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mayaree-darling · 4 months

Note

Hi i've been binging some of your fics recently and im in love! I saw that you had requests open so I was wondering if you could do scaramouche x fem reader but where reader dresses in jojifuku or other known as cutecore and scaramouche dresses in a baggy 'cool' way and reader gets made fun of for dressing differently?

of scary dog privileges & matcha lattes // scaramouche (modern au)

pairing: Scaramouche x Cutecore!Reader

synopsis: look, you may be a cute ball of pastels that can test scaramouche's patience, but you're HIS cute pastel lover. but if anyone messes with you, it's okay - his hands were made to be thrown.

from aree: for @amia-69: thanks for requesting and i hope this was satisfactory. i had too much fun with this so i hope you don't mind if it's a tad long with more scenes than you requested. i also made this a bit more feel-good by being a little silly but it’s still mostly serious, i hope you don't mind!

content: slight stalking and bullying scenario (be warned if triggering); very annoyed Scara means swearing; i'm in silly writer mode rn so this is a mix of crack and serious writing; slightly unhinged reader but hey so is scaramouche; praying this ain't OOC; fully accepted this is cringe; fem reader

fic length: 4k~ (unedited)

Scaramouche isn't dumb. He can tell anyone who sees him is asking it in their head.

How the fuck did you two end up together?

There was nothing soft looking about him besides the hair he inherited from his mother. He was his mother but with sharper lines, edges, and words. His eyes were almost a permanent glare if he didn't look bored or annoyed at everyone and everything. He always seemed to wear dark clothing, accompanied by the right amount of chains or belts here and there to complete the look, but they suited him nicely. If anything, he wore them best than most. If he wore anything less than clothes that didn't hang off his body he looked uncomfortable. Didn't mean he didn't hear enough older people talking about his choice of clothes though.

So when he first stood next to you on the fruits and vegetables aisle at the grocery store, he realized how you two stood at different ends of the fashion spectrum. He was there with his mother for their weekly food restock and ended up getting left behind when he went to check something on his phone (typical. How may times had this happened?) When he blinked, gone was his mom, and there beside him stood you, looking at a bunch of melons.

"This shit's overpriced, the hell." you grumble it under your breath, but Scaramouche heard it loud and clear. The snort he lets out isn't unnoticed by you and you turn to him, eyebrows raised. You look at him up and down before your eyes land back to his, and he frowns.

Goddamn it, here we go. He's heard his mom talk his ear off about the clothes this morning and he wasn't gonna hear it from anyone else. He opens his mouth, ready to cuss you to next Tuesday, but you beat him to it.

"I like the eyeliner," Scaramouche stares at you incredulously, and almost as a final nail into the coffin that he heard you right, you nod in approval. You tilt your head to the side. "I gotta say though. I think eyeshadow would look a lot better. Maybe... red? Just a bit at the corners. It would look a lot nice with your eye color and would make them pop considering you wear a lot of dark shades."

Scaramouche gapes at you. He's used to getting cussed out or getting the occasional talking to about his choices in life, but fashion advice was the last thing he expected to get from some stranger in the fruits aisle.

"Thanks..." he eventually lets out. He finally takes a moment to look you up and down and wonders how the hell did he not notice you sooner when you stood out from everything like a sore thumb.

Scaramouche didn't know there were so many shades of pink in the world. Or maybe he never noticed since he never wore clothes like that, and if he was honest, he spent time with people who didn't wear that color at all. Seeing it now was like a jumpscare, just a lot softer considering it's not like you posed any actual threat but slightly still as surprising considering people randomly approaching him first was so rare. If you weren't wearing a shade of pink, you were wearing some pastel shade of another color. Pastel blue, pastel purple, white lace here and there. The skirt you wore was so frilly you looked like you were walking around with a pink cloud. You looked... soft. That was the best summary Scaramouche could put together in the amount of time he gave you a once over.

You looked like everything he was not.

"I like... the frills," he inwardly cringed the moment he said it, but he ended up just frowning at you. It was your damn fault for putting him in this position in the first place so why the hell was he the one suffering. It's not his fault he wasn't good at giving other people compliments.

You laugh, and Scaramouche wasn't sure whether he should be glad you didn't take it to heart or be offended that he actually tried his best to give you a compliment only to be shot down. "It's okay. You don't have to force yourself."

Scaramouche just frowned deeper. Now it feels like you're saying he can't give out a compliment at all. He looks you up and down again and just says what comes to his head on the spot. "You look like the cotton candy sold at the fair across the street. Actually, I think you're a lot more pink than that stuff, but still lighter? Can't tell accurately with how many shades you got going on."

He must've said something good enough for you because you're grinning at him the next second. "That's one of the nicer ones people have said to me."

Scaramouche looks at you in disbelief. "How is that even remotely nice?"

"Well, for one, I know you mean that sincerely. Second, I'll have you know I worked hard to get pretty vibrant pinks that weren't too hard on the eyes, so thanks for confirming that!"

"You made that?" You nod, and Scaramouche nods back slowly in approval, actually impressed. "Not bad."

Your eyes land on his watch and you jolt, looking at the time on your phone. You pick a random melon even when he sees you scowl at the price tag and put it into your basket. Nodding once more to him, you turn around and leave. But as he watches you round the corner, you're running back to his side once more before he can even turn away. The sudden look of alarm on your face, so different from the grin and laughter you had on earlier, immediately has him on edge.

"Please help me," you whisper, but there was no one else in the aisle besides a mother and her baby at the far end. He frowns and looks to the side.

"Do I look like I help people." it came out harsher than he intended, but didn't he give you more than he was already willing to give any other stranger? Now you were just taking advantage of him.

"I need a scary dog right now," you said it so casually and seriously he wasn't sure he heard you right. But your voice echoed correctly in his head and he actually takes a step away from you, face incredulous.

"What the fuck did you just call me?" he scoffs, not sure if he was supposed to be offended or it was a compliment from you in some weird way. "The pet shop is right next door. Go get a dog there."

"Please. You know what I mean." you look at him pleadingly and he looks away. No, no, he was not gonna break first. This wasn't his business to deal with. He's done enough for people for the day. Nope.

"Again, go look for that somewhere else. Don't you have a boyfriend to help with this kinda thing?"

You roll your eyes and Scaramouche has half a mind to smack you silly. "If I did, you think I'd be going up to strangers for help?"

"So this is a regular thing, huh?" he takes a step back and you take a step towards him.

"Of course not, you expect this kinda thing to happen sometimes. But I don't want to hide away just ‘cause some people couldn't stay away and mind their own damn business," you shuffle from one foot to another. You cast a hesitant look behind you. His eyes follow.

"What are you even-" he stops. In the corner where he last saw you turn, a hooded man hovered over the bread aisle. For a shelf that only had five pieces of loaves left he was taking his time picking, so that only meant one thing. Scaramouche watched as the man glanced over once in your direction before seemingly turning back to the bread with fake focus.

"I thought I was imagining it. But he’s giving me the evil eyes," your voice is a whisper again.

That's unpleasant. Scaramouche straightened his posture and looked at you directly. If it's a scary dog you needed then so be it.

"What are you waiting for, then?" his voice was loud, not enough to be too distracting, but enough to carry over to the asshole who decided to be a creep for the day. Scaramouche kept his eyes on you. "You need anything else? I got the car running. Let's go if you're ready."

You look up at him like he was a fucking hero and Scaramouche all but does his best to not look as pompous as he felt. He sees the guy step back a little from his view, most likely thinking twice about following you when you're suddenly with company. He all but stares the fucker down until he leaves his line of sight.

Scaramouche breathes a short sigh of relief and he sees you do the same. He wanted to leave it at that, but if the guy was planning to follow you around the mall, he'd probably stick around a bit more. So fucking annoying. Not you, though. Although you were a bit annoying, you've probably been through more today than he had. He takes your wrist lightly.

"Where to next? I have family waiting outside."

You smile, relaxed and familiar. He holds your wrist, but you guide him around the store for a few other things before heading to the counter. When you leave the shop, plastic bags in hand, he motions for you to head to the parking lot and you follow albeit hesitantly, only visibly relaxing when you see a woman standing by a car who looks eerily similar to your rescuer.

"Oh? You have a friend." Scaramouche bites back the retort that almost slips past his lips. What did she mean by that? Of course he had friends. He'd never introduce them to her and her to them but he preferred keeping those two sides of his life away from each other.

"She had a bit of a problem and needed some help," she looks at you once and back to him. She gives him a knowing look but Scaramouche could swear on his grave that what she was thinking was vastly different from what was really going on.

"I see. Will your friend be joining us for dinner?" she looks at you with a soft smile and you return it. Scaramouche has half a mind to facepalm himself, he thanks what shred of patience he has left that he doesn't because you give him a glance.

"Thank you for the offer, but I should really be heading home," you turn to him fully and take the plastic bags from him. "Thanks for... helping me."

He opens his mouth but before he can say anything, you give him a knowing nod before quickly walking away. He watches you walk a few paces before he hears his mom clear her throat. He looks to her, already scowling.

"Don't tell me you're just gonna let her go like that?"

"What do you want me to do?"

Ei sighs. "At least make sure she gets a ride? If you walked her all the way over here, I can guess you wanted to give her a ride home. But that's out of the question now."

"Why are you so invested in this anyway? I just met her today."

"Oh, really? I thought you already knew each other." Ei hums as she rummages her purse for the keys. "You look like a pair. Not quite sure what kind, but definitely a pair of something. I think she’s rather cute."

He curses silently before jogging to catch up to you. He finds you standing by the bus stop. When you turn to him, you smile.

"Thanks for helping me again."

"You know I was planning on dropping you off at your place, right? Thought that was kinda clear with what I said at the grocery."

"Nah. I'd bothered you enough. Don't wanna bother your sister either." you grin at him, shuffling from foot to foot again, now with a pep in your step.

"First off, that was my mom, not my sister." you repeat the word 'mom' silently before looking at him with barely suppressed admiration, and Scaramouche barely holds himself back from groaning. "Second, it's fine. You're not scared that guy's gonna follow you home?"

"I'll be in a bus full of people. If he tries anything I'll scream my head off." you laugh. Scaramouche can hear a shred of doubt in your voice, but he doesn't say anything else. There's a pause of silence before you look at him from the corner of your eye and hum. "Y'know. I don't know how to properly thank you."

He waves you off. "Forget about it."

"How about I treat you?" you turn to him fully, like he just didn't brush you off. "I know a cafe by the train station that makes really good matcha lattes."

"What makes you think I even like matcha?" he sighs, but he thinks about it for a second. And then another second. Scaramouche blinks before he turns to you with a deadpan face. "You're just trying to take advantage of my scary dog privilege or whatever you call it."

"Maybe? Who knows?"you grin mischievously. "I'm serious about treating you to a meal, though. I owe you one. If you want you can just take the meal and forget about ever seeing me again."

Scaramouche sighs. Surely, it wouldn't hurt...?

"Alright then. When's our date?" You blink at him in surprise before laughing.

When people ask him how you two got together, he says you treated him to matcha for saving your life and you just hit it off. When they ask you to confirm, you excitedly show a picture of the two of you in the cafe of your first date. Should anyone try to mention the foam of milk from the matcha latte gathered around the top of his lips or the cat ears you had graciously edited onto the top of his head, Scaramouche is quick to silence them with a murderous look, almost the very same one he has on in the picture.

Some might think why doesn’t he just ask you to stop showing the photo to people? It’s enough for you to confirm that you got together over drinks, end of story. But as he watches and listens to you recount how you met again, the smile on your lips and the laughter that slips past and the grin as you show all the pictures - he can’t imagine saying no.

Why would he make you stop when you’re so happy?

That’s what he thinks now, as he sees the frown on your face.

He thought people already understood. He let you tell the story over and over even though it got on his nerves time and time again because it made you happy, yes, but also so people saw who they were messing with if they ever even thought of messing with you. This city was a small one - if people didn’t know him from his mother, they surely have heard of him and his friends. This city was the kind where word travelled fast if you were even in any social circle. If not for that, they would have surely seen him walking around with you with all the places you wanted to see.

He underestimated how dumb people could be.

Scaramouche rolled his eyes before frowning. He pocketed his phone and all but jogged to the park. From a distance, he could see two guys in front of the bench he was sure was where you were supposed to meet. It was the bench he and you stopped at to exchange numbers, so it became a place that meant a lot to you. When he was close, the group of guys looked at his direction, snickering, before heading to the next bench over. Finally, he has a perfect view of you, your head down, holding on to your drink and phone like a lifeline. His drink almost lay forgotten beside you.

