#sorry about the numerous typos!! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sednas · 1 year

Text

─ TAKE YOU LIKE A DRUG I TASTE YOU ON MY TONGUE.

FT. toji fushiguro x fem!reader featuring my daddy issues

TW. dd/lg, half mean half gentle!toji, sub!reader, daddy issues, thigh riding, oral (m receiving), slight dumbification, praise and degradation, public s!x (at first), creampie, p!ssy slapping (once), 2k+ words

♡♡♡. sorry for the potential typos/ugly sentences, it's been a long day but i really wanted to post this

you met toji during the first semester of college, when your parents moved out to get closer to the place where you were studying.

it all started out innocent. quick glances, lingering hands on the skin, a few smirks and playful winks, smalltalk about college and work...

he was tall, dark hair, deep green eyes, a scar on the corner of his lips, big hands, broad shoulders, strong thighs...

every time you'd come back home for the weekends you expected him to finally have settled down with one of the numerous women in the neighborhood, all salivating over him.

but he stayed single, and you could fantasize about him without the annoying thought of his pretty wife sucking him off. as years went by, your crush on him got pretty obvious, you became more confident, trying to give him the hint that he could do whatever he wanted with you. but toji was blind to your signs, or at least that's what he was pretending to be.

his ignorance toward you left a bittersweet taste on your tongue, putting you as nothing more than the plain daughter of his neighbor, and you felt like fifteen again, ignored by the boy you liked.

which brings us to tonight, a few days after your graduation. you came back to your parent's place and you can't seem to sleep, sitting on the grass, you look up at the stars and think of all the things that are awaiting for you now that you're done with college. it's scary and exciting at the same time. you'll be leaving the city for your dream job soon, and there's only one regret that comes to your mind.

“beautiful night uh?” you hear a deep voice coming from the darkness of the night. speaking of the devil... it's toji, he just sat down on a chair a few meters away from you in the neighborhood's common garden, he has a drink in his hand, you can't tell what's in it but it's probably alcohol.

“I've heard that you graduated. I always knew you were a smart girl, your parents must be proud of you.” he says, his green eyes lazily resting on you.

you shrugged your shoulders, still sitting on the grass.

“my dad barely said that he was proud of me...” you laugh bitterly. why are you even talking about this? he doesn't care, he just wants to make a quick small talk.

a few seconds of silence go by... you see toji moving, patting the seat next to him. it's... unexpected, but you can't let go of such an occasion to be closer to him, and without a word you go sit down. he extends his legs with a sigh. your eyes linger on him in a not so subtle manner. he's wearing a black tank top with gray baggy sweatpants.

“your dad's just not great with words, I'm sure he's very proud of you.”

you don't say anything, not trusting your voice right now, feeling like a lost little girl even though you're past twenties. he must surely pity you by now, and you hate it.

“do you need to hear it?”

“what do you mean?” you ask, arching an eyebrow, and you see him shift on his seat until he's facing you, your knees touching.

“alright... gimme your hands.” he says, and even though it's an order his voice is soft and reassuring. you obey, putting your hands in his. the skin of his hands is calloused, you can tell he's been working with them all of his life.

you can feel your heart beating faster and harder inside your chest, unsure of what you're going to do once he will speak. you're so close to him, of course you already had conversations with him, but this one feels too intimate, both of you alone in the darkness of the night... anything could happen.

“I'm very proud of you. you told me before that you were anxious about the future but I'm sure it will all turn out to be okay. you've got that light in your eyes, I'm not quite sure how to describe it but it's bright and I know you'll make a good use of it.” he finally says and for a few seconds you both drown in a silence where you can only hear the sound of crickets.

within a second, your lips crash into his as he lets out a surprised moan which comes out muffled, feeling your soft hands running down on his forearms, sending shivers down his spine.

“what the fuck are you doing?” he finally asks, pulling away from you. your heart stops for a second, hearing him raise his voice at you, but he unexpectedly pulls you in for another kiss, his hand snaking up behind your neck and this time you're the one moaning against his mouth.

“been wanting you for so damn long.” he mumbles as he deepens the kiss, his tongue slipping between your lips and making you feel empty brained. you clutch on his chest, heart fluttering to his words.

“re-really? I thought you didn't like me...” you can't believe what you're hearing, your body trembles slightly as toji kisses your neck and nods his head.

“how could I not like such a sweet girl like you.” he purred in a low, baritone voice, his hands slowly sliding down your waist to guide you on his lap, letting you feel how hard he is against you.

you let out a gasp when you feel him start to rock your hips on his thigh, his green eyes piercing through yours. “you think I didn't notice the way you were looking at me for all those years. how your outfits got sluttier just to have a crumble of my attention uh? just imagine how many times I've fucked myself imagining you taking my cock like the good girl I know you fucking are.”

you moan, feeling pure bliss at this revelation as his big hands keep forcing you to hump his thigh. you can feel your pussy getting dragged all the way up and down his clothed hard cock, giving you a hint of how big it is. both of you moan when your pussy lips engulf his tip through your shorts and soon enough a wet spot starts to form on his sweatpants.

“fucking hell Y/N, look at you... I don't know how I resisted fucking you for so long when your body is that perfect to play with. fuck!- but I'm done holding back, I'm gonna fucking ruin you.” he grunts, his voice still low and dominant, his fingers digging into your plump skin.

the fact that you're in the neighborhood's common garden is already long forgotten, you don't care about the whole city seeing you in this position, you've wanted this for too long. your pussy is throbbing, the soft material of his pants rubbing deliciously against your hardened clitoris, your tongue almost comes out of your mouth while toji watches your dumb expression with delight.

“gonna cum... I'm... I'm...” your whiney voice echoes through the silent night and toji bounces and flexes his thigh on purpose, taking you over the edge as he whispers praises against your ear. you come in a muffled cry, biting toji's shoulder to silence your cute moans.

toji gives you a few minutes to rest, caressing your hair and giving your thighs reassuring strokes every time he feels your body twitch on top of him. in a gentle gesture, he takes your chin in his hand to look at your face.

“let's go to my room yeah? I want to give you more.” you can only nod your head as you both leave the garden and head over to his house. the whole place is plunged in darkness and you follow him closely not to trip over anything, your arm wrapped around his own in a clingy way while he guides you to his bed.

he gets on top of you, removing your shorts and your top in a fast motion, so smoothly that you barely notice that you're now half naked under him. you suddenly feel shy under his warm gaze which devours your body and you turn your head to avoid his eyes.

“don't turn all shy now sweetheart, your body is a work of art.” he murmurs, his hot breath tickling your skin before kissing your neck. his hands travel up to your chest, playing with your tits and gently pinching your nipples.

“ahh~ please, daddy...” you whine without thinking, and toji suddenly stops what he's doing, lifting his head to look into your eyes. his pupils are dilated, his gaze darkened by lust and need. you can feel him squeeze your skin a little bit harder than before, and you whine again.

“is it true? am I your daddy?” he teases, bringing his hand close to your inner thighs, caressing them with the tip of his digits. his cock never ached to be inside someone like this, he can feel it twitch and throb inside his pants, begging to know how your little pussy feels like.

“yes, yes you are, please daddy, I need you... want you to feel good too...” you beg, your hands clutching on his chest once again, trying to remove his clothes but it's no easy task in your position and with how your body is trembling.

toji wears a boyish smirk at your words, thinking about how cute you look and sound right now. he brings his face close to yours, his lips only a few inches away from your open mouth. “yeah? do you want to make daddy feel good?” and he smiles when you nod eagerly. he stands up, gently dragging you toward the edge of the bed, letting your head suspended in the air.

“alright, you know what's coming next, don't you baby?” as an answer, you open your mouth, presenting your tongue and waiting for him. he huffs with amusement at your hunger, finally freeing his cock and sighing of relief. he taps the tip against your tongue, smearing your saliva all over it. before you can whine with impatience he pushes it right in, sliding his entire length down your throat in one smooth motion of his hips.

“god... I wonder if your pussy is as tight as your throat...” toji groans, biting his bottom lip to prevent any slutty moans to come out of him. your greedy tongue swirls around his leaking tip, and you moan whenever you feel a vein drags along the curves of your lips.

you feel light headed, with your head hanging in the air, half naked in the bed of the man you like, his balls slapping against your face. he lets out a moan, watching your tits bounce and the buldge that his cock is forming inside your throat, his eyes roll back, one more minute and he's going to cum down your throat.

he makes you choke on his cock one last time before pulling out, the action earning a disappointed whimper from you. “don't whine you baby.” he warns with a smug look on his face, manhandling once more to put you on your back.

“but I...” he hushed you by slapping your clothed cunt and tears immediately start to form in the corner of your eyes and he almost regrets what he just did, seeing your teary expression.

“it's okay baby. just be a good girl and let me do what I want with you, you're gonna like it I promise.” you nod as he massages your pussy, and once you say “yes daddy” he's a goner, tearing your panties apart, he presses his cock against your puffy clit, making you jolt under him.

he lifts your hips and enters you in one second, your wetness immediately coating his cock, making it easier for him to sink deep inside you. “good... good... how do you feel so fucking good...” toji rambles in his low voice, and it makes you spread your legs wider. you don't know when he removed his clothes but he's as naked as you now, you almost whimper at the sight, wrapping your legs around his slutty waist.

“does that feel good baby?... fuck, you look so dumb right now.” he chuckles darkly, his big hand gently slapping your cheek before holding your whole face in it. you try to get your half lidded eyes to focus on his face, with his dark hair adorning his facial features and his eyes shining with lust as his cock keeps reaching deep for that spongy spot inside you. it's too much for you to handle.

you start babbling incoherent words, all interrupted by whines as your head falls on the pillows. his bedsheets smell like him, it almost makes you feel tipsy, drunk on his strong, masculine scent. you want to stay here forever, drowned in him. “daddy, daddy...” you keep repeating, your legs quivering as he towers you, his arms caging your face.

toji smiles, kissing your cheek as his thrusts keep getting faster and faster. “you're such a good girl, taking my cock like the good little whore that you are... ah fuck-!” he curses, feeling your hands clawing at his back. he looks at your face, feeling his cock twitches at the sight.

“I'm... I'm gonna cum again...” you try to speak, your eyes rolling back as his mushroom tip pushes against your cervix, making you arch your back and see stars.

“let it all go for me Y/N, I'm here for you.” just what you needed to hear. you whimper a weak “daddy” one last time as shockwaves of pleasure run through your body, your pussy spasming and throbbing around his cock. your vision goes blank, all you can hear is the voice of toji throwing praises at you against your ear while he tries his best not to lose his mind to the feeling of you gushing all over him.

“good girl... you really do have the best pussy god damn it...” the rest of his sentence is just a gasp, his hands shaking slightly as he can feel himself getting closer and closer to his own release.

“breed me... daddy. please breed me...” you manage to plead through your hazy state and who is he to deny you when you asked so sweetly? with his hands firmly gripping your waist he cums deep inside you, releasing a string of moans that sounds like music to your ears.

you feel so full once he's done, your body still twitching under him as he finally comes down from his high, and the first thing he does is to pepper your face with kisses, sweetly humming when he feels you running your hands through his hair.

“good fucking god... I don't think I've ever been so turned on in my life...” he sighs, laughing a little and falling on his back next to you. he reaches out for your hand, kissing the back of it. it must be a dream, how are you still not waking up?...

“I really meant what I said earlier. I'm proud of you... you took that cock so well...” he laughs in a low voice when you gently hit his chest, his right arm circling around your waist to bring you closer to his body.

“no but for real... I'm proud of you, I'll give you all the love you deserve.”

jjk masterlist

#jjk x reader #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jujutsu kaisen headcanons #jjk headcanons #jjk smut #jjk imagines #jujutsu kaisen imagines #toji smut #toji fushiguro headcanons #toji x you #toji headcanons #toji x reader #toji fushiguro x you #toji fushiguro smut #toji fushiguro x reader

2K notes · View notes

margridarnauds · 1 month

Note

what's grade inflation? why does it exist?

For more information on grade inflation, I highly recommend typing in "inflation" on AO3 and...

Sorry, have had no rest and very likely won't get much rest today, because no rest for the wicked...or grad students, so I had to get the cheap humor out of the way.

Grade inflation is, essentially, a system in place at many universities where the graders are heavily pressured into giving higher grades to their students. This is particularly prominent at elite universities, where Mommy and Daddy do not want Schnuggiekins to have anything as undignified as a B on their transcript when they are set to be a senator, but it is also common across the board, including in high schools and, joy of all joys, it is only getting more prevalent, as schools are essentially in a nuclear arms race to deliver higher grades, since it means they can say "Look! 98% of our students graduated with a 4.0!" It looks bad when students don't pass, so students *generally* pass no matter what. Doesn't that make you feel optimistic about the future?

And because it is common across the board at these places, that essentially forces conformity, because if you do NOT give them at least a B+...or sometimes an A-, you will get undergrads complaining about why you were mean to them, because the OTHER TAs would do the same, and student evaluations are VITAL to your career stability down the line. So, besides GENUINELY wanting to be seen as easygoing and relaxed (because, remember, if you're a woman in academia, you ALSO have to beat back the allegations of being a Bitch...and there have been numerous surveys done to indicate that student evals can be biased), it is also unfortunately...not MANDATORY, but something that I do feel heavily pressured by. People forget that the power dynamics between TAs and their students aren't always clear cut -- I'm in a position of authority, and I recognize that and am ALWAYS operating under that awareness, but they can also severely impact my career with student evals...and inconvenience my life if they decide to dispute a grade, such as when I had people emailing me on Christmas about why I gave them an A-. (The answer: Because they had earned, in my opinion, an A-.)

The result is that, functionally, I am grading, roughly, on a scale of B- to A, which means that my grades can't really reflect the nuances that can exist in these things. I have to put things that are "borderline grad student level work" alongside "well. you didn't do anything WRONG". (There have been occasions where they have gotten the Email Of Shame from me where I flat-out refuse to grade it.)

At my undergrad, in my community college (which people always like to act was some kind of...inferior education), if I handed in a paper with numerous typos, it would have been an A- at best. Potentially a B+ if my arguments were not up to the highest standard. I turn in an argument with no citations and not much of an argument...honestly probably a C? Maybe? I KNOW some of my professors would have refused to grade them. But I would feel pressured to give the same paper a B with a reminder to please cite their sources next time.

