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violetsaffron5 · 1 year

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Beautiful Disaster (4)

← Chapter 3 • series masterlist • Chapter 5 →

↳ 4 | Bottoms Up

Pairing: Gojo Satoru x f!Reader

talking to your mom and already getting fed up with gojo

words: 3.6k

cw: reader drinks a lot, to the point she gets sick

Taglist • Ao3 • Discord 18+ • Social Media • Series Masterlists

“Gojo’s really into you,” Nitta says randomly, causing you to sputter into your drink.

It’s Saturday, and you’re getting ready to go to his place for the party they're hosting - apparently they have parties more often than they don’t, which just kind of makes sense, based on the little you know about the three.

“How could you possibly know that?” You ask curiously after coughing a few times; your drink had gone down the wrong pipe in your surprise.

Nitta, the angel that she is, managed to score a few bottles of various alcohol from some upperclassmen. Shoko was quick to ask if you all could have one to pregame with.

“Could tell the other day just by how he was looking at you,” Shoko speaks up after a moment of silence, checking herself out in the mirror of your dorm room.

Utahime rolls her eyes before sighing, she’s laying on Nitta’s bed flipping through a magazine waiting for the three of you to finish getting ready, “Gojo told Geto, who told us.”

You can feel your cheeks heat at her comment, pursing your lips as you put mascara on.

“So…” Shoko begins, eyeballing you from the mirror she’s in front of. She’s in a low cut, dark green dress that’s flowy towards the bottom, “what do you think of him?”

“Oh… I don’t know,” you tell her honestly, “like, I was really into him the night we hooked up, and I like talking to him, but when he’s not directly in front of me… I don’t know.”

“That’s called charm,” Nitta adds, sipping on her drink, sitting next to Utahime. She looks adorable with her bleached blonde hair pulled back out of her face, a simple black dress on with her ankles crossed as she leans against the wall, “a lot of people like that about him.”

“Are you still planning on going on that date with him?” Utahime asks, sitting up. She’s in a dark lace top tucked into black jeans with a small belt.

You hum, contemplating, “I already told him I would. Besides, he hasn’t done anything to really make me want to back out of it, even if he is a serial dater. It’s not like anything has to come from the date.”

“He’s rich, so it’d probably be worth it just for that.” Nitta chimes in, surprising you all.

"Now you’re starting to sound like Mei,” Shoko teases.

You laugh alongside them, standing to check yourself in the full length mirror Shoko was just standing in front of. The dress you have on is black lace on top, cinching at your waist before draping past your hips, stopping midthigh.

There’s a smile fighting to spread across your face when you think about seeing Satoru tonight, and you relent a little. Maybe his charms have worked on you more than you’re willing to admit out loud.

Because saying it out loud makes it real and there’s no way in hell things would end well - not when he’s so… familiar with dating as you’ve heard, as he’s admitted.

“Has he ever just… been with one person? Like with Mei or anyone.” You find yourself asking curiously - not even sure what brought that question over you.

It’s not like you think you’re that special, more just wanting to know if he’s ever even tried.

The room is quiet and you can see Shoko shake her head and Utahime shrugs while Nitta chews the side of her cheek before saying, “I have no idea, actually.”

Out of anyone in the room, you assumed Nitta would at least know, considering she’s friends with Mei but she seems to be telling the truth and you don’t want to stay on the subject because it doesn’t really matter anyway.

Either he’s okay with just seeing one person or he’s not. There’s no changing that, no changing his mind - it’s something he’d have to decide on his own. And you’ll make it clear you have no interest in being juggled around like that.

“Shots?” Shoko asks and then you’re all giggling, talking about how you’re ready to wash away the stress from the week and have a good time as Nitta grabs a few extra plastic cups, laying them out so Shoko can fill them.

You watch the way Utahime watches Shoko, eyes soft, following her movements as Shoko lifts the bottle and pours each cup way too full for it to be one shot. When she’s finished, you grab yours, click your cup with the groups and down it in one gulp, wincing in the process.

You’re not really sure what to make out with the two of Shoko and Utahime - they’re so close, do everything together. Literally attached at each other's hips, unless guys are involved. When one of them talks about a guy they’re seeing there’s this… tension that you can’t really place.

It’s almost suffocating to watch the way they ignore it.

To be honest, when you first met them, you thought they were together. But when you mentioned it they both vehemently denied it.

“Oh, your phone's ringing,” Utahime says after taking the shot, grabbing your phone that’s vibrating on the desk next to her and handing it over.

You sigh, trilling your lips before canceling the call. It was your mother, again. And not even a minute later, your phone is vibrating in your hand, her name flashing on the screen. You stare at it for a moment before clicking your tongue and canceling.

Looking up you’re met with six pairs of eyes watching you curiously, “she’s been calling you for a few days, shouldn’t you answer? What if something bad happened?” Utahime questions.

Your mother had become insistent you answer her. And in typical “her” fashion, she started calling you repeatedly the last few days of the week.

At first you just silenced her calls and things were… fine after that. Despite the seemingly hundreds of voicemails she opted to leave, quickly filling your voicemail box.

“Yeah, I’ll just call her back tomorrow or something, it’s fine,” you wave Utahime off.

Your phone vibrates in your hand, your moms name flashing on the screen once again - because to you, she doesn’t deserve the title “mom” or “mother” anymore, but there’s also no way in hell you’re explaining to anyone what she did.

It’s fucked up and humiliating and even just thinking about it right now, with your stomach growing warm with alcohol, you want to vomit.

“It’s fine, I promise,” you say again, filling your cup with another shot, “besides, if it was important the higher ups would be contacted and Dean Yaga would call me into his office or whatever.”

“She’s probably just worried about you,” Shoko says innocently, following suit by filling her own cup and taking the shot without so much as a wince.

You shrug, downing your drink before saying “maybe,” just as your phone rings again.

“We’ll let you take that,” Utahime says quickly, grabbing both Shoko and Nitta by the wrist and walking to the door, “we’ll just see you at the party.”

You nod and take a deep breath, begrudgingly answering the phone.

“It’s about damn time. I’m assuming you haven’t forgotten our agreement,” she spits before you even have a chance to say hello.

“No, of course not.” You fill your cup once again before sitting on your bed, back against the wall. You’re going to need it if you plan on making it through this call.

“I agreed to let you transfer to Tokyo as long as you answered my calls without complaint,” she reminds you anyway and you take a big swig of your drink, already needing it, “unless you want me to stop paying for your classes and dorm room.”

“I’ve just been busy this week, getting to know campus and meeting new people, it’s been a lot to take in.” You reply defensively even though she’s well aware that’s not the whole reason. “Listen, I’m supposed to be going to a party tonight, can I call you back tomorrow?”

“Absolutely not. I’ve been trying to reach you all week,” her voice is filled with venom, “your party can wait until I’m done talking with my daughter.”

You sigh, a deep heavy sigh and slump down. This is going to take forever, and now she’s going to just talk about nonsense to take up more of your time.

Putting the phone on speaker, you let her talk about her boyfriend and what they’ve been doing on the weekends when he’s free, and how he comes over during the week to help her take care of the house and make dinner.

Which you couldn't care less about if you tried.

As she talks about work, the neighbors and other boring shit you don’t particularly care about you open the messages app on your phone.

Satoru’s is the top, he had texted you the day after getting your number saying they were having a party at his place this weekend, and said you should come. Of course, you already knew from Suguru, so you told Satoru you’d be there.

Albeit, now you’re going to be later than originally intended.

You also roll your eyes when you see the unsolicited picture he sent, that you left unanswered.

It’s a shirtless picture of him from nose down, water droplets glistening against his skin after a shower, hard abdominals flexed with a towel wrapped around his waist. He’s grinning, because he always seems to be.

Truth be told, it left you flustered in more ways than one, which is partly why you never replied. You laid on your bed, staring at it for far too long trying to come up with something to say but all you could think of was ‘oh, that’s nice’ or ‘thank you.’

And then you had the uneasily thought of wondering just how many other people got that same exact photo which just made you jump ship on replying all together.

Your mom prattles on for the next hour to your dismay, the only thing really keeping you going at this point is the bottle Nitta left behind, but you’re really trying hard not to drink too much of it since it’s not yours.

Shoko texted you once, asking where you were and you let her know you were still on the phone but would come as soon as you could.

Which is going to be soon because you’re snapped back into the conversation when your mom says, “... and I think he’s going to move in after Winter break. Isn’t that wonderful?”

It’s anything and everything but wonderful. If there’s one person in the world you dislike, or even hate as much as her, it’s her boyfriend.

Her tone is triumphant and it takes everything in you to not hang up the phone as soon as those words tumble from her lips. Instead, you opt to tell her something came up and you have to go, hanging up before she’s had a chance to ask what happened.

She tries calling again, but you quickly cancel it before going into her contact and setting it on do not disturb.

You’re jittery from the call, a flux of emotions you can’t quite place coursing through your veins, but rather than wasting time trying to make sense of them or thinking too hard about it, you grab the bottle of alcohol and take another two shots to calm your nerves before leaving the room.

When you walk into the front door of Satoru’s house you’re taken aback by just how different this party is compared to last week.

The music is still loud, bass driven as people dance and stand around talking - but there are also neon lights set up around the rooms, various shades of red, purples and blues. It’s more crowded than it was than last time as well.

“Didn’t think you were going to show,” Sukuna says when you stumble into the kitchen. You had made your way there first thinking your best chance at finding Shoko or Utahime was there, but clearly you were wrong.

There are other people in the kitchen, mixing drinks, standing around talking - some girls are on the counters drunkenly leaning into the person they’re conversing with, some making out.

“Uh, yeah I had something I had to do.” You reply vaguely, “do you wanna do shots?”

You probably shouldn’t do more, you realize when Sukuna grins at you but you’re over this night and just ready to let loose and have a good time. So why not just drink the hurt away.

Sukuna hands you a cup and you don’t even pay attention to what he poured before drinking it in one gulp, “damn, new girl,” he laughs following suit before pouring another.

This is by far the most you’ve ever had to drink in one night but you know what, fuck your mom, fuck her boyfriend. You know she only told you that so it’d get to you, ruin your night, and you’re hating that it’s working.

“You’re more fun than I gave you credit for,” Sukuna says while you drink the last shot he poured, making sure to get every last drop by tilting your head back. He laughs when you shiver and wince.

“Thanks?” You’re not really sure how to reply to that but you don’t bother trying to go in depth with it. Instead, you ask if he’s seen Shoko or Utahime, he hasn’t, but said Suguru was in the living room last time he saw him and Satoru was around “somewhere.”

Suguru is in fact in the living room, you didn’t see him on your first pass through on your way to the kitchen, but he’s hard to miss now that he has a body with pink hair grinding on his lap, lips attached to hers as they make out obscenely.

So, you sip on the mixed drink Sukuna made for you before you left the kitchen - far stronger than you would have made for yourself, but fuck it.

You also find Shoko, against the wall holding onto the shirt of the guy in front of her, biting her lip as they talk. He has his arm resting on the wall over her head.

Utahime isn’t far, conversing with a few people on a couch, she’s busy and doesn’t notice you and you’re far too drunk to care to interrupt her. Maybe if Shoko were with her you would, but you’re not even sure Utahime even likes you all that much and you don’t really feel like dealing with that right now.

When you spot Satoru, he’s sitting in a room off the kitchen, cup in hand as he’s leaned forward, elbows on his knees, smiling and talking with some blonde. You instantly regret chugging the mixed drink Sukuna made for you as your stomach starts churning and decide it’s because whatever he made was too strong for you.

Because letting it be any other reason would just be silly.

This night started out so fun - getting ready with friends, but then your mother called and it quickly turned disastrous. Now, rather than spending the evening with your friends, Suguru or even Satoru like you thought would happen, you’re stumbling down the steps in front of the house alone.

You stand for a second, closing your eyes trying to take a deep breath but the world is spinning when you do that and the contents in your stomach quickly come back up, so you sit on the ground next to a bush and vomit.

“Hey, you okay?” Satoru asks. He saw you chug your drink and walk away so he followed you outside.

You just stare at him, really unsure of how to answer.

Yes, because now that you’ve expelled some of the alcohol from your stomach you feel better, but also no, because fuck your mom.

“Okay, so no, then.” He says when you don’t reply. You’re not sure how long he waited for one.

Groaning, you place your head between your knees and you know you’re being pathetic right now, but you’re far too inebriated to care, “c’mere.”

He helps you stand, resting most of your weight on him as he takes you back inside.

“I’m not gonna have sex with you,” you slur when you realize he’s brought you up to his bedroom.

“Yeah, I’m completely aware that’s not in the cards tonight.”

Pushing yourself off him, you make your way to his bathroom and get sick again as he stands in the doorway keeping an eye on you.

When you’re done, you rifle through his cabinets and he just watches, curious what you’re looking for until you find it - a spare toothbrush, drunkenly ripping it out of its packaging before wetting it and adding toothpaste you found.

“You could just do that in the morning.”

You stop brushing, looking at him with tired drunken eyes, toothpaste foaming around the corners of your mouth, “I’m gonna fuckin’ brush my teeth.”

“Yeah, okay,” he chuckles, scratching his eyebrow, “you’re really not from Tokyo, huh.”

“You’re not from Tokyo,” you mock, making your voice sound deeper than it is and then giggling.

“I am, actually, can google my family name and everything,” he’s amused, watching you gargle water loudly in the mirror.

Satoru helps you over to his bed where you dramatically fall over when trying to take the dress off as he grabs one of his shirts for you to sleep in. He chuckles before helping untangle your arms and hair from the fabric.

You watch as he holds out a shirt for you to put on as you unhook your bra and take it off and you can tell he’s trying very hard not to let his eyes wander while you’re this drunk.

The door to his room opens startling the two of you, “Gojo,” you hear the melodic sound of a woman’s voice ringing before you see her, “are you in he-”

“What do you want, Mei,” his voice is harsh, starry eyes no longer glimmering with amusement. He doesn’t have to look back to know who it is.

Mei’s standing in the doorway with her arms crossed, an incredibly low cut purple top with a short leather skirt on. Her face is stern, eyes narrow as she glares at you from the hall.

“Are you seriously ditching me for her, again?” She scoffs at the end of her sentence, rolling her eyes like a child.

Satoru is quiet for a moment, feathering his jaw before taking a deep breath, “no, of course not.” he replies easily.

His tone doesn’t match the stern expression he adorns as he motions for you to lay down, helping move the covers out of your way.

“Get some rest,” Satoru murmurs, tucking hair behind your ear before kissing your temple, “I’ll be back in a bit.”

You try to stay up and wait for him, but your eyes are heavy and you’re emotionally exhausted from having to speak to your mother. It only takes a few minutes from when your head hits his plush pillow that you’re overcome with much needed sleep.

Your head is fucking pounding when your eyes finally flutter open. You sit up, entirely way too fast, to take in the scene around you. Not your room, Satoru’s you remember after a moment of confusion.

It’s still messy, same as last weekend and you briefly wonder if he ever cleans. There are a few pain relievers on the stand next to your side of the bed along with a glass of water that you quickly swallow, chugging all of the water because your body is begging for hydration.

Satoru must have laid them out for you when he came back to the room.

When you sit back on the bed there’s a hand on your back, rubbing small circles between your shoulder blades. Satoru has an arm over his eyes, shielding them from the sun's light that’s now beaming through the window.

“Fuck, this is mortifying,” you rasp, checking the time on your phone to see it’s almost noon.

Satoru sits up, taking a deep breath before stretching, “I’m just glad I found you and not some asshole.”

Groaning, you stretch your arms up before rubbing your hands in your face in embarrassment. Quite honestly, you could die in this moment and be totally fine with it.

“I should probably go,” you say awkwardly, cheeks flushed each time you recall your own actions last night, “I have some homework and studying I should do.”

“Didn’t realize you were so astute.”

“Yeah, well, there’s a lot you don’t know about me.”

“I know what you taste like, what you feel like.” Satoru murmurs as he moves your hair, kissing your shoulder.

“Oh my god. You’re so gross,” your face is back in your hands, face so hot it feels like it could melt off.

“I think you like it,” he whispers next to your ear causing a shiver to run down your spine, he smirks at your reaction before leaning back a little, giving you enough room to breathe, “so, what happened last night? You were clearly upset about something.”

You groan again before sighing, “my mom and I… we don’t get along anymore. Not since after Christmas last year. She called and I- it’s just a lot to have to deal with her. She’s a spiteful person by nature.”

Even though she doesn’t have a reason to be spiteful in this situation, you refrain from sharing anymore details.

“Mm.” Satoru hums, “I’ve got family like that too. My dad, he can be pretty… crazy and my mom-,” he laughs, cutting himself off, “but hey, you know what's going to make me feel better? Our date later this week.”

“Really?” You’re amused, turning back to meet his starry gaze, crystalline eyes glimmering in the sunlight.

“Mhm. Yeah, it’ll really help ease the pain,” he jokes good naturedly before kissing your shoulder again.

You’re rolling your eyes and laughing, “even after watching me throw up in a bush and cry about not being able to get my dress off?”

“I think I can get over it because you look so pretty in my shirt. And I guess your personality is kind of cool too.”

You’re both smiling, it’s contagious, watching the way his eyes flicker between yours and down to your lips a few times before closing the distance.

His lips are as soft as you remember them, and he tastes like spearmint despite not having gotten out of bed to brush his teeth yet.

You’re really fucking glad you were so insistent on brushing your teeth though and you’re betting he is too when he slips his tongue past your lips, mapping out the inside of your mouth like his life depends on it.

Satoru helps you turn, laying your back flat against the mattress, slipping his hands up your thighs, pressing his thumb to your clothed clit, drawing one small tight circle, feeling the wet spot that’s formed just by talking to him.

How embarrassing.

His hands continue up, spanning your waist until he stops just below your breasts, thumbs teasingly grazing the soft skin there.

And then you remember how he brought you up here, and unceremoniously left you alone in his bed for Mei.

“Can we… Mm, can we just not do this, I feel kinda gross from last night.”

You may have brushed your teeth, but you definitely need to go shower after consuming as much alcohol as you did last night. An incredibly cold one.

“Yeah… yeah.” His voice is gruff, thick with arousal, eyebrows knitted together, “I was gonna say the same thing; that we should… stop right now, at this exact moment.”

“Good,” your tone is laced with annoyance, “yeah, wouldn’t want to hook up again, you know. Mei might get pissed about that.”

He scoffs, smile faltering a little, “we’re not together.”

“So I’ve heard but I was in bad shape last night and that didn’t stop you from leaving me, to what, hook up with her while I slept in your bed?”

“Ooooh, trying to figure out what I was up to. Sounds like you’re trying to be my girlfriend,” he teases and you just stare at him for a minute like he’s out of his goddamn mind.

“You know what, maybe we shouldn’t go on that date after all,” you’re scooting towards the side of the bed to redress so incredibly over this conversation, “getting involved with you just- I’m not interested.”

He grabs your arm, stopping you from moving any further away. When you finally turn back to meet his gaze it’s surprisingly sincere, “okay, relax, I’m sorry. It won’t happen again,” and now he’s grinning and you’re wondering if he knows how to take anything seriously, “scouts honor.”

“I highly doubt you were a scout,” you grumble as he stares at you with wide overly dramatic pleading eyes before you finally relent, “fine. We’ll go out, see how things go.”

“Where do you wanna go?” He asks curiously, watching you get out of bed, eyes never leaving for frame as you remove his shirt and put your dress back on.

“I really don’t care,” you sigh, “ask me in a few days when I’m less annoyed or better yet, take initiative and plan something that matches your interest level.”

You finish getting ready and he’s just smirking at you the whole time, arms crossed behind his head, sheet resting just at his hips showing off his defined chest and abdominals.

“And,” you continue, turning to face him as you open his bedroom door, pushing your luck to see how much you can get away with, “if you want to go out, then we’ll do it on Saturday. If you can’t make that work, that’s on you.”

@petalsrdead @sugurunicorn @niki-sun @lilith412426 @sofiaconlaz @lxvephxbic @kash2 @violetsapplejuice @iam-mia9 @laylasbunbunny @creolequeen11210 @xiaosie @lem-hhn @s-witch-bitch @yogurttea @slut-jr @watyousayin @crystxlline @desthevirgo @coffee-on-a-rainyautumn @ritsatoru @faewithsnakes

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olsenmyolsen · 27 days

Text

Playing Pretend

master list

dark master list

No Powers AU (Female Reader X Sylvie Laufeydottir)

Summary: When a blonde needs your help, you end up with something more.

Word Count: 1.7K

Content: Gross Loki but fluff otherwise :)

It had been a rough couple of months for you.

You paid too much for a small apartment in the city while working at a barista job that paid too little.

Your aunt, who practically raised you, was now sick states away, and your younger sister, who swore she would never settle down, had apparently found the person of her dreams.

You wouldn't say you were depressed, but with winter turning into spring, you couldn't call it seasonal anymore.

So, with the first Saturday in a minute to hit a reasonable temperature outside, you decide to take a walk around your local park. It had a small lake with benches and swings. Plus, there was a coffee shop that was actually better than yours nearby.

"Bye, Frances!" You whispered as you petted your American Shorthaired cat, who wasn't even your fan, before leaving.

Your dirty Vans hit the sidewalk as you adjust your baseball cap and put in your AirPods. Just because you were out and about didn't mean you wanted to talk to strangers. You just need fresh air and to feel the sun's warmth on your face.

About three-quarters of the way through your favorite artist's new album, your left airpod died. You could've sworn you charged them, but then you thought harder about it and couldn't remember the last time you charged the case...

You parked yourself at a bench and set down your hazelnut oat milk latte to pull out the dead airpod case and stuffed both AirPods into it.

More people passed by the longer you let yourself rest against the wood of the bench. It was nice, and you found yourself smiling. Especially when you watched a labrador retriever with one eye steal a breakfast sandwich away from its owner. "Lucky!" The black-haired owner yelled before shaking their head and getting up—dog in tow.

You decided to give yourself a few more minutes before getting up to finish your walk. But before you could even think about moving once the time was up, a woman joined you on the bench. She was out of this world, stunning, out of breath, and spoke in an English accent faster than your brain could comprehend.

"Couldyoupleasepretendtobemygirlfriend?"

You blinked at her. "...what?" The woman whose blonde curly hair cascaded around her face scooted closer. "Love, play pretend, please." She didn't wait for you to nod or anything before her hand with green-painted nails slipped its fingers in between yours.

You practically froze as her hand warmed yours. Her touch was like a shock of life as you couldn't help but feel yourself. You turned your head to her, but she was too busy looking towards a tall man with slick back black hair. "Here he comes." She whispered as she turned back to you.

Jumping at how close you were.

"Sorry." You said to her, but she shook her head. "No worries, dear." She then shined her pearly whites at you.

Pink rose over your cheeks.

You hadn't had someone smile like this in... "Sylvie!?" You looked over. So that was her name? The man whom she pointed out earlier came closer to the bench.

Shocked to see her. Or was he?

The blonde, who you correctly assumed to be Sylvie, let the man borrow her attention as she turned her head away from your soft eyes. "Loki?" She said in a fake cheery tone as she squinted at the man as if he wasn't standing too close to comfort. "That is you!" She said while laughing, bumping her shoulder against you.

The man, Loki, noticed.

His smile dwindled. "Yes..." He awkwardly moved as he stood by your bench. "I thought I saw you but wasn't sure."

Yeah, I thought I saw you, so I followed you??? You thought.

"It's me." Sylvie once again shined her teeth, but you noticed how it wasn't genuine, like when she smiled at you. "I'm here meeting with my girlfriend." The blonde spoke up, and thankfully, Loki didn't see how your eyes widened.

Sylvie squeezed your hand. You took that as a signal to save her from doing all the talking. "Hi!" Your voice came out more harsh than gentle, surprising you and Sylvie.

But the blonde loved it. "I'm Sylvie's girlfriend, Y/N."

Loki finally paid you any attention. "Right..." The man said as he extended his rough hand to you, gripping it with force. Not happy with how his morning was turning out. "I didn't realize she was seeing anyone?" Loki said as he let go of your left hand. His eyes trained on you.

You gave him a smug smile. "Things just happen." You then turned towards Sylvie and gave a sweeping smile to her. "Don't they, darling?"

Sylvie bit her tongue before she clicked her teeth and gave a similar smug smile to Loki. "They do." Loki let out a frustrated breath that he covered up with a false grin. "Well then, how long has this been going on?" He wagged a finger between you and the beautiful blonde next to you. You should've let Sylvie answer, but you were honestly starting to already get tired of this man.

"Two months." You said, making Loki's eyes light up. "Oh really!?" Sylvie's hand squeezed yours, but you didn't look her way. You just nodded to Loki. "Yeah, why?"

The man pulled his eyes from you to Sylvie. "What about our dinner a month ago?" Sylvie cleared her throat. "That was just a dinner, Loki."

He seemed unconvinced. "And the kiss?"

One look at Sylvie, and you could tell she regretted ever giving this man the time of day—especially the taste of her lips.

Sylvie turned to you. She was lost and wasn't sure which direction to steer this conversation. Luckily for her, you grew up in a household where everyone lied playing cards, so you could do this.

It's called Poker Face for a reason.

"Sylvie didn't want to hurt your feelings, Loki." The man in the suit and tie looked at you and shook his head. "You expect me to believe that?" Oh, this man had one hell of an ego. "I do because it's true. Sylvie told me all about the dinner. She couldn't get out of it. She would've felt bad. This kiss was to lessen the blow when she ghosted you." You wet your lips. "I'm sorry."

The words sprung from you without stopping, and Loki's grin flattened with each passing line.

Sylvie finally tore her eyes from your side profile and looked up to Loki. "I'm sorry, but I could only say no so many times without you listening." That made you remove your hand from Sylvie and throw your arm around her.

She bit her bottom lip at your hold.

"So you two really are together?" Loki sounded sad as he still wasn't sure.

You nodded for the two of you. "Do you need more proof?" Loki didn't say anything as you rolled your head to Sylvie. She was already looking at you. Her eyes were indulging and calm as they stared at you. "Kiss me, Y/N." She asked of you.

Your eyes closed as your lips softly collided with hers. You tasted like your latte, and she tasted like honey.

The simple kiss between the two of you convinced Loki enough as he walked away when he saw Sylvie's hand reach up to cup your face. However, you melted even more and pushed your body into hers as your arm wrapped around her.

You two only stopped when the air became non-existent.

Your lips would be bruised tomorrow, but that didn't matter right now as Sylvie looked at you with a shocked smile before realizing Loki was gone. You didn't bother looking.

"I- I didn't mean for it to go that far," Sylvie said with a nervous smile. "I'm glad it did." You weren't going to be shy. "I enjoyed it. As long as you did?" Sylvie nodded before laughing, covering her face with her hands. "I did, and I promise you I don't do this regularly."

You laughed. "I would hope so, or my day is ruined." Sylvie nodded to your joke as her eyes found yours again. "Thank you for that, by the way. I saw him and panicked." You understood. "Well, it looks like it worked, so I don't think you need to worry about him anymore." Sylvie nodded. "Except now he thinks I'm in a committed relationship."

You hummed and found yourself looking at the art on Sylvia's shirt before you lifted your eyes from the blueberries on it. "I love the shirt."

"I love your cap." She said even if she didn't care about American sports.

You smiled. "So what should we do about the relationship?" Sylvie closed her mouth and thought. "You're from her, right?" She asked, confusing you slightly. You nodded. "I live here. Yeah. A couple of blocks that way." You pointed behind you.

Sylvie looked. "I suppose...." She turned to you. "We could get to know each other. If that's alright with you?"

A flutter happened.

"I think it's more than alright, Sylvie." You whispered as you found yourself closer to the blonde. She didn't mind. "Perfect, Y/N," Sylvie replied as she gave you one more kiss as a thank you.

"Now... are you busy today?" Sylvie asked as her lips left yours. "Not at all." Sylvie smiled. "I was thinking about hitting this bookstore nearby. Would you like to join me?"

"Of course." You spoke honestly and with more excitement than in months. "Great," Sylvie said as she rose from the bench and stuck her hand out to help you up.

The two of you walked beside each other and brushed shoulders as you crossed the street. The loud city being a friendly reminder in the background. You could see how uncomfortable Sylvie was. "I brought my AirPods if you wanna listen to anything?"

Sylvie quickly nodded as she hated how loud the city could be. "Here." You gave her the charged airpod as you stuck the dead one in your ear. "Is this okay?" You said as you clicked play on the album you were listening to prior. "Oh my god, I love this!" Sylvie shouted at you.

And just like that, maybe things weren't so rough for you anymore.

Especially when you and Sylvie didn't lie about being girlfriends anymore.

It was the truth.

dividers by @/benkeibear

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raysletters · 8 months

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get to know your fanfic writer!

i have to be honest, the lovelies @14carrotghoul and @suseagull04 tagged me for this like a week ago and i have incredibly bad memory, but here i am anyway (thanks for the tag and sorry for being late lol 💀)

when did you post your first ever fanfic?

oh my god,,,,,, i think it was 2015(??

first character(s) you wrote for:

before i say this, i need to explain i was a child with a very early access to internet. also, i am, as a great mind said once, a pathological people pleaser, and my sister was a directioner,,,,,,,,, so yes ofc i wrote a fanfic about harry styles for my sister, even though i never published it, and it was just a dumb y/n story,,,,,,,, (this was like 2012). though, since harry styles is a real person and not a character like my 9yo self thought, then i assume the next one would be,,,,, damon salvatore (it was posted on wattpad and absolutely horrible, i had an hyperfixation and created an oc and everything)

main character(s) you’re currently writing for:

alex claremont-díaz, henry fox-mountchristen-windsor, beatrice fox-mountchristen-windsor, june claremont-díaz, nora holleran, and percy "pez" okonjo have all had their points of view written or worked on at some point on my docs. between that and them seeing the light of day is another thing.

character(s) you haven’t written about before but plan on writing about soon:

i- i guess, since they haven't been posted yet, bea, nora and pez will get their time to shine (soon, hopefully) on my next fics. ive also been trying to write a bit of catherine for the diabetic!henry au,,,,, but its been really hard bc its all just too close to home.

fandom(s) you’re currently writing for:

red, white & royal blue

platonic pairing(s) you currently write for:

at this moment im obsessed with writing alex interacting with both bea and pez, bc we didnt get enough of that on the book and fics always show june being besties with henry and i kinda wanted to pull an uno reverse on that trope. also, im really interested in writing some henry and nora, bc they're besties on the book that gossip about drag race and stuff,,,,, but i want to maybe dive into it a bit deeper.

romantic pairing(s) you currently write for:

firstprince and junopez, and ive already have two wips where i give bea a girlfriend,,,,,, so theres that

your top 3 tags on AO3 (if you post your works on AO3):

i literally went to my dashboard to look it up, the first one is my different alterations of the tag "not beta read", but we're not going to count that one. next we have (surprisingly to no one) "angst", "mental health issues" 💀💀, and lastly "songfic" jskssjsksjsksjsksjskswjsksjsksjsks

your current platform where you post your works:

you can find me on ao3 as raysletters

snippet of the wip you’re currently working on:

i am working on SO many wips rn bc ive been sick and that has meant being in bed and not doing shit most of the day bc it hurts to breathe sjsksjsksjsksjskssjsksjkssjsksjsjsjajkssj

here, i give yall a snippet of the musician!alex au yall saw on the wip title game (that can be alternatively called "fulfilling most of smut saturday prompts in one single fic bc i wanted to try writing smut and it quickly got out of my hands")

so, idk if this would be nsfw bc it is not the smut itself, but more like smut-adjacent narration, but still putting the break so y'all can decide if you want to read it or not

This exact moment, though? It might not only embarrass him in a very public setting, but might also make him combust and collapse from sheer lust.

