#edit: i made this late last night and put it in my queue so i have now seen that you've already been tagged in this @omgkalyppso sorry! 😅 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

seoracle · 3 years

Text

DRIVERS LICENSE; i

Pairing: Bang Chan x Idol! Gender Neutral Reader

Genre: Fake Dating! AU, Angst, Lovers to Enemies(?), Occasional Pining, Comedy, S for potential smut(??)

Summary: Y/N has become an overnight sensation with ‘Drivers License’, Breaking records left and right...But what if the press gets wind of the ill-matched lovers and their company decide it’s the perfect attention ploy?

Word Count: 3.2K

Warnings: Swearing (a lot near the end), Drinking mention

A/N: this was meant to be a drabble... now it’s becoming a series...i’m sorry

“...and the winner of Inkigayo today is...Y/N with ‘Drivers License, Congratulations!”

You step towards the center of the stage and take the trophy and bouquet from a rookie idol, who flashes a bright smile at you, but you can see the envy in his eyes. You once had that same hunger and ambition that he seems to reek of, it’s a reminder of how far you’ve come.

Taking the mic, you begin to sing a more sultry and edgier vibe than usual, which seems to gather more screams from fans than usual. You remember what Seulgi taught you and gaze at the camera lens with a subtle pout, trying to capture the angst of the song in your gaze.

It feels ridiculous, feigning emotions you no longer feel, singing a song you begged the company not to put out in a corset fitted shirt that’ll leave your ribs sore and reddened. It’s pathetic and cliche, you quite literally sold your soul (well, heart) for fame.

“Yeah, you said forever, now I drive alone past your street…”

Everyone behind you waves at the camera, signalling the show is ending. You leave last, taking several confetti bits for your scrapbook, which is the only thing keeping you from remembering this is all real.

Backstage, Iris and San are waiting in your dressing room, they greet you with proud grins and slaps on the back.

“Well, if it isn’t miss twelve...no, thirteen wins in two weeks.” San praises, enveloping you in a hug.

“Could be thirteen by tomorrow~” Hums Iris in a sing-song tone.

A groan leaves your lips, while slumping into an uncomfortable chair. You tune out their excited plans for your makeup and hair tomorrow, San says something about an end of year Award show.

All you want is to go home to your empty dormitory and sleep.

When you finally arrive to the ‘comfort’ of your ‘studio apartment’ (box room), it isn’t long before you strip down to your pyjamas and aggressively rub off the layers of makeup that seem to cling to every pore and fine line of your face. The cold air from the fan soothes the aching of your body from your strict workout routine. You stay awake until 4am, reading comments from netizens and replying to fans on your fancafe, it was hard not to become obsessed with checking what people thought; whether they loved or loathed you.

[+184 -93] Y/N is talented, but they look devoid of emotion since last week...maybe singing a song so personal isn’t a good idea….what if the person it’s about hears it…..

User FYL**8 was right, it had become draining trying to convey emotions you’d long let go of. Your debut song was fresh and fun, it didn’t garner much attention but at least you hadn’t had to fake emotions and relive your first heartbreak.

Although the memories of the breakup didn’t hurt as much, the happiest ones were the most painful. The feeling of ignorance, thinking he meant forever and believing him completely...it was all so distant yet felt a fingertip away.

That night you slept with a heavy heart, remembering what it felt like when he’d hold you close and right and kiss you on the head to soothe your worries. Why did it have to end? Why like that? You try to drift into a nice sleep after another exhausting day but to no avail, thoughts of him are flooding every thought. Has he heard it? There was no way he hadn’t, he loved to check out every ranking song for inspiration or for another artist to add to his monthly playlist.

Would he get angry? Sad? Laugh at your pathetic feelings? He was right in the end, when it came down to it you only shared your feelings when it was too late.

Stupid Christopher fucking Bang.

It wasn’t often you’d refer to him as Chan, you had met him when he only saw it as another name for himself that he hardly used. Back when his hair had been fluffed up curls that he couldn’t contain and his light freckles weren’t covered by BB Cream. When he didn’t belong to the world and only loved you.

After months of forcing yourself not to, you hastily search “Stray kids Bang Chan + Y/N”, Then “Stray Kids Y/N” and finally “Skz Y/N”. The results are minimal and far inbetween, mostly tweets from fans wishing for a collab and oddly enough one person making edited photos of you and them, which are so convincing you have to remind yourself you hadn’t met them.

Thoughts drift to his friends, the ones who didn’t know Chris was even seeing someone and had been for over a year. They tried to sugarcoat it, say they forgot, it’s hard to keep track when you’re training and all that.

The sinking feeling you felt when Minho asked how long you’d been together, guessing a month at most. When you did reply, ears burning with embarrassment he coughed and muttered “Oh.’, That had stung.

Everything had seemed so perfect, until you opened your eyes and saw it for what it was.

You don’t end up sleeping much, two hours at most, Then it’s time to get ready and head to the Broadcast Studio for today’s event. All you know is it’s a show about giving advice, the reviews aren’t great but you aren’t allowed to turn anything down because fame is a double-edged sword that you can barely grasp as is.

Iris and San are already waiting for you when you get there, within minutes makeup is being patted into your skin and your outfit is laid out on the chair next to you.

“Sleep more, Y/N-ah, I had to use a double coverage concealer to hide your dark circles.” Iris said in a fretful tone.

“I try, it’s hard being famous.” You reply jokingly, flipping your hair the best you can. Iris smacks your hand away and frantically finds her hairspray.

Within twenty minutes you’re dressed and not one hair is out of place, San pulls you aside with an uncharacteristically stern face.

“The company have specific goals for sending you here, they want you to delve into a story of heartbreak to comfort today’s victim, while keeping anonymity and remaining as vague as you can.”

Of course, even a show about helping others is fictional.

You nod solemnly and prepare to go on air, sitting on a cushion next to a popular comedian who doesn’t bother to even look at you. A well-known Streamer is on your other side and you begin polite small talk, which seems to irritate the host.

“We’re on in 3,2….1!” A sharp click follows the director’s queue and the host bursts right into the introduction.

After you’re introduced it’s easy to tune out, you couldn’t give a shit about that stuck-up comedian and the actress to their right. Instead you think of how the fuck you’re supposed to conjure up an emotional performance with little to no time to prepare.

‘My ex-boyfriend hid me for almost two years’ no, not even worthy of a cheap gossip magazine. ‘I thought my boyfriend loved me, turns out he loved his career more’ Maybe...but you sound too needy.

“Today’s guest is Lee Chaeun of Suwon! Tell us your story, please.”

You turn to look at the guest who walks onto the set and sits at the head of the pillow mats. She’s clearly a young girl, her baby face is covered by face-framing layers of shiny black hair and her eyes are already glassy.

“Last year, I began dating my crush after years of admiring him from afar...Everything seemed so perfect until last week….He dumped me by text message saying he needed space and now he’s with someone new..” Chaeun bursts into tears and the host fakes a sympathetic face and passes her a box of tissues.

“Ah, you’re young...you don’t know anything yet. This is a normal phase for teenagers, men realise themselves and break girls down so they become beautiful women. It’s just a case of a little girl not wanting to grow up!” Chimes in the Comedian, who talks about his falsities as if they’re facts.

The audience erupts into laughter and the heartbroken teenager lowers her head in embarrassment. Which only makes you more enraged, Who told that guy he was funny?

“Chaeun has every right to be upset!” You exclaim, cutting through the laugher like a hot knife. “When a relationship ends when everything seems alright for one person, it's cruel. Being blindsided isn’t a joke. It hurts and she deserves closure, and to move on someday to a better person..What happened to her shouldn’t happen to anyone!” You barely register a gentle hand on top of yours, far too surprised by the fact there are tears dripping down your face. Crying wasn’t an option, so you pull yourself together and apologise to Chaeun and the host you cannot stand.

“Y/N, You seemed personally moved by Chaeun’s story, have you experienced a painful breakup?” The host asks curiously.

“You could say that,” You begin with a wry smile. “I was with someone who lived a double life, they were completely different when they were with other people...Things ended when I was still planning for future dates...it made me realise how fake they were.”

The guests all nod and you squeeze Chaeun’s hand, she smiles at you seeming relieved that she isn’t the only one who has felt this kind of pain.

Everything goes smoothly after that, other guests chime in and the actress that seemed snobby is openly discussing her ex vomiting all over her Valentinos. You can’t help but wonder if the company really suggested this, or if it was divine intervention (Choi San, your manager).

You don’t feel so alone anymore, everyone is guaranteed several things, two being love and heartbreak of some kind.

“Thanks to singer Y/N and actress Sojung, Chaeun was able to feel a little better...Thank you for joining us on ‘Help No Counsellor!’, Join us next week when…’

“Choi San, you sneaky bastard.”

He tries to act surprised but a shit-eating grin soon overtakes his acting, Iris shakes her head and zips her makeup bag closed. It isn’t long until you’re all at The Min’s enjoying red bean bread and warm tea. “What does inept even mean? I’m assuming it’s a good thing because Wooyoung kissed me after saying it.” San mentions, his lips curving upwards at the fond memory.

“I’d have to agree with Woo, it fits you perfectly.” You reply, circling around his question while Iris tries not to choke on her food.

Fits of laughter die down when you spot a familiar face, Lee Mijoo.

Her blonde hair flows down her back in loose curls and her soft eyes seem to enchant everyone, admittedly even you for a short time.Behind her is a slightly taller figure dressed in all black and your stomach drops.They don’t seem to notice your presence, so you decide to use this valuable time to hide behind a menu.

San and Iris try to play along best they can, but it is quite distressing that all of this has happened so suddenly, with no prior warning. But he did bring you here, a lot. So it’s amusing to see his date ideas haven't changed.

As he’s walking past you he pauses, and you want to shrivel into a hole and die, He’s clearly recognised you but can’t be 100% sure due to The Min’s menu covering your entire face.

“Y/N?”

Shit. You cannot hide from this.

Slowly taking the menu away and placing it down on the table you smile at him, maybe a little too forced but it’s the best you can do. His hair is blonde now, his curls are long gone but his smile is as genuine as ever.

Stupid Christopher Bang and his stupid ‘I-totally-didn’t-break-your-heart’ attitude.

“Chan, nice to see you. Still obsessed with their double shots?” You humoured, he seemed grateful for that.

“Oh, absolutely...and I see you’re still not saving any bean bread for anyone else.”

You laugh, it’s a bittersweet one at best but nevertheless it’s a laugh.

'Well it’s great to see you again, I’d love to exchange numbers if that’s alright?”

Without thinking you nod and oblige him, much to your friend’s disappointment which is evident by their glares. Mijoo exchanges smiles with everyone, who could hate her? She was funny, kind hearted and beautiful in every aspect.

When they finally leave to their outside seats you breathe a sigh of relief and sink into the chair.Iris strokes your hair and San grabs more snacks to go, the walk home isn’t peaceful. It’s awkward and silent, which only makes your head spin more. When you drop off Iris you know a lecture is coming, San hates doing it but you know he tells you what you need to hear, even if it hurts.

“Look, I’m happy you were able to brush off all the hurt today but earlier on you were crying about….this. Don’t give him the power to hurt you twice.”

“You’re right, thanks Sannie.” You reply, taking his arm and smiling at the warmth of his (Wooyoung’s) fuzzy coat.

Once San leaves and you get inside, it’s a matter of minutes before you hop in the shower and get rid of all the hairspray and mascara that’s been making you itch all day. The warm water soothes away your nerves and the impending frostbite from being outside in the cold for far too long.

Once you feel clean and somewhat scalded you step out onto warm fluffy towels (cheap warm fluffy towels with holes in them) and get situated for bed.

Just as you exit the bathroom your phone rings and you answer immediately, it’s probably Iris wanting you to play a new Among Us mod with her.

“Iris?”

“Uh, no, Chris.”

“Oh.” is your initial reply, why would he call you at midnight?

“Where you asleep? I’m sorry I’ll call back another ti-”

“No!” You interject, much too eagerly. “No...it’s fine. I’m not even in bed yet.”

“Oh” He sounds relieved, much the opposite of you.

“I just wanted to congratulate you...The song, it’s great. What’s it like actually singing one you wrote?”

“Great,” You admit with a smile he can't see, “It feels...genuine. I Couldn't stand the thought of giving the song away.”

“I can see why.” He replies in an unreadable tone.

“Did it make you uncomfortable? Me singing...about-”

“No, why would it?” He cuts in, he sounds slightly agitated.

“Look, Chan, I’m sorry. I should’ve texted you, well I did but you changed your number. But it’s my story too, okay? I needed to heal somehow.”

Minutes pass with no answer, as if he’s trying to think of exactly what to say without getting more irritated or to spare your feelings.

“When did I become Chan?” His voice comes out wavering,and it hurts you.

“That’s what everyone calls you now, you’re not just Chris the trainee anymore.” You reply in a gentle way, trying to ease the building tension.

“But to you, when did I stop being Chris?”

“Probably when you broke my heart,” You deadpan, before adding a ‘kidding’ and bullshit reason.

“You weren’t kidding, but you broke mine too. Don’t make me the bad guy.”

This had taken you aback, you had been in a perfectly happy relationship for almost two years and then he changed his mind, said he wasn’t happy and it wasn’t your fault. When the fuck did you break his heart?

“When exactly did that happen?” You query, “Before or after Mijoo?”

Chan lets out a dry laugh, “Don’t talk about what you don’t understand.”

“Well what does it matter? You never told me shit anyways.” You snapped.

“That’s because you wouldn’t fucking listen. Maybe to you it was all sunshine and roses but I was struggling, I changed and outgrew us. I didn’t want to but you were stuck in dreamland where we’d debut at the same time and live happily ever after. I realised it wasn’t going to happen and set you free so you wouldn’t be embarrassed.”

“Embarrassed?” You bark,”Fucking embarrassed of what exaclty? I left that shithole you call your company by choice and worked my way up. I’m not embarrassed, but you should be. You’re a fucking sellout Christopher Bang.”

Before he can reply you end the call and throw your phone at the wall, it would’ve broken only for the forty dollar case the store assistant convinced you to buy. You burst into tears just like you had that night when it all came crashing down. He must’ve loved seeing you in pain, because he keeps doing it even now.

That night, you wish for everything to go back to a time before him and the heartbreak that followed.

It’s early on a Friday when you’re called into a board meeting with the CEO, Director and San, who looks like someone stepped on his clay masterpiece. You still haven’t been told anything and as the minutes pass by you wonder if they found out about you getting drunk at Club Suran several weeks back. What if someone saw San there too? What if–

Suddenly the doors open and in walks JYP’s CEO, followed by several others and finally Chris. He looks as confused as you, but you quickly look away before he spots you. Last night was still fresh in your mind and you didn’t need anymore reminders or conversations with him.

“Dispatch has sent us several photos of you two together, spanning several years.” Your CEO announces, an Executive pulling the photos up on the screen behind her. “Including one from yesterday.”

“That was a coincidence, we broke up a long time ago.” You admit, she seems satisfied with your answer and nods, which makes you remember that damned dating ban you have.

“Usually, we’d shoot down these rumours immediately...but this could be quite beneficial to both Stray Kids and Y/N.” JYP’s CEO adds, “Stock prices have shown a rise for both of your albums, and real time searches are at an all time high.”

“I have a girlfriend.” Chan states, arms folded. “So that’s out of the question if you’re implying we fake a relationship.”

“Look Bang Chan,” Begins one of the Advisors, “It’s all for show, we’ll plan every detail and your girlfriend will keep her mouth shut if she knows what's good for her. Frankly, our sales aren't what they used to be and you need this, if you want complete musical and artistic control.”

Chan takes a while to think, you know this is all he’s wanted. Control over everything he and the boys put out there, with no censorship or edits by anyone else. Your CEO assures you you’ll also benefit from the agreement, including your debt fully cleared and money in your bank account as soon as you sign on the dotted line.

“How long does this last?” You ask, pen in hand.

“Twelve months, then you’re free again.”

Chan looks to you for conformation and you ignore him, signing it and standing up to leave. You only stop to sign more formalities and then you and San head back to your local coffee shop.

“Well, you sure have a funny way of moving on.”

#i'm sorry in advance #however thoughts are welcomed #skz chan #skz scenarios #skz imagines #skz x reader #skz x you #skz x y/n #stray kids blurbs #stray kids scenarios #bang chan angst #stray kids imagines #skz blurbs #stray kids chan x reader #bang chan #bang chan imagines #bang chan blurbs #bang chan x reader #bang chan x you

157 notes · View notes

aria-chicken-flugget · 4 years

Text

Disney World with The Brothers (+ Undateables)

HCs that no one asked for, i’m just self indulgent✨

Link to Undateables post

*Based on Disney World Orlando Resort*

The Brothers

Lucifer 🔥

The Mom TM

Has a fanny pack with all the tickets

Made a detailed itinerary of where each of you will go when, with whom and for how long

“Our scheduled break’s not for another 10 minutes”

Says he doesn’t need to go on the rides/ doesn’t enjoy it etc

Squealing inside at how much fun he’s actually having

“Wha - is Diavolo going on that train again?”

He literally wouldn’t even go to the parks if he didn’t enjoy it, wouldn’t see the point

“I’m busy enough as it is at home do you think I need this on top?”

This Sadist TM would force people on the rides they didn’t want to ride because It IS iN THe iTinERaRy

Would jam pack the days to get the full experience, wearing most out

But you request a rest day to which he’ll oblige

“Ugh why are we going here -“ “Because MC requested it, complain again and i’ll tear your ticket.”

Tears up when it’s the last night/ fireworks display

“MC, this was a rather fun idea. If you’d like to come again don’t hesitate to ask, i’ll take you.”

Mammon 💵

Goes against everything The Mom TM has worked in the itenerary, but is quickly stopped

Easily distracted and stops in the middle of walking to an attraction.

“Hey don’t stop in the sidewalk, genius.”

Literally bounces with excitement around the parks but blushes furiously when it’s pointed out by the brothers

“Oi quit that, I don’ know what ya talkin’ about”

Would sour real fast when having to queue, getting caught by The Mom when trying to cut the queue

“Why do we have to queue, huh? This better be worth it”

It is

Has the most expressive/funniest ride photographs

“Mammon that ride wasn’t that scary -“ “Who says i was scared, huh? I was making MC feel better about being scared...” Blush

Would push the other brothers out the way if they tried to sit with you on a ride

“But it’s my turn -“ “your turn my ass, that’s MY HUMAN”

Would sour when your attention is divided by the fireworks and him

Soon perks up when you ask to explore the park together and run around like kids at night

Is probably the most fun at this time as there’s not much queing when it gets late so he’ll grab your hand and take you everywhere

Levi 👾

Woooooooaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!

“This is like FINAL BOSS level cool! It’s almost worth being outside.”

The Vlogger TM

Literally documents anything and everything. Even when Beel’s eating a snack- makes it sound like the coolest adventure which it is

“Why are we going to THAT attraction? It’s the literal worst on all the reviews online.”

Secretly LOVES the attraction, would turn into a tomato when called out, fiercly denies it

“Y-you wanna ride with me? Uhhh ok, i guess... no no wait!”

Gets you two matching Mickey ears, along with any and all the possible merch

“In TSL, Henry went to an amusement park with all the Prince’s brothers and they had the best time and it was all Henry’s plan to help them get along and it worked, making their journey more -“ *Belphie Snores*

Looks for hidden Mickeys with you after he bought the book on them, as recommended online

*starts vlog* “Day Three and MC and I are yet to find the elusive hidden Mickeys -“

Can only really last til early afternoon before the heat/ social interaction gets too much for him and he may need to go

Recovers lightning fast when he sees you having fun with his brothers without him whilst he was taking a break

Snatches your hand to take you elsewhere, where d’you wanna go? What d’yo wanna do? Name it and he’ll do it lol Envyyy

Everyone is grateful for his vlogging by the end of the holiday, as it meant you all got to watch it back fondly when it was over

Satan 📚

Unlike Mammon, he successfully escapes The Mom and the itinerary when he wants to

However if you wanted him to stick around, he’d blush, “Alright, just for a while.”

Has a subdued smile on his face, enjoying it much more than he anticipated he would

Smiles widley at the parades, mainly because your smile was so bright as you watched

If he saw you eyeing up a giant Disney Balloon he would buy it, ignoring any protestations

Would back up any discourse over the itinerary just to mess with The Mom

“Perhaps the itinerary is not as ‘well thought out’ as you’d anticipated.”

Would begrudgingly play along with your waiting games whilst queing, secretly loving your company

Would be the one with the maps, and wouldn’t give one to Lucifer lol

Though somewhat gimmicky in his opinion, he’d deeply enjoy the Around the World showcase

Would last longer than anyone expected and would want to see the parks at night

“MC would you like to join me?”

Whilst taking your hand to explore the park’s atmosphere at night

LOVES the Haunted Mansion ride and the way you cling to his sleeve when riding with him

Asmodeus 💋

“Don’t forget to put on sunscreen! Protect your skin 💕”

Whilst Lucifer has a practical, generic fanny pack - Asmo’s is psychedelic and glittery

Packs lip balm, antibacterial gel and a mini fan

Serves all the Best Looks TM each day and takes amazing photos of everyone, with everyone

“Oh no, honey. It’s gonna be hot today you’ll want to wear something lighter like cotton or linen.”

Would whine when he starts to get sweaty around the parks

Would peck your cheek when you suggest a bathroom break to freshen up

LOVES the around the world showcase. All the people, all the culture all the music and colours!

Unsurprisingly, isn’t a fan of rollercoasters as it messes up his hair

Would buy you the cutest souvenir and gets matching bracelets with a small, sophisticated silver Mickey charm on each

Would spend lunch with you, checking on you ensuring your keeping your water up etc and feed you

Also intrigued by the parks at night but would be more interested in getting a good night’s sleep for his skin

However if you asked/wanted time in the parks at night he’d find a secluded area to watch the fireworks with an arm around your waist

Beelzebub 🍔

Would give you piggy back rides when you get tired

“When’s lunch?” “We just got here, Beel...”

Would wrap you in a bear hug if you packed snacks for him

*munch* *munch* “Do you want that? - thanks!” *munch*

Would stop at all the food stalls. Every. Single. One - “ThIS iSn’T iN ThE iTiNeRaRY”

“Here MC, try this! This looks good too, do you want one?”

Would help carry people’s belongings

Wouldn’t notice you put Mickey ears on him until he looked at the photos later

Would notice you eyeing up a parade and when you kept quiet as not to disrupt the itinerary, would speak up

If it doesnt go your way, he’ll sneak away with you “Then we’ll go see it together.” Puppy eyed smile

“Beel we gotta get in the queue or we won’t make the line in time!” “Just a second -“ *munch* *munch*

Wouldn’t mind if you wanted to ride with others, but would eventually get sour if you weren’t with him at all

Would hold your hand around the parks with one hand and eat ice cream with the other

Would put you on his shoulders so you could see the fireworks better

He LOVES the fireworks and wonders what they’d taste like “Beel, no.” “:(“

“Someone’s having fun, i’m glad!”

Carries you over one shoulder and a sleeping Belphie over the other

“I - want to come here again... with you.” Blush

Belphegor 😴

Much like Satan, Belphie would deliberately go against the Itinerary with success, and would take you and Beel with him

Would make everyone late to the park by sleeping in

If you wanted everyone to stick together, you’d convince him with a promise to let him nap on your lap later

Would say he hates being there and would actually hate being there

For the most part... what coaxes him is seeing how happy you are, and Beel being happy too

“Belphie, look how cool this ride is! Wanna go?” ‘Begrudgingly’ agrees with a smirk

Would fall asleep at lunch and would have to be slapped shaken awake

Hell would freeze over before he admitted to it... but he started to have a good time

Starts to get more involved if you hold his hand and encourage him, a small smile on his lips

LOVES Tower of Terror and any boat ride - he can fall asleep on the boat rides

He HATES the water rides but having convinced Lucifer on one under false pretences, his expression makes it worth it lol

That one Joker TM that ‘pretends’ to be asleep in any rollercoaster attraction photograph

Some times he is actually asleep in those photos, but no one knows which ones are real or fake

Doesn’t mind queues because it gives him time to chill and nap

Falls asleep on your shoulder at the fireworks

I will do the Undateables in a follow up Post! Might edit this one but have them for now because I hope they make you smile! ✨

313 notes · View notes

quazartranslates · 3 years

Text

Welcome to the Nightmare Game II - CH11

**This is an edited machine translation. For more information, please [click here]**

[<<< Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter >>>]

-----

Chapter 11: Resurrection Overture (XI)

Unfortunately, Qi Leren could escape his “date” with the Illusionist, but he couldn’t escape his one with Chen Baiqi.　　

Since there was no specific time for the day's training, Qi Leren got up early the next morning. When he got up, he thought he would suffer from a sore back due to training too hard the previous day, but except for slightly sore thighs, his body had no symptoms of strain, which made Qi Leren feel incredible.　　

Was it because he’d been blessed by Maria’s holy light?　　

Clearly last night when he’d gone to Du Yue, he’d been as tired as a dead dog. Du Yue had received him warmly and easily agreed to sign the confidentiality contract. According to the contract agreement, he wouldn’t be able to reveal this secret to anyone, whether it was in writing or spoken or even from a mind control skill. As long as it was concerning these secrets, he couldn’t say anything and Qi Leren would also feel it if he did.　　

This was actually an unfair contract that had no benefit to Du Yue. Qi Leren wanted to compensate him with some survival time, but Du Yue didn't agree: "I can earn so many survival days because of the clues qianbei gave me. I’ve already made a lot of money, I dare not ask for your days as well. If there’s a chance in the future, please take me with you!"　　

Looking at Du Yue's earnest eyes, Qi Leren agreed without saying anything.　　

At six o'clock in the morning, Qi Leren arrived at Chen Baiqi's shop and tentatively knocked on the door.　　

The door opened and Chen Baiqi, who had already dressed neatly and washed her hair, looked at him with a smile: "That’s very positive. I thought you wouldn’t arrive till after seven o'clock."　　

Qi Leren said that if he really had come after seven o'clock, he wasn’t sure how he’d be treated by Chen Baiqi.　　

"I’m very pleased to see that you’re so motivated. You’ll report to me at this time every day in the future. You know the consequences of being late." Chen Baiqi's smile widened. In Qi Leren’s eyes, this was really a smile full of maliciousness. "As for breakfast, ask Sissi what she wants to eat and get me the same."　　

Sissi, who came out of the back room with a yawn, said sleepily, "Flatbread fitters, thank you."　　

Chen Baiqi had put an hourglass on the table and encouraged Qi Leren by saying, "Twenty minutes."　　

"It takes at least ten minutes to run from here to the market near the steel bridge!" cried Qi Leren.　　

Chen Baiqi glanced at the hourglass: "Nineteen minutes and fifty seconds. If you feel stressed, I can send a lovely dog to accompany you."　　

Accepting his fate, Qi Leren pushed open the door and started to run as if a three-headed hellhound was eyeing his chrysanthemum behind him—truly, this was the most terrible place.　　

Many years later, Qi Leren still remembered the dominating fear of buying breakfast. In a sense, this period of running for his life in the sunset was the worst time in his life. The shopkeepers in the bazaar remembered this wind-like man. He would rush to the booth with short messy hair right on time at about 6:10 every day to buy two breakfasts. If there were other people waiting in line, his bereavement and frequent glances at his watch would make people suspect that he was manic. The most dramatic time, when he was faced with a long queue, he had resolutely cut in line at the expense of paying for everyone else in the line and disappeared from everyone’s sight like an unscrupulous customer who ran out when faced with the bill.　　

