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#oh and for the person who asked if i could include song titles

murdrdocs · 10 months

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just read all your imagines and they are so good!! just on here to req anything hobie brown related cos god that man is so fine. maybe like a one-shot where they are fwb cos hobie doest do labels but gets jealous and then asks reader to be his gf and then shows her off to everyone. just like really anything u want to write tbh ✨✨

end of line | h. brown

description. being friends with benefits with your best friend, hobie brown, is fun and all, but you start to realize that maybe firm labels suit you better than whatever this is

includes. slight smut SUGGESTIVE 16+, fem!reader referred to as “girl”, fluff, sweet!hobie, pav gwen and miles mention, rockstar!hobie

a/n: i have no words this was supposed to be uploaded like a week ago but then i went to disney so ... sorry yall. also not edited well bc ... disney. edit: title from the song by daft punk bc tron <3

word count: 1.7k+

things are still in your bedroom. they always are right before he arrives.

you're not a psychic, nor do you have a "spider-sense" (which, with the creepy-sixth sense way hobie described it, you don't want one either), but you like to think that you can tell when he'll come by.

nights when you haven't heard much from him, but the sirens seemed to never stop outside, were usually when your window would creek as it slid up.

you listen out for the sound now as you finish painting your last nail. you'd used the quick dry polish tonight, in hopes that you wouldn't have a repeat of last time, when your fingernails weren't dried but hobie was incredibly impatient and when you were done, you'd realized that your right ring and pinkie fingers were smudged.

the bottle's closed, you'd blown on your nail to ensure it dried, and that's when your window slides open.

there's no point in looking back at him when he tumbles into the room. he starts mumbling complaints as soon as the window's closed, the sound of his shoes unlacing padding his words, something about some common thief who hobie was going to let go but then he went and messed with the lady on the street and her cat.

you'd lost the tail end of his words whenever he started walking closer to you. you sat up straighter, pushed everything out of the way, and waited for him to turn your chair around.

which, when he did, you looked up at him, small smile on your lips as you stared into his deep brown eyes.

"how's your night, hm?" he asked, a courtesy before getting to the real action.

you shrugged, pretending to think. "nothing. just a lot of this."

"no smashing societal standards? picking off misogynists one by one?"

a small laugh in the form of a snort from you. "nah. figured i'd take a day off, you know?" the sarcasm dripping from your words. that's not who you were. you wish you could've been like that, could've been like hobie. but there's one spider-person for a reason.

"oh, yeah, uh-huh..." and hobie trailed off as he leaned in, pointer finger hooking under your chin to pull your lips to his.

it always felt good to kiss hobie.

you'd fantasized about it for weeks before it actually happened. he's your closest friend at the moment, and he occupied the title before this arrangement even existed. and of course you had the worry about ruining your beautiful friendship if you became more, fear that you wouldn't be able to go back and you would subsequently lose probably the best friend you've ever had.

but that was no need to worry. because while you could let hobie pull you up and lead you to your bed, sitting back and pulling you into his lap while he kissed you with a tenderness you know so well, you could also just be friends with him, sitting side by side on the couch and having a movie marathon of horrible biopics without thinking about jumping each other's bones.

there's a balance here that you could only hope would've existed.

and it's never thrown off. not even when he pulls your shirt over your head and his full lips find your nipples and the slightly-faded marks he'd left a few days ago. not even when he switches your position, laying you back and kissing down your torso until he can bury his head between your legs. not even when you whine and cry just a bit, slightly begging for him to pull his suit off so he can fuck into you in a way that only he can.

you try not to think about the equilibrium of your relationship with hobie when your legs hook around his waist and the heels of your feet dig into your lower back. you try to solely focus on the way his cock fills you up perfectly, mostly long with the right amount of girth for your walls, tip reaching deep within you in an almost mind bending way.

but you can't help but think about the way hobie doesn't do labels when he helps you to your bathroom, where he lets the shower heat up while you sit in a shirt he left behind a few days ago when he'd shown up as just hobie brown and not spiderman. you can't help but think about being hobie's girlfriend when his big, veiny hands run along your skin after the shower, smothering you in shea butter as you struggle to hold your eyes open. and you don't bother attempting to fight off the lasting thought of being hobie's while he hums an unknown song to himself with your head on his chest, the deep sound of his voice and the vibration of his chest lulling you to sleep.

you need to be someone's.

the friends with benefits scenario was fun, it worked, it was glorious, but you don't think it's for you. and labels aren't for hobie.

so, you look elsewhere.

you're at hobie's show, standing in the back of the pub with a drink you weren't interested in, with some guy you really weren't all that interested in, either. but he smelled nice, and he seemed nice, and you were just looking to broaden your horizons just a bit.

you and hobie weren't exclusive, but maybe it's a little wrong to flirt with someone else at his show. but you were slightly upset, and craving attention, so it didn't matter.

not until hobie got off stage.

it took a while for him to roam over to you, but even then you were still entertaining the other guy. giggling, tilting your head, batting your eyelashes, your hip popped out and a manicure, that was still fresh, blinging as your hand rested on the bone.

he greets you with a term of endearment that he uses often, but it feels different in this circumstance. you tell yourself that it feels different because you want it to feel different.

"oi, babe! who's this bloke?"

his arm slings over your shoulder and you tense under it. your hands folding over your chest, your smile tightening a little.

“uh this is steven.” your hand reaches out to point to the man, a tight lipped smile spreading onto his lips.

“steven …” hobie repeats the name slowly, and without looking at him you can tell that he’s eyeing the guy up and down.

the air is stiff, the three of you are silent, and unfortunately, steven takes the hint to dismiss himself, and you instantly turn to hobie, a scowl on your face.

“what the fuck, hobes?” you’re pissed, but the nickname still slips off easily.

hobie shrugs and reaches into his back pocket, a cigarette appearing and he sticks it between his lips. instantly, your fingers pluck it out from his mouth, instead putting it in your own back pocket.

instead of looking upset, hobie looks amused. his hands reach out to grab your waist, and you want to give in, but you try to push his hands away instead.

hobie lets you, and you don’t know if your happy or upset with that.

“what’d you mean?”

you stare at him, deadpan, then gesture to where steven had walked away towards.

“you just cockblocked me!”

a cocky grin, almost a little condescending. “i didn’t ‘cockblock’ you, babes. you weren’t trying to get with that guy.” your eyebrow lifts and you can see realization come onto hobie’s face. “oh … you were?”

“yes! of course i was!”

“but why? you are i are together.”

“sure, hobes, but we’re not ‘together’.”

“yes we are.”

“no, we aren’t.”

“why do you think that?”

you suddenly feel a little insecure, eyes scanning the thinning crowd, ears noticing the way the volume in the pub is lowered. “because you’ve never put a label on it, bee.”

another layer of realization. hobie’s hands coming to your waist again, but this time you let him pull you in.

“i didn’t know we needed a label. but you’re my girl. and i’m your guy.”

your body heats up and you bite down onto your lower lip giddily, peeking up at hobie through your lashes.

"thought you didn't like relationships?"

"labels. i don't like labels."

there's a disruption in the atmosphere. goosebumps raise on your skin, the hair on the back of your neck sticks up, and even if you weren't aware internally, the way the magazine you were previously reading floats above the table would've tipped you off.

the portal opens shortly after, but you knew it was coming. it took hobie a while to tell you that he was spiderman, longer to convince you that he was spiderman, and a while longer to convince you of the existence society, and even though you know, you still get a little shocked whenever a portal opens.

he comes through first, thud of his heavy boots against the floor of his flat. the spoon in your mouth clings against the side of the bowl, your free hand reaches out to the tv remote to pause the episode as you look over at hobie.

"oi, didn't know you were still here." is all he says before he's walking over, pulling his mask off on the way, and leaning down. your head tilts up instantly to meet his lips in a kiss, your body warming with the way his hand pushes into the back of the couch, slender but muscular form caging you in.

you expect him to sit beside you and force you to give a recap of the episode, but he stands back, and then three other people come through the portal.

"oh ... are we expecting guests?" surprise sits in your words, the tone amplified when hobie takes your bowl of cereal out of your hands to finish it off himself.

"right," he speaks through mouthfuls, saying your name as an introduction to the other three. "this is pav, miles, and gwendy. spider people." you nod, waving at each.

"this here, is my girlfriend." three sets of spider-eyes widen with the admission and you can already sense what's coming.

"wow, you're pretty. 's nice to meet you."

"i knew it! i could sense the tension as soon as we got here."

"you have a girlfriend? wait. i thought you didn't like labels."

a small smile on your face as you tuck your hands in the pocket of hobie’s sweatshirt that you wear.

in coordination learned from how close you two are, you speak at the same time.

"he doesn't like consistency."

"don't like consistency, mate."

#hobie brown x reader #hobie brown x you #hobie brown smut #hobie brown fluff #spider punk x reader #spider punk x you #spider punk #celeste writs mcu #hobiesworld!#hobie brown #spider man across the spider verse

5K notes · View notes

jaylver · 1 year

Text

HOW YOU GET THE GIRL — P.JS

SYNOPSIS: Beach parties are supposedly fun and exciting, aren’t they? Wrong. Experiencing college parties is rare for you, but you decided to give this one a go after your best friend’s constant pleas. Things were alright until everything turned sour when trouble found you and eventually you were roped into a fight alongside the campus’ famous hockey playboy. As if that wasn’t enough, the devil himself conjured up an idea that you found yourself being entangled in. It was all fun and games up until confusion arose, feelings being confessed and played, in the end, Jay had to learn how to get the girl, his girl.

PAIRINGS: ice hockey player!jay x afab!reader

GENRE: strangers to frenemies to lovers, fake dating au, college sports au, romance, fluff, angst, secret pining

WARNING(S): drinking, parties, profanities, slight violence, possessive jay, mentions/hints of cheating, miscommunication, slow burn-ish, a pinch of suggestiveness

WC: 21k

AUTHOR NOTES: yes, the title is based on taylor swift's song, the story is lowkey inspired from it hehe! i also included a scene which was inspired from "sleet kitten" so credits to that ;) PLEASE LEAVE A FEEDBACK! it would mean THE WORLD to me <3 hope you enjoy!

part 2 of 'no competition' series | series masterlist | masterlist

“WHY AM I HERE?”

You found yourself asking your best friend, Minji, only after barely ten minutes of setting foot into the party. Look, you didn’t wish to complain, but a beach party basically equaled sand in shoes, which you absolutely hate and despise, yet you were stuck here against your will.

It all started on a random stroll across campus where Minji brought up the night beach party hosted by some rich frat boy, typical. Being the anti-party person you were, you brushed the idea away initially. Hey, staying in bed with a cup of tea was miles better than having sand in your shoes and frat boys trying to get into your pants, yuck. But eventually, you gave into the idea of relaxing and letting go for once after a horrid chemistry test. How you absolutely regretted that choice now.

“You’re here to enjoy yourself,” Minji hissed through her teeth, holding onto your hand as the two of you walked past strangers. “What’s wrong with getting free booze and some hot hunky beach boys?”

“Everything is wrong with that. Their booze sucks and the beach boys hide at night,” you huffed, hugging your body tight as the wind blew across your face, the smell of sea lingered in the air.

“There are still some cute guys here,” Minji kicked at the sand lightly, staring around where people were littered in groups here and there, a small bonfire alighted in the middle of the beach. “The hockey guys are here,” she nodded at the loudest bunch in the area.

You knew a part of them since you did occasionally stop by to watch a few major hockey games, but definitely not well enough to pair their names to their faces. You spotted the captain first and the one with freshly dyed white hair, who you recognized was also his usual partner on ice, then there was the player with a really odd number, 99. Was it Jason, James or Jeremy? All you could remember was him being number 99 and having a J name, not to mention, an interesting reputation to his name.

"They're cute, don't you think so?" Minji nudged you and you shrugged.

"Cute but fuckboys, and I need them to step up during major games too,"

"You should ignore the hockey part about them. It'll hurt less when they lose," Minji's head turned and she pointed to another group. "The footballers are there too. Trust me, they're bigger fuckboys,"

"Oh, I can tell," you spotted many of them already having a girl by their sides, whispering and giggling while they poured each other more drinks. "This is why I'd rather go back to the dorms,"

"Maybe, maybe not. Something entertaining will eventually happen at these types of parties,"

"I feel like you'll jinx it,"

Minji threw her hands up in defence, raising her eyebrows and shrugging. "Don't blame me, blame the system,"

"There's no system," you shot back, suddenly feeling the need to walk away for a moment as the beach slowly overwhelmed you. (you hated the beach, can't you already tell?) "I need to stop by the restroom for a while, look after my drink, will you?"

You were practically racing to the nearby restroom, finally escaping the area and being able to breathe freely without drunk college students bumping into you. The restroom was basically just a single cubicle, so you were squeezed tightly and you felt uncomfortable as each second passed. You were praying to God that you get to leave this place pronto.

Leaving the cubicle made you feel slightly more grateful about the beach, but upon only a second from exiting, you started hearing shouts coming not far from where you were. At first, you wondered if you’ve reached the point of hallucination, but following a few more grunts and yells, you knew you weren’t. Your body tensed immediately considering it's a distance from the main area. What could even be happening here?

You knew this was how horror movies usually start, but your curious mind just had to wander off further into the abyss and bring your leg along, so you chose the stupidest decision and followed the distant commotion.

'I'm not dying tonight. I'm not dying at a beach. I'm going to be fine' were the affirmations you repeated in your head, though you felt quite the opposite of that.

"Fuck you, are you banging my girl?"

That was when you stopped in your tracks completely, thrown absolutely off guard, eyes widened and lips forming into an 'O'. It wasn't a murder case, but from the way the conversation sounded, it was about to be one.

"I didn't bang your girl, who the fuck are you?" Another voice spat back and you inched closer, hiding behind the other cubicle and you peeked your head out, shocked at the sight before you.

There was already a small crowd surrounding the commotion, who wouldn't want to miss a free show anyway? But the bigger matter on hand was the centre of attention, the two guys were the campus' well known hockey player and footballer.

You recognized the footballer at once, remembering the time where Minji practically shoved his Instagram profile into your face. Yoon Keeho. Star player paired along with his amazing features, he was a popular figure who had a popular girlfriend from the dance team, Karina. They were basically every comics' perfect couple.

Then there was the hockey player, your jaw could only hang lower in plain shock. Mr 99, hockey star and infamous playboy, you knew he was trouble, but this kind of trouble? A little unexpected from him.

"Look man, I know people say I fuck around a lot, but I never fucked her!" It was obvious Mr 99 was starting to get heated, but the footballer was relentless in egging him on.

"Oh fuck off man, I know you did it!"

This back and forth had you rolling your eyes, eventually getting bored from the “no I didn't”s and “yes you did”s thrown back and forth, so you slowly crept back, trying your best to avoid tripping over rocks and shells.

'Crack'

You spoke too soon. Way too soon.

"Hey!"

You took a few cautious steps ahead. Maybe if you just pretend nothing happened and continue walking, it would be fine. Maybe if you walked away, he wouldn't notice—

"Hey!"

You squeezed your eyes shut, contemplating between immediate death or a quick dash away, but neither could be decided when the voice kept on calling after you, ruining your patience completely and you whipped around, looking like a deer caught in headlights.

"Yes?"

Mr 99 stared back at you, a sinister look in his eyes. From the looks of it, he had something evil brewing in that head of his and soon, you were about to be the victim of his dodgy plan.

What came out of his lips next definitely made you wish you were home instead and simultaneously, wishing you had the freedom to strangle him. This fucker—

"That's my girlfriend there, she can vouch for me," you heard him telling Keeho, a smug smile on his face. Girl … friend? Gasps were heard and all eyes were on you in an instance. "Come here, babe, I've been looking for you!"

You blinked, your body absolutely rigid and unmoving as if paralysed. This couldn't be happening, right? Please wake me up from this dream. I'm just hallucinating—

"Babe, come on," your brief dissociation had you completely unaware that Mr 99 was now in front of you, dragging you by your wrist towards the scene of commotion.

"What are you doing?" You whispered harshly into his ear, making sure it wasn't loud enough for the other couple to realise from a distance away.

"Play along, please, I'll pay you," he pleaded, desperation clear in his voice. Who were you to say no to free cash? Nevertheless, you still hated being the centre of attention, and Mr 99 here was only making matters worse.

"I don't even know you,"

"I'm Jay from literature, so technically now you do. Just help me for a few minutes," he grunted through his gritted teeth, flashing his best version of puppy eyes that failed to execute its purpose.

“Do you even know my name?” you hissed lowly, glaring pointedly at him. He could only sigh in exasperation. He had the audacity to seem annoyed while you were literally the one who’s getting dragged to her demise.

“You’re Y/N from English literature. We have the same classes and I’m not a douche for not knowing my classmates, okay?” you were slightly pleased, but not enough to be someone’s fake girlfriend for show. Against your free will, you and Jay were finally standing face to face with the couple.

"So you're his girlfriend?" Keeho had an eyebrow raised, a sense of accusation and suspicion in his gaze. He was so not buying this.

You glanced at Jay, face twisted in uneasiness, not loving the idea of this, but instead, he shot you an encouraging look which was screaming 'go on, tell him'. "Y–yeah. Girlfriend,"

Keeho was unconvinced and you couldn't blame him, you were doing a shit job at pretending to be someone you weren't. "Where was your boyfriend yesterday at night? Was he out?"

"He—" the words got stuck in your throat and Jay raised his eyebrows at you, mouthing some random words you totally couldn't decipher. "He went out on a date with me,"

"To?"

"Baskin Robbins …?"

Keeho remained unamused, his girlfriend holding onto him snickering silently under her breath, and you, on the other hand, got naturally defensive.

"What's wrong with ice cream? At least my man cared enough to bring me out for ice cream dates instead of letting me cheat on him freely. Just saying,"

"What?"

Now it was Keeho and Jay's turn to stare at you with their jaws hung low. Karina's face gradually grew scarlet, her lips twisted into a snarl. "What do you even know about my relationship? Keep out of my business, you bitch,"

"Hey, who the fuck are you to call her a bitch?" Jay stepped in front of you, an arm shielding you and Karina cowered away. Damn, he was good at this.

"Don't talk to her like that, you fuck," Keeho spat at Jay, daringly pushing Jay on the chest and he stumbled slightly into your arms.

Jay scoffed, brushing his front and adjusted his shirt, shaking his head a little. "You're such a dick, Yoon Keeho. You're the prime example why I hate footballers,"

"And you hockey players are the reason why you're dragging the school's name to the ground,"

"Save the talk, we literally won the playoffs while you and your team could barely crawl to the top—"

You gasped, and so did everyone else watching. Keeho had thrown a hard punch across Jay's pretty face, which meant Jay's aggravation unfortunately worked a little too well on the footballer.

To your surprise, Jay took the hit better than you'd expected. He did seem taken aback at the start, but then he started laughing instead. Was he secretly psychotic?

You would be lying if you said you weren't shell shocked initially, but after a moment of recovery, you peeked over his shoulder, staring at his face for any obvious bleeding or bruising, unaware of how close your face was to his.

"You okay, big man?"

"Took it like a champ," he muttered back, a smirk pulled at his lips, seeming as though nothing had even happened. "Permission for me to punch him back, girlfriend?"

"He's all yours. Go beat his ass, boyfriend,"

Jay shrugged nonchalantly, rubbing the side of his face roughly and in a flash, he threw a punch back at Keeho and panicked whispers broke out in the crowd.

"Look man, this is a misunderstanding, I totally didn't fuck your girlfriend," Jay panted, his eyes narrowing at Karina.

"Don't look at me like that," she snapped back, but her voice wavered, giving away the fact that she was obviously hiding something and was intimidated by the way Jay could see right through her.

"Oh come on, fess up, I'm pretty sure I saw you with Yeonjun,"

Karina stilled, her eyes beginning to twitch. Bingo. You didn’t sit through a boring psychology talk once for nothing.

"You don't know shit about me,"

"Okay, say that to Yeonjun the next time he finds you,"

Maybe you did regret having too big of a mouth. You just had to blabber on and agitate the mean girl and now you were reenacting a scene from one of your favourite high school rom coms.

Before you could even register what's happening, you felt a sharp tug at your hair and pain washed over your whole head. Getting bald wasn't the thing you wished for upon reaching here. You screamed on instinct, reaching over to grab Karina's hair in defence, invoking a loud cry from her.

Jay and Keeho were left stunned at the turn of events. Hell, you were stunned at the attack yourself. Who would've thought you would be sacrificing strands of hair to Miss Dancer? They eventually came to their senses (thank heavens) and tried to pull you and Karina off of each other. It was strenuous work just trying to break you two apart, your hand was unwilling to let go and neither were hers.

She might’ve been a dancer, but you’ve experienced more fights than this. Jay managed to rip you off of Karina and you were left dishevelled, heaving heavily, Jay's hands wrapped around your chest from the back.

"Calm down. Breathe. You're so close to ripping all her hair out," he whispered into your ear, his breath fanning your ears. If you weren't so out of breath and adrenaline spiked, you would be weak in the knees by now.

"Good. She was the one who laid her hands on me first," you spat, glaring straight at her and she did the same, hair and attire equally as messy as yours.

"Look man," Jay called out to Keeho, grabbing his attention away from his murderous girlfriend. "I might fuck around a lot, but I swear I didn't touch your girl. I never stoop that low and you know it. Go ask her for the truth yourself, I'm leaving now,"

Jay got ahold of your hand and pulled you away from the wandering eyes and lingering attention. You almost got a whiplash, unable to even yourself completely together and digest what even went on before he dragged you towards the main area.

"Woah, woah, wait," you yanked your arm away, stopping abruptly which made Jay turn around, a questioning look on his face. Why is he looking at me like that? You thought as you crossed your arms.

"Look, you might've saved my ass from Miss Crazy over there, but the part where you dragged me in your stupid drama, so not cool,"

"I know, I'm sorry, okay? You were just coincidentally … there,"

"Wow," you exclaimed in disbelief, face scrunched in slight distaste. "Girlfriend, huh … I hate to burst your bubble but there were people there and if—" you poked at his chest and he stared at you, a slight smirk on his lips, "—people actually believe we're dating, I'll beat you up,"

"What's so wrong about me?" He whistled, leaning down to meet your challenging gaze, a sarcastic grin wide on that devilish face of his. Maybe if he wasn't this annoying, you would've found him pants-dropping hot.

"I hate you," you continued your journey back, brushing past him and he could only let out a laugh at your words.

"Oh, come on," he caught your wrist and pulled you to him, making you land on his chest with a soft thud. If only someone could take a picture of this, it would be something straight out of a 2000s classic romcom.

"You're ridiculous, let go," you tried to get your hand out of his, but he persisted in holding onto you.

Pushing and pulling was something you hated. Whether it was in relationships or just whatever this was, you wished it was gone, because in the next second of tug of war, one of you decided to lose balance and fall to ground.

To your biggest nightmare and headache, you ended up lying on top of Mr 99, Jay, the devil in disguise. The beach was already a nightmare for you, but a fucking man under you? You wished you could disappear now.

"Do you always like this position?"

"If only I could choke you to death in it, then sure,"

"Kinky. You're really romantic,"

"I know," you gritted out, finally mustering all your energy to push yourself up and away from Jay, almost losing your balance in the process. You definitely wouldn't want to fall on him again.

You dusted sand off of your shorts, peeking slightly at Jay, who remained on the ground, his hands behind his head to support him as his stare remained on you, a small smile on his face. You truly wondered what was running through that head of his. Knowing him, it was probably nothing good.

“Do you think we’ll meet again after this?”

You scoffed, a frown etched on your features. “You’re acting like I’m cinderella. I’m on the campus,”

“I mean, we both might be on campus, but that doesn’t mean we’ll cross path,”

“It sounds like you’re trying to propose something—” Jay opened his mouth to respond, but you continued off, not letting him interrupt, “—whatever it is, it’s a ‘no’ from me, okay?”

“Alright, rude,” Jay pushed his body up from the sands, sitting cross legged paired with an offended look. “I’m not trying to propose anything. What’s that dirty mind of yours thinking? I was simply wondering,”

You squinted at him, doubt in your gaze and your face scrunched, humming softly. “Let’s leave our next meeting to fate again. I’m afraid if I keep seeing you I might—”

“Fall in love?”

“Explode. Close enough,” you grimaced, shaking the sand off your shoes. "Look, I'm leaving now. Good luck on not getting beat up again," you turned to leave, but halting once Jay spoke again.

"Will I be seeing you at my matches?"

You pondered for a second, then shrugged. "Depends. I'm not a big hockey fan, but who knows?"

You heard a small chuckle from Jay, rolling your eyes a little. "Fine by me. Let's see how fate sets us up then, Y/N."

You wished fate didn't set you and him up. You wished fate would never ever do so. You didn’t wait for another minute and quickly dashed away, finding your way back to the main area that (thankfully) wasn’t far from where you were. It seemed that the fight didn’t reach the main area where everyone was from the way they were all dancing and drinking like normal.

“Where were you?” Minji pulled you close to her once you had managed to locate her amongst the bunch, concern laced in her voice. “And what the fuck happened to you? Why’s your hair messed up? Wait—” the worry in her gaze soon turned into suspicion. “You didn’t have a secret hookup right?”

“What? No!” you shrieked, glancing around in slight embarrassment at your voice rising unintentionally. Just thinking about what had happened just now gave you a first degree burn of embarrassment, it was going to be your first and last experience, never again. “I … got into a fight,”

“You what?”

“Listen,” you placed a hand on Minji’s shoulder, trying to calm her down while inching closer and making sure to keep your voice down. “I stumbled upon a messy couple related drama and somehow I got roped into it. It’s all Jong Seong’s fault, okay?”

“Jay? What did he do?”