And, again: I do, genuinely, care for my students. I believe that, for the most part, they ARE trying their best. I don't enjoy being harsh on them, and I don't expect them to be writing at a grad level. I remember being an undergrad -- it isn't like it was that long ago, it's only been six years. I made a lot of mistakes. Including some very stupid ones. And I was lucky to have very patient professors who ALSO weren't afraid to call me out if I didn't do a good job. But, because of systemic issues beyond my control, I can neither give them a real wake up call so that they can improve OR truly reward them for outstanding work.

56 notes · View notes

bluedandelion1 · 8 months

Text

Wukong cares about people. Macaque isn't a saint.

Alright, I've wanted to write this for a while, so here I go. English isn't my first language, so sorry for any typos.

I've been watching so many fananimations of LEGO Monkie Kid. They're all gorgeous, top of the top, excellent, chef kiss and I'm glad the fandom seems to be growing every day.

But I HATE how so many people have portrayed Wukong as an asshole who doesn't care about anyone. Love the animations, they're great but I don't think Wukong is the villain people make him out to be.

Now don't get me wrong, Wukong has made many, many, many, mistakes throughout his life. The thing is, people don't seem to realize that while he messed up, his intentions were good! "Yeah, right, then how is he such a bad mentor?" I'm gonna shut you up right there.

When MK first got the staff, he didn't know how to use it, I agree with you. But Wukong is a milennia old stone monkey who has gone through a lot on his life, getting stronger and stronger with each fight.

"Pfft, what about DBK? You can handle it! Consider it a trial"

That's what he tells MK when said boy asks him what to do with DBK, because for Wukong that fight is easy. He then reassures him that with enough confidence in himself he could take him on. He trusted MK since the first moment and even told him to consider it as a trial. He was evaluating MK during his fight to make sure he had picked the right successor.

And just in case and most probably noticing how nervous he was on his first fight, he kept an eye out on him to make sure to intervene in case MK needed help. Wukong already knew that MK was invincible before locking away some of his powers in the second episode, therefore he was confident that he would succeed. And even if he already knew he was going to defeat DBK, he still watched over him to make sure he wouldn't get hurt.

Following this battle, in the first episode "Bad Weather", MK doesn't call for Wukong's help. He's confronting Red Son when suddenly the staff acts on its own and takes him down to the ground and who appears afterwards? The Monkey King himself! Almost as if he had sensed that MK needed some help with defeating Red Son. Almost as if he had been the one to call for the staff so he could talk with his student. Again, he showed up on his own because he cares.

"Then what about that time he abandoned him?"

He didn't abandon him. To abandon someone is to stop supporting them, to give up completely in someone. Monkey King knew that LBD was coming back but he didn't want either MK or his friends to get hurt.

He's used to doing things on his own! I mean, on JTTW Wukong was always sent ahead to see if there were any demons that would kidnap Tripitaka. And even though he warned his companions numerous times that there were demons under the disguise of innocent people, they wouldn't believe him. So why should he tell MK and his friends that there's an enemy approaching? Every time he had warned other people of other threats, they had never believed him, so why should MK be any different?

I think that's one of the reasons why he didn't even try to defend himself when Pigsy snapped at him. Because he's used to taking the blame. What's the point in trying to do something right if you're going to be blamed for everything going wrong, regardless of how much you try to make it okay? He even tries to keep helping MK through his training with the astral projection throughout the whole season!

So, he searched for the map that would lead him to the rings of the Samadhi Fire, knowing full well that he could end up dying.

"This wasn't supposed to happen! I thought if I could somehow get the Samadhi Fire out of you, without hurting you of course, then I could put it inside myself. Then, I don't know, use it to burn up the Lady Bone Demon or something?"

Let's remember that while it's difficult to hurt Wukong, the Samadhi Fire is one of the powers that could actually kill him. He was willing to risk his life so he'd be able to save not only the whole world, but his friends as well. Do you realize how crazy that sounds? To be willing to give up his own life to save the Earth?

He even says that he wanted try to get the ring out of Mei without hurting her.

Would someone who didn't care about anyone try to make something as painless as possible for the victim? I don't think so.

Alright, let's focus on Macaque now for a bit.

My biggest beef with this guy is that some people seem to paint him as the misunderstood character who never did anything wrong because "Oh, my best friend abandoned me and woe is me!". Yuck.

While Macaque has many good reasons to be angry at Monkey King, that still doesn't give him the right to kidnap and trick MK. It doesn't give him the right to taunt him and make him feel like shit, nor the right to manipulate him and make him think that he's not a good successor.

"Well, you know what that means! There really isn't anything special about you. You're just some kid with a heavy stick!"

Macaque knew that if he hurt MK, eventually Wukong would come out to save him, because he knows that he'll protect him. This is a little theory of mine, but Macaque manipulates shadows, right? Who knows how many times he's watched MK from them? Because I don't think his plan to steal MK's powers was something he thought of in just one minute. No, I'm pretty sure that plan took a while to be thought of.

"Ah, MK. You really are dense, aren't you? You saw a story about a hero who got handed everything? Who didn't have to work for anything? And you thought you were the other guy? The second the hero got real power, he couldn't care less about his friends. That's you, bud."

He tricked him into sharing his insecurities, knowing full well that MK was vulnerable and stressed out about the whole LBD situation, then blamed him for not caring about his friends. He made him doubt whether he truly cares about his friends or not or whether he was even a good person.

And we all know how hard MK's worked to try to get control of his powers, especially after he lost them when LBD took away his staff. MK can be a lot of things: optimistic, a bit smug at times, a bit forgetful... But if there's one thing I'm sure of is that he worked hard to control his powers. He even asked Wukong to limit them so he could control them better, knowing that it'd be harder but he still did it.

And let's take into account that Wukong apologized to MK for how he acted towards him. Macaque, still to this day, hasn't apologized at all. And yet, he keeps mocking Wukong and saying he's the same old Wukong, while he himself is still stuck in the past.

I get that Macaque is angry at Wukong, I really do. But if he were really so angry against him, maybe he should've brought it to Wukong himself instead of using MK. He isn't a saint. He's made mistakes as well. These two are very complicated characters who have gone through a lot, but neither of them are blameless. Macaque isn't a saint, but he does care about some people. And although Wukong has made many mistakes, that doesn't mean that he doesn't care about other people.

Anyways, to finish it off, as MK once said:

"Uh, you know you two are the same, right?"

#lmk #lego monkie kid #lmk sun wukong #lmk macaque #monkey king #sun wukong #six eared macaque #lmk mk #vent #rant #attempt at character analysis #holy fuck this is long #i didn't expect to write that much #but i got carried away #so #hope you liked it #first post in ages #lemme know what you think #these monkeys need THERAPY AND COMMUNICATION

113 notes · View notes

ququb444hm · 6 months

Text

𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐬 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐭, 𝐜𝐮𝐩𝐢𝐝

part 27 / cramps ☆

masterlist

warning(s): possible typos bc its almost 2 am n i have not proofread this at all

mori glanced over to his left, noticing the sudden change in demeanor from yn who was just giggling over mr. alec’s reaction to his ‘friend’ surprising him outside of his class for a ‘friendly hangout’. “something happen?”

the mild concern spreading across yn’s features quickly diminished when she turned off her phone, tucking it away in the back pocket of her jeans. “no. everything’s fine. everything will be fine.” she reassured– though it sounded like she was reassuring herself more than mori. “tets is on his way to pick me up, so I’m gonna have to raincheck going to your dorm tonight mori, sorryyy.”

“don’t worry about it!” mori chirped, an arm slinging around the girl’s shoulders. “just means that you’re making dinner for us next time.”

“if you want overcooked dino nuggets for dinner again. then, yeah.” rin teased, laughing to himself at the memory of yn forgetting to take the metal tray out of the oven because somehow she managed to lock herself out of mori’s dorm room and couldn’t get back in until 7 minutes after the kitchen timer alerted the food was ready.

yn rolled her eyes, nudging the boy’s side with her elbow. “as if you weren’t the one refusing to open the door for me.”

“I was working on a project!” rin defended.

mori raised a brow, recalling the night of the topic. “oh? I didn’t know taking a nap with my dog was part of your project.”

taking rin’s silence as a sign of defeat, yn grinned in triumph. “never belittle my cooking skills!”

“yeah okay. opening a bag of pre-made dino nuggets and popping them into the oven isn’t necessarily cooking.”

yn cupped her ear, leaning closer to the grumbling cinematography major “’m sorry, what was that? can’t really understand what sounds like…like…” she shared a knowing look with mori who was already giggling to himself. “like BULLSHIT right now!”

the sudden stop in rin’s footsteps threw the two into a frenzy, clutching their stomachs as their laughter bounced about throughout the halls.

“I think he’s mad!” mori managed to squeeze in between laughs.

taking a deep breath, rin gave his friends a menacing smile.“i’m going to be generous and give you giggling neanderthals a five-minute start before I catch you and commit unspeakable crimes.”

yn let out an excited squeal, feeling like a little kid as she grabbed mori’s arm and began to run to the building’s exit. “don’t let him catch you!” she exclaimed, steps quickening as the two made their way down the stairs, careful not to trip.

“I hear him, he’s coming!” mori cried, navigating through the various turns they had to make before finally bursting through the art building’s doors.

just as he was about to make a successful escape, he was pulled back by the thundering drummer. “leaving so soon, pretty boy?”

“noooooo!!! we were so close!” yn shrieked, “please, take me instead!” but her pleas went deaf to rin’s ears who only smirked in victory.

“now, now, no need for any sacrifices.” he kept his hold on mori’s wrist, unknowingly silencing the sandy blond whose heart seemed to run numerous laps inside his chest. “a win is a win.”

yn scoffed, waving off the loss. “whatever.”

the three make their way to the parking lot, patiently waiting for tetsurou to arrive. when he does, mori and rin watch as yn gets into the car, saying their goodbyes before also taking their leave.

“hey, kuroo.” tetsu smiles, messing up his sister’s hair and earning a groan as she puts on her seatbelt. “how was class?”

yn makes herself comfortable, prepping her mind for whatever her brother was about to follow up with. “suppeerrr funsies, tets. did you just come from the gym?”

“yeah, had to drop off kou before picking you up.” yn hums. her mind starting to fill up with possibilities of what the conversation might develop into. as if tetsu could see right through her, he began to ask what had been plaguing his mind for the past few days. “so…anything you wanna tell me? ya know cause i’m your brother and I love you, and I would always want to know if something is wrong, and I am hoping you know you can trust me with anything and everything.”

“I know tets.” yn reassures, giving him an awkward smile which he turns to see for a brief second before turning his eyes back on the road in front of him.

“so spill, what’s up?”

“are you looking for a specific answer or…”

“no, just want you to be honest with me is all.”

the conversation yn had with her friends from the night they were all in her room, after the whole incident with kozume, revisited her thoughts.

“oh but guys,” yn spoke up, earning several hums. “you cannot let my brother know about any of this.” the request caused the friends to break away from the hug, confused as to why the only other person besides yn who could knock some sense into kozume couldn’t be informed of the situation. “it’s just… with the game coming up, I don’t want the team to turn to shit because one of the co-captains suddenly can’t cooperate with the main setter.”

mori clicked his tongue, feeling conflicted with yn’s choice. “okay… I understand where you’re coming from but what’re you gonna do when your brother does find out? I mean, he’s not dumb.”

“mori’s right.” rin chimed. “he might start getting suspicious with your change of attitude towards kozume and start piecing things together.”

she mentally cursed the accuracy of her friends– though already expecting her brother to notice something was wrong without her directly telling him because, obviously, he’s her brother.

“okay…,” yn knew it would be best to come clean to tetsu about the recent events, but she just couldn’t bear the guilt she would feel if she saw him and kozume suddenly start to get rocky before their first game of the year, especially after all the hard work the whole team has been putting in. “well i’m passing all my classes-”

“even chem?”

“even chem, tets. and I have this big project for my painting class, the one I just came out of, so i’m spending more time in there than usual. and…” yn tried to think of other things to catch her brother up on to hopefully ease his concern, but he beat her to it.

“why’d you skip chem and ela that one day with tooru?” the car stopped at a red light, allowing tetsurou to have more of his attention on yn.

‘quick, quick, quick-’ yn fidgeted with the straps of her bag, attempting to calm herself down. “oh you know, I was just really overwhelmed that morning.” ‘that wasn’t a total lie, please believe me.’ “with the project, my other classes, helping out with the band because of their gig, and cece with the shop, and the volleyball team, i’ve just been a bit busy and tooru wanted to help me relax.” once again, not a total lie. “don’t worry though, kozume- er koz uhm- i texted kozu while i was out and he said we had a sub and were just working on the previous day’s work which i already finished. so, it’s all good. all good.” now that was a lie.

the topic of kozume seemed to be what tetsurou was curious about because his face flashed with surprise, almost distracting him from the spotlight turning green. “oh. so… nothing is wrong with you and kozume?”

“why would there be anything wrong?”

“no its just,” his confusion was evidently clear, his other hand running through his hair as he tried to collect his thoughts. “last week tuesday with the apology and you telling me he kissed you, but when he got to practice he was barely talking to you which i just found really weird.”

“ohh, I mean I think we both know how shy he can get.” yn mumbled.

“yeah but,” tetsu clicked his tongue. yn was right, but he couldn’t get rid of the feeling that there was just more to uncover. “I guess I just expected him to be more bold after he literally kissed you. I mean you make it clear you like him, and there’s literally nothing stopping him from asking you out or something– and i’m sorry if i’m overstepping my boundaries since it isn’t technically my relationship, but it just rubs me the wrong way since I’m your brother and if something happens to you, it happens to me too. that’s just how it is.”

“so you’re saying…kozume kissed you too?”

tetsu rolled his eyes at his sister’s little joke, “oh shut up, you know that’s not what I mean. but there’s something else i’ve been thinking about. I noticed after you went out to go talk to kozume when he went to get some water, you didn’t come back. what happened? atsumu said you got-”

“NO! no! ahahaha no.” yn awkwardly laughed off her sudden outburst, mentally reminding herself to sucker punch the fake blonde the next time she saw him. “I just…got cramps. yeah, my period cramps hurt real baaaad.” she dragged out the word, wanting to emphasize the lie. “like I started crying, kind of bad. I had to ask cece to pick me up. sorry I didn’t tell anyone before leaving all of a sudden.”

seeing tetsurou’s features soften at the misfortune his little sister had to endure, yn finally relaxed knowing he was going to drop any further interrogation related to the one person she did not want to even think about. “aww what,” genuine concern laced his voice, making yn feel slightly ashamed for the string of deception. “is your cycle over now though? you should’ve texted me, I would’ve come by after practice and got you something.”

