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ordinaryschmuck · 1 month

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Why I Love The Owl House: Part 3-The BEST Thing About The Owl House (I'm Not Kidding)

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Salutations, random people on the internet who are already skimming past this! I am—The best thing is Lumity.

Yeah, might as well rip that bandaid off right now. I’ve done enough teasing last time, so the least I could do is jump right into it NOW.

If you were to ask a fan to pick five things that perfectly capture The Owl House, I’m willing to bet a good chunk of them would bring up Luz, Amity, and their adorable relationship. And for good reason, because Lumity is the one thing that Dana Terrace set out to do when making her show. The woman wanted to make the gayest show Disney could allow, and went about it by creating a bisexual main protagonist with a lesbian love interest. The reason WHY is because Dana is bisexual too and wanted to give kids who were just like her a character to identify with. So given how Luz and Amity are a couple who the fandom obsesses over the most, I like to think Dana rubbed her hands together like a cartoon villain, going, “Good, good…”

And BOY did the fans obsess. Even before the writers gave the TINIEST confirmation that Lumity would be canon, these two were EVERYWHERE. There was fan art, fan fiction, fan comics, and even an animatic that was SO popular that its creator deleted it because fans were being too annoying about it. A lot of fans LOVED Lumity…and a lot more grew to despise them.

Yes, like most things that grew intensely popular, showing up everywhere no matter WHERE you look, it grew tiring to those who didn’t get the hype. Some members of the fandom grew sick of Lumity’s popularity and said that there’s more to love about the show than the love between two teenagers. And then there were the fans who DID like Lumity but hate that they had to dig through MOUNTAINS of Lumity to get fan content of THEIR favorite characters and ships. As for me, an INTENSELY biased Lumity shipper, I definitely see where both kinds of fans are coming from and even sympathize with a few of them. But you CAN’T hate Lumity in the actual show just because the fandom blew them up. They’re the one aspect of the show that the writers put EVERYTHING into, crafting a love story that’s MOSTLY perfect. You might doubt that, but allow me to explain how well their relationship went throughout the series.

Now, I know what you might be thinking: “Shmuck, you handsome bastard, didn’t you already analyze their relationship last year?” And you’re right. I AM a handsome bastard…Oh, and I DID in fact write two posts that went through Lumity’s journey into becoming a canon couple, one focusing on Luz and the other on Amity. But that’s not…ENTIRELY what I’m doing here. I mean, yes, I WILL have to discuss how their relationship developed, but I’m also going to focus on how well it WORKS. The ups and downs, pros and cons, and overall quality of their relationship. I love these two with all my heart and will gush over every bit of cuteness, but I would be lying if I said there weren’t SOME criticisms that I have with their love story. Not a lot, mind you, but enough worth discussing. And let’s finally discuss it before this review turns into forty pages…

(It's actually thirty three, gosh dang it...)

“I Was a Teenage Abomination”: Ah, where it all TECHNICALLY started. In this episode, Luz and Amity were in the enemies phase of their relationship. Amity was a bully that needed to be taken down a peg and Luz was an annoyance that made Amity look bad. That’s how they saw each other, and, as a result, they didn’t care how poorly they treated one another. It was worth it to Luz to cheat because it helps Willow and annoys a bully who looked down at her. Just like how it’s worth it to Amity to almost get Luz dissected because it proves that Amity isn’t one to be messed with. This is the most these two have been directly against each other, neither willing to talk, hear the other out, or apologize. It works out in their favor, because if Luz and Amity spent most of the series wanting to kill each other before becoming friends, it would make their inevitable romance feel…inappropriate. Like, NO ONE should want to go out with a person that continuously wanted to kill them. The enemies portion of the enemies-to-lovers trope is best used briefly to better sell that the romance works despite the early hatred. It would also help if the attacks on each other aren’t too heinous, and Amity nearly getting Luz dissected…isn’t that, but I’m more than willing to say that Amity either wasn’t sure what Luz was or that she expected Willow to come clean the second Bump pulled out the knife. It’s not too much of a stretch to think, as it has enough believability to make it line up more with the Amity we know now, a version of the character that Luz would know better the next time they meet.

Covention: Another and FINAL moment where these two were at each other’s throats, this time much more directly. Luz starts off nice enough, willing to bury the hatchet instead of making an enemy. She’s not really looking for a friend, either, but you can tell in the way Luz holds her hand out for peace that she wants to squash out all animosity between them and start over. Amity, still reeling from the fact that a HUMAN tarnished her reputation, rejects Luz’s attempts at peace and further sells that she’s not to be messed with by treating Luz and King with disrespect. Luz, who is likely numb to people bullying her, doesn’t react too much to how Amity puts her down. But when it’s KING that Amity messes with, that’s when Luz takes a stand. She cares more about her friends and found family than she does about herself, willing to go above and beyond for them. Even if it means doing something incredibly stupid.

Challenging Amity to a witch’s duel was NOT the smartest thing Luz has ever done. What it IS, though, is a moment where Luz directly goes up against Amity. Helping Willow cheat caused Amity to be upset, but the main reason Luz did it all was to help Willow. Annoying Amity just came out as a happy accident. But for the witch’s duel, Luz does it for the sole fact that she’ll go against Amity and make her stop being mean. It’s partially influenced by The Good Witch Azura teaching her that to stop your enemies from being so negative, you must best them in combat. Only for the consequences to quickly meet her head-on when Amity forces Luz in an everlasting oath that could potentially stop her from learning magic forever. Because while Luz wants Amity to apologize to King, Amity just wants Luz out of her life as efficiently as possible, so she’s perfectly fine with messing with Luz’s life like this if it means never dealing with her again. It’s that unexpected consequence mixed with Luz realizing how more proficient Amity is with magic that she gains a bit of a reality check. Ironic, considering she ran away to the Boiling Isles to escape getting that exact same thing.

Luz definitely learned to regret it during the fight, not because Amity was SEEMINGLY more powerful with a giant abomination, but due to Eda overcompensating Luz’s lack of skill with magical mines. Luz, the good person that she is, has major objections to this plan. First off, cheating goes against the whole point of the duel. Luz won’t prove that she’s the better witch if she has to cheat her way to victory. Like she said, “Even if I win, I still lose.” Then there’s the fact that Luz doesn’t want to really HURT Amity. Yes, it’s a fight and Amity’s out for blood, but Luz is still the one to stop Amity from stepping on a mine because she doesn’t want to MAIM the girl. Luz is on schoolyard fight rules where the worst that could happen is scraped knuckles and maybe a black eye. Not third degree burns and a potential impalement. So to prevent Amity from getting killed, Luz tries to stop her from taking a step too far. Only for Amity to get extra angry because Luz still cheated. To her, this is confirmation that all Luz is is a cheater who causes nothing but trouble. She’s about ready to leave, accepting that she’s the better witch…only for it to be revealed that Amity cheated too. Well, technically. She was unwillingly a tool for LILITH’S cheating because she expected Eda to cheat first. Didn’t matter to Amity, because just like Luz, Amity never wanted to cheat. What’s the point in proving that she’s the best if she didn’t earn it though cheating? Amity is as prideful as she is vengeful, being someone who worked so hard to prove everyday that she’s the best. So when it’s revealed to an entire stadium of her peers that Amity CHEATED…yeah, it breaks her a bit. Breaks her enough to run away crying and Luz, the kind person that she is, goes after her.

What follows is quite possibly the most pivotal moment in their relationship, one so good that I made a scene breakdown to it a few years back. To keep it brief, this moment is Luz once again trying to bury the hatchet, not wanting to have a relationship where she and Amity almost kill each other and one of them runs away crying. Seeing Amity in such a vulnerable state proves that it’s not good for EITHER of them, so Luz tries her best to apologize. Amity, of course, isn’t having any of it and chooses instead to yell at Luz for all the strife she caused her…and accidentally reveals some angst about Amity working so hard to be where she is now. It’s a taste of the real person behind the bully facade that Amity puts up to prove that she really is the greatest witch she worked hard to become. It’s why she’s DEMANDING that Luz admits to being the worst witch. Amity wants this brief moment of confirmation that all her work wasn’t for nothing and that she IS the best witch, the one that beat this scrappy human. And Luz caves, giving Amity what she wants…but a little something more: Perspective. Luz DOES admit that she’s not a real witch, but instead of leaving it at that, Luz performs a light glyph, explaining that while she isn’t a real witch like Amity, Luz still wants to be one. With that explanation comes this image:

THIS IMAGE! The beginnings of Luz and Amity’s relationship is perfectly surmised in this image of Amity being in the dark while Luz holds out the light. Of course, Amity recedes back into the dark at first, playing Luz’s efforts off as nothing special. But because of that moment of perspective and Luz doing what must have been this mind blowing thing with just a pen and paper, it’s enough to get Amity curious and point out that she’s never seen a spell cast the way Luz did before. Luz points out how she’s willing to work hard for her goals, not wanting to be the best but just to be a witch in general. After that, Amity unbounds the oath and walks away. And I really love how it’s up to interpretation for WHY she did it. Was it because Amity decided that because they both cheated that Amity decided that the oath was null and void? Or was it because Amity saw the passion in Luz’s desire to learn magic? There’s no direct answer, but either way you look at it, Amity unbounding the oath is still a moment of mercy. She didn’t NEED to do it and, knowing Odalia’s conditioning, it’s likely that Amity would have been encouraged to let Luz be unable to learn magic. Gets rid of even the POSSIBILITY of competition. But she unbounds the oath anyway, probably telling herself there’s a logical excuse for it when, in reality, it’s Amity doing something nice for someone.

“Covention” perfectly takes Luz and Amity’s relationship to a better direction. This is the last time they’ll actively go against each other as rivals, and for good reason. By the episode’s end, they gain new perspectives towards each other, Luz seeing a fragile side to Amity’s rough exterior and Amity seeing that there's a harmless desire in Luz wanting to learn magic. This perspective comes AFTER almost killing each other, but this is a work of fiction and you learn to accept an exaggerated reality. So the big fight doesn’t take away the sweet ending of these two making a sort of…LIGHT connection. They’re definitely not willing to be CLOSE, but they’re at least in a better place with each other. They’re not friends, not enemies. Just two young girls who acknowledge each other’s existence and are fine with it being just that.

Hooty’s Moving Hassle: Even though there was a BIT of back sliding. Amity all but directly called out Luz in a Penstagram post and Luz was more than willing to get back at her for it. It’s definitely a moment where they’re against each other, but it’s quick and comes across as two teens being bitter. We’ve all been there. Plus, I’m willing to bet that Amity was goaded by her peers into telling Luz to “bite it.” Knowing Boscha, she definitely wouldn’t stand someone in the group being showed up by a human and the last thing Amity wants is for Boscha to get suspicious of why Amity is soft on the human. OR it could be Gus pulling an illusion. Him and Willow were already dead set on showing up Amity and he just HAPPENS to find the Penstagram post that would convince Luz to join them? Even though Amity had no idea that Luz would see it because she has no way of knowing if Luz has Penstagram? I don’t know, I’m calling shenanigans on that.

Regardless, no matter what reason there is, this was clearly a blip in the relationship. The meat in the episode is mostly about WILLOW and Amity, not Luz and Amity. There wasn’t much of a need to develop their bond when it’s not a central focus. Still a LITTLE weird that they went back to old habits of being enemies despite the decent spot they were in last time, but I can wave it away. They got a GLIMPSE of who the other was, but nothing more to make them willing to commit to being friendly. But when they meet again…

Lost in Language: Things get more interesting.

Luz, recently swooning over the idea of befriending rivals, has the desire to befriend her own. I’ve heard some complain that it’s a weak excuse for Luz to reach out to Amity because she got inspired by a kids book. In fairness to Luz, not only does she CONSTANTLY use Azura as a source for inspiration towards EVERYTHING in the Isles (It’s the INITIAL motivation for why Luz wanted to stay), but with the way Luz said she wish she could befriend her rival, it almost sounds like she wanted to for a while. She got a glimpse of a complicated person at the Covention and likely saw someone worth being friends with. The problem is that Luz wasn’t willing to commit to that idea because all she got was a glimpse. And, yeah, being told to bite it wasn’t helpful either. Still, the way Luz swoons tells me that she isn’t AGAINST the idea. She just needs more of a reason to befriend Amity, and gets one pretty quick.

While avoiding the hell that is babysitting demons, Luz spends her day being taken in by the magic of a magical library. Everything amazes Luz about it, but what stuns her the most is seeing Amity reading to kids and being so happy while doing it. There is true joy and delight in Amity’s eyes and smile as she treats these kids nicely when reading to them. THIS is what Luz needed. In this moment, Luz has visual proof that there’s a sweetness to Amity’s sour personality. Amity tries to play it off as her trying to get extra credit, but there was no putting the genie back in that bottle. Luz saw the kindness in Amity’s eyes and knew that it couldn’t be faked. So, she goes all in with Friendship Mode, being over enthusiastic about wanting to help Amity read to kids so it can be something that they could bond over. What Luz isn’t aware of is that the library is Amity’s safe space, a place for her to go to, without her family getting in her face. At least, most of the time. And then here comes this human who caused nothing but stress in Amity’s life, even if accidentally, who then shows up to suggest that she could ALWAYS invade Amity’s space. Needless to say, you can’t blame Amity for snapping at Luz. She’s fine with Luz existing as long as she stays far away from Amity. Luz, very quickly taking the hint, apologizes and heads off. She really doesn’t want to cause conflict anymore, and it at least shows that Luz learned that it’s better to squash issues with Amity than make things worse with confrontation. She literally almost died in “Covention” and “Hooty’s Moving Hassle” all because she HAD to show up Amity for being mean. In a way, it IS Luz just not wanting to tempt fate, but you CAN tell in the tone of Luz’s voice that she DOES regret pushing Amity. And even Amity regrets something too. We’ll later learn in this episode that Amity doesn’t WANT to come across as a cruel person. The scene even hints at that with the way Amity almost reached out to Luz after she apologized. Except Amity stopped herself because, thanks to the conditioning of her family, she believes that kindness is a weakness. So there’s no apologies for Luz unless Amity wants that softness getting to her mother. Which she very much does NOT. But on the topic of her family…

After Luz is about to give up on befriending Amity, Edric and Emira showed up to do two things in this episode. First off, they confirm Luz’s bisexuality, because while she was VERY attracted to Nevereth and his angsty muscular energy, Luz still blushes at both Edric AND Emira when they wink at her. And when you want to start a romance between two girls, it’s important to prove that both of them are attracted to, well, girls. Ed and Em accomplish that feat while also providing MORE perspective for Luz. Through them, Luz gets a peek at Amity's home life. Or, at least, an assumption of it. With the way Ed and Em stand up for Luz and humble Amity, it leaves the impression that they’re the nicer members of the family and are as fed up with Amity’s behavior as Luz once was. And that’s…partially true. Luz will learn the truth later, but at that point they were, to her, cool kids that were more than fine to hang out with Luz. They got along perfectly with her, having what were originally harmless pranks and goofing around where no one got hurt. Luz went along with it because she’s living the teen girl fantasy of having cooler, older kids liking her (Ten bucks say that she was mentally debating on who to go out with). On top of that, Luz thought that it would be a great way to befriend Amity, getting to know her better by dating—I mean, hanging out with her older siblings. And I do like that Luz doesn’t give up on befriending Amity despite her earlier outburst. She’s still all for the idea of hanging out with her, but wants to go at it from a different angle, believing that connecting with Amity’s family would present a connection between her and Luz. It’s a valid plan…that goes to pieces that night.

At first, when the Wailing Star flew across the library, it was still harmless fun between Luz, Edric, and Emira. But when Edric and Emira find out that crazy things happen when you vandalize a book, it’s the first red flag Edric and Emira present that night. I really adore how obvious the episode makes it that Luz is uncomfortable with making innocent book characters suffer disfigurement. It shows that while Luz is up for fun and games, there are lines she’s unwilling to cross. That will become more relevant later, after Ed and Em take Luz to Amity’s secret room. Before we get to what goes down, I find it interesting how Luz adores the clubhouse, saying how much it’s something SHE would want to have. She COULD be saying that to appease her crushes, but it sounds like she was genuinely delighted by it. To me, it feels like a subtle hint that Luz and Amity have similar mindsets of what makes them comfortable, hinting that they’re not so different after all. An idea that is strengthened by the reveal that Amity is just as big of a fan of The Good Witch Azura as Luz is, shown by the collection of books and the fan art of Amity as Azura on her diary’s cover. BUT I’m getting ahead of myself. While this secret room reveals so much about Amity, it indirectly reveals Ed and Em’s true nature as they want to leak Amity's diary pages. While Luz was more than willing to brush off how sickly entertained they were to mess with that poor cartoon duck, likely thinking it was a little thing, Luz is IMMEDIATELY against it. For one, she still wants to earn Amity’s friendship, and there’s nothing that could ruin that more than DIRECTLY ruining Amity’s life. It’s also because Luz’s good nature would prevent her from stooping so low. She doesn’t care how sour Amity can be, she doesn’t deserve to have her private thoughts revealed to everyone. Edric and Emira tries making excuses about how it’s tough love and that Amity DOES deserve it, all to justify their actions that Luz finally realizes are awful. It’s why Luz tries to get them to stop and try to hide the diary when finding it… but not without taking a peek. It was involuntary, yes, but Luz STILL lingers on the diary’s passage a little longer than she should have. She should have closed it the second she realizes it’s the diary, but still leaves it open as a tiny Amity admits that she doesn’t want to be cruel. To me, this is showing a bit of selfishness in Luz. She WANTS to know more about Amity and here’s the very thing that tells her more about Amity. So Luz listens a bit, but stops herself when coming to her senses. She shouldn’t be hearing ANY of this, and goes about making sure that NO ONE does. Even when pages fall, revealing more about Amity’s loneliness, awkwardness, and occasional frustration, all Luz thinks is to grab each page before more is revealed. And, of course, that’s the moment Amity finally shows up.

Amity didn’t hear Luz defending her privacy, so when she finds her grabbing at diary pages, it really DOES look like she’s stealing Amity’s secrets instead of protecting them. What’s most interesting is Amity’s reaction. At first, she’s furious, and rightly so. But when she simmers down, Amity sounds almost disappointed with Luz. Amity admits that she was struggling to figure Luz out, proving that “Covention” DID have an affect on her in that she was willing to except that Luz wasn’t a bad person. An annoyance, maybe, but that moment they shared after the duel proved that Luz isn’t one to be malicious. But after causing chaos with her siblings and trying to steal her diary, Amity feels as though she was wrong from the beginning and assumes Luz IS a bully for all the ways she messed with Amity’s life. So, feeling both embarrassed and little betrayed, Amity runs off…from her room hidden away in the “romance” section. Don’t TELL ME that wasn’t an intentional hint from the show to where these two were heading in their future. But enough about obvious symbolism about Amity running away from her inevitable future. Luz rightfully ditches the twins to go make things right with Amity. She doesn’t want to leave things on a bad note and if Luz could bring out peace once, surely she could do it again. Except that Luz doesn’t get the chance, not just because Amity isn’t having it this time, but also because a twisted children’s book character shows up to kill them.

Now, it WOULD be bad that a monster attack spoiled a heart-to-heart moment, but Otabin’s useful for the fact that he shows what Luz and Amity are willing to do for each other despite everything. If Luz really was a bully, she wouldn’t have tried all she could to save Amity’s life. Sure…she fails. But Luz still tries, and doesn’t stop trying as she keeps coming up with plans to try to get them out of this situation. And when she acts all goofy despite the danger they’re in, showing her true self, Amity laughs. For what might be the first time in years, she lets down her walls just long enough to appreciate this small moment and laugh at the madness. By the time it was LUZ who’s in danger, it’s Amity’s turn to do all she can to save her. Amity was free and could have left, but she’s not a monster or a bitter rival to leave the hero to her fate. Amity’s a good person who is willing to help this weirdo girl who may have brought chaos into Amity’s life, but doesn’t deserve to be in a book forever. This crazy moment of escaping death led to Luz and Amity realizing that neither of them are bad people and are willing to help despite how they treated each other in the past few days. Even when the danger has passed, Amity sticks around to help clean up the mess Luz made. Things seem to be going well…until Amity decides to pretend that nothing they went through happened and is more than willing to move on. It’s a moment where Luz has an out. Amity now knows Luz isn’t a bully and they can go about their lives as they did before. But after everything, Luz doesn’t want that. So she does the best thing she could think of: Give a peace offering. Through astute observation, Luz notices that Amity is missing the last Azura book in her collection. Luz offers hers as a way of apologizing further, and you can tell that Amity appreciates it dearly in the soft way she says “Thank you.” This is likely the nicest thing anyone has done for her in forever, and I think it’s that reason Amity’s willing to let her walls stay down a little longer to admit that she’ll consider friendlier things with Luz. Amity didn’t HAVE to say that, she could have just said thank you and left, but this one small act of kindness that meant the WORLD to Amity helped make her realize that this annoying human isn’t so bad after all. So she leaves Luz, this sense of hope in the air that things might be better between them.

This whole episode does wonders to jumpstart Luz and Amity’s relationship. It allows both characters to see the true versions of each other, past the antagonism and annoyances. And given how this episode takes place in a library, the “Don’t judge a book by its cover” metaphor practically writes itself. By the end, I’d say the enemies phase has faded. I wouldn’t say they’re FRIENDS yet (I don’t think even THEY would say they’re friends), but it ends with BOTH of them being more open to the possibility. It’s smart to have them at this stage by the THIRD big episode together. The sooner enemies make peace, the easier it is to accept the very possibility of a romance. “Lost in Language” does that well, while also perfectly giving us cute moments like Amity laughing WITH Luz and showing how they have things in common. The pieces were there for an eventual romance and fans couldn’t wait for Luz and Amity to meet again to strengthen their romance. And by the time they did…

Adventures in the Elements: it was in a lackluster episode. If you love it, love it. That’s fine. For me, I’ve explained well enough in separate reviews how I feel about this episode and how it’s pacing makes Luz feel unreasonably impatient and whiny. BUT one addendum I WOULD like to make is how this was the ONE episode where I agree with the complaint about how Lumity feels rushed. For the most part, I don’t think they're rushed at all. I think that complaint is from people who are too used to an endgame couple becoming official near the end of the series, especially for same sex couples. To me, Lumity isn’t really badly paced, but instead…differently paced. I think it’s great that we got a couple who grew closer together with every episode they shared, giving us EXACT phases of their relationship. At first, I thought that “Adventures in the Elements” was the only time things felt poorly paced, as Luz and Amity seemed too friendly with each other. Amity went from “I’ll think about it,” to waving at Luz as if they were already friends. But then I looked at some subtle touches that makes me realize this is less of an episode where they’re starting out as friends, but more like they’re testing out a friendship.

Luz acting friendly is a given. She’s friendly with almost everyone, so when she’s engaging with Amity about the book, it’s no different than if it was anyone else. There’s a bit of excitement, but that could be attributed to the fact that she’s finally interacting with another fan for the first time in her life. It’s pretty obvious that, for both Luz AND Amity, their love for Azura isn’t common among their peers and they’re the only teens they met who really enjoy the books. So Luz is noticeably excited to talk about Azura with Amity, and Amity is a BIT more closed off. She simply calls the fifth book fine and burns her self-insert fan art out of embarrassment and being unwilling to let her nerd flag fly. Amity’s grateful for the book, there’s no doubt about it, but she’s not comfortable with fully expressing that gratitude. But she’s still polite enough to engage in Luz’s conversation, Amity just holds back a lot more of her feelings. In fact, being polite is the best way to describe Amity in this episode, especially with what happens next. When Luz announces that she’s going to Hexside, Amity’s voice, face, and even the musical cue in the background makes it clear that she is NOT ecstatic about this news. At least, initially. Once the shock comes and goes, Amity calmly explains to Luz the requirements to be in Amity’s class and asks if Luz knows enough to register. There may be a part of Amity that doesn’t want to see Luz more than necessary, but her willingness to act politely proves that Amity still wants to give Luz a chance.

The politeness continues later when they’re on The Knee. The parts where I always felt like we skipped a step was when Amity confided in Luz about breaking Ed and Em’s record and waved at her during practice. To me, it seemed like Amity was being too comfortable and friendly with Luz at this stage of their relationship. But again, I looked at the subtleties of these moments. Amity admits that she’s trying to break her siblings’ record, but she never shared about feeling under pressure to beat them or even that she’s struggling. It’s Edric and Emira who share that Amity can’t perform a fire spell without a wand, a clear attempt to annoy Amity by hitting where it hurts: Her pride. But what also annoys Amity is that they revealed that to Luz when she didn’t really want to. Heck, when Amity was telling Luz, she wouldn’t even look at Luz’s face, almost as if she couldn’t admit something as basic as beating a record. It’s exactly how Amity acted when discussing the Azura book. She’s willing to engage with Luz but is still holding back a lot of her TRUE feelings because, simply put, they’re not there yet. The most Amity is willing to do is wave at Luz from across the way. That was another short, albeit adorable, moment that made me think that they speeded past things, but now I’m starting to see it as a showcase of Amity TRYING. She’s trying her best to be better, even if she’s not willing to fully commit to a full on friendship. Unfortunately, Luz isn’t appreciating any of it at the moment due to being hyper focused on learning a second spell. The last thing she wants is to be in a baby class and be seen as a loser by her peers. She tries to hide it from Amity because they’re not at a point where Luz can confidently confide in her about problems like she does with Gus and Willow. Plus, Ed and Em are always there and something tells me that Luz doesn’t want to come across as a loser to two cool teens she still has a baby crush on. Either that or Luz is worried about being a target to their teasing, and judging by what they would do to Amity (Despite the constant apologies), it’s a justified worry. Any of those possibilities are equally valid, making Luz’s desire to hide her lack of skills understandable. Still wish we spent time on Luz’s impatience with Eda’s teaching methods, just so it can better justify what Luz does next.

Luz stealing Amity’s wand makes sense narratively, at least for where they’re at. It’s more than Luz wanting to hide that she doesn’t know two spells. They’re at a point in the relationship where Luz can’t simply come up to Amity and ask to borrow the wand for a few minutes. After all the strife Luz accidentally caused, she’s in no position to ask for favors, especially when Amity would likely say no. And the thing is that Amity wouldn’t have said no due to a dislike towards Luz. It’s more like Amity’s wand was low on charge and she didn’t entirely trust Luz to be careful enough with it. She gets mad later, sure, but it’s because Luz, once more, lied and cheated for her benefit. When Amity catches Luz with the wand and spell book, her expression is that of betrayal. Amity was actually trying—And say what you about the pacing of this episode, but it actually shows that Amity was TRYING to be better towards Luz. There’s no denying that. She’s actually putting in the effort and being as polite as possible, and here Luz is doing the exact same thing that made Amity assume that Luz was a bully. Narratively, this all lines up. But the piss poor pacing doesn’t do Luz any favors as it makes her uncharacteristically selfish. She is quick to regret it, both because of the scolding and the monster attack she indirectly caused, and you can tell through Luz’s voice and body language that she couldn’t be more remorseful. Regardless, it doesn’t change how bad this makes Luz looks and justified Amity’s anger. Though, I do like what happens next.

While Amity yells at Luz for putting Eda, Edric, and Emira, and rightfully tells Luz to stay put instead of helping, what Amity says next speaks VOLUMES. Instead of telling Luz that she’ll only make things worse, she says, “You’ll only get hurt.” Amity has every right to tell Luz off further and rub extra salt in the wound, but she doesn’t. Amity understands that Luz doesn’t cause problems out of malice. She just doesn’t think things through and ACCIDENTALLY makes things difficult. It’s one of Luz’s biggest flaws and Amity saying Luz will only get hurt by helping proves that she finally gets who Luz is. And I love that while Amity COULD stop trying with Luz, she still keeps at it because the night in the library didn’t JUST make Amity rethink being friends with Luz. The night made her rethink being mean in general, trying not to see kindness as a weakness and trying to treat others a little nicer. Her holding back what she likely WANTED to say to Luz is a testament to that. Though, I don’t think she’s likely be friends with Luz at this rate. Thankfully, Luz proves that she’s not too bad…again.

Once Luz slows down and allows herself to concentrate, she finally learns a second spell and comes up with a plan to save everyone. A plan that puts LUZ in the most danger and proves that she has enough power to back herself up…sort of. Eda’s the one to finish the fight and Luz is there to do most of the work. Still, the whole thing is a gesture that shows Amity the true extent of Luz’s selflessness and capabilities. This was Luz’s mess and she wanted to do all she could to clean it up. It proves that while she may not be perfect, there’s nothing Luz won’t do for the ones she cares about. Seeing that in action miraculously makes Amity willing to forgive and forget about the whole wand thing. Luz can and likely always will mess up, but will always make up for it. And I think at that moment, Amity decides that being friends with Luz isn’t too bad of an idea. She sounds genuinely excited by the idea of Luz going to Hexside now, and is willing to indulge in Luz’s desire for an Azura book club, albeit on Amity’s terms of keeping it secret. She’s finally gave in and decided to give Luz a chance, now knowing that Luz is GOOD despite her faults. It’s the right decision to make and it’s great that the episode ends with them being friends…but it’s still a mess.

“Adventures in the Elements” does great in showing the subtleties of Luz and Amity trying the POSSIBILITY of friendship. Luz is all in, while acknowledging that they’re not too close yet, whereas Amity’s on the fence but willing to be polite before deciding to make the friendship official. The pieces are there for a decent picture but Luz’s actions and the episode’s pacing makes her unreasonable, making it a miracle that Amity was willing to become friends. Luz’s rescue plan saves things, though it doesn’t stop this idea that if Amity wasn’t willing to be nice, she would have distanced herself from Luz further. Luckily, for Luz, Amity WAS trying and is willing to give the benefit of the doubt in the end. It works ENOUGH, but the journey to get there still feels a little messy. Regardless, this is the ONLY time that the relationship feels this way, as it’s handled perfectly from here on out. If you accept that this is the start of the friendship phase for Lumity, then the progression of their relationship will feel natural from there. Especially when you look at Amity’s little blush at the end of this episode. Now, I personally don’t think that this is a subtle hint that Amity has a crush, as this could easily be explained away as her being embarrassed of her siblings overhearing her CONSIDERING a book club. So when I hear people saying that this is the moment Amity has a crush on Luz, I feel like they’re jumping the gun a bit…but that doesn’t mean she isn’t questioning things.

The First Day-Not many Lumity moments in this episode. In fact, if you squint, there’s two. That’s because the meat of this episode is having Luz finally becoming a student at Hexside and making new, easily betrayed friends. But with the two moments we DO get, we see how they are as friends and hints of what’s to come.

Things start out nice, with Amity welcoming Luz to Hexside and congratulating her for getting out of the baby class. It’s genuinely sweet seeing Amity act this way towards Luz, even out in the open. It shows that Amity doesn’t really care who sees her being nice with Luz, because Luz tried harder to be nice to Amity despite every outburst and despicable action. Luz is her friend now, and Amity is willing to be a better person to her than she was with Willow (We’ll get to that). There’s some awkwardness with Amity’s abomination slapping Luz’s face with goo as Amity went for a high five, but it’s still sweet that Amity’s trying and Luz isn’t bothered by it. If anything, Luz is ecstatic to have this new friend, already treating Amity the same as Gus and Willow. And Amity is just as happy…but she is questioning her feelings.

Once alone in the hall, Amity tells herself that her and Luz going to the same school doesn’t change anything. Many people point at this moment as Amity denying she has a crush on Luz. For me, this is more like Amity questioning her friendship with Luz. She isn’t against it, but the two of them going to the same school presents changes to Amity’s status quo. She’s still the top student of her class and has a reputation to keep up. This could potentially lead to a strained friendship of Amity being forced to choose between Luz and a false image to keep up. Except that Amity likes Luz. She isn’t entirely sure why or aware of how much she likes Luz, but the fact remains the same that Amity likes her and is willing to be friends. Now that they go to the same school, Amity is questioning how she should treat Luz further, continuing to be nice or keeping up a rough exterior for her image. And then we get to her saying “That doesn’t change anything.” One way of looking at that line could be Amity deciding that just because they go to the same school now, that doesn’t mean she should change how people see her for Luz’s friendship. She should still act all high and mighty without worrying about coming across as soft. Another is that, despite being in the same school and people seeing them together, Amity shouldn’t change how she currently acts with Luz. I like to believe it’s the latter because it lines up with how Amity acts in the school courtyard. Amity is willing to be BETTER for Luz, reminding herself that things shouldn’t change just because more people will see that they’re friends now. Amity wants to be a good friend this time and NOT mess things up like her last friendship…

Understanding Willow-This is an episode about the friendship between Amity and Willow more than anything that goes on between Luz and Amity. Regardless, some big developments happen here.

Things start off great with the reveal that Luz wants to make Amity and Willow friends again. This could partially be Luz wanting her two new friends to be friends to make the group bigger and stronger, but I prefer to think that this is Luz wanting to make peace now that she knows the kind of person that Amity is. Amity wasn’t the one-dimensional bully Luz was introduced to, as there’s reasons behind her behavior and evidence that proves that Amity wants to become better. Willow, understandably, doesn’t want to be friends with Amity yet, likely still feeling the pain of how they separated. Though, it is interesting that Willow has no objections to Luz and Amity’s relationship. Some would say that it’s a missed opportunity to not have Willow get upset, but this episode reveals that she has a very unhealthy motto of “Out of sight, out of mind.” Add that with Willow’s more passive attitude (At this point), and it’s easy to believe that Willow is accepting of Luz and Amity’s friendship just as long as she doesn’t see it. Just like how she doesn't want to be friends with Amity, thinking it's best not to even SEE her. Luz is a little blind to this knowledge, though, and is still persistent to cause shenanigans, believing that it’s worth it because she knows Amity isn’t a horrible person and is willing to be better. Only for Amity to prove that wrong by burning Willow’s memories.

Effectively causing Willow brain damage was NOT Amity’s intention. She only wanted hide her face from Willow’s memory, to keep people from learning about that part of their history. It’s selfish and the way Amity did it was stupid, but you will come to understand the reason WHY she did it. Amity only kept her reasons a secret from Luz, because A. They’re not there yet. Amity likes Luz, she’s happy to be her friend, but is a little unwilling to disclose heavy stuff. And B. Amity likely doesn’t want Luz to see that part of her. The memory Amity burned features Amity at her worst, something that she doesn’t want Luz to see. Here’s a girl that, by some miracle, was willing to see the good parts of Amity, and seeing Amity’s worst traits, being a part of her since she was seven, could ruin a lot of how Luz sees her. So Amity keeps it secret, no matter how much Luz pries. Though, it is worth noting that while Luz does keep asking why Amity did all this, she never really FORCES Amity to explain. She knows that there’s a reason WHY, but also knows that it’s too personal of a subject. So Luz keeps giving Amity a chance to explain, ALLOWING her to do so at any moment, and only puts her foot down when they have no choice BUT to face the past. Luz has every right to be angry and demanding. After all, Amity BROKE Willow, Luz’s best friend. Amity wouldn’t blame Luz for getting upset, but Luz, the queen of causing problems and fixing them later, understands that the last thing a person wants after accidentally making a mistake is to be yelled at. She does raise her voice to remind Amity that she set Willow’s brain ablaze, but that’s as far as things get. All things considered, Luz is incredibly patient with Amity, to the point where Amity pretty much has to scold HERSELF, admitting shame to cause this much damage. It’s mostly because of guilt, but it can be argued that Amity acts like she’s expecting to be yelled at. It’s made pretty clear that Amity’s parents, mostly Odalia, are ones to scold her for failure and screw-ups. And with how often Amity yelled at Luz for HER mistakes, she probably assumed Luz would have done the same to Amity here. It would only be right, but Luz never does. For the most part, she remains supportive and understanding towards Amity, saying that they can fix things together. And it's at this point that I’d say that Amity realizes she has a crush on Luz.