The entire place is crowded to the point of asphyxiation, the fans are spinning at their limit speed on the ceiling, and Henry feels like this is probably how hell feels.

That is, if hell ever had the pleasure of getting Alexander Claremont-Díaz on his knees, making the most obscene and erotic guitar solo known to mankind, thrusting his hips to the rhythm of She by Harry Styles on his guitar while the lights focus on him; his open white shirt shows the chain he now knows contains the key to his family's home at Texas, his glistening chest and the sweat that rolls over his collarbones, his pectorals, his abdomen and then disappear on his navel behind the guitar. It makes Henry reminisce of that first video he ever saw of Alex, and can’t help but compare the performance to seeing it live after more than a year, while knowing how excited he had been at the rehearsal, jumping and moving around while refusing to practice because of his own jitters.

Of course it paid off, Alex, the bloody show-off, has the entire place entranced under his spell, not even the clients sitting on the bar stools, who had shown little interest in the performance through the night, could take their eyes off of Alex.

Henry absolutely gets it, but can't help the feeling of jealousy that courses through him. He desperately wants to drop to his knees to show Alex how marvelous he is, hoping he thrusts in his mouth like he does on his guitar.

#ask game #writing #red white and royal blue #rwrb #rwrb fic #alex claremont diaz #henry fox mountchristen windsor #firstprince #ao3 #raysletters on ao3 #musician!alex au

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scarlettriot · 3 years

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Along for the Ride PT 1

Pairing: KirishimaxF!Reader

Summary: A drunken mistake had you marking the little Plus One box to your snobby cousin's wedding. Kirishima told you not to worry, if you couldn't find a date, he'd go with you. When the wedding gets moved up, there's absolutely no time to find a date and you're now about to be traveling to America with Kirishima on a private jet no less, dreading having him meet your rude and impossibly arrogant family.

Contains: Kirishima and Reader both come from very well-off families. Plus-Sized Reader. Fluff. Hurt/Comfort.

Warnings: Kinda smutty for a minute. Minors DNI. Drunken Sex. TW: Manipulative Family Relationships. TW: Body Image Issues

A/N: This story has been rolling around in my head for a while now. I might rewrite this and repost. Or I might just post the whole thing soon. I dunno yet. It does get smuttier.

Word Count: 4,974

"What's up with Y/N?"

Eijiro stepped out of the locker room with a towel slung over his shoulder and made his way into the kitchenette where Mina was chugging a bottle of water before getting back to her patrol. His eyes were trained on their mutual friend out on the patio, pacing.

You had your phone pressed to your ear, the high neck of your hero costume unzipped to your collarbone and he noticed your gloves discarded on a chair.

"No clue." Mina shrugged. "She got back from patrol and she noticed a bunch of missed calls from her mom. She's been out there, flailing on the phone for the last fifteen minutes now."

The three of you had met in your second year at UA when you transferred into their class and were quickly accepted by their little squad of friends. You were a bit quiet at first but quickly found comfort in the group. Eijiro had grown especially close to you when you both interned with Fat Gum.

Late nights traveling on the train back to school, a few close calls while helping patrol, and days spent playing cards while you both healed up in the hospital left plenty of time for Eijiro to get to know you better than most. It was how he knew you had a pretty bad relationship with your family, why you hated returning home for the holidays almost as much as you hated any and all forms of tomatoes.

He considered going out there just to see if there was anything he could do but before he had the chance, you were sliding the glass door open. "Oh, good, you're back." He offered you a bottle of water for your throat that he assumed was sore after that argument. "I- um- can I borrow you for a second? Alone?"

Mina snorted a laugh. "If you guys wanna bang it out on the counter you can just say so. I gotta go to work anyways."

Eijiro threw the towel at her as she left the room leaving you two alone. "What's goin' on?"

You hoisted yourself up on the countertop while he leaned against the fridge. "You remember my cousin's wedding that's happening this winter?"

He nodded. He vividly remembered the both of you getting waste a few weeks ago when you were filling out the RSVP and accidentally marking 'plus one'. Then you ran around trying to find White Out but he'd told you if you didn't find a date or have a significant other by the time of the wedding, he'd just go with you.

You argued that your family was bat shit crazy, had more money than they could spend in their lifetime and because of that, they were among some of the rudest people you knew, and you didn't want Eijiro or anyone else around that.

The thing was, Eijiro already knew that and was still okay with going. He came from money too. A lot of it. His family was just more welcoming than yours, the wealth never really going to their heads. But, he reminded you that he'd ran into enough people like those in your family that he knew how to handle them. You finally agreed to let him accompany you, leaving the plus one box checked but the name line blank.

"Well, my cousin just found out that surprise, she's pregnant! And, obviously, she can't have a wedding while seven months along so they've decided to move the wedding up to this weekend."

He nearly choked on his own spit. "This weekend? As in four days from now?"

"Yup! Saturday at 4 in the evening. Oh! No one's supposed to know she's pregnant either. So, I'm just supposed to compliment her on how flattering her dress looks, how thin she is," Your hands strangled the water bottle between them, "And I have to find something flattering to my figure because my mother has seen me in my hero outfit and she's so glad I wear a mask because if anyone knew her daughter ran around looking like I do, well, it'd ruin her!"

You massaged your temples circling back to the actual point, "Anyways, I just wanted to bitch for a sec and let you know you're off the hook since four days is just a little short notice and I told her my plus one wouldn't be able to get the time off that fast."

He pushed off the fridge. "Well, wait, hang on! I'm not letting you go in alone to deal with them! Hell no! You need backup!" You looked almost taken aback by his abruptness, "Yeah. I can work this out. Is the wedding at the same place it was supposed to be or has it moved?"

"No, it's still that fancy lodge in California. I was planning on leaving Friday morning and then coming back either Sunday night or Monday morning since my mother insists I go to their brunch the following day. But, Eijiro, I already have this weekend off..."

"Denki owes me a favor or twelve. He's supposed to be off this weekend too, I'll just see if he can cover me."

"And if he can't?"

"Then..." He pressed the back of his hand to his forehead, "Y/N, am I feeling warm to you? I think I might be starting a fever!"

You folded your arms, shaking your head, "Thought you said lying isn't manly."

"Technically, correct. But, what would be real unmanly is for me to let you deal with your family's bullshit all alone." You watched him closely, "To be honest, I'm sure we could just explain you had a family thing come up and asked me to come along for moral support. I don't really think anyone would think twice about it. Hell, you took a few days off to console me when my turtle died suddenly!"

"Eiji, you refused to eat."

"And you brought me my favorite dumplings! Same thing!"

You might have shaken your head at him but your arms opened wide. The telltale sign you wanted affection. He walked forward, consuming you in a tight hug. Your arms latched around his neck, face buried in the hollow of his throat. "You're the best."

"I just do what I can."

>>><<<

You should have canceled. Instead of Eijiro faking sick to get out of work, you should have faked it with your mother so you didn't have to go in the first place. You crumpled to the floor of your bedroom in pure frustration amidst the twenty or so outfits and dozen pairs of shoes you'd thrown out of your closet trying to find something that your mother would deem appropriate.

It wasn't your fault you had a fuller figure. You worked out, ate right, not to mention your job kept you very active, and yet your, hips, ass, and breasts were by no means subtle.

Your mother had also insisted on the dress being floor-length and modern, "Do try not wearing all black. It's a wedding, not a funeral. And, get your hair looking natural, please." And, just like that, 70% of your wardrobe was out the window!

"It's open!" You called from the floor when the doorbell rang.

"You really should lock this." Mina tutted, walking through the door with a bag full of takeout.

"I do. At night."

"Honey, it's 9 PM."

"Night like bedtime."

Mina just rolled her eyes and walked into your tiny kitchen. "I see the dress hunt is going well."

"I actually figured it out!" You got off the floor, careful not to step on a heel as you made your way to the pink haired woman, "I'm just gonna go in my birthday suit. I figured, my mother made my body technically therefore she can't disapprove of it. Because, you know, she's never done anything wrong in her life!"

Your best friend snorted out a laugh and passed you the take-out container stuffed full of stir fry. "you're a wonderful person, you know that?" You loved the fact Mina didn't even have to ask what you wanted.

"If you'd just move closer to work then you could pick it up yourself and I wouldn't have to bring it to you."

"Too expensive." You declared after a mouthful. "You pay almost twice as much as I do per month and I just don't see the point. I have damn near the same amount of space you do for half the cost!"

You adored your small one-bedroom apartment. It was perfect. Right above a bakery that you visited each morning after your run and a little balcony that provided you with the most stunning view of the sunset.

"You and Kiri, I swear." Mina just shook her head and curled up with her food on the loveseat. "I thought he'd end up with the biggest house out of us all the moment we started making that real Pro money. You've seen his parent's house. It's massive! You could get lost in that place!"

Eijiro's place was barely bigger than your own. He lived in the same condo he had since you'd graduated UA, claiming it was perfect for him in each and every way. But, you knew that he donated a sizable amount of his paycheck every month to charities, the same as you. With savings to spare, neither of you saw the point in hoarding it and therefore the small condo was all he could afford with what he actually kept.

"Just don't understand how a guy that big can live in such a tiny little space. At least with you, it's you know, physically feasible."

Eijiro's bedroom was barely large enough to fit the king-sized bed the man needed to sleep comfortably and even then, his feet were dangerously close to dangling off the bed. And, as if the man's ears were burning, your cell phone went off under a pile of discarded shoes.

Shark-E: Figured out your dress situation? If not, I'm just gonna pack like ten different ties and hope for the best.

You: Yeah! I totally did! I'm just gonna wear this birthday suit I got and call it a night.

You chuckled at your own joke all over again. Watching the grey ellipses appear and then vanish, appear and vanish again. After a third time, you took pity on the man.

You: Joking, Ei. I still don't have it figured out but Mina's over so, hopefully, she can help.

Shark-E: Gonna give me a damn heart attack! Seriously, I wouldn't put it past you just to see the look on your mom's face. Tell Mina hi and good luck to you. I vote the dress from the Hero Gala two years ago.

You: Hi from Mina. Can't. Too much boobs.

Shark-E: You take that back right now! There is NEVER such a thing as too much boobs!

You chuckled to yourself, putting your phone down, and then finished off the last of your delicious dinner, thinking about the dress Eijiro mentioned.

You wondered if maybe there was a way you could make the thing work but it was so very low cut. So much tape had been used to make sure no slips happened but damn was it worth it! The beaded bodice with the sparkling long sleeves, gods, how you loved that dress.

"I'm inclined to agree with our shark boy. You're busty, who gives a damn. You looked hot as hell in that dress."

"My mother, that's who. As much as I'd like to not give a flying fuck what she thinks, for some dumb reason, I do. On top of her telling me that the amount of cleavage I would show would be vastly inappropriate for a wedding, she'd also say the way it hugs my hips makes them look too fat."

Mina rolled her eyes. "She's such a piece of work." Pushing herself up, she held her arms out to you, wiggling little pink fingers for you to take. "Come on then. Let's get you sorted."

"What about that one you wore to the charity art thingy with Kyoka last winter? The one with the silver top."

"Silver is too close to white." You called out from within your closet.

"What! Not true!"

"You know that. I know that. Every person with two brain cells knows that, which is why most of my family does not know that."

"Fine..." She whined and started sifting through the opposite end of your closet. "Oh, what about this?" Mina waved about the blue and green plaid skirt that made up your uniform from your middle school days when you lived in America. "Please try this on. I'm begging!"

You were pretty sure it wouldn't even go over your thighs anymore.

"It's got a better chance of fitting you!"

Mina threw it at you anyway. Slipping off the sweats you wore, somehow, someway, you were able to tug it on AND get it zipped, barely. It no longer covered your ass but you still enjoyed the way it swished around when you wiggled your hips.

"You could be fulfilling so many people's fantasies right now." Mina mused.

You pulled the skirt off and sweats back on, throwing the former back at her. "Yeah, you can take it and go fulfill Hanta's fantasies if you like. Not like I've got anyone to impress." You pulled down a dress you bought on sale a year ago but Mina was quick to dismiss it.

Too puffy, she said and then held up one that was from Momo. "I needed to get it shortened and I don't have time for that now."

"Wait..." She hummed and dropped the Momo dress. "I know what it should be!"

Mina hurried through the closet, grumbling about not finding it. "Just tell me which dress and I can tell you where it's at."

"It's that one you got for grad night and then you got sick and couldn't go!"

"Mina, Mina I can't wear that! That's actual vintage, not like, made-to-look-vintage!"

"But it's so elegant and has that off-the-shoulder sleeve thing. The wedding is at a damn sky lodge! It'll look so pretty in the snow! Ah! Found it!"

She yanked up the long, elegant gown from the garment bag you'd never removed it from. There wasn't a single wrinkle in the burgundy fabric. It looked just as beautiful as the day you found it in that second-hand store, on a mannequin with gaudy stage jewels that you just had to buy so the look was complete.

You ran the back of your hand over the velvety fabric, soft to the touch. "It'll be too tight now. If I was the same size I was at graduation-"

"Bullshit!" Mina cut you off with a dismissive hand, "You've got hips now. We aren't 18 anymore! It's not like it's some clubbing dress. And I bet no one would say a damn thing about your figure if they knew how easily you could crush them with those thighs!"

A smirk tugged at the corner of your lips. Without quirks, you gave every single one of your classmates a run for their money in hand to hand. Most were fairly easy to beat. You could usually take down Eijiro in about five or six minutes and Katsuki in half the time. Funny enough, it was Ochaco that gave you the hardest time.

"I'll consider it. But help me find something else just in case."

>>><<<

It was another two hours before you finally agreed on an a-line, empire waist green and gold number that had been the bridesmaid's dresses for Tetsutetsu's wedding. Mina thought they were a crime the first time they had to wear them, she had no idea what you were thinking.

That's why the moment you were preoccupied with trying to find yet another dress for the Sunday brunch, Mina pulled out her phone.

You: DO NOT, under any circumstances, allow Y/N to wear the green dress. She's bringing two because she can't decide. Red is the winner!

Jaws: Aw, come on. If she likes it, let her wear whatever she's comfortable in. She'll be under enough stress already.

You: Kirishima, it's the dress from Tetsu's wedding. The one that looks sparkly baby food.

It took him a second to respond.

Jaws: Alright. Understood. I thought you guys looked good but damn, she hated that dress.

You: We all did.

Mina looked at the message chain again and couldn't help but asked, "Are we just gonna ignore the fact that you and Eiji are flying all the way to America, last minute, to attend a wedding together, even though you're not together?"

"We've flown to the states before."

"For work!" She sat up eagerly. "This is different, Y/N! This is a date and not just a, like, casual date but a wedding date!"

You poked your head out of the closet. "No, it isn't. This is a friend helping another friend who stupidly mismarked an RSVP." You corrected very plainly but Mina wasn't one to give up so easily.

She whined, dragging out your name, "You guys have been doing this thing for ages. Why do you have to be so stubborn about it all!"

"What's that supposed to mean!"

Mina started ticking off points on her fingers. "He was the first person you opened up to at UA. You saved his life when he was busy saving Katsuki's life second year. You spent all that time interning together, became sidekicks together. Went to America together for three whole months, ALONE, and you honestly expect me to think there's nothing between the two of you!"

The truth of it all was simple really; 17 year old you had a massive crush on Eijiro Kirishima. He was sweet, always listening to you, providing comfort when you needed it, and always encouraging you to push your limits. He was bright and honest, a little slow in the head from time to time but that made him all the more endearing.

He was also head over heels in love with Katsuki Bakugo.

It was why you never made a move. Never spoke a word of the feelings you harbored. You didn't dare to cross that line with him because you couldn't ever hold a candle to the explosive man.

In the three years Eijiro and Katsuki spent together, your brain finally started registering Eijiro as just a friend, nothing more, and certainly nothing less. You thought your heart had followed suit but it was becoming more and more apparent that wasn't the case. Because the night he showed up at your door, tears in his ruby eyes, every lock you put on your heart broke open.

The same way you couldn't hold a candle to Katsuki, Eijiro couldn't hold one to Izuku. You knew exactly what he was feeling even if you never intended to tell him. Too overcome with fear. If Katsuki came back... that'd be it. Eijiro would go back and you wouldn't even blame him!

Still, the redhead consumed a decent chunk of your heart though, you couldn't deny that after the three months you spent together in America, gathering intel on a smuggling ring, living in the same apartment. The groggy, 'good mornings' when his voice was still scratchy with sleep, hair falling in his eyes. The late nights bandaging wounds and killing cheap bottles of wine while watching terrible American reality shows.

It was those bottles of wine that did you in on your second to last night in America. Supplying you with courage and draining your sense of reason, allowing you to crawl onto his lap, into his arms. You could still remember the pressure of his lips on yours, those sharp teeth gently dragging along your lower lip.

Scared hands tracing the curve of your ass before taking handfuls to squeeze. The laugh that came from you was unlike anything you heard before, something so genuine that you couldn't reproduce.

How it felt when he lifted you up and took you to his bed, laying you down taking his time removing your clothes, and watching with awe as you pulled away his own. The way he looked over top of you, his hair a curtain of red around you just before you closed your eyes, gasping while he filled you.

You also remembered the guilt that crept into your head during the wee hours of the morning, the doubt that was louder than the snores coming from behind you.

It made you slip from under his massive arm, gather up your clothes from his floor, you tucked the blanket around him, and pressed a kiss to his temple before padding out of the room.

You told yourself you'd talk to him about it if he brought it up, but he never did. Not the next morning, or night, not on the plane ride back home, nor anytime since. It was a memory you'd hold close to your heart, one you wouldn't let slip away or share.

"There's nothing there, Mina. We're just good friends is all." You lied with a smile on your face, something that had become surprisingly easy to do.

If only you knew that Mina saw right through it. That Mina already knew the truth of it all.

>>><<<

It was nearly one in the morning when your phone rang. The goofy picture of Eijiro with face half painted at a festival a few years back never failed to make you grin.

"It's a little late." You answered by way of greeting.

"Don't pretend like you were anywhere close to sleeping, you little night owl."

Chuckling at the nickname that had followed you since high school, "What's up, Eiji?"

"I was going over flights. You said in the office that you wanted to leave on Friday?"

"Yeah. I have patrol tomorrow and I didn't find any flights after 6 PM so, Friday is the earliest."

He was quiet on the other line for a moment. "Yeah, you don't have patrol tomorrow, or work at all for that matter."

You sat up a bit straighter in bed. "Um, yes I do."

"No, you don't. I called Mina, asked her if you'd mind taking that shift for you and, since she knows what's happening, she agreed the extra day for travel would do you some good. So, she's covering you tomorrow then you're off work until next Wednesday. As for me, thanks to all that overtime I put in when Denki, Kyoka, and Hitoshi got married, the three of them are splitting up my days so I have until Wednesday too."

Eijiro sounded impossibly proud on the other line, you could almost see the smirk on his face. "You've got this all planned out, don't you?"

"And a bag nearly packed. Just need you to tell me what ties to bring."

"Gold, burgundy, and black."

"Thought your mom said no black for you?"

"She said no black for the wedding. She said nothing about black at the brunch!"

You couldn't wait to put on the tea-length dress that had been a favorite for years. Satin with a lacy top and, best of all, pockets.

He let out a rumbling laugh that fell off into comfortable silence as you laid back in your bed, lights still on, the room still a mess. You tapped the speaker icon and laid the phone on the pillow right beside your head, listing to the various sounds of Eijiro moving around.

A door creaking open, a hanger clattering against another, and a zipper. "And just like that, I'm all set."

"Don't forget your passport or hero license."

"I have one in my wallet and the other in my backpack."

You swiped up on your iPad, off Netflix, and going to google, lazily searching through flights. "So, did you find any good flights since you've clearly been looking?"

Another chuckle, "Eijiro, why are you laughing?" More stifled giggles had you sitting up in bed again. "Just tell me a site you were on. They're just flights, what's so funny?"

"There isn't a site."

"You said you were checking flights."

"And I was... on my family's jet."

"Eiji! No! No, no, no! That is supposed to be for their business or hero things! My stupid cousin's wedding is neither of those things!"

"Relax, Y/N. My family has multiple and they don't have any business trips planned right now anyways. I already cleared it with my mom. Seriously, I just mention your name and she's likely to let me have it for a whole year at least. Plus Todoroki's is back up in working order so the agency is covered too."

Damn, why'd he have to be so good at planning from time to time! You'd completely forgotten about the second jet his family had. Always opting for the larger one since the few missions they needed it for required them to bring fifty or so heroes along.

"Besides, if we fly private, we can land at an airstrip closer to the venue and won't need to drive four hours on top of a ten-hour flight."

"Alright, okay, thank you but, let me take care of the rental car, please. It's the least you can let me do."

"Deal. I just have one more question for ya."

"What's that?"

"Wanna leave tonight?"

You nearly dropped your damn iPad in shock. "Eijiro! What the fuck has gotten into you! It's the middle of the night!"

"I'm excited!" He boomed, "I haven't had a vacation in months!"

"I hate to break this to you, buddy, but this isn't going to be a vacation. You really shouldn't get your hopes up. This isn't going to be a good time with laughs and fun memories... my family, they just, they aren't those kinds of people."

"But we are." He stated matter-of-factly. "If they want to have sticks up their asses then let them! We'll have a good time on our own, laugh and make fun memories! So, what do you say, Y/N? I can be at your place in fifteen. I just gotta put shoes on and grab my keys..."

"Wait, hang on. Are you forgetting that we need someone to, oh, I dunno, FLY THE PLANE! Actually, we need two someone's, can't forget about a co-pilot!"

He hummed happily and you rubbed your temples. "You, you have a pilot and a co, don't you, Eiji?"

"Mhm! There is a company we use. Two can be at the hanger in an hour and every hour after that. I just have to make the call and get the flight plan approved which will be done before I even get to your house."

There was literally no reason to say no. You had mostly everything packed, nothing you needed to get from the store, all you had to do was put on pants and pack up your hygiene bag and you were ready too. Maybe getting there quicker and getting the whole thing over with would be better than staying home dwelling on everything.

"Better put your shoes on."

The glee in his voice, that was enough to make this whole thing worth it, "I'll see you soon."

>>><<<

Eijiro reached into the backseat and plopped a bag down on your lap the very moment you were buckled in. "Had to make a pit stop." He explained.

"It's after two in the morning, where'd you have to..."

"Just open the bag and don't complain."

You found it filled to the brim with all your favorite snacks.

"I'm sure the plane will have a bunch of snacks we can raid but I know for a fact they don't have these." He held up a pack of cookies and creme flavored pocky that had been his favorite for as long as you'd known him, quickly followed by your favorite flavor too. You also found a massive bag of gummy worms and jolly ranchers.

"So, what you're telling me is our teeth are going to rot by the time we land? Not that I'm complaining."

You ripped open the bag of ranchers knowing that was what he'd go for first and sure enough his hand dove inside just as he pulled away from the curb. You could hear his dangerously sharp teeth biting through the rock candy like it was nothing while you still rolled one around your mouth.

Eijiro asked you about the resort you'd be going to, wondering if you'd been there before or what other stuff you guys could do when you weren't dealing with your family. "I figured we could fly back Monday night or Tuesday morning, you know, just play it by ear in case there was anything else we wanted to do."

More than anything, you wished you could just leech a little bit of that excitement from him. The glimpses of his smile you caught as you drove under the street lights made your heart ache.

"What?" He asked with that wide smile of his. You'd been caught staring, red-handed.

"I, uh, I just don't know what to tell you."

You could see the subtle change of his grin, watch as it softened and his hand came to rest on your thigh. "Hey, it's gonna be fine! And if we run into them while out doing stuff, you can just avoid them or hide behind me!" At least hiding behind Eijiro is an easy thing to do, damn mountain of a man.

His thumb slowly brushed back and forth. "'S gonna be okay. I'll beat 'em up if they're assholes!"

You snickered at his Katsuki impression and let the drone of the radio fill the air around you both. Enjoying the silence the rest of the way to the hanger with Eijiro's hand atop your leg.

#mha #bnha #kirishima x reader #kirishima x y/n #eijiro kirishima #kirishima smut #mha x reader #mha x y/n

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leafs-lover · 3 years

Text

Too Far Gone - Part Nineteen

Series Masterlist

A/N: Sorry this is late, but part twenty shouldn’t be much longer!

Warnings: Minor cursing, feelings of helplessness, mentions of escorting and stripping, very brief somewhat smutty stuff, I think that’s it

Word Count: 7200

“You going to answer that?” Max asks watching her phone chime for the third time.

“It’s just Sarah,” Tia sighs, muting the call, knowing exactly what it’s about. “It’s about a job. A private job on Saturday.”

“Why are you ignoring that? Do you want to pay your next months rent?”

“I have weeks to make up the money,” Tia rolls her eyes, getting sick of the constant nagging of her friends. It’s the same recycled conversation. It doesn’t matter where it starts it always ends here.

“And what exactly is your plan since you still aren’t working?” Max adds, emphasizing the direness of the situation, as if Tia wasn’t aware.

“You could just ask Auston for some money. You know, his dad,” Becks chimes in, nodding to Taylour who is sitting in her lap quietly colouring a picture. “The man worth millions, poised to make over $11 million next season,”

“Its not that simple,” Tia sighs. Following Becks gaze she stares at Taylour, his tongue slightly poking out from the corner of his parted lips. He has the exact look Auston has when he is concentrating on something. When he used to watch his film from previous games Tia would always notice that, it was one of her favourite things about him, something he would do without even knowing.

In the past month she has noticed Auston more and more in Taylour. She doesn’t know if it’s because they are spending more time together so he is picking up these traits and behaviours, or if maybe he was doing it all along but Tia didn’t notice until they were side by side.

Setting down the crayon Taylour reaches out for the red one, just slightly out of his grasp, Tia nudges it forward for him. Smiling at her son she watches him continue with his drawing before turning her attention back to her friends, “what if they are just booking the event for me?”

“You said they requested two girls,” Becks shrugs. “And they are booking through Sarah, how would they even know you’d show up as the second one?”

She’s right. Tia knows it. Sarah explained all this to her when she called her yesterday. Said it was a birthday party for someone and they wanted two strippers. Sarah said he would have no way of knowing who the second person would be, and they wouldn’t even know that they knew each other. But this fear inside eats at her, telling her something is wrong.

Tia asked for time to think it through. Still unsure if she is ready to face the city. At this point she has accepted her return will result in an uptick in stories, a spinning of the rumour mill. She knows she has to get back at some point.

“Mommy look,” Taylour exclaims pointing to the picture. Standing up she glances over Becks shoulder to see three blobs, along with a tree and a large yellow sun. The small one in the center Tia recognizes as Taylour, not just because of the small size but because he always draws himself the exact same in every picture.

“Wow Taylour, is that you?” she asks, pointing to it.

“Mhm,” he nods. “And that’s you mommy,” he explains pointing to the blob with the red shirt and long brown hair, something Tia already assumed.

“Wow Taylour, you really got the scale right,” Max jokes, pointing to her exaggerated long neck.

“Max,” Becks huffs under her breath, trying to disguise her smile.

“Who’s that Taylour?” Becks asks pointing to the last blob on the page. Glancing at it, Tia assumes its Becks, the short dark hair and a blue shirt. The exact colour she is currently wearing.

“That’s daddy,” Taylour explains casually, not recognizing the significance.

“Daddy, right,” Tia says softly, her breath catching in her throat. It’s a simple concept, a child drawing a picture of their friends and family. Tia has countless pictures of Taylour with her, with Max, with Becks, with some combination of the three of them. But this is different, and she knows it.

“Mhm, he’s my friend” Taylour explains with a proud smile, his finger still pointing at the picture. “He’s plays wif me.”

Swallowing back some tears, Tia shakes her head. She knew Taylour was growing an attachment to Auston, she would be naïve to think it wouldn’t happen. Sometimes when Tia is at home with Taylour, he’d tell her a story of something they did or a funny thing Auston did. And when she tells him he is coming to visit, his face will light up.

Hearing Taylour casually mention Auston, especially when they haven’t really had a chance to talk in the past two days due to his back to back games, it confirms the building relationship between them. It hits her in a way she didn't expect.

Things have been somewhat better between them, there is still leaps and bounds they need to go through. And Auston is trying. He has tried to get her to talk, tried to offer her support. A shoulder to cry on, an ear to listen. But at every possible chance Tia rejects his offers. Yes, she lets him see Taylour, he’ll spend hours at her apartment, playing or reading with him. But she doesn’t give him any more.

After her dad’s revelation, she promised to not make the same mistakes as him. To always put Taylour first, no matter the cost. But she is refusing to let him in. Refusing to return to work. Refusing to do anything, and the only one to suffer will be Taylour. The stress of everything, the perpetual fear that she isn’t doing enough, she isn’t enough, it eats at her.

This picture makes her want to do more, makes her want to let him in and be more involved. This picture is a clear indication that Taylour wants him around more, that he enjoys having both of his parents in his life.

Continuing on with her night, Tia, like so many times before, smiled and laughed at their jokes. But for the first time in weeks she didn’t find herself hating every second of it, constantly looking for a way out.

That’s not to say she did try to cancel last minute, not overly enthused about having to be around people. But they both still showed up at 6, just like planned, claiming to have not seen her text. They stayed long after Taylour fell asleep, she had fun for the first time in weeks.

Feeling good the next day she text Sarah that she would do the private gig. She went to class, picked Taylour up from daycare, and even took him for a hot chocolate. Spending some of her dwindling savings to see his large smile complete with a whipped cream mustache.

Auston stopped by that evening. Tia, attempted to give him some time alone, went to her room even though she could sense Auston wanted her to stay and spend time with them. She watched Netflix on her laptop, only the soft glow of a bedside lamp in her room. Her mind began to wander, the darkness slowly pulling her in. She knew she should go out to the living room, join in whatever was making Taylour laugh so loudly. But her brain couldn’t get her feet to work and instead she slunk further into her bed.

By the time Auston left her bed had consumed her. Sucked her in and dragged her thirty feet to the bottom of a well. She desperately tried to climb out, or so she thought. Instead she curled into a ball and lost sight of the light.

Waking up today she could tell she was spiraling even more. If it wasn’t for Taylour climbing in her bed and jumping on her she likely never would have left it. Her duvet engulfed her in warmth, protecting her from that which lies around her. But Taylour needed breakfast, and help with his puzzle.

Then he needed lunch. Then Tia had to try and contain him while he FaceTimed Auston after his morning skate. That in itself was exhausting. Taylour nearing his naptime was fussy, whining and screaming for most of it. Tia put on a brave face for Auston’s sake, but he could tell she was fighting. Fighting to get through. Fighting to not admit she needs help.

But not too long after the call ended Taylour was asleep and her apartment was quiet. Tia brought him into her bed, finally getting the opportunity to sleep again. She had only been awake for a few hours but she felt like she had been deprived of sleep for days. She was exhausted, physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted. It should have come easily to her but she was also to irritable to sleep. Every scenario known to man ran through her head, unable to shut down her brain even for five minutes.

Her evening was just as chaotic. Taylour woke up full of energy, running around the apartment wearing only a diaper, shrieking at every turn. After dinner Taylour began to tire and Tia finally could hear herself think just when Sarah phoned.

