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#in the meantime those first couple of chapters genuinely made me question if i was perhaps trapped in my own absurd dream or not
egophiliac · 15 days
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we were fucking ROBBED
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lavishedinjimin · 4 years
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Crybaby - 3 (m)
— synopsis: he calls you crybaby, crybaby. but you don’t fucking care.
alt: Jungkook doesn’t want to leave you.
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↳ pairing: jungkook x reader
↳ genre: smut, fluff
↳ rating: r-18/18+
↳ word count: 12k
↳ warnings: the usual dom!jk x sub! reader, ddlg themes, reader is small in height, degrading terms, he’s aggressive this chapter YIKES, jungkook gets turned on seeing you cry, manhandling, uses of rope and a vibrator, kinky sex, size kink, multiple orgasms, rough intercourse, jk’s a sadist, throat fucking, dirty talk, teasing, very possessive jk, and aftercare!!! there’s also some tooth melting fluff to (hopefully) balance everything out ;)
A/n: Before anything else, I want to repeat saying that everything written here is purely fictional, consensual, and doesn’t mirror the mentioned artists’ personality in real life.
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Jungkook thinks you’re the most adorable person in the entire world.
“How did you even fall in love with me?” you ask innocently, resting your head on his lap as you both let Edward Scissorhands play in the background. You didn’t even want to watch it in the first place but of course, a little bit of his desperate ‘please’ and puppy eyes always wins your meek heart.
He wraps his hand around your jaw, leaning down to kiss your lips tenderly. Giggling from the sudden impromptu kiss, you feel his soft, supple lips fondle with your own so gingerly. His grip on you tightens before he pulls away with a smirk, noticing the blush on your cheeks.
“So suddenly, baby?” Jungkook mutters as he feeds you a spoonful of Reese’s ice cream he holds in one hand. Looking down at your endearing face, he replies, “Don’t you remember our arcade date? That’s when I confessed my love to you.”
“Yeah, but…” you ponder, “Did you plan it all along?”
Jungkook shuts his eyes before giggling, his dimples peeking through his cheeks. Watching black strands of hair fall down right in front of his eyes as you gaze at him in confusion. Jungkook just sits there. “Well, there’s this exact moment when I knew that I just had to make you mine.”
With your eyes slowly expanding, you try to hide the smile that was slowly creeping up your face. He places the spoon inside the tub, letting his hand stroke your delicate cheek. “Wanna know what it was, baby girl?”
The way how fast you nodded your head was a little bit embarrassing. He grins nonetheless, “So…”
*flashback*
“Y/n,” Jungkook’s arm snakes around your waist before he tugs you closer to him. He gazes down at you with a smile before he points to the shelf full of toys and stuffed animals. “Which one do you like?”
Gulping, you stare at him with furrowed eyebrows, “Why?”
He doesn’t hesitate to answer, “Because I’m gonna win as many tickets as I possibly can to get it for you.”
You didn’t know how to respond for your shyness takes over you once again. On the other hand, Jungkook finds this so charming about you.
“The pink penguin…perhaps?” you mumble.
Jungkook immediately walks closer to approach the male employee behind the counter and inquires, “Excuse me, but how many tickets to get that penguin over there?”
You giggle as you watch how serious he looked as if talking about a huge business deal with his arms crossed together.
The man replies with a bright smile, “1500 tickets, that is!”
“That’s a lot—” you exhale.
“Let’s go, Y/n!” he abruptly pulls you by the arm and tugs you along with him, “I’m gonna get that lil’ penguin for you, baby.”
Your heart swells at the petname. It wasn’t his first time saying it, you just can’t get used to it.
Even though this was the fifth date, the post-nervousness was still there. Before he picked you up from work, your hands were sweating bizarrely. It wasn’t like you weren’t comfortable with him, no, you were always at ease when you’re with him. The reason for the nervousness was you haven’t been in a relationship with someone for so long, and Jungkook has his bars set up high. 
Plus, it was overwhelming in a good way; Jungkook was the confident type and he likes to display how much he adores you – either in private or public places, he didn’t care. As long as he can properly show how much he likes you.  
The arcade has a very 80s feel to it, with a color scheme of mostly red, yellow, and blue. It was lively and has a fun atmosphere going around. Children were running around with their parents, eager to search for another machine to take over, teenage boys were competing against each other in a game of Tekken, and a lot of girls were having a blast inside the Karaoke rooms. 
While time goes on in the arcade, you never realized that he was super competitive. “Y/n, I’m gonna beat this record, watch me.” He says in a deep tone as though wanting to sound serious, stretching his arms to prepare for the punching machine.
“Are you sure?” you chuckle as you hold all of you two’s well-earned tickets from the past hours, “The record is 877. Are you even strong enough?”
You could’ve sworn to yourself that it was an innocent, genuine question. But Jungkook, on the other hand, turns behind to look at you with those dark yet sensual eyes. He precipitously cracks his knuckles, succeeding to intimidate you.
“What a weird question, Y/n,” he says sarcastically with a smirk daubed on his face, “I don’t think you know how powerful I am, babe.”
As soon as those words left his lips, he turns back around in a flash, swinging his right arm with all his might until his fist crashes against the punching bag. You let out a loud gasp, mouth forming into a beaming wide grin as the machine slightly thuds from the harsh impact.
Still, he doesn’t look at the score and he looks at you with a cocky grin, boldly spreading his arms out.
“Kook—” you snort.
“What did I tell you, Y/n? I’m the strongest man you know.”
“Sure but,” you cover your mouth to prevent yourself from laughing too loud, “You s-scored 878!”
Jungkook whips around instantly. Surely, surely he didn’t win by only 1 single point! He groans and stomps his foot like a little child. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
You couldn’t control your laughter anymore as you reach out to him, hugging his body from behind. Jungkook throws his head back in despair while he places his hands on top of yours. Your hug felt warm and soft, feeling your cheek pressed up against him. Jungkook turns you around until he was face to face with you.
“You’re so small,” he practically whispers underneath his breath. He places his long, slender index finger below your chin and tilts your head up. Then with his other hand, he uses it to remove the lost strands of hair away from your face. “So fucking cute.”
You can’t help but look away as your body freezes in place. And once again, you feel yourself wanting to crawl into a little ball and hide from everyone from how tough he was staring at you. There was a fuzzy, fiery feeling going on inside your system that you can’t seem to handle.
“Nuh-uh, keep those pretty eyes on me.” He applies just the right amount of force on your chin and angles your head to look up.
Your breathing almost stops at that single sentence.
Jungkook looked like as if numerous of thoughts were running through his brain. His eyes were not only fixated on yours but were darting all over. He memorizes the pattern on your face; the distance between your nose to your mouth, the little creases near your eyes, your moles, and even the little pimples you had on your temples, he thinks you’re so beautiful. Too beautiful to handle.
‘How can a person look so perfect?’ He asks himself.
“Kook?”
Oh, how soft your voice is. His mouth curves into a gentle smile for he can’t help himself but pull you closer.
“Hm?”
“People are staring.”
Jungkook scoffs quietly, “Let them stare, Y/n. This is our world and they’re just living in it.”
You had a tough, long day at work and this date really made your day better. You were laughing and having fun with Jungkook the whole time, experiencing one of the most enjoyable days you’ve ever had. It was as if all of your problems went away whenever you’re with him. You and he played almost every game in the arcade, except for the Dance Dance machine which was sadly under maintenance. You were really looking forward to beating him in Dance Revolution because he insists that he’s a good dancer. He has yet to prove that to you! 
“Yes! I won!” You yelled, turning your hands into a fist after successfully beating Jungkook at the Hockey table. He chuckles when you stuck your tongue out at him like a child.
“I obviously allowed you to win that one, babe,” he playfully rolls his eyes. “I mean, you have to win at least something, right?”
“Hey!” you pout, treading heavily to his side. Jungkook gawks down at you with his brows raised. “I won because I’m good at it, okay?”
“Aww,” he teases, “Alright then little one. Say whatever you want.”
“You’re so,” you gulp, “so m-mean.”
Jungkook looks around the arcade, zooming his eyes all over the place until he spots an ice-cream seller just outside the building.
An idea pops up inside his mind.
“I’ll treat you some ice cream, how’s that?”
He notices how your eyes glimmer as if little shining stars replaced your pupils. You nod frantically.
“Yeah? Alright, wait for me here, okay? And in the meantime, how about you turn in all of our tickets, and let’s see if we can get the penguin stuffie.”
“Okay,” you jitter excitedly, holding the stack of tickets tighter. You watch him walk out of the area, catching the way he pulls out his black leather wallet from the back pocket of his jeans.
Making your way down the hallway to the main entrance where the ticket eaters are, you smile at a couple of strangers who had their eyes on you. When you arrived, you can’t take your eyes off of the shelves full of plushies. Especially the pink penguin that you were after. You had an instinct to squint your eyes at the toy as if having a little staring contest with it while the machine consumes and counts all of the tickets.
After a little while, you hear Jungkook’s voice calling your name.
“Y/n!” he shouts, holding up two cookies and cream ice cream cones, “come, come!”
You sprinted. You didn’t know why you were so excited to get the ice cream, leaving the tickets counting all alone behind you.
“Yaaay! Ice cr—oomph!” 
There was a step slightly higher towards the exit and your feet immediately collides against it. Like a quick wisp of air, your body smashes upon the hard, cold cemented floor. A loud, painful cry escapes your lips as you close your eyes, trying to endure the building pain on your forearms and knees.
‘This is so embarrassing!’ you say in your mind, struggling to regain your composure. 
People around you looked, some tried to hide their obvious laughter by covering their mouths, but none helped.
Jungkook saw everything. Quickly handing the ice cream back to the vendor, saying that ‘he’ll come back for it’, he dashes to where you are and handles your fallen body with utmost care.
“Hey, hey baby,” he whispers, placing his hands on your underarms to lift you up with ease, “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
His heart drops to his stomach right when you looked up at him with your big, teary eyes.
“Oh god,” Jungkook’s voice weakens, “No, no, don’t cry baby girl, don’t cry…”
You were so humiliated. You shouldn’t have run so fast like that, you should’ve watched your step! Now everyone will look at you weirdly!
Whimpering when Jungkook makes you walk, you shake your head to show that it hurts as you try to hold back your tears. “Ohh, Y/n,” he sighs before he lifts you up, and carries you to a nearby brown bench just outside the arcade. He crouches before you, “Does your knees hurt, hmm?” his hands caress your exposed legs up and down, trying his best to soothe you.
Biting your lip, you nod slowly.
“Aw, goodness,” he leans closer to you and kisses your forehead, “What did you do, huh? You should’ve been more careful and watched your step.” He clicks his tongue, making a ‘tsk’ sound, “Good thing there’s no scratches.”
The stern, strict tone of his voice caused you to look away and hang your head low. “S-Sorry…” you sniffed.
A single tear flows out of your right eye and it slowly treads down your cheek. Jungkook was quick to notice, wiping your tear away with his thumb. “Hey, it’s okay baby.” He reaches your hand and gives it a little kiss, “Don’t cry now, hmm? Look at me,” he tilts your head up with a single finger underneath your chin, “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. You’re okay, you’re with me.”
You only stared at him with glossy eyes, not giving a reply. However, Jungkook’s mind comes up with a plan. “Wait here Y/n, okay? I’ll be right back.”
“No!” you whine, shaking your head. Your hands grab onto his muscular biceps as you try to pull him closer.
He chuckles quietly and holds your face in his big, warm hands, his eyes staring deep into yours. “I won’t be going far, baby girl, I’m not leaving you alone, yeah? Stay here for me, I’ll be back in a quick second.” With a final kiss on top of your head, he shuffles back inside the arcade, leaving you alone on the bench while the soft, supple air kisses your skin. The wind whooshes your hair to one side, causing a few strands to get caught in your mouth. You hiked your knees up to your stomach, hugging yourself in search of comfort.
You never want to go inside that arcade ever again.
A few moments have passed and you see Jungkook walking back to you with a huge grin on his face, hands behind his back as if hiding something.
Your mood instantly picks up again when he surprises you with the soft, pink penguin stuffie, handing it over to you with a big smile. You eagerly reached your arms out to grab for the toy, but he doesn’t give it to you just yet. 
“Uh-uh, promise me you won’t be sad anymore?”
“I promise!” you giggle, eyes laid still on the penguin. “Gimme!”
“Right,” he sighs amusingly, “Here you go, babe.” Jungkook laughs from how fast you snatched the stuffie away from him. He looks at you with love as you cuddled the toy in your arms, pressing your cheeks against it.
In the meantime, he leaves you to get the ice creams that the vendor was still keeping an eye on the entire time. Jungkook pays him and apologizes for the wait, before coming back to you with two cones in each hand.
“Ice cream,” he gives you your cone, “for my crybaby.”
Jungkook, somehow – as crazy as it may sound – feels his chest warming up from the sight of you. How come he likes seeing you this way? Something about taking care of you drives his heart pounding. Was it because you look so cute, yet so vulnerable? Or was it his caretaking, nurturing personality that was beginning to emerge? Whatever it was, Jungkook was fond of it.
Jungkook walks you back home, his hand intertwined with yours, while you carry your penguin toy that you named Perry. 
“Perry?�� Jungkook chuckles amusingly, “Like Perry the Platypus?” 
“Nope!” you shake your head with a serious glint in your face, “Perry the Pink Penguin!” 
“Well that’s just horrific.” 
The air around the two of you was great – it wasn’t hot nor cold either. You two had little sweet talks and short conversations here and there as your shoes brush along the paved sidewalks.
When you both end up in your doorstep, you bid Jungkook goodbye. “Thank you for today, Kook,” you speak shyly, “And um, for this—” you refer to the penguin stuffie. He chuckles but not a word has been spoken. So you continue, “I-I also want to say sorry… for uh… because you had to see me cry…”
“No, no, it’s alright with me,” Jungkook quickly reassures you, enveloping your small figure into a hug, leaning down so that his chin rests on top of your head. “It doesn’t bother me. In fact, uh, Y/n?”
You raise your brows, pulling out of the hug to stare at him, “Yeah?”
Jungkook gulps the ball that has been formed in his throat, looking away from your beautiful face for a moment before recollecting his thoughts, “I’ve…I’ve thought about this for a while now. Like a really long time.”
You listen with your mouth slightly agape, watching him get a little flustered.
“I really really fucking like you, Y/n. I know you know that already.”
Your heart beats a little faster.
“And I want to spend more time with you. There’s not a day where I don’t think about you. Almost every second of my mind is filled with you and your pretty smile. I w-want to treat you and take care of you everyday without having to think twice. So, uh, if you want can you…can you be my girl—”
“Yes!”
Jungkook was taken aback from your quick reply. His eyes slightly expand as the corner of his lips curve up, “Yes?”
“Yes! I-I’ll be your girlfriend.”
Jungkook’s heart was filled with joy and ecstasy for he was so glad that you felt the same way. He lifts your body up and spins you around, causing you to squeal and hold onto his shoulders.
“You’re mine now, Y/n. Fucking finally.”
*end of flashback*
“What do you mean?! So the entire time we were playing games at that arcade… the moment you fell in love with me was when I cried because I tripped?!” You bellowed, sitting up straight on the couch as Jungkook laughs his ass off from your reaction.
“Well, obviously it’s not only that! That moment just sticks to my mind a lot. You’re too adorable when you cry.” Jungkook smirks on the last sentence, having two meanings behind it. 
You huff, standing up to head to the bedroom. “Hey, where are you going baby?” With him still giggling, he tries to catch your arm.
“Bedroom! I’m scared of Edward Scissorhands. You’re weird, Jungkook.”
“I’ll be with you after I finish my ice cream!”
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Being a graphic designer can be challenging yet enjoyable at the same time. You get to do what you love which was drawing and editing digital photos, yet the only downfall was that you had to work in an office building. Being an introvert, having a lot of people around your workplace was a lot to get used to.
But thankfully, you have Jimin.
Not only is he one of your best friends, but he was also a senior designer who is assigned to you – his inferior.
Sometimes you two can’t even get a single thing done because all you both did was fool around your office, instead of him guiding you and teaching you the ropes.
“Hey, Y/n!” Jimin gleams as he walks inside the office room, hands in his pockets. He was wearing black fitted pants and a white long-sleeved shirt tucked inside. “Have you ate yet?”
You stretch your arms out, twisting your body side to side to crack your bones. “Uh, yeah! I ate two cups of ramen before you got here.”
He smiles at you, “That’s good. Anyway, are we still working on the designs for our Christmas calendar?” Jimin sits across from you, eyeing all of the scattered papers filled with colorful drawings.
“Mhm! This is my fourth edit. Director didn’t like my designs,” you pout.
“That’s why you need my help, Y/n.” He speaks slowly with his eyes squinting, enunciating his words, “Me and no one else.”
“Sure.” You roll your eyes.
“That’s no way to talk to your superior!”
Meanwhile, Jungkook tilts his head to the side in dismay when he gets stuck in the long traffic. He was on the way to your office building to pick you up from work, but of course, it just had to be a busy Monday today. No cars were moving even a single inch, the whole highway motionless that causes Jungkook to zone out a little bit.
Zoning out isn’t a good move for Jungkook for he tends to think about the most ridiculous, absurd things ever.
But suddenly, as if his thoughts were infatuated by a demon, the image of your sobbing, fucked-out face flashes in his mind. He unconsciously bites on his lower lip, remembering how much your little body shuddered, and how you keep withering around the bed from even the slightest of touch.
“Shit,” Jungkook breathes out, feeling uncomfortable in his seat. He shuffles around until he finds a good position, sensing a tightness in his pants. He recalls how he got so turned on just from your sensitivity, the way you were whimpering and trying your best to hold back your tears.
Knowing that he’s the only person that can make you cry from having sex really strokes his ego. Before he had you, he didn’t know that he had a kink for making his significant other cry during intercourse. 
It may be just the sadistic side of him getting fueled up whenever he sees your tears, he can’t explain how much it drives him wild.
Jungkook smirks while he rests his elbow on the car door as his fingers play with his lip. He’s cocky about the fact that he can make you sob and quiver like that. Make you turn so fucking submissive and obedient for him, letting him take over and control your frail, poor body.
He remembers the first time he discovers your filthy kinks and fantasies, how baffled he was to know that an innocent, shy girl like you can be so wild. It was always the ones you don’t expect to have a freaky side.
Jungkook grunts as his hand grip the steering wheel a little tighter, knuckles turning white. He chuckles to himself as the raging boner hardens beneath his black ripped jeans, almost being a little too painful to bear. He hears your cries of pleasure ringing in his ears, the way you whimpered so cutely every time, your sobs growing louder and louder, he loves those noises. Thankfully, the traffic eases up and cars finally move.
“Oh, Y/n,” Jungkook mutters whilst shaking his head, “What an angel you are.”
If it weren’t for the traffic lights that always reminded him to slow down, Jungkook would’ve driven in light-speed just to see you again. His dirty thoughts that won’t go away was making him impatient and hornier. 
When he successfully arrives at the building, he speed-walks to the elevator, heading to the second floor. Jungkook taps his foot impatiently, crossing his arms together. “Fucking hell,” he grunts as his mind keeps repeating images of your cute body trying to take his dick, how your legs shake, or the way your eyes couldn’t keep themselves open from the pleasure he was giving you. He sighs with a little grin on his face, “Why am I like this?”
The door opens and he makes his way to your area, knowing which hallways and turns he has to make thanks from his previous visits. He makes long, quick strides until he finally reaches your office.
But the excited smile that was once planted in his face fades away when he spots you from outside the window, with Jimin behind you. Jungkook feels his body tense when Jimin leans his body from behind, his arms trapping your upper body with his cheek pressed against your face.
“What the fuck?”
Jungkook’s blood boils and he feels himself getting enraged. Why were you letting him touch you like that? He knows that Jimin’s only a friend, but he was not supposed to act all touchy like that with a girl who’s already taken. It made Jungkook furious to see some other man holding his girl like that – for he was supposed to be the only one. The only arms that are supposed to wrap around your body are his.
He tries to calm down. Jungkook really does attempt to calm down but his nerves don’t stop heating up. With a shaky exhale, he grabs his phone from his back pocket and calls your number to test if you’ll pick up.
“Oh, wait, is that your phone?” Jimin asks, “Someone’s calling you.”
You giggle while you make your way to the desk while dragging Jimin behind you. Your phone displayed Jungkook’s name – although it made your heart skip a beat – you declined the call.
“Huh,” Jungkook scoffs, smirking wrathfully. He doesn’t even try to wonder why you didn’t pick up. He feels irritated and all the flirty, playful mood he once had was gone in a single moment.
You jump in surprise when the door swings open, revealing a very angry Jungkook making his way to your desk. Jimin instantly distances himself away from you.
“B-Babe!” you laugh nervously, palms getting sweaty. You quickly glance at Jimin, sending him a worried look before turning your attention back to Jungkook. Your boyfriend stands tall across the desk with his arms crossed, glaring at you with a lifted eyebrow. “You’re here e-early!”
He doesn’t reply.
Unwillingly, you clasp your hands behind your back and your head hangs low from Jungkook’s intimidating, hard glare, falling right into submission. You gulp from the immense tension that builds up in the room.
“Uh…I’ll be heading off—” Jimin says, making his way to the exit but Jungkook doesn’t speak a single word to him, nor to you. 
You take this chance to gather all of your belongings, packing your laptop, tablet, and shoving all of your papers inside your tote bag in a rush. 
“So we’re allowed to let other people touch us, hmm, Y/n?” He runs a hand through his hair, frustrated. His head was tilted up although his gaze looks down on you. 
“I-It doesn’t mean anything!” you feel your knees getting wobbly, wanting to just disappear from the harsh look he was giving you. 
He rolls his eyes, “Of fucking course it doesn’t. But tell me, Y/n, if it were the other way around. If you saw some other girl’s face pressed against fucking mine while she had her arms around me, would you like it?” With your feet shuffling against the floor in fear, you look away from him. “Huh? Would you like seeing some other girl in your place?” 
“No.” 
“No. That’s correct. So I have the right to be fucking angry.” 
Jungkook rushes forward, “Why didn’t you answer your phone, hmm?” he slams his hand on the desk, causing you to gasp. “Y/n?”
While your eyes look down on the ground, you can hear the heel of his boots clicking against the floor, walking closer to you. The air that surrounds the two of you immediately thickens, and you weren’t a fan of the tense atmosphere at all.
“I was w-working—”
“Bullshit.” He grips your jaw tightly in one hand, forcing you to angle your head up and look at him. “Don’t fucking lie to me.”
Your heart clenches and drops down to the floor from the stringent attitude of his voice. You mewl when he tightens his grip and feverishly rattles your head side to side. “Use your fucking words.”
“I…w-was…” you stammer, “talking with Jimin.” Instant regret fills your mind and body for even being so close with Jimin when you should’ve answered his call. “I’m sorry—!”
“Save your sorry’s for later. I won’t be accepting your apologies soon enough, brat.”
He releases his grip on you and walks away without sparing you another glance. “We’ve been together for so long, Y/n. Haven’t you learned that I don’t like it when other men oggle you up?” Jungkook turns back around, lifting the hems of his long-sleeves so that it exposes his forearms. “If I wasn’t here, you would’ve allowed him to keep touching you like that, right? Yes or no?” 
You immediately shake your head, “N-No!” 
“No? Really...” he laughs darkly, “Please, Y/n, I wasn’t born yesterday. Since he’s ‘just a friend’ I still think you would’ve let him touch you. I know you, I see right past your fucking lies.” 
He wasn’t wrong, and you feel so guilty. So guilty that all you wanted to do was to hug him and apologize, but you know that it isn’t easy. 
“Head down to the car. Don’t make me wait for you because if not, I’m gonna fucking leave you here.” He brushes his long hair back and with that, he was gone.
A chill came running down your spine and you immediately follow right behind his footsteps.
The car ride back home was quiet and you didn’t like the silence at all. You were trying to force yourself to talk, say sorry so that everything will hopefully go back to normal. But there was as if a thick wall separating the two of you.
“Babe?” you whisper meekly, your hand nervously playing with the hem of your thigh-high stockings. Jungkook clenches his jaw yet he doesn’t respond.
A pout creeps up your lips instinctively, “I’m really really sorry…”
No response.
You feel a heavy burden in your heart, upsetting you even more because he was giving you the silent treatment. Jungkook has never ignored you like this before, not even in your most heated argument. Looking at his face in hopes that he’ll at least give you a single glance, you depict how his eyebrows were furrowed and eyes straight ahead on the road. “Kook, please talk to me—”
Your words got cut off when the engine suddenly roars loudly and the car accelerates, your body going in a state of shock as Jungkook shifts the gear. He steps on the pedal and the car goes from a steady 60 to 80 miles per hour.
“Jungkook! S-Slow down!” your left hand reaches out to grab a hold of his own hand, but he was quick to shove it away, leaving you sad and whining in your seat.
Jungkook clicks his tongue, “The faster we get back home, the quicker I can punish you.” He says without looking at you.
Your core jumps and twists at his demeaning words, feeling confused yet excited at the same time. Unintentionally, you clench your thighs together as his hot, sultry voice resonates throughout the car.
“You can smile all you want right now baby,” he mutters, “Gonna wipe that cheeky little grin on your face later when I force your orgasms out of you.”
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“Put your hands against the wall,” Jungkook immediately commands after he drags you to his bedroom. He stands tall behind you, watching your poor figure slowly obeying his words. His lips curve up when he studies your body, already trembling in fear. This feeds unto his primal, dominant desires to take over you and ruin you. Your little hands touch the cold walls with your back slightly arched, already knowing what’s about to come.
Jungkook’s dick throbs in just the sight of the combination of your skirt and thigh-highs. He doesn’t hesitate to firmly grasp your ass cheek below the flimsy material with his big hand, causing a whimper to fall off your lips. “Look at this fucking outfit you have,” he muses, “If it weren’t for that sweater you have on, I would’ve said that you look so much like a fucking slut.”
“Jungkook—”
He suddenly blows a hard slap, “That’s not my name. Huh, you really wanna disobey daddy?”
You whimper, “N-No.”
He hikes your skirt up to expose more of your plump ass, landing another harsh spank that caused your body to jolt, eyes fluttering shut from the sting. “No? Isn’t it disrespectful to ignore daddy’s phone-calls?” he hits your ass again, harder, his muscles flexing. “Tell me, what was Jimin doing that he just need to fucking put his hands all over you with his head so fucking close to yours, huh?”
Your eyes instantly start to become glossy from the solid, rough slaps on your tender ass cheeks. Chewing on your bottom lip, you try your best to cover your little sniffs.
Within a quick second, Jungkook flips you around until your back was pressed firmly against the wall, his hand wrapped around your throat. You hitch your breath up from the aggressive behavior, how his eyes were quick to scan your body up and down like a predator. “You’re not gonna answer me?” he scoffs, “Fucking god – you love to make daddy mad, don’t you? Acting like such a bitch.”
Furiously shaking your head side to side, you disagree with his statement. Jungkook is scary when he’s angry – even though it can be seen as hot sometimes – you never want to make him mad on purpose!
“T-That’s not true, daddy!” your bottom lip faintly quivers as your eyes can’t seem to focus on him.
Jungkook’s eyebrows raise up, giving you a mocking expression, “Ohh really, baby?” the grip on your throat tightens, making you gasp for air, “You don’t like making me angry? When in fact that I know you like being punished like this. You like daddy manhandling your frail, little body, and letting him ruin it in every possible way. Are you gonna lie and tell me that that isn’t true, hm? ”
You didn’t know what to answer. Your chest heaves up and down in panic while you release a quiet, little mewl in desperation. Jungkook – somehow – finds that adorable; how your big, teary eyes look up at him in utter fear of what’s about to come.
He smirks as he leans down to your height, your faces so close to each other as his lips barely graze against yours. You can feel his hot breath upon you, the warmness of his body resonating. 
With a low, almost gravelly voice, he asks you; “Do you not talk?”
Those words seem awfully familiar…
Gulping nervously, you tremble, “I-I can…”
“You can? Sorry darling, I just needed to make sure because you seem to be silent every time I ask a goddamn question. Now, get on the fucking bed.”
Jungkook watches you scramble and obey his command, the cold mattress rubs against your skin from the air conditioning. He stands at the edge of the bed, watching you with primal eyes. “Undress.”
“W-What?”
“I said what I said. Strip,” he crosses his arms, revealing his toned biceps, “Leave your skirt and stockings on. Remove everything except those.”