He quickly grabbed the drink from your side and sat beside you. From the corner of his eye, he can see the group of guys stealing glances at the both of you, not even trying to hide their laughter and sneers. He’s gripping his drink almost as hard as you were.

“You’re here,” you smile at him, but as quickly as it’s on your face it drops back to a wobbly frown and you look away. “Sorry if I made you hurry, I-”

“What happened? Did they do anything to you?” his voice comes out in a rush but it’s soft, as comforting as he can muster with the situation at hand. He can feel his blood boiling, his senses on high alert.

“No, no, they were just being mean and annoying and I-” you shakily pocket your phone and hold on to his hand. He can feel you shaking and he grit his teeth.

“What did they do? What the fuck did they say?” he was gripping onto the cup so tight he would’ve been surprised that it hadn’t broken yet if he wasn’t so focused on you.

“Nothing important.” he squeezes your hand, not enough to hurt, but to make sure you know that he’s here now. You didn’t need to hide anything from him. You just need to tell him. You look up at him and purse your lips. “They just said-”

He hears laughter and immediately whips his head towards the two guys, feeling absolutely feral. The closest one sitting on the edge of the bench flinches for a second, before he meets his glare with a sneer.

“I was wondering what kind of parents would leave their little princess walking around alone like that,” the guy smirks and Scaramouche can feel you flinch under his touch. “But another kid just showed up to pick them up. Where are your parents, kiddies?”

The two guys laugh and Scaramouche can feel his teeth crack with how hard he was biting down. He stands up but you hold on to his hand.

“Just let it go. Let’s just get out of here.” you mumble to him, but the guys heard perfectly.

“Let’s just get out of here~” the other guy copies your voice, all high pitched and mocking and everything that Scaramouche knew you were very much not. “She dresses like a little princess and sounds like one. Aren’t you too old for that?”

They howl with laughter and slowly, Scaramouche feels you let go of him. He looks to you, concerned, but you meet his eyes, your face blank but he knows that look.

Go for it.

With quick strides he’s right beside their bench. They stop for a moment to look at him.

He looks at the matcha latte in his hand and sighs.

What a waste of a drink. You got it for him, too.

“What are you- ARGH!” Scaramouche shakes the cup empty of all it’s content, making sure that each of the guys’ heads had at least a bit of the matcha drink. But Scaramouche was sure he got them both - it was a large drink, after all.

“Pick on someone your own size, you lil’-” the man closest to him goes to stand, but just as he does, Scaramouche raises his own leg and drives a kick right on his knees.

*CRACK*

The man screams in pain, forced to his knees and tending to his newly acquired wound. The other guy stands to try and help, but his form quickly falters as Scaramouche takes one step towards him, eyes blazing. The man doesn’t move, too frightened, as Scaramouche leans down to the man on the ground.

“There you go. Now we’re the same height.”

Scaramouche feels a pull on the back of his shirt and he’s ready to throw his arm back to punch when he sees you. He lets you pull him and you make a break for it as he hears the man crying in pain behind him.

Trees turn to buildings around you both as you leave the park and head to the city center, stopping only when you’re sure the coast is clear. You both take in large breaths of air after running for so long, but even the silence does nothing to make him realize the gravity of what just happened. That’s not the case for you, though.

“Oh, God, I didn’t think you’d do that. The drink, yeah, but...” you say between breaths. You take a shaky laugh and rub the back of your neck. “Was the kick really necessary, though?”

Was that necessary? Scaramouche knew the answer for himself. He walks closer to you.

Why would he let anyone destroy whatever you two had going on? You came as a pair.

"Scara, what are you-" he stops in his tracks and looks you in the eyes. There's a pause before he lifts his hand and flicks your forehead.

"Talk smack, get whacked."

"I didn't even say anything! And why are you hitting me?!"

There’s a pause as he runs his teeth over his lower lip.

“Hey… you.”

“Wow, I thought by now you knew my name,” you sneer at him. “You telling me you still don’t know it?”

He inhales before he says your name softly. You gape at him, suddenly aware of how serious he’s gotten. “You’re happy with… yourself, right…?”

“Of course I am. That’s not even worth asking about,” there’s a doubtful look on your face, but not because of your answer. Your apprehension stems from where this conversation was going.

“Keep being happy, then.” Scaramouche rubs the knuckles of your hand with his thumb before pressing a kiss to your palm. He smirks at you. “If anyone else says otherwise, a drink over their head and broken kneecaps are the least of their concerns.”

“Now, come on,” he doesn’t let go of your hand and you make no mention of it. “We still gotta stop by Nahida’s, right?”

＝＝✿＝＝｜✧••❀••✧｜＝＝✿＝＝

❀BONUS❀

“Your mom’s gonna kill us when she finds out what you did.”

“Nah. She’d be fine with it.” Scaramouche scoffs.

“Find out what?” Ei appears by the kitchen doorway and looks at you both expectantly. You turn to Scaramouche, eyes wide with fear, but he doesn’t flinch or even stop chopping the melon.

“I poured a drink over some guy who said Matcha was acting too much like a kid,” Scaramouche answers easily, passing you a melon slice. “Also might have broken their knee, but we didn’t get to see.”

“I’m really sorry, Ms. Ei-”

“That’s it?” Ei leans on the kitchen counter and to your surprise, looks at Scaramouche with disappointment. “You should’ve broken a bone or two more.”

You blink as they continue talking about how best to have handled the situation; all their solutions involved hurting someone.

Well, you guess Scaramouche must have had to got it from someone in the family.

✨ Masterlist ✨

Taglist: 💛@wonpielle 💜@shikanosn

Disclaimer: Characters are not mine and belong to their respective creators. Their portrayal is merely my own interpretation of them and may not be accurate to their intended characterization. I stake no claim to the original works, only to the ideas and plot of the fictitious stories I’ve written them into.

#genshin impact x reader #genshin impact scaramouche x reader #scaramouche x reader #wanderer x reader #genshin impact modern au #scaramouche modern au #genshin impact reader insert #scaramouche x reader fluff #scaramouche fluff #genshin impact x reader fluff

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snalsupremacy · 7 months

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Why this is my favorite panel in hgsn

Hgsn has some incredible art and page composition, but out of the entire manga so far, to me this is the best panel of them all. Hell, this might be my favorite panel of any manga ever. (Note: Due to respecting the scanlator's wishes, I blanked out the dialogue and replaced all necessary dialogue with the official English source)

1- Build-up

Before I get to the panel itself, lets first talk about the pages before: For context, this is in chapter 2. Yoshiki has just found out about "Hikaru", and its trying to adjust to this new reality. As they walk from school to Yoshiki's house, Yoshiki asks him if he killed Hikaru. This is how the previous two pages look like:

Notice how the half shading effect is done in hatch marks. This is the first sign the all-black shading is a stylistic choice used to convey something.

Look at the balance the two pages form when you put them together: half white, half black, half black, half white. They compliment each other, both in color balance and in panel shape.

We have to turn the page to hear Hikaru's answer to Yoshiki's question. This gives the control of the narrative back to the viewer. This creates tension and build-up to it, it is a common tactic famously employed by Junji Ito in his famous "page-turner" moments where the viewer has to turn the page to see the monster. Except in this instance we are not revealing monsters, or are we?

2- The page

I'm not gonna get into too much detail on the page itself, I just want to point out the juxtaposition between the page composition of this page and the previous two. The last two were balanced and had all the panels closed while this one is much more liberal, bringing a feeling of unbalance, like something just shifted. I'd say the black and white balance is still there, with the Hikaru on white and Yoshiki on black panel side by side and all, which actually brings me to my next point:

3- Black and White

Honestly this could be an entire analysis post of itself, where do I even start?! Let's go from the very beginning. This is the very first time we learn of "Hikaru" :

Notice how the panel is colored black. In fact, throughout the story, we see black panels being spoken by "Hikaru", usually right before he does something unnatural:

And here are the only two instances we see of the Brain-snatcher's true form:

• He's literally a black blob, just like the text bubbles! And now combine that with Hikaru's white hair, and the fact his name means to be bright, and what's the brightest color but white, and there is a clear color symbolism going on:

Hikaru=White

"Hikaru"=Black

4-The Panel

And now we're back to the original panel! Taking all the other points in mind, we can analyze the panel itself

First, his expression. My G-d, his expression! His raised eyebrows and his squinted eyes, making his pupils way larger, make the expression seem almost childish and pitiful. But the half black-out face turns this pity look to an ominous one. Not being able to see the face or having your face obstructed is easy path into the uncanny valley, which I think is the case for this scene. Immediately 180 from "aww the poor guy" to "what is he hiding?"

The white panel says "I like you" while the black panel says "I'm crazy for you". HOWEVER, The white bubble is by the black side of his face and the black bubble is by the white side of his face. So which Hikaru is saying that? Is "Hikaru" crazy for Yoshiki, while Hikaru just liked him, or the other way around? Did the original Hikaru ever love Yoshiki, or is that the monster's feelings? Well we don't know! That's the premise of the whole manga! In one panel!

And that's why it's my favorite :)

#hikaru ga shinda natsu #the summer hikaru died #hgsn #tshd #yoshiki tsujinaka #hikaru indou #snal posting #the manga of all time tbh

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datcravat · 24 days

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HI HELLO I love your art So much,,, do you have any tutorials on how you render your stuff? For example, the colors you use & how you pick them, how you get that pink tone around the Lineart (I think) (it's just rly cool). I would love to see stuff like that, cuz your art is Such visual candy (⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠)

Hey! Thank you so much, I'm glad you like my art, I worked hard to make it what it is!! Means a lot you appreciate it!!!!!!

I've had no professional art training, I seriously don't know what I'm doing and struggle making tutorials. But will try here!!

For me the colour work is really situational on the drawing! I find myself experimentally attempting to weaponize colour theory and there's a lot of instinct involved that I can't figure out how to verbalise yet. Here's an example of some thought process I have:

My main advice is to play with sliders a lot and really experiment (that's what I do for every drawing)!

To get the pink glow around your lineart, copy your lineart layer, fill the copy in with a pink of your choice (sometimes I do a gradient), blur the layer (experiment with how much blur you'd like), put it directly below the lineart layer, and set the layer to multiply (or any mode you think looks pretty)!

You may want to adjust your piece's brightness/colours after applying it and sharpen the image after exporting.

A lot of colour gradients are involved and on their own they can eventually compromise the gritty/punchy style, especially the ones that are between extreme and subtle. A good way to combat this is with screentones/haftones!! You can use them to diversify colours and imply shading/texture.

I recommend going nuts and having a lot of fun with it to find what works for you!

I often add a lot of small lens flares as they satisfyingly cut through the piece, imply flash photography (which goes well with the strong black shading), add visual noise to areas you don't want to be your main point of focus, are a great way to show speculars, and idk man sparkles are just pretty haha.

Go nuts with them and have fun!! When you get them to look good, think to yourself why that is.

I made a tutorial ~1 year ago on how I shade with black. This simple trick will really help it look good, 3D and rendered - it just requires a lot of knowledge about shadows to start with. I have a lot of experience rendering "normally" which helped me learn how to use black in an experimental way.

Minor correction that the shadows labelled "ambient occlusion" in the tutorial are actually just normal shadows, ambient occlusion is total lack of light.

I hope this is useful to you!! You have a knack for art, your work is very inspired. Please keep drawing!! I am still learning too, let's keep going baby.

-Cravat x

#ask #tutorial #my art #art tutorial #thank you for the ask!!

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girlbossagenda · 1 month

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How to be pretty on a lazy day pt.2

This is the make up edition! I'm glad y'all enjoyed the first part about the clothing! We know make up it's a form of art, expression and a ticket to gain easy access to pretty privilege, but what if you're a newbie or you're feeling lazy? Well this is the right place for you! Sit on your vanity! So here is how to be pretty on a lazy day and spend less time on your flawless make up.

౨ৎthe look౨ৎ

Are you going for a more matte look or glittery look? Let's focus on the natural era make up, which is basically the 90s make up and the early 2010s(late 2000s) make up, here the main colors are: brown, beige and anything neutral, the 90s one it's more cool toned, so if you have a cool toned skin color I suggest you this one, for warm toned skin, I suggest the Early 2010s one, so let's go for a more bronze look!