“Accused of fucking Keeho’s girl. It would be funny to witness the whole thing without being apart of it, honestly,”

“I need more context,”

“He called me his girlfriend so that I could vouch for him and I said something bad to Keeho’s girlfriend so we … kinda got into a tussle,”

Minji was stunned to say the least, but there was still a hint of amusement from the way she smiled. “I won’t directly say she deserves it, but she does,” she let out a small laugh and you two shared a look before bursting out laughing, having to hold your chest from the random jokes she threw in between.

“So, time for us to leave?”

“Fucking finally, I was waiting for you to say this,”

“No girls trips to the beach in the future, huh?”

“Nope.” you mumbled, letting Minji wrap an arm around your waist as the both of you start making your way to Minji’s car. You strangely felt a pair of wandering eyes pinpointed on you and you turned your head slightly to the right, meeting Jay’s playful gaze among his group of hockey guys. It was barely a second before you were dragged away anyway, leaving you minimal chances to process anything.

Park Jong Seong, please don’t ever drag me into your schemes ever again. Fuck it, let’s never cross paths again.

IT SEEMS THAT FATE HAS PLAYED ITS ROLE ONCE MORE IN TORTURING YOU.

In what way was ‘never getting involved with Park Jong Seong’ so hard to understand, huh, fate? You found yourself having an angry internal monologue on the way back to your dorms, your coffee threatening to spill out of the cup with the aggressiveness in your walk. It all started out like this: you just got your donut for the morning, walking to lecture with your earphones blasting your favourite music, what could possibly go wrong? Everything.

You were just walking as per usual, until a girl tapped you from the back, and like every normal person does, you stopped and turned around, a confused look on your face. Who’s this? You wondered. That’s the last thought you could form before everything started crumbling eventually.

First, she asked whether you were dating Jay. Eye roll. You knew this was bound to happen. So, you said ‘no’, which was a reasonable answer since you were, in fact, not dating him. But the girl thought otherwise. You turned to leave, halfway to shoving back your earphones in when she grabbed hold of your wrist. Woah.

“I know you’re dating him, everyone do after he made y’all official during that party,”

“Okay…?” it was no use trying to fight back with her persistence, so you just went along with it, not knowing what you were even getting into.

“You do know he fucked me before right—?” TMI much. “Can you tell him to come over and get his stuff? It feels wrong having a man’s stuff around knowing he’s in a relationship,”

“Oh,” was all you could muster out. This whirlwind of information being smacked into your face at 10 in the morning was something you hadn’t expected. “You can tell him that yourself. I’m … busy. I have to go,”

Like any sane person would, you dashed away, possibly leaving the girl in a confused daze but you couldn’t care less, pulling out your phone to angrily type Jay’s Instagram handle and sending him an annoyed text message.

you: a girl just told me she fucked you and she felt it was wrong that you left your stuff while you’re ‘dating’ me. can you please sort this out? istg i’ve been asked too many times whether i’m dating you today fr

Not even after a minute of sending that, Jay replied back at once.

jaypjs: how did you know what my Insta profile is?

You rolled your eyes, your fingers working hard but careful to not accidentally break your screen with the vigour you had whilst typing.

you: is that so important right now? can you at least answer my question?

jaypjs: just ignore it, it’ll pass soon, i swear. ttyl i have practice ;)

Jerk.

As much as Jay had asked you to ignore it, it seemed to have backfired instead. At the library, cafeteria, girl’s restroom, you were bombarded with the same question over and over again. ‘Are you dating Jay?’ You swore if you had a dollar everytime someone had asked you this question, you would’ve been a billionaire by now.

Evening soon fell upon the campus grounds, students were rushing around to find a place for dinner, but the hockey team were still remained in training, and being you, you just had to impulsively barge into the arena, practically rushing down the stairs to the glass panes, spotting your target at first glance.

You would be lying if you said you didn’t find him mesmerizingly attractive in that split moment. He reminded you of someone that had just appeared straight out of a scene from ‘Top Gun’, except on ice. He had his helmet in his hand, his hair wet with sweat, his eyes trained on his coach as he lectured the team on that and this.

You thought your staring had gone unnoticed, but that’s when one of his teammates pointed at you, his gaze turning to you now, a hint of curiosity and surprise in his face. If only he knew you were actually there to murder him.

“Y/N?” You heard his muffled voice through the glass as he skated towards you right after his coach had dismissed them, inching closer and closer until there was barely any distance, only a singular glass pane separating you two apart.

“Jay,” you started, pushing down whatever volcano that was close to bursting inside you right now.

“Did my girlfriend miss me so much until she decided to give me a surprise visit?”

“If I hear that word one more time today, I think I might jump down the nearest building,” you snapped, poking a finger on the glass threateningly. “Look, I’m here because we need to talk—why does this sound like an actual couple conversation—whatever, just get your ass out here immediately,”

“Fine, fine,” Jay threw his hands up in defeat, sensing the seriousness in your voice, you did not come to play. “I’ll be out in a second,”

He disappeared out of sight, and to your dismay, that left his teammates a great opportunity to approach you. Just your luck, huh?

“You’re dating Jay?” the captain, Heeseung, shouted over at you, waving his hockey stick in the air in an attempt to grab your attention.

“It’s complicated,”

“Friends with benefits?” the one with a head of freshly dyed white hair, Sunghoon, chimed in. You recognized the both of them from the party, what are the odds?

“Non-physical type of complicated,”

“That does sound complicated,” Heeseung hummed, practising passes with Sunghoon. “Played with your feelings?”

“I don’t know if I can count it as that…yet,”

Heeseung and Sunghoon shared a brief glance at one another. “Jay might be a playboy, we all know that, but he’s a softie at heart. Hear him out, he might not look like it, but he’s the best at talking,”

“That’s why he’s so good at picking up girls—” Heeseung slapped Sunghoon’s head, giving you a small reassuring smile while the other winced in pain, not appreciating that one bit.

“I’ll hear him out, don’t worry,” you said rather begrudgingly, sitting down on one of the empty seats now, rubbing your hands for warmth as you awkwardly waited for Jay.

“Stop pestering her already, damn,” Jay’s footsteps were heard thumping down the stairs in the empty arena. “Go wash up,” he slid into the seat next to you, now in clean clothes, a towel hung around his neck, his hair wet and messy, his shirt hugging his body and biceps tight. Lord, give me strength.

“Hey! I’m the captain!” Heeseung shouted, but abided, pushing Sunghoon along and out of the rink, leaving you two to yourselves in the ambiance.

“So, what did you want to … talk about?” Jay stared at you expectantly.

“Us? I suppose, if there’s even an ‘us’ in the first place,” you gestured between you and him. “It’s just everyone’s thinking we’re together and all your past fuck buddies are up my ass for it. So—” you tried to put on the nicest smile you could muster. “—could you please, somehow spread it around that we’re not together?”

“But what if I don’t want to?”

“Jong Seong!”

“Government name and all, it’s serious,” he murmured under his breath, suddenly seeming anxious. “You’re going to kill me for this—”

“As if I’m not going to already,”

“Let me finish,” he pressed a hand on his forehead, running it further back into his hair and he let out a distress sigh. “I know you’re going to hate this but I need your favour in this. I have this hockey event next Saturday, a charity event, and I need a plus one,”

“You’re asking me out on a date basically?”

“Kinda? But not really—this is so stupid—but this event will be after a home match, so our opponents and many others from different schools will be a part of this event. The thing is…our opponent, one of their players, is dating my ex,”

“And?” you raised an eyebrow at him, urging him to continue on, his cheeks gradually turning red in embarrassment.

“They’ll be there together, and I was hoping—since we’re already in this mess—to bring you as my plus one, to try and prove to her I’m way better off without her,”

“You’re kidding,” you breathed out in disbelief. “Give me one reason why you need to prove to this girl about you being happy and taken,”

“She cheated on me multiple times while we were dating…the guy was one of them and they’re still together surprisingly,”

“Damn, I’m sorry about that,” you swallowed, a little taken aback from the fact that the infamous fuckboy had his heart broken in the past. Maybe that was the starting point of his fuckboy journey. Gosh, everything felt so cliche, you thought you were in a web series by now. “So…you want me to fake date you?”

“Why are you saying it as if the idea of dating me is an offence?”

“Jay, this isn’t some 2000s romcom, for fuck’s sake,” you snapped, your frown deepened and your blood pressure heightened. You swear you might actually explode soon.

“I’m aware,” Jay sighed, a small whine in his voice. He did seem desperate, and you wondered why out of a hundred girls that were practically lining up for this man, you just had to be the one that had to be a part of this mess with him. Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Worst of all, you were about to agree to something as dumb as this. “Help me out this once?”

“And what will I get from this?” you crossed your arms, hesitatingly giving in slowly and gradually.

“You like Juyeon don’t you?” Jay questioned all of a sudden, his features remained stoic and serious as he watched you experiencing another whiplash, cheeks turning into a shade of light pink at his bombarding question.

“W–where did you get that information from?” you demanded, completely thrown off. Look, you did say you liked him a little from his sweet smile to his nice style, and not to mention, his athletic side, but it was to Minji, not Jay. How in hell could he have this information?

“I’m not wrong am I?”

“Am I being blackmailed?” you gasped and Jay rolled his eyes, leaning further back into his seat. He wasn’t making this easier by looking good. “I don’t like like him in that type of way, I just think he’s kinda cute,”

“So, you’re interested,”

“You could put it that way, I guess?”

“How about I help you make him jealous,”

You choked out a laugh, Jay surely succeeded in always surprisingly you with the way his mind turned. “Dude, I literally only know him from that one Chemistry class, and we were partners once. We barely talk now except some greetings,”

“That’s better than nothing,” he mumbled, his lips pressed in a flat line. “Hey, I know him more, okay? He goes to parties and so do I, I can help you get closer to him,” Jay raised his eyebrows, as if trying to convince you that was the smartest plan ever.

“You’re an idiot,”

“I don’t hear a ‘no’,”

“Don’t push your luck,” you poked his forehead gently, letting out a deep sigh as you contemplated for a second. Future you was going to kill the present you. “Fine. But honestly, I don’t care about Juyeon,”

“I’ll try my best to repay you either way,” Jay beamed, his whole demeanour changing entirely compared to the nervous and shaking version from earlier. “So, what ground rules should we set to make it at least quite convincing?”

“No kissing, unless we are pressured into one,”

“You’re not completely objecting the idea of kissing me,”

“Believe me, I’d rather have virgin lips than kiss you,”

“Ouch,” Jay held onto his chest, feigning hurt. “Wanna try practising?”

“You have other girls to practise on anyway, no thank you,”

“But you’re my only girl now,” he shrugged, staring down at his fingers and avoiding your stare. Was he shy? You would be lying if you said he didn’t make your heart flutter slightly with his words, but you forced yourself to push those thoughts down, denying them instantly.

"Shush," you rolled your eyes, the man opposite you snickering instead. "Maybe a soft launch might work,"

"I literally called you my girlfriend in the middle of a fight, I don't think that's any part of a soft launch,"

"You're right, we've already skipped that part," you tapped at your chin, pondering thoughtfully before Jay interjected.

"You have to come to my matches,"

"Every one of them? I don't watch hockey much,"

"Just be there for show, most of the teammates' girlfriends are there and trust me, they don't care much either," he glanced over at the rink for a brief moment, then turned back to meet your eyes. "You'll fall in love with me the moment you watch me play,"

"Alright, hotshot. When's the next match?"

“This Friday,” he winked, resting an arm on the seat and casually leaning a little closer. “But before that, wanna come to a party? It’s pretty much a ‘pregame party’, that’s what they call it, but I’m sure it’s a lame excuse to just have a party in general for every week. I can pick you up though, we'll get to have our second hard launch,”

“You’re lucky I’m not feeling murderous anymore,” you snapped back, still in disbelief at yourself that you actually agreed to all this. “Pick me up at 7,” you mumbled begrudgingly, watching a smile stretched on Jay’s face.

“Say less.”

“YOU’RE DATING WHO—”

Spilling the tea to Minji on a random Wednesday morning was a chaotic decision. You couldn't help yourself from letting loose all of the information that was bottled up internally. She took everything in rather calmly and fairly, that was until Jay's name was mentioned.

It was just a day before the party, and you couldn't lie, you're starting to panic. What if you didn't know anyone there? What if you're under dressed? What if you're overdressed? What ifs stormed your mind, you were a natural overthinker after all.

"Fake dating," you corrected, cringing once the words left your mouth and you realised how ridiculous it sounded.

“I didn’t know you liked Wattpad cliches so much,”

"Shut up," you muttered half-heartedly, pursing your lips slightly. "Do you think I'll regret this?"

"Will you end up falling for him?" Minji shot back and you hadn't expected that.

"God forbid," you chuckled, though rather nervously. Chances were low at the moment, but it wasn't completely impossible, and that was the problem.

“This won’t be like those movies where they pretend to date and actually end up falling in love,” you laughed, trying to play off the hidden horror you had.

"This will come back and bite your ass," Minji said simply, not noticing your wide eyes and panicked gaze.

"Don't jinx it, hello!"

"My bad," Minji shrugged nonchalantly. “How did he even convince a non party goer like you to attend one?”

“He wants to ‘hard launch’ us for a second time,”

“Cute?” Minji mused, nudging you softly, wiggling her eyebrows. "Any outfits planned?"

"Nope," you regretted saying this because in the next second, you noticed a menacing grin on Minji's face. If there's one thing you know about her, it's that she loves dress ups, and you were about to be her next model.

Minji dragged you back to your dorm, pushing you onto the bed and ripping your closet doors open, rummaging through intensely.

"This won't do," you heard her mumble quietly before pulling out a mini skirt and a simple crop top. "Bingo,"

"You can't be serious,"

Turns out, she was. Both of the pieces have yet to be worn in a long time, so you didn’t know how it would fit you, leading up to the moment when you tried it on, you instantly felt your head pound. The skirt was God forbiddingly short, the crop top hugging tight against your body. The entirety might've looked plain, but it was a slutty plain.

You were already running late, panic and stress in your system giving you slight adrenaline as you finished up some last touches on your makeup. If Minji wasn't out for a dinner date, you would've been strangling her for the outfit and for the untimely lack of support.

“You took quite a while in there,” Jay said the moment you entered his luxurious sleek black Mercedes. You knew he was loaded, everyone did actually, but it still managed to shock you somehow.

“I was giving myself a pep talk to not try and run away from this party,” you flashed him a sarcastic smile.

“Haha,” Jay replied flatly, unamused. “It’ll be an easy party, don’t worry, you won’t get mauled. I’ll just introduce you around and then you go have some drinks, soon we’ll be back before you know it,”

“You’re not drinking right?”

“You think I’d like to be charged with a DUI?”

“Have you ever thought about that when you drive multiple girls home after parties?”

“It’s not nice to slut shame,”

“Whatever you say.”

The car ride to the house was quick and loud. It was calming when you and Jay were vibing to some music along the way up until the two of you started fighting over who was the best rapper in the industry, that eventually led to debating which genre is the greatest. The debate continued on even after entering the threshold, but nervousness washed over you once you were met with unfamiliar faces.

“Pop is not even considered in this deb—”

“Jay, hold my hand,”

“What—”

“Hold my hand,” you repeated firmly, and he listened despite being in a daze, intertwining his hand in yours, instinctively pulling you closer. “We have to make this convincing, remember?”

“Right,” he squeezed your hand lightly, unknowingly giving you a hint of reassurance. “Stick by me, some of the people here are not the best,”

“Thanks, I can’t wait to get out of here,”

Jay only rolled his eyes at your words, a slight grin tugged at his lips. He held onto your hand tightly, pulling you further into the crowded house, occasionally turning his head back to check on you. “There, my hockey boys,” he nodded towards a small group by a small makeshift bar, instantly recognizing them from that day at the rink.

“What if I told you now that I have social anxiety,” you whispered into his ears, trying to give him your best pleading eyes.

“It’ll be a little too late now,” he returned a knowing stare, clearly unfazed by your tricks. Smart bastard. “Come on, you’ve already met them anyway,”

“Y/N!” Heeseung was the one who spotted you first, waving his hand enthusiastically, Sunghoon following suit. You returned a small wave, but you tensed, feeling Jay removing his hand from yours, sneaking onto your waist instead. You were not strong enough for this, you were a woman with desires at the end of the day.

“Hey,” Jay greeted them, resting his hand on your hip, your hand unconsciously travelling to his back, his smirk at your touch going unnoticed.

“So, Y/N, is he still in ‘complicated’ status?” Sunghoon brought up, eliciting a small laugh from Heeseung, meanwhile Jay was equally confused and unimpressed at his teammates’ unseriousness.

“Don’t worry, he has upgraded,” you prodded him, passing a pleased smile to the other two.

“Will we be seeing you at our games?”

“Maybe,” you said vaguely, feeling Jay’s hand leaving your hips and sneaking lower towards the hem of your skirt and slowly pulling at it. You turned your head, meeting his eyes and at that moment, you felt something you denied over the last week. You were weak, you were definitely not God’s strongest soldier. It was bare minimum, but you still appreciated the little things.

“Let’s go walk around,” Jay suggested, leaning close to you, his face only inches away from yours, his hand squeezing your hip gently. Who knew he was this good at acting?

“Don’t be too protective over her, Jay boy!” Sunghoon called out as he dragged you away from his friends, earning a soft laugh from you and grudging mumbles from him.

“They tend to be quite a handful sometimes, sorry about that,” Jay said apologetically, leading you to a room full of people playing beer pong and some other drinking games.

“Don’t worry about it, they seem fine,” you brushed him off, pressing yourself closer to his side in caution as your eyes scanned the whole room. “They don’t look like they believe the fact that you’re actually ‘dating’ someone though,”

“They once said they would be married by the time I found someone,” he scoffed, pulling you into an unoccupied coach. “Which isn’t true,” he continued, placing a pillow on your exposed thighs. “I just haven’t found the one, or just not yet. Maybe I already did and I just didn’t know, ”

“Take it easy, loverboy,” you softly punched his shoulder, making him grin a little. He was cute, you couldn’t lie about that, but your heart continued to. “You’re still young, you should be worrying about it only if you’re 35 and single,”

“You’re right,” he nodded solemnly, his attention averted away. "It's Juyeon,"

At that moment, Juyeon walked into the room, greeting some of his friends and welcoming hugs from them, the atmosphere in the room became noisier. Your gaze followed his figure, blinking quicker than usual as you suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of alarm.

"Don't drool," Jay clicked his tongue, his eyes turning fierce. What's up with this guy now?

"I'm not," you gritted out, your heart dropping slightly at the sight of Juyeon interacting with other girls. You were lying when you said you didn't care, maybe you did.

"I don't get why you like him anyway, he's a jock, a football jock," he said the last part in distaste, making it seem as though footballers were the worst on earth.

"It's called being interested, dumbass. Having someone to admire makes college life fun," you fought back, caving into Jay's touch when he draped his arm over your waist. You shouldn't be liking this skinship. You mustn't.

"He's coming over, he spotted us," Jay mumbled, flashing his smile at Juyeon's approaching figure. "Act natural,"

"Thanks for the advice," you gritted out dryly, shifting around uncomfortably.

"Yo Jay," Juyeon called out to Jay, dabbing your supposed boyfriend up, a friendly smile on his face that blinded your vision and made your heart eyes appear. Fuck.

"Sup," Jay greeted back, breathing out a quiet laugh. “Oh, this is—”

“Y/N,” Juyeon finished Jay’s sentence at once, his gaze shifted onto you now, causing you to shy under his stare. “Partner from Chemistry?”

“That’s me,” you beamed at him, clapping your hands together, absentmindedly leaning further into Jay’s hold.

“I don’t normally see you at these type of parties,”

“Not a big party person,” you scratched the back of your neck, the feeling of awkwardness creeping up on you. You were never the best at meeting new people, though Juyeon wasn’t exactly a total stranger, but he wasn’t someone you were close to either.

“Right,” he paused for a moment, peering back and forth between you and Jay, a slight raise of his eyebrow. “So what brings the two of you here? You’re Jay’s date for the night?”

“She’s Jay’s girlfriend, actually,” the man himself spoke beside you, his hand on your waist pulling you closer to his side, a tight smile on his face. "My girlfriend,"

You could feel heat crawling up the back of your neck, choosing to avert your attention away and see what Juyeon’s reaction was. Turns out he was grinning, he was fucking grinning?

“Jay with a girlfriend? For real?”

Jay let out a scoff, seemingly offended by everyone’s surprise. Hell, if you didn’t know him and found out he had a girlfriend, you’ll be surprised too. “Yes, dickhead, surprise,” he grumbled, earning a chuckle from the footballer, who clearly loved irking Jay.

“Chill, good for you, man. About time,” he lightly slapped Jay’s shoulder and you sat quietly, not knowing what to say either. You really wanted to leave. “I’ll be at tomorrow’s match, see you,”

“Yeah, yeah, bye,” Jay bid a half-assed goodbye to Juyeon while you just waved at him instead, a tight lipped smile on your face. Once he was out of the picture, your head whipped to stare at the hockey player next to you, an impatient plea to leave this party written all over your features.

“Fine,” he sighed, letting you slip your hand in his. “How was all that?” he asked coolly, but you noticed a hint of displeasure in his tone, yet you waved it off again.

“I don’t know, he’s … okay, I guess,” you shrugged, truly confused about your current feelings. The thought of Jay stormed your mind. Juyeon? That’s the last J name of your concerns right now. But will you ever admit out loud that you were thinking about Jay, the man who constantly gives you headaches? Fuck no.

“Just ‘okay’?”

You hummed in response, sensing that he was a little bit more at ease after hearing your answer. He was easy to read, too easy.

“Does that make me better than him?”

“Woah, don’t get too ahead of yourself, Park,”

“Don’t hurt my ego like that,”

“Am not,”

“Come on, say I’m better, hotter and funnier than him,” he egged on, inching closer to you, a teasing grin stretched on that stupid face of his.

“Zipping my mouth shut,” you gestured at your lips, deadpanning at him.

“You’re too afraid to admit it,”

“Whatever you say, big head,” you bumped his shoulder and he stumbled a little, narrowing his eyes at you, a challenging smirk plastered on his face. Oh no.

In the next minute, Jay swept you off your feet and threw you over his shoulder. You let out a sharp yelp, unable to process everything at once, hearing Jay’s playful laugh fill the streets in the quietness of the night.

“You’re so dead,” you seethed, hitting his back with your utmost might, but he only cackled in response.

“Whatever you say, pea brain,” Jay mocked, earning him another hard punch on his back and this time, it actually made him wince. Choosing the safest route for himself, he kept his mouth shut.

Thus, you had no choice but to give into hanging over a hockey boy’s shoulder as the two of you ventured into the night in search of his car, not realising the mess you’ll be facing soon.

IT’S OFFICIAL. YOU'VE REACHED THE STAGE OF REGRET.

It was the next day, hockey game day, you turned up at the arena and copped a good seat. You might be wondering, ‘what’s so bad about a hockey game to the point you start regretting everything’, well if you could trade places with anybody in the world right now, you would, and that said a lot.

Jay had greeted you for barely five minutes before the game, rushing away immediately once he saw the time, giving you an apologetic hug that almost had you convinced this was real. What he hadn’t prepared you earlier, was the fact that there was a fucking kiss cam. One look at the jumbotron and you knew you were doomed.

‘KISS CAM’ was written clearly on the screen, the music in the arena was drowned out completely and you felt your heart drop. It might’ve seemed overdramatic for you to react like this, but in reality, kissing a stranger was terrifying. Your first kiss was already a nightmare, let alone kissing someone you don’t know, what would make it better?

“Nothing will happen,” you assured yourself over and over again, unaware that somebody had just slipped in the seat beside you.

“Hey,”

You flinched, brought out of your daze and you met Juyeon’s eyes. Good-fucking-bye to the world right now. His smile distracted you, having you muted and malfunctioning. Cool. This was cool. You’re cool.

“Hi,” you gave him a small smile that turned out more awkward than you thought.

“Supporting Jay today?” he nodded at the rink where the team was currently practising, your eyes wandering over to Jay’s figure.

“Him and the team. School spirit, you know?”

“Yeah,” he chuckled. “I heard about the kiss cam—” he pointed towards the screen and you wanted to close your eyes instead, but basic courtesy mattered. “—apparently for raising funds,”

Raising funds through a kiss cam? What was this? ‘The Kissing Booth: hockey edition’?

“That’s … interesting,” you uttered, nervousness laced in your voice.

You were saved from the awkward tension just as the game started, secretly wishing you had Minji with you instead of a mouth watering football player next to you. The game was intense, effectively grabbing your attention away from your surroundings, but the flash of the kiss cam starting its quest on finding couples was distracting.

As the game progressed, you grew confident that your mind was just playing games in making you anxious and nothing would happen. Your mind eased as you joined in the cheering when the home team finally scored a goal, watching the team celebrate had you grinning, staring down at a specific number 99.

The high soon died down and you chose to glance up at the jumbotron, the kiss cam focused on a cute couple who were weirdly making out instead of just simply kissing. PDA, yucks. It then swiftly moved on to another pair, thankfully. They were probably strangers, but being good sports, they shared a quick peck, earning some ‘awh’s from the crowd. Another change, your eyebrows furrowed, a frown tugged at your lips, was that—

It was. Your nightmare has come. For a moment you wondered if you were hallucinating, but a couple of beats later, you came to the realisation you were not. The kiss cam was focused on you and … Juyeon. When you said you were interested in him, you didn’t mean this, nope not at all.

Embarrassingly and reluctantly, you avoided the footballer’s gaze and shook your head, feeling tripped out as you stared at your own self on the screen, catching some disappointed groans from a few people. “I have a boyfriend,” you mouthed, trying your best to seem apologetic, but Juyeon didn’t look like he wanted to back down.

“You don’t want to kiss me?” he murmured, attempting to seem as lowkey as possible.

