I throw the knife a few meters away, still not touching it for a split second. “It’s done” I say lowly, turning around to face Jaemin. My bloody hands hold his face, trying to calm him down. My fingers clean his tears, replacing them with blood. “It’s fine” I whisper, letting him hug me tightly.

The bloody scenario felt specially creepy under the moonlight, so I understand how Jaemin felt so guilty about everything. Still, he needed to grow up for future missions.

Jisung’s story:

I remember looking up to superheroes like Spiderman or Hulk, or Superman. But being super strong isn’t exactly the best. Plus people don’t trust me when I say I’m strong. Of course, I tried to hide it, since all heroes in movies do that. But, it felt wrong somehow... Letting people take advantage of weaker people. Even letting people take advantage of me.

So I decided to go anonymously, that way nobody would know who I was. But, again, nobody took me seriously. My family was also not doing so good, so I got into some illegal businesses.

A guy decided to trust me and I started getting into street fights. I won money thanks to people’s bets. It wasn’t the best job, but at least I had something, and I stayed anonymous so they couldn’t interfere in my normal life.

However I started to get tired of it and I stopped going there. I didn’t expect them to find me so fast.

----------------------------------------------------------

“We had a contract” The old man says. I couldn’t stop trembling from fear. “Put the gun away” A woman’s voice says from behing the old man. He turns around, to find out how his bodyguards were already dead on the floor.

The gun the man was holding started melting in his hand. “W-what are you?” He asked stuttering. The girl chuckled, and inmediately after a hole appeared where the man was standing, making him fall. His fingers held the floor, to stop himself from falling helplessly.

“Hi, Park Jisung , I’m 972, I would like to recruit you into our team. What do you say?” Her eyes were fiercer than any eyes that ever looked at me, kinda hypnoticing. The grunts of the old man resonated all over the room, but they eventually stopped when she stepped on his fingers, breaking them with her heels. The fall was slow and long, ending with a disgusting sound, as the old man reached the floor somewhere at the bottom of the hole.

“I’m interested” I finally say, shaking the smiling girl’s hand.

Chenle’s story:

Changing people’s percception is so funny. I can literally get away from every situation. I’ve never got punished for anything at all. Plus I can do whatever I want, no limits, no judgements.

Sure, sometimes I don’t quite control what they are seeing instead of what I’m doing, like that time I was borrowing some clothes from a shop and people were seeing me pee on the clothes. I got arrested anyway. But I know how to use my power, that’s why I think training is stupid.

We are basically gods, our powers’ limits are barely there, so let’s just have fun right? right?

-----------------------------------------------------------------

“Let jun take care of this” 972 says, making all of us stay aside. I turn to look at Jaemin and Jisung, changing their perception so that they would see everything going fine, but I looked.

A loud sound scared all of us, and the buildings around the zone he was in started falling apart, getting reduced to ashes. People’s screams were really horrifying, something I will never be able to forget. And a loud growl from Renjun followed, filling the air with anger. “W-what happened?” Jaemin asked confused.

“You have some work to do hyung” I told him, letting him finally see what really happened. He fell on his knees seeing all the victims from Jun’s powers. “You think you can do it?” I ask him doubting the limits of his abilities.

“I can” His voice was shaky but I trusted 972′s plan. “Zhong Chenle get the living victims and make them think nothing happened. I’ll get the buildings back to normal. Lee Jeno, find the enemy’s body and bring it here. Remember, no fingertips on anything. Osaki Shotaro and Jung Sungchan get Na Jaemin to the victims. Park Jisung, you stay here in case I need protection” She ordered, while the buildings started getting back to normal.

“On our way” We all shouted at the same time. It was something chaotic, but it worked out. “Now I’m gonna get an agent from unit V. Thanks for your collaboration, Unit D. You can all go now”

Missions are always like that, cold-hearted and all about “Getting the job done”

Sungchan’s story:

I touched my grandma’s old clock. And I saw my grandfather, when he was younger, fighting in war, leaving home, giving her the clock. Everything happened in front of my eyes so fastly, I couldn’t really...

It took me a really long time to really get used to it. And when I did I hated the feeling. I wore gloves everywhere, so that I wouldn’t touch nothing directly. But avoiding it made it worse. Much worse. Because when it happened accidentally I could see more than what I normally would have.

The thing is that I thought my powers were more of an inconvenience than something useful. Until my father got that complicated case about a “Suicide” I touched the letter she wrote, and the chair he got over to hang herself up. Except it didn’t happen like that.

Someone else wrote the letter and she was forced to stand on the chair that the man kicked, making her die instantly. I told my father my theory, and they got enough proof to take the responsible man. That’s when I felt like a hero. I thought I found my future profession as a detective.

I read all Sherlock Holmes books, idolizing what he did, wanting to be just like him, and now I have my chance.

----------------------------------------------------------------

I touched her face, and I saw everything she went through, who she really was.

“Jung Sungchan, we talked about this didn’t we?” She says calmly. I nod, recalling her words about not touching her, probably to avoid me knowing her secrets. “We all have secrets here, we need to help each other okay?” I nod once again, and watch as her figure gets lost in the distance, still trying to process the information.

--------------------------------------------------------

Masterlist –requests open– How to request? Check out your score.

Check superhuman series in here

#nct #nct scenarios #nct imagine #nct reactions #nct dream #nct dream angst #superhero #nct superhero au #hero #nct dream hero #kpop #kpop scenarios #kpop imagine #kpop reactions #kpop scenario #requests #requests open #nct blurb #nct blurbs

27 notes · View notes

weirdochick56 · 4 years

Text

Mr. Evans II- Chris Evans AU Chapter Eleven

Teacher!Chris Evans x Student!Reader

Warnings: Explicit language. SMUT. DIRTY DIRTINESS.

Disclaimers: I don’t condone relationships of this kind, this is for entertainment purposes only. Please be gentle on my word-porn.

Word Count: 5, 347 words

A/N: This shit got dirty REAL quick. As I was writing it, I was so fucking confused by what my fingers were typing lmfaoooo. Also this story is nearly coming to an end and IDK what the hell im gonna do after. PLEASE stay safe and healthy y’all!

Read Chapter Ten here!!

***

(gif isn’t mine!)

You take a long gulp of the bottle.

“It’s like I’m stuck, you know?” You say looking off into the water. “Like I don’t know how to exist or move forward or hell, even back.”

Noah, the guy you’d met at the pool, nods in understanding, taking a sip from the bottle. “Yeah. I get that, but your situation is hella complicated. I get why.”

“I guess I just have never felt one hundred percent in it, you know? Like I could never fully let myself be happy because at any moment that shit could burn down. I’ve always felt like someone was out to get us, like all the fucking odds were stacked against us,” you mumble, shivering when a breeze swishes past the dark night.

It’s been a while since you had met Noah and he was a pretty cool dude. You just clicked- it was just like that with some people you know? You just get along from the get-go. You got to talking, slowly downing the bottle in the process of course and the more time ticked by, the more your tongues loosened.

You didn’t like to play into stereotypes or anything, but you were almost entirely sure Noah wasn’t one-hundred percent straight. But maybe that was just you.

You were at a healthy buzz right now but that wasn’t gonna last long at the rate you were chugging from the bottle.

“You wanna be with him?”

You sigh, hating that there wasn’t even a little doubt in your mind or heart at the question. “I do. But I don’t know how to go about it, you know? It’s all just so jumbled for me.”

Noah releases a little sigh, laying down on the cold gravel. “I know right? It’s like you love someone so much but you also know that being with them could be dangerous, no only to you but to the life you’ve built around yourselves individually. So it’s hard between choosing everyone else or your own selfish ass.”

You glance at him, raising your brows. “From personal experience?”

He laughs but it’s a bit strained- dry. “Yeah. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not exactly uh- straight.”

“What?! I had no idea!” You mock gasp.

“Shut up.” He laughs, slapping your arm playfully. “Yeah well, he’s actually the most beautiful human being I’ve ever met. But we’re keeping it on the dL. Neither of our parents is exactly supportive. Mine are still a bit touchy even though they’re starting to tolerate the fact that their son is gay and his- well they have no idea. If they did that situation would go awry real quick.”

You sigh, laying your head drunkenly on his shoulder. “Aw, I’m so sorry Nini.”

He laughs, casually wrapping an arm around you. “Oh? Is that my new nickname?”

You nod. “Yep.”

“You know something, Nini?” You suddenly mumble in a slur.

“What?”

“You’re not selfish for loving him- whoever he is. You’re brave.”

“Yeah? And why do you say that?” He hums.

You take the bottle from his grasp, taking a long drink. When you’re done, you sluggishly wipe your lips.

“Because I’m a fucking coward,” you mumble shakily. “I’m so fucking scared of feeling. I just shut down like a robot,” you confess, quietly chuckling. “I numb myself so that I don’t have to face the reality of it all. You face that shit head-on. You’re staying and fighting for your love. That’s super admirable.”

Noah rubs your arm comfortingly. “Thanks.”

You nod, swishing your feet in the water. “It’s true. I wish I could just be with him.”

“Then be with him,” Noah says, simply.

Just like that. As if it were that straightforward.

“It’s not that easy. There’s so many things to consider.“

“Let me ask you a question,” he quickly quips. “Do you love him? Like really truly love him?”

You swallow harshly, gripping the bottle tightly in your hands. “With every fiber in my body.”

Noah nods firmly. “Then that’s it. And listen, I’m going to be honest because it sounds like everyone in your life has been lying to you and telling you basically all you need is love to make it work. It’s not. Relationships are hard fucking work. Especially if it’s one people will have a variety of feelings on. It takes effort, time, sacrifice and you know where all that comes from?”

“Where?” You pout drunkenly.

“From you. You have to be sure you want it you have to be willing to stay and fight. But you also need love. Without love, there’s nothing. If you’re sure you want to be with him, if you think your love is worth it, then I say go for it. It doesn’t have to be this huge announcement either. It’s your relationship- it’s there for no one else but you two. If you feel comfortable later on, then do sure you can tell people.”

You ponder on his words drinking more tequila, before finally speaking in a defeated tone. “I’m scared.”

He shrugs. “Life is really just one big risk you either choose to take or not. Plus, it’s like I told you; relationships are hard work. You have to keep working at it. Even when it gets hard.” He licks his lips. “He gave an ultimatum and from what you told me, you’re not going to be here for much longer. So not to pressure you or anything, but if there was ever a time to act this feels like it’s it.”

Maybe he’s right.

Needless to say, by the time Noah walks you home, you’re both absolutely hammered. You make sure to call him a taxi because it was late at night and you also make him promise to text you once he got there.

After he’s gone words keep ringing around in your head over and over and over again. And so do Margo’s. In fact, you felt like you were flying on a cloud of thoughts all whirling and detaching and stringing together back again.

You start replaying everything in your head- your whole relationship. From the start to now. Like a movie.

And your heart breaks even more because you realize right there and then that at some point, the movie suddenly stops.

The movie stops.

It hits you that you’ll have no idea how it ends. What’ll happen with you two. Where you’ll end up.

For some odd fucking reason, it makes you feel sick to your stomach to think about it that way, and your skin crawls. If you let him go, you’ll never him know how the movie ends... the thought tortures you slowly to sleep as it goes round and round in your noggin, pounding you with unbearable guilt and anxious thoughts.

When you do fall asleep, though, you have a strange dream that night. Or more like you have a nightmare.

You’re standing in your room and it’s just like it was when you went to sleep that night, except that on the other side, the usual long hallway isn’t there anymore. There’s only darkness.

Your anxiety kicks up because you know what the darkness is without even touching it.

It’s the not-knowing. The pitch-black emptiness which you’re expected to walk into blind. Fucking alone.

You start hyperventilating when the pressure to walk into it becomes too much, thrashing harshly against the invisible force pushing you into it. Screaming, salty tears, kicking...

It’s all too much. Your breathing is labored and your skin burns with hot tears.

And then suddenly and like a warm blanket- two muscular arms wrap around you from behind, tugging you into a hard chest.

Chris, your mind instantly whispers.

He easily tugs you back towards the room, hugging you to his front tightly.

“I’ve got you, sweetheart. I’m here. I’ll always be here.”

And in that moment of terror, with his familiar scent and soothing voice and tight embrace, he’s safety. He’s warmth and familiarity.

...he’s home. Your home.

You just lay there with him, holding each other.

The next image flashes by instantly and suddenly the darkness is back. But this time you don’t panic...because Chris is right there with you, holding your hand. And for some reason, you know -you’re one-thousand present sure- he won’t let go.

He rubs his thumb softly over your thumb, looking at you with those alluring blue eyes of his, that soft yet capturing gaze that made you feel all fuzzy.

“It’s okay, sweetheart. I’ve got you. I’m here. I’ll always be here.” He repeats his earlier sentence.

You wipe happy tears. “I’ve got you too.”

He smiles adoringly down at you, smile lines crinkling endearingly at the corners. “I know.”

And without a second’s thought you plunge straight into the darkness.

You gasp loudly, sitting straight up in bed. Your heart races, thumping harshly against your rib cage as beads of sweat trod carefully down your temple and side of your face.

Click.

Something in you suddenly clicks and it all becomes clear.

Was that all that was needed for realization to hit you? A single moment? A single split second in which the fog clears? A split-second where your vision suddenly elevates and the whole landscape is all there? The whole picture is laid out before you?

It’s early in the morning and you wince when the bright light of an early day hits you in the face, flopping over in bed.

You reach for your phone on the nightstand, quickly unlocking it before checking your contacts. You have a new text message. You click on it.

Hey, Hermosa. I got home okay. Thanks for the taxi, lol.

You smile gently, typing back.

Yeah np, Nini. Thanks for the advice. Needed it.

Your phone buzzes.

Ngl, kinda shocked we still remember that. Lmfao. Ur welcome tho.

You groan softly into your pillow when your head starts aggressively throbbing.

Sobriety sucks butt.

“Honey, are you okay?”

Your dad and Kennedy watch you as you haphazardly stuff your face with bacon and eggs then gulf it all down like a dog- brows raised and jaws slack.

Downing your warm coffee in one go, you get up, pushing the chair back with a loud screech and almost trip running over to the sink to put your dishes inside.

“Yes. I’m good. There’s just something urgent I have to go take care of,” you rush out, leaning down over them and giving each a chaste kiss on the cheek.

“I love you guys!” You yell, already half outside and still pulling on one of your sneakers as you clumsily hopped around.

You slam the door shut, running off as soon as you finish putting on the shoe.

Your head pounds inside your skull even having downed three aspirins and having a warm shower and your breakfast swishes inside your stomach with your harsh sprinting but you don’t stop.

Not until you reach his house.

You don’t think. Just feel. Feel how right this was. You’re done being scared of loving who you love. You had what you had and it was what it was, but what you had was him.

Chris.

All this time, he said you were his light. You were his angel.

But really he was your light. He was your angel.

You needed him just as much as he needed you- if not more.

Fuck everyone else.

This was yours. He was yours and you were his and you were done fighting it. Officially.

You had the realization that before, you’d always been just the tiniest bit reluctant. You subconscious put up your own walls to protect your heart, never fully allowing yourself to work on your relationship, never fully giving your energy to it.

But not anymore. No more walls. Just you. Just you, your love and a foundation for a fresh start.

You were exhausted- not of life or him or of the curveballs it keeps throwing your way. You’re tired of fighting yourself.

That’s the real fight you’ve been having this whole time. With yourself. You’re your own damn enemy. And isn’t that fucking tiring?

But you’re done.