౨ৎconsider your ethnicity౨ৎ

When you're in a hurry or have low energy you must focus into doing a make up that embraces your natural features, and give your that exotic look, like "I woke up this way".

౨ৎbye bye eyeliner and welcome lip liner౨ৎ

We are not trying to get that 2020 type of look, don't we?, and doing your eyeliner takes so much time and can it literally destroy your make up, especially if the wings look like sisters instead of twins.

Try to use a eye pencil, it's better to go for a more balanced look!

౨ৎbase౨ৎ

I suggest you to just use concealer as a base,since foundation can be of the wrong color, and concealer has a very wide coverage.

౨ৎblush౨ৎ

I suggest you to use the under blushing technique or just place your blush high in you cheekbones and not on you apple/cheek, to give you a more fresh and lifted look, or just don't use it, as it's not the main focus, also avoid an overly pink shade.

౨ৎlips౨ৎ

For the lips I suggest you something simple, like lip liner + clear lip gloss or those super pretty nyx butter glosses, or if you are more into that a more simple a metallic lip gloss + lip liner of the same color.

I also suggest a more blushy look to your lips if you are going for the "I just woke up this way" look!

౨ৎeyeshadow౨ৎ

Go for neutral colors, like brown, unless you're going to do and ageyo sal, avoid going underneath with it.

౨ৎeyebrows౨ৎ

This.is.so.important. I'm telling you eyebrows change your whole face, in this look you need defined eyebrows, and I mean that you should add high beneath them!

౨ৎnose౨ৎ

Avoid heavy contour on your nose as it can make it look uncanny and more relevant.

౨ৎcontouring౨ৎ

It's your choice to use a cream or powder one, but I suggest you to not use it or to use it very lightly and to do a short "wing" with it!

౨ৎlashes౨ৎ

Unless you have light lashes or light colored eyes, I won't suggest you to use black mascara, use a clear or brown one.

Hi bonitas! This is my guide for today, it's my first time describing how to do make up, I really wanted to make a guide like this one the male up here really focuses on you lips and eyes and less on the cheeks!Next time we're going to talk about hair! If you want more reference just go on my Pinterest: GIRLBOSSAGENDA See you soon gorgeous

xoxo

-𝓐

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takami-takami · 7 months

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Would You Still.

kinktober day 5: sensory deprivation.

includes— hawks x reader. minors dni.

warnings— gn!reader. suggestive.

keigo loses his wings. he can't help but think.

It's been three months since Keigo lost his wings. You both are finally starting to settle into the routine of things.

It took quite a bit of time for the hero to adjust to being a man, a human being— in order to understand, in this circumstance, it would be helpful to consider being human as synonymous with being small.

Keigo never learned what it meant to truly be small, to not occupy the entirety of the space within a room and boldly carry the weight of responsibility that comes with it.

Even the color of his wings was large. They were born cursed to be painted a sovereign shade of red, carrying with it a saturation that elicited eyes from prey and predator alike.

Among beasts, there might be two reasons why a creature would carry such a bold and extravagant phenotype, and neither of them are by choice: to attract the attention of others or to instill fear in those same creatures; that is, to ward them away.

Was it the color of his wings that enticed the vultures of the commission to swoop down from their encircling above, plucking their fresh pickings from the gutter and thrusting it into a life of hero galas and assassination missions and spotlight?

Perhaps he shouldn't complain. It gave him a platform for his goals, after all, and the ends do begrudgingly justify the means.

Did his wings grow too big too fast? Maybe that's why his mother left. What are your wings even good for, she said.

Or perhaps it was he who abandoned her.

No. Even as a child, Keigo was never afforded the luxury of being small.

He used to step carefully, mindful of the clumsy expanse of a wingspan spread sixfold in glorious feet; but now, there is space for him in narrow paths uncrossed. His resilience, it seems, is rooted deeper than the feathers that used to sprout from his back.

He's taken up knife work in the recent months. You lay among the sheets, watching him sit at the edge of the bed. The muscles of his back flex when he flicks and twirls the steel of his butterfly knife, spinning with a speed you know better than to attempt to follow.

"Do you ever miss them?"

Keigo's ears perk when he hears you speak behind him.

He puts the weapon down.

You've asked him this question before. Keigo doesn't mind answering again if it's you.

"Sometimes," he says, still turned away. "But not in a way that really matters."

You crawl towards him, the mattress creaking below. The cotton of his shirt rubs against the flesh of his back when you pull it over his shoulders. He lets you.

Those shoulders don't carry the weight of the world's jagged stones like they used to. He doesn't have to cut holes in his shirts anymore.

When you plant your lips down the now-bare column of his spine, across his shoulder blades and back up to repeat the push and pull, the feeling is alien to him— like a flash of light that blinds the eye before its pupils have the chance to constrict.

To not be able to anticipate exactly where and when someone— you will be able to touch him…

Keigo is just happy it's you.

"Do you ever miss them," he asks.

Am I still useful, he means.

There's a tremble in his voice when he speaks. Your palms freeze where they splay against the constellations of scars that litter his back. If you could see his eyes, you'd find them transfixed and blinking at the glass window that hangs like a painting in your bedroom, illustrating the jump from here to the ground twenty-seven stories below.

But contrary to what one might expect, you wouldn't find insecurity. Just curiosity.

After a moment, chewing the question in each cheek, you answer with the truth.

"No. I don't miss them at all."

At that, the sheets ruffle softly as Keigo turns to meet you, laying you down on the bed like you're glass and slotting himself against your lips. The knife thuds as it falls against the fibers of your carpet, forgotten still.

His lips are soft now, no longer chapped by high altitudes and whipping winds. He can feel your smile begin to form against his, can feel the quirk of your lips at each corner when you toss your arms over his shoulders.

He made you smile. His heart soars up high.

His fingertips crawling beneath your clothes is to say, "thank you."

His eyes shutting with the kiss, muting his last method of hypervigilance, is to say, "I love you."

#🖋 writing #🍧 sugar #but also #🌶 spice #sort of #hawks x reader #keigo takami x reader #bnha x reader #mha x reader #x reader

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starrysharks · 1 year

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OK heres zeno coloring tutorial 2.0 !!!! i'm gonna do it kind of in chapters i guess?

chapter 1: choosing base colors

when i'm choosing base colors i always pick everything based on a specific off-white! my 'default' off-white is this kind of very light cyan color but i change it regularly based on character designs/environment/lighting whatever,, examples here!

for callie in this piece, i based everything off of this pinkish color! her skin tone, tentacles, outfit etc are all chosen to harmonise/contrast with the pink color

and with this piece, i used a slightly darker blueish color as they're in space but there's still a lot of light... and the lighter colors in the background (the explosion) make a sense of depth i guess? i used that blue color and chose similar cool colors to harmonise with it!

so i more or less base the tone of the colors in the piece off the off-white! warm off-white = warmer colors (like the nova valentine's day art) and cold off white = cooler colors (like the explosion nova and paro art). but i switch up this formula often !!

chapter 2: coloring specific things

here i'll go over some specific textures and stuff like skin and hair ... skin first !!

for skin, i like to use a variety of tones! there are different ways to draw cooler and warmer skintones that other people have gone over way better than i have but basically for skin i use this part of the color wheel and pick the darker tones of oranges/reds/pinks etc. (for darker skintones, i go to the middle of the color square thingy, and for lighter tones, i usually slide down the upper-right side)

when it comes to shading skintones, it's pretty straightforward, just a darkish-purple and a pinkish color on 100% multiply, and i always add a little shadow on the nose and blush becuz i think it's cute

(also i like to add reflective spots on darker skin tones sometimes because 1. darker skin tones reflect in real life and 2. it's fun)

next up is hair... this is very specific to my artstyle but i like to add 3-6 long oval line thingies to the hair to mimic reflection ! it looks cool, it's a good way to show off different colors in the design and i like to switch it up sometimes based on a character's personality!! (like how the frye pic above has a lighting bolt shaped hair thing, or how my teto design has a wing shaped hair thing to mimic her wings in her chimera form!) (note: it doesn't always need to be lighter than the actually hair color and it usually isn't)

for other materials like metal, screens, etc etc... i just add random X marks lol... and reflections!!!

(also, just a general thing, but adding little saturated lines to shading really adds depth and color imo!!)

i would put more tips with refs but tumbles only allows 10 images per post ;w; so i will simply close off by saying don't be afraid to add overlays and filters to your art!! overlays can really help harmonise colors and filters like brightness and contrast can help colors pop... try not to completely rely on them for color choice tho!!

and that's basically it !!! this is not a definitive 'how to draw/color' post... i am not a color theorist... i just wanted to show people how i choose colors cuz a lot of people say they like my color choices! honestly i don't know much myself but i hope that this and the philosophy of 'do what looks good' will help you all o_ob thank you and goodbye

#long post #ah its so freeing to have zero character limit on this site #i did want to add more pics tho 😭#i would make a part two but i dont have much else to say #hope this helps people maybe #also idk how to add a cut/'continue reading' thingy on mobile so if someone could tell me how id appreciate it 😭😭😭

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barananduen · 1 month

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Art Advice: The Misconception Behind "Study Realism"

Most people who draw anime/cartoons have, while asking for ways to improve, at one point or another been told to "study realism." A common response to this is, "But I don't want to draw realism!"

But, did you know that the purpose behind this suggestion is NOT so that you draw realism? They're not suggesting you change to a more realistic style. What, then?

Let's look at this through an analogy:

Say you don't know music yet and decide you want to learn how to play the Happy Birthday song. You're not interested in playing anything else, just the HB song, and you haven't started learning anything related to music at this point. OK, that's fine, and now we have our situation set up. Once you've decided this, you set yourself to learning the sequence of notes to the HB song. You practice and practice, and, after a while, you can play it really well without a hitch. After a few years, it starts feeling bland to you, and you ask, "How can I make my HB song better?" And someone tells you, "Learn all the other music notes," and "Study classical and other genres of music." And you reply, "But I don't want to play that type of music; I want to play the HB song!" (And that's FINE! It's valid; it's what you want to do.[*Footnote 1]) But without having learned all the other notes and other types of music, you can't make a remix of the HB song, or an "epic version," or a hip-hop-fusion version; you've capped at the end of the first paragraph of this story.

So drawing anime or cartoons is like playing the HB song, or any one song in our example.

And here's where our misunderstanding comes in:

"Study Realism" DOES NOT MEAN "Draw Realism"

Yes, you'll have to draw it to study it (not only your brain, but also your hand needs to learn the skill), but it doesn't mean that's what all your artwork will look like. It is meant to give you more tools to make your anime and cartoon work stronger, more appealing, and more unique.

How will it do that? The more music notes you know, the more types of music you understand and can play, the more original a remix /version of the Happy Birthday song you'll be able to make - and it will be unique. Because you will be able to take all that diverse knowledge and apply it to your song, making it stand out, and the next time you play the HB song, people will go, "Wow! This is a really cool version!"

So now we can be clear: There is a difference between learning something and performing it. You can perform whatever you choose, but by learning all the things, your performance of your "Thing of Choice" will be stronger.

What, Exactly, Will Studying Realism Teach You, Then?

I. VALUES

If you learn how to paint/shade with a full range of values (by learning realistic shading) that properly depict both volume and lighting, you will have no trouble simplifying that to cel-shading or gradient-shading in your anime or cartoon drawings, because you will at once spot when something is undershaded or the shadows are in the wrong spot.

On the other hand, if you try to do cel- or gradient-shading first, you are way more likely to a) undershade, and b) have an inconsistent light source. And when these things happen, you won't be able to tell *why* your drawing looks "off" or bland.

II. COLOR

By studying realistic coloring, you'll be able to learn how color varies across an item (say, a shirt) that is a "solid color." Example: you're drawing a character with a pink t-shirt, standing in the sun, at the end of the school day. The t-shirt is solid pink, however, the colors on it will vary from orange-ish to purple-gray, with some areas almost a bright red (and that's not even considering items around the shirt that would bounce light back onto the shirt and change its color). But you'll only know this (and how to do it) if you study realistic coloring.

Then you can apply that knowledge to your stylized artwork and make it stand out more.

Painting of a stylized pear, where I studied real pears to understand their coloring and texture. See how studying realism can enhance your cartoon work.

III. MAKE BETTER STYLIZED ANATOMY

By studying and learning realistic anatomy, you will be able to make stylized art that, for example, doesn't have one arm longer than the other, because you will have learned how to measure proportions, even if you don't draw realistic proportions. So that if you decide you want to draw unrealistically long legs (eg: Sailor Moon), you'll be able to make them look good and keep them consistent.