“I know, I know. i'm sorry, tets.”

“and if you’re really stressed, just let me know. the whole manager role was so abrupt. I wasn’t really thinking of how busy you already are with everything. I’m sorry, yn.”

hearing tetsu’s worry was equivalent to being stabbed a hundred times and then being lit on fire and then having the people who lit you on fire extinguish you only to stab you a few more hundred times. yn quickly tried to cheer him up, “its okay, tets! I wanted to do it, remember? I thought it would be fun and it is. getting to spend more time with you and everyone else has been a great way for me to unwind. I’m really glad you gave me this opportunity.”

tetsu sighed, thankful that he didn’t add to yn’s burdens. “If you need to work on other things tomorrow, just let me know. I'm sure kou and I can handle practice ourselves.”

laughing at the stubbornness, yn placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, squeezing it lightly. “no, I can make it. It’s okay, but thank you.”

“are you sure?”

yn smiled, her heart warming at knowing how much her brother looked after her. “yeah, i’m sure tetsu.”

part 26 mic drop <- | masterlist | -> part 28 TYPE SHIT

note(s): ILL PROBB REUPLOAD THIS/EDIT AFTER SCHOOL +none of the pictures used are mine!!

✩⡱ taglist !! + @writing-for-the-hell-of-it @sherryuki-callmeyuki @anny-bah @ast4rg1rl @sukunasrealgf @dani-shitting-around @whokillednyx @vernon-dursley @limaswife @sugawara-levi @sixxze @ryoiii @literally-a-ferret @444sunarin @llearlert @lloyd4x @usermins @2baddies-1porsche @vernon-dursley @lyzisbitchingagain lmk if u want to be added (msg or inbox)ヾ(･ω･`；)ﾉ

#🐈.thanksalotcupid #kozume kenma #kenma kozume #kozume kenma x reader #kozume kenma x fem!reader #kenma kozume x reader #kenma kozume x fem!reader #kenma x reader #kozume x reader #smau #kenma smau #haikyuu #haikyuu smau #haikyuu!!#haikyuu!! smau

69 notes · View notes

scorpioracha · 1 year

Text

Dating Jeongin

Hi guys im sorry Innie’s took so long to write but I hope you enjoy this one!! This has not been proofread yet so if there’s typos it be like that💀You know the deal, comments,reblogs,likes,etc

Yang Jeongin 양 정인

-whenever I think about dating Innie I just think of that shy first love kind of crush that has him stumbling over his feet and acting hella dumb💀 baby bread has no game and I’m so sorry to say it, this is an Aquarius man. His was of shooting his shot is staring in your direction like 😐 and then getting back to the dorms to ✨manifest you✨

-It takes a while for this boy to even establish a friendship—let alone even let his mind wander to dating. And when I say it takes a while, it takes a WHILE. This boy has been oogling over you since god’s menu was just an idea in the studio💀 you were a friend of their choreographer and he would just kinda 🧍🏻‍♂️ whenever you were in the dance studio. You held an unofficial official position at JYP, mainly running little errands,picking up coffee for the boys,etc. usually whenever you had free time.

-Hyunjin’s evil ass dubbed you dance studio bae and of course being the hyung’s they were, they wasted no time in teasing the boy both in and out of the group chat. Poor baby bread was a red bean bun half the time you were around😔

-You honestly thought he didn’t like you at first, he rarely spoke, and when he did kept it extremely formal—he wouldn’t even look you in your eyes when you handed him whatever he needed. Everyone was more or less friendly and you thought he was just shy.

-you didn’t let it bother you too much because vying??? For a MANS attention??? Absolutely not. whenever there was down time in the studio or you were called in on the odd day the boys weren’t practicing you realized the other seven were all pretty friendly. You got Channie’s seal of approval and the rest of them took to you pretty quickly. You earned yourself the nickname ‘little mom’ as you couldn’t help but fuss sometimes, you still had a job to do.

-This caused Jeongin to realize two things about himself. One, he’s the jealous type. And two, he doesn’t like that shit at all. If you thought he was shy at first he was just downright cold now.

-you could see him out of the corner of your eye grimacing half the time and the other half his face was just blank.

-It all came to a head one day when you got sick of his bullshit. It was a recording day and you were plucked alongside the rest of the staff to help keep up with busy work. You work exhausted. Channie needed a towel, Hyunjin needed coffee, Jisung couldn’t find his anxiety meds and Seungmin was being a brat—you were worn absolutely thin and it was going to be a long day. You brushed past Jeongin to help Jisung rifle through his backpack because he said and quote ‘moms find everything’ when Jeongin had the nerve to scoff. You had never about faced so quickly in your life.

“Yang Jeongin-ssi, I’m done with your princess attitude”you said, “you can dislike me, but you will not disrespect me”

He was baffled to say the least, and you had to deal with Bang Chan’s numerous apologies and stuttering explanations of how he doesn’t even know what happened or how Jeongin wasn’t really like this. You weren’t hearing it. The rest of that day was spent in uncomfortable silence.

-After that incident Jeongin was better, but there was still something off about him. You could always feel his eyes on you whenever you got a little too close to the others, it was really starting to get on your nerves.

-You finally got fed up enough to bring the issue to Chan and this man could not hold it together. Like you were so close to beating his ass because what was so funny🤨

-He told you to just go speak to Jeongin yourself and when you did, he was back to the shy and awkward little fox you originally knew him as. It took you exactly .02 seconds to connect the dots and when you did you honestly felt kinda flattered

“Yang Jeongin, do you like me?”

He got so defensive oml

“N-no! Why would you think that??!” But his rosy cheeks and flickering eyes were answer enough.

You just patted his cheek and said, “maybe actually spend some time with me and we can see where this goes, yeah?”

-From that moment on, you started to see a new side of him. He was no longer Yang Jeongin, he became Jeongin who smiled with a shy thank you when you handed him his coffee. Jeongin who tried to catch your eye during rehearsal and grinned when he had your attention. Then eventually Innie who weaseled his way out practice sometimes via maknae privileges to join you on your errands.

“I don’t want y/n-ah to be alone”he’d mumble

-That’s how you found yourself with in a Starbucks of all places laughing at a story from one of his childhood trips to the beach, iced americanos forgotten on the side. It was the first snow of the year and you still couldn’t fathom why they all wanted cold drinks. A simple twenty minute errand turned into almost two hours of you two trading stories back and forth. He was elated to know how familiar you were with Busan and went on a tangent about how beautiful it was.

-Sadly this was cut short by Bang Chan himself showing up at the Starbucks with his 😐 face to drag you to back to the company.

-There was an unspoken agreement that you two were going to see each other again.

-you learned that the real Yang Jeongin was a complete gentleman. Your second ‘hangout’ was spent walking around a mall as it was too cold to be outside longer than necessary. Jeongin greeted you with a hot coffee and blushing his way through explaining how he remembered you preferred hot drinks. As you went from store to store you soon realized whatever you touched ended up in his shopping bag. You thought it was a coincidence at first until your eyes had lingered on a shirt for too long and you found the sleeve peeking out of one of his bags. You drew the line when you entered a jewelry shop and he looked like a kid caught in the cookie jar when you told him to put the earrings back.

“I just wanted to…I..Y/n I really like spending time with you”he said, you went to speak but he quickly shook his head. “I had this whole thing planned out cause I’m not too good with words but…I would really like to continue spending time with you”

You felt your heart almost beat out of your chest “what are you saying Jeongin?”

“Be mine y/n…please?”

You couldn’t help but slap the back of his neck “Yang Jeongin, you idiot” nothing more was said but you did leave the jewelry store with the earrings in tow and his hand in yours. Close enough that your hips bumped and you could smell his cologne clinging to his winter coat.

-Things were different after that and because of him you learned that different could be good. He loved to tease and be teased by his hyungs and that soon got extended to you. Wiping off your kisses,sticking his foot out to trip you and randomly chasing you through the building were a few of the things he was known for.

-But he still smiled all the way to his eyes whenever you showed up even though you were there multiple times a week. Even in all his teasing he was still a doter. Coming over to kiss the top of your head in between run throughs, handing you his phone to order food and forcing you to go home when you came in dead on your feet.

-He may be the maknae of skz but he was still hyung at home and that kinda status isn’t something you shake easily. Older than you or not he still treated you like his baby, he was going to take care of you in whatever way he could. He was a lot more mature than he usually lead on, obviously he had to be.

NSFW

-as we established Jeongin has a jealous streak that goes a mile wide. Now that he’s more secure in your relationship with each other it’s not so bad, but it’s still so easy to push his buttons if you know what you’re looking for.

-All inhibitions go out the window if you test him and you’ll find yourself in the nearest lockable room with your panties down and his tee shirt in your mouth. he’ll say the filthiest things too while he’s pounding into you, it’s like he comes a different person.

“You just love to piss me off huh? You like when I snap, right?”he whispered in your ear, “if you wanna be fucked like a whore you can just ask and not act like one”

-He’s the type to want you to scream so everyone can know you’re just girl, but with the idol image comes idol responsibility. He satiates the urge by having your cunt dripping on the floor and down the black denim of his pants. He likes when you mark him up just as much as he marks you.

-He is big on hickies, once again idol responsibilities his can’t be visible but he loves when you suck on his hip bones and thighs before he’s forcing his cock back down your throat. You are not safe from hickies either, invest in a real good concealer or just deal with never being able to wear low cut tops because he’s obsessed with your tiddies. He loves the way they look, the way they taste and how pretty your chest looks covered in his bites and he bites hard.

-He’s only programmed with two modes, making love and fucking. Unless it’s an anniversary or you specifically asked him for it, you’re fucking. Hard,fast and nasty. He’s the type to spit into your mouth and tell you swallow it for daddy like the good girl you are with that stupid smirk on his face.

-and shiii ay ay captain 🫡

-We all know about Channie but this is the other one with the daddy kink. It’s unexpected but that’s exactly what Aquarius’ are. He treats you like a princess in public but has you cuffed to his bed with a wand on your clit in private. And don’t get me wrong, he’s also got a praise kink.

He’ll be railing you from behind and drapes himself over your chest to say “does it feel good jagi? Is daddy doing a good job for you? Show me how good I’m doing by cumming all over my cock, yeah?”

-Y’all try to reverse the roles a few times but you just get too nervous with his piercing gaze on you and he can’t help but coo at you and wrap you up in his arms cause fuck if that wasn’t the cutest thing he’s ever seen.

-but if you could actually get past his stare and stoic demeanor, he wouldn’t be too opposed to being on the receiving end…

#skz #skz headcanons #skz hard thoughts #skz reactions #skz fluff #dating skz #skz yang jeongin #dating Jeongin #stray kids reactions #stray kids headcanons

194 notes · View notes

tazahan · 1 month

Note

This is gonna be kind of long so feel free to ignore it if you want to, but first of all, I would like to come on here to say how much I love your art, and how much it brightens my day! I love your style so much and it scratches an itch in my brain! And also I’m very sorry about all the craziness going on with Twitter right now 😔 In case you need to hear it, liking and appreciating art does not make you some kind of awful person. Hopefully this all dies down soon - I wonder if it’s because people are on spring break that they have nothing better to do than to make a lot of noise about it?? 😂

Rant incoming: Really it all comes down to people not knowing how to mind their own business anymore. Is the concept of “I follow this artist to like the things I enjoy and ignore the things I hate” hard to understand? What I’m about to say is more broader than this specific MK fiasco, but the fact that numerous SA/incest victims have come forward saying that they’ve felt like their feelings have been invalidated and have even been told awful things like “you must have deserved it since you like / make this kind of art” by this type of crowd that doesn’t know how to do anything but harass and bully people really says a lot. It’s not about making a safer environment more than it’s all about trying to feed into their ego by feeling like they’re morally superior when really, they’re not actually helping anyone at all. Not CSA victims, not incest victims - no one. There are numerous psychology studies that say that the content people consume in their free time are in no way any indication of how likely they are to commit a crime as much as video games makes people violent - and this is taught in universities as fact. For this crowd, this is all about their feelings and what makes them uncomfortable, not about meaningfully contributing to some kind of cause. I’d go off anon but to be honest, these people really scare me. If people would be more willing to listen to others instead of wasting their energy attacking someone who’s never actually hurt a real child in their lives, fandom would be less toxic and much safer for everyone. Hopefully they eventually realize that there are much bigger problems than some artist interacting with stuff that they don’t like. Thanks for reading this very long rant. I hope my feelings have been portrayed well (sorry if there’s any grammar mistakes or typos) and that it’s helped somewhat, and I hope you have better times ahead.

I read all of them and I'm afraid I can't give my proper replies. But all I want to say is, Thank you for your understanding... it was overwhelming to me but I tried to do my best. This is why I prefer to not communicate with the community from now on.

12 notes · View notes

calxide · 2 years

Text

⋆⁺ [ 022 ] a bad saturday

warning/s: toxic relationship with parents, not proofread | w/c: 1.3k

“Where are you going?” Childe glanced at Scaramouche, who was hurrying as he grabbed Childe‘s car keys.

“Hey! Where are you taking my car?” Scaramouche snickered at his friend‘s reaction. “Somewhere.” He heard Childe sigh in defeat as the latter continued watching the television.

Scaramouche drove quickly but safely to the location that Y/N sent him. He wasn‘t sure what the girl was doing at a children‘s park. Based on her recent messages, she had many typos that were too much; it wasn‘t typical for her to have numerous typos. What if something bad happened to her? Is she crying again? Did she and her parents fight? Scaramouche groaned at the flow of negative thoughts running through his mind.

When he got off the expensive car that Childe owned, he rushed to the swing where he took sight of Y/N. Her shoulders were going up and down, indicating that she was crying. She was quietly sitting on the swing while swaying her feet in the motion.

“Y/N,” Scaramouche called out, softer than he had expected it to be. He was facing Y/N‘s back, assuming she probably wouldn‘t want him to see her in such a state.

Y/N quickly wiped her tears, “Hey,” she greeted back, voice hoarse due to her crying recently. “I‘m sorry.”