Before this episode, saying that Amity’s feelings towards Luz were complicated is an understatement. Luz was frustrating, endearing, caused chaos, solved problems, was powerless with magic but resourceful in intelligence. Everything about Luz annoyed Amity, but she grew to appreciate the best sides of her and accepted the worst. And in “Understanding Willow,” when it’s Amity’s worst qualities on display, Luz still acts with kindness and understanding. It’s something Amity never experienced before, all from a person SHE disrespected in the past. Yet here Luz is, proving that yelling doesn’t solve much and is still willing to back up Amity despite everything. It’s a level of kindness that Amity’s never experienced, and getting it all from Luz makes Amity admire her more. She was less than willing to give Luz a chance at first whereas Luz gave Amity all the chances in the world, even now. It’s enough to make Amity finally understand her feelings, starting to blush a little bit due to Luz’s support and sudden proximity. Though, just because she realized her crush, that doesn’t mean Amity knows how to act around Luz. She KNOWS her feelings, but when it comes to figuring out how to go about them, she stumbles. Amity acts as she always does towards Luz, but still wants to be close to her. When the whole adventure is over, you can tell through how resistant Amity is towards going out the door and giving a short, awkward wave that Amity doesn’t want to leave. She does it for Willow’s sake, expecting that she doesn’t want Amity around, despite everything. If not for taking Willow’s feelings into consideration, she might have stayed, talked more with Luz and Willow, and her crush would have grown stronger. But instead, Amity leaves and it’s for the best. She has a lot to think about.

“Understanding Willow” is a fantastic episode primarily for insight into Willow and Amity’s friendship and seeing them reconcile. The Lumity moments are just a little cherry on top to something already perfect, not being the focus but giving great scenes all the same. It’s part of what makes Lumity so perfect: You see Luz and Amity’s bond growing every episode that they interact in, even in episodes like this where it’s not THEIR relationship that needs attention. It causes their relationship to flow all the better and makes what happens NEXT episode feel like a natural conclusion.

“Enchanting Grom Fright”- Ooooooh, this episode…

The episode where the cast and crew kept telling fans that they weren’t ready for it. The episode where there was NO heterosexual explanation for anything. An episode where the writers pretty much looked at the audience and said, “Yeah. We’re doing THIS.” An episode that will likely forever be remembered for the leaps and bounds it did for LGBTQA+ representation! An episode…that I like less and less the more I rewatch it.

Yeah, I’m that jerk in the fandom who thinks “Enchanted Grom Fright” is a LITTLE overrated. That doesn’t mean I hate it. Heck, I loved this episode upon its premiere, and you can see why in my review. But every time I come back to this one, the more the cracks tend to show. King’s subplot is forced padding in an already poorly paced episode, the fact that a responsible principal like Bump allows children to fight a nightmare demon is all kinds of questionable, Eda chaperoning the dance makes LESS sense, the episode feels like it takes place in two days when it’s ONE, some jokes feel awkward to me, and some dialogue is unnatural. All in all, this episode is a mess, with two things that make it worth a watch: Luz’s regrets toward lying to Camila and, as you could imagine, the Lumity moments.

Every scene these two share are pretty much the writers confirming that Lumity is going to be canon. There’s the little stuff, oozing with romantic energy. Like...

How Luz consistently makes Amity laugh and smile, showing how much Amity has come to appreciate Luz’s oddball personality

The scene in the forest is cute with how romantic the lighting is, how close their faces got at one point.

How Luz sits in the mud to make Amity more comfortable after getting messy.

That scene outside the gym, with the playful banter, the genuine admiration in Amity’s eyes, and the little music in the background that’s practically SCREAMING at these two to just kiss already.

All the little scenes are great but the juiciest, meatiest stuff comes from THE NOTE

It doesn’t take a shipper’s mind to guess that Amity’s little pink, love-colored scrap of paper is a note Amity wants to give to Luz, putting ALL her feelings out there. If “Understanding Willow” was the episode where Amity realizes she has a crush on Luz, “Enchanted Grom Fright” is Amity struggling to figure out if she WANTS to date Luz, and for a number of reasons. Because being friends with Luz is one thing, DATING her is another. Amity can always play off their friendship as her pulling a long con on Luz or maybe even faking it to keep the human from being a personal hindrance. There’d be holes in her logic, but Amity can still commit to excuses where anyone can be convinced they’re true depending on how well she sells them. DATING Luz will be harder to sell, as there are a lot of things a person couldn’t fake for a relationship. So the second Amity asks Luz out and they become official, any ounce of Amity’s image that’s left will get torn to shreds. And while Amity is willing to risk it for a FRIENDSHIP, she struggles to think if it’s worth it for a girlfriend. We already know how Odalia reacts to Amity being FRIENDS with someone like Willow and how a so-called friend like Boscha treats people below their status. If word gets out that Amity is dating a HUMAN, life for her will be hell. It’s the main reason why Amity doesn’t want Grom to reveal her fear of Luz rejecting her. It’s a gamble that Grom could take a vague or clear form of someone’s fear, which you see in Luz’s fight with it. It’ll take Camila’s form no problem, but when trying to look like Eda, it’s a lot more like a shadow. And Amity doesn’t want to risk either, because while it’s embarrassing enough to reveal that the great Amity Blight is afraid of rejection, it’ll be worse to show that she’s afraid of getting rejected by the unpopular human. Needless to say, NO ONE would let Amity live this down. And while we’re on the topic of Amity’s greatest fear, it does make sense why she’s so afraid of asking Luz out.

Some fans give the episode flack for making Amity’s greatest fear be her getting rejected by a girl. And out of all the problems “Enchanted Grom Fright” has, this is one criticism I understand but respectfully disagree with. Luz is more than just a girl Amity has a crush on. Despite all the chaos, Luz is the best thing that happened to Amity. She helped patch things up with Willow, gave Amity the final book in a series she adores, and offered kindness and understanding during moments when Amity didn’t feel like she deserved it. Even now, Luz is taking a bullet for Amity by facing HER fears as Amity’s fearless champion. Luz is the bright light at the end of the tunnel that Amity calls life, and she values that. She values Luz’s life so much that losing it terrifies Amity. Asking Luz out is a risk that she’s not willing to take because it’s a miracle that Luz still wants to be friends despite everything Amity has done to her and others. She has NO idea if Luz could like Amity that way or even if she likes girls. If Amity asks Luz out, she risks the gamble of Luz saying no and their friendship being awkward at best and over at worst. Because how can things go back to normal when Luz knows that Amity has a crush on her. It’s why Amity yanks the note out of Luz’s hands instead of letting her keep it. Amity doesn’t want to give it to Luz until she’s one hundred percent sure that Luz could say yes, holding onto the note right up until Grom starts, a point where most would say it’s too late to ask someone to a dance. The grip that Amity’s fear has on her is strong, even if SLIGHTLY unjustified. Most people understand the fear of being rejected by a crush, especially if you’re a teenager and this is the first time you’re feeling the butterflies in your stomach. But Luz isn’t someone who would sever ties with Amity because of a crush. She may be surprised at first, but the worst case scenario would be that Luz would let Amity down gently and politely. As for the best case, Amity bears witness to it.

Once Grom becomes too much for Luz to handle, Amity finally steps in to fight her own battles. And it's great that Luz is worried for Amity facing her fear, showing that there was NO resentment on Luz’s part. She willingly chose to do this for Amity…and partially for the selfish reason of proving that she isn’t as fragile as Eda claimed. Regardless, helping Amity is a big part of why Luz is willing to do this, and it’s her overconfidence that leads to Amity having her fear forced upon her, with Luz sounding more scared than Amity. Because while it’s not LUZ who realizes she has a crush yet, she still cares about Amity like any other friend, wanting to take her place before anyone would call Luz soft. So failing her hurts Luz more than Grom ever could. As for Amity, she weirdly lucked out in this scene. Grom DID reveal Amity’s afraid of rejection, but in a vague shadowy form where Luz couldn’t even tell it was supposed to be her, which is for the best. Amity wasn’t ready to tell Luz and having Grom do it for her would have been a BIGGER nightmare. Hell, it likely already was. The way Amity cringed in anticipation of Luz’s rejection, already assuming Luz had enough information to figure out the truth. Except when Luz picks up half the note that Grom ripped up, all Luz gets is that Amity was afraid of getting rejected by SOMEONE. Not only does Luz act sympathetically, immediately understanding Amity’s plight, but Luz also surprises Amity by volunteering to be her date instead. It was to go as friends, but that’s besides the point. Luz’s gesture proves to Amity that Luz is just…kindness personified. No matter what her feelings were to Amity or how Amity asked her, Luz would have said yes. Maybe she could have misread the situation (somehow) or said yes just to be polite. The point is that Luz would have said yes either way, and while it wouldn’t entirely be what Amity wanted, it’s at least enough to tell her that she has nothing to worry about with Luz. Whether or not Luz would feel the same way, she will NEVER break Amity’s heart. And it’s that confirmation that tells Amity that liking Luz IS worth it. There could be conflicts and consequences from this crush, but Luz is the nicest, warmest person who gave Amity exactly what she wanted without knowing it. Any feelings Amity has for Luz were STRENGTHENED by these events…but doesn’t make her brave enough to admit that she wanted to ask out Luz.

While Amity does understand that Luz won’t break her heart, her strengthened feelings for Luz don’t make her braver. She may be willing to dance with Luz for a beautifully animated combo move to kill Grom, but showing her the rest of the note? Yeah, Amity tosses that thing away immediately. And before I move on, I DO want to say how much of an expectation subversion the writers give with this scene. Most shows fighting for LGBTQA+ representation would have kept out who Amity was willing to ask out. They would have strictly implied it and left it to interpretation to make the studio executives happy…But not The Owl House.

You see it up front, baby! WHOO!

I will ALWAYS gush about how impressive and important this single image is. This is the first big show where a gay character having a crush on the main protagonist is shown EXPLICITLY through visual confirmation. We could have picked up the pieces in past episodes and even in this one. But to have this clear bit of PROOF that it’s officially happening between these two THIS EARLY in the series is all kinds of special. And it is the reason why I still don’t hate this episode despite its problems.

“Enchanted Grom Night” might be a mess, but the Lumity moments will always carry it. Everything that happens between these two in this episode is adorable, endearing, and groundbreaking enough to always make watching the episode worth it. If this was the last bit of Lumity fun we would have gotten this season, I would have been happy…but the writers snuck in one more episode.

Wing It Like Witches-There’s not a lot I could talk about here because a lot of it is pretty self-explanatory. Due to a magical night that proved once more that Luz is perfect, Amity became even more smitten and unable to be near Luz without blushing up a storm. Some fans grew to resent this episode because of how it ruined Luz and Amity’s reputation in the fandom, due to everyone latching onto this idea that Amity is a lesbian disaster and Luz is oblivious to it. As for me personally…I still love it.

The second Amity started nervously stammering in front of Luz, it blew my frickin’ mind. It IS a little weird that this is the only time Amity acts like this, but I can take it as the writers further confirming that this is in fact happening and we should get ready for it. And every moment that shows Amity being a blushing mess was hilarious and adorable to see. As for how Luz, the shipping queen, couldn’t see the obvious signs of a crush, there are two plausible explanations. There’s the boring one where Dana Terrace said that Luz just has a lot on her mind at the moment to notice. Then there’s the interesting explanation, where this is the first time that Luz has ever had someone act this way towards her. It’s pretty obvious that Luz isn’t used to the idea of people caring about her, whether as a friend or something more. This episode alone proves how inexperienced Luz is to friendship itself, making things more stressful for Willow when trying to help her. Before Hexside, Luz was unfortunately a social outcast, with Gus, Willow, and now Amity being the only kids her age who actually like her. So when Amity starts acting a little silly, Luz’s first thought isn’t, “Oh, she’s crushing on me.” It’s, “Gee, Amity sure is acting weird today.” While it’s INCREDIBLY obvious to everyone else, it’s a foreign concept to Luz because it’s not something that she’s used to experiencing for herself. It hurts to think about and is a lot more interesting, to me, than saying Luz has a lot on her mind.

While the fandom definitely went to far with the joke of Amity crushing hard and Luz being oblivious to all of it, the Lumity moments here are still cute. As for any development, this is the episode that cements Amity as part of the group, finally deciding that being with Luz (And, to a greater extent, Willow) is worth any consequence, not caring what someone like Boscha thinks. It’s great and it IS unfortunate that people don’t point that out as frequently as Amity being a blushing mess. But I kind of get it. It’s not as prevalent and you don’t realize it until the episode’s over with Amity sitting with everyone for tea. In a way, this development is more of a footnote in an episode that hammers in the idea that Amity has a crush on Luz, but it doesn’t make it any less important.

And that’s all for Season One. Due to a broken leg, Amity had to sit it out on the sidelines while some big, dramatic stuff happened in the finale. That’s really for the best because with how much Luz and Amity’s romance develops with every episode they’re in together, it makes sense to leave Amity out. Any growth they could have had would have hurt the finale in the long run as it would have been remembered as the episode where Lumity did X instead of…anything else that happened. Regardless, after three episodes in a row where Lumity got closer and closer together, it left fans demanding MORE and hating that they’d have to wait LONGER due to the show going on a nearly year long hiatus. But when that hiatus ended, they were given a good treat.

Escaping Expulsion-Oh, how this one ends beautifully…

But before we get to that, it’s worth noting that this episode is Amity’s last test of loyalty. Once Odalia finally learns about Luz and the others, she wastes no time in trying to cut them out of her life as much as possible. It’s living up to the threat Odalia gave Amity years ago about her friendship with Willow, only this time Amity doesn’t get the illusion of choice to break things off herself. Odalia uses her status and privilege to kick Luz, Gus, and Willow out of Hexside, with Luz begging, screaming, even getting down on her knees (Well, ONE knee—Hey, that’s an image for ya!) as she tries to convince Amity to help them. And you can tell that Amity wants to. She REALLY wants to. The look in her eyes and the way her body goes stiff as if she has to FORCE herself to do nothing shows that it’s tearing Amity apart to not help. Amity wants to be there for Luz like Luz was there for her, but doing so means going against Amity’s mom. Amity’s been allowing herself small rebellions, getting braver for Luz who brought out the best side of Amity. But when the consequences finally caught up to her as Odalia enacted a punishment no one deserved, it made Amity realize that no matter what she’d do, her mom will find out and make her life miserable. So Amity says no and is only brave enough to say sorry. It’s tearing her up inside to let Luz down like that, but she does it anyway. At least Luz eventually gave some motivation for Amity to fight…in an irresponsible manner on Luz’s part.

While Amity is too scared to face Odalia, Luz isn’t afraid of much of anything (Aside from facing her own mom, funnily enough). So Luz isn’t worried too much about going up to Odalia and willing to work things out. Luz goes in peacefully, hoping to set things right where no one gets hurt. Except that Odalia’s out for blood and decides to use Luz as target practice for all of her deadly weapons. Luz takes it all, hoping for it to be for the best until Odalia busts out the literal killing machine. Because earlier, Luz made the valid point that even though they don’t go to the same school together, Luz and the others will still be friends with Amity. Odalia very much disapproves of that fact and decides to take things to the next extreme by trying to kill Luz. Luz fights for her life, but it’s clear how outmatched she is with it taking a miracle to save her. Fortunately, one did.

It’s one thing to separate Amity from Luz or to use Amity as a test dummy, but putting Luz in danger is where Amity draws the line. And it really is amazing that Amity doesn’t waste a second to rebel and get the gang together once she knows Luz put herself in the line of fire (Read: Confronting Odalia). After everything that Luz has done for Amity, it’s great that she’s willing to step up when Luz finds herself in real danger. Getting expelled is one thing, but facing Blight Industries tech and mechs is another. And when the Abomiton 2.0 comes out, Amity rushes to get to a high enough vantage point to come to Luz’s rescue. Perhaps a little enthusiastically with the way she screams, “Stay away from MY Luz!” But she still swoops down like a hero from a fantasy story, standing between her maiden and a literal killing machine. Amity has saved Luz before, but this is the moment that has the most at stake for her as it risks Amity dealing with more hell from her mom. But if the choice is losing Luz forever or dealing with Odalia being MORE unbearable, it doesn’t matter to Amity. Luz has done everything for Amity out of the goodness of her heart, and Amity’s more than willing to do more than anything for her. It’s more than fair to her and she’d do it again no matter the cost. What Amity doesn’t know is that her actions rewarded her in a way she didn’t intend.

Luz liked Amity, there’s no doubt about that. She cares enough to help put out the fires in Willow’s brain and fight Grom for her. It was never a question for whether or not Luz liked Amity…but fans did debate HOW MUCH she liked her. Did Luz have a crush lingering above the surface but never quite knew THAT’S how she felt? I…don’t think so. I know fans like to say that she did (I used to be among them), but it’s clear that Luz’s feelings towards Amity were equal to any other friend. Anything Luz did for Amity isn’t different than how she would act for Gus or Willow. Case in point: The main reason Luz was in this mess was because she wanted to help her friends get back into Hexside. To Luz, Amity is just another friend…But then Amity saved Luz’s life and acted like the coolest witch that ever lived. Luz isn’t a stranger to getting her butt saved, especially when she was too close to death like in that moment. What makes things different here is that Luz is trying her hardest to survive, barely keeping ahead, and is out of luck when she reaches her limit. Just when things seem hopeless, Amity comes out of nowhere as a knight in shining armor, saving Luz in an incredible feat of magic and looking good doing it. In every other dangerous situation Luz found herself in, she either got herself out of it or expected someone to come to her rescue when things got dire. But because Luz didn’t tell anyone about what she was doing, she was all on her own with no one to help her with the Abomiton that she couldn’t keep up with. Then in comes Amity, swinging in holding down the thing that was seconds away from killing Luz in an impressive display of her magical prowess. And with the cape, the way Amity speaks, and how her magic leaves this intense glow in her eyes, it’s all enough to leave Luz a little star struck. This girl, close to her age, is standing between Luz and certain death for the sake of her own protection. It is like every crush fantasy that Luz must have had rolled into one, and it’s Amity doing it all for her. Luz, the fantasy nerd that is, likely DREAMED of a moment like this happening to her. Heck, remember that angsty teen warrior who was used as bait to lure Luz into a trap? He’s proof that Luz has a type and Amity is checking off every box at the moment, finally leading Luz to see Amity in a new light. And, really, can you blame her.

“Escaping Expulsion” is good for seeing Amity standing up to her parents, but Luz gaining a crush on Amity makes the whole thing a little sweeter. And I really do love that Luz gets her crush after Amity gets hers. It goes against the cliche of the nerd trying to win over the popular girl by having that popular girl already falling for her. It provides a decent twist on the concept while showing that Luz doesn’t have to do anything to earn Amity’s affections as that task has been done weeks ago. The problem is that Luz doesn’t know that as we’re now in the phase where the crush is mutual but neither is aware of it. This fact led fans to be excited about what happens next as we’re now super close to Lumity being canon and hoped they’d get closer sooner than later. Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait too long.

Through the Looking Glass-This episode gets a bit of flack due to people focusing more on the Lumity subplot other than the main story of Gus being insecure and looking for a confidence boost. This is definitely part of a bigger problem of fandoms and their obsession with ships over other characters, and it IS worth discussing…But this Lumity discussion post, so we’re just going to save that problem for another day.

Luz and Amity’s subplot in this episode is everything I could have asked for and more. Due to their mutual crush, Luz and Amity spend most of their shared screen time as flustered, blushing messes who can’t pick up on the painfully obvious signs because they’re too busy looking away due to their equal nervousness. It’s adorable and I love how it’s STILL obvious to everyone else. Gus is straight up annoyed by Luz’s cowardly BS of constantly asking for his library card to see Amity but never asking her out, and Edric and Emira are willing to give the lovebirds alone time and support Amity for her crush. Everyone gets it, but never forces Luz and Amity together as it’s equally obvious that they need to work this out themselves…At least in this episode. We’ll get to what Hooty does later.

I will say that if “Through the Looking Glass Ruins" was just the cute antics of Luz and Amity being complete messes, it would be an easy 10/10 episode for me. Unfortunately for them, some angst got sprinkled in as Amity lost her job to help Luz find an old book. What’s interesting about this is that both parties have different ideas for who’s to blame. Luz, of course, blames herself. She’s the reason they got caught despite the many warnings Amity gave to be careful. It was her screwup, but Amity blames herself more. She could have just asked Malphus for the book or turned back when Luz first suggested it. Instead, Amity was so focused on helping Luz that logic went out the window. Look back at how Amity reacts to Luz suggesting to show Amity around the human realm. The second she puts it together that it could lead to a date, she yanks Luz further into the library just to get it faster. So when they get caught, Amity believes that she’s to blame because being around Luz makes her do stupid things and act without thinking things through. But when Amity vents her frustrations over it, it only makes Luz feel worse because it made her think that Amity’s upset about LUZ and not what she does to her. Amity was more upset about herself and her actions than she is with Luz, but Luz, already believing that everything is her fault, can’t help but take the message the wrong way. Amity’s quick to pick that up when she sees Luz tearing up, and that makes HER feel worse as she believes she accidentally made Luz think everything is on her. Except that Luz is crying is because SHE believes that Amity is finally tired of Luz getting them in trouble because Luz makes her do stupid things. It’s an entire moment of miscommunication and misunderstandings that’s a heck of a lot more believable than most romantic drama in fiction. Neither is mad at the other or gives up without a fight. Amity just goes home to think about her feelings and Luz instantly sets out to make things right, telling herself, in Spanish, that things won’t work unless she makes it work.

What gets to me is that despite going through hell to get Amity her job back, Luz is already accepting that Amity will never want to see Luz again. It speaks volumes of how accustomed Luz is to rejection that she already assumes that Amity will be the same like every other crush in the past and would want nothing to do with Luz after this. And yet, despite that mindset, Luz still goes through on getting Amity back her job to make things right. Because even though Luz believes that she no chance with Amity anymore, she’s the kindest person in the world and, after everything they went through together, Luz doesn’t want to end things with Amity without fixing her mistake. So Luz goes through a whole ton of trials for Amity’s job and comes up to her door with an apology already prepared. Only for her words to die in her throat upon seeing Amity’s new haircut.

You see, while Luz was busy facing her guilt, Amity was facing her feelings. Through a wonderfully adorable interaction between her and Emira, Em makes the great argument that it doesn’t matter how Amity acts now because of Luz because she’s never been this happy before. It’s a sweet moment that I always think about when it comes to Amity’s relationship with EMIRA, but the meat of it brings up exactly what I’ve been saying most of this review. Luz is the best thing that has happened to Amity, bringing out her best qualities and being brave enough to go against her parents. Remembering that gives Amity confidence to do something that makes HER happy, this time without Luz motivating it. I mean, Luz would have likely encouraged it anyway, but it is smart that it’s a decision that Amity makes without Luz’s input. After feeling frustrated by Luz making her do stupid, risky decisions, I like how we see Amity deciding to dye her hair as something SHE wants without the supposed source of Luz influencing it. It’s a risk that could cause Odalia to be upset about, but it’s worth it for Amity’s happiness…and the effect it has on Luz. But that last part is just a bonus.

Speaking of Luz, she once again proves why she’s so amazing to Amity. She didn’t HAVE to go through so much to get Amity her job back. Amity already blames herself for the incident and was willing to accept the consequences. Then here comes Luz, fixing Amity’s problem without her having to ask for it. It was done out of guilt, but it doesn’t change how Luz, despite any consequence, will always make things better for Amity. It’s a good deed that proves to Amity that any stupid mistake is worth it because she'll always be happy when she’s with Luz.

…And then Amity kisses Luz on the cheek. A moment that surprised everyone, including the audience, Luz, and even Amity. Seeing Luz and the hell she went through to get Amity her job back filled Amity’s heart with so much admiration that she was thinking on impulse. Only for her to immediately regret it because she just kissed her crush BEFORE admitting her feelings. It’s definitely a leap too far and revealed Amity’s crush to Luz before she was ready. And while WE can see the look of awe in Luz’s eyes, Amity’s more focused on the general shock in Luz’s expression and chooses to run away instead of explaining herself. A shame, too, because…look at this face.

That is the face of a girl who finally realizes that she has a chance with her crush. While Amity is too busy panicking about messing up HER chances, Luz numbly falls to her knees, overwhelmed by the most magical thing that’s ever happened to her. And that’s saying a lot.

Like I said, everything between Luz and Amity in this episode is perfect, with the adorable antics mixed evenly with some light angst. I love it a lot and I adore how the next episode quickly addresses the kiss. The writers KNEW that they couldn’t move on to other antics and adventures with new characters without at least ADDRESSING the kiss. All they had to do is have Willow say that Amity missed a school day and that’s enough to tell us all we need to know: Amity’s too embarrassed about the kiss and is avoiding Luz because of it. And Luz understands that. It took a kiss on the cheek to do it, but she finally understands that Amity has feelings for her. She also understands that the ball is very much in her court. If Luz wants to go out with Amity, SHE has to ask Amity out because Amity is too much of a nervous wreck to do it. The problem is that Luz has a different fear of her own, regarding the matter. A fear that a certain someone helped her out with…

Knock, Knock, Knockin’ on Hooty’s Door-Ooooooooooh, NOW we’re onto the good stuff…

“Knock, Knock, Knockin’ on Hooty’s Door” is the best episode of the show. Or second best. Honestly, it’s always a toss-up between this and “Thanks to Them.” Both are very good episodes of television for different reasons, with “Knock, Knock, Knockin’ on Hooty’s Door” being great for solely focusing on the members of the Owl House and what makes the show so damn good. You get some great comedy from King trying to figure out who he is, well-done drama and tragedy with Eda’s backstory and curse, and some cute, gay fluff with Lumity.

Luz’s vignette begins perfectly by showing how her feelings for Amity are distracting her from figuring out a way home. Luz KNOWS she has to ask Amity out, but due to being rejected one too many times, she isn’t sure how. Amity is the first crush Luz has had to ever show feelings for her and she doesn’t want to mess that up. Unfortunately, her anxiety has left Luz distracted and unable to focus on figuring out how to get the echo mouse to do what Luz needs and help her learn how to build a portal home. She could ask Amity about it, but how can she get Amity’s help without addressing the kiss and how they BOTH want something more from it. Luz can’t ask Amity for anything without revealing her feelings and asking Amity out, and she can’t do THAT until she plans out the perfect way to ask Amity out. It creates this never ending loop in Luz’s mind, adding in an extra bit of stress that makes her life hell. Thankfully, Hooty is there!

Hooty, like everyone else, picks up that Luz is head over heels in love with Amity and needs a push in the right direction. The good news is that Hooty’s there to offer his assistance. The bad news is that he’s there to offer his assistance. His idea to kidnap Amity and lock her in the basement is more than questionable. It’s downright disturbing with and without context, but Hooty DOES have the right idea. Luz and Amity were NOT going to talk to each other unless SOMEONE forced them into a room and finally see one another face to face. Although, things don’t start off well with Amity IMMEDIATELY suggesting that they pretend that the kiss never happened. Luz panics because that’s the LAST thing she wants. Amity may be willing to forget something beautiful and perfect for the sake of keeping Luz in her life, but Luz doesn’t want to move backwards in their relationship. She’s terrified of taking that next step, but Luz still won’t allow Amity to entertain the idea of forgetting the kiss, distracting her with the goal of getting out of the basement, deciding to talk about the kiss later. Unfortunately for Luz, Hooty literally drops her and Amity into the last thing Luz wanted.

Under different circumstances, Luz might’ve loved the tunnel of love. For all we know, she might’ve fantasized about doing something as cheesy as a tunnel of love. The issue is that cheesiness is something that Luz is trying to stay away from. Due to still having this image of this heroic, aloof badass who will save Luz’s life like a knight in shining armor, Luz thinks that something corny and cheesy will make Amity think that Luz is a loser. Except that Amity has not only seen Luz at her most loseresque and fell for her anyways, Amity is also a loser herself. She drew fan art of herself with characters from her favorite book series and acts as a blushing mess around Luz. Amity’s not the super cool witch Luz keeps remembering fondly and is just as much into cheese as Luz would be. The proof is in HER reaction to the tunnel of love. While Luz is cringing her butt off, Amity is…confused. She has no idea what they’re in or what this whole thing is about. It’s not until Amity starts looking around that she picks up SOME idea of what is happening. Upon looking at the messages on the walls, realizing that they’re describing her, Amity comes to the assumption that this whole thing is some elaborate grand gesture for Luz to ask out Amity. It’s HALF right, that’s the whole point behind the tunnel of love. But instead of knowing that it’s Hooty’s idea, Amity believes it’s Luz’s, which you can’t blame her for. Luz’s whole thing is making grand gestures for people she cares about. It’s the very reason why Amity kissed her on the cheek. So when looking at the tunnel of love and think Luz is doing it for Amity, it shifts Amity’s reaction away from...

Confusion

To realization

To elation

To nervous excitement. Finally, at long last, Amity has what she thinks is definitive proof that Luz likes her. The moment is awkward and she probably prefers NOT to being dragged into a basement, but Amity’s willing to sit through all of it now knowing it might end perfectly between her and Luz. Only for Luz to start tearing the place apart and tearing Amity’s heart to shreds in the process. WE know why she’s doing it. Luz is trying to save face and avoid embarrassment, not letting the chance for a perfect romantic confession be ruined by all this cheese. But to Amity, what Luz does is the very reason why Amity was too scared to ask Luz out. When Amity finally allowed herself to hope that Luz might feel the same way as her, Luz destroys what Amity took as a sweet love confession, burning it all to the ground in a savage display all to make one message clear: Luz doesn’t want any of this. She even makes it clearer later that the whole thing was Hooty’s stupid idea. Again, WE know that Luz meant the tunnel of love, but Amity is focused less on actual tunnel and more on its meaning. The whole thing was meant to convey that Luz wants to go out with Amity, and Luz just called it stupid. Amity was already shattered when Luz was wrecking the place, but hearing Luz calling the idea of them dating stupid just about brought Amity to tears. It’s not what Luz meant, but it doesn’t stop Amity from misinterpreting the words and, worst of all, accepting them. Amity wants MORE than friendship, but she also wants to have Luz be close to her so she tries to live past the pain and laugh it off with Luz. Only for a single tear to betray that, making Luz realize her mistake…And causing chaos to start.

After Hooty thinks that he failed his friends, with Luz being the last straw, Hooty proceeds to have an emotional breakdown that nearly destroys the Owl House. Despite King and Eda trying to explain that he indirectly helped them, Hooty still clings to the fact that he failed Luz, who might be the only person who was currently left worse off after Hooty’s “assistance.” Most of it’s on her, but that doesn’t stop Luz from being backed into a corner where if she DOESN’T ask Amity out, Hooty would only get worse. When Luz explains her situation to Eda, she doesn’t waste a second to give Luz support. She offers great advice that if Luz wants to ask out Amity, she should ask her out. Perfection is NOT something to strive for in a relationship, otherwise you’ll be driving yourself crazy with every little decision. And if you’re too scared to ask a big question, putting it off until the perfect moment, you’ll end up losing your chance, something that ALMOST happened to Luz this episode. Eda gets that idea across in just a few little words, being the exact motivation Luz needs to finally go for it. Though, not before Eda yanks Hooty away to give them a more calm, PRIVATE environment. Because while Eda’s advice rings true, she understands that asking a girl out while a house demon is crying wouldn’t be the most romantic moment.

So, Luz and Amity get their privacy, Luz FINALLY explains herself, and…says something that requires me to go on a quick tangent. You see, a buddy of mine has this sort of nitpick where he doesn’t like that Eda and King got cool, new power-ups where Luz…didn’t. It’s part of this bigger problem where Luz isn’t really shown to be as capable in Season Two as she was in Season One. I get where he’s coming from and I PARTIALLY understand what he’s saying here. It does feel a little weird that Eda and King got new powers where Luz got nothing, but…that’s not entirely the point of this episode. The main trio are all looking for SOMETHING. King’s looking for knowledge of what he is, Eda’s looking for control through the chaos in her life, and both get rewarded by confronting what’s REALLY bothering them. King gets a booming voice when he vents his frustrations about feeling abandoned by his father and Eda gets a new harpy form when she asks for a compromise with the beast inside that went through as much chaos as her. As for Luz, what she’s looking for is certainty. Two episodes prior, Luz comes to the realization that she isn’t sure what she wants anymore. By believing that her adventures in the Isles will lead to her being a witch, she forgot to consider what kind of witch she wants to be or if she wants to be a witch at all. And two episodes later, Luz will be given ANOTHER uncertainty on whether or not she’ll return to the Isles. Might even explain why she isn’t as capable this season, as so much uncertainty has bogged Luz down to the point where she’s distracted and unable to focus on anything other than what’s in front of her. She’s also desperate for some kind certainty in her life, something that‘s easy enough to grasp and obtain. And the only thing that Luz is certain about at this point in time…is that she wants to be with Amity. It’s not as big as her wanting to go home or being strong enough, but that’s the point. It’s small, it’s manageable. Plus, for a teenager, going out with a crush is bigger than anything in your life. There’s a lot of reasons why Luz hyper-focuses on Amity, as it all boils down to the idea that no matter what happens, all Luz wants is Amity to be there with her. All she has to do is ask a single question. A question that could change everything if Luz has the courage. And she almost does, the words were coming out of her throat. Except that Amity beat her to the punch.

I’m fine with that for two reasons. Firstly, Luz was NOT going to ask Amity out with all the tension surrounding the importance of a single question. Amity blurting the question out first takes away the stress and allows Luz to finally ask Amity out with confidence that the answer will already be yes. Plus, this is a good character moment for Amity. Her biggest fear was asking out Luz due to a fear of rejection. A fear she was basically living through back in the tunnel of love. And here Amity is, met with more evidence that Luz really DOES like her. Hell, she’s pretty much saying it to Amity’s face. There’s no reason to be afraid anymore and just have to wait for Luz to ask the question that Amity’s been DREAMING to hear. Except that Luz is taking too long and, either due to the anticipation was killing Amity or because she fears that Luz will change her mind, Amity blurts out the question first. She finally pushed her own fear aside and went for it, with the results being very fruitful. I mean, look at their faces.

Every time I watch this scene, I want to bottle and sell the pure joy radiating from both their bright, smiling faces. After all that pining and hoping, these two are, at long last, together. Things are awkward and these two are mutually scared of dating each other, but that’s to be expected. They’re both each other’s first girlfriend and are a little nervous about what that could mean for the future. One thing for sure is that Hooty’s right. They’re adorable and deserve all the happiness.

It’s a bit of a shame that “Knock, Knock, Knockin’ on Hooty’s Door” is primarily remembered as the episode where Lumity became canon as there are equally great moments with Eda and King that make it the best episode of the show. But…you can’t blame people. This is the first time that a bisexual main character and her lesbian love interest became canon HALFWAY through the series. In previous media, this kind of thing could be done through implications, side-characters who appear once or twice a season, or waiting until the series finale. Luz and Amity getting together is not only a huge step in LGBTQA+ representation, but it also gives us more than enough time to see these two act as a couple. And the writers didn’t waste time on doing just that by quickly jumping in and giving fans little moments and episodes about Luz and Amity growing closer and stronger as a couple. How quickly?

Eclipse Lake-The very next episode.

In no time flat, The Owl House delivers cute couple nonsense, giving us the perfect glimpse of what a canon Lumity would be like. From the get go, they both seem so excited to be dating each other. Luz is grinning from ear to ear about calling Amity pretty and Amity is calling herself Luz’s awesome girlfriend at any available opportunity. I also love that most of the awkwardness is fading. Amity still blushes over Luz hugging her and calling Amity an awesome girlfriend, but that’s as far as things go. At least in this episode. So much of their interactions show how happy they are to FINALLY be dating, and you’re right there with them. As someone who’s been hoping these two get together since the damn near beginning, seeing them just slip into this pure, fluffy relationship with equal love.