“I have a boyfriend, sorry,” you pressed your lips into a flat line, not enjoying this for a bit. The kiss cam swerved away to pinpoint another pair, but Juyeon was persistent.

“Come on, don’t pretend you don’t want to kiss me,”

You glared at him, your features turning sour, in disbelief at what you’ve just heard. Was he serious? “Excuse me?”

“Forget about Jay, I know how you were looking at me that night,” he whistled lowly under his breath and you scoffed, but you were caught off guard almost immediately when you saw the kiss cam lighting up in the corner of your eyes, and it zoomed into your face again. FML.

“He’ll never know,” he arched an eyebrow, welcoming the idea hugely. Scumbag.

“I don’t stoop that low you fuck—”

Before you could jump Juyeon and curse him out, a loud crash startled you and everyone around. You jumped in your seat, your head turned towards the direction of the noise. Jay was in front of you, his fist against the glass, helmet in hand. If looks could kill, you would’ve been dead.

Wet strands of hair stuck onto his forehead, his eyes narrowed into a death stare as it trained on Juyeon. “Fuck off,” he yelled through the glass barrier, his fist clenched. “Back off,”

The blood in Juyeon’s face was completely drained, obvious embarrassment and shame washed over him, but knowing him and his ego, he played it off, pretending as if that didn’t happen. “Whatever,” he got up from his seat and stormed off. Deserved.

You hid the small smile forming on your face, your sights redirecting towards Jay, your heart beating wildly against your chest the moment you met his eyes, softening when he mouth ‘you okay’. You nodded back at him and you could tell he instantly loosened up, returning a half smile before turning away and joining the team.

Moral of the story: don’t fall for playboys, which sounded pretty ironic considering the situation you were currently in.

The game had thankfully ended in a win for the home team, and honestly, that whole experience seemed to be years instead of just a few hours. Never again. You were glad to see Jay and everyone else cheerfully exiting the rink, taking that as the cue for you to chase after him.

Upon arriving outside the locker room, you found yourself standing awkwardly as you waited for him to appear, greeting his friends half-heartedly when they were on the way out. Your patience was thinning and only until then, he only decided to appear, a little shocked that you were there.

“Congrats on the win,” you joined his side and walked together, letting his shoulder brush against yours softly.

“Thanks,” he mumbled, a lollipop in his mouth. You didn’t enjoy this questionable tension between the two of you, noticing his rigidness.

“Hey!” You cut to the chase, snatching the lollipop from his lips, finally getting his attention as he turned to stare at you with wide eyes. “What was that for?”

“Nothing,” he shrugged it off, and you didn't understand why, you could tell he was blatantly lying.

“You're acting really weird,” you narrowed your eyes at him in accusation.

“Am I?”

“Ask yourself that,” you huffed, instinctively putting the lollipop into your mouth, not bothering to care anymore. “Anyway, I think mission Juyeon is officially cancelled, he gives me the ick, didn't know he was such a big douchebag,”

“Told you so,” he shrugged, his gaze wavering from your lips to your eyes. Woah. “Keep the lollipop, I have loads,” he gulped, avoiding your eyes.

“Drop me off?” You suggested, putting on the most convincing, sweetest smile, which somehow worked since it got Jay to grudgingly mumble a ‘yes’.

“I would give you a kiss right now if I could.” You skipped on, leaving Jay to tail behind you, your words ringing in his ears.

Maybe somewhere inside, he did wish you would.

“SEE? I TOLD YOU HE WAS A JERK,”

Minji continuously flailed her hands dramatically as you and she made your way through the campus. It was the week of the hockey event that Jay had mentioned, meaning another restless week of frat party, dress shopping, hockey match and then a fancy event.

“Yes, yes, I know, you've made your point,” you grumbled annoyingly, having not one but two people saying the same to you.

“It's quite cute that Jay stood up for you though,” she nudged your side, her eyes glinting. You knew what she was indicating.

“Fake dating, fake. Not real,” you threw your hands up in defeat, but internally, you were beginning to second guess if you even wanted to call it fake, maybe deep down, you didn't want it to be.

“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” Minji mumbled, but you were able to catch onto it, huffing in denial next to her. “Anyway, when are you going shopping? The event’s this weekend already,”

“Fuck, I forgot,” you brushed your hand through your hair, having another headache to add on to. “Do you have any nice fancy dresses? I'm sure Jay is ready but I'm not,”

Minji flashed a knowing smirk, she definitely had something up her sleeve. “You know I do. I'll bring them to your dorm and we're going to have a whole makeover,”

“You're not going to burn my hair this time right?”

“We'll see.”

A few days had passed and it was your second hockey pregame party, repeatedly cursing that your Thursday night was ruined once more, but seeing Jay’s pleading eyes at your doorstep, you just had to give in again. How did he have that effect on you?

“She’s going to be at the party,” Jay noted casually on the way to the house.

“Oh,” you pursed your lips, not knowing what to say next. “What’s her name? You’ve never mentioned,”

“Sujin,”

“Her?” you gasped, eyes widened in plain shock. Out of all the girls he could’ve had his heart broken by, it had to be the infamous Instagram blogger who was known to play around. Look, you've always been a supporter of every woman's rights and wrongs, but she was way beyond any defending.

“Yeah …” Jay sighed, his fingers drumming lightly on the steering wheel. “We were high school lovers, but things went sour in college,”

“Well, forget about her, you want to prove her wrong right? Then prove her wrong,”

“You're oddly over confident today,”

“What's wrong with confidence, Park?”

He glanced over at you briefly, a wide grin on his face as he shook his head. “Nothing. I just like to see confidence on you,”

You rolled your eyes, but something inside you twisted, finding yourself ignoring whatever feelings that sparked internally. “Are you ready for Saturday?”

“Suit’s ready, but me? So so, I guess,”

“You sound pessimistic, don’t tell me you’re starting to regret all these,”

“Hey, now you’re just putting words into my mouth,” Jay grumbled, putting the car into park right outside of the familiar frat house. “I won’t ever regret you or this whole thing, now come on,”

You weren’t left a single second to even process the fact that he said he won't regret you. Yes, you, not just this stupid scheme, but you. Upon entering the threshold, you were met with a cup of beer thrusted into your face from a passing Heeseung, your other hand occupied by Jay’s, trying your best to make it past the crowd without stumbling over. Everything was a whirlwind.

“Fuck, she’s here,” his hold on you tightened and you followed his line of sight, your gaze landing on the over dressed Instagram model, her skirt a little too small and her heels a little too high.

“Just act normal, Jay. You said you’re over her, then you should act like that,” you yanked him close to you, walking over to the mini bar, pouring yourself a drink. “That’s her boyfriend?” you nodded at the taller man towering beside Sujin, his face contrary to the one you had in mind.

“Yeah, that’s Intak,” he said quietly, aware of the lingering ears around the two of you. “Seeing him every time we have a game against his team is revolting, I can’t believe I have to see him here too,”

“Then look away,” you pushed his face softly, earning a huff of annoyance from him. “Come on, it’ll be over in an hour,” you rubbed the side of his arm in comfort, his lips twisting into an endearing smile.

“You’re right,” Jay sighed, blinking harshly, his gaze flickering between you and your surroundings. “I’ll go find Heeseung and Sunghoon for a moment, is that okay? Will you be alright alone? You can come along too. If you want—”

“It’s fine, Jay, really,” you laughed, putting your hands up to stop him from blabbering on. “Go find them, call me when it’s time to leave,”

“I’ll come find you once I’m done,” he held onto your shoulder, pressing a hasty kiss on the top of your head before turning away to another room in search of his hockey teammates.

Safe to say you were able to find yourself a company, who turned out to be a girl you knew from your literature class. Why was she there? She didn’t know either and you thought the best was to not question further, grateful that you were not alone in this house of strangers. The clock was spinning fast, soon it was already past midnight and Jay was nowhere to be seen. You were praying that you weren’t in a remake of ‘Scream’.

The feeling of unease crept up on you and you couldn’t handle it any longer, standing up from the couch and storming into different rooms of the house, all occupied and filled with people, none of those were Jay. The last option you had was the upstairs, which lied the unimaginable behind those rooms that you were not about to explore, thank you very much!

Wandering the upstairs of a rather large frat house all alone was quite a challenge, especially when you were trying to hunt a 5’10 hockey jock, adding onto the fact that you literally and physically bumped (crashed, actually) into said hockey jock’s enemy in the corridors, shit was turning upside down.

“Fuck—sorry,” you coughed out, regretting your last sober choice of bringing your beer cup along.

“Shit—it’s fine, no worries,” Jay's enemy/ex’s boyfriend, Intak, reassured, dabbing himself off with some napkins that were miraculously lying on a table nearby.

“I feel bad, if you need it cleaned I can help,” you frowned, leaning over to see the damage you’ve caused: a yellowish stain on his once perfect white tee.

“No, it’s completely fine, shit happens,” he laughed, waving his hand, an awkward silence filling the air momentarily. “So, why are you even up here?”

“Oh—I’m finding … someone,” you gave him a tight-lipped smile.

His eyes lit up. “Me too, actually. I can’t leave the party without them and gosh, I’m getting a headache already,”

“Twins, I think the beer is getting to me soon,” you clapped your hands, glancing around for any signs of Jay.

“Before that happens, may I know your name first?”

You raised your eyebrows. “It’s Y/N,”

“Nice to meet you, Y/N, I’m Intak,” you accepted his handshake, trying your best to be friendly and not seem awkward. "I play in a hockey team, the one that's playing against yours for tomorrow,"

"Right," you nodded as though you hadn't already known that prior to this. "I would wish you good luck on normal occasions, but since it's against the home team … I need to keep my school spirit,"

Intak let out a small laugh. "Totally understandable," he met your eyes, a hint of sheer curiosity in them. "Do you have a date for tonight—"

"Intak?"

"Y/N?"

You, together with the hockey player, turned around to find each other's partners standing down the corridor next to one another, a look of confusion written on their faces. But you, you had anger and an obvious "what the fuck" painted onto your expressions, and it was clear that Jay had noticed it too when he came close.

"Uh—we're leaving now, bye," Jay murmured, grabbing a hold of your wrist and dragging you away, giving you only a brief second to say goodbye to Intak.

You didn't and couldn't understand what was happening, just hating the way Jay was acting. You kept your mouth shut until you were completely out of the house and walking towards the car when you yanked your hand out of Jay's hold, causing him to look back at you in a daze.

"God, you're such a dickhead!" You seethed, breathing heavily.

"What?"

"'What' was all you could say? Jay, you left me in that party alone for God knows how long and then you disappear on me just for me to find you running back to your ex? Make it make sense,"

"I didn't run back to her, Y/N, for fuck's sake," Jay ran a hand through his hair, his lips pressed into a thin line. "She pulled me away and started claiming weird shit that never happened, I wanted to leave but she kept persisting until I managed to break down the fucking doorknob,"

Silence fell between the two of you, the dark of the night consuming your thoughts and the moon was staring down at you, your mind and soul in a daze. You couldn't understand why you were feeling this way, after all, it was fake, it wasn't real.

"I believe you," you sighed, gulping down the anxiety building up within you. "Forget it, it's fine, sorry for being so worked up, it's not like we're really dating, right?"

You looked at him, noticing his eyebrows furrowed and eyes glinting with something unreadable, his mouth opened then shut, wanting to say something but nothing came out, heaving a small sigh. "You're right, it's not real anyway."

As much as you wished to forget it, you couldn't. The way he wasn't even fighting and being in denial, his words stemming sadness into your heart and reminding you again and again that it was never real to begin with.

Fake dating was meant to be fake, wasn't it?

“I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'VE BROUGHT ME HERE FOR EMOTIONAL SUPPORT,”

Friday night hockey was something you loved, but after what happened yesterday, you dreaded coming.

You still remembered the tension filled air on the way back to your dorms, the silence in the car and the quiet exchange of "goodnight" haunted you. Crashing into Minji's bed having a breakdown definitely made you two come to a conclusion that you were indeed harbouring something for Jay. Were you going to straightforwardly admit it? Never.

Now, you had zero balls to be at the game alone, choosing to drag Minji along and you knew even if she was vocally complaining, she was actually enjoying the hot hockey players secretly.

"Did you talk to Jay after yesterday night?"

"No,"

"Will you?"

"Maybe,"

"I think that's a 'yes',"

You stared pointedly at her and she shrugged, resuming her watch on the hockey players practising. You watched along as well, your eyes instinctively following Jay's figure, but then you noticed Intak on the far end as well. Somehow, you knew that this match wasn't about to end well.

"Is this seat empty?" A voice startled you from your internal monologue, snapping your head just in time to see little miss ex standing over you.

"Oh—yes," you said uneasily, grabbing your phone immediately to text Minji.

you: it's her

jiji: who

you: the girl next to me!!! that's jay's EX.

jiji: YOU'RE KIDDING

you: i wished

You exchanged a wary look with Minji, playing it off as natural as you could as you sensed Sujin sitting next to you, elbowing Minji in panic and she does the same back to you, making it look wild and weird from a third perspective. You stopped the frenzy nudging war with Minji, swallowing thickly and hoping nothing happened, but actually, something did, hooray!

“You’re Jay’s girlfriend?” you heard her asking and you turned your head slowly, meeting her blinking eyes and curious gaze.

“Yes,” you tried your best for it to sound convincing, and it seemed to have worked.

“Cool.” she whistled under her breath, returning her gaze back to the arena and you resisted rolling your eyes, biting back a snarl.

The game started in a haze, both teams trying to break one another’s defence and score a goal, yet it all failed in the end, turning it into a tie for two periods straight. You and Minji sighed in disappointment, watching the home team giving their best to not collapse there and then. Sujin, on the other hand, looked nervous throughout the game, occasionally standing up and clapping.

The third period approached in a blink of an eye, two teams eager to score and win, the tension was high and you could tell they were sweating heavy loads. It began in a peaceful and lowkey attack, but shoving and punches were seen here and there, earning entertained jeers from the crowd. You sighed, both in exasperation and stress, hoping nothing would land Jay a bad game. But everything proved you the opposite once more.

Your eyes widening in the next moment, noticing two players shoving each other and throwing gloves onto the ice, punches almost thrown but was interjected by the referee and teammates. Lord, it just had to be Jay and Intak, it was basically written in the stars, wasn’t it?

Once the game had ended, you couldn’t care less about the scoreline, listening to Minji’s brief rants on how not to fumble your emotions about Jay and stopping her halfway through, pointing to the clock as your time ticked. You were attempting to squeeze your way out when you heard a cough behind you and to your disappointment, it had to be Sujin.

“You’re aware of who I am, right?” you heard the sneer in her voice, holding in the urge to rip her hair out and instead, remained facing away from her.

“Don’t worry, I do. You’re Jay’s dumpster ex girlfriend,”

“What—”

Timing was right and you took the chance to slip away, thanking the world that you were finally miles away from Jay’s dusty ex. All of that didn’t matter though, the important aspect was finding Jay now, awkwardly speed walking to locate Jay’s whereabouts.

Upon arriving at the front of the familiar locker rooms, you patiently waited, feeling a sense of deja vu. That wasn’t all. Your anxiety was at its highest point. What were you about to say to Jay? Can you even face him? What if you pussied out and ran away—

“Y/N?” speaking of the devil …

You whipped your head around, Jay’s curious eyes meeting your panicked ones, your whole body frozen to the spot as he approached you, taking a cautious step at a time.

“Are you alright? Were you hurt?” you couldn’t help it, after seeing the minor fight on ice, your first natural instinct was to ask him this. Jay lowered his head, hiding a smile that was threatening to appear. A small sense of relief washed over you.

“I’m fine … thanks. Just a small conflict,” he muttered, then proceeded by a brief moment of silence, where you swore it felt like forever considering how it was just quiet stares and exchanges of friendly smiles, and you couldn’t really handle it much longer, being the one to break first.

“Jay, I—uhm—yesterday, the party thing, I’m sorry about it, I don’t want that to make things awkward between us,” you gesture wildly at the space between you and him, his eyes following your movements. “And it’s wrong for me to say those stuff,”

“It’s partially my fault too. I’m the one to blame to ditch you,”

“I’m the one who accused you of shit and I feel really bad for assuming something I don’t know. I just got worked up, I’m sorry,”

He took hold of your hands, grasping onto them tightly as though he was fearing you’d run away. “Y/N, do you trust me?”

Do you trust him?

In a heartbeat, the answer was an obvious ‘yes’. You had to admit, you did initially find him annoying and a total fuckboy that you knew would break your heart, but as time passed, you couldn’t care anymore. Even if it meant your heart was on the line, at least you knew Jay was genuine about you; at the very least, there was someone who would stand up for you, listen to your rants about music, and put you first.

“Yes,”

Jay pulled your hand, practically yanking you towards him, landing on his chest with a thud and a heart thumping crazily, butterflies swarmed your stomach and you could feel heaven getting close, aka you dying in Jay’s arms. He pressed his head on the top of yours, feeling his heart beating against your chest, his cologne no stranger to you now.

“When I said you’re my girl, I meant it, it doesn’t matter if it’s fake or not, I’ll always care for you, and I will never ever hurt you, so please—” an underlying mix of desperation, hurt and care were laced in his voice, and you were weak, weak for him. “—trust me, and even if it means I need to earn it or whatever, I will,”

“Jay…” you faltered, resting your chin on his shoulder, arms wrapped around his waist. “I’m sorry for not trusting you, I should’ve heard you out, of course I do trust you,”

Jay was silent for a second, whispering a quiet ‘thank you’ and pressing a swift kiss on your forehead, which didn’t get completely unnoticed by you, but you decided to not say anything about it, letting yourself melt into his arms. Internally, you were conflicted, torn between whether your feelings about him were mutual, you were scared, petrified that you’ve already broken the first and most important rule of fake dating:

Do not catch feelings.

jayjay: DUMPSTER EX? you’re soo foul for that

you: truth hurts unfortunately :/ you never told me what happened that day

jayjay: it was stupid, he just started attacking me, for OBVIOUS reasons, so i couldn’t help defending back :(

you: i’m glad you didn’t get your ass beat

jayjay: gasp you have zero confidence in me!

Tossing your phone to the side was a hard task considering how Jay was basically spamming your message inbox, ranging from panicking about the event that was happening at night to gossiping about exes, he was certainly experiencing many emotions. You were similarly distraught, having a hard time choosing between a black dress or a red one, placing them in front of you for evaluations that just ended up failing.

“By the time we’re done I think the party would’ve ended,” Minji groaned from her side of the room, lounging on her bed as she watched you glancing between the two dresses.

“Not helping,”

“I literally chose the black one and you told me, in your words, ‘what if I looked better in red’ girl, that’s your problem now,”

“I'm indecisive and you know that,” you mumbled sourly, picking the black dress in the end. You were grateful for the fashion Gods, the dress was an absolute banger and you didn’t understand how you even picked it out, you just knew.

“See? I told you,” Minji whistled, manhandling you to do a forceful 180 turn for her, and from the way her face morphed into a smile, you could tell she was pleased. "Jay would drop dead when he sees you," she squealed.

"God I hope not," you joked, squeezing onto your clutch tightly.

jayjay: im outside :)

"He's here," you hissed, becoming frantic all of a sudden, double checking everything at the last minute before slipping your heels on, making sure to give Minji a small kiss on the cheek too and off you went dashing towards Jay's car, noticing his figure faced away, leaning against his car as you got nearer.

"Hi," you panted, masking the fatigue and exhaustion from the amount of panic and stress you went through in those 5 minutes.

You could see Jay glancing up from his phone, then shoving it into his back pocket and turning his head around, his burning eyes locked with yours. A smirk slowly stretched onto his lips, a mischievous glint in his gaze as he sweeped your figure. You were no better, eyes shamelessly boring into him, scanning his attire and you swore your legs were shaking.

Him in a plain black suit shouldn’t be affecting you, but it was. The prada tie hung around neck was equally distracting, how was he making something so simple seem breathtaking? You hated him for it, yes, you absolutely do. His hair was styled back and a single loose strand hung over his forehead, practically challenging the Zayn Malik look.

“Hey,” his hand instinctively reached for your waist, bringing you closer to him. “You look amazing—you’re amazing,” he breathed out, completely transfixed.

“You look great too,” that’s a lie, he looked more than just great.

“Getting complimented by you for once? Honoured,”

“You should be,” you snickered, letting Jay guide you to the passenger side and adoring the way he opened the car door for you. Although it was a small gesture, you appreciate it greatly considering how literally no man had done this for you before. Known fuckboy Park Jong Seong was proving you wrong day by day.

The drive there began quietly and you knew it was going to take a while since it’s quite a distance away, fearing it would be awkward silence once more, but the moment Jay had switched the radio on, the music discourse started, then it progressed into movies.

“I can’t believe you hate rom coms!” you gasped, staring at him in horror as he fumbled to defend himself.

“Look, I didn’t say hate, but it’s just pointless,”

“You’re telling me you’ve never watched the classic rom coms before?” you dramatically leaned away from him, earning a huff.

“No,” he grumbled.

“That’s criminal,” you exclaimed, a little evil idea forming in that brain of yours. “I’m making you watch them,”

“You’re so not,”

“Oh, I am,” you beamed, clapping your hands together. “There are ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 days’, ‘Notting Hill’, ‘Pretty Woman’, the list goes on and on and Julia Roberts is literally a rom com legend—oh my God, please tell me you’ve watched Mamma Mia before,”

“Of course I did! I’m not that bad,”

“I’m glad,” you let out a sigh of relief, sinking into your seat and making a mental note to write down a list of rom coms to watch with Jay. A rom com marathon date with Jay, cute. The rest of the ride, you listened to Jay’s hilarious rants about the pizzas he tried and the interesting stories from his trips abroad.

The venue was absolutely spacious and screamed sponsored. It was at some five star hotel, the parking was already a clear indication that it wasn’t a hotel to be taken lightly in consideration. Even Jay was surprised, his head twisting and turning to look at the small details of everything, his hand in yours and it genuinely felt like you were dragging a curious child around.

“Didn’t know the hockey associations had this in them,” he cooed, entering the ballroom of the hotel, a big hockey banner hung at the stage, round tables littered here and there, a huge space in the middle for the dancefloor and as for the cherry on top, a wide array of food and drinks displayed freely. Maybe you didn’t fully regret coming.

Despite all that, you only managed to recognise one or two people from the hockey team, but the rest of them were plain strangers, players from different schools that only Jay could probably recognise. You simply felt uneasy.

“Remind me what this is for again?”

“Literally nothing, it’s the same as the frat party but classier I suppose,”

“Real charming,”

“Come on,” Jay said quietly, his hand resting on the small of your back, guiding you towards your designated table, actually glad for once when you saw the hockey team, including Heeseung and Sunghoon. “It’s going to be over soon and hey, you can always talk to the guy’s dates,”

“Will I be seeing their dates the next time?” you arched a quizzical eyebrow at him, knowing their reputation, you wondered if this was a one night exclusive kinda thing, but you weren’t there to judge.

“Hard to say,” Jay frowned.

“Wait—” you paused, placing an arm on Jay’s shoulder. “What about us? This whole deal was for tonight, but what happens after?”

“I don’t think it’s the right time to discuss this right now, Y/N,” Jay glanced back and forth between you and his friends at the table, making sure his voice was extra hushed. “Let’s just survive tonight first, and we’ll talk about the rest after. Capiche?”

You nodded, but deep down, you could tell that talk was already dreaded by the both of you. You’d hate to admit it, but after being with Jay for a while, you were not willing to let go. What if he didn’t feel the same and you’ll just end up being those clingy girls he dated before? It was such a wrong time to think about all these when you’re in the middle of some stupid event, but your mind has its way to put you off, always.

“You okay?” Jay was close, his eyes scanning your face for any signs of emotions. It definitely helped in snapping you out of your daze, and it took your utmost willpower to not shy away or kiss him at that exact moment, he was so pretty, painfully pretty when he was up close for you to be able to capture his every feature.

“Yeah,” you breathed out, squeezing his shoulder lightly before looping your arm around his. “I’m a little hungry,”

“Me too,” Jay groaned, his head turning over to where the buffet was, evidently displaying heart eyes. “I’ll go get us some, you should join them first, and save me a seat too, please,”

“‘Please’? That’s a first from you,”

“Do you want your food or not?”

“You’re so romantic whenever you threaten me,” you shooed Jay away, forcing him to fetch some food while you trudged your way towards the table, Heeseung and Sunghoon nodded at you when you caught their eyes.

"Y/N," the two hockey players regarded you, their dates giving you friendly smiles and you took a seat next to Heeseung's date.

"Heeseung, Sunghoon," you raised your eyebrows. "And the ladies," you have to admit it, at least they had great tastes.

Heeseung and Sunghoon introduced you to their dates, one was Chaewon and the other was Kazuha, both of them being the nicest people you've ever met and you swore you were about to ditch Jay for them instead.

"Hey," Jay finally appeared, his hands were occupied by two plates and thankfully, he was smart enough to fill them up to the brim. He slipped into the empty seat next to you, acknowledging his friends and their dates.

“This is a first,” Heeseung noted thoughtfully, catching both you and Jay off guard.

“Hm?” Jay hummed, passing you the utensils.

“Don’t ‘hm’ me. This is literally my first time seeing you treat a girl like this,”

Jay stared back at his friends as if they were insane, you just stayed amused. “You’re making me sound like I’ve treated other girls like a dickhead,”

“You know what I mean,”

You didn’t. But it seemed Jay did, silently sighing underneath his breath and shrugging Heeseung’s words off, turning to you instead. “I got you some strawberries, I remembered you mentioned loving them once,”

There was a tug at your heartstrings, it was your absolute weakness: people remembering your favourite things; Jay most definitely had a great way to get into your heart and mind. He was slowly but surely ticking off the boxes on the list you’ve created in your head, titled ‘things Jay is forbidden to do so that I WON’T end up liking him’ and he was proving you wrong by checking them off one at a time, damn it.

