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chaoscheebs · 5 months

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It's Midnight, Cinderella, chapter 1

In which Seto Kaiba meets a mystery man at a masquerade and things just click, but who could this man be...

(Chapter 1) - (Chapter 2) - (Chapter 3) - (Fic Tag)

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Sometimes, being a CEO sucked.

Once again, Seto Kaiba had to fulfill some inane obligation to attend a gathering of people who he either found intolerable, were seeking to use him to gain a step up in life, or worse, both. The worst part of it was this was supposed to be a masquerade, but no one seemed to bother putting in the effort to at least play up the one fun part of the concept and were largely in generic formal wear except for him. Pathetic.

Or he was alone in caring about style, until he spotted him. Soft blond curls falling softly to just above his shoulders. A carefully-tied cravat around his neck, ruffles adorning the bottom of his sleeves, shining buckles on his shoes, looking like he was a prince who walked out of some fairy tale. And judging from his frown and the way he looked around the venue, he was every bit as disappointed no one else was pushing style boundaries as Seto was.

Seto was hardly a social butterfly, but this man looked at least less insufferable than the rest of the people there, so he decided to walk over and strike up a conversation. If it turned out this man was just as dull as the rest, he was perfectly capable of walking away, after all.

Or he was going to strike up a conversation, but the man in question spoke first. The man looked him over, then smiled. “Thank goodness, I thought I was the only one who took this seriously. I was thinking about going home to change…” His voice was soft, but deeper than he expected for a man his size. It almost reminded him of…

Never mind what it reminded Seto of. The past was in the past, and he needed to remember that more often. “Hmph, don’t let others dictate what you do, especially when it’s clear you’re the one in the right. It’s them who wouldn’t know style if Special Summoned a monster right in their faces.”

The man laughed. “So you play Duel Monsters too? Glad to see I’m not alone there either.”

Seto faintly smiled. Well, now, this is shaping up better than expected. “Oh, really? Are you in the competitive scene?”

“Mm, sort of?” the man said, tapping a finger to his chin and tilting his head slightly to one side. “There’s someone who’s… I want to call him a ‘rival’, but is it really a rivalry if the other person never acknowledges you? Anyway, I’m looking to defeat him and prove myself to him.” He laughs weakly. “Kind of pathetic, don’t you think?”

“Only if you think of yourself as such,” Seto replied, frowning. “You’ll never defeat him if you have no confidence.”

The man laughed again. “Oh, I have plenty of confidence in my gaming skills! It’s just everything else that’s the problem.”

“Even that can have an impact,” Seto told him. “Walk tall like you mean business, even if you have to fake it. It’ll come naturally with practice.”

“Talking from experience?” the man asked with a smirk.

Seto took a half-step turn away from him, crossing his arms and scowling. “Do I look like the kind of man who needs to practice that?”

“With a reaction like that, yes,” the man said, stepping out so he was in front of Seto. “It’s kind of cute, though, in a tsundere sort of way~”

“‘C-cute’?! ‘Tsundere?!?’ What—?!” Seto sputtered indignantly. On what planet was he, Seto Kaiba, cute?!

“Extremely cute~” the man teased, raising himself on tip-toes to get closer to Seto’s face. “Adorable, even~” Seto turned his head with a “hmph”; a clear signal for the man to stop teasing him. “All right, all right, I’ll lay off now. Even if you are cute~”

“Anyway,” Seto interrupted forcefully, “what brings you here tonight? I don’t recall seeing you attending one of these things before.”

The man rubbed under his nose, suddenly feeling bashful. “Ahahaha… A friend of mine, who runs a small indie game company that’s been trying to break into the mainstream recently got an invite, and he sort of dragged me along, saying I need to ‘make more connections’ in the industry.” He looked around, frowned, then sighed as he gestured to a man with long, dark hair pulled back into a high ponytail, who was currently flanked by several women. “Unfortunately, he immediately decided to go flirt with girls instead of helping me with that.”