Scaramouche frowned once he sensed that she would start crying any time soon. The metals creaked once he sat at the other swing next to hers. Just like that time, he lends her his handkerchief. Y/N quietly took his handkerchief and mumbled, ‘Thanks.‘

A deep silence ensued; neither dared to talk. Scaramouche knew that what Y/N needed right now was time and space to clear her mind; peace of mind. At the same time, he wanted to know what caused her to cry this badly.

He opened his mouth, but Y/N beat him to it. “I‘m sorry I had you wait for nothing.” Scaramouche sighed and shook his head; Y/N took this chance to talk once more, “To think you‘re the one who‘d see me in this state... and here I thought it‘d be Hu Tao who‘d be the one to be there to comfort me,” she chuckled softly.

Suddenly, Y/N‘s phone rang. She looked at the caller‘s ID only to grunt in annoyance. Her mother was flooding her with messages and calls; it was clear that she had angered her mother. Even so, she didn‘t want to answer her calls.

“...Did you fight with your mother again?” Y/N nodded at his question. “You know you can tell me, but it‘s fine if you don‘t want.”

Y/N‘s lips quivered, “I don‘t know what to do anymore, Scaramouche.” She covered her face with her hands as she sobbed, “I don‘t understand. Is what they‘re doing what‘s good for me? I once thought that following their orders and acting as a good daughter would suffice for them. I did what they wanted me to do. I did my best in school, participated in co-curricular activities, and decided to take control of the company once I‘m older.”

“I‘ve sacrificed my everything for their plans for me. Now, I had enough of them controlling my life. I just want to be me; I want to be someone I want to be. But I know I can‘t and will never be,” she heaved a heavy sigh as soon as she finished her long explanation. “Sorry for ranting.”

Scaramouche pursed his lips, not knowing what exactly to say. He stood up from the swing and lent his hand to her, “Come on, it‘s getting late.”

A small smile formed on Y/N‘s lips; she took Scaramouche‘s hand. Unexpectedly, a familiar voice called out, “Y/N! There you are, young lady!”

Y/N was frightened by the turn of events; what was her mother doing here? How did she find her? Her grip on Scaramouche‘s hand tightened. He knew that she was scared. As a response, Scaramouche squeezed her hand to let her know that he was there for her.

“Mother.” Her mother was fuming. She furiously grabbed Y/N‘s shoulder, “We were so worried about you. How dare you ran away like that?” Were you really worried about me?

“Who might this young man be?” Her mother gasped, “He‘s not your lover, is he? Ah, I see. Being rebellious now, are you? Is this why you‘re grades are not at their best?”

Y/N shook her head, her heartbeat beating rapidly, “No, mother. You misunderstand.”

Her mother‘s hold on her shoulder tightened, making her whine in pain. Scaramouche noticed this; he pulled Y/N away from her mother and motioned her to get behind him. “Miss L/N, I‘m afraid this is enough.”

“How dare you speak like that to me?” Her mother smiled at Y/N, “Sweet Y/N, come to mother.”

“Mother, I am not a child anymore–” Her mother‘s hand stopped halfway before reaching her face. Scaramouche aggressively seized her hand, “And you call yourself her mother? Don‘t you see how much she‘s hurting from the inside?” Y/N looked at him in awe, fear, and shock. He was scared of whatever her mother might do to him.

“How dare you? She‘s my daughter. Of course, I know her well!” Scaramouche chuckled sarcastically at her words, “What do you know about your daughter? As she said, she‘s not a child anymore. Forgive my words, ma‘am. But I‘m afraid that you don‘t know your daughter well as you said.”

“Let‘s go,” Scaramouche led them to Childe‘s car, completely ignoring Y/N‘s mother‘s shouts. “Don‘t you dare come running to your mother‘s arm once he breaks your heart, Y/N!” Scaramouche snickered at what they heard and closed the car‘s door. We‘re not even together, he thought.

Scaramouche fastened his seatbelts and started the engine. The atmosphere inside the car was far better than the one where they had to deal with Y/N‘s mother‘s presence.

He sighed, “Have you eaten dinner yet?” Y/N shook her head. “We‘ll eat dinner first and talk.”

He droved the car to the nearest restaurant. Wanmin Restaurant. He opened the door and gestured for Y/N to get out, but she did not want to. “Nevermind, I‘m not hungry.” Contrary to what she said, her stomach growled loudly. Scaramouche sighed, “Yeah, whatever. Now, get out of the car.” Y/N puffed her cheeks in defeat and got out of the car.

Now that there is better lighting, Scaramouche witnessed Y/N‘s ethereal beauty. She was wearing a black dress that was until her knee. Her make-up has been messed up, but that doesn‘t mean that her natural beauty doesn‘t shine anymore. Her eyes were a bit swollen due to crying.

“Is there something on my face?” Scaramouche cleared his throat and mumbled a ‘No.‘

They went inside the restaurant and heard a familiar voice, “Welcome– Y/N?” Xiangling approached them and quickly got a hold of Y/N‘s hands, “Y/N! What happened?”

“Oh, hey, Xiangling. I‘ll tell you later at the group chat. For now, we‘ll eat dinner first.” Xiangling nodded at her reply and took her notepad as she asked for their orders. “All right! I‘ll be back in a bit, you two.”

“Y/N.”

“Yeah, yeah, I‘ll tell you too. Later.” Scaramouche sighed, “Let‘s continue our work on Monday. For now, have some rest.” Y/N nodded as she drank the water that Xiangling brought for her.

They ate and finished dinner fast and quietly. Scaramouche drove her to Teyvat University‘s female dorms. Before getting off the car, Y/N spoke, “My mother‘s going to transfer me to another school if I don‘t do well. So, let‘s still meet up tomorrow.”

Scaramouche‘s ears perked up at the mention of transferring to another school, “Which school are you transferring to?”

“Fatui High.” His eyes widened in shock at the mention of the school. It took him a few seconds before he recovered from the shock.

“Hello? Teyvat to Scaramouche? As I was saying, thank you for bringing me back home. I wouldn‘t know what to do if you weren‘t there. See you tomorrow.” Y/N smiled at him before closing the car‘s door.

Mona was right. Y/N might be his key to stepping into Fatui High. And he‘s not going to let this opportunity slip.

ABYSSAL LOVE ✰ previous ♡ masterlist ♡ next

a/n: ik i just made y/n cried last chapter but bear with it for now. and... 🍵👀

⋆⁺ synopsis — Scaramouche, the person who tripped you on purpose just to see your despair expression on your face, hates how you always appear so happy in front of other people. He hated the fact that you find life enjoyable, unlike him. You, of course, hated him back. You don't understand why he goes to the extent to see your face crinkle in pure dismay. But what if you realize that the person who always laughs at your misery isn't so insufferable after you get to know him?

💌 @r-0-tt-3-n-m-1-lk @kanaqwqbear @berryqueue @nejibot @wrrapedroundmyfingerlikearing @cafescara @ferumie @zannivrs @kazuhasmaid @gunz-nrozes

#genshin imagines #genshin smau #genshin x reader #genshin fluff #genshin x y/n #genshin x you #genshin x female reader #scaramouche x you #scaramouche imagines #scaramouche x y/n #scaramouche x reader #◇ーsmau: abyssal love #◇ーcalx's collection

220 notes · View notes

snowdrrops · 1 year

Text

YOU'RE MY HOME

feat ! haino/cytham includes ! fluff notes ! i wrote this while i was on the verge of falling asleep 🙏 forgive me if there are any typos/misspellings

The tavern was so crowded that nobody noticed General Mahamatra in a corner, downing shots of alcohol as if he was in a drinking contest.

His jackal headgear was placed on the table beside numerous glasses of empty glasses, his face tainted a little red.

Cyno hardly ever drank. The first reason for this would be the lack of time he had for extra activities outside of his job, and the second was that he dreaded the hangover he'd have to deal with the following morning.

Hence, you may inquire about the reason he was getting drunk without a care at that very moment.

“Haitham…” Cyno muttered darkly under his breath, slamming his sixth… or maybe seventh glass on the table.

“Sorry, sir? What was that?” the bartender asked, a little intimidated by the Cyno’s aura.

“I'll have another bottle, please.”

“The sheer audacity he has- barging into my office today and claiming that he received the post of General Mahamatra first! It must've been a plot to humiliate me,” Cyno had been rambling on for an hour nonstop. A few patrons were starting to cast concerned looks at him.

“I'll get him one day, and his soul will be weighed upon the scales of-”

“General Mahamatra!”

A voice cut him off.

“Speak of the devil,” Cyno loudly said, facing Haitham. The latter had a smirk smugly attached to his face and his arms were folded.

“Let's go home, Cyno.”

“Leave. Me. Be.” Cyno groaned, too weak to push himself off Haitham's back. This was a blow to his pride; never in his life would he imagine being piggybacked by the Grand Scribe.

“If I left you there, you would've been kicked out,” Haitham responded, “I doubt anyone would like to see the General Mahamatra sleeping outside a tavern.”

“Where are you taking…” Cyno’s voice trailed off, too drunk and exhausted to continue his sentence. All he could do was to press his cheek against the other man's back and listen to his rhythmic breathing.

“I told you, we are going home.”

That just didn't make sense! They didn't live together. Their definitions of ’home’ would be different. Cyno wanted to voice these thoughts, but his sleepiness overtook him and his world faded to black.

The whirling of a fan shook Cyno awake.

The room he was in was dark, although he could see some light pouring out from beneath the curtains. A sense of panic rushed through him. If there was light outside, it meant he was late for work.

A red duvet covered all the way up till his shoulders. Wait, he didn't own a red duvet…

He shot up, which he regretted immediately as his hangover punched him in the face. Cyno seethed as a headache overtook him.

Where was he?

Okay, he needed to retrace his steps back to the previous night. He got drunk at a tavern, then…

The deeper he dug, the worse the headache seemed to get. Could it be that someone kidnapped him? No, the kidnapper wouldn't let him lie in bed so peacefully.

All his questions were answered when the bedroom doorknob twisted open to reveal Haitham.

Cyno’s eyes became daggers as he glared at the man before him. He should have known that he was involved! How could he overlook this possibility?

“Oh, you're awake. Was starting to think that maybe you'd died of alcohol poisoning,” Haitham joked, but it was not very humourous to Cyno. It was only now that Cyno noticed the other man was holding a bowl of soup in his hands.

Haitham walked further into the room and placed the bowl onto the bedside table before rolling up the curtains slowly, to let Cyno's eyes adjust to the light.

“How did I end up here?”

He stopped abruptly, turning to face Cyno. “You got drunk so I took you home.”

“Why is it that I have no recollection of that happening?” Cyno questioned with suspicion laced in his tone, not quite trusting Haitham's words.

Haitham scoffed. “If you don't trust me, ask Kaveh. He saw us coming in.”

An eyewitness would be useful, also considering the strained relationship between the roommates, there was a low probability that Kaveh would lie to protect Haitham.

“Hangover soup,” Haitham gestured towards the bowl on the table before settling down on the bed opposite Cyno.

With a puzzled look at Haitham, Cyno took the bowl into his hands. The aroma of the contents wafted up from the bowl and he had to restrain himself from gulping it all down.

“Don't be shy, I made it specifically for you,” was all he needed to hear from Haitham before finishing it all, his hunger satiated.

The grey haired man placed a box of tissues in front of Cyno (in case he needed to clean up), which the latter didn't notice at all.

“Cyno?” Haitham called out.

Cyno's gaze shot up to meet him.

“I deserve some payback for what you did last night.”

Cyno's eyes widened like saucers, his mouth forming an 'o'. Endless humiliating possibilities ran through his mind at the speed of light, picking out the worst possible thing he could do in Haitham's presence.

Did he start singing out of nowhere? His singing was nowhere near tolerable. Or maybe he said something that Haitham could use as blackmail against him?

Well, whatever the case, it was definitely not good. It was best that Cyno readied himself for the consequences of his drunken actions.

“You kissed me.”

Cyno let out a sigh of relief before-

Wait.

Oh.

He kissed Haitham.

Cyno's face burned a bright red and upon seeing the gigantic smirk plastered on Haitham's face, he knew that this was going exactly as Haitham planned.

“I- I must've been really wasted, huh?”

“Yes, dear.”

Dear?! Oh no, Cyno didn't expect this. He was not experienced in the field of romance, how was he supposed to go about this?

No, he had to calm down. There was a logical way to deal with his predicament. Haitham did mention payback, didn't he? Maybe if Cyno could meet his demands, this matter would be solved in no time. This was it!

“What would you like me to do as payback?” Cyno asked, mentally preparing himself. He knew how far Haitham could go, nothing stopped this man.

Haitham seemed to be waiting for this question, as his eyes lit up. Placing his index finger on his chin, “Hm, let me think. Oh, I know,” his smirk only grew wider as he inched closer towards Cyno.

“How about a kiss?“

“...”

Cyno was beyond stunned. He could not– did not want to believe his own ears. Haitham, Grand Scribe of the Akademiya, was asking him for a kiss.

If you told Cyno that Sumpter beasts could fly, he might've believed you.

Unlike Cyno, Haitham was calmly and patiently awaiting an answer.

Get yourself together!

It was just one kiss. It would not hurt him. Cyno would go on living as per usual after this. He would forget the events that transpired on this day and never look back.

Why did he have to be the one to take me home, dammit!

“Sure.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. Get it over with quickly.”

An undetectable emotion flashed across Haitham's eyes but it was gone before Cyno could pin it down.

Inching closer to Haitham, Cyno's fists clenched around the duvet and a surprised gasp left him when Haitham took his hands in his.

If it's just a kiss, why is my heart racing?

Just as their lips met, the memory from last night came back to him.

Haitham had plopped Cyno onto the bed, shifting him into a comfortable position and raising the duvet to his shoulders.

Just as Haitham was about to leave, Cyno grabbed onto his arm and with the last of his strength, he pulled the other man into a kiss.

“You took me home."

links: directory

#haino #cytham #genshin impact #cyno #al haitham #sumeru #fluff #oneshot

24 notes · View notes

clairelsonao3 · 7 months

Note

Happy STS! I have outlines on the brain today, so I'm very curious about everyone's processes. Do you outline your stories before you start writing them? If so, how detailed are they, and how closely do you follow them?

-pleasestaywithmedarling

Happy ST(T), Hannah, and thanks for the ask! Sorry for the late reply; I'm kind of all over the place right now.

It's funny, for the longest time I thought I didn't make full outlines, but I do -- in my head. As a highly visual person, I can picture the words on the page almost as well as when they're written down, so I often don't need to.

Despite that, I still sometimes do written outlines, though for different reasons.