The food wasn’t the best but the company surely did help. The whole of the hockey team was cracking jokes around the table, you were laughing until your stomach was hurting, the atmosphere high and wild, you were too busy trying not to choke at the jokes to notice that you were practically leaning onto Jay’s side, shoulders touching and you could feel the warmth emanating from his body.

What’s a fancy event without a speech at the end of the night? Other than that boring part, you were relieved to hear there was at least a dance to end the night off on a high with, since the dance floor was there for a reason. The team around the table started dispersing in pairs, until it was only you and Jay left.

“Were you waiting for me to ask?” Jay teased, his eyes lingering on you.

“Isn’t that how it’s supposed to go usually?” you mused, raising an accusing eyebrow at him and he stifled a laugh.

“I’m playing with you. I was waiting for the other’s to leave first so that I could be alone with you—” he bumped your shoulder gently with his, “—and ask you personally,” he stood up from his seat, the soft glow from the lights shone across his face, alighting his delicate features, he looked like a fantasy, too good to be true, and maybe he was. “Would you like to dance?”

“I would love to,” you accepted his hand, allowing him to lead you to the dancefloor and you suddenly felt nervous, hoping you wouldn’t end up tripping or stumbling, or worse, stepping on Jay’s toes. Somehow, he would always sense your distress and this time, it was the same.

“Don’t be nervous, I won’t start hoisting you up like those Disney shows,” he said with his recognizable playful smile that you’ve grown used to.

You were facing him now, his hand not leaving yours and only tightening its grip, pulling you in closer and closer until you were only mere inches away from him, noses almost touching. The other hand of his rested on your waist, yours on his shoulder, eyes not leaving one another. The lights were dimmed down, slow music was playing in the background and you swore you saw something sparked in his gaze as you two started moving to the rhythm.

“I might’ve said it earlier already but genuinely, you’re absolutely breathtaking,” Jay whispered, his voice low and his gaze piercing.

“Have my love potions finally worked?” you smiled, hoping and praying that Jay wouldn’t notice the slight tinge of pink rising to your cheeks.

“I think they did,” Jay nodded slowly, biting his lip for a moment before leaning even more closer, space was basically nonexistent between you two now. “I might want to keep you forever now, keep you by my side and never let you go,”

Could this be his answer? An answer to your countless doubts and thoughts that piled in your mind. This was stupid, he was stupid. Stupidly handsome and charming it had you going insane and you thought hockey jocks wouldn’t have this effect on you, guess you were wrong all along.

“Really?” you breathed out, barely audible, but expectant.

“I don’t think I was ever joking,”

“I—”

“Jay!” Sunghoon’s voice boomed through the crowd and you could see the hope drain from Jay’s face, his eyebrows furrowed and features twisted into annoyance. “Dude, I heard there’s some free booze that costs thousands! Can we please go check it out—am I interrupting something here?”

“You think?” Jay seethed out, taking off his suit’s blazer and placing them over your shoulders. It was something small, maybe even insignificant to others, but to you, it meant a lot, and you were hoping no one noticed your slight shyness after.

“It’s fine,” you placed a reassuring hand on Sunghoon’s shoulder. “You can whisk him off for the night, but don’t make him drunk,”

“Got it,” Sunghoon showed you two thumbs up, throwing his arm around Jay's shoulder.

“I’ll see you later? Call me if you need anything,”

“I’ll be okay, I have Chaewon and Zuha here,”

Jay only silently nodded, begrudgingly following his friend but making sure to turn back and take a last peek of you before fully disappearing away. You were left alone standing in the midst of the dancefloor, feeling a pair of eyes on you and you knew exactly who it was, Sujin.

Maybe this whole plan worked too well, it had you totally forgetting its original objectives and you couldn’t tell if it was a good or bad thing. All you knew was that you needed a long and deep talk with Jay and whatever he said earlier definitely had you on the edge all night while he was somewhere getting wasted. Hey, someone had to be the responsible one, and it happened to be you.

“You’re telling me Heeseung spilled a drink over a girl a few days ago?”

You found yourself giggling and messing around with Chaewon and Kazuha, the three of you sharing odd stories of one another and it evolved into gossiping about your own dates. Chaewon turned to you, a cheeky grin wide on her face.

“You and Jay are dating right?” she nudged you playfully, Kazuha followed with a smile.

“I guess so?” you threw your hands up, sipping from a drink you didn’t really like but still endured.

“You seem unsure—oh wow, did he never confirm it between you two?”

“No, not that—” it was that, it was complicated. “It’s just something’s bugging me,”

“What is?” the two girls leaned in closer.

“Just, the other day at a party, I saw him coming out of a room with his ex and I got mad—”

“Rightfully so,”

“I heard his explanation and I felt bad for jumping to conclusions,”

“Oh, honey, it’s our first instinct, you don’t have to beat yourself up for it,”

“Yeah, I know, I do trust him, he didn’t seem to look like he had just freshly made out with her or anything, but something in me just doesn’t feel like I’ve fully made peace with this whole thing,”

“Which means?”

“I don’t know exactly, I think I’m either super paranoid or simply scared something bad might happen,”

“I might’ve not been with Sunghoon for long enough and I don’t even think we’re a thing, but I’ve hung out with him and Jay included, and it’s enough for me to say that Jay is a good guy. He might be a well known fuckboy at first encounter, but the more you got to know him, you’ll realise he’s actually the sweetest and nicest guy ever,”

“Excluding his reputation,” Chaewon added thoughtfully.

“Excluding that,” Kazuha repeated. “But he probably changed, I don’t see him at many parties anymore after he got with you. It’s cheesy to say but I think you might’ve changed that man,”

“Mhm,” Chaewon nodded along, placing a hand on your thigh and giving you a comforting pat. “Please don’t let some ex overwhelm your thoughts and sever your relationship, I’ve been there and it sucked, believe me. I see the way he looks at you, I can tell he likes you a lot, I really don’t wish anything to happen between you two,”

“Plus, the three of us needs to hang out more, go on dates together, it’ll be fun,”

“Agreed,”

You broke into a smile, laughing softly and leaned into Chaewon’s embrace. “I know we’ve barely met but would it be too soon to say I love you guys?”

“Never,” the two girls snickered in unison.

The night gradually passed without your knowledge, time practically nonexistent when you spoke to your new found besties, only noticing how late it was when you saw people slowly making their way to the exit, hand in hand with their partners, and you thought of Jay. Please don’t be high or drunk somewhere, or just both in general.

“God, look at the time, should we go find them?” Kazuha pointed out, Chaewon stretching her arms out beside her while you readjusted yourself uncomfortably in this dress.

“We really should, they’re probably drunk or something. Come on,” Kazuha pulled you up and it took your utmost strength to not collapse from the pain, all thanks to your killer heels you were now wincing everytime you walked. Beauty is pain indeed.

It didn’t take long for the three of you to spot the hockey guys, distinguishing Sunghoon’s glorious silver hair that shone particularly brighter under the lights from the mirrorball. Although they seemed sober still, you could tell they were beginning to be at their wits end, but forget about them, Jay was nowhere in sight and you couldn’t help feeling unease.

“Where’s Jay?”

“Oh, Jay?”

“Yes, Jay,” you folded your arm, staring expectantly at them.

“He got a call or something just ten minutes back, he said he was supposed to be back soon, as in right now, but he’s not here,” Heeseung said, trying to take a swig of his cup before it was swatted away by Chaewon. “He did go that way,” he pointed at the door that led out to the terrace.

“I’ll go get him,”

“Do you need any of us to help?”

“I’ll be fine … for now,” you gave them a smile of assurance, but you yourself were far from being assured.

Trudging your way past the dispersing crowd, you were wondering where Jay was, silently cursing him out as you continued your way even if your shoes were killing you. Never again. The terrace was a nice place to getaway, the open space looked out to a night sky that was illuminated by skyscrapers and stars, plus the cool night breeze made it even better.

The area was wide, tables and chairs littered here and there, but there was no five feet ten hockey player anywhere. You decided to walk around a little bit more, pulling your phone out and dialling Jay’s number, praying he was somewhere near. There was no way this would be a second reenactment of the party at the beach except this time it’s actually a real scary movie, right?

Wrong.

The moment you rang Jay, you managed a sigh of relief once you heard a ringtone sounding from a distance away, so as anyone would, you followed it, turning around a corner and you saw Jay’s back, elation filled your heart, but before you could even shout his name, your perfect bubble burst.

Jay wasn’t alone, no, he was with someone, a girl. You squint your eyes and you swore your knees turned into jelly in that second. Sujin, the dumpster ex, pulled him into a kiss. A mix of countless emotions swelled in you, whether it was anger, shock or sadness, all you knew was that you needed to get out right now. You couldn’t believe it, Jay, the guy you actually considered was doing this. Maybe trusting him was the worst idea you could ever conjure up your entire life.

“Fuck me,” you cursed out, maybe a little too loudly because it definitely did make Jay stumble back from his ex, turning around to meet your eyes and you could tell he was not expected you here, hell you weren’t even expecting yourself to be in this foolish position.

“What—Y/N?” Jay somewhat looked too disoriented, unaware of what was happening as though he had just woken up 10 years later. But you couldn’t care less, you were hurt and you weren’t about to pretend nothing had happened and start acting jolly good. No, you weren’t going to stand there to let the scene before you swallow you whole, no way, you were going to leave this situation, this stupid event and this entire agreement.

You stormed away, not daring to look back, mustering every bit of courage you had to swallow down a sob and remain prideful, even if it meant you had to fake it till you made it. Hurt wasn’t a stranger to you. You’ve experienced hurt in many forms. Physically, when you fell down on the rough rocky road; emotionally in terms of family, friends, love. But this was a hurt that resembled a deep cut, the feeling of being stabbed in the heart haunted your soul.

“Y/N, wait,”

Fuck, not here, not now, not when you were inside and standing in the middle of the room. Even though there was barely any one here by now, the guys from Jay’s hockey team remained, including Heeseung and Sunghoon, you were not ready to confront or be confronted.

“No, Jay, no ‘wait’,” you put your hand out, distancing yourself away from him, but you could still smell the alcohol in his breath. You wished and hoped he was sober enough for this, because in the next hour you were going to be the one drinking to death instead.

“I can explain—”

“Can you?”

“What?”

“Can you explain this time? Is it just a drunken mistake? Is that what you were going to say?”

“For fuck’s sake, Y/N, we aren’t even dating,”

Heads turned, you could sense people’s attention on the two of you now, but you were far from caring about that, not when Jay’s words felt exactly like a dig at your already fragile heart. God, you were so so stupid and naive.

“Say it again,” the words came out in a whisper, your lips trembling. “Say it again, say how we were never real, how all of this was just a fucking scheme to get back at your ex, and ha—!” you threw your hands up, swallowing down a lump in your throat, “it worked, didn’t it? I ended up falling for your tricks and I ended up falling for you too, funny isn’t it?

Jay’s face twisted upon digesting your words, but you went on.

“I should’ve known that you were using me all along just to get back with her…” you faltered, your voice eventually failing you.

“Y/N, come on…” he said weakly, but you just shook your head.

“Go back to her,”

“Don’t you get it? Fuck, I’d choose you over her, any day, any time. I’d choose you over everyone God damn it. Can’t you see that?”

Your mouth fell open for a second, but nothing could come out as a response.

To say that you were bewildered was an understatement indeed, you were absolutely stunned speechless. The man before you, despite looking in a daze from God knows how much alcohol he had consumed, showed that his eyes said otherwise, staring back at you with desperation, longing, pining and sadness. Your heart could only take so much.

“Goodnight, Jay.”

What pained you more was the fact that he didn’t even try after that. No, he didn’t call for you nor did he stop you from leaving like those scenes from your favourite rom coms, he just decided to let you go.

At one point, you really wished someone would come out and yell ‘this is a prank’ at you, but obviously, no one did. This whole thing was basically a reenactment of Cinderella, except it was a modern day and much more angsty version of every kid’s favourite movie.

Of course, you happened to be Cinderella and he was Prince Charming, the clock struck midnight, you were leaving him in a haste and he was left stranded alone in the middle of a dance, how ironic.

Oh, how you wished you were able to hide away from your own Prince Charming like the old mediaeval days.

“ARE YOU GOING TO CONTINUE CRYING OVER ‘HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS’?”

“Leave me alone,”

“It isn’t a good coping method,”

Somehow, it was already almost a week since that night. You remembered calling a cab in the dead of the night (dumb idea) and phoning Minji the whole way sobbing till the point where the driver had to pull over. You were pathetic and even a stranger could tell so, but you know what, he was nice about it and that’s the positives you’d take from that.

“And it’s ironic how I actually did somewhat lose a guy too,” you tried laughing, but it only sounded like a choke, Minji shaking her head sympathetically at you.

Speaking about Minji, she definitely wasn’t pleased to hear what had happened. Knowing her, you knew she was about to say ‘I told you so’ but seeing you in your pathetic state, she kept her mouth zipped and quiet, letting you into her bed and having a sob session. It was a crazy night.

“When will you hear him out—did you even hear him out in the first place?” Minji eyed you accusingly and you began cowering under her intense gaze.

“No…”

“Y/N,” Minji sighed, shifting closer to you. “I know the whole picture is super messy and totally off putting, but what if it was an accident?”

“Him kissing his ex is a pretty clear picture to me, how would it be an accident?” you wrapped your blanket tighter around you, mumbling disheartedly.

“What if he fell on her or something?”

“Now you sound absolutely ridiculous,” you scoffed.

“What I really mean is, you should go and talk it out with him, if not, this thing will just drag on and you’ll hurt more,”

“I don’t think I’m ready, the wound’s still fresh,”

“I get it,” Minji placed her head on your shoulder, snuggling on your side. “It takes time, and I don’t think he’s ready either.”

Jay wasn’t ready, in fact he thinks he’s never going to face you again.

The moment he watched you slip away from him that night, he knew it was best to just let you go. Or so he thought. Best believe he got an earful from both Heeseung and Sunghoon, not to mention their dates. He could still remember the bursts of disbelief from them, the amount of ‘it was fake?’ and ‘what did you do?’ rung through his head till now, where he stared blankly back at the rink, sitting silently on one of the seats in the stands.

“It’s barely 24 hours and it’s also a Sunday, what are you doing here?” the team’s captain boomed through the empty arena, approaching Jay and eventually taking a seat next to him.

“Taking my mind off … things, what are you doing here?” Jay regarded Heeseung for a moment.

“I figured you’re here,”

Jay nodded at Heeseung’s words, silence eventually filled the space between them. It was one of those moments where they knew something was wrong, but no one wanted to speak up about it.

“Are you not going to tell us what happened? Or did you simply decide to kiss your ex?” Heeseung broke the ice, coming off slightly harsh, detesting the silence from Jay. He knew this wasn’t the best friend he trusted his life with, the Jay he knew wasn’t a cheater, even if the relationship wasn’t real.

“Would you even believe me?”

“I would, I’ve known you for years, there’s no way you’re doubting my trust for you,” Heeseung rested his hand on Jay’s shoulder, giving him a reassuring squeeze.

Jay ran his hand across his face, blinking momentarily before sighing deeply. “I wasn’t the one who kissed her. I don’t know what happened to lead up to that, but I swear she suddenly turned me around and pressed herself onto me. I was just chilling outside for fresh air,”

“You’re kidding,”

“If I was I wouldn’t be here at all,”

“Have you confronted Sujin?”

“Kind of? If you count screaming at her and telling Intak about it as a confrontation, then yes,” Jay was fidgeting with his fingers, his eyes trained on the rink. “I think Intak broke it off with her after,”

“Deserved,” Heeseung mused, a small smile on his face, karma truly worked wonders. “Now that’s settled, what about Y/N? I still can’t believe you roped her into a fake dating scheme just for that event,”

“Alright, alright, I’ve done some dumb shit and this was one of them, I know,” Jay admitted, throwing his hands up in defeat. “And I know I’ve hurt her … a lot, that’s why I don’t know how I can ever face her again,”

“I don’t understand why you didn’t chase after her that night,”

“I admit I did pussy out a little—”

“‘A little’?”

“Shut up,” Jay narrowed his eyes at his captain, who stared back, equally unamused. “I thought letting her go was the best choice, I was scared of hurting her more,”

Heeseung’s gaze softened, remaining quiet as he listened to his best friend opening up. Heeseung had these types of deep talk with Jay many times before, but this time, it was different. Being the one who stuck alongside Jay since his first breakup to now, he was the clearest when it came to Jay and his feelings. Over the years of witnessing Jay and his casual one nights, Heeseung expected it to last until the very day Jay retires from hockey, but your sole existence proved him wrong, and it definitely proved Jay wrong as well.

“Jay, do you like her?” Heeseung said after a while, catching the latter off guard.

“I–I–” Jay stammered, his body rigid and thoughts were circling in his mind. He didn’t just like you, he knows he’s fallen for you, you were the first girl to ever caught his eyes way before he even got to talk to you.

He remembered it clearly, you were the one who called hockey stupid in front of his face, oblivious to the fact that he played the sport. He was injured at that time, sitting in the stands and watching his team play when he heard your voice complaining, your then boyfriend next to you. Offended Jay was once he heard the insult, though he was fascinated by you, but it was just his fuckboy side talking and he ended up staying silent instead.

Next thing he knew, he was all recovered and you were in the crowd, your face blank, the seat next to you was empty. Jay assumed it was a break up, something in him was giddy and he went on to score a hat trick that night. After all that, people might assume he would’ve gotten your number already, right? Nope. He never had the guts to and you stopped coming to games, only appearing once in a few months, until that fateful night at the beach.

“I do like her, fuck,” Jay threw his head back, leaning into the seat and his hands on his face, swallowing deeply as if he was in trouble, maybe because he was. How was he going to tell you he liked you and confront you about that night? There were two big stones thrown at his head. "I like her so much till the point where I think the amount of denial I had is turning into delusions instead,"

"So, you've reached insanity, got it,"

"God, I haven't been romantically in love with many girls before, but I'm pretty sure this is what being in love feels like, right … ?"

Heeseung stared at Jay's pathetic expression, sighing deeply, clapping his back. "It's different for everyone but I can guarantee that you're on the right track, buddy,"

"Okay," Jay said breathlessly and nodded blankly, seeming as though he had just freshly figured out his feelings, putting the missing pieces into his puzzle. "Got it, but how do I apologise to her now?"

"What do you mean? Just go up to her and talk, say sorry and explain,"

"I feel like that's not enough,"

A sudden spark alighted in Heeseung's eyes, a shiver equally went down Jay's spine when he witnessed that before him. Lee Heeseung and his ideas were a mix of trouble and sometimes success, mainly trouble. “You know, Sunghoon pitched this idea to me yesterday, he said something about this is how you get the girl,”

The mention of Sunghoon's name and his idea didn't help at all.

“Write her an apology on our jumbotron,”

“You're insane,”

“And we happen to have access to it,”

“... tell me more.”

YOU WERE REGRETTING YOUR CHOICE OF AGREEING TO HEESEUNG AND SUNGHOON’S INVITE.

Hockey games were never up your alley, they knew that, but somehow they still managed to pull you into attending their game, even after what had happened. They did offer to bring you out for a luxurious buffet and you guessed it was their way of an apology, not passing up on it either.

“This better be worth it,” you grumbled under your breath, settling into your seat, glancing down at the rink, making it a strenuous effort to not stare at him. Ladies, do not chase, attract. You were not about to go running after Jay, nope, never.

No matter how hard you tried suppressing the thought of Jay, it lingered nevertheless. You wondered when he would talk to you again, or if he ever would, and being the most stubborn person you were, you weren’t going to confront him despite the need of an explanation clawing at your deepest desires.

The first and second period rolled by mindlessly and you were starting to be at your wits end, reminding you why you barely ever attend hockey games after your ex, but at least the home team was leading. The third period was slightly more thrilling thanks to the small fight between two players, enraging you and the crowd, but once the puck landed on Jay’s end of the stick, everyone was on their feet, watching him zoom past the defensemen.

Without saying, Jay scored the game’s winning goal, the crowd going wild. You couldn’t help smiling, the whole team engulfed him wholly, making you let out a small giggle, and you had to admit, times like this where teams win crucial games do make you happy. Meanwhile, what you hadn’t noticed was the fact that Jay was glancing up at the crowd, his eyes searching for your figure.

On the other hand, what you did notice was the jumbotron. A video of Jay doing his celebration flashed big on the screen, a giant ‘GOAL’ next to his head, but there was another line of words under that caught your attention at once, knowing it was directed at you. ‘I’m sorry and I miss you. I’ll wait for you, even if it’s a lifetime. Please come back to me.’ Totally not heartbreaking and gut wrenching for you!

Screw being a cold hearted girl boss, all you wanted was to run back to him.

Slinging your bag onto your shoulder, your mind was in a mess as you made your way out, squeezing past people and mumbling apologies in return. You mentally made a list of things you were going to do. First, run back to the dorms. Second, cry. Third, figure shit out. Just to make matters messier, your journey out wasn’t the smoothest, especially when you had to bump into Jay’s dumpster ex. What great timing this was.

“Y/N?” Sujin was shocked to see you, but you were clearly unimpressed.

“You still have the guts to turn up in front of me? In here? In a school you don’t go to?”

“I–I just wanted to talk to you,”

“Me? What’s there to say?” you crossed your arms, staring expectantly at her.

“Look, Jay didn’t kiss me, I kissed Jay, you get it?”

You blinked. Were you supposed to get it? As much as you wished you didn’t, you did, and your mind turned into a worse state of mush. God rest your soul, you were about to pull someone’s hair out.

“What?” you exclaimed incredulously, furiousness crawling into your system. “So, you’re telling me you basically threw yourself onto him?”

“I suppose?”

“Wow, you really are a freaky ex, not freaky in a good way either,” you gestured at Sujin, a sick feeling in your stomach. It was never Jay’s fault, but his dumpster ex, and maybe all along he was trying to explain his side, yet you didn’t listen. Now, you felt like an idiot and an asshole. “You can stay in the dumpster and never return. You’re sick and twisted and I hope you’ll never turn up and harass Jay ever again, you got it? Or else I’ll curse you into being single forever,”

“I—”

You didn’t let her finish, you couldn’t bother to do so, instead you turned away, speed walking towards the locker rooms that unknowingly became yours and Jay’s meeting spot. Heart beating quick, your feet stumbling from walking too fast, your breath heaving, you were getting anxious. By the time you were standing in front of the locker room, sweat was trickling down the side of your face, whether it was from pure anxiety or just walking, you didn’t know. All you knew was that you needed to talk to Jay.

“Y/N, what brings you here?” Heeseung had his hands in his pockets, headphones around his neck, looking fresh off the shower as he greeted you. “I know Sunghoon and I invited you for dinner but I don’t think it’s tonight—”

“Where’s Jay?”

“Jay?” Heeseung repeated, he didn’t seem like he was believing what he had heard. You resisted the urge to roll your eyes to the back of your head.

“Are there other ‘Jay's' that you know?”

“Uh—no,” Heeseung stammered, shaking his head as if he’s trying to shake his dizziness away. “Jay left already, Y/N,”

“Oh,” it was obvious how deflated you became, the drop in your voice and disappointment written all over your face. Heeseung gave you an apologetic smile, but you could only manage a small wave of goodbye and a quiet bid of goodnight before turning back to the original path to the exit.

To say you felt frustrated, embarrassed, sad was an understatement, those words would never amount to the real emotions you were feeling. You were a mess, your love life was in a big distress and practically crumbling apart. The walk home couldn’t be more depressing than usual, can’t it?

Taylor Swift playlists to sob to, a tub of strawberry ice cream, a random rom com were all going to be your biggest hug of the night.

“GODS, THIS IS MISERABLE,”

A tub of half eaten ice cream sat sadly on your bedside table, a 90s romcom remained playing in the background. You couldn’t help frowning at the sight of the two leads falling in love, everything felt pathetic at this point.

You truly did stick to your words. Arriving back to an empty dorm room, courtesy to Minji for staying over at her boyfriend’s place, you practically had the whole dorm to yourself, meaning a space of free self loathing, you ran to your bed and plummeted into it. It took everything in you to not let out a blood curdling scream, instead you just took your laptop out and put on your favourite movie.

It was still early, midnight was barely approaching, so you were glad to be able to stay awake longer. It began raining heavily outside, a perfect sign for you to be in your sheets, reading your unfinished book that you’ve left hanging since months back. The whole scene of you being in bed on a rainy Friday night truly reflected a part from a romcom, how ironic it was.

In the midst of ‘16 Candles’ playing loudly on your laptop, the doorbell rang out of the blue. You froze, pausing the movie, slight paranoia creeping onto you. Right, being alone in an empty dorm room with a thunderstorm happening outside definitely wasn’t a common plot from horror. At first, you planned to ignore it, but a second ring prompted you to muster your courage to open the door.

‘I’m going to be fine’ chants were circling your mind as you approached the front door, one hand on the door knob, eyes glancing back and forth at the kitchen knife, you weren’t going down without a fight. A turn of the door knob and a pull of hand, the door swung open to a man. Wait. Not just any man—

“Jay?”

His name naturally rolled off your tongue, but your eyes couldn’t believe he’s actually standing right in front of you.

Jay stared back, equally startled, as though he hadn’t expected you to open the door for him. He was standing there like a ghost, fully drenched from head to toe, shaking from the rain. His face was impassive, but his gaze showed otherwise, a hint of sadness and desperation painted in his brown irises.

“Are you insane?”

Jay glanced down at his attire that was basically soaked to the core, a small sigh escaping his lips. “We need to talk, Y/N,”

You nodded wordlessly, your eyes unknowingly avoiding his piercing gaze as you slowly backed away to the kitchen, grabbing a dry towel. “Here,” you handed Jay the towel, your hand shaking a little.

“Thanks. Can I—” he took a peek over your shoulder, “—come in?”