Knocking loudly on the door, your chest inflated with so many emotions and with adrenaline pumping through your veins, you tug at your short shorts, hating that this was the first thing you saw and threw on.

Unfortunately, the next thing you saw was a short ass crop top so you were basically running around in your underwear.

You freeze out the nerves as soon as they start to set in when footsteps pad your way. None of that.

When Chris opens the door, you nearly fall over.

He gives you a once-over, his hair messy, and dark bags under his eyes. “Sweetheart what-“

You stare at him for a few seconds as does he, eyes wide and lips parted.

“Chris,” you breathe.

But you catch yourself and before you know it, you’re spilling all your damn beans right on his front porch.

You needed to. You had to get this off your chest or you would go absolutely insane.

“Chris before you say anything, I just want to apologize. I’ve been a huge fucking hypocrite. But I realize my mistakes and I-“ you laugh incredulously, looking at him. “I just want to be with you,” you mumble meekly, your voice low.

Not because you didn’t mean it, but because you were terrified of his reaction.

His eyes soften and he opens his mouth to speak, but you cut him off.

“No, stop. I just need to finish what I have to say, okay? You were right. You scare me. What we have scares me. But I’m not willing to let you go just because I’m scared. I-” you swallow tears back down. “Being scared isn’t an excuse to let you go. God, I’ve never felt emptier in my life than these past few weeks. Not even when I was gone for two years. At least then I knew I was faraway from you. That I was somewhat safe from all these...feelings.” You gulp. “But being here-“ you shake your head. “Knowing that you’re just a few blocks away- I just want you to hold me, to make love to me, to love me in the way only you know how to.” You chuckle breathlessly. “God, I am so in love with you. Y-you complete me. You make me better- you’re the best fucking person I know. And I know I’ve been an asshole to you, or well let’s be honest we both have, but I guess mostly me- um anyway. I just- I’m here to stay.” You sigh softly, letting the words roll of your tongue like a vow.

“I’m here to stay,” you repeat softly but firmer this time, swallowing thickly at the sweet after taste.

You’re panting by the time you’re done, both thanks to the running and the little speech you just gave, but your gaze never leaves his. Not for the whole five minutes, he just stands there, looking at you with glimmering eyes.

“Chris?” You whisper.

“Say that again,” he breathes.

“Say what?” You frown.

“Tell me you love me again,” he mumbles, a single tear sliding down his cheek.

You smile a little, looking him in the eye. “I love you. I love you. I love you,” you repeat breathlessly. “I’m here to stay- if you’ll let me that is,” you add on in a clumsy, sheepish way.

He smirks, instantly yanking you into a hug. His arm wraps around your waist and head and your arms slither their way around his broad back. You melt into him, half with delight and half with relief.

The embrace says all the things you weren’t strong enough to say, it was passionate, warm, loving, fierce. You slid into eachother like to puzzle pieces. Like you were meant to be there- in eachother’s arms.

Chris holds you tighter to him, using your trembling body, which you hadn’t even noticed was shaking, as an excuse you stuff his nose into your hair and press your chest to his.

“I missed you,” he breathed into you- easy as air. A breath he’d been holding for far too long and needed to release.

A breath that, once uttered, made you instantly freeze.

You slowly parted away from him so you could properly peer into his eyes and because you have no idea how much being back with him was going to be for you emotionally.

“I’m sorry,” you mumble, tears sprouting from your eyes. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I was just scared. I’m always scared.”

He shakes his head at you, pressing a light kiss to your forehead. “I get it, sweetheart. I was scared too. But we’re here now, that’s all that matters.”

He holds his arms out again, but catches himself before wrapping them around you and pulling you to him entirely, the question clear in his eyes; was this okay?

This embrace wasn’t like the one a few moments ago, this one was cautious because you were walking new ground. A ground that was undiscovered but all the same exciting.

A ground that was the foundation for a new path to happiness. A new beginning.

You simply nod in response, too tired to try to fight your need for his warmth off.

He wastes no time pulling you to his chest- nice and tight and you instantly hug him back, loving the feeling of safety and warmth you felt there.

You realize that no matter where you go or who you’re with, nothing will ever feel like being in his arms. Nothing will ever feel like home. Not like him.

His hold tightens on you- like he’s afraid of letting you go and you tighten your own hold to signify your own heightened emotions.

The buzzing in your skin, the racing of your heart, the flush of your face, the fluttering of your tummy- all the emotions that made you feel like there was endless hope and warmth and good in the world- you missed it all.

You listen to his slightly accelerated heartbeat and nestle your head against his chest. “So we fight?”

He heaves a heavy exhale. “We fight.”

You lick your dry lips, taking a deep breath. “Okay.”

He pushes you back slightly, brows raised. “Really?”

You can’t help but smirk a little bit. “I think I still have a little bit more fight left in me.”

You shift in his arms, resting your head on his chest an adjusting the leg you’d hastily thrown over his waist.

After your talk, you’d agreed that a little alone time was in order. So you threw yourselves onto his bed and did what anyone in your position -with unspent sexual frustration and endless simmering desire between your souls- would do and cuddled.

“Sweetheart,” he begins, twirling another strand of your hair in between his fingers.

“Hmm?” you mumble drowsily, drawing a new pattern on his chest with your fingertips.

“Do you love me?”

You pause, brows furrowing. Leaning up on your elbow, you peer down at him. “What?”

He smiles a little. “You heard me.”

“Why do you ask?” You blush bright red.

He chuckles, brushing a hand against your cheek. “Well, I’m not like you, angel. I actually need to hear the words. Again,” he adds cheekily.

You stare at him blankly for a few seconds, contemplating his face. He was perfect. Even the small dips or indents on his skin. Every sharp and soft line, every curve and dip and area of soft flesh.

Beneath you, his muscles strained against his soft pajamas and his warmth surpassed layers of skin and clothing in order to deep into your bones, warming you entirely.

But that wasn’t what made him beautiful. No.

It was the fact that he was such a dork when it came to Charlotte Brontë and Bram Stroker even when he tried to hide it. It was the fact that for years he put aside his own pain to focus on the futures of his students. The pain of losing his wife.

It was that he looked at you like you were his beginning and his end and everything in between. It was the fact that he was unwilling to relent to everyone and everything telling him he couldn’t have you and that he was willing to forgive you.

It was that he was still here. Still fighting even when everything could be lost.

He wasn’t just perfect. He was authentic. And he was beautiful just the way he was.

You finally nod, whispering lightly. “I do. I love you more than anything in the world.”

You’ve never meant anything more in your life. And it didn’t matter what would happen next because you’d be together when it happen and you’d take it on together. You’d always have eachother.

He beams adoringly, running his hands through his hair.

You instantly raise a brow. “What?”

He frowns at you. “What?”

You chuckle, a tiny smirk tugging at your lips. “Something’s wrong. What is it?”

“Wrong? Nothing is wrong. Why does something have to be wrong?”

You instantly smile, patting his cheek as you hook your leg over him tighter in order to get more comfortable. “You just ran a hand through your hair; something’s definitely wrong,” you say as if it’s obvious before softening. “C’mon talk to me.”

He looks into your questioning eyes for exactly three seconds before breaking. “Dammit, why do your eyes have to be so big and…shiny? I can never lie to them,” he mumbles under his breath.

You laugh pressing a little kiss to his stubbled cheek. “It’s my secret superpower. Now; spill.”

He sighs, looking down at his hands. “Nothing I guess I’m kind of second-guessing now. N-not of us o-or anything!” He rushes to explain immediately after. “Just-” he sighs again, looking back down. “I dunno. I feel like I’ve been pressuring you. What if this isn’t what you really want?” He gazes into your eyes, concern swimming in his deep pools. “Is it?”

Unable to hold back a snicker you grin lightly at him. “I just gave you an entire speech about how much I want to be with you and you’re questioning it? Bit late, don’t you think?” You joke lightly.

He deadpans. “Y/n.”

You sigh. “Yes, it is what I want. No backing out this time.” You hold out your pinky with a tiny giggle. “Pinky promise?”

He raises a brow at the small finger, scoffing at the notion. “Angel, I’m a masculine manly-man do you really think that I’m gonna pinky promise you? No.”

You wiggle your pinky with a tiny pout. “C’mon!”

He sternly peers down at you (again for exactly three seconds) before breaking down once more, half-heartedly linking your pinky with his and grumbling for a second time about how your eyes were “unfairly adorable”.

You laugh tightening your finger on his, as you gaze into each other’s eyes tenderly. “I pinky promise to always be with you. No matter what.”

He smiles softly, repeating your words back to you with the tenderest look in his eye. “I pinky promise to always be with you. No matter what.”

When you take your pinkie back, he rolls his eyes, chuckling. “I can’t believe you made me do that. I hate you.”

Lightly shoving his shoulder, you place a soft peck on his cheek. “You know you love me. Plus, c’mon, I came looking for you here, I can’t leave without at least a pinky promise.”

He smirks, wiggling his brows suggestively. “You do realize this means I won, right?”

“Won?”

He nods enthusiastically. “Yeah. This time, you came for me. So I won.”

You snort. “Asshole.”

He chuckles as you suddenly grow serious.

“You know, I hate that you know me better than I know myself. I can never hide from you,” you whisper as he grips your face with his hand.

“You don’t have to,” he says sincerely, looking directly at you. His dark gaze pierced your soul and your breath hitches, forming a huge lump on your throat. “Not from me. Not ever.”

You shiver under his touch, leaning into him. You bite your lip as you gaze at him from under your lashes. “What if what I’m trying to hide is ugly?” You husk.

He simply smiles, like what you’re saying is utterly impossible. “Then you don’t try to hide it. I want to see it all. Because you know what? In the end, I know it’s all going to be beautiful.”

You can’t keep the damn goofy smile from tugging at your lips as you softly kiss his nose. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” you breathe. “I love you so fucking much.”

He pecks your cheek lightly in response, resting his forehead on yours.

“Who are we without scars, without stories to tell? Your flaws make you who you are, angel. And I’ve fallen in love with you. All of you.”

You smile softly at him, your heart thumping loudly inside your chest. “You make me all crazy, you know that?” you mumble.

He laughs, closing the distance between you two and brushing his lashes against yours. “I’m sorry.”

You giggle against his lips, softly moving yours against them as you peer into his darkened eyes and wide blown pupils. “No, you’re not.”

He rubs his thumb across your cheekbone tenderly, tracing your skin like he was afraid you’d break if he pressed too hard or rubbed too much.

“You’re right- I’m not,” he breathes hotly against your skin, playing with your lower lip.

You press your nose to his, pressure building in your chest as you slowly begin straddling him. “Do you want me?”

His other hands grips your other cheek, gaze pinning yours down with ease. “All the damn time,” he responds without hesitation, voice growing deeper and more primitive.

You smirk down at him, forgetting entirely about everything and everyone else.

“Really?”

He looks at you incredulously. “Are you serious? How do you not know what you do to me, sweetheart?”

“No, as a matter of fact, I don’t. What do I do to you, Chris?”

Your pussy begins pulsating rhythmically, panties damp at the implication.

He inhales sharply, clamping down on that plump lip. “Shit sweetheart. You want details?”

He seemed startled but turned on all the same.

You bite your lip, feeling your nipples harden under the soft fabric of the shirt and nearly let a moan slip when it rubs against the sensitive nubs as you move.

“Yes. I want you to tell me exactly how much you want me. I want you to tell me how you’ve imagined me before. What you’d do to me if you’re given the chance,” you rasp all in one breath.

As you speak, you grind your down hips on his, enjoying the much-needed friction it created in your sensitive spot.

He clenches his jaw, eyes ablaze with that fire you missed so much.

“Careful sweetheart,” he grits out through clenched teeth, hands dropping to your ass and hips. “If you get too close I might burn you.”

You look him in the eye, knowing damn well your own unquenchable fire was swaying sensually back and forth in your eyes. You wanted him—bad. In fact, you fucking needed him. You needed him like you needed air to breathe. Fuck, you ached for the feeling of his cock inside you, claiming you as his. Because damn you were his.

“Then burn me,” you say with full intent.

His eyes snap shut, fingers digging into your flesh.

“Jesus Christ, Y/n. If we don’t stop right now I can’t promise I won’t fuck you ‘til you’re screaming.”

Your pussy instantly grows wet at his words, pulsating far more aggressively than before as you move your hips faster.

“Fuck Chris. Have you dreamed about me?” You pant.

He looks up at you through heavy-lidded eyes, dick stirring in his pants. “Almost every night,” he admits without shame or hell- even embarrassment.

Than only makes you more flushed.

You lick your dry lips, his eyes following the movement. “Yeah? And what am I wearing?”

He closes his eyes, hands traveling down to your thighs before rising gradually up to your waist, pushing fabric out of the way. You tremble beneath his fingertips and he uses the chance to guide your movements against him, his long fingers setting a rhythm for you to move to.

He hisses with pleasure. “Y-you’re wearing my t-shirt. Only with panties underneath.”

You inhale deeply, chest rising but not falling just yet at the vivid image. “Mhm,” you hum softly. “And where are we?”

“My bedroom. You’re sprawled out on my bed, sleeping.”

You bite your lip. “Are you hard yet?”

“Hell yes,” he breathes, digging his nails into your ass. “I can see your ass from here. All of that for me,” he moans softly against your chest as he adjusts you and his grip on you so your tits are closer to his face.

You arch back at the sensation of having his hard cock rubbing against you from beneath his pants.

“You’re moving around in your sleep and I’m getting harder because you look so damn innocent but sexy all at once. Like you’re just asking me to ruin you.”

You moan against him, accidentally brushing your nipple against his lips in the frenzy of your dry humping.

You freeze for a second, letting the sensation sink into your cells, warming them with electrifying bliss before moaning louder when Chris lightly opens his mouth to take one of them in over the thin material of the shirt.

Your mouth falls open at the sensation and your finger rake through his hair, tugging on the strands harshly as he gently suckles on the sensitive bud, rolling his tongue around it with expert sensuality.

His eyes meet yours as he does this and neither of your looks away as he flicks his tongue back and forth, causing your whole body to nearly overload with bliss.

“Fuck Chris,” you mewl, digging out nails into his scalp.

He stops sucking, using his finger to play with them instead. Your mouth falls open in a choked-up scream as he continues narrating his dirty dream for you.

“Even from there I can see how soft your skin is. How perfect your tits are and how good they’d fit in my hands. It’s torture until I walk over to you and grab one of your ankles gently in my hands…”

“Yes?” Your breath hitches as he hits a sensitive spot.

“And the other one too. Then I slowly part them. I don’t want to wake you yet. Not like that.”

You bite your lip, holding back a moan.

“When I’ve completely opened your legs, I slowly crawl up your body, kissing your legs as I go. When I reach your inner thighs, I slowly lift my shirt up….” he trails off, his thumb softly grazing your sensitive nub.

Your head flies back at the sudden jolt of pleasure it sends up your spine. “Shit Chris,” you groan.

“I start leaving open-mouthed kisses all over your soft skin. You’re shifting in your sleep, growing wetter, but you still haven’t woken up. Finally, I kiss your pussy.”

At the words coming out of his sinfully soft mouth, you feel your stomach clench, mouth capturing a silent scream and swallowing it back down.

He keeps you moving against him, his fingers gripping your thigh and his thumb working soft circles into your now soaked panties.

You gyrate into his hand rhythmically, fully concentrated in how good he felt.

“Uh-huh,” you finally grit out.