Seto smirked at the man’s dismay. “You know women can work in the gaming industry too, you know.”

The man rolled his eyes, or at least Seto presumed so, judging by the displeased tilt of the man’s head. “Well, yeah, of course, but I also know how he works. There is almost zero chance they’re talking about Dungeon Dice Monsters, believe me.” He shook his head and muttered, “And he knows I’m not the best at this kind of thing either…”

“You seem to be doing all right with me.”

The man heaved a sigh. “That’s different, you came up to me first. I never know where to start and how not to sound like a game-obsessed weirdo to people. It’d be one thing if this was a convention, but this is…”

“Full of stuffy executives who wouldn’t know a fun game if it noclipped through them and ragdolled in front of them?” Seto suggested.

The man smiled. “You. You get it.”

“I’d like to think so,” Seto said, smirking, “but I am more hands-on than most people in my position. Maybe if things had been different…” He trailed off abruptly. What was he thinking, he had just met this man and he almost started telling him his life story.

“Oh? ‘If things had been different’?” the man asked. The mask had some sort of tinted lenses obscuring his eyes, but somehow Seto could feel the concern in them coming through the lenses anyway.

“… it’s nothing. We’ll just say I’m fond of tinkering and leave it at that.”

The man frowned and started to reach out a hand, but thought better of it and let it drop. “… OK. If you’re not comfortable talking about… whatever it is… then I’m not going to pry.”

“Thank you.” Seto’s eyes briefly darted away, then returned their focus to the man. “I… appreciate the concern, however,” he muttered, almost too quiet to hear over the background chatter all around them. “Anyway. Duel Monsters,” Seto ever-so-smoothly changed the subject to, “What kind of deck do you use?”

“A control deck,” the man answered, “I like seeing how I can make weak monsters actually viable, y’know? It’s a fun challenge.”

Seto raised an eyebrow, not that is was noticeable behind his own mask. “Really? I know someone else who uses one, and he’s regarded as a formidable opponent.”

“Ahahahaha, you don’t say…” the man said, looking away as he absently tried fixing some imaginary flyaway lock of hair.

“He wouldn’t happen to be your would-be rival, would he?” Seto asked. “If so, you have an uphill battle ahead of you. For all the… difficulties between us, I would be lying if I thought just anyone could take him in a duel.”

The man, suddenly looking startled, waved his hands in front of him. “Oh, no, no, no! The man I’m after uses a beatdown deck and has this thing for dragon cards in particular! I’m not—I really couldn’t—!”

“Dragons, hm? Sounds like a man with taste,” Seto said approvingly.

The man’s eyes (Seto presumes) traced over the Blue-Eyes White Dragon embroidery adorning Seto’s suit, the head of the dragon resting over his shoulder. Pointing at the dragon’s head, the man says, “You’re a fan of dragons too, huh? Wouldn’tve guessed~”

Seto smirked. “You haven’t seen the best part of this yet, either.” He glanced around him, mentally calculating if he had enough space for what he was about to do, then reached into his jacket and flipped a hidden switch. White dragon wing materialized behind him, flapping gently for a moment before wrapping around him like a cape.

The man’s jaw dropped, then raised his hands just below chin-level, curled into fists. “That. Is so. COOL! Oh my gosh, that had to take a lot of effort to get right, especially with the energy consumption! I mean, whatever’s activating that has to be smaller than the compartment in a duel disk that contains the battery, right?!?”

“Correct,” Seto affirmed. “Unfortunately, that means there’s an issue with battery life that needs to be worked out still. This was only a side project I did for fun, after all.”

“’For fun,’” the man repeated. “Haaaa, I’d say that’s a weird idea of fun, but I’ve literally forced myself to learn coding and game engines so I could join month-long game jams, so I shouldn’t judge.”

“Really? What kind of games do you make?”