“I—yeah,” you were slightly alarmed, moving to the side for him to enter before shutting the door, making sure to draw in a big breath to calm your nerves.

“Y/N, please let me explain—”

“Jay, I’m really sorry—”

The two of you halted, realising that you’ve spoken in unison, the silence dawning on the both of you. Jay broke into an awkward smile and you felt yourself grinning just a little. Jay gestured at you to continue, so you did, letting out the things you’ve bottle in for days.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know what happened and I just jumped to conclusions, which was wrong for me to do but—” you swallowed, blinking hard, “—but it was heart wrenching for me to see you kissing someone else, especially when it’s your ex, and it’s stupid, it’s so stupid that I’m feeling this way when we’re not even a thing!”

“It’s not stupid, Y/N,”

“It is,”

“It’s not,” Jay repeated, taking a step closer, a look of pining in his eyes as he searched for yours. You didn’t realise how much you’ve truly missed him until you saw him close. “I never intended to kiss Sujin, you know? I went out because she called me saying she needed help, and she took the chance when I was confused to kiss me. I know I’ve asked for you to trust me before, but if you don’t, I’ll get it,”

“I do,” you said at once, eliciting a small look of surprise from him. “I spoke to her,”

“What?”

“She admitted it to me, and I wanted to find you after the game but you were already gone, then I realised how much of an Idiot I was,”

“Ah,” Jay said softly under his breath, combing his fingers through his hair, seemingly trying to digest everything in. The beat of silence was suffocating you gradually, uneasiness hung in the cold air of your dorm. It took you everything to pour the words you’ve been holding in your heart out.

“I trust you, I do, but what are we, Jay? What are we doing?” you breathed out, chewing anxiously on your bottom lip. “If you want to end it here, then say it—”

“We can be anything you want,”

“I want you, Jay,” you blurted out, it was too late to turn back and run now. “I don’t want you to need me, I want you to want me, just as much as I want you,”

Jay stepped closer, testing the waters between you and him before sensing the green light from you to continue further. Space was practically nonexistent, you were inches from him, letting his hand wander from your face to the back of your neck, naturally leaning into his warm touch that reminded you of the feeling of fire on a cold night. The hand resting on the back of your neck pulled you in closer, one wrong move and you would be kissing him.

“I do want you,” Jay said quietly, the minty scent laced in his breath entering your senses. “I like you, Y/N. There’s no doubt about that, I know it. I’m aware that this whole thing started out fake and I expected nothing from it, but when I realised I felt something more for you, I was scared you would leave, especially since I had a history of—”

“Being a fuckboy?”

Jay rolled his eyes, grinning at the unamused look on your face. “That. So I thought letting you go after that night was a good decision, that my feelings would eventually disappear and you wouldn’t be hurt anymore, but God, I ended up hurting you instead and you have no idea how I had lost my mind,”

“Jay…” you were quite literally speechless, his words didn’t just had to tongue tied and had rendered you wordless completely, it made your insides twist and turn in the most childish way, it made you feel like you were a teenage girl who had just talked to her crush for the first time, you were giddy.

“I choose you, my love. Any day, any time, anywhere. It’s always going to be you, only you,”

You were resisting the urge to break into the cheesiest smile ever, Park Jong Seong was about to be the death of you. “I like you too, big head. If you don’t kiss me now, I might change my mind,”

“You’re going to be the death of me,”

Jay finally closed the space between you and him, pressing his lips on yours feverishly, your honey flavoured melting onto his lips and his cologne swarmed your senses, this was heaven. His hand travelled back to rest on your cheek, while yours was having a field trip travelling up his chest and into his hair, giving a slight tug which resulted in a groan from him. You tilted your head, feeling Jay part his lips and deepening the kiss, his other hand on your waist to pull you much more closer, your body now pressed up against his.

“Y/N,” he mumbled against your lips as you gently pushed him towards your couch.

You hummed in response, feeling his body fall onto the couch with a thud and you followed suit, falling onto his lap, his arm wrapped tightly around your waist. You opened your eyes, pulling away to meet his heavy gaze that was staring back with equal desire.

“Be my girlfriend?” his voice came out in a whisper, but your ears perked up at those three words, a teasing grin pulled at your lips and your hand instinctively reached for his cheek to squeeze, earning a look of annoyance and endearment from him.

“Only if you take me out to dinner first, big head,”

“You’re such a tease,” he chuckled, pressing a haste kiss on the side of your lips and you giggled, brushing the strands of hair from his forehead.

“I’d be crazy to say ‘no’ after all this, you idiot,” you flicked at his forehead, eliciting a sharp hiss and a piercing glare from him, reminding you of a black cat. “So, yes, I’d like to be your girlfriend,”

You watched the man before you smiling wider than the time he won the championship with his team last season, his eyes shining bright and face beaming. Gosh, he was such a dream. One hand cupped your cheek, pinching it softly, “Don’t worry, I’ll treat you like my wife instead,”

You rolled your eyes at his words, deadpanning at him. “You’re too cheesy, Park Jong Seong,”

“And you love me for that.” he said in a sing-song tone before bringing you in for another kiss, this time softer and gentler, as if Jay was scared he would shatter you if he had kissed you too hard.

If you had the choice to stay just like this for the next few hours, you would gladly take it. You were relieved everything was well now, even if it meant Jay's wet pants were staining your couch, but you're sure Minji would understand.

Just as Taylor Swift would say, you believe you were entering your 'Lover' era, and you couldn't wait to be with your hotheaded hockey boyfriend. Yes, boyfriend, with no space.

“SO … YOU’RE TELLING ME YOU’VE ALWAYS BEEN INTO ME ALL ALONG?”

It has been a few months since you and Jay made it official together. To top off the unforgettable experience, Minji came home the next day to see you and him cuddling in bed, not missing the chance to get a picture and proceeding to give Jay a humble Ted Talk during breakfast, but it was all good after.

Jay did stick to your request and bring you out for dinner, but Heeseung and Sunghoon unintentionally beat him to it first by dragging you to the buffet they promised before Jay’s fancy dinner night, and he was forced to follow begrudgingly. Breaking the news to Heeseung and Sunghoon was definitely an interesting occurrence, including the usual bro talk and the crazy ship names, but in the end, they were glad you were finally together with Jay and was miles prouder of Jay for finally working up the courage to confess.

Now, here you were, on a Saturday night at Jay’s apartment enjoying a glass of wine, a random rom com in the background as promised of a marathon, and listening to your tipsy boyfriend spill about his first impression of you, which led to him unveiling the part where he laid eyes on you during the hockey game.

“Not always, don’t get ahead of yourself,” Jay cut you off, raising an eyebrow at you. "I still can't believe you called hockey stupid,"

"It was a moment of hatred, okay?" You tapped his chin, swirling the wine glass in your hand. "Now, I'm a big hockey fan,"

"You're stupid,"

You feigned a dramatic gasp, punching his shoulder softly. "You're stupid … stupid,"

"Yes, yes, I am," Jay eventually gave in, closing in and pressing his lips onto yours, tasting the familiar taste of the red wine on your tongue. "I'm so grateful to have you with me, lovely. What would I be doing without you?"

"Fucking other girls?"

"You've ruined the mood,"

You laughed, pressing a kiss on his cheek. "I'm kidding. You would be in a ditch without me,"

"You're not wrong," Jay's thumb was grazing against your lip, his eyes half-lidded, the alcohol in his system overpowering. "God, I love you,"

"I love you more, big head," you said, feeling a swarm of butterflies fluttering wildly in your abdomen. Jay was perfect, too perfect that it intimidated you, but what you didn't know was that he felt the same way about you too. "Are you turning red, Jong Seong?"

"What? Pft, it's the wine," he waved your words off, turning away to hide the obvious that he was becoming a shade of pink and maroon. You snorted at his ridiculousness, pushing his face to face back at you.

"Kiss me again?"

"You make me such a happy man, you know that?" Jay grinned, saying nothing more and pulled you in, abandoning his wine glass.

Jay couldn’t help but smile against your lips, being the happiest man in the entire universe at this moment, because he knew he finally got the girl, his girl, and there was no way he would ever lose you again. Never.

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campcampkirbykirbykirby · 15 days

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Camp Camp Commentary Notes - Season 1, Episode 1: Escape from Camp Campbell

This is the first in a series of posts detailing the various nuggets of behind-the-scenes info found in the commentaries of the Camp Camp Seasons 1 and 2 Blu-Ray. I aim to cover both the writer commentary and cast & crew commentary of every episode in the set (except the holiday specials because they don't have commentaries GRRRR)

Writer’s Commentary

Writers went back to touch up this episode after completing the initial 10 episodes, before going on to the bonus 2 episodes that were greenlit following the positive reception

This episode went through about 12-14 drafts before it was finalized

Pilots are very hard because they both need to be very good and hook the audience so they will want to watch more, you have to juggle introducing all the necessary characters and telling a single solid story

Doubly so since this was the crew’s first shot at writing for an episodic series, all their other efforts had been story-driven up to that point

Irony in that the title of the first episode is about wanting to leave the camp (or show) entirely

Max and David’s dynamic is perfectly set up within 8 lines of dialogue

In older versions of the pilot, Mr. Campbell never showed up in person, only in the introductory video that was later repurposed into promotional material

Most of what was taken out of the pilot ended up being reused in some way, including the intro and the teaser trailer

One of the primary goals was to establish early on that this is not a kids show, like some people who saw the early promo material thought it was

This is why Max swears less than 40 seconds in, and why the rabbit gets swooped up by Timothy earlier (although I’d argue you could make that joke in a more family-friendly show)

First RT series produced in more of a writer’s room style akin to The Simpsons

The writers would come up with episode ideas, divy up who’d want what story, they’d write a first draft, come back to it, workshop the script several times, rinse and repeat until it devolved into Miles and Jordan doing final punch-ups and trimming

This pipeline allowed for lots of easter eggs and background details to be slipped in

Then they effectively do a table-read of the script which allows them to add more

Starting in Season 2, they started recording writer’s room conversations, so if something funny came up and they wanted to add it, they wouldn’t just have to go off of memory

Putting all the campers in the activities field doing their activities seemed like a good way to establish all of their respective camps.

Challenger II is Miles’ favorite visual gag (as of 2018, at least)

Working with Lee Eddy and Travis Willingham was great, Lee especially since they had previously worked with her for Red V.S. Blue

Travis was the first person who recorded for the show, as part of the aforementioned introductory video, and he was great at riffing and ad-lib

What exactly Camp Campbell was was foggy initially (whether or not it advertised that it was a camp of all camps), and the initial pilot didn’t explain it very well because they had built an internal understanding of what it was and didn’t do a very good job conveying it to the audience.

Mr. Campbell really likes the Quartermaster

Looking back on the first episodes is very interesting, especially when you have been working on the show for years at that point, for example, Max’s bond with Nikki hasn’t been established yet, so he has to ask why she’d help him.

Not enough time for the full theme song (hence why no intro), so they thought having Gwen interrupt it was funny

The scene where Max, Neil, and Nikki are running was seemingly the origin of Neil’s raptor arms (oh, excuse me, T-rex arms)

Ed, Edd ‘n’ Eddy was used as a reference for things like this because the Eds each had distinct walk cycles befitting their personality

First Day buttons were included so the campers would have a means to get away from the counselors

The music sting as the bus is driving away is a nod to the Back to the Future theme

Cast and Crew Commentary

Michael jokes about a sequel or prequel called “Max Max/Maximum Max”

The scream Miles did when David gets hit by the bus gets used quite a bit

The more Max’s parents push him away, the more he tries to cling to him, according to Maggie

Episode was supposedly recorded March 2016, ironically one of the last ones recorded

Recording for the series started November of 2015

Handheld camera movements in the mess hall scene were added by animator Gil Calceta

Lee Eddy was the only person who auditioned for Gwen, the crew saw it as perfect casting

Laserdisc player is not big enough for laserdisc

Campbell’s lazy wear (for lack of a better term) was only made for the one shot, though it would later comeback in Season 4

Michael initially auditioned for Camp Camp not really knowing what it was, and his script was just some typical Max phrases

Older episodes, Max was pitched up because Michael hadn’t quite perfected the voice yet

There was no helicopter assest created, it’s off screen and only implied by Campbell being pulled up by the ladder

The scene of Nikki throwing the button took 3 days to animate

The line “Go to bitch, jail” in the Camp Camp Rap Rap was an ad-lib/outtake

#camp camp #cc max #camp camp commentary #cc david #cc nikki #cc neil #cc gwen #cc campbell

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fairsexynasty · 11 months

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ˏ🔪ˋ°•*⁀➷･ IF YOU REWRITE YOUR LIFE, MAY I STILL PLAY A PART?

.｡🗡️*⋆⍋*🃏*｡ ethan landry x chad meeks-martin x fem!reader

summary: your living situation had already been a mess. but with how charming your roommates were, it soon intertwined with your love life.

warnings: hurt + comfort, (un)requited love, love confessions, angst, hints to attachment anxiety, panic attacks, mentions of smut (ethan getting dicked down :o), guilt, domesticity, chef!ethan, non gf! au

a/n: heavily inspired by we’re in love by boygenius, that song requires tissues bro. this will be a series :3

you had to have been the worst best friend in the world. there was no logical explanation for the way you’d been feeling besides that. it’s not that you did anything wrong—at least, tangibly. your perspective just happened to shift, as it does with age, but you never expected it’d fuck your life up at 19.

college is a terrible place, swarming with hookup culture. and in nyc, it’s twenty times worse. you liked to think you were one of the only sane ones left, as in, being someone who wished oh-so-desperately to be swept off her feet by true romance. it only took one look around blackmore to see you most likely were not going to experience that from anyone.

but a girl can dream. and dreamt you did.

your living situation was a total fuckup. gigantic fuckup. monstrous fuckup. instead of making a home with girls who would help you create serotonin with every interaction, you were somehow rooming with two, sweetly dumb men.

ethan and chad share their differences, that’s for sure. chad’s cleanliness has been overrun by ethan’s haphazard living, and a handful of spats occur.

“ethan, for the last time, dude. clean up your shit! i don’t even know how your pants ended up in the kitchen.”

“chill out, chad, they’re just pants.”

“yeah, but they’re pants this week, and then it’ll be a condom the next.”

ethan scoffed. “says you. may i remind you, your name is chad.”

you’d always have to mediate between the two, giving them a smack on both their heads so they could feel the pain of the headache they gave you.

ethan’s things being in the kitchen somehow make sense. he’s in there whenever he has free time, cooking whatever try hard recipes he finds on his tiktok feed. they always turn out delicious, but ethan is an extremely controlling chef.

“what are you doing, chad?”

“what does it look like i’m doing? i’m eating a fry.”

“don’t touch the frites for the steak. out. of. my. kitchen.”

“may i remind you that y/n and i live here too?”

“yeah, but she isn’t eating the frites before the steak is ready. i haven’t even made the hollandaise yet.”

but even with their differences, they have many similarities. and those similarities were what had you feeling horrible in the first place.

chad and ethan might just have been the most charming men you’d ever encountered. it was strange to live with a girl in such close proximity, because living with a sister and parents was so different. but they never once made you feel like they didn’t want you there.

for the most part, what was theirs was yours. they never asked for the vice versa because they knew you’d kill them if they ever used your skincare or hair care in the bathroom.

that includes personal space, for some reason.

most nights you three got to spend time together, whether that was going out or staying in. everyone knew you had grown to be inseparable, including all the girls. mindy and anika never failed to call you names and titles.

“oh, look, it’s boygenius.”

every night typically looked like the three of you on the couch, a giant mclovin blanket covering you. you were typically in the middle, with both boys as close as humanly possible to you, as you watched whatever movie was picked out of your roulette list.

when it was a sad movie, like eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, ethan would be silently crying, head leaning on your shoulder for comfort. chad would be watching with wide, watery eyes, singular tears dropping every couple of seconds. his head would eventually perch upon your other shoulder.

with a comedy movie, like your favorite, superbad, typically you were sprawled out across ethan and chad, head resting on the arm of the couch, legs across their own.

and with a romance or drama movie, a train of bodies occurred. chad would be at the arm of the couch, with you resting in his lap, with ethan resting in yours. your hands would find themselves busy in ethan’s curls as you watched the movie, with chad’s chin resting on top of your head.

one time, you fell asleep after the movie in that exact position, and tara swung by to drop off some books. when she entered the apartment (of course she had a key, she was a ‘core four’ member,) she was met with the sight of you three. perfect photoshoot, in her mind.

the touchiness didn’t stop there. when walking outside, your arms were often linked together, or one of the boys would be holding your stuff while the other had an arm around your shoulders.

when you went to parties, they danced with you when you felt like it, and sat down with you when you felt like going on some kind of drunken tangent. and the behavior from them was eye-catching to everybody who saw you three together.

after a humanities class, a random girl walked up to you. the conversation was short and sweet, but left you stunned and questioning every part of your existence.

“hey, y/n. i just wanted to tell you that you and your boyfriends are literally goals. i can just feel the love radiating from all of you.”

love? there was no way chad AND ethan were in love with you. they probably would have beaten each other up by now if they were both into you. but, the random girl did say she thought you were all dating. and suddenly you found yourself watching the boys like a creep.

you kept a note in your phone of every single behavior that pointed to either two things: they were in love with you, and they were in love with each other. by the end of the week, you had amassed at least twenty different entries a day.

for evidence pointing towards their shared loved for you, you found that they’d start staring at you when you weren’t looking. their eyes often had a gleam you’d catch in the corner of your eye, and occasionally a failure of a repressed smile.

when you said goodnight, you’d feel their eyes on you until you closed the door to your room, and they never went to bed until at least an hour after you did, just to make sure you were safe asleep.

ethan would blush whenever you established physical affection with him or accepted his own, and chad would give you the biggest grins whenever you deglammed for the evening (and even when you were dolled up, that damn smile never left his face around you)

now, for the evidence pointing towards them being in love with each other? your theories were solidified one thursday night you had gotten back from the store. as soon as you had opened the door, the sluttiest whimper you’d ever heard, came from chad’s room. and you knew for a fact, chad was not the type to sound so desperate.

with one moan of a, “oh, fuck!” you knew ethan was getting dicked down by chad, and promptly left the apartment, deciding you forgot some milk. you probably sat in the trader joe’s parking garage for a good half an hour, attempting to process what you had almost walked in on.

it was reality. you all liked one another. it seemed too good to be true, though. how could two perfect guys like them, magnetize to you? with all your self consciousness, you shot them a text you were coming back home, and prepared yourself for confrontation.

when you got home, they immediately rushed outside to help you with the groceries. you didn’t make a comment on ethan’s flushed face and the trail of hickeys under his collar— which was the collar of chad’s shirt.

you felt like your heart was going to burst out of your chest, neck, and skull at the same time. when everything was put away, chad gave you a kiss on the head and thanked you for going to the store.

“i need to talk to you two about something,” you blurted out, eyes fixated on the receipt that laid on the counter. “i think you might want to sit.” ethan and chad had brief looks of fear on their faces, but acquiesced to your request. you slowly trailed after them.

“is everything okay, sweets?” chad asked you after settling onto the couch next to ethan. “is there something wrong?”

you let out a shaky breath as your hand tugged at the sleeves of your shirt. “i don’t know. that’s what i want to know. you see, uh…” you trailed off. it was a struggle to find the right words. ethan patted his hand on the couch in between him and chad, and you sauntered over to them. when you sat down, you played with your hands, completely nerved. the boys took your hands in their own, trying to calm you. you took a breath.

“listen, i love you guys a lot. i really do, and everyone knows that. i mean, i’ve been so happy ever since you came into my life. i just, i really am. but, i think i’ve been having some realizations lately, and i think i’m one of the last people to see this has been happening, but, i know everyone thinks that we’re dating.” okay, that’s not what you really meant to say, but you pussied out at the last moment.

“oh, wow.” ethan said, with a small smile. you saw chad let out the smallest sigh of relief. “does it bother you?”

“yeah, um, no,-“

“wait, yeah as in it bothers you, or no it doesn’t bother you?” chad asked.

“nonono, i mean i’m not done with what i want to say, sorry,” you rushed out.

“don’t apologize,” chad smiled and rubbed your back. “take your time,” he encouraged.

you nodded slowly, and took another breath. “because of everyone thinking this, it made me start wondering if they were… onto something? so, i did a lot of thinking, and, at least on my part, i love you both a lot more than you might think i do. i’m, in love.”

both boys were silent for a moment. you felt your stomach churn, and your hands started to get clammy. as your anxiety crept up, so did the pace of your breathing, and within the silence, tears found their way to your face. had you fucked this up?

however, unbeknownst to you, ethan and chad both looked at each other, a silent nod of understanding, but then they immediately realized you were crying.

“shit, nonono, sweets, don’t cry, it’s okay! it’s okay, y/n!” chad wiped away your tears as ethan hugged you from behind.

“i’m sorry,” you sobbed, “i’m so sorry.”

ethan spoke gently into your ear, “y/n, there’s no reason to be sorry, it’s okay! we’re in love with you too! you didn’t do anything wrong!”

you stopped crying as chad held your face in his hands, a look of pure love across his face. “really?” you hiccuped. “you feel the same?” they both nodded in sync.

“yes, y/n.” chad agreed. “we’re in love.”

#fairsexynasty #chad meeks martin smut #chad meeks martin x reader #chad meeks x reader #ethan landry x reader #ethan landry x chad meeks martin #ethan landry x reader x chad meeks martin

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crazyw3irdo · 22 days

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hi, I just want to ask; What compelled you to make that Romeo and Juliet quiz

i’d wanted to make a r&j personality quiz for a bit- hell, when i opened uquiz to make it i realized i already had a drafted version saved over a year ago, but it had no questions, just the title. i considered making it like, a normal quiz, but… i didn’t think anyone would really get it y’know? it’d probably be seen by a couple people, be just some random quiz, and everyone would move on.

i love romeo and juliet, and i want other people to too. if i made it normal, only people who already liked it would get it. i reblogged my original post with some tags of people reacting to it pretty quick too, to try and show yknow, it’s more than what it says on the tin, because i figured if i’m some random person whose only understanding of r&j is pop culture stuff, i’m not gonna click on a personality quiz for it. there’s only like, two characters anyone knows, and unfortunately the common perception of them is just stupid teenagers.

thing is, i had no ideas for questions for a while. none at all. the other day, though, i remembered that post circulating that was a screenshot of a quiz someone made where, iirc, the question was “you are orpheus” and the only option was “turn around.” and the idea popped into my head immediately for “do you believe in free will” with the only option being “no.” going only off that idea i rode the hyperfixation and created that quiz! i made the questions in whatever order and then rearranged them so that they got… for lack of a better term, worse as they went on.

oh, and two things i haven’t yet mentioned! first off, i was gonna include an obligatory song lyric question at first, but uh… i could only come up with two answers lol. they were “it ain’t about all the friends you made but the graffiti they write on your grave” for mercutio and “raised in the city in the halo of lights product of war and fear that we’ve been victimized” for tybalt.

the other thing is uh. i thought the quiz was funny lol. like some heavy themes and stuff but the free will question was hilarious to me lol. idk ive just… never really been bothered by whether it’s A Thing or not? the way i see it is: if we have it, then great! we can do whatever! if we don’t have it, then whatever! we’ll be doing stuff anyways! as for the character descriptions and things, i literally was just describing the characters in second person and changing some things to be more generic (i.e. changing “she” to “they” in the nurse’s description so that instead of referring to juliet it could be about anyone)

#tldr: wanted to do it for a while then in a moment of my ADHD clicking into place with my autism i typed it out in an hour or so #crazwaz posted #audience participation

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alcinas-big-ass-simp · 11 months

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~ You and Lady Dimitrescu swap places ( Swap AU ) # 1~

Note: Aka like the title says it's a Swap au! Basically you are the hot tall vampire and Lady D is still a hot popular human Jazz Singer in your Village with three beautiful human daughters ( that are not flies but look the same and act the same :p )

Inspired by Justaghost111 on ao3!

• Your origins before becoming the person you are today are quite sad in fact.. You had a life threatening disease at the age of [ redacted ], you were so scared of death at the time that you came to Mother Miranda to help you with your life threatening disease

• And well, she did help all right but not quite the way you thought. After that Cadou injection your body mutated and you started to crave things you thought you would never crave..

• You grew about 9 Feet and 6 inches tall. And by the black god you couldn't even fit in your own fucking house!! You kept hitting your head against the door frames,, I mean being in the Mansion is a little better because of the higher roofs but the door frames are just a little too short so you have to crouch down to get through the door.. quite annoying in your opinion

• Now now your weird cravings.. At your mutation you begin craving very odd things in your opinion- like blood.. Oh how you craved blood, it was like your life depended on it! Wait... that sounds very similar to a vampire!- Oh yeah, you're a vampire now because of your mutation. Like your life couldn't get any worser-

• But with you having a wine business and a mansion filled with Maids plus a whole village at your disposal it wasn't that hard to satisfy your cravings but one thing was not satisfied.. You have been lonely for the past decades, centuries?.. You don't even know how long it's been since you have been able to hold someone..

• You don't have time to focus on that!, you have a wine business to keep up with and that's what you mostly do, all of your days drowning yourself in work to forget your feelings...

• Until it was getting close to your birthday, by the black god you don't even remember how old you are- But that's not the point! Your head Maid that was like a 'friend' to you decided to set up a nice celebration for you! Which included a jazz singer,, Her name was Lady D

• Lady D was quite a popular Jazz Singer in your village, you've seen a couple of her shows from your mansion but never dared to interact with her, you had better stuff to do anyways.. But now with her in your mansion playing songs for you, her hat tilted downwards to cover one of her eyes and a smirk plastered on her beautiful face as she played songs for you and dance along with the beautiful beat of those songs.