You will also be able to draw figures in any position, because you will have learned how body parts are made up and how they move, as well as foreshortening/perspective. Then, when you go to draw a pose you haven't drawn before, it will be WAY easier.

IV. UNDERLYING SHAPES

Although this is one of the least-mentioned aspects of art-learning, it is, in my opinion, one of the most important, because when you learn to see underlying shapes (the quasi-geometrical shapes that build up a figure), coupled with learning how to measure a form using other parts of the same form as reference (measuring the length of one body part by the number of times another body part fits in it, as mentioned in Section III, above), you will be able to DRAW. (Period.) You won't be able to draw just people. Or just wolves. Or just cats. You will be able to break down a new subject into its building blocks and come up with a very reasonable likeness. And whatever's different, you'll easily be able to make relative measurements to spot why and fix it.

Once you learn to identify underlying shapes and how to measure proportions in anything, you will also be able to pick up and reproduce any existing style without much trouble.

[link to Tumblr post with this artwork]

For example, this was my first time drawing anything Peanuts. I didn't have to do practice sketches for it (though there's nothing wrong with doing that). But I knew, from realism, that to achieve a good likeness, you need to measure body parts relative to other body parts, so I looked at Schulz's drawings and was able to determine: OK, Charlie Brown's head is roughly this shape, his body is so many heads tall, his eyes are this % of the head, the ears are this far in, the arms reach down to here, etc. I knew what to look for.

V. FOR THOSE WHO WANT SEMI-REALISM

If you want to do "semi-realism," you'll have a way easier time of it by learning realism and then stripping it down as much as you like, than by starting off with "100% anime" and trying to build it up without knowledge of realism. People think the latter is easier, because it *seems* less intimidating, but it's like trying to drive to a store you've never been to without knowing its address: you'll be driving around forever trying to find it, and it will be frustrating. What people call "semi-realism" is stylized realism, and you can't really hit it without knowing how realism works.

CLOSING NOTES

It also doesn't mean you should stop drawing anime/cartoons and focus solely on realism for X amount of time - you can do both concurrently. In fact, the most fun way to study realism is to do so on your favorite subjects; you can even turn your reference into your favorite character!

Studying realism is also one of the best ways to help develop your OWN, unique style; one which, when people look at it, say, "Oh, that's [your name]'s work!"

[*]Footnote 1: It is fine as long as you are drawing for yourself. As soon as art is a job and you're drawing for an employer, you have to draw in the style they tell you to. So, in this case, it's to your advantage to be flexible.

I hope this was helpful and helps clear up a common misunderstanding people go through when receiving feedback. 💞

MORE ART ADVICE ARTICLES

You can find the index to all Art Advice Articles [here] including:

How to Deal with Art Block

How to Have a Positive Outlook

How to Develop Your Own Style (coming soon!)

etc.

#art advice #art tips #art help #art resources #art learning #artists on tumblr #art #how to #art tutorial #anime art #cartoon #semi realism

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gemapples · 4 months

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im so sorry it took me so long to answer these oml but YES i'd be happy to show how i draw and color :)

— SKETCHING

please note that i almost always sketch traditionally first lol it's just a lot easier for me to determine how the drawing is placed that way, but i always go over and re-sketch it digitally

for magolor i always start with a basic egg shape (lmao) and then i add his ears. then I draw the scarf; it's easy to determine the shape and dynamicism based on where the bottoms of the ears are located

then i usually add the cape and hood together. where and how these are placed and what these look like in general are very important because they're the main area that perspective is directed to (the ears and everything else is important too ofc!! but the hood and cape usually help demonstrate where he is looking and how he is moving the most). then i add everything else, usually his hands last!

— LINEART

ohhhhhh god my worst enemy. Hope youre sitting down because this will be embarrassing LMAO

lineart is easily what i struggle with most and is more often than not the most time consuming and grating step for me. If i had a choice i would drop it in a heartbeat, but my style is so dependent on thick lines and shapes that it's difficult to 😭 a hole i dug myself into unfortunately ITS FINE THOUGH. ANYWAYS I'm getting sidetracked

i use my finger to draw all my digital art, which means i usually have to use a Heavy stabilizer to avoid shakiness and staggered lines. Unfortunately ibis paint's stabilizer is actually dog water and doesn't even stabilize more than half the time (in which case i have to repeat lines over. And over. And over again until i get it right) but when it does like me and works properly it's very helpful!

i always use the soft school pen bleed brush as my main tool for lineart. This brush has been my best friend for everything, i even use it for sketching idk it just really like the way it looks lol. sometimes i change the aspect if i want the lines to look more ,, chalky?? or smoother depending on the work

i don't really use this tool much but for this specific piece, force fade was my partner in crime

also i think i need to mention that i use so many layers for this. So many layers lol like to the point it's embarrassing. and at the end i merge most of them (except for the gear patterns, rings on his ear, and eyes + hands, which usually need to be by themselves as they're colored separately) Thank you for layers

and i end up with this!

— COLORING && SHADING

yippee yahoo the fun part !!! the part that i love the most

at this point, if i havent already, i always create a folder for convenience in organization because this is the part that i stress the most about what details are on which layers lmao

then i add ANOTHER layer below that for the color, then i put every single color used on their own separate layer!

now, for shading, if im working on larger pieces with more complex shading, i'll usually plan it all out. normally when just drawing magolor, i don't really need to do this anymore because i'm so used to it lol, but for funsies i did it here anyways

then i use the bucket tool to fill them all in

i usually have a set color palette for all the characters i draw (though the way i shade white differs. A lot between my work as you can probably tell fhdfgf). For every color, i have two specific tones that are associated with the shading. for example, indigo + violet are shaded with my blue, pink + light orange (or lighter pink depending on my mood lol) are shaded with yellow, etc.

so, i shade the other areas with the 2nd shading color

a big tip i can give for coloring is to look at a color wheel when you draw. i know that sounds like. Such basic advice LMAO but that seriously was a huge help for me when developing my shading and something i learned while studying — if you notice, in all of the shading in my work, all of the colors used are analogous on the color wheel. note that not ALL combinations will work together like others obv !! but it's a huge step in knowing where to go with it

then i add other extra details like extra lighting, halftones (if i feel like it // if it fits the work), glow to his eyes, and color the lines and ta-da!

another tool i use a lot especially with my more recent art are blending modes, especially multiply. i use a clipping layer to add a dark color (usually a dark blue or purple) and set it to multiply, then erase the areas that emit light

and this is the end result! this is a very very basic demonstration of it fhdjg i was a pretty messy with the lighting and erasing in this example but you get the general idea right

and that's how i draw :) i hope this was helpful, and thanks for asking and being so patient with the response!

#ask #magolor #kirby #macdraws #ive wanted to make a tutorial for So long and finally found a bit of time to do it lmao

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eddiemunsons80sbaby · 6 months

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Everybody Hurts

Chapter 12

Pairing: EddieMunsonxReader

Summary: You needed to escape, escape from your life, your messy divorce, and all the pitying looks. Looks you couldn't ignore when everyone in town had known you and Cam, had known your shame and failure. So, you took the first job you could get, teaching third grade in a town called Hawkins. Little did you know, you were walking right into another messy situation, a messy situation with big brown eyes and long dark waves. But he's resistant, at times unbearable and you start getting curious about the town's past, his past, especially when things don't start adding up.

18+ Only for eventual smut

The smut has arrived. You've been warned.

Next chapter: 11/15

Word Count: 7.5K

Masterlist

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

‘My Dude’s Pies’ stood out starkly in bright yellow letters on the front of the otherwise nondescript brick building. There was nothing particularly special about it from the outside. It didn’t stand out in any way. It looked like most of the other businesses along the main street in Hawkins. Nothing that would really catch your eye or bring you pause but the inside was an entirely different story.

Your eyes widened at the riot of color that greeted you as you and Eddie walked through the door. The walls were painted a neon green with a huge mural of a slice of pizza riding a wave decorating the largest wall. The other walls were filled with various artwork, all quirky and eclectic: a cow wearing sunglasses, a tiger in a garish purple velvet suit, a collection of paintings of trolls' toys with a rainbow of brightly colored hair. Multi-colored lights hung from the ceiling and snaked around the walls. The furniture was a mish mosh of neon colors, your eyes assaulted with glaring shades of hot pink, flaming red, electric blue, and florescent yellow. The floor was white tile, blocks of the same brilliant shades sprinkled throughout.

“My dudes!”

You looked up to find Argyle coming through the swinging doors from the kitchen, his arms raised over his head in greeting. Of course. How had you forgotten that Argyle owned the pizza place in town? The decor here perfectly matched the loud fashion choices of the man currently walking toward you, pulling you into a bone-crushing bear hug.

“Hi Argyle,” you gasped, your chest constricted with the force of the friendly embrace.

“To what do I owe the pleasure, friends?” he inquired. “You two craving one of my tasty pies?”

“I was just hungry, man. The lady said she wanted pizza, so here we are,” Eddie answered.

“Wait…” Argyle stepped back, his fingers pointing between the two of you, dancing just like his eyes, a grin stretching his mouth wide. “Oh! Oh! Are you two dating now? Is this a thing? It looks like a thing. How did I not know about this?”

“No. Absolutely not a thing. This is definitely not a date,” Eddie protested, his hands waving in front of him as if that were the most offensive thing he’d ever heard. “I’m just helping her out with a car. We ran to the junkyard for parts and I was hungry so I mentioned grabbing something to eat and she picked pizza. Just trying to be nice, man. Something new for me.”

“I see,” Argyle nodded. “Also getting real tired of the ladies chewing your ear off about chasing their new friend away, huh? And the car worked out! That’s rad. You know, Jonathan has some really good ideas sometimes. When he said you should get her your uncle’s car, I thought that was bogus because you two can’t stand each other. But look, here you stand in my restaurant ready to chow down together. So, it all worked out, right?”

Annoyance rippled along your spine, your ears buzzing as you silently seethed at his words. So, you’d been right all along. Eddie didn’t want to hang out with you. He hadn’t found you a car and offered to work on it out of the goodness of his heart. His friends had put him up to all of this because they wanted you to get along. Anger bubbled within you until it was boiling over, spilling out, completely out of your control anymore.

“Yeah, it all worked out. What a stand up guy to do exactly what his friends told him to do even though it’s awful for him, being forced to spend time with me. And us dating? Can you imagine?” you snorted obnoxiously, knowing you were being immature but not caring. “What a ridiculous idea. Like he would ever want to date some mainstream Prom Queen like me. He’s far too edgy for me. I’m too boring and normal. Actually stuck-up bitch is how I believe he put it if I’m remembering correctly. That would definitely go against his own personal motto of keeping that hardcore metal asshole image.”

Both men’s jaws dropped, eyes wide as you shoved past them and made your way to the front counter to order your food. At this point, you just wanted to eat and go home. Just as you were beginning to feel like you were becoming the person you hoped to be, someone strong and smart who would never let anyone else treat you like garbage, Eddie managed to make you feel like an idiot all over again.

Because wasn’t that what an idiot would do? Close their eyes and pretend they couldn’t see what was happening right in front of their face? Just like you did for a year, hell, for your entire marriage. Ignorantly ignoring all the signs, choosing to stay in your safe cocoon of ignorance over facing the glaring problem in the room that would implode your life. No, you didn’t know Cam was sleeping with your best friend but as you looked back, all the signs were there. The two of you had not been a happy couple for a long time. And now Eddie was just another problem you were trying to ignore, continually hoping for something that wasn’t there, pretending everything was fine when it was anything but.

“Hey, what can I get you?” asked the perky teen girl with a beaming smile that was manning the cash register.

Your eyes scanned over the menu, remembering how yummy that pineapple pizza had been the other night. “I’m going to get the Pineapple Express.”

“For here or would you like it in a box to go?”

“You know what? Can I get it to go please?”

There. You could get your pizza and then he could take you home. Eddie could just go sit in his house and eat his pizza all alone since being with you was clearly a chore for him, something he was only doing to play nice, to keep his friends from being mad at him. You would enjoy your pizza and maybe dive back into your book that you needed to finish before it was due back at the library.

You stepped down to the end of the counter to wait on your pizza just as Eddie stepped up, ordering a ‘Slice to Meat you.’ Your eyes flicked up to the menu, noticing it was basically a four meat pizza with bacon, sausage, pepperoni, and ground beef. When the girl asked him whether he wanted it here or to go, he answered that it was for here.