“Horror ones, mostly,” the man said. “At least in my indie work, anyway. I like trying different styles of game in the genre.” A thought struck him, then he quickly fished a card holder out of his pocket and pulled out a card to hand to Seto. “Here, in case you wanna check them out later.”

Seto accepted the card, nodded, and tucked it into a pocket without looking too closely at it; something he would later regret. “I’ll look into them, then.” The holographic wings flickered, causing him to sigh. “And that would be the battery life issue…” he grumbled, reaching into his jacket again and flipping off the switch.

“Ahaha, you at least got it working! That can be half the battle in itself,” the man said.

“True,” Seto admitted, running a hand through his hair in frustration. “Still, there’s room for improvement, and one way or another, I will get this so it can stay on for a full night, damn it.”

The man smirked at him. “You’re the stubborn type, huh? How cute~”

Seto rolled his eyes, scowling but feeling faint heat building his his cheeks and ears. “There you go with the ‘cute’ nonsense again.”

The smirk became a wide grin, and somehow, Seto couldn’t bring himself to deny it was, dare he say, ‘cute’? “Sorry, sorry,” the man said, without even the faintest hint of remorse. “There’s just something about you that make me want to tease you a little~”

“You’re nothing if not bold,” Seto replied, very pointedly not meeting the man’s gaze. “Most people wouldn’t dream of attempting that.”

The man shrugged. “I spent all of high school trying to hide,”—he muttered the next part bitterly—”and apparently failing at it—” he then resumed his normal volume, “that I was bi; I vowed nothing was gonna shove me back in the closet now~”

Seto’s mask may have hidden part of the now-deepening blush, but he just knew his ears were giving it away. Damn it. “I… see. So you really think…”

“That you’re cute? Absolutely~” the man said, looking infuriatingly smug as he stood on tip-toes to close more of the height distance between them. “It’s not every day you find someone smart enough and passionate enough about his hobbies to make holographic wings for himself and who’s also charmingly dorky on top of it~”

“First I’m ‘cute’, now I’m ‘dorky’?”

“The dorkiness is part of the cuteness!” the man insisted, perhaps a little too enthusiastically. Mask or no mask, it was clear he was enjoying himself and it infuriated Seto that he wasn’t infuriated by it.

“Ugh, why are you charming?” Seto grumbled to himself, earning a cute squeak from the man.

“Y-you think I’m charming?!” he said, his previous teasing bravado fleeing in a heartbeat.

Looks like he can dish it out but can’t take it, Seto smugly thought. “If I didn’t, I wouldn’t still be standing here. I don’t tolerate wastes of time.”

The man looked at the floor, shyly rubbing his arm. “Ahahaha, I guess you wouldn’t, huh…?”

Some small part of Seto recognized this as somehow familiar, but that thought was shoved aside in favor of enjoying watching the man squirm. “Anyway, do you happen to have your deck on you? I want to see what you’ve got.”

The man frowned, then shook his head. “Unfortunately, I left that at home. Apparently most people frown on dueling during formal events?” he said, like this had either happened before or he had been scolded before he had a chance to try. Probably both, Seto thought; this man looks like the stubborn type.

“Sounds like it’s a ‘them’ problem and not yours,” Seto said before pulling out his phone and unlocking it. “How fast could you assemble a functional deck if you were provided cards?”

The man looked up and tapped his lips in thought. “Only functional? Probably not that long. It wouldn’t be that good, tho’. A good deck needs time and care.”

“True,” Seto agreed, tapping out a message on his phone. “I suppose in the interest of fairness, I’ll be making one up on the fly as well. It’s no fun crushing an unprepared opponent with the big guns.”

“Yeah, it’d only—what?” the man said, abruptly changing gears when the penny dropped. “Are you seriously—?!”

He didn’t need to finish the question; as if on cue a man appeared, carrying a large and very familiar briefcase. Satisfied, Seto tucked his phone back in his pocket and started to walk away in the courier’s direction. “I am. Come along now, time’s wasting.”