• Black god, Lady D was beautiful!. The look in her eyes and the confident smirk on her glowing face was everything to you.. She did not seem frightened or even scared of your height or the rumors that go on about you but instead she seemed quite intrigued by your height and the rumors! All day you can see her looking at you in the corner of your eye..

• Oh no no, you are not letting this chance pass up! All of your loneliness and sadness finally came crumbling down on top of you so instead of being stupid and letting this chance pass up, you told her to come meet you in your private quarters after everyone has left to their homes and all of your Maids has went to bed.

• You know you shouldn't have been surprised but you couldn't help but feel surprised when you saw Lady D outside of your private quarters like you have instructed her to do. You could feel your dead heart in your throat as you looked down at her,, “May I come in or did you make me come here just waste my time draga? Hmm?~” Lady D asked you with a hint of teasing in her voice, oh sHiT! That got you blushing..

• But not wanting to keep Lady D waiting, you quickly let out a response, “No!- I mean please come in..” At you're quick reaction Lady D couldn't help but chuckle at it! Black God who knew a person like you would react so cutely to her words. “Hm, okay draga~” She quickly ducked under your arms that was holding the door open and walked into your private quarters like she owned the place, Oh how you would instantly slice her up if she was anyone else.

• You quickly closed the door to your private quarters and walked up behind her, “Well, what did you need hm?” She asked as she turned around to look up at you, all you could do is look at her for a little bit as you lift up your big hand and put it on her curvy waist “W-well, I wanted to ask if you could,, if you wanted to- Move into my mansion..” You say, quickly looking away, afraid of her rejection.. after a couple of minutes of getting no response from Lady D, you look down at her to see her eyes wide open but then she quickly smirked

• “Well darling, I have three beautiful girls at home..” Lady D said as she looked away from you, oh how dearly would she like to take it this offer but she cares for her three beautiful little girls more then a random stranger.. “U-um,, Well! I can also get rooms for them! I have enough rooms in this Mansion for the whole entire village and if that still isn't enough I will pay you handsomely to live here with me..” BY THE BLACK GOD— You did not mean to sound that desperate—

• At your words Lady D's interest peaked even more when you said you had enough rooms and you would pay her generously to live in this big mansion, with you!.. that sounded like a deal breaker for her, “Hmm~ I think I can agree to that draga!” Oh Lady D was smirking, big and confident but you couldn't care what she had planned in mind

• For you, this was a whole new chapter in your life!, One that you want to spend with Lady D..

--------

I really hope you guys liked this! And sorry if it's long I couldn't stop writing djdjdhhs- I had to stop myself cuz I'm obsessed with this au- I might do it for the other characters too fbdhjjhdd

~ Masterlist ~

~ Request Guidelines ~

#alcina dimitrescu x reader #lady dimitrescu x reader #resident evil 8 #alcina dimitrescu #swap au #gay af tbh #au #alternate universe #x reader #resident evil #alcina dimitrescu x y/n #lady dimitrescu #lady dimitrescu x y/n

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earlgreytea68 · 1 year

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I love so much that "Hold Me Like a Grudge" was the last-minute song that Patrick insisted be included on the album. That Patrick says he read the words Pete sent to him and heard the song immediately and knew it had to be on the album. Because, of all of the songs on SMFS, this feels the most like a song that could have been written directly to Patrick.

As ever with Pete Wentz, the lyrics can work on two layers at once, and we could be the "you" in the song as much as Patrick could be, but the song feels like it's written to a closer, more well-known "you" than the you of his fandom. Who am I dialing tonight? he asks almost immediately in the song, and, well, that's not any of us. The opening lines also feel like a more comfortable and casual relationship: When you ask how I've been, I know you mean well. It just seems more specific than general, the opening tone of this song. And the reference to the feelings of twenty summers feels like a reference to the twenty summers of his band, which predates a lot of fans' acquaintance with the band.

So it's just interesting to me that the song that feels the most like it was written to Patrick, and the song that Patrick insisted had to be included on the album as soon as he saw the words, is the most stubbornly (hopelessly) hopeful of all the songs on the album to me. Like, there are a lot of songs on this album about finding joy in the ruins, but this song is such a declaration: screaming at the stars...I love my life, running middle finger through the red lights. This is a dare thrown at the (end of the) world, that fever dream tangerine sweat: Oh, yeah? Come at me. Because somehow we made it back with dreams still intact (or in tact, as the official CD book has, which...seems like a Pete Wentz typo that they kept but maybe has some double meaning I'm missing lol) and he knows that all the pressure is just revealing the diamond inside of him (wherever it is, he's not sure where, but he's sure it's going to show up). I'm like a storm on the horizon, this song promises. This is not a song of resignation. After all, the lyrics say it's not just about getting older but also getting bolder.

And that fits with the title: Hold me like a grudge. There are lots of pleas to be held on this album, but the use of the comparison like a grudge weaponizes this holding: I want you to take me and hold on tight, fiercely, with the single-mindedness you would bring to vindictive revenge. Hold me like that. At the end of the world, you need that kind of holding, viciously and aggressively choosing each other as the world spins faster and faster, part time soulmates.

This is not a song just about standing up to face the mess of the world, this is a song about finding the person to face the mess of the world with together (you put the fun into dysfunction). As the bridge notes, the speaker laments that he hasn't gotten it together yet, but then immediately shifts back to address his "you": Hey, if you want to jump into this with me, we'll do more than just get by together.

Call you up and demand you have no fun without me closes the loop so nicely on who am I dialing tonight? That part-time soulmate you need to hold you like a grudge, that's who. You'll do more than just get by together.

#peterick #fall out boy #fob #bandom

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novastories · 1 year

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I Will Rescue You

Title and story inspired the song “Rescue” by Lauren Daigle.

Summary: The team solves a case, and Aurora learns to open up.

Warnings: Mentions of kidnapping, gun and knife usage, and attempted suicide (from the perpetrator, not heavily detailed.)

Word Count: 3.4k

A/N: I just want to thank everyone for all the new support recently, it means the world to me that people are reading my story!

I’m so excited for the next upcoming chapters! We will get Bradley soon I promise! The next chapter though, is going to shift the story to what I’ve been waiting for! And probably what everyone else has been waiting for! 🫣Please listen to the song if you can! I love having songs for each chapter. This one definitely has a double meaning, where not only do they rescue someone, but Aurora gets rescued by her found family. 💛

Shoutout to my beta reader, and editor @reginleight!

On that note! Please enjoy the chapter. As always, comments, reblogs, and feedback are appreciated! 🤭

Previous | Next | Masterlist

“Okay, what do you have for me?” Gibbs asks.

It was the next day and Aurora had come back to the office, with a clearer mindset, and the determination to crack this case..

Tony, Ziva, McGee, and Aurora were researching anything and everything they could on the petty officer and who would have motive to kill him.

“Girlfriend checks out. She was at a job conference with coworkers able to back up her story,” McGee was the first to reply.

“Same with Lieutenant Seresin,” Aurora follows up. “We were able to eliminate him as a suspect due to the DNA Abby had found under the victim’s fingernails when he was defending himself, as well as on a metal pipe aka the murder weapon. And he was seen by a few officers on board that he was passed out in his bunk.”

“Anyone else, or are you just telling me that we have run out of suspects?” Gibbs sighs, his frustration beginning to show.

“I think I found something,” Tony reports, quickly setting down his phone.

“An ex-girlfriend of the petty officer. Her name is-”

“Emma Reynolds. Made several calls to our petty officer, including the night that he was killed,” Ziva interrupts Tony.

“Made several voicemails threatening him too,” Tony interjects after Ziva interrupted him.

“Why didn’t we find that in our initial search?” Gibbs asks.

“They were erased. We just got the cell phone restored due to the information Abby got.” Ziva shrugs.

“What does she say in the voicemail?” McGee asks.

“Listen for yourself,” Dinozzo replies, putting the voicemail on speaker for the group to listen..

“You will regret ever dumping me. You get to go off and date a new girl while getting the satisfaction of being in a happy relationship? No way! You’re going to pay for what you did. Including whoever told you about me cheating on you!”

“So we have a motive and evidence!” Aurora exclaims.

“Is that enough for a warrant?” McGee quirks a brow in question.

All of a sudden, a phone rings out causing everyone to look toward the source. Aurora.

“Sorry, oh wait, hold on,” Aurora tells them, confused at seeing the caller ID. “It’s Jake.”

“Jake?” Gibbs asks.

“Lieutenant Seresin,” Aurora explains before answering the phone. “Agent Benjamin.”

“Why did you kidnap me?” Jake questions, his voice sounding a bit far away.

“Because you are the only person who knows my identity, and now you’re going to take the blame for Derek’s death!” a female voice yells out.

“NCIS is going to find you, and when they do they’re going to put you in jail” Jake retorts, his voice raising almost matching the woman’s.

“Jake’s been kidnapped by the killer, sounds female,” Aurora examines the call, as she places her phone on speaker. From what she can gather, Jake must have dialed her number so they could find him.

“Fits the ex-girlfriend's motive,” Tony affirms.

“McGee-”

“On it boss,” McGee says, interrupting Gibbs as he starts tracing the phone. While he does that, the team starts gearing up so they could leave as soon as they had the location. Aurora sets the phone down and mutes her side of the call. She makes sure to grab her knife, gun, and badge.

“Alright, got it. Looks like an abandoned house 15 minutes from here.”

“Let’s go!” Gibbs shouts as the team runs out, hoping to save Jake on time and capture the killer.

—

“David, secure the perimeter. Artemis, you and I will go in from the front. Dinozzo, McGee, side entrance and back got it?”

“Got it boss.” They all reply.

Everyone moved into position, as Aurora adjusted her vest, making sure her gun was loaded. On Gibb’s signal, she kicks down the door to the abandoned house.

“Freeze! NCIS!” she yells out, aiming her gun inside the house.

Jake Seresin was tied up to a chair, eyes a bit glazed over, while a woman holding a gun to his head stood behind him. Remembering the picture and profile she’d seen, Aurora instantly recognized her as the ex-girlfriend, Emma Reynolds.

Aurora’s eyes flashed from when she was tied up and tortured, before the memory could overtake her, she shook it off and fought against it. She had to get Jake safely out of here, she needed to do her job.

Noting Emma’s facial expression, it appeared she did not expect the NCIS team to find her so soon.

“You come any closer, and Lieutenant Seresin here gets a bullet in his brain!” the woman threatens.

“Emma, you don’t want to do that!” Gibbs shouts at her.

“Emma, just put the gun down-” Aurora yells before she is interrupted by Emma.

“NO! I will not go to jail for something that was justified! Derek deserved to die! He got what was coming to him!”

“Emma, calm down. Here I’ll put my gun away, just put yours down too.” Aurora slowly began to holster her gun. Gibbs, standing next to Aurora, kept his gun trained on the woman in case she decides to change her target.

Seeing as she wasn’t going to make a move in doing so just yet, Gibbs spoke up. “Just let Lieutenant Seresin go. He’s an innocent bystander-”

“No, he isn’t! If it wasn’t for him, Derek wouldn’t have broken up with me!”

“You cheated on him with another officer on the ship! He thought it was me! I had to tell him!” Jake yells out to defend himself.

“And y-you were going to take the b-blame for his death,” Emma stamers.

“Emma, it’s over. Put down the gun!” Aurora shouts at the woman. There was a bang, and soon Ziva, McGee, and Tony surrounds her, guns in hand.

Emma grew frustrated. “I’m not going to jail!”

“There is no other way, Emma!” Aurora tells her.

Slowly, Emma removes the gun from Jake’s head.

Aurora sighs in relief until seeing Emma then turn the gun to her own head. Just as she’s about to pull the trigger, Aurora acts quickly, whipping out her knife and expertly throwing it at the gun, knocking it clean from Emma’s hand.

Left defenseless and with no more cards up her sleeve, Ziva takes her down just as Tony retrieves the knocked gun. Gibbs and Aurora let out a breath that they were holding before Aurora helps McGee untie Jake from the chair. She grabs her knife that was left impaled into the wall before kneeling down beside Jake, scanning over his body for any injuries. A small scratch on his cheek, and a small bump on his head, but other than that he seemed unharmed.

“You came,” Jake smiles at Aurora.

“You called,” she replied, smirking at him. She uses her knife to help cut away any remaining rope. McGee then unties the last of the rope leaving Jake no longer bound to the chair. He stands up and sways a little. Aurora quickly puts her knife in her holster and stands to support him before he could fall.

“Ok Hangman, time to get you checked by the paramedics,” she chuckles at Jake’s actions, leading him outside to where local LEOs and paramedics were on the scene.

Gibbs was talking to a local LEO while Aurora helped Jake sit at the back of the ambulance, with Tony, Ziva, and McGee trailing behind them.

“Thank you. All of you,” Jake says, giving all of them a sincere look of gratitude.

“It’s our job, we’re just glad you’re alright,” Ziva says, speaking for the team. Her eyes just so happen to wander to Aurora, suspecting there might be something going on between the two in front of her.

“I’m really glad you’re okay, Jake,” Aurora smiles.

The paramedics soon come up saying that they will need to bring the lieutenant to the hospital for a check up. Before they could leave, Aurora stopped Jake, giving him a concerned look. “Do you want me to come with you?”

“Nah,” shaking his head, Jake gave her a confident grin. “I’ll just get a quick check up and head to NCIS for a statement. I’ll meet you back at the Navy yard, Mitchell?”

She smiles at hearing her last name.

“See ya in a bit then, Hangman.” Jake waves to all of them as he’s loaded into the back of the ambulance, soon disappearing from sight as they leave. Aurora turns around and sees her team looking at her, confused.

“Mitchell?” Ziva asks, confused.

Aurora sighs. “I’ll explain when we get back to the Navy yard.”

—

“So, wait. Your last name is actually Mitchell?” McGee asks incredulously, trying to wrap his head around the new information. In fact, the whole team was trying to wrap their heads around this one.

Aurora sat down at her desk in the bullpen, while Tony, Ziva, Abby, McGee, and Palmer stood around her.

“Yep,” Aurora confirms as she puts her hand under her chin, trying to gauge her team’s response and facial expressions.

Tony and McGee looked at each other, before they ran to their desks to pull up information. Aurora and Ziva look at each other and roll their eyes as Abby and Palmer chuckle at their antics. McGee then says he found something and puts it up on the bullpen TV screen. On it, showed her dad’s profile.

“Woah, he’s hot.” Abby acknowledges looking at her dad’s official Navy photo.

“Abby!” Aurora laughs at her outburst. Ziva nods approvingly at Abby’s comment, agreeing with her.

“Wait, I have another one too,” Tony says, as he puts another profile up on the screen right next to her dad’s. It was her brother’s.

“Oh, he’s cute too! How are you related to good looking men, Rory?” Abby asks as Aurora chuckles at her antics, choosing not to answer the rhetorical question.

“Your dad is Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell?!” Tony said, not believing it.

Aurora laughs and nods. “And that’s my brother. You both work fast.”

“Wait? What’s a Maverick?” Ziva asks, confused.

“Not a what, a who. Maverick is his call sign. States here Captain Mitchell is a highly decorated captain, a naval aviator graduated from Top Gun in ‘86,” McGee summarized from the profile he found “Has medals and awards, and currently is the pilot in a secret Mach 10 project, called the Darkstar.”

“Callsign?” Ziva’s brows furrow. “What’s a callsign?”

“A nickname each naval aviator has rather than using their actual name,” Aurora explains.

“And then there’s Chief Petty Officer Peyton Benjamin-Mitchell. He’s a naval aviation mechanic, graduated from the Naval Academy, currently deployed on the USS Franklin, with a stop in Japan,” Tony reads from the profile.

“Well that explains the postcard,” Ziva acknowledges.

“Actually half,” Aurora smirks at Ziva and Abby knowing they’ll be wondering what she meant by that.

“Your dad is a legend!” McGee exclaims. “I’ve heard of the Mitchell name from my dad so many times.”

“The Mitchell Legacy,” Aurora sarcastically mumbles.

“Why didn’t you tell us this before? Why are you telling us now?” Ziva asks.

Aurora takes a deep breath and lets it out.

“I didn’t want you all to treat me differently,” Aurora shrugs. “Take you, for example, Ziva. Everyone connects you to your dad who’s the head director of Mossad. They assume things about you and you’ve had to prove them wrong, as well as step up to your position. I just wanted a clean slate, a way to make my own name and not be connected to the Mitchell name,” she explains.

“But why tell us now?” Abby reiterates Ziva’s last question, standing next to the woman.

Aurora looks at all of them and smiles. “Because it was time to come clean to you all. You are also my family, you have been there for me, and I figured it was time to trust you all to know the rest of me.”

Abby finally bursts, throwing her arms around her friend in a big hug, Ziva joining in as well.

“Wait, then how does Lieutenant Seresin know about your last name?” McGee asks.

“Because I know her brother and her boyfriend,” a voice interrupts and they all turn towards it. Jake Seresin stood there, back from the hospital, smirking at them.

“Wait, boyfriend?!” The team yells out, as Aurora rolls her eyes at Jake.

“Best friend.” Aurora corrects, looking at him. “Glad to see you’re doing better.”

“Well, I guess I have you to thank for that,” he confesses.

“McGee, you should probably bring Lieutenant Seresin to the conference room for his statement? Gibbs is probably waiting for him there,” Tony tells McGee, his tone commandeering. McGee rolled his eyes, but didn’t argue.

“Sure, right this way Lieutenant,” McGee says, leading Jake to the stairs up the conference room.

They all watch Jake and McGee disappear going up the stairs before then turning back to Aurora.

“Ok, talk to us about this best friend/boyfriend of yours!” Abby exclaims, excitedly.

“And your brother!” Ziva insists.

Aurora groans but then proceeds to tell them all about Bradley and Peyton.

—

“So, you’re heading out?” Aurora asks Jake. He had just come back down after having to give his statement on the case and went straight to joining Aurora at her desk.

“Yep, the USS Seahawk is bound for departure in a few hours,” Jake replies, as he takes a look at the picture she had pinned on a corkboard behind her.

After she came clean to her team, she started putting pictures of her family that she had hid away in her desk drawer, including the postcard from Bradley and Peyron.

“Wow, what a way to spend time off the ship. Kidnapped, spending most of the time in the Navy Yard,” Aurora sarcastically replies to him.

“I still can’t believe she hid in your car that you were borrowing, hit you on the head, drove the car with you in it, and then dragged you into that abandoned house And you STILL didn’t wake up until she tightened the rope,” Aurora looks at Jake in disbelief.

“Hey, she had a strong arm, and upper body strength!” Jake remarks, tearing his gaze away from the corkboard.

“It’s a good thing she was so focused on kidnapping you, she forgot to take your phone away.”

“I’m just glad your number was the one I pressed, and not like your brother’s,” Jake cringes at the thought.

Aurora nods, because Peyton wouldn’t answer since he’s at sea.

Deep down, she was sad he was leaving. She had really bonded with Jake, and he was one of the reasons why she started opening up to her team.

“At least I finally got to meet THE Artemis. Everyone is going to be so jealous,” Jake teases.

Aurora laughs and smiles at him. “Be safe? I know how you flyboys get when you’re in those fighter jets,” she sassily remarks at him.

“Always am safe,” he winks at her.

She shakes her head. “And, please don’t give Bradley a hard time when you see him. I know you two butt heads a lot of times,” she advises.

“Well, he starts it,” he protests, making her chuckle at his remark.

“And you and Peyton? I won’t say anything.” She winks.

Jake rolls his eyes, looking away. “Nothing is even there.”

“Yet.”

“You be safe too Mitchell,” changing the subject, Jake returns his gaze to her. “Still can’t believe you brought a knife to a gunfight.”

“Hey, that knife saved your life!” They both chuckle. Jake turns to the rest of the team to give them a goodbye and thanks as well. Aurora stands up after he says his last goodbye to Tony, who also weirdly he had bonded with as well.

“Let me walk you to the elevators,” Aurora volunteers. Without any protest from him, they walk to the elevator as Jake hits the button to go down.

“Call me sometime,” Jake tells her as they stand waiting for the elevator.

She chuckles and shakes her head. “Here we go again with the flirting.”

“Hey, what are friends for?” Jake jokes. Once the elevator doors open and Jake’s inside, he gives Aurora one final wave goodbye.

“See you next time, Artemis.”

“See ya around, Hangman.”

—

“You heading home yet Arty-choke?” Dinozzo asks Aurora, as the team starts packing up for the day.

“That was the worst nickname you’ve ever made up, DiNaggy,” Aurora retorts looking up from what she was writing.

“Hey, I give my best with what’s been given! And DiNaggy isn’t your best either.”

“It is, you nag me a lot. But I am still partial to DiNutsos.”

Tony sticks his tongue out at her in retaliation.

“I still can’t believe your brother’s nickname is Apollo, when we gave you Artemis. What are the odds of that happening?” McGee ponders.

“I still can’t believe you came from a Naval aviation legacy, and still went into a career Navy adjacent,” Tony marvels at Aurora’s background.

“And I still can’t believe you all are still here,” Gibbs snaps as he looks up from his paperwork that he was finishing. “Do you need me to assign more work?”

“Nope!” “No thanks!” Tony and McGee reply, grabbing their bags and saying their goodbyes to everyone before heading out for the elevators..

Shaking her head, Aurora went back to writing, noticing out of the corner of her eye when Ziva approached her desk.

“Hey, wanna go to the bar with Abby and I? I’ll buy the first round,” Ziva offers, trying to convince her friend to go out with them.

“Yeah, can I actually meet you both there? I’m just going to finish up something and make a quick phone call real quick. I can’t stay out too long though. I want to get home to my puppy,” Aurora replies.

Ziva chuckles. “Yeah, sounds good. See you in a bit!” She walks out, headed to the elevators as Aurora goes back to her writing.

A few minutes pass by as she folds the paper, and puts it in an envelope. As she’s about to write on the envelope, she sees Gibbs turn off his desk light, a signal that he’s heading home.

Gibbs stands and turns to Aurora. “You doing alright, kiddo? You did good today.”

She smiles at Gibbs. “I’m doing a lot better, Gibbs. Thank you for today, last night, and for all the days that I’ve been on this team,” she tells him.

Gibbs chuckles, and kisses the top of her head, a fatherly gesture. “We’re always here for you, Artemis. Go home soon, alright?”

“Yes’sir,” Aurora says, giving a mock salute as Gibbs shakes his head before heading out.

Sighing, she puts a hand to her head. No panic attacks today, for that Aurora was grateful. She knew she was going to have to take it a few days at a time. She was going to schedule a therapist that was recommended to her by McGee and she was going to be alright.

Coming out of her thoughts, Aurora went back to the envelope, putting the name and address on it before slipping it into her bag. She was going to mail it out in the morning. Peyton and Bradley would get it hopefully at a speedy pace. She then turns her chair and sees her corkboard, not as bare anymore.

Pictures of her family, Bradley, Goose, Carole, Ice and Sarah were now displayed proudly. She takes a photo into her hands, holding it as if it would help the memory come back to life. The last picture she had of the trio, taken by her Uncle Goose at the graduation party. Aurora in the middle laughing while Peyton made a funny face and Bradley smiling down at Aurora. The one time she can remember being happy.

She smiles as she puts the photo next to a photo of the NCIS team during one Thanksgiving she had spent with them when she wasn’t able to go home to San Diego that year. She leans back into her chair, biting the inside of her cheek.

Aurora was nervous for this phone call, but she knew it was something she needed to do sooner rather than later. She grabs her phone off her desk and clicks on the number that she had called a few times. Putting the phone to her ear, she waits and listens to the phone ring until she hears the person answer on the other end.

“Hello?”

Aurora’s eyes started to water at hearing his voice, a voice she had missed and wished she had called more often. She took a deep breath, nervous to come clean to him about everything, her panic attacks, her PTSD. Aurora was scared of his reaction because she knew all he wanted was to protect her. But she was ready to tell him, no more hiding.

“Hi dad.”

---

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—

Disclaimer: This story is fictitious. All works are written by me and only posted here. Please do not copy, repost, or plagiarize on any other platform without my permission!

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munson-blurbs · 1 year

Note

congratulations on 2K!!! that's so cool!

i was wondering if i could request Steve/Library/Romance Novel? (also maybe include glasses!steve if you want because he's my favorite)

congrats again! you deserve it, dear!!! 🫶🏻💗

Thank you! I tried to sneak a little glasses!Steve in there for you. I hope you enjoy!

Warnings: Brief mention of sex

WC: 917

“Hey, Y/N,” your co-worker, Steve, calls from the return cart. “Check this one out.” The two of you are constantly finding the most ridiculous books, daring each other to read them. Steve’s holding up a copy of The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman. “This is your challenge for the week.”

“I accept your challenge,” you say with a knowing smirk, “and raise you this.” You toss him the romance novel that someone had brought back earlier. You’d been saving it for this exact moment since you checked it in earlier.

Steve catches it, wrinkling his nose when he reads the title. “The Duke of Hardwood Kingdom?” he chuckles. “No way. Challenge denied.”

“C’mon, Harrington,” you protest, jutting out your lower lip in a pout, “you haven’t turned one down yet. Are you really gonna let the Duke be your downfall?”

“I guess not,” he grumbles, adjusting his glasses on the bridge of his nose and taking another glance at the cover. “But does he have to be so…naked?”

His comment catches you off-guard, and you bark out a laugh, clapping your hand over your mouth before someone shushes you. “I bet you wouldn’t be complaining if it was a naked woman.”

“No I would not,” he chuckles. “All right, I’ll read it. But I’m only doing this because I can’t turn down a dare,” he insists, pointing the paperback toward you.

“And you never know; it might help you with the ladies,” you tease, and he responds with a flip of his middle finger.

Your next shift that coincides with Steve’s isn’t for a few more days. You always get there before he does, and you greet him with a smile.

“How’s the Duke treating you?” You bat your eyelashes innocently, making him laugh.