He continues speaking, voice strained and tone nearly drowned out entirely by animalistic frenzy. “You slowly peel your eyes open as I’ve begun flicking my tongue over your clit back and forth.” He copies the motion he describes with his thumb, smirking viciously when you nearly fall over him.

“I’ve been doing it over your sheer lace underwear this whole time, but when you are finally awake, your smell and your taste become too much for me to handle. You intoxicate all my senses sweetheart. I just want you on my tongue. I want you to ride my face until you cum in my mouth.”

And that’s all he needs to add to his jerky thumb movements for you to cum. Hard.

As if he can sense that you’ve reached a climax, he watches you with hunger, drinking in the sight of you coming all for him. “That’s right, sweetheart. Cum for me. All for me. Fuck, Y/n.”

You convulse, cursing like a damn sailor into his mouth. “Fuuuuck Chris!”

When you’re done, you slouch against him.

He hugs you to him and the rumble of his laughter travels through you, causing your sensitive insides to tremble. “You okay, sweetheart?”

You lift your head carefully. “Yes.”

He smiles. “Good. Y/n?”

“Yeah?”

“I want to make love to you.”

“Oh.”

Read Chapter Twelve here!!

***

The flashbacks to Mr. Evans I are real. Omfg.

I’m literally in love with him.

A special thanks to:

@star-spangled-steve

@tomoyaevaans

@pepsicola-is-my-brand-man

@whereeverythingisbetter

@fallenoutofrose

@plutonium-m

@beepbeepromanoff

@faithmichaluk

@sincerelytlh

@tomshelbystits

@kind-sober-fullydressed

@emmarogers222

@sashimi-cat

@zofty15

@gemgemswift

@fafulous

@chljmntgy

@thatssograce

@leclerc-stan

@colddsalsa

@evansislife

@chris-butt

@captainchrisstan

@marvels-gurl

@davestridersrightnipple

@agirlcanstilldream

@notbexmader

@ib-ebe

@byrogers

@theangrylizard

@oh-hey-janina

@mannatgalhotra

And My forevers!

@jessikared97

@ladyofletters67

@lilypalmer1987

@sammykb1994

@tomshelbystits

#Chris Evans #chris evans au #teacher au #teacher!chris evans x student!reader

170 notes · View notes

smellysluna · 5 years

Text

The one where Luka is a clown | Fictober19 #1

Prompt number: 「 one 」“It will be fun, trust me.”

Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug

Pairing: Luka Couffaine & [YOU]

Rating: T (Teens And Up)

Warnings/Tags: none

Summary: you’ve always had a crush on him bcs he simply was your type but nothing really happened unitl You & Luka get set up as project mates

Side note: I know that it’s the twelth of october but i just started it, i’ll write some more for fictober but i’ll use the prompts as i see fit bcs i’m just like that so yeah. anyways i hope this makes some kind of sense, its been a long time since i finished something i began writing. okay so i also wanted to write luka because there’s not many fics with him with an “x reader” tag. okay talk over, enjoy the story babes!!!!

"Hey."

I turned around in my seat and smiled. "Hi, Luka."

"So... how'd you wanna do this?"

I cocked an eyebrow. "Do what?" Luka shared an amused smile. "Oh!" I face-palm. "The project! Right." I picked up the notebook with my notes from my desk and slammed it on his desk. Then I rotated it in his direction. "This is how we're going to do it."

"Wow, you've really thought this through already."

I rest my face on my hand and smirk. "It's no coincidence that I ace my presentations."

"I guess I'm lucky then."

"More than you think." I straighten my back. "Okay, no funny business tho. You fuck up and I'll make you suffer all the way to June. Take a picture of them notes so you have a copy and have a slight idea of what's going on."

He puts up a half-amused smile, "this ain't my first rodeo."

"But it's your first bullfight, so keep up." He laughed and I bit my lip. I might've gone overboard.

"I'll do my best," he assured in a soft voice. Holy shit. He's so mellow. As soon as I was sure he had a picture of my notes, I took his phone. I entered into his contacts and added my number then dialed myself.

I show him the screen of my phone. "Now we have each other's numbers." He smiled before I turned around just in time for the teacher to get in.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

I was watching dessert recipes on YouTube when I received a message from Luka. The popup appeared from an Unknown number which reminded me that I forgot to add him to my contacts.

"hey"

"hi"

"what's up?"

"i went through ur notes"

"yeah?"

"they're amazing, aren't they"

"u made those in class"

"how???"

"they're too good"

You sent an image:

Unknown sent an image:

"anyhow"

"i wanted to know when you want to get the project finished"

"i thought that you'd want to finish it asap"

"u look like you have a busy schedule"

"i'm free whenever, really"

"but i don't want to finish it in one go"

"so we'll spend a couple of days on it"

"if u dont mind that is"

"btw you give me too much credit"

"right"

"it's fine, yeah"

"more time to clown around"

Unknown sent an image:

"> AUDIO (laughter)"

"IM DYING"

"WHY IS THIS SO FUNNY"

"i took clown courses in my childhood"

"where's the diploma huh?"

"wait, lemme look"

"wait"

"ur serious???"

"photo(clown certificate)"

"I CAN'T BREATHE"

"clown code: never joke about being a clown"

"AND HERE I WAS"

"THINKING YOU WERE THE COOLEST GUY AT SCHOOL"

"BUT ALL THIS TIME YOU WERE JUST A CLOWN"

"I WAS SO FOOLISH"

"ur now officially added to my contacts as clown boy 🤡"

"coolest guy huh? ;)"

"don't let it get to your head, clown boy"

"as much as i'd love to know about your clown career, i have to go make dinner"

"we'll talk more about it at school"

"don't vanish on me"

"i'll snap my fingers into Thanos' ass if i have to"

"right 😂"

At dinner, I couldn't stop thinking about Luka. We might've never talked much to each other but I always had the hots for him. He was just my type: tall, supposedly long hair for a boy, dyed hair, punk-like feel and especially (these just get me going) those black gauges in his ears. Anyways, I'd lie if I said I never got distracted in class because of the smell of his cologne.

"Thank you for dinner, [Y/N]," said my mom after she cleaned the table.

"Don't forget to do the dishes, love."

"Yes, Dad," I chuckled.

"We're off to bed, then. Goodnight, [Y/N]."

"Goodnight, mum. Goodnight, dad."

That night, I fell asleep thinking about how nice that chat conversation with Luka was.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

I groaned loudly when I got into class. I ran because I was late for geography. When I got to class, the lack of a teacher at the desk made me want to kill myself. My classmates were scattered around the classroom in groups, as usual when a teacher was absent. Done with life, I walk to my desk, drop my backpack and accommodate my face on the desk. Suddenly, somebody is standing next to me. But I really just wanted some sleep so my first intention was to ignore whomever until well, it's self-explanatory.

"Looks like someone spent all night thinking about me."

"What!?" I see Luka. Now fully energized and heart pumping, I stutter: "No, no. What are you even saying?"

He laughs and takes a seat on the vacant spot in front of me. He rests his arms on my desk. "I'm just messing with you, wanted to see the reaction I'd get out of you. I wasn't expecting to fully wake you up." He smiles broadly and I stare into his eyes.

Have you ever met that person, no matter who they are, their eyes are so enthralling that you just can't help but keep staring at them? These kinds of eyes just have something... Something I'm unable to describe. And when I stare at them, they're so glossy and shiny.

"I think you'd look amazing if you wore eyeliner."

"Huh?" Half of his face moves upwards in sync. "That's very random."

"I mean, yeah." I look away, fidget with my bracelet and then look back. "I just thought it'd bring your eyes out even more."

"Ooh," he exhales knowingly. "Because they're blue, right?"

I knit my eyebrows together. "No," I say offended. Had this boy never realized how nice his eyes are?

"Why then?" He asks and nods his head onto his arms.

"Well," I lick my lips, "I don't know." I shrug "It's not because of the color, which is beautiful just so you know." I caress my arm and try very hard to maintain eye contact, occasionally looking away. "Your eyes, I don't know, they just have something."

He smiles at my words, "look who's talking."

"Not a clown, that's for sure." He groans in a boyish way and it melts my insides so warm I almost let it show.

"You won't let it go, won’t you?" He lays defeated on my desk, arms sprawled.

"You did that to yourself." He hummed in a way that seemed a mixture of displeasure and annoyance. His long hair was sprawled in every direction of my desk. I could tell that he washed his hair either last night or this morning —it smelled so nice. Luka smelled really nice and I couldn't help but bite my lip to restrain myself from sniffing him all over like I was some kind of dog-bred. I started playing with his hair and it was so much softer than I expected it to be, it was dyed after all. He let a pleasurable groan slip through.

"Does this bother you?"

Luka abruptly opened his eyes and forced my head to rest on the desk as well. With very soft caresses he ran his hand through my locks and I understood what it was that he intended.

"What about you?"

I stared into his eyes for a moment and closed them, then resumed playing with his hair as he did the same. We were so close, I could hear his silent breathes. I wondered if this could be considered as cuddling. Honestly? I didn't care because I was enjoying it.

"Hey, guys, look at [Y/N] and Luka."

"Woah, when did that happen."

"Never thought [Y/N] liked that type of guy."

"You're kidding, right? Luka's definitely her type."

We spent the rest of the hour like that. Somewhere in between, the rest of the class noticed us but, frankly, we paid them no mind. But it made me anxious. Not because of what they said but about what Luka might've thought about it.

"I kind of like this," he whimpers softly as if scared he'd break whatever we had going on.

I agree with him softly, just as scared to ruin the mood.

When the bell rang, we hesitantly broke apart. Luka returned to his assigned seat behind me and then class started. The moments the teacher repeated subjects the class already went through, Luka played with the ends of my hair.

After the school bell rang for the last time that day, Luka approached me. He asked if I wanted to start on the project today. Luka was so cute while he asked. He didn't do anything particularly cute but the way he looked when he leaned on the wall had sent me flying. Obviously, I said that it was a good idea. Not desperately, of course, even though I wanted to grab him and steal him away. I kept my cool.

"What time?"

He grimaced to hide a grin. "I was hoping, like, right now?"

"Uh, well... On any other particular month, I'd agree and take you to my house. But we're getting reformations done so it's a very big mess."

"We can go to my place." He states like it's a universal fact.

"But all my shit's at home, and I'd want to empty my backpack, grab some money, etcetera."

"Okay, I get it. I can take you home and we'll head right over to mine?"

Even though I might pass out any moment out of pure embarrassment, I cross my arms in an 'X' in front of his face.

"No way that's happening, clown boy."

"What? Why?" He frowns.

"No way in hell I'm letting you drive me on your motorbike."

A small laugh escapes his lips. "You've never been on a motorcycle?"

I act displeased.

Luka laughs with a hand on his stomach. "You haven't!" I scowl and his laughter subdues. He waves his hands in front of him and apologizes for laughing. "I'll be careful, just for you." He assures.

"Even if I agreed... I doubt you'd have a second helmet. And we all know that police officer which has an obsession for the law."

"I got us covered on that one, I have two."

I stare at him. "You had this all planned out, didn't you?"

"No," he grins, "it just happens to be that I usually pick my sister up from her school."

"Oh, so she's gonna have to walk all the way back to your house. We can't let her do that, can we?" No matter how much I crush on Luka, anything that can get me out of sitting on that devil's contraption, I'd go with.

"I said 'usually', didn't I?" I can feel his smirk soaking right through me but in a much more softer tone he said "it'll be fun," and smiles "trust me."

It was his goddamn smile that convinced me to agree.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

"I never knew you could live in a boat."

I looked around the main deck and, for some reason, I felt very lightweight and free.

"You don't like it?"

"The contrary, I love it!" I smile at him, "it adds to your charm."

Luka smiles back, "thanks."

Both of us walked inside the boat. I took everything all at once. You rarely get the chance to be inside a boat-home. But the most surprising thing was that it was stable —at least more than I thought.

"My room's the one at the end. Get yourself comfy —I'll be right there."

I bite the inside of my cheek. "Okay."

Once I get into his room, I relax and take a look around. I leave my backpack by the door and head straight for the most valuable thing to me in his room. Luka had one of the nicest guitar stands available on which laid the most basic electric guitar ever... but since looks can deceive, I pick it up.

I make myself comfortable on his bed along with Luka's guitar and a guitar pick I snatched from the wall. Without thinking twice, I started to play. It didn't matter to me that I hadn't plugged the guitar into an amplifier, this particular tab didn't need the magic of electricity. I suppose I should have asked first if I could play but it's too late now-

"That's 'Lonely Day', right?"

"Ah! Shit! Sorry!" I stood up hastily, the guitar pick went flying to the floor and I placed the guitar back where it was supposed to be. I turn to him to apologize, "I should've asked-."

Luka walks past me, grabs the guitar by its fretboard and puts the strap around himself. He shuffles around me and I was too confused to realize what he was doing. Then he hands me the guitar fully-tuned-connected-to-an-amplifier guitar. He lifts it by the fretboard again and hands it over to me as if telling me to take it. I stare into his eyes and do exactly that.

At that moment, we didn't need any words as I accepted his silent offer. I strum dumbly and then start fidgeting with the knobs on his amplifier. I bite my lip, it doesn't have as many options as mine and it's smaller than the one I have at home but I managed to get the right sound.

I started playing a song that I had played countless times and felt very confident. This moment was about impressing Luka and I was determined to blow him away. But the moment I started playing, I couldn't keep up the cool-girl act and grinned as I played around the room.

"Wow," he said amazed after I finished. "I never knew you played guitar, let alone that well."

"I'm amazing, I know," I wink.

"What did you play?"

"You don't recognize it!?" I gasp loudly. I put my hands over my heart. "Oh, my heart! It hurts! I have never been so hurt before!"

He holds back an embarrassed smile. "Guilty as charged."

"It's Crowd Chant, by Satriani," an exaggerated sad smile adorns my lips.

"Oh, right! The guy from 'Surfing with the Alien'!"

"Yes, that one! I love him, he's my idol!"

"He's good."

"Good? He's a GOD." I pout at him. "Your idol is Jagged Stone, that's why you have so little appreciation for him."

"Right."

I playfully punch him. "Just kidding."

"I thought I was supposed to be the clown around here."

I laugh very loud at that. "Yes! I will - haha - leave - ha - the rest to you."

During the week we were making the project we had gotten really close and we kept hanging out at each other's houses even when the project was long ago finished. I met his very cool mum, and his sister, who is physically exactly like him but both of them don't seem to admit it. And he met my small family too.

"I keep telling you! You do look alike! Genetics is no joke."

"I agree with [Y/N]!" Juleka's friend said one day over dinner. I can't remember what her name was but I always thought there was more than 'friends' between her and Juleka.

"We do not look alike; you both must be very blind," Luka jokes and I pinch him very hard. "Ow! Stop!" He pinches back.

"No! Luka! That was payback for yesterday!" He stuck his tongue out at me and I growl. "You're very mean."

He shrugs, "whatever you say, [Y/N]."

"Oh, 'whatever I say' it is, is it?" I crossed my arms and pondered without breaking my staring contest with Luka. "So if I said you're ugly, you'd agree?"

He smirked, "sure." I felt how triumph tasted and literally a second later I tasted defeat. "But it won't affect the fact that my eyes have 'something'."

I became a blushing mess and everyone at the table stared at us.

"So..." Juleka started, unsure. "Does that mean that [Y/N] confessed first?"

Juleka's blonde friend nodded, "I knew it!"

"I'm happy for the both of you," Mrs. Couffaine cheered with a very sweet smile.

There was a problem with their cheers which made Luka and me quite uncomfortable. It was wrong. Nothing had happened between us.