On the one hand, trying to sit down and outline an entire novel from beginning to end is a virtual guarantee that it's a stalling tactic and is just an excuse to never, ever start writing the thing. If I'm excited enough about something, I prefer to jump in and start writing, see what happens, and if I need to outline something later, I will. On the other hand, when I've hit a particularly perplexing, complicated, or difficult section in the story (often near the climax or an action-heavy scene) making a mini-outline to help me better visualize the plot and its through-lines has saved me on numerous occasions.

My written outlines come in various levels of detail, but one thing they have in common is that they're never pretty. It's almost always just a wall of text with "this happens, then this happens." There are no chapters or sections or beats any other kind of organizational structure or division, including paragraphs (and usually numerous typos and run-on sentences, because, after all, no one else is ever going to see it!) Anyway, I don't know how my chapters will be divided until I write them, so I couldn't do that even if I wanted to.

And yes, whether written or merely in my head, they are always and frequently subject to change.

So yes, it's safe to say I have a complicated relationship with outlines!

#sts #asked and answered #outlines #writing process #writeblr #my writing

2 notes · View notes

rowanaelinn · 1 year

Note

I belive she meant it in a joking way too. I just think it's funny the way she acts totally oblivious when it comes to Lorcan. It's like she hasn't let go of their dynamic when they first met.

And you're gonna rewrite the story??? Why??

sorry i had a few hectic days!!! and she is definitely very fond of this cat/dog relationship 😂

i am! at first just for the very… numerous mistakes and typos i’ve made😅 but i’m also kinda thinking about turning IA into a book? i’m still not sure!

#ask #illicit affairs ask

3 notes · View notes

unboundpower · 1 year

Text

Some more Amito stuff for today specifically, disconnected from the fic (but I guess you could still associate this with it - like a bonus filler oneshot or w/e). I didn’t go in with proofreading because Lazy, so sorry in advance if there’s a lot of typos or grammar mistakes.

He had to get to work as soon as she left in the morning for work. Hours passed as he toiled in the kitchen, but finally he was finished preparing the large meal. Vegito looked over the kitchen table and the assortment of food that was assembled on it, all made by him. Everything smelled and looked delectable, from the dumplings and stir-fry to the burgers and fries, but part of the warrior was still…nervous nonetheless. Ironic.

He had learned and practiced enough to have at least a little confidence in his cooking abilities, but the idea of disappointing her hung heavily in his might like an oppressive weight. If she found even one small thing to be subpar, the embarrassment he’d feel would be overwhelming. But then again, maybe he was overthinking it. She wasn’t hard to satisfy, and had told him numerous times in the past that as long as a food item was edible and tasted somewhat ok, she’d have little complaints.

That didn’t stop Vegito from staring down at the table, expression set in a discontent frown and arms crossed tightly across his chest. He wondered if there was something else he could add, something more he could do, but the sound of the front door opening and closing snapped the Saiyan from his intense train of thought. He about ripped the apron he was wearing off and tossed it onto the nearby counter, and straightened his t-shirt as a woman wearing a colorful set of scrubs walked in.

❝ Hey. Welcome home. ❞

❝ Thanks. ❞ Amita placed her bag down on one of the couches, smiling in that sweet way that he found infectious. He heard her sniff the air, and give him a curious look.

❝ Smells good in here…did you cook something? ❞

❝ A lot of somethings, yeah. ❞

He gestured with his head to the kitchen, and took her hand to guide her there. Vegito watched closely as he saw her honey brown eyes widen at the sight of the table decorated with plates and bowls of food, and was pleased at the giddy feel that permeated her grin.

❝ You made all of this? On your own? ❞

❝ Believe it or not, I’m not completely helpless when it comes to working a stove. ❞ He remarked with a lighthearted deadpan, and eagerly returned her embraced when she moved to hug him tightly. Vegito took a second to rub his cheek against the softness of her hair, and drape his tail across her midsection, as he heard her ask meekly:

❝ What’s the occasion…? ❞

❝ Like you don’t know. ❞ He snorted, pulling away some so he could look into her eyes. ❝ What, did you expect me to do nothing for your birthday? ❞

She looked like she wanted to control the size of her grin by how the corners of her mouth persistently twitched, but it was a battle she swiftly lost interest in keeping up.

❝ …Maybe... ❞

He chuckled. Based on the things Amita has told him in the past, he was aware that either she or other people celebrating her birthday wasn’t something that happened much – or at all. Not for over two decades. He himself wasn’t that crazy about his own birth date, though it was probably more accurate to call it a “creation day”, but his feelings towards his were overall less…depressing than hers towards her own.

❝ Well, unfortunately for you, I want this day to be something positive. A good memory amidst all the bad, you can keep and recall fondly. ❞

Vegito didn’t feel the need to bring up the relevance of today also being Valentine’s Day. It was an ironic twist that he knew she hated, and even if it wasn’t Valentine’s he would’ve done the same thing, but the convenience of it being a time for “scaled up” romantic acts played well enough into this occasion without being too on the nose. And as another plus, he didn’t need to entertain the thought of specifically getting a Valentine’s gift at all.

Amita rested her head against his broad shoulder, and he pulled her more closely into him. Her features turned peaceful.

❝ Thank you… ❞ Though it was a simple verbal expression, Vegito sensed there was even more she wanted to say but probably couldn’t think of a way to do so. It didn’t matter though. He didn’t need to hear nor did he want her to gush and drivel over this gift or the time and effort he dedicated to it.

❝ It’s no problem, hon. ❞

A warm, soft feeling of silence fell over them. He gently rubbed Amita’s back for a moment, before urging her to stand up straight.

❝ Go and get dressed into something more comfortable. I’ll finish setting the table up. Then, after dinner, we can do whatever you want. My attention is all yours for the rest of today. ❞

She giggled under her breath. With a brief nod, she left his side to walk down the hall towards the bedroom. By the time he laid out additional plates, napkins and silverware for them to use, Amita returned with her hair pulled up and back to allow her third eye to stay open. What made Vegito stop and stare, was he noticing that she opted to be clothed in a shirt of his that was naturally a couple of sizes too big – so it looked more like a short dress on her frame. The straps of her bra peeked out, and he saw a portion of her panties as well, proving that she wasn’t wearing any shorts or the like underneath.

That was ok. He would behave with the utmost ease…unless she showed that she didn’t want him to, later.

#suggestive #amito // ♡ it's us against the world ♡#vegito // ✸ ic ✸#amita // ❦ ic ❦

1 note · View note

leaderwon · 8 months

Text

ME!

☼ NAME : luna

☼ AGE : 16

☼ PRONOUNS : She/her

☼ BIRTHDAY : 15thNovember

☼ NATIONALITY : Asian (Indian)

☼ MBTI : ISTP-T

☼ULTS : ENHYPEN, TXT

NOTES!

This is an sfw account! I don't mind if you write mature content, but please have a cut before your nsfw work and mind how you talk about any idols with me.

It's alright if you anti any of my faves. Please let me know prior and don't rub it in my face.

I'm very much in love with jungwon and I post alot of delulu content

I flirt alot once I'm comfortable, if u don't like me flirting pls lmk

I don't mind interacting with any age just don't be weird asf

I curse alot. If it makes you uncomfortable let me know prior so I can limit my swearing.

I'm always open to requests, unless mentioned otherwise. Send an ask if you want to request anything.

I'm sometimes busy lazy too so pls don't rush me to post.

I may say stuff that may sound rude but I'm just trying to get my point across and I don't mean it.

I love looking for new friends and moots so I might barge into your asks randomly :)

Always looking for moots

Kys/kms jokes but not fr

I sort of struggle with writing for sunoo (idk why) so if u request anything related to him it may not reach ur expectations. Sorry for that!

i cannot type properly to save my life. I make numerous mistakes and typos please keep that in mind.

MOOTS!

@shuamorollss della! : my wife <3

@euncsace rim! : my bbg omg ilysm

@flickqr astra! : my personal jungwon content feeder

@hoonvrs saint! : my hot cup of British tea

@sultrybaby kel! : do you want it? Cuz ur begging for it. Ur dying for it!!!!

@isoobie ri! : jakehoon's bae frfr

@bywons sru! : baal or grades dono gir rahe hai 🤩

@isawritesss isa! : desi rizzler

@jongbubz mael! : the love of my life

@defnotfertilizedtoesw cleo! : cheater

@wonryllis yeonie! : my mother on enhablr

@goldenhypen em! : jake 2.0

@saursoob reya! : feeling the love I'm sending targetted towards you?

@leaderwonim ki! : kiki do u love me (CUZ I DO)

@ynsvnte Mari : if you don't believe in fan x idol this is an example

@okwonyos jiah! : cutie with cute as hell themes (googling how to be okwonyo rn)

@jaeyunluvr kayz! : makes me aggressively pull the voice messages out 😐

@rk1stars star! : IM GONNA BE A STARRRR

@jjunie-0 kei! : if you don't believe in true love I'm always there

@lilacnini Danielle : we are the champions 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻

SOCIALS!

wattpad instagram

#leaderwon

38 notes · View notes

commanderquinn · 9 months

Text

Good Space Chapter 4: Ya Better Stop

! i dont! keep these posts! updated! like i do! ao3!

that means you're going to find typos and shit (and possibly minor detail changes) that don't match the ao3 version! that's because im not going to bother fixing the tumblr posts until i finish good space as a whole. im only uploading them here as a backup tbh

—

master list / ao3 chapter link

—

warnings: james buchanan barnes being james buchanan barnes (derogatory) (i HATE him sm u dont even know), theres a lab scene but no bad brain talk i promise

song: sinatra has arrived babes!!! it is time for the golden oldies to begin their invasion 🥰

ava gets first pov this time!! probably a repeating thing, all i know rn is i needed it for narrative flow. remember how i warned you way back that i am in No Rush? this chapter is one of those. no flashbacks, only extra flirting and pining 🤌

ALSO if u are a walker fan (look im not judging. but im not agreeing) im really really sorry but im abt to bully the everloving fuck out of him. i cant stand him. i cant. every possible chance to dunk on him that i find, i will take 👾

—

She hasn't seen Bucky in six days.

Ava isn't counting.

But she hasn't seen him in six days.

He's been away on another mission. His first extended one since she took on his case. She was told ahead of time, so she wasn't waiting around for his morning drop-in. JARVIS let her know it would be ongoing and that the sergeant would be unavailable due to the stealth designation. SHIELD has to be the go-between if there's anything that needs to get passed, just like when Paige gets assigned to them.

His mission status is listed right there in his file. The medical reports from the column marked completed aren't blacked out like they were before. She had to ask JARVIS to reset the file she keeps for Tony when her new settings cleared the privacy wall he keeps. That's how far the copy of Bucky's access extends.

SHIELD gave him everything. All of their records on known organizations, detailed reports on all globally known assets like the Winter Soldier, internal investigations of SHIELD itself after the near collapse of the organization, all of it. A nauseating amount of the HYDRA portion centers around Zola, unsurprisingly. She would resurrect the monster in a second if it meant giving Bucky some time alone in a room with him.

After her first night of reading until the tears overwhelmed her, she went to Steve for a debrief of sorts. He confirmed he was the driving force behind SHIELD's full disclosure to Bucky. Natasha was the backup he needed to convince Fury.

Ava managed to talk the captain into coming to her office for lunch with Paige, mainly as an apology for getting in his face. He's assured her repeatedly in the days since that it's the exact kind of moral standing he was looking for with the case. He doesn't begrudge her anger; he understands it entirely.

For days now, Ava's been trying not to let her eyes skim the vitals being submitted intermittently from the sergeant's ongoing mission. It makes the worry she isn't feeling get worse. In hindsight, setting herself as his primary in the tower might not have been such a great idea. She's been trying not to think about it.

All she's thinking about at the tipping point into his seventh day gone is her favorite Tove Lo album.

She spins around her lab on enthusiastic feet, dramatically shouting the bittersweet lyrics of stranger with abandon. Her head bangs to the beat, switching to exaggerated flips during the instrumentals. There's seemingly no end of perks when it comes to mortgaging her soul to her billionaire friend and the government organization he works for. Having a state-of-the-art lab to dance around alone in at midnight is pretty high on the list.

She still hasn't hit her coffee crash of the day, thanks to numerous refills, so she's bouncing by the time the final breakdown of the song hits. Her hair goes wild, her arms thrown up as she jumps to the rhythm. She stops when the music does, giving herself a moment to catch her breath between songs. Her fist is raised high and ready to swing to the beat of bitches as the opening blares, echoing off glass walls that would rattle if they weren't bulletproof.

Ava is elated as she swings her hips and steadies her head to sing. She fucking loves this song. It makes her feel good. Bubbly. More than a little powerful. The lines flow out of her like water, the words familiar and comforting on her tongue.

"Know your own love, I don't fuck with no glove," she proudly shouts one of her favorite lines. Her foot slams down on the floor, and she pivots herself around with the momentum of her hips. "So why complicate it? Let me be— "

In one of the most mortifying moments of her life, Ava spots Sergeant Barnes in his not-uniform, standing in the wide open door of her lab. Shock hits her before common sense does, and her first reaction is to cover her mouth. Not attempt to stop the song. The one now loudly carrying into the—god fucking willing—deserted hallway behind him.

—your guide when you eat my pussy out, Tove Lo's voice continues without her accompaniment.

Bucky was already watching her with glee, but the words make his head come forward with a shocked laugh. He doesn't bother hiding it, or his smile, behind his hand. Not the way she is with her horrified expression.

Ava's hand folds with an awkward jerk of her fingers, her eyes still locked with his. "JARVIS! Pause, please!"

—had one or two, even a few. Yeah, more than you.

"Oh really?" Bucky questions loudly in response to the lyrics, his eyes widening even further. She can barely hear him over the music. The smile he's got aimed at her—

"My apologies, Dr. Ryder," JARVIS cuts in without lowering the volume, "but as per your rules, any ongoing music in the lab—" There's joy sitting in the AI's voice; she can hear it. Pure, sadistic joy.

"Now is the worst time for revenge," Ava tries to reason with JARVIS.

"—cannot be changed without a majority vote. Seeing as you are no longer the majority—"

"JAR!"

"—Sergeant Barnes is now entitled to vote on the matter. Do let me know if you find you require a tiebreaker."