You can’t seem to look at his eyes because you were afraid that you were going to melt when you do so. You tug your sweater up, your skin exposing to the air that surrounds the two of you, followed by your bra. Your boyfriend sees your cute hardened nipples, making him smirk a little bit.
“Now your panties, go on.”
Before you can even yank your undergarment down, Jungkook speaks, “Look at me while you do so. You’ve been avoiding my eyes all this time.”
Jungkook barely hears the quiet whimper that emits your mouth while your eyes finally lock onto his. Wanting to tease you furthermore, he sends you a cocky smirk with a quick raise of his brow as you pulled your panties down.
His breath almost hitches up from the sight of you, all naked except those kinky pairs of stockings and skirt. He wonders if you specifically wore them just to tease him, heck, was it even appropriate for your work? Even so, he’s glad that he’s the only person to see you like this, so beautiful and ready to be ruined.
You wonder if he’s going to crawl on the bed with you and touch you, waiting for him to make a move but nothing happens. You look up at him expectantly with wide eyes as your hands timidly fumble with your skirt.
“Touch yourself.”
Your heart sinks to your stomach. Did you hear him correctly? Like... does he really want you to play with yourself right in front of him? You can feel your tummy do backflips from his words while you instantly turn shy once again.
“Fucking hell, is one instruction not enough for that brain of yours to comprehend? I said—,” he leans down to grab your thighs, forcing your legs apart with vigor, exposing your cunt all to his eyes. “—touch yourself.”
You whine when he suddenly crawls on top of you, arms on either side of your figure to support himself up, his face hovering above yours. He leans down and whispers in your ear, “Bring your hand down, little girl, and play with your pussy the way daddy does.”
Without angering him further, you obey and brought your hand down to touch your clit. Jungkook never removes his eye-contact as he watches your face slowly contort in pleasure. With two fingers, you gently circled your clit, making your mouth part open from the meek pleasure. “O-Ohh,” you can feel your wet lips when you dragged your fingers along them.
You feel so embarrassed masturbating in front of him like this. Jungkook chuckles and kneels in front of you, placing his knees in between your spread legs to watch how you play with your cunt. You moan when he finally grabs the hem of his shirt and pulls it up, revealing his toned body for your eyes to see. This encouraged you to rub your clit faster, but it just wasn’t enough.
“Daddy…” you whine, “please...”
Jungkook notices the frown that was beginning to form your lips, but instead of feeling bad, he takes the opportunity to degrade you. “What is it, baby? Hm? Do you even know how to touch your pussy?” he teases, “Do you still fuckin’ need daddy’s help?”
You don’t even care if you look pitiful, shaking your head up and down. “Y-Yes, please touch m-me…” you say with a quiet voice. As you continue to masturbate, Jungkook sees how your body trembles, knowing that it wants more.
But sadly, you look too good in this position that you’re in. Your skirt hiked up to your abdomen while your toes curl in desperation. Jungkook lightly scoffs as he doesn’t hesitate to palm his rock-hard cock through his jeans. “Mmm, I would if you had been a good girl. But daddy wants you to cum with your own fingers, prove to me that you’re a big girl who can fucking cum without my help.”
You release an exasperated groan, arching your back in utter need. Jungkook was cruel to do this to you, as he definitely knows how much you prefer his own fingers on your juicy little pussy.
The sight was boosting his ego, whether he likes it or not. He observes how your cute, middle finger tries to insert itself inside your tight little hole, earning a loud moan from you. Jungkook sees your arousal dripping down from your entrance, the glistering liquid running down to your ass. You were so wet, and he was dying to taste you. Jungkook feels his dominance taking over as his patience was wearing thin, wanting to shove your hands away and just take over. It frustrates him how desperate you make him feel without even trying.
You finger yourself with one hand, as the other continues to rub your clit. You try to remember how Jungkook does it, your mind trying to reminisce his techniques, making you distracted from your own pleasure. It doesn’t even feel half as good as his! You let out a loud, frustrated whine, feeling your eyes well up with tears once again.
“I-I can’t,” you sniff, a tear rolling down your cheek as you try your best to make yourself feel good, “Please, daddy I need y-you!”
Jungkook leans forward as he wipes your tears with his thumb, licking his lips slowly while he watches you with a sensual look. “What do you need from daddy, hm?”
You groan, hating how much he can torture you like this. Your breathing was already unstable and your mind was thinking of ways on how you can make him touch you. “I need your fingers, daddy – please? I can’t cum like this,” you shake your head desperately, “I can’t.”
“Holy fucking shit, I think I need to get a new baby girl. One who knows how to pleasure herself without my help.”
“No!” you yell, closing your eyes as more tears wells up, “N-No! I-I’m sorry I just can’t…”
Jungkook almost feels bad. Almost.
“That’s sad, baby girl. If you can’t cum then don’t try anymore.” He abruptly spanks your inner thigh, leaving you crying for more, “You’ve been a bad girl today and you’ve got to endure your punishment.”
Jungkook tugs your hands away and your pussy clenches from the sour loss. “Keep crying, slut, this is what you deserve.” He stands up from the bed and makes his way to the closet to get something. You obediently lay there with a frown as you wiped your eyes, ogling his broad, muscular back in the meantime.
When he was taking up more time than you wanted, you kicked your legs impatiently while whining.
He smirks, rolling his eyes, “Impatient, I see?” After that, he swiftly turns around to reveal a red-colored rope, dangling it side to side for a little tease.
“What are you g-gonna do with that?” you ask with wide, glossy eyes.
Jungkook walks back to you with that signature sultry yet teasing look, making you anticipate what’s about to come even more.
“Daddy’s gonna tie your hands behind your back until your wrists bruise, little one.”
Your core throbs from the image he paints in your mind, how the rope would probably scratch against your skin, and how turned on he would be from the sight of you struggling. Jungkook motions you to turn around with a little spin of his finger. You kneel, looking away from him while he grabs your wrists together in one hand. The arrogant smirk doesn’t wipe off of his face as he ties the rope around your hands, whimpering when he pulls it tight. 
“Is that too tight baby girl?” he asks, stopping himself from laughing, “Does it hurt?”
You sniff, “A l-little bit.”
“Good. I was actually planning to bind your legs together as well, but I don’t think you can handle that anymore.” He says behind you, “I don’t think your precious body can handle being daddy’s little ropebunny.”
With his words, you turn your head to look at him with a confused expression, “Rope…ropebunny?”
Jungkook chuckles and nods his head once.
“What does that mean, daddy?”
Jungkook’s heart swell, “Means that you’re letting me tie you up, restraint your body with rope – and letting daddy do whatever he fucking wants to you. Bruise your skin until it hurts too much. If maybe you weren’t such a crybaby and a sensitive little bitch then I would’ve done that to you by now.”
He doesn’t let you reply as he gives your ass a loud, stinging spank using the palm of his right hand. You whimper in pain, closing your eyes for a mere second as your mouth parts.
“Head down, ass up. Now.”
You do as you’re told, and not going to lie, your heart was doing backflips from the nervousness and intimidation of the position that you’re in. Your ass and cunt were so exposed, allowing him to see how wet you are. Your cheeks pressed against the sheets, tilted to the side so that you can at least see a portion of his figure behind you. Although you release a loud cry when he suddenly lands a slap directly on your throbbing clit. Your hands instinctively moved to grab onto something, but the rope was preventing them from doing so.
“Daddy—!” He slaps your pussy again, this time harder. He slides his index finger down your wet slick, teasingly prodding against your entrance that causes your arousal to gush.
“God, you’re so fucking noisy. I’d put a gag in that loud mouth of yours to shut you up, but daddy loves your cute whimpers too much.”
You dig your nails onto your palm when Jungkook finally plays with your pussy, using two fingers to gently – barely rub your clit. The tip of his index and middle finger brushes against your throbbing clit, using the slightest bit of pressure. He bites his lip from the way you wiggle your ass, desperate for more. “You can’t even masturbate without my assistance, fucking hell,” he muses, “did it embarrass you, huh?”
“Mhmm,” you hum meekly, grinding your teeth together because you needed more friction, and you were too afraid to tell him.
“Yeah?” Jungkook smirks, “You had to cry like a pathetic little bitch, too.” Without a warning, he easily shoves his middle finger in, making you arch your back painfully, drawing a loud squeal. He starts pumping it in and out at a fast pace. The wet squelching noise that your cunt makes, paired with your moans was music to his ears. “I guess it feels better when daddy plays with your pussy, right slut?”
When you don’t answer immediately, too focused on the pleasure, he inserts two more fingers in – stretching your pussy. You gasp loudly, his long, slender fingers reaching the most intimate places inside of you. Jungkook bites his lip harshly, getting so turned on from your sweet moans and whines. 
“Y-Yeah… yes daddy – oww fuck – it feels much better,” even though your mind was filled in lust and can’t think of anything else but the way he was furiously pumping three fingers in and out of you, you answer him in fear that his punishment will turn way worse. His three fingers were almost too much for your hole to handle, making your hips tremble as it tries to accommodate the girth. 
“Who owns your pussy, hm?” he uses his other unoccupied hand to rub and pinch your clit, providing you with overstimulation of pleasure. His fingers reach deeper until it hits your g-spot, making your toes curl while you once again tear up. He growls, “Who fucking owns you?”
“You!” you moan, vision getting blurry, “You own me d-daddy…” you can already feel yourself coming close to an orgasm – one thing you can’t do with your own fingers. Your stomach tightens and tightens, waiting for your oh-so needed release. You sob onto the sheets, eyes closed in desperation.
“Good thing you know—” but he suddenly pulls his hands away, leaving you shaking and breathless. “This is my cunt and I get to do whatever I want with it.”
“No!” you groan in frustration from the denied orgasm, eyebrows furrowing as your legs shake, “Fuck y-you.”
Jungkook’s ears pick up the words you muttered.
“What was that?” He roughly wraps his hand around your neck and forces your upper body to lift up. You start to panic as Jungkook chokes you, “What the fuck did you say, hm? Getting fucking bold today, aren’t we?”
“S-Sorry,” you stutter, not having the courage to speak. You didn’t mean to say that at all! You were just frustrated and the words slipped out without realizing it! He sees a droplet of tear dripping down your cheek and he rolls his eyes.
“What a bratty, disobedient little fucktoy.” Jungkook quickly stands up to unbutton his jeans and pulls it down, leaving himself in his underwear. “You’re not the good girl that I know.” He hops back on the bed with you and moves so that he kneels in front of you. He holds your face up with one hand on your jaw as the other pulls his boxers down. Your mouth waters from the sight of his cock springing out, the angry red tip hitting your cheek.
“If I stuff my cock down your throat then maybe you’d shut the fuck up, learn your lesson, and think before you speak. Huh, slut?” He strokes his length a few times, letting his precum lube his cock.
He nudges the tip against your lips, signaling you to open your mouth. He releases a long, guttural moan when you wrap your lips around him as he pushes his length further and further, your mouth feeling so warm and wet. Jungkook initiates the pace as he starts to rock his hips steadily. A sudden gush of tears escapes your eyes when he shoves past your gag reflex, whining as your throat struggles to take in his big cock. 
“Choke.”
Jungkook doesn’t wipe the tears off of your face like he used to, this time letting them flow and drip down your jaw. Your pussy clenches every time he thrusts forwards, feeling yourself get wetter and more aroused from the noises he makes. He twitches whenever your throat contracts, feeling it tighten and squeezes his cock so good.
“Do you like this, baby girl?” he smiles sadistically, “You like being throat fucked?” Jungkook knows you can’t answer so he continues to torment you, “I like you better when your mouth is stuffed with daddy’s cock. Much more useful than being an undisciplined, rude slut.”
You shut your eyes while you slack your jaw, trying to take all of him the best that you can. He grabs a bunch of your hair, pulling at your scalp, the pain making you kick your legs repeatedly. While he snaps his hips, thrusting in and out, Jungkook watches how your saliva drips down from to your chin that makes a whole mess of your face.
Jungkook finally gains some sort of empathy, pulling his dick out to let you breathe. You emit a harsh, rugged exhale. He lowers himself until his face was directly parallel to yours, “Why was he touching you like that?” His eyes scans your poor, messy self, eyes puffy with your hair all over the place. 
You sniff, “He’s just a f-friend!”
He wipes the saliva on the corner of your mouth using his thumb, “Don’t you have a boyfriend? Hm? Doesn’t he know that you’re mine? Even if he’s your goddamn friend, he doesn’t need to touch you like that.” His voice somehow turned soft, a bit more like his natural talking voice. He shakes his head whilst staring directly at your weary eyes, “And what if I wasn’t there, huh? What if he did something to you that I wouldn’t like?”
“Are…” you tilt your head, trying to lighten up the situation in hopes that he’ll go easy on you. You start to giggle, “Are you jealous, daddy?”
You didn’t know that it was a bad move until his face immediately hardens, raising an eyebrow up. He scoffs, “You think I would be punishing you like this if your actions took a toll on me, Y/n?” he stands up from the bed and walks over to the bedside table, opening the drawer, “Lay on your tummy. I won’t say it again.”
Jungkook grabs the remote control vibrator from the box of toys the two of you had been collecting. You certainly love your toys, he knows that, but it’s a completely different situation if he uses them to torture you. It’s better for him that you can’t see what he’s doing, bringing your anticipations up for what’s about to come. He turns the toy on, your breath immediately hitching when you hear the buzzing sound. The hot pink, egg-like looking toy with a slender tail vibrates against his palm.
“Daddy? Wha…what are you gonna do with tha—” Your words painfully got cut off when he plunges the toy inside your pussy, the vibrations instantly resonating throughout your core and lower abdomen. You sobbed loudly, the rope tightening around your wrists whenever you tried to struggle away. “Oh my god!” your back arches, feeling your eyes rolling to the back of your head, “Daddy!”
He walks to the other side of the room to go sit on the plush loveseat, twiddling with the remote on his right hand. He doesn’t hesitate to crank the setting up, noticing how your ass trembles and wiggles. Your mouth drops open while you feel an immense tingling sensation down there, moaning and shuddering on the bed. 
Jungkook wraps his hand around his cock and starts to pump slowly, observing how your cute little figure trembles and makes a mess of the sheets. He notices the way your pussy clenches around the toy so tightly, and how your cunt never stopped dripping in arousal. 
He teases his swollen tip with his thumb as he turns the toy’s setting up another notch. The smirk grows on his face from the noises you make. He was addicted to the sight of you right now; your hips shuddering as you try to escape all of the vast ecstasy, the stockings you wear making you look as adorable as ever – if he had a camera he would definitely take a picture of you.
“Daddy, p-please – I’m gonna cum!” you sob, chewing on your swollen bottom lip. That was his cue to put the setting to the highest level. Within a flash, your spill your cum down your pussy and onto the bed, ruining the sheets as your body contorts, hands balling into tight fists. Your orgasm feels like you gushed a whole waterfall, cumming so hard while your hips involuntarily lifts up off of the bed. 
He continues to fuck his hand, staring at your sweaty, hot body with hooded eyes while he groans darkly. His cock was rock solid and was also begging for a release, but he knows to control himself. Jungkook hears your sobs get louder and louder, knowing that the overstimulation was too much for you to handle.
He stands up and crawls back with you on the bed, his warm hands starting to caress your inner thighs.
“Da—” you cry, “daddy… t-too much…”
“Yeah?” he smirks before lifting your ass up until he was directly in front of your cunt. he smells your arousal and it caused shivers to run down his back. Without holding back, he wraps his mouth around your throbbing clit and starts to suck harshly on it. 
Jungkook was absolutely nasty to do this to you. Your eyes roll to the back of your head as you feel his tongue swirl around your bud, flicking and sucking at the same time. You can’t even comprehend the pain and pleasure that as going through your body right now, for it was all too much. “A-Aawwh shit,” you breathe, “D-Daddy, I can’t... oh m-my god!” 
The combination of the powerful buzzing vibrator inside you, plus his mouth on your clit caused another strong climax to wash throughout your system. You flail your arms behind your back as your body can’t seem to keep still. Jungkook holds your hips in place as he licks your pussy clean of your cum. He grunts from the way your legs were quivering after forcing another orgasm out of you. 
“Taste so fuckin’ delicious,” he says after wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, “What a good little pussy.” 
Finally, he pulls on the tail and the toy plops out with a wet sound. Though your chest doesn’t stop heaving up and down, your system is still riled up from the strong orgasms you just had.
“What will you say, baby girl, hm?”
You perk your head up from the sudden question. Your mind quickly wanders for an answer but was quickly distracted when you feel him squeeze your tender ass cheeks. 
Leaning down to your ear, he whispers with an awful smirk, “Say ‘thank you daddy’.” His monotone voice sent shivers all throughout your body, “Say thank you for letting you cum. I would’ve stopped the toy and edged you when you were about to orgasm to further your punishment, but glad I didn’t, right baby?”
“Thank…” your cheeks start to heat up, “Thank you for l-letting me cum, daddy.”
“Mm, good girl. I just had to get a taste of your sweet cunt after seeing you shake and tremble like that. Such a good, pretty little girl.” 
He was actually supposed to reward you after this. That was just his initial plan, until he is distracted by your phone suddenly ringing from the other side of the room. He quirks a brow up and starts heading to where your bag was placed, rummaging through it to get the device that interrupted the moment.
He reads the caller ID.  
Jungkook is dead quiet as he reaches back to you until he takes a seat on your thighs. His silence further builds up your anxiousness, your gut twisting and turning after you hear him groan underneath his breath. “Daddy?” whispering, you tilt your head to the side to figure out what he was doing.
“Y/n! I’m so glad you picked up the phone,” Jimin speaks in a rush, “I was so worried about what happened. Are you and Jungkook okay?” He rolls his eyes and doesn’t hesitate to put the phone on loudspeaker, placing the device in front of you so that you can see who was calling.
Jimin’s voice unsettled you, leaving your body in a state of shock, humiliation, and awkwardness. You furiously shake your head, lips pursed in a straight, pungent line – making it known to Jungkook that you didn’t want to talk to him. Why can’t he just hang up?!
“Hello? Y/n?” As Jimin worries from the other side of the line, you quietly mewl when you feel him poking the tip of his dick right up against your dripping wet entrance, sliding the head up and down your soaked slit slowly to torture you. “Answer him,” Jungkook growls from behind, “Talk to him as I fuck your tight little pussy.”
“Y/n, do you hear me?” Jimin asks once again, and this time you pick up the courage to reply.
“Y-Yeah,” your voice strains, closing your eyes as you try your best not to moan out loud as Jungkook pushes the head in, feeling your walls flutter around his thick girth. “I hear – oohh – I hear you.”
While inching his cock further and further, he grasps your bounded wrists in one hand, as the other firmly holds onto your waist. He struggles to keep quiet, only releasing quick little grunts here and there as he slowly thrusts his hips. Your body squirms from the humiliating situation he has put you through, yet he holds you down.
“Hey, I’m really sorry about what happened earlier,” You notice the sad tone in Jimin’s voice, “I really didn’t mean to touch you like that, and I should’ve known better. You’re taken.”
“M-Mhmm—!” Jungkook shoves his length deeper and deeper, hit tip hitting your g-spot again and again, rougher and harder with each sharp thrust. Your eyes generate more tears, definitely making your nose a little bit stuffy while you struggle to breathe properly. Jungkook groans underneath his breath from how tight your pussy is after being teased and tortured.
Jimin continues with his apology, saying that he wants to personally apologize to Jungkook – but you weren’t listening anymore. You can’t! His words were going in one ear and out of the other because your mind only focuses on how his big, thick cock was tearing your cunt apart. With each outward stroke, your pussy keeps sucking him back in. He smirks from the way your pussy was gushing your arousal endlessly, soaking the sheets and making a mess of yourself.
As if everything can’t be humiliating enough, Jungkook blows a hard, loud spank on your ass, definitely not caring if it can be heard from the other end of the call. Gasping, you mewl from the stinging sensation but also worried if Jimin heard. Jungkook laughs menacingly, spanking your ass again.
“Y-Y/n?” Jimin says slowly, “What’s happening over there?”
“Nothing! I’m o-okay – mmngg shit,” your jaw drops when he fucks you faster and rougher all of the sudden, his balls starting to clap against your poor, throbbing clit. Jungkook feels impatient so he takes the phone back, puts it against his ear, and speaks for you. “Jimin!” he greets happily as if he’s not pounding your pussy until you break, “Don’t worry about Y/n, she’s doing just great.”
How can he talk so steadily like that? Your teeth sink down on your bruised bottom lip again to stop you from moaning too loud. “But I’m trusting you, Jimin, not to touch my girl like that again, okay? I know you two are friends, sure – but there’s a limit. She has a boyfriend now.”
The possessiveness in his voice turns you on so much, not even expecting such a dark tone as he talks to him like that. Your arms start to hurt after being tied for too long, wrists getting sensitive as it keeps scratching against the rope.
“Yeah, okay, goodbye.” He finally hangs up, throws your phone somewhere on the floor. After that, he firmly grips your waist and changes your position with ease. He sits down on the bed, flips you around to make you straddle his cock.
His breath almost gets stuck in his throat from the way you looked. His hands immediately flies to cup your head, thumbs wiping your tears away from your cheeks as you look down at his with lustful eyes. “Baby girl,” he whispers, eyes raking your body up and down while you don’t stop bouncing on his cock, “Keep crying. I wanna see you get ruined on my big cock.”
He pulls you closer by wrapping his right hand around your neck, squeezing tightly, as his other hand guides your hips up and down. Your hard nipples slightly graze against his chest, adding more pleasure than you already can take.
“I’m g-gonna cum,” you grit, eyes drooping, “I’m gonna fucking cum again, daddy.”
He chuckles and nods his head. He can’t stay angry at you for too long. He can’t wait to provide you the aftercare that you deserve after this. He helps you to your orgasm by meeting your thrusts, fucking his cock into you while he brings a hand down to rub your clit with vigor. Your moans were getting louder, higher in pitch, as you can feel the oh-so-familiar tightness in your stomach again. You throw your head back, hands trying to pry themselves out of the rope. Thankfully, he gives you the benefit of the doubt and finally starts undoing the knot, unwrapping your wrists so that they can finally be set free. “Here you go princess,” he groans, “Ah ah, keep your arms still.”
Within a second of your hands being free, you quickly hug his sweaty body so tightly, pressing your cheeks against his shoulder, not only to have something to hold onto but to feel his comfort after a long time of being suppressed and denied from it. Jungkook laughs and kisses your shoulder, “I love you, Y/n.”
“Love y-you— awh god, thatfeelssogood!”
“Yeah?” he bites his lip, feeling the urge to tease you with his words for the hundredth time, “How good?” He attaches his mouth on your damp neck, sucking and biting on all of the sweet and tender spots that he knows you love. Trailing kisses all over, you were certain that he’ll leave marks all over your skin. Your body shivers when he uses his teeth to bite down on you, adding more to the buildup of your climax. “So g-good, daddy,” you whine, bouncing up and down harder, “Your big cock f-feels…feels so good inside my tight fucking pussy, daddy.”
Jungkook’s cock throbs from your unexpected words, gasping a little with a cocky smirk, “Mmm, when did you learn how to talk like that, huh?” a spank lands on your right, tender ass cheek, “Such lewd words coming out of that pretty mouth.”
Your mind starts to feel dizzy, almost to the edge of blacking out as your orgasm overpowers your body. He grunts from the way your walls were clenching around him so firmly, using his dick to your own good. Wrapping his arms around you tighter, he forces you to stay still on his cock while letting you ride out your high. “There we go, baby, there we go. Cum for me,” he insinuates, “Fucking hell, such a good, pretty girl for daddy.” He lifts your chin up with one hand, trying your best to make eye-contact with him but your tearful eyes feel too heavy. “Cumming so hard, oh my fucking god darling.”
Almost seeing black and white spots, your mind goes into a frenzy for you have no thoughts but the overwhelming sensation of your climax taking over your body. Jungkook moans as he lays you back down on the bed, bringing himself to his high. With your body shivering from the high sensitivity, Jungkook doesn’t stop.
His thrusts were sloppy and his pace becomes unsteady, moans getting louder. His body tenses and goes still inside of you, trapping your small body in his as he blows his load. He fills your cunt up with his cum, painting your walls in his seed. You can feel him twitch while you claw your hands on his back, trembling.
Jungkook mutters a series of curse words as your pussy squeezes his cock so hard, milking him properly until the very last drop of cum. After a little while, he pulls his dick out and he sees his cum leaking out of your pulsating little hole and dripping onto the bed. Licking his lips from the hot sight, he caresses your inner thighs as he tries to calm you down.
“Deep breaths, sweetheart. Deep, slow breaths for me.” He hovers back on top of you as he places his right arm underneath your head for support, his other hand gently stroking your side. All the anger, all the controlling and dominating aura that he previously had ten seconds ago immediately fades as he takes the role to comfort you the best that he can. He wipes your cheeks clean with the back of his hand, almost looking down at you with a slight pout. “Baby girl, look at me, hm?” Jungkook whispers gently, “Look at me.”
Once you do so, he feels himself almost collapsing from the poor, worn-out look that was embedded on your little face. “Oh, sweetie,” he sighs, “I’m so sorry.”
“N-No,” you slowly shake your head, still breathless, “Don’t say…”
“I should’ve, fuck—” Jungkook tilts his head to the side in dismay, feeling almost frustrated in himself, “I should’ve fucking stopped, look at you baby.” He holds your hand, gives your bruised wrist a wet, long kiss.
“Kook, I’m okay,” you giggle, a hint of tiredness in your voice, “I l-loved it.”
“Are you sure? Baby girl do you remember what I told you? If you ever feel too uncomfortable, or pain that you couldn’t bear anymore, or if you just want me to stop completely, what will you say?”
Perhaps this was one of the best things you love about Jungkook. His duality. One minute he’s rough and would dominate the fuck out of you, and the next minute he’s treating you like his princess.
“I’ll say my safe word.”
“Good,” he kisses your lips once, smiling down at you, “always remember that.”
You were awfully thankful that he’s the type to always shower you in kisses after a whole round of sex. Always caring about your well-being, that’s what he loves to do. Jungkook has cleaned himself in the bathroom first before he can handle and take care of you. He comes out of the bathroom dressed only with a pair of gray sweatpants with a damp towel and one of his t-shirt in his hand.
Kneeling before you on the bed, he starts to gently wipe your inner thighs and genitalia with the cloth. It was ticklish on the spot of your inner thighs, releasing a giggle as you try to move away from him. He smirks, grasping your leg down. “Tickles?” he grins at you.
“Turn around, little one. Let me massage your back.”
Your heart beats happily at that. But once you followed his command, his eyes immediately fly down to your ass. He hikes up the skirt that you still had on a bit higher, and he sees his handprints imprinted on your precious, delicate skin. “Holy shit,” he breathes out. Your body twitches when he carefully lays a hand down. “Sorry for this, little one. Guess you aren’t sitting for a couple of days, huh?”
Hiding your face in your arms, you quietly squeal, his words having an effect on you. “I g-guess so.”
Jungkook proceeds with his mission to massage your back, using his big hands to his advantage to knead your skin with just the right amount of pressure, massaging your arms and shoulders, pressing down on your lower back. Little groans emit from your mouth, enjoying the warmth of his hands. Your eyes eventually close, feeling that you were eventually going to fall asleep from how relaxing it is.
“Want some tea, darling?” he asks.
“Mm, no thank you. I’m a little sleepy…”
Your mouth curves up into a grin when he starts peppering kisses all over your back as well, moving your hair to one side. Jungkook, too, was smiling. He can’t even figure out how he got so lucky with you.
“You wanna nap, Y/n?”
“Mhm,” you nod.
“Okay, let’s get you in this shirt first. C’mon sweetie, flip back around for me.”
He holds onto the hem of your skirt and tugs it down, throwing it somewhere on the floor. His shirt reaches almost on your knee after slipping it on. Soon, he lays down beside you and starts spooning your body. It was easy for him to enclose yourself in his warmth, for his limbs were obviously bigger than yours. “Let’s take a rest and clean everything up later, okay?”
Although you didn’t reply.
“Baby?” he tilts your head to make you look at him. “What’s wrong?”
“Kook, I-uh…I wanna say sorry for what happened earlier—”
“Shh, shh, settle down now, sweetheart. I’m not angry about that anymore,” he gives you a beaming smile, his dimples peeking through. Oh, to swim in someone’s dimples…
“Don’t worry about it. I love you, Y/n. More than this fucking world.”