"It's...! It's not like that!" I attempt to defend ourselves and turn to Luka. "That's not what that was, right, Luka?"

He was looking in the opposite direction, scratching his crimson red neck. "I mean..."

I hide my face in my hands. "Oh my God, I want to kill myself."

"You know what? We will leave you both to work out whatever misunderstanding there might be, okay?" And with no answer, all three of them left.

"Let's go outside." With no warning, Luka took me by the hand and guided me to the main deck. It was chilly outside and I shivered but kept it to myself. "Here." Luka handed me his jacket.

"Thanks," I smile and put it on. It still smells like his cologne.

"About what Juleka said..." He avoided my gaze by looking into the river. "I might've told her that I like you," he turns to me and takes my hands, "a lot." Luka squeezes my hands out of nervousness. "The way you and I understand each other, without any words, just the music is enough. I feel like we're connected through it like we are the power-chords to any rock song."

My heart was melting, I always knew deep down that Luka's a very sweet romantic and he was killing me with his cuteness. I never knew you could look cute and hot during a confession. "Luka, I-"

"Remember when we sang 'Anything better than you'?"

"Yeah."

I recalled the memory. At the end of the song, when the part that goes "I can sing anything sweeter than you" our lips were so close... I couldn't stop thinking about it before I fell asleep every night.

"I wanted to kiss you so badly, but I just couldn't do it." Luka pulled me in and we were as close as that other time, my heart was beating so hard I could hear it in my ears. "Until now."

Luka kissed me and I kissed back. We kissed each other so desperately and I ran my hand through his hair. Fuck, how I loved the softness of his hair. We break apart for a kiss and stare at each other's eyes, dumbfounded. We kiss again except this time it wasn't as desperate. It was softer, a kiss only Luka could make amazing. Luka had thin lips but made up for it with the way he kissed. I wanted to kiss him more, I wanted more from Luka so I kissed him harsher. Then he broke apart the kiss, clearly taken aback from it.

My heart stopped, "I... I'm sorry-!" He cut me off by kissing me harsher than I did and I loved every second of his harshness. I began feeling his neck, his back, his chest and pushed myself closer to him as every second that passed it became hotter.

We broke the make-out apart. Our flushed faces appreciated the cool night breeze. We keep wrapped around each other. "I think we should get back inside."

I listened to his pounding heart through his chest. "Not yet, clown boy."

"Whatever you say, love."

#fictober19 #miraculous ladybug #luka couffaine #luka couffaine x reader #luka x reader #fictober19 day 1

774 notes · View notes

fatherlyssa · 4 years

Text

QUARANTINED

summary; you and ethan are stuck in quarantine for 24 hours. alone.

word count: 2k

warnings: alcohol use

“okay, i’ll be leaving kyle’s in like twenty minutes and i’ll meet you at the house?”

that was the last thing you heard from your best-friend, grayson. but now you sat in the living room of his house, thirty minutes later, with no grayson. you weren’t too worried about it at first. figured he was just driving slow or that you had driven a bit too fast through the curvy hills.

you weren’t worried at all until the headline on the afternoon news read, ‘ALL OF CALIFORNIA UNDER LOCKDOWN’ in bright red letters. your eyes widened and you listened intently to the blonde haired lady with way too much contour on.

“all of california has been forced under a mandatory lockdown for the next 24-hours. all civilians are to stay in their homes and are not allowed to leave u less they have government issued papers that say they are allowed to.”

was grayson going to be stuck at kyle’s now? were you going to be stuck at grayson’s?

“oh fuck no,” you thought to yourself as you stood up from the couch and took your phone out of your back pocket. you dialed grayson’s number and placed the phone to your ear.

it rang for a couple of seconds before he picked up, “i’m guessing you just saw the news too?”

“yeah, i did. are you stuck at kyle’s?” you asked in an urgent tone, praying he’d say no and that he was pulling into the driveway.

there was no way you could be stuck here, alone, with him.

“yeah, i am. i’m sorry y/n.”

the groan that fell from your lips made you close your eyes and let your head fall back, “grayson, i can’t be stuck here with ethan. he hates me. he’s gonna like smother me in my sleep or something.”

ethan had always disliked you. for some unknown reason that you couldn’t get from grayson. you and grayson had been best-friends for over five years now and none of those years had ethan bothered to even try and act like he liked you. at this point he didn’t even bother acknowledging you.

“no he won’t, y/n. he’s not even capable of killing someone. you’ll be fine. there’s plenty of food in the kitchen and you know you can sleep in my room if you want.”

grayson tried to calm you down for the next five minutes and what he was saying helped a little bit, but there was still an anxious feeling in the pit of your stomach that wouldn’t go away. you ended the call with grayson and let out a heavy sigh.

“you really think i would try and murder you in your sleep?”

your heart nearly jumped out of your chest and ran down the roaring hills that were in their backyard. you turned on your heels and saw him standing there, his arms crossed over his bare chest in a relaxed position.

“i-“ you stammered before he let out a dry chuckle.

“i wouldn’t waste my energy.” he turned around and headed into the kitchen without another word.

your lips parted in shock. you couldn’t deny the comment kind of hurt. it should have calmed you down, but it didn’t one bit.

that’s it. i’ve had enough of this shit.

with all the courage and confidence you had in your body you followed behind him into the kitchen, putting your hands on your hips. he stood in front of the open fridge, bent at the hips searching for something.

“i don’t know what your problem is or why you hate me so much, but for the next 24 hours we need to at least try and get along for once. i don’t want to be stuck in this house with you as much as you don’t want to be stuck with me.”

you were proud for a moment for standing up for yourself. that was until he stood tall in front of you. his eyebrows narrowed at you, examining your face for any faltering in emotion. he towered over your body and as much as you felt intimidated, you didn’t let it show.

“i don’t hate you.” he said, letting his eyes fall down to the floor then back up to meet your eyes.

there was some emotion on his face that you couldn’t quite read. as fast as it had shown through was as fast as it was gone. once again, before you could say anything, he turned and walked away. hopefully heading to his room.

you pulled your phone out and sent a text to grayson.

do you have any alcohol anywhere in this house?

he replied back in seconds saying that cameron had left a bottle of wine in the fridge last time she visited. you pulled out the bottle of red wine and found a glass to pour it in.

this is the only way i’m going to get through the next 24 hours...

the one glass you poured turned into three and now you sat on the couch with the bottle in front of you. the notebook was playing on the flat screen tv and tears were pouring down your face. it was the scene where they had gone to their dream house before it was remodeled the way she wanted it. this scene always made you emotional but so did wine.

footsteps sounded from the hallway and even in your drunken state you wiped the tears away quickly and acted as if nothing happened. you looked up and saw ethan standing in the foyer. his hazel eyes focused on the tv.

“wine and the notebook? how basic..” his tone was almost playful as he let out a chuckle. that chuckle wasn’t dry and harsh. it was full of humor.

“wanna join?” you asked, the alcohol giving you a newly found confidence.

you watched ethan closely as he looked back at you. he shrugged his shoulders and fell down onto the couch next to you. like really close. you had expected him to sit on the other end so he could lay down and be comfortable.

you couldn’t help but stare at his side profile now, watching the next scene illuminated all his features. being around the twins so much, you realized quickly they had a couple different features. ethan’s lips always looked more pouty than grayson’s did. his eyebrows were always kept in a furrow which made him look mysterious.

“stop staring at me.” his deep voice made you jump slightly. he leaned up and grabbed the bottle of wine and leaned back. he poured more wine into the cup that was still clenched in your hand and then sat the bottle back on the table.

he took the cup from your hand and took a sip, his face scrunching up in disgust.

“you pussy.” you giggled watching him instead of the movie. “give me my wine back.” you said in a pouty voice as you leaned over and grabbed the cup back from him.

in your younger teenage years, you spent most of the time at parties. most alcohol now never made you grimace or shudder. you had been told by many of your friends you drank like a sailor and had a tolerance like one too.

you chugged the full glass right in front of ethan and then placed the glass on the coffee table in front of you.

“that stuff is disgusting.” he said, his eyes still watching you. “i’ll show you what i drink. come here.”

he stood up from the couch and outstretched his hand to you, pulling you to your feet. you followed closely behind him where he led you to his bedroom.

you had never seen his bedroom before, nor had you ever spoken to him this much. all of this had just hit you like a wrecking ball. leaving you even more confused than before. you didn’t let it bother you for too long as you watched him pull out a bottle of whiskey. it was a high class whiskey that you had never seen before. probably because you were too middle class with your alcohol choices. what ever was on sale was what went home with you.

“here, take a sip.” he handed the bottle over to you.

with no hesitation, you pressed the cold glass to your lips and took a sip. it ran through your body with a tingle and made a drunken giggle fall from your lips as you handed it back to him.

“that’s good shit.” you smiled as you watched him take a sip. “can i sit on your bed?” you asked him.

“yes mam.”

the two of you sat in a comfortable silence, passing the brown liquor back and forth. you weren’t sure how much time had passed by before ethan spoke up.

“i was jealous.” he said making you look at him in confusion. he had laid down on his back and was staring at the ceiling, his toned arms propped up behind his head.

“of?” you questioned, placing the whiskey bottle on the floor in front of the bed. half of it had been drank just from the two of you sitting here.

you were surely feeling it, but you weren’t completely drunk yet. you eventually would be if you kept drinking it tho.

“you and grayson. your relationship.” he sat up and turned to face you slightly. “do you want some clothes to change into? those jeans aren’t gonna be comfortable to sleep in.” he changed the subject, pointing to the black skinny jeans that basically painted to your body.

“i’ll go get something of grayson’s.” you said, standing to your feet.

“no,” he stood in front you. his hand placed on your stomach to keep you from moving. “i’ll give you something of mine.” his voice was demanding and almost scared you.

you nodded and watched as he walked over to his closet, pulling out a pair of black sweatpants and a large white t-shirt. he handed them to you and said he’d walk out so you could change.

still in confusion, you changed into the clothes and folded yours up neatly and placed them in the black desk chair next to you. you let him know you were done changing and he walked back in and fell down into the same position as before.

“grayson and i are just friends. you know that right?” you told him as you rested yourself on one elbow still facing him.

“i know.” he said in a matter-of-fact tone. “you guys got close so fast. like you two were destined to be friends with each other. you took my brother from me. but that wasn’t what bothered me the most. it was seeing him make you laugh until you were crying and him making you blush so easy. i knew you’d never be like that with me.”

his words had your heart pounding in your throat. what were you supposed to say to that? how was anyone supposed to respond to that?

“you never tried. you always acted like you hated me and never wanted me around.” you finally found the courage to speak up.

he chuckled lowly and closed his eyes, running a hand through his hair, “because i figured if i pushed you away i wouldn’t want you so bad, but god that did the complete opposite.”

he said the statement with such ease. effortlessly.

“you want me?” you questioned almost in a whisper.

you were worried he hadn’t heard you until he finally turned to face you. his eyes gazing into yours fully. you felt like he was looking into your soul and finding out every secret kept inside your mind.

“always have.”

#ethan dolan #ethan dolan imagine

75 notes · View notes

yyxgin · 3 years

Note

👁👄👁 bar my day was wild

apparently, my passport didn’t work or something the first time so i had to come BACK home to get it so the regional manager or whatever could scan it. it’s okay bc he got me an uber and back,, no bus ✨ frankly i was exhausted at the back and forth but no one was mad at me considering my gm said it was okay to bring it tomorrow (which clearly it wasn’t) but i’m happy. it went smoothly and the food runner was lovely to me 🥺 and the deputy manager (? god that’s definitely not her title but i’ve forgotten it bc brainrot) knows a girl i went to highschool with?? also i think she’s impressed w me for being able to handle the spice idk. we ate together. i like everyone there. i forgot to thank the chefs for my food so i’ll make sure to thank them first thing tomorrow as it was delicious 😭❤️

the tree sounds so cool!! i bet that lets off lots of energy into your room. it sounds like it’d be good for concentration and calming. honestly i want to get some more as i initially bought tumble stones as they were more convenient for me. my emerald is cool though,, that’s just in a rock 🤘🏼

chenle is such a mood honestly. i saw the video of him dancing for a fancall i think? apparently someone said they can understand why the neo’s smoke and i just 💀💀💀 i cannot w some people they crack me up 😫👋

i’m gonna watch a movie,, i think i’m gonna go with pegasus. or the old town girls. either way!! my mum did walk in on me watching anime and said ‘wow ice cream and cartoons. what more could you ask for?’ and that’s the most on brand she’s been in ever tbh.

i think imma keep it short for now. don’t forget to tell me how your day goes (i’ll ask, don’t you worry) ~ 🌻

DUDEE my id never works when they try to scan it for some reason ?? but like i never do anything w it bc i dont really care tbh🤡🤡 im glad no one got mad at u bc the lady at the post office really glared at me the last time like,, its not my fault😔 im already socially anxious stop stressing me out.

omg the manager knows your classmate from high school thats so cool ?? damn world is a small place😳 also im impressed w your ability to handle spice as well bc i am a big baby and i cannot eat spicy things at all😭💔 my brother brought a spicy pizza home one day and i took a bite and cried my eyes out, like,,,literally, bc not even drinking milk helped. i DIDNT EVEN KNOW IT WAS A CHILLI PIZZA BC THE MFERS USED ONLY CHILLI POWDER AND I DIDNT NOTICE IT 😭

i honestly dont know if it brings me energy but i like looking at that tree??? my grandma got it for me so thats probably why. my friend was into crystals for a while and went around with an amethyst stone but then she kind of lost interest i guess😔

THATS SO TRUE THO LIKE IF I HAD FANS LIKE NCTZENS I WOULD SMOKE TOO. like doing dances for them ?? i saw someone teaching a tiktok dance to mark the other day and he looked so dead inside. also jaehyun looks like he doesnt want to be there in 99% of his fancalls and i honestly do not blame him.

ooh i've never heard of those movies !! make sure to tell me how they were if you watch them 😎 also i am really bad at watching anime but my friend recommended one to me so i'm looking forward to watching it after i finish the dramas i'm watching rn !! my mum also calls them cartoons😔 my brother on the other hand always assumes its hentai.

my day hasn't really been good but thats okay😔 i just have to be a lil grumpy about it and then it'll be fine dksks tell me how your day was !! i hope it was good :)

#💌ask #🌻 anon

1 note · View note

highfivecalum · 5 years

Text

Cynosure {Best Friends Brother!CH}

a/n: okay so i don’t really know what this is tbh i kind of got lost towards the end and just ..... lost sight of what i actually wanted to write but! i hope you still enjoy 13k words of best friends brother!cal even tho it’s kind of all over the place and if it flops we’ll just pretend it didn’t happen thanks!! happy reading :)))

Cynosure: something that strongly attracts attention and admiration

Summary: Shy Elena gets more than she bargains for when her best friends cocky brother moves in with her.

“Sorry I’m late.” Elena slid into the booth that Mali was sitting in, a glass of wine in front of her and one on the table across from her that she ordered for Elena, knowing that she would be late. She wasn’t the most punctual of people, that was one of her many flaws.

“I’m used to it by now.” Mali chuckled and closed the menu she had been looking at for the ten minutes she waited for Elena to arrive. They were meeting for their weekly Friday night dinner and it was Mali’s turn to pick the restaurant. It wasn’t like they didn’t see each other almost every other day, but they enjoyed sitting down in a nice restaurant and getting to hang out just the two of them, without their other friends.