But as adorable as things are—And they ARE adorable—this episode shows us the first problem in this relationship, particularly with Amity. Throughout “Eclipse Lake,” Amity’s dealing with the idea that she has to EARN Luz’s love. It’s not true, we know it’s not true, and even Amity didn’t think it’s true at first. But due to some meddling from Hunter, it gets into Amity’s head that if she ever fails Luz, they’re done. And the reason it gets to Amity so easily is because that’s how she functioned her whole life. With her parents, mostly Odalia, Amity grew up thinking that love comes with conditions and that if you don’t do what you’re supposed to then you don’t deserve love. Of course, it’s complete nonsense. Still, look at Amity in the beginning of the episode. Her treating Luz’s cold as this big crisis is the type of adorable overreaction that we would come to expect, but it’s more than Amity caring deeply for Luz. It’s Amity stepping up proving that she can be an awesome girlfriend to Luz. And looking back, with every time Amity keeps calling herself an "awesome girlfriend," it CAN come across as her going, “Yes. This is real. It isn’t a dream, it’s a reality.” With each “Awesome girlfriend,” Amity is reminding herself that she and Luz ARE dating and that they won’t break up as long as she keeps proving herself. Thankfully, near the end, Amity remembers that this is Luz they’re talking about. Luz loves grand gestures. After all, it was a grand gesture that made her fall for Amity. But Luz took an interest in being Amity’s friend due to warmth and nerdy fun that only Luz got to see, feeling attraction by seeing Amity’s strength, bravery, and just how cool she looks. Luz loves Amity for who she is and not what she does, and she proves that by hugging Amity the second she gets back. Amity doesn’t have to earn anything. She already has Luz’s heart and it’ll take more than a partially failed mission to change that. Her love is condition-free and I am so glad that “Eclipse Lake” immediately addresses this issue as Luz and Amity start their relationship. Us fans are ready for all the cute moments. Like Luz, in the next episode, immediately thinks of seeing Amity. She’s in the middle of a mission, and all she can think of is her girlfriend. The writers are quick to confirm that we’d get tons of the cute moments we were hoping to see, but an episode like “Eclipse Lake” proves that things won’t be perfect and that there are SLIGHT issues that these two have to work through. I honestly love that more than just giving us constant Lumity fluff. I wouldn’t mind it, but it’s sweet that we get to see them navigate being in a relationship. Instead of doing this on again/off again nonsense or holding off becoming canon until the series finale, we finally get to see a couple BE a couple as they persevere through every obstacle. Even in episodes that you wouldn’t expect.

Follies At the Coven Day Parade-Given the episode’s description and every single expectation going into the second half of Season Two, I was surprised to see that we’d get some more Lumity moments and an entire subplot about their relationship. Things start off cute enough with pet names, Amity getting flustered by Luz’s proximity, and Luz giving Amity a cheek kiss, completely shutting down Amity’s brain in the process. Things are adorable, but they don’t last when Amity notices Luz acting strangely.

Previously, Luz faced a fear of her own by finally telling Camila the truth about Luz’s summer. Things didn’t go well and it resulted in Luz feeling unsure about a lot of things. Will she return to Isles? Will she see her friends again? Could she and Amity be together? All these questions bounce around in Luz’s head and leave her anxious and trying not to show it. The only people she feels comfortable talking about her problems with are King and Eda, and that’s because as close of a connection that Luz has with someone like Amity, it’s nothing compared to what she has with King and Eda. They’re family to her and she trusts them with anything. With Amity…she and Luz have JUST started dating. Luz trusts her, but there’s more of a limit to it, all due to some issues that become MUCH clearer in another episode. While Luz feels she can say SOME things to Amity or share some secrets, Luz isn’t sure what would be too much baggage to drop on someone you’ve dated for a few days. Nor does Luz want Amity to worry. Being new to a relationship, Luz is too focused on keeping Amity nice and happy, not wanting to bring personal drama or conflict when things are going so perfectly between them. Except that Amity wants things to go differently.

Because Amity picked up that Luz was going through something, she wanted to figure out what. This time, it’s not out of wanting to prove herself worthy of love but instead wanting to just…help. To Amity, that’s what couples do: Help each other through mutual love and understanding. And with all the times Luz helped her, Amity only feels like it’s fair to return every single favor. But she can’t do it without knowing what’s wrong with Luz and it’s with this conundrum that the universe decides to give Amity a test. You see, Luz forgot her phone at school. A phone that has a video that can tell Amity exactly what she needs to know. Amity COULD play the video and figure out how she can help Luz…but that would be an invasion of Luz’s privacy. And given how Amity freaked out over her siblings and Luz nearly getting Amity’s diary, I’d say that the last thing Amity wants to do. Yet she still wants to. A small, selfish part of her wants to just play that video and finally help Luz. But if she does, she’ll breach Luz’s privacy and potentially risk losing some of Luz’s trust. It’s a situation where Amity knows the right answer, but it frustrates her so much that she’s desperate for any justification to act a little selfishly. Ultimately, she sticks with the right decision, and I’m glad that she does. All on her own too. Amity DID go to Willow for advice, but Willow basically gave a non answer, leaving it to Amity to figure out what to do. It’s for the best, because if Amity was told what to do, even though she already knew the answer, it would take the punch out of her final decision. But by far, the best thing about this, is how Amity reacts when she asks Luz what’s wrong.

When Luz saw that Amity holds out Luz’s phone and fears the worst, Amity’s quick to act. She doesn’t yell, act confrontational, or feel betrayed like most love interests in bad romantic dramas. Instead, Amity voices her worries, carefully asks Luz what’s wrong, and speaks with understanding when Luz makes her case. THIS is how a couple SHOULD act in a story. Not get into big fights and force a breakup to milk that drama, but actually TALK to each other for the sake of figuring out this problem together. Though, things aren’t perfect. Primarily on Luz’s end. In this scene, we see how Luz handles telling the truth about something uncomfortable. She looks away to hide how upset she is and forces a smile to give the illusion that everything is fine. It’s unfortunately something Luz does a lot around Amity, acting out of this “Keep things peaceful” mindset that does more harm than good. Avoiding the problem doesn’t get rid of it, nor does it stop Amity from worrying. The only way to fix things is by facing what makes you uncomfortable head on. Otherwise, it’ll fester and get worse. Luz was lucky this time, both for Amity catching on early and for being understanding enough to why Luz would want to be secretive. But if Luz remained tight-lipped longer, telling Amity the truth way later, Amity could have felt a little more betrayed by Luz keeping this secret from herand they would have LESS time to process it and figure out what to do. And I will admit that it IS a little strange that they never talked about what COULD happen if Luz couldn’t return to the Isles. They just kind of ignore it and go about things as normally as they could, almost as if they were expecting things to be fine between them. To be fair, the episode ends with them agreeing to take things one step at a time, but they don’t really go past more than one step. Despite that, I still love this interaction between these two.

I expected Luz to tell Amity the truth eventually, but I didn’t expect it to happen so soon and so well. The writers found the perfect time for them to discuss Luz’s promise to Camila, nixing unnecessary drama for the sake of showing how healthy Luz and Amity are as a couple. EVERYONE appreciates that decision, because while couples CAN fight and argue, it doesn’t mean we want to see them do that. You root for a couple to get together and be mostly happy. Some angst can seep in, but don’t forget the good stuff. While Luz and Amity met with their first real obstacle, it’s nice seeing them work through it without an argument breaking out. It’s a good mix of fluff and angst that shows just what makes Lumity so good.

Although, not every story these two have together is perfect.

Any Sport in a Storm-I am NOT a fan of the Lumity subplot in this episode, which is CRAZY for me to admit. I love seeing these two together and seeing how perfect they are for each other. But this episode was NOT doing it for me.

I get the intention that the writers were going for. Luz and Amity spouting theories about who Azura’s author could be is meant to show that they’re both of the same mind, coming up with equally crazy theories together. On paper, I love this idea. It SOUNDS like a cute idea. But in execution, it makes Luz and Amity seem a little TOO dumb. They fully believe everything they come up with is plausible and it doesn’t sit right. I can KIND OF buy it with Luz, she’s said weirder stuff with conviction. For Amity, I don’t think any of it lines up. Again, I get that the intent is to prove that Amity can be just as weird as Luz, but there can be better ways of showing Amity’s weird side that doesn’t involve degrading her or Luz’s intelligence. Plus…did we really NEED this subplot? Did we really need Luz and Amity figuring out the mystery behind their being Azura books in the Isles? Just an off-hand comment about how Amity found her books in a box that washed up onto shore would have been more than enough. Over complicating it with having it be this big scam from Tibbles of all characters makes the whole thing weird and leaves me wishing that Luz and Amity went off to do anything else. There’s some good stuff like Luz calling Amity “beautiful” in Spanish, Boscha being jealous of their relationship, and Luz and Amity deciding to start a writing club after realizing they’re equally creative. I love this, but I’d much prefer it happening in a better written story.

But while we’re on the subject of better written stories…

Reaching Out-This…might be the best episode between these two.

Things start…not great. Not for Luz. We catch on quick that Luz is missing something big and is throwing herself into anything and everything just so she won’t think about it. Nothing that she’s doing is healthy and everybody, from the characters to the audience, can pick up on it. Still, Luz refuses to acknowledge her problem and hopes for SOME kind of distraction. And here comes Amity, having problems connecting with her dad and providing Luz with the distraction she wants.

It’s worth noting that Luz would have helped Amity any other day with no objections. That day, though? Luz’s main reason for helping Amity was so SHE wouldn’t think about her own problems. Luz still cares enough about what Amity is going through and offers nothing but support throughout the entire Bonesborough Brawl. The issue is that Luz’s heart and mind isn’t in the right place, leaving her both distracted and a little reckless. Er, well, more so than usual. And, of course, Amity picks up on it. After all the things that they went through together, Amity knows Luz enough to figure out that she’s a little off. Plus, Eda telling Amity that today’s a bad day for Luz definitely helps Amity figure out that something is wrong. And Luz…does the exact same thing she did in “Follies At the Coven Day Parade.” She brushes off the very notion that there’s a problem and pretends to be happy despite the emotional weight adding pressure to her heart. Now, there ARE a few reasons for this. Luz still isn’t sure if her and Amity are close enough for this emotional of a discussion, she doesn’t want to worry Amity while she needs help, and Luz is trying her best to avoid THINKING about the topic altogether. She doesn’t even go into the details with King and Eda, being vague with why it’s a rough day for her. If Luz can’t divulge the details to the people she considers family, then it’s not really anything against Amity. This is just a touchy subject that makes Luz uncomfortable to talk about it with anyone. But that doesn’t change how things would have gone smoother if Luz wasn’t so tight lipped.

If Amity knew what was going on with Luz, she would not have gone to her for help. Amity’s problem is more than winning the Bonesborough Brawl. It’s all about her trying to form SOME kind of connection with Alador, her father who was always too busy to notice Amity being in the same room as him. This is personal to her, and she wouldn’t want to burden Luz with more problems when she’s already going through something. But since Luz doesn’t offer the exact details, Amity allows Luz to help, only if she’s sure she’ll be okay. Except that Luz isn’t okay, she’s practically bursting at the seams and is making risky decisions with riskier moves. Amity notices all of it and CONTINUOUSLY asks Luz if she’s STILL sure everything’s fine. Luz lies and digs herself deeper into a hole when covering a mistake by attacking an Abomiton that Alador sent to watch Amity. Luz was acting out of anger, and didn’t tell that to Amity because then she’d have to explain WHY. So, she kept it a secret, hoping that Amity would win the brawl before any consequences came up. A decision that would quickly bite Luz in the rear as Alador showed up, called off the fight, and revealed to Amity that Luz lied. Again. Lying once in “Follies of the Coven Day Parade” was one thing. Amity figured quick that Luz was going through something and that there were no personal stakes to her at the time to make it an issue. Here, Amity has no idea what’s wrong with Luz. This was supposed to be a day to help AMITY, and Luz did nothing but lie all day. Doing it once is understandable. By doing it twice, Luz presents a pattern. It tells Amity that Luz would sooner lie to her instead of letting Amity know that something is wrong. It’s that realization, added with Alador’s pestering, that causes Amity to run away from BOTH of them. Alador is understandable enough, but for Amity to run away from Luz, a person that made her feel safe and comforted, just tells you how badly Luz screwed up. As for what happens next…Do you remember how I said in part one that Eda’s talk with her dad was my second favorite interaction in the show? Well, what happens next is my ABSOLUTE favorite.

We find Amity sitting at the tree she and Luz made, a symbol of their mutual trust and teamwork. And now its leaves are falling, making the tree look like it’s wilting away just like the trust Amity feels for Luz. Once Luz shows up, asking to take a seat, Amity doesn’t verbally respond. She gives a small, barely noticeable nod, but doesn’t speak. She doesn’t even look at Luz because of how betrayed she feels. Once more, I cannot emphasize enough how badly Luz messed up with all the secrets and lying, and she knows it too. She tries to apologize, but Amity wants more than that. She doesn’t want this to become a pattern and makes it clear she wants the truth now, no matter what it is. With Luz now backed in a corner, she finally comes clean about what’s been bothering her: Today was the anniversary of her dad’s death.

That truth is already sad enough, but the way Luz explains it is almost sadder. She forces a smile, acting like this isn’t a big deal and prefaces it in a way that’s almost rehearsed. Luz saying it happened a long time ago and how it’s no excuse for how she acts tells me she was scolded for acting up with people telling her those same things. Luz says it to Amity because she expects to get the same treatment from her, anticipating that exact same reaction. But when Luz looks at Amity…

All Luz gets is empathy, shock, and horror. On a day when Amity is dealing with a strained relationship she has with her father, she dragged Luz in to help when she's trying not to think about HERS. Not only that, but it’s a day when Luz WISHES she could be with her dad again, that they could just talk or do anything. And on that day, she spends it helping Amity and failing to do just that. It’s not like Luz can do anything else. She can’t go to the human realm, she can’t be with her mom, she can’t pick FLOWERS. It’s all these thoughts, realizations, and feelings that Luz has been trying to avoid all day, and it’s all coming out at once, breaking her. As for Amity, she gains an even better understanding of Luz than she ever had before. Luz is more than a nice person. She is someone who would push aside her own issues for the sake of helping someone through theirs. In this case, it’s partially for selfish reasons, but it’s no less true. Luz has a great amount of care for all of her friends, caring less about herself when they need her. Just look at all the times that Luz threw herself into danger for someone she loved. This episode is sort of the one time Luz thinks of herself first, using Amity’s problem as a distraction to hers, but every decision she makes is to help Amity, even if her focus isn’t a hundred percent on Amity’s problem. And when a new problem arises and Luz is too emotionally distraught to stand, let alone follow Amity, Luz makes a joke, fakes another smile, and says she’ll catch up later as if she’s not going to spend the next few minutes crying alone. All of it proves to Amity that there’s a tragedy behind the kindness that is Luz, as she would pick helping people over helping herself.

So Amity decides that she won’t let this stand anymore. If Luz won’t help herself, then Amity will help her, pushing aside her previous betrayal and says that when everything’s over they will pick flowers together and do as much as they can while Luz is stuck in the Isles. Because Amity understands Luz now, and realizes that even the helpful can feel a little helpless at times, wanting to be there for Luz like Luz was there for her. It’s a beautiful sentiment, and you see in the astonishment in Luz’s eyes, mixed with the blush, that she finally realizes how much Amity really cares about her. Amity’s ALL IN with this relationship. No matter if it’s uncomfortable or is about something difficult to talk about, Amity will be there when Luz needs her. That realization astonishes Luz, and leaves her realizing she shouldn’t take Amity for granted.

“Reaching Out” didn’t really need to go as hard as it did. If it was just an episode about Luz helping Amity with a problem, it would have been fine enough. Instead, it gave us AND Amity insight about the sadness Luz hides away so no one would be brought down by it. And on top of that, we STILL got cute moments. Luz spinning around Amity while calling her pretty, Luz blowing Amity kisses, Amity being flustered by Luz’s awesome entrance. It’s all adorable, WITHOUT having these two kiss like it was originally planned. Speaking of which, as mind blowing as it would have been to see these two kiss, I’m glad they didn’t. It would have been too much and fans would have remembered this episode more as the one where Lumity kissed instead of the one where Luz opened up about her dad. Not to mention that it would have been a bit inappropriate for Luz to kiss Amity after opening up about her father. Luz saying, “Thank you,” and admitting that she can’t wait to pick flowers with Amity is more than enough to show how grateful she is. We don’t need a kiss to top off what’s already perfect.

And…that’s about it when it comes to Lumity episodes. Due to the show’s shortening, everything was coming to a close and we had no time to have an entire episode dedicated to their growing relationship anymore. We still got cute moments, though. Stuff like Luz and Amity sending messages with a ton of love hearts between episodes is always adorable to see and it shows that these two don’t need to be the center of attention to have an endearing relationship. It’s just that there’s no time to focus on JUST Luz and Amity anymore, so the writers have to squeeze them in at any opportunity they can…But still knew when to throw in the important stuff.

Clouds on the Horizon-People would call this a Lumity episode, but I wouldn’t. There’s so much focus on setting up the season finale and stuff going on with Amity’s family that the Lumity stuff, while incredible, isn’t what the episode is about. With that said, we still got ONE big moment that’s worth discussing. And we’re gonna break it down…

We start with Luz being nervously excited to see Amity again. They’ve been a week apart from each other and the first thing Luz does is climb up to Amity’s balcony as if she’s the Romeo to her Juliet. Luz is probably quoting the play in her head right now as she fusses with her hair to make it look better before seeing Amity. That is, until Luz overhears Amity’s little breakdown.

Amity’s whole life is crumbling down before her eyes. Her parents are helping the emperor do something terrible, she has NO idea where Luz is, and Amity is locked away in her room, unable to do anything about all of it. She’s trapped with nothing to do, and all she can do is think about Luz and what SHE’S going through. With the thought of Luz being in MORE trouble making Amity feel worse.

Funnily enough, it’s thinking about Luz that also makes Amity feel better. It’s just that she focuses on what Luz would say in this moment instead of what bad things COULD be happening to her. And Amity has an accurate understanding of what Luz would do and say, with the very idea of Luz’s warmth and kindness being enough to make Amity smile again, getting enough determination once more to fight to stop everything because she’s not letting a genocidal madman destroy everything before she has her first date with Luz.

Unbeknownst to Amity, Luz was hearing the whole thing, and agreeing with every word with gusto. In fact, I’m willing to bet that Amity said the exact speech Luz had planned to say, word for word. That just tells you how well Amity knows her girlfriend to take the words right out of Luz’s mouth.

And I love that the second they see each other, they both immediately run to each other, with Luz calling Amity "Sweet Potato,” keeping that nickname alive, and Amity jumping into Luz’s arms. It’s already adorable, making the Lumity fans happy with this incredibly cute moment. There’s only one thing to make it more perfect…and the show does just that.

BOOM! On screen kiss! And one with the smoothest animation possible, too! I like to think that’s an extra middle finger Dana gave to Disney, using so much of the budget all for a kiss. A progressive kiss between two girls, but a kiss nonetheless. And I can’t help but appreciate Luz’s facial expressions throughout all of it.

“Heh, my girlfriend is so pretty…”

“Wait what’s happening—“

“OH, we’re kissing!”

“Oh, we’re kissing…”

“Oh, wow…”

It is everything I could have asked for. And a little bit more.

Luz and Amity’s awkward reactions to the kiss is just a little cherry on top that I didn’t know I needed. Amity is embarrassed and astonished that she was brave enough to kiss Luz. The girl keeps making first moves and somehow STILL ends up being surprised that she made them. As for Luz, she’s embarrassed over the fact that she reacted to the kiss by going “Crikey.” Of all the things she could have said in this moment, it’s one random word that nobody would have expected. It’s perfectly Luz and helps sell this scene as a teenager’s first kiss. It’s ALMOST perfect, but the awkwardness and inexperience makes it a moment Luz and Amity will both cherish and regret. It’s the exact type of normalization that the LGBTQA+ community has been BEGGING to see, with The Owl House expertly delivering it.

And that’s…really the last big moment in this series. Don’t get me wrong, we still got cute bits afterwards. Like Amity defending Luz’s honor and Luz being amazed by Amity’s strength. Or in the very next episode where all Amity can think about is saving Luz or how it’s Amity tearfully begging Luz to run that temporarily convinces Luz to leave behind the Boiling Isles. You get the sense that their relationship is still going strong, but there’s rarely a sense of progression or focus, especially when we get to—

Season Three-Yeah, might as well lump the whole “season” together. Because with the writers only having three specials to wrap up the rest of the story, we have no time to build off of Luz and Amity’s relationship more than we’ve had. There were SOME cute moments, like…

Luz’s little video that she used to come out to her mom. The fact that Luz calls them Lumity in universe is perfect.

Their little dance in the rain was precious and everything fans expected.

All the little touches and kisses these two shared proved how comfortable they’ve gotten with each other over time. They’re past the awkward stages of their relationship and finally accepting that this IS their reality.

Their couple costumes are the best and it’s kind of funny that they become their default outfit for most of the season.

Luz knowing she’s in a nightmare because Amity misquoted Azura is how it should be done. Luz knows Amity enough to know that would NEVER happen.

And their last on-screen kisses just feels like a final middle finger to the network that screwed the show over.

I couldn’t get enough of these moments, and I appreciate all of them. But it doesn’t change how Lumity is never something that takes the focus in an episode. Instead, it’s something that just simply exists, which is honestly good for a different reason. It allows Luz and Amity to just…be. To prove that their relationship doesn’t have to be the center of attention to be a good couple. They’re in a comfortable enough state and have already gone through so much that there’s not much to do that wouldn’t be repeating what we’ve seen already. Besides, we do get SOMETHING beyond cute moments.

Due to there being three specials left with the series, a lot of characters got the short end of the stick, even for fan favorites like Amity. And while Luz’s role this season is to go through a goth phase, Amity’s is there to…just be Luz’s girlfriend. I explained in part one how fans didn’t appreciate this decision, but I learned to accept it. I see it less of a downgrade and more of a character progression. And it can be best explained through ONE image:

Luz is in a dark time in her life and Amity brings her attention back into the light. That’s Amity’s real role this season: Being to Luz what Luz was toher. With Luz shrouded in guilt about Belos and The Collector, Amity is there to do as much as she can to help cheer Luz up. Planning a way back home in the hope of surprising Luz with a win, coming up couple costumes, reassuring Luz that life is better with her in it, giving advice about the egg, and motivating Luz to save the world one last time. Luz was the person who helped Amity through the darkest part of her life and Amity’s trying to do the same. It’s a culmination of her character development, showing her being the same supportive person Luz was and proving that she can give as much as she takes. The best part is that it…ALMOST works on Luz. Everything Amity does is effective enough to temporarily take Luz out of this funk she’s in, to the point where most of Luz’s genuine smiles came from Amity’s mere existence. But it wasn’t enough to completely help Luz get out of her depressed state. It worked in spades, don’t get me wrong. Whenever Luz was at her lowest, Amity was there to cheer her up a LITTLE. It’s just that Luz was too deep in her guilt that it would take more than Amity being her wonderful self to snap Luz out of it. Still, it was better than nothing, especially considering how Amity was the closest source that left Luz indecisive about leaving the Isles forever.

Eda and King would have likely driven Luz to stay…but they’re not there at the moment. They’re separated from Luz, with any knowledge of their fates left unknown to her. As for Luz’s friends, she’ll miss them dearly but she can always tell herself that they’d be better off without her. And with Willow and Gus already getting along great with Hunter, it just makes Luz’s argument easier to convince herself with. But with Amity, things are different. Dating her was an act of Luz trying to gain some sense of certainty in her life after all the crazy things that left her unsure of even who she wants to be. Being with Amity is something Luz fought for and, if she wanted to give it up, she had two chances to break things off if having a girlfriend wasn’t an option. She could have confessed that they should break up after telling Amity about her promise or take the L in “Reaching Out” after screwing up Amity’s moment to shine. But She didn’t. Because Luz wants to be with Amity, more than anything. And Luz knows that if she stays in the Human Realm, then that’s the end of their relationship. With that being the LAST THING Luz ever wants, it makes her decision weigh heavier on her heart, making Luz feel even more guilt with each soft moment she has with Amity. Because Luz KNOWS she has to confess about staying eventually and actually plans on doing it this time. There’s no ignoring the problem and solving it on her own or lying about things being perfectly fine. Luz planned to have one last happy memory with the people she loves before bringing down the mood about her staying in the human realm. Then Belos happened, but instead of putting it off for a better moment, Luz still decides that she HAS to tell the truth. The only reason she doesn’t is that Camila stalls things by saying that they’re BOTH going to the demon realm to fix things. Luz agrees with that for now, but is still convinced that she has to stay home. She’s even ready to say that to Amity later, only to get interrupted by Kikimora’s insane plan to rule over teenagers. And by the time THAT’S resolved, Camila managed to help Luz get through her angst and help her understand that leaving the Isles isn’t an option. Which means that there’s really no reason to tell Amity or anyone else about the whole thing anymore. She could, but it’s not so big of a deal that she HAS to. Not anytime soon, at least.

To me, Luz wanting to come out and say that she’s staying in the Human Realm is done well enough to make it where she SORT OF learned her lesson in “Reaching Out.” I used to think the opposite and…yeah, it’s not perfect, but it’s good enough. Luz might still stall from saying the truth, and never does, but she still wants to. Luz was just struggling to find the right words or stalled for the right time. As for Amity, she knew that something was wrong but respectfully didn’t pry. Amity offered support when needed, but understood at this point that if Luz was hiding something, it was likely for a good reason. She’ll say it in time and Amity’s willing to trust Luz to do so. And while Luz never does, again, there’s no real reason or urgency to. Plus, trust me when I say that the last thing I want in the final season of The Owl House is more Lumity angst. I am perfectly content with there being primarily fluff between these two with just the SLIGHTEST angst sprinkled in.

I’m also content with the series ending with Luz and Amity STILL being together. They don’t break up, they’re not forced to separate, and neither die.

…Well, not permanently, anyways. The show ends with them together and still dating up to three or four years if the time skip is anything to go on. They got a chance to go on more dates, say “I love you” to each other constantly, hold hands and share soft kisses, go to Grom WITHOUT the drama, have disagreements they can work through, and…likely do adult things in the future when they’re ready for it. They get to go through it all together, likely for forever. I know that there’s this opinion about how it’s unrealistic for teen couples to stay together, especially ones who only ever dated each other, but…I don’t really care. For one, it’s a work of fiction. In a work of fiction, I WANT to see the cute couple get together, stay together, and ALWAYS be together. No sane person should want Luz and Amity to break up unless their reasons are “I don’t ship it.” These two are cute and have a healthy relationship that communicates well and learns WITH each other. These reasons make Luz and Amity one of my favorite fictional couples in animation, as well as the best thing in the show.

Lumity being the best thing in The Owl House goes beyond them being a cute couple. It’s ONE reason, but there are still others. Luz and Amity’s relationship normalizes LGBTQA+ romance, trading spectacle for sweet, awkward teen love that was a joy to see every time. It was also a joy to watch their bond grow stronger every episode, seeing the natural progression of rivals to friends to now girlfriends. There’s no forced drama or stretching out the romance. The writers figured that fans would want a cute couple to be a GOOD couple, so they prioritized as much as they could to make it as appealing as possible. It’s why Lumity works so well. It’s a part of the show that the writers knew they needed to get right, so they tried their best to do so. With it came an impressive romantic subplot that I, and others, couldn’t get enough of, for the adorable moments, showing us how far these two grew, and giving them both a happy ending they deserve. For me, I couldn’t have asked for anything better from a show I love.

Now, a normal person would stop their big, six part long review after talking about what they call the best thing about their favorite show. Save the best for last, and all that. But I…am an idiot who didn’t think this through. And there’s two more things I want to get out of the way before the conclusion. So tune in next time as we discuss the STORIES within The Owl House.

#the owl house #luz noceda #amity blight #lumity #what i thought about #the owl house reviews #long post #really long post #again #sorry #my bad

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nothingtoseeherebyeexx · 11 months

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Delicate, Chapter Two: …Ready For It?

same disclaimer as last time this is just for funsies and i’m not a writer !! also we’ve unlocked cissa and lily povs!!

CW: a bit of alcohol-related struggles

< prev chapter next chapter >

“Lily that was mental! You can’t just say things like that, especially in your situation! What if you get sued?”

“The money you waste on PR teams, I invest in lawyers!” Lily replied, dropping her keys on the table, an exasperated Alice following her inside their home.

“She brought up Snape,” Lily justified herself with a sigh, “You know how I get when they bring up Snape.”

They had just come back from Rita Skeeter’s show, and of course it had been a complete disaster: that woman loved to pick the touchiest topics during her live shows, banally exploiting private matters for views and publicity. That was one of the two reasons most celebrities refused to be her guests, the other being that she was generally a very unpleasant woman to interact with.

A right bitch, if you will.

However, Lily’s situation was…singular.

About a year before she had upset a few (many) big shots in the music and acting industries, gaining a lot of enemies and getting terrible backlash. It had been a horrible year, and thankfully her friends were there for her, but she wanted to get back on the scene. She wasn’t going to let some rich assholes dim her light.

So, of course, when Rita Skeeter had offered her an interview, she had accepted out of desperation. Like an idiot.

“She read one of Avery’s Tweets and you went crazy!” whined Alice.

“I didn’t go crazy-“

“‘How is Lily Evans still relevant? She only makes songs about Snape, he basically made her famous’ And what did you say, Lily?”

Lily bit her lip, remembering the moment with just the tiniest bit of shame. The smile Rita had on her lips while reading that stupid Tweet, the blind rage it had caused.

“Please remind me, what did you say?”

“Something mature and responsible, i’m sure-“

“You said, and I quote, ‘Just to let Avery Jr know, I was the one who made that bitch fucking famous’” Alice countered, eyebrows raised.

Lily swallowed. “…I didn’t say anything else though, did I?”

“Because they cut the cameras!”

“Listen,” rebutted Lily, sitting on the sofa in their living room and pulling out her phone.

“I may have implied that he’s gay but it’s not my fault if he finds that offensive! It’s his problem, really, and he can’t bring that up to court.”

“I think you should focus on the fact that you called Severus Snape a bitch, and that he would be a nobody if it weren’t for you,” countered Alice, taking a pot of peach yoghurt from the fridge. “I pity Longbottom, really: lately being your manager seems like a fucking nightmare.”

“Good thing he’s good at his job, then. He’s like part of the family now.” Lily looked up from her phone smiling, “You are the mum, he’s the dad, Marlene is the reckless younger sister and i’m the angry teen full of hatred for this world.”

“We’re both too young to be your parents, and he might be suspicious of his wife writing about women in her love songs, you know.” Alice smiled, taking a spoonful of yoghurt. “What are you watching?”

“Oh, it’s Narcissa’s last show,” explained Lily with a shrug, “She performed a few songs for a festival last week and I heard great things about a certain performance…apparently she’s been working with this girl for a few months, singing together. She’s been hiding a gem, that’s what her fans have been saying.”

“And how come you’re suddenly so interested in Narcissa Black? Didn’t know you were a fan of hers.” Alice got closer, leaning over Lily’s head to watch the video on her phone. She carried the faint smell of peaches and the weight of past personal issues in her voice, but Lily wasn’t going to pry. Much.

“I like her music, actually. But it’s this new girl that really piqued my interest. New blood, always exciting.” Lily paused the video and decided to push her luck, just a bit. “They remind me of us, you know: a younger singer, guided by a-“

“I’m not like Black. And you were already popular when we started living together with Marlene, so I don’t think it counts.” Alice cut her off, harshly, and started walking away. “I’m going to my room, see if I can write something.”

Lily silently accepted her defeat and swiftly changed topic. “Pizza tonight?”

But Alice had already gone up to her room, so Lily took it as permission to order whatever she wanted.

She had no clue what Alice’s issue with Narcissa Black was: in the three years she had been living with her, Alice had never given a sign of knowing Black, and Lily could’ve easily thought Alice had absolutely no connection to her.

However, the way Alice became quiet whenever Narcissa showed up on TV and how she’d turn off the radio when Black’s songs were playing indicated otherwise: in Lily’s opinion, Alice was trying really hard to hide her…hatred? No, not hatred-distaste for Narcissa, but her indifference was a too-long practiced craft for it to be genuine.

Lily thought that constantly trying to ignore someone counted as actually thinking about them, and she had therefore concluded that Alice Fortescue was mildly obsessed with Narcissa Black.

Marlene and Frank agreed that there was something going on between the two, or at least there had been, so Lily supposed she wasn’t just jumping to conclusions.

However, whenever they tried to bring it up, they were always shut off by Alice, and, as childish as it may sound, it hurt: Lily, Marlene and Alice had known each other for years, they had shared fears, hopes, secrets. They had never broken each other’s trust, and that was one of the fundamentals of their friendship.

So why was Alice so incredibly jealous of the corner Narcissa occupied in her mind? Was she ever going to let them in?

She would, eventually.

Or at least Lily hoped so.

In the mean time, she had a new singer to focus her attention on: an unknown girl named Mary Macdonald, who performed for the first time with the Narcissa Black, as the closing act of a festival that had sold out probably because of Black. The piece they were going to sing was a fan favourite, Born to Die, so the crowd’s expectations were extremely high.

This Mary Macdonald was either exceptionally confident, or completely mental.

But when she started to sing, Lily was immediately captivated. From the way she walked on the stage, to how she swayed to the music, to the bright smile on her lips when she wasn’t singing, it was impossible for Lily to take her eyes off her. For a few minutes, Mary’s voice seemed like the only real thing in the world, making everything else feel mundane, unworthy of attention.

Narcissa let Mary steal the spotlight, looking at her proudly like she was showing the world a ground breaking discovery. And she wasn’t wrong, because the girl sang for barely five minutes, and yet Lily was already starving for more.

How could Mary fear the eyes of a few thousands of people when she sang like the whole world was watching? How could she feel the pressure of being a guest on another star’s show, when she shone just as bright?

Lily didn’t need much more after that.

She opened her chat with Alice and Marlene.

lil evans: i’m going to sing with Mary Macdonald and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.

lil evans: and we’re having pizza tonight.

“Making her sing during that show was completely mental, Cissa.” Amelia was leaning against the desk in front of Narcissa, arms crossed.

It had always been hard for Narcissa to find her intimidating, since they were similar in both age and personality, so she was one of the few who weren’t affected by her signature Amelia Bones Glare. In addition to that, her mischievous eyes and Narcissa’s satisfied smile made the whole conversation feel more like two friends chatting casually, rather than a lecture about Narcissa’s…surprise song. Introducing Mary to a crowd like that had been a bold choice, but neither of the singers regretted it.

Narcissa and Mary had been working together everyday for two months now, 6 hours of practice daily. Narcissa was aware this rhythm was probably unbearable for Mary, who had another job, but the girl had been set on working her ass off to start thinking about her own album as soon as possible, and even when she eventually started working on it, she still spent a quarter of her day singing.

They even spent part of their free time together: considering how much Mary seemed to dread staying home and how discreet she was about her private life, Narcissa had the suspicion her family situation wasn’t exactly the best, so she had been inviting her over to her place as often as possible with the weirdest excuses to give her a distraction.

It’s not like Narcissa could have helped it, she knew what a shit family could do to a person, and she genuinely appreciated Mary’s company, too.

So much, in fact, that she had taken her to perform live for the first time as soon as she had the chance.

“You’re right, Mel, it was crazy. It worked, though,” replied Narcissa nonchalantly, bringing a cigarette to her lips. Thank God Amelia was also a smoker and allowed the occasional cig-breaks indoors, as long as Narcissa had to share. “It’s all the media has been talking about for the past two weeks. Besides, we are going to drop her album in, like, less than a month, some extra publicity can’t hurt.”

“It was her first time singing to an audience, and you made her jump on a stage in front of live cameras,” Amelia cocked her head to the side, eyes wide in amazement. “She could’ve fucked it up, and I wouldn’t have blamed her.”

“But she didn’t,” countered Narcissa, resting her head against the armchair. “Because we talked about it beforehand. Listen, that girl was born to perform, her place isn’t inside a small recording room. I wanted the people to see her for the first time at her best.”

Amelia shook her head with something vaguely resembling fondness. “You really do care about her, don’t you? Pass it.” Narcissa inhaled and handed her the cigarette. She exhaled and watched as the smoke floated in the air, light under the sun rays like a bride’s veil.