—He runs faster than I did when I learned my wife was giving birth, a stall owner said.　　

—Once, he brought a three-headed hellhound to do his morning exercises and ran faster than usual, another vendor said.　　

—That boy is really handsome. If I’m slow at preparing cakes, he almost starts crying in his rush. It's very distressing, a middle-aged female vendor fondly said.　　

People in the market speculated on his origin, but for a long time no one knew who he was, so the "6:10 rush to buy breakfast" was also included in the top ten incredible sights in the Village of Dusk. It’s worth mentioning that a new addition was also added to this list recently—why are there so many tombstones for Qi Leren on Undead Island?　　

However, Qi Leren, who monopolized these two items on the list, had no idea about his "unexpected popularity" because recently he was living a life that was like death. Chen Baiqi happily told him that because Maria’s holy light had blessed him, his body was very "resistant to exercise" and could accept more intensive training. She used this as an excuse to arrange an inhuman training regimen for Qi Leren.　　

Twenty minutes of hard running in the morning was just an appetizer. It was common to practice shooting at the same time. Even swimming from the Village of Dusk’s port to Undead Island was included in the daily training. Before finishing training every day, there was another "love lesson" by Chen Baiqi, which translates to "teaching you how to be hit by various weapons". Even the day when you dislocated your right hand because of shooting practice, you were not spared.　　

At this time, Qi Leren realized that the training menu Ning Zhou had given him was too easy and that he was too gentle as a coach. Just look at the results of Chen Baiqi's devil training: Within a week, when Qi Leren was chased by the three-headed hellhound outdoors, he was able to climb onto the roof without changing color, climbing faster than a monkey. If Chen Baiqi hadn't forbidden him from doing anything to the dog, he would have jumped at the evil dog with a gun.　　

Yes, Qi Leren also learned to shoot, as taught by Chen Baiqi.　　

Before be taught, Chen Baiqi also asked him how much he knew about guns and which one he wanted to try.　　

Although he was a man, he wasn’t very interested in guns. He said, "I don't play shooter games very much. How about a Desert Eagle? I’ve heard those are very powerful."　　

Chen Baiqi rolled her eyes: "You really do know nothing about guns."　　

Chen Baiqi recommended a revolver similar to a Smith Wesson 625, which had a large caliber, six-chambers, and convenient loading that wasn’t easy to jam. It was said that it was made by a gun fan, and that it couldn't be mass-produced at present with the technological level of the Twilight Township. He earned a lot of survival days thanks to this skill.　　

Qi Leren took the strange gun and thought of the problem of the laptop transformer and charger. The craftsman who was still alive when he’d gone last time had been away on a task, and he may have come back now. He would go see about this after today’s training.　　

While training in the afternoon, Chen Baiqi had a whim to teach Qi Leren how to dive, or dive without any equipment to be exact, to exercise his breath-holding ability, compression resistance, and control of his heartbeat and breathing. Since his profession was that of an assassin, he couldn't do without a well-trained heart.　　

Qi Leren listened in anguish to the main points about diving, put on the headlamp, and looked at the endless sea.　　

"I advocate that every player who focuses on the assassin's route should learn to dive, because to be a good assassin he must learn to overcome his nervousness and fear. There’s no training that can train a person better than jumping into the sea alone to challenge your own limits. As you dive deeper and deeper, the light will decrease. In the end, only your own heartbeat will be left in the dark world. It will seem like your soul has escaped from your body and roamed in endless darkness. You will be isolated and helpless. Nothing can save you. You have to learn to rely on yourself. The water pressure in all directions will become stronger and stronger, but the oxygen in your lungs will become less and less, and death will become closer and closer to you, and you won't even know what depth you’re diving to. You will feel fear, more and more fear, and fear will make your heart beat faster, oxygen consumption will increase dramatically, and you will die faster if you cannot overcome this fear." Chen Baiqi looked at Qi Leren, who was shivering in the wind, and smiled happily.　　

"This area isn’t deep. You’ll go down and touch a shell. It’s very simple to do," Chen Baiqi said.　　

Qi Leren said bitterly, "Can you tie a rope around me? What if I can't come back up from the water?"　　

Chen Baiqi's smile grew deeper, and her slender eyebrows made this smile even more malicious: "Don't be afraid, it doesn't matter if you don't come up for a while, anyway. You’ll slowly float up after swelling a little in two days."　　

“………………”

-----

Editor’s Notes: The next chapter may be a bit late, as I’ve had a hectic last couple weeks and unfortunately have fallen behind. I will try to avoid this though.

-----

[<<< Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter >>>]

#Welcome to the Nightmare Game #欢迎来到噩梦游戏 #danmei

32 notes · View notes

sckyie · 3 years

Text

word count: 2.5k

genre + warnings: enemies to lovers; coworkers, office love, alcohol mentioned, swearing

pronouns used: she/her

a/n: hi hi here’s my exchange gift for @coophi! happy holidays and stay safe, i hope you like what i wrote for you! [ this was apart of @/haikyuucreations secret santa ]

You put your forehead on the table groaning at the recent news. "You'll get'em next time, Y/n," your coworker rubbed your back. You sighed louder as you heard something being placed on your desk. You shift your face towards the corner of the surface to see a coffee cup with your name scribbled on the side.

You rolled your eyes and looked up to see the new lead, Kuroo, being congratulated by everyone. "That was supposed to be my promotion," You grumbled. You stared at the coffee up and walked over to Kuroo's desk. Leaving the filled cup, you excused yourself to the bathroom.

Kuroo watched as you rejected his peace offering before leaving the office. He understood how you felt once you heard that you didn't get the promotion. Your papers were perfect, clients loved you both, but the one thing keeping you from getting the promotion was simple. Kuroo's numbers were much higher than yours and it crushed yours.

The thought of endless nights staying late to catch up became pointless. The effort in surpassing him wasn't necessary anymore. All your work, all your stressful nights, everything didn't matter to the manager and execs.

"Hmph," Kuroo seated himself and stared at your drink on his desk.

"Something wrong, Kuroo?" Your coworker peeked beside him.

"Oh nothing," He responds.

You return to your desk, side-eyeing your now superior. You took a deep breath before returning to your paperwork.

Numbers, numbers, numbers. You spent your shift calculating, writing, and fixing errors. The jumble of text on your screen began to hurt your brain for working so hard.

The day dreaded on as the anger in you fumed. It wasn't that you were mad for not getting the promotion. You were furious that out of all people it'd be Kuroo who got it. You despised his snarky, overly confident facade and his petty ways of trying to show you how great he was.

Finally, your shift comes to an end but so does Kuroo's. You two walk together to the elevators though you tried your hardest avoiding him. "Did I get your order wrong?" Kuroo smirked as he pressed the lobby button.

"I don't want your pity coffee," You muttered.

"It's not a pity coffee," He rebutted. "It was a hot chai latte."

"Haha," You mocked. "I don't even like chai."

"Then what do you like?" Kuroo smiled.

"Not you," You immediately walked out of the elevator, making your way to the parking lot.

"Tsk," He was the tiniest bit irritated by your tone but decided to try again tomorrow.

Papers, papers, papers. Endless papers for you to edit and write at home. It was torture but how else could you succeed in your career. Things were already shit with Kuroo trying to be friends with you. Nevertheless, you finished at least ten pages of reports for tomorrow's agenda.

Early morning, you arrived at the office before everyone like normal. Kuroo arrives with two coffees and a small brown bag. He walked over, placing the snack and cup on your desk without a word. He walks to his desk and begins his work without interacting.

You turn the cup to check what it was. "Café latte," You mouthed. You peeked in the small bag to see a blueberry muffin. Before you could return the drink, people began to file into the room. You rolled your eyes and sipped on the drink.

"Success," Kuroo thought to himself as he watched you snack and sip the offerings.

It became a daily thing for Kuroo to bring you drinks. Never the same one twice, but always a blueberry muffin. You gave in to his gesture and thanked him silently whenever he passed by.

Your favorite interaction however was his failed attempt in talking to you. "You come here often?" He asked as he placed your coffee on your desk.

"Considering I work here, yes," You say sarcastically.

"Wow I'm literally so stupid," Kuroo thought. Kuroo saw many opportunities to talk to you more but fell nervous every time. It was always hard for him to get close to someone new. His past relationships had left him hopeless for his own future. The toxicity from the past girls left him thinking he'd never be happy with someone. These past few years, he'd been focusing on himself.

Then you walked into his life. After being transferred to a new branch, you seemed different than any other girl he's met. Kuroo saw hope in you and believed that you could be the light of his love life. He admired your attention to detail, your determination, and well, your beauty. Kuroo saw all your greatest features yet he could never bring himself to tell you his admiration.

One day, you had already a shitty morning and didn't want to deal with anything at work. From annoying traffic to angry clients to the blisters from your heels, you wanted more than anything for the day to end.

A few upset clients later, your head began to pound and you excused yourself for an early break. Kuroo turned to see you sulk away, causing him to furrow his eyebrows.

"What's with Y/n?" He asks his desk neighbor.

"Oh, two of her clients weren't co-operating and it's getting her frustrated," She responded. "She's been having a bad day."

Kuroo looks at your desk curiously and noticed how you had removed your heels under your desk. "Be right back," Kuroo gets up from his desk and walked over to the shared kitchen area to grab some things.

You returned from your short break to be greeted with a small pile of things. Bandages for your blisters, medicine for your headache, water, and a cut-up apple. "Take it easy," You found a post-it on the water bottle. You looked at your screen to see your client queue cleared with everyone on the list as approved. Confused as ever, you make use of the mystery goods to tend to your needs.

"Attention everyone, tonight Ryu here is throwing a little work party at his apartment," Your manager announced. "It is a small goodbye party for him and congratulations to our new lead, Kuroo." You rolled your eyes at Kuroo's name and continued to snack on the apples.

Later that night, you arrived at Ryu's house, catching Kuroo's attention. "Woah," Your male coworker gasped at the sight of you. "Damn, how is she single."

"Hey calm down, Kuroo-san has a crush on her," Other teased.

"Fuck off and keep my love life out your mouth," Kuroo nudges his shoulder. Though they weren't wrong, you were stunning. Dressed to impress and you even put your hair down from your usual updo. Kuroo was left speechless, thus leaving him too anxious to tell you anything.

After one cheesy speech and a big congratulations, the drinking began. Kuroo began to get too into the moment, having one too many drinks. You, however, stayed sober the whole party. You snickered at the sight of your drunk colleagues.

Kuroo's cheeks were bright red and he walked funny. He made his way towards you and you couldn't help but laugh. This was his chance to confess. "I- I- want-" He hiccuped between words. Kuroo began to get lost in thought, forgetting he was drunk confessing. "I- want my- keys- I- need- need to go- home."

"I don't think so," You snatch his keys from the key holder before he could. "Do you want me to take you home?" He nodded excessively as you rolled your eyes. You chat with Ryu shortly before taking Kuroo to your car.

"Kamikita Apartments," You say. You had asked Ryu as you saw no hope in getting anything out of Kuroo. He slowly fell asleep in your car as you drove through the lit city. "I hope you know, I'm only doing this because you're drunk. I still don't like you."

"Mhm," Kuroo says in his sleep. You giggled at his expression all the way to his apartment.

Kuroo rests his arm around your shoulder as you two made your way to the apartment. You unlock the door and Kuroo immediately walks to the bedroom. Once he realized you weren't behind him, he turns back. "Where'd you go?" He pouted.

"Nowhere," You followed into his room. "Where are your pajamas- Oh, here. Change while I get you water."

Kuroo obeys your order and seats himself as he waited for his water. To him, he had already confidently talked to you about how he felt. Yet in reality, he was too drunk to even comprehend the front of his shirt.

"Here," You notice the tag in the front of his shirt as he chugged the water. "Your shirt is backward."

"Help me?" He begged. You facepalm at his tone but agreed. It felt like you were taking care of a baby. Your cheeks flushed pink once you helped him take off his shirt. You stopped to admire his face as you adjusted the middle of his sleep shirt. His hands move to rest on your hips. "It's so cold. Thank you for helping me change. Oh, and Y/n?"

"Y-yes?" You stuttered at his large hands.

"I have something to tell you," His voice started to sound sleepy. "I love you." Your eyes widen and you couldn't show him your shy expression.

"Tell me that again when you're sober," You move his hands away from you. Making your way to the light switch, you looked at the sad Kuroo. "I'll sleep in the living room. Just- go to bed."

Thankfully you had a change of clothes in your trunk that you used to sleep in. You got ready for bed, chuckling at the sounds of Kuroo snoring next door to the bathroom.

You laid silently on the couch staring at the ceiling. Those three words, you never thought you'd hear them from him of all people. It'd been years since your last break up, so you'd always been so closed off when it came to men. After getting heartbroken, you didn't think another man could love you. Kuroo was no exception. Sure he was handsome but you were adamant about staying single for the longest.

The thought of Kuroo in your life lingered up until the morning. He had woken up before you and found himself with a pounding headache. He made his way to the kitchen and grabbed a glass of water. As he drank his water, he spit-sprayed the water out of his mouth when he spots you sleeping. He began to cough aggressively before collecting himself. "Wha- what is she doing here?!" He whispered.

You woke up to the sound of your dying colleague, rubbing your eyes to the bright room. Kuroo walked over to you as you sat up, pulling the blanket to your lap. "Good morning," You yawned. "How's the hangover?"

"What are you doing here?" Kuroo panicked.

"You were shit-faced. This was the one thing I could do for repaying you for the coffees," You say.

"Did I do- did I say anything stupid?" He hides his face in his hands.

"You told me something," You began to fiddle with your thumbs. "I don't know if you meant it or not, but you told me you loved me."

"I...did?" Kuroo slowly moves his hands to look at you. Your face was red and you were playing with your sleeves now.

"Well, did you mean it?" You ask. "If you didn't..."

Kuroo reached over and pulled your chin up with his index knuckle and thumb. "I meant it," He says. "I really did."

Your face grew warmer at his words. "Why?" You sighed. "I'm so mean to you."

"Because," Kuroo moves his hand away to stare at his lap. "I love your smile. I love the way you work. I love how determined you are. The way you sign your papers with a tiny heart. The way you laugh at the smallest things. And...I know you might hate my guts but ever since I saw you, I admired you. You make so many people smile and bring happiness to the room. I thought I'd been on your shit list but I'm glad you took care of me- See that's another thing, you put yourself after everyone else. That's why I gave you bandaids, buy you coffee, finished your quotas for you. I just think you deserve better than what you have right now. And I'm so impressed by you-"

You got annoyed by his rambling and decided to grab his cheeks. You interrupted his words by crashing your lips into his. "You literally talk so much," You pulled away. "Can I talk now?"

Kuroo was stunned at the fact that you just kissed him to shut him up. "You just- kissed-" You pressed your lips on his again to keep him quiet. He deepened the kiss before you could pull away. "You can talk." He smiled as he pulled away.

"Okay," You move from his face. "I wanted to say, you weren't on my shit list or whatever. I was upset I didn't get the promotion and I didn't like your attitude. But, getting to know you I learnt how different you really are. Especially when you’re drunk, it's funny. Besides that, I didn't know how you felt, I didn't notice all the things you've done for me."

Kuroo placed his palm on yours, carefully comparing the size of it to yours. "I didn't think I could fall in love with someone who didn't give me the time of day," He says. You moved your fingers to trace his.

"How are you so sure that you love me?" You laced your fingers with Kuroo's.

"That's the thing, I'm not sure," Kuroo looked down at his lap. "I did all those things just to make your days easier. I thought all the small gestures I did, wouldn't matter to you. That they were just tedious things that bothered you. To be honest, I'm afraid of letting someone into my heart. I was drunk when I told you and I meant it but I want to know for sure that I'm in love with you before anything."

"Do you want to find out?" You say softly.

"Only if you'd let me," Kuroo looked up to see you smiling at him. You nodded and leaned in for another kiss. "Man if only your kisses made this hangover go away."

You rolled your eyes and pressed your lips against his once more. The feeling of his hands move to your waist caused the heat in your face to return. Kuroo pulls you to straddle his lap as he deepened the kiss. Your hands rest on his shoulders while he rubbed your sides.

"I promise to make you the happiest woman in the world," He whispered as he pulled away.

"Do I still get morning coffee?" You giggled.

"And your blueberry muffin," Kuroo chuckled. You smiled before pecking his lips. You rest your head on the crook of his neck as he rubbed your back. "I won't disappoint you."

taglist: @amillionfandoms-onlyoneme @just-a-siiimp @d0llpie @elianetsantana

#haikyuu #haikyu #hq #haikyuu x you #hq x you #haikyuu kuroo #hq kuroo #Kuroo Tetsurō #kuroo tetsuro x reader #kuroo x you #kuroo #forbes dreamz #haikyuucreations

66 notes · View notes

snowdice · 4 years

Text

Finding the Time to Study Fic 2 [Day 18]

Here is my starting post for today’s study break stories session. See this post for more details and feel free to send me asks to keep me going! It’s been a lot of fun so far! I will reblog this post with the story as I write them today. I’ll be constantly looking for ideas of times and places for Janus to have missions, so feel free to send in any you can think of at any point!

If you are a new follower or just don’t want all of these posts clogging your dash, please feel free to block the tag “study break stories” as all posts and voting about it will go there. You can still see the finished product of the story even if you are blocking that tag as I will not tag the edited chapters with “study break stories” but with the tag “folds in paper.” See edited chapters below. Chapters 3-8 and what I have of Chapter 9 are under the cut.

My Masterpost Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

I also have a playlist on youtube (because Spotify didn’t have one of the songs I wanted). It’s short, and not really for serious listening, but I had fun with it.

I have homework due tomorrow, so let’s go.

Arc I: Finding Cinderella

Chapter 4

Janus was frozen in surprise for a few long moments after Pat disappeared. Which had been, admittedly, his mistake, because, while their window had technically been until 11:17pm and it was only 11:10, the loud crack that whatever Pat had been using for time travel made, garnered the attention of someone else.

“Uh oh,” Remus said, likely hearing footsteps. “Hide.”

That snapped Janus into action, but instead of hiding immediately like a sensible human being, he chose to go for the only link to the man who’d just stolen time travel tech and waltzed away, the mask.

Which was why he ended up getting arrested.

Remy tsked the moment they were all alone in the police car having come to ‘transfer Lee to another facility.’ Remus was already waiting in the front seat, and flashed Janus a smug smile. If Janus wasn’t still handcuffed, he’d slap him.

“Well,” Remy said. “At least you didn’t shoot anybody like I asked. I was joking by the way. I didn’t really want to pick you up from a 1920s police station period.”

“It wasn’t my fault.”

“Mmm, nah, ‘cause Remus managed to not get arrested this time, so you defiantly screwed something up.”

“Oh, he defiantly wanted to screw something all right,” Remus said joyfully.

“Remus,” Janus hissed.

“What?” he asked. “I’m not the horny one for once. Well, no, that’s a lie, but it didn’t affect the job this time.”

Janus groaned and leaned his head back against the seat.

Remy pulled into a seemingly random garage around 20 minutes later. “Alright,” he said. “Here we are.” He got out of the car and then helped Janus out before uncuffing him. “Here’s your ‘watch,’” Remy handed him the timepiece that had been confiscated when he’d been arrested.

Janus put it on and activated it. “Shit,” he said.

“What?” Remus asked.

“An appointment with cultural outreach has already been downloaded to my calendar for once we get out of decon.”

“Oof. Going to baby jail,” Remy laughed. Remus was cackling.

“This,” Janus said, “was not a cultural faux pas. I did nothing that indicated that I was not from this time. I am not some rookie.”

“Don’t forget cell phones don’t exist in the 1920s,” Remus sang.

“The real question is whether or not my foot exists in your…” Remus disappeared before he could finish, a smirk on his face. Janus growled. “By Remy,” he gritted out. He selected the decontamination chamber from his queue, ignoring the appointment that came after it for now.

He knew exactly where Remus would be standing when he landed, which was why he stepped forward on reentry to ram into him.

He yelped in surprise. “Sorry,” Janus said pleasantly. “I must have also forgotten landing procedures.

Remus laughed good naturally. “Aw, come on Jay,” he said, bumping Janus back, albeit much gentler than Janus had been. “It’s not a big deal. You just go talk with some crusty old college professor who is far too interested in spoons and then everything’s fine.”

“It’s the principle of the thing,” he growled. “They’re treating me like I’m an idiot who accidently invented disco in the 1920s when I was conned by some free agent time traveler.”

“‘Conned,’ Remus said. Is that what they’re calling it now?”

“I know where and when you live Remus,” Janus said.

Remus gave him a dopey smile as the decontamination cycle finished and the door unlocked. Janus’s wrist buzzed telling him that the coordinates to the cultural outreach office were now unlocked. Instead of pulling them up, Janus walked to the door.

“Um,” Remus said, following him. “Aren’t you supposed to be going to your appointment?” Janus just kept walking towards their office. “Uh… Jan?”

“It’s absolutely ridiculous that I have to go to cultural outreach,” Janus said. “In fact, no one can make me. If they want me to go have a discussion about the definition of ‘bushwa,’ they’re going to have to have me dragged there.”

“Mmm, I feel like The Boss won’t be too happy about that, and I have a feeling she’d be 100% down to dragging you there herself.”

“Well, then, let her,” Janus said, stalking through the door to his office. “I’m not going to…”

“Ah, Agent Picani,” the woman standing next to his desk, clearly waiting for him, said when he came through the door. “Dr. Picani was informed that there were complications with your last mission and wishes to have a conversation with you and asks that you meet him in his office at the AMO.”

“Oh, um,” Janus said, stumbling a bit before plastering on a regretful half smile. “Unfortunately, I actually have an appointment right now at Cultural Outreach. It’s mandatory and very important, and I have to go now. So, I’ll have to take a raincheck on that.”

“But-” she started, frowning.

“Remus, work on the report!” Janus said quickly as he waved his hand to bring up his timepiece display and jammed his finger at the glowing appointment card in his queue. A few moments later, Janus was at Cultural Outreach.

Cultural Outreach was not part of the TPI, though it often worked very closely with them. It was a collaboration between the government and multiple universities to help government workers, politicians, and other citizens understand and bridge cultural gaps. It had existed before time travel was invented but had expanded to also teach people who needed to time travel how to behave in unfamiliar times and cultures.

After it had to be expanded to provide for the TPI, it had been moved to Silver Mountains University. The building had once just been a museum, but it had been thoroughly renovated and there had been add-ons for office space and some classrooms. It was still a museum, however, its purpose had expanded greatly and there were many areas that were off limits to the general public.

One of these areas was the fourth floor, where Janus’s timepiece had dumped him. This was the floor that was almost exclusively for TPI agents and staff of Cultural Outreach who worked with them.

He immediately turned away from the reception area, hoping that he could escape and go sit on the university’s quad or something of the like for the next hour or so in hopes the woman his brother sent to fetch him would give up and go back to the AMO. Yet, the receptionist apparently saw him.

“Janus Picani?” he asked.

Janus grimaced and turned back towards him. “Yes,” he said.

“Is something wrong?” he asked. “You’re 5 minutes late for your appointment and seem disoriented.

“Nothing’s wrong.”

“Is your timepiece malfunctioning?”

“No.”

“Uh… okay. Well, if you sign in here, I can take you to your appointment.”

“…Fine.”

He begrudgingly stepped forward and touched the screen he’d gestured to sign with his fingerprint, and then let the man lead him down the hall.

The door they stopped at was propped open slightly, but he still paused and knocked. “Professor Eran? Your 2:30 is here.”

Janus had just a moment upon hearing the name to think that maybe there was actually some sort of intelligent design of the universe and whatever being of ultimate power had crafted it was a dick.

The door opened and Virgil Eran’s eyes immediately narrowed on him. “Janus.”

“Virgil.”

“I see you’re still late for everything.”

“I see you’re still a bastard.”

Janus saw the receptionist slowly back away in the direction they’d come.

“Why don’t you come in?” Virgil said faux pleasantly.

Janus did, because he really didn’t have much of a choice at this point unless he wanted to jump out of a window… or push someone out of a window.

Virgil turned back into his office and took a seat behind his desk. Janus unhappily followed him in and sat across from him.

He took his time pulling up whatever the TPI sent him and reading it over. “So, I see you failed your recovery mission and were arrested in 1923.”

“It wasn’t like that,” Janus said. “I shouldn’t be here.”

Virgil gave him that same suspicious look he used to give Janus whenever Janus claimed to have not eaten his hot pockets out of the freezer in the middle of the night. He’d only been lying 80% of the time. Virgil had a tendency to forget what he’d eaten in a half-conscious state at 3 o’clock in the morning.

“I shouldn’t,” Janus snapped defensively. “Nothing went wrong with anyone from the time period. An illegal time traveler screwed up the mission details.”

“Well, it is still protocol to make sure nothing slipped when agents go off script. You weren’t prepared to be in a jail cell, and it is possible that you screwed something up.”

“I didn’t screw anything up,” Janus growled.

“Alright,” Virgil said pulling up a document on his desk. “The mission started on July 27th, 1923 at 9:58pm, correct?”

“Oh, god, we’re not really going to fill out a time sheet. I don’t have time for that today.”

“It is protocol and best that the information is documented when it is still fresh in your mind. Besides, your schedule has been cleared for the rest of the workday.” The bastard was enjoying this. He knew how much Janus hated this stuff.

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Janus said, “it was the damned illicit time traveler.”

“And I will be the judge of that,” Virgil said. Janus should have just bit the bullet and had coffee with his brother. “If you truly did nothing wrong, your supervisor will see that when I send this to her.”

Yet, despite the fact that Virgil clearly relished in his suffering, he was charitable enough to do most of the actual filling out of the forms. He’d read out the questions and write down what Janus said instead of making him do it himself. Janus really only had to do a quick quality check and sign it at the end.

He still was an asshole about the details, but really he’d been like that about stupid thing like the settings for the dish washer and how the pantry was organized during their college days before they’d had their falling out, so Janus wasn’t particularly surprised. When they were finally done, Virgil sent it off to get filed by the TPI.

Then, they were left staring at each other with nothing between them but almost a decade of radio silence and a whole lot of awkwardness.

“I should go,” Janus finally said, standing up.

Virgil tilted his head slightly to the side and gave him a half smile. “Don’t lock the door behind you,” he said. “Not that I’d expect you too.”

Janus took it for the clear attempt at a joke it was intended to be and puffed out a breath of amusement with a head shake. “No risk of that,” he said. Then, he turned and walked out of the office.

Chapter 5

Janus stepped back into the reception area and booted up his time piece. Instinct said to go back to the office despite the fact that it was late enough that most people had gone home, but he hesitated. Surely Emile had given up by now, but considering he’d sent someone to ambush him in his office, Janus wasn’t sure if he should trust that. He could just go home, but he already knew his mind was racing too much to sleep tonight so he’d probably just end up staring at the lake for the next 6 hours. So, he decided on the only other legitimate option he had. He pulled up Remus’s home coordinates and selected.

The home that Remus had chosen (after his long line of rejected requests) managed to somehow make no and absolute sense simultaneously to anyone who knew him. It was a small farm in the United States just west of the Mississippi in 1842 in what would be ratified as the state of Iowa in a few years. When asked why he would choose that time and place, Remus always responded with “I thought it was funny,” whatever that meant.