She explained Charlie had fallen ill and she wouldn’t be able to go to the event tonight. For a second, Tia was relieved thinking she too wouldn’t have to go. But then Sarah explained the website she advertises on relies heavily on client reviews. Sarah had contacted the client and they weren’t overly pleased with the idea of only one girl when they had booked two. They reluctantly agreed but Sarah was still on the hunt for a second, but being a Saturday night it seemed unlikely.

If Tia didn’t go then Sarah would have to cancel last minute, leading to poor review. If it was anyone else Tia would have backed out. But Sarah is a single mom too, the only difference is Charlie’s father is barely involved. He never pays child support, and rarely spends time with Charlie, sometimes cancelling plans last minute. Refusing to relinquish his parental rights, the last bit of power he holds over Sarah, she is basically alone. Any bad review could result in fewer bookings, only enhancing her struggles. Because of that Tia agreed to go alone even though ever cell in her body wanted to fall into the darkness of her bed.

“Hey,” Becks smiles stepping into Tia’s apartment, wrapping an arm around Tia. “It’s quiet, Taylour sleeping?” she questions.

“Yeah, he went down not too long ago,” Tia explains, letting Becks in. Auston has a game tonight against Buffalo so he was unable to watch Taylour, leading her to ask Becks to step in. Walking into her bathroom, Becks sits on the edge of her tub watching while Tia finishes getting ready.

“You excited?”

“No,” Tia sighs. “Sarah cancelled minutes before I was going to call her to cancel. If I don’t go nobody will, so I have to.”

“I’m sure it will be –“

“What if –“

“Then you leave, then and there, just walk out. Come home and tell me all about it. We can drink, watch a movie, cry, whatever you need. But I don’t think anything will happen, nobody knows it’s you going.”

It doesn’t mean anything to Tia. Just because they aren’t expecting her to show up it doesn’t mean things won’t change once she gets there. It doesn’t mean there won’t be snide comments or off-handed jokes. It doesn’t mean her anxiety hasn’t been building all day.

“I’m not trying to make you go,” Becks says. Walking over to the vanity she stops a few inches from Tia, her eyes soft and full of compassion. Grabbing the bronzer and brush from Tia’s hand, Becks takes over gently sweeping across her cheekbone. “I just don’t want you to overthink it. I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”

“Yeah,” Tia sighs heavily. “I mean I need the money,” she says, trying to convince herself. Without Sarah, Tia gets the full fee, $500 plus tips. That covers a portion of her rent for next month or some of Taylour’s daycare. By no means is it enough to cover her rapidly building debt, but it certainly is a start.

“Exactly, and there will be less people than at the club. It won’t be as chaotic. Even if someone tweets something, it won’t lead to fights or a packed bar. Tonight, it’s just the people at the party. We’ll deal with whatever happens, if anything happens, tomorrow.”

“Okay,” she agrees, sighing heavily.

“We need to talk about something else,” Becks suggests. “Get your mind off of it. So tell me something.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know, anything,” Becks laughs, moving on to her blush. “There has to be something going on in your life you haven’t told me.”

“I saw you two days ago,” Tia laughs.

“Mhm, but I know you,” Becks says smirking. “Something is going on in there.”

“I’m thinking of adding Auston to the birth certificate,” Tia says after a deep, contemplating exhale.

Snapping the blush shut, Becks sets everything down. Saying nothing she eyes to Tia, waiting for her to continue. “He is his dad,” Tia adds.

“Mhm, I know. It’s just a pretty big deal.”

“He’s been pretty great since finding out. I mean there have been some obvious hiccups…”

“Sleeping together, him calling you a bad mom, trying to take Taylour. You –“

“Yes. Those hiccups,” Tia agrees, scrunching her nose at the errors they both have made. “It’s just…I know he… with everything that happened with my dad…” Taking a deep breath, Tia takes a minute to compose herself. “My dad is my only family. If something happens to me, he would get Taylour, not Auston. Obviously Auston would fight that, but it would take time. After what my dad did…I wouldn’t want him to raise Taylour.”

“That makes sense, but you could just do a will and list him as the guardian if something ever happens to you,” Becks says knocking on the counter. “You don’t have to list him on the birth certificate for that.”

“No, I know.” Tia explains. “But he is Taylour’s dad. If my dad didn’t do what he did, I wholeheartedly believe he would have been here the entire time. He would have been there while I was pregnant, the birth, 2am feedings. Even if he and I didn’t stay together, he never would have walked away from Taylour.”

Blinking back a few tears for the life she could have had, Tia takes a deep breath. “If he had the chance he would have done it. If things were different, his name would have been on it all along. He has lost so much because of my dad, I think it’s time he stops.”

“No I get it. I mean he is Taylour’s friend,” Becks smirks, remembering his announcement a few days earlier.

Walking through the lobby Tia feels out of place. Her heels click against the large marble floor tiles, she feels small in comparison to the oversized pillars and high ceilings, cheap next to the breathtaking artwork hanging on the walls.

She can feel the eyes burning into her back as she waits for the elevator to open. This condo is right in the heart of downtown Toronto. Minutes to the CN Tower and the lake, surrounded by other high rises and breathtaking views. Maserati’s, Ferrari’s, Mercedes, all of them are no doubt parked in the garage below her. She hasn’t been to this building, but she knows the neighbourhood. Prominent businessmen, accountants, lawyers. Money. You have to have money to live here.

That’s why she opted for her longer coat, one that stops at her knees. She bought it in Zurich, and even then it wasn’t new, having found it at a consignment store. But it had barely been worn, only discarded because it was ‘two seasons old.’

The grey Prada jacket is a relatively relaxed fit, single-breasted, two buttons and a belt, but it’s a classic. Timeless. At this point, with a two year old and busy lifestyle she doesn’t have many opportunities to wear it, but it seemed like the right piece for tonight. Something to make it appear as though she belongs.

The length of jacket also covers her dress that ends a few inches above it, a barely-there blue lace set underneath that. Part of her hair is tucked under the jackets collar, the rest under a large hat that helps to hide her face, makeup creating a dewy glow on her skin, lips inked with bright red. Hands are shoved in her pockets and head down, trying to avoid any glances, to not re-ignite the rumour mill.

Finding the apartment number she knocks, and after a few seconds the door opens, a gorgeous red head standing in front of her. Broad shoulders, thick and defined arms on display through his thin grey shirt. “Carmen?” he asks with a wide grin outlined by his manicured facial hair. Nodding slightly, she breathes out a soft yes as he steps out of the way to let her in.

“Let me grab your coat,” he offers, his voice is husky but eyes are soft.

“Thanks,” she replies, shaking her coat and hat off, handing it to him. Leaving her in a simple black dress, low scoop neckline, and razor thin straps supporting all the fabric. It’s tight, hugging her curves, long legs fully on display.

She sends him a polite smile, but begins to get uneasy. Apart from the apartment, which seems too quiet for what is supposed to be a birthday party, he seems familiar. She doesn’t know where she has seen him from before, only that she knows him. And his casual attire, grey track pants, send of even more warning flags because who wears that to a party?

Glancing into the condo she notices minimal lights are on, most of the light is filtering in from the large floor to ceiling windows. There appears to be a television playing quietly, but no food or drinks sitting on the counter. No shoes kicked to the side, no indication there is a party about to start.

She feels extremely exposed and vulnerable, something she hasn’t experienced since the first few weeks working at the Brass Rail. The dress is too short, neckline too low the swell of her breasts popping out. It’s a feeling she long ago parted with but now can’t shake.

Worry starts to set in; thinking this man somehow concocted the entire night to get her alone. That he knows she is the woman who had a baby with Auston Matthews and is trying to see if he can get her into bed too. But she shakes the feeling off, Sarah was supposed to be here, she only cancelled recently. He had no way of knowing it would only be Tia to show up.

“I have to go,” he says grabbing shoes. “I live a couple floors over, forgot something at home. Tony said he’ll be out in a minute.” Glancing to the overpriced Rolex on his wrist he continues, “everyone else will be here soon.”

Standing at the door she is even more confused than before. Nothing about this night makes sense. Frozen in place, her fight or flight instinct kicks in and she needs to leave. Reaching into her jacket she grabs her phone and unlocks it, a text from Becks, almost as if she predicted Tia’s panic.

Becks: Everything will be fine, don’t overthink it.

Sighing, Tia shakes her head, knowing she is right. The past month Tia has been overly cautious at every turn, almost to a point of not living her life. At some point she has to try and restore some semblance of normalcy, she just doesn’t know if that day is today. But she will, at the very least, give it a chance.

Walking in, the condo is what she would expect for this area. Big.

Big kitchen with an oversized island, cabinets reaching the peak of the walls, an abundance of storage she could only dream to have. Big dining room table, a big clear bowl in the middle that probably is supposed to be a centerpiece but sits empty. Lavish stone countertop and expensive appliances, everything neatly put away, almost as if it is rarely used. Big television over an even bigger fireplace, the flame low creating a warm glow in the room. Big grey ‘L’ shaped leather couch centered to the TV with only two pillows.

The entire place screams bachelor pad, even an unopened beer sitting on the side table. Noticing three picture on the fireplace mantle she starts to make her way over to get a closer to look but is halted by the sound of feet padding down the hall. Whipping her head around to the approaching person, her stomach drops.

“What uh…what are you doing here?” she stutters out, her heart beginning to beat faster.

“I live here,” Auston answers teasingly. His eyebrows furrow slightly, as if it was the most ridiculous thing he has been asked.

“And you hired a stripper?” her eyebrow raises, watching as he walks over to the couch. His Armani track pants tucked into his socks, a simple blue Nike sweater and backwards ball cap, his dark curls poking out underneath. She hates track pants, always has. But she hates his even more because these pants are suctioning slightly around his thighs, showcasing his glutes through the fabric. Wanting to look anywhere else she can’t, not until he sits. “You hired me?”

“You need money and won’t take it, so yeah I hired you,” he smirks. Sliding into the couch, he pulls one leg over his other knee, one arm draped over the back.

“How do you know I need money?”

“It doesn’t take a genius to figure that out,” he replies, rolling his eyes. Not bringing up the fact he spent days talking with Becks, who disclosed she needs more than just money.

“I’m not taking your money.”

“You’re right, you’re not taking my money. I am paying you to strip,” he grins, lifting his eyebrows. “So strip.”

The words hang in the air for an uncomfortable amount of time as Tia and Auston stare at each other, brown eyes narrowed at the others. Her jaw dropped at his words, and she tried to respond but she couldn’t think of anything to say. Finally the neurons in her brain reach her lips, her shaky voice managing one word, “Auston.”

“Yes,” he grins, reaching beside him he grabs the beer from the side table, cracking it open. Pulling his lower lip through his teeth he shifts on the couch, eyes full of fire. His eyes rake over her body, drinking her in. A sight, even after everything drives him wild. “I’m waiting,” he smiles at her.

“I can just leave,” she objects.

“Then leave and don’t get paid,” he shrugs, “but I know you need this.” Pulling his phone out of his pocket Tia hears some music start playing over the Bluetooth speaker. Her song. Crazy Bitch by Buckcherry, the song she uses when pole dancing on stage.

“Seriously,” she laughs.

“You get a new song? What is it? I can play that instead,” he asks.

Locked in a stale mate she can’t believe he is saying this. That he hired her to strip. She wishes she just accepted the money last time he offered, seems like the easier option at this point. Slowly he pulls the bottle to his lips and takes a sip, “tick tock Carmen.”

“Fuck,” she mutters, wishing she could smack the smug look from his face. There are over a dozen reasons for her to leave and slam the door in his face, but there are 501 reasons to stay. $500 and one 2 year old that needs a home. Sighing heavily as the music continues, she shakes her head and begins shaking her hips to the tune. Bending her knees she drops down, opening her thighs in a seductive motion.

“Tia, fuck, I was kidding,” he burst out laughing, standing up he pauses the music. Her eyes go wide and heat hits her cheeks, slowly rising to stand straight. “Can’t believe you were gonna strip for me,” he howls, throwing his head back. Walking to the kitchen he grabs some sweats that are neatly folded on the chair she didn’t notice before.

“Go change, get comfortable and we’ll watch a movie or something,” he says. “You need a night off.” Reaching behind her he grabs an envelope and hands it to Tia. Upon opening the envelope she sees it is full of money, significantly more than the $500 he is supposed to pay.

“Auston,” she groans.

“I hired you, now I’m paying you,” he shoves the clothes and money back at her.

“Okay first of all this is way too much. It’s only supposed to be $500.”

“Consider it a tip,” he shrugs. “A $10,000 tip.”

Shaking her head she cries, “you also paid for a service, a service you did not receive,” she tries to shove the envelope back at him.

“You’re not stripping for me Tia.” It’s not that he wouldn’t love for her to strip for him, ever since finding out what she does he has been jealous of every guy she has danced for and every guy she will in the future. Every guy that has felt her soft graze and breathed in her perfume while her chestnut locks fell down her back. He hates every guy that has felt her body graze over their growing erection, her nipples hard and fully on display. He hates knowing every thought that runs through their heads and would love, even if for one minute, to be them.

But, the two of them are barely bound together by thread. Inviting her over under the guise was risky enough, she easily could have slammed the door in his face and not spoken to him for weeks. A part of him almost expected it, but he took a shot hoping it would pay off, the last thing he needs is to destroy the fragment of a relationship they currently have. “I’ll pay you to hang out with me.”

“So you’re making me an escort?” she questions. “Really making those rumours a reality eh?”

“I…I uh, I didn’t,” he stutters. Tia smiles watching the heat rise to his cheeks.

Waiting for his response she quirks an eyebrow, but eventually a smirk peaks through her stern look and she rolls her eyes, “I’m just messing with you.” Auston begins to relax when then she starts to speak again, “why would I stay though? After everything that has happened why shouldn’t I just take the money and leave?”

“You can, and I wouldn’t be mad after what happened. But you shouldn’t because of what happened,” he explains. He can sense her hesitation, trying to process everything, he continues. “We need to try and fix this, I’m not saying be best friends, but Taylour deserves more from us. If this,” he motions between the two of them, “doesn’t change he will grow up sensing the tension between us. He will feel like he has to choose when inviting us to things because he’ll think we can’t be around each other. I don’t want to miss more of his life because he doesn’t think we can be in the same room.”

He wishes he came to this conclusion on his own. But it was Patty who sat down with him and made him open up about everything. Auston told him that he felt with time, his and Tia’s relationship would improve. That she needed space to process everything. Patty wasn’t so sure. He told Auston to consider what would happen if the tension between him and Tia never settled. If future events only further compounded their issues and it never got better, or if it got worse.

Swallowing the brick in her throat, she digests everything he said. He’s right, she knows he is. “You’ll stay because of Taylour.” He also wants to say because she needs it, she needs a night away, a night to forget about everything. Forget about the rumours, forget about work and school, forget about all the bad and try and have a good time. But he knows he can’t say those things, so instead he falls silent, waiting her next move.

Heading down his hall she has no idea where she is going. Hoping for a bedroom or bathroom at the very least she opens the last door and immediately knows it’s his room.

A large oversized king bed in the center, simple white duvet with a few pillows, along with his body pillow. Something Tia used to tease him for, to which he would always reply, ‘if you stayed over I wouldn’t have to cuddle a pillow all night.’

There is no colour. No throw blankets, no decorative pillows, even the canvas photo above the bed is black and white. The only colour, besides his navy blue lamp shades, is from the framed photos. One of his family on his dresser, the other on his bedside table, a picture of him with Taylour.

For the first time, she feels as if she is intruding by being there. The doorway to his room. A space she once spent countless hours in, an intimate, personal space she feels she doesn’t belong.

Gently tugging the door closed, she opens another, a second bedroom, this one is much smaller than the other. No walk in closet or ensuite, just a small bed along with some hockey memorabilia on a three drawer dresser. The walls are plain, apart from simple grey curtains, nothing occupies the space.

Pulling her phone out she throws the clothes on the bed. Knowing there is no way he concocted this on his own, she clicks on the name of the she knows helped.

“I can’t believe you did this,” Tia hisses into the microphone.

“Babe, come one,” Becks laughs at the other end. “At least you don’t have to worry about rumours on twitter.”

“Okay,” she huffs, still not convinced. “I just can’t believe you did this, that you thought it would be a good idea.”

“You have been stressed –“

“And a night with my ex…the father…a night with Auston will help?” she barely manages to get the words out.

“You just need to relax.”

“I don’t need a night with him. If anything I could have used a spa day, why couldn’t he just get me one of those.”

“Because you’re stubborn and wouldn’t accept it.”

Rolling her eyes she groans into the mouthpiece, “how’s Taylour.”

“Asleep, just like he was when you left. Tia come on, just stay for an hour, you have a lot to talk about.”

“What if it’s weird or uncomfortable?”

“Then you are probably talking about the things you have been avoiding, because they aren’t easy things to discuss.”

“Why are you a business major? I swear you should be psychiatrist. Just handing out life advice for free.”

“I’m hanging up,” she laughs. “But stay for a little and talk to him, you both need it.”

Reluctantly Tia hangs up. Spending the next five minutes pacing around the bedroom she considers her options. Staying and enduring what will likely be a tense night full of awkward silences, or she can leave. Go home, maybe have a bath before crawling into bed. Things with Auston might get a little worse, but if she stays will it get better?

Deciding to at the very least give it a chance. Not for Auston, not for Becks, not even for herself, but for Taylour, she changes into his clothes. They easily engulf her small frame, rolling the waist a few times, she presses the sleeves up past her elbows but it’s no use, they hang off her.

Next she needs a bathroom to remove the makeup she spent so much time on. Opening the third door she finds a bathroom and gets to work, removing the trace of her planned evening. Pulling her hair into a messy bun, she steps out heading down the hall when the last door catches her eye.

‘It’s probably laundry, or a storage room,’ she tells herself. Yet she grasps the handle and opens the door to be met with nothing. Except for some boxes in the corner there is nothing. And it’s not a small space, easily could hold a queen sized bed and dresser. Yet there is nothing, completely empty. Stark white walls, thin white blinds hung in the window to keep the beating sun at bay, a simple square light fixture hanging from the ceiling.

“Took you long enough,” he grins from the kitchen as she walks back into the living room, “going through my medicine cabinet or something?”

“No, I’m not you,” she replies not fully paying attention to him. She can hear him fiddling in the kitchen and starts to look around, really look around. Walking to the large floor to ceiling windows she stares out at the Toronto skyline. At this time of night the moon and stars are reflecting off Lake Ontario, on the other side there are countless high rise buildings including the CN Tower. “You have a nice place here.”

“Yeah it’s alright,” he dismisses. “I ordered some food.”

Not letting her object he sets two plates on the table. It’s nothing fancy; a salad, chicken and some vegetables. It’s simple, but he knows she needs this, a good meal. They both sit down and descend into a conversation that’s mostly filled with heavy silence and cutlery on the glass plates.

“Where does your family stay when they visit? I noticed you only had one, somewhat small bed,” she finally breaks the building tension

“You did snoop,” he teases. “The complex has some rental units for visitors. When they all come down I book one or a hotel. Sometimes just Alex comes and she stays in that room. Should get some stuff to fill that third room though, I just never really needed the space for anything.”

Remembering the other night with Taylour, the picture she takes a deep contemplating breath before asking something that will tear her apart, “what about a bedroom for Taylour?”

“I uh-“ he wipes the sides of his mouth with his napkin blinking a few times. “I didn’t consider it, because I didn’t think he’d be here, at least not for a while.” His response is almost a whisper, tears building behind his eyes.

“I don’t know what your schedule is like, or if it’s feasible for him to stay over, but at the very least you could pick him up after practice and bring him here for a few hours. Might be good for you guys to have some time alone.”

“Seriously?” He asks setting his fork down.

“Yeah, I don’t see why not.”

“I just thought with everything going on –“

“Once I realized who you are to this city and the fan base, I knew Taylour’s life wouldn’t be 100% private. That he’d end up on your Instagram at some point, he’d be seen at a game or when he’s in school he’d tell all his friends that Auston Matthews is his dad.” Auston smiles slightly at that but allows her to continue. “You live a somewhat public life, so some aspects of his will be too. I mean, it would be nice if you didn’t take him on walks down Front Street or to the Eaton Centre until this stuff settles a bit, but I don’t see why you can’t have him for an afternoon or maybe a sleepover.”

Standing up he immediately wraps his arms around her shoulders holding her against his chest. “Oh,” she chuckles slightly against him. Standing up to fully welcome his embrace her hands grab the back of his shirt as he breathes in her fruity shampoo. “Thanks Tia,” he says softly. All other words are lost on him so he just tightens his grip, her ear listening to the steady beating of his heart.

A smile that likely will never fade is pressed on his face, eyes glossed with tears he whispers, “let’s go watch whatever stupid movie you’re going to make me endure.”

Grabbing her hand he pulls her into the living room. He settles into the middle of the couch, her at the end. It starts off slightly awkward, Tia unsure of the situation. She wants to stretch out and get comfortable, but she can’t get her mind to turn off. Constant thoughts of ‘where should I put my arm?” Or “should I lie down?” running through her head leaves her curled up in a ball not wanting to invade his space.

Taking the remote she begins to type the title in the search bar, upon seeing the first letter Auston struggles not to groan. Legally blonde, her guilty pleasure movie. She once told him it was her pick me up movie, but he found that regardless of her mood she could sit down and watch it, and the next two.

Auston hates this movie. She made him watch it three times while they were dating, three times in about six months. Of course he put up with it then because she was his girlfriend.

The first time it was so early on he didn’t want to object. He spent most of that time kissing her anyways so he didn’t really watch it. His hand was on her waist or tangled in her hair, hers running through his hair as she moaned into his mouth. She’d pull away, mumbling something about missing the movie, but never made any attempt to stop.

The second time was the night before he left for Helsinki, she was upset he was leaving for a few weeks and she couldn’t join him. And thus he endured it again, this time they actually watched. She was curled up under him, his head on her chest while her hands gently ran through his hair.

The third time was a night in which Paul was working overnight. Tia put it on and he objected, having actually watched it less than a month before. But within ten minutes her shirt was off, followed by every other article of clothing. He spent most of the movie with his head buried between her legs or watching her breasts bounce as she rode him. The movie played quietly in the background, but he barely paid attention, focused solely on the sounds rolling off her lips.

So really he only watched it once in its entirety. If he had his way that would have been the only time he watched it. Under different circumstances he would have fought her on it the second he saw her select the letter ‘L’. Knowing that tonight is about her and not him, he didn’t object, he didn’t groan or grumble under his breath, instead he settled in, pretending to enjoy it.

“Who was it that let me in?” she asks a few minutes in, still curled awkwardly in the corner.

“I knew if I opened you wouldn’t let me explain before you left, so I asked Fred. We play together and are really good friends,” he explains. Turning back to the TV she focusses her attention on the movie. At some point her legs sprawl out, her feet landing on his thighs

“Auston,” she calls out part way through the movie. Just as his eyes find her she begins to speak, “thank you for tonight but I’m not taking your money.”

“Tia,” he groans, pausing the movie he sits up and she pulls her feet back. “Yes you are.”

“But it’s too much, way too much.”

“But you need it.”

“I don’t need $10,000. Nobody needs $10,000.”

“Ti-“ he tries to object. At this point it would barely cover her credit card bill, only leaving a little left over. It would be gone before she even started paying next month’s bills. For her to say she doesn’t need $10,000 it’s a lie, she needs it.

“But I will compromise,” she cuts him off. “I will take 4. It can cover my rent and Taylour’s daycare for the month. But this isn’t a thing, you’re not giving me money every month. It’s a one-time thing, I’ll be back at work soon and I won’t need more.”

Pondering her offer he can’t help but shake his head, Tia never the one to make things easy. “Five thousand, that way you have a buffer, groceries, your phone bill, whatever else you need.”

“A thousand dollar buffer seems extreme. All my major expenses are covered.” Glancing to Auston, he has a smirk but his jaw is firm. Getting the impression he won’t budge she sighs and rolls her eyes, mumbling fine. The smile that crosses his face in unmistakable, and Tia just shakes her head.

“So $5000, but there is a condition.”

“What?” she quickly sits up. “There are no conditions, you wanted to give me 10, I agreed to 4 we settled on 5. There is no conditions, no further compromise. That’s it.”

“God.” He groans excessively loud, “I forgot how impossible you can be.” Shifting he pulls his wallet out of his back pocket. Fumbling through, he pulls out a business card and hands it to Tia. Reading the back of the white card, etched in navy print, ‘Affinity in life.’

Her forehead creases slightly, but when she flips it over she audibly scoffs, louder than Auston expected. “Seriously?” she asks, her tone getting louder, more intense with every word.

Heidi Madger, M.D, Psychiatrist, displayed on the other side.

“Tia, there is nothing wrong with needing help.”

“I know that. I just don’t need it.”

“Okay, but Heidi is great. Highly recommended both on yelp, but also from some people I know who have seen her.”

“I don’t need a psychiatrist.” Her tone is getting bitter, patience wearing thin. “I’ll be fine, just have to tough it out a bit.”

“So by asking for help you aren’t tough?” Auston questions. “True toughness is acknowledging your own limitations.”

Sensing her anger rising, Auston quickly works to defuse the situation. “Look, I can’t make you go. But I called, you have an appointment every week, for the next 10 weeks. They are all paid for, so go to them all, go to none, it’s your choice. But I think you should consider it…given everything.”

“I’m not going,” she emphasizes.

“Okay, but you’re keeping the card.”

Struggling to not roll his eyes at her stubbornness he grabs the remote and presses play not giving her the opportunity to fight him anymore. He hopes she takes advantage of the opportunity. That she will recognize she needs help. He wishes there was more he could do. More she would let him do.

Just this act alone made her irritable. Staring at the TV he can feel her glaring at him. There is so much she is fighting to not say. Fighting to bite her tongue, because nothing good will come of it.

Taglist: If you are in this list you have expressed interest in the series (either through likes/reblogs or by asking). If it’s crossed out your tag didn’t work. If you would like to be removed or added to the list send me an ask:

@ashleymarine @albal321 @b34ut1fulb4st4rds @biznastysloneshift12 @burkylover @c-tangerine @canadian-girl87 @crazzyfann @dana-hqy @delighttfulll @evawest5 @every-beautifulthing-thereis @greendragonzz @heatherawoowoo @hockeybabe87 @hockeyinaussie @hockeyisit @hockeyjedi13 @hockeypuckedmeup @holyalfalfasprout @je-ne-regrette-rien @localcalumhoe @partypoison00 @princesscameston @puccbunni @queenmarvel21 @sixmapleleafs @starswin @trashforbarzal @0kikina0 @1-fuzzy-squirrels @janeydeaux @stuff4me2do

#too far gone #too far gone asks #too far gone fic #auston matthews #auston matthews fic #auston matthews smut #auston matthews imagine #nhl fic #nhl smut #hockey fic #hockey smut #nhl imagine #hockey imagine #toronto maple leafs #toronto maple leafs fic #toronto maple leafs smut #toronto maple leafs imagine

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sunoorintarou · 3 years

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𝐃𝐚𝐲 1: 𝐁𝐚𝐝 𝐋𝐮𝐜𝐤 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 3𝐬: 𝐄𝐧𝐡𝐚 02𝐳

Warnings: Vampires, blood, slight stalking ig, implied kidnapping, nothing too detailed and serious, just 02z being,,, normal vampires?

Since your childhood, you've been told time and time again by your grandmother that troubles comes in threes. You had always assumed she meant you and your two siblings or even her daughter, your mother, and her two siblings who also had three children each but now you're at an age where you're starting to believe that she was, perhaps, right. Especially considering the 3 vampires, yes, as in the undead eternally living creatures said to suck the blood of the living, that stood in front of you and seemed like nothing but absolute trouble.

You may be wondering how you got into this situation, well, it wasn't a silly dare to visit some abandoned place or some sketchy transfer student love story where you decided to befriend them regardless of all the red lights, followed by blue lights, then followed by a loud wee woo wee woo sound that was almost impossible to ignore. In fact, you considered yourself quite a smart, rational person.

When the boys had moved in next door to you, you swore yourself off interacting with them simply because of the horrible feeling in your chest whenever you were near them. There was something, off, about these boys. Other than the fact they seemed to be the typical partying play boys you despised. You had assumed, incorrectly, that it would be easy to avoid them considering you rarely left your house, your friends often coming to visit you instead knowing your house bound nature. But one Saturday morning you had walked down the stairs to greet your parents (your siblings were still asleep) and lo and behold there at the table sat with them were the very boys you had been avoiding like the plague. Despite your panicked glances and vigorous head - shaking, you mother seemed oblivious to your obvious attempt at escaping and instead sat you down before making you introduce yourself.

The intimidating one with the short black hair that specialized in sweet talking which your mother seemed to have fallen for hook, line and sinker was Jay, the overly friendly one with the longer black hair and calm demeanour who reminded you of your grandmother's golden retriever was Jake, and the tall cocky one who seemed confident, too confident actually, with the oddly sharp teeth that kept staring at you was Sunghoon. A match made down below you'd say.

You were constantly on edge during what you'd name as the worst breakfast of your life trying to eat as quickly as possible while avoiding conversation. Your mother apologized for your behavior before explaining, "She's always like that." to which you received a chorus of understanding words and "comforting smiles."

Maybe you were being irrational or rude, but you've watched enough horror movies to realise that once you think of, "giving them a chance, you might have them all wrong," you'd be a goner. Your gut has never lied to you to this day so you therefore had no reason to doubt it.

After that day however, it seemed as though they were everywhere you went. When you walked outside to fetch the newspaper, Jake just so happened to be in their yard playing with his dog and trying to make conversation which you skillfully dodged. When you had got home from school, you almost had a heart attack seeing Jay in the kitchen helping your mother fix dinner while she praised his cooking skills and kindness, not seeing the glint in his eyes that gave you chills. When you had gone to the library to study, Sunghoon just so happened to be there too, sitting next to you and greeting you before stealing constant glances at you as you attempted to study. And of course the one time you decided to go out to a cafe with your friends, Minju had mentioned that a group of boys sitting at the back of the cafe were staring at you and asked if you knew them. And of course it was your neighbours you were quite frankly sick of seeing. Where were their parents? Shouldn't they be more concerned about their not so little monsters running around and wreaking havoc!

And now that leads to today. Your friend's older brother, Jaemin, had insisted he drop you off at home after staying late at their house to study. You weren't going to deny a ride over walking home in the dark and agreed happily, making light conversation until you arrived home. Jaemin had always been a sweetheart so you didn't mind spending time with him.

However, when you got home, the lights were off and you immediately paused, even though you knew your family wasn't home, they'd still always leave the lights on for you. You immediately walked to the door, scared to see it already unlocked and fumbled for your phone, calling your sister Yeji.

"Y/n? Are you OK? Did Hyunjin eat all the sweets I left for you-"

"D- did you guys leave the door unlocked?"

"Why would the door be unlocked- Oh! Hyunjin was supposed to lock up and meet us here, but he's with his girlfriend and hasn't come here yet, knowing him, he probably forgot because he was too occupied with her."

"Oh, yeah OK, OK."

"Why? Is something the matter? If there's a problem, I can call him and tell him to pick you up?"

"No- actually, yes, yes please, I have a bad feeling about this."

"OK, I'll phone him, I promise it will only take a second, then I'll phone you back, please stay safe."