“Why did you even agree to introduce her to me? I didn’t know you had such a kind heart.” Amelia commented, eyes squinted towards the window. “Not that I’m ungrateful. I have a lot of hope in Mary. However, you didn’t strike me as the type of woman who wanted to be…a mentor, I guess.”

Narcissa was still watching the smoke leave the cigarette, head tilted back.

She still didn’t know why she’d let Mary into her home that night, months before.

She knew, however, that she hadn’t hoped to make it past 27, yet there she was, not too far from her 28th birthday.

Leaving her parents’ house and throwing herself onto new projects hadn’t magically changed Narcissa’s life for the better, and she’d also found herself completely alone. There was also the fact that she ended up high or drunk way too often to not consider it a problem, although in the past she hadn’t worried about it too much: many great stars died like that, and Narcissa wasn’t too bothered by the thought of joining them.

But then Mary showed up, with her determination and stoic audacity, so set on really owning her life, and made Narcissa realise how scary her indifference towards death was.

In truth, that night Amelia had answered her email almost immediately.

“The album is promising, but there’s a lot of work to do, Narcissa.”

“I know, but I swear, she has it. The spark, I-I felt it. I could help-“

“You have to be able to help, Narcissa. You know what I mean, right?”

She didn’t drink for five days, after that call. And on the fifth day, Amelia gave her a chance, and Mary officially became part of her life. Since then, there had been highs and lows: sometimes she went to Edgar (who was much more empathetic than Amelia, though Narcissa would never say that to her face), and he’d go to her house to throw away her remaining alcohol. Other times, when Mary was willing to drink with her, she let herself take a glass or two: Narcissa’s rule of thumb was drinking one glass less than Mary, and considering that the girl was still wary of drinking more than a few glasses or a couple of shots, Narcissa hadn’t gotten tipsy in two whole months.

“Narcissa? Are you there?” Amelia waved her hand in front of her eyes. Narcissa noted that the cigarette had disappeared somewhere.

“Yes, Mel. Was just thinking.”

“About?” Amelia asked, eyebrow raised, but Narcissa didn’t say anything. She didn’t like talking about her struggles, but Amelia Bones always seemed to read her mind, which was equally endearing and annoying. So, at the silence that followed, she said, “You’re doing better, by the way. Have you told-“

“I’m not going to tell her-“

“NAR-CIS-SAAAA” Mary barged into the room, eyes bulging and breathing heavily. Her arms were open wide, phone in hand.

“Ma-ryyyy?” Narcissa replied in confusion while raising her arms, mimicking the girl. Mary rushed to her and shoved the phone in her face with an excited smile.

“Som-someone just contacted me and you won’t believe-oh, Amelia, you need to see this, too!”

“Stay still, child, you’re moving too much.” complained Narcissa, squinting at the bright screen and wrapping a hand around Mary’s wrist to steady it. Amelia quickly moved closer, read the first few words, and immediately frowned. “That’s a name I haven’t seen in a while.”

Dear Miss Mary Macdonald,

This is Lily Evans, if the email address wasn’t a dead giveaway. I just saw a video of your performance with Narcissa Black, and I must say, you’ve instantly enchanted me. I could spend many words praising your incredible singing, but perhaps it would be more efficient to get straight to the point.

You may already know this, but because of certain circumstances last year, I completely disappeared from the public eye. I will soon make a comeback though, and I was wondering if you wanted to write a song with me to put in the album. Or we could write a single, however you prefer: to be completely honest, this is just an excuse to sing with you.

I’ll leave my phone number, in case you wish to reach out to me <3

Have a delightful day,

Miss Lily Evans

“What do I do, what do I do?” Mary asked leaving her phone to Narcissa and Amelia, their eyes still glued to the screen.

“Well, Evans has a big fan base, a collaboration with her would be great.” Amelia said, still analysing the email like it was a cryptic message from an alien.

“Do you also sense a flirty undertone or am I seeing things?” she whispered.

“I don’t know, maybe she’s just very informal and frien-no okay, now that you’ve mentioned it, I can kinda see it.” Narcissa replied just as quietly.

“Shoot your shot Mary!” she said, smiling fondly at the girl, who was covering her face with her hands.

“But first, consider that Evans has been in the middle of some drama lately. Despite her loyal fans, her reputation has gone to shit during the past year. You know that, right?” Amelia asked, standing up next to Narcissa’s chair.

“…Actually, I don’t.” Mary replied.

“How do you-“ Amelia whispered, appalled. “Well, I’ll send you some links so you can get what I mean. I had the chance to speak to her a couple of times, she’s a good person. A bit fierce and isn’t afraid of speaking her mind, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing,” Amelia got closer and put a hand on Mary’s arm.

“I bet she’ll be a pleasure to work with. If you want I can contact her manager.”

Mary chewed on her lip, deep in thought.

“Fuck it, I’m doing it.” she snapped, getting her phone back from Narcissa, who let out a small ‘ooooh’ as encouragement.

“But I’ll text her myself. We’ll figure out the rest later.”

“I agree. You should also meet her in person, first,” intervened Narcissa, knowingly. “You don’t want to work with someone you don’t get along with. Two artists need chemistry.”

“Mhm…” Mary agreed, distractedly. “I’ll go, then. I just wanted to tell you first, I was absolutely freaking out-“

“Of course you were, it’s Lily Evans we’re talking about,” said Amelia understandingly, “Everyone knows at least one of her songs.”

“…Yeah,” commented Mary, with an unsure smile. “Yes, of course I do. Well, thank you. I’ll see you tomorrow.” The two women watched Mary leave the room, practically bouncing instead of walking.

“So, Mary and Lily…” started Amelia once the room had gone back to quiet, still eyeing the door.

“Apparently.” Narcissa already knew where this was going.

“You know she’s Fortescue’s girl, right?”

“I’m aware.”

“…Interesting.”

“I’m not even looking at you but I can feel your stupid grin. Stop it.”

The phone was ringing when Lily got out of the shower: it was rather late, and she wasn’t really expecting any calls. She didn’t recognise the number on the screen, but it wasn’t the usual Unknown Number that meant Snape was trying to get in contact with her, so she accepted the call.

“Hello?”

“Good evening, is this Miss Lily Evans?” greeted a voice on the other side, and Lily recognised with a smile the old-fashioned welcome.

“Well yes, could this be my dear Miss Mary Macdonald?” she replied, just as charmingly. So Mary wanted to work with her, despite everything…maybe Marlene was right, things were getting more promising.

“My my, it may just be her,” then she laughed softly, and it was such a pleasant sound Lily wanted to put it in a song, somehow. “Sorry, I broke character. Anyway, am I disturbing you?”

“Not everyone is born an actor, darling, and no, not at all-“ Lily scrunched her curls with a wet towel.

“Good, because I wanted to tell you I would love to write a song with you,“ Lily saw her smile widen as she looked at herself in the mirror.

“-But I’m afraid we’ll have to wait at least three weeks.” Mary concluded, sounding so sorry Lily couldn’t manage to feel too disappointed.

“Oh, it’s fine, I can be patient. How come we have to postpone our meeting? If I can ask, of course.”

“Well, you see, I’m working on-“

“LILY!” Marlene barged into her room screaming, her brown eyes open wide and blonde hair even messier than usual.

One thing about Marlene is that she never banally entered rooms, she always barged in, slamming doors open and announcing the motifs of her intrusion. It was a rather dramatic habit, but it always made Alice smile when Marlene appeared on top of the stairs, shouted “HUNGRY!”, and set the dinner-making process in action. Lily was just grateful someone in the house never forgot about meals.

“Marlene-“

“PETER IS BACK IN TOWN!” she continued, grabbing Lily’s shoulder.

“Excuse me, Mary, can you hang in there for a minute? I’ll be back shortly.” Lily explained, widening her eyes at Marlene, who quickly covered her mouth with her hands, surprised but not really apologetic.

Mary laughed, “Sure, no problem.”

“I’m sorry…” Marlene smiled as Lily muted herself, although she seemed more enthusiastic than sorry.

Marlene, Peter and James had known each other since they were kids, and being all separated for work matters (Marlene and Peter had always worked solo, while James had formed a duo with Sirius Black when they were sixteen), they were all overexcited when they had an excuse to see each other. The four of them together reminded Lily of those puppies that are perpetually either jumping, running or barking.

“It’s okay. So, Peter is back?” Lily smiled.

When Peter was younger, he used to be really quiet and shy, always getting dragged into trouble by James and Marlene first, and then Sirius, too.

Or at least, that’s what Marlene had told her. Lily found it hard to believe, considering how Peter acted now: he was comfortable on the stage, always ready to joke, in front of thousands of people or with his closest friends alike; he wasn’t necessarily the loudest at a party (that honour went to Sirius and James), but he was still a pleasure to have a conversation (and especially talk shit) with.

“Not yet, actually. He’ll be back this Saturday,” Marlene answered, biting back a smile.

“I bet Effie is hosting a welcome-home party as soon as he gets in town,” Lily continued, remembering how Mrs Potter always found opportunities to gather all her “kids” (as she had nominated James and all his friends) under her roof.

“Oh, it’ll be a big one this time,” Marlene confirmed. “She has already asked me to invite every living being I know. Wait, are you on the phone with Mary Macdonald?”

“Shit, I’m making her wait. Can we talk about this later?” Lily asked, bringing the phone to her chest. Nice first impression, idiot.

“Wait, wait. Invite her, too.” Marlene suggested, wiggling her eyebrows.

“I can’t ask her to come to a party all alone with a bunch of people she doesn’t even know-“

“Then ask her to bring Narcissa, too,” Marlene wiggled her eyebrows more aggressively.

It took Lily an instant. She gaped.

“You sick, sick bastard. Alice will be there. Shit will go down, you know?”

“Why? Alice and Narcissa don’t even know each other,” Marlene batted her eyelashes with an innocent shrug. “Besides, Sirius hasn’t spoken to his cousin in forever, they need to catch up.”

Lily licked her lips thoughtfully and brought her attention back to the phone. A formal party wasn’t the best setting to talk about work, but it was perfect for getting to know someone. And Lily really wanted to get to know Mary. She unmuted herself and brought the phone to her ear.

“Hey, before we continue, are you free this Saturday?”

that was all, hope you liked it and let me know if you want to be tagged when i post updates bc it won’t be that often lmao

#lily in her rep era #there’s another chapter before the party chapter(s) but i’m writing them rn and i’m having a lot of fun ngl #anyways #marauders #marauders era #marylily #mary macdonald #lily evans #narcissa black #alice fortescue #alicissa #nobleflower #marlene mckinnon #i need to find a title asap #so i can make a tag #fic: delicate

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audioaujom · 8 months

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Elliot and Leah (Try To) Go Fishing

Stardew Hub, < prev, next >

I’m trying to flex a bunch of different skills this week, so I’m staying away from Sam and Sebastian and their group to try writing some of the others in the valley, and I’m hoping this is convincing enough fluff like the sleepover from a few weeks ago! I really like Elliot, he’s been consistently growing on me ever since I started playing, and I’ve had a soft spot for Leah ever since I got past two hearts with her. This isn’t necessarily romantic, but read it how you will. Enjoy!

Word Count: 1614

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Leah asked nervously, awkwardly watching the way Elliot beamed down at the equipment pile at the end of the docks.

“The farmer gave me some very useful pointers when I mentioned my interest in passing.” He shrugged leisurely, brushing some hair back out of his face as a gentle sea breeze blew it out of sorts. “And I rather like the taste of seafood, so it stands to reason that catching some for myself would be a worthwhile pastime.”

“...you have no idea what you’re doing, do you?”

“Not in the slightest.” Elliot’s content expression slowly morphed into a sheepish smile, picking up the lone fishing rod from the pile. “Do you know how to fish?”

“I’ve dabbled, but it’s not my favorite hobby.” Leah shrugged, wincing a little as she realized he was gripping it by the shaft, fishing line already tangled around his fingers. “That’s… you’re holding it wrong.”

“Whoops.” Elliot chuckled as he untangled himself and found the handle, moving to stand closer to the water. “I didn’t think it would be this… grand of an endeavor.”

“Didn’t you ask the farmer?” Leah questioned, setting down the picnic basket she’d brought to look over his hopeless pile.

“They said they ‘do it all the time’ and that it is ‘not a big deal’!”

“They’re the worst person to ask about that.” She chastised with raised eyebrows, Elliot instantly deflating. “I once found them passed out in the mines in the middle of the afternoon, covered in slime and with hundreds of dollars worth of diamonds in their bag. That was also ‘not a big deal’.”

“...yeah.” He agreed with a sigh, taking a seat on the edge of the docks with his bare feet dangling above the ocean. “But Willy also said that fishing is relaxing! I thought it might help me have time to think about my novel.”

Leah did her best to suppress her giggles, sitting down beside him. “We’ll see about that.”

“I have bait, and a fishing rod. That should suffice, right?” Elliot asked, Leah sighing as she saw the earnestness in his face.

“Fishing tends to take several hours, Elliot.” She explained, rolling up her pants enough to actually stick her legs in the water. “You need more than just the bare necessities.”

“Oh.”

“No need to worry, I brought lunch.” Leah laughed, lightly bumping his shoulder before stretching back to grab her picnic basket and pull it over. “And as payment for making me sit through this, you’re getting me dinner at the Saloon after.”

“Deal.” Elliot agreed immediately, letting his gaze linger on the picnic basket a moment too long before returning to the task at hand. “I’m sure Willy is still in his store if you’d like a rod, as well.”

“I think I’ll live without one.” Leah patted his shoulder, grinning. “C’mon, show me what you learned from the farmer.”

“Well, they said that I need to put the bait on the hook like— ew!” Elliot started, his confidence dying in the instant he stuck his hand into the box of bait, recoiling with a shout. “Why is it so… viscid?!”

“It’s fishing bait.” Leah managed between loud gasps of laughter, clutching at her stomach. She calmed herself down as Elliot glared at her—hair wild and blocking his face—and reached to take the box from him. “It’s all like that. Here, let me.”

“Thanks.” Elliot mumbled, embarrassed, as Leah put the bait on the hook with a wide grin. He then shook the rod out, tossing the baited hook behind him. “Okay, so then you wind back like so… and cast!”

As he threw the rod forward, the line suddenly snagged and nearly toppled him over backwards, Leah doing her best not to laugh at him for a second time. “You’re stuck on my basket.”

“Good heavens!” Elliot turned scarlet as he turned around and saw his hook lodged into the wicker weavings of Leah’s picnic basket. “This is certainly a challenge.”

“You’re almost through the hardest part.” Leah smiled encouragingly, pulling his hook loose and setting it on the docks behind him. “Here, try again.”

“Wind back like so… and cast!” Elliot said as he tried again, this time ending with a successful “plop” as the hook disappeared into the ocean in front of him. “Success!”

His excitement was short-lived, waiting for several long moments before turning confused eyes to Leah beside him.

“Now what?”

“You wait.” Leah shrugged, leaning back on her elbows to stare up at the slowly warming spring sky. “Fish take a while to bite, so…”

Elliot paled a little, looking between where his line disappeared into the water and his friend beside him. “Really? The farmer said they once caught like 30 fish in a day, though!”

“What have I said about using them as a reference?”

“Yeah, okay.” Elliot sighed, resigning himself to spending the rest of the day sitting out on the docks. “I don’t mind waiting.” He shrugged, before gesturing with a free hand back towards the beach. “I brought chairs.”

“We’ll get them if we need them.” Leah smiled, lowering herself to the docks to lie all the way down with a contented sigh. “So… anything new on the novel?”

“I wish.” Scoffing, Elliot focused hard on the rod in his hands and adjusted his grip. “All I’ve really done these last few weeks is stare longingly at empty pages, wishing the ink would spill and write it all without my help.”

“You’d think a man with such a way with words wouldn’t struggle to write.” Leah teased, reaching out to lightly smack his side. “But I get it. Art doesn’t just appear when you want it to.”

“I really wish that it would.” He sighed, shifting his gaze up just enough to watch the gentle waves in the water.

“You’ll get it done, I’m sure.” Leah rolled over to face him, not minding the fact he was adamantly staring anywhere else. “Us creative types always struggle to get anything to completion.”

“I wouldn’t mind the struggle to completion if I could get something started.”

“Maybe try some free writing exercises. Just stuff for fun that can get the creative juices going.” Leah suggested, rolling back over and stretching a hand up at the sky to block and unblock the sun as she stared up. “Make daily time to write. Eventually something’ll come out.”

“I suppose that’s a good idea.” Elliot admitted after a moment, turning to watch her strange gestures with a light smile. “Good habits, and all that.”

“Something will inspire you eventually.” She grinned, one hand still reaching for the sky as she turned to finally make eye contact with him. “That’s what happens to me, at least.”

“How about you?” Elliot asked, turning back to watching the water. “Sculpt anything fun lately?”

“Nothing finished, same as you.” Leah sighed, letting her hand drop to rest on her stomach. “But I suppose having two things started puts me ahead.”

“Creativity should not be competitive.”

Leah frowned playfully, chuckling to herself. “Oh, like you weren’t thinking the same thing.”

“Any plans on finishing them soon?” Elliot asked instead of acknowledging her point, though he was doing a bad job of hiding his grin.

“Whenever inspiration strikes.” She answered vaguely, before smirking and commenting, “I'm just hoping it will before I die of boredom out here on the docks with you.”

“I will remain here until I catch a fish!” Elliot defended, clutching the rod tighter in both hands as he declared, “It can’t possibly be that difficult!”

“Why is this so difficult?!” Elliot shouted, frustrated, throwing his fishing rod to the docks.

“Because you don’t have enough patience?” Leah offered, unbothered by his outburst as she still laid on the docks, half-asleep from the warm sunlight.

“I have plenty of patience! It’s simply been two hours and I’ve only had one fish bite, and it got away from me!” Elliot lamented, putting his head in his hands.

“Maybe you’re bad at fishing?” Leah offered, closing her eyes and starting to go back to sleep.

“How dare you.” He huffed, turning a glare to her for a moment before instead glaring at the offending rod behind him. “I am wounded.”

“Let’s take a break and eat something, alright?” Leah sighed and sat up, a smile tugging at her lips as she grabbed for her basket. “All that waiting and failing to catch fish has probably made you hungry.”

Elliot snuck a sideways glance at her and the basket, face passive. “I suppose I wouldn’t mind something to snack on.”

“It’s nothing fancy.” Leah giggled, opening the basket and setting it down between the two of them. “Just some sandwiches and veggies.”

“It’s plenty.” Elliot smiled, digging through the basket to pull out a perfectly wrapped triangle sandwich, tearing at the paper eagerly. “Thanks.”

“For bringing you lunch because I knew you’d forget?” Leah asked, eyebrows raised.

“For everything.” He answered honestly, taking a few quick bites to appease his hunger. “You could be doing anything in the world this afternoon, and you’re stuck watching a hopeless writer fail to catch fish.”

“Well, maybe I enjoy the hopeless writer’s company.” Her teasing quickly turned to fondness, digging a sandwich of her own out of the basket. “What are friends for?”

“Making lunch and buying dinner?” Elliot offered with a cheeky smile, Leah shaking her head with a matching grin.

“That too.” She rolled her eyes, taking a bite of her sandwich before gesturing at the basket. “Eat up, I brought plenty. You’ll need the calories to keep fighting the fish.”

“Hey! I resent that!”

#stardew valley #stardew fanfic #stardew #sdv #sdv fanfic #sdv elliott #sdv leah #fanfiction #fanfic #cross posted on ao3 #writing #fluff

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izukuwus · 1 year

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Edible Arrangements 32

First - Prev - Next - M.list - Ao3

A/N: this isn't late it's still sunday don't look at me I was debating whether or not to put a baby in the cake I'm baking don't LOOK at me

short chapter today, but unrelated oneshot coming next weekend! I ended up wanting to polish it before posting.

Chapter Summary: Life isn't just the romance genre.

Warnings: mild angst, murder talk, serial killer talk

Word count: ~2400

“P-pardon if this is a weird question, Detective, but do you have some kind of truth-detection quirk, by chance?”

Damn. Izuku’s gone in for the kill. You sit nervously on the far armchair, still cradling Sbeve to keep him from flinging anyone’s drinks or any mischief of the sort. He’s content to stay there, which is a blessing in itself.

The detective raises his eyebrows. “I do, as a matter of fact. How did you…”

He’s telling the truth.

Fucking hell, he’s telling the truth.

You’re suddenly tense as all hell, wondering how best to approach any word that might leave your mouth. You’ve done nothing wrong, to your knowledge it’s not like you murdered the girl, and you’re tense all the same.

Does everyone feel like this around you all of the time?

“O-oh, I just know someone with a similar quirk! You both do the same thing where you just kind of visibly accept stuff people say without worrying too much about it. I know I can be hard to believe sometimes because I have a bit of a nervous stutter, so it’s actually reassuring to know that you don’t think I’m lying!”

Well, Izuku sure feels the pressure.

“Especially about the tenancy thing,” you add with a sigh. “I agreed to rent the room from him before either of us realized he was a professor at my school. You would not believe the shit my best friend gives me about it.”

Detective Normal laughs. “Well, I believe it, if it’s any consolation. I’ll admit it looked a bit strange to me, all things considered. I’m Detective Tsukauchi, [name], in case you missed it, and this is my partner Sansa. I’ve just got a few questions for the two of you, if you’re willing to answer them.”

You nod, thumbing at Sbeve’s ears to soothe your nerves. “Yes, of course! You’re, um… You’re here about Momo, right…?”

He nods. “I’m afraid so. But let’s not worry about jumping into that right away—are you an Ossenfelder student, Mx. [name]?”

You nod. You can’t help but run your brain over exact activation requirements for his quirk. His partner is keeping quiet—does it only work on questions he directly asks, perhaps?

He hums. You’re watching his face carefully—his eyes narrow just slightly.

You have to be speaking, then, you’re guessing. Verbal responses are necessary.

“What’s your major, then?”

“Quirk studies and theory,” you parrot automatically. “I wanted to go for something more practical at first, like business, but, well, you know. I just didn’t like it.”

There. The subtlest wince. How you’ll know he senses your lie.

“I have to admit, I do believe that the pair of you are just roommates, but it is interesting that you and Dr. Midoriya are living together and he teaches courses in your major.”

You blink slowly. Tilt your head.

“…he does?”

“Sometimes!” Izuku pipes up. “Mostly senior-level stuff. They kind of have me fill in wherever there’s gaps. I was going to bring it up if I actually ended up teaching another Quirk Theory course while you were still living with me, since it’d be really questionable if you ended up in my class.”

(Tsukauchi writes something down.)

“Well, that answers a few questions,” he jokes. “How did you end up living together?”

You sigh, long and tired. “I was desperate. Got fired, got evicted, wasn’t getting work, tuition payments were getting ever closer. Had a very public panic attack in a bookstore cafe, and Izuku ended up comforting me and offering to let me rent a room from him. We didn’t figure out until my boxes were already in his driveway that he taught at Ossenfelder and I went there, but I really haven’t had any better options in the meantime, and we make great roommates, so I haven’t been looking. Rent’s basically nothing, and I earn it back by keeping the place clean and making Izuku’s house not feel so completely empty.”

He nods. He doesn’t ask where you get the money to pay him with, which is fantastic, because you’re not sure “blood money” would go over well with the pretense of a joke being thrown out the window. “I see. So, less about you, and more about what brought us here today: Did you know Momo Yaoyorozu?”

You go carefully, silently still.

You knew, of course, that they would ask. That's why they came here to begin with, it would be stupid to assume that they wouldn't, but the directness, the frankness of it has you feeling hollow all over again.

And it's stupid! Because you didn't know her well enough for this! But this is what's happening all the same, and so you sigh and snuggle Sbeve a little bit before you answer. "Um, yeah. I did. But not all that well. We had a class together last spring, kind of. Or, uh, she TA'd one of my classes. We weren't particularly close, but she was really understanding about my, uh, ongoing mental health issues. I'm... guessing that if you guys are going around asking questions about her, then it wasn't, like, a car wreck that did it."

The cat man, Sansa, grimaces. "Not exactly, no. But we aren't really at liberty to discuss details."

"But—" You suck in a deep breath through your teeth. You think you know how to do this.

Izuku is watching you with mild alarm as you appear to deliberate your next words, when really, you're realizing something.

This is familiar.

It slips, just a little bit, against your brain, one of those things that must not be important, but—

"Please. I just, two years ago on campus I was attacked? By a girl posing as my roommate? And I don't, I don't think they ever caught her, just identified her as a serial killer, and then I never heard anything back?" The tears come unbidden.

Crying on command. Fucking score.

"I just... if she was killed by the same person, because that girl got away because I didn't notice I was living with a serial killer for months, I don't—I don't—"

Tsukauchi shares a look with Sansa. Tsukauchi nods.

Additional score for a near-death experience being used as fuel to pry information out of the cops.

"I actually remember your case," Tsukauchi says. "I didn't recognize you at first, I apologize. Have you been well?"

A short, wet laugh. "I live with a rich college professor who took me in entirely out of pity for me because my entire life has just continued falling apart ever since everything happened with her, and now a girl I know—fuck, knew—"

The pity between them. Izuku, nearly vibrating in his seat with his usual distress at seeing you upset.

You wipe away a tear. “Sorry, sorry. I just… please. I need to know that it’s not… not her.”

Tsukauchi’s lips are pursed tight. You know nothing you said was a lie, so you’re sure he’s thinking, thinking how much to tell you.

“We don’t know enough to say whether or not it’s a related incident yet,” he says finally, the faintest glow to his skin. They have something. “What I can tell you is that several of the circumstances are similar.”

You perform your best recoil. “Y-you think it could be—“

“There’s a possibility. Miss Yaoyorozu was found with stab wounds and strange marks on her body. But listen, that’s all we can tell you, okay? If you see her, or notice anything strange, give us a call.” He slides a card towards you—his number, most likely. Contact information, in case you run into her.

You’re aware of that.

But this has suddenly become very, unbearably, real.

You set Sbeve aside, shivering at the thought of it all. “I, um… I-I need to go, if that’s okay. I don’t think that I can—that I can continue this conversation anymore.”

He considers it, then nods. “Will you be alright, left alone?”

“I’ll be alright long enough.”

It’s not a lie, and so he doesn’t raise any protest. You steal one last look at Izuku before retreating up the stairs, away from the conversation.

When, at last, you’re behind a closed door, you don’t know whether to smile or cry.

You think you might do both.

A knock at the door. It sends vibrations against your head, gentle, where you’ve sat with your back against the door since you closed it.

“[name]?”

Izuku.

You take a shaky breath, crawl away from the door far enough that he can’t hit you when he opens it.

“Are you okay?”

You’re not. You’re exhausted. He has to know that. How, you don’t know, but he has to.

“I’m going to open the door, okay?”

You don’t move. You’re sure the image of you is unflattering when he does open the door, and he jolts and nearly leaps back when he sees you, numbly sitting there, back facing the door because you couldn’t be assed to turn around.

It takes less than half a moment for him to recover, and then he’s sitting on the floor beside you, thigh pressed up against your own. “I see you are not okay,” he says gently. “The police left, so if you need to… I don’t know, break or anything like that, feel free.”

“I was just saying true bullshit to get him to talk,” you mumble, leaning your full body weight against his side. “I didn’t realize how much I needed to hear him say that it had nothing to do with her.”

An arm winds around you as your first tears finally fall. You shrug it off, lay on the floor so instead you’re resting your head on his lap. “I’m not okay,” you say at last. “You’ve been scaring me and she’s dead and that serial killer might be back around or else it might be the one you’re hunting and I still haven’t healed from the last fucked up shit I had to go through and—“

He shushes you gently, a hand coming to comb through your hair. “I never meant to scare you.”

“You’ve done nothing but work on finding that man for two months now. If I wasn’t fairly sure you couldn’t die, I’d be terrified.”

“You know why this is important to me.”

“I do,” you whisper. “But… What are you going to do when he’s gone?”

He smiles. It's weak, doesn't reach his eyes. "I'm not sure that you want the answer to that."

"Izuku. What are you going to do?"

Silence. "You know, we as real people don't know much about actual vampires? They're a relatively new phenomenon, at least where definitive research is concerned, rather than just as a figure in popular culture. We really know almost nothing except the basis—vampires can be created, they drink blood, and they're basically undead and have to be killed specific ways. We don’t even know whether this counts as a quirk or something else entirely."

"Izuku."

"I'm—I'm going somewhere with this. Trust me.”

He really is, so you purse your lips and feel his hold on you tighten. "I've done a lot of scouring. Trying to find whatever shreds of truth I could to understand what the hell I had become. But the thing is just that—we don't know. In some interpretations, once you're a vampire, you're a vampire forever unless some intrepid hunter manages to kill you. In others..." He sighs. Suddenly, his arm around you doesn't feel comforting anymore. The more he speaks, the more the warmth in you curdles. "In other interpretations, lines of vampires can be taken out by destroying the original. If you kill a sire, all of his offspring will die with it. In a lot of them, that's true, actually. Basically most of them outside of the—the romance genre. So really, it’s impossible to tell whether—“

“What are you saying?” The words come out cold.

“I don’t think we’re living in the romance genre, [name].”

You can’t help the way you recoil. “You’re saying that by hunting him, you might…”

“It’s a risk I’m willing to take to destroy that man.”

“Izuku, that’s—“ The anxiety rushes your veins, leaving your hands numb as you jerk away. to look at him. To search for any hint of a lie.

“I’m sorry,” he says, and the wild rage rears up in you in response.

Because there’s the lie.

“Y-you know you can’t—“

“I know,” he says, defeated. “I can’t lie to you.” A pause. “M-maybe we shouldn’t have this conversation—“

“No. Izuku, you need to—“

“[name]. This isn’t about—it has nothing to do with you. I have been living entirely to see him again, to destroy him for what he’s done, what he continues to do. Longer than you’ve been alive I have been living to kill him. I’m sorry it upsets you. I-I am! I never want to do anything that would put you in distress. But you have to understand that nothing you could say to me is going to stop me from this. He killed my parents. He killed my mom, right in front of me, just for having been there. I've had to slip into the background to watch everyone I had ever known either die or grow unrecognizable, while I stay here, alone, stagnant! I'm not just going to give up on stopping him, on getting m-my—"

"If you really think you're alone, then I have to ask what we're doing here."

He freezes, eyes wide, a veritable deer in headlights. "Y-you know I didn't mean—"

"No. No, you were right. I think... I'm going to go to bed. You go... grade papers, or hack police databases, or whatever it is you've been doing to destroy yourself instead of sleeping."

You stand, brush past him.

"Where are you going?" he asks weakly.

"I left my phone downstairs."

When you come back up, your recording stopped at last, he's gone. Your room is empty. The light is on in his fucking hidden office.

For the first night in ages, you sleep in your own bed. If the pillow is stained with tears when you wake up, that's between you and Sbeve.

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#my fics #bnha x reader #mha x reader #midoriya izuku x reader #izuku midoriya x reader #deku x reader #bnha vampire au

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pantoneyoongi · 2 years

Text

07 || mourning a story

series ; in love with love (with you) description ; you’re a romantic. jungkook? jungkook is not.

chapter 07 ; mourning a story prev || next

word count ; 2.1k

tags ; i love writing friendships, jisoo knows what’s up, a little shorter this week but jungkook is so cute in this one pls forgive me, pls go to main masterlist for more / general tags

you will always say that jisoo being a morning person is her fatal flaw. she will happily go on a hike at the crack of dawn, would probably even wake up before dawn just to catch the rising sun. and she loves brunch.

the food, granted, is a bit of a redeeming factor in all this as you sip your tea, seated across from jisoo. if you didn’t love her so much, you absolutely wouldn’t be here, preferring instead to wallow in yet another lost cause in the romantic partners department. maybe a pint of ice cream to yourself, sans jungkook. there is a distinct difference in hosting a pity party of one vs having the comfort of someone’s shoulder to lean on.

but you are trying your best not to think of said shoulder, so you digress. it’s embarrassing enough that you called jungkook while drunk off your ass, choosing instead to chalk it up to habit after years of only having jungkook in town to take care of you. which he did. always.

but anyways.

“spill it.”

you look up from your drink, both hands wrapped around the mug. jisoo tilts her head, eyebrows raising.

it’s a curse that you’re so readable. heart on your sleeve and all that, especially to the people who have known you as long as jisoo has. but you’re not interested in having this conversation, because you’d rather not unearth what you’ve actively been hiding from.

so you lie straight through your teeth. “i mean, it’s obvious,” you know it’s a lost cause judging by the entirely unamused look jisoo is giving you, but you follow through anyway. may as well commit to the act. “everyone knows i had a crush on yoongi for so long now.”

a part of you does genuinely feel the loss somewhere in your chest, a mild pang at the thought of it. yoongi is handsome, kind, and ever the gentleman, after all. picture perfect.

jisoo scoffs. like actually scoffs, disbelief coloring her voice when she says, “that’s bullshit, y/n.”

you can’t say you’re surprised by the way she calls you on your bluff. jisoo is playful and cheery most times but she has no problems telling it like she sees it - and she sees right through you.

“be honest with me,” she stretches a hand across the table, fingers tapping against the wood. “did you actually like yoongi? all these years, ‘cause i’ve never seen you actually upset about any of his exes. so did you like him, or just the idea of him?”

you gnaw on your lower lip. the conversation is veering into dangerous territory. your food isn’t even here yet; the caffeine hasn’t sunk in either. but jisoo would never let you off the hook easy, and that’s why you’re such good friends.

“y/n,” she leans forward. “are you mourning a crush, or are you mourning a story?”

jisoo has a point. jisoo always has a point, so you probably should’ve known better than to get brunch with her so soon after yoongi’s announcement. but you weren’t exactly expecting jungkook to tell you that night “he does care about you, y/n. but not like you do. not the way you want him to.”

it’d hit every sore spot you thought you’d healed over.

you know he didn’t mean it to hurt you. jungkook is particularly clumsy with his words when faced with catastrophe (read: emotions); he never quite figured out how to say the right things when you needed them. when it comes to words of comfort, jungkook fumbles every time, his only saving grace being the helpless expression he wears, all his good intentions reflecting in his eyes.

but still, it did hurt.

you cave. you tell jisoo what jungkook said that night. she hears the echoes of all your failed relationships when you relay the story, and reaches forward to wrap her hand gently around yours.

“it’s easier to be in love with an idea, you know?” you murmur. “it hurts less. yoongi’s so easy to pretend to be in love with because i know it’s never gonna happen. it’s - none of it is real. but…”

when you trail off, your mind drifts for a minute. but jisoo knows exactly which ex you’re thinking of. the one who last left you, the one that had you standing pathetically at jungkook’s door after weeks of locking him outside of yours.

you’d tried so hard not to need him. to need anyone, all your friends’ calls and messages left ignored during that time. you were too clingy. too childish. expected too much. you couldn’t keep running to them every time someone decided they didn’t love you.

but it hurt so badly. you held for as long as you could before showing up at jungkook’s door, and he’d welcomed you into his arms so quickly, worry so evident in his eyes, and relief - like he’d really been hoping you’d show up sooner rather than later.

and for once, he said the right things, even if he thought you were asleep when he said them.

you’re enough.

but still, the damage never quite healed over as much as you pretend it has. it’s an insecurity that lingers, hovers in the background and emerges every so often to remind you that people leave you because you want what isn’t real. you want the fairytale. you want too much.

your head is lowered when you ask, quietly, “do i ask for too much?”

why can’t anyone ever love me the way i want them to?

jisoo softens at the question. but then her grip tightens on your hand, a silent request for you to look up at her. “hey,” she frowns, shaking her head slightly. “you have every right to be loved the way you want to, y/n. you don’t ask for too much. least of all when you’re the one who has always given twice as much back. if you want the romance, if you want the person who will put the effort in the way you always do - you deserve all of that. and you’ll have it someday,” she quirks her lips. “you know i’ll never let you settle.”

you huff a laugh out. “the whole squad would pull up with a runway of options like i’m in the bachelorette.”

jisoo snorts. “worst comes to worst, we’ll just marry you off to seokjin.”

you grin crookedly. “hobi will kill you.”

jisoo shrugs. “jungkook’s still an option.”

you deadpan. “over my dead body.”

you don’t know how, but you wind up back at jungkook’s place after brunch with jisoo is over. even after everything he said to you, even after your drunk escapade that ended with you crying on his shoulder to old movies, even after jisoo’s comfort settling your heart back to its (albeit shaky) place, you still find yourself on jungkook’s doorstep. like always.

he feels safe. you won’t ever say it out loud but he does. no matter how many stupid things he says when you’re upset, jungkook has always been the safest place for you to rest your heart after its been bruised.

he opens the door with messy bedhead and squinty eyes, decked out in iron man pajamas that you have to actively swallow down your laughter for. snickers still slip out though, and jungkook flushes. “can i help you?” he tries to scowl, but it’s not very menacing and you can’t contain your laughter much after that.

he doesn’t bother to wait for a real answer from you, turning heel and leaving the door open for you to follow him in. you shut and lock the door behind you, peals of laughter bouncing around the room.

