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stay-curious · 2 years

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Right Where You Left Me | Chapter 2

Series masterlist

Pairing: Natasha Romanoff x Fem!Reader | Actress!Natasha Romanoff x Singer!Reader

Summary: Your debut single puts you in the spotlight and one night you meet a redhead who will turn your world around. How will both of your jobs affect your relationship?

Warnings: fluff, alcohol, slight mention of SMUT at the end, AU

A/N: For the purpose of this fic, please imagine every song title as written by the character. English is not my first language so there might be some errors.

It’s 10 AM, you have just landed at LAX and the one thing you really need right now is your morning cup of coffee. One must think that after sleeping through the entire flight you would not be dragging your feet through the airport floor. After a short ride home, you leave your suitcase on your bed reminding yourself to unpack later and take a quick shower. Then, you freshen up a bit, put on a white t-shirt, grey sweatpants, and your favorite Airforce and you head out.

It’s a nice and warm day, and your lack of energy makes the perfect excuse to grab an iced coffee from the café across your apartment. There's no other place that makes it like them, the freshly brewed coffee beans, and the earthy bitter taste of it remind you of the days you used to make breakfast with your dad as a kid. You enter and Grace starts making your usual. One of the perks of your best friend being the barista, and getting free pastries from time to time.

You start your way to the studio and as you anticipated, it’s going to be a long day. Usually, you wouldn’t stay long but after finishing promoting the single there’s a lot of pressure from the label to finish the EP. There are a couple of songs you need to finish and one that is half done so you’re hoping to finish the lyrics and record today. Regardless, you can’t get around to writing the rest of the last one. The high expectations set by the first single makes you feel as if any song you make would not be good enough. That’s what has mostly slowed down the creation process, the lyrics don’t make sense, the melody doesn’t fit, etc.

After a couple of hours, it’s time for a lunch break so you go to the Mexican place a couple of streets away to get a burrito bowl. Ever since you moved to LA, it has been one of your go-to restaurants, mostly because the food there makes your mouth water only by its smell, but also because of its closeness to the studio. You can’t recall the number of times you’ve come to clear your mind from the chaos surrounding the studio. Its atmosphere gives off a sense of serenity that allows you to focus on what you set out to do that day.

Once you’ve ordered, you sit down at a table in the corner of the room. The place was almost empty as most people had already had lunch. you’re scrolling through Instagram when a notification pops up, a message from Natasha. Your face instantly lights up and you tap to see it.

Hey! Hope you had a safe flight :)

What are you up to?

I did. Thanks for checking in x

Nothing much. having lunch before going

back to the studio and finish a song

wbu?

You type the last message as you think about how someone you met yesterday can have this effect on you. The two of you had fun and you'd like to do it again sometime. You can’t help but think that it might be too soon to ask her out as much as you’d like for this to lead to something more. Before you let your mind wander, her reply comes.

Slept until 12 PM and ordered lunch from room service

I’m meeting my sister for dinner in a few

So your day was quite productive haha

you could say that

still much left to do tho

You suddenly get the courage to ask her about the offer she accepted at the bar, about her inviting you to a drink when you’re back in LA.

About yesterday’s invitation,

Is it still standing?

Depends

Her answer leaves you taken aback but you still take the shot.

On what exactly?

Would you take me on a date first?

Now that was not a reply you expected from her, but again, she was the one that acted so bold yesterday. You take the opportunity to tease her about it.

Miss Romanoff you're a bit too forward, aren’t you?

Yes, I would very much like to take you out

Great. Next Friday, pick me up at 6

Hope that one week is enough time to plan it

oh you're on

You won’t regret it ;)

After sending that last message, you go back to the studio to make the final touches to the song and before it’s dinner time, you have already left the studio. On the way home you quickly make a stop at the supermarket to grab some groceries for dinner and make a mental note to stop by tomorrow and buy the rest for the week.

When you get home, you start by washing and cutting some vegetables as well as some sweet potatoes. You put the veggies in a pan and season them with some garlic powder, salt, pepper, and paprika. While it’s cooking you put the diced potatoes on a baking sheet and put them in the oven. You pour a glass of red wine and wait for it to cook. Once the veggies and potatoes are done, you plate them and start eating.

You spend most of the dinner thinking about ideas for the date with Natasha but none of them feel perfect. That’s one of the traits you hate about yourself, you are an overachiever and a perfectionist, so you tend to be too hard on yourself. A dinner date is too cliché for the first date but a safe option; going to the movies might be awkward at some points, god what a mess. You tidy up the kitchen and pour another glass while you go through the tv to see which show you should watch tonight. You decide on Grey's Anatomy and by the third episode has ended, your body succumbs to sleep.

It is Tuesday and everything seems to run smoothly: you are almost done for the day in the studio and your manager is sorting the details for a possible tour; except that you still have not decided where to take Natasha. You’ve been so busy with recording the songs that you completely left it aside. Speaking of the redhead, you’ve been texting occasionally, she arrived yesterday and has been doing interviews for the movie. Because of that, you want this date to be a thing for her to unwind and have fun after an eventful week.

You get home and leave your stuff on the kitchen island. You can’t complain about the place you were able to get after spending 4 months here. It’s a small but cozy loft in an apartment complex, which is in a nice neighborhood. The kitchen opens to a dining table and in the back a living room. The stairs on the right lead to the bedroom and bathroom. Thankfully, you had a few savings from the summer jobs, and you were able to afford it. Once your hands are free from your belongings, your phone rings. It’s Grace. You put it on speaker as you get started with dinner. You put her up to speed with how the EP is going and what’s left to finish.

Dinner is ready, the call with Grace is still ongoing, and you have changed into your pajamas. At some point, you mention Natasha, and she instantly bombards you with questions. You answer them, trying not to forget any. She hasn’t talked to you that frequently because of the promo of the single and it’s obvious as you can feel her beaming with this gossip. As soon as you finish telling her all about Natasha and your date on Friday, you end the call promising to meet up for lunch on Sunday.

The clock marks 11 PM and the only thing left for you to do is to finalize the details of the date. You pick the outfit because you don’t want to stress over one more thing while also making sure everything is perfect and because you like having things planned in advance. When you’re done, you turn in for the day, a feeling of nervousness settling in your stomach as you close your eyes and try not to think about the end of the week.

You continued with your work in the studio. The rest of the week went by rather slowly to your taste, it must have been because of your anxiousness. It’s been a long time since you last went on a date, and you don’t intend to make a fool of yourself. At the beginning of the week, you let your manager know that you would take Friday off.

It’s Friday morning and you make your last trip of the morning to run one last errand and pick up a small bouquet of orange tulips, which stands for a deeper sense of understanding and appreciation between two people. When you get home, you heat up some leftover chicken and cut some tomatoes and lettuce to make a salad for lunch. After you’ve finished eating, which by the way was incredibly delicious, you put the plates in the sink and wash the pans you’ve used too. You decide to clean up a bit and take a short nap before you start to get ready. You wake up and realize you don’t know where Natasha lives, so you send her a quick text.

need I remind you if i’m taking you on a date

i need your address to pick you up?

it completely slipped my mind

*insert address*

see you later Boston

thank you. I won’t be late

You get inside the shower not without first putting on your playlist to try to loosen up a little, a mix of your favorite songs plays in the background as you get ready. You slip on your mom-fit jeans followed by a plain white t-shirt, which you tuck in, and your Docs. You let your hair dry in the air to then put on some light makeup, not overdoing it. You spray a few flushes of perfume to finish up and you make your way to the door. You pick a leather jacket and the bouquet and walk to the car.

Once you’re inside, you put the address on the GPS and head over. When you arrive, you get out of the car and approach her doorstep with the flowers behind your back. You knock a couple of times and after a few seconds, the door opens, letting the redhead come into view. Your eyes go up slowly, taking every inch of her in until they meet her face, a sweet smile plastered. She’s wearing black jeans, a black shirt that accentuates her figure, and black boots. Your eyes stay longer than you should have so you try to disguise it with a chuckle.

“You look absolutely gorgeous Natasha.” The words leave your mouth before you have time to think about it.

“So do you.” She replies. “What do you have behind your back?” She asks with curiosity.

“Uh um… these are for you,” you answer handing her the bouquet.

“Thank you. You shouldn’t have.” She tells you, a hint of surprise in her voice. “I’m going to…” She signals to the inside of the house. You nod in response as you wait for her to come back.

You silently head to where the car’s parked, you open the door for her, and you quickly round the car to get in. The ride is rather short, about 20 minutes so you turn on the radio. There’s an awkward silence that fills the space. You grip my hands on the wheel and take a deep breath. There’s intimidating. After a while, Natasha looks at me and asks, “where are you taking me?”

“It's a surprise, if I tell you I will spoil it.” You say with a serious tone, trying to keep a small smile from forming on your face. “No but seriously. I think you’d like it”. She laughs and hums in acknowledgment.

“We’re almost there.” You inform her. A few moments later you arrive at the destination. You get out and go around the car to open the door for her. She takes a quick glance at her surroundings and her eyes fill with excitement. You offer your hand and she gladly takes it as you make your way to the arcade bar. The moment you take a step in, 90s pop music hits your ears. The walls are painted black with details in neon blue and pink, and vinyl art. It might seem small from the outside, but you realize how spacious it is once you get inside. To the left, there’s a restaurant with booths that match the colors of the place, neon blue, pink, and black. The arcade machines are situated on the right side of the building and on the back, separated by glass walls, the bowling alley.

Firstly, you head to the counter to sign up for two bowling games and the worker kindly hands you the shoes and tells you which lane is ours. You settle in your booth, take your jacket off and leave it with the rest of your belongings. You put on the bowling shoes and Natasha goes to pick up a ball as she starts throwing. You are near the end of the first game and winning by a landslide, so you take the opportunity to tease Natasha.

“Didn’t you say and I quote ‘I’m going to crush you’?” you nudge her shoulder with yours.

“Oh shush. The next game is mine.” The green-eyed replies with sass.

“We’ll see about that”

She definitely stuck to her words. She ended up beating you and rubbed it on your face all the way to the arcade games. You let her pick the next game and she leads you to the basketball machine. You start this time, so you make a show of stretching your arms. You quickly get the hang of it and hit the record right before the buzzer rings. She rolls her eyes and mutters “show-off.” It’s her turn, she gets in position and starts shooting as many balls as she can. Surprisingly, she’s doing quite well, but she’s nowhere near your mark. You cheer on her whilst you stare at the cute face she makes when she’s focused.

The buzzer goes off, signaling the end of the game. Natasha lets out a sigh of defeat when she looks at the score. You offer her a smile of reassurance and lead her to the Skeeball machines. You decide to be on the same team this time to try to win as many tickets as you can.

“Can we play air hockey next?” She asks with a pleading look.

“Of course, whatever you want.” You say

Natasha rolls the sleeves of her shirt up, an air of confidence surrounds every move she makes. Feeling as if someone was watching her, she turns her head and catches you staring. You mentally stumble to form an apology but relax as she throws a wink at you. The game starts and she is already up 2 points. You’ve got the feeling that you might regret your cocky attitude from earlier. As you predicted, she wins the first game easily, but you ask for a second one, alleging that she was quite distracting. You’re currently tied but just as you think your hit is going in, she blocks it and scores the winning point, taking advantage of your bewildered state. She shoots her arms up in victory while shouting and jumping. You might have lost and your ego took a big hit. However, the sight in front of you has you smiling from ear to ear like a fool. On the other hand, she definitely has redeemed herself from the basketball defeat with the last two games of air hockey.

You leave the handles on the table, go round the table and meet her in the middle. You get closer to Natasha as you lean on the table, placing your hand on the edge. She does the same, but her hand falls on top of yours. A simple touch that makes your heart race and your breath hitch.

“Nat, …” You start but soon realize the nickname that slipped your mouth.

“Nat?” She asks in a voice full of surprise. Your cheeks immediately go red and you fluster.

“Whoops, it slipped out, sorry.” You try to apologize as quickly as you can.

“No. Don't. I like it. It's cute. Say it again.” She answers.

You ask what you intended in the beginning. “Nat, are you hungry or not yet?” She nods in response. “I was thinking about going to a drive-through and then eating dinner in a park if you are up to”

“Yeah, that sounds nice.” You exit the arcade and approach the car and drive to an In and Out that is close. The two of you each order a burger and fries but Natasha also gets a vanilla milkshake. Then you head to a park that is usually not so crowded or empty. When you park outside, you take a blanket out of the boot and you make your way inside. You walk until you reach a secluded spot, under a tree, but light enough to see. Once you settle on the blanket, you start to dig in. You fall into a comfortable conversation, asking questions to keep getting to know each other.

“So what’s up with you calling me Boston?”

She takes a bite of her burger and replies. “Dunno. You mentioned the other night that you studied there. Also, calling you (y/n/n) just seemed too lazy. I wanted something more original”

“Do you think Nat is lazy?” You wonder hurt by her statement.

“No. Not at all. I like how it sounds when you say it.” you blush at her response as she continues talking. “I just I like to be thoughtful with nicknames”

You’ve finished your burger but still have some fries left, the redhead has eaten her burger and fries. You thought she might still be hungry as she reaches for your fries and grabs a couple. Nonetheless, her intentions are completely far from that. As you catch on to what she’s going to do next, you decide to speak up.

“Tell me that you’re not thinking about what I think you are.”

She giggles, with a knowing smirk on her face. “What?” She begins to dip the fries into the milkshake and proceeds to eat them.

“Are you insane? THAT is the definition of pure madness.” you watch her with a look of disbelief on your face. “You did not just steal my fries to dip them into a milkshake. You Natasha Romanoff are full of surprises. What other unknown fact should I know about you?”

“I keep my promises, but there’s one I had not had the chance to keep” you raise an eyebrow at that.

“What are you going to do about it?”

“Well, if you’re up for it, would you like to go to my place and have that drink I owe you?”

“Yeah, let me clean up, then we’ll go.”

After the walk back, you’re in the car on your way to her house. You take a look at the clock and see that it’s 1O PM, a great time to have a drink and end the night.

You pull up in her driveway and turn off the engine. Nat walks up first and you follow her. She opens her door and beckons you to follow her into the house. She leads you to the kitchen, which opens to the living room. The house seems too big for just one person but it has the right amount of decoration. The open distribution and its minimalist style match Natasha's personality, elegant and luxurious.

“Do you fancy a glass of wine or a drink?”

“I’ll have a drink if you don’t mind”

“Sure, gin and tonic, right?” I nod at her remembering.

You take a seat on the blue velvet sofa and you glance around to better look at the decor. A few pictures of her and a blonde, who you assume is her sister, are hung on the walls, alongside a round mirror fit to perfection with the light touches of gold in the statues on the shelves. Your bodies are slightly turned to face each other, your sides against the couch. You place your glass on the table and put your arm on the back of the sofa letting your chin rest on your hand. She gently scoots closer and maintains eye contact while taking a drink sip. Thank God you were not standing, or you would’ve collapsed right there and then. You finish your drinks and realize that her hand is on your thigh, drawing random patterns.

She leans in but stops before you can meet her halfway. “Can I kiss you?” She utters her words in a whisper. You lean again, your lips colliding. The sweetness that you’ve been yearning to taste again since that night makes you melt against her. You follow her lead. Her lips part enough for and her tongue to find yours with eagerness. A low moan escapes your mouth when she grips your hips, putting a bit of pressure. You take that cue and lean back completely, pulling her on top of you. You find yourselves lost in each other’s until you have to pull apart to breathe.

“I usually don't do this on the first date, but I really want you to stay the night.”

“I want that too.” You say a bit dazzled by the make-out.

She leans again for another kiss, placing her hands under your shirt. There’s some sort of urgency to her touch, a touch so gentle that warms every inch of the path it takes. Then, she tugs on the hem, you lift up your arms and she takes the shirt off, throwing it to a corner of the room.

“Do you want to keep going?” She stops and asks before things get more heated than they already are.

You nod. “I need words, babe.” She whispers close to your ear. Her voice sounded raspier and deeper than usual. You let out a shaky breath before answering.

“Yes, I want to.”

“Let's move this to my room.”

#natasha romanoff x you #natasha romanoff x reader #natasha romanoff imagine #natasha romanoff #au #rwylm #rwylm fic #rwylm series

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unbridgeabledistances · 3 years

Note

prompt - casual touches/pda bc we don’t see much in the show!

<3 <3 ty so much for the prompt anon! this ask was sent in before the most recent ep (where we were fed ALL of the casual intimacy!) but i wanted to write a little something to maybe hopefully comfort some lingering discontent about the whole non-monogamy thing– so here is a communicative one-shot of ian and mickey discussing their boundaries and processing s5 traumas before 11x07! (w lots of soft touches😌)

It was one of those casual, routine evenings at the Gallagher house when Ian brought it up again, a couple of long weeks after that first conversation on the front porch under the streetlights. They were all lounging in the living room during the slow, undefined hours after dinner, when Carl and usually Ian and Mickey would sit hunched around the TV, passively watching some movie or cartoon while they scrolled through their phones.

That night, Debbie and Sandy were having some sort of erratic spat in the kitchen, and the shrieks back and forth were making it hard to hear the crashing and blaring of the action movie that Mickey had picked out coming from the TV’s speakers— after a couple minutes of trying to make out the movie’s dialogue, Carl stood up with a huff and flicked off the TV with the remote that had been shoved between the cushions of the chair in the corner, stretching and standing up to head down to the basement.

“Night, guys.”

“Night Carl,” Ian replied, and then kept looking down at the Instagram feed he’d been circling through for a good hour while trying to tune out Debbie once again shouting at Sandy for “traumatizing” her by keeping secrets. They’d had the same fight almost every night for the past few weeks since Debbie had discovered that Sandy was living in her car, and had been married to some random guy when she was a teenager or some shit like that— Ian honestly wasn’t even going to ask, but he’d heard the conversation enough times to be uninterested enough to drown it out.

Franny was sitting with splayed knees on the living room carpet, playing some elaborate game with Liam’s truck toys and little Lego construction workers, that had been stowed in the cabinet but Franny had somehow dug out a few weeks ago, causing yet another one of Debbie’s conniptions— and finally the voices in the kitchen trailed off, like they always did once Debbie ran out of steam and got tired of victimizing herself.

“Time for bed, Fran.”

Debbie came into the room and scooped Franny up from where she was sitting, trudging up the stairs with Franny in tow and Sandy trailing close behind—

And then suddenly it was just he and Mickey in the living room, pressed thigh-to-thigh and knee-to-knee beside each other on the couch, resting in the rare but comforting weight of the silence.

Mickey was slouched back on the couch, his chin practically touching his chest, playing some game that involved him turning his phone sideways and lazily shooting pixelated zombies. Ian looked over at him for a moment, taking in Mickey’s relaxed face and the solid press of Mickey’s body against his side…

And he had to fucking do it.

It wasn’t like Ian wanted to bring up the conversation again, about monogamy and boundaries and fuck-knows-what-else; but these past few weeks had been hard, like something cavernous was cracking and splintering between them. Their banter had slowly turned less and less humorous, and more pointed and jagged, about who was the breadwinner and who was the “man”; and even though they’d patched it up and built small bridges between them, and had hung off of each other’s bodies at Lip’s apartment the night Ian had brought up the monogamy conversation for the first time, Ian couldn’t help but feel the weight of the things unsaid wriggling and rustling inside him, like a germinating seed about to bloom.

Ian totally understood why, the moment he had mentioned “fucking other people” during that conversation on the porch, he had immediately felt Mickey’s knee stiffen where his palm had been resting on it. There was so much shit they hadn’t talked about—so it made sense that Mickey had immediately bristled when Ian had brought this all up the way that he did, and had put himself on high-alert and fled the scene the moment Carl came through the gate.

It would be so easy to just… not bring it up again. But Ian knew they needed to talk it out, and needed to let out all of the questions that were hanging on the edge of his lips like a ticking time bomb. If there was one thing that Ian knew, it was that Mickey was sensitive about this shit; the last thing that Ian wanted to do was crack and fall through the thin ice he was walking on and accidentally push Mickey away if he made some comment about another guy being hot, or if he reciprocated some dude checking him out at Kev’s gym— if Mickey had gotten upset at the fact that he only had 87% of Ian’s heart, some stupid comment that came out of Ian’s mouth before his brain could really process how he knew Mickey would feel about it, then how was Ian supposed to know what was and what wasn’t okay?

The problem was, talking about all of this shit so explicitly with Mickey felt like trying to walk upstream; things with he and Mickey had always just kind of… flowed, and had never been spelled out or agreed upon or set in stone, at least until he was leaving Mickey in prison and they kind of had to strongarm themselves into talking about what they wanted to future to hold. Even with the proposal and the marriage shit, they had just sort of stumbled their way into it, without explicitly needing to sit down and spell it all out. If he was being honest, Ian fucking loved that; he loved that he and Mickey’s relationship was a roller coaster, a high-speed train ride that they didn’t know the stops of. Things with Mickey just happened the way they were supposed to, in a way they never had with anyone else that Ian had ever been with. He remembered Trevor’s goading about boundaries and sex positivity and communication, and how at first it felt like Ian had marbles rolling around in his mouth as he tried to stumble over words like “ethical non-monogamy” and “compersion” and “polyamory”; it felt like he was speaking a foreign fucking language, like he was talking about things he couldn’t quite grasp— and he didn’t want to push Mickey into feeling that way. But as much as he hated it, he knew they had to at least talk about it; there were too many things left unsaid, too many holes they needed to patch up before slipping through one them.

So that’s why, with a gentle creeping of his fingertips from his own lap to rest on Mickey’s upper thigh, Ian said the words into the soft silence of the living room:

“Mick, we’ve gotta talk about the whole monogamy thing again.”

Instantly, in a sensation that was fully reminiscent of that night a few weeks ago, Ian felt Mickey’s torso stiffen beneath him.

Mickey sniffed, then hesitantly pressed his thumb up to his phone screen to pause the game he was playing mid-level. Mickey’s body was still slumped and leaning on the couch, but now there was a new rigidity to the way he was sitting, like he was bracing himself for something. He clicked off his phone and shoved it into his pocket, then looked down at his hands.

“Don’t know why you think we gotta talk about all this shit, man. We already did your thing with the paper and you said you didn’t wanna fuck other people.”

Ian let out a breath, then snaked an arm across the back of the couch so it was just barely touching where Mickey’s shoulders were leaning, just to where he could feel the heat radiating up from Mickey’s body. If he was going to fucking do this, he needed Mickey to be close to him—he needed their bodies to be pressed together a little more than they already were.

“Yeah, but I guess… I never really got a chance to hear how you feel.”

Mickey’s body tensed up again; Ian could feel his shoulders clenching beneath his where his arm was limply strewn across the back of the couch.

“I don’t know, man.”

Ian swallowed down the sudden wave of resentment he started to feel that Mickey wouldn’t just say what he was feeling, and took a deep breath. Sometimes Mickey just didn’t know how, and he needed to sit there and acclimate to the airwaves that were bouncing between them before Ian could pull something out of him, or before Mickey could pull something out of himself. Ian let them just sit there, and let himself fixate his eyes on the rise and fall of Mickey’s chest under his tattered t-shirt; and after a moment, he decided to give a gentle nudge, to at least get the ball rolling towards the depths of wherever Mickey’s head was at.

“So do you… wanna fuck other people?”

Mickey made an airy popping sound by smacking his lips together— like he was trying to do anything with his mouth except let words rest inside it, like he was trying to puncture the blanket of silence with a sharp sound. Ian waited.

“Or is it— that you think I want to fuck other people?” He could hear how cautious his own voice sounded, like he was tiptoeing onto uncertain territory, gently coursing into rough and uncharted waters.

Ian felt an almost imperceptible slump work its way back into Mickey’s rigid shoulders. Oh.

He leaned himself closer towards Mickey’s warm body, wrapping his arm down off the back of the couch and directly onto Mickey’s shoulders, feeling the soft bristles of Mickey’s hair pressing up against the crook of his elbow.

“Hey.” Ian tried to keep his voice soft, soft. “I know it fucking sucks, but we’ve gotta talk about this. I don’t ever wanna do shit you aren't okay with.”

Mickey raised his chin, leaning back onto Ian’s arm, and flickered his eyes to meet his gaze.

“You really don’t wanna fuck other people?”

It was the same question Mickey had asked the other night on the porch, the first time they'd had this conversation— but this time there was no bravado to it, no directness or volume like the way Mickey had asked that night with his eyebrows raised. This time he asked in a low voice, a voice that was husky and soft around the edges. Ian squeezed Mickey’s shoulder.

“Mickey, I got married to you. I don’t really know what you thought that meant— but for me, it pretty much means fucking you til the day I die.”

Mickey hesitantly rolled his eyes, blowing a puff of air out of his mouth. “But, like— fucking only me?”

Ian took a deep breath and steeled himself for the messier part of conversations like this, the part where he tried to get Mickey to split himself open. “You’ve gotta give me more than that, Mick. What’re you asking?”

Mickey looked down at his hands again, running his fingertips over a loose thread at the bottom of his shirt. “I don’t know, man. Guys are always droolin’ over you. Just don’t want to hold you back.” Ian felt the rise of Mickey’s shoulders, the breath of air being let into his lungs. “I just don’t wanna not be enough for you, or whatever. Don’t want you to regret shit a couple of years down the line.”

Not be enough for me? If this didn’t feel like a serious and slightly terrifying, fragile conversation to have, Ian could have laughed in Mickey’s face— how could Mickey think that he wasn’t enough for him, when he was the fucking focal point, at the center of everything? Ian didn’t know what words could radiate that out of him, could make Mickey get it— he opted for another squeeze of Mickey’s shoulders, and then migrated his hand under Mickey’s chin and forced their eyes to meet.

“Mick.” He tried to ooze every ounce of certainty, every ounce of resolve that he was feeling, into his voice. “You’re more than enough for me, are you fucking kidding? You’re all I ever think about— if you weren’t enough for me, I wouldn’t have married you. I know what that means, I always have.”

Even saying the words aloud, Ian quickly flashed back to it’s just a piece of paper, to back when Mickey smelled of cheap cologne and bitter smoke in an oversized tux— even then, Ian knew what marriage meant, knew the weight of it, and that’s why Mickey getting married that day tore him apart. Ian wouldn’t have done this, wouldn’t have said “I do” if he wasn’t ready for all of that— so why did Mickey think that he wasn’t?

The tension was creeping back in between Mickey’s shoulder blades. “Took you a while to decide to do that, though.”

Ian paused. They’d rehashed this shit enough times, but it still always stung to think back to when he was too wrapped up in his own shit to think outside of his own spirals of self-doubt, and left Mickey bleeding at the altar in the process. He didn’t know how to put it into words; Mickey had just always been everything, had always been a solid presence inside him, tugging at his heartstrings so tangibly that it made him ache; Ian had a bullshit complex about marriage, but not one about his iron-heavy commitment. Mickey had to understand that by now— but it seemed like there were scars there that still hadn’t been healed.

Which made Ian wonder— where else was this coming from?

Ian cupped his hand below Mickey’s chin again, raising his other hand from his lap and reaching up to push Mickey’s hair out of his face—a gentle touch, a touch to root him and give him something to hold on to more than anything else.

“Hey. Look at me.” Mickey’s eyes met his. “S’there anything else you’ve been holding in about this monogamy stuff?”

Mickey’s eyes flickered downward— and there it was, Mickey’s defenses were being raised, just like they always were at first. But Ian knew how to breach them, knew how to wait it out. He reached his hand downward, intertwining it with Mickey’s limp fingers and giving his hand a squeeze. Mickey dryly cleared his throat.

“You remember that night, before you, uh. You left with Yev or whatever. And you did the porno with that guy.”

Ian felt an ache of awareness rip through his solar plexus, as the words continued to tumble out of Mickey’s mouth.

“It fucking gutted me, man. That and… all the shit with you running off. Not coming to visit me in prison. And I know we’ve talked about it, and I know we’re over it, and I know wasn’t your fault; but I can’t stop feeling like this”—he paused, eyes flickering down at their clasped hands, their pair of silver rings— “that this might be too good to be true.”

Ian felt something hollow ache in his chest. He couldn’t believe they’d never really talked about all of this, never dug this deep, even in the endless blank calendar squares of their days and months in prison together— sure, Mickey had called out Ian’s shit about leaving him over and over again, but he’d never really said the words out loud, never pinpricked Ian’s actions so specifically.

He’d left Mickey, hadn’t he? Even when he didn't mean to, even when it wasn't his fault— that wasn't just going to go away.

A nauseating awareness started to drip through Ian’s veins. He sat frozen on the couch, planted there— not really sure what to say, not sure what words could patch the holes in something solid that he didn’t even realize were there all these years later. While his mind was whirring, Mickey spoke again— he met Ian’s eyes, and this time the iron shutters in his eyes betrayed a trace of pain, just sharp enough for Ian to barely see it.

“Can we go to bed? And talk about all this shit in the morning?”

Ian felt an indecipherable lump in his throat— and he nodded.