Unlike most time agents who simply used the identities assigned to them by the AMO as a cover, Remus actually lived his part time.

Janus was… fairly certain he was cheating a bit to get everything done, but he maintained his small farm all on his own, growing most of his own food. The neighbors he had lived very far away, but he still spoke with them far more than Janus did his own.

Janus appeared inside the small home, his eyes already shut. “Are you hear and dressed?” Janus called. Something bumped lightly into his legs.

“I’m in the kitchen!”

Janus peaked his eyes open and squatted to pet the cat at his feet. “That doesn’t answer my question!” he called back to Remus.

“It’s a surprise!” Remus said.

“Remus.” Diesel Fuel the cat flopped to her side on the ground as Janus continued to pet her ears. He heard Remus’s footsteps, and saw cloth covering his legs, so risked looking up. He was currently not only dressed, but wearing an apron that Janus was fairly sure was not time appropriate judging by the fabric and cat pawprint design. He had a bit of flour on his hands, and it may have been a bit too white for the time and place, but Janus couldn’t be completely sure.

“What’re you doing here?” Remus asked.

“My day has been an endless series of frustrations,” Janus said. “So, I have come to see the only tolerable being in the history of the universe.”

Remus snorted. “Since I know that isn’t me, I’ll assume you’re talking about the cat.”

“I still don’t understand why you tolerate this creature,” Janus addressed Diesel Fuel. She blinked slowly up at him. “To be fair, he was assigned as my partner. I didn’t have much of a choice in it. You could go always run away and become feral in the woods if you’d like.”

“So could you, technically,” Remus pointed out.

“I’m thinking about it after today.”

“Would you like some bread?” Remus asked. “That’s all I’ve been making this afternoon. Some fresh should be coming out of the oven in a few minutes.”

“Do you have anything stronger made out of wheat?”

“Ew, no, but I do have vodka.”

“Vodka works.”

“Want me to mix it with something?”

“No.”

“One of those night then,” Remus said, easily. “Let me finish up the bread, so I don’t burn the kitchen down. You can go get the alcohol from the cellar while you wait if you want, or you can just flop down on the couch.”

He was going to just flop down on the couch.

He did just that as Remus disappeared back into his kitchen. The cat hopped onto his stomach, proceeding to purr loudly and kneed at chest. Janus petted the cat and listened to the noise of Remus moving around in the other room, letting his mind drift. His mind drifted to Virgil for a bit and he steadfastly did not allow it to drift to his brother. Yet, the thing that most was on his mind was the strange man who had flirted and charmed Janus all night before mercilessly screwing him over. ‘Pat’ he’d said his name was, but surely that was not his real name.

Janus sighed and scratched the cat’s ear. “He certainly wasn’t an amateur,” Janus mused to the cat. “With that amount of precision to get in before we did, he must have someone not on the ground feeding him information. Perhaps more than one.” He was part of a group of time traveling thieves perhaps or something worse. “I didn’t get a good look at his face since he was wearing a mask,” Janus said, “but I spent a lot of time with him, and I’m sure Remy swiped the mask from the police since it had been on me when I was arrested. It’s a good lead.”

He continued to pet Diesel Fuel. Eventually, Remus came back in, noticed Janus hadn’t bothered to get the alcohol and went outside to the cellar. “I’m going to find him,” Janus told Diesel Fuel. “I’ll stop whatever it is he’s doing, and I’ll bring him in.” Diesel Fuel mewed her support, and Janus patted her on top of the head.

Remus came back in with the bottle of vodka and handed it to him without a word. He sat down on the couch near Janus’s feet and patted his lap so Diesel Fuel would come over to him and allow Janus to sit up.

The bastard waited until he was approximately 3 shots in (he didn’t have a shot glass and was just taking drinks from the bottle) to ask the questions Janus really didn’t want to answer. “Are you mad at Emile?” Remus asked.

Janus groaned, trying to wash out the bitter taste of shame and grief with the sharp sting of vodka. It didn’t work. “No,” he said to Remus.

“Then why have you been avoiding him?”

“Shit, I’m here because I didn’t want to think about it. Can’t we just not.”

“Don’t want to think about what?

“It’s none of your business, Remus.”

He could feel Remus frowning at him, but Janus stared resolutely ahead. At least, he did until a foot poked his face. He slapped it away, but it did the job of getting Janus to look at Remus.

“It is my business,” Remus said, foot still in the air. “I’m your partner and your friend.”

“If I’m your friend, you’ll drop it.”

“So, you’re not mad at Emile,” Remus continued, contemplatively. “Did you do something to him, then?” Janus bit his lip and looked away. “What?” Remus asked. Janus didn’t respond. “Look, I’m sure he’ll forgive you for whatever it is. He’s a good guy. Just talk to him about it.”

“I can’t,” Janus said.

“Whatever it is, it’s probably been long enough that he forgives you. You literally just have to have a conversation, say you’re sorry, and everything will be A-OK.”

“I can’t,” Janus repeated.

“Why not?”

“He doesn’t know about it.”

Remus paused. “So, as far as he knows, you just cut contact with him all of a sudden for no reason and have been avoiding him ever since?”

Janus looked at his shoes. “Yeah.”

“That…” Remus said, “is not fucking fair Janus.”

“I know.”

“Then why the hell are you doing that to him? He’s like… soft and feeling-y. He’s probably really upset.”

“I know, Remus.”

“Tell him. Whatever it is.”

“I can’t.”

“Look,” Remus said. “You tell him and he either forgives you or he doesn’t. If he does, everything’s fine. If he doesn’t… well, it’s not like it would be any different from you two never being in the same room the last few years. Either way, you can’t just do this to him. He’ll probably forgive you. He’s your brother. Brothers don’t… brothers would forgive each other.”

Janus laughed softly and met Remus’s eyes. “That’s the problem,” he said. “He’d definitely forgive me.” He turned away and opened the vodka bottle again. “Now, if you’ll shut up for a few minutes, I’m going to drink until I black out.��

Chapter 6

“Really, Khalid,” Janus said, storming into his boss’s office. “A yellow?” It had been about a week since the 1920s incident, and his incident report had finally been cleared. Sure, it wasn’t a red or a black and he wasn’t facing any reprimand, but it should have been a green.

She looked up at him, clearly unconcerned. “There was an incident,” she said. “You handled it well, but there was one. Therefore, yellow.”

“It wasn’t a time travel incident! It was a rouge time traveler.”

“Janus, you helped me make these rules,” she said impatiently.

“Which is why I know this is bullshit,” he snapped.

She rolled her eyes. “If it was anyone else, you would agree with me. While you didn’t go against protocol and had no time related incidents, the fact of the matter is, you were still distracted by this ‘rouge time traveler,’ didn’t complete your mission, and were arrested.”

“He was good,” Janus said. “You can’t fault me for that. He also could be dangerous and you’re busy handing out yellows instead of working to track him down.”

She raised an eyebrow. “We are working on tracking him down,” she said. “We have done an analysis on the mask and found fibers dating to the 2010s and some DNA. Though it isn’t exactly a high priority.”

“We have no idea who he is or what he’s planning to do. Why is that not a high priority thing?”

“At the moment?” she asked. “Because we have reports of a time bomb being activated.”

“What?” Janus asked sitting up. “When?”

“New Years Eve going into the year 3,000 in Brazil,” she said. “Which you’d know about if you’d bothered to check your integration port this morning before storming into my office.”

“It’s my mission?” Janus asked.

“The incident investigation is over and your active again despite the dreaded yellow,” she said, clearly making fun of him a bit. “So, yes, and it’s a high priority mission, so I’ll be running it.”

“Who all is going?” he asked.

“Other than the two of us, Remus, Lena, and Fred,” she told him. “We leave in three hours, so, you might want to run off to Rhi before Fred gets to her and ties her up for an hour on details.”

Janus nodded and got to his feet. He turned back at the door. “I still don’t deserve the yellow,” he hissed.

She waved him off. “I’ll see you in a few hours, Picani.”

He ground his teeth a bit about the dismissal of his worries, but his resentment was slightly soothed by the fact that she’d assigned him to go on such a high priority mission and with only senior agents.

He took the advice and grabbed Remus from the office, noting Lena hadn’t been able to wrangle Fred yet as she was still at her desk, and they both headed off to see Rhi.

A few hours later, they were all in decontamination together, decked out in truly god-awful costumes. The turn of the third millennia had been a wild event, and the best way to fit in was to look like you’d grabbed something from every century in recorded human history, dyed it in neon paint, and rolled around in a vat of glitter.

Remus had opted to stick his head in a vat of glow in the dark green paint that costuming had offered them, and it wasn’t even going to be slightly disruptive to their covertness.

In fact, costuming had frowned when Janus had insisted he not get his hair dyed and instead wore a bowler hat. They had required him to have flowers made out of glitter on it.

There were five people waiting for them when they landed 6 hours before the turn of the millennia. Three were touchdown agents, including Remy, and two were on location tech support. Usually it would be overkill to have that many people there just for support even with five agents in the field, but today the TPI needed to be cautious because they were planning on instituting a time lock.

Time bombs were dangerous things that would ripple through time if not contained. Even if it did end up going off (killing everyone in its reach), the time lock would serve to prevent most damage outside of the city and, more importantly, the year it was planted.

Janus had only been in two time locks before, and he was one of the most senior agents in the TPI, outranked only by the founder: Lia Khalid. Time locks were designed to keep all time linear in a certain fixed time and geographical area as well as prevent any time travel in and out. Once it was engaged, all forms of time travel would not work for the duration, bar the pin device. Khalid was already switching out her regular timepiece with the slightly bigger one that was designed to support the time lock.

There was a failsafe back at the TPI that could be engaged in an emergency, which was why tech support was here, but other than that, the only thing that could break the time lock was that timepiece, and it would break the moment the time lock ended.

As soon as it was on Khalid’s wrist, she looked up at them all. “Our information says the time bomb was planted in the costume of one of the ‘Millennium Birds’ who are the organizers of the different events,” she said. Janus had seen a photo of the identical costumes in the mission details. They were all robe like garments with giant fans of feathers coming from the neck that coalesced in a peak a foot above their head to hold a fake bird egg. At least they’d be easy to find. “There are 25 of them throughout the city. We need to find each of them. So, we don’t double count, you’ll need to subtly,” her eyes touched on Remus, “scan each one you find for the bomb and tag them with a tracker if it’s not on them. You can view the already tagged ones, as well as the rest of us on your timepiece even once the time lock is engaged. When you find the bomb, call it in.”

They all nodded, and Khalid looked over at one of the techies. She nodded at her and then the techie flipped a couple of switches. “Three, two, one,” the techie said. There was a slight shift in the air that most people would disregard, but Janus as a seasoned time traveler could feel the change even before his wrist buzzed. He glanced at his timepiece to see it had a big red ‘X’ across its display. He tapped it and was still able to bring up the map of the city with 10 green dots on it all clustered together in their current location.

After that, he tested the scanner on his timepiece that he would use to search for the bomb, just to make sure the time lock hadn’t messed anything up with his equipment. He glanced up to see everyone else was doing the same.

“Keep in contact,” Khalid said before everyone split up. Janus and Remus started by going North while Fredrick and Darlene were to go South. Khalid was a floater who would tag any Birds she saw but was mostly there for backup and orders.

Janus and Remus stepped into the chaos of New Years Eve before the turn of the third millennia. The streets were already swamped with people and it would only be getting worse the later it go.

“Where should we start?” Remus asked.

“Let’s go all the way North to the games area,” Janus said. “We can work our way back here.”

“Okay!” Remus said. “I wonder if they have those fun little genetically modified goldfish as prizes. I’ve always wanted to eat one and see if I end up getting whatever design was on the fish on my body.”

Janus gave him a disgusted look.

“What?! People eat fish all the time!”

Janus shook his head. “We’re not playing the games anyway. We have work to do. Important work.”

“Boo,” Remus replied. Janus chose to ignore him as he spotted one of the Millenia Birds letting people into the gaming area.

They walked over towards the entrance. Janus got in range first and moved to subtly scan the Millenia Bird, Remus doing the same the next moment. After a second, Janus’s timepiece buzzed and lit up red, meaning the bomb was within range. “Well, that was easy,” he said. “It was on the first one we found.”

“Uh…” Remus said. “Jan.” When Janus looked, he was holding up his wrist to show his green lit time piece.

“What?” Janus asked. He quickly moved to rescan the Millenia Bird, and his timepiece came up green as well. Which, meant the bomb was not in range, even though the Millenia Bird had not moved. “But…” He and Remus’s eyes met, and they quickly both started turning in a circle to look at the crowd around him. No one looked like they’d just stolen a time bomb off the Millennial Bird, but then Janus’s eyes caught on a man. He blended in perfectly to his surroundings. He was wearing the disgusting garb of the times, a large light blue piece that bubbled near his hips, and had most of his skin covered in rainbow neon paints. Yet, something about him, the curl of his hair or the way he moved, drew Janus’s eyes to him. He recognized the man immediately even in a completely different dressing style. Yet, what cinched it was the moment Janus’s eyes met his and they seemed to sparkle slightly in the afternoon sun. The next moment, the person Janus knew as Pat, turned to disappear into the crowd.

Chapter 7

“Him,” was the only thing Janus said before taking off after the figure who had just disappeared into the game area.

“What?” Remus’s voice followed after him. “Janus! What?!”

Janus did not pause, just continuing to run after Pat, hopping over two barricades as a shortcut. Janus cursed when he lost sight of the man for just a moment near the prize table filled with colorful goldfish, but he was able to spot him once again walking into one of the tents. Janus blasted into the tent. It was a game where they raced rats, and when Janus entered, Pat was cooing at one of them.

“Who’s a tiny little squishy precious baby?” he was asking one of them, wiggling his pointer finger at it.

“You,” Janus growled stepping up to him.

He turned and tilted his head at Janus with a frown. “Um, me?” he asked, pointing to his chest, all sorts of innocent, but Janus could see a spot of hidden amusement in his eyes.

“Where is it?”

His eyebrows drew together, but it was an act. It was clearly an act! “Where is what?”

“The…” he glanced around them at the people surrounding them. “Thing you just took.”

“I didn’t take anything,” Pat said with a frown.

“Oh, no,” Janus said. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fooling me twice is not an option.”

“I’m sorry sir,” Pat said. “I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Bull. Shit.”

Just then, Remus jogged into the tent. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“It’s him,” Janus said pointing. “He took it. He has it.”

“I… don’t know what you’re talking about,” Patton said. He looked over to Remus with a confused frown.

Remus looked at Janus. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” Janus said. “It’s him. It has to be him. He’s the mask guy.”

Remus squinted at Pat. “He is?”

“Whoever you think I am, I’m not. I haven’t worn a mask all night. I just did the face paint,” he pointed to his cheeks.

Remus raised his wrist and his timepiece lit up green. He looked at Janus.

“I lost sight of him for five seconds. He must have stashed it somewhere,” Janus said. He turned on Pat. “Where did you put it?”

“…Are you,” Pat asked, his eyes going back and forth between Janus and Remus, “… the police?”

“We are, actually,” Khalid said as she stepped into the tent. Remus must have called her. She inserted herself between Janus and Pat. “Agent Khalid,” she said, offering a hand with a smile. Pat looked at it in surprise and then smiled back hesitantly as he took it. “Apologizes, one of the big game prizes was stolen by someone matching your description. Would you mind coming down to security for questioning? Just to clear it up.”

“Oh,” Patton said, hesitant. Janus expected him to refuse outright, but then he said. “Uh, sure.”

“Thank you very much, Mr…”

“Jonas,” Pat told her earnestly. “Do I need to be handcuffed?”

“No,” Khalid said. Janus frowned at her, but she ignored him. “It’s just a talk for now.” She gestured to the tent entrance. “Come with us.”

He did without argument, and Remus and Janus followed behind the both of them. Khalid did not lead them back to the base, but to a little spot that said “security” near the center of the event. Remy was already there waiting for them at a desk.

“Remy, would you please take Mr. Jonas to go sit down?” she asked.

“Sure, boss,” Remy said, standing up. He led Pat away.

Khalid turned to Janus and Remus once they were out of earshot. “What is going on?”

“It’s the mask man,” Janus said, “the one from 1923, and my scanner said the time bomb was on the Millenia Bird outside the games entrance, but then it was gone the next second, and I saw him, and then he ran away.”

“So, does he have it on him?”

“No. I lost sight of him, and he must have stored it somewhere, but I know he took it.”

10264

“He’s the man from 1923?” she asked.

“Yes! Remus, that’s him, right? You recognize him.”

“Well,” Remus said thoughtfully. “He was in a mask, and it was dark in the room with the necklace. Other than that, I only really saw his back, and he was wearing pants. Mr. Jonas is wearing a dress, so I can’t really tell if their asses match.”

“Okay, but I was with him for hours. I swear it’s him, and I swear he took it,” Janus just about shouted.

“We’ll question him,” Khalid placated, “and Fred and Lena will keep looking in the meantime.”

“He knows where it is,” Janus insisted. “I swear.”

“Okay,” Khalid said, before leaving to follow where Remy and Pat had gone. She stopped Janus with a hand on his shoulder. “I think Remus and I will do the interrogation.” He opened his mouth to argue. “You know the most about him, so observe from the sidelines and see if he makes any mistakes that indicate you’re right.”

“That’s just to placate me and you know it.”

“Observation’s over there,” she said pointing.

He got a thumbs up from Remus as he walked by, and Janus glared at his back before walking off to the indicated location.

He watched as Remus and Khalid entered the room, and Remy left it. Remy joined him in the observation room after leaving and leaned against the wall.

Pat was sitting at a table and watched Remus and Khalid with that same rubbish placid confusion that he had before. “So,” Khalid said, “Mr. Jonas.”

“You can call me Nick,” Pat interrupted.

“Lia,” Khalid replied. He smiled at her happily. “So, are you enjoying your day?” she asked.

“I am!” he replied. “It’s a big day. You only get to see the turn of a millennia once in your life.”

“Ah, yes,” Khalid said. “Doing anything special for it?”

“Um, not really,” he said. “Other than the party. I’m going to meet up with my roommates after dinner. Kevin doesn’t like this sort of thing, and Joe couldn’t come.”

“Your roommates,” Khalid said, considering him. “Do you live around here?”

“Uh huh,” Pat replied.

“Do you have any ID?”

“I do, want me to get it?”

“If you wouldn’t mind.”

Pat unzipped one of the bubbles on his waist and handed her a chip. “Remus, would you mind going out and getting the ID scanner?” she asked, even though her timepiece would be able to read it.

“Ah, shit,” Remy said. “Props. What do those things even look like?”

As Remy scrambled to find something that would pass for an ID reader so “Nick” didn’t get suspicious of Khalid using her timepiece, Janus watched the two alone in the room like a hawk.

“I see you’re wearing a dress inspired by the 2770s,” Khalid noted, as Remus came to stand next to him.

“Yeah!” Pat replied. “Joe made it for me. He’s really good at fashion design!”

“Can I see?” she asked.

With a happy smile, he reached over the table to let her get a look of the sleeves. Janus saw her subtly scan the fabric, probably to make sure it was from the 2990s and not actually from the 2770s. Considering she didn’t mention it, Janus assumed it checked out.

Remy came back with some sort of device then and handed it to Remus who saluted and wandered back into the interrogation room. Khalid pretended to scan the ID in her hand. She handed it back to him without comment. “So, you said you live with your roommates: Joe and Kevin?” she asked.

“Yep!” he replied. “We’re practically like brothers.”

“Would you mind calling them?”

“Erm,” he titled his head like he was confused by the question. “Well, like I said, Joe is a bit busy, but I could definitely call Kevin.

“Here,” Khalid said, “use my phone.”

“I have my own,” he said with a frown.

“Humor me,” she requested.

“Uh, okay,” Pat agreed. He took the offered 2999 phone and dialed a number on it. Khalid reached over to put it on speaker.

“Hello?” a voice asked after a few seconds.

“Um, hey Kevin, it’s Nick.”

There was a sigh on the other end. “Hello Nick, is something wrong? Why are you calling me from someone else’s phone?”

“I’m fine, I think.” He looked up at Khalid. “Why am I calling him exactly?”

“Hello, I’m Officer Khalid,” Khalid said. “I just wanted to confirm that you are Nick Jonas’s roommate, and he does live in Manaus.”

“Yes, we live together with our other roommate,” the man replied flippantly. “Officer? Is something wrong?”

“I believe there was just a case of mistaken identity,” Khalid said.

“Bullshit there was!” Janus hissed, though she could not hear him.

“No need to worry,” Khalid continued.

“I’m good Kevin,” Pat said.

“Are you absolutely sure?” Kevin asked.

“Don’t be Paranoid, Kevin. I’ll see you Tonight for the New Years Celebration. You know I Live to Party.”

“I am hanging up now,” Kevin said.

“No! Comeback.” The line went dead. Pat handed the device back to Khalid.

She took it and smiled at him. “Give us just a couple of minutes,” she requested. He nodded easily, and she and Remus exited the interrogation room. “I… think we’re done here,” Khalid said.

“No, he’s lying,” Janus insisted, and got a dubious look in return. “I know he is! Remus!”

“The alibi is pretty solid…” Remus said, “and he doesn’t have the bomb on him.”

“Oh, come on,” Janus said. “You can’t say there is nothing fishy going on here.”

Khalid and Remus shared a look. “Janus,” Khalid said. “I respect your intuition. It is usually very good, but you have been a bit intense about the man from the 1920s, and I think that may be blinding you a bit...”

“I am not imagining this!” Janus said. “That’s him and he took it.”

“You only met him once while he was wearing a mask,” Khalid pointed out with a frown, “and you didn’t see him take the bomb, did you?”

“No, but he looked at me and I knew,” Janus argued. They both gave him a skeptical look. “Oh, come on!”

“You know that’s a little weak, Jan,” Remus said.

“Let me talk to him,” Janus requested. “Just give me five minutes to talk with him.”

Khalid raised one eyebrow. “Fine,” she agreed. “You have five minutes, but after that, you have to let it go. We can’t waste any more time.”

Chapter 8

Pat looked up as Janus stepped into the interrogation room. “Hi,” he said with an innocent smile that could cut steal.

Janus didn’t say a word as he took a seat; he just watched him intently. He leaned slightly over the table and steepled his fingers in front of his chin. “So, your name is Nick this time?” Janus asked.

“Nicholas Jonas,” he said. “Always has been.”

“Stop it,” Janus said.

“Stop what?”

“Cut the crap. I know.”

Pat leaned forward, mirroring Janus as he leaned closer, interlocking his fingers and laying his chin on top of his knuckles. “What did you say your name was again?” he asked, pleasantly.

“Janus,” Janus replied.

“No, I’m Jonas,” he said, pointing to his chest.

“Not Jonas,” Janus spat. “Janus.”

“Um,” Pat said, eyes alight with amusement. The bastard. “Those are the same words.”

“No, they’re not. It’s Janus. J-A-N-U.-S.”

“Well, that’s confusing,” Pat said with a frown, but his nose was crinkling. “It’s close to my name. You should go by a nickname instead.”

“What?” Janus said. “No.”

Pat hummed. “How about Love Bug?”

“What! No!” Janus sputtered, almost flipping the table, as Pat winked at him.

“BB Good?”

“What does that even mean?!”

“Mandy.”

“No!”

“Okay, okay, how about Macy Misa.”

11594

Janus stared at him for a moment. “Fine. Whatever. What was I even talking about?”

“Hmm. I Believe we were talking about my name and how you think it’s not my name.”

“Right,” Janus said. “So, Nick. That was your roommate, Kevin on the phone, right? He seemed a bit unhappy with you. Any reason?”

“Nah, we’re Cool” said Pat. “That’s Just the Way We Roll.”

“Not because you’re messing up a mission right now?”

Pat’s eyes crinkled together. “A mission?” he parroted. “I’m not messing up a mission.”

“Oh, really?” Janus growled. “Because you’ve been captured by the TPI, and I know who you are and what you’ve been doing.”

“I have no idea what the TPI is,” he claimed.

“Yes, you do!” Janus said, standing up. “You obviously do! Or you wouldn’t be playing this game!”

“Game?” Pat asked. “Macy I ask you what you’re talking about.”

“This is all just a game to you isn’t it!” Janus said, slamming his hands down on the table in front of them.

“Whoa,” Pat said, putting his hands up. “Calm down. Your face is getting all red. You must be Burnin’ Up.”

“I’m not sure what, but something about what you just said pisses me off.”

“And that is five minutes,” Khalid said, bursting into the room. He felt a tug on the back of his shirt and glared back at Remus who was putting his own body between Janus and Pat.

“There was no way that was five minutes,” Janus growled.

“It was five minutes,” Khalid gritted out. “Remus, get him out of here.”

“Come on Jay,” Remus said, dragging him back towards the door.

“Remus, I swear to god.”

“Just chill, Janus,” Remus said, slamming the door closed behind them.

Janus shrugged him off. “You chill!” he snapped. “He’s playing you all for the fool.”

“Wow, Macy,” Remy drawled like an asshole. “I’ve never seen you so fired up.”

“Oh, my gosh. No one is going to believe me, and he’s going to get away with this.”

“You’re not really helping your case, babe,” Remy said.

Remus grabbed him by the shoulders again. “Here, let’s go get some water.”

“I don’t want water,” he said even as he let Remus lead him to another room to get a glass of water.

“Look,” Remus said. “I know the Mask Guy thing really sucked, but you have to look at the facts.

“I am looking at the facts,” Janus insisted, “and the facts are, he’s fucking with me.”

“You don’t know what mask guy looks like,” Remus said. “You didn’t see Nick take the time bomb, he has an ID from this time period and a roommate in this time he called on the phone, and he legitimately seems to not know what any of us are talking about.”

“Did you even listen to our conversation?” Janus asked. “He was screwing with me the entire time!”

“Janus…” Remus said.

“What?” Janus said, narrowing his eyes at Remus’s tone.

“I know you recently had a bad experience, but not everyone who flirts with you is doing it out of evil.”

Janus’s mouth hung open for a few seconds. “That’s what you got out of our conversation?”

“He called you Love Bug.”

Janus felt his face heat a bit at the reminder. “That’s not… I. I’m stealing your cat and then never speaking to you again.”

Remus laughed. “Ah,” he said. “Young lust.”

Janus elbowed him roughly in the side. “No!”

“Yes!” he crooned, pleased.

“You are the worst partner,” Janus hissed. “When I’m right you owe me 10 loafs of your fresh bread.”

“Branching out from poptarts?” Remus asked.

Janus shook his head. He still wasn’t happy about the state of things, but he could feel himself cooling down a bit.

Khalid came out of the integration room after a few minutes, leaving Pat with Remy. “What was that?” she asked him.

“He got under my skin,” Janus said.

“We’ll talk about it later,” she said. “For now, we’re letting him go and then going back to looking for the bomb like we’re meant to be.”

“Fine,” Janus relented. “Just do me the favor of tagging him before he leaves. Just that. I beg of you.”

“Sure,” she agreed. “If it will calm you down.”

He nodded.

“Then, let’s go,” she said. When they met back up with Remy and Pat, he saw Khalid make the subtle gesture that would tag Pat like they would have for the Millennium Birds. Pat sent him what could pass as a sweet smile if Janus didn’t know better. Then, they walked him outside, leaving Remy on clean-up duty for the make-shift security office.

“So, I’m free to go?” Pat asked. His bemused expression edged far too much on the side of amused verses confused for Janus’s taste.