“did you buy those yourself or do i have to stop laughing because your mom loves you a lot?” you cackle, trailing after him as he all but runs to his room.

“shut up,” he throws back, prompting louder laughter because he did buy those himself, adorable little iron man figures patterned across the fabric. he closes the door to his bedroom before you can follow him in, only to reemerge in sweatpants and a plain white tee.

“you didn’t have to change on account of me, mr stark,” you bat your lashes at him and he sucks a warning breath through his teeth, glaring at you. you bite your lip to muffle your giggles, but he can still see the amusement glittering in your eyes.

he decides changing the topic is easier than fighting back this time. “coffee?” he offers, as you slide onto a bar stool at his kitchen counter. he’s already grabbing a second cup before you’ve even answered.

you hum. “juice. i had brunch with jisoo earlier.”

jungkook tugs open his fridge, passing you the carton as well as the glass. he doesn’t ask why you’re here - he chalks it up to your usual heartbreak habits. you always show up at his apartment to burn through as many sappy shows or movies as you can physically handle in a day.

true to his assumption, you’re taking your juice and wandering into his living room. his apartment has an open floor plan, so he can see you turning on his tv, throwing ‘always be my maybe’ on.

“don’t you have netflix at home?” he asks, even though he knows you’ll stay anyway - it’s what he’s counting on.

“why?” you grin cheekily. jungkook suddenly regrets opening his mouth. “got a planet or something to save, iron man?”

“you know what-”

jungkook’s almost dozed off five times now. you’re both leaning up against his couch, jungkook’s legs sprawled out on the floor while you sit cross legged, knee pressed against his thigh. ‘always be my maybe’ is admittedly a very good movie but he’s seen it twice before and that’s plenty enough times for him.

sasha and marcus have their big kiss scene and not long after the end credits are getting cut off, netflix already recommending the next movie to watch. before you can turn on ‘love hard’, jungkook is turning to look at you, nudging your shoulder and severely misgauging the distance between you and him.

you turn your head, blinking in surprise by how close he is to you, instinctively leaning back. jungkook’s embarrassed by how fast he decides he hates that you moved away, even if it’s a natural response to being inches apart, so he pretends not to notice and simply asks, “why don’t we play video games instead?”

you wrinkle your nose. knowing jungkook he only has bloody gory games and you don’t really want to play those. but jungkook already knows what you’re thinking, and he’s clambering off the ground to grab the nintendo switch he has charging on the console table, booting up animal crossing.

he hasn’t played in awhile. with the switch, you’re only allowed one island, but he figures you’d build a prettier island than him anyway as he passes it to you, hiding his smile at the way your curious eyes land on the game, hands wrapping around the switch.

‘love hard’ is already playing in the background, but you’re sufficiently distracted, squealing at all the cute villagers and the things you can build and do. jungkook should throw on his other games on the tv while you play on his switch but his heart feels fuzzy and warm in his chest watching you, so he can’t be bothered to do anything else.

he lets you tug on his sleeve every time you get excited to show him something, or you need his help figuring out how to use the controls. the day passes like this, the two of you huddled together, jungkook not leaving your side even to make the call to the pizza parlor down the street for delivery.

by the time you leave, it’s dark. jungkook insists on walking you home, the pair of you squabbling about it the whole way back to your place, and even when you get to your apartment you haven’t let up, face doing that thing where your nose scrunches up and your lips are downturned so far it looks like a sideways c. it makes jungkook grin, because in spite of it all you still huffily turn around in your building lobby, grumpily waving goodbye before disappearing around the corner. his heart is buzzing with affection and even though he knows, he knows you like yoongi and you only ever come over like this when you want his comfort or his distraction but he’s the one who got to put a smile on your face today, who made you laugh and your eyes shine; he’s the one who felt the familiar warmth of you pressed to his side, and he’s the one who got to spend the whole day by your side. so like an idiot, his heart feels like it’ll burst with all his excitement in the newfound territory that is having a crush on you.

(unfortunately, he’s also the one who misses you as soon as you’re gone - but when he gets home, there’s a text from you, and the giddiness comes back tenfold.)

prev || next || series masterlist

taglist ; @ahundredtimesover @nadzzzblog @apollukee @codeinebelle @yoongimentita7

#jungkook x reader #jungkook x you #jungkook fluff #jungkook x yn #jungkook x y/n #jungkook #fluff #series: ilwl

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blue-rphub · 1 year

Note

💞 , 😿, 🥰

hello gorgeous gorgeous mutuals, why arent we writing together // accepting

😿 - I’m too shy to reach out

💞 - I ship our muses, but I don’t know if you’re interested

🥰 - I’m following you because I love your writing and content and I just want to read your stuff

finky dink!!!! Bossman. like i said before you should never be shy!!!!! i am a slow bastard when it comes to getting to shit. but....... i am a nice one<3 HFJADSKFJ and also like i said in prev ask- i will take this on board & send You more things! i have a terrible tendency to rely on others to make first moves sometimes bcuz i have a bit of tunnel vision. ur anxiety has been noted & i will be living in ur inbox now. hope ur rent is cheap

IIIII ALSO SHIP THEM. i am. a sucker for ships. i'm a real fucker for collecting them. i am very much inchrested in writing them together more even if it just started as an offhanded joke HDFKDAJ youre welcome to IM if youwanna discuss it further (properly this time instead of me yellin @ u in the tags HDFJHFHK) but i'm also very much ok with throwing stuff at the wall until something sticks. i like random interactions as much as Actual Plots <333

.... AND ALSO THATS VERY KIND OF U TO SAY<3333 i know you have more muses on this blog than JUST ur sonic ones (i did only follow for The Sonics bcuz My Sonics are very active muses atm, shoot me i am guilty), but it is LOVELY!!! to see you writing your other muses as well even if writing mine & your others together would be difficult bcuz of verse differences (crossovers are kinda difficult sometimes i get it. sometimes it dont come naturally & thas ok bcuz i love seeing ur other fellas anyway!!! )

all of your muses & all of your writings<3 they're all very fun. they bring a lot of joy to my dashboard & so do you!!! <3333 i look forward to our future stuff :DDD

#mailbox #shermphibia #HELLO FINK I AM NOW LIVING IN UR INBOX RAHHHHRAHHHH #UFCK ITS SMALL IN EHRE I CANT FIT FUCK

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chateautae · 3 years

Text

maybe i do | kth. II

➵ summary : maybe you love each other, maybe you don’t. when a deal between your fathers leaves you forcefully wedding kim taehyung, arguably seoul’s most powerful CEO, you’re prepared for a loveless marriage of eternal regret and unhappiness. but maybe, it doesn’t turn out that way after all.

↳ part of the high-class series!

➵ pairing : taehyung x reader

➵ genre : arranged marriage!au, ceo!tae, s2l!au, eventual smut, fluff, angst

➵ rating : 18+

➵ word count : 10k

➵ warnings : none really, swearing, mainly fluffy and funny interactions, some angst! :o

➵ a/n: and i’m back with chapter two! i really wanted to say thank you for the love and support i received on the first part of maybe i do, it was astounding!! i’m so grateful so many people loved the story and asked to be tagged (all at the bottom <3), it made me feel so motivated to write. if you would also like to be tagged please message me. your feedback is always appreciated!

chapter two : “on my pillow, can’t get me tired”

prev. ↞ || ↠ next || masterlist

Taehyung didn’t remember sleeping anywhere near you last night.

He remembered that even though you willingly agreed to share the same bed, he still opted for caution and slept with the most space between you two as possible.

Though when his eyes fluttered open the next morning, eyeballs burning from the light that bled into the suite, the first thing he realized was that he was not on his side of the bed from last night.

No, he had somehow gravitated towards the center, and as if almost on cue, your slight movement and the sound of your breathing alerted him of your nearby presence.

Peering down at you, Taehyung caught sight of your sleepy head turned towards him and lying on his arm, his other thrown over your torso with you unsuspectingly nuzzled into his side.

Taehyung’s eyes shot open, acknowledging he had succumbed to his habit of hugging something to sleep during the course of the night and he internally panicked. He began retracting his arms slowly, just about drawing himself from you until alarms rang in his head at the sight of you stirring in your sleep.

Taehyung took the golden opportunity to sit up in a flash, having to physically shake his head to rid the image of your tranquil, sleeping face from his brain, crushing the thought that it was kind of cute.

He found himself chanting the same denial from last night, he couldn’t be thinking of such complicated things concerning you when he knew the second he’d step foot inside his home, there’d be a mountain of paperwork ready for him; even more on his work desk.

He had to be thinking about his job, not you.

Even if Taehyung was married now, it wouldn’t lessen the amount of work that plagued his life nor make it any less demanding. If anything, his life would be harder now considering the fact that he had another priority to add to his list, another aspect of his life he had to split his attention between.

He didn’t necessarily hate the idea, just found himself needing to work harder than he already was.

Taehyung sighed heavily at the thought and swung his legs off the bed, rubbing his tired eyes. He took a moment to look back at you, thinking if he observed you a second time he’d be able to piece together how the hell you two ended up in that position, that close.

By evidence of the forgotten blanket half-thrown off you, he could see you were the tossing-and-turning type, maybe the only explanation for your proximity considering he was the same.

He also noticed you slept all curled up, like you were cold and the only warmth you knew was snuggling yourself.

Cute.

There it was again, cute.

Why does that word even exist?

Taehyung discarded the notion altogether and stood to his feet, stretching out his stiff muscles. He made for the bathroom eagerly to begin his day, though not without fixing at least some of the blanket back onto you.

“You don’t have a driver?”

“Not for everywhere I go. I have two hands, I can drive myself.” Taehyung made it a statement to jazz hands at you, showcasing the perfectly capable limbs he was gifted with.

“That’s.. nice, actually. I always see asshole CEO’s getting other people to drive them around.” You relayed as you trailed behind Taehyung, letting him lead you towards the front of the hotel where dozens of expensive cars lined the curb side.

You had no clue which luxury vehicle belonged to Taehyung because quite frankly, he could probably afford every car your eyes caught sight of. It wasn’t until he approached a certain one and retrieved his keys from the valet that your jaw completely dropped, floored.

“This is your car?” You gawked, the sleek design, crispness of its shape and nearly sparkling gloss completely sweeping you off your feet.

“Yeah, think someone like me can’t get a car like this?” Taehyung cocked an eyebrow, gesturing towards himself.

“It’s just-wow. Mercedes CLS?” You inquired without really looking at him, inspecting the car instead as you admired its every curve. Safe to say, you were beyond in love with it. Even if you were always more of a minimalist and preferred the average product, there was just something gorgeous about luxury cars that appealed to you.

“Yeah, actually it is.” Taehyung looked at you impressed, momentarily reminded of just how different you were compared to any other woman he’s chanced upon.

How many of them knew car models?

Taehyung was intrigued by the fact before speaking with one of the hotel workers, confirming if they had loaded his car with both your luggage and some wedding sentiments your parents insisted you keep.

Once receiving affirmation Taehyung made towards your side of the car and pulled the door open. He flashed you a tight-lipped smile as he gestured for you to hop in, drawing you out of your stupor. You thanked him warmly before sliding into your seat.

He let you scramble in comfortably before shutting the door and walking to his side, positioning himself in and clicking on his seatbelt. He watched as your expression lit up once occupying the car, face beaming with excitement as you touched and drank in at the high-end features the vehicle had to offer. Taehyung found himself smiling before he licked his lips and straightened his face, igniting the engine and beginning the smooth drive.

It was easy to settle the debate on where you both would be living. Taehyung was an enormously rich CEO who lived in an expensive, massive home while you lived in a measly apartment. You knew it was useless to live separately, even more useless to have him live with you. And so you agreed without protest to pack your things and relocate, begin your move into the house you’d share with him for a lifetime.

The car ride remained quite silent, you mindlessly bopping your head to whatever mainstream song played on the radio, while Taehyung tapped his fingers against the steering wheel or his lap.

You found your eyes wandering to his slender fingers wrapped around the wheel every so often, sometimes venturing to the other one he placed against his thigh. You began reprimanding yourself once you realized with all the staring, observing and ogling, you most certainly had a thing for his hands already.

Fuck.

They were just so big, bigger than what you’ve seen of the average man and it didn’t help that they looked crafted to perfection.

There was just something about the veins that decorated them, his palm large in size as his fingers seemed deft turning and working the steering wheel. His little accessories like a ring or two, bracelets and his watch did absolutely nothing to deter your interest either.

It only increased once you realized he looked good driving, really good. You knew men had this common attractiveness to them when they drove, watching them all focused and effortlessly working the car somehow sexy; but watching Taehyung drive was another experience entirely.

He looked insanely hot, and you felt like throwing yourself out your window for even thinking such a thing. It was another case of you ogling him without realizing until his deep voice suddenly fished you out of your thoughts, questioning. “Did you like the wedding?”

“Huh?”

“The wedding, did you like it?” Taehyung repeated, glancing at you.

“Does it really matter if I did?” You asked, this one phrase seeming to perfectly sum up the misfortune of your life, provoking an ironic laugh even.

“I think it does. A bride should always enjoy her wedding.”

“Well, I didn’t.” You deadpanned, your expression turning frustrated having to remember that one of, if not the most special night of your life had just been robbed of you, thrown to the wolves while you were only left to accept the sad fact.

“C’mon, you didn’t enjoy a single thing?” Taehyung didn’t mean to flash back to the kiss you two shared, though found himself doing exactly so.

You didn’t enjoy that? he questioned in his head.

“Not really, I just imagined having more choice in the wedding.” You answered honestly, trying not to sulk so much. “It’s not you, I just... thought I’d be able to decide things at my own wedding. I’m grateful your parents did so much, but I didn’t really get to choose anything.” You grew more solemn as your gaze fixated on nothing, watching the world pass you by through the car window.

“My favourite flowers weren’t even there.” You said only despondently to yourself, shoulders drooping, though Taehyung didn’t miss it.

“You don’t like roses?”

Your eyes flashed towards him with furrowed eyebrows, surprised he heard your comment. You straightened up before shrugging back a response. “I like peonies.”

Taehyung looked at your side profile as you turned away, finding the conversation turning more sorrowful than he liked. He allowed some silence to linger as you leaned your chin against your palm, boringly watching the bustling streets.

He decided to change the subject.

“So you don’t think I’m an asshole, huh?”

“What?”

“You said you always see ‘asshole CEO’s’ getting people to drive them around. But I don’t, so I’m not an asshole to you?” Taehyung halved his attention between you and the road, glancing in your direction with one hand working the steering wheel.

You thought the question over, “No, you’re not an asshole.” You said simply, distracted by the thoughts that previously occupied your mind.

“I see.” Taehyung pursed his lips. Another beat of silence passed through the downcast air before Taehyung perked up again.

“Is it just the driving? Or do you have other criteria?” Taehyung asked inquisitively, leaning back into his seat as he observed you.

You could detect from the corner of your eyes the way his stance drew attention to his legs, thighs broad as he sat. “I guess there is.”

“Like what?”

You didn’t really know why Taehyung was so curious. You thought it was common knowledge what the stereotypical asshole CEO was like; they were nearly all jerks with horrible one-percenter mentalities and treated people like gravel.

You scoffed a bit. “They’re usually so full of themselves. They act like they own the place all the time, which makes sense at their own companies but not everywhere else. It’s like the position gets to their heads. Even the way they talk is condescending, belittling, or straight up rude to anyone not on their level. It wouldn’t kill to be nice.” You revealed almost too eagerly, avoiding eye contact with Taehyung as you viewed the traffic on the road ahead, remembering he was a CEO himself.

Long story short, you’ve had your fair share of experiences meeting them as you grew up during the beginnings of your father’s company. They were quick to skew your opinion ever since you watched the way they treated your father all due to having a start-up, for simply being small in name or reputation. They acted like he was less than, some even daring to behave as though his company would simply never make it.

It always boiled your blood, left an extremely distasteful image of CEOs and the business world in your head.

And you were certain it all sucked after that.

“Understandable.” Taehyung nodded agreeably. “But you think I don’t fit any of that?” He rested a hand against his thigh, sitting laxed as he spread his legs apart further. This time it was definitely hard to miss the way they appeared, all laid out and long as your eyes drank him in, following up his thighs all the way to his-

“You don’t. I thought maybe since you’re super successful you’d be full of yourself. But you’re not, really.” You snapped yourself out of whatever the hell you were doing, trying to refocus on the conversation.

“Ah, seems like a stepping stone.”

“Stepping stone? Towards what?”

“Towards you not hating me.” His voice came out with a more solemn timbre than you expected, his jaw tightening for a mere second.

Taehyung only thought such a thing because even if he decided you didn’t harbour negative feelings towards him, there was no way of him determining whether that was true or not without your real input.

“I don’t hate you, Taehyung. I don’t.. think I can.” You claimed with poignancy, his statement causing you to reflect on your own feelings about him.

You don’t hate Taehyung, you couldn’t because he did absolutely nothing wrong in this situation. He was dragged in just like you were. You only despised the unfairness of the arrangement, not him.

There wasn’t much to hate about him.

“So you’re saying you like me then, aren’t you?” Taehyung suddenly teased light-heartedly, all smug as his amused eyes flickered to you.

“Shut up, I never said that.” You turned away, scandalized by his remark.

“I’m kidding. But, why do you think you can’t hate me? I pretty much.. ruined your life.” Taehyung internally felt his chest tighten at the words, remembering the exact thoughts from where he stood no less than 24 hours ago, seconds from lawfully marrying you.

“And I didn’t ruin yours?” This time you turned your gaze towards Taehyung, meaningfully. Your eyes instinctively communicated your emotions as they locked with his for a moment, Taehyung all attentive.

“I took away from you just as much you took away from me. We both ruined each other’s lives, there’s no use in blaming each other. That’s why I can’t hate you.” You finalized, crossing your arms and opting to watch the passing buildings through your window again.

Taehyung absorbed your sudden confession with reason, realizing that in a sense, you two were partners in this unfortunate case. Even if your matrimony constituted a forced partnership neither of you liked, there seemed to be a natural comradery in having to deal with the aftermath of that forced partnership.

Trying to accept it.

“I don’t think I can hate you, either.” Taehyung admitted, ending the more miserable part of the conversation as you fell silent. You thought he was done until he decided to bother you again.

“I think you’re still saying you like me, though.”

You turned to him half-appalled before pointing towards the road, eyes narrowed. “Just drive us home, will you?”

Taehyung laughed at the moment and pressed down on the accelerator, internally grinning at the fact you never said no to his statement.

“This is your house?” You found yourself gawking again at something that belonged to Taehyung, stepping inside a luxury home you’ve only ever dreamed of living in. Sure, you lived with your parents until you were 18, though your father was still starting out with his company for most of those years, not exactly owning anything too luxurious until after you permanently moved out.

So as you stood trying to prop your heels off yourself, your jaw dropped at the sheer elegance and high-status look to the interior of Taehyung’s home. You had already done enough gawking at the exterior, but being inside and processing the fact that you were now to inhabit this home for the rest of your life sent another wave of shock.

You immediately observed Taehyung was the type who decorated his home with only the finest, his taste easily identifiable. Aesthetic, lavish, charming. He seemed like a man of utter simplicity though his home said otherwise, showcasing an artistic, exquisite feel you never really expected from him.

“When will you stop saying that?” He titled his head and smiled through a laugh, removing his shoes and slipping into his indoor slippers.

“Right, sorry.” You were still struggling for normalcy, somehow forgetting almost every hour Taehyung’s wealth and only registering it once you saw something that indicated it.

Taehyung sauntered inside and took a deep breath, enjoying the feel of his abode. He enjoyed nothing more than being home, in the comfort of his own space. Especially for someone who worked so busily, he found pleasure in doing the bare minimum at home. Relishing in the feeling right now, he pressed his lips together in a smile before glancing back at your struggling figure, catching sight of your size.

His eyebrows shot up to the sky. “Woah, you’re short.”

“Huh?”

“I think I’ve only ever seen you in heels.” Taehyung informed. “Now that you’re not wearing them you’re a lot shorter than I thought. You’re tiny.” He pointed out as he eyed you from head to toe, processing the amount of height you lost simply from removing your shoes.

“I mean, that’s kind of what heels do, you know, they add height.” You deadpanned, stating the obvious for him.

“Sorry, it’s just..” Kind of cute, he thought, though fought for another response. “I could probably throw you.”

Nice save.

“Excuse me? It’s not my fault you’re so tall.” You scowled at him. “Besides, you’re all height and no muscle, you probably can’t even carry me.”

“Wanna see me try?” Taehyung was already coming towards you with his arms held out and you sputtered immediately, “No, no, no.” you held your hands up defensively. “Let’s just start the house tour, yeah?” you offered a smile for compromise.

“That’s what I thought.” Taehyung narrowed his eyes coyly and turned on his heel, signaling you to follow him.

What you realized strolling through the home as Taehyung discussed its details was that it emphatically represented him like an open book. Even if Taehyung was predominantly unreadable and seemed to always hide a mystery behind his eyes, you could see nearly all of him reflected in his home.

You often found valuable trinkets or sentiments scattered around the house. It seemed like he cherished a lot of things in his life, namely memories or people. It would also be hard to miss the exquisite selection of paintings and embellishments he draped the walls with, all harbouring their own charm and adding to the overall artistic feel of his home.

There were famous works consisting of Vincent Van Gogh all the way to local Korean artists you’ve never heard of, though admired their work.

It seemed as though he selected the paintings himself.

Another large aspect you couldn’t miss were the many photos he kept, calling to question whether they were of his own work.

“Did you take these?” You approached a shelf in one of his grand hallways on the second floor, hand brushing the wooden frame of a captured photo; six men including Taehyung himself posing comfortably, like they were extremely close, backdrop reflecting what seemed to be a trip.

“I took all of them.” He stated casually, hands tucked into his pockets as he eyed the shelf along with you.

“All?”

He simply nodded and didn’t elaborate further as he watched you admire the photos, yourself impressed by his adeptness for photography.

“You’re really good.” You complimented absentmindedly, enjoying the other photos of not only people but scenery, empty streets, candid shots from what looked to be his own little adventures.

“Thanks.” Was all Taehyung could manage, trying to mask the sheer gratitude he felt hearing the first ever person to admire his work; something that wasn’t related to being a CEO or a businessman.

He also felt slightly embarrassed you’d seen a small part of him he usually hid.

Taehyung continued walking down the hallway until he reached the end, revealing what you could tell was the largest room in the house. You were thrown off by just how unnecessarily large it was. It seriously reminded you of an extravagant hotel suite, more like the grandest one among them.

“This is our room.” Taehyung introduced, gesturing towards its interior.

“Our?”

Taehyung nodded “I should’ve told you earlier but I wanted us to sleep in the same room. If we slept apart our marriage wouldn’t look convincing to my two housekeepers. I trust them but I don’t want any information about us getting out to the public, not over my dead body.” Taehyung stated in earnest as he relayed the information, wandering further into the room.

“You really care that much about publicity?” you genuinely questioned.

Taehyung scoffed. “Not me, I couldn’t care less about what people think.” He denied instantly, almost laughably. “It’s my father. He hates bad press, especially concerning our family or the company.”

“I thought bad press is still press, so it’s good.” You suggested as you followed him further into the room, admiring that though large, his room held a sense of comfort to it. Quite frankly, all of his home felt rather welcoming and cozy, surprising of a CEO who ran such a monstrously successful company.

“My father doesn’t think so. Kim Enterprises has always been generational, each of our CEO positions strictly kept within the family. Our name is our brand and pride, it alone accounts for at least half of our success. We’re extremely well-known for our high status, it’s just plain fact in the upper social circles of Korea. We can’t afford to taint our name with petty things like bad press or corruption, our reputation is too valuable.” Taehyung stated this all nonchalantly as he adjusted his suit jacket in his mirror, like it was something he’s grown accustomed to and has known all his life.

You found your opinion impeding his words.

“So you can never just, escape this life? As long as you’re a Kim you’re bound to this company?” You found the concept wildly restrictive, clearly shackling down any person that would run the business and you felt a disagreeing shiver shoot through your spine.

“Of course, why would you want anything else?” Taehyung tiled his head to the side, eyeing you in genuine questioning and your entire being was trying to bite back the desire to correct him, tell him there’s so much more to life than just some company your family owns. Though you opted for changing the subject instead, unwilling to step on his toes and dictate his life when you knew next to nothing about it.

It wasn’t your place.

“Woah, you have a balcony?!” You exclaimed with a simper, eyes flickering towards the curtains that revealed two ajar French doors leading to an open space.

You made towards it excitedly and stopped just in the middle of the platform, enjoying the breeze of the fresh air.

“It’s my favourite part of the house.” You didn’t even realize Taehyung followed you until his towering figure stood directly behind you, feeling his proximity permeate through your body.

You swallowed.

“Why don’t you look at the view?” Taehyung cocked his head towards the railing of the balcony, though you didn’t move a step.

You weren’t about to tell Taehyung you’re terribly afraid of heights.

“I-I can see from here. Wow, looks beautiful.” You perked up superficially, trying to throw him off and changing the subject again. “By the way, what’s our closet situation gonna look like?”

“Ah, let me show you.” Taehyung strided back into the room towards the sliding double doors you spotted earlier. He almost theatrically glided both dark wooden panels open and your jaw dropped for the 47th time today.

You were welcomed by a ridiculously large walk-in closet, enough to be renovated into its own bedroom. You simply couldn’t normalize its size, especially after registering every suit, tie, watch or accessory Taehyung stored in the gracious space.

You couldn’t even begin to imagine how much money lied in here.

“Oh my God.” Was all you could manage, meandering in sparingly as you viewed each and every expensive piece he owned in the room, no doubt of the highest quality designers, finest of men’s fashion.

“You don’t have to worry about unpacking and moving in here, the housekeepers will do that for you.” Taehyung watched as you looked upon in awe, finding the way your eyes sparkled with emotion very similar to that of Bambi’s.

“How will I fit-”

“I specifically made space for you, there’s enough.” Taehyung stated, leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed. He’d resolved a while ago he really would try to take this marriage seriously, victoriously achieve the work-life balance his father kept preaching.

He saw giving up his closet space as the first step.

It was indeed so because Taehyung thoroughly enjoyed fashion. He genuinely adored every suit, accessory and outfit in his collection, though if he wanted to reach this new goal of balance, successfully add you to his list of priorities, then he had to be willing to cut down.

Even if that meant reallocating a third of his exorbitant wardrobe just for you, he’d try not to mind.

“Are you sure? I could just use another room’s-”

“I want to.” Taehyung finalized as his eyes turned unreadable from across the room, locking his gaze with yours and you were only left to look back impressed, his generosity unforeseen.

“Thank you.” You voiced a little weak, still shy by the suffocating nature of his stare.

“Don’t mention it.” He offered plainly, propping himself off the wall. He looked off to the side eyeing the empty pockets of space he left for you, until your voice called out to him.

“Taehyung.”

“Hm?” He snapped his vision back to you.

You wanted to ask him something, more so a favour and you were unsure how to word the request. “Um.. I didn’t want to ask so openly, but..” You found yourself beating around the bush, timid of what his response would be.

“Go on.”

“Um, so it seemed like there were a lot of empty rooms in this house, and I was just wondering if I could maybe.. transform one of them into an art studio for myself?” You winced at your own request.

“I’m sorry, it’s just I had one at my old place and it really grew on me. I would get most of my work done in that room and gained a lot of inspiration from it. I have a lot of art supplies and designed often in that studio, so I need a home for all my supplies and it would suck getting rid of it all. I’m sorry it means I would have to steal one of your rooms in the house, if you don’t want me to then-”

Taehyung couldn’t help but break out into a small grin as he watched you ramble on, shyly fidget with your fingers, so apprehensive of asking him for something and it reminded him why he was so eager to provide you with anything you wanted.

You spent too long trying to do everything on your own, achieve everything on your own, relying solely on yourself. Taehyung could see this all as plain as day, quite enjoying of how he’s never really met someone like you, and wanted you to know you didn’t always have to be so independent.

Especially with him.

“Y/N.” He called out to you with the same honey-coloured tone from last night, stopping you. Your eyes flickered to his, awaiting his next sentence and Taehyung already found himself having a thing for your doe-eyes.

Fuck.

“Of course you can have a room. You can have anything in this house. It’s yours.” Taehyung stated with a degree of assurance, his eyes locking with yours in earnest.

You both shared a look as your lips curved into a gracious smile, biting your lip to contain it. His stare wasn’t so much intimidating as it was merely.. calm. Gazing at you for the sole purpose of gazing, and you found some heat rushing to your face under his scrutiny.

Taehyung seemed to realize he was staring and immediately cleared his throat, turning a little nervous as he began another conversation. “So um, I’m sorry to say this,” he began with unease, almost apprehensive and you didn’t know what he was so sorry about. “But I have work today.”

You blinked. “What?”

Taehyung internally winced at your reaction, hands finding his pockets. “I took some time off for the wedding, so now I have twice the amount of work left behind. I need to complete it.” He informed straightforwardly.

“Our wedding was just yesterday, though, aren’t you tired?” You were only taken aback because you were slightly concerned for his wellbeing, wasn’t he tired from yesterday? You recalled him knocking out almost immediately upon hitting the pillow of your hotel bed last night, snoozing away.

“Maybe, but I can’t afford to rest. I’ll only have more to complete if I do, so I won’t be spending anymore time with you today.” Taehyung relayed the information, readying himself for the even greater disappointing news he’d be passing on.

“Actually, we won’t be able to go on our honeymoon, either.” Taehyung thought it was best to slip in all the bad news, growing more and more unrelaxed as he was unsure of how you’d react.

Though what you said next had him nearly floored.

“Honeymoon? Taehyung, that’s the least of my concerns, you should at least rest a day before getting back to work. That’s not really healthy.” You chastised him as lightly as possible, still afraid to be stepping on his toes when you didn’t know his life.

Taehyung was certain you’d hate having been stripped of a beautiful vacation where you could’ve relaxed in the sun and tropics of Cancun. Your father had mentioned to him you’ve always longed to visit the breath-taking city in Mexico, its clear waters and tropical air as a means to truly get away from your stifling life.

So when he found you disregarding the trip altogether and instead focusing on him, more precisely his health, he was left damn well speechless.

There you were again paying attention to the littlest things about him he didn’t care much for; he still had that bandage you offered him a month ago tucked into one of his pockets, not wanting to use the adhesive just yet.

“I’ll be fine. I’m just sorry we can’t go on the vacation because of me, it would’ve been nice, you know?” Taehyung apologized, feeling genuinely guilty for having ruined the honeymoon. Even if you two weren’t going to travel as some lovey-dovey couple, you both simply could’ve enjoyed the time off.

“It’s okay, just, at least work from home today. Heading to the office would be too much.” You suggested for the sake of the fatigue you could discern on him.

“Oh, don’t worry, I’m gonna be home for the next few days since everyone thinks we’ll be on our honeymoon.”

“Oh. That’s.. good.” You nodded faintly, half at the idea you two were even faking your honeymoon and half at the blasphemous energy he had to work after yesterday.

The sleep from last night was nearly not enough to recharge from the antics of the wedding, having drained your batteries for the next few days. You were certain his were drained too; he was half the damn couple.

“I should get going. I’ll send Mrs. Choi and Seo up with your things. They’re probably finished with lunch too, you should eat.” Taehyung advised as he stepped out of the walk-in closet, running a hand through his gorgeous hair and you couldn’t help but ogle at the sexy way his strands fell back on him.

“Okay.” You voiced as you followed him out, watching him near the room’s door and just about to vacate the premise before you spoke up. “Taehyung.”

He stopped in his tracks, peering back at you. “Yes?”

“You should eat something, too.”

Taehyung half-smiled at you with a nod “Sure”, before stepping out of the room, leaving you alone.

And you couldn’t help but kind of like the way he smiles.

It was well into the evening now, bordering dinner time as you helped the last of your clothes into Taehyung’s closet, refusing to let the older housekeepers do all the work by themselves considering it was your own luggage.

You also tried to occupy Taehyung’s room as scarcely as you could with your belongings, feeling odd about suddenly moving in with all your might and changing things around. It just didn’t feel appropriate, like you were invading his space and so you opted for scattering only your necessary items.

“That should be the last of it, Mrs. Choi.” You retrieved your last piece of clothing from the rather soft-spoken housekeeper, tucking the blazer away among the rest. You were satisfied to see not only your wardrobe neatly organized now, but fit just about right with Taehyung’s things.

He was right about space, there was enough.

“Mrs. Kim, please rest. You didn't have to move a muscle at all for us.” Mrs. Choi remarked, genuinely concerned for you.

“Yes, please, Mrs. Kim. We can finish up with the little things. I’ve just finished preparing dinner downstairs, you should eat.” Mrs. Seo chimed in as she entered the walk-in closet, gesturing towards the door.

“Are you sure? I can-”

“Mrs. Kim, you’re very kind for offering your help, we’re very grateful you’ve done so. Though we are Mr. Kim’s housekeepers, we are meant to care for his home and his lovely wife. You need not worry about helping us.” Mrs. Choi stated with an earnest tone, speaking respectfully as she addressed you.

You were going to protest again before you considered her words, registering that if you indeed helped them, it would technically negate the entire purpose of their work.

You bit back your reply as a result, crafting a new one.

“I see, I’m sorry, Mrs. Seo, Mrs. Choi. I’m just.. very used to doing things on my own,” you looked towards the ground. “I apologize.” You almost dipped for a bow until Mrs. Choi rapidly cautioned you, scrambling towards your figure.

“Oh dear, Mrs. Kim! You do not need to bow to us, you’re Mr. Kim’s wife, you are the one who is bowed to.”

“Yes, you do not need to apologize either, we appreciate your help, it was very sweet of you.” Mrs. Seo added with a warm smile, bowing to you instead. “Please go for dinner downstairs, I’ve also informed Mr. Kim for dinner, though I’m unsure if he has made his way down yet.” She added on, urging you towards the room's exit and you recognized it was probably better to listen to her.

Even if all this high-class, status stuff had yet to sink in or make sense to you after being away for so long, you understood there was an eventual tolerance you had to build for it. Just as Mrs. Choi said, you’re Kim Taehyung’s wife now, and that came with a hell lot of status you hadn’t even scratched the surface of yet.

You could already tell it was going to be a pain in the ass.

“I suppose I should. I’ll get going, then.” You smiled graciously at both women, appreciative of their kindness and began vacating the closet. You just about pulled the room door open before Mrs. Seo suddenly came to you.

“Oh! Mrs. Kim,” she halted you. “I was informed by Mr. Kim to provide this to you. He would have done so himself though he’s quite busy at the moment.” Mrs. Seo extended her hand and presented a pristine looking card, black and incredibly sleek in design. Your eyebrows furrowed until you noticed the telltale symbols, almost ominously minimal branding indicating a rare card only those with some of the highest networths in Korea could own.

Your eyes widened in horror.

The Black Card.