Mickey had climbed the stairs slowly, and Ian had trailed behind— and now Ian was laying flat in the bed, all changed into a worn tank top and boxers while Mickey brushed his teeth down the hall. Ian propped his upper back on a pillow he had shoved next to the wall, trying to sift through all the emotions that were swirling and buzzing in his head, threatening to pull him under. How was he supposed to fix this?

Mickey turned the corner into the room, lingered in the doorway. He looked deflated, and tired— and instantly, Ian needed to bridge the gap between them, need to feel Mickey warming the empty sheets beside him.

“C’mere.”

Mickey almost comically collapsed onto the bed like a ragdoll— between the conversation downstairs and the few moments they took apart in separate spaces, something small had dissipated, something had turned less brittle and was starting to bend. Ian instantly shifted to his side and wrapped his arms around Mickey, locking his fingers behind Mickey’s head, overtaking his sight line and holding him close in the bed. Mickey gave a half smile— an acknowledgement.

“Hey.” He heard the note of thickness in his own voice. “I’m so fucking sorry. For… everything. Fuck.”

Mickey coiled an arm around Ian’s waist, laying a palm on the small of his back, soaking him in.

“I know. Just gotta give me some time. And we've got all the time in the world, Gallagher.”

Ian breathed out. “Fuck. Yeah.”

He pulled Mickey closer, until Mickey was almost on top of his chest, his face pressed into the crook of Ian’s neck. He listened to Mickey’s steady breath, feeling the curls of it tickle his chin. Ian reached over to switch off the lamp on the bedside table, then pulled Mickey in closer, slotting a leg between his.

After a moment, he broke the silence.

“So. Monogamy?”

He felt Mickey’s chest vibrate with a breathy laugh. “I don’t know, man. What do you think?”

Ian grinned, feeling something fizzle out of him. He prodded Mickey in the side. “Come on, Mick. What do you want? Actually?”

Ian felt Mickey’s ribcage expand and retract from where he was pressed against him. “I don’t wanna fuck anyone else, man.” Ian breathed out; and he was about to let out a gust of see, that wasn’t that hard, was it— when Mickey spoke up again.

“But I guess… we could talk about doing stuff. Together?”

Holy shit.

Mickey’s words kept flowing, his breath running hot against Ian’s neck as his words floated through the dark room. “I don’t wanna be with any guy that isn’t you. But it might be kinda fun to like— I don’t know, try that shit some day? Like those hot fuckin’ pornos or whatever.” He breathed out a laugh. “Never thought I’d get to try that shit, and probably never will— but it’d be fun... to try? If you ever wanna.” Mickey paused. “But that’s where I draw the fucking line, man.”

Ian barked out a laugh—and instantly felt a weird, warm sense of pride welling up in his chest. This was Mickey asking for what he wanted—this was Mickey letting Ian in, letting him have all of it, and showing that he trusted him despite all the high and lows they’d both muddled through. This was miles beyond what he would have guessed Mickey would’ve been comfortable with, with all of his Terry-inflicted internalized homophobia still thawing somewhere deep inside him— but he was in. It honestly sounded... fucking hot, all the more because Mickey was so into the idea.

Ian was so fucking glad that they were talking about this— if this was what Mickey wanted, at some point down the line, he would give it to him. He would give him everything.

Ian pressed a kiss to the curve of Mickey’s jaw, just below his earlobe. “God, Mick.”

Mickey just wriggled closer to Ian, almost like he was nervous. “Yeah?”

“If it makes you excited to do shit with other guys together—only together—than we can totally fucking do that. But only if you want to. I don’t need anything else, Mick— you’re all I need. You’ve gotta know that.”

For the first time in what felt like hours, the ice had thawed from behind Mickey’s eyes when he pulled back to meet Ian’s gaze— Ian could make out the glint of light in the darkness. “I know.”

And as he pulled Mickey’s close and pressed the pulse of their lips together, he was sure of one thing: that Mickey belonged to him, and he belonged to Mickey.

Whatever they tried (or didn’t try)—they would do it together.

#ill have more soft lil casual touches later in the POV fic!#lip is up next #ian’s other <3 best friend <3 #also i have realized that i love writing gap fillers shameless writers would never write about healthy communication #bc they are COWARDS #we don’t see this on screen enough!!!#lmk if u enjoyed this got a lil more angsty than i intended lmao #gallavich #gallavich fic #shameless #shameless fic #ian x mickey #ian and mickey #ixm #ian gallagher #mickey milkovich

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halsteadshailey · 3 years

Text

So you are seeing someone?

upstead fluff/angst one shot

Hailey meets someone while working with the FBI in New York but when she comes home to her partner, her best friend, how long will that relationship last?

can also be read on wattpad or ao3

——

set at the beginning of s8 after hailey gets back from ny (i’m going with hailey being in new york for 4 weeks bcos i’m not sure if they ever told us how long she was supposed to be there but i know tracy she was supposed to be in more fbi eps but cldnt bcos of corona , sorry if this is wrong)

*slight language*

——

For the first couple of weeks that Hailey had been out in New York to work with the FBI, her and Jay had FaceTimed religiously. In the morning on the way to work, whenever they could both catch a break at the same time, and on their drives home, most importantly though, once they were both home and settled. It was as close to ‘their thing’ they could get after a long day of work while separated by hundreds of miles.

After about 14 days, Jay was starting to notice something different about Hailey, they were calling less, even her texting game was off. She was starting to be busy more frequently in the evenings and her texts had become rare, short and sweet.

On the Wednesday evening of her third week away, Jay decided to bring it up while they were on FaceTime.

“Hey what’s been going on over there?” he questioned “I feel like we haven’t talked in ages”

Hailey’s brows furrowed a little as she struggled to think of what to say, anything to say to avoid Jay finding out about Liam, she wasn’t ready to tell him and definitely not over the phone when she wasn’t even sure how serious things were.

“Yeah, sorry about that, we’ve had lots of tough cases, I’ve been working late” she said.

Her partner knew she wasn’t telling the truth, he could always tell. However, he didn’t want to push, it wasn’t worth it after the long day that he’d had and he knew that Hailey would tell him whatever it was when she wanted to so he settled on saying:

“Don’t work yourself too hard” with a chuckle.

The two spoke for a little bit longer after that, Jay telling Hailey about all the weird things Kev and Adam have been up to and Hailey realising how much she misses her Intelligence family, not that she would ever tell Jay that.

A few days passed and all the interaction that the detectives had had with one another was through text, but when Saturday came around Jay needed to change that.

It was around 10:30pm when he shot her a text:

‘Hey, I know it’s late but I just got home from a tough case and was wondering if you’re free to call?’

Luckily for him, Hailey replied to Jay’s text only a few minutes later by calling him.

“Hey how are you?” she said when she saw that her partner had connected to the call.

“I’m ok, just needed to do our thing i guess” the emphasis Jay put on the ‘our thing’ was slight, but it was there. “How are y-“ he paused.

“What?”

“You’re wearing make-up, you never wear make-up, am I interrupting something? A date?” Jay teased.

Without thinking, Hailey replied with “As a matter of fact, you texted me just before dessert so it was actually perfect timing”

Jay froze, trying to process that words that he just heard. It’s not like he thought that Hailey wasn’t allowed to go on dates, he didn’t own her. But he was jealous, a lot more jealous that he would care to admit. Deep down he knew that it was his fault, he’d had feelings for Hailey for a long time and didn’t do anything about it because ‘nothing good comes out of a workplace romance’ or whatever bullshit he had told himself.

“Was it not going well? If you wanted to get out of there before dessert I mean” he clarified.

“No, no, it was going great. I just meant it made an ok place to stop so I could check on you” she responded.

“I’m sorry, you shouldn’t have left, if I had known I wouldn’t have texted” Jay said, in an attempt to clear the air. Their conversation had become quite stale and neither of them were willing to accept that it was just awkward.

“Jay, stop” Hailey said, causing her partner to crack a small smile. “If you need to talk to me after a bad case, that’s the only place I want to be. I’m always here for you, even when we’re this far away” the last part was delivered with a bit of scorn.

“Thanks Hailey, and you too” he said, lifting a little bit of weight off both of their shoulders as they began to flow back into normal conversation.

Another week had passed and Hailey had told Jay a little more about Liam, but only if it came up in conversation so currently all he knew was his name and his job and what his coffee order is (he’d heard Hailey getting it for him while they were on FaceTime). She quickly realised that Jay didn’t enjoy listening to her talk about him so she tried to keep it lowkey.

During her last few days in New York, Hailey and Liam came to the mutual decision that they wouldn’t take the relationship any further. They had a lot of fun while it lasted but they both knew that long distance relationships were a lot of effort and with the jobs they had, it would just but impractical.

While she was waiting in the airport for her flight back to Chicago, Hailey found herself saddened by the fact that her and Jay hadn’t texted or called for a couple of days so she opened her phone, pulled up Jay’s contact and called it.

No answer, so she texted.

‘About to board my plane, just wanted to check in’

Jay sent a response quickly.

‘Sorry, deep in a case. Have a safe flight, text me when you land’

She decided to shrug it off but Hailey knew something wasn’t right.

The journey felt like years but after her flight and a taxi ride home, Hailey was finally back in her own apartment in Chicago. It was 2am when she arrived so when she reached her bedroom she quickly changed and got straight into bed, falling asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

The next morning she got up, easily slipping back into her normal routine and went to work. Voight had had offered for her to take a few days to get settled back into Chicago and sleep off the jet lag but she politely declined as she just wanted her normal back.

The day went pretty slowly, no major cases, but Jay was acting different and Hailey knew it. When she first showed up at work she got warm welcomes from Trudy and the whole unit but nothing from Jay, they barely said two words to each other all day that weren’t work-related and it was making Hailey a little upset.

Since they had spent most of the day doing paperwork, the team got sent home at a reasonable time. Adam and Kim left together closely followed by Kevin as Voight silently worked in his office.

Hailey entered the locker room where she knew she would find Jay, and she was right.

As she hesitantly walked through the doorway, Hailey spoke. “Can we talk?”

Jay wasn’t facing the door when his partner walked in but, upon hearing her voice, he quickly adjusted his positioning on the bench he had planted himself on to grab his stuff from his locker so he was looking at her.

“Sure” he replied softly, pretty confident he knew what she wanted to talk about.

“Come over to mine in about half an hour?” Hailey asked.

Jay nodded in response and they both grabbed their things and walked to the parking lot together.

They walked in silence but it wasn’t their usual, comfortable, silence. The air around the two was stiff. Either way, it wasn’t long before they reached their cars and headed their separate ways.

Almost exactly half an hour later, Hailey heard a knock at her door. She got up from her position on her couch and went to answer the door, knowing it would be her partner on the other side.

“Hey” Jay said with a weak smile as Hailey opened the door and he walked inside.

He set his jacket on one of the hooks by the door as he always did when he was at her apartment and made his way to her couch.

Sitting in silence on opposite ends of the furniture both detectives waited for the other to talk first and after a few uncomfortable seconds, Hailey decided that it was probably fair for her to talk first seeing as she was the one who wanted to talk to him and she invited him over.

“What is going on with you?” she asked, not wanting to beat around the bush, just getting straight to the point.

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh come on Jay, don’t give me that crap. You haven’t spoken to me at all since I got back from New York so I’m sorry for assuming my best friend would have more to say after I left for 4 weeks” Hailey rebuked at Jay’s easy response.

“I guess I figured you’d wanna catch up with the team rather than talk to me seeing as we spoke to each other so much while you were over there” he said but Hailey knew that wasn’t the truth.

She started to get angrier but did her best not to show it and kept her cool.

“Well that’s a load of bull” she snapped. “We both know that over the second half of my trip we barely spoke, compared to the first two weeks anyway”

“Oh and thats my fault?” Jay jabbed back, beginning to feel anger rise in himself. Still, they both sat in the same spots on the couch and neither raised their voice.

“Well is it mine?” Hailey replied.

“More like your boyfriend’s” Jay murmered without thinking.

Hailey couldn’t believe what he had just said.

“Is that why you’ve been weird for these past weeks?” She asked “You’re jealous of Liam?”

That word ‘jealous’ played with his head but Jay didn’t reply, still regretting even bringing it up.

“Not that its any of your business, but he wasn’t my boyfriend” Hailey hissed and moved her body to a much more upright position, but keeping their eye contact. “It was a two-week fling, it didn’t mean anything” she continued with a quizzical look on her face.

“Wait so you guys aren’t together anymore?” Jay asked, a little taken aback by what his partner had just said.

“No, we ended things the day before I left because we agreed it was just a bit of fun and neither of us had the want to try a long distance relationship.” she said while relaxing back into the couch again.

Silence fell in the room for a moment as Hailey waited for Jay to say something but instead he just stayed where he was and his brows furrowed.

“Is that really why you’ve been acting weird?” she finally asked when she realised Jay had no intention of speaking.

Still not saying a word, Jay shrugged his shoulders a little embarrassed that he had even made this into a thing, it’s not like he could control who Hailey was dating.

“Oh my god will you please say something or I’m abut to get really mad” she exclaimed with a little more volume.

Jay had no idea what he could say without confessing his feelings right there in the middle of her living room so he kept his mouth shut which really pushed Hailey over the edge.

“Jay” she scoffed “for fuck’s sake what are you doing? You’re in no place to act like this because of a guy I dated for like a minute, last time I checked this partnership wasn’t an exclusive relationship and I can date whoever the hell I want” she began to stand up and continued “Just because you’re not looking for someone doesn’t mean I can’t be”

In reality, both of them knew exactly who they really wanted to date and it was none other than the person right in front of them at that very moment but neither were ready to admit that. Or so they thought, Jay’s mind had other plans.

“Who says a haven’t already found them?” Jay whispered, loud enough for Hailey to hear.

That was the second time this evening that Jay had said something that was meant to be kept in his head. ’God I really need to think more before I speak’ he thought.

“What?” Hailey asked, sitting back down.

“I didn’t mean-“ Jay began.

“So you are seeing someone” Hailey cut in.

“What?” his forehead creased “no, I’m not seeing anyone” he said truthfully.

“But you just said you found-“

“You, Hailey” and he did it again, Jay spoke before he could stop himself. However, this time, it proved to work in his favour, as a large smile appeared on his partner’s face.

For Chicago’s best detectives, both Jay and Hailey looked pretty stupid right now. But not stupid in a bad way, stupid in a huge-smile-on-your-face-don’t-know-what-to-say way.

For a second, they both remained still, not entirely sure what had just happened and where to go from there. Then Hailey made a spur of the moment decision and launched herself at Jay.

First she put a hand on his cheek and that was quickly followed by her placing her lips to his and pulling her leg over his knees so she was sitting in his lap and they were face to face.

Without ever breaking the kiss, Jay’s hands momentarily explored Hailey’s body, mainly moving up and down her torso, whereas Hailey kept both hands on his cheeks or gently around his neck, softly touching the hair on the back of his head.

Both were very content as it felt like the whole world was slipping away and they were all that existed. Hailey could feel a huge smile on Jay’s face as they kissed and it only made hers grow wider as their tongues intertwined and they bit at each other’s lips.

Though they had exchanged no words further than Jay implying that Hailey was all he was looking for, neither of them felt it was necessary.

Since they day they had met, the two had gone from strangers, to partners, to best friends, to admitting they trust each other more than anyone else and would follow each other blind. But they had always been Hailey and Jay, and thats exactly what they were that night, nothing had changed between them apart from the enormous weight that was their unspoken love for each other was lifted off their shoulders and they were just Hailey and Jay.

#chicago pd #one chicago #jay halstead #hailey upton #upstead #one shot #fan fiction

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mithrilwren · 3 years

Text

Fanfic ask game for procrastinating on writing, which as of this week is actually accurate, since I’m finally writing again! (or, more specifically, editing what I wrote two months ago so I can get back to writing.)

Tagged by @essektheylyss! Thank you, this is exactly the kind of activity my brain needed tonight.

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

72! I was hovering at 69 for quite a while, sad to break the streak haha

2) What’s your total AO3 word count?

~550K, which is somehow both more and less than what I expected

3) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Many, lmao. According to my Ao3 (omitting any blanket tags) I’ve got 22 there, plus at least two more over on ff.net from back in the day, and probably a couple more just on Tumblr. Most of them I’ve only written one fic for, though. I think the only fandoms where I’ve written more than one are Critical Role (35), Supernatural (15), Haikyuu!! (3), The Exorcist (2), Dimension 20 (2), and Yu-Gi-Oh! (2)

4) What are your top five fics by kudos?

Pick a Number, Any Number

Surprisingly, my number one is NOT a Critical Role fic, nor is it even one of my longer multi-chapters! It’s actually a one-shot I wrote for Haikyuu!! back in the day that took off far beyond what I expected. I wrote it for DaiSuga week, which was a ship I (to be completely honest) wasn’t even terribly invested in, but I had a fun idea and people seemed to like it! (It’s also much fluffier than what I usually write, which might be part of its broader appeal ;))

A Winter’s Ball

Unsurprisingly, the next four are all CR ;). This one was a M9 x VM crossover that I primarily wrote between the hours of 3-8am over the course of two insomnia-wracked nights and honestly, I think it shows in its uncharacteristically unstructured format (compared to my typical style, which tends to favour shorter scenes with very intentionally-placed breaks between, as opposed to scenes that flow into each other without pause). That’s not to say I think it’s a bad thing! The story, which follows Beau as she drifts through a party in Whitestone and observes the interactions between the various guests, actually flows better without that kind of interruption. This was also my first Beaujester piece. I started writing it right before Beau’s confession aired, and published it the week after, which definitely pushed me to make what had been only subtextual in the first half of my draft into the emotional lynchpin of the story.

Only the Nightingale Sings

I’m really glad this one still ranks as high as it does, because this story is absolutely my pride and joy. At one time (though I’m not sure that’s true anymore) it was the longest gen fic in the fandom, which is pretty cool! Plot-heavy, twist-heavy, angst-heavy, with seven points of view to follow and multiple interwoven storylines, it was a beast of a thing to write, and took almost exactly a year to finish, but the long process was oh-so worth it. Literally nothing makes me happier today than seeing a new comment or kudos on this story.

Closer Still

One of my earliest shadowgast fics, this one asks the question “how can you make the ‘stuck in an elevator trope’ fantasy?” The answer is, as always, demiplanes. This fic, perhaps more than any of my other shadowgast fics, is interesting to revisit, because it was written before the ep 97 reveal, but literally everything Essek does in it would suggest otherwise. It reads like I already knew he was a spy working with Trent, and yet I was firmly in the “Essek is NOT the spy” camp at the time. Gotta chalk that up to Matt telegraphing his growing guilt into the preceding episodes - even if I couldn’t see it, it was clearly there.

your dust from mine

My other novel-length CR multichapter, this fic brought me so much joy in the otherwise bleak summer of 2020. Most of my best memories of those four months come from working on this story. A Fjorclay adaption of The Goose Girl (my favourite fairytale) this story is about healing, growth, and figuring out what happiness means to you. While I know most people don’t read stories for this pairing anymore, for obvious reasons, I still cherish your dust from mine for how much of my heart I poured into it, and I look back on it with a huge amount of fondness.

5) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I do my absolute best to respond to every comment someone leaves on a story of mine, even if it occasionally takes a month or two. Replying to comments is one of my favourite parts of the fic-writing process - it gives me a chance to revisit peoples’ kind words and (often, incredibly insightful) observations, and I hope it also shows how appreciative I am of each and every one.

6) What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Though I write a lot of angst, I honestly tend more towards bittersweet endings than straight-up sadness. The only one I can really think of is What You Own - mind the tags if you follow the link, this is definitely one of the gnarlier things I’ve written for CR - whose ending is, admittedly, bleak. But this story so far removed from canon that I don’t think it’s the kind of angsty ending that lingers with you, as much as it packs a punch and then lets you go on your way.

7) Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I tend to enjoy thinking about crossovers moreso than actually writing them. I’ve brainstormed a few, but none have ever made it much farther than the first page.

8) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

A few times! Not often, thankfully. Only one time in particular really sticks out to me, mostly for how it rocked my confidence in a way that I don’t think any comment could now, since I’ve had a few more years to build up faith in my own writing.

9) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Very, very occasionally.

10) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I hope not!

11) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope!

12) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Oh man, back in the Glee days... yeah. Yeah, I have. Nothing that ever got published, though ;)

13) What’s your all time favourite ship?

Not sure I have one! Ships come and go with the seasons, and sometimes they’re best left in the era you found them.

14) What’s a WIP you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

The Shadowgast figure skating AU. It’s never going to happen, but I wish it had.

15) What are your writing strengths?

I would say probably structure, in terms of constructing narrative arcs and through-lines. I’m organized with my writing in a way that I am in few other areas of my life, haha. I’d also say my sense of place - I think I’m pretty good at constructing living, breathing settings and exploring how my characters interact affect/are affected by them.

16) What are your writing weaknesses?

I have a tendency to be wordy (which you might surmise from the length of this post, lol) and repeat myself, usually by going over emotional beats that don’t need the extra reinforcement. On the other hand, I tend to underexplain certain elements (particularly, important plot details in fic, and character motivation in original writing), which can lead to confusion.

A couple years ago I would have said dialogue, but I’ve put a lot of practice into it and I honestly think I’ve improved a lot, which is pretty cool!

17) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I’ve never done it myself, and it’s not generally my favourite thing to read (like @essektheylyss said, it makes me hyper-aware that I’m reading words on a page, especially if I have to follow a footnote somewhere). That said, I’ve definitely also seen it used effectively, so I think it’s more down to whether it suits the particular story!

18) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Yu-Gi-Oh!

19) What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

As mentioned above, Only the Nightingale Sings.

#tag meme #this took me about an hour and i dont regret a minute of it #personal

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calzona-ga · 3 years

Link

EXCLUSIVE: ABC’s promo for the Season 17 premiere of Grey’s Anatomy teased a “shocking, jaw-dropping ending.” That was an understatement.

In one of the series’ biggest twists ever, a beloved character, Patrick Dempsey’s Derek Shepherd, whose tragic death in an April 2015 episode left fans heartbroken, came back. Appropriately, the late McDreamy appeared in a dream sequence, joining Ellen Pompeo’s Meredith Grey on a beach seconds after Meredith collapsed in the parking lot of Grey Sloan Memorial.

The sweet Meredith-Derek reunion was the joyous coda to an emotional two-hour season premiere of Grey’s Anatomy’s 17th season, dedicated to frontline healthcare workers, which marked the conclusion of a Station 19 crossover. It was marked by tragedy, as Meredith struggled to cope with the mounting COVID deaths at the hospital; anger, as medical personnel were left to fight the disease without enough PPE; hope, as the teenage girl whom DeLuca had unsuccessfully tried to save from human trafficking was reunited with her family; heartbreak, as Owen refused to reconcile with Teddy despite her pleas for forgiveness; and happiness, as Link and Derek’s sister Amelia took their newborn baby boy home. In fact, just minutes after Link announced their son’s name, Scout Derek Shepherd Lincoln, Derek made his appearance. While not necessarily designed as a clue, “it all came together quite beautifully,” Grey’s Anatomy showrunner Krista Vernoff and star Pompeo said.

In an exclusive interview with Deadline, which had known about the big twist, Dempsey, Vernoff and Pompeo reveal how the idea for McDreamy’s return came about, how long he will stick around, how the scene was filmed, and the great lengths to which the show went in order to keep the cameo a secret so fans can fully enjoy it.

Vernoff and Pompeo also address Meredith’s fate following her medical emergency and in the context of Pompeo’s contract coming up at the end of the season, how the real-life coronavirus pandemic changed Grey’s Anatomy on and off the screen, whether will there be COVID casualties among the staff of Grey Sloan, are there plans for a time jump, and is there hope for Teddy and Owen.

Dempsey, who has a cancer foundation, had his own questions for Vernoff and Pompeo about whether advancements in COVID treatments and the issue of wearing masks are reflected on the show.

DEADLINE: Before we talk about Patrick’s return, let’s address the incident that brought on the cameo, Meredith’s collapse, because we usually associate those kind of visions with somebody on the brink of death. Is Meredith OK? Is this just her being overworked, or is it COVID or something else very serious?

VERNOFF: Well, you have to tune in next week. We started the episode with Meredith dreaming of a beach, and at the end of the episode, she’s dreaming of the beach where Derek happens to be, and that’s what we know so far.

DEADLINE: How did the idea to bring Patrick back come about?

VERNOFF: From a writer’s perspective, it happened because it was my job to find a way — once we determined that we were doing the pandemic — to also bring joy, and escape, and fan candy, and all the things that at Grey’s Anatomy we give people. We give them romance, and we give them humor, and we give them joy, and a lot of that is lacking for the medical community in this pandemic. And so, I was walking on the beach one day, and I was like, what if there’s a Meredith dream motif?

There have been studies about how intense our dream life has been. In the pandemic, people are having really intense dreams because of the lockdown. We’re not getting enough stimulation, and so, it’s happening in our dreams. So, it started as that. It started as, how do we give people some escape. I had this imagining of a beach motif throughout the season, and I called Ellen, and I said, what if we bring back, I don’t know, some dead character that you could dream of on the beach, that would be so fun for the fans.

And she said, let’s get Patrick. Even in my most excitable dream life, that thought hadn’t occurred to me as an option, and there it was.

DEADLINE: Ellen, what made you think of Patrick?

POMPEO: Patrick and I both have homes in Malibu, and we went for a hike one day. I had known that Krista wanted to do a beach thing, and I was at the beach. Patrick and I weren’t hiking on the beach, but we were hiking in Malibu, which, you can see the beach.

And the idea just struck me so I just said to him, would you ever consider coming and being a part of the storytelling this season? I know that Patrick has his foundation in Maine where he helps cancer patients and cancer survivors, and that’s a huge effort of his, and I know that it’s important to him, also, to give people hope, and give people joy, and we wanted to bring something to this moment.

There’s just so much darkness, and we knew that coming together would be a little ray of light. And so, I think we had the same idea, at the core, to want to help people and bring a smile to people’s faces. So, he loved the idea, and we were just so excited, and we had a ball filming it.

DEADLINE: Patrick, were you surprised when Ellen asked? What made you say yes?

DEMPSEY: I had a lot of calls from a lot of local government officials in Maine saying, we really need to get the message out there, to get people to socially distance, to wear a mask. I came across a photo that I was going to post that had Ellen and I, and I think that produced a call where I reached out to Ellen, and this was right around, the conversation was starting for Season 17. And Ellen’s like, let’s get together, I want to go over a couple things, I want to catch up.

We hadn’t spoken or been together for a while. It was a great opportunity to catch up and say, OK, what can we do for all the frontline responders? I’ve been tracking what Grey’s had been doing with giving masks, and making sure that people had the right equipment, and it came from that place — OK, what can we do to make people feel better, to give some comfort in this time of uncertainty, and that’s how it began. And it was really a wonderful experience to go back, to work with [director/EP] Debbie [Allen].

I think the whole atmosphere has changed, certainly working at the beach, and seeing everybody again was really a very healing process, and really rewarding, and a lot of fun. And hopefully, that feeling translates, and the fans enjoy it. I know that they’ve been wanting us to get back together, and I think this will satisfy a lot of people, and surprise a lot of people, hopefully.

DEADLINE: Was it easy to go back into character?

DEMPSEY: It was really enjoyable. It was really exciting, and fun, and it was great to see everybody. Kevin [McKidd, who directs Episode 3] was there as well, so there was a lot of familiar faces, a lot of new faces. The dynamic behind the camera had changed. There’s much more diversity within the crew. There was a nice balance, too, of equality that I was seeing. So, culturally, there was a lot of things that were different, that I thought were very positive and very inspiring, actually.

DEADLINE: Ellen, Patrick, did you filmed the beach scene together?

POMPEO: Yes.

DEADLINE: How was it looking at each other, on set, in character, after so many years?

DEMPSEY: Well, I have less eyesight than I used to, so (laughter). It was great. It was really fun, very special. it felt really comfortable, incredibly safe. The whole process, I have to say, from getting tested before even showing up to the set, the whole process in which we shot, I felt safe the whole time. You felt the crew was protected. We had the outdoor space, and it was easy.

POMPEO: It felt great. Patrick and I have this chemistry, where I think, even from when we first met, for some reason it just felt like we’ve known each other for a hundred years, and it’s just the same feeling. It’s like riding a bike, we just have a chemistry and a dynamic that’s always served us well, and I think we have a genuine affection for each other.

And it was very healing to come back, and know that we’re doing something good, putting out a positive story, a healing story, going to make people smile, and I think, for me, I’m really grateful for the opportunity to be able to be at this place in the show where we can do this. We constantly get to rewrite, I don’t want to say the ending, but we get to keep the rewrites going, which, I guess, you writers love, right?

They love to start over, to scrap it and rewrite it, and make it better, and that’s what’s fun about this process this far along, is getting the opportunity to work with Patrick again, and just coming up with ideas, how do we keep surprising the fans, and how do we keep the quality of the show up, is what makes it continue to be fun.

DEADLINE: How long is Patrick going to stick around for?