“Impossible!” giggling, you eventually squirm around him because you know for a fact that he’ll hug you tighter.
He did.
“Nothing’s impossible when you’re mine – my girl.”
God, you can never take a break with him and his impeccable word choices. You feel your cheeks heat up, shying away from him that caused him to laugh in amusement a little.
“I love you too, Kook,” your heart says genuinely. Jungkook pulls you closer and makes you rest your head on his arm. “Cozy? Let’s take a rest, baby. You’ve had a long day today, you did well. You might be sore afterwards but I’ll be right here when you wake up.”  The only thing you can remember after that was the gentle kiss he placed on your cheek, and the feeling of love and comfort in the air that encloses both of you. 
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“You know, Jungkook,” Taehyung speaks while munching on his Cap’n Crunch cereal, watching Jungkook come back to their apartment after driving you back to your own building. “You’re fucking lucky I was out partying. If not I would’ve…” Jungkook rolls his eyes when Taehyung fakes a gagging sound, “I w-would’ve thrown up hearing the two of you.”
“Funny,” he says blandly while heading towards the cupboards to make himself his own bowl of cereal.
Taehyung walks to his side, “Aren’t you and Y/n together for almost a year now? I don’t know much about relationships, but don’t you think it’s time for you guys to have a place of your own?”
Jungkook chuckles, heading towards the living room as he sits on the old green couch with his cereal on one hand. “So you’re kicking me out, Tae?”
“Well yeah, maybe I am, asshole.”
The youngest abruptly turns his head to him with a look of confusion, “Wait, really?”
Taehyung smirks, “Yup! I’m sick of you bringing Y/n here just to fuck, and not even let her hang out with me!”
Hang out with him? Since when was Taehyung interested in her? After a little moment of silence, Jungkook finally thinks of a reply, “What do you even wanna do with her? Also most of the time you’re either out getting drunk or locking yourself up in your room playing video games.”
“Threesome.”
Jungkook almost spits out the mouthful of milk and cereal.
“What the fuck—”
“Let’s have a threesome together.”
“No fucking way, bro.” Jungkook scoffs, pointing a finger at him, “We are not doing that.”
Taehyung was having the time of his life teasing Jungkook. He stands up in front of him, blocking his view of the TV. “I’m not having a threesome just to see you naked, cunt,” slowly, his mouth forms a smirk, “I wanna see Y/n nak—”
“Don’t even think about finishing that, Taehyung. I’m not fucking joking around.”
“Okay, shit, chill man,” he laughs, watching how Jungkook rolls his eyes. “And here I am thinking that you’re kinky and open-minded.”
Taehyung just loves to get into his nerves.
“I am,” Jungkook says in all seriousness, looking directly at his eyes. “But you know how I am with her. How selfish I can be. Other people will be fine with this, sure, but her body is for my eyes only, Tae. You can fuck anyone you like but not my girl.”
Taehyung sighs, walking away as he throws his hand in the air, “Fine, fine, whatever.”
Jungkook crosses his legs together, leaning back into the couch as he closes his eyes. The fact that he just had to put that image into his mind – someone else fucking his girl – he just can’t do it. He can be too possessive of your body and he wants it only for him.
“But if your girl ever wants two cocks to play with one day, hit me up.”
“If she wants two cocks then we’ll use a fucking dildo. Shut your ass up or else I’m gonna beat the fuck outta you,” Jungkook warns with a menacing chuckle.
Although Taehyung isn’t bothered by it, he fakes being frightened, “Oooohh, scary! Don’t hit me daddy!”
“Yep, that’s it.” Jungkook places the bowl down on the couch before abruptly standing up. Taehyung runs away while laughing like a madman with Jungkook following behind him. His roommate ends up locking himself inside his room where Jungkook can’t come in. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” He says in the middle of laughter.
“You’re fucking hideous, you know that?” Jungkook crosses his arms.
“Tell me something I don’t know, Jeon.”
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When Jungkook turned nineteen, he remembered asking his mother when a man should introduce his girlfriend to his parents.
His mother, heart filled with genuine compassion, replied with; “When you are fully committed, and when you know for a fact that you will be spending the rest of your life with her – that’s when you let her eat at our table. So be very mindful of your feelings, Jungkookie. Remember this when you grow up, alright? I know you didn’t believe in long-lasting love when you were younger, but trust me when I say that it truly depends on the person.”
It was clear that Jungkook’s romantic side definitely came from his parents.
And fast-forward to the present, here you are sitting at their dining table, meeting his parents for the very first time. 
“So, Y/n,” Jungkook’s mother beams from the other side of the table while passing her husband more rice for his bibimbap, “How did you and Jungkook meet?”
“Mom,” Jungkook chuckles, “Haven’t I told you that a hundred times already?”
You blush from his words, trying your best not to look down in shyness. Though you feel your boyfriend’s right hand rests on your knee to ease you up.
“I know! But I just want to hear it from Y/n’s point of view! Who knows, you might be hiding some details!”
Before you can speak, his dad talks before you, “I was actually there at the time,” he smiles at you, “I think you should thank me for making Jungkook talk to you!”
“Hun, please let Y/n talk—”
Jungkook grins, “I think I would’ve talked to Y/n whether or not you told me so, dad.”
“Let the girl talk!” his mom balls her hand into a fist and pounds on the table.       
You busted out a laugh, quickly covering your mouth as you shook your head in disbelief. You’ve never encountered such a fun, happy family like this. This was your first time being introduced to someone’s parents, and truthfully, you wanted them to be your last.
“So, um,” you take a glance at Jungkook before continuing as if asking for permission first. He smiles down at you and nods his head, feeling his hand squeeze your knee. “Jeon’s Kitchen was actually a favorite place of mine! And of course, it’s still is—” you beam at his father, “It was raining very hard so I decided to stop by to eat some food before work.”
“Brown coffee and banana bread, yep, I remember that!” His dad proudly says.
“That’s correct, Mr. Jeon,” you giggle, “I sat alone and waited for the order until Jungkook here suddenly bursts into the café, all drenched from the rain!” You turn your gaze at him with creased eyes from the way you were smiling as you talk, “If I remember correctly, his car broke down and he had nothing to do, so he decided to help Mr. Jeon with work, is that right?”
Jungkook responds with a hum, staring amusingly into your glimmering eyes that were full of love.
“Until Mr. Jeon told Jungkook to keep me company! So yeah, that’s where we started talking.”
Of course, you had to leave out the fact that you had such an intimidating first impression of their son. You recall how hard his stare was as he talked to you, and how he literally made you blush so easily just by his handsome smirk (that until now you couldn’t get used to!). He carried such a strong aura, even up to this day.
“After that, well, we exchanged numbers and everything went from there!”
Before Jungkook drove you to his parent’s house so that they can finally meet you, you were an absolute nervous wreck. Overthinking that what if you say something embarrassing? What if you humiliate yourself in front of them? You were driven to have a good impression on them, which Jungkook founded adorable. Of course, he reassured you, saying, “They already love you from all of the stories I’ve told, baby.”  
And he was right. His parents never would’ve thought that a girl like you would walk into his life. You’re a blessing for their son.
Jungkook doesn’t sway his eyes off of you as you continue to chat with his parents, telling them your goals and dreams for the future. He watches the way your mouth tilts into the prettiest smile he’s ever seen, lips tinted with lipstick that was just begging to be kissed. He also catches the way your head slightly tilts as you talk, oh – he can’t forget how your knees were nervously jumping! With his hand slowly caressing your knee up to your thigh, he reminds you to calm down.
His breath hitches up a slight bit when you unexpectedly hold his hand under the table. He feels how cold your hand was so it was good for you to take his own warmth. Using his thumb, he strokes your skin delicately, and you instantly feel much better.
When the time is right and when he garners enough money, he will buy a house for the two of you. It doesn’t have to be fancy or anything elegant, but enough to keep you happy and contented – he knows you’ll understand that. Needless to say, he’s excited about the future he’s going to have with you. His mind wanders to the point of your first anniversary, the second anniversary, even up until marriage and having kids. It’s a huge stretch, yes, but he’d rather spend his life alone than without you. 
If his past self can read his mind right now, he’d definitely laugh.
He can’t wait to live his whole life with you by his side. You already have all the qualities he’s been looking in a person, and there’s no way in hell he’s going to leave you anytime soon. 
His mother’s voice cracks him from his thoughts, “Y/n’s such a pretty girl. So amusing to look at, too!” She gawks at you with excited, wide eyes. Her eyes reminded you of Jungkook, the same big and round ones, “Next time when you come to visit us, let me teach you my signature shrimp fried rice recipe, okay? Are you allergic to shrimp, Y/n?”
“Nope! I love shrimp!”
“That’s great!” his mom claps, “Jungkook, thanks for bringing Y/n here with us. She’s so wonderful.”
Shaking your head, you try to take her compliments as much as you can but of course, your bashfulness takes over.
Your boyfriend removes his hand from yours, only lifts it up so that his arm can rest at the backrest of the chair while he starts to stroke your head lovingly. The corners of his lips tilts up to form a smile, he feels as if fireworks were going off of his whole body, for he was so in love with you. How can a person love someone this much? 
He mutters the next sentence underneath his breath, thus only he and his pounding heart can hear; “That’s my girl.”
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The End.
Thank you so much for all of the amazing support for Crybaby! I never expected so much love and anticipation in the first place. I wrote Crybaby without any serious plot with a ‘tragedy/problem’ in mind, for it was only supposed to be a oneshot haha! Crybaby was mainly about the fact that Jungkook has dacryphilia and that’s it. But thanks to the support I’ve gotten, I made a part two and three! It’s sorta sad to end this series because I know a lot of people (including me) love this couple soo much! But they’ll make an appearance in short drabbles or even kinky hours. I’m sorry for the sudden ending, but this will not be the end for them!
Please tell me what you think by commenting or sending an ask, I really love to read your reactions!
Please stay safe, especially in these times. Remember that you are loved, and please be happy. I love you!
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bunny-xoxo · 3 years
Text
To Call You Mine
college!tsuki x reader series
Ch. 2 - ew, small talk
warning(s): Tsukishima’s behavior 😐
a/n: I’m happy you guys seemed to really enjoy the introductory chapter!! I hope you enjoy this one just as much, and more tsuki content!! Ahhh I’d love to hear your thoughts per usual, and enjoy !! <3
ch. 1
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“So, why d-“
“Thanks for-“
Oh my god.
At this point you’d rather have a failing grade than have to keep talking to this guy.
Maybe it was just the fact you’ve felt like you’ve made a fool of yourself about 59 million times, but you were officially over it.
Tsuki leaned back into his chair with that same smirk he gave you earlier, raised eyebrows and all. You’re starting to wonder if that’s maybe just how his face rests.
“No no, go ahead. You first.” His voice was quiet and monotone, very appropriate for the setting, not so much for your nerves.
The way he held himself was, interesting. You know it’s only been maybe 5 minutes since you’ve met which is most definitely not enough time to start making any kind of assumptions about a person, but with the air around him so tense and serious, how could you not?
You could see his legs were just slightly spread in his seat, as far as it would allow it. And instead of doing the casual thing and resting his head in his hand while he waited for you to speak, it was tilted just slightly upward. Chin just barely jutting out at you, head leaning to the left just a tad. His forearms rested on the arms of the chair rather than the table, too.
Everything about his body language said, go on, I’m waiting for you to answer me. Rather than, go ahead, I’m listening.
It made your nerves congregate in your throat and made it difficult for you to speak.
He does not need to be making me this nervous.
You fiddled with the clicker of your pen as you began to speak, doing your best to keep your nervous fidgeting to a minimum. There should be no reason he should have such a knack for making you feel this way, he’s a random guy who takes your same calculus class. Regardless of the way he seems to carry himself, he’s nothing more than that. Some guy.
Besides, he probably wasn’t doing it on purpose. He just has one of those, faces.
“I was just gonna say thanks for agreeing to help me out. Even if it is so early.” You chuckled lightly and brought your hands up to rest on the top of the table.
Enough fidgeting.
“You’re welcome.” Another monotone reply.
You smiled thinly as you waited for him to continue his sentence, cause surely he wasn’t done.
….
Really?
You sat in another few moments of silence while he sighed and looked down at the open pages of his textbook, unable to tell if he was being serious.
“Alright. Why don’t we start with talking about the last lesson you felt most confident in understanding, okay?”
He was being serious.
“Yeah, sure.” You sighed and took a glance down at your notes.
A long hour indeed.
It hasn’t even been 20 minutes, yet you’re already starting to get a better grasp on bits of the material you couldn’t even begin to comprehend just a few hours earlier. It certainly isn’t enough to be rid of a tutor, but enough to know you were referred to him for a reason.
Maybe his aloof attitude was worth it.
“Well, that explains why I couldn’t get the numbers to plug in right on that next weird step of the equation. And why it looked so funky when I tried to illustrate the graph. God, that’s a lot.” You stated matter of factly, dumbfounded at how easy he was making this all seem.
“Go ahead and try these other problems from the back of the book, and then we’ll go over what you get after. And if you get stuck just ask. I’m gonna work on some other homework in the meantime.”
His voice had more lilt to it now. Maybe it was because his own version of morning grogginess had warn off. Or he could’ve been just as nervous as you at first. Regardless, you appreciate he seems to be less stiff than when you first percieved him.
You nodded your head and immediately got to work. Having a sudden epiphany about the content was definitely a boost to your motivation to get it done.
He chuckled softly to himself at your eagerness and got started on his own work.
It was nice, actually.
The next few minutes were quiet, but they weren’t awkward. The pair of you having your own focus on the work at hand, merely keeping each other company at this point with the soft scribbles of pencil against paper. That was until you had a question of course.
You looked up to ask him a question but almost felt bad for interrupting him, you could tell he was really focused.
His head was turned downward slightly making his glasses slide farther down the bridge of his nose. His fingers, which you noticed were slightly scuffed up, looked like they were gripping his pen so delicately no matter how fast he was writing. Your eyes followed the trail from his hand up to his shoulder, past the tendons twitching in his forearms at each flick of his wrist, and past his lean yet distinctly toned bicep.
Your gaze stopped on his shoulder when his other hand reached over to squeeze at the apparently tender spot, watching him roll it a few times before he leaned back down to write some more.
His jaw seemed tight, maybe he was having a tough time with this particular class he was working on. Or maybe it was because he appeared to be sore from, something. Taking in his physique and condition of his hands, you decided it wouldn’t be surprising if a sport was what was straini-
“Are you stuck?”
Your eyes shot over just a bit to look directly at his face, realizing you were staring and he probably assumed you needed help, which technically you did.
He was looking up at you above the top of the frame of his glasses and through his eyelashes, eyes just slightly wider than usual as he waited for you to answer.
You had to admit, he was a pretty guy.
“Yeah, kinda. This integral just isn’t clicking for me, I don’t really know where to start.” You held your stare on his face as he leaned in closer to reach over and flip your notebook around, taking a peek at your work thus far.
He hummed almost silently to himself before he spoke up, realizing what was confusing you.
Hm, he smells kind of minty. But not toothpaste minty more like, organic clean minty. Or maybe that’s eucalyptus I’m smelling? I wonder if it’s a cologne or if he just showered before he got here. Jesus, how early would he have to get up to shower before he got here? Cause his hair wasn’t even wet when - well, was it? I could’ve mis-
“Make sense?”
You blinked once, hard, as you internally chastised yourself for being a bit of a creep as you sat analyzing his smell rather than listen to what he had to say.
Nodding your head you stared back down at your paper, contemplating how you were gonna pretend to do better with an equation you didn’t even know where to begin.
“Oh, thank you for agreeing to meet so early, by the way.”
His words caught you off guard as you looked up to see his nose still buried in his work, but his mouth moving.
“I have a team practice in a couple hours and I’m already tutoring someone else afterwards, and this was the only free time I had before your next class.” He looked up at you and offered the tiniest of smiles.
So he did do a sport.
“What do you play?” You asked, genuinely intrigued to know the answer.
His height definitely made him look like a basketball kind of guy, no, you’d know if he played basketball. Maybe soccer.
“Oh, I’m on the volleyball team.” His hand kept its steady pace at writing down notes in his notebook, not even sparing you a glance when he answered.
“Oh wow. How long have you been playing?” You rested your head in your hand, patiently waiting for his response. It was nice to talk about something besides math for a little bit.
“Mmm, I’ve been playing for a good amount of time. This is my first year on the team though, so not long with them I guess. Do you play any sports?” He set his pen down now, rolling his neck out with his eyes closed, leaning back in his chair and waiting for your response this time.
“No, I don’t. My boyfriend plays basketball, though.”
His eyes opened and locked onto yours for a brief moment before looking back down onto that god forbidden work. It was silent for just a second, an unexplainable tension quietly passing between the two of you, so fast you almost missed it, before you spoke up again.
“He’s a sophomore though, so, a little more familiar with his team you could say.” You smile fondly and let out a small chuckle, doing your best to keep the flow of the conversation going,
“He-“
“Hm, nice.” He let out a deep breath and gingerly placed a hand on your notebook, as if he was unaware he cut you off just now, and continued to speak.
Maybe this wasn’t the time for getting to know each other, then.
“Let’s take a look at what you’ve gotten done so far, yeah?”
It’s been three days since you last had your first meeting with Tsuki, you hadn’t seen each other since, and yet somehow he was still working you to pieces.
He’d text you around dinner time each day since then like clockwork, just one word:
- ‘Studying?’
- ‘Yes Tsukishima.’
- ‘Good job.’
And it’d be the same thing in the mornings:
- ‘Study guide treat you well?’
- ‘Lol yes Tsukishima. It was actually really helpful so ty :)’
- ‘👍🏼’
I mean, he hand made you study guides to use. And enough of them so that they would last you till he met back up with you on the following Sunday.
It was like he knew you’d feel bad if you didn’t use them and study. But you’d be lying if you said they weren’t helping. You were walking through the door to said class now, and actually feeling semi confident as you sat at your desk and pulled out your belongings, and you had Tsukishima to thank for that.
You noticed it was quiet today as you waited for class to start. October slump was definitely hitting your fellow peers hard, that and the weather. Even your professor was quiet as he walked in and prepared the lesson.
Feeling fatigued and bored yourself, you pulled your phone out to pass the time when you noticed you had a text from Tsukishima still sitting on your lockscreen. It must be pretty recent.
Hm, that’s odd.
Tsukishima
‘Good luck in class today. I hope it all makes a little more sense. :).’
A smiley face?
You shut your phone off quickly and shoved it back into your pocket, not particularly fond of the way your heart swelled just the slightest at the fact he texted you.
And remembered you had class today.
And texted you a smiley face at that.
Hm. Looks like he’s warming up to me.
————————
OKOK DONT YELL AT ME AKEKEKE I’m currently writing chapter 3 already ok 😭 i feel like this is kind of short but it just felt weird to do another transition for what I wanted to write rather than just doing a whole chapter and yeah - MIND UR BUSINESS OK I KNOW WHERE IM GOING WITH THIS. Anywayyysss Ahhhh I hope this fed yall well heheheh and you know I love your thoughts and stuff :3 !! MWAH
taglist for series: @plutowrites @c0rncheez @ruetaro @daniagabriela48 @toyas-wife @devilkou @anime-and-kpop-trash (if you’d like to be added or removed let me know!)
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americasass81 · 3 years
Text
Make Her Mine - Chapter Three
{Warning: 18+, Dark theme, Smut, Fingering, Drugging, Mild Somnophilia, Non-con, Swearing, Choking, Mention of oral, Violence, Male Masturbation, Real Persons Mentioned}
Seriously do not read if any of this upsets you.
A/N: Okay though this started out as something to keep me occupied while I was without Wi-Fi for a week and never really planned on posting it, here at chapter three I would like to thank everyone who seems to like it and hope they get the same kick out of reading it as I’ve had writing it.  Having started out with an original female character, I have decided for those reading to remove the reader's name.  As such it’s now dark!Tony Stark x Reader and I figured it was about time I posted this chapter which was written months ago.  Hope you all enjoy it.
 Word count:- 2,490
Waking the next morning well rested, you started the day by emailing Sabrina the vague outline of your plan to escape Tony as well as how Sebastian might get involved should his infatuation prove stronger than you hoped.  Titled Operation Goldfish, you figured it was a handy enough codename to quickly slip into a compromised conversation.  Once satisfied, you then ordered breakfast before heading downstairs to rebook your room for five more days.  Getting off the elevator and walking towards the reception desk, you took a sharp turn back to the seating area when you saw Tony walking through the front doors.
'Fuck.' you thought, 'what was his problem.  Was his ego really so bruised, that he was determined to track you down?'  Looking around, you quickly picked up a paper off the table and hid behind it, while you waited to see what happened next.  Noting the time it was taking him to be dealt with, you instead seized the opportunity of his distraction to make it back to the elevators unseen, and quickly returned to your room.
Running through the suite, collecting all your belongings, you were just about to text Sabrina regarding the situation when you heard a beep and the sound of the door opening.  Heart pounding and cursing that you didn't feel comfortable having Sabrina retrieve your weapons as well, you slowly walked towards the bedroom door to be greeted by the sight of Tony Stark standing in your suite.
"Well Darling, have you any idea all the bother you've caused me.  Now I hope you're not planning on going anywhere after I gave clear instructions as to what was expected of you."
"How the fuck did you get in here and why are you doing this?  Is your ego really that fragile?" you asked, while quickly trying to assess how you were going to get out of this.
No sooner were the words out of your mouth however, when you found his hand around your throat as your body hit the jam of the door.  "You'll find being Tony Stark I can pretty much buy my way in anywhere.  Now listen to me very carefully, the money you're using to hide from me was earned in my employ.  That means Darling, that I own your pretty little ass."
Trying to hit him with one hand while using the other to pry his off your throat, he released you and you slumped to the floor, gasping for air as tears leaked from your eyes.  Glaring at him, your temper flared and you couldn't hold your tongue.  "So what, you think you're entitled to do whatever you want with anyone who works for you?  That is seriously fucked up and illegal on so many levels."
"Oh no, Y/N, not anyone." he purred, helping you up while forcing you to look at him as his fingers caressed your chin.  "Just you.  There's something about the way you think you're too good for me, that makes me want to see you kneeling naked before me while choking on my cock."
Disgusted at his words and brimming with fear and anger, your knee came up to connect with his family jewels as you reached your hand around the wall and pulling a floor lamp towards you, brought it down on him.  Though all this only stunned him, it gave you enough of an opening to hit him again, before reaching for your getaway bag and running from the room.
Not looking back to see if he was following you, you forgot the lift and started down the stairs as fast as you could.  Reaching the street, you made it two blocks before you felt a sharp prick in your neck.  Slowly slumping forward, you weren't conscious as iron arms wrapped around your chest and a booming voice told passersby that everything was under control.  Taking you to an Avengers controlled facility because of the publicity surrounding your episode, the next phase of his plan was to extricate you from those determined to keep you from him. 
                   *************
Having received the unexpected call from Tony Stark, it didn't take long for Sabrina to show up at the facility with Sebastian and two of his goons in tow.  Being greeted by a kindly nurse, they were allowed to see you for a few minutes before being ushered into one of the unused offices where Tony sat waiting.
Closing the door behind him, Sebastian had to hold his wife back as she lunged at Tony.  "What did you do to her, you sick fuck?  I swear, if anything happens to her the full might of the New York Mob will tear you and your costumed freaks to ribbons."
"Firecracker, calm down.  At least let the man explain."  Sebastian coaxed, quickly glancing at Tony.
"Fine." she said, sitting in the nearest vacant chair while keeping her eyes fixed on Tony, as Sebastian took the seat next to her.
"Well it's good to see you have some control over your woman, but I wonder Mr. Stan, does she actually speak for you."
"Mr. Stark, please don't interpret my love for my wife as a sign of weakness.  While she may not speak for me on Mob business, where Y/N is concerned we act as one."
"Fair enough.  I was on my way back from a routine rescue when F.R.I.D.A.Y. alerted me to a pedestrian in distress.  I reached her before she could hit the ground and only discovered it was Miss Y/L/N when I saw her face.  I then brought her here and immediately called you, of course." he said, turning his gaze on Sabrina.
"And what exactly is wrong with her?  The nurse Charlie wasn’t exactly forthcoming with information." Sebastian stated, reaching out to take his wife's hand.
"That I'm afraid is a question I don't yet have the answer to.  F.R.I.D.A.Y. is running every conceivable test, but if nothing comes up, we may just have to accept it's something else and simply let it run its course."
"Something else?  As in stress related?" Sabrina snapped, glaring daggers at him.  "I wonder what could possibly have stressed her out that much?"
"Yes Mrs. Stan, I'll admit it, I didn't handle her rejection of me very well.  But I've since gotten over it.  Which is why I now intend to make sure she gets the best medical care my resources can provide."
"Mr. Stark," Sebastian interrupted.
"Tony, please." he stated, turning to face the mob boss once again.
"Tony.  Given the issues these past couple of days have thrown up between you and Y/N, surely you can understand our concern.  I don't think my wife and I are very comfortable with this arrangement."
"I totally understand your reservations, but as a Stark Industries employee she is also covered under the company's medical insurance, which means I can insist on the best possible treatment available anywhere.  I will of course be more than happy to keep you updated on her condition.  Now perhaps we can leave it there for today?  I have your number."
"Sebastian, we can't just leave her here with this arrogant douchebag.  This is exactly the opportunity he's been waiting for." Sabrina explained, locking eyes with her husband.
"Sabrina, sweetheart, his concern seems genuine and he should be made pay for her care.  She'll be okay."  Turning back to Tony, he looked him over once, before he spoke again, "Remember what my wife told you, Stark.  In the meantime, I'll expect regular updates." he stressed, rising from the chair and taking his wife's hand to lead her from the room.  Left alone with you incapitated down the hall, Tony couldn't hide the satisfaction he felt, knowing he finally had you in his grasp. 
Suspecting that your friends didn't believe a word he said, Tony walked down the hall to your room where he couldn't help but gaze on your sleeping form.  Though the sedative he'd hit you with should give him until tomorrow to get you moved to his secret location, part of him was disappointed that it had come to this.  He had hoped when you left his office you would do as he asked, but it seemed you weren't as meek as you pretended to be.  Still, he did love a challenge and he would enjoy breaking you.
Leaving you temporarily to deal with the paper trail and the nurse, he returned quickly and went about removing what medical equipment had been hooked up to lend some reality to the scene.  Next, pulling back the sheets, he frowned at the hideous workout gear you still wore but couldn't help himself as his hand made its way up the inside of your thigh.  Though he knew he wanted you awake for all he had planned, he told himself he simply wanted to see how effective the drug was at keeping you sedated.
Reaching your waist, he gently eased down your leggings before running his hand along your panty covered folds.  Moving his hand up and down a few times, he brought his fingers to his mouth and coated them in his saliva before shoving your panties aside to feel your flesh against his hand.  Slowly gliding up and down your folds, he moved up every now and then to circle your clit before he poked your entrance with a finger.  Moving it gently in and out, he was surprised by the small amount of moisture this single digit was producing.  Deciding to experiment further, he slipped in a second finger and was rewarded with a tightness that wasn't there the first time.  Pumping his digits harder and faster into your pussy, he marveled at how well the drug was working, while still allowing your body to slick up his fingers.
Hearing movement out in the hall, he quickly removed his fingers, replaced your clothes and licked your juices off his digits before pulling the sheets back up.  Bending down to softly kiss your lips, he pulled back before whispering "soon darling, you'll feel more than my fingers and you'll never be empty ever again."  Then when a dead quiet once again fell over the place, he released his armor, eased you out the window and gently flew you to the secluded spot where his car was waiting.  Placing you on the seat and securing your belt, he swept the hair back from your face before shedding his armor, getting behind the wheel and driving off to your new home.
                    *************
Pulling into the secluded, underground hideout, he thanked all the gods above that no one knew of its existence or its connection to him.  Housing a garage, living quarters and state of the art lab, he knew it would be the perfect place to hide you until you finally accepted him.  Taking you gently from the car and depositing you in your room, he still had things he needed to do before you woke up.
Removing your leggings and panties, he hurried to your bathroom to clean you up after his earlier exploration, before slipping into his room to retrieve a pair of boxers.  Left to him, you wouldn't need clothes any time soon, but he figured after the hotel you might not take too kindly to waking up naked.  As a compromise, the drug should afford him time to wash your lower garments and return them before you knew anything was amiss.