“P-pardon?” You needed her to reiterate, there was no way Kim Taehyung was giving you a black card, the same card that was limitless on credit and only exclusively owned by the affluent one-percenters of society.

“He’s informed me this belongs to you now, and that you’re to keep it in your possession.” Mrs. Seo elaborated, smiling through the mental whiplash you were currently experiencing.

“Belongs to.. me? This is mine?” You were still having trouble processing, why would Taehyung be gifting you this? Who’s account was it even attached to? Was it yours and he’s decided to graciously pay all the expensive fees, or worse, was it joined with his own account?

Don’t tell me it’s joined with his account.

“Yes, Mrs. Kim. It’s yours.” Mrs. Seo held it out more outwardly, nudging it in your direction.

Your mouth fell agape for another second before you mentally collected yourself, quickly grabbing the card and thanking her as you made your exit, marching through the house for Taehyung’s unbelievable ass.

Taehyung could not be providing you with this card. It was irrational, simply had to have been a decision he made with at least two bottles of soju in him, right? You didn’t care what his reasoning would be, you were denying and returning this. There was no way in hell you’d accept this card, especially if he linked his own personal account to it.

You tried loosely recalling where Taehyung mentioned his study, logically assuming he was working there. You inspected majority of the second floor, working your way through the halls until you finally caught sight of the familiar wooden doors with glass panels, slightly ajar, light bleeding through.

You made for the room quickly and stormed in without a care, attempting to steady your breathing from all the rushing around. You caught Taehyung completely off guard, having shredded his suit jacket to instead sport the rolled up sleeves of his dress shirt, adorning black-rimmed, designer glasses.

He looked 100x hotter than he should’ve.

Taehyung suddenly propped up from the leaned-back position he’d assumed on his chair, expression caught by surprise. “Y/N?” He questioned, eyebrows furrowing.

You held up the card and addressed him immediately. “Taehyung, what’s this? Why are you giving this to me?” You huffed, looking at him incredulously.

“The card? For you to use..?” Taehyung responded cooperatively, confused as to why you seemed so frazzled.

“But why, Taehyung? This is a black card, the annual fees on this are insane and I can’t pay-”

“You’re not paying for them, I am.” Taehyung cut in, shutting the binder he was holding and placing it on his desk.

“What? No, no way. If it’s my account then I should be the one-”

“It’s not your account, either, it’s mine.” Taehyung brought his elbows to his desk, hands clasped together in front of his lips. It was now he gave you that same intimidating stare he did back when you first met him, calculative and devoid of expression.

It seemed he did this when he got serious.

“Your account? But-Taehyung, this is your money, I can’t just have it. Please, take this back.” You stepped towards his desk to return the card eagerly, but Taehyung’s firm tone stopped you.

“No, it’s yours. I gave it to you to keep.” His words held this underlying sense of authority, scratch that, dominance when he spoke seriously, resolute. You could instantly tell he possessed a natural sense of alpha male characteristics, enough that even though he wasn’t being harsh or looming, his words and the tone he coated them with held more power than you could manifest.

You almost cowered, but remained adamant on returning the card. It was worse with the card attached to his account, you couldn’t just keep Taehyung’s money like it was your own, it simply wasn’t. Your money sat ordinarily in a separate account on a separate card, which you were happy enough to use. You weren’t going to mooch off of him, it went against every principle that made up your very being.

“This is your money, Taehyung. I have no right to use it.”

“You’re my wife. You have every right in the world to use it.” Taehyung countered with no emotion, or at least any you could discern, uncertain what was running through his mind with only his eyes as a guide towards the answer.

And you knew his eyes didn’t tell.

“Taehyung, this doesn’t feel right to me. This isn’t my money and I can’t use it.” You emphasized more strongly, drawing closer to his desk though halting your actions once he spoke again.

“My money is your money, you can always use it.” You knew he was relaxed, appearing practically unbothered as he leaned onto his desk and eyed you. Though with the intense look in his eyes, his aura screaming for anyone within the vicinity to submit to him, he could easily seem frustrated with the situation, namely you.

And it made you want to crawl into a hole.

“No, it isn’t. I’ve already intruded your home, taken your closet, your room and even an extra one just for myself. I will not take your money either. Please, take this back.” You held out the card more prominently, desperate to have him understand you.

Taehyung wasn’t necessarily frustrated by you, no, he was slightly pissed you kept referring to everything as just his and not yours, that he was the only one considering you two as a married couple now while you still viewed each other separately.

Did you not see him as your husband yet?

He also disliked the fact that you seemed scared of him, or unable to trust him like last night. He could see you fighting back the urge to cower away, genuinely upsetting him you still held a degree of fear and unsureness in your eyes.

Why are you so afraid of me?

“Y/N, everything isn’t just mine anymore, it’s yours, too. We’re a married couple, husband and wife. What’s mine is yours.” Taehyung tried to reason, loosening himself up more to seem less intimidating, more approachable.

“But money, Taehyung-it’s different. I didn’t even want to take my own father’s money, there’s no way I’ll take yours, please.” Pleading leaked into your tone as you lips started doing that thing where they just about pout, emphasizing their plushiness and Taehyung couldn’t help but notice it again.

He started growing frustrated as he removed his glasses, placing them on his desk and pinching the bridge of his nose. It seemed like he was digesting the situation, searching for the best approach.

“Y/N, look. I know the kind of situation you had with your father, but I’m not him. Didn’t you hear what Mrs. Choi and Seo addressed you as?”

You thought it over, unknowing of where he was taking this. “They.. called me Mrs. Kim.”

“Exactly. Even my last name is yours, everything I have is yours. I’m your husband, I’m always going to provide you with things from now on. That card is just one of many.” Taehyung offered his best explanation, making sure his tone wasn’t as serious to sidetrack any fear you still had.

“I understand. But this is a black card, Taehyung, and it’s your hard-earned money, not mine. It feels wrong even just having it.” You couldn’t fight your inner turmoil, you genuinely believed this to be wrong. After spending almost a decade trying to work for yourself, pay for yourself, seldom seeking the help of another, this just left a disagreeing feeling to churn in your stomach.

Taehyung sighed heavily before pushing his chair back, rising from his seat. He made his way over to you where you grew unintentionally defensive, retracting from him slightly as he neared you. He noticed it and pursed his lips, reaching out for your upper arms and taking them warmly, tenderly, waiting for your eyes to meet his before he spoke to you.

“Y/N, do you remember what I said before I kissed you yesterday?”

Your eyes widened having been reminded of the intimate moment, nodding at him innocently. Taehyung witnessed you trying to avoid eye contact and found himself softening.

“I didn’t say that without reason. I meant it when I said I would take care of you. Your father is a different story, if you don’t want to use his money, I respect that. But I’m your husband, and I want to be a good one. I want to give you things.. do things for you simply because I want to.” Taehyung reasoned, gripping you lightly. “I want you to use my money, you’re allowed to use it.” He tried voicing with sincerity, earnestly, hoping he could change your mind.

He saw you still hesitating to accept the offer, however, deciding on a compromise.

“Look, you don’t have to use it all the time. You can still use your own card, but you can use mine here and there. Seriously, Y/N, using it won’t even make a dent on me. I’m the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company, use it at your discretion.” Taehyung could practically see your gears shifting, searching for your eyes as he wished you’d understand him.

He saw this as a second step towards work-life balance, only feeling the responsibility and genuine desire to be the good husband in spite of the unfortunate nature of your marriage. He didn’t want any doubt concerning his ability to be a good husband, either.

After all, when Taehyung did something, he always did the best he possibly could.

“Okay, I guess you’re right. But I do have my own money, and I’ll be using that 100x more often than yours.” You relaxed and oddly let him hold you, looking down at the black card that rested in your hand and clutching it to your palm.

Taehyung realized he was still holding you and let go, retiring to fluff his hair instead. You caught a glimpse of his bicep underneath his rolled up sleeve as he did so, and you truly hated you chose a time like this to find him stunningly attractive.

“You should come downstairs, Mrs. Seo prepared dinner.” You ignored your thoughts.

“You go first, I’ll be down in a second.”

You nodded agreeably and turned away, leaving his study. You took a second look at the card in your hand, then glanced around the house as you strolled through it, trying to embed what Taehyung said into the crevices of your resistant thinking.

Everything I have is yours, you reiterated, registering that Taehyung had in fact grown accustomed to the idea of you two as a couple already. He’s accepted it, embraced it, even enforced it now with his earlier declarations and this black card. You automatically felt behind, like you were the tortoise in the race and needed to pick up your pace.

If Taehyung had already come to terms with your marriage, it was only a matter of time before you did as well. Marriage is a two-way street, and if you wanted to make this easier on both yourself and Taehyung, you would compromise with him, accept the true sense of partnership that entailed your status as husband and wife.

Thus was the exact mantra that played in your head as you fiddled with the card, remembering the way his big hands held you.

Warm.

It was night.

You could say it was like any other ordinary night, though that would be a gargantuan lie.

This night was the first time Taehyung and yourself were going to sleep in the same bed.

In your own home.

The hotel suite left you both with your own space and privacy since it was a random, public room with no personality or attachment to it whatsoever, making it easier and comfortable to sleep with him.

So when you emerged from your walk-in closet in a thin camisole, loose pajama shorts and without a bra, you were cursing yourself. God damn you for needing to sleep in minimal clothing for comfort. You’d slept in a loose t-shirt and bottoms at the suite last night since it was a public room, and long story short, it left you tossing and turning more than you liked.

You had no clue prior to arriving here that you’d be sharing a room with Taehyung. You’d expected to sleep in a different one, in the privacy of your own room where you could prance around as you wished and as a result packed your usual sleepwear.

But now that you were left having to slumber with Taehyung, clothes on the more revealing side, there was no turning back.

And what there was truly no turning back from, was when you opened the closet door and your eyes landed on Taehyung’s shirtless, wet self drying his hair after a shower.

You immediately malfunctioned.

Your eyes fell to his bare back, ruffling his wet hair as his plaid pajama pants hung loosely at his hips. You immediately exclaimed and clamped a hand over your mouth, trying to shut yourself up.

You did not expect at all for Taehyung to have such honey-coloured skin. It was like it naturally glowed, a healthy tone that made him appear all the more delectable. It certainly didn’t help that his shoulders were broader than you first observed, sincerely an other-worldly experience when he wasn’t wearing clothes.

You also got an all-access view of his trap muscles, adding to the width of his shoulders overall and when Taehyung turned around to the sound of the closet door opening, gaze locking with yours, you could confirm his neck, chest and collarbones were indeed crafted to perfection.

Taehyung’s eyes widened momentarily drinking you in, not expecting your light sleepwear when just last night he witnessed you in a full pajama set. Not to mention, and he hated that he could tell, but you weren't wearing a bra.

And the camisole did nothing to hide that.

Taehyung straightened himself up realizing you two were practically gawking at each other, resting the towel around his neck as he cleared his throat. “That’s what you sleep in?”

“That’s what you sleep in?” You retorted, arms over your chest.

“Guys usually sleep shirtless, this is normal.” Taehyung gestured towards his own body and you had half a mind to floor yourself. It’s like Taehyung knew but also didn’t know he was hot, knew the effect he had on people though never grew cocky or proud enough to purposefully parade it around.

And it frustrated you even more; he was fairly humble about being a sexy Greek God.

“Girls sleep like this too, this is normal.” You copied him, looking off to the side.

“I was kidding, I only sleep shirtless sometimes. Just get in bed.” Taehyung narrowed his eyes as he gestured towards the sheets, returning to his palace of a bathroom to toss his towel in the hamper and pull a t-shirt over his head.

You wanted to move, feet just about ready to carry you but you never abandoned your spot. Instead, you pressed your lips into a thin line contemplating that sharing a bed with Taehyung, in clothes like this and in such proximity, all held a degree of intimacy you didn’t know you two shared yet.

It’s only been a day.

So when Taehyung returned to your unmoving figure, arms holding your chest and avoiding eye contact with him, he was quick to get the message.

“Um.. if you really don’t want to sleep here, I can give you another room.” Taehyung offered, figuring himself this may be too soon.

“No, it’s okay, that’d be kind of a hassle.” You waved him off. “Besides, your bed looks comfy.”

You were honestly trying to live up to your acceptance that Taehyung was the man you’d spend your life with now, so you’d better start getting use to him. You’d sleep next to him for numerous nights, spend endless days together and share a multitude of things; this would simply just be a first of many first times.

So you paddled over to the bed and removed the covers to snuggle yourself in, the bed’s coolness sending a shiver through you before you hugged the blanket to yourself. Taehyung stood with a smile before crawling in himself, adjusting the covers to his liking.

He felt at peace in a matter of seconds, the feeling of his own bed lulling him into a state of slumber already. He reached his arm out to shut off the lamp on his bedside table, leaving the room pitch dark and only his digital clock and balcony as a light source.

You began to cower a bit in the darkness, thankful for the sheer curtains that allowed the moonlight to spill into the room.

You felt another shiver run through your body when you shifted, realizing you were cold even under the sheets. You tried warming up on your own by shimmying the blanket around more comfortably, but it didn't do much.

You were left lying on the bed trying to think warm thoughts, unintentionally breathing in the constant scent of Taehyung from his bed; his cologne, his aftershave, his body wash all filling your nostrils.

It was intoxicating, absolutely distracting and sleep began to slip your mind. It didn’t help that you were still cold too, moving around and turning onto your side where you now faced Taehyung.

He seemed to have already dozed off, face tranquil as he slept soundlessly on his back. You couldn't help but admire his side-profile, the sparse moonlight illuminating his features. It was hard to not stretch your hand out and nearly run a touch along his cheek, like he was a rare work of art that naturally called for admiration.

You realized turning towards him that he radiated a wave of warmth from his body, remembering boys were pretty much furnaces while girls usually froze.

How wonderful it is to be a woman.

You desired some of that heat and shuffled just a little closer to Taehyung, nearing the center of the bed. You discerned he was indeed warm and maneuvered slightly closer, just about stopping at the center of the bed. You fought back the urge to shimmy any closer, leaving a mindful gap between you two.

You were seconds from catching a peace of mind until Taehyung unexpectedly spoke in the silence of the night, startling you.

“You can come closer, I don’t bite.” The smirk in his voice was obvious, making you scrunch your nose and snap back at him.

“Shut up, I’m not getting closer to you.”

“You should, I’m really warm, and I can tell you’re cold.” There he was again teasing, his tone coy as he kept his eyes shut, unbothered.

“Over my dead body.” You mocked him from earlier, turning away from him abruptly and pulling the covers over your head.

Coffee was probably your favourite thing life had to offer. One of the couple things you’d fight someone over; coffee and your independence, if you wanted to be specific.

So it made you genuinely happy Taehyung had such a wide selection of coffee to choose from, ranging from all kinds of beans to instant coffee, cappuccinos, lattes, mochas, you name it. It took no time for you to craft a cup to your liking, shuffle into a seat on the island and begin picking at the breakfast the housekeepers had whipped up earlier this morning.

You’d woken up early today keeping in mind the day you had planned. You decided this to be another move-in day as part of your studio setup project you’ve entertained for the last week. The granted time off due to your odd honeymoon farce with Taehyung proved to actually come in handy, thankfully.

It had been another peaceful morning for you, having woken up with sunlight gracing the walls, certain you could hear birds chirping as if you were in a Disney film and little mice would come out to start sewing the gown you’d wear as a princess.

It had been a peaceful morning indeed, but when you stretched out to loosen your stiff muscles, the chaos that met you was anything but peaceful. Even if it’s occurred at least 5 times now, you kept forgetting that you shared a bed with someone else now, and that said someone had somehow always founds a way to gravitate towards you during the night, even daringly cast an arm over you sometimes.

It left you in a state of panic registering that Taehyung’s, dare you say warm and cozy body would be just behind you, his chest mere centimeters from your back. You would stay still for some time, calculating the optimal way to remove yourself from his hold until he eventually stirred enough to loosen his grip, darting right out of bed.

Other times, he’d wake earlier than you and you wondered what would cross his mind once he registered your oddly proximal bodies.

Did it ever bother him?

Nonetheless, it brought a mischievous smile to your face thinking about the fact that Taehyung had such a perfectly human habit like cuddling. He was always so serious, so put together and a near machine at everything he did, seeming as though he wouldn’t give anything romantic the time of day.

But it was hard to forget the fluffy feeling that blossomed in your chest when you would sense his proximity, maybe inviting a liking to it. You had always slept alone, only yourself and the darkness to keep you company in your lonely bed, in your lonely home.

So sleeping next to someone, namely Kim Taehyung left an impression on you you couldn’t quite shake. It was difficult to erase the image of his calm, sleeping face after the handful of times witnessing it. Long eyelashes delicately pressed to the skin under his eyes, lips plush as he seemed to naturally pout in his sleep. The sunlight only accentuated his honey-coloured skin, adding a glow to his features that made him appear prettier than he already was.

It was nice to think you’d wake up to that every morning.

You found your mind still playing around with the idea until you snapped yourself out of it, questioning why the hell you always ventured off whenever you thought about him.

Weird.

You were scolding yourself until your eyes caught Taehyung strolling into the kitchen with his phone in is hand. He’d foregone a jacket today, black shirt sleeves folded to mid-forearm paired with black slacks.

You were normal until you almost spat your coffee seeing he wasn’t wearing a tie but instead had the first few buttons of his shirt open, revealing a generous view of his neck and the beginnings of his chest.

Fucking hell.

You were staring stupidly until Taehyung peeked up at you, smiling “Morning.”

“M-morning.” you stuttered.

He seemed unsuspecting as he returned his attention to his phone, proceeding to the kitchen counter and retrieving a cup to fix himself a drink. He appeared to be reading something conscientiously on his device, never taking his eyes off and you quickly became bored, ready to use the weapon you’d acquired.

“So.. you’re a cuddler, huh?”

Taehyung nearly dropped his cup.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“You’re a cuddler when you sleep. Cute.” You rested your chin in your palm, playful smile on your face.

“I think you’re mistaken, I am not a cuddler. And I’m not cute.” Taehyung denied as he only focused on the cup, his back to you. You then watched him reach for his selection of tea and purposefully evade the coffee, your eyes lighting up with mischief.

“Wait, you’re a cuddler and you drink tea instead of coffee? Very cute.” You pulled on his leg, chuckling as you brought your mug to your lips

This was going to be fun.

“Shut up, I don’t like the taste and tea is healthier.” Taehyung practically sneered back, harshly ripping the packet of his tea bag.

“Doesn’t take away from the fact that you’re a cuddler.” You sipped on your coffee, unbothered as you swung your legs back and fourth.

“Doesn’t take away from the fact that you like it.”

You nearly spat your drink.

“What?”

“I remember a certain someone that shuffles closer to me for warmth, no?” Taehyung snapped back as he returned to his phone and popped his tea into the microwave, his shoulders high to the sky. You could imagine his smug face proud of his remark while searching for your own, realizing that Taehyung was damn good at arguing and you’d really have to upgrade your comeback game to counter him.

He was unfortunately your match.

“Even if I were one, which I’m not, It’s not like I’m committing a crime.” Taehyung suddenly finalized with a snippy tone, and you realized you may have hurt his ego.

Men.

“I never said it was a bad thing.” You commented under your breath and looked away, popping a raspberry into your mouth.

Taehyung bit back a smirk as he retrieved his cup of tea, taking a sip as he returned to his phone and took a seat across from you. He began compiling his plate of breakfast as he worked his device, typing away with one hand as if he was drafting the Magna Carta.

You became bored again.

“Why do you have so much coffee if you don’t like it?” You genuinely felt like inquiring, if he didn’t like the taste why would he have so much?

“For my housekeepers, they drink it.” He took a sip of his tea, all attention on his phone.

You nodded understandingly. “Why do you have two housekeepers, by the way? Isn’t one enough?”

“So they can keep each other company.” He answered absentmindedly, eyes still glued to his phone as he bit a piece of his toast. You really hated that he wasn’t actively interacting with you because it only left room to stare at him, and that was never any good.

He looked illegally attractive with the unbuttoned part of his shirt, your mind profusely bugging out over the exposed bit of his chest. You were reminded of the full view from last night, and began pondering how long you’d survive having to see that for the rest of your life.

“O-oh, that’s nice.” You stuttered back a reply, squashing your previous thought.

You were actually quite impressed by the kindness Taehyung showed behind that decision, noticing he had these small moments where he was caring, considerate, all hidden behind his unreadable face and seriousness when it came to business.

It was quite interesting.

You were mindlessly eating until Taehyung spoke up, eyes flickering towards you. “What are you going to do today?”

You swallowed your fruit. “I was planning on moving more stuff in again, start finishing my studio setup. Thank you again for the room, by the way.” You expressed your gratitude once more, forking some eggs into your mouth.

“Don’t mention it.”

“What are you doing today?” you echoed his question, taking another swig of coffee.

“I’m working again. If you need anything I’ll be in my study.” Taehyung sent you a half-smile before snatching up his plate, bringing his phone to his ear as he stepped out of the kitchen.

You sighed heavily only being left to think about your day, which would be majorly spent unpacking and arranging things. You had a plethora of art supplies, design tools and canvases to set up in your studio, leaving you constantly thinking of how to even begin.

It would be a mission alone to sort through everything you had left, knowing you didn’t exactly label out of sheer laziness and would have to individually unbox and organize everything .

It was this exact task that took up most of your day, time having slipped by in the blink of an eye. It wasn’t easy when you had to be rummaging through your belongings and situating them where you thought appropriate, also trying to envision a new look for your studio.

You hadn’t realized 3 hours had passed until the ring of the front doorbell caused you to check your phone, curious as to who would be visiting your home in the middle of the day. You assumed it be one of the housekeepers and abandoned your work, cascading down the staircase and striding towards the grand entrance.

You drew towards the monitor Taehyung had showed you just yesterday, explaining it to be your home security system. Taehyung detailed it had a camera for your front porch that detected movement and the doorbell alike, so you peered at the monitor to see the stranger outside your home.

Your eyebrows furrowed registering a woman, her back turned towards the door as she fidgeted nervously with her purse in her hand.

Sheer curiosity took you over and you paddled towards the door, unlocking it. You wore a smile on your face as you swung the door open, though it was immediately wiped off taking in the last person on earth you ever wanted to see.

“Mother?”

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envirae · 3 years

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HAVE WE MET BEFORE? — 14: sure thing, sweetheart

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SUMMARY: Popular girl L/N Y/N has everything she could ever want. She’s got perfect grades, perfect friends, and she’s sure her crush likes her back. Everything goes astray, however, when one of her old summer flings suddenly shows up as a new student.

a/n: in this chapter, all dialogue is spoken in english!

wc: 649

The winter air breezes by you as you knock on Jay’s door. He sure takes his sweet time getting there, as you’re standing on his front porch for what seems like ages. When the door finally swings open, you’re just about ready to start yelling at him until you realize that it is not in fact Jay, but his mom.

She recognizes you almost immediately, a wide grin on her face as she gasps. “Y/N? It’s been so long! What, three years now? I didn’t even know you were from Seoul!”

You chuckle slightly as you nod, “Yeah, I am. I’m surprised you recognized me!” You add, still a bit taken aback. His mother looks similar to how she did back then, the only difference being her shorter hair, accompanied with a few more grey hairs.

“Well of course I did! We missed you a lot, you left so suddenly back then.” She says, widening the door as she gestures for you to come in.

“I know, I’m sorry. It was so sudden that I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye.” You were lying through your teeth, but it seemed to be working.

“Well Jay’s room is upstairs, first room on the left.” She told you, smiling softly as you thanked her and made your way upstairs.

It took you a moment to collect yourself as you stood outside his bedroom door, second guessing yourself way too many times, and by the time you get the courage to knock, he swings the door open on you, making you look like an idiot.

“Hi.” You greet flatly, the awkwardness in your voice coming through.

“Why the long face, cutie?” He asks, a playful smirk on his face, although he already knows the answer.

“Can we just get this over with?” You pout, growing impatient with his immature behavior. Rolling his eyes, he agrees and leads you towards his desk where all his work is. You skim over his papers, eyebrows furrowing when you see his scribbled writing and messy grammar. “What is this?” You question, desperately trying to hold back a laugh.

“They’re notes, smart one.” He deadpans, letting out a ‘tsk’ in annoyance. “Sure they’re a little messy, but they get the job done!”

You stare at him for a second, then back down at the mess scattered on his desk. “Actually, I don’t think they do. These are completely unreadable, and some are plain wrong.” You correct, more in disbelief than anything. Jay is slightly embarrassed, as he’d always been a top student before moving. “Do you need Korean lessons as well? This isn’t even a word.”

“Stop patronizing me! It’s just...difficult adjusting. That’s why you’re helping me, aren’t you?” He bashfully admits, running out of excuses for his poor job in school.

Studying doesn’t go as well as planned, as Jay quickly grows frustrated with the work. You become more annoyed with him, who seems to have no interest in learning. “This is stupid, nobody even cares about all this stuff!” he groans, laying his head down onto the table. After going over the equation for what seems to be the 100th time, you slam your pencil down, now irked as you glare at him.

“You do realize I’m taking time out of my day to help you, right? I had things to do, Jay. If you weren’t blackmailing me, I would never even be here in the first place! So if you could at least try to cooperate with me here, instead of complaining every three seconds, maybe we’d actually get somewhere!” You snap, seeing his expression widen as he gulps.

For a moment, you think you’ve gotten through to him. That is until his signature smirk comes back. It’s here where you’re reminded that Park Jongseong would be 100x better if he never opened his mouth.

“Sure thing, sweetheart.”

#enhypen #enhypenwriters #enhypennetwork #enhypen smau #enhypen social media au #enhypen texts #jay #jay park #park jongseong #jay x reader #jay park x reader #heeseung #lee heeseung #heeseung smau #jay smau #enhypen fluff #enhypen angst #enhypen imagines

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tobiosmilktea · 3 years

Text

umpah umpah! smau

↪︎ bokuto x f!reader x iwaizumi

[021] — like a storm!

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a/n: swear my writing hasn’t been that good recently and i blame it on my lack of freetime 😔 anyway here’s 4.5k words of trashy word dump that i wrote in 2 hours ;)) also peep the tlc reference

in theory, this picnic blanket was much too small for the likes of fitting a webtoon author, an editor, and a beefy volleyball player all at once, and yet, it still managed to fit two more to come join—tightly bunched up in the park at night as the crisp air temperature slowly drops. having a picnic at the cusp of autumn and winter was a definite mistake, but then again, perhaps they were used to it by now.

it wasn’t like the cold was bothering bokuto at this point anyway as his blood simmered with a boiling hot ichor. he had a death grip on his phone as satomi left him on read. all the volleyball player could do was roll his eyes and scoff as he taps your shoulder. akaashi, who sat on the other side of you was in the midst of speaking to you, yet was interrupted by the bright white light from the screen shone across your faces.

your eyes scanned the texts, feeling your lungs desperately yearning for air. her words suffocated you, crushing your airways as you struggled to breathe. perhaps you have forgotten how to at that very moment. they say it takes about three minutes for someone to suffocate from the lack of oxygen and if akaashi didn’t shake you, that probably would have been you. the fact that seeing that damn photo made your heart shatter more times than you could count over a course of the past few days. you couldn’t catch a fucking break, could you?

you had to look away. if you had stared at satomi in iwaizumi’s bed any longer, you would’ve screamed your head off.

“god, these cookies are so fucking good. i would literally marry these if i could,” kaori moaned into another bite of a matcha shortbread cookie. she practically threw herself over yuko’s lap as she reached in her little baggie for more. “these cookies are a godsend, (y/n), where did you get them?”

“this bakery right next to onigiri miya, apparently they make good lemon macarons as well.” you mutter. the semblance of seeing those texts was still evident upon your expression.

yuko doesn’t fail to notice the way the timbre of your voice had changed within a sudden moment. she gives you a look, “what’s wrong?” her words, careful and genuine filled you with something somber as bokuto handed his phone to her.

kaori grunts slightly as she lifts herself off of yuko, yet her body was still leaned over to skim the texts along with her.

it was a nervous habit of yours to fiddle with your fingers, picking and scratching at your chipped nail polish until it was all gone. you don’t remember when this became a habit, but you always did this whilst you waited for something you dreaded to hear the answer to. as if the nerves within you pooled into a wave, crashing back and forth like a tide until you either get dragged along with it or somehow manage to survive.

their expressions contorted into a nasty mixture of disgust and absolute horror. even kaori who has seen the despicable sweet-tongued manipulations of nicotine-stained fingers of incels had to shake her head and push the phone away.

“i never liked that girl from the start,” yuko scoffs. she hands the phone back to bokuto, watching him switch it off and dropping it onto the cushioned picnic blanket in annoyance.

“god, the amount of anger coursing through my body right now...” muttered bokuto, “i can’t believe she would do this.”

“at least she didn’t do anything to iwaizumi,” akaashi tried to reason. things were already so messed up, it was the least he could do.

kaori shakes her head, clearing her throat from the dryness of the shortbread cookie. “doesn’t matter,” her words were venomous and cutthroat, “she’s still a terrible person considering she got him drunk and made him tell her shit that wasn’t any of her business. what a fucking snake.”

you pursed your lips slightly, wanting to close your eyes and make this all disappear the moment you wake up. the chill of the night air had finally struck you. it was that sudden urge to run away as fast as possible, to escape the words you wholeheartedly wanted to leave behind continued to follow you like haunting poltergeists. and as if the tingling phrases of whispered memoirs of your mistakes weren’t enough, your own decisions whether it was right or wrong lingered back to both iwaizumi and bokuto. it’s heavy baggage you so dearly wanted to get rid of, but the solutions seemed so skewed and out of place for you to comprehend properly that even the chill in the air started to burn.

bokuto glanced at you with worry coated the emotions in his eyes. his hand reached for yours, lacing his fingers through your own as his palm—though rough and calloused—was warm against the biting cold of your hand. it comforted you more than you had expected with the way it was hidden from the others, almost melting when bokuto started to rub his thumb in little circles on the back of your hand and over your knuckles.

your hands were so soft, he had forgotten how much he liked holding them. he could memorize each and every detail just by admiring the way your hand looked so tiny next to his, yet they fit together like a glove.

you swore your heart was ready to jump out of your throat then. you weren’t sure if bokuto could even feel the way you squeezed his hand slightly as a silent answer.

“we should do something about it,” you say after a few beats of silence had passed, but it only comes out in a hushed mutter.

bokuto squeezed back, “like what?”

“i don’t really know,” you shrug while you shook your head, “just something that’ll make her learn a lesson or two.”

kaori gasps, “we should sue her!”

you and the others gave her a look.

“like seriously, sexual assault allegations are terrible especially since she’s a famous sports team’s physical therapist!”

“there probably isn’t enough evidence for that to work, kaori, considering they only made out.” yuko says matter-of-factly, “besides, suing someone is expensive and we don’t have that kind of budget right now.”

kaori braids over arms over each other in disappointment, “that’s lame.”

“yuko’s right.” you sighed, “i don’t want things to get out of hand and end up going public either. iwaizumi is already mad at the fact that i used him for a webtoon and surely being part of a lawsuit would only make it worse.”

it had come to a point that you had noticed how far everything has come. you wanted to laugh at how fast everything went downhill within a matter of months. the skeleton of your mistakes was just waiting for its last bits to fall and crush you.

there had to be a way to just make this—whatever this entire thing is to just end already.

akaashi opened his mouth to speak after keeping his thoughts to himself this entire time, “what if we just... get her fired?” he finished the last of his words in a blazing hesitance as if we would absolutely hate the idea. granted, it wasn’t much to work off of just by a simple proposal, but it had potential.

“we could, but how exactly are we going to do that?” bokuto asks curiously.

“didn’t you say that tomas recently got injured?” akaashi starts, earning a nod from bokuto to have him continue, “well if we want to be discrete as possible we could do it the old-fashioned way.”

yuko furrowed her brows as she asked, “which is?”

“if she keeps missing work or arriving late, she could potentially lose her job.”

kaori bursts out laughing, heaving a heavy snort as she mused at akaashi, “seriously? is that really our best option?”

akaashi rolled his eyes as she teases, “since you wanted to go the legal route, technically, it is.”

the girl’s laughter came to a slow cease, cocking her head in interest as she waited for one of them to elaborate.

“no yeah, there’s still a chance for this to actually work.” bokuto starts without a second thought. hell, he even forgot he was still holding your hand. “professional sports teams require their medical team to be at every game whether it’s real or just practice since the players are always at risk of getting injured. satomi’s known to be good at being there every day on time, so if yoji and their boss sees that she’s consistently missing work now for... let’s say—iwaizumi—and tomas isn’t getting treated asap, they’re allowed to replace her. and if you’re replaced, there’s basically no going back even if it is just temporary. and if that happens...” he pauses as he holds back a smirk, “she’s going to be fined legally with negligence—worst-case scenario, she’ll probably be fined for nonfeasance too.”

“whoa there, those are some big words, sir.” says kaori, “someone catch me up here?”

akaashi lets out a sigh, “nonfeasance means failure to do what’s expected.”

the sound of awe left kaori as she nods in understanding.

“is this really necessary? it seems like a lot of work just to get back at her.” yuko has always been a rational person, just like akaashi, but the only difference between them was that she liked to do things the fastest and most easy way.

“if we play our cards right, i think we could do it.” says bokuto.

“then i think we need all the help we can get if we really want this to work out.” akaashi said, craning his neck towards you to ask, “should i tell semi and suga about it?”

it’s not even a question for you to answer considering how obvious the answer was. of course, you had to tell them. they basically knew everything already, and if anything they’re the only ones who could make this plan actually work.

“i can also tell my team about it to help.” bokuto adds in, but you cut him a look, “only atsumu, sakusa, hinata, and tomas of course. i promise i’ll only tell them what they need to know. what do you think?”

“as long as satomi gets what she deserves.”

you hated the way your thoughts were an endless motion of suffering. it had been keeping you awake all night as you tossed and turned. you couldn’t rest now as if a giant cinder block of forbidden serendipities would clash-boom-bang back onto you as it was being held by a teetering string of floss. it was bound to snap at any second. you yearned for even just a few minutes of rest as maybe these suffocating feelings would disappear once you woke up in the early morning.

it was still dark out—three a.m... maybe, but all you knew was that it was late and your flurrying thoughts were giving you so much residual energy that you needed to extrude. it wasn’t a form of adrenaline or a sugar rush, no, it was something else. your body was well beyond fatigued, but rather your mind was running like a brain on drugs.

there were so many things rushing through your head that it morphed into a jungle of tangled vines of plenty. it was a storming blizzard that couldn’t be calmed down as you finally pushed yourself off your bed, forcing your sheets off of you and sitting on the side of the matress. guilt was eating you alive, gnawing at your hollow chest as your semblance withered while the minutes passed. you just wanted for everything to just stop. please just stop.

maybe this is why you never told any of them. the stress, the consequences— you knew damn well that shit would hit the fan if you did, and yet it’s inevitable. the truth would have come out sooner or later.

ugh, why are you like this? you thought to yourself, dragging your fingers through your hair as you sighed out.

the answers were obvious, but it was the tingling of your lips that sent waves of heat to your cheeks as you recalled the kiss... the kiss! holy shit, the kiss. it hit you then when it played back in your head from a few hours ago when bokuto dropped you off at your door. something melted in bokuto’s eyes the moment you looked back at him, heat emanating from every inch of his skin as you tracked the tension in his body. he leaned over with his face just a few centimeters shy from yours and you swore he could probably hear your heart punching against your ribcage. bokuto could feel the warmth of your breath fanning against his chin and for a moment the world and all the problems in it seemed to disappear for a brief moment. before you knew it he kissed you gently as if it was his last. it certainly would be for a while, anyway.