VERNOFF: It’s more than the one scene you saw, Nellie, and it was just joyful. I really want to echo that. Patrick and Ellen and I were all there at the beginning of this; I wasn’t there for the pilot, but I was there for the first seven seasons, and that was 17 years ago. That was, like, a lifetime ago; my kids weren’t alive. It was so wild to walk out on that beach, and just be together again as these different people that we are now. But I can’t overstate how joyful and healing an experience this was.

DEMPSEY: Yeah, for me as well. It was really special. It’s really hard to believe, 17 years, that’s remarkable. I mean, a lot of us didn’t have children at that point, right? So, our kids have grown up, they’re now in school. It’s crazy how much time has passed, but it really was so comforting, and lovely, and inspiring to go back, and to work together, to see everybody. It really was so open, too, that was the thing, really, people were very, I think, vulnerable in a positive way, where we were all grateful to be there and to be together.

DEADLINE: And you are game to do more episodes?

DEMPSEY: Yeah, it was fun, because I really love the message of what the dynamic is in this story. With everything that we’re dealing with right now, and certainly we have been distracted with the election, but we’re going to get back into the reality of COVID and being in a pandemic, and all the lives that have been lost. Where are these souls going? And I think that’s what attracted me to this storyline, I think it can be really helpful and healing to so many people.

POMPEO: I also think that, in a strange way, the behind the scenes of the show is certainly paralleling what we need, with the stories that we put out. What do we love about the show? We love that the show brings people together. We love that the show hopefully opens people’s minds, it opens people’s hearts, and I think that, in the running of the show and the making of the show, if we follow those same principles, if we follow the principles of love first, of acceptance, of open mind, open heart, forgiveness, all of it is, that’s the message of Grey’s.

And for us to be able to mirror that behind the scenes, and truly walk our walk and talk our talk with each other, those who created the show, I think, is a really amazing full-circle sort of story for a TV show that’s gone on this long.

DEADLINE: How hard was it to keep Patrick’s return a secret?

VERNOFF: I have to say that it was an epic feat, the keeping of this secret. I didn’t send cuts to the studio and network that included that last scene. I didn’t have writers’ assistants in the writers’ room for the last couple of months. There were writers who didn’t know we were doing this on that staff. Most of the actors didn’t know we were doing this. The crew didn’t know we were doing this when they showed up on the day.

I put the name “Ellis Grey” in the script that we read at the table, and I had Meredith say “Mom” at the table, so we got there on the day, and no one had been told what was happening. So, also watching the crew react, and [producer] Linda Klein, who’s been there from the beginning, we got Norman back, who was our amazing hair guy from the beginning [Norman T. Leavitt was makeup department head on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy for the first 14 seasons]. I was like a crazy person with this secret. And Ellen and I were texting at all hours of the night, like, who knows, I think this person.

POMPEO: Absolutely.

DEADLINE: Will we see Ellis on the show this season?

VERNOFF: I don’t know. I don’t know. You have to tune in and see who comes to the beach. It’ll be a joyful discovery.

DEADLINE: Ellen, your character is dealing with a lot of tragic COVID deaths in the premiere. For you and Krista, will we see some tragedy within the ranks of the Grey Sloan staff too? A lot of medical professionals have lost their lives to COVID in real life.

POMPEO: I think we have a responsibility to really show what these healthcare workers have been going through. It’s so easy for a big part of the population to just be irritated with wearing a mask, and they’re sort of disconnected from what real doctors and nurses and anyone who works in a hospital are actually dealing with.

I don’t want to speak for Krista, but I think for me, certainly, I saw this as an opportunity to tell the story of how hard this is for our healthcare workers; it’s devastating for them. I think Krista will tell you that they’ve sat down with so many doctors and nurses, and they hear the stories, and they’re writing right from these stories that they’re hearing. And this has been devastating, and changed the medical community forever.

So we have to show, that’s our responsibility, to show what a struggle this is for healthcare workers, and continues to be as we see [COVID] numbers spiking again. We have to try to spread some empathy, and show people that this is very real, and it’s really hard, and the next time you want to complain about wearing a mask, think about what these people have to do. They have to wear a mask, they have to wear full PPE, full cappers. They literally have to do 50 things just to be able to perform their job.

DEADLINE: Krista?

VERNOFF: I have to say that I feel like Ellen did an extraordinary job in that premiere, paying respect to healthcare workers with her performance. The thing that she did is exactly what I’ve been talking about so much, which is that these doctors and nurses who come to the writers’ room every year. They are joyful and excited, and they’re always there to tell us these exciting stories. And this year, it felt like, it was the first time they were talking to anybody.

It was the first break they were taking. It was the first time anyone was asking them what they were living through, and to a person, it felt like they were on the verge of breaking. They were different people, and I felt like Ellen so beautifully embodied it throughout this episode, the change, what this pandemic is doing to people who were trained to help and heal, but not trained to walk through war, and not trained to lose dozens of patients, sometimes in a day.

It’s breaking them, and I feel like we’re already showing the strain and the impact, and yes, there will be more of that, and somehow, we’re also bringing joy. We’ve been carefully threading this needle, of paying honor and homage, and telling the truth of this story, while finding ways to also bring joy to the audience, and I’m really excited about Season 17.

DEADLINE: You’re not going to hint whether anyone on the show is in jeopardy, are you?

VERNOFF: Well, for sure, Nellie, for sure people are in jeopardy. Meredith collapses at the end of the premiere. People are in jeopardy, and multiple people are in jeopardy throughout the season, in myriad ways, because that’s the moment we’re living through.

DEADLINE: Ellen, should we read more into Meredith’s collapse in light of you figuring out your future on the show? You have said that you’re not sure what you’re going to do beyond this season.

POMPEO: You can’t read into anything. Really, that’s dangerous territory. I think that, collectively, we, or creatively, it’s the same this year as it always is. Is there a reason to continue? What stories do we have to tell? What characters do we have to bring back that gives us story to tell? I said in another interview last week, we’re always in this incredibly sweet spot with this show, for whatever reason.

We always have incredible circumstances that allow us to continue creatively, whether it’s ideas, or circumstances that happen. Our goal is just to make good TV. I think we’re all aware of the icon status of the show, we’re so aware of that, and I think that that’s why Patrick was so humble and so grateful to be able to come back, because we are very grateful that we have this huge platform. And I don’t think any of us take the platform that we have lightly.

And so, at this point, I think, we don’t know what we’re going to do. We know that we’re grateful, and we know that we want to show our gratitude, and grateful to each other making the show, that we’re able to keep continuing to grow, and to tell stories that we think are important, and getting this moment. Listen, who gets career runs like this? Patrick Dempsey’s been working since he’s … I know he’s been working off-camera even earlier, but I mean, when was your first role, Patrick, when you were 16 or 17?

DEMPSEY: Sixteen, 17, so 30 years.

POMPEO: Who gets a run like that? So, I just think that we’re incredibly grateful to be able to still be here, and be telling these stories that we feel are important, and we’ll see. Creatively, this is our heavy-lifting, to keep raising the bar for ourselves, but we’ve got something great, which is we’ve got gratitude, and we’re all smart, creative people. So, if there’s a way to figure it out, we certainly will.

DEMPSEY: The range of emotions, where you’re getting a chance to cry, but you’re also getting a chance to laugh, I think that’s a huge success in the storytelling. The whole ride has been remarkable on so many levels, being a part of this show for so many years, and it’s profoundly changed my life in so many ways. I’m very grateful for that, and hopefully to use that platform in a positive way, where you’re doing something good. And I’m grateful to be a part of this show at this particular moment in time.

DEADLINE: The premiere is set in April 2020. Krista, will the show fast forward to now?

VERNOFF: We’re not fast forwarding. We’re playing it through. So, by the time it’s airing, most of what we’re doing is almost a year ago, in the timeline. And there’s more joy.

DEMPSEY: Do you get into how the disease is treated over time as well? Do you get into how the science — and I think this is an important thing for us to remember and to really believe in the science, in the breakthroughs that they’re making on a daily basis. How do you track that, and has that been part of your conversation?

VERNOFF: It is. It’s a constant part of the conversation, and we have three doctors on staff now who come into the writers’ room most of the time, and we have a lot of conversations of even the evolution, what you see in terms of the protective gear that they’re wearing in the premiere versus the evolution of the protective gear, when are they treating with ventilators and when are they not. There were drug studies and drug trials, and we’re doing our best to be honest about that progress, and also the evolution in the hospitals.

Grey Sloan in the premiere has a special COVID ward, and these intake tents, and then, throughout the course of the season, other spaces evolve to hold COVID patients, and we’re hearing news about other hospitals. Washington was hit really hard early on. So, we’re trying to play through all of that.

DEMPSEY: Sorry, follow-up question, if I may. Do you get into the politics of the mask, and how that affects in a negative or a positive way? Do you go down that road at all?

VERNOFF: We try to stay away from overt politics, and the politicizing of the mask is a real thing that happened. So, we’re not talking about politicians. We just don’t do that at Grey’s Anatomy, partly because we want the show to be for everybody, and we don’t want it to become so polarizing, where it feels like we’re preaching from some particular pulpit. We’re just sticking with the science, and the reaction of doctors to the idea that people are not understanding and/or not believing that masks are imperative to protect other people and themselves.

So, we’re playing it through character, is the answer, like what an outrage it is for these doctors, who spend their lives and their all-day, every-day, trying to save people, to see human beings out there choosing not to protect their fellow human beings, because they’re not believing in science, and they’re not believing scientists.

DEADLINE: How is filming going? Grey’s was one of the first shows to shut down production early in the pandemic to protect the cast and crew. How is it now, with the new COVID wave? I write stories about shutdowns virtually every day.

VERNOFF: I mean, knocking wood, so far.

POMPEO: Good so far, yeah. We’re good. Of course, anything can happen at any moment, but I think that collectively, everybody’s really careful. And again, we’re trying to be mindful of one another, and we’re trying to be mindful of how we live our lives when we’re not at work, because that’s the smart thing to do, and we have to come to work and keep everybody safe. Nobody wants to get shut down.

VERNOFF: We’re really careful in our creating of the show, also, to help the actors feel safe. We shut down before other shows, we also came back to production before a lot of other shows, thanks to truly the leadership of Debbie Allen. There was some leadership from me, but for sure, it was guided by Debbie Allen going, if we don’t come back, we’re never going to come back, come on, Krista, we’re coming back. Set a date, set a date, set a date, where’s the scripts? Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go.

She kept saying, if you put a date on the calendar, we’re going to work toward it, and we’re going to figure out how to do it safely, and we really did figure out how to do it safely. We were lucky that we’re set in a hospital, so that our actors, when they’re working together tightly, can be in masks. But it was also my job, and the job of the writers, to come up with plans and motifs that allowed the audience to see the actors’ faces, and the actors to feel safe in that.

So, you didn’t just see a beach motif, which is a continuing motif through the season, and it was designed, that particular motif, so that Ellen could come to work without a mask and feel safe, because she’s outside; the epidemiologists have been clear about how much safer outside is. But you also saw, for the first time in 17 seasons, Meredith’s house back yard. We built a backyard set on the exterior of the lot, outside the writers’ bungalow, so that those actors could give us some no-mask time, and feel safe in the beginning.

And more and more, we’re understanding how to keep everyone safe indoors, so we’re getting a little bit more without masks indoors, but at the beginning, we had to really be creative, in terms of how are we doing this, how are we keeping ourselves safe, how are we helping them feel safe, and how are we giving the fans a show that’s joyful in addition to true.

DEADLINE: And one final question: is there any hope for Teddy and Owen?

VERNOFF: Teddy is doing good. They’ve got a long haul, Nellie. If there’s hope for them, it’s in the ethers, but you know, I didn’t have a lot of hope that Patrick Dempsey was going to be back on Grey’s Anatomy last year, and look where we are. So…

#grey's anatomy #Ellen Pompeo #Patrick Dempsey #news #spoiler #deadline #krista vernoff #season 17 #17x01 #17x02

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sweetiejunie · 4 years

Text

Confessions

Summary: They both have their own confessions. Beomgyu had secrets. Yeonjun thought he was over you. But was he really?

Genre: fluff, angst

Beomgyu x reader, Yeonjun x reader (decoupling)

—.*•—

A/n: a short oneshot i wrote inspired by my favourite ep of HIMYM

=====================================

You loved yeonjun, you really did. And he loved you. But were you in love? No.

That ship sank a while ago, but you had remained good friends with him and the other boys. You both figured it would be too much of a waste to completely throw away everything you had. And you still enjoyed the others company, who was he to take that away from you. At the start, it was hard. But as time went on, things fell back into place. You had to admit, it was a bittersweet feeling but you were glad you didn’t completely lose him. He was still one of your best friends. Everything went back to how it was before you started dating. Well, almost everything.

When the other boys found out you had broken up, they were devastated, of course. To them you and yeonjun had always been their one true pairing, their OTP, soulmates. The couple they were rooting for to get married. And when you broke up, they were shocked and they were also there to help you through it. Especially beomgyu, he had made it his job to visit you everyday until you were better. Bringing you all kinds of sweets or food that would make you happy. Or bringing you out on fun adventures so you had an excuse to get out of bed when you had spent the whole day crying. All that was just supposed to last for a little while, until you got back on your feet. But even after everything seemed back to normal, beomgyu still found himself at your doorstep whenever he had the chance.

Beomgyu didn’t want to say it, but while he was busy bringing you ice cream and chocolates everyday to cheer you up, he started catching feelings. He loved making you laugh when he saw tears prick your eyes. He loved the way you smiled at his jokes and how they made you feel better. He loved spending time with you, watching whatever movie you wanted and listening to any song you played. At first, he thought he was just being nice, looking out for a friend that was broken. Time went by, and all the more he realised just how much he dreaded the days he couldn’t visit you or the days you didn’t reply to his texts. He realised what he felt was something more than what he felt for a friend. But he couldn’t like you. You were his friend’s ex. He couldn’t break the bro-code.

As the days continued, so did his visits. And everyday, he just felt himself falling deeper and deeper into that hole. But he couldn’t stop himself. Everyday, he saw you smiling when you opened the door for him, a smile that made his heart jump out of his chest. He wanted to grab your hands and hold you close. To call the days you went out together ‘dates’ instead of just friendly hangouts. He wanted to take you on late night drives to the most romantic places he could think of, and have you fall asleep in his arms.

He had fallen fast, and he had fallen hard. He thought he could get over you, to simply forget his feelings existed. But that proved to be much easier said than done. He tried cutting down on the days he saw you, using excuses like he was too busy, or he was too exhausted after practice. It killed him to lie to you. And seeing the sweet responses you gave him to ‘rest well’ and to ‘take care of himself’ wasn’t helping.

Beomgyu couldn’t take it. It’s been months and he felt guilty for hiding his feelings. He knew it was wrong for him fall in love you, but he couldn’t control his emotions. And it was eating him alive. He had to tell someone. And that day after their practice, he decided to tell yeonjun the truth. It was make or break it, but he had to get it out.

He found yeonjun on the couch, using his phone just scrolling through his feed. Beomgyu had gone through what he wanted to say in his head a thousand times, but nothing could prepare him for the real thing. He stood there for a while, looking over the corner at yeonjun, processing how to go about this.

“Stop staring, you look like a stalker,” yeonjun suddenly called out, causing the poor boy to get flustered.

“Hyung,” beomgyu said softly, walking closer to him.

“Beomgyu, something wrong?” Yeonjun asked, sensing something off about his younger’s demeanour.

“I uh, i need to talk to you.”

Yeonjun hummed a response, putting down his phone and turning to look at beomgyu, who stood there, shifting his weight from foot to foot, playing with the edge of his hoodie. He was nervous. Who wouldn’t be? He was about to tell his mate he had fallen head over heels for a girl he used to love.

“So er,” beomgyu started, “i dont know how to tell you this and i know it’s wrong of me to feel like this. But... i think i like y/n.”

There was silence, tension so thick you could cut it with a knife. To beomgyu, it felt like it lastest an eternity. And he thought he was about to get punched as he studied yeonjun’s blank face, just staring at him.

“I- i just wanted to tell you cause i felt guilty. I know she’s your ex and all so if u dont feel comfortable with the idea of me being with her, I won’t do it! Ill get ride of my feelings, i promise! I just thought I should let you know-“

“Go for it,” yeonjun smiled, standing up to give beomgyu a pat on the back. “We broke up months ago. We’re just friends now, if you like her, I shouldn’t be the one stopping you. But you better treat her well.”

His words shocked beomgyu, but he was glad to have his blessing. It meant he was over you and beomgyu could feel at ease. He rushed over to your place and confessed everything.

And later that night, yeonjun got an extremely important text.

From beomgyu: Y/n and i are dating!!

In that moment, despite what he had said prior, he felt jealous, annoyed, frustrated. Whatever you want to call it. He tried to convince himself that he was happy for you. No, that he was over you, or so he thought. Seeing you with someone else just made him realised how much he was still actually in love with you.

He would never admit it but a part of him was hopping you would have said no, and send beomgyu home. He was supposed to be your friend, he was supposed to be happy his best friend was happy. He hadn’t noticed it, but when beomgyu returned home that night, yeonjun completely switched off, disregarding any attempts beomgyu made to start a conversation and locking himself in his room.

Yeonjun thought he was okay with you and beomgyu being together but as the days turned to weeks, yeonjun was starting to ignore beomgyu more, barely acknowledging him when he spoke. Yeonjun hated seeing you with him. He wanted you to be happy and he wanted beomgyu to be happy, but not be the reason for each others happiness.

The worse days were when you would surprise beomgyu at the dorm. You would greet them as per usual and run to hug beomgyu. That used to be him. The gifts you used to get for yeonjun, now you got for beomgyu. Your laugh that echoed from beomgyus room used to his favourite sound, but now was the bane of his existence.

The other boys noticed this, but didn’t dare say anything. Until one day, they drew the line. You had came over to the dorm and beomgyu decided to bring you out for a small ice cream date. The rest of them were on the couch in the living room, watching a movie before they saw the two of you giggling as you made your way out. The moment the door closed behind you, yeonjun scoffed.

“What’s up with you? You got a problem with ice cream now?” Kai chuckled.

“Nothing’s up. I just think y/n deserves more than a lame ice cream date. Sure, ice cream is nice and all. But let’s be real, ice cream sucks. Ice cream lies, they keep secrets, and when it comes down to it, they just end up hurting you,” yeonjun responded, his emotions taking over him when he continued. “I- i just can’t believe y/n is going through with the idea of going out wit- for, ice cream.”

The three boys listened attentively, shaking their heads. If it wasn’t obvious enough, yeonjun wasn’t talking about ice cream. They knew they had to put an end to this. It was getting out of hand.

“Okay hyung we have to talk. Room, now,” soobin announced.

“Nice try but no, it’s just going to be 5 minutes of you two sorting out his love life, followed by an hour of you playing mario kart. No way. Hyung, you, me, roof, right now,” standing up, taehyun pushed yeonjun towards the fire escape that had a staircase to the roof.

“But it’s January-“ yeonjun defended.

Ignoring him, taehyun continued pushing him out, “move.”

“Alright, we’re both freezing so cut the crap and just say it,” taehyun said the moment they were on the roof.

“Say what?”

“That you’re unhappy y/n and beomgyu are together!”

Yeonjun was in disbelief at his assumption, “what? No. I’m happy. I encouraged him to go after her.”

“Because you thought you were okay with letting her go! But now that she’s gone, it hurts.”

By that point, yeonjun had been hurt many times in his life. Past relationships, failed auditions, and the list goes on. But when he first saw that text message that you two were together, it hurt just like all the previous times, just times a million.

“No. I’m happy for them,” he argued again.

“Is all you’ll let yourself say out loud. Cause if you said how you actually felt, that would make you the worse person on this roof,” taehyun stated, arms wrapping around himself when a cool breeze past them. “So I’m going to give you an out.”

“And how exactly are you going to do that?” Yeonjun mocked back.

“By saying something worse.”

“Like what?”

Taehyun hesitated, “sometimes, i wish I wasn’t here. Sometimes i wish i could just pack up a bag and leave in the middle of the night and not come back.”

Yeonjun listened as he spoke. The words echoing in his ears as he processed what taehyun meant by them. And as the moment of silence passed, yeonjun confessed.

“Y/n shouldn’t be with beomgyu. She should be with me.”

=====================================

Just something random, something short, something sad. Hope you liked it!

Masterlist

142 notes · View notes

storiesforallfandoms · 4 years

Text

a great team ~ yungblud

word count: 1730

request?: yes!

“could u maybe write a dom/yungblud fic?? maybe he meets a writer working for his record label (she could be writing someones biography or smth) and they hit it off and then maaaybe flashfoward to them being together??”

(i made her a songwriter i hope that’s okay!)

description: in which a famous songwriter is paired up with a famous alt. rock musician and they find out that they’re a great team, in more ways than one

pairing: yungblud x female!reader

warnings: swearing mainly

masterlist

You checked the time again as you tapped your fingers against the steering wheel. You were late for the meeting you had with the new artist you were supposed to be working with because you left your house later than you meant and got stuck in traffic. You didn’t even know who you were supposed to be working with because your agency hadn’t told you who it was yet, so you couldn’t even contact the person to tell them you’d be late!

You sighed heavily as your car moved about another inch. You looked at the time once again, willing the traffic to let up so you could make it before the artist just left.

The one upside to being stuck in traffic was that you were having some good ideas for songs. The downside was that because you didn’t know who the person you were supposed to be working with was, you had no idea if the song would be the right genre for the artist. Regardless, every time your car came to a stop you wrote some more lyrics down. By the time you finally got through the traffic you had a whole song written.

You were humming a possible beat to yourself as you raced through the hall till you got to the studio you were book in for the day.

“I am so sorry, traffic was absolutely awful and I got stuck,” you explained the moment you pushed the door open.

The person waiting for you was a younger looking guy with a messy mop of black hair, wearing an oversized hoodie and a pair of skinny jeans. He looked up at you and smiled.

“It’s cool! I figured that’s what it was. I’m not long here myself,” he responded. He stood and held his hand out to you. “I’m Dom, professionally known as Yungblud.”

“Oh! Yeah, I know you. I love your latest EP, it’s like the most played thing on my phone right now.” You realized his hand was still extended to you. “Oh! Right! I’m (Y/N).”

“Nice to meet you, (Y/N),” Dom said.

“So,” you said as you both sat down together, “why do you need a songwriter? I thought you wrote your own stuff.”

“I do,” Dom responded. “But my label is pushing for my next album like now, so they called in some help. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for the help, but I hate being rushed. Making music is a process that can’t be rushed.”

“Trust me, I understand. I’ve had my fair share of singers essentially being forced to work with me because they’re under some sort of time limit to get an album done. Record labels just don’t get it because all they do is slap their name on the thing and release it to the world.” You shrugged. “On the positive side of all of this, while I was stuck in traffic I managed to write a song if you wanna check it out.”

“Like a completed song?” You nodded your head and laughed at Dom’s bewildered expression. “Yes! Let me see it!”

You passed Dom your phone. You watched him read through the lyrics in silence, waiting anxiously for his reaction.

He started nodding his head and humming to himself before singing a couple of the lyrics. The melody he came up with was definitely much better than what you were humming.

“It’s amazing!” he finally said. “That’s perfect! I have to make a note of this melody in my head before we continue. We’ll work on the instrumentals later. I only need like four more songs and then the album is ready to go.”

“Let’s get to work then!”

You two were sat there for hours on end. It was easy bouncing ideas off of one another and banging out three more songs together. It was as if you both had the same mind when it came to songs and lyrics, and even melodies as you were eventually coming up with the instrumental ideas for the songs and both your ideas were the exact same.

Before you knew it, you had the album written. All that was left to do was figure out the instrumentals and the vocals.

“Well, that was a breeze,” Dom commented. “We make a pretty great team, huh?”

“Honestly, you’re the best musician I’ve worked with,” you told him. “Most people I work with, especially on such a strict deadline, are so hard to write with. They want the album to be perfect since it’s so close to being released that they refuse some of the stuff I write because it’s ‘not their style’ and ‘too simple’. I wonder why they kept me around for so long. Realistically, you could’ve told me to leave at any time if you weren’t enjoying my company.”

“That’s awful,” Dom said. “I don’t understand how people can turn down help when they obviously need it. It’s hard enough to write one song by yourself, let alone having to do multiple in one session. Even if the lyric didn’t sound like something they’d sing, that’s why they’re there, to make it sound like their style.”

You shrugged. “Some people are afraid of being called out for having a ghostwriter, too. I’ve worked with a couple artists who said they’d consider my ideas and then didn’t use them at all so they didn’t have to put my name in the writing credits. It’s all about appearance, you know. If you’re found out to have a song writer help you they accuse you of ghostwriting. It’s hard in the industry to be a songwriter alone and not a singer-songwriter.”

Dom shook his head. “That’s not right. Most people need a professional songwriter to help them out.”

You chuckled. “Yeah, tell me about it.”

There was a prolonged silence between the two of you. You weren’t sure what else to say or do. You both technically had the studio booked for another hour, but there wasn’t much that could be done right now without a producer or any musicians present. A couple of the songs written were meant to be collabs with other singers, so those couldn’t be done until Dom reached out to those artists.

“So,” Dom started after a moment, “you said I can tell you to leave at anytime. I know we technically have another hour before our session is up, but would you be opposed to being kept a bit over our time?”

You raised an eyebrow, confused by his question. “What do you mean?”

“Like...I dunno, would you wanna grab something to eat or something?”