The man stared at him for a moment, laughed softly as he shook his head, almost as if he was used to this sort of thing, then went to follow Seto.

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“Haaaa…” The man made a sound somewhere between a laugh and a sigh as he set down his hand of cards. “Told you it wouldn’t be a good deck.”

Gathering his cards up, Seto replied, “True, but it put up a better showing than expected. You might have a chance against your mystery rival.” They had long since moved to a private room at the hotel the event was held in, because apparently it was considered rude to play cards during a non-card game event. And they dare call themselves professionals in the gaming industry; pathetic. Maybe if they would actually play a game every so often they could come up with something interesting.

“You really think so?” the man asked, doing the same after adjusting his mask. He seemed anxious about removing it, so Seto let it go and thus there it still sat upon his face.

Seto gets it. He doesn’t always want to be himself either, so he left his own mask on in some weird sense of solidarity. “I do. It takes a significant amount of skill in of itself to make a functioning deck in such a short time frame, let alone one that could actually give me pause.”

The man’s lips curved up into a smile—a genuine one, not a teasing one this time—and Seto found himself wanting to see more of it in the future. “That really means a lot to me; thank you.” The man then set his cards aside, stretched across the table, a hand on the table for stability and the other on Seto’s shoulder, and kissed Seto on the cheek.

The man lingered for a moment, and that’s all it took. Maybe the rush of winning got to Seto, or maybe the man’s teasing flirtations finally won him over, or maybe the man was just that damned attractive, but Seto found himself reaching out and pulling the man into a proper kiss on the lips, earning him a cute squeak of surprise from the man.

The surprise faded quickly, however, as that hand on Seto’s shoulder curled itself into a fist, clutching Seto’s jacket tightly, unwilling to let go. One kiss became two kisses, two become more, until the man climbed over the table and onto Seto’s lap.

Well. At least Seto knew where the man stood on continuing on. One hand buried itself in those soft blond curls, the other rested on the man’s back, slowly sliding downward until it found the soft curve of his ass and squeezed.

For having such a dull start, this was turning out to be a good night.

#yugioh #seto kaiba #yugi muto #rivalshipping #fanfiction #my fic #(yeah spoilers yugi is the mystery man but if you followed my rambles you knew that already)#it's midnight cinderella

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yume-fanfare · 5 months

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tomoya im gonna need you to elaborate

#maybe i should reread mystery stage some time soon #mar's midnight rambles

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crescentfool · 9 months

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never in my life did i think i need to makeout with a piece of software so badly but here we are i guess

#lizzy speaks #OK IM BEING OVERDRAMATIC AND I WOULD ELABORATE BUT I NEED TO SLEEP BUT #DO YOU EVER JUST #FUCK !!!!!!#IVE NEVER BEEN SO HAPPY TO COME ACROSS A PIEC EOF SOFTWARE #i need to fiddle around with it some more but everything ive seen about it is MIND BLOWING to me #ive been waiting my entire life for this moment i think #i feel like it's funnier if i don't say what the software is. i wanna be mysterious so bad but i cannot shut the fuck up #literally been suffering through notetaking and organization softwares and im like ohh i think i finally found the one #this is the minecraft of sex i think its like wowza i can finally do all those writing projects i want to do #boys (me) don't want girls they want an organized database of notes that they can easily reference at anytime #sorry for being unhinged but like its like past midnight lol im sure i'll wake up in the morning and be like 'what the FUCK were you doing'#BUT!!! i think ill come back to this post to reblog it with like actual shit about the software when i figure out how i want to use it #i think everyone should experience joys in life. and sometimes that joy is having organized notes #bonus points if anyone can figure out what im talking about just from the tags alone i think this software will change my life #it has fucking tag functionality i literally love tags #sorry about the vocabulary but this rivals like. my love of spreadsheets. which are like. a wonderful thing i think but ANYWAY IM RAMBLING #anyways goodnight i wish you all on the dash a very lovely evening i just needed to share this because im so overjoyed right now o7 #if you have a software that you really like thats changed you feel free to tell me in the tags or something :) i like learning new things

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dougielombax · 6 months

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So what actually WAS the Midnight monster?!