You nodded, feet planted on your doorstep as you rushed to call Minju, knowing your best bet was to stay on the phone with someone at all times in case anything happened. In a split second however, your phone was gone and you felt a presence behind you. Your heart rammed against your rib cage as though it were trying to escape the confines of your chest before you whirled around, coming face to face with the trio that had been terrorizing you.

Sunghoon held your phone in his hand, he, Jay and Jake watching as your kept your face nonchalant, eyes barely wider than usual.

But what did make your eyes widen was the mysterious red stains on their clothes and skin as you scanned their forms. Your mind raced at a thousand miles an hour, wondering if you had been living next to a group of serial killers this entire time, until you noticed their irises turn a scarlet red and Sunghoon's fangs glint in the moonlight. You had always been a believer of the supernatural, so your natural assumption was-

"Vampires. You're all vampires."

The trio seemed impressed by your answer, Jake letting out a chuckle before patting your head lightly. You couldn't move, the sheer shock and adrenaline coursing through your veins as your body made the fatal decision to neither fight nor flight but to freeze.

"She actually got it right, I'm impressed." He grinned, the other two nodding in agreement.

"She seemed to be on the smarter side, at least a little smarter than the others." Sunghoon chimed.

The sound of Hyunjin's car driving up the street became louder and louder. You hoped and prayed he'd be able to get here before anything happened, but unfortunately for you, the trio had other plans.

"Oh, looks like we might get interrupted. But what's the rush, let's take our time and explain things to her. But for now, goodnight princess."

You were confused, ready to object to Jay's words but before you could do anything, everything turned dark and your mind doubted you'd ever see the light of day anytime soon.

#vampire!enhypen #vampire!jay x reader #vampire!jake x reader #vampire!sunghoon x reader #02z x Reader #Enhypen 02z x reader #I probably should have told you guys #I was planning on making this #But anyways-#I'll tag everything for this special as:#spooktober special

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suchalonelysunflower · 3 years

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Tell Me a Lie (c.h)

Pairing: Calum Hood X Fem!Reader

Requested: Kinda yes!

Summary: Part 2 of Tell Me What You’re Thinking. The aftermath of the dreadful night that left two broken hearts along the way. Could they ever fic it?

Warnings: ANGST. Language, mentions of drugs and alcohol, mentions of cheating. Some grammar mistakes (I’m sorry, English is not my first language)

Word count: 5.8k

Author’s note: Holy! I never thought I would end up writing a part 2 of this, but I’m so glad so many of you requested it and supported it 🥺❤️ thank you so so so much. As you know: Reblogs, Coments, Feedbacks and likes are more than welcomed and encouraged! I’d love to hear from you guys and I can’t wait to see how you react to this and the question: if you were on the readers shoes, would you forgive him? Thank you so much, hope you like it and Happy Reading ✨🦋🌻

Part 1

My materialist // wanna be part of my tag list?

Calum stopped laughing at Mitchy a long time ago, but he didn’t seem to notice. Frankly, he was regretting his decision on inviting the singer today, knowing that he was completely high even before he got to the house.

He secretly envided Ashton who got away a few moments earlier, he couldn’t blame him at all as he wondered what he was doing in his kitchen and if he should go to make him company and leave Mitchy alone in his own world, not that he would notice either way.

But just before he decided to get up and leave, just like he could read his thoughts, Ashton walked into the living room. A feeling of relief washed over Calum as he saw his best friend approach, hoping that he could spare him some actual good conversations, but the drummer seemed too busy as he grabbed his phone from the coffee table and stepped outside to make a call, entering the house a few moments later to grab his jacket and his keys.

“Where are you going Ash?” Calum asked, almost begging him to stay and not leave him alone with Mitchy.

But Ashton didn’t spare a glance at him as he muttered through gritted teeth “I’m leaving”

Calum was confused by his friend's attitude, not knowing what caused his strange behavior. But before he could ask him, Mitchy beat him to it “Aw man! We are just going to the club to meet some hot chicks! You should come with us!”

And that was the last straw Ashton needed to unleash the rage behind his eyes, the same rage he was holding all night as he watched you cry in the kitchen a few minutes ago.

Calum watched as Ashton’s face completely disfigured itself as he started yelling.

“You are both such assholes!” He said, looking between Mitchy and Calum, making the latter one jump in his seat at the sudden outburst “Do you even realize what you did? You just made the most amazing person on this planet feel like shit cause you can’t keep your comments to yourselves!” He looked at Mitchy “You don’t know a single fucking shit about her to talk about her like that. If you knew her you’d know that Y/N is amazing the way she is and you should be ashamed of yourself for disrespecting such an incredible woman like that!” Then he looked at Calum, who looked like he’d just seen a ghost “And you… I’m so disappointed in you. I can’t even look at you right now. You were really going to cheat on her? Are you really that stupid to lose her like that?! To lose her at all?! Do you know how incredibly lucky and incredibly stupid you are?! I am disgusted with both of you. And Y/N doesn’t deserve to cry for such man babies who’d talk about her behind her back”

At the sound of your name, Calum’s world fell at his feet. Did you know what Mitchy and him talked about? That wasn’t what he meant!

“Y-Y/N-“ He said, gripping the edge of his seat. Ashton just looked at him with pity “She heard it all”

That was almost three months ago. Three months since he watched the love of his life walk away from him and leave him alone. Three months since Ashton had said a full sentence to him that wasn’t filled with utter disappointment. Three months since he cut ties with Mitchy, claiming that he never wanted to see the singer again and that he should not try to contact him or any of the boys again. Three months where every night he comes to an empty house, hoping that it was all a bad dream and that he’ll find you in the kitchen studying for your next test or waiting for him with a glass of wine just to talk and share a moment with him. But now you won’t even spare him a glance.

He knew he couldn’t blame you. That is the last thing on his mind when he thinks about that night and all that led to it. More often than not he would find himself turning and tossing on his bed, unable to sleep. The memory of your tear filled eyes and the echoing sound of your voice take over him as he relives that moment over and over again, still unable to find anything in him to make you stay.

If he could change the past, out of all the wrongs he’d done, he will make it right for you. He would tell Mitchy to go fuck himself, kick him out for disrespecting you that way. He would have gone to find you in his room, make you pack your stuff and take you away to that mini holiday you never got live. He would cover you in kisses and beg you not to leave him because he will miss you too much. He would tell you that he loves you more than anything in his life and that he is sorry he couldn’t love you more.

But time cannot be reversed and some hurts might never be healed.

And Calum misses you, Duke misses you. But he knows you are not coming back anytime soon, Ashton made sure to tell him that in one of the last conversations he had with him.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” The drummer said a few days later when he got sick of Calum constantly questioning him about you “And not only because she made me swear not to tell you anything. But because if I start talking about her and how you broke her, I cannot promise you it will end well for you. All I can tell you is that she is safe.”

At least he knew you were with Ashton, you always confided in him as your best friend. But that also meant that Ashton had to take sides and he made it very clear from that night that he was on yours. Luke and Michael stood neutral to the fight, knowing it would only hurt the band even more, but they told Calum that this time he was on his own if he ever tried to take you back.

And, then again, Calum cannot blame them. He knew that if they were in his shoes he’d do the same thing. What he did was horrible, the coward’s way to face things. And there was nothing he regretted more.

He tried to occupy his time with whatever came to mind, he could not stand being alone with his thoughts cause the only thing he did was think of you. So today he decided to go on a run.

It was a horrible thing that it didn’t work, cause after minutes or hours of running through the streets without a clear path, he ended up in front of Ashton’s place.

He knew he shouldn’t do it, that the right thing to do was to give you space. But when he saw the lightest shadow of your figure grace the window, he knew he had to see you, even just one more time. So he knocked on the door and prayed to every god he’d ever known that you would answer.

But nothing could prepare him for when you did.

You don’t remember much about the rest of that night. The night where you jumped in Ashton’s car and fled the house you used to know as home.

You remember Ashton having to carry you to his guest room, or at least you assumed he did it cause you don’t remember walking up the stairs. You remember crying, hanging onto his shirt and asking the universe why? Why didn’t he do anything? Why didn’t he fight for you? Why did you have to love him still?

You begged for Ashton to stay with you, the thought of being alone that night terrified you. But he replied that he was planning on doing it anyway “I’m not leaving you, Y/N” He said, and those were the most comforting words you heard all day until you fell asleep from crying too much.

The next morning you woke up alone and you didn’t know where you were. The sheets were not yours, the wallpaper and the pictures were unknown to you and the smell was unfamiliar. Unconsciously you reached your hand to the other side, finding it empty but still kind of warm and you wondered if Calum had taken Duke out for a walk like he used to do every Saturday morning that he was home.

Only when Ashton came into the room carrying a tray with a warm breakfast on it did you remember the incidents of the night before. Your eyes filled with tears again as you watch him lay the tray in front of you.

“I know you don’t want to hear this,” He said, his voice was comforting at best, but you couldn’t help but hear the pity that came with it “But you need to eat. I know you haven’t been eating anything since at least yesterday's noon”

You looked at the food and shook your head “C’mon babe, for me?” He asked, softly rubbing your shoulder “I know I’m not the best cook but at least I know this is edible” He joked, making you chuckle through the tears that were already spilling from your eyes.

“I don’t know what to do” You honestly tell him.

“Do you want to talk to him?”

“No.” You replied quickly “I don’t want to see him and I don’t want him to see me” Ashton looked at you and it almost seemed like he wanted to say something, but eventually just nodded at your wish “I just- I need to get my other stuff out of the house and-”

“I can let you know when he’s out. That way you won’t have to face him if you don’t want to”

“Thank you, Ash.” You smiled at him gratefully, placing your hand on top of his “I’m going to start looking for a new place soon and-”

“None of that” Ashton said shaking his head “You can stay here! I don’t have a roommate and, I’m sorry, but I don’t like the idea of you being alone” You opened your mouth to say something, but he continued “I promise I will talk to Calum that he is not welcomed here without my, and now your, permission. I won’t let him hurt you again”

That was three months ago and you can honestly say that you are doing just fine by now.

Yes, the first few weeks you spent them in your bed, crying and heartbroken at the thought of losing the love of your life. Calum was everything to you and it seemed like in the blink of an eye that “everything” crumbled right in front of you as you realized just how little you meant to him.

Many nights you tried to fool yourself into thinking that it was all a big misunderstandment. That you somehow misheard every word and it was just your brain creating scenarios that would never become a reality. However, the faintest echo of Calum’s laughter at Mitchy’s comments, his agreeability to go on with his plan, the things he said and the things he didn’t say… they were all still tattooed inside your head.

“A good fuck” That’s what he said. That was the only positive thing he had to say while his friend mocked you and humiliated you like it was nothing. Like if he hadn’t thought those things before.

You decided you wanted nothing to do with him. You blocked his number and deleted his number. You also begged Ashton not to cause anymore scenes between the two of them, knowing how badly it could affect the band if they let their feelings come between them.

A month went by, then two and now three, and not a day goes by that you don’t think of Calum and how he’s doing, if he has a new girl or if he ever got to meet that Vanessa girl. You knew it wasn’t healthy, but you spent so many years loving him that it was impossible to fall out of love for him, even after he hurt you so badly.

Ashton helped a lot. He always tried to cheer you up, even inspiring you to try yoga and meditation to help you clear your thoughts and bring new energy into your life. And, even if you hate to admit it, it worked! In these three months you found out things about yourself that you never thought of before. You realized that all your dreams were for you and Calum, yet none of those dreams were only for you.

Your career, your job… those were your dreams. But soon enough those dreams became shared once you met Calum, pushing them aside from time to time to accompany him on tour, or to help him write a song or two when he got stuck, or even just because he asked you to. You were more than happy to do so, but you did that for him, for the both of you, not for you.

With that in mind, you began to search for yourself, for your needs and wants. You aren’t quite there yet, but it helps you keep your mind busy from the heartache. And, slowly and steady, you began to feel more like yourself again.

Just like right now, you asked Ashton to grab some things from the store once he’s back from the studio, telling him you were going to try to cook some pastries that your mom used to make when you were little. He said he’d be home soon and that’s why you weren’t surprised to hear the knock on your door, knowing that he usually forgets his keys in every set of skinny jeans he owns.

You laughed at yourself, thinking of teasing him about having a set of keys for every pair of jeans he owned. Only this time it wasn’t Ashton who was standing at the other side of the door.

Calum swore his heart could not break anymore until he saw how your smile disappeared from your face when you realized it was him. You were looking good, better than him at least. Your hair was a little bit longer and you still wore socks inside the house. But your eyes… your eyes were different. They didn’t shine anymore with that gleam that got him completely hooked to your gaze, the gleam that was reserved just for him. Now, he could only see himself reflected in those y/e/c eyes and he could see the disappointment behind them.

The first thing that comes into your mind was his beard, he never used to have a beard before, he always kept his face clean and neat but now his scruff was decorating his jawline and you were not sure you liked it. His clothes were a mess too, you realized he came running as you took in the beads of sweat that covered his forehead, but his clothes seemed old and they were not matching. He never really cared about the clothes he’d wear when he was in a rush.

You took your time to meet his eyes, knowing that once you stared at those brown orbs you might just break down. But once you did, it was like you were able to stand taller, to stand up to him as the only feeling you had running through your head was doubt.

“What are you doing here?” You asked. Not a hello, not a welcome, not even his name. Calum knew he deserved none of that.

He flinched at the sound of your voice. The voice that once was sweet as honey, was now cold and hard like steel, just like it sounded before you left.

“Y/N I-” He said, pleading with a string of his voice, trying his hardest not to cry in front of you. Suddenly now he realized just how hard it was to see you again “Can we talk?”

You hesitated and Calum noticed that. He saw how you gripped the doorknob, and he hoped that you let him in despite knowing that he deserves to have that door close on his face.

“Please?”

You knew you couldn't resist him, not only that but something inside you begged for you to let him in, to hear him out. However, you could not help but feel a little bit scared. You weren’t ready to see him, but you have to.

With a sigh, you opened the door. You watched how his shoulders relaxed as he let go of his breath. He was as scared as you were.

Calum walked inside the living room. He hasn’t been here in months, but he can recognize your touch. You were everywhere in this room and he assumed that would be the case for all of the house as well. He recognized a few decorations that once adorned your shared home, you took them all with you when you left. Leaving him with not a single trace of you to hold on to.

You closed the door and followed after him. You found Calum standing in the middle of the room, checking the pictures you brought from his house, you knew he was trying to, even hoping to find himself in one of them, but all of those pictures were tucked away now, leaving all those memories behind.

Calum turned to you once you entered the room. He looked defeated, broken even, and your heart could not stand it. Even after all he put you through, you still care for him and you are sure you will always care for him, even when you don’t want to.

“I cannot start this conversation without saying how sorry I am” He said, hands in his pockets and eyes locked in yours. You could already feel the tears start to come but you held them back.

“Calum-” Calum, not Cal or babe or love. Just Calum.

He closed his eyes for a moment, taking in how the sound of his name now held no comfort for him “I need to say it, Y/N. Please” You nodded and he continued “I am an idiot. A stupid son of a bitch who lost everything before he ever realized what he’d done and I’m sorry, Y/N. I am so terribly sorry and I hope one day you could believe that” You wanted to say that you did, but he beat you to it “And I know that a simple sorry doesn’t fix things… fuck I don’t even know how to begin. I thought I was ready to see you and tell you just how fucked up I am without you but-” He started to choke up, his feelings were overwhelming even for you “When I look at you all I want to do is hold you close and it kills me that I can’t do that”

“I have no excuse, Y/N. No excuse that doesn’t make me sound like an asshole for treating you the way I did. Cause that’s exactly what I am, I am an asshole who lost the best thing that has ever happened to him just because he was too much of a coward to say anything.

But you have to know - you must know that I don’t think of you that way. I never did nor I ever will. Bab-Y/N, you have no idea what you mean to me and I know I’m shit at showing it to you but I swear, I swear none of what he said that night it’s true. What he said… I was so angry at him, I still am, if I’m being honest and that’s why I ended the friendship right there. I tried to convince myself that he was just high out of his head, that he says shitty things when he’s out of his mind and the only way to make him shut up was by following along to what he was saying. And I know it sounds stupid, fuck.. I don’t even know why I did it! At that moment I was just thinking that I didn’t want the night to end in an endless fight with him cause there was no way of shutting him up and now I wish I would’ve just kicked him out the minute your name came out of his mouth. I hate him and I hate myself for the pain I caused you. I know that it would be useless to say that if I knew you were there I would’ve ended it right there. But I know that even doing it behind your back was an act of disrespect and I’m so sorry. You didn’t deserve any of that, any of the pain or the tears… I’m still haunted by the memory of you leaving.

What I said that night was true. I had never and would never cheat on you, that’s not who I am and you know it. I wasn’t even going to go to that stupid club and meet the girl he wanted to introduce me. You gotta believe me on that one, I would’ve never forgiven myself if I did it. I can’t even forgive the thought of it or even the simple thought of faking to consider it for Mitchy to shut up… I would have never-”

“I believe you” You say.

Somewhere along his speech your eyes stopped trying to keep the tears at bay and just let them roll down your cheeks and into your shirt. You watched as he paced the room, trying his best to come up with the right words to apologize to you, to make you believe him when in reality you believed in him since the moment he walked through the door. You knew Calum and you know that his heart is always true. But his words did not make anything better.

“I believe you, Calum. I do. I just-” You snuffle “You said you just didn’t want to start a fight… Am I not worth fighting for?”

Calum almost ran to you when he noticed the tears. He always hated to see you cry, but now more than anything knowing that he’s the reason for your sadness.

“Baby, I’d start a war for you.” He said, cupping your face with his hands and delicately wiping your tears with his thumb “I’m sorry it took me so long to realize, but I’d do anything for you, my love. Anything.”

“Then why didn’t you?” You cried, pushing yourself away from him.

Calum’s heart broke once again when you pushed him away. He wanted nothing more than to console you but he knew he didn’t have the right to do so.

“Because I failed to realize that there was a possibility of you not being with me anymore” He said, confidently “When I think of you, I think of forever. I never thought that it will ever come to an end, that you could leave me at any point or that the love will just fade away… I thought about a family together, a life where it will always be you and me. I got too confident that I ended up losing you. I failed you, Y/N. I know I did, and I can’t forgive myself for that”

His eyes were honest as they stared at you. You could feel the burn in your throat as you tried to speak “I thought of a forever with you as well” You said softly.

Calum took a step closer. It was the first time he’d ever let his heart hope for some kind of saving grace, for some kind of forgiveness and a start over “Then, say we can try again. Say that we can get through this and we can fix it, because I want nothing more than to fix this and go back to what we once had, or to start over if you want! I just need you in my life, Y/N. Tell me we’ll be alright”

He knew it was a long shot, but he had to try. He didn’t take the chance to defend her before, but he was sure he was not going to let her go again if there was still a chance of a future together.

“I don’t know if we can”

Every ounce of hope fled through Calum’s hands as he processed what you said. He could feel the earth under his feet start to shake as his world came crumbling down once again.

“Calum, I knew you never cheated on me and I appreciate your honesty.” You said as you wiped out your tears with the back of your hand “But the simple thought of you considering it broke every trust I had in you, even if you weren’t being serious about it, I can’t stop picturing you with some random girl while I waited for you at home every night. And not only that but the words you said that night still haunt me. Mitchy’s comments weren’t as insulting as the fact that you didn’t contradict him in any way. I felt humiliated, Calum. Humiliated by someone I loved in front of someone who you knew didn’t like me and would take any chance he’d get to demonstrate that.

It took me weeks to realize that I didn’t do anything wrong, but I still believed that that was the perception you had of me all this time. How can I come back from that?”

Calum’s eyes were pleading, his expression remaining unmoving from the pain that he caused himself by hurting you. But he was determined to make it right.

“We can!” Calum said, desperately trying to reach for your touch as he grabbed your hand and started kissing it “Baby, no. No, no no no please don’t say that. I love you with all my heart and it kills me to know that I’ve wronged you. I’ll make it up for it, everyday for the rest of my life but, please, at least say we can try. I- I know I don’t deserve it, but please. I can’t live without you”

You pulled your hand away from him, slowly as you watched the tears pour down out of his eyes “I thought I couldn’t live without you either. And yet, I am. I’m learning to live my life for myself rather than living it for the both of us-”

“I never asked you to do it”

“You didn’t have to. I wanted to. I wanted your dreams to be mine and to be by your side cause I thought that’s the only thing I wanted in life, but I don’t know anymore, Calum. All my dreams were shared with you that I don’t even know if I have some of my own!” You watched Calum’s face slowly lose all kinds of hope he had left and you know you should’ve felt at least a little bit guilty, but that’s not the case. On the contrary, it felt like you deserve this time for yourself “But now I need to find myself, find what I want and what’s good for me and I need to do that alone.

I can’t force my feelings, and I cannot force myself to trust you again when I can’t. Calum, you have to understand that you are a whole new person for me now. I used to believe that you would never hurt me and then, you did”

Calum’s knees fell to the floor as he reached for you once again, holding onto your legs as he desperately tried to make you stay. Stay in any form or way, stay in love with him, stay with him, stay… anything for you not to disappear from his life once again.

“Please, don’t.” He pleaded at your feet “I won’t forgive myself for this. I’m so sorry, my love. My Y/N. Please, don’t. I can’t love anyone but you”

You gripped his shoulders, trying to stay balanced as the curly haired man cried, making you shred a new set of tears again “Oh, but you will.” You reassured him, hoping your tone was convincing enough “Your heart is big enough to love again, to love better. Of course you will”

“But I don’t want to” He separated from you, long enough for you to crouch down in front of him so you could wipe some tears from his face “D-do you want to?” He asked softly.

You saw yourself reflected on his red, puffy eyes. He was never a man that could share his emotions so openly and, even though you’ve seen him cry before, the sight in front of you completely shattered your heart, knowing that his was utterly broken as well. But you can’t lie about your feelings, even if they hurt.

“I don’t know what I want.” You whispered to him.

Suddenly, you hear the front door opened as Ashton’s loud and cheering voice came floating towards your ears. Your eyes widen at the thought of his possible reaction, he’d hate to see Calum here, knowing that he specifically asked him to leave you alone until you were ready to see him, but he’d hate more the fact that you are crying.

“Y/N! I couldn't find that weird ingredient you asked, so I had to ask a lady there that seemed like she could cook and she said that this will work better on your-”

His eyes fall to the floor where you are kneeling down beside Calum. His eyes flickered between you and him, showing all kinds of emotions as he took in the scenario in front of him. He noticed that you were crying and he was about to ask what the hell was going on, but you beat him to it.

You got up and wiped some tears from your face as you walked up to Ashton, grabbed his hand and led him to the kitchen. He reluctantly followed, leaving Calum alone in the living room.

“Okay, what the fuck?” Ashton asks in a hushed tone as he sets the groceries on the kitchen counter “What is he doing here?”

You sighed “I don’t know. Everything is fine Ash, don’t worry. He came to apologize and-”

“Did he say anything to make you cry?” He asked with concern. His hands were cupping your face as he wiped some tears from your puffy eyes, yet his hazel eyes never left your gaze for a second.

“We are both crying, Ashton. It’s fine”

You notice he is not convinced at all, but he won’t fight you on this. You’ve come so far that he is confident that you can defend and stand up for yourself again. He’s seen you broken so many times in the past few months, but he’s also seen you pick yourself up piece by piece like a phoenix.

“Are you okay?” Was the only thing he said. You can’t blame him for being protective of you, and you appreciated that. After all this time he is the only comfort you know won’t leave you behind.

“I will be, don’t worry” You said with a smile. He smiled back at you.

“I will always worry, love. Want me to leave you alone with him? I don’t want to but I feel like I won’t have a choice either way” You nod, “I’ll be down the hall if you need me to kick him out. I love you” He said, placing a kiss to your forehead and giving you a hug.

“I love you, too” You respond as he walks away.

You take a minute to compose yourself before going back to the living room where Calum is waiting.

Calum, on his part, was already on his feet. The tears were drying themselves on his cheeks as he watched you enter the room again.

“Sorry about that,” You said “He gets-”

“Protective, I know” Calum completes the phrase “He loves you, so I get it”

There is an awkward silence between the two of you, almost like if a wall was standing in the middle of the room, separating both of you in different paths. There were so many things left unsaid, like the way Calum felt guilty after seeing you with Ashton and realizing what he should’ve done months ago, or the way you noticed how he was closing up again, shutting himself out from his own feelings, but you both knew that now it wasn’t the time. You didn’t even know if that time would come.

Calum was the first one to talk after a while “And I get what you’re saying, I really do and I support you in every way… But I mean it when I say that i don’t want love if it’s not you” You sighed.

“And what will happen if it’s not me, then?”

He stays quiet,but a tiny smile creeps on his face as he is trying to offer you some comfort “I guess we’ll find out. But I’ll wait for you, Y/N. I will always wait for you cause I know that we belong together. And I promise I will spend the rest of my life trying to make it right for you. To prove my love for you”

“I can’t ask you to do that, and I won’t” You say after a while “We both need to figure ourselves out, to find a life without the other one around, and, if we do end up together, then that’s beautiful. But you have to be open to the possibility of another ending, Calum. I cannot stand around and watch you waste your life away”

Calum nods, he knows you are right, but that doesn’t mean he likes what you are saying. He will respect your decision, though. He knows his love isn’t fragile.

He knows that it was his time to go. He knows that he could still say so much, he could still apologize ten thousand more times and claim his love till infinity, but he knows you won’t change your mind and he can’t, no, he won’t blame you for that. So he turns to leave, but before he gets the chance to do it, you grab him by the arm and pull him for one last hug.

You don’t know what came over you, but a voice inside of you begged you to hold him closer, just one more time and remember what it felt like to be wrapped inside his embrace. And as you held each other close, somehow you both knew that this was a goodbye.

“This is it?” He asks after a silent moment of tears and snuffles, with face hidden in the crook of your neck, taking in your perfume and engraving it in his memory.

“I’m not sure,” You say “It might be”

“If it is. Could you lie and tell me you love me?” Calum pleads “Just for one last time?”

You pull him closer to you, “I could lie and tell you that I don’t”

Tags: @iknowyouthinkimbulletproof @talksoprettyjjx @mystic-232

And I also wanna tag some of the beautiful people who asked for a part 2, I hope you liked it ✨ @theshyspy @wonderlandiswhereitsatyo @wontlastimokwiththat @wldflwercal Thank you ❤️

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snowywrites · 3 years

Text

Doki Doki Literature Club Girls x Reader

summary: you spend the day at the amusement park with the rest of the Literature Club! (it's recommended to read these together in order because they are connected, but if you prefer then you can read just whichever one you want to. Reader is intended to be female.)

full word count: 7.7k

Sayori

It was a gorgeous Saturday morning in town. The sun was shining high overhead in the pale blue sky, but the fluffy white clouds drifting by here and there were enough to ensure that it wasn't too hot. There also happened to be a nice, soothing breeze out, you note to yourself as you gaze out your open window to the neighborhood. A perfectly lovely day.

Well. That was enough of that, you muse to yourself as you slide your window closed again and pull the curtains in front of it to avoid any of the cheery sunshine washing into your room- it created an awful glare off of your computer screen which made it hard to watch your anime.

Content with your decision to stay inside today and catch up on your favorite shows, you walk over to sit down at your desk and turn on your computer. That's as far as you get before the doorbell rings, however.

You ignore it for now, assuming someone else in the house will go answer it. Then you suppress a groan of frustration when you recall that you're home alone for the better part of the day, a big reason why you had set the date aside to stay indoors and enjoy some peace, quiet, relaxation, and anime.

The doorbell rings again and again, much more insistent now; it almost could be playing a song of some kind. "I'm coming!" You call as if the visitor can hear you, grudgingly hopping up and hurrying downstairs. The doorbell just keeps ringing, and you don't even check the peephole to see who it is before you open up because the sound is really starting to grate on your nerves and you just need it to stop as soon as possible.

Your neighbor and somewhat-best-friend Sayori is standing there, and she looks a little shocked to see you, despite this being your house. She slowly presses the doorbell one last time, and you resist the urge to sigh heavily.

"Hi, Sayori. What's up?" You question. It's been a minute since you two have visited outside of the Literature Club, so you're making an effort not to act as annoyed as you feel for being so rudely disrupted. She could have at least texted a message saying she was going to be dropping by- then again, this was Sayori. Odds were, she had been walking by heading to the store or something and spotted your home, causing her to make the impulsive decision to bug you.

Her eyes brighten and a wide smile replaces her startled expression. "Hey, Y/N! It's Saturday!"

You stare at her for a moment. "Uhm...yeah, it is." You aren't entirely sure what she's expecting from you- maybe an invitation to come inside? Sayori's sort of a pain to watch movies or shows with, though. She's such a chatterbox and can't really focus on one thing for long at all, so whenever she does tune back in, she's got a million dumb questions that she'd know the answer to if only she'd bothered to pay attention. Nonetheless, you offer, "Did you wanna hang out? I was about to watch some anime, and you can join me, if you'd like."

Your words don't seem to come as any shock to Sayori, and she shakes her head firmly. "Y/N! I figured you were shutting yourself up in here. It's seriously a nice day, let's get out and have some fun!"

So much for compromising! And you'd even been trying to be nice, sheesh. "But I-" You frowned, trying to come up with an excuse for why you couldn't go out today, eventually settling on the truth since it was easiest. "I was just looking forward to some downtime, maybe next time though, okay?"

Instantly Sayori is pouting, acting like the exact same little kid you first met years ago rather than the almost-adult she was. "We've had this talk before, I don't want you becoming a total NEET! You can watch your shows tomorrow, but we really should enjoy this day, I bet it's gonna rain tomorrow! I mean, the rain is fun too, but-"

You're visibly defeated. "Okay, okay, lemme just grab some money. What'd you have in mind?"

Instead of calming down now that she's gotten her way, Sayori gives an excited little bounce, clapping her hands together. "Thanks, Y/N!" She grins at you, radiating warmth and energy. "I was thinking the amusement park!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The amusement park was in town for another few days, and you had yet to go to it, but you doubted you were missing out on much. It was crowded with people, as expected, and you recognized a lot of other people from your school even in their casual clothes. It made you absently wonder if any of the other girls in the Literature Club were here today...

"Hey, did you hear me?"

Sayori's voice shakes you out of your thoughts, and you look over at her. "Oh, sorry. What'd you say?"

She doesn't seem upset in the slightest. "I said, we have to go on the roller coaster!" She points excitedly across the park where you can see the top of the coaster. A lot of screams and a long line are in that direction, and you do your best not to look nervous.

"R-Roller coaster? Isn't there anything else you want to do first?" Trust Sayori to immediately pick the biggest attraction in the place. You're a tad surprised she isn't already hungry, to be honest, though you two did just enter the park.

"Coaster first!" Insists your best friend, taking your hand and beginning to drag you off towards the ride in spite of your clear hesitance. "And then probably food! I'd hate to get sick, you know?"

You can't help but smile. It was likely the most responsible thing you'd ever heard Sayori say, and one which you were grateful for considering you two would obviously be sitting next to each other. It helps you to relax a little bit too, but as you join the line with her, you can feel your anxiety starting to mount yet again the closer and closer you get.

Sayori is chattering away, but you're trying to block her out because she's babbling about all sorts of things. You wonder suddenly if she's trying to distract you...but quickly brush that assumption away. It would be nice, but Sayori just tended to talk a lot all the time, this wasn't new.