You couldn’t help but smile at the question. “Yeah, I would love that.”

~~~~~~

A few months later, you were sat at home watching a late night talk show in which Dom was performing and being interviewed. His performance, which was of the song you had written that day in traffic, had just ended and you were waiting for the show to start back up after the commercials.

When it finally did, there was Dom, sat next to the interviewer and smiling widely.

“Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen we are sat down now with Yungblud!” the host announced. The crowd cheered in excitement and Dom was beaming at them all. “So, this new album, it comes out in about a week. What can fans expect from the album?”

“It’s a sort of different album as far as what fans usually get from me. It’s still my usual style but it’s sort of different subject matters on each song than what I usually sing about.”

“And I heard that you actually had a songwriter brought in to help you write some of the songs.”

Dom nodded proudly, unashamed to admit it. “I did, yeah! Her name is (Y/N). She’s honestly the best songwriter in the game if you ask me. We got together and I’d say in 2 hours flat we had songs written, melodies figured out and we had sent out samples to artists we wanted featured on the album. That’s the fastest I’ve ever gotten anything done.”

The audience applauded and you couldn’t help but smile at, even though no one could see you.

“On the topic of this songwriter,” the interviewer continued, “there have been some reports that the two of you may or may not be dating. There’s been pictures of the two of you together getting very cozy.”

The smile on Dom’s face only got wider. He looked up at the interviewer and shrugged before responding, “I guess the cat’s out of the bag. Yeah, we are dating. We have been since that day in the studio, actually. We thought we made a great team songwriting wise, let’s see if we make a great team dating wise. And so here we are.”

The crowed cheered excitedly. You felt as if a massive weight had been lifted off your shoulders. Keeping this relationship a secret, even if for a couple of months, had been the toughest thing for you. You just wanted to tell everyone that you two were together. To post all the cute pictures you had saved on your phone, to not be afraid of being caught by fans or paparazzi. To just be a happy couple in public no matter what.

Now, it was out there for the world to know, and you couldn’t feel happier about it.

The interview continued until the host thanked Dom for coming onto the show and plugging his album one last time before going to commercial. Nearly seconds later, you phone was ringing. You looked down to see that it was Dom trying to facetime you. His face was still beaming with pride when you answered his call.

“Did you see it, babe?” he asked. He sounded so excited, like a kid in a candy store.

“I saw it,” you confirmed. “How do you feel, baby?”

“I feel so free!” he declared. “I’m so glad to publicly call you mine.”

You couldn’t help but giggle. “I’m glad to publicly call you mine, too. Finish up your press tour for your album soon and come back to me, I miss you.”

“I miss you, too, love,” he told you. “I’ll be back soon, I promise.”

He kissed his camera and you giggled again, kissing yours back. Yeah, you both definitely made a great team.

I’m sorry if this sucked :/

#yungblud #yungblud imagine #yungblud x reader #dominic harrison #dominic Harrison imagine #dominic Harrison x reader #imagine #request #one shot #imagine request #leave a request

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sunsetinmyvein · 3 years

Text

The Radio Station - Chapter Two - I’m So Excited

21st of August, 2013

The email had come in from her boss about a week before the interview was scheduled – next Wednesday, Mathew Healy was going to be back on her show. A part of her felt kind of anxious about this fact. Since the last time they had met, the band had indeed taken off as she predicted. Their popularity was only snowballing and the man that she had the pleasure of knowing for a brief while was revelling in it (from what she had seen in other interviews, anyway). She tried to remind herself that he was very easy to get along with the last time, so this should be no different. And she had met some substantially larger names than The 1975 in her time at the station. So, her anxiety was therefore fairly unwarranted. Which begged the question about why she felt those nerves sitting at the pit of her stomach in the first place, just from knowing that he was coming back into the studio. However, there wasn’t any point in stewing over it, nor was there time to, because he was knocking lightly at her glass door before she knew it. His mohawk had grown out a bit since she’d last seen him eight months ago, but otherwise he looked largely the same. She had a feeling he was even wearing the same black jacket he’d been wearing before. Looking behind him, it would seem that he’d brought one of the guys with him that she had seen him with after their last interview. If she recalled correctly, he was their drummer.

“It was Matthew, yeah?” She asked, trying to play it cool as she ushered the two of them inside. She hoped that it wouldn’t be apparent too quickly that she had been watching The 1975's movements closely since they’d met. Though, if Matthew was as clued on this time as he was the last time they’d spoke, she likely wouldn’t be able to hide it for long.

“Yeah, but Matty’s better.” He grinned. There was a short pause as he stopped for a beat and maintained eye contact, before remembering that he had someone else to introduce. “And I don’t think you guys formally met last time, but this is George. I dragged him along, hope that’s okay.” He added as he gestured to the man standing behind him.

“Good seeing you again.” George nodded politely.

“You as well.” She replied. “Take a seat you guys, there’s still a couple of songs that have to play through before I introduce you.” She said as she gestured to the other side of the desk. Matty gladly took the usual guest spot as George dragged across the smaller chair from the corner of the room.

“How’ve you been?” Matty asked eagerly, shuffling around in his seat as he tried to get comfortable.

“Yeah, good. Pretty much the same as usual.” She chuckled as she took a sip of her coffee.

“I’m surprised that you’re still running the lunchtime shift and they’ve not bumped you up to some prime time, peak-hour traffic slot.” He said casually, earning an incredulous laugh from her. The morning and afternoon shifts were the most coveted positions at any radio station, let alone one as big as this. She was pretty happy that she’d managed to land a job that gave her hours during the day as opposed to a midnight shift.

“Ah, I think I’d need a bit more of an audience before that happened.” She replied.

“I dunno, from what I’ve heard you seem to have a decent following.” He said with a shrug.

It was quiet for a moment as she processed that. She was pretty certain she could hear the clock hanging above the door ticking quietly as her brain tried to catch up. “You listen to the show?” She asked eventually.

“Whenever I get a chance, yeah. Or just catch a few highlights here and there on social media.”

That truly caught her off guard. Matthew Healy was out there writing albums, playing shows, and listening to her radio show? Why? Surely, he had better things to do in his downtime? “Uh, so what about you guys?” She asked, clearing her throat and trying to change the topic before he took note of how flustered she was becoming at this knowledge. “How’s things?”

“Really good!” He grinned. “We had Glastonbury recently which was amazing, and have Reading and Leeds coming up this weekend, and-” He started rattling off, quickly stopped by George as he put a hand down on the singers’ shoulder.

“Don’t wanna give too much away before the interview starts, Matt.” He laughed softly.

“Well, no, but-“

“You have to save the stories or you’re just gonna end up repeating them.”

“I can tell different ones.”

“You’re gonna tell the same ones that you tell every time, I know you are. And you won’t wanna tell them in the interview because you already said them now.”

“You don’t know that.” Matty frowned, clearly keen to push the point.

They continued this back and forth for a while before she intervened, “Anyway,” She sensed she had to diffuse this argument before it progressed into teenage bickering. “let’s do an interview.”

The two of them instantly tuned out of their conversation and back into the matter at hand as she began flipping switches. She pulled her headset on as she gave them one last cursory glance to make sure that they were ready.

"Hope you’re all having a pleasant afternoon out there, folks.” She spoke into her microphone. “As per usual on our Wednesday shows, I do have some special guests here in the studio with me to have a chat.” She said, nodding across to Matty to introduce himself.

“Hey! It’s Matty from The 1975.” He said with an excited grin.

“And George.” His friend added, leaning across to be closer to the mic. “Great to be here.”

“So, it’s been about nine months since you were here-”

“Entirely too long, if you ask me.” Matty chimed in casually. She pressed on, trying to ignore the charm that seemed to radiate from just about everything this man said.

“-and all of the EPs are out now, correct?” She continued.

“Yep.”

“Your album comes out in just under two weeks?”

“That sounds about right.”

She glanced down at the notepad in front of her, but she was pretty sure that over the last week she had memorised these questions front to back. “Are you excited for the album to finally be out? You were saying last time that it was practically already written back when you started the EP concepts.”

“We're definitely excited to finally hear people's reactions after how much traction we've gained from the EPs.” George began.

“It's been sitting in our heads for so long, it was almost hard to postpone it, but we wanted it to be perfect.” Matty threw in. “We didn't really expect to have such a positive reaction so soon, so it'll be interesting to see what people do with the main event.” Matty answered with a daydreamy look flashing in his eyes for a moment.

“I’ve really been enjoying the EPs.” She added, which instantly caught Matty's attention.

“Have you?” He asked instantly.

“Yeah, they've had a fair few spins through my playlists.” She laughed, suddenly making him grin ear to ear.

“You mentioned the positive reaction, Matty. With how fast you guys have taken off, I've heard a lot of people out there referring to The 1975 as an overnight success.” She prompted. “But you guys have been working on this since you were teenagers.”

He let out a sigh. “There is so much stuff about us being an overnight success…” He pulled a hand through his hair as he looked over at George. “It’s been ten years, actually.” He chuckled.

“Was the ten years worth it when you got the call to open for the Stones?”

“Yeah. Yeah!” He almost shouted, now letting out a full laugh. “it’s stuff like that, that really makes you appreciate it.”

George nodded along with him. “I think this whole year’s been worth it. Not just the Stones show, we’ve had a lot of great festivals and great sold out shows. It’s been strange. Surreal telling people about those events.” He elaborated.

“We didn’t mean for any of this to happen, really. So, it was a bit daunting initially.”

“You guys are still on tour?” She asked, moving along to the next topic.

“Yeah, have been since we last spoke.” Matty said with a nod. “Not really getting off tour until...” He seemed to be counting in his head. “December next year.”

“Next year?” She asked in surprise. “That's quite a long tour.”

“We are just… constantly on the move now.” He shrugged.

“That's for sure. It’s been a big year for The 1975. You guys had Glastonbury in June.”

“Yeah! That was amazing. It was incredible to play at a festival that we all grew up going to.”

“And have Reading and Leeds coming up this weekend with some big names.” She reminded him.

“Crazy…” He agreed. “We haven’t really been in the country for a lot of it. When Chocolate went so mental, we’ve been in America and Europe and just touring. We’ve just seen each other every day, it’s not really been that different for us. But the shows are getting bigger, people are really investing in the band, so it’s an amazing time.”

“You guys also did South by South West, which was eleven shows in five days.”

“That was mental.” George scoffed.

“Yeah! We were quite surprised to see how many people came to all of those shows. Chris Martin said the most perfect thing ever - of all people - if you throw a party and like 50 people come up, so imagine doing that for twice, three times the amount of that, every night, in cities you’ve never even really heard of. We turned up in Milwaukee and 350 people came to the show. We had a sold-out show in new York.” He rattled off, seeming slightly bewildered at the memory.

“That's pretty crazy to be making such big waves in a different country like that.” She concurred.

“I think it’s a testament to the internet, really. How far we’ve come from Manchester all the way across the world.” The drummer offered.

Matty instantly took that thought and ran with it, “God, I could talk about it for ages. It’s strange to go somewhere – when you go to places, and you realise you have a following there… your identity, your sense of self, almost feels slightly diluted? Because you’re in somewhere so unfamiliar, but witnessing the most familiar parts of your life. Your material, your art. It’s weird, man.” He said, shaking his head slightly.

“Does it intimidate you guys at all?” She questioned.

“No.” He instantly answered. “It’s amazing, a very humbling experience. It’s just very odd, the power of the internet? It’s kind of unsettling, but not intimidating. Kind of feel like you’ve lost a part of yourself a little bit.”

“How so?” She urged him to continue.

“Well... that’s when you’re at your most honest, isn’t it? When nobody knows who your band is. Now people know who we are. I’m the protagonist in every song I write. Which means every time I put stuff out there, it's putting out a part of me. Every conversation in a song is me and a normally female counterpart.” He tried his best to explain. “But that’s a subconscious thing.” He added as an afterthought.

“So it's like you're a little too transparent putting that much of yourself out there to such a large group of people?”

“Well, yeah. Your identity becomes kind of vaguely diluted because it’s not as embedded in what you’re familiar with anymore. Your identity kind of extends to places that you don’t really understand. It’s quite an unsettling thing for me.” Matty looked like he was struggling to find the right adjectives to describe the feeling. “It’s interesting. It’s cool.” He eventually settled on.

“Does that sort of feeling ever bother you when you're on stage?” She asked.

“Not at all. Performing is one of the only times I feel satisfied.” He laughed. “I just love it. It’s like putting on a party every night.”

“Would you guys ever do another big supporting tour like The Stones?”

“Probably not right now.” George supplied, before Matty spoke over him.

“There’s been a genuine investment from our fans. Every show we put out sells out really quickly now. We’ve not been able to meet the demands of the amount of people who want to see our band. As much as going off and playing with popstars in arenas would be fun, I think that would be an indulgent decision. It wouldn’t be for the right reasons. We need to play our own shows… we’ll have the opportunity for all that later.” He answered decisively. George seemed happy with this. “I don’t want us to get too big too quickly, you know? A lot of people feel like we’re their band. 'You’re my kinda band.' That’s how I always used to fall in love with bands. I don’t wanna lose that. I want that to remain, because it really is important to me that every single person gets the band.” It wasn't hard to believe that Matty meant what he was saying with the amount of conviction in his voice as he spoke into the mic in front of him.

“We have quite a strict door policy on our band. We don’t want idiots gettin’ in.” George threw in to try and lighten the mood.

“Back to Reading and Leeds, then. You're playing with the likes of Fall Out Boy and Green Day. Those are some massive names that'll be bringing in big crowds.” She started her line of questioning, waiting for them to respond before she continued.

“Yeah... We haven’t played to that many people.” Matty wiped his hands down his face as he took in a deep breath. “But it’s a real validation of all you’re doing. It’s not something we’ve ever craved, but it’s something we’ve really, really embraced and something that pushes us forward as creative people. It's cemented our identity as a band.” He replied.

“Are you nervous?” She asked with a smile.

He chuckled slightly, “Yeah, a little bit, but not really. What’ve we got to be nervous of? If people are there, they’ve already made that investment in us. We’ve just gotta show up and provide what we are.” George nodded. “And we can do that, so let’s just do it, d’you know what I mean?”

“All right, we're gonna play a couple of songs and then we'll be back with some questions you guys sent in earlier in the week.” She spoke into her microphone before cutting away.

“Fan questions?” George asked in curiosity as he took his headset off.

“Yeah. The station told people to text stuff in through the week and I've picked a few to ask.” She said with a nod as she took a swig from her cup of coffee.

“Hopefully you picked good ones.” Matty said with an eyebrow raised.

“You'll just have to see.” She shot back, earning a grin from him.

“You do brilliant interviews. I can't imagine you'd give us shitty questions.” He added. She tried her best to make sure he wouldn't see the slight blush on her cheeks at the compliment.

“You know, you should come out to a show sometime.” He segued. She was all too happy for an out from that conversation before it progressed.

“You guys hardly ever play here.” She pointed out.

“Come see us at Reading.”

“I hardly think you guys are high enough up on the bill to be offering to get me into a major festival for free.” She tried to sound accusatory, but couldn’t stop herself from cracking a small smile.

“Ask the station to get you in.” He suggested. She noticed that he seemed… rather eager about this idea.

She sighed deeply as she mulled this over. It would be nice to see them play live. It would be nice to see Matty again. Seeing him at a show counted as work, right? She could use that as a loophole in her own rules. “I’ll see what I can do.” Matty’s eyes practically lit up at her words.

“Okay, we're back with Matty and George of The 1975, here to answer some questions sent in by you lovely listeners.” She started, flipping over her notebook to the scribbled fan questions. “First up we have Louise who wanted to know, what's your highlight been so far?” The two men sitting across from her both let out a groan.

“So much has happened...” George mumbled.

“The whole thing has just become a bit of a blur, to be honest with you.” Matty answered. “It’s just loads of surreal situations strung together by doing interviews. I’d like to be in that place of having that much foresight – that much retrospect and hindsight. Everything’s happened so quick… I don’t know how I’m gonna feel about it. I can’t imagine things can continue being this intense in another year.” He paused for a moment, before pulling himself back on track. “Having a genuine connection with people who I never would’ve thought had even heard of our band every night, just that kind of…extended feeling… is the highlight of every night.”

“That's quite a nice sentiment.” She nodded.

“When we were a lot smaller in the UK, like January, a couple came up to me after a gig in London. And said that they’d fallen in love with each other through our EP – the Sex EP. They’d started speaking about it when they were out with a group of friends. They’d met and said ‘you know this band The 1975’ and they fell in love with that record and now they’re getting engaged.” He looked absolutely astounded by this, looking across to her to make sure she understood how crazy that was. “And I love that. It nearly made me cry. Because that’s it. That’s all we wanna do. For our music to affect people emotionally. If you have an artistic expression that does that… there’s nothing more beautiful, really. And if that’s your job, how can you get any better than that?” He finished with a shrug.

“Next we have Sam who's asked could you guys imagine doing something else instead of being in the band?” She questioned, crossing it off her list.

“We can’t do anything else.” George said with a laugh, instantly making his friend do the same.

“The band is the only expression we have. That’s bought from being complacent on working for anything else, and being totally, totally narrow minded and blind. We’ve never thought of the idea of this not happening.” Matty said.

“David has asked, how do you keep going?”

“Alcohol.” Matty instantly laughed. “Not really.” He quickly corrected. “It’s been the only thing we do, y’know? It’s not like we were in a band and had other interests. As soon as we became consumed by this band, we just stuck together as individuals. I think also because our social group has always orientated around us as a four, there’s never been any reason for us to not make music. It’s almost as if someone said ‘yeah, all right’ and then we got embraced by lots of different people and institutions.” He explained.

“Have there been any bad times?” She asked. “That was from Anna.”

“Not really?” George frowned. “I suppose when we were being wined and dined by the labels and then everything kind of fell apart? But it ended for the better, because we then signed a great deal on an indie that allowed us to have total creative control. Retrospectively we wouldn’t have had it any other way.” He answered.

“But it wasn’t that bad!” Matty chimed in. “Getting’ flirted, y’know. We were really young when all these labels were going for us. We were always quite fortunate as a band to have a lot of foresight.”

“Right, on that note, Jessica has asked how hard is it to stay true to your original ideas when speaking to labels?”

“You get really excited for the first few encounters, then you quickly learn to tame yourself and not get excited until you’re physically doing what has been said that they’ll do for you. You’ve gotta keep your head.” George answered.

“We just prided ourselves on our conviction. The only reason we wanted to do was this because it was on our terms.”

“Okay, Brian has asked if you guys ever fall out?”

“No.” Both of them instantly answered.

“We Just avoid that stuff and let other people deal with it. It’s too much of a personal endeavour to let the small stuff get to you. It’s not like we’re four boys who started a band because we wanted to be in a band, we’re four mates who ended up in a band by accident. So, pfft, whatever.” The singer scoffed.

“We’ve not focused on the financial stuff or anything like that. The only thing we have maintained is to have the final say and total creative control, and we all agree on that so there's not been any arguments to have.” George said.

“Last serious one and then we have some quick fire stuff.” She said as she scribbled out the last question. “Brendan wanted to know what your biggest accomplishment is so far?”

“Just making the record.” Matty said with a shrug. “I don’t really care how that record’s perceived or embraced, because it’s such an honest record - it’s such an honest depiction of who we are and where we’re from. It’s so uncompromised. The fact that a band like us managed to make a record like that without compromising at all… I’m just proud of that as an idea.”

“Okay, some short and sweet ones to end out the interview.” George and Matty sat up a little straighter in their seats. “Who's the best behaved?” She asked.

“George is tidy, I guess?” Matty seemed hesitant as he glanced at his mate. “He’s quite well behaved but we’re all quite well behaved because we’ve been in a band for a long time. This a very… kind of pursuit for music for us. A lot of our partying doesn’t actually happen when we’re on tour. We try and be as good as possible. All of us have our moments? We’re in a rock band, y’know what I mean?” He chuckled, running a hand through his mohawk.

“These are meant to be quick, Matty.” She reminded him with a smile. “If you could pick one person dead or alive to be stuck on an island with, who would it be?”

“Musically? Michael Jackson – just to go through musical ideas. But I think he’d get on my nerves after a couple of days.”

“Yeah, same.” George agreed.

“Can you moonwalk?”

“Yes. Very well.”

“Which celebrity do you think would have the best banter at a party?”

“Anyone from Geordie Shore.”

“If you could swap wardrobes with anyone, who would you want it to be?”

“ASAP rocky. For sure.”

“Write us a poem.”

“That's not quick fire!” He scoffed with a laugh. “And that's not a question!” He added, now properly laughing. “In an interview, the idea is to ask questions that I can answer. You’re giving me all of the work.”

“Ahh, I thought you'd be able to churn out something instinctual like those people who spill the truth after a bunch of quick questions.” She grinned.

“Well, that's all we have time for.” She sighed, leaning back a bit in her chair. “Thank you guys for coming in to the studio to have a chat.”

“It's no problem.” George smiled sweetly.

“We'll be here any time you want us on.” Matty replied.

“That was Matty and George from The 1975, and a track from them is coming up next.” She finished up as she set Chocolate up to play next. The two boys started getting up from their seats, grabbing their stuff and straightening out their jackets. As they were about to leave, she heard Matty tell George to go on ahead and he'd catch up. She spun in her chair to face him as he walked back over to her.

“I was serious , by the way.” Matty said, leaning back against the desk. “Any time you want us on the show, or if you wanna come out to see us play, just let me know.” He said as he held out a piece of paper. She took it from him, realising it had his number scrawled on it.

“Is this meant to be a subtle way of giving me your number?” She frowned up at him, but he definitely caught on to the excitement she was trying her best to hide.

“It can be whatever you want it to be.” He shrugged with a smirk as he followed after his friend.

Taglist: @imagine-that-100 @dot-writes @tooshhhy @robinrunsfiction @approved-by-dentists

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#Matthew Healy x Reader #Matty Healy x Reader #Sunsetinmyvein

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mae-gi-writes · 4 years

Text

Deobi Playlist (EP 10) | The Boyz Imagine

The Boyz x Hospital Playlist inspired drabble series.

Main characters: Kevin, Juyeon, Hyunjae and OC (Mae)

Sides: the rest of The Boyz

Genre: fluff, slice of life, BROMANCE BRUH

EP 1 | EP 2 | EP 3 | EP 4 | EP 5 | EP 6 | EP 7 | EP 8 | EP 9 | EP 10

-----------

"Excuse me."

"Yes," Juyeon whips his head up to see a pregnant woman waddling over to the counter with an expression that looks murderous. Holding her belly against herself with a grocery bag slung over her shoulder, she slams her entire body onto the front counter, which causes him to jump in surprise.

"How are you, ma'am? How can I help you today?" Juyeon flashes a wan smile, used to dealing with unnerved clients. There's usually always a reason behind their madness.

"I have been waiting for at least an hour!" The woman bellows, practically red in the face, "I'm due in two weeks, and there are so many other pregnant women waiting behind me. How come it's taking so long?"

"Ma'am, I'm sorry we--"

"Do you know how hard it is for us, pregnant women, to sit here in this stuffed waiting room while babies are kicking?!" She interrupts with another yell as Juyeon's hands come up in defense, "I want to see Dr. Bae right now! Right now, you hear me? I'm tired! I want to go home!"

Panic rises at the back of Juyeon's throat, "I--I am so sorry about this ma'am. But due to the number of patients today, the office is running a little slower than usual. I'm really sorry--"

"I don't want to hear your stupid reasons. I want my appointment!" She bellows, "Now!"

Fear coils through his stomach, a sick feeling tying into knots as his throat dries up with the countless excuses dying on the tip of his tongue.

Shit, his heart races. How is he supposed to deal with that?

He'd give anything to be shadowing a doctor right now.

The door to the doctor's office suddenly slides open, revealing a gentle-eyed Jacob who's gaze quickly flits between them in understanding. The woman doesn't even wait a second, quickly twisting her body and waddling towards him.

"Dr. Bae, I was just telling your stupid staff here that you need to speed up your process! Do you know how painful it is to be sitting around with that?" She motions towards her belly, legs wide apart and fists clenched at her sides as though she's preparing for battle.

But Jacob's expression stays unfazed, "I apologize, ma'am. Unfortunately the speed of the diagnosis does not rely solely on me, but my patient."

"Yes, but--"

"Some have--" Jacob pauses, presses his lips together as sympathy flashes through his face, "some have difficult obstacles they've had to face in regards to their pregnancy. Not everyone is as lucky that their baby is growing up to be healthy."

The woman blinks, opening her mouth, then closing it upon realizing that she has been shocked into silence.

"I understand your frustrations, I really do," Jacob's voice is gentle, a soothing lullaby that instantly makes Juyeon feel like the world is a better place, "but we all have to cooperate a little, work together to make this work. Don't you think?"

For a moment, there's a complete silence so palpable that Juyeon can hear the ringing in his ears. He can feel the eyes of a multitude of patients drilling into the back of his skull and goosebumps suddenly explode along his arm at the sensation.

"Alright," the woman finally lets out a grumble, "fine. Whatever."

And she turns around, wobbly on her feet, before plopping back down at her seat looking slightly disconcerted by the effect of Jacob's words.

Juyeon sends the said doctor a look of utter gratefulness, which Jacob answers with a wink of his own before retreating back into his office.

Thank god.

---------

It's been a long day running back and forth between the maternity department and the pediatric ward, but it is only when the last patient bids their goodbyes that Juyeon allows his neutral mask to fall.

"I'm sorry doctor," he bows his head to the ground, not daring to make any kind of eye contact due to the embarrassment coiling through him, "It was my fault. I couldn't calm her down in time."

"No no," Jacob's lips curl up into a smile, face softening with understanding, "it happens all the time. Impatient patients are the norm around here. Mothers-to-be, especially."

"Still, I'm sorry."

"Did that swear you off the Maternity Ward then?" Jacob's smile widens into a teasing grin.

"Maybe."

"Well, if it's of any comfort, it's no better in the other wards."

"What do you mean?" Juyeon frowns.

"Some of them are always looking for donors, others always doing extra shifts. The pediatric ward is the only one that's doing okay, as of late. Cancer department is just a hole of sadness."

"That's...not very encouraging."

"That's the reality of it," Jacob shrugs, "did you give it any thought? What you wanted to specialize?"

"I don't know. Cancer, maybe. I'm not good with kids and the Cardiac Department looks like hell. Also, Organs make me squirm."

Jacob laughs at that, the sound bouncing through the room like sunlight, "that's exactly the same reason why I didn't want to specialize in surgery."

"That makes the two of us."

After packing up their belongings and clocking out for the day, Jacob offers to buy Juyeon dinner as a thank-you for helping him throughout the day and though the latter tries his best to refuse, the doctor insists that it's just something he does with all of his underlings, and that not treating Juyeon would just not be right.

So Juyeon has no other choice but to follow as they walk to the parking lot. They unexpectedly bump into Hyunjae and Changmin in the lobby, causing Jacob to invite them both to join.

"Why Jacob, I think that's the first time you're buying me dinner," Hyunjae can't help but comment as they settle at one of the tables of Mama's chicken, a small restaurant just down the street from their hospital. Juyeon smacks his thigh in protest, aiming to be subtle while the former stifles his groan of pain.

"What?" Hyunjae hisses venomously.

"You don't say those kinds of things," Juyeon hisses back.

"You only care because you want him to give you a good review."

"Piss off, Hyunjae."

The dinner goes surprisingly well considering that Juyeon isn't really familiar with Jacob. Having Hyunjae helps ease the tension between the interns and the doctors, lightening the atmosphere and loosening up his tongue. They share stories about patients, heart-wrenching stories about the ones they lost, and the ones that they managed to save. The more they spoke, the more Juyeon felt like this was the right path he'd chosen, after all this internal dilemma that had cost him a few years.

"So why did you want to study medicine?" Asks Hyunjae to Changmin, who is already slightly flushed from his second beer.

"I--uh--I just wanted to make the world a better place," Changmin stammers, ears flushing red, "I don't think I've considered anything else."

"See, this is the problem with interns," Hyunjae shakes a hand at him, "you guys think that being a doctor is honourable. It fucking sucks, okay? Like, it's really shitty. The shittiest of everything shitty in this world."

"Not all that shitty," Jacob intercepts.

Hyunjae scowls at him, "for you, maybe. You work in the Maternity Ward. What's the worst? That a pregnant woman comes screaming at you?"

At that comment, Juyeon can't help but glance at Jacob, eyes meeting for a quick second in understanding.

“I think I got used to that,” Jacob answers with a small smile, “Pregnant women don’t scare me.”

“You’re brave, Dr. Bae,” Hyunjae sniffs, “there’s no way I’d be able to make it.”

“Do you regret choosing to be a surgeon?” Changmin pipes up.

“Nah,” Hyunjae flashes him a grin then, leaning back against his seat and poking Juyeon’s neck as he does so, “couldn’t find myself a better match. Surgery is all I live for. It’s like me against death, and most of the time, I always win.”

“And the times you don’t?”

“You win some, you lose some. That’s the reality of it.”

When Jacob and Changmin bid their goodbyes, Juyeon accompanies Hyunjae back to the hospital -- the latter has a night shift. It is his second one in a row -- while throwing his friend a couple of worried glances out of the corner of his eye.