#dougie rambles #personal stuff #doctor who #midnight #mysteries

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personinthepalace · 2 years

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The 80s got adaptations right

I am specifically thinking about Granada Holmes and Sullivan Anne of Green Gables but I’m sure there’s other examples

#midnight musings #I read an interview recently for the mysterious benedict society #(my favorite book series got recently got turned into a tv series)#and one of the writers said that they book fans don’t want a page by page recreation on screen #and I whole heartedly disagree #I want adaptations of my favorite books so I can SEE my favorite scenes come to life #and let others fall in love with them as well #which is why I’m saying that the 80s got adaptations right #the people working on granada holmes and anne of green gables knew that (of at least fought for it)#and I’m forever grateful #yes some things were changed or tweaked #but there are so many scenes lifted straight from the pages #and I absolutely love it #anyway enough of my rambling haha #granada holmes #anne of green gables 1985 #anne of green gables #sherlock holmes #sullivan anne of green gables #acd holmes #80s movies #80s tv shows #tv adaptation #book adaptation #rambles in the palace

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foggy-forest-howls · 1 year

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ITS FINALLY RAININGGG!

I woke up last night to it raining, and it has been all night to this morning. The sky is covered in fog that's laying over the forest, and I love it so much. I cleaned and charged my crystals last night, did a tarot reading when I woke up (around 3am) and I feel like it really helped me process and understand a few thoughts and questions I was going through. Mostly surrounding my gender identity and where I go from here sort of thing, as well as healing my connection with witchcraft as I feel recently it has been lacking a bit. But I feel so calm and nourished today, so I had a cup of tea and now I'm heading over to a friend's to bake (my oven is broken so she offered for me to use hers) lavender and Earl grey, frog, pumpkin, mushroom, and acorn shaped cookies. Which I'm planning to give out to some other friends as well. It's so lovely outside I love it. Anyways, blessed be everyone, and I hope you all have a wonderful day as well.

#witchlife #green witch #kitchen witch #fog #rainyseason #midnight rain #rainyweather #rain rambles #forest #cozy blog #cozy weather #cozy mystery #witchcraft #rain magic #trans witch #ftm witch #lavender #earl grey cookie

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mysteriousxmidnight · 9 months

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9 people you want to get to know better!

Thanks for tagging me @rebelspykatie!! Sorry for the delay in responding!

Favorite color: It changes depending on my mood, sometimes purple and sometimes blue.

Currently reading: I’ve been struggling with reading lately but I’m starting chapter two of If you ever need a helping hand by jeffgoldblum90s

Last song: Waving Through a Window from the Dear Evan Hansen broadway OBC cast album

Last series: Believe it or not, Stranger Things!

Last movie: Just Saw Theater Camp and it was so beyond wonderful!!!

Currently working on: That’s a very long list… but the ones I’m working most actively on are my omega den fic, Steve’s first migraine, and some King Steve/Jester Eddie smut that I haven’t shared snippets of outside of my core group yet. Plus this pool party angst one that I’d love to get posted while it’s full summer, haha.

~*~*~

I suck at tagging people because Anxiety. So just gonna say… tagging anyone who hasn’t done this yet and wants to! 💜

#mysterious midnight rambles #getting to know me

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invece-sto-sdraiato · 5 months

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god I love being as delulu as possible about bokris. like I'm making up all these fake scenarios in my silly little brain and I haven't blushed this hard before *giggling and kicking my feet*

and this bokris divorce y'all speak of? nope that didn't happen. it never happened.