Bucky raises a hand to his chest with nothing but mischief in his eyes. That fucking grin. It's the one she's only seen in photos on Steve's desk. The one powered by a thousand watts that charmed its way through all five boroughs before the draft. It's threatening to knock the breath out of her all over again. "Is it my birthday? Did I get put in cryo on the way back without someone telling me?"

"Bucky Barnes! If you don't cut the shit—" She points an angry finger at him that does nothing to dissuade him.

"These weren't in your playlists. What's this one called? Maybe I haven't gotten to it—"

Huffing with embarrassed indignance, she gives up trying to pull mercy from either of them. She turns on her heel and heads for her desk to shut off the song manually. In one of JARVIS' oh-so-funny jokes, the window minimizes on the first try. He lets her hit the pause button without interruption on the second attempt.

"I'm pretty sure I'd remember something like that," Bucky continues in the silence that follows, coming into the lab with confident strides. He's the most impossibly smug bastard. A goddamn terror, that's what he is. She should testify to help throw his ass in jail, but not because of anything to do with Nazis.

"I locked all the dirty ones before I gave you those playlists; sorry to disappoint," she sasses back to regain some ground. "I didn't want to be responsible for giving a dinosaur a heart attack. I'm not sure who'd come after me first, the paleontologists or the cardiologists."

Bucky leans against the other side of the desk she's definitely not hiding behind. With him closing in like this, her nose is picking up the lingering remnants of burned gunpowder. "Mmm. Well. I'm not feeling any pain in my—You know, come to think of it." He glances down at his mechanical shoulder, his eyes taking a bored journey down the shiny metallic arm. The fact that his gear leaves it exposed— "That's probably not going to be a good way to tell anymore."

Her music library might not kill him, but his dry humor is absolutely going to be the end of her. She has to bite her lip for a long moment to hold back a laugh.

She lets it back out of her teeth. Her cheeks feel like they're on fire. "I'm starting to think you super soldiers have an inclination for ambushing unsuspecting doctors at night."

"It breaks my heart to tell you, it really does, but you got set up for this. And it wasn't even by me. I know. I'm as surprised as you are." His eyes glance down at her outfit while she looks at him in exasperation, the movement fast and deliberate. Mildly tame. More than a few steps up from not taking her bait in the early days of their appointments. "Gotta say, though, I'm enjoying being the linchpin here."

"Set up by who? Steve?" Though the captain had looked appeased after getting to trade shy laughter with Paige, Ava wouldn't be surprised to hear it at all. Given how hard she's been teasing the poor guy lately, she had something like this coming.

"I believe set up is an exaggeration," JARVIS says far too innocently, making Ava's eyes widen in shock. It reignites Bucky's smile.

"JAR!" She lets the feeling of betrayal surface in her voice. "How could you?"

"I have done nothing."

"After all we've been through!"

"I merely informed Sergeant Barnes that you were in the building upon his return. He was the one to decide on an early visit."

"Careful," Bucky warns with a chuckle. "She can go check for herself how much suggestion was involved; she's got log permissions now."

"And I'll be using them," Ava threatens with another stern point of her finger, first at the sergeant, then at the security camera mounted on the ceiling. "Don't you two forget that while you're plotting your next attack."

"I haven't plotted anything. Scout's honor." He raises his flesh hand in oath, then frowns, momentarily looking off to the side. When his eyes come back to hers, there's not an ounce of shame in them. Only trouble. The hand stays up. "Alright. I haven't plotted anything with JARVIS."

Ava crosses her arms over her chest, entirely unimpressed now that the shock is wearing off. Her cheeks are taking their sweet time cooling down. "Did you come here for actual medical care, or are you just here to wreak havoc?"

"Definitely the latter. You could probably talk me into the former; you're pretty good at doing that. Might take some effort to convince me this time. I'm fresh from the field—"

"Shut up and get that gun locker you call an outfit out of my way, Barnes."

"That'll work." Bucky has the nerve to wink at her as he pushes up from her desk. It makes her hide behind her hand while she circles back around. She hears his jacket land on the thick glass while she grabs a medkit, reminding her of the accuracy of her teasing.

"What the hell do you keep in that thing? Chainmail?" He doesn't have to jump to sit on the desk the way she does. It makes Ava want to shove him off of it for a split second. The nerve of this man to be that big. In her lab.

"I can take you on a tour if you want. Don't expect anything too flashy. I keep all the good shit in my end of the world go-bag."

There's a new bullet wound to be found over his collarbone when he gets his shirt off. She'd been expecting it, thanks to the updates in his files. Seeing flesh already scarred over in less than three days is still jarring.

He didn't need to come in for that field injury the other week. She already knew that from a logical, medical standpoint. Looking at the proof with her own eyes feels different, though. It makes the heat threaten to return to her cheeks.

"And how often does that one get brought out?"

"Only a few times a month, don't worry. Things have been pretty calm for a while." For the first time, he turns his head to watch her fingers check the outer edge of his cybernetic shoulder. She's expecting to see unease sitting in his eyes when she looks up. All she finds is peaceful interest.

"You missed me," Ava softly accuses before she can stop herself. It makes her eyes rush back down to focus on her work.

"Of course I did." Damn him; there's no hesitation in his answer. "It's been a week without bagels and lollipops. You wanna guess how many jokes I came up with for that ballsack roaming around your house?"

"His name is Oreo, and you will use it with respect."

"Yes, ma'am. The utmost respect for Oreo the Ba—"

"Watch it." She's already made it to his back, so she only gets a side view of the smirk he gives her in response. "In any case, he spends more time roaming around Paige's apartment than my house."

"She stole your cat?"

"No," she giggles at the seriousness in his voice. "I stay at her place most days of the week. Her dad has an auto shop about fifteen minutes from here, and her apartment is right above it. I live pretty far outside of the city. Even with the way I drive, it's like an eight-hour round trip. That's why I try to leave early on Fridays."

"You only spend three nights a week in your own house?"

"I did say try. Sometimes—alright, most times, it's less than that. Lucky for me, Oreo doesn't mind hanging out with the grease monkeys while I poke at gray matter."

"I can drop you off."

Ava blinks, her hands pausing while scraping a pick along his shoulder blade. "I—what?" Her brows pull in, trying to figure out where he's going with this latest hard turn. "At the shop? Don't worry about it. I like night drives—"

"No, your house. I can cut that round-trip down to a fuckin' blink whenever you want. The cat can come, too."

"I'm sorry, does the serum give you a roadrunner setting I don't know about?"

"God, no. I prefer to take my t—" The first sign of hesitation surfaces in him as he pauses for a split second. It makes her look up at the back of his head, right at the bun his hair is in. "I was talking about a Quinjet."

He's flirting with her, she realizes. And it's not just a throwaway line this time. He's also trying to offer her the fastest carpool on the damn planet.

"Hang on—back up a step for a minute." She watches his shoulders go stiff, and she panics. He thinks he overstepped, her mind throws at her. Fix it. "I'm still trying to get over the fact that someone gave you a license for a car. Now you're telling me someone lets you behind the controls of a jet?"

The tension is gone from his posture before she even finishes bullying him. "They threaten to revoke the driver's license a lot. Steve and I tend to scare the shit out of people when we get on motorcycles. They only complain about how I fly when I bump Sam mid-air."

"You do not try to—"

"Oh, there's no try about it. I never miss my mark, doc. It really pisses him off." The overwhelming pride in his voice makes her laugh, despite the nerve-wracking image in her head.

Ava swats at his right shoulder, trying to avoid a bruise from the metal one. She learned that lesson the hard way. "You hit your friends with jets?"

"Just that one. It's a love tap. He barely even feels anything. He's got a big fancy Stark suit these days; he'll be fine."

"Where's your big fancy Stark suit? Is Tony withholding it until you let him take you to Vegas?"

Bucky snorts loudly. "He pulled that shit with you, too?"

"Mhmm. There's a veteran's center in West Virginia that has a state-of-the-art walk-in clinic because I let that idiot keep me locked in Caesar's Palace for three days. I've never been so hungover in my life." She's pretty sure it was Pepper's suggestion. An effort to get her out of the house when things first turned rocky with Alec.

"He still hasn't managed to rope me into it. That particular string wasn't tied to the suit offer."

"So what made you pass on a shiny new Stark toy?"

"Have you watched those rackety things in action?" Bucky's head shakes with mild disgust. "No thanks. I prefer being able to control when people hear me."

"No shit," Ava mumbles with poorly restrained annoyance.

He chuckles and straightens his head up without her having to ask. She's guessing he memorized her path to his neck on the very first cleaning appointment. "You're distracting; you know that? I can't remember the last time I let someone talk me off my point. Which I'm circling back to now. How far's your house in miles?"

The question catches her off guard enough to make her stop again. "You don't know my address?"

"I—shit, I was going to try to assure you I don't know anything about your house that you haven't told me. But that's not... entirely honest."

"I don't mind you knowing the things in my file," she reminds him gently. "I wouldn't have given it to Steve otherwise."

He shifts on the desk slightly. "I might... know some other stuff about it."

The guarded tone makes her snort. She recognizes it well, having lived through a divorce to a Colonel. Gossip moves the fastest in the barracks and the lunches of wives left behind. "Like maybe who I used to live in it with?"

"Like maybe that. And that you've been busy redecorating."

"Mmm, I don't know that you can classify it as redecorating. I did manage to win a few fights about furniture before the divorce. Some of the house was built to my taste. Now all of it is."

"I'm picturing—" Bucky stops again, and she hears a surprised chuckle. "I used to think your deflection didn't work on me."

"I'm not deflecting!" She giggles along with him, trying to focus on where she's got the top of his spine open to the world. "Maybe you're the one throwing off my train of thought. Have you considered that?"

"Here I was thinking it's because no one's taught you the imperial system, and you were too embarrassed—"

"You do understand that the rest of the world makes fun of you guys for using that, correct?"

"You guys, she says. Are you still clinging to your motherland's meters? That's embarrassing, Ryder. Where's your national pride?"

"Take the moose out of Canada, et cetera, et cetera." Ava swaps out for the hydrating wipes she started stocking because of him to clean up her work. The motion reminds her that it's been a while since her last tattoo. It brings out the itch for a new one. "By the way, after I'm done with this, I'm going to walk you back into my office and show you a list of—"

"Here it comes."

"—allll my outrageously expensive degrees."

"Now, how did I guess?"

"That way, the next time you feel like bullying me—"

"I'm certainly starting to enjoy it."

"—you can remember that I'm actually way smarter than you."

"I don't doubt that for a second, doll."

The—petname makes her smile wide enough to hurt. The way his voice dips as he says it lights her cheeks on fire. Again. "Good. There's hope for you yet."

"So I've been told." He says it so nonchalantly. Usually, she can anticipate the gallow's humor reflex. Usually.

"You break my heart sometimes; you know that?" She moves her fingers over his flesh shoulder in sympathy. The fact that he can't feel anything in the mechanical one makes her irate.

"Sounds like someone had fun reading." With her hands safely off his neck, Bucky turns his head to give her a sideways look. "How many new questions did it bring?"

The look she gives him in return is almost sheepish. "Steve answered most of them; you don't have to worry about it."

"Most." Bucky's eyebrow raises momentarily. "Lay 'em on me. That's why I gave you the clearance."

Ava's trying very hard to respect the choice. She leans forward, her free hand coming up to brace on his other shoulder. There's something contemptible about getting this far into the man's personal space, especially while he's shirtless in an exam. But the idea of not offering up the human contact while he's tearing open a wound that raw—especially while he's shirtless in an exam—makes her sick to her stomach.

Bucky doesn't seem to mind the proximity. Or the touch.

"Okay," she replies gently, trying to avoid putting any rejection in her tone. "I think we should wait until a reasonable hour, though. Next appointment?"

He looks down at his lap. "I think that's a great idea. You look like you need sleep. How about we talk about it when I come to pick you up from your house tomorrow morning?"

Ava stutters around a laugh, backing up from him once again. "I haven't agreed to anything; nice try."

"I didn't say you did. I'm pushing for an answer to a question you deflected; there's a difference."

"I did not defl—why am I trying to argue with a spy."

"I don't know. It'd be a lot easier if you—"

"You're not picking me up for work in a jet, you lunatic. I like driving."

"Is it because it gives you extra time to listen to Lady Wood?" The smug bastard has the nerve to pause, giving her a chance to think of a response to his ambush. She is, unsurprisingly, unsuccessful. "Which one do you like better, phase one or phase two?"

"You said you didn't recognize them!"

"I didn't." His hand comes up over his shoulder, showing her his phone. There's a webpage open detailing Tove Lo's entire discography—her writing credits included. "Google did."

"Someone gave you internet privileges?"

Bucky turns enough to look her in the eyes, unbearably pleased with himself. "It's so helpful."

Finally giving in to the urge to remove him from her desk, Ava shoves at his naked shoulders. Six-and-a-half feet of super serum doesn't move unless it wants to, so he doesn't exactly go anywhere with the force of it. But it does make him laugh and stand back up, so she counts it as a half-win.

"You gonna answer my new question? Or do I have to do the diploma tour first?"

"Who says you'd even get the answer then?" She crosses her arms over her chest and smirks up at him. "I've been through a divorce. You'll have to try a lot harder than that for me to fall for a loophole."

The six-and-a-half feet of super serum actually turns bashful on her. Bucky's eyes take on a bit of guilt, and his grin loses most of the mischief. "Sorry. Professional hazard. I did warn you I'm fresh from the field. It takes a day or two to reset the headspace."

"You're lucky I don't mind it," she offers to try to reassure him. His heart is the last in the world that she would doubt. "I missed you, too, you goddamn terror."

That thousand fucking watt smile hits her at full force. Seeing it on Bucky's face is almost worth giving him the crushing amount of ego it takes to power it. "Show me those degrees you earned so I can get back to hearing about your music."

Ava rolls her eyes, returning to the medkit to clear it from her desk. "I'll text you the list; how about that?"

"You don't have to send me the playlist links again; you can just unlock the dirty ones. I'll find them from there."

"I meant the—" She stops to ball up one of the wrappers from the hydrating wipes and throws it at him. He catches it mid-air before it hits his bare chest. "I meant the degrees, you degenerate."

He scoffs. "Big talk for a woman dancing to pussy eating mu—"

"Is there something else you need?"she stresses with a nervous burst of laughter. He's awful. Horrendous. She missed him so much that it's ridiculous.

On his end, Bucky doesn't miss a beat. "Yeah, my lollipop. You know, I bet I can guess which album you like better. I bet I can guess your favorite song from each one, too."