“Ha-ha.” Elena rolled her eyes and sipped her wine. They chatted for a little while, talking about their days, until their server came back to take their food orders. And as they waited, Mali finally cleared her throat and changed the subject to what she originally wanted to talk to Elena about.

“So,” Mali cleared her throat nervously, looking at her younger friend, and Elena could tell instantly that her best friend was nervous about something. Cocking an eyebrow, Elena put down her glass of wine and waved her hand, urging her to speak. “Calum, you know my brother, is moving back here.”

“Oh? Why don’t you sound more excited?” Elena knew that Mali and her brother were close, the best of friends even, and she had heard so much about him and seen pictures of the handsome man Mali that called her brother, but she had never met him in person. She wasn’t sure why Mali didn’t sound excited about the news of her brother moving back to New York from California.

“I am excited! Trust me - I am, it’s just, he needs a place to stay until he gets a job and enough money to get his own place and get up on his feet and… I know that you have an extra bedroom that nobody is using, so I was wondering if he could stay with you?” Mali’s voice was high pitched at the end, full of hopefulness and wishing.

“Oh, uh, well why can’t he stay with you?” Elena wasn’t completely opposed to the idea of Mali’s brother staying with her, she was just a little hesitant because she had never met him before and she wasn’t sure if she would be able to live with such an attractive man, especially since it was her best friends brother, without feeling uneasy about it. And, to say she was shy and awkward around attractive men, and really anybody she didn’t know, was an understatement.

“He and Marco don’t get along. Remember?” Marco, Mali’s boyfriend, wasn’t a big fan of Calum and vise versa. Elena nodded her head knowingly, having forgotten about the story Mali told her of Calum and Marco getting into a physical fight a few years back, and never resolving it. “Please, Elena? He really needs a place to stay and I wouldn’t ask you if he didn’t need it. You know that. He hates when I do things for him.” Mali batted her eyes and jutted out her lower lip. “And he’s so quiet! You won’t even know he’s there.”

Elena gnawed on her lower lip, deep in thought as she decided what to do. Even if she really wanted to, even if she was totally and completely opposed to it, Elena really couldn’t say no to Mali. Her best friend needed her help and Mali had helped Elena out before when she needed it, so she owed her one, and she wasn’t going to let her best friends brother be homeless. If Elena was Calum’s only option - she was going to help him.

“Please, El?” Mali clasped her hands together, dragging out her words as she watched Elena, chew on her lower lip in thought. “I know you’re shy and I know you’ll feel weird at first since you don’t know him, but Cal is great, really! And I’ll forever be in your debt.”

Exhaling a heavy sigh, Elena nodded her head. “Alright, fine.” She finally spoke and Mali’s face lit up, clapping her hands and cheering. Elena was happy to help, she really was, but she wasn’t sure what would come of it.

***

“Hello?” Mali called out excitedly, letting herself in Elena’s house like she had done so many times before, motioning for Calum to follow her. He did so, hesitantly, and adjusted the bags he was holding. He didn’t have a lot, just two big duffel bags full of clothes, and a guitar or two in the car outside of Elena’s house in her driveway. “Elena! Where are you?”

“Kitchen!” Elena called out, licking her finger clean of brownie batter that was on it. She looked up at the sound of Mali’s high heels clicking against her wooden floors and smiled at her best friend. Her smile just barely falling when she saw Calum enter the kitchen behind Mali. God, he was so much hotter in person than in pictures.

It’s not like Elena had forgotten that Calum was going to be moving in that day, if anything, she really couldn’t stop thinking about it. She was nervous, to say the least, but seeing him in person made it reality.

“Cal, this is Elena, my best friend. El, this is Calum, my brother, obviously.”

“It’s nice to finally meet you,” Elena smiled genuinely, but nervously, at the man in her kitchen, that was now also his kitchen, and let her eyes trail up and down his body as he looked around. He was gorgeous, that much was obvious. In a pair of navy and green plaid pants and a plain black t-shirt, his beauty was effortless.

“Yeah, you too, Elena.” Calum nodded his head and she gulped at how easy her named rolled off of his tongue, how appealing her name sounded coming out of his mouth. His smile, just barely there, was already making Elena’s stomach churn. She couldn’t tell if it was a good or bad thing. “Heard a lot about you.”

“All good things I hope.” Elena laughed, looking at Mali who just shrugged innocently.

“Can’t promise you that,” Calum chuckled and winked at her, successfully making her pale freckled covered cheeks heat up. She looked away from him, hoping that he hadn't noticed her blushing, and turned around to put the brownies she made in the oven. “So,” Calum clapped his hands together. “Where am I sleepin’?”

“Do you want to show him, Mali?” Elena asked in hopes that her best friend would do the honors and she wasn’t stuck being an awkward mess around him.

“I’ve actually got to run now.” Mali checked the time on her watch and started walking backwards to the door. She looked between her brother and best friend and grinned, holding two thumbs up. She felt bad that she couldn’t stay any longer to be an ice breaker, but duty calls, and she was already late to work. “Have fun, you two!”

Suddenly, Elena felt even more insanely awkward and anxious. Being alone with Calum and just having met him had Elena not knowing how to act around the attractive man. She was in the comfort of her own home, and she was going to be living with him, and it’s not like he was a total and complete stranger, so why the hell was she so anxious?

“I, uh, I’ll- I guess I’ll give you the grand tour.” Elena laughed nervously and wiped her sweaty hands on her jeans. She showed him around the average sized house, the basement, the backyard that had a pool and a nice porch that Elena loved, the bathroom that he would be using, and finally, his bedroom. “It’s, um, it’s kind of small. Sorry about that.”

“No worries. I’m just glad you’re lettin’ me stay with you.” Calum smiled down at her and entered the room completely, dropping his bags down by the queen sized bed and looked around. Elena was right, it was a small room with a dresser across from the bed and a TV on top of it, a small closet next to that, and a good sized window next to the bed that had access to the roof. “You’re really savin’ my ass, Elena.”

“It’s no problem,” Elena waved her hand dismissively. “I’m glad I can help, you and Mali. I’ll let you, uh, get settled. Make yourself at home. Mi casa es su casa.”

Elena smiled once more before leaving the room and shutting the door behind her, resting her back against it and letting out a deep sigh. Mi casa es su casa? Since when did she speak Spanish?

Some of her anxiousness had subsided, just barely, but she still wasn’t fully calm, and she knew that if she was going to comfortably live with Calum, her best friends annoyingly hot brother, she needed to get her shit together. Fast.

***

“So, are there any house rules I should know about?” Calum spoke as he jumped up on the counter in the kitchen. Elena was sitting at the table in the corner of the kitchen and dining room that were combined, eating her Cap’n Crunch.

“House rules?” Elena cocked an eyebrow and dropped her spoon in her bowl that was now only filled with milk. She wasn’t a huge fan of milk, but refused to eat cereal plain. Getting up to pour out the milk and put her dish in the sink, Elena had to reach around Calum, who was strategically in the way of the sink. Her arm rubbing against the side of his thigh just slightly.

Her hand just barely grazed his leg, but she felt an electric shock and a fire from his leg against her hand. It was crazy, really, the effect he had on her. She had slept with a handful of men, all rather attractive, but she hadn’t ever found them as attractive as she did with Calum. He had barely even touched her and she was a blushing nervous wreck. She hated it.

“Yeah, you know, like am I not allowed to eat your cereal, or drink milk out of the carton, or like, bring home girls?” Calum asked as he chewed the leftover brownies that Elena had made for him as a welcome home gesture. He appreciated it, and her, for letting him stay with her. And she appreciated him being polite and asking what she did and didn’t like in her own house.

Elena laughed quietly and shook her head. “I’m not really big on rules. I don’t care if you bring home any girls, just be quiet, if you do.” Elena couldn’t think of anything else, really. She didn’t mind if he ate her cereal or drank milk out of the carton, even though that was kind of gross. “And just don’t smoke in the house, okay? That’s my only rule, really.”

Calum wasn’t sure how she knew that he smoked, he guessed that Mali mentioned it before he moved in, but he didn’t care how she knew or that she did, it would have come up one way or another with them living together, but he was going to respect her wishes and not smoke in her house. He wouldn’t have smoked in the house anyway, hating that the smell of cigarette smoke lingered and stuck to everything.

“I can live with that.” Calum jumped down from the counter and chewed the rest of the brownie that was in between his fingers. “Maybe livin’ with you won’t be so bad after all.”

Furrowing her eyebrows, Elena turned around and crossed her arms over her chest insecurely and defensively. “What- what does that mean?” She shook her head in confusion.

“I wasn’t too keen on movin’ in with my sister’s hot best friend, you know? Felt like kind of a loser with my sister asking you to let me crash here. But,” Calum smirked and stepped closer, moving a piece of hair out of Elena’s face, his knuckles grazing the apple of her cheek every so lightly. “With the way you baked those brownies, I think I can live with it for a little while.”

With that, Calum dropped his hand and walked away, leaving a very stunned, and very blushing and confused, Elena with wide eyes and a hanging jaw. Had he just called her hot? Directly to her face? Shit. She really needed to pull it together.

***

Elena could have killed Calum. It was enough that he was annoyingly attractive and borderline cocky, but did all of his friends have to be hot, too? Elena looked out her bedroom window when she woke up at noon, she was one to sleep in often, and groaned when she saw her backyard filled with Calum and his hot friends doing cannonballs into her - their pool.

She wanted to lay out by the pool, since she didn’t have to do much work and it was nice and not raining for the first time in days, but she didn’t want to crash their party. She didn’t feel like she was invited to hang out outside, even though it was her house, she just didn’t feel welcomed. And honestly, she would probably be an awkward, blubbering mess around four attractive men. Shirtless men.

Elena stood in the kitchen, a cup of iced coffee in her hand that she made the night before, and a piece of toast in front of her. She was still groggy from just waking up and her actions were slow and lazy. “You just now wakin’ up?” Calum asked her, knocking her out of her daydream, and she turned around slowly to see him in nothing but a pair of swim trunks and water droplets dripping down his body.

His attractiveness wasn’t fair, Elena thought. “Uh, yeah.” Her voice was sleepy and raspy and Calum looked her up and down, taking in the oversized t-shirt and lack of pants she had on. Her hair was thrown up in a bun and her face free of makeup and Calum decided right then and there that he thought she was adorable just post sleep. “I’m not a morning person.”

“Yeah, Mali told me.” Calum laughed and ran a hand through his wet hair. Elena let her eyes trail over Calum’s body and face, almost catching his eyes but looked away before she could get caught, and pretended to look curiously out of the kitchen window. There were the three attractive men, laughing and messing around with each other in the pool. “Sorry, I guess I could’ve asked if the guys could come over.”

Elena furrowed her eyebrows at the grown man in front of her that sounded more like a teenaged boy talking to his mother, and the corner of her lips turned up just slightly. Shaking her head, she assured him, “You’re living here, too, Calum. You don’t need to ask my permission for anything.”

Calum nodded his head and pointed his thumb behind him in the direction of the backyard. “Well, we’re outside swimmin’ and drinkin’ some beers,” Calum ruffled his wet hair, spraying water all over the floor, and while that would usually annoy Elena, she couldn’t help but not care. She was too tired and too distracted by Calum’s bare chest and stomach to care in that moment. “If you wanna join?”

Elena was thankful for the offer, but she still wasn’t sure if she wanted to hang out with Calum and his friends. She barely knew Calum in the first place, and she definitely hadn’t met any of his friends, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to sit through that with her being so awkward around new people. “I don’t want to impose.”

Elena was shy, that much was obvious, but Calum found it kind of endearing. She was gorgeous, but didn’t seem nearly as confident as she should have been. Calum was used to girls throwing themselves at him and flirting nonstop, but Elena was the exact opposite. She didn’t like to be in a room with him alone for too long and she wasn’t even close to flirting with him. It was weird for Calum to not have a girl he was living with to throw herself at him, but he was also glad for it. He wouldn’t have enjoyed living with a girl who was constantly trying to make moves on him.

“It’s your house, Elena, I’m practically just a guest.” Calum reminded her with a small smirk. He didn’t want her to feel unwelcome in her own house and nervous around him and his friends, and even though he hadn’t known her for longer than two weeks, Calum knew she wouldn’t have stepped foot outside if he hadn’t invited her. And, Calum definitely wouldn’t have minded seeing her in a bathing suit. “You wouldn’t be imposing. And the guys wanna meet you. So, what do ya say?”

The charming smile that graced Calum’s face had Elena biting her lower lip and nodding her head, giving in way too quickly to his boyish charm. Elena would have felt like a loser, holed up in her house while her roommate and his friends were outside having fun, anyway. “Let me just go change and I’ll meet you out there.”

Calum saluted her before grabbing two beers out of the fridge and making his way back outside to the pool. Elena rinsed her cup out and headed up to her bedroom to change. Gnawing on her lower lip, she looked through her bathing suits and tried to choose one that wasn’t too revealing- which weren’t many.

Elena settled on a yellow two piece string bikini that she had just purchased and hadn’t worn yet, figuring it would be a good time to wear it. Grabbing a towel out of the linen closet, Elena made her way back downstairs and outside to the pool. She had her towel wrapped around her body, held tight against it, since there were now suddenly four pairs of eyes on her.

“Calum’s new roommate! Hey!” A blonde guy with long curly hair waved to her from the float he was sitting on in her pool with a beer in his hand. “Come join the party!”

Elena did so, reluctantly, and took the only open lawn chair that was next to Calum’s. Calum introduced her to his friends- Michael, Ashton, and Luke. She waved and introduced herself shyly and finally dropped her towel so she could lay in the sun. She wasn’t facing the guys, except Calum, but she could feel all pairs of eyes on her.

“Here,” Calum held out the second Corona he grabbed from the fridge just before. “I got you a beer.” Elena eyed it hesitantly, not knowing for sure if she wanted to drink at just half past noon, but figured that if she drank a few beers it would loosen her up a bit around the men she didn’t know and, hopefully, not be as awkward. “You do drink, right?”

“Uh, yeah, I do. Thanks.” Elena smiled shyly as she took the already opened beer with the lime in it. Elena wasted no time as she chugged down half of it in one gulp. She drank often, but not in excessive amounts out of fear of doing or saying something embarrassing.

Calum looked at her with an amused smile on his face as she chugged it down, not expecting her to drink so fast and willingly, but enjoyed watching her nonetheless. He continued watching her as she stood up and opened the bottle of sunscreen that Michael brought, and bit his lip as she lathered herself in it. Elena tried to reach behind her to cover her back, but huffed in annoyance when she couldn’t reach and get it all covered.

“Let me help.” Standing up, Calum took the bottle from Elena and gestured for her to soon around, and she did so hesitantly. It seemed everything she did around Calum was hesitant. Hesitance should have been her middle name. Breath hitching in her throat, Elena tensed when she felt Calum’s hands, cold from his beer, on her exposed skin.

Calum took his sweet time, lathering the sunscreen on her back, finding it amusing that she was so tense and nervous around him, but he loved it. He could feel his friends eyes on them and could see Ashton smirking from where he was sitting, but he ignored them, with a smirk of his own on his face. He knew what he was doing to Elena, how he was making her feel, and he kind of felt like an asshole, but it also made him feel good. He loved the effect he already had on her.

“Thanks.” Elena mumbled once Calum told her he was done and she finally laid back on the lawn chair. Sighing in content, Elena felt the sun beat down on her and let herself be distracted by the music that was coming out of Calum’s speaker. Elena, momentarily, forgot that she was surrounded by attractive men she didn’t know.