“You are,” Khalid said. “Have fun at the festivities.”

His hands went flapping about. “Oh, you too!” he said. “Well, I guess you’re working, but you can have fun anyway, I’m sure.”

“We’ll do our best,” she said.

He gave her a blinding smile and reached forward to shake her hand enthusiastically. Janus rolled his eyes and looked up at the heavens. “It was nice to meet you!” he said, “and you too, Remus!” He turned to meet Janus’s eyes. “Macy Misa.”

Janus pressed his lips together.

Then, Pat turned and walked away.

“Well, now that we’re done with that,” Khalid said, turning to them. “We have only a few more hours before midnight and we really need to find the time bomb.

“Oh,” Pat called. He’d paused a few yards away and turned back to them. “Thanks for letting me go so easily by the way,” he said, “and just in the Nick,” he winked, “of time too.” Janus narrowed his eyes at him. He smiled back. “Wrist check,” he said holding up his arm to show off the timepiece there. Khalid immediately looked down at her own wrist just to see that the one timepiece that could move through the time lock was no longer there. Pat made a gesture and disappeared.

All three of them stared at the spot he’d been for a long moment.

Janus was the one to speak first. “I want. The yellow. To be erased. From my record.”

Chapter 9

Khalid immediately called everyone back to base.

“What happened?” asked Fred when he and Lena arrived. The tech people were already scrambling to get through to the TPI and get the time lock broken from the outside.

“Remus, Remy, and Khalid got played by Pat or whatever his name is. It certainly isn’t Nick. He was just setting up a joke,” Janus told him.

“Stop being smug,” Remy said. “It’s not a good look for you.”

“Pat is…?” Lena asked.

“They guy who fucked me over in 1923,” Janus said, “and is currently in the middle of fucking us all over because he stole the pin timepiece, and by extrapolation, probably the time bomb too.”

“It will be fine,” said Khalid, “because what he doesn’t know is that timepiece has a tracker on it. Wherever and whenever he went, we’ll have his coordinates.”

“Speaking of,” one of the techies said. “It’s about to break. You might want to hold onto something.” Janus grabbed for a support beam next to him as the techie put a device on the ground in the center of the base. It blinked once, twice, and on the third blink the ground rumbled. There were sounds of panicked yelps outside. The fail safe for the time lock was not nearly as gentle as ending it correctly.

Everything settled after a few moments, and they all straightened themselves out. Janus’s timepiece buzzed to indicate it was now functioning normally. Khalid had returned her usual timepiece to her wrist and now used it to open a display they could all see. “The pin timepiece’s closest time/space coordinates are…” she trailed off. “Right outside?” She frowned. “That’s strange. Why would he still be here?” She turned to march outside, following the coordinates to a trash can. She pulled the pin timepiece out and stared at it. “Fuck,” she said.

“What just happened?” Remy asked.

“He ticked us,” Janus said. “Again.”

“He was stuck in the time lock,” Khalid said. “That’s why he got our attention. He couldn’t leave with the time bomb unless he had the pin timepiece or we broke the time lock. Apparently, he’s smart enough to know that if he took the pin timepiece away from here, we’d probably be able to find him, but he knew we’d break the lock as soon as the pin went missing. So, he must have stashed his own timepiece and went back in time within the time lock to grab it while we were distracted with the past version of him. As soon as the time lock went down, I imagine he left.”

“Probably with the time bomb,” Janus said.

“Probably with the time bomb,” she confirmed.

And everyone knew the only thing worse than a time bomb was a time bomb you didn’t know the location of.

They evacuated after that, of course, and time locked the location once they were out just in case they were wrong, but midnight 3000 struck without thousands of people dying in Brazil, so the time bomb had defiantly been removed from then.

The, they initiated a time travel lockdown for all nonessentials, not willing to let random history students get caught up in an explosion if Pat decided to set the thing off somewhere.

Then, it was a matter of figuring out everything they could about ‘Pat.’ First, they checked the tracker data as Khalid had tagged him with one of the Millennium Bird trackers. It wouldn’t work outside of the zone they’d set up that day, but the record would show his behavior during the time lock after he’d escaped with the pin timepiece.

There had been many little green dots on the map that day as Fred and Lena had actually been doing the job they’d set out to do, but most of those were running around in the south. There had been one green dot, however, that appeared suddenly in the game area about 10 minutes before the time bomb had been stolen.

They could see Janus’s yellow dot almost brush his when he’d been chasing the earlier Pat down, around when he’d lost him briefly. The earlier Pat must have all but handed it off to his future self.

“He doubled back,” Remus commented when they watched the recorded data. It was a ballsy move and one that most people balked at, because there were inherent dangers any time you interacted with yourself from a different point in the timestream. It was ripe for paradoxes. It made everyone at the agency even more worried, because if he was willing to risk that, then what else was he willing to do?

Because of the lockdown of all nonessential time travel, people working for the TPI were not allowed to go home for the night. They were allowed to pick up anyone or anything dependent on them for care like kids and pets if there wasn’t someone in their home time to care for them, but other than that, they were unfortunately all sleeping in their offices for the foreseeable future.

“You are the only tolerable one,” Janus told the cat who upon being let loose in the office by Remus, immediately jumped on Janus’s lap.

“I have literally done nothing to you,” Lena said, but then added. “Yet.”

“You exist. In my space.”

“Can’t we just all get along?” asked Fred. “It’s only been an hour past when we’d usually go home. I went and grabbed milk and I have my giant thing of different flavored hot chocolate under my desk. We can try them all and vote on which is better.”

“Fuck your hot chocolate, Fred,” Janus growled, having been one of the three who had chipped in to buy it for him on his last birthday.

“Don’t go after Fred, jackass,” Lena spat.

“He’s just testy because his boyfriend escaped,” Remus contributed.

Janus’s lips turned down into a frown and he cupped Diesel Fuel’s face. “We agree we’re eating him first, right?” he asked her.

She purred her agreement.

“I’d have it no other way,” Remus replied.

“There is plenty of food,” Fred said, sounding stressed. “In fact, I was thinking we should all chip in on ordering take-out soon. “What does everyone like on pizza?”

“This is not a slumber party, Fred,” Janus pointed out.

“Shut it,” Lena snapped and turned to Fred. “I’m fine with almost everything, except…”

“Bananas and tuna salad!” Remus interrupted.

“…whatever Remus is about to say.”

Janus rolled his eyes as that started a debate about whether or not fruit and/or fish belonged on pizza. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, which was when there was a knock on the door.

He froze when he heard the familiar voice. “Hello, hello,” said Emile, cheerfully. Janus looked up to see Emile standing at the open office door. Shit. Apparently, the man had decided to give up on sending lackeys to come fetch him and had decided to track him down himself when Janus couldn’t even escape without breaking a time lockdown. They met eyes briefly and Janus could see irritation if not anger in his eyes despite his otherwise cheerful expression and tone.

“Janus,” he said when he’d gotten their attention. “I’d like to have dinner with you.” The word choice told Janus everything he needed to know. Usually Emile was careful with how he said things to make sure people knew they had a choice. Typically he’d say something like, “I was wondering if you’d have time to have dinner with me tonight,” or “I’m about to go get food, would you like to come?” Today, there was no choice in the statement.

Janus still dried to dodge anyway. “Uh,” he said. “We were actually about to order pizza.”

“Go ahead,” said Fred kindly. Janus wanted to strangle him. “We can order pizza with olives if you’re not here.”

“I…” said Janus. “Guess, I’ll be going with you.”

“Great!” Emile said. “Let’s go.”

“Oh,” Janus said. “Uh, now?”

“Now,” Emile said a bit of uncharacteristic steel to his tone.

Well, Janus was screwed. He swallowed his nervousness and got to his feet, taking Diesel Fuel with him. He turned to hand her off to Remus with a plea in his eye, but he just got an eyebrow raise in return. Traitor.

Then, he followed Emile out of the office door. “What would you like to eat?” asked Emile.

“Uh,” Janus said. “I don’t know. You asked me to eat, don’t you have any ideas?”

“I don’t actually,” Emile replied. Right.

“…Noddle Bar?” Janus threw out the nearest restaurant he knew.

“The one noodle restaurant? Sure,” Emile answered simply. They walked side by side out of the front doors of the TPI building. Janus actually couldn’t remember the last time he’d taken these stairs. He usually used his timepiece to get in and out.

The noodle bar was only moderately busy at this time. They were quickly able to find a table near the back and Emile pulled his menu up in front of him. Emile hummed as he flipped through the different displays. “What are you having?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Janus said, only then pulling up the menu himself, but still not quite looking at it.

“What about the fortune noodles,” Emile suggested.

Janus shook his head. “I don’t like those,” he said.

Emile glanced at him through the menu displays. “You used to.” Fortune noodles were a bit cheekily named. They didn’t actually indicate anything about your future. They were just supposed to taste like what you wanted from your future. A grad student might experience a feeling like they’d just aced a paper. A child that they got to stay up an hour later that night. Janus had liked the experience when he was younger, but in recent years, he’d begun to taste the underlying chemicals in the dish until that’s all he could.

“Well,” Emile said lightly, eyes on his menu. “That makes me even more worried for your mental health than I already was because of the almost three years of you avoiding talking to me.”

“No small talk, huh?” Janus asked.

“Forgive me,” Emile said, eyes now focused on Janus, and tone much darker. “How has your life been since I last saw your face 5 months ago during a business meeting and you refused to look me in the eye? Anything interesting happen? Shave your head and let it all regrow? Develop an allergy to peanuts? Join a convent and take an oath of silence that you only just broke today?”

“No,” said Janus quietly into the table.

“Great,” Emile said clipped. “Small talk over. Order your food.” Janus reached up blindly to select the first thing that came up on the food and drink menu as Emile punched something into his own and both menu displays disappeared, meaning there was nothing between their faces anymore. “You know, I was willing to give you a year,” Emile said. “I was willing to let you deal with it on your own because I thought eventually, you’d come talk to me about it, but apparently I was mistaken. The next year, I thought maybe you thought I didn’t want to talk to you, so I subtly made myself available, and you never took me up on the offer. I thought maybe I was just not being clear, and I should make my desire to talk to you more explicit, but as you have been routinely, clearly avoiding me at every single turn, I’ve decided I’ve had enough. So, let’s lay it all on the table. Is it me or do you need help?”

Janus closed his eyes. “It’s not you.”

“Then you need help,” Emile concluded.

Janus shook his head.

“Yes,” Emile snapped. “Whatever this is has gone on far too long.”

Janus stood up and slammed his hand down on the table. “And it’s going to keep going on!” he said. The food popped up at that moment. It appeared Janus had ordered lasagna and bubble tea, and Emile had ordered something with spaghetti and a fizzy drink.

“So, you’re just planning to go on being miserable then?” Emile asked, and Janus wasn’t sure if it was worse or better that he didn’t sound angry anymore.

14656

Janus slapped his hand down on the “To Go” button and his dinner was insta-wrapped by the table. “Yes,” he said.

“What exactly do you think you’re paying penance for, Janus?” Emile asked.

“You wouldn’t understand,” Janus said, paying for both of their meals with his fingerprint.

“That’s a cop out and you know it,” Emile said. “All you’d have to do is talk to me. Or even just talk to someone else. Please.”

“Just…” Janus said, grabbing his bag of food to avoid looking at him. “Just, leave me be.” He walked out of the noodle shop without another word.

Chapter 10

“And I thought Remus was going to be the most disgusting roommate in this equation,” Lena grumbled. Janus and Lena were apparently the earlier risers in the group as Fred was still curled up around a pillow and Remus was sprawled out under his desk.

Janus flipped her off.

“Protein infused Poptarts and caffeinated orange juice for breakfast?” she asked. “Just eat an energy bar and have a cup of coffee like a normal person.”

He took another pointed bite of his Poptart.

“You’re a horrible roommate. This is why they gave us different partners.”

“Yeah, well you snore, asshole,” Janus said after finishing off his meal.

“I’d tell you to go eat shit, but you already did that once this morning.”

A pillow flew across the room and somehow managed to hit the both of them. “S’op fighting,” Fred mumbled. “It’s sleep time.”

“It’s morning Fred,” Lena said.

“No,” Fred mumbled.

Janus ignored them, turning back to his integration port to continue to keep plugging in phrases of interest, but he kept getting nothing.

“What are you doing?” Lena asked after a few moments of him huffing at his screen reader.

“Trying to do anything that may change our current living arrangements.”

She puffed out an amused breath. “Can I help?”

“Can you see any connection between these words and phrases?” he asked, pulling away his screen reader and tapping at the words he’d typed out.

“Paranoid, tonight, I live to party, comeback, love Bug, BB good, Mandy, Macy Misa, I believe, cool, that’s just the way we roll, burnin’ up,” she said. “What are these?”

“They’re things Pat said when we interrogated that struck me funny,” Janus explained. “I feel like he was saying something more than what he said.”

“Hmm,” she said. “PTI for the first three?”

“Maybe,” Janus agreed, “but what about the rest of it? I feel like I’m missing something.”

15080

“Millennia,” Remus mumbled from under his desk. Janus hadn’t been aware he was awake. “He said something something about it being the only time he could see the change of the millennia.” He turned his head to look at Janus. “Considering he’s a time traveler, that’s definitely a weird thing to say.”

“Millennia,” Janus contemplated. “A different turn of the millennia. Oh no.”

“What?” Lena asked.

Janus sighed, and rubbed his temple. “I know someone who studied the 1700-2200s.”

“Isn’t that good?”

“No,” Janus groaned, “because now I have to go talk to him.” He stood with a sigh and then paused. “How do I even get to Silver Mountains University without my timepiece?”

#study break stories #not writing

47 notes · View notes

turning-dreams-into-chaos · 4 years

Text

I’m Here

*Not my Gif*

Post Date: 3-23-20

Word Count: 1.5K

Paring: Peter Parker x Reader

Warnings: Peter’s PTSD from Far from Home, Nightmares

~Master~

~Marvel Master~

It had been only a few days since you and Peter came home from your trip to Europe with your class. Peter had defeated Quinten Beck and he hadn’t left your side since he was reunited with you at the tower bridge. You didn’t mind obviously, wanting to stay with your boyfriend as long as you could. You did however notice the looks Peter gave you every so often, as if you’d disappear if he blinked. When it became a reoccurring event, Peter finally told you about he saw before being hit by the train from Mysterio.

He didn’t look you as you both sat on his bed, leaning against the wall as Peter grabbed your hands tightly. “Beck made me watch you fall. He dangled you off the tower and dropped you and I couldn’t save you. I watched you fall to your death.” He wasn’t crying until his voice cracked, the tears flooding out of his aching brown eyes faster than he could stop.

“Peter…” You whispered as you scooted closer to him on the bed. You rested your hands upon Peter’s shoulders after he threw one of your legs over his, letting you straddle his lap. His arms quickly went around your waist as he tugged you into his embrace. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry that happened to you, baby. But I promise you won’t lose me.” Peter nodded his head as you leaned down to kiss him, feeling him relax and smile against your lips. “Promise me you’ll tell me if something’s bothering you next time?”

“I promise.” He told you as he pressed a kiss to your lips again before grabbing your legs and picking you up. You squealed as you wrapped your arms around his neck and your legs around his waist. The two of you giggled as Peter brought you out to the living room, dropping you on the couch. He was leaning over you as you wiped away his tears with your thumb, letting it linger on his cheek. “Want to watch a movie?”

Peter let you put on your favorite movie after you both changed into something more comfortable. For Peter, that was a pair of Midtown sweats and a one of his T-shirts and for you, it just so happened to also be one of Peter’s shirts, letting the loose article drape to the top of your thighs. He pulled a blanket up on you as you cuddled into his side, burying yourself in the warmth he’s giving.

The rest of the night went much like that, both of you cuddled on the couch as you watched movie after movie until it was late in the evening. May had come home at one point, bringing you both home some sandwiches from Delmar’s and leaving them in the kitchen for when you got hungry. You both thanked her as she passed by, ruffling both of your hairs as you groaned, sharing a look with your boyfriend. His eyes practically sparkled as he looked at you and you felt your cheeks heat up when you rested your head on his shoulder.

You fell asleep an hour later, Peter nodding off soon after you to the sound of the credits rolling on the screen. You stirred awake at some point in the middle of the night. You stomach grumbled as you held back a yawn, rubbing the under of your eyes. Glancing over at Peter, you saw he was still asleep as you lazily smiled, brushing some of his hair out of his face. Your stomach spoke again, reminding you to get some food in it as you sighed, standing to your feet slowly and making your way to the kitchen.

“Help me!” Peter heard you call out. He turned around, seeing a door that definitely wasn’t there before as he busted through it, almost falling off the edge of the Eiffel Tower on the other side. The door he was holding fell and Peter watched it, not seeing it hit the ground from how high up he was. “Peter?” He turned around, seeing you standing right on the edge of the tower, looking at him with wide confused eyes. “What’s going on Pete?” your lip quivered as Peter took a step forward.

“I know this isn’t real.” He spoke to Beck. Mysterio manifested behind you as the moon behind you, his hand grabbing you from the back of your neck as you choked, struggling to gasp for a breath. Your feet left the ground as you were dangled over the side of the tower.

Peter knew this wasn’t real, he knew you weren’t in danger and he knew Beck didn’t actually have you but right now he couldn’t break free from this moment. In this moment, Beck had you and he was going to drop you unless Peter saved you.

“Y/N!” He shouted, reaching out to grab you, but no longer than he reached out did Beck let go of his hold on you, dropping you off the side of the building. Peter heard your screams all the way down as he screamed too, jumping off as if he could’ve caught you.

Peter shot awake, heart pounding with his legs flailing in the blanket as he struggled to kick it off. He eyes were wide open, a slick layer of sweat covering him and making his shirt cling to his body. He ran a hand through his hair before the speed of his heart refused to decrease. He looked to his side, expecting to see your calm E/C eyes staring at him, begging for him to calm down but he didn’t see you. You weren’t there at all. “Y/N?” he croaked out almost silently, feeling his throat tighten as he repeated himself. He knew there was tears falling down his face, but he couldn’t wipe them away, his body felt as if it was paralyzed as all he could do was scream out your name, getting louder each time and the only thing he could think was he lost you.

You had just started to grab the two sandwiches May brought you both earlier as well as some bottles of juice from the fridge when you heard Peter’s small voice from the living room. You peaked out from the fridge door, seeing his head pop out above the couch. You smiled, knowing he was awake but unknown to the thoughts running throughout his head. You let the door close quietly and picked up the food, padding your bare feet back to the couch. You were barely out of the kitchen before Peter practically screamed your name, his voice breaking with a sob as your stomach dropped. You ran the rest of the way, throwing the food on the table before you were in front of Peter. His eyes glossed over you like you weren’t even there, zero focus until your fingers landed on his jaw, pulling him up to look at you.

“Y/N?” His screams were gone now, his words now heavy with a guilt he shouldn’t have as he looked you in the eyes.

“I’m here. Pete, you have to breathe. I’m here and you’re here and we’re fine. Just breathe.” He took a deep breath with a nod of his head as you sat down next to him, keeping his eyes locked on yours. Once you were seated on the couch, Peter let himself collapse on top of you, His head fell into the crook of your neck and his arms gripped around your waist tight. You pulled him to lay down with you across the couch. He laid on top of you as he moved to listen to your heartbeat through his cries, soon dying down to the beat of you living. You ran a hand through his hair, delicately playing with his curls as you held him tight. “We’re fine Peter. I promise.”

May heard Peter’s screams, waking her up in her sleep. She scrambled to get out of bed, ready to defuse the nightmares taking over her nephew. But when she left her room, she saw you there above him, already succeeding in getting him to calm down. She watched for a few more minutes, leaning against the door frame to her room with a cross of her arms as she watched you two. With a smile, she retreated back to her room, hearing Peter mumble something to you under his breath.

Peter was just about asleep again, his hold on you not once loosening but you didn’t mind at all. “I love you.” Peter mumbled as you chuckled softly, seeing the red puffy eyes on Peter close fully before he fell asleep in your arms. You pushed some hair off his face and pressed a tender kiss to his forehead.

“I love you too, Peter.”

A/N: I was trying to sleep last night and then this come out instead of sleep at 3 in the morning. I edited it this morning and now I’m posting it. Tell me what you think please! This literally started as an idea and then turned into a full actual fic... and I know it’s not on my queue list, but oh well!

Permanent: @literal-fand0m-trash @just4muggles @saturn-aka-six @nathaliabakes @whyamihere-bro @colored-confetti @wiseeggspickleslime @btsiguess-kpop @galacticstxrdust @independentgirl @wellhellotherelovey @hollymac79 @delicately-important-trash @emcchi @rauwz @herondalescecilys

Peter: @laic2299 @danielabetancourth @darktwistydiamond @pastelsweaters-and-bubble-t @missmulti

Marvel: @hahaboop @laic2299

#peter parker x reader #peter parker imagine #peter parker #spiderman x reader #spiderman imagine #marvel imagine #marvel #spiderman #spiderman fic #spiderman oneshot #peter parker fic #peter parker oneshot

192 notes · View notes

ohnoyoonoh · 4 years

Text

PREVIEW of PHILIA & EROS

author -; @ohnoyoonoh

genre. au -; highschool au, based on/inspired by the movie. the half of it. coming of age.

pairing -; lee jeno x oc, huang renjun x oc, jeno x oc x renjun, renjun x jeno (ish)

synopsis -; a story of where someone asks a writer to write them a love letter for the girl they like except the writer likes this girl, too. it's an adventure of lessons in friendship and first love with renjun, jeno, and hwayoung in the town of dalgleish, oregon.

author’s note -; sneak peek into my upcoming story with jeno and renjun. i was actually very passionate in this story. this is the first story in a while that will be tagged with networks, yayyy lol lmk if you wanna be part of the taglist

warnings -; love triangle, strong language, minor bullying, whole story includes touches on sexuality, touches on sex but not committed, underage drinking and drug use, mention of minor character death (renjun’s mom), kissing, long ass story lemme tell you that

word count -; (preview) 4.8k and it’s only the beginning

Love. Love certainly comes in different forms. According to C.S. Lewis, there are four types that people focus on: Storge, Philia, Eros, and Agape. Omitting agape as many do not believe in the Christian faith, the other three simply play a role in everyone’s upbringing whether they notice the existence of these loves in their life or not. Following the words of Lewis, we would be obliged to love every single day without a choice whether it’s to us or seeing it with others. We see love wherever we go. But in this society, do we really know what love is? Love is not as straightforward as we thought it would be unlike adding and subtracting in math. Love is strange but whatever the perspective by the person, it could also be the most beautiful thing in the world.

And that is not how you write a world-class essay to make you pass an honors class.

Huang Renjun began to press the backspace of the conclusion to the last essay he needed to write for the English class. It wasn’t his essay that he was writing but one that was in his queue of his homework services. The list was stacked with requests of the take on C.S. Lewis’s Four Loves for Mrs. Lee’s Junior English Honors class, but the teacher could care less that the students cheated in the class in the peewee town of Dalgleish in the state of Oregon.

Dalgleish didn’t have much except for the Pretty Douglas Fir trees decorated around the boundaries of the town. It was fitting as the Dalgleish basically meant green field. There weren’t many open fields but looking at the town from above, the amount of trees make it look like a green space. That was one of the things that Renjun enjoyed seeing, the nature that the town offered. It was calming, least to say. Losing himself into the natura was a good getaway from the extensive labor he needed to do to support him and his family. His family consisted of his father and younger sister, Mei. His mother passed away due to breast cancer when Renjun was thirteen and Mei was ten.

That was the reason why he started his business of the homework services, but it also extended into adding more part time jobs to continue a decent salary for a high school student. His father never asked him to do any of these jobs because he never wanted to overwork Rejnun and his sister during high school. He wanted to make sure that they could focus primarily on their school work and occasional side jobs to include in their résumés and transcripts. Though due to the passing of his wife, he wasn’t able to commit to his computer science career and waived off the successful path to enter a minimum wage job.

Renjun understood the reason for his father’s lack of working, which is why he stepped up a little more than a teenager should carry on their shoulders. He loved his family too much to not do so. Which is why, he was checking off the list of names on his queue for the homework that needed to be handed that day.

Zhong Chenle

Eleanor Lee

Amie Quill

Wong Yukhei

Eugene Mills and the list going on.

He calculated the amount that was due and the total, making sure that no one paid him less. He didn’t mind if someone paid more, as it would be beneficial to any extra expenses that needed to be paid off. “$20 per essay, mm.. $200. That should be enough to cover the water bill and the groceries.”

Mei nodded, writing the total on the sticky notes that littered all over the mirrored wall. The wall full of sticky notes for the week logging any needed tasks to be finished. Wherever there weren’t any sticky notes were old pictures of the family and memories in their upbringing or new polaroid pictures of Renjun and Mei. It was a nice reminder of the moments that were captured in the midst of the hard every days.

“Hey, uh, Renjun, I was wondering if I could go to homecoming?” Mei questioned, breaking the silence as Renjun revised the to-do lists while editing his own essay. He forgot to do so since the amount of requests to do their homework was unbelievable. The only downside of the homework service was that everyone requests last minute. “Renjun.”

“Sorry, I forgot to do my homework,” he snapped his head up, letting his sister know that she had his undivided attention. Mostly. “Uh, what did you ask?”

“I was just asking if I could go to homecoming, I’ll even work extra hours to pay for my dress. I’ll even pick up some of the homework in your requests,” Mei pleaded, not verbally but through her eyes. Renjun stared at her, wondering if she was serious. It wasn’t uncommon for freshmen to attend high school events, especially someone like his sister. Mei was and still is the type of person to enjoy the events that school offers. It was the perfect opportunity to spend time with her friends and escape the hours of working. That was what Renjun recalled during their late night talks as they pleated the dumplings for their lunches for the rest of the week.

“Renjun, stop spacing out,” Mei shook his shoulder, seeing if it would wake him up out of his trance.

“Uh, yeah yeah. You can help me with some of the homework and take over my shift for the next two days at the library, is that okay?” Renjun offered. He knew he would have felt bad if he said no. Knowing his sister, she would either give up on working and not get a new dress, or give up working and not going to homecoming all together.

Mei agreed, nodding her head profusely and quickly embracing her brother. Renjun stood there, reluctantly wrapping his arms around her. Mei rarely showed affection to him which is why he seemed so surprised at the actions. Nonetheless, he appreciated the love. God. Love. Love. Love. His essay. His eyes widened, releasing from the grasp of his sister, “Crap, I need to finish the last paragraph of my essay.”

The sound of the alarm ringing through the kitchen, notifying the Huang siblings that it was time for them to head to school. Renjun groaned, wanting to bang his head against the wall. He shoved the folder with the homeworks that he finished inside of his backpack while tossing Mei her lunch. He grabbed the pen that hung off of the wall, checking off the sticky note that was made a week before to remind him of the work to do. Renjun rechecked everything once more to be certain that he hadn’t skipped over anything. Assuring himself that he didn’t miss anything, he grabbed the keys of his dad’s car and made his way out the door. Before exiting the house, his dad seemed to be missing from his usual spot on the couch but knew he was home due to his shoes still at the door.

“Mei, is dad still home?” Renjun questioned as he sat on the floor to put his shoes on. Mei turned around to face her brother and nodded, “He’s taking a shower and already made his food.”

Renjun nodded, slinging his backpack over his shoulders to adjust the straps as he wore it, “Are you ready to go?”