“He meant to go,” you called out to the girl.

You could feel Eddie’s eyes boring into you as he protested, “Actually, I want mine for here.”

“Well, I got mine to go so you may as well get yours to go too. Wouldn’t want to force my company on you any longer than necessary,” you muttered, folding your arms, eyes trained on the kitchen, refusing to look at him.

“Both of our orders are for here,” he ground out through gritted teeth.

A hand wrapped around your bicep in a vice grip, not enough to hurt but firm enough to get your attention. Eddie pulled you away from the counter and over into the corner of the restaurant, your bodies shadowed from the rest of the customers, the lighting dim. Your back pressed up against the wall, his body so close you could feel the annoyance radiating off of him.

“Alright, what the hell is your problem now? I asked you out to dinner. I didn’t ask if you wanted to grab food and go. I assumed that meant we were eating it here, together,” he snarled, keeping his voice low in an effort to not draw attention.

“You are my problem. You’ve been my problem ever since I first laid eyes on you and I just want to take my pizza home.”

“Jesus Christ, you bitch about me but are you aware of how unbelievably frustrating you are? You want to talk about mood swings? You went from pleasant to nasty in a matter of seconds,” hissed Eddie. “What the hell was that about, huh? I thought we were past all that. I thought we were trying to be nice to each other. I fucking apologized, using the actual words because you insisted, for what I said to you. I brought you food. We sat and watched a movie. We hung out today. I thought we were cool so why did you have to throw that back in my face again?”

You opened your mouth to argue with him but quickly snapped it shut again. What could you possibly say to explain the way you’d acted without telling him the very thing you never wanted to utter aloud? I threw it back in your face because I like you but it’s pretty obvious you don’t like me and that made me act like a five year old who wasn’t getting their way?

No, you absolutely could not say that. Nor could you explain how he kept sending signals that made you think maybe he was interested and then just as fast shut you down. If you said that, you were openly admitting that you were hoping for something to happen here and that was the most mortifying thing you could think of. He would reject you, right here, in front of Argyle and word would quickly spread among the group and you’d never be able to show your face around them again. Hell, you wouldn’t be able to show your face in Hawkins. In a town this small, everybody would know before you walked into work on Monday.

“You’re right,” you admitted, gritting your teeth as you did so, the words painful to even speak because he wasn’t right but you couldn’t tell him why. “I did forgive you. We’re past it. Just forget it, okay? It’s fine. We can eat our pizza here.”

“Pineapple Express for Y/N!”

You pushed past him in a huff, grabbing the box from the young guy, forcing a smile and thanking him. You dropped down hard into a chair at the nearest table, opening the box. The pizza smelled amazing but your stomach was so twisted up with everything you wanted to say but couldn’t that you weren't sure you could eat it even if you wanted to.

Eddie sat down across from you, his own pizza on a silver tray. He grabbed a slice, taking a large bite and then sat back, spreading his legs wide. His eyes assessed you as he chewed slowly, as if he were a doctor and you were exhibiting the most unusual symptoms, his brain struggling to come up with a diagnosis. Well, that was fine. You certainly weren't helping him fill in the missing information.

“So…we’re fine?” he questioned.

“Yeah. I said we were, didn’t I?”

“I know what you said but based on your body language and the way you’re staring daggers at me right now, I am getting the distinct impression that it’s not actually fine,” he grumbled, dropping his pizza back on the tray. His body leaned forward, elbows resting on the edge of the table. “So, you want to tell me what’s really going on?”

“Nothing’s going on. Seriously. It’s fine. Just drop it.”

“Look sweetheart…”

“I’m not your sweetheart.”

Eddie’s head ricocheted backward, “Okay. Fine. I’m just a little confused here. I thought we were doing okay. We had a nice night last night, a good day today, so what changed?”

“Nothing. Nothing changed so you don’t have to worry. You’re doing your job. You’ve been nice to me. You pitied me and helped with my car. You even took me to dinner and hung out with me and now your friends will be happy with you because you can say we’re getting along. So, we’re good. You did good, alright?”

“I pitied you? You think I asked you to grab something to eat because I pity you?”

“I don’t know. Maybe or maybe not but you definitely asked me to dinner and are fixing my car and hanging out with me to make sure your friends don’t yell at you for being rude. Argyle made that pretty clear. So glad that Jonathan was able to come up with a solution for me since I’m such a problem for you. I’m just telling you, mission accomplished. If they ask, I will let them know what a nice guy you’ve been. So, you can stop doing things you obviously don’t want to do.”

“I didn’t ask you to get food with me for my friends. I also didn’t offer to fix your car for them. Yeah, it was Jonathan’s idea that I show you my uncle’s car but I chose to offer to fix it. They are very well aware of what an asshole I can be and they’ve stuck around for over ten years. I’m not worried about them being pissed at me and I don’t do anything I don’t want to do, darling.”

“Fine,” you huffed, folding your arms over your chest, eyes challenging him. “If not for them, then explain to me why we’re sitting in this pizza place.”

“Did you ever consider the possibility that maybe I liked hanging out with you?”

“No! Why would I?”

“Jesus H. Christ, woman, you can be so damn stubborn,” Eddie growled, his eyes rolling toward the ceiling. “Is it really so hard to believe that I can be a nice guy? That maybe, just maybe, I just want to try to be your friend?”

“Yes, it is when you say shit like you were hungry so you figured you’d try out being nice and invite me along. That doesn’t sound like you wanted to share a meal with me. It sounds like you felt like you should and I don’t need to be anyone’s charity case.”

“Do I seem like the type of guy who would take on a charity case out of the goodness of my heart?” he demanded.

“Yeah, actually you do,” you shot back. “I know all about your little DnD club, Hellfire, right? I know how you took in Dustin, Lucas, and Mike because you noticed they weren’t fitting in, sitting all alone. I think it’s admirable, really, but I am not some freshman in high school who’s being isolated from the group. I can take care of myself. I’m not one of your sheep and I sure as hell don’t need a shepherd.”

His eyes widened, head tilting, “Who told you about Hellfire?”

“Jonathan,” you answered shortly, realizing just a bit too late that you may have divulged more than you should have.

“And how exactly did that topic come up?”

“We were just talking about the group, about how everyone met. He told me Dustin practically worships the ground you walk on, how you took the boys under your wing their freshman year, and gave them a safe space.”

“Oh he did?”

“He did,” you mumbled.

It was only a half lie. That had been what Jonathan said but it hadn’t exactly come up as organically as all that. But you couldn’t tell him the real reason. He pissed you off and drove you nuts but you didn’t want to hurt him. Telling him about Lance, about what he’d said, would only cause him more pain and no matter how much he upset you, you couldn’t bring yourself to do that.

“Someone should tell him to keep his big mouth shut about my business,” grumbled Eddie.

“Why? Because someone might actually mistake you for a good guy,” you teased, a small smile breaking through your previous annoyance. “Can’t have that, right?”

“Letting those little shrimps into my high school club does not make me a good guy. Most people in this town would tell you it made me the bad guy, actually. Welcoming them into my club for losers and freaks, painting a bullseye on their backs for four years of torment.”

“I disagree. Those kids were going to be targets whether they joined your club or not. Besides, most seniors would not take the time to acknowledge some lowly freshmen, let alone go out of their way to make sure they felt like they had somewhere to belong. I think it speaks to who you really are, the person you try to hide behind all the surliness and unpleasantness.”

“Oh yeah? Weren’t you the one who just moments ago didn’t even want to share pizza with me and now you’re certain I’m really a good guy?”

“I never thought you weren’t a good guy. I just know there’s something that’s caused you to bury him down deep, something that hurt you. I can see it all the time. It’s in your eyes, in the way you shut down, in the way you mask any possible emotion with anger because that’s the easiest one to handle. You don’t want to be vulnerable with anyone because you don’t want to risk it.”

“You don’t know anything about it,” Eddie grumbled, head dropping, that mass of hair veiling his face as if he were trying to hide from you. As if he were trying to keep you from seeing the truth and really, wasn’t that what he’d been doing from the first moment you met?

“You’re right. I don’t, but I get the distinct impression that you think you’re all alone but you’re not. You have a mess of people who genuinely seem to truly care about you, who seem willing to do anything for you if you’d only let them in.”

“Do I?” he questioned, leaning back in his seat again, lean arms crossing over the top of his shirt. “And do you count yourself among one of those people, sweetheart?”

“I would like to be,” you admitted, your stomach twisting at the honesty of your words, at the vulnerable state you were putting yourself in by telling him the truth. “If you’d let me. I mean, you know, be a friend to you.” You added that quickly, not wanting to send this conversation veering off course or send him shutting down, thinking you meant something he very obviously didn’t want.

“Well, after two meals together, I think we can safely say we’re friends,” he replied softly, those plush lips pursing together as the corner of his mouth, a dimple appearing on the same side.

“Good,” you smiled, grabbing your pizza, hunger returning with the very large step you’d both just taken.

Friends. You could do that for him. You could be his friend. You would push your attraction down, somewhere deep where it couldn’t reach the light of day, and learn to be okay with this because it was all that he wanted from you. You couldn’t be angry with him because he wasn’t attracted to you. You couldn’t control attraction. So if friends was all he wanted, then you would be his friend.

___________________________________________________________

“What are you doing?” you asked curiously as Eddie got out of his van after you.

You were sitting in front of your house and you’d assumed he was simply dropping you off. You’d both managed civil, polite conversation while you’d enjoyed the rest of your pizza. It wasn’t anything groundbreaking. He hadn’t suddenly divulged the deep dark secret that you knew was buried in there but it had still been nice. You’d actually talked for an hour without arguing once.

You had enjoyed the way his face softened, his eyes warmed, as he talked about his uncle. The man clearly meant everything to him. He hadn’t told you what you already knew about his parents. He clearly didn’t trust you enough yet and you weren't going to bring up his ugly past but he had told a few stories about growing up with his mom’s brother.

You’d particularly enjoyed the story about Wayne dressing up as Santa Claus after an eleven year old Eddie insisted he wasn’t real. He’d loudly brought in the presents, banging around on purpose to wake the kid so he would catch sight of him. Eddie had been shocked to his core, everything he thought he’d been certain of suddenly in question. He’d believed in Santa until he was fourteen after that, no matter what the other kids had to say on the matter. But he never told anyone he was real, that he’d seen him, not wanting to be mocked at school.

“I’m walking you to your door,” Eddie answered, that look on his face again, the one that said he thought you were dense, as if walking you to your door should have been obvious.

“Umm…ok,” you mumbled, the two of you walking side by side up your sidewalk.

Eddie’s hands were tucked into his pockets as he climbed the steps next to you. You stepped up to the door and reached into your purse for your keys before pausing and turning to face him.

“Thanks,” you said softly, “you know, for helping with the car and for dinner and everything. It was nice, you know, getting to hang out with you, feeling like you actually might not be completely repulsed by me.”

You laughed awkwardly, trying to play it off as a joke but it fell flat because you couldn’t really find it funny. Especially not right now, with the way Eddie was looking at you.

Eddie’s jaw lifted, his head tilting to the side, “Repulsed by you? That’s an interesting choice of words.”

You shrugged, pulling your lower lip between your teeth, “You certainly seemed to be.” You waved your hand in dismissal, trying to play it off. “Look, it doesn’t really matter anymore. We decided to move past all of that, right? My point was just that it was nice, feeling like I was your friend, that maybe you’re okay with me being around because I really like your friends and I would like to keep hanging out with everybody. I haven’t really…I mean, I’ve spent the last four months alone, basically. It’s nice to have people.”

“Sweetheart, I have never been repulsed by you,” Eddie stated, shaking his head, those brown eyes burning holes straight through you, your skin suddenly warm, uncomfortably warm as he stepped into you and you stepped back with nowhere to go, your back pressed against the door. “Not once. How in the hell could anyone be repulsed by you?”

Your breath caught, the ability to pull in air suddenly felt impossible as the back of his hand came up, brushing along your cheek. Your eyes fluttered closed at the contact, the feel of his skin against yours filling you with an overwhelming need. You battled yourself, refusing to take the first step, not willing to open yourself up to his rejection, a concept that was so shockingly painful it caused an ache within your chest.

“I don’t understand,” you managed to choke out, head swimming, scared to allow yourself to read anything in his words, knowing you could be twisting them into what you wanted. And god, you wanted it so badly at this moment.