Heading to his room to shower, his mind wondered how you would react when you regained consciousness.  Oh he could easily have tied you to the bed already and after the hotel maybe he should, but where was the fun in that?  The contrast between the meek 'Mr. Stark' spouting you in his office and the fiery you that had evaded him and attacked him in the hotel suite excited him more than any woman had in years.  He couldn't wait to see which you would open your eyes or what it would take to tip you in either direction.
So consumed was he by you that it took him awhile to realize his hand had strayed to his throbbing erection.  Continuing to pump his hand up and down while thinking of your tight, warm and wet walls squeezing him like a vice, his mind wandered back to his fingers buried in your pussy and working himself harder he came with a groan, his cum coating his hand.  Looking down at his release, he quickly washed up, exited the shower and changed his clothes before making a bite to eat.
Once fed, he headed back to check on you, to find you just as he left you.  Though fairly certain about the timeframe of the sedative, he thought it best not to dally and headed off to his lab to set up a cover that would hopefully keep your mob friends off his back.
His first act was to wire money to associates in Europe to make it look like his private jet had landed with himself, you and the nurse Charlie aboard.  Next was the setting up of a false trail that currently had you under the care of the best doctors in Denmark, no way he figured would your meddlesome friends travel there.  Then he fished your phone out of your getaway bag, while marveling at the amount of cash you had stashed away.  He knew he paid his employees well, but the ingenuity of someone your age to even think of something like this both amazed him and made him wonder why you did it in the first place.  But that was a mystery which could wait.
Unlocking your phone, a pathetically simple task he noted, he quickly cloned the whole thing and then, placing it back with your cash and passport, hid the bag in the lab's secret safe.  Once done with that, his next task involved combing through every voicemail you had in order to synthesize your speech pattern should he have a need for it at some point.  He also contemplated freezing your accounts, but figured that might raise some red flags.  When all that was done, he then redirected his business calls, thus making the whole thing look legitimate before instructing his A.I. V.I.R.G.I.L. to shut down most of the building.
Satisfied that his efforts were enough, he returned to your room with your freshly washed clothes and redressed you before settling on the couch to spend some time watching the gentle rise and fall of your chest.  Knowing it would be a while before he got to see you this peaceful again, he savored every minute until his eyes started to close and so rising, he kissed your forehead before reluctantly returning to his own room.  Laying down, he drifted off to sleep, wondering what the days ahead held in store.
Tagging:- @nsfwsebbie , @hoseokchild , @malloryharris , @ironlady1993 , @floatingdaisy7 , @taintedgenre , sorry if I missed anyone.
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yaboylevi · 3 years
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Hi! I love ur blog, especially ur Snk Metas and Ereri metas. What are your thoughts on the whole “Eren has always been like this” (always been evil or capable of great evils like genocide) that a lot of people seem to agree on? I’ve always had a hard time believing in that idea because we’ve been shown multiple times that Eren is capable of sympathy and empathy, so to say he’s ALWAYS been like this is wrong.
Hi! Thank you!!
Looking through my snk 121 tag I found that I have already received similar questions, so I’m gonna link one here if you want the short version of it. Even if it was something I wrote up right after the chapter was out, it’s not like my opinion has changed much... more like, my faith in Isayama writing a decent conclusion and explanation in regards to Eren has plummeted in the past year and a half.
But anyway, now we have some new information pertaining Eren, so I feel like I can add more on this moment and my take on it in light of such new perspective.
Let me preface this with: Eren hates what he’s doing, is despising every second, was scared of his future visions, often paralyzed, desperate to find a better solution than this, because he knows - let me repeat it - HE KNOWS this is horrifying. We had hints throughtout the story, but many have ignored them. For me, Eren going through grief and apologizing for something he hadn’t even done yet in chapters 131 was no shocker at all, but I guess some people may have actually been surprised, I don’t know. It was right there since the Marley arc and his breakdown over Sasha, but many have completely misinterpreted that scene, denying it was desperation that he was feeling, so it was nice to finally have confirmation. Kinda.
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However, you know, Isayama doesn’t seem to have picked a side on his characterization of Eren. Or maybe there is still something that’s concealed, because everything we have seen, isn’t evething that has happened, and it doesn’t explain yet some things about Eren and, relevant to this post, why Eren has decided to give up and give in to his future self’s memories of destruction. I’m sorry, but Eren believing “there is no other way, other than killing the whole world’s population, because the future cannot be changed” due to some memories is not gonna cut it, especially because we haven’t seen him fight too hard against it. In my opinion, at least. Or maybe he did, but we haven’t been shown.
The most hopeful part of my heart wishes he is already trying to change things, in a very roundabout and secret way, but the tired and logical part is done hoping. After all, Eren is alternating between being hellbent on going through with rumbling the world, and being absolutely horrified by it. I’ve been getting whiplash every month for a couple of years now.
As for your actual question, and that line during the Paths Time Travel...
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Let’s start from here, shall we? That whole conversation with Zeke in Paths was to Zeke what chapter 112 was to Mikasa and Armin, imo. Chapter 121, huh, same numbers...but anyways. I think I have already wrote it somewhere, but I believe Eren lied, and purposely hurt Zeke. To make him, and Mikasa and Armin, realize something and act accordingly, maybe against Eren himself.
In Mikasa’s case, the realization was gradual since then, because Eren’s lies kickstarted it immediately. In Armin’s case, I think we still haven’t seen the full potential of it, though it may come next chapter - and I mean the “You were influenced by Bertolt, an enemy” angle. I am surprised Armin hasn’t followed this reasoning in regards to Eren, who has three titans within him, none of them particularly allied with Paradis. We left Armin seeing Bertolt, who is, in turn, watching him. I wonder if a conversation won’t happen right off the bat in chapter 136.
Anyhow, Eren, in chapter 112, also very much hit Armin and Mikasa where it hurt them the most - which is the same thing he did to Zeke here, bringing up his hate for Grisha and how it was the only think really fuelling him, and went through all the effort of making him reconcile with Grisha. Mmm, sus. Am I the only one feeling it’s sus??? I really have to wonder if he doesn’t kind of want/need Zeke to stop him, just like I believe he did with Armin and Mikasa. After all, there was no need to antagonize them and make them have reasons to stop caring for him, if he didn’t want to be stopped.
So, if it wasn’t already clear, Eren is a big liar, and he’s good at it if you don’t know him (and Zeke, Armin, and Mikasa have proven they don’t know or understand him very well at times). His acting skills have been shown all the way back in the cabin scene when he was 8 years old and tricked those traffickers.
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There is another layer to these lies that I’d like to touch upon, though.
The line you were inquiring about feels exactly like his “I am free” in chapter 112. He sounds so sure, but it is a freaking lie.
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See how both Armin and Mikasa are confused by such a bold, out-of-the-blue statement, the same way Zeke asks Eren “Since birth?” because, like, what is that all even about?
Eren has been feeling trapped in his own future memories to the point that his freedom of choice even existing anymore has become a big question mark. There is no freedom in following the path you were shown.
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Eren’s urge to save someone from “having their freedom solen” by “physically assaulting the perpetrators first” has never, ever meant that he was willing to or okay with sacrificing innocents. Quite the opposite, in fact. There have been whole arcs about that. About Eren freaking out over people dying for him, refusing to sacrifice friends for the bigger picture, grieving for or sympathizing with innocents losing their lives or having them destroyed by some bigger threat. That has not changed.
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So the big question remains: Why?
With these outrageous and confident statements about himself, I don’t think Eren is merely lying to his interlocutor to change their perception of him. I think he is lying to himself as well in the meantime. It looks like it did the trick, or not - based on how you want to interpret it. He really has been dissociating hard during his rampage.
But it all depends on what Isayama's angle is with Eren. In 112 Eren seemed to believe his “I am free” statement because he had an instant reaction to Armin challenging it. At the same time, now that we also have chapter 130-131 to enrich our reading, there is no way Eren felt free into the choices he made after hearing Willy’s declaration of war. He saw a terrifying future, he hoped against hope that it would change, but felt powerless and gutted and desperate that all pointed to such a future being unchangeable. So I do wonder if maybe he didn’t end up lying to himself - subconsciously or not - that he is free... and that he is always been this way - a cold-blooded murderer who did it all for justice.
Zoom in on Eren forlornly watching himself as a kid show pure kindess to a girl who just went through the most traumatizing experience in her life.
For the matter, I don’t believe Eren “has always been this way”. I actually don’t believe he’s ever been that way. I don’t know why many(?) people just accept whatever Eren says at face value, ignoring all context surronding it.
As I posted very recently, it doesn’t make sense for Eren to go from one extreme to the other without a better excuse, or explanation, or a more believable writing of it...or a plot twist that I guess I will wait for for another 4 months:
Eren came to realize that outside the walls people are just...well, people. There are good ones everywhere, people who suffered just like him, people who deserve better, certainly don’t deserve to be caught up in the Rumbling, people who have lives, children, moms, loved ones. This is highlighted again in chapter 131, because maybe, when Eren brought it up in the basement with Falco and Reiner, people didn’t think he was being genuine. So Isayama shows us again that Eren truly believed that.
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And yet, the chapter before, Eren put those very same people on the same level of Titans when he used to think Titans were scum, a nightmare sent to eat them alive, because he addressed them with “匹”, a derogatory counter when applied to people, because it is usually used for small animals.
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The parallel to how he used to feel towards Titans is smacked in our faces, because in Japanese, it’s the same exact line. He now feels that way about people.
...What?
It doesn’t make sense, right?
Because really, the same way Eren’s first impulse in Marley was to save Ramzi when he was being beaten up (and threatened with a worse fate than some bruises), the same way Eren helped him regardless and again went against 3 full-grown men, it’s the same way Eren rushed to Mikasa’s rescue when he didn’t even know her... or the same way he pushed himself into a Titan’s mouth just to save Armin. it doesn’t come from a sentiment of “I need to punish these monsters because they are threatening me”. It comes from a natural, intrinsic need to help and save others. It is deeply saddening that at the end of this journey, with Ramzi, he just feels like this natural predisposition of his is just a fake and turns him into a hypocrite.
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So for Eren to say he has always been that way while looking at his 8 years old self stabbing a human trafficker in the chest to save a little girl to try and explain why he’s killing innocent people who happens to be living alongside “the bad guys” is a false equivalence. Either it’s a lie Eren tells himself and to Zeke to make both of them believe this is what Eren is, and has always been, and there is nothing they could do to prevent it - in a sort of twisted liberation from guilt because “if I was always like this, then you and I both shouldn’t have expected anything different”...
...or it’s Isayama’s failed attempt at presenting a theoretical concept he liked and talked about in interviews, suddenly turning Eren into a poster boy for it and canceling previous sides of Eren’s complexity as a character. I would like to believe Isayama hasn’t lost his magic touch this badly, but every day I’m less sure of it.
My opinion, for what is worth, is that that line you quoted is something he said to trick Zeke into detaching himself from Eren and going against him - breaking the bonds of love all around him has been a very deliberate choice Eren has made post time-skip - and at the same time it’s something Eren is trying to believe himself, in a desperate attempt at explaining to his own conscience that he was destined to bring such destruction, that he was always capable of it, and that there is a sort of justice in it where there isn’t. And he knows, deep down. That’s why he dissociates in the end.
In a very twisted, self-deprecating way, Eren is a liar to everyone, himself included. He has become an unreliable narrator about himself. Eren has completely shut down because he cannot stand what he is doing.
And I would very much like to know why he gave up on trying to find a different solution, if that’s what it is that happened, and why he sounds like a different person every other scene he appears in, in the next 4 months.
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rkorlov · 3 years
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Harmonies (JATP fanfic) Part 2
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{1st chapter.} {Wattpad link.}
Summary: Julie and the Phantoms get a proposal that’s huge. In the meantime, Julie has to deal with Carlos knowing about the boys.
Word count: 1936
                                        Chapter 2, Brand New
Flynn approached Julie in the hallway, the girl had a huge smile and was letting no one forget Julie and the Phantoms had played the Orpheum. It had been a couple nights, people still congratulated her when they saw her and whispered big things were coming their way. Julie wasn’t sure of anything, she was far more concerned about the boys now, she didn’t know if Caleb was coming back, the boys had no idea what their unfinished business could be and deep down, she was sure she didn’t want to say goodbye to them. Not now, not after she started playing again, after she enjoyed herself on stage and had a great time. Not now that she felt genuinely happy.
“Let me guess, you were lost into smiley land and that’s why you weren’t picking up your phone last night.”
“Luke and I were writing a song and after that I had dinner and went straight to bed. I saw your message first thing.”
“Uuuh, so we’re gonna have new music.” Flynn said, excited. Julie hated to disappoint her in that moment.
“I don’t think we will be singing this one… it’s quite personal for both of us.”
Flynn shook her head, and leaning on the lockers, looked at Julie. “Oh boy, no way of saving you from this one, is there? Writing love songs pretty much seals your fate.” She got close for an inch and made sure no one else heard. “What about Nick and the flowers?”
“He knows I like someone else, the flowers were just because he enjoyed the show. As long as he can’t tell is Luke who I like, then it’s alright.”
“Oh girl, we’re past from that, everyone can tell it’s him. Actually, you’re so lucky people can only see him when you’re singing because otherwise you’d be selling yourselves over.” She shrugged. “I’m still so surprised you’ve got no problem sharing those looks while your dad’s on the audience.”
Julie fell in complete silence and felt how her heart was in panic. She forgot about the rest of the world when that happened, no question why her father wanted to meet the boys. No wonder why he spent the weekend asking for the boy with the guitar. She was thankful none of the boys were around while that conversation happened. It’s safe to say it was uncomfortable, but Julie hadn’t thought of the fact that maybe everyone could see the same she saw.
“Maybe we do have to tone it down a little, huh?” Out the corner of her eye, Julie thought she was hallucinating.
Carrie walked towards them, for the first time she was all alone, displaying a smile on her face. A smile directed at them? Maybe that was the day of reckoning and everyone needed to get their apocalypse gear out, right? There was no other explanation.
“Julie! Right the person I was looking for.” She looked at Carrie with furrowed eyebrows and pointed at herself with a twitch of her lip. Since when that was a thing that happened? “Yes you, my father is putting up a show, we saw you the other night at the Orpheum, and he wanted to invite you and your Phantoms to perform. Dirty Candy is gonna be there, too.”
“Oh, that’s…” she was at a loss for words. “That’s very kind of your dad. I…”
“You’re gonna think about it?”
“Sure thing, I’ll let you know.” Carrie walked away and Flynn turned towards Julie with enough of a surprised expression to last for a day. “What just happened?”
“You tell me! Since when is Carrie… nice?”
But that was not what Julie had in mind. What she thought about was Carrie’s dad being in the audience of the Orpheum. Trevor, Trevor Wilson, the guy she thought introduced her to rock. The guy who used Sunset Curve’s songs, Luke’s lyrics, was at the audience of the Orpheum. He saw them perform and what if… what if he recognized the boys? There was no way he didn’t recognize his old bandmates.
“We may have a bigger problem than Carrie being nice!”
A quiet sound of guitar riffs came from the studio. Julie opened the door to see Alex at the drums, Reggie standing beside him tuning in his bass and Luke, playing chords on his guitar while he lay on the couch.  She thought during the entire day how to break the news to them, coming to the conclusion there wasn’t really a good way of doing so. The boys would freak out the moment she opened her mouth.
“Hey, guys… so, I kinda have good and not so good news.”
“Let me guess, let me guess!” Reggie said. “You were bringing us pizza but then you remembered we can’t eat.”
Julie chuckled and shook her head. “Not exactly. The good news is we have a gig opportunity…”
Luke didn’t let her finish. He jumped on his feet and walked to her. “That’s amazing news, we’re so ready for it. When is it?” A happiness she hated to let down.
“Let me give you the complete information first…” she held up a finger towards Luke. He stared down at her signalling for her to continue. “Carrie’s dad was at the show at Orpheum, seems like he liked our music so he’s inviting us to a show he’s throwing.”
“You mean BOBBY?” Luke blurted out, as if Julie had managed to insult him deep.  She nodded. Luke turned towards the boys and shook his head. “No way, we’re not going.”
“I don’t know, it could be a great opportunity…” Alex threw, shrugging.
“He stole our songs and never gave us any credit. Why would we perform at a show with him?” Luke gestured with his hands, letting down his guitar. Julie had learnt to recognize pretty fast when he was upset, physically he was impossible not to read.
“That’s not the bad news, though.” She said, calling for Luke’s attention. Maybe making him pay attention would help. “He’s the only person from your past that saw you and what if he recognized you, guys? What if he has something to say and this is a great moment to say something.”
“We can totally try and talk to him.” Reggie suggested.
“Exactly how, genius? The only person who can see us is Julie.” Luke let out, dropping his weight on the couch. “It’s not like we can call him out while we’re performing.”
“No but if the moment presents itself, I can totally vouch for you,” she said. “Carrie and I used to be friends, her dad knows me, he’ll… he’ll listen.”
Alex put down his drumsticks. “I say we go, we need some answers.”
“I’m with Alex, we can’t really hold onto anger forever.” Reggie said with a side smile and a shrug. “What do you say, Luke?”
He didn’t say a thing. A frown took over his whole expression. It only softened when Julie shifted his way; she tried to convince him with a gesture, a silent talk between them begging him please to consider it. The boys were angry at Bobby, they had enough reasons to be, but they still had to let go so they could keep moving forward, it was the best they could do. Luke finally gave in and nodded to Julie. She smiled and was about to approach him when she heard Carlos’ voice from behind.
“So… how are the guys doing?”
“Huh?” She turned around. Her brother was leaning against the door, looking past Julie. “What guys?”
“The ones you were talking with.”
“I… I wasn’t talking with anyone,” she played dumb. “There’s no one else in here.”
“I figured you were gonna say that but,” the boy said, taking out from his pocket a picture taken straight out of Sunset Curve’s demo album. Julie looked at it and let out a deep breath. Busted, totally busted. “Don’t they look familiar?”
“You gotta give it to him, he’s thorough in his research,” Reggie let out, the boys giving him a look. “What? He is.”
Luke stood up and walked next to Julie. “He’s not gonna tell anyone, is he?”
Julie looked up at him and shrugged. Her brother wasn’t nosey and he always tried to help her so she trusted him to keep it all in. “We can keep this a secret, right? No telling dad.”
Carlos took a hand to his chin and made a thoughtful grin. “We can but you’re gonna have to answer some ghostly doubts first.”
After giving Carlos the 101 guide on how to deal with ghosts, exchange that ended on him disappointed of not actually being able to interact with the boys, Julie went out searching for Luke; who had vanished from the studio and hadn’t come back for more than an hour. She wanted to make sure he wasn’t changing his mind, or freaking out about it. It was enough of a sensitive topic for him, Bobby stole his lyrics after all and music for Luke was the biggest expression of his soul. Knowing someone else, a friend, had taken his lyrics and sang them as their own and never even remembered his name while doing so was hurtful.
Bouncing a basketball and throwing it to the ring for it to bounce back and start again, she found him. Focused on his movements as if he were playing guitar, he bounced the ball once again before seeing her and stopping it mid-air.
“Hey!” He said, eyes glued on her, something Julie wasn’t sure how to take in. his eyes were always so full of the world. “Everything’s alright with your brother?”
“Yeah, he’s… he’s only bummed he can’t actually talk and hang out with ghosts but he won’t tell.” She played with her hands in her pockets and finally decided to speak. “How are you, though? I know the idea of doing this is big, playing in a show for Bobby after all that happened…”
“It’s…” he shrugged. “Ever since I found out he stole our songs I’ve been really angry and I know, I know we gotta let go of the past but there are some things that just linger. I mean, I like our music now more than ever, singing with you is the best… it’s just that…”
“He stole a part of you.”
Luke nodded. “But I’m on board with the boys; the best for us is to move on. Focus on here, what we have is pretty great…” he said, closing in the space between them. His bright eyes changed it all for her, every time, and now they were so sincere. Julie couldn’t emphasize enough how she loved playing with the boys, how much happier she felt since they showed up, how grateful she was with her mom for sending them her way. She needed them as much as they needed her. And now knowing how all Luke made her feel was too good, with its own stones to stumble in but good. “I wouldn’t trade it for anything.” Neither would she.
Luke offered his hand, intertwining her fingers with his she took him, closing in the rest of the space between them. Forehead to forehead, she closed her eyes as she let the feeling spread through her body. The gleefulness of being able to connect with him that way was homely, like landing on a safe place and being held by the right arms. Not even a thought of the impossibilities of their relationship could break how she managed to feel in that moment. Infinite, full of peace. Brand new.
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Hello! Once again, I’m putting in the tags the people who have interected with the previous post and who want to be tagged. Thank you so much for reading and remember you can drop prompts for the fic, whatever you’d like to see I’d be really happy to play out. My ask box is always open, either for this fic or one shots.
Tags: @cordeliapeters @leahthewonder @a-chaotic-ananas @just-henny @helookedupgrinninglikeadevil @oliveswiftly @sammy-stan @sweetlikecherry-wine @lmaohuh @fantomgirlonsonthin @laughswaytoomuch @loveyatopluto @sammi36 @artemiscrock913
Thanks again for reading, it means the world!
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makeste · 4 years
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BnHA Chapter 265: Tamaki What Did You Eat
Previously on BnHA: The heroes began their invasion of the Ol’ Villain Marriott. Down in the basement, Re-Destro was all “what’s going my fresh villain citizens, what a beautiful day, well I guess we should start that meeting” and they were all “WE’RE UNDER FUCKING ATTACK” and he made a face and I laughed. Class 1-B, Edgeshot, and Midnight then jovially killed some people, and then we cut to Dabi and Hawks! Hawks was all “sorry it has to be this way Bubaigawara but I’m gonna have to arrest you” and Twice got all Harry Potter in that one scene from the Prisoner of Azkaban movie, and then he did the thing, and fucking Hawks just fucking stood there and DID NOTHING. So now he’s gonna have to fight 100,000 Twices I guess, and meanwhile Dabi is running up the stairs on his way to intervene and somehow make things even more chaotic. Also either Hawks or Dabi thinks heroes are scum, and I’m still not clear on which. But basically it’s safe to say that angst is on the way, friends.
Today on BnHA: Tamaki turns into a horse. I have questions. Dark Shadow fights fucking Re-Destro and fucking destroys him in like two seconds flat, like holy shit whaaaaat. Then Tokoyami just hops on inside of Fatgum like a goddamn marsupial, and spends several pages like this, during which I completely can’t focus the entire time but I do remember that we learned that Machia won’t be joining the fight because he apparently only listens to Tomura, so that’s convenient I guess. Then we cut to Twice and Hawks (I literally typed out “Dabi and Hawks” just now and had to go back and change it, so you can see where my mind is at), and Hawks defeats Twice and is all “guess I’ve got no choice” and is seriously going to kill him (hahaha what the fuck), but then DABI FUCKING BURNS THE ENTIRE ROOM DOWN WITH EVERYONE IN IT WHILE LAUGHING AND THEN THE CHAPTER JUST ENDS. I feel like I just got slapped in the face.
so before we start, let me just mention that I got a ton of asks and messages about the whole “HERO SCUM” line, and I appreciate everyone keeping me up to date on the twists and turns of our wild little fandom lol. so as you all probably know, in Viz’s translation of the last page they had Dabi saying the line (“Twice, this isn’t your fault. as always... scummy heroes are to blame”). so naturally everyone was either like “whaaaaat!” or “I KNEW IT!!”, but then Caleb went and deleted his original tweet saying that it was Dabi, and replaced it with a new tweet, the gist of which was basically “I don’t fucking know either” and admitting he wasn’t an authority on the matter. so to sum everything up, we basically don’t know and will never know until the anime airs this in about three years’ time, or until the only man who can actually clear this up decides to stop drawing weird mushroom men for five goddamn minutes so he can clarify for us
anyway, so in the meantime it’s time to see who’s having angst this week! probably everybody! let’s just assume it’s everybody and save some time
ohooo so we finally get to see why they had Tamaki and Tokoyami in the vanguard, eh?
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(ETA: gotta say, “you” is an awfully impersonal way to address someone whose entire body you are shortly going to stuff inside your little quirk papoose and tote around like a fanny pack.)
honestly this isn’t much of a mystery though lol. Tokoyami is obvious, and with Tamaki it’s probably because of his kraken thing if I had to guess
...excuse me sir is this leading where I think it’s leading
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sir. Mister Gum, sir. please do not tell me you are actually about to lead these children into the building and down into the basement. first of all the thought of you and Tamaki in yet another basement is already giving me PTSD so no thanks. and second of all, ???!?!?!?!?! [gestures incredulously to the two children] ?!?!?!???? [emphatically taps my computer screen with the wiki page showing their respective ages] ???!?!?!?!?!?! [gestures wildly toward a picture of Gigantomachia I pulled up just now in a google search. yeah that’s right. Gigantomachia!! you all forgot about him didn’t you!! well guess who didn’t forget about him?? that’s right. so you’d better explain yourself right the fuck now, Fatgum. oh wait I’m still talking in action brackets whoops]
holy crap is Tokoyami giving orders lmao
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well look at you. a general, huh? somebody must’ve told them about his little maneuver at the Battle of Taanab
so now some generic villain guys are all “HOW’D THEY FIND OUR SECRET PATH” and “WE MUST DEFEND IT” and I sure can’t wait to watch them get their asses kicked three panels from now
OH LORDY
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EVERYONE TAMAKI HAS JUST TURNED INTO A HORSE. I IMMEDIATELY HAVE SEVERAL QUESTIONS, THE MOST PRESSING OF WHICH ARE (1) WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO HIS PANTS, AND (2) DOES THIS MEAN TAMAKI ATE A FUCKING HORSE. PLEASE STAY TUNED AS WE URGENTLY INVESTIGATE THESE NEW DEVELOPMENTS
lol and the cow horns too. why though. just completes the look I guess
loooooool he’s all “apologies, but please remain still” who are you, Tuxedo Mask??
LOOOOOOL
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by the way, I almost skipped right past this, but the text says Tamaki will be a sidekick at the Fatgum agency starting “next year”, which presumably means “in a couple of weeks because the school year is about to end.” our boy is graduating! I’m so proud, and also really pissed off about Mirio all of a sudden, just throwing that out there. how much longer must his dreams be put on hold. where is the justice. man I need a minute
okay! anyway so now Tokoyami is just running into the basement alone!! hooooo boy. I know it’s dark down there and that’s presumably why they’re sending him of all people, but still. hooooooooo boy
ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS NO WAY
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IS TOKOYAMI GOING TO TAKE ON FUCKING RE-DESTRO AND IS THIS REALLY HAPPENING AND WHY THE FUCK IS NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN SUDDENLY PLAYING
KDSFLK;L’LLL
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AM I IN THE RIGHT MANGA. DID DARK SHADOW REALLY JUST GROW NINETY FEET TALL AND START WRESTLING THE SAME FUCKING GUY WHO ALMOST* BROUGHT DOWN THE ENTIRE LEAGUE OF FUCKING VILLAINS
*except he didn’t, let’s be real. didn’t even come close. but still, on paper the hype looks real good!!
AND DO RE-DESTRO’S ROBOT LEGS SOMEHOW FUCKING CHANGE SIZE ALONG WITH HIM. CHALK ANOTHER ONE UP FOR THE MYSTERY BASKET. PUT YOU RIGHT NEXT TO “BUT FOR REAL THOUGH DID TAMAKI ACTUALLY EAT A FUCKING HORSE”
OOOOOF
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LOL DETNERAT’S MERCHANDISE REALLY IS TOTAL SHIT. CAN’T EVEN HANDLE A LITTLE CLASH WITH A GIGANTIC SHADOW DEMON
by the way, check out that one guy in the bottom right corner who just totally doesn’t give the least of fucks. he’s fresh out. he wants to know how much longer this is gonna last so he can go home and get back to playing the new Animal Crossing. did you know they added a new crafting feature. can’t believe he’s stuck here at this boring meeting. this man genuinely doesn’t seem to be at all aware of anything that is currently happening around him and it’s amazing. added to the box of questions
oh man. I don’t quite understand what is happening now but I keep expecting Gigantomachia to just pop up out of nowhere any second and I can’t fucking stand it. Horikoshi please stop showing us these close-ups of destroyed walls
OH GOD OH GOD!!!