“I’ve been ready, I don’t know about you,” Mei sarcastically retorted. Renjun scoffed, standing up and opening the door to allow his sister to go out first. As they walked outside to get to the car, Renjun playfully kicked her leg causing her to quickly turn around to punch him. He quickly ran to the car to escape her wrath.

“Alright, I’ll see you later. Don’t forget your shift at the library,” the male informed his sister as they both entered the school. Mei groaned but nodded, saying goodbye to her brother as she parted ways to join her friends. Now, Renjun was stuck to being a high class loner for the rest of the day. He never made any friends, well ones that didn’t last long. Though he was content with that. It was better than having ones that would backstab you or talk behind your back. For being a small town, Dalgleish didn’t have much to offer with people. So, people created their own drama. Luckily in all of the Huang siblings’ time in Dalgleish, they never had any mentions of being in drama. They only were the butt of the joke of their low-class dad, but Mei and Renjun never paid attention, so the joke died before it was even alive. That belonged to the top of the hierarchy in their school. But, Renjun could care less about them and rather focused on his studies and jobs.

“Here is yours and Chenle’s homework,” Renjun flipped through the countless essays in the folder, handing Lucas the needed homework.

“Ahh, thanks, let me send you the money now. I’m also paying for Chenle’s, just in case you wonder why there’s extra,” Lucas pulled his phone out to send the money through the Venmo app.

Feeling his phone buzz, Renjun took his phone out to check that the amount was correct. Confirming that it was right, well it was actually over. Chenle and Lucas were always kind enough to pay extra. They always said it was just for the hard work that he gives since they were his first customers and the growth of the services. “Thanks, Lucas.”

Lucas smiled before heading his way for his class. After he left, Renjun continued to make his way to all of the students that needed their work for the day. He scheduled different locations and times around the school to make sure that his contraband work wasn’t known to the faculty of the school. The only one who knew was their English and Physics teachers. Mrs. Lee and Dr. Jean.

Mrs. Lee immediately knew that the essays by the students in her class weren’t written that perfectly. The growth from one essay to another seemed to be developed overnight. Not trying to question her students, they were bright but most that had the perfect scored work weren’t the brightest. Knowing this, Mrs. Lee found out after give and take, she realized that the work was by Renjun. To let him know that she knew, she asked to conference with him after class. The only thing that Renjun grasped from the conversation is that she blatantly called her students stupid when it came to essays. Renjun agreed but defended them that they were smart in other areas and needed to strengthen their levels in the writing department.

And for Dr. Jean, he just didn’t care.

“So, who’d you write for this time? I just don’t wanna read the essays to waste my time to give them A’s,” Mrs. Lee sat in her chair, sipping on her cup of coffee as she watched Renjun pack his stuff up so he could attend his next class.

He dismissed his teacher’s comment, placing his essay on her desk, “I’ll give you a list later. Oh, I also need a recommendation from my favorite teacher.” He smiled, setting a blank recommendation letter for the college he’s applying to on her desk.

He watched her scan over the document, only for her face to scrunch up in disgust. He reflected her expression with his own face, confused as to why she looked repulsed, “What is it now?”

“I don’t know, you could have chosen a better school with your grades and get in,” she tossed the paper into her neat stack before grabbing the essays and shelving it.

Renjun shrugged, knowing that the reason is that he was afraid to leave his sister and dad. More so, his sister. He didn’t want to leave all of the responsibilities to his sister. To delve even farther, the responsibility of taking care of their father. He wasn’t sure if Mei was ready to do it. A lot of people may wonder why he even thinks of his father, but his dad was still family. Their dad may not be in the best state and not pulling his weight as the head of the family, but he still worked every so often. Their dad was lucky enough to be friends with the owner of his job, and the owner understood the hardships that he was going through. The consequence of his lack in effort fell on his children.

“I just think it would be better if you attend some other college, maybe, I don’t know,” Mrs. Lee retrieved another document on a clipboard, handing it to him.

He grabbed the clipboard, wondering what it was. An application to University of Oregon. He laughed, tearing his eyes away from it to look out the window. She’s still trying to do this. He gave the clipboard back, “I can’t go to this university. It’s not even that good.”

“It was good to me,” Mrs. Lee gave him a hall pass on a sticky note before waving him off to allow him to get to his next class.

“Well, I’m passing and staying in the best town in the world,” he waved as he walked out of the class.

Renjun pondered on the idea of leaving Dalgleish, but would it be the right decision. Everything he needed was right here. There could be a great job opportunity when he graduates from the community college. Well somewhere and that somewhere is not in Dalgleish. He was going to have to move out of the town one way or another if he wanted to pursue his dream of becoming a computer scientist. Maybe, he could find a way to come back to Dalgleish, opening a company would be beneficial. That was settled on a maybe. For now, all he needed to do was pass junior year and move onto senior year.

Making his way inside of the physics classroom, he showed the pass to Dr. Jean, only for it to be dismissed. He took his seat next to the window in the back. With the lack of care that his teacher had in the class, Renjun worked on the next requests of his services.

“Renjun, you’re working with Isabelle,” his teacher declared. Renjun picked up his head so fast, wondering as to why there’s suddenly a project. He was always informed beforehand in the beginning of the semester of what’s to come, but he came to realize Dr. Jean was the best teacher at coming up with random projects. Renjun just nodded, clearing his backpack from the chair next to him allowing Isabelle to sit it in.

Isabelle gave him a head bow, greeting him, “Hi. I’m Isabelle but you could just call me Hwayoung. You probably already knew that. I can’t believe Dr. Jean still calls me Isabelle, probably because he can’t pronounce half of our names.”

Renjun chuckled, shutting his computer off to place back in his backpack. He picked two of the copies of the paper before tossing the extra copies inside of the extra copy bucket that was behind him. He handed the paper to Hwayoung before reading the document. Seeing it was the project, his mouth contorted to a form of disappointment in finding the surprise assignment. The project didn’t even have anything to do with physics but basically getting to know your partner and put it in a PowerPoint. He didn’t know if he wanted to cry or laugh. He glanced in Hwayoung’s direction: Pretty. Pretty. Popular.

Choi Hwayoung. The ideal girl that anyone could ask for. She was nice and smart. She was one of the pretty girls of the school, and everyone knew that. Renjun liked her when he joined the Model UN team, and she was also on it. He thought that she was also smart when she stood her ground during the time of Model UN. He wished he could have stayed longer as he enjoyed it, but his sister wasn’t all that capable when he had to leave for a competition once. Despite thinking the basic reasons for him liking her, he liked how she smiled and her dimples just protruded. Her eyes were full of life when debating. How she spun her pen between her fingers when she was in focus. Renjun, tone your feelings down.

Now, he wasn’t sure if he still liked her due to the lack of attention he gave his own feelings.

“Oh right, my name is Renjun,” he whispered as Dr. Jean ranted on another go of the conspiracy theories of the Illuminati and Beyoncé . His teacher always made the time in class go by faster or slower depending on how dedicated he is to the conspiracy topic. Some were more interesting than others. He looked over to her writing, “I think you knew that already.”

“Yeah, I did. You were on the Model UN team but left, you were really good at what you did,” Hwayoung complimented him. He smiled, nodding as his way of accepting the praise.

The small talk ceased as the bell rang for dismissal, he collected his items and shoved them into his backpack. He slung his backpack over his shoulder, “I’ll do the project and turn it in when it’s finished.”

“But this is a two person project. I am not asking for your homework service to come in play here,” Hwayoung turned to look at him. “Maybe, we could just actually do it together. Unless you don’t want to because you’re uncomfortable to do that which then do the project by yourself, just text me if you need anything.”

With that, she smiled and left. Renjun watched her leave the classroom. That was a first. Typically any project with partners left Renjun to do the work all by himself, which he didn’t mind. Most complain that they had to do it by themselves, but he enjoyed the easy A without the others messing it up.

The final school bell rang, but Renjun was already in the car, waiting for his sister. He hummed to the music, tapping to the tunes of Ariana Grande’s Dangerous Woman album. His head turned to the door opening, and his sister joined him in the car already singing the song. Renjun turned down the volume, “Ready?”

She nodded while buckling up her seatbelt. Renjun placed the car in reverse, only for a student to be waving a paper trying to get his attention. He wasn’t paying attention, trying to get Mei to work on time was his priority.

As he continued to reverse the car, he still hadn’t noticed the student until Mei tugged on his jacket. He slammed on the breaks, finally seeing the student waving the paper around in the rear-view mirror. He almost ran over him. He inhaled and exhaled deeply, trying to come to a compromise in his head that he almost committed homicide by accident, “What the hell?”

The male student walked around from the rear of the car before going around to the driver’s side. He knocked on Renjun’s window before Renjun rolled the window, “Why were you in my way?”

“You almost killed me. Shouldn’t you feel a little empathetic?” The student smiled with a teasing tone in his voice.

“If you have nothing important, I will be going now,” Renjun put the car in drive, starting to press on the acceleration pedal. He still wanted to know what the student wanted, but it was probably just another order for homework help. “If you want me to do your homework, find my number and text me.”

“I want you to help me write a love letter. I read your essay for Lucas, and it was really good,” the student requested, holding the note out. Renjun slammed on the brakes once again, but this time, Mei slapped her brother in the shoulder for the discomfort of their backs hitting the seats so harshly. He looked at her with an apologetic expression before his gaze turned back to the student.

The student held the note at the window, which Renjun started to read.

Dear Choi Hwayoung.

The first three words were enough for Renjun to decide if he was going to help this fool or not. He shoved the letter back into the hands of the requester, “Nope, I’m not writing a love letter to Hwayo- to her.”

“Oh, to who?” Mei pitched in. Love always made people curious, well more nosy. Then, the ideas of who ends up with who just turned into a big mess. Renjun certainly didn’t want to help someone out that wanted to create a love letter. Plus if he was the recipient of a love letter, he hoped it wasn’t made by someone that didn’t have feelings for the person. Or in Renjun’s case, written by the person’s personal feelings. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be genuine. Artificial. Unauthentic. Fake. Love isn’t supposed to be any of those things if a person wants to make it work.

“No one, Mei.” Renjun answered before he turned back to the student, “Have a good day.” He rolled the windows back up and continued to drive away to his priority. He looked in the mirror once more to find the student sulking with his head down. He chuckled. That’s so pathetic.

“Hey, you could have totally picked that request up. That was Lee Jeno,” Mei tapped away on her phone as she informed him of who the student was. Renjun scoffed, but he also was unsure why the name of the student is relevant. Customers are customers. There’s no needed relationship as it’s based on monetary and satisfaction of getting work done. Mei looked at her brother who stayed silent, and she was sure that he had no clue who Jeno was. She raised her eyebrow, “Do you not know who Lee Jeno is?”

“Do I care? Mm.. Not really,” he didn’t really care about who Jeno was. He rarely cared about any of the people in the school, as they weren’t his business. He wanted to stay out of anyone’s mouths as much as possible. Renjun thought of who Jeno was because he did sound familiar. They lived in a small town, so everyone knew most of each other. Dalgleish compromised mostly of East Asians, but nonetheless it still had a good variety of other ethnicities. It shouldn’t be hard to think of who Jeno was. Ah, he’s the boy who used to live four houses down when they were younger before the downfall of the Huangs came about. Jeno would try to invite them to play often with the other kids in the neighborhood, but Renjun was shy at the time, and Mei wasn’t the one who enjoyed company. Though that did start to change as they grew older. Renjun wasn’t shy, just liked to keep to himself to stay out of trouble, and Mei enjoys the energy with people.

“Jeno is the star student of the school, more like the perfect Asian kid. He plays the violin, ping-pong captain, forward for soccer, and is part of A Honor Roll,” Mei listed all of the things that Jeno specialized in. Renjun listened but wasn’t in awe of the achievements that Jeno had. Most of the kids in the school participated in those activities, differing in sports and academics. Everyone had their own skill set to show off, which made Jeno not any different from the student body.

“Okay, what does that have to do with me?” Renjun questioned, stopping at the red light. He wasn’t sure what his sister was making in her brain. She was most likely going to lose track of where she was heading to prove a point.

“Plus, he banks and his parents have this IT company in California. So if you help him, he could probably get you to return in favor by getting you an internship,” Mei added onto her tracks. She sure did make a point. That was a first. Renjun surely could land a job if he gets an internship, but he didn’t want to use someone like that. He wanted to do it on his own.

“Yeah, no. I refuse to do that,” Renjun pressed his foot down on the gas pedal, accelerating the car as the light switched to green.

“How come? It’s a good opportunity, I’m just saying,” Mei said as she shuffled around in her seat, adjusting her jacket.

“Well, I don’t want to use someone like that. I want to get there on my own, no matter how hard it is. I have a plan to get there,” Renjun answered. He arranged his future’s timeline, coming up with the desired plan. He thought of Plan B, just in case the first one didn’t work. Then, he had his safety plans just in case nothing of his wants couldn’t come to reality.

Mei answered with a hum. Renjun was glad that she didn’t continue the conversation. He parked next to the curb in front of the library and turned off the engine. He decided to study at the library. He didn’t have much to do today other than making dinner and finishing the rest of the requests that he didn’t assign to his sister. Plus, the library offered free food and beverages to their workers. And, who doesn’t like free food?

“Your shift ends at 7, which is perfect. I’ll be in my usual section, working and studying if you need anything,” Renjun said as he left his sister as they entered the downtown library. He walked towards the Japanese literature section, quietly greeting some of the regular goers that he recognized. Living in Dalgleish, he picked up quite a few languages. He was surrounded by multiple ethnicities who differed in languages and to benefit the elderly who weren’t comfortable using English, he thought it would be nice to learn their native language. Plus, there were foreigners who came frequently to visit the town. It was like a tourist attraction, sometimes. Even if there wasn’t anything to see in the town.

Renjun was only fluent in Mandarin Chinese and Korean, but he was conversational in other languages like Cantonese and Japanese. He tried to make the effort, plus his world geography class had an extra credit opportunity to explore languages. Despite not seeming to be a people person at school, Renjun was able to converse easily with others when he was out and about. He often got teased by his sister for it because he always said he was not a people person.

He placed his belongings on the ground, unpacking his laptop, and plugging the charger in the outlet to refuel the laptop’s battery. Putting his earphones in to enjoy his music, he bopped his head a little to the beats. Renjun checked his list if he had any new requests. He wanted to know if Jeno asked for one with his love letter. That’s so stupid. Love letters are supposed to be personal. He’s such a dumbass.

“Hey.” came out of nowhere. Renjun jerked in his chair a little, even if he had earphones, he didn’t blast it just in case someone asked him about anything in the library. He still was a worker there, even if he wasn’t working. He thrived off of a busy schedule. He didn’t thrive off on being startled.

He whipped his head to the person who peeked over his shoulder, almost throwing his hands around if it wasn’t in a public place or at least a library. He saw the same boy from earlier, only this time in neater clothes. Jeno was wearing his athletic warm-ups when he was at the school. Renjun just blinked his eyes before shaking his head and getting back to his laptop, “You’re in a library, look through some books for inspiration for your love letter. Good luck to you and bye.”

“Oh come on, I’m not the best at words and expressing my feelings. Can you just at least read it and revise?” Jeno asked, moving a chair from another table to sit with Renjun. The ping-pong star received hushes from those around him, causing both Renjun and Jeno to have apologetic looks to them.

Renjun shook his head, “No. No way.”

“I’ll pay you extra from what your highest price is. I’ll pay you even more for authenticity,” Jeno pulled his phone out. Renjun peeked over at Jeno’s screen to see his website page with the costs of the homework papers. He thought about the extra costs. He possibly could buy his sister’s dress for homecoming, so she could keep her money from work and spend it on makeup and other necessities to get ready for school events. It was a good idea, but Renjun wasn’t the best at even expressing feelings and whatnot.

“I’ll give you $100 for this one letter,” Jeno offered.

“Alright, sold.”

47 notes · View notes

officialcherubcampus · 3 years

Text

Three futures - The Playboy

So what happens to James, Lauren, Kerry and all the gang after Shadow Wave?

Robert Muchamore has written three stories, depicting alternative futures for James and Kerry set in the year 2031.

Las Vegas - October 2031

James Choke sat at the end of an emperor-size bed. He was in a 53rd floor penthouse suite with floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked coloured lights stretching five kilometres along the Las Vegas strip.

James would celebrate his 40th birthday in less than two weeks, but his personal trainer kept him in shape. He looked fit, dressed in boxers, with slicked back hair with touches of grey down the sides. He’d look even better when he put on the $80,000 hand-cut silk suit, and diamond crusted Rolex resting on the duvet alongside him.

“Why are you showing off?” James asked, as he looked round at a stunning blonde, whose head poked out between a mound of pillows and cushions.

She was James’ current girlfriend, a twenty-two-year-old cowgirl called Sue Loewe. Her voice was high and her accent came out of East Texas.

“I had your baby,” Sue said bitterly. “If you love me you should marry me.”

“I’ve been through four wives and four divorces already,” James said, trying not to lose his temper as he pulled his suit trousers up his legs. “That’s enough marrying for one lifetime. Now are you getting dressed for the opening ceremony or not?”

James ducked as a couple of velvet cushions spun angrily across the room towards him.

“Four wives and four hundred girlfriends,” Sue shouted. “But there’s only ever been one woman you loved. So why don’t you walk down your precious red carpet with her?”

James buckled his trousers and crawled up the bed towards Sue. She’d come to Vegas to compete in a rodeo, with model looks, an athletic body and the enormous breasts that had drawn James’ eye when he’d pinned on her runner-up rosette for the steer wrestling competition.

“This is the biggest night of my year,” James said. “The dress you’ve had made costs more than most cars.”

Sue hissed, “I want your time and attention, James. Not dresses. Not cars. Not money.”

James thought about trying to kiss Sue, but he didn’t have the heart. He’d been through enough women to know this relationship was in its last stretch: Sue would head back to her mother in Texas with the baby. She’d lawyer up and settle for a few million dollars a year in child maintenance. James would make sure his infant son wanted for nothing and fly him into Vegas for some daddy time two or three times a year.

“My chopper will be here in twenty minutes,” James said calmly, as he rolled off the bed. “I haven’t got time to fight with you right now.”

“You’re a greasy arse,” Sue shouted, as she grabbed a glass tumbler and lobbed it at his head.

Wives and girlfriends had been throwing stuff at James for years. He ducked expertly, leaving the glass to smash against the wall behind him. Then he grabbed his shoes, watch and the rest of the clothes off the end of the bed and made a swift exit through double walnut doors into a grand hallway.

The hallway was more than thirty metres long, with a chequerboard marble floor. The cleaning lady pushing a big scissor-mop acted like she’d heard nothing, but the black-suited bodyguard standing by the lift showed no such reserve.

“Your life would be a lot simpler if you could learn to keep your dick in your pants,” Bruce Norris said.

James grinned - as well as being James’ bodyguard Bruce was one of James’ oldest friends.

“The day I give up womanising is the day I give up breathing, Brucey Boy.”

Bruce shook his head, showing disapproval, tinged with jealousy. Bruce had toured the globe and won three ultimate fighting belts, but he’d now put wild days on the road behind him and lived a quiet life in a Vegas suburb, with three boys and a wife who worked as a croupier in one of the big casinos.

“I had a call earlier,” Bruce said, as James handed him a jacket so that he had free arms to pull on his shirt and bow tie. “From your oldest sister.”

James looked shocked. “Lauren! What did that fruitcake want?”

“She’d got a meeting in New York tomorrow. Said she’s passing over Vegas and asked if her name could be added to the guest list for tonight’s opening ceremony.”

“What did you say?”

“I checked with Kerry. She didn’t seem to have any problem with it.”

James was slightly irritated. “Lauren’s my sister, why didn’t you check with me?”

“You were out of contact,” Bruce said, raising one eyebrow. “Sharing the executive washroom with that hot Russian translator.”

“Oh her,” James said fondly. “Did you get her number by the way?”

“Lauren or the Russian?”

“The Russian.”

“I’m your bodyguard, not your pimp,” Bruce said tetchily. “We’d better get up to the helipad. Kerry will barbecue your balls if you’re late.”

...

Debbie Shan was the on-screen reporter for the local Vegas television station, but the gala opening of Choke Grand Plaza Casino was national news and even though she was on home turf, she felt out of place in the press pen outside the massive new casino, jostling with more famous faces from major news outlets from around the world.

“OK, Debbie,” the bearded cameraman said. “Take it again from the top.”

“Was the last take no good?” she asked.

The cameraman gave a reassuring nod. “Your take was fine, but with all this hullabaloo we need to get a couple down to make sure we can edit out all the background noise.”

“Right,” Debbie said, as she pushed her hair off her face, then switched to the more careful tone she used when speaking to camera.

“Twenty years ago, two newly married Stanford graduates drove from San Francisco to Las Vegas. But James and Kerry Choke were no ordinary honeymoon couple. James was a card shark, intending to use his maths skills to win big on the blackjack tables. Kerry was a smart young businesswoman who’d already made her first million from an online shoe store she’d set up while still at university.

“Over the last decade-and-a-half the Chokes have become the biggest thing in Vegas. Starting with the purchase and turnaround of the tiny run-down Boulder Gate Casino, the Choke Corporation rapidly became a multi-billion dollar business empire comprising casinos, hotels and sports teams that now stretches from the ownership of James’ favourite Premiership football outfit to the first ever mega-casino built in Beijing.

“When the Chokes’ marriage broke down, James’ affair and eighteen month marriage to movie star Kate Porpoise catapulted James to celebrity status as he entered one of the most gossiped about relationship in Hollywood history. Despite two more whirlwind marriages in the past five years for James, and Kerry settling down with new husband Paul Hartt - the couple have remained close friends. James and Kerry continue to work successfully as business partners, and in bringing up their three daughters.”

“Tonight we’ve seen wave after wave of celebrities from the internet, films and music arriving for the opening of Choke Grand Plaza, which Kerry Choke claims is the biggest and most glamorous casino anywhere in the world. The casino hotel has over 7,000 suites, 50,000 square metres of gambling space and an 80,000 seat stadium for the Choke Corporation’s newly instated Las Vegas Knights NFL team. What’s more I’m told we’re going to see more than seventy million dollars worth of fireworks go up in smoke before the doors of this colossal new gambling palace open to the public on the stroke of midnight.”

Debbie paused for a long breath, then looked away from the camera. “Was that OK?”

The cameraman nodded. “Perfect. I think we had the noise under control, but we’ll do it once more just to be sure.”

...

Lauren Adams had arrived at Vegas airport more than three hours earlier. Her hair was a tangle, she wore ripped jeans and dirty canvas pumps. Her only luggage was a small canvas holdall containing a computer, basic toiletries and a couple of changes of underwear.

With a title fight on at one end of the strip and a new casino opening at the other, Vegas was rammed. She’d had to queue more than an hour for a taxi at the airport, followed by 90 minutes through gridlocked traffic.

Even then, the driver couldn’t get within a block of the Choke Grand Plaza. The temperature was touching thirty, even though it was past 10pm and Lauren had to fight through the crowds who’d come out to watch the fireworks, and get a first peek at the latest Choke Corporation casino.

Lauren found Las Vegas tacky and revolting. The Choke Grand Plaza comprised four sixty storey towers clad in fake marble and gold leaf. The building had all the subtlety of a kick with a steel-toe capped boot and to make the place even worse, the rooftop penthouse complex atop the tallest tower was shaped like a giant NFL football. Lauren also spotted well-disguised cranes, suggesting that the Choke Grand Plaza wasn’t quite as ready for it’s grand opening as her brother and ex-sister-in-law would have liked the public to believe.

Still, Lauren was late and her associates had been working on her plan for months, so there wasn’t time to stand around gawping at the gaudy monstrosity. If getting to the casino had been a scrum, she was elevated into much classier surroundings as soon as Grand Plaza security blipped the VIP pass that Kerry had sent to her mobile.

“Mrs Rathbone,” an oily little guard dressed in casino uniform said, as he raised a velvet rope to let Lauren into a hotel lobby with a five storey atrium, giant waterfalls and chandeliers the size of a mini-van. “I’m Keith Selway, head of security in tower three. You should have called us when you landed, we had a driver waiting for you at the airport.”

Lauren felt gutted, because when she thought about it she even remembered Kerry saying something about a limo pick-up.

“I didn’t even know James Choke had a sister,” Selway said, as he led Lauren towards the elevator. “You must be very proud of him.”

Lauren smiled awkwardly. “Oh, I’m so proud.”

“Do you see your brother often?”

“It’s been a few years,” Lauren said. “But our children are quite close. James’ three daughters holiday with my brood in Sydney most summers.”

“You live in Australia?”

Lauren nodded. “My husband’s Australian. Now if you don’t mind, I need to get to my room and change as quickly as possible. I can’t really step on to the red carpet looking like this, can I?”

As Lauren spoke, Selway tapped away at a touch-screen computer. He read something before looking up.

“Your phone should operate the lift automatically, there’s no need to check in. As requested, Kerry Choke has arranged for a selection of evening wear and jewellery to be delivered to your room, with her compliments. Simply wear whatever outfit you prefer and the rest will be returned to the shop. A parcel also arrived for you today, and it’s been placed on the desk in your room.”

“Excellent,” Lauren said.

The elevator opened directly into a huge room that was a good deal more tasteful than the building’s exterior. Selway made a great fuss, hoping to earn himself a tip by showing Lauren everything from which button raised the Jacuzzi bath out of the floor, to the electric massage function built into the lounge chairs. In the end Lauren handed over $10 just to get him out of the door.

As soon as Selway was gone, Lauren looked quickly at a clothes rail with half-a-dozen designer dresses on it. She picked one without much thought, along with matching white shoes. She took far more care over unwrapping the small parcel on the desk. It contained a set of screwdrivers and wire cutters, plus a thumbnail-sized wireless modem.

Lauren knelt under the desk and unscrewed the faceplate on a computer network socket. The socket was a standard network port, but when Lauren pulled the cable a few centimetres out of the wall she found the point where the device linked into a fatter optical cable. This cable linked to the hotel’s main network hub and would enable a hacker with suitable passwords to gain high speed access to Choke Grand Plaza’s central computer system.

Between the copper and fibre optic cable was a transponder box that turned electrical pulses into optical ones. Lauren opened its plastic clamshell case and inserted the tiny modem. After crawling out from under the desk she picked up her phone and told it to call Gareth.

“Gareth, I’ve fixed your device into the hotel network,” Lauren told the phone.

“I just saw the connection pop up on my screen,” Gareth replied, sounding a little arrogant. “I’ve been sitting here waiting. I said I’d need an hour to get the job done, but the ceremony starts in less than half that.”

Lauren sounded cross. “Kate’s people asked me to do this as a favour. I’ve got four kids to look after back in Australia, so be grateful for what you’ve got.”

Gareth grunted before hanging up.

Lauren felt anxious as she crawled out from under the desk and screwed the faceplate back on to the network socket. It felt wrong abusing her relationship with James in order to make a political point, but although she still loved her brother it had been years since she’d really connected with him.

Kerry had always kept James grounded, but Lauren felt her brother had given in to his baser instincts when they’d divorced: womanising, gambling and partying. And while James constantly complained about press intrusion, he secretly seemed to revel in his bad-boy-billionaire profile.

...

“Daddy!”

Gwen Choke was 11 years old and still got excited when she saw her dad. James lifted her off the ground as he hugged her. At 13 and 15, Sarah and Ellen were more reserved and settled for kisses on the cheek.