“dammit,” you cursed in a harsh whisper, leaning over to switch on your bedside lamp in a swift flick.

you slapped your cheeks to force the thought out of your head as you made your way to your desk. you turned your desk lamp on with it’s bright yellow hue flickering slightly over your messy work area. it was scattered with paperwork and miscellaneous notes that it was surely beyond your mood to even fix-up.

usually, you tend to be pretty clean and organized with your desk space, and yet with recent events, you’ve been letting the work pile up instead. you’ve always liked the saying, this is something future (y/n) can deal with, but for once you hated yourself for it. besides, look where it got you.

a sigh escaped your lips when you plopped yourself upon your chair. your delicate fingers traced along the edges of the neatly bonded sheets of love cemetery’s storyboard. you started it earlier today with the help of the rest of the ddd team after the director of the project gave you the freedom to do so as usually, he would be in charge of making the storyboard and such. despite being rather chaotic on a daily basis, you were glad to be surrounded by people who always put a smile on your face while still getting work done. those were the best types of people to work with—friends that cared about you.

you guys managed to get the first fifteen pages done and you needed twenty completed panels in less than twenty-four hours. you were used to this type of pressure, especially while you were working on your webtoon. you were surprised how many times you sprained your hand from constantly working that the aching pain between your joints and your wrists were second nature at this point. surely, you would have carpal tunnel by now if akaashi wasn’t there to always nag you to take breaks.

with a few wrist stretches and cracks of your knuckles, you flipped to the next scene—the day you and bokuto met. your heart tugged slightly as you envisioned the scene you drew in your webtoon, slowly converting it into a movie scene in your head.

oh, how things have changed.

your hand ached for mercy by the time seven a.m. struck. the sun had already peeked through the horizon, sending rays of sunlight through the blinds of your bedroom window as a greeting for the new morning. you had been sketching out the storyboard for five nonstop hours (give or take a few minutes in between trying not to let the different events in the story get to you).

you’ve always had a strange habit of ignoring the pain in your wrist, but now it was certainly unbearable. the lead pencil that was hot to the touch from the heat from your hand dropped onto your desk in a clatter. your eyes flicked down to your palm as you could feel the fatigue darkening your eyebags. your hands were practically alabaster from the constant pressure that it took a good moment for the circulation to run back into your hand.

you left your bedroom and made your way to your kitchenette. it was like your body was moving on its own, grabbing a mug, turning on your kettle, and tossing teaspoons of sugar in your cup for your morning tea as if you were on autopilot.

silence had surrounded you for far too long, you needed some form of sound to keep you sane from staying up all night and leaving you alone with your thoughts to just take over. sounds from the television hummed through the quaint air of your apartment in the lowest possible volume, just beneath the whistling of the tea kettle atop your stove.

you poured out the boiling hot water as your eyes followed the way the tea steeped through the liquid like a spreading storm.

the doorbell rang then, causing your head to swirl towards your door with slight confusion filling your expression. who would even come by so early in the morning?

the floorboards of your apartment creaked at your light steps as you trod towards the door, almost flinching at the cold surface of the handle as you unlocked it. you pulled the door open. there was that infamous morning chill in the autumn air that bit at your bare arms and legs. the heat from your apartment escaped at the motion as your breath hitched within your throat.

he looked out of breath and filled with fearful tension as his broad shoulders relaxed a bit at your sight. his usual soft brown locks that are always styled was tangled and woven into each other like a basket weave. hell, he looked as if he rushed immediately here the moment he woke up, all disheveled and almost desperate. poor guy didn’t even think to put on a coat before coming.

what the hell is he doing here?

“iwa—?” you attempted to say out loud in a harsh whisper that could barely leave your body in the first place. and yet, your voice disappeared into his chest as he pulls you into him, warmth engulfing you like burning ember.

you swallowed the lump forming in your throat as you froze. call it shock or just plain confusion but you couldn’t bring yourself to move your arms from the way iwaizumi’s embrace trapped them to your sides. just the plain sensation of the heat rising from his skin was enough to simmer down your awe as you finally managed to wrap your arms around him.

“i’m sorry,” he mutters into your shoulder.

you captured your bottom lip between your teeth. “i’m sorry too,” you say in the same matter, yet your voice almost sounded hoarse from the dryness in your throat. “i should’ve told you the truth.”

“and i shouldn’t have said those things that i said to you...”

a response would usually follow right after, but you couldn’t piece together the correct words and all of the nuanced phrases in your head to say into the air. your thoughts were too far cluttered and chaotic to even say anything more other than, “it’s okay.”

iwaizumi could only pull you in closer, hold you tighter, and leave his arms around you as if he feared that you would disappear out of his reach if he were to let go even in the slightest. he made the mistake of letting you go that one night many years ago and he has learned his lesson since them. he’s not going to take any more chances.

you two have been in each other’s arms for a while now, but you couldn’t find the strength in you to let go. you haven’t felt iwaizumi’s hugs in so long that perhaps you wanted to savor it a bit longer as well. like a little treat—a reward of a few minutes of peace after a thunderstorm of misunderstanding where all that’s left is the aroma of lingering petrichor of bittersweet nothings. you would like to call this a small victory, but something was off.

“iwa,” you say once you finally pulled yourself into your senses, “what’s wrong?”

“i did something bad, (y/n). i fucked up.”

you pull away from him slightly, just enough to be able to look at him in the eye but still be in the comfort of his arms. “what happened?”

“i was so fucking stupid, i shouldn’t have agreed to go with satomi.” oh, you thought as the words left his mouth. you pursed your lips together, forcing yourself to lock your gaze onto him as he spoke. “i ended up getting drunk and telling her everything that happened by accident.”

it’s okay, i already know. i already know, i already know. the words rang inside your head as you fought to say the words, but nothing was coming out. you did nothing wrong, it’s okay, it’s okay. there was so much hurt and betrayal lacing iwaizumi’s copper eyes that you feared anything you say (regardless if it was in his favor) would obliterate everything that just happened into dust. seriously, how bad would it sound telling a person that you were already aware of what they did? iwaizumi already had so many trust issues that you were treading on thin ice right now.

it really all came down to the question: do what’s right or do what’s easy?

right or easy, right or easy?

for years you have been choosing the easy route to undermine your problems. you always thought to yourself, if you had ignored the problem long enough, eventually it’ll all go away. it might have worked for the tiniest of things, but you should’ve known it would never work when you were fucking up other people’s lives from your own selfishness.

you didn’t want to be selfish anymore.

“we ended up sleeping together.”

you scrunched your brows in confusion, “what?”

did satomi lie then? did they actually sleep together?

“i-i don’t even remember how it all happened!” iwaizumi exclaimed in such urgency. he certainly didn’t want to make the gap between you two any bigger, “all i remember was that we kissed but before i knew it, i woke up to her in my bed but she was fully clothed.”

you sigh with a huff, trying to piece together the disarrayed parts together as you recalled bokuto’s words from last night, satomi doesn’t lie when it comes to sleeping around. the sentence wandering your thoughts as the boy before you continue to ramble. so maybe satomi didn’t lie after all, “listen, iwa—”

“you gotta believe me, (y/n), i didn’t mean to do it. when i said that i still love you the last time we texted i meant it—”

“haji, i said listen!” you huffed as you grabbed his arm. the sudden name change was enough to shut him up and possibly cause a surging red tint to his ears. you found it adorable, but you had to cut him some slack since you hadn’t called him that since high school. “last night i was with akaashi and bokuto.”

iwaizumi was already making a face before you could even start. “why were you with them?”

“just hear me out okay?” you pleaded.

he saw the aggression in your eyes and immediately shut up, nodding for you to continue.

“while i was with them, satomi texted us about everything that happened. she said that you guys only made out and didn’t do anything beyond that.” you explain, watching the slight relief softening his expression, “she ended up just sleeping over instead that’s why she was in your bed.”

you didn’t expect him to say anything when you finished your thought. it was a lot to sudden comprehend as you two just stood there waiting, swallowed up in your own thoughts.

“don’t blame yourself, okay?” you attempted to break the silence, “what satomi did was wrong.”

iwaizumi’s wandering gaze flickered back to you, fist curling up into a tight ball until his knuckles turned marble white. but as quickly as he felt the aching of his nail digging into his palm did he let go and let his shoulders drop. he sighs while he ran his hand through his tangled hair. he didn’t know what to say and the silence was punishing.

you parted your lips slightly as the words tickled your tongue. “this, um, might be too much to ask and you don’t have to say yes, but we need your help with something.”

“who’s we?”

“bokuto, akaashi, kaori, and the rest of my team.” you answer truthfully, “we’re trying to get satomi to face the consequences.”

iwaizumi nods, not hesitating for a second. “alright, i’ll do it.”

well that was easier than you thought.

you held back an amused laugh, hiding your smile behind your hand as you pull away from him. you made your way back to your kitchen as you had forgotten about your cup of tea from earlier.

“but...” iwaizumi trailed behind you as you sipped from your mug. “i was the one who made a move on her first.”

“oh,” you say. you definitely didn’t know about that small detail that sent ivy-like jealousy through your veins, “i mean... you were drunk so it makes sense.” you tried to justify without making your envy too obvious.

you turned away from him, fearing that he could see right through you.

“i kissed her thinking it was you,” he states.

your eyes widen then, slapping your cheeks that heated by the second. there was a grip around your swiftly beating heart, aching within your ribcage as you attempted to calm the roaring serendipities that threatened to bloom prematurely.

a composed sigh leaves you as you pull yourself together, turning back around to face iwaizumi with a meek smile. “cool,” you mused awkwardly as your brain search rapidly for a way to change the subject. iwaizumi moved closer to you, sending you into a mild panic, “have you had breakfast yet?” you asked out of the blue.

but before you could even fathom what he was doing, he cups your face between his hands and pulls you in.

your heart flutters and stops when iwaizumi pressed his lips against yours, soft and delicate as if you were the most fragile thing within his grasp. and you were. his touch against your jaw was light as it trailed down your neck. he could feel the raging ichor that soared through your veins like a wildfire while your hand that was splayed against his broad chest could feel the thumping of his heart against your own palm.

you pull away from him as he says, “no, i haven’t.” but it wasn’t to let him answer, rather, it was the thought that iwaizumi came second place again.

fun facts! —

yes. y/n did kiss both bokuto and iwaizumi within a span of a couple hours 💀 queen shit fr

after iwaizumi left, y/n immediately facetimed kaori and akaashi and told them what happened

it was definitely awkward between bokuto and iwaizumi when they saw each other, but it was harder to avoid satomi

(also by saying “iwaizumi came second place” means who was able to kiss y/n first not who won her feelings over)

taglist: (closed!)

@moonlightaangel @elianetsantana @k4tiepie @memorableminds @wheeshllumi @suhkusa @kitsunetea @airybby @noeminemi @truly-a-snitch @keichan @cosmicmermaid25 @bap-kingdom @saturnfarie @kwdflash @ennos-baby @dinablossom @chrisrue15 @seikamuzu @nestlevanilla @chasekudo @yammmers @pixcldust @iwaizluv @h0ngh0ngh0ng @emogril @tiredandkindaoverworked @tsumue @underratedmage @bokutosuwus @kellesvt @unstableye @oh-tapeworm @scrappyfka @alittlebitofrain @mxngy @tpwkatsumu @atsumuwoah @macchiatoast @dicerawr @kageyamasbabygorl @some-random-stranger-007 @vhskenma @wntrmn @little-plants @stargirlara @kissungjae @je11yfishwriter @sbaepsae @apollochjld

#haikyuu!!#haikyuu #haikyuu imagines #haikyuu scenarios #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu smau #bokuto koutarou #bokuto x reader #bokuto scenarios #bokuto imagines #bokuto smau #iwaizumi hajime #iwaizumi x reader #iwaizumi scenarios #iwaizumi imagines #iwaizumi smau

487 notes · View notes

honeymoonjin · 4 years

Text

ᴘᴀɪʀɪɴɢ: ot7 x reader || ᴡᴏʀᴅ ᴄᴏᴜɴᴛ: 13k || ɢᴇɴʀᴇ: smut - rated 18+

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ᴡᴀʀɴɪɴɢs: fxf smut, sub!reader, dom!hoseok, dom!bee, shibari/bondage, sex swing, fingering, safewording situation, aftercare, exhibition, voyeurism

A/N: chapters may not come every week, but i am continuing to post them now xx i appreciate your patience

DAY TWENTY-TWO

Normally, getting a text at ass o’clock in the morning would annoy Hoseok. Normally, he’d deny the offer to get out of the warmth of his bed and go down and have ‘a chat’ with someone at ass o’clock in the morning -

But then again, his bed is a little too warm with an extra body in it. Perhaps going downstairs is the better option. He rolls over gingerly, glaring at the man in bed beside him, separated by a wall of spare pillows. His blue hair doesn’t seem as harsh in the dim pre-dawn light, and his lips are plumper than ever, slightly pouted in his sleep. He looks peaceful, no lines on his face even though he’d gone to bed wearing makeup. One tiny hand rests propped underneath his face, making his cheek bulge, and the other clutches intermittently at the duvet, like he’s caught up in a dream. Park Jimin looks so content and angelic in his sleep. Hoseok narrows his eyes. Little shit.

It’s easy enough to get dressed and ready without disturbing the sleeping demon. Well - truthfully, he’s just shrugged on a hoodie over his sleep shirt and sweatpants to make them look less like pyjamas, but still.

By the time he gets downstairs, grimacing at the sharp lights of the kitchen, Namjoon is practically chewing a hole through the lid of a plastic bottle, gnawing at it with eyes rounded with worry.

“Woah, woah, woah.” Hoseok rushes forward, gently tugging the half-empty bottle out from between the younger man’s teeth, giving him a soft but reproachful look. “What’s going on, buddy?”

Namjoon startles with the sudden motion, eyes blinking slowly in a way that speaks to a lack of sleep the night before. “Oh good, you came,” he mutters absentmindedly, “I’m kinda freaking out.”

Hoseok’s brow pinches with concern. “I did notice that. You seemed pretty carefree yesterday; what’s changed?”

The academic bites his lip. “Sunmi was talking to me. Did you know basically everyone else is in a relationship?”

Whatever Hoseok was anticipating, it certainly wasn’t that. “Huh?”

Namjoon nods, frantic. “Y/n got together with Jimin and Tae, but now they’re kind of not? - I don’t know, Sunmi wasn’t that bothered about the details - and then Yoongi and Jin had their thing, obviously, but now Jungkook has a thing with Yoongi, and Tae and Jungkook have been fooling around too, and it’s like we’re the only ones left out. I didn’t even realise it, but we’re the leftovers, Hobi-hyung.”

Even as that comment sends a dagger right through him, Hoseok keeps his face neutral. “I’m sure that’s not the case, Namjoon. Nobody’s trying to leave us out.”

“I know that,” Namjoon replies quickly, an earnest nod, “it’s just that- Well, I want that, Hobi-hyung. I want to sneak around, I want to hold hands, I want to feel what it’s like. It’s not that I’m annoyed at the others, it’s just… it’s highlighted yet another area that I’m a total virgin in. I’m sick of always feeling behind on these things. I’m sick of it never being me.”

Hoseok swallows, reaching around to pat Namjoon on the back in what he hopes his a comforting gesture. This wasn’t as straightforward as aftercare; Namjoon was seriously hurting. “Listen, Joon, if you want to get into a relationship of any sort with them, you need to talk to them directly-”

“But I don’t,” the academic cuts off, looking more vulnerable than ever. In plaid pyjamas and round glasses with lenses thicker than the frames, hair still mussed up from restlessness, he looks totally lost. “I’ve thought about it a lot. I don’t think I’m ready for a relationship. It’s like… I wouldn’t write an essay and hand it in straight away, you know? I’d write an outline, and then a draft, and I’d use the draft to make edits and write a second draft, and eventually I’d write the final product and submit it. Do you get it?”

Hoseok presses his lips together. “I’m afraid I don’t follow.”

Namjoon bites down hard on his lip, making the flesh go white, and bloom red when he lets go to speak. “Hobi-hyung,” he begins slowly, “are you interested in any of the people here romantically? Are you wanting to get into a relationship like that?”

Fear shoots through Hoseok instinctively, but it’s soothed by the reassurance, it’s Namjoon. He can be honest with Namjoon. “No,” he admits, waiting for his face to fall.

Instead, the opposite happens. Namjoon’s brows smoothen with visible relief. “I want you to be my first draft, hyung.”

Hoseok tilts his head. “Now would be a great time for you to explain the metaphor, Joonie.”

Namjoon sucks in a deep breath and slips off his glasses, blinking owlishly like being a little blind is preferable before he speaks. “I want to pretend to date you, just for a bit. Just to see what it’s like. It can be a trial run, we’ll stop whenever we want. But you’re the only one in this house I trust like that.” He pauses, fingers twitching where they rest clasped in his lap. “Feel free to say no, though.”

Perhaps Hoseok’s mind is a little slow from waking up, but he barely comprehends the implications of what Namjoon is telling him. “You felt left out when the others were trying to have secret relationships or sneak around the rest of us… so you want to… pretend to do that?”

“Well- no, we wouldn’t have to hide it,” Namjoon says slowly, fingers reaching for the water bottle. Hoseok lets him have it, but watches out to make sure he doesn’t begin gnawing on the lid again. “I just think it would be nice to be the one doing couple stuff for once, don’t you think?”

Upon hearing these words, Hoseok begins to feel his very bones shake. It’s the uncontrollable trembling that seems to pass over him every time he gets close to breaking the seal - close to coming out. As always, he has a choice. It only takes one more look at the openness on Namjoon’s face to decide. “Joonie, I’m aromantic.”

Namjoon sucks in a silent breath of surprise. “Huh? Really?”

Now that it’s out there, the silence feels so much more deafening. “Yeah.” He doesn’t know what to say. Should he explain himself, apologise, give excuses-?

“That doesn’t change my opinion of you, you know that, right?”

Hoseok blinks. Namjoon seems more awake now, more alert and calm. “I- What do you mean?”

“You’re my best friend on this show,” Namjoon admits shyly, “you’ve taught me a lot, and I feel so safe with you. I didn’t come to you because I thought you’d want to actually date, so please don’t think I’m going to feel disappointed. It’s really special that you felt comfortable enough to- oof!”

Before Namjoon finishes, Hoseok is barrelling him over in a tight hug. Namjoon’s arms bracket around him, and the dom could just about purr with the warm fuzzy happiness that bubbles in his chest. “Oh, Joonie! You’re my best friend here too!”

Namjoon hugs him tighter now. “I’m so glad, hyung,” he murmurs softly.

Not wanting to leave this embrace, Hoseok lets his eyes slip closed and rests his chin on Namjoon’s shoulder. “I think fake-dating sounds kinda fun, by the way. We can take the b out of bromance. I wanna see how the others react.”

Just as the breathy sound of Namjoon’s gleeful laughter light his ears, a darker, more bemused chuckle drowns it out.

“Fake dating, huh?” a voice drawls, causing the two of them to jump apart like they’d been stung. “As if things couldn’t get any cheesier around here.”

Namjoon rubs his eyes, looking even more disheveled than when Hoseok first saw him. “Yoongi?”

Hoseok swallows as the raven-haired, cat-eyed beauty standing across from them scowls. “Not quite, buddy.”

The academic fumbles for his glasses and slips them on, gasping as Min Yoonji comes into perfect focus. “Oh! Uh, good morning! You can ignore what you just saw and heard.”

“Absolutely not,” she counters easily, sitting gracefully on a stool at the breakfast bar. Far more awake and presentable than the two of them, she looks sleek and fashionable in a pale silver blouse, black sash tied around the collar, and sleek black pants. Her eyes rake over the two of them, mouth turned down in a frown. “No one would believe it,” she says finally.

“Excuse me?” Hoseok questions, feeling distinctly like a petri dish being studied by a disdainful scientist. He spares a glance at Namjoon, who shifts uncomfortably and fiddles with his pyjama sleeves.

Yoonji just shrugs like it’s obvious. “If you told them now that you’re dating, they’d assume it was a joke. You need to set it up, build a narrative,” she explains. “How about this? I’ll spread a rumour that I saw the two of you making out down here, then you lay down some clues like sneaking off together or fucking each other with your eyes over the dinner table, and boom, everyone will think you’re boning. Bonus points if you can get someone else in on it.”

The two stay silent for a few seconds before they realise Yoonji is waiting for an answer. “Uh,” Hoseok states eloquently.

“Thank you?” Namjoon questions.

Yoonji huffs, eyes rolling skywards. “You two are hopeless. I’ll do what I can, but it’s going to cost you.”

“Are we- what- is this a deal? Are you negotiating with us?” Namjoon stammers, taking his glasses off to clean the lenses with the edge of his shirt even though they were fine before.

“There is no negotiation,” she explains. “I’ll keep your secret and help you. In return, you need to send me a text the second Yoongi tries to put the moves on anyone so I can get the fuck out of the house. I’m not asking for much, but it is very important to me.”

The absurdity of the situation dawns upon Hoseok suddenly, and an unstoppable grin stretches across his face. “It was never about helping us, was it? You just wanna make sure you don’t accidentally walk in on your brother getting railed.”

Yoonji grimaces sharply, shaking her head like she’s trying to dispel the thought. “If you aren’t interested in the deal, I’ll find someone else to blackmail, simple as that.”

“We can do it!” Namjoon volunteers, straightening his back.

Hoseok quickly nods in agreement, watching Yoonji’s shoulders dip in relief. “Sounds fair,” he summarises, “but we’ll need your phone number to do that.”

Yoonji does an almost perfect job of masking her pleased smile with a pointed glare. “Give me your phones, then.”

By the time everyone is seated (bar Yoonji, who has apparently taken over her brother’s room to watch Netflix while the rest of you talk ‘business’) and Sejin walks in, you’ve made your decision.

Unlike the first week, the individual doesn’t know in advance, and it’s this guilt that makes you stubbornly avoid eye contact with them all.

Taehyung had also been given the pass to not join the meeting, but he’d shown up anyway for morale. Or, rather, wrapping his arms around your waist tightly and taking a nap on your shoulder. You couldn’t deny it was comforting to feel his body heat, albeit unconscious.

Yoongi sits on the other side of Taehyung, luckily not pressuring you into conversation, and the two other couches are making conversation amongst themselves when Sejin cuts them short to start the meeting.

“Thank you for being punctual, everyone!” he begins cheerily. Perching on the edge of the coffee table, he rubs his palms together. “It’s time again for the elimination vote. Before I ask Y/n to make her decision, the current six Gentlemen have the chance to defend their position in the game. Starting from the left with you; Namjoon.”

Fuck. Now is the point where you can no longer avoid eye contact with everyone. Leaning into Taehyung’s embrace a little more - the sleeping boy grumbling as you shift beneath him - you look up tentatively towards Namjoon.

He looks a little nervous, but no more than he usually gets in these meetings anyway. Hoseok’s hand rests on the back of the couch behind the academic, who seems perfectly comfortable in the crook of Hoseok’s arm. “Y/n,” he begins, clearing his throat with a brief smile, “I’ve enjoyed the time I’ve spent with you so much, this past week especially. I know I still have some catching up to do when it comes to prowess in the bedroom, but I feel myself improving and once again I’m asking you to be patient with me, and keep me in the game a little longer so that I can do better next week, and the week after that.” He does a cute little nod when he’s finished, cheeks slightly pink.

Hoseok sighs out dramatically when his turn is signified, not shifting from his position. “I’m not above bribery, Y/n. If you keep me in this competition, I’ll take you to my workplace tonight and we can have a good time. If you vote me out, our little excursion will be to the worst Italian restaurant in Gangnam and order a margarita pizza with no cheese or sauce, extra anchovies and pineapple. And we won’t leave until you eat at least your half of the pizza.” He narrows his eyes at you, playful even in the face of elimination. “Are you willing to take that risk?”

You let out a genuine chuckle, shoulders jerking with the force of it. Roused from sleep by your movements, Tae pouts and rubs at his eyes. Even with his hair sticking up at odd angles, he looks so gorgeous that it takes your breath away. As he sits up and adjusts his position, leaning with his back against your side and tugging your arm over him like it’s a blanket, you can’t help but feel a pang of regret for voting him out so soon when you like him so much.

You bite down hard on your tongue, wincing at the pain. Would you come to regret the decision you’re making this morning, too?

Jin is next, and your heart thumps a little faster when you meet his gentle gaze. “I don’t have a lot to say,” he admits slowly, “at least, nothing that I haven’t already said to you. Spending time with you in any context is the highlight of my week, and I sorely hope that I don’t lose you just yet.”

That’s it for the couch to the left of you. Relieved nobody is expecting you to actually respond to these, you give Jin a tight smile and turn to Yoongi, staring at him over Taehyung’s bedhead.

Yoongi shrugs. “Y/n, I think you and I make a really good team. We’re compatible sexually, we get along well outside of that, and I know that you see it too. I’m pretty confident that I’m not the one going home this week.” You let out a light scoff at his faux air of certainty.

Finally, Jimin and Jungkook remain on the last couch. Jungkook is closer to you, so he’s next in line. The bright red streaks of his hair have faded a little, more rosy than before. It makes him look even softer as he sits cross-legged on the couch, the long sleeves of his baggy black shirt tangled up in his lap. He looks genuinely worried, unable to front a smile to you. “Um, I would-” He breaks off suddenly as his nose twitches. “I’d be really sad if you eliminated me,” he confesses in a small voice. “I don’t wanna guilt trip, but, um, I really wanna stay in.”

Your heart aches at the way he drops his chin and stares at the carpet blankly. Beside him, Jimin looks equally pained, and his voice is softer than usual when he speaks up.

“In terms of defending my place in the game,” Jimin says slowly, “I can promise that I’ll keep things different and exciting every week for you and that things will be a lot more fun if you keep me in.” He eyes crinkle fondly. “But I trust your decision either way.”

You suck in an unsteady breath. With everyone’s petitions complete, there’s nothing standing between you and the decision you have to make. Though his words cut right to you, the person you’d chosen earlier hasn’t changed.

Sejin clears his throat after giving you a moment to think. “Who are you choosing to eliminate this week, Y/n? As per the current rules, they’ll be removed from the competition, but allowed to remain in the house on the grounds that they do not initiate any sexual contact with you.”

Making like Jungkook, you lower your gaze to the floor. “First of all,” you start, hating the way your voice sounds so small, “you’re all amazing. Just like last week, there’s no- there’s no easy choice. No matter who I choose it’s going to suck for us both, and I’m sorry about that.”

You pause for a moment, trying to think of the right way to phrase your thoughts. “I’m choosing this person because I think that while the sex has been, um, really good-” it’s futile to fight the blush on your cheeks but you duck your head lower anyway, “-it’s maybe not as exciting week to week as some of the other guys.” The eyes on you feel like redhot pressure points, and you try and loosen the tightness in your chest. “And if I’m totally honest, I think- I really like this person, but I think I’d feel a little more comfortable being able to explore that without the pressures of the competition.”

It’s the least you can do to lift your gaze up and to the left, giving him the dignity of a proper sendoff. “I’m sorry, Jin, it’s you this week.”

Perhaps the worst part of this morning is that Jin seems genuinely caught off-guard.

Or perhaps the worst part is the way his face falls into something grave and icy, standing up so abruptly that Hoseok recoils beside him.

Your heart sinks, your voice drowned out by Sejin’s even as you call out the same name.

“Jin,” Sejin commands, “you have to come back to- Jin!”

Though he was already halfway to the front door, Jin stiffly turns around and waits in the doorway. His eyes actively avoid you, glaring at the wall. Sejin excuses himself and takes him aside to give him the instructions on how to proceed.

It feels like a bucket of cold water has been dumped over you, pooling in your stomach, and you fight the tears that prick your eyes as Tae wriggles around beside you, pulling you into a hug.

You feel fingers card through your hair, even as his two hands stroke your back and hold you close. Glancing up, you’re met with the sight of Yoongi’s face, pained with sympathy, as he gently pats your cheek and continues to brush your hair.

“He hates me,” you murmur miserably.

Yoongi doesn’t contradict you, just letting out a sad sigh. “He’s upset,” he admits, “but he’s a strong guy. He’ll move past it.”

You protest weakly as Taehyung coos softly and pulls you closer, practically tugging you onto his lap so your legs hang over one side and your torso is snug in his embrace. The guilt is far worse this week than it was last time. It constricts your lungs, your veins, makes you feel weak with dread. “He likes me. He likes me and I did that to him.”

“Oh, sweetheart, we all like you,” Yoongi says, his hand falling to cup yours, swirling lazy circles on the skin of your palm.

“Not like that,” you counter, “not like Jin does.”

For a moment it seems like Yoongi is going to disagree with that, but he drops it, squeezing your hand and standing up. “I’m going to make us something to eat. Maybe a hot stew would cheer everyone up a little bit.”

The chances are low, you think, but you would never turn down his food. “Sejin still hasn’t assigned the new prompts and told us about the new week, though,” you point out, glancing over to the two men still in the doorway. Even seeing Jin for a second jolts you like an electric shock, so you turn and bundle your face into the crook of Taehyung’s neck, feeling the soft fibres of his box-knit cardigan against your chin.

“Then Sejin can make himself useful and chop some vegetables while he does it,” Yoongi counters with a pompous sniff as he leaves, and in spite of your own misery, a chuckle overcomes you at the thought of it.

“There’s that smile,” Taehyung croons, a finger tipping your chin up. His eyes are two brown pools of comfort that you can’t help but get lost in. “Jin will survive. I did!”

You straighten up once you hear the sound of shoes approaching again, smile dropping. But this time Sejin stands alone.

“Yoongi, out of the kitchen, please,” the producer sighs.

With one foot hovering over the border where carpet meets tile, Yoongi freezes. “I’ll make you an extra serving,” he bargains, “you can even pick the meat.”

“Out of the kitchen,” Sejin repeats in a stern voice, “can we have at least some decorum during the meeting?”

“But I’m hungry,” he defends. Sejin doesn’t reply, simply flattening his gaze. As everyone waits, Yoongi slinks back like a sulking cat, perching on the edge of the couch beside you and Taehyung with his arms crossed in defiance. “Do I get to pick out the prompts again?”

“No. Let’s get started, please.” Taking a breath so deep it lifts his shoulders, Sejin calms himself and clears his throat, standing in front of the seven of you. “The theme of this week is Limited Edition. I’ve got five prompts here; come up in any order.”

Taehyung slides you off his lap so smoothly that you barely notice it’s happened before he’s standing up with a stretch, waltzing towards Sejin’s outstretched hand.

Sejin realises at the last minute and tugs his hand back the second Taehyung’s fingers brush one of the slips of paper. “Taehyung, you know you can’t take a prompt. Sit down.”

Without pause, Taehyung spins on his foot, strolling right back to your couch as if nothing was amiss. “Worth a shot,” he mutters when he sits back down beside you. You know this is just his attempt at cheering you up, but that doesn’t make it work any less. Tucking your arm around his, you lean into him and watch as the first actual contestant takes his prompt.

It’s Yoongi up first, clearly wanting to expedite the process as much as possible, but when he snatches the topmost fold of paper, the text written inside gives him pause. His brows furrow, then lift in realisation, before he collapses back beside you, drumming his fingers on the arm of the couch thoughtfully.

Jimin is next, selecting the next one in the splayed-out pile. His head cocks to the side, turning to Yoongi with a curious look. “Oh,” he comments mildly.

“Yeah,” Yoongi agrees, and Hoseok, who’d previously been stunned into silence with Jin’s sudden mood change, springs up with a huff.

“What is this oohing and aahing all about,” he grumbles, quickly picking a prompt and holding it close to his chest like he’s worried someone will peek. The second he looks at his, however, his face falls. He tries to recover with a light laugh, but you don’t miss the way he eyes the remaining slips in Sejin’s hand like he longs to trade his in.

He sits down though, patting Namjoon’s thigh to get him to go up. Oddly enough, Namjoon also looks stricken when he reads his prompt, showing it to Hoseok with a nervous gnawing of his lip.

Jungkook is the last one left, and at this point you’re uncontrollably curious but also wary about what these prompts could contain. Interestingly, though, Jungkook doesn’t seem disappointed or worried, but instead scrunches his nose and giggles at the prompt, tucking it into his pocket before joining Jimin and poking his side until the older man shows him his prompt, snickering even more at the sight of it.

“Alright,” Sejin starts, cutting off your train of thought, “now that we’ve finished that, the last point of discussion is the Bangasm Bomb. This week, the special challenge is called Viewer’s Choice. Each day, there will be a random poll taken on the official Bangasm twitter. It will correspond to each prompt, and the next morning, one of you will get a text. That means you have to complete your prompt that day, using the winning vote of the poll. If you fail to include this aspect, you’ll fail overall even if you successfully completed the actual prompt. Make sense?”

Jungkook stares blankly. “Could we have an example?”

Sejin shrugs. “The first poll was posted at 10am this morning. The four options are: standing, lying down, sitting and kneeling. Whichever position wins the poll must be included in the scene tomorrow. If, tomorrow morning, you get a text from me with one of these options, that means you need to complete your prompt that day using the winning option of the poll.”

“Okay,” Jungkook says slowly, mulling it over, “yeah, I get it now. So we don’t get to choose when we go?”

“Not this week, no,” Sejin explains, and then clears his throat. “Well, then. That’s all from me! I need to go make sure Seokjin is behaving.”

The mention of the recently-eliminated member sobers everyone up. Yoongi returns to the kitchen with less vigor than before, Hoseok joins him to make himself a drink, Jungkook comes over to the couch with you and Taehyung and wedges himself between the two of you, so sullen he doesn’t even speak.

In the end, the seven of you decide to eat lunch in front of the television, putting on a mindless sitcom that nobody really focuses on. Yoonji comes down once Yoongi texts her for lunch, and she sits on the floor with her bowl propped up on the coffee table.

Time passes, and Jin doesn’t return inside.

For a while, there’s an unspoken assumption that he’s still in the confessional shed with Sejin doing his exit interview, but once Jimin pokes his head out the front door and sees the producer working away in the production van, that idea is shattered.

“He’s okay, right?” Taehyung asks abruptly as a laugh track echoes hollowly around the room.

No one needs to ask who he is. Yoongi shrugs. “He’s an adult,” he offers, but the glint of concern is as much alight in his eyes as anyone else’s.

The thought only sustains peace amongst you for so long. Jungkook is glum, Hoseok looks anxious, Namjoon grows restless and begins chewing the end of one of his chopsticks. Even Yoonji has her brows furrowed, jaw tense.

Eventually, your worry overcomes you, and you grab the remote and mute the TV, pitching the room into silence. “I’m going to find him,” you announce.

“Y/n…” Yoongi says reluctantly, but your mind is made.

Not bothering with shoes, you unlock the front door again and slip outside, immediately turning the perimeter to go look for the missing gentleman.

Half-expecting him to be sulking in the confessional booth still, a strike of alarm thuds in your chest to find it empty. You inspect the poolside, the patio and outdoor dining area, but Seokjin’s nowhere to be found.

It’s just as you’re about to give up and return inside that you spot him.

Barely more than a smudge in the distance, you see his tall figure sitting, hunched up, on the very outskirts of the gravel path. He picks up pieces of rock, throws them half-heartedly, and he’s so far away that you can’t even hear them clatter. You recoil at the lonely sight, fighting the urge to run to him.

When you return inside, all eyes are on you. “He’s right on the edge of the property,” you explain miserably, “as far away from me as he can get.”

“Oh, Y/n,” Jimin says softly, eyes brimming with sympathy. From the silence around the room, there’s not much else to say.

You bite your lip. “He probably doesn’t want to talk to me, but can someone please go get him before it gets dark? I’m going to my room for a bit.”

Nobody protests, and you heave yourself up the stairs. By the time you flop onto the bed in your room, door locked behind you, you feel heavier than solid stone.

You’re too distressed to sleep, but guilt pulls at your limbs and leaves you unable to get out of bed for the rest of the day.

By the time you’re called down to go on your excursion with Hoseok, part of you wants to cancel and wallow in your self-pity a little longer. But Hoseok had clearly been looking forward to it so much, and you can’t deny the allure of escaping the Villa, even if only for a few hours.

Hoseok beams at you warmly as he greets you at the car idling outside. With his hair fluffy over his brow but his clothes sleek black, he’s like an enticing halfway point between Hoseok and Master. The sun hangs low in the sky, casting his clear skin in a rich orange glow. “Ready?”