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(ETA: what a casual fucking line implying that Tokoyami genuinely believed that there was nobody in THE ENTIRE LEAGUE OF PLIFF who stood a chance against his latest super move. don’t mind him everyone, he’s just been lowkey biding his time to become the strongest member of class 1-A offscreen while his loser classmates were having dramatic family dinners. how many High Ends could Dark Shadow take out I wonder. why did I suddenly get a mental image of Toko losing an arm only to sigh and nonsensically quote Shakespeare or some shit before wrapping Dark Shadow around the stump and getting back to the asskicking.)
NO TOKO NOT THE ANGRY BALD MAN, HE’S TALKING ABOUT SOMEONE ELSE!! OH FUCK OH FUCK
LMAO
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:) :) :) can we maybe get my solemn bird son out of this fucking DEATH BASEMENT right the fuck now. can we do that, please
holy shit!?
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:) :) :) I can’t decide whether I trust these panels or not. why is he so confident. does this mean Machia really will be sitting out the arc, or is a trap. help
(ETA: I guess it’s okay for now. ... dammit I’m still suspicious sob.)
also, Tokoyami’s “?!” face is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen though. the fact that he’s physically incapable of altering his expressions no matter what is true comedy gold here
NEVER MIND, THOSE WERE THE WORDS OF A CALLOW YOUTH WHO KNEW NOTHING OF TRUE COMEDY GOLD
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WHAT A FOOL I WAS. PLEASE PARDON MY IGNORANCE. SO HERE WE HAVE TOKOYAMI’S MONOEXPRESSION BIRD HEAD STICKING OUT OF FATGUM’S JOLLY BELLY FOR NO REASON, WHILE FATGUM IS ALL “DON’T YOU FEEL LIKE WE’RE KICKING TOO MUCH ASS AND SOMETHING TERRIBLE IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN”, AND SOME OTHER POOR GUY WITH SCISSORS HANDS IS JUST LYING THERE DEAD IN THE BACKGROUND. MY GOD. I’M IN AWE OF THIS
dfkjkjk oh noooo
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“does this young man amuse you,” Horikoshi says as he darkly pencils in the disturbingly concave shadows of Fatgum’s ridiculous fucking quirk. “are his ‘magnificent fellow’ bird antics pleasing for you to watch. I guess it sure would be a shame if I gave him some... angst”
but for real y’all I genuinely can’t take this at all seriously when Tokoyami’s head is still stubbornly and persistently poking its way out of Fatgum like a goddamn baby kangaroo in every fucking panel
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we are entering another Tokoyami+Hawks mentor flashback and this is still all I can think about. why is he even in there. why is any of this happening. Tokoyami really just flung Re-Destro into a wall and then climbed inside of Fatgum feet-first so they could run along to freedom. just fucking ensconced himself. do you think it’s cozy in there. do you think Aizawa would fall asleep
hey Toko please stop having ominous thoughts about my other bird son
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have you ever heard of an announcer jinx. “now here’s a guy who the fans have loved since the moment he was first introduced. and if you look at the stats, fourth place in his first popularity poll, which was taken only ten chapters after his introduction. heck, he’s so popular they even went and gave him a role in the second movie even before he appeared in the anime! it’s undeniable that this young man has a bright future ahead of him, Al.” now you listen here. I don’t at all like where this is headed and it needs to stop right now
anyway so of course on that note we are cutting back to Hawks
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so we’ve confirmed that Hawks has his hands full just melting all of the new clones as they come, and doesn’t have the speed or the excess feathers (or the conviction? :|) to go after the original and put a stop to all this
or you could just ignore everything I say ever because immediately on the next page Horikoshi is all “actually he’s winning lol”
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anyway but it sure would be a shame if someone were to run in and set you on fire right about now. that probably sounds sarcastic but it actually would be really bad lol please don’t set Hawks on fire
(ETA: motherfucker. goddamn. fucking --)
and now Hawks is making clones of his fellow League buddies oh shit!! but right when I was about to scroll down I noticed that Hawks is carrying some sort of recording device?? or communications device?? in his hand very conspicuously in that last panel? and so what is going on here, exactly?
oh shit and never mind about those LoV clones
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that’s all well and good Hawks, but I need you to please just be very cautious and aware and proactive about not catching on fire okay. watch your six
oh my god oh my god
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“now here’s a guy whose rise in popularity was unexpected but just a real pleasure to watch. he just really cares about his friends.” “you said it; he really came into his own a couple arcs back. twenty-third in the most recent poll, and the fans all love him.” fffffff Hawks isn’t a killer Hawks isn’t a killer, I can’t hear you lalala
LA LA LA
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maybe... he’ll just... punch a small hole through one of his lungs... ...
...
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or... a large hole... ... ,,,
oh THANK GOD he’s jumping on top of him. so clearly he’s fine because Shounen Rules. that’s right, this is a manga where Toga survived blowing up from the inside out and Jeanist survived being murdered and stuffed into a tote bag. (right??) why am I so tense I hate this!!
HEY WHAT IS THIS
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or you could just KNOCK HIM OUT??? ?????!??! did they not teach you that in peewee assassin league?! Hawks
I DON’T LIKE THIS I DIDN’T SIGN UP FOR THIS!!
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STOP SHOWING US TWICE’S SAD THOUGHTS YOU BASTARD NO I DON’T LIKE THIS YOU’RE GOING TO MAKE ME CRY SO STOP!!
GODDAMMIT HORIKOSHI I FUCKING HATE YOU
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“HERE’S A SERIES OF PANELS WITH TWICE CRYING AND THINKING ABOUT TOGA WHILE HAWKS HOLDS A FUCKING KNIFE RIGHT ABOVE HIS EYE,” HORIKOSHI SAYS WHILE IGNORING EVERYTHING I SAY AND DISABLING ALL COMMENTS ON HIS TWITTER, PROBABLY. WOW I JUST LOOKED IT UP AND APPARENTLY YOU CAN’T DO THAT? DAMN, TWITTER REALLY SUCKS, BUT ANYWAY
FINE THEN DABI YOU CAN SET HIM ON FIRE!!
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JOKE’S ON YOU ASSHOLES, YOU CAN’T HURT ME IF I CAN’T SEE THE LAST PAGE OF THE CHAPTER THROUGH ALL MY TEARS
FUCK
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[SLAMS HANDS ON TABLE] THE FUCK WAS THAT
DON’T YOU EVEN DARE, HORIKOSHI. I DON’T WANT TO HEAR ANY “BUT YOU GAVE HIM PERMISSION”, COME THE FUCK ON, YOU AND I BOTH KNOW THAT DIDN’T MEAN SHIT AND I WAS LIABLE TO CHANGE MY MIND YET AGAIN ONLY A PAGE LATER AS PER USUAL! WHAT SORT OF TWISTED MIND WOULD DECIDE THAT THE ONLY WAY TO SAVE TWICE WAS TO SET THE ENTIRE ROOM ABLAZE AND THEN HAVE DABI GLEEFULLY STOMP ON HAWKS’S FACE. WHAT KIND OF SICK MONSTER WOULD DREAM THIS UP. THIS ISN’T HOT AT ALL. HOW DARE YOU
ALSO WTF DABI, “HERE I COME TO RESCUE TWICE” WHILE BURNING HIM ALIVE AS WELL, JESUS CHRIST THESE FUCKING TODOROKIS I SWEAR TO GOD. DID YOUR BRAIN CELLS CATCH FIRE TOO
I CAN’T BELIEVE I WAITED ALL WEEK IN A FUCKING LOCKDOWN FOR THIS SHIT. THIS CHAPTER WAS A FUCKING TRAIN WRECK, AND I DON’T KNOW IF I WANT TO THANK ITS STUPID CONDUCTOR, OR PUNCH HIM IN THE FACE. it’s not the manga we need, but it’s the one we deserve. I guess
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roommates AU!! Maybe one where young Tony has had a string of awful roommates (ie. they bully him for his age, etc.). The housing office transfers him one last time and tells him to give it a week. If this one still doesn't work out, then they'll let him room alone. At first, Tony just wants the week to be over, but of course his new roommate is the sweet Peter Parker. Cue pining!Tony, oblivious!Peter and a fluffy resolution... Just my rambles, but always excited to see what you come up with!
do the thing - send in all the prompts.    
Nonnie, this was a lovely prompt - thank you so much for the idea! I aged Tony up a little bit to make sure there wasn’t anything underage, but I hope I hit all the things you were looking for! 
Tony always figured flying through school would be a breeze. And for the most part – it was. The class material turned out to be easier than even he anticipated; he could’ve easily gotten through high school with his eyes closed. At 16, the concept of winning was the only thing that registered to him – what he was winning, he didn’t really know; but beating out his peers around him always made him feel just a bit better about how ridiculously brainy he really was.
Of course, the social aspect of school wasn’t nearly as easy. Most people didn’t understand what it was like to be the son of Howard Stark – Tony knew the inside of a lab before the age of 4 and attended dinners with some of the world’s figure heads on a consistent basis. As one of the youngest people in the entire room always, Tony struggled to fit in. Being smart wasn’t the piece of school that people admired, especially when the age gap was already so substantial. To say he was picked on was putting it mildly.
He assumed getting to college would end all of the bullying that came pre-packaged in the high school experience. Why would people in the pursuit of a degree in higher education care how old anyone was? The shocking reality of how wrong he was came when his very first roommate locked him out of the dorm for a full 48-hours. Tony didn’t like to throw around the weight of his name, but he hadn’t showered and needed textbooks to get to some of his classes. Needless to say, his roommate did not remain in the room for much longer.
Tony’s next roommate at least lasted for the rest of the year – he was an asshole at all points in time, but he didn’t lock him out of the room or touch his shit. There wasn’t enough of a connection to ask him back as a roommate – so Tony put his name back on the list for a roommate and went about his summer vacation.
Coming back from Italy, Tony was refreshed and more than ready to get through the next year as quickly as possible. He’d turned 17 over the summer and was one step closer to being on the cusp of independence. Then, people couldn’t judge him for his age. Tony walked into the year with a positive attitude – that was quickly bat down by the homophobic bigot they stuck him with. Tony still didn’t like the way faggot sat on the surface of his skin.
The struggle to keep a roommate brought him in front of housing for what felt like the hundredth time – all he wanted was some peace to get through school and maybe enjoy some of it. The notoriety of the university kept the supply of single rooms scarce, but he figured if push really came to shove, he could find a way to get one for himself. Cindy, who’d been dealing with him since his first gem of a roommate screwed the pooch, looked at him with a mixture of pity and concern. “I need you to give it a go one more time, for at least a week. There aren’t any singles available and I’m certain that this person will be suitable for you. In the meantime, I’ll see what I can do if all else fails.”
A barely concealed scoff left his mouth, but he nodded, anyway. After the stream of lectures he got from his father when the initial trouble started, Tony was determined to settle the situation by his own means, even if that meant trying to stomach one more person for 7 days. All of his other roommates proved how terrible they were right from the get-go, so he figured he could make it – the other side held the key to his single and a little bit of peace from the boring monotony of societal norms.
A couple of days later, a knock on the door drew Tony from the book in front of him – he’d been balls deep in the chapter on electrical energy conversion. Standing up from his seated position, Tony realized how long he’d been sitting when his feet felt a little numb. The break was obviously needed.
Pulling the door open, Tony let a soft gasp leave his lips – the person standing there was the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen. Long legs led to a torso that was covered with a white and purple striped shirt and flight jacket. The length of this person’s neck held a head covered in dark brown, curly hair. Tony took a couple of steps back on instinct, his brain going haywire.
“Are you Tony?”
In an attempt to speak, Tony opened his mouth – no words followed, however. Blushing, he chose to nod instead. He opened the door a little bit wider, his hand swinging in a ‘come in gesture’. His lips were quirked into an involuntary smile, everything about his body he could usually control now running on instinct and the overwhelming hormones that coursed through him.
A soft chuckle left the other’s mouth, the sound like music to his ears. Why did it take this long to deliver someone like this to his door? More than anything, Tony hoped that handsome person walking into the dorm that must be his new roommate wasn’t a total piece of shit – he wanted to be able to hold out a little hope.
“I’m Peter – Peter Parker. I just transferred here,” the man, Peter, said – his eyes wandering around the modest fixtures that Tony kept around the shared space. “Is that really a big-screen TV?” Peter’s plumps lips formed a roguish grin, coffee-colored eyes flashing with genuine excitement. “I never thought I’d see one of those in a college dorm room.”
Tony watched him trace a hand across the top, his fingers fiddling with the wiring at the back of it. “And it has HDMI capability. We can get both of my systems set up on this thing.” Peter’s excitement took him by surprise, everyone else who walked through the door didn’t care about the cool shit he brought with him – just the differences between them; his age, the sexuality he refused to hide – his academic abilities, even.
Not Peter, though – he went on to explain that he was getting a degree in Electrical Engineering and didn’t get to have some of the newer appliances growing up. It was weird, to see someone so excited about the nerdy stuff Tony liked, too. They heartily discussed the best way to get both the Xbox and PlayStation set up through the tv without bogging down the cable setup already existing in the room. 
By the time they were both happy with how Peter’s things mixed into the fixtures of the room, Tony figured he was already head over heels for the guy – for the first time in his life, someone took him at face value and didn’t hate what they saw.
----
The rest of the year with Peter went by seamlessly. During the spring semester, they planned to have a class together, both of them still needing to take some of the basic engineering classes. There wouldn’t be a lot of cross over later in their degrees, so they took advantage. It was different, having someone he could rely on sitting in class next to him, and then being there at home later on, too. Tony never got to experience the sort of camaraderie that Peter so freely gave to him.
Mornings were filled with the two of them trying to make breakfast on the little hot plate Peter brought from home. It was always an adventure, trying to get everything cooked all the way through and evenly – at least, Tony enjoyed watching Peter puzzle it all together. Their day started together and as the time passed, it ended together, too. Peter liked to spend time in their shared space, so Tony found excuses to be out there, too.
Tony found himself seeking out Peter’s company all the time, if he were being honest. Peter was the most interesting person – he didn’t care about the normal things; he wanted to learn and explore, he wanted to see what the world had to offer. Best of all, he seemed to want to include Tony in the things he wanted to know more about.
A couple of months into their second semester living together, Tony looked up to find Peter staring at him. “What’s your middle name?” Peter asked, a smirk slipping across his lips. “Are you an Anthony, or just Tony?”
Putting his pen down in the book he’d been reading to keep his place, Tony shifted a bit and gave Peter his full attention. “My full name is Anthony Edward Stark. No one but my mom calls me Anthony, though.” Tony tried to keep the blush he couldn’t help under cover, but his ears were warm – there was no escaping it. “What about you? Are you a junior, or something?”
The exchange went on a for a while, Peter talking a bit about his family in Queens and the Brainiac’s team he left behind when he graduated and came to Cambridge. Tony soaked up the information and attempted to be open about pieces of himself, too – he talked about his dad and the weird relationship they had and about Dum-E and the never-ending tweaks and adjustments he made to better him.
It was a little easier after that conversation, both of them felt a little more comfortable and for Tony, he felt closer to Peter than any other person in his life. He hoped it wasn’t obvious, how much Peter meant to him. There were stars in his eyes constantly – so he kind of doubted it.
Even his mom noticed how things shifted for him – he wasn’t his normally surly self when he went home over spring break. Maria looked at him with a weird smile – Tony didn’t think he’d ever seen the look on her face before. “School okay, Tony?” she questioned, her hands brushing through the hair by his ear. He figured she missed the little kid he used to be – he would sit for hours and let her pet him like that back then.
Grinning, Tony nodded – his teenage hormones making it hard to keep himself calm, cool, and collected. “Yes, it’s okay. I’m doing well and really enjoying Differential Equations this semester.” He kept his answer brief, his inability to talk to her still in place despite the weightless feeling that accompanied him. “I’m thinking about picking up a class in the summer and sticking around.”
He didn’t tell her that Peter was involved in a work study program and would need to be on campus all summer working. It seemed silly to give up his bedroom in the place that was now his home simply because summer came around. 
Tony didn’t want to miss a single second of time he could be around Peter – no matter how weirdly pathetic that probably was. Later, when he left the kitchen and headed towards his room, Tony missed the smile his mom beamed his way.
Their end of the semester project was due a couple of weeks after they got back from spring break, so Tony and Peter spent a lot of time together when they got back from visiting their respective families. It was a little like the time away from each other strengthened the need for the bond between them. Peter spent more time in the dorm and when he couldn’t be there, Tony pestered him at work, the help desk more than familiar with him after all the time he spent there.
The closer they got; the more Tony wondered if Peter felt the same way that he did. Tony knew he was still young, his 18th birthday creeping slowly toward him. There were tons of great looking people on campus, people that were closer to Peter’s age – but he hoped, he crossed his fingers and looked up in search of a person he didn’t believe in just to send up a little wish into the atmosphere.
Tony tried to gage things between them a couple of weeks before the end of the semester – he wanted the summer to go off without a hitch and knew his useless pinning would be more of a burden than anything if he didn’t at least try and find out if he stood any chances. He wasn’t completely sure of how he’d try to fish out the truth, but he needed to – the probable thought of exploding crossing his mind frequently.
A perfect opportunity presented itself when Peter came home a little tipsy from a party that Friday night, his face split into a loose smile, eyes shining with the blaze of alcohol and something simmering just below the surface. Tony paused the round of Tekken he’d been playing, his hand patting the cushion next to him. “Have a good night?” Tony asked curiously, his lips slipping into a smile when Peter threw himself carelessly down onto the couch. Their shoulders brushed, that little bit of contact sending a torrent of happiness through him.
“I definitely drank enough to make it feel like it was a good night,” Peter replied, the alcohol letting the words fall easily from loose lips. “MJ brought 151 in a little flask – it doesn’t taste like shoe cleaner, so it was easy to drink a little bit too much.” He smiled and leaned further into Tony’s side. “Glad to be back, though.”
A nose brushed the side of his neck, Tony holding his breath to stop the gasp that tried to escape from the confines of his chest. He put the controller down on the arm of the couch and sat more fully on the couch – his arm going around the back of it. “I’m glad that you’re back, too,” Tony admitted, his hand moving inch by inch until his fingertips were just barely fumbling with the sleeve of Peter’s black t-shirt.
“What are you doing, Tony?” Peter asked from his place against Tony’s shoulder, his breath tickling his skin, the sensation distracting. He drew his bottom lip between his teeth and absorbed he warmth while he could – Peter nestled in the space Tony wanted him the most might never happen again.
“I – don’t know. I – “ Tony started to speak, but the common problem of getting a little tongue-tied around Peter coming back with a vengeance. “I think I was trying to put my arm around you.” He felt his face flush even further – his cheeks and ears the same colors as Peter’s without the influence of alcohol and its properties.
While he didn’t actually move away, Tony felt Peter stiffen. Sucking in a hurt breath, Tony froze, too – he must’ve read the room wrong. “Oh,” he heard Peter say, the word muffled by Tony’s skin still. He gulped, then extracted himself from the tangle of longer arms and warm skin – his eyes already starting to burn with tears he wouldn’t be able to control for much long.
“Sorry – I didn’t, I mean. I – sorry, Pete.” Tony babbled, the inability to speak in full sentences hitting him double time now that embarrassment coated the nervousness that threatened to overcome him. How stupid could he be? Turning before he could embarrass himself further, Tony made a quick beeline to his room and shut the door. He slumped back against it, sliding down to the floor.
----
Tony avoided Peter as much as he could leading up to the end of the semester, and subsequently, Tony’s birthday. He’d already made the commitment to stay over the summer, and he steeled himself for the awkwardness that would more than likely settle between them. The soft ‘oh’ Peter mumbled that night still played in his mind – his voice just as confused as the rigid posture of his body.
Either way, he needed to find a way to get over it – Peter was the best roommate he ever had, and he still had at least one more year of school to get through. It felt good to finish a semester and he did his best to focus on that instead of the weird ache in his chest. No wonder so many people were so wrecked by the love thing – when it didn’t work out, it hurt like an absolute bitch.
The two weeks before finals and Tony’s birthday followed much of the same pattern – Tony stayed in his room until he couldn’t stop the rumble in his stomach; he did his best to time his ventures into the shared space of the dorm when he thought Peter wouldn’t be there. It was easier to just ignore the situation and hope it past.
His birthday rolled around without much fanfare – he was glad to be 18 and didn’t need the huge party his parents wanted to throw him. They were never about him, anyway. Tony figured he’d spend the day watching the TV in his room and making his way through the couple different cartons of ice cream he put in the freezer the day before.
A knock on the door around 10AM had him muting the TV to answer it, his eyebrows furrowing when he saw Peter on the other side of the door. “Hey. Happy Birthday, Tony,” Peter started, the card in his hand being thrust forward into Tony’s chest without much finesse. The hand he could feel against him shook; Peter obviously nervous for some reason.
“Actually – that’s not why I’m here. I thought maybe you’d be more willing to open the door when there was something to celebrate.” Peter shrugged, his legs crossing in front of him. “Tony, that night – I wasn’t… upset, or anything. About what you said. I was surprised. I didn’t have any idea that you felt like that. It was a shock – I’d been crushing on you for months at that point and there you were, adorably trying to put your arm around me. You were gone before the ability to think started to work again.”
He reached out and traced Tony’s cheekbone with a soft finger, the caress barely there. “I like you, Tony – I want you to like me, too.” The fingers trailed along Tony’s soft skin and into his hair, the entirety of his hand palming the back of his neck when it got there. “And I think you do.”
“I do, Pete. I do. I really, really do.” Tony let both of his hands drift to the bare skin of Peter’s forearm, his fingers gripping the grounding warmth there. “Will you kiss me?” Tony asked the question so sweetly, the blazing in his eyes a sharp contrast
Peter used his lips to answer, the hand on the back of his head pulling Tony close enough to press their lips together. A gasp left Tony’s lips, the touch like an electric shock. In an attempt to keep his feet on the ground, Tony fisted Peter’s shirt in his hands, the move bringing them closer still.
The need for air had them pulling apart, Tony’s eyes opening wide to take in the look on Peter’s face – he figured the loopy smile there mirrored the happiness etched into his own cheeks.
“Want to go out with me, Tony?” Peter mumbled, his face breaking into a beaming smile.
Laughing, Tony used the grip on Peter’s shirt to pull him back in for a chaste kiss, his entire being thrumming with life.
“I thought you’d never ask.”
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clairecrive · 4 years
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“Let’s stay home”| Quarantine AU
As promised here chapter 5. I’ve made it long to apologize about posting it late. Again, I’m sorry. However, I hope you enjoy it. As always if you have any ideas or things you’d like to see happen, let me know! Next chapter, someone will make a cameo, who do you think will be?
Tag list: @deaflikehawkeye, @mollybegger-blog, @of-love-and-of-the-sea, @br0ck-eddie, @fandom--0verdose, @evelynshelby, @shadow-of-wonder, @innerpaperexpertcloud, @sopxhiea, @fuseburner (let me know if you wanna be added)
If you lost a chapter: Masterpost
Chapter 5 - “Concert”
"Oh my god, yes, yes, yes!" Her loud scream of enthusiasm was heard throughout the house alarming its guests.
"What? What's going on?!" Tommy ran out of his room out of concern regarding her screech, thinking the worst.
"What the bloody hell is going on here?" Came Alfie's annoyed grunt as he got up from the chair he was sitting on with the help of his cane. Being cooped up in the house all day wasn't helping his sciatica at all.
But Emma didn't grace either of them with an answer. Instead, she simply jumped off her bed while calling her friend on Facetime, completely clueless of the worried men that were standing outside her room waiting to know what was going on.
Squirming on her feet, failing at staying still, Emma sported a huge smile on her face while she waited for her friend to connect. Half expecting to see Bane's face popping up on the screen, Alfie thought about leaving, not wanting to repeat the other day's situation but contrary to his expectation, a female face appeared on the screen. Adjusting his position against the door so that he was more comfortable, he now was genuinely curious. It was the first time that Emma talked with a female friend. He had even begun to think that she didn't have any.
"Jen, have you heard?" She excitedly asked her friend that seemed none the wiser.
"Emma, it's literally 8 am here. You're lucky I even answered you."
"Well then, I'm about to make your day ten times better. Check the message I've sent you on Telegram."
"Can't you just tell me?" Jen's tired voice complained
"That's not fun, I'm building the suspense." Emma firmly explained waiting for Jen to do as she said.
"What do you think is going on?" Tommy asked Alfie.
"I've no idea mate. No idea." Alfie simply said, scrolling his shoulders while not removing his eyes from Emma's form.
After a couple of seconds of silence, which saw Emma grinning like a fool and Tommy and Alfie simply standing there like some clueless bodyguards, Jen's squeal brought Emma's smile only to widen while Tommy and Alfie were startled, the former losing his balance while the latter lost his grip on his cane. What the hell...
"Thank all the gods in Olympus, they've blessed us!" Jen's face reappeared on the screen now mirroring Emma's expression.
"I'm so happy Jen, you've got no idea. I really thought they were just going to refund us."
"I told you, you had to be positive about this! You never listen to me, you pessimistic bitch." Jen sassed making Alfie's eyebrows shot up and Tommy's lips to pout.
"Can you, for the love of God, tell us what's going on?" Alfie's voice prevented Emma to respond, making her finally aware of their presence in her room.
"Oh, hello boys." She simply greeted him not understanding their worried stance. When they gave her an allusive look she finally explained with a big smile.
"Harry's concert got rescheduled."
"And that's what got ya screamin like a fucking banshee?" Alfie grumbled
"Other concerts have been simply cancelled and the tickets refunded. This way we still get to see him." Now fully facing them, she elaborated.
"Fucking hell." Alfie simply muttered under his breath leaving the room. She turned to Tommy but her confusion only grew.
"Next time I hear you screaming, you better be dying." He said before leaving as well.
As confused as ever, her face resembled the question mark which made Jen laugh.
"Ugh, men," Emma joked.
"While we're on the subject, how's the living together thing going?" Jen noisily asked wiggling her eyebrows making Emma know that she was here for the tea.
"It's going well actually. So far, at least. They've been surprisingly helpful so I'm not complaining."
"You're stuck with three handsome, mouth-watering men and that's all you're going to tell me?"
"I know they're attractive Jen but nothing is going to happen. We're friends."
"If I were you, I'd walk naked all the time and hide their clothes so that they'd also have to be naked all the time. You'll see how something will happen then." Jen shared her absurd plan topping it with a suggestive wink.
"You're missing Nik, eh?" Emma affirmed more than asked knowing very well that being away from her boyfriend was really taking its toll on Jennifer.
"You've no idea. This is going to be pretty tough, not going to lie. There's only so much we can do on video chat and of course, it's not like the real thing." Her friend complained, making it very clear why she was missing her boyfriend so much. If there was something that Jennifer wasn't, it's certainly being smooth. She's the kind of person that's very upfront about things, whatever they are.
"I can imagine." Was Emma's attempt at being sympathetic. Her relationship with sex was really different, however, she could understand Jen's problem. If she had a boyfriend whom she loved as much as Jen loved Nick, maybe she'd miss the connection that comes with sex too.
"I'm here, terribly horny and suffering for this quarantine and you're standing there surrounded by dicks and you won't take advantage of it!" Jennifer loudly complained, getting cruder and cruder and Emma couldn't help but scrunch her face in horror at her friend's choice of words.
"My god Jen, get a grip on yourself girl," Emma jokingly reprimanded her, " You should have come here when I invited you then."
"Unfortunately for me, I'm awfully loyal and Nick's dick is the only one that I want. But I know that you'd have been delighted by my presence, you don't have to pretend."
"Oh damn, you got me. My life is empty without you." Emma indulged her. It wasn't completely false, she did miss the girl a lot.
"I know, I know. Listen, babe, I've gotta go, Nick's calling me. I'll talk to you later and please, think about what I've told you, okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, bye Jen." Emma willingly ignored her last statement and ended the call with a nostalgic smile.
Emma was fully aware of how unconventional most of her relationships were. She never really thought about them that way, it was always people's reaction to them that made her realize how strange to an outsider might look. But to be fair, however unorthodox her relationships may seem, they were all based on mutual respect and honesty. When people asked her if it was true that she and Tommy were just friends, Emma would always be puzzled by their astonishment. Yes, they had been together. So what? Some people work better as friends. And yes, Emma wasn't blind, Tommy was sexy af but while she could admit it without shame she would also be lying if she said that she thought of being with him. Been there, done that. It didn't work so she moved on. As did he, there was an understanding between them.
Alfie was a totally different thing.