She points a finger at him without looking up from the medkit. "If you say disco tits, I'm making you sit through post-McCarthy retrospective documentaries just to decondition you."

"I'd be alright with that. But you'll still have to look me in the eye knowing it's in your top three." Even if she can't see him, she can hear him smile when her finger goes back down. "That's what I thought."

"Maybe I'm just out of things to throw at you."

"Blue Lips was the album you had on. Great name, by the way. Let's start with your favorite from that, which we've already established isn't disco tits. If you tell me that it's one of the sad ones, you're gonna break my heart."

"You don't have any favorite sad songs?" She's not... entirely deflecting. The comment just sparked her interest.

"Plenty. But now I know that's not the real answer."

"Jesus," Ava mutters with a huff of laughter. "Remind me to shut my mouth if you ever suspect me of a crime."

"I'm usually the guy people call to break out of prison. Might wanna keep that in mind if this whole doctor thing doesn't work out. That said, it's adorable that you keep trying to pin law-abiding qualities on me. You shouldn't mention the theory around the Avengers; they will laugh you out of the room."

Ava bites her lip again. She's out of tasks to stall with. He caught her as she was technically packing up for the night, and the medkit never takes much to put away. Turning to face him, she puts one hand on her hip and leans on the desk with the other. "Some people would classify it as a sad song."

Bucky folds his arms, his legs adjusting to widen his stance. He wasn't kidding about the sergeant mode. "Your favorite from the second album? What do you classify it as?"

She hesitates. Giving him the first word that comes to mind would give away the song too easily. "I... I don't know. I don't find longing sad, personally." He doesn't immediately reply. Most of the mirth has faded, and he's watching her intently. "What? You're telling me the moody spy disagrees with the sentiment?"

He blinks and takes a deep breath in, shaking his head slightly. She catches sight of a hard swallow that makes her nervous, but then he smirks at her. So, one of his introspective moments, then. "No, I agree with it. Do you want me to wait until you hand over my lollipop to give you the answer?"

"You have not guessed it already."

"You're right; I haven't. I've already figured it out. But we can pretend I didn't for a little while to make you feel better."

Ducking her head to hide a smile, Ava turns to walk into her office. She barely resists the urge to point another accusing finger at him. "You're lucky I think your ego is charming. Otherwise, I'd be tempted to withhold the gift I got you."

"You got me a gift?" The surprise in his voice softens his tone.

"I did, so you should stop bullying me long enough to receive it."

"Yes, ma'am. I'm on my best behavior for the rest of the night. What'd you get me?" He wasn't following behind at first, but he is now, and he's closing in on her fast.

"Well, you said you liked my puns, so—"

"Now that's an outright lie. I've told you they're terrible—"

"Which means you really like them. I wanted to give you one to have whenever you want, wherever you want." Ava stretches over her desk, not bothering to walk all the way around it. It takes some digging in her top drawer to find the little blue box she painted. When she turns back to look at him, his eyes are moving around the office. "Here. Use it in good health."

Bucky looks back and takes the box into his hand, a small smile coming up. It stretches across his entire lower face as he gets it open and spots what's nestled inside. "This is the worst one yet."

"Thank you," she replies proudly. "It's one of my favorites."

His cybernetic hand reaches into the box and clinks against the miniature rectangle when he picks it up. He turns it around to look at the back and snorts. "It's a pin."

"Like I said. You get to put it wherever you want, whenever you want."

"So, you won't fly with me, but you'll fly with me—"

The words pull a startled laugh from her. "Oh my god, did you just try to make a pun?" He doesn't respond, looking down at the pin to smile at it some more. She folds her arms around herself, less in defense and more in comfort. "I didn't say I wouldn't fly with you. I really do like driving. It's soothing."

Bucky nods slowly. He walks over to her desk, getting in close while he puts the box down. Turning the pin over in his hands, he pulls the backing off. He tosses the gigantic tactical vest onto the glass surface, then tucks his hand under the dark leather to line up the tiny, glossy pun.

Right there. On his not-uniform. Just off to one shoulder. Toward the metal arm.

It almost brings tears to her eyes to watch. Her throat tightens up, but she can't bring herself to break the silence by trying to clear it.

"You're going to have to get me replacements when it gets shot off," he jokes quietly. She's pretty sure it's a joke.

"That's fine." Her voice isn't all the way steady. But it's most of the way there. She might have gotten away with playing it off if he wasn't the world's most well-trained assassin. "I put everything on the card Tony gave me for work, anyways. I'm hoping the accountants don't notice. Nobody really hands me a paycheck around here, so."

Bucky tugs his skin-tight undershirt back on. It makes the dork look like he's about to put on a scuba suit. "Have you seen what he buys? I think you're in the clear on that one." He leans down and thumbs at the pin now secured to his vest, making that soft metallic clink rise up again over and over. It sounds like the rhythm of a heartbeat. "Thanks, doll."

—

"Why am I looking at the file of a grunt?"

"He's not a grunt."

"He's a level four."

"He's in charge of away teams; that's not a grunt. Plus, he's got like two medals of honor or something."

"Three. What's that supposed to prove anyways? Every Howlie there ever was had one—me included—and we were a buncha drunk dipshits who couldn't tell our ass from a campfire most nights. SHIELD pulled this kid from the military to run errands. What are we doing here, Steve?"

"I didn't ask you to be here. You showed up. And I am handling a problem before it starts." He sees Steve frown out of the corner of his eye. "Responsibly. With facts, not assumptions."

"What problem? Miserable leadership reviews? He'll filter out on his own—"

"That's the kind of attitude that let HYDRA tarnish Peggy's legacy."

The unwavering tone makes Bucky look up from the file on his tablet long enough to give his friend a sidelong glare. "You're so full of shit."

Steve turns to face him in his signature cranky captain stomp. "You wanna run that by me again, asshole?"

"That might be the reason you're sinking your teeth into him, but that's not why we're here. You wanna fess up now or wait for me to find it myself?"

Steve turns back to the one-way glass in front of them and shifts his weight irritably. His arms flex where they're crossed over his chest. A century-old geezer, and he's pouting. "There's nothing to find. I'm doing my job as a level eight."

Bucky's head falls back, and his eyes roll with exaggeration. "Oh my god, if you ever get held hostage, we are so completely fucked. Every state secret this country has is gonna be up for grabs—"

"Once again, I don't remember asking you to be here."

"No, you asked Nat, which was your first mistake. She's even more suspicious, but she's not going to tell either of us what she's figured out in the last twelve hours. Not until it suits her." He looks back down at his tablet pointedly, his voice heading towards mockery. "So, if you don't mind, I'd like to get caught up before the show starts. I hate being distracted during her warm-up swings."

"Yeah, well. I don't care what Nat knows."

Bucky's laugh starts as a chuckle, building higher until it echoes off the glass. "Oh, maaan. So, it's something she's already made fun of you for, and you're gritting your teeth through it. Was he a dick to that lady at the cafeteria? The one who always gives you an extra dessert without charging you?"

"No. I don't know what he does in his down—" Steve pauses, another frown of reconsideration coming up. "JARVIS, can you forward me—"

"Agent Romanoff has already requested I evaluate the security footage of Agent Walker's public interactions within the tower," the AI responds calmly. "She did not find anything of to be of worthy note."

"Hey there, JARVIS. Long time no—hear. Exactly how many grudges are you focused on tonight?" With his head down at this angle, Bucky can see his new pin reflecting the light from the other room in his peripherals. Right next to his shoulder that just got cleaned by his favorite hippie. God, he's in a good fucking mood at the moment.

"I do not hold grudges. I am merely doing my job as a level JARVIS."

Bucky snorts loudly. Steve looks up at the ceiling in exasperation.

"Your jokes are getting worse," the captain accuses. "It's Banner's fault, isn't it?"

"I believe it is the influence of the tower's other pacifist, Dr. Ryder. Her humor is rather snappy, as Sergeant Barnes can attest."

"Don't let her hear you call it humor," Bucky argues with all the sincerity he can muster. "The last thing that woman needs is justification for her verbal crimes."

"What's that thing on your vest, then?"

The sound of Natasha's voice makes Steve jump. Bucky catches his reaction just in time to stop it.

"Jesus fucking Christ," Steve swears under his breath.

"Language, Rogers," Bucky and Natasha hit him with simultaneously. He's hoping jumping on it with her will distract her from—

"That little strip of tin and enamel sure looks like enabling behavior to me."

Damn. It was a long shot to begin with.

"Ava put something on your vest?" Steve's head is getting in his space now, trying to look around to find what Bucky definitely isn't angling to hide.

"I put it there," Bucky corrects briskly. "To shame her."

"Where is it?"

"Fuck off." He shoves at his best friend's hands as they come for his shoulders, trying to stop the effort to rotate him. He's unsuccessful.

"What is that—is that a pin? Quit struggling, shithead; just let me see. What's it say—oh my god."

"Shut up."

"I can't see it real well. Read it to me," Natasha requests calmly. Bucky can hear her blowing on a cup of coffee while he continues to struggle with his best friend.

"Shut the fuck up—"

"It says I bee leaf in you," Steve answers, his voice going obnoxiously high. The asshole is smiling from ear to ear. There's even moisture starting to build in his eyes. "With a little cartoon bee! And a leaf!"

Bucky knew this was coming. He knew it was coming. He was just hoping it would be during the next mission, not here in the tower. Somewhere he could shoot at both of them to make them shut up without having to go to HR for an incident report. Getting Ava's worst pun yet is, apparently, the only good thing the universe is going to grant him this week.

Alright. That new round of painful tactical analysis when she was bent over her own desk trying to find it for him was pretty nice, too. So was watching her dance like that. She's—distractingly nimble. Not much can kill him these days, but the sight of her without a lab coat on keeps coming pretty damn close.

"Now, isn't that precious?" The savage joy in Natasha's voice makes Bucky want to throw his tablet at her.

"I'm shaming her. Making her look at her crimes."

"Don't you go to her office in fatigues?"

"Are you gonna switch it to those when you go see her?" Steve's voice is still too high. He's close enough for Bucky to swing at, so he does, with a solid hook to his shoulder.

"No. I picked it for my gear. I'm not going to move it."

"You picked the spot?"

"Have you cleaned your ears this month? I'm shaming her—"

"Bucky, that's so—"

"Shut up. "

"—sweet. I can't believe—bee leaf!" The dumbass pauses, stumbling over his own stupid laughter. "She got you a pun pin. Did she paint this?"

"I—" Bucky freezes. He didn't think to ask. She'd been pretty choked up after he picked a spot by his left arm. He wanted to give her room, especially after hounding her about taking her home. "I don't know. She painted the box it came in, though."

"Did you keep it?"

He crosses his arms defensively. "Of course I did. She painted it for me. I'm not fucking rude."

"Can I see it?"

"Absolutely fucking not." He shoves at Steve's shoulders, forcing him back. "What's he hiding, Nat?"

She snorts, still not having moved an inch from the back wall. "What, you think I've finished with you?"

"You tell me. What sounds more fun—"

"I feel like this pin thing is pretty serious," Steve tries to argue.

"Trying to pry another reaction out of me or batting Stevie around—"

"Nat, come on, this is a big change—you agree with me—"

"—while you wait for Wakeman—"

"Walker," Natasha corrects before going for another sip of coffee.

"Poster Boy to finish sweating," Bucky finally gets out.

She takes her time enjoying her drink while they both watch her anxiously. When her eyes open back up, she looks tired but pleased. "You should check his away missions."

"Aww, come on—you're about to go in there and leave me to deal with him alone," Steve complains like the giant baby he is.

"Maybe if you bee leaf in him, he won't ridicule you."

"Shut up," Bucky grumbles, already pulling up Agent Walkman's recent away missions. He'll start there, then branch out. His best friend is being a lot more defensive than usual, so it's something good.

"Actually, check his eval for me. I haven't decided how hot I'm going in. Give me your read."

Without hesitation, Bucky does as she asked, opening up the errand boy's medical records to skim the psych evaluation. He gets why Natasha's asking. Sitting in the headspace of someone who breaks people without laying a finger on them gets loud sometimes. It can get hard to remember where the line is. He's not going to deny her the request for a check-in. Not ever. Not with how often she does it for him.

He shrugs at the end of his check, finding nothing out of the ordinary. "He's never been confronted with failure in his life. I'm assuming that's the play?"

"Mhm."

"Hammer it."

"No reservations?"

Bucky snorts. "What's your reservation? You worried about making a West Point brat cry?"

"Nah. Only wanted a second read of the land." He hears Natasha's back crack in a couple of places as she pushes off the wall, proving she's been there for a while. Little shit probably snuck in behind him when he came in and waited. "Thanks. Have fun, boys."

Steve waits until she shuts the door behind her to offer up a bribe. "I'll drop the pin commentary if you close that file."

"You make this too easy."

"I'm serious. I won't say another word about it."

"Yeah, you'll just wind Sam up to do it for you. Is it because his team got paired with Coulson's? Don't make me read through whole logs to find this. It's just going to make it worse when I do."

"You're going to be disappointed when this turns out to be nothing. I'm just doing my job, Buck."

On the other side of the one-way glass, the door to the interview room Waldorf is already sitting in opens. Natasha walks in, her head down and her eyes skimming over the file she definitely had memorized before she got here. It makes the level four who's been waiting on someone for—Bucky's eyes flick over to the timer kept on the wall to document interviews—two hours and nineteen minutes sit up in his chair.

"Agent Romanoff," Wilbur greets her. Bold choice, trying to start them off on equal footing. "Good to finally—"

"Name?" Natasha immediately knocks his dick in the dirt with.

"Oof," Steve mutters, sounding far too pleased. It raises Bucky's suspicion level another notch.

"Ah—John Walker," he answers, his posture shifting as the professional stick goes rigid in his ass. How so very boring.

Bucky's hoping Natasha provides some fireworks here because otherwise, he wasted the trip. The effort had mainly been about harassing Steve for a few minutes after a long week without having the chance to. He could be up in his room right now, bullshitting himself that he's a good enough man to not beat off to the thought of the good doctor again. For the half-dozenth time. The words she was singing at the top of her lungs sure as shit aren't going to help his efforts to be a gentleman tonight. At all.

"Right." Natasha drops the tablet on the table, letting it impact heavily. She leans over it to type in a few details as if adding him to a list. "Tell me why I'm here, Walker."

The agent hesitates. Strike two. "I'm not sure, to be honest with you. I got the call; I went where I was told."