Gwen and Ellen had their mother’s straight dark hair, while Sarah was a blonde who might almost have passed for her auntie Lauren at the same age. All three girls wore matching, slightly punkish, outfits, with black motorcycle boots, red stockings, mini-skirts and leather jackets with the Grand Plaza Casino logo on the back.

“Loving the matching gear,” James said. “Did your mum pick them?”

“They’re horrific,” Ellen spat. “I feel like a billboard. Why can’t I just wear what I like? Everyone else gets to.”

“Your mum’s put a lot of thought into this,” James said, trying to sound parental. “You get to wear what you want the rest of the time, don’t you?”

Kerry stepped into the bare concrete room and sensed her oldest daughter’s unhappiness. “Still moaning about that dress?”

Ellen shrugged. “I’m wearing it, aren’t I, for Christ’s sake?”

James and Kerry kissed. Kerry’s smell always set off a longing inside James, but he tried to ignore it.

“Is Sue not coming?” Kerry asked.

“She’s in a mood,” James said, as he shook his head. “Post-natal depression, I think.”

“I guess that’s the last we’ll be seeing of Sue then,” Sarah said cynically. “I wonder which dumb blonde we’ll be calling Auntie next?”

James wanted to tell his middle daughter off for being sarcastic, but the other two girls were smirking. And it wasn’t like Sarah had said anything that he hadn’t thought himself, so he changed tactics.

“So where’s your husband?” James asked.

“Medical Conference in Toronto,” Kerry said, as she glanced at her watch. “You’ve known for months that Paul wouldn’t be here tonight. Anyway, it’s time we rolled out.”

“Mum reckons Auntie Lauren’s coming as well,” Gwen said. “She’s not got her kids with her, but it’s still cool. I haven’t seen her since summer.”

“Haven’t bumped into her,” James said dismissively. “And I’ve no idea why she’s here. Last time I spoke to Lauren about the casino business she told me that it leeches profits from the poor and stupid and leads to gambling addiction and family breakdown. So what’s she doing at the opening of a glitzy new casino?”

“Casino do leech their profits from the poor and stupid,” Ellen said, unable to resist having a dig at her parents.

James laughed. “I tell you what Ellen, when you get your driver’s permit how about I make a charitable donation to gamblers anonymous in your name, instead of buying that Porsche you’re after?”

“She’d wreck a Porsche if she got it, anyway,” Sarah said.

“Shut up, bitch,” Ellen snapped back.

“You two,” Kerry shouted. “Behave!”

Sensing that family harmony was about to collapse, Kerry turned the conversation back towards Lauren.

“Maybe Lauren just saw an opportunity to make up for lost time,” Kerry suggested. “You two used to be so close. When did you last speak to her?”

James shrugged. “She phoned me at Christmas? Or was it when the girls were in Australia the summer before last?”

Gwen sounded outraged. “That’s fifteen months, daddy. How can you go fifteen months without talking to your own sister?”

“They had a fight,” Ellen said.

“Lauren and I never had a fight,” James said firmly. “We just grew apart. We lead different lifestyles and have very different attitudes.”

“We need to move now,” Bruce said, as he came into the room through a fire door. “Unless you want to miss your own fireworks.”

The Choke family walked through a concrete corridor that smelled of damp and new paint. It was built under the main fountain at the casino entrance. Kerry’s bodyguards, Alfie and Max, led the way up a spiral staircase. At ground level they all emerged into a luxurious gazebo where a couple of really big name celeb who’d been paid vast sums of money to show their faces at the casino opening nibbled crab-cakes and sipped wine.

Kerry made a big show of hugging everyone, while James helped eleven-year-old Gwen overcome her shyness and get an autograph off the star of her favourite TV show. At precisely six minutes to midnight, the first firework barrage lit up the sky.

James felt like he’d entered a warzone as he stepped along the red carpet towards the Grand Plaza’s huge Gothic-columned entrance, with a long haired daughter on each arm. Fireworks cracked above and hundreds of cameras flashed, from both photographers in the press area and snappers in the 30,000 strong crowd.

As another blast of fireworks erupted, a woman broke through the security barriers and threw a giant pair of gold knickers at James’ head. They missed, but James stopped to pick them up as security guards dragged the woman away.

“Thank you so much,” James said. “I always wear this brand and I was running low.”

James got a gentle whack from middle daughter Sarah. “Dad, you’re so embarrassing. If the boys in my class see a picture of me in the paper wearing this stupid outfit while you hold up a pair of gold knickers I’ll die of embarrassement.”

But James barely heard his daughter’s complaint because the next barrage of fireworks was powerful enough to shake the ground they walked on.

Two dozen VIPs had been given giant scissors to cut the ribbon on the stroke of midnight and declare the casino open, but before that could happen there would be a short video presentation of all the thrills that the new casino was going to offer.

Lauren wasn’t important enough to get scissors, but she had been allowed to stand with a slightly larger group of VIPs off to one side of the casino entrance. Her three nieces all made a beeline as soon as they spotted her.

“Auntie Lauren it’s been ages!” Sarah said, as Gwen hugged her.

“I totally want another holiday at your vineyard,” Ellen said. “It’s so mellow out there.”

“How’s Uncle Rat?” Sarah asked.

“Did that sick horse get better?” Gwen added.

“Uncle Rat and Mabel the horse are both much better,” Lauren said. “Rat’s hair’s grew back after the chemotherapy stopped and I really hope you can all make it out to Australia for Christmas this year. I know my kids are mad keen to see you again.”

“I want to go surfing again,” Sarah said. “And little Mac is so cute.”

James was approaching too, but as he was about to pull Lauren into a hug she felt her phone vibrate and took it out of her bag to see a message from Gareth that read, Job done. Seconds to spare!

“Was that more important than me?” James said irritably as Lauren stared at the phone.

“Little Mac’s got an ear infection,” Lauren lied, as they finally hugged. “Doctor’s given him antibiotics.”

“Sorry to hear that,” James said. “It’s been way too long since I saw you. I think you were pregnant with Mac and how old is he now?”

“Three next month,” Lauren said, as they squeezed each other. “You should visit when Kerry and the girls fly over. You stopped coming, but I never stopped inviting you.”

“Maybe I will this year,” James said, though it as an empty promise: he didn’t share his daughters’ liking for Lauren and Rat’s dusty ranch and vineyard, and the Aussie press didn’t give him enough room to misbehave when he went out partying in Sydney.

“You’re coming Daddy!” Gwen said, wagging her finger. “I heard you promise.”

“I said maybe I’ll go,” James replied, but he tailed off because the fireworks had stopped and the sixty storey casino towers had blacked out, apart from two vast video screens erected to show a short promotional film.

James had watched and approved the video himself, so he was unpleasantly surprised when instead of showing a sweeping helicopter shot of his new casino, the screens cut to a picture of his second ex-wife, the gorgeous movie actress Kate Porpoise.

She stood against a stark grey background and began speaking to camera.

“Don’t worry everyone,” Kate began, in a soothing voice. “In two minutes time the lights will come back on, the casino doors will open on schedule and you can all have some fun. But before you walk through the doors, maybe you should think about all the glass, concrete and steel that went into making this vat new casino, and all the resources it will use before it gets all shabby and they blow it up and build a replacement.

“Maybe you can also spare a thought for the four construction workers who were seriously injured during the building process. And maybe instead of going inside and gambling your money in order to make the Choke Corporation even richer than it is already, you could take five or ten dollars and help make the world a better place by donating it to one of the following organisations. Thanks for listening and whatever you decide to do, I hope you have a great evening!”

The crowd and VIPs looked stunned or confused as a short list of organisations and money transfer barcodes flashed up on screen. James whacked Ellen’s hand as she held up her phone, but he didn’t manage to stop her before several dozen photographers snapped her using the spend function to donate $70 to an environmental group.

“Your mother is going to be livid,” James said. “She spent months making sure every detail of this ceremony was spot on.”

Kerry walked up to James and whispered in his ear as a ten second countdown appeared on the screen.

“Keep smiling for the cameras,” Kerry snarled, with the worlds fakest grin etched on her face. “But I’m going to sue that bitch ex-ife of yours for every penny she has.”

“Seven,” the crowd chanted. “Six...”

“Our company will not be suing my ex-wife,” James said. “She’s the mother of my twins. Think about the boys.”

“Five...”

“So what, we just let her get away with this bullshit?” Kerry hissed.

“It’s the hacker we should worry about,” James pointed out as the crowd chanted four. “If they can hack into hotel systems can they get into the air conditioning, or the security cameras? There’s over ten million dollars cash stored in the casino vault.”

“Three...”

“I’ve already texted the security director telling him he’s fired,” Kerry said.

“Two...”

Lauren had recoiled slightly at the thought of a hacker hunt, but nothing could ever be traced back to her, provided she removed the modem she’d attached to the network socket in her room before she checked out the following morning.

“One...Zero!”

Cheers erupted as the countdown clock reached zero and a midnight chimed. Gwen Choke joined the celebrities in cutting the ribbon with giant scissors and then the two lines of security guards stepped out of the way and allowed the huge crowd to surge up a dozen escalators into Las Vegas’ newest and most luxurious casino.

James turned to Lauren after Kerry and his daughters had headed inside with the crowd.

“Still playing jokes on your big brother eh?” James said, smiling fondly.

Lauren practically swallowed her tongue. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Aww give over,” James said. “You and Kate Porpoise have always got on well. You’re both into environmental causes and it’s pretty damned suspicious that you should fly in from Australia and turn up out of the blue for a casino opening when you hate casinos.”

“I just came here to catch up with you,” Lauren said unconvincingly. “I’m meeting a friend in New York for dinner tomorrow and I had to change planes somewhere along the way.”

“Kerry will be pissed off, but I don’t much care,” James said casually. “We’ve shelled out millions of dollars in adverts and paid celebrities to walk down our red carpet on opening night, but I’d bet that little sabotage stunt you and your eco friends have pulled off will get us more publicity than all of that.”

“Bad publicity,” Lauren said.

“There’s no such thing,” James said. “Well, maybe if I got my wang out and tried molesting some cocktail waitress over a craps table that would be bad publicity. But a few eco-mental hippy types whinging won’t hold much sway with our customers.”

Lauren bristled with anger at her brother’s description of environmentalists, but Bruce tactically intervened.

“Hiya, Lauren,” Bruce said warmly, as he hugged his old friend. “Are you in Vegas for long? I’d love for you to come over for dinner and meet my boys. I’m giving them all ninja training. My three year old smashes roof slates with his bare hand.”

“Bruce, I want you to escort Lauren up to her room,” James said, sounding more like a boss than a friend. “Help her to remove her hacking equipment before hotel security has a chance to find it.”

Bruce looked awkwardly at Lauren, before pointing at the big screen, which was now back to showing the Grand Plaza casino logo.

“I should have known it was you,” Bruce said, smiling. “That’s old skool! The kind of prank we’d have pulled back in our CHERUB days.”

James didn’t like the fact that Bruce found it so funny and shook his head. “I’ll never hear the end of this if Kerry finds out,” James told Bruce. “Frankly Lauren, I can’t understand why you’ve done this. Maybe you and I aren’t that close anymore, but our kids are and they’ll be the ones who’ll get hurt the most if you fall out with Kerry.”

James had a good argument, but Lauren wasn’t about to accept a lesson in responsibility from one of the most irresponsible men she’d ever met, so she snapped back angrily. “Jesus James, the planet is choking to death and you’re building a casino with ten thousand air conditioning units in the middle of a desert. How can you live with yourself?”

“I live very nicely,” James said, grinning. “In my 53rd floor penthouse with a stunning girlfriend half my age, a private jet and a woman who charges eight hundred dollars to manicure my nails.”

Bruce sensed that this argument was about to get explosive and pushed himself between the sibling.

“Come on, you two,” Bruce said. “Cool heads, eh?”

“Just get her out of town,” James said, as he took a step back. “When you’re done in Lauren’s room, take her to the airport and arrange for one of the Choke Corporation jets to fly her to New York, or wherever it is she’s really going.”

“Goodnight James,” Lauren said, as her brother turned to head back into his corporation’s new ten-billion-dollar casino complex.

But the funny thing was, although James and Lauren hadn’t agreed on anything in years, there was so much history between them that they couldn’t bring themselves to hate each other.

James turned back to Lauren. “Am I still invited for Christmas Dinner?” he asked.

Lauren smiled. “Always.”

“Then I’ll be there, with my girls this year,” James said. “And as long as you let me know how your hacker friends got into our computer system, I’ll make sure that Kerry never finds out that you were involved.”

Lauren smirked. “Hacking your casino was easy because you never change your password. You’ve been using LordSexyPants55 since you first joined CHERUB.”

James jaw dropped, but he tried to brush it off as he disappeared into a mass of bodies, surrounded by casino security guards and members of the public. They reached out to shake James’ hand and begged fro autographs.

Bruce and Lauren headed the other way, walking down the now desolate red carpet, past the empty press pen and back towards the gazebo while the crowds continued pouring up the escalators.

“So, do you hear much from the old gang?” Bruce asked.

“I see Rat most days,” Lauren said.

“I mean apart from your husband,” Bruce said, laughing. “Kyle’s disappeared off my radar lately.”

Lauren nodded. “He wasn’t even at the last campus reunion. Gabrielle came out to Aus for a holiday last year with her husband. She’s earning big bucks working for a bank in Hong Kong. Bethany e-mails every now and then, but I haven’t seen her in years. And of course there’s people like Kevin and Dante, who’ve got jobs at CHERUB.”

“And Callum and Connor design skyscrapers,” Bruce said. “Did you see that thing they built in Taipei?”

“Monstrosity,” Lauren said. “But it won like a gazillion awards, so what do I know?”

“Next time you’re in Vegas, you must stay long enough to have dinner with my family,” Bruce said.

“Join us for Christmas out in Aus,” Lauren said. “I assume my brother pays you well enough to take the family on a good holiday once in a while.”

“He pays me a lot,” Bruce said. “But I’m not sure it’s enough for some of the messes I have to clean up, or some of his majesty’s little tantrums.”

“He can be such a pig,” Lauren said. “I’ve actually lost count of how many kids James has got now. Is it eight?”

“Ten,” Bruce said, “by six different women. But for all James’ money, and being the party boy clubbing ‘til 5am and hanging out with rock stars and being in the gossip columns, I don’t actually think he’s a very happy person.”

“Kerry?” Lauren asked.

“Obviously,” Bruce said solemnly. “James has always loved her and always will. But Kerry gave him more chances than he deserved and he still got his picture in the paper coming out of a nightclub with his hand up a stripper’s shirt.”

“If he’s unhappy he’s got nobody to blame but himself,” Lauren said firmly. “So, do you wanna stop off at a bar on the way to the airport? I don’t know about you, but I could murder a gin and tonic or five.”

Bruce looked at his watch. “Vegas is supposed to be a party town, isn’t it? So yeah, why the hell not?”

#CHERUB #cherub books #Robert Muchamore #Three Futures #James Adams #Bruce Norris #Lauren Adams #Kerry Chang

5 notes · View notes

a-singleboat · 5 years

Text

Break-Ups and Make-Ups

Word Count: 2330

Request: hi! I don´t know if you are taking requests, but if you are I was wondering if you could write something where reader and Damien Haas (or Shayne Topp) break up, so the rest of the smosh fam try to get them back together. Hope to hear from you soon - @lula132

The morning after a breakup was always the worst for you. As tradition dictated, you had hunkered down in your room for the night with a box of tissues on your right and a tub of ice cream clutched in your shaking hands with whatever sappy romance movie popped up first in the recommendation queue.

You had fallen asleep with the now-melted ice cream tub in your arms and the movie credits rolling. In the morning, you felt like you had been hit with a train that had not stopped moving since. With just a few words, the past seven years of your life suddenly meant nothing and you were left alone.

You capped the tub of ice cream and put it on your nightstand, swapping one comfort item for another and picked up your phone. The only notifications you had were a call from your mom and several Twitter notifications for fans that had mentioned you in their own tweets.

You cast a glance to the clock and read that it was six in the morning, two hours before you had to be at work. You sat in your bed and debated if you should even go in for the day if you should call in a family emergency and take the day to travel up to San Francisco to spend the next few days with your parents.

You shook your head and hopped off your bed, a new resolve set for yourself. You wouldn’t let this break-up force you into a shell. So what if Shayne Topp had broken your heart after seven years of loving you? You were still young and you had your whole life ahead of you, so what if seven years meant nothing in an ill-fated conversation.

You flung the curtains open and took a moment to just look outside at the bus streets of Los Angeles. You moved to the city nearly eight years ago after being employed by Defy for Smosh. You started as a low-level editor and slowly made your way to head camera operator and editor for the Smosh Games section. You would oversee filming when it came to table games or punishments and edit what you could for any games played on the computer. You even had a short stint as stunt coordinator before it was decided that they needed someone with a little more expertise especially when it came to the safety of the cast.

However, you met Shayne when you had just moved to Los Angeles and when you started dating, it came as no surprise to anyone. The decision to stay in separate apartments came with the idea that while you both had loved each other oh-so-much, you both need your own space and neither of you could afford to buy anything bigger than the apartments you both had or a house together.

Before you knew it, you had fully cleaned your room of any trace of the break down you had last night and were well on your way into the office. You called your mom on the drive there, using the conversation as a distraction so you wouldn’t have to think of him until you saw him.

You got to the office at the same time that Courtney had and you barely managed a smile in her direction. You could tell that she could tell that something was off with you because she had that knowing look on her face. If there was anyone who knew you better than you knew yourself, it was Courtney.

You brushed her off, saying that you had a rough night and asked her to help you carry some of the equipment that was still in your car from the last punishment you had to film outside.

When you got in the elevator, you deemed it safe enough to share the details of your night. You put the box you had in your hands down and rubbed your eyes. You had skipped on make-up that day, knowing that you would mainly be editing and eventually the feeling of the product on your face would get you to become quickly annoyed.

“Shayne and I broke up last night,” you confessed, breaking the silence. At first, you thought she didn’t hear you and you dreaded having to repeat yourself. When she put her own box down and engulfed you in a hug, you knew she heard.

“I’m so sorry, what happened? Just yesterday you guys were so happy,” Courtney’s eyes grew wide and sympathetic. You were regretting telling her.

“Yeah, I thought we were happy too and then he broke up with me out of nowhere. Of course, he was my ride home so I had to endure the awkward situation,” you picked up your box when the elevator doors opened on your floor. “Please don’t mention this to anyone yet.”

“Please don’t mention what to anyone?”

Damien Haas was your best friend next to Courtney. If you needed a laugh or even just a break from whatever you were doing he was there to provide a joke or a distraction.

With his question, you had to think fast on your feet. “It’s nothing, I just wanted to go back to see my parents for a little but I wasn’t too sure when would be a good time so I didn’t want to mention it.”

While that wasn’t completely a lie, Damien still looked skeptical. He read the look in your eye and slowly nodded, allowing that to be your answer. “Alright, if you say so.”

You smiled at him wide and moved past him, leading Courtney to where all the filming equipment was stored when it wasn’t in use. She helped you put most of the equipment away before she brought up a point that you had been debating for a good while.

“People are going to find out eventually, Y/n. You can’t just pretend that absolutely nothing happened,” Courtney sent you a pointed look. You pursed your lips and slid the last piece of equipment on the shelf.

“I know, I just don’t want to make it into a big deal,” you shut the lights and closed the door behind you. You looked at the time on the clock on the wall. “You should get to costume, you start filming in an hour.”

She glanced at the clock and panicked for a second. “Just don’t isolate yourself, okay? And this isn’t something you need to keep from anyone. We’re all adults and if anyone gives you a hard time, that just means they still have some growing up to do,” she started to walk away, doing a half-backward, half-sideway walk. “We’ll go for lunch later and talk more, yeah?”

You nodded and confirmed the lunch plans, intending to go out for lunch anyway. After sorting through a few stacks of editing notes and creating a mental list of things you had to accomplish for the day, you headed into the room dubbed as the ‘editing cave,’ and prepared yourself to watch all the footage from this week’s episode of Maricraft.

Shayne had woken up late that morning, distraught and a general mess. He arrived that the office, cutting it close by a mere two minutes and immediately getting himself to costuming. The velvet box weighed heavily in his backpack and despite how last night had played out, he couldn’t bring himself to take it out.

When he sat down in the chair for the hairdresser to do his hair, Damien found his way to his side and poked his side. “So,” Damien wiggled his eyebrows. “How’d it go last night?”

All Shayne did was pull the box from his bag and hand it off to his friend. “Did she reject you? Is that what she and Courtney were talking about in the elevator this morning?”

“She and Courtney were in the elevator this morning?”

“Yeah, she told Courtney not to say anything about something and Y/n made an excuse about visiting her parents,” Damien noticed his friend’s distressed look. “Hey dude, you okay?”

“So, last night didn’t exactly go as planned,” Shayne wanted to fall in on himself. “I might have broken up with her instead of proposing.”

“What?” Damien was taken aback, blinking a few times to make sure he was awake at the moment. “You’re telling me that you got to the carnival last night, got onto the ferris wheel, and broke up with her on the top, and then had to drive her home right after that?”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what happened and I don’t know how to fix it and now Courtney knows which means a lot more people will know pretty soon and,” Shayne made a noise that was not unlike what a cat being strangled would sound like.

Damien took some time to calm him down. “I’m sure that all this will take is a conversation with her. Y/n is a very reasonable person and I’m sure you can make it up to her.”

“I sure hope so,” Shayne caught Courtney’s eye. She was looking at him with a scowl on her face. Shayne sunk into his seat. “I think our first step is telling Courtney what happened, maybe she’ll know how to fix this.”

By the time lunch rolled around, Courtney was aware of the plan and was sent to fetch you for lunch. You had your headphones on, hyperfocused on a black-and-white clip of Damien. She lightly tapped on your shoulder causing you to jump slightly before settling down upon realizing that it was just Courtney.

“You ready for lunch?” she asked, pulling out the seat next to you and sitting to watch your process. You clicked on the save button and saved the footage to an external hard drive as an extra precaution. You stored the hard drive in a small drawer on your desk before standing up and stretching.

“Yeah, let me just tell Matt that I’m heading out and that I’ll have this Maricraft episode ready for posting when I get back,” you powered your computer down and grabbed your phone and wallet from under all the papers.

When you left the office and walked side-to-side with Courtney to her car, you were relieved for the slightly longer break you both would be getting. Not only were you ahead of schedule but Courtney’s next call wasn’t for another two hours.

“Now I know you and Shayne just broke up, but we’re going to lunch with him and Damien.”

You looked at Courtney with a dead look in your eye. “I’m fine with it, just because we’re broken up doesn’t mean I can’t be civil.”

Shayne and Damien were already in the car, sitting side by side in the back which caused you to look confused. “I gave them my keys so they could start the car’s air condition before I got you,” she explained.

The drive was an awkward one, the four of you decide to take the time to drive to a nicer Italian restaurant as you all had the time to spare. When you arrived and were seated, Courtney smacked her forehead and mentioned that she left her wallet in the car. Damien offered to go with her and that left her and Shayne at the table together.

You played with your fork and avoided all eye contact with him for as long as you could.

“Y/n,” he said. You slowly turned to face him, not wanting him to see the hurt in your eyes. There was something in his hands but you couldn’t discern what it was.

“I never wanted to hurt you,” he explained and you let him, deciding that you would’ve had this conversation one way or another. “And I still never do want to hurt you but last night was the biggest mistake of my life. I didn’t bring you up to the top of the ferris wheel to break up with you. I just panicked and I wasn’t really thinking.”

“Shayne, you don’t owe me an explanation or anything,” you wanted to look away but he seemed like he still had more to say.

“I didn’t bring you up there to break up with you, in fact,” he opened what he was holding in his hands and you let out an audible gasp. You watched as he moved to get out of his chair and then kneel next to you. “I made a horrible mistake last night and while I’ll never know how it happened but I really wanted to get down on my knee last night and ask you this question.”

“Y/n, you’re a wonderful person and you’ll be a saint if you’ll even allow this. But I truly want to marry you. I promise I’ll never cause you any pain anymore and I’ll be apologizing for my mistake for the rest of my life. But, Y/n, will you marry me?”

Tears welled up in your eyes as you processed what was going on. On one hand, he had caused you the most emotional pain that you had ever gone through and on the other, he was trying so hard. You made up your mind, nodding vigorously and pulling him up from the floor as the restaurant patrons around your table clapped.

He slipped the ring onto your finger as Courtney and Damien returned to your table, smirks on both of their faces. “You were both in on this, weren’t you?”

“We had some help,” Damien explained. “Ian overheard our conversation and he went to talk to Matt Raub to convince him to give us four an extra hour for lunch in case things went south and we had to do some drastic measures but everything turned out alright.”

“Remind me to thank Matt when we get back, but I think we should eat lunch while we’re here,” you laughed with your friends and at that moment, you knew everything would be alright.

#shayne topp #shayne topp x reader #shayne topp imagine #shayne #topp #courtney miller #courtney #miller #damien haas #damien #haas #ian hecox #ian #hecox #matt raub #matt #raub #smosh #smosh games

589 notes · View notes

meddows-taylor · 4 years

Text

Hi folks. I probably won’t be around until late Saturday or Sunday. I don’t know if I’ll end up showing up here before that, (most probably I will, at night if my night headaches go away) as my daily life is changing quite a bit right now and I need these two days to get used to it and to organize my reality and my thoughts. But I’m fine, trying to stay calm (on day 6 of quarantine, but managing quite fine), and - yes, very ironically - pretty busy the next two days. I’ll probably queue some stuff and will try my best to check my messages as well, since being in contact with all the wonderful people I know here has been helping me a lot.

Under the cut there are some random thoughts about my current situation that I wrote down during the day, in case you want to get a closer look at how I’m feeling right now and what is going on. I love you all so much and please, please be safe and take care of each other.

- I put on some makeup this morning (just a bit, what I would qualify as “going to get coffee or run some errands” makeup) and it instantly made me feel better. I’m used to seeing myself with makeup on during the week and it helped greatly to feel better and give my day at home some “normalcy”. It is also something I love doing and for some reason, I had convinced myself I couldn’t because I’m staying home and no one is seeing me. Well, I never really put on makeup for others but for myself, so I realized today how silly it was that I had stopped doing it.

- Decided to set up a decent space in my bed (not the best for WFH recommendations, but for now it will have to do). I’ve been staring at my desk that’s filled with stuff I was going to pack for a weekend trip that of course isn’t going to happen, and feeling guilty that it was such a mess and I couldn’t use it to work or study. But beating myself up for not being tidy is not a priority right now, and with my parents also working from home, the living room is a mess of phone calls and laptops and papers. So, the double bed with plenty of pillows will do for a place for myself.

- I have to work and I can’t keep postponing things hoping I’ll get them done as I usually do when we go back to the office because well, right now I don’t really know when that will be. But I think I needed these days to “grieve” my normal work life. On Wednesday I cried while sending out emails canceling events all the way through May. I was about to breakdown again while figuring out how we were going to pay for providers and clients because our remote system is not up to par with our working from home needs. But I didn’t. I can only take care of what we can right now, and try to keep the boat afloat. “Office manager” seemed like a laughable job term most of the time, because I’m not officially it but in practice I am. Now it’s beginning to seem like a very real figure.