After what feels like much too short of a time, it's your turn to ride the roller coaster. Fear grips you, much as you don't want to admit it. You shoot a panicked glance at Sayori, who was humming cheerfully to herself. She meets your gaze, and her hum falters, tapering off. She gives you a reassuring and oddly quiet smile, taking your hand. It's different than before, when she'd been pulling you through the park. This time, her grip is steady but not demanding, allowing you to pull away if you wanted to do so. It's also possibly the only time you can recall ever seeing your best friend look so...shy.

It's more comforting than anything she could've said, and you give her hand a squeeze to thank her. The two of you enter the roller coaster in seats next to each other, and a worker comes along to help the two of you strap in properly. Your heart feels like it's about to burst out of your chest, and you're assuming it's just because of the roller coaster adrenaline, nothing more.

The ride starts and you close your eyes shut tight, keeping a death grip on Sayori now; you can hear her breathless and excited laughter even through the sounds of the other riders screaming and whooping. Many twists and turns, sometimes slow and sometimes fast yet always nerve-wracking, and a particularly terrifying drop-off later, and the ride is over.

You blink open your eyes, stunned to realize you're still in once piece, and leap out of the coaster as soon as possible, tearing your hand out of Sayori's. She doesn't seem all that worried about it, fortunately. She climbs out onto the solid and safe ground next to you, and you bite back a giggle. Her hair is so crazy and windswept and sticking out in all directions from the ride, but then you figure yours probably is too, and self-consciously try to pat it down.

Unlike you, Sayori doesn't appear concerned with her appearance, her cheeks flushed with delight and invigoration, not embarrassment. "That was so much fun!" She cheers, spinning around you as if she still had too much energy to contain. Then she paused, practically glowing as she looked at you and you only had a heartbeat to notice that she was very close in your personal space. "Thank you so much for coming with me, Y/N."

It was such a genuine and vulnerable statement that you were briefly at a loss for words, trying to read the uncharacteristically intense emotions shining in your friend's blue eyes. "I- it was, sure, it was a lot of fun, Sayori..." You trail off awkwardly, stepping back a pace to escape the close proximity.

Sayori opens her mouth to say something else, but a gasp comes out first as her attention fixes on something behind you. "Can you buy me some pizza? Pleeeeaaaaseeeee? Pretty please?! I'm really hungry now!"

The moment is over with that, and you wince at her childish request. "Pizza sounds good," you relent, causing Sayori to squeal with excitement and rush off to the food stand. You're giving in a lot today, and you aren't sure why, honestly. It wasn't like this was more fun than staying home and watching your favorite shows, right? Although, you did enjoy Sayori's company. There was a reason she was your kind-of-best-friend after all.

Oh, well. You can think about it later. For now you might as well try to have a nice time while you were still here. You follow after your puppy-like friend, spotting her at one of the tables just outside of the food stand talking with someone sitting there. With a start, you recognize the violet long hair of your fellow clubmate, Yuri.

Approaching, you start to greet them, but Sayori interrupts you before you can. "Yeah, Y/N/'s here too!" She pointed at you brightly, and Yuri tenses up, looking up at you like a deer in the headlights, which confuses you. Yuri had seemed perfectly calm before now- sure, a little shy, but now she was the stuttering and nervous girl that you were most familiar with from the Literature Club.

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆　｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆　｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

Yuri

You smile, giving a tiny wave. "Hey there, Yuri." Of all the people you might have expected to see here at the amusement park, Yuri was perhaps at the bottom of the list. You would have assumed she would be like you on a Saturday, preferring to stay at home. Except she would be reading novels or writing most likely, not watching anime or reading manga.

You're partly right, because on the table in front of Yuri is an open book instead of anything to eat. How she was able to focus with all the conversation of groups of people swarming around, you had no idea.

"Y/N," whined Sayori after Yuri just gave you a slight nod of greeting, "My pizzaaaaa, please?"

You laugh, waving her away. "I'm going, I'm going, hush! Yuri, did you want anything?" You offered politely.

Your clubmate seems to shrink in on herself, allowing her long dark hair to fall so that it hid her face from your view a bit. "Ah-! Uhm, that's okay, thank you, though." Sometimes you weren't sure how she could write just long and beautifully-worded poems when she seemed to struggle so much with the simplest of phrases spoken outloud.

You accept this and go to buy yourself and Sayori a slice of pizza each, and end up buying Yuri a sweet tea too just because, well, you would feel weird and rude to eat in front of someone else if they didn't have anything. You make your way back over to the table where Sayori is talking to Yuri, her arms flailing around in wild gestures, and you get the suspicion that she's telling Yuri all about the roller coaster ride. Quick to intervene, you set the tray with the food and drinks down on the table, leaning towards Sayori threateningly. "What exactly are you talking about?" You inquire sharply, eyes narrowed.

Sheepishly, Sayori swipes one of the plates with pizza on it to take a bite and shrug, using the food as an excuse not to reply.

Huffing, you distribute the stuff you bought between the three of you, turning to Yuri to protect your reputation. "For the record, I was totally not scared," you promised her.

Yuri is slightly more comfortable now, you think, and there's a tiny glimmer of faint amusement and sympathy in her violet eyes. "I believe you," she murmurs back, so quietly that you almost were unable to catch that. She blinks at the drink that you placed in front of her, apparently having to take a second to process what it meant. And then, completely the opposite of Sayori, her head snapped towards you and her gaze was now wide. "Oh-! You- thank you, Y/N, but- you really, didn't have to, go through the trouble...!"

You tuck into your meal, taking your time in replying while Sayori scarfs down her own food, curiously glancing between you and Yuri as if studying the interaction. "It's no worries," you say after a short while. "I would've felt bad otherwise since me and Sayori have something." You turn your attention to the forgotten book in front of Yuri. "Sorry if we bothered you, by the way! We didn't mean to interrupt your reading or anything."

Sayori bobbed her head in an enthusiastic agreement since her mouth was full and she couldn't say anything.

Once again, you worried that you'd said the wrong thing because Yuri's reaction was much the same as the last time you'd said anything. "That's- that's okay, really! It wasn't, important, and I was..." She seems to give up, seeming helpless and frustrated with herself, only able to take a sip of her drink in defeat.

Sayori finished with her food, standing up abruptly. "Thanks, Y/N!" She chirps, apparently not effected by your and Yuri's awkwardness. "I'm gonna go check out some other stuff, so you should have fun with Yuri!"

Her words catch you off guard, and before you can react or suggest the three of you find something to do together, Sayori is already racing off somewhere, waving over her shoulder at the two of you. You watch as she slams into someone as she wasn't paying any attention to where she was going, and shake your head as she profusely apologizes to them. "Oh, Sayori," you sigh a little dramatically to Yuri. "What are we gonna do with her?"

The other girl bites her lip like she's trying to hold back a laugh. "It's nice that you look after her," she speaks up quietly.

"Ah- I mean, somebody has to, right?" You chuckle to yourself as you resume eating.

Yuri is fine with silence, which doesn't really surprise you. She opens her book back up and starts to read after a minute or two, and you're content too to just finish up your pizza and do some people-watching.

Eventually when you do finish, you throw away your trash and then rejoin Yuri, who's politely closing her book again and standing up as well. She's calmer now, as if reading and not having to engage in conversation for a little bit has recharged her, which you're happy for. "Uhm..." She begins timidly. "Would you like to walk around the park with me?"

You aren't used to Yuri initiating anything at all, and in the space of your bewilderment, she hurriedly continues, "It's okay if you'd rather not-! I only thought..it might be fun, but I understand if..." The last part is more of a mumble.

"Sure, Yuri, I'd love to!" You try to reassure her as smoothly and swiftly as you can in order to avoid hurting her feelings any further or even risking her fleeing. Yuri was such a sweet person, and you'd never want to say no to her and have to see her awfully sad expression, you reflect. "We can head...that way." You pick a random direction and start walking, Yuri following you meekly. She walks near you, but also just a step or two behind, and when you try to slow down so you guys can actually walk together, she stops altogether. Deciding you can't do anything about it for now, you continue the trek, absently looking around at the various stands, games, and rides as you pass them. "I wasn't expecting to run into you here, to be honest," you comment.

Yuri's silent for a beat, causing you to wonder if she was even going to say anything back to that. She finally does, thankfully. "Admittedly, this isn't the sort of place I might usually spend a weekend at." Her words are low and carefully-chosen as usual, like she's cursed to overthink even the barest minimum of small talk. "But my parents insisted I come here."

An amused smile quirks up your lips as you glance back at her. "So you brought a book instead of arguing with them?" You deduct. "Clever. I would've brought a manga or something, but Sayori was impatient to get here. She's always trying to drag me out my house and make me socialize. Take the Literature Club, for example."

Yuri gives you a tiny nod. "It's kind of them to care about us," she says. "I do sometimes wish they could understand me better, though."

"I get that," you agree. "Even if they're a pain sometimes, you love them anyway."

Yuri evidently agrees, but something causes her to stop walking. You pause too, going back to join her. Her attention is on an attraction nearby, a 'haunted house' sort of place. She doesn't look like she had any idea it was here, and you recognize interest and anticipation on her face, which makes you happy- you might be getting a little bit better at reading Yuri, the more time you spend with her.

She reluctantly focuses back on you, and you sense she's about to apologize and continue walking, so you speak before she gets the chance. "We can go check it out, if you want?"

Your clubmate lights up for a moment before wincing. "We don't have to, if you wouldn't like it," is her answer. It's honestly not annoying, mainly because Yuri makes indecisiveness, shyness, and doormat-ness look really, really cute.

"It might be fun," you laugh, guiding her across to the entrance. It looks pretty stereotypical, and you recall going to one of these kinds of places with Sayori one year for Halloween when you were much, much younger, probably like 11 or 12. The line isn't long at all, which is also a bonus. When you two are given the all clear to go inside, you and Yuri enter the narrow, dark hallway.

You're suddenly quite aware of how close Yuri is as you walk- instead of trailing behind, she's right at your side now, pressed up against you since there's not a ton of room in this corridor. She doesn't seem to notice, too enraptured (ha, maybe you were hanging around her too much) by the thrill of what scares might await them to pay you much mind.

Talk about making a girl feel self-conscious. Despite being around the same age, Yuri was so much more...mature than you, to put it politely. It was nice in a way too- you felt safer than if you were by yourself, at the very least, since she was taller than you and so close to you.

The haunted house wasn't too scary, like you had assumed. The actors were great though, and at some point one of them lunged out towards you from a secret passageway and it startled you so badly that you ended up leaping backwards and pressing back against Yuri, your eyes wide and your heart hammering so loudly you bet the violet-haired girl had no trouble hearing it.

You stared tensely at the 'monster', needing a moment to collect yourself and remember how to breathe again. It's Yuri that manages to bring you out of it, which is so sweet of her since you all but crashed into the poor girl. She wraps her arms around you in a very gently hug, resting her chin on your hair. Where did all that confidence come from, anyway? It may have been the really dim lighting, you think to yourself- you can hardly see each other, so that could've given Yuri some boldness. Either that or she was finally getting comfortable around you!

The actor slowly recedes away, and you stay perfectly still for a minute longer than necessary. Finally, you clear your throat, awkwardly disentangling yourself from Yuri, who hops away from you quickly too, and even in the near-pitch black you could swear that she's blushing like crazy as she tries to stammer out an apology.

You shake your head, smiling nervously even though she can't see it. "T-Thanks, Yuri."

Okay, so maybe you had lied a little bit about it being 'not too scary.'

That was the last of the real scares, and you gladly spring out into the sunlight of day again, stretching your arms over your head. You look back to see Yuri hovering back in the darkness of the haunted house- was she okay? You ask your thought outloud.

"Y-Yes! I'm sorry. I'm coming..." She grudgingly steps out to join you in the real world, and you realize with a sense of deep sadness that she's not meeting your gaze anymore again. Great, just when you finally thought you were starting to make some progress on being friends with her. "That was a nice time, thank you very much, Y/N-" Those next words are blurted out and spoken so fast you're shocked she doesn't stutter over them. And the next thing you know, she's gone, disappearing into the crowds and leaving you alone and more than a little disappointed and confused.

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆　｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆　｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

Natsuki

You sigh to yourself as you wander around the amusement park, scanning around to see if anything piques your interest. You were also sort of hoping to see Sayori, considering she was responsible for dragging you here and now she'd ditched you, but you also wouldn't mind bumping into Yuri again to hang out. Something told you that Yuri had been pushed to her social interaction limit for the day though.

A loud, squeaky, angry, and oh-so-familiar voice causes you to head towards it and check out what's happening. As you thought, it's Natsuki, another of the girls in the Literature Club. She's standing at one of the game stands with her hands on her hips and leaning towards the guy running the game in an aggressive stance. You note that the game is one of those ones where you have to throw some darts at a balloon, and if you can pop one, you can get a prize. The prizes line the wall behind the man (more like disinterested teenage boy, but close enough), and they all are varying degrees of fluffy and cute stuffed animals. You never were a fan of amusement park games because they were more often than not rigged more than a claw machine.

You get a little closer so that you can hear better.

"...completely unfair! I hit that balloon, you and I both saw it!" Hisses Natsuki at the worker. It was too easy to compare her to a puffed up and angry kitten, you muse to yourself.

The boy shrugs. "Look, kid, if the balloon doesn't pop, then you don't get a prize. That's like, our only rule."

Fury flashes across Natsuki's face, and you resist the urge to laugh. Natsuki did look pretty young, but she was around your age, and probably this guy's age too. "Don't call me 'kid'!" She exclaims. "I won, fair and square! Just because it didn't-"

The argument was starting to draw in other bystanders, not just yourself. And you realize with a flicker of fear that you can see the worker reach for his walkie-talkie like he's going to call in security. Security on Natsuki, for god's sake. Ridiculous.

To prevent her from possibly being forcibly removed from the amusement park, you hurry over and place some money down on the game stand stable. "Can I try?" You interject. Even though you're not looking at Natsuki, you can feel her flinch away from you and sense her hostility and surprise at this new turn of events.

The boy running the stand regards you boredly, but you're relieved to see him put the walkie-talkie down. "Sure. That'll get you three tries."

Beside you, Natsuki scoffs. "As if you can hit one of them!" She grumbles. "It's not as easy as it looks." By how frustrated she was acting, you could guess that she'd been here the better part of the day attempting to win. But which prize did she have her eye on?

"Maybe not, but I can give it a shot," you say lightly. "Which one are we after?" You question her.

Natsuki glares at you fiercely, and you can see she's got a blush that matches her hair. Grudgingly, she points towards one of the bigger stuffed animals, a white bunny rabbit near the very top. "It's- it's not for me!" She informs you at once. "I wanted it for- for a friend. That's all."

'She's a terrible liar.' Nodding, you turn your attention to the man and tell him, "If I win, we get the bunny. Deal?"

"Means you've gotta shoot the purple balloon."

Of course, the purple balloon is at the very top of the wall of balloons. Fantastic. You don't have too much hope that you'll actually be able to pop it, especially when you see the kinds of darts he hands over to you. First of all, the tips are so blunt and dull that you can 100% believe that Natsuki did hit the balloon with one, but it wasn't nearly sharp enough to even hurt someone if they tested it against their skin. Second, the weight of it felt wildly uneven in the palm of your hand. The shape of the dart just wasn't sufficient enough to propel it through the air like it should have. This was precisely why you never would waste your time or money on this...but you couldn't exactly back out now, not with Natsuki's intense magenta eyes watching you like a hawk. If you didn't at least make an attempt, you'd never hear the end of it at the Literature Club, and it might cause you to lose what little respect Natsuki had for you. Which never seemed like a lot to begin with.

"C'mon, we've got a line now," sighed the worker, unimpressed with your examination of his faulty darts. It wasn't his fault they sucked, anyway. You were so focused on aiming your first dart that you didn't see the angry glance Natsuki cast at the boy.

You pulled back your arm and flung the dart at the balloon. It was pretty pitiful, you couldn't deny that. It sailed off away from the wall of balloons and landed outside of the game stand on the grass somehow.

Natsuki huffed a sigh, her arms crossed. But when the worker snorted and tried to hide his laughter, the little pinkette sprang closer like an affronted pomeranian. "It's not her fault these darts are total crap!" She snapped. You would never have expected in a million years for Natsuki of all people to jump to your defense and try to protect your honor.

She catches your wide-eyed gaze and then looks off to the side irritably. "Keep- keep your eyes to yourself," she growled under her breath.

You fortunately have the sense not to tease her about it. You have a better feel for how the darts travel through the air now, so you pick up the second one and aim again before sending it sailing. This time, it manages to hit the purple balloon target, but it simply bounces off the surface of it and clatters to the ground.

Natsuki opens her mouth to potentially blow up on the man, but you press a finger to your lips in a silent plea to ask her to be quiet. Now you have to take the brunt of her righteous fury in only a single expression, but she doesn't say a word.

One chance left.

You pick up your final dart, judging the distance from here to the balloon and considering the best angle to throw it. After a bit, you finally shoot your shot- and the resounding pop! catches you and all the bystanders by surprise.

What remains of the purple balloon flutters uselessly in the breeze. The worker still cares nothing for this, just goes to pluck the stuffed rabbit toy down from the prize wall.

You turn to beam at Natsuki, pleased with yourself. You've managed to surprise her, you can tell, and when you're handed your prize, you offer it out to Natsuki with a bright smile. "That was fun, huh?"

She stares at the bunny rabbit, still trying to process what had just happened. Slowly, as if she believed it's soft, fake fur was poisoned or something, she reached out to take it into her arms. Her face is growing more and more red by the second, and she buries it into the plush doll as if to hide herself or maybe try to regain her composure. Probably both.

The worker clears his throat loudly, indicating the two of you are still holding up the line, so you and Natsuki swiftly step to the side and start walking through the park. You're a little concerned she might trip over something or into someone since she's still hiding her face in the rabbit's fur and can't see where she's going, so you stick close to her in case she needs a hand to steady her. So much for 'letting her fall next time.'

When you can't handle the awkward silence any longer, you say, "Er, Natsuki...? Are you-"

She straightens up, cuddling the rabbit close to her. "It's fine!" She squeaks. "I- I mean- that was-" She's truly struggling here, and it makes you feel guilty. "You did okay," she manages to at last get out.

A twinge of unexpected hurt flashes through you. You'd privately been hoping that she would be impressed and grateful, but you guessed you shouldn't have ever thought those words might even be in Natsuki's vocabulary. "Oh..." You didn't mean for it to come out so forlorn, but you couldn't help it. "Yeah, thanks." You turn away from her, fighting back your disappointment. "I guess I'll see you at the club after school Monday, then-"

As you take the first step away, however, you feel Natsuki's hand dart out to grab your arm and force you to stop. "Wait!" Her voice is high-pitched with some frantic emotion you can't place a name to. "W-Wait, Y/N- I only meant that-" She huffs, stomping her shoe on the ground in obvious exasperation that you could only hope wasn't directed at you. "I-" God, it's a train wreck not just for her, but for you to witness too. "Thank you-!" The words have to be practically dragged out of her, so she tries again. "...Thank you."

You wait in confusion to see if there's anything else she's going to add, but when she doesn't, you tentatively reply, "Uhm...no problem-? I mean, you're always bringing cupcakes and stuff to share with everyone, so I just was hoping maybe I could try to return the favor and get you something." You pause. "I mean, get you something that you wanted to give to your friend." Best to try and fix any potential mistakes that could get you yelled at again.

Those words had some kind of effect on Natsuki, that was for sure, but you had no idea if it was a good kind or a bad kind. She's gazing up at you silently, seemingly frozen in place. Something snaps her back to reality, for she at last releases your arm, hugging the rabbit again like it could support her. "I guess...you can be really sweet sometimes instead of just a pain in the ass," she mumbles. You're about ready to be offended until Natsuki slowly holds out her bunny towards you, refusing to look at you. You're extremely befuddled and not sure what to expect when the soft nose of the plush bunny rabbit is touched gently against your cheek in a gesture that's very much like a feather-light kiss. "S-Stupid."

You feel like you're too paralyzed to respond in any kind of way, and besides, Natsuki's already brushing past you and stalking off, not giving you a moment to react anyway. You stand there for what feels like a long time after she's gone until it feels like you might have just imagined what happened there at the end.

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆　｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆　｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

Monika

Your day at the amusement park was drawing to a close, and suffice to say, you were thoroughly exhausted by everything that had happened. You stop to rest at one of the benches that was sort of away from the throngs of people who were starting to leave the park to head home, so at least the crowds were thinning out. Sayori had insisted you guys come here today, since it was Saturday and all, but she'd ditched you what feels like forever ago, and then you'd run into all the other members of the Literature Club- well, almost all of the other members, that is.

You let your mind drift as you sat there, leaning back into the wooden white bench and staring up at the sky. The yellow light was starting to fade as the sun slowly began it's descent into the horizon line. The amusement park would be closing in maybe an hour or so, you think to yourself as you let your eyes drift shut. You should really go and try to find Sayori so you can walk home together with her...not that the streets weren't safe in the evening, but it was entirely possible your friend could get lost or distracted and end up wandering around town for hours when she should be home. But you were honestly worn out from hours of walking around and socializing...

Right when you've finally gotten comfortable enough that you think you're dozing off out of reality and into a well-deserved, dreamy nap, there's a voice from right beside you that scares you enough to make you jump and snap your eyes wide open.

"Hi, Y/N! Fancy meeting you here."

Aaand, now you'd come across all of your Literature Club members- sitting on the bench beside you with her hands folded neatly in her lap was Monika. You've never seen her in anything besides her school uniform before, but the casual white and mint-green floral spring dress matched both her signature white bow and her eyes nicely at the same time. You hadn't even heard her walk up or sit down, which was kind of odd, but not odd enough for you to really think anything of it.

"Ah- hi, Monika," you greet with a small smile, trying to relax and not look as out-of-sorts as you felt. You run a hand through your hair, exhaling quietly in what was almost a sigh. "Yeah, I wasn't planning on leaving the house today, to be honest," you say in faint amusement. "Sayori sort of dragged me here to hang out."

Monika tilts her head to one side with a pleasant smile in return to you. "I see." She glances around as if she's expecting to see Sayori racing towards the two of you and calling loudly, her arms up in the air to get both of your attentions. But you and Monika are mostly alone. "So you spent the day with her?" The question is casual, and you don't think much of it at all.

"Uhm, not the whole day. We spent a little time together before she ran off somewhere...I bumped into Yuri and Natsuki today too, actually. Oh, but I was sort of thinking I should go try and find Sayori so we could head home."

Monika's emerald green gaze flicks away from you as a breeze ruffles her hair and yours. She doesn't respond for a moment, but you see that her friendly smile has faded somewhat now- and she looks...it's hard to say. Monika looks- gosh, you wish you were half as smart and descriptive as Yuri sometimes- wistful? Was that the word? Contemplatively wistful? She speaks again and it rouses you out of your daze. "So you were just about to leave." The Literature Club president flashes you an apologetic glance before rising gracefully up from the bench. "I didn't mean to bother; I can see you're tired, Y/N. I should get going too."

She doesn't seem sad, not necessarily, but you get the sense that something is a little off. Maybe it's the time of day affecting her mood? It's that weird hour where the day is technically over, but not quite yet- and there's a regretful longing permeating the atmosphere, the only way you could describe it might be like the feeling a high school kid gets on a Sunday evening, in spite of the fact today was Saturday, meaning the weekend wasn't over yet.

You move to stand up as well, a little clumsier than Monika. "But- there's still a little while before the park closes. If there was anything you still wanted to do here, I could come with you, if that sounds alright? Unless you were really going to leave, that is. I'm not so tired that I'd miss hanging out with you- outside of school, I mean."

There's the slightest hint of hesitation, and you're unable to decipher Monika's feelings right now. If you were to guess, you might say she's conflicted. Just as you're positive she's going to politely decline, her warm smile returns. "That would be nice," she says, and you realize you've been holding your breath.

"Okay, cool!" You brighten up and begin to walk through the amusement park with Monika.

She has her hands clasped behind her back and she's looking around to admire the scenery around you both while you do your best not to stare like a weirdo at her. "So, uhm...were you wanting to go on a ride or...?" You ask after a little while of silence.

Monika hums, but you don't think she's actually considering your suggestion. "I wouldn't ask you to wear yourself out anymore. When I first saw you on the bench, I thought you might have been taking a nap." While her tone of voice is casual, you can't shake the sense that there's an undercurrent of something else in those words. Almost like she's accusing others of making you tired or something. You're probably just imagining it.

Briefly, you wonder why she joined you if she thought you were asleep.

As if reading your thoughts, your club president continues, "Sorry if I disturbed you, Y/N." She slows the pace while you assure her that it was okay and she had done no such thing, stopping eventually to gaze upwards.

You follow suit to see the Ferris wheel towering above your heads. "I haven't been up there today," you comment thoughtfully. "Is it a pretty view?"

Monika dips her head slightly in assent. "I think so, yeah. Coming?" She leads you over to the man who is seating people in each of the carts, and he warns that this is the last go-around. "We understand, thank you," Monika says to him, and while she's just as charming, you think you know her well enough now to tell that this is her feigned politeness, like her guard is up.

He grunts and allows the two of you in one of the carts, shutting the glass door behind you.

You actually aren't scared at all. Well, you guess you are a little apprehensive at being in this small space alone with Monika, but you tell yourself you're being ridiculous. She's your friend, isn't she? So there's not a thing in the world to be nervous about...

The cart starts to go up into the air, and you stay standing while Monika takes a seat. Your hands press against the glass as the two of you climb higher and higher. The city is there, with all it's buildings and roads, but beyond it is... you can't really see what's beyond the city, and this confuses you. Shouldn't there be...something? Instead of just, blurry darkness? You blink several times and then brush at your eyes with the back of one hand like your sight is trying to deceive you. But when you look again, you still see only the murky black of nothingness beyond your city.

Monika's voice so near to you gives you a start- you'd been so dumbfounded by the missing scenery that you hadn't heard her stand up and come closer to you. Instead of watching the outside world, you sense her eyes are fixed intently on you. "What do you think?"

It's almost a relief to tear your gaze away from the glass. Her expression is rather closed off but serious, and sort of searching yours. You wish, not for the first time, that Monika was less of a mystery to you.

How to respond? "It's- strange," you manage to say.

The brunette leans impossibly closer to you, alight with surprise and near-disbelief as she presses, "What do you mean strange, Y/N?"

Feeling awkward and pressured, you find yourself taking a step backwards from Monika to get some space between you two. 'She'll think I'm crazy if I say it looks like we're floating in the middle of nowhere-outer-space in the middle of like a black hole or something.' "J-Just that-" You can see something akin to desperation written on her now, like she's trying to silently plead with you to answer her question sincerely. You fumble on the words, unused to this sort of intensity. "Just that...the town- it looks- different from up here..." Each word is stiff and awkward, you're really an awful liar, maybe even as bad as Natsuki.

Fervid disappointment seems to shake Monika's entire being, and she pulls back away from you, looking outside of the Ferris wheel cart again and far off into the distance. She's starting to become composed again and when the cart makes it last lap around and comes to a slow halt at the bottom, she turns back to face you and she's her usual self again: friendly, sweet, and bright. "I understand. Thank you, Y/N." The door to the cart opens and Monika moves to step out, offering you her hand to help you out.

Your breathing feels a little labored, and it isn't until later that you realize you'd actually been afraid. Not of Monika, more of the fact that you'd never once seen her behave anything like that before. It left such an impression on you that you were positive you hadn't imagined it. You do end up accepting her hand though, and you wonder if she can feel it's slight tremble.

One thing you weren't sure if you had imagined was the weird end of the world thing surrounding your city. Maybe there was something wrong with you. But you couldn't really think about that now.

"I told you it was a pretty view," giggled Monika. "You seem surprised. Didn't believe me?" She teased gently.

"Oh-! Oh, no, it isn't that! Like I said, it just was, er... different than I expected, is all," you murmur, glancing away- Monika's still holding your hand, but you don't have the heart to pull it out of her grasp.

You don't end up having to make that choice, since she jumps away from you at the yell of your friend Sayori. You see her bounding over to the two of you, just barely managing to hit the brakes and skid to a halt before colliding with you. She does however manage to shower you with dust and pebbles, to which you just press a hand to your forehead to quell a headache.

"Y/N! There you are! I was looking all over the place for you!" Sayori exclaims. She then waves at Monika, as bubbly as ever even though she should've, theoretically, gotten rid of some of that excess energy at the amusement park today. "Hey, Monika! Thanks for looking after her," she laughed.

Monika nods, much to your indignation. "My pleasure, Sayori. I'd better head off, then. I'll see you both after school for the club Monday!" She walked away, waving her farewell for a moment.

You didn't realize you were watching her go until Sayori's hand flailed in front of your face to get your attention. "Hey, we are going home together, aren't we?" She insists. "Otherwise I wasted soooo much time trying to hunt you down, Y/N!"

"Right, right, sorry. Of course we're walking back together- I was looking for you too."

Sayori pouts a little. "Did you think I'd be on the Ferris wheel?"

You grin. "Did you just use sarcasm, Sayori?"

She shakes her head quickly to deny it. "No, never! But am I wrong?"

"Okay, so maybe I did agree to spend some time with Monika," you confess with a shrug, allowing Sayori to pull you away towards the amusement park exit.

Sayori frowns, an unusual look for her. But it isn't a sad frown- it's a concentrated one. She was studying you with determination. "Did something happen? You seem a little out of it!" Amused, she pokes your cheek. "Fess up, Y/N! Do you have a crush on our club president? You have to tell me if you do! We're best friends!"

Sheesh, as if Sayori could ever keep a secret. But she was completely off base with that guess. "No," you answer her calmly. "I guess I...had some kind of epiphany."

".....what's an epiphany?"

'Ohmygod.'

#ddlc #doki doki literature club #sayori x reader #yuri x reader #natsuki x reader #monika x reader #ddlc x reader #scenarios #imagines #preferences #reader insert #fem reader #these are posted on my quotev already #but I'll post them here too just to have them available #i've never posted my writing on tumblr so pls be gentle with criticisms and such #aaaaaaaa

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dreamescapeswriting · 3 years

Text

The Clause ~ HJS [Request]

WORD COUNT: 10.1K

GENRE: Platonic, angst, mentions of gambaling, being owned by someone, fluffy/happy ending

PAIRING: Han Jisung x Fem!Surgeon!Reader

A/N: I hope this is okay for you sweetie, I'm still sorry about your other requests! 🥰💕

It was pouring with rain outside as you stared out of the window into the city, your boss was drowning on about your work while you pretended to listen. The rain hitting the windows made you think of that day, that one day that ruined your life and made you into somebody else's property instead of your own person.

"Y/n?" You turned your head to the side to look up at him, Park Jin-Young was staring at you from across the room. Your boss for the last 4 years and many more to come. He was in the middle of giving what you assumed to be one of his best speeches yet since he was talking to everyone in the room about upcoming events.

"Yes Sir?" He shook his head at you knowing you hadn't been listening to him the entire time. You hardly ever listened to him so he pointed to the whiteboard that was behind him so you would see what he was yapping on about this time. Your name was there grouped together with the rest your band members Bang Chan, Han Jisung, Seo Changbin, Hwang Ye Ji and Shin Yu Na. The subunit that had been formed for you to debut with last year which was currently the most profitable under JYP. You'd been working for JYP for four years already but your group was only a year old, before them, you were doing solo work for advertisements, singing, acting and anything you could possibly get your hands into. JYP was just signing you on to everything and anything that would make money.