He knows more than anyone how much Hyunjae gives to the people. No matter how much bravado he puts on about doctors and how medicine really is like a beast you can’t tame, there’s definitely always a sparkle in the said doctor’s eyes whenever he talks about it. Juyeon admires that, and he admires Hyunjae (not that he’ll ever tell him though), but his stomach can’t help but churn with worry when he notices the darkening blue aprons underneath his friend’s eyes, or the tiredness lining them, red-rimmed and mouth pulled down in a way that only suggests he lacks sleep and energy.

“Hey,” Juyeon speaks up when they reach the hospital doors. Hyunjae looks back at him as he says, “try getting some sleep. You look like crap.”

“Thanks Juyeon. I’ll keep that in mind.”

“I’m serious, Hyunjae. Continue doing that and you’ll pass out in mid-surgery.”

“Yeah yeah,” the older man sticks out his tongue in retaliation, “I hear you, mother. You heading home now?”

“Yup. I’m done for the day. I got tomorrow off too.”

“Lucky bastard.”

-----

Tagging: @juyeonzz @thesingingfae1905 @gratefulmaria @nochuu17

Let me know if you want to be added to the tag list!

Also, for all those who have sent me requests, don’t worry I’m working on them! they shall be up soon! <3

I’M SO SORRY IT’S SO SHORT FML BUT LIFE IS GETTING IN THE WAY AND MAE IS TRYING TO ADULT AND GO TO JOB INTERVIEWS SO YEAH IM SORRY FHSDLSDLKJDBUT I HOPE YOU LIKE ALL THIS BROMANCE.

NEXT EP WILL BE FULL OF MAE AND KEV SFKSDHGKDSJGDSLGLDKN <3

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inliar · 3 years

Text

spaced in, spaced out

word count: 4.5k

hyojin-centric

hyojin wholeheartedly loves space; the big kind, like the sky and the planets and the brilliant, brilliant stars, but also the small kind, like the time he gets to himself when everything screams louder than it should.

mildly inspired by on the run LA ep 22, time stamp 10:25

a/n: i’ve posted this on ao3 and have since orphaned it (due to unnecessary worrying) so if you recognize it, that’s likely why.

warning: mentions of exhaustion / depressive symptoms

on days when practice runs late (which is almost every day when you don’t know when to stop; a trait hyojin admits he has but refuses to see the problem with), hyojin likes to look at the sky. when he’s feeling lazy, or when dance practice is exceptionally gruelling, he can only really manage to make it to the nearest window and do his best to look up and over the surrounding building’s walls. but when he’s feeling particularly active, he’ll take the stairs up to the rooftop patio and enjoy the sight. from there, he has a clear, unobstructed, view.

not that it’s all that clear, though. light pollution, residual smog, and occasionally cloudy skies mask what hyojin imagines would be a stunning scene without. he’s looked up some night sky pictures on nasa’s official gallery, and they were absolutely breathtaking. so were their ridiculously high quality photos of the solar system, and the milky way, and all the constellations. he has these images saved in a neat little folder on his phone, for days when his own view doesn’t cut it. one day, hyojin would like to see them in real life. maybe he could visit an actual observatory with professional telescopes.

but as it stands, all hyojin can see from his place on earth is the moon, and, if he’s lucky, a couple of stars. on most days, that’s enough. he can observe how far along the lunar cycle the moon is, and he can close his eyes and make a tiny wish to the first star he saw that night. he’s not sure if his wishes help — luck is a fickle thing that he’s never quite had enough of — but he figures it can’t hurt. and after his little ritual, he can return back to his practice room or his dorm with a peaceful mind. he’s here. he’s grounded. he has a more or less beautiful sky to look at. on most days, that’s enough.

but on other days, it’s not. like today.

for one, it’s not even nighttime. a glance at the clock in the practice room tells him that it’s 17:34, which he eventually translates into 5:34 p.m.. it’s much too early to look to the sky for comfort, and it is definitely much too early for the type of crisis that hyojin normally only gets very late at night or very early in the morning. the ones where he can’t do anything besides sit in place like some useless tree stump while he questions his life.

“do you want to go get dinner?”

hyojin hates wasting time, so he doesn’t let them happen often, but every now and then one sneaks by him. especially when he’s overworked and tired and doesn’t have the energy to fight it off. he’s not sure what’s happening just yet, but he can sense that familiar, unsettling feeling simmering somewhere very near.

“hyung, you good?” hyojin hears, and he jolts in place where he’s sitting on the practice room floor. yuto’s looking down at him, all wide eyed and polite, and seungjoon is draped over the poor boy’s back.

“yeah, sorry, i was just … thinking.” hyojin replies lamely, cursing himself for his lack of a better explanation. all of these thoughts, and not a single one is of any use outside of his head.

“seungjoon hyung asked if you were getting dinner with us, but you didn’t answer.” yuto continues. hyojin pauses to process this, before noticing just how quiet the room is. a glance around the room confirms his suspicions; the room is empty, save for the three of them. “where did everyone else go?” hyojin asks.

“jaeyoung and minkyun said they were going to the studio after practice today to work on a new song, remember? and changyoon went to start a vlive. they all said goodbye before they left?” seungjoon explains.

huh. hyojin doesn’t recall any of this. “right, now i remember!” hyojin lies, perhaps a bit too eagerly. he can feel seungjoon staring at him, but he avoids the impulse to look back and stubbornly maintains eye contact with yuto instead.

“so … dinner?” yuto asks.

hyojin hesitates. he is hungry, but going out to eat means talking to someone to order. it means maintaining a conversation with his members, or at the very least keeping up with what they’re talking about. they’re usually really good at sensing when doesn’t want to talk, and they never push him, but hyojin doesn’t want to show off how drained he’s feeling at the moment. just thinking about it makes his head hurt.

“i don’t really want to go out today.” hyojin confesses. seungjoon and yuto nod together like a pair of synchronized bobble heads. cute.

“i’m kind of getting a headache, so i think i’ll head back to the dorm for a bit and take a nap. maybe i can go live sometime today, too. did anyone say they wanted to go after changyoon?” hyojin asks.

“no, i don’t think so.” seungjoon replies, which causes hyojin to accidentally make eye contact with him. darn. seungjoon can be ridiculously perceptive when he wants to be, especially when it comes to reading him. hyojin is not in the mood to be read right now.

seungjoon must come to some sort of conclusion in his head, because he stops staring at hyojin with that weird, ambiguous gaze. “i’ll drop some food off at your place after we’re done. that kimchi fried rice and those dumplings you like.” seungjoon says decisively, before pushing himself off from yuto’s back. “are you coming down with us, at least?”

“yeah, let’s go.” hyojin mumbles as he stands up. his muscles are sore, more likely a result of yesterday’s practice than today’s. the teachers went particularly hard yesterday. it was this constant series of ‘again, again, again’ for all these minuscule details that even yuto seemed to have a hard time catching. but they were much better afterwards because of it, so hyojin figures he shouldn’t complain.

he’s happy to listen to yuto and seungjoon babble about dance practice as they walk down the stairs; partially because he loves hearing the passion in their voices as they discuss how they want to present themselves, and partially because he doesn’t think he has the power to sustain a conversation right now. thankfully, neither of the two push him to say anything. he’s not sure whether it’s because he said he was getting a headache or because they can sense something is actually off with him, but he’s grateful nonetheless.

hyojin remembers to smile and say goodbye when he parts ways with seungjoon and yuto. then, he puts his phone on do not disturb before starting his trek home. he doesn’t want to talk to anyone just yet.

hyojin sits down on his bed and he doesn’t cry. he simply thinks.

sometimes he feels like a fake. he’s been told by dozens of people that his singing voice is so emotional. that it conveys a depth of feeling that’s heart wrenchingly beautiful when it needs to be, and technically perfect when it doesn’t. and he’s grateful for that, he truly is. but sometimes, he worries that it isn’t enough.

not that he doesn’t express emotions, because he does. he knows he does. anyone who’s observed hyojin long enough can see it. but the one thing he feels like he hasn’t openly expressed is sadness. which is understandable, after all, since he’s an idol. people come to him and his music for comfort, not to hear him complain. but he’s starting to believe that his absolute inability to convey this basic emotion is what’s causing all of his weird crises.

hyojin wishes he could cry. but he hasn’t cried in so long that he fears he no longer knows how to. bottled up emotions don’t free themselves easily, not when he’s tightened the cap so hard and so often that he’s not sure where the bottle ends and the cap begins.

‘don’t you feel bad?’ he chides himself.

‘yes,’ his inner voice croaks.

‘then prove it,’ he thinks. he challenges himself. he demands.

hyojin doesn’t cry, so he stands up. it’s time for him to get a grip on himself. he takes a shower and changes into comfortable clothes. he doesn't have anything else to do for the rest of the day, so he tries to take a nap as well. it’s hard at first — he’s oddly cold under the power of the air conditioning (that he never bothered to learn how to turn off) and his mind is still whirring with empty, useless, thoughts — but his sheer exhaustion overpowers it all as he falls into a shallow, troubled rest.

when he wakes up, his room is much darker then it was before. he reaches out for his phone, his hand haphazardly scrabbling for purchase on his nightstand before finally picking it up. squinting, he manages to read the time: 8:19 p.m.. cool, so he got around two hours of sleep. he figures that’s not too bad. he got four the other day when he was actually trying to go to bed.

for a moment, hyojin contemplates attempting to sleep again before deciding against it. he’s a little drowsy, but he’s not physically tired anymore. with that in mind, he gets up, slips his phone in his pocket, and opens his bedroom door. he could use a cup of water.

the lights are on somewhere out there, which hyojin guesses probably means that changyoon is on the couch playing kart rider or something. his assumption is proven to be correct when he spots changyoon, in sweatpants and a t-shirt, mumbling under his breath at his phone.

“what are you doing?” hyojin asks, turning towards the kitchen to pour himself some water. just before he looks away, he sees changyoon flinch. “n-nothing, i was just texting minkyun,” he hears changyoon stammer awkwardly.

hyojin pauses. suspicious. changyoon is definitely hiding something. hyojin considers confronting his roommate, but before he gets the chance to do so he feels his stomach grumble. right, he skipped dinner.

“did you already eat?” hyojin asks instead, taking his cup of water with him as he walks to the couch. it’s then that he notices the nearly empty takeout box of dumplings on the coffee table.

“never mind, i guess you have.” hyojin answers himself, putting his cup on the table and sitting down next to changyoon. “hmm, what should i eat?”

“oh, right!” changyoon says, popping the last dumpling in his mouth and standing up. “i ran into seungjoon and yuto on the way here. they gave me some takeout for you,” he explains as he walks to the fridge.

hyojin had forgotten about that, but he remembers now. “yeah, i think he said he was going to do that. kimchi fried rice and dumplings, right?” hyojin asks. he could really go for some dumplings right about now, especially after seeing changyoon eating.

changyoon freezes. “o-oh, so seungjoon told you,” he chuckles nervously, pulling a clear plastic bag out of the fridge and bringing it back to where hyojin is sitting on the couch. he’s trembling, which is odd. hyojin already has a very bad feeling about this, but he doesn’t want to say anything yet. surely changyoon wouldn’t do something so dumb as to -

“where are my dumplings?” hyojin demands, after opening the styrofoam container and only finding fried rice. he looks inside the empty plastic bag one more time, just to be sure (they’re not there), before glancing at the empty styrofoam container that changyoon was eating out of before. funnily enough, it’s the same type of takeout box as his fried rice container.

“you ate my dumplings?” hyojin shrieks, immediately grabbing a pillow from the couch. changyoon has already wisely retreated to the very end of the room, but hyojin wastes no time in lunging to where changyoon escaped to with agility akin to his deer nickname. changyoon futilely attempts to dart out of the way, but hyojin manages to grasp the collar of his shirt with one hand while he smacks changyoon with the pillow in his other hand. “what - were - you - thinking?” hyojin hisses, punctuating each word with a thump from the pillow. he notices that changyoon is covering his head, so he makes sure to hit the deserving food thief extra hard.

“i’m sorry, i’m sorry!” changyoon wails as he drops to the ground to shield himself further. “i was hungry!”

“and you thought to take my food, you jerk?” hyojin yells, dropping and holding changyoon down with his knee while he continues to bash him with the pillow. “you didn’t even leave any behind for me!”

“i’m sorry, i’m sor- ow! stop hitting me, please, i’ll buy you more dumplings!” changyoon begs, and it’s enough for hyojin to graciously let changyoon go. “you better,” hyojin threatens, standing up. “you’re lucky i’m weak right now, you brat.”

“i’m sorry, what? you call that weak?” changyoon asks incredulously, sitting up and leaning back on his hands. “was that pillow made out of rocks?”

“if i hadn’t just woken up, and i wasn’t so hungry …” hyojin trails off.

“you know what, i don’t even want to think about it,” changyoon decides. “but the food stall closes at 10, so we should get going if you want the dumplings tonight.”

“i’m sorry, we?” hyojin asks incredulously. “why do i have to go out?

“don’t you want to personally make sure i get the right ones?” changyoon offers.

“no, because i can tell you right now which ones i want — pork, by the way — and if you forget you can text me.” hyojin says.

“but i don’t want to go outside alone! it’s dark, and it’s scary!”

“sucks for you, then, you shouldn’t have eaten my food in the first place. and since when have you been scared of the dark?”

“please?” changyoon asks. “i’ll buy you ice cream if you do.”

hyojin pauses. ice cream does sound really good right now. “okay, fine.” he decides. “but i’m not changing.”

“yeah, me neither. the food stall lady has known us for forever, though, so it’s probably fine.” changyoon reasons, standing up. “let me get my wallet and then we can go.”

“okay,” hyojin agrees. “i need to fix my hair anyways, it’s probably a mess.”

hyojin manages to tidy up his bedhead/warrior hair and find a cap in his room, but changyoon still hasn’t come out yet. “are you coming?” hyojin calls, walking out of his room to sit on the couch. he picks up his unfinished glass of water and takes a sip. he wouldn’t want to have damaged his throat after his screaming fit.

changyoon walks into the living room, looking sheepish. “so, um, how mad would you be if i told you that i think i left my wallet at the company?”

“... you’re serious.” hyojin deadpans incredulously.

“yeah, uh, i just realized i left my coat in the room where i did my vlive, and i normally carry my wallet in my pocket.” changyoon explains, before wincing. maybe he was expecting to get hit again?

hyojin sighs. “it’s fine. it’s on the way, anyway. let’s go?” he asks, before downing what’s left of his drink and standing up.

changyoon nods happily. “you’re the best and i love you?” he offers.

hyojin pushes changyoon. “ew. you can be sappy after i’ve eaten,” he laughs. “now get me some food.”

“come in with me?” changyoon asks, once they’re in front of WM. “i swear i saw the ghost last time, and i don’t want to face it alone.”

“well, why do i have to see it?” hyojin grumbles, but he opens the door for changyoon anyway. hyojin’s not heartless enough to ditch him, especially when he’s buying him food. but if he’s being really honest, he’d accompany changyoon regardless.

“what room did you leave your stuff in?” hyojin asks as they climb up the stairs, before coming to a realization.

“should we have asked the security guards for the keys?” hyojin pauses, before turning around. “wait, we should have, hold on, let’s go back -“

“wait!” changyoon calls, his voice amplified in the empty stairwell. hyojin reaches to cover his ears.

“oh, sorry, that was too loud,” changyoon realizes belatedly. “but trust me, we don’t need the keys.”

“what do you mean we don’t need the keys? the security guards always lock everything up after the office workers leave.” hyojin says, puzzled.

“minkyun’s in that room, he’s the one that told me i left my sweater there.” changyoon explains, as he continues to climb the stairs. instinctively, hyojin follows him.

“but why didn’t you tell me before? you could have told me that minkyun was there when you said that you left your wallet here.” hyojin asks.

“well i - uh, i forgot?” changyoon stammers.

hyojin frowns. changyoon is somehow being even more suspicious then when he ate hyojin’s dumplings, which is very confusing. something about his words are not adding up. he opens his mouth to ask something else, before being interrupted by changyoon.

“okay, we’re here!” changyoon exclaims, opening the door. except it doesn’t lead to the second or third floor like hyojin had expected.

“why are we on the roof?” hyojin asks, following changyoon before stopping in his tracks.

“oh hey, you’re here!” minkyun exclaims.

except it’s not just minkyun. the rest of the members are all there, bizarrely sitting in a circle on a large blanket on the roof. there’s various soda cans scattered around the edge of their huddle, and a couple of chip bags lie in the middle. if hyojin didn’t know better, he’d guess by the food that it was a poorly prepared picnic or a decently prepared sleepover.

“what …?” hyojin trails off in confusion.

next to him, changyoon breathes a sigh of relief and runs towards the rest of the members. “i am never doing this again. that was the most stressful hour or whatever of my life. i am incapable of lying, i swear he almost caught me twice, i have aged because of this -“

“oh, be quiet, this was your fault anyway.” minkyun snaps, but without a single hint of malice in his voice.

“so, um?” hyojin asks, frozen in place, as changyoon and minkyun bicker in the background. “what?”

“well, uh, this might sound pretty dumb, but you were really out of it in practice today.” jaeyoung starts, standing up and walking towards him. the rest of them do the same, abandoning their drinks and their snacks. “you were listening to what the teacher said and doing the dance moves correctly and everything, but it was like you weren’t actually there? you didn’t even say ‘bye’ back when minkyun and i left.”

darn. he was being obvious. hyojin opens his mouth, ready to give some kind of excuse, but seungjoon cuts him off.

“we wanted to ask you about it, but we didn’t know what to say and we didn’t want to make it awkward for you. and you mentioned how looking at the sky clears your mind, right? so we thought it would be nice to stargaze together? except it’s really cloudy …” seungjoon trails off.

hyojin looks up. seungjoon’s right, he can barely see the moon behind the clouds, let alone any stars. but the mere fact that his members came together and planned this in the first place is really, really nice.

hyojin looks around again and thinks. he knows for a fact that no one had chips at their dorm (seungjoon recently confiscated them all and donated them to the staff when he was feeling particularly sensitive about his self induced diet), so someone had went out and bought all the snacks so they’d have something to eat. someone had brought drinks so they wouldn’t get thirsty. someone had lugged this very big blanket up many flights of stairs so they’d have someplace clean to sit. someone had suggested doing this because they thought he felt bad, and someone had planned the event, even taking care to keep it a secret, to make him feel better. and they did this in their spare time, instead of practicing more or taking a well deserved break, for him.

they planned this all for him.

jaeyoung takes his silence as a bad thing, and hurriedly chimes in. “i mean, this might not have been what you were thinking of when you said you liked the galaxy, and we can always do something else! we don’t have a group practice tomorrow anyway, so we can do something fun tonight.”

“no, no! i’m just … this is good. actually, this is perfect. i - you didn’t have to do this, but it’s really thoughtful, and i?” hyojin buffers, completely lost for words.

seungjoon takes his arm. “you can just say thank you, and come sit with us.” he laughs, guiding hyojin back to their blanket where they’ve conveniently left a space for him to sit.

yuto hands him a coke as he takes his place, and hyojin wordlessly opens it and takes a sip. “thank you,” hyojin says, after a short pause. “i’m serious. this is one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me.”

“you’re always trying to take care of us, yeah? we can do this for you.” minkyun says, and it’s so thoughtful hyojin winces a little. he’s not in the right headspace to vent about his emotions right now. he’s not even sure if he has the right words for them. maybe later, when he has them sorted out in his head, he’ll share them with the others. but for now, he just wants to spend some time together, in each other's proximity.

hyojin normally looks to the sky to clear his head, but for once, his mind is blissfully empty. something about this entire situation brings him genuine peace and he’s extremely grateful for that. it’s not like he tries to overthink or overwork himself, but he somehow ends up overdoing things anyway. very rarely does hyojin let himself sit back and just do things. very rarely does hyojin let himself be content with just being enough, and not more. right here and right now, though, hyojin feels like enough.

“so that’s why changyoon ate my dumplings.” hyojin realizes belatedly.

the rooftop was silent before, but somehow it becomes even quieter. “changyoon stole your food?” yuto whispers in horror.

“okay, in my defence!” changyoon screams, raising his hand. “i wouldn’t have had to resort to this if you guys didn’t make me bring him here! you know i’m bad at lying, and you still chose me! i needed a reason to be nervous in front of him!”

“and you’re still alive?” seungjoon asks, shocked. “after eating his food?”

“barely.” changyoon complains. “he makes a pillow hurt.”

“i knew you wouldn’t be so dumb as to eat my food for no reason.” hyojin mutters under his breath.

“do you know how many times i nearly had a heart attack because of you?” changyoon begins, pointing an accusatory finger at hyojin. “when you came out of your room i was so stressed. we were all texting each other trying to make plans, and i was eating your food, and i had to pretend i was texting minkyun about something normal and not this whole surprise event. and then i had to make a dumb excuse to get you here, and i said i left my wallet in my coat — why would i even wear a coat, it’s summer?”

hyojin didn’t even notice that. probably because he was so caught up on the food he was missing that he didn’t even see the signs right in front of him.

“i realized it the second after i said it, but i’m so grateful you didn’t call me out for it. and then you asked me about the keys, and of course we didn’t need the keys because everyone was already here, so i had to make up another lie about minkyun, except it didn’t even make sense because i totally would have mentioned it before, and this was just an overall traumatic experience. kim hyojin, never ask me another question again.” changyoon finishes dramatically.

“but we wouldn’t have made you do this alone if you didn’t try to add hyojin to the group chat. this is technically your own fault.” minkyun points out, and hyojin frowns. “what groupchat?” hyojin asks.

“you didn’t get the notifications?” seungjoon asks, and hyojin shakes his head.

“so seungjoon tried to make a groupchat with all the members except you so we could figure out what to do together, right?” minkyun starts. “but changyoon, this absolute idiot, literally asks, ‘oh, why aren’t we just using the groupchat we already have’ and adds you. why do you think we left him out in the first place?”

“it was an honest mistake!” changyoon whines. “anyone could have done it!”

“but you did it.” minkyun teases, and changyoon stutters out excuses.

“wait, but you had no clue that we were doing this?” jaeyoung asks. “i figured we ruined it after we added you to the groupchat by accident.”

“i didn’t even get the notifications, though, are you -? oh.” hyojin says.

“what?” yuto asks.

“i turned my notifications off after i said bye to you and seungjoon.” hyojin realizes.

“then i didn’t even ruin anything! it didn’t have to be me in the first place!” changyoon screams. “this is so unfair!”

“but hey, at least you were successful.” seungjoon points out, and everyone else nods.

“the emotional trauma? that you put me through? what about that?” changyoon asks, but he’s interrupted by the sound of jaeyoung slapping his own arm.

“sorry, mosquito.” jaeyoung explains sheepishly.

“shoot, we forgot about bugs.” seungjoon sighs. “do you want to just go inside? we can order chicken or something.”

“actually, that sounds great right now. i haven’t had dinner yet, and i’m so hungry.” hyojin says happily.

“you didn’t have dinner? i literally brought you food!” seungjoon complains.

“okay, but after changyoon ate my dumplings, did you really think i was going to focus on eating over revenge?”

seungjoon pauses. “yeah, never mind. but still!”

“it’s okay, i’ll eat it later.” hyojin says. “but let’s order something in for now? and we should probably clean all this up, too.”

“we’re going inside? good, i’m getting cold.” yuto adds, standing up and picking up his empty coke can and a half eaten bag of chips.

“do you want to sleep over in the practice room?” minkyun suggests, laughing. “we’re already ordering chicken, this is basically our trainee days all over again.”

“you know what, i’m actually down for that.” jaeyoung says, grinning. “if they let us do it five years ago, they’ll let us do it now.”

“honestly?” hyojin asks, smiling one of his first real smiles. he hasn’t been this content for a while. “that sounds really, really good.”

it’s been a while, hyojin thinks as they clean up, since he’s been truly happy like this. it's been a while, he thinks, since everything has felt right. but here, in this space with five of the people he loves the most, he feels like enough. and for now, that’s all that matters.

#onf #on/off #hyojin #kim hyojin #onf fanfic #hyojin fanfic #other members are featured #onf hyojin #writing

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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Mission Hill Review: Plan 9 From Mission Hill or I Married a Gay Man From Outer Space!

Commission for @weirdkev27. Hallowen Havoc marches on! For my first commission ever, I take a look at the cult classic mission hill’s final produced episode and one of it’s most loved. Kevin’s visit to an x rated movie pays off less with boobs and more with a friendship with his elderly gay neighbor and film buff wally and a new appreciation for cinema, only for this new friendship to nearly end over Kevin’s good natured attempt to spotlight Wally’s only film, the man from pluto. Gay spaceman, a touching gay love story, and a surprisingly likeable guy with a neckbeard insue. Spoilers and full recap FROM PLUTO, under the cut.

Well this was a nice suprise. After the utterly draining process of my review of “Let’s Get Dangerous”, it was a nice suprise to find out one of my handful of fans had tried to comission me a while back and I hadn’t realized it, and I was happy to oblige him. I was even happier when I found out what his commission was: Plan 9 From Mission HIll, an episode i’d planned to cover for pride but got squeezed out due to how little i’d planned the month out in advance, a lesson I still REALLY need to learn. Regardless not only was it a nice, funny, and heartwarming ep to cover after the sheer amount of analysis and recapping the last one took, I realized it ended up fitting the spooky season, as there’s just as much fun to be had in truly fantastic horror movies like “Nightmare on Elm Street”, “Get Out”, “Child’s Play”, “Tales from the Hood” and “The Thing” as there is from so bad it’s great horror films like “House (The Japanese one), C.H.U.D. II: Bud The Chud, Terror Toons and House Shark. Seriously watch House Shark i’ts hilarious. Hell I fully plan on watching the Gary Busey film Hider in the House tomorrow. I mean it’s a film about hollywood’s favorite nutball living in the walls and attic of someone’s house. What’s not to love? Maybe it might be entirely boring but that’s the risk you sometimes take to find so bad it’s gold filmaking. Plus cheeestastic films like these are the reason we have the classsic and incomprable mystery science theater 3000 and it’s succesor rifftrax. So while I need to watch more of them, I have a spot in my likely overtaxed heart for this kind of film, and as a result this episode resonated with me on rewatch in a way it didn’t the first time around, even if it was still my faviorite.

Backing up a bit as usual I like to give my history with a show first time covering it: Mission HIll was one of a handful of shows picked up by Adult Swim in it’s early days. Since most of Adult Swim’s early originals were 11 minutes at a time when this was still a new and radical thing they were doing having 11 minute shows that weren’t sold as half hour pairs of 11 minute episodes, they likely needed more shows to fill up the air and clevelry simply bought the rights to several shows that had only had one season, along with Family Guy and Futurama which as history would bear out both made the shows into huge names in the animation industry but brought both back.. though in Family Guy’s case sometimes dead is better. Point is, several shows got a second life thanks to Cartoon Network if sadly not more seasons, with the sole exception of the utter classic Home Movies which I really need to talk about at some point, and thus are really more associated with Adult Swim than their original networks. Hell before doing this review I genuinely didn’t know what Mission HIll’s original networks. But now you know the framework this show came out in what IS Mission Hill anyway?

MIssion Hill was a cartoon from the wonderful brains of Bill Oakely and Josh Weinstein, no relation to the MST3K one who due to this confusion now goes by J. Elvis Weinstein instead, who showran the simpsons and did some great episodes, my faviorte of there’s being $pringfield, aka the casino one.

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The show was about Andy, a 24 year old slacker whose happily lazing about after college in his loft with his friends Jim, a stoic but friendly stoner played by Brian Posehn, and Posey, a sensitive hippie. However when he goes to pickup his childhood dog he ends up with an unexpected roomate: His nerdy, sheltered and neurotic brother Kevin, who has a love of sci fi, a type a personality and a habit of going bling blong to focus when studying or just whenever. He’s also voiced by future robin and future psychopath claming to be robin Scott Mellinville. Also in the building are Carlos and Natalie, an unemployed artist and college professor and their baby Nameless. I forgot they existed. And of course saving the best for last we have the brother’s neighbors, and a very early gay couple for animated television Wally and Gus, played by the legendary Tom Kenny and Nick Jameson who hasn’t done much of note but does a great job anyway. Wally is a fastudious, Gus is angry and very brooklyn, but the two genuinely love each other, makeout frequently, with their first showing off the two as a gay couple, and are an adorable but very beliviable couple. It’s part of WHY I wanted to spotlight them. The late 90′s/early 2000′s, the show originally aired in 99 and into 2000 and aired on adult swim in the early 2000 for the curious, were not a great time to be gay in animation with most gay characters used as punchlines and hardly any queer stories. Not only that but just a year earlier will and grace had to have one overly camp chracter and one “regular” gay character in order to get made. Granted that show has it’s issues but still, the point stands having a gay couple that plays fairly realistically, is shown to both be sexually active and love each other and who’ve been together for decades was a hell of a step for a medium where Family Guy around the same time had a joke with the punchline “Whoa transvestite back off!” Granted Family Guy would do far worse to both the gay and trans communities, but we’ll get to that someday. Or sooner if you commission me, but I swear if you do I will pull a gary busey on your house. Point is not only is it INCREIDBLY forward for it’s time but it holds up even now. There’s a reason the creators are working on a spinoff/revivial focused on the two and a reason these two tend to be one of the most talked about elements of the show. That and frankly their hilarious having realistic banter.. and also having one episode where Gus has a knife in his head for a whole episode. It helps that this episode, their spotlight one and the last one produced, is also one fo the series best. So with all that build up let’s take a look shall we?

We open with Kevin passing a theater showing x rated movies and are shown, over a bunch of times of him passing it him condeming it publicly but his tone clearly telegraphing the classic battle between a teenage boy and his dick. Dick wins and Kevin heads inside and gives us... this.

.... If you will excuse me, please enjoy the musical stylings of the late great Zorak while I go shower the “EeEEEEEEUUUUGGggggggHHHhhuuuuuuggghhhhhhhhewwwwuuuuugggghhhhggooooodddddddwwwyyyyyy” off me.