#im a bit sick today so...#my brain works in mysterious ways #so on one hand im being very delulu about bokris #on the other hand #im pissing off all my friends by calling them at midnight #yeah so life is interesting i guess #addie rambles again

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dorkousloris · 7 months

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playing killer frequency makes me long for a dj hosting simulator bc i discovered that the game only came out this year and i am AAAAAAAAA

( also yeah, i got to try it after watching a streamer playing it on their YT channel, then. try it out and honestly i love it sm )

#dorkous ramblings #its a horror mystery puzzle game in which u plays as a dj host and his producer doing a midnight show #and ended up having to help the callers to escape a killer! and it is like 1980s horror slasher setting!!!!#the voices are surprisingly fun to listen sdjhgjsjhg

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midnight-surgery · 10 months

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pokemon misery dungeon. if you even care

#i was trying to google pokemon mystery dungeon and i wrote misery by accident so here we are #im. losing it #midnight rambles

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yume-fanfare · 7 months

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i need to have a list of circle scouts they havent done yet hmm

#←guy who's only awaiting for gardenia and the tea circles #off the top of my head i think theres still also mystery researchers shin and overnight outdoors party?#i feel like rei will get mystery researchers 🤔#but i kinda wanted mitsuru for overnight outdoors party wahh #mar's midnight rambles #enstars

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cntloup · 18 hours

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one-night stand your first date :)

Part 1

“Hey!” you greet him with a welcoming smile, your gaze lingering on his scar-adorned features and his mysteriously alluring eyes, nearly knocking the air out of your lungs.

“Hey...” he responds, holding your riveted glare as if you’re the most enchanting soul to ever walk the earth.

(you both just stand there like idiots staring at each other with heart eyes for a good few minutes)

He called you to say he’s gonna take you to the pub with his mates.

He didn’t even ask you, only told you to message him the address and that he’s gonna pick you up.

(what a freak! I love him!! and yes he takes you to meet the lads on your first date because they're the closest thing to a family he's got so he wants you to meet them asap and he's already planned your wedding in his mind!!)

“Umm... these are for you!” he mumbles, holding out the bouquet of flowers he got you, his unwavering stare still fixated on you.

(he asked Gaz what to get you and he said the simple old-fashioned flowers are the best way to go)

“Oh! These are beautiful! Thank you so much!” you exclaim, almost tearing up as you take the flowers with a grateful nod.

(spending a good few more minutes staring at the flowers while sobbing, the poor lad thinks he did something wrong!)

“Fuck! Sorry! I love them! Thank you... again!” you ramble and chuckle nervously while furiously wiping your tears with your sleeve and turn back to go inside and put the flowers in a vase.

“So? Where to?” you ask excitedly when you walk back to the door, “To the pub. Near my place. About 20 minutes from here.” he states matter of factly, yet somehow it sounds intriguing. Maybe it’s just his voice that makes everything sound so... so... (idk man his voice just does something to me)

He leads you to his car, a Range Rover Velar, suitable for a guy like him; it holds an intimidating and mysterious aura paired with a rough and tough attitude, yet maintaining a sense of style, captivating.

He opens the door for you and the moment you step inside, a mixed aroma of whiskey and leather reaches your nose, intoxicating.

He lets you pick the songs during the whole drive and sing along off-key while he chuckles at you, surprisingly not annoyed one bit. On the contrary, his heart might just burst out of his chest.

Once you arrive at the pub, he has his hand on the small of your back, leading you to their usual cozy spot.

You take a seat in the far corner of the booth and he sits beside you, resting his arm on the back of the chair behind your head and leaning closer to you to introduce everyone through the loud music.

The faint smell of pine, bourbon and tobacco takes over your senses, the low timbre of his voice and the soft brush of his fingers on the back of your neck, already making your head cloudy and your heart flutter.

As night carries on, you can feel the warmth in your heart turn into seething flames, engulfing your soul as he shifts closer and closer to you, his arm now wrapped around your shoulders, pulling you impossibly closer to him.

His head is turned towards you all throughout the night, occasionally making sarcastic remarks and smiling proudly as you laugh, your beautiful laugh making him adore you even more if that’s even possible.