(Writing this post got cut off because my boss called, and having a sort of “game plan” set up as a team helped a lot. Feeling productive at least towards others and having a clear set of tasks to get through instantly made me calmer)

- Community, even little network, helped a lot. Talking about something else. I’ve been sending videos singing and dancing to my two best friends all morning. Mostly old bops, high school musical dances, the most guilty pleasure pop. (we’re 27 so It was fun trying to recreate tiktok dances and feeling so, so, very old). Knowing I have my two rocks a videocall away didn’t make me miss them any less but it did confirmed the immense love I have for them. I can’t wait for this to be over and hug them so tightly.

- When the afternoon hit I felt sad, anxious, angry. Usually I keep a close watch on my mood changing so quickly because it’s an indicator my anxiety is doing worse. Right now all I can do is be as loving as I can towards myself and cut myself some slack - if my emotions change, I’ll just try my best to navigate through them, and most of all, not expect myself to feel okay all the time. Most of the day I have a knot in my stomach and feel like crying, but then it goes away, only to return later. Or, if I’m lucky, it doesn’t, and I just distract myself and manage to feel pretty okay. But I can’t punish myself for the changes.

- I’m terribly sad about all the things I’m missing: a trip with friends, a bunch of concerts, the last class of my writing workshop that was going to be tomorrow and now will be a group video call. I’m terribly anxious about having to read my piece to a screen and get feedback in a way that feels so distant to the closeness we had built as a group in the last few weeks. And then I feel stupid or ungrateful for caring about those things when there’s a bigger, more serious picture. But it’s okay to grieve those small moments we’ve been looking forward to. It’s okay to feel angry or helpless or sad over what was our daily life. Feeling guilty on top of it all won’t help me either.

- And maybe I’ll write a longer reflection about this later, but I’m also trying to not feel guilty (guilt and self exigence seems to be a common theme for me, I’m aware) about not being as creatively productive as I could or “should” be. I wanted to use this time to write, but the moment I sit in front of my computer and stare at the pages, I get stuck. My mind fills with worries, my mind wanders, I feel whatever I can write down is crap. I also take a look at the books and stories I wanted to read and I feel tired and desconected and discouraged. And I look at the piles and piles of notes for exams I have to get through and I can feel the guilt eating me up again. It’s okay. It’s okay if we’re drained creatively, if we’re not motivated, if we can’t focus. At points of the day I manage to pick up a story and read one chapter, I get to at least edit what I have already written - I count those as victories but I’m trying to not beat myself up if I can’t even get there.

Well, now I’ll try to get through these two days doing what I have to (and what I can), and being as kind to myself as I want. And writing down what’s going on at least helped greatly. Thank you

#this is just a long rant and writing down my thoughts #quarantine #anxiety #mental health #(wow you can feel my mood change through this post I started writing it in the morning and now is afternoon and the change shows)#but I'm fine guys! I'm hanging in there better than I thought

10 notes · View notes

ramblingrybo · 4 years

Text

Happy Birthday, Green Manalishi

Fifty years ago today, on May 15th 1970, one of the most haunting singles ever to appear in the British charts was released. It was ‘The Green Manalishi (with the Two Prong Crown)’ by Fleetwood Mac, written by Peter Green, a brilliant singer-songwriter and blues-rock guitarist. I can remember the first time I ever heard it. My next-door neighbour, Nicky, played it for me on his Dansette record player. It made me shiver. There was something dark and disturbing about it. Both the lyrics and the manner in which they were sung suggested pain and paranoia. As soon as it had finished, I asked him to put it on again. I was possessed and have been for the last fifty years. It was one of the first times I had ever been transported by the the words of a song or, to be more precise, by three lines of a verse. They have inspired a love of language ever since.

Before 1970 I have very little memory of literature. I hated reading at primary school and found writing difficult. In fact, I was one of the only children not to feature in the June 1963 edition of ‘Around Our School’, the St Nicholas School Newspaper. I have the evidence in front of me. ‘The Owl’ by Judith Cunnington appears, as does ‘My Budgie’ by Michael Parkinson. Likewise, ‘What I have seen’ by Gregory Swain. Even an appalling untitled two line poem by DW is there. But I am conspicuous by my absence. I hate to think what I had produced that was so bad it had led to my exclusion.

It was much the same in the first three years of secondary school. I think I perked up twice. Once was in the second year when our English teacher read us ‘The Thirty Nine Steps’ by John Buchan, and the next was in the third year when the same teacher read us ‘Christabel’ by Coleridge. It was just one image I remember, a single leaf on an old oak tree in the wood which Christabel visits in April late at night: ‘There’s not wind enough to twirl/ The one red leaf, the last of its clan/ That dances as often dance it can’. That’s all there was until the Green Manalishi came along.

So, here they are, the first three lines: ‘Now, when the day goes to sleep/ And the full moon looks/ The night is so black that the darkness cooks’. How about that for an introduction to a song? ‘The darkness cooks’ is so ominous. It makes me think of witches’ cauldrons or blood boiling or a mind melting. Even better, the words are reinforced in performance by the chugging threat of the guitar riff and Peter Green’s soulful, tortured voice which is as smooth as polished leather.

Unfortunately, after these first three lines the lyrics become less clear but seem to describe Green’s fight against the demons of addiction. Sadly, this was the case. Eventually, his experimentation with LSD led to a mental breakdown and he left Fleetwood Mac on 20th May, five days after the release of ‘The Green Manalishi’. He had been with the band for three years. During that time he had written some truly wonderful songs which are still firm favourites with many people today, ‘Black Magic Woman’, ‘Albatross’, ‘Oh Well’, and ‘Man of the World’.

Nevertheless, if the man was gone, we still had his songs. Inspired by this flawed genius, I joined a rock band eight months later. We were called Curiosity Morgue and advertised our gigs with cardboard coffins. We also wrote our own songs influenced by the likes of Uriah Heep, Ten Years After and Led Zeppelin. Many of the songs expressed our anger at the constraints placed upon teenagers by parents and teachers or the woeful inability of governments to tackle such problems as poverty and pollution. Occasionally, we even made personal attacks on members of our own families. I remember one gem. It was a vituperative assault upon the toupee-wearing father of our lead guitarist. And for what reason? Because he regularly turned off the electricity when we rehearsed in his lounge. Meanwhile, at school, we led the crusade against stuffiness, trying to persuade our music teacher that listening to the album,’Paranoid’, by Black Sabbath was an infinitely more pleasurable musical experience than having to endure yet more hours of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Fantasy Overture. In the end, he relented for one lesson and I remember him squirming as we played him ‘War Pigs’, urging him to listen carefully to the lyrics. Ah, happy memories.

After that came A levels and a degree and since then I have enjoyed a literature-fest on a daily basis. But do not worry. I am not going to treat you to an endless list of my favourite writers. I will just mention one, Holly McNish, and an incident when I was suddenly transported back to the realms of teenage fandom. First, you have to know that Holly McNish is a performance poet so that you can only fully appreciate her when she is performing live. Two years ago, I had a chance to see her at the Theatre Royal in Lincoln. I went with my friend, Lynn. When we were taking our seats in the auditorium, I recognised Holly immediately. She was talking to some local poets. Desperate to tell her how much I admired her poetry, I attempted to leave my seat. Unfortunately, I was paralysed by embarrassment and remained stuck where I was, wringing in my hands a copy of ‘Plum’, her latest work. I made my excuses, ‘It would be rude to interrupt her’, vowing that I would try to catch her at the end of her performance, ‘I’ll catch her in the foyer. If I’m quick enough, I’ll be the first in the queue’. I was and she was there. But I hesitated, tongue-tied, so by the time I had plucked up enough courage to speak to her, somebody else had stolen her away. ‘Shucks’, I thought, ‘maybe next time.’

It was different with Peter Green. I have never seen him so that I have never had the opportunity of thanking him for writing ‘The Green Manalishi’. But, why not now? Come on, courage, you can do it...

O.K. here goes. Thank you, Peter Green, wherever you are. Oh, and while we’re at it, can I have your autograph, please?

#The Green Manalishi #Fleetwood Mac #Peter Green #teenagers #Holly McNish

2 notes · View notes

myukulelegentlyweeps · 5 years

Text

Nowhere Man - Part III

A/n : Okay so I guess you could say in comparison with what I’ve written so far this is pretty angsty? I struggle with anxiety, and I thought it would be nice to write about how George would handle it and be all sweet about it so here it is. If you don’t like angsty stuff / you find descriptions of panic attacks triggering, you can just skip right along to the next part. Don’t worry, all in all it's pretty fluffy anyway

Warnings : Descriptions of anxiety, of a panic attack

Word count : 1455

SPECIAL THANKS TO @1968georgeharrison who beta-read and helped with the editing (also she has an amazing url, 1968 George is one of my favourite Georges ; go follow her, her blog is great)

“Mary, I’m going now!”, hand on the doorknob, you made one last call to your roommate, who was sitting in your living room flipping through the pages of a magazine - the cover read, amongst other things, a small title in red letters, “Beatles to break up soon?”, which saddened you in spite of yourself. They were half the world population’s favourite band - that included you - and it was not going to be easy to let go of these years of charisma and great music. The four lads had practically defined an era and Lord knows it’s hard for people to move on ; if any of them tried to carry on with a solo career, it was safe to say the “Beatle” title would follow them around.

It was not only the press’ suppositions. George himself had told you about Paul’s desperate efforts to delay the inevitable, which was ultimately making into more of a bossy asshole than anything. What had once been The Great Beatles was now falling apart into a strange combo of four tired men being passive-aggressive toward each other as Yoko waltzed around the studio eating his biscuits. George was very fussy about his biscuits. All jokes aside, you saw how tense and irritable he was when he left the sessions, and for that a part of you was hoping Let It Be would be their last album. You cared about him too much to watch him suffer in this manner.

“Off to see loverboy then?”, she looked up from her reading, an obvious smirk painted across her face as she continued : “Don’t forget what I -” “I know, I know, get an autograph for your little sister whose birthday is coming up.” you cut in mid-sentence. “She’s cute and I’ll do what I can. But you’ll owe me big time, you’re putting me in a very awkward position here.” Usually people do not have to ask their friend/love interest for an autograph. It did not help that you were already somewhat nervous about meeting him that afternoon. You were unsure where the two of you stood : you had not seen each other since the night of the kiss and, though said kiss had meant the world to you, you could not just assume it was the case for him. Sometimes a kiss is just a kiss.

You closed the door behind you and made your way down the staircase, taking deep breaths as you felt the anxiety beginning to rise in your throat. It saddened you - normally the perspective of seeing George made you happy, cheerful, bouncy even. Why did your brain do this to you? Once you had exited your building you started pacing hastily, eyes fixed on the sidewalk, trying to keep your vision from blurring. Maybe the nerves would fade once you got there.

They did not. In fact, they got worse. It was not so much George himself, whom you had greeted with an awkward ‘I don’t know whether we are friends or something more’ hug - he was smiling at you and being kind as always. But you wondered over and over again, Should I ask him for the autograph now? Should I wait a little? What will he think of me, he’ll get annoyed… and once your anxiety had been triggered, you knew your chances of calming down completely were slim. The coffee shop seemed to be louder than ever before. You were hyper-aware of every small noise, a customer speaking, a machine’s whistle, a teaspoon stirring sugar into a warm drink, and this diabolical orchestra of overlapping instruments played in your head like a class of kindergartners trying to decide on who gets to play with the all-favourite toy.

“Are you alright there (y/n)? Y’look a bit pale.”, he placed his hand on your upper arm, a mix of doubt and worry in his brown eyes, sensing your distress. “I’m fine…”, you said weakly. Your eyes shifted back to the queue in front of you : it suddenly appeared immense, as if the counter were miles away. Your heart pounded in your chest at a speed that almost scared you. You knew what you had to do, you knew what the healthy thing to do was. But could you tell him? So early on, you barely knew him, what would he think? Would it be oversharing? Would he judge you? What if he didn’t understand and- “(y/n). You’re shivering. Are you sure yer okay?”, his voice echoed once again in your ears, half-mixing with the rest of the cacophony. The wave emerged from the darkest depths of your head and you realised it too late to be able to stop it in time : tears started streaming down your cheeks uncontrollably. Of course your anxiety only increased, as it was the first time you were crying in front of him and your brain tortured you with assumptions about his opinion of you. He hates me now. I’ve ruined everything. Not that he ever liked me anyway, he just pitied me ; how did I ever think I could be good enough for him, a Beatle, for heaven’s sake… Your ears had now been completely detached of the coffee shop and were filled to the brim with your accelerated breaths. Seeing yourself shake only frightened you more ; you closed your eyes to shut every possible further trigger out.

While your panic unravelled, George stood next to you ; very concerned at first, he then seemed to realise something and his expression shifted slightly. He knew what this was. A friend of his suffered from anxiety, and he had been there during two of his panic attacks. Of course he was no expert, but at least he knew something about how he could help. He remembered his friend telling him that any additional stimuli during a panic attack, when the person is at her most fragile and vulnerable, was to be avoided ; he also understood, however, that he needed to get you out of the coffee shop before you could begin to calm down. He supposed touching you counted as a stimulus, but he could not think of another way : he reached to gently grasp your hand and led you outside without a word. You followed him almost subconsciously, too overwhelmed to comprehend what he was doing. Once you were out on the sidewalk and two cars drove by at full speed, he figured the city streets were not the ideal setting and, after a few seconds of hesitation, guided you toward the zebra crossing, still holding your hand.

Soon enough, you reached a bench in a very peaceful Hyde Park, where London’s busy streets felt like a bad dream you had finally woken up from. You hastily dried your eyes with the back of your sleeve, feeling significantly better - your breathing, at least, had slowed down. But your brain was still rushing and, according to it, the worst was yet to come. You would have to explain what happened to somebody you cared deeply about, whose judgement you feared above all others. You were trying to delay it by staring at your feet intently, but eventual confrontation of the problem was inevitable.

George was the first to break the silence : “Are you better, love?”. You nodded slowly in response, trying to work out an acceptable string of words of reassurance in your head. “I’m so sorry, George, I...I just…” Happy to hear your voice again, he gave you a small smile. “It’s okay (y/n), really, you don’t have to explain or justify anything.” “But I do.”, you replied with a slightly shaky voice. “No, you really don’t. I know what it is, a friend of mine ’s’got it too. That’s why I brought you to the park, thought it might help to get you away from the sensory overload of the city. Plus it doesn’t even matter what it is, I’m just glad you’re okay now.” After a short silence, he grinned mischievously and added : “Does it count as overstimulation if I kiss you?” Still a bit shaken, you nevertheless decided to go along with the attempt to lighten the mood. “I don’t know...I’d have to get back to you on that, but trying it is the only way to know, innit?” His smile widened and your lips joined into a sweet kiss which gave you the wonderful feeling of butterflies in your stomach, just like the first time. Which reminded you :

“George, I’m sorry to say this now, I guess it isn’t the best time but I have to know...What are we?”

“Well, again, I don’t know if it counts as overstimulation ; but I would love to ask you to be my girlfriend.”

68 notes · View notes

hnk-art · 5 years

Photo

Inktober - Day 22 — 忍者 : Ninja.

Drawing made way before inktober, the last time Xyan told me about the rude behaviours and comments they encountered while playing as Ninja. From how to play your job to suggestions about changing jobs because the DPS was not high enough for the dicks Xyan met in roulette.

I intended to give this drawing to comfort my friend after they told me about these super cool comments you have from total random stupid playerwhen you go as a ninja with strangers in roulette, to help Xyan feeling better.

Unfortunately I ruined my first try mainly because I burn my hand with my hot tea cup while drinking it and dropped the whole cup on the drawing. Inktober is a good chance to still give the drawing so I force myself into drawing the sketch properly again during the night because my brain is one of a nocturnal thing and with lots of tea. Lots of tea. This time they did not finish on the drawing though. So that’s a good thing for me to gift a proper drawing which is not soaked in tea. Very late though.

Whatever.

Nix, this drawing of your Miqo’te girl as a ninja ( I know this is totally not your NIN glam, forgive me ) is here to remind you Ninjas are one of the coolest class to have in a party and certainly one of those I appreciate having during all my farm parties or sync EX trials. I remember being thankful to ninjas and their awesome skills during the Savage runs I did, and even though this is not as high damage-dealer as other melee dps, Ninjas are still super cool and you should not feel depressed because of some stupid asses who can’t even keep their aggro or refrain from running like headless chicken through a dunjon because they can’t afford time to queue and do dunjons, but they still queue to ruin the day of actual players who wants to enjoy the game and their job. Ninja rocks, and people tends to forget it because they behave like total dicks in a game made to be fun. So please, accept this drawing as my dedication to one of the class I affectionate the most in the whole game. I hope you won’t encounter morons who will uselessly complain about NIN jobs when they should learn their own job before giving lessons to someone who mastered it. But if you sadly do meet other rude people like those, I wish this drawing can comfort you even if it is for one second. Once again, Ninja rules and you, as a ninja, are pretty much skilled in this job. /patshead

_____

Drawing of a RP OC of my friend, @xyanmajor as a ninja but with the wrong glam.

Tools : A5 Paper / Promarkers / Staedtler 0.05 / Sanguine pen A color eater scanner and a certain lack of skill to digitally edit to fix the color-eater scanner doing.

Credit : Miqo’te and anything FFXIV © Square Enix Nixyan Shadowclaw is @xyanmajor‘s FFXIV character The chains and black/red square thing refers to that animation one of Ninja skills have. The red knives refers to Sanguine Sword, which I know is one Xyan’s favorite weapon in FFIII. The more thing I put in this drawing that they like, the more it has a chance to make them smile. I hope it made you smile Xyan or that you noticed the sanguine swords. The bad-drawn lily in the hair is red because Blood for Blood lily. It may have been soaked because of Sanguine swords. They may have given the life and blood they took to the lily I guess, tainted its pure white into bloody red color.

#my art #chibi #oc #ff14 #ffxiv #art #traditional art #gift #nixyan shadowclaw #ninja #miqo'te #inktober 2019 #artblock phase going away slowly ... by reproducing drawings made monthes before it happened lol ???#trying to break the artblock is hard but somehow it kinda works #ff14 oc #artists on tumblr #ffxiv oc #long post #i write my kanjis as bad as i write my texts

13 notes · View notes

imagine-that-100 · 5 years

Text

Conversation | Part 2 |

Description of Part 1: Matty Healy x Reader (Female) | You are a photographer, who lives in Manchester, that’s trying to make it down to London for your latest job. Your hectic morning leaves seconds to catch your train and luckily for you the 2 hour journey goes a lot faster when you have someone to make conversation with.

Word Count: 7.5k

A/N: If you haven't already guessed Matty doesn't have a girlfriend in this series. Just wanted to clarify that one. Don’t worry there will be many more parts to come after this, I’m thinking lets make it 10 parts! I really hope you all enjoy the latest part and I’m so excited for you all to read it! Feedback is appreciated and thanks so much for reading. Love you all x

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

| MASTERLIST IN BIO |

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

When Matty told you on Friday that the train home was going to be busy, you’d really underestimated how busy it actually was. You’d managed to get to the train station for 9:45am not chancing being late home, partly because you couldn’t afford it and partly because all you wanted was to be back in your own bed.

Your Premier Inn single bed didn’t compare to your double with a memory foam mattress back at your flat. You practically lived in bed when you were editing your photos and you planned on doing just that when you got back home.

Euston station was just as busy as Piccadilly was because of the amount of people stood gazing up at the announcement boards, checking if their train was on time or delayed. The crowd made you feel suffocated and you couldn’t stand it, so to waste some time before your train was boarding, you went to the shop. You bought yourself a meal deal consisting of a sandwich, a chocolate bar and a bottle of Coke.

You had a sweet tooth and couldn’t think of a life without the fatty foods you consumed almost daily. A life without chocolate really wouldn’t be worth living.

On your way back over to the platform gate, your senses were overwhelmed. The screens around you were constantly changing to different advertisements and the floral scents filled your nostrils when the Body Shop doors opened and closed. The smell was quickly replaced with fresh chips and other fatty foods from Burger King.

Surprisingly, no-one had barged into you during your morning here, so you were in a good mood. You’d had a really nice weekend. You had taken some really good pictures on Friday and had a lovely day sightseeing yesterday.

When your train changed on the screen to boarding, you made your way over as best you could, trying to avoid hitting anyone with your bags. This had proved to be difficult though because of the bag on your back and the one on your front.

When you got to the end of the queue, you looked down at the yourself to see if you were still presentable. You hadn’t slept well the previous night which lead to you waking at 6am meaning you had 3 hours to chill out in the hotel as you slowly got ready to leave.

This morning you’d had time to put your usual effort into your make up which you were thankful for, because when you got to your hotel on Friday, you thought you’d look like a wild animal. Today you’d gone for a natural eyeshadow with a sleek winged eyeliner, and on your travels around London yesterday, you'd gotten yourself a nude matte lipstick which your adored.

You were wearing the same black boots that you arrived in, with blue ripped jeans and a black skull top that was stylishly torn, showing a fair amount of cleavage. You had your leather jacket on as well and your hair was now straight. You had Queen blasting into your ears, and you nod your head along to the beat of ‘We Will Rock You’ smiling to yourself feeling content with life.

Thankfully the queue had started moving so you slowly took steps towards the gate whilst only paying close attention to Freddie Mercury’s voice. In fact, you paid so close attention to the music in your ears that when your earphones were tugged out of your ears it made you jump.

You look to the side to see a familiar face, that was partly hidden by sunglasses, and a smirk also graced his lips.

The now curly haired man says, “Fancy seeing you here?”

“Are you stalking me?” You ask him, looking at him up and down in disbelief that he was actually next to you again.

Matty was wearing a white top, black skinny jeans with holes at the knees, and some black boots. He had his leather jacket on over the top and the only major difference was his hair being wild and curly.

“No, not stalking. I saw you in the queue and I wanted to get on the train quicker” He told you with a smile and you laugh.

“So, I’m a fast track then?” You question pretending to be slightly offended.

He replies with a grin, “Essentially, yes”

“Ouch” You say faking your heart breaking at his comments. “How was your weekend?” You ask.

“Decent actually. I quite like my flat in London, so it was nice to be back again” He tells you.

“Did your people fix your hair for you?” You question with a smirk and Matty grins at you.

You both get to the gate and show your tickets to the staff members and they let you through. Both of you then walk slightly faster towards the train.

Matty asks you, “How was the ballet?”

You tell him, “It was really good! I think I got some great shots of them and they were brilliant to watch as well”

You had an amazing weekend starting off with your bizarre train journey and you had a surprisingly fun time taking photos of the ballet dancers. They were so kind, and you tried your best to get an image of each of them before you had finished what you had been employed to do.

You had also been astounded by their incredible talent. The best you could dance would be jumping up and down at a gig or a party in time with the music.

“Well, it was good to see you again” You tell him as you see that the first-class doors coming to an end.

“Yeah, see ya around Y/N” Matty said before he made his way onto the train.

You slipped your other earphone back in and made your way to carriage E as quickly as you could, hoping that your seat would be empty. You really didn’t have the energy to awkwardly ask someone to move.

Luckily your seat was empty and once your bags were up on the shelf you took your seat. You looked over to the seat that Matty had been in a few days ago and smiled to yourself. You don’t think that you would be forgetting any of the memories you had of him on that train journey for a while yet.

Thanks to Matty, your Instagram account had nearly a thousand more followers and you had read some of the loveliest comments about your work from people all around the world. You would be eternally grateful to him for his kindness.

The train had quickly started filling up around you and the sunlight was now streaming through the window right into your eyes. You luckily had your new sunglasses in your pocket and put those on to shield your eyes.

They were big and gold and very feminine, they made you feel like you were on Love Island doing a brand deal, but they were the nicest ones the shop had to offer. They were also mirrored so they also came in handy for you checking to see if your make up was still okay.

When the train eventually set off, you were cornered into your seat by the man that was sat next to you. He was reading his newspaper and loudly flapping it around when he turned the page.

The man sat opposite you was typing away loudly on his laptop and staring angrily at the screen. The woman next to him looked like a flight attendant crossed with an office worker and she was chewing her gum loudly.

Thankfully, you had your phone charging and were listening to Queen on full blast through your earphones now, drowning out the world for your journey back home. You rested your head against the window and looked out of it until your eyes began to close.

When you lent your head forwards, you felt your hair cover your face and it was then that you accepted that you were going to be catching up on your missed sleep whilst being on the train. As bad as it sounded you were never up this early on a Sunday morning, as it was usually your only day off most of the time.

Due to photography not always being stable, you also worked in a bar a few nights a week. You usually did a longer shift on Saturday nights, meaning that your Sunday morning were essentially for you to catch up on missed sleep.

You felt the train rock from side to side as your eyes grew heavier, but that unfortunately didn’t last long. Freddie Mercury belted a note through your earphones which startled you out of your drowsy state.

Your heart started beating faster from the shock and you felt your tiredness dissipate. You turned down your music to about half way so it kept you entertained but wouldn’t startle you again if you dosed off.

After about 15 minutes of being on the train you were holding your head up against the window and you were losing the will to live. There were 4 loud girls sat on the table opposite your own, where you and Matty had sat last time, and they were annoying you so much.

They hadn’t stopped squealing and giggling for the past 15 minutes and you wanted to slap them for it.

You’d been in such a good mood this morning and seeing Matty again was nice. It was a shame that the trip home wasn’t going to be keeping your good mood going.

The sunlight continued to stream into your eyes because unfortunately your sunglasses weren't very good ones. You just squinted as you looked out of the window hoping that watching the passing scenery would make the time fly faster.

A few minutes later, you were yet again startled but this time by the drumming of hands on your table. You, and everyone else seated at your table, turned around quickly and saw a skinny, curly haired man with familiar sunglasses on looking down in your direction.

You took your earphones out and wrapped them around your phone, as a smile made its way onto your face. You chuckled to yourself moving your glasses down your nose, so you were looking over them at him.

“Hey Matthew” You say with a smile on your face.

He smiles back at you before reaching up onto the shelf and your just watching as he brings them both down. You look at him confused and half ask what he was doing, but a second later he reached over the man to the side of you, holding his hand out for you to take.

You shoot him a questioning look but Matty just moves his hand closer to you insisting you to take it. After a second you take his hand and he tugs at it, wanting you to get up.

You don’t ask questions, instead you just unplug your phone charger and say, ‘Excuse me’ to the man next to you. He politely got out of his seat to let you out all while Matty still held onto your hand.

“Where are we going?” You asked him, grabbing your carrier bag off the table.

Matty then let go of your hand and started walking up the train with your bags over his shoulders. You let out an amused sigh and followed him.

You noted that Matty no longer had his jacket on and you could see the tattoo’s that littered his arms. It was amazing seeing those tattoos so close, especially when you’d only seen pictures of them for years.

“Matty, where are we going?” You question him as you reached a slightly quieter part of the train.

“You’re following me” He tells you without looking back and you just rolled your eyes.

You weren’t leaving your bags, which meant you weren’t leaving him. As you came to the first-class doors, Matty just walked in but you grabbed his shoulder causing him to turn towards you.

He looks at you with his eyebrows raised and you say, “I can’t sit in here, I have to pay for it”

“Don’t worry I upgraded you… It’s sorted” He tells you as he continued up the train.

You looked at him shocked and said, “You can’t make that decision, I really don’t have to money to pay you back for it right now”

You had spent most of your savings in London yesterday, treating yourself and now you regretted doing so.

“Well it’s done now, so you don’t need to worry about it” He hushes your worries in a flat tone as he reaches what you assumed to be his seat which was across from an older lady.

“The company is payment enough” Matty tells you with a smile.