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God rest his soul. Okay i’m good now. Thankfully this isn’t an episode about Kevin getting addicted to x-rated theater, and they already did an episode about him masturbating. No really it actually had a good message as Kevin was so embarassed about the incident, he nearly let two other guys, granted not remotley good people who were stealing from there anyway, take the fall. Andy even ends up giving a great speech coming to his defense

“People, you mock this boy, but it's your fault he's here today. Your hypocrisy has made this boy a prisoner, terrified of his own sexuality. So much so that he'd rather send two relatively-innocent men to prison than admit he looks at pornography! He thinks his natural urges are filthy and perverted, and why? Because of your conspiracy of silence! Nobody dares admit the truth - that you're all just like him!”

IT’s a damn good moment and a good message. That sadly is still relevant as America still views sex as worse than violence for some weird reason. At least he has the internet now. Anywho when Kevin goes to see what’s up he runs into Wally who explains the confusion: He’s just showing old “X-Rated films”. Now some of you are probably wondering “Wait non-porn films used to use that?” Or “Wait what’s an x-rating?” Well while I knew some films did used to do that I was honestly curious myself as to why it was retired and why porn films got to use it and took a quick hop to google to find out reading both the wikipedia article for the rating and this vulture article on the subject to get a slightly deeper look at it.

It’s actually quite intresting as I genuinelly also didn’t know when the MPAA ratings started for films: When the rating’s board started in 1968 there were four raitings: G, GP (Later flipped to PG), R and X. X was the modern equivlent of today’s R really, and films like Last Tango in Paris, Midnight Cowboy and a Clockwork Orange, with Orange even having a poster up at the cinema in this episode and Midnight Cowboy being part of the plot very soon. We’ll get to that in the moment. Point is it allowed filmakers to push the envelope break barriers all that good stuff and makes me curious about those very films, which is a good thing as i’ll admit to not being exactly a film buff. But as Kevin’s confusion here shows, eventually the porn industry took a hold of it, using the X as a way to get sex movies into regular cinemas and have an air of legitimacy, hence why Debbie Does Dallas was a mainstream hit.. and yes that’s an actual film that I only know about thanks to I Love the 70′s. If your wondering why the MPAA just couldn’t you know, tell them to know or why they didn’t take over other ratings it turns out for some weird reason why the G and R ratings were owned by them, and later PG , they forgot to trademark X and by the time they even thought of it it was too late. Hence terms like XXX rated and what not or the ungodly stupid XXX porn parodies. Just.. just give them actual names and slap “A porn parody” ont he end if you want to avoid a lawsuit. Naturally the film industry struck back and X soon went from a way to have daring, interesting films.. to basically a threat by the MPAA that your film wouldn’t be carried by any major distributors if it had one, with Dawn of the Dead having to just go unrated just to get distributed. The 80′s brought the killing stroke: With the rise of big theater chains, mall theaters with restrictions I wasn’t aware of, and big home video outlets like blockbuster that didn’t carry porn, the x rating was well and truly dead and the MPAA lukewarmly added NC-17 which serves the same bullshit purpose as theaters still refuse to carry them and the MPAA still uses it for essenitally the same reason. Nothing changed! If your wondering why people sometimes have problems with the MPAA, yeah there’s your answer, as they could’ve campaigned harder for NC-17 but clearly enjoyed having a raiting to hold over films heads.

So yeah if you don’t know, know you know bud, let’s move on. So yeah Wally explains the confusion and decides to educate Kevin on film by showing him Midnight Cowboy, with John Voight “Before his head looked like a radish” and Dustin Hoffman. Also Andy brings up Sphere.. a film I also know nothing about. Hang on... checking Letterboxd and okay. It’s a Dustin Hoffman starring Sci-Fi film about a research team investigating a mysterious sphere at the bottom of the sea. Huh.. I prefer Cube myself but to each his own. But once Kevin clams up he really enjoys it. Will grant the episode lays it on a tad thick, with Kevin comparing the film to , of all things, Armageddon. I mean I get MIcheal Bay is a good metric for crowd pleasing schlock but still, even nerds have standards. My standards aren’t very high at times mind as I still want to watch this sometime today.

But I still think even awkward teens have better standards. Then again one of my faviorite films at the time was Saving Silverman which while I can’t hate it due to nostalgia , having watched it from 5th grade well into my teens, I can see was not very good. Though it did have R. Lee Ermy being both really funny and turning out to be gay so that was awesome.

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And he does make a good point that heroes like Ratzzo Rizzo don’t go well on Taco Bell cups.. though it also feels weird to me in 2020 where while not big sellers films with deep stories and unlikeable heroes are some of the biggest on tv and one of them was one of the greatest animated series of the last decade, so things must’ve been pretty damn bleak in 1999. The two also run into Gus who wants dinner and a fight ensues between the couple about the fact Gus owns a restraunt, could just bring his lunch etc. It’s hilarious and as I said I like how they feel like a couple you’d meet in real life. Sadly I don’t have an elderly gay couple in my neighborhood but here’s hoping. Or maybe i’ll be the neighborhoods wally when I grow up who knows. Also Tom Kenny’s delivery is great.

Kevin later relays his fun day to his loftmates, with Andy expressing genuine suprise at Wally’s job and love of art house cinema, as none of them knew what he actually did. Andy’s genuinely shocked and mildly appalled they’ve lived near Wally for so long but having no idea what he does.. but really I had a sweet old lady, Delores who lived next to me for almost my entire life before she moved to be closer to her family, visited her house frequently pet her cats, went to her house after school at one point.. and I cannot tell you what he did, so it’s incredibly relatable. However in a scene that’s both hilarious but also really, really sweet, the three relate that they do know him well and due to being neighbors after all and know Gus and Wally’s morning routine: They wake up at 8, Wally brews the Coffee, Gus reads him the funnies, then they shower together while singing college fight songs, and then, with Jim saying this part so picture it in Brian Posehn’s voice please you won’t regret it, argue or have gay sex and then it’s off to work. It’s really sweet, both in showing off their well worn dynamic with each other, and the fact that the loftmates really DO know these two even if they dont’ know everything and they are close in their own way. Kevin can only give out a “Hm” in response... which is probably the closest he can get to saying touche without breaking into nerdy giggles.

Cue the good times montage as Wally introduces Kevin to Ingmar Bergman, who I have heard of even if i’ve never seen any of them, and some director I never heard of who made old timey comedies apparently. IT’s a really nice sequence. Kevin also shows 2001: A Space Oddesy to his friends, who are bored to tears by it while Kevin’s enraptured. Which I would say was another heavy-handed swipe at late 90′s cinema but being a teen myself who had mostly watched things like Star Wars, I did not gel with 2001 and need to rematch it at some point, so I totally relate to his friends utter boredom and confusion with it given it’s rep. It’s a visually stunning film. I will however stand by not liking Star Trek: The Motion Picture, as that film TRIES to be 2001 but is instead just really, REALLY boring.

But naturally things can be entirely good natured bonding between an elderly gay man and , as Wally puts it in the best line of the episode “The son god never wanted me to have”, as Kevin notices a film coming up that Wally apparently made, and looks to star gus. Wally panics and shoos his young protégé away... which yeah he could’ve just you know told him he doesn’t like the film or anything else and prevented this episode but then we wouldn’t of seen the gay equilvent of plan 9 from outer space so fair enough.

At the Gus’ Diner, the loftmates and their neighbors I mentioned earlier look over the poster, and we find out from Gus that that is him, and he starred in a movie.. and naturally Wally explained never showing it to his husband in the simplest way possible: By claming a shark ate it. You know while I watched the show I didn’t quite get it when I was younger and it’s probably why it took me decades to revisit it.. but I wish I had sooner this show is REALLY damn funny and i’m really looking forward to that spinoff with Wally and Gus.

Wally continues to dodge Kevin, so Kevin, trying to find info about the film and it being lost, goes to the video store.. back when those existed. Something I have to give the show is honestly the use of vhs, visits to video stores, and the movies Kevin mentions are the only things that really date this film. While swapping another Dustin Hoffman film in proved impossible, it is plausible Kevin would see it streaming somewhere. and it’s easy enough to swap Armageddon for Rise of Skywalker given that film’s just as good.. Last Jedi was excellent though. Point is this story REALLY holds up, which is the sign of a good story: where even if some elements are stamped to the time, the story itself could easily be told again with few changes. It’s also why i’m not AGAINST Reboots, as my coverage of ducktales makes obvious: As long as stories can still be told or you can retell a story in a unique and intresting way, it’s fine to reuse something. I do think hollywood overdoes it, but I’ve never thought there was genuine harm in it or reviving old franchises. It’s all in how you do it. But yeah while the local video store dosen’t help at all, Andy happens to know just the man for the job, though Jim and Posey nope out of going with them. Also something to note is the series animation: It’s animated like an old 30′s cartoon or a comic strip, modernized a bit in color and realisim, but still having comic strip stuff like shaking head lines, heat lines coming off coffee that sort of thing. I really love it.

Anyways the brothers head off to a funky out of the way video store, I wish there were more hole in the wall used media stores where I lived. We mostly have chains like Vintage Stock and Half-Priced Books, though I genuinely love both of those stores and VIntage Stock is the modern equilvent of places like blockbuster honestly. Anyway after Beardo confuses Kevin for an Employee kevin asks him about the man from pluto which Beardo reveals he knows about but is very rare and has few prints. I like Beardo.. he’s a neckbeard who seems more liable to complain abotu some reboot on the fact their rebooting it again rather than “gasp” women are involved. I prefer my neckbeards just a tad pretentious rather than you know, sexist, homophobic, deranged assholes with nothing better to do. I mean i’m still living at home and didn’t get out much before the pandemic either but you dont’ see me bitching every time a franchise gets a female lead.

Anyway, Kevin is inspired by that and with help from everyone gets the word out about the film. As you’d expect though this can’t end well, as Wally tries avoiding the premire entirely (And we get a great bit where Jim happens to see him trying to flee down the fire escape and Wally’s expression is priceless)

Huh.. I bet that’s what Rob Reiner when North had it’s premire. As you can probably guess the showing dosen’t go well: The film itself is a hilarious combination of the day the earth stood still (the general plot as we’ll find out more in a second) and Plan 9 From Outer Space (A cheestatic no budget film with a hulking man brute who can’t act as the lead), and in catching the feel of a b-movie it’s utterly perfectly done. This film would go perfect on MST3K and the audience’s howls of laughter agrees with me.

Wally however is utterly humiliated and doesn’t want to speak to Kevin which.. yeah is about the only issue I have with an otherwise marvelous episode. While I get Wally’s humiliation was Kevin’s fault.. Kevin GENUINELY meant well. While Kevin is book smart at his core he’s a dumb kid who didn’t know any better and didn’t realize Wally hated his film and it’s Wally’s own damn fault for not telling him. Sure Kevin should’ve picked up the hint, but given the kid is oblivious and didn’t even know what an x raiting is it’s clear he’s not the sharpest crayon in the box when it comes to life experince. Wally had every opportunity to just explain his story but didn’t. And I put most of the blame on Wally when he’s you know, the adult. He’s a 60 or so year old man. He should know better. But it really doesn’t take away from the episode entirely. But the loftmates clearly love the film and are quoting bits from it, with jim having a fishbowl on his head, when they run into Wally, though Wally is fine with them admitting it’s crap and he knows it is. We then get what REALLY makes the episode and really makes me primed for a spinoff: Wally and Gus’ backstory, which also makes it obvious the crew was probably going to use the two more had the series got another season.

Anyways it was the 50′s, Archie Andrews was an average teen and not shredded both in muscle and by a bear that one time, Fonzie was out and about and eyying, and Wally was a first unit director given a shot as the studio asked him for a script having utter faith in him. HIs script was a day the earth stood still esque parable on the Cold War.. until he met Gus who, naturally for Gus, was outrunning a ton of police having stumbled on set and likely defeated them all bare handed because Gus is as incredible as the hulk and likely also comes back through a glowing green door when he dies. So Wally made the tragic mistake of mixing his love life with his career, and lost both Kurt Douglas, who he bumped down from lead for Gus, and Charleton Hesston who just walked off and they got a dinkier stage and worse actors as a result. The resulting film ended Wally’s career but he was able to sell the rights to cinemas to make enough for them to start over in mission hill and buy the diner.. and at least they had each other. It’s a really great story that explains why it upsets Wally so much: This was his baby and while he dosen’t even for one second regret meeting gus or the life they’ve had, he regrets that his one film was a total trainwreck and goes off to the theater to mope as he plays his film for laughing crowds, as it was naturally held over. I mean when you get the next plan 9 from outer space, this was a bit before the room mind you, you hold onto that shit.

Kevin, who heard the whole thing, goes to mope by watching what is likely a MIcheal Bay film, who was a target even then folks. Oh you poor poor fools you knew not how much worse it could get... i.e. robot testicles. Just.. robot testicles. And their MAKING A DELUXE MOVIE DEVISTATOR. Why. Just.. why who wanted this after that scene. He’s sworn off good movies as he feels he no longer deserves them. Andy however bluntly tells him to cut the pity party, while he’s moping his friend really needs him and when you love somebody, you put your pants on for them. When you love somebody you see it to the end, when you love somebody the conclusions forgone when you love somebody you put your big boy pants right onnnnn! ... I’ll put the song at the end. Point is Kevin goes to help his friend, and as Wally is moping in the projection booth and wonders what he was thinking Kevin tells him the obvious truth: He was thinking of how far he’d go. “You taught me the best films are personal stories.. and this film is your valentine to Gus” While Wally starts to break a little, he does point out it doesn’t make it good.. but Kevin rightly counters that he’s not so sure of it. Wally sees the audience enjoying the film and goes down, with all of them carrying red light bulbs like the one gus has to show when he’s mad in the film. And Wally finally realizes waht I got to in the beginning: It doesn’t matter if a film’s good or bad, what matters is someone enjoys it. A film can be utterly terrible, and still be good. It can be a mess and still have merit. And Wally finally realizes it doesn’t matter if it’s the film he wanted, it’s the film he made for his future husband, it’s a film that brings laughter and sticks in people’s heads and really brings them a godo time. It’s a film worth remembering and Wally finally accepts that and his film as his own. Later that night Kevin and Wally exit the theater, with Wally no longer mad at him and the two still friends or as Wally puts it in the second best line of the episode “As close as an elderly gay man and a straight boy can be” Awwww. The two depart and we get a touching final scene as Wally comes home and finds a bottle of wine and a note from gus saying he has a suprise for him> Turns out Gus put on his old space helmet.. but fell asleep in it. So we get a really nice tender moment as Gus takes the helmet off, smooches his husband on his bald head and smiles brightly as the episode ends.

Final Thoughts on The Man From Pluto or I Married a Gay Man From Outer Space: Before you ask each episode had two titles for funzies, the first one to get past the censors and the second for fun and likely what they would’ve gone with if they could. As for this episode.. it’s spectacular. It holds up well even 20 years later, it’s touching, sweet and really damn funny and makes me want to rewatch the show as a whole again. I highly recommend seeking it out and hope mission hill is eventually made officially available somewhere. Till then you can find the whole series including this episode on YouTube and despite being the last one you could easily watch this one first if you want and it’s a decent enough intro to the show as a whole. I highly recommend it, an utter pleasure to watch. If you liked this review, you can comission your own by PMing me on this very blog, just mention you want to do a comission and we can talk it out. As this review proves, it dosen’t have to be a show i’ve done before or even one that’s remotely recent. Hell i’d gladly do Fonz and The Happy Days gang, the animated happy days spinoff that’s like dr. who but with the Fonz. Yes really. Whatever you want i’ll do it as long as it’s not porn for just 5 bucks an episode and 10 for a movie. YOu can also join my patreon, and for 2 dollars a month get acess to my discord (that i’ll start once I get patreons) and once I get enough patreons exclusive polls or 10 bucks for all of that and a review of your choice each month. You can find said patreon right here. And even 1 buck a month would be apricated if you can spare it and if not simply reblog this and share it around. You can also follow this blog for weekly ducktales, loud house and amphibia coverage as they come out. I’d also personally thank WeirdKev27 for both being a long time fan of this blog and for the comission.

Until we meet again say safe, wear a mask, check your atttic for Gary Busey and happy Halloween! Play us out Mr Heere!

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peraltasames · 4 years

Text

sweet dreams till sunbeams find you

five times jake can’t sleep + one time amy can’t 💞✨

warning: brief mentions of the me too ep, but nothing more than in canon. title from ‘dream a little dream of me’

read on ao3

Jake should’ve learned by now, probably, that taking case files home is a bad idea. It’s definitely against the rules and he nearly lost his job because of it in the past, but it’s a tough habit to break for someone who lives and breathes detective work.

His girlfriend - which is still a relatively new term for Amy, one that still feels a little foreign when it rolls off his tongue but mostly just awesome and unbelievable - is less cool with the whole “breaking very important police rules” thing. He really didn’t intend to bring any work over to her place. All he really wants to do is spend time with her, and he knows she would be mad if she knew he was still doing this, so when he shoved a case file in his bag on their way out of the precinct before heading to her apartment for the night he didn’t really intend to look at it.

He doesn’t intend to look at it, but as time drags on and Amy’s fallen asleep next to him, the gears in his mind start whirring with new thoughts and potential leads regarding the homicide case he’s working on with Charles.

Once he realizes that there’s no way he’s going to be able to sleep until he at least looks at the file and tests his theories, he gently lifts the arm she has loosely wrapped around him and slides out of the bed as ninja-like as possible. He heads to her living room with his bag, pulls out the file and gets to work.

He has no idea how much time has passed, but he’s so buried in the case that he doesn’t hear Amy’s footsteps coming from the bedroom. He doesn’t even realize she’s standing right in front of him until she says his name and he nearly falls off the couch in surprise.

“Ames!” He exclaims, regaining his composure and quickly shoving the file behind his back, pretending to casually lean back against the side of the couch.

“Jake, it’s two o’clock in the morning,” she says, blearily rubbing her eyes under her reading glasses. “Why are you still up?”

“Um, just - you know, chilling.”

She rolls her eyes and snatches the file from behind him, opening it and quickly scanning the first page.

“I know I told you I wouldn’t bring home files anymore but I just had a feeling that there was something weird about this case so I brought it home just in case-”

“Did you check the landlord’s alibi?” Amy asks, not looking up from the file and quickly turning to the next page. “It seems like he’s the likeliest suspect, considering the-”

“Missed rent payments, I know. I had a hunch about him, too, but Charles checked this morning - airtight.” He pauses, then looks up at her cautiously. “Wait, are you not mad at me for bringing work home again?”

Amy shrugs, sitting down next to him and passing the file over. “I knew you never stopped. I’ve seen you ‘secretly’ grab files on your way out, like, a dozen times.” He looks at her in shock and she raises an eyebrow. “Hello, I’m the reigning amazing detective slash genius here.”

Jake laughs softly, reaching over to grab her hand and slide their fingers together.

“Sorry I woke you up.”

“Oh, you didn’t,” she responds, squeezing his hand. “I’ve just gotten so used to sleeping with you that the bed felt colder than usual, so I tried to pull more of the blanket up and realized you weren’t there.”

He smiles as he realizes she’s wearing the hoodie he left crumpled on the floor with his jeans when getting changed before bed. He’s still not used to stuff like this. He thought about the big things before they were dating - what it would be like to kiss her, what their first time would be like - but he never thought about the gravity of all the little things: how she wears his sweaters even when the entirety of her own wardrobe is available to her, how her thumb brushes over his when they’re holding hands, how she makes him smile way more than he ever did in his pre-Amy life.

“Well, detective-slash-genius, are you going to help me solve this case or what?”

He half-expects her to say no and go back to bed, but she just tucks her feet up behind her on the couch and shifts closer to him.

They don’t end up solving the case that night - Jake decides it can wait until morning, not because he’s exhausted or because it’s probably the smart thing to do, but because Amy’s starting to drift off on his shoulder and he can’t bear to wake her again.

He carefully shifts their position so she’s fully laying down and he’s right behind her, grabbing a blanket from the back of the couch and pulling it over them. She slides backwards until her back is against his chest, his arm sliding around her and tugging her a little bit closer.

“Goodnight,” she whispers, her voice heavy with sleep.

He kisses her shoulder and lets his eyes close, finally, thoughts of work disappearing from his mind. All his senses know in this moment is Amy and the innate need to keep her warm and protected in his arms.

“Night, Ames.”

ii.

Jake’s been home for three days.

Technically he’s only been home home - as in, within the confined and always slightly smelly space of his own apartment - for one day, but Amy’s apartment had less stairs and it also has Amy, who’s practically been his own personal nurse from the moment he was released from the hospital in Florida.

It hasn’t been the easiest few days, full of doctor’s appointments and FBI briefings and the dreaded night shift for Amy and the rest of the squad, but at least he’s been home. He’s finally sleeping in his own bed, with his year-old mattress that hasn’t been slept on in six months and his incredible godsend of a girlfriend lying right next to him.

He’s trying to sleep at least - it’s daytime, for one thing, because Amy’s on the night shift schedule and he figured it’s in his best interest to adhere to this schedule before he has to start work in a couple weeks. (And he wants to maximize his time with her, because there’s so much to make up for.)

Despite the daylight peeking in through the curtains, he truly is exhausted. Unfortunately, the discomfort of his heavily bandaged leg, resting awkwardly on a small stack of pillows, is making it impossible to find a good sleep position. Every time he tries to make a minor adjustment there’s a sharp pain in his thigh that radiates through his entire body.

Around the fourth or fifth attempt to move resulting in a sigh of exasperation, he feels Amy’s cool fingertips curl around his forearm. Her eyelids are just fluttering open, but concern is already etched on her face.

“Are you okay?”

He smiles and nods, but the small grunt as he turns to face her gives him away.

“You’re in pain,” she murmurs, sitting up quickly and shifting closer to him, her hand gently cupping his cheek.

“It’s not that bad,” Jake shrugs, his hand covering hers on his chest. “I just can’t fall asleep, I don’t know why. I had no trouble sleeping at your place.”

“You were on some pretty heavy meds, babe.” She pushes his hair back and kisses his forehead. After consulting the alarm clock on his bedside table, she slips out of bed. “It’s been long enough, you can take some more ibuprofen.”

She disappears and returns moments later with a glass of water and two pills in her palm, which she hands to him as soon as he’s sat up against the headboard. He graciously accepts them and downs the glass of water in one gulp, collapsing back into the pillows as soon as he’s done.

“Those should kick in in a few minutes.”

She sits next to him on his side of the bed and pulls back the covers to take a look at the bandages on his leg, her fingertips ice-cold when they brush against his skin. He reaches to hold her hand on instinct and squeezes gently. Maybe they’re not exactly where they left off yet - six months is a long time apart - but he still does everything he can to warm her up without thinking about it and their fingers still fit together perfectly and that’s more than enough for now.

“We can probably wait til morning - or evening, I guess - to change the bandages again,” she says, pulling the blanket back over him. He sighs at the thought of it - it’s a grueling process every time, and even though Amy’s very careful it still hurts like hell. “I know, babe, I’m sorry.”

Jake shakes his head quickly, his hand moving up her arm to cup her cheek. “Not your fault.”

She smiles unconvincingly and won’t look him in the eye, which he knows is her residual guilt for shooting him despite it being the only option and a literal lifesaver.

“Hey, Ames.” He brushes his thumb over her cheek. “Really not your fault. Seriously, bullet wound be damned, this is the happiest I’ve been in six months. And you’ve been working so hard taking care of me even though you’re exhausted from the night shift and-” He pauses and leans in to touch his forehead to hers, lightly brushing their noses against each other. “I just still can’t believe I’m really in my apartment in New York with you.”

She kisses him, then, and her fingers tangle in his too-long, too-blonde hair and her tongue is in his mouth and it’s perfect. It’s so perfect that he can’t feel any pain, he feels like he’s on the really good drugs from the hospital again. This is what being madly in love feels like, which he supposes he was before he left, but if absence makes the heart grow fonder then he must love her infinitely more for all the time they spent apart. He realizes he hasn’t told her this in at least an hour or two, so he breaks the kiss and admires her in all her post-makeout, eyes-still-closed-and-lips-still-swollen glory for a moment before breaking the silence.

“I love you so much.”

She smiles and kisses his palm, still firmly planted on her cheek. Quietly, like she’s almost on the verge of tears, she says, “I love you so much too.”

They just look at each other for a few seconds, Jake taking in every inch of her face, free of makeup and perfectly moisturized for bed; the Knicks t-shirt he’s had since college that’s baggy on her which she pulled out of the second drawer from the top of his dresser before they went to bed like it was second nature; her wavy black hair that falls over her shoulders like a Pantene commercial when she just took it out of the bun it had been in for ten hours.

“I’ll get you another pillow to elevate your leg and an ice pack, okay?” She kisses his cheek and springs up to her feet, back in thirty seconds and helping him get situated in a somewhat comfortable position. “How’s that?”

He sighs with contentment, sinking into the pillows. “Perfect, babe.”

Amy climbs back into her side of the bed and flicks the light off again, curling into his side and placing her head next to his. He slides his arm around her back to pull her close enough that they can listen to each other breathe in perfect synchronization.

“When do you have to get up?” he asks, barely above a whisper.

“Seven, I have to be at the precinct by nine. I’ll probably go down to the deli to get dinner, so I’ll get you something and leave it in the fridge for when you wake up.”

He shakes his head. “No, wake me up, I wanna have weird breakfast-dinner with you.”

“Jake, you really need to rest-“

“I can sleep while you’re at work. Please?”

She hesitates, and then nods against his shoulder. “Okay. Now try to sleep, babe.”

He’s out within minutes, surprisingly, and although he wakes up four hours later in a lot of pain and very tired, he also wakes up to Amy peppering his face with kisses and holding a bag that smells like roast beef and matzo ball soup, so life could be a lot worse.

iii.

Doing chores in the middle of the night is surprisingly therapeutic, Jake finds.

He never really did much cleaning because A) Amy always beats him to it and B) when he does try to pitch in, she just ends up cleaning again to her level of satisfaction. There’s something calming about washing dishes, scrubbing countertops and sweeping crumbs off the floor with almost no background noise except the sounds of some traffic outside - it’s the city that never sleeps, but it is much quieter at three in the morning.

The most important thing is to keep moving, to stay busy and focused and not let his mind wander to the cold, dark prison cell where he spent the last eight weeks.

If he could, he would be in bed with Amy holding her close like he swore to himself (and to her a few times, in hushed tones over the phone) that he would every night for the rest of time the moment he got home. He wants to be, but after waking from his third nightmare of the week, roughly as many as the two other weeks he’s been home, Jake can’t bear to close his eyes again tonight.

It’s usually the same sort of scenarios in which Romero is threatening his life or Hawkins is laughing in his face saying he’ll never beat her or, in the most metaphorical one yet, he’s trapped in a room with walls literally closing in on him.

(The worst by far was last week, when he dreamt that Hawkins had somehow escaped and had gotten hold of Amy. It was the only time he woke her up after a bad dream, mostly because he needed to look at her and hear her voice and partly because he really just needed her to hold him for a while.)

He’s got the day off tomorrow, and Amy doesn’t, so he figures he’ll sleep then and not have to worry about waking her up if he sits up abruptly in a cold sweat or mutters words of fear in his sleep. For now, he cleans.

It’s a good plan until he drops the pan he was holding, the handle slick with dish soap, and it makes a loud clang as it falls in the sink. He mutters a profanity and prays that it didn’t wake her, but he hears her calling out for him within seconds.

“Jake? Babe, are you okay?”

“I’m fine-” he begins, but the bedroom door is already opening and Amy’s running out to make sure he’s alright. “Just dropped a pan.”

She frowns and walks closer to him so she can make out the time on the stove clock.

“Why the hell are you doing the dishes in the middle of the night?”

“Because they’re dirty.”

She looks at him with a blend of confusion and disbelief, which he supposes is fair given his track record.

“Fine, I couldn’t sleep again so I figured I’d make myself useful instead of watching Die Hard for the fourth time this week.”

Her expression softens and she walks around the counter to meet him, reaching for a dish towel and drying off his hands before taking them in her own. It’s a gesture so sweet that it nearly brings him to tears, much like the sticky note she put on the coffee she bought him this morning (you’re doing great! I love you so much!) or how she gave him her juiciest case that they both knew he would be able to solve earlier in the week because he needed a win.

“You wanna go back to bed?” she asks him, without pressure or insistence. It’s merely an offer, but she’s careful to make sure he knows he doesn’t have to. “Or we could watch a show?”

“Not really,” he replies honestly, holding her hands a little tighter. “Is it okay if we just sit here for a little bit?”

Amy squeezes his bicep and nods, smiling warmly. “Of course, babe. On one condition.”

She opens the freezer and pulls out a fresh tub of Ben and Jerry’s - chocolate chip cookie dough, duh - and two spoons from the drawer.

“I love how you think, Santiago,” he grins, sliding to the floor with his back against the kitchen cabinets, Amy settling in right next to him with her legs folded over his and the ice cream resting on her lap.