They had started off as friends but both of them felt that there was more. That there could be more. And in fact, there was. They tried it out and it was working just fine until her job cut in and ruined everything. She had to leave. And neither of them were too sure of a long-distance relationship. Alfie respected her decision, he knew how important her job was for her, how ambitious she was. But breaking up was inevitable. And so they did.
However, since there really was mutual respect and affection between them, they kept in touch. Sure, it wasn't the same thing and both of them had had different partners in the meantime, but they always found their way back to each other.
So, when it came to them, friends was a reductive word but it was better than to explain their whole relationship to some stranger every time. They would better fit under the heading "it's complicated" but a global pandemic wasn't the right time to deal with this situation and finally label their relationship. Emma knew that that was why she was ignoring Alfie's jealous remarks and Jenn's proposal. Things were already difficult, neither of them needed them to be even more complicated.
Days went on like this then: Tommy and Alfie that would bicker from time to time, always because Alfie would provoke him in some way; Eddie would jump in and either fuel their discussion or would spend his time tormenting Emma. He was surprisingly helpful though. He would go out and go shopping for necessities claiming that it was impossible for him to get infected, he would help her clean up and take care of the house. As long as he lent a hand as he was doing, Emma wouldn't complain about him pestering her. Emma and Bane would still video call every other day to keep in touch but he was unexpectedly evasive when it came to his whereabouts.
Everything was going fine. Emma knew that she was one of those who had it good, that's why she couldn't find it in herself to complain about this whole situation. However, if she could speak freely, she'd have to admit that her mood was progressively getting worse. She tried to keep a routine to keep her busy but the truth was that she was finding it harder and harder to get out of bed and do things, with each passing day.
She still tried though. Because she had taken a commitment with the other guys and had chores to do, but also because of her job. And most importantly she didn't want anyone to know that she was feeling so blue. Emma was one of those people that prefer to deal with their problems by themselves and shy away from any kind of attention when they're going through something.
Up until this day, end of week two in lockdown, she had pulled it through. For whatever reason though, this day had hit her harder than any other. Maybe it was because of the article she was supposed to write. It was about self-love, how important it is and what are the different ways one could take care of themself quarantine edition. The topic wasn't weird perse, Emma wrote frequently about this kind of stuff, it was just that she felt like a scam writing it. How could she write about self-love and ways in which people could make themselves happy, especially in these difficult times, when she was the first one who was miserably failing in doing so?
Yes, it was definitely this the reason for her sulking.
She was lying on her bed facing the ceiling with her head dangling at the end of it trying to find a way around this article that she had to write. Caught up in her thoughts, she didn't realize that the door of her room was open and that anyone passing through could see.
"Em?" Tommy's voice anchored her to reality and made her eyes snap open. However, she remained in her weird position, not bothered to lift up nor to answering him.
"What are you doing?" He walked further into the room but didn't get too close to her.
"Thinking." Emma just mumbled, scooping a little further so that her head wasn't hanging anymore. Nodding, Tommy got close to her now, and lied down beside her but facing the other way.
The reason why Emma and Tommy had stayed friends after they had hooked up, was because before that night they had actually hung out a lot. Emma was writing a piece on the tournament he was taking part in, Sparta, and had heard about him and his brother. In order to actually write the article, Emma had to speak with both of them. She didn't expect to get along so well with both of them. Not that Tommy was that much of a talker when they first met. Only a few short answers here and there and the occasional joke. However, Emma knew a little of his backstory and had also the impression that there was more to him than met the eye. He was hurt. Emma had no doubt about that. And just like her, when he was hurt talking to people was the last thing she wanted.
After coming to that realisation, dealing with Tommy became easier. He gradually opened up to her, even if it was only a little, and they got along really well. In some way, they were alike. And once you've found a soul similar to yours you tend to keep it close.
With time Tommy had learnt to read Emma just like she did with him during their first time together and come to the understanding that when Emma closed off like this, she was hurting.
He didn't say anything. He just laid there, next to her. Held her hand letting her know that he was there for her but leaving her the time to open up if she wanted to that is.
"Right, what's goin on in here?" Alfie's voice startled them both but while Tommy rolled his eyes, a little annoyed by his interruption, Emma reluctantly smiled at his antics. Sometimes, she wondered why he was so amusing to her and then realized the warmth and comfort that he brought her along with his annoying ways.
Pushing her head so that she was looking at him upside down, she smiled when she saw him standing there with his hands on his hip like an angry lady.
"Could you please stop pouting and come here and cuddle with us?"
Everyone knew that Emma was an affectionate friend. But for her to be so outspoken about it and asking for affection? It was a red sign and Alfie recognized it. So stop pouting he did and made Tommy scoop so that he could lay on her other side, holding her hand.
Their sweet cuddling session would be short because Eddie would soon be coming back from the grocery store but they all enjoyed while it lasted. Sometimes, Emma realized, the best self-love tip was simply being surrounded by our loved ones.
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I Can’t Eat Love part 7
Here is the next part to the story! Hope you guys enjoy!
Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3/ Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 linked here. (I’m going to have to make a master post, aren’t I.)
___________________________
The next day’s etiquette lessons were harsher, just as Mrs. Rendler promised. I was able to keep up, using my previous knowledge and skills, but this time I did my best to make it look difficult, hoping that she would relax the pace a little. Instead my efforts rewarded me with her satisfied expression, and a gleam in her eye that promised only more pain and suffering.
“You will be the greatest young lady I have ever trained.” She pronounced, looking me over from head to toe critically. “But must you dress so… plainly? I will say it’s a great improvement over those frilly monstrosities you used to wear to lessons, but the last two outfits have been simply dull.”
I smiled at her words, glancing down at my plain grey gown. Over the last week I had sold the majority of my more ridiculous gowns, leaving me with surprisingly few choices. Angela had pouted, saying that I was going to be out of style, but I overruled her, as well as ignored her suggestion that she be allowed to choose my new gowns. I very much enjoyed my simpler gowns, but knew that I would need something nicer… at least for public venues.
Fortunately I had an idea about that. 
“I’m changing over my wardrobe. I think it’s time I take on a more mature style, so as to not embarrass my parents or the Royal family.”
“You’re so grown up!” Queen Amerande sat down next to me, briefly hugging me as she settled in. “First you impress everyone with your improvements on your etiquette and now this?” She wiped her eyes. “I couldn’t be prouder as your mother.”
“Future Mother in Law!” Mrs. Rendler insisted.
“Don’t step on my dreams!” She hugged me again, smiling even as she argued. I couldn’t help but chuckle at her antics, but found it increasingly difficult to understand the Queen’s behavior. I thought I had gotten more discerning from my past life, able to see people’s true intentions. It had served me well with the others who seemed to be scheming around me. But with her… all I could see was a loving, cheerful person. There were no cracks in her disguise, she seemed completely at ease as she showered me with compliments and acted like a mother.
But it had to be a lie.
I felt a burning rage take root in my stomach, but I hid it as best I could, wondering how I could make it through three more years of training with her without breaking.
Finally we were done. With a sigh of relief, I headed to the Royal Treasury, looking forward to my lessons with Jim. I had completed the reading assignment he had given me, but now I had pages of questions I wanted to discuss with him. Entering the room, I clutched my books and notes in my arms, already saying a greeting…
Only to come to a screeching halt as I realized there was a stranger in the room. 
Jim looked up at my arrival, waving. “Ah, Lenora! Good, you’re here so we can get started.” Glancing between myself and the stranger, he paused. “Oh I should introduce you two…”
“No need.” The young man interrupted Jim with a grin. “We’ve sort of met before.” I recognized him from the previous week at my home, he had been together with Prince Rolan.
Hardly a point in his favor.
“Nathaniel. But you can call me Nate, Miss…”
I had forgotten how tall he was, I had to look up at him as I reached out my hand to shake his own. Standing between Nathaniel and Jim who also towered over me, I felt very small… an irritating feeling.  “Lenora.”
“Of course, I’ve heard a lot about you…” He kept speaking, but my attention had turned sharply. Not to him, or his words, but to his arm.
“What is this?!” I interrupted, grabbing his hand between both of my own. His face turning slightly red, Nate stuttered. “my hand ?”
“No, no the shirt!” I looked at the sleeve once more with a sigh before glancing excitedly at Nate. “Can you take it off?”
 “…”
“…”
Both Nate and Jim stared at me in absolute confusion, but I was already looking closer, ignoring them.
“I may not understand your country’s customs well, but are young ladies usually this… forward?”
Jim cleared his throat. “Not usually, maybe she’s just a little excited.” He tapped me on the shoulder, startling me. “Umm… Lenora. Usually you get to know young fellows a little better before asking to see them undressed.” 
“See HIM undressed?” I laughed. “You can if you want to, Jim. I just want the shirt.” 
“…”
“…”
They were stunned into silence once more, allowing me to happily look closer at the arm I was still clutching.
“The shirt?” Nate asked finally, his skin a bright red, contrasting with his dark hair.
“Yes!” I pinched the sleeve between two fingers. “I’ve never seen such a beautiful weave before, this cloth is so well constructed!” I checked the seams, whistling in appreciation “And whoever sewed your clothes together was very talented, the stitching is quite extraordinary!”
“Yes, um… can you let go?” He was covering his face with his free hand. I then came to the realization that I was clutching his arm in my hands. Partially freed from my fascination with his shirt, I let go with a small shriek, apologizing.
“I’m so sorry! That was very rude.”
“It’s okay.” He shot me a wry grin. “It was an definitely a novel experience.” 
Jim was roaring with laughter, holding his sides. “You should apologize to the poor young man’s pride! A pretty young lady demands he strip, but is more interested in his clothes than him!” He continued laughing after that, almost in tears.
Nate shot him a dirty look. “You are not a nice person.”
I genuinely felt bad. I had experienced a brief moment of utter excitement when I had seen the cloth, my plans for the future crowding my brain and leaving no room for common sense. I had probably scared him out of his mind. “Again, I apologize…” 
“Don’t.” He waved a hand. “I am the one who must apologize for making assumptions…”
I raised an eyebrow, “Not without reason…”
“But given your engagement to the prince, those assumptions were not kind to you.” He stepped back, sketching a formal bow very gracefully. I felt like applauding, knowing the amount of work that went in to perfecting that. “How can I make it up to you?”
I knew I shouldn’t let him apologize, but I couldn’t pass off the opportunity. “Can you tell me where I could purchase the cloth used to make your shirt?” I clasped my hands together, to keep them from shaking with excitement.
Nate looked confused. “The cloth?” glancing down at the shirt, he shook his head. “It’s made in Tilendra, my home country. It’s a special technique handed down there.”
“Oh. Of course.” I felt my shoulders slump. My poor plans! 
“But I can introduce you to one of the largest weaving groups in the capital. The woman who runs it is a little rough, but if you offer a decent price, she may be willing to work with you. “
“Really?”
“But why would you need cloth?” Jim broke in. “I would think you could have all the dresses you want made in the capital.
I smiled. “You think too small, Jim. This is much more important than a couple ball-gowns. I told you I was going to save the Duchy. And to do that, I have a plan.” 
We started the lesson, going over the reading assignments from the past week. To my surprise Nate had been reading the same chapters, and participated fully in the discussion. He seemed to have a milder disposition, often breaking up arguments when Jim and I disagreed. The time passed faster than I realized, and when he put an end to the lesson, I found I was disappointed the three of us couldn’t talk longer.
It was fun.
“Alright, here are the assignments for next week.” He handed me another piece of paper. I glanced at it, again holding back tears at the sheer volume he was expecting me to cover within the space of a week. Silently grumbling to myself, I was surprised when he patted me on the shoulder.
“You did well. You grasped these concepts even better than I did years ago back when I was learning it.”
I sighed. “Now if only I could have the benefit of experience like you.”
“It will come.” He grinned, “One way or the other. And in the meantime, if you need advice with one of your projects… just ask.”
I was pleasantly surprised at the offer. “Thank you.”
Nate cleared his throat. “Could I have the reading assignment as well?”
“Sure.” Jim shrugged, writing down the chapters assigned on a second piece of paper “But I thought you were leaving soon?”
“I’m here to gain knowledge and make allies. Jim. However long that takes.” He grinned, taking the paper. “And this is the kind of knowledge we need in Tilendra if we are to be a thriving nation.”
“That’s fine with me, Nate. But like I said before, there will be no special treatment here! Do the work, or don’t waste my time by showing up. ”
Jim’s harsh words didn’t seem to bother Nate at all. “Deal.” Turning to me, he shook my hand once more. “Nice to meet you, Lenora. I’ll talk to you next week regarding the cloth.”
“Thanks, I look forward to it.” I walked away, feeling relieved. Not only had I gained a lot from the classes, and felt ready to put some of the principles I had gathered to practice, but the first step in my plan for true financial independence had just been taken.
This life was different.
I was changing things.
___________________________
“Miss.” Hallers stepped into my office, a truly conflicted expression on his face. “There is a visitor here, but I am unsure if it’s… appropriate.” 
I smiled, trying to relieve the butler’s tension. “Who is it?”
He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “The man you wanted to purchase information from. ‘Mr. Rig.’” He paused. “Should I turn him away, Miss?” 
“Rig’s here?” Took him long enough. “Let him in.”
“Are you sure?” It seemed Hallers couldn’t hold back his protest. “He’s hardly a suitable guest!”
“It’s alright, the Duchy needs him.” I thought for a moment. “If possible, would you be willing to stay in the room? There’s safety in numbers.”
“Very good, Miss.” I he was disapproving or not, it was difficult to tell. Hallers’ expression had retreated into a proper polite mask, hiding his thoughts. He left, leaving me unexpectedly nervous. I had known Rig in a different lifetime. What if he wasn’t the same person? Checking the object strapped to the underside of my desk, I settled into my chair, my back straight and my face uncaring. I couldn’t let Rig sniff out that I was desperate, he’d be impossible to bargain down after that.
Hallers reappeared. “Mr. Rig, Miss.”
Behind him stepped a man, and I felt my breath catch in my chest at the familiar sight.
___________________________
“Poor thing, you starving?” An older man with a gentle smile reached out and helped me to my feet.
“You can work for me, get back on your feet.”
I took his hand warily, having learned to not trust appealing offers. “Why would you help me?”
He shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe in another lifetime you can pay me back.”
___________________________
Rig looked the same as he did as when I first met him. He would never stand out in a crowd unless he wanted to. His nose was slightly crooked, as if it had been broken and never healed correctly. His hair was just starting to grey at the temples, his exact age difficult to determine. He was short, barely taller than me, but he projected an air of confidence as if all the secrets in the world hid behind his eyes. 
“Just Rig is fine.” He stepped closer, leaving some space and my desk between us. “I’m nowhere near fancy enough to warrant a ‘Mister.’”
I grinned. “Of course, Rig. How can I help you.” 
“I got… your request.” He shrugged. “The info is simple enough.”
 I raised an eyebrow. “But?”
 “But… that’s not the tricky part.” He slouched against the wall facing me, sticking his hands in his pockets. “The tricky part is how a little noble lady like you got the password that’s known only to my inner circle?”
“That?” I leaned back in my chair, my hands in my lap. “Let’s just say you and I were friends in another lifetime. This will not be my only commission. I will have plenty of work for your and all your group. “ I smiled, thinking of  the time I had spent under his employ. “Consider it returning a favor.”
Rig didn’t smile back. “No deal. I don’t do business with the nobility. You’re all soft… weak. And I don’t like it when there’s a weak link that’s got something on me.” He looked me over with a disdainful scoff. “You look like the type that would talk under pressure.”
THUNK!
The knife I had retrieved under my desk flew through the air, burying itself in the wall just beside his face. I vaulted over the desk, grateful for the looser, simpler skirt I had chosen for that day, and grabbed Rig. My right hand pinned his shoulder against the wall, the other grabbing the hilt of my knife.
It was ironic that I was using my knife throwing skills to threaten Rig of all people.
After all, he had been the one to teach me to throw one in the first place.
I kept my voice low and calm. “I’m not soft. I’m a determined woman. One who will do anything to accomplish my goals. Don’t. hinder. me. “ 
At these words he started to push me away, only to stiffen up in fear as I leaned forward to whisper a single name into his ear.
“Raewynn.”
I stepped back, walking calmly to my desk and sitting down. “You’ll find that being my friend will be to you and your group’s benefit. You won’t regret it.” I left it unsaid of what would happen if he was against me.
His shoulder slumped, he looked up at me with terror in his eyes. “H-how? How could you possibly know...?”
I smiled. “I told you, we were friends in another life. You and I are the only ones alive who know right now. But if I were you, I wouldn’t trust anyone else with that matter. It’s a good way to end up dead.”
I wasn’t threatening him this time. I truly was trying to warn him. He seemed to sense it, nodding carefully and stepping closer, this time with much more caution and respect.
“Here’s the information you purchased. “ He took some documents from the inside of his coat, placing it on my desk. “The stuff they hide from the world, from their wives… heck even the stuff they hide from their lovers… all of it in there.” 
I didn’t look through it, I knew it would be good. “Perfect. Thank you.”
Rig relaxed slightly. “Well, I AM the best at this.”
“Which is why I paid double your going rate.” I grinned at his shocked reaction. “You thought I didn’t know?”
“I hoped.” He muttered.
“Don’t worry. I’ll always pay double. Your work is worth it.” I slid a piece of paper across the desk. “Your next assignment.”
“This…” He read it, his eyes widening. “Are you sure…?”
“I know the answer to the question already, Rig.” I answered calmly. “I just need the proof.”
“Alright then.” He nodded, reaching out his hand to shake my own. I took it, the gesture hauntingly familiar.
___________________________
“Lee, we’ve got to go!” The older woman looked around frantically, as if expecting an attack at any moment. “They’ll be coming after us next!” 
“All he did was trust the wrong person.” I whispered. “Love truly is a weakness, isn’t it?
“Lee, Come on!”
I wiped the tears from my eyes, reaching out to slowly close the eyes of the bloody corpse in front of me.
“Goodbye, Rig.”
“LEE!”
___________________________
“I must say, I’m glad I’m not your enemy.” His words startled me briefly, and I laughed at my own inattention. Rig was alive in this lifetime. Standing in front of me happy and whole.  There were still five years before he would be murdered in the streets. 
I let go of his hand, a chill running down my spine at the thought. “Likewise.”
Rig walked out, leaving an awkward silence between Hallers and myself.
“...”
“You can ask, Hallers.”
“There’s too many questions.” He shook his head. “What did you whisper to him that scared him so deeply?”
I stared at the empty doorway, still caught by memories. “It was a name. Someone he cares about… someone he thought no one knew about.”
“How do you know about her then?” The question burst out of him, and he seemed to catch himself. “I apologize…”
“Don’t.” I smiled at him. “I’ve already said how I know.”
“But…”
“Just because you don’t believe me, doesn’t make it true.” The last few words came out as a sigh. Finished,  I turned my attention to the to folder Rig had left.
“If you say so.” He turned to leave, but I held up a hand, calling him back.
“Hallers, you can schedule the meeting with the tax officials for three days from now.”
It would give me enough time to prepare, without putting it off too much further. 
“Yes, Miss.”
“Oh, and could you ask your brother to be present?”
That caught his attention. “My brother?”
“I need someone big and intimidating-looking to stand in the back of the room. Jim would be perfect. I’m happy to pay him.”
“Do we have to?” Hallers wasn’t one to whine, but this came pretty close. “He’s so… undignified.” 
“Could you make yourself intimidating, then?” I asked seriously.
He looked up and down his thin, reedy frame. “I’ll talk to him.” He muttered, leaving.
I chuckled, returning to the information I had paid for. I needed to have everything in place perfectly for the meeting.
The whole Duchy was counting on it.
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takingcourage · 5 years
Text
Baby Steps
Pairing: Thomas Mendez x MC
Word Count: 1,400 
Summary: After an awkward end to lunch, Thomas and Allison each try to decide what comes next. 
Note: It’s been a hot minute since I’ve written anything other than student feedback. Why did I decide to become a college instructor, again? In my attempts to get back into the flow of writing fiction, I decided to try something new. I’m still finishing up the next chapter of Additions, plus some drabble requests for Jaime x MC, but here’s a little bit of Thomas Mendez in the meantime. 
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Stupid, stupid, stupid...
Sighing out the mantra, Allison yanked down her sweaty ponytail and flung the hair tie toward the cup holder. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as the band slipped through the sliver of space between the center console and the seat. Biting back the oath that was ready on her tongue, she slid a hand into the crack.   
Nothing but faux leather and upholstery. 
“Great. Just great.” Mumbling, she glanced up just in time to slam on her brakes. A minivan swerved in from the entrance ramp, oblivious to her proximity. 
Allison eased her foot back onto the gas and switched lanes. The vehicle lurched forward, its motion doing little to quell the growing pit in her stomach. 
“I've got to get this out of my system before I pick up Kira.” But even with her newfound determination, the feeling didn’t go away. 
She liked Thomas. Really liked him. He was quickly becoming one of the best parts of this new life she and Kira were building for themselves in Goldcliffe.
Given her history, it was little wonder that she found him so compelling. He was kind and considerate and driven: the kind of many who had integrity written over every inch of his body. And boy, is that body gorgeous, she reflected as the image of his toned physique resurfaced for the hundredth time. 
But beyond all of that, he was loyal and genuine. Just the way he talked about Luz was proof of his commitment to family. Seeing their interactions had left no doubt as to his devotion and stability. Allison’s stomach rolled again, though this time it had nothing to do with the movement of the car. 
She sucked her lower lip between her teeth, trying to ignore the flash of heat that came with imagining what might have happened if Thomas hadn't pushed her away. It had been years since she'd been kissed -- even longer since she'd felt safe in a man's arms the way she had in his today.
For half a second, she'd been certain he was going to follow through. The quivering breath, the way his pupils had dilated to darken his eyes, the slight parting of those pink, inviting lips...
But the kiss never came. He'd panicked and grown flustered in a way that somehow made her care about him even more. Did I overstep again? Her fingers clenched the wheel at the intrusive question.
He'd assured her once that she hadn’t strayed beyond acceptable boundaries, but that conversation felt like ages ago. In the time since, she’d flirted with him during every interaction, and he’d always returned the attention. 
When he realizes I’m flirting in the first place, that is, she thought with a faint smile. 
Whatever they’d shared during these past weeks, it had been enough to make her believe he was ready for more than just friendship. Clearly, something had changed today. 
Pulling into the museum lot, she glanced at her phone. There were still a few minutes before she needed to head inside for Kira.
Hey, she typed, mouthing the words as her thumbs tapped them out on the tiny keyboard. Thanks again for lunch and for the run. I had a great time. We should do it again sometime, but only if you want to. I don’t want to do anything that makes you uncomfortable.
She grumbled and deleted all but the first two sentences. 
Next time you need someone to vent to, I'm here.
That wasn’t quite right either. 
I really enjoyed today. Sorry for the awkward moment at lunch. Can we forget it happened?
The backlight dimmed as she continued staring at the words. What if bringing it up only made things worse? The last thing she needed right now was to pressure him and push him away any further. He would reach out to her when he was ready.
Mind made up, she tossed the phone into her purse, tugged the strap over her shoulder, and ventured inside. 
_____
A mass of curls fell into Thomas’s eyes as he thumbed the stack of papers. He shoved the damp hair back into place with one hand, the other still searching for the cover page of the document he and Allison had retrieved from the floor. He’d been too distracted earlier to ensure that everything had made it into the pile in the correct order. Locating the appropriate page, he pulled it out and turned it face down on the desk. 
It was busywork, but Thomas didn’t mind. His thoughts were too muddled to be very much use at the moment. 
Soledad had always taken his pensive moods in stride. Most of the time, she’d iron the creases from his brow with a kiss before fiercely talking him out of whatever metaphorical hole he’d fallen into. She’d had a knack for driving his worries far away. 
Solving problems had always been better with her. Not simpler, per se, but her methods were always more effective than his own. 
It was just one of many struggles he’d been working through in the past two years. As ridiculous as it felt to admit, he’d spent a lot of that time wondering if he was still qualified to handle life on his own. After all their years of doing things together, feeling complete as an individual had become nearly impossible. 
No wonder I miss her, he mused, finally coming to the end of his collating. 
And he did miss her. Terribly. There were days when it physically ached to think of her.
Papers in order, Thomas sat far back into the chair. In spite of the generous cushion, his posture was rigid. The question he'd been avoiding swept back into his consciousness: What if it’s more than that?
What if he’d spent the past two years missing more than just his wife’s presence? What if the loss of companionship was every bit as visceral as the loss of her? 
Until Allison, he hadn’t realized how much he craved easy conversation and camaraderie. 
...Among other things, his mind wandered, eyes pulling shut again at the very recent memory of having her in his arms. On a physical and emotional level, everything had told him to kiss her. Mentally, he’d been forced to hold back. 
He’d always thought that kissing another woman would make him think of kissing his wife, but today had brought him close enough to see that it simply wasn’t true. In fact, it was the stark difference between the two women that had ignited his panic. 
For two years, it had been clear that he couldn’t even imagine kissing someone who wasn’t Soledad. No other woman had appeared in his dreams. No one else had been the object of his longing in the sleepless nights that had haunted him for the first year. She was the only one who ever sprang to mind when he saw other couples kiss, trying to remember what it had been like to indulge in that simple pleasure himself.
Until Allison, just the thought of kissing anyone else was unfathomable. 
In the encroaching solitude of the empty office, he could finally come to grips with what had happened that afternoon. He’d been inches away from kissing another woman and he’d wanted to follow through. That fact alone had been enough to drive him away from her. 
The poor woman had to wonder what was wrong with him. 
Thomas’s eyes roamed over the desk before settling on his phone. As he stared into space, he composed a message in his head. Allison, I'm sorry for how things ended today. I feel like an idiot. Thanks for being patient with me.  
Still, that didn’t quite capture everything he had to say.
No matter how much I like you, I can’t promise that this is ever going to get easier. I don’t know how long it’s going to take for me to move on. I don’t know if moving on is even possible. 
Though he was starting to hope that it was, he wasn’t sure he felt ready to make such an admission to Allison. Even if he had been, it wasn’t the kind of sentiment to express through the cold, impersonal medium of a text. 
He rose to get a drink of water, ignoring the phone on the other side of his desk. 
That particular conversation would have to wait for another day.
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anangelicday-mrwolf · 4 years
Text
Wolfsbane : Noblesse Fanfic (post-ending)
(previous chapter)
Chapter 16 – Sudden Shift
“Here.”
Though Lunark gingerly offered her hand, Frankenstein maintained his speechless stance, merely staring at her hand.
“What is it? Did you need more?”
“No... I felt that you’ve gotten better at this lately.”
Frankenstein’s eyes were noting the plastic bags she dispensed from her robe, packed with pink petals.
Her first trial at botanical excavation did not turn out beautiful. The bag she submitted to Frankenstein contained balls of dirt and soil dangling from roots of the wolfsbane plants, which later turned out to be partially mangled, thanks to Frankenstein’s inspection.
But this time she brought what looked like samples ready to be used at a lab. Frankenstein could not fathom what happened to her in the meantime.
“Did you ask your medical staff for a tutoring session on sampling?”
“Of course not. No one is supposed to know we’re seeing each other on...”
“I’m just saying. Or did I just get you?”
Lunark had to force an extraordinary calm on her mind in order to keep her body from a flinch.
Because, yes – he got her. He got her good.
Prior to this trip, she paid a visit to the medical staff of her kind, particularly those in charge of collecting and managing medicine. While pretending to check if they are doing what they are supposed to, she watched how they harvest, wash, and pack herbs and plants that will be used at labs and wards.
Lunark did not trust in her own acting skills, so she opted to change the subject in order to stay safe from Frankenstein’s uncanny skills in piecing together what he could see to deduce what he was not there to see.
“Anyways, where’s that damned roommate of yours?”
Though she changed the subject to get herself out of what could be an awkward situation, her excuse was more than legitimate.
It has been two days since the 3rd Elder promised her the list, and she intended to get it.
Thus she expected him to be waiting for her arrival, with Frankenstein, if not alone. Her eyes were displaying foul curves in displeasure as she looked around the lab yet again, knowing that she will pick up no signs of him.
“He’s outside, getting some food. He asked me to make the delivery before he left.”
Lunark pouted as she accepted a thin envelope Frankenstein passed on to her.
“That’s so not like what an elder of the Union would do. I bet he didn’t even dream that he’d turn out like this, wasting your resources and tasked with something that only the bottommost servants would do.”
“Sounds like you have sworn to hate him for the rest of your life. Not that I don’t get why.”
“But is it okay to let him spend time all by himself away from you? What if he uses this opportunity to get in contact with the Union?”