He takes you back home before midnight, his paranoia creeping up on him out of nowhere and cursing himself for endangering your life even though nothing even remotely dangerous has occurred.

He kisses you at your doorstep, his kiss so sweet and tender, melting your heart right at the spot.

“Good night, dove.” he murmurs while softly caressing your cheek, “G’night, Si.” you whisper back with a hazy smile as if in a trance, absolutely smitten, bewitched even.

He stays by your door and asks you to text him when you’re inside.

He stays a few more minutes after you text, observing the surroundings to make sure no one has followed you.

And he leaves with a newfound emotion enfolding him, reviving his cold, dead heart as he thought it was.

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hothothotch · 9 months

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would you write a little something about aaron catching jack and reader having a midnight snack, and aaron scolds them at first but he melts when he sees their smiles ? i love your blog ❤️‍🩹

hello hello! first of all, thank you 🥲💛 you just made my heart melt in happiness! i really hope you like it, anon! (reader is not an Agent here!)

Requests are open ✨

There was only one thing you and Jack Hotchner hated in equal measure: the days Aaron was away on cases. Okay, that and broccoli. But Aaron being away was way worst that broccoli. Maybe.

Nevertheless, the fact that sometimes — when Jess wouldn’t be able to take care of Jack, or when you were free from your own job duties (being a Doctor made sure your schedule was almost as hectic as Aaron’s) — you were able to spend those miserable moments together was usually enough to cheer you both up.

It was in one of those nights, after you found out that you wouldn’t have to pull double duty at the hospital and your date night with Aaron and Jack had suddenly became a date night with only Jack, Aaron being called away for a case, that you and Jack started your favorite nightly ritual.

Jack had woken you up after a nightmare, his eyes teary as he looked at you with a pout, rambling at the late hour about the monster inside his wardrobe. It wasn’t a very specific tale — as specific as a kid his age could create with their fearful mind —, but you had learned soon in your relationship with Aaron that the monster inside Jack’s wardrobe had been real, and that he had killed Haley, Aaron’s late wife.

Aaron had never gotten in details about the story of Haley’s murder, but you knew the important information: she had been killed by someone Aaron was hunting at his work, and Jack was hiding inside a box in Aaron’s old office, having heard the shot that killed his mom. Since then, Jack would externalize the memory in nightmares, his mind filling in the blanks he — thankfully — didn’t get to see.

“Can I sleep with you?” Jack had asked that night, once he had finished describing his nightmare, head tucked on your lap as you ruffled his hair slowly, soothingly, “Please?”.

“Of course, sweet pea” you replied, your voice hushed as you’ve noticed he was in the brink of sleep, eyes closing off by the minute, but the little boy too afraid to allow himself to fall back to sleep.

That was the moment you decided it was time.

“You know, Jackers…” you started, a smirk on your face when you noticed his attention had been caught by the mysterious tone of your voice as you kept combing his blonde locks, “Back home, whenever I had a nightmare, my Dad and I would have midnight snacks”.

Jack turned his body to look up at you, his eyes slightly wide as he shook his head quickly, almost terrified at the insulting idea. He was Aaron’s son, after all.

“Daddy says no midnight snacks” Jack whispered, and for a moment you believed he had forgotten Aaron wasn’t at home — even if the two of you were occupying Aaron’s bed, “He says it’ll make my tummy funny”.

“Daddy is not a doctor, I am” you shrugged mischievously, poking at Jack’s nose and feeling your heart warm when he laughed openly, “And I say midnight snacks keep the nightmares away. Do you wanna try?”.

Midnight snacks mostly definitely didn’t keep the nightmares away (you even had a few of them after having the snacks, and Aaron was definitely right to say that they’d make one’s tummy funny), but the fact that it had given Jack some peace of mind was enough to have you coming back to that tradition every night you were over at the Hotchner’s apartment.

That night wasn’t any different.