“So, Elena,” Elena opened her eyes to see Luke holding himself up on the edge of the pool, his chin resting on his crossed arms, as he looked at her. She sat up to see him better, not wanting to be rude or disrespectful as he spoke to her, and adjusted the sunglasses on her face. “Tell us about yourself. All we know is that you’re Mali’s best friend.”

“What, uh, what do you want to know?”

Luke shrugged carelessly. “Just, you know, the basics.”

Elena went on to tell Luke, and the rest of the boys because she knew they were listening, that she was twenty-two, her favorite color is yellow, she met Mali through mutual friends and they hit it off, she was a journalist and her job gave her the luxury of working from home most of the time, only going into the office once or twice a week. That’s really all she could think of to tell them. She didn’t find herself that interesting of a person.

“Do you have a boyfriend?” Luke asked, surprising Elena but not Ashton, Calum, or Michael. They just laughed at Luke’s nosy behavior. They were used to it, but Elena, not so much.

“Uh, no. I don’t.” Elena shook her head.

“Why not?” Luke tilted his head to the side in curiosity. He thought she was gorgeous, just as Calum did, so he couldn’t understand why she was she single. “I mean, you’re a solid ten, so it just doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Elena’s eyes widened and her cheeks were on fire, she was sure, as the guys, minus Calum who was shaking his head and glaring at his best friend, laughed at Luke’s clearly tipsy confession.

“I-I don’t know,” Elena laughed sadly and awkwardly. Relationships weren’t her fortay, the last three she hadn’t ended too well and she wasn’t going to put herself through that again. And, also, she hadn’t met any guys interested in her enough to be her boyfriend, but honestly, Elena was fine with just casually sleeping around. For now. “Guess I just can’t find a guy interested enough.”

Luke clicked his tongue and started to swim away. “What a shame.”

Elena sat there, confused and blushing at Luke’s words, and continued to drink her beer that had gotten warm from the sun. She finished the rest before it got too warm and cleared her throat as she stood up. “I’m, uh, I’m-I’m going to get another beer.”

Elena excused herself and quickly walked inside, sighing happily at the air conditioning that was blasting through the house, and wiped the sweat off her forehead that wasn’t just from the heat. Luke’s words and his so openly telling her that she was attractive made Elena extremely flustered and borderline embarrassed. She hated being the center of attention, so Luke putting her on the spot like that made her extremely nervous.

Calum made himself known in the kitchen and grabbed a beer out of the fridge just as Elena did minutes before. She was already halfway through her new one to ease her nerves and anxiety. It didn’t seem to be working as well as she would have liked.

“‘M sorry about Luke,” Calum leaned against the counter next to Elena and inhaled a sharp breath through his nose. He could smell Elena perfectly; her vanilla shampoo and the sunscreen he had put on her and the small amount of sweat on her body, and his swim trunks, that were already a little bit tight, tightened. He was overwhelmed by the smell and sight of her. He couldn’t understand why he found her so attractive, but he wasn’t trying to fight it. That would have been pointless. “He has no filter. Especially when he’s drinking.”

Elena could tell that Luke was the most talkative one out of the group. She had only heard Michael and Ashton say a few words and had obviously talked to Calum dozens of times with them living together, but Luke, out of all of them, was the most talkative and the most confident, it seemed. He exuded confidence and self assurance. He and Elena were the opposite.

“I know you’re, like, super shy, and Luke isn’t, so-“

“I’m not that shy.” Elena interrupted defensively, crossing her arms across her chest and propping her hip against the counter. It wasn’t a complete lie, that Elena wasn’t that shy, because she wasn’t. Around her close friends she was talkative and confident and kind of crazy in a good way, but around people she didn’t know well? She was closed off and kept to herself, only talking when somebody started a conversation with her and when it was necessary.

“No?” Calum smirked and took a step closer to her. They were standing the closest they had ever been, with their breath fanning against each other’s faces and their chests nearly touching. Calum tucked her hair behind her ear and slowly, teasingly, ran his thumb over her lower lip. He had never wanted to kiss somebody so badly. “Then show me, Elena. Show me you’re not as shy as I think you are.”

Elena gulped audibly, Calum heard it and tried not to smirk, but she regained her composure and took half a step closer. She was trying to be confident, and it seemed to be working, well, in Calum’s eyes it was, in hers, she still felt awkward. Calum’s bare chest was now pressed against Elena’s with her cleavage spilling out of the top of it, and she put her hands on his shoulders, pulling herself up on the tips of her toes. Their lips were a bear centimeters away, almost touching, and Calum’s hands on Elena’s hips were burning her skin. They both leaned it, lips just barely grazing, when the door burst open.

They jumped apart, both of them clearing their throats and running their hands through their hair, to compose themselves, acting as if nothing had happened. Or nothing almost happened. It was Michael who had walked in and who was now cocking an eyebrow, rolling his lips into his mouth to hide his smile. “Am I interrupting something?”

“Nope.”

“No.”

“Not at all. Nope.” Calum repeated, picked up his beer, and nodded his head at his best friend, making a beeline for the door.

It seemed as if it was easier for Calum to compose himself, unlike Elena, who still had red cheeks and sweat on the back of her neck and on her forehead. Her entire body was on fire and all she wanted to go was take a freezing cold shower.

“So, you and Calum, huh?” Michael finally spoke up. He didn’t want to pry, having just met the shy girl, but the scene he just walked in on had him curious and wondering just what the hell was going on between his best friend and Elena.

“What? No.” Elena shook her head nervously. “There’s- there’s no me and Calum. Definitely not. No.”

“You sure about that? You looked pretty cozy.”

“I’m positive.” Elena swallowed the nervous lump in her throat and watched as Michael continued to stare at her in thought. Finally, he let out a sigh and nodded his head, mumbling a quiet ‘if you say so’, before exiting the kitchen to return to his friends in the pool.

Elena let out the sigh she was holding in and closed her eyes, shaking her head, trying to forget how good Calum smelled and how close she was to kissing him. Looking out the window, Elena caught sight of Calum leaned back on the lawn chair, beer in hand, and wide smile on his face. As if he could feel her gaze on him, he slowly looked over, locking eyes with her, offering the most panty dropping smirk. Living with him was definitely going to be more challenging than she thought.

***

Elena was happily content on her couch, alone in the house for the first time in a while, with reruns of her one of her favorite shows playing on the TV in front of her. Sprawled out on the couch, shoving popcorn in her mouth; Elena’s mind was finally off of Calum. Seeing him and being around him in the same house everyday, it seemed that he was all she could think about. He was clogging her senses and she desperately needed a night away from him.

So, when Mali suggested the three of them get dinner and go out for a few drinks afterwards, Elena politely declined, telling her best friend that she wasn’t up for going out, so they made it a sibling night. Elena couldn’t be happier. Normally, Elena did suffer from FOMO when her friends went out without her, whether it be she had to work on something her boss assigned her or she didn’t feel like going out, in that moment she felt the complete opposite.

Just around midnight, Elena heard the front door open and shut quietly and Calum putting his keys in the glass bowl on the table beside the door, and the sound of him taking his shoes off and hanging his jacket up on the coat rack. She didn’t bother pausing the show, figuring that Calum would just acknowledge quietly her and then head straight upstairs, but was proved wrong as he lingered in the living room.

“How was dinner?” Elena’s voice, quiet and hoarse from not speaking all night, brought Calum’s attention from his phone to her, and the corners of his lips turned up at the sight of her. Looking as cozy as ever in a sweatshirt that he was sure was his and shorts, hair up and out of her makeup free face.

“It was good.” Calum pursed his lips and pointed to the article of clothing she had on. “That my sweatshirt?”

Elena looked down and furrowed her eyebrows. “Oh, uh, it- it might be? It was in my laundry.” She then realized that she had indeed seen Calum wearing it a few weeks ago. She wasn’t sure how it ended up in her laundry and not his, but she was a bit embarrassed about wearing it and not noticing it was his. “I-I’m sorry. Do you want it back?”

She reached for the end to take it off, since she had a shirt on under it, but Calum shook his head and waved her off. “Nah. Looks better on you.” The boyish grin graced his face and Elena blushed with a shy smile. She could tell he was a bit tipsy by the lazy smile on his face and his droopy eyes and how talkative he was being. Ever since their encounter in the kitchen, they hadn’t spoken many words to each other. “Whatcha watchin’?”

Elena folded her extended legs when she realized that Calum had started making his way over to the couch, and she was taking up all of the space. Even though it was her couch, he did live with her now, and she didn’t want to hog it. “Mad Men.”

Calum got comfortable on the couch and hummed in thought. “Never seen it.”

“What?” Elena exclaimed loudly, surprising Calum and embarrassing herself with her sudden outburst. “It’s, like, my favorite show ever. I’ve rewatched it at least three times!” Elena, still excited, quieted and settled down, and cleared her throat. “We can, uh, I can start it from the beginning if you want?”

“You sure?” Calum thought it was sweet, and a little bit nerdy, that she was so excited about a television show, and about wanting him to watch it. “I don’t want to interrupt your you time.”

“I don’t mind.” Elena shook her head with a sweet smile on her face and Calum found himself giving in, nodding his head and smiling as he watched her go back to the homepage of Netflix to find the first season.

“You can stretch out your legs again, if you want.”

They both knew that if she extended her legs out all the way, that they would end up in Calum’s lap, but he didn’t mind and Elena found herself surprisingly comfortable with resting her legs and feet in Calum’s lap. Calum’s hands absentmindedly rested on Elena’s shins, his thumb grazing the exposed skin as he engulfed himself into the show that Elena was so excited about him watching.

While Calum watched intently, reading the subtitles that Elena had put on were saying, Elena could focus on quite literally nothing else but Calum’s thumbs tracing and rubbing her skin absentmindedly. She tried to focus on the show, but since she had already seen the first season a million times, she didn’t need to pay attention to it, already knowing what happened, so the only thing her mind could focus on was the way Calum’s fingers felt on her skin. They left a fire in their wake, but it was oddly comforting to Elena.

Calum, on the other hand, was so entranced by the show that he didn’t notice Elena’s body completely relax and melt into the couch. After three episodes, Calum looked over at an oddly quiet Elena, and smiled fondly at the image of her completely asleep. She looked so peaceful, the most at ease Calum had ever seen her, that he didn’t stop the motions on her skin and didn’t get up to carry her to bed.

They fell asleep like that; Calum’s hands securely on her legs that were in his lap, Elena stretched out fully, and Calum, not so comfortably, resting on the couch. Calum knew that he could definitely get used to that, even if wasn’t the most ideal sleep position, if Elena was content, then so was he.

***

“Anybody home?” Mali called out, slamming the front door to Elena and Calum’s house shut. Her heels clicked against the floor as she walked around the house, checking each room to find either her brother or best friend.

Her face lit up when she found both of them, plus Michael, sitting on the patio in the backyard with beers in front of them and music playing through the speaker that Calum didn’t go anywhere without.

“Mali-Koa!” Michael waved at her happily, a huge grin on his face as she neared the table. Calum and Elena looked behind them, since they were both sitting with their backs towards her, and greeted her with smiles and happy hellos.

“Hi, loves!” Mali plopped down on the chair next to Elena and rested her feet on her lap, sighing happily as she no longer was walking on her heel clad feet. “What are we up to today?”

“What we do best,” Calum held up his half empty beer and pointed it in Mali’s direction for her to drink the rest of. She did so happily, chugging it down and craving another instantly after her long day of work. “What brings you by, sis?”

“Just wanted to see my favorite people.” Mali grinned and patted Elena’s leg. “Oh, and Michael, I guess.” Michael rolled his eyes, but laughed along with everyone else since he knew she was joking.

Michael had known Mali for just as long as he knew Calum and he thought of her like a sister, like he thought of Calum like a brother. They were close and would often text each other throughout the week just to see how each other were doing. Their relationship was one similar to Calum and Mali’s, or Elena and Mali’s.

“But actually,” Mali started up again. “I need some drinks and the bar is calling my name. Who’s joining me?”

Everyone agreed to go along with Mali, but before they could go directly to the bar, Elena insisted she touch up her makeup and change out of her sloppy clothes she had been wearing all day to something cuter, more bar appropriate. The four of them met outside at Mali’s car, her getting into the driver’s seat, Elena in the passenger, and Calum and Michael in the back.

The bar was dead, considering it was a Tuesday evening, and the group was happy that it wasn’t overly packed. A chill, empty bar is just what all of them wanted. After ordering a round of drinks, Mali dragged Elena to the pool tables and the two of them got lost in trying to beat and out play one another, while Michael and Calum sat at the bar and caught up.

“What’s up with you and Elena?” Michael finally asked the question that was in the back of his head since he walked in on them not-so-subtly almost kissing in the kitchen.

“What do you mean?” Calum wiped the foam from his beer off his upper lip and quirked an eyebrow at his best friend. “There’s nothin’ going on between us, Mike.” Calum told him. And it was the truth. Sure, there were some lingering touches here and there and longing stares when the other wasn’t looking, but as far as anything happening between them? It was nothing.

Michael snorted, clearly not believing Calum’s words. “I walked in on you guys almost kissing, I’ve caught both of you, on multiple occasions tonight, staring at each other when the other wasn’t looking,” Michael went on, listing them off on his fingers. “Clearly, there’s something there, Cal.”

“I mean, yeah, she’s hot and everything, but that’s it.”

Michael stared at him knowingly. He was lying and Michael knew it. “You like her.” Calum avoided all eye contact and drank his beer, trying to act like Michael’s words didn’t affect him. “Why don’t you just make a move on her already? I could cut the sexual tension with a knife.”

“Just make a move? What do you mean just make a move? She’s Mali’s best friend, dude. I can’t just make a move.”

“Why not?”

“Because, well, what if I did and she rejects me? Then it’ll be weird living with her and it’ll be weird with Mali and it just-” Calum ran a frustrated hand through his hair, tugging at the ends as he shook his head in annoyance. “It’d just be weird.”

“I can guarantee you that she will not reject you, Cal.”

“Oh yeah?” Calum scoffed. “How so?”

“Because she’s been undressing you with her eyes all night.” Michael told him before sliding off the bar stool and joining the two girls they were just talking about at the pool tables. Calum’s eyes followed Michael, landing on Elena who’s eyes, just like Michael had factually told him, were only on him.

They stood and sat in place, staring and paying attention to nothing but each other, and Calum cursed under his breath. Michael’s question rang through Calum’s head; why didn’t he just make a move already?

Elena finally looked away when she heard Mali calling her name, telling her it was her turn to shoot in pool, and Calum watched her. Weighing the pros and cons of potentially hooking up with his roommate and his sister’s best friend, he was interrupted by the bar door swinging open and the familiar voices of his friends hollering.

“Elena!” Luke grinned happily at her, slinging his arm over her shoulder as Mali took her turn to shoot in pool, and Calum’s jaw clenched as he watched Luke touching and standing so closely to Elena, clearly and openly flirting with her.

Luke had voiced his attraction to Elena many times since he met her and Calum tried not to be a dick about it, since he really had no reason to be, and he tried to play it off, but it was harder than he thought it would be. He was overly attracted to her and was a bit scared that Luke had a better chance with her than he did.

Elena didn’t seem as interested in Luke as he was in her, obviously, and even though Calum could see it in her face and mannerisms, he couldn’t stand to watch it. Standing up, Calum made his way to the bathroom, his eyes locking with Elena’s as he passed her.

Elena bit her lip in thought, politely excusing herself from Luke and from the rest of the group since she had lost against Mali in pool, and carelessly shouldered through the few people that were in her way. She wasn’t sure what had come over her, but all she could think about was getting to Calum.