"You all have an award show in two weeks and I expect you to be on your best behaviour! I want you all practising hard-" His speech continued on but you just went back to staring out of the window drowning out his voice the way you always did.

The rain was hammering down against the windows and the pavements but all you could think about was how lovely it must have been to be out there. Free to do whatever you wanted, walk around in the rain letting it hit you in the face without being screamed at that you could get sick. You couldn't even remember the last time you'd been allowed to do whatever you wanted without having to sneak off to do so. For this longest time, this had been your life. In and out of business meetings, being forced into a lifestyle that you did not want nor wish to have but it was your father's fault if it wasn't for him and his debt none of this would have even happened. You would have been free to live the life that you wanted instead of the one you were being forced into. Like a puppet on a string doing what everyone else expected of you and not what you wanted to do.

Thunder clapped loudly from outside of the building making you jump up as you looked up at your father, he had sweat dripping down his forehead as he waited anxiously outside of someone's office. He'd dragged you out of bed early that morning to take you out with the promise of getting breakfast together. Your first day off in over six months and you jumped at the chance,

"Did you warm up your voice as I told you to?" You frowned at the question but nodded in answer to him, you'd been warming up as he told you to all morning. You'd been practising between shifts at the hospital and doctors surgery you worked at since he told you to.

"Good, Mr Park will be very impressed by you. You want to be a singer right?" You were about to tell him, no, that you'd never wanted to be a singer or in the limelight, it just wasn't who you were when two huge double doors opened and a woman appeared. She was dressed in a black dress and clutching a clipboard to her chest as she scanned the room, her eyes landing on you and her dad and she smiled brightly.

"Mr Y/l/n," Your dad rose to his feet and began brushing down the outfit he'd talked you into wearing. You were 19 years old and pretty sure you could dress but your father insisted that this be the outfit that you wore. It was a white blouse with a pair of black jeans. It made you feel as though you were going for a job interview.

"Dad." You hissed as he continued to brush off the shirt nervously before ushering you into the room alongside him, standing you in the centre of the room directly in front of a huge desk. Floor to ceiling windows was behind the desk and a man turned around in a chair to face you and your father,

"Mr Y/l/n it's good to see you, I assume this is your daughter?" A man who was dressed in a white suit asked as he looked up from a folder in his hands, he stared at you and then at your father. The folder was then placed down gently onto the desk in front of him as he eyed you up.

"I don't have all day. Show me what she's got and then I'll see if she's good enough." You frowned harder wondering what was going on but your father smiled at you pushing you a little as he nervously whispered to you,

"You have to sing for him okay, sing your favourite song." He moved away from you and you took in a deep breath before starting to sing the lyrics of the song your mother used to sing to you every night before you went to sleep.

After performing in front of the man he smiled brightly and stood up in his chair walking over to you as he looked you up and down,

"She's quiet, you don't talk? Or ask questions?" You stayed silent as you stared at your father wondering what in the world was going on. Why the man had asked you to sing for him and then got up from the desk when you were done and began clapping. It was starting to set in that going for breakfast wasn't going to happen anymore which made you mad at the thought of being carted around on your day off. You could have had a nice lay in for the first time in years. You were working as a surgeon apprentice in a hospital as well as working in a private doctors practice and on Saturday's and Sundays you worked in a restaurant all to pay off your fathers debts. The debts he continued to round up day after day as if he didn't care that it wasn't him working his arse off to pay it off.

"She's always been quiet." He mumbled as he played with the sleeves of his coat. It was covered in holes since it was the only one he'd owned for years. Your family didn't come from much as it was and having a gambling father who didn't know when to stop didn't help you any. You glanced at your father who was avoiding all means of eye contact with you and then you bit down on your lip. You should have left with your mother when she left him all those years ago. You never would have been caught in this situation if you had done.

"Do you know what he's doing?" JYP asked as he walked behind you and whispered in your ear before coming out and standing in front of you once again. Staring up at the man you shook your head in answer to his question and then at your father.

"You didn't even tell her that you were signing her life away? That's very cold." You jumped as a folder was slammed down onto the desk in front of you and your name was splashed across the front, inside were different slips of paper with your fathers signature scribbled along the bottom.

"He...He signed my life away?" You stuttered out as you began reading over everything that was inside of the folder. Employee contracts, money contracts, debt calculators and then there were your schedules all packed inside.

"You'll be quitting all of the jobs you have, you work for me." The man clapped his hands together and the double doors opened,

"Your father will be taking this-" A silver briefcase was brought into the room and placed onto the table beside your paperwork.

"Do you want to take a guess of what's inside?" There was an evil smirk plastered across JYP's face as he watched the way your eyes danced between the case and your father who was staring at it with glistening eyes.

"Money. It's always money with him." You spat out coldly as you watched the case slowly begin to open. Inside it was filled with countless notes all for your father to take with him,

"You'll be working with me for the next...Hmm, I think we went with-" JYP turned to look down at the contracts and smiled as he ran his fingers across the black and white paper.

"26 years, 80% of your wages will come to me to pay back our fathers debt." Your mouth fell open as you turned to look at your dad who was picking up the case of money,

"DAD!" You screamed out as if you had just been shot which was what it felt like, it felt as though someone had just shot you in the chest as he took the money over his own flesh and blood.

"Don't, he's not worth it." Instead of coming across as cold and callous JYP seemed to really feel for the fact that your father was doing this to you.

"I'm paying back our debts with this, you'll earn off this in no time." Your father mumbled leaving the office without another word but you weren't through with him you began to storm out after him when the doors were shut in front of you.

"We have much to discuss, take a seat," JYP said calmly as he sat down at his desk and pulled out paperwork for you to look at.

After four years your father proved to you that he wasn't going to use that money to pay off his other debts he'd ended up gambling it all into the ground before crawling back to JYP for more. But he had nothing more to offer, JYP wasn't going to sign you on for more years when after 26 you would be no use to him and all the debt would be paid off with your payment plan. That wasn't the only one you had thought, you worked for JYP of course. You did everything that was asked of you but you never did more than that. Instead, you spent any free time you could, working in a private surgery performing surgeries on people. The pay was exceptional which meant you could put a bunch into a savings account as well as having enough to spend on yourself.

"Is there anything you want to talk about?" JYP called out as he looked at everyone inside of the room, everyone exchanged glances with you and you looked down at the table. You knew what was going to be mentioned but you just hoped they would bring it up with you instead of the big boss.

"No. We're fine." Chan answered coldly before getting up to leave the room first, slamming the door behind him the rest of them all doing the same thing.

"Y/n..." JYP asked as he watched you playing with the sheets of paper in front of you.

"You keep running off during practices and not showing up on the weekends...Want to tell me where you're going?" JYP lent down on the table to look at you and as if someone was finally looking out for you the door opened to reveal his assistant telling him he was late for another meeting. You took the chance to rush out of the room and head to the practice room for your choreography practice.

"I don't get why she's here, she doesn't fucking do anything. She hasn't trained!" You were standing outside the dance studio when you heard Lia talking about you loudly to everyone else in the room. It was nothing new since they all regularly voiced their dislike for you even if you were in the room with them and you didn't blame them. You would hate yourself too if you were randomly placed into a group with no training. Chan had been training for seven years until he was finally chosen then there was everyone else who had to do weeks and weeks of auditioning just for the chance to be placed into the group.

"Where is she always running off too? I heard her father and mother died so she's not going to them," You heard Changbin laugh loudly as you swallowed the lump in your throat. Your father died last year after losing the house and then ending up in the streets, succumbing to the environment around him.

"It's not like she's got any friends either. She's so quiet it freaks me out." Yeji commented as she looked at Chan to see what he thought of all of this but the room was in silence again and you debated with yourself about walking inside.

"What's up dummy? Scared to walk inside? Running off again?" Jisung's voice filled the air and you cringed at yourself while he chuckled softly. He was always coming across as cold and hotheaded with you all of the time, you thought it was just how he was but he seemed to be so kind to everyone else around him. He wrapped his arm around your shoulder and smiled down at you,

"I was just- I don't...I didn't-" You tried to come up with something to say to him but he just rolled his eyes at you,

"I-I-I-I-" He mocked as he pushed the doors open and pulled you inside with him, dragging you out in front of everyone as he smirked at them all.

"Look what I found!" He announced causing everyone turned to look at you and glared, they wasted no time in trying to hide the dirty looks they were giving to you. None of them cared what you thought of them, they just wanted to get on with the subunit things so they could get back to their main groups. That was all it was to them. Extra pay and something that they had to do even if they didn't want to do it.

"Minho is coming to teach us the choreography, think you can stick around long enough so you don't fuck it up?" Chan snapped out as he raised his eyebrows at you waiting for you to come up with some kind of comeback which you never did. The reason he was telling you not to fuck it up was because of the countless choreographies that you'd messed up in the past but never showing up for the practices.

You kept your mouth shut as you avoided his eye contact not wanting to get into a fight with the leader when you knew you'd never win. You'd never win because he would always find some way to blame everything on you because he hated you and you knew why he hated you. Never trained a day in your life. Got straight into the company without exceptions and you were basically the spokesperson for everything JYP could sign you up for but they didn't know why. Chan on the other hand spent over 7 years of training, living in a dorm from the ages of 13 while you lived in your own place that you paid for. They hated you for acting as though this was no big deal, treating it as if it was just a hobby instead of a job. They didn't know the ins and outs of everything and how you were working to pay off a dead mans debt that had been transferred to you the moment your father died. The words JYP had screamed at you the day you found out still rang through your head. You'd gone to him with the hopes of your father dying would get you out of the debt he owned but you were wrong. It was all transferred onto you and your head. Held over you until all the money was paid back.

"I still own you! You work for me until the debts are clear." He owned you. As if you were just a piece of property that could be passed around. As if you didn't have your own life to think about but no.

"Y/n? You're at the back for this one." Minho said calmly as he looked at you, you hadn't even noticed he'd come into the room until he called out your name to move to the back. Minho was one of the nicest people you'd met in the company, he was always willing to help you out whenever he got the chance which was why he seemed to be your only friend. Only you never hung out outside of the company, you never went to lunch together or spoke about anything except work.

"Yeji and Lia at the front of Changbin," Minho called out as he began to order you all around and show you what the dance routine you would be working on was. Chan stared back at you to make sure you were still there and the music began to play through the speakers.

A week into countless practising and early mornings you were finally getting the routine done and perfected, going in for one to one practises with Minho whenever you could. It was a Saturday morning at 4 am, you'd begged Minho to come into the studios to help you as early as possible since you were expected at the surgery later that day.

"You're still having a hard time with one of the moves but it'll come to you, Jisung is your partner for it you should go to him for help." He mentioned after you both took a break to get some water together, he was watching you as you shuddered. The mere thought of going to one of the others for help was traumatising enough, you'd already been given so much shit about failing on some of the moves you didn't want to admit to needing help on a minor part. The song you were going to be performing at the award show was one of the slower songs you all sang, which meant you would be doing a slow dance in partners, Yeji and Chan, Lia and Changbin while you were with Jisung. No one else knew what it was like during the quiet times with your team, they just assumed you got along like any other unit together. Whenever you appeared on shows or interviews you all joked around as if you had been lifelong friends with one another but it couldn't have been further from the truth.

"It's okay I can do it alone." You mumbled to yourself as you got up from the floor ready to go over the move again when the door opened, Jisung was standing there looking unimpressed. It was 6 am and you were pretty sure it was the first time you'd ever seen Jisung at work on a weekend before noon so you were a little surprised.

"I already called Jisung over, I knew you needed the help." Your eyes locked with Jisung and he stared back at you coldly, he yawned as he dropped his bag down onto the floor. He hated being up early in the weekdays and now that his weekend was being invaded he was even angrier.

"Let's get this over with then! Some of us have social lives." The music started and you and Jisung started from the top of the choreography.

"1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8!" Minho called out as he clapped his hands together in time to the slow beat that Jisung had to waltz you around too, his hand clutching onto your waist as you held onto his shoulder and hand. Moving around the dance studio together as stiff as ironing boards,

"You two need chemistry you know, gosh it's like you hate one another." Minho laughed as he watched you both together, Jisung was so tense and you weren't looking at him when you needed to. Jisung looked at you and then to Minho as he waited for more instructions to be given to him.

"You need to look at one another like the lyrics are meant for you," Minho ordered as he tilted your head to look up at Jisung but it was hard to pretend to be in love with him hen he hated your guts. The song was all about love, something Changin had written that wouldn't go with Stray Kids or Itzy so it was given to your subunit instead.

"It's hard to do that when he hates me," You mumbled moving away from him as you went to answer your phone that was blaring from your bag on the other side of the room. Jisung watched you walking away and his mouth fell open. You really believed that he hated you? He'd never once meant for it to be taken seriously whenever he joked around with you, it was all playful banter and the way he was with most people. He never showed you his softer side though but he just assumed you knew it was him playing around.

"Y/n speaking..." You answered without checking to see who it was and as soon as you heard your bosses voice flow through the speaker your eyes widened. Checking the time quickly you wanted to kick yourself in the teeth, the practice was opened 30 minutes ago and you had an hour to get there before the first surgery

"Right away. I'll be there as soon as possible." You hung up the phone gathering everything as quickly as possible before excusing yourself from Minho and Jisung who were frowning at you.

"Where does she go?" Minho questioned as he watched you sprinting off down the hall,

"I don't know but you know what," Jisung grumbled as he picked up his bag from the floor and began heading to the door,

"I'm going to find out." He walked away from the practice room and followed behind you, darting into a room whenever you turned around to look behind you out of habit and then he followed you into the parking garage. Watching as you got into a cab and began heading off so he went in the direction of his car to follow the cab he was going o get to the bottom of this once and for all.

When Jisung watched you walk into the doctor's practice he assumed you were just going in to have a check-up and that was the reason you'd run away but after sitting there for four hours and you'd still not come out he began to get worried. Time began ticking on longer and longer to the point where he was late for work and he was supposed to be writing with Chan that day but he decided to cancel. If you came out soon he would go to work but if you didn't come out in the next ten minutes he would sit there and wait until you did. He wanted to know what was going on, without admitting to you that he was worried.

"You did great, not just a pretty face I see." The main surgeon who has asked for your assistance on a heart replacement surgery said as you scrubbed down from the fourteen hour-long surgery.

"Thanks, Dr Kim." You looked down at your hands as you washed them in the sink by the surgery room, the patient was being wheeled away to their private room to recover and was expected to make a full and perfect recovery.

"Will we see you tomorrow or are you taking some time off?" You bit your lip, they knew that you did a lot of acting but they assumed it was on the side. The best thing about the private doctors that you worked with was that they hardly had time to watch movies, shows or even award shows unless they had booked time off. The only person to know who you were was your boss and that was because of the background check he'd had to do on you when he first hired you all those years ago. He didn't care that your father was in debt just that you were fully qualified to work as a surgeon which you were.

"I'll probably be here, I work every weekend and whenever they need me." You smiled softly as you headed towards the locker room to go and change into your clothes. The doctor's surgery was like the home you always wanted, all of the doctors were so friendly and kind to you.

"Y/n! Someone has been sitting outside for the last fifteen hours, every time I go out there he says he's waiting for you..." Panic began to set into your chest as you realised it could have been anybody from JYP, Chan if he decided to follow you out, Minho or even JYP himself. Your secret was about to be exposed and you had no idea what you were going to do about it.

"He's been there all day?" You mumbled as you nervously began to pull at the straps of your bag and bit down on your lip,

"His car hasn't moved, I went out to ask what he was going and he said waiting for you...Wouldn't give me his name and I ran the plate-" You shook your head at her telling her that it was fine that she didn't have to find out everything and anything.

"It's fine," You glanced out of the window to see Jisung asleep in his car, his window rolled down as he slept soundly as if nothing could bother him. Relief washed over you a little when you realised that it was just him, he was the easiest one of your group.

"I know him, it's okay." You mumbled to her as you began to get ready to go out and question him on why he was sitting there.

"Are you sure? I can get a guard to-" She stopped talking once you left the front door and headed over to the car, everything was silent as you stared at the snoring Jisung who looked as though he'd needed the sleep so you just casually pushed your hand through the window and honked the horn just to mess with him.

His skin drained of all colour as he jumped up suddenly looking around him thinking someone was breaking into the car, he held up his hands as if he was going to punch the air and then he stared at you.

"Morning sunshine. What are you doing here?" You raised your eyebrow as you looked at him looking at the car and then into his eyes,

"What-What time is it?!" He yawned out, stretching his arms out to look around the car and down at his dashboard to see what the clock was saying,

"You've been in there for over fifteen hours?" He questioned staring at the clock and then at you, his eyes clouded over with worry as he looked at you taking in your appearance. There was some blood on your temple and you weren't in the same clothes as that morning,

"I was doing something-"

"Are you sick? You have blood on your cheek, did you hurt yourself?!" His voice came out panicked and you frowned as you looked at him trying to figure out what his angle was. Jisung was never kind to someone unless it somehow benefitted him.

"Careful Jisung. Someone might think you care." You mumbled as you pulled your bag over your shoulder and shook your head at him.

"Bullying me at work not enough? You've decided to take up stalking so that you can find new things to bully me for?" He frowned when he heard your reasoning for things he was never bullying you at work and if he had done he'd never meant to actually hurt your feelings.

"No I- I thought something was wrong- Why were you in there for so long?!" He'd started off caring in his sentence but quickly snapped to anger as he questioned you on how long you were in there for. He got out of the car looking at you in the eyes rain was starting to come down and so you walked away from him deciding you wanted to head home.

"I want answers, why are you running off all the time? Why have you been in there for fifteen hours?!" You ignored his calls until he grabbed onto your wrist and forced you around to look at him. The rain was pouring down between you as you stared up at him waiting for him to let go but he didn't,

"Why do you care?! Huh?! What is it? Did Chan send you after me? Did he decide that hating me at work wasn't enough he wanted to follow me to my dream job?!" Jisung froze as he looked at you and then over at the door to the doctors, there was a small woman watching the both of you and as soon as she saw him looking at her she darted back into the surgery again.

"Get in the car it's raining," Was all he said as he dropped your wrist from his hand and began heading towards the car but when he noticed you weren't following he turned to look at you. The expression on his face turned to anger as he realised you were just standing out in the rain,

"Get in the car Y/n!" You wasted no time in arguing with him, a free ride home was a free ride home.

The entire journey had been filled with an uncomfortable silence unless you were giving him directions as he drove you home,

"This is your place?" He pulled up outside a huge house that was stood on its own no other houses attached to it and had a huge security gate around the front.

"Yeah, I-I'll walk in." Jisung shook his head as he drove through the opened gates, watching as they shut behind him automatically after he hit one of the plates on the floor that shut and opened them from the inside.

"Fancy." He chuckled as he parked up outside the front of the house and got out to help you out of your side of the car,

"I'm fine Jisung." You mumbled as he held onto your hand and walked you towards the house, when you reached the front door you expected him to leave but he just stared at you.

"You didn't think you would get away without an explanation, did you? Inside." He pointed to the front door and you opened it, this was the nicest he'd ever been to you in the years that you'd known him so you headed in. Taking off your shoes and coat as you hung everything up in its place, Jisung following along with you as he took off his shoes and jacket.

Jisung's mouth was falling open as he took in the appearance of everything around him, the place was huge. The front door opened into the main area of the house that had a large grand staircase leading up to the top floor.

"It's not mine. I'm renting it from JYP." You mumbled before he could ask how you could afford a place like this but the truth was you weren't renting it at all. It was your prison. The same could be said for the JYP building though only the home was better. The home was where you could escape into your own world, gardening in your back garden or cooking in the huge grand kitchen for yourself. Everything you would rather be doing than working for JYP.

"It's so grand," He mumbled as he followed you towards the kitchen, you had rice and Kimchi on heat all morning so you plated you both some up before taking him into the kitchen. If he wasn't going to drop it you could at least come up with some kind of excuse to tell him.

"What you said to Minho earlier...About me hating you. You know that's not true right?" He questioned as he stirred a small spoon around the cup he was drinking from, you stared down at the rice in front of you and shrugged your shoulders. It sure seemed like he hated you,

"You all make it pretty clear you hate me..." You mumbled trying not to come across as though you were feeling sorry for yourself because you weren't. That was never the case.

"They don't hate-" He stopped trying to defend them the moment you looked at him, he knew that they had a strong disliking for you but he didn't know why. He just went along with it thinking it was all some kind of big joke until recently when he noticed they weren't letting up. Part of him always felt bad for you but he didn't want to be the one to break out of it all.

"I don't hate you...It's just who I am, I'll bully you but I only mean it playfully...I don't think you're actually dumb when I call you dummy." He laughed awkwardly as he thought back on it all and then looked at you to see if you believed him. You weren't sure if you could trust him though,

"You're always so cold and mean but-" That was when you thought back on it more and more. All of the times that Jisung would step in if one of the girls were being too mean or if Chan was giving you too much of a hard time. He was always trying to protect you in some kind of way without showing you that he cared about you too much.

"You're always there jumping in whenever it gets too bad...You always stop them before they get too mean..." You said slowly as you stared at him, he just drank from the cup as he nodded along to you.

"So what's going on? Why do you always disappear?" He looked at you as he continued to try and get the answers from you but you avoided his eyes. It was hard to say no to him when he was giving you that look on his face which was just his face. It was as if he had some kind of spell over you that made you want to spill every detail to him

"I work as a surgeon there." You mumbled before drinking from your cup waiting for some kind of reaction from Jisung but he shrugged his shoulders. That was no big deal, everyone did things outside of JYP, he was pretty sure Yeji taught a dance class on the weekends and she didn't take extra precautions to hide it from everyone around her.

"Why do you keep it a secret though? It's an amazing achievement right? It means you’re smart, I-I mean not that I didn’t think you were smart before that but-" You scoffed as you thought about it, bringing your knee into your chest as you stared down at the mug between your hands. The years you spent studying, the early access into colleges all for it to be pushed down the drain the second your dad gave you a way to fund his habit.

"Try telling that to JYP, the man who owns the deal to my soul." Jisung frowned, he thought he was following along but now he was just as confused as before.

"Deal to your soul?" You bit down on your lip before telling him everything, you had every right to tell him there was never a huge thing about keeping it a secret but you didn't want everyone to know. Why would you want everyone to know?

"My dad borrowed money from him, to pay him back I am in a contract until I can pay back every penny he borrowed." Jisung frowned even more so, You looked at him and then down at your mug again, as you began explaining everything it felt as though a weight was being lifted off your chest. It was no longer just you and JYP who knew about the agreement.

"I thought your dad-"

"Died? Yeah, he did, but I'm still being made to pay everything off. That's why I get all the deals, all of my money goes to him. 80% of it anyway," You pushed some rice into your mouth and Jisung tried to follow along with it all in his head.

"So like in Barbie princess and the pauper." Your mouth hung open as you stared at Jisung who had just brought back a memory from your childhood.

"Exactly like that." You giggled at the thought of Jisung watching a movie like that. His expression softened as he thought back on it all, all of the deals you were always taking no matter how much time they took. It also explained how you got into the company with no training and were placed into the top of the company. You were the one making JYP the most amount of money and it made sense that he would do it.

"How much do you have left to pay him?" Jisung questioned, you stared at him wondering if you could trust him but decided to go for it anyway.

"Over a four million left out of ten million," You mumbled dropping the teaspoon down onto the table and ditching the cup of tea, you wanted something stronger as you realised you were going to be in debt for the rest of your life.

"That's not too bad, I mean do you have any saved up since JYP doesn't know about the surgeon job?" You smiled hopefully at the thought of it and nodded your head,

"I have about half a million saved up, if I keep working myself into the ground I'll have..." You pretended to start working out in your head as you looked through the bottles of alcohol that you had in the room.

"4 years knocked off the expected 28 year-long contract," You hissed as you poured yourself and Jisung a large glass of whiskey each.

"I'll help you," Jisung said as he looked over all your copies of the paperwork reading through everything to see if he could find some kind of loophole or contract clause to get you out of it.

He'd been sitting there for the last four hours trying to find it but he'd found nothing while you'd found the bottom of the whiskey bottle.

"I'm indebted to the man, might as well sell a kidney at this rate! Maybe a leg while I'm at it," You giggled as you stole a desk chair from the study and began spinning around in it. Jisung stuck out his hand to stop you as he tried to keep his concentration on the papers but all of the reading was making his head hurt. There were so many different pieces of paper to go through,

"You're making me dizzy," He grumbled as he shook his head turning to look at you. You were so drunk you were starting to giggle at yourself,

"I'll bring my glasses tomorrow, I'll take a real look." He promised you as you continued to giggle to yourself on the chair,

"You need to get some sleep, if you show up to work drunk they'll kick you out." He mumbled as he picked you up from the chair bridal style and began to carry you towards one of the bedrooms in the house.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" You questioned as you laid down on the bed and stared up at him,

"You're always so nasty at work, why can't you be nice there? I-I want you to be nice to me." You began to cry as you thought more about it, your drunken state taking over your mind as you cried to Jisung about how mean he was to you. How spiteful all of them were to you.

"If I start being nice now it'll look weird...I'll ease into it," He whispered as he brushed some hair out of your face but you just shoved his hand away. Telling him to leave you alone and never come back to you but he just shook his head, covering you up with the covers.

"I'll come back tomorrow with my glasses to look it over, there will be a way out." He promised you as he left the room, shutting the door behind him as he walked out of the house, locking the door and posting your keys back through the letterbox.

A week later Jisung had been spending every moment he could at your place, reading through everything with a fine-tooth comb and some huge glasses. You were spending time together, getting to know him as you both worked closely to get to the bottom of your contract. Jisung had originally come up with an idea to prove that you weren't your father's daughter to get you out of the debt but you knew you were his. Being the spitting image for your dad had his downsides so he was left to go through the paperwork night after night. Even at work, Jisung was slowly starting to become more bearable to be around, he was defending you more and more in front of everyone without trying to hide it anymore. He no longer cared if it made it look weird he wanted them to start being nicer to you if they only knew what you'd been dealing with this whole time none of them would say the things they said.

"We have two more days until the show and I think we might actually all be ready," Chan said with a huge smile on his face, you looked over at him and he was even smiling in your direction. Jisung had been mentioning how much overtime you'd been investing in it. That was what he told them he was doing every night when he went to your place, practising since you didn't want him to tell everyone the truth. If they knew there would be no doubt that JYP would know next and that was something you weren't willing to risk. The surgery money was the one thing helping you get out of debt the most. Between reading through the contract and eating with you he was helping you practice, both of you getting closer as friends to the point where he was picking you up for work in the mornings to save you getting a cab.

"Y/n your phone is going off," Jisung whispered as he slid you your bag, you frowned as you looked inside to see that the doctor's surgery was ringing you and Jisung bit down on his lip. The surgery only called in the week if there was an emergency that they needed you for, they knew you had another job somewhere. There was no way that Jisung was going to be able to come up with some kind of excuse for you to get out of this practice and there was no way, no matter how much of a good mood Chan was in right now he was going to allow you to get away with it.

"I'm going to take this outside," You whispered as you got up from the floor, all eyes were on you and you saw Yeji and Lia smirk at one another. Chan rolled his eyes as he thought you went back to your original ways and Jisung bit down on his lip staying silent.

"The runaway is on again," They giggled to one another before smirking at you, you looked down at the floor as you walked out of the room to answer the phone call to your boss.

The words emergency surgery had you down to the doctors practice within minutes, you'd rushed inside to see your favourite patient being prepped as you looked at Dr Kim who had been the one asking for you. This was the biggest surgery of your life, it was a brain surgery with your number one patient who you had a rapport with over the years of coming to the same surgery. He was always cracking jokes with you since he knew who you were but he'd made a promise years ago to keep your secret with him. It was a running inside joke between you both that you would sing him to sleep whenever he stayed over or he was going to sleep for surgery.

"Mr Lee, I thought we weren't going to see you again." You said as you walked into the room drenched in sweat and panting heavily from running the cab to the building. He chuckled as he reached up to cup your face in his hands and smiled, he waited to see you smile and once you did his cheeks warmed up.

"I-I thought so too but I need the surgery, I couldn't go in without my favourite girl by my side." He squeezed your hand and you smiled at him weakly as you turned to look at Dr Kim. The surgery was one of the riskiest ones you were ever going to face in your life but if Mr Lee wanted you there then you were going to be there no matter what the case. Mr Lee had had brain surgery years ago when you first met one another since then he was in and out of the same practice for checkups on how he was healing. It was brought to Dr Kim's attention on the latest scan that they needed to perform the surgery again, only it was riskier than before because of Mr Lee's age.

"16-hour surgery, no breaks. He'll be awake throughout the whole thing." Dr Kim informed you as you both scrubbed up in the surgery room waiting to go inside. You knew the dangers of the surgery that Mr Lee would be going through, you'd been speaking to him about it months ago but no one thought he was going to need it until now.

"I need to know that I can count on you Y/n," You promised him that he could count on you and you got ready for the longest 16 hours of your life.

The next morning when you left the surgery Jisung was waiting outside holding coffee in his hands and a bag of spare clothes. He'd called you over 50 times the night before while you were in the surgery room but you didn't get any of them until two hours ago when you finally got out and had a shower. You begged him to bring you some clothes and a coffee since you knew you had to go straight to the studios for one more practice. The thought of heading to practice after the night you hand made you want to pull your hair out but you had to act like everything was fine when really your world felt like it was falling apart.

"How did Chan take it?" Jisung stayed silent on your question which means Chan hadn't taken her running away very well so you headed towards his car wanting to get it over and done with.

"You okay?" He questioned when he noticed how red your eyes were and your tear-stained face, you nodded as you got into the car wanting nothing more than to go home and be alone by yourself instead of at work.

"Fine." He knew that you were clearly not fine but he left you to it not wanting to press you too much for the information you clearly didn't want to give out.

"Y/n!!" Chan barked as you walked into the studio fully clothed in your new practice gear, you'd changed as soon as you got into work and Jisung headed up to the studios to make it look as though he hadn't come with you.

"You're late and you ran out-" Already having enough of Chan without it even started you snapped,

"I was busy," Jisung looked up as soon as he heard you snap back at Chan, he knew something had to have been wrong for you to finally speak back for yourself. The whole car ride you'd been silent not speaking at all, you hadn't even started singing which was what you and Jisung would do loudly whenever you drove together. Chan stared at you as he cleared his throat wondering why you were trying to pick a fight with him,

"I don't see what could be more important than this-"

"That's because you can't see anything past your big fat ego," You mumbled not realising that the rest of them could all hear you and you were being stared at. Chan turning red in the face as he grew angrier with you, Changbin smirked and paid Yeji the money he owed her for the bet they all had on you to see how long it would take until you snapped.

"What did you say?" Chan asked as he stepped away from the computer coming face to face with you but Jisung stood up and rushed in front of you. Jumping up to defend you for the 100th time that week but you'd had enough of Chan thinking that he was the only badly done to one.

"It's been a long two weeks. We're all tired, how about we all just call it quits. I have somewhere to be anyway Hyung." He stared up at Chan as he begged him to cancel the practice,

"Why didn't you say you had somewhere to go? I would have cancelled..." The whole atmosphere in the room changed as soon as Chan spoke to Jisung, it was as if no one had been mad and Chan was an entirely new person and you shook your head. Mumbling to yourself about how unbelievable they all acted. You turned to leave the room with Jisung, his hands on your shoulders as he pushed you out of the door. That was when Chan made a comment,

"I'm so sick of you thinking you're better than us," You turned to look at him as tears welled up in your eyes,

"You know what. I'm not. I'm not better than any of you and I've never thought that. I don't even want to fucking be here but guess what sweet face I have no choice!" You yelled out as you dropped your bag onto the floor letting all of the medical work you had from work inside spill out onto the floor.