For some miracle, Aaron wasn’t away for a case for the first time in a few days, and (even more surprisingly!) you weren’t on double duty at the hospital, which meant that, for the first time in a while, you’d be able to spend the night with your boys, at the Hotchner’s home.

Which also meant that you and Jack would’ve to be cautious if you wanted to keep your nightmares away.

“I had a nightmare” Jack whispered in your ear after patting at your side for a few seconds.

You hadn’t been sleeping, because you knew that you moved a lot when waking up, so it would wake Aaron up and your small ritual with Jack would be ruined. But you was also aware that Jack liked to wake you up, to feel like your secret was being kept hidden, that you were safe and shared something that Aaron didn’t know about.

Maybe you were really turning Jack in a mini you. The thought made you smile.

“Go get ready” you instructed in a whisper, “I’ll be there in a sec”.

Jack giggled, and you had to shush him when Aaron moved, always a light sleeper. You waited until Jack’s steps couldn’t be heard in the hallway to stand up, moving on your toes outside the bedroom, cursing when the door creaked, but smiling in victory when Aaron didn’t even move.

Maybe you were really getting good at that.

You moved even more silently towards the living room, finding Jack already equipped with everything he could reach from your secret snacks cabinet — sweets, cookies, and even the kook-aid you had convinced Aaron to buy because you knew Jack loved (and you secretly loves, too).

“Do we have everything we need?” You asked, taking the seat beside Jack and smiling when he moved to lay his head on your chest, opening up the bag of homemade cookies and passing you one.

“We do!” Jack nodded.

Your smile was bright as you kissed Jack’s head, whispering softly, “So let’s scare those ugly nightmares away!”.

You took a bite of your cookie, basking on the amazing feeling they bought, only faintly hearing the sound of Jack taking a bite of his own…

And then the lights turned on.

You moved your head up so quickly that you could’ve had a whiplash, your eyes wide at the image of Aaron — dressed in his pajamas, not a sign of sleep in his eyes — facing you both with a scowl, his arms crossed in front of his chest.

“Can someone explain what is happening here?”.

You gulped audibly, and Jack almost dropped his cookie as he tried to move his body closer to yours. You knew that Aaron wouldn’t hurt you, but you also knew that look, and you didn’t like it.

“What have I said about midnight snacks, Jack?” Aaron asked, looking down at his son.

“That we can’t have them” Jack replied, his voice sounding firmer than you thought it would be, considering Aaron’s tone.

“We’re scaring nightmares away” you intervened, “One snack at a time”.

Jack nodded, pointed at you, “She said her daddy used to say ‘one midnight snack a day keeps the nightmares away’”.

“That he did” you smiled down at Jack, ruffling his hair for a second before looking up at Aaron, a sided, almost shy smile on her face, “Would you like to join us for cookies?”.

Aaron didn’t flinch, he didn’t move. You had your doubts he was even breathing.

That was, until Jack tried to open his Kool-Aid Bursts, the drink immediately falling all over both of your bodies, causing Jack to give a strangled scream and you to look at the red-colored drink all over your pajama pants.

“Oh my…”.

The sound of your laughter was the next thing that bursted through the living room, being followed by Jack’s, that immediately threw his body against your chest again, only making both your situations worst.

You looked up at Aaron to find a smile slipping through his face, only a small, hidden motion upwards of his lips, as if he didn’t want you and Jack to know that, even against his will, you had managed to soften him a bit.

“Come have snacks with us, Daddy!” Jack invited between panting breaths, the most captivating smile on his lips as he waved to his father, “We have cookies and muffins!”.

Aaron shook his head, moving to sit beside you and pulling both your bodies close to his, “This is the only time this is happening, okay?” He mumbled as you passed him a muffin — orange, as you knew he liked.

You nodded in agreement, nuzzling your body comfortably against his, a dazzled smile on your face, “Yeah, sure”.

It goes unsaid it definitely wasn’t the last time.

And none of you wanted it to be.

Thank you for the request ✨

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