She didn’t bother knocking, just walked right in, clearly startling Calum in the process and walked into the one person bathroom, shutting and locking the door behind her. Their eyes locked in the reflection of the mirror and Calum slowly turned again, crossing his arms across his chest and leaning against the sink. “Elena,” Calum looked her up and down, taking in her outfit that consisted of a pair of tight jeans and a tight shirt that showed off her curves. “What’re you doin’ in here?”

Elena took a few steps closer to him, already being in his personal space since the bathroom was so small, and inhaled nervously. “I think you know why I’m in here, Calum.” Another step closer, her heeled boots clicking against the tile floor. She had never been so bold before, never so confident. She had never pursued a man before, always letting them go to her. “You told me to show you I’m not as shy as you think I am.”

Calum didn’t make any moves as she wrapped her arms around his neck and without another thought, without even thinking about chickening out, she pressed her lips against his. Finally, Calum’s hands were on her waist, gripping them and spinning her around so she was against the sink now. Elena hopped up on her own, like she was reading Calum’s mind and spread her legs for him to step in between them.

Their lips moved feverishly together, tongues battling for dominance, Calum’s winning easily and Elena let out a moan in his mouth. He nipped at her lower lip before letting his mouth trail down her jawline and neck, his mouth hot against her skin.

Just as Calum’s hands slipped up her shirt, there was a loud pounding at the door, breaking them apart from each other. “Hurry the fuck up!” A voice neither of them knew yelled over the music.

Elena panted, Calum too, as they stared at each other with lust clouding their vision. Elena opened her mouth to speak, to suggest going home to finish what they had started, but Calum backed away before she could. “Should probably get back out there before they notice we’re missin’.”

With that, Calum left the bathroom, leaving Elena breathless and confused, and still on the sink. Well, that’s not what she had expected him to say.

***

Achoo, achoo, achoo. Each one sounded closer to Calum as he stood in the kitchen eating his late lunch. It was three in the afternoon and he had been awake since around ten and still hadn’t seen Elena. She hadn’t left her room, from what Calum could tell, and he was close to checking on her to make sure she was okay.

Groaning, Elena turned the corner and into the kitchen, sniffing and rubbing the tip of her red nose. Calum raised his eyebrows at his clearly sick roommate and frowned. “You okay?” He asked.

Elena looked up, startled, like she hadn’t noticed Calum was in the kitchen with her. She closed her eyes tiredly and shook her head. “I think I’m sick.”

Calum set his fork down onto the plate and stalked over to her, pressing the back of his hand to her forehead. She definitely had a high fever. “Jesus, Elena. You’re burnin’ up.”

Elena hadn’t been able to sleep the prior night due to her stuffy nose and sore throat, so, waking up at three in the afternoon made sense. She knew that she got sick from one of her coworkers a few days before, the one day she decided to go into the office to run something by her boss, she ran into a girl she had been working with for a few months, coughing and sneezing all over the place.

“Have you taken any medicine?” Calum questioned worriedly. Sure, she only had a cold and a fever, but he still wanted her to feel better. Shaking her head groggily, Elena informed him that she hadn’t bought any in a few months. She wasn’t prone to getting sick. “Alright,” Calum grabbed his keys from the counter and checked his pocket for his wallet. “Go and lay on the couch and I’ll go out and buy you some medicine and soup, yeah?”

“I can go.” Elena offered, trying to take Calum’s keys from his hand and he scoffed.

“You’re practically asleep, Elena.” Calum put his hands on her shoulders and spun her around, walking her to the couch. He lightly pushed her down and she obliged, her butt hitting the cushion with a huff. “I’ll be back in twenty.”

Elena rolled over, her head resting on the middle cushion and her knees to her chest, laying in the fetal position, as she hummed a quiet and barely audible goodbye.

True to his word, Calum was walking back inside with three different kinds of medicine and different soup options since he wasn’t sure what Elena preferred. “Hey,” Elena forced her eyes open to see Calum sitting on the coffee table across from her. He had set all the medicine on the table next to him and held up the different soups. “Which one?”

Without speaking, Elena pointed to the one in Calum’s left hand and sniffled. Calum got right to cooking, filling a pot with water and letting it boil before he poured the soup in it. It only took a few minutes, but to Elena, it felt like forever.

She had taken DayQuil as opposed to NyQuil since she was already half asleep, and popped a cough drop in her mouth. Calum came back into the living room shortly after with the bowl of soup in one hand and a mug of tea in the other. Elena forced herself to sit up, huffing and groaning, as she took the soup from Calum. “Be careful it’s hot.”

“Mmm,” Elena hummed in delight as she took the first bite, it nearly burning her tongue off but feeling amazing down her sore throat. “Thank you, Cal. You’re an angel.”

Calum grinned widely, never having heard her call him by the nickname his close friends called him, and almost found himself blushing when she called him an angel. He took a seat on the other end of the couch to give Elena space and, mostly, so she wouldn’t breath her sickness on him.

After eating her soup and drinking some of her tea, fatigue took over Elena’s body and she was falling back onto the couch, her head landing on Calum’s lap in the process. “Will you play with my hair?” Elena asked, her voice muffled by her arm that was covering her face, sounding like a little girl. “Always makes me feel better.”

Calum did so, with no hesitation or reluctance, and laughed quietly when Elena let out a happy sigh, the first he had heard from her all day. He felt her melt into him, her hand now resting on his thigh, and Calum knew she was close to asleep.

Weirdly, Calum wasn’t bothered by her sickness or how needy and helpless she was. In fact, Calum found himself enjoying being able to help her feel better. He could’ve done it a hundred times over.

***

“Fun night last night?” Calum cocked an eyebrow at a very hungover Elena who looked like a train wreck.

“Oh, God.” Elena hid her red blush covered face in her hands. “You heard it?”

“Well, not so much you, but I heard him.”

Elena, after finally getting rid of her cold, went out with Mali and the rest of their friends, and ended up very intoxicated, stumbling inside her house with a random guy she met at the bar. Obviously, they slept together, and Elena tried to be quiet about it.

“I was trying to be courteous.” Elena mumbled into the cup she was holding that was filled with a premixed cocktail. Truth was, if the sex had even been slightly enjoyable, Calum would have been able to hear her moans with them sharing a wall and all, but, the sex sucked, so Elena had no reason to be vocal. She didn’t even pretend it was good.

“That right?” Calum cocked a challenging eyebrow. He knew for a fact that a drunk Elena, or a drunk any girl, would have made at least some noise while getting laid drunkenly. But he hadn’t heard a peep come out of her mouth last night. “Or you just didn’t enjoy it.”

Elena nearly choked on her drink that was in her mouth, but quickly swallowed it and shook her head frantically. “I- what? Why wouldn’t- why wouldn’t have I enjoyed it?”

“If the sex was even remotely good all courteousness would’ve been out the window, Elena.” Calum inched closer to her, invading all of her personal space, and reached out to trail his finger up her bare arm. She shivered at his touch. “He didn’t make you cum, did he?”

Elena swore her eyes almost popped out of her head. She hadn’t talked about her sex life with anybody but Mali, really, definitely not her guy friends. And definitely not Calum. She was flustered, her body covered in heat from the blush that arose, and Calum couldn’t help but smirk.

“I’m not having this conversation with you.” Elena wanted to walk away from him so badly, but it seemed she was stuck in place.

“Just answer me and I’ll drop it; did he make you cum?”

Elena gulped and no matter how much she didn’t want to admit it to Calum, she more so wanted the conversation to be over. So, she told him, “No. He didn’t.” Elena shook her head. “Are you happy now?”

“Now why would I be happy about that?” Calum’s hands were now grazing against her bare thighs due to dress she had on, and they inched dangerously close to where she wanted him the most. Calum leaned in closer, his mouth barely brushing against her ear, as he spoke, “I bet I could make you cum with just my fingers.”

Elena was breathless, speechless, as Calum’s pointer and middle finger reached her clothed core, rubbing agonizing slow against her clit. Mouth agape and eyes squeezed shut as his fingers worked her. But, before they could get any further, a knock at the door interrupted them.

Calum pulled away, a permanent smirk on his face, and hummed. “Our friends are here,” Calum looked at the door behind him. “Wouldn’t wanna get them waiting, would we?”

With that, Calum walked away with the utmost confidence and went to answer the door. Elena leaned back against the counter, her hands gripping the edge of it so hard that her knuckles turned white. Elena was so lost and caught up in Calum so close to her, touching her where she craved him the most, that she had forgotten that they were expecting company for the little get together they planned to have.

She was flustered and hot and bothered and totally and completely did not have her shit together. As she heard the familiar voices of her and Calum’s friends mixed together, Elena stared up at the ceiling and took a few deep breaths. She had to get herself under control, but with Calum around and near, she knew she wouldn’t be able to.

***

Their eyes met and locked all night long. As they mingled and consumed their drinks, their eyes would somehow, always, find one another. It was like they were challenging each other to see who would cave first, who would make the first move. Neither of them would budge.

“You look great tonight.” Aaron, one of Elena and Mali’s friend complimented her as he opened another beer. Elena was outside on the patio, coolers surrounded her with guests beer, since it was BYOB, and Calum and Elena didn’t want to provide alcohol for everyone in their house.

“Thanks, Aaron.” Elena smiled gracefully and moved her hair behind her shoulder. They found themselves lost in conversation and Elena could feel Calum’s eyes on her the whole time from across the yard. He was smoking a cigarette and chatting with some of his friends.

When Aaron’s hand found Elena’s hip to pull her closer, that’s when Calum excused himself from his conversation, put his cigarette out, and stalled over to them. “Hey, Elena,” Calum interrupted, gripping her elbow with his hand and tugged her towards him. She stumbled slightly and gave Aaron and apologetic smile. “Can we talk? In private?”

Calum didn’t give Elena the chance to object or say goodbye to Aaron as Calum dragged her through the house and up the stairs. Once they reached Elena’s room she opened her mouth to speak. “Calum, what the hell-“

Calum shut her up by pushing her against her bedroom door, slamming it shut in the process, and pressed his lips against hers in a heated, overdue, kiss. Their lips worked together feverishly and Calum only pulled away to attach his lips to her jaw and neck. He dropped to his knees, hiking one of Elena’s legs on his shoulder to gain better access to the place he had been thinking about all night

Pushing her thong to the side, Calum attached his lips to her clit and sucked, flicked, and licked his tongue. Calum slipped one finger in at a time and Elena threw her head back, ignoring the dull ache from slamming it against the wooden door.

“Oh, fuck.” Elena moaned loudly, thankful for the music that was playing downstairs and tangled her fingers in Calum’s long hair.

Calum said that his fingers could make her cum, but it was his tongue and mouth that did most of the work that made her come undone embarrassingly easily and quickly.

Calum moved her thong back in place and Elena slumped against the door, leaning on it for support once Calum placed her foot back on the floor and stood up. He connected their lips once more and Elena deepened it, letting her hand trail down his stomach to palm him over his pants.

Calum caught her wrist in his grip and pulled away reluctantly. He wanted her so badly, more than he wanted anyone else, but it wasn’t the time for that. “What’s wrong?” Elena breathed against his lips. “Want you, Cal.”

“I want you, too, God you’ve no idea how bad I want you, but not right now. Not like this.” Calum shook his head and took a step back. “Not when there’s a houseful of people right below us.”

Calum placed one last gentle kiss on Elena’s lips and smiled down at her, tucking her hair behind her ears. “Yeah, okay, you’re right.” Elena nodded her head and let Calum pull her back downstairs with him.

All night, just like earlier in the night, their eyes would meet and Calum would wink and smirk, and Elena would blush. God, Calum was going to be the death of her.

***

It had been days since that night and Calum and Elena hadn’t seen much of each other. Calum had picked up extra shifts at the bar he had gotten a job at and Elena was running around doing errands and hanging out with Mali. It was weird, hanging out with Mali, when just days ago her brother was giving Elena the most pleasure she’s had in a while, but while the two of them were together, Elena tried her hardest not to think of how her best friends brother had gone down on her.

It was half past one in the morning when the front door slammed shut and Calum came trudging inside of the house. Elena was still up, having slept until the middle of the afternoon that same day, eating a bowl of ice cream as she scrolled through her phone mindlessly.

“Hey,” Elena greeted Calum, looking up from her phone to offer him a smile and he simply nodded his head at her, grabbed a beer from the fridge, and headed upstairs. Elena huffed in annoyance and followed him to his room, completely forgetting about her half eaten ice cream. “What is your problem?” Elena finally asked Calum after days of him avoiding her.

Calum turned around, shirtless in only his jeans now, and furrowed his eyebrows at Elena, who was standing in the doorway with her arms crossed. She looked pissed and annoyed and Calum hadn’t ever seen her look like that. “What are you talkin’ about?”

“You know damn well what I’m talking about, Calum.”

“You’re gonna have to elaborate, Elena.”

“Oh my God, seriously? You’re so annoying!” Elena scoffed and took a few steps inside of his room, that she had only ever been completely inside of once. “Ever since you had your head between my legs and devoured me like a fucking feast you’ve been avoiding me like the Goddamn plague!”

Calum nearly laughed at the words that left Elena’s mouth, never having heard her speak so foully and confidently, but the matter wasn’t funny, Calum knew that.

“Jesus, if I had known you would have started acting weird I would’ve have let that happen.”

Calum stopped his actions, leaving his belt undone but still on, and looked at her annoyed expression. He hadn’t expected her to react the way she was. “What are you saying?” Calum challenged. “You regret it?”

“What? No. That’s- that’s not what I said.” Elena shook her head in exasperation and confusion. She wasn’t even sure what she was trying to say. She wasn’t expecting to have this conversation at nearly two in the morning, but she was fed up with Calum’s immaturity.

“Then what, Elena? What the hell are you trying to say?”

“I’m saying that you’re a grown man acting like a fucking teenager! If you regret it, then that’s fine, just stop acting like a child.”

Elena waited for Calum to respond, to say anything, and when he didn’t, she scoffed and turned to leave his room, but before she could get any further, Calum was gripping her arm and stopping her. With their body’s flush together, Elena’s lips captured in Calum’s in a heated kiss, she knew that he didn’t regret it.

***

Elena groaned into the pillow as she was woken up by Calum shuffling around the room and shortly after opening the curtains that were covering the window, letting the sun shine through his room. She rolled over so her bare back was facing the window and covered her eyes with the duvet.

Elena heard Calum laughing and let out a tired sigh. “What time is it?” She mumbled into the pillow.

“Just a little after ten.” Calum told her and, once again, she groaned tiredly and grumpily. She definitely was not a morning person even though Calum was. “Get up, sleepy head.”

Calum moved his duvet out of her face and smiled at the sight of her; comfy and cozied up in his bed, nude from the night before. He couldn’t believe it had actually happened, but he didn’t regret it.

Rolling over so she was on her back, Elena rubbed her eyes and let a yawn rip through her body. “This is the earliest I’ve been awake in months.”

“You gotta seize the day, baby.” Calum chuckled and pressed a chaste kiss to her lips, not caring that neither of them had brushed their teeth yet. “I invited the guys and Mali over for a pool day, so get up and get ready, yeah?”

Elena propped herself up on her elbow and closed her eyes. Mali. Shit. How was she supposed to act normal around her after having sex with her brother just the night before. “Fuck,” Elena cursed under her breath, although Calum heard.

“What?”

“Mali. Shit.”

“What about her, Elena?” Calum questioned.