You return his smile, albeit with a little less vigor. “Let’s get out of here.” When the two of you get inside the car and it pulls down the driveway, there’s no lone figure throwing stones on the perimeter of the property. Your heart tugs in a way you can’t quite articulate.

Though you try not to, it’s impossible not to mentally take stock and compare this experience to your previous nights out. Far more than Jimin and Yoongi, Hoseok keeps you talking. Whether it’s him trying to keep you distracted, or just his natural brand of social vibrance, there isn’t a quiet moment.

It isn’t until the car has wound its way deep into the city that Hoseok gently clears his throat, cutting off his own spiel about his favourite brand of bucket hats. “It seems we’ve reached a crossroads,” he announces meaningfully.

You frown as you glance between the seats and out the front window. “That’s a roundabout, Hoseok.”

His eyes shift. “Metaphorically.”

“And what might this metaphorical crossroads entail?” you ask teasingly, a smile curling your lips.

Hoseok stays uncharacteristically sober, leaning towards you as the car creeps forward in the blocked-up after-work traffic. “Our location, princess,” he says softly.

“I thought we were going to your work?” you respond in confusion.

“At the moment we are,” Hoseok replies. “But there’s a cinema just down the road, several great food places, even this fancy smoothie shop that lets you pick your own ingredients.”

“Okay…” The rhythmic click of the turning light echoes through the backseat, making you feel entranced as you watch Hoseok’s eyes warm, focused on you. “Do you not want to go to your work?”

“This is about you now,” he corrects in a kind but firm voice. “Do you want to go to the Red Room and play?”

“Yes,” you say instinctively, but the dom just shakes his head.

“No,” he states unflinchingly, “I need you to think about it longer than that. Do you feel emotionally, mentally, and physically in a position to do a scene tonight?”

You suck in a breath slowly, taking the time to run over them one by one. Physically was the easiest one. Your sex drive was quickly reconfiguring the longer you spent on the show, and even just a day without any action at all was making you feel a little restless and unsatisfied. Emotionally and mentally gave you pause.

How can you untangle those two when your mind and your heart feel knotted together inside you? Whenever one lights up, the other just reflects it. The moment you think of Jin, guilt overcomes you, but that just sparks your desire to flood yourself with distractions and escapism. But then the thought of being out here, enjoying yourself while he’s still stuck in the Villa, probably seething in hurt or rage or betrayal… The guilt just flares even colder in your chest.

“I don’t know,” you admit after a moment of silence. Hoseok hums once, inviting you to speak further. “I really want to. But I don’t know if I should. I just want to forget about everything, but maybe that’s a bad reason.” You blow out a deep breath, cheeks puffing up. “I don’t know; you’re the BDSM expert. Is it okay if I do it to just distract myself?”

Hoseok stays silent for a moment, eyes roaming over you like he’s searching for something. “That depends,” he answers finally. “If it’s a recurring problem in your life, and you use BDSM as a coping mechanism, then that can be unhealthy. Just like drinks or drugs. But at the same time, it’s very common that BDSM is a way of emotional or mental release. Office workers who feel like they’re working the same 9 to 5 every day with no power might want to feel like they have control and excitement in one area of their lives. Maybe CEOs or lawyers or doctors or parents might want to go to a BDSM club and submit so they finally can release the burden of expectation. To have someone else take care of them and make the decisions for a few hours.”

The dom sighs out slowly, eyes softening in empathy. “Y/n, you know that I can’t tell you whether it’s okay or not. I can’t consent on your behalf. You need to decide for yourself if you’re using this as a release, or as a dependent coping mechanism. Do you understand?”

You nod silently, not trusting your voice for a moment. Though he can’t decide for you, his explanation brings a clarity that strikes deeper than you originally intended. “I want to feel taken care of,” you offer up, voice thin like blown glass as your eyes prickle. “I just want to feel good for tonight, Hobi.”

Hoseok nods with a reassuring smile, reaching out to squeeze your shoulder gently. “Then I have another question, princess,” he starts. “You said you were wanting to forget about everything. Would you enjoy your time more if you played with someone else?”

You’re tugged out of your brief lapse of emotional vulnerability by the statement, cocking your head in confusion. “What do you mean?”

Hoseok’s lip twitches as his eyes brighten a little. “Mistress Bee has an opening that she kept just for you,” he reveals in a honeyed drawl, “if you want to use it. Her and I spoke about it earlier. If you’re anything like me, the constant presence of cameras and the whole competition can start to weigh pretty heavily. I think it might be good for you to let yourself be separate from it entirely for a while. Have some fun for fun’s sake. What do you think?”

The idea is something you’d never considered, yet you can’t deny there’s something incredibly appealing about cutting your ties - even just for an evening - and not having to worry about anything to do with the show. But still, you hesitate. “Where would you be?”

Hoseok shrugs easily. “If you want me to stay, I’ll stay. I could sit near the two of you, or just hang around in the main den so I’m out of sight but still not far. And if you really want some distance, I might just go next door and make myself a custom smoothie. Either way, I’m happy.”

You startle when the car suddenly halts, a jerky job of parking down a side street. You’re here. A strange feeling of urgency overtakes you, like he’ll leave any second. You reach out and clutch at his shirt, feeling the press of buttons against your palm. “I want you to stay,” you say in a rush, knuckles going white.

“I’m here,” Hoseok soothes with warm eyes, unhooking your fingers from his shirt one at a time, before squeezing your hand and resting it back in your lap. “I’ll stay, princess.”

Outside, the air is still warm with the remnants of the set sun, even as lamp posts cast white pools of light onto the pavement. On one side of the car - as it reverses painfully slowly back onto the main street - you can spot the smoothie shop Hoseok was talking about, but on the far side is a Daiso store, and on your side, just in front of you, is the entrance to a cinema complex.

You pause, frowning in confusion, but before you can turn to ask Hoseok, his hand is already on the small of your back, leading you towards the cinema.

“We’re downstairs,” the dom explains, pointing out a sign you’d missed that displays the now-familiar logo of two Rs back to back, beside the B that indicates it’s located in the basement. As he leads you past the small foyer of the cinema and down a set of modest hardwood stairs, his voice lowers. “Although all the walls and ceilings are soundproof, having a bass-boosted movie blasting above you certainly helps drown out the rest of the noise. Gives us a bit more privacy.”

“Clever,” you comment absentmindedly, but your attention has already been caught by the sight that greets you below.

The moment you round the final corner of the narrow stairs, it’s like an entirely different world. Without any natural light, the entryway you step onto is lit mostly with wall sconces, though there’s strip lighting along the very edges of the hallway that glow an ominous red.

In front of you is a roughly oval room. In the centre, a woman with a shaved head and long acrylic nails taps away at a monitor, glancing back and forth from the screen to a large black book just beside it. She glances up when you step down, smirking at Hoseok with clear recognition.

Flanking the outskirts of the room are two bulky bodyguards, and you don’t even notice them until they relax and give him a nod. They seem to protect not only the receptionist but three sets of doors as well.

On the left is a locked door marked with letters engraved onto the wood itself reading STAFF. On the far right, the almost identical door there has no lock, and displays instead CHANGING ROOMS. In the middle, directly behind the desk, are two massive doors with iron handles curved in the shape of flicking devil’s tails, complete with the pointed tips. Instead of any words, each door just has one of the Rs of the logo. Then again, it doesn’t really surprise you that there wasn’t any explicit title or description visible. This was a place that you only went to if you knew where you were going.

“I thought you were taking time off, Sir?” the woman asks in a teasing lilt. She’s almost intimidatingly gorgeous, and you fight the urge to shift closer to Hoseok’s side. Her eyes shift to you nonetheless and her grin widens. “Yet here you are, bearing a gift.”

“Not for sharing, I’m afraid,” Hoseok deflects, and it takes you off-guard to hear the audible difference in his voice compared to what you’re used to. He’s not fully in Master mode, but the bubbly ball of energy has been replaced by the suave charisma of someone who knows he commands the attention of any room. Just as you glance up at him, he looks down with crinkled eyes and lifts the hand on your back up into your hair, not quite tugging, but keeping it there for a moment before he lets his fingers slip through your locks again. He holds your eyes a second longer before turning back to the receptionist. “Red cuffs will do, Sim.”

With a sigh, the receptionist acquiesces, a small silver piercing just below her bottom lip glinting as she shifts and reaches into a drawer at the desk, producing a pair of cuffs that look exactly the same as the ones Hoseok had used on you a few days ago.

She stretches them out towards you, but Hoseok intercepts and chooses to put them on you himself. Though they come connected together by the chain, he unclips and pockets it once the leather is snug around your wrists, leaving you claimed but still free to move. The meaning of the red trim still makes you shiver when you run your fingertips over it, and the sight makes Sim chuckle.

“First time here?” You aren’t sure if the cat-eyed beauty in front of you is asking you directly or Hoseok on your behalf, but you nod anyway. She hums, closing the drawer and pulling a sheet of paper out of another one and placing it on the desktop. “Just because you’re coming in attached to the Big Man doesn’t mean you get to skip the rules. Read them over and sign anywhere on the page to show you’ve understood. And I’ll need to see some ID, verify your age and all that.”

Fumbling to pull your ID out of your wallet, you hand it over and take the photocopy and the outstretched pen from her in turn, scanning the numbered list of rules. There aren’t any surprises, luckily; it reiterates the cuff colouring, safeword systems and staff on site, as well as emergency exits and procedures. There are places to buy drinks and snacks inside, but only spectators can consume alcohol.

“There’s a station for toy rental inside,” Sim explains, handing you back your ID after noting down your details, “with its own set of rules and everything, but I’m sure your Master here will be using his own stash. Our staff wear black clothes with red logos and arm bands, you can’t miss ‘em. Just sign if you’re good, and you two can go on through.”

Hoseok waits while you read, sharing some smalltalk with the two bodyguards in the meantime. Once you sign off and hand the items back to Sim, who dutifully stamps the sheet and files it away, your dom turns to you with a pleased grin. “Shall we?”

The moment Hoseok wraps his slender fingers around those devil tail door handles and pushes them inwards, sound fills the room, no longer held at bay by the seal of soundproofing. Chatter, laughter, the general hum of crowds - they all fill the space around moans and cries and cracks of whips, every possible noise you’d heard on a porn video or experienced over the past three weeks.

It was debauchery in every sense of the word, and Hoseok slipped into the thick of it like a duck in water.

With a single finger hooked onto one of your cuffs by the silver loop, he pulls you in with him, letting you soak in your surroundings as he leads you.

Though you didn’t really have any clear expectations, you’re shocked by the sheer amount of people inside, all gasping at Hoseok and parting in front of him like an adoring sea. The first area is relatively cosy, clearly just meant for socialising.

Couches surround the edges of the room, except for a small bar manned by two insanely hot guys. One effortlessly shakes up a drink, biceps pumping with the motion, and the other chats up a middle-aged woman who appears to flirt back, ignoring the older man kneeling at her feet with a pleading look in his eyes.

They fall out of your sight quickly as you move through a doorway, the sound dropping off just as suddenly. It’s not quite silence that greets you in the next room, however. Just about bumping into a row of occupied seats, Hoseok adjusts your direction so that you move around the back of the room, but that doesn’t stop you from glancing towards the front, where a whimpering girl is strapped to what looks like a medieval set of pillocks by the neck and wrists, her face wet with tears but alight with ecstasy as a gloved man demonstrates to a rapt audience how to fit an entire fist inside her.

Your eyes widen at how openly they display the obscene act. Then again, how is it any different from what you’d been doing in the Villa? Whether it was an audience at home watching through a screen, you’d still let yourself be viewed in much the same way. As Hoseok keeps you stumbling down the back of the room and out a different doorway, you think more about what being that girl on the stage might feel like.

Moving so quickly through the seemingly endless basement, you’re startled when suddenly you’re jolted to a stop in front of an elevator. Hoseok punches in a code that has to be at least seven or so digits on a little keypad beside the doors, before pressing the down arrow.

“Where are we going?” you question, voice still hushed as if you were in the theater.

“Bee’s office,” Hoseok answers simply, but the realisation that you’re about to play with the gorgeous spitfire - with Hoseok watching, no less - fills you with a restless arousal. “She doesn’t know whether you chose to even come here tonight or not, let alone play with her. We’re going to give her a little surprise, princess. I guess I did come bearing a gift after all.”

Once the lift arrives, he steps inside smoothly, no longer holding onto your cuffs. You jump inside, watching him select B2 off the limited selection of floors. “This used to be a carpark,” Hoseok explains casually as you’re slowly lowered down. “But when it got bought by the cinema, they didn’t really need it, so they leased the first below-ground floor to us for a pretty low price. We originally just kept this lift for wheelchair access, but once we got bigger and expanded a little, we decided to move our offices downstairs for an extra layer of privacy.”

The elevator chimes, opening its doors to reveal a hallway similar in appearance to the entrance foyer you first walked into. “But we aren’t going to your office?” you ask, curiosity making your skin itch as he walks right past a door with the letter H on a placard beside the knob.

“Not this time, princess.” Hoseok halts again, and you catch sight of a new door, this one with a B. Spinning on his heel, your dom turns to you and pats your cheeks with a grin, lowering his voice conspiriatorially. “If you’re Bee’s present, we better wrap you up nice, hm?”

Things start to feel distinctly more real when Hoseok undresses you right in that very corridor. You can’t help but worry that somebody could come down in the elevator at any moment, or the service stairs behind you. Watching you squirm with a barely-contained grin, Hoseok does nothing to assuage those fears.

He allows you to keep on your panties, kicking the rest of your clothes to the side and slipping off his own jacket to lay over your shoulders. Though it’s a little big on you, it’s laughably inadequate in covering you up, made of some less-than-opaque black fabric that betrays everything below down to the moles and freckles on your skin. Hoseok looks somehow even more intimidating without the piece on, a fitted tank top exposing his taut shoulders and modestly sculpted arms.

“Knock, princess,” Hoseok instructs, not without the warm hint of fondness that colours his voice.

You do so with a shaky hand - shivering partly from excitement and partly from the chill of air conditioning that fills the hallway.

“I’m busy!” a muffled voice calls out brightly, making Hoseok tut with a rueful smile.

He leans in so that his cheek almost brushes the hard wood. “Do you want to be busier?”

A pause, then footsteps drawing closer.

Before the door even opens fully, Bee is cooing loudly on the other side, clapping her hands in clear joy. “I knew it! Come in, come in!”

Her bubbly personality is at odds with the glossy red latex that covers her body, heels clicking with every skipped step back into her office. Bee waves you in first, letting you enter before you hear her voice lower, asking for permission to touch.

“She’s all yours, feel free to play with her to your heart’s desire,” Hoseok explains easily, making arousal pool between your legs, “the red is for you and me tonight.”

“Splendid,” Bee chirps from behind you, and you jump when you suddenly feel fingers brushing up your spine, even through the thin fabric of Hoseok’s jacket. “Take a seat, chickie, let’s talk.”

In her office, the Mistress shows that same duality of a cheery personality with her dominance. A large corner desk sits in the corner, with a small board of polaroids pinned to the wall and a little terracotta pot of violets and a spray bottle of water just beside it. A small cup with various items of stationery is complete with a tall pen with a fluffy pink pompom on the end, and even from what you can glimpse, it looks like her screensaver on her computer is some stylised LINE friends character.

Yet move your eyes anywhere else in the room, and you see a metal cage in one corner, a flogger hanging from a clothes peg behind the door, various fixtures on the walls, ceiling and furniture that speak of restraint and punishment.

As you perch delicately on a lowset sofa across from her desk, you wonder if Hoseok’s office is much the same. It certainly looks like Bee would take in subs here to play with her, judging by the equipment. Had Hoseok spent evenings with submissive women and men in his office, making them kneel and beg and serve?

The thought stirs something inside you, and for a moment you think it’s jealousy. But then Hoseok beams at you with a salacious wink, settling onto the corner of Bee’s desk, and you realise that it’s less envy and more the feeling like there were parts of him you were missing out on. That there was still so much you had to discover of him, to experience with him.

You wonder if he’ll let you come back to see him here one day, after all this is over.

Suddenly, your view of him is obstructed by the deep red of Bee’s corset and latex pants, her hands on her hips. “You’re looking a little too much at him and not enough at me, chickie,” she croons, almost conspiriatorially as you crane your neck to meet her gaze. She tilts her head, lips curled. “Do we have to send him out?”

You shake your head adamantly, unable to stop your eyes from quickly darting behind her.

She chuckles. “Cute. So soft for her Master.” Your head feels hazy as she slips her fingers into your hair, stroking your head fondly. “I think your Master is soft on you too, baby.”

Without much fanfare, Bee swivels and sits herself down beside you, so close your shoulders and thighs press together. You suck in a breath at the closeness, but the domme just gets closer, flicking your hair over your shoulder and rubbing at the nape of your neck as she watches you intently.

“Did Hobi give you the full tour?” she asks in a low voice, the slight graze of her fingernails making you shiver. “What was your favourite room so far, I wonder?”

You go to shrug, put on the spot so suddenly, but before you can Hoseok pipes up. “The theater,” he states without room for disagreement.

At the thought of the room, you feel desire swim within you. The image of that girl, so vulnerable as a room of at least thirty strangers watched her, analysed her, enjoyed her pleasure just as much as she did. That image hadn’t really left your head since the moment you saw it. Before you even realised it yourself, Hoseok had known. Something about that made you dizzy with your want for him.

But tonight was about Bee, about the intoxicating feeling of being so close to a beautiful, powerful woman. The lady herself hums, pleased. “The theater,” she repeats in a low voice. “Do you like watching, baby?”

“She’s on a porn show,” Hoseok butts in again, his eyes like pointed furnaces on you, wetting his lips between words, “give her more credit than that.”

This time, Bee straightens up and narrows her eyes at the man across from you. “You can stop answering on her behalf, Hoseok, or I’ll put you out myself. You said I get to play with her tonight.”

“Yes, Mistress,” he retorts in a slightly sarcastic, petulant tone, but shoves his hands in his pockets and presses his lips together anyway.

Bee turns back to you, letting her fingers tuck beneath the collar of Hoseok’s jacket so that her palm rests against your bare back. Stroking slowly, she smiles, her eyes glittering. “We can play on the big stage if you want, baby. Would you like that?”

The opportunity, a little bit frightening but mostly extremely arousing, makes you squeeze your thighs together with a hard swallow. “Yes, please,” you mumble in a small voice.

Her smile widens, caramel skin positively glowing in the warm light of her office. “Perfect,” she drawls happily, before standing up, back arching slightly as she stretches. “Then there are a few rules you need to know before I take you out there.”

The two dominants share a look, Hoseok lifting his brow at something written on Bee’s face. “Really?” he questions in surprise, chuckling reluctantly. “You’re going all out, huh?”

Even as confusion overtakes you, you watch in rapt curiosity as Bee shrugs, slipping past him to open a tall, skinny cabinet just behind her desk. There’s a large, dark brown coat there, but her hand delves deeper, pulling out a thin yet tough-looking strand of nylon rope, a suggestive deep red almost the same shade as her bodice.

“I dyed these myself,” Bee explains, her voice light and warm like honey. You watch as she lets the length pass over her palm loosely. “I don’t know if Hoseok told you, but rope bondage is my specialty. If you wear this, everyone out there will know you belong to me.”

You bite your lip, heart racing as she slips off Hoseok’s jacket, chucking it towards him without a glance as she keeps her focus on you. Her eyes gleam as she slips the rope around your back, beginning to loop and fold it. “What are the rules?” you ask, voice already airy with the arousal that peaks your nipples and sends shivers down your spine with every drag of the rope.

If it was possible, Bee appears to have even more subdued prowess with ropes than Hoseok does, her fingers nimble and practiced, moving so quickly that it leaves lines of hot friction against your skin. “The rules?” she repeats casually. “Well, the first one is that I expect you to address me by my proper title. Do you know what that is?”

Swallowing the dryness in your throat, you nod. “Mistress,” you croak out, almost stuttering on the word that feels so unfamiliar on your tongue. Your cheeks heat up, embarrassment only heightened by how close she stands to you, flooding your senses.

“That’s right, chickie,” she praises, tugging the rope suddenly, making sure there’s no give as your bare chest is yanked forward. Satisfied, she tucks the ends in neatly and places her hands on your waist, taking in her work. It’s a basic chest harness, like one you remember Hoseok putting you in, but there’s beautiful flair all over, with arches and keyholes and braids that slip between your breasts, along your spine, shoulders and ribs. Almost like a bralette, the main difference being that your breasts themselves are fully exposed to her - and Hoseok’s - roving gaze.

“Now,” she continues, “rule two. You don’t have permission to speak unless I ask you a question. I used the limit sheet for you that’s on the Bangasm website, but if there are any changes throughout the scene, the only words you can say at any time are your safewords. I’m sure you’re familiar with it, but here at Red we use the stoplight system. Is that clear?”

It’s easier to say the second time. “Yes, mistress.” Still, the excitement low in your belly just grows with the way she nods in approval. Your desire to please sets in quickly, and the rope on your chest and the leather around your wrists feel like a promise of what’s to come if you continue to please her.

Jerking her head to indicate that Hoseok should open the door for her, Bee turns to you and hooks a finger under a strand of the rope, just under your breast. “And the final rule is more important since this is my first time playing with you. If something feels good, you thank me for it. Like this.”

Before you can even process it, lips softer than silk press against yours, chaste but unforgiving as you’re pinned in place by the harness in her grip. She smells sweet, slightly floral like gardenia or jasmine, and she tastes like strawberry chapstick.

When Bee finally pulls away, your head feels hazy, on a lag. Your lips still tingle from the missing contact, but you let out a dreamy, “thank you, Mistress,” without even thinking.

She grins at your reaction and turns towards the door, pulling you behind her with that finger caught on the rope. “God, it’s been so long since I’ve had a sweet girl like you to play with,” she croons back at you, before patting Hoseok on the chest with her free hand. “Thank you for the gift, Hobi.”

There’s a strangely smug feeling inside you as Bee leads you out of the office, back into the chill hallway and up the elevator. Hoseok trails behind, and some part of you is thriving in that feeling of being the focus of his and her attention. And even as you’re led back into the theatre, going right through the middle of the seats before veering off to the right to go behind the wings, the eyes on you feel electric.

Just like that woman that was on the stage earlier - it now sits empty in an interlude, the audience chatting amongst themselves - you feel like a pillar of desire, a pretty thing for everyone to look at, but only for a few to touch. The red cuffs and red rope lift you higher into that headspace, submissive yet superior in a way.

The attention of those strangers is addictive, and any uncertainty disappears with the need for them to replace those brief glances of curiosity with full stares, the kind of intense focus that you’d only receive by being out on that stage.

There are a fair amount of people backstage. At least three or four people in black shirts with STAFF printed in glossy block letters flitter around, chatting to the others or checking equipment. The lady from earlier is still behind there, wrapped up in a fuzzy blanket, like one you’d see in a sick bay in high school. A large man, beefy like a body builder, tenderly hugs her from behind as they sit on a couch, and takes a bottle of lemonade from a staff member, gently encouraging her to drink.

You hear Bee catching the attention of a staff member holding a clipboard, chatting to him, but your attention is caught by the woman. Her face is glistening with tears, sweat and even some drool, and she looks exhausted yet elated, giggling weakly when her dom pats her clean with a paper towel. With a kind of delicate care and patience that seems at odds with his rather aggressive appearance, his lips move close by her ear, words just meant to be shared between the two of them.

When you did intense scenes with the guys, did you look like that? The thought sticks in your mind as Bee’s bright voice remains in the background. There was something so loving and meaningful about the connection that you felt to the guys after a scene like that, and the couple in front of you seems like a physical representation of that emotion.

Suddenly, pain spikes in your chest at the reminder that you’ll never have that connection with Jin again, that every week you’d have less and less moments like those. And instead of cherishing them, you were here, about to do a scene with a near stranger, in front of actual strangers.

Suddenly, your original idea of escaping the Villa doesn’t seem to be as appealing.

Glancing up, that pain turns to alarm as there’s a missing presence around you. Bee is finishing her conversation, waving away the staff member before turning to you, but the two of you stand alone.

“Mistress,” you offer up, biting harshly on your tongue when you realise belatedly you’re breaking her second rule already, “where is Hoseok?”

Before she can furrow her brows for your disobedience, they knit together instead in concern. “He’s getting a good seat in the audience, chickie. Were you not paying attention?”

Your cheeks heat, and you apologise in a rush, letting your eyes dart over to the post-scene couple one last time. She’s fallen asleep, his chin propped up gently on the crown of your head, and you feel like you’re intruding by observing them any longer.

Bee notes your distraction, but just sends you a bemused smile and grasps your chin so that you’re forced to face her. “We’re going to go on now,” she enunciates clearly, and the reminder of reality clears your mind a little, “I’m due to teach a demonstration on bondage, are you okay with that? It’s nothing too intense.”

You nod quickly. Perhaps there was something wrong with you, or perhaps you were just kinkier than you thought, but in your experience, being tied up or tied down felt calming and grounding in a way that you think is necessary given the whole new world of live exhibition that you’re about to undertake. “I’m okay with it, Mistress.”

“Good. Keep our rules in mind, chickie; let’s go have fun.”

For some reason, applause is not something you’d considered, expected or prepared for. Your cheeks heat the moment you step out, lights so bright that the audience is swimming silhouettes, and are met with passionate clapping.

Though you know it’s for Bee - she drinks it in with a proud beam, totally in her element on stage - it’s an audible reminder of the attention on you right now. If your panties weren’t soaked through before, you can definitely feel wetness on your thighs now.

“Thank you, thank you, it’s good to be back up here!” she cheers out, and you jump when her voice reverberates. The sound carries in here so well that just a speaking voice seems to fill the room. You wonder if later on, your own moans will surround you in much the same way.

Bee lets go of her grip on your harness and ducks her head in, quickly instructing you to kneel in a ‘comfortable way’. You’re surprised when the stage floor is solid, yet not as painful as you’d expect on your bare knees. You adjust a bit so that the pressure is off your kneecaps and ankles, and look up at the domme, listening to her spiel.

“Welcome back to our Red Members, and welcome for the first time for any newcomers. My name is Mistress Bee, I’m the resident bondage, suspension and shibari expert here.” She pauses while a few scattered claps ring out, and you preen when she shifts to the side, stroking the top of your head as she continues. “Last week I did a demonstration with the lovely Mikey on some common suspension ties. From week to week, I want to teach you all the ins and outs of suspension, because it’s a very rewarding craft for the dom and the sub, but it’s also pretty complex. So before we get into off-ground suspension, this week I want to show you my favourite intermediate step: sex swings.”

Your heart thuds, glancing up so quickly that her hand falls over your forehead and eyes, but she just smiles placidly down at you and pinches your cheeks playfully, making a few of the audience members chuckle.

“I have a pretty little chickie here with me today to help me out. Seems like she didn’t guess what we were playing with today, huh?”

Unsure whether it’s rhetoric or not, you carefully mutter a, “no, Mistress.”

“It’s a fun surprise, then,” she quips, before turning back to the audience. With slow, clicking steps, she makes her way to the side of the stage you’d come from, gesturing to a couple staff members.

Your mouth goes dry as a industrial-looking metal post gets lowered from the ceiling, running parallel to the ground, but taller than your arms could reach standing up when it groans to a stop. Two guys rush on stage with a black pile of leather and metal, connecting the chains to the metal pole in two different places. The major component is a flat piece of stiff fabric, clearly meant for your body, with two leather loops on one side to prop up your legs. With the way they’ve hooked it up, you’ll be side-on to the audience.

“Sex swings seem a little cheesy,” Bee begins, and you jump when her voice comes from behind you, varnished nails running over the bare skin of your upper shoulders. “But they’re actually a really good stepping stone for suspension. The dom gets used to maneuvering someone else that’s off the ground, and the sub can experience what it’s like not having their weight supported by the floor at all. They’re also far more cost-effective than good quality suspension gear.”

As Bee explains, your eyes wince against the lights, trying to make out the blurred lines of people in the audience. Hoseok was in there, right now, watching you. But you couldn’t see him. Your heart beats a little harder in alarm, but you force yourself to keep in the scene, wanting to make the most of this unique experience.

The jingle of metal echoes through the modest theater as Bee checks the stability of the sex swing, and soon enough she’s instructing you to stand up and come stand in front of it. You do so as quickly as possible without running over, so excited about being put up in the swing for her to play with that you can barely stand still.

“Let’s get these panties off first,” she decides, hooking in a finger and snapping the waistband against your hip to make you jump. You push them down before you can secondguess it, and just like that, you’re naked in front of a room full of strangers.

Getting up into the swing would be a little awkward normally, but Bee’s unending charisma and charm makes it feel easy. She holds it steady while you do a little jump to rest your ass onto the flat bed, then gets you to lie down, praising you warmly even as she gives professional advice to the audience.

Lying down is okay - your head hangs a little off the edge, so that your vision is upside down and your neck is arched, but the fabric is surprisingly comfortable so it’s no imposition - but one she slips those loops past your feet, resting them in the crooks of your knees, everything suddenly feels very real.

This is exposure in a very different sense. There’s not much give in the chains for safety, but it means that your thighs are spread wide open with no way to cover yourself.

Bee’s rapport with the crowd watching is a steady stream of reassurance, but by the time she lifts your wrists, using the clips on the chain and the loops on your cuffs to bind them straight up, leaving you entirely vulnerable, your chest begins to heave, breaths quick and shallow.

“Still with me, chickie?” Bee questions, and you let out a choked moan when she circles round to your top half, cupping your breasts and rolling your nipples between her fingers softly, the contact grounding you. “Give me a colour.”

Remembering Hoseok’s advice, you pause and take a moment to really think it over. “Green, Mistress,” you decide, trembling when she rewards you by sliding her hand down your chest and stomach, two fingers dipping lower to feel how wet you are, stroking your clit. Your back arches, thighs tense, but there’s nowhere you can go to escape the pleasure she gives you. “Th-thank you, Mistress.”

Leaning over you, patting your cheek fondly, Bee beams down at you. “Good girl,” she praises warmly, before glancing out towards the audience. “So well-behaved, isn’t she? Should I give her a quick reward before we continue?”

Your eyes slip shut in bliss as you hear the audience cheer and clap in your favour, imagining one of them to be Hoseok, watching you from below.

After hearing out the crowd, Bee adjusts her position so that instead of up by your head, she’s between your legs, that hand still lazily rubbing over you as the other grips your waist. “Alright, I won’t argue with that,” the domme quips teasingly, and chuckles as you go rigid suddenly when those two fingers plunge inside of you, crooking up to massage your walls.

There’s nothing you can to do move towards or away the touch. The swing has you completely at her mercy, and that just makes every stroke that much more overwhelming. Bee fucks you on her fingers with a swift, unforgiving pace, and you whine as the obscene wet noise echoes throughout the room.

You feel dirty; dripping on stage as your fists wrap around the chains and your pussy tightens around her. But the taboo and debauchery just turns you on more, and the moment she increases to three fingers, you no longer try to hold back or muffle yourself. A loud cry spills from your lips as she presses against your g-spot, and her gleeful chuckle arouses you even more.

The knowledge that an entire roomful of people are watching you is so hot that you feel electric, but it’s the reminder that Hoseok is somewhere amongst them that sends you over the edge. You spasm in the swing as you cum, hard, and Bee doesn’t let up for a moment, taking advantage of your restraints to continue to fuck you through your orgasm, her other hand joining to rub roughly at your clit to make you sob in oversensitivity. It’s not until your toes and fingers tingle with the force of it that she finally slows down, taking her hands off you with a cheery sigh of exertion.

“Thank you, Mistress,” you try to say, though it probably comes out slurred or garbled. You shiver as aftershocks periodically thrum through your veins, making your muscles twitch, and your eyes slip open to the feeling of Bee pressing a chaste kiss of approval to the back of your hand, still bound to the chain.

“Now,” she says, still a little breathless, “onto the main event. One of the more difficult things of…”

Though you try and stay alert, your body is exhausted and satisfied, and the suspension just makes you feel even more floaty than you normally would after a good orgasm. Your mind flits in and out, and you feel at peace until you hear the echoing click click of heels on hard floor, and see the blurry figure of Bee disappearing backstage.

Alarm flares red inside you, making your heart beat overtime and your nerves screech. You wriggle your arms and legs, but there’s no give, and even as you crane your neck to the side, the stage lights prevent you from being able to find your dom in the audience.

There’s no use in trying to stay calm. Even as that clicking returns, Bee already returning to you, you feel unsafe and anxious, the safeword on your tongue.

But it’s not the safeword that comes out when you find your voice. “H-hobi,” you whimper, squeezing your eyes shut as panic flares in your chest.

Before his name has even fully left your lips, there are hands on your shoulder, rough with callouses. There’s the familiar musk that grounds you, and the heat of a body that cradles your head and presses his lips to your temple, cooing sweet nothings to calm you.

Bee’s voice floats around you, apologising profusely not only to you but to the audience too, but as you open your eyes and see Hoseok, his eyes brimming with concern, you burst into tears of pure relief, wishing you could reach out to him.

Like he knows your needs without you even articulating them, he unclips your wrist cuffs from the chains one at a time, slowly helping you sit up as Bee’s hands are on your legs, taking off the loops that had held them spread open earlier.

The moment you’re up, you fall into Hoseok like he’s a lifeline, clinging to him as your tears wet his sleeveless shirt. His skin is hot against yours, and his chest seems to rise and fall faster than normal as he holds you tightly, stroking your hair.

“I’m here,” he chants over and over, the words like liquid comfort cocooning you. The audience slips away, even Bee taking orders from Hoseok on what to go get is tuned out as you lean into that feeling of security that Hoseok’s embrace gives you.

At one point, he wants to move you offstage for some privacy, but your legs won’t stop shaking. Without a word of complaint, he’s lifting you up with one arm under your ass and the other around your back, guiding you to wrap your arms and legs around him.

It’s all too easy to burrow your face into the crook of his neck and breathe in his scent, your heart rate slowing from the spike of adrenaline. By the time his weight shifts, and you feel the smooth, cool leather of a couch beneath you, exhaustion has seeped into your very bones. You barely have enough energy to focus back on his voice, but you force yourself to, blinking blearily as he cups your cheek and meets your gaze.

“I think I know what happened there, what spooked you,” Hoseok says slowly, his eyes deadly serious even as his fingers gently stroke your jaw. “Did you not like not being able to see or touch either of us?” You manage to nod weakly, and Hoseok’s brows furrow in internal guilt. “I’m so sorry,” he apologises hoarsely, “I should’ve warned her before, I should’ve been closer-”

He breaks off as Bee rushes over, face pinched, and hands Hoseok a folded up blanket. The feeling of the soft, yet slightly weighted fabric covering your naked skin feels like heaven, and it calms you just that little bit more.

Hoseok meets your gaze again. “Bee wants to chat to you, princess, to say sorry. Do you want to see her now or talk with her later?”

You feel guilty for saying it, but you just want to selfishly indulge in Hoseok now, no one else. “Later,” you admit, and the domme nods in solemn understanding, bowing her head at the two of you before departing.

“What do you need, Y/n?” Hoseok asks, in a voice so low it could be a whisper. You blink at him, at the deep concern on his face. “What can I do to make you feel okay? To feel safe and calm?”

You know the answer. It’s not something you’d admit normally, not something you’d request were you not feeling so terribly adrift and in need of comfort. You fist your hands in his shirt - wrists still adorned in red cuffs that said you were his - and wet your lips. “Kiss me?”

He pauses long enough that you think he may deny you, but then you feel his chest rumble with the words, “just this once,” before he dips his head and kisses you, slowly and carefully, like you might break. Your heart swells with every slight movement of his lips, but they’re gone all too soon, replaced by your own fingers as you touch your lips in wonder. “Better?” he asks in a strained voice, still stroking your back through the blanket.

“Better,” you reply, though already you miss his lips on yours. But feeling his arms around you, and his heart beat against your ear when you lie down is good enough for you, enough for now.

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