“The first moment I saw you, this face across those flames, I thought you were the most beautiful thing I had ever seen,” Eddie rasped, his fingers moving over the back of your neck, fingers slipping into your hair. His nose was grazing, featherlight, across your forehead and your legs threatened to send you to the ground.

“I…Eddie…this is…I don’t understand what is happening. What the hell do you want from me?” you pleaded, hands pressed flat against the door in an effort to keep yourself stable because he was shaking your foundation to the core.

“Too much,” he whispered, words growled against your ear. “More than I should.”

His lips crashed into yours and it was indescribable: a meteor shower blazing across the sky, heat lightning setting your soul ablaze, a cyclone of desire that was destroying everything in its path. Every time you’d imagined this very moment, you’d been so wrong because your mind could never have come up with this. It was as if your soul recognized him and was pulling toward him like a magnet, desperate to connect with the piece it had been missing. He was leaving his name tattooed across your soul with a single kiss, marking you forever.

You finally allowed yourself to slide your hands into that hair, fingers tangling through luscious, thick waves. Eddie’s hands flattened against your door on either side of your head, his chest pressing against yours, pinning you between him and the wood. His tongue slid across your lips and you parted them eagerly, moaning as he licked and explored, leaving nothing untouched, completely consuming you, making you feel him everywhere at once.

It was a kiss that made you forget about every other kiss you had ever had. Cam who? No kiss with Cam had ever felt like this. It was a kiss like they show in movies and romance novels. It was a kiss that made you feel as if you were living in a dream because there was no way reality could feel this damn good. It was a tidal wave crashing against your shores, washing away any trace of anything that wasn’t him, his lips as they devoured you, his tongue slipping along your own.

“House,” he growled into your mouth, his voice deep and raspy, filled with the longing that you felt to the very tips of your fingers and toes.

“House…” you gasped. “Yeah…”

You turned, struggling with your key, your fingers trembling. It didn’t help when his hands slid around you, thumb running just under your shirt, rough and calloused against the skin of your stomach. His face nuzzled against your hair, tongue tracing the edge of your ear, and you fought like hell to find enough clarity to get the key in the door.

You’d barely pushed the door open before he was on you again, crushing you to him, his foot kicking the door shut roughly behind you. He walked forward, causing you to stumble back and then your back was pressed against the wall again. His nose ran along your cheek, across your jaw, down the side of your throat and you trembled at the simple contact as he breathed life back into you with his touch.

Then his lips joined in the fun and Jesus. Your eyes rolled back in your head as he explored the column of your throat and then his lips latched around the skin, suckling it into his mouth. You cried out, your hand grasping the back of his head, holding him against you, the sensations moving straight down between your legs, an ache that refused to be ignored pulsing insistently.

“You smell amazing,” he breathed, kisses pressed against your pulse point, tender skin sucked between his lips, teasing with his teeth. He was going to mark you. Your thirty year old self was going to be walking around with a hickey but you couldn’t find the will to care. “You are so goddamn beautiful. From the moment I saw you a few weeks ago, all I could think about was touching you, running my hands over every inch of your body, finding out just how good you taste.”

Holy fuck. A soft whimper fell from your lips, your skin trembling at his words. Was this really happening right now? All those times you’d imagined this, this exact moment, you’d never believed it would ever become a reality. Could it possibly be true? Had he been wanting you just like you’d been wanting him?

His hands pulled at your shirt, yanking it over the top of your head and tossing it. The frenzy of just mere seconds ago halted as he stood admiring every inch of you. Cam had never looked at you like that, like you were the most desirable woman he’d ever seen. Eddie’s eyes roamed over your chest, the black lacy bra that hid nothing, your nipples already hardened into peaks, pressing against the fabric as your chest heaved in anticipation.

“Jesus H. Christ,” he breathed, one hand coming to cup the mound of flesh now revealed to him, his thumb moving over your nipple as you gasped, biting on your bottom lip. “Your ex is a fucking idiot. You are so damn perfect.”

His lips fell to your chest, open mouthed kisses against the flesh that spilled from the top of the bra as his hands slipped around your back, working at the clasp. He released it quickly, expertly as if he’d done it a dozen times, discarding it to the floor. You arched toward him, your body aching for his hands, his mouth, anything. You had never been so turned on in your entire life.

You writhed as he worshiped your breasts, teeth and tongue and lips everywhere. Teasing, sucking, nibbling until you were panting, your hand buried in his thick locks, holding him against you. Your hips rocked forward, craving more, craving all of him, as if you were an addict and he was your drug, the only thing that could satisfy this burning need blazing within you. He pulled one nipple between his lips, sucking hard, so hard it hurt but it was the most blissful kind of pain, the kind that made you want to beg for more.

Eddie rose up straight, his lips finding yours once again, tongue exploring your mouth, massaging your own. You needed to see him, all of him. You grasped at his shirt and he pulled away just long enough to yank it over his head. As your eyes fell on his pale flesh, a canvas of battle wounds, a patchwork of scars just like the ones on his neck and arm, you gasped softly. It was like you were looking at a roadmap of his past, the pain he’d been through, proof of how strong he was to have survived whatever horrors he’d endured.

“Eddie,” you whispered, your fingers reaching out, tracing the deep, dark, and jagged lines along his abdomen.

At the feel of your touch, Eddie’s eyes fluttered closed, a soft sigh escaping him, as if he was starved for it. As if he hadn’t been touched in far too long. You felt him shiver, his heart beating fast and hard under your palm, his chest rising and falling rapidly. It filled you with a searing sadness, wondering how long it had been since someone had touched him with affection.

He grabbed your hand, bringing the pads of your fingers to his lips, kissing them gently. Then he bent down and grabbed his shirt, preparing to pull it back over his head and you reached for it, pulling it from his hands.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m sorry…I…I know it’s hideous,” he mumbled. “I can keep my shirt on so you don’t have to look at them.”

Your heart fractured, tiny jagged pieces crumbling into dust at his words, at the way his face crumpled, as his expectation of rejection. Had other women seen this and turned from him? Had someone actually asked him to keep his shirt on? You were filled with a strong desire to punch them in the face if they did.

“No,” you told him softly, tossing the shirt across the room. “You don’t have to hide from me.” You stepped into him, pressing your lips against the scar that was at his collarbone, relishing the sweet groan that fell from his lips. “This is a part of who you are, proof of how strong you are, and I don’t think you’re hideous, Eddie. I think you’re beautiful. You are the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen. Don’t ever cover yourself up because you’re absolutely perfect.”

Your lips moved, pressing against each and every scar, worshiping him just the way he had you. The soft sighs he made with each touch of your mouth filled you with warmth. You were overcome with a desire to take away this man’s pain, to show him just how beautiful he was, how his scars didn’t diminish him. They were a testament that he had fought and survived. What he’d fought you didn’t know but after seeing the evidence on his body, you couldn’t believe this was the work of a bunch of rabid raccoons.

You brought your face to his, kissing the scar along his jaw, your tongue moving along the raised and angry skin. Your fingers tangled in his hair, pulling gently and he groaned, cupping the back of your head and tipping it back. He smashed his lips to yours, urgent and needy.

“Eddie…” you whispered as his lips traveled again, exploring. They moved between your breasts, along your stomach before he dropped to his knees in front of you, undoing your shorts and pulling them, along with your panties, down your legs. You lifted each foot, allowing him to remove them completely.

His hand ran over your leg, down to your calf, gripping it and hooking it over his shoulder, opening you completely to him. You gazed down at him, biting your lip and he grinned, cocoa eyes now dark with lust before he pressed his face against your center, nuzzling his nose in, inhaling deeply. Your head hit the wall at the slightest contact.

“You don’t…I was going to…” you managed to squeak out, though you weren’t sure how as his lips traced over your calf and then the skin of your inner thigh.

“No. I’ve been dying to know what you taste like for days…” he growled softly, his teeth biting down into the supple flesh of your thigh, causing you to shriek as your head slammed back against the wall.

Your brain lost all ability to form a coherent thought as his tongue ran over your folds, spreading you open. His hands gripped your hips, holding you steady as they rocked toward him, moving as if they had a mind of their own, a mind that wanted to get as close to his mouth as it could.

“So fucking good, Prom Queen. So wet for me already,” he growled, lips wrapping around your clit, sucking on it like a hard lozenge to soothe a painful ache.

“Jesus Christ, Eddie!” you yelped, hands slamming against the wood of the door.

His tongue flicked, lips sucked, teeth raked until you were on the verge of tears, your orgasm already coiling like a snake ready to strike. Two thick fingers slipped through your slick, teasing at your opening, and then he pressed them into you, pumping them rhythmically, his tongue never letting up its attention on your clit.

He worked like a man on a mission, like he was starving and you were a buffet of delicacies spread out before him. Cam had always acted like doing down on you was a chore, something he was required to do so he could get what he wanted. Eddie acted like this was the main attraction, like your pleasure was the only thing that mattered, like he couldn’t get enough of you.

“Oh my god…” you keened, hands flat against the door, trying to keep yourself in an upright position as the muscles in your legs quivered, knees threatening to give out beneath you.

“Not a god sweetheart…just a freak. A freak who’s going to make you cum harder than you ever have,” he mused, burying his face, mouth wrapped around your clit as he shook his head back and forth, fingers curling within you, hitting a space Cam had certainly never found and you bit your lip so hard, you tasted blood.

Your entire body shook as the tsunami that was your orgasm crashed down over you. Your vision went white and you began to slide down the wall to the floor, your legs unable to support you anymore. Eddie caught you, arms around your legs, creeping upward as he stood. He kept a firm grip on you as he kissed you soft and deep.

“Holy shit,” you gasped through a haze of pleasure, your body jello that had been left out in the sun, oozing into all the cracks of the sidewalk, unable to form a substantial shape.

“That was so much better than I imagined,” Eddie whispered against the shell of your ear, strong arms locked around you. “Fuck, Prom Queen, the sounds you make…your ex ever make you feel that good?”

“I…he…huh…” you managed, your brain still completely checked out.

Eddie scooped you up easily, carrying you up the stairs bridal style. His lean body was deceiving as he held you as if you weighed nothing, kicking open the door to your room, laying you back on the bed. Your eyes followed him hungrily as he removed his pants and boxers, revealing even more of those angry scars over his legs. Fuck, it was like something had tried to consume him, biting off hunks of flesh anywhere and everywhere it could reach.

His hand felt in his back pocket, retrieving a foil wrapped condom and your eyes widened. Had he planned for this? Hoped for it? Why else would he just be carrying a condom with him when he knew he would be spending the day with you? He ripped open the foil with his teeth, rolling it down over his substantial girth. Your eyes watched him eagerly, your pussy already pulsing again, needy for him, wanting to know what he felt like inside of you.

His fists came down onto the end of the bed as he crawled his way up to you, surprising you when he turned you onto your side, spooning you from behind. He gripped his cock, rubbing it over your folds, through your wetness and you moaned, pressing your ass back against him, eager for him to fill you, to feel all of him. He used the tip to tease your clit, working you up until you were whimpering again, desperate for him. Just when you thought you couldn’t take it anymore, he thrust up into you.

“Oh shit…” you groaned, eyes rolling back in your head as he hit the deepest spaces within you, his cock bottoming out with each roll of his hips. He was stretching you deliciously, his cock thicker than anything you were used to. “That’s so good.”

“Yeah? You like that?” Eddie breathed in your ear, one hand gripping your hip, the other wrapping around your throat, pulling you flush against him as he rocked himself in and out of you again and again.

“Yes, fuck yes.”

“You feel so goddamn good wrapped around me, sweetheart. Fuck, you’re so damn wet,” grunted Eddie, his fingers walking from your hip to between your thighs, teasing your clit once again.

“Jesus…” you whimpered, rolling your hips against his hand, causing you to come back even deeper on his cock each time he rocked forward, both of you groaning at the new sensation.

“Keep doing that, Prom Queen. Fuck, feels so good,” he muttered, lips pressed against your shoulder.

You continued to rock your hips, panting, sweaty, your bodies slipping along each other. That snake coiled up again quickly and you knew you weren’t going to last much longer, not with his cock hitting all the right places and his fingers playing you like a fucking piano, hitting all the right notes every goddamn time.

“Eddie…I’m gonna…I’m so close…”

Eddie’s fingers gripped your chin, turning your face toward his, “That’s it, pretty girl. Cum for me. I want to see your face when I make you lose control.”