“How am I supposed to be normal around her now without being weird? Oh God, I just had sex with my best friends brother. Oh God.”

Calum pursed his lips and nodded his head disappointedly. “Is that all I am to you? All this is?” He laughed sadly as he gestured between the two of them. “Your best friends brother?”

“What? No.” Elena shook her head and sat up properly, hugging the blanket to her bare chest. “That’s- that’s not what I meant, Calum.”

At the sound of the doorbell ringing, Calum shoved his swim trunks up his legs and grabbed the towel that was hanging on his door knob. “Right. Well, they’re here, so you should probably get dressed.”

Leaving his bedroom, Calum slammed the door behind him and Elena huffed, falling back onto his bed. Running her hands down her face, she shook her head at herself.

What had she gotten herself into?

***

Elena decided against joining Calum, Mali, and the guys for their pool day, opting to stay in bed and wallow in self pity, it seems like that’s what she did best. She was sure if she was around Mali she would start acting weird and if Mali asked her what was wrong, she would know instantly if she was lying. Calum was pissed at her, too, so she didn’t think joining their small pool party was the best idea.

Hours later, Calum was coming back inside after Mali and his friends left and hopped in the shower, washing the sun, sweat, and chlorine off of his body. He decided against drinking while everybody else did, so he wouldn’t be tired and even more drained from his long day.

After getting himself dressed in only a pair of sweatpants, he lingered outside of Elena’s bedroom door. It was shut and he could hear her TV from outside the door and he hesitantly hit his knuckles against the wood. “Come in.” Elena’s voice was muffled by the door and the TV and Calum slowly opened the door to see Elena under her blankets, only her head showing, with her eyes on the TV.

“Uh, hey.” Calum walked in, shut the door behind him, and stood at the foot of her bed.

“Hi.” Elena’s voice was quiet and nervous, almost, just like she acted when she first met him. Calum sat down on the side of the bed Elena was on and huffed, leaning his elbows on his knees as he turned his head to look at her. He stayed quiet and Elena gwaned on her lower lip. “I-I’m sorry about earlier.” Elena finally broke the silence.

“‘S fine.” Calum shrugged.

“I just- Mali is my best friend and she’s always come first, you know? So my first reaction was to think about her and what- what she would think and say about it.” Elena stumbled over her words and Calum’s hardened features softened.

“I get it.” Calum took her hand in his and rubbed the skin on it lightly. “I just like you, is all, and hearin’ you say that I’m just your best friends brother caught me off guard because I thought you liked me, too.”

“I do!” Elena exclaimed wildly as she sat up and let the blanket fall down her, now clothed, body. “I do like you, Calum. I’m just scared she’s going to be mad at me and I’m gonna lose her as a friend.”

“Mali is reasonable, El. She’s understanding and she doesn’t get mad easily,” Calum reminded Elena. Elena knew that already, it was common knowledge to know that if you were close with Mali, but she was still scared. “If you explain it to her, I’m sure she’ll get it.”

Elena sighed heavily and licked her lips. “You’re right.” Elena admitted and, finally, Calum smiled at her.

“I want to tell her, but if you don’t want to yet, that’s okay.”

“I’ll tell her soon, okay?” Elena assured him. “But can we just- can we stop talking about this right now?” Calum nodded his head and kissed the top of her hand. “Do you want to cuddle and watch movies with me the rest of the day?”

“Wouldn’t wanna do anything else,” Calum laughed and crawled into Elena’s bed with her, wrapping his arms around her middle and pulling her back into his chest. He placed light, feather like, kisses on the side and back of her neck as her body melted into his.

Calum didn’t know what to expect when he moved in with Elena, but it sure as hell wasn’t him falling for his sister’s best friend.

***

Elena twisted the ring on her finger as she waited for Mali to arrive at the restaurant they agreed to meet at. Elena had been avoiding and ignoring Mali for a solid week straight, trying to get her thoughts in order, and trying to figure out what she was going to say to her best friend.

She felt bad for ignoring Mali and blowing her off every time she asked to go out or just hang out at either one of their houses, she just didn’t know what to say to her. Elena, for once, was at a loss for words when it came to Mali.

“I never thought I was going to see you again,” Mali joked as she took the seat across from Elena, her grin falling as she noticed how nervous Elena looked. Mali knew Elena well enough to know that without her saying anything she knew something was wrong. “What’s going on? Why are you acting weird?”

“I-I have to tell you something.” Elena spoke nervously.

“Okay?” Mali furrowed her eyebrows, dragging out all of the letters in the word, gesturing for Elena to continue speaking. She stayed quiet, gnawing on her lower lip, and Mali was getting progressively more worried. “You’re freaking me out, Elena.”

“Okay, I- you might hate me but-“

“I could never hate you.” Mali interrupted to reassure her best friend.

“Calum and I, we-we kind of, hooked up?”

“And what? He got you pregnant?”

Elena shook her head rapidly. “What? No. No- we just- we had sex. And, well, I think we might be a thing now?”

“And that’s all?”

“Um, yeah?” Elena laughed nervously.

“That’s what you were freaking out? That’s why you were avoiding me?”

“I- yeah. Wait, you’re not mad?” Elena was thoroughly confused. She thought for sure that Mali was going to be pissed at her, shun her, and never speak to her again.

“Why would I be mad, Elena?” Mali laughed and shook her head at her over dramatic and paranoid best friend.

Mali couldn’t have cared less that her brother and her best friend had slept together. Honestly, if anything, she was glad it was each other that they were sleeping with.

“I-I don’t know because you’re my best friend and Calum is your brother? And I had sex with him?”

“Honestly,” Mali took a bite of the garlic bread that their server had given them, and wiped her hands on the napkin on her lap. “I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner.”

“Wait, what?” Elena laughed incredulously. “You knew this was going to happen?”

“Well, obviously I didn’t know, but I had a feeling.” Mali shrugged with a sly smirk on her face. Elena still looked confused and a little bit nervous, so reaching across the table, Mali rested her hand on top of Elena’s. “Babe, I’m not mad at you, okay? I’m happy that you two are getting together. You’re two of my favorite people and I know that I already like you for Calum, obviously, and I approve of him for you.”

Elena finally smiled and let out the breath she had been holding in since she revealed the news to Mali. A grin overtook her face and she laughed, finally feeling all of the nervousness subside, and finally, enjoyed a nice meal with her best friend, with nothing to hide.

***

Elena sighed sadly at the half empty glass of wine in front of her on the dining room table. It was her birthday, and all of her friends were, unfortunately, busy. Mali insisted she would cancel her plans with Marco to spend time with Elena, but Elena simply nodded her head, letting her know that it really wasn’t that big of a deal.

Calum had an earlier shift at the bar, letting Elena know that he would be home at around ten, although Elena hadn’t even told him it was her birthday. She didn’t want him to miss work just because of her, and they technically weren’t even completely official yet, so she didn’t want him to do ditch work to celebrate with her.

The door shut and Elena checked the time, seeing it was only nine-thirty, and furrowed her eyebrows. Calum wasn’t supposed to be home for another half an hour, so when he appeared in the kitchen, the corners of her lips turned up.

“Hey, love.” Calum greeted her with a tired, drained smile. He noticed that her smile didn’t reach her eyes, and also didn’t miss the glass of wine on the table and the bottle next to him. He didn’t know her to drink alone, never had since he moved in with her, so he was concerned. “What’s wrong?”

Elena shook her head with a quiet laugh leaving her lips. “Well, it’s uh- it’s my birthday, and I have no pla-“

“What?” Calum exclaimed wildly, sliding into the chair next to her. “It’s your birthday and you didn’t even tell me?” He frowned, taking her ring clad hands in his own and squeezed them. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t want you to miss work and, really, it’s my twenty-third birthday, it’s nothing special.”

“Twenty-three or not, it’s your birthday, El.” Calum furrowed his eyebrows, a thought popping into his head, as he tugged on her hands and pulled him up with her. “C’mon, go get dressed. We’re goin’ out.”

“What?” Elena laughed in confusion. “Going out where?”

“Dancin’ and drinkin’!” Calum clapped his hands in excitement and Elena couldn’t help but smile as wide as he was. “I’m callin’ the guys and making them meet us, yeah? ‘M not letting you spend your birthday all sad and alone.”

Elena nodded her head, not being able to hide the smile on her face at Calum’s excitement and did as he told her; going upstairs to change out of her leggings and shirt into something more birthday presentable. She laughed as she heard Calum shout from downstairs to ‘look sexy, even though you already are!’ and changed into something that made her ‘look sexy’.

“My God,” Calum groaned at the sight of Elena in skintight black jeans, a red shirt that showed off her cleavage perfectly, and a pair of red boots to match her shirt. “How’d I get so lucky?”

His hands slid around her waist, clasping them together to pull her closer, and hers wrapped around his neck. Their lips connected, and Calum pecked them a few times before pulling away to grin at her. “Most beautiful birthday girl.”

Elena giggles, bowing her head to hide her blush, and shook her head bashfully. She reluctantly pulled away, her boots tapping against the wooden floor, and nodded her head towards the front door behind them. “We should go. We got dancing to do, right?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Calum grinned, placing one more kiss to her lips before guiding them to the door and out to his car. Elena wasn’t too upset about spending her birthday by her lonesome, but she was so glad that Calum was taking her out.

Pulling up the very crowded club, Elena’s nerves spiked and she nervously chewed on her lip as her and Calum waited in line to get in. Calum sensed her nerves and squeezed her hand. “Whenever you wanna leave, let me know, yeah?” Calum knew she wasn’t too big a fan of huge crowds and clubs, so he wanted to make sure she knew that if she wanted to leave, he was ready whenever she was.

“Just get some drinks in me and I’ll be good.” Elena assured him. Calum pecked her lips and their moment of cheesy PDA was interrupted by his rowdy friends approaching them in the line.

“Birthday girl!” Luke cheered happily, pulling her into a short and quick hug, letting Michael and Ashton take turns hugging her and wishing her a happy birthday. Luke, once Calum told him that he and Elena were kind of together, backed off of Elena and calmed down with the touching and comments. Calum was glad for that, knowing that if his best friend knew he liked Elena, he would back off.

“Drinks on us,” Ashton grinned.

“All night!” Michael added for good measure and Elena thanked them as they flashed the bouncer their IDs to get inside.

Drinks were being downed left and right and the dancing never stopped and Elena thought that even if she did hang out with her other friends, she definitely wouldn’t have been having as much fun as she was with Calum and his friends. Who, Elena now, considered her own.

Elena swayed back and forth slightly, leaning against Calum’s body for support as he smoked a cigarette, a permanent drunken grin on her face, and Calum looked down with his own grin. He was drunk, too, but not nearly as drunk as Elena. But he didn’t mind how drunk she was, it was her birthday, she deserved to celebrate it.

“You havin’ fun, birthday girl?” Calum smiled down at her.

“I’m having a blast. Thank you for taking me out tonight.” Elena admitted, hiccuping a few times, followed by a shiver. Calum shrugged his jacket off, and draped it over her shoulders. “Thanks, Cal.”

“Of course,” Calum kissed the top of her head. “Anything for you, baby.”

Elena rested her head on Calum’s bicep, a content and drunk sigh leaving her lips. And honestly, she couldn’t have imagined her birthday any other way.

***

“I’m bored.” Elena huffed as she slumped onto the couch next to Calum, laying her head in his lap. It was their lazy Sunday, and while they usually spent that day wrapped up in each other, watching movies, and pigging out, Elena wanted to do something different.

It was a particularly nice day out and the sun was to set within the next hour, and Calum agreed, after their third movie- he was bored, too.

“Wanna go for a drive?” He suggested, running his fingers through Elena’s hair. “We could just drive around and watch the sunset.”

“That sounds nice,” Elena hummed as Calum’s fingernails lightly scratched her scalp, and although she wanted to get up and do something, she also would have loved to lay there all night and fall asleep to the feeling of his hands in her hair.

“Don’t fall asleep on me,” Calum laughed and shifted, sitting up and bringing Elena with him. She huffed but rubbed her eyes and tried to wake herself up more. “Get your shoes on, I’ll meet you at the car, yeah?”

Elena hummed in response and he kissed her lightly before he pushed himself up from the couch. He had early all pairs of his shoes by the door, while Elena had carried hers upstairs just a few days before. So, after sliding her sandals on and hopping down the stairs, she finally reached Calum’s car and slid into the passenger seat.

They drove in a nice, comfortable, silence with only the radio playing, their hands intertwined as Calum drove down the highway. Elena wasn’t sure where he was headed, it seemed like he had a certain destination in mind, but Elena didn’t mind. She rested her head on the window, feeling Calum squeeze her hand ever so often, and listened to him hum along to the radio.

He had a lovely voice, Elena figured out after some time of him living with her. She would hear him sing quietly in the shower, around the house while he cleaned up or cooked lunch or dinner for them, and she loved it. At the beginning, Elena really didn’t think that Calum could have gotten any more attractive, but when she heard his voice for the first time, she realized she was wrong.

The car stopping and the music cutting off was what pulled Elena out of her thoughts about her boyfriend and she finally looked in front of her, eyes widening at the sight. They were on top of a hill, she was surprised she hadn’t noticed them driving upwards, with a perfect view of the city and the sun that was about to set.

“Pretty, right?” Calum laughed, gauging her surprised reaction. Elena nodded her head and Calum motioned his, letting go of her hand so they could both get out of the car. “C’mon.”

The pair sat on the hood of Calum’s car, his arm around Elena’s shoulder and her head resting on his chest, settled in silence and watched the sunset slowly. It was beautiful, Elena thought, but Calum thought that she was even more beautiful.

Looking down at her, he mumbled into her hair, “Can I tell you something?”

“Anything.” Elena assured him, lifting her head up as Calum slid off the hood, coming to stand in front of her in between her legs. His hands rested on her hips and he stared intently at her. “What’s up, Cal?” Elena laughed, almost nervously and anxiously like she had when they had first met.

“This is gonna sound crazy,” Calum warned her and she tilted her head to the side, now more curious than ever. Taking a deep breath, Calum spoke the words he had been thinking for days now. “I think I’m kind of in love with you, Elena.”

Calum knew it was crazy, knew that it was so soon, considering they had only known each other for a few months, but how could he not love her? Getting to know the side of her that wasn’t shy, that was smiley and giggly and so open, it drew him in instantly. Her smile and everything about her, how could he not fall in love with a girl like her?

Her eyes widened and she was stuck frozen from his words. Frozen and silent for a good minute, but felt like an eternity to Calum, and he was about to open his mouth, about to tell her to forget he said anything, when she finally broke out into a shit eating grin.

“That is kind of crazy,” Elena nodded her head in agreement. “But I think I’m kind of in love with you, too, Calum.”

And Elena, she knew it was crazy how short of time she fell for him, but how could she not? Past his cocky exterior, he was sweet and kind and so caring with the way he took care of her and made sure she was comfortable and okay at all times. It was impossible, for Elena, not to fall in love with him.

He kissed her, their teeth clashing together due to the smiles that wouldn’t leave their faces, and Calum wasn’t sure how, but he knew he had struck gold, and he knew, the only person he had to thank for it, was his sister.

***

Taglist: @novacanecalum @cosmocalum @cantbehandled-ever @gosh-im-short @emma070900 @youmaycallmemrshemmings @asht0ns-world @singt0mecalum @lockthisheartinchains @cheyenne-in-wonderland @babyurart @blahehblah @inlovehoodx @softboycal @hopelessxcynic @ashtoniwir @cakesunflower

354 notes · View notes