They sit in comfortable silence for a little while, chatting intermittently about their days. Eventually, Amy sets the half-finished tub of ice cream down next to them and reaches across him to toss the spoons in the sink above him.

She takes his hand where it rests over her thigh, bringing it to her lips and laying a soft kiss to his knuckles.

“Was it another nightmare?” she asks quietly so as not to disturb the peaceful quiet that’s enveloped them.

He nods, resting his head against the hard surface behind him. “Yeah. Bad one.”

“Okay,” she whispers, fingers flexing around his hand. “Do you want to tell me about it?”

Her warm brown eyes are shining with unadulterated care and affection. He’s never trusted anyone more - to guard his secrets and to provide him with unconditional support and to stay. The only barrier preventing him from pouring his heart out to her is his fear of worrying her, but he knows she’s strong and she deserves the truth.

“It was pretty straightforward, I guess,” he shrugs. “I was back in there and the warden said you guys caught Hawkins and I was so excited but then every time I tried to walk out the doors to the parking lot I just ended up back in my cell and I couldn’t get out-”

He realizes his heart is beating pretty quickly, so he stops there, trusting she got the gist of it. Amy’s eyes are wide and teary when he finally looks her in the eye, but she wipes the tears away with her sleeve and pulls him into her arms.

“I’m so sorry, Jake,” she whispers into his hair, her hands sweeping over his arms and back. “I wish there was something I could do.”

“Babe, you’ve done so much. I would’ve lost my mind in there without you. Being able to hear your voice and think about how you were waiting for me at home got me through it.” He pulls away a little bit to properly look at her. “For realz, best girlfriend in the world. At least the tri-state area.”

She laughs, softly nudging him in the ribs before resting her head on his shoulder.

“I really just hate that this happened to you. And Rosa. And all of us, really, because the last two months were hell.” She kisses his jaw. “I still can’t believe you’re home.”

“Yeah, me neither.”

They hold each other for a little while longer in the quiet glow of the streetlights outside their window. Amy tells him about a Ted Talk she found on insomnia as a result of PTSD, and he promises to watch it with her tomorrow. She brings up the upcoming Halloween Heist, and he has to hide his smug grin by burying his face in her hair.

Eventually, he’s laying with his head on her lap while she runs her fingers through his hair, slowly but surely coaxing him to sleep.

“You should go t’ bed, you gotta work in a few hours,” he murmurs sleepily as he’s moments from drifting off.

“I’m gonna take a sick day so I can stay home with you.”

“M’okay babe, you don’t have to.”

“I want to,” she protests. “Honestly, we have a lot of Property Brothers to catch up on and Charles already offered to do my paperwork so you and I can have more alone time, which is kinda gross but well-intentioned.”

Jake smiles and presses a small kiss to her thigh. If there’s one thing he needs right now, it’s a day of snuggling on the couch with his girlfriend and, if all goes to plan, future wife. “Sounds great. Love you.”

“I love you more than anything in the world, Jake Peralta,” she says earnestly, bending down to kiss his forehead goodnight.

It’s the last thing he hears before drifting off into a peaceful sleep, feeling safe and warm and loved.

iv.

Charles’ guest room is comfortable and quiet. There’s no reason Jake shouldn’t be able to drift off peacefully, musing about how he’ll be married to the woman of his dreams within twenty-four hours.

It’s after midnight, and even though he’s under strict orders from Amy (and Charles) to get a full eight hours before the big day, it’s harder to sleep without Amy than he thought. God knows he’s done it before - with varying degrees of success, in Florida and in prison and in that damn safe house with Kevin - but he still hates it. Especially now, when it’s being enforced only by some dumb, ancient superstitions about seeing the bride before the wedding.

He’s a grown man, he should be able to cuddle with his fiancée if he wants to.

He’s pretty sure there’s no rule about talking to her in the wedding superstition handbook, though. Even if there is, he really couldn’t care less right now, so he grabs his phone and clicks on her name in his recent calls.

“Jake? You okay?”

She answers right away and doesn’t sound too groggy, so he’s relieved that he probably didn’t wake her, but there is concern laced in her voice.

“Hey, yeah, I’m fine.” He keeps his volume low as to not wake Charles or his family. “I just wanted to hear your voice for a few minutes before bed.”

He can hear a faint sigh of relief, and he realizes that he probably hasn’t called her in the middle of the night since he was in prison and scared for his life, when her voice was the only thing that could tether him to reality. Those nights are behind them, thankfully, but not far enough behind that the memories don’t sting a bit whenever they resurface.

“You’re not getting cold feet on me, are you Peralta?” she teases, her lighthearted tone making him loosen up a little bit.

“No, I’m actually not nervous at all,” he replies without missing a beat. Surprisingly, it’s true - he expected to feel at least a little bit nervous the night before his wedding, but he really doesn’t. If anything, he feels calmer than he’s ever been. “Is that weird?”

“No, I’m not either,” she laughs. “I mean, I’m nervous about the logistics of the wedding itself, but I’m so sure about you that I just - I don’t know, I’m not that worried.”

Jake smiles, reclining into the pillows. “Same here.”

He supposes that’s all there is to it - there’s nothing to be worried about when everything in his life has aligned so perfectly. He’s got his dream job, his dream girl who he had never dreamt of even scoring a date with, let alone a lifetime. Things are beyond good.

“Are you excited?”

“To be married to you?” He raises an eyebrow. “Ames, I would’ve married you a long time ago if it wasn’t for the whole prison thing and then the whole having to plan a wedding thing.”

He can almost hear her smile crackling through the speaker. “I meant for the wedding. The Die Hard cake, the reception, our first dance…”

“It’s gonna be amazing, Ames. I mean, my relatives might yell at me periodically for not having a rabbi and Charles’ best man speech is probably gonna be like two hours long, but still.”

“And tomorrow night,” she says seductively, “it’ll just be you and me at the nicest hotel in Staten Island.”

The “nicest hotel in Staten Island” isn’t saying much, but they both knew they wouldn’t want to wait in traffic for an hour at the end of the night just to get back to their apartment or some swanky Manhattan hotel that neither of them will really care about in the moment anyways. He wants her as soon as possible, because as much as he’s looking forward to seeing her in her white dress, he’s just as excited to take her out of it. Moreover, he’s excited to just be alone with her after the inevitable craziness tomorrow will bring.

“You somehow make Staten Island sound sexy,” he swoons. “I’m the luckiest man on earth.”

Amy laughs - a beautiful, melodic laugh, the kind that makes him feel warm inside and that he will go to great lengths to hear every day for the rest of his life.

And the rest of his life starts tomorrow.

“We should get some sleep, we gotta look pretty for the cameras tomorrow.”

“I’m always pretty, babe,” he scoffs.

“I agree, but we’re paying a fortune for this photographer so eye-bags are not permitted.”

“10-4, Sergeant.”

Jake climbs under the covers, flicking off the lamp next to his bed.

“Okay, I’ll see you soon,” Amy says fondly. “I love you, almost-husband.”

“I love you, almost-wife.”

The line goes dead and though he immediately misses the steady cadence of her voice in his ear, the sooner he gets to sleep the sooner he gets to wake up and marry the heck out of her.

He closes his eyes and sleeps with a smile on his face for eight hours straight until he wakes to Charles barging in with a tray full of “wedding crepes”.

Over his years as a cop, Jake’s worked a lot of tough cases and had to face victims of horrible tragedies and criminals capable of unspeakable things. He’s had nights without sleep and weeks with no leads, but never has he felt quite so defeated as he did watching his wife try to solve an impossible sexual assault case.

He’s dealt with sexual assault cases and felt that pit in his stomach when interviewing the victims before, and it’s always been difficult. Knowing Amy went through something like that at one point, though, is a much harder pill for him to swallow.

He knows about the deep-rooted misogyny in the NYPD, of course, so he’s not really sure why he’s so shocked. Maybe he had just hoped and prayed that his wife was somehow immune to disgusting men like Seth and Beefer and her stupid, awful former captain.

Even though they came to some sort of resolution in the case and helped make some positive change, there’s been a definite shift in his perspective. The fact that not only Amy but all of the women in his life and all women everywhere have to go through so much more than he ever realized on a daily basis makes him feel sick.

He’s not really sure what or if he can even do anything about this, but he’s at least going to do everything he possibly can to stay informed from now on.

This is how he finds himself reading article after article about institutionalized sexism, his face illuminated by the light of his phone screen well past midnight. He’s not aware of the time, simply absorbing more and more information until his brain feels like it’s going to explode.

“Jake?”

Amy’s voice pierces the silence and he drops his phone on his lap in surprise.

“What are you still doing up?” She sits up and flicks on her lamp, rubbing her sleep-filled eyes. “It’s late.”

Jake sighs and passes her his phone, waiting for her to quickly scan the text and deduce what he’s been up to.

After a moment, she locks his phone, places it on the table and turns to face him, grabbing his arm.

“Babe, I love you,” she says, gently squeezing his forearm, “but we’re not going to solve sexism tonight.”

“Not with that attitude, we’re not.”

She rolls her eyes and gently shoves his shoulder so he lays down, and she lays her head on his chest. Some of the tension in his body fades as his arms encircle her and pull her closer to him.

“I’m just so sorry that you have to deal with this,” he sighs. “ I mean, I guess I knew on some level that every woman does but I guess I always hoped you were somehow the exception cause I can’t stand the thought of you having to deal with this shit.”

“I know,” she murmurs, squeezing his chest.

“And the fact that so many people go through that and worse on a regular basis just...really sucks.”

“It really does,” she agrees. “But on the bright side, we got a win today. And even though a lot of guys suck, I managed to marry one of the good ones.”

She kisses his chest and he tightens his grip on her just a little bit more. He wishes he could shield her from the rest of the world forever and keep her away from every gross sleazeball out there; he wishes they could stay in the sanctuary of their bed for the rest of time.

“Seriously, thank you for being so amazing the past few days.”

“I did nothing, Ames,” he says, shaking his head. “You’re amazing. You used your position to make positive change. That’s a big deal.”

She pauses, then smiles into his t-shirt. “Yeah, I guess it was.”

She reaches over to turn the light off again and curls back into him, pulling the covers up to their shoulders to stay warm.

“Goodnight,” he whispers into her hair.

Maybe in the morning he’ll have more questions for her or they’ll watch another documentary on feminism, but right now he knows that she needs rest. Truthfully, so does he.

Amy buries her face into his neck and adjusts her grip on the comforter, sighing contently.

“Night, babe.”

+ i

The craziest forty-eight hours of Jake’s life end in a very mundane series of tasks - dishes, laundry, tidying the living room.

The place was a mess when they got home, which makes sense given the panicked flurry that they left in two days ago, hurriedly packing a bag of essentials for the hospital. Their little girl was just over two weeks early, and despite all the planning and preparation they had done for her arrival, they had not planned for that.

He’s exhausted from very few hours of sleep curled up next to Amy in the cramped hospital bed, but he knows it must be only a fraction of the fatigue she’s feeling after bringing their child into this world just yesterday, so he made sure she got into bed right after they got Zoey tucked into her bassinet and assured her he would join her soon.

He’s mostly finished his attempt at making their apartment somewhat inhabitable again when he decides to throw in the towel and finish in the morning. He can’t resist the urge to get back to his wife and baby in the next room over, missing them both already.

He expects Amy to already be passed out by the time he enters their room, but instead she’s up and awake, hovering over the bassinet a few feet from their bed. She’s still wearing his baggy hoodie with holes in it from college (again, they packed very quickly) and her hair is still pulled back in a messy ponytail. She’s still got the post-childbirth glow his mom commented on this morning, with her rosy cheeks and her dewy skin. She’s beautiful, but he’s already told her that half a dozen times today.

“Why are you still awake?” he asks quietly, making sure he doesn’t wake the baby. “You literally spent twenty hours in labour yesterday, babe.”

“Did I? That slipped my mind,” Amy deadpans, motioning for him to come over.

He complies, standing next to her and looking down on their baby, peacefully sleeping in her little cream-coloured bassinet that Amy ordered months ago. Zoey Peralta is absolutely perfect in every way conceivable, from her soft and unruly brown hair - which she totally got from him - to her perfect, round little nose that looks exactly like Amy’s. He feels comforted knowing that if she inherited her mother’s brains, her tenacity, or even a fraction of her kindness and warmth, this kid is going to be just fine.

“She’s just so perfect,” Amy muses, leaning back against his chest and resting her head against his chin. “I can’t stop looking at her yet.”

Jake wraps his arms around her and nods, intently watching Zoey make little noises in her sleep. “She’s totally perfect.”

“Can you believe we made her?”

He shakes his head. “Can you believe we’re parents?”

Amy sighs happily and runs her hand up his arm, gently squeezing his bicep.

“I was so scared for a while that we would never get this moment,” she admits.

“I know.”

He squeezes her a little tighter, remembering all the negative pregnancy tests and early mornings waking up to UD and the goddamn vitamins. It had been hard, sometimes unbearably so, but the moment she showed him the positive test it all became so incredibly worth it.

And the moment, mere hours ago, when their baby was no longer an image on a sonogram but a living, breathing child that he could hold in his arms, he knew he would do it all a billion times over for her.

“We should probably get some sleep, I’m sure she’ll wake us up in a few hours,” Jake suggests after a few more minutes have passed, just the three of them in blissful silence.

Amy nods in agreement and leans down to press a feather-light kiss to Zoey’s forehead.

“Goodnight, angel. Mommy and Daddy love you so much.”

Amy’s gentle voice as she talks to their baby nearly brings him to tears, not for the first (or even tenth) time that day.

“Goodnight, Zo,” Jake repeats, “sweet dreams.”

Jake climbs into bed behind Amy, who is still affectionately watching their daughter sleep a few feet away, and wraps his arm around her waist.

“I love you so much,” he murmurs against her temple. “You’re gonna be the best mom.”

She grabs his hand and pulls it tighter around her, her eyes already fluttering shut.

“I love you so much.”

He reaches over her to turn the light off, and he can hear her breathing even out within seconds. He’s not far behind her, falling asleep with a smile on his face, already excited for all that the morning will bring.

#b99 fic #jake x amy

109 notes · View notes

waejinyoung · 4 years

Text

Can’t Swim - EP . 4

word count: 9.7k+

a/n: i’m late. I’m well aware. i don’t really know what to say to be honest. i hope the episode being close to 10k words makes up for the long wait. there’s alot that goes on this episode. enjoy! we get a peak of jinyung’s pov at one point too! so exciting! no swimming lesson for today though :)

warnings: fluff shit near the end, swearing, dirtyminded stuffs, change in langugage at one point (ive placed translations too so no worries)

EP . 1 , EP . 2 , EP . 3 , EP . 4 , EP . 5 , EP . 6 , EP .7 , EP . 8, , EP . 9

Thursday had arrived and you spontaneously called a friend who had come down to Jinhae to see if she was available midday. She happened to have some time to spare between her schedule so you two met up for brunch and a simple walk around a local park.

Thursday midday

“It’s been so long since we got to hangout Tan.”

Tan, short for Tanya, was your close friend from university. She now works in a global firm which meant she travelled quite often. You knew she was in Seoul and was going to travel to Busan for a bit. You asked if she could squeeze a bit of her day to travel to Jinhae to hangout and she was happy you offered.

“Tell me about it Y/N. You always claim that nothing had changed but I’m still going to ask. Anything new in your life? Anyone new in your life?” Tan had a smirk on her face knowing she was hitting spots that were non-existent, she thought.

“I usually answer no.” Tan’s face lit up due to the unexpected change.

“Go on…” She was getting extremely excited.

“I’ve met this guy- “

“You… MET A GUY??” Tan had absolutely lost it at this point, and she didn’t even know his name.

“Tan calm down. We’ve only known each other for a week and a half. He joined my beginners class last week.” She bursted into a loud laugh.

“You are telling me the guy you met can’t swim.”

“YA! Don’t be mean. He’s at least mustered up the courage at this age to come and learn. Some people can’t even manage to do that these days. They care too much about image.”

“I’m sorry. I just didn’t expect you to meet your soulmate in a swimming lesson. I thought maybe at the office- “

“You know how I’ve said I would prefer to spend the rest of my life with someone in a different sector of work. I won’t be able to stand someone from the same field of work bringing nothing new to the relationship.”

“I know, I know Y/N. You want to learn from each other rather than talk about the same topics. I understand where you are coming from.”

“But yeah. I don’t actually know what he works as. I’m meeting him tomorrow afternoon for ‘thing’ as he described it. He said I’ll be able to know then what he does then.”

“He seems really mysterious. I hope you’re not getting into something dodgy.” Tan was always protective when it came to you and guys. She knew you had a gullible and fragile personality when it came to men.

“I don’t think so. I don’t even know how to explain it. Every time I’ve been with him I’ve felt giddy and bothered. He does the bare minimum and my whole world flips- “

“Y/N”

You stop in your tracks realising that you had gotten way too ahead of yourself.

“Y/N, you sound like you’re in love. Or close in the least.”

“Tan I’ve known the guy coming up to 2 weeks.”

“Yes Y/N. I understand but you sound like you’ve known him for years and you’ve only just realised your feelings towards him. I haven’t even gotten to ask, what’s his name?”

“His name is Jinyoung. I don’t want to jump in too deep. These feelings need to be reciprocated in order for there to be progression. To him I’m probably just his swimming teacher.”

“Right, and since when did students meet their teachers outside of lesson hours and not only that basically go on dates.”

“YA don’t call them dates. We are just hanging out.”

“Hanging out my ass. He’s bringing you into his life and introducing you to his world. Enjoy the ride Y/N. He sounds like a keeper.”

“You think?” Tan nods and helps you come clear with your feelings.

You two continued with your walk in the park with Tan and settled on a bench after a while.

*ding*

You checked your phone having received a notification. It was Jinyoung.

“Hey Y/N. I hope you’re doing well. If you are still able to come for tomorrow we can meet at 7:00 pm. I’ll be waiting for you at the parking lot again.”

You hadn’t realised but you were smiling like a fool beside Tan.

“Yep, confirmed. It’s him isn’t it?”

You look up at Tan as she took you away from your little bubble. You gave her a nod.

“Y/N this is thee guy for you.”

You didn’t understand how Tan could be so sure. Yes, you have feelings for him but to claim Jinyoung as the guy for me was a little too much, right?

“How can you tell?” You were interested on what she had to say.

“You’re smiling like a 5 year old on Christmas Day. I haven’t seen you like this since you got a first in our last year of uni. This guy’s effect on you is so obvious. He can’t be empty back; I can bet on it. With me just talking about him you’re smiling like an otter.”

You hit Tan on the shoulder lightly for teasing you. You were going to be open-minded about the situation and know that anything can be possible.

“Anyways, why did he text?”

“He just let me know what time to meet up. He hadn’t mentioned it at first.”

“Good luck Y/N.”

Your day with Tan continued. You appreciated being able to catch up with an old friend. You started to feel thankful for Jooheon’s call off. You were able to do things you may have had to wait months for. Although you still wished the call off was given for a better reason.

…

Your day with Tan sadly ended earlier than you wanted, and she was off back to Busan for work.

You prepped breakfast for yourself this blissful Friday morning. You laid out a traditional Mediterranean breakfast since you now had the time. You missed it back home. To have this breakfast alone did drain it’s vibe, you were used to having these large breakfasts with your family. You took advantage of the weather and had breakfast on your balcony. The bay had to keep your company for now until you went back home.

You were caught off guard by a call from your company. You picked up.

“Miss?”

“Yes, Beck”

“We’ve got a dilemma.” You weren’t surprised.

“Go on.” You’d be shocked if something hadn’t gone wrong while you were out of office.

“The eco-hotel that was going to be built on two pieces of land- “

“What about it Beck?” Oh boy. What now?

“Another firm somehow bought one piece of land which we were going to use for the greenery requirements to pass the eco test.”

“Which firm? Beck I’m gone for a couple days and shit has hit the fan this badly?” This was the biggest project in your hands, and it was slipping right through.

“The next door firm- “

You hung up immediately. You were using all your might to not dash your phone into the sea ahead of you. Your rivalry between the next door firm had been going on for years but this time round it was going to be rougher than usual.

You rushed over to your closet and took out a navy suit alongside a simple white shirt + a pair of clear heals. With that you took your car keys and some documents to head to the company.

The speeding cameras could probably understand from the speed you were going at that something important was going on. You arrived at the entrance of your architecture office.

Yes, your full time job was as an architect.

You chucked your keys at the door keeper to park your car and dashed up to the 4th floor of the office. The whole company had turned into chaos in a matter of 2 days. All your employees were rushing around and there was around 6 people all surrounding Beck.

Beck was the second shareholder alongside you of the company. You both graduated as architects and decided to start your own firm as junior architects. Whenever one was out of office, the other covered for the both but this time round Beck was not able to handle all of this by himself.

You called out to Beck and his face changed from stressed to relieved. You and Beck moved to your office and discussed the situation working towards a solution.

A couple hours later

“Wait, Beck”

“Why can’t we just implement all the eco-factors into the hotel on one piece of land?”

Beck’s face was blanked 90% of the time until he heard your suggestion. He sighed a breath of relief.

“We can just add terraces and add green to the lobbies, outdoors and any other dead space we have.”

“You’ve done it again!” Beck rushed to hug the shit out of you. He raised you off your feet and swung you around.

“Beck, calm down!” He put you back on your feet with a large smile on his face.

“Y/N this is exactly why this company needs you?” You high five each other. A weight had lifted off both of your shoulders.

You hit Beck’s shoulder realising the rush you had been to get here.

“We could have solved this with a Facetime call. Did I really have to rush over here?”

Beck just gave a childish smile. We all knew he just wanted you to be there physically. He couldn’t be the only one suffering in the company. Even if it was for a couple of hours.

“That’s all?”

“Yep, can we not have a tea? You haven’t been at the company for days.”

You checked the time and saw it was 4:00 pm. You could spare some time for a quick tea.

“You did absolutely ruin a lovely breakfast that I had prepared at home. Tea’s on you.”

You guys walked down to ground floor to grab a tea from the company café. There was a duo table free near the entrance windows, so you guys sat there.

“Y/N. How do you manage to keep up with the projects and the swimming classes? Isn’t it too much?”

You’ve heard these questions from Beck on countless occasions. He knows the answer but just can’t process how it’s possible.

“Beck you know that the swimming classes don’t feel like a job to me. It’s so nice to share a skill with those who are unaware of it. I love seeing all the kids smile every lesson. It’s so refreshing and fun it makes me forget about the projects. When it comes to the company, I have a really reliable shareholder who fills my absence when needed.” You smiled at Beck knowing he would get an ego raise at the compliment.

“You bet. The other shareholder is extremely reliable.”

“You can always tell me if I start to drift a little too much from the company. I sometimes lose track on how much time I’ve spent on both jobs.”

“Y/N are you kidding me? You somehow do the same amount of work as me whilst having another time consuming job. You finish project drawings in less time than the workers that have nothing better to do. You’re doing more than enough, trust me.”

You smiled. It felt good that you were able to balance both jobs well with any concern.

“That’s good to hear. I have plans for the afternoon so I’m going to have to dip early. Thanks for the tea. Next time, consider a Facetime call when it comes to a similar dilemma.”

Beck waved you off as your car was brought back from the parking lot to you. You waved Beck goodbye as you drifted from the company back home to get ready for this “thing” tonight.

You arrived home to see the time was now 5:00 pm. You need to leave at 6:40 pm. That gives you an hour and forty minutes to get ready. You didn’t even know if there was a dress code. Was this a meal or an activity that you were going to? You circled in your walk-in wardrobe trying to figure out an outfit that would suit most occasions. You looked at casual floral dress. It would work only if it were daytime, it’ll be close to the evening so that won’t work. Jeans and a top? Too boring? Ugh.

You spent 30 minutes trying out outfits and hadn’t settled down on even one. You figured to solve the dress code problem by giving Jinyoung a ring. As much as it may be an embarrassing question you didn’t care. You weren’t going to take the risk and make a terrible impression of yourself to his circle.

He picked up.

“Hey Y/N. Are you well?”

“Hi Jinyoung. I’m well. I hope you’re too. I was getting ready for this ‘thing’ of yours, but I have no clue if this ‘thing’ will be taking place in a casual or formal setting. Basically, I don’t know what to wear.” You chuckled as you gave up trying not to be direct about why you called.

“Hahaha,” Great made a fool of yourself again, “I understand. I wouldn’t call it a formal setting. That’s for sure. A simple casual outfit would do. Just don’t come looking like a hobo.” He chuckled again.

“Great you just saved me from my worries of making a laughingstock of myself.”

“Don’t worry you won’t. See you at 7.”

“See you!”

Now that, that was out of the way you went back into your closet to pick out an outfit. You chose a pair of denim mom jeans and a black sleeveless bodysuit. You glammed up your outfit with silver jewellery pieces and your black Chanel bag. You wore a pair of white air forces to make sure your feet were comfy and headed over to your makeup stand.

You weren’t exactly a big makeup girl. You tended not to use a skin makeup like foundation or concealer. You basically used mascara and that was about it. You weren’t going to fake it; you were happy the way you were. Your lashes were curled, and you glided some mascara onto them. You weren’t going to bother with contacts this afternoon, so you put back on your turtle shell brown glasses. It was now 6:00 pm.

You had 40 minutes to spare so you went on your laptop to reply to some emails and work on some renders for the eco-hotel you worked on with Beck today.

40 minutes flew by and you shut your laptop and took a deep breath. Don’t fuck this up Y/N, you thought to yourself.

You hopped in your g-wagon and drove a new route to the entertainment company parking lot. Jinyoung was there like he had promised and waved you hello. You flashed your headlights as a way of reciprocating to Jinyoung’s wave. The gates slid open and parked your car in a free slot. There were more cars this time round. You guessed that there was something going on at the company.

“How have you been Jinyoung?” You greeted him as you locked your car.

“I’m a little nervous,” He saw your puzzled face, “You’ll understand why soon don’t worry.”

“Can’t wait.” You both strolled towards the entrance of the company. The same flashes started again. Like last time.

Jinyoung wrapped his arm around your shoulder and guided you quickly into the building. He whispered in your ear to keep your head low until he said so. You did as he said. Around 10 steps after walking into the building Jinyoung let you know that you could look up now. You were puzzled as ever. What is going on? Jinyoung realised the both puzzled but also annoyed/stern expression.

“Just a little longer. I promise.”

You guys took the escalator to the 2nd floor this time alongside several other people. It was busier than the last time you were here. A lot of cameras and staff. You could hear them whispering among themselves in the lift. You were sure you heard the words ‘actor’ and ‘script reading’. You had no clue what they were referring to. Probably some entertainment company things.

The lift arrived at the corresponding floor and you guys all stepped out. You were registering the things around you. There were banners hung up near the glass room ahead. They read ‘drama script reading’ and we were walking straight towards it.

You tugged on Jinyoung’s sleeve. You kind of felt uncomfortable feeling so alien-like in an extremely new environment. He took you to aside to avoid being in people’s way.

“Y/N I wouldn’t do anything to harm you. Trust me. This is all new to me as much as it’s all new to you. I wish I could be by your side, but we’ll be separated. Remember Bambam for last time?,” You nodded, “I’m going to sit you next to him and my other friends he’ll introduce you to them. Don’t worry they wont bite.” He lightly chuckled.

You guys slowly headed to the glass room. It was packed with tons of staff and people like you. A long banner was pinned up to the wall. When My Love Blooms was what it read. Underneath it in smaller font read four names. One of which was… Park Jinyoung.

He’s an… actor?

You saw Bambam like Jinyoung had said and was seated next to him. You took this chance to ask Bambam what in the world was going on.

“Hey Y/N.” Bambam seemed really excited too.

“Hey Bambam. Can I ask what’s going on?” He realised your puzzled expression. He could tell Jinyoung hadn’t told you anything about tonight.

“Jinyoung hyung hasn’t told you?” You shook your head no.

“Today is the first script reading of a drama Jinyoung hyung will be acting in. He’s the second male lead actor. He plays the younger version of the main character.” So, he was an actor.

“He didn’t even tell me that he was an actor. He hasn’t told me anything about his work.”

“That’s typical Jinyoung hyung. He’s usually secretive when it comes to work and this industry. It’s kind of complicated to explain but he treats all the new people in his life the same way don’t worry.”

“Right…” This whole industry thing was new to you too. You were going to go with the flow and see what happens.

“He also mentioned meeting his ‘circle’ as he described it. Who exactly is he referring to?” Bambam’s eyes lit up as he looked to his other side which consisted of 5 other guys. Very handsome you must say.

“Guys!” Bambam got the attention of all 5 of them.

“Bam what do you want now?” The guy with 2 moles on his eye lids looked up from his phone.

“Jinyoung hyung wants us to meet a friend of his.” You were kind of nervous. The one who had replied to Bambam had a bit of a cold aura.

“Really?” His expression kinda lightened.

“Yes hyung. Guys this is Y/N.” You gave a smile to all of them not knowing who should speak next.

“Hi, it’s nice to meet you all.” That should do it.

��Hello Y/N. I’m Jackson.” He had a bright puppy smile on his face. He seemed like a social butterfly very eager to meet new people.

“I’m Mark.” Mark raised his hand to show who was talking. The staff were making a bit of noise, so his voice sounded a little muffled, but you were able to hear him. He seemed cool though.

“I’m Jaebeom.” The 2 mole guy spoke. He gave a sweet smile. You take back your thought of him having a cold aura. He seemed nice.

“I’m Yugyeom.” He started throwing gang signs trying to act cool. The guy beside him bursted out laughing and hit his shoulder trying to get him to stop. You joined in with him due to his contagious laugh.

“Hi Y/N. Last but not least I’m Youngjae.” He gave you wide and welcoming smile.

“So that’s everyone Jinyoung hyung wanted me to introduce you to. You’ll most likely see us often. We stick together most of the time.” Jaebeom rolled his eyes at the clingy child.