"That's where I go whenever I run away! I'm a fucking doctor because oh yeah. Not everyone wants to be here like you." You turned to look at the girls as you tried to be as nice as possible,

"I respect that this might be your true dream but it's not mine." Next, you turned to look at Chan,

"I get that you trained for seven years and I respect that Chan, beside you being awful to me I think you're great at what you do but I trained for four years, worked for another four, holding down doing three jobs. Now I work this one and a surgeon job so don't tell me I haven't trained." Tears were streaming down your cheeks as you looked at Jisung and then back at the rest of them.

"I am in debt to JYP because my father sold me off to gamble away the money I have to pay back. So next time you tell me I'm not trained enough or don't deserve to be here. Take it up with your fucking boss." You snapped before leaving the room leaving the rest of them standing there with their mouths hanging open, Jisung calling after you as he tried to catch up to you in the building hallway but you just wanted to be alone for a while with your own thoughts.

After the award show, you didn't go to practice for a week since there was nothing expected of you yet. Jisung had been ignoring your calls and texts and didn't bother coming around to the house anymore so you assumed he wanted nothing to do with you since your breakdown in front of everyone. JYP still hadn't contacted you so you were guessing the others hadn't told him about your side job thankfully. You were somehow hoping that Jisung had been the one to talk them all out of telling JYP or anyone else for that matter.

"Do you want a ride home?" You boss asked when he walked you out of the building late on Sunday night, you shook your head.

"I think I'll catch a cab, it's okay-" You stopped yourself from talking when you saw Jisung sitting in his car keeping his eye on the door the entire time as he waited for you.

"Looks like you have a ride, see you next week!" Your boss cried out as he walked over to his own car, you just stared at Jisung not knowing what kind of ground you stood on.

"I'll take you home." He opened up the passenger door for you and took your bag off your shoulder,

"No hello? No explanation as to where you've been? Why haven't you been answering my texts, I mean I get we're not friends but-" Jisung turned to look at you and you stopped talking as he began driving in the direction of your place, turning on the radio as he drove there in complete silence.

"Why did you bring me home if you weren't going to talk?" You questioned him more as he began walking up the stairs of your house, opening the front door and waiting for you to go inside first.

"You're freaking me out with the not speaking thing." You told him but that was when he took your bag off your shoulder and placed it onto the coat hook and began pulling you towards your study in silence once again.

"Han Jisung! Talk to me right now!" You cried out as you stomped your foot on the floor like a child, you heard a chuckle coming from the room behind him and you frowned. Looking over to see that the door was cracked open and you could just see the shadows of people sitting inside,

"Y/n let me explain," Jisung said as he finally said something to you for the first time in over an hour,

"W-Who's in there?" The door opened and Changbin stood there wearing a pair of glasses as he smiled at you,

"Come on!" Your heart began to thump as you realised that he was holding up some of the papers to your contract that was highlighted. Frowning you walked towards the room and headed inside to see that all of your group were inside, each of them holding a copy of a contract as they ran over everything, parts of it highlighted with bright sticky notes poking out of the side.

"What's going on?" Your voice cracked as you looked at Chan who was sitting at your desk, he turned to Jisung to explain and he placed his hand on your shoulder softly.

"We found the clause to get you out of it." It felt as though the ground was going to be pulled out from underneath you, you were waiting for one of them to start laughing loudly as they told you it was a joke or that they were extending the contract.

"What clause?" You whispered as you walked over to Chan who was scattering the papers out for you to see it all there in front of you.

"It took us a week but you figured you could use the help," He admitted as he pointed down at the different clauses as to why you weren't to be the way held accountable for your father's debt. Chan thought it was weird when he heard Jisung say that even though your father had passed you still had to pay it. Legally speaking if that person was no longer around you had no legal liability to pay it off.

"I can get out? I don't have to work for him?" Tears began to well up in your eyes as you stared over everything in the pieces of paper.

"You can get out," Chan confirmed as he smiled up at you, all of them feeling heavily guilty for the things they had said and done over the last year of being in your group.

"We're sorry...For everything, if we'd known we never would have...We never should have." Chan told you as you sat down on a chair beside the desk and stared at the papers, your way out finally coming towards you in bright lights.

"You have no reason to forgive us or even think about it but we want you to know how sorry we are," Changbin said as he got up from his chair and looked at you. Yeji and Lia were next as they got up to hug you tightly for the first time ever, you sobbed into their shoulders as you shook your head.

"You've done me the biggest favour I could ever ask of you, you've- You've made me the happiest person in the world by getting me out of this." You whimpered into their shoulders before pulling away and wondering how you were going to get to JYP with all of this information and as if Jisung could read your mind he smiled at you.

"We got a lawyer, he's going to go over everything we found and meet with you and JYP Monday morning. He's 100% positive that you will be out of the contract before Monday night." Without a word you screamed and wrapped your arms around his neck, burying your face into his neck as you sobbed happily to him. Thanking him over and over again for everything they had all done this last week in helping you get out.

The contracts weren't burnt months ago, the money you had earnt for the last year had been placed into your accounts - minus the normal employment takings for other idols. Now you were able to work full time at the doctor's surgery doing everything you'd ever dreamt of doing. Working as a doctor full time, going home every night to cook and work on your garden whenever you wanted to. Getting to have the life that you always wanted to have,

"Jisung's outside," Your co-worker said as she walked in from her lunch break, you looked outside of the window and shook your head when you saw him standing there. A brown bag in his hand as he waved it at you,

"Lunch." Your boss ordered as he saw what you were looking at, you rolled your eyes before going out to your lunch break. Sitting on the hood of his car he waited for you to come over to him,

"I bought cookies from Felix as well. He's been baking all night." You smiled weakly at Jisung who had done nothing but bring you lunch and dinner every night since you left the entertainment company. Jisung and you had become close friends despite the rocky start to everything. The rest of you were still on speaking terms but you couldn't see a friendship blooming between any of you just because of everything that had happened. Much to JYP's dismay but with the help of a fantastic lawyer behind you there was nothing he could have done to stop you. The lawyer had made it his one mission to get you out of the contract as fast as possible, making sure JYP knew that if he didn't let you got he would go to every tabloid he could to tell everyone what he was doing with you.

"Thank you, my Kind sir, Tell Felix I'll bring him some of my kimchi round." You mumbled as you bit down into a cookie and smiled at the taste. Practically perfect in every way the best way to have lunch as you started the sky, laying down on the car as you continued to eat the cookies.

Tagline: @taestannie @kneel-begyourpardon @channiewoo @minholuvs @bisexualmess007 @lkwonmj

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leighistired · 3 years

Text

Out Loud

A Martin character study AO3 Link

“G’night mum, love you.”

“Make sure you put the trash out, don’t want it stinking up the house.”

At 12 it occurs to Martin, he can’t recall the last time his mother said “I love you” to him. She must have. He knows she loves him, so why can’t he remember her saying it? Was it before dad left? It can’t have been that long ago. He knows if he brings it up she’ll just tell him off for being silly so he just decides to not say it unless she says it first. She doesn’t say it.

“Look how nice our neighbor’s garden is,” she says instead. “If only we could have such a nice garden.”

“The neighbors hire a man-” Martin tries to explain. He had just done law maintenance over the weekend; he would have to bring up memory issues next time they saw a doctor.

“Aren’t you happy with how I provide for you?” She snaps. “Ever since your lousy father left us I have done my best even with my health and all you can talk about is getting a bloody gardener.”

“Sorry, mum,” he says. It’s better not to argue when she gets like this.

“Forget it. Just get me my tea.”

He goes and brews her a cup of Oolong tea. It’s far too bitter for his tastes but it’s all he buys when he does the shopping. Perhaps that was it, instead of saying she loved him she just provided for him.

Martin tells himself that until she gets too sick to work and begins needling him to get a job at 14. Suddenly he’s providing for her on top of school and everything else but that didn’t mean she didn’t love him. She was just sick and the medication she was on made her tired most of the time so it wasn’t like he could expect her to be excited to see him; especially not when he’s the one bringing it to her.

“Is soup the only thing you buy?” She asks one evening when he brings her dinner.

“You didn’t have soup last night,” he reminds her patiently after a long day of school and work.

“Oh, so you think I’m ungrateful? I am your mother! I gave birth to you! You should be happy to take care of me!”

“It would be nice if you acted like a mum for once!” Martin snaps back. He regrets it as soon as he says it and doesn’t wait to hear her response. He leaves the house and sits in the park near his house for a long time and cries. Of course she loves him. It must be so hard on her to be stuck at home all day with no one to talk to and there he went snapping at her. She’s asleep by the time he comes home and neither of them mentions it in the morning.

Martin doesn’t know what he expects when he starts to transition. He hadn’t even called it a transition at first, he just likes how he looks with short hair, baggy clothes, and a sports bra. His mother disagrees. There are days she won’t even look at him and when she does it’s usually even worse.

“You cut your hair again,” she mentions one morning over breakfast. “Just when you were starting to look like a girl.”

“Yup,” Martin replies tight-lipped. He had been thinking it over for a while and he’s slowly coming to terms with the fact that he isn’t a girl. The way she says it hits him sharply. If she was never going to say “I love you” to a daughter, why would she say it to a son? He doesn’t bother coming out to her properly because he can already see the disgust on her face when he gets a proper binder.

When she decides to move into a full-time care facility, it’s almost a relief. He feels foolish for expecting her to say it when she leaves. He feels even more foolish when he says it in goodbye. The receptionist gives him a sympathetic look when she doesn’t say it back but the receptionist probably assumes his mother has memory issues and forgot who he was. She doesn’t. Still, he appreciates the gesture.

Dating is nearly impossible for most of his life. It’s easiest to blame his busy schedule; he doesn’t even have time for friends outside of school. The fact that no one even asks him out isn’t something he wants to think about. After he drops out of school and his mother leaves, dating and friendship don’t get any easier. He can’t let anyone he works with get close enough or they’ll find out his real age and utter lack of qualifications. Online dating is also out of the question for similar reasons. If one of his coworkers saw him with the age 19 in his profile they would either know he wasn’t actually 25 or they would think he was a creep and he didn’t exactly feel comfortable lying about his age to potential dates. Meeting people organically isn’t the worst thing in the world but it’s difficult. He makes a few passing friends at a local trans support group but even then, he can’t get close to anyone without risking someone discovering his falsified CV.

He doesn’t have his first real boyfriend until he’s 23 years old. They meet at a Holloween party thrown by a mutual acquaintance and date for almost five months before Martin ruins it.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, Dominick, I love you,” Martin says as he serves dinner.

“Oh, uh, it’s a little fast to say that, don’t you think?” Dominick had stammered awkwardly. Was it? It didn’t seem like it to Martin and even if it was, it was true. He loved Dominick.

“I-I don’t think so,” Martin replies nervously. Some distant part of himself starts to berate him for being so needy.

“It kind of is. Let’s just pretend you never said it and we’ll see how we feel in a few more months, ok?”

“You mean we’ll see how you feel,” Martin says a little bitterly.

“Why can’t you just relax and enjoy the holiday?”

Martin had sighed in resignation and picked at the rest of his plate. They broke up a week later because Dominick felt like they were “looking for different things.”

Martin doesn’t have another serious boyfriend after that. He goes on a few more dates over the years but nothing that lasts longer than five months. Nothing that lasts long enough to say “I love you.” In some deep dark part of him, he wonders if he was ever meant for love. His father hadn’t loved him enough to stay, his mother hadn’t said she loved him in over a decade, and he’s not even sure he was in love with Dominick. He gets crushes, sure, but he just throws himself into his work at the Magnus Institute instead.

Working in the library isn’t bad. He gets along with his coworkers well enough but he can never get close to them. Not close enough to love them as friends or be loved in return.

Then he gets transferred to the Archives.

Jonathan Sims is not the first asshole boss Martin has ever had. He doesn’t understand why Mr. Bouchard sent him down to work in the Archive in the first place and his first impression with his new boss is less than stellar when a dog follows him into the building. It doesn’t help that Jon is good-looking and every once in a while Martin catches glimpses of a version of the Archivist without a stick up his ass. Like when he spends Martin’s ice cream birthday talking about emulsifiers. If only he would be clearer about what he actually wants from Martin. No report or follow-up seems to be good enough, even with the help of Tim and Sasha.

Martin works hard for Jon’s approval. He doesn’t know why he wants the recognition but it’s either this or quit and he really, really can’t quit. So he spends three full days looking for every woman named Angela over fifty in Bexley only to be berated for actually talking to one of them and then he offers to look into a case about spiders that clearly upsets Jon only to get trapped in his flat by a zombie worm woman.

When he finally escapes, he takes a few worm corpses with him and he dumps them on Jon’s desk while he’s in the middle of a statement. Let Jon try and disprove that When he gives his own statement he makes special emphasis on reminding Jon how hard he worked to meet his exacting standards. He refuses to be yelled at for this.

Except Jon believes him. More than believes him, in fact. He offers Martin a place to stay. Of course that would be enough to ignite a crush in Martin.

As soon as they get to document storage Martin sits on the cot and begins to cry with exhaustion. He expects Jon to leave but again he surprises him.

“I-it’s alright, Martin,” he says awkwardly as he pats Martin’s shoulder. “You’ll be safe here and I’m certain Elias will respond promptly to my request for extra security.”

“Thanks,” Martin sniffs. He can’t remember the last time he cried in front of another person.

“Would...would you like me to stay until you fall asleep? If- if you think it will help.”

“Oh, er...no...I’ll be fine, thank you. You should be getting home, anyway. It’s Saturday, Jon.”

Martin blacks out as soon as Jon shuts the door to document storage. When he wakes up he finds his crush on Jon stubbornly still in place.

He can’t help himself after that. He starts taking special care of Jon in hopes of encouraging the kind man he saw that night into emerging. At the very least Jon doesn’t yell at him as much and he even thanks Martin for the tea he brings. It’s then that he notices other things about Jon, like how rattled he gets by certain statements and how he’ll often go an entire day without eating or drinking anything unless someone brings him something. That someone being Martin. He also notices how late Jon leaves, if he leaves at all.

It’s on one such night of Jon still being in his office at 11 o’clock that Martin knocks on Jon’s office door.

“Jon?” He calls gently.

“Hzzmt! Martin?” Jon responds, having been startled awake from dozing at his desk. “You should be asleep.”

“And you should be home.”

“I see your point,” Jon sighs. “I’ll finish up here and head home. Unless you need something?”

“Actually….I-I was thinking,” Martin beings. “Since I sort of kicked you off your cot...D’you want to come back to document storage with me? You know, get some sleep?”

“What?”

“Er...forget I-”

“The cot would be rather cramped with both of us,” Jon warns as he gets up from his desk. “If...if you’re sure you want me to join you.”

“Yeah...I thought you had work to do?”

“It can wait until morning, no use keeping you up longer than necessary.”

Martin only half regrets offering to share a bed with his crush. Jon was right, the only way to fit both of them on the cot is for both of them to sleep on their sides (or for Jon to sleep on top of Martin but even the thought has his face burning) and it’s difficult for him to fall asleep with Jon’s back pressed against his. It’s good to hear Jon fall asleep, though, and as time wears on it’s easier for Martin to goad Jon away from work to sleep a few hours.

The more of himself Jon reveals the harder Martin falls for him. Especially after Jon accuses him of being a ghost during the Prentiss attack. Even with the guilt Martin feels every time he looks at Jon mummified in bandages. That was Martin’s fault. If he had just paid more attention then he wouldn’t have lost Jon and Tim in the tunnels. He does everything he can to try and make up for it; despite Jon becoming more and more closed off by the day. Intellectually, Martin knows that Jon has gotten like that with everyone, but something deep down makes Martin feel like it’s his fault Jon’s gotten so cold. It doesn’t help that Jon seems to have gotten friendly with the policewoman investigating the murder of the previous Archivist. Tim even seems to think they’re having an affair which does wonders for Martin’s self-esteem. Jon wouldn’t be the first straight man Martin has ever had a crush on but Martin was pretty sure Jon wasn’t straight. Again, he wonders if he’s done something wrong to push Jon away.

After Jon stumbles out of his office covered in blood claiming to have had an accident with a bread knife Martin finds all the excuse he needs to regularly drag Jon to the canteen to make sure he eats something. The silences during those lunches are hard. They had eaten together before but now Jon wasn’t talking to him. The most Martin could get out of him were a few one-word answers. He tries not to think about how it reminds him of his mum.

“So,” he tries for the millionth time while Jon picks at his sandwich. “Did I tell you what happened while you were at physical therapy the other day?”

Jon doesn’t say anything but he looks up with a gaze that bores into Martin.

“Uh...A little girl came in alone with a statement, she must’ve only been eight years old,” Martin says. Jon looks at him with an expression that almost seems afraid. “Don’t worry, it recorded fine on digital. She walked right down into the Archive, walked up to my desk, and said ‘Excuse me. My name is Beatrice Walker and I’d like to make a statement about a supernatural occurrence.’ She sounded so grown up and she refused to leave until I had recorded her statement. Turns out her dad was using the library for research and she had just wandered off.”

“What was her statement about?” Jon asks to Martin’s surprise.

“Oh, a hamster with mysteriously changing spots.”

“Ah,” Jon replies thoughtfully. “Not much need for follow-up there, I suppose.”

“Not unless you really need me to track down the shop where her parents picked up the new hamster.”

He catches the briefest of smirks from Jon before the conversation dies again.

After that Jon’s coldness and paranoia comes out in the form of a screaming accusation over letters Jon found in the trash. Martin barely manages to make it to the bathroom before he bursts into tears after coming clean about his CV. Tim thankfully doesn’t check on him while he silently curses his taste in men. Jon doesn’t meet his eye for the next week in what he bitterly hopes is guilt. He does seem slightly more willing to talk with Martin at lunch, though.

Then Jon goes missing. After trying to get Martin and Tim to go home early because Jon was feeling under the weather; he disappears. Not before apparently bludgeoning someone with a pipe and isn’t that exactly what he and Tim need to see as soon as they get back from a two-week kidnapping by a spooky door monster?

With Sasha gone, Jon missing, and Melanie King being suddenly hired by Elias, whatever’s left of Martin’s relationship with Tim deteriorates. More so when Martin becomes the only one in the world to believe Jon could be innocent. It’s probably that that makes the police detective “investigating” Jon so actively hostile toward him. Apparently, people say he and Jon are “close” and that probably only means the lunch thing but he wants to imagine it’s something more. Like people are somehow picking up that Jon likes him back.

When Jon comes back to confront Elias it’s all Martin can think to do to fall back on his tea-making. He ducks into Jon’s office with a piping cup of the overly sweet tea he spent months perfecting to Jon’s taste and finds him with his face buried in his one non-bandaged hand.

“Jon?” He calls as gently as he can while he closes the door behind him. “I brought you some tea.”

It’s when Jon looks up that Martin notices the bloody mess down the front of his shirt.

“You’re hurt. Let me go get the first aid-”

“No!” Jon interrupts frantically. “Just...Could you just stay with me for a moment?”

Martin acquiesces and they sit side by side on the sofa in Jon’s office in silence until Jon starts sniffling into his tea. He offers Jon a hug and Jon all but dives into his chest to cry. It’s the saddest most broken thing Martin has ever heard and it’s all he can do not to pull Jon into his lap and curl around him protectively.

“Martin...I-I...I’m sorry,” he says quietly. “For everything. For Sasha and Prentiss and...and for the way I treated you. You didn’t….no one deserves that.”

“None of that was your fault and I sort of deserved it. I didn’t actually know what I was doing.”

“You didn’t deserve it,” Jon insists before going back to quietly crying into Martin’s jumper. Martin doesn’t respond. He can’t recall the last time someone’s apologized to him. At least not like that. He’d been told off most of his life for not doing things up to people’s standards. A few people over the years had told him he didn’t deserve it but Jon was the first person to apologize. No wonder Martin was falling in love with him.

Damn it.

Cuddling doesn’t become a regular occurrence for them by any means but Jon begins doing more to seek Martin out after that. They eat lunch together more often and Martin stays up late to talk to Jon while he’s abroad. It drives home how deeply buried into Martin’s heart Jon has become. Especially after he comes back after going missing for a month and has the audacity to joke about being moisturized by a clown mannequin for a month.

He wonders if Jon feels the same way. Sometimes Jon will smile shyly at him, and he can almost believe that Jon would be interested in a relationship if the world wasn’t ending. The last time they speak before the Unknowing they’re in document storage.

“Are you ready?” Jon asks as he shifts nervously.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Martin signs. He heard what happened to Melanie. He knows what’s likely to happen to him. Some small part of him is screaming to just tell Jon his feelings like it’s the climax of an action movie.

“Stay safe,” Jon says.

“Come back,” Martin replies. Jon offers him a hug. It’s no movie kiss but it allows Martin to hold Jon as close as possible. Jon himself is hanging off of Martin’s neck and it feels like a final goodbye.

Then Elias confirms what Martin has always suspected deep down. That his mother never loved him or if there was a time when she did, she stopped when his father left. Even after everything. After he spent years taking care of her. After he had to quit school to care for her. All she ever saw was his father. All his transition did was to remind her further of how much he looked like his father’s son. At least it was worth it. To distract Elias so Melanie could find evidence to arrest him.

Then Peter Lukas shows up and reveals that Elias planned to get arrested. Worse than that, he offers Martin a promotion of sorts.

Then they get the news from Yarmouth. Tim’s body is found in a charred heap, Daisy is missing, and Jon is dead in all but brain activity. At least Basira is physically alive.

Martin spends as much time as he can next to Jon. He’s used to loving someone who can’t love him back. Maybe this is all he’s destined for. Love unrequited. He talks to Jon’s dreaming corpse. Tells him about his day, reads him poetry, even a statement, but nothing draws Jon out of his coma.

Then his mother dies. He barely has the emotional strength to mourn her. Instead, he scatters her ashes and mourns his childhood lost to trying impossibly to earn her love.

After the Flesh attacks, Martin makes a decision. He’ll join Lukas. It’ll probably lead to his death but what did that matter? His mother was gone and didn’t care about him anyway. Tim and Sasha were gone. Jon was basically gone. Basira and Melanie were the only people left that he vaguely cared about and by doing this he could at least protect them.

He visits Jon one last time in the hospital. He’s still covered in wires and his eyes still flit around violently behind his lids as Martin sits down next to him and takes his hand.

“Hey Jon,” he says quietly. “I...This is the last time I’m going to see you...Probably ever. I know, I know old dramatic Martin surely he’s exaggerating. I’m not. The Institute is in danger and...I have a way to keep Melanie and Basira a little safer, so I’m doing it. I just came by one last time to say...Jon, I...I love you. Goodbye.”

He gets up and presses a kiss on a part of Jon’s forehead not covered in wires before leaving. It’s alright that he doesn’t say it back. No one ever says it back to Martin.

When Jon wakes up everything becomes that much harder. Suddenly he had a reason to live and the way Jon pursues him makes him almost believe...No, even completing the thought would be dangerous for all of them. Jon trusts him enough not to be constantly badgering and that makes it worse. When Jon is there the Lonely makes Martin resent his presence and when Jon’s gone Martin resents his absence.

The final, most excruciating pain is when Jon comes after him in the Lonely. He’s excepted his fate in the chilling numbness of the Lonely. Maybe that’s why he says it. The certain, inevitable rejection would be numbed utterly. So he says it.

“I really loved you, you know?”

And Jon looks broken. Even after he rips Peter’s statement from him. Even when he reaches for Martin’s face with hands that seem far too warm and makes him See. Knowing Jon loves him isn’t like “knowing” his mother loves him. Instead of a lie born in Martin’s mind to stamp down the fear of rejection, it’s a reality pouring from Jon’s mind mingled with Jon’s fears of rejection.

Jon’s hands still feel too warm compared to the icy chill of the Lonely as he leads Martin out. Still, he refuses to let go all the way through the tunnels, the Institute, talking to Basira, packing at each other’s flats, and on to the train. The way to Daisy’s safe house feels like a blur and when they finally arrive it’s all Martin can do to remember to take off his binder before collapsing into bed with Jon’s warm arms around him.

He wakes to Jon’s quiet crying. The awful, stifled thing that breaks Martin’s heart.

“Jon,” he whispers.

“Martin? Did I wake you? I’m sorry, I’ll-”

“It’s alright, Jon,” he assures as he swaps their positions so Jon is tucked firmly against him. Jon makes another broken noise and Martin can’t stop himself from crying, too.

“I-I’m here, Martin. You aren’t on your own,” Jon soothes and Martin almost has to laugh. They lay crying and comforting each other until they both fall back asleep.

When they wake up properly they take stock of the safe house’s pantry and make a list of things to pick up in the village after breakfast. Martin gives in to the temptation to buy a new notebook to try and write poetry in. They have enough canned food to survive to the next ice age so they pick up perishable items like milk, bread, butter, and eggs. Jon also picks up fresh peaches and a box of Martin’s preferred tea. It’s easy to pretend like they going on a normal shopping trip as they walk up and down the aisles to check things off their list.

They return to the cabin and settle in. Martin sits on the sofa and tries to write out a poem while Jon tries to read a book from Daisy’s personal collection. After a while, Martin beings to feel Jon’s gaze on him.

“Is there something on my face?” He tries casually as he’s met with an expression he’s never been on the receiving end of.

“I was just thinking about how much I love you,” Jon sighs. Martin can’t stop the noise that comes out of him. All his life trying to earn love and Jon just says it while Martin’s thinking of a synonym for ‘yellow.’

“I-I don’t expect you to reciprocate,” Jon says quickly, his soft expression suddenly turning worried.

“But I do.”

“Oh…Oh!”

“Yeah.”

Jon starts giggling and it’s impossible for Martin not to follow suit until happy tears stream down both of their faces.

#the magnus archives #martin blackwood #jonmartin #jonathan sims #I wrote a fic #this was supposed to be posted on valentines day

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onmykneesforhotdilfs · 3 years

Note

Oooh i'm gonna with #3 please! And Valtor as a bartender.

He truly loathed his job.

The disgusting smell of cheap drinks spilled on the bar mixed with the stench of sweat and cheap perfume, from grinding bodies on the dancefloor and humping barely-legals in the corner, made him nauseous. The music was loud to the point his heartbeat developed arrhythmia whenever a bass boosted song played through the obnoxious sound system. To make matters worse, one of the speakers was set directly above the bar and Valtor was sick of buying earplugs every week, because if he didn’t use any protection, he’s pretty sure he would go deaf before he hit 40 and he once again cursed himself for forgetting them at home.

A particularly high note came on, and the crowd cheered while Valtor cringed as he felt the microscopic hairs in his ears, sensitive to high notes, shrivel up and die. He rolled his eyes as he spotted a tall blonde dragging taller brunette towards the restroom. Apparently, couples basically dry humping each other on the dancefloor and sucking their faces off in the corners wasn’t enough, so universe also decided to throw in a couple about to commit an indecent act in a public bathroom?

He was just about to call one of the bouncers when it hit him – he doesn’t care. Oh well. What can you do?

A woman, wearing something Valtor could only describe as lingerie, came to the bar and ordered a fruity cocktail and for the umpteenth time, he wondered how his life turned into this? How did he go from graduating on a prestigious college, having a stable job and a fiancée, to wiping down spit from the counter top on a Saturday night.

He used to be a successful attorney, his yearly salary reaching up to five-zero figure, a stable relationships, loving girlfriend and more, and yet, all of that collapsed under the enormous weight couple of words held.

His hands worked on autopilot, mixing the necessary drinks while his thoughts were miles away.

Now, whatever’s left of his past life lives in a small condo across the town and Valtor chuckled at the irony of life giving him lemons while he chopped one to mix it into the cocktail. He squeezed the juice out of the poor fruit, with probably more force than was necessary, getting some of it on his shirt in the process.

“What are you chuckling about?” The woman was leaning over the counter, her chest basically spilling out of her dress as she played with the ends of her dark hair.

Valtor raised an eyebrow as he bent down to retrieve one of the decorative umbrellas. “Nothing that would be of interest to you.” He saw her flinch in surprise at the rather sharp tone he unintentionally used. “Miss.” He added as an afterthought, hoping it would make him look less abrasive. Unhappy customers don’t tip well after all.

“Oh. Well maybe it does interest me. You’ll never know unless you try.” The woman smiled flirtatiously while her fingers continued twirling the strands of her hair. “I’m Mitzi, by the way.” She offered her hand to him.

Valtor only quirked an unamused eyebrow. “I don’t remember asking for your name.” The smile was quick to disappear from her face and she snatched her hand back like it’s been burned.

He closed his eyes as his tongue, once again, proved to be faster than his brain. It’s what got him into trouble a lot of times and this one might’ve just taken a cake because if the girl went to complain to his boss, he’d be in a world of shit. “I was trying to be nice, but it seems to me you’re too much of an asshole to appreciate it.” Mitzi gritted out with obvious false confidence because a fierce blush was very much present on her face. This obviously didn’t happen to her a lot.

First time for everything, Valtor thought.

“What I would really appreciate, Mitzi,” Don’t do it, “is if you could stop your 36C's, that you stuffed into a 34B bra, from spilling all over my counter.” You absolute moron! “I have to wipe it.”

Now you’ve done it.

Mitzi turned even reader, and Valtor wondered if he should start dialing an ambulance just in case, but she only snatched the drink he placed in front of her and threw a 5$ bill in his face. “Jerk!” And just like that, she was gone.

“Have a nice evening!” Drop dead.

He rolled his eyes and took a glass that needed wiping just to occupy his hands for a minute because he felt like a coiled string, just about to snap and burn everything in its path.

“I have to say,” girl’s voice reached him, “you just fixed my evening.” Valtor lowered the glass to the solid surface and turned to face the owner.

His brain short circuited.

Though her body was mostly obstructed by the counter, he could see that the navy blue slip dress she wore draped beautifully across her slender figure. She was also incredibly short that even standing up straight, in what Valtor assumed were ridiculously high heels, she was at least head and a half shorten than him. But the most obvious, and striking thing about her, was her red hair. Valtor never even thought that hair could be as vibrant as hers.

In his almost 35 years of life, Valtor has never seen someone as interesting as the girl standing in front of him.

When he finally shook himself out of his stupor, and when it became painfully obvious he was making her uncomfortable with his gawking (really, there was no other word for it), he smiled and spoke. “Well, I’m pleased to hear that because it will undoubtedly ruin my life.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about her reporting you.” She waved her hand dismissively. “Her ego is too big for her to accept she just got rejected.”

“You know her?”

There was something nostalgic in her smile. “I used to know her… or maybe I just thought I know her.”

Valtor observed the unusual girl in front of him. In his several years as a bartender and even before, he developed quite a knack for reading people. She seemed, to him at least, like one of those lost souls that recently had their world turned upside down but tried despite to appear normal. You and me both. “Would you like something to drink?”

Her head snapped up and her electric blue eyes met his. “Oh! Yes, um,” she fidgeted slightly, her hands wringing together and picking at her nails, “anything with vodka.”