“Don’t worry. That’s why I implanted in him a special recording device, equipped with a tracker. Once it stops functioning, gets destroyed, stays immobile at a given coordinate past the set amount of time, or gets separated from his body, I will get an automatic notification.”
“You devised it yourself?”
“Yes. He’s also wearing a nano-camera on his shoulder, so I can get a visual record of his whereabouts. And of course, he consented to all of this beforehand.”
Lunark nodded, as she could finally see why Frankenstein did not seem worried about the 3rd Elder.
“You must be running out of time every single day. I mean, you must be busy checking what he does inside and outside this island.”
“Nah, not really. Unbeknownst to the 3rd Elder, the recording device and camera do not work while he is within the shorelines of this island.”
Instantly Lunark’s eyes popped wide open.
“What? So you don’t give a damn about what he does as long as he’s on this island?”
“Nope.”
“What are you thinking?! There’s no telling what he’d do on this island once he decides to do something! And this isn’t a moral issue – you said he consented to your surveillance!”
“I’m not like the Union. I have no intention whatsoever to do what those fiends would have done to M-21, Tao, Takio, and countless other test subjects. Since the 3rd Elder believes his camera and recording device are running 24/7, he wouldn’t dare plot something behind my back. Besides, now we’re in this together. So it can’t hurt to give him the least of my hospitality as an ally, can it?”
Lunark fired a huge ball of air from her body, as if she wanted him to feel guilty upon hearing the noise of the air current.
‘I knew it. He’d do anything he can in order to offer the very least of his generosity.’
She tried another complaint out of concern and frustration, only to give up when Frankenstein jokingly bickered, “Please don’t tell me you don’t trust me. And please don’t question what I can do; otherwise you’d kill my pride.”
Lunark then knew there is no way she could talk against his decision or benevolence.
‘Well, what did I expect? This is one of the many reasons that I fell for him.’
Lunark realized how the corners of her lips were tugging upwards on their own at the last part of her own thought and stiffened her facial muscles.
And she just had to meet Frankenstein in the eyes when she has done so. This time, she chose to turn herself somewhat unintentionally towards the entrance.
“You’re leaving?”
Lunark produced a reply that she had composed beforehand in case he calls upon her like this, and it was more than just an excuse.
“I have a job to do – related to the QuadraNet project.”
“What do you mean?”
“Just the day before, a noble messenger visited our land to ask us to escort the researcher sent by KSA. And since I already had a trip to this isle scheduled, I volunteered for the job.”
“Don’t you think you’re making yourself too busy? You should give yourself some rest from time to time.”
“I can’t do that. Not at a time like this.”
“...In that case, make sure you don’t starve.”
“Oh, don’t worry. I’m about to feed myself on my way.”
Not having anticipated her to give a positive answer, Frankenstein retorted by raising half of his eyebrows.
“Actually, there is this personal dining spot of mine, close to the Lukedonian boundaries. I’ll get there and wait.”
“What do you mean, Lukedonian boundaries?”
Frankenstein’s voice hit a pitch lower than usual. He was rather startled by what she revealed.
“Are you saying you have a history of waltzing near Lukedonian boundaries on regular basis?”
“Yeah. What about it?”
“Why would you do that? What if you get in troubles with the nobles?”
“I said it’s close to the boundaries. I didn’t say it’s at the boundaries. And you honestly think I didn’t take the nobles into consideration?”
“You never know when you might slip and...”
“Well, I’ve never been caught. So why worry?”
Lunark stared straight at him, as if posing incomprehension at his response, which rendered Frankenstein’s eyes no longer pacific.
‘What is with this woman? I knew she’s fearless, but...’
Frankenstein was about to scold her again, before he stopped short in his attempt.
Because he remembered that he, too, has a history of trespassing Lukedonia in order to thwart nobles’ hunt for him, thereby proving he contains no definition of fear in his brain.
And if she has never been caught for nearing Lukedonian boundaries, there was no point or reason for him to reprimand her. Not to mention now the conflict between nobles and werewolves is history. With diplomacy between two kinds set on a smooth sail, nobles will not protest about her behavior whatsoever, as long as she does not bring any threat to them.
“Need I remind you, I’m a warrior. Please don’t question what I can do; otherwise you’d kill my pride.”
She tilted her head and reiterated what he had said before.
She was, in a way, sassy.
Something Frankenstein has never imagined he would get to witness from her, who was usually shy and rather unjust to her genuine feelings.
Which is why he could not get her image out of his head even after her departure.
‘To be honest, she looked kind of adorable.’
As soon as he mumbled in his head, he stomped his own tongue with his teeth in horror.
Did I just dub her adorable?
Ever since he was young, Frankenstein took interest in the influence that illnesses and science would bring upon mankind’s welfare. It was not long before he bowed to dedicate his all to medical arts and technology.
Because of which he naturally cut himself from all means to associate himself with women.
And because of which he got to stay single for more than 2000 years.
In other words, he was clumsy in treating women as women.
So it was no wonder Frankenstein could not understand why he evaluated Lunark as adorable.
However, Frankenstein was a scientist. His instinctive gift in pinpointing causes and effects kicked in, and he soon reached a potential theory at work behind all this.
‘Do I really love her...? No, that’s impossible!’
Frankenstein attempted to negotiate with his mind, to stop it from occupying itself with Lunark.
Unfortunately for him, his curiosity refused to cooperate.
‘I have had spent at least 1000 years at Lukedonia under the wings of my master, but during that time I have never heard for once about a werewolf constantly showing up near Lukedonian boundaries.’
So either Lunark has never been caught by nobles upon her visits, as she asserted, or she has been caught, but not during the timeline when Frankenstein had made Lukedonia his home.
After weighing several options, Frankenstein came up with a new inquiry –
‘Just how old is she? She’s obviously more than a couple centuries old. So how many years are there between our birthdates?’
Then Frankenstein realized there was no reason for him to be curious about their age difference, wasting his time and mentality like some soon-to-be-40-years-old who received confession from a young lady who just became an undergraduate.
And Frankenstein was appalled once again that he just had to come up with such a metaphor.
Frankenstein sighed, his head drooping in defeat after a battle lost against his mental algorithm, infinitely far from sane.
Although the chances are slim, he hoped that Lunark would take as much time as she can to take Yuhyung to her kind’s territory. That way he would get to reserve some time for himself before she revisits, during which hopefully he would sort out his head and free it from thoughts about the werewolf lady so very successfully blowing his mind upon every appearance.
And thus Frankenstein once again ignored his sudden shift of heart, albeit with pain and struggle.
*****
“...This is not what I had in mind.”
Lunark ruefully sucked pink-orange flecks of flesh remaining on her fingers.
It has been less than 24 hours since Lunark left the island (and the owner of the island in mental knockout), until she reached a certain point close to Lukedonian boundaries.
The “personal dining spot” she mentioned to Frankenstein happened to be the Bermudan Treasure Chest. Even centuries before humans named this spot Bermudan Treasure Chest, Lunark made it her personal hotspot for dining.
Because for a reason she could not decipher, the fishes of this place were much bigger and tastier than the identical species elsewhere.
She could not find time at all to look after something other than battles or missions, much thanks to the Union. Therefore, she was thrilled to find this place after all this time. She has exaggerated to herself how it has been at least centuries before she could make this trip, and she was excited for the fireworks that would soon take place in her mouth, which will surely bring glee for which she would not be surprised to find her eyes teary.
Alas, the taste and volume presented by the fish she had hooked up barehanded was not even close to what she remembered. She could find out the fault did not lie in her taste buds.
“Just what on earth is going on here...?”
She muttered upon spotting miniscule pieces of corals drifting by the surface of water, where she dumped the guts and bones of fish she ate.
Lunark was currently standing on a body of rocks stranded in the middle of water, distanced from coral reefs. Nevertheless, she could see pieces of dead corals wherever she turned.
Now she could not name the exact year or date of the time she was last here, but she could bet she had never once seen something like this in the past.
She would have made her move to check and see if this is something happening widely across this marine region, only if she did not happen to be waiting at the rendezvous.
“Greetings.”
The moment she settled with herself to come back here later, a voice beckoned her, not extremely familiar, not completely strange, either.
Rael was addressing her with his eyes, his entrance made so subtle she could not even feel his presence.
“Long time, no see. First time ever since the last showdown against 1st Elder, isn’t it?”
“Quite. I was at your kind’s territory the day before, to negotiate the escort of KSA researcher. But I don’t remember seeing you when I was there.”
“I had something to do. You must have visited when I wasn’t there. Anyways, is he the one?”
“Yes. Uh, so...”
Rael’s face distorted in an unspeakable way. In fact, Lunark was barely holding onto laughter from the moment she had recognized him.
For Yuhyung was clutching onto Rael with his entire body. Lunark would have mistaken him for a koala, had he not been born with limbs too long to be those of the said mammal.
To top it off, he had his face buried into Rael’s back, as if he were actually playing koala.
“...Is there a problem?”
“He assumed such position, saying how he is not used to transportation not using human transportations. I would like to offer an apology in advance; your trip will not be a comfortable or convenient one.”
“Doesn’t matter. It’d be nothing with what we had gone through against Union, and that was only weeks ago.”
Rael tapped Yuhyung’s arm, to hand him over to Lunark. At last Yuhyung peeked and clumsily detached himself from the noble, to go ahead and sheepishly offer his hand.
“P-pleased to meet you. Yuhyung Jang is my...”
Yuhyung got to look into Lunark’s face, which brought about a sudden shift out of blue.
His face turned pale as he squeaked in panic, and his body dropped and made an audible “plop.” His eyes backflipped, and his entire body fell to the ground as he started emitting bubbly fluid from his mouth.
It all happened so quickly Rael and Lunark could not even react.
Fortunately, it did not take long until they lunged towards the human in alarm.
(next chapter)
Personally I really enjoyed writing this chapter. You keep denying it, Frankie, but you know you love her. XD
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ecoamerica · 1 month
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youtube
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Super excited for more Backfire chapters!! 💖 Also DX. Is a thing it's happening i t s h a p p e n i n g
Y e s it’s going to be so great!!!
Also I’m just. going to use this ask for my other catch up chapter of Backfire since it’s one of my favourites
(Previous Chapters)
Uxie’s powers aren’t just limited to his lake, and affect all memories which could be traced back to the Time Gears. It’s easy to imagine the mental catastrophe this could cause in the mind of someone who’s spent nearly their entire life looking into them. In his defense, Uxie was really mad at Grovyle.
-
5.
Azelf was anxious. He had everyright to be, of course, after what he’d heard from his siblings’ telepathy.
“I’ve finished at LimestoneCavern,” Uxie had said, “Ditto was trapped when time froze. Iput the time gear back, but nothing’s changed yet. I don’t know how long it’llbe until everything’s back to normal.”
“Nobody was at TreeshroudForest,” Mesprit had said, “There were hardly any ferals, andthere was no one at the end. I’m worried. I don’t know if she left of her ownaccord or not. I hope she’ll be back when time starts working here again.”
As worried as he was about Ditto,it was the state of Treeshroud Forest that had him particularly wound up. Andso, unfortunately, Azelf found himself teleporting off the central island helived on to its smaller, much more volcanic neighbour. He struggled his waythrough Dark Crater to reach the lesser-known sixth time gear.
In the heart of an almost-activevolcano, Azelf didn’t have much of a chance to admire the time gear held aloftby a quartet of obsidian spikes. He was here on business. So he raised his headand called out to the time gear’s guardian.
“Darkrai! Are you here?”
The room got the slightest bitdarker.
“Unfortunately,” came a voicefrom behind him, and Azelf turned to see the dark-type lurking in the shadowsbehind him.
Azelf did not jump; he frownedand ignored Darkrai’s thirst for drama. “Is everything okay?”
“Last I checked, we weren’tsupposed to leave our gears.” Darkrai snapped, “Don’t tell me you actually sealedyours in crystal?”
“That was a rumour,” Azelf saidcalmly. “We used it to draw the thief out. It worked, everything can go back tonormal now.”
Darkrai scoffed. “Too bad. Youshould have sent him my way.” He gestured to his own time gear inches above itslake of magma. “I’d love to watch a grass type try to get his hands on that.”
A rather large bubble of moltenrock burst right under the gear and sent a ripple across the lake.
“Right.” Azelf said, barelypaying attention to Darkrai’s faux querulousness. If he wanted to be needlesslydramatic, who was Azelf to stop him? “You’ve heard Cresselia’s gear was taken?”
“I found the wanted poster in abottle and read all about it. I’m sure she’s been insufferable about it.”
“Do you know where she is?”
Darkrai was silent for severallong seconds.
“How long has she been missing?”He asked, his tone much more careful now.
“We don’t know,” Azelf admitted.“There was no trace of her when Mesprit returned her gear. Do you have any ideawhere she could be?”
Darkrai frowned. “No. Have youchecked with Dialga?”
“You know it’s not that easy.”Azelf sighed, “We’ll keep a lookout for her. In the meantime, the threat may begone, but be careful, okay?”
At first, Azelf thought he’dmisread Darkrai’s look, but no. The other pokemon sneered at him.
“You too,” Darkrai said, and thecave lit up once more.
In a handful of seconds, Azelfnoticed a few things.
Darkrai was no longer in front ofhim, nor was he behind him. Darkrai was gone – as was the time gear. There wasa hole torn through time and space right beside it, which disappeared thesecond Azelf saw it. An overwhelming stillness had surrounded him. A wave ofelectric grayscale raced across the lake towards him.
Azelf didn’t have a chance tocall for his siblings. He didn’t have a chance to run. All Azelf could do wasscream as the wave hit him full-force.
A bubble of magma sat in themiddle of the lake, under where the time gear had been, frozen half-popped.
.-.
Chatot, currently, had twoPokemon under house arrest in Team Relic’s room.
Riolu had decided to tryrepeatedly to throw himself out the same window his partner had leapt from, asif that would miraculously reunite them in anything but the afterlife. As soonas the first lights hit, Corphish had gathered a team of water types to do theunfortunate deed of searching for the two. They had come back empty-handed, andDugtrio just so happened to realize that the currents at thattime last night could have carried them right across the bay towards themystery dungeon known as Brine Cave.
Experiencing that dungeon wasn’tsomething Chatot would wish on his worst enemy. But Riolu had been determinedto go reunite with his partner, so inevitably Chatot had made the executivedecision that there was no chance the boy would be leaving the guild.Especially with the still significant possibility that Vulpix, as a fire type,hadn’t survived her fall.
The other Pokemon was Dusknoir,who was much more understanding. He didn’t have any explanation for what hadhappened and seemed genuinely shocked when they only asked him to stay in theguild until they knew more about it. Chatot would deal with whateverimplications there were with that situation when he had a moment to think. Fornow, the Guild was closed to outsiders, the other apprentices had left up thecoast in search of anything, and the Guildmaster had gone toscour Brine Cave just in case. Chatot, as the head of intelligence, had stayedbehind to dig through files.
Well, officially he had beenasked to stay behind and rest. His injuries weren’t nearly that severe,however, and Chatot saw no reason why he couldn’t be productive.
Vulpix had seen something beforeshe jumped and had done so to push Dusknoir out of the way. When she’d savedGrovyle as well, the ledge they’d been standing on had been attacked. Thosewere the facts. Someone had tried to assault and kill the Pokemon from thefuture, and Vulpix had been an unfortunate extra casualty. The questionwas why?
So Chatot found himself buried inhundreds of mission reports and wanted posters as he tried to figure out whathe was missing when it came to Grovyle and the Great Dusknoir.
.-.
For a grass type, Grovyle hadhorrible sun tolerance. Breeze would be annoyed and embarrassed, but her’swasn’t much better – though, she was a fire type, she didn’t need thesun. It was just a nice and pretty bonus that could sometimes make her firetype moves stronger. Most grass types, on the other hand, would probably wasteaway and die without the sun.
Apparently, Grovyle was anexception to a rule that really shouldn’t have any of those. And Breeze was nota fan of that at all.
Most of the plants beside thedried riverbed they’d been traveling along were withered and dead. As soon asthey’d found a patch of shade, Grovyle had requested they stop for a rest.Breeze had tried to sit beside him, she really had! She was tired too, and he’dbeen so nice throughout the whole trip so far. He’d given her every healingitem they’d come across – which, admittedly, was only an oran berry and acouple heal seeds – and had double-triple checked to make sure she wasn’thaving any issues with their pace. He hadn’t been anything like the Pokemonwho’d nearly killed her and Dusk.
Unfortunately, vouching forsomeone’s second chance and actually giving it to them weren’t the same thing.As much as she tried to ignore it, Grovyle still terrified her. Every time shelooked at his leaf blades, all she could think was how he’d easily he’d thrownher and Dusk aside every time they’d tried to fight. She’d been knocked outbefore he’d struck her partner’s neck, but Breeze could picture it anyway – shehad been just outside the door when he’d told Chimecho all about it, becausehe’d thought she was worried enough about him without having to learn detailsabout how Dusk had nearly gotten his throat slit while trying to revive her.
So while Grovyle called for abreak in their journey to rest, Breeze lasted all of one minute waiting besidehim before she’d anxiously made an excuse and wandered off to ‘scout ahead.’
Breeze kept her head down as shefollowed the cracked, dry dirt further inland. Her tails dragged behind her andknocked bits of sand into her footprints. The wind from earlier had died downand left the smell of the ocean replaced by the scent of dust.
It wasn’t fair to Grovyle for herto be acting like this. Breeze knew that. He barely had any idea what was goingon, but he’d still tried to help her. She should at least be able to return thefavour instead of wandering off to who-knows-where because she was scared forno reason!
Breeze felt her eyes sting andstarted trying to blink away tears as she took another step forward – andautomatically stumbled back as her eyes and nose burned. Severalsteps back, for the first time, Breeze looked up and really took in where shewas.
She was on the edge of asandstorm, frozen in place mid-air. The wind didn’t blow. The sky was dark –the only light came from back the way Breeze had come. It reflected off eachfloating sand particle and speckled the ground in front of her with tiny silversparkles. A trickle of motionless water ran to her left, through weeds and mudthat were still fresh – but frozen. A lone magikarp was stuck mid-air, barelyabove the water, frozen in a desperate last jump to freedom.
Everything was frozen.
Breeze practically threw herselfback into the sunlight, back into the dust-scented wind, back onto the dry andcracked ground. She could feel her body tremble as she stood on the edge of thefrozen time and she nearly collapsed.
That was why the riverbed wasdry. That was why the plants had been dead, and the sun was so intense. Thisriver had probably come from the same spring Mesprit’s lake did. It was at theedge of Northern Desert and Quicksand Cave. Time was still destroyed here,thanks to Grovyle.
Breeze dropped to the ground andrubbed her face with a paw. What was she thinking? Dusknoir was right. Chatotwas right. Everyone was right. This was stupid. Just because he didn’t rememberit didn’t mean it didn’t happen. Grovyle had been trying to destroy the world! Shecouldn’t just ignore that. She couldn’t get distracted by the fact that he wasnice now, when he had no idea who she was or what was going on. If he ever gothis memories back he’d start again, and he’d attack everyone again, andeveryone would be hurt because she’d been an idiot.
There was a shadow cast over her.Breeze froze, waiting for Grovyle to speak – and then she realized that theshadow was nowhere near his body shape. The scent sunk in past the dust amoment later.
“Cha-haw-haw, what’s this?”
Breeze felt her breath catch inher throat. Very slowly, she turned – and Team Skull towered over her.
Breeze swore.
“Well isn’t this a surprise,”Skuntank said. He took a step forward, and Breeze braced herself. “Boys, itlooks like we’ve run into a friend.”
“I’m not your friend, you rottenjerk.” She snapped and let a fire spin build up in her throat.“Leave me alone.”
“Why? Who’s going to make me?”Skuntank replied. “You’re all alone, brat. We watched you walk here.”
“All the more reason to leave mealone,” Breeze growled. “What are you even doing here? Don’t you have anythingbetter to do?”
“I could ask you the same thing,”he said, “Come on Vulpix, help an old friend out.”
Breeze steadied her paws and spatthe fire spin right in Skuntank’s awful face before she duckedunder him and ran back the way she’d came.
“ Agh, boys -”Breeze was already out of earshot.
Her pounding paws dredged up moredust as she fled back the way she’d came. But she saw the shadow over herbefore she saw Grovyle’s rest stop.
Breeze tucked and rolled, dartingto the side as Zubat swooped down where she had been only a second before. Thestink hit her before Koffing did – but they both hit her hard. Breeze flippedand tumbled, her leg catching on a dying root and sending her right on herface. She felt a paw press down on her back.
“No Guildmaster, no cowardlyRiolu, no one coming to help you.” Skuntank said and leaned in as Breezesquirmed. “So why don’t we have that conversation now?”
“Get off.”
“No.”
“Why does this matter to you?!”She tried to push herself up – Skuntank pushed down harder, and Breeze didn’tmanage to stifle a pained gasp when his claws dug into her still fresh scabs.
“Because we’ve heardthe stories your Guild’s been putting out,” he said, “And how they’d offer up ajuicy reward to bring you back. So what was so important that you had to leaveyour Guild last night, huh? ”
“I didn’t run away, you idiot! ”Breeze squirmed again – if she could just flip over, she could roar, andthat would get them all far enough away from her that she could run again. “Andif you try to ransom me back to them, you’re not going to likewhat the Great Dusknoir does to you.”
Skuntank laughed again, and hiscronies joined in. “Why would an explorer like Dusknoir still care about aweakling like you?”
“He’s already saved me fromyou once, you think he won’t do it again?” She snapped, “Backoff, or you’ll have to deal with him.”
“That implies he knows where youare,” Skuntank leaned in, “if we shoot enough supersonics yourway, no one will believe anything you say. And you’ll talk then, too – so whydon’t you make this easier for yourself?” One of his claws hooked under herpersim band, “Tell us why you’re here.”
Zubat cleared his throat. “Uh,boss?”
Skuntank huffed. “What?”
“We’ve got company.”
Breeze had a brief, hopefulsecond where she was sure Dusknoir or the Guildmaster or Dusk or someone washere before Grovyle sprung out of the ground in front of her and clockedSkuntank square in the jaw.
Breeze scrambled out of his gripthe second she could, ducking behind Grovyle when he landed. “What are youdoing?!” She whispered, “They’re poison types, you’re a grass type, areyou insane?! ”
“Get ready to run,” He whisperedback.
Skuntank recovered from the blow,with Koffing at his side and Zubat ducked behind them. Breeze had a terrifyingsense of familiarity as she shuffled a few steps back.
Except, Team Skull didn’timmediately attack. They stared. “G-Groyvle?!” Zubat choked out.
“How do you know?” Breeze snappedback, “You don’t even have eyes!”
“You’re running around with theTime Gear thief?” Skuntank stared at her as he shuffled back. Breeze shot apanicked glance at Grovyle, who just looked confused.
“Y- no?” She said.
“The what thief?” Grovyle said.
Skuntank still looked shocked –and then his expression dropped. He chortled, and his cronies joined in. “I’llbet you’re worth a pretty penny.”
There was no chance for Breeze tospit back any flames – barely a chance for Grovyle to grab her and pullher down – before Koffing and Skuntank spat their noxious gascombo at them.
The pressure in Breeze’s noseturned from stench to sand, and Grovyle’s dig dropped them ina small, crooked hole.
Breeze coughed and wheezed,hacking up a few tiny flames. They smouldered and died in the sand, and theirsmoke hung heavy in the air. In the flicker of dim light, she saw the purpletinge around Grovyle’s nose and lips – and that he wasn’t moving, either.
“No,” she choked out, “no, no,come on.” She crawled forwards and nudged him with a shaking paw. “Why wouldyou do that? You – you’re a grass type, they had every advantage againstyou, why –” The smoldering bile she choked up this time had apurple tinge. “Why didn’t you hide behind me? You could’ve run. You could havesaved yourself. You – you could have…”
Breeze’s breath shook. Shethought then, about Grovyle asking why did you save me? Shethought of all the healing items he’d passed her way. He could have let herdrown. He could have abandoned her when she was unconscious – he hadn’twanted to stay, but he had. He could have let her suffer and kept the berriesfor himself. He didn’t know anything - he could have lookedafter himself.
But he’d chosen to look after herinstead.
A familiar sense of helplessnessclawed at Breeze’s heart and she didn’t like that at all.
“Help!” she choked out. TeamSkull didn’t matter – she could talk to them, not fight, and they’d take herhome. It was better than letting Grovyle die. It was better than doing nothingwhen he’d been trying so hard for her. “Please – please! HELP!”
Breeze choked up another poisonedfireball, and for a split second, she saw something floatingon Grovyle’s other side. She couldn’t make out the colours or details, butthere was something there.
“Help,” Breeze said again,“please.”
There was a heavy moment ofsilence. Breeze flattened herself down and coughed on the smoke from her ownfires.
“Alright,” a feminine voice said,and the tunnel lit up.
.-.
Dusknoir sat in the corner of aroom, a book in his hands and a panicked Riolu pacing around him. He’d tonedout every word the boy had said. Genuinely, he didn’t care. He, unfortunately,knew better than anyone how resilient Breanna and Grovyle could be.
Besides, Darkrai wouldn’t havebothered to target his sableye if the two were actually dead. And as far asprisons went, he’d certainly had far worse. If something came up, it would beno issue to escape before the situation turned serious.
A sudden silence struck him asodd, and Dusknoir looked up to see what had finally silenced the Riolu in frontof him.
The answer, apparently, was aDimensional Hole floating in the middle of the room.
Dusknoir mentally cursed, slowlyrising and inching towards the door. “Riolu,” he said, “you need to go getChatot.”
“Do you know what that is?” Theboy asked, his voice raw.
“Yes,” Dusknoir said, and floatedforwards, ready to grab and throw the Riolu the second anything changed. “Fornow, go - ”
The dimensional hole tossed outtwo prone forms and a significant amount of sand.
Riolu lunged for them at the sametime Dusknoir tried to snatch him. Riolu’s arms wrapped tight around a badlypoisoned Breanna. He pulled her away from Grovyle – fainted and unstable, worseoff than Breanna was – and nearly sobbed onto her shoulder.
Breanna held him back, tearing upas well. She looked up at Dusknoir. “Get help,” she croaked.
Dusknoir stared at her as hebacked out of the room and didn’t say the thought that stuck out in his mind –he hated the familiarity of this.
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bounward · 4 years
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lacerta * campion * chapter one trial * r.e: everything
"Oh, Chi..." 
She had seen Smee read that note in Chirin's room, of course- even commented on the fact, given that she had avoided doing so herself. As for the note's contents, Campion wished she had been a little more shocked to hear it laid out - more so than overcoming the edge of the tragic words being read in Smee's particular kind of mascot voice - because while it made some things very clear to her, they were facts that just added a couple more stones into Campion's chest. 
(And to think, of Chirin's genuine seeming upset towards her particular predictions from home..!) 
The note reading silenced Campion for some time: originally in curious listening intent towards Dola's analysis of the situation, but then simply to let things stew and process; no more coming from her aside from the occasional sudden stretch and roll of her shoulders to pull herself back up into a respectable position, arms folded back in where they had tossed themselves in such an action. 
At least until one particular swirling conversation came too close, and Campion lifted her head, took a breath, and said quite decisively: 
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"I am not Fae, Vixen. Ah..." 
Her statement trailed off for a moment, Campion rather quickly bringing her hand up to cup her cheek. 
"I recognise the nature of my home country is still quite the mystery to some of you... but truly, I appear before you as their human princess. And while this may differ from Fae kind to Fae kind, legend to legend that dear Dawson may surely be able to tell you about, your average Lusidiem faerie cannot lie..! Ahehe. I recognise that is perhaps quite unverifiable, however, so, allow me to address your other point... you wish to accuse me simply because I hold the much-needed nature of being able to keep a cool head?" 
That calm tone shifted a little, weighed down more. 
"...Right now, dear Vixen, I feel truly at a loss over poor Chi. Those texts of ours that you apparently snooped through... I did greatly enjoy speaking with her, and I cannot begin to imagine the gap her insight will leave once we leave this mockery of a trial and are able to come to terms with her murder properly. But I am quite used to putting death aside and treating it objectively, in the name of carrying on to fix things and bear a weight on the behalf of others instead. If you wish to accuse me simply for being able to be calm and to the point during this trial, then why not also Holly, Dola for being able to sleep through this, Dawson- when he is not caught up in this triangle of rivalry? Ahehe." 