“How did you meet Jinyoung?” Jaebeom asked after putting his phone away.

“Actually, Jinyoung is my student. I’m his swimming teacher.” The guys looked at each other and started laughing.

“Waaa, that punk actually signed up to take lessons. Good on him, I thought he wouldn’t be able to.” You were kind of confused

“How come?”

“Jinyoung doesn’t like it when he’s not good at something. He’s an absolute perfectionist so to see him show a side of himself to people in a skill where he’s not thriving in… I didn’t expect him to actually sign up for classes.”

Ahh, so he’s a perfectionist.

“I didn’t know but he has been attending and cooperating well. He’s also a quick learner so he’ll be advancing quickly from my inspection.”

“Typical Jinyoung hyung,” Bambam commented, “He’s always good at everything.”

An old man stood up from the table Jinyoung was on and silenced the whole room for the beginning of the script reading. You looked over at Jinyoung to see that he was already focussed on you. He looked a little nervous so you sent over a small smile and nod to let him know that you’re fine and that he can do this.

“Thank you all for joining us today for the first script reading of When My Love Blooms. We will now be starting with the first episode reading. Let’s see how the actors have worked on their characters.”

You were excited to see what this was going to be like.

The script writing commenced, and everyone was concentrating on all the characters and the scene. The story line sounded really interesting and the chemistry between the actors and their characters seemed like a match made in heaven. You internally giggled when you found out that the main characters name was Jaehyun, remembering that this Jaehyun wasn’t the lifeguard Jaehyun back at the centre.

This side of Jinyoung looked so classy and sophisticated. He had a similar pair of glasses on like you and a simple black shirt on. He would move his glasses up whenever they would slip a bit whilst looking at his script. You could see how much he was in character and the passion in his voice trying to voice his inner Jaehyun.

“From today onwards, we’re dating.” The dialogue between Jinyoung and the younger role female lead continued until the director interrupted.

“I wish…” Everyone started laughing at the director’s sudden comment. I don’t blame him. The story line is to die for. If only life was the same.

Every now and again the boys beside you were trying to contain their laughs. They were like a bunch of brothers trying to find dirt on Jinyoung to tease him about later. They reminded you of your friends when you all hangout together specifically for someone’s occasion.

The script reading ended soon after the funny moment. The staff started packing up all the refreshments and the paperwork everywhere. The actors were taken to a little set up area to take teaser photos ready to be posted before the launch of the drama.

“So, Y/N…” Jackson caught your attention and you drew your eyes from Jinyoung and the other actors to Jackson.

“Yep.”

“You teach swimming lessons. Is that your full time job or is it a hobby sort of thing?”

“It’s a part time job I do on the side. I pursue a more serious career as an architect.” Jackson’s expression turned surprised.

“You’re an architect?” The rest of the guys circled around you with interested looks.

“Guys calm down. I just design buildings for a living. Me and a friend own a company- “

“You’re CEO?” Jaebeom launched himself forward towards you since he was out of it at first. Was it this big of a deal?

“More or less.” The boys all started clapping. The staff joined in thinking they were clapping for the actors and the end of the first script reading. You joined in to cover up for their initial intention.

Jinyoung joined you guys as the claps continued. He was baffed at what was going on, but you just shook it off. He whispered a simple ‘you good?’ in your ear. You nodded in response to his question. The group + you faced Jinyoung and continued clapping in his face like a bunch of seals. Jinyoung wrapped his hands around yours to stop you from clapping. The contact between you and him caught you off guard but his hands were warm and protective. Your small hands fit perfectly in his much larger hands. It felt like the contact you wished for years to happen between you and your dad but that never happened. Your eyes were close to tearing, but you knew showing any sign of sensitivity will trigger another load of questions not only from Jinyoung but the rest too. He removed his hands realising the awkward closeness he showed among all the guys.

The clapping ended.

“How was I?” Jinyoung diverted his attention from you to the rest of the guys.

“Jinyoung hyung as always performed well. I’m starting to get used to the fact that you’re good at everything hyung.” Yugyeom tried to act unphased but we all knew the experienced actor could see right through his lie.

“You outdid yourself again Jinyoung.” Jaebeom patted his shoulder like a granddad (lol).

“I’m jealous of the female character.” Everyone looked at Bambam waiting to continue why he said what he said.

“I’d wanna be dating Jinyoung hyung too, it’s not fair.” Jinyoung put an arm around Bambam’s shoulder and you all started laughing at the absurd comment.

“Jinyoung hyung already has someone in mind Bambam. You have to go search for someone else.” Jinyoung had someone else in mind? He likes someone? You just kept smiling trying to show you weren’t hurt from the sudden confession. Damn… looks like you were a little late Y/N. Of course, a fine man like Jinyoung wouldn’t go for you, you thought.

Jinyoung gave Youngjae a death stare. You guessed that wasn’t information he was willing to just share casually.

“I’m sure she’ll fall for you with those acting skills.” You tried to lift up the mood that had turned awkward. The guys gave you a look and then looked at Jinyoung. They knew who Youngjae was referring to. You were the only one that was oblivious to the situation.

“I hope so too Y/N. I hope so too.” Jinyoung gave you a warm smile. His eyes crinkled and his teeth gleamed white. Whoever she is, she’s lucky you thought.

“I’m starving, can we go for a meal?” Mark suggested as he changed the topic.

“Yh, Y/N you can also join us unless you’re busy.” Yugyeom kindly offered.

“No there’s no need. I don’t want to be interrupting your guys’ meal.”

“That’s ridiculous. I’m sure Jinyoung will be happy with you joining us anyways.”

You looked over at Jinyoung and he just smiled. You guessed Bambam was right. You had nothing planned for the rest of the evening, so you joined them.

“Did anyone come by car? All the staff vehicles are being used for the director’s team.” Mark raised his hand although there was still a problem.

“Yh but there’s 8 of us Mark. Your car can hold 5 of us, what about the other 3?”

“Looks like it’s good that I’m coming then. I came by car too. The other 3 can come with me. I’ll follow Mark.”

“Are you windows tinted?” What a weird question to ask.

“Erm.. yes.”

“Great, that works.” Jaebeom clapped after the situation was solved.

“Let’s go half and half. I’m going with Y/N.” Bambam came by your side ready to follow you to your car. Jinyoung joined him and shrugged a helpless shrug towards Mark.

“You fuckers are leaving me, wow.” Mark put a hand on his heart acting like he was heartbroken.

“Don’t worry Mark. I’ll join you.” Jackson and Yugyeom joined Mark.

“Rock, paper, scissors?” Youngjae offered to Jaebeom.

“Guys it’s just a car rid- “ They were actually doing this weren’t they.

“Rock, paper, scissors!” Youngjae threw rock and Jaebeom threw paper.

“Good luck putting up with Jackson and Yugyeom.” Jaebeom waved Youngjae a farewell. Now that this was decided, you guys headed out of the company building.

“I’ll tail you until our destination. Just in case we lose your car, does anyone riding with me know where we are going?” You walked along Mark settling on an agreement.

“Yh, Jinyoung knows where we are going. He can guide you just in case you lose the car.”

“Great.”

“By the way Y/N…”

“Yes…”

“Actually, don’t worry. It’s nothing important.”

“Sure…” You couldn’t lie. You kind of wanted to know what it was that he was going to say.

“WAAAAA… Y/N you’re full of surprises. First it turns out that you’re actually an architect now we find out you rock a classy car too. Keep it coming.” You guess Bambam is the type to hype his friends. Like you mentioned before, praise is something that motivates you. It’s rewarding.

“WAAAAA… Bambam it’s just a car.” You mimicked him.

“Yh… but a really nice car.” He eyed your possession and circled round it.

“Look at this big boy… what did you name it?” This kid honestly.

“I shall not be disclosing that piece of information.” Bambam gave you puppy eyes in hopes for it to work.

“Fine. He’s called Prince.” You shut your eyes with your hands to avoid the embarrassment.

“Ahhhh and because you own him… does that make you a Queen?” You laughed at Bambam’s analogy.

“No specific reason for the name Bambam. Come on, Mark and the others are waiting for us.”

Jinyoung took the passenger seat beside you whilst Jaebeom and Bambam sat behind. Bambam specifically behind you.

“Everyone seat belts on please. I trust my driving, but I don’t trust the driving of others.” You smiled at your comment. So vain.

“I’m going to tell Mark hyung you don’t trust his driving.” Bambam is an actual kid, you concluded in your mind.

“That’s not what I meant Bambam.”

“I know, I know.” You started the car as all of the guys, and you had put on your seatbelts.

You signalled to Mark for him to go ahead since your car was now ready. You followed his white Jeep out of the parking lot and started your journey.

“So where exactly are we going to?” You still didn’t know what you was going to be eating for dinner.

“We often go to this seafood place near the bay. The fish comes fresh every day and they also have non-fish options too. Jackson doesn’t like seafood much, so it works well for him too. You’ll definitely like it.”

Hmm, there was a restaurant at bay that you also went to often similar to what Jinyoung was describing. Maybe it’s the same place.

“What’s the place called? I live near the bay so I may know of it.”

“It’s called Ali’s Clam.” Bambam responded from the back.

“Ali with the lisp?” If he replies yes now, you knew exactly where you were going.

“You know of him?” Of course.

“We come from the same country. I’ve known him since I moved to Jinhae. He was one of the first people I met.”

“Small world. Weird how we didn’t recognise each other. We must have been present at the same time at some point.” Jaebeom figured.

“I would agree but I always order into the company or home. I don’t usually have the time to eat in. It’ll be a great surprise for him too since it’s been a while I’ve been at the restaurant.”

A couple minutes of silence went by. You had some music from back home playing quietly as you drove to Ali’s. You do love jamming loudly to music but only when alone. You weren’t going to embarrass yourself in front of people you’ve only met a couple hours ago.

“So where exactly are you from Y/N?” You appreciated how the guys actually wanted to get to know you.

“My parents are both Turkish. Although… I was born and raised mostly in London. I did go back often to see family, but I lived and grew up in London. Studied there and then work led me to Jinhae.”

You stopped at a red light.

“I was going to ask what coloured contacts you used. I guess they are real.” Bambam and his ridiculous questions.

“Yes, they are real Bambam. Sorry to disappoint.”

“It’s okay. I’ll just stare at them instead.” This kid. Jaebeom and Jinyoung laughed at the sadness in Bambam’s voice.

“I’ll let you borrow them if you want.” Bambam triggered your sarcasm to come out. What a fool.

“I’d be honoured.” You liked how he continued.

“So, Y/N…” Jinyoung spoke up.

“You’re an architect?” You just nodded and you kept your eyes on the road.

“Why teach swimming then?” This question again.

“Here’s how I’ll answer that question,“ He was listening, “Isn’t it so refreshing and fun being with the kids in our group? To see their faces light up every Monday morning because of me and my lessons. It’s an amazing feeling knowing I’m touching their lives by giving them a life skill that they’ll be grateful for. It never feels like work.”

As you explained your reasons, Jinyoung had been staring at you in deep thought. The way you were concentrating on the road as you spoke about pure innocent things. The way you were so passionate about helping the kids learn a vital skill. He couldn’t register everything at once and felt so overwhelmed. Your eyes glistened as you continued talking about your love for the kids and how much you loved swimming. He watched your every move and could feel his heart thumping stronger than usual. He knew what was happening and was willing to comply to his heart.

You realised you had been rambling off for a while and hadn’t heard a single thing from Jinyoung. You glanced to your side to see a loving stare coming your way. You wished you could reciprocate but eyes on the road was something you were going to stick to. He realised his own stare and directed his look to Bambam. You just smiled. Luckily it was dark, so your flamed up cheeks weren’t visible to anyone.

…

Your phone rang… it was Max. You guys still hadn’t sorted out whatever it is that’s between you two now. You didn’t know if you should pick up. Due to the lovely thing called technology, your car picked up on the fact that you were getting a call so everyone could see who was calling. Jinyoung aware of who Max was.

“Feel free to pick up.” Jinyoung prompts you to pick up.

“You guys okay if I pick up?”

“Go ahead.” The other two responded.

You picked up the call.

“Hey Max, how are you?”

“Doing better Y/N. You free to talk?”

“Yh sure, go ahead.”

“I wanted to talk about Monday.”

You looked over at Jinyoung. He didn’t seem phased, but you felt uncomfortable.

“I’m listening.”

“Stay away from him.” Not this again.

“Elaborate ‘him’.”

“You know who I’m on about Y/N. Don’t make me say his name.”

“Elaborate or I’m hanging up.”

“Fine. I’m on about Jinyoung.” Oh boy the air in this car just got even more awkward.

“Fuck my life Max. You’re still dragging this out? Can you speak up like a man with a pair of balls?”

Jaebeom and Bambam looked at each other. They sensed the change in atmosphere as expected.

“Alright Y/N. What I’m saying is you have to stay away from Jinyoung from now on! I see the way he looks at you Y/N. His ass is so whipped for you and it has only been 2 lessons- “

“And?” The awkwardness had hit cloud nine. You wanted to hide in a box and stay away from humans for weeks at this point, but you had to stay strong. You weren’t going to give in like a weakling.

“What do you mean ‘and?’? Aren’t you bothered? Are you ready for someone else to crush your heart again just like Chas- “

“Don’t you dare say his name.” Max was crossing over the line. This call being on speaker didn’t help either.

“You get the point. Your ass is going to fall deep into his trap too only to be left like a shattered mirror again. Continue being like this and I won’t be there to fix you either.”

With that Max hung up. You didn’t speak. You were trying to contain the anger you were feeling rise up. You were carrying lives in the car. You weren’t going to express the anger now.

“You good?” Bambam couldn’t stand the silence and asked the comforting question. You had to be honest. You weren’t exactly feeling like answering although you thanked him internally for caring.

You mustered up the energy to talk after burying the anger inside.

“I deeply apologise for what just happened. I didn’t exactly want you guys to witness this not-so-nice side of me let alone on our first meeting,” You faced Jinyoung for a split second, “I owe you another apology. I don’t know what’s gotten into him but- “

“You truly are unaware aren’t you.” Jaebeom interrupted you. Kind of rude.

“I don’t know who that guy was, but he sounds extremely jealous.” This again. Jinyoung opted to stay silent.

“You think?”

“I think? It’s almost fact. He sounds so riled up. As a guy the only reason I’d ever be so ‘like him’ would be because I’m jealous.” For everyone to say this keeps solidifying the assumption. You guess everyone was right.

“Jaebeom hyung is usually right when it comes to knowing things. What he says usually turns out correct. I also agree. He sounds pissed and jealous.”

You chose to stay silent until you arrived at the restaurant. Everyone went back to what they were doing before the rude call. A couple minutes later you all arrived at Ali’s Clam.

You and Mark parked near the venue and walked it to the table Ali had given the rest.

“No way!” Ali ran up to you and gave you a warm hug. It had been around 1 month since the last time you saw him. Although you could feel the life being squeezed out of you too.

“Ali let me breath,” you laughed as you hugged him back, “It’s good to see you too.”

“Y/N seni bir aydır görmüyorum. Nerelerdesin?”

[“Y/N I haven’t seen you for a month. Where have you been?”]

“Bizim büro büyük bir proje kaptı. Beck’le onun üstünde çalışıyoruz. Biliyorsun ki yüzme derslerim de var buraya gelmeye zaman bulmak zor oluyor.”

[“Our firm received a big project. I’ve been working on it with Beck. You know about the swimming lessons too, it’s hard to find time to come.”]

The guys all picked up the change in language. This is what it must feel like for our fans, they thought to themselves.

“So how come you know of these lot?” He was referring to Jinyoung and the rest, “And how do you guys know of Y/N?”

Yugyeom stepped up to explain.

“Long story short, Y/N is Jinyoung’s swimming teacher. The rest of us met Y/N today at Jinyoung’s script reading.”

“Riiiight… So, what can I get you guys today? Everything’s on me!” Ali clapped in excitement for reuniting with his friend alongside his favourite customers.

“Can we get our usual lobster in the middle plus the baby crabs plus Jackson’s order?” These guys don’t order the stuffed oysters. What in the world?!?

“You know what else to add Ali. I can’t believe you guys don’t order the stuffed oysters. It’s Ali’s signature dish.”

“I got you Y/N! I’ll make it a bigger portion so the rest of you guys can try it too.” Ali jotted down the order on his little notepad.

The small chit chat continued. You were sat between Jaebeom and Jinyoung. Your table looked out to the bay and was decorated with shells and blue and white ribbons. You always loved the ambience of this restaurant. It reminded you of the fish restaurants back in Turkey that you and your mum would go to when you were younger. Whenever you felt homesick you knew you could come here to sink the feeling away.

“So, Miss is an architect.” Jinyoung turned to you as the rest spoke among themselves.

“I guess I am, and Mr is an actor” You chuckled. You both found out each other’s careers in very different ways.

“I guess I am.” He mimicked you. You eyed him having picked up on what he was doing.

“So, what’s the story behind you and everyone? How did everyone meet each other?”

“Get ready for another surprise. I’m not exactly just an actor… All 7 of us make up a k-pop group called GOT7.”

“Yh, right.” You laughed at him assuming he was joking around.

“Wow don’t believe me. Guys!” Jinyoung got the attention of the rest of the guys.

“Jaebeom hyung when did we debut?”

“16th Jan 2014.”

“Seun-ah what was our debut song?”

“Girls, girls, girls they love me” Jackson sang and displayed some hand movements along with it. Were they being serious?

Ali came over with the baby crabs and the stuffed oysters. He was just about to go back for the lobsters but Jinyoung asked Ali the same questions he had asked Jaebeom and Jackson.

“You guys debuted under JYP Entertainment as GOT7 on 16th Jan 2014 with the song,” he changed his stance like he was ready to dance, “Girls, girls, girls they love me.”

“Jackson also had a plant sticking out from the top of his head then.” The boys started laughing but Jackson gave Ali a deaf stare. Ali gave him an apology hug and insisted that he couldn’t let the opportunity slide.

“Is that why you kept your job a secret at first?” Jinyoung nodded.

“People tend to act different towards us as if we are not ordinary people. There seems to be this analogy of a pedestal where we are placed higher and we don’t really like that since it makes it hard for us to get to know genuine new people. Me keeping that a secret meant you looked at me for who I was not for someone who was a singer.”

“That makes sense. People forget behind the stage and platform there’s someone just like all of us with feelings and hobbies. We all like to chill, lounge around, go for a walk. It makes up only a part of us not all of us, but many people don’t see it that way. So, I understand why you chose to hide it although I can let you know that I’m not one of those people. It’s the inside that counts.” You pointed to your heart. Jinyoung just kept falling for all the mutual comments you were making. He agreed with everything that was escaping from your mouth.

“I’m happy we are on the same page.” He ruffled your hair like you were a 10 year old kid. His eyes gleamed with playful energy. You wish you could have stared longer but you were among his friends. You didn’t want them to get the wrong idea. With that you sorted your hair along with Ali placing the lobster and Jackson’s dish on the table.

“Ellerine sağlık Ali. Her zaman ki gibi çok güzel kokuyor her şey.”

[“Thank you for the meal Ali. Like always the food smells really good.”]

“This isn’t fair we don’t understand.” Bambam started sulking like a kid.

“I’ll try and contain myself. Since I usually come here alone I’m used to speaking in Turkish with Ali. Sorry.” You showed your innocent eyes (not an aegyo way, not a fan) to Bambam.

“If you look at me like that, how can I even get annoyed? Talk all you want I trust you wouldn’t speak ill of us to Ali.” You smiled at the kind words from Bambam.

“Let’s tuck in!” Youngjae suggested. You all started tucking into the food laid out. You had convinced Jaebeom to try the stuffed oysters since no one would say yes. You showed him how to open the oyster and scrape the filing with one shell from the other. Then eat from it like it was a spoon.

“How is it?” You tried to read his expression. He continued chewing and his eyes started to widen.

“We’ve been missing out.” Mark passed his plate over to you for you to put some oysters on his plate after seeing Jaebeom’s reaction.

“How do you did it again Y/N?” Mark asked.

“Let’s do this. Anyone who wants to try it put your hand up?”

Everyone but Jinyoung and Jackson put their hand up.

“I’ll let Jackson slide since you don’t like seafood,” You turned to Jinyoung, “This is bad sportsmanship come on everyone’s willing to try.”

JINYOUNG’S POV

She’s hitting you with those colourful starry eyes again. How could you say no?

“Fine Y/N. For your sake.” A wide smile spread across her face. She passed you an oyster too.

“If everyone’s ready, watch me then copy. We good with that?”

“This sounds like another swimming lesson.” You couldn’t help but remind her how similar her instructions sound like her lessons.

“Wooow. Are you criticising my teaching?” You could now pick up on her sarcasm. She wasn’t being serious. You just shrugged playing secretive like always.

“You should appreciate you haven’t drowned with your skills.” Oh no she didn’t.

“WAAAAAAA… I like it. Finally, someone else as savage as me.” Bambam high fived you across the table. Jaebeom had his mouth agape and Youngjae looked at you.

If the guys had made that sort of comment, it would have been game on. But when it came to Y/N, you couldn’t even find a way of retaliatin. Not only did you not know much about her, you got caught looking at her in disbelief. Your brain couldn’t register a comeback.

“Waaa… she actually got him silent. You achieved something I haven’t for the past 6 years Y/N.” Yugyeom started clapping. You looked at him and your eyes did the job. He stopped clapping as soon as he realised he weren’t going to take shit right now.

“Like I was saying. We ready?” Everyone raised their oysters. You watched her eagerly demonstrate how to eat her cuisine. Her passion for her homeland was present and you liked how she was patiently teaching you all how to eat the delicacy.

“Then you scrape it like it’s a spoon using the empty shell, like this.”

Surprising you all were pretty good. None of you dropped the filling on your plate.

“Then…,” Y/N got up from her seat and grabbed a lemon slice, “You squeeze some lemon on it. Keep your oysters up a little I’ll come around and squeeze some.”

She went around the table and dispersed some lemon.

“Now voila, eat.” You were a little hesitant. You weren’t a big fan of oyster, but you were willing to try it based on Y/N’s recommendation.

And you weren’t disappointed. The combination of the crustacean, rice and the herbs worked so well together. You could see why Y/N was surprised when this wasn’t a part of the group’s order. It tasted delicious.

“I can read all your faces now and no one seems disgusted besides Jackson.” She laughed at Jackson’s reaction to all of you tasting the new dish.

“Bro, how do yall do it?” Jackson questioned.

“Do what Jack?” Mark didn’t understand.

“Eat seafood. Madness.” Jackson resumed to eating his burger.

Ali dropped by having seen you guys taste the oyster.

“What do you guys think?” Ali asked.

“Y/N is right. Ali where have we been?” Youngjae was experiencing his version of food enlightenment.

“I don’t know Youngjae. Where have you guys been?” Ali laughed at Youngjae’s absurd question.

You guys dug into your food whilst conversing and getting to know each other. It turned out that Jackson and Y/N were close to meeting each other earlier on in life. If they had both pursued in their sports and competed in the Olympics there was a chance they would have met. Small world. Jackson explained to Y/N how he switched his career path and Y/N spoke about the lack of opportunity and motivation in that field left her to divert her attention to architecture. Both succeeding exceptionally well in their fields.

Y/N’S POV

“So, what’s been like your biggest project so far?” Mark asked since you both stopped eating having felt close to full.

“We have an active project going on right now for an eco-hotel set to be built near the end of the bay. The client is a really well-known person although I can’t disclose who he is due to privacy regulations. I can say you are all well aware of who he is that’s for sure. I never imagined someone with such high status would want us to design something for him but yh… we are working on it.” Y/N explained.

“That’s really cool. It’s nice to hear what people are doing in different industries. We are always surrounded by the entertainment industry so it’s nice to see a different expression of creativity going on around us.” You appreciated Mark’s kind words and appreciation for the architecture field. The field didn’t receive much cover and is overlooked so it was nice to hear those words.

“I agree. The same thing goes for you guys. I have one friend who does work got to do with music production although I didn’t really get much insight into what he did. It must be really warming having an audience who support you and your work constantly.” You liked having logical conversations. It seems like Mark’s somebody you would get along with well. He seems very knowledgeable.

“Ali! Can you bring over a couple bottles of soju?”

“Coming right up Jaebeom!”

Ali came pacing to our table and placed 7 glasses and 5 bottles of soju. He knew you didn’t drink.

“You forgot another glass.”

“Ah, I don’t drink.” You waved off Jaebeom.

“Waaa… does that mean we all get to drink? We have a driver to get us home guys!” Jaebeom joked around since you would be sober.

Ali came back since he heard what Jaebeom had said, “7 drunk guys and Y/N that sounds like chaos.”

“Come on Ali! We aren’t that bad drunk, are we?”

“Definitely not Jaebeom.” You picked up on Ali’s sarcasm.

“I’ll join Y/N for today. We won’t drink you guys go ahead.” Jinyoung joined the sober team for today.

“Jinyoung hyung~ you’re like the most entertaining person when drunk. Are you just too scared you’ll end up confessing to Y-“ Yugyeom smacked his hand across Bambam’s mouth and kept it shut. Was he about to say your name? Nah… surely not.

“You guys know I’ve been cutting down on drinking. There’s no other reason besides how wild we are when we are drunk. Can’t let Y/N handle all of 7 of us alone.” You appreciated his concern.

“Thanks.”

…

It took about 20 minutes for all 7 of the guys to be out of it. You and Jinyoung took the opportunity to part from the group and walk along the beach.

You could hear the waves crashing gently in the summer breeze. You took a second to take deep breaths of fresh air.

“Ah…” You sighed as you let out the fresh air, “Don’t you just love the sea?”

“I think I would like it more if I could swim in it.” You giggled at his confession.

“I’ll make that happen one day. I promise.” You smiled up at Jinyoung as you watched your feet sink into the sand as you guys walked. You both stayed silent until something came up to mind.

“I mean you can still have fun in the sea without having to swim in it.”

“Wow, I thought Jaehyun was the dirty minded one. I can see who he learnt it from.” He eyed you knowing that what he was hinting at was most likely something that wasn’t on your mind.

You were gobsmacked. Him too? Were all guys like this?

You slapped his shoulder, “You guys are atrocious. I meant splashing each other.” As you said the word ‘splashing’ you knelt down and splashed water at Jinyoung.

He was ready to win you over at this fight. He retaliated with even more water and caught you off guard. You guys ran up and down the beach trying to splash one another as well as not get caught by the flying water droplets. The cool breeze made the water on your body colder than usual. You guys were practically drenched when you dropped on your ass because your foot got caught sunk in the sand.

“You okay?” Jinyoung crouched down to your level and smiled at you like a child.

“I would be if my ass wasn’t soaked.” He lent you a hand. Was he this naïve? You took the opportunity to give Jinyoung a taste of what it felt like. You grabbed his hand and dragged him done to your level.

“I should have seen that coming.” Damn right he should have. You both chuckled as you watched the moon and the rippling reflection on the sea’s surface.

You started to tear up at the familiar scene although the person beside you wasn’t the person in the flashback. It was Chase. Chase was your ex-boyfriend. He was probably the best shot you had with a guy and things were going well until you found out that he was cheating on you for 2 months with a waitress at Ali’s restaurant. You had shared your ups and downs with him meaning him cheating on you left you extremely hopeless for other guys. Max’s extra possessive and protective reached its peak during that time hence the phone call today. When Ali found out, he fired the waitress immediately knowing how hurt you would feel every time you came across her at the restaurant. Even worse when she was with Chase. You guys would hang out at the beach after meals similar to how you and Jinyoung had today. Although today felt different, Jinyoung meant more to you than Chase in a shorter period of time. You still lacked on so much about Jinyoung, but he never gave off a single bad impression on any occasion. You trusted him.

He realised your mood change.

“Did you come here often with him?” How did he…

“I can tell you haven’t been here alone before. Did you guys come here together before? With the guy Max was about to mention on the phone call.” Smartass.

“Wow, I didn’t even need to explain. You’re spot on.” You let out a chuckle. It must have been really obvious.

“It must suck. We can go back-“

“No, no… I’m not going to let past memories be the reason for me to run away from a beautiful landscape. You being here helps too.”

“I’m glad to hear that. Although my backside is about to drop off.” You had completely forgotten that your bottom halves were being repeatedly soaked by the crashing waves.

“Not having much fat in that area is a struggle isn’t it. I can’t relate.”

“I have you know I have an ass.” You were dying at the confidence. You make sure to check him out secretly when the peach is in view.

“Clearly not big enough for the cold.” He pushed you over and your back got soaked from the damp sand.

“Ahhhh! Jinyoung I’m gonna catch a cold. It’s freezing!”

You were going to get your pay back. You launched your hands onto his shoulder in the hopes that he would also fall back but you underestimated his strength. You guys squabbled trying to put the other down. As expected he had you done in no time grasped onto your wrists. Some water droplets from his shirts fell down onto your warm skin. The position you guys were in raised the heat of your body at an unhealthy rate. Your faces were inches away just like how they were at during the water dodgeball game. Your chests heaved trying to get back your breaths, but he looked too good to be true. How could you go back to breathing normally when he looked gorgeous?

“Still cold?” He swept you away from your thoughts.

“Y-Yh…” You were boiling to be exact.

“This should help.” He dropped lower towards your face. Your noses brushed each other’s, and you could now feel his warm breath across your face. He looked deeply into your eyes as if there was a transcript written in them. He took his time analysing your features until he got to your lips. He couldn’t help staring at your lips for a little longer than your other features until he couldn’t take it anymore. He was going to make the first move he wanted to make since the beginning.

He teased your lips slowly making contact with them not knowing this was going to be the beginning of something life changing. You moulded into his lips and you could understand that he wanted this as much as you did. The passion as he moved trying to taste every inch of you made you blame yourself for not noticing his interest sooner. You were most definitely not cold anymore.

You were happy that your interests were not one sided and couldn’t wait for what else this new possible love had in store.

---

Thank fudge cakes this episode is over. I apologise for how late this episode has been. I think the word count being close to 10k explains why it took so long. I struggled to find a place to stop for this episode, so I just continued writing until I was happy with it. A lot goes down in this episode so grab a snack and enjoy. It was also really nice bringing in some native tongue into the series. I’d like to get your opinions on whether I should continue with the native tongue conversations between Y/N and Ali. I also introduced Y/N’s full time job. I hope it was a nice surprise for you guys. Until next episode 👋

writer-nim x

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