His words were like a force, snapping you like a rubber band. “Oh Eddie!” you screamed, white hot pleasure exploding from your center just as he grunted your name and rutted deep inside of you, his own orgasm taking control.

“Fuck,” he muttered, body quivering behind you. He slipped from inside you gently, pulling the condom off and tossing it in the trash can right next to the bed. Rolling onto his side, he propped himself up on his arm, smiling down at you, thumb running along your jaw. “So, what do you think? Can we manage to be friends?”

You laughed, the sound loud and explosive at the absurdity of his words, “I uh…I don’t usually do that with friends.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve never had a friend that’s made me rock hard every time they walk by,” Eddie shrugged. “I mean, Harrington’s pretty but…”

You snorted, rolling into him, pressing your cheek against his chest, listening to the soothing sound of his heartbeat. You’d told yourself that a relationship was the last thing you needed. You’d convinced yourself that you just needed to find yourself but now, you were more than content to find yourself while being with Eddie. If something good came along, even when you weren’t planning on it, why would you risk throwing it away? What if no one ever made you feel like this again?

“I have not been this happy in over a year. The others are never going to believe this,” you chuckled, shaking your head. “They think we can’t stand each other. What are they going to do when they find out we’re…” You paused, not sure how to finish that sentence. “What are we? Is this…something?”

Eddie stilled next to you, clearing his throat. “We don’t really need to rush to name this anything yet or define it or…you know, announce it to anybody. I mean, who knows what’s gonna happen, right? No reason to jump the gun.”

A weight crushed your chest at his words, “So…was this just a one time thing?”

“That’s not what I said. I just don’t think we need to make some big declaration about it. Who knows what this is right now, right? I mean, we don’t even know what this is. No need to confuse everybody else.”

“Right…” you murmured, not wanting to put any pressure on him, to come across as pathetic, to admit how much you wanted this to be the start of something more.

He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Alright, sweetheart, this has been amazing and everything but I am going to grab my clothes and I’ll get out of your hair, okay?”

Eddie sat up, bursting your blissful bubble. What? You reached out for him, struggling to comprehend the sudden change of pace. How did you go from having sex to him ready to leave so quickly? Your hand wrapped around his forearm. He looked down at it and then back at you quizzically, one eyebrow lifted.

“What? What do you mean you’re leaving? I thought…I mean, I assumed after that…” you sighed, frustrated at being put in a vulnerable state where you were admitting how weak you really were, how needy you were for him to stay. “I thought you’d spend the night. We could watch a movie or something.” Sitting up, you pressed your lips against his bare shoulder, your arms coming around his waist. “Maybe do this again. I could even make you breakfast tomorrow.”

He looked away from you quickly, too quickly, and you felt your heart sinking. All the joy, the pleasure, the anticipation of things to come melted out of your body, dread taking over. He was regretting it. You’d allowed yourself to believe he wanted more and he was shutting down on you again, locking the door, leaving you out in the cold.

“Uh…as tempting as that sounds, I should really get home. I mean, I gotta get up early tomorrow and…”

“Tomorrow’s Sunday. The shop can’t possibly be open on Sunday.”

“No, but I told my uncle I’d help him with uhh…with this thing. I mean, something with his truck. And I live closer to him than you do. It just makes more sense to stay at my own place. Besides, I don’t want to wake you up early on a Sunday when you could sleep in.”

Panic inhabited every cell of your being, desperate to keep him there, fearing that if you let him walk out the door, all of this would have been for nothing. He would go back to being who he’d been the last few weeks. You would now be the idiot who slept with a guy who never planned on anything more than a one night stand.

“I’m sure your uncle would understand if you showed up a little later. You could always call him and…”

“No,” Eddie stated, his tone very clearly letting you know that the discussion was over. “Look, this was nice. It was great.” He rose from the bed, pulling his pants on. “But I don’t think we’re at the staying at each other’s places level yet, okay? We barely know each other.” Now his shirt was over his head, his hands checking his pockets for his wallet and keys. “I’ll call you.”

Bending down, he kissed the top of your head and then darted from the room as if he couldn’t get away from you fast enough. You pulled your knees into your chest, battling back the tears, the awful pain in your chest, the insistent voice telling you that you were a moron, a moron who’d let some guy use you all over again.

Chapter 13

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willowedwisteria · 2 years

Text

⁂~The System~⁂

Summary -> The classic SAGAU plot but with a little something extra!

Note -> Yes, I know, I said I lost interest. But hey, motivation strikes you randomly. This is kind of cult, kind of SAGAU, so...

Chapter 2/Chapter 3

A game. That's what Genshin was. You say "was" because it used to be just a game to you. The memories of grinding endlessly for materials, the excitement bursting in you once you see the golden glow on your screen while wishing, how invested you were in the mountains of lore buried into just one game - that was your connection with the game at first.

Just imagine your inner shock when you found yourself basking in the shade of the massive oak tree planted in Windrise. The sunlight that beamed through the lacing of leaves had awoken you from your sleep, the calm zephyr around you felt almost comforting with the hinting smell of mints and herbs around.

Is this Genshin? You question why you even thought of that. Genshin's just a game! Yet, you could see packs of hillichurls and slimes bouncing around the vicinity.

Before you could accustom yourself to your surroundings in the state of your confusion, the world around you begins to glitch. The windrise tree you laid your back onto suddenly faded. It was pitch black with nothing around you.

The sound of a bell rang once and you saw a blue, floating digital screen appear in front of you. You carefully read the text on it.

Welcome, anomaly.

"Anomaly?" You tapped the screen.

You had appeared out of nowhere. You are not supposed to be here.

"Well, of course. I was just in bed." Another tap on the screen brought you to the following message. Weirdly, you felt like you were actually being observed like you were talking to another person.

You're too... detailed to be simply a glitch. Yet, you also seem... too human.

Who are you?

"I..." No words could form in your mouth, so you had no choice but to force them out. "I'm just a person, I guess. Oh! You can call me (Name)."

...what a straightforward answer. Nevermind. Do you know where you are?

You shake your head. "If you mean this empty space, then no. But, if you're talking about Windrise, then that's a different story."

Windrise, so you do know. Perhaps it would be easier, to be frank with you as well.

Silence suddenly erupts between you and the person using this screen to communicate with you.

What is your relationship with this world?

"I'm a player, Iike anyone else. I guess Genshin is just a way to blow off steam? Or distract me?" The screen doesn't pop up for a while.

Oh... oh! Oh dear, have I been mistreating my visitor?

The space around you begins to glitch out again. Things begin to reappear and you finally see something other than the color black. An ocean of stars gleams above you. Constellations of characters could be spotted if you looked hard enough around the vast mix of purple and blue galaxies.

Multiple blue screens spawn around you, depicting all of the different nations that you've explored.

"Do you feel comfortable?" The sound of a voice reaches your ears and you turn to see this... figure.

They looked exactly like you down to every scar, mole, tattoo, whatever. Yet, they wore different clothing. A veil of stars with a golden headpiece. They wore white, flowy clothing with details of stars with a cape. They clearly don't seem like the average person. It was sort of weird seeing someone that looked identical to you in such... expensive clothing.

"Hello, (Name)." Their voice echoed. It sounded soothing, enough for the tension in your shoulders to let go and cause them to drop. They sat down on a moon-like structure, floating it closer to you.

You felt breathless as if you were completely in awe. Your lips moved in an effort to speak. "H... hello. Who are you?"

They raise their hand to their heart, the ends of their lips curving upwards. "I am the Creator, a divine one so to speak, I am in charge of this system." Putting their hand back down onto their lap, they begin to explain.

"This world, Genshin as you like to call it, is more than just a game despite working like a game. It is a world. I control the system behind it. However, something... unexpected happened - the travelers. I did allow them to travel into my world, but I didn't expect them to lose their powers. However, it was like they had changed, personality-wise.

You were behind it, weren't you?"

You blinked a few times out of confusion, barely absorbing any of the information given to you. It made you feel dizzy.

"The traveler only had one goal, to find their sibling. Yet, they had saved nations, protected people, became a hero, and possibly got attached to Teyvat. It had to be some other being controlling them to help out so much, I don't believe they would have such a sudden... change of heart."

A gust of wind caught you before you fell. You didn't know how to respond to this deity's queries.

"It was you, right? Wasn't it?"

You stood up again, somehow regaining your balance. "Yeah. It was me." It was better to be honest, you had no idea what this... being would do to you. You shivered as their hand hovered over your shoulder, their skin felt icy cold.

"That's a relief."

Your face twisted into confusion? What? Weren't they going to like... delete you? Or what, throw you out of Teyvat? (You would honestly hope for the latter to happen)

"With your work, Teyvat has been more lively and interesting than usual. The people have advanced and changed with your interference and actions. I'm... honestly grateful.

When you first arrived as the traveler, I allowed Amber, Kaeya, and Lisa to be in your control for some time. Whilst there were some... unfortunate accidents happening, I erased their memories of your... miscalculations. You did not seem to have bad intent and you made the characters stronger and formed bonds with them. I did not sense any ill intent."

The deity reaches out their hand to you.

"How about we make an agreement? You continue with these events in your own body and I will protect you from danger. You will advance this world into a better future and you will enjoy this world to the fullest." The deity persuades you.

Despite her tempting tone and the appeal of the offer, you shake your head. "I'm sorry. I have family and friends at home that I can't just... leave behind."

"Family and friends huh?" A frown appears on their face. You're not sure if it's only because you rejecting their offer.

The deity shakes their head in dismay. "I'm sorry to tell you, but you have no way of returning back to your home, at least from what I'm aware of. There are barely any files about you to delete or transfer in this world, you are stuck here."

They continue,

"Even if there were any files of you to make use of, your world probably doesn't work like a game, so there's no way I can transfer or change anything."

It seems like you have no other choice. You can't completely trust this deity, but they still did make an attractive proposal. "How will you protect me?"

The Deity smirks. "You'll pretend to be me. You'll be the creator that's behind it all. The mastermind. The higher power. Most of the characters will be at your service. I'll try to edit the remaining files about you to change your blood color to gold so that they'll believe you. I'll talk to you through the blue screen."

"Why can't you go down and help yourself?"

"I have my hands full with operating the system. Regenerating monsters and bosses, offering treasures to those who pass the domains, and more."

"Then, what happens if the characters still don't believe me?"

"Oh, they will. Don't worry a thing about it at all. So, what do you say? Do we have a deal?" The Deity reaches out their hand to you.

You don't really have much to lose, as long as this deity keeps its promise. You shake their hand. "Deal."

Tag list -> @under-a-starry-night, @yourfaveisblack, @bardisipatos, @callmemeelah, @kithewanderingme, @pale-value, @bamboowritess/@bamboowritess, @uchihaeirin, @karmawonders, @lunavixia, @anfre109, @ly-archives, @zuyoo

#Wisteriawrites #genshin impact #genshin cult au #genshin impact cult au #cult au genshin impact #cult au genshin #cult au #genshin sagau #sagau #genshin impact sagau #sagau idea #self aware genshin #genshin #genshin self aware au #genshin self aware

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so-long-soldier28 · 4 months

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Idk if this makes sense but thoughts on ceo Kai parker with assistant reader???

are you ready for my longest response to an ask yet? because here it is...

so i'm currently working on a bonkai with a workplace AU that i've admittedly forgotten about that was requested in october. but working on that gave me inspo for this... and then i took it in a whole 'nother direction

fluff & smut below!

this could go 2 ways (or it could include both)

we've got the one where he's super sweet on her.

or we have him teasing & being super sexual until she gives in.

we also have possibilities for the reader to be more shy or more confident, and that majorly changes things.

kai will be kai no matter what, but there will be variation in how he reacts to her.

if she's more shy, i think he'd be a lot more teasing with her. gentle, bc he doesn't want to scare her off, but definitely pushes sometimes.

if she's more confident, he would be taken aback (and definitely turned on) from that. he recognizes that she won't take shit from anyone & respects that about her.

with the shy reader, her co-workers sometimes do try to take advantage of her, but he snaps back at them & checks on her after.

shy reader

he instantly has a liking towards you.

you're quiet and respectful, but do your job well.

you do things in a timely manner & treat others appropriately.

going above and beyond to make his job easier.

kai, at first, doesn't want to overstep your boundaries.

he's gentle towards you & thankful for your hard work. is very appreciative.

calls you names like "darling," and "sweetheart," or even "peach," that always make you blush.

he means it as innocently as you receive it.