Campion backed away from responding to Vixen with that, letting Starscream tag team in to argue about Sparkly Shit. But it soon came back to her in the form of Bully's questioning, arm tossing up and outwards as the other woman's speech finished up to hold out her hand in her direction as though to physically offer a reply. 
"Just a moment, dear Bully... you wish to suggest that the weapon I was given was, ah... pop rock sand? While that would certainly be a novel idea - I would quite like to see such creation magic in action! Ahehe - why would I be the only one to receive a weapon that was, well... something so evidently different to all the physical weapons mentioned and confirmed so far? To entertain the idea of this powder making the rocks regardless, however... was any of that glittering sand even found around the base of the rocks? Or was the, ah, alchemy in that case rather complete, I suppose..?" 
Pan's magiktech lecture finally popping off was enough to distract Campion from elaborating on that idea more, ending her response with a smile towards Bully's apologetic one and nothing more. Knuckles too earned the same smile- and Smee did too, actually, despite everything they had just come forwards with. 
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"Ah, darling Smee, do not talk so harshly of yourself! While you have the right to dislike me, I do also enjoy talking with yourself, and would hardly be expecting any particular kind of... bowing and skating, in the attitude you seem to believe I hold? Ahehe." 
A light sigh. Campion allowing O'Malley next to her to pop off loudly before continuing, her only action in the meantime being her arm snapping out and... dropping her chin on her hand to lean vaguely away from O'Malley and in Smee's direction, in possibly her most casual stance yet. 
"But let me respond in kind to you, then..! First of all, were we not just speaking of the heels matching Woe's? My current shoes are nothing remotely like them, though I will gladly comply with passing one over for the aforementioned woman to, ah, smell for magic..? If she complies with dear O'Malley's suggestion. Once again, you make very strong assumption of the fact that I possess some kind of magic... is it the hair making me an easy magical scapegoat, perhaps? The mark on my face? While I recognise my hair to be quite unique, as I just described to Vixen... I would be happy to explain both, and there are certainly others much more magical than myself! If you wish to accuse me in this manner, darling Smee, I am afraid I must ask you to be a little more decisive in how the human princess of Lusidiem may possibly be magical. Producing rocks and a dagger... I do not believe both of those can be pinned on dear Bully's admittedly strange weapon suggestion?" 
Thanks Meg for the pixel its the best ref I have here. 
"...Also, what do you get when you mix whatever we found in that bottle?"
And so the neat circle completed with Vixen rattling off ideas once more, Campion rather awkwardly slipping out of the leaning position she'd been conversing with Smee in as her arm tossed itself out from supporting her chin on the table surface. She straightened up with a hum of mild embarrassment, looking to Vixen once again. 
"Forgot about the trap, or... placed it, only to be caught by Chi and shortly interrupted? Who followed the activity or knew where to be, as previously discussed... given the precarious state of the bottle, it does seem rather tricky for Chi or anyone else to move safely after it had been placed..."
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call-me-rei · 4 years
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Chapter 22
With everything that’s been going on lately, and in this week alone, it was nice to update this story. I forgot where I originally wanted to take this chapter but I’m glad I did because - well, you’ll see 😉
~~~~~~~~
“It’s the little things that you do baby that make me so damn crazy.”
---
I stood underneath the warm water of my shower and let my tense muscles relax. After my vent session with Vic and him asking me out, I had some more things to be stressed about. One of them being why he asked me out in the first place. I ended up texting him during class after lunch, asking him to clarify some things. Really, I just wanted to know how he figured I wasn’t heterosexual. Turns out he didn’t know; he just took a shot in the dark and asked me out.
Once that was out in the open, I had more time to stress about the date itself. What would I wear? I wanted to impress Vic, but I didn’t want to look like I tried too hard. Where would we be eating? I was thinking it would be a sit-down restaurant, meaning I’d have to look over a menu and not take forever picking something. But wait, would we be going to a movie? That’s a typical high school date, right? Dinner and a movie?
I stepped deeper underneath the flow of water pouring down on me. I took some deep breaths and tried to ground myself. All of these thoughts were making me more anxious than I should’ve been. Curse my brain for overthinking everything.
After finally getting my heartrate back to normal, I rinsed and left the shower. It was time to get ready for my date.
I smiled to myself as I walked into my bedroom. I was going on a date. With Vic freaking Fuentes. When I thought about it, I had to chuckle. I had no idea our relationship would go down this road from where we started, but life is funny in that way.
I put on my underwear all the while thinking about what to wear for this date. Since I didn’t know where we were going, I decided to go simple enough to make it look like I wasn’t obsessing, but dressy enough to fit in anywhere. I opened my closet, looked for a moment, then decided to go with my ripped black skinny jeans, a fitted white V-neck, and my black leather jacket. I quickly slipped on my black Vans before going back into the bathroom to fix my hair.
By the time I was ready, the clock read 6:48. I had about twelve minutes before Vic would be at my door.
I sat on my bed and unlocked my phone. I went to my messages and replied to the group chat that Lynn forced me to be in. I wasn’t a big fan of group chats, mostly because I don’t usually say anything, but the chat seemed pretty chill so far, so I didn’t complain.
You’re really going on a date with Vic???? Lynn texted. That message was followed by various emojis from Tyler, Savannah, and Tori.
Yes I replied with a chuckle, I’m really going out with him. He should be here soon
Where are you guys going? What are you wearing to it? Are you gonna put out???
I sent the eye roll emoji to Tyler as my response. I was never thinking about doing anything with Vic, and I didn’t want to think about it. This was the first date; I’m not one to rush into things.
I texted the group that it was about time for me to go, and that I would let them know if anything happened. They wished me luck before I locked my phone and slipped it into my pocket.
I skipped down the stairs and looked at the clock on the wall. 6:55, it read. I smiled to myself. Vic was probably on his way. He seemed like the punctual type, so he would most likely be at my door in the next two or three minutes. I flicked off the light in the foyer after I grabbed my keys and walked onto the porch. After locking the front door, I sat on the porch swing.
My neighborhood was in a nice suburban area. The sun was starting to set, painting the sky with soft pinks, oranges, and fading blue. The streets were quiet so it was easy to hear the birds chirping in the background. It was the perfect scene to reflect on everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours.
In all this time, I had had a sleepless night, spilled my guts, and been asked out on a date by the person I spilled my guts to. Strangely, I felt calmer when I ran through the events in my head. Reflecting on it all helped put things in perspective.
And I decided that my life was a fucking mess.
I smiled when I saw the familiar silver sedan pull into my driveway. Yes, my life was a mess, but this was one of the good moments.
I stood from my seat and approached the car as Vic was walking out.
“Hey you,” he said with a smile. It took everything in me not to blush.
“Hey,” I managed to whisper out. The sight before me took my breath away. I usually saw Vic in khaki shorts and band T-shirts, but he cleaned himself up for our date.
He was wearing black skinny jeans with a fitted white T-shirt and a green jacket. He had on Vans as well, but his were black and white unlike my solid black ones. He had on a black snapback turned backwards against his wavy hair. I couldn’t help but chuckle when I had finally taken all of him in.
“What?” he asked skeptically.
I shook my head. “We’re dressed alike.” Vic looked me up and down and laughed.
“Man, we’re gonna be one of those couples, aren’t we?”
“Couple? This is our first date.”
It was Vic’s turn to chuckle. “You don’t think you’ll end up being my boyfriend?”
I blushed. That was not a question I was anticipating, or one that I had thought about. Did I want to be Vic’s boyfriend? Up until a few hours ago I didn’t know Vic was into boys, and now he’s talking about putting a label on us. It felt like he was moving this too fast.
“Listen…,” I started. He cut me off with a smile.
“Don’t stress about it, Quinn. I could pretty much read your thoughts on your face after I said that. Let’s just go on this date.”
I smiled back at him, grateful to put that conversation behind us. We walked to the car in silence, and after putting on our seatbelts, we were off to our destination.
Vic hadn’t told me where we were headed, and I didn’t feel the need to ask. I figured that if he wanted me to know then he would’ve told me. Since he didn’t that meant it was a surprise, and I like surprises.
I sat back and looked at the road ahead of us. The sun was still setting steadily and the road was almost free of other cars. It was pretty peaceful out. Vic was tapping his fingers on the steering wheel to the song playing in the car. It was a band I didn’t recognize, but I liked the song. I found myself nodding along as I stared out the window beside me.
After about fifteen minutes of driving we reached our destination. “We’re here,” was all Vic said before he turned off the car and got out.
I was confused. We were in a parking lot, but there wasn’t anything around us. I assumed that he would be taking us to a restaurant, not the middle of nowhere.
“Uh, where is ‘here’ exactly?” I asked when I exited the car.
Vic smiled and popped the trunk. I walked over to see him pull out a picnic blanket with a basket.
“What’s all that?”
His smile never faltered. “Well I was thinking all day about what kind of date you’d appreciate and seeing how today you really responded to us just talking away from everyone, I thought you’d like this.” A big, genuine smile creeped onto my face.
“You really wanted to impress me, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, I guess I did. Are you impressed?”
I chewed on my lip, trying to suppress my stupid grin. “Yes,” was all I said. Apparently that was enough for him.
He walked ahead of me to a picnic area, then walked past that. I followed closely behind so I wouldn’t lose him as it was getting darker. Vic led us through the trees to a clearing. For the second time that day, we were in front of a small river.
“How do you keep finding these places?” I asked. Vic only chuckled. He set down the blanket on some soft grass and opened the picnic basket. He took out some pillows and various Tupperware of food. Once I saw that everything was set up, I sat next to him on the blanket.
“It’s not much, but I hope you like it,” he said timidly. I looked at the food in front of us. Vic had packed some assorted fruits, some vegetables with ranch, what appeared to be chicken salad sandwiches, and bottles of apple and orange juice.
“This all looks great,” I said with a reassuring smile. It did look really good. It was simple, but I could tell that a lot of thought went into the preparation. That made my heart beat a little stronger.
We sat, ate, and talked while the sun slowly fell below the horizon. Once it was gone, Vic pulled an electric lantern from the basket and switched it on. I didn’t bother saying anything about it.
We ended our dinner with sharing some tres leche that his mom had made. I moaned as soon as the cake hit my tongue.
“So…you like it?” Vic asked with a smug smile on his face. I stuck my tongue out at him. “Careful Quinn, or I’ll do something else to that tongue.”
My jaw dropped open and I’m sure my cheeks turned scarlet. “W-wh-what? Who?” I stuttered. Vic held my gaze with passion in his eyes. I wanted to look away so desperately, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
He had me and I think he knew it too.
“It’s getting colder,” he finally spoke. “Wanna get out of here?” I could only nod.
We packed up everything and carefully made our way back to the car. Vic put all the items used on our date back in the trunk. In the meantime, I was in the passenger’s seat wondering why the hell he said what he said to me.
There was no doubt in my mind that Vic had been with other people. He had told me that he was still a virgin, but that didn’t exclude other types of pleasure. What all had Vic done with other boys? Or girls? He was obviously more experienced than I was just based on what he said to me. Or was it that he was more confident? Well, most of the world was more confident compared to me.
I was a virgin. Well, I was a virgin who had never been kissed. Shocker, I know. The opportunity just never presented itself. I didn’t want my first kiss to be under some bleachers or because of a game of spin the bottle. I wanted a kiss with someone I cared about; I wanted to be with someone I had real feelings for. If that meant that I wouldn’t get kissed until college then…I’d probably go for the game of spin the bottle.
Vic got into the car and drove us to my house without a word. I was a bit relieved considering that I had gone over so many scenarios and questions in my head in such a short amount of time. It would’ve been hard for me to speak a coherent sentence.
Fifteen minutes of silence led us back to my place. I didn’t want to be rude so I spoke before I opened the car door. “Thanks for the date.” Then I mentally facepalmed at such a stupid statement.
Vic seemed to have found some humor in it because his eyes twinkled. “There’s no need to be so awkward, Quinn,” he said after a sigh.
“Well how should I be?” I asked.
He bit his bottom lip. “I’m not sure.” I wasn’t sure I heard him; my attention was on his lip and how I wanted to be the one biting it.
No, bad Kellin!
“Look,” he spoke, “I’m sorry if what I said earlier made you uncomfortable. I know this is our first date and I shouldn’t have tried to suggest anything that I wasn’t sure you were comfortable with. And I hope that didn’t turn you away from the idea of a second date.”
I stared into his dark brown eyes; I saw nothing but sincerity. He meant every word he just said, and that made me feel a little better about it all.
“No, no you didn’t turn me away from a second date.” His bright smile reached his eyes and I couldn’t help but smile back.
“Cool,” he simply said, obviously trying to regain his composure. I quietly giggled. “Shut up.”
“Make me,” I challenged. I saw his eyes flick down to my lips before resting on my eyes again. He bit his lip once again. It was obvious that he had the same thoughts in his head that I had in mine. We wanted to pounce on each other in this car.
“It’s pretty late.” I nodded in response. “Maybe you should go inside.”
“Trying to get rid of me already?” I asked.
“Trust me, that’s the last thing I wanna do. I just don’t want you to do something in the heat of the moment that you’ll regret.” I cocked an eyebrow in confusion. What would I possibly regret? “Besides, this is our first date. Gotta keep you interested.”
But I already was.
I would never say that, so I just nodded. “Alright, well I guess this is goodnight.”
Vic smiled. “Yeah, goodnight KQ. This was fun.”
“It was. You’re not all bad, Fuentes.”
“I’m a lot of things. Hopefully you’ll get to see some of them.”
I blinked repeatedly. What the hell did that mean? Before I could ask, he spoke.
“I’ll text you later tonight. Thanks for a great date.” He took my hand in his and squeezed it. I glanced down at our hands then looked at his face that held such a warm smile that my heart melted.
I returned the smile. “You’d better text me.” Reluctantly, I slid my hand from his and opened my door. I waved to him from outside the car before walking to my house. Vic didn’t leave until I had closed the front door and turned on the lights.
I quietly went into the living room and flopped onto the couch. I sighed as I thought about the last two and a half hours. The conversation that was amazing, the scenery that was breathtaking, and the man who made my heart skip a beat and made me want to think and act with my other brain. The guy who made my palms sweaty and my breathing labored. The guy who would probably do those things in a more physical way if I played my cards right.
I took a breath to regain my composure.
Who knew one date could bring up all these feelings?
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captainjetrocketboy · 5 years
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I’m Tryna Understand These Days ~ 10
Also on Ao3
Chapter 10: It’s Easier to Be Alone Than to Be Lied To
Callum wasn’t quite sure if it was morning or not. 
The blinds covering the few windows were shut, so there was only the fluorescent white lights to illuminate the room. The smell of antiseptic was nauseatingly sweet as it hit his nostrils, causing him to scrunch his nose in response. He could still hear the incessant beeping of a heart monitor, the consistency of it bringing him a strange sense of calm that clashed with annoyance. It may be a bothersome noise, but as long as it kept going, it meant that whoever was attached to the machine was still alive.
He shifted his body uncomfortably as Callum tried to sit up. The chair was far from luxurious, and his long limbs prevented himself from ever getting into a good sleeping position, no matter how he contorted himself.
The hood of his jacket fell back as he ran a hand through his hair, still hard and now a bit greasy from the product that was left overnight. He didn’t really feel like taking a shower yesterday—never found time to, really—but he could probably use one right about now. If anything, the warm water and hot steam would do wonders for the soreness spread throughout his body.
Callum stretched his arms over his head and gave a silent yawn before settling back into the chair. That’s when he noticed something straining against the faded blue of his jeans. A wave of embarrassment shot through him, his face heating up into a bright red. He slowly recalled the dream he had that night, and was faced with his body’s natural reaction to such. Morning wood was a common occurrence for any man, but to have it in the hospital was something else entirely.
Callum almost laughed. Until he remembered why he was even at the hospital in the first place.
His eyes refocused from sleepiness just as they landed on Ben’s still form. 
And just like that, his world came crashing down once more.
He was in the hospital because Ben had fallen unconscious, and hadn’t woken up yet.
He had slept in a tiny plastic chair because he didn’t want to feel alone.
He awoke to a morning erection because he had just dreamed of having sex with a man who doesn’t even remember they love each other.
When had his life become so fucking messed up?
Callum was saved from his inner turmoil as he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He quickly pulled it out, thankful for the distraction.
“Mornin’ Cal.” Jay’s voice came through as he answered the call.
“Jay… morning,” he drawled out, voice still laced with tiredness.
“Kathy’s told me ya visited the hospital last night. Any news on Ben?”
“Nope. He’s still…” Unconscious, his brain supplied. “... asleep. He ain’t doing any better.”
“At least he ain’t getting worse, either,” Jay tried to reassure.
Callum sank back further into the uncomfortable chair. He stretched out his lengthy legs, heaving out a sigh as he tried to keep talking. “Yeah…”
After a couple seconds, he heard Jay take a deep breath of his own. “How are you doin’, mate?”
Callum scoffed, one side of his mouth twitching upward. “That a trick question?”
“I’m serious, Callum. Did ya even get some rest last night?” Jay’s voice suddenly sounded more serious. He almost squirmed in reaction. It wouldn’t get him anywhere to lie to his boss.
“Not… not really. I slept in Ben’s room.”
“You know those chairs are shit. They could barely hold a child let alone someone as tall as you.”
Callum hissed in discomfort as he tried to rub away the kink in his neck. “Yeah, I think I figured that out.”
Jay let out an exasperated sigh. “Look, Cal, I get that you’re worried about Ben. But ya gotta take care of yourself, too. You should’ve gone home and slept in an actual bed.”
“But I couldn’t…” Callum squeezed his eyes closed as he felt the all-too familiar sting of tears. “I couldn’t sleep by myself. Not without making sure he’s okay.”
Jay was silent then. Callum was wondering if the other man had hung up on him until a much softer tone made its way through the phone’s speaker. “You gotta stop thinking like that, Cal. Ben’s gonna be fine. He just needs some time to recover.”
“I really want to believe ya, Jay. But I…” Callum trailed off, suddenly unable to speak as he stood and walked over to Ben’s side. He lifted a trembling hand over the bed’s rail and rested it on top of Ben’s too-still hand. At least it was warm, which meant Ben was still here. Callum didn’t even want to think of how things could have ended up very differently.
He was so focused on the warmth and solace that touching his lover gave him that he almost forgot he was still on the phone with Jay.
“It ain’t your fault, either, Cal.”
Callum gave a small, sad smile at that. “I wish I could believe that, too.”
“Listen, how about you take the day off, ey? Don’t worry about work, I’ll handle it.”
His head snapped up at that. “Jay, you don’t hafta—”
“In the meantime,” Jay interrupted, not letting Callum turn him down. “Why don’t you make your way down to the playground. Lexi could use a bit more company. Think she’s getting kinda sick of me and Lola.”
Callum couldn’t help but smile at the thought of Lexi. Ben’s beautiful, feisty daughter. She was such a bright passionate fire, so much like her father. As he looked back down at Ben, he thinks a bit of fun with Lexi would be worth it. It would definitely be better than waiting around in the hospital, his bottom practically yelling at him not to sit back down in that stupid chair.
“You know what, Jay? That sounds great. I’ll be glad to spend some time with Lexi.”
“Good. You can pick her up from Lola at Kathy’s place. I’ll see you around, yeah?”
“See ya, Jay.”
Callum disconnected from the phone, and turned to leave before realizing he forgot something. He carefully leaned over Ben, and placed a soft, gentle kiss on his forehead. His lips brushed across Ben’s own as he pulled away, his hand lingering in his floofy hair.
“I’ll be back before you know it, Ben. I love you.”
-
The rest of that morning and afternoon was spent with playing various games with Lexi. Lola thanked him for being willing to spend time with the little girl, giving him a firm shoulder squeeze. They had walked down to the playground, hand in hand, and started at the swingset. Lexi demanded that he pushed her higher than her dad does, and Callum couldn’t help but indulge in her wishes. 
After that, they walked back to the Beale house and played a couple rounds of hide and seek before settling on the couch and watching some films he didn’t know the names of. 
Before he knew it, the sun was starting to make its descent in the sky as he tucked Lexi in for an early night. The poor girl really exhausted herself today, and Callum could admit that he too felt a bit winded. She had so much energy it was hard to keep up with her at times.
It didn’t help that his traitorous mind kept wandering off at times throughout the day. He didn’t pay much attention to it, but if he really tried—like really thought about it—then it would almost seem like this was a normal thing for him. To spend the day with Ben’s daughter as if she were his own, forgetting all about his problems as they played and ate sugary snacks. Then when the day came to an end, he could tuck Lexi into her bed, and he would go down the stairs so he could snuggle up with his boyfriend on the couch.
But as he said his farewells to Lola, and made his way through the stark white hallways of the hospital, the brutal truth would hit him like a bullet.
Lexi wasn’t his daughter, and Ben wasn’t his boyfriend.
Callum sighed, and found his way around to Ben’s room. As soon as he gets the chance, he promises to himself to make his dreams a reality. He’s spent too long in doubt and fear, but now? Now, he knows what he wants.
He wants Ben, and everything that comes with that beautiful man, flaws and all.
As he pushed open the door, he heard two very familiar voices, one of which was one that he yearned to hear again. His heart clenched at what that meant.
Ben was awake.
And he seemed to be talking to Jay as he caught the tail end of their conversation.
“—need to tell him. He deserves to know.” Jay said, his voice sounding a lot like that ‘protective brother’ tone he uses on Ben more often than not.
Ben looked like he was about to say something, but his mouth stopped as his eyes landed on Callum. Jay followed his line of sight and now both of them were looking at him. He felt like a deer caught in the headlights. His face probably showed that, too.
“Ben, you’re… awake.” Callum managed to let out.
“Alive and in the flesh,” Ben joked, a grin tugging at the edges of his lips. 
The pair of them stared into each others, Callum simply basking in the relief and joy he felt at finally seeing for himself that Ben was okay. He was going to be just fine.
Jay abruptly cleared his throat as he sat up from where he was sitting on the bed. “Right, well, I’ll leave you boys to it. Just try not to make a mess of those sheets, yeah?”
“Oi! There ain’t enough privacy here with all these people checking up on me every two seconds. Besides, I ain’t even a fan of hospital sex.”
Jay scrunched his face in disgust. Callum just laughed. A real, genuine laugh. He was almost out the door when he turned around and pointed a finger at his brother. “Hey, remember what we talked about, bruv!”
Ben waved his hand dismissively. “Yeah, yeah, I got it! My memory ain’t that bad!”
Jay smirked, but as he shifted his eyes to Callum, he could see his features soften into a knowing look. Callum waved a hand to say goodbye, and as the door clicked back in place, the room was suddenly suffocatingly quiet.
Guess it’s time to make due on that promise.
Callum shifted his weight from one foot to another, not knowing where to start. “You, uh, you doin’ alright?”
“Perfect,” Ben sighed. “That is if you consider bein’ stuck in hospital when you’re perfectly capable of walking perfect.”
Callum cautiously made his way closer to the bed, slowly but surely closing the distance between them. “I’m sure the doctors are just makin’ sure you’re okay.”
Ben scoffed and turned his head to look away at the windows. The blinds were still shut. “Yeah, yeah, I know, but it don’t make the waiting any easier.”
Silence befell them once more, and Callum wasn’t really sure where to start. He supposes their conversation before Ben had… fallen would be a good place to start.
“Listen, Ben, I know I’ve made a right mess of things…” Callum began, having to take a deep breath in preparation. “But I’m really tryin’ to make it right. Especially with you.”
Ben was silent, his eyes seeming focused on anything but Callum, despite the relative bareness of the room. His head was still turned away, but Callum didn’t back down.
“I really want to do this with ya, Ben… don’t you want this, too?”
If it were anyone else, Callum might have missed the subtle shake of Ben’s head.
Callum furrowed his brows. “Ben—”
“Save your breath, Cal.”
“No. If we’re gonna make this work, then we gotta talk to each other. I wasn’t real good at that before… especially when it came to you. And look where that got us.”
“Hey, I’m a big boy.” Ben raised his voice as he turned his head, finally facing Callum, but not quite meeting his eyes. “I ain’t tryna excuse you or anything, but I can take responsibility for at least some of this.”
Callum huffed. “Okay, so we’re both guilty. Now that’s out of the way, can we please just talk? I don’t want this to end before it even gets the chance to start…”
Ben’s gaze dropped downward, his face almost unreadable. Except that this was Callum, and Callum could tell when Ben was well and truly upset.
“Do you... regret it?” Ben quietly spoke, just above a whisper. 
“Do I regret what?” Callum pushed.
“Being with me?”
Callum let out a sigh. “If I’m bein’ honest… I do regret the first time around. But that’s only because we did it wrong. So incredibly wrong. Yes, it was both of our faults, but I still can’t help but put most of the blame on me.”
Callum stopped to take a breath. Ben’s gaze was somewhere on his chest, but the man was letting him speak, so he continued.
“But I’ve been given another chance to put things right between us. I may have a failed engagement, and an ex who hates me, but I still have the chance to have you. I’m lucky… not everyone deserves a second chance, least of all me, but I’m not going to run away from this anymore.”
“But…” Ben finally spoke up, and Callum let him say what was on his mind. “You’re young, fit, and you say you’ve just come out. There’s a whole world out there. Why stay with a thug like me?”
Callum shook his head immediately, and soon enough there was no more space between them as he grasped the other man’s hand firmly, but gently, in his.
“You ain’t a thug, Ben. Not everyone can see that, but I can. And I still love ya, despite all the dodgy things you’ve done, but in no way do I think of you as a thug.”
“You say you love me…” Ben was staring intently at their joined hands, his voice now a bit shaky. “But it’s only been, what, three months since ya called off your engagement? Less than that even?”
“That don’t matter anymore. I know what I want now.” Callum brought Ben’s hand up to his lips, pressing soft kisses along his knuckles. “Especially after I came so close to losing you.”
They went silent again. Callum rested their joined hands back on the bed, and Ben was still looking down at that. Callum was almost tempted to put a hand on the other man’s cheek, and tilt his face up so that their eyes had to meet. But he had to take this slow. He was walking on really thin ice, and this was too important to rush and potentially mess up.
Ben started to whisper something, and Callum strained his ears to listen, not wanting to miss a single thing he said. “You know, there was this guy I knew... We was close mates… Bit square, but he’s one of the good ones. Still try to keep in touch, too.”
Callum looked at Ben, confusion lining his features. He wasn’t sure where he was going with this.
“He made the right decision to leave, though. Got the hell out before anything could happen to him. God knows bad things happen to the people who get too close to me.”
Callum immediately shook his head at that. “I’m sure there was more to it than that.”
Finally, Ben looked up and stared directly at Callum, the blue of his eyes somehow dulled, almost grey. Callum didn’t like that at all. “Maybe it’s best if we stay mates. I just don’t want anything happening to you cos of me.”
“Ben, I know I can’t promise you nothing is gonna happen to me, or you,” Callum started to lean down even closer, able to feel Ben’s shallow breaths on his lips. “But as long as we work on it together, I know we can make this last.”
Ben didn’t say anything as Callum lowered his mouth onto his, but at least he didn’t stop him from doing it, either. The kiss was chaste and over too quickly, but it wasn’t meant to lead into anything more. Callum wanted it to be a silent promise between them. That they’ll both work hard to make their relationship into something great.
“I love you, Ben. I just want you to know that.”
“I… I want to say I love you, too, Cal, but right now, I don’t think I can.” Callum’s face must’ve shown something, because Ben was quick to correct himself. “B-But, I want to! For some reason, I really, really want to. Can we… can we just take this slow? Please?”
Callum smiled the biggest smile he could. “Of course, Ben. Forget the past, alright? Let’s do this right this time, yeah?”
Ben gave a little smile of his own. “Yeah. Let’s do this right.”
-
As Callum left the room briefly to get the two of them some late night dinner, Ben sank back into his bed. He wasn’t really hungry, but Callum had insisted that they both get something to eat.
This was going to really tough. He never thought he’d get to have Callum like this again, especially after his accident at the cafe. When he felt himself losing consciousness, he had thought that he was about to die. Maybe that would have been best for everyone if he just wasn’t around anymore.
But now here he was in a hospital bed, waiting for Callum to get them some nasty cafeteria food. It was tearing him apart inside, seeing how eager and determined Callum seemed to really make it work between them this time. 
That just made lying to him all the more harder.
He knew he was only making his grave deeper, but Callum was so willing to put their past behind them. How was he supposed to tell Callum that he remembered everything?
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