“Thoroughly entertaining. I’ve read about more sex positions than I thought were possible,” Steve confesses. “But he’s always doing way too much, y’know? Like, why does he have to show up everywhere on a horse? Why can’t he just drive, like a normal person?”

“Who shows up everywhere on a horse?” Amy, another librarian, interjects as she flops a stack of returns on the counter.

“No one,” Steve mutters, just as you say, “Steve’s new best friend, the Duke of Hardwood County.”

Amy raises her eyebrows in disbelief, an amused grin spreading across her face. “Well, maybe it’s because it takes place in 1803? Like, way before cars were invented.”

“You read it?” Steve asks her, and she nods. “Okay, then I have a question for you.”

“Fire away.”

“What the hell is a petticoat?”

The next day, Steve slaps The Duke of Hardwood Kingdom onto the counter triumphantly. “Finished!”

“Congrats,” your voice is dripping with sarcasm as you break out into a slow clap. “And it wasn’t even a picture book.”

“You slay me with your humor,” Steve grunts. “But I will say, it actually wasn’t half bad. Kinda corny, but not the worst book I’ve ever read.”

“Care to share your findings with the class?” you tease, filing the book back into circulation. “Any tips or tricks you picked up from the Duke?”

“Besides traveling via horse?” Steve scrunches his face. “Not really. Oh, but there was one scene where the Duke and Serenity—that was the chick’s name—were dancing at the Grand Ball, and I realized I’ve been dancing all wrong.”

You laugh and start on another stack of returns. “Steve, have you been breaking into the YMCA during the slow songs?”

Steve rolls his eyes at you when you start doing the moves. “Uh, no. But I just kinda did the whole…here, let me show you.” He awkwardly takes your hands and places them on his shoulders, putting his own hands on your hips. “So I used to slow dance like this.”

“Oh my God,” you throw your head back and giggle. “Steve, this is like how Eddie Munson and I danced at the middle school Snow Ball!”

“Yeah, yeah,” he mutters, trying to ignore the pang of jealousy he feels over a dance you shared when you were thirteen. “But now, thanks to the Duke, I’ll dance like this.” He holds your left hand in his right, and you let your right hand rest on his bicep. “There ya go,” he muses, bringing his free hand to the small of your back and pulling you close.

“Now we just need some music,” you joke, but Steve’s too lost in your eyes to pick up on it. You’re suddenly aware of the lack of space between you. “Okay, well…” you clear your throat and step back, “gotta get back to these bad boys,” you blurt out, smacking the pile of books for emphasis. Heat creeps up your neck from the embarrassment.

“Yeah, they’re, uh, not gonna check themselves in,” Steve chuckles nervously, shoving his hands in his pockets. You both get back to work for a few minutes before suddenly saying, “Do you like music? Like, um, listening to it and stuff?”

“Mhm,” you nod, allowing yourself to glance in his direction.

“Cool.” He bites his thumbnail, a habit you’d noticed he engages in when he’s anxious. “Would you wanna listen to some with me sometime? Maybe tonight after work?”

You smile, unaware that it lights up the room—no, the whole library—for him. “That sounds like fun.”

“Cool,” he repeats, “I’ll see ya then.” He shoots you finger guns as he backs up, nearly walking into the cart.

“You learn those moves from the Duke, too?”

“Shut up.”

#bug's 2k celebration #steve harrington #steve harrington x you #steve harrington x female reader #steve harrington x y/n #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington fluff #steve harrington fanfic #stranger things fanfic #fanfic #stranger things #steve stranger things

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peonyslumber · 1 year

Text

Everybody wants to love you

S5|in-villa|Chapter 1|Suresh/Mc| 4,761 words

Author’s note: Story title idea from the song ‘Everybody wants to love you’ by the artist Japanese Breakfast. Chapter title idea from the song ‘More’ by the artist The Greeting Committee.

I decided to rewrite season 5 with my own fanfic. Check out: @kvngdomheartz and @luckyqueenreign. They’ve got good Suresh/Mc fics. Chapter 1 will be loosely based on volume I, including, both Episode 1 and 2. I do use some information from s5 like dialogue and some challenges, but it’ll be written completely by me otherwise. Enjoy!

Chapter 1 - More

I took a deep breath before my heels clicked hard against the cobblestone. My hand was still on the car door frame before closing it. I looked up at the entrance to the villa.

This was where I was going to be staying. To find love, friendships, and of course, the 50k prize in the end. Hopefully. Fingers crossed.

My thoughts were interrupted once an energetic girl came sweepingly in sight.

She waved to me, “Hello! I’m Dana.” She flashed a smile before linking her arm with mine to head into the villa.

My head turned to face her, “Hey, I should probably introduce myself. I’m Myrna.” Returning a smile back, “Is it only you here? Or where is everyone else?”

Dana whirled around, “This other girl Kat is getting the champagne bottle ready for us. She can’t find a cork opener, and she said it was vital.” She studied me before saying anything, “I need your advice on something.”

I bit the inside of my cheek, “I’m not sure if I’m well equipped in fashion.”

She grinned, “Me neither. I would ask Kat, but I know she isn’t the most unbiased person.”

I would rather know more about this Kat than help her with her wardrobe but saying that would be rude.

“She sounds like a piece of work.” I pursued my lip, “But I doubt she’s that bad. Maybe she just needs to warm up to us. I have some mates back at home who acted cold until we got closer.”

She twirled her hair, “I suppose you’re right. This is where we’ll sleep.”

I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was standing in the villa’s bedroom. It looks even more vibrant than from watching it on television.

“I can’t believe we’re going to be sharing a bed with blokes we barely know.”

My palms begin to get clammy, “Oh, yeah! How could I have forgotten that!” I forced a smile.

Her eyes twinkled, “You’re nervous. Relax!” She squeezes my shoulders, “You can always tell them to go sleep on the daybeds. Your choice.”

We entered the dressing room. She started to dig into an orange bag, and clothes started flying everywhere until she reached the piece she wanted.

“Is it bad?” She raised her eyebrow. “I’ve been thinking about changing my style. I bought a new wardrobe for this.” She placed her head in her hand, “Who knows if it’ll be worth it.”

My feet stammered back.

People spent money on buying new clothes to be on this show? Now that I’m thinking about it… I probably should’ve invested more into it too.

Leaning against the wall, I peered over at her. The full bathing suit pressed against her chest. The bathing suit had a blue and yellow flower embroidered on it.

“You want my honest opinion?” I asked her, raising my eyebrow.

She nodded her head.

I sighed, “Your fashion sense seems to be stuck in the 2000s, babes.

Her hand massaged her temple, “That was what I was afraid of. I thought that it would be better to switch it up a bit to remind myself nothing is permanent.”

She bit her lip. Putting back her swimsuit before turning back to me, “You’re lucky it’s summer because you’re sweating so much that it’s becoming humid in here.”

I narrowed my eyes, “Jeez! Thanks, Dana.”

Before I could leave the room, and escape from who seemed like the only person here. A head popped into the room.

I jumped back, cupping my body from being caught off guard, “Girl, I thought you were a human Shih Tzu.” Shaking my head.

A shriek came from her mouth, and she stared at the ground, her mouth agape.

“Close your mouth, Kat. Before flies can lay their bodies in your gigantic mouth. It’ll be like a palace for them.” Dana playfully bumped her shoulder into mine.

Kat properly regained her composure, her heels clicked against the floor with each step she took entering the room, she poked Dana. “Not funny!” Lifting her finger, “I’ll have you all know that my hair is liked by many.”

Dana looked over at me before returning her gaze to Kat, “Yeah, who? Bartholomew?”

She raised her eyebrows, “Wait!” Followed by gasping, “How did you know about him? And his name is Bartholomew A. Bittlebun, JR.” She rolled her eyes.

I folded my arms, “Isn’t that from that one girl who starred in that handsome actor Rafi’s movie?” Tapping my chin, waiting for Kat’s response.

Kat furrowed her brows, “Hmm… yes! She only got like fifteen seconds in screen time...”

While Kat talked I worked on fixing up my mascara and lipstick. I sprayed some of my hairspray in my hair before turning back to Kat and Dana.

She reached for Dana and my wrists, “But that’s not why I came here. We need to not waste the bubbles they have!”

Interrupted immediately by a ping has us standing in the bedroom waiting.

“Girls! I got a text.” She yelled then quickly began to read it out for us.

Hope you girls are settling in nicely because we have a surprise for one of you. A burnt-out match that came to be reignited. #HereComeTheBoys #FirstCoupling

Our eyes landed on each other.

“What could that mean?” I asked them while playing with my hair.

Kat shrugged, “Why don’t we go see for ourselves?” She signaled us to follow her.

We were walking too slow, “Can you babes hurry up?” She linked our hands together.

We could see the view from the living room, but before we were out on the lawn, she released my hand.

“You made my hands all moist.” Kat hissed, glaring at me.

“And we all know there’s only one time when that’s acceptable.” Dana chuckled.

“Oh, you’ll find out soon when I hump one of these guys like a large hunk of log.” Biting her lip, smirking.

“I could see you being a tree hugger.” I clicked my tongue, nodding my head.

“Shouldn’t we establish a few things first before going out there?” Dana said, swallowing a lump in her throat.

Kat shook her head, “The only thing to remember is to stay out of my way. I don’t care much about cats, but I’m willing to claw you lot if you steal my man.”

Dana snarled, “They’re not yours to claim, Kat.”

Kat shrugged her shoulders, “Let’s see about that.” She gathered herself, turning back at us, winking before walking out first.

She strutted her stuff, running her hands through the loose sides of her hair.

She stopped in front of a preppy blonde hair boy.

Her hands swayed their way to her hips, “Hey, blondie, do you like what you see? Could I possibly be a bit of you?” She pouted her lips.

He stuttered, rubbing his nape, and left blushing.

She rolled her eyes, “Never mind! I like men who go after what they want, and it’s clear you’re not my kind of guy.”

He objected, “Not at all! I mean, you’re drop-dead gorgeous, and I’d care to take you out on a picnic date.”

Her head snapped in our direction, and her eyes enlarged.

“Well, that’s just factual. I’m like Madonna before Madonna. You look far too clean. I’m into bad boys, but my nan wants me to find someone like you. I can’t see why, like, what’s wrong with my taste? I have great taste...”

Dana looks over at me, “Hey! There’s no reason why we should be letting her have the spotlight. Let’s make an entrance.”

I straightened myself before walking out there with Dana.

“Oi! When can we get a piece of the action?” She yelled out.

A hunky man with trousers came jogging up to us. “My bad loves. The name is Alfie, I’m the kind of guy you call to get your wooden floors installed while pretty boy Eddie over here is the one you call to find out what’s the best product to make those hands smooth.” He raised Eddie’s hands for us to see.

We peered over and admired his soft hands.

“See what I’m talking about?” He laughed before being playfully knuckled in the shoulder.

“Hey! I’m not just a pretty face, you know.” Eddie rolled his eyes, “People just don’t look beyond my face, right? To see what’s inside my heart? I have so much more to provide, like love, attention…”

Kat interrupted him before he could finish, “Pipe it, Eddie! I need to know the cream asap.” She turned to us, “I’ve never wanted a pair of hands to brush against my cheek as much as I do now.”

Dana giggled before heading to the kitchen. While Kat and Eddie went over to the pool to talk about his secret to modeling hands.

I flashed Alfie a smile, “So what do you do? Are you a construction worker?” I tilted my head.

He chuckled, “No. No. I’m a carpenter. I work exclusively with wood. What about you?”

I let my hands drop to my side, “I’m an office worker. My job is to sell and present services and products.”

“Ah! A sales representative. I’ve met a few while working the job. They’ve always seemed to be pushy.” He looked down, then up, “Not that I’m insinuating that you’re pushy!”

I bit my lip, “It’s alright. I have to be persistent. One of the things I strictly put away when I’m not working.” I messed with my bracelet, “What brings someone as good-looking as you on Love Island?”

He turned his head, “I want to meet someone that I can see myself growing old with. I haven’t found much luck on the outside, so I’m hoping that’ll be different here.”

Dana came back with three bottles of water. She handed one to me and the other to Alfie.

“I can see where you’re coming from, Alfie. Inside here. I at least know people’s motives, there are only three. Love, money, and the game. Are you playing the game, Myrna?” She looked over at me, taking a sip of her water.

My gaze fell to the ground, “No. I do not appreciate or participate in games.”

Dana’s gaze landed on something behind me, and I could hear footsteps.

“Myrna?” A husky voice said behind me.

I knew who that voice belonged to. A guy I thought I’d never see up until today.

I gulped before gaining the courage to turn around. The corner of my mouth lifted, “Suresh? I can’t believe it’s you!”

“Long time coming, don’t you think?” He flashed his arrogant grin.

I knew him far too much to notice the way he brushed his fingers against his belt, hiding the fact that he was nervous. Nervous to see me. Nervous to know what I’ll say.

“Why are you here, Suresh?” My brows bumped together, “I know your strongest suit isn’t in relationships.” My hands landed on my hips.

“Ouch!” Eddie yelped, picking up something from the ground, “why was there a sharp thorn on the ground? Someone could’ve seriously hurt themselves.”

Kat placed her hand on his shoulder, “Hunny, now that’s just nature.”

Dana shushes them, “Myrna, you know him?” Pointing at Suresh.

A familiar face with a tribunal past, and I’m not just saying that because he’s a corporate lawyer. If only he did right in our relationship. We wouldn’t need to stand glaring at each other on love island.

“That’s a good question. After what he did, it made me realize I didn’t know him at all.”

Eddie came chiming in, “My ears were tingling, how juicy do you think it is?” He asked Kat.

“As juicy as a peach, hunny.” She beamed.

“I’m sorry, guys, but I need some time alone.” I walked pasted them and headed to the rooftop.

I dragged my foot towards the coach. My bum was comforted by the soft cushion as I held a pillow against my body.

I didn’t think my past would follow me. In fact, when I saw him, all I wanted to do was to wake up from this nightmare, a nightmare that seemed to have gone on way too long. Some hidden feelings resurfaced once I heard his voice. It brought me back memories of the good and bad. It was always him and I against the world, we did so much together that it was hard once it ended, and I had to learn how to be alone again.

I lowered my head.

I thought going to therapy would help, and it did for a short period. I couldn’t get over what he did. I couldn’t get over him, sometimes, I would wake up and look over at the space beside me, wishing he was there to comfort me. I tried to stop dreaming about him, but he would always pop up no matter how much I tried to get him off my mind… I just couldn’t shake him.

I lifted my head when I heard clacking.

The heels tapped against the stairs as Suresh slowly came into view.

He swung his body back and forth, “Hey, you.” He hesitated to take a seat next to me.

“Don’t ‘hey you’ me.” I hugged the pillow tighter, “What are you doing here, Suresh?”

He placed his hands on his thighs, “Well, I would be lying if I said I came on here looking for a fresh start.” He took a deep breath, “I came on here because I wanted to rewrite all the wrongs I did. I couldn’t sleep, or go on about my day without being haunted by what we had. I don’t know what came over me, but… I heard from a mate of mine that you were going to sign up to be on this show. I thought, ‘wow! This would be a great time to have an excuse to see you and redeem what we once shared.’ And I plan on doing that. As long as you’ll have me.”

My lips quivered, my nose crinkled, and my eyes began to well up.

“I’m Sorry, Myrna.” He wrapped his hands around me and indulged me in a hug, “Don’t cry, beautiful. Especially over me. I promise you…. I won’t make the same mistake twice. I’ll prove it to you every day as long as I live because… our story doesn’t deserve a goodbye.”

Our conversation is soon interrupted by Kat yelling for us to come back down.

He helps me off the couch and leads the way to the garden.

He bit his lip, “Just so you know, I’m here for you, and only you.” He placed his hand over my shoulder.

We rejoin the group.

Kat threw her hands up, “Finally! That felt like forever waiting for you two. It reminds me of this time in Basildon where I had to wait in a line with like six elders that took forever to move forward.”

Dana shook her head, “Anyways…” she continued, “I guess we should get ready to couple up.”

“Myrna, you should go first.”

Kat looked like she was about to object but Dana stopped her.

“Great! I’d like to couple up with this person because I feel like there’s some unfinished business. I want to couple up with Suresh.” I tried to hide the twinkle in my eyes.

Suresh flashed his cocky smile to the lads, “Thanks, beautiful. I was hoping you’d pick me anyway.”

Eddie rolled his eyes, “What a shame! A pretty girl like you shouldn’t be with an undeserving fish flopper.”

Alfie turned to him, “What’s with the comebacks mate?”

“I’m a lover, not a disser.”

Alfie shook his head, “But he’s right! Even if he couldn’t execute it well. Being pied off by a girl picking her ex is at a new time low for Alfie boy.”

Kat clicked her tongue, “How did your speech become somewhat worse than Eddie’s? But, my turn, because Alfie seems to be dead set on the second best in the villa… I’ll couple up with Eddie. My nan better be happy right now.”

Dana flashed a nervous smile, “Right! My turn. There are not many options I have to choose from. Unless you count the missing cork opener. I’ll couple up with Alfie because I’m hoping he’ll change my view on love.”

Everything came to a halt once Dana’s phone pinged.

“I got a text!”

Islanders be ready because it’s about to be Finn-tastic with a Finn-surprise! #BombshellComing

Kat beamed, “Ooh, a new boy!” She turned to Eddie, “Sorry, babe.”

Dana raised her chin, “Now who could walk in here?” She tapped her chin.

A long redhead muscular man that had dashing tattoos, and abs saluted us, “I’m Finn. I had to make sure I looked my best for the pretty ladies in front of me, and to try to fix a cork opener, which now that I’m here, would be pointless to have.”

Kat took the cork opener from his hand, “I have been looking all over for that damn thing…” she took a step back making sure to take in the sight of him, “Wow! You’re such a hunky spice tool. With tattoos.” She turned to us, “I hope nan doesn’t mind!” She whispered quietly.

“I’m glad we have you, geezer. Now we can finally play pirates of the Caribbean.” Alfie nodded to him.

Eddie’s face went pale, “More competition. How fun.” Laughing nervously.

Dana patted Eddie, “Don’t worry, guy. I’m sure you have nothing to worry about.”

Finn’s phone pinged, “I got a text!”

Finn, you have twenty four hours when you’ll be able to couple up with a girl of your pick. The boy in the couple you break up, will be left single and at risk. #SourHearts #TakeYourChoice

Finn glanced over at the boys, “Sorry, mates. No hard feelings.”

The boys simmer down, leaving the area in silence making it become awkward real fast.

Finn looks amazingly good, but somehow, I can’t help but gawk over at Suresh.

“Can I feel your tats?” Kat asked Finn.

He grins, “Sure thing! Don’t forget to compliment my biceps when you do.”

Eddie rolled his eyes, “So looks like I should be worried. Kat looks like she’d be a bit of Finn.”

Alfie observed Finn, “Hey, man! Who knows he could have immaculate taste and choose Dana.”

Dana flashed him a smile.

“Boys. Boys. Boys. All will be told when it comes.” He winks at them.

“So good at being mysterious. Not the best though, not like me. Myrna could never go for good, she’s always strived for the best.” He said, confidently smirking.

“I’ve got more up my sleeves than I can show, but, if we’re talking about based on first impression, all of y’all are a bit of me.” He boldly makes eye contact with me, “If Suresh is your ex Myrna then you can do better. But must I say, he’s got great taste. Must be because you’re delira to meet.”

I lifted my shoulder in a half shrug, “Grafting pretty hard already.”

Suresh pulled me closer to him, having his hand on my waist, “Pull all your cards. It takes more than a couple of words to get her.”

Finn chuckled, “Does it also take a couple of words to lose her too?”

In the corner of my eye, I could see Suresh’s knuckles turn white.

I knew that stung Suresh, especially if it reminded him of his wrongdoings.

My phone pings, “Y’all know the cue. I got a text!”

Islanders, be prepared because you’ll be taking part in a lovely couples quiz hosted by your personal pirate Finn #HowWellDoYouKnowThem #QuizThatCouple

Suresh whispered into my ear, “This should be easy. I could never forget anything about you.”

I nodded my head, “It’s hard to forget someone like me, babe.”

Kat clapped her hands together, “Well, I don’t know about you guys, but we should have a chat with our couples, even though I know Eddie and I don’t need a chat privately. I feel like I’ve known him my entire life.” She sent a prideful look my way.

We all agreed. Suresh and I went over to the daybeds.

We sat closely, nothing out of the ordinary between us.

Suresh broke the silence, “It feels good to finally be talking to you again. I know we’ll ace this quiz, we’ve always been good at doing things as a couple. We were like missing puzzle pieces for each other. Fit so well together. There was never a boring moment between us. You’ve always been the light of my day. I just hope you know that, and I won’t make the same mistake and lose you.”

I looked down at the ground, “I’ll admit hearing you talk has me right in my feelings. I know admitting all this… the past you… would have a hard time conveying your feelings, and confessing your mistakes. So I’m happy to see that improvement from you. I… I want us to work. I know it’s early in our couple in here, but I want to give it another shot.”

Suresh’s thigh brushes against mine, and he raises his head, his gaze lands on my lips.

“I want to kiss you so much right now, but I’m resisting for you.”

“But what if I don’t want you to resist? We’ve always been good at physicality, let’s see if we still have it?”

He brushed his finger against the bottom of my lip before planting a kiss on them.

The heavy exhales brush against my cheek. I should be stopping this, keeping the distance between us as possible. But being near old flames has never felt so good as it does when it's snuggled behind Suresh’s eyes. The lust pulls me in, fire, daring me to touch it as my heart skips a beat feeling pure excitement. Every last piece of control in my body breaks, and I move my lips to him, curious and lustful about the past flames, the flare. The hand that was once holding my face climbs its way down to my waist, and it doesn't take much effort until Suresh climbs on top of me. In a moment our bodies turn into hungry animals. Making it seem as if we are the only people on this earth.

We stop as we hear a cough. Dana stood there, flushed.

“Sorry. To interrupt. But… I got a text!” She avoided our gaze.

Suresh and I regained our composure.

Islanders, don’t worry the time has come to get to know your new couple. Please would you head over to the fire pit for the couples quiz. #CoupleGoals #TestingTheWaters

“Hooray!” Kat exclaims excitedly.

We all head to the fire pit sitting in our couples. Finn stands in front of us with a deck of questions.

“Are all y’all ready to rumble? I hope y’all are good with quizzes.”

Kat smirks, “Oh, Peach, let me tell you something. I went to this bar in Basildon and they’d have quizzes there, and who would’ve guessed it… I won each one, so bring it on!”

Dana chuckled, “I don’t know if I’m that confident. I’m not that good at quizzes, but I could never turn down one.”

“I’m confident that I’ll be good at this. When it comes to our relationship I was always the winner.” I playfully bumped my shoulder into Suresh’s.

“Hey! Hey! Now let’s just say… I let you win. If I didn’t you’d become a sore loser.” He sent an air kiss my way.

I turned back to Finn, crossing my arms.

Finn grins, “It’s about to get saucy in here mates. I hope you’re ready.” He looks over at Suresh and me, “I’m in a pretty chaotic mood, so Suresh and Myrna, you’re up first.”

Suresh relaxed his shoulders, “Bring it on! I know Myrna like the back of my hand.” He sent me a smoldering look.

“What is Myrna’s favorite date?” Finn lifted his brow, wondering if Suresh would guess it right.

“I’m going to say… our Monte Carlo trip. We had a blast! And Myrna was always a sucker for romance, and what’s more romantic than that? I’d go into specifics but that would be telling. The dinner on the boat was everything…” He grinned at me, placing his hand on my thigh.

“You’re correct! Although, I’d prefer something more laid back for a date. Like a picnic on a beach… maybe I’ll be able to take one of you girls on a date… don’t want to go into details, you’ll just have to see.”

Eddie shuffles in his seat, “Got to remind us, huh? Don’t play with all these girls’ hearts if you actually just want one in particular.”

Finn brushes Eddie’s comment off, “What is Myrna’s biggest turn off?”

Suresh confidently looks over at me, “Definitely a man who doesn’t know what they want. Myrna wants to feel secure.”

“Then why is she trying to be with you again?” Finn crosses his arms, looking sternly at Suresh.

“Clearly because I’m the better option. Y’all aren’t even competition to me at this point.”

Finn cackled, “Sure, mate. Next question. Has Myrna ever flirted to get free stuff?”

I flashed a fake smile.

“No, never. She didn’t flirt with anyone else, and if she did I would know about it.”

Finn smirked as he looked down at the card, “And that my friend… is where you’re wrong.”

Suresh did a once over before rubbing the back of his nape.

“Obviously that’s half true. I never needed to flirt to get free stuff. I remember being in this store, the Pumpkin store, and there happened to be a man there who offered to give me something free that cost at least $65. Who am I to turn that down?” I asked the group.

Kat nodded her head, “Yeah! You’re right! It’s not our fault we’re hot and people happen to reward us with gifts because we blessed them with our presence. Nothing bad about that. She technically didn’t flirt then.”

Wow! This was the first time Kat was being nice. That shocked even me, but deep down I knew she was going to come around eventually.

“Enough. Enough. Finn did it again. It’s time for Myrna to answer questions. What is Suresh’s biggest turn on?”

I squeezed Suresh’s hand, “Obviously, during foreplay, he would go nuts for a bit of role-playing.”

Finn checked the answer, disappointment plastered across his face, “That’s the right answer! Again… What is Suresh’s biggest regret?”

I bit my lip, “I- that’s tuff. I’ll say his biggest regret is not being able to go on that cruise with me and our mates. He was pretty bummed out about that.” I snickered remembering the moment a little too well.

Finn made an imitation of a buzzer sound, “Wrong! His biggest regret was cheating on you.”

Suresh looked down, and I slowly laid my head on his shoulder.