He then proceeds to playfully push you into the seat near the window. As you sit down in the slightly wider and more comfortable seat than the one you were previously in, you smile at the lady across from you.

She politely smiles in return and then her gaze fixes on the book in front of her. You look back towards Matty as he shoves the last of your stuff up on the storage shelf above and he smiles at you once he sits down.

“Hey” Matty says nonchalantly, as if he hadn’t just dragged you up the train and payed for you to sit with him.

“Hi” You say back at him laughing.

“You really couldn’t last half an hour without speaking to anyone?” You question him and he just laughs sarcastically.

“I like these by the way” He points towards your sunglasses and you say a small thank you.

He takes them off your face, but they get caught in your hair. You let out a whine followed by a half angry stare as he untangles strands of your hair from. Matty just smiles and takes off his own, replacing them with yours.

You pick up his glasses and put them on and you look at each other. It was like you were both 5 years old and playing dress up.

“They suit you” You tell him, holding back a smile.

“I suit everything” Matty says confidently with a cocky tilt of his head.

You don’t scorn him for it though, because it was true. You smile, “Fair point”

“I think I wanna keep these” He announces as he takes them off and looking at them in his hand.

“You can have them if I can keep these” You jokingly offer, gesturing towards the ones you were wearing.

Yours had cost you like £5 from some shop you had gone in to buy yourself some food the day before. His would probably cost you 2 days wages.

“Deal” He says, and you shake your head in disbelief.

“How was the promotion stuff you had to do?” You asked him, taking the glasses off and putting them on the table along with your carrier bag that contained your meal deal.

“T’was alright I guess… Just the usual… Good to go back to London though before the American tour” Matty informs you and you slipped into an easy conversation with him.

After about 20 minutes Matty took your glasses off and you took your phone out of your jacket pocket. You realised your music was still playing through your earphones, which was something you accidentally did all the time.

“Are you listening to Queen?” Matty questions looking down to your phone.

You pause the music and nod, saying, “Yeah”

“Let me see what music you like?” The brunette asks and you happily hand him your phone not having a problem with him having a look.

He presses the home button on your phone and the password screen comes on. Matty turns the phone towards you and you give him a look.

“Believe it or not, you already know my password” You tell him and he looks at you confused, then stares back at the phone.

Matty thinks for a few moments about a 4-digit password when it becomes clear to him. He asks disheartened, “Are you really that basic?”

You nod grinning as he types in 1 9 7 5 and he just laughs shaking his head in disappointment. “It’s just easy to remember” You defend yourself but he still just shaking his head.

Instead of gracing you with a response Matty clicks onto your Spotify and he goes on your playlists. You have a few different ones there, either dedicated to old classics or new release, even a party playlist. Different genres of music all seemed to come up too and you had some for your favourite bands and solo artists.

However, you forgot why you never usually let people on your phone because you see him tap on a playlist that starts with: Matty Healy can...

“What’s this?” He says as the screen loads, and you try to take your phone back out of his hand.

“Matty no” You say half leaning over him trying to get it back.

But Matty just extends his arm further out and pushes you away with his other, making you unable to get it.

When it eventually loads, he reads the title that says: Matty Healy can fuck me senseless 👅

Matty’s laugh rings out around the carriage causing the older woman in front of you to look at him. You move back into your own seat and rest your hand over your face.

‘For fucks sake’ You thought. How many times could you embarrass yourself in front of this man?

“That’s adorable” Matty laughs looking through the playlist that’s just full of his band’s songs.

After a minute, you look back at him with your cheeks red hot and he just looks at you humorously. He puts a hand on your arm and rubs in slightly, as if easing your embarrassment when he says, “It’s okay, everyone wants me to”

You sit back and say, “I named it that before I met you and realised you were a twat” with half a smile on your lips.

Matty then looks towards you, without any emotion on his face. His blank expression on his face somehow made his dark eyes lifeless as he stared at you, evidently unimpressed.

After a moment, he blurts out, “Don’t fuck with me Y/N, you already knew that before you met me”

He just smirks at you when you raise your hands jokingly in defeat and say “True”

“How old are you anyway?” He asks you curiously, still looking through your Spotify, silently judging your taste in music.

“Twenty-two” You tell him, and he nods his head as if agreeing with himself.

Matty then looks you up and down and you catch him doing so, and you widen your eyes at him. You raise your eyebrows too, and that seems to prompt him to reply to you.

“What?” He asks, “You’re in my age range” He says, resting his free hand on your thigh.

You roll your eyes at that. He really was quite the flatterer.

“Keep your hands to yourself Healy” You laugh, slipping his hand off your leg, pretending like his touch hadn't just set you on fire.

Matty hands you your phone back a minute later and you both start talking about which artists you both like, and your favourite songs of theirs. Matty creates a new playlist and adds some more music that you haven’t yet listened to.

“It’s fucking boiling in here take the jacket off... You’re making me feel uncomfortable” He instructs you, and he likes when you roll your eyes dramatically at him.

“Stop trying to get me undressed you psycho. We’re on a public train” You say whilst slipping off your jacket, only now noticing how hot it was.

You get your charger out of your pocket and plug it in. You needed to charge up your phone as when you got back, you had a lot of editing to do and you would need the music to pass the time.

As the cool air hits your arms, you instantly start to cool down. You release a sigh of relief just before Matty lets out a loud gasp.

“You actually did it!” Matty gasps and you look at him confused.

But you completely understand once Matty takes your right wrist into his hand.

“You actually got the tattoo” Matty said excitedly.

You grin at him as he studies, which was something that you did all day yesterday after getting it done. It was really sore and red, but you still loved it.

“It looks sick” He said looking at the detail of it.��

You’d gotten the box tattooed on your wrist with two roses over the top right corner and the bottom left corner. The roses were beautiful, they had so much detail in them and you were happy you had such beautiful artwork on your body to look at every day.

“Thanks” You say, and you watch as he traces the edge of it with his fingertips. You let out a small hiss of pain when his touch becomes too much, and he apologises to you.

“It’s alright” You laugh. “It’s just tender… And really warm” You say as you look at the black and white tattoo.

He let’s go of your arm and he says “I can’t believe you actually did it... I well thought you would pussy out”

“I’m hard as nails me” You laugh and Matty does too.

“I already want another one” You tell him excitedly.

“Addicting, aren’t they?” Matty says and you nod in agreement.

He then proceeds to ask you why you didn’t get the roses coloured in. But before you can answer, you get a snapchat of your best friend.

Both you and Matty look towards your phone and when you retrieve your device and open the message, it’s just a picture of her face really close up with the caption:

Please come and save me from work x

You smile at your phone and take a selfie to start typing your reply. Just as you’d taken it though you see Matty trying to get into the picture as well.

You start laughing at his disappointment when it doesn’t include him, and he tells you to take another one. You just keep the original one and type your reply: Sorry stuck on a train 😪x

Once that’s been sent though, you angle the front facing camera towards Matty instead of yourself and take a picture of him as he pulls a face. You save it quickly and send: With this guy again 🙄

“Don’t act like you aren’t thrilled by my presence” Matty grins, nudging you with his shoulder.

“I was on Friday” You tell him honestly.

“But by the end of that trip, I guess I just realised you’re just like me and my friends...So the shock of you being you wore off...” You continue and he just looks towards you and with a hurt facial expression.

After a moment it changes, and he says, “I’m only joking... I get it, it happens with any fans that we meet for a while.”

“Like No Rome?” You ask and Matty looks smiles at you.

“Yeah, Rome’s fucking awesome” He tells you and you tell him how much you liked his stuff at the concert.

You get interrupted by your best friend’s reply which was almost immediate. If there is anything that you friend loved to do, it would be to get paid to be on her phone.

Matty picks your phone up when he hears the notification and unlocks it.You watch as he manoeuvres through your apps until he finds snapchat.

When he opens it, you’re both greeted with a beautiful picture of your friend. Her face is completely shocked, and her mouth is wide open.

You knew you’d be having an hour-long phone call like she had done when Matty left your side on Friday. Not that you minded, meeting a celebrity didn’t happen to you every day and you had to fangirl with her about it, even if he was just as normal as the two of you. Her being excited caused you to be as well.

Matty leans his head on your shoulder and you smile at the camera as he takes a picture of you both. He types back Hello beautiful x and sends it back to her but not before saving the picture.

“You’re such a tease” You tell him, and he just keeps his head on your shoulder waiting for your friends reply. You feel his curls against you neck and you have to have to restrain yourself from playing with them.

“I’m a perfect gentleman… Don’t be jealous, you’re beautiful too” Matty retorts and you let out a laugh although you feel your cheeks heat up slightly.

You friend replies after a few minutes with a completely different picture from beforehand. You could tell that it had taken her about 5 attempts to get the right angle she wanted, and she was definitely trying to impress.

Hey handsome x was her message and you just giggle.

Matty takes another selfie of you both but this time he rests his chin on your shoulder and he’s looking at you when he takes the picture. You watch him save it and smile to yourself.

It was a really cute picture actually and you were glad you could keep it.

Messages kept going back and forth between them and you didn’t intervene. Matty kept saving the selfies he was taking of you both and you watched as he started to troll her saying things about the two of you.

For example, the last message he sent was a picture of you smiling looking down at his head resting on your shoulder again and he was pouting at the camera. Matty had sent the picture with the caption:

Did Y/N tell you about our eventful night? x

You rolled your eyes when he sent that and let out a sigh. You were actually intrigued to see what he’s going to say and when she replies with a shocked face asking, What?!?!?!

Matty picks his head up off your shoulder and says a low, “Be cool” into your ear.

Whilst controlling your body not to shiver in response to that, you were about to ask him what he was talking about. But then you felt his lips on your cheek.

You stay silent and feel your heart rate increase as you watch your phone capture him kissing your cheek with his eyes closed. You see him take the picture, he removes his lips, then saves it before he types out:

Lots of naughty things! Can’t believe she didn’t tell you…

Once it’s sent you look over to him questioningly, as if to say, ‘what do you think you’re doing?’ Matty just sticks his tongue out at you and you laugh, “Put that away”

Before he can reply your phone goes off again and your friend sends a blurry picture of herself, more than likely freaking out, and her message says:

Omg! What naughty things?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!

You snort trying to hold in your laugh and Matty sniggers at her messages. Matty then acts quickly, he licks up your face where he’d previously kissed you and takes the picture before you pull away in disgust.

“You’re actually fucking vile Matthew” You say wiping your cheek aggressively.

You couldn’t believe he just did that so you shove him away from you playfully. Really was a strange thing for him to do when you’d only met him twice. He then started laughing at your reaction whilst he replied:

Y/N’s favourite tongue was involved quite a lot…

You roll your eyes continuing to clean your face and Matty just kept leaning and nudging you with his shoulder. He was fucking good at trying to get under your skin, you would give him that.

“Shouldn’t you be avoiding rumours? Like the ones you’re making right now” You ask Matty and his dark eyes find yours instantly.

You can feel the heat on your cheeks but hoped he couldn’t tell how you were reacting to him.

“Just a bit of banter ain’t it?” Matty says with a cheeky smile on his face then he sticks his tongue out at you again.

Your eyes go wide, and you move away from him when he starts moving closer to you pretending he was going to lick you again. Luckily your phone goes off, distracting him and Matty opens the message immediately.

The picture was an entire blur and you just laughed to yourself. She would be a mess in work now because she would be trying her hardest to stay calm but internally wanting to scream the place down.

Y/N Y/L/N!!!!!!!! WTAF!!!!! You go gurl! Did you make him do the balaclava thing?!?!?!? btw I just threw my phone and cracked the screen… fml x

Your eyes went wide when you read the message and internally sighed. Matty turned to look at you with a smug face, “What balaclava thing do you want me to do Babe?”

You know he’s not going to let it go, so you decide telling him would be easier.

“When I was younger, I thought it was very attractive when you kissed the girl in the Robbers video with your balaclava on… Like ten outa ten relationship goals…” You mumble.

Matty smirks at you and bumps your shoulder with his again. You release a small laugh and then say, “In my defence, I was young and impressionable watching your music videos… So if we think about this… it’s really your fault”

He sends a picture back to your friend of him giving you a knowing look and you looking back at him trying to conceal your smile but failing. His message said:

Not yet, but dreams do come true…

“I’m sorry I don’t have one on me right now or I could make your fantasy about me come true” Matty said raising his eyebrows suggestively and you shook your head looking away from him feeling embarrassed.

“I was like Seventeen, okay… That was a long time ago” You say peaking back over at him.

The curly haired man didn’t reply to your comment until you were facing him again, and when you did, he bopped you on your nose with his finger, saying, “It’s alright babe, you’re allowed to fancy me”

You shake your head at him whilst smiling and he lets out a small laugh. Matty’s attention was then directed towards your phone again when the snapchat notification went off. Your friend had replied:

I can’t believe it x

Matty let out a light laugh which was adorable and double tapped on her name to reply. He wrapped an arm around your shoulder, his hand dangling around your neck.

He pulled you towards him and he kissed your temple. You let your eyes fall closed as he did so and opened them again when you heard him take the picture.

To say it was adorable would be an understatement, you looked happy and content with a smile on your face leaning into him and Matty’s eyes were closed as he pressed a kiss to your head. You smiled seeing the photo and Matty did too. Matty saved the picture to your memories and typed:

She’s mine x

“She’s going to fucking lose it” You say smiling at him and he looked back towards you with amusement evident on his face.

Matty’s arm was still around your shoulder and he pulled you into him. You let out a soft screech as you fell into his chest and then start laughing when he ruffled your hair up.

You reach up and get him back though. His hair was softer than you imagined it would be and your fingers ran through his curls easily. When you sat back up Matty was holding your phone expectantly and eager to carry on the ruse.

He looks gutted when your phone loses signal because he can’t get a reply. You try and think of a new topic of conversation not really wanting to sit in an uncomfortable silence with him.

Matty lets go of you and lets out a loud yawn, which causes you to yawn too. “I’m so tired” You tell him and he frowns a little.

“How come?” Matty asks.

“Always am” You laugh. “I don’t sleep till late in the night anyway and the hotel bed was crappy, so I ended up waking up at six this morning” You tell him.

“Sounds shit” Matty tells you and you nod in agreement, yawning again. He rests his head on your shoulder again and says, “I’m tired too”

Matty feels you lean your head against his own and he smiles at how normal it feels. He trusted you and he didn’t even know you that well, he hadn’t felt so easy around someone new in a long time.

Being his playful self, he flirted with you once more, saying, “Maybe you should have stayed at my flat? Least my bed is comfy”

You shook your head in disbelief at that, and Matty smiled feeling you do so. He’s surprised to hear your forwards reply though, “I have a feeling that even if I did I would have got the same amount of sleep”

Matty chuckles then. He liked that you were playful back. Yeah making someone blush and go quiet was fun, but Matty also liked someone who’d play along or give him some back.

You really were an intriguing one to him.

“Still be just as tired, wouldn’t we?” You say a little softer and Matty softly nods so he doesn't disturb your head.

After a minute of you both peacefully resting on one another like that, you watched as Matty unlocks his own phone this time and snaps a quick picture of you both like that. He then does the same on yours and then asks if he can put his thumbprint on your phone, so if your friend replies he can get to it quicker without worrying about losing signal.

You tell him it’s fine and watch was he fails to do it twice and you chuckle to yourself each time it doesn’t work. When he eventually completed his mission, you feel the vibration of him saying a low ‘yay’ when it works on the third try.

You smile contently feeling his curls on your cheek and your eyes close for a second until you feel your stomach start to ache, begging you for food.

You pick your head up off his and say, “Oh, I have a present for you”

Matty jerks his head up and exclaims an, “Ooo” looking over to you excitedly.

You pull out the chocolate bar from your carrier bag and toss it towards him. He catches it, looks at it then smiles. “Awh, aren’t you cute” He tells you and starts to open it.

“I’m fucking amazing, I know” You tell him with a laugh and open up the rest of your meal deal.

You open your sandwich and take a bite out of one of the halves. As you both eat, you sit in a comfortable silence, which it only broken by your gasp when Matty picks up the other half of your sandwich and takes a bite out of it.

You swallow the food in your mouth before saying, “Are you joking?”

“Evidently not” Matty replies with a full mouth and then takes another bite.

To get your revenge, you pick up the rest of the chocolate bar and start eating it.

“Hey! That was my present” Matty tells you and you give him a look.

You defend yourself with a cocky grin, “Well my meal deal was a present to myself… If I have to share, you do too”

Matty shrugs his shoulders and continues to eat your sandwich. You end up sharing your drink with him as well, not that you minded at that point.

When everything was finished Matty briefly got up and put your rubbish in the bin and when he sat back down Matty asks, “Can I see some of the pictures you took by the way?”

“Erm… Yeah sure, they haven’t been edited yet but I can show you them.” You tell him. “Am I alright to get up and get my bag please?” You ask him, but Matty just gets up and passes it down to you.

“Thank you” You say to him with a gracious smile and Matty watches as you get your camera out.

You quickly turn it on and go onto preview. Matty watches as you flick through a few different photos to find the best ones to show him. You come across a picture of the silhouette picture of a ballerina that you’re fairly pleased with.

“I got this one” You tell him angling the camera towards him and he leans towards it trying to look at the detail. “When I get home, I can edit this by making the background lighter, so she is completely dark and a perfect silhouette.”

You flick through some more and Matty listens to you intently. All the pictures that you were showing him, he was astounded by. To him they looked perfect and didn’t need anything doing, but you kept telling him how they could be improved.

“They’re really good” Matty says and you flash a shy smile back at him. He continues, “I can tell you really enjoy doing it”

You chuckle at that, “Yeah, well, I wouldn’t have sat through the degree if I didn’t want to do it for the rest of my life”

“Not that I remember much of it though” You tell him and Matty lets out a laugh.

“Ooo, were you a rebellious one in Uni?” He asks.

You shrug your shoulders as if you didn’t know yourself, as you say, “Let’s just say I either didn’t go to the morning lectures or I was very hungover”

Matty laughed at you and said, “I don’t quite believe it, you don’t seem like a party animal”

“Well that’s because you’ve never been on a night out with me… And, for the record, I’m not like that anymore” You tell him and Matty shoots you a look of disbelief. “Alright, not every night anyway” you correct yourself and Matty laughs.

Matty starts telling you about a night out that he had after the UK tour had finished. You listen intently to him and laugh at the band’s antics. You didn’t realise that the train had slowed down for its final stop until Matty looked out of the window and sighed.

The journey seemed to have gone faster than it did on the way there despite having a few more stops. You were really enjoying Matty’s company and it was disappointed when the train stopped in Manchester Piccadilly.

You let out a big sigh as your pull you jacket on and stuff your charger in your pocket. At least your phone was fully charged now.

“Yay, I get to be barged into by about fifty people on my way out now” You smile at Matty with sarcasm dripping from your voice.

“You’ll be fine, I’ll protect you” Matty says copying your movements and getting his own jacket off the floor and putting it on. You roll your eyes at his comment and you picked up both of your sunglasses off the table and handed Matty his back.

He takes them from you, unfolds them and then puts them on your head and you giggle. He takes yours and puts them on himself and strikes a pose. You quickly take a picture of him like that and laugh at it when you show Matty.

He takes your phone and pushes his face up against yours, you laugh when your glasses knock together and Matty takes the picture. When Matty taps on it, you both start laughing loudly.

Matty has his tongue pulled out on the picture and you are genuinely laughing in the shot.

“Sorry I have to have this one” Matty says as he starts to airdrop it to his own phone.

“It’s fine” You say running your hand through his hair again, attempting to annoy him.

As he accepts the photo on his phone, he gives you a look, but all you can see is your reflection in the gold glasses. He looks adorable with them on and you can’t help but giggle at his grumpy face contrasting with the bright glasses.

“Sorry to interrupt you both” The older woman who’s sat across from you reading for the entire journey says, grabbing your attention.

You and Matty look at the lady and she continues to say, “I just wanted to say that you’re both adorable together. You remind me of me and my husband when we were your age, always joking around and messing about. It’s lovely to see that love like that still exists”

“Oh w-” You start but Matty interrupts you.

“Thank you so much. Just glad I found her” Matty smiles back to the nice lady, before pulling you back into his side again.

She smiles brightly at the two of you before standing up and getting her bag from the empty seat that was beside her. “You’re certainly a lucky man...” She then looks to you as she begins to pass the both of you to get off the train, “Make sure he remembers it Sweetie”

“I will” You smile and offer her a little wave as she walks down the carriage leaving you and Matty on your own.

Matty’s head immediately looks towards you and he scoffs, “I cant believe you were going to destroy her vision of love then Y/N” He jokes, “I’m appalled”

“I just don’t like lying to people” You say as you slip out of his grip.

“So... She was old, probably be dead soon, and you could have destroyed her last glimmer of hope that real love still exists” Matty scorns you trying to make you feel worse.

You’re too busy gasping at him saying she’d be dead soon though. You scorn him shaking your head disapprovingly.

He’s persistent with his argument though, so you just end up saying, “I played along in the end, didn’t I? Shut it Matthew”

“Don’t call me that” Matty pouted.

“Don’t be a diva, then I won't have to full name drop you” You grin a little.

After that, Matty gets up and passes you both of your bags and you put them on quickly as the queue to leave the train was thankfully dying off. Matty gestured to you to walk in front of him and you thanked him as you moved past him.

When you step off the train you were greeted with a hectic platform and freezing cold air compared to London’s hotter weather. Immediately, Matty slung his arm around your shoulder as you both start walking to the end of the platform.

He smiles towards you when you look over at him and shake your head when he smirked at you. You both move over to the opposite side of the platform, so it was slightly easier to manoeuvre through the crowd.

Once you’d both got through the ticket barriers, Matty puts his arm around your shoulder again and you start walking towards the exit. You look at the chaotic crowd surrounding you but for some reason you don’t get barged into this time.

“I think I need you every time I’m in this station, everyone always runs me over” You tell him and Matty laughs.

You get your phone and earphones back out with your hand that isn’t trapped against Matty’s side and tap on your Spotify.

“What’s your final opinion for me Healy? What playlist shall I listen to on the way home?” You ask handing the phone over to him just as your about to exit the glass doors.

Matty scrolls through them and chuckles when he sees his self-titled playlist and you roll your eyes again. You get slightly embarrassed again and Matty just pulls you closer.

“You listen to the best band in the world on your way home” Matty instructs as you walk over to the bus stop just down the road from the station.

“Shall do” You tell him. “I’ll have to change the name of that playlist now” You say as you reach the bus stop and you can see your bus in the distance.

“Definitely not” Matty says with a smirk, before following up with a knowing look, “If I find out you changed it, I’ll just change it back… I know your password”

“Yeah yeah…” You say as you wave your bus over. You look back over to Matty and smile.

“It was great to see you again Matty” You tell him with a genuinely happy smile.

He grins and says, “Same to you... Thanks for the new specs”

Matty then pulls you into him and you wrap your arm around his side because you couldn’t give him a proper hug because of your camera bag.

He lets go of you when your bus comes to a stop and you wave saying, “Bye” before the doors open.

“By the way Y/N… I’d fuck you too” Matty says with a smirk gesturing towards your phone in your hand now blaring out The 1975 songs despite your earphones not yet being in.

You shake your head, feeling your cheeks grow hot again and step onto the bus. You tell the driver where you’re going and pay for your ticket on your card.

When you turn around Matty is standing with a lit cigarette in between his fingers, you say a soft “Bye” again and you quickly go and take a seat.

Matty stands and watches you take a seat on the bus and he lets himself be retrospective.

On Friday, he was quite annoyed at himself because he forgot to take his AirPods with him to London which had really frustrated him. But now he was grateful that he’d gotten so bored that he started a conversation with you.

As he inhaled the smoke, he felt satisfied with his trip and when he blew the smoke out and smiled at you when the bus started to move away. He saw you take one last glance at him and you both shared a little secret smile, both catching the other looking.

Matty stayed stationary for a second until your bus had gone further down the road. It was only then he started walking through the streets of Manchester back towards the studio where he was meeting the rest of the boys for a quick recording session.

He also found himself excited to show you off to them. Even if it was through the silly pictures you’d taken.

~*~*~*~

When you got back to your flat, you jumped in bed and immediately started editing your photos. Your 1975 playlist was on full blast in your ears and before you knew it 3 hours had passed by.

You only stopped working to get yourself a drink and a snack from your kitchen. You didn’t even bother greeting your flatmate because he was a bit of a twat, especially when he’d been working.

When you lay back down on your bed, you put your playlist on repeat so you wouldn’t be distracted about what music to listen to next. You wanted the pictures edited today so you could rest tomorrow.

However, it was proving difficult because your freshly tattooed wrist kept causing you pain as it lent on your laptop. But you tried to power through and not let anything distract you.

Your phone was on aeroplane mode and you were in the zone. So much so, that when you eventually got through the best of your photos, you looked at your clock to find it was 9pm.

You closed your laptop with a sigh of relief and rubbed your eyes. It probably wasn’t healthy looking at a screen for almost 8 hours but at least you had tomorrow to completely rest your mind after a bizarre but brilliant weekend.

You just felt so satisfied that you'd got the work done. You felt like you could rest easy now.

When you took your phone off aeroplane mode, your phone started to blow up. You were receiving about 20 snapchats from your best friend and she was also texting you. Your stomach dropped though, when you saw the 10 missed calls from her.

You immediately rang her back praying everything was alright and that something terrible hadn’t happened. As the phone continued to ring you felt your heart rate increase, and were beginning to panic that something really bad had happened.

After a few more seconds, she answered the phone.

“Hey, is everything alright? I’ve just seen all the missed calls, are you okay?” You ask in a rush.

“Hey, yeah, I’m fine” She says, and you release the breath that you had been holding.

You then began to calm down and you sighed a, “Thank god... I thought something bad had happened”

“Nah, nothing bad” She told you, “Have you seen the picture?” She asks excitedly.

You furrowed your eyebrows, confused as to what photo she was referring too. “What picture?” You ask.

“I can’t believe you haven’t seen it yet… Go on Instagram” And you do as you are told. You quickly put her on speaker and flick through your phone until you find your Instagram.

You look through it and nothing out of the ordinary seemed to have happened since Matty had followed you the other day. “What photo are you on about?” You ask again and your friend releases a sigh.

“Go on Matty Healy’s profile now!” She tells you and you do. You tap on his account and you click on his most recent picture.

“What the fuck?” You gasp covering a hand over your mouth.

“I know…” Y/B/F says and you can hear how excited she is in her voice.

You smile to yourself as you study the picture on your screen.

The picture shows you sat on a train with your messy Y/H/C hair covering your face as you looked out of the window. You had your leather jacket on, and you looked blissfully unaware causing the photograph to be perfectly anonymous.

You realise he must have taken this picture of you before you’d even noticed who he was.

“That’s you, isn’t it?” Your friend asks.

You murmur a, “Yeah” with a smile on your face.

It was a beautiful photograph and you loved it. You double tap on it and smile to yourself as you read the text at the bottom.

London Babyyy x

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Taglist: @the-girl-before @14-bees @fairyyyfloss @murderousginger @siwiecola @grungegunnulfsen @colette2194 @hottie-chocolatie @darling-i-read-it

Let me know if you want to be tagged x

#conversation #matty healy #matty healy x reader #matty healy imagine #matty healy x you #matty the 1975 #the 1975 #the 1975 imagine #Matty Healy fanfic #Matty Healy fluff #Matty Healy blurb #the 1975 blurb #the 1975 fluff

282 notes · View notes