… at first.

with time, feelings grow.

you both push them down to maintain a professional work environment, and even go as far as to deny they are there at all.

there's talk in the office, but no one is bold enough to mention it. plus, there's no proof of anything between you guys.

hold on, i have a side story for this, since it's december, and this just sounds so cute to me.

okay so kai has a holiday party he has to attend, but no one close enough in his life to bring as a plus one.

his mother demands he brings someone, and if he doesn't, she'll set him up with her best friend's daughter.

kai doesn't want to get stuck in that awkward situation, so right before break, he asks a huge, huge favor of you.

"i'm, uh, not quite sure how to ask this, y/n, but i have a huge favor to ask of you."

"anything you need."

"it's okay to say no, i completely understand if you don't want to, it's totally your choice."

you giggle, closing your eyes, and his heart races. "i'm sure it's fine."

he grimaces, "would you mind accompanying me as my plus one to a holiday party? it's on the 23rd and local, only about thirty minutes away. it's just between friends and family, but if i don't have a plus one, my mother will set me up…. i just… actually, this is, i shouldn't have asked. i'm sorry, y/n."

you're surprised at first, a little confused, but not ready to reject the offer. your boss begins to ramble about how inappropriate it was of him to ask, and while he may be right, you don't want him to be in such a situation with his mother. you know how family can be.

"sure, i'll go with you."

"i'm- wait, what?"

"if the offer still stands, i'll be happy to go."

he stops. "you're positive?"

"just give me the time and place."

kai does more than that. when he tells you the dress code (relatively fancy), he offers to buy you a dress, but you say you already have one. he then picks you up at your apartment and immediately compliments the dress you wear. he notices your eyes, and how well your makeup compliments their color. his eyes linger on your lips, bold with a shade of red. he tries not to look at your body, but sneaks a glance that you totally catch.

he insists on driving you to the event, and gives you a rundown on the attendees on the way. those in his family who are crazy and that you should avoid, those to whom he's closest, those who have a weak understanding of personal space, and those who will not come within six feet of an unknown person. he tells you about his favorite cousin and the questions he may ask. he prepares a speech about you being his assistant, and not a girlfriend. you practice this speech together, bouncing off one another, about when you started, what you do, and how appreciative he is of your help.

you expect his mother to be stern and strict, but when you meet her, she turns out to be a very sweet lady, despite her high expectations for her family.

she's clearly not convinced that you're a work friend / assistant and not his girlfriend, and no one in his family is convinced, either.

he takes you around the house, introducing you to the necessary people, but never lingers in any one group for long. he knows you're shy and this must be difficult.

after you finish introductions, he pulls you into the garage to check on you.

"doing alright, darling? i know my family is huge. just take a moment to breathe."

you're thankful for this, and hold his hands while taking deep breaths.

after you settle, he promises food and brings you to the snack table.

there's no judgement about how much you eat; no one comments about you eating too much or too little.

alcohol is offered, and you grab a drink only to calm your nerves. he drinks one to "tolerate family" but promises it won't affect his driving later that night. promises, right there, to keep you safe. you believe him completely.

after snacking for a while (and being thankful it's not a sit down dinner), you go back to talking with his family.

you sit on the couch with a couple aunts as one plays a piano. to your left, kai talks to one of his nephews, no older than six, and your heart warms at the sight.

one of his aunts enters and comments he's next to have kids, then looks at you.

the two of you erupt into your "coworkers, not dating" spiel, and she scoffs with a roll of her eyes. "could've fooled me."

neither of you look at each other after that for a moment. you turn back to the conversation you were in, but his nephew runs off, leaving him alone.

kai watches you talk to his family. all those buried feelings rise to the surface and his throat dries. he takes a second look at how beautiful you are. your smile, despite however tired you must feel, respectfully never falters. your small fingers grasp your cup, once filled with a festive party drink, now with coffee as the end of the night draws near. your dress fits your frame perfectly, and your heels match the exact shade of your dress.

several members of his family catch him staring. his nephew whispers something about love in his ear. he hushes the child quickly, but his tinted cheeks give him away.

kai isn't the only one caught staring, though. his mother watched you visibly sigh at the sight of him with his nephew, a smile tugging on your lips. his father saw the way you relaxed when he brought you away to the kitchen, checking on you a second time. his cousin heard the stutter when you told him kai was just your boss and that there was nothing going on between you two.

when the party isn't filled with talking and laughter, the silence is filled with lingering stares. bated breaths and twinkling eyes. the urge to cross the line between a boss and his assistant.

you disappear for a couple minutes to help his mother clean up after the party. kai talks with his father about "business" but you wonder if that's really the topic.

his mother is nosy, but polite about it. she asks about work and asks if he treats you well on the clock. you reply that he certainly does, and that you're grateful to have a boss that cares about you like he does.

she then double-checks that you're not really dating, and doesn't miss the cloud of sadness in your eyes when you insist that you are not.

she then tells you he's been single for a while because trust doesn't come easy to him. she mentions the blueness of his eyes. how it's been a bright, baby blue all night; a stark contrast to the gray tinted blue she's grown used to seeing. she doesn't elaborate the reasoning, but you don't need her to to know what she's hinting.

by the time you leave the party, most of his relatives have grown comfortable enough with you to hug. the six-feet apart one gives a wave. his mother's hug is the tightest; his father gives a firm handshake, but then draws you in for his own hug. his nieces and nephews attach to your legs and make you promise to see them again. you agree, not wanting to break their little hearts.

it's dark by the time you begin to drive home, and it has been for a while.

kai wants to hold your hand in the center console. he refrains. you rest your elbow there, hands close, but not touching.

you rehash the night, speaking highly of his family. he checks up on you a third time to make sure you're not overwhelmed, but to your own surprise, you feel okay. happy, even.

he apologizes for anything his aunts or mother might've said, but you promise every conversation was good.

eventually, the mention of the various comments came up. a count of how many times you had to tell people you were just friends, co-workers, and not dating. you share a laugh over it, but the walls are down already. whatever feelings had been buried have now resurfaced. kai internally curses himself, afraid of your reaction.

your mouth opens to say something, and his throat goes dry again. his heart would break if you are uncomfortable by it all.

"thanks for the invite, but i think i should transfer," he fears, "we shouldn't work together any more".

instead, you turn to him. "thank you for the invite. i had a good time."

"thank you for accompanying me."

it's silent for the last couple minutes, then he walks you to the door of your apartment. he stands outside, forcing words out of his throat while you stand in front of him, bathed in the gorgeous warm glow of your porch light.

"thank you again. i'm glad my mother didn't scare you off. it would've been so boring without you. see you at work."

you nod, "see you at work," but then as he turns to leave, you can't bear to let him go. you reach out to grab his coat and he turns. you make up an excuse about his scarf not being straight, though that doesn't really matter, and in the next second, you pull on it gently to bring him closer to you.

his eyes dart down to the grip on the wool between your fingers, and then to your face. you wear an expression equal of shyness and determination. he translates it into the consent he needs to cup your face in his hands and press his lips to yours.

warmth travels throughout both your bodies immediately. the kiss deepens to you pulling his coat closer, his steps forward, backing you into the wall behind you. he kicks your door shut and your hands bury into his hair.

kai's hands start to feel your body, but then he breaks it off. he doesn't want you to think he's only wanting you sexually. he wants something real. he's wanted it for ages.

he admits this. you shyly, admit you feel the same.

but while sex is put on pause, kai locks his car and you invite him in. you share a glass of wine and spend the night talking, growing closer.

the next day at work, it's hard to hide your blushing faces and giddy attitudes. all of your co-workers know immediately, but they also saw it coming for a long time. a couple congratulate you, some ignore the lovesickness like it's a disease, but no one makes a fuss.

maybe kai will be the next in his family to have kids after all. you're certain you've found something good with him, and you're determined to keep it.

now, onto a different path where i could take this idea… get ready, because this is a complete 180 degrees from the previous little bit.

ceo kai with a respectful yet confident assistant.

something is definitely brewing between these two. there are feelings to be felt. …even if neither of you recognize them yet.

kai is incredibly protective over you. you are his assistant, and if anyone needs your help, they must ask him first.

he doesn't want you being overworked or taken advantage of.

you also defend him when co-workers talk shit.

"i don't know why boss is making us do this stupid shit," someone complained once, "it's not like it matters, it's extra work."

"it's in your best interest to complete the task assigned to you. it'll make your job ten times easier when quarterlies roll around."

the coworker rolls her eyes, but kai, who could hear from his open-door office, smiles to himself. he's glad you see the tasks he assigns have purpose, and is grateful for you to try and help others to see that.

there are rumors going around that you sleep together, but he shuts them down immediately.

it's not even on your minds to have a relationship outside of work.

until that one night where he asked you to stay late to help him finish something.

you had seemingly hundreds of paper stacks to grow through, and he was on phone call after phone call.

he ordered food at some point for the two of you, wanting to take care of you since he was needing your help.

you're always eager to help, and even though it's a lot of work, promise to help until the job is done.

when it happened, it was an accident. a complete and total accident.

kai had been watching you sort through papers for too long and didn't even notice he was growing hard until he had to shift.

you looked so beautiful from where he was sitting. hair, once neatly tied up in a bun, now messily falling around your face. your shirt sunk further down every time you stretched to grab something on the other side of the table, exposing your chest a little more each time. your heels were kicked off to the side, and one foot was tucked under your lap.

earlier, he had asked you to enter the room whenever his phone went off to come and take notes.

on your way in, you accidentally make eye contact with the bulge that formed underneath the table.

that phone call is a particularly difficult one to focus on.

after it, you try to shuffle out of the room to give him privacy, but he knows you know and asks you to stay so he can apologize.

he accidentally gives tmi and talks about how it's been so long, and being there with you, looking so beautiful, got him worked up.

instead of shying away, you offer to help rid him of the problem.

not a lot of words are spoken, but somehow you find yourself giving him a bj under the desk.

he's so focused on your doe eyes and the shape of your lips and the way your mouth feels on him. your hands grasp his length & squeeze with the perfect amount of pressure. you jerk off what you can't fit. a string of drool connects your lip to his cock when you pull off for just a moment to admire him. his hands dig in your hair and urge you on, but he doesn't push. never pushes.

quiet moans escape his lips between praises, but you ask him to be louder for you, craving to hear the sounds he's holding back.

getting him off earlier than he expected, and you swallow it before it can hit the floor and leave evidence.

he then pulls you up on the desk, welcomes a kiss, and then moves down to taste you.

feelings he held back & feelings you didn't know you had come bursting out of the floodgates, making for an emotional experience combined with pent-up sexual desire.

supports your back as you come down from your orgasmic high, and fucks you on the desk as soon as his refractory period is over.

has impressive sex drive and says he spent most of his early twenties studying to prove himself.

now reaps the rewards with not only a high-up position, but a perfect assistant.

no motivation for work afterwards. enjoy the rest of your takeout and then he makes sure you get home safely.

the next couple days are awkward until he finally requests you to his office to talk about it.

this talk includes feelings that you had time, by now, to mull over. you both share them and find you feel the same thing for each other.

decide to try a hand at a relationship, starting slowly and keeping it on the down low (minus HR).

grow more comfortable with it & it blossoms into something good & healthy for you both.

now, a handful of smutty office scenarios to shuffle through. i can certainly expand on any of these upon request ;) (or i might anyway)

fooling around after hours. him laying you down across the desk or over top of it. having you on his lap while he answers phone calls.

blowing him under the desk when he's trying to focus on an important call.

sending him dirty texts or nudes from the bathroom when you're both supposed to be working.

itching for your lunch break to come already so he can finally have his way with you.

maybe even being so bold to snap the blinds shut, slap a hand over your mouth, and take you during work hours bc you wouldn't stop teasing. your co-workers all know exactly what's happening, but have lost the will to care.

retrieving him coffee but accidentally spilling it in his lap & trying to dry it with a thin paper towel.

wearing short skirts or low tops on purpose for him.

accidentally sending him a nude that was meant for a tinder date & having to talk about it the next day.

brushing past him on your way back to your seat & getting a little too close - on purpose or on accident.

rubbing your foot on him under the desk whenever you sit across from him.

and that's all i have for now! i'm deeply considering making that holiday party a one-shot, maybe, or taking these other scenarios and expanding on them. i also have way more ideas for this topic but made myself stop because i'm pretty sure this response hit 3k words.

#asks #tvd #kai parker #kai parker x reader #workplace au #kai parker smut #kai parker fluff

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