“I think you lads need to find another thing to be the bud of the joke, don’t forget I was the one cheated on, not you, or you or you.” I pointed to the boys, “So be a little considerate, okay?”

They all nodded their heads, and then the game continued.

There was a bit of laughter, and embarrassment as the rest of the islanders got quizzed. When it was over I chose to dip my toes in the pool, soaking in the good weather and feeling the cool breeze brush against my skin.

I felt someone sit next to me, and I lifted my sunglasses, “Oh, hey, Suresh, what’s going on with you? I saw you and the blokes working out…”

He sighed, resting his head on my lap, “Uh, yeah! Kat kept on flirting with Finn, and Eddie was upset but he wasn’t going to outright say that. I’m so glad we’re not having to deal with anything like that. Makes me wonder what they have in store for us next.”

I brushed my fingers through his hair, “Well, the least we know is that there’s going to be a recoupling, but I doubt he’ll pick me.”

I knew Finn sort of had been eyeing me. Oh, who am I kidding, he’s even let Suresh know, but I didn’t want Finn to interrupt Suresh and I’s reconnection. Plus, there were things I needed to know, and It was going better than I thought, and something I have been wanting for a while. Maybe I’ll have a chat with him later but for now I’m going to spoil myself by soaking in the moment, something I rarely ever do.

#litg fanfic #litg s5 #litg ex in the villa #love island the game #litg suresh #suresh x mc #litg season 5 #Peonyslumber: fics

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curedeity · 1 year

Text

It’s fanfic day-

Okay so if you haven’t noticed today I went around and dropped an ask in like… most of my beyblade mutuals (and some nonmutuals I think?) inboxes and asked them for their favorite fics. If you didn’t receive an ask but wanna do this, like, go ahead? I probably was just like “oh hmmmmm idk if this person wants me in their inbox”

But! I’m also gonna take this chance and gush about some of my favorite beyblade fanfics, because I recently buckled down and actually got through a lot of the ones I wanted to.

Gotta start with “The Previous Wielder (Is Just a Guy)” by @artisadie (or squirt1254 on ao3). The fact Sadie has not published any more fics is criminal. Like, Sadie, it’s an actual crime that you gave me this fic and then nothing more. The dynamic written between Gingka and Ryo here is so compelling, managing to merge a serious reflection with their combined goofiness. It’s just really well-written, and also pretty short for anyone who wants a quick read.

My government mandated @lady-lazagna fic is “Christmas with Kenta” (on ao3) which I think is the first one I read of hers. A lot of her fics are very good, including Wounded Pride and especially the second chapter of Metal Mayhem, but I think this is the first work of hers I read, and one that really stuck with me. I like the way it manages to handle this sort of bittersweet feeling, choosing a slightly darker route of Ryuga’s future post-canon if he stayed alive, but also bringing it this very mundane feel. I think it’s an amazing work of both characterization of a wide cast, and also masterfully balances its tone.

As for another Kenta and Ryuga bonding Christmas themed fic, we’ve got “so this is christmas (the war is over)” by @little-christmas-song (ssongpyeon on ao3). Once again, Song, this is active violence against me for this to be your only published fic. Your writing style is addictive. This fic does focus a lot more on the dynamic between Ryuga and Kenta, and is a much more mellow piece taking place further post-canon. Song has a really good understanding of language, and their writing style is honestly incredible. I really love the way it sneaks it characterization for some of its supporting cast as well, and I think it’s just a really chill read overall.

And now for another absolute legend of the ao3, we have @starfishes-and-watercolors or CallmeCloudyorVal on ao3. There’s a lot of fics of theirs I like, from their Tithi fics to Adoption AU, but after thinking for about a minute I found that I could confidently say “The Working Dead” is my favorite fic of theirs. The fic focuses on Madoka and Yuki just having conversations with each other while being absolutely stressed from work at the WBBA, and I can confidently say this fic definitely influenced a fair few headcanons I have for them. It really helped me realize just how good of a dynamic these two could have, and is a pretty fun read for me just for that. The fic is just also very funny at many parts, especially when Yuki and Madoka get the closest to murder.

Lightning round! “Temple Tetris” by DinoSohn (on ao3) is a short humorous piece about Dynamis. It gave me a good laugh, and will probably do the same for you.

“Spicy sweet potato chips” by @ladyryukyo (mademoiselle1 on ao3) is also just a quick work about Ryo that I enjoy, and it focuses on Kyoya and Ryo’s dynamic. It’s got a pretty humorous concept, and executes that humor really well. I like the mundane insanity it has.

It was hard to choose for @heybeyby (candiedshekelsss on ao3) because I really enjoyed “A Leaf-Colored Contemplation” (btw, banger title) but I gotta go with “Fallen Down Where The Dead Boys Go” (seriously wtf is up with all your titles slapping???). How could I not, I got so much lore for this fic given to me and so much fear placed into me. This is a Shogun Steel fic, and a more plot heavy one at that, but if you’ve watched Shogun Steel I can’t recommend this fic enough. It has really good narration for each character so far, and a lot of good character building as well. I am so excited for where this fic will go, and especially excited for the characterizations of Maru and Ren we’ve gotten so far, and where those will go too.

At this point I have started to forget who I’ve mentioned by now and who I haven’t. Gonna come clean and say I am writing this post ahead of time, on google docs, and I’m still getting lost.

Time for some longer multichapters!

First off, I’d like to mention “From Different Eyes” by @masterofdemise (on ao3). This fic is about Dynamis and Pluto post-canon swapping bodies, and has a lot good character building for underutilized canon characters (Elysse counts). But most of all, this fic absolutely embraces the humor of the situation, and the humor of the characters. It is constantly leaning into the absurd, and the humor is written with the characters well in mind. I could go on for a while about how humor is used in this fic, but it absolutely makes it worth the read even if you aren’t interested in Dynamis or Pluto.

“And then there were 4” by @voidix (on ao3) is likely one of the most plot-heavy beyblade fics I’ve read. It takes a lot to commit to making a plot-heavy multichapter, and the set-up and revelations so far in this fic are quite fun. It has a lot of that beyblade absurdity, and I’m glad I read it.

@andro-dino has many good fics, though I don’t think my favorite choice will surprise anyone, as I wrote a fic inspired by it! “This Body of Mine?” (on ao3) Is a short, Toby-centric fic, and I think it’s just a really sweet character study. I don’t really know what to say about it other than it’s a good read, and definitely one anyone interested in Toby’s fanon character growth should read (we are seriously giving this dude so much).

@qloof has got a lot of fics published, but the one I’m gonna choose is “King and Tithi’s Pranking Adventure” (on ao3) I just found it genuinely funny and sweet. I hope another chapter gets written, but if not, it’s still a solid read for anyone who’s interested, and has really fun characterizations for the legendary blader cast.

“Hagane” by @mellythedork (on ao3) is also a very neat fic, I love the magic it embraces for the mfb universe, and a lot of the writing is very cool. I’d definitely encourage you to read it if you’re a Ryo fan like I am, or just want to see Doji get his shit wrecked.

For my last fic, I wanna quickly shoutout “Gesso” by Arcylic (on ao3) which without a doubt really made me interested in what Team Starbreaker dynamics could be like. It focuses on Zeo and Jack’s dynamic, and has a lot of really fun dialogue between the two. I can bet this fic started a wave of people absolutely ready to try their own hand at the starbreaker dynamic.

Now, I can’t very well let the opportunity to talk about myself just pass me by. I have 53 published beyblade fics, so you can imagine it might be a bit hard for me to choose.

I will say if you’ve watched Shogun Steel, even just a bit, and haven’t read “Stolen Pride” yet, I’d absolutely encourage you to. Since I started in this fandom, I’ve really tried to make narratives about feminism that deal with the issues of the show in an in-universe manner. “Stolen Pride” is my newest work to explicitly focus on that, and I’d love people to read it and tell me what they enjoyed and didn’t. It’s a discussion I really want to have.

“Darkness in Triplicate” is one of my longest Hikaru-centric works, and a bit of a dark read, but I think absolutely worthwhile. I have always wanted to pull off adding Hikaru into the Masters plot, and I think with this fic I finally managed to do so.

Finally, I have to mention “By the Dead of Morning/I’ll be Better for It/And then Fortified I’ll Rise” which is the Faust joins Starbreaker early AU. I put likely way too much effort into this fic, and I really hope I’m not banned from other secret santas because of it (not that I’ll promise to not do it again…). It isn’t entirely my headcanons, but I really like the writing I did for this, along with the concept itself. It’s one of my longest works yet, and the fact I pulled it off makes me so proud of myself.

If you read this far, congratulations! You’re insane! But I’m really glad you read all this, I really appreciate a lot of beyblade fic writers, and actually committing and reading all the fics I’ve wanted to was a really good time. I hope if any of the fics on this list interest you, you go and check them out! And maybe leave a comment for the author. We’ve got an honestly impressive ficwriting community for how tiny this show is, and I can’t wait to see if even more people join! Yknow… so long as they’re not the type of people I gotta use that new mute function on… BUT WE’RE BEING POSITIVE AND HEY

We got a lot of cool fics :)))

#god this took me like an hour to write #fucking hell #beyblade #beyblade metal fight #mfb #also gonna say that i did not ao3 stalk all the authors I mention in this post. No idea what all of them have written #but i have cleared out my beyblade tag entirely so I assume none of them have written some real weird beyblade stuff #hey if you dont wanna be mentioned for some reason you can also shoot me a dm and ill delete your paragraph #but ive just been wanting to talk about fanfic a lot recently. and yknow. shout out a lot of the fics ive really enjoyed #sorry to your inboxes!

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whatever-you-can-give-me · 8 months

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14. At what point in writing do you come up with a title?

Not in the ask game but I also want to know how you come up with them!

20. Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

Specifically about you know you had it coming, my friend and/or half your life you've been hooked on death

14. At what point in writing do you come up with a title?

titles are usually last, and they're almost always song lyrics, usually from whichever album or playlist i was listening to while i wrote it. a few times the title comes to me earlier in the process, but not usually.

so, you know you had it coming, my friend was written in one night at work after a conversation with @beelzebby666 , we were talking about how wolfwood circa vol10 is an absolutely dipshit who could have done literally anything other than go on a suicide mission on his own but chose to do that anyway, and how vash with his chronic jesus complex might take the whole situation a little bit personally, and i went "oh god, i have to write this don't i" and fly said "yep" so i did.

the whole conceit is that vash thinks wolfwood is a ghost, because he would Never be this emotionally candid with someone he thought actually existed, so his narration pings wildly between referring to him as "him/wolfwood' and "it/the specter/the ghost".

meanwhile the dramatic irony is the fact that the readers knows wolfwood is real, and how much it's absolutely tearing him apart to have vash be so cold to him. that's the reason for the pov choice, though i could have done wolfwood's as well. it makes the tension delicious.

also i slipped in my theory that vashwood are psychically communicating during vol10, because it makes me feel insane.

#writer ask meme

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froizetta · 4 hours

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1 and 8 for the ask game?

1. Meaning of your url

It's a long and not particularly interesting story lol. My old url was a nickname given to me by a school friend when I was 11, during a conversation in which we were both bemoaning not having names that were easy to nickname. Given this context, it probably won't shock you that said nickname was terrible, specifically in that it was a) longer than my actual name and b) bore almost no resemblance to my name aside from the initial letters (a not unprecedented trend, to be fair: in Britain, a Jeremy can easily become a Jezzer if he's also the kind of person who still unironically calls himself a 'bantersaurus rex'). It probably also won't surprise you that this terrible nickname didn't catch on, but it happened to coincide with me making my first email account, so I used it for that. And after that, it slowly became my online handle for basically everything.

Fast forward to early last autumn, when I decided to start crossposting my fics on tumblr - but oh, whoops, maybe I don't want everyone who's friends with me on steam or discord (which included several people I worked with) to be able to find my tumblr account, soon to be full of links to my bespoke superhero porn. But, being lazy and uncreative, I decided I could just tweak it slightly. At least have plausible deniability. While racking my brains for something I could live with, I happened to remember enjoying the song 'Loretta' by Ginger Root, and bam, done, froizetta was born!

8. Favourite movie

I'm actually not a huge movie buff at all, despite my rabid consumption of most forms of media. Something about watching movies always feels like too much effort to me? But I love animation and I'm also a weeb, so if I HAD to pick one...probably Koe no Katachi/A Silent Voice? It's an anime movie about a deaf girl and her former bully reconnecting as teenagers, and it's just a beautifully crafted and fascinating exploration of its themes (bullying, guilt, and recovery). That said, what I'm really a fan of is the manga it's based on, which sadly couldn't really be adapted in its entirety and fit into a film's runtime. But the movie is still gorgeously animated and poignant and drives me a little insane, so the title of 'favourite movie' still feels deserved!

#ask game #thanks for the ask!#sorry about my incredibly long-winded answer to the first one lol #it really is just that kind of story

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fandomanimatic-tournament · 8 months

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Fandom song animatic tournament: Bracket 1 Side B

Defying Gravity - Wicked Musical

"It's time to try defying gravity I think I'll try defying gravity Kiss me goodbye, I'm defying gravity And you won't bring me down"

Soldier, Poet, King - The Oh Hellos

"There will come a soldier Who carries a mighty sword He will tear your city down Oh lei, oh lai, oh, Lord"

Remember that we're voting on how Iconic they are for ANIMATICS, not for the song itself. In order to make things fair, the tone and mood of the song should not affect how iconic it is (for example, a serious song should not be considered more iconic than a joke song just because it's serious)

Propaganda and animatic links of the songs under the cut:

Defying Gravity - Wicked Musical

Propaganda:

its just iconic

Animatics with the song:

Adventure time

The Owl House Clawthorne sisters Animatic

Arcane Viktor Animatic

Mo Dao Zu Shi

Good Omens Ineffable Wives Animatic

Soldier, Poet, King - The Oh Hellos

Propaganda:

Everyone was doing animatics of this. The meme was that you’d choose one of your blorbos to represent the “soldier,” one for the “poet”, and one for the “king.” The original point of the song is that “soldier poet and king” are all one person, and that person is Jesus, but literally no one cares about that. Who needs Jesus when you have Warrior Cats?

What's that?...it's supposed to be about Jesus? NOT ANYMORE, BABEY!! It's about my BLORBOS

It's a really nice song and can highlight different characters and their talents/abilities

If your fandom is fantasy, has a fantasy au, or characters that fit the roles, this can works. Can probably fit any fandom.

you look this song up on yt and youre going to find an animatic with it for every fandom in existence i stg man

Animatics with the song:

Song of Achilles

DSMP Sleepy Bois Animatic

Genshin Impact

The Owl House

The Adventure Zone

Please be cautious and read the title, description and warning cards on the animatic videos if you decide to watch them. If you've got specific triggers I'd recommend even more caution when watching animatics of fandoms you don't know, since sometimes canon-typical themes don't get warnings.

Please keep in mind that I don't know all the media and fandoms of the animatics provided as examples and I don't have the time (nor the will) to research them all. Don't come into my notes or my ask box complaining about them being included, I will simply block you. If a ship animatic included is about an adult and a minor, do tell me and I'll take it out of the post

ALSO keep in mind that I don't know all the artists submitted; in fact, even if I do know them I do not know absolutely nothing about them as people (I do not have twitter nor tiktok) and I could not POSSIBLY have the time to research ALL of the artists' controversies and what came of them so PLEASE don't flood my inbox with the artists' entire crime list.

#fandom animatic tournament #tumblr poll #tumblr tourney #tumblr tournament

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farthngdr · 2 days

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This post is tinhatting to the nth degree, and it includes speculation about the current State of the Union of Cockles that is undoubtedly unpopular. If you're sensitive about this subject, turn back now.

(For the sake of context: I adore Cockles and want them to last forever.)

Someone mentioned that Jensen was asked at a recent con to name a favorite band or song. He answered that he had just learned to sing and to play a song called "Wondering Why" on guitar.

I read the lyrics to the song, which I am including here. Clearly he means this song to be a tribute to Danneel:

"She comes from silver spoon, golden rule, private school Never missed Sunday church And I come from blue collar, low dollar Out here where concrete meets old red dirt

And I don't know what happened But it sure don't add up on paper But when I close my eyes late at night You can bet I thank my maker

She keeps on loving me Loves me the way I am She's not just along for the ride She's my biggest fan Lord, it's a little old piece of heaven When we lay down at night She keeps on loving me And I keep on wondering why

She's got a wicked smile, angel eyes Every guy wanting to hold her close She's as pretty as sin Like the sun sinking down on the California coast

Alright, alright, alright

I don't know what happened But it sure don't add up on paper And as long as she lets me I'll take her wherever she wants me to take her, oh

She keeps on loving me Loves me the way I am She's not just along for the ride She's my biggest fan And it's a little old piece of heaven When we lay down at night She keeps on loving me And I keep on wondering why."

My first reaction was, "That's really interesting, Jensen doesn't typically sing love songs that clearly reference the 'she/her' pronouns, so he is experiencing a renewed appreciation for Danneel." Wonder why...?

The lyrics are also taking a dig at a certain kind of person, the kind who is only "along for the ride." I wondered if that particular line was a dig at Misha, as I believe Jensen might have distanced himself from Misha due to the whole girlfriend debacle. I attended Burcon and the Jenmish panel, and I felt very strongly that Jensen had changed toward Misha, most likely due to Misha's inviting a new woman into his life, and also most likely without asking anyone else's consent to do so (except maybe from his kids). Judging by the cold (as in Arctic) mood of the panel, as well as a few mean-spirited swipes at Misha, something was definitely off between the two.

The song says she has "angel eyes" ?

Also: "It's a little old piece of heaven/When we lay down at night." Jensen has sung Bryan Adams' song "Heaven," which is thought by many to be a song he sings for Misha. ("When I'm lying here in your arms/I'm finding it hard to believe/We're in heaven.")

And I kept thinking about that line--"along for the ride." Could that be what a hurt and jealous Jensen thinks about Misha? That Misha was really just along for the ride, as opposed to Danneel, who has remained loyal and committed to him through thick and thin?

And then I saw a poem Alma posted on their story today. It's titled "Along for the Ride."

(I have no proof of anything. I know nothing. Just a mind that tends to see connections. And yes, possibly where there aren't any.)

If folks come at me for this, I guess I'll do what I always end up doing these days- -I'll have to delete it.

Oh well.

#Alma Perpetua #Jensen singing Wondering Why #trouble in Cocklesland?#oddly mean tone at Jenmish panel Burcon 2024 #god I love Cockles and so want them to be OK

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candied-mushroom · 6 months

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Wrote a little rare pair Halloween family fic with Byakuya/Sakura

I originally wanted to wait until it was actually Halloween but knowing me I’ll be too tired after work and knowing me I’ll forget. I got a huge pet peeve about posting holiday-themed works when it’s not even close to said holiday (I’m the kind of person who gets pissed when they see Christmas decorations and items out in October)

Originally this was going to be Sakura, Aoi and Byakuya taking Kenji trick-or-treating but from my research dressing up and going door to door for candy isn’t something they do there. Buuut there is dressing up in a costume, parties and events at theme parks. At least from what I gathered from my own research, it may not be 100% accurate so please don’t get your research from fanfiction.

So without further ado, please enjoy Byakuya and Sakura taking their spawn Kenji to one of these Halloween-themed events hosted by Aoi.

October had hit and Halloween was in full swing, the streets were littered with people decked out in costumes and attending parties and events. While Byakuya never cared much for the holiday and only ever took part in seasonal charity events, with a son who was developing a budding interest in all things horror and macabre Halloween had quickly become Kenji’s favourite holiday. Hence Byakuya found himself making plans with Sakura to Kenji to some of the more and very few kid-friendly events and traditions in Japan.

One of which was being hosted by none other than Aoi Asahina, Kenji’s godmother (although Byakuya very reluctantly agreed to give her that title) she had been giving children swim lessons as a favour to a family friend and managed to get permission to host a small kid-friendly Halloween party for her young students, which apparently included Kenji, and much to Byakuya’s dismay Sakura insisted on dragging him along.

While part of him loathed the thought of being surrounded by mediocre parents and their equally mediocre spawns, another part didn’t want to miss out on Kenji’s first real party outside of his birthday. Plus it was just a small gathering for a few short hours before they went on to attend the much better quality events held in Japan.

At least that was the plan. Byakuya let out an irritated sigh as he looked at his wristwatch impatiently.

“She’s late…” Byakuya not so subtly complained as he looked away from his watch to Sakura.

“Aoi will be here, she probably just got caught in traffic.” Sakura dismissed.

Byakuya fought the urge to roll his eyes, he still didn’t know why Aoi insisted on coming over when they could have easily met up at the location and saved them the time. But Aoi insisted on meeting up at their place so she could see the pumpkins Kenji and Sakura carved for the season.

Five minutes later Aoi eventually strolled through the door with a big grin plastered on her face.

“You’re late,” Byakuya stated the second Aoi entered the estate, but his displeasure went unnoticed as she happily strode right past him and to Sakura.

“Sorry, got stuck in traffic. Seems a lot of other parties are happening earlier than intended.” she laughed off and hugged Sakura.

“It’s fine, our schedule isn’t busy.”

“Actually it is.” Byakuya scoffed, seemingly the only one who remembered they had other events to take Kenji to.

“Sooooo, where’s Kenji?” Aoi asked, excitedly bouncing on the heels of her feet in anticipation to which Sakura lightly laughed in response.

“He’s just down the hall. He put on his costume the second he got up.” Sakura explained with a smile.

“That’s adorable!” she gushed, eyes sparkling. “Okay, now I have to see him.” Aoi took a step forward. “Kenji, your favourite babysitter is here!” she called out in a sing-song tone.

“Kenshiro’s here!?”

Byakuya had to fight tooth and nail to avoid smirking as Aoi froze for a moment before her face dropped. “Oh…”

As fast as he could without overexerting himself, Kenji scrambled down the hall, the second Aoi caught sight of his costume she tilted her head in confusion as she looked at the thick black material of the robe and the pointed mask Kenji donned.

“Are you a bird?” Aoi inquired. “I thought you said you were going to be a doctor?”

“I’m a plague doctor!” Kenji excitedly exclaimed as he lifted the mask off, to which Aoi just looked more confused. “They treated victims of the Bubonic plague during the epidemics in the 16th and 17th century,” he explained, flaunting his knowledge and love of macabre trivia.

“Byakuya took him to pick out costumes,” Sakura explained in a whisper.

“You said you were fine with him being a doctor, you didn’t specify what kind.” Byakuya shrugged.

“Plague doctors were also seen as a warning to leave the area and that death was near,” Kenji added with a bright smile that was greatly out of place with his morbid tidbit.

“He gets this from you,” Aoi muttered, shooting Byakuya a glare before returning to her more cheery personality as she kneeled down to Kenji’s level. “You ready to party?”

“Yes!” Kenji nodded so hard that his mask fell back over his face.

Both Sakura and Aoi giggled lightly as Kenji went on ahead outside with the other three in tow.

…..

Fortunately, the traffic that that caused Aoi to be late was dispersed by the time they left and they arrived right on time just as a few other cars were pulling up and other parents were shuffling their children dressed in brightly coloured costumes.

Byakuya’s nose wrinkled. “Ugh, we don’t have to stay long, right? I loath children.”

“You and Sakura have a son together!” Aoi snapped.

“Kenji doesn’t count.”

Aoi just rolled her eyes before they went inside.

It was exactly what Byakuya would expect from a party thrown together spontaneously. Brightly coloured paper pumpkins and ghosts littered the room, cheap plastic bats hung from the ceiling, and there was a folding table with a plastic tablecloth with cartoony-looking vampires, werewolves, ghosts and Frankenstein on it. Byakuya had to repress a shudder, Mary Shelley deserved better than having the character of her book reduced to a mere gaudy decoration. There was what Byakuya assumed was a staff who volunteered for this laying out bowls of candy, chips, fruit and veggie trays and a cooler full of juice boxes. Low-quality food too? He already couldn’t wait to get out of here.

Sakura took Kenji’s hand and guided him to a small table surrounded by kid-sized plastic chairs and got him settled with a Halloween-themed colouring sheet with the other children before returning to Byakuya.

“Don’t look so resentful, it won’t be long.” Sakura reminded.

“I’m aware,” he said through gritted teeth as he crossed his arms, watching Kenji colour and chat amongst the other children. At least Kenji was enjoying this but it didn’t mean he had to.

Byakuya just chose to grin and bear it, trying to endure meaningless and mind-numbing conversations with other parents while counting down the time to the very second until they could finally leave while Kenji happily took part in the seasonal colouring sheets, childish games for cheap prizes, grazed on the spread of food and gleefully played with the other children.

“Awww, don't be such a grump.” Aoi scolded playfully as she nudged Byakuya. “I think you can endure this for a little while longer.”

“I share those sentiments,” Sakura added.

“Can you at least tell me how much longer you expect me to stay?” Byakuya asked. “May I remind you we have other events to attend?”

“I was thinking another twenty minutes-“

“So, in the real version every step Ariel takes feels like she’s walking on sharp knives and she turns into sea form.” they overheard Kenji talking to a girl of the same age dressed up in a mermaid costume, whose eyes immediately began to water as she let out a sob.

“I told you to stop reading him horror stories!” Sakura lectured in a loud whisper as the girl’s parents immediately rushed over to comfort their daughter.

“You said read him fairytales so I did.” Byakuya argued.

Sakura opened her mouth to scold him but shut it. Undoubtedly feeling the disapproving glare of the parents of that girl Kenji unintentionally upset. “I think that may be our cue to leave,” she muttered, going to collect Kenji and offered an awkward apology to the parents.

Granted, Byakuya had no doubt he would be in for another lecture about the type of media he exposes Kenji to, but for now, he was simply grateful to leave this event and give Kenji a better quality experience for Halloween.

#danganronpa #byakuya togami #Sakura Ogami #Sakura oogami #Sakuya #Kenji #my fics

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