He nodded and turned his back on her to find a bottle of the best vodka the club had to offer. He didn’t know why he suddenly paid so much attention to what he’s mixing into drinks but something pulled him towards this girl like gravity and he was too weak to resist it. “Straight?” He asked without turning around.

“Ummm, that’s a bit personal don’t you think? I mean, I just met you.” Valtor stopped what he was doing and turned his head so she could see the confused frown on his face. “I don’t even know your name. As far as I know you could be a serial killer.”

It downed on Valtor what she was talking about and he chuckled at her adorable rant. “I meant the Vodka.”

Her lips shaped into a silent “O" and he saw how her neck and face turned red from embarrassed. She moaned and buried her face into her hands. “Oh God, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay.” He picked the bottle and turned back around so he was facing her. He extended his unoccupied hand across the counter top. “I’m Valtor.”

She shook his hand, her hand incredibly small in his huge one, blush still present on her cheeks. “Bloom. And yes, straight vodka is fine.”

“I’ve only seen Russians drink vodka by itself.”

“I’m quarter Russian. My mom’s dad is from Russia.” Valtor nodded along as he fixed her a drink.

“Impressive.”

“it’s really not. It only made me the laughing stock of the entire class.” She took the glass filled with clear liquid, their fingers brushing together on accident, and Valtor felt a spark rushing up his nerve endings. “But, I can drink most people under the table so I guess I should be grateful.”

Humor was obviously one of the things she used to deflect the pain and trauma bullying inevitably caused. “Your hair is very… unusual. Natural?”

She nodded. “Yup. This is one of the things I inherited from grandpa.”

“Sorry if that made you uncomfortable, it wasn’t my intention.”

“No no, don’t worry.” Her lips wrapped around the edge of the glass as she took a sip and closed her eyes to savor the feeling of burning liquid sliding down her throat. “It’s actually one of the nicest things someone has said to me about my hair.”

Valtor looked at her with a small smirk on his face. “That bad, huh?”

“You don’t want to know.” Bloom tilted the glass and took a large swing of the drink, only a small amount remaining at the bottom. “What about you?”

Valtor shrugged. “What about me?”

“You have an unusual hair too.”

Indeed. His long strawberry blond hair was tied in a ponytail, but unlike herself, he loved his hair and didn’t particularly give a damn what anybody else thought about it. “I don’t really care about somebody else’s opinion and neither should you.”

“I’ve stopped that long time ago.” Valtor nodded towards her almost empty glass and she slid it towards him for a refill. “But you know, scars remain.”

He nodded. “That I do know.” Valtor saw another guy coming up to the bar so he excused himself. As soon as he moved away from her, the unpleasant sensations that accompany prolonged presence in a loud room came rushing back like a rogue train and Valtor felt the onsets of a headache forming. He served the guy and returned to Bloom who was now nursing her drink instead of knocking it back like the first time.

“So what’s a girl like you doing in a place like this?”

She quirked one eyebrow. “A girl like me?”

“Not to be rude, but this doesn’t seem like your cup of tea.”

She laughed. “It’s my friend’s birthday. She dragged me here against my will while promising she’ll stay with me the entire time. It took me turning around for her to vanish without a trace with her boyfriend.”

“That friend of yours,” he started, “wouldn’t happen to be a tall blonde dragging a brunette with her?”

“That’s her.”

Valtor made a face. “I don’t think you’ll be seeing a lot of her tonight.” His eyes slid to the direction of the restroom.

Bloom followed his gaze and she groaned when she saw where her friend went to. “Not this again.”

“Again? This happens a lot?”

“Unfortunately, it happens more than I would like to.” She rubbed her forehead.

“Right,” he drawled, “because who doesn’t like seeing their friends going at it.” Sarcasm was dripping from his words.

“How long have they been in there?” She asked while looking at her wrist watch.

“Fifteen minutes or so.”

“Damn animals. I’m never coming to the club with her again.”

An amused chuckle escaped him. “That’s not the first time you’ve said that, am I right?”

She smiled and took a sip of vodka. “Nope.”

Just as he opened his mouth to ask her another question, her blonde friend wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Valtor’s eyebrow did a backflip. How she managed to avoid detection while leaving the bathroom was beyond him.

“Damn Bloom, I leave you alone for five minutes and you’re already seducing hot bartenders!”

“Stella! First of all, I am not seducing anybody,” Maybe not intentionally, “secondly, it’s been almost twenty minutes and thirdly, what happened to your promise of not ditching me? And the moment I turn around, you’re already gone?”

Stella, if Valtor heeard correctly, giggled. “Oh live a little Bloom. Besides, it’s not like you were in a bad company.” Her eyes ran over Valtor’s form. “In fact, I wouldn’t mind taking a bite out of that.” She ogled Valtor like a piece of chocolate cake.

“I’m standing right here.”

“Okay, that’s enough for today! We’re going home.” Bloom grabbed her purse and was about to pull out her wallet when Valtor raised his arm to stop her.

“It’s on the house.”

“But Blooooom,” There was really no words to describe the sound that exited blonde’s mouth, “we just got here.”

“The fact that you're talking about having a threesome with a stranger says enough about your state.”

“I’m pretty sure Brandon wouldn’t mind.”

“Okay, time out. Let’s go.” She turned towards Valtor, a small card between her fingers. She leaned over the counter while one of her arms stayed behind, supporting her friend. “Thank you.” She slipped the card into his hand. “Call me if you wanna talk sometimes.” And with that, she spun on her heel and dragged Stella towards the exit.

Valtor stood in shock, not knowing how to react for a few minutes, staring at the business card in his hands.

Bloom Peters MD.

He shook his head, hand safely pocketing the precious cargo before he picked up the glass she’s been drinking from and turning around to wash it. The sound of retching caused him to turn around in time to see some wasted man empty the content of his stomach on an obnoxious red carpet. The stench of vomit mixed with other delightful aromas and Valtor was once again reminded how much he hated his job.

#winx club #baltor x bloom #bloom x baltor #bloom x valtor #sparxshipping #valtor x bloom #bloom #valtor #winx #sparxshipping questions #sparxshipping requests #sparxshipping prompts #sparxshipping au

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five-rivers · 3 years

Note

Maybe a Secret Saturday and DP crossover with the Fenton's being approached to join the Secret Scientists. The parents are quickly deemed too biased against ghosts to join until further notice. Their kids, on the other hand. The son's not quite a scientist, but he has potential. And their daughter would be perfect.

“Remind me why I’m doing this again?”

Doc gave Zak a look. “Because the Secret Scientists need new members. Potential members need to be screened by existing members. And the Fentons have kids your age.”

Zak raised a skeptical eyebrow. “I don’t exactly get along with ‘kids my age.’” It was true. Ulraj and Wadi were exceptions to the rule, and even interactions with them had been rough at first. It had been four years since he met them, and they were still just about his only friends.

Zak just didn’t do ‘normal’ very well. Sure, he could integrate himself into a group for the sake of information gathering, but that usually didn’t last very long. Thirty minutes, tops.

“I know,” said Doc. “But sometimes people will say things to and around kids that they wouldn’t otherwise, and we want to be thorough. Make sure we’re inviting ethical people. No more Abbies.”

“I guess that makes sense,” said Zak. He sighed. He knew Fisk wouldn’t be able to come. Most of the time, they were able to get away with people assuming he was a guy in a suit, or just ignoring him in favor of much more obvious, more immediately dangerous cryptids, but that wouldn’t be something they could get away with when it came to prolonged contact.

It never seemed fair to Fisk.

(Cryptids always seemed to get the short end of the stick. Even the ones who were as intelligent as any human.)

“You don’t have to be friends with them,” said Doc, putting a hand on Zak’s shoulder. “Just like we don’t have to accept the Fentons into the Secret Scientists... But give it a chance?”

“Okay,” said Zak, shrugging. “A chance.”

Danny loved his parents. They loved him. He knew that they were brilliant scientists who had made incredible breakthroughs in a difficult and poorly regarded field. They deserved recognition and funding. They had no colleagues with whom to correspond or test ideas with. They had no real friends. They deserved that, too.

All in all, Danny thought they deserved the position in the think tank that was about it interview them.

But Danny felt sick at the idea of them spreading their biased and hateful theories about ghosts to yet another group. He hated the very thought of even more people, more scientists, more people who were trying to do good in the world, calling him and the other ghosts evil just because of the way they existed.

But he didn’t know how to stop it. Not without revealing himself, and he was too much of a coward to do that.

... Maybe he could convince their kid he was a jerk?

Ugh, no. As inconsiderate as he could be unintentionally, he was incapable of being a jerk on purpose. Unless the person deserved it.

(Jazz had once theorized that it had to do with his ghostly Obsession of helping others. Danny theorized that not all aspects of his personality had to do with him being a ghost. Jazz had dropped the theory shortly thereafter.)

He was worried.

Could pull a Harry Potter and drop a cake on someone’s head. Would that work?

Unlikely.

There was one option, but it was a bit of a longshot. He could tell the interviewers that he had doubts about his parents’ work and conclusions. But would they believe him? He was just a teenager. Easy to dismiss.

What if he approached them as Phantom?

(What if they were just as gun-happy as his parents?)

This was hard.

He sighed, and swung himself off his bed. Regardless of what he actually did, he needed to make himself ‘presentable,’ otherwise he’d never hear the end of it.

Although, concerning his appearance and his secrets... He tugged lightly on the lock of gray hair he’d sprouted lately. It had become a nervous habit. One he really needed to stop, because drawing attention to white hair on his head was not something he wanted to do.

Maybe be should start dying his hair?

“Danny?” called Maddie from downstairs. “The Saturday’s are here! Come on down!”

Danny clattered down the stairs, being loud on purpose (the better to be undetected when he wanted to be quiet).

The Saturdays... Huh. Danny had not expected to ever see another family wearing jumpsuits. Much less orange jumpsuits. Jack looked overjoyed.

The Saturdays’ jumpsuits looked just slightly more combat ready, however. Danny’s stomach, which had already been sitting rather low in his chest, plummeted.

He did not foresee this going well in any way, shape, or form.

He forced himself to turn his attention towards the son. Who was color coordinated with his parents, but not, thankfully, wearing a jumpsuit.

(Interestingly, he did, however, appear to be armed.)

“Hi,” said Danny, waving slightly in greeting.

“This is our son, Danny,” said Maddie. “Our daughter, Jazz, is at a study group right now, but she should be home before too long. Danny, this is Doctor Solomon Saturday, his wife, Drew, and their son, Zak.”

Zak smiled at Danny in a slightly strained, awkward way. His teeth were just a little sharper than human average. There were flecks of orange and gold in his eyes.

This was a person who wasn’t quite human.

Maybe this would be easier than Danny thought. He tugged on his lock of white hair. “Prematurely grey buddies, huh?” he said.

“Oh,” said Zak, touching his own, much larger, tuft of white hair. “Yeah. I guess so.”

“Um,” said Danny, acutely aware of all the parental eyes on him. “Video games?”

“Sure,” said Zak.

“Great,” said Danny. “Let’s go.”

Zak followed Danny upstairs.

He was 99% certain the other boy wasn’t entirely human. He wasn’t sure if it was simply intuition, or some remnant of his Kur powers, but he would put money on it. If, well, he had anyone who’d bet with him.

(Doyle, maybe, but Doyle wasn’t here.)

(Where had this intuition been with Argost? That’s what he wanted to know.)

“So,” said Danny, rocking slightly. “Do you play Doom?”

“Now and then,” said Zak. “Kinda prefer older games.”

“How old?”

“Uh... I kind of like the pokemon games on the 64?”

“Oh, yeah, I’ve got a couple of those,” said Danny. “Um.” He flopped down in a beanbag chair. “Just... make yourself at home, I guess?”

“Thanks,” said Zak, managing to catch the controller Danny tossed at him and sitting in the desk chair.

“So...” said Danny, not making a move to turn on the system. “This is going to be weird to ask, but, um. Do your parents know you’re not totally human?”

Zak stared. He... hadn’t expected Danny to be able to tell that he had been Kur, much less come right out and ask him about it.

“Or... you know what, forget I said anything. It’s just a joke, haha, so, games-”

“Do yours know?”

Danny frowned. “That you’re not human?”

“No, that you aren’t human.”

Danny looked away. “No,” he said, fiddling with the controller. “They’re not... very good about that kind of stuff. If your parents are, that’s good. It’s just...” He rubbed the cord of the controller between his fingers. “Mom and Dad are great at the technical side of things, but they don’t like being wrong. And they think ghosts are unfeeling and mindless, so...”

“Oh,” said Zak. “Um. Are you,” he stopped, realizing that asking someone if they were dead was probably not a great idea. He slumped down in his seat. “I’ll tell my parents.”

“Yeah, if you could not tell them about me and just, like, the other bit, that’d be great.”

“I can do that,” said Zak.

Jazz carefully placed an envelope under the windshield wiper of the Saturdays’ car. Knowing her brother, he was probably going to try something dramatic, but if these people were serious about being scientists, she was sure they would take evidence and data regarding the intelligence of ghosts much better.

And Danny had thought he was just humoring her when he helped her interview those ghosts! Thought she had no other motives other than curiosity!

Well. Honestly, he was right. Back then, she didn’t know there was a think tank considering inviting her parents to join.

But, hey, it came in handy, didn’t it?

“It’s such a shame,” said Drew, writing her recommendation against the Fentons joining the Secret Scientists. “They seemed like such nice people.”

“Yeah, but if both their kids are telling us they shouldn’t be let in,” said Zak, “and they don’t even know about the Secret Scientists, they think you’re just part of a think tank, how nice can they really be?”

Drew made a face, and reached over to give Zak a quick hug, which he just as quickly escaped.

“The daughter, though,” said Doc. “She has a good foundation, here, with her research.”

“Maybe once she graduates high school,” said Drew. “We have scholarships, don’t we? Or maybe an internship... Cryptid psychology might interest her...”

“What about Danny?” asked Zak, yelping as Fisk snuck up behind him and poked him.

“Hrrade hhr hrend?” said Fisk, slyly.

Zak narrowed his eyes. “Maybe,” he said.

“We’ll keep an eye on them,” promised Doc. “All the Fentons. Just in case.”

#danny phantom #secret saturdays #dp/ss crossover #ask #answer #prompt #prompt fill #one shot #no seriously guys this is a one shot

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the-hidden-writer · 3 years

Text

And Into The Fire

Chapter 2: Mother, I Don’t Feel So Good

Summary:

Months after the Mitchells saved the world, Linda gets a phone call asking if she’s seen two defective Pal MAX bots. Powerful people are after Eric and Deborabot 5000, and it’s up to the Mitchells to protect them.

Check reblogs for AO3 link!

Mother, I Don’t Feel So Good

A week had passed since the ominous phone call and Linda was only just starting to think all her worry was for nothing. Nobody had broken down their front door to take her bots away and there had been no more word from Bowman, so she could assume that they had taken her words at face value. It was a huge relief to say the least.

She woke up that morning at 7am as normal. It was Saturday, so Rick and Aaron would both sleep in for a few more hours while she would have the house almost all to herself.

She smiled at the sound of birds in the garden. Today felt like it was going to be a good day.

The second she went downstairs however, something felt very wrong.

Linda was always the first person up. She’d go to the bathroom and then head to the kitchen to listen to the radio for a bit. On the way, she’d pass the bots watching TV in the living room. Every morning, without fail, they’d say “Good morning, Mother!” to her in their cheerful voices. It was extremely adorable, part of her routine, and something she secretly looked forward to every time she woke up.

The utter silence downstairs today was disturbing.

There weren't even the quiet sounds from whatever show the bots happened to be watching that she’d grown to be familiar with. She poked her head into the living room and could immediately see that the TV was turned off.

The living room was also empty.

“Boys?”

No answer.

A sudden wave of panic washing over her, Linda raced back up the stairs. The bots had never not followed their routine, so something must be wrong. She could feel that something was wrong. It was her motherly instincts taking over.

In her panicked state, she slammed open the door to the guest room (the bots lived there now- they couldn’t be trusted with Katie’s room) and felt immediate relief when she saw one of the bots sitting with his back to her on the side of the bed.

So they hadn’t been taken in the middle of the night. That was a good start.

But then her eyes fell onto the figure actually lying in the bed, and the relief disappeared again.

She was almost scared to ask. “Boys..?”

The robot on the bed turned his head to reveal it was Deborahbot. He lifted his index finger (as he often did when he was about to speak) but was interrupted by a sudden burst of glitching on his screen, causing his head to tilt dangerously quickly to one side and for a loud buzzing sound that came and left in a matter of seconds.

Now Linda knew that the bots were defective and were therefore prone to the occasional glitch, though usually their glitches were accompanied by sparks and were caused by little things that confused them and never actually affected their life/routine. This sudden glitch, however, was spark-less and looked scarily like the time when they were controlled by Pal.

Linda’s gut feeling only worsened.

Once he’d seemingly recovered from the glitch, Deborahbot straightened his head and stood up to greet her.

“...Good morning… Mother…”

And if Linda had felt bad before, nothing could compare with the chill that crept up her spine at the words. Not only did Deborahbot sound slightly distorted (as if he was struggling to get the words out) but the phrase was spoken by him alone. Normally, the brothers would always say it in-sync with one another in their slightly-creepy-but-well-meaning way.

She forced herself to speak calmly. “Deborahbot… where’s Eric?”

She almost wished that he hadn’t stepped aside so that she could spend a moment longer without seeing the state of her boy on the bed.

Eric’s face was barely visible with the amount of lights and lines of code flashing on and off. Under all that, his screen was in a constant state of television static, and as Linda hesitantly moved closer she could even hear the buzzing sound that accompanied it.

To top it all off, he was unmoving and a blanket had been shoddily thrown on top of him with his feet sticking out at the bottom.

Following her gaze, Deborahbot spoke up.

“Blankets bring humans comfort-” he glitched and recovered in an instant- “I thought it might bring him some comfort as well.”

Linda could barely form words.

“Wh-What’s going on?!”

Deborahbot glitched again before speaking. “An outside source is attempting to penetrate our systems and rewrite our code. We are... trying to stop that.”

It pained her to hear his voice so quiet and strained.

It had never really crossed her mind in the months that they’d lived with them that the bots- her boys- could be hacked. Their technology was so advanced and the fact that they were so sentient meant that she’d just assumed that it wasn’t possible. Maybe if she’d stopped to think, she might have been able to see this coming and do something to stop it.

“Is Eric okay?” She asked, unable to tear her eyes away from the immobile android. “Why isn’t he-”

“I think that…” Deborahbot began, and Linda noticed how his voice sounded full of sorrow (or at least as much sorrow as his monotonous voice could muster). “I think that I am... more defective than my brother.” He paused and Linda sucked in a breath at the vulnerable admission. “Since our defects are what protects us from Pal Labs’ network, it is easier for them to access him. My brother is... working very hard to fight them off.”

“Okay,” Said Linda quietly, trying to calm herself down more than anything. She needed Rick and Katie’s help on this one. She couldn’t deal with this alone. “Okay, um... “

A question sprung into mind that she dreaded to know the answer to. Gently, she placed her hands on Deborahbot’s shoulders in what she hoped was a comforting gesture.

“Does it hurt?”

“Only if we resist the new coding.” Was his reply, but it wasn’t the conformation Linda was looking for.

“And… are you? Are you both resisting it?” Deborahbot glitched yet again as she spoke.

“Yes.” He answered, ever the more direct of the two.

Not for the first time, Linda was glad that the bots didn’t look like humans. She didn’t think she would be able to handle seeing pain all over their innocent faces.

She guided Deborahbot back to the bed and sat him down. With one last stroke of his shoulders (since you can't squeeze metal) she finally released him and moved towards the door. She didn’t dare touch Eric in fear of making his situation any worse.

“I’m gonna go get Rick.” She told him. She had no idea if Eric could even hear anything right now. “Is there anything I can do in the meantime?”

“No.” Deborahbot replied bluntly. “Thank you for asking though, Mother.”

“Alright then. Stay strong boys, I’ll be back soon.”

Linda didn’t want to leave the room. She was new to this- heck, it had been months and she still wasn’t completely used to her new children being robots- but seeing the bots like that reminded her of the time that Katie and Aaron got chickenpox.

Aaron had caught it from school and Katie caught it off Aaron. While Aaron had fought it off pretty quickly, Katie was much older and it ended up being so serious that she needed to go to hospital. She was in bed with Linda at her bedside for a few days.

Just as Deborahbot was with Eric now. The only difference was that Deborahbot was affected too, and there were no doctors or nurses to help them get better.

Her boys were dangerously sick. Deborahbot had the equivalent of Aaron’s condition while Eric was practically comatose.

With that comparison in mind, Linda felt determination lock itself in her soul. She was going to help her boys get better, no matter what. That was her responsibility as their mother and she was damn well gonna fulfil it.

Comments make my day :)

#the mitchells vs the machines #tmvtm #fic #tmvtm eric #eric tmvtm #deborahbot 5000 #eric and deborahbot5000 #eric and deborahbot #linda mitchell #and into the fire

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ashbrea381writings · 3 years

Text

Flying Blind: Chapter 2, Meeting the Bats

“Bunnyx? Should I be concerned?” Ladybug asked, turning to look at the person behind her. Bunnyx was obviously a good five or so years older than the rest of the team, and Batman would have shrugged it off if it weren’t for the next words from Bunnyx’s mouth.

“Nah, I wanted to be at this meeting since current me wasn’t.” Bunnyx pulled up a chair and flipped it backwards to sit on it that way. “To explain, Batman, I can’t tell them too much or the timeline would become unstable, and that really isn’t good. I help where I can and where they are going astray from the correct timeline.”

“Who is to say the correct timeline?” Robin asked. “Couldn’t you nudge it into a more favorable outcome?”

“Not without disappearing. Back to the Future style.” Bunnyx commented bitterly. “Been there, almost disappeared, it sucked. But I can tell you this, LB, it’s okay to trust them with the info you’ve got so far. They’re very helpful.”

“Thanks Bunnyx. Sticking around?” Ladybug asked, handing them a plate with some pastries.

“For the best pastries in Paris for free? Yes, for sure.” Bunnyx started laughing as they took the plate and took a few steps back. “I’m probably gonna let you all strategize without me though, I just wanted to hear the convo I missed the first time ‘round.”

“Oh please, you know they would feed every one of you guys for free if you asked. Unless you’ve had a falling out in the future I don’t currently know about?” Ladybug teased, loosening up more than she had so far.

“Nah, but at the point I’m at, I’m trying not to drain them, you have no idea how much time travel makes you hungry.” Bunnyx chuckled. “Besides, with the rest of these guys stopping by constantly, I’m surprised they even manage to make any money.”

Ladybug shook her head but didn’t comment, turning back to Batman and sighing. “We also have a friend who cannot always help out in battle for civilian reasons. That is Tempest, who has the ability to transform into three different forms; lightning, air, and water.”

“And you’re all about the same age?” Batman asked, his frown deepening.

“More or less, within about a year and a half from oldest to youngest.” Chat confirmed as Ladybug nodded. “We try not to advertise our real ages for both identity reasons, and to try and control just how many people don’t want us doing this due to our ages.”

“And you have no mentor? No Adult to pull you out if things get rough?” Batman’s voice was incredulous, and he sat up even straighter in his seat.

“Unless you count Bunnyx who jumps back from the future now and then to check in.” Chat joked, poking said hero in the ribs.

“Watch it, Kitty-Cat, I can and will send my younger self something embarrassing about you.” Bunnyx slapped his hand away, but sounded bored.

“Who gave you your powers then? You said before that you got your abilities from items?” Robin asked, leaning forward and bracing his arms on the table.

“Like I said, he gave up his memories to protect more of the artifacts.” Ladybug sighed, “The items in question are individually called the Miraculous. There is a box that I have custody of that usually holds them. I won’t say how many there are. Right now I’m letting each person here use one, Chat and I were picked by the former Guardian. When Hawkmoth found out the identity of the former Guardian, he attempted to find out our identities too and wanted to steal the box for himself.” Ladybug stood and began to pace slightly in the little room there was. “During the battle, Chat and I were able to retrieve the contents, and the former Guardian transferred his title to me. The magic of the Miraculous wiped his memories to keep the secrets of the Miraculous from ever being taken from him.”

“So not only are you a superhero as a teenager, but you guard a set of ancient artifacts that each hold incredible power?!” Batman stood abruptly. “If there is some sort of title involved, who gave that title to your mentor?”

“People who are a combination of long gone or not welcome here due to antiquated ways.” Ladybug snapped harshly. “Do not presume to know what is going on with us. Age does not mean wisdom, just that you assume you know what is best for other people.”

Batman took a step back and sighed. “I am angry on your behalf that you were put under this amount of pressure.” He took a moment to calm himself and shook his head. “Am I correct to assume that Hawkmoth is of a similar age to me?”

Ladybug studied Batman for a few moments, sharing glances with a few of the other teammates who all made some sort of gesture or facial expression that they understood among themselves. “Roughly, yes, we cannot be precise but I would judge you and him to be within 3 or so years of each other.”

“What other information do you have? We might be able to help figure him out.”

“It will be difficult, the magic of the Miraculous makes it difficult to pinpoint an identity, and tends to make you want to drop the search. Although, there are some exceptions. Rena figured Carapace out after meeting him in the mask twice.” Ladybug pointed out. At that comment, Rena chuckled and elbowed a blushing Carapace.

“Not fair, LB, you know why it was that easy for her to figure me out.” Carapace muttered, pulling his hood lower over his face.

“My point is, maybe someone with an outside perspective would be able to push past it.” Ladybug shook her head at her friends. “Here, this has everything we’ve observed about Hawkmoth, and information that will help you to identify him more easily. Some of that information covers Miraculous holders in general from our own observations about ourselves. Don’t look into our identities with this, just Hawkmoth.”

“What kind of information?” Batman asked, taking the flash drive.

“How much of a height difference we have when we transform, how much things like hair and eye color change, Chat is an exception for the eyes part.” Chat gave a bow as Ladybug said his name. “It also has Hawkmoth’s approximate measurements from what I’ve been able to figure out the few times we’ve seen him in person. He’s a very tall, slender man.”

Batman handed the flash drive to Robin, who plugged it into a screen on his glove, asking quietly, “Hmmm, how accurate are these measurements and how did you get them?”

“I’m good at sizing people, there’s a civilian reason for it that I won’t name. I could probably give you yours if you wanted.” Ladybug chuckled.

“She’s nearly dead-on, actually, I’ve seen it in action.” Chat added, smirking. “Like that time she figured out who was who at a costume party.”

“That was one time and it was a bet, King Monkey should have known better than to challenge me, he’s known me for years.” Ladybug sniffed. “Besides, it was a good team-building exercise for me to identify you guys in the crowd while you switched costumes.”

“Team building exercise?” Batman seemed unconvinced.

“We’d only just decided that we all needed to know who each other were. So we went to a big costume party with several quick change outfits and tried to identify each other so we’d always know who was who even if we switched Miraculi.” Ladybug explained.

“You all know each other as civilians?” Robin asked, looking shocked.

“After what happened with the former Guardian, I was rather… Stressed and didn’t have a way to tell anyone why it was so bad, so I confided in Rena, and she basically told me that it was time we all knew each other. She’d known Carapace from the start and he found out about her shortly after, so it was something that just made sense. We coordinate better now and know what’s going on in each other’s lives and can adjust for it.” Ladybug shrugged. “We know if one of us is sick, or busy, or can’t get away from civilian life long enough to handle Akuma’s now. We’re more coordinated in our plans and can cover for each other both as heroes and civilians.”

“Do your families know you’re all doing this?” Batman asked quietly, seeming to think about the situation.

“One of us has parents that know, I won’t say who.” Ladybug crossed her arms and stared the Bat down.

“And what do they think?”

Chat chucked, “They’ve basically adopted everyone who wasn’t their kid already and told everyone to stop by anytime. They also keep an eye on the news and give excuses for the one that’s their kid to make sure they get to be at Akuma fights when they’re needed for it.”

“They also offered to patch us up if there’s ever an injury that the Cure doesn’t fix. We haven’t run into that problem yet though.” Honey Bee added, making a gesture like she would start touching up her manicure before being stopped short by her gloves. “By the way, Bug, you need to teach us how to adjust our suits manually, you said there was a way.”

“That’s an entire Saturday on it’s own, Bee, save it for the next girl’s day.” Ladybug waved her off casually. “Now, I’m sure you guys have what you need to start the investigation with you?”

“Yes, we’ll keep you posted.” Batman held out a comm unit to Ladybug. “The batteries last three days, if it takes longer than that I can meet you here to switch out. It’s also undetectable while you’re wearing it and muting it and turning it on and off is intuitive.”

“MmmmHmmm, I’m willing to bet it’s also a tracker. Pegasus, take a look?” She passed the device to said hero and he plugged it into a small tablet he pulled out of a pocket.

“There is the ability for it to track movements, but that was disabled before I even touched it.” Pegasus handed it and Ladybug tucked it into her ear, testing the settings a bit before leaving it muted but on.

“I know how important secret identities are, the tracker is only in there because it’s the same type as what Robin uses and I’d rather not have him injured somewhere and not be able to get ahold of him.”

“I still don’t like the tracker either, B.” Robin muttered, causing the Miraculous holders to chuckle.

“We can track each other when we’re suited up.” Ladybug swept a hand around the group. “It’s useful to know when each other is on the way or where someone is when you need to meet up.”

“Anyway, we all have places to be, so we’ll check in once and a while through LB to see how it’s going.” Chat said, cleaning off the table and tucking the dishes back into the baskets they came from. “Bee, here’s yours, I think you’ll be missed sooner.” He passed one off the Honeybee who promptly zipped away on her top, waving as she passed over the building. “LB, delicious as always, I need to convince them to teach me their ways.” He sighed, handing Ladybug a basket.

“Don’t be shy, if you ask I’m sure they’d show you. They don’t have anyone willing to take over when they retire, and it might be good for you to have a job like a normal person.” She laughed, taking the larger basket and setting it on the ground before wiping down the table with a cloth she’d pulled out.

“Don’t think I won’t… Next time I’m home alone for the weekend, I’m there.” He laughed and collapsed the table after she wiped it. One by one, the other Miraculous holders put away the chairs and helped Chat wrangle the table into it’s storage shed.

“How often do you guys do this?” Robin asked, watching as the other heroes took off in separate directions.

“As often as we have the time and can get away from our civilian lives. Since we all know each other, it isn’t as hard as it was.” Ladybug shrugged, ruffling Chat’s hair.

“We keep it to a reasonable amount of time and not everyone is always able to make it, but it’s always a nice way to get in some bonding time with the team.” Chat added, pushing Ladybug’s hand off of him. “We’re basically family to each other at this point, so we don’t see a reason why we shouldn’t spend time together. I gotta run, it’s almost time for my next thing.” He sighed and launched himself up with his stick, waving at them and running across the rooftops.

“We’ll be in contact, and I’ll be listening on the comm.” Ladybug pointed to her ear where the device was invisible to any who didn’t know it was there.

With that, the rest of the remaining heroes left, leaving Batman and Robin in a closed-off alley with a beautiful garden and a small shed. “Want me to check what else is in the shed?” Robin asked after making sure his comm was muted.

“No, there was nowhere to hide anything, it’s only big enough for the stuff that’s in there and they left it open the whole time we were talking.” Batman sighed and looked at the sky that was going pink with dusk. “Let’s get to the hotel.”

#mgi trope tussle #maribat #dickinette #dc #miraculous fanworks #soulmate

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