Of course he did, Bucky thinks bitterly. That's what they taught us.

"How long have you been sitting here?"

"Well—I can't give you exact timing without checking in with JARVIS." He pauses again, no doubt waiting for the AI to take the opportunity to assist. When nothing follows, Watson's face falls, and he tries for a quick recovery. He pulls a recruiter-pamphlet-smile directly from his ass. "I know it's somewhere around the two-hour mark. Sorry, I was catching up on some paperwork. I wasn't paying much attention to the clock—"

"Do you normally have to catch up on paperwork?" She's still typing away while she lays her first trap, still refusing to sit. Lining the guy up on her razor's edge.

"I would hope it's as often as my fellow agents. Knowing my tendency to put it off, it's probably not as—"

"You don't know their work ethic enough to say definitively?"

Steep jump from competency to teamwork. Then there's the silent implication that he fucked up the competency question by going for the casual humor of someone being offered a job. That's a heavy floodlight she's pointing at his ego. Bucky is more than willing to count this as fireworks now.

"If we're talking about people I work with regularly, I absolutely do. But, no, I can't say that I know how I compare to—"

"I didn't ask how you compare. I asked if you know your teammates well enough to do so."

Whitman is trying his damndest to keep that smile on his face. There's frustration building behind it, and Bucky can spot the expectation of a test in his eyes. "In that case. I can only tell you about the people I work with the most often. They tend to be better at submitting their paperwork on time, ma'am."

"Romanoff or Agent Romanoff." Natasha's never given a shit about what title people use for her; Bucky knows that. But she sure does love to use it as a tool. "Tell me about these incident reports I'm looking at."

Some of the color drains from the agent's face. "Sorry, what incident reports are we—"

"The ones right here, from your first, second, and fourth deployment." Natasha looks up, finally making eye contact. "Why the radio silence during the third? Boring post?"

"I…. Those are—Nothing of any kind of significance has ever been on my record—"

"I don't need an official military record. SHIELD keeps the field notes from your former superiors." In a move she had to have pre-planned given how flawlessly it's executed, Natasha unzips the jacket she walked in wearing. She shakes off the heavy leather, showing the civies she's got on under it. No uniform, giving the implication that this late-night interview is out of the blue. And a personal favor. "You made quite a few friends on that ladder."

"A few." The confidence in Walter is wavering. The expectation of this being a lateral kind of test isn't front and center in the man's expression. He's trying to find a rock in quicksand.

"Tell me about them."

Bucky tunes out, looking back down at the tablet in his hands. She'll be hunting for ammunition for a while. People the kid respects, positions he was passed up for, grudges—professional or otherwise—to pick at, et cetra. Most of it she'll already know on her end. All of it she'll use against him.

After a minute of droning from the errand boy, he catches sight of Steve's arms unfolding from his chest, his hands tucking into his pants pockets. "So. A late appointment, huh? Was that Ava's request?"

"Nice try, asshole," Bucky grumbles. "I've been gone a week. I told JARVIS to let her know she could call me in whenever. He let me know she was still in the building." Shrugging, he skips to the next mission in Winston's history. "I went so she knows I'm taking this seriously. She offered. I accepted."

"And then she gave you a bee."

"And then she gave me a bee."

"A very cute bee."

"Shut. Up."

"Okay." He sees Steve rock back and forth from the corner of his eye. It makes him skim the mission details faster. He's gotta find the lead before— "Is it because she's divorced?"

"What?" He looks over at Steve in genuine shock. "Why the hell would that matter?"

"Maybe because of who she used to be married to."

"You think I'm intimidated?" Bucky scoffs, insulted. He could rise to that level of expectation—if he wanted to. And there's not a shot in hell that this Alec prick is any kind of a threat.

"By the idea of going out with a civilian woman who just left a career soldier?" The way Steve phrases it makes him freeze in place. "Yeah, Buck, I think that'd be a little intimidating."

Bucky, somewhat slowly, looks back at his tablet. That—it hadn't occurred to him. That particular angle. About Ava and—other expectations she might have when it comes to him.

You'll have to try a lot harder than that for me to fall for a loophole.

Bucky has a lot of self-awareness; he knows how hard he is to deal with. He tried backing off whenever it felt as if he was going too far in her office. She had picked up the other end of the bait every time, and everything seemed good. The Totalitarian jokes she throws at him are only jokes; she wouldn't give him the time of day if they weren't.

But it's not hard to figure out that they're rooted somewhere deep. Somewhere real. She's big on boundaries. She's gravely serious about consent. Those aren't the kind of qualities people hold that high without motivation. Personal motivation.

Giving her full access was the right call. Bucky's wholeheartedly convinced of it on multiple fronts.

"It's not like that," he assures, keeping his voice serious. "There's no plan here. No intentions, either. She puts up with me. I'm trying not to make that a miserable experience for her."

"Sure."

"Fuck off."

"Don't you mean buzz off?" There's no hesitation in Bucky's movements as he swings the tablet off to the side to nail his best friend in the arm with. "Oww!"

"You had it coming. Stop laughing before the grunt hears you, stupid."

The chuckles coming from Steve taper off until it's just snickering. "I think it's sweet."

"So you've said." Bucky tries to work up the nerve for his next question. It takes a few minutes of watching Natasha play with her food. "How pissed was he?"

The silence that followed Steve's snickering gets broken by his snort. "Well, his head didn't actually explode, but, you know, pretty damn pissed."

"Sorry."

"You don't have to be."

"It took a lot for you to—"

"Yes. It did. It took more than even you know, and Nat's made sure you'll never find out exactly how much." Steve looks over and doesn't say anything. Not until Bucky has the nads to meet his gaze. "And the whole point of it was to put it in your hands. That comes with the expectation that you'll use it as you see fit. It's not your problem that Fury likes to selectively forget he agreed to that."

"That doesn't mean it should have to be yours. I'm the one that handed it off to a civilian without asking for—"

"You shouldn't have to ask. That was the whole point." Bucky looks away, but Steve doesn't relent. "We wouldn't have put in the effort if we weren't willing to back it up over time."

"I can sit in for a meeting this time."

"I'm not going to tell you no." Of course he won't. Steve never does. Not when it's something like this. "But I am going to remind you that the two of you have conflicting buttons. More importantly, you don't need to."

"I know. I want to. It's not about—This isn't a challenge for me." He pauses, trying to decide on a way to phrase it. "I'm not looking to win a fight. I want to explain."

"Alright. Spending a week in the doghouse without complaint probably won you some leniency." There's pride sitting in Steve's voice.

It almost makes Bucky avoid bringing up the other thing eating him alive. He could handle it himself behind the scenes. He could even tell Ava to keep it to herself when he eventually fills her in.

But honesty is a two-way street.

"I got a question I gotta ask you," he starts off gently. It's the worst way—Steve's going to pick up on something being wrong and get worried. But Bucky can't think of an alternative.

"Shoot." Yeah. Yeah, there's the nerves surfacing in his voice.

"When you taught her the code—" His best friend's posture stiffens in his peripherals. It makes him switch to treating this like a bandage to rip off. "What language did you teach it to her in?"

Steve's head turns at a speed that looks dizzying, even for their equilibrium. "That only matters if she says it in the right—you're kidding. What the hell—what were you two even talking about that—"

"It wasn't like that," Bucky stresses, hearing the suspicion creeping in. "We were talking about music. She was telling me she doesn't find it sad."

"Jesus," Steve whispers. He follows it up with about a dozen other curses under his breath. "I'm sorry, Buck, I—"

"I know. I'm not looking to blame you. It's happened with other people before; you know that. And it's not like I suspect her of anything. I just—"

"Yeah, no, checking makes complete sense. No one would fault you for that. Did you talk to her about it yet?"

"I'm not planning on talking to her about any of it at the moment."

"Bucky. You can't just—she has to know, she's made that clear—I should have told her from the start—"

"I'm not saying I'm keeping her in the dark forever. I'm saying I'm not telling her right now."

Steve goes quiet again, and Bucky can practically hear the cogs turning in his brain. "I can talk to her about it."

"No."

"It's not like she'd have an issue with pretending it didn't happen—"

"I don't want to pretend it didn't happen." The words come out a lot more forceful than he intended.

"Okay." Steve's not being condescending. There's no dismissal in his tone. He reached a boundary Bucky's made and didn't take offense to it.

A year ago, Bucky wouldn't have been able to handle so much as bringing something like this up. He would have internalized every last part of it. Three years ago, Steve would have questioned him on a hard line like this being drawn. And then gone and done everything without asking, leaving Bucky to feel like an infant.

Not even a few weeks ago, Bucky would have bitten the head off of a level four analyst just because he can't get any decent sleep.

"I felt human again for a minute," he admits quietly. He curls his head in like a fucking coward, using his hair as a heavy curtain to block the view of his best friend. "She said it, and I got to come back down from it, and she didn't know. I'll tell her. I just want to wait until she's had long enough to forget she said it."

He doesn't want to give up how good it felt to flirt with Ava. To feel that warmth and hear that soothing melody. To sit in it all for a minute and let himself live. To be a bastard chasing after a girl way out of his league the way he used to, even if he knows it won't ever go anywhere. To forget, for just a handful of minutes, that he was ever made into a monster.

A couple more weeks of bothering her in the mornings. That'll be enough time for her to forget what words she used tonight. Then he'll have Steve give her the code in every language she speaks.

"That sounds like a good plan." The words don't sound like bullshit with the way Steve's voice stays rock fucking solid in its support. "You wanna... maybe talk about what led to it—"

Bucky straightens his head back up with a long inhale, moving his hair out of the way once again. "I don't know, Steve. Do you want me to try to go to bed for the next three hours, or do you want me to keep reading mission logs?"

"...I hope you get some good rest."

"That's what I thought."

"I'll see you in the morning. We've got that weapons brief—"

"I know."

"—so don't forget—yeah, okay, yup. You already know."

Locking his tablet and heading for the door, Bucky rolls his eyes. "When she comes in for a refill, remind her to run the mom test."

"Will do. Goodnight, Buck."

"Goodnight."

He's almost tempted to check in with JARVIS about Ava. Then he remembers that he doesn't have to do that.

Stepping onto the only elevator leading to the Avengers floor, he pulls his phone from his back pocket and opens their texts. He smiles down at the last picture of Ava's dumbass cat that she graced him with before he got sent out on punishment. There's a miniature, painted straw hat sitting on his bald little head.

Did the moose make it across the road okay? he types out. It takes three tries to force himself to hit send.

Bucky slides his phone back into his pocket. This is the latest he's ever sent her a message. God willing, she's got her ringer off. There's no way she's not in bed by now; it's nearly 0200. If he finds out this woke her up, he'll feel awful. He didn't exactly say he was going to be checking up on her.

Now he's worried he shouldn't have. Back in the day, it would have been second nature to make a quick call once he got back to his own place. He can't tell if that's the polite thing to do in this case or if it's too—

Bucky's phone vibrates against his left ass cheek not even thirty seconds after he put it there. He's got it back in his hand, held up to his face, in less than two.

see! you love my puns. and i am not currently roadkill! bonus points, reads her reply text.

He grins down at his phone like a fucking idiot. When Natasha eventually finds the security footage, and she will, he's not even going to be mad about being bullied for it.

Before he can type a reply, she hits him with another. dont g-men have bedtimes?

Yes, ma'am. The government just doesn't have the budget to implement them, he sends back.

This texting thing is a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, he gets to talk to her without having to work up the nerve to call her. On the other, he can't see how much that made her smile.

Not having the face-to-face usually doesn't bother Bucky. Then again, he usually doesn't text outside of work, so that's probably got something to do with it.

She sends back a laughing emoji rapid fire, then those three little dots dance for a minute while she goes back to typing. are you even allowed to make those kinds of jokes? doesnt SHIELD pay your phone bill?

Probably. I haven't bothered asking.

about the permission or the bill?

Both.

He gets another laughing emoji. go to bed, idiot. you looked like you were ready to fall over in my office. believe it or not, your brain needs this funny thing called SLEEP.

Sleep well, doll. Bucky's finger hovers over the send button, but he doesn't hit it.

He used the word in her office. It slipped out on accident the first time. The second time had been a check-in that she didn't seem to scorn. That might have been because she was choked up. Having to read it now makes the word feel heavier. Too heavy.

He hits the backspace to change it out for doc instead at the last minute. The send button is a lot easier to hit after that. He's banking on the fact that the choice didn't take long to make. Maybe, just maybe, she didn't notice.

you too, she signs off with.

Bucky doesn't move as the elevator doors open in front of him. He keeps his eyes locked on his phone. Focused right on the little heart emoji she put after the last word.

A slow, shy smile starts to creep up on him. He steps off the elevator, walking distractedly to his room to try to catch a REM cycle or two. It's still there on his face as he strips out of his gear, thinking about the doctor. It doesn't fade, even as he tosses his comforter, blanket, and lone pillow onto the floor.

He manages to be a gentleman that night. Mainly because he falls asleep listening to her playlist titled chill sketching before his hand can find any trouble.

—

u wanna know why the howlies couldnt tell their ass from a campfire most nights? its bc their asses fell INTO the campfire most nights. god i fucking love those idiots. i REALLY wanna do some howlies fics at some point (and i kinda want it to be a biker!au if im honest. i could undo the trauma SoA put me through by making comfort fics abt big biker man and his lil doc 🥺)

anyways there IS a reason i go so hard on discount cap, its not just bc he smells and i hate him. i have a hc for bucky’s opinion on dudes like him thatll get brought up at some point, youll see. it got pretty heavily hinted at in this chapter

also, other quick hc, if natasha romanoff were to be given the big boy serum and a lil sippy sip from the fountain of youth, the galaxy would be safe literally forever. we wouldnt need any more super heroes, everyone could retire. no one can convince me otherwise 😤

im (kind of) up and running on tumblr!! same handle, i reserved it when i got this act. ignore how bare bones the chapter posts are, ill make fancy formatting and graphics later. the initial wave was a panic back up when i realized im not saving these anywhere after posting and ao3 shut down for a few days lmao

i WILL put in a real effort to go track down blogs to follow and add other stuff at some point, pinky promise!! if you wanna find me for mutual fandom screaming, thats where ill be babes 💖🥰 im 98% sure i remembered to set up all the anon stuff properly for anyone thats Shy ❤️ you are more than welcome to submit requests 💞 ill make a pinned post abt it at some point

#chapter update

0 notes